A Day of Digital Delights: Computer CatchUp Camp
April 30, 2012 - Four County Library System, Sidney NY
Does it feel as if the world is progressing just a little too fast? Do you find it hard to keep up with all the latest technological advances/products and before you know it you feel hopelessly behind? Computer Catch-up Camp will provide an opportunity for hands-on exploration of social media (Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and other electronic elements (QR codes, cloud computing, etc.) No question is too silly, bring them all!! (Workshop flyer)
Listed below are introductions and resources related to some of the topics that many of you expressed interest in learning about. We're not limited to these topics, I just wanted to have a starting place for the most requested topics.
- WHAT IS IT? Pinterest is basically an online bookmarking tool. Very much like Delicious or Diigo, it helps you keep track of great websites and resources that you find. But it's much more visual. It's terrific for saving images that you find and want to save. Craft ideas, decorating ideas, classroom or library displays, book covers, etc. The graphic you "pin" links back to the page you found it on, so you really are bookmarking the site as well as saving the image.
- PINS & BOARDS Individual images that you save are called Pins. To organize your pins, you create Boards. Boards can be based on ideas, hobbies, interests, whatever you want!
- FOLLOWING Once you get an account, you'll find that Pinterest wants to connect with your Facebook and/or Gmail account. This will help you find other people to follow and share with. You can follow as many or as few people as you like. And you can choose to follow all of someones boards or just specific ones that interest you.
- REPINNING, LIKING, COMMENTING As you browse around, you'll find other people's pins that you'll want to save to your own boards. Simply click on REPIN. You can also click on the LIKE button and that pin will be saved to your list of "likes". There's also a comment box on each pin.
- ACCURATE SOURCES When you repin something, take the time to click on the pin and see if it leads you back to a useful source. If not, try to find the real original source. After you add a pin to one of your boards, you can edit the source.
Resources, Tutorials, Examples, Ideas
- WHAT IS IT? Twitter lets you share short messages with friends, family, colleagues, your community and the world! Sometimes referred to as "micro-blogging". The 140 character messages are called Tweets. You control whether your tweets are public or not.
- FOLLOWING You can follow the tweets of anyone who has made their account public, they do not have to follow you back for you to see their messages. Once you start following people, their tweets appear in a stream of messages on your twitter page. There are also many twitter apps for mobile devices and desktop computers. As time goes on, you'll build a group of your own followers. You can choose whether to follow them back or not.
- RETWEETS If someone posts something that you'd like to share with your followers, you can simply hit a button and retweet it to your circle of followers. This is a great way to share information quickly and efficiently.
- HASHTAGS This is a technique used to help track tweets about a particular topic. For example, people attending a conference session frequently share things they're learning during the conference. To help people keep track of tweets coming from an event, the conference organizers will usually ask people to include a hashtag in all their tweets. During the Computers in Libraries in conference in Washington DC, the hashtag #cildc was used.
- TWITTER AND LIBRARIES Many libraries use twitter as an easy way to quickly post news and information about the library. News, events, programs, new resources, etc. But also, it's a terrific way to connect with your community. Try not to simply broadcast news updates and event calendar listings. Let your library visitors know you're on twitter, encourage them to follow you and follow them back. Pay attention to their questions, ask questions of your community.
Resources, Tutorials, Examples, Ideas
- LibSuccess - Twitter Lists some libraries using twitter, links to a few articles about twitter and some tools.
- All a Twitter: Want to Try Microblogging? - An older article, so some of the links may not work, but a great introduction to getting started with Twitter. By Elyssa Kroski, School Library Journal.
- Twitter - Introduction and tutorial for librarians. (Post is part of a library Learning2.0 program created by grad students at SJSU)
FACEBOOK
- WHAT IS IT? Free online social networking service. Share updates, news, photos, videos and more, with your friends and colleagues.
- PRIVACY Many people are concerned about privacy and Facebook. Even more people aren't in the least bit concerned, and maybe they should be! Do take the time to get to know your privacy settings on Facebook, you'll thank me. And perhaps this is an opportunity to do a program on this topic for your library community?
- FACEBOOK AND LIBRARIES Businesses and organizations are able to set up a facebook page to connect with their customers. Libraries can post news about the library and the community, hold contests, engage library visitors in chats about books and other topics of interest. As with Twitter, it's important to interact with your Facebook followers.
Resources, Tutorials, Examples, Ideas
- Facebook for Libraries - Great introduction to getting started with Facebook and best practices. By David Lee King, American Libraries.
- A Facebook Page for Your Library - Tutorial for getting started with your library's Facebook page. Includes links to examples of library Facebook pages and a video tutorial to step you through getting started. (Post is part of a library Learning2.0 program created by the Nebraska Library Commission)
- How to Use the New Facebook Admin Panel
- Facebook Insights - Help files from Facebook
- Night Owls - great example of a book chat via Facebook.
- Social Plugins - Create a facebook "like" box to connect your web site to your Facebook page.