Discovering libraries through geocaching

Geo-what? I'm guessing that's the first thing that popped into your head when you read the name of this post. Don't worry, it's an activity that most people don't know about.

According to the main geocaching website, www.geocaching.com, geocaching is:

a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.

It's a great way to discover new places, and one of the main reasons that geocachers say they enjoy the hobby is that it's taken them to places that they otherwise wouldn't have visited (even within their own city). Currently there are approximately 1.8 million geocaches hidden around the world, and 5 million geocachers.

The main reason for me to write this post was to spread the word about geocaching and how it can be used by libraries as an outreach and promotion activity. As an example, one of my colleagues (who is also geocacher) and I recently placed a geocache in Macquarie University Library. With the opening of the new library, we wanted to encourage people to come and discover it. We thought that a cache would help with this, and be something a bit different. There are several other caches in Australian libraries, or ones nearby which require a bit of research in the library in order to find them e.g. there’s one near the National Library in Canberra.

There are several projects and ideas that I've come across that combine libraries and geocaching:

●     The University of Notre Dame in Indiana came up with "Caching in at the Library" for their orientation programme for first year students.

●     A librarian at Shoshone Public Library in Idaho has hidden a cache in the library as part of their summer reading programme.

●     As part of their activities to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, the State Library of Victoria has got into geocaching. A series of caches was placed along the route that the expedition took, as well as at other sites associated with the explorers.

There are also caches which have been placed in a library by regular geocachers with the permission of the library. Some of these include:

●     A cache with a Dr Who theme in the Manly Public Library

●     A cache within the British Library

●     A cache within the Kolding Library in Denmark

Most of the caches within libraries require cachers to note down information that can be found in the building e.g. the year the library opened, or the number of words on a plaque or sign. This makes them a useful way of showcasing a particular collection or feature of the library.

Geocaching is a way to allow people to discover your library who may otherwise not visit. With the explosion in the use of smartphones, many more people have the technology to allow them to take part in geocaching. It represents an opportunity for libraries to market and promote themselves in a fun and educational way. Why not give it a go?

Andrew Spencer is a Liaison Librarian at the Macquarie University Library.

A Review of Social Media Apps

I like to think of myself as a pretty savvy guy, an up-to-the-minute librarian and an all-around social media guru. Well, maybe not a guru, but a guru-in-training. Before I was a librarian, I worked in online marketing for a social network before it was cool. And now I do training for library staff and library users on everything from Facebook & Twitter for Beginners to Social Media Marketing 101.

So when it was suggested that I join the ALIA Biennial Social Media Committee, I thought, piece of cake. I know my way around Facebook and Twitter, inside and out, backwards and forwards, blindfolded. 

But the SM Committee blew me away. They didn't talk so much about the SM standards (like Facebook and Twitter--although they knew their way around an FB admin page and a hashtag), they talked about the new kids on the block. Archivist. Storify. Diigo. Paper.li. SpringPad.

These were social media applications I’d never heard of. Then there were the apps I had heard of but never really gave a chance: Pinterest. Tumblr. Librarything. Good Reads.

So, in the spirit of ALIA Biennial 2012, I plan to take the theme of DISCOVERY to heart and explore every social media app I’ve never used or use very rarely. I expect that I’m not that only one who has never heard of some of these (or never used them), so I would like to share what I discover with other ALIA delegates and LIS colleagues. While other SM Committee members will provide in-depth details of how they are using these apps, I want to provide you with a quick snapshot of those social media apps that are new to me and ones that I am just discovering. Likewise, if we have a ALIA Biennial blog post with more in-depth info, I'll add the link as well.

So have a look at some of the newest social media apps as well as some you may have not given a chance. Maybe one of them will be a social media life saver!

Likewise, what are some of the apps that I missed but you love? Is there an app out there that you couldn't survive with out? Is there an app that is just plain fun, a guilty pleasure?

ALIA Biennial blog post?	App	Type	How it's used	Follow me
	Pinterest	Social image/video organiser	Use it to organise and share photos and videos	My Pinterest
	Tumblr	Social web organiser/blog	Use it to organise and share text, photos, quotes, links, music and videos in a blog format	My Tumblr
	Archivist	Twitter archiver	Create an archive of Tweets that you can later analyse, export and share (limits: it cannot go back in time and it uses the Search API, not the "firehose")	My Archive
	LibraryThing	Social book catalogue/network	Create a "library-quality" catalogue, list what you've read, & create a book-based social network. Great for creating a personal catalogue.	My LibraryThing
	goodreads	Social book catalogue/network	Social bookshelves with reviews and ratings--a great way to find book recommendations based on what you've read and what you want to read.	My goodreads
	Storify	Social web organiser/blogish	Pull together elements from different social networks & add your text to create a story	My Storify

(cross posted on the ALIA Biennial blog)

-Jeff Cruz

@jncruz on Twitter

User Education Librarian

City of Sydney Library

Reading Discoveries

One of my favourite poems is John Keats’ On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer.

