Thingy 10: The Virtual Library Branch

"The end is the beginning is the end." --Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins

Well, here we are at the 10 Things finish line, feeling a bit winded I'm afraid. "What a long, strange trip it's been" (Grateful Dead). This Thing makes the valid point that a library's virtual presence should transcend and exceed its website. One can only hope that the library will continue to hire staff and dedicate staff time to cultivating this presence. However, I do worry about the "digital divide," namely those people without regular internet access. In our increasingly techno-savvy jobs, we cannot lose sight of such people--particularly in our community where there are many recent immigrants who perhaps do not yet have the lifestyle and technological access that "we" have. One need only observe the jockeying for position in our computer labs some evening or weekend in order to recognize how many people do not have this access at home. Thus, we cannot make the assumption that people have ready home access to our website, let alone other permutations of the online libraric presence.

Speaking of SPL's website in particular, I do like its thoroughness, the functionality of the catalog, and the online account management function. The IM reference service is pretty cool--I wonder how much it's getting used? Perhaps, in the future, this could be expanded to other departments: YS answering programming questions and registering people via IM, circulation staff helping patrons manage their accounts via IM, etc. However, my main suggestion regarding the website is that it is very text heavy. If you click on the "Kids" tab, for instance, you mainly get a detailed list of options, with a picture at the bottom of the page and some graphics off to the side. It seems very dense and not all that welcoming, particularly for this demographic.

I did download a digital book from the website--Fear Itself: Enemies Real and Imagined in American Culture--but found the process to be a bit confusing. The directions didn't exactly sync with what I found on the page itself. But this is an intriguing feature, though I am not fond of reading text on a computer screen.

Well, I suppose that about does it. I would like to thank the 10 Things Team for being our guides through this process--it has been challenging, enjoyable, and has opened up many possibilities of discussion regarding how to implement these Web 2.0 technologies into our personal and professional lives.