The exhibits are almost overwhelming but I'm tackling them in smaller chunks.
Gaylord has some fun new furniture for children in their 2009 line. The rep said we can preview it on their website. The sample at the Gaylord booth is a low activity table shaped like a caterpillar (wouldn't that be perfect with Catch the Reading Bug?). The top is made entirely of recycled materials. It's quite sturdy, can hold the weight of an adult who wants to sit while their child stands or kneels to play at the table.
I also spoke to the rep of an online tutoring service (the name escapes me right now but he swiped my card and will send me more info). The advantage of this one is they offer 24 hour service as an option. I'm interested to see how they are priced.
So many exhibits, so many free pens...it's all a bit of a blur now. I visited the usual suspects: Brodart (the rep told me he's from the east coast, but that he's heard of Rancho Cucamonga, saying "once you learn to pronounce a name like that, you never forget"), Gale, Recorded Books, Overdrive, etc. I was blown away by all the lovely desks, carts, and comfy chairs at Highsmith, Gaylord, and TMC. I was on the lookout for cool things to spend our remaining Archibald FF&E money on, and I think I found my favorite thing at Gressco -- a framed dry-erase board inside an adorable animal-shaped wooden cutout. I took one of their catalogs, but of course it's not in there and I can't find it online either. I'll make sure to snap a picture of it tomorrow and post it here. I'm convinced that we need at least one of these for each library.
I must say, I thought I'd given myself ample time to go through the exhibits, and yet I feel like there is still so much left to see!
I spent some time in-between programs in the exhibits. Met the children's author, Bruce Hale "Chet Gecko" mystery series, at the HarperCollins booth. He will be at our library for The Big Read in October. It was good to meet him in person; nice guy. Bought a copy of his latest book "Prince of Underwhere", ages 8-12, part graphic novel. I see a book donation :-) Casey and I tried to meet mystery author, Denise Hamilton at the "Sisters in Crime" booth, she was elusive and we missed her twice. Another Big Read program presenter in Oct. Talked to a Highsmith rep and saw a nice looking portable book display, a retro teen reading booth, a comfy oversized chair, and some teen game tables w/stools. Picked up a 10% discount card good through December and met our local rep. OverDrive is now offering a PBS "video" collection as downloadable; interesting. Will spend more time in the exhibits Sun/Mon.
One booth I spent about an hour at was LibLime. LibLime is a vendor that supports open source library automation software. (Horizon is our current library automation system).
The reason why I wanted to take a close look at LibLime was because the company that develops and supports Horizon, SirsiDynix, has had quite a few upheavals of late.
Basically open source software is free, non-proprietary software that can be edited and enhanced by anyone. (By contrast, the only people who can enhance is SirsiDynix. For a fee of course). Also, the annual maintenance bills for Horizon are pretty steep).
Anyway, by looking at open source software, it is a new avenue to pursue should we decide to change our automation system. It will probably be at least 12-18 months before we get serious about exploring a new system, but it was a good chance to see LibLime up close without any sales pressure. (Tomorrow, I am going to take a look at Equinox, the other big vendor of open source library software). The cost of open source software is drastically less than the proprietary variety, and the open source software is generally more stable. However, it lacks many features of proprietary software (think of the difference between Microsoft Office and Open Office or Google Docs. Ultimately, you have to decide what you can live without, and what features you cannot live without and hope that someone in the open source community can develop what you want).
Another item Michelle and I took a look at was a vendor called HumanFace. This is a computer that can help a visually-impaired person read a book or magazine. It basically increases the size of the text (it does not read the words; I didn't see one of these at the conference yet). The reason we were looking for one of these assistive-reading devices was because one of the local service clubs is interested in donating one of these devices to the Library (probably to live at Archibald since this is where the seniors are).
