Rudaí 23 #thing21: Communication using Infographics

I've been looking forward to this task for a while as I have seen infographs used to great effect by information professionals at library events to discuss their career development and by libraries to promote the great work they're doing. The best infographs appear deceptively simple however, so having the building blocks to create visually arresting infographs which communicate library-related information clearly will be hugely beneficial to me and to the libraries I work in. Laura Connaughton, Assistant Librarian in the John Paul II library in Maynooth was winner of best poster at the A&SL annual conference 2015 for her striking infographic poster Continuing professional development in Librarianship. I saw her using this poster to enhance her presentation about her application for an LAI Associateship at the Developing as a Professional: Attaining a Library Association of Ireland Award seminar in November 2014. It's also worth looking at her Poster presentations that get noticed slides on slideshare, which give great tips on how to create effective posters, including the use of infographics.

As part of Rudaí 23 I also discovered Public Libraries 2020 and their advocacy campaign to raise awareness about the stellar work being done by the 65,000 public libraries throughout Europe to empower individuals, build stronger communities and change lives. This effective infographic on their website gives a striking snapshot of the issues affecting European citizens today and demonstrates how public libraries are addressing these issues and improving the lives of their users.

Public Libraries 2020 infographs

NLI infographic

I think that infographics are a visually striking way to communicate a message or educate audiences about a complicated topic in an engaging and easily digestible way. Infographs can be used in conjunction with Powerpoint and Excel too, so they have the potential to add a new dynamic element to library presentations if added to slides. They also have the potential to be more effective than Powerpoint or Excel for designing posters because they're more visually focused and the templates have already been designed for you, you just need to add your own information to them. As pointed out in the Do-it-yourself guide to infographics, a well designed infograph is more engaging than written media and is highly shareable if it grabs the attention of users. Creating eye-catching infographics which promote your library or educate your users could work really well on Twitter - catch the imagination of your followers and their retweets of your infograph could attract more followers to your library's Twitter account and promote your services. This infograph by the National Library of Ireland was based on findings from their 2013 Annual Review. It was a clever way to promote their visitor numbers, exhibitions, social media accounts and acquisitions and demonstrated their value effectively.

I enjoyed experimenting with the creation of an infograph using Easel.ly. I used the statistics gathered last year for the distance service the library provides to part-time, online and in-service students to populate it. Though straightforward enough to create, there were some aspects of its design that required a bit of figuring out and even this basic design took me two hours to complete. I concentrated on keeping the infograph simple while at the same time clearly communicating the types of assistance available through the service and the number of students supported by the service in the previous academic year. The infograph could be used during a presentation to incoming distance students next year, or could be tweeted out through the library's Twitter account to communicate the value of the service to followers. It will take practise to get the image, text and design balance right in future infographs as well as ensuring that the content is relevant to the audience and gets the intended message across clearly and simply. It's a skill that I'll enjoy developing for use in presentations, posters and in the library's social media accounts to educate readers on educational topics and to promote the value of the library.

Rudaí 23 #thing20: Presentable Presentations

Designing and delivering presentations to student groups has been a central part of my role over the last few months. I started working in the information and research team in an academic library in May and from July on the focus of the team was planning the library inductions which were taking place in September. While some of the groups we were inducting were large groups of 200+ students, there were also smaller group inductions to be given to student groups studying specific courses. I run the distance service in the library, which supports students taking part-time, online or in-service courses. The course coordinator asked me to introduce myself to a group of 30 distance students as their point of contact in the library, followed by a presentation with an emphasis on library resources relevant to their needs. She also requested a copy of the Powerpoint slides I used during the presentation so that she could email them on to the students afterwards. I'll focus on my planning and delivery of this presentation for this task today.

Distance students are primarily based off-campus so the presentation needed to focus on accessing the library's e-resources and online services, requesting print books and articles from home and needed to teach the students how to manage their library accounts. We had developed a master template and presentation script for our September 2015 student inductions which covered everything students needed to know about the library in 25 minutes, so I used this as the basis for the distance service presentation. I had to think carefully about what was relevant to this group and edit down the slides explaining how to find books on the shelf, for example - it would be the virtual rather than the physical library that the distance students would be primarily using.

