Thing 18: Jing, screen capture and podcasts.

I've previously used Screenr to do screen capture at work and so far it's worked well particularly as it was easily accessible at home and work - no need to download anything. However I was interested to see what Jing had to offer. The act of making a screen capture video via Jing was much the same as with Screenr - 5 mins recording time, adjust the recording area to cover the bit of the screen you want, pause/stop etc buttons. Alas when recording a video, Jing seemed to make the screen a bit shaky and slow.

Jing offered the option to take an image (screenshot) and add a caption. I particularly liked this feature because it's a good way to capture 'quirks' on the online library system. I captured one of those troublesome Athens log in pages that plague some of the online databases ... bonus points for Jing. Of course you can do print screen and add a text box in Word etc but it seemed so much easier in Jing, at least it did until I wanted to link to it. To link to the image capture I had to use yet another website so instead I've just downloaded my image capture and I can send it to people on email.  I can see the plus points of Jing but it had a few too many annoying habits that make me reluctant to desert Screenr.

Now for podcasting. I had a go at recording a short podcast using the Audacity software. I simply read out a couple of paragraphs from a book and then was well and truly stumped when it came to editing the file. Suffice to say I simply have a little audio file of me reading aloud - which makes me cringe! I think I need to do some reading up about podcast creation before I have another go.  Previously I have listened to some library induction podcasts and the odd thing from tutors at work. I can see podcasts being a useful addition to audio PowerPoints, screencasts etc to help distance learners become familiar with library services - possibly as a way to do a questions and answers session - students pose the question and I give the answer via a podcast.

Thing 17: Medium is the message - Prezi and Slideshare

Prezi looks fantastic and indeed it is fantastic. It's just that my brain couldn't fathom out what Prezi was doing! It all felt a little too freestyle for me - I'm afraid I prefer a linear approach. Still I had a go. I picked the 'explain a subject' template - not quite up to taking the off-piste route yet - and it was easy enough to edit.

I quite like the way you can criss-cross the screen but I did feel slightly sea-sick with all the swirling around. It's not exciting but here's my attempt at Prezi http://prezi.com/4hvtn_xnzfge/library-orientation/. I suspect that with a lot (an awful lot)  more practice I could make some good presentations to share with the students.

I often read  The Search Principle Blog where presentations/documents are shared using Slideshare. I have been looking forward to the Slideshare task since this course began. I knew it would be useful but I hadn't realised how simple it was - it took seconds to sign up, upload a file and see it shared. I can see this being invaluable. When working offsite I can have all my presentations saved in Slideshare as well as on a USB stick (I'm a big fan of having multiple back up plans when running workshops). I can also link to them on Slideshare rather than keep uploading them to different areas of the virtual learning environment. You can see my 'test' slideshare item at http://www.slideshare.net/kateldavies/search-clinic

I intend to explore Prezi further and I will be adding more things to Slideshare in the current weeks so that I can test it in future training sessions.

Thing 16: Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published.

Not long after I became a fully fledged new professional I went to a friend's party. Someone there asked me what I did for a living and I proudly said I was a librarian. His reply was 'oh that must be boring', this was accompanied by a look of pity. Well, he got the extended version of how interesting it is, how I meet many different people, learn lots about technology and get an enormous amount of job satisfaction from helping people. When I asked him what he did (printing) I had to bite my tongue so as not to say 'oh just lots of photocopying then'.

Of course if I say to someone I am an 'information professional' they are impressed because they have no idea what one is, 'librarian' on the other hand tends to conjure up the old stereotype. Only today I was chatting with someone, whilst in a queue, and mentioned that I had just delivered a lecture about finding information - they thought I sat at my desk all day long looking at books and had no idea that lectures were part of my job.

If we, as a profession, want to get everyone else to view us in a positive way we have to get our message out there. I think it's important to tell people what I do and why I do it - surely we need to be seen as an attractive profession so as to keep recruiting to the ranks of friendly librarians/information professionals. Advocacy and speaking up also keeps us visible which is particularly important whilst cuts etc are being made to services and staff. We have to shout about the good stuff we do or others will think we are sat here doing nothing.

It's not done on some big public stage but by simply talking to others I meet through work and outside of it, making sure family members have joined (and used) the public library and presenting a positive image of librarians in my day to day work, I hope that I'm doing my bit.

