This week's Thing, as part of the 23 Things for Professional Development program, is all about Evernote. The post for this week begins with the disclaimer that Evernote allows you to notate webpages with your own notes, making it easy for later retrieval. I have found Diigo to be a far superior tool for this purpose. After all, Diigo is specifically designed to be a bookmarking tool for web links (perhaps I'll change my mind after finishing this post...). Where I find Evernote to be useful is its capability to organize web material like a notebook or binder. It becomes your online folder/netbook/binder for items that you need to retrieve later.
A prime example for how I've used Evernote in the past is for my recipe collection. I don't have a lot stored in my account yet, but as I try new recipes and they become ones that I know I'll use again, I add them.
Since I don't use Evernote a lot, I decided to peruse the web a bit to find how others are using the tool. Here's what I found ...
This post and really like the idea of using Evernote as an "office cleaner." The author describes how a simple text document is used when a phone call comes through, or when new ideas need to be written down (you know the one's you have when you're super duper busy and don't have time to deal with it at the moment). By doing this, you create a digital to-do list of sorts. Evernote, then, can help take it to the next level in that these impromptu notes become synced and fully accessible anywhere, anytime. Brilliant!
The same post goes on to say that Evernote would be great as a research tool and an "always-accessible idea file." I've kind of been looking for this without even knowing it! With the constant information overload these days, I'm always finding information that can be used for blog posts, newsletters, projects, coursework, and potential publishing research. Evernote could very well be my ticket to better organizing this material.
Lifehacker did a post that reminded me of the simple fact that Evernote notes and web clip data are searchable. Granted, you can do a CTRL+F within a document to find certain words, but it's good to know that Evernote has the same capabilities. Taking it a step further, Evernote can OCR your handwritten notes that are scanned into the application as an image. This opens up a whole new set of possibilities - and it's a must-have options that will help keep all those notes retrievable (I know there are times when I tag a bookmark but still have trouble finding it!). And speaking of tagging - yep... Evernote does that well too.
One other use for Evernote that I'm pretty sure I've heard of from someone...but can't remember who... is to take pictures of Business Cards. Remember that the data is searchable, so when the card is scanned, you no longer have to keep the card in hand AND you now have a searchable document in the cloud. Pretty nifty!
Evernote has been said to be the only bookmarking tool you'll ever need. I'm not sure I'll take it that far, in part because I don't want to pay for it, and if I start saving everything I run across I'm sure to hit the monthly 60 MB allowance. I'm also not sure I buy it as the end-all-be-all notes app. Google Docs has worked extremely well for me in terms of working in the cloud. I may try some of the options I've written about... but in the end, Diigo and Google Docs will probably still be my favorite choices for saving bookmarks and jotting down notes. Through this post though, I have found a new appreciation for the tool and just might start using it more frequently!
I will first tell you a little bit about my history with Gcal - my first Google calendar entry happened on February 19, 2008. This was right around the time that I finally let go of my very first e-mail account made with yahoo. Part of what I like about online calendars is the ability to go back in time, reliving the memories from the calendar entries. You can see an example of this in the image screenshot shown from the weekend of my very first ALA conference in Chicago. I had mapped out all of the sessions I wanted to attend and was able to sync them to my phone (a blackberry at the time). My husband is the same way, and likes reminiscing when looking back at his yahoo calendar (I have just recently convinced him to make the switch to Google - partly because he is now a droid user.). His Yale years hold many good memories, and he has been hesitant to make the switch in fear of losing those date entries. But, he finally got fed up with yahoo and has been learning all about the tools that Google provides.
For me, Google calendar (really, all things Google) has enabled me to have a fully synced life. With my droid revolution, I'm able to sync my google calendar, tasks, e-mail, docs, reader, and google plus accounts with ease. Further uses include:
*Public calendar options for embedding
When I built the website for the North Madison County Public Library system, I chose Google calendar as the event calendar for the site. The coding was easily customizable and patrons were able to "subscribe" to the event calendar by adding the public calendar to their personal account. Additionally, the color coding options that Google provided made it easy to view events for certain departments at a glance.
*Public calendar options for subscribingAfter my husband switched over to Google, I was able to help him make his calendar public, in order to share it with me. The public link was then added to my own calendar account, with the option to hide the calendar from view when not in use. We have a unique situation where we are very much coming and going at opposite times As such, it has been nice to view his calendar to see when he's tied up with something I shouldn't disturb.
I have also found that Wunderground.com provides an ical option for weather locations. I love this feature since it gives more detailed weather descriptions than the built in weather option Google gives you.
*OutlookI haven't been successful in finding a streamlined process for integrating Google calendar with Outlook, but I have a pretty good workaround. I have my work e-mail forwarded to my Gmail account and am using filters to place these forwarded e-mails in a work folder. After doing this, any outlook meeting request sent to my work e-mail is automatically added to both outlook and Google calendar. I have also added all of my individual calendars to outlook through the internet calendar option. It gets a little cluttered, but seems to be the option that is working best for me for now.
