 |
| 'Chinatown' by Thomas Hawk on Flickr |
If we met at the conference and you've tracked me down then do leave a comment to say hello, and have a look at some of my other posts via the archive and tags on the right hand side.
Showing posts with label camlibtm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label camlibtm. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Any umberellas? (#ub11)
If we met at the conference and you've tracked me down then do leave a comment to say hello, and have a look at some of my other posts via the archive and tags on the right hand side.
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
LILAC 2011: Day 1, Monday 18 March
Yesterday I went to the first day of the 5th Librarians' Information Literacy Annual Conference, LILAC, organised by the CILIP Information Literacy Group, a sub-group of the Community Services Group. I took copious notes throughout the day, and here's a sort-of digest of what I thought of it all.
I must confess that information literacy (IL) isn't one of my main areas of interest or expertise: the impetus to go to LILAC came from Niamh and I having our proposal for a paper about Librarian TeachMeets accepted. That isn't to say that I don't think that IL is important, or that I didn't find the conference useful, but it's fair to say that I hadn't done all the background reading that some other delegates might have done...
Workshop sessions
The day started with three rounds of pre-conference workshops. I went to Andy Jackson's '22nd-century librarians and the death of information skills', which wasn't really about either the 22nd century or the death of information skills, but invited us to explore the way our teaching practice will have to develop in order to encompass 'graduate attributes' as well as the 'graduate skills' that our 'learners' (his term) are expected to develop. The attributes are professional qualities such as 'intellectual curiosity', 'ethical behaviour' or 'global environmental responsibility', which are hard to teach and hard to measure, but ultimately (apparently) make people employable. This session was a good start to the day because we were asked to think about some of the learning and technology challenges that we, and our learners/readers/users currently face, although I found it a little frustrating that the title wasn't really addressed in the content.
Next I attended Emma Finney and Deborah Harrop's Effective approaches to thinking like a researcher. The aim of this session was to demonstrate some of the tools they've used in the series of sessions they run for bioscience students. The four aspects of research that they cover are exploration, analysis, evaluation and interpretation. I was impressed with the practical nature of the tasks used, I like to learn by having an example to work from or framework to start from, and this is the method they use. For exploring a new topic they provided a series of headings (basic ideas, key concepts and theories, numbers and facts... I didn't write them all down) under which to gather preliminary thoughts about a subject area. This is good for two reasons: it helps to show that you do know something about a new topic, even though you might not have realised it, and it give a basis for research - what are the key terms, what areas do and don't you know about. The evaluation task had us examining a piece of scientific writing and finding the errors in it - this was a way of modelling good writing for the students. Again, I think it could be an effective way of encouraging them to also evaluate the quality of their own writing.
The third workshop was given by Jo Ashley. 'Learning literacies through collaborative enquiry; collaborative enquiry through learning literacies' looked at the reasoning behind a collaborative IL project undertaken by music first-years at the University of Liverpool. The students, as part of a first-year compulsory study skills course, were divided into groups to work on wikis intended to provide next year's first years with information about the course, the department and study skills. I thought this was a lovely idea that could have been taken further than they did - instead of dividing the students into groups, I'd have been really interested to see how a single wiki edited by all might develop, and it was a shame to hear that most of the finished wikis haven't actually been made available to the new cohort.
Keynote: 'The digital transition, information behaviour and information literacy' by Dave Nicholas, of UCL
There's no denying that Dave Nicholas is a lively and engaging speaker. Certainly many tweeting delegates seemed impressed with the way he delivered his talk. That aside, though, I'm afraid that I remain unconvinced. Not because I don't agree with his powerfully stated assertion that there's a lot of information out there, that people are probably, on the whole, 'skittering' through it bouncing from thing to thing to thing (rather than digging down into the detail of a single item or idea), and that we could find out a lot about that by looking at 'deep log' records of what's going on. But his points for action at the end of the speech were essentially as follows:
Our paper: 'LibTeachMeet: Librarians learning from each other'
I've already blogged about that over on the camlibtm website... I'm pretty pleased with the way the presentation went. It certainly fulfilled our main objectives of letting people know about TeachMeets, and encouraging them to try it ourselves. I think we could have included more detail - what people talked about, how we publicised it and recruited speakers, more about our web presence, etc. Much of this was covered in the questions, but if the audience had been less keen to ask, then they would have missed out.
Other parallel sessions
Lucy Keating's paper Taking up the RIN challenge: supporting researchers’ use of web 2.0 was the highlight of the day for me. Lucy presented her paper really well, and had lovely slides, and her project could easily be adapted for other locations and purposes. Lucy is responsible for arts and humanities subject liaison at Newcastle University. In response to her local impressions of researcher use (or rather, non-use) of social media for research purposes, and also in response to the Research Information Network report 'If you build it, will they come?' she decided to develop a resource to encourage greater use of social media.
The resource she developed is currently focussed on this netvibes page, although Lucy is clear that the content is key, not the carrier. Her aim was to develop something simple, non-patronising, objective and not evangelical, with free access and highlighting free resources, with real subject examples, that would be easy for her to maintain. Total costs so far have been £37, and she's put it together herself in and around her regular work.
The key to this is that it's a 'why to' guide not a 'how to guide'. It's brilliant.
The last session I went to was Advancing information literacy: ensuring accountability via assessment by Leslin Charles, the coordinator of a team of teaching librarians at Berkeley College. In brief (Leslin gave an excellently detailed talk) she and her team have developed procedures to document all of their teaching and its outcomes, so that they are continually improving what they do, and are able to demonstrate their value to faculty members. They are in the fortunate position that information skills are recognised as a core part of assessment by their accrediting body, but even for those who can only dream of that level of recognition this presented a good way to manage your work, and a means to demonstrate value and gain increased recognition.
