Cam23: the final post but not the final thing...

More than a month after the final party, here I am to explain why I dropped Cam23 and decided I wouldn’t complete it. The programme was great and I was really looking forward to take part; I started with enthusiasm but after 11 things I stopped and never picked it up again. What happened?

Cam23 - The Big Catch-Up: Things 9, 10, 11

I’m going to write very quickly on a series of Cam23 topics as I can’t find a way to keep up with everything and I need to squeeze several posts in one. I’m also about to go on holiday so I will resume in September with even more things to catch up on. Time management skills, eh?

Google Docs: I didn’t really know what to say about this until I created my first form last Friday and discovered the magic of the whole thing. I had used GDocs before but only as a way of sharing Word documents (with others or myself, to avoid carrying memory sticks around all the time), and I had found it slow and less useful that a “real” Word doc. But the forms! And the fact that the data are automatically collected in a spreadsheet! Blessed be Google however mischievous they may be. The form I created was aimed at colleagues in other Cambrige libraries. Every year we update our publications and, in the past, we used to send a copy of each to all Cambridge librarians. This approach had two main downfalls: 1) we didn’t ask librarians if they actually wanted our stuff, thus spamming them with literature and not making sure it was well received and happily dealt with 2) the system was based on an address list that changed all the time as librarians were moving jobs and roles: updating the address list used to take a lot of time – and transform the whole thing into a very tedious task. I have now created a form in GDocs and sent an email (plus a tweet) around the mailing lists. Responses so far have been really good and the form has been filled by a dozen librarians. I can’t wait to pull it all together in September and start organising a personalised mailing service! As I didn’t trust GDocs fully, I chose a rather convoluted way of sending the form around but next year I’m going to put the link to the form straight into the main email.

Pushnote and Evernote: nothing to say on them apart that 1) I can’t download them 2) Pushnote seems not to be that useful 3) Evernote sounds more interesting and useful. I will remember their names in case my downloading facilities get an updgrade, or I manage to snatch the admin password and hack my work computer.

Dropbox is an extra-thing and actually one I wanted to try as I do have an account but I have never used it. When I’ll get round to use it, I promise I’ll blog about it.

My opinions on the programme so far: it’s very interesting and the fact that I’m not enjoying it fully is totally my fault. I just got involved in too many things when I had a moment of professional boredom some months ago, and now I feel like a fly bumping into the same window over and over again without finding a way to get out. I thought about dropping one of the two programmes (the other being cpd23) but I know I’ll regret it if I do, so I’ll keep going and you will forgive me if I’m always running late.  See you in September.

Cam23 Things 7-8: doodling, googling and extra-thinging

Thankfully this week is about tools I already know or use, so I will write only a few observations on them, leaving proper reflections for the cpd23 post (which I totally overlooked, thinking the reflection week would be a free week…I was slightly wrong!). 

Doodle: oh the wonder when I saw it being used for the first time! I haven’t had the chance to use it myself yet but I’m very keen. I will also do some pioneering work and try to introduce it in my office, where finding a convenient time for everyone to meet is a real challenge sometimes.
Google Calendar: I have been using it for some months now and I must admit I have almost abandoned completely my paper diary, which is a truly fundamental evolutional switch. As a child of the ’80s, who had her first computer in 1990 – we were among the first to have one; it was the Mac Steve Jobs had launched a few years earlier (if you haven't seen it already, watch this video. Seriously) – I always thought I would trust paper forever. I still have my little diary and I will keep it somehow alive for the rest of 2011, but I see that Google Calendar is quickly replacing it. It’s easy to use and I like the fact that I can create as many different calendars as I need, colour-code them, and switch them on and off. I have one for work and one for my extra-work life, and I love switching the work one off when I finish my day in the office. Also, seeing that big chunk between 6pm and 9pm gives me the impression that I’ve got a lot of time in front of me after finishing work. I know this is not very scientific but it’s the feature I probably like most at the moment.
Regarding using it for work, this would require an extremely long post, and probably written under a fake name!!! I loved reading the post on how libraries use it and I will keep it all in mind for when the chance for a change will arise.

Thank you also for the link to the http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/libraries/calendar.html, I have now added Librarians in Training and the Brown Bag Lunches to my calendar. This counts as my extra thing!

Cam23 Things 5 and 6: Screenshots and -casting

I'm late again, still talking about screenshots and screencasting, but hopefully with a new tool to share with you, as I haven't found it mentioned in any of your posts. I've never been a great fan of the Print Screen button, and for some reason Microsoft Paint has never been my favourite image-manipulation option; if I have understood it correctly, LightShot is available only for Firefox and Chrome, which I haven't got, so what am I going to do? I'm going to share with you the amazing power of the Windows 7 Snipping Tool, plus Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Excited? Wait and see...

Cam23 Week2 – Sorry I’m late

Dear oh dear, what a hectic week last week! At the Careers Service Library we were busy catching the last finalists before they left for good, and when they did leave, we were literally invaded by not-so-new and potentially-new employers who all wanted to visit the library and browse our resources [I'm not complaining, just making excuses for being so late!].

Cam23 Extra #1: Improving

Hello again Cambridge!

I will be with you from Wednesday onwards, but I'm publishing a quick post just to say that on Saturday I spent some time improving my blog with the excuse of the extra thing number 1.

And also Cam23 Thing 2: Blogs and social media

I have talked about my relationship with blogging in the CPD23 first post; and I have partially covered social media in Cam23 Thing 1 (see the paragraph about my scattered brain!). I’ll just add that I tend to use Facebook for personal reasons, and Twitter for professional reasons. I’m working my way around LinkedIn. I am a huge fan of Flickr, first because I love photography, and second because it allowed me to set up a beautiful image library for my department (password-protected too – I’d love to show it to you). Twitter was difficult at the beginning – it takes time to adapt to that kind of communication.

Cam23 Thing 1: iGoogle

Hello Cambridge! Here I am with my first post for Cam23.

In a bit of a hurry, I have created my first iGoogle page. Why on earth nobody told me about it before? ;-) I was franctically jumping between GoogleDocs, Reader, Gmail, Calendar, etc. etc., without knowing I could have them all in one place.