While looking for information for my INF506 project report I discovered this fabulous blog that goes into some detail about blogging with primary school students which is what I need right now.
In my usual habit of procrastination I read some other posts and found this fabulous one about building a personal learning network It is extremely informative and such a no brainer really.
Read it for yourself, but one of the things it said was that the look of a personal learning network has changed from:
your colleagues in the building you work in
a cherished personal mentor
professional development opportunities offered sporadically throughout the year
conferences
college credit classes taken for re-certification
to:
Blogs
RSS Readers
Twitter
Nings
Skype
Podcasts
Wikis
How true that is.
Oh well off to do some more on my assignment so that I can put my feet up this afternoon and watch all of the fantastic television coverage of THE Royal wedding.
Reading a Jess's blog who is a fellow students I discovered this fabulous resource. It's E-learning for teachers It is really worth remembering as it is fabulous for the electronic dummy like me.
Wow it's the second week of the school holidays and the students from my school are still discovering the library blog. I have been checking the comments every couple of days and there are always a few comments to moderate.
On the whole most of the kids have been really sensible with their comments. I have deleted a few as they were a bit inappropriate to put on a school blog but overall I have been really happy with the response.
I initially thought that the project would come to a halt during the holidays, but I am happy to see that the students are still continuing their interaction and responses to each other through this social medium.
While lying in bed this morning I was reading a copy of the Woman's Day magazine (April 11) and stumbled on an article about the Missionbeat manager Daniel Petsalis.The article was titled 'I use Twitter to save lives'
Now if the article didn't have that title I probably wouldn't have bothered reading it but it now had my interest.
In the article it told how Daniel has over 1000 followers. I just looked him up on twitter and discovered that he has 1 353 followers.
He says that by using Twitter he is keeping people informed about what he is doing.
He even helped save a suicidal lady who sent him a message via Twitter.
Well, maybe this has changed my view on Twitter slightly and it can be used for good and not just gossip by mindless celebrities.
I can't believer that I am at the end of my last module. I never thought I would reach this place in my learning.
What next???
Well I guess the answer to that is to get stuck into the two assignments I have to do. I am feeling comfortable with the second assignment as I have already done my 3 online journal activities so I guess that means at least half of that assignment is done.
The first assignment is doing my head in though as I really want to get a strong start on it, but I also want to wait to see how the library blog ends up. I guess I will search out readings etc and work on my plan etc so that it won't be as time consuming when I really need to be doing it.
Having read Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle's blogs I have done as suggested and added them to my blog list on my home page of my blog.
Since beginning this subject I have added many good blogs to the list, a list that didn't exist before the start of this subject.
Oh well, off to look at my other poor neglected subject as well as trying to get a start on these assignments.
Social Media Policy for School DistrictsThis was the first slideshow that I watched.
It was a good presentation as it reinforced all of the things that I had learned during this subject.
Social Media Policies for Government Agencies: Why and HowThis was the second presentation that I watched. It was good in that it offered suggestions on how government agencies should write their own policies and the areas that need to be included in them. This was not particularly helpful to me in my current teacher librarian role, but it will be worth keeping a record of it in case I should ever need it.
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am so happy to be up to my last module.
I have completed my 3 online journal activities and after I finish this module I will be able to start work on my project which is well under way, although it is a shame that the school holidays are here as the kids at school have really embraced the blog and I am worried that this momentum may come to a halt. On the other hand if we have a few wet days they might go on the blog to kill time. Only time will tell I guess.
What is information policy?
"Information policy is the set of all public laws, regulations and policies that encourage, discourage or regulate the creation, use, storage and communication of information." (Weingarten, 1989).
What policy issues have resulted from social networking?
I watched this video in amazement as all of the facts and figures were given.
My 16 year old son also watched in amazement, except he said that it went too fast to be able to process the information.
The part of the video that had the most impact on me was the way the size of computers has decreased over the years, as has the cost of computers.
Really good stuff, I think that I will put this onto the staff blog as it is something everyone should see.
I am so very glad that I have completed my 3 online activities as the remainder of this unit of work dealt with online activities.
If I have time though I wouldn't mind coming back to do the activity related to the YouTube clip as it looks like it would be interesting to do.
In this slideshow Kagan highlights the importance of developing a social media strategy.
I loved the slideshow as it was very informative about why businesses need to have a social media strategy in order to succeed in business. I loved the way she got you in when watching the first slide that compares social media to teenage sex!
Reading this article proved to be very beneficial as Valenza included many excellent websites and links that are useful to me in my role as a teacher librarian.
I love her saying "Google rocks but it's not the only band in town".
This second article demonstrates how you can use twitter and FriendFeed to support professional learning.
I found this article informative as I had never heard of FriendFeed.
At the end of the article we were given 20 suggestions for ways to use twitter in your role as a librarian. Very helpful considering I was at a loss to find value in twitter. This has changed my view of twitter slightly as I can now see some benefit for using it.
