Beyond Method #12: Last dance

Aside from Blogger very stubbornly and inexplicably italicizing several of my posts, this was a very enjoyable journey. Looking back, probably my favorite discovery was from the screencasting portion, in which I discovered the free software Wink for creating Flash-based tutorials. Too cool! I definitely hope to start putting this to work soon, and will at some point be giving the browser-based screencasting offerings a shot as well.

While nothing surprised me terribly much, I really liked the organization of the course and how it showed me such a diverse array of tools, many of them free. I appreciated the use of the blog as a way of capturing my reflections through the steps and the exercises involved in each. I would definitely be interested in another discovery program like this one in the future.

I think the only drawbacks to so many free tools — and this is just an issue in general not specific to this course — is the constant need for creating new accounts and thus remembering usernames and passwords. Google has so many great and free products that I tried to really get as much out of my Google Account as I could (also a beneficial exploration in itself) before venturing to other outside products.

In terms of improving the program's format or concept, as I mentioned, I would just ask that you periodically review the content you point us toward to ensure its timeliness and relevance. Overall, the course did a great job of using recent examples and readings, which I greatly appreciated, but there are occasional instances when a reading or video felt somewhat dated, even if it was just from a few years ago. Technology changes so quickly. Just from my own experience Step #2, the customizable start pages, felt weirdly clunky and old-fashioned, as if we've moved on from such things. The rest, however, was spot-on. Thanks for putting the course together.

Photo by The Intrepid Traveler available through a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Beyond Method #11: Survey Says ... !

My experience with online survey tools has primarily been as a recent graduate student. Typically we'd get an email through our school listserv with a link pointing us toward the survey (most often at Survey Monkey.

For one of my library school courses, I was part of a group project that even crafted our own survey for research purposes. I can't quite remember but we used either Survey Monkey or Qualtrics. It was a really interesting process — something we, in fact, studied in the course itself — putting the survey together, taking great care with the wording, the order and the number of questions. It was a very good learning experience.

As for how MMPL surveys its patrons ... I believe it's the old-fashioned way, with focus groups and paper surveys. But I could definitely see us turning to online surveys, particularly since we've gotten a Facebook page recently in direct reaction to how many of our patrons are online, on Facebook. In fact, Facebook would be a great way to promote the survey. I'm not yet sold on audience survey tools like Poll Everywhere in the specific case of my patrons yet. Poll Everywhere requires audience members have a cell phone with texting capability, which assumes that the audience members are comfortable texting. If they don't have a cell phone, it requires audience members have access to a computer with an Internet connection in order to go the Poll Everywhere website to log their response.

The context I see us using the survey would most likely be in our computer classes — but that, in itself, would be a Catch-22, as these classes are designed to teach our patrons basic technology skills, the very skills they need to respond to the survey. So at this point I don't see the real-time audience surveys as playing a part in what we do, but that definitely doesn't rule it out for the future.

Photo by hfabulous available through a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Beyond Method #10: Meet You Online

I've used web conferencing tools in the past for continuing education as well as remote technical support. Both cases used WebEx. I appreciate the ability to incorporate video, audio (either by streamed feeds or by phone) and desktop sharing through these tools. This is one area I'm not too well-versed on, as it just hasn't come up that often in my professional life. But I can see that slowly changing as video phones and programs like the iPhone's FaceTime become more commonplace.

At present however, we're not using at the library. And I actually don't know if at this point it would be a wise investment of our time. Very generally speaking, many of our patrons are learning the basics of computer usage. I'd really like to focus on bolstering these skills — basic Internet browsing, searching, word processing, etc. — before moving onto something like web communication. It's not that it's frivolous, it's just that ensuring they have these foundational abilities is more critical.

They need to know how to type up a resume, how to search for jobs or go to government or utility websites. This is knowledge that effects their day-to-day well-being. That will require a fair amount of time, I think. However, once we've passed that hurdle, then we can start opening their eyes up to what else technology has to offer them, whether it's social networking, blogging, or web-based communication like chat and video conferencing.

But the use of tools like Skype and Google Video are fabulous ways of bringing the outside world into our library, particularly when budgets are tight and gas is expensive. Authors and experts are just one source of programming. We can use it, for example, for cultural exchanges, connecting our young patrons with perhaps patrons on the other side of the world.

Photo by acroamatic available through a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Beyond Method #9: Tell a digital story

I wouldn't consider myself a videographer but I have done my fair share of videos in the past for a variety of different things. It's a fun medium. Since coming to Moore Memorial Public Library, I've been trying to rejuvenate the MMPL YouTube channel. The programming staff all pitch in with capturing photos and videos of our events. we don't have video cameras; we just use the video function on the library's point-and-shoot cameras. As a result, the resultant videos often are a mix of video and photos. The challenge is getting consent forms signed to show the faces of the people at the events. As a result, we often shoot without faces showing because we don't know who we'll get forms from, if any at all.

To put this slideshow together, I used a common free tools found on just about any PC with Windows: Windows Movie Maker. It's not fancy, but it gets the job done. I pulled a few of the photos we've shot over the summer, added some transitions and took advantage of some Creative Commons music from DigCCmixter. Then I put some titles on top of the images and at the beginning and ending. I exported it as a WMV file and then threw it into my Google Docs, which now makes it super-easy to embed video files into your blog.

The execution of the slideshow went smoothly because it was a simple idea with not too many parts. The most recent video I shot of our teen program Minute to Win It was a bit harder because there were so many activities and so many kids involved. I overshoot for footage and then try to be judicious in what I put in the final product. Like a written story, every piece has to have a purpose; it has to justify being in the end result.

One day I'd like to do more complicated stuff that involves narration, but in the meantime, I'm content to do relatively simple works. I hope to continue and expand our use of video with the library. Our patrons gravitate a great deal toward video; I see them signing up for computers all day to check out YouTube videos, among other things. Video provides another opportunity to reach them, tell our story and promote what we have to offer them.

Music: "Test Drive" by Zapac is available through a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 3.0 license.