15 Technologies for Libraries ---Free, but at what cost to your soul?

Great --more stuff I feel like I should know how to use and that make me feel like I'm doing everything some old, hard, 2010 way.   I read Ellyssa Kroski's post about 15 new technologies for libraries. http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/15-free-technologies-libraries/

Actually, some of these I have used. Some I've heard of. Others are brand new to me.

Here is the list of fifteen technologies and my take on them:

 THE FIFTEEN:

1. Poll Everywhere---Ask a question --get people to text or tweet or internet their vote. The results are immediately displayed in a chart for all to see. Turn every learning moment into a popularity contest! Have not used it.
    
2. Animoto----Used it!! Both primitive and slick. Easy peazy to use, but the free version gives you hardly any recording time.

3. Mail Chimp ---Because using ordinary e-mail for e-mail campaigns is so backward. Mail Chimp has templates---and chimps!  Have not used it.

4. Zoho Creator ---Lets you custom build apps. Right --like you know how to do that!

5. PBWorks ----I have used this to keep track of all the sh### I read on librarian blogs. A knowledge management tool.

6. Coral -----An Electronic Management System for ERMS, or Electronic Resources Managers. Once I was one, and I had to dance the ERM tune. Now I'm not. Ha! So I could care less.

7.   Dropbox ----Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know. Useful tool. I was using it daily for personal stuff, like storing photos and word files. Not into that file-sharing aspect of it though. File sharing leads to unpleasant things, like doing work.  

8. Wufoo ----Aren't we SICK of cutsie app names by now? Does EVERYTHING digital has to come with a nonsensical name with multiple vowels that sounds like it belongs in a Dr. Seuss rhyme? I mean, the novelty of this is long gone, and I for one would find it refreshing to see a plain ol name like "Web Form Maker." Because that's what this app does. It makes web forms. No, I haven't used it.

9. Twitterfeed---Tweet your blog, or blog your tweet, or however it goes. Because a social media identify is like a bad flu. You only know that you have one when it comes out both ends. Haven't used!

10. Protopage ----Intriguing---a RSS reader alternative I didn't know about.  Looks better to me than Feedly, which I found obnoxious, and which has one of those annoyingly treacly names. I have much preferred CommaFeed, which I've been using since Google Reader pulled up stakes and left town. CommaFeed has a quiet, practical display which doesn't waste my time or eyeballs with some of the crap displayed on Feedly. Protopage is probably busier than I want, but I will have to check it out. Right now I'm loyal to CommaFeed, for being sane and anti-hype.

11.  Adobe Voice ----Now here's something!  Record yourself talking and they provide photos for you to add. I'm skeptical the photos are worth a darn, but as someone who loves to record herself attempting poetry, humor and performance art, this one has exciting possibilities.

12. Survey Monkey ---Put the word "monkey" or "chimp" in the name of a and people will want to use it. This does work pretty well, though. We have used it for our library surveys, though we had to purchase the Pro version to have all the features we wanted.

13. Optimal Sort ---something to do with information architecture and card sorting. Wha? Hell no I haven't used it.

14. Jing ----I used this several years ago ----seemed like support for it had floundered, so I moved over to Screencastomatic. Maybe Jing is better now, and worth another look.

15.  Free Screensharing and Free Conference Call ---Bleh. Only thing worse than people making conference calls are people making conference calls with spiffy new web tools. But I like the matter-of-fact name!

October is Library 2.0 Time!

Here is a list of the recordings from the 2014 Library 2.0 conference.

I've bolded the ones I want to watch:

Jennifer Abbott	RECORDING	Improving Digital Services Through Database Development
Stephen Abram	RECORDING	7 Tactics to Gain Big Savings through Collaboration: Can we bravely take risks?
Ayyoub Ajmi	RECORDING	Google Glass at the UMKC Law School Library
Barbara Alvarez	RECORDING	Business Services for Public Librarians
Balázs Arató	RECORDING	E-services in a hungarian academic library
Andrea Baer	RECORDING	Conceptions of Research: Implications for Information Literacy Instruction
Cintia Bastos	RECORDING	Library Reading Program for Reluctant Readers
Estelle Beck	RECORDING	The influence of the Learning Commons on the university libraries’ missions
Samantha Adams Becker	RECORDING	On the Horizon: Pressing Technologies, Trends, Challenges for Libraries
Erika Behling	RECORDING	Let’s Get Visible! (Visible!): Visible Thinking in Library Instruction
Judit BÉRES	RECORDING	Bibiotherapy - Bibliotrápia
Laura Birkenhauer	RECORDING	Evolving Approaches to Professional Development: Continuing Education for the Unemployed or Underemployed Librarian
Amanda Bjorling	RECORDING	Meeting the Diverse Needs of High School Learners through Online Learning
Elizabeth Borghi	RECORDING	LIS Skills Beyond The Library
Phil Bradley	RECORDING	Alternative search engines; why Google simply isn't enough.
Christine Bruce	RECORDING	Information Experience: New approaches to theory and practice
Raymond Pun	RECORDING	WeChat, Library Chat: Exploring New Mobile Services for Students in China
Patrice Bryan & Darcy Coffta	RECORDING	Schools' Vortex: Innovative Library Makerspaces
Mara Cabrera	RECORDING	Reality & Virtuality: Research expectations, responsibilities, and technologies in the dissemination phase of a 4-year study
Mardene Carr	RECORDING	Mobile Technologies and Libraries: Match Made in Heaven or Marriage Gone Wrong?
Tina Chan	RECORDING	A Study of Gimlet Use in Reference Transactions
Tina Chan	RECORDING	Kickstart Your Publishing: Writing Reviews
Roxanne Clement	RECORDING	School Library Digital Learning Spaces
Closing Social	RECORDING	Closing Social
Rachel Collier	RECORDING	3D printing at the Reference Desk
IdaMae Craddock	RECORDING	From Maker Space to Learning Commons
Amy Croft	RECORDING	Get it Together' Study Nights - Initiating a new user-centred service in an academic library - Amy Croft Senior Librarian / Campus Library Manager
Sherry R. Crow	RECORDING	Aren't all kids the same? Looking at cultural differences in motivating students to seek information
Eszter Csorba-Simon	RECORDING	A Baranya Megyei Könyvtárellátási Szolgáltatási Rendszer működése/ The Operation of the Service System of Library tendings
Julienne DesJardins	RECORDING	Get Noticed: Create Compelling Images that Spark Engagement
Dóra Egervári	RECORDING	Information literacy and adult education in Hungary
Ashley Eklof	RECORDING	BiblioTech, Year One
Nancy Faget	RECORDING	Virtual Internship: Where in the World is Great Science being Done?
Nancy Faget	RECORDING	Cool Tools to Visualize Information
Rita Fekete	RECORDING	Open access and the academic libraries
Matthew Follett	RECORDING	Engaging Students with eBooks and Classroom Connections
Donna Frederick	RECORDING	Do you have what it takes to manage an eBook library?
Katie Garcia	RECORDING	The Freshman Flip: An Exploration
Loida Garcia-Febo	RECORDING	Libraries as a Safe Heaven in Times of Conflict
Sherry Gick & Matthew Winner	RECORDING	When Sherry Met Matthew: Finding Your Educational Soulmate and Helping Kids to Rule the World
Brigitta Goerres	RECORDING	Libraries: A Destination of Learning
Hilda Gomez	RECORDING	El Poder de los Cuentos Digitales
Emily Gover	RECORDING	Be Mindful of the Gap: Understanding Information Literacy Struggles Between High School & Higher Education
Chris Hagar	RECORDING	Supporting the humanitarian effort during disasters: Opportunities for LIS students as digital volunteers
Jonathan Hernández	RECORDING	Internet censorship, privacy and freedom of expression: new challenges for LIS professionals.
Susan Hildreth	RECORDING	Libraries as community learning partners - STEM, Maker and Badging!
Valerie Hill	RECORDING	Embedding Librarians in Digital Culture
Sandra Hirsh	RECORDING	Working in a Global Environment – Success Strategies for Today’s Information Professional
Richard P. Hulser	RECORDING	Driving digital destinies through multi-institutional collaborations
Uta Hussong-Christian	RECORDING	Whiteboard Visualizations: Evidence of Learning in Student-Centered Library Spaces
Csuka Dalma Ilona	RECORDING	Demand for access to higher education and public opinion about LIS
Alexandra Janvey	RECORDING	Creating a Successful Online Portfolio
Brigitta Jávorka	RECORDING	Personal Information Management in the library - Személyes információszervezés a könyvtárban
