Twitter is a two-way street

Well, I took a really long break from updating my blog, apparently. Since my last post, I've been hired back at my previous position that I was laid off at due to budget issues (a lack thereof); I'm so excited to be back there, even if just for 4-6 weeks (and am still looking for permanent employment). I was brought back to continue working on the three websites I had been essentially webmaster of, and might be able to incorporate some emerging technologies and social software into outreach. This was originally brought up from my contribution to a logic model for grant writing, where I was tasked with describing the value of the center's websites through inputs and activities, and then showed progression to immediate and future outcomes. I proposed some ideas I'm excited about working with if my supervisor gives me the go ahead at our meeting next week.

Looking even more closely at incorporating web 2.0 into our site, and after recently reading more marketing and library outreach books, I'm really noticing even more where a 2.0 presence can be lacking for libraries and similar institutions. Andy Burkhardt's Information Tyrannosaur blog discusses what libraries should tweet and how to improve listening skills; I couldn't agree more -- libraries need to be part of the discussion and not just making one-way announcements. It seems odd to me when I see numerous library profiles that have followers, but follow no one back in return. Twitter and other social media (but Twitter exemplifies this point the best here) should be a platform to hear what people think of services and collections and enter into a discussion with users for not only improvements, but also to just show the library is listening.

Instead of just announcements or answering reference questions, projecting a personality can help users connect more with the library. Brian Mathews's book, Marketing Today's Academic Library, relates to this with excellent ideas. Users should want to incorporate the library into their personal brand by being associated with it via their web presence (and of course in person). The most popular 2.0 entities seem to have this going for them, where it's not just informational but also entertaining to read updates and look at links. Not all posts should be just about what's new with the library, but show the students that the library is a hub of useful information to them in general (Mathews discusses this as well). An example of this is Mental Floss Magazine on Twitter; although not a library, they post interesting facts each day as well as "did you know..." type questions making followers interested in finding the answers. When new materials come into the library, perhaps instead of just announcing this in a very straightforward way, positing a trivia question about something the new items could answer could intrigue students. As Burkhart's blog and Mathews's book also both mention, promoting others' events can benefit the library. Promoting student group and university-wide information might make others want to in turn promote the library. This can be accomplished through re-tweeting on Twitter (and Facebook), and off the computer through flyers and other traditional methods.

When I see a library account with followers that follows no one in return, I get an impression that the library either has no interest in what the people who are interested in the library are thinking or doing, or is just not savvy enough to realize following the followers is important. Granted, if a library has thousands of followers, it would be difficult to keep up with this, but if feasible, someone(s) should try to devote more time to the social media presence. I've seen time and time again how people judge customer service of corporations from responsiveness on Twitter, and that can entirely make or break loyalty.

As a disclaimer, I do sound obsessed with Twitter since I haven't touched on other aspects of web 2.0 as much, but I just think it serves as an excellent example. Something I proposed in my section of the logic model was to incorporate more crowd sourcing to our teacher site for environmental health lesson plans and resources, by using Del.icio.us. This is another way to show users their input is valued, by allowing them to contribute. Posting a Del.icio.us feed to the front page showing new resources (instead of just updating the pathfinder links) could not only involve users, but also provide better statistics for us on what information is being sought out and what is currently important. (On Del.icio.us, you can save a link for someone else, and then once they approve it, it is added to their links page.)

I haven't used Flickr as extensively, but if there is a way to save photos for others, this would be great too. If someone else took photos at an event or of just the library in general, their images could be added to the publicized feed with credit to them.

I'm really excited about working on these ideas and am continuing to read related books and blogs for more inspiration. Hopefully, my next update won't be too far in the future and I will keep track of how these ideas are coming along.

From one stereotype to another

I'm a little torn. On one hand, I think it's great that the librarian stereotype is being re-vamped; instead of shushers with buns, we are now considered techie hipsters with tats. But that's also the problem: librarians are still being stereotyped.

