A New Beginning?

Well, as they say all good things must come to an end and so it is with 23Things. Mondays will never be the same again. I have greatly enjoyed this course and the value of it is beyond measure. It has not only raised awareness, a valuable thing in itself, the exercises have ensured that new transferable skills have been acquired for people like me who are in danger of being left behind. The rapid pace of technological development has given rise to many new ways of communicating and seeking information. Ensconced in our libraries it is so easy for these new innovations to pass one by so a big Thank You to the 23Things team for keeping me up to date.

I have enjoyed most of the Things except Twitter and LinedIn. I don't really understand Twitter, I don't feel that I need 15 minutes of fame nor do I expect anyone to be interested in my ramblings. Is it not just attention seeking? Also by communicating solely online I sometimes wonder if people will eventually never have the need to have a face to face conversation? We have a number of off site students that I never see but correspond with regularly, an occasional face to face conversation would be nice.

LinkIn, I did not like this. I felt that too much personal information was available. As someone I know has just had their identity stolen I have become even more neurotic about security. Furthermore, last weekend a friend had his bank card cloned and someone in Jordon began emptying his account. The downside of technology!

I felt that some of the Things we explored just offered different ways of doing the same thing, although it was useful to try things out. Something I did notice was that most of the examples were from the US (Wiki's for example). I think it would have been good to have more British examples as our American cousins do tend to have different tastes.

I hope I am not sounding too negative as I certainly intend to introduce some of the Things we have used into our libraries. We already use Doodle and now use Google Calendar, Google Documents and will keep our iGoogle pages. For my multi-sited libraries, Web 2.0 is ideal as it enables all the staff to share or access these from any site. We also intend to explore ways of incorporating SlideShare into our Inductions or on our library webpages and will be gauging the interest of having a presence in Facebook.

Web 2.0 and the associated social media are beginning to shape many library services, particularly those whose users are in the 18-24 age bracket. Those of us who have mature students are a bit behind but I think that it is starting to change. Technology itself has shaped the way that libraries are accessed. In my organisation, libraries have led the way. We have for the last 3 years insisted upon an email address for library usage, the colleges now do the same. I have been digitising readings since 2007, this is now seen as the norm. The libraries also introduced Doodle for the many library committee meetings, now we all use it. Google Documents & Google Calendar next..... I know that we are not alone in this and that other libraries have influenced their organisations too. This may be the end but it is also the beginning..................

One last Thing - What are we going to do next summer................................?

A Library Wiki?

I think that this is an interesting idea and I can see many advantages in using it, particularly for local communities or small groups. However, the fact that many will be able to edit the Wiki does mean that someone would need to monitor it. I am the Secretary of ABTAPL (Association of Theological & Philosophical Libraries) and we considered setting up a Wiki last year. We decided against it as no one was able to commit the time needed to monitor it.

I very much like the idea of of the Library Routes Wiki. Illustrating the various route people have taken to achieve their current posts is interesting and very helpful to new professionals. Peoples career routes are often very surprising particularly if it can demonstrate the ways in which librarians are able to transfer to other sectors. I think that this encourages new professionals to think more laterally and illustrates how useful it is to have a wide variety of experience and that it doesn't just have to be library orientated. The CILIP, East of England CDG arranged a workshop last year in which a number of speakers, from a variety of sectors, outlined their career paths. The feedback indicated that this was enjoyed and felt to be extremely useful by the participants.

For my own library however, I do not think that it has a place at present. We have an Intranet and I administer our library pages. Unfortunately as my time is restricted I intend to focus on some of the other Things that have been highlighted first and to see what the uptake is before considering something like this. Promoting Wiki's would take a great deal of time and effort in our community .

If only I had more time!