Amy Jiang	RECORDING	Expanding library technology services to support and enhance students’ technology skills
Linda Kalejs	RECORDING	Building capability: an holistic approach to MOOC development
kYmberly Keeton	RECORDING	The Special Library Express: An Open-Dialogue about Library Express Stations Being Created in Local Community Centers and Cultural Arts Complexes in the United States
Sara Kelso	RECORDING	Get Published! The Best Advice for Students Submitting to Peer-Reviewed Journals
Tibor Koltay	RECORDING	Data literacy (Adat-írástudás)
Marc Kosciejew	RECORDING	Personal Data Rights in a Digital Age: Ownership, Control, Privacy, and Anonymity
Edina Kovács	RECORDING	Open access and archive policies’ current opportunity and situation
Jennifer LaGarde	RECORDING	Imagining Library Spaces of the Future, Today
Jason LeDuc	RECORDING	LibSat: Getting Ahead of Your Customer Satisfaction Issues
Jason LeDuc	RECORDING	Taming the Quantitative Data Monster with LibPAS: What? Who? Where? Why? How?
David V. Loertscher	RECORDING	Co-Teaching Path to Excellence in the Learning Commons
Michelle Luhtala	RECORDING	Flipped Learning and the Essential Tools to Get you There
Lili Luo	RECORDING	Enhancing Librarians’ Research Skills: A Professional Development Program
Melissa Mallon	RECORDING	Promoting Critical Thinking Through Authentic Learning Activities
Clare McKenzie	RECORDING	Building professional relationships with the International Librarians Network
Eve Melton	RECORDING	Shifting Medical Library Strategies amidst Healthcare Transformation
Phil Morehart	RECORDING	Inside New Library Design
Rebecca Morris	RECORDING	Channeling Energies in Library Digital Storytelling
Peter Morville	RECORDING	The Architecture of Understanding
Peter Murray	RECORDING	Making Open Source Work for You
Ana Ndumu	RECORDING	Cultural Literacy as Information Literacy at HBCU Libraries
Heidi Neltner	RECORDING	Your Stakeholder Connected Librarian Toolkit
Marton Nemeth	RECORDING	A summary from a student point of view about the Digital Library Learning Programme
Marton Nemeth	RECORDING	ELDORADO-A national user centred library service development project in Hungary - Marton Nemeth
Judy O’Connell	RECORDING	Leadership in a connected age: change, challenge and productive chaos
Ji Hak Paul Park	RECORDING	Building a library mobile site in three weeks - Ji Hak Paul Park, Web services librarian
Kathleen Phillips	RECORDING	Usability and You: Website usability testing your library's virtual presence
Attila Piros	RECORDING	Questions of Automatic Analysis of UDC Notations / Az ETO jelzetek automatikus elemzésének kérdései
Lauren Poelvoorde	RECORDING	Interactive eStorytimes for Kids
Kelly Rembert	RECORDING	Marketing on a Budget
Pam Sandlian-Smith	RECORDING	Creating Experience Libraries
Sarah Schmidt	RECORDING	Facing a Rising Tide: Using Blackboard to Navigate a Flood of New Information Literacy Instruction Needs
Dr. Daisy Selematsela	RECORDING	Perspective on the evolving roles of information professionals within the South African National System of Innovation (NSI)
Amy Shaffer	RECORDING	Creative Good: How Creative Collaboration in the Library can Generate Global Impact
Man Shu	RECORDING	DigiBook MakerSpace in Chinese Public Libraries
Michael Stephens	RECORDING	Finding Balance: Reflective Practice and the Profession
David Stern	RECORDING	Harvesting and organizing many types of web materials using capture software
Barbara Stripling	RECORDING	Building a Learning Community Through a Library Learning Commons
Patrick Sweeney	RECORDING	How to Win Elections and Influence Politicians
Roy Tennant	RECORDING	How to Be a 21st Century Librarian
Ellen Tise	RECORDING	Access to knowledge - reality or fantasy in the digital age
Sue Toms	RECORDING	Listening to the Library: What should be our role in providing and promoting audiobooks to patrons?
Joyce Valenza	RECORDING	Welcome Session
Joyce Valenza	RECORDING	Closing Session
Joyce Valenza	RECORDING	Librarians and Social Capital
B.Vijayalakshmi	RECORDING	User Centered Community Service Models
Revathi Viswanathan	RECORDING	Knowledge Enhancement through Emerging Technologies- Need of the Hour in Digital Era
David Weinberger	RECORDING	John Henry in the Library: Algorithms vs. Humans
Debbie Weissmann	RECORDING	Gamifying for Librarians
Larry Wilson	RECORDING	The Media Center as a Production Center
Jia Yang	RECORDING	Exploring the Use of Information Visualization for Library
Melda N. Yildiz	RECORDING	Developing Transdisciplinary Lesson Plans and Integrating Information Literacy Skills for K12 Classrooms
Michelle Zaffino	RECORDING	The Future: In the Stacks Book Recommendation App

