Just a brief post to highlight a new(ish) feature on WordPress.com blogs which you can use to link your blog posts to your Twitter account.

I talked about the importance of linking your online accounts at my talks at the New Professional’s Conference and the CILIP Open Graduate Day earlier this year, and at the time recommended using Twitterfeed to help you link your blog posts into Twitter. This is still a great service and works well with all RSS feeds, but if you just want to link your WordPress.com blog(s) to your Twitter account(s), you can now do it directly from your WordPress dashboard.

I was going to run through the process of doing this, but I found a great page on the WordPress support pages which includes screenshots for each stage, so rather than re-invent the wheel, here’s the link.

I’ve tested it out on one of my work blogs with our Twitter account and it works really well – you can edit the Twitter post from within the dashboard on your new post (in the Publish box on the right sidebar) and it posts almost immediately to your Twitter account after publishing the blog post. You can also use it with blogs with multiple authors and have just their authored posts going to their individual Twitter account which could be great for shared blogs.

Thought it was worth a blog post anyway, as it’s a somewhat hidden feature (well, I didn’t know how advanced it was anyway so thought others might not either!). At the moment this feature is just on WordPress.com blogs, but the developers have said they are working on a plugin to achieve the same thing on WordPress.org (self-hosted) blogs too.

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Last week I did something a bit different – I was asked a few weeks ago if I could be interviewed for a podcast about social media, and was pleased to accept. It was actually for a social media module at University of Aberystwyth, so I was especially pleased to be involved as I had provided feedback from my course that it had been a shame this had not been covered during my Diploma.

Nicole Schultz (who also has an interest in social media) is responsible for developing the module and she came up with the great idea that it would be good to include podcasts from a number of different angles of social media. She has already interviewed companies who are using social media, a web designer, and other aspects of social media, but she wanted to interview me about my use of social media – how I got into it, what I use it for, and tips to pass onto other students.

It was great to meet Nicole (I also picked her brains about my dissertation, will post about that soon), and I really enjoyed the relaxed nature of the interview. It will be made available as a podcast for students studying the module and I think it’s a good way to practice what you preach and actually get students using social media during the module. The recording device was great too – really small and includes USB connection on device to download straight to PC. If I do some interviews for my dissertation I’ll definitely be looking into getting (or borrowing!) something like that.

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I’ve recently co-authored an article with Christine Rooney-Browne for Refer, the journal of the Information Services group of CILIP, which has now been published in the Autumn 2009 issue. Refer offer some of the material from their journal online at REFERplus, and our article is available in pdf format, please feel free to read and let myself or Christine know what you think.

The article, “Blogging: an opportunity to communicate, participate and collaborate on a global scale”, is written primarily for reference librarians, although the majority of the material is general in nature. It was an interesting article to write; much of the material we already knew through our research interests and the fact that we both already blog ourselves, but it was interesting to research further into blogging and particularly some of the blogs written by, or for, reference librarians. We found blogs used internally for teams of reference librarians to assist each other in their work on the reference desk, reference blogs written about library services for the general public, and I also mentioned a personal favourite of mine, Swiss Army Librarian, which features a “Reference Question of the Week” – I always enjoy reading the enquiries he has had and how he answered them.

The process of co-writing the article was a new thing for me – we used e-mail and a wiki to communicate, and bought it all together towards the end in a Word document. I’ve also been trying out Google Wave recently though (feel free to get in touch if you’d like to add me as a contact), and I imagine something like Wave would make it even easier in the future to collaborate in such ways. It was good to bring our different knowledge and interests together in the article and I’m really quite pleased with the result. Many thanks to Christine, whom it was a pleasure to work with.

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The latest issue of CILIP West Midlands journal, Open Access, is a special edition on Web 2.0. It contains articles from librarians throughout the region,and I was pleased to be asked to contribute. The editor, David Viner, asked if I could write about professional networking using Web 2.0 tools and I was happy to oblige – a similar article from the viewpoint of Amelia Luzzi, an information professional currently working outside a library is also presented which gives an interesting comparison. There are also practical guides for using Web 2.0, overviews of Web 2.0 projects within the region, and a look at the Semantic Web and Web 3.0.