1. Mango Languages - I stopped by the Mango booth today. No, not the fruit (although they should have been giving some away) but the online language instruction. Since we all like Rosetta Stone (but couldn't get it), I have been on the look out for something similar. I wasn't real impressed with Auralog, so I thought I would check out Mango. It has access to about 20 language training courses (each with 100 lessons). You can do this online, it is available remotely, and might actually be affordable. Oh yes, it also has an ESL module. Anyway, despite the annoying woman from Mission Viejo, who had a really bad mascara job and kept butting into our conversation, I still managed to ask a few questions and get us a free trial. Hopefully we can do this in the next few weeks. More to come on that when I get more info...
Midwest Tape - now that there are new media selectors, I think this is the time to make any changes we might want to make. I wanted to see what Midwest could do for us. They have been our primary DVD supplier, but they also sell CDs and audiobooks. I wasn't real impressed with the audio options, but was intrigued by their CD sales. Looks like we might get a better discount than we do from Amazon + they offer cataloging records (which might be better than ours - full list of song titles). I was really hoping they were getting into downloadable DVDs, but no such luck.
Humanware - a couple weeks ago Debi mentioned that someone wants to donate some assisted technology to the library, so we thought we better check into it. We looked at the myreader and autoreader (both are tools to magnify print). One is just a straight magnifier and the other actually scans the document and allows the user to read it in the format they want (one straight line, in paragraphs, etc.).
Oh yeah, I also stopped by the ITG booth because some woman stopped me in the exhibits and said "I saw your video..." I was a little nervous at first but then she explained she was from ITG and it was part of a video shoot they did at VG. I had to stop by and see it since it was apparently on a loop all weekend!
Let's see. I joined Michelle on the Mango and Midwest Tapes jaunts and previously spent some time browsing the Gaming and Graphic novels areas. While Gaming seems a no-brainer to us at this point, there are still a lot of people/libraries for whom it is quite new. Even the demos of gaming programs were pretty basic (Guitar Hero - BTDT). Michelle introduced me to a game called "Brainage" which made me feel pretty "brainless," but was fun to try.
Graphic novels have definitely come of age and the popularity of this section shows that loud and clear. Again, I think we're doing really well in this department and there wasn't much new or groundbreaking, just lots of new titles and series. One new trend is the adapation of prose-only titles and the entry of traditional prose authors (eg. Holly Black - Spiderwick Chronicles) into graphic novels. Casey and I discovered a new Indiana Jones series for kids that seems like a must-have.
I vowed not to bring home stuff, but I ended up with 2 big bagfuls...
I spent most of my time looking at the children's publisher's booths and products. I was surprised and impressed at how many great children's author's and illustrators were there. At the end of the day, Rosie pointed out Lois Ehlert and I got a signed poster from her - so happy!
I was also looking for interesting furniture for the children's room - saw some cute items from Gaylord and Demco. There was a company I was unfamiliar with - burgeon group Interactive Learning Spaces which had some really cool toys. I'll have to check out their website www.burgeongroup.com.
I tried the AccuCut diecut machine vs. Ellison machine. I was impressed about how much easier it was to cut using the AccuCut machine and the advantages of having the clear casing so you can see how much paper you're using. FF&E purchase? Ellison diecuts will work with AccuCut machines.
kiki - a new tween magazine. This looked like an interesting magazine targeting the tween girl audience. www.kikimag.com
This morning, I went to the Equinox vendor booth. Equinox is like LibLime in that they support an open source library automation system. (In other words, they are competitors. Even in the granola bar, Birkenstock-world of open source software, I guess competition is good...) Equinox (or more correctly, their product "Evergreen") was developed for the State of Georgia. Basically, the State of Georgia decided that they would create a state-wide automation system for all of their libraries to use, with the primary advantages being that this system would be *very* inexpensive (since it was non-proprietary) and the people of Georgia could go to any other public library in the State and use just one library card.
I spent some time talking with one of their software developers and sat through part of a demo. All in all, it was a nice product (although not nearly as mature or full-featured as the LibLime system I talked about in a previous comment). There aren't as many bells as whistles as LibLime (to say nothing of Horizon) but then again, as long as it can do the basics, perhaps that is good enough.