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
   And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
   Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
   That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
   Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
   When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
   He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
   Silent, upon a peak in Darien.


In his poem, John Keats has spent years reading Homer and though he knows that this old, epic tale is loved by many it isn’t until he reads a translation by George Chapman that he understands the beauty of The Odyssey and The Iliad and it feels to him much like an amazing new discovery.


This poem has always served as a reminder to me as a readers’ advisory librarian to keep an open mind about people’s reading preferences and to actively challenge myself not only to read beyond my own interests but to reread in areas that I have not previously enjoyed. It is about considering a new storyteller when all the other storytellers have not given you that feeling of magic that you hear other readers discussing. For example, I have read numerous science fiction novels over the last 30 years yet none have filled me with awe and compelled me to read more. But I continue to read a few science fiction novels a year for I am hoping to have my Chapman’s moment and eventually discover a whole new world to explore.


Last week, the Orange Prize for Fiction was awarded to Madeline Miller for The Song of Achilles. Here is yet another book of a story that is thousands of years old that is still inspiring retellings and rediscovery of Homer's popular and much loved tale. 


I think that it is apt then that the ALIA Biennial this year has the theme of Discovery. Our library and information profession is as old as Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad. And just as Homer’s original story has changed over the millennia so has our profession. From the original depositories of scrolls, to the codex, the printing press and now to digitisation, The Odyssey and The Iliad and librarians have been on an age old journey together as keepers, disseminators and storytellers. And as long as there are new readers in the world, Homer and librarians will continue towards discovery.

Looking across the Peloponnese from Mycenae, Greece: the location from which Helen was kidnapped by Paris, triggering the Trojan War. (Photograph is Vassiliki's own.)

Vassiliki Veros is the ALIA State Manager for NSW, and is on the steering committee for the NSW Readers' Advisory Working Group, which runs the Love2Read Reading Group celebrating the National Year of Reading 2012.

Blog Every Day of June

 

Welcome to the first day of our virtual event- Blog Every Day of June. ALIA Sydney is going to participate in this wonderful blogging event for the second time. It is with great pleasure that I announce that we have guest bloggers hailing from both international and local libraries along with your ALIA Sydney committee members, who will be blogging about anything and everything related to library and information sciences to bring you a wonderful array of thought-provoking, inspiring and illuminating posts.

So I hope you can join with me in celebrating this year's Blog Every Day of June by following our blog posts, and engaging in conversation via the comments function on each blog post. You can follow our blog feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ALIASydney or you can catch each blog post on the @ALIASyd Twitter feed. Happy Blog Every Day of June!

For this first post, I thought I'd share with you some ideas I've had to do with dreaming up new ways of discovering things at your library, whether it be your public library or your research library...
For me, it's all about finding interesting books to read for pleasure.

One of the things I loved about my first library job (which was in a public library) was discovering what the library had to offer by just working on the circulation desk. As a library assistant, I did a lot of shifts on this desk, and it was great to see what was getting checked out, and more importantly for me, what was getting checked in, so I could get dibbs on some really interesting things to read for myself!

I’m pretty sure I rarely had to venture into the shelves themselves to discover something to read of my own volition, unless I was looking for something specific!

The only drawback to this vulture-like picking off of returns (come on- you know you love looking at the recently returned shelf at your local library, as much as I do!!), is that I ended up with too much stuff to read, and way too many books on my library account.

Now that I no longer work in a public library, but instead in an academic life sciences library, the kinds of books that I check in on a day-to-day basis appeal to me less in a reading-for-pleasure kind of way (although some of the titles, provide much amusement and hilarity, but that’s a blog post for another day!)

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was an app that allowed you to see in real time what was being checked back in at the library, or what had just been put back on the shelf? I envision it to be kind of like a twitter feed that you could integrate into a library’s mobile site or mobile app.

What about an app that geolocates you in the library, and pops up with recommendations that are on the shelf near you, based on your reading history?

Does anyone else have any other ideas for 'how cool would it be if...’ type apps for the library?

- Crystal Choi is the convenor of ALIA Sydney and is a Faculty Liaison Librarian at the University of Sydney Library. She tweets @crystalibrary.

What is a discovery layer?