*New FeaturesIn an effort to continue with the collaboration options that Google provides through many of its tools, Gcal has now integrated appointment slots. I'm in the process of building a website for my husband. As a music teacher, has has wanted a system that would allow students to sign up for lesson times with ease. Using Google calendar will enable him to set appointment times, students will then be able to grab those appointments, and it will automatically update his personal calendar. The only downside is that the students will need to have a google account, but shouldn't everyone have a google account?!
The possibilities really are endless with Google calendar and I would love to hear how others are utilizing this great tool!
I have been a member of ALA for 3 straight years now, and during that time, have had the opportunity to attend the annual ALA conference in Chicago (year 2008). It was a great experience - in part because of the networking options it opened up. Also, as I have mentioned in a previous post, I have been active in the Library Society of the World (LSW) for many years now.
One area I would like to consider joining is ACRL, a subdivision of ALA that focuses on research in an academic setting. I am most intrigued by the mentoring program being offered, and am seriously considering applying since I am now teaching an Information Literacy course.
Additionally, myself and a few of my colleagues that are interested the mentoring program have partnered to form a research society (yes... we're calling it a research society) with the intent to gain feedback on pieces being written for potential publication purposes. I am so thankful to be able to work with such a great group of people - there is trust amongst us, and we know that we will have nothing but support from each other in whatever we pursue.
Finally, I know listservs weren't mentioned in the original cpd23 thing 7 posting, but I feel that listservs are also a way to network and gain feedback from peers. I am a member of a handful of listservs (I don't always keep up with them the way I have in the past due to information overload), and below are a few of my favorites:
-Information Literacy Instruction Discussion (ili-l)
-College Libraries Section (collib-l)
-Library and Information Technology (lita-l)
-Reference Librarianship (LIBREF-l)
That's it for today, but stay tuned for tomorrow's Thing 8 post!
I have been neglecting CPD23 due to participating in the Library Day in the Life project, but I'm glad I chose to participate again. I always learn new things about myself by going through the discipline of blogging regularly (something I haven't been very good at over the years).
At any rate, I'm behind on my "things." Thing 6 is all about networking online. I wrote during Thing 3 about the Library Society of the World (LSW). This amazing group of people have helped me to build a network of librarians for both my Friend Feed, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus accounts. If you haven't checked out the Friend Feed room for the LSW, do it! Do it now! You won't regret it!
CPD's thing 6 write-up by Helen Murphy discusses the reasons and advantages as to why we should be networking online. Murphy concludes that reasons fall under 3 general areas including:
-Becoming Better Known
-Becoming Better Connected
-Becoming Better Equipped
I tend to agree with these categories, and from personal experience, each social network that I am a part of each play a key roll in the above areas. Through each network, I have been able to make a name for myself (I'm still working on this area ... ), I've become connected with talented people in the library world, and have become better equipped to do my job by gleaning information from my networks. The digital age is GREAT!
Thing 6 specifically discusses LinkedIn and Facebook as the mega social networks. My thoughts are below:
LinkedIn
I don't remember exactly when I joined LinkedIn, but it's been a place for me to keep my resume (when I remember to update it), and to also find other librarians. When I have looked for jobs, I have searched LinkedIn for positions that are similar to what I'm applying for. This gives me a starting point to be able to get a feel for the type of position I may be entering into (VERY helpful!). I am a member of groups on LinkedIn as well, but I don't stay very active with them. Groups include ALA, ASIS&T, LSW, Webjunction, and Librarians in For-Profit Educational Institutions.
Facebook
I have been an avid Facebook user for many years now, and have enjoyed networking with professionals, friends, and family. I'm even the Facebook administrator for my campus' Facebook page, so I'm heavily utilizing this tool for information and networking purposes.
Google +
I've joined this network already and have built a librarian network of 100+, but I'm forgetting to use it. There really needs to be a streamlined process for updating all of the sites you want to use all at once, as well as for reading and keeping up with posts from multiple networks. There are workarounds, but they need mega improvements.
The other sites mentioned in thing 6's post were sites that I'm not familiar with. I will be investigatingthemfurther to decide if they have a place in my networked world.
So how are you using online networks? Are they working for you? What are you gaining from them?
Stay tuned for thing 7, 8, 9 and 10 this week (man I have a lot of writing to do!).
Disclaimer: The thoughts and ideas expressed in this post are strictly personal and do not reflect the ideas of my employer.
It's the fifth and final day (for me) of the Library Day in the Life Project... and I have thoroughly enjoyed posting throughout this week.
Today's post is a bit different in that I was traveling to the administration building with our north region for a round table event. This event covered all departments, not just the library, but it did get my gears turning with new ideas.
Our college (company) has recently made changes to implement collaboration amongst campuses by placing us all in regions. To some degree, the collaboration is almost forced because of the newly designed structure...but I see good potential with this model. Additionally, from a library perspective, we're already heavily collaborating amongst ourselves as library colleagues, but also with other departments by serving students that are outside of our campus realm by way of our virtual chat system. A librarian's nature is to collaborate and work hand-in-hand with other departments/faculty/curriculum, ensuring that our students get the full benefit of the education experience. It's what we do... and it's what we do well.