At some point, I will start working with the circ staff to look at these open source products (because ultimately, it needs to work for them in order for it to work for us).
But ultimately, I feel that open source library automation software has come to the point where it deserves to be seriously looked at when we choose our next generation system.
The exhibits were huge - as promised! LOTS of cool things to see. I can imagine how helpful this must be to see new technologies, furnitures, and meet potential vendors. I was so excited by all the lights, sounds, people, colors (a little like a monkey)that I didn't realize until later that my feet were very tired after the hours of walking and standing. The vendors were a bit pushy (literally leaping in front of you), but I had been practicing my most courteous no thank you.
I did like the small table filled with sand that had attached magnets to move the items inside. I think it is a great idea, but some of you pointed out it may not be able to withstand the huge numbers we see. Sad, but true.
There was also a cool company, that sounded good in theory, with a second life type product that allowed green gaming with an eco friendly house that kids could purchase (virtually)items for through the points they earned in educational games. Heather had some great questions about patrons' information and product placement. They said that they were all corporate sponsored and no one had access to the patron emails.
The highlight was picking up school library journal and seeing Michelle inside! That is VERY cool!
On another trip to the exhibits, I spent some time talking with Smarthinking - an online tutoring service like Tutor.com or Brainfuse. Here are a few factoids: - geared mostly to 8th grade and up (write now, they are in a lot of college libraries and only a few public, but it appears they are going after the public market) - normal hours are Noon-2am (math help is 24 hours) - tutoring is drop-in (like tutor.com) and by appointment (you can make 30 minute and 60 minute appointments for tutoring) - average wait time is 29 seconds - offer a writing lab (like Brainfuse) I asked them to come out in late August or September to do a demonstration for us.
I also stopped by a booth called Geographics to check out their GIS/market research software. It was pretty interesting actually. Essentially it was GIS meets the old reference tool – the Rand McNally Commercial Atlas (although a much for robust version). When you deal with GIS, they can map anything you want, but they need the data. This product has the mapping capability and the data already. You can select an area (by zip code, census tract, city name, whatever) and then select the market info you want to know (sales, demographics, businesses, etc.) and create a search to give you some detailed information. Essentially it would be good for targeting specific areas for marketing. i.e. I want to find all the neighborhoods in the Inland Empire that have women aged 25-34, that make over $100,000, are single, and are Hispanic. It will then map that for you. Sounds like Crate and Barrel are using a service like this. They want to cut down on the number of catalogs they mail out so they are looking for households with married or single women within a certain age bracket that make over a certain amount of money. Not sure if this is something that we would buy and put out for the public, but it might be nice for the city to have access to.
I had lots of fun looking at the exhibits and seeing all the new stuff that is out there. I was interested in seeing Spanish publishing companies and video game vendors.
I did see one Spanish vendor for test books. They are coming out with a new Citizenship test book within the next few months. What they were showcasing at their booth were the GED test books, DVD's and CD Books. What I liked about the books were that they were bilingual, so this would be beneficial to someone that is trying to learn English. The DVD's and CD books were not impressive because the person using them would still have to follow along with the book.
I did check out the gaming booth, but didn't stop and play any of the games. People were on them every time I passed by. There wasn't really anything new, except for the Wii Fit. I've been wanting to try it because it's sold out everywhere and I'm sure it'll be a while before I can get my hands on it. I decided not to try it after thinking about how everyone had been walking around all morning, then taking off their shoes to step on the balance board.
I stopped by the Accucut booth as well to see some of the crafts and die cuts. They had some cute stuff that I will probably try for a Family Saturday. I didn't know the dies could be used to cut through sponges!
