The last post ...

This is my last officially scheduled blog entry for the "23 Things Cambridge" workshop and I will work through the questions of the main blog as the answers will make a nice summary of my reflections.

Which Things did you find most useful, or thought-provoking?
The most useful Thing was certainly blogging, and I don't mean my own blogs but rather blogs of other librarians. It was (and still is) great to see other's opinion about the Things but also to read about their work and libraries. I hope that all librarians will keep on blogging - I would love to read more from them.

Which didn't you find useful at all?
In my opinion, the least useful Thing we looked at was iGoogle. I set the account up but don't make use of it at all anymore. It is not only slow but also much less user friendly than providers of similar services (such as Protopage).

Which have you persisted with?
Well, I hope to continue blogging about more archive and library related adventures in the future. I continue to use many of the Things, such as facebook, twitter, slideshare, Google-docs and LinkedIn, but I have used these before the 23 Things workshop. I will look at some of the Things in more detail (for example Library Thing) as this wasn't possible during the 23 Thing rush through Things.

What about Web 2.0 and social media? How do you think they are shaping library services?
As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the main influence of Web 2.0 and social media on library services is that they give librarians a powerful tool and platform to shape library servies and the way they are perceived by readers and the community. This means that I don't think that Web 2.0 and social media shape library servies but rather that librarians will be better able to shape their services when they use them. I think that these developments will change the way librarians are perceived quite dramatically in the future - if we make use of them.

(Click image to enlarge)

wiki wiki

So far, my experience of something 'wiki' in libraries was related to students looking for short cuts while approaching essay deadlines or - far more sensible - to get a quick summary of a topic before diving into more specific literature. Following some of the links on the main "23 Things Cambridge" blog, I found the wiki of the Serial Acquisitions Unit at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. This wiki is a file repository for general procedures and monthly reports, at the same time it is used for updates and apparently also for collaborations within the library team (possibly across shifts). All these applications are potentially very useful in a library. It allows access for all staff and it can even be made public.

My previous experience of wikis outside libraries relates to the MCR website of my college. This website is used to update the MCR community on upcoming events, it provides a list of useful college contacts, possible funding sources and a wealth of other information for current and future students which can be updated by community members.
Another application of wikis (and more specifically Wikipedia) was and is during my other life as a linguist. Ever since the Wikiproject was promoted through the Linguist List, articles related to linguistics on Wikipedia have become increasingly more reliable and better in quality. How about a Wikiproject related to libraries? There are many aspects of libraries that every user faces (e.g. classification systems - some more widely used than others, general ground rules, Ninja Librarians etc.) and that every librarian faces (e.g. library management, liaising with readers/Directors of Study, new projects). More than enough reasons and material to justify a Wikiproject.

How I became a Ninja Librarian

Who would have thought that there are so many library related podcasts and YouTube videos out there. It seems very obvious though, now that I think of it. How else would you reach current and future readers in a fun and easy way? I especially like the idea of library induction tours on YouTube as it not only familiarises future readers with the layout of the library but also with the librarians. This, I think, will most certainly help future users to contact librarians.

The Centre for South Asian Studies has a great collection of podcasts of their archive for an international audience. See Polar Adventurer's excellent post on this.

One aspect which hasn't been mentioned so far on 23 Things (please correct me if I'm wrong) is that use of social media and the Web 2.0 will create a great change in how librarians will be (and are) perceived by readers. A great resource is the website "You don't look like a librarian". Especially librarians' involvement in podcasts and most importantly YouTube will greatly influence the public image of librarians in the future. And it is up to us who work in libraries to influence it the way we would like ourselves to be seen. Basically, we need to create our own public image.

What I see is a move away from this:
To something like this:

Now this may seem exaggerated and is more of a tribute to the fabulous Ninja Librarian videos on YouTube, but you get my point.

