Librarian day/week in the life…

11.30am - time to send another FoI (image c/o ToniVC on Flickr)

I know I have kinda already written a blog post for the Library Day in the Life project, but I thought why not write a post summarising the week as a whole.  Of course, the fact that my original post appeared to have become more of a personal reflection on my school days rather than a useful post about what I do and what I am doing has some bearing on this.  To be honest, I just didn’t think I had done it justice.  So, here I am, about to over-compensate to the max.  One of these days I will strike the balance just right.  Today, however, is possibly not going to be one of those days.

As you will have noticed from my original post, the bulk of my job is spend dealing with spreadsheets.  Most of the time I am either preparing statistical data, or ensuring that our online holdings are accurate.  I also deal with student queries in relation to our online resources and some general queries about their library access.  This past week I have also been covering for a colleague in ensuring that all of our OPACs and self-issue machines are working correctly.  This week happened to be the week were we had a bit of an issue with a number of our OPACs.  Luckily it was easily resolved and there was a very limited impact on our students.

Away from work, a number of other things have been going on this past week.  As part of my ongoing attempt to find new ways to spread the word about Voices for the Library, I have been looking into a new opportunity that I think could be quite exciting.  One of the joys (and challenges it has to be said) about the campaign is the fact that it is run with a zero budget.  This means that we have to be quite creative with how we spread the word (which is why it started life on social networks).  I’m not convinced that we have fully broken out into the ‘offline’ world and I think we’d be the first to admit there is still work to be done there.  However, I think we have made good use of the resources at our disposal and I am still dead chuffed at the amount of followers we have both on Facebook and Twitter despite lacking a marketing budget.

Anyway, whilst chuffed with our progress online, I am not one to rest on my laurels.  One of the other pleasures I get from VftL is that I can just go and try stuff out (within reason of course!).  I’ve always been a great believer in trying things out and taking risks and so I am always keen to take full advantage of this.  My current ‘risk’ involves the use of Foursquare as a tool to promote libraries.  Up until recently I was adamant I would never sign up for this particular social network as I saw limited value in it.  However, I decided to explore it as part of a project on mobile technologies and spotted an opportunity for VftL to have a presence on the network.  I won’t say too much about it at the moment as I am not sure it will come off in quite the way I hope, but if it does I will be sure to blog about it!

Regular readers will also be aware that I am currently studying a distance Masters at Aberystwyth University in Information and Library Studies.  I am currently in the process of conducting research for my dissertation, due in April 2012.  I have been getting rather panicky about it of late – worrying I wouldn’t get it finished in time.  My progress was not helped by recently moving house and being without internet for two weeks [insert ‘sad face’ emoticon here].  However, this week I scheduled a phone call with my dissertation tutor and, I have to say, having had a chat with them I feel much better about where I am and where I need to be.  In fact, it is fair to say I was buzzing when I put the phone down.  I finally feel like I can see a way forward and get cracking on the next stage.  Whilst I think I need to keep ‘on my toes’, I feel far more confident about completing before the deadline and (finally) getting that Masters.  Phew!

I prefer the metaphorical kind myself. (image c/o Wessex Archaeology on Flickr)

Finally, I have been involved in a bit of digging the past couple of days.  It recently emerged that Wakefield council intends on closing half the libraries in the district.  Annoyed at the councillor’s claim that:

“…since 1992 more than four out of every 10 library users have stopped going into libraries.”

I decided to write to the councillor to ask if he can explain how this figure was arrived at.  I am still waiting for a response.  Not content with questioning the councillor, I also entered a host of Freedom of Information requests to get a little more information about what has been going on in Wakefield.  I am hopeful that I will receive suitable answers to all thirteen (yes, thirteen) questions within the three week time limit.  If anything interesting turns up, you’ll be sure to find out about it.

I have also sent off a series of questions to Dorset County Council who are also considering closures.  After a recent council meeting, councillors narrowly agreed to withdraw funding on nine libraries across West Dorset.  It is good to note, however, that not all councillors take such a relaxed attitude to library closures (you’d think so sometimes when trawling around for the latest library news).  Cllr Ronald Coatsworth deserves a great deal of respect after expressing his outrage:

“We have heard of lies, damn lies and statistics and it seemed to me that here was another case of distorted figures being used as a justification for a particular course of action which had been pre-determined.
“They are discriminatory, treating different groups in different ways and have no place in the Dorset I represent.”

More councillors like this please.

Another bit of digging, this time a bit closer to home, turned up a blank but was referred to by the political editor for the local media group, Paul Francis, on his blog.  A while back it emerged that shocking proposals were put before a recent Conservative group meeting that (it is suggested) included the closure of forty libraries.  No further details emerged so I decided to enter a Freedom of Information request to see what could be uncovered.  Unfortunately my request was rejected (for reasons outlined on Paul’s blog) but not entirely convincingly.  I fully intend on appealing this rejection and hope I will be as success as I was in overturning the DCMS’s rejection of an earlier FoI request.  We will see.