Meeting people
I also had the chance throughout the day, and the evening networking session, to meet people, mainly those I already new from Twitter and LISNPN things. It was particularly lovely to meet Lynne, ldnlibtm mastermind, in person for the first time. It feels a bit like cheating to mainly network with people I already 'know', if only online, but I suppose it counts as cementing existing networks.
I am very grateful to the CILIP University, College and Research Group for awarding me some funding from the Alison Northover Bursary to cover the cost of travelling to, and attending the conference.
 |
| Low-tech note taking |
I must confess that information literacy (IL) isn't one of my main areas of interest or expertise: the impetus to go to LILAC came from Niamh and I having our proposal for a paper about Librarian TeachMeets accepted. That isn't to say that I don't think that IL is important, or that I didn't find the conference useful, but it's fair to say that I hadn't done all the background reading that some other delegates might have done...
Workshop sessions
The day started with three rounds of pre-conference workshops. I went to Andy Jackson's '22nd-century librarians and the death of information skills', which wasn't really about either the 22nd century or the death of information skills, but invited us to explore the way our teaching practice will have to develop in order to encompass 'graduate attributes' as well as the 'graduate skills' that our 'learners' (his term) are expected to develop. The attributes are professional qualities such as 'intellectual curiosity', 'ethical behaviour' or 'global environmental responsibility', which are hard to teach and hard to measure, but ultimately (apparently) make people employable. This session was a good start to the day because we were asked to think about some of the learning and technology challenges that we, and our learners/readers/users currently face, although I found it a little frustrating that the title wasn't really addressed in the content.
Next I attended Emma Finney and Deborah Harrop's Effective approaches to thinking like a researcher. The aim of this session was to demonstrate some of the tools they've used in the series of sessions they run for bioscience students. The four aspects of research that they cover are exploration, analysis, evaluation and interpretation. I was impressed with the practical nature of the tasks used, I like to learn by having an example to work from or framework to start from, and this is the method they use. For exploring a new topic they provided a series of headings (basic ideas, key concepts and theories, numbers and facts... I didn't write them all down) under which to gather preliminary thoughts about a subject area. This is good for two reasons: it helps to show that you do know something about a new topic, even though you might not have realised it, and it give a basis for research - what are the key terms, what areas do and don't you know about. The evaluation task had us examining a piece of scientific writing and finding the errors in it - this was a way of modelling good writing for the students. Again, I think it could be an effective way of encouraging them to also evaluate the quality of their own writing.
The third workshop was given by Jo Ashley. 'Learning literacies through collaborative enquiry; collaborative enquiry through learning literacies' looked at the reasoning behind a collaborative IL project undertaken by music first-years at the University of Liverpool. The students, as part of a first-year compulsory study skills course, were divided into groups to work on wikis intended to provide next year's first years with information about the course, the department and study skills. I thought this was a lovely idea that could have been taken further than they did - instead of dividing the students into groups, I'd have been really interested to see how a single wiki edited by all might develop, and it was a shame to hear that most of the finished wikis haven't actually been made available to the new cohort.
Keynote: 'The digital transition, information behaviour and information literacy' by Dave Nicholas, of UCL
There's no denying that Dave Nicholas is a lively and engaging speaker. Certainly many tweeting delegates seemed impressed with the way he delivered his talk. That aside, though, I'm afraid that I remain unconvinced. Not because I don't agree with his powerfully stated assertion that there's a lot of information out there, that people are probably, on the whole, 'skittering' through it bouncing from thing to thing to thing (rather than digging down into the detail of a single item or idea), and that we could find out a lot about that by looking at 'deep log' records of what's going on. But his points for action at the end of the speech were essentially as follows:
- Realise that we're in the future and everything is different
- Understand what's going on and what people are doing
- Then do something about the fact that people 'lack a mental map, have no sense of collection, and a poor idea of what is good/relevant'
- Think about whether having all this information is good, and how we're going to deal with it.
Our paper: 'LibTeachMeet: Librarians learning from each other'
I've already blogged about that over on the camlibtm website... I'm pretty pleased with the way the presentation went. It certainly fulfilled our main objectives of letting people know about TeachMeets, and encouraging them to try it ourselves. I think we could have included more detail - what people talked about, how we publicised it and recruited speakers, more about our web presence, etc. Much of this was covered in the questions, but if the audience had been less keen to ask, then they would have missed out.
Other parallel sessions
Lucy Keating's paper Taking up the RIN challenge: supporting researchers’ use of web 2.0 was the highlight of the day for me. Lucy presented her paper really well, and had lovely slides, and her project could easily be adapted for other locations and purposes. Lucy is responsible for arts and humanities subject liaison at Newcastle University. In response to her local impressions of researcher use (or rather, non-use) of social media for research purposes, and also in response to the Research Information Network report 'If you build it, will they come?' she decided to develop a resource to encourage greater use of social media.
The resource she developed is currently focussed on this netvibes page, although Lucy is clear that the content is key, not the carrier. Her aim was to develop something simple, non-patronising, objective and not evangelical, with free access and highlighting free resources, with real subject examples, that would be easy for her to maintain. Total costs so far have been £37, and she's put it together herself in and around her regular work.
The key to this is that it's a 'why to' guide not a 'how to guide'. It's brilliant.
The last session I went to was Advancing information literacy: ensuring accountability via assessment by Leslin Charles, the coordinator of a team of teaching librarians at Berkeley College. In brief (Leslin gave an excellently detailed talk) she and her team have developed procedures to document all of their teaching and its outcomes, so that they are continually improving what they do, and are able to demonstrate their value to faculty members. They are in the fortunate position that information skills are recognised as a core part of assessment by their accrediting body, but even for those who can only dream of that level of recognition this presented a good way to manage your work, and a means to demonstrate value and gain increased recognition.
Meeting people
I also had the chance throughout the day, and the evening networking session, to meet people, mainly those I already new from Twitter and LISNPN things. It was particularly lovely to meet Lynne, ldnlibtm mastermind, in person for the first time. It feels a bit like cheating to mainly network with people I already 'know', if only online, but I suppose it counts as cementing existing networks.
