Wiki's are definitely "on my radar" so to speak. Whether creating them to facilitate behind the scenes communication or teaching our student how to discern the quality of the information provided on Wiki's (see my post: The wonderful world of Wiki) collaborative information tools are a part of the library world.
Those of us who provide reference at my academic library keep a Wiki for the courses and questions that occur year after year without fail. It is a wonderfully easy application, we use PBWiki, that we can add to as needed. It is easily referenced when and where we need it and helps us provide seamless reference service. It is also great for familiarizing those of us who provide reference with the "hot topics" brought to the desk and can therefore inform our acquisitions decisions, as well.
I have far less experience, however, using a Wiki for our front end users, and while some of the book applications were interesting I am not completely sold on them as a worthwhile endeavor in the academic library setting.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Thing Nine, On-line Collaboration
It goes without saying; there are numerous opportunities and necessary situations that call for collaboration with those who do not share an office with you. As a member of a library consortium and a participant in several of its committees I have already had the opportunity to familiarize myself with several of the on-line collaborative programs.
Zoho was my first experience with collaborative software. While the program was relatively easy to use I had a lot of trouble with my first post because of the permissions (or lack thereof) given me. One must be very careful that all one's ducks are in a row if this is to be a well used, painless, and useful tool.
I was pleasantly surprised by Google Docs and must admit that for future collaboration I may lean more towards this clear and easy to use program. While the features are comparable and their seems little difference in the functionality I felt more comfortable with the Google Docs layout and had an easier time finding the function for which I was looking.
This tools are just one way that the Internet has made it easier for individuals to come together for a common cause intellectually while remaining in their own office.
Zoho was my first experience with collaborative software. While the program was relatively easy to use I had a lot of trouble with my first post because of the permissions (or lack thereof) given me. One must be very careful that all one's ducks are in a row if this is to be a well used, painless, and useful tool.
I was pleasantly surprised by Google Docs and must admit that for future collaboration I may lean more towards this clear and easy to use program. While the features are comparable and their seems little difference in the functionality I felt more comfortable with the Google Docs layout and had an easier time finding the function for which I was looking.
This tools are just one way that the Internet has made it easier for individuals to come together for a common cause intellectually while remaining in their own office.
Friday, February 15, 2008
The wonderful world of Wiki
If only I were so eloquent:
And this is why digital literacy is so crucial for educational institutions: we do a fundamental disservice to our students if we continue to propagate old methods of knowledge creation and archivization without also teaching them how these structures are changing, and, more importantly, how they will relate to knowledge creation and dissemination in a fundamentally different way. No longer is an encyclopedia a static collection of facts and figures (although some of its features might be relatively so); it is an organic entity. To educational and policy institutions which, for a substantial portion of history, have maintained control over static codex centered archives—think not only academic libraries, but national ones as well—the shift to an organic structure which they no longer control or solely influence represents a crisis indeed. But to train students in old literacy seems to me to be fundamentally the wrong approach. --David Parry in Wikipedia and the New Curriculum Digital Literacy Is Knowing How We Store What We Know
As a librarian who has the opportunity to teach college students "information literacy" skills in classroom and one on one settings I am constantly forced into a real life awareness of the changing types and retrieval styles of today's learners. How well am I preparing the undergraduate with whom I have contact for life and further academic endeavors if I do not recognize these changes? What I appreciate so much about Professor Parry's opinion is a recognition of and respect for this changing culture.
In regards to his comments, what I get excited about is my opportunity to help students learn and navigate these changing avenues of information dissemination more confidently and more critically. The hard part of the whole endeavor, however, is finding the wise balance between acknowledging these new opportunities available for information creation and dissemination while at the same time conveying an clear and academically necessary need for restraint. I have no answers, only the commitment to continually evaluate where I am as a librarian and aid to our students.
And this is why digital literacy is so crucial for educational institutions: we do a fundamental disservice to our students if we continue to propagate old methods of knowledge creation and archivization without also teaching them how these structures are changing, and, more importantly, how they will relate to knowledge creation and dissemination in a fundamentally different way. No longer is an encyclopedia a static collection of facts and figures (although some of its features might be relatively so); it is an organic entity. To educational and policy institutions which, for a substantial portion of history, have maintained control over static codex centered archives—think not only academic libraries, but national ones as well—the shift to an organic structure which they no longer control or solely influence represents a crisis indeed. But to train students in old literacy seems to me to be fundamentally the wrong approach. --David Parry in Wikipedia and the New Curriculum Digital Literacy Is Knowing How We Store What We Know
As a librarian who has the opportunity to teach college students "information literacy" skills in classroom and one on one settings I am constantly forced into a real life awareness of the changing types and retrieval styles of today's learners. How well am I preparing the undergraduate with whom I have contact for life and further academic endeavors if I do not recognize these changes? What I appreciate so much about Professor Parry's opinion is a recognition of and respect for this changing culture.
