PPRG Conference - The Afternoon Session

The second part of my post on the PPRG Conference last week.

The afternoon:

After an enjoyable lunch, the final speaker of the day was Sharon Tuersly, an Administrator at the University of Warwick responsible for marketing. I was already aware of many of Warwick's activities, as Katharine Widdows (the CILIP WM Marketing Officer) works at Warwick and I've previously featured articles in Open Access from the Library. Sharon put Warwick into context, with my sister-in-law having just started there, I understood what she meant when she said they worked hard on the emotional side at Warwick. I really enjoyed Sharon's presentation. It was both lively and engaging, she went into great depth about her role/responsibilities and the re-branding of the library. There were lots of examples of the types of marketing materials they have produced and the pieces of Warwick Library Rock seemed to be much appreciated as they were passed around the audience! She showed a video they had made where students were asked: What advice would you give about the library? Again, it was the real stories here which struck me and which Elizabeth had talked about earlier. This is something I have thought about adopting previously in our own publicity materials. Sharon also talked about the palette of colours used in the make-up of the brand and how others within the university had also adopted the orange (which works surprisingly well). Someone mentioned the old Orange slogan of the "the future's bright.." and it reminded me of a comment a colleague made to me when libraries shadowed the Orange Prize for Fiction and used the colour orange in abundance. Library staff were told that orange is more than a colour it is a concept, and I think Sharon and her team have achieved this at Warwick to great effect.

The afternoon ended with a Library Forum Debate chaired by the PPRG Chair Linda Smith. The panel consisted of Judy and Elizabeth, and it started with the question: what does 'Library' mean in the 21st century. Clearly, it means different things to different people, to our users and non-users. However. the library brand is strong, it's trusted, even where there are negative associations made with the word library, most commonly "shush", this has been used to our advantage. The term library is steeped in history, it has a standing internationally, with so many newcomers to the UK this has obvious advantages. The point was made that the further libraries are stretched the more the brand becomes diluted and reinforces the need for good marketing. However, this has a knock effect, as librarians we become more creative. A number of delegates added comments including those from Nottingham, Durham University and two ladies from Wigan Libraries, who talked about their brand Explore. Overall, it was a fascinating discussion and rounded off my day nicely.

Evaluation

I really liked the way in which different committee members introduced the various sessions, this is something I hope to adopt for a one-day conference I am organising next year on library design for CILIP West Midlands. The group also seem really at home with using Web 2.0, regularly tweeting comments (check out #pprg09), particularly during the Library Debate on Friday afternoon and projecting photos from their Flickr Photostream during the discussion. I had intended to tweet myself but found trying to listen and fumble with my phone too much! All this was duly noted for February.

I'm really glad I got the opportunity to attend, at the very least it reinforced the fact that most of us our in the same boat, but helped to highlight those that are leading the way. I would definitely recommend the PPRG conference to anyone interested in marketing and publicity.

However, one of the things I think you miss out on by attending for the day is the interaction with other delegates. I managed to have a chat with other public librarians in Dorset, Devon and Cumbria, but would have liked a little bit longer to carry on these conversations. I was also gutted to have missed the Marketing Excellence Awards 2009. Having intended to enter them this year myself with The Solihull Song Challenge I would have liked to have stayed for the presentation.

Oh well, there is always next year...training budget permitting of course! PPRG will be returning to the Low Wood Hotel between 11-13 November 2010 when the theme will be Marketing Gold, more details will be available in the spring.

PPRG Conference - The Morning Session

Last week I was fortunate to attend a conference run by the Publicity and Public Relations Group (PPRG) of CILIP: Libraries - A Brand to be Reckoned With. It was held at the Low Wood Hotel in Ambleside, so it felt great to be slipping off to the Lake District for a couple of days. It's a shame that the weather wasn't more agreeable, as it rained pretty much non-stop, but then I had to remind myself that it was November after all! Despite the fact that I was only there as a day delegate (Friday), I got a huge amount out of the experience. I've been a member of PPRG for a while but this was the first event I had made it to, and for that matter my first national conference since 2004. Not only was I impressed with the venue and its facilities, but the conference itself was well organised and the theme highly relevant.

