Course Evaluation

1) How well does this course meet your expectations / learning objectives?

The course met my expectations very well. My only criticism is that it would have been useful to have understood a bit more about blogging and RSS feeds in the week leading up to the start of the course, so that I wouldn't have been in such a state of panic during the first couple of weeks! To some extent that was my fault, because when I signed up for the course I thought it wasn't taking place until August/September, so I wasn't quite prepared. However, I now feel I know much more about Web 2.0 technologies and am more confident in using them.

2) What are the difficulties encountered in accessing the course materials on the Internet at your workplace which have NOT been reported before?

None

3) Did you need to seek the permission of your trust IT before you accessed certain course materials on the Internet?

No

4) Do the readings meet the learning objectives of each topic?

The readings were very good - just the right balance of introductory and more detailed information. I would certainly come back to some of them in the future for ideas and recommend them to others.

5) What is the average amount of time you spent on the course each day?

I think on average it was about 1-2 hours/day although in some weeks I spent a whole morning or afternoon on it and not much other time.

6) How do you find the interaction among participants of the course?

The interaction has been generally good. As someone mentioned during the conference call, I think the fact that we didn't know one another beforehand made it more difficult to be critical about one another's work.

7) Will you continue blogging and/or reading RSS after the course?

Definitely - especially RSS, which is a really good way of keeping up-to-date in areas of interest.

Action planning for the next 3 months:

Objective: To introduce the new technologies to other library staff

Target: Discuss at library team meeting, with the idea that the trainers will then be able to incorporate sessions into their training

Deadline: September

Objective: To introduce some of the new technologies to users

Target: In the first instance describing and giving examples of them in our bi-monthly newsletter (a different technology each time).

Deadline: Already started

Objective: To update the library website

Target: Look at incorporating RSS feeds and possibly a blog into the new site

Deadline: End of year.

How will the technological trends...

...change the information environment and user behaviours? And how can libraries meet the challenges?

One of the main changes which Web 2.0 brings is the ability to be interactive, which gives the user more say. This can be both a positive and negative thing - the concern over the reliability of information becomes greater and the possibility of vandalism is increased. However, being able to provide/receive feedback can be very useful and it tends to engage people more if they feel they are making a contribution.

Libraries need to try to keep abreast of the new technologies so that they are in a position to introduce them to their users and explain the benefits/drawbacks. It is an enormous challenge - the speed of change is so rapid that it's very easy to fall behind. There are also so many different tools providing the same service and they all work slightly differently - it would be impossible to be familiar with them all. All the same there is a great opportunity for training here if a programme could be devised which wasn't too general, but introduced users to the different technologies with examples and provided opportunities for hands-on experience. I also think a regular column in our library newsletter highlighting a different technology or service each time would help to make more people aware of what's available.

It's important to remember that not everyone has the latest hardware/software and not everyone is technically minded. To be inclusive, libraries need to make sure that they don't make things too complex.

I liked the idea of using blogging software to create a library catalogue - allowing each entry to be individually indexed, which provides an audit trail and lets users post comments. Users can also build up their own personal collections and share them with others.

There will need to be even more emphasis on critical appraisal skills. I find the idea of users being able to change the content of a library website quite scary.

A bit late...

...my excuse being a very busy week following my annual leave. I've also been trying to get my head round all the concepts in last week's readings - I'd never heard of Mashups before.

Mashups

I liked the idea of Biowizard, which had some similarities to CiteULike. Users can search PubMed and submit their favourite articles - a good way to share and promote the best research.

Healthmap is interesting. You can find out where in the world there have been outbreaks of specific diseases and you could use it to check whether you might catch something nasty before you book a holiday. It uses Google Maps and other data sources to provide a comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases.

Search Engines

These use Web 2.0 technology to allow you to create your own search engine. I think this could be a really useful tool on a library website. Rollyo allows you to specify a list of authoritative websites and the search is narrowed to pages from these websites, so that you can be sure your users are finding reliable information. A Swicki takes this one step further - it learns from its users so that search results are affected by what they are interested in.

Wikis

I was very dubious about the possible benefits of wikis before starting this course and I still have many reservations, but I can see that they are a good medium for the exchange of ideas. I'm even thinking that a wiki might be the best way of sharing information and discussing issues within the West Midlands about a National Core Content group I'm a member of. The thing that worries me most is how easy it is in a public wiki for anyone to change things, so that you can never be sure how accurate they are. On the other hand if the wiki is made private a lot of the collaborative elements are lost and the administrator could take on the role of censor - only allowing certain individuals the right to edit content.

