Calendar - Thing 8

Google Calendars

We already use Outlook Exchange calendars at work, and all in the department can view each other's calendars. It's fantastic for arranging meetings as you can check the best times for each attendee. We use calendar invitations to schedule one-off meetings and also to enter regular meetings in staff calendars. We've got extra exchange calendars set up for leave and for various rotas such as desk rotas. All this is integrated with personal calendars so it's easy to see what's on. I can also view my calendar on my mobile phone which is a huge benefit, and access and use it over the web.

I love the reminders and also often put tasks in so I use it for time management as well. What isn't so great is the reminders that I constantly get telling me that a task is now a number of hours overdue - either I'm inefficient or hoplessly optimistic about what I can get done in a set amount of time.

We all have to be careful about the information on display in our calendars. Anything confidential or relating to a person needs to be made private or worded in a way that the person or subject is unindentifiable.

We also use sharepoint calendars to book rooms and cars – again everyone has access and can see at a glance when a meeting room is available. It's quick and easy to use - which is not something I often say about Sharepoint!

What this means is that as an individual I don't see a need for google calendars specifically, but am absolutely sold on the idea of shared calendars.

Self-service kiosks

A request for information rather than a post specifically to do with 23 Things this time.
We're look at implementing self-service kiosks in our libraries and possibly other heavily used university spaces. This would be a user-friendly, streamlined service to offer our customers and would extend the self service provision we can offer in different locations where we have not been able to directly offer services before. The kind of services that might be offered could be:

• ·        Check/Renew library loans

• ·        Pay fines online

• ·        Check Library PIN

• ·        Check library catalogue

• ·        Buy printing credit online

• ·        Check printing credit

• ·        See which computer rooms are free

• ·        Set up wireless

• ·        Set up printers

• ·        Check password

• ·        Register MAC address

• ·        Change password

• ·        Register firewall holes

• ·        Student record/timetable

Has anyone else implemented a similar service? I'd be very grateful if you could get in touch and let me know exactly what services you've been able to implement. Please either comment below or email me at nrj@aber.ac.uk . I'll post results up on this blog if I get enough responses.

Thanks

Professional organisations and real-life networks

I'm really getting behind now - blame school sports day, fun night and a sudden, compulsive need for clothes shopping.

This is going to be a short post, partly because of lack of time, but mostly because I'm not a member of any professional organisations for a number of reasons:

• cost – that's probably the main reason,
• limited benefits – for geographic reasons more than anything else. It takes about 2.5 hours to get from where I am to places where events, training and meetings usually happen. There were 7 events or groups listed on this blog and the nearest is Cardiff which is, yes 2.5hours away.
• Lack of time – I work part-time because I have other commitments. It makes it very difficult then to do additional activies
• Priorities - also, I'm not looking to advance in my career right now, so there isn't that additional motivation to make myself more visible, and collect things to put on a CV.

We did attempt to get an information group of librarians involved in managing Customer Services in HE libraries together, but it didn't happen for a number of reasons but that would be something I would find useful.

I've just looked over the above and realised that I sound like a miserable loner, burying myself in my little corner of the world – which I'm not, really! I'd love to be able to discuss some of the issues at work with people in other institutions, but opportunities to do that face-to-face are rare.

It also highlight just how important online networks are to those of us who are geographically isolated, or not able to participate in real-life networks for whatever reason.

Thing 6 - online networks

Thing 6 – Online networks

LinkedIn – I have a profile and a few connections so I've ticked the box, but it's not something that I feel comfortable with. Mostly I think that's because I'm not actively looking at getting another job at the moment so there isn't that extra incentive to market myself, but it's also because the interface is pretty awful and I can't see the point of it. Perhaps it's the same as updating your CV – despite all the best intentions, I never actually do it until I am applying for jobs and I also can't be bothered to be using LinkedIn right now. I also find it boring compared to other social media experiences, and I really, really hate the way that Aberystwyth University is automatically located in Shrewsbury! Do they not realise how unbelievably insulting that is - why oh why can't they sort that out? OK, rant over, but you can see I'm not the biggest fan of LinkedIn. It's definitely not the office, but more of one of those sad dives just off campus where a few lonely people congregate while everyone else is having far more fun somewhere else.

Facebook

I love Fb for staying in touch with friends and family. I'm also a member of a few closed groups (children's football teams) and that's a wonderful way of sharing information and photos. My biggest worry with Fb is the privacy agenda. Despite shutting down my profile to be viewable by only friends I still worry about this. When I got my latest smartphone I was horrified to see all my Fb friends (some of whom I haven't seen or spoken to for 20 years or so) added to my contacts with mobile phone numbers and email addresses for many of them added as well – very scary!

