Libraries and the value of free

One of the distinctive aspects of American public libraries is that they are free. In other countries, and during the times of the Founding Fathers, subscription libraries were the rule. However, both philanthropists and local governments soon realized the importance of access to information. The foundations of democracy depend upon an informed citizenry, so free libraries became one of the civilizing aspects of a community.

But now, there are many sources of information and entertainment that are approaching the "free" price point. Chris Anderson suggests that every industry that becomes digital becomes free. Google and the internet provide free news, information and entertainment. And, very low cost subscriptions such as Netflix or Hulu are within the reach of all but the very poorest as long as they have an internet device. In addition, e-books have significantly reduced the price of the novel. At the same time, public libraries, looking for new sources of revenue, may be charging for some items or jacking up their fines and fees. This does not appear to be a good strategy, in what Anderson calls an economy of abundance.

At my library, it is usually the poorest who end up with fines--often in the tens or even hundreds of dollars. So, at what point does a library cease to be free? How does this affect the library's value proposition? At what point is it cheaper for a patron to get a Netflix subscription rather than to check out movies from a library?

Total fines per day may be an excellent quality indicator--not how much we generate, but how little. I suggest that fines are a proxy for customer dissatisfaction. Their expectation when they come to the library is that they can check out items for free. Fines, although probably necessary, indicates a failure to make it easy for the customer to return their items on time. And, fines make it easier for our competitors to compete with us.

Chris Anderson's talk on "free" is available here: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1815813330?bctid=1813637601

Here is what a post could look like using Apture

“Based on a true story from the author’s family history, Jarrettsville begins in 1869, just after Martha Jane Cairnes has shot and killed her fiancé…”

‘The story is set in Northern Maryland, six miles below the Mason-Dixon line, where brothers literally fought on opposing sides, and former slave-owners live next door to abolitionists and freed men.’

Meet Cornelia Nixon, author of Jarrettsville at the Jarrettsville Branch on Monday, November 2 at 6:00 pm for an exciting discussion and book signing.

For more information and to register for the program, call the Jarrettsville Branch at 410-692-7887!

Apture and Websites--Success

I set up a quick website using Webs.com to see how Apture might be used in a library setting. Webs is a typical free web hosting platform that uses a site builder. (Most libraries will have something more sophisticated but this seemed to be a good test as to how intuitive the installation might be.)

I signed up for Apture and copied the snippet of code that I needed to put at the end of the HTML document--just prior to the tag. But where to put it? The Webs site builder did not let me see the entire HTML document (at least not that I could find easily). I experimented and finally found the footer template for my site.


Success!

So, I set up a website published it and inserted all my Apture links. It looked OK but I decided to change a few things. So I republished the page and the links were gone! When I checked on the Apture site, there was a mismatch with the site token.

I had to go back, make sure all the left over code was out of the document and reregister the site with Apture before I could recreate the links. That's a bit messy.

Sample Library Blog using Apture--Help with Job Searches

Looking for a job? The library can help.

Here are a few things you will need:

1. An email account. You can set up account from a variety of hosts. See how to set up a Yahoo Mail account.
2. A resume set up in plain text format so you can submit it online.
   

Other Resources
Aberdeen Workforce Center Bus Schedule
34 N. Philadelphia Blvd, 3rd Flr.
Aberdeen, Maryland 21001
410.272.5400

Bel Air Workforce Center Bus Schedule
2 South Bond Street, 2nd floor
Bel Air, Maryland 21014
410.836.4603

Apture and Blackboard--no dice

For the past few days, I've been trying to use Apture with Blackboard. Unfortunately, there is no way I can find to install it or even use Super Embed which is supposed to work with everything. I can't say that I find this surprising since Blackboard wiki is pretty temperamental. The next step is to try it with other wikis and then some websites.

I also tried this with PB wiki. Wikispaces (a compatible wiki) says to put a specific embed applet under theme. When I tried this with PBwiki, theme related settings were locked out on the free version. Oh well.

I also tried this is Wikispaces which is supposed to be compatible. I was able to preview the template and it seemed to work, but required an upgrade for me to use it.

A few hiccups

Apture seems to conflict a little bit with Snap shots, an application that I already installed on my blog that gives you a mouseover preview pages before you click on the URL. Of course, with Apture, there is no longer a need for Snap shots.

I also tried to set Apture up on my Facebook page--to no avail. But, Facebook tends to really restrict these types of aps.

And I tried to install it on the Blackboard wiki at my school through the html screen. Of course, I haven't even been able to install video links on Blackboard (even though there is a button to do it) so I wasn't expecting much.

Is there an easy way to integrate Web 2.0 technology?

The next few blogs will record my attempts to use Apture, which purports to be an easy way to create blogs and websites with embedded multimedia. You can create a blog or webpage, insert helpful links, and your readers do not have to leave your page to access these links. Seems like a great idea.

I've installed Apture on my Blogger blog. It is very easy to link to articles, definitions, etc. You can see that I have added a Wikipedia definition of Blogger. There are buttons right in the Blogger toolbar (once you install the application). Just click on the link and Wikipedia opens in a popup window.

Here is a quick overview of some of the things you can do--like embed video.



That is pretty cool. In the next few posts, I'll be exploring some of the ways this might be used. Then, I'll try to put it all together to see how this technology might benefit libraries.