SCLS Technology Planning

The values behind the responsibilities

At the SCLS Annual Meeting in April, the group did an exercise with the Library Responsibilities document to identify the values behind the statements -- what are the things we as a group value and want to be present in the relationships within the SCLS community?

The small groups had good discussions, and created a list of value statements.  The group then voted for their favorite value(s) for each broad responsibility statement.  Here are the top vote-getters:

• We value working together in a spirit of collaboration and mutual respect, compromising as necessary to achieve the greatest value for the common good.
• We are committed to continuous learning, and we will strive to be innovative. We will use responsible communication to ask for what we need and to provide feedback.  We believe that internal training and education is an important staff investment.
• We value teamwork and cooperation, listening and contributing to the planning and decision-making process.
• As members of SCLS, we will anticipate advancements in emerging technology and embrace the new possibilities.
• We value a unified vision that supports the best possible service for the greatest number of people.

Attendees signed on to these value statements.  If you missed the annual meeting, don't worry!  You'll have other opportunities to sign on to the value statements!

Reminder: Your feedback on "Guiding Principles" is requested!

Our May 15th Technology Governance Discussion is coming right up!  If you haven't registered yet, you can go to the registration form and register right now!

As you may have heard (through LINK or the mailed packet of materials or through email from Phyllis), we're looking for feedback on the Guiding Principles for Selecting a Model for Technology Governance by May 1st.  These "guiding principles" will be the assumptions for our discussion on the 15th, so it's important that they reflect what we all want in technology governance.  Please take a few moments to review them, and share any comments by contacting Phyllis Davis.

Update from the Technology Governance Task Force

The Technology Governance Task Force met on April 3, 2009 to plan the May 15, 2009 meeting on technology governance at SCLS.  You are welcome to read the notes from that meeting for more details.

Packets of materials for the 5/15 meeting were handed out at the LINK meeting on April 9.  Libraries that do not participate in LINK or that did not have a representative at LINK will receive the packet in delivery.
We're hoping to have all libraries represented at this meeting, which will help shape SCLS technology services into the future.  If you'd like to register, you can go to the registration form right now!

SCLS staff strategies and member library responsibilities

The information below is being posted on behalf of the SCLS Technology Planning Committee. You may see it in many places in the next few days,  so sorry for the cross-posting, but we want to make sure you get a chance to contribute your thoughts!  Our hope is that all of you will take the time to read these documents and respond on this blog post or by email to Tana Elias.

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The SCLS Technology Planning Committee spent the last year studying how technology is chosen, deployed and managed among our member libraries.  We hosted focus groups and surveys, gathered the data, and researched how other libraries and organizations that rely on technology make decisions. 

In response to the feedback gathered by the committee, SCLS has made some changes, listed in this post and more changes are forthcoming, including a discussion of alternatives to current LINK governance.

The Technology Planning Committee also created some important "responsibilities" to assist in communication between SCLS technology staff and member libraries.  Communication and expectations for technology staff were issues mentioned over and over in the focus groups and surveys. Two documents were created:

• Technology Responsibilities of Member Libraries
• SCLS Technology Staff Strategies

One document focuses on responsibilities of SCLS staff, and the other focuses on responsibilities of member libraries.  The information in these documents is distilled from common themes the committee found in transcripts from focus groups and written comments in surveys.

Please take five or ten minutes to read both short documents.  If you would like to respond, or ask questions,  please do so by sending them directly to Tana Elias or posting them to the this blog post. These two documents will be presented to PLAC (Public Library Advisory Council) on Thursday, March 5, and will be discussed in groups at the SCLS annual meeting on April 17.

Thanks for taking a few minutes of your busy work day to reflect on the important technology services that increasingly affect library service at all levels.  We look forward to continuing the discussion.

Tana Elias,
SCLS Technology Planning Committee member and Web Resources Coordinator for Madison Public Library

Farewell, Technology Planning Committee!