In regards to his comments, what I get excited about is my opportunity to help students learn and navigate these changing avenues of information dissemination more confidently and more critically. The hard part of the whole endeavor, however, is finding the wise balance between acknowledging these new opportunities available for information creation and dissemination while at the same time conveying an clear and academically necessary need for restraint. I have no answers, only the commitment to continually evaluate where I am as a librarian and aid to our students.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Thing Eight, Communication
BigHugeLabs
The idea of creating a mosaic of some of the books our book club had read seemed like a good idea, but I was a bit disappointed in the results. I probably did not spend enough time tweaking, but I do know how I would improve such a project. If our club were intentional, we could photograph ourselves holding the book and create a running photo journal of the books. What would be even more fun is the capability of adding textual comments along with the photos. A photo journal of public library book clubs would be a fun professional use for this BigHugeLabs application; a great way to not only advertise but to create a sense of community amongst the regular atendees.
Zoho Show
Rather than create a slide show of my own I chose to watch the short informational video on the program and decided that this is the way to go if I were to carry out the book club montage I mentioned above. What a fun and easy way to create an interesting Web feature for the library.
This would also be a great tool to use to create "re-caps" of library programs. For example, we had a poetry reading in the library where student read works in languages other than English and then translated them. It was a hit, but what fun if we could have (copyright considered) shared video highlights for the rest of the month on our library's web page. I think students, faculty and staff would have been entertained AND interest in our next program heightened.
If it isn't already obvious, I think the growth and continued improvement in quality of these web tools is a great advantage to the responsibility we have as librarians to market our services. WE know that we offer A TON of great services, resources, and people, but do they? If we can share that FACT with others in an interesting way I think we are making some serious and noteworthy headway.
The idea of creating a mosaic of some of the books our book club had read seemed like a good idea, but I was a bit disappointed in the results. I probably did not spend enough time tweaking, but I do know how I would improve such a project. If our club were intentional, we could photograph ourselves holding the book and create a running photo journal of the books. What would be even more fun is the capability of adding textual comments along with the photos. A photo journal of public library book clubs would be a fun professional use for this BigHugeLabs application; a great way to not only advertise but to create a sense of community amongst the regular atendees.
Zoho Show
Rather than create a slide show of my own I chose to watch the short informational video on the program and decided that this is the way to go if I were to carry out the book club montage I mentioned above. What a fun and easy way to create an interesting Web feature for the library.
This would also be a great tool to use to create "re-caps" of library programs. For example, we had a poetry reading in the library where student read works in languages other than English and then translated them. It was a hit, but what fun if we could have (copyright considered) shared video highlights for the rest of the month on our library's web page. I think students, faculty and staff would have been entertained AND interest in our next program heightened.
If it isn't already obvious, I think the growth and continued improvement in quality of these web tools is a great advantage to the responsibility we have as librarians to market our services. WE know that we offer A TON of great services, resources, and people, but do they? If we can share that FACT with others in an interesting way I think we are making some serious and noteworthy headway.
Good advice to keep in mind
It can be very exciting to expose oneself to all of the 2.0 tools available. It is even more inspiring when they are, for the most part, so easy to use as so FREE! This said, I find Michael Stephen's advice in "Web 2.0 and You" in December 2007's American Libraries both encouraging and grounding.
Breifly, he encourages libraries to use these tools in a selective and thoughtful manner. Do not use the tool simply for the sake of using it; be sure to think about the purpose of the project and determine the best execution. The work should be well done and fit seamlessly into the existing structure rather than slap dash and messy.
All said, he encourages us to do exactly what we are doing right now in conjunction with 23 Things on a Stick: "Discover. Play. Participate."
Breifly, he encourages libraries to use these tools in a selective and thoughtful manner. Do not use the tool simply for the sake of using it; be sure to think about the purpose of the project and determine the best execution. The work should be well done and fit seamlessly into the existing structure rather than slap dash and messy.
