The Medium is the Message - Prezi and Slideshare
I have to say I have gotten quite excited about this thing - and have just spent an hour playing with Prezi, trying to get my head around it! I thought I would start by trying to create a basic presentation about the steps to applying for a graduate traineeship (nice and easy, don't need to think too much about the content!). I am one of those people who just jumps in without reading the instructions so I just went straight away to use a basic template that they offered - and I really liked the look of the footsteps one. I love the way you can zoom in and out of the different parts of the presentation, it looks so much more interesting than PowerPoint. I think one great way this could be used, for fun, would be to create a presentation for yourself of holiday photos. You could either use a timeline format (I love making timelines, after all the time I spent preparing the Johnian Physicists exhibition at St John's!) or as a keen OS map user when out walking, maybe a large map of the area you had been with the key places you visited and the photos you took. Maybe this is not quite what it is designed for, but I think it's a nice idea! In terms of concentrating on its uses in the real world, I can see how invaluable it would be to be able to share presentations and allow others to edit it, wherever you are in the world. I found it a little disappointing that you have to pay to allow your presentations to be kept private, but I guess that is to be expected. I also had some difficulty using the options, such as putting photos into the presentation, but I think this is something that could be solved by actually following some of the tutorials beforehand, and this is what I aim to do!
This thing is definitely going to give me something to fill in any bored moments I have over the next few weeks! I haven't even tried Slideshare yet...
Monday, 20 August 2012
Thursday, 16 August 2012
Thing 16
Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published
This thing scares me a little, as it is discussing things I have never really considered before! Through working in a college library it has not been a concern of mine that we need to promote the service in the way that maybe a public library needs to. We should always be needed, and on the whole students want the same things year after year - that mostly being the space to work! At the beginning of the academic year we 'advertise' ourselves to the new students by creating new leaflets, holding sessions on how to use the library and running tours. This year will be different due to all the structural changes to the building, and the addition of self issue machines. We also promote the use of e-resources and create displays of new acquisitions within the ground floor area for visitors and students. Therefore I think the most important thing for us to be doing is showing the students that we are a great place for them to work, and that we do our best to provide all the resources they require for their studies.One way I could potentially help promote our library more would be through social media, as I feel this an area not touched on currently. I just feel unsure about the usefulness of Facebook and other mediums for libraries as I did not use them when I was a student to access information about the libraries. Maybe time will show me how they can be used and how to encourage students/researchers/the public to sign up and follow them.
I am generally quite a quiet person and keep my views to myself, usually being able to see and understand both sides. I frequently read publications relating to libraries, particularly in the public sector and how vital services are being cut to the dismay of many communities. I have never worked in a public library but this is something I would like to look into further, as I feel we are very restricted when only working in a university library, and even more so in just a college library where it's another world really! I have enjoyed attending Cambridge Library Group events where you get a mix of people from various different library backgrounds. We are all catering for such different things.
Publishing is not something I have thought of within the context of working in a library, all the papers I have ever written (not published of course!) are of a more scientific nature. Writing is not something I feel strong at, though I hope over the next couple of years that will improve. This year I wrote a short piece on the history of St John's College and its foundress, Lady Margaret Beaufort, for a similarly named college in Australia, and I thoroughly enjoyed that. But I am not sure this is quite what we are talking about :-).
This thing scares me a little, as it is discussing things I have never really considered before! Through working in a college library it has not been a concern of mine that we need to promote the service in the way that maybe a public library needs to. We should always be needed, and on the whole students want the same things year after year - that mostly being the space to work! At the beginning of the academic year we 'advertise' ourselves to the new students by creating new leaflets, holding sessions on how to use the library and running tours. This year will be different due to all the structural changes to the building, and the addition of self issue machines. We also promote the use of e-resources and create displays of new acquisitions within the ground floor area for visitors and students. Therefore I think the most important thing for us to be doing is showing the students that we are a great place for them to work, and that we do our best to provide all the resources they require for their studies.One way I could potentially help promote our library more would be through social media, as I feel this an area not touched on currently. I just feel unsure about the usefulness of Facebook and other mediums for libraries as I did not use them when I was a student to access information about the libraries. Maybe time will show me how they can be used and how to encourage students/researchers/the public to sign up and follow them.
