Things 22 and 23 – The Last Thing!

It’s been quite a journey to follow this course, and I’m sad to have come to the end. It’s time now to reflect, though – how have I applied what I’ve learned and what would I like to be able to do with it?

Blogging

I’ve learned to develop a professional voice of my own and to gain confidence putting forward my opinion. Until this course, I’d never posted on a blog or created one of my own. I’ve been able to put into practice what I’ve learned both technically and in terms of confidence into blog articles for the MmITS group and as part of GUL’s 23 Things Mobile, which required participants to post on a communal library blog. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a prize for a post regarding the environmental impact of Cloud computing, first developed as part of this course.

Photosharing

My own institution has its own Flickr account, so it’s clearly a skill useful to marketing and promotion. Library assistants are not involved in these types of projects, though, so it’s been important to me to understand photosharing programs beyond my working environment. I would like to put it to use for my committee and volunteering activities.

Facebook

Due to the prevalence of Facebook in our personal lives and now in the workplace, this course made me take the plunge to find out more about it. My own institution has it’s own Facebook account, so again it’s a skill now associated with library promotion and marketing. I’m still very reticent to use Facebook on a personal level, but it’s been very useful for me to understand how it works and I’m confident that I would now be capable of managing a library Facebook account.

Twitter

This has been one of the most useful tools to come out of this course for me. Networking via Twitter is very instantaneous, with a wealth of information immediately available from the person or group you are following. It gave me the chance to be involved with the Glasgow Library Tweetups group, visiting specialist information services in Glasgow. I was very inspired by the talk given by Breast Cancer Care as part of GLTU and this gave me the idea to look for volunteering opportunities in the charity sector. Twitter was then the means by which I discovered that Macmillan would be launching the Macmillan @ Glasgow Libraries project, so I was able to contact Macmillan right at the start and began training only months later. I doubt that I would have been aware of this project without Twitter. Although I still lack some confidence in posting my own tweets, it’s been very useful to gather followers from different library services and to use my Twitter feed to promote MmITS and Macmillan events. I hope to be able to develop a wider professional network through Twitter and to post on a more regular basis on professional issues.

Social Bookmarking, Tagging and Wordle

Although I’m glad to have learned a range of different online tools, I can’t see a direct application for these within my current activities apart from Wordle, which now seems to be the default embelishment for every presentation I’ve attended since this course.

Legal Aspect

This is such an important topic and this course has helped to highlight just how many aspects of my work, whether for the Institutional Repository, at the Lending Services Desk, in Book Acquisitions or for the Document Delivery Service, rely on an understanding of corresponding laws that I have a responsibility to know. Despite this, I have been turned down for the staff training offered at my own institution on Copyright Law, Freedom of Information and Data Protection on the basis that this training is not directly relevant to my job, a mindset that I believe sets a dangerous precedent within the library. This course, and my attendance at relevant seminars in my own time, has at least allowed me to fill in the gaps and I hope to keep up with developing issues such as the Digital Economy Act and any other changes to the existing laws as I go forward in my career.

Searching and Q&A Forums

As an information professional, any tool that develops my skills in being able to discover quality, relevant information is of interest to me, and I am now far more aware of the range of websites and online tools available to categorise web content for this purpose. My current job does not require the same kind of search skills that would be required of a library assistant in front-line activities such as enquiries or lending services, but it is my responsibility to be prepared to step into those roles whenever required, so this topic has given me a better foundation for those tasks.

RSS Feeds

In terms of current awareness, I was glad to learn how RSS feeds work and I’ve been able to put them into practice on the blogs that I’ve set up for this course. Although RSS feeds serve no purpose in my main role in Book Acquisitions, I am hoping to apply RSS feeds to the website I maintain for the CILIPS MmITS group to create closer links with the main MmIT group and the wider CILIPS community. As the interface is fairly basic and I have limited administrative rights, it may be a challenge to find a way to do this, but now that I’m aware of how simple this technology is, I’m confident I’ll be able to apply what I’ve learned for this purpose.

