Gwen Giles 3Cs evaluation report

1) How well does this course meet your expectations / learning objectives?
It covered all of the web 2.0 technologies as promised in the preliminary information. The hands-on approach was extremely useful and fulfilled my learning objectives of being able to put things into practice.

2) What are the difficulties encountered in accessing the course materials on the Internet at your workplace which have NOT been reported before?
During the course I did not experience any problems accessing any blogs or other course materials, however during the final week of the course access to blogs has been blocked, so that although I can view my blog I cannot post any entries on it. I plan to contact the IT department to query whether this is a permanent change, as it affects my plans to introduce new services.

3) Did you need to seek the permission of your trust IT before you accessed certain course materials on the Internet?
I contacted the IT department initially to alert them to the resources I was expecting to access, but did not need to ask permission at that stage.

4) Do the readings meet the learning objectives of each topic?
Yes, the readings were very comprehensive and provided all the background needed for each topic.

5) What is the average amount of time you spent on the course each day?
I did not manage to spend time on the course on a daily basis and found that I needed a longer span of time to concentrate on reading before carrying out the assignments. I spent between half and a whole day each week on the course, although I also had a couple of weeks leave in that time.

6) How do you find the interaction among participants of the course?
I found that the interaction was quite slow at the beginning and I did not feel comfortable using my blog to converse with other participants. I was not in the habit of checking the feeds or other people’s blogs until a few weeks after the course started. However I think that working with a small group was successful although my group quickly diminished to two people. Towards the end as fewer people were left as active participants, the remaining few made up for the lack of contact with regular constructive and helpful posts.

7) Will you continue blogging and/or reading RSS after the course?
My plan was to introduce a library blog to replace the quarterly newsletter we produce. However I need to get support from the IT department before I can progress this. The other tools we plan to introduce are to include setting up RSS feeds as a means of current awareness and Sue is keen to develop podcasts for inductions.

Action planning for the next 3 months: Objectives, Targets, Deadlines
January 2008: Ensure that HEFT libraries can use Web 2.0 technologies
1. Discuss Web 2.0 access problems with the IT dept
2. Discuss plans and proposals at the library team meeting
3. Make a case for the introduction of a library blog, RSS feeds for current awareness, podcasts for training and inductions to submit to IT & HR dept head

February 2008: Draw up plans for the introduction of Library 2.0
1. Delegate tasks for each development to members of the team; ie blog, RSS feeds & podcasts
2. Jointly review the appropriate tools for each development
3. Choose the best tools
4. Draw up a communications strategy and a blog content strategy

March 2008: Market and Implement Library 2.0
1. Draw up a marketing and promotion plan
2. Collate the results of the marketing exercisesImplement the new Library 2.0 tools

Completion in sight!

Hello all
I'm feeling hugely relieved that I have completed my learning log, having spent nearly all day on it. Like Sandra I hadn't commented on everyone's blogging assignments, so needed to re-read them all to then make some [hopefully] pertinent comments. It was good in some respects having the benefit of reading the assignments altogether to see the themes running through them & to see the links between one topic & another.
I confess I'm now officially converted to using some of the new Web 2.0 tools, whereas before I was more likely to say, " Wikis - who uses them?" and hope that it would all go away & leave me in peace!
I've enjoyed reading all the comments on my contributions and have gathered some useful suggestions. It has been very rewarding working as part of a virtual group, although it's a shame that so many people have dropped out. I hope that Bertha can manage to run the 3Cs course again, as I would like all the library staff at HEFT to do it. Perhaps someone at NLH can take it over??
I don't feel that I have immersed myself fully in all the Web 2.0 tools, but I feel that I can talk more sensibly about them now. Sue & I are keen to build on the momentum we have established, and work with other colleagues who had completed an earlier version of the course, so set up a blog, do some podcasting, encourage more RSS feeds and feel more competent generally. Exciting times!
Have a good weekend

Blogging assignment 6

1. How will technological trends change the information environment and user behaviours? How can libraries meet the challenges?

