Feedback

I found this a challenging course, with lots to take in. The homework and project forced us to use our new skills, which hopefully means they won't be simply forgotten. I also enjoyed meeting up with librarians from public libraries.

I continue to share what I have learned with colleagues throughout North Wales and we now have lots of ideas to put into two blogs in the New Year. I would love for us to also get permission to set up facebook and twitter accounts for our service (now I have an idea of what to put on them!). I believe I can learn a great deal more by going through the list of useful sites Sangeet provided.

Thanks Sangeet for all your help x

Powys Libraries - One small step for a man....

The timing for the Wise Kids course could not have been better. The day after the fist two day block I gave a presentation on possible involvement in social media sites to the Powys Libraries management team. It really helped that I had actually used Twitter, Facebook and Blogger by that time. However the team gave me a fairly vague "Well you'd better make a start then" without addressing any of the issues. Over the next month I was quietly asked about how much of my time it would take and other related issues. The team as a whole saw the marketing value of the media without grasping the implications of what it takes to build an audience.
At the next management team meeting I talked about the nitty gritty of who and how and was given the go ahead for a Twitter account and a Facebook page. (Our senior librarian didn't "see any point in a blog"). We are still exploring what to do about a sit/blog for children. Our IT Dept has given me access and we now have a Twitter account, and a Facebook page. All I need now is content!

RCT Libraries - Link to project

Hi

Sorry this is late been really busy. Just adding the link to my project for tomorrows 3rd day session. This project is linked to some training material on answering customer inquiries i have been working on for the South East Wales (SET) training group. The group kindly agreed that i could produce a blog to deliver this training. The idea being that staff would be asked to work through the blog which incorporates a mixture of newly created material and material drawn from sources on the web.

http://setinformationtraining.blogspot.com/

Nick

Swansea Libraries Project

Our project was to create a wiki or mini-website for Swansea Libraries staff, to include communication tools as well as useful resources for staff, to help them plan events and displays in their libraries. Staff will need to login to view the pages so they will not be accessible to the public. We used Google Sites to create the pages, adapting an existing template to reflect the branding style and colours of our library service.


The pages include;


Bulletin



The Home page, a summary of the rest of the site, a like button for our Facebook page and a gadget displaying the Swansea Libraries Twitter Feed



A Google document for library staff to amend to include their library event listings, this will then be submitted to the local ‘What’s On’ magazine



A bulletin board to help keep staff informed about new Service information, they will be notified automatically by email when new information is posted, but can easily refer back to it here



Calendar

 A Google calendar showing events, festivals and national campaigns that may be useful for staff, each event includes basic information and a relevant weblink

The Swansea Libraries public blog, embedded as an RSS feed




And finally an ever increasing list of links to useful websites, subdivided by category

We discussed the pages we had created with some of the senior managers of our Library Service and they helped us to see other ways in which we could develop the site in the future and encourage staff to use it

We have started with these few pages but we would like to develop them further and create more, to provide a useful and extensive resource for all Swansea Libraries staff.

Vale of Glamorgan Libraries Project update - Links to my blog'n'tweets

I have added a few more bits to my Libraries Fortnight blog and still intend to carry on Tweeting when there's any news from the libraries - even started gathering followers now!

Blog: http://voglib.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @voglibraries

MairJones Project

Gwefr heb Wifrau / Wireless in Wales Museum is beginning to consider the best ways of publicising it's existence as a Learning Centre for the community of Denbigh and nationally in Wales. This mindmap begins to map out the process of advising the Museum Team/Commitee as to the benefits of adopting a social media strategy as well as or instead of the traditional website it currently has.

Alyn's Project Web Interface Functional Diagram

The Wireless in Wales Museum is planning to update its website to include a blog and, possibly, a private or members-only section. This diagram is an initial attempt to show the flow of information into, out of, and through the resulting web presence.

Denbighshire Libraries - It's not what I planned but...