Wikis

I love the idea of collaboration between different libraries and information services, so I was really glad to learn more about wikis and how they have been used for this purpose. Although I don’t believe they serve a purpose within a shared location, I had nevertheless offered to create a wiki for my department due to the lack of group staff meetings and poor communication in general. My idea was to create a space for staff to raise issues related to work flows and practices as we often find that we all do things slightly differently but with no way to really discuss the best solution. My offer was declined, but perhaps with good reason. The university library instituted its own wiki via Sharepoint within months of my suggestion and the staff have never used it. I could certainly see a place for wikis in the voluntary work that I do for Macmillan, though. I would like to see a wiki forum where the volunteers from different shifts and services could put forward their ideas of how best to develop the services. There is a huge focus on making the services predominantly volunteer led. Without a regular way for us to collaborate in person, a wiki could be an ideal way for volunteers to achieve this virtually.

Start Pages

As these have been largely phased out, evolved into speed-dial pages, or been superseded by other social media tools, I didn’t find start pages to be relevant to the tools available in my own library.

Cloud Computing

I’ve become far more aware of the Cloud since studying this part of the course and found that certain aspects of my library that I had believed were utilising cloud computing were in fact reliant on off-site servers. It has been essential for me to understand what constitutes Cloud computing, especially as there are so many programs that I’m using in various parts of my job now that rely on Cloud programs and websites, especially those for document delivery and sending electronic articles to international institutions. As I develop in my profession, I need to be aware of the various tools available in the Cloud in making informed decisions regarding the kind of services my library provides and the method of provision. This has become even more apparent to me following my involvement in my own library’s ’23 Things Mobile’ course, which looks at mobile technology and its application in libraries. Although sometimes imperceptible, it’s important to be aware of native apps on mobile devices as compared to Cloud based apps. Syncing across several devices is made possible with Cloud based apps that store data externally. If I am to be successful in helping to develop mobile library applications, it is essential that I know all the variations that Cloud computing offers.

Online Tools

This part of the course introduced me to Google Docs, which the MmITS Group that I am part of has since used to share documentation. Due to access issues experienced by some members who work for local authority organisations, however, I organised for a private area to be created on the MmITS pages of the CILIPS website to be used in a similar way to Google Docs. Although the functionality is more limited with this solution, we can nevertheless upload, store and edit committee documents and we also have a dedicated forum for group discussion, all without any of the access restrictions associated with Google. I have also been able to use Dropbox as part of my work in Document Delivery when sending electronic articles to other institutions and to backup my Chartership documents. This has given me the option to make those folders available to my mentor, which will be a much more effective way of sharing my development and receiving feedback.

I was also able to discover that Meebo in my library was discontinued due to the acquisition of Meebo by Google Inc. I’m glad to hear that the library is now investigating alternatives as I believe instant messaging is still a valuable way to provide enquiry and lending services to library users.

Youtube and Video

I’ve benefited very much as a Youtube user, even though I would very much like to have the chance to create multimedia content of this nature, keeping in mind copyright issues that I’m continuing to learn. I see Youtube and similar sites as providing two invaluable functions in terms of library services and my own professional development – that of promotion and as a training/information resource.

As part of my professional development, I volunteer with Macmillan providing cancer information and support in Glasgow libraries. This is a pilot project and promotion is vital to success. Macmillan have their own channel on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/user/MacmillanCancer), and as I progress as a volunteer, I’d love to create content for the channel based on the Macmillan@Glasgow Libraries services. This would be a relatively economic way to raise awareness of what the library-based services offer, as this has been a particular issue for new services opening within the last year – many library users see the Macmillan brand and believe it to be a findraising activity, not realising that we are providing a drop-in cancer information service. The link could be forwarded to stakeholders, hospitals, GPs, other cancer charities, Glasgow councils, carers and patient groups as a means of getting the word out.

