23rd Thing

Well, I have enjoyed the '23 things' unlike many of my colleagues. I have enjoyed being forced to learn about some the the technologies and applications that I would not have otherwise bothered with. In my personal life I will continue to use the things that I was already using and most likely won't bother with those I wasn't. I think it is important to be in touch with what most of our user community are using and relate to and this process has been useful in that respect. I am in the fortunate position of having had time to complete each task, therefore I was able to get the most of out the learning experience without other pressures.
I really feel that there is scope for improvement with the services we offer to our user community using some of the what we have learnt about in 23 things, most notably the use of instant messaging to a librarian for remote users. More often than not patrons want help or an answer immediately.

Thing 22 Instant Messaging

My husband is very often overseas for work and we make heavy use of skype! I love the instant messaging but as I'm usually trying to study when I'm online at home I find myself caught up in conversation and not getting much study done at all. In my current position I have no need to use this kind of application at work but I can see the benefits of conducting a brief conversation with work colleagues without having to send emails back and forth or physically getting together to discuss something.
As far as utilising this technology within the library for users to speak to us, it would be great if this function were made available to enhance our services. The uni that I study through as a distance ed student has this 'ask a librarian' service available and when I was a brand newbie mature age external student, I found it very useful. Our libraries have been addressing needs of patrons with regard to library opening hours, online resources etc and this would definitely improve and enhance our service.

Thing 18

Well, I was a bit ahead of schedule before but now it has been weeks since I have looked at '23 things'. Completion date is drawing closer so now its time to get a wriggle on and finish. After looking at Encore, Ebscohost 2.0 etc it is all very interesting, how successful has the rollout of Encore been with the limitations that have been set? How successful would it be if we did allow students to utilise all of the functions that should be available? The only way we will know is if we do it! I think there is a lot of hype surrounding these new technologies and usercentred change but we have one foot in the old 'library controlled' camp and the other in the 'usercentred' camp. Maybe it is time to fully commit to 'usercentred' and put that other foot there. Of course, with all of these new technologies and applications and talk of usercentred change there is an assumption that ALL of our patrons know what this is all about. Working in a library is a career change for me and I'm at the bottom of the heap hierarchically speaking. This means that I am however in the fortunate position of being in the front line with patrons. There are many patrons wandering around without a clue how to actually access the resources that we have available and this includes the 'digital native' generation. Usercentred change MUST focus on user education otherwise we can rollout as much as we like but we will encounter reluctance from patrons unwilling to wade through new technologies and applications on their own.