Tweetin' marvellous RSS feeds, not so enamoured with Pushnote...

Actually the title is slightly misleading.

I have already expressed my undying love for Twitter and indeed use it every day. Incredibly useful, informative if not slightly distracting, it's actually how I start and end the majority of my days. I especially love the lists feature (it's the anal classifying freak in me).

RSS feeds similarly are a regular and convenient feature of my life, greeting me every morning from my iGoogle page. Both of these tools I was introduced to by 23 Things last year and I couldn't possibly do without.

Pushnote however... Errr... I don't see the attraction or point of it. Sorry! It sort of duplicates twitter and RSS feeds without the fun. If any users of Pushnote can convince me otherwise I would happily be converted, but for now, not impressed. Saying that I have signed up, and will probably have a stab at trying to enjoy it over the course of these Things...

Considering my brand

I did something at 7:10 am today that I haven't done for about 4 years. I googled myself.

First self-googling attempt: pleasingly nothing came up for the most commonly used, and personal variant of my name (hurrah for my Fort-Knox-like facebook privacy settings!). Phew, no dodgy photos or malicious gossip. Embarrassing moments hidden from public view - Tick!

Second self-googling attempt: my full name and the addition of the keyword "Cambridge" brought up a wonderful, if brief, entry in the 2003 CULIB which I had never been aware of (chronicling my widely-feared widely-anticipated move from part-time to full-time), and a second entry with a photo found on the PPSIS Library website. Not too shabby! Professional profile only on show - Tick!

Third self-googling attempt: using my online persona Lady Kenneth as the search term, my twitter account came as the fourth and fifth entries (after a car insurance company in the US, a Lady Gaga tribute video by some lovely chap named Kenneth and a preacher named Kenneth healing a lady) and this blog came fifth. Can't be too upset with that! However much I try, I don't think I will ever quite match Ms. Gaga's global popularity and relevance in any setting, professional or indeed sadly even personal.

I'm a great believer in anonymity on the web, personally it gives me the confidence to write honestly and with some humour, which I don't believe I could do under my actual name. My personal facebook account is completely locked down and hidden from view for exactly these reasons. I have only ever updated my facebook status a handful of times in the five years I have been a member as I just don't have the self-belief that others are/would be interested in the mundane details of my day.

I am the "admin" for the library facebook page and approach this by keeping the tone strictly professional and informative. Initially horrified at the idea of twitter, for I could not see why anyone would be interested in anything I was doing or reading, I have now completely fallen in love with it as an information dissemination tool. I chose to use my Lady Kenneth moniker to provide a semi-shield from view, but included a photo so that students knew that it was indeed a member of the library team. I think this works well as it is informal enough to converse with the students but the account's main purpose is to provide library/current affairs information. I have linked this blog and the twitter account by using an image from the library shelves as the wallpaper image and occasionally the same image is used as a profile pic on facebook.

I think I'm happy with my online brand but understand this may and probably will have to change as my career progresses.

Food for thought: I found this relevant post by a PPS alumnus, discussing the importance of recognising your cyber footprint and its possible implications for your future (or even current) career on his blog.

Bloggerific!

I've finally awoken from my personal development slumber to take a sneaky peek at other (far more proactive and diligent) participants' blogs. Reassuringly there are a few newbies, as well as the consummate and enthusiastic professionals that I usually follow and read (via Twitter) with a cup of tea and a slice of sponge.

A year ago I embarked on the Cambridge 23 Things programme @ Cambridge which forced me into introduced me to blogging for the first time. I'm still wary of blogging myself, but now use blogs daily as not only a source of entertainment (one of my favourite ways to waste 5 mins every couple of weeks) but to keep up to date with current affairs in and out of the library & information world. As mentioned earlier, I mostly come across blogs via the medium of Twitter, clicking through to new blogs nearly every day. Some I subsequently follow fairly religiously, others I will probably never view again. Which makes me ask "what do some blogs have, that others clearly don't?"

There are two types of blogs that I veer towards: either informative/provocative with excellent links and comments (some gentle humour included perhaps; a spattering of profanity sometimes appreciated) or the pure entertainment value blogs (shoes/cartoons/vitriolic moany types). I myself find it difficult to straddle any of these areas without feeling ridiculous, hence my coyness with my own blog.