Free images from cool places!

It's been a long time since I posted. The long, cold winter we had made me revert to my frozen ways of the
past.

But I am BACK, and I had to post this item about a rich resource of sites where you can get a lot of free,  high resolution earth images:

http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/guide-little-known-image-collections-millions-free-hi-res-images/

My activity on Pinterest

Finnish Libraries Now!

Hooray for Finns! They are way into books and big fans of their libraries.

I am re-posting this - got this image and information from the Designer Librarian's blog.  She said she could see through the windows of this library in Turku, lots of people sitting inside, in the middle of the day, JUST READING.  Heaven.

For more of a look at libraries in Finland, check out the Designer Librarian's blog and the site Finnish Libraries Now! 

Thanks to the Designer Librarian for hipping me to this.

A mock ad for a workout video for librarians from 1987. Weird and hilarious!

Library 2.0 webinars I've watched January 2013

These can all be found on the Library 2.0 website. The recordings of the 2012 conference sessions are available for viewing. I always have a long list of sessions I want to watch! Below is the first batch I've watched. Some of my notes on these are rudimentary. As I go back over and review them again, I may update them with more information. For now, I'm just trying to keep track of what I watched, and the jist of what it covered.

Research on the go: Preparing Libraries to be Mobile Friendly. Towards the end it seemed more geared to school librarians, but there were some interesting note-taking and citation tools presented that could be useful to anyone. Want to try some of the note-taking and mind-mapping tools she presented: popplet, mind-blowing, posterous, evernote, easybib, linolt, show me.

Best Practices in University Embedded Librarian work. Very practical and good webinar with lots of detail and ideas for what embedding actually means and what it looks like. Valuable screenshots of a library embedding itself within the course management system. I took screenshots of the screenshots and made my own power point out of them so I could review them later.

Guide on the side: Easy tutorial creation for busy librarians 
I wasn't aware that "Guide on the side" was a product until I watched this. Will have to explore this further.

Building a Medical Library Knowledge Base Using LibAnswers
Another product I was not aware of --LibAnswers

Life After Meebo: Evaluating Virtual Reference Services for Your Library in the Post-Meebo Virtual Environment.
Gave some cool examples of the way incoming virtual reference questions look to the librarian. Will have to review my screenshots, because I can't remember more right now.

Online Vs Face to Face Information Literacy Instruction
Examples of online information literacy instruction and how to assess them

Toward a Sustainable Embedded Librarian program
Library had success with embedded librarian program, but found it took too much time and could not keep up with the demand of growing classes that needed it. Their solution was to purchase LibGuides and use that to more efficiently create embedded content and modules.

E-Book Follies

This little promo for Bibliocommons illustrates the silo effect of different e-book platforms:

OLA Superconference topics! Wish I could attend the first four!

Doubling Down: An analysis of and recommendations for Wilfrid Laurier University Library’s online teaching and learning programme

The Wilfrid Laurier University Library undertook a review of its online teaching and learning strategy. This examination included an analysis of the library’s teaching and learning goals, tools, and organizational structure, a literature review of current theory and methods in online teaching and learning, and a survey of instructional librarians at post-secondary libraries across North America. Our results, which call for more self-service learning options, a stronger online presence for librarians, and a renewed organizational structure for online instruction, are informing the Library’s wider restructuring as it moves toward a student-centered, digital-oriented service model.

Information Literacy Program Innovation Using Blended Learning Course Redesign Models

Blended learning requires a fundamental course redesign to effectively integrate both face-to-face and online elements. Using a project management approach and course redesign models from the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) in the U.S., McMaster University Library implemented a blended learning pilot in five large enrolment undergraduate classes with existing information literacy components, with the goal of enhancing learning outcomes and reducing face-to-face information literacy instruction across the library system by 50%. Using results from instructor focus groups and student online surveys, we will assess this innovation in terms of project management, learning outcomes, workload, technologies and partnerships.

How to Integrate the ILS System, Social Media and Subject Guides

There are many different ways to manage subject data in library system. But how to integrate them, make them work together and have one stop access for patrons is a big challenge. This poster will use one example –GIS (Geographic information system) research project to show the steps. The display will include how we export data from Voyager, import into Pinterest, and then link to LibGuides, which is followed by twitter and links with LibCal. Faculty and students will access GIS resource and related event in one place. It is helpful for research and study. There are many different ways to manage subject data in library system. But how to integrate them, make them work together and have one stop access for patrons is a big challenge. This poster will use one example –GIS (Geographic information system) research project to show the steps. The display will include how we export data from Voyager, import into Pinterest, and then link to LibGuides, which is followed by twitter and links with LibCal. Faculty and students will access GIS resource and related event in one place. It is helpful for research and study.


