LIR Social Media Lecture and Workshop - DIT Aungier St., 29/5/2013

I attended the LIR Social Media Lecture and Workshop - DIT Aungier St. this morning. The session was given by Glenn Mehta (see http://www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk/bookstore/author.aspx?authorid=303890). The following are my not so expert notes on the session, with a heavy bias on what I got out of the session. It was a very busy and informative session. Lots to think about now in relation to our retired library blog, and the possibilities for subject support. 

Main points: 

Focus of your social media activities should be engagement not follows/likes (although these are important to get the conversation started). Students have moved from being passive followers to active participants.

• Socialnomics by Erik Qualman @equalman is a leading authority in this area. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0EnhXn5boM
• Infinite Ripple by Glenn Mehta provides Irish Examples. http://www.infiniteripple.net/
• Social Media includes (not comprehensive): 
• Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, Wikis, Blogs, Google+, VLE's, YouTube etc. 
• and these create 
• Real-time Information Streams
• Discussions that can be reused to lighten customer service work loads
• Ireland seems to be 8 months behind the global trend
• Social Media has generated a fundamental shift in how we communicate, especially for the Millennial generations
• Students want information in snippets, (snip-bits) and will follow a link to further information only if they think that it is relevant from the 140 character message that you post
• Treat a post or tweet as a headline
• OTT Messaging (What's App & Viber etc.) are replacing phone based testing
• The move away from issuing students with institutional e-mail accounts, as they use social media to communicate, provides a cost saving
• c. 96% of u30's in Europe and USA have a social media account. 
• Smart phones will dominate by 2016
• 4G networks will facilitate this. (16 months or so in Ireland to this being delivered)
• Be conscious of what message you put up as it has the power to go global
• Compliments go viral but so do complaints
• Don't be afraid of negative statements, but make sure that they are responded to appropriately
• Google ranks Facebook statements
• Ask for opinions do not make instructional style statements 
• This generation resists being told what to do
• Instead use 'here's what's happening' and 'what do you think' type statements
• 1/2 the Irish population have a Facebook account
• Twitter and LinkedIn are growing fastest at the moment
• Facebook fatigue is becoming an issue (55-65 currently biggest group joining Facebook)
• Brands may disappear but social media is here to stay
• Social Media supports our inbuilt herd mentality
• Consider Subject Wiki's for collaborative learning, supports and gateways. 
• Social Media users trust their circles (this is now things go viral) 

• Strategic Uses: Remember your primary stakeholders are students 

• Inform do not instruct
• Enable your social media activities via increasing your Facebook page likes and your Twitter follows
• Target your followers with RELEVANT INFORMATION, but don't bombard them
• Think about why it is relevant to your students, and make it timely
• For example students may not feel that information about writers is of relevance to them as their aims are to pass exams and gain employment
• Use associated topics
• Use ITUNES and other Libraries resources which are relevant to your students. (You don't have to generate all the content yourself)
• Include images 
• DON'T LEAVE MORE THAN 5 DAYS BETWEEN TWEETS/POSTS
• Use tools like Tweetdeck (tweetdeck.com) and HootSuite (hootsuite.com) to manage your dissipate accounts, including scheduling tweets/posts in advance
• These apps display accounts on columns, and allow for quick browsing through content. (For example: on a pc you might see 4 columns: what you follow, when you are mentioned, messages to you, your content)
• Connect to Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ etc. all in the one place
• One person should be responsible, but more than one can generate tweets/posts
• Do not leave your accounts idle for more than 2-3 weeks. 
• Organize content for when you go on holiday in advance and schedule it to post
• Regular updates - benefits: Likes, Comments and Shares influence the algorithms used by Facebook (appear in news feeds, leads to comments  improves positioning etc) , #hashtags can influence search engine rankings
• Blog regularly, but use headline statements on twitter to inform followers, enclose a link to the full content
• 400 words is too long for the current student cohort
• Once posted, inform students of it's existence as follows
• 1 > There's a blog post about x
• 2 > Something relevant from the post (give them a reason to want to read it)
• 3> Final reminder: This is why this content will benefit you
• Do this over 2 weeks
• Regularity improves your ranking
• YouTube content is some of the most shared content out there
• Utilize your institutions stream
•  If you begin a conversation, leave it to the participants > monitor it (delete inappropriate and irrelevant content)
• Respond politely if needed, but on their level even if you have to 'resort' to text speak and abbreviation
• Too much formality is off putting especially for undergraduates, and could kill the thread. Let it grow organically
• Show humor in posts and include media (pictures, videos etc.)

