22. the final ‘thing’

Farewell 23 Things! I will miss you, even though I didn’t always have as much time to spend with you as I would have liked.

My favourite new discovery was probably Twitter – I like the look of it (the whale and the birdys) and enjoyed the social interaction.

I enjoyed the opportunity to use the various ‘things’ in a systematic way and the chance to think about how they relate to libraries and to each other. This is something I tend to do anyway, but the structured framework and requirement to write something about each was helpful. I also enjoyed reading the blogs of other ACU 23 thing-ers and discovering their thoughts and perspectives – this was probably my favourite bit about the whole program.

I would recommend the program to others. I would say that 30 minutes per week was probably not enough – more like an hour or so. Some things I polished off quickly, but others I spent more time on because I enjoyed using them. Towards the end I found myself doing it from home as I did not have enough uninterrupted time during the working day to complete the final things.

I would have liked to have taken more time to comment on the other blogs – it might be good to make this a ‘thing’ or incorporate it into the program to encourage even more sharing and encouragement between the participants. I felt this particularly after moving to a campus where no other staff were involved in the program and I missed having Francesca and Colleen to chat and share ideas with as we progressed through the things.

Thanks so much Kate for coordinating and organising all of this. It has been an opportunity to play and explore which I have found so valuable. It has given me some new skills and also helped me feel more connected with my colleagues around the other campuses – and for me this has been the highlight. I would definitely encourage other staff to participate and would willingly take part myself in any future online learning projects of this nature.

 

21. Twitter

Twittering was a lot of fun. I enjoyed keeping up with what people on the other campuses were up to (especially at North Sydney!) and enjoyed feeling more of a connection with my wonderful colleagues.

In terms of potential, it seems more of a social tool than some of the other things we have looked at. It is good for quick Q and A’s but not for more detailed, complicated exchanges.  There is something to be said for using something fun and informal in the workplace and for getting to know eachother through quick, chat-like exchanges.

Also the fail whale is super-cute! I’m soooo jealous of your t-shirt Kate!

I don’t know if I will continue to use Twitter. It ultimately depends on building up a network of followers & followees to share comments with. It would be a fun way to communicate with others e.g. at conferences, and I like that it can be linked to your blog so Twitter posts can be read down the side.

 

20. Second Life

I’ve had a few goes at second life over the past year or so. For me it is a fairly intimidating & almost threatening, alien place. I’ve had a few unfortunate encounters and conversations I didn’t like – which of course can happen in the real world too. Not being used to games I find walking around difficult, though am better at flying. I also found that some of the places I wanted to go were restricted access, maybe for students or members only.

So, that’s the negative bit out of the way… maybe I’ve read too many William Gibson novels or seen the Matrix too many times as I am inherently suspicious of virtual worlds.

Maybe Second Life is the way the Internet will head, with things becoming more experiential and trying to replicate a physical environment and the interactions we have in the real world. There is a lot of potential – I would like to attend a second life meeting or library-related event as it would be a good way to meet librarians from around the world. I visited the ALA Island and Info Island which included this type of activity.

I’m not sure how ACU could use second life – it is still early days and I’m not sure our community are using this??? It could be used to give a face to things like the RefChatter service – you walk/fly/teleport in and chat to a librarian avatar. Some of the ‘libraries’ I looked at had collections of links arranged like books on shelves, or posters on walls – you found your topic and touched it and then information would come up, sometimes you could save this as a card.

It reminds me of the paper by Liz Lane Lawley at the Online conference – she highlighted the importance of play in our working lives. Certainly I need to play more in second life to overcome my anxieties and become more confident with this type of environment.

P.S. my avatar’s name is Tamar Pevensey, I’ve just spent about half an hour editing her appearance & she is hot

 

19. Sharepoint

I like the idea of Sharepoint as I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about doing more to share our ideas and work cooperatively. I  find it fairly complicated to use – it’s hard to navigate around and you (or at least I ) can’t link easily from one part e.g. TSSC to another e.g. back to the Liaison Librarian bit.