I am very grateful to the CILIP University, College and Research Group for awarding me some funding from the Alison Northover Bursary to cover the cost of travelling to, and attending the conference.
Friday, 15 April 2011
Off to a conference...
This year's LILAC, the Librarians’ Information Literacy Annual Conference, is happening next Monday to Wednesday at the British Library and LSE in London. I'm excited to say that I'm going to be there - the first time I've been to a major conference.
Niamh Tumelty and I will be giving a paper about Library TeachMeets, as part of the conference's 'New to Teaching' strand. If you can't make it to the conference, or want to refresh your memory after the fact, then our slides are available via Slideshare.
I have been lucky enough to win some money from the Alison Northover Bursary run by CILIP's University, College & Research Group, to cover the costs of attending. Sadly, as the bursary was only announced this week, I'm only able to get to the Monday, when Niamh and I are speaking. The UC&R have, however, generously suggested that the remaining money might be used for other CPD, and I'm now thinking of suggesting that it go towards a day at Umbrella in July. So an enormous thank you to them, and to those who helped me with my application for the bursary.
I'll be writing up my experiences of LILAC next week - in the meantime, I need to get prepared.
 |
| 'Lilac in the sun' by**Aina** on Flickr |
Niamh Tumelty and I will be giving a paper about Library TeachMeets, as part of the conference's 'New to Teaching' strand. If you can't make it to the conference, or want to refresh your memory after the fact, then our slides are available via Slideshare.
I have been lucky enough to win some money from the Alison Northover Bursary run by CILIP's University, College & Research Group, to cover the costs of attending. Sadly, as the bursary was only announced this week, I'm only able to get to the Monday, when Niamh and I are speaking. The UC&R have, however, generously suggested that the remaining money might be used for other CPD, and I'm now thinking of suggesting that it go towards a day at Umbrella in July. So an enormous thank you to them, and to those who helped me with my application for the bursary.
I'll be writing up my experiences of LILAC next week - in the meantime, I need to get prepared.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Together We're Better: Libraries@Cambridge 2011
Today was the Libraries@Cambridge annual conference (#lac11 and on Twapper Keeper) for University of Cambridge library staff, which this year had a record 240-or-so attendees and a general theme of 'Working Together'. I haven't managed to come up with any coherently unified thoughts about the day yet, but there are a few ideas and suggestions from various sessions that made a particular impact.
We started off we the keynote paper from Alex Wade, Director for Scholarly Communication in Microsoft's External Research division. Alex had a lot to say about, seemingly, all the new products and services the MS External Research division are developing, and I confess that I didn't keep up with it all. His main point was, however, that there's a lot of data out there; researchers produce not only publications, but datasets, workfolws, source code, lectures, algorithms, 3D models which all need managing, organising and preserving, both for current and future research. He pointed out that the problem for modern libraries is not that there are no opportunities, but there are too many opportunities. It's hard to know how and where to start in the management of all that information.
The highlight of the day was Ned Potter and Laura Woods' (sadly Laura couldn't be there because of ill health) presentation 'Escaping the Echo Chamber: Libraries, marketing and advocacy' (also see Ned's Netvibes page for more echolib information and resources). Ned is a really great speaker - engaging, motivating, persuasive - so even though I'd read various iterations of the presentation before, it was well worth hearing it in person. The one phrase I'm going to bear in mind from it: 'If libraries were invented tomorrow, people would FLOCK to them'.
In the 'From our sponsors' slot, I was surprised to hear that more than 10% of traffic to Cambridge Journals Online comes from smartphones, and delighted to learn that ProQuest are developing Early European Books, a sister database to the much-loved Early English Books Online.
In the parallel session 'From the Beagle to the Bulldog: Working together to promote Cambridge's special collection' the reminders of the intricacies of copyright, both to everyday work, and when undertaking major digitisation projects like the forthcoming digitisation of the Churchill Papers, was most welcome. I was particularly struck though, by Alison Pearn's paper about the Darwin Correspondence Project, and the radical ways in which they've had to change the way they provide interpretation of the letters for their changing audiences. This was particularly interesting in the case of this project, as the transcription and publication of Darwin's letters started in 1974, and they've had to move from paper publication for the benefit of advanced scholars, to web-based publication for a range of curriculum areas in schools and colleges.
The afternoon session of the conference was a 'celebration' of working together in Cambridge. In an homage to TeachMeet-style events, each speaker had but 8, or 3 minutes to say a bit about a project or event.
Libby Tilley talked about her efforts to improve learning within the English Faculty (Library) by applying ideas of 'co-agency'. She said that we (librarians, fellows, students) are all learners, and we can all be teachers too, and she's trying to integrate herself into Faculty teaching, and Faculty and students into Library training.
Celine Carty summed up 23 Things Cambridge wonderfully well: 'cam23 put the social into social media' and enjoined us all to 'just do it', whatever we think needs doing.
I was amazed to learn that the Janus archival catalogue has cost just £18,000 over 10 years of existence. It's astonishing what you can do with enthusiasm, goodwill and a shoestring.
The loose-knit team that organised the Libraries@Cambridge presence at this year's Freshers' Fair extolled the benefits of two ways of keeping organising something simple: have just one objective (theirs was 'to be at the fair and to hand stuff out') and stay 'always in beta' (that way it doesn't matter if it's not perfect!).
What else? Ah yes! I gabbled through a brief intro to Open Libraries in Open Cambridge, and Isla gave a rundown on Cambridge Librarians TeachMeet, and (most excitingly) announced that camlibtm2 will happen on 29 March 2011, at the Schlumberger Research Centre in West Cambridge. There's also a new website: www.camlibtm.info, and we're @camlibtm on Twitter, and camlibtm2 will be even bigger and better than the first one.