Training is very difficult to obtain and I would love to see professional training videos offered by CILIP as part of their support for continuing professional development. Although there is a CILIP channel on Youtube, I was very disappointed to see that the training playlist has been deleted and can only hope that there are plans to update this facility. As part of the MmITS committee, we’ve also been looking into providing training in multimedia tools for MmITS members regardless of location, so I’d like to see CILIPS groups such as ours fill this gap using visual tools such as Youtube to reach dispersed members in a cost effective way.

Audio

Audio tools such as podcasts serve similar functions as that of visual tools, although I think they edge towards the educational more than the promotional and this is certainly true of my own academic institution. I’m enthusiastic about the ease of which podcasts could be produced for the activities I’m involved with e.g. training material for MmITS members and promotional material for the Macmillan @ Glasgow Libraries services. I think that podcasts and audio tools may prove more limited than visual material for promotional purposes, but they could still offer an ideal way to easily embed Macmillan information into the Glasgow Libraries website. Similarly, although I believe training is best in a real-time face to face situation, I would love to develop podcasts that would provide MmITS members with a quick overview of the latest topics in multimedia and information technology, at the same time raising the profile of the group. These could easily be made available on the MmITS blog and website.

DIY Library

Since this part of the course, I’ve become very much more involved with book-based community groups such as The Library Thing. I’m still a bit of a lurker, but that’s more to do with the wealth of comments and reviews to read than my previous lack of confidence on social and professional networking sites. The DIY library is much more applicable to my own development than to anything I could apply it to in a work situation, although a fellow Macmillan volunteer recently suggested that book groups focussing on various cancer support themes may help to convince reticent library users to approach our information service. Creating an online library of materials and forums to be made available on the library website could also be an option, particularly with the increase in public library users who have expectations of mobile services.

Google Maps

Within the sphere of by position in Book Acquisitions, there isn’t a call for any kind of maps-based application. Following on from my discovery that Google is developing software to map library buildings, however, I’m interested in how this could be applied. A discussion with our Mobile Strategy Co-ordinator revelealed that my library is keen to investigate library mapping options that would enable a scheme similar to that of the University of Warwick, whereby enquiries staff are no longer static but roam the library, dynamically responding to enquiries by pinpointing the source via mobile technology. As a library assistant with responsibilities to the lending and enquiries desks when we are short-staffed, this is a project that I would certainly be required to help support. Wi-fi has been specifically reinforced throughout the library building to support mobile technology over the last year, so this is a scheme that I can imagine being piloted in the near future, hopefully giving me the chance to experience first hand what can be developed from mapping software.

Ebooks

Ebooks have become very central to the work within my department, so it’s a topic I’ve been aware of for some time. Although it could be argued that the academic ebook landscape is less volatile than that of public ebook lending, there are still inherent problems and constantly shifting terms and conditions. I receive updates fairly regularly to say that a particular provider can no longer be considered when we are checking for ebook sources as prices may have gone up in comparison with other competitors, or perhaps the library has signed a deal to purchase a set list of titles from a particular publisher, or purchasing of certain titles may be dependant upon Patron Driven Acquisition for a set amount of time. Monitoring is constantly required with regard to the purchase models provided by each supplier as this can quickly change from multi to single user access per purchase.

A recent CILIP Update article commented that Academic Libraries are leading the way in terms of ebooks, and that’s perhaps due to the sheer quantity of ebooks now being purchased and also the relative ease with which access can be provided to students. In this regard, I have been able to apply my increased understanding of ebooks to the job I do every day. It’s important that my knowledge extends beyond the academic sector, however, as much of the debate surrounding ebooks centers upon public library ebook lending due to publisher concerns that revenue will be lost if a single purchase can then be accessed by multiple library users. I’ve always believed in a holistic approach to my work so that I understand complete processes, even if I function only as a part of that process. Consequently, although I apply my developing knowledge of ebooks to my everyday work when providing purchasing options to supervisors, final decisions are made without the involvement of library assistants, and it’s incumbent upon me to learn those aspects of ebooks that are missing from the practical experience I have of them if I am to become a well-rounded information professional. This course has allowed me to do that.

