Computers in Libraries 2009 Conference: Session 2- Help Your Library Be Omnipresent without Spending a Dime

This session was fast and full of information. The speaker, Nina McHale or University of Colorado-Denver was very informative about widgets and "steal" codes for patrons.

Here are some of the notes on this session:

Embedded and Widget-ized Library

Creating Mobile Tools
Catalog iPhone App
Chat Widgets
iGoogle Gadgets

This is Ball State University of Indiana's Widget for students to add to their Facebook or Myspace. Cool, huh?!

From Computers in Libraries 2009 Conference

Steal This Code
Provide users with RAW html wherever they can cut and paste html (myspace, facebook, etc.)

Check with IT/Web department about putting RAW code out there for users.

Increase usage, doesn’t hurt because it connects to your proxy

Planning and Creating Tool
Decide what widget code chunks you want to offer
- Catalog
- Databases (with federated search product)
- Combo catalog and databases
- Web-based/IM chat

Examples:

Article Search for two top databases

Chat widget on front page for Professors and Librarians

Part II
Creating Mobile Content

mobiSiteGalore.com
Creates template for you as a mobile website

- Customized designs
- Add pages, widgets and tools

In laments terms (lol):

We can put our catalog and databases with federated search in a widget or app that patrons can add to there Facebook, Apple iPhone, Smartphones (Blackberry, Sprint Smartphones) to search for items and articles.

Also, she mentioned having a tutorial for Professors to be able to add widgets to the Blackboard pages for article and journal entry searches.

Hopefully, I'm not speaking in a foreign tongue, I can explain it if you need more info.

This was a cool session. At the end, her assistant broke out in song. He rewrites popular songs to "library" friendly songs. It was pretty funny.

At lunch now, so I will post after session 3.

10 comments:

Roy said...: Good work so far. Do you know if the presenters are making their presentations available online?

Did they mention being able to adjust your current site so that it's mobile-device-friendly, or would we have to remake the site using a mobile-friendly template?; March 30, 2009 at 3:01 PM
Louise L said...: Alicia,
I like the idea about placing library widgets and tools within Blackboard (where the users are).

Did they mention any specific widget generators?; March 30, 2009 at 3:06 PM
John Stephens said...: I was browsing their website earlier, they have links to the presentations off the program itinerary.

http://www.infotoday.com/cil2009/program.asp

Looks like fun!; March 30, 2009 at 3:21 PM
Louise L said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; March 30, 2009 at 3:53 PM
Louise L said...: Slides:

http://tinyurl.com/CIL2009-3
http://tinyurl.com/CIL2009-3-1; March 30, 2009 at 3:54 PM
Swilley Library said...: Hey guys,

Roy,
You can go to this link and check if our site is "mobile ready"?

http://ready.mobi/launch.jsp?locale=en_EN

It has to be mobile ready in order to create a mobile website.; March 30, 2009 at 4:50 PM
Swilley Library said...: Thanks John. I didn't even see that you guys have commented on this session. I kept changing the blog design because it wasn't showing the date and times at first.; March 30, 2009 at 4:51 PM
Swilley Library said...: Louise,

LibX is very popular. It's currently being used by 576 academic & public libraries.

Here's the link to the site:

http://www.libx.org/; March 30, 2009 at 4:54 PM
Swilley Library said...: LibX is open source. So maybe we can try to do a test run....?? I'd be willing to help.; March 30, 2009 at 4:55 PM
Louise L said...: Another blog post on this session by David Lee King -

http://www.davidleeking.com/2009/03/30/cil2009-help-your-library-be-omnipresent-without-spending-a-dime; March 30, 2009 at 9:36 PM