Head above the parapet

Personalising services: snippets from the diary

2012-02-12T10:04:00.000-08:00

Co-editor, Andy Priestner, and I very recently deliberated a tweak to the name of our forthcoming book to be published by Ashgate. The original title referred to personalised services but almost without realising it, Andy had started to use the word 'personalising' instead. This gives the process and concept a more active, and engaging feel to it. It made me think a little harder about what helps us to create a service that is 'personalised', but is also 'personalising'; where the established mindset of providing a 'personalised' service sits within a dynamic 'personalising' environment.

The 'personalised' mindset in a library service means that we should be pre-disposed to acquire knowledge about our users, show a genuine interest in them, display empathy, and be flexible and adaptable, with library staff possessing a fair degree of autonomy in the decision making process.

But I think that 'personalising' a service means more than this. It implies that in any given situation an individual student or library user should leave feeling that their visit was special (not just to them, but also to us) and that their specific needs and requirements have been addressed. Is this possible? I think that this is precisely why personalising services is an active, growing, organic 'thing'. Your first interaction with a student in a new job is likely to be less 'personalised' than one six months later. We are always gathering information and knowledge (or should be) about our users that we can use in our interactions with them. Just because all students have the same borrowing time frame doesn't prevent us personalising our service on a daily basis with them depending on our knowledge of their needs.

Two really obvious snippets from my diary:
1. I know that a particular elderly academic rarely reads email and so will not receive their system notice reminding them the book is due back. I pop the details in my diary and get in touch with them personally by phone to remind them it's due back and/or personally renew it for them. I would be unlikely to do this for the same reason for an undergraduate but that's because their needs are different. (Question for myself: what current procedures and process can we change so that we operate more like this?)

2. I have a new resource coming out on trial. It may well be useful for a broad spectrum of people, but I know that there are two postgrads who specifically requested it some months ago. Their emails will be included in the general email list that they are a part of, but they also get a personal email from me letting them know about it. Their names went down in my diary some months ago for this purpose. (Question for myself: although I use my personal email address rather than any generic ones to send information out, many emails still go to student 'lists'. If email is still the preferred means of receiving information, the challenge is to become more personalised and targeted.)

I'm sure that we all do this sort of thing but the challenge for me is to consider how much more we can do? And how much more can we afford to do? Conversely, how much more can we afford NOT to do!

Not everyone wants the red carpet treatment - but it's our job to know who doesn't and to treat our users as individuals.

Library Day in the Life Day 5

2012-02-03T00:34:00.000-08:00

Checked and approved the final draft of the Literature Timeline Display boards before they get sent for printing. The boards are part of a six month project involving converting the old copier room into a diplsay gallery (great job by EMBS during Christmas vac). Annie Liggins, graphic designer, has designed four display boards with a literature timeline spanning 780-current day, making use of images from the library collections. Rachel Thorpe, alumnus, supplied all the text, some of which came from the Cambridge Authors site that she was involved with when an undergrad here a few years ago. Andy Cosgrove, currently in a final year studying furniture design at De Montfort, has been i/c the cabinet design and production. The display gallery will include a plasma screen with digital signage software enabling a more interactive display environment. Our first display planned for the end of February will be on Dickens.

Recently piloted a new reader service here - starting the inter library loans service. Many libraries in Cambridge already provide this service, so nothing new there. But it's new for us, so settling into the routine of this with new procedures in place.

Quickly slotting in a set of email requests and responses before first meeting of the day with Directors of Studies of the Faculty.

A lot of interactions with colleagues and staff today via phone, email and in person but especially enjoyed following the Guardian's Higher Education network discussion including a Cambridge colleague Andy Priestner. Looking forward to looking at the digest of comments soon.

This afternoon - ran tea@three for grads. Only a few came along but we had a great discussion about grad writing groups. The graduate research forum rep was there so we talked briefly about the session we're co-running with an academic on Zotero for grads.

I'm done - just a few invoices to approve and the weekend beckons. Only three of the library staff left standing at the end of the week, but we are ably supported by our great invigilator team who have rushed in to save the day (well actually several days!) and filled slots this week when most needed. Thanks to all the Library staff here at the English Faculty. Fabulous lot.

Library Day in the Life Day 4

2012-02-02T01:00:00.000-08:00

Shelving first thing - too many trolleys of books left from last night to leave for long and only two of us in until 10.00 today; more illness amongst staff team.

Paper build-up on desk to deal with but prepping for teaching session needed first.

This is a trial session for a college group in their second term here. Probably closest in style to the scaffolding approach now used by some libraries for teaching, but most importantly is a trial for an activity that will a) fit in with proposed changes to teaching in the Faculty which include scope and space for the Library to put on extended classes as part of the range of teaching on offer b) allow students to explore resources, produce author bibliographies of primary and secondary works and evaluate them in the knowledge that their work will contribute to an interactive online literature timeline. Session went really well, students like the information display and especially the reading list links that we are trialling as well, so fund bidding here I come. Actually a brisk lunchtime walk and I have now widened this out so that all second year college groups will join in this programme - and it's getting quite exciting. Just need to work out exactly what funds I need for now and transmit the excitement upwards.

More staff calling in ill for afternoon and evening shifts so as Assistant Librarian is ill, the re-arranging and phoning for replacement staff falls to me. Staff who ARE in are extremely obliging and willing to help out. Fabulous team here!

Assist staff with peculiar issue desk queries today - realise now how wonderful the Assistant Librarian role is in the Library and that without them here I get all these odd things to deal with! Makes me think about the rules that are made in libraries. We were talking yesterday at the staff training event about how often situtations need a 'grey' response. If we're too black and white we fail to demonstrate empathy. Not alwasy easy the bigger the organisation though if I recall correctly John Lewis 'pay desk' staff are given responsibility for 'breaking the rules' depending on the situation if it improves the customer experience. Much more personalised. I digress - but definitely went for the grey response.

Colleague visits to talk about an aspect of the Library management system that I've been using for some time.

Library Day in the Life Day 3

2012-02-01T01:01:00.000-08:00

Handouts loaded onto the VLE.

Joint staff meeting with Judge Business School on personalising our library services. This was a really nice relaxed time with English staff and Judge staff discussing how personalised our services should be. Amazing how we all view things slightly differently and how our assumptions about situations differ. Communication is similar as well. Just to give a small (but probably confusing) example.. I recall sometime ago sitting in on a meeting that I shouldn't have been at and acting as an observer. Person A said something, Person B minuted it, but when Person C read the minutes some days later, they commented that this wasn't what Person A said. Person A said it was. What was going on? Simply - an assumption had been made by C about what A had said, and the subsequent interpretation of it by C was different to the INTENDED point that person A had made. No big deal really but person C had acted on their interpretation of the comment rather than the actual comment that A had made. Interesting communication issues that go on all the time. How many times do we say something to a library user and ASSUME that we have been clear, when a different message was understood by them. Have we provided a personalised service then?

Ok - back to base and dealing with emails - way too many today again. Setting up meetings, reading papers for a meeting this afternoon, responding to a blog about a potential change in web interface, problems with mounting the paintings, REF impact information to absorb, and - oops need to go to the issue desk now for my lunch time stint.

Work experience pupil wants to come here in March so checking with staff - we usually take about 4 per year but it looks like we have our full quota in place so can't take any extras.

Long communication meeting this afternoon with pre and post meetings necessary to clarify issues.

Library Day in the Life Day 2

2012-01-31T07:35:00.000-08:00

Day 2
Opened the Library - always do this on a Tuesday as normal staff member who has this task starts late today. Then spend time resolving how to move forward with mounting two special paintings in the Library this summer. Sprint from my office to the issue desk downstairs and report that sick member of staff is returning today. Yay! That means time at my desk today. Thinks to self - will catalogue DVDs and ASNC books today- maybe.

A little bit of chasing for an amazing new book coming out in July this year. Yep - it's the one and only 'Personalised services' book that every single man, woman and child will be out of their seats to buy. Co-editor Andy Priestner has had the easy bit - writing rather good prose - whilst yours truly runs (metaphorically) around the countryside dealing with figures that don't quite work, and tracking down contributor forms that she has put in a 'safe place'.

Sit on enquiry desk in main library space today, love being asked questions there but fear the frowns at the cataloguing module whilst there may put people off. Practises smiling at the bib record for a new DVD. Deal with an elusive reference for academic plus trialling the teaching session with resources to make sure it all works. Not happy that MLA International Bibliography results won't download speedily into Zotero so work-around for that section of the session required.

