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This is a video that the Allen County Public Library Youth Services made to explain tag clouds. What is also interesting is that it uses Vimeo instead of YouTube which allows you to produce a much higher definition video. Also, you can click on the full screen icon in the bottom right of the video to view it full screen.

This came from the ACPL’s Innovation Through Technology Blog.

ACPL Youth Services Tag Cloud from Kaygraphic on Vimeo.

Check it out!

~Susan Mellott

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What exciting news! Michael Stephens, noted Library 2.0 speaker, author and creator of the well-known blog, Tame The Web (and who is from Indiana!) will be giving a public speech at the Allen County Public Library Main Library Auditorium on December 14, 2007 from 10:30 - 11:30 on Top Tech Trends. Here is an overview of his speech:

What technology trends are changing the way we work and play? What trends have you tapped into? Join Michael Stephens, Assistant Professor at Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science, for an overview of trends and how libraries are responding. Michael Stephens has spoken to audiences in over 25 states and in three countries. He also writes a monthly column, “The Transparent Library,” in Library Journal with Michael Casey. His blog, Tame the Web, is read avidly by many librarians.

If this piques your interest in what Michael has to say, here is a fascinating video that Sean posted on his blog, ACPL’s Innovation Through Technology, by Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer, DOK Delft Public Library, who interview Michael Stephens in Chicago about libraries and innovation.

And here is a brief bio of Michael Stephens:

Michael Stephens, Ph.D., is currently Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois.

After receiving an MLIS from Indiana University, he spent over fifteen years working in public libraries, where he developed a passion for the practical application of technology.

He published The Library Internet Trainer’s Toolkit in 2001, and two years later, he launched his popular weblog, Tame the Web. Since then, Michael’s writing has appeared in Public Libraries, Library Journal, Computers in Libraries, and a host of other publications.

In 2004, Michael was awarded an IMLS doctoral fellowship at University of North Texas, where he conducted research on social software and blogging. Named a “Mover and Shaker” by Library Journal in 2005, Michael joined Dominican’s faculty in 2006 and completed his Ph.D. in 2007. Recently, he has produced two ALA Library Technology Reports on Web 2.0.

Michael has spoken to audiences in over 25 states and in three countries. When not traveling or teaching, he resides in Mishawaka, Indiana, and enjoys escaping to Traverse City, Michigan.

Here is the PSA (Public Service Announcement) for Michael’s speech by Sean Robinson, head of IT at the Allen County Public Library:

And here is a link to the ACPL web page announcing Michael’s speech. I am very excited to meet Michael and to hear his speech. And stay tuned for Sean and Kay’s “Conversation” youtube video with Michael. After the speech, Sean and Kay will be interviewing Michael and then will produce a video of that interview as part of their “Conversation” series.

In the “Conversation” series so far is a 2-part interview with Jeff Krull, Director of the Allen County Public Library, and one with Stephen Abrams, Head of Innovation for Sirsi-Dynix. These areshort, professionally and beautifully produced videos, reminiscent of the style of the famous documentary director Ken Burns.

I am really looking forward to this Friday and then later, to watching Sean and Kay’s new video with Michael Stephens. I hope you all can come see his speech if you are in the area, or at least, stay tuned for my post announcing his “Conversation” video.

~Susan Mellott

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I was looking through My Yahoo news and found an interesting article about a robot that the japanese were developing called Twendy-One.

Twendy-One, named as a 21st century edition of a previous robot, Wendy, has soft hands and fingers that gently grip, enough strength to support humans as they sit up and stand, and supple movements that respond to human touch.

It can pick up a loaf of bread without crushing it, serve toast and help lift people out of bed.

The robot is a little shorter than an average Japanese woman at 1.5 m (5 ft), but heavy-set at 111 kg (245 lb). Its long arms and a face shaped like a giant squashed bean mean it resembles the alien movie character E.T.

Here is the website for Twendy-One. It is mostly in japanese, but has videos of Twendy-One performing various tasks.

So I went to YouTube to see if there were other videos of Twendy-One, or other robots. I found this video of a montage of Japanese robots.

And this video of the LandWalker Robot Suit:

And I love this one of Robots Fighting. It is so cute!

And here is a totally cool robot toy ROBOZAK RZ-1 that it looks like you can build yourself? Watch it’s amazing moves. For some reason it is not displaying in my post, but follow the link to view it in action.

