Thing 23: Making it All Work Together

The first concern I had regarding social media streaming was that all my accounts, and their login info, is in one place for hackers to get at and the truth is - i'm a bit paranoid about these things (i feel weird checking my email on the bus WiFi) and if hackers really were skilled enough they wouldnt need all of it on a plate.

With a bit of a look around i found this could be useful, both in terms of keeping up with group and twitter activity for LIS but also if i wanted to get going on my entertainment news blogging again as i often find information across Facebook, Twitter and the internet at large. The requirement for this post was to reflect on one of the options, but i prefer to look at the ones I can sign up for and talk a bit about each. For the main part, however, I focus on HootSuite.

Due to the mobile app download requirements of Flipbook, i went for  Hoot suite, which is something i've came across on Twitter before. The limit of 3 feeds (particularly in terms of linkedin groups) is a bit of a letdown as this could be so useful if it went across more LinkedIn groups. My email already compresses updates on LinkedIn so it'd have to be worth my while to use a different platform for connecting social media outlets. Particularly since, although the cross platform posting sounds useful, i'm not using social media for work at the moment and any other news blogging i'm doing, Facebook and twitter already cross-platform post to each other, meaning posting to my Facebook group via Hootsuite would double-post on twitter. The useful item on this may be scheduling, but cant Facebook groups already do that? 

It is however very useful for looking at feeds on your screen in the one place. I do find it difficult to keep up with all the Twitter accounts i follow (especially since my tweet alerts to my phone don't seem to work any more) and having them in lists takes time to switch between them where you can have various lists spread across your Hootsuite. Despite my earlier comments, i'm not knocking it as a useful posting tool - it would be more of use should i use it in the future for work as LinkedIn and other social media that aren't Facebook and Twitter can be added in that I wouldn't necessarily use for my entertainment news sharing.  I would just need to get a pro account for this to be of benefit.

Google alerts is something i used before. I cant remember unsubscribing from it but i don't think i get the alerts anymore. This is something that could be useful; if you use your librarian skills on search engines well as too general terms will give you too general results and result overload.

Buffer may be of use in the future also as it allows you to schedule links to share rather than just posts and you can edit the post depending on the platform you're sharing to.

*PAT ON BACK*

Thing 22 Mobile Things

I certainly agree with the point made about using mobile counterparts because of convenience. When i used to blog news more frequently, i found more time to do it on the blogger app and via twitter. Just the other day i explained to my partner that i didn't bring my camera to the ballet because i wanted to put our picture up on Facebook as a way of saying we were there and damn it with the quality.

As i explained in a previous post about instagram, my phone although smart, is very silly about things such as being able to store messages and other things on the massive memory card instead of saving them to the limited phone storage meaning that sometimes my phone registers as having no space when i delete a ton of things. Therefore mobile app downloads dont really happen for me, but i will have a look at the google store and see whats on offer in the areas that might be useful; meetings, presentations, libraries.

That said, i'll used the app version of  Office suite, or at least the basic package, is rather useless outside of reading documents and pdf - it has no edit or create features that i could find. That said, there are mobile versions of apps that i've used that i've found very useful (email, facebook, blogger) albeit with limitations (no way at seeing junk emails, no way of editing checkins etc once posted, no minimise to move between the internet and blog post).

I'm sure the apps mentioned could be useful in the future, if you had the time to use them frequently. For example, one of the first things i thought of with Gum is that you could scan the barcode of books in the library and users would know you had it if they were looking at it in a bookstore. As i've said on previous occassions, with these things, its a matter of prioritizing what areas you need more modern imput and working continually on that.  Beacons also sound interesting but as with a lot of these types of things, patrons need to have to be tuned into the item in question - in this case bluetooth. Bluetooth is something i myself only turn on if i'm sending or receiving something from a friend or family member. But that's just me, so they definitely could be of use.

One app i already have that would serve some of the functions mentioned in previous posts about images is snapchat. It's popular enough for students to more than likely already have it and as i have it, its a quick and easy way to keep students interested in the going-on at the library. It's temporary nature has both pros and cons though.

The temporary nature of the photos may line up a bit with instagram's disabling of the 'save photo' function which i imagine may help with issues to do with labelling your images with creative commons as for the main part, images show up for a few seconds and cannot be saved. Obviously more sophisticated phones can screencap the snapchat, but on average even if they did it would not be a problem. Its also an app that you don't need to buy and there's no real issues of storage space as the pictures disappear. 

It does mean that your notifications and updates arent available for ever, so that picture you took of a new item or opening hours will dissappear and the information may go too quickly for patrons to read in time. Patrons who do not look at your snapchat every day may miss things. But i myself and many others do look at them every day, as these types of things become a bit addictive. As i said before, a lot of young people do use snapchat already so this might be a good way of updating your patrons about your library and could be beneficial is used correctly. 

If i were to consider this going forward i would use it for the following things; updating students on new titles, any temporary changes to the opening hours, added features to the already available electronic resources,  the library itself and its facilities. The temporary nature of the photos may be a selling point for encouraging patrons to appear in the images. It could also be a way of updating students on the current space available in the library, meaning that part-timers can check before they leave the house how busy the library is that day. Also libraries that have more events may find it a useful way of demonstrating the events that happened. It could be away of connecting the departments within the college by allowing each department to take over the snapchat for the day, talking about the types of things they do each day and introducing students to staff and services available. On that note, it might also be a way for the wider library-interested community to get a feel for what the librarian does.

The downside is that, like most social media, this is something that needs to worked on daily to keep snapchat users interested and its not always possible to find something to post about every day. But it is quick enough to take a picture and write a short amount of text so with a bit of creativity, it could work well.

Thing 21 - Infographics

Now that i think about it, reports that i wrote for advocacy at work may have popped off the page just a bit more may have worked better as an infograph. Given my boss' limited time it may have been useful. However, infographs may not cover all bases and works better for figures than facts and the purpose of a infograph seems to condense information whereas a qualitative argument is also important in expressing what library hours mean to students, not to mention leaving in all the information would make it over long and undo this purpose. I will test out an infograph on a report i wrote recently regarding opening hours and see if it works well. 