So that was pretty much my week.  I had hoped (believe it or not) to have more things to share from the week, but maybe those things will happen at a later date.

This week was mainly fuelled by If Not Now, When? and, of course, this.

‘Follow Us On …: Using Social Networks And Technology To Reach Readers’ – a CPD25 event

Follow us on...social media

On Tuesday I attended the above CPD25 event at the London Mathematical Society in Russell Square which was organised by Caroline Fletcher of UCL with minor assistance by myself (well, I helped line up one pair of speakers anyway!).  The speakers lined up for the event were:

Dave Puplett (LSE) – Fill the communications vacuum – engage your users online.

Emma Woods and Ellie Murphy (Westminster) – Blogging at the University of Westminster.

Tim Fletcher (Birkbeck) – Twitter Case Study: Birckbeck Library.

Ironically, given the subject matter, Emma and Ellie offered to deliver a presentation after I put out a call on Twitter for someone to talk at the event about blogging in a university library context.  Luckily for me, Emma got back to me pretty quickly and she very kindly agreed to present on blogging with Ellie.

First to present at the event was Dave Puplett.  Dave talked about how important he felt it was to be where the users are.  This was particularly important for LSE as there are a large number of distance learners and part-time students, who are obviously unable to interact with the university in quite the same way as other students.  He also suggested that using tools such as Twitter was a good way to find out what users think about your service in a way they would not necessarily have shared with the library through official channels.  As such, LSE use Twitter to find out what students are saying about the library, identifying any issues that they might have raised, and then addressing them directly to remedy the situation (usually using more formal communication tools such as email).  Comments that students have made about the library are regularly collected and shared across the library team to raise awareness of any areas of concern or, of course, anything positive that was being shared.

Dave highlighted one particular issue where someone was unable to locate a journal they required, publicly complaining about its lack of availability to their followers on Twitter.  This was picked up by a member of staff who was then able to locate the journal and point the complainant in the right direction.  The complainant subsequently declared how impressed he was and how ‘pro-active’ the library was for resolving it in this way.

I had had a sneaky peak at Dave’s presentation prior to the event, and it certainly provided plenty of food for thought about how social networking can ‘fill the communications vacuum’ with both users and non-users.  It also made me appreciate that Dave has a substantial archive of Henry hoover images to call upon!  If you want an interesting image utilising a Henry hoover, I strongly suggest getting in touch with him…

Dave Puplett’s presentation:

Next, Emma Woods and Ellie Murphy spoke about their experiences blogging for the University of Westminster Uni.  Both Emma and Ellie maintain a couple of blogs each covering Resources for Electronics and Computing, Resources for Transport and Tourism, Resources for Fashion Business Students and Resources for Business Students.  As they did not have subject pages, it was decided to try using the blogs instead to share interesting and useful resources for students.  Amongst the tools they used were a LibraryThing widget to share the latest titles added to the library, RSS feeds from relevant news sources and, on the business blog, a business resources FAQ page to help resolve some of the issues faced by students in making use of online resources.  When consulting with students they found that there was some interest in blogs maintained by librarians and wanted them to be a space where they would find links to journal articles, advice for finding items and general library news.  They also found that the best way to promote their blogs was through the academics as this seems to drive up traffic to the blog.  They are currently looking at ways to make the blogs more visible and raise awareness of them amongst students.

To break-up the presentation a little, Ellie and Emma asked us all to discuss in groups what we thought a successful blog would look like.  There was a fairly unanimous feeling that it was important to get the tone right, not to sound too formal and to make use of the author’s personal style and voice.  It was also suggested that they should be regularly updated with timely and up-to-date information as much as possible.  Both points I couldn’t agree more with.  I very strongly believe that communications with students via blogs, Twitter etc should be in a vain that students would appreciate, not in the way that the institution would prefer.  If it becomes too much of the latter it can make for a very dry read.  Personality has to be key in any communication via social media – else what is ‘social’ about it?

Emma and Ellie’s presentation:

Finally, Tim Fletcher from Birkbeck spoke about how the library uses Twitter to communicate with students.   Tim noted that to date the Birkbeck library Twitter account has attracted 1,322 followers.  Birkbeck see Twitter as an alternative way to communicate with students about the library and the services it offers.  Whilst Twitter is used regularly to communicate with students, they are always referred back to the library website as the ‘official’ source of information.  The content that they tweet varies from urgent information to advanced warnings (eg any systems related downtime) to social tweets welcoming students back to the university after their breaks.  They particularly found it useful during periods of heavy snowfall to inform students that buildings were closed or that icy conditions made certain parts of the campus dangerous.  They also made a conscious decision not to ‘follow’ students as they felt that this would make students uncomfortable.