With that being said, the first item on the agenda today was a discussion about growth, leadership, talent development, adaptability, performance management, and expertise within the mission statement umbrella of our company. It was inspiring, but a downer as well - only because my campus needs a bit of work in the area of leadership and welcoming outside-of-the-box ideas and innovation. In a sense, we are crippled by the top-down effect of management. I realize this is a bold statement to make...but again, these are strictly my own thoughts - not those of my employer.
From there, the day took a different turn in a direction that I very much appreciated. In the round table discussions, much of the opinions I just voiced were able to be heard, but there were great ideas being discussed as well. We were given a set of 5 criteria that would be discussed amongst our tables that spoke to what we're doing well, areas that need improvement, and finally identifying opportunities that may be present. Below are the thoughts from my table:
Mission and Integrity
Our mission statement, and the organization as a whole is very much student-centered. We would hope that we have the student's best interest at hand at all times, but more often than not on my campus, the mentality is heavily on the enrollment side of things with not a lot of focus on academics. The library systems across each campus play a huge part in student outcomes and retention, but often, our efforts aren't appreciated.
Preparing for the Future
The library system has been innovative and forward thinking in becoming an early adopter for Worldcat Local. This decision truly stemmed from wanting the best for our students, and providing them with the resources they need to be successful in their programs. OCLC's option gave us many options that we were lacking with our previously chosen ILS system.
Additionally, the library system needed a web presence, but couldn't fund it and the IT department wouldn't allow us to piggy back on the organization domain, so we found ways around that by using Libguides as our working website. We've just recently debuted the newly designed site and it's working very well for us. We've even been nominated for the Best Of Libguides in the subcategory of CampusGuides as Website. I had the opportunity to serve on our Libguides 2.0 committee, and have spent countless hours helping to customize the framework and design by tweaking coding. So again, we're thinking outside-the-box to make a system work for us.
One concept to be careful of though when dealing with the future, is the concept of change. Are we adopting new ideas just for the sake of doing something different? Are we adopting new technologies just because something new hit the market? Or are we really diving deep into the root of why there's a need for change? I have made it a personal mission of mine to be cautious with change - making sure that I'm not changing just for the sake of doing something different, but changing because there's a need and an opportunity available. I think our organization does this pretty well... but it's still something to note as a potential area of weakness.
Student Learning and Effective Teaching
One area of weakness discussed was the Gen Ed skill set. How are we measuring our student's skill sets before entry to a program or course, and upon completion of a course or degree? How do we measure critical thinking skills - is it even measurable (it sure as heck is hard to teach!)?
The information literacy course is a step in the right direction with this point. Through the course curriculum, we are providing trans-literary skill sets that equip students with a better understanding of information and technology. Not only that, they learn to retrieve information sources on a topic of choice, and then evaluate those sources with a set of criteria. By evaluating sources of information, students learn to think critically about the information they are finding...making double, triple, and quadruple sure that the information is credible and authoritative. This is huge! But it's not really being talked about. A COM instructor that I work very closely with mentioned to me on more than one occasion that she can tell the students that have been through info lit. Their reference pages and in-text citations are perfect, and the writing has gotten better because they are doing true research. This is GREAT!
Acquisition, Discovery, and Application of Knowledge
This was my favorite topic because I feel that I'm already thinking in this direction by designing and implementing a 23 Things: Learning 2.0 for Faculty Development program. Professional development is very much encouraged, but often there are funding limitations for conferences. This 23 Things program is a great way to collaborate with faculty and to provide new technologies for them to use in their course curriculum - all for free!
Other thoughts included placing a higher standard of professional development in terms of publication and presenting opportunities. Lacking the tenure process has crippled us in a sense. There isn't importance placed on research for publication purposes. And for those that are presenting and publishing works of researched material, it isn't talked about or recognized.
Engagement and Service
For this point, I would really like to see our students return to being center focus of our mission and vision. If we engage our students with better learning opportunities, and if we show our appreciation to and for them, how much higher would our rate of retention be? Some campuses do this really well... others need a bit work. Our advisory board is also a good start to gaining community input into what we're doing, but even that isn't really taken to heart.
The irony of all of the points above is that they are each designed to be very student focused, but in reality, the focus has shifted to being enrollment focused. I see the region change as a good thing that may help to bring back a sense of being student driven.
The final points from the end of the day were centered around these talking points:
-Define your moment (what are you doing...and why are you doing it?)
-Take risks (I think I've done that here and hopefully it won't backfire on me)
-Make a positive difference (we may be the only positive thing a student sees all day... embrace that opportunity to make a difference)
-Be passionate (If you can't tell from the writing in this post...I am very passionate about continuing to be an advocate for our library systems)
-Fall forward (think towards the future and what it holds)
-Leave a legacy (be remembered for doing something great)
-Dream big (and don't let upper management stifle those dreams)
-Believe (believe that the impossible really can happen)
It's the fourth day of the Library Day in the Life Project... and I have my 2nd late night of the week ahead of me. Before going in to work though, I saw my husband off for a 10 day trombone seminar (he's a professional orchestral trombone player). It will be good to have a work day packed with to-do's to keep my mind occupied.
10:00 - 11:00 As is a common theme when I arrive at work, I check and respond to e-mail and also check in with my online class. I also checked our holds queue and noticed an item being requested from our library. Unfortunately, the item is long overdue/lost, so I had to contact the campus requesting the item and suggest an ILL instead.