I recently attended a lecture at the Engineering Department here in Cambridge entitled "Blogging & Social Media" to try and get my head around the reasons behind blogging and how to (hopefully) do so effectively. The presenters included a member of the Community Affairs Team (who deal with outreach) and one of the Naked Scientists/Skeptics in the Pub. Both seemingly prolific bloggers/tweeters. Both had the same message to make; blogging is a tool for pushing out information and digitally engaging with people who are seeking that information (comments/links). Most importantly the Naked Scientist (disappointingly not actually naked) pointed out that blogging can be and should be as social and representative of the body that YOU've decided to portray. NS guy also pointed out that in this day of social unrest, blogging gives the tax-paying public a great insight in to what you currently have to offer, which provides a certain amount of transparency and possibility for instant engagement and reaction.

The University uses Wordpress as their blog content management system. The clever templates seemingly remove the need to create whole new websites as everything can link in to that one easily managed blog. I know that the Judge Business School Information Service has done similar to great effect. Most importantly what I took away from this session is that blogging is perfect for outreach, no matter who your audience may be; should and can run alongside facebook and twitter accounts as forms of engagement and information dissemination; on a professional level is great for self-promotion without the restraints of the more traditional avenue of publishing.

Phewfff... Goodness, my first serious blogpost in about 11 months, all done before 7:45 am... Time for 10 minutes of Pilates and a nice cup of tea (and maybe a further perusal of the blogosphere)

Toodlepip!

It starts...

I never did finish 23 Things last year. I think I got about halfway and then never caught up! I'm hoping that this year will see a new, improved and far more enthusiastic me tackle all that the CPD23 programme has to offer...

I'm scared already!

Exploring Library Thing

Just had a quick look round Library Thing and have taken the tour... I like the idea of using this as an easy way to advertise our new books. It would hopefully maybe point users in the direction of the monthly accession lists for further information on the new stock, but seems like a good way to highlight a few cherry-picked titles.

Hmmmm.

I'll give setting up an account a go now!

Reflection...

Where to start?

What... have... I... learnt...?

The most surprising thing I've learnt about myself and Web 2.0 is that I'm far more IT literate and tolerant than I thought I was! Sure I love the internet for buying food, looking at shoes, reading bits of irrelevant gossip and fulfilling my insatiable need for information on ridiculous people such as Justin Bieber. However I'd always viewed the internet in a different light when it came to "proper work". That was just the catalogue, databases, and the prominent websites in the information world surely? No room for fun, photos and interaction! Cam23 has made me realise that libraries and the information world have become very sociable creatures, with many ways to interact with them and even more ways to extract very useful and specific information from them.

I have also been shown how to ORGANISE all this very useful and specific information so that I don't lose it in amongst my rather untidy bookmark collection, or as previously mentioned countless amount of self-addressed emails!

I'm looking forward to exploring the next half of the Thing experience, and using further applications that will prove useful to myself, the students and the other members of staff in the library. Finally I'm starting to feel like I'm catching up with the students and how they now approach their search for information...

Delicious

Well... Luckily I remembered that I had set up a Delicious account about 3 years ago for the library. I had played around with it at the time, saving a few tags for our various disciplines, general University information, general information resources and other library catalogues. Originally this was to develop a "tag cloud" for our library website... As with all good intentions it soon fizzled out owing to the start of the academic year, lo and behold we've had a further two and I haven't developed it further!

However, revisiting the account was enlightening... The style and layout of Delicious had changed, a cleaner and far more visually appealing platform awaited me! It's still an easy process to add tags and organise them. I will spend some time inputting more of the information already on our website and adding more links to new resources that I've now been exposed to via Cam23 (blogs, twitter, facebook and netvibes accounts of interest etc.)

It's actually inspired me to set up a personal account also (I'd always meant to do that), as I do hate realising that the link I saved for "that pair of shoes I desperately need to drool over" is on my home pc when I'm on my lunch break, and vice versa. It will put an end to my many self-addressed emails whose content amounts to a piddly link or two that seem to clog up my inbox...

Sliding shares...

Sorry, sharing slides!

With the start of the new academic term and the new-techie-in-me looming, slideshare seems like a good way to erm... steal... I mean borrow and be inspired by other library and user content. Good examples of other library inductions, tutorials and presentations are available and easy to find. Great place to host our own (when we produce them of course!) presentations and tutorials.

Amount of advertising surrounding the content is slightly overwhelming at times though..

