Thing 6

I had previously put a Netvibes site together to collate current awareness from a variety of sources. However it wasn't well used despite lots of publicity. My users commented that they didn't have the time or didn't remember to visit another website and wanted the information to land in their inboxes. Not sure if you can sign up to alerts on Netvibes that inform of new content when its added, but it's something I could explore. Again though if the alerts rely on users signing up then it's something that won't happen.

It's been great exploring personal pages, twitter, delicious, using bookmarks and tags. These tools are great on their own but bring them together and the information can be delivered right to your fingertips. A program like Netvibes makes this easy and possible and brings everything together in one place.

This does have great potential for the librarian responsible for staying up to date, but then it's the question of how  to share and disseminate that information to patrons that want everything done for them.

For the willing and IT savvy library users then these tools can be recommended to help them manage their information efficiently. For the savvy ones who might use these services already it is a simple case of them subscribing to the library content.

As this is the last thing,  I would like to say what an interesting few weeks it has been. Old questions have been answered and some new ones generated. I have re-explored some tools and discovered new ones. I will certainly be looking to use some the tools in the future.

Thing 5 Referencing

I really liked the Zotero website they provided step by step video tutorials for their product. The videos were easy to follow. Mendeley were not so open their video was just for promotion and the register and download now button was everywhere. This made it feel like the pressured sell, whereas Zotero made all their information readily available for perusal.

I did find a useful comparison table on Mendeley, the is given below:

http://www.mendeley.com/compare-mendeley/

As Mendeley have provided this comparison there is probably a small element of bias. The table shows that Mendeley and Zotero are very closely matched.

Both products look really good and I wish they had been around when I was writing assignments. I think I would personally use Zotero. It integrates well with word and allows a great deal of flexibility around the storing and organising of references. It also seems intuitive to use.

These products would be very beneficial for library users. Our NHS trust doesn't subscribe to a referencing tool at all so it would be great to recommend these free tools. They make the storing, sharing and organising of references very easy and also allow notes to be added to references.

All in all a very useful insight!

Musing Over Thing 4

I have just completed all four tasks for Thing 4. Firstly I was amazed to gain access to all of the websites without being blocked, so thank you IT.

This set of tasks seemed more involved than previous tasks which has been enjoyable. I have liked looking for videos, photos and presentations. I was not aware of Prezi and I did not realise that Flickr had creative commons picture that anyone can use. 

I had used YouTube previously but had never really searched for educational content. I was quite impressed with what I found.

I was disappointed to discover that any presentations uploaded to slideshare or Prezi would be public and the only to make them private was to subscribe. I thought this was cheeky and would most likely put people off using the sites. I think the author of the content reserves the right to control access and that should be a basic.

I can imagine that with these sites and similar ones plagiarism is common as it becomes so easy to do. This could be more tightly controlled if the sites allowed permissions and sharing controls as a basic.

I thought all of the sites were easy to use and navigate and I do intend to use them again now that I am aware of them.

Flickr

I have been having a roam around Flickr and found a cute picture that reminds me that I must buy a coat for my Cocker Spaniel. Yes I know this has nothing to do with libraries but it has brightened my Friday afternoon :0)

http://flic.kr/p/7tDULm

You Tube

I found a series of videos produced by Nottingham University. The videos are teaching videos about Psychiatric interviews for different disorders. These would be great for my user group.

Prezi example

I found an example of a presentation that might be of interest to my users:

http://prezi.com/4q5wsgwfo_xk/psychiatry-critical-appraisal-of-a-topic/?kw=view-4q5wsgwfo_xk&rc=ref-25717939

This presentation uses lots of animation that does make you feel a bit sick. However I think it is very good and an interesting way of presenting information rather than the traditional static PowerPoint.

Prezi

My presentation dabbling on Prezi:

http://prezi.com/iswq-dpu_74q/getting-to-know-prezi/?kw=view-iswq-dpu_74q&rc=ref-25717939

SlideShare

I have uploaded a very old presentation that I found about searching Dialog. So if anyone remembers the Dialog days you can reminisce.

