Keyboard Shortcuts

I was teaching a beginner’s Excel class this morning that finished a little early.  So I decided why not just toss out a bit about keyboard short-cuts.  I adore teaching keyboard shortcuts!  They are these little gems that instantly cement the teacher’s role as expert.  I wrote about how I need to find a way to convince my students that they can learn more than they think they can by taking advanced classes in using the Internet, and I’m wondering if I put little things like “you can learn how to use the computer more effectively very easily if you go to an expert” in the back of their brains, it might slowly make a difference.

The Mystery of Excel’s Popularity

Every month I teach between 3 and 4 computer classes for the public.  Usually one will be on mouse skills, and then the rest rotate between email, Word, internet basics, job searching and Excel.  For some reason, the Excel classes are always packed.  I mean, 9 people signed up and 5 on the wait list.  No other class brings in more than 3 people.  Moreover, whereas people usually can’t remember to show up for classes they signed up for, the Excel students will sign up for a 3-week course and show up early to all the sessions.  This has always surprised me.  I mean, I could understand people wanting an Excel class so they can put it on their resumes, but if that’s their motivation, why aren’t they also coming to the job searching class?  Of the ill-fated “Format Your Resume in Word” class that bombed? 

I think I may have figured it out last night while lying awake in bed.  Excel seems hard.  It’s a program that looks different than anything else.  When you open it up, it’s just a sea of boxes and strange-looking icons.  Even to a seasoned pro like me, it can sometimes be intimidating.  Most of the other things we teach seem easy.  For example, I tried teaching an advanced Google class, but everyone assumes searchign Google is easy and they don’t need a class in it.  What’s frustrating about this reasoning, though, is that there is so much about the internet, about search engines and about 2.0 services that most of our patrons probably don’t know, and could use some help with.  So how do I convince them that the internet isn’t as easy as it seems?  That you can get as much out of an advanced internet class as you can out of a beginning Excel class?

Gaming in Libraries

A few weeks ago, I attended a workshop at MPOW called “Gaming and the New Literacy”, presented by Beth Galloway.  I was one of the very, very few people representing an Adult Services department at this training; all but two or three of the attendees were YS or YA librarians.  Bringing an adult-centric viewpoint to a gaming training workshop isn’t as crazy as it sounds however as the average age of gamers is 33.  There has been a lot of talk about attracting the elusive 18-29 year-olds to the library, and adding games to the collection might be a good start.  Many libraries have had a lot of success attracting teens to the library with gaming tournaments, but only a smattering of libraries (in fact, I can only think of AADL) are offering gaming programs for adults.  Marketing adult programming my library’s town has historically been difficult, but advertising a gaming program in groceries stores, laundry mats, local game stores and in online forums such as www.meetup.com might have some success in reaching the group of adults who traditionally do not use the library (most studies indicate patrons use the library up until college, and then do not return until they have children of their own).  Galloway gave tremendously practical advice about running a gaming program for teens (have other games set up for those waiting their turn with the console, have rules set up ahead of time and designate youself the referee, let the kids manage rotating turns as they’ll all willingly cooperate and help one another, etc); all the same rules would apply to adults. 

What particularly struck me about Galloway’s presentation was the assertion that the Gaming Generation is more open to failure.  This is a sweeping generalization, to be sure, but this general concept can help those of us who teach computer classes understand why sometimes older patrons are not as willing to “play” with computers.  A gamer (even someone like me who played video games as a wee bairn, but stopped before high school) is used to hitting buttons and not getting the desired result; in that situation, a gamer would merely try hitting another button.  Removing the fear of computers, and getting learners to accept playing as a mode of getting comfortable with the computer, the mouse, and the internet are the biggest challenges facing librarians who work with training the public on computers.  Perhaps adding game playing to public computer classes might be a way to increase confidence and to encourage new computer users to turn that fear into fun. 

On a somewhat related note, studies show that seniors who routinely exercise their brains have better mental health.  There are a number of video games (offered in online, PC, console or handheld forms) that are based on mental puzzles, such as Sudoku.  Perhaps a public computer class, offered in conjunction with the Senior Health Fair, could highlight these types of games as a way to stay mentally active while having fun.

On a related, but not work-related note, I finally got to try my hand at Guitar Hero — good grief but that game is far more entertaining that it has any right to be!  My only problem is I can’t stand the songs, so I play it muted with Baby Bird or Red House Painters playing on my stereo.  I suspect this isn’t helping my score improve, but at least I don’t have “I Want to be Sedated” stuck in my head!

Thoughts on Library 2.0

I haven’t been posting much here since I’ve technically “completed the challenge”.  I’ve covered all of the specific tasks, but somehow I don’t feel like I’ve finished anything.  I’m guessing this is because (at the risk of sounding really corny) I’m not ready to stop learning!  But since the time-frame for the challenge is coming to a close, I thought I’d post one final CJRLC Tech Challenge post about how I feel about Library 2.0. 

