BlogJunction » Question of the Week

Questions, questions, so many questions

Emily — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:36:29 +0000

Discussion boards are a great way to ask, and get answers to, your burning questions. Over the last 5 years, the collective knowledge of our over 33,000 members have answered thousands of questions about problems many of you face in your work in a library. During the last few months, we’ve been highlighting questions we think merit a closer look. Check out the answers to this list of the last three months’ Questions of the Week.

RSS Security Risk? 2/11/08/
Truant kids at the library 2/18/08
Staff Development Days 2/26/08
Are Gen Y your heaviest users? 3/4/08
What do you do when the wife seeks borrowing privileges, but her last name is different from her husband’s last name? 3/11/08
Policy for Online Training 3/18/08
Public Access Scanners 3/25/08
Pay Overdue Fees Online? 4/2/08
Reader’s Advisory and selection using news feeds 4/8/08
Resources for Using Existing Bar Codes with ILL 4/15/08
Build a meeting room or not? 4/22/08
What do you want to know about prison libraries? 5/6/08

Have a question that needs answering? Post your question in this forum and it could be nominated as the next Question of the Week!

Question of the Week: Copyright on Donated Materials

Tim — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:43:57 +0000

There’s some interesting discussion to be had over in the Reference area of the WJ community discussions on the sticky subjects of genealogy research, copyright, for-profit end uses of library “owned” materials.

Member peteswind3 started the conversation by asking:

What should one say to keep people from copying donated material to the genealogy department and putting the copied material in a book and selling it. Is there a standard form stating a person cannot copy and sell this material? Then what recourse can be taken if it is copied and sold.

This generated questions about whether libraries “own” the copyright on donated materials.

I’m imagine this topic is relevant for other parts of our collections—especially as self-publishing for-profit becomes more common. Please join the conversation and share your thoughts by commenting here in the blog or in the original discussion thread.

Question of the Week: Online Fee Payment Options?

Tim — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:50:49 +0000

I can’t believe it’s time again for the Question of the Week. Where do the days go?

This time we’re highlighting an issue near and dear to my heart as a borderline problem patron—online fine/fee payment options. True confession: we’ve got four high-powered library users in the family and well, we pay a lot of late fees.

Let me say I don’t begrudge the fines at all. In fact, I wish I could take care of them more quickly and conveniently—such as when I’m reserving and renewing materials online. That’s why I was so happy to see WebJunction member mckeogh bring up what I consider a very Library 2.0 topic:

“I was wondering if any library has instituted a system that allows patrons to pay their fees (i.e. overdue fees) online. Has anyone done this? If so, what have been the challenges? What system, software do you use?”

If you have any thoughts or input on the topic, please join the original conversation in the discussion forum or comment right here in the blog. (I’m personally wondering if any libraries out there take PayPal or Google checkout—chime in if you know of any place doing so).

As always, if you have if you have a question you want to ask the larger WebJunction community or you see an interesting question coming in, please post it in the Question of the Week topic.

Question of the Week: Tips for Public Scanner Access?

Tim — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:58:48 +0000

Let’s take a break from all this PLA action for a quick Question of the Week, shall we? Can anyone in the community share a policy or best practices for patron scanner use? WebJunction member phenley has found resources on what type of scanner to purchase, but needs some related policy and/or training tips.

Phenley asks:

“We have a scanner for staff (actually in my office, and I’m usually the only one to use it) but would like to put it out for the public, since we do get a few requests. So my question: if you offer scanning for the public, does staff do it, or is the scanner out and available for anyone to use? Do people seem to be able to manage, or does staff usually have to help?“

Please share you best practices, pitfalls, or other comments either in the original discussion or here in the blog as a comment. As always, if you have if you’ve got a question you want to ask the WebJunction community or you see a good question coming in, please post it in the Question of the Week topic.

Question of the Week: Gen-Y Heaviest Library Users?

Tim — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 02:22:30 +0000

This seems like a fitting topic to tackle as we wind down Teen Tech Week 2008. As many of you are no-doubt familiar, a recent IMLS-sponsored Pew Internet Study looked at library use (among other things) and came to what some are calling surprising conclusions.

According to the study results, it appears that libraries indeed remain relevant in this internet age. In fact, the study found more than half of all Americans manged to visit libraries last year. Even more surprisingly, those tech-savvy, web-loving, Wikipedia using Gen-Yers were the biggest library users of all.

To start a discussion on the topic, WebJunction member alatreil asked:

“Would you say that Generation Y (18-30-year-olds) are your library’s heaviest users? What do you think this means for your library—and what does it mean for the nation’s libraries?“

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Please post in the original thread, or here in the blog comments.

Question of the Week: Truants in the Library?