The morning:

The first session got underway at 9.15am. I'd stayed overnight in Windermere, so arrived at the hotel whilst everyone was still enjoying their breakfast. However, this gave me enough time to find a good seat and play around with the WIFI connection! It was also great to catch up with some friendly faces from the West Midlands in Ayub Khan (Warwickshire) and Judy Goodson (Staffordshire).

The first speaker was Mark S Young, Senior Lecturer at the Human Centred Design Institute at Brunel University. Mark gave an overview of Human Centred Design (HCD), that being a multidisciplinary approach to making products and services physically, cognitively and emotionally intuitive to use. He highlighted certain products such as those made by Apple, where you don't really need a manual to use them. It's about working with users, integrating their views into the design process. However, Mark was also clear that users are not designers. The key being that HCD goes without saying, you shouldn't have to flag up the fact that something is ergonomically designed. Overall I found the session interesting, it was an area I previously knew little about. However, I struggled to make the connections between HCD and libraries. The presentation was fairly academic and I found the later, more practical and library specific talks much more useful.

After a break for coffee and some Grasmere Gingerbread, it was time for Elizabeth Buchanan Elford, who is SCL Communications and Advisory Manager at The British Library. Elizabeth talked about Libraries Inspire, a campaign to help libraries throughout the UK to promote their services at a national and local level. Libraries Inspire is all about stories, illustrating the impact that libraries have on people's lives and she mentioned Enquire, a collaborative enquiry service delivered online where questions from the public are answered in real-time. Elizabeth talked a lot about relationships, working with your communications department to achieve your goals. I was particularly interested in a shadowing scheme she touched upon where you work with a communication officer within the Council and vie-versa in order to understand where the other is coming from. I thought this was an excellent idea and one that could strengthen links within my own authority. I made a note to ask Elizabeth a bit more about it at lunch. The second half of the presentation was focused on the use of social media, sharing examples of libraries using various sites including Twitter and Facebook. Elizabeth finished up by showing us the Did You Know? video on YouTube, which was something I hadn't seen before. It certainly made me stop and think about education and the job market: "The top 10 in demand jobs in 2010...didn't exist in 2004"! I've since been shown another version of this: The Economist: Did You Know 4.0 which is worth checking out.

The conference programme was well set out and allowed enough time for breaks and networking. Next up was Judy Goodson, Principal Librarian: Books, Reading and Learning who presented the Staffordshire Libraries brand: Your Library. I have got to know Judy a little by working on a sub-regional group recently tasked with organising a reader development conference. But I must admit I wasn't that familiar with the branding exercise undertaken by Stafforshire back in 2003. Judy outlined how the whole process worked and showed examples of some of the posters, bookmarks and leaflets that were produced. It was a good talk, however, I wondered if there was a more recent example of library branding from a public library perspective that could have been chosen. This isn't a major criticism as I know from first hand experience how difficult it can be putting together a good programme.

I've split this blog into two posts and will blog about the afternoon session and my overall comments later...

CILIP Blogger

I've just asked CILIP if I could have my blog considered for the CILIP members blog landscape, which is part of CILIP Communities. The 'landscape blog' captures the first few lines of posts from the aggregated blogs. It essentially encourages readers to visit the blogs themselves, the purpose of which is to point people to the wealth of expertise of CILIP members.

I have been blogging now since July when The Library Day in the Life meme caught my attention. I have found it a useful way to share some of the things I am doing in public libraries and through my work with the West Midland branch committee.

Surprised by the number of hits and locations, I thought joining the 'landscape blog' offered a chance to not only increase my readership, but inspire me to improve my blog, by hopefully receiving more comments.