Well, here is my effort, I thought I'd cobble together something to show the powers that be what is possible with web 2, however time constraints have not allowed me to make the video of the almost legendary Rusty Bear joining the library... that and the fact that someone has borrowed the camera... and my wonderful screen cast has been broufght to a grinding halt thanks to the system playing silly beggars and the microphone not working, so when I had done it, it was silent anyway and now I can neither delete or publish it!

All of this notwithstanding, here is a link to my humble contribution. Hope it all makes sense.

Cardiff Children's library update

Hi everyone.

Since the last training days I've used my new skills to produce a presentation for my colleagues showing how to add a blog post - we are in the process of setting up a blog for our children's and teen reading groups.
I was planning to create a screencast but our staff PCs lack sound so decided to create a powerpoint presentation as I was sure this could be viewed by everyone!

I've uploaded it to google documents so that I could embed it here (it is very simple but I hope it does the job).


I've also begun setting up a google site for some of our recommendations for books/websites. I found this really quick to use, it's getting the content up to date that is taking the longest time but I think it will make our recommendations more relevant than the paper forms they are currently in.

The skills and information from this Wise Kids training will continue to be put to use at work, improving the service for our users (hopefully!). Also personally I have really enjoyed learning about how to use these great web 2.0 technologies.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Care Sciences LRC Blog all set up and ready to go . . .

The start of term madness finally tailored off last week with the last of our inductions and workshops - and I had a chance to work on our new blog. Rob - my job share colleague - has been persuaded (!) that a joint blog would be a good idea and has given me his first post. . . . The blog is looking good, if rather short on content, but I'm sure this will change over the coming months. . . .

I'm looking forward to our catch-up Wise Kids workshop on Monday. Have a few questions to ask Sangeet & new skills to learn . . . http://caresciencelibs.blogspot.com/

Update from Torfaen Libraries

Hi,
I have worked on my project and have put together the following:
I have had permission to set up a blog for Torfaen Library Service. It will be a weekly blog and contain info, photos links etc about whatever we have been up to.
I have added the Twitter feed from @torfaenlibrary and the Facebook link to our Facebook page. We previously had 3 separate pages for our libraries on Fb but it seems to work better now I have merged them.
I have also set up a discussion page on Facebook for our IT drop-in customers.
Looking forward to our final day of Wisekids training on Monday.
Torfaen Libraries' Blog
Rosie

Cardiff Met Uni Libraries - Creating a simple wiki for Textile Students

I've set up a Wiki for a specific module that's starting in January.  It is for year 1 Textiles and aims to provide inspiration, ideas and where to go for further resources and information.  They can also contribute and share ideas and practices as well.

It's very much a work in progress as I only got the go-ahead a few days ago, so the 'look' of it and overall content will certainly not be completed by Monday.  But if you want a sneaky peak, it's up there on Wikispaces.

Any other tips, or suggestions duly appreciated!

Look forward to seeing you all on Monday. :)

Vale of Glamorgan Libraries - Promoting events in the Vale

After the last course I spoke to my manager and we agreed that I would use Twitter to publicise events coming up in the Vale during Libraries Fortnight and maintain a blog as a record of what took place.
It took weeks before our IT people sorted out my access to social networking and I still don't have full access, so most of my tweets have had to be made using the old mobile phone from our now-defunct Mobile Library. Sigh. I am not sure I'm ready to add a link to my blog from the Vale's website yet.

It's been a steep learning curve, as has my other project to set a geocache at each of our libraries (which took far more time than I would have liked), but I think I'm winning.

Looking forward to Monday's WISE KIDS session. Hopefully things will sink in then!

Update from Newport Libraries

Hello from Newport. Just a quick update on what web 2.0 technologies we have managed to take forward since the wisekids training.

Reported back to my Manager and had a very positive response with a green light for our small web 2.0 technologies working group to create a blog for our Book Express service and a twitter account. [libraries and Information Online Newport] service.

