Clear Blue Dei

This Tuesday I attended my first Library Camp at the Allen County Public Library. No, I am not a librarian, but my husband is the head of Technology at the ACPL and I have discovered through him that libraries can be very leading edge at using and incorporating the new Web 2.0 tools and at looking for new ways to connect with their patrons and to move their libraries into the 21st century. Web 2.0, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, these are all concepts that many libraries have embraced.

Did you know that your library very well may have a presence in Second Life, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, IM, Flickr, YouTube, wikis, FriendFeed and more? Do a search in any of these tools on libraries and see what you find. Libraries, in my experience, are quietly paving the way for institutions to have a real 2.0 presence.

I had originally planned to do some examining of some of the ideas first, so I could provide some useful, additional information but then I realized that I would never get this post out if I waited until I had explored all of them. So what I will do now is give an overview of the library camp topics and discussions and go into depth on some of the ideas in future posts. After you see the agenda, topics, discussions and ideas, you will see why! So here is how my day went. If it seems a little scattered, it is because I was frantically scribbling on a handout and am trying to translate and organize what is essentially a completely covered paper, with writing between and around every line of print. So bear with me.

This post will be a general overview to what we did and how the day was divided up. Part 2 will contain specifics from the Pecha Kuchas and discussions and if that post gets too big, Part 3 will have the afternoon sessions and a wrapup observation.

ACPL Library Camp design was based on the Unconference model, with the addition of a guest speaker and Pecha Kucha presentations.

The event started at 8am (with continental breakfast beforehand) and lasted until 5pm when several people went down to J.K. O’Donnell’s, our local Irish Pub to continue visiting and discussing.

From 8-9am, David Lee King, the featured speaker, gave a wonderful and thought-provoking presentation Managing the Digital Branch. Here is his post re: Library Camp which includes links to his presentations and to some of the other library camp resources such as the wiki that was set up for Library Camp. Here is the ACPL Library Camp on FriendFeed.

And here is a link to the ACPL Library Camp 2008 twitter feed. This was used in a very interesting way as it was being displayed on a large screen at the front of the auditorium and updated as the event proceeded. That provided an interesting mix of information on the proceedings and “backchannel” talk amongst the participants and observers. I can see this being used more and more often as the idea proliferates.

Everyone had been asked to bring 13 (I think it was) business cards with them and after David’s talk, there was a 2 minute card exchange where everyone was to meet and pass out their business cards to each other and to get to know new people. I really liked this idea and it worked really well. People got up, mingled, met, made contacts and just generally interacted with each other. I don’t have “business cards” as I am basically retired, but I really wish I would have made up some cards with my Clear Blue Dei site and my personal information on them. I got one “personal card” from someone with their own personal blog site on it and I am definitely going to go take a look. Perhaps a sign-up sheet (or site) where people could add their blogs would be nice as I always enjoy finding and read people’s blogs. I think I would even do this twice, once at the beginning and once later in the day after people got a chance to discuss and share ideas.

Then it was time for the Pecha Kucha presentations. In a nutshell, the idea behind Pecha Kucha is to keep presentations concise, the interest level up and to have many presenters sharing their ideas within the course of one day/period. Therefore the 20×20 Pecha Kucha format was created: each presenter is allowed a slideshow of 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds. This results in a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds on a stage before the next presenter is up. There were several presentations during the Pecha Kucha session, which I will list and go into in more detail in Part 2. For now, I’ll just say that this was a highly successful and invigorating format and one I think people should consider trying at their next meeting, conference, staff day or event.

Then David Lee King presented his next talk called Climbing out of the Box: Mashing up our Community.
As part of this presentation, David had everyone divide into groups of 4 or 5 and gave us 10 minutes for each group to come up with an idea of a way to reach out to the community. Again, an extremely successful session with many new and innovative ideas in just 10 minutes. See Part 2 of my Library Camp posts for the ideas and discussions.

Following this, we continued the Unconference model (An unconference is a facilitated, participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose) by having the participants discuss what ideas they would like to meet and discuss and an ad-hoc agenda for the afternoon was designed by the group for afternoon. There were 3 sets of 1 hour sessions, 2 per hour (in meeting rooms A and C). A facilitator from the group was designated for each session.

