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!

cam23 catch up – how did thing 4 slip through the net?

whoops! how did that happen? thought I was onto a smooth cruise to the finishing line, and it turns out I’d only have done 22 things! crikey!
so, looking back carefully at the instructions

• I’ve made a blog and registered a it on the 23things list;
• I’ve made screenshots a-go-go;
• I’ve tagged and
• I think I’ve been pretty sociable (commenting on other people’s blogs, and even meeting up with some entirely new people, face to face don’tcha know!) and
• I’ve even gone a little more public, by listing myself on UKLibrary blogs (sandwiched between Multifaceted and My:Self-Archive, and not too far away from NPage and TheMongooseLibrarian which is nice to be amongst friends.

And not on the list, but something that I note with interest – I actually quite enjoy the blogging bit of blogging! who’d have thought it? I like the sound of my own voice! I’m not as reflective as some, which is why I’ve really enjoyed reading many of my fellow cam23er’s thoughts – there’s lots of Proper Thinking going on out there!

And my obsession with the viewing figures that wordpress provides means that I can also guage how much other people like the sound of my voice too – or at least the number of people who come by, however briefly… they probably do it by mistake and then throw things at the computer shouting “silly bint”…   bad luck folks – I’m hoping to continue blogging even after the final curtain on 23things – there’s much to look forward to and blog about afterall – there’s a film launch, and TeachMeet – too much fun!

onwards!!!

Deliberated, Cogitated and Digested…. and a bit of chin scratching

d’oh! wrong sort of chin scratching… meant it to be more contemplative… but, ah well….

thanks to mikeandanna

 

So, it should be week 7 reflection, but actually it’s week 10, and I’m in a flurry of catching up – exactly the wrong mood to do any useful reflection, I fear.

I have to say that while I’ve enjoyed doing Cam23, and have particularly enjoyed getting myself into the habit of blogging (a habit a weeks holiday quickly puts paid to all to easily, I’m afraid, but which I hope to carry on beyond the 23rd thing), the things we’ve covered haven’t been new to me. 

Which is fine - if I’ve got the audactiy to be delivering my own version of 23things, I would hope I’m already reasonably savy about web 2.0. But I would also hope that I’m always up for learning something new, looking at things in new ways, to have my (huge) prejudices challenged by the insight from more open minded colleagues.

Which is what has really made it for me -  reading other people’s blogs, getting to know a few more people in Cambridge (even if only via their nom de plum!), hearing that not everyone thinks that X, Y or Z is obviously great. The latter has been especially good for me – reminding me that just because a person doesn’t use a particular tool doesn’t mean they’re closed to all thing web 2.o (after all, I don’t like all the things on the list, by any stretch), and that just because I do use it doesn’t mean squat .  Easy on the web 2.0 evangalism!

But to a large extent I can’t help but evangelise about the possibilities of the sorts of tools/toys/treasures that Cam23 is talking about – the possibilities are endless, and even if we can’t see them, our users will

“all that glisters is not gold” 

If we (librarians) can’t show a good working knowledge of the main web 2.o tools out there, and also be able to separate the wheat from the chaff, sheep from goats, etc etc,  when it comes to discussing and recommending them (or suggesting a better solution) to library users, then aren’t we just ensuring that we will be become as irrelevant in the future as unfortunately some people already think we are?

I want a professional future and a future in the profession - and confidence in the tools that cam23 is spotlighting is included in the ways in which I think I can ensure that I have both.

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!

Tony does it again!

As usual Tony Hirst’s slides are hugely useful – just when I’ve got the hang of limiting my search in a particular way (eg site:cam.ac.uk or filetype:pdf) then he throws in the option to filter by usage rights (eg for material which is free to use or share – sounds like creative commons!)

I’d played with the timeline, but not very much – this was a timely prod to play again!

I knew that you could set up email alerts for google searches, but hadn’t realised that google docs could convert pdfs into google docs document (ie pretty .doc like)

and that was only half way through the presentation!

There’s just so much more you can do with google to make it a better search – if librarians don’t flog these techniques, who will? and if librarian don’t know and use these techniques, how relevant does that makes us in the current and future world?

CILIP conversation

I’m playing catchup to the 2 really good overviews:  Anna’s blog  and Anne’s blog about the conversation 9 librarians had last night in a cafe in Cambridge (no doubt Niamh and Katie and Aidan will be contributing good things too)

the discussion seemed to divide into 2 halves – the future of cilip and the future of libraries/librarians. There’s was a good spread of experience with health, HE, school, and a database manager represented.

this is a bit of a stream consciousness…..

what is the future of cilip?

- renewal of membership when not a sutdent?  – such £30 not a problem, but full membership was seen as expensive when the benefit was gained from the specialist groups, rather than from the central body

- chartership value – the process was seen as very valuable, but the fact that you lose the right to call yourself chatered if you stop paying the fees is not good

- what do we actually get for our money? more transparency of funding and how money is spent was called for

-  advocacy in  aprofessional way – being abel and skilled enough to face Paxman, so that when ill-thought through reports like the KPMG one appear there can be a robust and professional and high profile response

- also need advocacy for information inequality issues – I saw Martha Lane Fox interviewed about these things, but didn’t hear CILIP mentioned.  