Tim — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:06:27 +0000

I thought I’d start out this week’s post with a little reminder about Question of the Week (QOTW), our regularly featured discussion topic. QOTW topics are chosen for a number of reasons—sometimes they are challenging, cutting edge, or interesting. Other times, a topic deserves a bit more attention.

We post the featured question here in the blog and on our community landing pages, hopeful that our WebJunction members will see topics from areas of the site they don’t normally frequent. The question is normally selected by WJ staffers, but please remember that this is your community and your input is always encouraged. If you’ve got a question you want to ask, or you see a good question coming in, please post it in the Question of the Week topic.

Without further ado, here’s our latest question: On the surface, it seems a pretty standard policy query; a deeper look reveals a twist.

“Does anyone have guidelines or a policy on the handling of truant students in the public library during school hours?“

-WebJunction member 4578

The twist here is that initial respondents in the discussion thread commented that their libraries’ large populations of home schoolers would make even identifying truants a difficult task.

Do you have a truant policy? Or a problem with school-aged children in the library during the day? Please share your tips, stories, and questions in the original thread, or here in comments.

Question of the Week: Getting IT Buy-in on Web 2.0 Efforts

Tim — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:14:03 +0000

This week’s question relates to a topic that may have increasing bearing on our library community: the tech “buy-in.” As technology solutions become easier for library staff to directly implement, I think we could face resistance toward our home-grown solutions from our IT departments.

At least that’s the roadblock member amberdevo seems to be facing with an intern-developed RSS implementation. They have a technology solution and need advice to help them get it to the live stage:

“Our IT dept keeps putting off (since August 07) in setting it up so it can be used. “Security risk — we’re looking at it — we need to have the code verified, blah blah blah” We don’t know what the security risks are, have never been told. Could someone perhaps enlighten me on what the possible security risks may be and how to set things up so there is no security risk.“

I’m guessing that some in our community have dealt with similar issues and may have best practices, or at least war stories, worth sharing. Don’t be shy! If you have any tips, tricks, or horror stories about convincing an IT department to move forward with RSS—this really this applies to any new technology— please post here as a comment or in the discussion forum thread.

And as always, if you’ve got a question you want to ask the WebJunction community or you see a good question coming in, please post it in the Question of the Week topic.

Question of the Week: Share Your Library Web 2.0 Sites

Tim — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:20:46 +0000

This Question of the Week embodies one of the best things about WebJunction: Sharing!

Rhastings added Web 2.0 features to his library’s website and thought it would be helpful to see more examples from the community. This particular discussion has been percolating for about a month, but we are sure many more of you are using Web 2.0 in a Library 2.0 context. Rhastings asked the WebJunction community:

“What library websites have you all seen that incorporate the features and applications of Web 2.0 in a really innovative way?”

We’d love to see your work, sites you come across, or even hear about your future plans! Please respond to this question in the discussion boards or here, in the blog, as a comment.

If you’ve got a question you want to ask the WebJunction community or you see a good question coming in, please post it in the Question of the Week topic.

Question of the Week: Circulating Laptop Program

Tim — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:02:45 +0000

Does anyone have thoughts to share about creating a program to make wireless laptops available for patron checkout? This question was originally asked by intlfallsdiane in May:

“Our library is hoping to have four wireless equipped laptop computers available for patrons to borrow in the library. …

“… Is anyone else checking out computers for library use? Is anyone willing to share their circulation policies?”

Though the topic garnered some discussion in the months since, tfinney prompted official Question of the Week status by reminding us of the issue’s relevance.

“My library is also in process of circulating laptops. I am also curious to find out circulating polices for laptops in public libraries. “

As laptop prices continue to plummet and wireless access moves closer to ubiquity, this seems like a service many libraries may try. Please respond to this question in the discussion boards or here, in the blog, as a comment.

If you’ve got a question you want to ask the WebJunction community or you see a good question coming in, please post it in the Question of the Week topic.

Question of the Week: Rethinking Reference

Jen — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:02:23 +0000

This week’s question comes from WebJunction member robert.fiedler: “I am the information pathfinder (certainly a dated term) at a medium sized public library (our population is about 23,000) and I have just finished the process of weeding our Reference Area although how successful this has been remains to be seen. None-the-less, I am interested to know what anyone in a similar sized library or smaller has done with their reference area, what print sources you have maintained, what online databases/eBooks you have acquired and basically just how you have re-thought what reference means to your community and how that is reflected in the physical space of the library. This is rather exploratory so any thoughts, questions, suggestions would be welcome. Thanks, Bobby”

Respond to this question in the discussion boards or here, in the blog, as a comment.

If you’ve got a question you want to ask the WebJunction community or you see a good question coming in, please post it in the Question of the Week topic.