January's Core Value: Accountability

I have three work-related goals for this year (which I will hold myself accountable for):

• Collaborate better with my co-workers. My introverted self can sometimes spend too much time in my office with tunnel-vision on my current projects. I need to get out, attend more meetings, propose more meetings.
• Plunge myself into new projects with abandon. I can hem and haw a lot before starting new projects -- often I need to just get on with it.
• Do well in the class I'm taking this semester, then try to figure out exactly what masters program I want to apply to.

Thing #5: Facebook

Facebook is huge -- more and more people are on everyday, and people spend an extraordinary amount of time there. So it's good for libraries to have a presence there, though I'm not sure that many people (except Library Science students) are all that interested in libraries' facebook accounts. But we must try!

Belk Library's facebook page is really good. It's got announcements about events, changes in hours, new services. And there are some comments from other users, which is always a good sign. A few things I've seen other libraries do that we could start:

• University of Michigan has an Event tab on their page -- this way they can post their events to special "event" area. So it shows up on their Wall, but also neatly listed in Events. I also like their use of a logo (M love Library).
• UNC Davis Library sometimes asks for suggestions for new materials to purchase. Seems like a good way to get a conversation going.
• I haven't any library that does this, but whenever the library creates videos (or screencast-sort-or-things) they should be posted to facebook.

Thing #4: Prezi

I'm a little behind on my 23 Things blogging... I must catch up!

I discovered Prezi last summer though a blog, iirc. It was right when I was preparing presentations for job interviews, so I thought I'd try using Prezi instead of boring old PowerPoint. And I found that Prezi was actually really easy to learn (their interface is quite intuitive), and it impresses people who haven't seen it before. Because it looks all cool and animated.

In my opinion, the worst Prezis are those that just take a Powerpoint presentation and paste the content into Prezi. Like this Prezi about the history of the Connecticut State Library. Everything is the same size and same orientation. You just go from slide to slide, and it looks little different from a normal PowerPoint presentation.

The good ones make use of Prezi's zooming capabilities to make the presentation more dynamic. You don't want to make your viewers seasick, but you want to let them swoop through your info a little. Just for fun. I like this Prezi, which contains info about a Summer Reading Program at Lynnwood Library.

Thing #3: Twitter

I have had a twitter account for a few months (jsizemo), but I have to say I haven't exactly embraced the technology. I've only tweeted a few times. I follow about 45 people/organizations, but I only look at their tweets once every couple of weeks. I think my problem with it is that I find it to be a huge time suck. Some people tweet too much inconsequential garbage. I follow some librarians and libraries who tweet great stuff, but then that's just more professional reading I have to do. And I already have too much!

I might be more on-the-bandwagon if I had a smartphone with a data plan. Then I could read tweets while standing in line at the grocery store. But as it is I just don't have time for it.

Libraries are doing some good things with Twitter. University of Illinois -- Urbana/Champagne tweets from their Undergraduate Library with updates on services and resources. NYPL tweets intriguing quotes from books.

I do think that we need to remember who exactly uses Twitter. I've read a study (I don't remember now any citation information for it, but I've got it on my other computer -- will update) that says that a high percentage of undergraduate-age students don't tweet. So when we create Twitter services, we need to think about our audience.

Thing #2: RSS

Our assignment for this week is to set up an account with an RSS reader. I currently use Google Reader to keep track of the blogs I read. Google Reader saves me a lot of time, because I subscribe to over 75 blogs. And, no, I don't read everything on those blogs. I do lots of skimming! I have the feeds organized into folders: book review blogs, family and friends, libraries and technology, and quilting/crafting.

Google Reader keeps a count of how many unread posts you have in your Google Reader, and mine's currently at 406. Hmmm, it may be time to do some cleaning out. :) I've found that when I find a new blog that interests me, I subscribe to it, read the next few posts, then either it becomes a favorite that I always read or I start to ignore it in my reader so that unread posts pile up. Eventually it becomes obvious that I'm not going to get anything out of this blog and I unsubscribe. There's so much content out there, if one blog doesn't do it for me there's always another to take its place!

Thing #1: Blogging

Belk Library is doing "23 Things" as a staff development program. I'm so in, because playing with technology is fun. Plus I want to win an iPad. Really want an iPad.

So here is my 23 Things blog. Our first task was to make this blog. This was not too hard for me, as I've actually been blogging (on and off) for about 5 years. I talk about books at jennie's b[ook]log and my favorite author at the Mary Stewart blog.

Our other task for this "thing" was to give an example of a blog we like. I read waaay too many blogs. I can't choose just one. So here are a few.

Libraries:

ALA Techsource -- Lots of interesting technology-in-libraries stuff.

info-mational -- Very thoughtful posts about information literacy.

ACRLog -- All about academic libraries.

Web Design:

A List Apart -- "For people who make websites."

Design Reviver -- Tutorials, downloads, and inspiration for web designers.

Quilting/Crafts:

Film in the Fridge -- Prolific maker of beautiful quilts.

Posie Gets Cozy -- All kinds of cozy crafts.