Infographics- Library Literacy Without Papers

September 19, 2011 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: library literacy 
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linkedin infographic


Have you ever considered using infographics to teach library literacy?

In my job as an academic librarian for a two year business college, we have started exploring various ways to use infographics for library literacy.

Our biggest problem with many business courses as well as our medical and interior design courses is that it either does not make sense for students to write a paper, or
there are other more productive assignments for the students. So figuring out how to work library literacy into these courses has been challegning.

With the increase in popularity of infographics, we have the perfect solution. Layola University in New Orleans has created a handout that explores the concept of infographics for library literacy.

There are also a lot of free tools that you can use to create these infographics and to teach students how to create them.

Have you used infographics for library literacy?

10 Great Ways to Create Library Videos

August 27, 2011 by · 5 Comments
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video

Creating a great library video can be challenging. However, if you use one of the following free programs, you will find it much easier.

1. Sketchcast.com Use this cool tool and site to create videos with sketches made by creating stick figures.

2. Flixtime.com Use this site to create a video with pictures, text, audio or music.

3. Animoto.com Another site similar to flixtime.

4. OneTrueMedia.com Another site similar to flixtime and animoto however, one true media allows you to create longer videos for free.

5. Prezi.com This nifty site lets you create videos that are a mixture of powerpoint and interactive video.

6. ScreenR.com Use this handy site to record screen capture videos. The videos are also hosted on the web by ScreenR.

7. Masher.com Another site similar to some of the others only with a few unique features.

8. Stupeflix.com Use this site to create videos that are a combination of photos and videos.

9. Slidesix.com Create videos out of your power points.

10. Camstudio.org Use this free download software to create screen capture videos. This program works a lot like camtasia, only it’s free and does not have as many editing features.

What is your favorite way to create library videos?

Create a Mobile Application for Your Library with Conduit.com

August 10, 2011 by · 2 Comments
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library mobile applications

Do you want to create a mobile application for your library? Well with conduit.com you can, and it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Follow these steps to create a mobile application for your library with conduit.com

1. Add App Content. You can choose from a variety of options for adding content to your mobile library application. Some of the apps include:

youtube
facebook
contact us
twitter
photos
audio
news
rss feeds
and more

2. Create a style and theme for the background of your app. You can use whatever you want but I used a picture of the outside of my library.

3. Then set up the layout of your app including color scheme and navigation. You can also optionally include ads to make money but you probably won’t do this for a library mobile application. You can
actually create any kind of mobile app and not just for a library so ads may be more appropriate for different aps.

The only challenge I had was that creating a library app I did not have a lot of content to include and so it was rejected by conduit for public use on their site. Oh well, I don’t need that for a library mobile application.

Have you created a library mobile application? If so, what program did you use?

40 Ways College Libraries are Leveraging Social Media

August 9, 2011 by · 4 Comments
Filed under: Social Networking for Libraries 
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social media

Most college libraries have a facebook page and many have twitter accounts and youtube channels but did you know that there are 40 ways that many college libraries are leveraging social media? I know I didn’t. Until I found this article. I read through it and I was amazed.

Not only are many of these ideas being used to market the college library but they also involve class assignments, library literacy, students interacting with the circulation and reference desks and much more.

What other ways would you add to this list?

3 Great Videos to Teach How to Evaluate Websites

May 20, 2011 by · 1 Comment
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If you are a college librarian, do your students know how to evaluate websites? If they are like most college students today, they need some help. While working on revamping my college’s library literacy course that we use with our ENG 101 students, I found three great ones. Enjoy! and laugh some as well.

Use these to teach your students or really even your patrons at a public library how to evaluate websites and they will not soon forget.

Unshelved Library Comics

May 19, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: presentations, social networking tools 
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cartoons

Have you seen the library comic strip unshelved? If not, you are really missing out. I had the chance this past week to hear the authors speak at the Utah Library Association Conference and it was something else. I have to say that they win the award for the most entertaining library related presentation I have ever heard. In fact, I was one of the lucky ones who got to pretend to be a drunken patron asking for the bathroom. For my trouble I got to take home a baseball camp that says “library” on the front and “unshelved” on the back.

These highly entertaining presenters- Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes shared with us how they got started creating unshelved and how they write new comics among other interesting facts. The presentation was complete with audience participation and a slideshow with comic strips.

It was just plain awesome. I subscribe to unshelved via my email and while I’ve read them for a few years now, I had no idea how they started writing them and where they get their ideas. The most hilarious one–the patron who put bacon inside a book and then had to pay for the ruined book. Lol! And yes in case you are wondering most of their comic strips are written based on real experiences that either Gene and Bill have encountered inside a library or that readers have submitted to them.

While I’m at it, would you like to create your own library cartoons or comic strips?

Here are some cool resources to do just that.

1. Stickman Cartoon Software
2. toondoon
3. Komixo

Doing Social Media So It Matters: A Librarian’s Guide

April 13, 2011 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: books, social networking advice 
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libraries and social media

The book- Doing Social Media So It Matters: a Librarian’s Guide- is unlike any other book I have ever read. It focuses specifically on social media for libraries and how it is changing how libraries do business as well as why libraries must use it.