Finally, they use RSS feeds from various aspects of the website to feed information through Twitter automatically, reducing the need to manually tweet items and helping to keep the information current and timely.  This is particularly useful when the regular administrator is away on leave or otherwise indisposed.

Tim did have a one word of caution however.  It is essential to consider how to deal with messages directed at the Twitter account in the appropriate way.  Should they be dealt with via email or via the Twitter account?  Clearly there is the danger of failing to deal with the issue appropriately (particularly given the character limit that is central to the service) and policies should be put in place to ensure that such issues are managed professionally.  One thing you certainly don’t want to do is get into a very public spat with a student/academic – it would not look good in the timeline and would certainly undermine the effort made to build relationships with students/academics.  It is far more sensible to deal with ‘hot’ issues privately and promptly to resolve them to the satisfaction of the complainant.

I certainly found the event very interesting, particularly as I have a strong interest in the use of social media to promote services (it’s one of the reasons I was quite keen to oversee the Voices for the Library social networks when we first started out).  Certainly my experience managing the VftL Twitter and Facebook accounts chimes with much of what was said yesterday.  Sometimes I have had to deal with ‘difficult’ or critical messages sent to one of our social media accounts.  How I dealt with it often depended on the nature of the comment.  Sometimes it is best to ignore, sometimes it is best to provide a measured response.  One thing is absolutely certain however sometimes you definitely need to be able to take a bit of criticism on the chin.  Once you stick yourself out there as a ‘brand’ you are bound to attract some criticism – it’s the nature of the beast.

Of course, the beauty of an event like this is that the environment is constantly changing.  New networks crop up all the time.  Since the event was planned, Google+ has already come on the scene and who is to say what the landscape will be like another year from now?  What other essential tools will crop up in that time?  A year from now another similar event could be put together and it wouldn’t even mention Twitter.  But that is the nature of the internet and that is the challenge we all have to deal with.  It’s not easy, but I certainly think it is vital to keep on top of the latest trends and services that are emerging (I’ve even recently signed up for Foursquare despite vowing never to do so!).  One thing is for certain, you can guarantee that your customers/users most definitely will be in tune with the latest developments.

What do libraries mean to you?

Last week I asked a question on both Facebook and Twitter:

What three words would you use to describe what libraries mean to you?

I had been thinking for a long time that the number of followers for both the Voices for the Library Facebook Page and Twitter account would mean that gathering their thoughts on what libraries are about might be an interesting exercise and, hopefully, draw a wide range of response.  So it turned out to be with over 50 people contributing in excess of 150 words.  The product of this process was an interesting (well, I think so anyway) word cloud:

What do libraries mean to you?

Before going any further, it may be worth pointing out something about the contributions themselves.  The question was asked, as I said, on both Facebook and Twitter.  Whereas it is fair to say that responses on Facebook would have come solely from people who have signed up to ‘like’ the Voices for the Library page (meaning they are possibly more likely to be library workers or library supporters), Twitter was an altogether different proposition.  As Twitter is ‘open’, more people were exposed to the question and consequently, this potentially led to a more varied response from a greater range of people (beyond the usual librarian/library user responses).  In short, basically this wasn’t just a collection of responses from librarians or library workers, it was far broader than that, which is why some of the responses are interesting.

Note, for example, that although several words imply a relationship with books (‘reading’ and ‘literacy’ for example), ‘books’ itself is barely noticeable (it is just under the ‘c’ of ‘community’).  Compare that with words such as ‘knowledge’, ‘community’, ‘freedom’ and ‘information’, all of which feature prominently (word clouds size the words according to the frequency with which they are used – small for rarely used words, large for commonly used words) .  So what does this tell us about how people view libraries in this admittedly limited experiment?  It seems that the most important aspects of the service are the provision of information and the access to knowledge, in all its forms.  So whilst books are important, does it not also suggest that anything that is considered ‘information’ or that imparts ‘knowledge’ should be considered central to the library service?  It would appear so.

It is also interesting to note that the ‘community’ aspect is considered vital.  For many people, community spaces have rapidly diminished.  There are few places left for groups of people to come together and create that sense of community.  Some might argue that that is no longer important as technology has plugged the gap, but I would argue that communities still need that social space.  Who knows, maybe this lack of communal space has helped to exacerbate the individualistic nature of modern society.  He says writing on his blog.

There does appear to be a paradox at play here though.  Whilst it is easier than ever to build connections with people in distance lands, connections closer to home appear more distant than ever.  Although the growth of the Internet has broadened our horizons, has it also blurred the foreground?  That said, are the recent events in the Middle East proof that this is not the case?  Do the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya indicate that communal bonds have been strengthened to such an extent that they can tear down (or at least attempt to) repressive regimes that attempted to keep communities from uniting?

