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.

Beyond Method #6: eBooks & eReaders and libraries, oh my!

Discovery Exercise:

1. Read this post by Meredith Farkas on eBooks and libraries. This article really made me think a lot about the implications of e-books for libraries. So far, my thoughts had been primarily about e-books for individuals. Lots of advantages there: lightweight, instant gratification for those who can afford it, easy on the eye, an so forth. Hadn't thought so much about the future of inter-library loan, the desire of e-reader providers to keep libraries out of the picture, the issue of browsing for information, long-term preservation of information, issues of "renting" vs. "owning" the materials, etc. It will be a challenge for future librarians to maximize the benefits for customers.
2. Go to Project Gutenberg.
3. Do a basic search for a classic or public domain work.   I searched for Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I could read the book directly online, in a really basic font that was not appealing. I found I could download multiple results, including some in other languages than English (e.g. German and Dutch) and some audio (MP3, iTunes, and other options). I chose the most downloaded "print" choice, and found selections in HTML, EPUB, Kindle, and more.
4. Click on the title of the work to open up the book record. I clicked on the EPUB edition, and it opened very quickly on my laptop with Adobe Digital Editions.  I assume that if I had a Kindle I would click on the download link that says "Kindle."
5. Open up the basic HTML version of the text.  Do you find this easy to read? It opened instantly, and looked about the same as the EPUB text, but was much easier to scroll through than the EPUB version. The file size was much larger (1.1 MB for HTML vs. 441 kB for EPUB). I must say, though, I really miss the beautiful colored illustrations that were in my grandmother's thick old leather-bound edition!
6. Add a link to the book record that you viewed:  HTML version     Project Gutenberg was easy to use. Customers would be interested in a public domain service like Project Gutenberg if they needed a copy of a classic book quickly. I don't have an e-reader (yet) so I can't practice the full download process. This is actually a BIG drawback for many of us trying to keep current in order to help customers. Basically though, it looks like the steps are having the right software loaded, identifying the right format for the material, downloading it to a PC, and transferring it to an e-reader device.  [Note: Two days after I finished this exercise, I had a teen customer who was desperate to begin reading "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad for a class the next day. Since everyone else in her class had the same need, we had no more print copies to check out. I showed her how to get to Project Gutenberg, and she was a happy camper.]

Beyond Method #5: Tag, You're It! Social Cataloging and Libraries

Discovery Exercise:

Sign up for a Goodreads or LibraryThing account. I have had several Library Thing accounts for quite a while. I have a personal one that has a widget on my blog, and now a gadget on my new iGoogle page. I have a public Library Thing page whose link I share with my library book club to track what we have read as a group. Then I have paid the $25 for a lifetime account for my church library. What a fantastic and easy way to create an online catalog that can be shared with all church members through the church website.

Library Thing on My Blog

Do you think Goodreads and LibraryThing could be effective readers advisory tools? I think they would be good for casual use. If you wanted something "good to read" it would be nice to browse someone's library who has similar tastes to your own. I was intrigued by the use of Good Reads as a Summer Reading Club list at one of the libraries. It sounded like it would be a great way to let customers interact with each other, and to collect comments and ratings. Disappointingly, in reality I did not see that much of this had happened. I would like to investigate the use of these sites further for that purpose.

Beyond Method #4: Employment 2.0

1. Take a look at the Finding Jobs page from the Texas Workskills Development in Libraries website. This site is packed with good resources for job hunters, from resume tips to workshop locations and dates. However, as implied by the very first page, computer knowledge is needed to navigate it. A lot of good instruction is provided here, and those with time on their hands between jobs could benefit from reviewing these instructions. At my library, we spend a lot of time one-on-one with individuals applying for jobs. Many who are laid off from basic jobs have not used computers at work, yet find themselves having to apply for new jobs online, including composing and attaching resumes or sending them by e-mail. I worry because this site and these workshops seemed to be linked to the library systems in Texas, and these have become vicitims of our devastating Texas budgets cuts. Probably the workshops will go away. Will anyone be left to manage the website? Another example of short-sited budget cuts in the worst of times for unemployment!
2. Take a look at the Goodwill Community Foundation’s Computer Basics page. Do you think that this would be helpful for patrons in learning to use the computer? Most people who need to use computers want to get hands-on and productive as soon as possible. They don't want to spend time on topics such as "Parts of the Laptop" or "Operating Systems." Most of these videos are too superficial and would not really give a total novice enough information to act on. Example: Three types of operating systems are listed, and the question is asked: "Which one is right for you?" Answer:  "It depends on your personal preferences." At our library, we are fortunate enough to have a computer lab and a paid employee and volunteers who teach ten basic classes in English and two in Spanish each week. They cover topics such as basic knowledge, e-mail, Internet, Word, Excel, social networks, etc.I know that individuals benefit more from this personalized instruction than they do from videos such as those on this site. We have many success stories to prove the value of these classes.
3. What do you think you could do at your library to help job seekers? Besides the classes described above, we have WorkSource seminars twice per month.that cover topics such as resume building, interviewing techniques, developing a network, etc. We provide access to the Job and Career Builder Accelerator database, and one of our librarians periodically teaches people how to use it. We also have useful job searching links highlighted on our library website.

