Jing and Libraries

Jing is very useful and easy to use software.  It is a perfect tool to use in libraries, and it can be used in a variety of ways.  For example, a librarian can instruct patrons how to navigate an online library catalog from a distance by using a Jing Screencast video that provides step by step instructions to help them find what they are looking for.  It is a perfect visual prompt for individuals who are new to using a specific library's catalog online.  It is also a great tool for university librarians to use when instructing new students to use the university library.  They can provide step by step instructions using the video to demonstrate how to search for books and articles, how to use interlibrary loan, or how to contact a librarian online when they have questions.  It is a very simple, quick, effective and inexpensive tool to assist patrons in any type of library.  I found it very easy to learn and use.

Jing Video

Jing Screencast

Wikispaces

Like many others, the majority of my exposure to wikis was through Wikipedia.  Wikispaces seems to offer a much more dynamic platform - one that is both more visually pleasing and, by allowing for the creation of multiple pages, better organized.  The user interface is quite easy to use, making Wikispaces quite valuable for libraries that are attempting to update their Web 2.0 presence quickly.

One of the most appealing features of wikis is the ability for groups to work on the same page without having to meet physically.  Our experience, in Group Charlie, exemplified the potential for group work at a distance provided by Wikispaces.  After settling on a topic, Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults, we set to work on creating the pages and adding content.  The finished project offers a very useful place for readers interested in this genre - it offers introductory information and summaries of some of classic and contemporary literature and film.  It also is visually appealing and well organized, thus inviting the reader in.  Of course, central to group work, especially that conducted at a distance, is clear organization of tasks, and it would help if Wikispaces provided a more useful means of communication.

Delicious, Diigo and Pinterest

I created a Delicious account and a Diigo account.  Both are social bookmarking sites, and thus make it possible to organize bookmarks of various websites and either keep them private for your own use or share them with the public.  With the amount of websites we all use, bookmarking has become a necessity.  Both Diigo and Delcious offer rather basic service, although Diigo seemed more useful because it allows the user not only to bookmark a site, but also to highlight certain parts of it.

Pinterest, another social bookmarking application, seemed a little different from the other two.  The use of images and the virtual board offered a more appealing interface, and it also seemed to highlight the social part of social bookmarking.  Here I could more easily join in communities with similar interests and have access to a wider array of information.

 I do feel that, as social media sites multiply, it becomes more and more difficult to discern the necessity for these services.  With google sites, blogs, twitter, rss feeds, delicious, diigo, pinterest, facebook, etc. each offering different ways to organize and access information on the web, the acts of simplification have the potential simply to create more places one has to look on the Web. This seemed to be the case with both Delicious and Diigo.

This QR code is a link to my google sites page.

Podcasts and Libraries

The use of mp3 and podcasts in libraries can have a positive affect in a world of decreased funding.  As staffing of libraries become smaller and smaller, podcasts offer a means of sustaining some of the services associated with librarians.  This is particularly useful when considering young children's use of the library.  Podcasts of picture walks, like the one I demonstrated in my podcast, could be made available to patrons to help parents and early childhood and elementary teachers with early literacy instruction. Also, an archive of storytime podcasts could be maintained by libraries.  This way, parents and early childhood educators could choose from an array of stories tailored to specific children, in the library, at home or in school.  Therefore, the library is able to reach beyond its physical walls.  So while we should not treat podcasts as substitutes for librarians, they do help deal with budgetary realities.

Podcast

For my podcast, I decided to use the same topic I chose for the PowerPoint presentation.  I thought I could provide a brief overview about conducting a “picture walk” for an audience of early childhood teachers and school media specialists who can use this tool in their literacy instruction.  I attempted to include a short video demonstration in my PowerPoint presentation; however I am not sure if others were able to view it.  I was thinking that I could incorporate the demonstration into the podcast.  I realize that using video demonstration would allow for the audience to view the book as the reader and child “walk” through it, and that a podcast only allows for the audience to listen to the audio.  However, by providing the name and author of the book being used, the audience may be able to get the book and have it in front of them to follow along while listening to the podcast.  By listening to the audio, the audience is able to hear some examples leading questions that can be used to elicit responses from students, as well as the kinds of response young readers are likely to provide when doing a “picture walk.”  While the introduction to this podcast is relatively brief, I felt that providing a demonstration of a picture walk would be most beneficial for this podcast, which made it significantly longer than 3 minutes.

Picture Walk Podcast