ANZ 23 Mobile Things Week 2 - Take a photo with a mobile device: Instagram / Flickr app / Snapchat

I rarely take photographs with my mobile devices.  I take the odd one with my mobile phone but since it has been coming up with the lack of memory issue, I try to avoid it.  And when I have taken a photo with my phone, I upload it directly to Facebook or Twitter - I don't use Instagram, Flickr or Snapchat.

So I started the week with the plan to play around with Instagram and Flickr on my tablet.  I do like the Instaweather app but have only used it twice this week.  I don't really stop during my day and think, oh I must take a photograph!  I also took a "selfie" using Instagram - and then played around with the settings to see what I could do with the photo.

I haven't tried the Flickr app - wondering why you would need two photo apps on your mobile device but then perhaps one has different features to the other?!?  But I did re-visit my Flickr account on my PC and try to upload some photos I had taken of some library visits I did last week.  I used the good old digital camera for that.  However, Flickr didn't really like me and took ages to upload and then wouldn't let me group the photos into sets.  Sigh!

Perhaps I'll just stick with taking photos with my digital camera and uploading them to Facebook to share!!  But yes, I can hear you now saying, what if you want to take a photo of the "now" and upload it during the "now" to share??  Yes, ok I can see the point of that but until I either fix my phone's memory issue or get a better phone - I can't see myself dealing with the frustration of using my mobile phone to take photos.

And as for using my tablet to take photos - number one, I rarely take the tablet with me unless I'm going to a meeting/conference/seminar (it's not something I just carry in my handbag).  And number two, it's a little on the large size so I feel a bit self-conscious when taking photos with it - sort of like holding a brick in front of your face!!

Unfortunately, I missed the #anz23mthings chat session but lucky someone archived it and I can catch up with it here.

And as for the questions we were asked to think about via the ANZ 23 Mobile Things blog, I suppose I did think about them but my library does not use Twitter, but we do try to take photographs during events and post them on to our Facebook page.  We don't have a permission form but usually when people are asked (verbally) they are quite happy for that to happen.  With children I try to take photos of the back of their heads.  And I think it will be interesting to investigate using one of these tools to house a digital photograph collection for the library.  So I still have a lot more learning to go!

ANZ 23 Mobile Things - Thing 1: Twitter

I've been using Twitter for a reasonable amount of time, but I'll admit it took me a while to be convinced that I had a purpose for it.

I find with any new technologies or tools, I might have a play around with it but if I don't think it will have any use for me - then I won't continue to use it.

Twitter was a bit like that for me.  I had Facebook to keep in touch with friends and colleagues - what would I need Twitter for?

However, I continued to "lurk" on Twitter and was very much an observer rather than a participator for a very long time.

I discovered Twitter was good to follow events that my fellow professionals were attending.  And it was especially good to provide information during natural disasters.

The main thing holding me back from participating was thinking that if I tweeted something, it would be stupid.  I didn't know how to shorten what I wanted to say into the required limit.  What are these things called hash tags # and how do you know which one to use?  What does RT, MT and HT mean??  How do I send a message to someone without sending it to the Twitter universe??

So you can see I had heaps of Twitter "fears" to overcome.

Then one day I went to an event and I thought, I should really do my professional duty and share what is happening/being said at this event.  So I started to Tweet.  So what if my tweets weren't that good?  I was learning.  I asked one of my fellow professionals who had been using Twitter for a long time what the hash tag was for the event and off I went.

By the end of the event, I had found more fellow professionals to follow and I had even had some of my tweets re-tweeted (I always feel a warm feeling when that happens).

I'm still not what I would consider a professional twitterer (you see I don't even know the correct term to use - tweeter twitterer twit....), but I'm out there sharing and interacting.

I now regularly participate in online twitter discussions, especially Read, Watch, Play.  And I'm starting to get better at using my tablet to tweet (overcoming how to provide links in a tweet, getting used to the smaller keyboard, etc).  I have even managed to open a Storify account and capture Tweets from events I attend.

With all that said, my library is looking at starting a Twitter account and I'm not sure I think we should go there.

I've just joined the Australian Library and Information Associations (ALIA) Social Media Group (@aliasocialmed) to find out more about how libraries are successfully using Twitter as an "interaction" and or "marketing" tool.

I look forward to discovering and learning more about Twitter.

ANZ 23 Mobile Things - Yes I'm Participating!

This week sees the beginning of ANZ 23 Mobile Things for which I have joined up to challenge myself to discover more about mobile devices and the "things" you can do with them.

The first task we have been asked to do for week 0, is to post a tweet introducing ourselves.

Now in the mornings I'm a desktop computer user.  This continues for most of the day.  In the evening, if there is a good TV show on, or I have a good ebook on my tablet, then I'm a mobile device user - using my work provided Lenovo ThinkPad.

I also use my mobile device if I'm out of my workplace visiting another branch library, attending meetings/seminars/conferences, or travelling.

I do have a smart phone but find the screen a little too small and it is having some memory issues which I have to talk about with the staff at the Telstra shop - whenever I next get to the shop.

So today so I can do my introduction post - I have set my tablet up on my desk beside my desktop PC - weird I know but really no point in participating unless I used my mobile device.

If you read back through this blog, you will no doubt discover a bit about me, so I'm not going to repeat anything in this blog post.

I hope during this journey through the 23 Mobile Things, I will manage to do some reflective posts on what I have learnt about the tools and people I've discovered.

Competent or Not Yet Competent

Next week I'll be doing performance appraisals with my staff.  While it seems to be a rather straight forward process, it is one that I need to work on. 

I enjoy giving my staff praise, but find it difficult to offer constructive criticism.  Well, I really don't find it difficult to offer it, more like difficult to communicate it.  I guess no one likes telling someone that they need to work harder at something or may be doing something wrong.

