Thing 18: Jing / screen capture / podcasts

Now, I haven't downloaded Jing yet, have to do that on my laptop, but I have played with Screencast-o-matic, which I love.  Free, online, no download, simple to use.

I made a video for my colleague demonstrating how to assign a Passcode to a user, which she loved.  I can see quite a lot of uses for this, both for training colleagues and students.  I'm quite a visual person, and I find that screenshots can help you understand a procedure much better than just instructions.

I've never really been one for Podcasts.  I have downloaded some podcasts, and I understand the point of them, but I tend to tune out when listening to things, so they're not really my cup of tea.  Perhaps we've moved on from podcasts - they were all the rage a few years ago, due in no small part to the iPod, but I think that video creation tools are now so good and easy to use that people will be able to livestream or download short videos as easily as they can a podcast.

Thing 17 **Update** - Prezi / data visualisation / slideshare

Oooh, Prezi.  I'm having a go at putting my CV on a Prezi at http://www.prezi.com/ (which is quite easy because there's a template) and I really like the way you can visualise and display the content of your presentations.

It has taken me a while to get used to how it all works, and I don't think the interface is as user-friendly as it could be (I ended up using copy and paste a lot, because I couldn't work out how to create a new text box, element or frame) but I think with a bit more practice it will come to me.

It offers you a much more interesting presentation than you can create on PowerPoint, which is limited to a linear progression through a set of slides.  With Prezi all the information goes on one slide and you zoom in and out and around the data.  This enables you to return to previously discussed ideas without having to create a new slide.

Genius.

I can see me using this a lot in future.

Thing 17 - Prezi / data visualisation / slideshare

Thing 17 has been postponed, but in the meantime, I've had a bit of a think about slideshows.  Not the slideshows that my parents sometimes put on, of their life in the 1970s (lots of miniskirts and beige), but the "presentation" that inevitably forms part of a talk or lecture.  PowerPoint seems to have become rather too ubiquitous, partly, I suspect, because it moves attention away from the speaker, partly because speakers seem to believe that delivering a talk, lecture or teaching session must involve some kind of visual element, a backup of what the speaker is saying.

When I was an undergraduate, computers in classrooms weren't really the norm.  Any visual information came courtesy of an overhead projector and the accompanying transparencies.  Cue the probability of a lecturer putting an OHT upside down or back to front, or having to fiddle with the projector to focus or enlarge the image on the screen.  Now we have interactive whiteboards: you can press instead of click.  I find it a bit weird and do prefer to use the computer to control the presentation rather than the board, but maybe it's inexperience.

I presented a learning session for library staff on Twitter (basic uses and application) and wrote a presentation in PowerPoint.  Mainly this was a safety net in case we lost our internet connection (it's also useful for distribution to anyone who can't make the session).  It also helped me to plan the session, although in the end I didn't use much of it, and found myself improvising instead.  If you know your subject you can get away with improvising, but it's nice to have the backup of planned notes.  The dangers with slideshow presentations are putting too much information on each slide; having too many slides; making each slide look the same; not being interesting; causing death by PowerPoint (not sure whether this is a medically recorded cause of death yet, but it's possible).

Maybe we should go back to the days where all you had was your memory and a few sheets of A4 paper with notes on.  I remember my English Professor walking into a lecture theatre with just a copy of Henry V and proceeding to talk for an hour on the text with no notes.  He didn't even look at the play, just waved it around every now and then.  The Master at work.

Prezi and Slideshare I have heard of, and I've viewed presentations in these formats, but as I have access to the perennial PowerPoint, I've never really looked at them in any detail.  I use PowerPoint because I'm familiar with the program and have access to the software.  I think SlideShare could be useful if you want to host the presentation on the web and make it public, but the ads are a bit annoying.  I'd be interested to know if these programs are easier to use than PowerPoint, which I do find a bit clunky at times.


Anyway, I'll post more when we're told what to do with Thing 17. 

