Back on the bandwagon: online networks

Bookbandit is back on the shiny, widget-strewn internet highway that is 23 Things and this week's "thing" is Online Networks. This is another area in which I'm a bit of a novice, as I don't really do much networking in the real world, let alone the virtual one. I'm still fairly cagey about exactly what information I share on the internet, and with whom, so the concept doesn't really agree with me. However, for the purposes of 23 Things, I am exploring the issue in a little more detail.

'LinkedIn' is probably the online network with which most of us are familiar and, indeed, have used. I know several colleagues who use it but I have not joined up myself. Again, I think this is mostly down to that nebulous feeling of anxiety about "stuff about me going on the internet" but also because I believe it's primarily used as a professional networking tool, and I suppose I've never thought of myself as having been a 'professional' within LIS because I'm not a qualified librarian. This may also be no more than a convenient excuse for the information-internet fear I mentioned earlier.

Whilst searching for LISNPN, missing out a key letter along the way, I discovered the 'Long Island Sports Photo Network' which was in itself fairly interesting but not quite what I was after. Putting the necessary 'N' back in, I reached the 'LIS New Professionals Network' which is a friendly-looking site for, unsurprisingly, new library and information professionals. There is a blog, an RSS feed and downloadable how-to guides, including one for podcasting, one of our upcoming "things." As far as weighing up the potential advantages / disadvantages of online networking for our LRC go, I would think that one big advantage would be the ability to share information immediately across all of our sites (presuming, of course, that the network is up and running! ha).

Library 2.0 is yet another example of an online network, even shinier than its predecessors. It's also bristling with widgets, which, as you are all probably aware by now, I do enjoy, but it does feel like they might have gone a little overboard, even for me. The other area it's definitely a little heavy on is buzzwords. Now, I understand the need for "moving libraries forward into the digital age", for being a part of a "learning revolution age", etc, BUT, if people continue to throw the word "cybrarian" around, I will not be held responsible for my actions. Stop.it. Yes you.

"Cybrarian"-induced eye twitching aside In spite of, shall we say, some artistic difference of opinion, I can see the advantages of our LRC creating an online network:

• the ability to share information across all of our sites simultaneously (good for students + staff)
• possibly being able to connect with other members of staff within the college? This could be useful in terms of scheduling and/or planning information skills sessions
• It would be another opportunity for the LRC to have a bigger digital 'role'/impact on learning

Vis-a-vis disadvantages, I return to my old favourite theme of privacy/protection of data on the internet. I do feel, though, that we wouldn't necessarily be sharing sensitive information and so it probably wouldn't count as a 'disadvantage' in the first place. However, another potential stumbling block would be technology, or, shall we say, the relatively regular failure of it: online networking is excellent until you can't get online.

I think I'd better finish here before I start arguing for the merits of quills and steam power. Until my next post, I leave you with a gem of a quote regarding Mondays ... things can only improve ;)

.@JamesSACorey Monday's failure gives Tuesday the chance to step into the light and be the day we all deserve.
— Joe Abercrombie (@LordGrimdark) April 8, 2014

Infographic-tastic

I was trawling GoodReads recently, updating my progress in the 2014 Reading Challenge, when I came across some fun infographics I wanted to share with you all.

First up we have the "Top 10 most read books in the world":

I can't decide whether I'm happy to see a young adult novel series that has been so widely read as to appear in this list, or simply to be horrified that it's appearing alongside books like The Diary of Anne Frank and The Bible? Answers on a postcard please.

It's nice to see Lord of the Rings at #4, too. From my own experience in the world of bookselling, I found that Fantasy (and Science Fiction) tended to be viewed with some derision as genres, but I think this is beginning to change. We probably have George R. R. Martin to thank for that. By the way, George, could you please hurry up and finish The Winds of Winter, please.


Next I discovered "The Benefits of Reading Books", which reads like many a conversation I have had with my peers trying to argue the same, mostly, without success:

I always enjoy a Chinese proverb and this one is no exception, though I wonder what sort of garden could be found in the books you usually find on or around my shelves/floor/desk/handbag; possibly some sort of post-modern steampunk dystopian science-fiction garden, that you might not necessarily want to go into.

I would definitely agree that reading reduces stress and can put you in a better mood. I find there is nothing better than the ability to escape into a book, forgetting everything that might be winding you up in the real world for a few minutes - or indeed, hours - and the sense of calmness you can feel as a result. Having said this, it probably does depend upon exactly what you are reading: I've finished some books in a state of upset due either to the fact that I've come to the end, or indeed that the end has come to one or more of the characters I've spent the last few hundred pages getting to know.

