Atom Feed Available: Liblog: A Library Weblog
Welcome to Liblog 1 - a weblog of current web sites and stories dealing with the interface between technology and libraries. Sometimes the connection to the sphere of the library is tenuous... but in today's world, everything has an impact on libraries, on librarians... and on library users. If you find this weblog of interest, you may enjoy these other library weblogs as well.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tech Tools For Library Outreach: Creating Community, Enabling Research, Promoting Learning (For Free!)
Chad F. Boeninger (Ohio University); Paul R. Pival, Univ. of Calgary [blog at: http://distlib.blogs.com/]
Outreach: The activity of an organization in making contact and fostering relations with people unconnected with it. To reach or extend beyond, to exceed reach.
Shifting gears: Getting Up To Get Into The Flow report: 'We need to stop thinking of our lovingly crafted sites designed specifically for our contect as the only way that people are finding our content.'
Blog to help promote presence - for example, of subject expertise. Can also be used for communicating with students. Showed Word Press plug-in that allowed for quick quizes (polls) that was used with class.
Chad has transitioned some content from his Business Blog into a wiki ("Biz Wiki") - finds it better for managing information. But also uses the wiki as part of outreach to his students - course outlines there, assignments (with links to help complete the assignments), etc.
Facebook - puts basic information into profile, helps give context to who is putting up the materials in Blog, Wiki, etc.
Paul - switched from proprietary software to using Meebo for reference. One of the best things they have done. One challenge with Meebo is keeping it updates while you are using other clients, or while you are away. One nice plug-in is "pigeon" which allows you to monitor multiple IM accounts from different sources, update theb status on all of them, and answer questions from any ofn them in the Meebo widget. http://pidgin.com.
Calgary has embedded a Meebo widget in the catalog - on every page, including those of search results pages. Help available all over.
Experimenting with video chat via Skype - Ohio doing this to staff a 4th floor desk from their main desk on the 2nd floor - has webcam so that librarian can monitor that desk remotely and interact with users.
Screencasting - Jing (http://www.jingproject.com). Works on Macs and PCs. Allows you to share stuff in real time if you want. Allows for either still images or video (5 minute limit). Provides annotation tools. Can embed result on web sites, or can share the result with others. Simple, great for quick-and-dirty demo stuff (but no editing.)
Screencast-o-matic site (http://screencastomatic.com). Can capture anything in your browser.
Ohio using special software to manage their FAQs. Can create new articles, assign them to categories and assign them meta keywords, include images, etc. They are added to a database, which a search engine queries. Most viewed and recent articles are displayed in the public-facing interface. Automatically time-stamps updates, allows for simple user feedback - was this helpful? Also allows for questions to be submitted - these can be quickly added to the database with the answers provided, so that users are helping to add content to the database. Software uses php and MySQL.
Labels: Chad F. Boeninger, Free Tools, IL2007, Outreach, Paul R. Pival
0 Comments:
Create a Link
Other web logs with links to library issues:
- Lori Bowen Ayre's Library Technology Musings provides "Hopes, dreams, wild ideas and practical solutions for libraries."
- Marylaine Block's Neat New Stuff I Found This Week (and her Ex Libris E-Zine for librarians.)
- Tara Calishain's Research Buzz, "news about search engines, databases, and other information collections."
- Blake Carver and Steve Galbraith's LISNews.com, focuses on (as the subtitle puts it), "news for information professionals."
- Steven M. Cohen's Library Stuff, provides readers with information on the wonderful and exciting world of librarianship.
- Gary Frost's Future of the Book, looks at "preservation and persistence of the changing book."
- Michael Gartenberg (an analyst with Jupiter Research, a market research and advisory firm focused on emerging technologies and the Internet) is one of several Jupiter researchers producing an Analyst Weblog.
- Brend Hough and Liz Rea's NEKLS Technology Weblog, "50 Feet From the Cutting Edge in the Northeast Kansas Library System."
- Sarah Houghton's Librarian In Black, has "resources and discussions for the 'tech-librarians-by-default' among us..."
- Jenny Levine, the original bloggin' librarian, is back with the Shifted Librarian, working to make libraries more "portable... to serve our remote patrons."
- Alex Soojung-Kim Pang (one of the Institute for the Future's research team) is producing Future Now, which looks at emerging technologies and their social implications.
- Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy's ResourceShelf has "resources and news for information professionals" (including the latest scoops on what's what with the invisible web).
- Michael Stephens' Tame the Web includes, "current technology uses in libraries, training tips and various other interests concerning library settings."
- Sandra Stewart at San Jose Public Library is producing a Library Tourguide to Blogs and Technology.
- Jessamyn West's librarian.net, keeping track of the nifty reference sites - and library references - she finds.
- Stephanie Wright's TechnoBiblio, where librarians and technogeeks speak the same language.
Not a weblog, but a very funny look at libraries:
- Unshelved - Bill Barnes' and Gene Ambaum's library comic strip (formerly known as Overdue.)
Powered By Blogger, a web service we're using to maintain Liblog.
Liblog is produced by staff of the Redwood City Public Library. We welcome your comments.