When creating new slides for this student group, I worked with the format already laid out in the master slides so they would look uniform. I added more slides concentrating on the online services available on the library's website - the online tutorials and guides and the subject resources pages. With the larger groups we had only 25 minutes for the presentation followed by a treasure hunt aimed at familiarising students with the library. With this smaller group, I would have 40 minutes to introduce the students to ebooks, ejournals and online databases and would have time to demonstrate how to access these resources on the website, rather than just showing them slides and directing them towards the online guides. We would have more time for any questions that might arise during the presentation too, so I was careful to build the time needed for demonstrations and questions into the presentations. Generally, when giving demonstrations of the library website to students I minimize the amount of text on the slides and concentrate on showing students how to access e-resources step-by-step. In this case I was conscious that the slides would be shared with the students after the presentation so I made sure there was sufficient text in the slides to jog their memories later on. I added two further slides to the original master templates which focused solely on the distance service.

Finally, I delivered the presentation to the group of thirty distance students in a large lecture hall situated on the ground floor of the library. I had given multiple library inductions at this stage but these had all been done with larger groups and two members of the team had given the presentations, taking half of the content each. I would be giving this presentation myself, so I practised it carefully beforehand to make sure that I could answer any questions that students might ask and timed the presentation to make sure that I covered all the content within the allotted time. Importantly, I set up the presentation half an hour before it was due to begin to make sure I was able to access the slides in Google Drive, that the projector, microphone and room lights were working and that wi-fi was set up in the room. I felt that the demonstrations of the library website and of how to access e-resources worked very well. This was the content that would be most relevant to the distance students and it's always heartening to see students taking notes! I felt that a smaller room might have worked better than the large lecture theatre for this smaller group, however. Though the students sat up towards the front of the lecture hall, I feel that perhaps a smaller room would have been a better choice to put the students at their ease quicker. They were happy to ask questions and I was glad I had investigated any issues I was unsure of myself beforehand so that there were no questions that took me by surprise.

I felt that the presentation went well because of the amount of planning that had gone into it beforehand. It was crucial that I had adapted the content to the distance service students, making the material relevant to them. Practicing the presentation beforehand was key too, as switching from slides to demonstrations of the website has to be done smoothly or there's a chance you will get flustered and your concentration will falter. Being familiar with the distance service information was also important - there had been some changes to the distance service loan rules for example and it was important to be able to explain these to students. If I could change anything about the presentation it would be to book a room more suited to a smaller group, rather than the large lecture theatre I chose. Finally, just being confident about the content of the presentation came across in its delivery. The less reading from slides and more eye contact with students you manage the better and I felt that that helped to build rapport with the students in a short amount of time.

Here is the link to the presentation - because I have a hotmail account I was able to use 'Onedrive' to upload the presentation, make it public and generate a link to it that others could access. It took a little time to work out how to do that so others might appreciate this how-to link.

Rudaí 23 #thing19: Intellectual Property and Copyright Laws

Flickr CC Photo by Mike Seyfang

I've come across issues surrounding intellectual property and copyright laws at various times during the course of my library experience. The first time I became fully aware of copyright legislation and its complexity was during the MLIS in UCD. An assignment involving the investigation of copyright restrictions in Ireland caused heated debates in the class and resulted in widely differing answers, depending on how the legislation had been interpreted by each of us. My next experience of copyright laws occurred when I was writing blogs for the IFI. I conferred carefully with the head of the Irish Film Archive to make sure that any film stills I used in the blogs were covered by fair dealing provisions. All images had to be accompanied by an acknowledgement identifying the author and title of the work, as well as the date the material had been copyrighted. To be honest, it seemed the more I learned about copyright laws the less I understood so I looked forward to learning more about it for this task. 

When writing the Rudaí 23 blogs, I have used images from Flickr, basing the attribution I gave the images on best practice when blogging as outlined in The Daring Librarian post highlighted in thing 6. I have given attribution to the creator of the image by adding text or a caption to the picture itself but I understand now that this isn't going far enough, as outlined in the Creative Commons attribution guidelines. I also need to link back to the creator's website where possible, include the original title of the image and the type of creative commons license involved. Realistically then I need to add a credits and references list at the end of each blog post which gives this information to readers. I checked back on my blog posts and discovered that I had modified an image I had used without identifying my changes, so I will need to edit that attribution. It was valuable to have Public Domain material defined clearly as well as the various Creative Commons licences. When using Flickr to source images from now on I will filter the images by licence type, depending on whether I want to modify the image or not, or in what context I'll be using it. I used Pixabay for the first time for this task to source the Public Domain picture below. Though it clearly states on Pixabay that under the CC0 Public Domain license no attribution is necessary for this image I've added the attribution information anyway for the purpose of this task. It'll be great to have a resource other than Flickr to draw from when I am sourcing pictures in the future.

