Still playing catch up with our meeting notes, but thought that this would be the perfect place for them! If you missed the meeting or are simply curious about what we talk about, here are the notes from our March meeting.
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This morning we had an update about quite a bit, beginning with the Queset House. We are moving forward with the renovation project and will be working with FTG Technologies to help install our wired/wireless network, and will be scheduling the work in the next few weeks. We are also moving forward with a Technology update for the Main Library, complete with new computers for patrons and a slimmed down network to reduce connectivity issues that have cropped up in the past.
We have also launched our new Tech ThinkTank blog (http://afltechthinktank.blogspot.com), along with a great new website/repository for our latest program series Trip Talks (http://www.afltriptalks.com). Both of these new additions can be found from our main webpage under the left-hand tab "Library Blogs." Guest Bloggers are always welcome!
We also talked about programs here at the library, and potential programs at the Queset House, specifically relating to Technology. A local web designer will be doing a month-long Web Design course on Saturdays in April, and we are hoping to continue this tech trend for future months. Saturday mornings are always a great time slot, so if you have any ideas for a program, or have something in mind you would like to see done, please let the library know.
Related to our growing Blogroll was a discussion of statistics, both for the blogs themselves as well as for the library's website and circulation. The library does indeed track and record statistics of all stripes, and we can discuss as a group the types of stats we would like to see and analyze as they relate to the topics we discuss.
We briefly talked about a potential 'Recommendation Engine' for the library (based on models that retailers use, like Stop & Shop, Amazon and Apple) which can recommend things to you based on your previous interests. Although some libraries allow patrons to keep a list of previous items checked out, a little more research needs to be done to determine how we could accomplish this task at the library level, and still maintain the privacy of our patrons. We DO have multiple email lists that send targeted information to patrons who opt-in, but these are mainly lists of the latest items added to the library's growing collection, and are fairly broad.
Another topic of discussion was using Drupal for our website redesign and beefing up our current newsletter through Constant Contact. We have added a new link/feature to our monthly newsletters that allow easier viewing from mobile devices, and will be looking to make sure that ALL of our newsletters have this link, but are still trying to make the text version of the newsletters better. It's a work in progress, and we are making some good strides, and over the next few months I hope to be making some serious headway on these two projects.
The last thing we chatted about was Makerspaces in libraries and our place/role on that ever-growing spectrum. It was suggested that we remain focused as an 'Information Makerspace' to stay true to our library roots, and we thought that had a nice ring to it.
