Monday 30 November 2015

Rudai 6 - Reflective

Rudai 6 - Reflective - Blogs

Never had much time to look at other peoples blogs - just gave a quick look in if there was a Rudai I was finding troublesome. I could see that a lot people like me at the start were wary of putting themselves out there - it's a big step - there is comfort in being anonymous sometimes!

There are fabulous looking blogs out there - such creativity!  I felt at times reading the blogs that a lot of people were familiar with the tools already - for me everything was new. Some people give great insightful commentaries on some of the tools. It is great to get the opportunity to read their tips and pointers along the way. There should be prizes for the best blogs - there would be a lot of winners - I am sure we could all vote for few.

Blogging out,

Catty.

Rudai 5 - Online Networks

Rudai 5 - Online Networks

For some reason I thought I had already blogged this Rudai 5 - I must have deleted it in error - if it is out there - then ignore this one!

I set up a Facebook account and joined the Rudai23 Facebook group and said hi! My library workplace has a Facebook page and is quite popular with the students. It is a great way to communicate opening times or exhibitions - they go there and look for information quite often. I have liked CILIP - I Love Libraries - Librarian by Day. The list of Facebook groups for Librarians in Makingithappen are mainly American groups so did not join with any.

Not great with the tweets prefer the layout of Facebook but Twitter is without a doubt another great communication tool for libraries.

Blogging out,

Catty.

Rudai 23 - All work together

Rudai 23 - Making it all work together.

I opened a Hootsuite account and just added LinkedIn and Facebook to start with. The option to send a message across all accounts at once if you wish to is great. Streaming brings it all together and the pillar layout makes the different media accounts look very clear on the screen. I have never used a management media tool before - it makes sense to try and pull them all together - with one log in and can quickly see all activities on the one screen or send messages quickly - very convenient. It will take a bit of time to figure out how to use and manoeuvre things around properly on Hootsuite but it is worth practicing.

Might have a look at that Feedly app that you have mentioned there as well. But right now I am Rudaied out!

A Huge Big Thank You to all of you for this course - when I look back over my blogs I cannot believe the amount of things that I have learned about these past few months. I do not know how you all put this together but you made a fantastic job - very professionally done but with nice easy going feel to it for the likes of me!

I will definitely do the 23 mobile things course in the New Year.

My last blogging out,

Catty.

Rudai 22 - Mobile Things

Rudai 22 - Mobile Things

I am afraid I am one of the 10% (there must be more than that) out of the net when it comes to smart/android phones - calls and texts only phone for me! - but Christmas is coming  - I cannot call myself an information professional without having all the tools now can I!! So I am delighted to see 23 mobile things course and look forward to the learning experience in the New Year - could not have come at a better time.  I am getting tired of people showing me this app and that app on their mobiles - I will be doing the showing off from now on! Thanks Rudai team.

Looked at Gumit - not too sure how it would work in an academic library - are the students going to leave useful comments on the books? They mostly just skim and scan educational books for pieces of information. From the blog post in Library Voice I can see how it would work well in a school library - kids love to give their opinions - teachers like to hear them - shows they are reading.

Beacon technology - again not sure if it would suit our library - too much footfall coming in the door  - we try hard enough to keep the noise levels down without mobiles constantly beeping - maybe some other time to message them - on the way out would work? It is an excellent messaging idea for libraries though - some people might find it a bit invasive - you would have to trial it first I think.

One app that I saw that I really liked for the library was in Rudai 14 - LibrARi - when you scanned the barcode in the library and it gave you a list of all related books that was really good and the ability to walk around scan and find a book on the shelf with your mobile or iPad would be marvellous.

Blogging out,

Catty.

Sunday 29 November 2015

Rudai 21 - Infographics

Rudai 21 - Infographics

I did not know a thing about the world of infographics until now. I have had a look at some of the tools that are available.  I could spend all day looking at the posters on display in Easel.ly - how wonderfully creative people are. Illustrator tool I thought looked a bit complicated to use - Easel.ly and Canva look user friendly. Some of the tools are free to use yet for the better images you have to pay. Came across a website mentioned called morguefile.com which gives free photographs and no attribution required - good to know. I really like Wordle - I have seen this used before it looks edgy and modern - great for young audience - can give across a message in just a few words. Muzy Thoughts had really nice templates for a quieter type of message.

Posters for students on some aspects of information literacy and some posters and flyers for our upcoming 1916 library exhibition are jumping to mind as to what I could use infographics for. Even though some of the tools say they are easy to use - I do not know if I would have the skills on my own to put a poster together - a few heads would be better - little bit of brainstorming - second opinions - help with the layout and wording. Infographics seem to be a bright and modern way of getting across even the most mundane piece of information and I will definitely be tinkering around with these tools and trying to come with ideas for use.

Blogging out,

Catty.