Here are a few of the key points from this book:

1. Social Media has changed how patrons interact with the library.
2. Social Media has given libraries new options for marketing their services.
3. Social Media can be used as an avenue for change for libraries.
4. Social Media can be used very effectively to advocate for libraries.
5. Not every library will benefit from the same social media tools. You need to experiment to see what works for your library.

This book also talks about how libraries can leverage social media to get more attendance at public classes and other events. Along with this part, there is a discussion about how constant promotion of the library’s collections and services is much less effective.

In short, if your library needs a social media makeover, then you undoubtedly need to check out this book.

Doing Social Media so It Matters: a Librarian’s Guide Book.

7 Great Library Themed Templates for Your Blog

April 6, 2011 by · 3 Comments
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wordpress

When creating a library blog, you may want to use a library themed layout. Yet it can be challenging to find them. Searching for example, under themes on your wordpress dashboard won’t give many results and blogger doesn’t have as many custom templates in general. Here are seven great library or book related templates I found that look like great ones for any library related blog. The other option of course is to find one with a custom banner option and customize it like I did for this blog.

1. Law library wordpress theme. While this theme does not have anything that specifies that it must be used for a law library, it makes a great theme for any library blog.

2. This simple and colorful wordpress books theme has three columns and would make a great library or reading blog theme.

3. The library can be compared to an open book and with this wordpress theme it will be even more so. Basic colors and an open book in the banner make this a great library theme.

4. The easy reader wordpress theme features white background with blue highlights and a girl reading a book, another great library wordpress theme.

5. The library of the future will not look like our libraries now. Reach out and embrace the library of the future with these futuristic looking library wordpress theme.

6. Ah! Isn’t the library life great. Embrace it with the library life blogger template.

7. Do you have a book tree? or wish that you had one? Why not use this book tree blogger template?

Do you have other library themed blog templates you recommend? Please share them with us.

21 Things that Will Disappear from Education in the Next 10 Years

April 4, 2011 by · 2 Comments
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library with computers

You have to be hiding in a cave to not know that the world of education and libraries is changing very quickly. That said, trying to imagine exactly what schools and libraries will be like in ten years can be tough. The Mind Shift Blog published recently a list of 21 things that will disappear from education in the next ten years.

While libraries as a whole are not schools, they are directly related to the education field and academic libraries are of course impacted even more. As a librarian at a two-year college, we are being asked right now to create our vision for the next ten years and then to extend that to what we believe the college classroom will look like in ten years.

As I look over this list, I’m not sure I agree with all the things on the list but it is interesting to say the least.

There are however five that really stood out to me, especially in the context of libraries and college libraries in particular.

Computers- Obviously as the list says, this is really a trick one since we all now that computers will not really disappear but rather desktop computers will disappear and be replaced by mobile computers such as the ipad. For libraries that could mean that we either no longer have computers, or that we have ipads or similar mobile computers, or maybe we just expect that we provide internet access and resources and our patrons bring their own mobile devices? What do you think?

Wikipedia- or the fear of Wikipedia- I just had to laugh when I read this one. As a librarian I remember learning in library school four years ago that Wikipedia is bad. I also know that most college professors will not allow their students to use it as a resource. That said Wikipedia is getting better and I can see some valid uses for it.

Paperbacks- Will paperback books really disappear? Recently Amazon announced that they are selling more kindle books than paperbacks so it’s true that the trend towards ebooks is increasing but I find it hard to imagine paperback books being totally gone.

Paper- Regardless of our best efforts and focusing on recycling and other technology, I know we still sure use a lot of paper in my library. I would guess that this is still true for most other libraries as well. The article suggests that we will rarely if ever use paper in 10 years. I can see cutting back, but will we really not use paper? What about all the posters, signs and brochures not to mention business cards and other paper items we use? Will they really be totally gone? I don’t know about that.

Comments? What do you think will disappear from education and from libraries in the next 10 years?

IT Departments

How Libraries Can Really Use Social Media to Make a Difference and Reach Their Patrons

March 20, 2011 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Social Networking for Libraries 

social media

I have noticed throughout the past 4 years writing this blog as well as my own experience with social media at my academic library and from the experiences of other libraries, that most libraries are not really using social media in the best ways possible and that we are attempting to use social media in ways that are effective for businesses but not so much for libraries. For example, most facebook fan pages for libraries do not get great results. I’m not sure all the reasons why but I am guessing that most of our patrons are not on facebook to stay in touch with the library. The same can really be said of twitter as well. I find that more librarians use it to stay in touch and to network with each other than our patrons use it to learn about the library. So how then can libraries use social media to really reach their patrons?

Here are some ideas:

Use your facebook fan page and twitter account to promote a contest. This will more than likely get better results than your everyday posts and updates. Require your patrons to answer a question or do something on the page.

Encourage your patrons to install and use database and library related mobile applications. The University of North Carolina has a great library mobile website.

Use video. Video is one of the most effective marketing tools for businesses and it can work great for libraries too.

Consider having a live event and then broadcasting the event live over ustream or another live casting site and sharing it on your facebook page, blog or twitter account.

What other ideas do you have to make social media really work for libraries?

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