CILIP members living in the West Midlands will receive a print copy of Open Access soon with their CILIP Update, but it is also available online for anyone to read from today. You can visit the website (previous editions of Open Access are also available from the Issuu account), or view the embedded version on here (trying out a new plugin!). Comments on the issue are welcome, although you do need an Issuu account first.

Hope you enjoy the special edition, I found the other articles really interesting and it’s great to highlight work going on in the region.

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At the New Professionals Conference I presented at last week, I spoke to CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) representatives who mentioned the CILIP Network of Expertise and Interests. Seeing as I was talking about online networking, they seemed surprised (and I was fairly embarrassed) that I hadn’t heard of it before. I asked others on Twitter last week and was relieved to find that it wasn’t just me who wasn’t aware of the network. I decided to register, and thought I’d share a brief review of the service.

The network is not part of the Communities area of the CILIP website, and is not attached to the CILIP Communities login. This surprised me, and I was a little disappointed to have to wait a day to be verified before I could take a look at the network, despite being a CILIP member and already registered on the CILIP Communities website. Having said that, one thing I was pleased about was that registration is open to anyone, even if they are not a CILIP member (although obviously it must be approved before being accepted). On the flip side I see the argument that there needs to be incentives to CILIP membership, but for this particular purpose I feel the network offers more value if it is open to all (UPDATE: unfortunately, this is no longer the case – the network is only open to CILIP members, which is a shame but I can see the reasoning.).

It wasn’t completely clear to me before being verified (which took about 24hrs) what the network was for or how it worked – CILIP referred to it as a sort of LinkedIn but it doesn’t have many of the same features that LinkedIn does. On the initial registration email it mentions matching members so I did wonder if it recommended other members with similar interests to yourself (like online dating might do but obviously for a different purpose!) but it doesn’t seem to do that.

Now I’m logged in I have found the aim of the network:

The CILIP membership is rich in skill and experience. This site is for members to make connections, share experiences and learn from each other.

Here’s a screenshot of the service once you have registered and logged in (I have just used my own profile as I appreciate it is a private area, when you log in there is an alphabetical list of entries similar to mine):

CILIP Network of Expertise and Interests

You can browse all members alphabetically (at present there are 119 members), or you can use the search functionality to find people. One feature which I really feel it’s crying out for is the ability to list people with a certain interest (these are selected from a list when you apply for membership so there should be consistency). These interests are included in the main entry on the home page, and are listed on each profile (see mine below for an example):

CILIP Network of Expertise and Interests - my profile

I wish these were links to take you to a list of everyone who has included that interest, it’s certainly what I was expecting (maybe I’m too used to tagging technologies!). I couldn’t find an easy way to list people by their interests and this is something fairly basic which I really think the network should be able to do.

There doesn’t seem to be any way to create groups either, and it seems the only way to contact people is by email, there is no way to send a message within the network.

It has potential to be a useful service and is good to be able to find other members with similar interests, but it is fairly long winded to use and the information is minimal. It’s more like a directory listing than a network really as it doesn’t encourage communication on the network platform.

I know I’m coming across a little critical, and I do think there are a lot of enhancements which are necessary before it is a viable alternative for LinkedIn (and as Owen Stephens pointed out on Twitter, one of the great advantages of LinkedIn is that different professions are all represented therefore providing links outside the library profession as well as within it). However, it’s great to see CILIP trying these new ideas, and acting on developing new networking methods as they mentioned mention in their recent Draft Council Paper on the use of Web 2.0.

One thing I am confused by however is the lack of publicity about this service. I don’t know if it’s a deliberate thing to soft launch to try the service with small numbers, but it seems to have been around for a while, and I wonder why it wasn’t mentioned amongst the #cilip2 discussions earlier this year. The CILIP representative I spoke to last week wanted to promote the service, so hopefully I’ve helped raise the profile a little (I know quite a few others on Twitter have joined since I mentioned it last week).

If you’re interested in finding out more, why not apply online and let me know what you think – do you see yourself using the network?

UPDATE: I wrote most of this post last week, but since then the page has been updated. Discussion forums have been activated along with a note that the network is hoped to be incorporated into CILIP Communities shortly. I’ll keep the blog updated with any new developments.

