The world seems to have gone completely Dr Who crazy this week in celebration of the programme's 50th Anniversary! My daughter is a huge Dr Who fan and she has loved all the special events. So, when I spotted this video about a little Tardis Library in America I thought I really must join in the fun and share it here on my blog!
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![]() One of the sessions I attended on day 2 focused on 'Future libraries, future librarians, future skills: training for librarians for children and young adults". One of these presentations looked at the required skills for children and youth librarians in the digital age. It was stated that librarians must change from book keeper to dynamic agent - they must be well-trained, tech-savvy information experts who encourage the use of technology. The speakers had carried out a small survey of the librarians at the Library of Alexandria who decided that the following were the top skills required by children and youth librarians: Personal Skills: creative, adaptable and self-motivated. Professional Skills: communication & leadership, self-learning and professional development and possesses clear vision of integrating technology into library programs. Discipline-Specific: knowledge of user’s needs, technology literate, knowledge of emerging electronic resources and collection development awareness. More details can be found in the paper for this presentation: Required skills for children and youth librarians in the digital age ![]() When I attended the 'Riding the global wave: trends affecting libraries and librarians' talk by Ingrid Parent in May, she mentioned that the Trend Report would be launched at the IFLA Confererence. This was something I really looked forward to hearing about. The Trend Report looks across society at the trends that are affecting libraries and how they will affect them in the future. The five trends identified as playing a key role in the future of libraries and the information world are:
![]() Ingrid Parent (the outgoing President of the IFLA) delivered an interesting speech about the Trend Report covering some of the advances and issues that are expected over the coming years and what impact they will have on libraries. Some points that I found really interesting were: Google Glass - The new technological glasses will mean that everyone wearing them will be able to conduct surveillance on everyone else, they can record what they see as they go about their daily lives. What will this mean for libraries that are seen by many as a safe place or sanctuary? How will libraries address this issue? In my mind this is a very serious issue for society as a whole. I know we are all recorded on CCTV many times each day but the idea that strangers who we walk past in the street can record us and share those recordings on social media is quite a disturbing prospect. Information mining - Data is collected on all of us to produce better services and big businesses know all about our lifestyle and habits from the data they collect. Some libraries are already following this trend but how could libraries make more use of data to improve and give personalised to their customers? When is the amount of data collected deemed to be too much? Search engines - Ingrid asked many questions about the issue of search engines - Can the results returned by search engines be trusted? Should libraries produce a competing algorithm or help people to have the information literacy skills to use the existing technology? Who is responsible for false information on the internet? How do libraries identify important cultural items on the internet? These are just some of the thought-provoking questions on search engines raised in the speech. I know we already have the issue of personalised search results from search engines like Google but maybe alternatives, like Duck Duck Go, that don't track you or use a filter bubble go some way towards a solution. Hyper-linked societies - Ingrid also spoke about the rise in surveillance by governments so nothing on the internet is private. Even democratic societies are filtering the information and if that is standard government practice, what impact does this have on libraries when they try to collect our digital history? ![]() These are just a few of the really interesting points and questions raised by Ingrid Parent's presentation on The Trend Report. A summary of the key points of the report can be accessed here: Insights into to the IFLA Trend Report Discussion on the Trend Report can be followed on Twitter at #iflatrends ![]() I was excited when I found out that the IFLA Congress was coming to Singapore. The IFLA is "the leading body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. It is the global voice of the library and information profession" IFLA The IFLA Congress is the "international flagship professional and trade event for the library and information services sector. It brings together over 3,500 participants from more than 120 countries" IFLA Congress. The opportunity to attend the Congress on our doorstep was fantastic! The Congress took place from Sunday 18th August to Thursday 22 August and was held in the SUNTEC Convention Centre, Singapore. I attended many of the sessions over the five days and I'm planning to include some details in this blog of the sessions that stood out as being particularly interesting or relevant to me…. One of the sessions I attended on day one of the IFLA Congress was 'Marketing on a shoestring' which included six different presentations. A presentation that I found particularly interesting was one about making videos for marketing, without breaking the bank. The presenters were Kate Cushion and Gillian Nowlan, both from the University of Regina, and they introduced six steps of making a video. The six steps they covered were: 1. Planning the video Planning is extremely important when creating a video. 2. Creating and gathering the raw material for the video Then you should gather all the materials you need to include in your video, watching out for copyright issues and considering creative commons materials. It was also recommended that a brand is created for your videos so they all have, for example, a standard introduction. 3. Recording a screencast with voice recording It was suggested that screen cast should be used while talking slowly and clearly into a microphone. A variety of free tools are available for audio and screencast recording (these are included in their prezi below). Jing was recommended as a free screen casting tool. 4. Editing the screencast and voice recording Editing can be very frustrating but good planning helps. Find links to tutorials in the prezi below. 