One of the video clips that puts librarians in a rather negative light (but which I still like - the clip, not the negative perception of librarians) is here, enjoy:

Google Docs - the 20th 'Thing'

It all started with an invitation by my 23 Things-buddy via Google, asking me to add to a document she created online. This email was sent to my hermes account and when I tried to acces Google docs it

(1) would not let me access Google when I used my hermes account details,

(2) would not let me access the document when I logged in using my Google account details.

The problem was solved when my buddy sent the invitation to my Google email address. Apparently, the service is difficult (if not impossible) to use for those without Google accounts.

Once this problem was overcome everything went rather smoothly. The document contained a list of suggestions for moving houses - highly relevant given that I have just moved houses and am still in the process of unpacking boxes. Accordingly, I added a list of suggestions for the unpacking process to the document and even adding a picture was no problem at all.



In fact, Google docs is very useful for sharing documents. I used it before with colleagues when we were organising a conference. We saved and updated documents and spreadsheets on Google docs for all of us to work with and in the end, saved all important documents, feedback and suggestions on the conference-Google-account for those who organised the conference the following year. Friends have also used spreadsheets on Google docs as an alternative to Doodle as users can add some more information and it is easier to edit. So overall, a very useful 'Thing' indeed.

Marketing

So far, I have mostly been on the receiving end of library marketing and maybe this is what I should write about, given Dominique's excellent post about Jerwood Library's marketing strategies.

In an earlier blog I mentioned that for students it is very important to know the librarians and to find them approachable. This is exactly, where I see the strength of social media. Especially facebook (and to some extent possibly also twitter) accounts give a sense of approachability and involvement. They also show the library as an active place - if the library updates are posted accordingly. This all is very important, certainly for bigger libraries where it is too easy to loose touch with readers but also for smaller ones.

However, I would like to conclude with a quote from Dominique's blog, to which I fully agree:
"What can be more 'social' than a chat in person?"

Zoter(r)o(r)?

The next thing on the list is Zotero. It sounds great and I was very keen on installing and trying it until I found out that it actually makes my Firefox browser even slower than it already is. Now, I should explain that I have a rather small netbook which is a very trusty companion - but there is only so much it can do. Firefox is incredibly slow already and adding Zotero didn't help. Now, instead of trying it myself I'm going to have a look at what my colleagues have to say and write an evaluation based on this 'literature review'.

Overall, reviews point out various positive aspects of Zotero, Rachel (Polar adventurer) states that '[i]t soon became apparent that the most useful feature of Zotero to me was its ability to synce files. [...] Zotero will syncronize my collections/Library on any PCs I use". I believe that this is certainly one of its most important assets as it means that you can work on several PCs without loosing your precious Zotero information. Apparently, it is even visually appealing (according to Adventures of a Librarian).


However, there are some critical voices. Quite a few users reported problems with finding the Zotero bookmark in their brower once it was installed. Once these initial problems were overcome, users were very happy with it (e.g. Dominique on News from Nowhere). Although, Balfour's 23 Things, for example, found serious limitations to downloadable records at Web of Science. Another issue is certainly that Zotero only works with Firefox and no other browers, posing serious limitations on internet explorer and chrome users (Balfour's 23 Things, Library Wanderer). In addition, the 'intuitive interface' does not seem to be very intuitive after all (according to Insert whitty title here) and several sources mentioned that there was not enough time to explore it in detail during the 23 Things rush through web 2.0 (e.g. News from Nowhere, Thing blogging). In all, Zotero definitely seems worth a try under the following conditions:
- You have a reasonably fast computer
- You use the Firefox brower
- You have a bit of patience
- You have a lot of time to get used to it
- And you actually need a bibliographic tool like this.

More networks: LinkedIn

I have to admit that I do have a LinkedIn account and that I set it up yeeeaaars ago but never really used it much. I guess the main reason is that it appears to be rather professional and every entry feels like writing a CV to me. Now, writing CVs is never much fun and therefore, it always takes ages.