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On Monday, I gave a presentation on networking and marketing yourself using online tools at the New Professionals Conference in London. It was the first time I’d spoken at a conference and I really enjoyed the day; it was great to discuss my interests (i.e. new technologies) with other new professionals. I’ll write a more detailed post about the day itself soon.

I chose to talk about online networking and personal marketing as I thought it would be particularly relevant to new professionals,  and I could share my own experiences. My presentation introduced professional networking and then went on to discuss three web tools which can be used for professional networking; blogging, microblogging and social networking. I introduced each tool and how it can be used for professional networking, and shared my own experiences of them using the Joeyanne Libraryanne blog, Twitter and Facebook as examples. I concluded with 10 top tips to get the most out of using online networking tools for professional purposes.

I have added both the presentation and conference paper to my Slideshare account, and they are also embedded below (easiest to view if you use the fullscreen option). Please let me know what you think, is there anything I’ve overlooked?

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iTunesU and Podcasting

Laurie Roberts, Liaison Librarian at QMU, explained the use of podcasting at QMU and introduced iTunesU (iTunes University) – watch introductory video for an overview.

You can download a copy of Laurie’s presentation, which includes relevant links as well as her notes.

As part of Laurie’s job role, she has the task to investigate use of Web 2.0 technologies and how they can be used to support the library services. Laurie therefore “plays” with web 2.0 technologies, explores potential use for library, and attends courses to discover new tools and share good practice. Currently, QMU are using a library blog, Flickr account (to share photos of the library and any events they hold), Facebook page, YouTube videos, Twitter, and Meebo (for virtual enquiries) to communicate with their users and support the library service.

The focus of this particular presentation was podcasting and iTunesU, so Laurie began with an introduction to podcasting and some recommendations such as purchasing a decent headphone/microphone and using software such as Audacity to edit any mistakes.

At QMU, physiotherapy lecturers use video podcasts to teach anatomy – students can watch these at their own pace either on a PC or on their own mp3 players, iPods etc. The students appeared to engage more in this style learning and were able to prepare themselves for practical sessions by watching the podcasts and reading the recommended resources. There are around 50 videos on the examination and assessment for physiotherapists, and Laurie found that other academic schools were also using video podcasts to support learning.

Laurie decided to investigate the possibility of adding this material to a central store so that this material could be used by different students (e.g. nursing students may find the physiotherapist podcasts useful). After attending a seminar at the Apple Training Suite in London about iTunesU, Laurie decided it may be a useful service for QMU to use, and contacted academic departments to see if they would be interested in adding videos/podcasts for students to use. The emphasis is that “content is king” and it must be an institutional effort incorporating lecturers, IT, legal, marketing etc.

In order to set up an iTunesU account, there are quite a few hoops to jump through and the process takes quite a while. iTunes like you to have 300 items before going live, and ensure that you keep it up-to-date so that the page isn’t stagnant. You can have a public page (i.e. open to anyone), a private page (apparently works with Shibboleth or other authentication methods), or a combination of the two. QMU have 16 subject categories and are now organising the 400 items they currently have before launching the site. The front page can also be customised so designers are working on building an institutional page.

QMU are hoping to record some lectures to add these to iTunesU, possibly by using Echo 360 ( which I hadn’t heard of before but have since watched a great video from University of Birmingham). They are also hoping to record some student and staff views about the University to add to the iTunesU page, marketed as “Life at QMU”. I asked about library material and at the moment there are no plans to add library videos/podcasts, although they may consider it in future. They currently have library videos produced using Microsoft Photo Story 3, which could probably be re-used or adapted and added to iTunesU.

University of Warwick was recommended as a good example of an iTunesU page; Cambridge and Oxford also have a presence on there (as do Open University and Coventry University I have just found).

QMU have iTunes software on 10 of their PCs in the LRC, which are wiped each night to clear the iTunes libraries. I wonder how other institutions offer iTunes to students without having the issues of different music libraries, is there is a way to enable viewing of iTunesU material without having to edit the iTunes library? I guess syncing is an issue, would be good if you could just do it one way to add a video/podcast to a device but not alter anything else on there.

