Space Quest Episode #4 -- Wandering Websites



Your fellow space travelers will often look to you to assist them when they are in pursuit of information.  The challenge for a good commander is to provide courteous, accurate, and complete information as quickly as possible. This mission is intended to let you wander through some useful websites to explore sources that can make you look as if you have all the answers!

The Harris County Public Library home page has a very useful starting point for your search for information. The "WEBSITES" tab includes links for handling many of the questions that are commonly asked about local issues. It can be used at your service desk to search for answers. Because it is on the library's public site, it also is a handy place to direct customers when they call or e-mail with questions.



Begin your quest by clicking on the "WEBSITES" tab. The page that comes up has blog posts on the right side that highlight websites of current interest. The most useful tool on the page is the "FIND" box on the left. Put your space vehicle into Cruise mode, and spend some time exploring the richness hidden within this small unassuming box. You will find it useful in accomplisging this mission.

Sometimes the FIND box won't have what you seek, and you will have to move deeper into space in order to locate what you need. The problem is, you are going to encounter a lot of space junk as you wander among websites. How can you sort out the good stuff?



Wikipedia Logo



You can use a list of basic criteria to do your own evaluation of a website, to decide whether it shows accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage. Another way is to start out with an authoritative collection of links, like the university-sponsored  Internet Public Library.  Some experienced librarians share their personal collections of useful links with others. Click here to see an example from one of HCPL's own specialists.

Another way is to find links through an online Encylcopedia like Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a project to build free encyclopedias in all languages of the world. Virtually anyone with Internet access is free to contribute, by contributing neutral, cited information.

...3,2,1 On to the Quest!

Submit your answers to the questions below using the form on Harriet. A good practice is to first type your answers into a Word document. When you are finished, Copy/Paste your answers into the form. This may save you from losing your work. Be sure to submit after you have entered all your answers into the form.

1)  Some space travelers, especially the Klingons, will expect you to give them all the answers, but there are some legitimate limits on the provision of reference service. Review the "Fleet Commander's Guidebook" (a.k.a. the Harris County Public Library Reference Policy on Harriet) and list at least three circumstances in which the assistance you can provide is restricted.

2) Former Rockets player Hakeem Olajuwon owns about 40,000 sq. ft. of vacant commercial property along the East Freeway. What was the market value of this property as of Jan. 1, 2011? Provide the answer to the question, and copy/paste the link where you found it. [Hint: Check the "Homes and Housing" section of the FIND box.]
3) Today the Romulans are electing a new ruler, and those residing on earth are allowed to vote absentee at regular election day polling places. Your friend Ruanek wants to know where to go to vote. At what website can you enter his information and find out his polling place?

4) Occasionally as you move from one space vehicle to another, you will feel like you have gone through a time warp. Everything is shifting! Using the Neighborhood links, identify some of the specifics for each location. a.) What is one of the newspapers covering the Crosby area? b.) What school district serves the Evelyn Meador branch in Seabrook? c.) What's the name of the competitive swimming club in the Fairbanks area? 

[In your travels through the neighborhoods, if you drop into a black hole and find a link that has disappeared or needs revision, make sure to notify ebranch@hcpl.net of the needed change.]

5) A very useful resource for your travels is this book by two authors, found in the HCPL catalog:

Smithsonian Atlas of Space Exploration. You want to cite this resource in your latest funding proposal to the United Federation of Planets. Look up the details of the item in the catalog. Use the Citation Machine (found in the Ready Reference links) to create a citation for this book in proper MLA format, and copy it here.

6) Go to the Internet Public Library (http://www.ipl.org/) and follow these tracks: Resources by Subject; Science & Technology; Astronomy; Galactic. What website does this trail lead you to?

7) Wikipedia is a very useful resource when you need something that only an ardent "fan" would know. For example, many sources consider that "The City on the Edge of Forever" was the best episode of the original Star Trek series. What number was this episode, and when was it first broadcast?

