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