11:00 - 12:00 I did a bit of online grading. I will be in and out this weekend, so I wanted to get a good chunk of the grading completed today.
During this hour, an e-mail came through from a librarian colleague at one of the campuses, asking if any of us were familiar with the Khan Academy. I saw a TED talk with the founder of the academy a few months back, and it's a really neat concept. My faculty really like the resources it provides too. So...I spent some time formulating an e-mail and sending along my thoughts and how I've utilized Khan Academy material in my faculty newsletters. You can see the TED talk below
Finally, I fixed a link on our new APA research guide and spent some time collaborating with my committee co-leader on plans for our legal sources portion of the guide.
12:00 - 1:00 In preparation for Monday's Info Lit class, I inputted the chapter 3 quiz into quizstar. I also started working again on the monthly report and tried to figure out how to pull statistic reports with our new ILS system - no luck.
I spent some time assisting a student with printing and helped another student with a research assignment using our databases. I'm always super excited when I get to assist with real research!
1:00 - 1:30 Another student came through needing help with one of their online courses. This poor student didn't know how to open an internet window, and didn't know how to submit an assignment by attaching a file. Keep in mind, we're in week 5 of the quarter, and this student is taking more than one online course. I did the best I could and gave the student packet information from a basic computer workshop that I designed and present each quarter. Hopefully this helps.
1:30 - 2:30 Lunch. And yep, you guessed it, I ran home to let the dog out. Good ole' Ditters
2:45 - 4:00 I rushed back to work and grabbed my notes for a faculty meeting. Many agenda items were discussed, and towards the end, I was able to share what we've been doing in the library (yay for PR time!). As a result, an adjunct instructor approached my assistant after the meeting to ask about a new Free and Fabulous presentation we put together. We've set a date with his class to discuss parts of the presentation that will work for presentation skills and we will also incorporate a bit of research as well. We're slowly getting our foot in the door with more and more faculty...in hopes that they will continue to utilize our research expertise.
4:00 - 5:00 I spent this time to finish inputting the quiz questions and started writing the narrative for the library monthly report. I'm always amazed at the amount of information I come up with for these reports. At the time of gathering info for the report, I never think I'll have enough information...but boy we've been busy!
5:00 - 6:00 An online chat came through with a student having trouble logging into EBSCO. Turns out, the link in our catalog sent them to the non-subscription EBSCO area, so I headed to the actual database to search for the item, only to find that we didn't have it available in full text. So, I mentioned the possibility of ILL, but in the end walked the student through finding other resources directly in our database, narrowing by full-text.
I had an e-mail join.me discussion after an instructor insisted that it was a security risk. My thing is - 1) it's by the makers of logmein which is used by companies all across the US to remote into servers and computer workstations. 2) if it were truly a security risk, our IT department would be all over it by blocking it (affectionately known as the barracuda). So, I'm not so sure there's a real problem with it! It has come in handy NUMEROUS times with students that are phoning in or using the chat reference service with computer issues.
6:00 - 7:00 I kept getting sidetracked, so I spent a good chunk of this hour working to finish the monthly report narrative. It's looking pretty set, except for statistics, which I'll have to figure out on Monday.
7:00 - 7:30 A few students and faculty members came in on their break from class to check out books and DVDs. I was able to promote our Novel Destinations summer reading promotion and was excited to see another student checking out the Hunger Games (yes, I work in a college... but it's a fantastic series and I had to purchase it! The COM instructor even said she was glad we had it for book reports).
Tomorrow I'm in an all day meeting in Indianapolis, so stay tuned for a different kind of post tomorrow evening.
8:00 - 9:00 Yep, you guessed it... I started my workday by checking e-mail and checking in with my online class. During my first hour, I also assisted a student with an assignment requiring them to search LexisNexis. They weren't understanding the layout of the different search areas, so I got them back on track with what they were needing to search. During this time, a phone call also came through with a student asking for an ISBN number for a course textbook. I grabbed the number and moved on to my to-do list.
9:00 - 10:00 Yesterday, an e-mail went out to the librarians across our campuses asking for information on how each of us train our work study students, and what training material we use to do so. In my hunt for materials to send out this morning, I realized that I never updated our training packet material after the launch of our new website and catalog. I spent just a bit of time grabbing screenshots and updating terminology for the packet. It really turned out to be perfect timing since one of our work studies couldn't remember the procedure for checking out an item (this is a problem...). With the new packet material, it will give my assistant and I the perfect opportunity to "retrain."
During this time, I also assisted a student that stopped by needing help finding business planning information. I pointed her to a presentation I recently gave to a class, as well as a few databases that could get her started.
10:00 - 11:00 One of my online students stopped by the library to ask about an assignment. I spent just a bit of time walking her through what was being asked of her. I also got my notes and assessment worksheets ready for a class presentation.
11:00 - 12:00 Today's Google Bucket presentation was for one of our COM classes. This class happened to have a balance of students that have already had library presentations before, or that have taken my info lit course. When this happens, I like to use the Google Bucket, a presentation idea taken from the Library Instruction Cookbook. Students have a chance to dive into a bucket that details a specific database. They get hands on practice searching the databases, we talk about it, I do a little bit of show-and-tell, and in the end, most students learn gobs of new stuff they never knew before.