Well, this was supposed to be a post about the word cloud created from a simple question about libraries.  That little diversion was not supposed to happen.  Ah well.

The other thing I found interesting from collecting this data (and interesting in a fairly minor way), was the difference in responses from people on Facebook and Twitter.  Whereas there was limited interaction from the ‘followers’ on Facebook, there was a continuous flow from Twitter.  It rather suggested to me that Facebook users are a little more passive than Twitter users who prefer to engage and discuss rather than simply observe.  But then I guess that reflects the type of person attracted to Twitter, it is not exactly well suited to observation and passive engagement – which is perhaps why many people who try out Twitter for the first time find it hard to get into.

Anyway, getting back to the central driver behind this post (the word cloud remember?!), I’d be interested to hear what thoughts others have as to why words such as ‘community’, ‘knowledge’, ‘information’ and ‘freedom’ took precedence.  Why are these more common responses than ‘books’?  What do this mean for libraries?

Internet vs Public Libraries

The following was written for the Voices for the Library campaign and distributed earlier today in response to comments that were made about the role of libraries in bridging the digital divide and how providing everyone with Internet would be cost effective.

This argument has been doing the rounds this morning, most notably on BBC Breakfast.  The argument goes as follows:

Libraries are, for over 9 million people in this country, the only place that they can connect to the Internet.  Therefore, why not just connect everyone to the Internet as this would be cheaper and more efficient than providing access through a public library.  With Internet connections at around £100 per year, surely it would be cheaper?

There are many things wrong with this statement, so let’s have a look at how much such a scheme would cost.  Presumably, many of the people who do not have Internet connections do not have a computer either.  The most recent statistics suggest that 7 million households in the UK do not have an Internet connection.  1.4 million said that cost of equipment was the main reason why they did not have an Internet connection – other reasons given include lack of skills or they felt they ‘didn’t need it’.

A good quality computer costs something in the region of £300-500.  The cost of an Internet connection over a year is around £200 (taking £15 per month as an average for broadband).  So, taking the figures above, how much would it cost to connect everyone?

If we take the 7 million households figure first and provided them all with a broadband connection it would cost a grand total of £1.4 billion (of course that figure would be ongoing, every year).  If we took the 1.4 million households who said that computers were too expensive and provided each of those with a computer, the cost would equal £560 million (using £400 as an average cost for a desktop PC). If we were to consider that there are likely to be more households than this without a computer (7 million without an Internet connection remember), the cost could potentially be £2.8 billion.  So to provide everyone with a computer would cost between £560 million and £2.8 billion.  Again, this would not be a one-off payment as computers will need to be updated after a certain period of time to make sure they remain functional (usually every four years or so).

So, the total cost of providing everyone with an Internet connection would be…..

£2-4.2 billion with an annual bill of at least £1.4 billion.

Of course these figures do not take into account things such as software, anti-virus and, most importantly, the training and support that many would need to ensure they can use the equipment and the Internet.  Provision of all these extras could push the bill to over £5 billion (again with an annual bill of at least£1.4 billion plus the cost of upgrades every 3-4 years).  Just to compare that figure, public libraries cost the UK £1.1 billion every year.

So, which option makes sense financially in a time of spending cuts?  It seems fairly obvious.

Library Day in the Life/Week in the Life

 

Most of my days are spent at the keyboard...

I have not had much time this week to blog each day about what I have been doing (and I’m not sure it would make entertaining reading if I did!).  So I thought why not chuck it all into one post?  That would work wouldn’t it?  Let’s find out…

 

Most of my working week this week has involved doing a bit of a spring clean through our e-journals.  This means checking through what our e-library says we hold and matching that up with what our subscription actually gives us access to.  Sometimes I stumble across journals that we have access to that have not been activated, sometimes I find the reverse.  Whilst it is a laborious job, it is one I volunteered to do as I wanted to make sure that what we say students have access to is actually what they have access to.  If this information is not accurate it can lead to frustration amongst students, which has its own obvious consequences (the dreaded ‘G’ word).

Alongside a bit of spring cleaning, I have also spent most of the week dealing with student enquiries.  This normally involves fixing up their e-library access or helping them find the resources they require.  As I used to work in a more customer facing role than my current position, I do like being able to maintain contact with ‘customers’.  Being in an office all day can leave you feeling a bit disconnected from the student experience, but the odd query every now and then certainly helps to maintain a certain connection.

