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Thursday 28 July 2011

Prezi

Ok, we're all still anticipating my Prezi, but while we're waiting, here's an excellent one that someone else made (via @theREALwikiman)

Monkey Puzzle

Courtesy of mccheek on flickr

Thing 15 - This thing is Survey Monkey I haven't (yet) created a survey monkey for this project, but mindful that this would come up at some point I decided to create a survey monkey (a bit quickly) for an ICS training course assignment I completed last month, so I do have an experience to reflect on.

My criticism of Survey Monkey is mainly to do with access, and the requirement to pay for certain services.  This is an obvious gripe, and really it is neither unusual nor surprising for an internet company to focus on revenue creation from subscribers not just advertisers.  Without a subscription the layout of your survey is left wanting.  There are a very small number of themes to choose from and they don't look great; customised themes are only available to those who pay.  I would be interested to know how many people choose a paid subscription, what indivuals or organisations create surveys frequently enough to pay for a full Survey Monkey package?  Many organisations that rely on surveys on a daily basis, surely have bespoke software that makes something more professional looking and doesn't have the words 'survey monkey' at the bottom of every page.

Creating the survey itself is easy, and it gives you a lot of control over how you opt to ask your questions.  Multiple formats are available, though it does take some thought to ensure you make appropriate choices.  I find it better to think of the future analysis of your results when designing the questions - for many surveys a final 'score' will be extremely helpful, for others this not.  The free statistical graphs and data and the ability to analyse data easily is the best asset that Survey Monkey has, it really is the full package.  What I find particularly impressive is that it is possible to export the data from survey monkey to Excel and create graphs of the results (I have not done this, though I have read their FAQ on it and I'm not sure if that's complementary or, again, requires a paid subscription).  However, there is a big limitation in that you csnnot exceed 10 questions per survey on a free subscription, which means your survey has to be about something quite narrow, or very much to the point.  An advantage of that, though, is an end of interminably long surveys (though it's the usefulness of the information at the end that's crucial).

Survey Monkey has the potential to gather data through a variety of sources, by email, URL, embedded into another website or via Facebook.  This versatility is also a great feature.

Survey Monkey is big, I have come across it in many different contexts and it must be the market leader.  However, it faces some stiff competition.  Zoomerang also looks intuitive and offers similarly detailed statistical analysis.  I think the interface of the final survey looks better than Survey Monkey (view this one courtesy of this very helpful review site).  A great advantage of Zoomerang is that you can actually import your surveys from Survey Monkey.  For someone starting out with free survey software this is a gift: make a Survey Monkey, import it to Zoomerang, play around with it and compare the two!

For any inquisitive minds looking for similar resources beyond Survey Monkey and Zoomerang, then this list is very helpful and spells out the limitations of free subscriptions on many different sites.  It's great to see a number of websites offering this service.  In a customer focussed workplace like a library, gathering feedback to improve the customer experience is key to opening up dialogue with readers, ensuring the quality of the service offered and meeting expectations.

Wednesday 27 July 2011

Let's doodle

Thing 14 - Doodle is an online arrangement making tool, which allows you to create polls.  The default setting is for a calendar based poll, such as arranging a tea date (see twinset and purls for that one), but you can poll anything.  It's similar to the function to schedule meetings and accept, decline, tentatively accept etc. on Microsoft Outlook, except with Doodle you don't have to be using outlook and you can arrange engagements with people from anywhere - not just those in your outlook contacts.

A recent innovation in our library office is the removal of all individual waste bins from desks (we all had one), with just our recycling bin, communal bin and a composting bin remaining.  I'm sure the intention is for us to recycle more.  Excellent, great idea.  Except those bits of sellotape that you have left over are a nuisance strewn across my desk...I can't get up and go to the bin in the staff room all the time...  I created a doodle poll that asks:

When would you like your bin back?

Results are here.  The only colleague with her own bin remaining is clearly waiting for the authorities to catch up with her...

I think this is a great innovation.  Outlook scheduling serves a great purpose (for instance to schedule meetings with those in your organisation), and doodle has taken that and opened it up for everyone.  Typical of an online resource it is global, and allows to reach globally too.  Only criticism is the interface is a bit bland *extremely minor gripe*, however the ease of functionality is great and I didn't even have to sign up to another thing.

Friday 22 July 2011

Prezi is the greatest thing

A prezi will be here soon...watch this space.

Comment on prezi: it looks fantastic, but it is hard to get to grips with.  The website has some really useful training on it, but making the thing is quite a learning curve.  I'm adapting a wiki I wrote earlier in the year about 'Finding Out More as a Graduate Trainee'.  PowerPoint is like making a book, you turn pages when you change slide.  Prezi is like making a mind map on a single sheet of paper.  I think my learning style is more rigid, boxy and wordy.  Visualising a prezi I find a lot harder - putting it all out there and joining up the dots afterwards.  I think the look of it is amazing though, and I doubt I'll be going back to PowerPoint anytime soon.

