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.

Thing 6: Online networks

Facebook used to be my social network of choice; although I still use it, I spend much more time on Twitter these days. However, this programme is inspiring me to explore alternatives, so here are my thoughts…

  

Linkedin

I signed up to this a while ago, but to be honest I’ve not used it and hadn’t added much to my profile. So last week I took another look and added some more information. However, I’m not sure how useful it will be: it seems to be primarily a self-promotion tool, and as I’m not looking for a job I can’t see its relevance.  Also, as I’m newly qualified, I don’t feel I have much in the way of specialities to add. Hopefully this will change… I have joined a couple of groups, and keep receiving lots of emails so I’m wondering if this will result in my having even more information that I can’t keep up to date with. As with so many of these social networks, I think I need time to gauge its usefulness, so for now I think I’ll reserve my judgement.

Facebook

I’ve used Facebook for a while.  In my opinion, it’s a more personal, social space and I don’t use it for professional networking. I use it to stay in touch with friends and share photos. However, I did find it helpful to stay in touch with other students while doing my MA.  As I studied by distance learning, it was a good way to see how everyone was doing.

LISNPN

I joined LISNPN earlier this year. I have found some of the resources useful, such as advice on interviews. Although I haven’t used it at all for networking, this is something I can see myself using much more in the future.

Librarians as Teachers network

I don’t teach in my job, so at the moment this isn’t really relevant to me.  However I may revisit it in the future.

CILIP communities

Although I’m a member of CILIP, I have to admit I didn’t know this existed! I haven’t had time to explore it fully yet, so I may go back to it at some point. 

Google+

I’ve recently joined, but I think for me it’s still early days.  It seems to be popular with librarians, so I think I’ll definitely keep my eye on this one.

I’ve come to the conclusion that there are too many networks out there and it’s impossible to keep up with them all. So I think for now I’m going to stick with Twitter and hope I’m not missing out on anything…