10.15 - all the regular staff now in so do the rounds to see how the absent staff from yesterday are and get some updates. Volunteer also in today for some cataloguing. All quiet on the Western front.

Long meeting with IT specialist and Computer Officer - now back to the lists of most borrowed to highlight some texts for ebook purchases. Partial success at this.

Finish a long list of book orders for the Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Library. This is a small library within our larger library, and I deal with all their orders, and subsequent cat and class etc. A few tricky ones that only an email to the Norwegian publisher will resolve.

In-between all this receive more emails than I can sensibly deal with, though I reply to quite a few. Save all the REF impact ones into a folder to look at later.

Ok - enough for today.

Library Day in the Life Day 1

2012-01-31T00:43:00.000-08:00

Day 1

Don't ever tell me that our Library could do with fewer staff. One member off on a jolly stealing ideas from other libraries, one off sick, leaving the Librarian and two other members of staff for most of the day to keep things ticking along. Nice and easy? Oh no. Gamely volunteered to man the issue desk over lunch time, although had already spent an unusual several hours there earlier there in the morning. Fortunately savvy Assistant Librarian said would I like some help for the 1.00 rush. When he finally left for his lunch break at 1.15 (when to all intents and purposes the 'rush' was over) he remarked positively - 'I hope I don't find you submerged in books when I get back'. Charming, I thought. Well - the 1.00-2.00 deluge in Libraryland here at the English Faculty is something to behold. To say nothing of the 11-12.00 one. All those wonderful thoughts that I have about how every student will never leave the issue desk without a postive experience doesn't exactly work when you're the only one there. Interesting, I mused to myself later on when clearing the email inbox debris. Personalised service?? Shelving today as well as the trolleys fill up on a regular basis. Checked the stats to see what was happening on returns. Only 600 books to put back on the shelves. Felt like 1,000. BUT thank heavens that at least we have self-issue.

Inbox also suffering from deluge today as academic sends on approx 70 emails from faithful followers of their regular slot on a radio programme. Emails describe how much impact the programme has on them. REF impact case study work in case you haven't guessed. Impressive content in the emails, just now need to store and summarise and push the case study along a little further.

Hmm- anything else? Oh yes - exchange with furniture designer on new library display gallery, developed the online literature timelime line a little (quite excited with tiki-toki), put together a teaching programme for a college fresher group for bibliographical research - to populate said timeline. And the weekly chore of sorting out the payroll for the weekly paid staff (approx. 8 wonderful invigilator staff who keep the library manned evenings, Saturdays and Sundays).

No time for pics today.
Early evening check of email at home reveals student having problems with access to CamTools. Check and sort problem before rushing out for a sewing class.

The Librarian's New Year Goodie Bag

2012-01-11T09:50:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I'm impressed at all the good stuff around at the moment! Loads of nice new resources out there for you all.

Below - just a taster of some things to explore:

If you have had one particular shiny new Xmas present and are looking for apps to download for either iPhone or iPad, can I recommend for starters:

1. First Folio of Shakespeare available as an ebook

2. The Waste Land app available for iPad

3. Dickens Dark London by the Museum of London - for iPhone or iPad

4. British Library - constantly providing more e-treasures all the time e.g. for a full list:

(BTW the Faculty Library is considering purchasing several iPad 3s later this year for lending to students - watch this space. Feel free to comment below...)

Some other nice resources to explore:

1. Connected Histories website - cross search 1500-1900 up to 15 historic collections (not all free just to warn you, but some good stuff all the same) http://www.connectedhistories.org/

2. Library of Congress National Jukebox - try the recordings for 'New Year's Day' - and so much more. But try the UK's National Sound archive as well

3. Literature Compass - an online only journal from Wiley, very recently purchased. The website claims ''Literature Compass has much broader horizons: a state-of-the-art site with the section editors providing expert coverage of every period,'' or look in the UL's A-Z list of journals for the link.

4. The British Newspaper Archive - search for free

5. The TLS Archive is now available in Cambridge up to 2006! Much improved access!

6. Oh - and go on - have a look at the Faculty Library's subject guides - you can add comments there, make suggestions etc etc.

7. An interesting site I've just heard of - AWE - a guide to academic writing in English from Hull, might be useful. It's not prescriptive.

8. Don't forget that we now have ARTstor in Cambridge - excellent set of images for educational use.

Not forgetting that this year is the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens. There is a celebration website. Famous manuscripts can be seen online on the V& A website along with other research resources. The Museum of London is hosting an exhibition. On a much smaller scale watch for the opening of the new display gallery in the Faculty Library which will feature a Dickens exhibition.

A good youtube video for the procrastinators amongst you......The Joy of Books

FINALLY - want to get your fines under control?

Did you know that you can set up RSS feeds for books you have out and when they are due back at most of the libraries in Cambridge? Have a look at this webpage for instruction on setting up a feed. I have it set up to go to my Google calendar (which is the best thing ever invented for keeping my life together) and it works really well.

Serendipity

2011-12-01T21:25:00.000-08:00

Went to a talk last week by Aleks K where she demonstrated her Serendipity Engine.

It was very good. She was aiming to identify all the variables and apparently quirky decisions that we make every day that land us in a situtation that allow for the serendipitous 'happening' that may just alter the course of your life....forvever. Just think for a moment of the time your eyes met those of the tall dark handsome stranger across the room......but I digress. We are, of course thinking about the article you are writing, the research you are conducting. Following the talk I got into conversation with a colleague and was reminded about the difference there is between the physical browsing of a collection, a journal issue etc and the online browsing that is perhaps more typical (lamentably so by some) these days. A number of academics still bemoan the necessity of abandoning the physical browsing for the online, and they do have a point - don't they? After all, although online browsing is good fun and very good for procrastination, well, it's a different beast altogether. The argument goes of course, that you just have to stop whining and move to the online serendipitious browsing and get on with it! Surely!

But I wonder if we are being rather naive by advocating that it's ok to abandon reasearch habits that have worked well for many for so long. I compare the difference in serendipitous browsing to the differences that exist with reading a real book as opposed to reading a book loaded on your Kindle. Neither activity is bad (a self-confessed Luddite when it comes to reading books via a Kindle or even my newly acquired iPad!) per se, neither could be said to be better - in terms of research output. But both require different activities to achieve the goal of acquiring information and may inevitably (if we consider serendipity) result in different conclusions and different exit routes from the book.

This is not a bad thing but a different thing. Perhaps the main difference is that the skimming/scanning process with a physical item is in the end more focused and less 'skittery'. When I'm browsing on the web I tend to ditzy around following this link, or that, this related item, or that. Browsing a shelf load of books I'm already more focused. When I read a physical book, I have a sense of where I have come from and where I am going, but an ebook allows me to use it as a reference tool.

Where am I going with all this? I suppose I'm saying that those who bemoan the loss of the serendipitous physical browsing have a point because they have lost an activity that allowed things to be drawn together in their minds that might not happen otherwise. They fear they have lost the ability to do their job well ie research. Do we persuade them that online is better? I don't think so. I think we tell them that online is different, but that there as many eureka moments to be had this way as the other. Don't abandon the old just because the new is being forced on you! Do what you need to do in order to allow the creative muse to inspire, create and push you into making those research connections that you had never thought of before.

If I had a fairy godmother....

2011-09-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

...who could wave her magic wand....

and arrange for me to spend more time on the issue desk at work I would be happy - for a manager this may sound like a contradiction in terms and I am sure there are plenty who would say that the manager's role is not on the issue desk. But what a superb place to develop relationships with users! Granted we could do away with the issue desk altogether of course and introduce roving, or I could station myself in the social space in the Faculty. As it is my tactic is usually to potter strategically (no, I cannot describe my brisk walk as a potter - substitute potter for 'pass through the Faculty at a brisk pace' if you would) with coffee mug in hand entering into conversations with those I happen to bump into. Lets hope that those who have encountered me in the Faculty don't read this! The tactic does work very well actually but - just now and again the casual issue desk chat is equally productive in all sorts of different ways. Bring back issue desks I say.

and give me more hours in a day this would be wonderful - perhaps this just sounds plain greedy or like someone who should go on a time management course or someone who just hasn't got the work/home balance sorted. I truly love my job though and I want us to be better and better at what we do and what I do. So could I have at least one day a week which is maybe 36 hours long?

and arrange for the powers that be to understand the massive impact that personalising a library service can have. I have just paid a visit to a small specialist library where the context of who they serve and what they require is clearly understood. The services that have developed because understanding the context are personalised and yet community-based and just 'fit' the users - you get a sense of a favourite coat that fits really well and is practical and yet attractive, is yours and yet willingly lent out to another. In this library, the desk space can be booked and is yours, from one week to three years; the books from the library shelves that you have around you on the desk are yours, BUT others can borrow them from you if they leave a polite note. Your space is yours, but you empty the bin at your desk and you help the library staff with stockcheck; you re-shelve the books and you take a turn making tea for everyone. A personalised tailored service, based on understanding the context within which it sits but assumes that personalised also means there may be an element of a price to pay -your own contribution to the service. I loved the community feel and the sense that users look out for each other. The library does not have very many staff, but they have used their time wisely for the benefit of the users.

