Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Thing 8: Photos, slideshows and other adventures in online sharing



This where I work. The TJ Jones Memorial Library and the reference room. All of the wood work is wonderful and original. It was formally used as housing for the Asbury hospital in Minneapolis, MN earlier in the 20th century.

http://www.slideshare.net/guestf3b659/ill-presentation. Behold my very own slide show Interlibrary Loan Presentation. Could be a great tool, especially since a few of the people on staff go into classrooms and teach students this information. It seems like our technology is always faltering. It is a good idea to back it up online.

http://lazybase.com/dbhome?a=934782298&k=276192668 the experimental database. Because of the nature of what I do at the library I am not sure how useful this specific database tool would be. I don't want to discredit it, because I do think that it could be useful, I will just have to think hard about this one. :)

I studied over the e-folio. I think this could go either way. I see how useful it could be to students who are looking for jobs right out of college, or even for professionals who are looking to move-it-on-up, but I wonder if employers are really out looking for things online. Perhaps this comes from limited experience in the work force, but I have seen largely that the would-be-employee comes to the potential employer and applies accordingly. It seems like e-folio may have the potential to be mostly dealing with the opposite. It seems that employers would be seeking out employees on the web. Is this done on a wide scale basis?

Thanks for your time and thoughts.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Thing 7: IMing, Texting, E-mail within the library?

Wow, I am excited to see what other libraries are doing. The videos and the articles that I read are not pictures of the library world that I grew up in. It is exciting to see libraries moving forward and making themselves more available to students...in an academic setting, shouldn't that be one of the most important things? I think so.

TJ Jones Memorial Library, uses e-mail on an inter-campus level. We can e-mail and send out reminders all using the tool Microsoft outlook. Outside of e-mailing regular full and part-time employees we are discouraged from using e-mail. This is understandable especially considering the outside influence and hindrance it could have on the work day. I, however, would like to see an e-mail account set up specifically for the reference librarian on duty. The librarian on duty could check it along with her other work e-mail. I think this would better serve patrons.

Texting and IMing may be a good way to make the library and information more readily available. I love the idea of having real time reference questions via texting and IMing, I do worry a little bit about the physical use of the library. Would offering these services decrease how many people are physically in the library. This effect could be devastating on our small library. It could take our low circulation volume and wipe it out.

However, now that I am thinking about it, would offering e-services (as it has been referred to) bring more people in. Is it becoming a more inviting place to be by taking the step out of our comfort zone? I think it could go either way, but I am willing to take a gamble on it in hopes for the better. Besides, as long as students are getting what they need we are serving our purpose. Right?

If anyone has gone through this situation I would be interested in hearing the outcome. Thanks.

Jen's Wonder Blog

Visual Poetry - ImageChef.com

Thing 6: Fun with the Image Generator


This is fun, it's a great way to instantly grab people's attention in a presentation or other related setting. I find that students are not always interesting in going to the library or in library related things. Perhaps posting signs and enhancing our literacy training visual aids with some of these tools would draw people in. I have a presentation tomorrow in class, I think I will see what I can do to use this tool. I could spend hours playing, but I shouldn't. I have cataloging to do.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Thin 5: Flickr Mashable

Very cool tools. I'm a little confused on how you can actually make the mashable, but the example were very cool. Hamster sudoku, that is something I could get into. :) That is, if I knew how to play sudoku in the first place. I think a way that I could use this tool would be in a presentation. Being visual is always helpful.

Jen

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Thing 4: Flickr and beyond

I am fairly familiar with Flickr already and think it is a good tool. I like that you can share, save, and organize photos. I question though how useful it would be to an academic library. I don't mean to be skeptical, but I must pose the question what uses would this have practically speaking in the library? Any responses would be appreciated. Thanks.

Maybe this question will be answered in the next Thing. :)

-Jen

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Thing 3 RSS Readers

I think this tool could go either way for being useful or for being something I could easily forget about.

I do think that it would be incredibly helpful for the students who use our library regularly to keep track of their own research and other websites.

On the flip side, I think it could be one of those things that I forget I have. I am so used to doing things how I do them, would I realistically use this tool on a regular basis? I hope so.

I signed up for the Google reader and found it very easy to use and set up. However, pasting the url in the 'add subscription' area was not always working for me. As a result I found that searching by a keyword was more helpful in selecting sites than the other way.

A great tool with great potential.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Thing 2 Library 2.0-Questions for my own library

Wow, after reading through and watching videos on the potential that this Library 2.o movement could have, I am exceedingly excited. I will admit being 23 years old and am on the generational line of being a Gen-Xer and being a Millennial. I tend to harbor qualities of both, at least that's what sociology classes tell me. Another piece of information that may be vital to understanding why I think and blog the way I do is that I work at a small library; limited budget=limited technology.

With the above being mentioned I will reflect on that which I just saw and read. Stephen Abram made mention to a few things that I really got excited about. He made a reference to planning to have the time to learn something new. I think that as generations pass they seem to loose the ability to take the time for anything. Fast food, fast information online, fast track to success, fast money. Easy and quick that is how our society is functioning. This is no surprise and no news to anyone out in cyberspace I'm sure of that fact. However, the implications that this could have on how libraries function is huge. It means changing; keeping up with the times. Going completely online.

I say that with the limited staff and budget that the library I work at possess poses a problem to the library's ability to keep up with the changing demand on it. The library itself is located at an undergraduate university that harbors many millennials that are loosing interest in how traditional libraries function (this was mentioned in the posted blog). Sadly, I will agree. Our fast and easy society demands that libraries keep up or face extinction. Library 2.0 is real and it's coming and it's going to change how libraries work.

Something I do wonder, that was hit on in that posted blog, is that many think that Library 2.0 will turn into a club of rich libraries. This is a possibility in my humble opinion, and brings me a bit of sadness as an employee of a small library with little money. I think for libraries that have limited budget priority has to be given on the nature of what is in demand and on what actually is in demand. This library is at a Christian institution and has a large collection of old books and commentaries. We also have a growing Psychology and Sociology department with ever changing resources need to accommodate them. There is a small myriad of other majors, but these are the two that seem to frequent our humble library. Older information is important, but are we, as a library, presenting it to them in a way they can find it and have easy access to it. I don't believe so. They could out on to other online catalogs and find what they are looking for faster and easier than what we may offer them. How do we keep up?

We make it a priority to spend money on technology and to keep up with the nature of demand. I have much to learn about many things in library science, but I think it is safe for me to assume that it is essential that the way libraries are run much keep up with the changes in society or face obliteration to the Google monster.

I am participating initially because the library director thought it would be good for me to learn a few things to aid our students, staff, and faculty at the university. After reviewing the first few Things I am excited and anxious to see how I can apply new concepts to what we do here at T.J. Jones Memorial Library. I look forward to learning more about the details of how library science is done, but also to catch a glimpse of the big picture and see where libraries may be going.

Thank you for your time and attention as I write out my thoughts. Any helpful comments are certainly welcomed.

Thing 1 Setting Up a Blog

Thankfully, this was not a hard aspect of the 23 things. It was nice being able to follow simple step by step instructions.

I'm Jen, I'm from a small academic library. It is located at North Central University in Minneapolis. I am not a certified librarian, but I have had a number of years of experience in libraries, both public and private. There is a lot to learn even for a para-professional and I am excited to see what the 23 Things has in store.

I must admit that I am a bit skeptical. Not because I think the content will be poor, but I wonder how much it will apply to a non-certified library worker. I suppose I shall see.

-Jen