Wednesday 22 May 2013

Thing 9 : QR codes

We’ve been using OR codes in the library for a few years. Here are some examples of how we’ve used them:


For Library tours...


On the end of shelves where they link to our subject Library Guides...





On posters for events in the library...


On plasma screens...

For competitions...

I think it would be great if we could have QR codes on shelves next to popular books which link to the e-book. The list of uses seems endless.



Personally I think they’re great; smartphones are so ubiquitous now it’s so much easier for a student to scan a code instead of writing down a shelfmark or URL (especially as students don’t seem to being pens with them to the library anymore!).  

Thing 8 :Calendar

I’ve decided to skip Thing 7 and come back to it later, so here’s Thing 8.


I wrote about using Google Calendar for 23 Things for Professional Development in 2010. Back then I didn’t have a smartphone so my use was restricted to my desktop. I've just added Google Calendar to my smartphone but at the moment it doesn't seem to sync with my desktop (Outlook) calendar.  At work we use Google calendar to add events to the library website. Unfortunately it doesn't display well on smartphones as we don't have a mobile website at the moment. (However the website is being redesigned this year so hopefully that'll be something they incorporate then). We also add this calendar to our Library Guides.

Another useful app is Eventbrite which is being used a lot now for event bookings. This is useful as it allows users to add the event into their calendars so there’s excuse to forget!

Personally I tend to use my calendar just for work and related stuff, but I can definitely see how having your calendar on a smartphone could help a student to be more organised. Or is that wishful thinking?

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Thing 6 : Video


I like a lot of the ideas for using video which are mentioned in Thing 6; there are some we already do here at the Robinson Library and some which I think would be good to try. Although I’ve not had any opportunity to make any videos myself, we do use them. We have a YouTube channel which consists of a few ‘How to’ videos.  A lot of my colleagues recently attended Camatasia training so I’m sure in the future there’ll be a lot more.

We’ve been brainstorming ideas for Welcome Week this year and have been experimenting with apps such as Animoto and Viddy.  A colleague of mine produced a short video with Animoto promoting a recent event. To be honest I’m not sure how much I like it; I think I would need to have a proper look myself before deciding. The idea of producing a video for induction has been proposed and I think this may be in the works. We’ve had library videos in the past which were professionally made by our now defunct AV department.  Hopefully with all the video making apps available it’ll be quicker and easier to make our own videos.

I like the idea of digital signage. At the moment we have plasma screens around the library highlighting events and resources. We use PowerPoint to produce these but I think incorporating videos and animation would be a good way to capture students’ attention.  I’m not sure how easy this would be though.

As with all of these new tools, I find myself not having enough time to play with them to see what I like best, but I’m sure I’ll come back to them in the future.