If you have submitted all the correct answers to accomplish this mission, you will receive the Websites Space Vehicle to add to your command. This will let you dig through our cramped but coveted space locker for a chance at a great prize. Complete The Fleet by earning all ten vehicles, and you will also receive ten Intergalatic Training Credits.

Beyond Method #12: Last Dance: Reflection and Evaluation

Exercise:

1. Please complete the evaluation form for this program. (Submitted)
2. Please reflect on your learning journey and post a few thoughts.
• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I really enjoyed the screencasting and the survey modules. I have been wanting to learn both of these things for a long time. Some of the earlier modules we have done in some training our Leadership Team wrote for our own system (see the iHCPLNextGen modules), so those were not as necessary for me.
• How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? I am a life-long learner. I am now within a few years of retirement from my library career, but I still enjoy learning new things. I see many ways that I will be able to use these techniques in my life outside of the library, with my family, my church, and volunteer activities.
• Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? I am always amazed at how much is out there for free!
• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? Even up the length of the "steps". Some seemed too lengthy, and I got kind of bogged down. Presentations was probably the hardest to get through. It seemed a little unfocused.
• If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate? Yes, and I would hopefully start earlier.
3.  email us with the subject line “Beyond Two-Steppin’ Completion”, along with your full name and the URL to your blog.  (Done)

Beyond Method #11: Survey Says!!

Discovery Exercise:

1. Read this March 2011 TechSoup/Idealware article  A Few Good Online Survey Tools for Your Non-profit. At our beginning level, the free packages would probably be enough. Our Friends group does subscribe to Constant Contact for its e-mail marketing features and this is a powerful yet inexpensive program. I assume that the Survey would also be a good value, and would investigate it first if further sophistication is required. Constant Contact does provide excellent online tutorials, webinars, and in-person training to learn to maximize the use of their services.
2. Next, read some of the best practices listed in this TechSoup article Use Online Survey Tools to Get the Feedback You Need. This repeats much of the information presented in the article above, but did add some good suggestions on how to structure the questions. This is an area I need to learn more about.
3. Watch the YouTube video An Educator’s Introduction to Poll Everywhere . I have enjoyed the survey instruments used in webinars, and they probably were based on Poll Everywhere, or a tool like it. For example, early polls would identify the type of library you worked at (public, school, academic or special), and your level of familiarity with the topic under discussion (not familiar, somewhat familiar, very familiar). The presenter was then able to base further comments on the demographics of his/her audience. It's sort of like a show of hands in a face-to-face presentation.
4. Discuss your experience with online survey tools. I have responded to many online surveys, but have not created one myself. I can't wait to do it, because this type of interactive feedback is extremely valuable. Our library system started surveying customers this summer, to generate interest in our adult summer reading program. From the answers to some of the poll questions (like what was your favorite book that you read this summer) it was obvious that teens and children were responding to the survey, too. I don't think that this was expected. Our library has surveyed customers with paper forms in the past (e.g. during Texas Library Snapshot Day), but now is moving toward online surveys accessible from our web page. Our Young Adult Librarian uses polls in her teen newsletter, and I now want to include one in our general Friends newsletter as well. I think it is a great tool for building connections between the library and the people it serves. If we end up doing an online conference for a branch meeting, the live Poll Everywhere software would be a way to make the discussion more lively.
5. Create a short survey. Here is the link to my first survey of customer satisfaction. It was extremely easy to create. I need to read more about the best way to structure questions to find out what I need to know. I am hoping I can indirectly inform customers about our services with such a survey, as well as learn from them about what they need. I posted this survey to my Facebook page, just to see what kind of response it generates.  [Note: The survey has only been up a few minutes, and already it has captured two responses containing information that will be useful to me in telling the library's story.]