Pixabay Public Domain photo by geralt

Another issue that this task has raised for me is that of making sure that I am complying with the social media policies of the various organisations I work and volunteer for. In my Blogger, LinkedIn and about.me accounts I identify myself as working for St. Patrick's College and Fingal County Council and as volunteering for the Irish Film Institute. The social media policies of the various organisations state that a disclaimer should be added to any personal social media accounts in which you identify yourself as an employee of the organisation. This makes it clear that any views expressed by you are personal views and do not reflect those of the organisation. I have added this disclaimer to my Blogger profile and will do the same with any of my remaining social media accounts in which I identify my employer.

Credits and References

"Copyright Symbols" by Mike Seyfang is licensed under CC BY 2.0 

"Share it don't be a Scrooge" by geralt is licensed under CC0 1.0 

Rudaí 23 #thing18: Visual Marketing with Photos

I was pointed towards the amazing photographic resource that is Flickr by the Daring Librarian  and since then I've discovered how invaluable it is for finding the perfect creative commons photos for use in tweets and presentations. I hadn't actually opened a personal account myself so this week I pushed myself beyond my reluctance to open yet another email account (six and counting) and signed up to Yahoo. I can't argue with the fact that over 10 billion images have been shared on Flickr and I know it's an account I will actually use.

Flickr CC image from The British Library Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book by Christina Rossetti

I signed up for a Flickr account but had to do so through the app on my phone as I kept on getting a Yahoo error message when I tried to sign up using my laptop. I explored the collections of the British Library and finally chose this frankly terrifying image from their Children's Book Illustrations album (which could just as easily have been filed in their Halloween-themed Ghosts & Ghoulish scenes album if you ask me).

I then opened an Instagram account which thankfully I could do with one of my existing Gmail accounts. I explored a few different accounts and finally settled on two pictures to comment on, one from New York Public Library and the second from the National Library of Ireland. NYPL seems to have mastered the art of using social media to market its collections and events though it's interesting to note that their Flickr account has 8.5k followers while their Instagram account has over 92k followers. The National Library of Ireland uses hashtags well to curate their posts though personally I'd prefer to see more pictures from their collections up rather than pictures of the building itself. (Though admittedly the building is stunning). I commented using the Instagram app and then from my PC and both methods were straightforward. I was surprised that there was no vetting process in place in the way that, for example, comments on the Blogger posts have to be approved before they're published. I investigated a little and comments can be deleted by the account holder after they're posted and there is a 'report abuse' option for the photos too that alerts the account holder to inappropriate user comments.

Images from the British Library and National Library of Ireland Instagram accounts

Thinking about how Flickr and Instagram could be used in the libraries I work in, I looked first of all at one of the albums in the Dublin City Libraries Flickr albums, which focuses on the North Strand bombings in Dublin in 1941. With over 9,000 views for an album of 56 photographs I thought about how much interest could be generated around the special collections in St. Patrick's College, particularly in the build up to the centenaries of the 1916 Rising, the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. Letters written by Patrick Pearse, accounts of Dan Breen's escape from British forces through the grounds of St. Patrick's College and the works of writer and activist Agnes O'Farrelly could all be promoted through the library's Flickr account. Flickr would be a great way to highlight the events in the library too, the library recently hosted Culture night and posting pictures up from the night and getting visitors to post theirs would be a great way to promote the event and engage with users. I really liked the idea that copyright-free images could be put up on Flickr for use in lesson plans - it would be great to be able to promote Flickr as a resource to students during library inductions and consultations.

Unknown actor (right) in Three Kisses copyright Paramount Studios 1956.

