These hands are clapping for YOU! Congratulations on making it to the final weeks of 2nd semester of Adventures in Technology! We can hardly believe the Adventure is coming to an end. Thanks so much for participating and playing along with us!
You’ll have the next two weeks to finish up all of the Semester 2 exercises. Your posts to your blog should be completed by December 13, 2008 to be eligible for any incentives. We’ll take it easy on you this week, so you’ll have time to catch up if you got behind.
If you have questions about anything, be sure to contact us - we’re happy to help!
Reasonable Expectations
What were our hopes for Adventures in Technology? That the participants would learn:
- playing with new tools doesn’t have to scary
- the more you play, the more you learn
- with all of the new tools available, collaboration has never been easier
- users’ expectations of how they want to interact with libraries have changed
- there is no such thing as a dumb question.
With those points in mind, here are some expectations for what we hope you’ll do with what you’ve learned throughout our adventure.
First and foremost… Know that it’s okay not to use every new tool out there!
You don’t have to love every tool we have presented, but we hope you’ll be open to new things because you have taken the time to explore and perhaps leave your comfort zone behind from time to time. Your use of Web 2.0 tools should be based on the right tool filling a need, not “Oh, this is so cool! I’m going to come up with an idea for how to use it just because I think it’s slicker than snot!”
You’ll need to make some choices about what tools to use (see “What to Use and When” below), but essential to choosing is continuing to play. Playing with new tools creates an awareness of what’s out there, so that when a problem arises you might know of a tool that could help fix it or if a chance to collaborate presents itself, you’ll know what tools are available to help make that collaboration happen.
Secondly, you can’t ignore Web 2.0, because it’s not going away.
People’s expectations of what they want to get out of their online experience have changed, and we need to be willing to explore and be curious about ways to improve their experience with us or get left in the dust. Providing ways for your community to communicate their wants and needs with you is essential, and Web 2.0 provides plenty of ways to allow and encourage interaction.
Many of the tools we explored provide ways to put your library’s presence and content out where people are on the web. Don’t assume people will just find your library’s website. Get out there where people are and start some conversations. As we begin to redesign our library website, we hope that the staff will have some great ideas for ways that we can incorporate some of these new ideas into the site.
And lastly, do the best you can!
Adopting even one new tool can go a long way in changing your community’s perception of your library. Start small and think big!
Adopting and encouraging change at your library comes down to a “yes, and…” attitude.
What to use and when
We know that even “starting small” can seem overwhelming: how do you even begin to implement any of these tools? Well, here’s one process you can consider:
- Identify the need and possible solutions: It’s important to know what you’re trying to do before you begin. Are you trying to solve a problem? Improve customer service? Make more efficient use of staff time?
Once you know what you’re trying to fix, then figure out what tool is the best for the job. Sometimes the choices can seem overwhelming, but try to focus on the tools that might best serve the needs of your customers & that fit with your library’s mission. - Educate: Your project won’t get off the ground without buy-in from the staff you’re working with. And, to buy-in, they have to understand it! So, take the time to educate them about the problem and the tool you’re going to use.
- Plan: Once you have other staff convinced, you’ll need them to help plan the project. Think about how you will support and sustain the project (both financially and with staff time), how you’ll promote the project, and how you’ll evaluate it.
- Launch: Wasn’t that easy?? Your project is now up-and-running! Congratulations! But wait: there are a couple more steps left.
- Promote: You planned for it in Step 3 — now you should do it! Promote this new project to the people who might use it! Make sure to consider if they’ll need training and what benefit the project gives to them. When promoting your project, focus on what they can do with it or what the benefits are instead of focusing on the tool itself.
- Evaluate: It’d be great if every project worked like a charm. But they don’t. Projects fail. In Step 3, you’ll need to decide how you are going to determine success or failure. You’ll need to figure out how you’re going to get feedback from the users, and use that feedback to tweak the project (or start over with a new project!).
Continue to play
Just because Adventures in Technology is ending doesn’t mean you need to stop playing and learning — you’ve got the tools now, so you can take charge of your learning path!
Web 2.0 applications continue to develop, so if you make a commitment to keep current you’ll know about new technologies as they emerge, so you can evaluate them for potential use at your library.
Newsfeeds: Keeping up doesn’t mean a huge investment of time if you use a newsreader like Google Reader to subscribe to library blogs and podcasts. Here are some library blogs we recommend:
Play with new Web 2.0 applications; see if you can carve out 15 minutes a day to play. 
Here are two good sources to new apps and tools:
- Check out eHub for news of useful Web 2.0 tools and mashups
- Visit Go2Web20 and click on any icon to explore new Web 2.0 tools, with an eye towards their potential use in your library
- Subscribe to Lifehacker or MakeUseOf.com in your RSS feeder to stay current with some new websites and technologies.
Blog: Now that’s you’ve started the habit of both keeping up and sharing with others what you’ve learned, continue writing at your blog to share new discoveries you’ve made.
Conferences: If you’re able to attend the WLA conference and/or WAPL conference, they both offer presentations on tech topics. Keep an eye out for system conferences that talk about technology too.
Webinars: You don’t need to travel in order to see a presentation by a speaker; you can participate for free from your computer! Most webinars combine slides & demos with audio, to replicate as closely as possible the in-person experience. Besides offering a current schedule of upcoming presentations, each of these services offer archived presentations you may view at any time:
- SirsiDynix Institute
- OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries)
And it’s good to keep an eye on what the folks at the Pew Research Center report on “the numbers, facts, and trends that shape your world.”
Assignment
View this video in which Seth Godin explores the topic of curiosity.
Write a post in your blog about your impressions of what Godin commented on in the video. Are you a curious person? If not, what can you do to encourage curiosity in yourself and others? How does curiosity apply to what we’ve been doing in Adventures in Technology? Write about your final impressions of Adventures in Technology and what you’ll do to continue playing in the future.
Fun Extras
We couldn’t resist including additional tools that we like but didn’t have time to cover. Take a look when you have a minute or two and play at will!
Google Sites is Google’s version of a wiki. Easy to use, and if you’re a Google product fan, why not?
Very Short List sends you a daily email with an interesting website, book, or video to check out and share with your friends. Its a great way to learn about interesting topics you might not otherwise think about.
Widgetbox allows you to make cool web site widgets for just about anything you can imagine.
Kaboodle is a social networking site that proclaims "Shopping is more fun with friends". As a member you can discover new things from people with similar taste and style, recommend and discuss your favorite products and stores, and share wish lists and shopping lists with others.
