Thing 12: Collaborative Tools

Your Task

Think about the last time you had to work on a group project and write a blog post using the following questions as a guideline:

Did you work face to face, virtually or via a combination of the two?

Was your experience positive, negative or neutral?

Did you use any of the tools outlined above?

Have you used any other collaborative tools that you have found useful?

If you had to do that project again what tools outlined above do you think would have been the most useful?

I am involved on group project within an Energy Team in Wexford County Council involving representatives from all sections of the council including me as Libraries rep. We mostly work face-to-face with monthly team meetings. The experience has been positive. There have been positive outcomes, such as a successful grant application to SEAI Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland with grant funding received for a number of energy efficiency projects. This included projects in one library (solar panels & a new more efficient boiler) and the archives building (energy efficient lighting) in 2017.

The team did try to work virtually sharing documents relating to the projects pipeline for the grant application. We used DropBox to share a large spreadsheet document which held details of all the energy projects suggested by each section of the council. It was certainly more useful to use one shared document rather than e-mails circulating with multiple versions of the document. However, not long after starting, the IT Dept. banned use of DropBox for internet security reasons. Then we had to go back to the old system of e-mailing the spreadsheet and everybody e-mailing their amendments/information on the spreadsheet back to one person to compile all the versions into one. It wasn't as efficient that way, and it didn't achieve as much collaboration as the one live version on DropBox did.

When doing this project again, I would use any of the secure alternatives to DropBox that our IT department allow us to us.

I used Doodle in the past, when doing my MLIS 2008-2009 to schedule meetings working on joint projects and to schedule recreational events. It was also briefly used in work to schedule meetings, but mostly we use MS Office calendar, and I find that good, as the meeting goes straight into your outlook calendar. I use MS Office calendar meeting planner a lot.

I've used Skype before, but just for international phone calls.

I have participated in webinars for training on various library systems, and found them useful.

Trello sounds useful, and I will try that in work, but at present I use the Tasks in MS Office and find it useful. Task organisation tools are useful reminders but they can't force you to "eat that frog"!

Thing 11 : Your Personal Brand: LinkedIn

Tasks for Thing 11

Task 1 : Create a bio of yourself that you can use when creating an online profile. 

or

Task 2 : Set up a LinkedIn or ORCID account and highlight aspects of your personal brand you want to emphasise. 

I already had a LinkedIn account since November 2008. In fact I was surprised I had it that long. I set up my account shortly after finishing my MLIS. 

I updated my LinkedIn profile with the following bio which I created tonight:

"Executive Librarian specialised in Public Libraries. Experienced in Library Management in a variety of settings. Skilled in Event Programming & Management, Marketing, Social Media, Collections Development & Promotion, Staff Management, Facilities Management and Health & Safety. Good Community Outreach skills and network. Strong Business Development professional with a background in Business and Marketing, active in the "Work Matters in the Library" programme."

My Twitter bio is a little less specific on role, and more 'missionary':
"Librarian, reader, loves outdoors, hillwalker, runner. Mission to share the joy of reading, learning & living together. Ars longa, vita brevis."

I also filled in the LAI membership renewal form and will send it off tomorrow.

Thing 11 - over and out

I 

Thing 10: Networking Tools: Facebook & Twitter

Well, it was nice for change for a 'Thing' not to be a massive struggle. Phew!
I have already been a Facebook user since 2009. https://www.facebook.com/dearbhla.nilaighin
I joined Twitter in March 2014. https://twitter.com/DearbhlaAine
Since joining Twitter, I had almost stopped using Facebook. Certainly I use Facebook a lot less than Twitter now. For me my Facebook page was always more for personal use, and Twitter more for professional use. However I see after this 'thing', that I could also use my own Facebook page more for professional use too. All Co. Wexford public libraries have their own facebook page, and I've been managing a library facebook page since 2011.
On both Facebook and Twitter I have joined / followed a number of library-related people and groups over the years and added a few more tonight.
I hadn't joined a list on Twitter before now, and I have now joined the Libfocus Librarians in Ireland list. I haven't joined a Twitter chat yet, but I see the next #uklibfocus Tiwtter chat is on 9 April and I plan to participate. I sent a tweet using the hashtag #rudai23 proclaiming to the wide world that I have received my Visual Communicator badge (cue drum roll).

Bhuel sin a bhfuil. Oíche mhaith.

Visual Communicator Badge achieved!

https://openbadgepassport.com/app/badge/info/70646
Visual Communicator Rudaí 23

Thing 9: Reflective Practice

With the objective of learning as much as possible, I tried to do all the 'Things' to date, and I have blogged about them all, and my varying degrees of success with each one, and posted examples of what I managed to produce with each blog post.