My last offering is "Unpacking Reading Habits" - I think some of the connections here are a bit tenuous, but it's good for a laugh!
I do think it's true that I pick up speed towards the end of a book, though I don't think that I am more likely to read fiction at 12am (I am usually asleep). Would be interested to know if anyone else has different experiences / reading patterns, though.

It's nice to see some infographics being done for reading, and books. I think one of the benefits of e-readers and online reading in general is that more people are reading now than before, be it in the form of a blog, a newspaper or the faithful fiction title. It's also useful, particularly in HE (but also for some students in FE) to have such a wide range of databases and journals available online, though it does take something away from the experience of going to the library, hunting down the books you need and retiring to a cosy corner to read them. But then I am rather old fashioned.

Until the next post, where I might even produce something with a slightly less tenuous connection to work ... happy Friday!

World Book Night 2014 & Reading Challenge

If you're getting a sense of deja vu, it's because I did in fact write about World Book Night 2013, almost a whole year ago. I'm not going to make any grand claims to having been 'blogging for a year', though, since this corner of the web has been mostly stagnating away to itself since the arrival of the Autumn term. Still, it's a milestone of sorts, I think!

We have an interesting selection of titles for WBN14, including the excellent Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovich. I can't recommend this series enough, though I would caution you that it's still in progress, so if you race through the latest book (Broken Homes) and are then anguishing in wait for the next, don't come back and blame me ;)

There are also four 'quick reads' titles, which is nice to see in a mainstream event. Having been book-mad from a very early age, I've always taken it somewhat for granted that reading is an enjoyable experience. Having worked in education for a few years now, I've realised that it is quite intimidating, and difficult, for some to approach. Hopefully it might encourage those who are more wary of reading to have a go.

If you fancy having a look at the full range, follow the link below:

http://www.worldbooknight.org/books/2014-book-list

I've also taken on the 2014 Reading Challenge on Goodreads, quoting 50 books this year. I would have guessed this to be about my average yearly quota for books but I'm not sure if I actually read this many, or if I even go over 50 - it will be interesting to see, and report back! Have included a widget below - largely because it's simply too long since I've typed 'widget' - to track my progress.

2014 Reading Challenge

Oncemore has read 5 books toward a goal of 50 books.

hide

5 of 50 (10%)

view books

Off to order the WBN14 titles we don't already have in stock. Until next time, folks, happy reading!

Verily it hath been an age since I last posted

This is, in part, due to the fact that Blogger ate my previous post, I'm not sure why but it has definitely vanished into the vast Bermuda triangle of the internet. It probably wasn't that interesting anyway.

Ooh look, it isn't September anymore! *dances*

I think I can speak for us all when I say, what a relief. It seems to me that you need a full year to recover from it, but you also manage to forget, in that time, just how awful it is. There's just nothing like the experience of running around like a headless chicken for the better part of six weeks, with paperwork, books and students everywhere, in no particular order. I think this is what people sometimes refer to as "character building," I can safely say my character has been sufficiently built for one year!

It also seems like an age since we completed the two-day PTLLS course back at the beginning of term and I realise I haven't really evaluated it, being sucked into the September vortex as we all were. It was definitely a challenge in terms of timing, fitting in the assignments in the time allowed, but I think it was a useful experience and definitely gave me more background knowledge on the teaching process, with some handy tips on managing groups in a learning environment. It was also nice to do something as a 'team', though obviously we were missing our lovely LAs.

In other news, myself and Lorraine were able to attend the latest Heritage Open Day in Oxford, where we saw a demo of the Heritage upgrade, Cirqa. It is very shiny. One interesting point that I took away from the session was that, for individual users, you can change the background image that appears as default - Chris Hemsworth anyone? :) Obviously there were a great deal more salient points made in the session and they should all be on the handout I circulated via e-mail, but let me know if you're missing anything!

I think i've thrown enough irreverance around now to make up for the last couple of months' absence, so i'm off to do something useful. Farewell until next time!

Dusting off ye olde blogge

Hello out there! It certainly has been a while. I'd like to say i've been doing exciting things but i'm not sure that writing a hundred million SB invoices and RFID tagging really qualifies.

I don't really have a specific 'theme' for this post, it's more of a reflection on the work we have done on 23 Things thus far, and what could be done in the future. I think, for instance, that I really should have numbered each 'thing' in posts as I went through, rather than spending time thinking up funky post titles, so this is something I plan to go back through my posts and update.

Looking back, i've also enjoyed the variety of tools we have explored for sharing information online, with particular shout-outs going to Prezi, Pearltrees and Pinterest. I think we can all see this in action with the new LRC Induction Prezi, thanks to Marianne and Lisa who did an excellent job of polishing what was definitely not polished when I first had a play around with it!