Visit to Cambridge University Library (UL) – 31st August 2011 by 3 Library Assistants

The iconic logo of the library represents Gilbert Scott's design


Cambridge University Library:

• A large, intimidating structure on West Road in Cambridge, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott between 1931 & 1934


• The first Cambridge University building to be sited the other side of the river

• The only legal deposit library in the UK and Ireland to lend its stock

• An institution which grants access to students and staff not only of its own University, but others in the UK and overseas


• A library bursting at the seams, which receives 80,000 items a year from publishers to fulfil their legal obligations


I had used the UL before, as a student, when I was granted Reader access (no borrowing) and had navigated the shelves in search of library-related books for my Masters dissertation. But I had not seen the hidden depths of the library, with its basement of rolling stacks, its dark and moody private staircases, and its miles of hidden corridors.


So at 2.30pm, Helen, Sarah and I met Lizz Edwards-Waller at the Entrance Hall for our behind-the-scenes tour. Lizz was very happy to show us round the library, and chatted enthusiastically to us about how the library works and its key features. First stop was Admissions, where we were registered as Readers, which entitles us to access the Library for reference purposes for a period of 2 years. After scanning in, we were able to view the Anderson Room, a beautifully furnished reading room for music with a very plush carpet. The bookcases were beautifully carved and the seats looked very comfortable. As a result, many users prefer to use the room to study in, even if they are not music scholars.

Next, we saw the Catalogue Hall, which is much as it was in the 1930s, except for the catalogue terminals running Newton, the library’s OPAC. The Guard Books listing the manually catalogued items from the library’s earlier days are still available to view, although they have not been updated since 1986. The card catalogue records were transferred to Newton between 1986 and 1996, so the Guard Books are really just for show and historical interest. Through the Reading Room (which houses the Library’s reference collection) to the West Room, dedicated to periodicals. Periodicals are not exempt from legal deposit, however the six national libraries (Cambridge, Bodleian Library Oxford, British Library, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales, Trinity College Dublin) share the responsibility for holding a copy of each published issue. This ensures that the periodicals room is not bursting at the seams with GQ and Heat magazine, and has enough academic material to please the many retired researchers and alumni scholars who do not have access to electronic resources.

Down another corridor and a flight of stairs, into the 1972 extension, where Library staff are busy in the basement doing a multitude of backroom tasks. Here we visited the Legal Deposit room, where we saw several stacks of red crates, all containing items published in the UK. Once unpacked, the items are sorted into Academic and Supplementary resources. Academic texts are given priority, as they are of more value to the University Library. The legal deposit staff research the content and publication details of the books prior to sending them to Cataloguing, thus speeding up the process of book to shelf. Supplementary materials (including children’s picture books and knitting patterns) are briefly catalogued before being sent to the stack.


Contrary to popular belief, the famous Tower is not full of pornography (the porn cupboard is in the basement). Instead, the 157ft-high Tower is the repository for all material deemed non-academic from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1578614/Secrets-of-Cambridge-porn-library-revealed.html & http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2006/12/the_dirty_books.html). Currently, the Tower Project is busy cataloguing the 200,000 volumes stored on the 17 floors to make the collection more accessible to library users, and finding some gems along the way (http://vl203.wordpress.com/).


Alas, we were not able to visit the Tower. We saw the basement with its manual rolling stacks, and also a relic from the 1970s: electronic stacks! These stacks could be dangerous – trapping people between cases; stopping suddenly and coming off the tracks; useless in a power cut. But, they are a part of history, so a small section of electronic stack remains for posterity.

A quick scamper up some private stairs, and we were back on Floor 1, thinking about tea. Luckily the UL’s Tea Room was able to oblige. The Tea Room is a space for refreshment and relaxation (no books allowed!) but now it has Wi-Fi there are a few laptops jostling for space amongst the mugs of tea and plates of cake.


There our visit ended. A very interesting, though all too brief, tour of a fascinating library, one which stays true to its original vision while managing to cater for the students of today. I will be back before the end of the year to visit the exhibition, Books & Babies: Communicating Reproduction, which runs until December 23rd (http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/exhibitions/Babies/).