Beyond Method #3: Where in the World? Geography and Travel 2.0

Discovery Exercise:

1. Take a look at these library sites to see how some libraries are using map mashups on the library website. Our library system already has a great use of maps, that gives both an overview of all 26 branches, plus detail on each branch at a click.

Do you see yourself creating maps for your library? Our library already has great maps. See image above. Instead, I created a special use map for my church, showing the local schools that surround it.
Add a link to your new map to the post. Hosanna and SISD Schools
Was Google Maps easy to use?  Did you have any difficulties? I did not find Google maps easy to use. It was difficult to move the map around without having it switch scales, even when I tried hard. The instructions given in Beyond Two-Steppin' for using Google maps have changed from what Google Maps shows today, and that also made things a little confusing. I had a hard time editing and positioning the icons to show what I wanted, I hope with a little more practice, it will get easier. Here is the embedded version:
                         
View Spring ISD Schools Near Hosanna in a larger map

Beyond Method #2: Customize Your Window to the Internet

Discovery Exercise:

1. Read this article comparing the different homepages. Done. Useful and interesting article. They suggest that Netvibes is the winner in their comparison, but I will start with iGoogle since I already have Google mail, Google calendar, and Google reader.
2. Read this article on using customizable homepages in a staff environment. Looks interesting, but a colleague has already created and shared a very useful homepage for our local staff that we have been using for years. It's basically a classified collection of links, but it is incredibly useful for our daily work. I might experiment with a public page for another group to which I belong.
3. Take a look at how some libraries are using Netvibes:
• Cranbury Public Library
• Dublin City Public Libraries 
• We have had to bypass our heavily loaded homepage because it took too long to load and put too much burden on the network. Now we basically come up to a bare, blah skeleton that loads quickly. I wonder how Netvibes would react in this situation.
4. Take a look at this SlideShare presentation describing how some libraries are utilizing iGoogle. This was too technical for my taste, as it focused too much on the mechanics of creating your own gadgets.
5. Log on to  iGoogle and play around. This was a little disappointing. The page was not as intuitive to construct as I had hoped. It was more spread out than I wanted. Lots of the gadgets were "broken."  My Google features populated just fine, but I could not get Facebook to show up as anything but a blank box. Log on to Netvibes and play around. I registered for a free account and found it easier to get started. It also pulled up all my Google features, once I provided my login info. Facebook also popped up just fine.
6. Which customizable homepage looks to be the best option for librarians? I think the two options I looked at still need work. Many of the gadgets are "homebrew" and I am not convinced of their security.  Explain what you think you could do with a customizable home page. Ideally a customizable home page would allow you to make all your local resources (library and community) pop up front and center on one page. It could be a great timesaver for personal use, and a marketing force for a library or a cause. With our large multibranch system, to capture the best features, you would almost need a separate page for each branch. This would increase, rather than save, work. It would have to be implemented by someone in a different job than mine.

Beyond Method #1: Dust Off That Blog

Discovery Exercise:

1. Find a new look for your blog. I decided to create a new blog just for this series of exercises. My original work blog was called "Dinosaur Tracks." This one is titled "Keep on Trackin'."
2. Take a look at Page Elements. Explore the Gadgets. Added a Flickr gadget for Insect photos.
3. Add some information to your profile. Updated my user name, geographic region, job position, and type of library.
4. Consider your display name. At this point, I am using my first name and last initial.
5. Add or change your profile photo. Added my Meez avatar.
6. Register your blog. Done.
7. Within a week of your registration, we will add your blog URL to our Beyond Two Steppin’ participant’s list.