One of the reasons I was so enamored with the profession when I began library school was that there were so many different kinds of people with many different interests. It's part of what makes the LIS discourse so varied and interesting.

Two recent articles prompting me to write this are today's CNN article, The future of libraries, with or without books, and the write up about the roller derby librarian, Tiny librarian is hell on wheels, also from CNN. Of course, the NYT article about the Williamsburg hipster librarians can also be credited for being in the back of my mind, but that came out right when I started my program.

I've been thinking about if this is really a good thing to be thought of as being mostly urban, young, technologically inclined, and pushing out the "old-school librarians" (CNN). What kind of impression does this give a younger patron (at any kind of library)? That they might only want to ask for help from a librarian who fits this description or they won't get as good of service? What kind of impression does this give an older patron? That if they aren't up on technology they might feel intimidated?

Another problem with this stereotype is it falls heavily on those who are white and middle-class. Granted, that seems to be who makes up the majority of the profession (myself included), but pushing this image discredits the diversity we do have and the diversity the profession is trying to acquire.

To depict LIS professionals as being varied in appearance, age, class, race/ethnicity, and areas of specialty would probably benefit the profession more than jumping from one narrow stereotype to another.

Rhymes with design

From January to present, I have been working at the University of Arizona's Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center, located in the College of Pharmacy. I am specifically within the Community Outreach and Education Core and have been doing a variety of tasks, but mostly web design.

Since June, I have mainly been focused on restructuring the architecture of the main website used by The Center, and then re-designing all the individual pages, when applicable. Although I have also done some reference, tutorial creation, and a little bit of instruction, this is the bulk of my job.

Previously, I completely re-designed the Community Outreach website from scratch. You can read my official paper on how I planned that out here (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~nfp/PagowskyCOEC.pdf), with sample screen shots of the new design embedded. In accordance with user-friendliness and tenets of design, the goal was cleaner organization, crisper design, and users (most with slow internet connections) had to be kept in mind, which is why everything is in HTML only and all the previous drop down menus had been eliminated. The older site is still up if you'd like to view it (http://coep.pharmacy.arizona.edu) -- other graduate interns are working on posting the new lesson plan pages, which means it will take awhile longer for the new site to go live.

In contrast, the SWEHSC site I am finishing up presently is meant for researchers mostly, but also the public interested in Center news. The persistent navigation was created with JavaScript, and all pages are PHP compatible. The main problem with this site was the architecture, rather than the design (or both). The previous Webmaster did not fully understand templates, so files were created, but not a single page was made from them. To explain the glory of templates, let's say I wanted to change the URL of one link in the persistent navigation; if all my pages were made from templates, I would only have to open the template and make the adjustment, and then all the pages made from that template would automatically update. If I did not use templates, then depending on how big my site was, I might really need to clear my appointment book for the day (or two) and hunker down so I could make this one change in every single webpage. The site I am working on is quite large, so having no templates in use had become very problematic for anyone needing to make updates, which is why I was asked to begin work on this.

The project doesn't just end there though, because all of the files and folders were not organized very well. Every mini-site had a folder, including a folder for images, plus an image folder with folders inside that, and then another image folder in the templates folder. What's more, some mini-sites were designated multiple site folders when only one was needed; images and pages were not saved with descriptive-enough names, and individual page design was not always consistent. So, it's understandable someone was needed to take this on!

Through this, I have been learning a great deal and re-enforcing many previous held beliefs about designing a web site. Some ideas I can share:

• Plan first, do later. You have to have a plan first and foremost, and shouldn't begin designing a thing until this is solidified. This plan should extend to the site architecture in regards to folders and files -- to the template design -- to the individual design of the pages.



• If you can be anal from the start, do it. It's messy to start moving items in and out of folders, as well as deleting and synchronizing the site. If you make a solid plan suitable for the present *and* the future before getting embroiled in many pages, you should be solid, free to just enjoy the individual page design.



