Reflecting on my progress with social media over the last couple of months, its been mixed. I still haven't gotten round to signing up for LinkedIn - a combination of time constrainsts and it seems like the least pertinent of the 'new media' I've looked at. I am, however, fairly addicted to Twitter. I am trying to lurk less and contribute more - grasping the fact that someone out there just might be interested in my mild ramblings. This is good timing as one of my objectives is to set up and run a twitter account for the LRC when I go back in September. With that in mind I have been following a number of school library accounts (rather than simply librarians as I usually do) to see what is tweeted. It is very interesting to see what different libraries retweet and push towards their students. But I my main aim is to strike the note between pertinent and fun. Watch this space to see how it goes...
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Sunday, 19 August 2012
Thing 12 - Putting the Social Into Social Media
Just a quickie as I continue to play catch up...
Reflecting on my progress with social media over the last couple of months, its been mixed. I still haven't gotten round to signing up for LinkedIn - a combination of time constrainsts and it seems like the least pertinent of the 'new media' I've looked at. I am, however, fairly addicted to Twitter. I am trying to lurk less and contribute more - grasping the fact that someone out there just might be interested in my mild ramblings. This is good timing as one of my objectives is to set up and run a twitter account for the LRC when I go back in September. With that in mind I have been following a number of school library accounts (rather than simply librarians as I usually do) to see what is tweeted. It is very interesting to see what different libraries retweet and push towards their students. But I my main aim is to strike the note between pertinent and fun. Watch this space to see how it goes...
Reflecting on my progress with social media over the last couple of months, its been mixed. I still haven't gotten round to signing up for LinkedIn - a combination of time constrainsts and it seems like the least pertinent of the 'new media' I've looked at. I am, however, fairly addicted to Twitter. I am trying to lurk less and contribute more - grasping the fact that someone out there just might be interested in my mild ramblings. This is good timing as one of my objectives is to set up and run a twitter account for the LRC when I go back in September. With that in mind I have been following a number of school library accounts (rather than simply librarians as I usually do) to see what is tweeted. It is very interesting to see what different libraries retweet and push towards their students. But I my main aim is to strike the note between pertinent and fun. Watch this space to see how it goes...
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
Organising Yourself: Things 8 & 9
I like to think I'm fairly organised, inspite of a hectic family life (my husband uses other phrases to describe me). But we can all use a little help from time to time...
I'll admit it, I haven't tried Google Calendar. That's not to say I have anything against it. But like many others who have posted on this topic, I already have an electronic calendar that I'm happy with. As a concept, I think a shared calendar is great. For my service (with part-time staff, working different shifts) the team calendar on the VLE was an invaluable tool - along with the task list and discussion forum. (It was, perhaps, the best part of a very difficult system). It's use was so ingrained as part of our daily work patterns, that when the decision was made to scrap the VLE (immediately) and get working on a new system (9-12 months away) my first reaction was to panic "what will we use for organising the team?" In the end we decided to go with MS Outlook as we already had a group email account that we all had access to. In addition it allowed us of overlay individual, team and school calendars so you can compare at a glance. I suspect it won't be the most versatile of systems, but for the short-term it has been the least work. Fingers crossed that the replacement VLE will include adequate organisational tools - it was certainly on my wishlist.
In terms of home calendars, I tend to go the hard copy route - a family calendar showing the kids' very busy social life and the parents' work and taxi commitments. This works best for us in terms of ease of access and making sure everyone knows what's happening and when. There is, however, one part of my life in which I might try Google Calendar. I am a governor for my kids' junior school. Committee meetings get chopped and changed or dates are buried deep in meeting minutes. A shared calendar would make finding these and other details much easier. I might trial it with a couple of colleagues and see what they think?
I have been using Evernote for about 9 months and I love it. No matter where I am, or what device I'm using I can save it, tag it and make notes on it. I follow a lot of library school feeds on Twitter and when an article is tweeted or a useful link is posted I might add it to my Evernote account if (a) having read it, I think it could be useful or (b) I don't have time to read it in detail but want to find it easily at some later date. For me, the key to both these elements is the ease with which you can tag notes. I add notes, tagging as I go, and when I need to consider an issue or do some research, I check what I've added on that topic. It's been particularly useful as I read around the issue of eBooks in school libraries and try to makes informed decisions for the LRC. I tag for relevant year groups, collating things which might be fun to share with particular year groups as well as useful resources that might help pupils with their work.
