Vendors

How opportune that Thing 22 is eResources and vendor apps, just at a time when we’re reviewing database vendors.

Some electronic resources (eg. databases, eBooks, eMagazines, etc.) are accessible via apps provided by the vendors. This Thing is designed to think about the experience when using vendor apps to access content, knowing that the experience can be variable depending on the device you have, the connectivity in your area and the compatibility of the app. 
It refers to a number of applications, including – Zinio, Mango Languages, EBSCO Host, Axis 360, 3M Cloud Library and OverDrive, just to mention half a dozen.

The Thinking Points are:

• What information do the vendors collect from your clients via the app? – That varies and is dependent of things like their authentication protocols, and whether you are merely searching or actually borrowing.

• What use statistics do you get from vendor apps? – That definitely varies from vendor to vendor, some are just brief raw searches or visits, others show trends, turnovers, and allow some level of interaction to generate particular statistical queries.

• Are clients who use the app easily able to move to other library resources? – Another variable, often the vendor’s app and site are separate, but products like eResource Central aim to bring them all together under one discovery layer, just hurry on the day it all happens.

• How do you evaluate vendor apps before offering them to your clients? – By playing, but also trying to think of all the ways people want to access and look/listen to the resources.

• Which vendor apps could your staff use (e.g. library management system)? – that would be BookMyne

• In what ways does offering core services via apps change the way that the library reaches people? - it is the whole self-service 24/7, and it also changes the way in which people interact with staff.

'Read' by listening

Thing 21 is Voice interaction and recording, and it covers a few different aspects and opportunities to create content for library collections and exhibitions by recording voice (eg. oral histories, local stories and literacy activities). 

• I saw/listened to a wonderful application of this technology, when Ballarat Library staff used an ipad to record reminiscences at the Heritage Festival, then made a video of short snippets - different memories of the trams.

  

  The last of the Ballarat trams, 1971

• Using assistive translation software technology to communicate with library patrons who read/speak other languages, be it text-to-speech or speech-to-text.

• And the big one audio-books, specifically eAudio, but taking it a step further - choosing a text-to-speech option on eBooks, or switching seamlessly between an eBook and an audio-book.

You know things are transiting when the 'Wall Street Journal' thinks "The digital revolution may have dealt a heavy blow to print, but it is boosting literacy in other unexpected ways by fueling the explosive growth of audio books".

As commuters around the country, and around the world, retreat into their own world on their phone, tablet or other device, it has led to a proliferation of audio entertainment, and a take up of eBooks and eAudios by non-traditional users.

As big as the sky

Have to acknowledge the Yarriambiack Shire who are chasing dollars for 'the world's biggest art gallery'.

On the back of the phenomenal success of the Brim Silo Art, which has had a huge benefit for the Brim township and the Shire, Yarriambiack is proposing a 'Silo Art Trail' - a 200km trail of landscape size silo art from Rupanyup in the south to Patchewollock in the north.
At the end of 2015, internationally renowned Brisbane-based artist Guido van Helten worked for 3 weeks, up to 10 hours a day, including Christmas Day and New Year's Day, in frequent 40-degree heat and strong winds, using spray paint and acrylic house paint, to breathe new life into Brim’s disused grain silos with a 30m by 30m artwork.

Guidio van Helten is a well-known and recognised muralist, check out some of Guido's other great work via his webpage, some of them in much colder climates.

: Lynton Brown's drive-by video
: 7News video
: ABC Rural's article on the people on the silo
: Brim Silo Art Project

The sheer scale of the work

The rest is now social media history, the story and photos from iphones and by professional photographers has swept around the world. The Brim Silo Art has brought a variety of visitors and tourists to Brim, and they are still coming, to gape in awe at the enormity of the scale of the project, and at Guido’s skill in rendering the figures.

Now, Yarriambiack Mayor Cr Ray Kingston wants to commission other renowned artists to paint giant murals on silos along the length of the municipality at Rup, Sheep Hills, Rosebery, Lascelles and Patche.

Discussions are taking place with the local communities, Graincorp, Juddy Roller (who helped bring Guido Van Helten to Brim), and government. They are targeting high profile street artists for the project, so it would be great to see, say an Adnate piece decorating a silo wall.

Adnate, Geelong B power station

As Dean Lawson, from the Weekly Advertiser' stated it is a master stroke for increasing growth and development via tourism in Yarriambiack, as visitors will want to tick off each location as they bag each 'peak', in the biggest regional art project in Australia's history.