• Always think of who is using your site. The look, the organization, and the formatting/code should fit this group(s). Don't create an enormous website for teachers in poorer districts with limited Internet and slow connections with JavaScript, drop down menus all over the place, and slow-to-load images.



• In connection with thinking of who is using your site, also consider those with accessibility needs. Always use the alt tag for images for people with JAWS readers, consider those with color blindness, trying not to layer red and green, for example. I myself still have more to learn about accessibility, but taking a course and keeping this in mind is important, and often required.

Those are the main points that have struck home for me through this project and the previous website I worked on. Once the site is finished (next week), I will post a link to share to hopefully better illustrate what I've said here.

TMI Twitter

As I spent approximately three hours just now getting caught up on Twitter and all my RSS feeds (three different aggregator accounts for varying purposes), I was starting to think about how too much information was making my mind go blank, as ironic as that is. Especially in regards to blogging, I didn't have the time or the ideas to come up with something new. I came across Meredith Farkas's newest post where she discusses how Twitter and other microblogging platforms disrupt lengthier, more thoughtful posts. I especially can relate to a comment by Lynda Kellam referring to newbie librarians being less inspired to blog when it feels like more established professionals are covering more ground, assuming they would cover it better than someone new to the field.

First, being so brand new, and just speaking for myself, I am casting my information-consumption tools very wide because I don't know yet the specific path(s) my career will take. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the majority of the areas I'm interested in (outreach, instruction, reference, technology, if you were wondering), but also reading posts and news from other areas within librarianship just in case. I want to be open to a variety of options as I continue my job search, as well as be as knowledgeable as I can, but it's overwhelming! That coupled with trying to keep up on topics of interest outside of librarianship fills up an incredible amount of time, making it less likely I will blog.

Next, after reading SO much about SO many topics through RSS and Twitter (and sometimes Facebook), where would one even start with a thoughtful blog entry? Again, as was stated, it then seems like more well-known pros already have it covered. Although these mediums can make you more clever by learning to be succinct and casting a wider net for information, maybe they are also dumbing us down. I find I save about 5-10 new bookmarks on Del.icio.us everyday, star 10-15 useful posts in my reader every time I check it, and re-tweet maybe 5 items throughout a day. I'm noticing that I'm not really thinking about the information in a reflective way, but moreso thinking of it as a commodity I need to catalog and save for when I might "really" need it. I'm not adding insight, I'm just regurgitating these materials either for myself or for others.

To add to this, today I found through Guy Kawasaki (via Twitter, of course) this article on too much information from Open Forum.

Good ideas can have drawbacks. When information is freely shared, good ideas can stunt innovation by distracting others from pursuing even better ideas, according to Indiana University cognitive scientist Robert Goldstone, who asks and answers the question "How do you structure your community or organization so you get the best solution out of the group?"

Maybe this applies!

I certainly think Twitter is valuable and as librarians, we should be more adept in dealing with information overload; in fact, technically, Twitter could help with info overload by serving as a news filter by being selective in who to follow. At the same time, I think in eagerness to share information and to feel as though one is "keeping up" professionally, less time is being used for reflection and further innovation. Hopefully a greater balance can be met and newbies (myself included) should feel less intimidated in adding to the discussion.

New PLG-UA newsletter out

Although I haven't had much time to write any new posts lately (I have been so busy!), I did want to share the new Progressive Librarians Guild - UA Chapter newsletter. I contributed two articles, and there are recaps of events, book reviews, and more. If you haven't tried Scribd before, it's a social publishing platform, allowing tagging of uploaded documents. It uses its iPaper document reader to make text documents like PDFs more readable on the web. As the site says, "[it] transforms 'print' files like PDF, Word or PowerPoint into web document[s] — with all the fonts, layout and artwork that makes your document unique."

Chris Anderson's new book is also available for free on Scribd -- pretty cool! But anyhow, without further adieu...

