Congrats to Rancho Cucamonga

Congratulations to Rancho Cucamonga on this honor!  If you'd like information about a Play and Learn Island™ , let me know.

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Press Release

Contact:

Michelle Perera, Assistant Library Director

Rancho Cucamonga Library Services

909-477-2720 ext. 5055

michelle.perera@CityofRC.us

 

Rancho Cucamonga Library’s Play and Learn Islands™ Honored by Harvard University as “Bright Idea”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 28, 2012

 

Rancho Cucamonga, California – Harvard University announced the 2012 cohort of “Bright Ideas” in government and Rancho Cucamonga Library’s Play and Learn Islands™  are on the list!

The Ash Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government recognizes innovative government initiatives from around the United States through its “Bright Ideas” program. The City of Rancho Cucamonga Library was one of those recognized as part of this prestigious 2012 cohort for its Play and Learn Islands™.  Play and Learn Islands™ are hands-on, interactive, multi-modal, developmentally age-appropriate, early learning exhibits for children and their families that encourage creating, designing and redesigning, building, experiential learning, reading readiness, and motor skills development through unstructured play, spontaneity, and imagination. 

This year’s Bright Idea cohort hails from all levels of government—including school districts, county, city, state, and federal agencies as well as public-private partnerships—and demonstrates a creative range of solutions to issues such as urban and rural degradation, environmental problems, and the academic achievement of students. Programs were evaluated and selected by a team of policy experts from academic and public sectors. Rancho Cucamonga Library is proud to be a part of Harvard’s Bright Idea program in the esteemed company of such innovative programs, as well as the only public library honored. 

The Play and Learn Islands™ have been created by the Rancho Cucamonga Library in an effort to provide interactive learning for children and their families in the Library.  The Play and Learn Islands™ were funded through several Library Services Technology Act grants from the California State Library and Institute of Museum and Library Services, as well as through a generous donation from the Rancho Cucamonga Library Foundation.  In an effort to share the Play and Learn Islands™ with the library community, the Rancho Cucamonga Library has created a loan program to allow interested California Libraries to borrow them for their libraries.  To date, 35 libraries have borrowed a Play and Learn Island™ and several have also purchased a Play and Learn Islands™ through the Califa Group. 

For additional information, please visit www.rcpl.lib.ca.us or call (909) 477-2720, x5055.

Internet Librarian Discount Reminder

If you're planning to head to Internet Librarian, please note that the deadline to register to get the Califa discount is September 21.  Internet Librarian is doing electronic registration now, so no need to print and fax your form to us. Instead, use the link below, and enter the priority code 12CAL in the box at the bottom where it asks for your code. That will get you to the discounted registration form.

Again, register here:
https://secure.infotoday.com/forms/?form=il2012

And enter 12CAL at the bottom.

Early Bird registration ends September 21.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Post Vendor Fair eBook update

We had our big Vendor Fair last week at the beautiful campus of Santa Clara University.  About 20 vendors and 100 librarians came together to watch demo's, get updates, and dig deeply for information about vendors they're considering, as well as talk to others who are already using those vendors.  It was a great day, and we always love seeing all our members who come out for it.

So, an eBook update, which is desperately overdue...

First off, some kudos for us: we were mentioned on NPR last week on the Diane Rehm show.  At 39:50 they say that Califa is really innovative.  Woohoo!  http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-08-28/e-books-and-libraries

Ok, self-congratulations over.  What's going on with our eBook project?

- figuring out hosting takes a long time.  We thought we could just go with a simple cloud hosting service, but Quipu talked us through all the options we could want; how much of a managed system did we need?  Did we need someone to do regular maintenance?  How much responsibility did we want to have for the servers and hardware?  After looking at lots of different options, and getting a lot of quotes, we decided to go with Hosting.com, and we signed up with them a few weeks ago.

- which means that now Quipu can start digging around the ACS and kicking the tires, as it were.  We are doing a presentation at CLA in November, and Contra Costa will be set up with, at the very least, a demo site to show at our session.