Of course, Wednesday was the big day…the day of the first Voices for the Library meeting.  It was an exciting day, finally getting to meet a bunch of people I admire greatly.  But more importantly, we achieved a lot.  It was without doubt one of the most productive meetings I have ever attended.  Maybe that is what is missing from most meetings…if it was a bunch of strangers thrown together it might make for more productive discussion.  Who knows?  Anyway, stuff was decided and agreed and then it was off to the pub. Nice 🙂

In terms of my work for Voices this week, my main focus has been on preparing stuff for next week (although I’m not going to reveal what that’s all about!).  As the man behind the Facebook Page, I have been putting some final touches to something that I hope will look impressive when it is on public show.  Damn, it’s hard not blurting out what I am referring too!  Well, hopefully it looks good!

I’m also trying to look at other ways to improve the users’ experience of our web 2.0 presence.  I am really keen to make the most of our Twitter and Facebook Pages and make them interesting portals to what we are doing on our site and beyond.  I have been experimenting with using Facebook Notes to produce a short summary of what we have posted on our site and what has been in the news library-wise.  I don’t think it is something I can commit to every day, but I like the fact that it may reach people who haven’t picked up on things during the day due to lack of access to our web 2.0 access points.  It provides a nice little summary and also points people back to our site.  Not only that, but it also reaches people who aren’t on Facebook as Notes can be read by anyone (and they  have an RSS feed – a rarity for something as ‘closed’ as Facebook).  Like I said, I’m always trying to think of new ways to get our Facebook Page out there a little more.  I’d love to hear from anyone who has any suggestions of useful applications that may be worth exploring.

As well as my job and my VftL work, I have also been looking closely at what my local council (Kent) is doing in terms of libraries.  There has already been talk of closing libraries or establishing ‘community’ libraries (an Orwellian concept if ever there was one).  Who knows where this will lead but worrying times indeed as the public library issue finds its way a little closer to home.  Let’s hope Kent tries something imaginative, rather than going for the slash n’ burn approach.  We’ll see.

Facebook – More Privacy Concerns

There’s been a lot of talk recently about Facebook and privacy concerns.  The biggest concern has been the way in which privacy is managed from your Facebook account.  In short, the privacy functionality is far too arduous.  At present, there are 50 separate privacy settings and 170 options – far too many for anyone to keep track of let alone effectively manage.  So concerned are people by the complex nature of privacy management, there are many people who are considering switching off their accounts altogether (although it should be noted that this doesn’t mean your data gets wiped from Facebook…..they keep it forever).  Now some people are happy to give up a great deal of personal information to a faceless corporation (I wonder if these same people oppose ID cards??), but for many it is concerning.  If you are concerned about this, the BBC has makes a number of recommendations on its website.

Openbook - Searches Facebook Status Updates

If, until now, you were not overly concerned about your privacy you may be about to change your mind.  The Guardian this morning had an interesting piece about a new tool that is simultaneously scary and interesting.  Openbook is a website that could led make even the most open person pause for thought in their willingness to share information about themselves (note the quote from Zuckerberg in the top right corner).  Using a simple search engine (see image), it enables people to search through non-protected status updates for specific terms.  You don’t even have to have a Facebook account to use it.   Not only does the search result in matching status updates being listed, it also displays the appropriate profile picture so that everyone knows exactly who posted the update.  Scared yet?  The Guardian published a couple of examples of updates it found when searching the site:

“dam right i cheated i coulnt get it from u wen i needed it”

“I’m sorry, I lied before when I said I used to make lots of bets. My therapist tells me I should try lying a lot to help get through my… gambling problem”.

“im not gonna bother anymore…theres no point hiding the truth…..iv lost too much and all because i lied to the one i love…im such a fukin dick head, i fucked up the best girl i’ve ever had”.

None of which you’d really want anyone else to see, I’m sure.

Now, I ought to point out at this stage that only displays updates that are not secured by the user.  All updates that are subject to strict privacy controls will not appear in any search conducted on Openbook.  If you haven’t locked your account though, you may want to rethink your willingness to slag off your employer/colleagues/wife/girlfriend…it could lead to all sorts of trouble.

Having said all that, such a tool does provide some benefits, especially to those working in public libraries.  For some time now, I have been using Twitter‘s advanced search tool to seek out feedback from customers about their experiences of the library service.  It’s an excellent way of capturing feedback and communicating with customers.  Quite often, members of the public don’t expect random library employees to read Twitter feeds, so you can often get quite honest feedback (sometimes brutally so) about your service – a crucial tool for improving and developing the service.  Now, with Facebook open to similar types of searches, there is yet another avenue for librarians to explore in order to see how users view the service (more on this at Musings about librarianship).

