I received an email from the Head of Reader Services last week. It had a link in it and told me my username and password asking me to check it out. So, I checked it out and didn't think it really applied to me. I couldn't imagine how I could possibly use this site called LibGuides. I read through a few of the pages and saw that there was a faculty welcome, information about ARTSTOR and some LibGuides pertaining to classes here on campus. What could this possibly have to do with Interlibrary Loan?
Every summer I work on a folder about how to fill ILL requests. Just in case I ever suddenly go away, anyone could do what I do by simply following my step-by-step instructions in this folder. I call it my "Hit By the Bus" folder. Although, I never cross enough busy streets to actually get hit by a bus, but one never knows. I mentioned to the Head of Access Services that I'd like to start a wiki to use as this guide instead of a folder. She immediately asked if I had thought of using LibGuides. OH! That's what I could do!
Now I have all these ideas about how to use LibGuides. I have already started my "Hit by the Bus" page and it should be published by the end of the summer, but it will be private. Which is another great part about LibGuides. Some of them can only be seen by admins and others by the public right from the homepage. I have been having a great time playing with it and figuring things out on my own, but there is also a tutorial that can be viewed at any time.
I'm going to start one right now about our ILL policies. There is a permanent widget on this blog in the side bar that has links to a few of the LibGuides we have published here. Check it out!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
What does this have to do with libraries?
Anyone who knows me knows that I attend as many library workshops and meetings as I can. I recently attended "Blogs and Wikis and Podcasts, Oh My!" Which, of course, are all great tools for libraries. Although, I'm not completely sold on Podcasts yet. What interested me most in this workshop, however, really had little to do with libraries.
First they talked about mobile devices (which I do not own) and how they bring the private world of the PC to the public spaces like the subway. I use twitter.com as a way to learn about news during the day. What twitter does is allows me to go about my business and if something happens in the world...or at my friends house...that person tweets about it and I read it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter It's a social network of sorts since you can find people and add people to your followed friends list BUT it's also a micro-blog, or a little update. I have a few libraries that I follow on twitter. They don't update often, but when they do it directs me to their blog or let's me know that their hours are changing for the summer, etc. I think it's better for librarian-to-librarian updates, but people are using for all kinds of things. In fact, I had a librarian following me while I was at the workshop AND I was twittering away...giving her links to what we were learning about. How does twitter tie in with mobile devices? Well, this librarian follows twitter on her mobile device so she is constantly informed by her twitter friends! It's really a very cool thing!
A few other sites that were mentioned at this workshop were digg, skype and facebook. With skype you can make phone calls from your computer. Why use a phone when there's skype? I'm not completely sold on that. This is DIGG http://digg.com/how Another one I have never used, but I like the idea of it. It's a social network of sorts that uses popular websites to connect people, from what I understand. I'm not sure how libraries could use it, but I have heard about it from numerous librarians who are online. Facebook is a social network, not unlike MySpace, where you find people you know and add them as friends. You can play games with them, leave them comments, join groups, and even send out party invitations on facebook. Of course, if not all of your friends are on facebook you'll find yourself using email and evite and snail mail as well as facebook to invite everyone to your shindig. Can you tell I have some experience in this? The difference here is that libraries ARE using facebook and MySpace to connect with patrons and staff members as well as other libraries to collaborate. Think about it. If your patrons are constantly "plugged in" as I like to call it, and you are a "friend" on their Facebook page you can tell them about upcoming events or hour changes or even have a link on your social network page directly to your catalog. You can also link your live help there too!
We learned about Wikis and podcasts too, which I plan to blog about on another day. They really each need their own blog.
The woman closing the workshop told us about a bunch of really neat stuff, and I have been trying to figure out why. This workshop is for librarians, so why did she tell us about whoissick.com? A website where you go on and put your mark on the map telling people what your ailments are. Why did she tell us about mash-ups and QR Codes which don't even exist in the US yet? Why? Because librarians are all about information. Librarians want to know where people are getting their information if it's not from a library. Librarians want to know how they can get the information first so they can give it to their patrons so their patrons keep coming back for more.