More information about Cambridge University Library may be found on the website:
http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/


This blog post was written for an internal staff magazine and is reproduced here by the author.  The author cannot be held responsible for any factual inaccuracies contained within this article.  Please feel free to add any corrections in the Comments box.

Thing 16: Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published

Advocacy... seems to go hand-in-hand with Activism.  I think a lot of information professionals can see that the line between the two has become blurred, so that advocates are becoming more militant, union-focused, ready to stand, placard in hand, outside the gates singing rousing choruses of We Shall Not Be Moved.

Now, I won't say that I agree with the cuts to public services which has resulted in library closures, because I don't.  However, there is a substantial deficit in public finances, which needs to be solved somehow.  If you were given a choice as to how to spend the money, would you choose to keep open a hardly-used branch library or spend the money on highway repairs?  Would you fund places in special schools for children with learning disabilities or more staff for a library with self-service machines?

These are the questions asked in last year's review of services by Cambridgeshire County Council.  I filled in the online questionnaire, favouring libraries at every step.  Then I had to do it again with a set of points (or "spending money") and choose which services I would cut and which I would keep.  Then I had to do it again, with a smaller points budget.  This really makes you aware of the pressure councils are under to pay for services that we take for granted.  And I did cut library services, in favour of highway maintenance and special school places, because these things are important too.  In some cases, they are more important than library services.  Safer roads are achieved by regular improvements and maintenance.  Children's special educational needs are achieved by securing places at the right schools in the right area.  The needs of library users can be achieved even if the service spends less money, due to self-service, online services and voluntary organisations running library services.

Shock horror!  Someone supports letting unqualified librarians loose on a library service!!!!  The world is coming to an end!!!!

Calm down dear, it's only volunteers.  What harm can they do?

In my experience, volunteer-run libraries have improved the service in communities no longer served by council-run libraries.  The myth that only a qualified librarian can run a library has been perpetuated by CILIP and advocates/activists for far too long.  Good management skills, an understanding of how to provide excellent customer service, and a group of volunteers willing to learn is all you need to open a library (and some books).  To keep it running, you need to listen to your customers, advertise and promote your existence, fundraise, encourage new volunteers and welcome your users.  Of course, it helps if your volunteer-run library is in partnership with the council-run library service, giving you access to a library management system, a larger range of books than you could possibly store, and all the other associated services.

When our village library was earmarked for closure, people were up in arms.  They formed a friends group and fought it to the end.  But when the end came, it came with a proposition: you want to keep your library, you run it.  And they did.  And it is more popular.  It opens when people want it to open, it runs reading groups, children's activity groups, a history group.  It's a community resource run by the community, rather than a forgotten branch of an old oak waiting for the tree surgeon to come along.

And libraries are important, but are they more important than health services?  Would you pay for a library or an MRI scanner?  I'm not saying that an oncology nurse is a more important person than a librarian, but I know who I'd want to see next to my bed if I had cancer.  Ditto firefighters.  I wouldn't call a librarian if my house was on fire (or even if my library was on fire, come to think of it).

I have digressed woefully without considering what I'm supposed to be writing this Thing on, which is:

why it's important to advocate for the section of library and information sector that you work for or want to work in - is it important? I work in an academic library.  we are well used, well funded and well liked by the students - no advocacy needed.


what advocacy you've been involved in.  Or, give an example of some advocacy that you think has been particularly effective – library-related or otherwise.  I don't know if I do advocate for libraries, apart from working in one, writing this blog and patronising my local volunteer-run library access point (to which I pay gratuitous amounts of fines money because I borrow loads of books and forget to renew them, thus helping to fund the service).