Having said that, LinkedIn provides me with updates on connections and groups, no matter how much I neglect my own profile. It certainly is useful, especially for job hunting - which is exactly why I should update my profile now! So without further ado: LinkedIn - good for the more professional side of networking, for which we probably should not use facebook.

Friendface ...

Next 'thing' on the agenda: our old friend facebook. Judging by the increase in views from our recent user statistics on the Jerwood Library fan page, more and more librarians discover how useful facebook can be for libraries. Be it updating readers on anything library related, entertaining readers with library activities or just making life easier by providing very useful widgets (I do recommend the lib@cam widget). Some facebook tools are more useful than others. For example, we have begun to slowly phase out use of our Jerwood Library group and changed to a fan page. This is much easier to maintain and makes sure our updates reach our readers (unless they don't want to).

I especially like how libraries and readers seem to get closer on a much more personal level by posting comments or 'liking' things. For readers, this changes the perception of libraries and librarians are regarded as a lot more approachable than ever before. And as much as I always like to complain about facebook, this is rather a positive aspect.

In case you have 30 mins, would love some quality distraction and at the same time, would like to learn about possible side-effects of facebook, I recommend watching this:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-it-crowd/4od#2919508

And another thing ...

The LibraryThing. Well, I've certainly never heard of it but it sounds like a good idea. So much, in fact, that AbeBooks got involved and provided Mr Spalding with his first employees and even with "an actual librarian". Well if this isn't a selling point then I don't know what is.

In terms of its usefulness for libraries, I absolutely agree with Helen (the Library Wanderer). I would not use it as a catalogue for a larger library, not so much because of a possible loss of authority, but rather because it would be difficult to connect this LibraryThing 'catalogue' to a network such as Voyager or other systems. Unless all other libraries of the relevant network are also using LibraryThing it may be necessary to run two separate catalogues ... and who has the funds or nerves for that? I also agree with the observation that users - and in our case mostly students - may feel that a catalogue hosted on Library Thing may be lacking the professional flair they would expect.

But let's peer into the depths of Library Thing. It does not take much to open an account; in fact, just an original name and a password. Compared to other tools that link all available details with who knows what (yes, I'm looking at you google, facebook, etc) this feels rather friendly and this feeling continues all the way through. I catalogued some of my own books, set up a collection andgot to grips with the search tool. It's great to be able to connect to so many catalogues worldwide to retrieve bibliographic information. I also liked the edit function which allows you to actually change entries so that they fully match the edition in hand. In my opinion, this is great for private collections, though I think the limit of 200 books is a bit too strict. It means that users really have to think twice about what book they are going to add or end up having to delete books when adding new ones once they've reached the limit. Overall, though, I think this is quite useful - maybe not for academic libraries, but definitely for private collections.

Reflections

Right, so the whole catching up session has taken 2 hours so far. Not as bad as I initially thought. I think the problem is that it's too easy to get lost in the depth of the world-wide web (as I - unfortunately - tend to do). What about "23 Things" then? Well, it has certainly taught me to view the internet and its possibilities from a library and archive perspective. For me, this is very important as I have used most of the "Things" discussed so far either for private and social purposes or for my own studies. This is quite important for me as I am at a stage where I finish my studies and need to start to approach these "Things" from a more professional perspective. Overall, I'm quite happy with "23 Things" so far.


The tasks so far left plenty of space for own excursions into the topic, which was good. My skills and knowledge have definitely benefitted from this exercise and I feel more confident using "Things" in a library and archive environment now. Looking back at how much time I've spent on some of the "Things", I will certainly be more focused when approaching the next "Things" and will avoid "drifting". After all, there's more to do than "Things", however interesting they may be.

Even more things

Part 2 of catching up. This time it's "Thing 11" Slideshare. I have been using Slideshare for some time to make my presentations accessible to student and colleagues. I particularly like the possibility of obtaining a "secret" web address for a presentation that you wouldn't want the whole world to see. I tried this option after a preliminary version of one of my presentations received more than 30 hits in just under 20 hours. It is also a great way of sharing documents (such as articles) and is a good alternative to hosting everything on your own website.


