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Keep up!
I’ve been talking a lot about Web 2.0 tools in my posts and I decided to pick one favourite tool and talk about it with you. It will probably change in the future but for now, my favourite Web 2.0 tool is Good Reads.
This is a social cataloguing website and I think is very useful and handy. Every time I want to know about a book or author, I access it and dive into the information. I can find information about authors, reviews of books, and which are the most read authors. I also can organize my little library and keep track of what I read. But sometimes I just jump right into the “rabbit hole” and lose track of time searching for new books to read. I just keep adding them to my “to-read” shelf. This is a way to create a record of a book you want to read and not forget about it.
Of all the tools that I talked about in my posts, I think this is a very important one for me. And I use some other tools too such as Instagram, cloud computing, and productivity tools. I think I mentioned the most important or most used Web 2.0 tools, and if you want me to talk about something that I missed, please let me know! 😉
Speaking of Web 2.0 tools, I remembered a class that I had days ago. It was guest speaking time, and something caught my attention: how it is complex to maintain the social network of a library.
I talked about the social network at libraries in the Sharing photos and videos post, but it never occurred me that it is not that easy to do. Let’s say that you want to post a tweet about something that is happening in your library, but you can’t just type the name of the event and publish. You’ll have to include a shortened link for that event that will lead your patrons to your website. You also would like to include a picture, an attractive picture of the event. And another important part is: what will you write about it? You have limited word count and you can’t keep publishing tweets about that same event all day long. I think this is very complex because you don’t want your timeline to be a mess. It has to be organized so when patrons look at it, they can see what’s happening and don’t feel confused with the information.
I’ve learned a lot about the way that libraries can use and benefit from Web 2.0 tools. I think it is amazing how librarians do it, especially now that I am aware of the trouble and complexity of maintaining the social network. Technology is everywhere, and librarians are doing a great use of it. So, let’s keep up too! 🙂
Forecast: Cloudy
Cloud computing is something that is growing larger every day. Lots of people are using cloud computing but some are not aware that they are.
Cloud computing is a way to process, store, backup, and manage data on the Internet without a personal server. That way, you can access your files or pictures from wherever you are. One example is Google Photos.
I’ve been using Google Photos for years because for me is a way to backup my pictures. Who knows when the hard drive will not cooperate with you? And you can easily find your pictures because you can organize them as you want: by year, month, or even events. And for me, the most attractive part is that I can upload pictures from my cell phone as soon as I take them. So, no risk of losing them if my cell phone goes “crazy”.
Retrieved from: http://www.androidbeat.com/2016/09/latest-google-photos-update-makes-sharing-photos-faster-easier/
I also use Google Drive to save or edit some documents that I know I will want to access later on. And I can access my documents from anywhere. The best thing is that it is not only for documents: you can save and share pictures, graphs and much more.
Retrieved from: https://androidcommunity.com/google-drive-update-brings-inline-uploads-selective-syncing-20160416/
However, as much as it all looks perfect, we have to be aware when using cloud computing. Everyone knows that the internet is a tricky place, so we always have to read the small letters on the bottom of the page. When you start to use a new way of cloud computing, always read the terms first. Please, don’t just click the “accept” button without reading. And if possible, save a copy of the terms for yourself.
For the use of cloud computing in libraries, I think it is a very good tool. And some libraries already use it and they have their catalogue there. Furthermore, they can backup data without spending much money on hardware for a local server (like they would if they did it the old-fashioned way).
I think that for cloud computing in libraries the privacy subject is the same as personal cloud computing or even more delicate. Library staff should never accept a service without being aware of the “small letters” because if they use it for backup data, it will include patrons’ personal information. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the terms of the contract.
Tools to be organized and productive
Who never forgot that little task that should have been done yesterday? We all have so many things going on in our lives that it is obvious that we will eventually forget something.
Fortunately, there are excellent tools out there to help us keep track of ours to-do lists. I will present two of them for you today. I hope you enjoy and find them as useful as I do.
First I want to talk about Remember the Milk. It is an app that helps you to remember the things you need to do. It will send a notification to you, and where you want to receive that notification is your choice. It could be by text message, by email, by twitter, and even by mobile apps (Android, iOS…) And it is free!
It also is useful to help your roommate or husband/wife to remember to do something. When you create a list, you can share it. Therefore, if you want your partner to do something, just put it in her or his list.
This app is an excellent tool to be used in libraries because it will help patrons to not forget about due dates of checked out items or any activity that they want to do in the library.
You can look it up here and have fun!
Another tool that will help librarians and patrons is a tool called Zotero.
