Thing 6: Reflective Practice

Description

For Thing 3: Image Banks I had a choice of using an image from Pixabay or Flickr. As I said in my blog I chose Flickr as I am well used to Pixabay (thanks to its promotion by members of the Health Sciences Libraries Group over the years).

For Thing 4: Communicating Visually  I had great fun with Photofunia. You can put your own photo onto an image to create an advertisement for the library.

For Thing 5: Video Presentations I struggled along with Screencast-O-Matic.

Feelings

It took me ages to start Thing 5 as I was changing jobs and I wanted to work on material with personal meaning. Eventually I decided the public library’s e-resources are the way to go. I was so pleased to have a topic. The task took way longer than I had anticipated. I had to learn about how to turn off the sound. We had a laugh at home when I accidentally recorded a conversation while making my video. Everything worked out in the end, after a number of retries over a number of days. I could see how to do it, it was just getting all the bits right that delayed things. My video was initially too long. I wanted it to be shorter so it would be more interesting to people.

Evaluation & Analysis

I had used this programme before during the previous Rudaí 23 when I made a video about databases through this site: www.idaal.com. I still found it a challenge, as it was some time since I did it before! I learned to be patient and if I wasn’t happy with the result to take a break and then try again. 

Conclusion and Action Plan

I’m happy that this task gave me an opportunity to learn about the library’s e-resources, so I can better help borrowers. I’m glad I waited until I came up with something worthwhile to make a video of. I feel confident for having completed the task. 

Thing 5: Video Presentations

Video

It's taken me a few attempts to get to grips with Screencast-O-Matic. It's good though. First I had to learn to lose the audio (keyboard and voice!). My boyfriend helped. Then to make it short enough. I showed how to read a magazine on your laptop courtesy of your public library (in this case Dublin City Council). It was great as it was something I wanted to learn. I put off this Rud as I was changing jobs and didn't know what to do. But it became clear in the end.

Youtube is really slow to do some edits (i.e. to add audio).

Thing 4: Communicating visually

I'm going to use Photofunia because I was aware of it and had looked into a little bit from when Niamh O'Sullivan (Irish Blood Transfusion Service) wrote about it in HINT (https://hslgblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/hint-eahil-special-issue/).

I've now installed the App on my phone. I found an image of records and my boyfriend kindly posed playing the trumpet in order for me to advertise live jazz music in the library! That was fun.

https://twitter.com/Graceih/status/911706872973074437

Thing 3: Image banks - Flickr

This is an image from Flickr. It is labelled for commercial use. The other option was to use Pixabay, but I use it a lot so I went for Flickr. This task was quite easy, though I did have to read the instructions carefully. I would like to work in a library where everyone uses Flickr to promote the library.

Thing 23 (yes!): Making it all work together

I tried to add social media to Flipboard. I failed. I put the app on my tablet but I couldn't find the 4 squares. I also checked online how to do it but I clicked into everything and couldn't find what I was supposed to. So I then tried Hootsuite. Success. It was hard and a pain to set up and all, but I did it. It has access to some Facebook accounts and Twitter. I clicked on the owl and went as if to send a message but I didn't actually send one - it was just for the practice. I don't think I would use these tools in my job because it's a small library and patrons generally phone or email. However, I might use them - or they may be more useful for - event planning outside of work. Plus, we never know where our path may take us and where they may be just what we need!

Thing 22: Mobile Things

The app I'm going to blog about is Hello Brain. It gives you an activity to do every day - I think for 100 days - to improve your brian health. In our journal club in work we had a talk about Hello Brain. I'm on the journal club committee and heard a colleague talking about it and asked her to give a talk. It was very interesting. In doing the hello brain challenge with the app different parts of your brain are put to work. All the categories improve your brain health. Some of the challenges involve doing something physical, some are about doing something social, they may be about getting your memory working (learning something off). I was doing well at it until my phone stopped working and until Rudaí 23 took over. But I can go back to it! I have done many of them. They included share a funny story with a colleague or learn the words of a song off by heart and go and do some exercise etc. I would recommend this to everyone and hopefully we will have healthy brains as we age!

We don't have a beacon in our library. I think it's good to have a screen in a library with the day's events on it like they have (or at least had) in Tallaght Library. I do think reminding people of books due back by phone is a good idea. I text my users who are not on the email system if they have books that are overdue.

I never did learn about Zotero so from that perspective I think 23 Mobile Things would be useful.

Thing 21: Creating Info-Graphics

I have twice made infographics. I used Piktochart. I used them for library stats. However, I didn't send them out as the stats are quite low. I don't believe they actually reflect the work of the library. As with most statistics, there's more than meets the eye. I made the 2nd one only in the last week or so. It's fun to make them! I was going to include it in my Library Ireland Week mail

out but have been cautioned against it. This is it - with the numbers removed. The space at the top is deliberate as I was cropping it off. I would like to do an infographic instead of my traditional Word annual report as I think it might be easier to read at a glance.

I had an infographic from Australia displayed in the library for a while. It described how much health librarians really save money. This is it. http://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/images/Worth-Every-Cent-and-More-INFOGRAPHIC.png However it didn't print out in a straightforward manner. I had to shrink it down a lot.