The end is nigh!

I've made it to the end! There was a point about a week ago when I thought I wouldn't be able to finish, but after a lot of perseverance I've got there.

The most useful thing I've learnt about has probably been Zotero, as it has applications for both the Education library and my own work. I also enjoyed learning how to use things like Flickr and Slideshare, as well as LibraryThing. Out of everything my least favourite was Twitter, but that may be because of the prejudices I already held against it! But I'll definately be using Zotero again.

Perhaps the most significant thing I've got out of this though has been the impact of social media on modern library services. I think that it's important for library services to at least be aware of the pros and cons of social media, even if they don't actively use such a platform. Libraries just need to find out what works best for them.

As a library we will be taking quite a lot from the 23 Things programme. We are thinking about the possible use of Flickr, Delicious and Facebook to help bring web 2.0 technologies to our readers. But at the very least we are now aware of just how much there is out there!

Wikis

My main experience of wikis up until fairly recently was Wikipedia. I was always taught to approach wikipedia with caution and it was a banned source at uni. But recently it seems to have got a lot more reliable, although you still need to approach it with caution.

At Education we use a wiki on our staff CamTools site to list jobs to do, make notes and lists, etc. It's good in that we can all edit it, adding things and crossing them off when necessary. Wikis in general are a good way of larger groups exchanging ideas and information. I suppose that in many ways it's similar to Google Docs, as users can share and edit information. It certainly saves a lot of hassle sending emails with attachments back and forth!

Podcasting and YouTube

I have been looking at videos on YouTube for a few years now and to be honest I never considered that it could be a useful tool for libraries. I've always looked at music videos and silly presentations that we did at school. It's good that anyone can shoot their own videos and upload them, but you can get an awful lot of tat. But I think it's the same for most user-generated content on the internet.

I think YouTube could be a really useful tool for libraries. The ability to upload presentations and tours of the library would be handy to help students familiarise themselves with a new system, although there could be a bit of overlap if you already have similar things uploaded onto sites such as Flickr and Slideshare. It's probably just a case of finding what works best for you though.

Podcasting is something that I've always meant to look into a bit more. I know my dad has managed to download quite a few podcasts to take on holiday with him, but I've just never got round to it. I'm not sure if it's something that would be that useful to us as a library, although I'm sure it works well for other larger libraries. I'm just not that sure how we would use it. It's good to spread the message and make sure information is available to as wide an audience as possible, but you could spend so much time making presentations and podcasts that you end up with no time for your readers.

Google Docs

Now that Eastenders has finished I can continue this evening waging war on the things!

In the absence of any imagination when faced with creating a document to share using Google docs, I went for a cute picture of an axolotl. They're just so cheerful!

I can see that Google docs can be useful if you want to share a document with a variety of people and allow them to edit it. Everyone is familiar with Google these days and it's fairly intuitive.

I'm not sure how much we would use it as a library because we have just started using the shared network to edit documents and share them with each other. But if we ever had the need to share documents with others outside the network then this would definately be something to remember.

Marketing

So, I've come to realise that the only way I'm ever going to get to the end is to do a few of the things at home. I promised myself I wouldn't do this, but I'm also determined to finish, plus there's nothing on telly and I need to familiarise myself with my new (and very shiny) laptop.




Marketing.... hmmm.....

The scope for marketing with social media is huge, as we have seen with previous "things". As a library we already have a Twitter account that has quite a few followers, and we have been making efforts to promote it. I guess that having a Facebook page might also be useful, but it's just another thing to maintain when we've got other things to do.

I think it's important therefore to select very carefully the avenues down the social media route you want to travel. There's no point putting all your efforts into a site that is not used that widely by your readers because then who's going to see it? But at the same time you don't want to think "Well I might as well cover all the bases then..." because you'll end up with hundreds of sites to maintain and it'll get boring duplicating information. I'm sure we've all got far more interesting and important things to be doing....

I like Zotero!

Zotero could be one of the most useful things we've looked at so far. I always wondered what the logo at the bottom of the browser was for and now I know!

