There, I’ve reached 23 Things Nirvana.
Oh the other kind of Nirvana? Ok, let’s do some reflection:
Things which made you smile
Lightshot, because it was so ridiculously easy, Prezi was fun to use and I think the presentations it makes can look really good.
Things which have become a part of the way you live and work
Apart from the Things that I already used pretty much constantly and still do (RSS, Twitter, Google Docs, blogging, Dropbox), I have started to use TeuxDeux, Read It Later and Lightshot lots in and out of work, and have got into more of a habit of using Google Calendar.
Others such as Slideshare, Prezi, Evernote and screencasting are great tools but aren’t that useful to me right now, so I’ll keep them in mind for future use.
Things which you’ll never go near again
There are only two that I really didn’t like, which were Pushnote and Delicious. Pushnote left me a bit baffled and I prefer having my bookmarks saved to my browser rather than having to go to a website to find them. I know, very 2005 of me…
Web 2.0 and social media more generally - what role do they really play within libraries and information services?
A quick look at almost any library’s catalogue nowadays and you will likely see QR codes, social tagging/rating, and links to grab the citation for Endnote or Zotero. I like the idea that we should aim to be where our users are, whether that’s a physical space or on Facebook or blogs. And I think current awareness tools such as RSS feeds and Twitter (and maybe even Pushnote if that’s your thing) help librarians to keep their knowledge and skills up to date, which must be a good thing for the libraries and information services we work in.
And finally…
This is probably going to be the last post on this tumblog, and I’ll resume regular service at The Hobbit Hole once CPD23 is over. Thank you everyone who took part, I really enjoyed reading everyone elses’ blog posts on the Things, and your comments on my blog helped me make it all the way through!
by cobalt123
I’ve used wikis to collaborate with a couple of different groups while I’ve been in Cambridge. Last year the graduate trainees used a CamTools wiki to collaborate on the trainees’ group website, CATALOG. Since there were seven of us managing the website, we kept a rota, kept a note of changes we made and a to-do list of changes to make in the future, and uploaded backup files to a password protected wiki. One of the benefits of having a permanent wiki is that each new cohort of trainees can see what has been done in previous years, as everything is archived.
I’ve seen some nice examples of pages set up for particular courses at the university. One example which I liked and thought could be used in a library setting (though I can’t remember which subject!) was where a lecturer uploaded the reading list for a course, and then got the students to edit it, annotating, adding their own suggestions and striking out any resources they didn’t find useful.
Not the only wiki…
Google Docs can serve a similar purpose to wikis, and I have used them for collaboration on a few projects this year. I think both have a place however - I think wikis are more useful for long-term projects as Google Docs can quickly get messy. I find Docs quicker and easier to set up and get stuck into however, so if I wanted to collaborate on a short-term project I would probably start a Google Doc rather than set up a wiki.
It’s interesting to see that Suz sees blogs as a replacement for wikis - an example of this is #uklibchat where each session’s agenda is posted as a Google Doc the week before, and then the links to the agenda documents and the summaries of each week’s chat is archived in a blog. The advantage of the blog is that it’s very easy to subscribe to an RSS feed and be alerted when new content has gone up. I’m guessing there’s probably a way to do this with a wiki too but it’s not something I’ve ever tried.
I really like the idea of using QR codes in the library. We don’t really do this, although I did include one in a poster I made advertising our Twitter account. If it’s too small to read, the text says “Follow us on Twitter - Scan the barcode below on your phone or find us at @NewnhamLibrary”.
Since I made these posters, I read some tips for using QR codes in your marketing (I wish I could find the link!) which suggested using a service such as bit.ly to create a unique URL for the QR code, which would then allow you to track how many people are scanning the code and accessing the website via that unique URL. If I was putting codes into other signs around the library I would definitely give this a try, now that bit.ly have made the analytics feature free. As it is, I don’t have any way to track the number of people scanning the code, but I would imagine it is fairly low.
I can think of several reasons people might not scan QR codes:
- They don’t have a smartphone - according to Ofcom, 27% of adults own a smartphone and 47% of teenagers. I think we can safely estimate that over half of our students will not have one. Nevertheless, they are gaining in popularity, and QR codes are becoming more popular in tandem.