This is not to say that I am not concerned by the latest developments on Facebook, I find it deeply worrying.  It’s one thing to make this sort of information open, it’s another to do it without the understanding of the user.  There is a very clear difference between Facebook and Twitter in the minds of most people.  Rightly or wrongly, most people assume the former is a closed loop where only friends can view the information you share.  Twitter, on the other hand, is an open system and there is a certain expectation that everyone will have access to whatever you write.  With this in mind, you tend to be more considered in what you share on Twitter.  On Facebook, however, the tendency is to write whatever pops into your head because (supposedly) only your friends will see it.  The problem is that Facebook has seen the growth of Twitter and wants a piece of the action.  That means increasingly opening up content (your personal information) to the wider Internet community so you can ‘share’ (there’s an innocuous little term) with everyone.  You may be happy with that, you may not, but it’s something that people are going to have to get used to as long as they are on Facebook.  After all, whatever you post on there (pictures of your children, comments about your job, criticisms of your boss) doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to Facebook.  There’s a scary thought, eh?

The Kodak Zi8

The Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera

As some of you may be aware, we bought ourselves a Kodak Zi8 pocket camcorder for Christmas.  We decided that we really ought to have a cheap and cheerful camcorder so that we can document our daughter’s development and send videos of her back to Spain for my in-laws to see.  After reading a whole host of reviews of both the Flip range and the latest Kodak, we decided to plump for the Kodak.  It seemed to tick all the boxes.  Compact, reasonably priced and easy to use.   So far, we have not been disappointed.

The Kodak Zi8 is a neat little package.  The USB connection is in-built so you don’t have to add yet another cable to the growing collection (I’m amazed I manage to keep track of all my cables!).  Also, there is no CD-ROM packaged with the camera. The editing software is built into the camera and downloads to your PC when you first connect it via USB.  Although basic, the software does enable video to be condensed to make it easier to send via email, as well as having a quick upload feature for Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo.

Video can be stored on the internal memory, but there is not much space at all.  An SDHD card is therefore pretty much an essential purchase once you have the camera.  It’s best to buy a card with a high-capacity (the Zi8 can take a card of up to 32GB).  It also recommended to go for at least a class 6 card, although we have gone for a 16GB class 4.

The camera also shoots in full HD and has an HDMI connection to connect with a HD television.  It also has an image stabilisation function (EIS) which helps to eradicate camera shake (although not entirely, for best results you really need to hold the camera with both hands).  I found when shooting video one-handed (which seems the most natural way to use it) there was still some noticeable ‘shakiness’.

A nice touch is an additional macro/landscape mode.  A flick of the switch on the top of the camera enables you to shoot up close and still keep the image in focus.  My only criticism of this is that the switch on the top of the camera can be a little stiff at first, leading to the camera shaking around all over the place whilst you try to switch between modes.  That said, once you get used to flicking between the two modes it isn’t too much of a problem.

So what about the video itself.  Well, although I said earlier I wasn’t disappointed with the Zi8, I was a little disappointed with the quality when I started recording some video of our daughter on Christmas morning.  However, I later discovered that the poor quality was due to the fact that there had been several software updates since that camera was packaged.  Once updating to the latest software there was a noticeable difference in picture quality.

It’s all very well telling you that the quality is quite good, it means nothing unless you can see it for yourself!  I shot this first video using HD mode on a bright, sunny day in Seville:

As you can see, even with the EIS function, there is still a bit of camera shake.  Also, whilst the picture quality is good, it is not quite as clear as you would expect from an HD recording.  Having said that, it would perhaps be unreasonable to expect top quality HD in a pocket camcorder that costs the fraction of a top quality camcorder.

So that’s how it performs in bright conditions, what about in low light conditions?  I shot the following video at night using the 720p mode….

Whilst not perfect, it’s not too bad.  You can still make out some of the details on the various floats and even when zooming in, the quality is still reasonable.

Overall, I am more than happy with the quality of the video from the Zi8.  Considering the size of the device (about the size of a BlackBerry) and its relatively low-cost (£114.99 on Amazon at the moment), I have been really quite impressed.  It will certainly enable us to record some decent quality video of our daughter as she grows up and, to be honest, we can’t ask for more than that.

Web 2.0 Technologies and Public Libraries

For a long time now, I have been a champion of public libraries using various web 2.0 tools in order to improve the quality of the service as well as to expand their reach.  Many web 2.0 technologies have the advantage of being utilised by a large number of people who would otherwise not engage in their local library service.  This is especially true for the group of people that reside somewhere between late childhood and pre-parenthood (although there are a great many parents who do not see the advantage of their local library).  However, utilising such technologies is fraught with problems.  Not least the issue of popularity.

Over the course of the past couple of years, a number of social networking sites have risen and fallen, supplanted by better, more attractive alternatives.  Take MySpace for example.  Although I personally have never had an account (I always found it a a bit of a mess), it was once the darling of the social networking world.  So much so, that Rupert Murdoch (previously unimpressed by the internet) was moved to buy it up in an attempt to gain influence in the expanding market.  Since those heady days, it has been supplanted by Facebook and Twitter as the networking medium of choice.  Now it barely gets a look-in from people who were once part of their core user base.

