I'm Loving Wordle!

Here's a Wordle of some of my favourite Cam23 'Things'

 
And another of non-Cam23 favourite things - for balance.

Wordle

Here's a Wordle screenshot of my blog. Not sure I've completely got the hang of Wordle yet. But it's fun to play around with it!

 

Or click on the image below to enlarge it!

 

I'm now looking forward to the "Grand Closing Ceremony". Bring it on!!

Look back in delight

Doing the Cam23 programme has been brilliant! It has opened my eyes to so many useful applications, and given me the push to try out things that I had heard about and never used, plus things I hadn't even heard about before (echoes of  Newt Gingrich's 'known unknowns and unknown unknowns'). It is great to have had personal experience of so many varied web 2.0 applications for two reasons: 1. I now have a great toolkit for communicating with the library users in a variety of ways; 2. I can now recommend relevant applications to students, researchers and friends as useful tools for their work.

Much of the time the Cam23 programme has been quite tough - simply because it was one more element to juggle in hectic days at work and sometimes after work too. Whatever happened to the long-awaited peaceful summer vacation (which was always something of a myth anyway)? Going on holiday for two weeks in the middle meant I had a mountain to climb when I got back, in order to catch up. But I made it and I'm glad I did!

1. Which 'Things' did I find most useful or thought-provoking?

 Actually all the 'Things' were thought-provoking and doing them exercised my little grey cells considerably! This can only be a 'good thing'!

• I think blogs are great! Because we have had to blog all the way through, I feel really at home with blogs now. I have even persuaded my 77 year-old uncle to set up his own blog! I will definitely use a blog for our Old Library cataloguing project. I'm also keen to explore the possibility of using a  library blog to communicate with students.
• Doodle is a useful tool which I have already used again to set up a complicated meeeting between a number of people. I can't beleive I never used it before Cam23!
• Facebook is something we use a lot for the library already (we have a fan page for the Jerwood Library and one for Supporters of the Old Library). We will continue to maintain these  pages - they are a very nice, informal way of getting news out.
• I'm new to Flickr and a fan! I like the surprising images that you stumble upon as you search - and creative commons means that you can use many of the pictures in library publicity etc.
• Google Docs and Wikis are fun too - I like the way you can share your docs or wiki site with a group of disparate people (who might not necessarily be linked via our college shared drive). I'm already planning how I can use these both in my professional life and for my hobbies!
• LinkedIn is something new to me. Now that I am registered I will use for professional networking in the future. 
• Zotero: I will certainly promote this to my readers as a free, all-singing all-dancing replacement for Endnote. But I would love to go to a user education session on Zotero because I don't feel I've uncovered it's full potential.

2. Which 'Things' didn't I find useful at all? 

This category seems a bit damning! I thought most of the 'Things' could be useful in certain circumstances.

3. Instead, here's my list of 'Things' that I MAY use in the future: 

• iGoogle: I can see myself using this when I have a computer at home. At the moment the computers I use at work all have shared drives (so there is no need for me to use iGoogle to organise things).
• Google calendar: Again I can see myself using this when I have a computer at home. At present I use and like the shared calendar in Outlook Express and can see no need to change.
• Podcasting: I think this is great for BBC radio programmes but I remain sceptical of the value of podcasting in the college library context.
• Delicious: This could be useful for bookmarking websites to support scholars using our Old Library collections - something for when I've got a bit more time on my hands!.
• Twitter: Although I find Twitter a bit bewildering (showing my age here!), I have got definite plans to use Twitter in Full Term as another way to communicate with the students.
• YouTube: For that introductory film about how to use the library that I still haven't done yet.
• Slideshare: For step-by-step instructions on how to access e-resources, how to check out books.
• LibraryThing: This was fun on a personal level - but I'm not quite so sure about it's usefulness for the reading list orientated undergraduates. However, the ability to add comments to catalogue records is something worth investigating in the future. I'm hoping Aquabrowser will provide a great front-end for the Newton catalogue.

4. Which have I persisted with?

 All of the things in list 1 above ("Which things did you find most useful or thought-provoking?").

