Library Thought Leaders Q&A: Mary-Carol Lindbloom (Executive Director South Central Regional Library Council)

Today’s library thought leader is Mary-Carol Lindbloom, the Executive Director for the South Central Regional Library Council in New York state. When did you get started in reference, and more specifically virtual reference? In the summer of 1999, when a group of us, including Tom Peters, Lori Bell, and Ginny McCoy, met in person at […]

5 Reasons You Should Have Ask-a-Librarian on Every Page of Your Website

To get the most value out of your library’s services and provide patrons with the highest level of service, it is important to make it as easy as possible for your patrons to connect with those services The best way to connect patrons with your Ask-a-Librarian service is to have Ask-a-Librarian tabs, links or buttons […]

25 Great Text Messaging Acronyms You May or May Not Need to Know for Your Text-a-Librarian Service

Do you speak text? Your patrons speak many languages, and you can’t learn them all. But one thing you can do to improve service to your patrons is familiarize yourself with some of the more common terms and phrases in their languages of preference. If your patron is text-savvy enough to be texting his or […]

Library NewsByte: The library is home to not only books, Library launches free mobile app, Vending machines latest library offering from Northland

Maureen Sullivan, President of the ALA, writes on the Huffington Post about the new Pew study showing that the vast majority of parents place a high value libraries. She discusses what libraries have to offer children and parents, from tangible resources to intangible experiences, such as instilling a love of reading and providing a safe […]

Library Newsbyte: George W. Bush Library Opens to Public, Pew: Parents Love the Library, With Tiny Libraries – Bringing Free Literature to the Streets

Carlsbad libraries work to meet new demands, technology Read More Many libraries offer adaptive technologies to assist patrons with various disabilities. The Fort Frances library is trying to reach out to the community to let them know about the availability of technologies to assist the visually impaired, which have been in place since the library […]

Library News: Digital public library with vast archive opens, ‘Libraries’ come in all shapes and sizes these days, US Presidential Libraries Contribute to Research, Education

Library director hope smart phone app will help slow declining circulation Read More Sacramento library adds 3-D copier to its bag of tricks Read More Digital public library with vast archive opens Read More Library Usage Increases Read More Holyoke to promote child literacy by creating ‘mini-libraries’ at police substations, stocking cruisers with books Read […]

Library News: Laptop-lending kiosks, Library attendance is higher than ever, Libraries Increase Book Digitization

S.F. library eyes laptop-lending kiosks Read More Despite drop in money, library attendance is higher than ever Read More Catching on: eBooks gaining popularity at area libraries Read More Africa must use digital libraries Read More Sno-Isle 1st libraries in state with new e-book system Read More African American History Month observed at Houston libraries […]

Answer Text Message Questions With QuestionPoint

Today Mosio’s Text a Librarian goes live with OCLC’s QuestionPoint.  Libraries who are customers of both can choose to have text message questions show up and be answered in QuestionPoint. Librarians who are staffing QuestionPoint will be able to immediately answer text questions, noticeable by a “TXT MSG” prefix and a new answering interface. Text […]

New! Simple but Effective Feature: Text for Instructions

“Aren’t you oversimplifying this? Yes. That’s the whole point.” From the Steve Krug’s new book, Rocket Surgery Made Easy We’ve added a simple, but very effective feature we call “Text for Instructions.” Simply stated, it means your patrons only have to text your keyword to 66746 for instructions on how to use your service. What happens […]

Word of Mouth Marketing in Libraries – Info and Articles

Then and Now… Faberge Shampoo started it all with their famous commercial from the 1970s. Peggy Barber and Linda Wallace nail it in their new article, “The Power of Word-of-Mouth Marketing” in the November issue of American Libraries Magazine. We wrote a post called “Word of Mouth: The Best Form of Social Media” as part […]