I’m really glad I managed to attend this session, it covered a lot of information about iTunesU which I didn’t realise but also some advice from lessons they have learnt at QMU which I will take back to my place of work. A presence on iTunesU is a big commitment; it needs to be an institutional decision and requires co-ordination of many departments. In terms of mobile learning though I think it could really help developments in education.

Interestingly, I updated my iPod Touch software to OS 3.0 when I got back from the conference, and noticed the iTunesU is now available directly from the iPhone/iPod Touch. I was really pleased to see this as I think the iPhone/iPod Touch can be a great tool in education; hopefully developments such as this will really help mobile learning gain popularity.

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Building a customer centred space – using observation to inform library design

Rachel Van Riel from Opening the Book gave a thoroughly inspiring talk about observing library users and how to adjust your library to suit your user’s needs. This is something that I was particularly interested in from a work point of view as I am responsible for a special collection for our trainee teachers and I’m not sure how it is currently used but feel it could be better utilised if it was laid out differently.

Rachel spoke about how libraries can learn a lot from retail and recommended Paco Underhill’s Why We Buy: the Science of Shopping (which I’ve added to my wishlist!) as well as the TV programmes Mary, Queen of Shops and I’m Running Sainsbury’s. Rachel referred to some of the interesting findings of Underhill, including the fact that 2 out of 3 shoppers want no assistance, and 50% of those who touch an item buy it. Obviously libraries are slightly different to shops, but many of the principles are transferable to libraries.

Rachel emphasised the importance of observing your library users, as we often have assumptions which may not be correct. Much of Rachel’s research so far has been with public libraries, but she has also observed in academic libraries with surprising findings. Some examples of her research include:

• Leaflets in an entrance area which were observed by security from 9am until 7pm. 1726 visitors entered the area; only 15 looked at the leaflets and no one took a leaflet. The institution re-considered the placement of the leaflets. Rachel’s advice is to try different places and observe – how many look, how many take – get evidence to help your decisions.
• Time of visit – could be observed by head counts or using the counters at entrance/exit. Evidence shows that libraries tend to be busiest around lunchtime, although this may well vary at different times of year and on different days, particularly in academic libraries (e.g. if there is a key lecture at a certain time). This information could be used to aid decisions with staffing and where priorities should be at different imes of the day – e.g. shelving, staffing circulation desk, roving enquiries etc.
• Observing age of visitors at a public library service, estimated by front line staff. The library service concerned thought most of their visitors were over 70, but in actual fact there was a wide range across all different age groups, with the most common age group 30-40. This helped shape the future direction of their service. Could also be used to look at gender differences or different demographic at different times.
• Length of time of visit, either by asking people on their exit (although perception may not be accurate) or by issuing slips of paper on entrance to be collected at exit. At a UK academic library, they found that the most visits range from 6 to 20 minutes; taking into account that many visits will have been well over this, there must also have been a lot of very short visits. In this case, the institution needed to make sure the needs of those who visit for only a short amount of time are met.
• Flow from main entrance – where do people go? A study in the academic library showed that the majority of people either went to the main circulation desk (near the entrance) or to the area on the ground floor with journals, book stock and study tables. Very few people visited the enquiries desk or IT desk, demonstrating that staff time may be better utilised by roving in areas of high traffic to assist users at their point of need. A more detailed study looked at how many users were using stock from the library – often difficult to measure if it is not borrowed. Interestingly, they found that the shelves had as much traffic as the IT area which surprised staff.
• Browsing – how do people browse the shelves? Do they suffer from the uncomfortable “browser’s neck”?! Important to make material easy to browse for those not looking for a particular item – use forward facing feature fillers and locate pertinent material at eye level if possible.

Whatever observation you undertake, it is important to have an easy to complete observation chart and ensure all staff observe in the same way.

The talk really highlighted the importance of observation and how such a simple thing can add so much more understanding about your service than just listening to those who volunteer feedback, as this is such a small proportion of your users. Certainly food for thought, and also encouraged me to buy Rachel’s book, The Reader-Friendly Library Service, which is primarily written for public libraries but has a lot which is also applicable to academic libraries. I felt really inspired after Rachel’s talk and hope to suggest some of the observation ideas in my own workplace.