While I can understand why this article has been included in our readings I found it irrelevant to my interests at the moment. it was a study conducted in Australian libraries.
at the moment I am also studying EER500 about educational research. From the perspective of having to write a research paper I found it interesting as it demonstrated the way a paper should be set out. Apart from this aspect I found it quite useless.
At the end of this unit of work I was disappointed to see some wiki's etc that we were to view didn't link properly. Such a pity as it would have been good to see what other people are doing.
Select three (3) libraries of your choice that use social networking to meet their goals.
Develop a comparative table which documents how each of the libraries use social networking tools to support information service provision, educational programs, conduct business etc.
Based on this comparison (and in no more than 350 words) develop your own list of “Reasons why libraries should be on social media”, and draw upon aspects of these three libraries to illustrate each point.
Library
Information Service Provision
Educational Programs
Conduct Business
Community
Clarence Regional Library
Embedded within the council website.
Net library eAudio books.
Trove.
Homework help.
Interactive sites for children-Premier’s Reading Challenge.
e-resources for HSC students.
DataBase access from home.
Access Encyclopedia Britannica from home.
Join online.
Online catalogue.
Online Reservations.
SMS notification of availability of book in branch.
Online interlibrary loan reservations.
Online renewal.
E –newsletter.
Ask-a-Librarian.
Free wireless Wi Fi.
Book reviews.
Quick links for kids, teens and seniors.
Links to newspapers.
Family history.
Local history.
Web links to over 33 different areas of interest.
State Library of New South Wales
Blogs.
345 bookmarking sharing options.
E-newsletter.
Facebook.
Flickr.
RSS feeds.
Twitter.
Video and Podcasts.
Vimmeo.
Discover Collections.
E-Resources for students.
E-Resources for teachers.
E-Resources for academics.
Online catalogue.
Online renewals.
Computer bookings.
Free wireless Wi Fi.
Ask-a-Librarian.
Digital downloads.
Links to:
Indigenous community.
Community languages.
Services for Seniors.
Family History.
History of our Nation.
Drug information.
Legal information.
National Library of Australia
Blogs.
Facebook.
Pandora.
Picture Australia.
Podcasts.
Twitter.
YouTube.
Digital Collections.
Trove.
Online DataBases.
Australian Newspapers.
Music Australia.
Australia Dancing.
Online catalogue.
Online renewals.
Computer bookings.
Ask-a-Librarian.
Electronic calendar.
Links to:
Family History.
History of our Nation.
Burkhardt(2009) suggested four reasons why libraries should be on social media. Using this as a starting point for my reasons I have also added a few more.
Communication and to engage – Only the State and National libraries offer Facebook, twitter, blogs, podcasts and a variety of other tools for engaging the community. These are important if the library wants to engage the younger members of society who are very comfortable using the different social media. The regional library uses SMS messaging to notify clients of the arrival of a book in the branch that they may have requested, while the other two libraries don’t seem to promote this method of communication.
Respond to Positive/Negative Feedback – Using social media like Facebook is very important as it encourages feedback and increases dialog between the user and the provider. Unfortunately the Regional library is lagging in this area and possibly should look into the viability of using social media to communicate with its patrons.
Marketing – It is important to attract potential users by illustrating the services provided by the library for all ages in the community. The Regional library does this via the website while the other two libraries rely more on RSS feeds, blogs, Facebook and Twitter.
Understanding the community it serves – The Regional library has quick links on the website divided according to the age of the user. The State library has a reputation earned over many years and a definite community that it is well aware of and serves well. Both it and the National library have embraced social media and the way that it can be utilized in the library to serve the community. These two libraries are also better funded than the regional library and possibly have experts of digital media on staff to ensure they stay up to date in this area.
Accessibility – All libraries allow the catalogue and DataBases and the opportunity to renew loans externally.
Partnerships with other libraries – All three libraries provide opportunities to borrow from a wider network of libraries, thus adding value to the services in the libraries.
I am not overly impressed by Second life as I was unable to use it properly when I tried earlier on in the course.
This is an area that I have absolutely no interest in and can see no benefit in participating in.
This was a lengthy article to read and it was made all the more difficult as I really have no interest in it.
I was interested to see that Club Penguin is classified as a 3D virtual world. This is a site that my children love using, I guess I had never thought of it in the same light as second life.
Overall this article just seemed like a massive promotion for Second life and I could not be less interested.
This article explained that Second life is the most popular virtual world in use today. The popularity of the site could be due to its advanced technology.
This article suggests that virtual worlds are a major part of the future of the Web.
Again, I think that this is just a very good promotion of Second life.
In my lecture notes it says that the following article was dense and lengthy. They sure weren't kidding. I had to have a strong cup of coffee and several attempts before I managed to finish it.
An aspect that I could relate to was when the writer said that "Students are results-oriented and value convenience". Well he really hit the nail on the head with that statement.
He also said that "Socialization, personalization and location awareness becomes very important".
The article also draws the conclusion that there is a strong connection between younger generations and mobile communications.
General developments in terms of consumption.
significant resources targeted at mobile users- games, music, videos etc.
Social objects- shared interests eg photographs, movies etc.
Usability may be a less important value than the augmentation of real experiences.
