Assignment 2 - Part A - An evaluative statement using documented experiences in OLJ

Part A – An evaluative statement using three experiences documented in the OLJ as evidence of meeting the learning objectives.

  

Three learning experiences documented for the purposes of this assignment.

1.  Select advice from five (5) letters of this A-Z list and consider how these may be applied to this library to help it embrace a Library 2.0 ethos. 
2.  RSS in action. 
3.  “Reasons why libraries should be on social media”, and draw upon aspects of these three libraries to illustrate each point. 

I chose to highlight the three learning experiences listed above as I felt that they were challenging and offered a wide range of experiences that were relevant to my workplace at the time. By completing these activities and in fact many of the others listed in the modules I believe that my understanding of social networking has been enriched as I become more familiar with these tools.

In conjunction with completing module three which was about Library 2.0 (Hay and Wallace, 2011) I completed the activity that required me to look at five letters of the A-Z list of social networking for libraries (Brown, 2010). . By completing this activity I was forced to look at the Library 2.0 in a different light and to think outside the square. By focusing on the aspects listed in the list provided by Brown (Brown, 2010) I will be able to ensure that the library in which I work stays relevant and addresses policies proactively.

In completing this OLJ activity I focused on Blogs, EBooks, Good Reads, Help and Zeal.

I chose to focus on blogging as I felt that blogging was a great way to extend the library beyond its walls. It is also a simple form of publishing which is ideal for a new social networker like me. It was an idea that I decided to implement in the primary school library that I work in. It has had a huge impact on the visibility of the library and has been a great way to foster social interaction between students and teachers. In the article by Casey and Stavastinuk (2006) libraries are being encouraged to revitalize the way we serve and interact with our customers. The blog has provided the perfect opportunity to do this.

EBooks appear to be the way of the future, and while my school is not willing to provide them YET, it was an area I felt the need to research further.

Good reads were also looked at as the school library is still seen as being the provider of extra reading materials for students to read and I felt that it was important to acknowledge this as often in the Web 2.0 culture that we now live this can be overlooked.

Help was relevant for me to write about as I have been learning where to go for help in understanding the Library 2.0 and then passing on this information to students and teachers.

Zeal. While visiting the University of Technology library I was totally inspired by the Mal Booth who demonstrated a passion and zeal for his library. It is that kind of zeal that I want to demonstrate in the school that I work.

The second area that I looked at was RSS feed. This proved to enlightening for me as I had often seen the RSS symbol on websites that I visited but had no idea what they meant, or how to use them. This is an area that is growing as more people try to remain informed of all of the latest updates on their favourite websites and news services.

The two RSS feeds that I subscribed to were at the State Library of NSW and ALIA. It has proven to be a great social networking tool and I have now subscribed to many more sites in this manner. It has saved me huge chunks of time as I am told when a site has been updated. I have also taken this a step further and conducted a professional learning session at school to show the other staff how they can use RSS feed to stay updated about the blogs within the school. Many teachers are now participating in this.

The third activity I completed was to look at the reasons why libraries should be on social media. To do this I looked at three different libraries and compared the ways they used social media.

As Farkas (2008) writes that the library needs to work towards meeting the changing needs of the user. With this in mind and following the advice given by Andy Burkhardt (2009) I compared the libraries and the social networking tools they used. This proved to be a worthwhile exercise as it forced me to look at the way we use social media in our library and how I can improve this sadly neglected area.

By completing the three online activities I was provided with the opportunity to research deeper into social media than I possibly would have by just reading the modules. Throughout this subject I have endeavored to document my learning and have experienced many more areas than the ones highlighted in this entry. These can be viewed in my OLJ.