Thing 21 – E-Books

Ebooks is such a massive subject these days, and has brought significant changes to my job in Book Acquisitions. When I first started in this department several years ago, the policies were focussed on how many print copies to buy based on the number of students, demand for the title, and destined location (i.e. the main library collection vs short loan) With the advent of ebooks, purchasing issues are a lot more complicated. While there is a huge benefit to the fact that the purchasing model need no longer be restricted to one book borrowed by one student at a time, but rather one ebook available simultaneously to many students, this is offset by licensing restrictions, variable costs and terms depending on supplier, and pilot schemes such as Patron Driven Acquisition (PDA). PDA is when a number of ebook titles in a particular subject area are selected at the beginning of the trial period and only purchased following an agreed number of patron views, the idea being that our stock is then driven by what students are actually using. This can be very tricky to predict successfully, though, and in at least one case used up the entire ebook budget for one academic library in the first month. 

Although I’m very interested in new technology, ebook readers have consistently remained out of my price range, but I’ll also admit that I’m not particularly drawn to spending the money due to my love of printed books and also the various issues regarding format compatability and ownership – when I purchase a print book, at least I don’t have to worry it’ll disappear from my shelf without warning! A friend of mine who writes for the MmITS blog wrote an article last year in praise of ebook readers and suggested that print has had it’s day. My argument has always been that there is room for both, and I put forward my own counter-argument. In saying that, I read with interest David Vinjamuri’s article ‘The Wrong War Over Ebooks – Publishers vs. Libraries’ and I really believe that public libraries must have the chance to lend ebooks to library users with e-readers, otherwise libraries may be taken out of the equation altogether.

Thing 20 – The Coming Thing

Although libraries are closing and statistics are showing less use, I don’t think a wholesale move to virtual library services is the right answer and misses the opportunity for the one to enhance and promote the other. In the UK, government policies to cut costs seem to have been the driving force behind closures, not necessarily a sharp decline in demand. To play devil’s advocate, however, an issue that has come up regularly throughout my career is how difficult many libraries and information professionals find promoting both themselves and their services, perhaps because this wasn’t as much of a necessity in the past, or because it’s still not considered part of traditional library work. This leads to what I think is one of the biggest problems facing libraries – many people don’t actually know what they offer anymore. Libraries may have moved with the times, but do user communities know that? Not according to the ‘Libraries in the Digital Age’, an American report on public libraries by the Pew Research Center, which concluded that, although the importance of libraries within communities hasn’t diminished, few patrons are aware of all the services available.

Children are now being brought up with Google as an intrinsic part of their lives, believing that all answers can be found in a couple of clicks. Information professionals have always been the key to helping people find quality information and hidden resources, however, and this doesn’t change with the advent of the virtual environment. Indeed, with every user now a potential publisher on the net, skills that can discriminate between poor and high quality information online become more vital than ever. There is also the concern that socially disadvantaged people or those with disabilities may find themselves closed off from the wholly virtual library. Going back to the idea of the People’s Network, libraries should always provide a physical hub to the virtual services available worldwide. It shouldn’t be a choice between the two. Ultimately, then, marketing and promotion should be as important to libraries as to commercial organizations, and the virtual environment should be used to do just that. I don’t think it’s enough just to advertise events on library websites, though. We have to learn to reach people, not simply expect them to find us first.

One of the suggestions in the Pew Research Center study was that libraries should form greater links to local businesses and organizations. In 2011, I was also privileged to attend a seminar by Melanie West of North Ayrshire Libraries discussing their children’s programme and was very inspired by the range of innovative ideas they had to create partnerships with local schools and businesses to cross-promote learning services for children. My library app would therefore be focussed on creating virtual links between libraries, school children and local organizations. Similar to the highly dynamic reading list software currently being introduced into my academic library, my app would enable collaboration between teachers, community workers and librarians to develop tailored resources that school children could access via the app, which could perhaps take the form of a virtual environment similar to Second Life. A school project could then be initiated by the teacher and the app tailored to provide pertinent links to multimedia, book titles and articles available at the local library; and specialized information, talks, multimedia and events information provided by local organizations e.g. the Scottish Wildlife Trust. This could be a great way of getting children interested and knowledgeable about what local libraries offer at an early age and to promote stronger links and shared resources between schools, libraries and the wider community.