Space and Time Connectivity is important as a way of reclaiming time.
Social/Work/Leisure
Participation in a shared communications space blurs boundaries between work,social interaction and leisure.
This is a sore point in my household. My husband has a blackberry for work and seems to be on call 24hours a day. It can be annoying when you are enjoying time as a family and he frequently checks his emails to see if he needs to reply to any. In theory this should mean that he doesn't have a thousand emails to read when he gets back to work, but in practice what it means is that he never switches off from work, his boss demands his attention 24hours a days and there are no excuses for not being contactable by the office.
Issues for Libraries Libraries need to look at how library spaces can support flexible, socially directed working styles of mobile communicators. The library needs to get used to adapting rather than providing.
A library that I think does this really well is The University of Technology library in Sydney. They appear to be at the forefront of social media in libraries and it is a really exciting place to visit and in turn use. Ways that libraries are already adapting with mobile-ready services.
Reference/Enquiry
Collections to go
Presentation and viability
Alerting
Syndication
Mobile sites
Communications and referral
booking
Note-taking
Three issues in the management of collections.
The issue of management of print collections.
The issue of licensing external collections.
The issue of the continuity of personal and institutional collections.
People: Presence
It is important for the library to be more visible in the following ways:
Marketing
Physical Presence
A 'signed' network presence
Expertises
This was a difficult article to read, but well worth it for the insights that it offered.
We were asked to read two blog entries by Anna Laura Brown. They were the top 10 social networking tools and trends for libraries in 2009 and 2010.
After reading these I went on to read more blog posts that she had written and discovered one about trends in 2011.
They included:
Mobile applications.
QR codes. I don't know what these are so hopefully someone will enlighten me.
Google applications.
Twitter.
Virtual reference.
Increased collaboration between libraries and more that one institution.
Teaching social media classes.
Using Social media as a teaching tool.
All very interesting points. I will enjoy revisiting this list at the end of the year to see how accurate her predictions were.
Looking back at the 2009 and 2010 posts, in my modules it asks:
Which of these tools and trends has already impacted on your library or organisation?
Which of these tools and trends have been discussed by people within your library or organisation as having potential in supporting its goals?
Which of these tools and trends have not yet hit your library or organizations radar?
My responses are easy as none of them have impacted on my library. None of them have been discussed in my library. None of these trends have come anywhere near the radar of my library.
After reading these blog posts I think that the school library is a bit unique in that the students at my primary school aren't old enough to have facebook accounts or any other social media accounts.
It has made me think that we do need to find other ways to embrace the social media trend at school though.
I have just completed the first 3 readings for this topic and they have been very helpful in providing many positive reasons for using social networking in the library.
I will be using this article when I am writing up my report about the library blog as it gives many excellent reasons of why we blog.
The author gave an example of a person who was not great technologically, but was able to embrace blogging because it was just simply a matter of "typing in a box". My goodness they could be talking about me. I just love blogging because it is so easy and everyone things you are really technologically savvy!
The majority of the people interviewed for this article all confirmed that blogs can break down the institutional wall between libraries and the members of the community.
We are also told that blogging is a creative and easy way to reach tech savvy people.
Blogging is only limited by the bloggers imagination.
For my project for INF506 I am doing a blog at school in the library.
The response from the students so far has been really positive.
I have placed a survey for them to complete in an effort to help improve the service we give in the library.
The library monitors are beginning to write their own posts and the other students are being very positive in their responses.
Overall it is progressing really well, in fact better that I would have expected.
Now comes the frustration part.......I have tried to put a visitor counter onto the blog, in fact I have spent the better part of an hour trying to do this. Unfortunately I have been unable to do so. I think it is because I am using blogEd and it is accessed through the portal so it won't let my counter systems access the blog.
Anyway I have now just spoken to someone on the help desk, who couldn't help me and he has now referred it to someone else.
Hopefully by the end of the holidays I will have an answer to my dilemma. But then again I am dealing with the DET so who knows???
As part of this module we were given 2 readings to consider.
Harvey, M. (2009). What does it mean to be a Science Librarian 2.0? Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, (Summer). Retrieved from http://www.istl.org/09-summer/article2.html
This article was interesting as the writer emphasised the need to not just embrace a new web2.0 technology because it is new, but to ensure that it is right for you.
He then gave some examples of tools that are useful. They were:
Blogs
RSS feeds
Podcasts
Video thread
chat/IM
Cloud tags
You Tube
He also emphaised the need to thoroughly evaluate if a new tool is appropriate for our library and will help deliver better services to our clients.
He also said to try and avoid throwing out the 'old' methods and tools just because they were old.
The article begins by discussing web 2.0 describing it as a social phenomenon. We can all participate and influence the development of the next generation of the web.
Library 2.0 is another 'conversation'.
I felt that this article was quite motivating. In it he motivates us as librarians to guarantee the future of the profession by using our insight and knowledge of web2.0 to influence the creation of the new dynamic. He says that this is a once in a generation opportunity to invent a new future.
Make Librarian 2.0 the guru of the information age.
