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

PowerPoint and Prezi

PowerPoint and Prezi are two very useful presentation tools.  It is hard to say one is better than the other.  They are both relatively easy to use, offer attractive graphics for a presentation, and allow you to insert a variety of different media.  That is not to say they are exactly the same by any means.  PowerPoint is the better known of the two, so the presentation style appears more familiar.  This seems like an advantage because the audience viewing the presentation will probably be familiar with how the information will be presented.  With such familiarity comes a certain inflexibility.  While there is a great deal of variety within each slide - images, video, different graphics - the presentation is linear, slide after slide after slide.  Prezi, on the other hand, offers a greater flexibility in presentation style.  The movement from frame to frame is less linear, the frames themselves can be different shapes and sizes, text can be entered in a variety of places and at different angles.  This can make for a more visually interesting presentation.  Also, the aesthetics of Prezi are much more appealing.  On the one hand, because of this flexibility Prezi has a steeper learning curve than PowerPoint.  On the other hand, Prezi's tools make inserting graphics, images and videos much easier.  For example, on Prezi there is a simple YouTube button that allows the user to insert videos from YouTube.  For my PowerPoint presentation, I created a Flip Video, which apparently PowerPoint is not equipped to host.  Therefore, I had to convert the file into another format.  In the end I think Prezi and PowerPoint could appeal to different audiences.  I will definitely use both tools again, and I am very interested in exploring more about Prezi, which I had not heard of before this assignment.

The Library Company of Philadelphia is on Facebook

The Library Company today

The Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Benjamin Franklin, is the oldest library in the United States.  Even the oldest library now has a Facebook page.  Like many of the Web 2.0 technologies, the Facebook page for the Library Company allows their materials to be able to be seen by a much wider audience.  For instance, since the Library Company now mostly serves the purpose of an archive of Early American documents and images, the Facebook page allows them to post reproductions of some of their archival holdings.  In another instance, a post informed visitors to the page that a National Constitution Center exhibit on "American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition" actually displayed a number of artifacts from the Library Company.  The page also links to online exhibits hosted on the Library Company website, as well as exhibits physically held at the Library Company itself.  While there are a number of fascinating images displayed on the Facebook page, some are simply posted with no identification.  Also, while it provides the possibility of active engagement with the material posted, most people simply "like" the posts, which is a relatively passive act.  Nonetheless, the kinds of images they display and the information they post should encourage any visitor to the Facebook page to find out more about the Library Company.

Uses of Web 2.0 in Libraries

The Internet is pervasive in nearly all facets of society, and this of course has profound affects on libraries.  One of the clear advantages of various Web 2.0 technologies, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs and wikis, is that it allows for the expansion for more active engagement between patrons and librarians.  The transformation of library services as a result of Web 2.0 is not limited to any one kind of library – you can see it is school libraries, public libraries, and university libraries, and large research libraries, like the Library of Congress.

One place the positive effects of 2.0 is apparent is in school libraries.  Here young researchers are able to develop new and better methods of researching and organizing their information.  As Fredrick notes, tools like Diigo, Notestar, Evernote, and Noodletools, “provide students with visual ways to store, access, and manipulate their collected information using notes, highlights, and other features” (Fredrick, 2012).  All of these programs, which allow for more organized researching and note taking also provide a means for more sustained engagement between educators and students.  Of course, like most technological advances, those students who don’t have access to computers outside of school, will be at a disadvantage.  And many of the tools can be prohibitively expensive, and the free ones are loaded with distracting advertisements.

Moving from the relatively small world of school libraries to the largest library in the United States, the Library of Congress has seen real benefits from the use of 2.0 Technology, such as Twitter, YouTube, iTunes U and Facebook.  As Raymond notes, these platforms can “increase awareness of Library collections and interest readers…develop new communication channels and new relationships…[and] reach new audiences” (Raymond, 2009).  The Library of Congress has used these tools to expand their reach to a larger audience.  This was apparent in an instructional video the Library created about Rosie the Riveter.  When it was hosted only on their website (loc.gov), the video received 20,000 views in a period of over 5 years.  However, when the video was posted to YouTube, it received 14,000 views in just 3 months (Raymond, 2009).  While clearly YouTube allows for much broader reach, one has to wonder how much this actually encourages more active engagement with the Library.  While the YouTube video indirectly increases patronage, does this encourage viewers to leave YouTube and good to loc.gov and use the Library itself?  And once there would these one-time YouTube viewers have any idea how to use this complicated library?

While these technologies are certainly spreading through many different types of libraries, there continues to be different rates of adoption, particularly between smaller, rural libraries and larger urban libraries.  As Lietzau notes, almost 60% of public libraries in the United States serve fewer than 10,000 people (Lietzau, 2009).  These libraries, because they have less financial resources than larger public libraries, are less likely to use 2.0 in any manner.  As Lietzau found in his study, only 73% of these libraries even had a website.  As many of these libraries presumably serve relatively isolated populations, they are precisely the libraries that need to adopt these new technologies.  So as more and more American citizens, and the libraries they use, are coming to depend on Web 2.0, these libraries and the populations they serve, run the risk of becoming completely disconnected.

References

Fredrick, K. (2012).  Using Web 2.0 Tools with Young Researchers. School Library Monthly, 28(6), 22-24.

Lietzau, Z. (2009, October).  U.S. Public Libraries and Web 2.0: What’s Really Happening?  Computers in Libraries, 7-10.

Raymond, M. (2009, July/August). Being Sociable: Library Wades Deeper Into Web 2.0 Waters. Library of Congress Information Bulletin, 68(7/8), 138-139.