With this app, librarians and patrons can save their searches in an organized way, have help with citations, and share their searches with others. And the better part: it is free!
Librarians can save searches that are being constantly requested and save time. Thus, when something is trending among patrons’ requests, it will be much easier and faster with the search saved. Furthermore, they can also share these searches with patrons, so they can access the information and find what they are looking for.
You can take a look at this amazing tool here.
I hope that this post will help you with due dates from now on. See you next week!
Social Bookmark and Social Catalogue
Today I came across some exciting new information – for me, it’s new – about Social Bookmarking. It is something that will help make your life easier. Social Bookmarking is a way that people can bookmark their favourite websites using a tool to tag them and easily find them whenever they want. I always had this problem, whenever I found an amazing website and wanted to save it for later I bookmarked it, and it was saved on my browser. But that is a problem because every day I ended up finding another incredible useful website and saved it too. I ended up having a huge list of bookmarked websites and when I wanted to visit that one specific website, I couldn’t find it, it was a mess . . .
But after today, things will be so much easier for me, and it can be for you too. There are several different web pages that offer this amazing service, you just have to create a free account and enjoy your favourite websites. Below are some of them, you can visit and enjoy:
My personal favourite is the last one. When you create your account, you select a preferred subject from a list, and then you can get any sort of information you are looking for. But the first one is very interesting too, there you can save all your favourite websites and tag them, so it’s easier to find them later, and also you can share them with your friends or peers.
And of course, I will mention Social Bookmarking and its relation with libraries. I think that this tool is a great tool for libraries. Libraries are all about providing information, and with this kind of help, librarians will have way faster access to that web page that will provide the information that the patron is seeking. Furthermore, this also applies for patrons, when they are looking for a specific website, they can take a look at the tags that librarians or other patrons already created and find some interesting and useful website there.
Another excellent tool is Social Cataloguing. I have been using a Social Cataloguing website since 2013 and I like it very much. The website that I use is Good Reads, and there you can rate books, write reviews, and recommend books and authors.
From a library perspective, I think that this really could be a great tool. Probably it will demand some specific skills to master this whole idea of social cataloguing, but I think that it would be a great way to help with purchasing decisions. Imagine how much easier it would be if a librarian is aware of what genre of book is trending now, or of what people are saying about that famous book that was released last week . . .
Well, that would be awesome, right? But not everything is chocolate, unfortunately . . .
I mentioned the skills part just because of this: social cataloguing is not yet standardised. That means that with everyone sharing his or her opinions about lots of books, each different person will tag in his or her own way. Therefore, no standard tags. That will make it incredibly hard to look for tags. Furthermore, there will always be that person that will not rate or even tag a book fairly, or unbiasedly. Thus, there is still much to be learned and probably adapted until social cataloguing will truly be a good tool for a library.
However, the look and usability of social cataloguing make patrons feel more comfortable – I say this because of the increasing access and use of those websites – and it would be interesting to start to move things in this direction, making the classic catalogue look more like the social catalogue. Because the point is to make patrons feel comfortable and offer them what they need and what they want. So, what’s better than follow the trend?
That way librarians will have the information they need to improve even further the service that they provide.
Podcast!
Podcasting is becoming more popular each day and even though some say that podcasts will never achieve YouTube’s numbers, I think we should give it a try.
Retrieved from: http://www.audival.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/podcasting_tools.png
I chose the Cyberpunk Librarian this time, and I think it has a very nice series of informative and helpful podcasts. I like the way that Daniel – the host – separates the episodes and the way he talks about things. There is even one episode in which he gives some tips for those who want to play Minecraft to acquire more knowledge about it because librarians will eventually get a patron who will want to know something about this game, especially because is one of the most famous video game these days…
This podcast is interesting for librarians and in my opinion, for every librarian. It does not matter what kind of library you work in, any librarian or library technician will get amazing tips about technology from this podcast. Especially these days, the better your tech knowledge is, the better you will be able to provide a great service to your patrons.
I will subscribe to the Cyberpunk Librarian’s podcasts because we all need to keep up with technology, and I encourage you to go there and take a look, have fun!
Sharing photos and videos
You are probably tired of hearing me talking about the same libraries, so this time I chose a different one: the Boston Public Library, it is located in Boston, Massachusetts (U.S.)
They are making good use of media sharing resources on the Web to advertise their library’s space and what is going one there. They have a Flickr account where they share some amazing pictures from old times, pictures from room murals, aerials photographs of the city, several albums with pictures of different postcards, albums with pictures of animals, and a lot more!
