In this episode, Sean and John talk about self-checkout woes in retail situations, and the process of doing a technology assessment in a New Jersey Library.
Related articles
Technology shortens lines at checkout
Camden County Library Offers Help and Services for Victims of Hurricane Sandy
Pantone joins the green movement
Centennial library branch to feature three self-checkout machines
Author: lemsy
John LeMasney (lemsy) is an artist, graphic designer, and technology creative. He is located in beautiful Nelson County, VA, but works remotely with ease. Contact him at: lemasney@gmail.com to discuss your next creative project.
Today, I did one of my favorite consulting tasks: library technology assessment. I sat down as part of a team with the administrative and technology staff of a New Jersey library system to help them to find out where they’ve been, where they are, and where they want to go with technology in the next two years. It’s a fun discussion, especially after we get past the point of discovery and move to solutions.
We begin by asking about what it is that they hear is missing or insufficient from patrons. In this particular case, we learned that the public use computer systems needed updates and renewal, the printing and copying system was less than ideal, and that the web site needed to move from one engine to another. Noting those, we moved on to a structured list of discovery items, such as asking about the speed, price, and coverage of wireless access. We learned that the phone systems were sufficient and reliable, but that better methods of communication, such as those found in unified messaging systems and intranets might be a great addition to supplement phones.
We talked a lot about social networking and communication and how to use them more effectively to support and inform stakeholders of new systems, updates, and programming. We talked about internal development and training to support external development and training. We discussed a lot of things, discovered a lot of truths, and began to develop new plans for forward movement. We discovered a lot of points for discussion aligning with 20 points of technology assessment, with many short-term, intermediate, and long-term solutions. I often get a little charge out of explaining how easily the issues at the top of the list of patron feedback and needs are going to be met, how the awareness is the toughest part.
Many libraries have not had this discussion, and some have never had the discussion. Those who have are taking part in the conversation about the ways that libraries are changing, moving from being media distribution points to development centers, community life and work spaces, and collaborative, making, and incubator spaces.
Libraries that are thriving are meeting new and different needs than they were 5 years ago. They are creating comfortable, enabling, rich work spaces for people to grow in the ways that they wish to. People want to meet, develop themselves, organize, and extend themselves, and the best libraries today are helping them. Books and movies are a part of it, but just a part. Decreases in physical media circulation is being countered by an increase in foot traffic, participation in programming, increases in digital circulation, and increases in specialized meeting services, co-working, and knowledge sharing. I wonder what the conversation would be like with your library?
Related articles
National Library Week
How To Make Your Local Library Work For You
Pew presentation – The changing world of librarians
I was very happy to be asked for the fourth time by Janie Hermann to create what has become a tradition: the visual branding for ALA Battledecks, a fun contest in which presenters present interesting, funny, and sometimes shocking slides that they’ve never seen until they present. This year, in Chicago, Janie asked me to design something that called up the ideas of gangsters, flappers, the 1920’s and the glitz of Chicago, and so I focused on a fedora, Art deco, and marquee lights for the design. Thanks for the opportunity!
Related articles
I was fortunate to talk as part of the Library Link NJ Technology Speed Dating session today at the Mullica Hill branch of the Gloucester system. I decided to record the talk and give a link to the slides in the event anyone who was at the session or who is interested in Dropbox might want to learn what I shared. Thanks to Library Link NJ for the platform!
If you are interested in using Dropbox, please consider using my referral link to help us both gain a bit of extra space! We’ll both get 500 MB extra space as soon as you install from this link.
Here’s a link to the presentation:
Related articles
What is Dropbox???
Celebrate the End of Summer at These Five Attractions in Southern New Jersey
Last week, I was fortunate to meet for four hours with a company that wanted to learn how to use PowerPoint 2010 more effectively, make better, more engaging presentations, learn a bit about design tools like Inkscape and the GIMP, and develop a base of design skills. We all learned a lot about color, look, feel, design success, and more. Thanks so much to the company in question, and I love Hoboken‘s view of NYC. I can’t wait to go back.
Here are the presentations I used to walk the group through the issues.
New features in Powerpoint 2010
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iC0N-C2xRgH6xlvB6Gt0RXb6HcefgoGh0JrmtaEMrLk/edit?usp=sharing
Best Practices in Graphic Design
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/121kHFLhNGrP85vKdR5ti1tRFVzMbwRmboBRuzRLFg7A/edit?usp=sharing
Related articles
Death by Powerpoint
What to do with Charts
Design beautiful PowerPoint slide decks with Slidevana
Categories
On a year of sobriety
I am marking a very special anniversary here. On April 19th, 2012, I stopped drinking alcohol, and since then, I’ve learned how to live again. On Friday, April 19th, 2013, I noted one year of sobriety, and a lot has happened. Here are some of the highlights of what happened during that time:
- I regained focus on my nutritional lifestyle, began walking everyday, tracked my calories, and lost 100 pounds.
- I discovered many instances of who was important to keep near me for support, and who I had to remove myself from. If you are reading this, chances are you are in the support column.
- I left Princeton University, and started to focus on LeMasney Consulting as my main income.
- I finalized my divorce, increased the time that I saw my boys each week, and greatly simplified my life, means, and ways.
- I finished http://365sketches.org, started http://lemasney.com, and migrated most of my active blogging to http://lemasney.com
It’s no coincidence, at least not for me. Alcohol affected my drive, focus, and will. It allowed me to not care about the things and ideas that hurt, which allowed me to also not care about the damage I was doing to myself in obesity, alcoholism, and self-deprecation. Perhaps most importantly, alcohol affected my self-worth, pride, and self-respect to the point that I did not care how either I regarded myself, or how others regarded me. All of that has changed, and I thank you for helping me to find a different way.
Related articles