There is more that a fairy godmother could do for me, but lets not demand too much at one time!

(Photos courtesy of libatcam)

Leadership stuff

2011-08-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

I was recently at an excllent seminar run by Jill Garett, Assistant Chief Executive of LT Consulting. She is a very unassuming person and I didn't know much about her until after the seminar. Her reference to a bit of research done when working for Gallup was interesting, but following my own research post-seminar, I realised that when she did the work she was Managing Director of Gallup......enough on the credentials.

I was reminded of some of the key issues that were discussed in the seminar today following a conversation with two colleagues which touched on the inherent difficulties of people management.

One of the key things that Jill was clear about was that people managers are not leaders. Leaders are visionary, they are strategic, and will often not be as good at people management. It was obvious when she explained it; and reflecting on my own current situation I wondered what this might mean for myself, but also what it meant for the library system that I am a part of. Are we all doing too much, trying to be all things (or a lot of things) to all men? Do we expect too much from our leaders? Do our leaders/managers understand how crucial people management is and how difficult it will be to operate at both strategic and people-focused levels?It seems to be very difficult to find a balance.

A memorable example that Jill gave was of a team that she worked with to improve productivity (my 'cost of service' ears pricked up at this). She asked them what it was they most liked doing in their job - the answer wasn't difficult. When asked why they spent so little time doing it, the response was 'admin'/'paperwork'. The challenge was issued! Look at all the processes that make up the working day and aim to be more efficient, effective and reduce the

time taken over the tiresome jobs, allowing more time for the preferred tasks.

It will come as no great surprise that these workers fairly soon doubled the time that they had available for the pleasant, motivating, enjoyable and fulfilling tasks. I thought this was such a lesson - for individuals and also for small teams, but why not for big organisations as well? We can feel hard pressed on every side financially, but with a bit of ingenuity and 'people management' we can do more with less and by all accounts earn good will along the way.

A final thought that jumps out at me wherever I am these days - including a fabulous trip to the 'other' place earlier this week - is that communication is the absolute KEY to anything - change, maintaining the status quo, you name it, it's essential. Of course MY form of communication may not be the same as YOURS - but that's another story.

The Cheese Scone Moment

2011-07-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

If you have never been to Cambridge then can I urge you to come and, if nothing else, sample the superb cheese scones at Michaelhouse Cafe.

It's a building that is more cafe than church but is also definitely the latter. I saw the most superb altar frontal there today - gorgeous colours and exquisite stitching.

I indulged in a cheese scone - and thought and scribbled and read while I munched. I was quite impressed with what I had accomplished by the end of half an hour. It made me think about how important cheese scones are.

It also reminded me of a talk that I went to about 10 years ago. It was called something like 'Are you a busy person?' I think I'm making this up actually but it's close enough to what it was about for me to leave it at this. During the talk the phrase that subsequently revolutionised my approach to work (and yet temporarily forgotten recently perhaps) was that busy people need to make time to go out and 'kick the leaves'. Literally this is no bad thing, but you need a permanent Autumn to do that; metaphorically of course what it means is that it is essential that you build in time when you walk away from what you are working from. Do something different enough that when you return to the task in hand your perspective has shifted just enough to allow the problem to be solved, the task you're doing is completed more quickly, the meeting you have coming up to be more fruitful etc... Now of course taking holiday could be one way of doing this, but holidays are when you try and completely forget your work. 'Kicking the leaves' is very far from this. It is a relatively short break, which allows the current issues and problems and all the unsolvable irritables of a working life to chugg along in the background of your mind whilst you physically do something and see something completely different!

For me - my 'kicking the leaves' activities range from shelving a trolley load of books, a walk through Kings College at lunch time, the cycle ride to and from home to work, and - yes - a cheese scone at Michaelhouse Cafe!

Now the point of this blog was actually to say that I won't be carrying on with cpd23 or even starting the new Cam23 Things. My scone reminded me today that actually the most effective work that I can do is not dependent on trying out yet another new 'thing' and constantly trying to fill my mind with new ideas and more and more cpd. It's about being selective and above all allowing myself time to 'kick the leaves'.

So - I shall continue to write occasional blog posts, and I will be very supportive of those who are part of cpd23. I think it's a great initiative but it's not for me, not now. I think I'll order another cheese scone.

To do or not to do?

2011-06-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

Dithered about cpd23 but decided to start and see what happens..... So why do it? Hmmm good question? I guess I believe quite strongly in cpd in general - being a Chartership Support Officer for CILIP makes me quite fierce about it. That'll do for now!

So - that's Thing 1

Are we flogging our USPs enough?

2011-06-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

Challenged, as I was, by my deputy, about the fact that someone somewhere should write a little something about unique selling points and Cambridge libraries, here I am putting pen to paper (so to speak).

Actually I wasn't going to do this, as I am part cynical (yep - the powers that be will just rip the heart out of the service whatever I try and do), and part so passionate about the whole thing that I feared I would just rant and end up in a truly volcanic state. Those that know me well would suspect the latter would dominate the former.

But I decided to take up the challenge! Is it possible to be dispassionate and objective about how and why library services in Cambridge have USPs that should be valued, treasured and above all - recognised - in the face of the impending doom of financial cuts and economic cuts?

(The problem is that as soon as you start talking about USPs it's so hard NOT to be passionate! After all offering a 'unique' service is terribly attractive to me.)

On behalf of the Faculty I have been running focus groups for all year groups of undergrads to talk about the teaching they receive from the Faculty. All groups were really clear about two things - firstly the supervision system here in Cambridge is unique and special, albeit time-intensive on teaching staff, and that's one reason why they come here; secondly the off-the-wall, way-out lectures by eminent profs in the field that make them think, are another reason why they choose Cambridge. They were - yes - passionate about the impact that these things have on them. I would say these are unique selling points.

Unique selling points imply that there is a specific benefit to be gained. A USP is, of course, 'unique' which means that it is not offered elsewhere. It is compelling enough that people will be drawn towards what is on offer almost without realizing that they are, and inevitably many follow to find what's available. Cambridge clearly offers the undergrads a unique and beneficial teaching environment; the University's USP is vital for the future when undergrads will inevitably ask what they are getting for their 9K. However the Colleges, who pay for much of the supervision system are calling for a reduction in supervisions; they are running out of money just like everyone else. But if it is true that supervisions are one of the highly regarded USPs in Cambridge, perhaps it is a slightly short sighted solution. After all removing a USP may mean fewer future applicants. Cambridge needs to find all the USPs it can and market them unmercifully.

And so to libraries in Cambridge. What are our USPs? Which of them will disappear under a new regime of federalistion? Will we be in danger of throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater in our short sighted attempt to save money? Will we throw out exactly those things that unwittingly our users are most attracted to?

In our Faculty Library the students tell us:
"I would go first to a librarian in the English Faculty for support re: resources, referencing, finding books than ....other places"
"the little touches of the screen with the daily quotation, the merchandise, the effort made on special occasions like Valentine's Day create the most fantastic atmosphere: your passion and energy is evident and really admirable"
"staff go beyond the call of duty time and time again - far from just providing books, the faculty library is a powerhouse of resources and accumulated wisdom"

Selling our services in Cambridge is such an important thing to do - we should get stuck into advocacy, gather our Library champions around us and tell Cambridge applicants that they will get a better deal here from the Library services than anywhere else.

Personalise, contextualise...and on to ‘boutique’

2011-04-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

The LILAC conference is one of the excellent librarianship conferences around bringing many together to share best practice.

It was great to be able to attend all three days this year, and feel that as a result I could chart some of the themes that seemed to weave themselves in and out of many of the presentations much better than from just a one-day visit.

