Tame The Web

Libraries, Technology and People


Monday
September, 3rd

News from TICER: David Free on Podcasting

It’s already been a year since Jenny and I presented at the TICER Institute at the University of Tilburg in Holland. This year, I was glad to see coverage of David free’s hands on workshop on podcasting and videocasting at Rob Coers’ blog:

http://www.robcoers.nl/weblog-artikelen/david-free-on-podcasting-and-vodcasting-at-ticer-summers.html

As a pioneer David had a bunch of great tips:

For instance, if you record an audiopodcast it is tempting to write down the complete story, but in the end you will find that listening to that can be very boring. Instead, write an outline and talk yourself from one point to the other in a natural way. The inevitable “uhhh’s” and silences can be wiped out easily with the right software.

Listening to your own voice recording, can be pretty scary. But don’t let that stop you from creating your podcast, because other people are used to your voice and most of your listeners don’t even know you. If it’s really bad, you might find a collegue who does the speaking for you :-)
Always keep in mind who your listeners or viewers are. Are you aiming at students, or is your message only relevant to staff?

Adding background music will spice up your recording. Use freely available music like available at CCMixter

Keep it short! Before you know it, you have made a recording of 5 minutes. But all is depending on how interesting your content is and how “entertaining” the speaker brings the message

It might be a good idea to promote an acitivity or service in an interviewing style. Although the participants were not so eager about this example, where Google Scholar is suddenly able to talk, it can be refreshing to hear more than one person speaking

Make pod/vodcasting sustainable in your organization. If the know-how and the enthousiasm is with one person, the risk of “collapsing” of the service is present, when this person changes jobs.

I had an incredible time at the TICER Summer School and it looks as though the folks this year did as well. Thanks for posting, Rob!


Thursday
September, 21st

Ticer Faculty 2006


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Originally uploaded by Ticer Tilburg.

Group photo taken of the lecturers at the “Digital Libraries à la Carte” course, held at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, from 21-25 August 2006. Top row, from left to right: Bjørn Olstad, Michael Fraser, Teun Nijssen, Peter van de Graaf, Carl Grant, Jon Kirriemuir, Catherine Candee. Second row: Paul Miller. Bottom row, from left to right: Sue Roberts, Philip Payne, Jenny Levine, Mciahel Stephens, Michael Breaks, Ian Dolphin


Monday
August, 7th

Digital libraries Ala carte: Where Our Users Are: Instant Messaging for Libraries

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In just a couple of weeks, Jenny Levine and I head to The Netherlands for the Tilburg Innovation Centre for Electronic Resources institute!Here’s some info for participants in my session:

Where Our Users Are: Instant Messaging for Libraries - Michael Stephens
(Module 2: Hands-on: Library 2.0 Technologies to Reach out to the Customer)

This workshop explores and explains instant messaging in the library setting, including software, training and policy. Ample hands on exercises will give participants a true feel of what launching an IM Reference service at their libraries involves. We’ll discuss implementation strategies, best practices and the possible pitfalls of IM in libraries. IM carries a great return on investment in libraries, join us and find out more!

Before the Workshop:

Please read the following:

IM Me by Aaron Schmidt & Michael Stephens, Library Journal April 2005

Pew Internet: IM

We’ll be distributing “IM = FASTER Virtual Reference on the Cheap!” from Tech Tips for Every Librarian in the April issue of Computers in Libraries as well.

Please visit and read the following pages:

SJCPL IM Refrerence Page

An IM Reference Report

Suggested Readings:

Abram, S. (2004) Twenty reasons for teacher-librarians to love IM. In: Multimedia & Internet@Schools, 11(4) 16-18.

Desai, C. (2003). Instant messaging reference: How does it compare? In: The Electronic Library, 21(1) 21-30.

Houghton, S. and Schmidt, A. (2005). Web-based chat vs. instant messaging. In: Online, 29(4), 26-30.

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