If you haven't been involved in advocacy, reflect on what your skills are (or which you want to develop), what you're most passionate about and think about what you might be able to do.  I don't think I'll be using my cataloguing and classification skills to advocate on behalf of libraries...


where advocacy fits in with professionalism – and identify where you think the advocacy might fit within the requirements of the roles. I think it's a given these days to assume that every library professional is an advocate for the profession.  In a way, we are.  Every time you work in your library and you help someone, you show them the public face of the library service.  It's your face, but it represents the library.  If you don't communicate with your users you cannot hope to promote the service you provide.  You can put up big banners saying "We're the Library.  Aren't we great", but unless you prove that greatness by providing the services that people need, all your advocacy will come to nothing.  In my library, our users are the greatest advocates we have.  Proved by the thank you cards, positive survey responses and occasional boxes of chocolates we receive from our users.

So you can go to big conferences and listen to people champing at the bit to champion library services; you can write open letters to newspapers openly criticising funding cuts; you can even take to the streets and demonstrate against closures.  But unless you can prove to the general public how important your profession is by actually working in your profession and being visible, you can't expect people to support you.

Thing 15: Attending, presenting at and organising seminars, conferences and other events

Let's be honest here, I balk at the idea of going to library events.

Why is this?

I'm not very good in a room full of people I don't know.  I sort of latch on to the first person who smiles at me and follow them around hoping that they'll introduce me to more people when instead they're trying to get rid of me.  I try to be the person who smiles, engages in conversation, volunteers to speak in front of others, so why do I always feel like the person nobody wants to speak to at a party?

I've only been to a few library events, both related to library careers.  The first one, designed for library staff considering the postgraduate route into librarianship, was at UCL in London.

London - big scary metropolis.  Me - young, female, from the country, out of my depth in the big city.

Well, I get to UCL early (hurrah for the London A-Z) and find the room we're meant to be in (picking up some stragglers on the way).  We wait outside the room, as there seems to be nobody in it.  As nobody else appears we bravely venture into the room to discover that in an anteroom there is tea, coffee, biscuits and all the other attendees!  Don't we feel stupid!?  There should have been a sign on the door inviting us in and specifying that registration/coffee was in another room.  I find myself a cup of tea, and as there is a bit of time, try to chat to people.  It's like being in a morgue.  A deathly hush has descended on the room, and all that can be heard is the crunching of biscuits.

Interesting talks and presentations follow, and lunchtime arrives.  Aha!  Networking!  Surely by now they've loosened up?  So I try to talk to people, but they're all suspiciously quiet and don't seem interested at all.  I'm standing there with a paper plate thinking: is it me?  We're also encumbered by the fact that there are lots of people and no chairs, so we're all trying to sit on the floor whilst eating a buffet lunch.  Later there's another coffee break before the end session of the day, and I've given up talking to the attendees and instead chatted to the presenters.  This was much more rewarding, though does limit the field somewhat: you have to move away when you run out of things to say and then you're stuck in the corner with a biscuit trying not to look like Billy No Mates.

So although it was an interesting event, and worth attending, it was let down by the cheerlessness of the other participants.  I was relieved to discover that on leaving the building my other half was kindly waiting for me (he'd had a meeting in London that afternoon and was kindly escorting me home) and I had someone to talk to!

The other library event I attended was a day for library assistants who were looking to move towards a professional post.  Again, the room was too small for the amount of people hoping to use it.  Due to my train breaking down on the way to Leicester, I wasn't early, but instead an hour late (no sympathy from the organisers, even though I'd phoned from the train to explain that the train had a fault in the air brakes and we were waiting for a tow).  So I and two colleagues were freezing cold (outside temperature -7C) and had missed 2 presentations when we got there. Bad start.  At lunchtime I chatted to my colleagues as other participants chatted to theirs.  Later, there was the usual reticence when we were asked to work together in groups. 

Generally, this event was aimed at people considering the first steps towards a professional post, not people who had already made the choice as to which route they would take.  In my opinion, spending three hours on a train at below freezing temperatures was not worth it for the content of the event.

This event could have been improved by advertising the content of the event as well as the title.  Even the titles of the presentations would have given us an indication as to whether the event would be useful.  The only advantage for me going was to see the newly extended and refurbished library at University of Leicester (my alma mater).

I would like to attend other events, meet other librarians, learn new things, but I have been put off by my experiences in the wider world.  My next task is to join a local group so that there is less travelling and more friendliness (and possibly some cake).