I also find our performance appraisal system a bit limiting and want to give it more value for my staff.  Most of my staff have been working in their roles for 10 years plus so they don't really have an opportunity to move up the pay scale any higher than what they are - so how then do you make this process a motivating one?!?

Also, the current process is based around job descriptions and is hard to rate.  I also have staff in other branches that I don't work with so have difficulty appraising them.  How do you know how someone is performing if you have never worked with them or witnessed how they work?

So, to make it a bit more interesting this time, I thought I would have a look around for some "core competencies" that library staff should have.

I found some good one's here.

So basically, I took the competencies relevant to the roles my staff performed and created a list of competencies that they can be appraised against. 

The core competencies I chose are: Adaptability; Communication; Customer Service; Organisational Awareness; Personal Responsibility; Problem Solving; Teamwork; Basic Computer Use; Email Skills; Internet Basics; Library Website and Catalogue Basics; Windows Basics; Word Processing Skills; Reference Skills; Readers' Advisory Skills; Technical (Circulation) Skills.

I think these competencies will provide clearer goal posts for my staff to work towards.

Does your organisation use competencies in performance appraisals?

What do you think are your core competencies?

The Readers and Writers are Coming

The Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival is happening next week, and so begins the take over of our shire with reading and writing addicts.

As a librarian, it's a little bit exciting for me because I will get to rub shoulders with some well-known and not so well-known authors, and share the excitement with fellow readers.

However, I was not always excited about meeting authors.  I thought it would be a bit like meeting your favourite actor and being disappointed because they were nothing like the character you fell in love with in which ever movie or television show they star in.

And sometimes it is like that.  Sometimes it's not really the author you care about.  It's the characters that you fall in love with.

Sometimes meeting the author can be disappointing and leave you wondering how someone like that managed to write characters that you managed to love so much.

And sometimes the opposite happens, and you meet and listen to an author you've never read, and suddenly you need to devour their book(s) as soon as possible and you wonder why you never read them in the first place.

I must say that in the last five years of living here, I have met more authors than ever before.  And I must say that I have not been disappointed with any of them.

However, I do know a number of people who will never come to author events/presentations, even if that author is their favourite author - because they really don't want to know about the author or the process they followed writing their books.  They would be more excited if they could meet a character(s) from the book(s) they love.

So where do you sit dear blog reader?  Are you a meet the author junkie or are you happy just to know the characters?

Kids Mini Book Series - What of the leftovers?

Since last Sunday, I have been regularly purchasing the Sydney Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph to get the free mini books for kids. There are 14 titles in total to collect.

It is my understanding that each major newspaper in each state will offer these mini books at some time during 2012/13.

While there will be plenty of parents, grandparents, carers and lovers of kids books taking up this offer, I'm sure there will be plenty of books left over at the end of this offer, as not everyone is prepared or in the financial position to purchase a paper plus pay the extra for a book.

 I wonder what the newspapers have planned to do with the left overs.  Wouldn't it be great if they offered the left over books and bag to the public/school libraries to hand out to children or new parents?

I know that libraries have heaps of different programs for new parents where they are provided with a bag of book(s).  But I keep thinking that the newspapers must have produced thousands of copies of these books and bags and there must be heaps left over - wouldn't it be great to get the local newsagents to donate the left over packs to libraries?

Anyway, just a thought!

Just Google It - Continued

I had to do a follow up post to my last post because I think it is important to share what has happened since gaining approval to run sessions with the students as Miss A's school.

The school had organised library visits for the year 2/3, 3/4 and 5/6 classes.  However, the weather had other ideas and due to the extreme conditions, I said that I could visit the classes at the school rather than have the students walk to the library in the horizontal rain and wind.

At these visits, I had the students divide into their project questions/topics.  I provided each group some butchers paper and different covered felt pens (textas).  I then asked the students to label the paper with their project topic and write all the words and questions they could think of when it came to their topic.  E.g. for those doing shipwrecks they put ship, boat, rocks, storm, where did the boat/ship come from?, what was the boat/ship carrying?, where was the ship/boat going? etc.

I then handed out a kids guide to Dewey Decimal Classification that I had modified to be more Australian.

We went through how the Dewey Decimal Classification worked using a comparision with supermarket shopping and how all the fruit and vegetables are together and all the meat is together and all the bread is together, etc.

I then asked them to look at their words on their butchers paper and go through the Dewey Decimal Classification handout and write down any Dewey Decimal numbers that they thought matched their words.

By this time, I had run out of time with them - I only had half an hour with each class.  But the end product was butchers paper full of keywords and possible Dewey Decimal numbers they could go to when visiting the library.

Luckily for me, the teachers arranged for library visits once the weather had cleared.

During the library visit, I gave a quick tour of the library.  We then sat down and I asked what parts of a book they could look at to find out if the book would have anything about their topic.  The students were really cluey about this and all could answer - the blurb at the back, the contents page and the index.

I had put aside books to do with their topics and made sure they couldn't be loaned to allow all students equal access to the resources.  We all know what can happen if you have one student or parent of a student who is quick of the mark and borrows all the books about a particular topic resulting in the other students having access to nothing.

The students were then allowed to look through the books and photocopy (for free) any pages they thought that would help then with their projects - with a limit of 10 pages!

All in all it has been a success.  The teachers were really impressed and have already talked to me about making this a regular thing.

The principal even put a small article in the school newsletter talking about the partnership with the school and local library and how wonderful it was for the students to learn about how they can access learning resources from a place within their community outside of school.

Now all I have to do is continue working on the other 6 primary schools and 2 high schools in our region - which I have been hammering away at since I started in this job 5 years ago.