Everyone went to lunch after David’s presentation at various places in town (we went to Munchie’s Emporium, aka Mad Anthony’s for microbrew and good food and conversation) and then we all met back, picked up the afternoon agenda and made our choices as to which sessions we wanted to attend.

Kay Gregg (ACPL videographer and Sean’s cohort in crime for all the creative YouTube videos, etc), Sean Robinson (Head of ACPL and my husband) and David Lee King split off to videotape a Conversation with David Lee King, one of the ongoing series of “Conversation” youtube series that they are creating. This should be coming out in about a month, stay tuned.

I attended some of the sessions but had to leave so I missed the wrap-up session 4:30-5pm, but I heard that Sean did a great job wrapping up and that he put people on the spot, asking them “what one idea from this camp do YOU plan to do?” I’m sure that was interesting… From some of the buzz I’ve heard afterward, people really enjoyed the Library Camp and found it invigorating and inspiring. I know I did!

Stay tuned for Part 2 and Enjoy!

~Susan Mellott

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

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

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

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

In case you didn’t know, it is Banned Book Week (9/29/2007 – 10/6/2007). And surprisingly (to me), “And Tango Makes Three“, an award-winning children’s book based on a true story about two male penguins who raised a baby penguin, topped the American Library Association’s annual list of works attracting the most complaints from parents, library patrons and others. You can read more about this at Newsvine’s Book on Penguins Tops `Challenged’ List and more about Banned Books Week in general at the ALA Banned Books Week site.

Banned Books Week has been observed at the end of September since 1982 to celebrate and support Intellectual Freedom.

But there is something very new and exciting. The ALA (American Library Association) has moved into the Web 2.0 world with a vengeance to celebrate and support Banned Books Week this year.

From Flickr, MySpace and Facebook all the way to Second Life, ALA and many others will have a presence and be holding events for BBW 2007.

This year, OIF is working with the Alliance Library System, Alliance Second Life Library, TAP Information Services and the new ALA membership group Virtual Communities and Libraries to provide an interactive experience centered on Banned Books Week, September 29–October 6, 2007, on Second Life, Teen Second Life, MySpace, and Facebook. Our aims are to help librarians and others to feel comfortable in social networking spaces and to reach out to new audiences.

Check out the events in Second Life:

To tie in with this year’s theme of “Aye, mateys…celebrate your freedom t’ read!,” ALA has created a “Pirate Paradise” in Second Life (SL), a 3D virtual world complete with pirate ship and a wharf with interactive displays on banned books. ALA Banned Books Week graphics will be used to create virtual posters, displays and T-shirts that can be worn by Second Life avatars. (See example above!) The Topeka and Shawnee County (Kan.) Public Library has loaned a virtual display on banned books they created for their National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Big Read initiative. All ALA Second Life activities will take place on ALA Arts InfoIsland. (Note: link is to Second Life URL.)

On September 29 (following the Chicago Read-Out!), ALA will host a kickoff event in Second Life: a pirate’s party with the theme “Aye Mateys—Celebrate Your Freedom t’ Read!” Later in the week there will be fireworks displays, book discussions, and other intellectual freedom educational programs. Throughout the week, visitors will have access to a professional welcome center, a listening station for podcasts, and an interactive classroom on one of the most frequently challenged books, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. An updated calendar of SL and real world BBW activities can be found at various SL kiosks and at www.ala.org/bbooks.

Second Life Programs scheduled to date are listed as follows (note: all times are in “SL” time, which corresponds to Pacific Daylight Time). Dates and times are subject to change:

* September 29, 6:00–9:00 p.m.: Kickoff Pirate Party, “Aye Mateys – Celebrate Your Freedom t’ Read!” Featuring a pirate ship, music, dancing, displays, fun, and free banned books and posters
* September 30, 7:00 p.m.: Fireworks
* October 1, 5:00 p.m.: Book Discussion, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, moderated by Tom Peters of TAP Information Services (Second Life name Maxito Ricardo).
* October 2, Noon: Fireworks
* October 2, 5:00 p.m.: Book Discussion, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, moderated by Tom Peters
* October 3, Noon: Intellectual Freedom Program, “Frequently Challenged Books,” moderated by OIF Deputy Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone (Second Life name Pachelbel Dagostino)
* October 4, 5:00 p.m.: Intellectual Freedom Program, “Challenges and Customer Service Opportunities” presented by Rose Chenoweth, Alliance Library System (Second Life name Enya Theas – pictured above).

