Library TeachMeet 2011

delighted to be able to announce, on behalf of the rest of the camlibtm team, the next Library TeachMeet in Cambridge:

Date: Tuesday 29th March 2010

Venue: Schlumberger, West Cambridge (generously being hosted by @libclare

New dedicated website: http://www.camlibtm.info

Twitter: @camlibtm

Sign in for enthusiastic lurkers and speakers will open shortly, but put the date in your diary!

 

Prezi from the Libraries@Cambridge conference where the announcement was made gives a little bit of backgrouund:

http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf

Cambridge Librarians Teachmeet on Prezi

it’s Franks world….

And now, the end is here And so I face the final curtain……

don’t worry, there’s no rogue sound file lurking anywhere in this post with a dubious rendition of that karaoke classic, but I do think that it’s one of the strengths of 23Things that you can get what you want out of it, although to a certain extent you get out what you put in, no pain no gain, and other cliches. You go at your own pace, and come to your own conclusions, but with the benefit of c.100 other viewpoints to call upon if you can’t quite make up your own mind.

I’ve really enjoyed it – the discipline of writing up a blog for each thing, the camaraderie of the process, the feeling that every time I ventured out beyond the Medical Library walls it was like going on a blind date – would the person I was meeting up with be doing the Things? and what would their blog be? and would I be able to match a blog to a face? (probably not – but it’s fun to speculate, and I’m looking forward to meeting up again at the closing ceremony).

I’ve enjoyed reading other people’s blogs enormously – and am excited by the prospect of there being life beyond this Thing in the form of TeachMeet and I’m going to copy other people shamelessly by listing the 23 things and speculate on my future relationship with them all (what a hussy!)

Google & iGoogle page

yes – use google id loads, no – hardly ever use iGoogle – I’ve got other things that do that job for me, but I do like the principle of personal homepage

RSS feeds

 using RSS feeds is just standard for me – who could bear to have email alerts coming in, just clogging things up and making you feel guilty – I teach about RSS feeds and actually practice what I preach (which as a firm believer in “do as I say, not as I do” is saying something!)

Blogging

well, you’re here, reading it! blogging is my big surprise really – that I don’t mind shouting into the wind, and that some people actually shout back is great – thanks for all the comments over the past few weeks. I use blogs already for cpd in general, but hadn’t commented on anyone elses before – maybe that will be my first big post cam32 step into the unknown?

Doodle

useful in its place – I don’t use it regularly, but I like that it’s there for when I do want to use it…

Google Calendar

I use it for work, but haven’t ever considered using it for me, because I can access a shared work calendar over the web already, and just haven’t made the leap to using a web calendar for personal use yet. But I like the things you can do with google calendars – the embedding etc.

Twitter

complete twitter junkie – was doing it before 23things, but am surprised how much I enjoy using it, and what I gain from it. just wonder when I’ll make the leap to using it for the library rather than for myself….

Flickr & Creative Commons

again – used it before, and really like it but have enjoyed learning about the creative commons search options, which just make it all a little more… is ethical the right word?

Slideshare

I like, though haven’t loaded anything up there yet – am sure that will come.

 delicious

was an early-ish adopter of delicious, but really haven’t kept up with it, and haven’t used it to manage the links from the library webpages in the way I thought I might, but again that may be worth a second look.

 tagging

I embrace the notion of folksonomy, but i’m just rubbish at it – generally can’t be bothered….. bad librarian!

 librarything

just not for me – nice that people can show off how much they’ve read, or how many books they own – yawn…..  and not much cop for the library either frankly- we’ve got a catalogue and it’s hard enough for readers to use it (hurrah, roll on acquabrowser!)

 facebook & LinkedIn

hmm – has this bandwagon not been taken over by anything else yet? the monstrous juggernaught of facebook has ceased to entertain me, and I never really engaged with it for the library either – but perhaps I’ve got no idea what would actually properly engage the students with the library – maybe I should ask them…?

And linkedin may come into its own eventually, but it’s not quite got there yet for me, so while I’m not jumping ship like I did with facebook, I’ll stay lurking and reserve judgement.

zotero & mendeley

useful useful useful and great for upping your profile – every researcher & student loves a person who can help make referencing easier, so confidence in these tools (plus the endnotes, reference managers, etc of this world) is a good thing.

marketing thing

always useful to think about marketing – and how using more than email and posters will reach different audience.

Google Docs & wikis

very good thing – used a lot, and will continue to use a log – but fancy exploring an in-house wiki for staff manual etc.