We recently had what will be the last formal meeting of the Technology Planning Committee.  The committee will still be involved in some activities (more to come about that soon!), but their official meeting work is done.

If you just haven't had enough of meeting notes, here are the notes from the January meeting.

I'd like to give a hearty "thanks!" to the members of this committee:  Jan Berg, Tana Elias, Amy Gannaway, Tracy Herold, Kerri Hilbelink, Deb McCabe, and Maureen Palmer.  They did great work, and I'm excited about the planning that's underway as a result of their work.

Save the date!!

All SCLS libraries, including LINK and "potential LINK" members, are invited to attend a discussion of alternatives for LINK governance. 

This facilitated meeting will be held on Friday, May 15th, at Olbrich Gardens in Madison.  More details will be coming soon, but save the date now!

Report from the first LINK Governance Task Force meeting

The LINK Governance Task Force had its first meeting in late January.  You can view the notes, and, in case you really want to play along from home, you can see the "An Assessment of Library and SCLS Staff Perceptions of SCLS Technology Services", the document the task force used to kick off their discussion, and the "Overview of Current SCLS Technology Decision-Making Processes", all referenced in the notes.

As you can tell from the notes, we had a lively discussion of the issues surrounding LINK governance and how we can make it better.  The task force plans to prepare some governance options to be discussed at a facilitated meeting in May (after being presented at the LINK meeting in April).  More to come soon!

Fun and games!

In the technology planning survey, one topic that came up in the "new technologies SCLS should help with" was games and gaming.

Some of you may not know that we do have a Wii and 2 PlayStation 2 consoles available for libraries to borrow for programming.  The Wii has a variety of games with it.  One PS2 has Dance Dance Revolution, and the other has Guitar Hero.  Check out the Games Packages page for more information on the packages and how to reserve them.

For those of you who are veterans at borrowing the gaming packages, you might be interested to know that we now have two new games for the Wii:

• Big Brain Academy
• MarioParty 8

If you have suggestions of other games, please let Jean Anderson know.  We can't promise we'll buy everything, but we'll consider it.  Unfortunately, not all games will work in a shared environment like ours.  For example, we know that libraries are interested in "Rock Band", but we have concerns about the cost of purchasing and maintaining all of the various instruments, packaging and delivering all of the components, and setting up equipment at the library.  So, right now, we're not going to be able to support that particular game.   But, please, pass along other suggestions to Jean!

Where we've been

Maybe the end of the year is making me nostalgic, but I wanted to take a couple of minutes today to reflect a bit about what's changed since we started this planning process, much of it as a direct result of feedback we received during the process:

• We've changed how we create email accounts, making the process quicker and more efficient.
• There is only one password now to access the "members only" areas of both the Automation and SCLS Administration sites.  A new design of the Automation site is also underway.
• We're launching Tech Bits, a new way to communicate about technology, on February 2nd.
• We've created a Blogs and Wikis page to give people a central place to look for SCLS blogs and wikis.
• We're tried a couple of new things at LINK meetings to improve discussion with such a large group.
• There is a new direction for the ILS, and many, many people are working very hard to move the contract and implementation process along.

Our technology staff is looking at how we do things and working on ways to do them better.  Thanks to all of them for this progress, and to all of you for your continued feedback as we work through this process.

Coming soon: Tech Bits blog!

We're happy to announce that Tech Bits, a new technology blog, will be coming to SCLS on February 2nd. 

...and it was all started by this technology planning process!

One of the things we heard in the survey and focus groups was the need for more communication about technology.  We brought this need to our Joint Technology Committee, and the group decided that a blog about technology would be helpful. 

This blog will include all sorts of technology information -- everything from tips and tricks to trends to project updates to best practices.  We've lined up a great group of SCLS staff to write for the blog, so expect to hear from different people each week.  And there will be contests!  (More on that later)...

And to help you learn more about blogs (before this new one starts!), Jean Anderson will be conducting a training session on January 16th about blogs and RSS.  See the description/registration for more information.

I look forward to this new opportunity to share information!