Beyond Method #12: last dance

Looking back on the course, I think for me the highlights were working with the screenshots, telling a story, and making a Google map and creating a Netvibes website. I now am creating the map with a different program, called CommunityWalk, since they have the capacity to display more than one photo of a location. I was also stymied since I wanted to link to site descriptions in the Texas Historical commissions, and if I copied the URL in the address bar, it would only be read by the Google interface as the address for the Atlas itself, the search page for the descriptions. Our IT person told me I could use "copy image location" to fix that problem. I'm happy about the map and I also liked the digital story very much. I didn't like music behind images, but narration seems to be great way to tap into people's experiences and stories. I think it would be great if we had kiosks up at the front of the library and people could tap on them and hear someone talk about how the library enabled them in some part of their lives.

Creating the page on Netvibes helped me to get more experience with RSS feeds and creating widgets, and seeing how they worked on a day to day basis and whether they made sense for me. I am exploring webpage coding now and believe this will help my goal to have some proficiency and understanding in this area, since I am not involved in our library's website.

An unexpected outcome was learning about the sites which create a virtual resume for you...there certainly seemed to be some pros and cons with those...con in that you had to be careful about your online privacy, but pros in the ease of accessibility and being able to track your job hunting online.

I appreciated taking this program, and would like to participate in similar ones in the future.

Beyond Method #11: Survey Says

I have only taken surveys online, I have never created one online. I have often run into very reputable organizations asking for a patrons' survey, and started the survey only to wish I had never begun it. So many surveys are TOO LONG...and it's also tiring to realize that you don't fit their patron idea, and so a lot of the questions don't apply to you. I sometimes think that when the organization is offering a chance at a raffle prize (contingent on completing the survey) that they then feel free to go all out and make it as long and as detailed as they wish.

That said, I enjoyed reading about the current offerings for doing surveys and getting feedback. I like the idea of the popup just asking 2 questions, so that you don't have to write: take a survey please.....it's right there. It also makes sense to use it for planning an event for a group of people and getting the input as to what details work for everyone. I would like to use that in my personal life.

We don't use surveys as a rule here, except for paper ones given to attendees of actual events.
And I want to remember how some people fill them out....carelessly, just checking something to check it. Perhaps doing the survey online would mean less response, but then the responses might be more genuine. I'd like to survey our readers about our blogs, and get some input there. We get almost no feedback from our readers, and yet I think people are reading them.

I don't know if we will do surveys of this type in the future, but it's certainly a possibility. I'd like to query our patrons about what activities they would like - although I know that's not always a guarantee that people will come to the things they mentioned.

Beyond Method #10: Meet you online

I have used Skype with family, but not using a webcam. I have participated in a couple of webinars. I found them very useful, after I got used to the process. One of the webinars was excellent, mostly because the presentation was very thorough and covered a large area. Others were more informal and superficial, useful but perhaps a one on one would have been better. Our library has had a virtual meeting with an author and the group really enjoyed it. I'm sure we will do more of those. We have no private area for skype calls for family with enlisted members, but that sounds like a good idea. When I have interviewed for jobs in the past, I had telephone conferencing but nothing more sophisticated. I like the idea of skype for interviews also, although it might be harder for the interviewee to make a good impression....I notice the video makes you notice things like movements or eye blinking much more than if you were actually with the person. I suppose that professionals and seasoned users are aware of this and make sure they are relaxed and engage well with the viewers. I also noticed that on "Skype an author", I didn't recognize any authors' names. I suppose the more well-known authors have no real motivation to join and have an interaction free of charge, or perhaps it has been used primarily for schools.

Beyond Method #9: Digital Story

MyPlaces

More PowerPoint presentations from Rebecca

I apologize that my example is not about our library...I wanted to just use photos quickly available, and the "story" is much longer than 5 minutes! I enjoyed doing this, and using powerpoint also, since I have only used powerpoint in a minimal way before this. I know this is minimal also, but still adding the voice narration was a step up for me. When the slides transition the voice narration breaks momentarily, and that would be something to work around, as I was talking while transitioning. Doing this made me think about how a picture can help your audience attend to what you are saying, and also of course distract the audience if the image does not really "mesh" with what you are saying. I found a lot of the examples very monotone and repetitive, especially those about some particular event. But there's a lot of challenge in this kind of show....I think mine is probably not very earthshaking also.

Oops...turns out I put it into Slideshare and now it is minus the narration. Now I've put it into authorStream and am waiting to see if it will "process" successfully. I definitely think there's a place for digital storytelling in our library. I'm hoping we can do some oral history work with our older patrons using these tools.

Beyond Method #8: Screenshots

I did like the look of these very much. I often watch videos on youtube or on ehow about how to do something, like spackling the ceiling for example. I find them very helpful since you can stop the video and replay that part until you figure it out. I wonder if all cookbooks will use those eventually for trickier methods, so we may not have to learn those kinds of tasks by reading anymore!

I used Screenr, the cloud tool. I was disappointed in that all it seemed to do was record, and there seemed to be no option for me to edit it or add pointers or text boxes to the recording. I did create an account, and this screenshot is registered to my account, but I saw no place for me to edit it. (Perhaps I was missing something.) But doing even such a simple procedure (setting up a Yahoo mail) showed me that there were things that you don't foresee - like how big the screen has to be, what about if the person has some errors, etc. I like the idea of taking more time to script a screenshot, and be able to have graphics and audio on it to make more of an impact.
When I first tried this, I went over the time because I was talking too much! And the voice over could use some brushing up. But it was fun to create.

Although we are not using screenshots at this point, I'm sure we will be using them in the near future.

Beyond Method #7: Next Gen Presentation

I chose Sliderocket for my presentation, and since I had no old presentations to use, I went ahead and created 5 slides about things I like about Houston, which is 30 miles away from me. The free version of Sliderocket unfortunately doesn't have any audio capability (except you can embed videos) so I used video, pictures and URL's. I found, like the review we read, that Sliderocket was too easy to just accidently sign out of, and like he said, the recover function was not that reliable when it happened. That said, I do like the look of it and think if you could add feeds like Twitter and invite comments and look at the statistics this would be good for a workplace. But I'm not sure if it would be worth the $24 a month. Each slide can be saved in the Library and reused. You can't crop a video, so the one I found about running in Houston is actually too long, and probably most viewers would not be interested enough to view it all. I must say, I didn't think about the copyright issue of using a video that is not mine, and not getting permission either. (!) I have worked with PowerPoint just enough so that the basic tools are easy to use. I like the idea of film and audio in a presentation. Especially for me, music has a potential impact for me that silent slides do not, although the music has to be skillfully applied. I especially liked the example of Sarah McLachlan's "infomercial" about film studio costs vs help for people.

I must say I do not do presentations for my job. I did one in library school....that's it. These online tools ones look very promising to me. I think we certainly could use them in the library...on our blog or at kiosks where people can see a local history overview, or a quick run-down of different book genres. As long as we have that internet connection!

Beyond Method#6: Ebooks and Ereaders

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/125
the above is the link to the book I viewed. The Kindle version is displayed, and I would imagine that the patron would just have to connect their device to download it. However, I note that our subscription to Overdrive currently requires our patrons to download the ebooks from their home computers or computers outside, our computers in our library do not work for downloading currently. I can imagine that some patrons would be interested in Gutenberg, but the plain HTML is not fancy....and of course only old books are available.
I have read books online for a long time. There are other sites besides Gutenberg I used, one I liked because you could change the colors of the background and text, as well as the size.
Ereaders are still a new thing for me, and I can't seem to get that excited about them. But I do accept that they will change libraries a lot.