All said, he encourages us to do exactly what we are doing right now in conjunction with 23 Things on a Stick: "Discover. Play. Participate."
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Thing Seven
E-mail
I appreciate Microsoft Outlook's tools, especially the ability I have organize read messages in folders, flag messages for response, and direct e-mail messages from a particular sender into pre-specified folders. My personal account allows these same functions and I use them there, as well.
But, as the author of Five fast email productivity tips points out no matter how many wonderful tools are available to increase productivity e-mail can also be a HUGE distraction. I've found that checking my messages twice a day is quite sufficient and helps me remain more fully focused on the important tasks at hand. As important as I may believe librarianship is, there is very little of urgent importance in my world. Less checking is, perhaps, the best advice for productivity!
More on Instant Messaging
Although I have already experimented with Google Talk I had yet to watch the University of Buffalo YouTube. My multi-tasking trepidation is now coupled with an anxiety of having to learn a new language. In all seriousness, while I think IM is a great tool and I am very interested in how it might help us be where our students need us I would have to spend time "practicing" my IM skills with co-workers and/or friends before I felt comfortable and confident that I was offering good service. And it appears I am not the only one with this fear: "'Some librarians are afraid of being overwhelmed with questions, are not comfortable handling multitasking…don't type very fast, or just prefer face-to-face interaction,' states Chris Desai, who manages the IM initiative at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale." In the same way that a face to face interview is different from phone reference I believe there are IM skills that I would need to hone and types of phrases I would need to learn to more effectively communicate via IM.
Text Messaging
This would be great for the simple questions we run into everyday: what database should I use? how late are you open? do you have...? I can even imagine students sitting upstairs studying using the function if they are having trouble finding an article in full-text but don't want to bother with running down and finding a librarian. And besides all of that I would be very excited if a user could text message call numbers from the catalog so that they can locate books.
I appreciate Microsoft Outlook's tools, especially the ability I have organize read messages in folders, flag messages for response, and direct e-mail messages from a particular sender into pre-specified folders. My personal account allows these same functions and I use them there, as well.
But, as the author of Five fast email productivity tips points out no matter how many wonderful tools are available to increase productivity e-mail can also be a HUGE distraction. I've found that checking my messages twice a day is quite sufficient and helps me remain more fully focused on the important tasks at hand. As important as I may believe librarianship is, there is very little of urgent importance in my world. Less checking is, perhaps, the best advice for productivity!
More on Instant Messaging
Although I have already experimented with Google Talk I had yet to watch the University of Buffalo YouTube. My multi-tasking trepidation is now coupled with an anxiety of having to learn a new language. In all seriousness, while I think IM is a great tool and I am very interested in how it might help us be where our students need us I would have to spend time "practicing" my IM skills with co-workers and/or friends before I felt comfortable and confident that I was offering good service. And it appears I am not the only one with this fear: "'Some librarians are afraid of being overwhelmed with questions, are not comfortable handling multitasking…don't type very fast, or just prefer face-to-face interaction,' states Chris Desai, who manages the IM initiative at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale." In the same way that a face to face interview is different from phone reference I believe there are IM skills that I would need to hone and types of phrases I would need to learn to more effectively communicate via IM.
Text Messaging
This would be great for the simple questions we run into everyday: what database should I use? how late are you open? do you have...? I can even imagine students sitting upstairs studying using the function if they are having trouble finding an article in full-text but don't want to bother with running down and finding a librarian. And besides all of that I would be very excited if a user could text message call numbers from the catalog so that they can locate books.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Thing Seven, Webinar Thought of the Day
I have been interested in course specific student portals created and maintained by the academic library since I was a MLIS student, so I was pleasantly surprised to come across a webinar entitled "Students, Faculty and Librarians: Making Connections through Course Pages" After watching the broadcast I printed off the recommended article: Portals for Undergraduate Subject Searching: Are They Worth It? by Jane Nichols and Margaret Mellinger. It was a clear read that touched on most if not all of the questions I had kicking around in my mind after the presentation. Ultimately, I found two ideas particularly interesting.
One, a "librarian's" concept of type of resource (book, article, video) is more and more difficult for the traditional undergraduate to understand; "The task force concluded that OSU Libraries’ arrangement by type (database, journal, catalog) hindered users ability to find subject specific information (486)." Rather than looking for type, a student is looking for information on their topic.