Facebook and libraries

There's currently a lot of discussion about libraries having Facebook pages.  23thingscity blog has a great list of example pages, which offer real food for thought.  I think Facebook will increasingly become an important tool for libraries to market themselves.  This is particularly the case for public and academic libraries, where funding is being slashed and 'creativity' is an essential euphemism for 'make do'.  The free marketing potential of social media is surely attractive, but I'm certain that Facebook pages for libraries are more than an austerity-happy free platform.  Social networks are places that libraries need to be, Facebook more than any other due to the number of readers who will be on this vast network.  Facebook is advantageous to libraries for two main reasons: it's free and it's where the readers are.


Digital savvy library users don't expect to have to go to all of their information sources, they expect some information to come to them through RSS, Twitter, Facebook - Web 2.0 in all it's popular guises.  Libraries that participate in social media give themselves an alternative platform to demonstrate their worth, give links to services and offer a source of advise.  Libraries that tweet and use Facebook can give up-to-the-minute information to students in a place where they're likely to be looking; I am yet to find a student that frequently looks at a library news website.  A library I'm fond of is the City Business Library, who use their Facebook page as a newsletter: they have attractive suggestions on finding information about specific, popular topics, they 'like' other City of London libraries, give a human vernacular to their service, link to their catalogue and market the workshops they run.

However, by their very nature social networks offer the interactive potential for libraries to be critiqued, as Keele University have found out*.  This is a useful asset to the library, an informal way of gaining customer feedback without following conventional methods like end of course surveys and paper forms on the issue desk.

As librarians we pride ourselves on knowing about information sources, retrieving information easily and teaching others how to use resources.  I am mindful of this as I reflect that many libraries have not yet engaged with social media and its potential for engaging with and helping readers.  Rather than just catch up with Facebook, libraries should be looking at ways to use emerging platforms such as Google+.

However, the instant nature of social media, the ability to flash up on someones Facebook wall or Twitter feed, should not be an excuse to pander to the social media model of information sources arriving without being sought.  Social media is an excellent way for libraries to redirect readers to library resources that inform readers of how to go to information, for that's what libraries are really all about.

There has been an interesting paradigm shift in how we view ourselves in relation to journalism in our lives.  In former times we went to a newspaper, or to the radio, or a news channel for information; we sought.  Increasingly information rolls along and displays itself at us.  Libraries must remember that their function is to assist research, and passing the skill of research on to readers is of fundamental importance.  While social media is a good thing to embrace and a useful, free marketing tool, its very nature is the opposite of the conventional library.  Informing readers of why that difference is so acute would be a very useful thing to underline.

* With regard to this point, Keele University fines can be found here.  I believe them to be far from excessive, and effective library use and time management should eliminate the accumulation of fines, aside from extenuating circumstances.

Broken connections

LinkedIn describes itself as having three aims:

Re-connect

Power your career

Get answers

Is this Facebook for the competitive, careerist who wants to 'network'?  I find it a fascinating concept, because there is a school of thought that says it's a good way to protect yourself online by not putting things like your job on Facebook and similar networks and here we are there's a network devoted to jobs.  To engage with a social networking site that tracks your previous employment in a very public way seems in many ways quite inadvisable.

LinkedIn wants me to reconnect.  Depending on your field, this social network seems in no way essential for keeping in touch with former colleagues.  Keeping an email address may be just as useful, and it's unlikely everyone in your old office will all leave, so you'll still be able to trace an important contact through mutual acquaintances.  If you can't there may be good reason for that.  In librarianship there are so many professional groups and networks with their own sites and forums that this seems rather surplus to requirements.  For socialising with old colleagues, there are probably other networks your already using that would aid you in doing this.

LinkedIn will apparently 'power my career' and I'll "Discover inside connections when you’re looking for a job or new business opportunity."  As far as I'm aware it's illegal for someone to give you a job because they already know you, so you'd better hope you're actually the best candidate at interview.  I also don't believe that this site will reveal jobs that are otherwise impossible to find.  I think that for me various academic and librarian job sites and following relevant tweeters will put me in good stead.

Finally I can garner advice.  Well, OK, that sounds pretty useful.  Depending on your trade, though, you may have a union or professional association who can offer advice too, such as CILIP, who offer career advice as part of their membership package.