I currently volunteer in the Tiernan McBride library in the IFI Irish Film Archive where I have come across stills from films where an actor is unidentified in the picture. Asking users to help in tracking down the identity of the actor through user comments and user tagging would be a great way to engage with users and promote the other images in the collection. Some early films in the collection are now emerging from copyright restrictions so contributing in 'The Commons' project would be a great way for the Irish Film Archive to showcase the thousands of stills in their collection and to further engage with their users.

Instagram could be another platform on which St. Patrick's College could promote their special collections. I like the idea of posting images from the special collections up on Instagram once a month using a hashtag to link them together. A page from the 1685 Bedell Bible for instance, or the Jack B. Yeats illustrated Irish language edition of 'The Turf-Cutter's Donkey' by Patricia Lynch could generate a lot of interest, especially if promoted through the library's other social media accounts simultaneously. New books could be promoted too - the library's recent acquisition of the Booker Prize shortlist and winner, for example. We promoted those on the library's twitter account, but why not on the library's Flickr, Instagram and Pinterest accounts too?

In terms of using either account to promote and curate the collections of the libraries I work in, I personally prefer Flickr. I like that it gives you the ability to collect images into themes and topics using albums. I think this would make most sense in terms of promoting specific collections and events and putting together pictures of albums for use in lesson plans. Instagram images can be linked using hashtags but not all of the organisations I explored used these consistently. If more than one person was running an Instagram account there would need to be clear communication about the use of particular hashtags as well as which keywords to use when tagging the pictures - this goes for Flickr too. 

Rudaí 23 #thing17: Deeper reflection

In today's post, I will use the reflective practice methods outlined in this task to cast a critical eye over a library tutorial I carried out recently. I'll record the process of creating and presenting the tutorial, examine my feelings about the session and use what I've learned to improve upon the next tutorial. This reflective blog is a timely one for me as I presented my first Refworks tutorial to a group of first year students this week in a computer lab setting. Up until now, Refworks sessions have been given on a one-to-one basis by the library information team, so this was a new departure for the library.

Setting the scene using the Gibbs model, I created a Refworks tutorial for two groups of first year students. I was anxious to plan for the session as carefully as possible because it was a new situation for the team and future similar sessions would be shaped by this one. Part of the remit of the information team I work in is to build positive collaborative relationships with the academic teaching staff within the college, so I consulted the course coordinator about the content of the tutorial. I was aware that the session needed to go well so that this particular member of staff would continue being an advocate of our library service. Planning and carrying out sessions like these successfully is an essential part of what I do and each well-designed and effectively presented class contributes to my own CPD and to the development and reputation of the information service in the library.

I booked the computer lab three weeks in advance of the class and went through the IT set up of the room with a member of the IT staff a week beforehand. I based the tutorial on one-to-one sessions the information team had been giving to staff and students, but mainly to academics. I devised a step-by-step worksheet which students could work along with on the college PCs as I demonstrated the steps on two projection screens in the lab. At the end of each step, I asked the students to raise their hands if they had any questions or had run into difficulties and approached and advised them if they did.

I was concerned that I didn't have a colleague working with me in the class to act as a facilitator. If I was continually stopping and starting the class to answer the students' questions would that interrupt the flow of the session? Would the students who didn't need help become bored and lose interest in the class? As the class progressed, I did indeed feel that a facilitator would have been a useful addition to the experience. I was able to help the students with their questions, using the difficulties they encountered to add to my demonstrations in the class, therefore helping students who were having the same problem. I feel that next time I run a similar class, however, a facilitator would be of great benefit to help answer student questions quickly, without disrupting the remainder of the class. It would also be convenient to have a facilitator who could jot down the questions students were asking so this information could be used to inform the next tutorial.

I'm very familiar with the Refworks package, but there were two questions I was asked in the class which I didn't have immediate answers to. It would have been helpful to have a facilitator there at this point who also had Refworks expertise who might have been able to answer the students' questions on the spot. I took the students' details to investigate the two issues and was able to send one of them an answer the next day, promising the second student that I was following their query up. I learned something important from this - you can't anticipate all the questions that you will be asked in a session no matter how prepared you are. To have a second colleague there as support is of benefit but it's equally as important to be able to field unexpected questions and get back to the students with the answers as soon as possible. This will build a relationship of trust with the students that will encourage them to attend future library training sessions or consult the information service if they have queries on other topics.