In addition to tagging, I have set up notebooks for a couple of specific areas such as YA authors, Chartership, Information Literacy. In the Chartership notebook, I use of a number of tags which corespond to the themes of my PPDP, allowing me to create an organised electronic record of my wider reading as I go. I know it's not the only method of doing this, but I'm using it anyway and it works well for me.
I'll admit it, I haven't tried Google Calendar. That's not to say I have anything against it. But like many others who have posted on this topic, I already have an electronic calendar that I'm happy with. As a concept, I think a shared calendar is great. For my service (with part-time staff, working different shifts) the team calendar on the VLE was an invaluable tool - along with the task list and discussion forum. (It was, perhaps, the best part of a very difficult system). It's use was so ingrained as part of our daily work patterns, that when the decision was made to scrap the VLE (immediately) and get working on a new system (9-12 months away) my first reaction was to panic "what will we use for organising the team?" In the end we decided to go with MS Outlook as we already had a group email account that we all had access to. In addition it allowed us of overlay individual, team and school calendars so you can compare at a glance. I suspect it won't be the most versatile of systems, but for the short-term it has been the least work. Fingers crossed that the replacement VLE will include adequate organisational tools - it was certainly on my wishlist.In terms of home calendars, I tend to go the hard copy route - a family calendar showing the kids' very busy social life and the parents' work and taxi commitments. This works best for us in terms of ease of access and making sure everyone knows what's happening and when. There is, however, one part of my life in which I might try Google Calendar. I am a governor for my kids' junior school. Committee meetings get chopped and changed or dates are buried deep in meeting minutes. A shared calendar would make finding these and other details much easier. I might trial it with a couple of colleagues and see what they think?
I have been using Evernote for about 9 months and I love it. No matter where I am, or what device I'm using I can save it, tag it and make notes on it. I follow a lot of library school feeds on Twitter and when an article is tweeted or a useful link is posted I might add it to my Evernote account if (a) having read it, I think it could be useful or (b) I don't have time to read it in detail but want to find it easily at some later date. For me, the key to both these elements is the ease with which you can tag notes. I add notes, tagging as I go, and when I need to consider an issue or do some research, I check what I've added on that topic. It's been particularly useful as I read around the issue of eBooks in school libraries and try to makes informed decisions for the LRC. I tag for relevant year groups, collating things which might be fun to share with particular year groups as well as useful resources that might help pupils with their work.
In addition to tagging, I have set up notebooks for a couple of specific areas such as YA authors, Chartership, Information Literacy. In the Chartership notebook, I use of a number of tags which corespond to the themes of my PPDP, allowing me to create an organised electronic record of my wider reading as I go. I know it's not the only method of doing this, but I'm using it anyway and it works well for me.
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Playing catch up with Thing 6
Online networks... a subject I thought I was comfortable with, but then realised I had only scratched the surface.
I have been using Facebook for a couple of years and I am quite attached to it as a way of (a) keeping up to date with friends and (b) reconnecting with friends I haven't seen for a while. It has been particularly useful as my family and I moved from Kent to Berkshire about 3 years ago (how time flies). However, despite being a fan of Facebook, it is something I keep very definitely in the realm of the personal, rather than anything work related. I do have colleagues I am friends with, but our interaction is informal and rarely mentions work.
I haven't tried LinkedIn at all (although I will admit to having a nose around when my husband logged in). I can definitely see the benefit of it, in his industry (HR) where contacts are everything - he has even found contracts which were only advertised through LinkedIn. However, if I'm honest, I have felt that it wasn't really relevant to school librarians, who tend to work in relatively small networks. But the guidance for this 'thing' has made me take stock and reconsider this notion. In my thirteen years as an information professional, I have already worked in three sectors (commercial law, public libraries, schools) and where else can I bring together the contacts I have made across all three? Having seen the suggested examples, I think it is time to have a go - a project for the summer holiday maybe?
