Riverside Library Visits

I have had a number of very interesting and useful library visits since arriving in Riverside.

Yesterday I visited Riverside Public Library and heard about a number of online initiatives. Riverside use Smart Access Manager (SAM) from Comprise Technologies which interfaces well with the Innovative Interfaces product, Millennium, for PC bookings. Patrons will soon be able to use SAM to view and pay Library fines. Other highlights included hearing about Librarian's Own Grove (Riverside Public Library blog) and What's in your space? (blog for teens) and some nifty newsletter software which is used to contact a large number of Library users via email.

The second visit yesterday was to the Digital Library / Learning Resource Centre at Riverside Community College which opened in 2003. There I heard about their digital streaming initiatives and capture of learning objects. The information commons was quite impressive with a total of 416 PCs available in the Library. Other highlights included a Star Board for use in information "competency" training and learning about TILT.

Today I visited University of California, Riverside and toured both the Science and Tomás Rivera libraries. I heard about the use of RSS feeds for Library news and events, laptop loans, the chat service Ask a Librarian Live and the use of blogs for subject guides. I also toured the Map and Special collections, including the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and the Rupert Costo Library of the American Indian.

In the afternoon I heard about issues relating to mentoring, recruitment and performance development and management of professional librarian which was very interesting.

Thanks to all of the staff in the respective libraries for their time, as well as those who organised my visits and couriered me to the various destinations.