It was an exhausting day, and this has been an exhausting post.
ETA: other people have written about the day in rather more interesting and thought-provoking ways.
We started off we the keynote paper from Alex Wade, Director for Scholarly Communication in Microsoft's External Research division. Alex had a lot to say about, seemingly, all the new products and services the MS External Research division are developing, and I confess that I didn't keep up with it all. His main point was, however, that there's a lot of data out there; researchers produce not only publications, but datasets, workfolws, source code, lectures, algorithms, 3D models which all need managing, organising and preserving, both for current and future research. He pointed out that the problem for modern libraries is not that there are no opportunities, but there are too many opportunities. It's hard to know how and where to start in the management of all that information.
 |
| Flocking to the library |
The highlight of the day was Ned Potter and Laura Woods' (sadly Laura couldn't be there because of ill health) presentation 'Escaping the Echo Chamber: Libraries, marketing and advocacy' (also see Ned's Netvibes page for more echolib information and resources). Ned is a really great speaker - engaging, motivating, persuasive - so even though I'd read various iterations of the presentation before, it was well worth hearing it in person. The one phrase I'm going to bear in mind from it: 'If libraries were invented tomorrow, people would FLOCK to them'.
In the 'From our sponsors' slot, I was surprised to hear that more than 10% of traffic to Cambridge Journals Online comes from smartphones, and delighted to learn that ProQuest are developing Early European Books, a sister database to the much-loved Early English Books Online.
In the parallel session 'From the Beagle to the Bulldog: Working together to promote Cambridge's special collection' the reminders of the intricacies of copyright, both to everyday work, and when undertaking major digitisation projects like the forthcoming digitisation of the Churchill Papers, was most welcome. I was particularly struck though, by Alison Pearn's paper about the Darwin Correspondence Project, and the radical ways in which they've had to change the way they provide interpretation of the letters for their changing audiences. This was particularly interesting in the case of this project, as the transcription and publication of Darwin's letters started in 1974, and they've had to move from paper publication for the benefit of advanced scholars, to web-based publication for a range of curriculum areas in schools and colleges.
 |
| Working together |
The afternoon session of the conference was a 'celebration' of working together in Cambridge. In an homage to TeachMeet-style events, each speaker had but 8, or 3 minutes to say a bit about a project or event.
Libby Tilley talked about her efforts to improve learning within the English Faculty (Library) by applying ideas of 'co-agency'. She said that we (librarians, fellows, students) are all learners, and we can all be teachers too, and she's trying to integrate herself into Faculty teaching, and Faculty and students into Library training.
Celine Carty summed up 23 Things Cambridge wonderfully well: 'cam23 put the social into social media' and enjoined us all to 'just do it', whatever we think needs doing.
I was amazed to learn that the Janus archival catalogue has cost just £18,000 over 10 years of existence. It's astonishing what you can do with enthusiasm, goodwill and a shoestring.
The loose-knit team that organised the Libraries@Cambridge presence at this year's Freshers' Fair extolled the benefits of two ways of keeping organising something simple: have just one objective (theirs was 'to be at the fair and to hand stuff out') and stay 'always in beta' (that way it doesn't matter if it's not perfect!).
What else? Ah yes! I gabbled through a brief intro to Open Libraries in Open Cambridge, and Isla gave a rundown on Cambridge Librarians TeachMeet, and (most excitingly) announced that camlibtm2 will happen on 29 March 2011, at the Schlumberger Research Centre in West Cambridge. There's also a new website: www.camlibtm.info, and we're @camlibtm on Twitter, and camlibtm2 will be even bigger and better than the first one.
It was an exhausting day, and this has been an exhausting post.
ETA: other people have written about the day in rather more interesting and thought-provoking ways.
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Facebook: some informal research
In July, prompted by cam23 discussions about Facebook, I posted a question on my Facebook status asking what people thought about libraries being on Facebook. The results were quite interesting; although most people were initially sniffy about Facebook being used by proper institutions like libraries, many came round to the idea that there's some value in library presence there. I presented the results of this survey at the inaugural Librarians' TeachMeet held yesterday on 27 September 2010, and both the presentation and the full survey text are reproduced below.
Here is the full text of the survey. Respondents' have been anonymised to protect the innocent.
Here is the full text of the survey. Respondents' have been anonymised to protect the innocent.
Katie Birkwood
Friends - a question. Would you look for information about libraries (public or academic) on Facebook, and why/why not?
PB
Facebook is for social enterprises, not business or educational. Personally, I hate it when companies etc use facebook. Twitter on the other hand....
Katie Birkwood
Thanks PB. Do you consider a library to be in the same bracket as a company in this instance then? (Am actually genuinely interested in this, so other people please answer too!) If you were still at uni, would you be against a uni/faculty/department presence, too?
HS
I would just type it into Google or Wikipedia because facebook searches only ever bring up weird Americans and also facebook will then post library-related adverts on your page every time you log in.
RH
Not by default...
I usually only really want either opening or catalogue information.
For the latter, I'd go direct to the institutional website.
For the former... unless I had evidence to the contrary I'd expect a library facebook site to be a relatively low priority in terms of keeping information current (such as revisions to opening hours for out-of-term or closures for re-decorating/stockchecks) and as most (especially most small) organisations seem to have trouble keeping all their public facing pages up to date I wouldn't rely on any info I found there.
On the other hand, for a library that was a small part of a larger organisation (whether that were a college, university, or county network of public libraries) a facebook page might be more readily and immediately edit-able by the staff on the ground, in which case it might turn out to be more current and thus more useful, and if I became aware that were the case I wouldn't have a problem with using facebook to look for information.
Until recently it wouldn't have occured to me that libraries might be on facebook (tho' when I think about it L' has been friends with N library for aaages). I guess if I were looking to use a public library as the sort of public space that might contain a CHaOS event I might have a look to see if it had a facebook presence, in which case I'd want to know if it looked friendly-and-helpful (and what the names of the helpful-and-friendliest looking people were) before calling/writing to them.
