#blogjune Post 2 - ANZ 23 Mobile Things: Thing 4: Maps and Checking In

I have to admit that I really haven't jumped into Thing 4 with great enthusiasm.  I'm like that with most things, I'll dip my toe in and if it doesn't interest me or provide me with a useful tool, then I'll move on.

Now with Maps and Checking In, I have played around with Foursquare, but honestly, living where I live there are really not heaps of places to check in as such. 

I added our libraries to Foursquare, but really, do people want to know that I checked in to my library every week day?  And then I checked in at our local beach and then at Woolworths??  I mean, I honestly don't go to many places so it lost it's appeal.  Even when I was in the city - either Brisbane or Sydney - I forgot to check in because it really didn't excite me!

However, I do know that some libraries have successfully used it as a tool for promotion and competition.  But looking at my community and how they use phones, and I would make a rough guess at saying perhaps 40% have smart phones/mobile devices, the rest have regular mobile phones or lap tops or nothing.  So offering some sort of program where users could check in, probably wouldn't be that popular.

I have used the Google Maps app to look for directions, but find Navigator or the navigation tool on my phone much more useful - like a GPS on my phone.  Although, due to a delay in response time while driving through Tamworth, it did get me lost looking for South Tamworth Library!!

Now I still don't know a lot about Geocaching but I have heard our Council IT staff member talking about doing some geocaching around our town.  I must have a longer conversation with him, but find I get lost in the jargon he uses.

So as you can see, I'm not really enthused by maps and checking in, but I think I will expect that some things on the 23 Mobile Things program will excite me and others won't.  But really it's all about learning about what is out there for mobile devices and having a bit of a play around.

Now off to read other #blogjune participants posts!

#blogjune - Post 1

I was actually writing a few blog posts in my head last night thinking about #blogjune - but of course when I should've started writing them down and saving them as drafts, I went to sleep!!

So I am participating in #blogjune again this year.  You can find the start of my posts for the first time I participated in #blogjune in 2012 here (yes it stated that I started on 31 May but that's because the date on my blogger is a bit out).

You can find a bit more about #blogjune and a list of those participating here.

So the challenge is to post every day of June. 

I note that some fellow #blogjune bloggers have provided some themes or ideas of which they will post about.  I'm leaving mine fairly flexible - because you never know what will happen that you might want to post about.  And I'm not restricting myself to just professional topics (although they will probably feature quite a lot).  You can see from my previous posts that personal life does creep into my posts quite a bit.  That's just how I roll!!

Why do I participate in #blogjune?  It forces me to stop and reflect on things that have happened, things that I have read, or events/conferences/seminars I have attended.  It also makes way for the development of new friendships (professional and personal), and allows me to feel a bit less isolated.

To start #blogjune I went to the list and added all the participants to my "reader" so that I can follow other posts.  This, I hope, will give me some ideas for when I'm struggling to get a post out.

Let #blogjune begin........

ANZ 23 Mobile Things - Thing 3 - Email

I'm a bit behind getting this blog post written due to various reasons, too busy, not in the right frame of mind, dealing with East Coast Lows etc etc.  But I must slap my wrists because if I can't manage to post a weekly post, then how am I going to deal with #blogJune where I have to post everyday in June?!?  So I will try a bit harder.

I have had this blog post written in my head for a while but now when I go to put it into words it seems to escape me - I'm sure others have the same problem.

Thing 3 is Email.  On my work supplied tablet, I have both my personal and work email set up using the tablets default email program.  I honestly didn't know you that there was email apps out there - now I do but I won't be changing because I really can't play with what the work IT guys have set up.

However, I have no problems using the tablet default email.  It serves it's purpose.  I can access work and personal emails.  I can send emails.  It alerts me when there is a new email.

But what it doesn't do is:

• provide me access to my address book or the work address book - this makes sending email a bit tricky unless I have used my tablet to send an email to that person before (then it remembers the email address);
• sync correctly, if I have sent an email using the desktop email (not sure on the correct wording to use here) program and not the tablet, it won't be in my tablet's "sent" folder.  This makes it a bit tricky to check if I have sent an email when using my tablet, or forwarding an email that I sent using the desktop program;
• allow me to format the email, e.g. change fonts etc;
• delete emails from the desktop email.  When I delete emails on my tablet they do not delete from the desktop email so it means when I get back to my desk, I am often reading emails that I have already read.

The ANZ 23 Mobile Things blog post asks the following questions:

• If relevant, find out your workplaces policy for loading work email onto personal devices.  Consider the pros and cons of always being “available” via email.  If you do want to access work email on your device how will you keep it secure? Well as it is a work provided tablet, they insisted on providing email access via the device and had no issue allowing me to access my personal email too.  The being "available" part was the whole point of having the tablet, as I do travel around the branches I manage and attend meetings/conferences off site, so being available is good.  However, I do access my tablet while on leave and it does become an issue at times when I see an email that starts to stress me out while I'm on leave.  Or I action because I can even though I'm not at work.  As for the security, IT set it up so I have no idea what they have done.
• Do you use email to alert staff to roster changes and library activities? Yes I do.  But the majority of the time this is done using desktop mail not tablet mail.  Unless I am off site and an emergency comes up.
• How might your clients accesses your services via email on mobile devices? My library service offers SMS and email reservation and overdue notices and a lot of our clients access these via their smart phones.  We are also looking at having a library catalogue app in the near future.  Our LMS (library management system) allows for clients to set up alerts, so I can only assume that some of our clients utilise this feature and receive alerts via their phones.  As for using their mobile device to receive email citations and catalogue records - I work in a public library so am unsure how many clients would use this.  I would think it would be more likely in an academic/special library setting - but I could be wrong.  I also think that public libraries have to work harder to promote these services so that clients are aware of just what they can do with our online resources.  But that's a whole other blog post.

On a side note, this week was Library and Information Week.  To start the week, I attended the annual Library and Information Week breakfast held at Coffs Harbour Surf Club at Park Beach.  While brief, it was great to catch up with some other local library professionals, and thanks very much to Judy Atkinson who organises this each year.  We even got some goody bags with pens, notebooks, mouse pads, sticky notes etc from library suppliers.

I ran some demonstrations of my library's online resources for the public, we had National Simultaneous Storytime at each branch, and I had to close one branch of our libraries early on Friday afternoon due to an East Coast Low dumping lots and lots of rain and flooding the roads.  So it was an eventful week!!

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?