Creating a Virtual Branch Using WordPress

When creating a new website, Grey Highlands Public Library (GHPL) chose to use the Open Source Content Management Software WordPress to create an interactive web experience that provides the same level of service as a physical branch would. Using Instant WordPress, GHPL developed a new branch website offline on a flash drive before making it “live”. The new interactive website provides a cutting-edge experience for our patrons that is easy for staff to maintain and upgrade. Open Source software allows public libraries to create an easy-to-access interactive virtual branch.

Virtual Orientation to Services for Students with Disabilities

Student engagement, recruitment and retention are critical issues in the post-secondary environment and this applies equally to students with disabilities. Increasingly we are turning to instructional videos that can be accessed online anytime and anywhere. This poster will highlight the work carried out to date on a video project by York’s Academic Innovation Fund. A joint venture between Counselling & Disability Services and York University Libraries, the end products will assist both prospective and current students in navigating their way across campus to various services and in using accessibility software (e.g. Kurzweil).

Use Online Forms in Library Activities

Google Docs forms have been widely used in the library for many purposes, such as collecting registration, feedback, and suggestions. This poster goes beyond that and presents three explorative practices of using online forms to communicate with patrons at McGill University: (A) marketing library services to faculty by creating a checklist using a Google Docs form, (B) assessing students’ information literacy needs by an online pre-test form, and (C) getting consensus on the ranking of journal subscription suggestions within the department by a LimeSurvey form. Issues of using online forms will be discussed.

Beyond Literacy: Exploring a post-literate future

Reading and writing are doomed. Literacy as we know it is over. Welcome to the post-literate future. Beyond Literacy is a thought experiment, which explores the possibilities of a post-literate future -a future in which literacy (reading and writing; visible language) has been displaced, replaced, or exceeded by a new or evolved capacity, capability or tool. It is also an experiment in scholarly communication (www.beyondliteracy.com) and pedagogy. Created by University of Guelph librarian and instructor, Michael Ridley, in conjunction with graduate students at the University of Toronto’s iSchool, the project was co-published by ACRL and OLA.

Entering the Academic Honesty Milieu: Strategies for success

What role can a library play in advancing the academic integrity of its institution? See how Library & Learning Services has been leading academic honesty initiatives at Sheridan College and the impact these have had at both the program and administrative levels. We’ll share practical strategies for implementing a suite of learning tools that can transform an institution’s approach to policy development, prevention and intervention strategies.

Getting Ready for RDA: A Modular approach to training library staff

Resource Description and Access is the new content standard coming this Spring 2013. Libraries will need to address training for staff in all Departments on how to interpret, catalogue and use RDA records. This poster will analyze training needs faced by most libraries and offer a practical guide to implementing RDA applicable to libraries of all sizes. Emma Cross is a member of the Pan-Canadian Working Group on Cataloguing with RDA and the poster will be based on her experiences planning and delivering RDA training at Carleton University Library. Please drop by to discuss RDA and obtain some practical suggestions on implementation for your Library.

Google vs Databases : Comparison of Information Retrieval Systems

We have access to an unprecedented amount of electronic information. In general, it appears that most people have come to rely on search engines as their preferred information source. Librarians and other key stakeholders prefer to access information from subscription based databases. In an objective, evidence based approach we evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of search engines and databases. The results show a statistically significant difference in search results that will assist key stakeholders to make more informed decisi

Paper-thin tablets are like magic slates for grown-ups.

As a cavewoman, the part of my brain that is capable of envisioning the future is the size of a beetle turd. So when trying to imagine computing devices of tomorrow, I was never able to picture something like this: a tablet thin and flexible as paper.

This reminds me of something I saw a small human child playing with. She called it a "magic slate". She could draw on it with a plastic stylus, and when she wanted to start over, she lifted up the top layer of sheer film, and then returned it, which erased her image. I thought it was a marvel among marvels. But now I see that it was merely what your people call a "toy."

This, is the marvel!

