Beyond Method #12

This was a great course. Along with all of the new things I learned, I was able to learn more about the stuff I already knew. Several of the web tools, like the Texas Career Skills, have already made it into some of our current operations (i.e., job hunting online pathfinder). Stuff like the screencasting and digital storytelling offer a lot of fun ways to get people interested in the library. Though I already blog a lot anyway, now I can maximize its true potential.

Beyond Method #11

We've actually been using polls and surveys for quite a while here with our Computer classes, asking patrons in attendance to fill out a Knowledge Skills assessment survey prior to each class and then, when it's over, asking them fill out another survey for feedback from the class itself (what did your learn that you didn't know before, was the teacher satisfactory, etc.). Previously for these surveys we just used a modified lykert scale for the end of class one and more of a questionnaire at the start. This Summer for our adult programs, we held weekly First-lines quizzes testing patrons on how well-read they were. Each quiz was composed of ten multiple choice questions with the first line of a novel as the question. Patrons were asked to select from the choices below what novel it was from. For this I used a program called ProProfs Quiz Maker which wasn't one of the tools discussed but was still a great tool, easy to set up, easy to customize and easy to print. It also allowed for each quiz to be embedded into our own adult Reader's advisory blog, Moore Musings. All in all quizzes, polling and surveys are kind of a big deal at our library (statistics=budget/funding modifications) and we will definitely be rigorous with our continued use of all of the tools described.

Beyond Methody #10

So I've skype before at my home computer but once again, since i don't have administrative priveleges with our network, I couldn't get all of the applications to work right. I think it's frankly really cool how something I watched in Back to the Future part 1 so far back in the 1980's is now for real for real. This past May my sister married a Russian guy whose parents weren't able to make the trip to Florida. So the groom and his friends Skyped the whole thing for them. Amazing! We use skype some here at the library for conference calls and webinars and for an "author visit" during our Texas City Reads program next month. We will definitely be using it more and more in the future and I'm looking forward to it.

Beyond Method #9

Fortunately myself and our other librarians have already had some 'digital stories' we've told because of our community's heritage project of which we were apart of. Links to those sites, by the way, can be seen here, here and here. But I still had fun with animoto constructing another digital story, this one based on some random photos and a few creative ideas. Voiceover was still a no go but I think people can still get the gist of what I was trying to say. Animoto was fairly good on the usability with not a lot of complicated wording or techie jargon. Digital storytelling may be the most fun beyond activity thus far and one of the most well-developed.

Beyond Method #8

So even though I couldn't use any of the Desktop or Mac-based screencasting softwares--didn't have time to get our IT guy to go through the administrative stuff--I was able to use the cloud-based software (a great tool and where I think software is really headed). Screenr I found to be the easiest as well as the most reliable and I was able to upload some photos from our Summer programs to use as material. I was going to try and record something but that was a no-no as well with our IT stuff. Ironically, we've been using screencasting for a while now. Several of our computer classes have been converted to screencasts and at one time we developed a tool for people who needed help with overdrive. I could see us using this in the future for more and more technical applications regarding library services, especially as technology starts replacing analog resources and many patrons will need help with it. And although I don't know to what extent we will be using it, I can see it definitely serving a purpose.

Beyond Method #7

After reviewing the various presentation applications, all them good by the way, I decided to go with Google Docs because even though I'm most familiar with it I haven't tried to format a presentation from it. Oddly enough, Google Docs isn't much different from MS PowerPoint in both layout and slideshow presentation. You can even convert existing powerpoint presentations you may already have. The presentation I did consisted of bits and pieces of our pathfinders which I've done in the past, showcasing resources the library has to offer. After looking over the other options, I think I should have gone with Prezi which seemed more accessible via various other portable devices. However, having not heard about it before, I'm not so sure how our staff and patrons would take to it. Obviously we use presentations a lot here at the library. And not just for computer classes, adult programming or webpage stuff. What I do think is that, as a reference librarian I'll refer patrons more to Google Docs (I already do, but not previously as a presentation tool), SlideShare and Prezi. When I looked at 280 Slides and SlideRocket, I had too many problems getting the software to work on my own computer.