• #Hashtags: use of a # allows you to follow comments as a group / community conversation 

• #hashtags are not NORMALLY subject to copyright
• Check for companies, and trademarks
• If someone if using one already, consider using something unique
• Can filter by country
• Works cross platform 
• Try hyper-linking your #hash-tags
• re-tweet (RT) credits the origin
• Make social media the main focus of you two-way communication
• At the end of all this activity you will know if you have been successful if you have increased engagement as users do want you in their social spaces
• Followers become users
• To get started consider running a competition, with a small prize, load the recording of the draw onto YouTube. This will help determine if your students are willing to engage. 
• For librarians LinkedIn should probably stay as a professional networking tool, and Facebook communication should be through a library Facebook page not a personal account. 
• Use e-mail icons on all communications to promote your accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Blog)
• Consider posting QR codes around the library routing to the library site
• Make it easy for them 
• You cannot control who likes a Facebook page
• DKIT library:example of good practice

Glenn's book "Infinite Ripple"s website also includes teaching resources, podcast, and adobe connect materials (some coming soon). The resources on www.InfiniteRipple.net contain some material that is copyright free (lecture slides and later in the summer recordings of lectures), but the lecturer copies of the eBook are obviously not copyright free!

Library Camp Ireland 25/5/2013

I attended library camp Ireland (#irelibcamp) last Saturday. I met a few new and not so new faces, but the atmosphere was energized and lots of ideas were discussed and exchanged.
The two sessions that I attended were:

Tell me the truth about MARC: proposed by John Mc Manus( @johnmac38 )

and 

The qualification is it worth it; presented by Emmett Keoghan. 

Tell me the truth about MARC:

This session proved that even 50 years after it's conception most of the profession are scared to discuss it!!! John did a mammoth task of outlining the current debate and prompting input from attendees, but most seemed reticent to participate, whether through perceived lack of familiarity with the topic, reluctance to criticize what is one of the key tools of the cataloguer's trade, or sheer panic at the implications of replacing it for any library. 

One thing is for sure, the debate needs to happen, and soon before a solution is imposed from without the discipline through inertia on our part. So well done to John for try to tease a discussion out of a clearly tramatized audience.

Topics put to the camp

The qualification is it worth it:

This was an open and frank discussion about expectations and reality within the profession and it's new members. It was outlined that the LAI are to audit SILS and DBS next year, and are looking for input into the process from members.

Discussion key points: 

• Core modules were discussed, and what they should be. 
• Concern was expressed with the perceived dumbing down of the cataloguing and classification modules, in favour of more fashionable topics, while they are still an important product of the profession. 
• Business management versus more academic topics was another key discussion. (Topics such as:project management, writing policies, how to read a spreadsheet, budget management, etc) and how best to deliver these skills. 
• The capstone project was proposed as a useful approach for combining the skills learnt during the duration of the course and exercising them in a practical environment. 
• Module variety was also discussed, in addition to the idea of having more modules with greater variety over a two year period. 
• Research methods were argued to be core to what we do, as they should give us skills to support or users information needs. 
• Work placement during the course was brought up as a possibility to be considered. 
• It was felt that copyright in and of itself could be a topic for a module on it's own. 
• Recent students would have liked more lab time, but recognized the SILS resources were a limiting factor in this
• Creating clearly identified career orientated paths for incoming students was also discussed. (For example, clearly identify core modules of relevance to the Academic, Solo, Systems, Cataloguing, Public, Childrens Librarian, allowing more focused study). 

I stand to be corrected on any of the above, these being only my own gleanings from the sessions!!!

RDA training - CMD & ANTLC @ TCD 23/5/13

I spent last Thursday getting back in contact with my inner cataloguer, attending RDA training delivered by Keith Trickey at TCD. As always with Keith the scope of the training was broad, with lots of time for working through examples. So now I know how much I don't know about RDA, but how to go about using and sourcing the correct information to do so when the time arises. Topics covered included;

RDA, FRBR, FRAD, FRSAD, RDA Toolkit, AACR2, RDA & FRBR, LOC Resources, LOC PCC Policy, Open Metadata Registry, Workflows, Cambridge University Training Material, RDA <=> MARC, RDA Structure, MARC 21 Concise formats, Additional MARC fields to facilitate RDA, Content designators, relator terms, OPAC implications, BIBFRAME, PAN-Canadian Working Group.

