The end

Overall I have found the course fun to do and very interesting.

It has been useful on a personal level as I had never Blogged or Twitted before starting the course and I have learnt about resources I didn’t know exist e.g. Prezi. I also really liked NetVibes.

Like many other participants I think the main issue has been IT departments blocking access to various resources.

From a library point of view I would like to use Prezi for a virtual library tour. I will also look at NetVibes as a Library Internet site and make more use of Alerts for help with current awareness services.

I also think library staff have a role in making users aware of these different resources and encouraging them to use them.

Thing 6

I can see these tools being used by our library users who visit our Internet café as it will allow them to save web sites they have found at work and then can access at home.

For the library it is a useful way of sharing useful websites with our users. However, as Delicious does not allow the websites to be arranged in categories then we are relying on tagging so I think for this to be useful the library needs to agree which tags to use and then share these with the users.

Thing 5

Library users may find the Zotero software more useful as they can export their literature search results from EBSCO databases and also use some of the default styles if they are writing articles for professional journals.

Although I was unable to download the software onto my PC I did find these sites which compare the two different packages:-

This one is from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School Library

http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/infolib/2012/10/29/zotero-versus-mendeley-2/

This is from the HLWIKI International:-

http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Zotero_vs._Mendeley

Thing 4

As feared these sites are blocked by our IT Department. However, looking at them, at home I liked the versatility of Prezi though I think it may me a while to get to grips with the software.

The major advantage I can see with Slideshow is that a presentation can be accessed anywhere. However, as most presentations we do are tailored to a specific user group I don’t know how useful they would be to the general public.

Keele University Health library has used Prezi for a virtual tour of their library which I think is a really good idea.

See:- http://prezi.com/_ochai9euo-w/health-library-interactive-map

It does zoom in an out quite a lot though.

A site I prefer is this one:-

http://prezi.com/vs6khgzkt3-g/designing-a-library-for-2020-mcca

as it is less disorientating.

Other useful Prezi presentations:-

http://prezi.com/djfnqgkabquu/eresources-librarian

http://prezi.com/wyw0nh9iri5l/getting-started-at-the-health-library

http://prezi.com/l-wvs_hcaw-3/training-map-for-the-health-library

Prezi guide

http://www.scribd.com/doc/52056677/Prezi-Guide

Thing 3

Wikis

As mentioned in other posts I too am having great difficulties in finding examples of  good Wikis. I searched in Google using Medical wikis and found this list of medical wikis:- http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/List_of_medical_wikis
on the HealthPlusPlus wiki site (http://www.healthplusplus.com/wiki/Main_Page ).

 One disadvantage I can see with Wikis is that anyone can add information you don’t have to be medically qualified. However, I did find Medpedia (http://www.medpedia.com/ ) which allows patients to diagnose themselves. Although it is written and edited by volunteers all contributors must have a medical qualification.

 Another disadvantage is that a wiki could not have enough information / contributors. This was the case for the Royal Society who recently hosted a group edit-a-thon, in partnership with Wikimedia UK, to improve Wikipedia articles about women in science. See http://royalsociety.org/news/2012/women-wikipedia-science/ ) for more information.

 Participants who use SharePoint within their organisation may be interested in the following article which compares the two:-http://www.participo.com/ideas/social-business/wikis-vs-sharepoint/

Google Docs

Creating a document was OK.

It wasn’t obvious where to put the email address of the person you want to share the document with.

It was also not obvious what to do when you received the link to the document.

 One disadvantage of using this is that everyone who needs access to the document has to have a Google account. Or have I got that completely wrong?

Thing 2

Having completed the exercies for Thing 2 here are my thoughts on how I could use these in practice:-

RSS

Our organisation uses MOSS and this has the ability to save RSS onto your personal home page. I use this to keep up to date with news. A disadvantage I have found is that if you set up too many RSS feeds there are too many updates to keep a track of so it is better to be selective.

I have found RSS to be useful in keeping up to date with news from Professional Organisations so I would encourage staff to set up a RSS feed from their own professional organisation.

One area I would like to use these for is to produce a brief daily current awareness bulletin of health news.

Twitter

Like many participants our organisation blocks Twitter. However, as I have never sent a Tweet I decided to set up account and try it out.

I can see this being useful for sharing ideas, asking and answering questions. I think it could also be useful for students on courses to discuss things.

I can therefore see my role as making staff aware of how to use Twitter for networking.

Alerts

As many of our staff are remote users then Journal alerts are a good way for them to see the latest articles in a specific journal or topic.

I am looking to use journal alerts to help produce a themed current awareness bulletin. Again I see my role as encouraging staff to set up their own alerts

Thoughts on blogging

Setting up the Blog wasn't too bad. The hardest part was thinking about what to write. At the moment I don't think I am a natural but maybe it will become easier with practice.