The development of Library 2.0 and the use of Web 2.0 technologies in FE library services

Andrew Eynon, Library Resource Manager at Coleg Llandrillo Cymru, shared the work he has been doing with Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 technologies in FE. I subscribe to Andrew’s blog and follow him on Twitter, so it was good to meet him in person to see the work he has been doing in FE. He even mentioned my blog in his presentation too (thanks Andrew if you’re reading!) but I forgot to give him one of my lovely new Joeyanne Libraryanne cards.

Andrew started the presentation by asking is to discuss in groups the concept of Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and if they are the same thing or fundamentally the same. My group decided that Web 2.0 = user-generated, interactive, read write web; Library 2.0 = use of Web 2.0 in library context. Andrew added his thoughts that Library 2.0 is about the outcomes and processes rather than the tools and technologies.

The project he was involved in aimed to employ a Web 2.0 librarian to support library and teaching staff, discover how Web 2.0 is currently being used, look at the development of Library 2.0 in FE, and develop an online tutorial on Web 2.0 technologies (see presentation for full list of project aims). They also aimed to used these technologies as part of the project (e.g. using a blog to document the project progress).

The main outcomes of the project included a number of useful resources collecting current use of Web .20/Library 2.0, such as the FE Library 2.0 wiki, Library 2.0 in Wales wiki, the Library Web Quest (a staff training tool adapted from the Learning 2.0 programme) and the LibeRaCe blog for Coleg Llandrillo Cymru. Andrew spoke about the different uses of the LibeRaCe blog including lirary news, current awareness, marketing, suggestions, book requests, reference enquiries and a discussion forum. They currently get around 1000 hits per month on the LibeRaCe blog which is great to hear.

It was nice to see so many at the talk discussing the use of Library 2.0; some who are yet to try anything but eager to find out more, others who are experimenting with numerous different uses.

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As mentioned in an earlier post, CILIP recently held an Open Session to enable conversation about the use of Web 2.0. Many others have blogged about the event, but I thought I’d add my thoughts too.

I was particularly pleased that in between enquiries and other work-related tasks, I was still able to follow much of the conversation by using Twitterfall to follow any Tweets tagged with #cilip2. As it was an open session, the tag had been promoted before the event and the use of Twitter/live blogging was encouraged. There were some “official” bloggers including Matthew Mezey who blogged about the session on the Update blog. There were also people in the room who were using Twitter to share discussions from the session. There was no live audio or video feed of the event but Brian Kelly reported on how he has learnt from his attempts and this is maybe something that could happen in future.

It was excellent to be able to participate via Twitter despite the geographical spread and it also enabled me to find more librarians on Twitter. The discussions surrounding professional issues (which I followed and participated in on Twitterfall) started well before the event, and it was great to see such a strong community who are passionate about the future of the profession. Dave Pattern produced a list of all the tweets tagged with #CILIP2 and used these to create a Wordle cloud:

#cilip2 Wordle cloud

The actual event centred around the talks from Phil Bradley and Brian Kelly, followed by discussions about how CILIP can utilise and support the use of Web 2.0. I felt honoured to be featured in Brian Kelly’s talk as one of the librarians of the future – he mentioned different Web 2.0 tools I use for professional purposes such as blogging, microblogging and social bookmarking. Both Phil and Brian spoke about how CILIP should be key players in supporting the use of Web 2.0, and I hope CILIP take on board the requests for embracing the technologies. It was also pleasing to hear mention of how CILIP could help explain how and why to use these technologies within libraries and offer support to train staff to enable them to use them in a professional context.

I haven’t heard of any concrete outcomes of the event as yet but the discussion should help shape future CILIP policies hopefully and I think it’s incredibly positive that CILIP are involving members (and non-members) more and hope to see this sort of transparency continues. CILIP are currently involved in a survey on the use of professional networkings and social media websites, I’m hoping this data will also show which areas are currently being used and which could potentially be used.