I think it could be really useful for us as a library. It could be used to compile reading lists on the courses pages of the Library CamTools site, and as you can choose which referencing style to use it could all be formatted to the same style. We also occasionally have students asking us about referencing systems and how to use Zotero, so now I will be able to show them how to use it.

From a personal point of view I will definitely be learning how to use Zotero to it's full potential. My method of referencing was always a bit haphazard and although I am organised I did have a tendency to misplace the bits of paper that I'd written the references down on. But with Zotero I could keep them all in one place!

LinkedIn

I'm not a fan of LinkedIn so far. And I hadn't heard of it until today. To me this is just another social networking site for you to put your details into, and how many social networking accounts does one really need? It's certainly not as user friendly as Facebook (although my dislike for LinkedIn hasn't reached the same levels as Twitter) as it's very clunky. There aren't as many users on this site either, so I've struggled to find people I know. And it does seem to be mainly American.

I think the benefits for libraries are extremely limited at the moment. It will probably take a while for the site to become more widely used and therefore more useful to libraries. But I can't see it happening that soon.

Facebook

Finally we have reached the only 'thing' that I already use! I have used Facebook since I was (forcibly) persuaded to sign up at uni. Since then I have actually found it to be quite useful.

In the past I have had accounts on various social networking sites, but none of them have been as good or have lasted as long as Facebook. I use it quite a bit for catching up with friends and I like the layout and ease of use. I also don't really see all the fuss about privacy because all you need to do is have a bit of common-sense. The privacy settings are not that hard to find and all you then need to do is make sure that only your friends can see your profile. And it also helps if you only add people you know. I'm certainly not one of these people who adds everyone they can find just because they think it makes them look popular.

Facebook is good for finding out what friends and family are up to. Looking at my news feed page I have just found out that my little sister has only just got out of bed today (it is 2.50pm)!

I think Facebook can be very useful for libraries. It's good to be able to add applications like COPAC to pages and I think it would be a good place to post opening hours and feeds about new books. I guess that much like Twitter and iGoogle, etc, the success of a library's page depends very much on readers finding the pages. But now that Facebook has reached the milestone of 500 million active users, the chances of more people finding the library pages are much higher.

Facebook is also multi-generational, unlike other social networking sites, so you are more likely to get a broad range of readers finding library pages. It doesn't (yet) seem to have fallen from grace in favour of a newer, more sparkly site. There was an interesting piece on the BBC News website today about social networking: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10719042. The enduring appeal of Facebook is obvious, and even my Mum has an account (although we did need to help her set it up!).

I think it's fairly obvious that I like Facebook. I think it helps that I already know how to use it (although it does annoy me when they keep messing about with the layout and changing 'Groups' to 'Fans'). The applications for libraries are clear, although it is still reliant on library users finding your Facebook page.

LibraryThing

I like LibraryThing. It's easy to use and nicely set out. It would be really useful for small libraries and also for cataloguing private collections as it's free as well as quick.

It would be useful for showing new books or advertising special collections. I like the idea of being able to add a LibraryThing widget to websites, and that LibraryThing data can be added into existing records.

I've added a few of the books I really like and am reading at the moment so my collection on LibraryThing mainly consists of Harry Potter and a couple of classics so far. But maybe one day when I've got nothing better to do I'll go through all my bookcases and the boxes under my bed to catalogue what I have. It would be quite useful to be able to see at a glance whether I already have a book or not, although for me the idea of being able to share what's in my collection is a bit scary because I like to hide my books away from everyone so my friends and family can't come along and nick things. But maybe I'm just being overprotective...

I like that you can edit bibliographic information, so the records can be just how you like them. The only really gripe I have with it so far is that the images that come up automatically tend to be American covers, which I know shouldn't be a problem but it just annoys me. But at least they're easy to change. Maybe there's a way of setting it up so that the results are filtered to UK only records. I'll have a look another time I think.

Reflecting...

I've reached the half way point! Yippee!!!

