Course Evaluation

1) How well does this course meet your expectations/learning objectives?
Before I signed up for the course I spoke to Abigail who had been on the pilot course to see if she thought it would be a suitable thing for me to do. Her advice was that it was a very interesting course and that she thought that it would be within my reach, but she also advised me that it would entail a lot of work. These were the expectations I brought with me to the course and I must admit I was not disappointed! My learning objectives were quite simple to look at the new technologies and be able to converse with at least a little confidence with our users. I think my learning objectives were more than met.

2) What are the difficulties encountered in accessing the course materials on the Internet at your workplace which have NOT been reported before?
I had no difficulties at all in accessing the course materials on the Internet here at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust.

3) Did you need to seek the permission of your trust IT before you accessed certain course materials on the Internet?
I did not have to seek permission from IT to access any of the course materials on the Internet.

4) Do the readings meet the learning objectives of each topic?
The good thing I found about the majority of the readings was, that because they were available electronically it meant that if the author was referring to a specific web 2.0 tool there was usually an electronic link to it. This meant that you could investigate and play with the product and I found that this helped me gain more insight into the product.

5) What is the average amount of time you spent on the course each day?
I must have spent on average around 2 - 3 hours on this course each day, a lot of this at home due to me working part time and much to the annoyance of my family - Mum can I use the Internet , Michelle where's my clean shirt? When is she going to feed us? (dog and rabbit) etc etc......

6) How do you find the interaction among participants of the course?
Although I find distance learning fits in more with my own requirements I found on this course because I did not know the participants that it took me a while to feel completely comfortable with leaving comments on their blogs. I think what also made it harder for me was the fact that I do not have as many qualifications as the others do and I felt I had to be a little more careful in my comments.

7) Will you continue blogging and/or reading RSS after the course?
I fully intend to carry on using Web 2.0 but not sure about keeping my personal blog as I am not too sure what I would use it for. Perhaps discussions on whether I find Mc Dreamy or George better looking..... (Greys Anatomy) or who would I invite to dinner Meatloaf or Jon Bonjovi?

Action planning
The Trust I work for has just been joined with Good Hope Hospital and with all the re arrangements etc that are taking place at the moment anything that I would like to take forward from this course who have to be discussed not only with my new line manager but also with the staff from three other libraries. At the moment we are all still trying to piece together our new working roles and so my action plan must look something like this......

Objectives -

1. Speak to Gwen Giles (Library manager) about putting Web 2.0 developments on next combined staff meeting agenda. Perhaps - Library blog page to keep users updated, Library staff Wiki to enable staff at all three sites to discuss outstanding topics without having to close all the libraries at once to have a meeting.
2. Discuss with Lesley, Abbi and Hazel (Heartlands site staff) what sites should be tagged to Del.icio.us for the Heartlands library site use.
3. Talk to Lesley, Abbi and Helen (Outreach librarians) about the possibilities of promoting a citation manager within departments that they will be working with.

Targets -

1. Email Gwen by end of next week
2. Have Del.icio.us set up by first week in August
3. Within the next three months

Deadlines -

1. Before the library away day at beginning of October
2. Middle of August
3. Dependant upon response from Outreach Librarians

Excellent slideshow

My colleague Abbi went to the Umbrella conference last week and went to a talk by a man called Phil Bradley. He talked about Web 2.0 and the possibilities for libraries. Abbi said he was so fired up with ideas that she came away feeling that Web 2.0 was definitely the way to go. She emailed me the link to his presentation on slideshow and it really is good reading. See what you think http://www.slideshare.net/philbradley/

Week 6 Web 2.0 & Library 2.0

How will the technological trends change the information environment and user behaviour?

Web 2.0 is the new hot topic in the library arena at the moment, but how much will it change the way libraries work? I think that really does depend a lot on each libraries users. In the medical library setting electronic journals and databases have increased usage in just the five years I have worked here. More and more often when articles are requested the user will ask for them in an electronic PDF version rather than a paper copy. This is usually so that they can be stored and reread as and when needed rather than carrying reams of paper around. Our library service has not reached this as a norm of service, but I can see the logic of the request. I would be concerned about the authors copyright.

Personally I think that some Managers (usually non library ones) are eager to use the electronics methods thinking that they can save money by being able to reduce staff. In reality I believe that to get the users to use the new technology correctly and to full use will require the current staff to undergo full training on the new technologies and not reduce numbers. It will also mean investment in new hardware. We must remember that not all our users will want to go down the electronic method and will still need the old fashioned hand holding of qualified librarians to help them with their personal learning goals.

How can libraries meet the challenges?

Whilst it may seem that I am against web 2.0 I can assure you all that it is a concept that I truly believe is the way forward, but only if the correct structuring and training issues are met in the first instance. Otherwise I feel that Web 2.0 could cause more harm than good. I believe that a planned approached delivered in small bites would be the best way to introduce the new technologies. Perhaps try starting with a library blog which then introduces users to a new technology every six weeks or so. Whatever method is used must be introduced in a plain English way so that it can be understood by all users.

Week 5 - Mix and Mashups

I originally found the topics for week five hard going hence the lateness in this post (sorry Bertha). I have just looked at the reading again and have had a play with some of the sites and got quite excited (it doesn't take much).