I was struck by the number of times that the LILAC conference presentations referred to the need to contextualise information literacy. The new SCONUL 7 pillars model suggests that different lenses are used to apply the framework – ie different user groups look and feel different. But it was almost as if this was all something new and revelatory. And yet, in one of the most traditional library structures known to UK librarians, this is exactly what we have been doing since....well, forever. I’m delighted to be able to say that the ‘lens’ that I can develop in my job is not just an ‘undergraduate’ lens but an ‘English Literature Studies undergraduate’ lens. This must surely be a distinct advantage for us in this staff-intensive, personalised service that we run?

A number of libraries in Cambridge have been working this way for a long time - Education, Business, Classics, Earth Sciences, Medical, Law to name but a few. One of the best things about Cambridge is that, as subject librarians, we can - and do - have an enormously variable approach to teaching ‘information literacy’. What we do from library to library won’t (and shouldn’t) look the same.The students will need our resources and services and the related skills to use them at different times and in different ways -depending on the subject, depending on the input from academics, depending on the style of teaching; depending on all sorts of things! Contextualising literacy training means spotting the needs and addressing them at the right time and in the right manner. To contextualise or personalise training so that we have buy in from our users is crucial. If it’s not relevant to them, I don’t think they care. We try to make them care by setting out to discover what buttons to push to get their attention. This involves knowledge; it involves knowing about them and the time frames that they work with; it means finding the context, tailoring the services, personalising content, embedding ourselves and our work in the heart of the specific part of the institution they – and we – are in.

One tangential thought I have had is the concern that I feel about how easy it is to patronise our students. The question is how to satisfactorily help (for argument’s sake) the 50% of the student body for whom some of the essentials of info lit might have eluded them in their secondary schooling, whilst maintaining the respect and appreciation of the other 50% who actually know and understand everything you are telling them and might resent being at a session in the middle of an extremely busy schedule. We don’t want to frighten off the first 50%, but neither do we want to alienate the second 50%.......Do we just assume that the second 50% have forgotten all they ever knew? . I definitely disagree with the suggestion that students forget all they ever knew in transferring from one part of the education system to another. Yes – the long summer holidays mean that primary school children often have to re-trace SOME steps at the beginning of a new term but I don’t think that there are very many who completely forget how to read and write! I digress! In an environment where you probably have one shot at doing something for all freshers I have in the past viewed the sessions (fortunately small and interactive) that we run as primarily about building relationships. I stand by this as being the most useful goal. The challenge is to have the icing on the cake where they all gain something more than this from the session – after all at the time they may not view building positive relationships with the library staff as the most important thing they could do with their time! It is possible that co-agency and community learning have a large part to play so that it’s not all about the content we include in a session but perhaps more about teaching methodology. In May we have a visit from colleagues from the University of Northampton and it will be useful to compare notes with them.

The term ‘information literacy’ was challenged at the conference. I’m not a strong advocate of it myself. We make all sorts of assumptions when we use it. We assume others who work with us know what it means. It’s on occasion used in a slightly odd one-up-man-ship type of activity between librarians. We use it to make academics think we know more than we do. We bandy it around as if ‘doing’ information literacy is the answer to all the problems our students have. Actually no! The very broad points that make up information literacy are bound up with other literacies and I was really pleased to be given a handout at one of the LILAC sessions demonstrating that ‘info lit’ is just one of many ‘literacies’ and that realistically it cannot just be librarians who are the answer to it all! Phew. In fact perhaps we should be promoting a ‘literacy’ curriculum – one that we have a role in? But even the word ‘literacy’ is fraught with interpretive issues. If you are invited to join a ‘literacy’ class, are we inferring that you (they) are ‘illiterate’? This was a point made at LILAC by Jesus Lau and it opened up all the problems in my mind that we frequently forget exist with library terminology! Ah well.....

This all inevitably bring me back to ‘boutique’ – the model, the themes, the book and so on....and even more inevitably to the fact that I really need to start working on my contribution.......

LILAC

2011-04-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

Just back from the LILAC 2011 conference with some of the highlights:

Day 1: Lucy Keating and Taking up the RIN challenge: supporting researchers’ use of web 2.0

An inspirational speaker having produced a tool that I will be promoting to my users.

Katie Birkwood and Niamh Tumelty from Cambridge presented today - the success of their Teachmeets have already spread like wildfire around the country well before LILAC so I hope they bathed in the admiration of colleagues for adapting this idea to library world in the first place!

Day 2: Emma Thompson and From search to research; linking information literacy and critical research skills. I liked the use of the H2O playlist and was reminded of a few other tools that I need to also start to use like drop-box in order to pep up the information management strategy part of the Quickstart sessions we run.

Jason Eyre's Keeping up the Dialogue presentation was just plain excellent for engagement and entertainment.

More about Moira Bent and Ruth Stubbings' presentation on the revamped 7 Pillars in my next post, but the following debate about the usefulness of the model was timely and thought-provoking.

The finale for me for the day was Dina Koutsomichal's online polling session which was something that I immediately thought we could try at work - and might even suggest to the Computer Officer of the Faculty for student evaluation of lecture courses......

A great day.

Day 3: I made the mistake of assuming that I knew where I was going today - we changed location from the BL to LSE and for some reason best known to myself I had failed to print a map - just as well I had my Blackberry with me.........

Top of the list today were conversations with colleagues. Followed swiftly by the Pecha Kucha session with Wassail, Creative problem (or triage clinics), and Upgrade at City University which all provided food for thought.

Glad that I went to all three days this year.

Up, Close and Personal

2011-01-26T12:28:00.000-08:00

Andy Priestner, co-organiser with me for the symposium on Personalised services in HE makes a very good comment when challenging us in his recent blog post to think about just how personalised is 'personalised'.

Having spent some time at work these last two weeks talking about how we can improve our customer service - and talking incessantly at home about it - my husband quietly presented me with an article called 'Shopping with a smile? I'm not buying it'. Strapline comment - 'What works for Mary Portas does not necessarily work in a Poundshop in Preston.'

Hmmm - up, close and personal doesn't always work. So how do we work out what is helpful and beneficial and what isn't? In a week where I have been receiving detailed evaluation emails on the impact of our skills programme in the Library, I am realising that, from the students perspectives, there is merit in personalising our teaching, but that some generic teaching is useful if part of a package where both styles feature. It's getting the balance right that's important. In an HE environment where students clearly feel that they have a lot of choice about what they go to, the package has to appeal to them!

What interests me in the whole personalisation thing is the subliminal messages that we give that seem to have the most impact. I just received an email from a student who was clearly impressed that a member of staff had painted a picture for the library in order to brighten a particularly dull spot. This level of commitment by the staff to improving the environment in a very quiet unobtrusive way demonstrates the sort of subliminal 'personalisation' that I am sure exists in many libraries around the world.

I'm not saying that a welcome smile and good eye contact for our users at the issue desk isn't important, but perhaps we underestimate that what we instinctively do already is providing a personlised service?

Conferenced out....

2011-01-07T13:37:00.000-08:00

Too much information (is that possible?)

Cleared the desk on Tuesday and cleared the brain, but the libraries@cambridge conference filled it up again.

Echo chamber - thought the idea very relevant but was fascinated by all the echo chamber activity around me as I listened. Ned made that point really when pointing out the conference was full of librarians but to make matters worse - Cambridge librarians!

Thinking about the echo chamber I wonder about taking it a step further. Perhaps we should wake up to the fact that there are smaller echo chambers that are embedded within the wider institutional library environment or the big echo chamber of which all librarians are a part. Perhaps the 'wheels within wheels' picture says something of what I mean.

I'm not entirely sure that we always realise that they are there but a bit of meerkat action soon detects possibilities!

For example take the 'Thing' that I had to give up using - my head just wanted to explode from all the information contained there! My brain can divide itself up into approximately 6 compartments at any one time, and the 'Thing' doubles that number in one screens-worth of information! You take my point?

But I digress......

I can see the point of breaking out of my own mini echo chamber into the big wide world, but I wonder if there are just as many issues and perhaps damage caused by the lack of movement between our little microcosms, our mini echo chambers. Do we have a responsibility to engage with others in different parts of the same library environment as well as with the big wide world ? Whose responsibility is it? Your echo chamber - or mine?

Story time

2010-12-30T06:28:00.000-08:00

Recently read David J Brier and Vicky Kaye Lebbin (2004) 'Teaching information literacy using the short story', Reference Services Review, 32/4 pp 383-387.