First they talked about mobile devices (which I do not own) and how they bring the private world of the PC to the public spaces like the subway. I use twitter.com as a way to learn about news during the day. What twitter does is allows me to go about my business and if something happens in the world...or at my friends house...that person tweets about it and I read it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter It's a social network of sorts since you can find people and add people to your followed friends list BUT it's also a micro-blog, or a little update. I have a few libraries that I follow on twitter. They don't update often, but when they do it directs me to their blog or let's me know that their hours are changing for the summer, etc. I think it's better for librarian-to-librarian updates, but people are using for all kinds of things. In fact, I had a librarian following me while I was at the workshop AND I was twittering away...giving her links to what we were learning about. How does twitter tie in with mobile devices? Well, this librarian follows twitter on her mobile device so she is constantly informed by her twitter friends! It's really a very cool thing!
A few other sites that were mentioned at this workshop were digg, skype and facebook. With skype you can make phone calls from your computer. Why use a phone when there's skype? I'm not completely sold on that. This is DIGG http://digg.com/how Another one I have never used, but I like the idea of it. It's a social network of sorts that uses popular websites to connect people, from what I understand. I'm not sure how libraries could use it, but I have heard about it from numerous librarians who are online. Facebook is a social network, not unlike MySpace, where you find people you know and add them as friends. You can play games with them, leave them comments, join groups, and even send out party invitations on facebook. Of course, if not all of your friends are on facebook you'll find yourself using email and evite and snail mail as well as facebook to invite everyone to your shindig. Can you tell I have some experience in this? The difference here is that libraries ARE using facebook and MySpace to connect with patrons and staff members as well as other libraries to collaborate. Think about it. If your patrons are constantly "plugged in" as I like to call it, and you are a "friend" on their Facebook page you can tell them about upcoming events or hour changes or even have a link on your social network page directly to your catalog. You can also link your live help there too!
We learned about Wikis and podcasts too, which I plan to blog about on another day. They really each need their own blog.
The woman closing the workshop told us about a bunch of really neat stuff, and I have been trying to figure out why. This workshop is for librarians, so why did she tell us about whoissick.com? A website where you go on and put your mark on the map telling people what your ailments are. Why did she tell us about mash-ups and QR Codes which don't even exist in the US yet? Why? Because librarians are all about information. Librarians want to know where people are getting their information if it's not from a library. Librarians want to know how they can get the information first so they can give it to their patrons so their patrons keep coming back for more.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Rethink Resource Sharing
I attended the Nelinet Conference all about "The Future of Interlibrary Loan." Parts of it were interesting. The most interesting thing I found was the section about the Interoperability Committee.
This committee has come up with a plug-in called the GoGetter. It sounds as if it almost done and is just awaiting OCLC to complete the licensing portion. This plug-in "lets people search the web to get published items from a variety of sources, including libraries and booksellers. When the plugin is used through a browser, a list of sources appears showing the source, format, title, author, terms of use, and any cost. The user will simply click on the item they want and, depending on their choice, will then be able to order the item, place a hold, make an ILL request, or view the item online." (from rethinkingresourcesharing.com) I have been playing with the plug-in for a short while now and it seems to not be working yet. Although, right on that website they do have a download...which my computer didn't seem to like very much. It is only for firefox, which I suggest you use anyway. ..but that another blog for another day. Once they have this up and running I will plug it in and use it a few times before blogging about it again. It is an exciting thing for libraries, however.