Mashups
I went onto the health map global disease alert mapping system http://healthmap.org/
I really liked this site because it was both visual and interesting. It is made up of Google maps with RSS feeds linked into it. The map is has lots of tags on it and just by moving your cursor over it gives you information on reported diseases. The map is searchable ie on the left hand side towards the bottom of the main page you can choose to see just a destination eg Dominican Republic and then you are taken just to that destination (only on the screen - so don't pack your suitcases yet!). The only downside I can think of to this map is the reporting sources, again take the example of the Dominican Republic this is a Third World Country and so you would think would have more reportable diseases, but compared to the US or UK they are less likely to have the media coverage and so less reports would be produced which in effect could make this system a lot less reliable.

Podcasts
I tested the Cardiovascular Multimedia Information Network of the Arizona Heart Institute
http://cvmd.org/ I really liked this site because it had both professional and public videos and MP4 downloads. This meant it could be suggested to patients who are more likely to get more out of watching a video explaining information to them than having reams of papers to read through. The site was free so could be used by anyone and I have even sent the link to one of my colleagues who has had heart problems and has to stick to a strict diet. She has watched the healthy snacking video and said how good it was.

Search Engines
I had a look at rollyo http://www.rollyo.com/ and liked it so much that I registered and have set up my own search engine called 3CST2. I tested it to search for Dementia and got really excited with the results (I really need to get out more!).

I have added a direct link to my own search engine if you would like to try it out just click onto the link at the top of my blog and away you go.

Week 4 Wikis

The Wiki's I have found interesting are

Wikihealth

http://www.wikihealth.com/Main_Page

I liked this wiki because it is both a health and wellness wiki. It is easy to navigate and read and the information seems to be direct but not scary, for example take a look at preparing for a Colonoscopy it tells you exactly whats going to happen, but also tells you not to worry and to look at the experience as two days away from stress and pressure!

This wiki is aimed more at the general public as it is very easy to read and as such anybody reading this wiki would have decide if the information was 100% correct as anybody can add to it.


UBC Health library wiki

http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php?title=Main_Page

I liked this wiki because it's a health library one and as such would suit our needs very well. The wiki team are all professionals and are based at universities. This would imply that even though anyone can add content, it would be monitored for validity and removed if not correct.

Whilst I can see the uses in both wikis the one I personally would use is the wiki health one.

Additon to week 3 assignment

As I sat at my computer feeling satisfied that I had managed to add my assignment post before tomorrows deadline, I decided to spend some time playing Mahjjong. As I began playing I realised that I not mentioned in my previous post anything about Folksonomies, so ladies and gentleman let me make amends......

Folksonomy is the term applied to the 'tagging' of the websites added to del.icio.us, the pictures added to Flickr and so on. We tag our additions for the same reason keywords are added to articles placed in databases like Medline, that is so that they can be anyone can search for them using a common word or phrase. So when you add say for example The Scout website to your Del.icio.us list you would probably add the tags of boys, pastimes, youth organisations etc. Whilst this is familiar to library folk where it differs is the fact that unlike when you catalogue your books to Library of Congress Classification and you look for the subject, the subset and then decide which class code to use from a very rigid set of subjects, tagging can be done by complete novices and you yourself decide the tag you want to add and it can be as varied as your imagination.

I think that I have now covered the subject but just in case I am definitely switching the computer off now!

Social book marking and folksonomy

This is my take on this weeks topic:-

Del.icio.us - I think this is a really good site to use. I hot desk a lot at work, being the part timer and each time I sit at another pc I have to set up my favourites once again. I really like the idea that I can have my list of web sites available to me wherever I sign on - at home included. The fact that I can also share this list with others is another positive advantage. In fact I think the only disadvantage I could see with this is the fact that I may end up adding too many of my favourite web sites to the list and it getting too long! I need to start using this to get a fuller idea of it's full potential, but I can see no reason why I would not promote this to say a clinical tutor who could set up a list of relevant web sites which then could be used by their students.

Connotea -I really liked this one. I could see that this site could be used by researchers to save all the articles for a particular subject in one electronic site so that they can then refer to them when ever they need to. I know that sometimes the number of articles required for one particular piece of research can be quite a lot and if you are able to save them somewhere electronically that can also be accessed from any Internet linked PC you would then be able to go back to refresh your memory or even just to have the reference details to hand when you need to add your references to your finished article. Again I could quite easily see myself promoting this service to the library users. Again as like del.icio.us it could be used to set up a reading list for course delegates to use.

Library thing - I am not too sure that in a medical library setting that this would be very useful. I can see the logic behind it, but I think that this is more a tool that librarians would get more use out of.

Flickr - I love this tool and will be using it to share my photos with my relatives who live further a field. I think that the concept is brilliant as not everyone has broadband at home and photo attachments to email can cause havoc when you try to send them. That said I not too sure that in the medical library setting that there would be much use for it. It can be a bit compulsive, I spent a good half hour on it this afternoon just looking at the Wolfhound pictures - it was a good job the sun was out and my son was happy playing in the back garden!

Slideshare - I think that this is an excellent tool because as we all have experienced in the past, when we have taken part in a course we like to have copies of the slides and with slideshare they can be added to this site and all you need to take away from the course or meeting is a url and you can go read the course through again and print off if you need a hard copy. This makes more sense to me that emailing 40 or so slides as an attachment which due to the size could mean that your email could get blocked up. This again is another tool that I think we could promote very well in the library setting.

I went through the other tools but I either couldn't see their uses or didn't think that they would be of much use to a medical library user.