For more information on Second Life events, contact Lori Bell at lbell@alliancelibrarysystem.com or in Second Life as Lorelei Junot, or Tom Peters at tapinformation@yahoo.com or in Second Life as Maxito Ricardo.

And on Teen Second Life:

On Teen Second Life, there will be an underwater pirate ship/banned books display on Eye4You Alliance during all of Banned Books Week. On October 5 from 4:00–8:00 p.m. (Second Life/Pacific Time), there will be a “Dress as Your Favorite Banned Book Character” party also on Eye4You Alliance.

For more information about Teen Second Life events, please contact Kelly Czarnecki at kczarnecki@plcmc.org or in Teen Second Life as Saryn Farnwood. The Eye4You Alliance island on Teen Second Life is sponsored by the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

And more:

Facebook

ALA has set up a Facebook group for librarians and the public who want to share ideas, experiences, events, and banned book recommendations. The name of the group is “Celebrate Your Freedom to Read! Banned Books Week 2007.” Beginning September 24, members of the “Celebrate Your Freedom to Read” Facebook group will receive a Banned Books “Challenging Fact of the Day.” All are welcome to join the group (search for Banned Books Week 2007).

MySpace

ALA also has a MySpace page for Banned Books Week. The page features a blog about BBW activities, music, videos, photos from BBW events, and more.

Flickr
ALA now has a Flickr group, on which anyone can share photos from Banned Books Week events in their area. If you’re on Flickr, just upload your BBW event photo, join the BBW 2007 group, and click on “Send to Group.”

For more information, Read this article called “Celebrating Banned Books Week in the Virtual World“.

See you there?

~Susan Mellott

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

A while back (Aug 1, 2007), I wrote a post called Library 1.0: Old School Libraries to Die For about a site called Hot Library Smut (smut for book nerds ) that showed pictures of some of the most beautiful libraries in the world, from a gorgeous book of photographs by Candida Höfer titled, Libraries, a title which pretty much says it all, because that is just exactly what it is, one rich, sumptuous, photo of a library interior after another. But shortly after I wrote the post, the page became unavailable on that site. So I updated it and pointed to another site, but it was unwieldy to view.

Well, I was doing my usual web browsing and what did I find but another post called Librophiliac Love Letter: A Compendium of Beautiful Libraries. They had visited the Strahov Monastery in Prague where they have one of the most beautiful libraries in the world. Here are a couple of pictures from that library:

And as a result of that visit, they compiled and posted a very large set of pictures of some of the most beautiful libraries in the world.

And you might be surprised to find some them nearer to you than you might expect!

Again, you can view them at Librophiliac Love Letter: A Compendium of Beautiful Libraries. This is a good quote from their post about the book that many of these pictures came from and other resources including an online store to satisfy your library desires:

“If all this library leering has made you long to hold a book in your hands, then let us suggest “Libraries” by the outstanding photographer Candida Höfer. A number of the more beautiful pictures in this set are by Ms. Höfer. For those looking for a gorgeous library closer to home, look no farther then “Libraries We Love” a book and blog dedicated to wonderful libraries in the U.S. Also of interest is “The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World.” If even those can’t satisfy your desires try “The Renaissance Library Collection” which sells calenders, greeting cards, and posters of nothing but, yes, libraries. ”

For your viewing pleasure,

~Susan Mellott

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

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

They are currently editing a set of 3 YouTube videos interviewing Jeff Krull, the Director of the Allen County Public Library. Jeff is a private and humble man and when I looked to get a bio on him from the internet, it was very hard to find a list of his accomplishments though they are many.

I found out that he has been the Library Director since 1986, he is on the board of the Indiana State Library and that the board of the ACPL honored him by naming the new ACPL gallery, the Jeffrey R. Krull Art Gallery.

But I really couldn’t find a lot about him, although I believe that is largely due to his quiet and unassuming way of accomplishing things. Some people put their accomplishments every and anywhere and there is no way you could miss every little thing they have done. But Jeff is not like that and this is a great chance to learn a little more about this interesting and influential man.

In this first video, Jeff talks about his young life, growing up in a small town. In a short clip from the “Conversation” series. Allen County Public Library Director, Jeff Krull talks about his early experiences with reading and books. The full interview will also be aired on our Public Television station.

There will be another one coming, continuing his life story and vision. Enjoy!

~Susan Mellott