Thing #43 - Libraries and Hyperlocal Information

Okay, an interesting concept but there are ways to do better.

I tried Patch and Outside.in as well as looking at the other ones.  Patch was okay but if you're not going to include every state, it's not very relevant to a lot of people.  I looked at Minnesota and some of the towns listed.  It's a good idea in theory but there have to be better ways to go about keeping people informed.  One city I looked at had almost all the articles written by one person.  Having one person's view of a city is not very beneficial.

Outside.in was good because it actually had news about Nebraska.  It had a good mix of news, not all written by one person. 

These sights serve a purpose but none of them are really better then the other and there are more newsworthy sites out there and the same thing can be done with online newsletters.  I don't think these sites should be a main source of information for anybody, people need to learn to look for their news from trusted sources.

Libraries are already full of hyperlocal information.  They are because they are found in neighborhoods or schools and are likely to have more info about the surrounding neighborhood or school.  Look at all the fliers and events that go on, they are normally about local activities or events.  I think many libraries already provide this info on their website or can lead people to sites that would have this information.

Overall the question has to be how localized any given place has to be and whether people will read and seek out this information.

Thing #42 - Pimp Your Twitter

I tried two different areas on TweetStats because they do two very different things and seem to be the easiest apps/site to use.

TweetStats is fun and easy to use.  It lets you view the number of tweets in a month, see a cloud of what you've tweeted and see follower stats.  I like how everything is straight forward and would be easy to present to someone.  I'll probably continue using TweetStats just to keep track of what I tweet and to see what it looks like.

TweetStats Trends is also fun to use because it shows the different trending words of everyone on Twitter and you can see things like the top 50 trends of all time.  It's fun to see what people think should be important or what they want to promote.

I think I'll continue to use the TweetStats site for the stats and trends.  These could be handy to use in a library if your library has a Twitter account.  You could keep track of how often you are posting updates about the library.  It would also show you what you talk about the most so you could track that and see if it works for you or tailor it more to what you think people are looking for.

Overall an interesting site with two great components, stats and trends, that are easy to use and informative too.

Thing #41: There's No Excuse Not To Learn! (or "How To" 2.0)

Learning is indeed something everyone should continue to do throughout their life. These tutorial sites were fun to look at and see the many different things you can learn about.

The two I found that were interesting were from the Instructables and Graspr sites.

The one from Instructables was on how to build Angel wings, so pretty cool if I ever decided to build a costume like that.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-pair-of-Angel-Wings/


The one from Graspr was on how to open a coconut.  It was very informative but I'm still afraid that I would probably cut a finger off or something if I tried it.  The information is good to know anyway though.




The sites are fun because they are both easy to navigate and have a wide variety of topics.  There are many advantages to these sites because they allow information to be out there that people might not know or can be a quick refresher if you have a question.  In that respect they are better then some how to books which are pretty massive.  These short videos and tutorials are better then flipping through a giant book and are more interactive.  They would probably be best used and seen as supplements to a library collection.  For an in depth topic you would be more likely to use a book but for something fast these tutorials are key.

Thing #40 Funky Photos

Here are my pictures all done on  Pixlr.

Love the Kaleidoscope Filter

The Vignette filter makes everything look a bit more mysterious

The Emboss filter makes for an interesting photo.

I did try both Pixlr and Aviary but Pixlr was by far easier to use.  It's really easy to upload the picture and the tools are easy to use.  Aviary on the other hand was not easy to use at all and has way too many components.  I couldn't even open the Peacock portion, it just never loaded.  My favorite filters were the Kaleidoscope Filter and the Emboss filter.  I made the embossed picture of me my profile picture on Facebook.

This would be a helpful tool in the library for maybe improving signs that we put up and add some interesting elements to displays.  The program could be a good tool for students to use for projects that require pictures, I don't know if it would get used a lot but it's a good tool to know about.

Overall it's fun to use the different filters and tools on pictures and could indeed be a useful tool for the library.

Thing #39 Managing Your Online Identity

I think it's a great idea to know your online identity.  I already use google alerts for library news but I think it' kind of vain to have your name as an alert you want to receive.  So I probably won't put a google alert out on my name unless I'm doing something really important, it also doesn't help that there are a bunch of people named Rebecca Boyer.

Google was probably the worst search engine when I looked up my name the only thing it found on the first page was my graduation from UNO.  When I used images the first picture it had was a tombstone.

Bing and Yahoo were pretty much about the same, they were both better then google.  I actually found pictures that lead to information about me.  Also found my name in results other then when I graduated.

I have a facebook account profile and it conveys the info I need it to.  Also it helps to set your account settings to friends if you really don't want people to see your account.  I'm not really worried about it because when I search for my name I'm not even on any of the first 3 pages when you do a name search.

Overall, as long as you are reasonably smart about what you are doing and about privacy it shouldn't be a problem to keep your identity online how you want it to look.

Thing #38 Use things to market your library

It was very interesting to think about marketing the library because from what I see being in an academic library, it's not exactly easy to get students or teachers to come to the library. Web 2.0 differs greatly from traditional marketing tools because it can change much more swiftly then previous tools could and it can be more interactive like if a library uses social media.