• There will be less need for mediated services as users will be able to do more for themselves
• 24/7 access has created a climate where the immediacy of information provision is considered necessary; there is a trade-off between the credibility & validity of information against the quality assured information that libraries have emphasised
• Users are able to tag/index and create their own information resources, this impacts upon the sustainability of the resources and any archives and also reduces the likelihood of retrieving the information across a wider audience
• The collaborative environment of Web 2.0, with users providing feedback, will impact on service provision

Libraries can meet the challenges by:

• Being more proactive and engaging with users and the new technologies
• Undertaking training to equip ourselves better to put into practice some of the new tools
• Carry out more marketing to see what services users & non-users need

2. What are the implications of the technoloigical trends on information literacy? How can libraries meet the challenges?

I agree with other comments, that the difficulty for libraries in the NHS , will be to continue to accommodate the needs the large majority of information illiterate in our Trusts alongside an increasingly capable minority who are information literate, without losing the confidence of either group. Perhaps other Trusts have variations in which group is in the majority, but I believe the problem remains the same.

Libraries can meet the challenges by offering a wider range of training opportunities to help familiarise the information illiterate with some of the new services. Libraries can also utilise some of the new technologies to help users become familiar with the new tools and help by offering ideas about what might be useful in a work context.

Blogging assignment 5

I have used the Alan Cho article to look at the Mashups he refers to, as I had no success in finding others on the web, although I found a few articles on the topic.
I looked at Biowizard again, I had set up my profile and searched on Pubmed before, but this time I wanted to alert others to what I found. I "promoted" two articles that had not already been selected, having searched Pubmed for "Mashups" & "Library 2.0". I wanted to alert other 3Cs course participants to what I'd found but could not find out how to Add a Friend. I could email someone, but this facility is available on Pubmed any way. I even tried searching the Help feature, but this did not give me the information I needed.
I then resorted to asking Sue if she knew how to Add a friend, she logged onto Biowizard but came up with my profile! I tried logging onto Biowizard again and this time it came up with Sue's profile! So I gave up.
Biowizard feels like a very unstable platform to me, but perhaps this is symptomatic of some of the new technologies that are being developed. My original thought was that Biowizard could be used as a virtual journal club, but on closer investigation I think that better full-text availability would be needed to make this a worthwhile tool. I am not sure what value there is in voting for articles if voters have not accessed & read the whole paper. Although I've come across many library users who have just used the abstract of an article in their references & haven't bothered to read the whole thing.
My suggested activity is for others to try and Add a Friend on Biowizard, perhaps you could then me what I need to do.

Blogging assignment 4 - introducing a health-related wiki

Thankfully I have Sue sitting next to me; she was able to give me some tips as to where to find health-related wikis, as my google search was not very helpful. Sue pointed me in the direction of David Rothman's list of medical-related wikis. So my first learning point was that it isn't easy locating wikis.
David Rothman's list was not very extensive and what was listed were specialty-linked sites aimed at clinicians. I am very dubious about the authority of any wikis that aim to be of interest to health staff. I was intrigued by a wiki called GANFYD, the name is taken from a term apparently coined by UK GPs " Get a note from your doctor" the jokey title does not really relate to the contents of the wiki however, I assumed it would contain a list of common complaints presented to GPs in their surgeries, but the contents were general and aimed at medical students or junior doctors. It was a mix of details on specialty-related conditions and survival guides tips on how to carry out various procedures for doctors taking exams and starting practice.
Parts of the site look quite authoritative and well-organised and could have been lifted straight from a textbook, other areas were very thin or empty. The site appears to be developed by doctors in the UK and Australia.

Blogging assignment 3

Like others I've had a week off at half term and have found it really hard to get back into the course. I feel like I'm just skating over the surface of things rather than absorbing the content and incorporating it into my personal knowledge bank! At least I am remembering to check Bloglines for any new RSS feeds on a daily basis, having abandoned the idea of finding a service that would send me email alerts. I'm glad that some of you had already done this assignment as it's helped me get a feel for what is needed.

