Week 9 - Wikis

I love Wikipedia! Always my first port of call when needing to look up something up, at the very least it's a great starting point (just don't reference it in essays!), but usually it can solve age old mysteries such as 'what's the difference between an aardvark and an anteater?' all by itself! Most recently a quick Wikipedia pitstop managed to resolve a number of household disputes relating to the finer details of the Harry Potter books that no-one could recall, due to their sheer length and convoluted plotting, so praise be to the Wiki!

In library-related matters I signed up for the Web 2: Oxford Libraries wiki, lots of interesting stuff going on over there. It'll be really handy for us at the RSL once we start creating our own Web 2 resources. I practiced editting some pages, but as I couldn't find anything to change (and cos I was feeling a bit shy!) I didn't save anything. Still, I now know what to do for the future! I also registered for Wikipedia which was rather exciting. At the moment I can't think of anything that I'm expert enough on to make an entry for, but I'll let you know if I do!

Week 8 - Twitter

Here I am on Twitter...

I've always avoided Twitter like the plague, and to be honest, I think in some respects I was justified. I certainly won't be using it to follow celebrities, and I am overloaded with social communication tools as it is! Phone, mobile, text, email, write, Facebook...sometimes I even see my friends too ;-) There just ain't room for Twitter in my virtual social life.

However, I was pleasantly surprised at how useful it seems to be for work related purposes. I was impressed by the way in which tweets can unfold like breaking news, and certainly reading through the #ox23 tweets and those relating to last week's Library Conference has been interesting and a good way to connect with fellow library staff. I like how Nuffield Library and Sainsbury Library are using it to update their followers/readers with information on new acquisitions as well as changes in opening times. All in all, more useful than I was expecting!

Week 7 - LinkedIn

Well I've signed up for LinkedIn, but given that I'm not exactly a go-getting professional I'm not sure what good it'll do me! Still, it was nice to connect with my fellow library brethren, let's see if the job opportunities come flooding in!

Week 7 - Facebook

I've been using Facebook socially for a number of years so thought that this Thing would be a bit of a breeze. However, there's a big difference between using it to connect with mates to sort out the next night out and using it to publicise the library and connect with readers. Certainly the Facebook page format lends itself to publicising useful information such as opening hours and location, but that wouldn't really be enough to increase awareness of the library amongst users (or 'Fans'). It is also no more use than (and in fact an awful lot less use) a website. If the point of using Facebook is to publicise a library and its resources it's not enough just to create a page.


As a daily Facebook user the most important aspect of the site for me is what appears in my News Feed - that's what I react to initially. It's all very well having an engaging and exciting page, but if your Fans aren't being prompted towards the page through reminders that it exists, it will be to no avail. Similarly, I will check any messages sent to me, so if the library messages its Fans regularly with new content, I will in all likelihood read it. The more active a library is with connecting with its Fans through messaging and status updates, the more likely those Fans will use the library's page. Of the Oxford libraries using Facebook, I was particularly impressed with Queen's College Library . An extremely active and engaging prescence on Facebook, with a fantastic set of pages including the use of RSS feeds for new acquisitions and a variety of search option on their Boxes page. I can see why they have over 2000 fans!

Week 6 - the Audio-Visual Week part 2

Moving swiftly on...YouTube! Doesn't really need any introduction, it's the bastion of drunken late night entertainment round at mine! Great for a nostalgia trip, you can't beat watching old episodes of Knightmare (it's amazing anyone ever won it!) and settling arguments about how the theme tune to Lost Cities of Gold went. Has to be said, it's not often I use YouTube for educational purposes, although I did recently when needing to create a GANTT chart in Excel - so thank you YouTube for saving my bacon on that one! Anyway, back to the task in hand, the YouTube Edu channel was pretty interesting, good to see the Open University's OpenLearn videos so widely watched! I'm on one of their Social Science courses, I hadn't realised how useful their videos were. There's also an interesting project going on at Nottingham University - they are representing Britain in an attempt to build the most efficient and attractive eco house. Check out their brief here. All in all, this exercise served as a good reminder that YouTube isn't all about cats playing piano and skateboarding dogs...

Week 6 - the Audio-Visual Week part 1

As you can see, I am now very behind on the 23 Things challenge - it's been a busy few weeks! Anyhoo, it's now vacation time so life at the RSL will hopefully be a bit more sedate for the next few weeks, therefore I'm going to make a concerted effort to catch up. First port of call, podcasts! I'm a big fan of podcasts, especially those from (sadly soon to be defunct) BBC 6Music. I used to regularly listen to the Adam & Joe show, genius! But in the spirit of the 23 Things menality I have explored further afield. I subscribed to the Huw Stephens podcast (BBC Radio 1) through Google Reader, and then turned my attention to Podcast.com - what an Aladdin's cave of marvels! I signed up to Living Planet: Environment Matters, and then delved into the music podcasts. Listened to a few, and subscribed to Spacemusic, great for underground electronica. All in all, a very productive Thing methinks! I will certainly be using Podcast.com again, thank you 23 Things for bringing it to my attention!