Thing 16 Collaboration Tools

I like Google Drive, I use it a lot for editing documents in different places and I like that I have access to it wherever I go.  It was really useful in working on my chartership when I had no printer at home.

I have also used Doodle personally to organise meet ups with friends when we needed to organise the best time and location for a number of people.

Over the years I've used google drive (or docs as was) to collaborate with others a few times and I've found it really useful to be able to work together without being in the same room.  I previously took part in the Scottish Goverment Library's 10 things course which shares all documents via collaboration tools.  I was also seconded for a term to a local secondary school and was able to see the classes use Google for education to great effect.

I do have a caveat to this though, I'm able to use collaboration tools because I do so from home.  Colleagues who wanted to take part in the 10 things course were unable to do so due to unreliable broadband at home and a refusal from our council IT department to make Google Drive available on our corporate network for security reasons.  I do believe we could use these tools very successfully in the workplace but we're currently unable to do so.

Libraries are just great because they are and why can't you all see it?!

Oh Thing 15 how you have tasked me!  I'm not suggesting that figuring out how to write about library advocacy was responsible for my migraine last week just that they ran alongside each other....

Looking at some of the campaigns mentioned it strikes me that I've been involved in lots of library advocacy throughout my career.  I took part in 2 rounds of Library Day in the Life, I organise events for National Libraries Day, I've organised and encouraged weeks in our libraries encouraging people to be photographed with signs saying what they're visiting for, I've arranged for library staff to be on commuter trains on World Book Day handing out free books, I've visited schools, workplaces and local stores across our area all to try and let people know who we are and what we do.  Each of these activities has brought in a few new users and that's great, each new person through the door is a positive result but it isn't advocating to the right people and it isn't reaching those that could benefit most.  I worry that a lot of what we do is aimed at those who are already listening, we need to be louder, we need to be everywhere and we need to be supported by politicians.

Working in the public sector means that times are hard, services are being tested and in some cases cut to the bone.  The very nature of government means that financial decisions are taken based on what is currently the concern or project of the party in power or the party trying to get reelected.  This means that services which work for the long game aren't necessarily ones that will attract support unless they can shout loudest.  I'm passionate about early literacy, our Bookbug sessions and story times work with parents to show in a fun and simple way how to encourage literacy from the very beginning.  Putting the funding into working with parents now could very well lead to savings in education, welfare or even criminal justice in future (http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/resources/online-library/ready-read-scotland) but we need to be making those arguments to the politicians in charge of funding now.

I'm still not sure how we do better at explaining to people who don't already use us what we do and why we should exist, be supported, be better funded and be used.  I know I'll be taking more time to revisit some of the things I've done so far, work out what was most successful, what wasn't, look at what others have done that has worked and just keep trying.

Thing 7 - Podcasts

Confession time - I don't think I'm really a podcast kind of person.

I'm realising that I'm really quite visual.  I want to see images on my social media and I want to see images to go along with what I'm hearing.  It shouldn't surprise me as the only time I listen to the radio is in the car and I use music as a background mostly.

We haven't used podcasts though we did consider it at one point when we were looking into an online book group but found our council website too restrictive to use it.

I found Circulating Ideas really interesting and will check back regularly.  My experience of podcasts or at least of audio is mainly in history and archives.  I use SCRAN http://www.scran.ac.uk/ quite a lot with class visits and love the audio clips of oral history.  I can see how we maybe could use it to share some of the rhymes and songs we use for Bookbug sessions that parents don't know as well though I've shared some rhymes on YouTube from Bookbug sessions already and still think that would be my preferred medium.