The fickle nature of social networking sites sprang to mind after reading a piece in TechCrunch on the social bookmarking tool Delicious.  According to Michael Arrington, Delicious is languishing as a result of poor development and declining traffic.  I have to say, as a regular user of Delicious, I was rather surprised by this.  I have been recommending it as a bookmarking tool for sometime now.  I find it simple to use, infinitely superior to storing links on your browser and easier to use than  many other similar services.  Not only do I now discover that, according to one writer anyway, Delicious is in terminal decline, but it is also being supplanted by a new and upcoming rival: Pinboard.  I have no idea how good this service is at the moment (it is in invitation beta mode at the moment – I have submitted my email address for beta testing), but it could provide an interesting alternative.

Perturbed as I am by the [predicted] demise of one of my favourite tools, it also begs the question: When should public libraries hop onboard the web 2.0 bus?  Imagine spending months of your time training staff on using Delicious as an information tool, only to suddenly find it has dropped off the radar and has become defunct.  Imagine spending months creating a Facebook page for your library, only to find that Facebook is no longer the cool thing with the very people you were trying to reach.  At what point should we take the plunge (if at all)? Should we just bite the bullet and get connecting?  Or should we sit and wait until we see how things pan out?  I am not sure if I know the answer.  In times of financial constraints, it seems hard to justify spending money on updating a variety of different web 2.0 technologies when any number of them could become defunct at any moment.  But on the other hand, what about the immediate benefits.  Like I said, it’s a tough call.  I would be interested to hear what others have to say on this.

A Basic Guide to Twitter

I have noticed a number of people signing up for Twitter or asking me about it in recent days and weeks and, undeterred by the amount of blog posts already written on the subject, I thought I would wade in with a few tips on how to use it (there’s a glossary of terms at the end).

1.  Once you have signed up for an account and decided on a username, ensure you add a photo to your profile.  I tend to be very wary of Tweeters who do not have a picture.  Generally speaking, it tends to be spammers that don’t add one and consequently, if you don’t have a picture, many people won’t even consider following you.  So,  in short, if you want to make the most of what Twitter has to offer, add a photo pronto!

2.  Perhaps the most important tip of all.  Once you have chosen a username, make sure you fill in the ‘one line bio’ box in the settings screen.  I cannot emphasise enough just how important this is.  This is what will essentially attract fellow Tweeters to follow you.  Not only fellow Tweeters, but fellow Tweeters that you will actually be interested in following.  For example, I am interested in connecting with librarians, so I indicated in my bio some information that will attract other Tweeters to follow me: “ILS student, wannabe librarian, ebook owner and Web 2.0 addict.” By inputting such information, fellow users will instantly be able to see if you will tweet the sort of things that they are interested in.  Complete this section appropriately, and you will soon attract other users.  Furthermore, by completing this section properly, you will really start to see the benefits of being on Twitter.

3. Once you have sorted out your profile, it’s time to find some other Tweeters.  One of the best ways of finding people to follow is by using Twitter Advanced Search.  By completing the search form, you can easily find other users who ‘tweet’ about things that you are interested in or who live in your area.

4.  Keep your tweets public if you want to gain followers.  If you make them private, no-one will follow you making it less likely to discover anyone that may be of interest.

5.  To send someone a public reply, use ‘@’.  For example, using @ijclark (my username) will ensure that I get a message and that anyone else who follows you will also be able to see that message on your profile page. Furthermore, those that follow both of us will potentially be able to see any @replies (this can be turned off in the settings menu).

6.  To send a private message, use direct message (use ‘D’ followed by a space and then the username of the person the message is directed at).  This ensures that only the sender and the recipient will be able to see the message.

7.  To manage your tweets more effectively, sign up for TweetDeck. This is a desktop application that allows the user to split tweets into columns making them easier to follow as well as making it easier to send @replies, messages and ‘retweets’.

8.  If you have accounts with other social networking sites, eg Delicious, LastFM etc, sign up for Twitterfeed to enable recent activity to be posted to your profile.  For example, if you ‘love’ a song on LastFM, you can set Twitterfeed to post this activity straight to your profile.  Likewise, add a link to your Delicious page and that too can be directed to your Twitter profile via Twitterfeed.  This also applies if you have a blog.  Add the RSS feed to Twitterfeed and a link to your blog post will be added to your Twitter profile.

9.  Link Twitter to Facebook.  By adding the Twitter application on Facebook your Twitter updates will also be posted on your Facebook status…handily killing two birds with one stone.

10. Set up your Twitter account to enable mobile updates.  This makes it far more instantaneous than solely updating when you are at a computer…a massive benefit when using Twitter as the immediacy of tweets are a crucial component in making it such a useful tool.

11. Want to share a website you have found? TinyURL, bit.ly and other shortening tools are essential for shortening web addresses and enabling them to fit within your 140 character limit.

