Tag: WEEK 12

This is my last reflective activity for assignment 1 so I decided to do the following question:

“Discuss how libraries (or a professional setting of your choice) might make use of online applications and productivity tools, and what impact might they have on front-of-house services and behind-the-scenes work?  Talk about the benefits and potential risks”

[Mary Axford and Crystal Renfro]  For libraries to stay relevant in society and with the emergence of Web 2.0 applications, they have to change the way they interact with their clients.  Before Web 2.0, libraries only had to worry about books, papers, magazines and card catalogues.  The emergence of Web 2.0 has caused a wave of new online application and productivity tools so  that now libraries have a role in teaching lecturers, clients and students how they can use the new technologies in their everyday lives.  [Allen Alrich] With the changes in the way we interact with each other, universities and libraries need to move towards the mobile web using smartphones.

APPLICATIONS

Image Hosting & Photo Sharing: [Alan Henry]

Facebook; Flickr;  Photobucket; Picasa and SmugMug:

Benefits:

• Great way for libraries to store historical photos for future reference
• Allow photos to be mashup and place in libraries presentations and reports

Mobile To-Do-List Managers: [Alan Henry]

AnyDo; Astrid; Remember the Milk; Toodledo and Wunderlist

Benefits:

• At meetings you have the list of items that your colleagues like you to ask
• Your daily tasks are always with you wherever you are
• Like a diary – will store all your tasks.  This would help you when you need to do a monthly report

Presentation  Creation Tools: [Jason Fitzpatrick]

Beamer; Google Presentations; PowerPoint and Press

Benefits

• Information Literacy Programs
• Library Information Slideshows

Real Time Video Chats: [Alan Henry]

AIM/AV by AIM; Google Talk; iChat; ooVoo and Skype

Benefits:

• Communicate with external students
• Keep in contact with clients who cannot come to the library
• Communicate with colleagues in other States

Social Media Managers: [Jason Fitzpatrick]

Digsby; HootSuite; Seesmic; Socialite and TweetDeck

Benefits:

• Way for a library to manage all their social media sites in one place

Mobile Web

[Alan Aldrich]  With the surge of mobile devices, especially the smartphone, libraries had to change in the way they present their services.  With Smartphones, the Mobile Web came of age.

Benefits:

• Clients have access to a library catalogue anywhere and at any time.
• Library staff can contact clients quickly and more efficiently for example, “the book you requested has arrived”

The following graph shows how the clients of the University of Cambridge Library use smartphones to get access to library services:

Note Taking Applications

[Mary Axford and Crystal Renfro]   The Internet is providing more information for clients and librarians than they can handle.  Therefore, note-taking applications were born:

• Evernote
• MS Onenote
• Simplenote
• Springpad notebooks

Benefits:

• Able to store answers and question for other colleagues on the reference desk
• Great way for staff to store information for their research projects
• Recording information for future events for the Library e.g. journal articles, photos
• Storing information for Conference presentations
• You can store information that could be useful for libraries’ collection development

The following YouTube video talks about  Evernote and Libraries:

Risks

• Security issues with personnel and professional information
• If Libraries are depended upon computers what happens if the IT system goes down, we still need to have access to pen and paper and books
• Clients would never personally use the library
• Library networks are more susceptible to a virus
• Potentially online applications give managers the ammunition to close libraries down to save money, for example, Campbell Newman has closed down a number of libraries since coming to office.

Online applications and productivity tools will have an impact in the way libraries provide services to their clients and the way library staff perform their duties.  Libraries do provide an important service to society and as Librarians; we have to ensure that online applications and productivity tools do not take away the role of libraries.