Beyond Method #10: Meet You Online

Discovery Exercise:

1. Watch the YouTube video interviews Skype an Author and Using Skype to Connect with Loved Ones. The Skype an Author site is valuable for children's books and authors. I am hoping someone has done the same for adult authors. The most active book clubs in our library are for adults, and it would be handy to have a one-stop place to identify authors who would share their time for free with book clubs. The Skype service offered in the Tigard Public Library sounds interesting, but our computer lab is way too busy as a location to host such a service. We actually advertise it as a place for "quiet" work during the few hours we are not holding classes there. What we could do is offer classes on how to set up Skype at home.
2. Watch the YouTube videos Using Skype in Library Book Clubs and a little bit of The Hole in the Sky to see a few virtual author visits in action.  The book clubs using Skype in this video segment could benefit from the setup used in the classroom for Barbara Mahler's visit. It makes sense to project the author onto a large screen, instead of using a single laptop. For most people, the laptop version would be no different than an audioconference.
3. Read TechSoup’s Web Conferencing Tools: Right for You? The best conferences I have attended have had these features: presenters who spoke well, and showed screens that complemented their talk; screens that changed frequently enough so that you did not become bored, but slowly enough that you could read or even make notes as needed; survey instruments included, to gather feedback from the audience in real time; chat features so you could type in questions that were answered at the end of the presentation; multiple presenters and seamless interchange between them; archives available soon after the presentation, with additional information included that resulted from the questions of the participants, not all of which could be addressed online.
4. Education Webinars: In the past few years I have watched many educational webinars. They are a great way to do training at the desktop, without the time and expense of travel. The quality of presentation varies greatly, though. I have learned to be more selective in the ones I sign up for, as some are really a waste of time. A recent one that comes to mind is one on the topic of Games in Libraries. Publicized as "fun", it was the most UNFUN webinar I have viewed. I gave up about half way through.
5. I personally have never used any online meeting or online conferencing tools other than using Skype to talk with distant relatives. This has been a real asset for my husband who has talked online with relatives in Romania, Spain, Germany and Mexico. Being able to actually "see" the person really does contribute to making the world smaller. Our library system currently does not use any online conferencing tools, but many of us wish they would start. We have monthly branch librarians meetings, and at least 26 of us drive across town to get there. We could save a lot of time and money if we could somehow do this online. Getting this done would require some planning and setting up by our e-branch or Network Services department. Like all of the rest of our departments, they are short-staffed and can barely handle the workload they have, let alone take on something new. I think we will have to just jump into it someday soon, however, in the interest of economy. We would need to purchase web cams and decide on the appropriate software and format for the meeting.

OPTIONAL – I tried sharing my screen with a friend using JoinMe. We were not able to use the audio component by the phone listed, since our phones are blocked from easily calling long distance numbers. Since there were just two of us, we called each other by cell phone. My friend was able to see my screen, so I could show him the training that I was doing and several other items. I could give him control of my screen, and it was strange to see him move my cursor.
We both were a little spooked by all the security messages we saw along the way. I got a message after I had closed out, saying that the security settings on my computer had been changed. It seems like "Join.me" is detected as a kind of spyware. I think I would feel uncomfortable using it again without approval from our Network Services department. I am concerned about comproming the security of the library network and would want reassurance that it is OK to use.

Beyond Method #9: Tell a (Digital) Story

Discovery Exercise:

1. Of the three simpler digital storytelling methods choose one and create a short example in which you tell a story.

Mixbook: Here is a "scrapbook" I created to show a year in review at the library. It was not difficult to figure out how to use this tool, but it was a little tedious. My biggest problem was with saving my work. Mixbook did not always save my pages as I thought, and I had to re-do them, sometimes several times. I also had some trouble embedding my slideshow, as it did not seem to load properly when I published my post.

2.  Animoto : I took photos of the wildlife living in the area, and these photos were used in the creation of a mural for our Children's Area. Some of my photos arehighlighted in this Animoto segment:


Animoto was very easy to use, but the free version is limited to 30 seconds and only a few photos. The creation process is automatic and does not give you a lot of control. I would have chosen a different order for my photos to appear, but I did not have a say.

Xtranormal is another interesting way to tell a story. Here is a short clip I created in hopes that I could bypass my regularly scheduled performance review.  P.S. It didn't work.