That should be enough to get you started.  It is quite common to sign up for Twitter and think ‘Eh?’, before giving up and wondering what all the fuss was about.  It’s only after you have been using it properly that you begin to see why Twitter is such an excellent tool for connecting to other people.  Since joining I have found it very beneficial, especially in terms of my job as I have been able to pick up various hints and tips I wouldn’t have been aware of previous to signing up. As long as you use Twitter properly, you too will find it a wonderful tool for communicating with others.  It’s not just about telling people about what you are having for lunch…..it is much more than that.

Glossary

Twitter: A social networking site that enables users to connect with others using short messages of 140 characters.

Tweets: The messages that are posted on Twitter.

Tweeter: Someone who writes ‘tweets’ (short messages) on Twitter.

bio: Gives other Tweeters an idea of what you are likely to ‘tweet’ about. Absolutely essential to fill this in.

@[username]: Sends public message to that user.

D [username]: Sends private message to that user.

Retweet: Resending a tweet that someone else has written.

TweetDeck: Organises ‘tweets’ into groups making it easier to manage.

Twitterfeed: A tool that sends RSS updates to your Twitter profile (including blog posts and activity from other social networking websites).

TinyURL: A tool that shortens web addresses.

The iPhone 3G

The iPhone 3G

As followers of my Twitterings will know, I have finally given in and bought myself the new iPhone 3G.  I had been thinking of purchasing a smartphone for a little while now, although it was the Blackberry Storm that I was giving more serious consideration (mainly because it was on the same network that I was already on).  However, after reading a lot of negative reviews of the Storm (especially when it was compared to the iPhone), I decided that probably wasn’t worth the outlay.  It was only after having a play around on a neighbour’s iPhone and seeing what it could do, that I gave it serious consideration (that and the new price plans that were on offer).  With a baby on the way, I knew it was now or never (when will I be able to afford things like this again!?), so I took the plunge and signed up for the contract (something I never thought I would do!).  I have to say, I have not regretted it one bit.  It really is an amazing piece of equipment and has quickly become my favourite gadget (beating even my beloved e-book reader).

Of course the first thing that strikes you with the iPhone is the interface.  The touch screen is really quite amazing, as is the accelerometer (the mechanism that detects the orientation of the phone and adjust the display accordingly). However, the 3G model has a number of new features.  Firstly, and most obviously, it has the addition of 3G technology which enables faster data speeds.   It also had the addition of assisted GPS, enabling the phone to pinpoint your exact location.  This can be used in conjunction with a number of applications.  For example, with ‘Location Services’ switched on in the Settings menu, you can access Google maps and at the press of a button the phone will highlight your location.  Using the search bar above the map, you can search for anything you fancy.  Enter the word ‘cafe’ and it will search for all the cafes in the area, highlight them with a red pin and provide a link to contact information (including phone number, address and website).  Not only does it locate your search terms, it can also give you directions to your chosen destination, giving you distances and times by foot, car or bus (including the time of the next bus!).  Should you be on the move when you have requested directions, it will act as a sat-nav and follow your progress in real-time (and pretty accurate it is too).  A pretty nifty little tool.

There are a whole host of other functions on the phone, including the ability to play films (I recently purchased Tropic Thunder which came with a digital copy, and was promptly transferred), view photos, watch YouTube clips and sync the phone’s calender with Outlook.  There are also a host of other functions that are available from the App Store, a fantastic innovation that allows developers to create software that utilise the iPhone’s unique control system.  I have already downloaded a number of applications (some free, some at a small fee), including:

• Facebook– Obviously links the phone to your Facebook account
• Twitterfon – Probably the best of the Twitter based applications available
• Last.fm– Links to your last.fm account and enables you to stream music from your last.fm playlists
• Flixster – Works with the location function to locate local cinemas, display listing, watch trailers and, depending on the cinema, book tickets
• Feeds– Links to Google Reader account to display RSS feeds
• Google Earth– Google’a amazing application for the iPhone.

Of these, only Feeds required a small payment (£1.75), the rest were totally free.

So far, I have been totally blown away by what the iPhone has to offer.  A number of the applications are truly superb and it has been a very worthwhile purchase.  The only real drawback so far has been the battery life.  For the first week I was charging fairly regularly (almost daily in fact).  But I have a feeling this was more down to the fact that I was using it a lot to get used to what it could do, rather than the fact that it runs out absurdly quickly.  I have since discovered a number of ways to minimise battery wastage, and I have certainly noticed an increase in battery life between charges (there are a whole load of tips here).  So all in all, the phone is pretty impressive and I certainly haven’t regretted giving in and signing a contract.  It will be interesting to see what other new applications will be developed in the near future.  For now, the iPhone has merely scratched the surface of what is possible.  Who knows what may emerge when they dig a little deeper.