Blog - Jo Alcock Consulting
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Blog

23 Nov

Posted at 16:51h in Events, Technology by
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Apologies for the lateness of this post, ILI08 was now over a month ago but since then finishing my Diploma, going to the States, and starting my new job have taken priority. Now things have calmed down a little, I've got chance to write the post I promised. The day itself, the journey, the venue After leaving home at an unearthly hour and being ill on the train down to London (maybe marshmallow flavoured Rice Crispies Squares aren't such a good idea at 4am!), I got to the Novotel just before 8am. As it was the final day of the conference, I...

17 Nov

Posted at 18:00h in Library, Technology by
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This post follows on from an earlier post about the use of Facebook Pages for Libraries. There have been a number of further developments since then both internally and externally. Internally, our Facebook page has gradually increased interest in terms of the number of fans it has. We currently have over 200 fans - not a massive amount but not bad without any formal marketing yet. I've had verbal feedback from some students who feel it is a good way to be kept up-to-date with Learning Centre services and resources as they use Facebook regularly. I'll be writing a progress report...

09 Nov

Posted at 19:12h in General, Uncategorized by
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I've spent the last two weeks in Orlando, Florida and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have been across to the States before but it was a few years ago now and I visited Washington DC, Boston, and New York City. Visiting Orlando was very different, everywhere was very flat and things were definitely a lot more tourist oriented. As this was purely a personal holiday, you may think its unlikely that I can relate my experiences at Disney to my work in an academic library. However, something which really stood out to both myself and my partner was the excellent service we...

18 Oct

Posted at 17:00h in Technology by
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When I first starting using RSS feeds a couple of years ago, I used Google Reader and had a widget on my iGoogle page which I used to read my feeds. As my collection of feeds grew and I switched to Pageflakes as a homepage, I decided to move my feeds into Bloglines. I'd heard a lot of positive things about Bloglines and I certainly wasn't disappointed - the interface worked well and I just found that I gelled with it. I even wrote a blog post about how great it was last year. I have been using Bloglines Beta and...

16 Oct

Posted at 13:39h in Events, Study, Uncategorized by
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As mentioned in a previous post, I'm coming towards the end of the taught part of my librarianship course. I am going away (to Orlando!) a week today and my aim was to complete the Diploma before we go. I'm pleased to say I have achieved my aim (although I haven't received confirmation that my assignment has been received yet which is a little worrying, hopefully it will have arrived today). I'm still waiting for results for three of my assignments but as long as I pass them I will have completed the Diploma. I still have my dissertation to do...

03 Oct

Posted at 19:29h in Library, Technology by
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I've already passed this on to some who I know are using Facebook within their libraries but I thought I'd mention it here as well. Jane Secker of the LASSIE project is talking to some non-librarians at the end of this month about how libraries are currently using Facebook (if at all). Please complete her short survey if you have time to help with the research....

01 Oct

Posted at 11:21h in Events, Study, Technology, Uncategorized by
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Well, the time has finally come - on Monday I had an interview for a professional librarian post and I was successful! I'm also coming very close to completion of my Diploma (I'm going away at the end of this month and my aim is to complete my final assignment before I go) so hopefully soon I'll be able to say with pride that I am a qualified librarian. I'm so excited about starting a professional post, I can't wait to be able to work more closely with academic schools to help support the students and further develop our services. I'm moving...

24 Sep

Posted at 09:00h in Library, Uncategorized by
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There are many things I love about my job, but around this time of year each year you can usually find me with a big smile on my face. We’ve just finished Fresher’s Week and despite being physically and mentally shattered, I feel great. This year I was involved in helping with a number of library tours and teaching sessions introducing students to our Learning Centres. We spent a lot of summer preparing for the sessions as they were a group we hadn’t had much contact with in the past. We were trying new techniques (we used Captivate to support the...

21 Sep

Posted at 22:52h in Events, Technology by
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As part of my study school week in Aberystwyth we had Dr. Jane Secker, Learning Technology Librarian (such a great job title!) at LSE, as a guest speaker to talk to us about the adventures of LASSIE (Libraries and Social Software in Education). I have been following the LASSIE project with interest since last summer when the initial literature review was published – for those that don’t know the project looked at social (Web 2.0) software such as online reading lists, social bookmarking, blogging and social networking, and specifically how they can be used to support distance learners. During the...

10 Sep

Posted at 19:55h in Technology by
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The post below was actually written on Monday but I've been without internet access (shock horror!) and haven't been able to post it until now: I’m currently sitting on a train to Aberystwyth with hundreds of sheep around me (it never fails to amaze me just how many sheep there are in Wales despite living here for three years!), playing with my new gadget. I’ve been after a new laptop for a while now and kept telling myself that I would save up and get one when I start my dissertation. My previous laptop is over 6 years old now, and as...