During this time, my assistant gave a simultaneous presentation to a Computers and Office Automation class. We titled it Free and Fabulous, and it's a whirlwind journey through free and fabulous online tools that students can use for presentations, studying, etc.. This was a brand new presentation but it went over VERY well!
12:30 - 1:30 Lunch! I met my husband for a mexican lunch - quite yummy!
1:30 - 4:00 I spent a good chunk of the rest of my day working on a 23 Things program that I am wanting to implement in the Fall. I'm just in the beginning stages of writing the blog posts for each week, but I'm really getting excited about this!
4:00 - 6:00 I'm not sure why I decided to end with this, but I spent the remainder of my day at work working on the library monthly report. It's a constant struggle to educate people of my campus on the validity of what we do and the need for our library services - and in reality, those that receive my monthly report don't read it, therefore continuing the cycle of non-appreciation. But, I've made a vow to myself to continue with the reports...if nothing else, it provides self fulfillment in seeing on paper what we've accomplished during the month.
Tomorrow will include more writing of the report, and completing one of my research guides.
It's the second day of the Library Day in the Life Project. On Tuesdays, I go in a bit later due to working the late shift, so I have started this post at 10am.
10:00 - 11:00 As always, I spent my first hour of work reading and answering e-mail.
11:00 - 12:00 I had a few e-mail questions from my online students, so I checked into my online class and tried to calm a few of them down. It's that time of the quarter where students see the mass of work being asked of them, and they're slacking and getting behind. Because of this, I get to play "hunt the student down," making sure they understand the material.
After this, a student came through that needed help printing from a flash drive. While this is a common question for us, and I'm still baffled that people don't know how to do this, I'm happy to help. The student gets logged into a computer and I sit down to begin helping. I notice though that the file in question doesn't have the normal Word icon associated with it. I ask the student what program was used to create the document, and I'm told Abiword. I've never heard of such ... but apparently it's freeware. It seems to have the capability to save as a .doc, but that's not how this student saved it. Word couldn't open the file, so I try a zamzar conversion. Zamzar couldn't convert the file either. In the end, I ended up opening the file in notepad and editing out the coding gibberish. So here again, I'm baffled that students don't have the tools they need to complete their coursework successfully. In my library though, where there's a will, there's a way and we'll find a way to make it work!
12:00 - 1:00 I did a few background searches and sent a few e-mails to students in my ground class that are having trouble finding information on their topics (medicare cost & child social security fraud). I think I've got them back on track...and one student e-mailed me back very appreciative of my help (yay!).
1:00 - 2:00 My assistant librarian is the subject specialist for Logistics, and she has never worked with Libguides before, so we conversed just a bit about a framework for her research in preparation of starting her research guide. As she did some background work, I began more work on my own subject specialty research guides (project management and gaming & interactive media).
2:00 - 3:00 Lunch! I ran home again to let the dog out, and spent my lunch hour reading a bit. I'm currently re-reading A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. My first time reading this series, I didn't get all the way through the first book. I'm not sure why, but I wanted to try it again.
3:00 - 4:00 After getting back from lunch, I spent some time going over the basics of Libguides with my assistant, and she was able to run with it. We also played with join.me a bit in preparation for our Free and Fabulous presentation tomorrow.
4:00 - 5:00 I'm the administrator for our campus Facebook page, and I noticed a question come through after posting event information. I answered the question and administered 3 keyboarding exams.
5:00 - 6:00 A student came through wanting to checkout 2 of our newly purchased books. Once she was checked out, I restocked the book display with other new items, and then proceeded to work on my Libguides pages. I have decided to create a delicious account for my subject specialty areas in order to create a bookmark tag cloud. I spent the time creating the account and researching websites and associations of interest. You can see what I was able to accomplish today below:
6:00 - 7:30 My day is coming to a close, and I spent my last bit of time conversing via e-mail with our APA committee on our abstract guide. I fixed a bit of coding on that page to remain consistent with our other guides.
During this time, I noticed an e-mail come through from an online student. This student completed an extra credit assignment! I introduced my ground and online classes to diigo and gave them a quick assignment that walks them through the setup and bookmarking process, with hopes that they will use this frequently when searching for their sources. I was quite pleased to see a student completing this already!
7:30 Headed home! I grabbed a quick dinner, and then the hubs and I needed to make a grocery run. Just a bit of time is left of today before bed... and then I get to wake up and do it all over again. Stay tuned...
It's time yet again for the Library Day in the Life project. This happens to be round 7, and I'm excited to share with my readers what I've been up to.
Today was heavily a course prep and grading day for the information literacy course I'm teaching (both online and ground).
8:00 - 8:30 I arrived right at 8am and spent time making sure my lesson notes were ready and all copies were made for class.