I was going to write that I've never had anything published and then realised that I'm about to hit the button that says 'Publish Post'! So I guess that counts. I've put some little things in the in-house staff newsletter but that's it so far. Something to aim for in the future...

Thing 15: Attending, presenting at and organising seminars, conferences and other events

I like a good conference - tea, biscuits, freebies, meeting old friends, time away from work - but seriously I can't think of one library-related event that I have attended where I came away empty handed. When I was a graduate trainee I attended the Serials conference, whilst working towards Chartership I attended the CILIP Umbrella conference and in the last 18 months I've managed to get to the Health Libraries Group and LILAC conferences. All gave me food for thought, tips for things I was doing or trying to do at work and allowed me to network face-to-face with library professionals.

In terms of engaging properly, I confess, I have never asked a question at the end of a presentation/workshop. I always think that it will show me up as an ill-informed idiot and yet I spend a good amount of time telling my students that there's no such thing as a silly question. Obviously I need to take my own advice and pluck up the courage. At LILAC this year I managed to do a bit of tweeting although this does take your attention away from the presentation which felt a bit disrespectful, so I won't be doing this again - I'll leave my tweeting until the tea break.

Sometimes I think I'd like to present something but I've no idea what - maybe a day in the life of  a subject librarian, tales from faculty liaison - how to keep those academics in line.... Actually that last one sounds quite good.

Many years ago all my school reports included the phrase "Kate is a quiet girl". I did not ask questions in class, I hated anything like school plays, drama studies or presentations. I did not like public speaking. Now in 2011, I am happy to stand up and speak to 200 people for an hour. In fact in the past two weeks I have spoken in front of 200 people on 5 occasions. I gradually built up to this over a number of years without really noticing. The odd library tour for a group of 10, a brief library induction talk to a group of 20, going in to a classroom of 30 and running a small workshop, giving an hour long lecture about 'finding information' to a group of 200 then taking a deep breath whilst another 200 walk in and then repeating the same talk to them.

I saw a pro-presenter in action earlier this year. The Archbishop of Canterbury - not one 'umm' or 'err'. He spoke as if he were reading elegant prose. He was clear, concise and had no slides, pictures, handouts.... When he finished talking I realised that he had done it with no notes, no prompt cards, no autocue and it certainly didn't sound rehearsed. Obviously he's done a fair bit of public speaking over the years and it's paid off because he nailed it.

The first time I spoke to 200 people I was nervous but as soon as I was standing in front of them I realised it was better to say something rather than nothing. I liked Phil Bradley's tip about trying to enjoy the presentation and I wholly agree - if it's dull or stressful for you, the audience will be the same. The following are my tips about presenting:

1. Use the tools available to you - I once forgot to dim the lights in the lecture theatre and when I got to the end I realised they had probably found it hard to read the screen. I now take a little note with me to remind me to dim the lights. Sometimes these little things get forgotten when you're trying to get the USB stick to work or the projector to switch on.

2. Run through your presentation but don't over rehearse. This is known at work as 'winging it' but it makes me feel more relaxed to know that I can ad lib a little, throw in the odd joke and take a question mid-flow. I like to connect with the audience as me, as well as a professional talking to them.  A little laugh along the way brightens it up for everyone.

3. When the internet goes slow or disappears, when the video doesn't play etc have a back up plan. Use screen shots, online tutorials that you can access from your files, show them another resource rather than struggling with one that is having problems. Sometimes it is best to abandon the show - struggling on can be painful for you and your audience.

4. Don't be frightened of your audience. I once presented a little seminar about systematic reviews to a group of health professionals. When I stood up to speak I realised that all their name badges said something like Dr or Professor. Nerves struck until I thought that if they knew everything about this topic then they wouldn't be here listening to me. Feeling like you know something and are going to impart that knowledge to someone else is a powerful feeling and boosts your confidence.

5. Enjoy it. Your audience are sitting there thinking "I wish I could do that", "She knows a lot", "I like her style".... and you're the one they are talking about.

6. Persevere. No, not every presentation will go to plan and yes, some will feel 'flatter' than others. You tend to know when it's gone well. If you attend a presentation and you really enjoy it - let the presenter know. They'll be pleased and flattery gets you everywhere!

So what do I need to do,  firstly try presenting something about 'how to to keep your academics in line', secondly keep speaking in public - the more you do it the easier it gets, and finally keep attending conferences to see others in action. Maybe one day I'll be as good as the Archbishop.

