Thing 23: Making it all work together

Well, I've finally made it to Thing 23, I really didn't think I would make it on time to get my certificate, but well here I am. I am sorry I didn't manage to keep up with the initial timescale, but life, work and college got in the way!

I have used Hootsuite before and if you are managing multiple social media accounts it is really worth using an app like this as it saves time and energy bringing all  your accounts under one application. I know the staff in the library use Hootsuite to manage the library social media accounts.

I signed up to Buffer just to see what it was like, but again unless you are managing multiple accounts, and have to schedule tweets and posts I may be better off just using the individual apps and continue using their notifications, for now anyway.


Many thanks to the Rudaí23 team for allowing me to take part - especially Wayne who was my mentor - thank you for all your kind and helpful comments.

Well done guys, take a bow!

Thing 22: Mobile Things

I had to download the Gum app to my daughters iphone as there isn't an android app yet and I don't have my iPad with me at the moment. I love the idea of a 'social network of things', but I would be a bit worried in that it doesn't seem to be curated in any way!

 I recently went to see Chris Hadfield in the Bord Gais Theatre, a really fascinating guy - he was talking about the journey that ultimately brought him to command the International Space Station for 6 months a couple of years back.

I first started following him on Twitter because he posted the most amazing photographs from space-and then he became a household name after performing David Bowie's (another of my heroes) A Space Oddity' in space! To cut a long story short, I bought his book 'An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth' after the lecture - and decided to use that for this assignment, turns out I am the first to Gumit!

Thing 21: Creating Infographics

Right - up bright and earlier to wrap up the last three things...

There are a couple of the things that I have really enjoyed doing, and this is one of them. I find creating something from scratch really satisfying.

Info-graphics is one of the easiest and most creative ways of getting your information out there, we have a couple of people in work who are really, really good at this, so I would usually go to one of them and tell them what I want and they would put it together.

I used easel.ly for this assignment, it is really easy to sign up to and fairly straightforward to use - I love playing around with these kind applications.

I think the potential for use in the library is endless, a straightforward, simple way to get the info out there to our users. The trick is not to overwhelm the page with information - this is my first effort, but I know I am going to play around with this when I have more time!!

Thing 20: Presentations

I have only ever done one presentation - way back in 2006ish I went to a seminar on copyright and the librarian asked me to put a presentation together on what I had learned for all the library staff. He then opened it up to all staff - thankfully only a couple of non-library staff turned up, because I found it really nerve-racking just presenting in front of people who I know really well and who were really supportive.

Anyways, I have put a really quick presentation together of photographs of our new library building which we moved into this time last year. Thanks Niamh for the tips on how to embed this in the blog!

I took these photographs from my office window, which looked directly out onto the building site.

Thing 19: The Legal side of Things

Image courtesy of alex_ugalek at
FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 I did  a quick search for 'free' images/photos and came across this site and downloaded this very nice snow scene.

Thing 18: Communicating through Photographs

I wrote Thing18:  Communicating through Photographs for Rudaí23 so I'm really not going to write much about it here, except to say I thoroughly enjoyed all the research around this thing. However, I was disappointed that Yahoo stopped allowing the use of Google+ and Facebook to access Flickr - having another email address just for one app is a bit of pain! And, also, I love that there are so many libraries using Instagram - check out the #librariesofinstagram hashtag to have a look., it really is one of my favourite apps on my phone!

Thing 17:Reflective Practice

Unfortunately I am rushing through the last few things in order to finish - so re-writing a post is not an option for now!

Since taking up a new position in the library last January - I have found that the nature of the job means that I have to reflect on my and other peoples actions. I have learnt never to assume that other people know or understand what I am asking them to do. I have dealt with various issues and dilemmas, and have reflected on the outcomes - both successful and unsuccessful as the case may be, asking myself what I could have done or said in order resolve the issue, or to bring about a satisfactory compromise.

I think this comes with experience and practice - I am quite a calm and patient person, so I think that helps when dealing with various situations, but I do find it hard to express myself sometimes, so if I know something is coming up where I will have to interact, I will note a few things down first - just so that I don't feel I am left looking over the cliff with nothing to say!

I have read a few of the other posts on reflective practice and marvel at the way people are able to express themselves, and is something I aspire too.