Twitter exercise - Bodleian libraries

The Bodleian Libraries are part of the University of Oxford. Their twitter feed is used to provide university staff and students as well as other interested persons with information on what is happening in the libraries, other services they offer such as the libraries' Bodcasts, events occurring in the libraries and competitions.

The Bodleian Libraries' twitter account is following a range of other twitter feeds associated with the University of Oxford as well as other libraries and library related subjects.

Twitter.com. 2013. Bodleian Libraries (bodleianlibs) on Twitter. [online] Available at: https://twitter.com/bodleianlibs [Accessed: 27 Aug 2013].

The authority of this twitter feed is established by the fact that it is from a group of university libraries and covers topics / news about the happenings and the services on offer. The authority is enhanced by the fact that the Bodleian Libraries are part of the University of Oxford which is one of the most highly respected universities in the world.
The main purpose of the twitter feed is to assist in keeping the staff and students of the University of Oxford up to date with the activities and services of the libraries and special events. The scope of the twitter feed covers all of the libraries’ activities and services.
No biases could be detected in the twitter feed.
The intended audience is primarily the staff and students of the University of Oxford. However there are several tweets that appear to be directed at the general public.
This Twitter account is set to follow a number of other twitter feeds associated with the library staff, the University of Oxford and other libraries.
This twitter feed could be invaluable to the staff and students of the University of Oxford in regard to changes in the services of the libraries.

Library video - Do you want to be a librarian

This YouTube video was originally filmed in 1947 so the footage is black and white with the audio having a scratchy noise in the background.

This video shows how little the activities have changed in terms of which tasks librarians and library technicians perform in the last 65 years and how much the way that they perform those tasks has changed due to the advances in computer technology. Many of the questions that were asked were similar to those asked today just that now the clients want the answers sooner. For example there is a young man who asks for a specific book but can not give much detail just like one of the examples given in class. This example shows the important of the procedures that we are learning in the cataloguing classes.

The formats of material held by the library mentioned in this video are still held in libraries today  except we now also have to deal with electronic and digital items.



Richmondtown Library. 2007. Do You Want to be a Librarian?. [video online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RGccQFxi3U&list=WLwLXwEtcTlIvae_hQ1zA4wb9U5ThQABZR [Accessed: 20 Aug 2013].

The authority of the original creators of the video is established by the film having been created in conjunction with Iowa State College’s Professor of Vocational Education, Arthur Twogood. He was partly responsible for the Colleges education programs so would have been knowledgeable of the library sciences. He also determined what information was going to be in the video. The video was uploaded by the Richmondtown Library which is part of the New York Public Library so they would be in a position to judge the relevance of the video to the modern library environment.

The purpose of the video being uploaded to YouTube could be to provide viewers with a historical perspective on the library and to show how the core functions of the library have remaindered unchanged despite changes in technology.

As the video has been placed on YouTube with no restrictions on access, the intended audience can be assumed to be everyone. The intended audience would originally have been teenagers deciding which career to pursue.

The video provides an interesting historical perspective on the role of the librarian and a good reminder that the key role of the library is to serve the community.

YouTube excercise

YouTube is a useful site for finding and watching videos on a wide range of subjects such as the latest music clip from your favourite singer to tutorials on how to get past a particular problem you are having in a game or with a task to how to make just about anything including guns or crossbows as well as gain information on a wide range of topics. To aid the viewer in getting the most out of the video, the size of the image can be increased and the viewer can pause the video or move around in it to view a portion again if they want.
Once the user has found a video they like then they can save it to a folder in their profile to facilitate accessing and watching it later. The list of saved videos can be arranged into folders to aid in locating the relevant one.
Another feature of YouTube is that it can provide captioning for the video though this is function is inaccurate and often does not make sense. Also viewers can share the video via social media or subscribe to another user's channel to get informed of any new uploads.

The search function on the website is based on Google with a simple search panel and filters based on date of upload, type of result, video duration and the presence of certain features. The shear number of videos available means that search terms need to be made as clear as practical.

When uploading videos to YouTube the process seems reasonably easy with options to control who can see your video, who can comment on the video, the appearance of advertisements and licencing of the video. Prior to uploading a video it can be edited using YouTube's editing function. I personally had problems when uploading a video as I could not find it using the tags so had to place them in the description.

podcast excercise

The library channel is a news and events service for the Arizona state university libraries. On the right of the main page is a link that leads to the podcasts. These podcasts take the form of videos and audio recordings of discussions.

The subjects discussed in the podcasts include a wide range of topics related to the library and information storage fields. For example I found podcasts which cover digital records management in relation to archaeology, the golden age of science fiction in the 40s, the donation of an illuminated bible and the role of archives in research.

