Rudaí 23 #thing14: Reality, but better

The first time I came across the term 'Augmented Reality' in relation to libraries was in the 2014 Academic & Special Libraries Conference. A team from DCU library made a presentation about their own experiences of using AR to make digital content available to students. They programmed posters in the library with AR features, finding the podcast tours made available through this method to be the most successful element of the campaign. They saw AR as a step up from using QR codes because AR is more visually striking and you can layer multiple buttons and icons on to your images. I remember being impressed while marveling at the effort that must have gone in to the project but to be honest I haven't thought about AR again in terms of its use in libraries until now.

To get a better feel of how the whole thing works I downloaded the Anatomy 4D App and used it to view the target images on the Daqri Anatomy 4D website. I was really impressed with the result, the human figure that was generated by the app seemed to step out of the screen. The various systems in the human body could be viewed either singly or in layers on top of each other and created an effect that could never have been achieved on a printed page.

I really liked the way the Public Libraries 2020 campaign used Layar with their printed brochure to make videos available of people across the world whose lives have been transformed by their use of libraries. The interactive AR features combined with the physical brochure makes for a powerful user experience.

In the academic library I work in, we produced a printed library guide over the summer. We found that restrictions imposed by the marketing template we were working with meant that some of the content we wanted to include had to be omitted. A version of the printed guide produced with Augmented Reality features using Layar would be a brilliant way to promote the services in the library without this kind of limit. Maps and videos to orient students in the library as well as audio files for self-guided tours could be made available to users who had downloaded the Layar App. It would also be a great way to provide digital access to restricted materials in the library such as some of the valuable or fragile books in our Special Collections room. Using an image in the brochure showing the door to the Special Collections room for example, users could get virtual tours of the vault or access links to digital images of some of the material stored in the archive.

For a project like this it would be essential to carefully plan the timeline for the design, production and marketing of the brochure. It would be heartbreaking to put a huge effort into producing this incredible resource if nobody was aware of it. I think it would work best as a project to be completed over a summer with a plan to introduce the resource to students during inductions held in orientation week. For continuing students social media, posters in the library and the support of academic staff would be key to spreading awareness of the resource.

Rudaí 23 #thing13: Professional Organisations

I have been a member of the Library Association of Ireland since I first started my MLIS course in UCD. I think it’s really important to be part of an organisation like the LAI because of the links it provides to a community of active and enthusiastic library professionals. Over the last two years, the majority of the library events I have attended have been provided either by the LAI directly or great LAI groups like the LAI’s Career Development Group the LAI CDG and the Academic and Special Libraries Section (A&SL).

Anyone who has ever attended the annual A&SL conference knows how inspiring its speakers are year after year and how energised the whole experience leaves you feeling. You are guaranteed to reconnect with people from the library and information field you already know and make many more new connections. The LAI frequently holds invaluable training and information sessions that will develop you professionally and which are free to members. An example of this is their upcoming workshop taking place on the 2^nd October which focuses on presenting at and creating posters for conferences. The LAI’s quarterly publication ‘An Leabharlann’ is free to members and it contains articles about new technologies adopted by libraries, practical guides on how to market your library services and much more . It also provides you with the opportunity to submit articles about projects you have completed, contribute to book reviews and highlight library innovations, all of which will help raise your professional profile.
 

I’ve attended the LAI CDG’s ‘Library Camp,’ an annual event which provides you with opportunities to share ideas with members of the library profession in an informal setting. The home-baked goods are a bonus too! I talked about attending the LAI CDG’s ‘Information Skills for the Future’ event in my last blog which featured a really interesting mix of speakers from academic and public libraries covering all aspects of the profession.
 

NPD Ireland is another group who provide support to newly qualified librarians and Information Professionals. I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute a blog post for the NPD Ireland WordPress site after I completed the MLIS and I served as a panellist at their Christmas Mixer in UCD in December 2014. Their Twitter account @NPDIreland provides a mine of up to date information about library events, upcoming library positions and developments in the library field. The group hosts great events throughout the year and the upcoming NPD Ireland event ‘The Social Librarian’ taking place on Saturday 17th October looks like it will be another runaway success. 