Storytime. Last year a few of us from UTS Library were invited to go and talk with students and then help to assess their augmented reality (AR) application concepts that could be applied to the UTS campus. They were advanced Visual Communications students working with some pretty clever and inspiring academics, including a visiting lecturer (Dr Keir Winesmith) who is normally the technical lead for SBS Digital Media. From memory, nearly all of the concepts they came up with were influenced in some way by the students’ use of and experience with social media. One of the concepts was tightly focussed on the Library and based on mobile service including mobile search and discovery and mobile check out.

The student library application included many features that they expected to see and use to search and discover our library’s collections: a basic item record; tags; ratings; reviews; comments; AND the item’s history of use. The history was represented graphically to show frequency and periods of use and even whether the item had been the subject of a fine for late return. We have taken their suggestions very seriously and it has confirmed our belief that we needed to add a basic social media layer to our “discovery layer” with new features such as folksonomic tags, ratings and reviews or comments. We are also looking into the feasibility of adding the item’s history of use.

This experience started me thinking about a number of things. Are we really offering true “discovery”, i.e. the chance of uncovering something accidentally or serendipitously that you may not have been specifically searching for in our online search interfaces? I don’t think so, not yet. They are mostly enhanced search, federated search or unified index based searching. Are we offering our clients, or users, or readers (or whatever you want me to call them Kathryn!) the kinds of services they are expecting to find online now based on their use of social media and various online services and applications that enable profile sharing and which deliver a more personal or shared experience online? No again I’m afraid. To do that I think we need to find out what our clients are doing, observe their behaviours and also talk to people from outside the library world to find out how we might leap ahead of what the predictable, slow-moving crowd that sells us library management systems and so-called discovery layers has to offer. In short, we need to stop walking like Egyptians and learn some new dance steps.

Now, in case you still don’t get it, here are some suggestions that might lead to enhanced serendipitous discovery. They are taken from my own experience with social media and other online services that I think are a long way ahead of our offerings. They enhance your ability to discover new things accidentally through your network of contacts or friends or through the “muddy foot prints” of others who have gone before you and altruistically shared their experience. For me I think it all comes from understanding the power of connections and sharing that is now offered by the web.

For a start, we definitely must start offering these features for our catalogues and search layers: comments (e.g. Flickr); folksonomic tagging (Flickr, Twitter); easy to use ratings (iTunes, LibraryThing); virtual browsing using Cover Flow (I know some libraries are already offering this); and reviews (Amazon, Expedia, iTunes Store).

And now a listing of the other features I like to use and would like to see some of us playing with:

• Little icons that quickly allow you to share a link to what you are viewing on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook or a blog (Flickr does this very well now). I was also going to suggest little icons to social bookmarking services like Delicious and Diigo, but maybe the toolbar icons that are now added so easily in browsers like Google’s Chrome account for that?

• “Like” icons (Facebook, Tumblr).

• Reblog, retweet or re-post options (Twitter and Tumblr again, and yes Kathryn, I think we have much to learn from the pr0n industry online).

• The optional ability to establish, customise and share online profiles (last.fm) for “your library” that then facilitates the use of favourites (Flickr), “following” (Tumblr, Twitter), asking (Tumblr, Twitter) and things like wishlists (Amazon) which for libraries could mean things like planned reading lists stored for later and shared with friends or colleagues. I see this kind of thing being really useful in facilitating peer-to-peer help or advice that would be helpful to those using our databases or journals.

• Online profiles would also enable features like “scrobbling” your reading, use, borrowing history (last.fm). These profiles allow us to explore through the eyes of others. It works for music because people can easily find music they might like that is well beyond the boring and repetitive play lists of most radio stations.

• A check-in or currently reading/viewing service that might operate something like FourSquare. So, instead of locating yourself geographically, you are sharing where your headspace currently is in the library.

• Randomly exploring what you already know but have forgotten (Apple's Genius) related items (iTunes Store Genius recommendations).

• "Looking within" or sampling from a catalogue entry (Amazon & iTunes: e.g. listening or getting sample of an e-book before you buy).

• Is anyone offering an “I’m Feeling Lucky” button yet (Google)?

• Item use history (UTS students), including the application of late fees!

• Stumbling (StumbleUpon) another opt-in service that tracks your searching, browsing, use or borrowing history and then feeds you other items you might also find interesting or relevant.

I realise that doing all of the above isn’t feasible, nor would it be wise. We do, however, need to try a few of those features and when we set them up we must make them really easy and simple to use. I’ve probably missed a few things, so please let me know what you think.

- Mal Booth

Mal is from UTS Library and is interested in bikes. He's on the twitters @malbooth & blogs here.