8:30 - 10:30 Taught my information literacy course. This week we discussed website searching, making sure students know how to find credible information when searching popular search engines. You can see the lesson for today below (there was a lot of show-and-tell with Google and Wolfram|Alpha, so there aren't many slides):
10:30 - 1:45 Checked in with my online course (I'm also teaching an online section), answered gobs of e-mail, and then spoke with a faculty member on campus to discuss class instruction session options for a presentation skills course. I have started designing a "Free and Fabulous" presentation that incorporates free online technology tools for students to use - she was impressed and thinks this presentation will work wonderfully (yay!).
1:45 - 2:45 It's lunch time, and I rush home to eat and let the dog out.
2:45 - 3:45 I spend a bit more time grading for my online class and adding 0's into the gradebook for students not turning in work.
3:45 - 4:00 IM'd with a librarian colleague. He asked if I had a PowerPoint presentation made for the information literacy database week lesson. I was happy to share and sent it his way with a bit of commentary.
4:00 - 4:15 Tracked down a student with an overdue book and called several others that have overdue items. Wouldn't it be easier on all of us if they would just turn in their items on time?!
4:15 - 4:45 Sent e-mails to students that missed class today and sent e-mails to online students not turning in work. I'm finding that there is much less work involved when students are doing what they should be doing. When I have to hunt them down, it becomes very time consuming.
5:00 - 5:30 Read and answered more e-mail. A few strings of e-mail came through regarding the APA citation (known as APA Yay!) committee I am co-leading. We are adding an abstract area to our guide and discussed ideas for this area. And since I'm so excited and proud of this guide, I'll share it here for you!
5:30 - 6:00 Graded ground assignments that were turned in today.
6:00 - 7:00 More e-mail and making a to-do list for the rest of the week. I only have a 4 day work week due to a meeting I must travel for on Friday. Plans for the rest of the week include subject specialty libguides work and prepping for our 23Things Learning 2.0 program set to launch in the Fall. I also have several class presentations this week, so I'll stay pretty busy!
Once I made it home, I ate dinner with the hubs, and then worked in the yard a bit. It's been a long day, and with the added exercise this evening, I'm a bit spent. Stay tuned for tomorrow!
This week's assignment is all about reflection. Programs such as 23 Things for Professional Development truly are beneficial for all of us, in part because of the reflection aspect. So often we jump into web 2.0 tools without really knowing the usefulness of the tool up front (maybe not all of us, but I know I've been guilty myself). It's kind of like the public library motto that I adopted as IT manager that stated something along the lines of, the purpose of adopting new technologies is to directly benefit the community at large. In other words, if you're adopting just for the sake of doing or having the cool thing on the market, you're doing a disservice to your community.
With that in mind, the 23 things program has been a good ride so far, enabling me to really step back and see my online presence in a new light. Because I am in an industry that is heavily focused on technology, and because I have grown up in the digital age (although my first computer in my home came about during my Junior year of High School), I have a pretty hefty digital presence. That's all fine, well, and good... but what am I doing with it? I would like to think that it has helped me to build a professional network, and to some degree it has...but I'm needing to step it up a bit (although I'm still not sure what direction to take).
Thing 3 has been the week that has hit home the most. I wrote about my personal branding that week, in terms of what I was already doing. Since that week, I have made a slew of changes to this blog and have begun thinking about the possibility of a personal domain. So far, I have:
* Very loosely designed a logo that reflects my title/username/online presence. I've thought long and hard about whether to change my brand to something more accurate, but this is what I've made a name with, so it's staying for now.
* Completely moved my non-library posts over to a 2nd blog. Read if you want, but my thinking is that this personal area will be what family and friends will want to keep up with. They don't care much about library stuff, and those of you reading here won't care much about recipes, travels, and the rotten Dit dog.
* Added additional pages to the blog, displaying them in link form just above my posts
* Gone on an embedding joy ride on the curriculum vitae and instructional presentations/projects pages. And for that matter, I have...
* Added the curriculum vitae and instructional presentations/projects pages.
The above are an effort to display a professional portfolio of sorts, in hopes that future employers will be able see my work and thoughts on librarianship as a whole. I'm pretty pleased with the direction this has taken, and I do hope you will comment and let me know what you like or don't like about the current format.
From here, I'm looking forward to the remainder of the 23 Things program, and the design of my own program design for faculty development.
Thing 4 for the 23 Things for Professional Development program discusses Twitter, RSS feeds, and Pushnote in detail. Below is my narrative on each service and how I'm currently using them.
Twitter:
I have been using Twitter for a few years now and have come to truly love it as a full blown networking tool. Most, if not all of the people I follow are librarians or educators, making it a tool that I use daily and have learned so much from. As of this post, I have made 3,818 tweets, following 292 people and have 394 followers. That's a bunch of tweets being flown around! When I first joined twitter, I solely used the twitter website for all of my twitter needs, but as I joined more social networks and became more active on each, I quickly learned that I would need to branch outside of twitter.com. Doing so would allow me to receive my notifications and update feeds across multiple platforms if needed. This has helped tremendously to bridge the gap between each networking tool. A few of my favorite cross platform applications over the years have been:
Yoono This was the first application that I tried, in part because my place of employment blocked social networking at the time (Did I just admit that I found a work around?). For any current or future employers, I truly was trying to find a way to stay on the up-and-up with the library profession, gaining new ideas during the process. Yoono grabs all of your social networks into one browser extension (I'm an avid Firefox user), along with multiple chat clients. It was a bit clunky during the time I used it, so hopefully that has since been improved upon.
