Nov 16 - Evaluation

For those of us who are responsible for compiling PLEG data the whole point of this week's tasks is fairly obvious - statistics tell a story all their own which provides necessary background material (and often justification) to various projects, etc.
I count myself lucky, I guess, in that I feel comfortable with this scenario - I've used Survey Monkey to create evaluation forms for training I've presented to library staff, I've replied to other surveys which have been created using Survey Monkey, I've analysed Google Analytics data and been impressed with the picture it provides and the ease of use, I've gotten to the point where it's second nature to demand some sort of evaluation tool for every online service we provide. I use Google Alerts.
This is something of an odd week for me then in regards to some of the tasks we're being asked to complete - mmm, done that one, got that one, have two of those...... I like that though - makes me feel like I'm on the right track and that I have realised and accepted the importance, the cleverness, of evaluation tools - even on my blog.

I suppose I also like the idea that whilst I may not be learning anything terribly "new" to me and have very little to complete in regards to any of the suggested activities, there is still that sense of validation in my attitude to evaluation and the way I already use it within my work. This week has managed to make me feel good about me - thankyou.

Nov 9 - Delicious

I found this week's focus on Delicious to be really helpful. I've explored Delicious a whole lot more as a result, linked it to my Twitter account, and generally had fun.
I'd really like to find tags and link all bookmarks using those particular tags to my Delicious account rather than find the url and then link them but it may just be the way I was approaching things today (being Friday).

I already had a rather simple tag cloud on my blog but now I've put the tagroll and linkroll and placed them all together under my tweets to see how they look. Once I decide which one I like best I may delete the others but in the meantime my blog is getting pretty crowded there along the side.

The instructions for the various activities this week were really straightforward and easy to follow - especially for someone who, though I've used Delicious a little bit, is not a regular user.

Wonder what we're up for next week? Can't wait!!

Nov 2 - Twitter - explore

Played around with searching for 'library', 'librarian' and 'libraries' in Twitter - found 'librarian' to be the more interesting set of results (quite enjoyed the "effing librarian" and his rant about the future of libraries, am now considering buying a cafepress shirt with the words "effing right I'm a Librarian" printed across the front but not too sure I should wear it in front of my children). Curious to note that the "Wine Library' scored high up in the list in the "library" search. Generally found the 'library' and 'libraries' searches provided different results but also somewhat "boring" results - all had images (mostly logos) but there was little to inspire me to click on any of the entries - perhaps that's something libraries need to consider when they have Twitter accounts : how we look to the outside world, what will make someone new come be our friend and follow us??

Nov 2 - Twitter - discover

Yep, I skipped Explore and have gone straight for Discover (I'll get back to 'explore' a little later).
1. have had a Twitter account for a while - but it was fun to update my profile settings and change a few details about myself and also the background (bit of a theme at the moment). Oh yeah, I added my blog url in too.
2. agree that tweeting at 140 words or less can be a challenge but have found I can overcome the challenge by breaking down what I want to say into short chunks and do a couple of posts all at once. I enjoy the challenge of being concise though and admit to being a non-abbreviating poster too - perhaps once I started abbreviating I'll find it easier
3. now following a few people - Chrystie Hill, Ellen, ALIA, etc.
4. used the '#nswlearning2.1" tag into a post but noted that Twitter didn't seem to like the dot between the 2 and the 1 - I can search for the full tag but it doesn't hyperlink well from within the post itself - something to remember for future tweet tagging
5. linked my flickr account to Twitter - connectivity plus!

may go and explore now