I like the idea of stories helping us to retain information. I know that in this instance the article is referring to the imagined story or tale, but the point still fits well with one of my many theories of teaching - that a true 'story' or - yes if you want a more technical term - a case study - is better at making the point, and importantly allowing that point to have been retained to become effectively learnt, than I ever could with bullet points on a powerpoint (or just my voice droning on).

Personally I like a visual clue as well as the story. So well-illustrated children's story books were made for me.

Cue the start to an article that might make it beyond my computer:

Communities in the past were built on narrative, or stories. Children were taught about life, about skills, about who they were and how to behave through stories. Narrative engaged the mind, and fuelled the imagination. A story that one person tells one audience, and a different person to the same audience, might be presented differently but can still have the same impact and the same truths contained. Community Learning is all about using different people to tell the same story, to teach the same principles but from different viewpoints...........

More on space

2010-12-01T08:49:00.000-08:00

Prompted by the discussion lunch today at MML (and a need to get a presentation on the go...) I went back to my survey results from a number of academics who have recently used our new IT training suite in the Library.

Key comment:

It seems important that the room, and what goes on in it, is part of the well-established learning environment that is the faculty library. By placing electronic resources alongside material texts, the former gain a kind of visibility and status. The proximity between electronic and print resources is not only very convenient for students and class leaders - it reflects a fact of 21c. research.

If I have academics promoting our space like this - then I'm happy.

Transformative? or merely informative?

2010-11-30T12:59:00.000-08:00

An excellent topic for the journal discussion lunch tomorrow - Is the physical library redundant in the 21st Century?

From a related blog posting I enjoyed the following

"It is not the quantity of information available nor the ease at which it can be got that libraries should focus on, but rather the quality of the educational experience offered"

On a day when I debated the pitfalls of having too much to do and think about (and just how debilitating that was!) with a colleague in the queue at Marks and Spencers at lunchtime I wonder whether 'quality' is what we as librarians all too often fail at. We talk about, plan for, and in general aim to improve our stats - whether they are circulation or footfall or website/VLE/facebook/ebook hits. The SCONUL HE annual return encourages exactly this. But are we TRANSFORMING lives? Perhaps this sounds a bit over the top? Martin Lewis is keen to point out that numbers using the Sheffield Information Commons are increasing. I've been heard to say - oh great, footfall, book borrowing etc is up. But - I don't think that this is quite the point! The point is that the service we offer should be transformative, it should be all about impact. If the physical space of the library IS important then we should be seeing comments from students that say exactly that; we should be able to correlate degree results with use of the services - and so on. Perhaps....

I am in complete agreement with Mary Beard - on the need for time to slow down, to allow the thought processes to operate in another space with the resulting serendipitous spark of illumination on a particular matter. I shan't advocate that libraries work for me in the way they do for Mary, but I can vouch for the bike ride, the walk into town and back at lunchtime, the downtime effect of shelving a trolley load of books. Anything really that removes me from my desk and my normal place of work and gets me out into fresh air or just doing something that allows my brain to quietly jog along in the background. These are frequently my own eureka moments - and the only problem that I have is the inability to recall what they were when I get back to the desk! I'm still working on a solution......

Looking forward to the discussion.

Teaching Librarian

2010-10-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

Having completed 4 hours of teaching to groups of varying sizes on Friday, of which only two of the sessions were repeat sessions, I thought a little reflection would not go amiss. This last week I have personally taught 3 grad sessions, given a lecture, and taught a guesstimate of 4 or 5 fresher sessions. Three other members of staff have, between them, done another 10-15 hours of teaching time, let alone the 30 odd induction tours of the Faculty Library in the previous week. This next week I am contemplating a mere 3 hours of teaching with 5 in the following week.

This year we have had fresher students going to their DoSs 'clamouring' for practical sessions. It could be that they were intrigued by the new IT Training suite with the computers that emerge out of the woodwork (so to speak) and then quietly disappear at the end of a session. It could be that our Induction Tours were so good that they were desperate to come back for more! We've had Part II's asking at the desk for more 'Quickstart for dissertation' sessions. I've had somewhere in the region of 40 grads signing up for Endnote courses. We've also had three academics booking our IT training suite for training their MPhil courses - no teaching for us but good ol' library promotion going on! It's fun. It's tiring. It's fascinating.

I'm looking forward to the evaluation results to see what we can change and tweak and do better next time. I'm looking forward to the Teaching for Librarians session in January run by Chris Powis so that we can think of different ways of communicating information to our users. I'm looking forward to our patrons becoming used to the fact that we are always offering options for helping them make better use of the resources and services that we have on offer.

If we can create a climate where students in Cambridge actively ask for and want to attend training from library staff.................then I will be a happy person.

oops - nearly forgot the wordle

2010-08-24T11:22:00.001-07:00

.....................and we're done

The good, the bad or the ugly?

2010-08-21T09:04:00.000-07:00

Thing 23

Conclu'sion n. 1. termination; final result; decision; in ~, lastly, to conclude. 2. judgement reached by reasoning.........

Whilst concluding, or reaching final thoughts means the end of 23 Things, I fully expect that this is not the end of interest in Web 2.0. for myself or for others around the University. Two summers ago, following a June Library staff development day when Phil Bradley gave a presentation to library staff, a number of us met together a few weeks later (at the English Faculty because that is where a lot of good things happen!) for an afternoon of playing with Web 2.0 tools to see what might work in our libraries and what might not. You could say that was the beginning........, 23 Things another stage......, and I am sure that in a year or two's time there will be other collaborative ventures in Cambridge exploring these tools and others. We should collectively pat ourselves on the back - I think that overall we are more collaboratively minded, we are successful at grass-roots initiatives, and we are generally a pro-active bunch of librarians! Combine that with our wonderful 'boutique' , user-focused libraries and, even better, students who are filmed saying they love the libraries, and I think that should sell the Cambridge model nicely.

Taking part in 23 Things has been something of a roller coaster ride. A sense of being over-whelmed with work and 'other things' at certain points nearly scuppered the whole programme as far as I was concerned. It all took more hours than envisaged and I spent a lot of 'home time' as opposed to 'work time' for doing the Things. Some people might not liked to have done this; but although this is a slight red herring, I wonder whether we can now afford not to think about some element of professional development taking place outside the workplace in this day and age? In any case, I'm delighted that I persevered to the end, and feel pleased that I'm at this final point of evaluation. I liked the style of learning - bite-sized for the most part - and mostly easy to work through with options for doing more. There are some things that I would definitely like a 'proper' training session on especially when I think that they might be useful, but haven't got the time to figure out how to apply them. (Group libraries and Zotero spring to mind!)

So.....addressing the questions:

Which Things did you find most useful, or thought-provoking, or good? What do I say 'yes!' to?

By definition anything that I currently use regularly is good (kinda figures!) - Facebook, Google Calendar, Doodle, Zotero, Flickr, Slideshare, RSS feeds, youtube
I like Google docs, especially the registration form tool. SO easy to use and it amazed my Computer Officer with its simplicity.
Am still keen to make use of LibraryThing for new accessions like CSL are doing but I just haven't the time to spend on it now.
I am a convert to blogs - I started out with my blog called Head above the Parapet because it felt exactly like that. I'm not sure that I will continue blogging personally although I would like to think I would, partly because I am thinking of doing Chartership revalidation and this tool seems to be good for reflection. Along the way however, a blog - which we use for Library News - seemed the way forward for some parts of our website. I was especially inspired by the History Faculty Library in Oxford. So, the 'Learning Hub' has been born.
Reflection - in general. It's good for the soul.....

Which didn't you find useful at all and is downright ugly? What do I say 'no' to?

Podcasting. - see my blog on that to explain this one.

Which might I look at again, not bad enough to relinquish altogether? What do I say 'maybe' to?

LinkedIn,
Delicious
Dare I say Twitter? I fell into and out of Twitter in the course of 23 Things and have actually stopped checking it now - though I suspect I will be back there in time if only because I am essentially a pretty nosy person and I want to see what is going on. But I really do wonder how people have time to distract themselves all day with Twitter. Maybe they don't get the number of emails that I do, which are distracting enough - or maybe their jobs are more monotonous than mine! I rarely do anything like the same type of job every day and suspect that I would find it difficult to process any more information than I currently do. Having said all that I do use facebook for distraction!!

Which have you persisted with?

I persisted with Google docs - to the extent that I used them as part of the Committee preparation but not again until I was able to apply the registration form for the film launch - and then all of a sudden I have found myself using more of the docs. Especially useful when working between home and the library and remote access to the work server is rather painful.