I also stopped by a few book vendors, a genealogy database provider, a company that sells personalized giveaways, and the ITG booth so I could see Michelle in the video. =)
I decided to "browse" and walk through all of the exhibits. I stopped by some of the software vendors such as Fortress Grand (makers of our public computer software Clean Slate), LibLime (provides installation, support, etc. for the Koha open source software that Robert mentioned) and TechSoup, which distributes donated Microsoft software to public libraries for a nominal administrative fee (they'll sell 50 licenses or fewer, so it's something we could consider for our public computers). Tried to stop by Envisionware (who makes our public computer reservation and printing software), but our rep was busy every time I stopped by. I did talked to our reps (and was given very cool t-shirts) at Gale and Brodart.
I was impressed with the audio book "Playaways" and wonder if we'll consider adding some to the library collection in the future. The Midwest Tapes people were very friendly and helpful, as was the guy from Azuradisc, who spent some time explaining to me how our CD/DVD repairing devices work.
I visited the exhibits again on Sunday and Monday. By Monday I told myself, no more bags. But I ended up with three more! Lots to pick-up at the Swap & Shop: Hot Ideas for Cool PR. Samples of postcard announcements and invitations for library openings (could we do something similar for Archibald's grand re-opening?) and library budgets that are formatted for the public, lots of calendars, bookmarks, brochures...
I'm not sure what to make of the playaways. Riverside County got a bunch of playaways, but during my time at Temecula they were not big moving items. I know we had problems with headphone theft and replacement batteries. We opted for rechargable batteries, which would be stolen if they were left on the floor - and had to be distributed at check out.
I think Heather spoke to a rep who said they were big items at school libraries? Heather also asked about packaging if they were going to change it anytime soona nd they said no, but the packaging did make it look like an older product or cassete.
I have looked at Playaways for some time now and am just not on board. They missed their prime (which would have been just before the CDbook came out).
More than anything, I am not sure I want to take on yet another format. Since we don't have any more money to spend on audiobooks, that would mean splitting the CDbook money in half (or whatever) to buy Playaways.
Having said that, if Playaways all of a sudden become the wave of the future, I'll get on board...
16 comments:
The exhibits are almost overwhelming but I'm tackling them in smaller chunks.
Gaylord has some fun new furniture for children in their 2009 line. The rep said we can preview it on their website. The sample at the Gaylord booth is a low activity table shaped like a caterpillar (wouldn't that be perfect with Catch the Reading Bug?). The top is made entirely of recycled materials. It's quite sturdy, can hold the weight of an adult who wants to sit while their child stands or kneels to play at the table.
I also spoke to the rep of an online tutoring service (the name escapes me right now but he swiped my card and will send me more info). The advantage of this one is they offer 24 hour service as an option. I'm interested to see how they are priced.
More exhibits tomorrow!
So many exhibits, so many free pens...it's all a bit of a blur now. I visited the usual suspects: Brodart (the rep told me he's from the east coast, but that he's heard of Rancho Cucamonga, saying "once you learn to pronounce a name like that, you never forget"), Gale, Recorded Books, Overdrive, etc. I was blown away by all the lovely desks, carts, and comfy chairs at Highsmith, Gaylord, and TMC. I was on the lookout for cool things to spend our remaining Archibald FF&E money on, and I think I found my favorite thing at Gressco -- a framed dry-erase board inside an adorable animal-shaped wooden cutout. I took one of their catalogs, but of course it's not in there and I can't find it online either. I'll make sure to snap a picture of it tomorrow and post it here. I'm convinced that we need at least one of these for each library.
I must say, I thought I'd given myself ample time to go through the exhibits, and yet I feel like there is still so much left to see!
I spent some time in-between programs in the exhibits. Met the children's author, Bruce Hale "Chet Gecko" mystery series, at the HarperCollins booth. He will be at our library for The Big Read in October. It was good to meet him in person; nice guy. Bought a copy of his latest book "Prince of Underwhere", ages 8-12, part graphic novel. I see a book donation :-) Casey and I tried to meet mystery author, Denise Hamilton at the "Sisters in Crime" booth, she was elusive and we missed her twice. Another Big Read program presenter in Oct. Talked to a Highsmith rep and saw a nice looking portable book display, a retro teen reading booth, a comfy oversized chair, and some teen game tables w/stools. Picked up a 10% discount card good through December and met our local rep. OverDrive is now offering a PBS "video" collection as downloadable; interesting. Will spend more time in the exhibits Sun/Mon.