This committee has come up with a plug-in called the GoGetter. It sounds as if it almost done and is just awaiting OCLC to complete the licensing portion. This plug-in "lets people search the web to get published items from a variety of sources, including libraries and booksellers. When the plugin is used through a browser, a list of sources appears showing the source, format, title, author, terms of use, and any cost. The user will simply click on the item they want and, depending on their choice, will then be able to order the item, place a hold, make an ILL request, or view the item online." (from rethinkingresourcesharing.com) I have been playing with the plug-in for a short while now and it seems to not be working yet. Although, right on that website they do have a download...which my computer didn't seem to like very much. It is only for firefox, which I suggest you use anyway. ..but that another blog for another day. Once they have this up and running I will plug it in and use it a few times before blogging about it again. It is an exciting thing for libraries, however.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Blogging is so last year!
I'm a little jealous, but my supervisor went to a workshop yesterday. I'm jealous because she actually learned things that I didn't already know!
Last year I went to a bunch of library related workshops and learned nothing. They were about MySpace and Facebook or Blogging and YouTube...who doesn't know all that?
She came back all wide eyed like a child in a candy store talking about twitter, twhirl, animoto and tumblr. It's a whole new world I don't know about! I've been playing around a bit with them today, but I really suggest you check them out for yourself.
twitter- it's a mix between a chat and a myspace or facebook update...you know, on facebook your status updates. It let's you tell your friends what you're doing...in real time. You pick who you want to watch and who you want to block from watching you. I only have 5 people and, so far, only two of them have used it. You can upload a picture so people see your face when you update...it's neat. You can put it on your website or blog so others can see it, but it won't show up on my MySpace page...I do have it on my facebook, though. I haven't really found a great use for it yet, but I have it open at all times...which brings me to the next cool application
twhirl- it's something you download onto your computer so you can keep your twitter open all the time. It's kind of like IM only different. It dings when someone posts an update (I think it's actually called a tweet), which is nice, but you have to refresh it everytime so you can see what they wrote. I'm sure it's a work in progress, but it made me like twitter better.
animoto- it makes 30 second movies out of pictures. It's neat for myspace or facebook, but I'm really not sure what else you'd use it for. I have it on my facebook. I don't remember, but I don't think I made a movie yet.
tumblr- It's like a short blog. You can very easily post pictures, websites, just words, anything...as long as it's not too long...with the touch of a button. It's a way of putting multi forms of online media, that you like, together in one place. I posted three times today and, as you can see on mine, it is all on one page and it's short and sweet. Well, it's short anyhow.
Last year I went to a bunch of library related workshops and learned nothing. They were about MySpace and Facebook or Blogging and YouTube...who doesn't know all that?
She came back all wide eyed like a child in a candy store talking about twitter, twhirl, animoto and tumblr. It's a whole new world I don't know about! I've been playing around a bit with them today, but I really suggest you check them out for yourself.
twitter- it's a mix between a chat and a myspace or facebook update...you know, on facebook your status updates. It let's you tell your friends what you're doing...in real time. You pick who you want to watch and who you want to block from watching you. I only have 5 people and, so far, only two of them have used it. You can upload a picture so people see your face when you update...it's neat. You can put it on your website or blog so others can see it, but it won't show up on my MySpace page...I do have it on my facebook, though. I haven't really found a great use for it yet, but I have it open at all times...which brings me to the next cool application
twhirl- it's something you download onto your computer so you can keep your twitter open all the time. It's kind of like IM only different. It dings when someone posts an update (I think it's actually called a tweet), which is nice, but you have to refresh it everytime so you can see what they wrote. I'm sure it's a work in progress, but it made me like twitter better.
animoto- it makes 30 second movies out of pictures. It's neat for myspace or facebook, but I'm really not sure what else you'd use it for. I have it on my facebook. I don't remember, but I don't think I made a movie yet.
tumblr- It's like a short blog. You can very easily post pictures, websites, just words, anything...as long as it's not too long...with the touch of a button. It's a way of putting multi forms of online media, that you like, together in one place. I posted three times today and, as you can see on mine, it is all on one page and it's short and sweet. Well, it's short anyhow.
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