I’d love to hear from anyone within the public library sector as to developments in this area – Is this kind of app already available? Are there reasons why it would be unrealistic? More research is certainly required!!

Thing 19 – You Are Here

I’m fairly addicted to Google Maps which, to keep it relevant, ensured that I made it to my very first Chartership mentor meeting without getting lost! I’m not that familiar with Edinburgh, so using ‘Get Directions’ and the street view allowed me to take a virtual trip from the train station to my destination in advance. Although it turns out that my instincts would have been right on the day, the option to make the journey on foot via my PC took all the stress out of trying to find somewhere new and let me focus on why I was going there instead. I’ve used it many times since ahead of holidays so that no time is wasted finding the sights.

Due to a lot of refurbishment over the past few years, the satellite view of my library was obviously recent and most definitely in the summer. Probably that one day of sunshine last year! I downloaded the Google Moon and Mars programs as soon as they were available and can imagine how inspirational they would be as teaching tools, particularly for primary children. It’s also another way in which libraries can offer educational online resources within local communities, and it would be interesting to learn what kind of sites and programs such as these are available in public libraries. As I researched this very thing, I stumbled across Google’s newest application of their mapping technology – mapping public libraries! As a person who works in one of the largest library buildings in Scotland, I’m going to keep an eye on how successful this is. I already have a Google login, so I thought I’d give the ‘My Places’ facility on Google Maps a go and create a map referencing places I visited on a recent trip to Arbroath. Although it was a bit tricky to get the hang of at first, it was a lot of fun and would be a great way to share information on places you’ve been to and what to see. Here’s the link and embedded version of the map I created:

My Trip to Arbroath

The controversy surrounding the street view images on Google Maps caught my attention early on, and it’s certainly lamentable that images such as house fires and unintentional invasions of privacy were photographed in the first place, never mind included. As the victim of a burglary several years ago, I was never comfortable with the fact that any stranger with internet access could obtain aerial and street views of my house, so I was relieved to learn that the street view images of any address can be removed at the request of the owner, but it’s certainly another reason why permission should be sought for certain categories of images captured for street view.

Lastly, I visited my local authority’s planning department and tested their map facility for identifying local planning applications that have been made, up to a ten year limit. The facility was much slower than the Google Maps service, but that had more to do with the limitations of my laptop and the authority’s use of very detailed ordnance survey maps than any fundamental issue with the service. My biggest concern, however, was the lack of map detail when the focus was increased to a schematic street level. Even though I live in the neighbourhood, it was easy to become disorientated without a complete list of street names. Once a location was identified, though, the information was highly specialised and detailed, demonstrating the diverse functions that maps provide for different information services.

Thing 18 – The Do-It-Yourself Library

Just taking the Overdrive ebook tour necessitated downloading a plugin, something that tends to put me off when accessing content at home. It’s a very minor inconvenience, though, for the option of accessing books that would otherwise require a trip to my not-so-local library. Speaking of which, I had a quick look to see if they had ebooks on offer and, although not hosted on individual library websites, there is a region-wide online ebook service to all residents of North Lanarkshire. As with Surrey, though, there is a notice that ebooks can’t be used on Amazon Kindle devices, but they do provide a link to Project Gutenberg to mitigate this. The University library where I work has been purchasing ebooks for a number of years now and the policy is to select an ebook, where available, when we receive a request for multiple copies of a title. It’s quite a different experience to access an ebook in the University – once a student has logged onto the the University system, they have immediate access in most cases to any ebook they select from the catalogue.

