Thing Nine -- Big OOPS!

Intervention time here -- I started the 23 Things On A Stick about a month late -- and I have been rushing through "Things" to try and get them done in the time I had to work on them. I got to rushing so much (which included experiencing both various frustrations and excitements at mach speed), that it was only when I was blogging about Thing Number Nine (Number Nine, Number Nine -- any Beatles fans out there??), that I realized that I had actually skipped Nine and had gone right into Ten. So, consider this a time-out and reflection. My cat Ernie, who hasn't graced this blog with his presence for a while, likes to snuggle on very cold days next to a vent under our kitchen cabinets -- my husband calls it his "time-out" since it looks exactly like someone told to stand in a corner for a naughty time-out. I can't promise that I will slow down any, but I do most sincerely plan to re-visit many of the Things over and over again -- I am getting just way too many ideas for library uses not to!

Thing Ten -- Wacky Wikis

WIKIS
Okay, now this one I am at least semi-expert with -- I have been editing/updating/creating wiki pages for some time now. The University of Minnesota Libraries uses a wiki for their staff pages. I didn't know much html (okay, I know minimal html) and while you do need to know wiki-speak to get the most out of wikis, it is vastly more easier to use than coding html web-pages.

I really enjoy editing a wiki because I don't have to know lots of coding, if I see something rather neat on another U Libraries wiki page, I can login in edit mode, to see what they did so I can do something similar -- and perhaps the best part, if there is a section of a wiki that I have the updated information for it, I can just go ahead and do it right on the spot, don't have to run it through a webmaster. It does make for more collaboration among the staff, with more people responsible for keeping the wiki page information fresh and up to date.

If you want to see what I have done, wiki-wise, here is a link to one of the wiki pages I edit: https://wiki.lib.umn.edu/Staff/ResearchPublicationsCommittee

Thing Eight -- It's All About the Sharing

Sharing is a good Thing -- its basically what we do in libraries already -- sharing resources, ideas and information. These tools just provide different ways of doing that.

I had become acquainted with SlideShare nearly a year ago. I was involved in a collaborative project with an academic department where after a class presentation, we needed to post the powerpoint slides, but within context of other resources. I was extremely happy to be told about SlideShare, since it fit the bill very nicely. Here is a link to the section of the web-page, in case anyone is interested in how it was embedded.
For this post, I have uploaded different presentation -- it is very easy to do:
SlideShare

| View | Upload your own

Photo Montages
Here is a photo montage of Flexible Fred. I had hoped that I could just pull from my Flickr account, but no, had to create yet another account (they are not that difficult to do, but are piling up). Once I created the account, uploading pix and creating the montage was incredibly easy -- and very fun to do. I can see where this could be a very exciting way to post pictures from open houses or other events -- even as a way of introducing staff in an unusual way!
PictureTrail

Databases
Bombed out on this one -- couldn't get into Lazybase.com the website must be over-loaded as I tried all morning to get to the web-site and never got anywhere. I will have to come back and revisit this one.

eFolio
Here is the link to my eFolio page. Took a bit to figure it out and it appears I didn't always remember to click "finish" when I thought I was done entering/editing a section. This is something that I will have to work over several times before I can get it to look the way I want it to. It does have nice features and makes you think about your career -- where it has been and where you want it to go. I can see where you can some fun/stamp your personality on it, as well.

Thing Seven -- Is Anybody Out There?

[Word of warning -- don't know why, but as my post continues with each section, the words get bigger and bigger and bigger!]
EMAIL
My library has been using email for a very long time. Besides our own personal email accounts, various departments have departmental accounts -- reference questions go to a reference account, technical services questions go to a technical services account and so on. I can't comment on whether or not it has improved productivity, as email has been around as long as I have been here -- but does it get in the way of productivity? It certainly does at times. I always semi-dread coming in after a weekend, knowing that the first hour or so of my time will be spent answering emails, deleting emails or deferring emails. I have frequently read my work email at home, just so that I can delete all the spam and irrelevant emails before going to work.
On the other hand, using email has been a more effective way of contacting people, especially when playing telephone tag. It also gives you a chance to spend some time researching an answer, that often talking on the phone does not. The email we use for reference is monitored on a rotating basis by the reference librarians. The option is always there that the email can be forwarded to another, if the question asked is out of the current monitor's subject scope. Email also allows the librarians to put a personality behind the answer (just by signing a name) that phone contact doesn't always do. I have helped patrons that will come back directly to me up to a year later because they remembered me via email, or were able to search their email for contact information.