Having been engrossed in my own fascinating world for such a long time, the start and significance of Web 2.0 technologies (especially in relation to the library experience) sort of passed me by. I mean, I used Web 2.0 technologies avidly, but was never aware that I was? So a lovely simple presentation from 2006 (Library 2.0 Cookbook by K.G. Schneider) actually summed it all up for me, made me realise how much I already utilise and how our users probably have no concept of Web 1.0 anymore! The philosophy behind the content of this presentation represents the direction that I hope our library is currently moving in, and definitely represents the spirit of 23 Things.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

library 2.0

View more presentations from tonywh.

Looong time, no.... Anything!

End of fiscal year, reading lists, book ordering and mini Kenneth's holiday plans seemingly took over my life and drained me of any energy that was reserved for 23 Things. However I am determined to get through them all and blog relentlessly for the next couple of weeks . Not sure I'll make the deadline though! Eeeek, watch this space.

Further anger directed at technology!

Flickr requires a Yahoo account... Ok so I'll sign up for one then to be able to explore, share and store photos...lovely photos. GRRRR, it won't let me sign up as they're convinced that I need my "Mom or Dad" to give me permission?? I thought I may have typed in my date of birth incorrectly, but five attempts later with birthdates set to 1920, 1950, 1960, 1970 and 1980 and I still need to call for "Mom"!

Deep breath.

I'll try again another day, it's not worth a burst blood vessel.

Flickr.... "Photos, lovely photos"

Bookporn.... I'm hooked! Photos are a funny thing though, people don't like them being taken of themselves, objects, family members or buildings that they look after. But we are all visual creatures and love to have a good old gander at a photo. I have been guilty in the past of just saving and using images left, right and centre from the internet, but I do tend to go for images that specify that there aren't copyright restrictions associated with them.

For public libraries or libraries with links to exhibitions and events, Flickr is not only a great archiving tool of the event, but a great tool to use to store photos for further marketing. In our library... I'm not sure how useful Flickr would be apart from to store our staff photos, and shots of the library that we take sporadically. Hmm, I will attempt joining on behalf of the library and see how easy it is to upload and share photos etc. I'll keep you posted.

Book fanatics

Wonderful collection of photos of a wonderful collection of books, and other wonderful collectables.

I do apologise, I seem to have just micro-blogged.

So, I've FINALLY managed to join Twitter.

I'm still a little traumatised at the sheer amount of information that bombards you once you start following someone. I've limited my adoration to libraries, newspapers, publishers and some arty things so far. It's already under and overwhelming me. I don't see myself updating a personal Twitter account to be honest... As a way to communicate with the students however, it's definitely another avenue.

As Miss Crail has already pointed out, I really am not interested in the minutiae of people's lives. The content of some tweets is just, well, pointless. On the other hand the articles that I've already come across after 'following' the likes of Guardian books and The Onion have been so much more informative. It still seems to be an awful lot to disseminate though... It will require a bit more work before I get the hang of it. A list of desired and reliable sources should be drawn up first of all I feel, before trying to tackle the seemingly infinite amount of Tweeple that you could follow. Otherwise like myself, you'll get lost and feel helpless, similar to the feeling I always get when I go into HMV without a specific list of albums or DVDs.

Onwards and upwards... Flickr, Delicious here I come!

TTFN

Starting to take it personally....

Here I am again trying to catch up with everyone else, but this is my third attempt at joining Twitter, and for some godammned reason it's over bl**dy capacity again... My already intense dislike of the idea of Twitter is magnifying by the second.

Anyhooooo, I shall now endeavour to crack on with Things 8-10 whilst I wait for Twitter to open its doors to newbie micro-bloggers like myself.

Budget anyone?

Don't know if this is going to work... Just came across a Directgov Twitter widget to embed in your page. Here goes...

Catching up!

Hurrah! I've Doodled a playdate and harassed my buddies into playing boardgames in various locations in Cambridge sometime next week (this is for testing purposes only as I have used Doodle for meeting up with people before). Doodle is a handy tool for scheduling meetings for work and personal events and I like that you can keep things private if needs be. Think I've also used Meet-o-matic in the past but I seem to remember it doesn't allow you to specify time-slots as easily... Don't quote me on that, I might have to look at it again. The obvious advantage for the students is not having to come in to the library to sign up for induction tours or training sessions, they can do it from the luxury of their College rooms. Handy for staff meetings when people are situated in the far-flung corners of the Cambridge campus. Yes, I like this tool. Will use more often!