Stephen Abram wrote in his article “Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and Librarian 2.0: Preparing for the 2.0 World”:

 Librarian 2.0 understands end users deeply in terms of their goals and aspirations, workflows, social and content needs, and more.  Librarian 2.0 is where the user is, when the user is there. 

I view Library 2.0 is like the reference interview for all of the library’s services.  Just the way you can’t really provide great reference service without having some dialogue about the information need, libraries can’t provide what their patrons want without a conversation.  And library 2.0 is that conversation.  Instead of focusing on the user’s information needs when they come into the library and walk up to the reference desk, we need to focus on how they’re getting their information in the first place.  We need to focus on including them in the decisions we make about how we access and distribute the information that fills their needs. 

Web 2.0 is all about interaction and sharing.  Library work is all about interacting with patrons and sharing information.   The two are a natural match!  Moreover, librarians are by nature problem solvers.  We get the problem of hunting down information and revel in finding just the right source to answer that question.  So facing a problem like drastic change in how information is interacted with and shared shouldn’t be a daunting prospect to thosepassionate about librarywork.  (Librarians are also helpers by nature; anyone who is daunted needs only to find a colleague who’s interested in Library 2.0 to lend a helping hand!)

Again, if we approach the changes facing our profession using the same principles we use every day for reference interviews, I think this Library 2.0 thing can put into place a foundation for making libraries essential parts of users lives in the ever-changing information landscape.

Teaching 2.0

One of the tasks for the CJRLC Tech Challenge is to teach some 2.0-ish stuff to someone else.  In 2 weeks I’ll be teaching several staff members at MPOW about blogging, but in the meantime I thought I’d write about some more impromptu teaching I did not long ago.  I was happily minding my own business when a good friend said, “Hey, you know about this 2.0 stuff and I don’t, so can you teach me all you know?”  Wha-huh?!?  Of course I can!  You don’t need to ask me twice!

Rather than teaching her all I know in one sitting, I decided the best tactic would be to consider what her information seeking/online behaviors are.  Since she likes to do all kinds of independent research on all kinds of topics, I thought it would make sense to show her del.icio.us and to get her set up with an RSS reader.  I think both impressed her quite a bit, perhaps the RSS reader more so.  (As an aside, in the on-going search for the perfect RSS reader, I’ve since joined the ranks of people flocking to Google Reader.)  Del.icio.us, I think, requires one to actually use it for a few days to truly understand it’s usefulness.

Anyway, I think that teaching 2.0 is on the one had really easy — the sites are designed to have a low learning curve and usually have pretty obvious and intuitive navigation — but the other, harder than I thought — there’s so much to show off, newbies can be overwhelmed.  One of the things that worked in teaching one-on-one wasletting the student play around and click on the things that caught her attention.  Sometimes following the user’s preferred pattern for exploring a site is the best way for them to get comfortable using the site.  I’m not sure this could be applied to a large class setting (like the ones I usually teach in our 9-person computer lab), although maybe having ten minutes of play-time before getting down to the nitty-gritty might be fun (although it also might put students who are already uncomfortable using computers further ill at ease). 

The other thing that worked was tailoring the lessons to the student’s interests.  Showing my friend that she could subscribe to blogs that specifically meet her research needs and showing how she could share her del.icio.us tags with her research buddies spread across the county (and the world) was a better hook to get her interested, than showing her how I subscribe to sports blogs.  Again, this works better teaching one-on-one, but in a public class, it might be nice to come armed with some blogs on variety of subjects to get each student subscribed to a blog they might have some vested interest in going back to their RSS reader to read.

I can’t wait to start teaching some of these things on a broader scale through our public computer classes here at work.  I attended Janie Hermann’s CIL cybertour on teaching 2.0 in public libraries and I know I have a lot of work ahead of me to transition from teaching mouse skills every month to being able to offer fun stuff like Flickr and bloggigng, but I am so ready for this challenge! 

Cool Flickr Project

Forgive the non-library-ness of this post, but my brain is still reeling from Computers in Libraries!  I have a lot to say about CIL, but that will have to wait until I’ve gotten my mind around everything I learned.  In the meantime, I’ve been basking in the joyous glow of the NHL playoffs.  There’s a really robust community of hockey bloggers out there and the hockey tubes have been buzzing about the playoffs for weeks.  One project in particular caught my eye: The View From Your Playoff Seats at Japer’s Rink.  Readers are encouraged to take a picture of their view of the playoffs, whether it’s from right behind the goalie, or from the last row of the arena or even from the couch or the bar stool.  The result is a Flickr gallery of hockey fans celebrating their teams and their favorite sport from all over the US and Canada.  Check it out here.

I’ve seen libraries doing Flickr galleries of A Day in the Life of X Library, which seem really funny.  It also might a fun patron activity to ask them to send the library pictures of how and where they use library services: reading books in parks, watching DVDs with family and friends, attending programs, etc.  Anyway, the possibilities for using Flickr to celebrate communities by involving members of the community are almost endless!

