Thing 14 : Online Surveys

OK, I know that firewalls are necessary, but they're really getting in the way here. After the segment on Wikis here, I got excited about the possibility of recreating our policies and procedures manual in a wiki format. It needs to be updated in the worst way and the current format is cumbersome. A wiki would be easier to update, would allow several people to make changes, and would make it more accessible. Great, but the firewalls in place here have thwarted all my attempts to set one up.

Likewise, the local firewalls completely block Doodle. Very frustrating.

Google works all right though, and I I'd like to rework some of our library survey with Google. We conduct an annual user survey but only in paper format, it would be interesting to see how many additional responses we received if we added an online component.

And, my one question survey...

Thing 13 : Document Sharing

I've used Google docs quite a bit for committee work. As the Common English clip stated, it eliminated the issue of having multiple copies of a document floating and being passed around, often with different versions of editing.

I've been trying to get the rest of the staff here to warm up to the idea of putting our operations manual into Google docs or into a wiki but so far only a couple people are on board. One question I still have is whether it's a good idea to have our policies and procedures manual publicly accessible. That wouldn't have been possible with the old hard copy version, but web versions make it easy.

I posted a document in my google account, one of my favorite Yeats poems. And shortened the url to boot.

http://bit.ly/a6DRO7

Things 10 & 11: Tweeting and Shortening a URL

I've had a twitter account for some time, though I don't really use it. I set it up to follow some of the threads at the ELUNA conference in Richmond last year, and have kept it, though all I really follow is the VCCS library and TNCC news threads (is "threads" the correct term to use here?)

I was interested to find out about the search engines and the twitterfall site, both could be potentially useful in doing research, or at least for gathering information. And I liked the scenarios that were presented describing how twitter could be used in professional collaborations. Although all these would take a good deal of tweaking to filter out the dross.

URL shortening - I've also been aware of these services but have never used them. And I suspect that if we shortened the links to our databases, for instance changing Academic Search Complete from
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/search?vid=1&hid=110&sid=7b6bd863-f795-4d4d-920d-9709528c2c3b%40sessionmgr110

to http://bit.ly/d9mmCU

that it wouldn't work from off campus. I'll have to try it from home. And just out of curiosity, I shortened the shortened link that we already have, this one:
http://library.vccs.edu/license-bin/linker.plx?ebscoa9h which takes users through the proxy server.

Shortened it looks like this: http://bit.ly/aFVU5o

Tried another, which doesn't have the proxy issues, this is the link to the listing for "The Secret Life of Bees" from our catalog, shortened from http://vccslinc.vccs.edu/F/QCU2RNSQ3UHHKYB8BDKI3K1B2ABGSLFSR6DUSAMMJQ3GA9VRYV-61032?func=full-set-set&set_number=005626&set_entry=000002&format=999

to http://bit.ly/aaXbxa

But again, the true test will be how these links work from off campus. Results to follow...

Thing 9: Photos and Images

I was familiar with flickr, but only as a site for sharing vacation photos and the like. I wasn't aware of all the apps and other features. We've been talking about creating a virtual tour for the library, and also for the new Williamsburg Campus, and this may be just the tool for the job.

I've created a mini tour of the Williamsburg campus using some photos that we took back when the new campus opened in September.

Week 9.5: Generators

Well this was fun. As I mentioned in the previous post, I was familiar with flickr before this, but not with all the apps and features.

I created a banner fo the library using the spelling app, I'd like to use this as the banner for our blog if I can figure out how to get it in there.




And tried this with the ImageChef generator:

Thing 7: Sharing Slide Presentations

In an interesting juxtaposition, I jut returned from a two day workshop on hand book binding. Rather at the opposite end of the spectrum of library work.

This week's information was mostly new to me, and I can see how this sort of service could be useful for creating short demos or instructional clips on using databases and the like. Though I have to say I'm not terribly impressed with SlideShare. I've tried multiple times to create an account and it keeps timing out, either telling me that the site is too busy to show the page, or just freezing up.

So, I haven't been able to create a presentation, or use the share feature (that wasn't working either). About all I can do is imbed a link, which I'll do with the Reality Check slide show.

Reality Check 2010: 5 Trends Shaping Libraries

on to flickr... (did anyone else notice the typo in the Reality Check show? "5 trands...")

Thing 6: Chat

Hmmm, I thought I had posted this last week, but it doesn't appear to be here...

Chat - starting at the end of the reading and working backward. I set up the Questionpoint Qwidget for the VCCS libraries, so I'm quite familiar with it. We've put it on our webpage, as has TCC and it seems to have been incorporated into the Live Reference queues without much problem.

Chat boxes seem to be popping up everywhere these days. I've used this method several times when troubleshooting computer issues (mostly at home), or when looking for information on wireless plans and the like. I've also use IM services for meetings on a couple occasions, seemed to work like a conference call with the added benefit of being able to copy and paste the entire conversation for use later as notes.

However, I don't particularly like having chat constantly active whenever I'm online. I don't like the assumption that just because I'm online I'm available for (or even interested in) conversation. When I am online and a chat window pops up I feel that it would be rude not to respond and because of that I disabled the IM clients that I used for the aforementioned online meetings. I'm trying to figure out how to disable chat in facebook but have had no luck so far.