PLG Newsletter 2(1)

Finished products

To make the tutorial I created with Wink viable for subsequent KEYS internship sessions, so my supervisor would not need to have the item re-created, I edited my work so student names were blocked out and the tutorial is more clear as to what the objectives are (since they were originally just stated during the presentation).

You can view what a final product created with Wink looks like here, and the PDF version for printing is here. As you can see, the quality of the PDF image is not very good for the web.

Some more things I learned about Wink while re-editing:

• you cannot bold or italicize individual words or phrases in a text box - it is either all or none
• rendering the flash component is unnecessary with static tutorials, although the instructions in the user manual made it seem like it was required either way
• the numbering order for the PNG files seems odd (and gets even more strange when saving more frames) and it is necessary to take care when matching them up with the different sections in the HTML file

Static vs. dynamic tutorials

Recently, I created a tutorial for work to teach high school students completing undergraduate-level internships how to use the communicative features of the University of Arizona's course management software, D2L. It was quickly decided it would be necessary to show them these features earlier in the week, so my task was to have the tutorial published a day or so later, with me only working 5 hrs per day. I was definitely up for the challenge and excited to learn some new software, but first, I had to choose what to use. There seems to be a lot of talk about Camtasia and Captivate, and although I did want to base my choice on positive reviews of colleagues, I also did not want the tutorial to be a video. I could be wrong in assuming from skimming that both of those programs work in that way (remember, I had limited time), but nonetheless, I went on a search for something different that allowed for creating a static tutorial. Instead of just taking screen shots and then painting on, I opted to download and give Wink a try.

Before I explain why I both liked and did not like Wink, I do want to mention why I wanted a static tutorial instead of a dynamic one. I realize a video or changing features can be more interactive and maybe more exciting, but for people to learn something with a defined set of steps that don't have room for interpretation or creativity (how to send a classmate a page or how to get to your student profile), versus a lot of options for experimentation (searching databases or using Dreamweaver, for example), I think a static presentation is the best. People of course learn in different styles, but following a step by step set of instructions accompanied by non-changing visuals seems to be the easiest to follow, especially if the students would be copying the activities exactly as they go. Rather than pausing and rewinding a video to see where was clicked a few times, it would be more cognitively efficient to look at a screen with things pointed at or circled and the steps taken listed.

So, my opinion of Wink. First it's only for Windows and Linux, just to mention, and it took a couple tries to get the hang of it. The instructions aren't the greatest, and I had to watch the video tutorial more than once before I had a flow going. As mentioned, I opted to create a static tutorial, so how it worked was really just me navigating and then pressing the designated screen capture button. What made Wink stand out from the default screen capture/mark up program on the computer I was using, however, was how clean the add-ons looked and how simple they were to tack onto the shots once learning how all the features worked. It was then easy to export it to HTML or PDF. But, where it got tricky was figuring out how to make the file accessible. The PDF was nowhere near as good of quality as the HTML (it looked great printed, though), so I wanted to make sure to only post the HTML. From reading the instructions that come with Wink, I was under the impression that once you export to HTML, it is a standalone file that does not need to be uploaded to a web site to work, that it could just be opened directly into a browser. How wrong I was. After searching the Wink discussion boards, I realized I did in fact need to upload the file to the server, as well as the flash file and accompanying PNG images. Then, I had to go through the HTML and make sure each page of the tutorial was appropriately linked with the designated image. This took a bit of time since some were not connected and I had to double check the order.

Other problems were that the forward/backward buttons somehow moved away from the overlaying hyperlinks, so they stopped advancing to the next page when clicked. I had to go back to Dreamweaver and slide those back over. Also, even after being positive (triple checking) everything was linked and working, one of the pages just stopped working.

I don't know if I'd use Wink again -- now that I understand it better, it might be easier, but it was not the most efficient because I think I spent more time dealing with the software and it's problems than making the actual tutorial. I'm mostly pleased with the final product and would like to post it but don't feel comfortable since student names are captured in screen shots, but if I am able to make a version with fixes for privacy, I hope to share that in the near future.