It’s important to note that job applications frequently contain a section asking you to list the professional organisations you belong to. You will often hear about upcoming employment opportunities at library events before they’re advertised and remember it’s often the connections you make through professional organisations who will informally recommend you to prospective employers!

 

Rudaí 23 #thing12: Conferences

As a newly qualified librarian in 2012 I found the thought of attending conferences daunting. Would I know anyone there? Would my ignorance of some aspect of the profession be highlighted in a discussion with other librarians? The word ‘networking’ loomed large during the MLIS course but I had no idea what this meant practically – I had visions of sharp-suited professionals exchanging witticisms and meticulously designed business cards. I quickly found out that in the context of library conferences, networking simply involves talking to other librarians about projects they’re working on, discussing the new ideas presented at the conference and sharing your own experiences and ideas with them. Successful networking widens your professional circle and ensures you have even more people to connect with in person at the next library event or online through Twitter or LinkedIn.

Flickr CC photo by Bree

Conferences are a great way to see how libraries have adopted innovative approaches to service provision and how they are adapting new technologies to engage their users and promote their libraries. For me, they have also proven to be a great conversational topic when meeting new colleagues or a way to show engagement with the profession in job interviews.

Caroline’s tip in this week’s Rudaí 23 post about taking a notebook to conferences to jot down the names of the people you meet is a really good one. It would be impossible to remember the name of everyone you’re introduced to and it’s great to have the names of people you've met to hand if you meet them a year after an event. Rather than carrying around a stash of old notebooks with me at all times, I have found it much handier to add the names of people I have met and speakers I’ve heard to labelled folders in Dropbox that I can easily access on my phone.

Taking notes during presentations is essential , even short phrases jotted down will jog your memory later on. I’ve learned from experience that no matter how inspiring a talk is, without backup notes it can be difficult to remember the content a few months down the line. It’s best not to rely on slides being made available either as they often contain only the barest information so a lot of the content will be lost to you without another record of the talk. Reviewing notes you’ve taken at a recent conference before a job interview can be hugely beneficial, so be disciplined about filing them with the relevant conference handouts that list speakers and their presentation titles.

A seminar I attended this year was the LAI CDG’s ‘Information Skills for the Future’ seminar held in the Trinity College Long Room Hub in April 2015. The event was billed as an opportunity to learn about the essential skills employees will need for libraries in the future. At the time of the event I was working in Trinity College and I was lucky enough to be able to apply for and be granted a ticket for the conference. This opportunity was highlighted in internal staff emails so I applied for approval from my line manager immediately. It made it easier that the conference didn’t clash with my working hours but my employers have generally been accommodating even when conferences take place on days I am due to work. I told several colleagues about the event when it was advertised and encouraged them to come along. I tweeted about the event beforehand, something I’ve found is a good way to connect with colleagues who are active on social media. By the time the event occurred, I had worked or volunteered in five different libraries so it was great to reconnect with former colleagues I wasn’t expecting to see.

My advice to people attending conferences is BE BRAVE!  Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to either one person who is there on their own or to a group of people who seem friendly, because nine times out of ten they will be. Librarians are inquisitive by nature and enjoy hearing about where people are working or finding out what they think of the topics covered in the conference. If you already know people attending the conference get to know connections of theirs you haven’t met yet rather than sticking to a group of people you already know. Be supportive of newly qualified library professionals who are there and introduce them to your connections, you were one of them once!

During the LAI CDG event I jotted down notes during the presentations on an A4 refill pad and tweeted key phrases from the presentations using the CDG2015 hashtag. Hashtags are another great way to refresh your memory after a library event as well as helping to make you more visible to other library Tweeters. Something I would do differently at the next event would be to ask the speakers questions at the end of their presentations. This shows a genuine interest in the topic and is a good way to get your name out there to potential connections and future employers.

Rudaí 23 #thing11: Reflections, excuses and solutions

I was sure that it would be no problem keeping up with the various tasks throughout the course, especially as the course FAQs indicated that each task and blog would only take about an hour to complete. I quickly found that this wasn’t the case – to fully research a task and its associated apps or programs and to write a halfway decent blog post was taking a minimum of four hours per task and sometimes up to six for the more technical exercises. Initially I thought this was down to my personal approach but once I had spoken to colleagues and had engaged in Rudaí 23 discussions I quickly realised this was the case for many of the participants.

