Final Project-WordPress

Hello everyone!

My final project is a WordPress site about WordPress, Public Libraries, and young patrons. Thanks! Have a great summer! 

Technological Analysis Final Project-WordPress
Yifan

Final Project: Twitter and Academic Libraries

Hi everybody!

Here's the final version of my wordpress blog I showed during my presention: http://lis644twitterandacademiclibraries.wordpress.com/. Please feel to check it out and ask me any questions you have!

Thank you for a great semester!

Final project

Hey everyone!

My final product is a WordPress site about Pinterest and academic libraries. Thanks for a great semester!

Get On Board! Pinterest in Academic Libraries

Alaina

Internet Archive Final Project

My final project is a Wordpress blog evaluating the benefits of archival institutions using the Internet Archive to reach non-traditional archives users. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of the Internet Archive and provides recommendations on how to design a successful online digital collection. The site can be accessed here.

It has been a pleasure to take this class. Have a great summer.

LibraryThing Final Project

For my final project, I've created a LiveBinder to demonstrate not only how to use LibraryThing but also the benefits and drawbacks of it's use in K-12 environments with educators. It can be found here: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=1331081

Please contact me with comments and/or questions!

Thanks for a great class

Folks, thanks again for being such an engaged and creative class this semester.  I learned a lot from your weekly discoveries and presentations; I hope you found our reading regimen, the assignment structure, and my guidance through our digital topics useful as well.  Best wishes for a safe and productive summer!

Tumblr for Libraries: An Outline & An Interview

Presentation Outline
1. Introduction

• What is Tumblr
• The How of Tumblr
• Posting
• Liking
• Reblogging
• Tagging/Tags

2. Tumblr as a Promotional Tool: The Good and the Bad

• Why It Works
• Easy to create/post content
• Ease of use 
• It's informal/casual
• It's what's current, it's where the people are
• Reblogging Function
• The use of tags
• Ability to connect a wide range of voices
• Where it Stumbles
• Communication is primarily one-way
• Not the first place where patrons check for their information
• Some blog themes are better for library tumblrs than others, and there isn't enough information

3. Tips for A Successful Library Tumblr

4. Why Use Tumblr?

• Good informational tool to direct patrons to
• Future of social media/networking

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I had some major scheduling issues for my interview, but last week I was finally able to get a hold of a librarian using Tumblr as a promotional tool in a public library.  This librarian works in Arlington, MA, and works in children's services.  She is the one who decided to start a Tumblr for the Children's Section of her library, and is the librarian who updates the blog.

For the most part, she was very enthusiastic about the use of Tumblr for her library.  She identified Tumblr as the future of social networking, and had a lot of great things to say about how easy it was to create content with this particular technology.  One claim she made that really struck me was that if you have a blog, you have to be willing to update it very frequently if it's going to serve any useful purpose as a social marketing tool.  She told me that previously, she had been using a Wordpress blog as part of the library's outreach to patrons, but because she felt that the idea of updating it was daunting (because it seemed to demand long, thought-out posts) she only ended up creating content twice a month.  Tumblr, on the other hand, lends itself easily to snippets of content, and therefore updating it more than once a week - even daily - is not as difficult a task.  She also appreciated how it could be updated from multiple platforms (she works at two different libraries, and so is often moving back and forth between them).

Most of her concerns had to do with the failure of Tumblr to adequately explain certain aspects of itself, especially when it came to the themes you can choose when setting up your Tumblr.  She expressed disappointment in how the theme she had chosen for her blog poorly displayed links, as well as hiding tags.  (And since Tumblr's tagging system is one of it's key features, that's a pretty big drawback for a theme).  Her suggestion was that there be a clearer discussion of the drawbacks of particular themes.  She also stated that Tumblr doesn't explain itself particularly well.

Overall, she did say that using Tumblr as a promotional tool, she became aware that she wasn't necessarily reaching the people that she thought she'd be reaching - i.e, her patrons specifically - but was still supportive of the idea of Tumblr being used by librarians as an outreach tool for their libraries.

The Future of Print

OK, here's my show-and-tell for this week: The Future of Print.

Enhanced Reading

To tie in with our readings for this week, discussing the future of the book, I found an interesting video made made by Ideo, a design firm.  It highlights three interesting pieces of software that allow readers to interact with books - digital books -  in new and intertexual ways.  The first, Nelson, "allows you to see the bigger picture" of text, by letting the reader fact-check the text, view debates surrounding it, and to see what the media is currently saying about the subject of the book.  This ability goes directly against what Reinking talks about in his article when he says that one of the things that the print book does for a reader is the allowance for reflection on the subject without outside influence.

Copland, the second technology, suggests the most relevant books for you to read (in terms of professional development) based on your professional network, and allows for discussion between colleagues at a particular organization.

Alice, the last technology, is geared towards fiction, and allows for a "blurred line between fiction and reality" by inviting the readers to engage with the story by performing certain tasks related to the narrative (being at a physical location or engaging with characters through other forms of media) after which they are rewarded with extra chapters, information, or insights into characters.  (Personally, I think this last one is particularly fascinating, and found myself going 'Wow, I want to do that!)  It's an interesting concept, although I wonder how many authors will be willing to go out of their way to provide the extra content needed for this sort of immersive, interactive reading experience.

http://www.ideo.com/work/future-of-the-book/

Flickr technology - Presentation outline

• Introduction
  • Using Flickr for digital collections curation
  • Flickr for educational purposes
  • Flickr: The Commons and Collaborative potential  
• Flickr at UW-Madison - pros and cons in academic environment
  • Support for social media communication
  • Open access collections
  • Picture board for academic institution legacy
  • Components for success
• Using Flickr Commons
  • Collection attributions
  • Copyright considerations and collection visibilities
  • Tagging, search results, image descriptions and collection references.
  • Visual geeks and art education
• Academic institutions’ account examples
  • Minneapolis College of Art and Design 
  • Cornell University Library
  • Library of Congress
• Conclusion