Sorry, stream of conciousness. Might have a more coherent set of thoughts another time.
Katie Birkwood
Stream-of-consciousness fine, and very interesting too, esp re: CHaOS. (Have you ever had an event at a library?)
RH
Noo-oo.. we looked at one, once, I think, but the dates didn't work out (or they didn't have enough space, or they closed at lunchtime on a Saturday, or something). But it's a nice idea.
Katie Birkwood
It is a *very* nice idea. But logistics are such pesky things. (And, cos I have to ask - what proportion of your experiments are clean enough for library space?)
RH
Most of them are non-messy, really... there are half-a-dozen of the ones we take on tour that aren't, I should think.
The messy ones just get discussed more because we have to spend more effort on thinking about where and when we can use them.
More of an issue would probably be power sockets (tho' I guess the modern computer-filled library has lots of those, too).
HW
I think I would prefer to google and go direct to the libraries information page on the council / uni website , but I guess if you have events that you want to notify people about, a facebook group with event notices could be useful
Katie Birkwood
HS - not sure how many library adverts are circulating in Facebook land ;-) But interesting point, nevertheless (especially about quality of Facebook search)
HW - thanks.
CB
I agree with most people up here in part :-) For general information such as 'where is my nearest library?', 'what are their opening times?' etc. I would just go straight to Google, I don't see Facebook as a reference tool at all, it's social for me. However, if I was already a member of my local library then I would be tempted to join a facebook group about it in order to recieve updates about events etc.
TM
wonders if you can 'book' a library?
PB
RE getting updates on "events" at libraries... isn't that an oxymoron?
TM
is a oxymoron a stupid bovine?
RD
I would become a fan of my department library if I was still at uni, to keep in touch with what was going on there. And if I didn't work it would be useful to know what was happening at my local library in London, but I hardly get there to borrow books let alone do anything else, so there wouldn't be much point at the moment. I like the Science Museum pages on Facebook, and it's not so different, and I've been to the British Library to see the exhibitions but not for research.
PB
No TM, that's a Silly Cow!
Katie Birkwood
CB and RD - thanks for interesting comments.
PB - if you think events in libraries are an oxymoron, then you should go and visit your local library more! I bet they have lots of events, and there's bound to be something that F might enjoy either now, or in the near future. *dismounts from high horse*
TM - um, hi!
TM
often tells his pupils to go to the library to do homework. Sadly most don't know where it is.
Katie Birkwood
>:-( That's pretty awful. But good on ya for telling them about it!
TM
we have a new library in H - looks smart and often see people going in.
PB
Do we actually need libraries anymore now that we have the Internet; namely Wikipedia? (feels a wrath of protests approaching...)
CS
I decided to put my library on because I know that students are more likely to check facebook and see what we're up to via their news feed than go on our library website! It's also useful for updating students about things that we wouldn't necessarily put on our website (eg new electronic resources that the UL have bought that might be of interest to them). By posting updates every now and again, it also shows that we are being active, keeping abreast of the latest issues and actually doing work outside of term time (which I don't think the students are aware of!)
And also, I have to say, it is a bit of a marketing ploy. As we know, most people don't understand what it is we do with our days and so any avenues that we can take to publicise what we do with our time is a good thing in my opinion!
DR
The way in which we perceive Facebook, in contrast to other potential sources of information, hinges to some extent on an subjective/objective distinction, in that we associate Facebook with people’s opinions and self-presentation, rather than with factual information deriving from a intellectual broader ambit. (When knowledge of this less-personal kind is cited, links to other sites are usually provided.) But when institutions, rather private individuals, come to acquire a ‘corporate’ presence, things begin to change, since the range of information which they can certify becomes much greater. A library knows its opening hours (or, say, its acquisitions policy) with the same reliability, one would hope, that a person knows their date of birth. What bearing do these considerations have, I wonder, on how users perceive Facebook? How ought their perceptions to take account of a resource which straddles the personal and the corporate? The site derives its name through an analogy between books and people. If a substantial sub-community of users were to focus their interest on libraries, then would there not be something which could be referred to as ‘Bookbook’?
Katie Birkwood
DR - Or would, perhaps, the overwhelming subjectivity, nay frivolity, of Facebook in fact undermine the library presence, leaving us not with a corner of Facebook that shall be forever Bookbook, but rather a corner of the metaphysical library that is no longer biblio- but rather sociographical?
PB - Yes, we do still need libraries.
CS - thanks. Do you get much reader interaction on facebook?
CS
not a lot - readers 'like' the stuff we put on but that's about it. I think it'll be our library's foray into web 2.0 though - otherwise there'll be too many different interfaces to update and readers will get confused. I wouldn't bother with twitter, for example..
CB
I want Bookbook!
Katie Birkwood
BOOKBOOK! It's really fun to say. bookbook bookbook bookbook. How long before the men in white coats turn up?
CB
erm... not long... I've made the relevant phone-call ;-)
*Facebook discussion ends*
Offline discussion
I also asked three people in person what they thought about the same question - "would you look for library information on Facebook" - and here are my notes of their responses.“KB: [asks the survey question]
D: No, because I associate it with social networking
KB: But you’re friends with the English Faculty library.
D: Yes, but I saw that more as a newsfeed… a way to be told news.
KB: You’d go to the library website for info, but might exprect English Faculty library facebook to send out news of changes, etc.
D: Yes
KB: Do you get emails from the library?
D: Yes, occasionally
KB: Do you expect to get different information from emails and Facebook?
D: Yes. I have both so that I find out about the whole range of what’s going on. Both more and less important/serious.”
"KB: [asks the survey question]
E: *looks perplexed* no. If I was looking for an archive I'd search for "archives UK" - if institutional, would look at the Uni or Council webpage.