I found that the practical elements of the class worked really well as students worked along with the worksheets and demonstrations. Another lesson I learned was that some of the content of the tutorial could have been condensed as it was more relevant to the one-to-one academic sessions used with staff. I noticed that the students grew distracted during the more theoretical elements of the session so for the next session I will use more practical examples instead. This will keep students engaged and help them practise what they've learned. I did a short exercise at the end of this session but feel this could be expanded to help the students retain what they learn during the session. During one of my demonstrations I noticed that some of the students looked confused and I realised that I was speaking quite quickly. I went over the demonstration again and spoke at a slower pace for the rest of the session, checking after each step that the students understood my instructions and watching their body language carefully to verify that.

If I had to repeat this tutorial, I would ask a colleague with a good knowledge of Refworks to facilitate the session. They would be able to assist in answering the students' questions and they would be able to make notes during the class which we could use to improve future sessions. I would also analyse the content of the session further based on the estimated knowledge base of the class, the college course they were undertaking and the relevance of the content to the students' requirements. By using an article supplied by the course lecturer I was able to make the content of the tutorial relevant to the students but there was content that could have been condensed or removed from the tutorial. I feel that I prepared for the session well and established a good rapport with the students, that it was important that they had a worksheet they could take away with them and use at home to practise with. I learned that you can't plan for every situation and question, that the important thing is to establish a good relationship with the students and get back to them with any questions you can't answer in class.

I feel overall that the session went well and that the students had a good understanding of Refworks by the end of the class. I built a good rapport with the students and feel that they are now more likely to come to the information team with any research questions they have. I made contacts with members of IT who I will no doubt be consulting for future sessions and built upon the positive relationship I already had with the course lecturer. As this was a new situation because it was a group tutorial set in a computer lab I had to deal with a certain level of anxiety. I was able to draw on my experience of giving group presentations and on my knowledge of Refworks to make it a positive experience and a valuable session for the students. By coming across as approachable and helpful, the tutorial acted as an advertisement for the information service in the library.

One of the main things I learned was not to try to cover too much ground in one session - it's just not possible to introduce a class to every aspect of Refworks in one hour. In the future I will need to focus on what is essential to the learning requirements of a particular group. By investigating what upcoming assignments they have I can design tutorials for each class and show students where they can get more information if they need it. This will encourage them to explore the online Refworks supports available to them or to come to the information office for an individual consultation if they need more help.

Now I can discuss what I've learned with the information team and use this knowledge to improve the next Refworks session. I'll be able to put together a template for designing similar sessions which will benefit the information service as a whole. This is a good for me personally and professionally, improving my own learning and advancing my professional development as well as being of benefit to the information team. This reflective exercise has given me the ability to describe and evaluate my planning for the session and improve my self-awareness of my performance in class and has ultimately given me the confidence to plan and deliver a stronger tutorial when I give the class again.

Rudaí 23 #thing16: Collaboration Tools

The focus for this week's thing was collaboration tools and I was happy to discover that I already had some experience with one of them, Google Drive. We currently use Google Drive in work to share folders and documents and it's a great way to access documents remotely. This Rudaí 23 introduction to creating and editing Google Docs was useful however, as I generally create documents in Word and save these to Google Drive, rather than creating documents from scratch in Google Drive itself. Following the instructions I was able to create a new document and a new folder and share the document I created with another user - who also happens to be me as I currently have several separate email accounts on the go!

When I checked to see if any documents had been shared with me I got a nice blast from the past to see a shared document there from my time spent volunteering in the National Library of Ireland in 2011. I was able to easily make a copy of that document and add it to my own folders in Google Drive. The task I chose to complete this week was adding a comment to the Rudaí 23 public Google Doc and I was happy I went with that one because of the great contributions made by the other Rudaí 23 participants. I was able to add my comment easily while enjoying the comments, jokes and pictures posted up by other people doing the course.

I've been using Google Drive in work over the past five months and I generally find it a really useful way to search and access shared library documents quickly and easily. I've used it to collaborate in creating a document a few times but on one occasion found that the changes I made and saved in my document weren't saved once my colleague had made her own changes and saved her document. This may have been because we were working from a Word document saved in the Drive rather than using a Google document so from now on I'll use Google Docs for this kind of collaborative editing.