Description:
To follow is a list of 'Things' I have completed to date, the visual communication tools I used, and what I produced with each tool.
8 Oct. 2017: Thing 3: Flickr & Pixabay. I created accounts, uploaded a photo to Flickr, and selected a photo from Pixabay, both of which I added to the blog.
14 & 15 Oct. 2017: Thing 4: Ripl & Quick. I didn't manage to use Ripl due to the limitations of my old iPhone. I managed to use Quick to create a video of libraries I visited in Boston.
29 Oct. 2017: Thing 5: Powtoon & ScreenCastomatic. I used Powtoon to create a presentation of my 'Library Nerd Holiday' in Boston. I used Screencast-o-matic to produce a video of how to renew library books online using LibrariesIreland online catalogue via Wexford Libraries website.
1 Nov. 2017: Thing 6: Reflective Practice on things 3, 4 & 5 completed to apply for my Digital Communications Badge. (not received to date).
27 Feb. 2017: Thing 7: Online Exhibitions. I used blogger to create a basic online exhibition of Wexford Libraries online resources.
27 Feb. 2017: Thing 7.5: Digital Storytelling. I used Facebook story to create a digitally modified image of a "Wee Library" in Co. Donegal. I read about Instagram & Snapchat which were also covered in this thing, but I didn't sign up for these, nor use them, preferring to use the Facebook story feature as I'm already on Facebook.
19 Mar. 2017: Thing 8: Infographics: Piktochart & Canva. I used Canva to produce an infographic of a typical month's activity statistics (Gorey Library 2017).

Feelings
Thinking back over these things and reading back over my blog of how I found working on each thing, I have to admit that frustration was the most common emotion. I am not a very visual person in the real world and even less so in the virtual world. So these tasks were definitely focused on my two of my weak points, which was not a good combination. I encountered challenges, experienced frustration and impatience and achieved mixed success in using these tools. However, I persisted, and I managed to complete something on each thing.

Evaluation
Reviewing those 8 things, there are some that stand up to scrutiny better than others. Some I would be happy to use on our library Facebook page or even website or e-newsletter. Others were not of an adequate standard.
Good outputs: I would consider the Screencast-o-matic video on how to renew books online adequate to put on our facebook page or website, 'though it would benefit from being done again with a more upbeat tone of voice and some background music. It is workmanlike, and does the job, but it is boring. Personally I like my Powtoon presentation of 'Library Nerd Holiday Boston July 2017', it is bright, has an upbeat soundtrack, and I think there are interesting library photos, but I would judge it more appropriate for personal rather than professional use. My Canva infographic is something that I am happy with and plan to use again to promote monthly activity statistics in the library.
Poor outputs: The Quick video of the same library photos from Boston is unusable due to pixelation. I should have redone this, but considering the two nights I had already unsuccessfully devoted to this thing and my frustrations with Ripl and Quick, I decided to cut my losses and move on from this thing. My online exhibition of e-resources using blogger was also extremely basic, and not something that I imagine could be used. I did have a limited image bank for this task, but I also suffered from poor imagination and creativity in this thing.

Analysis
Given that I consider myself not to be a very visual person, and I haven't devoted time to my visual skills development in either the real or digital world, I think that this course was good to force me to use tools that I would not otherwise have used, and to try to develop some visual digital skills. I know that communicating visually is very important, particularly in promoting our library services and achievements in a professional, modern way, especially to corporate and younger audiences. When I review all the things together, I see that I have learned some useful skills, and now know of some useful, free and easy-to-use digital tools that I can use again, some more regularly (Canva, Powtoon) than others (Screencast-o-matic), to communicate visually & digitally.

Conclusion
I would have benefited from sticking to a stricter schedule on this course, as the cumulative learning curve would have accumulated a bit better, and I might have practiced the things in real world examples more. As it is, I completed things 3, 4, 5 & 6 between 8 October and 1 November 2017. Then there is a giant gap until I do thing 7 on 27 February 2018. That giant gap reflects how real life intervenes. My lovely father died on 22 November, and Rudaí 23 fell off my radar, as I struggled with my loss and grief. However, the importance of learning and persistence are some of the life lessons that my father taught me, and I'm determined to persist with this course, and to complete it and to improve myself.

Thosaigh mé an blag seo i nGaeilge, ach níor lean mé leis an seift sin. Níor éirigh liom an chéad suaitheantas digiteach a fháil, agus b'fhéidir gurb' í an Ghaeilge ba chúis le sin? Cé fios? Ach os rud é gur cúrsa cumarsaide, b'fhéidir gur fearr cloí leis an meán cumarsáid is mó atá á úsáid, an Bhéarla.

Thing 8 Infographics

The most regular reports I produce, use and contribute to are our monthly directors reports, monthly transaction statistics and annual reports and business plans.
However since I was working on this at home, I had no access to the data for the above.
I found the transaction statistics for July 2017 in an old e-mail, and I decided to try to present them in an infographic. The infographic is designed for the public or for local councillors to give them a snapshot idea of what business Gorey Library does in a typical month.
The impact it is hoped to have on the reader is to impress on the reader the variety and scale of activity.

Of the two infographic websites mentioned, I chose to look at Canva because it gave the option of free pdfs, which can be useful.

I experimented with Canva and put together an informative flyer on July 2017 in Gorey Library.
I found Canva manageable to work with, but for the first time use, I found it a little frustrating. It appeared as if my cursor wasn't working when I was trying to select and resize or move the elements. It worked some times and not others, and I haven't figured out yet, why that was. I think I copied things unknowingly, and had my own text and images on top of the template text and images so it took a while to tidy them all up. Also the number of free images is small relative to the number of paid images, so it might get limited if you were trying to use it regularly, trying to keep it fresh, while also keeping it free. Time would tell. I imagine I'd figure it out better with more regular use. If this infographic I produced got some good reaction, I might try to make it a monthly infographic.
The link is here:
https://www.canva.com/design/DACyeHgpcjc/view