YouTube & tunes of various sorts

like the idea of a library film (watch out for the launch on Sept 7th), but wonder how I’d use podcasts in the library – just voice isn’t so great

Wordle

Thank you Cam23 – it’s been great!

wiki… and the difference between wiki and google docs is..?

so google docs can be a type of wiki, right?

so just like I like google docs, I like wikis – we’re doing the summer quiz using PBWorks this year, rather than relying on a scibbled mess of answers in the staff room. So more part-time staff can contribute to the easier answers, rather than just finding that there’s only the hard ones left at the end of the week. (aren’t we nice??)

We’re using PBworks for camlibtm – another thing, another chance to plug the exciting event that’s happening on 27th September – haven’t you heard about it??

It’s all happening in PBworks, but I’m sure there are plenty of other resources we could use.

As I mentioned for google docs thing, we’re planning on using wikis to update and maintain our staff manual, and if camtools does the job (thanks celine!) then we might use this tool rather than an outside commercial one.

whichever tool I use it’s great not to have to clog inboxes up with word docs which might already be out of date.

Plus the thing that is most amazing now is how Wikipedia – the original shining example of a wiki – has now turned into a really very reliable source. Pinches of salt still need to be on hand – just like with all information – but it’s evolved from being a Very Bad Thing to being a Useful Place to Start if you’re entirely new to a topic. A great example of how the internet is self-regulating.

so yes, wikis are a Good Thing.

google docs

I do like google docs – if there’s collaborative work going on (like we’ve been doing with camlibtm) it just seems so sensible to work on the most current version of the document, rather than each of us making changes which then have to be almalgamated.

I’ve used google docs to write articles collaboratively, share documents without having to load emails with massive attachments, and to avoid having to carry around a memory stick when I’m working at different computers. Means I can work on things at home (erm, why is that a good thing?) and it also lets me convert documents to PDFs (lovely!).

I’ve tried to use the forms in the past, and while lovely in theory, the range of options for type of questions didn’t really suit me, so I went back to SurveyMonkey (I’ve access to a souped-up subscription version, so while it’s not free, the extra functionality does provide value for money)

It’s not all sweetness and light – it does feel al little clunky at times, and there’s not a straight conversion to/from MS Office formats. And of course you’re a slave to being online (as we discovered the other night – meeting to discuss camlibtm in CB2 when internet access ground to a halt my note-taking in google docs did too – so back to slate and chalk).

For our staff manual we’re thinking of using either wikis or google docs to maintain accurate and up to date documentation for the library, but it’s tricky having to rely on a third party to host internal information. Wouldn’t it be nice if Cambridge University (CARET??) could provide a service which would mean that we wouldn’t be at the mercy of putting our information in someone else’s hands (we do enough of it already).

so nice google docs, I like you!

zotero love…. but actually I’m not that fussy!

Anything that helps to manage references is a Good Thing.

Anything that helps to manage references that is free is a Very Good Thing.

In Cambridge the Very Good Things include Zotero, Mendeley and EndnoteWeb (but only because someone else paid the money), and the Good Things include EndNote and Reference Manager (which is actually not that high on my list of Good Things normally, but that might be because I don’t use it as much as the others).

Other Good Things might include Papers (for Mac only), CiteULike, Connotea (after a fashion), RefWorks….

There’s a really good comparison of functionality in Wikipedia andI’ve blogged elsewhere about a great comparison by Martin Fenner

I offer training sessions on Zotero, Mendeley & both versions of EndNote, and will turn my hand to training in reference manager if I can go to the person’s office and they’ve got it loaded on their computer. I specifically give training on EndnoteWeb to the small proportion of Part II students I see.

I’ve written rough guides to Zotero (needs updating!) and EndNoteWeb, I’ve enbedded  Mendeley reference lists in department pages (will be going live shortly – I’ll add a link when it is live), I’ve shared references  in EndNoteWeb with colleagues in Sheffield when we were writing a paper together.

All of which sounds like outrageous boasting (sorry!). They’re all just really really good tools, so the more we can support researchers and postgraduates, and indeed anyone else who’s writing a piece of work with a significant number of references, or gathering a large number of references together for any reason – the better. It makes us much more broadly skilled, and relevant and useful for more people. (read my previous rantings if you really want to get more of an idea…)

Things that drive me mad are

• when the reference wont go into zotero or mendeley and you only get a screen shot;
• when you can only download a limited number of references from a database (eg Ebsco access to PsycInfo has a library imposed (yes I have complained!) limit of 50 articles per set – imagine my mood when I had 300 articles to add to Mendeley
• when there’s a mixture of abreviated journal names and full journal names – makes for messy referencing!
• that I can’t get the public shared collections in Mendeley to present themselves in chronological order (an email to mendeley support is on my to do list)
• that I can’t always get RIS files to import to mendeley (an email to mendeley support etc…)
• that I just haven’t spent enough time to really get to grips – so I can get people started, but can’t help them with the more advanced functions… ah well, isn’t that just life!

they’re all great – it’s just chosing which one that can be tricky!