If I would have to pick one particular service to implement right away for the library it would have to be Twitter. From what I see every day there is not as much communication going on between students/teachers/the library as there could be. People are in the library on the computers all the time and doing this would allow the library to update people more frequently then the newsletter that we currently use. I believe that just doing more online would lead to better communication and being able to disperse new information much faster than we do now.

Twitter and screen casting would be a good combination of services to market this library. Doing this you could make announcements of when new screen casts of things like tutorials are up or just saying what things are already out there.

Overall using Web 2.0 services would be ideal for this library in its continuing endeavors to reach students and teachers to let them know that the library is not just there but there to help them.

Thing #37 Engaging your users with polls and surveys

Here is my survey,

Click here to take survey

I chose to use SurveyMonkey for my survey. Taking the surveys and polls was pretty simple and the tools like SurveyMonkey make it easy to make surveys of your own. I liked how customizable the survey was and the fact that it's free.

I think surveys and polls would be very beneficial but like everything else here we would probably need approval to set up a poll or survey. We still don't have a facebook or twitter for the library which would also be greatly beneficial. If we did have facebook, twitter and the ability to set up surveys or polls on our website I think it would greatly improve the library and our interactions with students/faculty and whoever else would use the library.

Thing #36 Flickr Revisited

Flickr is an easy to use site, I've known about it for a while but had never used it. Uploading the pictures was nice and easy not like the facebook way of uploading pictures that I'm used to.

Here's the link to my pictures, http://www.flickr.com/photos/49974717@N06/

Flickr would be a great tool to promote the library visually I would plan things like taking pictures of all the new or interesting covers of books. Another way since this is kind of the campus for art have a student/staff contest to see whose picture best represents the library.

Sadly though I could not do this anytime soon. It would probably take forever for this to be approved seeing as we are still waiting to see whether we can have a facebook page or not.

Thing #35 Wakoopa

I was going to participate in this one but there wasn't enought time since I looked at it on April 30th. I tried downloading the tracking part but it but it never took and my computer here at work doesn't have the easiest time downloading stuff and this was before we got newer computers put in.

The whole concept of it is a little iffy as to whether it would even be accepted by people who really like their privacy. Just the other day we had someone complain because she was checking her e-mail on a computer and later came back to the same computer and it remembered her password/she didn't have to log in again. People don't want others to know what they have been doing.

I personally don't like having to download something to track what I'm doing and if you use a program a lot you just know that you use it a lot, you don't really need a program to tell you that. The only way it might be useful is if you have to account for your time wherever you work. It might be beneficial for patron use of computers but I think you really should tell people that they are being tracked as to what they use the most.

Thing #34 Online Answer Sites

Online answer sites are appealing to many people. A couple of reasons for this appeal are probably the anonymity of asking a question when no one can know that it's you and the ease of just typing in whatever you are thinking. The questions I saw on the various sites were about a plethora of topics such as whether it's okay to lie to an employer and one about how to brush a dog's teeth.

I think these questions should be directed to a library if people will actually ask some of these questions at a library. Some of the questions may be strange or considered inappropriate even but it doesn't hurt to answer them at the library. I don't think any question should be outright ignored. For example someone called the library one night when I was working multiple times he wanted to know how to spell the name of a certain kind of marijuana because apparently, at least this is what he said anyway, he wanted to know how to spell it for a tattoo he was getting.

People most likely know about the library but then choose these answer sites because they are easy to get to and more accessible from home.

The slam the board events and what they do does look interesting and will educate people more about where answers are coming from. Another aspect of this is seeing the nature of the answer boards, anyone could still pretend to be a professional or librarian if they really wanted to. Overall though it's an interesting idea/might teach people something they need to know.

Online answer sites are going to always be used because they are anonymous and easy to use but knowing about them and encouraging patrons to ask questions could raise the visibilty of good information and that the library is here to help.

Thing #33: Screencasting

Screencasting is one of those things that I've seen and known about but never actually tried before. Making the screencasting was much easier then I thought it would be. If I would actually be using it at the library I would have to polish the way I presented it and probably write down a script of what I was going to say. The tool I chose to use was ScreenToaster. It was pretty easy to figure out all you have to do is register and then you go to start recording. After you press start recording it gives you the options like full screen and whether you want audio or webcam. To record just go to where you want to start recording and push alt and s. Then when recording you can pause it and stop it when you're done.

There could be definite applications for this in the library, Elkhorn actually does have some already available, and there will always be new things that are easier to explain/handy to have on the website so people can learn about it.

Overall I was very glad to learn about this and may indeed have to use screencasting in the future.

Capture your screen in seconds

Capture your screen in seconds

Thing #32 NetVibes

NetVibes is a great idea and would be benefical to probably any library in some capacity. At first it was a bit confusing as can be seen from my personal page but I figured out what I was doing on the public page. I really liked being able to import pictures, websites, rss feeds and all the diffent widgets easily into one place. Some of the past things I made a part of the page were rss feeds, google maps, facebook, and librarything. Overall a useful tool that I know would benefit the library where I work and likely many others.

Here's the link to my page, http://www.netvibes.com/geckyboz