TweetDeck I love TweetDeck's interface that allows you to see your twitter stream, your friends lists, your replies, DM's, and searches (both hashtag and friends) all in one simple columned view. For some it can be a bit of information overload, but it worked well for me to be able to see everything at a glance. Additionally, you can pull your Facebook newsfeed, Google Buzz, and Foursquare accounts into it giving each of them column views as well. There are computer desktop options for all platforms, Android (my favorite!) and iPhone apps, and a web version as well.
Seesmic Seesmic is very similar to TweetDeck with a column view and multiple platform options. I have been using this one (the web version) for a good 6 months now while on my home computer! I like that I don't have to download anything and for the most part, it really does the job well. I may go back to my downloaded TweetDeck desktop application, but for now, it works.
HootSuite This option allows for scheduling future posts, which really comes in handy for work. I am the social network coordinator for my campus and scheduling Facebook posts has been a Godsend! This will allow you to see your twitter stream as well, making it a very good option for multiple social networking applications.
As you can see, the possibilities are endless and hopefully readers of this post will be able to find something that will work for them. To finish up the Twitter section of this post, I wanted to share a few of my favorite Twitter hashtags:
#cpd23 - The official hashtag for the 23 Things for Professional Development program
#geocaching - The hashtag for the fun high tech hide and go seek game
#ala11 - This was ALA New Orlean's official hashtag for the annual conference
#libday7 - Coming up, this hashtag will cover the library Day in the Life project
RSS Feeds: RSS feeds (otherwise known as really simple syndication feeds) are part of the second portion of Thing 4. I have been using RSS feeds for many many years now, originally with Bloglines. Yet again, I had the same instance at work where I was trying to access library ideas and couldn't due to internet filters, so I made the switch to Google Reader and haven't looked back! Google Reader makes it so easy to stay connected with your feeds, whether via computer, or by mobile phone (in my case, the droid revolution). I have many different folders in my Google Reader account, and here are just a few highlights:
Library
Books
Collection Development
Information Literacy
Tech
Photography
Knitting
Food
There's more...but I'll spare you! I'll also give you a few of my favorite feeds that I try to read and keep up with (without using the handy dandy "mark all as read" function):
And an honorable mention Lifehacker for good measure. To view more of my favorite reads, you can visit the Good Reads section of my site.
Pushnote: I must be honest, I don't really see this tool as something I will use in the future. With Google Reader's "share" and "like" options, and my new-found love of diigo, I just don't see me using this much.
So that's it for now. I'll need to get going on Thing 5 for this week so stay tuned!
Do I sound like I'm contradicting myself yet? Maybe so...but it's all because Google keeps changing up stuff, and today, it's really driving me batty!
I wrote back in May about Google being sort of "big brother"-ish with personalized searches. You can read my thoughts on why I see this as a problem (portraying Google as the devil), and you can also read about an instance where Google search tools really worked for me (portraying Google as an angel).
Then, just yesterday, I wrote about Google as a company, trying to compete with big contenders such as Facebook and Apple (others were mentioned in the article referenced in my post).
But today is a whole new story. Recently, Google has been making quiteafew facelift changes, all right around the time of the Google Plus roll out. The changes seemed to work (except for my integrated g-mail extension not playing nice with the new calendar), but today brought with it the revelation of a few changes that I am not too thrilled about.
For my information literacy course that I teach, there is an entire week of brainstorming topics with concept maps (partially Google-ified) and an entire week of web searching (heavily Google-ified).
The tools that I point out to students each quarter include: * Google Books * Google Scholar * Google News * Advanced Search Options * Any Time Date Ranges * Timeline * Related Searches * Realtime
And my beloved Google Wonder Wheel. Students LOVE (I mean... L.O.V.E.) this tool! It's one thing to take them to the Credo Reference Concept Map, but it's an entirely different matter to take them to a tool that allows them to learn something new within a system they are already used to using. So, you can imagine my reaction when I learned that the Google Wonder Wheel is gone! Yep...that's right - gone . vamoose . nadda [enter very sad face and utter dissatisfaction here].
When we Google now, all we get are the options to the right: * Google Books * Google Scholar * Google News And in the More Search Tools area, * Related Searches * Timeline * Reading Level (not sure this is useful for my needs)
And folks... that's it! No more Google Wonder Wheel... no more Realtime... It's really quite sad, and it seems like really useful tools are being cut without any warning!
So, with thanks to Search Engine Land, this seems to be the progression that Google has taken:
Google Begins Multi-Month User Experience Update I love this quote that states, "I imagine most people think that whatever links are listed there are the only options available." This is so very true for my students. They just don't have the skills yet that tell them to dig a little deeper! So is Google really creating a user-friendly interface for the mass population of internet users?
As Deal with Twitter Expires, Google Realtime Search Goes Offline This is the update to the above posting. I like that they are trying to reinvent this option to include multiple content avenues outside of Twitter. This could be a good thing in the long run, but it's coming at a really crappy time.