I decided to pick easel.ly because i think pdf's would be more useful for printing purposes and the name was catchy. It useful that you can sign up with google.

It's important in this infograph to hone in on the highest figures, students responses and financial benefits.

It's probably a bit cluttered but was trying to get as much important information across in the below infographic

Thing 20: presentations

Presentations are scary. I avoided them where possible in uni, only doing a few here and there and accidentally, though gleefully, missing a group one in  my GDIP LIS.

This week i had to give a presentation to students on the electronic resources available to Business students, but figured a live demo would be better, especially since it was on short notice. But I will do up the slides i would have done up if i'd had more that a few minutes to give the demo. Perhaps i can put a few more points on the resources and make it available to students?

My presentation probably aligns most with the first category, the exposition, as i will be presenting the facts about the resources and giving a basic how-to guide. My audience are final year business students so its tailored to their resources and whether the resources cover the three employment paths: management, marketing and finance. In my research i found out that our limited resources arent really tailored towards the finance aspect, so this i will need to break to them gently and provide alternatives. They will be at the beginning of their thesis research journey, and some of them are foreign exchange, so i will need to cater to different levels of familiarity with the resources.

The point made about knowing your subject is something i felt very fearful of in my actual demo - i'd have a general idea how to work the resources but be a bit rusty on legitimate searching as i havent got queries in awhile and wouldn't be that well up on business topics. Obviously i used my limited time before i was due to give the demo looking at a few more general topics but with recently cut hours it was hard to spend any real time on it, so i muddled through the few search suggestions i got unexpectedly.

My story will be as follows.Introduction to myself and library. How to login to the portal through which you access the resources mentioning that they should have received an email by now, if not email on handout. Then go through each resource, one-two slides per resource with space for questions at the end. This handout mentioned is something i did prepare for students this week so it will make up some of my story. This means I have a fair idea what will be going into the resources part of the story. I know from experience what types of questions and concerns the students have, so this should help the slideshow construction.

I will more than likely stick to PowerPoint, as i own it, and the work Microsoft Office is 2013 so it's a quite updated version i can use during quieter times. I was however interested in learning about Prezi, Google slides and slideshare. Thankfully i've learned from experience that messing around with schemes and fonts and images just wastes time so i know the best idea is always to go for a clear font (such as Times New Roman) and style, keeping accessibility in mind. My images will only be screencaps, which i have some prepared already so nothing to worry about there. The plan is to simplify the resources for students, so paragraphs of words on the page would be counter-productive anyway- therefore i will be constructing clear simple bullet points.

As soon as i've constructed the slides i will screen cap some of them here.

i've removed the email addresses for privacy

and a closing slide

Thing 19: The legal side of things

It is interesting that i got to this topic today when only yesterday i was catching up on my ILN (International Librarian Network) topics since my email app went bust and copyright was the topic i was discussing with my partner. 

What i said i will repeat here: considering my profession as an academic librarian i have scandalously little knowledge on the current national rules on copyright except the usual 'no photocopying more than 5% of a text' and referencing in an essay. I would know a bit about attribution and creative commons from my college essay writing days and choosing images to use in posters advertising our services and rules, but other than that i'm fairly behind, particularly with regards to stuff that is not open access. I volunteer now and again with the DOAJ so my knowledge of what constitutes open access is improving but its the other side of the copyright field i know little about. In my conversation with my partner he discussed his frustration about pharmaceutical companies claiming intellectual ownership of indiginous knowledge and I mentioned how my understanding about just how free a stock image is expanded in relation to that No campaign poster earlier this year.

Created by Christina Hardison for opensource.com

I didnt know that legend suggests copyright law originated among monks and i can certainly understand that copyright was first brought into law to protect the author. I can understand that continuing today. But what i cannot understand is that a certain amount of journal publishers can have such a hold over research and its dissemination to the point that sometimes it costs so much more for a researcher to have their work freely available and still respected. Also this idea that works of a ridiculous age are the property of a writers family- surely they should be making their own living and not desperately hanging on to the rights of their deceased family members efforts so that big companies can give them lots of money to make a movie - yes the movie company shouldnt be able to make so much money off the work of others but when did art become about who made money and who didnt? In my own view, education should not be something for the privileged, but for the masses. Maybe this is a bit idealistic but most librarians are librarians for a love of literacy and imparting knowledge, particularly to the disadvantaged. 

I am certainly glad there are additional provisions WIPO has made for libraries, although the document is a few pages long so i will go have a read and comment some more later.

Creative commons is something i have a bit of knowledge about from volunteering with DOAJ as mentioned above so i think i will take the second task to complete. However the content of the first task has given me lots to think about - particularly in terms of who anything i create at work belongs to.

sourced from Academic Revolution Remixed's Flikr

To be included in the Directory of Open Access Journals there are a few important requirements - people need to be able to read all content of the journal ("Is the full text of the articles available online? The options selected must be available on the site for download by a user.")  and they need to have access to the copyright information ("Check that a statement about the journal’s Open Access Policy is stated clearly on the web site") which is  fairly usable creative commons and has to be embedded in the article.
This is a useful resource for information professionals as it offers another source, both for our own research and aiding the research of our patrons as electronic resources and journals in general are quite expensive. In the few applications i've processed so far, a few have even had low or no Article Processing charges which although it is less popular, it means that this research at least could be entered easily, an incentive for academics to have their articles freely available. The website also encourages a digital archiving policy meaning that older work is also available freely. Another important requirement for being included is that the journal have a full editorial board and be peer reviewed, increasing the quality of the content. The editors scan for plagiarism also.

The website is fairly easy to use and is searchable at article level. Once you search, you can filter results by journal licence, which means that you know which will be easier to reference, re-use etc. There is also a browse function which devides sources by, thankfully, the library of congress subject classifications which means finding the right content easier. The whole website has an embedded link to more information about the creative commons licence of each work.