References

Brown, A.L. (2010, January 22). A to Z of social Networking for Libraries. Retrieved from http://socialnetworkinglibrarian.com/2010/01/22/a-to-z-of-social-networking-for-libraries/

Burkhardt, A. (2009, August 29). Four Reasons Libraries Should be on Social Media. Retrieved from http://andyburkhardt.com/2009/08/25/four-reasons-libraries-should-be-on-social-media/

Casey, M. & Savastinuk, L. (2006). Library 2.0: Service for the next-generation library, Library Journal, 1 September. Retrieved from http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6365200.html

Drury, C. (2011, April 1). Module 3 – A-Z of Social Networking for Libraries. Posted to http://cathyslibraryskillsprogress.blogspot.com/2011/04/module-3-z-of-social-networking-for.html

Farkas, M. (2008, January 24). The essence of library 2.0? Retrieved from http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/2008/01/24/the-essence-of-library-20/

Hay, L, & Wallis, J. (2011). Social Networking for Information Professionals [INF506 201130]. Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: http://interact.csu.edu.au/portal/site/INF506_201130

Assignment 2 - Part 2 - Evaluative Report - Part B - Reflective Statement

Part B – A reflective statement on your development as a social networker as a result of studying INF506, and the implications for your development as an information professional.

In the words of the great song ‘We’ve only just begun’ (Carpenters, 1970) I feel that this subject has started me on my way in the social networking field well armed and ready to face anything in the social networking arena.

On reflection I noted that I chose this subject as I knew nothing about social networking and was quite skeptical about its uses and benefits. I felt that as an information specialist it was important to broaden my views as to how to use the tools that are available. As noted in my first OLJ post (Drury, 2011) apart from my blog, a wiki I worked on and email I had absolutely no experience with social networking.

Since beginning this subject I have been amazed at the world that has opened up to me and how much more informed I am. My first major foray into social networking was to open a facebook account (Drury, 2011). I did this kicking and screaming because I felt it an absolute waste of time as really it was only useful for teenagers and for keeping up on the latest gossip. I have changed my thinking considerably on this as I have discovered lots of useful information that has been shared by other members of my INF506 group. I have also learned lots of not so useful information, yet still interesting that is posted constantly by my new facebook ‘friends’. I also discovered some great shopping experiences by being on facebook.

Now that teachers are able to use facebook (Patty, 2011) at school the implications for my teaching are endless. I have already used it to share some articles with colleagues in a staff meeting.

Twitter is a tool that I have found beneficial. Prior to this subject I had read about celebrity use of Twitter but I didn’t think it was beneficial to the everyday teacher. I am currently following over twenty people. Mashable has been great at providing current social media news with their constant stream of information. A number of other tweeters I am following also provide useful information for use within the classroom which has been beneficial in my teaching. I have also included the odd celebrity for input of useless yet interesting information.

Flickr has been more useful than I initially thought as it has been a fabulous resource to use in my teaching. I have been able to access photographs to use in presentations within the classroom to provide a greater number of photographs of an area of study. While aware of this site prior to this subject I had never used it as I am not a great photographer and thought it was only useful for posting photographs for your family to view. The use for this site is endless.

Creating a voki for my OLJ was fun and was a totally new experience for me. It can ensure anonymity on the web which is a good thing. I was unable to master Second Life though. From reading the various facebook posts it seems to be a tool that takes some time to get used to but can be quite beneficial and can provide meaningful learning opportunities.

Prior to beginning this subject I had noticed the RSS feed symbol on many sites but had been uneducated in its use. Since learning about it I have implemented RSS feed in my own learning for keeping track of posts made by several different sources as well as implementing it at school in regards to the library blog. This has helped my development as an information professional as I conducted staff training at school on RSS and many teachers have now adopted it so that they can keep up with posts made on the school blogs. 

I have begun to develop an understanding of online identity, privacy and trust during this course (De Rosa et al. 2007). These issues impact the students I work with as well as my immediate family. Issues and news articles have been shared amongst our facebook group and it is mentioned often by many of the tweeters that I follow.

While trialing all of these social networking tools I have discovered that you need to treat people as you would in real life which is supported by Bax (2011). It is similar to networking at a party, but on a larger scale. It is also available 24hours a day.

I feel empowered to continue using social networking tools and finding creative ways to integrate them into my teaching. I feel as if I have grown quite rapidly in my knowledge during this subject and believe that I know where to look to stay informed about all of the current trends in social networking as a result of studying this subject.