Well looking back on my posts I seem to have been really negative about most things. Or maybe it's just constructive criticism... I'll make a resolution - from now on I have to be more positive than negative about things.

I think the best thing we've looked at so far has been Flickr. I can see how useful it could be to us at Education and I would use it outside work as well. I also quite liked iGoogle, but really only because it's a good way of procrastinating.

I'll admit now that I haven't looked at most of the other 'things' since we had to blog about them. These include Doodle, Google calendar, Slideshare and Delicious. And especially Twitter. I just don't think anyone or anything is ever going to convince me that Twitter is worthwhile.

But on a positive (!) I do feel now that if anyone was to quiz me about the things we've covered so far (is that likely to happen?) I would be able to say what these things are and what they could be useful for. I think this is a vast improvement!

Delicious

I'm going to be a bit Eeyore-ish now....

If I'm honest, I don't really understand delicious. And it's got a funny name.

I never really knew what delicious was until about 20 minutes ago and although I've done a bit a reading I'm still not entirely sure. But never mind, I'll give it a go.

I can understand why people would find the traditional bookmarking methods a bit cumbersome and out of date, but I've never really thought about finding any other way of doing it. And although I can see why people use delicious, I don't think that having to log in to an account to save bookmarks or tags is any easier. It just seems like a lot of faffing about. Bar-humbug!

However having looked at http://delicious.com/CambridgeJudgeBusinessSchoolLibraryServices and http://delicious.com/LibrarianGoddess I can see that it could be useful to libraries. It's good that you can bookmark and tag pages that you think would be useful to your students. But it does seem to be another thing that is reliant on the students finding it. Or maybe I've missed something...

But here's a picture of something that actually is delicious:

Slideshare

I quite like Slideshare. I found it relatively easy to use and I can see the benefits of uploading presentations to the site. It could be really useful to upload presentations on searching databases etc. to refresh students' memories after the event. However, if you didn't see the presentation in the first place then it could be a bit pointless because the slides lack the detail of the original presentation.

There were quite a few informative presentations about web 2.0 technologies and security on sites such as Facebook which is good for those who don't really know where to start. I also really enjoyed a slideshow with some pretty cool pictures:

The Best Pictures of the Year

View more presentations from Siam English.

Slideshare has perhaps been one of the better and more useful things we've looked at so far, maybe just behind Flickr! I guess it's just a case of making sure that what you make available on the site is useful to those you aim it at (i.e. more than just a few pictures stuck on a couple of slides, strung together with a few words!).

Flickr

I've never used Flickr before, but I know quite a few people who are avid users. Not owning a camera means that unfortunately I have not images to upload and I'm not particularly arty either, but I would definitely use Flickr if I needed to find images for something.

I started by looking for images of libraries and found a really nice one from Christopher Chan (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chanc/) of the Mitchell Library in Sydney :

You seem to be able to find pictures of almost anything on Flickr. It would be a good place to start if you needed a picture for a presentation or something. I also like the idea of being able to have a photostream if you're a keen photographer.

I was amazed to find so many pictures of my local town, Sudbury. Thanks to Jacek.NL for a picture of the famous meadows:

I think being able search for Creative Commons material is a good idea. I have to say I would have no idea what images I could or could not use and under what capacity, so being able to search in this way and easily check the conditions is great and could save a good deal of hassle.

So far out of all of the things we have covered I can see Flickr being the most useful. It's a great idea to have a virtual tour of the library and Emma-Jane (Leaps & bounds) has already started taking photos in preparation for next term!

Tag!

I'm not sure what to say about tagging.

Tags could be quite a useful system for libraries. It seems to be a good way of organising information, and as long as everyone's sensible about the tags they add then I can't see a problem with it.

Having had a look at the way Ann Arbour District Library uses tagging, I can see that it is a good way to organise things by using the terminology that readers are actually searching with. Terminology naturally changes over time and I think tagging in this way is a good method of keeping track of such changes.

However I think that there still is (and always will be) a place for standard terms, such as those used in LCSH.

Twittering away....