Thing 18: Communicating through photographs

I love communicating through pictures. I'm the type of person who loves leaving a picture with no caption and having people guess whats going on. Or, embarrasingly, loves announcing a dramatic hair style change by not telling anybody about it beforehand and then posting a 'look at me' type picture. I used to not be so hipster and petty. I used to hate pictures of myself. But then, you see i got a taste of people caring where I went, what i wore and who i went with when hanging with some unashamedly camp fellows. It's eased off a bit in recent months, but for awhile (and snapchat is partially to blame) I got a lil bit obsessed with photographing everything i was eating, every place i was and every cute animal i saw. It just became habit. I think my phone not being able to handle the update to Snapchat saved my soul just a little bit.

But i've gone a bit off topic. I've used Flickr a bit, mainly in an observational way but i've never used Instgram (you don't want to know the un-pc alternative name i have for it, though this particular group that should be offended named it). I have however used pictures to communicate whats new in the library, primarily new books, and i added some pictures of the library to our own page after our previous librarian left because i felt it needed more colour. Therefore i can understand how Flikr might be useful to tell the library story - i have no problem with people saving pictures which i understand as the only benefit of Instagram except filters, though i'm willing to give both a go.

Flikr is something i can across, like most things, through fandom, where other fans had posted film set images or fan art. It also somewhere I used recently to look at pictures of a marathon i was very proud my sister took part in. I didn't know that it could search for creative commons pictures so i now realise one particular advantage of using it in our field, particularly with regard to reference questions we might get about copyright free images. It is also, as i've said in previous posts about images, a good way of sharing event pictures and its useful that a group of people can post the same place. Who would ever need more than a terrabyte of storage! At least not for quite awhile! Tagging and gathering images into topics is a good tool - though people may vary in their wording - so maybe only use our own Library field standards if possible? Then the interactive nature of the site allows users to add their own tags thus broadening the findability. I certainly agree that photographing fragile items is a good idea - much like leave no trace with nature, you can take a memory of the item for more to see without exposure to more people.

It's hard not to get sidetracked with all the groups and topics and albums and chatrooms (oh and the metadata!) but i finally got to the task at hand. I thought the NLI photostream was a good place to look for a photograph, particularly since i love old photos and they saw in their Flikr commons statement that none of the photos have copyright only attribution. I scanned it abit until i found the photo below. It reminded me of myself posing with a friend of mine - me awkward and my friend posing like a pro. It was only after i saved it i realised something crazy - the awkward guy has the same surname as me! Major General Ennis on the left. I kind of want to find out if we're related now, and the NLI is a good place to start.....

Instagram is something, ever by its name, that gives me the feeling of a hipster app trying to be cool and cultured by using something like anything ending in gram. It also throws up associations of selfies, ridic filters and apple products, but i have decided to approach everything with an open mind. But then i realised you need to download the mobile app for it to work. My phone doesnt have that kind of space, no matter how much i delete - will i be failed on not competing this task? Would that be fair as not everyone has a smart phone?

I guess i'll enquire and find out - returning to this task at a later date. I have enjoyed looking at New York Public library account - those book covers connecting with the people behind - never gets old.

I think instagram is a bit flashy for our library, though it might help connect with the younger undergrads and i've yet to really look at it. Flikr would work for us because there's lots of embedding features and you dont need an account to view the images. I think we could use it to regain that student updating service we lost with a more awkward Moodle website  - on the old website it was designed with a front page that was useful for posting information and updates as well as a more useable library page but with the new website there seems to be more restriction on who views what version of the front page and its harder to work out how to post things there. Also our institutions marketing team has taken over other roles as late so cant spend as much time updating about the instiution as a whole on the institution twitter.

A flikr account could be useful for posting images of new items in our collection, promoting services and displaying those posters i like making that we cant put on the  wall in the new building because of new paint etc.

Thing 17 - Reflective Practice

self awareness, description, critical analysis, synthesis and evaluation

Thrown in the deep-end in my most recent position, self-reflection is something that may be useful. When i started the job it seemed straightforward; everything new i had to do was in a manual my predecessor gave me. But as time moved forward, the job and it's needs evolved to include roles i had no frame or reference for, nor any real guide. Piecing together material was all i could do. Or was it?

Reflecting on the process told me that when under pressure to do a task i never did before without help made me feel stressed; beyond belief. Keeping it to myself , ie separating it from home life made me feel worse, and i needed to vent my frustrations. But i also learnt from evaluating my response, that too much of this venting caused me to get further down.

The new role in question is diploma coordinator. So theres a lot involved; registering students, dealing with their queries and liaising with the lecturer.

So i learnt for the experience that i need to a) spend time getting to know where relevant materials can be found. I need to put aside time to look, calmly through these and decipher what might be useful going forward and not get too bogged down in the vast collection of old material from previous role-holders.
b) asking for help, even from those who may not have done the specific job but may have similar experience within the instiution in enrollment and admissions work. Get their guidance but dont expect them to do the work for you. Learn by doing but write down what they suggest and what works and what doesnt.
c) I needed also to be less hard on myself for not responding to students immediately regarding this new role but its better to take a bit of time with it and give them an acceptable solution rather that updating them a few times on progress. 

These findings about the situation, analysis of what i did that worked and what that didnt and what else i can do is something i can do in my job in the future. That and realise i am not super-human and that i can sometimes say no to people. The key thing i have learned is i need to time-manage better in these situations and prioritise, setting time aside for each thing i need to do rather than trying to answer emails while doing these tasks and thus getting so bogged down in 'i have all this to do and only this time to do it' and therefore getting nothing done efficiently. 

Thing 16: Collaboration Tools

Collaboration is indeed a huge part of advocacy - collaboration with other staff in your job, collaborating with decision-makers to gain their liking and creating a mutually beneficial relationship, collaborating with others in the field for ideas and support when things get tough.

For the most part i use only email, excel and social media to collaborate - email at work to share marketing ideas, service information and support, email with my ILN (international librarian network) partner to gain an insight to how others might approach it. But I definitely understand that broadening my outlook will help in future collaboration. In a way our institution's use of a staff drive is similar how to many use Google drive. Anything we share at work, excel sheets of student information, posters promoting library's services, general information, organising meetings, we share via this staff drive and/or email . 

