Progress As Promised – The Future Value of Software as a Service for Libraries

“Here is the prime condition of success: Concentrate your energy, thought and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. Having begun on one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it.” – Andrew Carnegie […]

Library Marketing Tips, Part 3: Word of Mouth, the Best Form of Social Media

A new study shows 2/3 of marketers are using social media. Indeed, it is a very important element of promoting products and services, but what about getting back to the basics? Word of mouth is, and will always be, the best form of marketing. Qualified referrals from trusted sources play a vital role in customer […]

How Important is Patron Privacy at Your Library? 5 Tips for Increased Security

I’ve never ever had a librarian tell me “we do not care about patron privacy or security at our library.”  And come to think of it, I haven’t had them even say it’s not that big of a deal. Security breaches stink and they can be harmful as the news of Twitter’s secret information exposed […]

Library Marketing Tip Mondays: Promoting Text Messaging Reference Services at Your Library – Posted Weekly in August

At ALA Annual in Chicago we got a wonderful chance to meet more of our clients face to face, get some feedback, thoughts, questions and shared excitement about offering text messaging reference service to patrons. An instruction and electronic services librarian using our service at an academic library asked if I had any suggestions or […]

Gearing up for ALA Annual 2009 as a Library Mobile Technology Company

Trade shows and conferences can be exhausting. You’re over-stimulated, standing up, talking a lot, meeting people, smiling and doing what you can to make a great impression. A number of friends that I speak to are not all that excited about them when they have to go, but there’s no point in talking about those […]

Reference Librarians: SMS / Text Messaging Skills Are Not Needed, Your Research and People Skills Are

Reference Librarians: SMS Skills Are Not Needed, Your Research Skills Are As excited as I am to see that more and more libraries are seeing the value of offering text message reference service to patrons, I find it troublesome to read posts and articles claiming that “librarians need SMS skills now.” It’s unnecessary pressure being […]

Library Software and Reference Technologies: Software as a Service (SaaS) Value

While reading a great article by Marshall Breeding about library automation and the state of the economy, I was very pleased to see Software as a Service (SaaS) listed as a lower cost strategy: “[a SaaS] arrangement involves a fixed, annual subscription fee, but it saves the library the costs of purchasing software licenses, server […]

Social Networks, Web 2.0 Services and Collaboration Tools in the Library

I’m fascinated by the new report from Robin Hastings, Collaboration 2.0 and I haven’t even read it yet. My fascination with it is the fact, and I’m not really too surprised given the library industry, that a report has been written to help library managers make a case for utilizing social networks to increase outreach […]