Official: The Google Wonder Wheel is Gone And finally, the post that makes me the most sad. I really can't say it enough - I am truly going to miss this concept mapping tool...and I'm not sure what alternative I will use.
I'm sure there are more changes coming down the pike, but the one's referenced here are those that will impact me right now. I have 4 days to find an alternative to the Google Wonder Wheel and 2 weeks to revamp my web searching lesson plan. If you have ideas...please share them (and in reality, I could have used the time it took me to write this post searching for alternatives)!
I would also like to know how the Google changes are affecting you and your work, so don't be shy...
I ran across an article earlier today titled Google’s Six-Front War, written by guest contributor Semil Shah of TechCrunch. The article focuses on 6 main components of the Google company, and the war within to "rule" the technology and information front.
For quite some time I have been a solid fan of Google...from Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Calendar to search options, and my Droid phone, Google has been a steady part of my everyday life in terms of communication, productivity, and basic research. On the flip side of this coin, I am also an avid apple consumer. For roughly 14 years now, I have owned and worked solely on a Mac, except for when at work, and I can honestly say, I will never ever personally own a PC computer. Mac's work for me and from experience, they are stable machines (I had one for 10 straight years and it continued to work even through to the point of upgrading). I'm getting a bit sidetracked, but I say all of this because many people have asked me why I didn't purchase an iPhone. The reality is that my life heavily revolves around Google, and for syncing purposes, the Droid was an obvious choice.
Enough about my personal preferences though... here are a few highlights from the article that I find particularly interesting:
Facebook Throughout much of the article, Facebook is brought into play as a competitor of Google. There is talk of Facebook potentially creating or being interested in a social browser and a mobile device. I know Facebook is huge, but can it *really* compete with Google in terms of a mobile device? Maybe so... and we're living in interesting times to see this war of the top dogs play out.
The Google Search This is how Google made a name for itself, but this article proposes that even the search aspect of Google is being challenged. I haven't taken it that far in my head yet, but to some degree, maybe Mr. Shah is right. People are gathering information in very different ways these days. They are gaining their information/news/weather/events from social media avenues, and there is a possibility that the Google Search that once was is waning. Mr. Shah puts it this way: "On desktops and laptops, people will continue to use a variety of browsers, though they end up spending a lot of time on Facebook, which scares Google because of the trend of people moving slowly from search to discovery." I love that phrase - search to discovery. The phrase is at the heart of what is being taught in my information literacy course. Students need to know how to properly search for credible information, but there is definitely a discovery component that comes into play during our evaluation week. With information coming at us at exponential speeds and volumes, what we are discovering must be evaluated for credibility and authority.
So, for now, I still believe Google is the forerunner (at least for me) in terms of digital information and information seeking behaviors...but will it continue to rule the world?Interesting stuff!
Beccalovesbooks - I remember the day I created an e-mail account with that phrase. I had no idea at the time though that it would morph into being my "brand" for every social platform I joined, and prophetic into my librarian career.
I was working on my undergrad degree in piano performance at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and remember sitting in the basement computer lab of my dorm the night I created my online entity. I needed to get away from my former e-mail alias, sweet_beccalee (although I'm not sure beccalovesbooks is much better), and beccalovesbooks is what I came up with. So, in creating this new account around the year 2001, it was as if I had a predisposition to my library career...but of course at the time, librarianship wasn't even on my radar, and I was most certainly one of the idiots that thought we of the profession became a librarian because we love books. **shakes head at my own stupidity**
Fast forward to years later where I now have identities on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogger, FriendFeed, Ravelry, Flickr and probably more that I can't remember...all with this new handle and with a new found sense of what librarianship really is about (it's not all books people!). In fact, doing a simple google search of my name with the word librarian behind it (beccalovesbooks librarian) brings up pages of search results where people have retweeted information of mine, as well as providing access to some of my online identities. For now I'm ok with this, but privacy concerns are also a key topic. All of this is to say that I have begun to make a name for myself in the library community, mostly with thanks to the Library Society of the World (LSW for short).
*********LSW Plug********* I don't remember the exact time frame that the LSW came about (I think I joined around 2008), but since the original gathering, there have been many branches and avenues of the LSW that have morphed. From this original site, the LSW is said to be:
"A world-spanning group of library professionals and library advocates, dedicated to furthering the role of librarians, archivists, information professionals, and information educators through communication and collaboration. The LSW is about people, not buildings (although some of us think architecture is sexy). It's about friendship, not organization. It's about creating and fostering opportunities, not building barriers and divisions." It truly is a fantastic free organization that I have learned so much from, and I've met a lot of amazing people along the way. If you're interested in joining this group of people, take a look at the following links:
FriendFeed Group - run as fast as you can to join this...it's where all the action is!
Good Reads Group - this one has great potential, but hasn't really taken off
There are other areas of the LSW too, but these are the one's that I am most familiar with and have used. So I do hope that you take a look at a few of these areas (especially the FriendFeed group) and join up with a great group of library peeps.
*********End of LSW Plug*********
So I guess for me, branding just sort of happened. I hope to continue finding my "voice" and I'm really enjoying the reflection aspect of this CPD23 Program.
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