                           Alternative Performance Review


3. Most of the examples shown are far more sophisticated than I have equipment to produce. I think I could use the simpler methods above to "tell a digital story" in the branch blog on my library home page. I could also create some animated versions to run on the photo frame in our lobby, and perhaps show one of them in an outreach presentation in our community. Lately, because we have been short-staffed due to a hiring freeze and layoffs, we have created CDs to "tell our summer reading club story" to the schools in our area, rather than have staff visit each school. These kinds of digital stories would be good to include on those CDs.

Beyond Method #8: Capture Your Computer Screen

1. Read Meredith Farkas’ October 2009 American Libaries Magazine article “Your Desktop: The Movie“.  (Done) I liked both the Orange County Library's page of online tutorials, and MIT's overview of its many libraries and how to take best advantage of their resources. I think our library system could benefit from both of these types of screencasts.
2. Read Mikael Jacobsen’s January 2011 Library Journal article “Reference Backtalk: Screencasting for an Audience of One“. (Done). Our library does use a chat service where customers can be allowed to look at the librarian's screen as she/he searches or describes a process, but being able to record this would be even better. Often times when working at the reference desk, I ask a customer to step behind me so that they can more easily follow my directions on how to access information. They often have to take notes on what links to follow. How much better it would be to record the process and give them the link to what has been demonstrated!
3. Take a look at this amazing collection of screencasting resources on Polly-Alida Farrington’s lib20 wiki. Check out at least 4 examples of screencasts. I liked these:

-- Cornell Universities "Research Minutes" (although they lasted 90 seconds!)
-- Nashville Public Library's "How to Request a Book"
-- Pierce County Library's "Meeting Room Reservations"
-- "ireadBlogs"

One bad thing I noticed: Those examples created with software that has gone "extinct," like ScreenToaster, were no longer available. I guess putting a lot of work into creating screencasts with free software could have its potential downside!

4.    I choose to use Screenr to make a short screen cast tour of our library web page.  Here is the embedded version of one of my first attempts:


I found the software reasonably easy to use, and very easy to share. I learned these lessons:
-- Don't use a laptop with a defective screen to do your recording.
-- Do write out your script so that there are no awkward pauses in what you have to say.
-- Be ready to adlib in case your Internet doesn't cooperate and the pages load slowly.
-- Use a mike on a headset if possible, so the background noise resulting from the handling of the mike is lessened.

I think that screencasting will be a powerful tool to use to on our website. A picture is often worth a thousand words when trying to teach something, especially to visual learners. By being able to post easily to YouTube and Facebook, the results can be widely shared. And the price is right!!

Beyond Method #7: Next Gen Presentations

Discovery Exercise:

1. Read Educause – 7 Things You Should Know About Next Generation Presentation Tools . I could not get this link to open.
2. Choose one tool and upload a presentation file to it and explore the various features/options offered. I decided to experiment by loading an existing  PowerPoint presentation into Sliderocket that I had used in my book club when we read "The Forest Lover" by Susan Vreeland. It introduced the life and work of the Canadian artist Emily Carr.
3. What your impressions are of Sliderocket? I found Sliderocket surprisingly easy to use. It was easy to edit and improve my presentation. This is a link to it. The extra features, like the survey tool and the statistics reporting, that come in the professional (fee-based) module would be worth investigating.
4. I have not had experience with any of the other tools mentioned here. I usually use PowerPoint and find it very easy and useful. The problem of bad PowerPoint presentations does not seem to be with the tool, but with presenters who use the tool badly. I would really like to explore Prezi in more detail when I have more time. I like the concept of a "game board" approach to illustrating ideas. Online presentation tools have been very useful for me in the past, to illustrate a talk, teach a concept, or highlight a display. If a patron came in to my library asking for recommendations on presentation tools that are freely available online, I could refer them to Sliderocket, but at this point I still could not offer much hands-on experience.
5. A free and easy website that was not mentioned here that I have used to create presentations is http://www.slide.com/. Here is a link to a presentation I created to illustrate a typical day at our library last year.