Wish me luck…

I’m off to Computers in Libraries!  I’m completely freaking out, as this is the first major conference I’ve attended in my short 2 years as a librarian.  I’m hoping I’ll have an awesome time and that I’ll learn a ton.  I suspect I’ll have a lot to say when I get back!

Taking Netvibes for a Spin

Early on in this blog I waxed poetic about Bloglines, my trusty feed reader.  However, enough people were telling me about using other newer, better aggreagators that I started to get nervous.  Some of my subscriptions weren’t coming through — was it the site’s fault, Bloglines’s fault or my own?  I couldn’t quite tell, and got pretty good at ignoring when feeds wouldn’t come through.  But then Lifehacker kept talking up Netvibes and I decided I had to sneak a peek.

I’m sorry to say this, but I think my Bloglines account may be a thing of the past.  Netvibes is a lot like Pageflakes, an RSS-and-more site I’d seen a while ago.  While Pageflakes never caught my fancy (I think it was too soon after my love affair with Bloglines started for me to have eyes for anything else), Netvibes instantly struck a cord with me.  I think it might be the so-2.0-it-hurts design (all rounded corners and silvery hues), or it might be the endless fun of rearranging the feeds and changing colors and inserting sticky notes and to-do lists… 

There’s a lot more to Netvibes than just reading my RSS feeds.  I can see today’s weather, have searches set up and ready to go, see pictures from Flickr, view my calendar, quickly access my del.icio.us account and so on.  This is was Web 2.0 is all about — it’s easy to use, it’s fun, it’s customizable, it’s constantly being improved with new widgets and modules, and most of all, it’s really useful.  It was all the same functionality of Bloglines, but makes it prettier and more interactive.

 Never underestimate the pull of prettier and more interactive when considering appliying 2.0 principles to library services and programs…

Click! Fun with Flickr! (Part II)

I’ve had a blast fiddling around with Flickr (even though I’ve been using it for searching photos for some time, I’d never actually gotten an account [I'm not much of a picture taker] so I had no idea how much fun it is to play with!) but now it’s time to get down to business.   Why should public libraries use Filckr? 

1. It’s easy.
2. It’s organized.
3. It’s central.
4. It’s versatile.
5. It’s publicity!

1.  Flickr is, like a lot of 2.0 web tools, made with ease-of-use involved.  You don’t need to know anything about HTML or photo resolution or really anything about digital photos.  At this point, most libraries have at least one or two people who know how to get photos from the camera to the computer.  At that point, it takes just a couple of steps to upload, tag and organize the photos.  Armed with a cheat-sheet, I’m confident anyone would be able to do this.

 2.  In my experience, nothing says entropy like photos stored on a computer.  I have the world’s most fastidious folder structure for documents, but my photos?  They’re all over the place!  I’ve seen similar problems with the photos at my place of work.  Since there’s no existing structure for where to put the photos, they get loaded on random computers and saved to random disks.  Flickr makes it easy and convenient to store the photos in one place, and organizing them is made easy.

 3.  When a library posts it’s photos on Flickr, the photos can be accessed anywhere.  So this is ideal for branch libraries to foster a sense of being part of a larger entity. 

 4.  Flickr is made to be flexible and allows for really easy functionality for adding pictures to websites and blogs.  So you’re not just getting a tool that let’s you store and organize your photos; you’re also getting a tool to improve the library’s website and blog.

 5.  One of the things that seems hardest for libraries to accomplish is getting out there and being seen.  Flickr is a great publicity tool.  Check out the Flickr page for the Homer County Library:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerlibrary/sets/

Looking at those photos is obvious that the library has a lot to offer: programs, books, an energetic staff, exciting and popular activities for kids and teens, even a well-loved bookmobile.  I’ve heard it said that a picture is worth a thousand words (hee hee!), and these pictures tell a compelling story about the role the library plays in the lives of the residents of Homer County. 

(You may notice that Homer County has a Pro Flickr account.  The New User’s Guide to using Flickr linked in a previous post does a great job of explaining the differences.  Most libraries would probably want to get a Pro account, but the cost is minimal [like $20 a year].)

Click! Fun with Flickr (Part I and 1/2)

bookcase3

Originally uploaded by eleanorblogs.

In a very timely coincidence, Lifehacker had a link today to an extremely helpful new user’s guide to Flickr. Inspired, I tried playing around a little bit with my brand-spanking new Flickr account, and configured it so I could directly publish this post with a photo from my account to my blog. It was super-easy to configure and now posting photos to the my blog is a one-or-two click affair from where my photos are stored. Think how great it would be to load up all the pictures from a library program, tag them all using the batch editor (check out the user’s guide for info) and then, voila!, post them all to your library’s blog — all while using Flickr alone!

Sorry for the kind of lame post here, but half of the fun of Library 2.0 is playing around with new tools. I promise I’ll have a longer post soon about how libraries use Flickr!