Transcript Emerging Technologies & Libraries

Emerging Technologies & Libraries:
What’s new & useful to libraries
Chanitra Bishop, Instruction & Emerging Technologies Librarian, Herman B Wells
Library, IU-Bloomington
Jian Liu, Head, HPER Library, IU-Bloomington
IU Librarians’ Day - 05/15/09
Organizational Tools
Read it Later
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Firefox extension that allows you to save pages of
interest and read it later.
If you come across a website you want to read but don’t
have time to read it, you can use read it later and it was
save the web site.
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Save amazon.com or other web pages with material you want
to review later
Once you have read the site you can bookmark it if you
would like to keep a permanent bookmark or you can
deselect it.
No need to clutter your bookmarks with sites you only
want to read once. Instead of emailing URLs to yourself.
Read it Later
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Temporarily bookmark a web page
Keeps “bookmarks” from becoming cluttered
Works on a variety of browsers
Ability to easily permanently bookmark a page
Awesome Highlighter
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Allows you to highlight text on web pages and add post-it
notes
It provides a link for you to share the highlighted page
Allows you to show people the important part of a web
page
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Makes it easy for you to send a web page to a patron without
the need to write a detailed email
Help you remember why you saved a web page
Awesome Highlighter Feature
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No need to create an account, can go to web site http://www.awesomehighlighter.com/
Available as a Firefox extension & bookmarklets are also
available for Internet Explorer
Creating an account allows you to:
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See all your highlighted pages
See what you highlighted on individual pages
Go directly to highlighted pages
Note: Post-it note feature does not work in Internet
Explorer
I-lighter & Wiki-lights
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I-lighter is similar to Awesome Highlighter
You have to sign up for an account, but no need to long in when
extension installed
Works with social software tools
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Wiki-lights is
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Twitter
Delicious
part of I-lighter
forum that allows groups to collaborate, post & share information, ideas
Post directly into blog
Group members can upload documents, PDFs and PowerPoints
Can add messages to message board
Note: Saves home page of the web page instead of exact web pages
Awesome Highlighter or I-lighter Which one
to use?
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Choose Awesome Highlighter if:
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You only need to highlight and email a web page
Don’t want to sign up for an account
Choose wiki-lights if:
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You need collaboration features
You tweet or use delicious or maintain a blog
Tools for File Sharing
Dropbox
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Allows you to sync your files across computers
If you work at several computers you can access your
files from all of the computers
Provides a public folder that includes a “public link”
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Public link can be used to add PDFs, Word files to a blog post
Send files to patrons and other librarians
Works on both Mac and PCs
Access you files online at http://www.getdropbox.com
Share files with everyone on your team
Drop.io
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Share documents, images, videos, audio without creating
an account
Allows you set a specify length of time person can view
the files
Can set specific permissions and allow viewers to edit,
comment, delete items
Others can add additional files, voicemail, email, links,
email, notes to the drop
Can share via twitter, SMS, Facebook, RSS
Can message anyone currently viewing the drop
Dropbox or Drop.io
Which one to use?
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Use Dropbox if
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You want to be able to access your files across multiple
computers
You want to the ability to provide an online link to your files,
share files with patrons and other librarians
Use Drop.io
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You need more tools for collaborating on a team
Don’t want to set up an account
Widgets & Other Online Tools
Feed Informer
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Allows you to combine feeds from multiple sites into one
feed
Feed is available in a variety of formats:
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Can create a “Current News” feed that provides news
from several sites news sites
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JavaScript, Flash, PHP, RSS feed
CNN, MSNBC, NY Times (http://bl-libg-weblab.ads.iu.edu/wordpress/libugls )
Can be used to create a journal RSS feed for faculty that
can be posted on library’s web site
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Feed can display popular journals within a discipline
PollDaddy
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Insert a poll or your website/blog without creating an
account
Send a poll to your Twitter followers without creating an
account - http://twitter.polldaddy.com/
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Start a conversation via Twitter, Are you working on a research
paper?
Close surveys after a certain date or quota has been
reached, and create custom start and finish pages for your
survey
Allows you to set paths for your respondents based on
their responses
PostRank
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Find top ranked blogs and other websites covering a
variety of topics
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Browse blogs/web sites to learn more about a subject area
you are the liaison for and find interesting blogs
PostRank rankings are based on social engagement
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Examples
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writing a blog post in response to someone else
bookmarking an article
Commenting on a blog
clicking a link to read a news item
No need to create an account to browse top ranked
blogs
PostRank
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Create a top posts widgets (based on PostRank rankings)
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Submit your blog’s RSS feed, a top posts list will be created
You can choose the time period that you want the top posts
to be created from
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Year, month, week, day
the number of top posts you would like to show
Allows you to highlight older articles
Highlight articles readers found most useful
Poll Everywhere
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Allows you to poll your audience and get instant feedback
Audience answers via SMS text message or the web
Can be used to make library instruction session more
interactive
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Students can respond via text messages to questions and view
the results
Evaluate the instruction session
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Ask questions to find out what students learned/understand
Flickr Search Tools
Compfight
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Allows you to limit search to Flickr tags or text
Also allows you to search for creative commons pictures
FlickrStorm
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Advanced search allows you to search creative commons
photos
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Can search for a specific type of creative commons license
Suggest additional search terms to find more pictures
Saves your current search history
use the tray to add photos and link to them
Can’t limit search to “text” or “tags”
Tag Galaxy
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Great for visual learners
Represents Flickr tags as the solar system
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The keyword you use is the sun
related keywords are planets
Click on a planet to see pictures
Questions
Resources
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Computers in Libraries Conference 2009
http://mashable.com/2009/05/02/flickr-search-tools/
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Some web sites to learn about new technologies
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Mashable – Social Media Guide
Tech Crunch
Idea Shower
ALA TechSource Blog