Evaluative Report
Part A
Please find below my three
evaluative OLJ experiences.
Building Academic Library 2.0
The information that was
contained in this video was invaluable towards my development as an Information
Professional.
Many of the speakers constantly
reinforced the fact that was that it was important that Librarians go out there
and find where our users are instead of the other way around. With so much
competition out there in the provision of information the town library is no
longer the only choice for having your information needs found.
No longer is the
traditional librarian in charge of what and how information will be delivered.
The delivery of information is now a collaborative effort of which the general
public has a large role to play as they tell us what they want and how they
want it.
Information Professionals
all need to work together and encourage each other to keep up to date with the
all the changes in technology. There is no I in the word team!
Information Professionals
need to be ready to release programs before they are perfect as with the
constant changes in technology we would be getting left behind with our need to
strive for perfection.
Information Professionals
need to get out there and have fun. No longer does our profession need to be
seen as boaring and predictable but fun and exciting as we explore the doors
that the development of new technology has left open for us.
Shift Happens Video
Technology has changed the
way that people think and do things. This video gave me as an information
professional a lot of food for thought.
It was shocking to learn
that 95% of songs that were downloaded were not paid for last year. Whilst
sharing is good it is not good when artists who work hard to produce music for
us do not get the monetary rewards that they deserve. Policies need to be put
into place to stop these practices from happening or the very technology that
allows this sharing could also result in the music industry’s death as they
cannot afford to produce music anymore due to illegal downloads. Librarians
have been precious about protecting books we also need to be precious about
protecting information and its access in the digital world. It is also
important that we work together with other information providers to reduce this
threat.
Policies have an important
role to play to remind people of what acceptable use of information is within
library perimeters are permitted. This is especially important with staff using
social networking sites. Inacceptable use could tarnish the reputation of our
organisations and we want to prevent that from occurring. Policies give staff
and other users guidelines so that information on these sites can be using in a
positive manner which will build up the reputation of our organisation rather than
destroy it.
RSS in Action
It is always interesting
to read what other information professionals are using technology like RSS
feeds for and get new ideas for my own organisation from this.
I was particularly
impressed with the La Trobe University’s easy to use guide about firstly what
an RSS feed was. It is important to
share this type of information with users as this will make them more open to
using technology that they are able to first have a basic understanding of.
The ways that RSS feeds for
new titles was broken down into subjects was also another time saver for
students which would make them more keen to use the technology and feel that
the library had their needs in mind when developing an application that was
designed to save them time. Once again it would put another positive spin on
the library and make users more likely to seek out its information needs from
us rather than alternative sources.
Cambridge University also
had another innovative way of using RSS feeds which our library could use and
that is using RSS feeds to inform its users of any down time our website would
be having for its upgrades. This would make users more likely to use our
service as they know that the library is always reliable.
As a result of studying
INF 206 I have been able to largely increase my knowledge base on the topic of “Social
Networking”.
Social networking is an
amazing subject and it has really made me excited about the many opportunities
that are available to me to use it to promote my organisation. I have at times
found it to be time consuming which has made me conscious of the fact that I
cannot do all that I want to do at once rather I will need to start with a few
small projects like Blogs and Twitter and work my way up towards bigger
projects.
I love the four underlying
principles of Web 2.0 and they are Collaboration, Conversation, Community and
Content creation. (Lodge. Module 3. 2011)
I am going to put up a mind map of a cloud with these four principles
around it on our webpage to demonstrate to patrons that we are serious about
working with them to create a community library service where everyone can
participate and feel involved.
I really enjoyed the
opportunity to share useful websites through the Facebook page with my peers in
INF 206 about information which was relevant to this topic. The sharing of
information in this way enabled me to learn about a few things that I may not
have had time to discover existed if it had not been the result of my peers sharing
their knowledge. After seeing how wonderfully the INF206 group was able to
share information I would like to set up a similar closed group in my workplace
for us to share handy website discoveries. (Facebook. INF 206. 2011)
It excites me that a large
part of life as an information professional in the social networking world will
involve working together with the public to achieve their needs and wants for a
better and more user friendly library service. I am very excited to get project
Wikkis started for high school students so that they can share with each other
their information resources as I reported on briefly in my “Building Academic
Library blog post”. Campbell 2012.
The future of the profession is about sharing
information in its raw form and we no longer need to wait before items are
perfect before releasing them as it’s with our users adding to libraries ideas that
will help us to work towards an end result.
I am looking forward to starting up a library
ideas blog for our patrons and getting users to comment on what ideas they
think would work and how the library can add features that would make items
more users friendly.
Another important item
that I learnt during studying the subject of social networking was that it is
important for information professionals to go into the space of the user and
find them rather than users having to find us. Setting up a library Facebook
page is a good example of how we can go into people’s space and find them. In
the did you know video (YouTube 2011) it listed the fact that Facebook is so
well used that if it were a country it would be the world’s 4th
largest!
This subject has opened up
new worlds for me and I mean that literally with the discovery of a whole new
virtual online world in the website “Second Life” in which I was able to create
a new avatar and participate in an online meeting place with other students.
Second Life is an area that I would like to explore further in my work as an
Information Professional at a public library as I think it would be a handy way
to get in touch with the youth in the community.
Discovering new uses for
RSS feeds was another area that I would like to explore within the public
library that I work. The library is often asked what new titles we have brought
recently so I think that it would be very well received if the library could
set up an RSS feed by subject for interested patrons. Of course this would also
involve setting up a page of information for our patrons explaining what
exactly an RSS feed is which would be modelled on the La Trobe University
example as cited in my blog RSS in action. Campbell. 2012.
Social Networking in the
library will also bring with it new challenges as we need to ensure that we
have adequate policies in place that will prevent misuse of information which
could result in harming both others and the organisation itself. I will need to
keep our policies updated to cover new social networking sites and their
appropriate use within library walls in regards to both library staff and
patrons.
In module 4 I was very
happy to be given a number of fantastic examples of the ways web 2.0
technologies are being used in other settings. This will be a great benefit for
me in showing my library supervisor of the positive benefits of these
technologies in convincing her to let me trial a few of the ones that we are
not already using. Module 4.Page 3. Lodge . 2011. An item in particular that I
think would be one to aim for in my organisation in the near future would be
using Twitter for Reference services.
This subject has given me the passion to keep
learning about the different types of new technology that is available to me
and how it can benefit my organisation. It has also given me passion to not be
afraid to experiment with it and as I love a challenge that is exactly what I
am now going off to do!
Did you know video. YouTube. Accessed
http://interact.csu.edu.au/portal/site/INF206_201190_W_D/page/5feac35f-13fd-4dc5-80db-434ea456a7ca
Facebook INF 206 Closed Group 2011.
Module 3. Lodge, D. 2011
Module 4. Lodge, D. 2011
RSS in action.Campbell, C.
2012
Building Academic Library.
Campbell, C .2012
(Sorry about the big blank parts I had trouble cutting and pasting from Word ).
No comments:
Post a Comment