I’m very interested in The Library Thing, not only for the online network aspect, but also to improve my knowledge and understanding of Cataloguing – something I’m learning in my own time.  With such a range of websites available that focus on reading group activities, The Library Thing is an excellent introduction to those communities and the resources available. Conducting a quick search for a favourite of mine, ‘The Dead Zone’ by Stephen King, there was an impressive amount of information, ranging from book covers, first and last lines and availability to in-depth user reviews, historical events referenced in the book and movie versions. Although reading groups and book clubs aren’t something I’ve ever tried before, this would certainly be my first port of call. I would very much like to see libraries at the forefront of online book group resources such as this, but it comes down to resources and expertise. The Library Thing demonstrates what’s possible, though, so there’s no reason why libraries can’t emulate this success and work in collaboration with groups and enthusiasts for mutual benefit.

In searching what Google Books has to offer, I had less of an expectation of availability due to the obvious copyright issues, a continuing source of controversy with the Authors Guild and an interesting test case for future digitization projects. I nevertheless searched for ‘The Go-Between’ by L.P. Hartely and, although the book was unavailable to read online, there was some interesting information about the book itself and a helpful number of user reviews. Deferring to my old favourite, Sherlock Holmes, I found a range of resources that allowed me to read all the short stories either online or as a pdf. Repeating the same 2 book searches on Project Gutenberg, I wasn’t given any listing for The Go-Between, but was offered a range of titles of the same genre and found the site more comprehensive for browsing. Although Sherlock Holmes was again well represented in a range of file formats, I preferred the digitised copy available from Google Books as it retained the original typesetting and illustrations, aspects missing from the Project Gutenberg version. This is of minor importance, though, as the text was complete and readily available. Although I’m a diehard fan of books in a physical format, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the opportunity to access classic works so easily and I’d be interested in researching to what extent school libraries are able to make use of these resources.

Thing 17 – Audio: Hearing is Believing

My go-to media site tends to be YouTube, so I’ve never really taken the time to research podcasts. I was intrigued to have a quick look around the University website where I work and found plenty of academic podcasts available, most commonly for specialized courses, such as the School of Medicine’s ‘Clinical Skills’ series and the Astronomy Department’s podcast lectures, but podcasts have also been created for exhibitions, conferences and as a platform for monthly messages from the Principal. Although the library no longer appears to host dedicated podcast content, the ‘Library on Demand’ service does offer audio-only versions of the library guide videos.

As many of the podcasts I found seemed to date from the heyday of the medium, I was interested to know if podcasts are holding their own against other developments such as mobile access to YouTube and Facebook. I came across this discussion on the Warriorforum website, which suggests that it’s the simple audio-only attributes of podcasts that account for their enduring popularity. As one forum member commented ‘people cannot view video, tweet, play on Facebook, blog, or email while they are driving down the road.’ Like the radio, podcasts are incredibly versatile and therefore convenient. BBC’s Click program also reviewed the status of podcasts (Podcasts: who still listens to them? by Alex Hudson), and believes the future belongs more to ‘smaller broadcasters and amateur enthusiasts’ than to big names. This is where libraries are very well placed to make use of this simple medium to create unique content, offering something more than the duplicated content that podcasts are often accused of. Sites such as Audioboo prove that podcasts have the potential to emulate Twitter, so it’s a technology still worth exploiting for information services.

To experience them for myself, I chose a podcast version of a 45 minute interview I had no time to listen to at home. I quickly downloaded the podcast to my mp3 player and listened to the whole thing as I travelled to work – a much more enjoyable journey than usual! As long as you’re prepared to download and shuttle the content, the convenience of accessing something relevant on the move and in such an easy format is invaluable, particularly for those with a long commute.

These same attributes can potentially be found in Audiobooks, and it was an eye-opener to discover how many titles are available. I’ve always been a Sherlock Holmes fan, so that was my litmus test on the Project Gutenberg site. I chose ‘The Devil’s Foot’ and ‘The Return of Sherlock Holmes’ to compare. The former was a computer-generated voice, the latter the voice of a professional actor. The difference was huge, and I confess I couldn’t continue with The Devil’s Foot as the voice had no life or natural cadence. The opposite was true of The Return of Sherlock Holmes, and the professional voice gave real vitality and depth to the text. As with podcasts, quality of the content will always be paramount.