I am generally quite a quiet person and keep my views to myself, usually being able to see and understand both sides. I frequently read publications relating to libraries, particularly in the public sector and how vital services are being cut to the dismay of many communities. I have never worked in a public library but this is something I would like to look into further, as I feel we are very restricted when only working in a university library, and even more so in just a college library where it's another world really! I have enjoyed attending Cambridge Library Group events where you get a mix of people from various different library backgrounds. We are all catering for such different things.
Publishing is not something I have thought of within the context of working in a library, all the papers I have ever written (not published of course!) are of a more scientific nature. Writing is not something I feel strong at, though I hope over the next couple of years that will improve. This year I wrote a short piece on the history of St John's College and its foundress, Lady Margaret Beaufort, for a similarly named college in Australia, and I thoroughly enjoyed that. But I am not sure this is quite what we are talking about :-).
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
Thing 15
Seminars, Conferences and Events
Hm, okay, this is a tricky one for me! Being relatively, um, young(?) I feel I haven't much to talk about (I seem to be doing several things wrong already!) But anyway, I can talk about some non-librarian related things too...
In terms of having attended conferences, my only real experience is the libraries@cambridge conference in January. I guess the best thing I did before attending that was carefully reading through the programme and deciding which bits would interest me most. I guess I did make the mistake mentioned in Katie's blog of taking lots of notes, however in this case I found it particularly helpful to me as I then went on to write up the event for the CATALOG website, which my poor memory would have not allowed me to do without! Beforehand we also created a poster for the displays viewed between seminars and over lunch, and I felt this made me a lot more interested in general about the conference, and thinking about what else others would talk about/create posters for.
Presentations are something I have some experience of doing, although not in my past year here in Cambridge. I find them terrifying to do, but that does have the advantage that I prepare so much for them that they usually go okay! However, all my presentations to date have been on physicsy/mathsy topics, so maybe it is a little different when it is library related.
Finally, I do find there are conferences cropping up, especially in the CILIP Update magazine, which I would be curious to go to. Money is usually the case for not thinking twice about going to them though, even if somehow they are free they turn out to be in Newcastle or somewhere equally far away! I am always interested in attending seminars and talks within Cambridge, especially when they discuss topics such as social networking and the move into 'the digital age'.
Hm, okay, this is a tricky one for me! Being relatively, um, young(?) I feel I haven't much to talk about (I seem to be doing several things wrong already!) But anyway, I can talk about some non-librarian related things too...
In terms of having attended conferences, my only real experience is the libraries@cambridge conference in January. I guess the best thing I did before attending that was carefully reading through the programme and deciding which bits would interest me most. I guess I did make the mistake mentioned in Katie's blog of taking lots of notes, however in this case I found it particularly helpful to me as I then went on to write up the event for the CATALOG website, which my poor memory would have not allowed me to do without! Beforehand we also created a poster for the displays viewed between seminars and over lunch, and I felt this made me a lot more interested in general about the conference, and thinking about what else others would talk about/create posters for.
Presentations are something I have some experience of doing, although not in my past year here in Cambridge. I find them terrifying to do, but that does have the advantage that I prepare so much for them that they usually go okay! However, all my presentations to date have been on physicsy/mathsy topics, so maybe it is a little different when it is library related.
Finally, I do find there are conferences cropping up, especially in the CILIP Update magazine, which I would be curious to go to. Money is usually the case for not thinking twice about going to them though, even if somehow they are free they turn out to be in Newcastle or somewhere equally far away! I am always interested in attending seminars and talks within Cambridge, especially when they discuss topics such as social networking and the move into 'the digital age'.
Thing 14
Zotero/Mendeley/CiteULike
I've been playing about with this thing for the past couple of weeks, and have finally found the time (whilst manning the issue desk!) to write up my thoughts. This is something that I got excited about, I remember how much time I spent collating my references for my Masters project last summer, and how I wished there was an easier way to do it. Doing everything 'by hand' does allow errors to sneak in, and I have spent a great deal of my time over the last few years proof reading bibliographies for friends. It's amazing how much of a muddle you can get yourself in, for something that seems that it should be relatively simple.
I decided to give it a go with Mendeley (I liked the name :-)) and followed the instructions to download it onto my laptop, giving me a nice little shortcut on my desktop. I still had a selection of papers from my undergraduate studies on my laptop, so I set to work asking Mendeley to inport them. I was pleasantly surprised how many of the papers it could automatically recognise the details of, there only being a few from the more obscure journals that it got a bit muddled with (or gave up all together). I then got a little stuck, and this is something I need to work on, but I could figure out how to get Mendeley to create a bibliography list. Am I being dense? I think I will find it easier to play around with this software once I am studying again in September, and find that I actually need to use it!