One booth I spent about an hour at was LibLime. LibLime is a vendor that supports open source library automation software. (Horizon is our current library automation system).
The reason why I wanted to take a close look at LibLime was because the company that develops and supports Horizon, SirsiDynix, has had quite a few upheavals of late.
Basically open source software is free, non-proprietary software that can be edited and enhanced by anyone. (By contrast, the only people who can enhance is SirsiDynix. For a fee of course). Also, the annual maintenance bills for Horizon are pretty steep).
Anyway, by looking at open source software, it is a new avenue to pursue should we decide to change our automation system. It will probably be at least 12-18 months before we get serious about exploring a new system, but it was a good chance to see LibLime up close without any sales pressure. (Tomorrow, I am going to take a look at Equinox, the other big vendor of open source library software). The cost of open source software is drastically less than the proprietary variety, and the open source software is generally more stable. However, it lacks many features of proprietary software (think of the difference between Microsoft Office and Open Office or Google Docs. Ultimately, you have to decide what you can live without, and what features you cannot live without and hope that someone in the open source community can develop what you want).
Another item Michelle and I took a look at was a vendor called HumanFace. This is a computer that can help a visually-impaired person read a book or magazine. It basically increases the size of the text (it does not read the words; I didn't see one of these at the conference yet). The reason we were looking for one of these assistive-reading devices was because one of the local service clubs is interested in donating one of these devices to the Library (probably to live at Archibald since this is where the seniors are).
I have been to a few exhibits so far.
1. Mango Languages - I stopped by the Mango booth today. No, not the fruit (although they should have been giving some away) but the online language instruction. Since we all like Rosetta Stone (but couldn't get it), I have been on the look out for something similar. I wasn't real impressed with Auralog, so I thought I would check out Mango. It has access to about 20 language training courses (each with 100 lessons). You can do this online, it is available remotely, and might actually be affordable. Oh yes, it also has an ESL module. Anyway, despite the annoying woman from Mission Viejo, who had a really bad mascara job and kept butting into our conversation, I still managed to ask a few questions and get us a free trial. Hopefully we can do this in the next few weeks. More to come on that when I get more info...
Midwest Tape - now that there are new media selectors, I think this is the time to make any changes we might want to make. I wanted to see what Midwest could do for us. They have been our primary DVD supplier, but they also sell CDs and audiobooks. I wasn't real impressed with the audio options, but was intrigued by their CD sales. Looks like we might get a better discount than we do from Amazon + they offer cataloging records (which might be better than ours - full list of song titles). I was really hoping they were getting into downloadable DVDs, but no such luck.
Humanware - a couple weeks ago Debi mentioned that someone wants to donate some assisted technology to the library, so we thought we better check into it. We looked at the myreader and autoreader (both are tools to magnify print). One is just a straight magnifier and the other actually scans the document and allows the user to read it in the format they want (one straight line, in paragraphs, etc.).
Oh yeah, I also stopped by the ITG booth because some woman stopped me in the exhibits and said "I saw your video..." I was a little nervous at first but then she explained she was from ITG and it was part of a video shoot they did at VG. I had to stop by and see it since it was apparently on a loop all weekend!
More tomorrow.
Michelle
Let's see. I joined Michelle on the Mango and Midwest Tapes jaunts and previously spent some time browsing the Gaming and Graphic novels areas. While Gaming seems a no-brainer to us at this point, there are still a lot of people/libraries for whom it is quite new. Even the demos of gaming programs were pretty basic (Guitar Hero - BTDT). Michelle introduced me to a game called "Brainage" which made me feel pretty "brainless," but was fun to try.
