Presentation for the Iowa Small Libraries online conference in January 2010 covering strategies for libraries in difficult economic times: project management, project assessment, marketing strategies, and free web tools & software to save libraries money.

1. Tough Times Make Tougher Libraries Sarah Houghton-Jan Digital Futures Manager, San Jose Public Library Author of LibrarianInBlack.net

2. Why doth the libraries cry?

3. What we can do right now 1) Find out user needs 2) Use free technologies to save money 3) Plan projects effectively 4) Assess projects thoughtfully 5) Market our services the right way

4. Find out user needs

7. Taking the Ass out of Assumption (Char Booth): slideshare.net/charbooth/local-user-research-taking-the-ass-out-of-assumption

8. Taking the Ass out of Assumption (Char Booth): slideshare.net/charbooth/local-user-research-taking-the-ass-out-of-assumption

9. Listen to your users. It really is as simple as that. Plz?

10. Use free technologies to save money

14. Team Meeting Tools Voice – Skype, Google Voice Video – Skype, Sightspeed, Tokbox IM – AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, & others Meeting Space/Chat – Today's Meet Meeting Scheduling – When Is Good, Doodle Webcasts – Vyew

15. Tech Support Tools Embedded chat - Meebo chat widget Voice or video chat - Skype or Ekiga, Sightspeed, Tokbox Screencasts on the fly - Jing Discussion board - Google Groups Remote Support - LogMeIn.com

17. eLearning Tools Screencasting – Screencast-o-matic, Jing, Wink, Camstudio, Screencast.com Online Learning Environment – Moodle Conference Calls – FreeConferenceCall.com Webcasts – Ustream.tv Class Websites – WordPress, Blogger, PBworks

22. More Free Web Tools

27. Plan projects effectively

28. Quick & Dirty Project Planning Can add costs for staff time, explicit deliverables, breaking each step down further, listing who is responsible for what. Time and Money Completion Date (start date Sept. 15)‏ Research 10 hours, $0 September 22 Committee review 20 hours, $0 October 6 Software installation 10 hours, $35 October 13 Staff training 40 hours, $0 November 3

30. But my project is huge and I need help managing the steps!

31. BaseCamp

35. Assess projects thoughtfully

37. Project Evaluation Plan

40. Market our services the right way

45. $10 = 5000 Facebook Flyers to targeted audiences Facebook Flyer image by Steve Lawson: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tuttlibrary/1546577200 CHEAP ADVERTISING!!!

47. Rejoice in failures... for failing indicates that you have encountered a boundary that needs testing.