Anecdotally, my experience of LinkedIn is that in a previous position a new manager was brought in, we looked them up on this site and were filled with dread.  That wasn't particularly useful, and indicates that a major attraction of this website is to create not just 'a buzz' and 'market yourself' but also a bit of gossip.  Maybe not joining LinkedIn will hinder my career, if I do I may reconsider my position, but for now I think it's a way of putting an unhelpful amount of information about yourself online, the reason for which eludes me...

EDIT:  I am interested to see that CPD23 have also been talking about this.  I was interested to see (via @sphericalfruit) Dots and Loops comment on cronyism on LinkedIn and @booleanberry's change of heart.

Some time later...

Well, some time has passed since I last blogged, which for this project is interesting in itself.  My observation is that it takes time to blog.  Learning to do new things, and thinking of witty and inspiring comment to make about them, whilst also juggling other projects at work makes for a busy trainee.  It also feels too fun to be 'real work', so I should keep face and do something obviously constructive too.  However, today is quiet and I am back to the blog to catch up.  I'm woefully behind things...

Tuesday 5 July 2011

Using twitter

Day 19 -

"just joined Twitter and is fairly baffled so far..."
That was my first tweet on the 29th June 2009.  903 tweets later and I'm still going, though I'm not completely addicted as that relatively low number suggests.  I began with tweets about graduating with hayfever,
"Is only a graduand for but a few hours - then a graduate it is. He signed on too. He is getting out his white bow tie and about to sneeze. (03.07.09)"

I tweeted about relatives
"is in Blair Drummond in a lovely B+B - it's a bit like visiting family but the family at the B+B are somewhat better than my relatives! (04.07.09)"
 I tweeted along with friends in our far-flung cities about applying to jobs
"Morning all! I feel like I just arrived in the office...you're like my work colleagues in the interim I suppose. (09.07.09)"
That was when I realised that twitter was not a fad and was actually an incredibly clever idea.  My friends and I would sit and tweet at each other as we applied for jobs, sharing experiences and frustrations, sharing opportunities and ideas and bemoaning the job centre.  Doing this is nothing new, we could have spoken on the phone, we could have participated in a forum, but twitter provided us with a platform where we were part of each others information to monitor along with the news sources, jobs websites, organisations we aspired to work for.  In a nutshell, twitter gave me rolling news that was personalised for me.  I can't say it helped a lot in finding work, but this period showed me that twitter is a platform for sharing information.  A lot of people denigrate it because of its character limit of 145 characters per tweet, but rather than limiting information this gives a pleasant uniformity to the content that is rolling up on the timeline and gives nuggets of information along with links to more extensive content.  With the use of the #hashtag information is organised and made more useful.

I protect my tweets, so there is no point even thinking I add to the debate; I can't even be retweeted.  However, I tend to tweet about my interests and activities, fully acknowledging that my tweets are inconsequential.  I hope occasionally to amuse and inform my followers but my tweets tend to be social.  They might communicate with colleagues across the office, they might arrange events that take place in my social life, they might send messages of solidarity to those I want to support.  However, I have made twitter personal wallpaper news.  Before twitter I was a BBC News 24 junkie.  I could sit for ages just absorbing what was going on.  Now I use twitter, and so while I'm sitting at home on a Saturday afternoon with a book, I have twitter rolling along beside me tweeting about my interests; news alongside comment from sources I know, enjoy reading and trust.  A drawback of choosing your sources, of course, is a lack of objectivity.  Only following sources that report from, or eer with, a particular political persuasion can limit your information, but these sources are more likely to provide information that is useful and relevant to you.  Given the drawback here, I want to make clear that I don't want twitter to replace solid, objective news (Radio 4 until I die), but twitter certainly has a role to play.  Not only will it cover everything that anyone wants to tweet, which can lead to insurgent campaigns having a platform (#savelibraries as an excellent example), but it is omnipresent via smartphone.  On the March for the alternative on 26th March, twitter was a very useful source of information - without it the group of librarians I was marching with wouldn't have known about the simultaneous action by UK uncut and other groups.

Twitter has been quite a random success.  Facebook's wall has even started to emulate it with facebook diversifying into 'pages' as well as 'friends'.  I think it shows how a versatile idea can be embraced.  In itself, twitter is not a useful platform, but it has successfully become an online institution for the following reasons.  1. It has become an information source that people actively decide to update when something important changes, 2. whole sectors are using it for peer to peer interaction and best practise sharing (particular mention of libraries here) and 3. Lay expertise have a place to flourish alongside the professional, and the casual observer becomes as important as the correspondent.  All of these things have made twitter a formidable source, and a welcome addition to the information universe.  It recognises the fundamental importance of sharing information and sets out a comprehensive way to do this.  As for why I protect my tweets, incidentally, wherever information leads, spam tends to follow and on such a large scale I just can't abide it.