A morning in the life...

Hi!

This is Heather here, bringing you a post about how I start my work day and fit in a library world news update before the daily rush begins.

I tend to start my work day at around 8am as I am the person to call if you are calling in sick to work. I need to be in before those calls start and to look at rearranging the rosters before library opening at 9.30am.

I’ve come a long way since I first took over taking charge of the rosters nearly 18 months ago. At first I would stare at the roster and peer at the names on it until they became blurry and hope that they would just jump into place for me by themselves. They never did though, I always had to take the action myself.

Over time, the formula for how the rosters worked became so ingrained in my head that it has become very simple to move names around, knowing exactly where different people are able to work and what their needs and preferences are. I feel that doing this work has also improved my problem solving skills (as there is something to change nearly every day), my flexibility with my work and ability to cope with sudden disruption. I am constantly working with a house of cards that could fall to pieces any minute! It can be a stressful job, especially in winter, where we have had up to seven people call in sick on one day this year (my record is twelve), but generally, I’ve developed great coping skills and have learned not to be too precious about my beautiful and perfect roster being ruined by illness.

While I’m waiting for the calls to start coming in, I spend an hour or so checking twitter and reading blogs to put me into library mode for the day. I use twitter only professionally and find it a fantastic news stream of interesting articles and for gathering ideas. I follow other public libraries, other librarians I’ve met, library workers overseas, LIS bloggers, museums, public intellectuals, writers and artists, among others. Having a constant stream of inspiration headed my way every morning really increases the buzz from the first coffee of the day and has me feeling informed and excited about what’s going on before the rest of the library staff have even got here.

Although I mostly read and occasionally retweet, I’d love to connect with any others LIS professionals out there and hear what you have to say. You’ll find me @hettie_betty

Heather

Social Media and Librarians - ALLA Event

Hello everyone. I am excited to invite you to an ALLA NSW event in Western Sydney! Nathan Turner, the e-Resources Librarian at Parramatta City Library will show us the ways in which librarians can use social media such as Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn. We will also be discussing the crafting of a social media strategy.

When: 20 March 5.30pm

Where: Retro Room, Parramatta Library, Civic Pl, Parramatta NSW, 2150

How much: $10 (refreshments provided)

Please RSVP by emailing me at holger_aman@agd.nsw.gov.au by Monday 18 March. Please include any dietary requirements with your RSVP.

We hope to see you all there, especially our colleagues based in Western Sydney.

Holger Aman
Reference Librarian | Law Courts Library

The Google+ Project, Yay or Nay?

Unless you have been completely disconnected this week or totally snowed under reading #blogjune posts, you know the internet is all a twitter (literally) about Google+, Google’s latest stab at social networking. While the jury is still out for this project, many are jumping on board and giving it a test drive. The pull is so strong that allegedly Mark Zucerberg has even joined up.

Features

The three main features that differentiate Google+ are:

• Circles- The ability to share information with specific groups of defined people instead of just sending out information to everyone
• Sparks-This feature offers links to news items, blog posts, etc on specific topics, the idea is that they will ‘spark’ conversations within your circles
• Hangouts and Huddles- for tailored video chatting, collaboration and information sharing 

Other features include the ability to download your data stream to create a backup and also, as one might expect, integration into other Google products.

 

A few initial features that Google+ is lacking are

• Google+ for Tweet Deck
•  The ability to feed tweets and blog post automatically and utilize RSS
• Apps!

One other issue that has come to light is about information re-sharing. Tim Bradshaw at FT Tech Hub found that much like tweets, anyone in your Circles (and consequently their Circles) can share and re-share anything you post including photos.  But is this really a problem in the social networking world? For some yes, for others no, but at least it is good to know going in.

 Google+ and Libraries?

So what are the potential opportunities for libraries? The two most obvious are the possible uses of Circles and the Hangout feature. Tailored conversations could be constructed with Circles; book groups, mothers groups, professional clients, students groups, seniors, etc can each receive specific news and information. I am reminded of how The Library of Congress offers a myriad of RSS feeds on a variety of topics, could Google+ circles be applied similarly? But do we need another RSS like way of communicating information? The other potential is with the video conferencing feature in Hangouts. Whenever we can meet up online in real time for free, we owe it to ourselves to least have a good look. Video conferencing is nothing new, but the ability to do it with groups quickly and easily is definitely interesting. It could be applied to book groups, research work, live reference chat or professional development. 

The Elephant in the Room

But the question remains, do people want yet another social media platform? Between Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Foursquare, etc, do we really have the time to spend populating yet another feed? Will Google+ go the way of the Wave? Only time will tell. 

Roundup

Obviously we are still in early days and the opinions are pouring in, here is a brief roundup of some of the online chatter surrounding Google+: 

Turn Google+ Into Facebook at Tech Crunch

‘My Tweet-length opinion is that Google+ is like Facebook with a more usable, streamlined Photos and Groups interface (and that might be enough to win). Only time will tell.’ 

Google Plus Review: Fun, interesting and totally empty at Washington Post

“Playing around with Google + last night, I had a ball clicking buttons and playing with the features the network had to offer. But I kept running into the same problem — there was no one in this sandbox but me.” 

First Night With Google Plus: This is Very Cool at Read Write Web

“Anything that can increase the percentage of social software users who are actively curating dynamic, topical sources is a net win for the web and for the people who use it.”

Google+ First Impressions at Mashable

“Conclusion: Google+ is a bold and dramatic attempt at social. There’s a reason why Google calls this a “project” rather than a “product” — they don’t want people to think of this as the final product, but as a constantly-evolving entity that permeates every corner of the Google empire.”

Eight Quick Thoughts on Google Plus at Manhattan Local News

“Google is going after some of the obvious issues with Facebook.”

Google+ first impressions: My big three takeaways at Venture Beat

“Circles allows for the complexities of real-world relationships to be organized in a better way than what’s currently available in social networking” 

A big thank you goes out to @VesnaC, @eclecticlib and @MissEmilieLib for your thoughts on Google+

-Amy Barker is an ALIA Sydney committee member and tweets as @unlikelylibrary