I am a very enthusiastic podcast listener and have known about Podcasts for a number of years. I regularly download them to either my laptop or creative Zen. I don't listen to a lot of music but I love to listen to plays, poems, missed radio programmes, book readings etc.... I am even trying to improve my French this way. A few years ago I thought about having a library podcast but the feedback I received from both the academic staff and students was unenthusiastic. However, as two of my colleges regularly produce podcasts of lectures for their distance learning students perhaps I should think again. A slideshare presentation might however, be more effective and professional. I suspect that either would take time to produce and as we are short staffed, I doubt if I shall have time to produce something suitable. Unfortunately our users tend to be a bit apathetic with only 2 of our 11 institutions using our Adobe Connect Licence for recording lectures or providing video conferencing - we have a lot of technophobes!

I like YouTube and enjoyed watching the videos. Its amazing what you can find on it - hopefully the film that Libby and her team are producing about CU, college & faculty libraries will be there soon. I could spend ages on this site. My husband finds it very useful when trying to find the correct tempo for ballroom dances etc... or so he says..................

YouTube is certainly a good place to showcase a library and its facilities. However if you are going to do that I think it needs to be done professionally otherwise you might send out the wrong message. A well presented video can be a powerful aid, particularly to those who find it easier to learn this way. I personally think that as people learn in different ways the ideal would be to offer information in a variety of formats. Fortunately this is something that Web 2.0 can offer.

The wonders of sharing.......

I really enjoyed this Thing and can see lots of applications for it. My colleague & I did this Thing together, sending each other documents to edit. We found it quick easy to use and edit although a spreadsheet that we uploaded from the colleges' shared drive altered some of the content. It seems to work better if a spreadsheet is first saved onto a PC and then uploaded. We also found that large files took a long time to download. One thing we couldn't do was to work out how to 'chat' whilst working on a document. Sending messages was fine but we never received each others despite being informed that we were viewing the document. The Help section wasn't very helpful. Any ideas?

As I work across many sites and only see my staff once a week, this will be an invaluable tool. We have already uploaded a number of documents that will make our lives much easier. No more frantic searching for the memory stick, trying to remember to up date the documents on each machine, cluttering up our overflowing Inboxes ..... we will be able to access the document from any where and at any time.

I must however raise two concerns. Firstly security. If someone can access Facebook profiles, I am sure that accessing Google Documents will not be too difficult. I think that it would be very unwise to place sensitive documents on the server (wherever that may be). Secondly, it is important to ensure that documents are backed up - powercuts, acts of God etc.... I'm beginning to become as neurotic as our IT Officer (only joking Mat!).

A golden opportunity?

Marketing I must confess is something that I have little time to undertake. The new social media does however offers more imaginative ways to do this but I believe that it would be just as time consuming. I heard a lecture by the librarian from a very large prestigious US university who although very enthusiastic about the new media, was also pragmatic. In her university, so much time was taken communicating with the students via Facebook, Twitter etc... that they had to have a dedicate PC that they took turns to man. She reported that she often spent a large part of the day corresponding with her students electronically and had very little face-to -face contact with them. She also reported that it had been impossible to fulfill the expectations raised because they did not have enough staff. I felt that this was very sad.

For our students, many of whom are part-time, face-to-face contact is very important and highly valued (their words not mine). The sense of community is an important aspect of our students training thus coming into the library, using the facilities and browsing the shelves is all part of that experience and helps them feel part of the college. If everything can be provided virtually the library experience will change and how long will our physical libraries last in times of financial constraints? Meeting students and talking over coffee/lunch is also a good way of getting to know students, understand their needs and break down barriers. I have found that being visible is a great PR tool.

So far I have not used Facebook to promote the library, I feel that this would be invading their social space. I like slideshare and can think of some possibilities for this. I do however intend to canvas the users opinions in regard to the different social media methods later this year so watch this space.....

Cite it right!