Linked to the library's website it can provide access to relevant presentations for library users and other librarians. Today I found quite a few interesting and library-related presentations on Slideshare, some of which relate to our UL. There don't seem to be any easily identifyable Cambridge college library presentations though.

I will definitely continue using Slideshare as I think it is a most useful service. We should make more use of it and promote its use to others.

Moving on to "Thing 12"; it's Delicious. Never used it before but heard about it. At first, the main page seems a bit random and cluttered with too much information. Looking at one specific collection seems a bit more focused but at the same time I think it would be easier to use if the interface was better organised. I tried to create an account which apparently only works with a yahoo account. I don't have one and don't want one which is why my Delicious experience stops here. I see that it can be useful as a shareable bookmark archive. At the same time I think that a well maintained blog or website can serve the same purpose.

Catching up on "Things"

Well, I've been away from any "23 Thing" related activities for 2 weeks and find catching up a bit difficult. Am I the only one who thinks that although this workshop is in principle a good idea, the tasks just take too much time to do? Some days I find myself spending more time doing "Things" rather than working. In order to give myself more time for work, I'll try to do a fast forward through the "Things" I've missed since my last entry. So here we go, let's see how much time it takes me.


Thing 9 and 10: Flickr
As with most of the "23 Things" so far, Flickr is not unknown to me. However, I've never used it for academic or library purposes and I've never really worried about terms of use of these pictures because we mainly used this service to share pictures among friends. After discussing the breach of the UL's Library Syndicate rules, the only picture of books from the UL I could find within Creative Commons-licensed content was this:

For me Flickr seems particularly useful to share pictures of the library as a way of promoting the library. Moreover, it offers easy access to all sorts of pictures which can potentially lighten up presentations and can also be useful on signs and announcements posted on various library walls and pinboards.

Some more "23-Things" things

Well, back to the 23 Things before I post more about my life in archives.

Thing 7 was all about Twitter. I have used twitter for well over a year now but never on a more professional or serious basis. After I signed up I found out that only few of my friends actually use twitter and that none of my fellow students have a twitter account. Their lives are all on facebook. A few months ago I read about a study which found out that twitter gets used by 'older' people (i.e. those in their late 30s and older) and not really by the current student generation. Therefore, I always considered a library twitter account somewhat useless if it is aimed at students. I think that twitter is more useful for spreading links and news to other librarians. Given that so many Cambridge librarians signed up on twitter and connect to each other, makes twitter quite a powerful network - if people keep using it after the novelty character (or 23 Things workshop, whichever happens first) wears off. Here's a screenshot with some of the library 'tweeple' I'm connected to now:

Thing 8 is all about tags and categories. Discussing these and the article by Shirky made for some interesting comments and disucssion on the web, given that librarians work with these on a daily basis to get some structure into libraries and resources. I especially liked Library Wanderer's entry about this. In repsonse to Shirky's post I would argue that we all categorise the world according to our own cognitive preferences which are shaped by internal (genetically determined, e.g. right handed or left handed) and external (shaped by our experiences) factors. These individual categories have a major impact on the way we think and operate. When categories are created with the aim of sharing them with other people, these are - by its very own nature - compromises. Therefore, they will always be imperfect for the individual but hopefully meaningful for most.
As for tagging, it reminds me of the Library of Congress entries I use when cataloguing books: You just have to get it right, otherwise your entry won't be found and will be lost forever (slightly exaggerated, but you get my point). However, I would argue that it's more about the quality of tags rather than the quantity. Therefore, I won't add more tags to my blog but rather review the existing ones and substitute them by more suitable ones where necessary.

