Robyn Hall» Technology

Open Cover Letters

Robyn — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:01:47 +0000

The other day I was browsing through Library Journal’s “Movers and Shakers 2012” (Vol. 137 No. 5). Among the featured information professionals was Emerging Technologies Librarian Stephen X. Flynn who has created a site for job seekers:

Open Cover Letters

It’s an open repository of samples of cover letters for a variety of professions to help inspire those among us who, like myself, get frustrated trying to craft the perfect sentences to grab the attention of hiring committees.

Great idea!

Going Mobile: 7 Things You Should Know

Robyn — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:51:03 +0000

Scan this code with your phone or visit http://rdc.libguides.com/goingmobile

Saturday my co-worker Anne Marie Watson and I are presenting at the Alberta Library Conference in Jasper, Alberta.

The topic of our discussion is affordable ways to integrate mobile technologies into library services, including text reference, QR codes, and mobile-friendly websites and apps.

In other words, it will be about ways to go where library users are these days… on their cell phones, anywhere, anytime…

Our presentation slides and more information about technologies and resources are available on a Going Mobile LibGuide I created to complement the session.

Everything is a Remix

Robyn — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:52:15 +0000

Everything is a Remix is a four-part video series exploring the production and reproduction of culture. These videos were expertly produced by New York filmmaker Kirby Ferguson.

I’ve been waiting impatiently for months and months for the fourth and final edition of this series to come online and am very pleased to now be able to share it here in its entirely.

Everything is a Remix Part 1 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Everything is a Remix Part 3 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Everything is a Remix Part 4 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

PD in 140 Characters or Less

Robyn — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:27:43 +0000

“Social is just one part of what we do. We think of it as an information utility,” he said, describing Twitter as a personal news service as much as a social network. (Twitter is much more than social: co-founder Dorsey)

Twitter is a social networking site I am not ashamed to check routinely throughout the work day. I primarily use it to follow other librarians and people/organizations in similar fields. It’s a great way to find out about tech news, conferences, job postings, interesting websites and articles, etc.

Twitter feeds to follow (my recommendations):

Mashable: Independent news covering tech, social media and web culture
Open Access Hulk: Open Access news as delivered by the Hulk
mgeist: Keep up with Canadian copyright by following Micheal Geist’s Tweets
sparkcbc:Feed for the CBC’s tech news radio show Spark
LISNews.org: News for librarians updated regularly
Awfullibbooks: Find out about new posts to the weeding-wonders blog Awful Library Books
librarianmer:Librarian, writer & avid blogger Meredith Farkas’ tweets
AMSciForum: Open Access advocate & scholar Steven Harnad’s Twitter
SPARC NA: Feed for the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition
Very Short Story: Not really library-related but still great Twitter sized fiction

Directories of Library Twitter feeds to follow:

ALA Twitter feeds: Follow the activities of a variety of American Library Association units
American & International (including Canadian) library feeds: Many examples of libraries using Twitter for promotion, outreach and overall communication with users

SOPA Breaks The Internet

Robyn — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:38:39 +0000

In light of the recent Wikipedia blackout, I just wanted to point out some resources that do a good job of addressing recent American anti-piracy legislation (that has thankfully been shelved after widespread protests this week).

Check out:

And …

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Digital & Media Literacy @ RDC

Robyn — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:14:54 +0000

On Thursday, April 14, I helped lead a workshop (turned webinar thanks to bad weather) at the Annual General Meeting- Spring 2011 of the Alberta Association of Academic Libraries (AAAL) in Calgary, Alberta.

Digital & Media Literacy @ RDC
PRESENTERS: Kristine Plastow, Robyn Hall & Teneil Vuori, Red Deer College Library

The ability to interact with information across a variety of technological platforms, tools and media is a vital skill for students and faculty to possess in contemporary learning and workplace environments. This session will address challenges and opportunities academic librarians and staff at RDC Library have experienced in seeking to foster patrons’ digital and media literacy skills.