Microsoft Word is something i collaborated on exam paper formatting with aswell, which could have been shared using google drive if we weren't set up on Outlook and hotmail. 

 I know many people use Google drive to share college work and/or readings however legally that may be. Google Drive is something I probably would use if i was collaborating outside our institution or outside working hours. I'm pretty sure I used in during my GDIP LIS on group work and we were encouraged to use wiki's and instant messaging tools. We will eventually be doing library induction for our students (we fell behind on the formalities with a premises move, same as i fell behind on the course) and i reckon google slides might be useful even though i usually use powerpoint.

Looking through Google Docs myself, i realised i had used my account to share an embarrassing video way back when and i had used to when the DOAJ share their guidelines with us volunteer editors. The document templates seem somewhat useful so i may use the cv one in future. It is also useful that you can edit a document while using google hangouts. Now that i think of it, i participated in a doodle poll that someone else had set up. This tool may be useful in finding time in everyone's busy schedules at work. As things change we definitely need to meet more frequently to touch base.

When approaching the task for this thing i thought my browser had again changed the language. Let me explain; my Google chrome seems to like to change the language frequently despite how much i change it back to English. It has currently settled on French, a language i can sort of understand from my basic grasp garnered in secondary school and i use my own netbook so infrequently i havent bothered to change it yet :P.

Upon reading further down (rather than investigating, i guess weekend laziness) i found out it's Latin. This could be interesting! I have an odd fascination with learning Latin; some connection to posh private schooling and magic, i guess. 

Interesting when i tried to translate the first few paragraphs (Google Translate) only some of it translated  and very poor english:

“It's time for members across the country…. darts of fear, or soccer pure ...Performance of life,  poverty or hate. But we ought to load...great is the fear, that the main group, takes life….there was a competition, consectetur, neither with the arrows, is effected in the gate of the sapien. Great for the vehicles the same….In the refinancing. It's the element of the earth is not elit ….s not the members, through a pulvinar...and the course of the Moors, and….Smartphones….poverty, my real estate. But in front of a free,....Until nibh eros, arrows, and that photography, that, at the price of the game. ...functional advantage Reserved. Employment in silence, by the Class twist our marriage,...or expensive, and the advantage of, wind, but pure. …..In fact, never invest in targeted hate….Also a soft bed this...bananas which, in the arrows from the author at. But with their arrows…..bananas, innovative poverty-free layer. This innovative no laughter…..the earth,...emperature whom there was not before.

the Moors, but the game...advantage of the ends of the jaws of temperature. Nutella ….that strong and the gate….important layer. In diameter than the disease….pain, but blandit players and sorted by. In order to ...fear, of needs, from the thermal one…. at the court of a great keyboard,..such as soccer the earth across the country."

Google Drive is a useful tool indeed, learned a lot from other collaborators. 

Thing 15: Advocacy

This is a term I'm well aware of. I was aware of it anyway but then I did an ED X MOOC in Library Advocacy. It's something I needed to do for little things, but recently it's something I'm doing every time I can get my boss on the phone. Not in an annoying shouty way (like protesting) as some people may associate with advocacy, but getting my thoughts in between asking how he is, respecting his time and understanding that these decisions are not always in his hands alone.

You see our library opening hours are under review. I have no idea what way it's gonna go. For me and for my two colleagues. Any chance I get I'm arguing the importance of the evenings. Of the weekend. But it's completely out of my hands when everyone's so busy with the big move they don't have time even for my elevator speech. I'm not even sure my report, my spiel on emails or phone messages will even work, but I'm still gonna try. I have been. I've not only given my reasons why keeping all our hours are necessary but also done what the Ed X course taught- met the people at their level. I.e. the numbers, the money, the students' results. I've also been building up a rapport with the other departments and the decision makers since I started just in case anything like this happened and encouraged my colleagues to do the same, if they aren't already. Advocacy starts before the issues arise not after like the view above of protest advocacy may suggest.

The campaigns mentioned in the Rudai post are more about the outwards advocacy than what I've learned about. Once you have advocated your services to decision makers and gained support from you peers you can then go into the WWW to voice this advocacy to others in the field and to find ways to visually illustrate how your services help the student population. Sowing what the similar institutions are doing also helps and the figures provided by the various groups mentioned would be helpful for this. I myself used opening hours from similar libraries in my argument.


The element of need to be heard is a common one, from Libraries Unshushed (my MOOC) to the next LIA A&SL conference being called (all caps) SMASHING STEREOTYPES: LIBRARIANS GET LOUD. Some of the groups we've been told about include 'voices' and  'speak up'  while some are just promoting love of libraries. I just love the long long article on why public libraries are important. One day I would love to find an example of a  disadvantaged kid that became a great scientific discoverer , particularly if it was lifesaving, just so I could be like 'hey scientists think they're so great and they're role in the world is more important, but literacy came first and that's what librarians do, save lives via literacy'. Not because I'm spiteful or bitter but just a little sick of science majors looking at me like I did a degree in playing with blocks or boardback books or something.
There, vent over, sorry guys!


So anybody want to start a library friends group?  Every library seems like an interesting place for Advocacy as it helps organise petitions to get the people in power to vote for or against changes in funding as well as encouraging people to use their vote. Who says petitioning doesn't work?Speak Up for Libraries raised the interesting question of whether or not volunteer-led libraries work. My question would be why is our role seen as something that could or should be voluntary? But figures to back up the need for qualified people would indeed be a bonus. I have just skimmed the content on the first batch of sites, but its useful to know the resources are there going forward.


Will be taking a look at some of the second batch, ie started in recent years which you can contribute to or use, in a bit and will update with how I get on!


update 10/9
Taking a look at these 'get involved' links it seems that CILIP needs to be joined, so that won't be happening. Library A to Z is a fantastic idea and I wasted quite a bit of time waiting for the letters to change to see what each stood for! Also love the idea of librarians showing their pride via I freaking love libraries. I'm pretty sure I already heard about the 'This is what a Librarian looks like" campaign a while ago because it made me think of stereotypes I could satire for my own post on this topic.I might take a funny #shelfie concerning said stereotypes sometime. I'm wondering if I could do something where I work for Library Ireland week. It's not til November so I have loads of time.