I was also thinking about whether we could use the 23 Things blogging platform to support the upcoming PTLLS course - assuming, obviously, that any of us have the spare time to do anything in September - it might be an interesting way to share ideas and thoughts about the course with everyone on the team.

I leave you with a quote from Donald E. Westlake on the subject of priorities, and cake (both of which we may well be needing a surplus of in the weeks to come!)

"Nobody gets everything in this life. You decide your priorities and you make your choices. I'd decided long ago that any cake I had would be eaten."

Why would you have cake and not eat it? Answers on a postcard please ...

Social Cataloguing

At present i'm trying to triangulate a point between three fans where I can achieve maximum coolness; thus far I am experiencing mixed success (cool ankles and ears, still too hot in all areas between). Any more of this 30 celsius nonsense and i'm moving to Siberia. Oops I forgot to say hello

Hello, loyal blog readers! This week in 23 Things we are exploring social cataloguing sites.

I'm no stranger to LibraryThing and have been using it for a while. The layout is simple and you can organise books into different shelves, as well as use keywords to connect with similar books and indeed similar-minded readers. I also enjoy the 'stats/memes' function, where you can view stats for your library in a number of different ways, including: 'vous et nul autre', books shared between you and exactly one other LibraryThing member and 'controversial books', a list of your most 'controversial' books as measured by standard deviation of members' star ratings. Somewhat unsurprisingly for me, I've enjoyed several things that others haven't, but then, Angry White Pyjamas does cater to a bit of a niche readership...

In the interests of branching out, I'm now using GoodReads as well. Overall, I must admit I find the site nicer to use - the colour scheme is brighter, for starters, and I like the quotations and quizzes that are available to catalogue on the site, as well as books. The 'Listopia' function is also interesting, similar to the lists you can create on Amazon. Speaking of which, Shelfari (Amazon's contribution to the social cataloguing website medley) intrigues me, as I wonder exactly how much it is about 'cataloguing' as opposed to 'getting people to buy things.' More to follow on this, as it seems you have to sign in using your Amazon account, something I don't plan on doing at work.


If you happen to be bored, or have a spare moment or two, you can check out my 'read' bookshelf on GoodReads here:

my read shelf:


Until the next post - keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep blogging!

Online bookmarking, the world beyond old receipts and train tickets

Hello readers!

Welcome to the first blog post for July, we're now officially in the midst of the British summer and enjoying all the bounteous sunshine that it has to offer!

..........

ahem.

I have spent the last few weeks dabbling in bookmarking sites including Pearltrees, Pinterest and LibraryThing, with a side order of Delicious and Evernote, though I haven't had too much success with the latter. In terms of Perry's 'organisational thinking', this surprises me:

American philosopher, John Perry, identified two types of organisational thinking.* Vertical organisers tend to to work on one task at a time, with an uncluttered surface and make good use of filing cabinets and (in a computer sense) hierarchical folders. Traditional bookmarking sites favour vertical thinking.

By contrast, horizontal organisers like all their projects spread out in front of them so everything is close to hand. The approach is used as a memory aid to keep track of project status, and as a prompt to carry out tasks. More modern bookmarking sites, such as PearlTrees, are better suited to horizontal organisers.

 *OUCS (2011) Reserach Information Managment: Organising Humanities Material. Oxford University Computing Service, Oxford.

I would have said that I am a 'vertical organiser', working on one thing at a time in a linear, hierarchical way. (I have been known to sub-divide my e-mail and T drive folders to a ridiculous degree.) However, given that i've found Pearltrees, particularly, to be more useful in re-designing the Hair and Beauty e-maps from the old VLE, it would seem that I have 'horizontal' tendencies as well! Not like that.

This brings me to Pinterest, another real discovery for me in terms of presenting information. I've been playing around with boards largely for Hair and Beauty, my subject liaison. I found this a particularly difficult subject to be involved with initially, as my liaison roles at Brockenhurst were very academic and suited a different type of support. Pinterest is brilliant because it allows you to select useful tidbits, including photographs, and organise them however you see fit - up until recently i've been pinning onto a 'Hair and Beauty Inspiration board', something I think Holly used to do, and it works very well with this. I did manage to share it with a member of the department who was interested in showing this to students, so I'd call that a success!

Lastly, I have always enjoyed using LibraryThing as a virtual extension of my bookshelf, the online branch of my reading 'empire', as it were. I particularly like the 'connections' feature which suggests other books you might like, without the same element of rampant capitalism with which certain online retailers do the same thing. It also makes excellent widgets.

I leave you with this gem, courtesy of Pinterest. Let us not forget our paperback origins in this brave new digital world :) Until next time!