So here goes! I'm now sporting the CILIP Blogger badge.

Social Media Surgeries

On Tuesday night I attended my first Social Media Surgery. I picked up on the surgeries through Twitter and various tweets from Alan Colson. The West Midlands Councils Social Media Surgeries (WMCSMS) is a project born out of the Birmingham Social Media Surgeries programme. WMCSMS is all about helping Councillors across councils within the West Midlands engage more through social media. Sounds right up my street!

I went along not quite knowing what to expect and hoping that I wouldn't appear out of my depth. The other 'surgeons' were Alan, Gavin Wray and Paul Hadley, who all seemed very knowledgeable and experienced at delivering these kind of surgeries. From what I overheard going on during the session the others were busy talking about Facebook, Twitter, blogs and Flickr.

I spent the time (around 90 minutes) working with Councillor Ken Hawkins. Ken (who represents the Elmdon ward) was fairly clear about what he wanted to achieve and why, having attended one of the introductory sessions. Ken's aim was to set-up a blog, so we wasted no time in diving straight in! Having only had a blog of my own for a few short months I felt conscious that I didn't have that much experience of blogging. Particularly as I was only really familiar with Blogger as a platform. Anyway, suffice to say that by the end of the evening Ken had registered and set-up his own blog and posted his first entry. I'm looking forward to see how his blog develops over time. Check out the WMCSMS blog for some pictures from last night's surgery.

I was somewhat surprised to learn that Solihull is one of the first places to be running Social Media Surgeries for Councillors. The next one takes place on Tuesday 10 November in Room 4 of the Civic Suite in Solihull. If you're in the area contact Alan Colson for more information. There is certainly lots planned on the social media front for Solihull over the coming weeks.

It was great to be able to help Ken and I can really see the potential impact that these surgeries can have on our communities. They are also a great opportunity for networking and I'm looking forward to taking part next month.

The Editors

While it seemed like everyone else was twittering about the Public Library Authorities Conference taking place in Bristol, I headed down to London for a meeting of CILIP Branch and Special Interest Group Editors. The meeting was called back in July by Peter Chapman, Editor of Refer - the journal of the Information Services Group (ISG).

The idea behind it was to discuss common issues/share good practice and it was certainly a great networking opportunity. Peter had recently taken over the job from David Butcher, who unbelievably had been Refer's one and only editor! New to the post Peter naturally looked for an appropriate network and discovered that that unlike Web Editors, there wasn't a CILIP forum for those responsible for the many B&G journals and newsletters.

The day stared at 11.00am with Elspeth Hyams (Update) and Debby Raven (Gazette), outlining the role of these two CILIP publications. This was most interesting, it being the first time that I had met either of them. People are still generally unclear about the distinction between the two publications. I think the West Midlands are one of the few branches who make use of the News from CILIP section in Gazette and the general discussion emphasised the need for this section to be highlighted. Not to mention for the Calender of Events to be expanded!

During the lunch interval it was good to talk with some fellow editors, particularly those from branches such as Oscar Courtney (North West) and Emma McDonald (South East). I felt for Emma as both Oscar and I work with excellent designers, which ultimately means we have once lees thing to worry about!

In the afternoon Peter and Catherine Dhanjal led a general discussion which included everything from copyright to the debate around online verses print. With a reduced capitation most branches and groups are finding it hard to justify printing and postage costs and some have gone online only. I firmly belief, as did many others, that there is still a need for a printed publication. I was interested to hear that some B&Gs send out a smaller printed publication and put an expanded version online. I wonder if this is a regrettable, but perhaps an inevitable way forward for Open Access. Certainly, many of the editors reported the need for an increase in events and activities to fund publication costs, which is where we find ourselves currently in the West Midlands. If you're a reader of Open Access, or indeed any other CILIP or non-CILIP publication I would really appreciate your thoughts on this matter.