My Hunt Library and Not Your Average Library almost make me want to get on Instagram. Almost. Those libraries are really cool.



Thing 14: Augmented Reality - to be continued

This is a term I've heard only briefly, and usually either on my cert in computing science or in nerdy circles. I know the information profession is connected to evolving technology but this is far out of my normal realm of everyday librarianship. Most people in Ireland's everyday librarianship I'd wager. The most contact I've had with this concept is probably QR codes, which in my experience aren't what they're cracked up to be.




Needless to say, I was a bit sceptical starting this module as to how relevant or useful it could be to me and my job. The mere mention of downloading something 4D kind of made me giggle. I understand how apps such as field trip, or at least apps that exist around the same idea of providing additional information about what somebody is looking at, may be useful, but some of the apps such as Aurasma seem a bit frivolous on the outset. They are interesting developments in lenses etc but much like popart on your old Nokia they're fun but don't really add anything useful.




The Anatomy app could indeed be useful but I can barely update the apps I have at the moment, never mind download a new one. I will give it a go later though.




Testing out either or these apps, realistically, either involve the user setting up an account or me paying money. I'd be inclined to agree that Layar would be the better option for a real project but as it's only a tester I'd be more inclined to consider Aurasma. For a second I thought I'd seen the Summer Buzz bee in Maynooth library, but I thought it was just that; a picture of a bee.




>Update<


I later decided that if I want to do this for a purpose, i.e. for my fan blog, Layar would be better, but I'd have to set it up so it only runs for a month.
As I began to use the AR I also began to see what Niamh was talking about as regards it being a way of teaching young people digital literacy, a big part of our job. It could be something more fun or interesting I could use to promote library use in my own institution but obviously only for a short period. I will try it for my own mini fanblog project first and see how I get on.


I will update once I use it and also once I take a look at the librARi demo....

Update 2: 

Much like with Screencast, my lack of decent technology has limited my ability to try these things out. No matter hoe much I delete, my phone doesn't have enough room to download Anatomy 4D or Layar, meaning I can't truly try them out. Layer also doesn't seem to have a less than 6 months/extortionate charge option but the free one month plan seems cool enough if only I could actually get the app to see the results. Anybody want to take a look and tell me? https://www.layar.com/campaigns/W9DAXTR0F6

The demo for LibrARi is pretty cool with the related texts and latest additions in given topic. At first I thought it was for lazy people with the "your book is here" function though haha.

Thing 13: Professional Organisations

Before I begin talking about this topic, it's important to point out I'm one step closer to my screencast because I have a screencast-o-matic account set up and the latest version of Java on my netbook. I tried to get further than that yesterday evening but my computer is deadly slow and there was IKEA furniture to be made. A slight setback to my study plan, but the set-up is done and I can do the screencast this evening. I will stick to my new post study plan!

The only group I'm officially a member of is the Library Association of Ireland (got use of my countdown card last week at the Wax museum) but I will definitely investigate some of those blogged about. I am in a few groups in LinkedIn , as discussed in Thing 3/5 as well.

As IFLA is 63euro to join, even as an unwaged which I technically am not, I think I will keep an eye out for streaming and or more local locations, but this years was in Cape Town and the next two years seem to be Ohio and Warsaw. The have an e-forum coming up on Sustainable Development Goals: The Impact of Access to Information on our Societies between 7-18 September 2015 that I'll be joining if you don't have to pay  . Looking at their last conference all I can think is Oooh some rare books photos!

Eblida sound interesting, particularly since the term 'lobbying' is used in the description. Libraries need advocacy all the time so the fact that this group actively lobbies is a good thing. Yeesh, it costs €624,55 to join? That's for people under 25,000 a year as well! Again with the watching out for streaming stuff! Interestingly Ireland participated in their Knowledge and Information Centre survey and it seems they do good work.

CILIP is something I get updates from on LinkedIn and Twitter. Membership is a bit steep unless you are a student, which I am not anymore. My average pay grade means I'd be paying A CRAY CRAY £112 a year or 10 instalments of £11.20. I don't even earn that much money. That's a lot considering the LIA is so much less. They have a conference this month in London but it's a bit steep. They also have a free New Professionals Day like us, I'm assuming that's where the idea came from. If you happen to be in Edinburgh for the LMS showcase, which is free, tell us all about it! They post very interesting stories, particularly UK stories which are somewhat more relevant to us here in Ireland.

The ALA is another group I follow but I don't see the point in joining since all their events are in the US.

I'm technically in the Academic and Special Libraries section of the LAI but haven't gone to anything yet. I have thought about joining a committee but haven't got around to it yet. I will look into the Repository Network Ireland seminar on open access :) 



Thing 12: Attending conferences

It's interesting that this topic came up in my study schedule today. I am in the most recent ILN (international Librarian Network) program and this is our first post-introductory topic of conversation. This is a program where you're connected with a peer from another part of the world in a sort of peer mentoring capacity. I just sent an email to my peer Chester in the Philippines talking about a few of the seminars and PD day's I went to as part of the LIA and also New Professionals Day.

The most useful ones I've attended are a Career Professional Development day on CVs and interviews in Pearse Library last year and New Professionals Day 2015 (duly noted I see our 3D elephant is pictured in the post). I understand the importance of networking and the condensed information presentations at these events, but unless they are affordable and I have adequate time to book time off, it can be difficult to attend. For example, the one-day conference at DBS this year sounded fantastic and was free (this is my favourite word) but as it turned out I was sick that particular day. In this case, online recording of the event was very helpful!

I would love to go to any RDA workshop, but as it stands I don't have that kind of money, and when management are talking about reviewing opening hours I can hardly imagine a worse time to ask to be sponsored to attend, especially when our current cataloguing system works just fine. As I work in an academic library, the A&SL conference would be something I will venture to, but I will need to,again, prepare my own funding for attending. Another event I plan on attending next year is Library Camp. It didn't work out this year because I had a christening to go to.

