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"!