5. Posting and promoting the finished video Vimeo was recommended for high quality videos but You Tube is found by more people. It was recommend that promotion tools should be used and tools like Google Analytics should be implemented to find out how effective your promotion has been. 6. Updating videos with new or changed information It was suggested that time-sensitive information should be avoided in videos to minimise the need for up-dating. If you are aware that a section may need to be changed in the future, make sure that section can be easily removed and replaced. This was a very useful presentation, lots of information was presented and more can be found in their prezi which I've embedded here and can also be found at http://bit.ly/141eQZo. Their paper is available at: http://library.ifla.org/145/1/086-cushon-en.pdf ![]() For my Masters course this semester, I have been studying ‘Information Sources and Services’. I have really enjoyed this subject as it has all been related to what I do every day at work. One of the topics that has really got me thinking has been the issue of peer review and whether we really can trust it. Peer review is the process by which academic articles are approved and checked for quality by experts and scholars in the appropriate field. One of my student colleagues posted this sheet on a forum regarding ‘Evaluating online material’ http://www.rbs0.com/credible.pdf. One thing it highlights is how readers should not use peer review as a reason to skip the evaluation process and advises that they “can, and should, make their own evaluation of credibility, even if the work has been endorsed by peer review”. I have always known that there have been incidents where professionals have used inaccurate information or have plagiarised, but I have still tended to think of peer reviewed articles as having almost a guarantee of credibility. This week I spotted the following article which has made me question this idea even more http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2013/oct/04/open-access-journals-fake-paper . The article states that a fake scientific paper of poor quality was sent to 304 open access journals. It was accepted by 157 of the journals and rejected by 98. 106 journals conducted peer review and 70% of these accepted the paper. I do find this a cause for great concern. The amount of information that is available is growing at such a phenomenal rate (you can see the astonishing figures here http://www.emc.com/leadership/programs/digital-universe.htm ) it is essential that there are methods in place for verification. When the methods we are using, like peer review, appear to be failing, how are we ever going to know what information we can or can’t trust? ![]() I recently completed the 'Study Visit' module of my Masters course, which involved visiting lots of libraries around Singapore. It was a really interesting and enjoyable few days and a great opportunity to see what is going on in the wonderful libraries of Singapore. I created a Weebly of my week in order to organise all my photos etc. You can find it here: http://studyvisit.weebly.com/index.html When I started creating it I had ambitious plans of adding notes on each library but unfortunately the essay I have been writing for another subject has taken most of my time over the last few weeks! Hopefully when I have some free time one day.... ![]() Jacqui and I spent Thursday and Friday this week at the IFLA Satellite Meeting on Information Literacy and Reference Services here in Singapore (prior to the IFLA World Library & Information Congress which begins tomorrow). One of the presenters was Kimberley Johnson, who is a User Experience Researcher at Google. I found her presentation really interesting as she applied Google's design theories to the world of libraries. She pointed out that Google aims to organise the world's information and make it accessible and useful, which is very much in line with the aim of libraries. Her presentation highlighted the importance of the user experience; if users don't like the experience they'll just go somewhere else. The interface is important but it must be backed up by substance, so there's no point having an amazing front-page for your library web-site if there's nothing useful behind it, users just won’t use it. ![]() Google’s design procedure is very user-centred with their ideas coming from user behaviour observation. As librarians we need to really think about what could make their experience better. We need to learn from our patrons and find out what they really want. It is not enough just to ask them what they want, we must dig deeper and ask why do they want that? A user may come up with their own solution to an issue but that may not necessarily be the best solution, we need to explore all possible solutions and go through cycles of trying ideas and if they’re not successful enough try something else, with the involvement of users at every stage. At Google they can analyse logs of searches (as librarians can with chat reference), but that is not enough, it is essential to talk to people to find out what is really happening. Research through feedback forms and suggestion boxes can also be helpful. Libraries can plan what they are going to do, then put those plans to their users and get feedback. Once a new service is in place, it must still be evaluated. Users are not always very good at evaluating their experience, they may say something is good but by watching them you can see that it could be improved – so user observation is very useful. She also said that every conversation is a learning opportunity; if patrons keep coming to you with the same problems you will realise there is an issue. It was recommended to keep track of all reference desk conversations so that patterns of need can be recognised enabling the library to consider what can be done to meet those needs. Google has the attitude that “it is never the user’s fault”. So, if users keep using library software in the ‘wrong’ way, we must build tools to meet the users needs by adapting services to meet them where they are – not by criticising them for doing it wrong! The three key points of the presentation were:
![]() I love this idea… a mobile library on a bike! This could be the perfect solution to getting fit and working at the same time!… The library offers a collection of books and internet connection. The librarian also provides help with digital downloads, personalised reading lists, help with research and will register new customers. Mobile library and hotspot that uses pedal power ![]() Actually, this library probably appeals more than the last one! I am sure there must be a need for a TTS Library on one of the beaches on Sentosa for all those TTS students who go there. I'll happily volunteer!…. Library serves the needs of book worms on the beach |
Suzanne Parfitt
I recently worked as Assistant Librarian at a British International School in Singapore. I've now relocated back to the UK and I am hoping to find a job that I enjoy as much as the one I've just left! Searching the ShelvesThis is my blog for interesting things to do with my work, my Continuing Professional Development (CPD), my studies or just anything that catches my eye relating to libraries, technology or books. Archives
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