Mingling, for me, is terrifying and it's something I find hard to do unless I have a friend with me, so it's nice when you see the same faces again and can go, "hi, yes I've met you before Caroline". I might invest in some business cards, but for the time being I follow through on adding people on LinkedIn!

Thing 11: Reflective Practice (once again)

Dude, how did I fall so far behind? Work hasn't even been THAT busy, though it's mega stressful with work so motivation is something I'm lacking a lot of.


I can safely say that most of the new stuff I haven't done before is done, pinterest and podcasting included, but I do need to get back to doing my screencast. This is something I would have long done on some lunchbreak, but technology is lacking, ie JAVA. Home life has also been quite busy with a new housemate and all the adjustments that brings so therefore I will let go on a little while this evening at home to download the appropriate software and get that box ticked! though it wouldn't be the first time I've said 'this evening, i'll do it this evening'. If I put a reminder on my phone it will make it more likely.


I have to say, I'm good at time management with work, but when it comes to extra-curriculars I'm not taking into account how courses like this might eat into my chill at home time. Knowing myself, I know that I won't do this kind of thing after work because i'll be beat, but also are reluctant to give up weekend time. Therefore, now is a good time to re-evaluate when I will have time to do courses like these now that that summer slump is slipping through my fingers at work. Or at least prioritise which courses I can and cannot fit into my schedule.  I work better when I ease into the Monday morning, so this is when I will do this course, except of course once term time hits when Monday mornings will be a busy time with students. I will re-evaluate once that happens in about two weeks.


Today: thing 11 and 12
Tomorrow:Thing 13 and 14




Thankfully, these two weeks are the time when the catch-up time is so I should be able to catch up if I do a couple of bits today and tomorrow to ease me into the week. It would be best to catch up now, before I really have to think about the college's big move across the quays....

Thing 10: Live streaming

Another term that strikes terror in my heart. Video I can handle because I can edit it. Livestreaming is something else. In a way Google hangouts is livestreaming for the people involves so I will take the step to take part in the next one of those.

That said livestreaming can be a video of something happening, rather than you sitting in front of a camera chatting live.

Any of the three uses below from the blog give me ideas:

To allow people to view a conference that they cannot attend in person. 

To showcase or demonstrate a new product or service - a tour of a new library department for example. 

To allow customers to interact with the broadcaster such as in an 'Ask a Librarian' session. 

Ideas, however, are time consuming and may be introduced with time.


I will return to this post once I have set up/filmed something. I have enabled live streaming on my youtube.

Thing 9: Video

I know one of the first rules of blogging is never apologising for being away a long time, but, yeah sorry guys.

And I still didn't make a podcast. This week for sho.

This topic is a bit scarier again. I've no problem sharing videos I've taken (like recent ones of Dublin Comic Con which I have up on my YouTube) but recording myself  (which I'm sad to say I've done before for silly things like trying to promote my old blog, and there was that time I was on RTE news that is unspeakable!) that is truly terrifying.

I already have an embarrassing YouTube channel (embarrassing despite the 500,000 views video that I had to take down due to copyright infringement a la sigh) so even if Vimeo were better I'd still chose YouTube. I;ve watched many screencasts on Youtube in my time - how to code this thing, how to use this app, watch this idiot play this game. But never recorded one. It is slightly less scary than the here is me talking option I was expecting. Also, as change is inevitable in my library, perhaps it would be useful for a 'how to' use our electronic resources video. I can also understand how a more personable approach can be gained by recording videos, as well as appealing to that visual generation once more.

Once more into the breach, my friends, and I will post my results and experience as soon as I make my screencast....




Update:
So I was gonna do a soundless one at work as it's a bit slow today, but as with every technology ever you need the latest version of Java, which I cannot download because it messes with our non-updated LMS. At home it is!


update 4th September
So I finally got the latest version of Java so this could work and lo and behold my archaic netbook takes almost 3 hours (I kid you not) to confirm that it will not work on any of my browsers and just loads forever but I finally got the app downloaded so I will give a screencast a go later, finally!
later that week I recorded a few soundless screencasts showing how to use the instiutions electronic resources and now I just need to set aside a few hours to captioning them on youtube, stay tuned for that!

Well that messed up and the video is frozen on the one screencapture for nearly two minutes cutting out the most important part of the search demonstration. Need to see if any others do that:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SSWlLT8GJYM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


THING 8: Curation

It's true that we indeed sort, classify and try to make thing accessible everyday. I for one try to keep the noticeboards and Moodle homepage fun and visual to help students find information or even just know when we are open or who to ask a question to. The closest thing to a fun book display we have is our serial desk, which due to cuts is looking less updated and shiny, but I still put effort into keeping everything looking tidy and visible.

I have come across Pinterest in passing, but it follows that type of boxes of images display that I find counter-productive to user friendliness. It is a form of visual information overload. It's that type of display that turns me off Windows 8 through 10. It also means that people like myself with lower internet speeds can't display it right. But it's the way of the future and I have to admit the images array is pretty. It's also nice to get a break from words. Young people seem to be more drawn to this set-up aswell so it is in keeping with trends in the field. As many people have said in their blogs, Librarians will continue to be necessary but need to adapt and evolve.

My main concern with all these different types of media is the time-consuming nature of their use. Yes, Pinterest is good for pinning and book-marking in a visual way, but I already use Twitter for useful links and for images. My opinion has more to do with simplifying my use of social media to a few sites and I happened upon Twitter first, so therefore I use it. Also the fact you need an account to even view these pages, and there is no sign in with Google option, is a bit discouraging.

Ok, so I have an account. Picture overload with like 11 following. Though it is a nice source of images. Rapid City have put their page to good use with different programs they've run. Could I use it to display some stuff about us? I just need to work out how to upload something original. Just one question though - good God, why did they shred books!???
I'll update when I've had a chance to look around.


UPDATE, the next day:
Wasted like a half hour searching different terms to see if there's a way to find all the stuff I want to buy when I get paid and pin them to a board as this would be useful for me. Still can't figure out how to upload my own pictures/links so it might be actually useful for promoting our library.


