The radio station has had a special 'Celebrate Libraries' fortnight (from 8th to 21st November 2014) featuring a range of special events focusing on the "wonder and awe" of libraries. I hope that events like this will help to highlight to eveyone all the unique, quirky and awesome things that libraries have to offer. Many UK libraries have closed in the last few years and they continue to be under threat, so the more positive publicity the better, before any more are lost
I really enjoyed this animated poem, entitled Library, by Scroobius Pip which was commissioned for BBC 6 Music's celebration of libraries. The radio station has had a special 'Celebrate Libraries' fortnight (from 8th to 21st November 2014) featuring a range of special events focusing on the "wonder and awe" of libraries. I hope that events like this will help to highlight to eveyone all the unique, quirky and awesome things that libraries have to offer. Many UK libraries have closed in the last few years and they continue to be under threat, so the more positive publicity the better, before any more are lost
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I am still gradually adding blogs about the sessions I attended at the IFLA conference in August. This session was presented by staff from the National University of Singapore (NUS) who talked about how they use social media to bring students into their library. They use blogs, Facebook, Twitter and they have also explored Foursquare and a number of other sites as outlined here: FOUR SQUARE The library found that students were checking in with Foursquare with no intervention from the Library. The Library then decided to carry out a number of Foursquare campaigns in order to reach out to students and to highlight their presence on social media. Typical campaigns included:
The University found that a significant number of people checked in during campaigns. Although campaigns didn't significantly affect the number of walk-ins at the Library they did generate good will and highlighted the Library's presence on social media. MEME PROJECT A meme is a viral image in popular culture for certain information or emotions.
Memes had to relate to the library and all current students and staff could take part. The memes were judged on:
The Library uses Instagram to post pictures including 'behind the scenes' photos of the Library. The Library has a pinterest account. Twitter is used by the Librarian. The Library ran a project when staff took in turns to tweet about their work for a week so students got to know a bit more about each member of staff. ORIENTATION VIDEOS This year (2013) NUS are introducing very short orientation videos about seeking help etc. These were just being launched when I was at IFLA. I have just search You Tube and found this, which must be one of their new videos:
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 |
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
October 2015
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