Graphic novels have definitely come of age and the popularity of this section shows that loud and clear. Again, I think we're doing really well in this department and there wasn't much new or groundbreaking, just lots of new titles and series. One new trend is the adapation of prose-only titles and the entry of traditional prose authors (eg. Holly Black - Spiderwick Chronicles) into graphic novels. Casey and I discovered a new Indiana Jones series for kids that seems like a must-have.
I vowed not to bring home stuff, but I ended up with 2 big bagfuls...
I spent most of my time looking at the children's publisher's booths and products. I was surprised and impressed at how many great children's author's and illustrators were there. At the end of the day, Rosie pointed out Lois Ehlert and I got a signed poster from her - so happy!
I was also looking for interesting furniture for the children's room - saw some cute items from Gaylord and Demco. There was a company I was unfamiliar with - burgeon group Interactive Learning Spaces which had some really cool toys. I'll have to check out their website www.burgeongroup.com.
I tried the AccuCut diecut machine vs. Ellison machine. I was impressed about how much easier it was to cut using the AccuCut machine and the advantages of having the clear casing so you can see how much paper you're using. FF&E purchase? Ellison diecuts will work with AccuCut machines.
kiki - a new tween magazine. This looked like an interesting magazine targeting the tween girl audience. www.kikimag.com
This morning, I went to the Equinox vendor booth. Equinox is like LibLime in that they support an open source library automation system. (In other words, they are competitors. Even in the granola bar, Birkenstock-world of open source software, I guess competition is good...) Equinox (or more correctly, their product "Evergreen") was developed for the State of Georgia. Basically, the State of Georgia decided that they would create a state-wide automation system for all of their libraries to use, with the primary advantages being that this system would be *very* inexpensive (since it was non-proprietary) and the people of Georgia could go to any other public library in the State and use just one library card.
I spent some time talking with one of their software developers and sat through part of a demo. All in all, it was a nice product (although not nearly as mature or full-featured as the LibLime system I talked about in a previous comment). There aren't as many bells as whistles as LibLime (to say nothing of Horizon) but then again, as long as it can do the basics, perhaps that is good enough.
At some point, I will start working with the circ staff to look at these open source products (because ultimately, it needs to work for them in order for it to work for us).
But ultimately, I feel that open source library automation software has come to the point where it deserves to be seriously looked at when we choose our next generation system.
RK
The exhibits were huge - as promised! LOTS of cool things to see. I can imagine how helpful this must be to see new technologies, furnitures, and meet potential vendors. I was so excited by all the lights, sounds, people, colors (a little like a monkey)that I didn't realize until later that my feet were very tired after the hours of walking and standing. The vendors were a bit pushy (literally leaping in front of you), but I had been practicing my most courteous no thank you.
I did like the small table filled with sand that had attached magnets to move the items inside. I think it is a great idea, but some of you pointed out it may not be able to withstand the huge numbers we see. Sad, but true.
There was also a cool company, that sounded good in theory, with a second life type product that allowed green gaming with an eco friendly house that kids could purchase (virtually)items for through the points they earned in educational games. Heather had some great questions about patrons' information and product placement. They said that they were all corporate sponsored and no one had access to the patron emails.
The highlight was picking up school library journal and seeing Michelle inside! That is VERY cool!
Exhibits, part deux…
On another trip to the exhibits, I spent some time talking with Smarthinking - an online tutoring service like Tutor.com or Brainfuse. Here are a few factoids:
- geared mostly to 8th grade and up (write now, they are in a lot of college libraries and only a few public, but it appears they are going after the public market)
- normal hours are Noon-2am (math help is 24 hours)
- tutoring is drop-in (like tutor.com) and by appointment (you can make 30 minute and 60 minute appointments for tutoring)
- average wait time is 29 seconds
- offer a writing lab (like Brainfuse)
I asked them to come out in late August or September to do a demonstration for us.