Thing 14: Zotero / Mendeley / citeulike

Organising your references... I can see why you might want to use these, but to be perfectly honest, I've never bothered.  To me, they seem like an extra layer of hassle.  I'm sure that those of you who have fallen in love with RefWorks, EndNote, or other such proprietary software may relish the chance to get your hands on a free version that does much the same thing.  My institution uses RefWorks, but I've never had the need to know anything about it.

I've never had so many references that I haven't been able to organise them myself, with a spreadsheet that I can colour-code, sort, filter and organise like any other data document.  I don't think I need another piece of software to do my collating.  If I'm researching something, I reference as I go, but seeing as I'm glad to be out from under the yoke of studying and I can't see me rushing into any further academic study, I really see no value for me in these tools.

If you're studying, they may be useful, and I was shown cite-u-like when I did my dissertation, but after the presentation I didn't bother using it.  Does that imply that my organisational skills are pretty good already, or that I'm just happy doing things my way (or that I'd completely forgotten about the presentation by the time I got home from the study school...)?

I might try out Mendeley (because you can scribble on pdfs, apparently, and it can organise your documents for you), however, I don't need the others because I'm not studying or researching and I don't do teaching.

Thing 13 - Google Docs, Wikis, Dropbox

Google Docs I have used for storage for about 4 years.  The disadvantage I have is that it does require up-to-date browsers and a fast internet connection.  On slower connections and older browsers not all functionality is available, and it can be quite jerky.  Having said that, I have shared some documents with other people and I'm hoping to use it on a collaborative document which is a work-in-progress playscript.

Some examples of the files I stored in my Google Docs:

pdf files of journal articles

scripts, rehearsal schedules, minutes from my amateur dramatic society

works in progress: plays, pantomimes, script ideas

christmas card list, party guest list, present ideas list

I do like the fact that the content is saved to the cloud and therefore wherever you are with an internet connection you can access it (useful if you're in a public library; should also work on smartphones - need to try that).  This feature also makes it good for backing up data.  I think I could use Google Docs more, but it tends to screw up the formatting of my carefully crafted documents so I don't think it will replace my trusty flash drives just yet.

Dropbox was mentioned to me by a friend as a good online storage facility, and I may use it to back up documents rather than emailing them to myself (which is an easy way to lose track of where your documents are if you have lots of emails!).  If it stores files as they are without altering source formatting then it may become my preferred backup utility.  It could be useful for sharing documents, but I would have to investigate this more thoroughly.

Wikis keep getting mentioned by colleagues in the context of collaboratively writing procedure manuals, but I'm not sure whether they are actually used for this.  I have to say that I'm not used to collaborative working.  So many years in academia ensuring that your work is your own makes you a bit precious about your documents, to the extent where you work obsessively to protect your ideas from others.  It was suggested that I use a wiki or similar to update a community website I run, but I'm loath to relinquish editorial control (partly because I'm quite precious about my writing style, and partly because I can spell and a lot of people can't - spelling, punctuation and grammar are really important, even in the online world, and it irks me that the world is full of incoherent written English).

So both Dropbox and Wikis need further investigation, when I'm on a computer that I have admin rights to.  I might revisit several of these Things at a later date, once I've used them for a while.

We're the Choir!

Saturday 3rd September was a new experience for me: the choir for a day event, where singers of all ages and abilities come together to learn a repertoire of songs to sing at an evening concert.  No experience necessary, just an enjoyment of singing and for the first time, no need to read music!

The event is organised by my good friend Sarah Burton, who sings in a Barbershop quartet called Sarsparilla.  She recognised that lots of people like singing, but either don't have the time to sing in a choir, or are too intimidated by choirs to join them.  Some people just want to sing for fun, without the pressure of learning complicated arrangements for lengthy concerts.