Cavalcade of Webinards

Okay, you can see my page has been dormant for some months. That's because it got cold. I thought another ice age was upon us, and was preparing to crawl back into the glacier from which I first crawled. Maybe then, I thought, I can go back to sleep and re-emerge in a kinder, gentler time, like the times I knew before: People hanging strips of fresh kill over crude fires. People communicating deep meanings through intimate grunts and howls, instead of busy dots on a screen that make me dizzy. But the ice time has not come, and I am stuck here, as always, a fish out of sea. An unfrozen cavewoman librarian. And so I must continue my learning. And I see many online tools at my disposal. And so I will partake. May the cavalcade of webinards begin. Er, webinars. I will watch these on my light box and report back to humanities on which thing I have learned.

Gorilla Librarian

My dream employers! I want them to hire me.






I'm only a cavewoman, not a gorilla. But I think I have some skills that would translate.

Oh Oh -- October Means 2.0

It's that time of year again. October is the month when the Big Chiefs of Library get together for the Library 2.0 Worldwide Virtual Conference .

I always miss this virtual meeting, because I am stuck here at work in my brick and mortar library, dealing with flesh and blood patrons. But I can watch the conference sessions after the fact. The conference people post recordings afterwards, and you can find those here.

There are so many good sessions to choose from! I would like to sit in my cave--er--cubicle, all day and watch these!

These are the conference sessions I want to see:

Embedding library services and information literacy: Successful online library liaison for TAFE (Technical and Further Education) students in Australia.

Setting Priorities in Libraries: Focusing on the Transformation

You are not a robot: Edmonton Public Library’s approach to digital literacy, digital interview, and flexible co-learning for library staff and customer

Toward a Sustainable Embedded Librarian Program

Taking Access to the User Online

Scanned publications in digital libraries: new Open Source DjVu tools

Training Classroom Faculty to teach Information Literacy

23 Things: The Next Generation

Digital Copyright

Leadership and Career Success for the 21st Century Information Professional

Campaigning for a Library Job: Maximizing Professional Development Opportunities to Differentiate Yourself From Other Applicants

Building Online Special Mini Collections for the Bryant & Stratton College Virtual Library

Creating and Using Webinars to Reach Distance Learners

Critical Perspectives on Social Media: A New Educational Role for Librarians?

Social Media for Scholars

Moving Beyond the Traditional One-Shot Library Instruction Session

Online Embedded Academic Librarians: accessing the student's library needs in the online classroom

Getting By With Google?

Free Online Conferencing Tools for Outreach & Instruction

Social Media Trifecta

Information Literacy in a Digital Culture: the Hierarchy has Toppled

Online Book Groups in School and Public Libraries

  

Social Media Narrowcasting

Good Leaders: More Important Than Ever - But How Do We Get Them Ready???

Sensible Shoes on the Ground: Embedding in an Undergraduate Research Experience

Web resources: Getting the most for your money

Effectively Curating a Pinterest Account for Academic Libraries

Citing Sources in a 2.0 World

Delivering 24/7 Library Services from an 8/5 Library Facility

The Triumphs and Tribulations of a Web Scale Discovery Implementation

Guide on the Side : Easy Tutorial Creation for Busy Librarians

Telling Your Advocacy Story with Digital Tools

Best practices in University Embedded Librarian work

Who is the Distance Learning Librarian? Exploring Job Announcements to Understand Evolving Professional Roles

Research on the Go! Preparing Libraries to be Mobile Friendly

Web 2.0 in the Library for Embedded Librarianship

Searching the Web: Information Literacy Tips, Tricks, and Strategies for Educators

 Online Vs Face to Face Information Literacy Instruction

Librarian Crap I Gotta Do Before the Snow Flies

My to-do list for October:

Write report of continuing education classes I attended at MCMLA to present to Grant Award Committee.

I took a class on non-delivery and another on making better presentations. Very helpful information to a cavewoman. Learned that I really am going to have to ditch the club once and for all. It intimidates patrons. And it does not make a very good pointer when I'm showing slides.

Speaking of the MCMLA Conference....

Review notes and wrote blog post about what I learned, so that I can remember what I learned, which I don't remember right now.

Write 300 word essay for application for ACRL Scholarship to take online course on embedded librarianship.

Ah, what's the hurry. I still have two more days until the deadline.

Review six papers that have been submitted for the ACC-RAC conference. 

Snooze.....

Sharpen tools

That is, try out nifty new online tools I read about on someone's blog and see if I can add them to my toolkit.

Create new Tumblr so I can call myself a Tumblrarian.

New Tools for Librarians - Not the Sharp Kind

I totally stole this from the Hack Library School website. There is a Library School named Hack?