Thing 16 – YouTube and Video

Youtube is a site I’ve used for years, but purely for entertainment purposes. I’ve created videos, uploaded them, created my own channel and commented on others, so I’ve always found it to be a great tool for sharing with others who have the same interests and finding out information that can be elusive elsewhere.

I became aware of YouTube as a source of instructional videos when the guitarist in my family used the site to learn techniques for particular pieces of music. It’s no surprise, then, that information services are making use of video-sharing sites for similar educational purposes. As always, quality varies depending on the budget and expertise of the library posting the videos and I think it’s important to keep in mind that anything posted on a public forum, especially one that incorporates audio-visual material, will also be advertising that service to some degree.

I recently attended a seminar that discussed best practice in using media tools such as YouTube and the speaker offered a comparison between a promotional video for my own institution and that of Brigham Young University Library. The response to each in the comments section, number of times viewed and reaction in the conference room proved very clearly that the latter University had engaged the audience much more effectively. I’ll refrain from making the same comparison, particularly as my own institution continues to develop the promotional and instructional videos on offer, but I’ll practice my embedding skills by including the very entertaining Brigham Young University Library promo:

I’m only just discovering how useful video-sharing sites can also be for information professionals looking for professional development resources. I’m currently looking for different ways to learn cataloguing skills in my own time. Without resources at work or accessible courses, the option to watch instructional videos on YouTube in conjunction with textbooks might prove to be invaluable. It’ll be important, though, to make sure that the videos are from a quality source and comply with the legal aspects of the site. I conducted a quick search regarding the legal aspects of embedding YouTube videos and it seems that to embed a video does not infringe upon copyright as long as the owner of the video has enabled the embedding option, thereby agreeing to a limited user license under Item 8 of the YouTube terms of service. The issue becomes more complicated if the original video features unauthorised content, though, as embedding such a video then amounts to distribution of unauthorised material. Definitely something to investigate further.

I love the idea of using video-sharing sites to capture the anecdotal memories of local communities, such as the ‘Memory Box’ project at Newcastle libraries. Oral history is ephemeral by nature and easily lost. Public libraries and local history services are best placed to capture these. Sites such as YouTube offer the chance not only to record this type of information, but also to make it instantly and easily available beyond the walls of the library.

Thing 15 – Online Tools

I’ve only recently begun to use Google Docs as a means of sharing documents with other members of a committee I’m involved with. As I was new to the world of Google and all its integrated applications, the first difficulty I had was how to locate the documents that had been shared with me. It didn’t help that Google Docs transformed into Google Drive at about the same time! Access issues aside, though, Google Docs proved to be a useful program that enabled committee members in various locations to successfully develop a survey which was then made available online. Although I’m more familiar with Dropbox, and prefer the fact that changes aren’t automatically saved to the original document unless specified, I think that work-related collaboration via Google Docs makes sense given that most people now have a gmail account and therefore immediate access to Google Docs – an easier prospect than creating dedicated logins for a standalone application such as Dropbox. One issue that we encountered, however, was that many local authorities block access to gmail and Google, preventing certain members from accessing Google Docs at work. This is a problem unrelated to the tool itself, though, and would likely affect access to similar online tools of this nature.

Online tools that are being used in my library to varying effect for the promotion of events and services are Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, WordPress and YouTube, the latter providing a series of ‘How To’ videos. Yammer, a sort of workplace version of Facebook, had been introduced to encourage professional networking within the library, but this proved unsuccessful as few felt comfortable posting comments that could be read by all staff. Video conferencing is used on a management level for collaboration with international institutions. Although I’m unsure of the program used, the university in general is keen to find virtual alternatives to travel as part of the ‘Universities and Colleges Climate Commitment to Scotland’ and the ‘Carbon Management Plan’, so I believe that an online tool would be an ideal solution in this instance. The Enquiry service previously used Meebo Instant Messaging to answer live queries from library members, but this has since been discontinued, as have Podcasts. The Library’s Mobile Strategy is certainly focused on keeping up to date with evolving technologies, so I think it’s a positive thing that applications are tested and discarded or replaced if they don’t fulfill the intended purpose. The development of the library’s mobile application is most likely the reason why other tools have been removed as users can now access library information and services from a range of devices.