If anyone wishes to view the presentation it can be found at:

<iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/15370140" width="427" height="356" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border:1px solid #CCC;border-width:1px 1px 0;margin-bottom:5px" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen> </iframe> <div style="margin-bottom:5px"> <strong> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/srichards79/searching-medline-stacey-richards" title="Searching Medline Using Dialog " target="_blank">Searching Medline Using Dialog </a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/srichards79" target="_blank">srichards79</a></strong> </div>

Wiki

I have used Google to try and find examples of Wiki's and I have to say it's not as easy as it seems. Google has returned a lot of results for pages about Wiki's rather than actual Wiki's.

I managed to find one reasonable Wiki that may be of interest to my user group:

http://www.ganfyd.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
Ganfyd.org is a free medical knowledge base that anyone can read and any registered medical practitioner may edit. I have checked some of the pages and they have been updated recently which is a good sign as it means that the Wiki is still active and not abandoned.

Thing 2 Part 3

I have enjoyed exploring these various methods of keeping up to date. I have previously mused about Twitter and Google reader in my previous posts so I will begin here with Google Alerts.

I set up two alerts to two different topics. I liked the fact that you can choose how often you wanted alerts to be received, but I opted for as and when. I have been receiving alerts to my inbox over the last couple of days. I have noticed that most of the alerts are American and have not been that useful. It seems difficult to actually pinpoint specific information, I think more options need to be available when setting up the alerts. I did think that it was very convenient having the alerts come through on my email, so easy to just click on the link and read the information.

I also signed up for a couple of journals on www.journaltocs.ac.uk and although I haven't received anything from this service yet probably because a new issue of the journals selected haven't been published yet. So I can't really comment on this service as yet.

In my previous post I commented that I liked Google Reader but having used it for a week I find it a bit overwelming. I have to remember to go to the website, which I don't and so when I do remember there are lots of new posts. Thats when I feel a bit swamped in all the information. Other than this I do like Reader.

Of all the methods of keeping up to date looked at here I think I prefer to receive email alerts, I think current awareness has to be aggregated into one place. However I have personally been using Twitter for a number of years and I tend to use it on my smartphone. This is my ultimate favorite, snippets of information sent live and then it is up to me if read further or not. However it's a shame but currently Twitter doesn't work so well in the work environment due to IT restrictions. So for work purposes I would definitely be looking for alerting services that use email.

Twitter

I had a Twitter account prior to the 12things course. I do use my account and enjoy reading the tweets of those that I follow. I mostly use my twitter account  for following others and rarely have anything to post of my own.

Like FaceBook some posts seem unneccessary and pointless, things like "I'm eating my tea" "I'm going here/there" etc.... Sometimes I think people can be obsessive and I think "I don't need to know that". So I am always mindful of this and only post when I feel something genuinely should be shared.

I also have my reservations regarding privacy on social networks. I sometimes think about posting but then stop myself because I feel the post will reveal too much about me the person or where I am.

Thing 2 parts 1&2

I logged into Google reader and added some RSS feeds to follow. This was surprisingly easy I even put my feeds into folders!

In terms of using readers in a library setting, I think they have great potential as a current awareness tool. However they rely on library users following your blog site and in my experience this just doesn't happen. I have set up readers in the past and despite masses of promotion they just don't attract an audience. Most of my library users when asked say they would prefer an email.

In addition to the Google account created for the purposes of 12 Things I also have a personal account so I will definitely be making better use of the feed reader on that account too!!

Exploring

I have now completed task 3. I have read the blogs of the other cohorts embarking on this course and left a few comments. I must admit that it is a little difficult to know what to say, is there a blogging etiquette??

I have also searched for other blogs. I tried using webicina.com, this was specifically medical social media. This was useful but most of the blogs were American. Goolge blog search was better and I found a nice example of a blog by St George's Hospital library http://stglibrarynhs.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/library-induction-for-nhs-staff/

The St George's blog is a good example of how a blog can be used to promote a service rather than a blog of an individual.

During my search I also added a couple of the blogs that I found to follow. I must confess that at this point I feel like I am muddling through. It is not overly clear what certain things do, but I intend to find out!!!

First Muse

So task one and two of "thing 1" completed, evidenced by the posting of this blog. I chose to call my blog musings as it seemed such an appropriate word.

I have embarked on this course as it appears more manageable in this cut down version than the original 23 things. I hope that this course will give me more confidence and it's just interesting to try new things.