- They don’t know what a QR code is/how to scan.
- It is placed in an inappropriate place.
- It isn’t a useful link - either it isn’t a useful resource or it’s a link which would be quick and easy to just type into a browser (I think our Twitter link falls into this category)
I think Huddersfield University library’s implementation of QR codes has been done very well and addresses most of these problems (besides giving out smartphones there’s not too much you could do about the first one!). They introduced a competition to encourage students to try out the codes. They created a kind of a treasure hunt of QR codes hidden around the library, which students scanned to find a code word. Finding them all entered them into a prize draw to win £100 towards a new phone. They were then able to “us[e] mobile ‘phones to deliver
library instruction and help at the point of need.” (my italics there).
The QR codes I put in our Twitter posters were really a thinly veiled excuse for me to try out a code for something real, but to be honest it’s not really something that needs a QR code! If I was going to follow @NewnhamLibrary using my phone it would be probably just as quick to search for NewnhamLibrary on the Twitter app than it would be to open the barcode scanner and find us that way. An example of a QR code that appeared just where and when I wanted it was when I was watching The Good Cook. If I see a yummy looking recipe on a cookery show I will often search for the recipe afterwards. The Beeb preempted me on this one, popping up a QR code with a little note saying <- scan for ingredients! It worked perfectly and was just what I needed. If we could do something like this for our users, I think that would be fantastic.
Gliffy and Lovely Charts
I’ve signed up for an account with both Gliffy and Lovely Charts, but my mind has gone a total blank and I can’t think of anything to make a chart of! Therefore I have copied Erin and made a floor plan of my flat. (It took my bloomin’ ages and I know for a fact my hallway is not that shape, but you don’t know that…)
There were lots of options for different kinds of flowcharts, venn diagrams, sitemaps etc. I will keep these two in the back of my mind, and next time I need to make a flowchart or diagram, I will give them a proper go!
Wordle and Tagxedo
I have made a few Wordles before, I actually discovered them thanks to last year’s Cam23 programme, which I just caught the end of. I think they make a good-looking visual option, and can be handy if you’re stuck for finding the right image. As you can keep clicking on ‘re-layout’ you can sometimes get the big words to say something that makes sense (I remember there was one that something like “Libraries help people” but I can’t remember where or who made it!). As a simple example, this is a wordle of my blogger blog, and I kept clicking ‘re-layout’ until the words ‘library blog’ were near each other and in the right order.
I recently used Tagxedo for the first time, this allows you to make your word cloud into the shape of an image. They have a gallery of images to choose from, or you can upload your own as I did when I made this Tagxedo for my other blog’s 1st anniversary.
Well that was a fun Extra Thing, full of pretty :)
By jiformales
Right, very sorry but I’m going to copy this post from my other blog as we did reference management tools the other week and I can’t think of anything new to say for the time being!
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Argh. It was such a frustrating thing to learn these existed just after I completed my undergraduate dissertation, which had over 100 footnotes and a 6 page bibliography. I had the style guide by my side and went through and typed out each new reference in the right format, and then there was a lot of copying and pasting going on. So when I first heard about reference management tools earlier in the year I downloaded Zotero straight away and vowed to get to grips with it now so I’d be a pro by the time I had to write my MA dissertation next summer. And then…I forgot all about it.
Thank goodness for CPD23 and Cam23 2.0 reminding me about that little button sitting on my toolbar, and prodding me into exploring how it works. I’ve had a go at adding references for books from our library catalogue and from Amazon, which worked well. As you’d expect, Zotero could fill in more fields from our library catalogue than from Amazon, where I had to look up where my book was published. I added a couple of websites to my test bibliography, but for these I had to fill in several of the important fields such as author and date. Even though you might have to put some of the details in yourself, the genius of course is that all of your references are stored in one place, can be organised into collections and can be made into a bibliography at the click of a button, in various different citation styles.
Some of my test references
It’s good to know there are several different reference management tools out there with various features, but I think I’ll stick with Zotero for the time being. We’ll see how it works out when I’m using it “for real” next year!
