All you need to do is add RSS widgets to your blog, type in the feed’s URL in the appropriate box, and then give the feed a title. You have options on number of items to show (I chose three), identifying the author, and how much text to display.
The main issue with RSS feeds is content. There seems to be plenty of “outside” opportunities to include content, Public Education Network is an example. The big question is what do we want to include, and how often.
Although I did not attend the “LibX in A Nutshell” presentation by Kyrille Goldbeck and Godmar Back at the Computers in Libraries 2008 conference, I learned about it in the conference’s collected presentations booklet.
LibX is a browser plugin for Firefox that provides direct access to your library’s resources. It is an open source framework from which editions for specific libraries can be built. Currently, 352 academic and public libraries have created public LibX editions.
Teaching Point
Go to the reference desk computer. Start up Firefox, go to Views, Toolbars, and select NYPL to experience how LibX works with a library we are all familiar with. If you look at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen you’ll see NYPL’s logo, click it and you’ll find options to show and hide the LibX toolbar – very clever!
I haven’t quite got the hang of this yet, but embedding a video seems to be quite easy. All I did was copy the URL of a YouTube video I liked, and then pasted it into the “upload a video” box, sent it to the editor (another button), and then clicked publish, and here it is.
When I taught in Japan, videos like Mr Bean were very popular. Silent video clips like “Simon’s Cat” (the one above) have the potential to be fun teaching tools for English language learners. They can be used to help students construct dialogs, and write descriptions.
At the Princeton University Library Symposium I attended last year (March 2007) I was surprised to find that many academic librarians have problems getting feedback from students. The advice given by some attendees was to get evaluations at the end of an orientation tour, and that online surveys just didn’t work. This was news to me, I would have to say that online surveys are where we get most of our feedback. I guess big institutions have to do what ever it takes to get what they want. I was amused by University of Wisconsin – Whitewater inducement to take a recent library survey, it was a $50 Amazon.com gift voucher, but I say good on them!
Meebo is a web based instant messaging widget. The good thing about this widget is that it accepts instant messages from other providers: AIM, msm, yahoo, google talk, icq, and jabber. Traditional patrons can also use Meebo directly on the screen (no additional software is needed). All patrons need to do is type their request in the text box and hit return, and then wait for your response. Patrons can personalize the message by typing their name in the space under the text box. For Meebo to work all you need to do is be logged in.
Posted by Peter 
Posted by Peter 
Posted by Peter 