I have to say I've always avoided Twitter like the plague. I have quite a few school and uni friends who use it religiously to tell everyone what they've had for breakfast and why the don't want to go to work, etc etc. And without wanting to hurt anyone's feelings, to be honest I don't see the point of it (and don't care either...).

However I have given it a go for the purpose of the 23 Things and will try to keep an open mind. At Education we do have a Twitter page (edfaclib) which we use to advertise opening hours. I think it can be a good thing for libraries to use as it's another way in which we can keep in touch with readers (and generally the more options the better!). But I think we do have better and more efficient ways of keeping in contact with readers - CamTools is more useful as all the relevant information is in one place and it can be tailored to the needs of different user groups.

Having had a look at a few profiles, I have to say that I don't think it's the most intuitive thing to use either. But maybe that's just me not really knowing what I'm doing!

In summary, I think Twitter can be very useful if you've actually got something to say. But you do have to filter out an awful lot of rubbish to get to the good stuff.

And it has given me a good excuse to find a cute picture.....

Oh and my twitter page (is that what it's called?) is hrs23things. Not that I shall be tweeting much...

Google calendar

I've now set up my Google calendar. Much like Doodle, it's dead easy to use and I can completely understand why people use it. But again (and I think I'm starting to sound like a right killjoy...) I can't see myself making much use of it. Certainly not on a personal level anyway - I've got a paper calendar at home that's well used and if I'm out of the house I tend to use the calendar on my phone.

However I think this could be very useful for libraries, and the fact that lots of other libraries make use of it on their web pages shows that it has some very practical applications. It's nice to have events and opening hours in one place. And I guess that if you have a lot of meetings to go to (which I don't) then it can be very handy to have it on the web instead of a diary that you have to carry round.

Doodle

I've now had a go at scheduling a meeting in Doodle (might be a bit of a non-existent meeting though because I kind of made it up as I went along - I'll try to schedule a real one at a later date!). Doodle is really easy to use and I can see why some would find it useful. It can even email people about your meeting for you which could be handy! In a library context I can see that it could be quite useful, especially if you have lots of staff or lots of meetings to attend.

However I've always thought of myself as a fairly organised person anyway so I think using something like Doodle would just get in the way.

Thing 4

Well I've now had a little while to play around with Blogger and also have a look at some other Cam23 blogs as well.

On the whole I've found Blogger fairly easy to use, although I'm still finding it a little bit strange trying to put some of my thoughts about the "things" into something that's coherent! I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually....

It's been really interesting looking at some of the other blogs and finding out how others are getting on. It's also nice to know that other's have no idea what to write about either!

In a library context I guess blogs could have some use, such as informing readers about new books or developments in a certain field. However, much like the RSS feeds and libraries widgets, it does rely on people actively going out to find the blogs and taking the time to read them. I think I shall remain sceptical about their uses for now, but I am willing to be proved wrong!

iGoogle and RSS Feeds

I quite like the idea of iGoogle and setting it up was quite fun! However, it's so easy to spend ages looking through all the different things you can add to your page and playing round with the themes and layouts that all of a sudden you realise that 2 hours have gone by and you haven't really achieved anything! It's the easiest way to procrastinate that I've ever found...

I added the RSS feed for the Education Library, as well as a couple of other things such as the Cambridge Library widget. I think these things are a nice idea but it is very reliant on readers adding them to their own pages, and I'm afraid to say this is probably unlikely to happen. At Education we use CamTools to send out announcements to specific groups which I think is a much better system as we're not then putting out information just in the hope that a reader will chance upon it one day!

My first ever blog

Well this is the first time I've ever written a blog so I'm not quite sure what I'm doing or what to expect!

I've had a look at the list of the 23 things we have to go through and I'm ashamed to say I have no idea what most of them are... My experience of Web 2.0 and social media has mainly consisted of Facebook (which I was press-ganged into joining at uni) and just generally browsing, so hopefully over the coming weeks I'll be able to learn about some useful (and probably not-so-useful) stuff.

We shall see...