Here is the podcast on digital archaeology

Arizona State University Libraries. 2010. Digital Antiquity: Transforming Archaeological Data into Knowledge, Library Channel. [podcast] 08 Apr. Available at: https://lib.asu.edu/librarychannel/2010/04/08/ep104_digantiquity [Accessed: 14 Aug 2013].
 

This podcast is authoritative as it is run by the University of Arizona with a host of the podcasting being a librarian at the university. The guest speakers for this episode are the Executive Director of Digital Antiquity and Associate Director and Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University.

The main purpose of the podcast is to discuss how libraries and archives can be used to assist in the work being conducted at the university and to educate the listener / watcher about these activities. This episode looks at the use of digital photos in research and how it is important to ensure that he images remain accessible as technology progresses.

As the guests are talking about an organisation that they run, they could be biased in favour of the use of this technology. They however explain the benefits that it offers.

The intended audience consists of the staff and students of Arizona State University mainly so they technical details is pitched at a suitable level.

 
This podcast series provides a good overview of the services that the libraries provide to the university and demonstrates the value that libraries have in educational institutions.

PBWorks wiki editing excercise

The exercise of editing the wiki was simple and seamed to be basically the same as editing a word document. Buttons at the top of the page are easy to see. However the save button being at the bottom of the page means that people have to be looking for it and it is not very obvious at first glance unlike the other buttons.

The wiki that we were editing was easy to move around and find the pages that we were supposed to be adding notes to. Having a navigation bar on the right made good sense with the folders would be useful to organise pages into categories. It is also useful to see who has edited the pages and which pages they changed.

wikis exercise

When searching for wikis it is not easy to differentiate them from a regular webpage until the user takes a careful look around the site to find buttons to allow the user to edit the information, notices about editing the information or a editing history. Other indicators that the site is a wiki would include a tag saying wiki attached to the site or in delicious under the recommended tags when it is being added to an account or wiki in the URL.

I did not find any wikis that are openly available to be edited by the public which is a useful tool to ensure that the authority of the information is maintained . Having a group which people can be added to who are permitted to edit the wiki maintains the collaborative nature of  the wiki.

wikis would work well in a library to create policy documents which the public can see and staff can easily edit. They could also be useful for providing subject guides and book reviews by users of the library.

Library related wikis - electronic books

Electronic Books is a simple wiki created by the University of Canterbury to help the library users to access the e-books that the university has subscribed to. The wiki consists the main page which contains the instructions for searching the catalog and several pages to provide information on different methods of access the information such as subject guides and a page for the reference items. There are also a number of links to other pages on the university's website. The links to the library's catalog and the subject guides should be of particular use to users.
The notice on the wiki informing users that there are collections of e-books too extensive to include in the catalog as individual titles should help prevent irate users asking for help as often.

Wiki.canterbury.ac.nz. 2012. Electronic Books - Library Wiki - Confluence. [online] Available at: https://wiki.canterbury.ac.nz/display/LIBRARY/Electronic+Books [Accessed: 13 Aug 2013].

The authority of this wiki is established by the fact that it has been created by the staff at the University of Canterbury, contains a number of links to various parts of the university’s website and several pages are restricted to their staff and students.

The purpose of this wiki is to assist the staff and students at University of Canterbury to access e-books by providing information and an access point to searching for them.

The intended audience for this wiki are tertiary students and academics so they can be reasonably expected to have good reading skills so this wiki is pitched at a level appropriate to facilitate quick understanding of the information contain in it.

The wiki is well set out and allows users to quickly find the information they need on the main page or the link which will take them to the appropriate page. 

delicious web bookmarking site

The delicious website allows individuals to create their own personal web based favourites list by copying the URL for a website or a specific webpage that they are interested in and pasting the link into their delicious account. These webpages could be any that have a fixed address such as the TasTAFE library homepage or the start point for searching for SCA heraldic devices (personal emblems).
People can use bookmarks to label their entries with their own set of keywords. When other users create a link to a specific webpage in their account then that person can add their own tags or copy the tags that the first person used.
They can then use the keywords to search for related websites both within their own set of saved bookmarks and those created by other users. This means that a search will yield results of greater relevance to the person.

Out of all the applications that the class looked at last year this is one that I still use on a regular basis as it is were I put links to sites that may be useful in the future so I can find them when I need them. Having now discovered the search ability, When I have some free time I will being greatly expanding the list of webpages I have saved.

Delicious would be of use to libraries as it could be used to record the location of websites that clients have found useful in the past. This would enable the staff to locate the resource quickly the next time that it is requested. The ability to search the websites that others have saved means that searches are not restricted to the sites that the library already knows about and helps find other websites with an appropriate level of authority.
With time the library's database of useful websites would grow providing a useful starting point when looking for authoritative resources and may remove the need to search the web as a whole when looking for resources. The list of tags being applied to the websites listed would be useful to indicate what keywords people tend to use so these could be considered for use in the library catalogue.