When I started the course I thought I might be able to complete some of the tasks at work but realistically a busy work environment doesn’t allow for this. The priority in the build up to September has been preparing and delivering student inductions, giving tutorials to staff and students and developing professional relationships with academic staff. I can’t honestly say that procrastination is the reason I’ve fallen behind – I like to be busy and my life involves working in two different part-time library jobs, volunteering in the Irish Film Institute one day a week, meeting up with friends and family and finding the time to learn how to drive somewhere in all of that!

If I’m being honest I think the problem is the time I'm taking with each Rudaí 23 task – six hours is definitely excessive. The podcasting and video tasks took a lot of my time as I revised the recordings ad nauseam until I was completely happy with them.  The aim with this course as I see it now is to learn new skills that can be applied at a later date rather than getting it perfectly right the first time.


I know that my blogs aren’t going to change the world or be read by thousands of people but I do view this course and the blogs as an extension of my CV – it’s a way for me to get to know other library professionals and vice versa. Because of that I want to be sure my blog posts are clear, well-researched and avoid eye-wincing grammatical errors, something which takes time and effort.

So, a study plan together with strict time management is the only way to go it seems – I need to choose one set evening a week to complete the Rudaí 23 tasks and allot a maximum of 3 hours to each task. This will involve accepting that each blog post doesn’t need to be perfect and that every task doesn’t need to be mastered to the nth degree. So far, I’ve enjoyed certain tasks so much that I’ve found myself investigating Pinterest for hours, or spending far too much time researching how libraries are using podcasts when one or two examples would suffice. No more I say, with a realistic study plan and better time management I will (hopefully) be up to date with the tasks by the 14^th September. Watch this space…

Rudaí 23 #thing10: Live streaming for libraries

Live streaming isn’t something I’ve experienced in the various libraries I’ve worked in so I did a little internet exploring to see how it has been or could be used in a library setting. The first library live-streaming event that jumped out at me was D.C public library’s 11-hour reading of George Orwell’s 1984 in January 2015. It was broadcast as part of their Orwellian America? series of events and the library invited well-known guests and members of the public to read from Orwell’s classic dystopian novel. Audiences attended the readings in the library and the various events were live-streamed, highlighting issues surrounding government transparency and personal privacy in the digital age. D.C. library then hosted videos of the various events and speakers on their Youtube channel.

The second set of live-streamed events inspired by an equally brilliant writer are the Roald Dahl Day interactive webcasts broadcast by Puffin Virtually Live each year. According to the Puffin books website, over a quarter of a million students tuned in to last year's webcasts. Broadcasts have featured readings, a drawing lesson from Quentin Blake and an appearance from David Walliams as the BFG - brilliant! In the context of the public libraries I work in, some of the branches have organised Roald Dahl Day events during September but in these particular cases the branches are small local libraries and events involve the participation of young children. In terms of child protection issues live streaming probably wouldn’t be advisable in their situation but bigger branches would have the capacity to stage events without filming young audience members. A successful event like this would be a great way to raise the profile of the public library.

The academic library I work in is hosting Culture Night this year for the first time and if they were to do this going forward I think live streaming would be an ideal way to make the event visible to a wider audience. Using the right equipment along with staff who are capable of putting together a professional looking broadcast would be important, however, especially if we planned to host the video on the library’s Youtube channel. 

I enjoyed taking part in my first live-streamed event as a viewer with the Rudai 23 hangout on air on the 23^rd of August. Though there were a few technical difficulties it definitely added an extra element to the proceedings to be able to watch the event unfolding live. I really liked being able to send tweets to the moderators and other viewers using the #r23hoa hashtag. My room felt like a telecommunications tower at one point as I was watching the live video stream on my tablet, tracking the tweets on the Rudaí 23 website on my laptop and tweeting from my phone! It was a good way to have a group discussion about how the participants are finding the course and the viewer tweets were heartening as they touched on the challenge involved in completing the blogs each week. I felt reconnected with the course as the event reminded me about the support network of other people out there taking part in Rudaí 23. It was good to hear the moderator side of the process from Wayne and Stephanie too and hear that each blog is being read by at least one person!