-          cost of courses in comparison with other comparable bodies, and even regional/special interest groups – same speakers, fraction of the price.

-     what about  making online version of training courses, or video conference them to other members who aren’t able to attend (perhaps can’t afford cost/time of travel to london in addition to cost of course)

 -          Rent out of building –Except if they’re really lobbying parliament, or being on paxman; value in staff rather than value (though perhaps this has been addressed )

 -          Why 2 magazines? Why not just put all jobs online?  Charge less and then get much broader selection since they can now actually afford to advertise in cilip (unlike now, when significant number of jobs aren’t advertised there owing to cost) Plus better advocacy/ guidance for salary scales

 -          Would like a professional body

 -          Bad bad bad website, esp chartership section

comments on the magazines:

• Digital only update – speakers on, rustle page noise utterly pointless, rubbish search of archive, need flash but this is a problem which the “help” suggestions really don’t address (eg “if your employer wont load flash, then read it at home”
• for partially sighted flash is a problem
• Why not just a straight pdf version?
• Newsletters for special interest groups – data protection issues mean that news isn’t disseminated by email – surely this can be overcome fairly easily

 Why be a member?

-          special interest groups are really good – can even join them without being a full member

-          good value for student membership

-          value in coming together at training courses (though you can get that in online groups too)

-          getting some jobs – chartership required

future of libraries

5 years time (vision for 20 years time was seen as hugely unrealistic)

changes in school libaries

-          need to evolve more online teaching skills and resources

-          improving support for online resources

-          need to increase number of computers – though pupils likely to have own laptops

-          still need a physical place for older material

academic subject library

-          need to improve subject knowledge

-          and need to be able to help interpret the questions that people so that they can better navigate the information resources they need

database manager

-          need to make data so much better in order to ensure that people can actually find stuff! And that other resources can read the data

-          when paper is published there’s lots more metadata in the paper

 HE college library

-          special collections – what’s their future? Their digitization allows for better publicising of resources, which is gerat for buliding better relations with schools and general public (though could raise issues of security for valuable pieces)

-          why digitize if the preservation of the digital image will not last as long as the actual item itself (book that’s 1000 years old, will the digital image be readable in 100 or 10 years?) digital preservation seen as a very big nut that needs to be cracked

- the copyright issus around digitisation of more recent material will needs to be addressed -

-          College library – need books and study spaces – the physical space in the library is still very valuable

-          Public education is big thing and good for image of libraries

-          Is everything online? Humanities are really under threat re specialist publishers (they’re the fist to be cut when the spending review comes round because it’s easier than cutting big deals with the elseviers of this world), and also the e-book content is just not the same as science and much less likely to ever be  as comprehensively catered for  with on online material

What do scientists really need?

-          Much outside the traditional picture of library provision – they don’t just need journals and databases

they need help with

-          Copyright

-          Publishing and open access issues

-          Referencing

- good subject knowledge on part of librarian if they’re going to be able to contribute to developing search strategies etc

(but they need all this now, not just in the future!)

 Gov library (2 of the group had previous experience in government departmental libraries)

-          dept libraries not seen as valuable, so being cut

-          no foresight in terms of the service which is being offered – after a period of “getting by” eventually the ministers question will not be answered correctly because they’ve not got the right piece of information

-          decisions will be made on report with no basis in fact or research (eg kpmg report )

it was a lovely sunny evening, and a great way to meet colleages and  
pull together thoughts and ideas.

Thanks Niamh!

Reality Check 2010: 5 Trends Shaping Libraries

Interesting slides from presentation by Helene Blowers  (slide 43 got me thinking most)

Reality Check 2010: 5 Trands Shaping Libraries

View more presentations from hblowers.

thanks to @obsto who’s attending the EAHIL conference in Lisbon (#eahil2010 ) ….. lucky! Lots of good presentations that I’ll be pouring over in the next few days.

2010 trends in academic libraries

Where are academic libraries going?

According to this review of the literature by the ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee the road ahead looks like this:

• Academic library collection growth is driven by patron demand and will include new resource types.
• Budget challenges will continue and libraries will evolve as a result.
• Changes in higher education will require that librarians possess diverse skill sets. (lucky that we’re all doing 23things then, eh?)
• Demands for accountability and assessment will increase.
• Digitization of unique library collections will increase and require a larger share of resources.
• Explosive growth of mobile devices and applications will drive new services.
• Increased collaboration will expand the role of the library within the institution and beyond.
• Libraries will continue to lead efforts to develop scholarly communication and intellectual property services.
• Technology will continue to change services and required skills.
• The definition of the library will change as physical space is repurposed and virtual space expands.

Nothing that you counldn’t have guessed yourself, but sometimes handy to see them all lumped together, in one place.

one of those “this is the future” youtube videos

quite long, but lots of interesting statistics…..

@ruskin147 – librarian takes on Google books

via @ruskin147   new blog post from BBC  technology correspondant Rory Cellan-Jones - a librarian takes on Google Books

“What’s the point of a library or a librarian in the digital era? Who needs a physical space for books and archives, and librarians to police their use, when all that material will soon be available to anyone with a decent internet connection at the click of a mouse?

On a visit to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth last week, I got a few answers to those questions.”