Learn more about Digital & Media Literacy:

Digital & Media Literacy: A Plan of Action: http://www.scribd.com/doc/41889496/Digital-and-Media-Literacy-A-Plan-of-Action
White paper by Renee Hobbs; a project of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute outlining steps to improve digital and media literacy education.
The Horizon Report 2011: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/HR2011.pdf
Describes six areas of emerging technology that will have significant impact on higher education and creative expression over the next one to five years.

RDC Library Guides:

Research Guides: http://rdc.libguides.com/browse.php?o=s
Library staff have created subject guides to help students & faculty find resources, including books, articles & websites.
Copyright: http://rdc.libguides.com/copyright
Information for students & faculty about using copyrighted materials at RDC.
Open Resources: http://rdc.libguides.com/open
This guide will help you find copyright-friendly resources online, including scholarly literature, multimedia, teaching objects, and software.
Information Fluency: http://rdc.libguides.com/info_fluency
Learn how to book an instruction session with a librarian. This guide provides an overview of resources, services, and programs designed and delivered by librarians to support students and instructors at RDC.
RDC citation guides:
APA: http://rdc.libguides.com/apa
MLA: http://rdc.libguides.com/mla
Chicago: http://rdc.libguides.com/chicago

QR Codes

Robyn — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 22:10:44 +0000

AKA those funny looking square things cropping up all over the place …

I attended the Handheld Librarian Online Conference a few weeks ago. QR Codes were mentioned in pretty much every session. So … what are QR Codes and how are libraries using them?

QR (Quick Response) Codes are matrix barcodes that you can scan with a QR Code reader installed on your cell phone. (Note: Some cell phones come with this already built in, while older phones–like mine– will not allow for this technology.)

Once scanned, you are taken to a URL … or whatever other information has been encoded in the QR Code.

Libraries are placing QR Codes in catalogues and research guides to provide users with mobile-accessible information about resources, as well as in physical library spaces to provide information about things like library hours and online research guides. The QR Code to the right will take you to a mobile library guide that we have recently created at RDC Library (which is also available here). Soon we will be placing this QR Code at our Information Desk in the library, along with handouts on how QR Codes work.

To learn more…

Read QR Codes: Uses in Libraries

Download a QR Code Reader

Create your own QR Code!

Watch QR Codes Everywhere

Open Resources LibGuide

Robyn — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 07:49:40 +0000

I recently created an Open Resources LibGuide for RDC Library.

The guide features resources and information on Open Access (OA) journal literature, copyright-friendly media (Open Culture), Open Education teaching resources, and Open Source Software.

Creating an “open” guide can increase patron’s awareness of:

- Resources freely available on the Internet regardless of their membership status with a Library or financial restrictions.

- Copyright and alternatives to proprietary media and software.

- Opportunities to share work openly with others through, for example, OA journals and creative commons licenses.

* On that note, the content of this guide has a creative commons license attached should you wish to share, copy, distribute or remix what’s there.

Spinning the social web

Robyn — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 03:04:44 +0000

CNN recently published an article that caught my eye entitled Humans vs. automated search: Why people power is cool again.

It talks about how search engine results are becoming more and more irrelevant and spammy. I could not agree more.

When I teach students how to evaluate websites I no longer have them look at hoax sites (despite how fun they can be). Instead I have them go to Google and throw in some keywords as they might actually do when researching for their class assignments. Then I have them evaluate the first few results that come up. More times than not these results are pretty terrible and smoothly lead us into discussions around search syntax, advanced search features, scholarly versus popular resources, library databases, peer-review, reliable websites, and the overall conclusion that online searching is messy at best.

On that note, the aforementioned CNN article brought blekko.com to my attention. Launched this past fall, blekko is a search engine that allows users to mark search results as spam, for instance, and they can also indicate that they “like” certain results much like Facebook lets people “like” their friends’ wall posts. It also enables users to search using “slashtags” whereby they can search through only sites they want. All in all I think this search engine has a lot of new and exciting features to paw through at a time where Google is becoming rather frustrating (though I love it still, of course).

Library Day in the Life “word cloud”

Robyn — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 07:59:45 +0000

Generated from my Library Day in the Life posts using: http://www.wordle.net