(Not Lisztomania)
I make a lot of lists, so this Extra Thing is right up my street! I used to write my lists in a notebook, and I was continuously rewriting lists as the old ones became illegible with my crossings out. After the TeachMeet in March, I decided to try out TeuxDeux following Suz’s recommendation. It has almost entirely replaced my notebook, as it is so easy to add items, move them to different days and most importantly, cross them off! As Becky points out, it’s also useful for comparing how productive some days have been compared to others. And as things automatically roll over to the next day if you don’t do them, it means things hopefully don’t get forgotten, say, when you come back from holiday…
I did try Wunderlist about a month ago after seeing people recommend it on Twitter, but it seemed a bit overly to me when all I need and want is a simple interface. However I have had a play with LinoIt and this is quite fun! I won’t use it all the time as a replacement for TeuxDeux, but if I wanted to gather a set of notes, images etc. on something then I might come back to it as a cute alternative to Evernote.
‘To Do’ by Mattox on stock.xchng
Slideshare
I’ve only used Slideshare as a creator once before, when I wanted to share a presentation the graduate trainees made for the Libraries@Cambridge conference. As Jen mentioned, our presentation was chosen as one of Slideshare’s ‘Featured Presentations’ (I’m not sure why, it seems quite a niche topic!) and then went on to get over a thousand views in a week, which was a bit of a strange experience!
Apart from that, I have used Slideshare quite often to view other peoples’ presentations. After conferences or other events I will usually have another look at the presentations, which are often hosted on Slideshare.
As an interesting thing to share, which will be useful for the next Thing, here are Ned Potter’s slides on Prezi:
How to use prezi and WIN View more presentations from Ned Potter
Leading on to…
Prezi
I’ve really been looking forward to trying this one. I’ve seen several people making really good use of Prezi, but have never had a reason to use it myself. To try it out, I’ve made a little Prezi of tweets and photos taken during my holiday in Dublin. It’s not brilliant, but it was fun and fairly easy to make, using one of Prezi’s ready made layouts and then tweaking the theme a bit.
Dublin, September 2011 on Prezi
I would like to have a go at making an interactive map of our library using Prezi, something along the lines of this one by Ned Potter (I know my slideshare example was one of Ned’s too, but he simply does the best presentations!). I’ll probably need to practice a bit more before I attempt that…
Time to reflect on the second batch of Things! In this lot of Things there were more that I hadn’t used before, and it’ll be the same for the last lot. I’m enjoying learning about the Things that are new to me, but it means I have to make sure I don’t get too behind, so that I have enough time to play around with the new Things properly.
Which of the Things do you love/hate?
I love Read It Later, which I’ve been using ever since learning about it in week 7. I see how Delicious and Diigo could be useful, but I prefer to have my bookmarks right there in my browser the old fashioned way! I already loved LibraryThing, but was really interested to see how polarised opinion was on this amongst the Cam23 bloggers! I like Tumblr, despite not using it to its full potential with this blog. Flickr is, as ever, wonderful, and I’m glad I know a bit more about Creative Commons licensing now.
Which ones will you carry on using?
I’m sure I will carry on using Read It Later. I think I’ll keep the LinkedIn account and keep my profile up to date but probably won’t do much networking on there. I think I will axe my Google+ account as I haven’t got into that at all. I’ve enjoyed using Tumblr, and might well use it again for something in the future, but won’t continue with this particular Tumblog once Cam23 2.0 is over.
Can you incorporate the things you’re learning on this programme into your working life?
I can see a library Facebook page being a possibility in the future, although I will keep my own account personal rather than professional as that works for me. Although Delicious isn’t something I’d use personally, it might be something we could use in the library if we wanted to gather together a bunch of online resources for students - maybe it could go on the mythical Netvibes page I will probably never get around to making! Read It Later is already integrated into my working life, I have installed it at home and at work, and I now use it instead of emailing links to myself. Much tidier!
Which of the remaining Things are you most looking forward to?
I’m really looking forward to having a play with Prezi. I have seen a lot of fantastic presentations using Prezi but I have never had cause to make one myself before.
Obligatory reflection picture taken on holiday in Otterswick, Shetland 3 years ago.
