Tumblin' with CraftySpace

I’m surprised people haven’t pulled me up on this yet – I often state that member count isn’t a reliable indicator of the success of an online community; but nobody has asked me what numbers are better to use. Here, I’ll offer you some suggestions.

Less is Less (& That’s Good)
We bet that your library’s website has too many pages. You might think that there’s no harm in keeping pages around just in case someone needs the info there. You’re probably wrong. More stuff on your site means that:

• it takes more time to make sure it is still relevant and up to date.
• your patrons are forced to sift through junk to find what they really need.
• your navigation has to be increasingly complicated.

So what lesson is here for the library?  Tweet when people are talking about you, and link to the original story or post.  Re-Tweet particularly nice Tweets about you.  Be consistent in sending out updates — but don’t overwhelm your users.  Tweet things that your user base might be interested in.  Remember – they’re fans.  They’re following you because they care.  So listen to them, reach out to them, and see if they can in turn reach other people and make new fans.

Michael Stephens has a wonderful presentation (available as a PDF) entitled: The Hyperlinked Library in Times of Change and Challenge. As with all of Stephens’s presentations, I come away not only with more ideas and thoughts about my library’s services, but with a better feeling about what libraries do for society…our impact ever day on the people who access our services.

I get a lot of questions about what kind of policy to write for the public to get them to “write the right stuff” on the library’s website.  Much of this stems from a fear that every library user will log on and write nasty things, use profanity, and somehow make the library website blow up.  And you know what?  It never happens.

Maximise your chances of success – only launch your community website to the world when the following conditions have been met…

I presented at the Hawaii Library Association about technologies (largely web services & software) that are free, open source, save time, and/or save money….Some examples of what I cover: software for public & staff computers, staff scheduling tools, team meeting tools, tech support tools, audio & video services, eLearning tools, reference tools, social network tools, website & website management tools, blogging tools, book display tools, free eBooks, and free article resources (+ a lot more).

Too often we have simply launched online services “because they’re cool,” without really thinking if they are appropriate for our audiences, whether we have the staffing or funding to support them, and whether or not they match up with our organizational priorities. Hopefully, I have presented a framework that can assist in providing well-thought-out digital library services.

I get a lot of people contacting me for help with their online community. Most of the time, they are unhappy with the amount of activity taking place – they want to see more. Most of the time, I see the same (or at least similar) problems. Therefore, in this article I want to outline five ways you can easily improve your online community.

Earlier this month, the Executive Office of the President of the United States of America relaunched their website, Whitehouse.gov, using Drupal….In this video, Macon Phillips addresses how they want to create opportunities for citizens to participate in their government. David Cole talks about why they wanted to change their technology platform, what they actually built, and where they are going with that new platform. Nik Lo Bue addresses how he wanted to use an amazing brand experience to visually communicate with citizens using Drupal.