Here is a video of and a link to the Humanoid Robot Project: Promet MK-II, very cool. The HRP-3 Promet Mk-II is a blue-collar android tough enough to trudge through heavy rains, carry out disaster relief operations and work in environments hazardous to humans. The robot was unveiled on June 21, 2006 at Kawada Industries headquarters in Tochigi prefecture, Japan, where it showed of its ability to operate power tools and walk on slippery surfaces.:

And last but not least, here is a picture (and the set of pictures) from our local ACPL Shawnee Library branch of their Sumo Robot building and testing from their teen robot program.

Pretty cool, huh?!

~Susan Mellott

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I was just catching up on reading the weekend newspaper so I could throw it away and I saw an article in “On the Scene” in the Journal-Gazette Weekender about one of my very favorite activities at our local library.

It is called Paws to Read and is one of the many programs the ACPL provides for kids. Quoting from the article in the Journal-Gazette:

“Good ol’ Fido. Not only will that lovable mutt of yours fetch your newspaper, keep your feet warm at night and search your garbage for any half-eaten cans of beans you might have “accidentally” thrown away, he’s also the world’s best listener.

He never gossips, judges you for not switching to energy-saving light bulbs or teases you about your inability to pronounce the word “pulchritudinous.”

This is why Fido – and a host of other therapy dogs – arrives weekly at several of our local library branches for Paws to Read, an opportunity for kids to read aloud to a smiling, tail-wagging pup.”

Euneisha Bright, 9, gets encouragement from therapy dog Phil while reading with the Paws to Read program at Hessen Cassel library.

Arial Lee, 11, reads a story to Phil. Doesn’t he look like he is reading along?

Photos by Cathie Rowand | The Journal Gazette

This was also written up on the ACPL’s Innovation through Technology blog and the comments talk about how great it is that kids get to read to someone friendly and non-judgemental.

Other libraries are also doing this type of program. Gail Wechsler Says: There is a similar program in the St. Louis area called, I believe, Love on a Leash. Part of the success of these programs, I think, is that animals are not judgmental and are not intimidating so kids are not afraid of how they will sound as they read to them.

You can look on the ACPL main library Children’s Services programs page and the ACPL Branches Children’s programs for more programs.

And just for fun, here’s a link to a post and pictures of the Dupont Branch Llamas @ the Library.

And check out all these pictures from the various ACPL children’s programs (and a little more).

I love my library!

What: Paws to Read

When and where : 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Aboite branch, 5630 Coventry Lane; 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Dupont branch, 536 E. Dupont Road; 4 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays at Georgetown branch, 6600 E. State Blvd.; 7 to 8 p.m. Thursdays at Grabill branch, 13521 State St., Grabill; 5 p.m. Mondays at Hessen Cassel branch, 3030 E. Paulding Road; 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Mondays at Little Turtle branch, 2201 Sherman Blvd.; 7 p.m. Mondays at Tecumseh branch, 1411 E. State Blvd.; 4:30 p.m. first and third Mondays at Waynedale branch, 2200 Lower Huntington Road.

Cost : Ear scratches and belly rubs

~Susan Mellott

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First of all, I’d like to give a huge shout-out the Grabill Library Branch of the ACPL who were featured in a talk that Jessamyn West  gave on 11/8/07 called What Works: More My Library, Less MySpace. If you look on slide #32, you will see a screen capture of their Grabill Branch Library blog, that shows how they successfully use the Twitter stream to promote their branch.  Way to go!

Also, thanks to David Lee King for writing about The Big Juicy Twitter Guide by Caroline Middlebrook.  This is a great online guide about everything Twitter, with an emphasis on how it can be used to market your product or services.  Which is exactly how Grabill Branch of the ACPL is using it!  Here is a brief overview: “I have tried to present a complete picture of Twitter and show techniques / tools / guidelines for Twitter usage for all kinds of people”.

And last, but not least, here is an email newsletter that I received from Biz Stone and the Twitter Team that I thought I would share since it has lots of great Twitter info.

Hello Twitter-ers,

There have been raging wildfires and rumbling earthquakes
inspiring avalanches of Twitter updates over the last few weeks
out here on the West Coast of the US. In Tumultuous times, people
turn to Twitter. In fact, there’s been a steep increase in the
number of SMS and IM devices activated recently. This is probably
due to the Track feature which allows folks to follow keywords or
phrases in real time. Is your phone activated?

