Thing 17: Prezi

Prezi is by far my favourite Thing so far. It's so much fun!

I'm doing information skills sessions soon, so I uploaded my powerpoint slides and turned them into a prezi. It looked far more interesting than the powerpoint!

I then deleted it because I didn't want to make my work public. It's frustrating that you need to pay to keep it private. I may end up making use of the free trial... It's good though that you at least that you have the option to let people copy your work.

Thing 19: Catch up week on integrating Things

What have I gained and how have I been using what I've learnt?

Well, I've started using this blog again and got back onto LinkedIn. I've learnt about mentoring, advocacy and conferences, among other things.

I haven't yet been able to integrate what I've learnt into my daily routine/work, except what I was already using (e.g. RSS feeds). Hopefully I will have the knowledge (and this blog as a prompt is necessary!) to use these skills when I need them.

Thing 18: Screen capture and podcasting

My ancient laptop is struggling a bit to download all the extra software that's suggested as part of CPD23 so I'm going to skip Jing this week. As The Book Gryphon explains, short videos may well be very useful for explaining library tasks and might help teach or reinforce skills taught at inductions. I've watched the demo for Screencapture and it looks quite useful for filming tutorial videos to demonstrate how to use the library catalogue etc.

I was introduced to podcasts on my last 23 things course and I think they could serve a similar purpose. Personally I find visual media more memorable and easier to follow, so I would be more inclined to produce a video of, for example, how to access the library catalogue or make a presentation available rather than a podcast, which is an audio resource.

Things 15 & 16: Conferences and Advocacy

OK, I admit it, I have not done much in the realms of conferences and advocacy, and I must try harder. I did make it to the CILIP New Professionals Information Day and Conference in June, which I found very interesting and I recommend going to find out more about the profession and to meet other people.

I gave a presentation at the Oxford Trainees Showcase in 2010, which was not half as scary as I thought it would be. I also co-organised the Showcase, which turned out to be quite fun.

There is a lot of interesting material that has been written about library advocacy online, and I've just spent a very happy hour reading through the links provided on this week's Thing. I was particularly struck by the That's Not Online! Project. It's important to encourage people to look beyond what they can find on Google because I think there is a tendency head there before heading (if at all) to the catalogue, the bookshelves or the library's e-resources.