Thing 14 – Heading Into The Cloud

It was interesting to research just what is classed as ‘Cloud computing’ and to compare that to the programs I use on a daily basis in my library. In my own department of book acquisitions, it’s very apparent just how much we have shifted to cloud computing. The library building itself was previously host to several on-site servers, but university computing services have now been streamlined and centralised away from the library as the systems we depend on are increasingly made available remotely. Although I couldn’t establish the delivery method of our new Library Management System, the company certainly offers it in 3 forms – Cloud based, local and SaaS. Our updates often originate in the USA and have to be scheduled accordingly, so there’s certainly an element of remote provision involved.

We have always made use of the ‘public cloud’ in order to source books using online resources such as Amazon, Abe and OCLC, and the recent introduction of a complete online ordering system has given us private access to a customised supplier database and shopping cart facility. This has had a dramatic impact on the speed of service, with an average turnaround time of days rather than weeks between book request and delivery. I’m also involved with the Document Delivery Service, helping to digitise and send electronic articles worldwide. As part of this system, Dropbox has recently been introduced as the intermediary program through which we make the articles available and the requesting institution receives them, so this is certainly an example of using Cloud services for collaboration and to streamline services. Multiple articles can now be uploaded to Dropbox, reducing the time previously wasted sending articles one item at a time.

The Guardian article referenced on the course website questions whether the Cloud is environmentally friendly, concluding that it mitigates the problem of under-utilisation of always-on servers through virtualisation, but that Cloud data centres are power hungry. This reminded me of a recent report by Greenpeace that investigated which Cloud based companies were the worst offenders in terms of environmental issues and found that Apple, Amazon and Twitter compared poorly with Google, Facebook and Yahoo by failing to invest in renewable energy resources and maintaining a reliance on coal and nuclear energy. I confess I hadn’t previously considered this impact and it makes me wonder how many organisations take this into consideration when choosing Cloud computing options

Thing 13 – Getting Started with Start Pages

To begin with, I wasn’t sure how start pages differed from blogs with multiple widgets, social networking sites like Facebook, or in-house web-pages with embedded social media applications. I was fairly intrigued to find out what iGoogle could offer, but was immediately met with the following:

Important!

iGoogle will be retired in 16 months, on November 1, 2013. The mobile version will be retired on July 31, 2012.

How did you come to this decision?

We originally launched iGoogle in 2005 before anyone could fully imagine the ways that today’s web and mobile apps would put personalized, real-time information at your fingertips. With modern apps that run on platforms like Chrome and Android, the need for something like iGoogle has eroded over time, so we’ll be winding down iGoogle on November 1, 2013, giving you a full 16 months to adjust or easily export your iGoogle data.

Are start pages on their way out? I decided to investigate and came across Richard McManus’ article entitled ‘Whatever happened to Start Pages?’ His verdict is that social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+; better browser functionality, and third party apps and extensions have removed the demand for start pages. I suppose it’s telling that the Netvibes page hosting CILIP’s ‘Defining Our Professional Future’ no longer exists, and indeed Richard advises that Netvibes is now a company focussed solely on business solutions.

A quick search reveals that alternative start page sites, such as Pageflakes and My Live have also been decommissioned, although other sites such as My.faves and Tizit are still available. I’ve also noticed default ‘start pages’ based on browsing history cropping up as part of updated browsers, e.g. the ‘Speed Dial’ feature offered by Opera and Firefox, so perhaps start pages will evolve into something different. I was impressed with what could be achieved with start pages in libraries, as evidenced by Doncaster, Edinburgh, Devon and Manchester, so it’s a shame that they are being phased out. As I suspected at the beginning, though, evolving applications and social networking sites appear to have superseded what start pages originally offered, and that’s certainly evident in my own library, which favours Facebook and Twitter.