To iPods and Beyond

I got here a little late, but just have to say that Joseph Wilk, Tanya J. Brown and Christina Roest did a fantastic job at presenting on MP3 collections. It was a really through look at getting into MP3’s at your library. They explained everything, down to defining jargon like widgets and giving step by step instructions on how to connect, shop and download. Joseph covered PC/Mac and iPod/Shuffle differences as well as talked about setting options for purchase, sharing and storage. His examples were a very diverse mix of music, ranging from American Idol albums to Asian R&B Hip Hop. the presenters gave specific library examples, got quotes from librarians, researched the legal end of things. This was one of the best presentations I have ever seen. It was SO much good information in such a short time, though.
The handouts/presentation will be posted soon at: toipodsandbeyond DOT blogspot DOT com.

Did you know you can buy iTunes gift certificates with a purchase order, so you don’t have to purchase by credit card?

Joseph mentioned the importance of a signup sheet and waiver for collection that explains the technical requirements: if a patron plugs in their iPods, it will erase all the data on their iPod when plugged into a new computer. South Huntington has one that is a great example, that will be posted on Joseph’s blog (hopefully, he’ll comment and leave the link for us).

We got a tour of Itunes, including the shopping cart feature, and the usefulness of the newest albums and customer favorites.

Circulating is easy. The patron has to open iTunes, and often plugging the iPod in launches the software.

Shift + Alt + Control is a safeguard about syncing (Shift + Alt + Apple on a Mac)

Social Digital Music

Pandora
FineTune
Mog
Last FM
MySpace
Project Playlist

Brief history of the Music Genome project, now Pandora – example, Fall Out Boy. I like everything is just not true, so Pandora is for new music discovery. The project identified over 400 attributes that allow listeners to find soundalikes. Pandora has a podcast series almost like a mini-seminar that features up and coming music and defines the difference between trance and techno, covers how to record vocals.

Finetunes is the mix tape experience online (one of the things I did at this conference is traded a mix CD with someone I am primarily friends with online).

MOG is like MySpace for Music Lovers – Profile, blogging, and embedded music. You can create a post and share via Facebook or Digg. MOG gives only new recommendations, because it recognizes that you already have music in your library. You can mark users whose music posts you like to a trusted list; also matches you based on musical tastes. There are celebrity MOGgers (musicians). MOG works with your existing tools, like iTunes, and you can create MOG widgets to go on your library MySpace or Facebook.

Last.FM is a download that works with iTunes – the Scrobbler captures info from the music you are playing, then gives recommendations, but also more info about artists, links to news, and more. There is also a groups feature, with a librarian group! (Two really, one appears to be members of the Chatty Librarians email discussion group) Last.FM has a number of widgets too, for playlists and more. Another great feature is you can add your teens as artists if you are making music recordings with them.

MySpace 100 million users “for those of you who know a little bit about outreach, that’s a fine crowd.” Featured artists and videos. The presenters made a page called To iPods and Beyond for the session. You can use MySpace to message and connect with bands and link back to your library by posting a note that the library has the band’s CD. MySpace bulletins are really useful for alerting users about new CDs the library has. Makes it easy to find local artists so you can know about local bands that the teens might be going to hear.

NOT RECOMMENDED:
Project Playlist is a music search engine that looks for music on websites and blogs. They have streaming music features. They are an access point, not a provider – no royalties, no licenses – and no distinguishing between legally and illegally uploaded. Music copyright holders have to request the illegal downloads be removed. They leave it up to the user to make the choice. Piracy is no the kind of thing we want to promote at the library, and the downloads are from unknown sources much of the time. It’s good to be aware of everything that’s out there and options to direct patrons to.

Limewire, another peer to peer music sharing network, is not recommended for libraries.

The program concluded with a fast pop quiz on the top 50 songs for each year of YALSA’s existence. The list got cheers and chuckles as Joseph lead us through the list with great commentary, and still had 20 minutes left for questions.

Questions included how can you avoid bad comments on your MySpace, what is an RSS feed, how staff intensive is this, and are there libraries really doing what you are talking about.

Source for the top songs of the year: This Day in Music

EDIT: Don’t forget about the Teen Music Media Interest Meeting tomorrow from 4:00-5:30 in the Washington Convention Center room: Room 143 C.