5. What about web 2.0 and social media and how they are shaping library services?

I'm a convert to web 2.0 and social media. A year ago I'd heard a lot about social media but only had a vague idea of what it was - how quickly things change! Library service is becoming much more informal and pro-active as a result of social media. Many online catalogues are becoming interactive, with opportunities to leave comments, more colourfull and flexible. We now have lots of ways of marketing our services that we never had before. It is also much easier for our users to communicate with us and to let us know what they want from the library. This means happier users and a service more tailored to their needs.

The Cam23 programme itself has created a virtual community of Cambridge librarians and is starting to break down barriers between professionals working within Cambridge's three tiered system (UL, faculties and colleges). The college librarians have a very good network and I have feel part of a very supportive community within the CCLF. In addition I have always found the courses and conferences run by the libraries@cambridge team provide excellent opportunities for meeting other librarians within Cambridge. However, the Cam23 programme has added another dimension of communicatiion and collaboration. It has been a real delight to read the blogs of such a diverse group of librarians. The Cam23 blogs show what a creative, witty, innovative and thoughful group we are - I'm lovin' it!

Wikid!

I'm excited! Wikis have been around for ages (oh my, we're told they were created in 1994... that's the dark ages in terms of web 2.0) but now's the chance to really look into how they are being used in the library world. I use Wikipedia a lot - yes I know it is unreliable, but I find it really useful for a quick introduction to a topic. I haven't used wikis in my library work yet so I will blog about what I have seen and liked.

I took a look at PBworks and liked the idea of using wikis for "Patron service" (i.e. publishing information about new acquisitions). Currently we have the RSS feed for our new acquisitions but this only shows up cataloguing activity from the day before and some of this is re-cataloguing rather than new books. A weekly list of just our newest books would be much more useful to our readers, so perhaps we could use a wiki for this. The Grand Rapids Library has used it's wiki pages to create a very attractive "recommended reads" section, with images of book covers (once you get past the dry initial page of lists of links).

I've also logged onto the Teachmeet wiki site, which is great. It's like a Google Doc, but a website instead. I've added my name to the 'lurkers' section and resisted the urge to add pictures and change the start time to 5.15pm - there's no way I can get to the event for the current start time because I  am at my desk until 5pm!  The great advantage of wikis is that you can create collaborative sites, but the disadvantage is that  this can be open to abuse. That seems to me to be a problem with wiki pages - if you are allowed to edit the document, then you can edit WHATEVER you like. I've heard that Wikipedia spends a lot of time changing things back on controversial pages. So like Wikipedia, if you open up your wiki site to everybody, then you have to set aside time to monitor it.

Getting interactive

Wikipedia tells us that "A podcast is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication". The BBC uses the terminiolgy 'podcasts' for its audio material (Radio programmes) and iPlayer for its videos (TV shows).

I had a listen to some of the JISC podcasts and found them an excellent resource for information on library policy and initiatives. The benefits of audio podcasts is that they can be listened to like a radio programme while you are doing the ironing! They would also be great for getting library information across to students with visual disabilities.

However, in the context of a college library I think a video on YouTube would be a more useful tool - especially for library induction. I can't see students having the patience to sit and listen to an audio podcast of a librarian 'droning on' about how to use the library. So perhaps I'd better get out my new digital camera and figure out how to do work video bit of it...

I can see a really good future for tutorials on the web to introduce students to various applications (how to access ebooks, web of science etc.). The video on plagiarism from Bergen University Library is a great example of this! Closer to home, the Cambridge Libraries Film 'The Perfedt Desk' which will introduce the three tier Cambridge system to  new students is a fantastic step forward. I'm looking forward to seeing it!

Google Docs

Am I the Theo Pahitis of Cam23? I created a Google Doc to share with my Cam23 'buddy' and emailed an invitation to her to add her comments to the document - BUT she can't access it. I've tried emailing it to her again but the poor little doc is still all alone with no-one to share it! I was really worried until I read Aidan's post. At least I'm not the only one with sharing problems!

The principle behind Google Docs is really good, so long as other people can access them too. With that in mind I have now published my Google Doc on the web so that everyone can see it and edit it too! If you have any great tips on 'Moving house' why not add them here?