Activate: http://twitter.com/devices

Do You Owe Someone A Beer?

Foamee.com is a fun IOU system built on Twitter that helps you
track who you owe beers to (and vice versa). All you have to do is
follow the account “ioubeer” and then send it @replies. So, say
you owe me a beer for helping you change a flat tire, this is what
you’d send to Twitter:

@ioubeer @biz for helping me change that flat tire

Then, your IOU will show up on the front page at foamee.com.
There’s even a way to tell it when that beer has been redeemed.
I think a root beer version is in the works. Maybe even a latte
version? Those are foamy too. Dan Cederholm of SimpleBits design
is the mastermind behind this fanciful creation. We think it’s
really cool. Thanks Dan, we owe you a frosty one!

Visit: http://foamee.com
Follow: http://twitter.com/ioubeer
More: http://simplebits.com

Other Cool Stuff

Foamee is part of a growing list of interesting applications that
interact with Twitter. Jott, for example, has created a way to
send a Twitter update by speaking into your phone–your voice gets
converted to text and sent out to all your followers. This is a
much safer solution for people who insist on updating Twitter when
their attention is required elsewhere–like driving!

Twitter by Voice: http://jott.com
More Twitter Apps: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps

Featured Twitter-ers

We have a sidebar on the Twitter public timeline page where we
occasionally mention accounts you might want to follow. For
example, during the San Diego wildfires, KPBS News, LAFD, and the
LA Times had important live updates. The following accounts are
less of an emergency situation but interesting, nevertheless.

SkinnyJeans is wondering if Twitter can help her lose 10 pounds.
http://twitter.com/skinnyjeans

Jamie Kennedy is experimenting with Twitter.
http://twitter.com/jamiekennedy

Maureen is serving up a steady stream of tiny recipes.
http://twitter.com/cookbook

Sara Bareilles is sharing the details of her budding career.
http://twitter.com/SaraBareilles

On the subject of emergencies, that earthquake we had recently in
Northern California was highly Twittered. This blogger captured a
lot of the action: http://tinyurl.com/2xv5el Also, if you’re a
Bay Area resident you might want to follow the updates of this
profile http://twitter.com/SFSurfrider regarding the recent oil
spill in San Francisco Bay.

Twitter on the Mobile Web

In case you didn’t know, Twitter has a mobile web site that you
can access from your phone’s web browser at m.twitter.com. Twitter
developer Britt Selvitelle has been quietly improving the site
recently. It’s a great way to check out what people are up to when
you’re waiting for a bus or taking the subway home from work.
Britt’s Twitter profile is http://twitter.com/bs in case you want
to @ioubeer @bs for making the mobile site!

Happy Twittering!
-Biz Stone and the Twitter Team
http://twitter.com/biz

~Susan Mellott

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My husband Sean Robinson and Kay Gregg from the Allen County Public Library presented at IOLUG 2007 (Indiana Online Users Group) down at Indianapolis last Friday. Kay did a poster session on YouTube and Sean did a really fun talk on Learning 2.0 - Transforming Your Organization Through Learning. He is a really exciting and fun speaker (if I do say so myself) and everyone really enjoyed his presentation. He has a great way of challenging and exciting people and doing it in a fun way.

The first thing he did was to pass out a License to Play card to everyone (he and Kay created it and were inspired by the 2007 License to Play poster from Lee County Public Library) that they signed and put in their wallet. He said if anyone questioned why they were having fun or if they felt guilty about having fun, they could say “We have a License to Play!”

The theme of his talk was about the three legs of Learning 2.0 - Work, Play and Risk. He said that Learning 2.0 was about exploration and discovery. And it was not just learning, but transforming your organization.

He demonstrated these by some really fun activities. First he asked who was a real risk-taker. No one held up their hand. So he asked again and one person held up their hand. Then he gave that person a Library Genius 2.0 t-shirt (that he and Kay designed). Everyone oohed and wanted one too. The lesson? “With risk comes reward”.

They also played Romance Roulette. He asked for an audience member who would take a risk. He got a volunteer and then they had to open a romance novel and read a passage out loud, not knowing what it would say. But before the volunteer read, Sean said he would read first. The lesson here was “Don’t ask people to do things you are not prepared to do”.