IM
We have been using IM at the reference desk for a while now -- and we are not certain whether it is because we don't promote it enough, but it is seldom used by patrons. I believe it is because we have been hesitant enough about using it, that we did not give it a big enough push, or make it prominent enough on our web-page so that it would be noticed. It is actually used more by the staff instead of phoning to communicate more quickly for short answers. We are thinking of re-designing some of the web-pages to emphasize the IM capability more -- like adding Meebo widgets to resource pages. I liked the notion of calling it "Instant Librarian." Minor frustration level here -- I had created IM accounts when we first set up the service, and then never used them -- took awhile to figure what what I had and hadn't done before as services like Meebo wanted to know which of my IM accounts to add. One of my accounts, which will work on campus, but apparently not on Meebo is Jabber, as the University has set up its own Jabber account -- and the URL does not match the URL that Meebo has as a default (and I couldn't find a way to change it).

Text-Messaging
We don't have use staff cell phones at our library, so the whole text-messaging thing has not been explored at all. I had mentioned in an earlier post that the only time my cell phone is turned on is during emergencies, so I have never text-messaged. What else can I say?

Web Conferencing
I didn't have the time to attend any of the suggested webinars, however, I have participated in webinars before. I have attended staff meeting board meetings, vendor demonstrations and various types of training (usually on new library resources). The webinars have ranged from just the basic conference call/powerpoint demo to the type of webinar where the presenter takes over your pc remotely. For the most part, the webinars are very useful. Their biggest draw-back is usually the audio quality -- whether it is over the speaker phone or from the audio off the pc, I have yet to attend one where the sound was either loud enough, did not cut out every now and then or when it is part of a group and everyone is talking all at once.

Things Four, Five, Six -- Creating With Sticks

We had a library open house last October for Medical Librarians Month. For the open house we used the theme, based on the popular TV show, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, LSI: Library Scene Investigation. I had created a semi-interactive web-based quiz-game for patrons to take that was the entry way for grand prize drawings. As part of the quiz, participants were dubbed "LSI Investigators" and I had been thrilled when I had discovered the existence of image generators. Here is the badge I used and a notebook image.



I really like the little videos that Imagechef lets you create as well. Check out the video for 23ThingsOnAStick.

Things Four, Five, Six -- Playing With Sticks

Had lots of fun playing with the different Flickr tools and other mashups. At a certain point I just had to say STOP! Here at the library we really haven't taken advantage of these tools when it comes to creating unique and fascinating marketing and outreach materials. I can see lots of applications to catch the eye of our patrons -- whether it is a Flickr presence that alerts interested people to pictures that tell our story, or using mashups to create fun stuff on our web-page that gets resources and services noticed.

Things Four, Five, Six -- Pick Up Sticks

Fred in searches the Reference Collection
Originally uploaded by CedarLakeReflections

I had been aware of Flickr for some time, just never explored it. I have on occasion, done photo shoots in the library to create images for brochures, open houses, flyers and the web-pages. I decided for this exercise to use the pix I had taken of Flexible Fred, our anatomical skeleton mascot. He is a very willing (with a little help) model.

Creating a Flickr account (yet another set of user names and passwords) was easy, as was uploading the pictures. Adding the initial tags was also easy, requiring an analysis of each photo as to what elements of it would interest a person searching the collection (do people really look for pix of measuring sticks?). Our web page software contains an imaging module that I had played with when first introduced to it, but lacked the time to go back to. This introduction to Flickr reminds me that it is available, and should be dusted off and re-examined.

Oh, and if you want to see more pixs of Fred, the Flickr account name is CedarLakeReflections (for when I have time to upload my more "picturesque" photos) and the collection is Flexible Fred.