It is a big-ass list of tools, and if there is one thing I like, it's a good tool. Before the Freeze, when I was still roaming the younger Earth as a cave humanoid, my people relied on many tools to survive in a harsh landscape riddled with steaming tar pits and blood-fanged beasts. So I know all about the value of a good tool that can save you from having to use your teeth. You don't have to tell me.

So here, copied and pasted directly from the librarian hacks are tools I wanna try:

Online collaboration and presentation tools (slides, videos, etc.)

• SlideRocket:A presentation tool that also includes interactive features like polls for the audience. (Note: free version available for students.)
• Prezi: I think many people have heard of Prezi, the zooming presentation tool that offers a dynamic variation of the slideshow. Some people experience vertigo with the more extreme zooming, though, so use with caution! The site provides more features for users who sign up with a school email account (ending in .edu).
• Storybird: For the visually-oriented, Storybird provides lots of illustrations that you can use to create a presentation or a story. This site is particularly wonderful for storytelling classes and other youth-oriented presentations.
• PBworks (wiki): This site allows you to create wiki workspaces for collaborative building of content on webpages. I used the site with a group last fall to build a site of information about the technology we used to communicate and construct our group presentation over the course of the semester: MLIS Tech Toolkit (includes some other online tools like QR code generators and faux-Facebook wall pages). All of the student groups in my program also use this site as a communication tool to post meeting minutes, draft letters, plan projects, and otherwise share information.
• Piktochart: This site offers templates for creating infographics.
• Mindomo: Mindomo is a concept mapping tool that helps you visualize connections between ideas. It is useful as a planning tool for group projects and can also double as a presentation platform. You can see the concept map my group created while putting together a presentation on technology and libraries: Technology Presentation.
• Google Drive and Google Sites: Google of course has many tools for communication and other things. I’ve used Google Drive (formerly Google Docs) to write papers and make slideshows collaboratively with classmates. Google Sites allows you to build simple websites quickly.
• WordPress: Though primarily a blogging platform, WordPress also has templates that make for good multipage websites.

Live communication and social media

• TodaysMeet: This site allows you to create backchannel chat rooms that you can use in various contexts to allow people to carry on a conversation during an event (like a presentation, a class lecture, a workshop, etc.).
• Poll Everywhere: This site offers real-time polling via text message, tweeting, and online web interface. You can set up a poll that updates in real time on a projected screen to show audience feedback, for example.
• Storify: There a number of these second-order types of social media sites that help repackage social media feeds.

Library-oriented sites

• Library Thing: Library Thing allows you to build collections of books, essentially creating a catalog that also has social media features (ability to connect with other users/collections and to access reviews across the site). We briefly looked at this site in a class to talk about the interface between traditional catalog metadata and social media tagging.
• Omeka: Omeka allows users to create digital collections and provides substantive metadata features for organizing digital objects and making them accessible.

Open Library: This site aims to be a universal library catalog with a page of information for every book ever published.

Thanks again to the Hack Library School for these. Very smart and helpful people. Though if you ask me, they really ought to change their name.

Screencast-O-matic is good. Make good screencasts. I like.

It's taken awhile, but I finally found a screencasting program I like. I was gonna use Jing, but they discontinued Jing Pro, and basic Jing didn't have enough editing tools. So then I was gonna use Screenr, but I could never get the screen recorder to launch. I tried many, many times on my work computer and my laptop, and it just spun there, never loading. A promise that never delivered, like some cavemen I knew back when there were cavemen. 

So I gave Screencast-O-matic a shot, and so far I'm happy with it. The screen recorder opened right away and before you knew it I was recording. I decided to get the pro version cuz it has editing tools ---change the speed, zoom and pan, add overlays, animations, transitions, fade in and fade out, add text, add call-outs, add images and audio ---and only costs $15 a year. Which in your world is what they call chump change.

I liked that Screencast-O-matic had little videos on its website showing me how to use the editing tools. That way I could see what the editing tools could do before I decided whether or not to go pro. I also like that the edit tools give you the option of sizing your video for YouTube. And whether you use the free version or pro, you can publish directly to YouTube, or to a MP4, AVI or FLV file.

I'm completely new to screencasting and to adding animation and call-outs and all, but Screencast-O-matic is pretty easy to use and I'm learning quickly. Even for a cave-woman. I recommend it.

Viable E-book Options for Libraries

I am cavewoman librarian. I being always confusion. Talking the books and e-books. Confusion.  Make me raise armpit hairs to my sky and say, "What happened to the tablets?" I mean the stone kind, not the shiny black kind that have spirits living inside them.