I found this quite difficult not least because I am unable to download programmes onto my computer at work. However our IT Officer was to hand and was very helpful (this is just in case he is reading my blog!). I do not think that Zotero is as user friendly as some of the other programmes we have been using. It took me a little while to come to grips with its idiosyncrasies - it did not help that I am not able to download FlashPlayer and watch the video . I therefore found Isla's document (Medical School Library documentation) very helpful. The down side is that the programme seems to slow down Firefox, thus it takes longer to load.

Once mastered, I can see that the programme will be very useful to researchers. The tags seem particularly good as they allow the quick retrieval of similar items. I also like the fact that you can create citations quickly and easily - I wish that this had been available when I first began my research. In a personal capacity I will find this programme useful, how many of our students will be as keen is difficult to predict. On a basic level we already provide our students with digital course readings that are organised in folders and I supply the citations. I shall however try and raise the awareness of Zotero to both our lecturing staff and postgraduate students and place it on our intranet's library pages. It will be interesting to try and gauge the uptake at the end of the year.

Big Brother....?

Is it me or is this scary? The more I progress through 23Things the more I have become security conscience. I Googled my name and was quite shocked at the information available about me online. It probably has not helped reading Larsson's - Millenium Trilogy (I would certainly recommend it). Linkedin provides too much personal information for my liking, there is such a thing as identity theft!

I was glad that we did not have to sign up for this for 2 reasons. One is for the above and the other because of account fatigue. I now have so many accounts and passwords that I don't know if I can remember them all. Discussing this problem with our IT Officer he has recommended a very secure piece of software called KeePass. You can type in all your usernames and passwords whilst only having to remember the master password, brilliant!

Do we need a Face?

Facebook is a very interesting concept. Allows the sharing of information, photos etc... finds 'lost' friends etc... Great for personal networking but is there a place for it for libraries? I joined Facebook sometime ago to keep in touch with some of our students. As the average age of our students is 35+ many are actual friends. One is a Navy Chaplain on active duty so Facebook plays an important role in maintaining contact with home.

Facebook is a great site for ministerial students as they have always depended upon the networks that they form whilst in college. At one of my colleges all academic staff and students are encouraged to join. Ministerial life can be lonely for some so the importance of a forming a network of peers has always been promoted by the training colleges. Facebook has taken this to another dimension with its facility to share photos, prayers etc... However, I question its use for communicating and promoting libraries. I can understand the reasoning for wanting to getting the library involved, i.e be visible where the action is, but I am not convinced that libraries have a role in that social space. Many of our part-time, off site users are not into social networking and prefer 'good old fashioned' email. I am however always willing to try new Things so despite my skepticism will try and canvas popular opinion with a survey at the end of the Michaelmas term.

If you are wondering about the significance of the graphic - I saw a Winters Tale on Saturday and one of the acts finishes with toppling of 2 large bookcases full of books. The books & leaves flew everywhere. Although it was very dramatic, I felt some sympathy for the person who had to pick up all the books and reshelve them!

Done in a jiffy!

This was exceedingly quick and easy to do. I enjoyed choosing the dust jackets, its surprising the difference it makes to the look of the catalogue. I can imagine that setting up my personal catalogue would not take long, it would probably take me longer to remember all the books that I had than to type them in.

As I said in my previous blog, this has great potential for small libraries although it might be challenging to find the correct dust jackets. This programme also takes away the need to be an expert cataloguer, something again that might appeal to a small under funded library. On a more serious note it might also reduce the need for cataloguers. Southampton libraries want to staff their public libraries with volunteers believing that they do not need professionally qualified staff, this might just be another nail in our coffin?

Closet Librarians?

I started reading the articles thinking that it was basically a tool for closet librarians but was surprised at the interaction that it has generated. I thought that the sample catalogues looked stylish and inviting and was quickly drawn into reading reviews of books that I have recently read. I really like the idea of book reviews, discussion groups and recommendations that LIbraryThing can facilitate. I am still not persuaded about the tags though. Tags are personal to the individual and although it was interesting to see those listed for Larsson's - Girl with the Dragon tattoo, I thought that they look messy.