I'm a bit of a lurker of Fb. I use it mostly for reminders of friends birthdays and quick checks every now and again of what's happening. I hardly ever post anything there myself. Most of my “real” friends are on Fb so it feels much more like a community than LinkedIn, or Twitter (which is almost exclusively professional contacts).... and there's a half hour gap between this half of the sentence and the first half because I got sucked into the black hole of Fb and have only just reappeared.

Despite joining a few library groups, I don't think of Fb as a way of connecting with other librarians or information professionals and I'm happy with that.

LISPN and Librarians as Teachers – I'm no longer a new professional, unfortuantely and I don't teach at the moment either, so just to keep things managable, I'm not going to join any of those groups.

CILIP – I'm not a member, and that's partly because of geography. I now live in a remote part of Wales and travelling anywhere takes forever. This means that getting to CILIP meetings and training etc is very difficult (add 3 children to the mix and it gets even worse). When I worked in Leeds I found CILIP's predecessor (what was it called?) really useful. I regularly went to meetings of the Solo Librarians Group and UC&R. I also used to go to Chartership meetings in a pub after work – not surprisingly I never got around to chartering.

I do feel guilty about this as I know that CILIP is what it's members make it, so if it's not meeting my needs, I have the opportunity to do something about it if I want to get involved. Again, it's a matter of time and priorities.

I'm a bit worried looking back over this post that I'm stuck in a slight rut – using the same social networks that I've always used. Since starting 23 Things I am using Twitter a lot more, and also RSS feeds. I would like to get more involved with CILIP but have given myself too much to do in the past and regretted it, so CILIP will have to wait for now. Managing these online network and chosing the best one for me right now is more important than trying to keep up with all of them.

Mirror, mirror on the wall ...

Thing 5

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, and I’m starting to fall behind, so I’m hoping to catch up with things 5 and 6 this week.

Reflective practice is something I do quite a lot of anyway. I’m always reviewing what I’ve done and how I could have done it better. One of the advantages of job-sharing is that there is an opportunity to update and reflect with my colleague at least once a week, and this face-to-face discussion is often invaluable in helping me to understand why things have happened the way they have, and how to improve things the next time. Also, discussions on operational plans, or just working out our to-do-lists can leave me feeling more in control and with more understanding of how to fulfil tasks and manage my workload.

Looking more particularly on 23 Things …

Blogs. I really enjoy reading other people’s blogs and I’m trying to leave comments whenever I read something that resonates with me. It’s reassuring to know that other people are grappling with the same problems or facing the same issues as ourselves. It’s also extremely enlightening to have a snapshot of other people’s professional lives and see what they are doing day-to-day. If there is a risk to all of this, it’s the time spent browsing various blogs. As for blogging myself, I started out very enthusiastically but time (and half-term) have made it difficult for me to blog regularly. I find it valuable to record my activities and thoughts (reflective practice I guess?), but I’m not sure that others find it so useful., but the beauty about blogging is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be for other people. Having said that, the first things I do when I log into my blog is check my stats. I want to carry on blogging, but I need to be realistic about the time it takes. Once 23 Things is over, I may need to recognise that once a fortnight is as much as I can manage.

Twitter. I’m tweeting more but not sure if this of the benefit to myself or anyone else. It might be raising my profile, and it gives me a feeling of being part of a community when I join in a discussion. As for following other people, I’ve found some useful links now and again but I’m aware that I’m missing stuff so can’t rely on it as a failsafe tool for getting information – possibly this is my fault and I need to get to grips with tools to manage tweets. Again it helps to feel part of a community, and it helps to have a finger on the pulse when it comes to current issues. However a lot of the information is superficial and I have concerns as using it as a representation of the entire library community. It seems to be dominated by a few very frequent tweeters, so not sure if it representative of the community as a whole. Although it’s used, and often praised, as a way of following discussions and presentations at conferences, I haven’t found it at all helpful in that context. I’d much rather read a longer, more considered report on a blog.

However, it’s easy to use, and I love its immediacy. I can access it from my smartphone, otherwise use would be infrequent at best. It is definitely my tool of choice when looking for breaking news, such as information on the floods at the weekend, especially when I’m not at my desk.

Storify. I wasn’t too impressed with Storify at first, but I’ve now succeeded in identifying an use for it, and am looking forward to going back and playing with it again.

Personal Branding. I find it really interesting not just for me, but also for the institution that I work for, and my husband’s business. Personally I still need to get my blog and twitter account to match and update automatically. My blog is improving my online presence (I hope anyway), and there doesn’t seem to be anything bad out there. I could do more to promote myself, but again it’s lack of time and it’s not on the top of my priority list at present.

This blog post has become far too long and taken up too much time (yet again) so I’m leaving it at this for today. I just want to add that in all of this, the biggest benefit and motivator is engaging with other people, and that’s why I want to continue tweeting and blogging after 23 Things.