My Day

Today I got to play with the receipt printer at work. We tried to place an Summer Reading Program logo on the bottom of the receipt.

This one was designed by our children's librarian.

The original image came out a little blurred and hard to read. The font is about size 8 or 9. It is a little difficult to read. You also can't see the opossum very well.

Here's my attempt at a logo.

I was kind of surprised when my logo was chosen. This logo will be at the bottom of all of OKRLS' check-out receipts for the duration of the summer reading program. What do you think?

Finishing up

Well, the time for class to finish up. I have covered so much in this class!

Last week I actually had to work double time in social media when our usual Facebook Moderator went on vacation. I was in charge of the Okefenokee Regional Library System Facebook page which is a lot more work than I originally thought it would be. To make sure we stayed current in our feed, I needed to add at least two things a day. I chose random book quotes, retro posters, and fun facts. This week we are promoting our Summer Reading Club: Dig into reading which starts up this week. We are still trying to get everything perfect on the page, but it has come a long way since we started it last year. I have only recently been added as a moderator, so this should be a fun experiment.

If anyone is interested, please like our Facebook page!

Cloud Computing... Again.

I am currently finishing a paper on Cloud Computing. I guess I just didn't realize how big a term it was. It can cover e-mail, Flicker, Facebook, and anything Google. I'm pretty sure now that our Union Catalog, PINES, is a form of Cloud Computing because it is:
1. Accessible from anywhere
2. Collects shared data from other Georgia Libraries
3. Multiple people can change it

I think it meets most of the criteria. After figuring that out, I think a little light bulb lit up in my head. I've got this now.

Interview with a Librarian

Screen Capture of the Okefenokee Regional Library System Webpage

I interviewed the website manager  for the Okefenokee Regional Library System. She has been working for the system for almost two years and is in charge of the library system's online presence, including it's Facebook page. One of her jobs it to update and revise the webpage for the library system, click here to see webpage. She uses Joomla to manage the webpage. I interviewed her about her experience using CMS and what she would like to do to improve the experience. This interview was conducted on May 25, 2013 through Instant Messanger,

How and where did you hear about CMS?

Librarian:: For CMS in general: library school when I made my first website for class.
For the OKRLS (Okefenokee Regional Library System): When I found out the website was in Joomla.

What are your motivations to adopt CMS for its current use in the library?       

Librarian:: I had no choice. GPLS (Georgia Public Library System) set up the site for us in its current incarnation and chose Joomla because its free and cheap and we wouldn't have to pay extra. (This is also my answer for the motivation behind using her CMS)

 We're hoping to change to something easier like blogger or something easier to use.

Who else is able to change or improve upon the OKRLS webpage?
Librarian: The director and GPLS.

What previous CMS programs have you used before?
Librarian: Only Dreamweaver in school.

What are the important benefits or advantages of the CMS program you are using now over the old system or another CMS you've used in the past?

Librarian:: The only benefit is it cost us nothing.

What are the problems you've had with Joomla?

Librarian:: Flexibility in trying to make the page look like I want with drop down menus, rollover images, and transitioning image links. The lack of WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) properties- the page is created only when you view it and not while you make it, which is irritating.

What features would you look for in a replacement program?'

Librarian:: The ability to make and see changes made immediately. Easy integration of video and social media links. Less cumbersome image storage-- both adding and deleting files.

Is there any other social media you wish you could add to the website/ resources at the library?

Librarian:: We'd love to add the Facebook image and like button, but it won't work (with Joomla). Also video content, whether on YouTube or uploaded.

What do you think is the future of CMS technologies?

Librarian: No idea. I'm not really much of a techie. I don't follow technology trends.

We also spoke about ways to use Facebook to boost the library system's appeal. Currently the library is using the Facebook page to advertise events, such as Summer Reading Club, and to inspire patrons to read through famous quotes and images. The library is still trying to figure out the best way to use both technologies.

Small piece of the OKRLS Facebook Page.

Conclusion:

While speaking with the librarian, I realized she had many of the same issues with Joomla as I had had in the creation of my website for this class. She feels that she is still learning how to use the program, but is stuck with the format given to her by GPLS. She feels like she can not use the technology to its fullest potential because she cannot put all of her social media and webpage information together in a meaningful way. It is a similar issue that I had when trying to assemble a website with Joomla.

For me this interview reinforced the reality of the job responsibilities in the public library market. Many libraries are cutting back on librarian positions and other librarians are inheriting their responsibilities. Many librarians have found themselves performing tasks that they have never had to and that are outside their fields. The librarian works as in a different field as well as maintaining the library system's online presence which is outside her normal duties. As more libraries are forced to cut back on staff due to their budgets, it has reinforced my belief that librarians need to learn as much about every part of the field as possible in case they are called to work on something beyond their normal duties.

Life in a Cloud

I have been reevaluating my use of the Amazon Cloud service thanks to this weeks reading. I think Cloud technology is definitely a plausible idea for libraries. I kept focusing on policy creation and how it would benefit managers to be able to share their ideas and experiences with policies among themselves and the director. This would help for better policy creation just to know and understand what the policy really needs. This would help improve policy so informed policies can be brought before regional and local boards. The more informed the policy, the better the library.

After trying to remove the banner from Joomla again, I must declare defeat. The little flower picture is starting to grow on me like a fungus. I guess it will stay as all attempts to change it out with an image of a bookshelf have resulted in errors message and/or a site with  overlapping images which was quite frightening. It looks okay, just not my normal level of neurotic perfection.

Hope everyone else has had a better time!

Joomla Conquered...For Now

I have mostly finished my Joomla site and it has been quite difficult.

My site, so far. Like my logo? Creative Funding here.

-It was fairly easy to get a working website together relatively quickly, but it was difficult to make it look the way I wanted to. Most of the downloadable templates were difficult to control or required payment. 

-I attempted to change the banner but for some reason it would not actually publish the selected image to the site and when it did download, it would put a little broken link icon in the image. I stuck with the blue flower and just changed out the backdrop to make it look a little more cohesive.

-I successfully made two menus, Articles and Links. Articles contains the links to the archived articles I wrote about Coke Rewards and Amazon Associates. Those pages include more images of other sites which were easy to drop in.

A quick example of the Coke Reward Page I discussed.

 -The link page contains links to Amazon Associates and Coke Rewards so other may investigate these sites themselves to see if they meet their libraries needs.

-I did manage to put in a logo that I created with some modified clip-art and font, but I found that the easiest thing to do on the site.

I do not see myself using this program again in the near future until they can make the platform a little more user friendly. I need to have a site that even a novice can control and this, unfortunately, is not it. The two hour instruction video was intimidating and very dry. It would have been better broken up into ten minute tutorials that could easily be returned while one is putting together a site.

I bid you farewell, Joomla.