The day is going to be written up more throughly and consideration given to generating a way for us all to communicate in the future. For now I would like to place on record my appreciation to Peter Chapman for arranging this meeting - a great success!

Library Routes

Having just read a post from Jo Alock on how she got into librarianship, I thought I would share my own experiences of how I joined the profession. Ned Potter, Digitisation Coordinator at University of Leeds Library has set-up the Library Routes Project - basically a wiki "to bring together the thoughts and experiences of Information Professionals on how they got where they are today."

Over the years I've tried to do my bit by speaking to a range of different groups (from school children to university students) about librarianship as a potential career. As a representative of CILIP West Midlands I have regularly attended the Careers Unlimited Fair at the University of Warwick (which aims to highlight the hidden job market) and I have found it to be a rewarding experience. Finding out after the event that a number of students have then gone onto a Graduate Traineeships is a great feeling!

As I child I loved books. Reading - yes, but above all books themselves. I loved owning and collecting books and It's fair to say that I had a massive library! In my teens I became really interested in radio and would have loved to have become a researcher. I had spent time during holidays with a friend who is a presenter on BBC Radio Wales and was really taken with the idea of researching guests and features for various programmes. However, at that time I was never going to go to university so quickly gave up on the idea. It was only after a serious cycling accident when I was 17 that I started to knuckle down and take my studies seriously, eventually going on to do A-levels and then read History at the University of Wales Swansea. During my third year I spent a lot of time in the university library researching my dissertation. But it never crossed my mind to explore working in one as a career.

Like many graduates I blindly sent off applications to the biggest and the best graduate schemes around - but to no avail. After leaving university I moved to Cardiff where I worked as a Support Worker for people with learning difficulties. This was a steep learning curve for me and whilst I enjoyed earning money, I knew that ultimetly it wasn't for me. Degree certificate in hand I started to think about radio once again. I applied for a few positions with the BBC all with a focus on research. It was only when I received one rejection letter from the BBC in Manchester that things started to fall into place. It gave me a number of pointers for improvement, the usual try again next time stuff. One of them was to consider postgraduate study. When I left Swansea further study was the last thing on my mind. But now, feeling frustrated with what was a fairly dead end job, I went back to the Careers Department at Swansea for some advice.

During the interview the advisor asked me based on what I had said: have you ever thought about becoming a librarian? It was like an alarm bell had gone off in my head. Yes - this was it, why hadn't I thought of it before? I left there and went back to Cardiff and spent the next couple of days on the Internet researching. Librarianship was a graduate career, it required undertaking an MA/MSC. As I read on I could see that my skills, experiences and interests were well suited to the role of librarian. Within a few short weeks I had quit my job as a Support Worker, been accepted on to an MSC in Information and Library Management and become a student member of CILIP, which at that point (April 2002) was newly formed, as a result of the merger between the Library Association and Institute of Information Scientists.

After a year spent at UCE (one the last few cohorts of students at the Information Studies Department), I took up a post as School Librarian at a co-educational grammar school in Birmingham. The rest as they say...is history!

Well that's my story, I'm looking forward to reading other posts on this topic and hope that as a collection they help people make the right choice about whether our profession is for them.

Poetry Boos

I blogged about the audio sharing website AudioBoo and its potential application in libraries back in August. Since then I've been trying to find a creative way of using it to good effect. So with National Poetry Day on the horizon I've decided to task the creative writing group I'm working with (who meet at one of our community libraries), to write a short poem on this year's theme of Heroes and Heroines. We are then going to record these poems being read/performed on my iPhone and hopefully (he says) post a series of boos.

Unfortunately, we can't actually meet on National Poetry Day, so we'll be revealing our themed poems a few days later on Monday 12 October. I'm really looking forward to hearing what the group come up with. I've created an account with AudioBoo especially for the occasion - Solihull Creatives and those who follow me (@davidviner) on Twitter will see links to the various posts as they happen.