Thing 14: Zotero / Mendeley / citeulike

I've chosen to look at Mendeley. It was easy to download on to my desktop at home (yet, to do battle with the Administrator Password at work). I like the fact that you can save your reference details direct from the pdf file and then make notes on the pdf document. This all seems much easier than the RefWorks tool we have at work. I don't mind the act of referencing but I'm not keen on teaching students how to use referencing software. It always seems too complicated for most of them to comprehend and I'm not convinced that I know enough about it to use it properly. I never show the students RefWorks in their first year. We don't hide it from them we just don't run courses on it. I and many of the academic staff think they need to learn why it's important to reference and how to reference the basic stuff before moving on to referencing software which will just do it all for them. Otherwise how do they know what RefWorks is doing or whether it has produced a bibliography in the correct format. How would they spot mistakes made by the software?

Mendeley looks like it might be more useful to students/academic staff who have a big stash of pdfs that they store on their computer. I can see it being good for all those lecturers who publish a lot of papers and want to keep their references and pdf documents in the one place that they can access from home and work.  It would be better if Mendeley were web-based like RefWorks so that you didn't have to download it and could access it from wherever you could connect to the internet. All in all a good tool but I'll be sticking to RefWorks as I have to use this at work.

Thing 13: Google Docs, Wikis and Dropbox

I'm on holiday this week so I'm only going to look at two of the tools (I can hear you asking 'why are you doing this if you are on holiday?' well it's either this or paint the radiator in the kitchen!)

Google Docs - For some reason I thought this was going to be a bit complicated. I thought it was going to look different to Microsoft and that I'd have to find my way around an unfamiliar screen but it was actually very easy and did look like the applications I use at work.

I created their equivalent of a Word document, sent it to a colleague at work and gave them permission to edit it. I think this sort of tool is useful for groups that don't share a computer network at work/home. I work closely with my mentees and we send files by email  but I think I might try this in future as some of the files get rather large. It's good because the other person can edit it and so you have a master document.

I'm assuming that my document is now 'in the cloud'. There's a lot of talk about the 'cloud' and despite all the good things about it - such as not needing a USB stick anymore - I fear it's just going to be a new way to make money from broadband customers. I imagine that soon someone will start charging me for my bit of the cloud.

Wikis - I like wikis. I use a wiki at work so that our new first year students can book themselves onto a library workshop. We used to do this using bits of paper at the enquiry desk and we always had students who wanted to be with their friend and who would change their mind about which slot they wanted to attend - let's just say there was a lot of crossing out. Now I don't have to get involved in any of that. The students can look at the days and timeslots available and book themselves (and usually their friend) on to the workshop that suits them best. We get the odd one that manages to delete everything but I can usually retrieve it. I do have to warn them that I can see who has edited what on the wiki so that they don't scrub off another persons name in order to pinch their seat at the workshop. The academic staff also use wikis to monitor attendance at seminars. It means there is no need for paper registers and all - administrator, tutor, seminar leader - can see the master document at the same time.
It's a good tool to use in my role - workshop bookings, sharing documents, working in with groups across various locations - it's flexible and people seem to get to grips with wikis fairly easily so no need for extensive training or  instruction guides.

Thing 12: Putting the social into social media

There's been a lot of discussion lately about how social media facilitated/encouraged the recent riots in the UK. I think that it's just a new method of bringing people together. In the past people have managed to organise demonstrations/football hooliganism without the use of social media so it's just a new tool and those that don't use or understand it simply jump on the bandwagon and start trashing it. If these people googled cpd23 they'd find out how useful social media can be!

The last few weeks following cpd23 have encourage me to use social media to meet a purpose. Instead of reading blogs on a Friday afternoon at work I now write my blog posts too and reflect on how to use the tools in my job. This has introduced regular reflection into my week. I've linked up with a few others on the course and it's nice to find supportive, like-minded online friends. Not only have I talked about cpd23 and social media on the blog, friends and colleagues are interested in what I'm learning and blogging about and even my Mum has started to read my blog.

I've been using blogs to keep up to date with the world of libraries and education for a couple of years now but it's this course that has made me sort out all the random links and get myself involved rather than sitting on the sidelines. I started tweeting earlier this year and check Facebook regularly but had never really thought about how to use it professionally - until now.

I intend to keep using social media in my work (where I am permitted) and some of the tools we have used so far I will use professionally and personally - like Twitter, Facebook and Evernote.