It’s really useful for collecting all the papers and info. for the various committees in one place, rather than scattered through my email inbox and the TSSC area is a good example of this. I added the RSS feed but then removed it as one of the advantages of Sharepoint is fewer emails – so I prefer to just check regularly e.g. when I’m on late or early morning desk shifts.

If I was working on a collaborative project I would probably prefer to use something simpler like Google docs (or just emailing attachments) and then load up the final product to Sharepoint rather than work directly in it.

Maybe with time and familiarity it will become easier to use.

 

18. Podcasting

Oh no – I’m abandoning any attempt to complete the remaining ‘things’ in order!

One of the podcasts I subscribe to is the Radio National Bookshow which I guess is Library related broadly speaking. I use itunes to capture it. I used to have a feed set up for it, and some other Radio National podcasts, but have recently stopped doing this and prefer to go in and identify the episodes I want and download them individually.

I found some of the podcasts created by libraries to be uninspiring. I wonder whether the various tours and descriptions of the use of particular resources are actually being used? Something with video, as well as sound, would be much more engaging.

I was fascinated to see some universities putting up lectures in podcast form for the public, as well as students, to use. An example is the University of Oxford Podcasts. I like the idea of opening up and sharing the knowledge and expertise contained within universities with the wider world. Recently I saw a blackboard unit that incorporated audio and media files of lectures, among other things, so academics and students at ACU are using this technology.

 

17. YouTube

There are lots of schnauzer videos on Youtube.  I like hearing them sing.

I also love the Russian ‘Hedgehog in the Fog’ Animation from 1975

I find I am spending more and more time on YouTube & similar sites – mainly as my tv reception is so bad, but also because I can watch what I want when I want. There are lots of implications for libraries e.g. students now using YouTube in presentations and as a source of information; YouTube (or similar sites) as a means of delivering library classes/sessions; YouTube as a mean of promoting the Library e.g. tours. I get simultaneously worried and excited feeling we should be able actively using these tools in our work already.

 

16.5 Facebook (again)

In a class I did yesterday I noticed that the first thing the  students (Exercise Science) did was to log in to Facebook and ‘friend’ eachother. They had various ACU and Exercise Science @ ACU groups going – this is something I had not seen at North Sydney. If the Library had a Facebook profile I’m sure they would have added us – it would have been quite a fun way to start the session.

 

16. Facebook

I had just started thinking about facebook when I read this post from Library Garden. It seemed kind of apt as one of the themes throughout 23 things for me has been the issue of privacy and how much information we divulge about ourselves online. What do our patrons or users expect from us (i.e. libraries) in this regard? is this changing? does it differ between different types of libraries?

Anyway, I’ve used facebook for about 1 1/2 years. Generally most of my friends don’t use it which kind of limits my interest, so I just check it out about once a week and occasionally add stuff in a half-hearted way.

I have some doubts about libraries as institutions really having a place on facebook. It seems to be mainly built around individuals making connections with each other, so while libraries can have a presence there I don’t think they are central to it. It does provide one more avenue by which we can reach some of our audience and is probably most useful if used to channel people through to visit our website, or our actual building.

The Uni of Warwick’s facebook page is a good one. I like that it has useful links (mainly to the web page proper), it seems well thought out and aiming to be useful rather than ‘trendy’. The links to subject resources down the side are a clever idea.

 

15 1/2 my new favourite flickr set

It’s got dogs of various sizes and collage. What could be better?

Petits Chiens.

 

15. Warholized Otto

Warholized Otto

Originally uploaded by geraldine_m

Using some of the tools from bighugelabs.com I altered some of my photos of Otto & Hilda. They are saved into a flickr set imaginatively titled ‘image generators’. The ways you can edit and manipulate your photos are fun, though some of them are more professional and polished than others.

I also enjoyed the Holiday Sweater, the Penguin Message, and the Sheep Poetry.