Key points: 

• My understanding of FRBR from a presentation given by Patrick Le Boeff at an LAI conference a few years ago is sound, I just need to floow my instinct and stop second guessing myself. 
• The schema is still incomplete and will be for a while (Group 3 entities) 
• MARC is not designed to carry RDA, so the BIBFRAME project is trying to address this. (Linked data enters the discussion here (Semantic Web etc.)) It may take some time before it is finalised.
• Additional scholarship will be required of cataloguers using RDA.It will become more subjective, driven by the need of the cataloguing agency and their constituencies. In all likely-hood national bibliographic agencies will become/remain main sources of core records. 
• What's useful to an academic library may be too much for a public library and vice versa. 
• Wat's important to the users V lots of detail in the records. 
• As national bibliographic agencies move into RDA other libraries will be brought along with them. 
• Descriptive elements go with the item not the manifestation. 
• LMS must be capable of delivering RDA before you can implement it. 
• FRSAD is not yet complete so RDA cannot be complete. 
• Content/ Form/ Media type seems almost to be out of date already.
• Custodial history is much easier to address, as are dissertations and thesis.
• RDA uses metric scales. 
• RDA is updated regularly => consider whether print or online is the best method of access for your library if you adapt it. 
• Workflows can be your guide.
• Chief source of information is no longer the title page
• You might not have the original work but you will need the record to accommodate, expressions, manifestations and items associated with it. 
• Additional MARC fields have been created to faciltiate RDA, as much as possible. 
• Control lists do not always agree between MARC and RDA.
• OPAC may not include search criteria in resluts list - might only be seen in full record. 
• BIBFRAME @ LOC is attempting to create a carrier for RDA generated data. 
• Issues will arise when converting from MARC, and MARC for RDA. 

RDA links from and located as a result of this day's training: 

Links to resources, guides. e-mail lists etc, to do with RDA. 

RDA Toolkit
http://access.rdatoolkit.org/Access the structure of RDA and the rules - Subscription (trial access available)
MARC examples - RDA toolkit
http://www.rdatoolkit.org/examples/MARC
RDA training materials from the University of Cambridge.
http://cambridgerda.wordpress.com/
RDA to MARC
http://www.loc.gov/marc/RDAinMARC.htmlLibrary of Congress-Program for Cooperative Cataloging Policy Statements (LC-PCC PS)
IFLA - FRBR report
http://www.ifla.org/publications/functional-requirements-for-bibliographic-records
IFLA-FRAD
http://www.ifla.org/publications/functional-requirements-for-authority-data
IFLA - FRSAD
http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/classification-and-indexing/functional-requirements-for-subject-authority-data/frsad-final-report.pdf
Extensible Catlog
http://www.extensiblecatalog.org/
Open Metadata Repository - RDA Element Sets and Vocabularies.
http://rdvocab.info/ published and proposed - can be followed by rss etc.
FRBR RDA & MARC - What's the difference. (LOC presentation)
http://www.loc.gov/catworkshop/RDA%20training%20materials/LC%20RDA%20Training/FRBR_Module%203_FRBR%20&%20RDA%20&%20MARC/FRBR%20%20RDA%20%20MARC_studentversion_20120818.pdf
Bibliographic Record - MARC to RDA - LOC document
Open Archive Initiative http://www.openarchives.org/
RDA and OCLC
http://www.oclc.org/rda.en.html
MARC 21 format changes to accommodate RDA
http://www.loc.gov/marc/formatchanges-RDA.html
Cooperative Cataloging Rules (Open cataloging rules) Alternative discussion.
https://sites.google.com/site/opencatalogingrules/cataloging-ru
Special Libraries Cataloging - Cheat Sheet
http://special-cataloguing.com/node/1397
RDA changes from AACR2 for texts - Barbara Tillett - Web Cat (LOC)
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4863
RDA - L
http://www.rda-jsc.org/rdadiscuss.html

On the RDA toolkit page (link above), click the resources tab and then select Library of Congress-Program for Cooperative Cataloging Policy Statements (LC-PCC PS). Then select the RDA element you want guidance on. 