- we actually have live content on a test server so that when Contra Costa is ready to start testing, we're able to do so with real materials from real publishers.

So far the publishers that we have sent orders to are:
- Workman (and Algonquin)
- Bancroft
- Dzanc

I'm working on an order for the Independent Publishers Group, and Smashwords will also be coming soon, now that they have their Library Direct options for authors to sell to libraries.  I have a list of about 40-50 additional publishers that I'm working my way through - now that renewals season is complete, and our Vendor Fair is over, I'm working my way through the publisher list at the rate of 1-2/week.

We're forming a collection development committee, and figuring out the best way to manage doing the orders.  Right now, since we don't have an acquisitions module, we're working off spreadsheets.  But we know that's not going to be a good option long-term.  Building an acquisitions module will be in the second phase of the plan.  I believe there are already a few bits of movement with building an acquisitions module, so once we're ready, we can either choose from one that is already in existence, or see if building our own makes sense.  So for right now, the collection development group will have spreadsheets hosted on a google wiki.  (if you'd like to be part of the collection development group, and you're a Califa member, please let us know.  We can use all the help we can get!)

We are really working on two projects simultaneously.  Working with Contra Costa to get them set up is sort of a "learning by doing" project - by setting up VuFind+, and the ACS, we can learn a lot about the pieces that we will need to make this scaleable for groups.  There are still a lot of questions over bandwidth, how quickly VuFind+ can serve up the ebooks, etc.  We will learn a lot by getting Contra Costa set up, and then the BALIS libraries, and then Kansas.  Three different ILS groups, and bigger populations, which will put the system to the test.  We will see how it holds up, and learn more about whether more bandwidth is needed, etc.

At the end of this project we will have a server that serves up library-owned eBooks to patrons, which is exciting.  The level of integration into the ILS, marc records, etc., will all be decided after that first phase.  For now, we're working to get the first phase completed.

More updates soon!

After a long break of not posting...

Remember when summers were slow and you could get caught up on everything?  I don't know what happened to that, but this summer has been slammed.  We're doing deals with publishers on our ebook platform, we've got new vendors to announce, and all kinds of good stuff.  More on that in a later post.

But for now, I want to make sure you're all aware of the upcoming Califa Vendor Fair on August 30 at the beautiful library of Santa Clara University.  It's a great event we have every year - we bring together lots of vendors and give them each 40 minute segments to go really in depth about their product - it's a lot more than the quick demos you get when your head is spinning at ALA.  And there are other folks also watching the demo, and it's great to hear everyone's questions - someone invariably has a similar question that you do, so there are lots of good discussions going on.

And the best part?  It's FREE to staff of Califa member libraries (including parking, breakfast and lunch).  Non-Califa member library staff are $20, which covers the cost of food.

Learn more, see a list of vendors, and sign up here: http://www.califa.org/vendorfair2012.php

See you on August 30!

Califa's eBook Project

An update on our eBook project in The Digital Shift:
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/06/ebooks/califa-lands-325000-in-funding-for-ebook-ownership-project-deal-close-with-smashwords/

Also not in the article is the fact that we're having a Naming Contest for the service.  Submit a great name, and if we choose yours, you will win an iPad!  We want something that conveys:
- this is a project from libraries, for libraries; a membership cooperative project.
- this is a service that is a step towards a solution.  It will continue to evolve as we need it to.  But it's something that lets us focus our energy, and stop just sitting around feeling helpless.
- it will be innovative, experimental, and we will learn as we go along.
- it is collaborative.
- it's FUN!

If you have a name that you think reflects all of that, email it to me with the subject "eBook Name" and we will let our members choose the best from the top ones we receive (of course we'll have to work to ensure that it's available, doesn't violate copyright, etc).  The deadline for entry is July 31.