Also, before the talk, Kay taped a starbucks coffee card under one of the seats. Sean said everyone should look under their seats to see if they had it. So everyone got up and looked under their chairs to see if they had the card. The lesson here? “The right incentive will get a whole group off their butts :)”.

Of course, he had many great things to say, but I loved these activities and I think they illustrated his points and made his talk fun. He talked about Learning 2.0 and how it is not just learning, but transforming your organization. He ended with “we are nothing special and if we can do it, so can you”.

Here is a picture of Sean from his presentation - “it’s not a surge, but an avalanche”

And here is Kay at her IOLUG 2007 poster session:

Here are more pictures that Kay took.

Take a risk! Work! Play! Explore and discover and get excited.

~Susan Mellott

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Stephen Abram, noted Library 2.0 speaker and Vice President of Innovation for SirsiDynix and Chief Strategist for the SirsiDynix Institute was at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana and spoke to the ACPL staff on the Top 10 Strategies for Library Success and gave a public speech on Library 2.0 in the Real World on September 19, 2007 at the ACPL Downtown Main Library Auditorium.

While he was there, Sean Robinson and Kay Gregg, who have been creating the “Conversation with” youtube series of conversations with influential people in the library and web 2.0 field, videotaped a conversation with Stephen Abram. They have finished the editing and have just released this interesting video with Stephen Abram talking about his lifelong fascination and love of libraries and library science.

~Susan Mellott

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My husband Sean Robinson and Kay Gregg from the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, created a video for the Librareo “Why I Love My Library” video contest.

Out of over 175 public, school and academic libraries that submitted videos for the “I Love My Library!” video contest, Sean and Kay’s video was selected as one of the 5 finalists.

The winner was revealed at the annual ALA (American Library Association) conference. Unfortunately, the ACPL video did not win (though it was certainly the funniest, although the others were also good). However, it did get many, many more views than any of the other finalists!

And who doesn’t love a zombie video? Especially one set in a Library! So just in time for Halloween, I present to you: Reference Zombies!

~Susan Mellott

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Sean Robinson and Kay Gregg of the Allen County Public of Fort Wayne, Indiana, are starting a series of YouTube “Conversation” videos with important people in the Library field.

They are currently editing a set of YouTube videos interviewing Jeff Krull, the Director of the Allen County Public Library. In my post called “Conversation with Jeff Krull, Director of the Allen County Public Library” I blogged about the first video. They have just released Part II of Conversations with Jeff Krull.

In Part II, Jeff talks about books and authors that have left an impression on him. He talks about All Quiet on the Western Front, Autobiography of Ben Franklin and The Red Badge of Courage. He mentions authors like Mark Twain (Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer) and Hawthorne.

It is fascinating to hear his thoughts on influential books and authors and the impressions they made on him.

And Sean and Kay have done a beautiful and artistic job of filming and editing their Conversation YouTube videos. They are done in black and white and in letterbox.

They have also recorded an interview with Stephen Abrams and will be creating a set of Conversation with Stephen Abram next. And they have plans to interview and create YouTube Conversation videos with other people who are interesting and influential in the library field.

Here is Part II of Conversation with Jeff Krull, Director of the Allen County Public Library. Enjoy!

~Susan Mellott

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I attended a speech at the Allen County Public Library yesterday by Stephen Abram, noted Library 2.0 speaker and Vice President of Innovation and Chief Strategist for SirsiDynix. It was about Library 2.0 and the role of libraries in the future. And it got me thinking about things I’d like to see in the future at libraries. I started jotting down ideas on the edges of the magazine I was reading and realized that I had quite a few ideas.

And a lot of these are ideas that libraries could implement now.

1. I had a library fine that I needed to pay while I was at the library, but I couldn’t find my library card since I don’t use it everyday. So my first idea was for libraries to give patrons not only a card, but one of those little tags you can put on your keyring. I have several of these already, from Blockbuster, my Kroger card, my CVS card and others. I don’t use these everyday, but when I need them, they are right there on my keys.

2. Along these same lines, I would especially like to be able to pay my library fine online so I didn’t have to go to the library just to pay a fine. Being able to pay by credit card would be good and for me especially, I’d like to also be able to pay via paypal. Since the libraries are now online, it seems a logical next step.