Having worked in a Public Library for many years I can see the potential that this tool has to engage the users and generate discussion and interaction. I am surprised that no UK public libraries are listed as I would have thought that this would fulfill their criteria for public engagement.

At present, I am not sure how well LibraryThing would work in my own libraries but it might be interesting to try. For small libraries that cannot afford expensive library software, LibraryThing is ideal. I can see much potential for small third world libraries as long as they have good Internet connections.

Mirror, mirror....................

Well week 7 already, my how time flies. As I mentioned in an earlier blog I was skeptical about the value of this course but now after 12 Things I am a convert. I never thought that I would enjoy this course so much. I have learnt many new Things that I shall be able to use at work, personally and professionally.

I originally signed up to keep abreast of the new technological changes and to gain some understanding of the ways in which 'young people' communicate. Although our intake is 25+, it will not be long before new students will want to communicate via these methods. In fact I have already had a 'young' 43 year old ask me to renew his library books via Facebook! Although it may be sometime before the majority of our students use electronic tools to communicate other than email, it is good to be prepared (yes I was a Girl Guide!).

Of all the Things we have learnt to date, the iGoogle page, the Google Calendar and Delicious (I already used Doodle) have proven to have the most immediate relevance. As this is a reflection week, we will be spending time setting up a shared Google Calender and organising our Delicious accounts so we can share bookmarks. Although some Things I shall only use occasionally such as Twitter because I don't see the point of it, there are others that I will use when the occasion arises such as Slideshare (resources awareness is a great thing).

It goes without saying that this course has increased my confidence, awareness and skills. I look forward to Monday mornings and the challenges that are set. Although I have enjoyed some Things more than others, it has been a steep learning curve but one I am enjoying a great deal. Well done the Cambridge team for producing this course.

Just a click away......

My colleague and I had great fun trying to set up our delicious accounts, it was a good thing that Voyager has been down this week as it enabled us to catch up and have fun at the same time. Lots of giggling and laughter emanated from our office much to the confusion of passers by - Librarian are not supposed to have fun!

The great thing about this is that access to ones favourites is no longer restricted to a specific computer. As someone who often works from home this is a great boon and I also like the idea of being of being alerted to interesting sites. Unfortunately I do not have as much time as I would like to spend on flickr, slideshare or delicious but at least I know how easy it is to use and will be able to visit the sites in the future.

When to share...?

I was initially skeptical about this Thing as I tend to use Powerpoint, although not that often. However I found some interesting presentations that could be of use to our new PhD students. I particularly liked "The Art of Doing a PhD" and will refer our new students to it.

The Art of Doing a PhD

View more presentations from Jakob Bardram.

I am not convinced that Slideshare has a use in our libraries at present but am prepared to keep an open mind about it. I found several relating to Cambridge University and the UTube/slideshow by Tony Hirst. I found that some of the presentations were familiar and I wondered if the same presentation could be accessed from a number of different sites?. A disadvantage of this site is that some of the presentation descriptions are unhelpful, keywords might be better?

Every picture tells a story.....

What a fascinating website. Having never used it before I spent rather a long time looking for images of my favourite places. I can see lots of potential for library usage. It could certainly liven up our library web pages. I particularly like the photo of the Library at Ephesus. I recall that the library is opposite a brothel, this gives a whole new meaning to "I'm just popping down to the library dear ........"

New classification?

This was an interesting assignment. I have always believed that classifying is very subjective and I think that Thing 8 proves it. If you classify using LC you will realise that it can also be a cultural thing too. However, I believe that there is no such thing as a perfect classification for as Shirky's article illustrates, classifications as well as libraries are ever evolving and have to adapt to changing circumstances. My own libraries tend to be small and are never likely to increase significantly, therefore we are able to use broad terms that users can recognise. I have followed this rule with my tags.

A Twit or twitterer?

Have been away for a couple of weeks and had to spend ages reminding myself of all the Things I have done.