I also stopped by a booth called Geographics to check out their GIS/market research software. It was pretty interesting actually. Essentially it was GIS meets the old reference tool – the Rand McNally Commercial Atlas (although a much for robust version). When you deal with GIS, they can map anything you want, but they need the data. This product has the mapping capability and the data already. You can select an area (by zip code, census tract, city name, whatever) and then select the market info you want to know (sales, demographics, businesses, etc.) and create a search to give you some detailed information. Essentially it would be good for targeting specific areas for marketing. i.e. I want to find all the neighborhoods in the Inland Empire that have women aged 25-34, that make over $100,000, are single, and are Hispanic. It will then map that for you. Sounds like Crate and Barrel are using a service like this. They want to cut down on the number of catalogs they mail out so they are looking for households with married or single women within a certain age bracket that make over a certain amount of money. Not sure if this is something that we would buy and put out for the public, but it might be nice for the city to have access to.
Michelle
I had lots of fun looking at the exhibits and seeing all the new stuff that is out there. I was interested in seeing Spanish publishing companies and video game vendors.
I did see one Spanish vendor for test books. They are coming out with a new Citizenship test book within the next few months. What they were showcasing at their booth were the GED test books, DVD's and CD Books. What I liked about the books were that they were bilingual, so this would be beneficial to someone that is trying to learn English. The DVD's and CD books were not impressive because the person using them would still have to follow along with the book.
I did check out the gaming booth, but didn't stop and play any of the games. People were on them every time I passed by. There wasn't really anything new, except for the Wii Fit. I've been wanting to try it because it's sold out everywhere and I'm sure it'll be a while before I can get my hands on it. I decided not to try it after thinking about how everyone had been walking around all morning, then taking off their shoes to step on the balance board.
I stopped by the Accucut booth as well to see some of the crafts and die cuts. They had some cute stuff that I will probably try for a Family Saturday. I didn't know the dies could be used to cut through sponges!
I also stopped by a few book vendors, a genealogy database provider, a company that sells personalized giveaways, and the ITG booth so I could see Michelle in the video. =)
I decided to "browse" and walk through all of the exhibits. I stopped by some of the software vendors such as Fortress Grand (makers of our public computer software Clean Slate), LibLime (provides installation, support, etc. for the Koha open source software that Robert mentioned) and TechSoup, which distributes donated Microsoft software to public libraries for a nominal administrative fee (they'll sell 50 licenses or fewer, so it's something we could consider for our public computers). Tried to stop by Envisionware (who makes our public computer reservation and printing software), but our rep was busy every time I stopped by. I did talked to our reps (and was given very cool t-shirts) at Gale and Brodart.
I was impressed with the audio book "Playaways" and wonder if we'll consider adding some to the library collection in the future. The Midwest Tapes people were very friendly and helpful, as was the guy from Azuradisc, who spent some time explaining to me how our CD/DVD repairing devices work.
I visited the exhibits again on Sunday and Monday. By Monday I told myself, no more bags. But I ended up with three more! Lots to pick-up at the Swap & Shop: Hot Ideas for Cool PR. Samples of postcard announcements and invitations for library openings (could we do something similar for Archibald's grand re-opening?) and library budgets that are formatted for the public, lots of calendars, bookmarks, brochures...
I'm not sure what to make of the playaways. Riverside County got a bunch of playaways, but during my time at Temecula they were not big moving items. I know we had problems with headphone theft and replacement batteries. We opted for rechargable batteries, which would be stolen if they were left on the floor - and had to be distributed at check out.
I think Heather spoke to a rep who said they were big items at school libraries? Heather also asked about packaging if they were going to change it anytime soona nd they said no, but the packaging did make it look like an older product or cassete.
I have looked at Playaways for some time now and am just not on board. They missed their prime (which would have been just before the CDbook came out).
More than anything, I am not sure I want to take on yet another format. Since we don't have any more money to spend on audiobooks, that would mean splitting the CDbook money in half (or whatever) to buy Playaways.
Having said that, if Playaways all of a sudden become the wave of the future, I'll get on board...
Michelle
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