Rudai 20 - Presentation

Rudai 20 - Presentation

 Frontline Services Presentation

This is a presentation I gave some time ago to my library peers. It was about library frontline services in the workplace. I had to do it on a bit short notice. The slides were mainly visual images and I gave a little talk on each one. I was sorry I did not put a little more textual information with each slide from the viewers point and as prompts for myself. I remember at one point I felt myself losing my train of thought as I had to keep looking at my own notes in front of me. I wish if I had more time to prepare for it - I would have added some usage statistics slides to fill out the presentation.

You really need time to prepare a good presentation and to rehearse it a few times and get used to hearing your own voice. Rather nerve wrecking giving presentations but if you know your subject matter you do feel more confident. I gave a few presentations in previous jobs I had - they were mostly statistical and I used flip charts and white boards. I'm not afraid of standing up in front people - I do it everyday in the library! - but I do find myself getting a little flustered when I have to go on talking continuously for too long!

Just as an edit to this blog which was originally sent out on the 29/11/15 - I have sent my Presentation Slides to Wayne Gibbons on the Rudai23 team - I was a little doubtful about putting them up here as they were compiled for my employer -  going back to the Legal Rudai I think they actually then belong to my employer - could be wrong but just being on the safe side.


Blogging out,
Catty.

Rudai 19 - Legal Side

Rudai 19 - Legal Side.

Having read through this post I just want to say that my blog opinions are my own and not reflective of the organisation I work for - so that's me covered! I am going to find out about social media policies in my workplace.

As regard to copyright in my workplace, I work in an academic library so students use of copyright material comes mostly under 'fair dealing' for educational and research purposes. We do our best to inform students about copyright regulations and have included information about it on our library webpage A-Z services. We display User Guideline regulations for Higher Education Institutions beside all photocopiers.

I was not too sure in my last blog how to attribute that last photograph - so now I know how and I went back and attributed it correctly.

Blogging out,

Catty


Friday 27 November 2015

Rudai 18 - Photographs



Rudai 18 - Photographs.

Opened a Flickr account and hope to fill it up over time.
Here is my CC photograph from Flicker just a little Christmasy one! This had the little man logo so hence gave a reference for the picture just in case - this ok?


'Semak Korkeakoulukirjasto. Koristeltu kierrotyskuusi - 2014' is licensed under CC.

Koristeltu kierrätyskuusi_2014__

https://www.flickr.com/photos/seamkkirjasto/albums/72157649644015716


I really love "The Commons" project - how wonderful to be able to see all those old photographic treasures. Flickr and Instagram have really opened up the doors to libraries - to be able to see the places, the people who work in them and the resources that they have.

Really should look at setting up a Flickr account for our library and try to showcase some of our reference collection and our book promotions. Like all social media though it would need constant updating to keep it fresh - would need staff willingly to commit to that.

I am still playing with the Multicolor Engine for Flickr photos! Is that favourite photo a LEGO building site?
There are some very good tips there in "20 ways to make people fall in love with your Instagram" if you really want to get serious with it for your library.

Blogging out,

Catty.



Thursday 26 November 2015

Rudai 17 - Reflective Practice.

Looking back over all my past blogs I think I do need more practice with reflective writing.  I think we all tend to write more about Things that we really liked or were interested in. Trying to write more about the one's I found difficult was difficult!

Going by Gibbs Reflective Cycle, I tend to fall down on writing more descriptively about what happened and about what else I could have done.

Writing good reflective blogs or not - when I look back on all the Rudai's, I have learned and experienced an awful lot thanks to the Rudai team. I have used tools that in my past few years of library work experience I have never used before or even heard of. If you are not fortunate to have a techie family at home or techie co-workers nearby you end up being left behind a little bit so for me it's great to experience these new tools.

So even though I found it a little bit of a chore at times!! So far so good and I am so looking forward to going back over all the Rudai's when more time permits and under less pressure and learn to use these tools properly.

Blogging out,

Catty.



Monday 23 November 2015

Rudai 16 - Collaboration Tools.


Dropped a Latin word into the Google Doc - Perserva - keep going!  So easy to use. I think this tool would be great if you were trying to write up Library policies or rules and you needed staff to help out and make suggestions or changes to add or remove.

The tools I would be familiar with would be WorldCat and Libguides. In my own work place we have a staff portal which is a great place to share news or documents.

I liked the Library Success - Wiki - never knew there was a librarian wiki - I will take a look at some of those entries.

Sorry I cannot get throught 35 Cloud tools - that will have to wait for a rainy day - but thanks for the link and when time permits have a look at them.

I really like Paper.li - a type of online newspaper that you can compose yourself and share - you could use this between staff for educational purposes or it could be used as part of a library exhibition.

E-maze presentation tool would make any information piece look good!  Definitely going to use this sometime.


Blogging out,

Catty.

Thursday 19 November 2015

Thing 15 - Advocacy

I have had a look at all the library advocacy recommended websites.

I Love Freakin Libraries - I love this website! - I could spend all day looking at it - well done Bobbi Newman.

Voices for the Library - That endless list of What Librarians Do!!!! - we could all keep adding to it.