I stand to be corrected on any of the above! 

Finding a use for Storify! > Make or tell a story using social media.

Storify (http://www.storify.com) is a web delivered service which claims to help make sense of what people post on social media, allowing users curate social media interactions and turn them into stories, with the idea of creating a 'social' perspective on any event, which can then be published either via Storify, social media sharing, or embedding on other pages. 

While exploring the capabilities of ISSUU (see post below), I also began exploring the usefulness of Storify in a library capacity. This took a bit more effort than ISSUU to get to grips with. It's not that it's hard to use, it just needs more attention to detail. So far the most explicit use I can see for it for the library is the gathering of social media content about events, conferences and discussion treads.  My nebulus attempts can be seen at https://storify.com/LibraryITTD#stories

I have mocked up monthly reads using it's capacity to import data from set URL's, but I am not satisfied with the result... so the experimentation will continue over the summer with those. I liked being able to pull information directly from our catalogue into the story, but the presentation of it left much to be desired (an issue relating to how III runs the OPAC rather than Storify I must say), but did link the viewer back to the library's catalogue. The one's I pulled from Amazon and Many Books looked at lot better, but conversley drew them away from the library as provider. 

• https://storify.com/LibraryITTD/october-2013-library-reads-banned-books-available

• https://storify.com/LibraryITTD/september-2013-library-reads-top-10-fiction-classi

• https://storify.com/LibraryITTD/august-2013-library-reads-sci-fi

• https://storify.com/LibraryITTD/july-2013-monthly-reads-at-library-itt-dublin

I have pulled photos from FLICKR into a story and that looks much better. And with better management of tagging our photos, and actually loading them this could really work for events and locations. https://storify.com/LibraryITTD/photos-of-library-itt-dublin
I have pulled facebook and twitter posts associated with the library into another but can't get it to do the expected automatic updating based on a # tag, so I will experiment further with the tag for the IIUG which is being held here in ITT Dublin next month to see if that generates any further developments. So we'll see what happens at: https://storify.com/LibraryITTD/iiug-13-itt-dublin/ ... 

I attempted to gather 'news' items about the library... but it doesn't look great. https://storify.com/LibraryITTD/what-is-being-said-about-library-itt-dublin/

I have successfully embedded these into the library's website, so at least I got that bit right!!! 

So I suppose for the moment it's a case of watch this space... 

Of course there are other options for collecting information for a 'story', but if I told you all about them, that'd ruin your fun? (You tube, Instagram, Google etc.)

Using ISSUU to publish on the web

I noticed UCD library's lovely newsletter on facebook a little while ago. I clicked on it and it opened on the screen in a lovely interactive window, which also allowed comments... this I really liked.

Using my rusty rather than trusty sleuthing skills I found the source of this technological marvel to be ISSUU.com. Caught in a moment of enthusiasm I created an account for the library and merrily started to upload pdf and word documents... Then I started to wonder what the catch was. the good news is there is no catch...

PUBLISHING

There are three options for uploading files:

Click on upload
Select:

1. Upload a file,
2. Upload from URL or 
3. Upload many files 

Batch loading many files is really easy... but if you upload the files individually you get the opportunity to tag them... which makes my little web 2.0 heart happy. 

Tick the 'notify me' option to get an e-mail when you file is ready :)

SHARING

The social sharing options are great: 

Go to 'My Library' and across the top of your library listing are your sharing options which include: 

Blogger, Cite U Like  Delicious, Facebook, FriendFeed, Kindle IT, LinkedIn, Mendeley, MySpace Netvibes, Orkut, Reddit, Research Gate, Stumble Upon, Tumblr and Twitter to name but a few. 

Just click on the file you want to share, click share, select your option (while logged into the relevant account), follow the local app instructions, and you're done. 

Alternatively you can use e-mail and embed codes to circulate your publication: 

The first option when you click on share is the e-mail option. You can e-mail a list of comma separated e-mail addresses, share with friends, or select addresses from your ISSUU contact list. (you have to create it!).  Enter your message, and a link to your publication is included in the text along with a preview image. 

Embedding is straight forward there are 2 options, just copy an paste the html code into your file/s where you want it to appear. 

1. Embed a preview 
2. Embed a link 
1. Link to the publication
2. Link to single page view 
3. Link to double page view. 

Well worth investigating. The library is considering using this to circulated our monthly reads.