References 

Bax, A. (2011). Importance of social networking. retrieved from http://www.gaebler.com/importance-of-social-networking.htm

Carpenters. (1970). We've only just begun. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We%27ve_Only_Just_Begun 

De Rosa, C., Cantrell, J., Havens, A., Hawk, J. & Jenkins, L. (2007). Section 3: Privacy, Security and Trust. In Sharing privacy and trust in our networked world: A report to the OCLC membership. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC. [ebook] Available http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/sharing_part3.pdf

Drury, C. (2011, February 15). The beginning of a new semester - INF506 assessment 1.Posted to

http://cathyslibraryskillsprogress.blogspot.com/2011/02/beginning-of-new-semester-inf506.html

Drury, C. (2011, February 17). Facebook, and what next? posted to
http://cathyslibraryskillsprogress.blogspot.com/2011/02/facebook-and-what-next.html

Patty, A. (2011, April 29). Facebook opened up to school teachers. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebook-opened-up-to-school-teachers-20110428-1dyxa.html

Assignment 2 - part 1 - online journal

Part 1: Online Journal.

I have kept an online journal for this subject since the beginning of this learning session with my first entry being made on 15 February 2011. Including this entry I will have made 39 entries for this subject. By working in this manner I have engaged in the self paced modules and completed online readings throughout this session. As a member of the Facebook group I also participated in many online discussions throughout the session.

I completed a number of learning activities using a wide range of social networking tools. These were regularly documented in my online learning journal. I also reflected on my learning throughout the session and documented this regularly on my blog.

In conclusion I believe that I have successfully completed part 1 of this assignment.

Blogger down!

A problem of using technology has just raised its head again.

I tried to go onto blogger last night and discovered that it was down.

In the 2 years that I have used this for my online journal this is the first time that I have encountered this issue.

If I was writing in a book this wouldn't have happened, but then knowing my organisation I would probably have lost it by now.

at least blogger is up and running this morning so I can keep blogging to my hearts content.

Staff meeting a week too late!

Today in my staff meeting at school a lot of time was spent discussing the social networking policy from the DET.

If only this was last week, there was some information I could have used for my INF506 assignment. Most of it I had found by myself but some would have been useful.

But then again, isn't that always the way? You always seem to find more information on a topic after you have handed in an assignment.

Mothers Day 2011 and assignments.

Well yet another Mother's Day sees me completing an assignment for Uni.I won't know myself next year when I don't have any assignments to complete.

It was lovely to be given breakfast in bed by my middle child this morning. My youngest made an arrangement of flowers from paper folding as well as organizing her dad to buy a huge bunch of flowers and my eldest gave me a box of chocolate ginger which is nearly all gone thanks to the assignment. My middle child also gave me a pair of new slippers. Has anyone noticed that you can only buy slippers near Mothers Day?

This years assignment was for INF506 and was a report about a social networking project that I completed.

My project was to create a blog at school that would keep students and staff informed about the happenings of the library.

As I put the finishing touches to the assignment today I am pleased to say that I have now learnt how to do screen shots thanks to my 16 year old son.

This subject has been a really steep learning curve that I haven't found easy yet I feel a huge sense of accomplishment after I reach each milestone along the way.

Anyway I have now handed in the assignment so that I don't keep tweaking it and second guessing myself. I feel proud of my efforts and despite all of the effort and tears along the way it has been worth it and hopefully the marker will think so too.

I can now move onto the next assessment task that I need to do.

social networking project report finished........well sort of.

After spending 2 weeks trying to get enough words for this report I now find myself with way too many. I now have to go back through it and work out how I can say things more succinctly.

I am also going through the project report requirements to ensure that I have included absolutely everything that is required.

The next thing I have to do is learn how to do a screen shot as I need to put some parts of my school blog into the appendix and apparently that is the best way to do it.

I have also emailed my principal to ask her if I can make the blog public for the time that it takes to get marked as currently it is only open to the school. I am still waiting on a reply to that. Not sure what I will do if she says no. Maybe I should have thought more carefully about that before setting it up.

Oh well still plenty to do even though I feel like all of the hard work is done.

Better go my nurse will be here in a minute to give me my infusion. Wish there was a cure for Rheumatoid arthritis, I am getting sick of having to timetable infusions into my busy schedule.