3. When I was young, our library had bookmobiles that drove around and had stops where we could go and checkout and return books to the bookmobile. I remember walking to the end of our street each week and visiting the bookmobile. It allowed many kids from my neighborhood to check out books that would not have otherwise been able to. We could reserve books and the bookmobile would bring them for us and they also had several of the more popular books in the bookmobile.

I would really like to see libraries bring back this practice. There are so many people who don’t have a car or kids whose parents don’t take them to the library and this is a great asset for them. Alternatively if this isn’t feasible, perhaps libraries could open sub-branches in several locations like stores that mostly just allow people to pickup books that they reserved and return books. They could only be open say once or twice a week for a couple of hours. I think the value of being able to walk to a library outlet is immense.

4. Stephen mentioned in his speech that even though many libraries have web access, students are frequently not near a computer but they always have a cell phone and are used to text messaging. Libraries should have a mechanism to allow people to text message them. And I think having live chat access is also something libraries should look at. A good example is the web hosting service BlueHost. On their home page they have a large button that says “Live Chat” and when clicked, takes you right to their chat window where you enter the department you want to contact, your name and your question.

Libraries could have a “need help?” button (or something like that) on their website that would allow people to access their FAQ, blogs, knowledgebase, write an email, IM the library, call the library, instant chat, text messaging information and all the different ways that people now use. And they should be able to receive the information back in a format of their choice.

5. Libraries could set up a video room for patrons where they could go in an create a video and put it on YouTube or other video sites if they want. This would promote creativity and allow people without access to the equipment to take and create videos. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, you can create a video with a QuickCam camera that hooks on a computer and a microphone and optionally, various types of software for creating, editing, manipulating and enhancing the videos. And this would also allow people without access to a camcorder to take videos of themselves or their kids. And there could be classes in how to use the equipment and a place where people could show off the videos they created. And the libraries could have themes for people to create a video for, like “This is my Family” or “What I like about my Library” (it’s been done, but is a great idea) or any number of things.

Even better, provide a whole television studio where patrons can produce and televise their own shows on cable television like the ACPL Access Fort Wayne.

6. Libraries could also have a large, nice community center area with senior activities like bridge or Wii bowling (my mom loves this), singles activities like euchre tournaments and speed dating, family activities like Wii/video games or karaoke, teen activities like gaming tournaments, children’s activities like storytime, etc.

7. Libraries could run volunteer outreach programs at places like nursing homes or hospitals where books could be checked out and returned and where people could go and read stories to the people there. The ACPL has outreach services.

8. Libraries could introduce tools and programs for people with disabilities. The ACPL has an extremely good program called NEIRRS (Northeast Indiana Radio Reading Service). Northeast Indiana Radio Reading Service (NEIRRS) is a FREE radio reading service for people who are blind or have a visual or reading/print impairment (What does print impaired mean? A print-impaired individual is any person who is unable to read conventional printed material. It may be a person who is blind or has low-vision, they may have a literacy issue, or a physical impairment which makes it difficult to hold a book or turn pages (stroke, Parkinson’s, arthritis). NEIRRS is staffed by volunteers and provides loans for receivers to pick up their broadcasts. NEIRRS volunteers read local news and features from a dozen area newspapers, plus magazines, books, grocery ads, obituaries and more.

Or if a library is small and doesn’t have the resources for this, they can provide podcasts online. NEIRRS also has started doing podcasts of things of interest in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette each day, such as obituaries and selected readings. This really is pretty easy and cheap to implement.

And there are many other things that libraries can look at. I know that my mom can’t read the print on the computers and I find that I am having a harder time with that myself. Providing some computers with extra-large text, screen readers, text enlargers and other features would help a lot of people, as would easy wheelchair access, etc.

9. Libraries could provide email newsletters about events and topics of interest, like a children’s, teens, families, etc events newsletter, reading programs, educational programs, new books or selected books, music/art/special events, branch information, etc.

10. There are many interesting ideas for new programs that libraries could introduce. Here are some things that the Allen County Public Library are doing and I’m sure libraries could come up with much more: Antiques Evaluation Day, Teen Sumo Robots tournaments, Llamas @ the Library, Paws to Read (one of my favorites), Miniature Mayhem, Teen Events grades 6-12, musical performances, Movie Night @ the Library (scroll down), art exhibits, genealogy and flickr pictures of other ACPL programs.

Well, these are a few of my ideas. What do you think?

~Susan Mellott

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