CalPoly

I’m not sure how long it’s been around (forever?) but it’s new to me: Instapaper. I have been wishing for this app for forever. My biggest online problem (aka first world online problem) has been not having a handy way to save online articles and posts to read later. I’ve tried starring things in reader (but these get mixed up with the things I simply like and want to return to later) and tagging things “to_read” in delicious (though I don’t think I’ve ever returned to delicious to read or to make or to buy; in fact, I barely use delicious.). I’m very happy to finally have a proper tool for this.

Plus bookmarklet. Basically, if you have a bookmarklet for your project then I think you are awesome.

Nice, short article/blog post about social media and the misguided efforts to push product in order to engage users by Umair Haque.

Using the social to “build buzz” and “push product” is about as smart as using a warp drive to visit your local Wal-Mart. Social tools today are used mostly as a new “channel” to push the same old useless stuff of the industrial era at hapless “consumers.” That’s meaninglessness at it’s finest. It’s the least productive — and most soul-deadening — use of a formidably powerful tool.

Haque talks about companies that do build meaningful social interaction online.

They are about developing the capacity to understand an organization’s role in society, and how to play a more constructive one, wielding sociality as a source of advantage — by acting radically more meaningfully than rivals.

Haque lays out several (alliterative) steps you can take to move your social interactions into the meaningful.

• From Social Media to Social Strategy at Harvard Business Review

We had some fun for April Fool’s.

It started when our newest student assistant said to us (whilst trying to mask the fear in his voice) “So what happens around here for April Fool’s?” Turns out that he can be a little jumpy when it comes to practical jokes and he was trying to determine how much he needed to be on his guard for the coming up first day of April.

“We don’t do anything,” we assured him (though the other student assistant did successfully rickroll me the previous April.). But his question acted as seed + soil + sun + water and within five minutes we were talking about how fun it would be to do something on the library’s web site. Fool the students: we’re getting rid of all our books and going Kindle’s only! Yeah! And no coffee, either! In only a couple of minutes we had six good ideas. We laughed amongst ourselves. And then… lightbulb.

We got approval. Our director. Our associate dean. Our dean. They were totally game. And we were excited, so in a handful of hours our trick was hatched and we just had to wait for the clock to strike 12:01 on April 1st.

We wanted it to be more than a trick, though. We wanted it to be, uh, you know, a teaching moment.

Letting kids know the real score

So that’s what we did. Each April Fool’s story let the patron in on the joke: April Fool’s… and then the real information…

We gave them the real story and then added links so people could get even more information.

This was a really fun project that we hope will add levity to the library and let our patrons know we don’t take ourselves seriously — yet we take our patrons very seriously. We hope it makes the library a more approachable place; one where our patrons feel like it’s more than just Cal Poly’s library: it’s their library.

See it in action

• Kennedy Library Web Site
  You will only be able to see the April Fool’s version on April 1, 2010
• A list of all the “news” items
  We may keep these up for a bit longer, just for kicks
• Screenshots on Flickr
  For posterity

Flickr Slideshow of Screenshots

Two new (and related) articles at Think Vitamin:

• Strategy Basics: It’s Really all about having a Plan
• Strategy Basics: Getting your client’s ducks all in a row

There’s a new way to tell students about the services and resources we offer at Kennedy Library and it comes in the shape of an easy-to-remember and easy-to-share link: http://lib.calpoly.edu/students.

A few months ago we revamped the Services for Students page to make it more fun and engaging — we added lots of photos, gave it a new layout and added important and very helpful information for new and returning students. We wanted to have a better way to tell the students about what the library offers, how to use our services and resources and where to find them. It was a pretty good improvement.

This week the Services for Students page got an even sharper makeover. It kept all of its original content created in the fall AND was spiced up with more graphics and clearer ways to access the information.

Our hope is that this page will continue to grow and highlight the many offerings of Kennedy Library.

See the difference

Students Services Page as reconstructed in September 09 and revamped in March 10

• September 2009
• March 2010
• Compare side-by-side

We added images and links to helpful information — including our links to our Facebook pages, to Senior Projects, and to Science Cafe. We added photos of College Librarians with links to 24/7 Chat and regular library contact information.

Have Fun While You Learn

As published in ’09 and as revamped in ’10.

• September 2009
• March 2010
• Compare side-by-side

We kept all of the original content and then added a whole lot more.

• Facebook Pages
• 5-Minute Study Break
• Direct links to University Archives collections
• More Library Blogs
• Kennedy Library Flickr Stream

We will continue to add to this page. If you have an idea for an addition let us know.

Learning the Ins and Outs

Find Your Way Around and Use the Library pages stayed the same — the content on these pages is pretty solid with good information and links to get students started right. However — we are always looking for ways to improve the pages, so they may get some tweaking and improving in the months to come as well.

Student Jobs

The Student Jobs page got a makeover in the middle of winter quarter. This change focused on improving the information available to students as well as adding more photographs and even a tutorial for using Mustang Jobs. We hope that this will become a helpful portal for current and future Library Student Assistants.

Have an idea on how to improve the web site? Let us know! We’re all ears.

Five new images added to our rotating photographs on the Kennedy Library home page. Check ‘em out on Flickr.

Aw. These guys definitely have the right attitude. (CSU San Marcos?) (Hat tip: Joan)

I do love a great library campaign. :) But first, a question: what isn’t there to like about Edinburgh? Answer: not one darn thing. Even their graphic design for their libraries is excellent.

This series of posters was seen at Edge 2010, a “global conference pushing the boundaries of public service delivery.” I’m not sure what that means, exactly, but the library posters are excellent!

LibraryMan on Flickr has scanned 5 of the posters. See them here:

• Pirate
• Mafia
• Punk
• Superstitious
• Arctic

The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, just acquired David Foster Wallace’s archive. To that I say “wow!” What an amazing collection to have — very exciting, I must say.

Already its online site is showing a lovely insight into the collection — photos of the notes Wallace wrote inside books he owned, words he circled in his dictionary, and insights from his literary agent. On top of that the Center tells the story of how they came to get the archive and they share stories on how scholars use their collections.

So cool to see the web done so nicely. I love our Special Collections and our University Archives and I think we’ve done nice online exhibits, too. It’s great to see what other organizations are doing — very inspiring.

(Via Kottke)

Best! Thing! Ever! Now if I could include my margins, my borders and all my other et ceteras. I LOVE the web and all the generous people who populate it. What a cool tool!

• Border Radius