KB: If a library you used had a Facebook presence would you...
E: No. But my uni does, and lots of my friends are friends of it - they have info about exam term extra desk space etc. Basically I'm to lazy to be friends with them."
"KB: [asks the survey question]
G: No. I don't think of it as somewhere for information, but for somewhere to find out about peoples' summer holidays. I think of Facebook as 'low brow'. Would look at the university website/the UL resources/the BL for information. Is there a central website for public libraries? No? There should be."
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Thing 23: "If we shadows have offended"
I came to Cam23 expecting it to be a pleasant summer diversion, a feather for my Chartership cap, a chance to have a tinker with a few Zeitgeist-y toys. I come away from it better connected, better informed, excited about the future and (though I know not how to measure it) more professional.
I'd heard of most of the Cambridge Things, though I had no idea what Doodle, Zotero and Mendeley were going to turn out to do. I was pretty confident that I'd be able to figure out how to use the tools - I was hoping during the course to learn why, and not just how, to put them to work, and to develop a coherent idea of what libraries are actually doing (as opposed to what technology advocates might suggest they should do).
Trying out the Things, reading round them, and growing a list of library blogs to read has helped me to face up to the monster of ‘the future’, and I’m now much more confident to engage with, rather than flee from, the technological age. In my current role there isn’t tremendous scope for developing a social media marketing strategy, but I can imagine a future in which I use Delicious or maybe Zotero to compile and make accessible resources and reading lists, or I cultivate a community of interested readers near and far via a blog and Flickr. Or maybe I’ll re-imagine myself as a tweeting reference librarian answering the world’s questions, with the answers feeding into an ‘Ask the Library’ Facebook group. Or something.
I also plan to keep on blogging: topics already in the to-day list include Open Libraries, the cilipfuture report, and thoughts about exhibitions in libraries and elsewhere.
 |
| '23' by sarah sosiak on Flickr |
Then
Before the programme started I was already an occasional personal user of some social media, including Facebook and Flickr, but I had been reluctant to really engage with the 'social', preferring to keep myself to myself. I was well aware that ‘the future’ was having an ever-greater impact on library work, but felt intimidated by talk of e-libraries, m-libraries, mash-ups and the like. The Libraries@Cambridge conferences I’d attended had shown me that things were changing, and I could see, intellectually, that this was both true and worth investigating further, but I had stubbornly been refusing to do anything more than feel somewhat bewildered and overwhelmed by the idea of change in a profession I had only recently joined.I'd heard of most of the Cambridge Things, though I had no idea what Doodle, Zotero and Mendeley were going to turn out to do. I was pretty confident that I'd be able to figure out how to use the tools - I was hoping during the course to learn why, and not just how, to put them to work, and to develop a coherent idea of what libraries are actually doing (as opposed to what technology advocates might suggest they should do).
Now
None of the Things (pace Tim Spalding) completely phased me, either technically or in terms of purpose, although I definitely prefer some of them over others. LinkedIn is the only Thing that I’m not sure I’ll revisit (although apparently there’s a strong CILIP presence there), and several have made it into my everyday life. I’ve not been as good as some at sticking to library use; this table shows that some tools have found a place in my heart outside work.| Everyday life (professional) | iGoogle (which I use as a portal to gmail), RSS feeds, Twitter, Delicious, Blogging |
|---|---|
| Everyday life (personal) | iGoogle (which I use as a portal to Google calendar), RSS feeds, Google calendar (which I use specifically for marking the dates of exhibitions I want to see), Flickr (which I already used), Delicious, Podcasts (which I already used) |
| When necessary (professional) | Doodle, Slideshare, Google Docs, Podcasts, Wikis |
| When necessary (personal) | LibraryThing (to maintain lists of books to read and those read from libraries), Facebook, Zotero and Mendeley, Google Docs |
| Need more convincing |
Trying out the Things, reading round them, and growing a list of library blogs to read has helped me to face up to the monster of ‘the future’, and I’m now much more confident to engage with, rather than flee from, the technological age. In my current role there isn’t tremendous scope for developing a social media marketing strategy, but I can imagine a future in which I use Delicious or maybe Zotero to compile and make accessible resources and reading lists, or I cultivate a community of interested readers near and far via a blog and Flickr. Or maybe I’ll re-imagine myself as a tweeting reference librarian answering the world’s questions, with the answers feeding into an ‘Ask the Library’ Facebook group. Or something.
 |
| '23 skiddo' by Darwin Bell on Flickr |
A Surprise
What I wasn’t expecting from Cam23 was the affect on my own professional development. I’d long had a feeling that I was missing out on the stuff that was surely going on ‘out there’, and now I feel like I’m actually a part of it. Finally sorting out an RSS feed reader means that library news is coming to me, and becoming an active Tweeter has given me a sense of what the big issues, and the active librarians are. Articles in the CILIP magazines now make more sense, as I’ve often already heard about the events they report. I’m much better informed, and now have an idea whom I might ask for advice and tips if I’m thinking of trying out something new.Concrete outcomes
One very obvious product of Cam23 is the forthcoming TeachMeet, the organisers of which might never otherwise all have met, let alone shared any useful ideas, let alone said, ‘right, let’s do it!’.Future plans
As I said in my marketing post, I’m keen to investigate library Web 2.0 use outside techie circles. (Not that things like the University of Huddersfield Library's OPAC aren’t great, but Old Things really are my first love.) So I’m trying to find archivists and specials collections librarians to follow on Twitter, and am collecting relevant blogs to read, comment on and evaluate (reading the UL’s Sassoon Project blog has already put me in touch with those organising the UL’s fledging schools outreach work). Maybe, when I’ve located it, I’ll also throw myself into the front line of social media special collections.I also plan to keep on blogging: topics already in the to-day list include Open Libraries, the cilipfuture report, and thoughts about exhibitions in libraries and elsewhere.