I didn't even try flipbook because the thoughts of setting up another account i'll never use again happened. I did try storify as it seems useful for searching terms across social media and creating the course of an event or news story. And I could sign up using Twitter!
It could be useful and is easy enough to use but I couldn't really work out how to filter results bar narrowing the search term. I'll have to spend more time at it I imagine.


UPDATE, Much later:
There's actually something I found on my own called paper.li that's good for sharing news. it's a bit finicky as regards it automatic streaming sources in, but it's useful for sure.

Thing 7: Podcasts

The word podcast strikes fear into the hearts of people like me. People who don't have the most confidence in public speaking. Would I have anything noteworthy to say? Would anybody listen? Does my voice really sound like that?

I sound like a Westmeath farmer on tape. On the average day I don't really have a culchie accent. I sound Irish, but nothing specific. Maybe it's all that listening to British and American accents that makes my voice go more international .It goes slightly country,  when the slang comes back, when I'm at home with my family, but on the average day there's only the odd hint of country.  Maybe that's why Niall Horan sounds so damn culchie on TV (please don't take offence Directioners). Maybe back in the day people who thought photographs captured part of your soul were on to something; recording your voice captures the real you. For me, that's a Mullingar girl.

I've never been a big listener of podcasts. Probably some sort of snobbery on my part, only wanting to hear what trained or more notable journalists/ presenters have to say on a certain topic. I've seen the odd YouTube version or been aware of some online on so narrow a topic you'd wonder if it was a couple of fangirls/fanboys babbling on about how much they love said movie. But I've come to realise Podcasts are big business. Seems I'm the only person not following Night Vale. More importantly some of the greatest experts or most humourous observers on a given topic are those without the qualifications or general notoriety: those who do it for the love of the topic.

I guess that's why we as Librarians are tasked to podcast on our job. We wouldn't be in it if we didn't have a certain passion for it. 4 podcasts seems a bit of an ask. I might manage one about common misconceptions of librarians and what we do, possibly including an interview with another librarian, and but I'd be happy if I could manage to fill one podcast. I will of course be talking about the importance of libraries. This isn't a particularly original idea within this course, but I will try.  This is assuming that the podcast has to be about your professional brand or whatnot. I think I'd have a lot more to say if, like so many others, I blabbed about my fandom interests. That said a podcast may be useful way to connect with your users and talk them through the digital services for when they are at home.

I'll listen to some of the options and update <<here>>.

As always one of the hardest parts is capturing what you do record right. I used to have a Dictaphone back in my Sociology day (that thing was expensive for what I actually used it) but as suggested Audacity is probably the inexpensive and easy option. I used it last for research methods in the MLIS so I hope I didn't delete the thing! It's listed as editing software but it's also useful to recording.

Well that's handy, soundcloud can be signed up for with Google. Though I'm concerned they knew what phone I had and wanted to know if I wanted the app downloaded there....

I'll update when I've recorded something, which will probably be Friday when I'm alone at home in the afternoon. I'd be scarlet otherwise!

Stay Tuned for that embarrassing clip!

>UPDATE<

<iframe width="100%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/220130507&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;visual=true"></iframe>

Thing 6: Reflective Blogging

This does indeed sound like a good idea. I am a person who is particularly bad at being self-aware and when I do blog I write it straight out, never re-read it or check that its in any way reflective. I don't think enough about what I write. This detatched attitude probably has something to do with the fact that I think I don't have much interesting or amusing to blog about, the time to write something more than basic and I don't think too many will read what I write. There, there's some reflective thinking :P




The first post, however many times I reflected on how I got here, was enlightening still as I realised I haven't really spoken to people that much about the hard part, particularly probably because the number of my peers who are actually working in the field isn't that high. I usually focus on the 'I am lucky' part rather than 'it took a lot of me to get here and I worked hard for this'. In this economy there can often be the feeling that anybody with a job is lucky to have it rather than they deserve it and they did well in the application process. To some extent, its luck that gets your CV seen before others, but theres more than luck to it.




I did expect more reflective stuff on this course, about all our roles and about our day to day lives. My day to day environment was quite slow for a while as we only really had evening students in the summer. There was lots of students in, so some help with printing, loaning books etc, but the admin side of things slowed down. I did find that I was well able to productively occupy my time when I put my mind to it, but it's a little better now since I've feedback forms to design and other little tasks to keep me ticking over. I don't necessarily feel empowered or driven every day but I do enjoy my work.


Reflecting on the course so far, it has been interesting to see where we can connect in the profession and keep professionally developing. But it's fair to say that LinkedIn groups are more than enough to be dealing with, and maybe some Twitter stuff. Information overload does not help me professionally, so its about finding what works and  simplifying your source so that its streamlined to bring you the information you want and eradicating any areas that are of no interest.






Reading other people's thoughts on each of the tasks was interesting. People on the course come from all types of backgrounds, from librarian in training to people working in a different industry requiring the same skill set. It was nice to see others who also found that using one or other method of social networking for career was best. It's also interesting to see the varying opinions on Google+ - they range from it is useless to it is better than Facebook (which I can't say I agree with haha). I guess it was nice to know I have the rare experience of finding my Google results as being positive, though this may be down to some Google watching me situation - It seemed a bit too convenient that the first Niamh Ennis was me. It was also nice to find out I wasn't the only person with the graddip - my whole class were Masters students when I did it and I felt a bit inadequate! I am also not the only one falling behind or terrified of the Podcasts module, so that's good! Finally, I think it's reassuring that not everyone on this course was a born Librarian or came to it after years of yearning to be a Librarian.

Thing 5: Social Networks

By golly, I fell behind fast! Hoping to catch up today - wish me luck!
This post concerns Facebook and Twitter, two sites I know a fair bit about and use a lot.