Blogging assignment 3 - part 1
I had to look at the sites Bertha listed several times before I got a feel for them. I tried searching on a couple of topics, one which I thought would be more patient related; PCOS, and another which I though specific health professionals would choose; Paediatric diabetes, using Del.icio.us and Digg. Searching for PCOS on Del.icio.us brought up thousands of sites mostly patient-related but the listing did not seem to prioritise the list by most tagged sites, and the more reputable government or NGO sites [ suchas Verity or Netdoctor] were well down the list. I'm used to seeing the search term highlighted rather than the number of people who tagged the sites, so found that a bit disconcerting. Digg by contrast did highlight the search terms for me, which I found more useful.
I can see that from a patient perspective there seems to be [on the surface] many useful sites for people with PCOS, but I would be concerned about the value/validity of many of them.

Having firstly tried a straightforward term to search, I then tried to search for Paediatric diabetes, which was more problematic. I had to try Paediatric & Pediatric diabetes, also Diabetic children and other variations, the searches again yielded more patient-related sites rather than those of interest to health professionals and there are more US rather than UK sites listed. I would feel more confident recommending health professional use sites like Digg, Citeulike or Biowizard as they retrieve articles, but I'm not sure how much benefit there is to sites that tagg articles over setting up alerts on databases, unless you are part of a community or network, where you know that other Paediatric nurses/diabetologists/paediatricians are selecting the articles.

Part 2
I can see the potential for social bookmarking in libraries for both library staff and groups of users; there are obvious uses for Clinical or subject librarians tagging sites or articles for different groups of users. Although I haven't invesitgated many of the sites tagged by other people on the course, I can appreciate that it is a very immediate method of alerting others to useful ideas. My limited searches highlighted for me the problems searching for material when so many different terms are used to describe subjects, where there is no indexing or thesuarus control. It is just as frustrating as ploughing through hundreds of entries in Google.

Blogging assignment 2 - Library blogs

What makes a blog successful or appeal to you?
I don't know if I can answer this part of the question properly yet, as I've only been looking at the blogs for the 3Cs course. I have looked at others when I've been trying to find material for other assignments. My main concern would be: Is this blog relevant to me? I don't want lots of noise; ads, pictures - unless they are relevant. Blogs should be brief and be clear on what their purpose is.

I think design is important, but I can't put my finger on why some blogs look better than others, some of them are too busy.

What roles can blogs play in library settings?

Having looked at a few library blogs it appears that there are various roles that blogs can play; current awareness tool, information bulletin/newsletter and for training purposes.

I've looked at Shropshire & Telford's blog which seems to incorporate several of these roles, the Middlesex University Health library blog appeared to be operating in a purely current awareness role, and Clare's LDG blog appears to be operating as an information bulletin.

Lesley mentioned that a blog had been set up by her church as an easier option to setting up a web site, that gets out of date very quickly and requires regular maintenance. My main concern is to ensure that library users are aware of a library blog/s and that we overcome the perception that blogs are only used as personal diaries, not in a professional setting.

What does your library need to do in order to start blogging?

First of all we need to decide why we would start a blog and what purpose it should fulfill. I can see the point of setting up a blog as current awarenes tool and that the Outreach librarians could set up blogs for each of their specialties or specialty groups to keep them up to date with NLH devleopments, guidelines, news etc.
We could use a blog instead of a regular bulletin and ensure staff know about changes to services as they happen and allow them to respond or comment on changes.

Once we decide why we want to set up a blog, the next concern would be to meet with our IT department to ensure that a blog can operate within the technical constraints that exist within the Trust.

I would also want to ensure that guidelines are agreed about how we communicate via a blog and that everyone follows an agreed style and has good communication skills. It is very important that the library displays a professional image via all the communications modes in use.