3M Cloud Library Goes Live in Pasadena

I was at the Pasadena public library this morning for the official launch of the 3M Cloud Library.  I've been using the Cloud Library for about a month now, and I'm really excited by it!  It's so great to see a service designed for library users that is actually just as easy to use as a kindle.

Below is a youtube video showing how to browse and check out books.  The first difference a patron will notice when they log on to the 3M Cloud Library is that they need to log in with their barcode and pin.  With OverDrive, you can go in and browse the catalog, and you don't put your authentication details in until the end (kind of like going into a store - you browse and then check out when you're ready to leave).  I'm not sure of the technology behind it all and whether one way is better than the other, but I do know that this way is much easier, especially on a tablet or smart phone.  You put in your details once, and then you're done.  


Then you find content that you want.  3M has signed with lots of major publishers (3M just announced that they've cut a deal with Penguin, who pulled out of their OverDrive contract earlier this year) but they're also working with independents like Smashwords.


Once you find content, you simply click "check out" and then go on over to your My Books area (which displays your checked out books as well as lists the titles you have on hold).  The book downloads to your account.  And because it's all stored in the cloud, it syncs across devices.  I wasn't sure what would happen when I was away from an internet connection, given that it seems to rely heavily on being connected, but I can happily report that I read a book on the flight to NYC last week, and everything worked just fine.  You can also check books in really easily by tapping on the "info" icon.  The "info" area also tells you how many more days you have left on your checkout, and shows your bookmarks.    


A couple of things that annoy me:


1) the bookmarking function isn't the greatest.  You don't seem to be able to just place a bookmark without writing a note about that bookmark.  I'm thinking that the reason they made it this way is because in a perfect world your reading spot would save, and sync across your devices.  In practice it doesn't always work out that way.  My tablet sensitivity is high (I know I can change it, but I haven't).  So sometimes I'll go from being 20% of the way through a book to 70%, just with one accidental finger swipe.  Getting back to the place I was is a giant hassle then (anyone who's ever tried to "thumb" through an ebook will understand why).  So I solved the problem by placing bookmarks every few pages, just in case I unexpectedly wind up losing my place.  It would be nice to do that without having to write a description each time. 


2) You can't use it on a kindle (though I supposed you could on a kindle fire, if you had the app) . 


3) The holds list seems wonky.  I've had Walking the Bible on hold for 3 weeks.  Every day it tells me that it will be available in less than a day.  I don't know whether they're using days measured on Jupiter, or what, but it's definitely held steady at "less than a day" like that for at least 10 Earth Days.

And really, that's just about it.

As online storage gets cheaper, it seems as if more and more programs and services will be stored online, and 3M is definitely leading the way.  The nice thing about them is that they are still willing to work with independent projects (like Douglas County) and I spoke with them about possibly integrating somehow into our own project.  They have written ownership clauses into the contracts as well.

I'm glad to see such an awesome project becoming successful.  The library world needs more competition like this!

Unglue.it and the burgeoning equality of the internet

Call me a wearer of rose-colored glasses, but I'm a big fan of crowdfunding whereby small investments from lots of people allow big dreams to come true.  The one that's relevant to libraries right now is unglue.it, which some of you may have seen in the recent Hotline.  With the tagline Give eBooks to the world (I like that!) Unglue.it allows people everywhere to coordinate and ensure that a book is made available, DRM free, for everyone to be able to read it.  I've already contacted them about putting their content in our eBook platform (I promise I have news on that as soon as I get all my ducks in a row and can make announcements - but I did spend the week at BEA last week and met with loads of publishers!), and they were really interested in talking. We're going to meet at ALA.

The team really wants their first attempt to succeed, so that they can show that this is a viable option for authors and publishers, so if crowdfunding books seems like a good idea to you, I'd urge you to check it out, and perhaps contribute to their leading project at the moment, Oral Literature in Africa.  Check it out, and let us know what you think!  Thoughts?  Opinions?  I'd love to hear ideas and thoughts about it.