Acknowledgements
A very big thank you to the Cam23 team, who have clearly put in vast quantities of time, thought and effort into the programme. And a thank you to all the other participants - it would have been pretty dull doing this alone!Thursday, 12 August 2010
Thing 22: "Run when you will, the story shall be changed"
(Wikis was too good a topic not to engage in some gratuitous TeachMeet publicity. Sorry everyone)
Looking for a way to practise your wiki skills? Then why not sign up for camlibtm, Cambridge's very first librarians' TeachMeet...
We're using a PBworks wiki to organise the TeachMeet as that's where the TeachMeet central pages are. It's very easy to sign up and edit, and it a good way to have attendees manage the attendance list themselves.
As well as the Library Routes wiki mentioned in the Cam23 post, I've found some other interesting library-related wikis including recently the Library Day in the Life project and the list of blogging UK libraries and librarians. Wikis seem to work really well for amassing information when lots of people have something to add and everyone wants to see the results.
It is fair to say, though, that in thinking about hosting a bigger, better, TeachMeet in the future, we are considering having our own website or blog as the central online resource, because that would give us more control over appearance and layout.
Looking for a way to practise your wiki skills? Then why not sign up for camlibtm, Cambridge's very first librarians' TeachMeet...
 |
 |
We're using a PBworks wiki to organise the TeachMeet as that's where the TeachMeet central pages are. It's very easy to sign up and edit, and it a good way to have attendees manage the attendance list themselves.
As well as the Library Routes wiki mentioned in the Cam23 post, I've found some other interesting library-related wikis including recently the Library Day in the Life project and the list of blogging UK libraries and librarians. Wikis seem to work really well for amassing information when lots of people have something to add and everyone wants to see the results.
It is fair to say, though, that in thinking about hosting a bigger, better, TeachMeet in the future, we are considering having our own website or blog as the central online resource, because that would give us more control over appearance and layout.
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
News in brief
 |
| A stack of newspapers by DRB62 on Flickr |
- The UL's Sassoon Project blog has an interesting post about their outreach work to secondary schools. I'm pleased to see the UL trying this out, and am hoping that we can pick each other's brains about schools outreach, as it's something to which the Hoyle Project is actively committed.
- (This one's important) Cambridgeshire Libraries are undergoing a Service Review in advance of making budget cuts, and you can contribute to the review by completing the survey and/or attending a public meeting (full details of which are available in this press release). If you're in Cambridgeshire, fill in the form and tell your friends.
- I went on a visit to the lovely University Medical Library this morning, and had a most informative and (chartership alert) evaluation friendly and future-performance influencing tour from the lovely medical librarians. I shall write that up in full soon.
- Don't forget to sign up for camlibtm. We've added a new section for those who want to come to the post-match TeachEat, too. Add your name if you want to have a drink and a bit to eat to carry on the conversations afterwards, and let us know if you know somewhere good for us to go!
Friday, 6 August 2010
Thing 20: "...write a ballad of this dream"
Google docs is quite easy to write about (hurrah - writing marketing was really hard work).
Plus points:
Useful but not life changing.
Library relevance:
Handy for staff on multiple sites.
| Wot? Not that sort of Docs? |
- Sharing documents between people and locations
- Online storage/backup
- Pretty easy to use - helpful similarity of icons and menus to Other Leading Word Processing Software
- All the sharers need to have Google accounts, and not everyone wishes to hand over all aspects of their life to the Evil Empire.
- Security/copyright issues and worries surrounding Cloud Computing .
- To share with people you need to know what email account they use for their Google account. (We've been sharing camlibtm documents via Google docs, and discovering that the email addresses we use for preference for correspondence are not those that we use for our Google logins.) But once they're in your contacts, they're there, so that's only really a one-time problem.
- Not as many features available as in some Other Leading Word Processing Software
Useful but not life changing.
Library relevance:
Handy for staff on multiple sites.
Thing 19: "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows"
Marketing feels somehow distasteful, like something that 'businesses' do but that we more refined types shouldn't dirty our hands with. We were all brought up not to blow our own trumpets*, weren't we? Well, it's clear that we have to forget that: marketing matters. In my reading of them, most of the recent online discussions about the role of CILIP and the status of libraries in society have boiled down to 'we need to market ourselves better'. Marketing is the insidious cousin of advertising. Advertising (broadly speaking) says "here's a thing, get it", whereas marketing is all about making people aware of you (consciously or subconsciously) now in case they want you later. It's not immediate; it's a long-term process.
In my current role, I organise public events which have to be advertised likely audience groups, but I also try market my project within the library, within the College, and to other librarians, archivists, museums people, scientists...
I was also (if I may be so bold as the bang my own drum briefly*) the brains (or perhaps the brawn) behind what has become the Open Libraries strand of Open Cambridge. This is an actual public event (or, rather, several events), but it is also a way of marketing the libraries of Cambridge as interesting, open and important even outsides the confines of the university.
Recently I've found myself on the organising team of a Cambridge Librarian's TeachMeet, which we've been advertising only Web 2.0 ways so far - a wiki, some blog posts, a fair amount of tweeting, a Delicious tag. But this isn't really *marketing*, for all the fun it's been.
In fact, none of the advertising or marketing I've done thus far has been to anything resembling a very defined strategy or plan, and before camlibtm got off the ground, I'd not really used any *social* media for those ends at all.
The future
I'm currently approaching the end of a three-year project, and I certainly wish I'd embraced some of this sooner. I think I'd like to have had a project blog, and maybe built up a bit of a following for an 'item' or 'fact' of the week. I think that some of the public who came to events (and those who couldn't make it) would be interested in that, and it might have helped showcase the project to other heritage institutions. I don't know how much point there would be in starting that with six months left to go?