They also have an Instagram account where they share photos and short videos of the library itself, showing how it is inside and outside, specific sections of the library, some new items that just came in, and some events that happened.
Boston Public Library also uses YouTube. They use it to share lectures, events, preservation displays that they are doing, exhibitions, and some other things related to what is going on in the library.
This library is not in my city but I feel very curious to get to know it. I would love to visit it! Through the pictures and other content that they are sharing, I think it is a pleasant place to go.
Although, I think that they could do a better use of Instagram such as using it to advertise better what is going on in the library, what kinds of books people are reading, and if there is anything new that the library is offering and for how long.
But overall this library caught my attention and I really would like to go there.
What about you?
Libraries and Pinterest
In previous posts, I talked about how libraries are keeping up with the pace of technology. I showed you the relationship between libraries and blogging, Wikis and some social networks. Today it’s time to talk about Pinterest. Yes, I know that this social media is mostly known for crafty stuff, food pictures, and recipes. But there are some libraries that are making great use of this amazing tool.
I did a quick search on Google and found the Pinterest page of the NY Public Library, and it is amazing. They have created 31 boards, each for a specific a subject. They have thousands of followers and lots of pins. They have a very broad range of boards, including funny stuff like the board named “Little Lions” with pictures of cats, and more informative boards such as “NYPL’s current events”.
You can get information about what NYPL’s librarians are reading, what kind of events are going on in the library, which collections the library has, some interesting news about libraries, the history of New York, and so much more . . .
I think they are doing a great job using the internet tools to market everything that is going on in the NYPL, and it is not only on Pinterest, they also use Twitter pretty well, they have a nice blog, as well as other forms of social networking on the internet.
Libraries and Apps . . .
As the technology field is continuously growing, libraries are trying their hardest to keep up with the pace of technology. Almost everyone has a smartphone or tablet and therefore, has access to the internet. People can download and install applications for a large variety of things.
Particularly in libraries, apps are amazing tools that can be used to keep patrons up to date with what is going on in the library. For example, as I discussed in another post, there is the app for Twitter, that would make it easy to post tweets and also faster than going to the web page every time.
But I want to talk about a specific app that I like pretty much: The Winnipeg Public Library To Go. And this is how the app’s picture looks like:
This app is very useful, because with this pretty thing patrons don’t need to go to the website and log in every time, they can set up their preferences and log into their accounts automatically. I use this one and I found that it is very easy to browse around.
With this app, patrons can renew books, place holds, cancel holds, search the catalogue, find out about locations and hours of the library, discover blogs about the library, find out about social media and be connected on line with the library, and several other useful tools within the app.
As the name says, it is the app of the Public Libraries in Winnipeg. Therefore, the app is useful for any public library in Winnipeg. For example, when you go to the option “Visit Us” – that shows locations and hours – you can find a list of 20 public libraries, accessible to everyone. (See below some screenshots from my cell phone)
And if you click on one of them to get the information you are looking for, for example, I clicked the first one, Millennium Library, and then, I got the hours, location, a phone number, and a picture of the building :
I hope you can find an app for your favorite library!
See you next week! 😉
Wikis!
I don’t hear much about people using Wikis. For me, it seems that people are kind of lazy, they want the information but they maybe don’t want to help to construct that information. Therefore, I think blogs and social networks are more in use right now.
But I think that Wikis should be used more, especially by libraries. They are a great way to share information. Wikis are a collaborative way to share information worldwide. That means that everyone can contribute his or her knowledge about a topic. And that does not mean that it can’t be used by a small library such as a school library or by a local library in a small town. And this is the “awesomeness” of Wikis, it doesn’t matter the proportion of the project, it will be an excellent tool to be used, whether it is for a weekend trip with friends or family or whether it is for big library use.
Retrieved from: http://www-scf.usc.edu/~heeyoonc/itp104/webtrend.html
Most of you must think that there is only Wikipedia, but actually, there is so much more out there, and you’ll find this out if you look around a little bit.
I was browsing around, looking for information about Wikis, and I found out that Wikis are a tool that should be used more. And when I say this, I mean used more by everyone. As I already said, they are an excellent tool to share information, and I admit that I did not see it that way. Certainly, I will be a more active user of Wikis from now on . . . And what about you?
I’ll help you to browse around some Wikis a little bit, to get more deep into this thing, so enjoy the links below:
I liked the first one better than the last ones because I think it’s easier to navigate and use. I kind of felt a little bit lost in those last ones . . .
So, tell me what you think about all of this!
See you next week. 😉
Life in Library 