I've organised every hour of my life until next Sunday using Google Calendar and am already overwhelmed with the reminders. Stupidly at first I added my mobile number. I've taken that off now! Took me a little while to realise the difference between an event and a task, but I think I've mastered that now. So yes, another handy tool, and can see the potential of using it as a training and "What's on?" type thingy. Think I might stick to my 3 paper diary system for my personal life though. I don't really like the computer shouting at me so much!

I've just attempted to join the dreaded Twitter... Apparently there are far too many "Tweeple" at the moment. *Sigh* I'm starting to feel left out of something I didn't want to join in the first place! Baaahhh. I'll try again later.....

Ohhhhhh... The poll question isn't there!

The question was... "What do you think of 23 Things Cambridge?"

The poll wasn't referring to my blog title...

I clearly haven't mastered this yet.

Slightly behind, and feeling flustered.

I knew this would happen, the more blogs I started to follow the worse I would feel if I hadn't kept up with the Things!

I refuse to feel bad though. Instead, even though I haven't blogged about it, I'm now very used to iGoogle and enjoy learning my new word for the day (today's = kowtow, which I actually use far too frequently), viewing the artist for the day and catching up on my rss feeds from the various other sites I've subscribed to. I had a browse through netvibes on a lunchbreak, and wouldn't mind looking into setting one of those pages up for the library. It seems to have a more professional look for a public digital dashboard. I must say though, I am enjoying being greeted by my iGoogle page in the morning, even though I know most people have reservations.

Soooo.... I haven't been on my blog or near the 23 Things site for exactly a week and I do feel very behind having just quickly scanned the progress of the other blogs that I've been following. However it's 5 p.m. on a Friday, the sun has just made an unexpected and glorious appearance and I've accidentally added a poll and search box to my blog and changed the background in a matter of minutes. So, who knows by Monday morning, I'll hopefully have tarted up my blog further, will have Doodled my way to a playdate with some other librarians, used Google Calendar PROPERLY (rather than just glancing at it) and will have had a fiddle with our PPSIS Library Facebook page... Or I'll have enjoyed my weekend in the real world and will give it all a go on Monday instead.

TTFN

Things 2, 3 & 4!

So now that I've started blogging I can't seem to stop! The Google Reader is almost as fun as customising my iGoogle account and definitely easier than blogging. I've only added a couple of my regular blog reads to it and some new randoms that were suggested to me, but I can completely see the appeal already. Having my favourite reads neatly organised in a folder named "blogs" in my bookmarks doesn't really mean that I'll ever actually get around to reading them. So using Google Reader does at least mean that I get the updates continuously and in a nicely presented format, a lovely way to waste a rainy lunch break! Again, I can completely see the appeal from the students perspective obviously especially in conjunction with their iGoogle accounts. I'm beginning to feel less scared of the term "digital dashboard" as we speak!

OK so here is a screencast of my iGoogle account (not that exciting and it will be expanded when I can think of more gadgets I'd like to add)





and my Google Reader home page...





I think I'll leave it for the night and try out some tagging, look at other library related blogs and tidy up my own blog in another session!

After much procrastination, my first blog entry!

Right then. I have spent the last week trying to figure out how to write about my "23 Things" experiences and have found it really difficult to know where to start. Even though I am a former Myspace addict (2006-2008), and am now a reluctant user of Facebook, I have never really enjoyed the public nature of social media and that is why I am yet to join Twitter and have stubbornly refused to become excited about the possibilities of Tweeting. However as "23 Things" is about opening my mind to the potential of such tools for the library and information community, I'm trying to become a bit more accepting of how the rest of the world now communicates!

Having set up an iGoogle account over a year ago and only having logged in once since (to install the Cambridge Libraries Widget), I had some fun playing around with my page and adding gadgets to it. As a personal tool it's actually fantastic. Great for reminders, organisational tools and getting all my regular newsfeeds at a glance, rather than sifting through lengthy emails. I've added artist and word of the day gadgets to make me feel intellectual, and have personalised it with a hint of zebra print...

We have actively promoted the Libraries Widget to our readers since its launch, however I think when the new term starts I shall encourage using the Widget over the "My account" function on the Newton Catalogue. Far cleaner, more logical and infinitely more attractive.