Magistra et mater has written a really interesting post about successful and unsuccessful library blogs. She points out that reader involvement can be cultivated by writing posts that invite comment and discussion, and which do not intimidate people out of wanting to air their own opinions. I think that fear of having an un-commented-upon, and therefore seemingly pointless, blog was one of the reasons that I didn't investigate the idea of marketing my project in that way. More fool me, I fear. As Laura pointed out yesterday, it's worth taking the risk of not succeeding, and there is a definite audience (as demonstrated by attendance at public events) who would like to see what's in our archive, so I rather think I've missed a trick.
Oh well, onward, onward. I'm certainly trying to use Twitter now to spread the word about forthcoming events in which we're involved, including for Open Cambridge and the Festival of Ideas, and (if it gets organised - watch this space...) a Fred Hoyle sci-fi extravaganza in the Autumn.
I've thought about having a Flickr group for photos of our library. We actively allow visitors to take photographs of the library (so long as they're for 'personal' use), and there are already quite a few pictures out there. Encouraging Flickr users to add their photos to our pool would be a way of re-enforcing the (hopefully positive) message of their visit here, reminding them that they came here, giving access to more information about what they saw, and (hopefully) encouraging them to visit another event or to encourage people they know to visit. In short, it might raise our profile. But then I looked more closely at the Flickr users with St John's photos easily findable: one works in the Library, one used to work in the College, and one is Sir Cam. Hmm... will be a bit more work than I initially thought in drumming up an audience there, then.
A Flickr account for images from our collections à la LoC would, I think, be really lovely. But that would probably have to Get Through A Committee. Not an insurmountable hurdle, but I'd need to develop a better case for it than "would be really lovely".
I'm going to take some time soon to investigate more special collections using social media, and to evaluate further what makes some more successful than others. If anyone has any recommendations for ones to watch I'll gladly take suggestions!
----
*Trumpets? Flumpets? Any other children of the eighties around? Remember the Flumps? To this day, I can't say "Keep it under your hat" without adding ", Pootle" on the end.
In my current role, I organise public events which have to be advertised likely audience groups, but I also try market my project within the library, within the College, and to other librarians, archivists, museums people, scientists...
I was also (if I may be so bold as the bang my own drum briefly*) the brains (or perhaps the brawn) behind what has become the Open Libraries strand of Open Cambridge. This is an actual public event (or, rather, several events), but it is also a way of marketing the libraries of Cambridge as interesting, open and important even outsides the confines of the university.
 |
| Come in to my wiki, said the spider to the fly... |
In fact, none of the advertising or marketing I've done thus far has been to anything resembling a very defined strategy or plan, and before camlibtm got off the ground, I'd not really used any *social* media for those ends at all.
The future
I'm currently approaching the end of a three-year project, and I certainly wish I'd embraced some of this sooner. I think I'd like to have had a project blog, and maybe built up a bit of a following for an 'item' or 'fact' of the week. I think that some of the public who came to events (and those who couldn't make it) would be interested in that, and it might have helped showcase the project to other heritage institutions. I don't know how much point there would be in starting that with six months left to go?
Magistra et mater has written a really interesting post about successful and unsuccessful library blogs. She points out that reader involvement can be cultivated by writing posts that invite comment and discussion, and which do not intimidate people out of wanting to air their own opinions. I think that fear of having an un-commented-upon, and therefore seemingly pointless, blog was one of the reasons that I didn't investigate the idea of marketing my project in that way. More fool me, I fear. As Laura pointed out yesterday, it's worth taking the risk of not succeeding, and there is a definite audience (as demonstrated by attendance at public events) who would like to see what's in our archive, so I rather think I've missed a trick.
Oh well, onward, onward. I'm certainly trying to use Twitter now to spread the word about forthcoming events in which we're involved, including for Open Cambridge and the Festival of Ideas, and (if it gets organised - watch this space...) a Fred Hoyle sci-fi extravaganza in the Autumn.
 |
| Not a sign you see so often. |
A Flickr account for images from our collections à la LoC would, I think, be really lovely. But that would probably have to Get Through A Committee. Not an insurmountable hurdle, but I'd need to develop a better case for it than "would be really lovely".
I'm going to take some time soon to investigate more special collections using social media, and to evaluate further what makes some more successful than others. If anyone has any recommendations for ones to watch I'll gladly take suggestions!
----
*Trumpets? Flumpets? Any other children of the eighties around? Remember the Flumps? To this day, I can't say "Keep it under your hat" without adding ", Pootle" on the end.
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
TeachMeet is coming
(lib)TeachMeet Cambridge is coming - save the evening of Monday 27 September 2010
 |
| Want to help with publicity? Click here for more logos. |
Inspired by 23 Things Cambridge, a group of Cam23-ers* have decided to organise a TeachMeet for librarians. On the evening of 27 September 2010 (around 5pm-7pm) we'll be getting together at a venue to be arranged, with laptops, phones, pens and paper, and brains at the ready for a couple of hours of discussions and new ideas.
Anyone with a library connection is welcome, university or no, Cam23-er or no. You can present about anything that fits into the topic "techie tools and teching tips" - it needn't be one of the Things, or a high-tech Web 2.0 doo-dah. So long as you think it's interesting then you'll be very welcome.
So...
...Have you got a library widget, gadget or tool that's been a roaring success and you want the world to know? Are you trying out something new and looking for input as you develop it? Did you try something that went horribly wrong, and want to save us the same agonies?
If you think you can express your new library initiative through the medium of interpretive dance (or something a little more prosaic), or you'd just like to watch someone try, we'd love to hear from you. Comment on this blog post (or one of the others), tweet with the hastag #camlibtm, or sign yourself up (as participant or observer) on the wiki (still a work in progress).
*The #camlibtm team are:
Isla (Musings of a medical librarian | @ilk21)
Niamh (N Page | @niamhpage)
Chris (The Lizard Lounge | @libchris)
Celine (Thing blogging | @cjclib)
and me
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)