In related news, I noticed a brief news article in the most recent edition of CILIP’s Library and Information Gazette about the new CILIP communities website which will add social features to the community. It was due to be launched yesterday but wasn’t live when I checked yesterday morning. It seems to be live now however, although I admit I haven’t had much chance to explore it yet. I hope it will be similar in functionality to America’s ALA Connect, which I recently read a review of and sounded great.

Let’s hope this is the start of a more transparent CILIP and a professional body to be really proud of.

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I recently found out about this from a recent post on Phil Bradley’s weblog – a list of top tools for learning voted for by learning professionals (also a list of top tools for learners has been added), compiled by Jane Hart.

Phil’s post inspired me to think about what my current top 10 tools are, which I will shortly be sending to Jane who now accepts entries via Twitter.

My tools aren’t in any particular order, it was hard enough to decide on my top ten let alone rank them!

1. WordPress – my blogging software of choice which just gets better and better with each update. I love how easy the admin interface is, and how customisable you can make your page with HTML and CSS. The plugins add extra functionality too such as the WPTouch plugin to create a view for iPhone/iPod Touch. I also use WordPress.com for blogging at work which is really easy to set up and administer.
2. Netvibes – my homepage on all my browsers (I use Chrome, Firefox and Safari at the moment!). It has my key links (I hardly ever use browser bookmarks anymore), my webmail, RSS feeds, and my to-do list. My dashboard to pretty much everything on the web and available wherever I’m accessing the internet.
3. Remember the Milk – I am a listaholic and am obsessed with organising my life with to-do lists. I use RTM for my to-do list at the moment, largely due to the excellent integration with Netvibes and the superb iPhone/iPod Touch app which is free with a premium RTM account. Toodledo is also excellent but I’m favouring RTM at the moment.
4. Google Reader – like Phil Bradley, I used to be a fan of Bloglines, but recently changed to Google Reader and am happy with it. Again the big pull is integration with other systems such as Netvibes and my iPod Touch – I have the Feeds app on my iPod Touch which enables me to sync feeds and then read them offline on my commute to work.
5. Google Search – this is something I hadn’t really thought about until I looked at items others had mentioned. I use Google search numerous times a day, whether it’s for looking up URLs, checking definitions, or trying to find information. I also use Google Scholar sometimes on the enquiry desk, particularly if I’m presented with an unusual enquiry.
6. Twitter – my microblogging tool of choice and one of the main ways of networking with fellow librarians/information professionals. I also use it to keep in touch with some of my family members and friends, and find it an incredibly useful tool for sharing information. I’ve tried a few different tools for updating Twitter and currently use Tweetie on my iPod, Tweetdeck on my home PC, and Twitterfox/Netvibes on my work PC
7. Delicious – I’ve been using Delicious to save useful bookmarks for a while now and although I don’t use it to manage my regularly accessed websites, I do use it to store useful sites I may want to refer to again, and use it to gather useful sites for projects/articles. I’ve also started using Delicious to share websites with students (I’ll write more about this in a blog post soon) I’ve recently tried Diigo although I haven’t fully explored that yet, but it looks very promising.
8. Slideshare – great site for both sharing your own presentations and viewing other’s presentations. I’ve found this particularly useful as it’s being used more widely, and find myself often visiting Slideshare to see presentations of conferences and events I am unable to attend in person. Slideshare has also recently added the facility to upload other documents which I haven’t explored yet but am sure I’ll be experimenting with in future.
9. Google Docs – I’ve only really used this for my own work at the moment (as opposed to collaborative work), but I hope to use it collaboratively in future. I do find it incredibly useful to be able to work on a document from any PC though, as I frequently lose track of which version I have stored on my USB when I’m working at home, work, and on the enquiry desk. The form element in Google Spreadsheets (which I notice Jane has used for the learners vote) is excellent; I recently used this to gather data from different work colleagues in a quick survey format.
10. Fireshot – I struggled to choose between Fireshot, the Firefox screencapture tool, and Adobe Captivate, the screen recording software. I chose Fireshot as I use this most often, whether it’s for screenshots in leaflets/guides, on websites, or even to explain things via email. For a free tool it’s great, and combined with Portable Firefox I can use it on any PC.

What are your top ten tools? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, or if you are a learner or learning professional why not vote by following the instructions on the website or sending your top ten by Twitter.

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