I also found Dropbox a good tool for collaboration when I was completing the MLIS in UCD. My capstone group used it for our thesis project and it was a great to be able to work from home and add to our own sections of the thesis remotely. We also used it in the Tiernan MacBride library in the IFI to share documents and images with researchers so it's a versatile tool. When using Google Drive, you need to have a Google account to access and edit documents and people are sometimes reluctant to sign up to yet another provider. With Dropbox you can access and edit documents through your own Dropbox account, but you can also share links and documents with users who don't have an account.

Rudaí 23 #thing15: Championing libraries

As part of this week's thing I had a look at some of the advocacy campaigns listed in the Rudaí post.

The first one I looked at was the Public Libraries 2020 libraries change lives campaign. I thought their YouTube video gave a simple overview of the ways that public libraries can help users learn learn new skills, develop their interests and build relationships with others. At the same time they were able to communicate the support that 65,0000 public libraries throughout Europe give to over 100 million people each year, helping to combat unemployment and illiteracy and strengthening links within local communities. The Public Libraries 2020 website itself effectively mixes facts and figures together with personal testimonies to demonstrate the great value of public libraries. I also discovered their @LibrariesEU Twitter account which promotes current library campaigns and debates and gives links to various library groups and resources throughout Europe.

Images from the Public Libraries 2020 website and @LibrariesEU twitter account

The second campaign I looked at was I Freakin Love Libraries on Tumblr. I haven't had much experience with Tumblr, but it's basically a social networking website in the form of a short-form blog that users can post content on. Librarians from around the world are encouraged to post inspirational library-related quotes, unique library services they provide or simply funny pictures from their libraries on the blog. Academic, public and specialist libraries have contributed to the site and it is an interesting mix of visuals and information that provides a fun but effective way for librarians to demonstrate the worth of their own libraries and to engage with other librarians globally. I particularly liked this article about the way Broome Public Library is using Lego to improve literacy and comprehension in young children.

The final advocacy campaign I investigated was the Not Your Average Library Instagram account run by Cedar Rapids Public Library to promote the services they provide and to make connections with their users. The pictures posted on the site show various craft and chess groups at work and play and highlight particular collections and unique spaces in the library. They also serve to introduce the librarians themselves to users and they are pictured engaging with users or being ready and available to answer user queries. There is a genuine affection communicated towards the library from users which not only highlights the value of the library but serves to entice potential users into the library building.

In the library profession, advocacy of the services we provide and learning opportunities we afford our users is an essential part of what we do. Many public and academic libraries are being challenged to do more with less so it’s vital that we take every opportunity to convey the value of our libraries to our communities.

My immediate response to the question ‘have you ever been involved in an advocacy campaign?' was ‘nope.’ Thinking about advocacy differently now I see the question as being ‘have you ever shared your passion about libraries with others?' In Fingal’s public libraries, I promote the library's eResources to users, friends and anyone who’ll listen. Membership gives you FREE access to eBooks, audio books and online courses I say, so what are you waiting for? I started a blog highlighting the collections in the Irish Film Archive. Many of the collections can't be searched online, so it has been a way to raise awareness about the information available to researchers. In the Cregan library, I am part of a team which promotes the library services available to staff and students. Using Twitter and Facebook we’ve been able to highlight library events and services and connect with different academic, educational and cultural organisations.

There are different ways to gauge the effectiveness of an advocacy campaign. If it involves sites like Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter then the amount of followers you have and the level of engagement you achieve with your users can be an effective way to measure the success of your campaign. Simply asking users how they heard about a particular service can inform you about how successful a poster, word-of-mouth or Facebook campaign has been. If it’s an event you have run to promote the library, how many people attended, what feedback did they give, can you track their comments on social media to gauge how successful it was? The Cregan library recently took part in Culture Night and in the weeks leading up to the event we promoted it through social media, word-of-mouth and through the leafleting of local houses. With over 300 visitors from the local community and great interaction on Twitter we were able to pronounce the night a resounding success and a member of the library team promoted that success further on social media. 

When advocating for your library, whether you are looking to share your enthusiasm about its collections and services, to foster collaborative opportunities or to increase user numbers, a positive message clearly and effectively communicated can only have a beneficial impact on the library you’re working in.