tools | Wondering @ work

“Oh Central City Library, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Your massive selection, that can be pre-reserved online and sent to any library of your choosing.

Your efficient self checkout kiosks that let me check out up to 10 books in one go.

Your cheerful atmosphere and very helpful staff. ”~ Neera J on Yelp (2015).

What a response and what a review. The same library is reviewed by a different customer, SuriSun on TripAdvisor, speaks about the workshops and classes offered at the library (2014). Both positive reviews and on each site the Central City Library of Auckland is given very high ratings. Does it even matter, especially when each site only had a handful of reviews about these libraries?

More people are in the habit of turning to review sites to make purchases of products and services (Anderson, 2014). Review sites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp offer a very different dialogue for customers. They use them to give their opinion about products and services. Their posts are often more targeted and pointed, especially when they do not like some part of their experience, the anonymity of the forum can allow such brutal honesty (Derysh, 2013). Yet these very customer reviews can be the feedback needed to improve the services offered.

Businesses are being encouraged to not only read their online reviews but to actively engage with the customers, thanking them for good reviews and seeking to address complaints and frustrations for the customers with a negative experience (Olenski, 2015). This way the review becomes a dialogue and other potential customers can see how the business is responding to criticism.

The reviews posted about Central City library were for the most part very positive, friendly staff, great wi-fi, comfortable areas, children’s programmes. Neither Yelp nor TripAdvisor seemed to have a place for the library to publicly comment though private comments were available. How would a Teacher Librarian go about getting this kind of dialogue going within a school library? Having some anonymity would be helpful for students and staff who wanted to post negative reviews and it would be helpful to have public dialogues going. There are tools available to provide ways to canvas and collect customer feedback, a simple Google search will provide some good options.

Our patrons are our customers and the opportunity to enter into discussion with them about their experience in our libraries could very well lead to new ideas and improved services.

References

Anderson, M. (2014, July 1). Local consumer review survey 2014. Retrieved from https://www.brightlocal.com/2014/07/01/local-consumer-review-survey-2014/

Derysh, I. (2013, July 31). Why customer reviews crush social media marketing [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.desk.com/blog/social-media-marketing/

Neera J. (2015, September 27). Central City Library [Online forum post]. Retrieved from Yelp website: http://www.yelp.com/biz/central-city-library-auckland?page_src=best_of_yelp

Olenski, S. (2015, June 12). 5 ways to make customer reviews work to your advantage. Retrieved December 6, 2015, from http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/steve-olenski/2015-06-12/5-ways-make-customer-reviews-work-your-advantage

SuriSun. (2014, August 24). Central City Library, Auckland region [Online forum post]. Retrieved from TripAdvisor website: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1811027-d2526230-Reviews-Central_City_Library-Auckland_Region_North_Island.html

Website content curation is something I have always wanted to explore but it seems so daunting at times. One of the librarians I follow is Joyce Valenza. She has such detailed libguides which she makes freely available through her library website.

One I think is of most value to us in our Masters studies is her Masters course libguide found at:

http://libraryschool.libguidescms.com/content.php?pid=324183&sid=2771792#

She is using present.me to make video slide shows about the topics she is lecturing. I viewed the one on curation tools. She also has the TL libguides for all TL’s to use TLguides http://libraryschool.libguidescms.com/friendly.php?s=tlguides

What I didn’t realise is that I am already in some way curating content. As I watched Valenza’s webcast I saw two methods I use now and which are very easy to maintain. I use Diigo as an online bookmarking tool. My library is https://www.diigo.com/user/librarybond We have also used Diigo with our high school speech and debate team and in the various committee I participate in Academic Integrity is one of them. I like Diigo because you can add a tool to your web browser and simply click on it when you want to add something to your library. I have my Diigo account syncing with me Delicious account as well.

My newspaper – librarybond

I also use twitter and while I found it a great tool for following people I found all the tweets overwhelming at times until I discovered paperli. I have my own newspaper librarybond using the tweets I receive. It is emailed to me each morning and other people can subscribe to it as well. I read the headlines as you do with any newspaper and select the best, most interesting articles to pass on to colleagues or to add to my Diigo library.

When looking for other curation sites I found this article

http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/15_topnotch_content_curation_tools_15378.aspx 15 tools for curation.

The one I think I will play with for school is livebinders. I like the idea of the tabs so if I made a livebinder for History at IICS for example I could organise the different subject areas by using the tabs.Here is an example of the livebinder for apple i-pad http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=26195 Though it does look time consuming. I like the idea of Scoop.it for quick and easy curation. I will try both tools and see which one I like the best. Here is an example of a 21st century libraries scoop from Dr. Steve Matthews. http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-libraries

References

15 top-notch content curation tools. (n.d.). Retrieved March 15, 2014, from http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/15_topnotch_content_curation_tools_15378.aspx

Bond, A. Diigo library – Librarybond. (n.d.) Retrieved March 15, 2014 from https://www.diigo.com/user/librarybond

Bond, A. Librarybond – paperli. (n.d.) Retrieved March 15, 2014 from https://paper.li/kiwionthego/1308979532

IPads in Schools – LiveBinder. (n.d.). Retrieved March 15, 2014, from http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=26195

Matthews, S. Dr.,21st Century libraries – Scoop – it (n.d) Retrieved March 15 from http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-libraries

Present.me | Free online video presentation software | Make a slideshow with your powerpoint & web cam. (n.d.). Retrieved March 15, 2014, from http://present.me/

Valenza, J. Dr. Sandbox and resources for Joyce Valenza’s Mansfield course. (n.d.). Retrieved March 15, 2014, from http://libraryschool.libguidescms.com/content.php?pid=324183&sid=2771792

Valenza, J. Dr. TL Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved March 15, 2014, from http://libraryschool.libguidescms.com/friendly.php?s=tlguides