I played a lot with ppts in slideshare until I discovered that I couldn't get animations and transitions to work in ppts loaded to slideshare. I've discovered iSpring though and it's very simple and effective.

What about Web 2.0 and social media?

There are clear distinctions about how Web 2.0 tools get used. There are those that have been put to use in developing services to libraries and for the benefits of users, and there are those that are for the benefit of our personal skills improvement or for workflow improvement in our libraries. I am drawing some of them to our users' attention this October and as usual I will run Zotero/Endnote sessions to introduce students to this information management tool.

How do you think they are shaping library services?

Library services should be shaped by the users of that service and not by the tools. If the tools dictate what we do, then shame on us.

Thing 22 nearly there - it must be wikis

2010-08-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't got anything against wikis in general. I find Wikipedia is great - all sorts of wonderful information - and of course we know that it might not be true as we are librarians and we know that sort of stuff. We tend to think that the 'yoof' don't. But, I'm not so sure. I think they know they are not 'supposed' to use it/reference it and still use it knowing full well that they need to verify their information. Child no. 2 has just finished her degree and confesses to countless times where she started her work with Wikipedia. I'm fine with that. After all I use Google a lot.

In the bumff about wikis it says that 'Librarians are currently using wikis for a variety of purposes: to produce staff manuals and subject guides, to manage projects, and as Intranets'. I thought that I honestly did not think that a wiki would add anything really extraordinarily good to our work flows for this type of activy. The only thing that struck me was that I could have used it for brainstorming for the current IT Training room project where those involved were rarely able to physically get together - myself, Computer Officer, EMBS electrical, EMBS maintenance, AV people, Furniture people, IT people. Most of the rest of the time we have a shared drive for documents, manuals, subject guides etc etc.

I have an account with PBwiki and have added information on to the TeachMeet wiki. Apart from that 'I'm good' - as they say over the pond.

Thing 21 Sense preference

2010-08-17T13:06:00.000-07:00

I can honestly say that I have very rarely listened to a podcast! So I made myself do it and went to the JISC podcasts. I have nothing against audio in principle but I tend to end up doing other things at the same time and, whatever my official stance on multi-tasking is, I do not absorb information well when the primary method of information delivery is audio. Fine if it's music and potentially just background noise, or if I'm driving and Radio 4 is always on but these are exceptions to the rule. I will also confess that I have a paranoia about earplugs and don't own any of those player things so will not be downloading a podcast to listen to at the gym or while walking/cycling any time soon. I am well aware that this all makes me seem a tad old fashioned but I have now reached that age where I don't care too much.

BUT - take me to the visual and I'm all yours (so to speak). Given that I understand/learn best with visual stimuli I thought that the podcasting video was brilliant.

Youtube is loads of fun and I looked at all the suggested links and chortled my way through Andy's top 3. Can't say that I pushed the boat out and found any others but I have seen some great ones in the past.

The Cambridge Libraries film - 'The Perfect Desk' - will shortly be launched - a special meet for those who can make it on 7th Sept means that you can see it then, enjoy a drink and enter a prize draw for a £25 voucher. The film will be posted on the University's youtube site and available for the public to see!

As for using podcasting and youtube in the Library - well, we tried a film last year and just used the streaming media service which is part of the University to load it on, and that worked fine. Podcasts - well I won't say no if one of the staff are keen to do them, but bearing in mind the above, they are unlikely to be something that I will jump to do quickly myself.

Thing 20 Google docs

2010-08-14T07:08:00.001-07:00

Done it.......

Enjoyed playing with the drawing doc though find Microsoft Publisher/Word easier to manipulate just because I'm more used to the package.

Good being able to share doc though and very much like the ability to edit and keep track of the editing with all saving to the same space. Am unlikely to use it much at work as we have a shared work drive that everything gets stored on and it works pretty well at the moment. BUT useful to know about this in case things change!

Little niggle about slideshare

2010-08-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

Discovered that loading a ppt on slideshare with animations/slide transitions etc won't work. Bit peeved about this until I discovered iSpring which converts ppt with animations into flash video. It's free or you can download similar products for a trial, and inevitably there is a paid version available too. For a ppt lover this is a very easy solution....

Though now I just have the challenge of deciphering the html to embed in the blog...........................

Thing 19 This little pig went to market....

2010-08-13T03:34:00.000-07:00

Going to market

Good point about the difference between marketing and advertising. Advertising raises awareness of what you are and what you do but marketing is so much more that this. Understanding our users and their needs is essential in libraries.

Thinking about the services we offer in our library - different types of space, facilities, training programmes, website & Library blog, vle resources, resource fairs, circulation policies, self-issue, copiers/printers, and so on. All that we do should be based on knowledge of our customers and therefore meeting their needs but then also anticipating new things that they need and providing them almost before they are aware of it.

Creating content via social media has interesting associated problems. As is described in the 4Cs, content that is published via a context such as a blog can make connections which lead to conversations. BUT better take care that the throw-away comments made so easily on a blog are accurate and carefully researched! In the 'old' days publishing information about a display through normal printed methods would probably have meant a lot of care taken over content and accuracy of information and grammar etc. After all it cost money to print information. Blogs cost nothing to put together, apart from time. In all the 'easiness' of using social media we need to have at the back of our minds the potential for slips and mistakes, much more easily made.

Take the Library's blog post on Sir Wilson Harris. The display was a great idea and has attracted a great deal of attention, and was very ably put together by a work experience pupil. However, being made so public so quickly there were some issues that had to be resolved after the event which happily are all sorted out now. A small error on a facebook announcement, although encouraging comment, was something that shouldn't have happened (all my fault, I'll confess now). It's just too quickly done.

Still it's the speed of using social media that in itself is so appealing!

It's an interesting tension.

To comply with the 'to do' of this Thing we are going to make more use of a blog in our library, linked to our current website, in order to produce bite-sized online learning tasks. The context of the blog seems ideal for this - after all 23 Things has made use of blog technology extremely well for this very purpose - so we're going to give it a bash. I would also like to explore LibraryThing for new acquisitions.

Thing 18 Zoh-tair-oh

2010-08-09T12:19:00.000-07:00

Mr Priestner is definitely wrong about how to pronounce Zotero.

The saga of' Zotero - promoting a tool to students to help them manage their information.

My Endnote and Endnote Web training sessions have faltered at the point where my own experience with referencing differed to that of an Arts student. I'm a social scientist and had never taught students who needed to use footnotes - which is what Arts students use in Cambridge. Imagine the frustration that the only way to use Endnote and footnotes satisfactorily together meant that a specially designed 'style' was required - I eventually discovered that UCS had created one; one which allowed a footnote to be edited as much as one pleased. I had been promoting Endnote Web but realised that this was even more frustrating for Arts students as they have minute, but essential changes to make to ANY style. Endnote Web does not allow self-editing of bibliographic styles. Students were not happy with making the changes to their footnotes/bibliographies at a later stage.

I had looked at Zotero before this but an English PhD student who was using Zotero enthused about it and I looked at it again and decided that it could be promoted alongside Endnote and give students an option. This tactic has gone down quite well and there seem to be those who will veer towards one or the other quite naturally. I have now taken to facilitating a session and, after putting the use of software into context, ask current enthusiasts to come and demonstrate what they do.

The distinct advantage of Zotero is that if you use it to cite-while-you-write you can edit footnotes as you go along! It is not so easy to edit the bibliographic style - at least you need a little bit of technie-ness to do this. It seems to be hard to find the ideal solution.

I am creating a Learning Hub for online 'help' for the Library and will include Zotero:

The Zotero guides at Georgia State University are excellent.

As for the other idea that I had - that of setting up a Group Library for Faculty reading lists - well, not sorted yet but I have 8 more days of Library closure and it's on the list to play with..............

Are we nearly there yet?

2010-08-03T08:49:00.001-07:00

The other day I was asking:

Yep - we ARE nearly there!

Thing 17 Chains

2010-08-03T08:38:00.000-07:00

Well - here we are at Linkedin. Weird - set up my account a long time ago, have a profile of sorts and following a few groups, but clearly it's not something I spend lots of time with. Remarkably I remembered my login. Will play with the 'add applications' when I have a bit more time.