The first actual archive post

Well, "23 Things Cambridge" certainly kept me busy. So busy, in fact, that I haven't managed to post anything about my work at the Centre for South Asian Studies (CSAS) yet. At the moment I am cataloguing the archive of rare books in preparation of CSAS's big move to its new site on West Road next year. I did my first round of cataloguing early this week and luckily, most books were already catalogued and only needed updating. So it was an easy start.
I would like to use this blog to say a few words about books I catalogued and that caught my attention for one reason or another. In this week's lot there was one book about Railways in India. Now, I find railways highly fascinating (my father used to work for a railway company, so I basically grew up with and on them). This book does not only give a very detailed and interesting account of the history of railways in India but it also contains numerous pictures. I find the idea of transporting elephants by train particularly intriguing.


The tracks look rather wide. Will have to check the book for any information on this ...

Thing 5 and 6

Moving on to Thing 5 and 6 at the "23 Things Cambridge" workshop. The first of these tasks is to get to grips with Doodle which is an online tool for scheduling events. I am already familiar with this tool because we used it at my rowing club (Cambridge '99) to schedule our training. Very useful if there are 8 rowers a cox and a coach involved, or a whole squad, as it were. I think it is equally useful for scheduling all kinds of meetings whether library related or not. Dominique ("News from Nowhere") set up a doodle page to schedule a meeting for a few of us, so let's see how it will work out. I've already ticked all relevant boxes.
Thing 6 is creating a google calendar. I already make use of this tool and also have shared calendars with friends when planning holidays or using equipment at my department. Again, very useful but on a daily basis I prefer my paper diary.

Library Blogs

It took me a few days but I've browsed almost all of the blogs of "23 Things Cambridge". What I found were very interesting thoughts and discussions, lots of information and new ideas. At the moment it seems as if most people look at blogs of people who they already know (at least that's what it looks like from the comments). But I guess that's the way interaction develops, you start with what you know and feel safe about and then move on to new adventures. I am absolutely delighted about the first two comments I received. These are very much appreciated and I hope that more will follow. I - at least - will continue "blogging".

iGoogle and RSS feeds

A blog on Thing 1 and 2 (in case you're wondering what "Things" I'm going on about check out http://23thingscambridge.blogspot.com/). Well, that's not so easy. Thing 1 was setting up a Google ID and an iGoogle page. I've already had a Google ID but so far I've managed to resist Google's attempts at taking over my privacy (after all, I've already sold my soul to Facebook), but - there you go - all in the name of progress:

I guess iGoogle makes sense if you want to have one central place to store RSS feeds and links (i.e. Thing 2). For this purpose I've used "protopage" so far which does basically the same that iGoogle does, though not quite as colourful and it also gives a reassuring sense (or illusion?) of anonymity since it is not directly linked to email accounts. However, protopage does not have any applications and that is something I quite like about iGoogle, especially the Copac search and Cambridge Libraries Widget. Given that there will undoubtedly be more potentially useful applications in the future, it is likely that I will make use of my iGoogle page more regularly.

Getting started ...

This blog exists mainly because I participate in the "23 Things Cambridge" online workshop. Through this workshop I hope to learn how web tools can be useful in library and archive work. I am an active user of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Before this media were available I created and maintained my own website. I am new to blogging because I don't think my life is exciting enough to entertain other people, so I'm not going to blog about my life.

Incidentally, I am about to start cataloguing some of the archived collections at the Centre of South Asian Studies. Anybody who has been fortunate enough to visit the centre will know about the wealth of information, be it books, microfilm or audio/video recordings, the centre has to offer (most of the latter ones online, but more about this later). However, only very few people will know about the "hidden" archive, i.e. those items that aren't available in the library and many of which haven't even been catalogued yet.
Rachel Rowe (the Smuts Librarian for South Asian & Commonwealth Studies) and I thought that some of you out there may be interested in
1) What's in these collections,
2) How work on cataloguing the collections is progressing,
3) What kind of difficulties a junior archivist/librarian encounters and
4) How she manages to solve these problems.
Overall, this blog might be of interest for anybody interested in libraries, archives, collections and anything related to South East Asia. So another thing I hope to get from the "23 Things Cambridge Workshop" is some feedback on my posts from experienced librarians and archivists. Any comments will be highly appreciated.