I have been using Facebook for a couple of years and I am quite attached to it as a way of (a) keeping up to date with friends and (b) reconnecting with friends I haven't seen for a while. It has been particularly useful as my family and I moved from Kent to Berkshire about 3 years ago (how time flies). However, despite being a fan of Facebook, it is something I keep very definitely in the realm of the personal, rather than anything work related. I do have colleagues I am friends with, but our interaction is informal and rarely mentions work.
I haven't tried LinkedIn at all (although I will admit to having a nose around when my husband logged in). I can definitely see the benefit of it, in his industry (HR) where contacts are everything - he has even found contracts which were only advertised through LinkedIn. However, if I'm honest, I have felt that it wasn't really relevant to school librarians, who tend to work in relatively small networks. But the guidance for this 'thing' has made me take stock and reconsider this notion. In my thirteen years as an information professional, I have already worked in three sectors (commercial law, public libraries, schools) and where else can I bring together the contacts I have made across all three? Having seen the suggested examples, I think it is time to have a go - a project for the summer holiday maybe?
As for the other suggested online networks, I have engaged with a few via Twitter, but others I need to investigate further. Pininterest, for example, I hadn't really twigged what it was, but when I looked at the site I realised I have seen it used to group images together like an electronic mood board. Again something I might try out over the summer - maybe as online extension of our displays.
Overall, I am a fan of online networking. I think it opens us up to so many more opportunities than we could hope to be part of without them; and I think Reid Hoffman's "Facebook is the backyard BBQ; LinkedIn is the office" quote is a brilliant way explain the differnce between the range of sites available.
Wednesday, 6 June 2012
Things 4 - Current Awareness
Current awareness is something I always say I'm keeping up with, but there's just so much out there. Before you know it the latest news and innovations are old hat. Starting chartership has made be look at bit more seriously at how I keep up to date and I dug out my old Twitter account - the one I started when it was all shiny and new, tweeted about six times and then ignored. But strangley just weeks before finding out about CPD23 I started to check my account again - cleared out all the random celebs I had followed (except Stephen Fry, obviously) and started following various library related 'real' people. I finally got around to setting up my iGoogle page and now I am a changed woman. (well, comparatively)
I think the thing I like best about Twitter is the succinct-ness of the medium. I don't alway have time to read the full text of everyone's blogs, but if someone enjoys an article or finds something interesting enough to just tweet a link, I often find myself reading the opening and then saving it to Evernote to refer back to later.
What I hadn't really done until the CPD23 prompt was start to tweet again. A bit like the idea of blogging...who on earth want to know what I think? In fact, I turned away followers? I lurked on a few chartership chats and finally said hello in a #uklibcat session. I suppose I'm using Twitter like you can use feeds, and as such, when I looked into RSS I found it difficult to see what it would add to my iGoogle/Twitter homepage setup. Similarly, I have yet to delve into Storify other than as a viewer. So on reflection, I don't think I am as current as I though I was. I can see that it takes me a while to feel comfortable with each new application. I lurk for a while (sometimes a long while) before fully engaging. But I'm aiming to do better. I'm off to Lighting the Future this weekend - I am determined to tweet all weekend (#LTF12). All I need now are some followers...
I think the thing I like best about Twitter is the succinct-ness of the medium. I don't alway have time to read the full text of everyone's blogs, but if someone enjoys an article or finds something interesting enough to just tweet a link, I often find myself reading the opening and then saving it to Evernote to refer back to later.
What I hadn't really done until the CPD23 prompt was start to tweet again. A bit like the idea of blogging...who on earth want to know what I think? In fact, I turned away followers? I lurked on a few chartership chats and finally said hello in a #uklibcat session. I suppose I'm using Twitter like you can use feeds, and as such, when I looked into RSS I found it difficult to see what it would add to my iGoogle/Twitter homepage setup. Similarly, I have yet to delve into Storify other than as a viewer. So on reflection, I don't think I am as current as I though I was. I can see that it takes me a while to feel comfortable with each new application. I lurk for a while (sometimes a long while) before fully engaging. But I'm aiming to do better. I'm off to Lighting the Future this weekend - I am determined to tweet all weekend (#LTF12). All I need now are some followers...
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