#camlibtm – and now we have a fab logo & 1st attendee!

Think this logo is lovely – thanks to GirlInTheMoon for the design, and very excited that we’ve got our first person signed up via the camlibtm wiki - it’s so easy to do. I’ve just put my money where my mouth is and signed up to give a 7 minute talk – why don’t you do the same?

Pretty much everyone has got something  I could learn from – and, as LizardLounge says, we’re interested to hear about the the stuff that you’ve tried that hasn’t gone so well, as well as the glorious success. I need to know about this too – what would you do differently next time? Come on, you’re amongst friends!

And we’d also love to know that you’re interested in coming along even without signing up to speak.

So sign up and come along (once we’ve decided on a venue that is!!!)

#camlibtm – a hashtag to look out for

Last night I had a great time with ThingBlogging, LizardLounge, NPage & GirlInTheMoon (or Celine, Chris, Niamh & Katie to move on from blogging pseudonyms!)- planning the first (as far as I know) librarian version of a TeachMeet. See what happens when you have a glass of wine too many and start blogging!

So, we’re planning that on Monday 27th September a bunch of librarians will get together (at a venue yet to be decided) to share and learn from each other.

Niamh has already been busy putting together a wikipage on the TeachMeet website to get you in the mood (glittering logo still to be designed, but it will be fab, I’m sure!), and we’ve got a hashtag (#camlibtm) and delicious tag (camlibtm) – and now we just need people to share with!! (pssst – that means YOU!!!).

All we’re asking for is 7mins or 2mins (I know! 2 minutes!!) of your experience of some “techie tool or teaching tip” – and it’ll be amongst friends.

After all, which of us hasn’t tried to brag about a new thing we did, that worked really well, to friends who, as much as we love them, still might not entirely understand what we do all day (despite #libday5) This way it’ll be more like a chat down the pub with friends who do understand what you do all day, and so understand why you’re so excited in this thing you want to share.

what are you bursting to share? I want to know about it! – hold the thought, watch this space and keep Monday 27th September free…..

start of a massive catch up – slideshare

I like slideshare – it’s a good thing, as far as a place where I can see the slides of presentations I can’t go to goes. 

It doesn’t have the chat (a point raised by plenty others)  – a fundamental problem. And given the sort of slides I like to look at when watching someone else present, and the sort of slides I make when giving a presentation it all means that I’m probably missing quite a lot.

 But at least I get something – which is better than nothing, and to be fair there’s only so many conferences and meetings my long suffering boss can afford to send me on. And when people put their slides up ahead of their presentation, and when there are people tweeting from the conference where the slides are being presented, it’s a lot better than nothing. (acutally contributed tuppence worth to the EAHIL conference in Lisbon twitter discussion as it was happening because I could see the slides as well as read the tweets)

I’ve added slideshare slides on this blog already - I like it!

What I also like increasingly, but haven’t played with to have made one myself, is prezi 

I enjoyed the great echochamber presentation by Woodsiegirl and thewikiman for the content and significantly for the presentation:

dull old straight powerpoint on slideshare: 1, super fancy prezi: 2 (if done well)

Escaping the echo-chamber on Prezi

teach me(et)!

just heard about teachmeet – a tool where teachers with ICT responsibilities in schools come together in a flashmob (not actually as scary as it might sound, just a bit less formal than a formal meeting…)  at a volunteered school and volunteers contribute 10 min long presentations or 3min short presentations about things that have worked (or not) in their schools. They have to have tried and succeeded (or failed) but at least tried.

All attendees can’t be selling things, or be getting gain for themselves – they’re just try to spread good practice and sponge off their colleagues!

It’s a wiki where people contribute their venue and co-0rdinate contributions, and there’s also a google map which shows locations.

wonder if it could work for librarians in Cambridge and beyond??

Dug Hall explains all about TeachMeet from mrhandley on Vimeo

UMHLG – and I’m bursting with ideas..

Friendfeed, open notebook science, library treasure hunts, symplectic, workshadowing – these are just a few of the things that got my juices flowing at my one day in Oxford – more to follow!