As with all new applications, getting the best out of Google Docs involves experimentation. However, there's lots of potential in this application for breaking down barriers between people scattered across the globe and for promoting collaborative projects. It's another tool for librarians to promote to their users to help them, organise their scholarly output: from organising conferences and meetings, to collaborating on papers

This little piggy...

It's time to reflect on marketing. Actually, this is something I really enjoy (marketing that is...). I can get so involved in advertising all the great things that we do in the library to support the students that sometimes I've got no time to do the nitty-gritty that makes the 'great things' possible. Hmm, now that's a problem!

We currently have a mix of methods for getting our message across, from the face-to-face encounter, student reps on the Library Committee, our printed library guide and newsletter (Jerwood News) to electronic media: email, our website, the display screen in the Porters' Lodge and our Facebook page. Some of the above already have a social element, involving conversations and interaction. What can be more 'social' than a chat in person? We use email a lot to respond to student's queries and our web 2.0 Facebook page is great for presenting our informal image and engaging with the student community.

One surprisingly valuable marketing tool has turned out to be our annual library survey. It is primarily designed for gathering information so that we can improve our service but it has had the added benefit of marketing the library. Via the survey, students have a chance to give us important feedback (the other side of the 'conversation' in response to our questions). Once we have collated the responses to the survey, we report back on the changes we have made and the students feel we are really listening to them. Here are some of their comments: ‘Continue your great work for the student community!’, ‘I think it’s a fantastic resource!’, ‘It’s really good we’re lucky to have it’, ‘Continue to respond well to feedback!’, ‘The librarians are awesome people, always nice and smiling and ready to help’. 

Now Cam23 has given us a whole new tool-kit for getting the message out there via social media. We've got Twitter for advertising events, LinkedIn for building up a professional network, Delicious for creating library collections, Flickr for our photo collections, Slideshare for our presentations and Blogging for getting our thoughts out there and starting discussions. It's a bit early yet to say exactly which tools we'll adopt, but it's given us lots of ideas and plenty of tools to improve the applications we are using already.

Zotero: The Sequel

 Picture from the Daily Telegraph

Banzai! With a lot of help I have managed to work out Zotero. It's just me and not Zotero's fault... My essay writing days are long behind me (in the days before computers) so I have never submitted word processed essays or used Endnote. This means that Zotero was a little challenging to start with. However, after my tutorial this morning "By jove I've got it!" to paraphrase Professor Higgins.

Zotero provides lots of online help, you just need to be a bit patient and spend some time navigating around the site. I managed to download a tailor-made bibliography dervied from a Newton search and to transfer it to a word document.

Zotero takes out all the hassle out of citations and it works like magic. It is a brilliant tool for scholars, graduate students and undergrad essay writers. You can build up different book lists and store them in folders - a great way to organise your research in different fields and to have the information at your fingertips. It should definitely be promoted within the University, possibly through training sessions at the UL, in the Departments and by the Computing Service (I have found that students do not look to their College library for this kind of training - I have offered training sessions but have met with a very lukewarm response). It is a free service which is a tremendous bonus for students. I am looking into ways of using Zotero in the library and it could be useful for building up subject specific accessions lists for targeted distribution. I'm so glad to have been introduced to this application.

Zotero: The Prequel

I went to Dan Cohen's enthusiatic Arcadia Seminar on Zotero and Mendeley. He was very interesting about the background to his involvement in developing these tools and incredibly keen to get libraries using them. So it is great that the 23 Things programme has given me a nudge to try them out.

I've registered for Zotero but the Zotero toolbar is nowhere to be seen ... a slight hitch but I will get help from Library Wanderer and report back on this application pronto!

Not yet on the home strait

Here we go again! This time it's LinkedIn. I know a lot of people use this for professional networking - so I've created an account. I was surprised to see how many people from my college are already on LinkedIn. Our college Development Director hopes to use it to create a network of alumni in various professions so that they can help new graduates. The idea is for them to be available to provide advice, information and links to particular professions. This seems an excellent use of LinkedIn - a network for professional use.