I Love Libraries - the Real Stories are nice reads - found a great quote in there by E.L. Doctrow about how "the three most important documents a free society gives you are a birth certificate, a passport and a library card." That just about sums up why we should all advocate for libraries!

CILIP give a great list of Adocacy Resources - the Value of School Libraries - Shout About looks a well run campaign - pity we do not have more school libraries here - there's one to advocate for.

This is what a Librarian looks like - we should set up an Irish one!

Found an article in the National Libraries Day site about sleeping pods for students in academic  libraries - seemingly they have installed some in the University of Manchester. Will we be advocating in the future for reading and sleeping in the library do you think!

I enjoyed looking through the different campaigns - feeling guilty I am not involved in anything - but will look at contributing to National Library Week next year as a starting point.


Blogging out,

Carmel.



Tuesday 17 November 2015

Rudai 14 - Augmented Reality

I had a look at librARi and thought the option of scanning a book at the desk to find another similar book is a great option - students would really like that.

I also really liked Google Street View for libraries - is there any option of adding captions to the video at certain points in the library with this?

Could not acces Anatomy 4D but found 4D Anatomy! - lets say what little I could watch has put me off my lunch. This one's for the medical students!  It is a fantastic tool though - scary what can be done.

Libraries can change lives - it was wonderful to listen to people praise libraries - make me realise why I am in this job - childhood days spent in the library. It was nicely done using Layar - would be great for using for promotions or training.

The field trip app looked great too - when is the bus leaving!

I have used devices like these in museums and art galleries - I cannot remember exactly where - I think one was in the Vatican museum - and one in the National Art Gallery, Dublin - I thought they were really informative and you had control when over when you wanted to dip in and out.

As for using them in my own library - students love technology - if they help them to find their way around or find out more about a book or even if they help your library to look techie cool - why not!


Blogging out,

Catty.



Monday 16 November 2015

Rudai 13 - Professional Organisations.


Just read Martin O'Connor's article in Libfocus  about  'Why Bother with Membership' of the LAI it is really interesting - will definitely consider it - and will be keeping a look at Libfocus.

I liked the NPD network where I found out about Articulate and Prezi presentation tools - they look really good - never heard of them before.

My studies have often led me to the IFLA,  ALA and CONCUL websites - they are great sources. If this is the profession I am in, it is important for me to keep in touch with what is going on it - be a part of the community - read new publications - find out about conferences that I could attend - try to keep in touch with others.


Blogging out,

Catty 

Friday 13 November 2015

Rudai 12 - Attending Conferences.

I recently attended and gave a presentation at Innovation Day - New Spaces and New Models for Frontline Services at Maynooth University in September. Very interesting conference - met lots of new people from academic libraries around the country.

One or two people I had met before at another conference I attended in April at the University of Limerick about "The Academic Library's Role in Supporting New Students: Transition Success and Retention" another very interesting event.

I sourced these events through ANLTC website and from my employer. I was allowed time off along with other members of staff to attend and transport was covered. I take hand written notes and always ask could the organisers send me the slides afterwards.

I enjoyed both, I actually like meeting new people - giving a presentation for the first time was a bit scary though -  but everybody was so kind giving little praises.

It is always interesting to find out what other libraries are doing - it gives you a benchmark as to how you are doing - coming away with new ideas - seeing what a great job people are doing - how clever they are coming up with these ideas - what problems we experience.  I am so impressed at how innovative librarians seem to be - they love a challenge - always about how we can do things better.


Blogging out,

Catty.

Tuesday 10 November 2015

Rudai 10 - Live Streaming



Rudai 10

Just watched the Rudai 23 Hangouts on Air - nice to see and hear people on the course - Stephanie and Wayne. Hangouts has it's problems though I see- people could not log on - was a bit fuzzy and sound slightly delayed. Some people look more comfortable than others using it - it might not be for everyone - that would be me! Might be suitable for some staff meetings. Looked at Beck Tench on Liboncon doing a Hangout and I think it works better with just one person giving the talk - need to keep talks short and to the point though - hard to keep concentrating on the screen.

Watched Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo and that was very professional looking - I think even if you had to pay for it it, Vimeo would look and sound better for library tutorials or talks - more suited to work.

Periscope - I cannot see how we could use that in the library - to me that's just for use between social friends - mobile phones - too much going on on the screen as well if others are tweeting at the same time. 


Linking a broadcast to Youtube would work well for academic libraries - student population love Youtube! It is a good way to get a short piece of information regarding the library out there.


Blogging out,

Catty.

Friday 6 November 2015

Rudai 9 - Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WgMPuyaxBw

Just finished my little video.  ScreencastOmatic is very user friendly. Turned out to be so easy to use afterall, I thought it was going to be a difficult task.  It was the You tube part I found a bit confusing. I think I have two channels running now - all of my very own! Was a little confused about the option of making the video private or public. A bit frightening to think of how easily you can put yourself or any information out there in the world on You tube!

Screencast and Youtube are great tools to use for quick library tutorials especially when you are dealing with students who live in Youtube world!  I enjoyed trying it out - many thanks.


Blogging out,

Catty.