Managed to sign up to Twitter eventually, had a lot of trouble with the email account that I used so had to sign up to a Gmail account - I think that Google are trying to take over the world!

I looked at some of the Judge Library tweets - it was like entering a different world. I was surprised that many used 'texting' language. I found this rather off putting. At the moment I am not comfortable tweeting, to be honest I cannot see the point of it. Perhaps my attitude will change as I progress through the course, time will tell..........

Whats Occurring....?

What fun, I enjoyed doing this. As a weather obsessive, I like the little weather icons. Got a bit carried away and filled in the whole month! Am I sad or what!

Have just had an email reminder for a meeting I am to attend, I look forward to seeing the pop-up reminder next. I can see a lot of potential for using this particularly as I move from library to library. I usually maintain 2 diaries, from now on, one will be my Google Calendar.

Our IT Officer is very interested in 23Thing and we have been discussing how I can apply some of the things that I have learnt to our libraries. I never thought that this course would be as interesting or as useful as it is turning out to be!

To Doodle or not to Doodle that is the question?

As far as I'm concerned this is the best thing since sliced bread!. Have been using this for 2 years now to arrange our library committees, yes I really do mean committees - each college has its own library committee each term and we also have a joint one each term. Joanna Ball put me onto this and our academic staff were most impressed when I first used it.

It is quick and easy to set up and easy to fill in. Even our computer shy academics have managed to complete it. It saves a great deal of time and ensures that everyone is aware of the date/s and times. Many of our other committees now use it to. I have even converted my husband and he uses it to arrange his dance band engagements (35 band members).

Challenging Times

This experience proves that sometimes you have to be inventive. I had terrible trouble with is Thing. Not having a Photo Editor package on my computer and the fact that our IT Officer is on leave has certainly challenged me. Not being very interested in photography has meant that I have never edited photos etc... so I had no idea how to undertake the task. I should add that our IT Officer is extremely security conscience so I am not able to download anything. I therefore had to play around with the packages that I had. I eventually found that I could add a screen shot to Paint and then save etc... and successfully complete the task.

Although the whole process took about 4 hours, its something I shall never forget. If nothing else I shall certainly try and use a Photo Editor for future pictures as I can see lots of potential in acquiring this skill. Without 23Things I probably would not have bothered!

Getting started

After Thing 1 was greatly encouraged but Thing 2 presented more of a challenge. It took a while to work out how to do it but I got there eventually. I decided to add the BBC News RSS, it was great to have up to date news. Good News is interesting to follow but I was horrified at the events in Cumbria and followed that with trepidation as I have a friend that lives near Whitehaven. She is fine, fortunately, more than can be said for those who died and those who have lived through this dredful experience.



As I reflect on Thing 2 I realise that whilst it can be good to be able to provide/have instant information there is also a downside - we might not always be prepared for what it reveals.

The Story So Far

Setting up the iGoogle account was fairly straightforward although I was thrown at first as I didn't see the screen I was meant to. However I managed to work it out and felt rather pleased to have accomplish the first task. I found it fun to design the page although it is only basic and to the outsider may look somewhat boring. I have filled it with the things that I use the most so it is personal to me. I also set up a library tab to include the things I think might be of use to our students, although looking at it now it looks rather boring so will have to consider it work in progress....

What a surprise!

I am somewhat surprised to find how easy it has been to set this up. I thought that it would be much more complicated and would require some technical expertise. 23 Things has certainly introduced me to technology that I did not think I would ever use and it is only week 2!

Demystifying the processes required to set up an iGoggle account and a blog has certainly encouraged me and I look forward to the next 10 weeks. I must confess I was somewhat sceptical at first but can now see how some of the things I have learnt can be applied in our libraries. The majority of our users are mature students and lack the confidence to try new things so placing myself in the position of a learner rather than a trainer for a change has made me reflect upon our existing training practices. Hopefully this will be to the benefit to our students.