I see this idea played out more and more as student work through the library portion of our required Researching and Writing Course. Even though we try to create clear lines between reference books, news, journals, books, and web pages in the assignment tasks student continually return resource lists that pay no attention to the type of resources but rather concentrate on the content. I have been wondering for some time now if the fact of the matter was that TYPE means little to students and it was encouraging to read that this is not a shortcoming of our teaching technique but rather a result of a conceptual difference.
Second and more applicable to this 23 Things exercise was the comment on a surprising find; users were not that interested in expending their time and energy on customizing their own library page or portal. This was a helpful reminder; while the tools and possibilities are ever-expanding; when we as a library create for our users we cannot expect the user to want to expend excessive amounts of time or energy. Yes, tools are great; yes, visuals are interesting; but we need to do the work and customization so that the user can easily and quickly meet their need.
One, a "librarian's" concept of type of resource (book, article, video) is more and more difficult for the traditional undergraduate to understand; "The task force concluded that OSU Libraries’ arrangement by type (database, journal, catalog) hindered users ability to find subject specific information (486)." Rather than looking for type, a student is looking for information on their topic.
I see this idea played out more and more as student work through the library portion of our required Researching and Writing Course. Even though we try to create clear lines between reference books, news, journals, books, and web pages in the assignment tasks student continually return resource lists that pay no attention to the type of resources but rather concentrate on the content. I have been wondering for some time now if the fact of the matter was that TYPE means little to students and it was encouraging to read that this is not a shortcoming of our teaching technique but rather a result of a conceptual difference.
Second and more applicable to this 23 Things exercise was the comment on a surprising find; users were not that interested in expending their time and energy on customizing their own library page or portal. This was a helpful reminder; while the tools and possibilities are ever-expanding; when we as a library create for our users we cannot expect the user to want to expend excessive amounts of time or energy. Yes, tools are great; yes, visuals are interesting; but we need to do the work and customization so that the user can easily and quickly meet their need.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Thing Six, Online Image Generators
I have enjoyed the creative possibilities the mash ups and image generators offer and see no reason why I wouldn't choose to use at least one for the various advertisements and programs I generate over the course of the year. Not only are they very easy to use, the added personalization would be far more interesting and eyecatching than many of the "canned" images from which I currently choose. While I am not so sure the students on campus would be particularly interested in a photo of me, there are definitely popular professors and campus figures who would be fabulous faces to use! This would even allow for opportunity to pull other departments into library activity and create an increased feeling of campus unity!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Thing Five, using mashups
I found this lovely photo using the very fun Retrievr mash-up. What a great way to find images that include desired color scheme or shape and movement. Not to mention a fun and serendipitous little exercise.
Another fun mash-up is Tagnautica. I love browsing and often hear people lament the loss of the serendipitous find because of the move away from the library stacks and into the digital realm. I went from "tea" to "trees" in five clicks and had a blast browsing through the results!
The caption mashup was also fun and would actually be a great tool to use in our library. Adding captions to photos of librarians to advertise for events or provide helpful reminders (Please return materials to the shelving carts, example) would be an interesting and easy way to personalize our services.
Thing Four, Photosharing
Photo sharing was a wonderful discovery. I live a great distance from my family so we have been using Flickr for almost a year now to share vacation photos and slice of life pictures. We appreciate the privacy settings Flickr allows and have found this photo sharing technique keeps us closer and prompts some fun discussion, both real time and virtual.
I had not, however, thought of using this tool in the library setting, but the Clemens Library proves there are some fun ways to share visually with their patrons. Their "bookshelves" actually remind me of two things our library does on site.
One, we have a "new books” shelf that we keep at the entrance of our library in a reading nook. It may be fun to translate that into the digital realm so that distance students (and busy professors) who don't regularly visit our library can keep an "eye" on the new acquisitions. Two, the photos also remind me of elements of our monthly display. Our library briefly expounds on a topic and then highlights resources that viewers can use to learn more. This month's topic is fair trade: digital tools would be a great way to get the information out to a larger population! I even found a wonderful photo of a Ghanaian Primary School that I was able to post in this blog as an example of images that could augment our displays.
I will definitely be more aware of how photo sharing can help visually augment our library's displays and activities. As I sit here I am even reminded of our library social events and how Flickr could be a great way to advertise, organize and, document these programs.
I had not, however, thought of using this tool in the library setting, but the Clemens Library proves there are some fun ways to share visually with their patrons. Their "bookshelves" actually remind me of two things our library does on site.