FACEBOOK:
But  I don't really use Facebook for career stuff.for career stuff, Given, I used it once or twice to research people before interviews and I keep it looking as embarrassment free as possible. That said I don't mind the odd picture of me out on there because what kind of employee would I be if I stayed in every weekend watching Netflix? My profile is super-private anyway and my profile picture is never drunken. My facebook profile is used to keep in touch but also keep up with news as I don't often feel like watching or reading serious or depressing current affairs stuff after work. To some extend I'm signed up to groups and have liked pages, including professional ones, but I mainly use LinkedIn for that as it's easier to get updates and not overloading your brain all the time when you're chilling out. I will however take the advice of the module and sign up for more. I am already like the ALA and CILIP.


TWITTER:
Twitter I use more actively in the library field as I often use it to post interesting articles I find online. I don't use the feed as often as I should as loading it up can crash my phone, but I will attempt to use this more. Hopefully showing my interest in Open Access and other areas on my own profile will help me get noticed.
I follow quite a few people but I will work on following more and adding what I have already to lists.
I'm a bit too cautious with my twitter and don't have that many followers. It's kind of my private space but I will work on making this a more career friendly social network.
Definitely want to try out chats and hastags that aren't fandom related :P

Thing 4: Google

Much like with blogger, I already had a Google+ set up for the fangirl in me. I originally set it up to a) keep up with Daniel Radcliffe and b) connect up with my fan blog/youtube. So I havent that many people on there, between a mixture of embarrassment at what it was for and because I don't think it's a great tool. A lot of people are so restricted you can't even talk to them or add them. The one plus seems to be Hangouts but I haven't got a chance to use this feature yet.

Should I be setting up a new one to sell myself as a professional brand rather than a fan blogger? The effort seems unnecessary.

I will try out the hangout feature with somebody if they'd like to hang, just drop me a line in the comments. I will also update with how it goes on my limited technology!


The LibCon sounds cool, pity I didn't know about it in April!



Thing 3 - My Professional Brand

Phew! When I read the title I thought I was going to have to brainstorm ideas of how to professionally brand the library or something and I have nearly no experience of Marketing (my other blog doesn't really count because it was teen-bopy we all fancy the boys of Potter-like marketing).


I have the majority of the things on the list already done. I was encouraged to create and beef up a LinkedIn account at a professional development seminar at the LAI an age ago and I've been trying to keep my LinkedIn account with a recent professional photo and all the recent MOOCs etc I've been taking. I even was already signed up to the groups mentioned excepting Rudai 23!


Thankfully my name doesn't vary anywhere and my Google results are quite good. My Facebook profile is so security crazy it doesn't even show up. Even if it did though, its nothing mortifying I don't think. I just pray that Bebo did really delete all the accounts when it was sold because like every 20-something, we used it in our tweens and it was mortifying in a different look-at-me-pose way.


The only thing I haven't really worked on in my summary - I think it gets across that I love customer service and enjoy helping people with their digital literacy, but I would appreciate comments on my profile in general - https://ie.linkedin.com/pub/niamh-ennis/56/134/831 . That said, I'm so security crazy that everything might not show up. I'm pretty sure it shows non-connections my intern position at IBAT as my current job.


I haven't an about me profile, but I'll consider creating one if it helps my professional brand.

Thing Two: Why I became a Librarian

I completed a similar blog post to a British blogging-your-job incentive a couple of months back (I'm the fourth one down) when I was greener in this role. I'm happy to say I'm a little more confident that I know what I'm doing, thankfully, but as with any librarian role, there is always a learning curve as it's an evolving job.




I got into Librarianship by accident. I've loved books since my tweens but its not a career move I thought much about. Like most people I didn't realise it was a qualification. I had great plans of back-dooring it into St Pats when I didn't get the points required to go directly into primary teaching. The day I failed miserably at that interview was one of the worst days in my history although the worst was yet to come when I realised the other avenue at teaching, a PHD to lecturing was very expensive and in Maynooth they were looking for first's to be even considered.




I was unemployed and not in college for nearly a whole year and horribly depressed when I decided to try and at least do work experience somewhere as I wasn't getting a job.


Lots of places weren't willing to take the risk on me but the beyond words kindness of the women at Westmeath County Council library is what saved my future in a way. They of course asked if I was looking for experience in conjunction with doing the course at UCD, which I didn't have a clue about but to appear ambitious I said I was thinking about it.




The following six weeks were some of the most fulfilling of my life. Volunteering at Oxfam previous to this gave me some sense of purpose but it was only 8 hours a week and this was like a proper job. I wasn't getting paid but my God I didn't care. I realised nothing was better than helping people borrow books. The social aspect I loved in Oxfam was made 10 times better. Especially when the school children came in, which was the highlight of my week. I realised that I could find my own little things to do and I was encouraged to make my own projects. They were nothing ground-breaking- a display on gardening books, keeping the Teen section in order with relevant books on display - but I felt like I was contributing to the place. I enjoyed knowing I'd helped someone find what they were looking for. I especially loved directing young children to their first book, particularly if they were Harry Potter reading age!




The next step was the hard one. I had savings my Dad had set up for me to afford the cost, but the idea of doing a €6000 course on how to be the grumpy lady who stamped your book at the library didn't go down well. I wasn't told an outright no, I was an adult and it was put by for me, but I was sighed at and told IT was the future and I should do something there. I eventually gave in to that idea half way through my Information and Library Studies course and did a certificate in computing science, but I can say with feeling that coding is not for me!




Two years later I came out the other end with the GDip LIS and thanks to some friends' advice about volunteering one evening a week at IBAT, I was on the road to where I ended up - as a Librarian after only two years as a library assistant. To be fair, the support I didn't get at the start arrived soon enough after. I wouldn't be where I am without the support and love of my family and friends.

This was supposed to be a post about my job, what I love about it, what I do, but it became about the road. I'm sure I can bore you all with a post about all that soon though.

Getting blogging!

Hello all,
My name is Niamh Ennis and I'm a Librarian in a small academic library in Dublin. Please disregard my profile information as I set my blogger up in my teens to write about my one fandom at the time: Harry Potter. I rarely use it any more and my writing style can be a bit embarrassing there,so eyes front, on this one!
I completed my GDip Lis back in 2013 and since then has been a bit of a whirlwind from interning to part time to running the show, essentially. Still getting there!