I found searching LinkedIn a bit frustrating. You have to sift through a lot of results to find the person you want. However, I expect this problem is circumvented once you have created your network. Also, I haven't joined any groups yet - so I'm going to do that now! On balance I think this is a great tool for linking professionals and I will certainly use it in the future.

Facebook

Great! I've already got a Facebook account and so has the library. This means I can have a bit of a rest! Jubilation**!!""

The Jerwood Library Facebook page was created in January 2010, just after the last libraries@cambridge conference. Inspired by John McNaughton's closing speech, a member of our grad team, Bettina, set up a group page and then a fan page for the Jerwood. All three of us are administrators for the Jerwood Library account and we all post messages. Helen has developed the Jerwood page further, adding boxes, links and some great books.

We use the Jerwood page as a community message board. We have a cohesive group of users and we like to think of the library as at the heart of the College. We use Facebook to reinforce our friendly, informal and approachable image. Not all of our students have become fans so we communicate with them in a variety of ways: by email, through our library web pages and with a printed termly newsletter (also available as a pdf). Oh yes, and of course we talk to them too!

Later I asked Bettina to set up a Supporters of the Old Library  at Trinity Hall page too. Yes, I'm a dab hand at delegation! This page has a slightly different function. It is intended to generate interest in our special collections and is linked to a fundraising initiative. I also use it for news of events, projects and discoveries.

I enjoy having an informal way to get news out there and the ability to add photos too. It's nice that people can comment on things too - so you get some feedback. I'm not sure I am using Facebook to its full advantage. I'm very impressed by some of the other Cambridge library pages and what they offer so I will continue to explore its potential. Although Facebook is not the only way to communicate with readers it has a valuable place in the service we offer to our students. We also have some fans who have already graduated, so perhaps they have a soft spot for the library or an insatiable thirst for any news from their alma mater.

Knit one

Creating my own LibraryThing account was easy - choosing a topic for my collection was less so. However, now I've got the start of my own knitting library on LibraryThing. Not quite sure what use it is, except that it is quite fun and LibraryThing suggests other people's lists that I might be interested in. Knitters have such creative names - how about DrChopSuey, Fibermonster or Knittingwarrior? Anyway, I've been adding tags and writing reviews and feeling quite at home in the LibraryThing environment.

LibraryThing

I've heard about LibraryThing lots of times before but I've never investigated it so now's my opportunity. I've probably misunderstood what the site is for because I've thought of it as a rather nerdy way of "cataloguing" the books on my shelves at home. I do plenty of that at work and I'm quite content to leave my own books in happy confusion (yes, I can find a book when I want it...). Well, looking at Thing 14, I realise that LibraryThing is much more interesting than I thought!

The list of libraries who have integrated LibraryThing into their catalogues is impressive - it has really taken off in the USA, but it is also used by libraries worldwide including some in the UK. I like the way they have integrated it into their catalogues, though some of them look very similar to Amazon as a result.

I've had a look at the Central Science Library and Nuffield Oxford's LibraryThings and I'm struggling a bit to see what they add to the user experience: on the plus side there are nice cover images for each book and people can add reviews and tags, but on the minus side the book details come from Amazon (and so are of uneven quality) and none of the users of these two libraries seem to write reviews! I think integration into a library catalogue is more useful.

Perhaps our students are not the target sudience for this application - they are simply trying to find books on their reading lists (i.e. books already selected as worth reading by an academic) as QUICKLY as possible. LibraryThing would be great for someone who is undecided about what to read because they can see how popular a book is, read reviews and search by tags than by LCSH. Another use of LibraryThing is to create 'libraries' or book lists for groups. Anna's idea of using LibraryThing for her college book group is brilliant - it helps to create a group identity and is a forum for interactivity.

Don't panic!

Back from holiday ten days ago and HELP ... I'm only on Thing 14. There's a whole load of catching up to do. I've been wading through emails at work and Cam23 has gone on the back-burner. Well, I'll just take a deep breath and get on with it - though it is taking an age for my brain to get back into gear!

Picture of Clive Dunn from the Big Picture http://www.bigpictureblog.info/