Bolg address http://www.thebookexpressblog.blogspot.com/
Twitter account @readmoreLION we have added a link to this from our online library catalogue LION

Using Hootsuite to manage and schedule the tweets and have just started with a few practice tweets this week.

Will add a link to The Book Express blog from The Book Express web pages and LION shortly.

We are planning to have a service policy for web 2.0 technology before the end of December.

Really looking forward to seeing everyone on Monday.

Melanie

Cardiff University Library - Creating a tutorial for my library colleagues using Screenr

Hi everyone!

I'm Haley from Trevithick Library, Cardiff University. For my project, I created a screenr screencast tutorial for my colleagues encouraging them to engage in our social media tool, Connections, and how to get the most use out of the IT Manual that we have created there.  I presented the screencast at our annual staff refresher session.  Some said that it was a crafty way to avoid standing up in the front of the room, hah!  Here it is in case you'd like to have a look: http://screenr.com/3DKs

Looking forward to the last WISE KIDS day on Monday!

-Haley

John Spalding Library - Project Progress Timeline

Hello again. Here's how my project has gone, so far.

October

1. Wrote up notes from Part 1 of the course, adding links and extra details. Emailed notes to colleagues across NW NHS Library Service

2. Went over ideas from the course with my line manager and decided on creating a blog to help Welsh Health Librarians communicate developments and innovations. Agreed to set blog to be accessible to author only until finaly approved.

3. Contacted Corporate Communications regarding setting up blog. Asked if there were any specific guidelines to follow (including policy on bilingualism).

4. Received reply allowing blog to go ahead.

November

5. Started designing blog. Added static pages, useful links, adjusted time and permission settings.

6. Attended marketing meeting in Bangor. Went over progress so far. Showed everyone what the blog looked like. Got feedback and nore ideas. Recommended course to colleagues.

So although the blog is not available for everyone to see just yet, I feel that quite a lot has happened since the first part of the course and hope to see the blog go live very soon.

Best wishes,

Sian x

Project update for Flintshire Libraries

Here is a more detailed breakdown of my project plans:
I have met with my manager and discussed my initial idea of creating two separate blogs to demonstrate the potential for our service and users :
1. Libraries in Flintshire - to promote library service to the public
2. FLIS FALLS - a tool for staff to share and 'cascade ' any new service developments or training with colleagues.
These examples will be presented to colleagues and management before going live.
In addition to I am also going to be reviewing Flintshire County Council's policy for social networking (and creating business plans where necessary!) to see what other aspects of the WiseKids sessions we can introduce to the service.

Project: Business Case for blog for CyMAL Sector Training Programme

Hi All

Please find a link to my hypothetical business case for the CyMAL sector training programme. It's a starting point if I was to set up a blog for this purpose.

Business Case for Blog for Sector Training Programme

Before I wrote the blog I did a mind map to help me focus my thoughts on the advantages of having a CyMAL sector training blog.

I'm looking forward to seeing everybody from the mid Wales event again at the end of the month!

My screencast project - Sharon Crossan, RSC Wales

Hi all, unfortunately due to other commitments I won't be able to make the final days training session so this is my post on my project.

I wanted to create short screencasts on how to subscribe and search for RSS feeds.  I had never created any screencasts before but on recommendation I used a service called Jing to create them.  I found it very easy to use and pleasantly surprised by the results. All going well you should be able to view them here:





Using screencasts means that we can save time in the onlien session and also have a resource that people can watch over again until they are able to do it, rather than follow a set of instructions.  It can also be used outside of the session too.

On a visit to one of the colleges in Wales I was talking about this course and my screencast project which has inspired them to have a go as well!

So there we have it, I'm happy with the results hope you like them too and enjoy the final training day :-)

Getting there!

Emma and myself created a private staff wiki using google sites including information about events, links, calendar pages and our bulletin. We're still working on it so we'll tell you more on Monday!