LibConf.com from Information Today

This month’s Searcher Magazine has a made a featured article “Survival Lessons for Libraries Staying Afloat in Turbulent Waters—News/Media Libraries Hit Hard“  by James Matarazzo and Toby Pearlstein available free online.

Despite the growing use of technology to connect to clients it is very important to keep in mind that they are tools to help you maintain and grow a relationship with your customers/clients/stakeholders and are not an end in themselves.

A wealth of information tools suggests the use of technology for customer relations. Ironically, customer service is about relationships not technology. Unfortunately relationships cannot be augmented with software and Internet tools. Nothing takes the place of direct contact and human interaction; our ancestral history is based on this. Further, communication is the single largest issue in customer service and it must be done without technology. So what then are the best methods for retaining clients without technology? They are simply people, procedures and property.

Read on at  Service Isn’t About Technology – destinationCRM.com.

During Computers in Libraries 2010 we used QR Codes as an easy way for attendees to grab the URL’s for the many bloggers at the conference. For some folks, this use of the two dimensional encoding squares was old hat, and for others it was their first time seeing this 16 year old technology in action.

After years of use in Asia, QR Codes use is increasing in the US as a direct result of widespread adoption of smart phones with bar code scanning capabilities like Android powered phones and the Apple iPhone. The simple codes we used are just the beginning of what QR Code technology can express. The code on the right provides a link to the website of one of the Bloggers@CIL2010 – if you don’t have a phone with a barcode scanner, you can use one of the free online decoders like this one from ZXing.

Mark Sprague has written a very comprehensive post outlining QR technology and its many extensions and uses. Some of the designer codes he showcases are very cool. There are even QR codes with embedded graphics or company logos. I’d like to also thank Paula Hane, one of the LibConf bloggers and News Bureau Chief at Information Today, Inc. for featuring Mark’s post on Facebook since that is where I first saw it.

Read it at Understanding QR Codes.

Trying to prepare students for their future and teach them about internet safety without Web 2.0 in schools is like trying to teach a child to swim without a swimming pool!

A combination of factors is currently leading schools to reassess how they are managing student internet use, addressing internet safety education, and responding to the concerns of youth risk when using technologies.

It is becoming clear that concerns about internet risk and the ineffective way in which schools are now trying to manage internet use are a major barrier to moving schools forward to embrace 21st-century learning environments. The new Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) will require that schools teach internet safety. Increasingly, schools are recognizing that the online behavior of some students is having a damaging impact at schools and on the ability of students to feel safe and be successful.

Read on at Security in a Web 2.0-Based Educational Environment: Issues and Answers—Part 1 at  Multimedia & Internet@Schools Magazine and be sure to read the section “Moving Past ‘Technopanic’” if nothing else.

I overheard the end of one of the sessions that mentioned the Google Fusion Tables (I can’t remember who was speaking or I’d credit them here).  Thanks to Jason Clark for mentioning GoogleLab’s Fusion Tables in a session; that mention led to this map.  I decided to play with it using the CIL2010 Registration database sans identifying information.  Once I used BatchGeo.com to convert the City, State, Zip, Country table to geocoded columns it was a piece of cake to create a map of the people who helped make the 2th annual Computers in Libraries conference such a great event.  The map is now online at People@CIL2010.