AudioBoo has received much attention since it launched earlier this year. I really like the analogy used by Elisabeth Mahoney in an article for The Guardian in July, in which she likens AudioBoo to:

"being stuck on a crowded train listening in to one end of mobile phone calls. And, depending on who has boarded that day, you might be sitting next to a sensitive soul, a bore, an artistic genius, a big mouth or a crank."

Let's hope that on 12 October between around 10am-12pm Elisabeth finds some artistic Silhillians on her train!

Open Access

I seem to have spent most of the last couple of days editing the next edition of Open Access - the newsletter of the West Midland Branch of CILIP. I'm actually quite excited about it, it's a special Web 2.0 edition! It's currently en-route to the printers and will be out around mid October.

I'll post a link here to the online edition once it's available - there are some great articles about the use of Web 2.0 in libraries around the region, along with a couple of pieces which focus on professional networking using Web 2.0 tools.

For now though, here is the May issue which I've embedded using Issuu. I set up an account back in May and it's a great way for us to display Open Access in a much more attractive manner, rather than just putting a PDF up on our website for people to download. I'm sure I'll blog more about Issuu in the future. Click the "View in fullscreen" button below to experience the issue in all its glory!

Open publication - Free publishing - More cilip

Web 2.0 Workshops

Thought I would give a blatant plug for a Web 2.0 course I am currently organising on behalf of CILIP West Midlands. It's taking place in Birmingham on 17 December with the excellent Phil Bradley, places are limited so HURRY and download a booking form now.

At the end of last year I joined the West Midlands Training Development Group as the CILIP WM rep. The group had just carried out a training needs survey of the 14 public library authorities in the region, on which Web 2.0 and social networking came out as a high priority for most. Never one to let an opportunity pass, I started to explore whether CILIP WM could facilitate something, as many of the members expressed concerns about the costs of courses, particularly those in London and therefore the subsequent travel expenses.

That group has now been disbanded. However, a new SCL WM sponsored Strategic Training Group was established in April, chaired by Kate Millin, and we're hoping to be able to send a number of public librarians on this course. So if you work in public libraries in the West Midlands and like the sound of what's on offer, then please get in touch. You can email me at: cilipwm@me.com

AudioBoo in Libraries

I first came across AudioBoo back in late June. Like many I was drawn to it thanks to Twitter, and through users such as Stephen Fry, who seemed to be regularly posting new "boos" - audio recordings of up to five minutes in length. As I'm currently engaged in an audio related project at the moment with some local creative writers, I thought I should check it out.

For those that aren't familiar with the service, AudioBoo is a sound-sharing website, which is also available as an application on the iPhone. Put simply - it's the YouTube of the audio world! An article in The Guardian recently about the popularity of the site, pointed me to The British Library who are using AudioBoo to capture accents, dialects and oral histories for their Sound Archive. So I began to wonder about the potential for using AudioBoo in public libraries.

What prompted me to write this blog post was hearing an attempt to capture some songs from a Singing Histories concert (part of an excellent project to get the nation singing) by Plymouth Libraries. The Plymouth boos really illustrate the benefits of the service - the ability to record and publish anywhere without the need for fancy audio equipment. It's also a great way to articulate thoughts verbally perhaps whilst attending courses or conferences. I'm considering using AudioBoo at a regional reader development conference in October.

So far I've only had a go at recording a test boo. Unlike with Twitter, I felt much more self-conscious producing a boo as opposed to a writing a tweet, even though both can be freely accessed on the internet. There is something about hearing your own voice don't you think?

For me the major drawbacks to using AudioBoo are:

• the inability to edit content. You can pause recording but there is currently no way to edit what you have recorded prior to publishing
• you can only upload content from within the AudioBoo app itself. So it isn't possible to upload a file recorded elsewhere. say using Voice Memos on the iPhone

That aside, it looks like it could be a great utility for use in libraries and I'm hoping to explore its potential more over the coming months. So watch this space!