The spirit tablets have gods of many names. Ipad. Nook. Kindle Fire. But the Kindle Fire is a weak god. It has no real fire.

Major librarians say people read these spirit tablets, read e-books. They say these e-books are the future world and I am must learn them.

They give me two rules about e-books for libraries:

Rule #1  Ownership privileges are GOOD
Rule #2  DRM software is BAD

Must pound head with club to learn rules of e-books. Pound head good so rules don't fall out.

Here is guide to e-books for libraries that do rules. You use for good hunt:

http://lisinfo.org/ebooks/

Look out for spiders. The semantic web is here.

I'm told that the semantic web isn't really a real web like the cobwebs hanging from the corners of the mud pit where I do my bathing. So I'm reassured that there is no giant flesh-eating spider at the center of the semantic web waiting to devour me, though I have dreamed this many times.

Instead, I'm told, the semantic web is a sophisticated system of information that will make meaningful connections for us, figuring out what we want, even if we don't say it directly. In other words, reading our minds. Somehow this frightens me even more than the giant spider. 

But ready or not, here it comes.

So sez Mashable.

They say that Google is going to change the way we google, like today. They are launching their   “Knowledge Graph”, which will nudge and wink at you, suggesting in a pop-up window, that they know what you mean when you type in an ambiguous or vague search term, such as "man cave."

According to Mashable, Ben Gomes of Google says Google is switching “from strings to things.” That is, over 500 million people, places and things, with 3.5 billion attributes.

Just recognizing keywords isn't enough. Now it's relationshipes, entities. Nodes.

And soon enough, the whole webby universe is bound to follow suit. Everything is about to change tremendously. Again. Just when I thought I was getting the knack of this place.

It's enough to make an unfrozen cavewoman librarian cry.

---

New mobile products: Fanggle, Boopsie and Mosio.

When I was freshly thawed out, and desperate to learn about your modern world, I watched a lot of children's TV. The colors were bright, the songs were happy, and they broke things down in a way I could understand. Well, except for the Teletubbies. They just confused me.

Now I am a librarian, out in the workforce, and I hear someone talk about Fanggle, Boopsie and Mosio. I think these must be new characters on Sesame Street. Or a new cartoon. And I get a soft feeling for those shows I used to watch. But no, I am told these are companies offering new mobile products for libraries.

Fanggle and Boopsie make it possible for libraries to provide a bunch of services through mobile devices. Mosio has a Text a Librarian service.

I keep running into this sort of thing. It confuses a cavewoman. Twitter, Flickr, Google, Beebo, Wiki, ooVoo, Meebo, Moodle....They all sound like muppets to me.     

Eeee-Books. A Librarian's Guide To Publishers.

The landscape of e-publishing and e-formats is ever-shifting, like the earth that used to rumble underneath my people in the early time. Some times the earth would begin to quake, and then it would open up and swallow one of my many husbands.

E-books are kind of like that. There is no steady plain, no solid ground that might not turn to quicksand overnight. For this reason, they make me a little misty-eyed for my home land.

But I'm also very confused, which is why I was glad to see this Guide to Publishers in the Library E-book Market, published on the Digital Shift site. I will keep it as a reference, until the publishing ground shifts again.

 The guide differentiates between publishers catering to public libraries and those with more of an academic focus, which is good because a lot of the information I find on E-books is for public library collections, but I manage a small library for a health professional school.

Because our library is small, and the curriculum of our school has a specialized focus, we don't want some big wooly mammoth package, offering a lot of books we don't need. We want to be able to pick and choose the titles that are just right for us, like specific anatomy atlases and textbooks on physiology and pathology.

But I have yet to find a publisher or vendor who can match what we need on our terms. When I have looked through some of the book lists from companies providing health science content, I did not see anything that would be useful to a large number of our users. What I saw instead were titles like: "What you need to know about colon polyps."

Where I come from, we did not have colon polyps. The gravel we ingested with our food made sure of that. We did not have strange writings in the clouds. We had cave drawings. More direct, if you ask me. But what do I know? I'm just a cavewoman.

There are many, many mysteries surrounding Eeee-books, and each provider of e-books offers different lending/purchasing models, keeping the mystery alive. I ask, can we lend the e-books to everyone, or just one person at a time? Will they work on any device? What kind of pricing models are available? Would it even make sense to get e-books for our library? Or are we jumping on a wagon of bands? Do users want them?

So many questions. I will continue to hunt for answers, like I used to hunt the mighty Trachodon, and I will post the information I find here. But right now, my prominent, over-sized forehead hurts.