A big SPLAT-erific welcome to all the 2007 SWILA participants who attended my presention! It was great to present for such an enthusastic audience at my alma mater on Saturday, May 19th about Collection Development in the Digital Age.

I've embedded my presentation below, so you can surf through all the links at your own pace. (However, I lucked out that there's no video of my embarrassing loss in Wii Sports Tennis!)

Have a question about anything covered in my presentation? Leave a comment here or fire off an email (dbaker@adalib.org), and I'll do what I can to help solve your digital dilemma!

As Aaron Schmidt put it, everything old is new again with the latest update to Meebo which unveiled their new "chat room" feature dubbed Meebo Rooms. More than just ordinary chat rooms, Meebo Rooms let you embed and share Flickr photos, YouTube videos, or even any websites you choose.

I've created a SPLAT Meebo Room, so you can chat and share web resources in real-time with other SPLAT members and SPLAT fans. Give it a whirl and experience the latest chat room evolution for yourself!

"As librarians, the library might be the center of our universe, but we really need to remember that for the rest of the population, it’s just another errand among many tasks and duties crowding our lives. Is there a way to make this particular task easier, faster, more efficient? If so, let’s do it!"

A recent blog post over at Library Revolution (one of my new favorite biblioblogs) titled Library Service and "Drive-By" Patrons has gotten me thinking about how we need to evolve our libraries using The Six Million Dollar Man for inspiration. Remember that famous opening narration?

We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better...stronger...faster.

We can rebuild our libraries by focusing on being more patron-oriented and responsive to their needs. We have the technology: computers, the Internet, self-checks, mobile devices, RSS, IM, RFID and so on. We can make our libraries better than they were before. Better...faster...easier...more efficient...more fun.

In fact, we absolutely must take these ideas to heart. If we don't, we might very well end up like the character of astronaut Steve Austin... but without the life-saving bionic implants. Which would leave the library dead on the operating table in a society that needs us now more than ever.

What are you doing to make libraries better?

Have you thought about starting a blog, but:

• thought it'd be too much work?
• didn't think you'd have enough to say?
• weren't sure where to start?
• figured it'd take too much technical knowhow?

Enter Tumblr, a free micro-blogging service that makes it easy to start up a simple blog. Here's how they explain it in their FAQ:

If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks. You can also look at tumblelogs as slightly more structured blogs that make it easier, faster, and more fun to post and share stuff you find or create.

Take a look at what I've put together for my library's Youth Services: The QC. I use it to share morale-boosting (and humorous) anecdotes, links to useful research websites, and insightful quotes from other library blogs or columns. And I update it with just a few minutes each day.

It'd be easy to whip up something like this for your own library and use it to share links, photos, quotes and other useful bits of information. So go ahead, take the Tumblr plunge and have a quick-and-dirty blog of your own.

As a SPLAT member, I believe in eating my own dog food. Thus, after listing why libraries should make rooms for Wiis, I lobbied hard for my library to get a Wii of its own.

Fortunately, I was able to bank on the success of my other successful weekly school-age program and my request was approved. I designed a new school-age program (ages 6-12) that would incorporate our new Wii and dubbed it Elementary Challenge.

Here's what I've learned while waving wiimotes:

• Show Me The Wiis
  Even after being on the market for nearly six months, Wiis are still tough to find. Back in January, it took me a few weeks of looking before I finally found a store with some in stock. Your best bet might be to have your staff keep a keen eye out for one while they're shopping.
• Wii Sports is Where It's At
  Every Wii includes a copy of Wii Sports, a game which will work for nearly any library program you have in mind. Before you pick up more games, you might want to use those leftover funds to buy more controllers instead. (To purchase controllers and accessories, I recommend Nintendo's online store.)
• Pick Up and Play for Everyone
  No previous video game experience is required! Waving the the wireless remote-like controllers around is intuitive and easy for everyone, from six-year-old child to sixty-year-old librarian. (You've heard about the Wii that was a hit at the retirement home, right?)
• Can We Bottle This Excitement?
  As predicted, our jaded school-age kids were totally impressed that the library had a Wii. Kids that we hadn't seen in programs in ages started showing up regularly for their weekly time with the Wii. And once you've got them in the door, there's an excellent chance they'll be checking stuff out (including books!).

I'm sure our Wii will get its first real test during the crazy days of Summer Reading. But even with only two months of use so far, it's proved to be an fantastic investment. There's no reason your library can't experience the same with a Wii of its own.