Win a copy of WordPress for Libraries

bookcover

My book, WordPress for Libraries, is available now!

I’m giving away a copy to celebrate. To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment here or tweet me (@HiddenPeanuts) with #WPLib.

In your entry, tell me your email address (unless you enter on twitter – I’ll just message you there if you win) and one of three things:

  • Something you like about WordPress
  • Something you dislike about WordPress
  • Something you’d like to know about WordPress

Enter by 11:59PM EDT on Thursday, 9/3/15.
The contest is now over. Congrats to @verolynne!

Disclaimer: A couple of pages in your prize might be slightly creased by my assistant, pictured below.
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My Book: WordPress for Libraries

I’m extremely excited to point out that in a little under a month my book will be available!

wp4libs

WordPress for Libraries is written to be an introductory guide to WordPress that assumes no prior knowledge. If you’ve ever wanted to move your library’s website from manually edited HTML pages to something more sustainable and easier to work with, you’ll find the book very helpful. I’ve also included more advanced tutorials like how to display an image collection, using plugins and workflows to help manage your content, and case studies of how many different types of libraries have used WordPress: Academic, Public, K-12, and Special Libraries are all included.

I’ve been using WordPress to power this very blog for over a decade, and have worked with the UNC Libraries’ website in WP since 2013. I’ve picked up some tips and tricks along the way, and tried to work as many of them into the book as possible.

My book is part of an amazing series, Library Technology Essentials. If you want to learn about Makerspaces, MOOCs, responsive web design, data visualization, and all kinds of other fascinating stuff, there’s something in the series worth your time. And I’m still a bit in disbelief that my name is included with all these other authors.

I’ll be giving a copy away sometime in August, so check back if you’re interested.

The case for home-grown, sustainable next generation library services

Background:

I was recently honored to be asked to write a technology column for an upcoming special issue of Public Services Quarterly. The issue’s theme is next generation public services, and I went with a title of “The case for home-grown, sustainable next generation library services”. While the column won’t be published until December, I feel it relates to a lot of discussion going on in libraryland right now and wanted to make it available as soon as possible.

The journal is usually limited to subscriber-only access. But the journal’s publisher, Taylor & Francis, allows me to post a preprint version online for free access. ‘Preprint’ means the article as it existed before undergoing peer review. But being essentially an opinion piece, peer review didn’t end up changing much. Only a few cosmetic changes were made, and so the actual content of this version is about 99% identical to what will be published in the December issue.

I’d like to give special thanks to Chris Guder, the journal’s technology column editor. His guidance helped craft this from a very (very) rough first draft into something I’m quite proud of. I think of it as my manifesto.

The links:

It’s a bit lengthy at 4400 words, so I converted the column into a PDF and formats for various ebook readers if you so desire:

epub
mobi
PDF
Word
HTML

Here’s an informal abstract:

I have grave concerns about libraries’ reliance on third party vendors in some areas. We gain the ability to provide new and cutting edge services to our users, but at what cost to sustainability? If a vendor disappears we’re suddenly out the service and the money we paid along the way. And sometimes we place the library in a very dangerous position as a precarious middleman. I talk about mobile services, ebook lending, terms of use issues, and potential new models for next generation public services. We can build services both by libraries and for libraries to provide a sustainable future of services.

Note that I wrote this column before Amazon introduced their Kindle library lending feature through Overdrive, and I’ll probably write a follow-up post about that soon.