Monday, January 17, 2011

Renovation Plan Demonstration at #scio11

Here is what I presented at the Science Online Unconference, Sunday at 11:30am-12:30pm.

Some of the feedback that I received was:
  • Students still need to have lots of physical books available to them on-site.
  • The library should scan as many books as possible to make ebooks.
  • Need to advertise just how many ebooks we already have available.
  • Advertise all of our electronic resources, not just ebooks.
  • Loan out Kindles (or other ebook devices).
  • Let people know that our document delivery services are free to them.
  • Spread the librarians throughout campus to create a more decentralized library. This will force faculty to think more outside the box.
  • Create more embedded librarian positions.
  • Better advertise that the library (and hence the university) pays for access to all of these journals, databases and ebooks, and that the information is not free.
  • Let the patrons know that we keep track of download data. Let them know some of that usage data. [That may or may not be allowable by the vendors.]
  • Should consider doing a before and after survey, so that we can see how much electronic use increases after the renovation has begun. This would be a good article opportunity.
  • Brand the golf cart as the "Library on the Go" cart.
  • Display the blue prints. Need to let them know what the place is going to look like and get them excited about the new facility.
  • This is an opportunity for the library to foster stronger connections to the students and faculty who already use the library, and an opportunity to create new connections with people who don't use the library as much now.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Some of my videos at the #scio11 Conference

Here are some videos.

We got to see some of the internal sections of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.



There are about 11 other videos of "Behind the scenes" at:

http://friendfeed.com/jokrausdu/583d84e8/made-videos-of-behinds-scenes-at-north-carolina

Friday, January 14, 2011

Prezi session at #scio11

Here are my quick notes of Prezi... I'm giving it a try right now. If you are an educator, make sure you sign up for the educational account.
  • Overlap elements when you give a prezi
  • Don’t spin too much – don’t make your audience sea sick.
  • No way to embed a prezi within another prezi.
  • They have a good “learn” system and tips.
  • Prezi meeting can hold up to 10 people who can work on the same presentation.
  • For a good prezi, one should think in frames with multiple objects, not linear slides.
  • Instead of having to go forwards or go backwards to a specific slide, you just pull back, and then you can go wherever you want.
  • Think of prezi more like a concept map or a mind map – not just linear thinking.
  • Make the details small.
  • It has circle, square, and rectangle frames. Frames within frames, use as many frames as you need.
  • Take a look at some of her examples. Here is a group made one.
  • Make your CV as a prezi. Huh, that sounds like a good idea
  • Easier to get small than to get bigger. Start big, then scale down when you need to.
  • Use PDFs.
  • Use higher image quality in the upload. Zooming in will be granulated otherwise.
  • OverLAP, Shift DRAG, SURPRISE your audience.
  • It doesn't seem like prezis can be embedded into a blog, though.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Top 10 reasons why...

I don't like top 10 lists.
  1. They are usually meaningless
  2. They often have items that could have been left out to make a top 7 list.
  3. They remind me of gender specific magazines that list the top this or that.
  4. Some of them leave out a couple of items, so it should actually be a top 12 or a top 16 list.
  5. They always show up at the end of the year or the beginning of the year, why not March or October?
  6. They remind me of David Letterman, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
  7. They remind me of my dear departed next-door neighbor's dog -- don't ask.