Holiday Homework

I'm  a bit unsure as to where I stand with copyright on these images. Obviously they are my own work but the book jackets aren't and even though these are just for my own personal use I was a bit hesitant about posting them. However I'm so pleased with how some of them have come out, especially the PlayMobil ones, I couldn't resist. If anyone has any copyright advice/objections just leave a comment. 

Things from LILIC12

I didn't get to go to LILIC12 but I did follow some of the sessions using Twitter. It was a good thing really because there were a number of interesting mobile / tablet related sessions that inspired me.

Firstly was the Roving Librarian piece from Alison Sharman at the University of Huddersfield. With it''s HE focus I did find some of what she talked about depressing - having the luxury of subject librarians for starters. That said, with our ipads due to arrive any day, it was useful to hear from someone who has already started integrating them into a service. Certainly it opened my eyes to taking our 'roving enquiry service' out of the libraries and into the wider college.

The Roving Librarian: Keep Taking the Tablets - http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/13312/
The next link is quite old in terms of looking at mobile technology in libraries (2010) and focuses more on the services available than the technology. Although we are a long way off developing our own mobile sites or apps at college it is interesting to see what students are using the mobile web for. However with smartphones becoming more and more sophisticated I can't help but wonder if, should this study be repeated now, we would find students using them in a more interactive way than the passive functions, such as checking opening ours and location, found to be most popular in 2010.  

Universities and Libraries Move to the Mobile Web-
http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/UniversitiesandLibrariesMoveto/206531

Lastly, there was a lot of talk on Twitter about Layars, a open source service that allows developers to integrate augmented reality into real world objects. I was going to download it from the app store and have a play but I can't seem to find it so I'm going to try again another time. I think it's similar to QR codes in that it adds online content to items or print - just much more sophisticated and unobstrusive.
 Augmented Reality experiences on your mobile phone -http://www.layar.com/

Public Lending Right Not Given in Volunteer Run Libraries

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/public-lending-right-not-given-volunteer-run-libraries.html

Interesting

CILIP North West Members Day - Chester, 15th March 2012

http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/regional-branches/north-west/events/pages/pastevents.aspx

The 15th March found me sticking my hand up and agreeing to write up the day the CILIP NW newsletter. I'll link to that article when it is published.

The offical version aside I did enjoy the day even if it was all a bit cosy for my liking. I also felt in a strange way that I'd heard a lot of it before. We know we need to talk to people outside our own sectors, that gets reiterated time and time again at conferences, the first time for me was at a gathering at Ridgmont Street (Sorry CILIP HQ) years ago shortly after I had started working at Trafford. We also know that we want more value for our CILIP membership although I'll admit that this time more progress seems to be being made in streamlining the organisation and creating a tangible offer. Certainly Annie Mauger has been very visible over the last year, not least fighting battles at the CMS Select Comittee into the future of public libraries. (http://www.cilip.org.uk/news-media/pages/news120213.aspx)

The thing is although I enjoyed the event I've struggled to bring anything tangible from it, unless finding some work experience at a health library counts. Whenever I go to events such as these I try and make myself a promise that I will use one thing I have learnt to bring about change to my own service or personal development. This time I haven't been able to do that, although I found the presentations interesting nothing really clicked, or at least nothing that I could apply in a FE setting. Certainly Nikki Heath's determination was an inspiration but I'm already working on building better links with tutors within the college and doing my best to encourage reading for pleasure. Maybe I need to be more innovative in this area and try out something really radical but what this might be I don't knwo at this point. Updates to follow I suppose...