The wiki I've chosen to look at in more detail is:

Flu wiki
http://www.fluwikie.com/

This wiki was set up as a forum for individuals to exchange ideas on what should be done in the event of a flu pandemic. I thought it would be of interest to both those involved in health care, especially public health and general practice, as well as the general public. It aims to provide reliable information (as neutral as possible) and to look at solutions to the problems that will arise should there be a pandemic.

There is an enormous amount of information here. I liked the short list of FAQs which act as a sort of index to the site and to further information. I also liked the 'Exploring the Flu Wiki' section which explains all about wikis in general, plus giving TOC, index and glossary.

It's very easy to keep up-to-date with the latest flu news, which is organised by country and there are RSS feeds for the different pages.

The publisher and editors are very active on the site, so you feel that they would be quick to spot any vandalism. They respond to queries very quickly and it's right up-to-date.

Social Bookmarking

CiteULike
http://www.citeulike.org/

CiteULike seems like a brilliant idea for academics and professionals, especially for someone involved in writing up research/thesis/dissertation. Being able to save the citations for one's bibliography at the click of a mouse would be really useful. It becomes a bit more laborious if it's not an article from one of the journal archiving groups which Citeulike currently supports, but worth the extra typing or cutting and pasting to keep everything together. The list it supports is pretty comprehensive, although I notice it doesn't support either Dialog or Proquest! The reason it only supports certain groups is to ensure that only peer-reviewed articles are publicised on the site - this prevents spamming and people posting articles to advertise particular sites.

It would be a useful tool for libraries to be able to save search citations - these could then be shared with the relevant user(s). By choosing appropriate tags, it could be used as a current awareness service.

Once you have signed up, you can browse the postings in a topic and find other users with similar interests and see what they've posted. You can add pages that you're interested in to your watchlist so that when something new is added to that page you are alerted. This means you don't have to keep visiting the page because all the articles on all the pages you are interested in are aggregated in chronological order.

My only criticism is that there's no Help facility and it was quite difficult to find out how to delete a posting.

The idea of social bookmarking in general seems a good one for libraries. It would be useful to share bookmarks amongst library staff, both locally and more widely. From my own point of view it would be a much better way to save my bookmarks because I'm constantly moving from one computer to another.

Blogs

Well, it is a bit sad doing my homework on a Bank holiday, but here are my thoughts on blogs.

In order to generate discussion, they need to have stimulating content and it's important to keep the purpose of the blog in mind - headlines need to be relevant and meaningful. Regular posting keeps readers interested, but it seems that long posts, as long as they are well written, get more comment and links.

For use in a library context, I like the interactivity aspect of having a blog and being able to get immediate user feedback. One could be used for current awareness services. However, a lot of promotion would need to be done in order to make users aware of it. We are already aware that large numbers of our users don't even know of the existence of our website and online library catalogue which have been around for years!

RSS feeds for oncologists

Medworm
http://www.medworm.com

• good selection of feeds on cancer
• well categorised
• filter function similar to subheadings in Medline
• 'Suggest a category' box if you can't find what you want
• RSS explained for new users
• can limit search to 'news', 'journals' etc.
• UK based

Medscape Hematology-Oncology
http://www.medscape.com/hematology-oncology

• good range of resources
• need to register
• reliability of information

NLH Directory
http://www.library.nhs.uk/rss/directory/

I've included this because, although there aren't yet very many feeds for oncologists, it gives very good instructions on RSS and it is very clearly set out. It is very much a 'work in progress', but looks very promising.

What I've learnt so far about RSS...

PROS

• Cheap, quick and easy way to keep websites up-to-date
• Can monitor the media on particular topics e.g. major news feeds on healthcare items
• Easy to subscribe and unsubscribe
• Easier than creating bookmarks
• Bypasses email so it doesn't get mixed up with correspondence
• Can archive and sort
• Security/privacy
• Can create feeds based on keywords

CONS

• Difficult to monitor success - no registration or subscription
  
• Need to use separate software
• Can't reply or communicate with the information source

First post

Just trying to get the hang of this. Well, I've managed to edit my profile which is a start... Now to see if this works.