Am wondering why I feel rather ambivalent about this tool.......hmmm. Maybe it's information overload, maybe it's just that I have too many fingers in too many pies.......... ........and just can't manage another deluge of information?

ho hum

Thing 16 To fb or not to fb

2010-08-03T08:08:00.000-07:00

My opinions on facebook for libraries are already out there in the ether - see UKOLN Guest blog - though 'Tilley' has been translated as 'Taylor'; nicer but less memorable and less findable perhaps??

I have read Jane Secker's article before as her work at LSE in general interests me. I was struck by the phrase in the article 'unfamiliarity with Facebook' as an issue with not engaging with the tool as a use for teaching and learning. Thinks that this is really the problem with any of the tools we're looking at. The more you do play with them, the more applications seem to be there. But also been thinking about time again, as this all does take time and there is a very real need for an ability to be able to scan something and make fairly quick judgements on whether this is might be useful or not and then to discard swiftly if you think it is not. As several of us discussed yesterday it is indeed all about time management.

Suffice it to say our Library has a Facebook site - we use it for fairly casual information - nothing so important that we need all our users to see it, but casual enough to attract a wide variety of people on to the site - from observers, to alumni, to prospective students, to current students and staff. It's fine by us. BUT this is really why we have an information delivery policy (see UKOLN blog).

Thing 14 & Thing 15 A solution to the new books page

2010-08-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

LibraryThing is something that I've looked at before and tried out. Liked it, easy enough to set up and get going with it :)

Unable to apply it satisfactorily a few years ago, I liked the use CSL is making of their site and that, combined with current discussion on changes we envisage on our website, am thinking that this is the answer to the 'new books' page.

Just thinking about whether to create new catalogues for each new batch of new accessions? Hmmm.

Thanks guys

Playing

2010-08-01T05:44:00.000-07:00

Learning Hub

Discovered Picasa today - I am sure that someone has posted a link to it somewhere on the 23 Things blog posts but I fell upon it by accident and found that it did some of the editing I was looking for! So some attempts at playing with text and image....

Thing 13 Reflection

2010-07-26T12:43:00.000-07:00

Light dawning.....

One of the exciting things about 23 Things is that the ‘and so what’ question that I rashly asked people to think about has actually produced some very interesting thoughts and conversations. We veer from complete enthusiast, to ‘good for collaboration’ to yes I’ll do this, or that or the next thing but not others. I think this is encouraging!

For me, the journey (to use a rather over-used term these days) has been quite mixed. Some of the Things I have already ‘done’/played with and actively use, others I just got cross with and wondered what the point of them were. I suspect that this reaction does me no credit whatsoever as it is probably the ‘things’ that I am least familiar with that make me react in this way. Mea culpa.

However, one thing that I have become quite excited about is the simple act of blogging and making use of blogs for library pages and for other purposes such as online tutorials. After all the committee will have written 23 mini tutorials for the library community over the course of this programme, which many people have managed to do – so why not use this friendly, free tool for library tutorials? Several conversations with our Computer Officer about our library website have all pointed in this direction as well. Blogs are easily edited by anyone really and with our Library News already based on a blog we are half way there.

So –somewhat to my surprise I have a real goal for shaping what we do next in the Library, and I don’t feel all that bad about ignoring such things as twitter and delicious – for the moment at any rate! So there is good stuff out there.......

Thing 12 Yummy stuff making me grumpy

2010-07-14T05:04:00.000-07:00

Well, 'Delicious' looks.....er...um....delicious

I can see the point of being able to access my bookmarks from any computer etc etc but truth to tell I rarely move computers and if I do I don't generally need that particular set of bookmarks. But I fear that this makes me sounds like the proverbial 'grumpy old woman'.

BUT.......in my defense........I clicked the link through to the Casimir Lewy Delicious page and was suitably awed and depressed, and went through one of those 'oh my goodness - we MUST DO THIS/head in hand scenarios' . But then I thought that I would pretend to be a Philosopher going to their website and be entranced by the information available to me via this tool. I was incredibly frustrated at how unobvious it seemed to be on the website and wondered idly how well-used it was. (Apologies I truly am becoming more and more grumpy - could be that I'm just hungry). Even the Green Library delicious page looks lovely -but again going from the front end of the website - absolutely NOTHING tells you where this wretched page is hiding! Either that or else i am just starving and should go and eat. So once again i ask myself - is it useful? is it helpful?

In summary:
Yes I do have a personal account, yes I have created a Library account, no I don't use it actively yet but am trying really hard to decide whether to pursue on behalf of the Library. I need to resolve access, promotion, location, resource searching, quality control, and buy-in from those who would maintain and use it.

Thing 11 Slideshare

2010-07-14T04:08:00.001-07:00

Well I've used slideshare quite a lot before but to re-visit using the suggested questions:

* Thoughts about the tool
Helpful, inspirational, reminding, provoking, irritating (I would so like to have BEEN there!)
* What particular benefits to your Library are there from using Slideshare?
No need to keep on re-inventing the wheel - others have been there and done it already
* Did you find any interesting presentations that you would like to share?
Yep - sure - see one below from Chris Powis and Jo Webb

Making it count: teaching information skills

View more presentations from Jo Webb.

I'm highly likely to use Slideshare in the future - especially for ideas. I need to work on my powerpoints (see previous post) before I am likely to want the world to see them on slideshare!

Thing 10 sunflower images

2010-06-27T07:31:00.000-07:00

Photos by Ian Jones& Aki Jinn, from Flickr under Creative Commons-license

Attended a really excellent LTS lunch a week or so ago now which featured innovative teaching with several Pilkington prize winners presenting their 'how we do things'. One was an excellent account of how to use powerpoint really well and it will come as no great surprise to discover that the use of images as opposed to bullet points was a key point to come out of this. Learning is actually impeded by poor use of powerpoint. Marian Holness from Earth Sciences used images to great effect in her presentation. So I shall use Flickr more and more to grab interesting pics for presentations and we'll see how we go!

Thing 9 Lovely lovely Flickr

2010-06-26T07:39:00.000-07:00

Really impressed with Collegedegrees.com website with all the different options for using Flickr in libraries. I've often used Flickr photos (with permissions) for presentations. People are so creative with their cameras and it's great to have a good resource. I need to explore more things that we can do with library tours and such like I think.....

My current fav picture (below) was taken by John Naughton at the Faculty's 'Food for Thought' event on June 17 - it's title is 'freedom glimpsed' :

Thing 8 Tags

2010-06-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

The Ann Arbor District Library site is great with the tags - lots of fun playing until I decided to search more constructively and with a specific item in mind. Interesting to see how Yahoo has added the concept of 'the shelf' into its classification. But in all fairness to them, humans generally like pattern and putting things in pigeon holes and like to know where something fits. We spend time with our babies getting them into a 'routine', possibly taken aback when they throw over one routine for another. So - I'm kinda with them on this.

Am I allowed to say that I got bored reading the Shirky article? Sorry!

I have been adding extra tags to my blogs already but will add a few more to today's one..

More on twitter - other 'things' to follow

2010-06-25T09:23:00.000-07:00

It's a good blog post:

http://mattlingard.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/twitter-at-lse-teaching-day/

Finally someone demonstrating something that is really useful about twitter! I shall give it a go.....

Thing 7 Twittering

2010-06-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

I remain unconvinced about Twitter. I have tried quite hard to like it. I went on the course put on at the UL by Sarah and Emma and enjoyed it. I have a respectable number of followers and follow quite a few people and organisations. I was surrounded by people using twitter at the UC&R conference in Exeter this week and that was fine.

I understand that it is useful for gathering information, that it provides a layer of communication that is quite simple and quite effective, that it can be used for marketing, and that it is great for networking and peer support. I even suggested that someone I mentor for chartership considered using twitter for reflection and evaluation and with use of appropriate hash tags could gather all his reflective comments together for his portfolio at the end.

I can see that librarians have embedded it in their websites, blogs, facebook sites etc although I understand that this is with varying levels of success. However all this presupposes that one’s users want information in this way. It certainly presupposes that users regularly use library websites, blogs or facebook etc. Recent conversations with academics where I work has brought up two issues; 1) they don’t want twitter links on their website (full stop) 2) following the recent load of exam marking they are tearing their hair out about the inability of students to critically compare and contrast, of not understanding what serious sustained study and reading is all about . Twitter is ALL about bite-sized bits of info – yes – it can often be useful but are we not losing the ability to focus and concentrate on anything for very long? You might wonder whether this matters? Students are there already and you could argue that we just need to accept that this is the way things are and we should just jump in and join them.........I don’t think that I know the answer. All I know is that my work life is fragmented enough, that I could actually do with more concentrated work time rather than constantly dotting in and out of things, that to achieve more and to, I assume make sure that I am demonstrating categorically that the library is making an impact and is indispensable, I need more ‘uncluttered’ time. And so I try really hard NOT to have my twitter account open at work, I try really hard to monitor who I do follow so that I feel that it is useful rather than dross.