Mashups, apps and tools - trippermap

Trippermap is an application that allows people to geotag their photographs and place them on a Google Earth map to allow them to show off their travel photos and track their progress. The map created by the app is accessed via a flash widget that is placed on a blog or website.

Once the widget is set up and placed on the blog or website then it will automatically search the person's Flickr account looking for photos featuring geotags or location information and plots these images on the Google Earth. The images can also be tagged with the name of a city or country.

The Premium version of the service which costs $9.75 USD per year includes the ability to show routes taken on trips, links to Google Earth and a Google Maps version. It also provides for the inclusion of more photos taken in more locations.

TasTAFE DVD and trolley

TasTAFE DVD and trolley, a photo by simonmalory on Flickr.

Here is an image of a re-shelving trolley since the staff encourage users to hand over any resources that are used but not borrowed so they can collect usage data there is not normally any in the main area of the library.

It was rather weird taking photos in the library as part of class. It was really strange deliberately framing the photos to avoid including people outside of our class so I did not have to disturb them to ask permission to put the image on Flickr as I am used to taking photos of people doing things and already having their permission to do so.

fickr library photos - DIGITAL Bookmobile

Since e-books can be accessed for any computer with an internet connection the library is no longer required to be in a fixed location with the inventory stored in a building. Now the library can be built into the trailer of a truck so the library can be taken to the people and there is no compromising on the size of the collections.

Sno - Isle Libraries operates one such Bookmobile which travels around Washington State providing electonic library resources to the public. Some of the libraries that the truck has visited include Vancouver Public Library, Pierce County Library, Monroe Library and Eugene Public Library. The facilities on offer include e-books, A big TV screen, computer access, audio books and a video lounge.

 The images are all copyright reserved by digitalbookmobile so I can not use the images in this post as part of the assessment tasks. Here are links to some photos taken in various locations showing the truck and its facilities.

The library on wheels

Computer access

flickr library photo - ebook sign

Since the library truck turned out to be covered by copyright here is a poster about e-books. It is advertising one of the functions of libraries namely assisting clients to use the library services.



Flickr. n.d.. eBook Devices Poster. [online] Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/salemmapubliclibrary/8372226535/# [Accessed: 06 Aug 2013].

The image (eBook Devices Poster) has been created by the Salem Public Library about an event at their library so the image is highly authoritative.

The image is a simple notice of the sort of services that the Salem Public Library has to assist their clients. Therefore has limited scope and a fairly clear purpose.
As it is as a plain notice with simple information there is no bias that can be detected.
The notice portrayed in the image contains information written clearly which adults should have little trouble with. The notice appears to be aimed primarily at adults with the image being aimed at other librarians looking for examples of notices to gain some ideas to use in their library.
This image may not be particularly interesting to look at but it is a good reminder of the role of libraries and the services they offer to the community.

RSS feed exercise

The RSS feeds that I found on libraries and e-books covered a number of areas such as the services of interest to young adults, state or national libraries as well as releases of new books and old ones through project Gutenberg.

I noticed that the Feedly interface is not as intuitive as the one used by Google reader. Also it does not show you the RSS feeds you have when you sign in just the new posts which was a feature of Google reader that I liked. Feedly is not difficult to use as some exploration will allow users to find and add feeds. A nice feature that I noticed in Feedly which I did not see in Google reader is the indexing of feeds. This makes it easier to find the feeds that you are interested in if you have subscribed to a large number of feeds.

What do you like about RSS & newsreaders?
When someone finds a blog or news website, RSS feeds and newsreaders assist in collecting together the information that the author puts in the feed with that being provided by other feeds so the reader saves time looking for the various blogs and newsfeeds they are interested in and seeing if there is anything new.
By subscribing to an academically minded blog it may be possible to greatly decrease the time required to locate journals / articles that are relevant to the area that is being researched or obtain information on new technology and techniques for conducting research.

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your personal life?
Last year when we looked at RSS feeds and blogs I found several feeds from sites that looked at various aspects of the medieval world and which could be used to assist in finding information. The podcast from medieval archive features several stories on famous individuals and events which are quite interesting. There was also a blog containing reviews of scholarly books looking at the middle ages which could be of use to re-enactors.

How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this technology
Libraries can use RSS feeds to advice subscribers of any new services and products that are being brought in or those which are being phased out. For example when new books arrive, a list and brief description of each could be posted to the library's feed to stimulate interest. Alternately the RSS feed might be used for disseminating flyers / advertisements for upcoming events such as a visit from a respected author or to distribute the library's newsletter by attaching a file to a blog entry.
There are already many blogs out there which are being used by libraries and librarians to communicate with each other and share ideas to improve the services that they provide.
RSS feeds operated by other organisations and businesses which libraries can take advantage of include those feeds from publishers and distributors advertising the release of new products to assist in determining what products the library should acquire. They can also use third party feeds to get well written reviews for inclusion in the catalogue.