Evaluating Your Digital Core

1. Evaluating Your Digital Core Peter Atkinson, E-Services Specialist, St Thomas PL  Heather Cunningham, Librarian, University of Toronto  Marian Doucette, Web Architect, Huron County PL

2. The Library 2.0 Toolkit • Due 2Q 2011 • Help libraries develop their presence online • Understand Why Library 2.0 is Important • Evaluate Features & Benefits of Library 2.0 Tools • Develop & Implement an Online Strategy Evaluating Your Digital Core: Peter Atkinson, Heather Cunningham, Marian Doucette

3. The Web is Pervasive • 2 Billion people online worldwide • 71% of Canadians averaging 45 hours/week online • 550 MM Facebook users; 49% of Canadians have an account • 50% login to their account every day • 6k photos uploaded each minute on Flickr • Almost 17 MM entries on Wikipedia, adds 950/day • 400 MM Unique Users/Month • 120k articles for Encyclopædia Britannica Online • 62k on Encarta • 100 hours of video added to YouTube every 5 minutes • You can: • Make a free video call anywhere in the world • Design and create your own fabric, shoes, cereal, radio station, magazine, store • Record a song, publish a book, run a business • And so much more!! Evaluating Your Digital Core: Peter Atkinson, Heather Cunningham, Marian Doucette

4. It's Bigger Than Us • And extends beyond our patrons: • Former residents • Descendants of residents • People interested in local events, sights, objects • Enriches your community when you help your community to use the web: • Cultural Groups • Tourism organizations • Artists & Artisans • Photographers • Entrepreneurs • Restaurants • Writers • Firmly establishes libraries at the heart of the community growth and individual development Evaluating Your Digital Core: Peter Atkinson, Heather Cunningham, Marian Doucette

5. A Worldwide Web of Choices An online presence must be strategic; users recognize poor site design and studies have shown that it reflects poorly on the organization. • Design Best Practices • Look & Feel • Voice • Usability • Website Options • Facebook • A Blog • Flavors.me, Wix, Weebly • Patron Engagement • YouTube, Podcast.com • QR Codes  • Flickr • Four Square, Google Places • Twitter No cost/low cost tools make a website redesign extremely affordable and easy-to-do. Patrons can be found in other channels, e.g. YouTube, Flickr. Having a library presence in these channels can be invaluable to serve patron needs and drive circulation. Evaluating Your Digital Core: Peter Atkinson, Heather Cunningham, Marian Doucette

6. How Do You Choose Your Channels? • Data! • Simple process; identify something you want to do/change, figure out what data you need, review • Decisions aren't based on opinion, the most recent experience;  • "Well last week three people said...“  • "My mother hates those e-reader things“ • You retain final decision-making but now have more info • Makes it safe to decide, safe to fail which leads to more decisions, innovation which keeps library relevant for community • Use the data; "Statistics are like a drunk with a lamppost: used more for support than illumination." -Winston Churchill Evaluating Your Digital Core: Peter Atkinson, Heather Cunningham, Marian Doucette

7. The items on this slide are examples of how data has changed our understanding of ideas that were once commonly held I Used to Know… • There is no evidence that Vikings wore horns on their helmets • Microwave ovens do not cook food from the inside out • Lemmings do not engage in mass suicidal dives off cliffs  • Different tastes can be detected on all parts of the tongue by taste buds • Sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children • Prolonged exposure to rain or cold does not increase the likelihood of catching a cold • Henry Ford did not invent either the automobile or the assembly line Evaluating Your Digital Core: Peter Atkinson, Heather Cunningham, Marian Doucette

8. The items on this slide are fictional representations of how data – if it existed to support these finding – can drive operational changes What if You Knew... • Children under 10 who receive a hand-written note from a librarian after their first visit are 8 times more likely to consider themselves 'readers' after age 16 • Libraries with active, (min. 2 posts/week), Facebook pages report a 12% increase in circulation • 78% of website visits are during library hours  • 85% of holds where an email confirmation was sent are picked up within 36 hours Evaluating Your Digital Core: Peter Atkinson, Heather Cunningham, Marian Doucette

9. Wise Words • I never guess. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930), The Sign of Four, A Scandal in Bohemia • The traveller must, of course, always be cautious of the overly broad generalisation. But I am an American, and a paucity of data does not stop me from making sweeping, vague, conceptual statements and, if necessary, following these statements up with troops. - George Saunders, The Guardian (UK) July 22, 2006 Evaluating Your Digital Core: Peter Atkinson, Heather Cunningham, Marian Doucette