Actually having just read the CILIP Gazette I think that possibly tweeting at conferences is probably a ‘good’ thing though it certainly is distracting for the speaker to see lots of heads looking down at their phones tweeting rather than looking up and showing whether they are engaged or not. Smacks of running training sessions for students with computers and finding that they are all checking their email rather than searching diligently as you supposed......

Well that’s about it for this Thing.

Futureproof: making libraries indispensable to learning, teaching and research

2010-06-22T05:22:00.000-07:00

We really DO want to think that we are indispensable. Sometimes we are, a lot of the time we are not. Taffy, Student Education Officer for Exeter spoke at the UC&R/CoFHE conference plenary this morning here in gorgeously sunny Exeter and from his advanced age of 22 gave a good insight into how students operate:

1. Students think that they use electronic resources for their studies about 85% of the time - and yet a good 30% of them can never find the e-resource that they need. Perception issues, jargon problems, something somewhere not adding up?

2. Ejournals are a 'catchall' name for all electronic resources - referencing issues here?

3. It is perfectly possible to get a good 2.1 at University without ever using online resources, and in any case, if they are not easily available via Google then I might not ever bother trying to look any further.

4. Eresources do not = Wikipedia but Wikipedia is very useful.

5. There is a real problem in that students do not know who to contact in the library, that they wish they had more help from the Library and yet when all of this is on offer to them (ie contact details and training) they fail to take it up.

How many of us chat with our students often enough that we know what it is that they don't know or they do know? What are the hooks that we are not using that will get them to us? I am not at all convinced that expanding our repertoire of ways and means of contacting students using Web 2.0 ie facebook, twitter, chat room facilities, texting, etc etc is the right way around all of this. Based on a conversation from a librarian at Warwick today I think that we haven't done enough research into what students do in terms of their regular student journeys. I still maintain that face-to-face contact is important and for all the potential ease of Web 2.0 tools to interact with people, it is often the chance face-to-face encounter and help that results in the 'best' comments about how helpful we might have been in a student's life. Our comments book at the Library has a number of comments from 3rd years in it - and yet if you analyse them they are usually to do with how we physically did something for them that made a difference. Warwick do masses of work now on analysing statistics so for example they know that on Tuesdays there are loads of Chemistry students in the Library - a fantastic bit of information that they could base their skills training times on. So for me - the challenge is how to find out, not just how the students are studying that we can help with, but how to maximise what we do offer in order to encourage the best face-to-face interactions.

Thing 6 This is why I have a blackberry

2010-06-11T14:34:00.000-07:00

So what did I ask at the shop when I bought my blackberry? What apps has it got? Can I get GPS? Can I phone for free? Can I download this that or the other? What's the camera like? How much music will it store? What games has it got? Nope - none of the above. All I wanted was email and - yes wait for it - the internet so that I could access my Google calendar! Oh yes - I did want the pink one to start with but had too many comments from staff and family so was persuaded to the (very much duller) but more professional looking black Bold Blackberry.

Ah - supposed to be talking about Google calendar. It's got to be the way to go, resolves time management issues, allows access wherever you are (with the blackberry in tow at least it does), and doesn't depend on other colleagues having Outlook which seems to be the other competitor for Google calendars out there that I have seen mentioned. The whole thing is about work flows really isn't it! I use google calendars with the task lists and for an overview of what's going on in the Library - and my life in general. It's reassuring to be told that I have a haircut booked or Child no 2's uni rent to pay by my calendar - granted I wish that someone could remember to put all the things in it that I seem to have forgotten :) - but at least I have it with me where ever I go in the form of my BLACKBERRY so can always pop something in it when I do remember. Dead useful for work - I scurry around arranging this meeting and that and popping it in the calendar and one of the wonderful Library staff makes sure that anything that creeps into the desk diary in the staff office doesn't conflict. Yes we do still have a desk diary at work - I'm working on this!

A glimpse of our google calendar - EFL, invigilators, me and my task list:

Doodling or poodling

2010-06-07T13:08:00.000-07:00

Doodle rhymes with poodle and so I instantly feel a sort of fondness for it. But then you would need to know that for 13 years we had a gorgeous black standard poodle at home until he sadly died about 2 years ago. Children were heartbroken, we were heartbroken, as a dog is truly man's best friend.

So - as I say - there is a certain something about the name - doodle. I also spend masses of time in meetings doodling or on the phone doodling. I go through stacks (literally) of post-it notes that end up with important phone numbers and strategic keywords all sinking under heavy-handed doodling.

As for doodle.com - it's jolly useful, especially for setting up meetings (with or without coffee) with lots of people. I must confess that an email or phone call suffices for a coffee meeting with just one person. It's simple to use and saves lots of time. Have been intrigued to discover that lots and lots of librarians everywhere use it, but that it has only just been 'discovered' by academics. Most think it's wonderful! Some still revert to the good old-fashioned 'bird-cage'. Where do all these terms come from??

Thing 4 I'm on a roll

2010-06-03T04:44:00.000-07:00

Well! Blogged about Things 1 & 2, now on to Thing 4 - all in the last half-hour. Phew, almost caught up.

There is a definite feeling that it would be easy just to say - oh well never mind, it seemed like a good idea to do this but I'm not so sure........ Is there anything to say to change our minds and get us all up and running and on to the next. Well Thing 5 is not so far away and it's all about organising a cup of coffee for yourself and your study buddies or just anyone really, so maybe that will boost us all beyond the parapet?

I love the other 23 Things blogs - such inventive people around. Wish I could find time and energy and techie-ness to do it too! Ah well - and see now I need to stop and go and man the issue desk.

Am I still just peeping over the parapet - yes probably.

Thing 2 Really Super Stuff (RSS)

2010-06-03T04:29:00.000-07:00

I love RSS feeds and it was dead simple to add the 23 Things RSS to my iGoogle page and I do quite like it there - at least I get a daily reminder of what has been posted and whether I'm up to where I should be.

I prefer my feed reader at work though. I just put all the feeds in this and then little pop-ups alert me to the fact that feeds have been added. So here is a screen shot of my feed reader - looks like I haven't read any of the 23 Things feeds but then I do get them through the RSS feed into iGoogle!!

Thing 1 iGoogle

2010-06-03T04:22:00.000-07:00

Ok so I already use iGoogle - not regularly at work but always at home. But I learnt a few things by playing again with it. I learnt that I like penguins that move at random around the screen. I learnt that being permanently logged into the twitter gadget is 'not bad'. I learnt something about tabs and about some new gadgets that I hadn't used before.

I LOVE the beachy-theme I've chosen. Helps me think that my hols are not too far away.

And most of all I learnt that I will choose to play (no! - surely this is work?!) on iGoogle as a preference to cataloguing.

Thing 3 Just visible above the parapet

2010-05-31T03:52:00.000-07:00

It’s a tricky thing to take the first steps and raise a head above the parapet. Words like exposure, vulnerability, and anxiety battle against confidence and self-esteem. Judging by how many times I’m deleting a half-constructed sentence I’m clearly worrying about what to say, wondering whether I have anything to say, and yet needing to say something! The challenge is how to say nothing in an engaging and stimulating way!

It doesn’t help at all when you see some blog posts that are witty and engaging and making extremely useful and challenging points. If you’re in that place, rest assured that you’ll not get much of that here. Just a few random musings – now and again. It’s possible I’ll get carried away once in awhile and even say something that is worthwhile but that’s hopefully forgivable and easily ignored.

Cam23 - what do I think so far? Well, I already use iGoogle quite a lot, not at work , but at home. It's too distracting at work even with all the 'important' feeds that I have there like the English Subject Centre and the English Faculty Library News (I am often the one that adds the news so not sure why I have that there). However I did give in today and put the penguins up...which means that I will either have to remove them or tell myslef that it really IS just for home and not work! I find the facebook gadget irritating, but the Google calendar gadget absolutely essential as my whole working and home life is mapped out through 4 shared calendars and a task list there (see another Thing for google calendars but rest assured my life could not happen without it)

My very worst problem on this will be time despite the fact that I thought this style of learning brilliant. It still requires some discipline.........