Many choirs in my area are either church-based with a religious slant to the music, or have simply disbanded because of the lack of willing pianists.  One exception is Witchford Voices: at 70-strong, they are one of the largest community choirs locally.  But they are oversubscribed, partly due to their formidable leader: Naomi D'Cunha.  Naomi has been teaching music for many years and is an enthusiastic singing coach.  I worked with her in pantomime a few years ago.  She can teach anyone to sing.

And she really proved her skill on Saturday.  A motley group of singers was transformed into a fully-fledged choir, singing African songs, traditional spirituals and pop songs, all with only four and a half hours of rehearsal.  During the performance, we got the audience to join in the chorus of What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor, which rounded off the evening nicely.  Naomi's enthusiasm really pulled us through the day which, although tiring, was well worth it.

Thing 12 - Putting the social into social media

Consider the role of social media in building up networks and a sense of community.

com·mu·ni·ty   /kəˈmyunɪti/

1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.

2. a locality inhabited by such a group.

3. a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists (usually preceded by the ): the business community; the community of scholars.

4. a group of associated nations sharing common interests or a common heritage: the community of Western Europe.

5. Ecclesiastical . a group of men or women leading a common life according to a rule.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/community 

Social media has, undoubtedly, brought me closer to people in definition number 3, the "Librarian Community" (oops! space for me in Private Eye there!) and I follow several virtual colleagues via Twitter.  Of these, the most prolific is @joeyanne, whose blog I've been following for a few years now (so long, in fact, that I can't remember how I discovered it).  Now I can keep up with little snippets of Jo's experiences via the handy medium of Twitter, and its lovely 140-character limit.

Unfortunately I have found that, with very little of any interest to discuss, my tweets seem to revolve around annoying things that happen at work and topical news stories, interspersed with retweets of content much wittier/more interesting/of greater worth than mine.

Do I feel like I am part of a wider network of librarians?  11 librarians follow me on Twitter, I follow 8 librarians - not a very wide net, more like a sieve.  What I have found is that the initial excitement of social networks disappears quite quickly, and people you followed stop tweeting.  This is also true of blogs and forum sites.  Many people start off a blog with good intentions, but of the twenty or so cpd23 blogs I have been following, probably a third haven't posted in a while.  Now I know I'm not the world's most regular blogger, but I thought I was being really slow in keeping up with the programme until I saw that some people haven't posted since Thing 4 (automatic smug points for me then).  It's a little disappointing to follow someone who posts some really interesting things to return to their blog and find out that they've got bored or gone on holiday to Outer Mongolia for six months.

Although I have been reading other cpd23 participants' blogs I have not made contact with anyone (not even posted a blog comment).  I have found Google Reader and Twitter to be the most useful tools for keeping up to date, and I'll probably keep using those after cpd23 has finished.  I can't say whether I'll get more involved than just reading and digesting other people's blogs and occasionally making some contribution of my own.

In terms of the "sense of community" that social networking may help to foster, I'm not really sure if librarians form a "community".  Then again, it is an overused term: count the proliferation of "communities" used in official soundbites - "the gay community"; "the muslim community"; "the traveller community".  Such phraseology only imbues the term with pejorative connotations.  It separates the group of people being referred to, it makes them "other".  A lot of people, especially those who read the Daily Mail, are afraid of the "Other", assuming that it's some Bogeyman ready to break into their houses and steal the deeds to the property.

But I digress.  The "Librarian Community" is quite active on social media, and it is a good place for advocacy (although whether it filters out of the echo chamber remains to be seen), however, I do wonder at the people spending so much time online.  I haven't got a lot of time to spend online (indeed, when the students some back, my worktime internet use will really drop) and I take part in a lot of real-life community-based activities (with people who aren't librarians) out of work time.  There is a danger of spreading yourself too thinly.  Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that the online community of information professionals are a really great bunch of people, but I have a life outside librarianship, and at the moment it's too busy to contemplate adding a new dimension of socialising (whether online or in person) to the mix.

Thing 11 - Mentoring

I don't have a mentor. Maybe I should get one.

In all seriousness, it's useful to have someone around you can bounce ideas off of and who you can chat to about your professional development and career progression.  I think I'll return to this at a later date when I start to consider Chartership.