I've been playing about with this thing for the past couple of weeks, and have finally found the time (whilst manning the issue desk!) to write up my thoughts. This is something that I got excited about, I remember how much time I spent collating my references for my Masters project last summer, and how I wished there was an easier way to do it. Doing everything 'by hand' does allow errors to sneak in, and I have spent a great deal of my time over the last few years proof reading bibliographies for friends. It's amazing how much of a muddle you can get yourself in, for something that seems that it should be relatively simple.
I decided to give it a go with Mendeley (I liked the name :-)) and followed the instructions to download it onto my laptop, giving me a nice little shortcut on my desktop. I still had a selection of papers from my undergraduate studies on my laptop, so I set to work asking Mendeley to inport them. I was pleasantly surprised how many of the papers it could automatically recognise the details of, there only being a few from the more obscure journals that it got a bit muddled with (or gave up all together). I then got a little stuck, and this is something I need to work on, but I could figure out how to get Mendeley to create a bibliography list. Am I being dense? I think I will find it easier to play around with this software once I am studying again in September, and find that I actually need to use it!
Friday, 3 August 2012
Thing 13
1. Google Docs
I was introduced to this when I started at St John's, and also through having a play around with last year's 23 things programme around the same time. We use it to make announcements, and also to publish working hour rotas and details for example for public events and work experience students. It has been quite useful in that respect, but I can see how there is more potential for its use. For example, in the library we all access the Google calendar and docs through the same account details, which I guess is the not the point to be made in this thing. It would be immensely useful for group work when studying, and is maybe something I would consider from September when I 'return' to university.
2. Dropbox
I love this, and this year have become an avid user! It has been useful when making applications to library school, as I could work on them both at work and home using different computers. I think it's great to back up individual files that I want to keep safe, as I know that wherever I am I will always be able to access it. Transferring files between my old and new laptops has been another way it has proved its use. What it is interesting to note is that you can share files with people who do not have a dropbox account - something that may be useful at some point.
3. Wikis
Not a day will go by without me randomly googling an unknown word and ending up on Wikipedia do educate me a little! It is invaluable to many people, if you don't need to know everything about something, and are just curious. At university I found it had limited use, as even if you could find a page on quantum entanglement, it didn't necessarily mean the words were understandable! Sometimes looking at it just made it more confusing! I have never considered writing my own wiki, my only experience of this is as a graduate trainee maintaining the CATALOG website and recording changes made. I never really thought of this as a wiki though...
To conclude, I am always going to sing the praises of dropbox as it has had so many uses for me. My only wish would be for more space on my account! I have not yet got my head around Google, with so many aspects to it, and I think I need to look at it more carefully.
I was introduced to this when I started at St John's, and also through having a play around with last year's 23 things programme around the same time. We use it to make announcements, and also to publish working hour rotas and details for example for public events and work experience students. It has been quite useful in that respect, but I can see how there is more potential for its use. For example, in the library we all access the Google calendar and docs through the same account details, which I guess is the not the point to be made in this thing. It would be immensely useful for group work when studying, and is maybe something I would consider from September when I 'return' to university.
2. Dropbox
I love this, and this year have become an avid user! It has been useful when making applications to library school, as I could work on them both at work and home using different computers. I think it's great to back up individual files that I want to keep safe, as I know that wherever I am I will always be able to access it. Transferring files between my old and new laptops has been another way it has proved its use. What it is interesting to note is that you can share files with people who do not have a dropbox account - something that may be useful at some point.
3. Wikis
Not a day will go by without me randomly googling an unknown word and ending up on Wikipedia do educate me a little! It is invaluable to many people, if you don't need to know everything about something, and are just curious. At university I found it had limited use, as even if you could find a page on quantum entanglement, it didn't necessarily mean the words were understandable! Sometimes looking at it just made it more confusing! I have never considered writing my own wiki, my only experience of this is as a graduate trainee maintaining the CATALOG website and recording changes made. I never really thought of this as a wiki though...
To conclude, I am always going to sing the praises of dropbox as it has had so many uses for me. My only wish would be for more space on my account! I have not yet got my head around Google, with so many aspects to it, and I think I need to look at it more carefully.
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