Just start writing

This post isn't strictly about librarianship. It's about studying IT and librarianship. But hopefully, it'll be helpful to someone out there.

I'm writing an assignment at the moment on e- and m-learning and how my library can embed our services in these environments at our University. I struggled for almost a week with the readings, trying to frame my argument, trying to decide how I was going to approach the topic. At first glance it seemed so simple, but once I delved into the readings, it got way more complicated.

My 'aha' moment came last night: I know this stuff. I know what libraries do in the e-learning and m-learning contexts. We embed ourselves in learning management systems, we create online tutorials, we offer key services via mobile devices. And so I started writing. Ignoring the literature, I just wrote and wrote until I was finished putting all my thoughts down.

After that, I went back to support my thoughts using the literature.

This might seem obvious to everyone else, but it really was an epiphany to me. Top assignment-writing tip: Don't allow yourself to get bogged down with the literature. You know this. Start writing.

Research data management

There's a lot of talk in our Library lately about research data management. Our institution is in the process of creating policy around research data and the question in the Library is "How will we support research data management?"

A look at the literature tells me this isn't a new topic. Academic libraries overseas have already tackled the issue of data management and some have created libguides and web pages about it. The support provided by these institutions seems to focus on assisting with the writing of a data management plan and consulting on steps within the data management process, like file format conversion, metadata creation and the choosing of an appropriate repository to archive the data.

I'm interested in how we will approach this topic. What skills already exist in our Library to support research data management, and how much training will be required so that we are able to meet this challenge? My sense is that there is a handful of librarians who are aware of the issues and who have enough of a foundation to begin to support data management. But the roles need to be thought through: will this become another aspect of the subject- or liaison-librarian's job? Or will it be a specialist task, reserved for staff in a new "Digital Scholarship" centre in the Library?
 

Social media: things to ponder

I'm part of a social media working group here at my library. What that means is we manage, monitor and update the various social media accounts for the library. The use of social media in our library started as an experiment. Because of bandwidth issues in South Africa, the use of social media on campus was restricted for many years. At the time we started, we had to create our accounts "under the radar", and advertising the fact that we were on these platforms via our web site was forbidden.

The reason we went the route of social media is because we believed that what we had to say about the library would be better distributed via social media rather than just via our web site. We chose Facebook and Twitter initially and just recently, we've started using YouTube as well for distribution of training and promotional videos.

Here's what I've learned so far and issues I'm still grappling with:

- The management of social media for an organisation can't be an ad hoc thing. We've become more coordinated in our efforts to push information out to our students and it seems to be working.

- Success on social media means different things to different people. Do we want tons of followers? Do we measure success by the amount of interaction we get from our readers? I think success should be measured by the amount of interaction with and relevant messages we create for our followers. Are we speaking to their needs? Are they following us because they get what they want via these media?

- Librarians tend to be tentative about having a voice. This has been a bug-bear of mine for a while. South African library bloggers, for example, tend to curate information and quote sources, rather than comment on issues. I believe social media lends itself to and demands personalisation. Followers aren't interested in "party line", generic messages. They want to know who we are, to feel that they are interacting with human beings and to have some fun in the process. Our accounts have slowly evolved from impersonal message-driven platforms to conversational yet informative sources, but we still have a long way to go.

- Twitter seems to be more popular amongst our population than Facebook. I'm not sure whether that is because of the different ways we use the two accounts, but it's worth studying. This week, we invited social media guru, Dave Duarte, to speak to us about the management of our accounts, and one of the things he mentioned was that, for example, nostalgia works very well on Facebook, while current, fresh information is key on Twitter.

- Social media demands 24/7 management. What does this mean for librarians, who don't work 24/7? What if someone contacts us at midnight for help with their assignment? Making it policy that we interact with someone at this time is risky and not everyone will be on board, for obvious reasons.

Underwhelmed

More observations from my experiences as a student:

I've used Library databases, e-books and e-journals to a limited extent at work. I'm not a subject librarian, so expertise in this field isn't a requirement. In order to complete my assignments, I'm relying heavily on them at the moment and I have to say: I've been underwhelmed. 

I've been working against the clock during this time away: we attend lectures from 8.30-4 and we have the evening to work on assignments. When you're in a rush, the last thing you want is:

1. ... for the off-campus login to the Library databases to not work. Because you know that no one will be at work at this hour to fix it, so you'll have to wait for the next day.

2. ...for the web interface to be clunky: you need to find what you're looking for without having to scratch around and click on random links, hoping they'll take you to where you want to be.

3. ...for the e-journal platform to be down. See point 1 above.

4. ...for the publisher site of the journal article you've finally managed to find to be down. Argh.

5. ...to find out that, just to read an e-book, you have to go through 20 steps and produce a DNA sample.

5. ...to download an e-reader, save an e-book to your bookshelf and then, when you want to read it the next day, get a message saying that the installation of the reader doesn't work. 

It's a valuable experience being a student: I've taken off my librarian-goggles and I'm seeing things through my clients' eyes probably for the first time. 

Yesterday, on my Twitter feed, I read a tweet that said something along the lines of: "I'm tired of people saying today's students are lazier. We use Google because it works."

I think we can't afford to dismiss statements like these. We need web sites and online interfaces that just work when students need them. 

From Librarian to Clueless Student

Being a student again is an interesting experience, especially from a Library use point of view. Studying at a different institution to my home one puts me back in the shoes of someone who has no idea of the workings of the Library. I'm now able to look critically at how an academic library attempts to familiarise students with what it has to offer.

Here are some observations so far:

- I only got my student card a week after I arrived here. That meant that I was an outsider for a week: I was stopped by security when I wanted to enter the Library and I couldn't use any of the facilities.

- We were introduced very early on to our personal subject librarian. She gave us an hour lesson on what we could find on the Library web site and how to use the databases.

- I still can't get into the Library databases. There's a process you have to go through to get a pin number in order to register on the site. The pin has apparently been sent to my institutional email address, but I have no idea what that is. This is very frustrating, as I have an enormous amount of work to get through and some of the sources we're using are only available through the institution's databases and/or e-books.

- I really appreciate being able to communicate, via email, with my subject librarian. I've emailed her about the pin problem and hopefully, we'll be able to sort it out together.

- Being able to use the Research Commons is fantastic. There's a comfortable lounge to sit in, free, fast wireless, coffee on tap and clean bathrooms just around the corner.

- I have no idea how to photocopy anything yet. I'm going to go to the Library today to find out.