One, we have a "new books” shelf that we keep at the entrance of our library in a reading nook. It may be fun to translate that into the digital realm so that distance students (and busy professors) who don't regularly visit our library can keep an "eye" on the new acquisitions. Two, the photos also remind me of elements of our monthly display. Our library briefly expounds on a topic and then highlights resources that viewers can use to learn more. This month's topic is fair trade: digital tools would be a great way to get the information out to a larger population! I even found a wonderful photo of a Ghanaian Primary School that I was able to post in this blog as an example of images that could augment our displays.
I will definitely be more aware of how photo sharing can help visually augment our library's displays and activities. As I sit here I am even reminded of our library social events and how Flickr could be a great way to advertise, organize and, document these programs.
Ghanaian Primary School
Using Flickr, we could augment our displays with pictures that we take. When the library remodeled, we posted our photos directly on the library's website. But we could opt to create a group and have a slide show complete with tags when we complete our project. It would also greatly increase our options for visual in many different situations; visuals with text add so much power to a message. Instead of a dry board of text on Fair Trade Chocolate we could create a digital display complete with the photo of celebrating Ghanaian children outside of their school, a school built with profits from Fair Trade Chocolate!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Thing Three, The Wonderful World of RSS Feeds
I am a big fan of RSS feeds and have been for a while. I love the fact that I can not only consolidate all of the sources I am interested in in one place but that I am also notified of any new content.
My bloglines "Professional" folder makes it easy for me to scan the current postings of other librarian bloggers and continually brings to my attention articles and reflections I would not have looked for on my own but prove both interesting and informative. It is hard to stay kept up with The Kept Up Librarian but my Blogline feed sure does help!
Personally speaking, I also appreciate the fact that I can keep up with all the new recipes Heidi Swanson shares on the beautifully photographed 101 Cookbooks without obsessively visiting her site. And what librarian doesn't enjoy a word, or two, of the day?
As a user and professional I can see numerous benefits: I save time and exert little effort while still staying abreast of personal interest stories and professional articles of note. As a librarian, I need to continue thinking about ways our library might apply RSS feeds to the benefit of our particular users.
My bloglines "Professional" folder makes it easy for me to scan the current postings of other librarian bloggers and continually brings to my attention articles and reflections I would not have looked for on my own but prove both interesting and informative. It is hard to stay kept up with The Kept Up Librarian but my Blogline feed sure does help!
Personally speaking, I also appreciate the fact that I can keep up with all the new recipes Heidi Swanson shares on the beautifully photographed 101 Cookbooks without obsessively visiting her site. And what librarian doesn't enjoy a word, or two, of the day?
As a user and professional I can see numerous benefits: I save time and exert little effort while still staying abreast of personal interest stories and professional articles of note. As a librarian, I need to continue thinking about ways our library might apply RSS feeds to the benefit of our particular users.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Thing Seven, 2a.
For the sake of a speedy co-worker I skipped ahead to Instant Messaging. It is, I will admit, difficult to talk to oneself in the virtual world.
The two of us spent a very brief seesion experimenting with Google talk. While it was simple enough to install I cannot say that I was terribly impressed with its functionality. At one point we completely lost one another; not a great situation if you are chatting with a distressed (or cranky!) student. Additionally, I found that I had a hard time contining my work and keeping track of chatting developments. I felt it might become challenging to pay attention to the user and perform research simultaneously. Perhaps my difficulties had a bit to do with my distate for multi-tasking, but I had expected a better notification system.
While I would be really interested in trying IM for reference I would like a chance to play around with some different providers. I would also be interested in hearing how other libraries deal with streamling their choice of tools considering the broad number available and the fact each student may prefer a different one.
The two of us spent a very brief seesion experimenting with Google talk. While it was simple enough to install I cannot say that I was terribly impressed with its functionality. At one point we completely lost one another; not a great situation if you are chatting with a distressed (or cranky!) student. Additionally, I found that I had a hard time contining my work and keeping track of chatting developments. I felt it might become challenging to pay attention to the user and perform research simultaneously. Perhaps my difficulties had a bit to do with my distate for multi-tasking, but I had expected a better notification system.
While I would be really interested in trying IM for reference I would like a chance to play around with some different providers. I would also be interested in hearing how other libraries deal with streamling their choice of tools considering the broad number available and the fact each student may prefer a different one.
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