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Presented at WAAL 2009.
Program description:
What can technical services departments do to tackle ongoing issues surrounding automation, training, and communication? Many perceive that, because of lack of financial resources and computer skills, technological tools are out of their reach. While true for some, many other technological tools do not require deep pockets or computer expertise to use. This presentation will cover several free (or inexpensive) and easy to implement technological tools that the Technical Services department at Miami University has incorporated into its daily operations. Specific software, including wikis, macros, and tutorial creation will be discussed along with quick ways these tools can help address the above issues.
40. ANY QUESTIONS?
Thank you
Becky Yoose
Bibliographic Systems Librarian
Miami University
yoosebj@muohio.edu
Twitter: yo_bj
Credits:
Lolcat pics from http://icanhascheezburger.com/
Product Icons from respective company websites
Notes de l'éditeur
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I am a techie. Be forewarned. If I start speaking Greek or throwing terms out that you don’t understand, feel free to ask to repeat what I said in layman’s terms.I have experience in these specific products. There could and will be better products out there that I will not cover in this presentation.You may not need a particular software, or you might use it another way than discussed today. Staff might welcome their new software overlords, or act as if they didn’t exist. There are a lot of variables when deciding if a particular piece of software is right for your department, hence “tools” instead of “solutions” in the presentation title.Cats. Lots of cats.<number>
The myth for today: software that would help with continuing issues in technical service departments are out of reach due to two factors…<number>
License/site costsPay for IT/supportHardware costs<number>
Lack of technically skilled staff, aka techiesSoftware is complicatedInstallation/maintenance fearsComputer blowing up, etc.<number>
True for some – ex. ILSNot for all software though<number>
Automation, communication, and training<number>
Intradepartmental communication is important no matter what size the department. DocumentationStaff informationEmergency informationIssue resolutionProject informationSchedulesResourcesTraining materialWhat happens if your cataloger is gone and there’s a rush item that needs to be cataloged?How did we address this particular issue before? Miscommunication or lack of communication leads to:lost productivity, lower quality of work, and potential loss of critical institutional knowledge.<number>
Paper documentation changing slowly to…<number>
Intranet – your very own private internetLocally hostedIT or systems gives you spaceStaff to maintainPrivate… Remotely hosted3rd partyUniversity policy of storing uni information on 3rd party serversUsually secure and can be password protectedWe had a wiki on local host. We couldn’t maintain it properly, and limited to what we can do as a result. Had to think of easier way to keep an intranet…<number>
Tool that we used for intranetFREERemote hosted – maintenance their problem, not oursPassword protectedDocument managementWYSIWYG editor <number>
3 choices. Basic is the free one.Yes, you are allowed to click on the academic wiki link.<number>
Read the licenses or user agreementsFAQ is a bit unclear. May interpret as ineligible for academic wiki – however…This time around, since PBwiki is advertising its educational product to libraries as a simple intranet solution, you’re good to go for academic editions.<number>
Unless you need more than 100 user accounts and/or 2 gigs of storage, go for the basic edition.Yes, it is that easy. <number>
Start pageLinks to tutorials, how to’s, webinars, etc.<number>
Live demoEdit functionProceduresFolders/doc managementPlugins/widgets<number>
Wiki matrix has a choice wizard if you’re in the market for a wikiA self hosted wiki I would recommend is PmWiki. It’s relatively easy to set up. Requires PHP and a web server, like Apache. Good way to learn about servers, php, file structure, etc.Also has a standalone version that can be installed (if your department only has one computer…).<number>
The age old question about how to go about training. Ranges from common tasks to annual (or less frequent) tasks. Trainee – I was taught how to do this when first hired, but it’s 6 months later and I can’t remember how to do it anymore. I can’t understand the training documents b/c…Trainer – un-uniform training material/documentation, re-training fundamentals of tasks takes time<number>
Training classes, one-on-one training, looking at documentation…People have different learning styles:Visual? Auditory? Tactile?Create training material that is:standardizedeasy to follow and understandallows for easy accessallows to take advantage of different learning styles<number>
Make a tutorial! Standardizes training material, compliments training period and can be used as reference.Free, again.Accessible in different formats:pdf, flash movie, standalone .exe files, HTML, or postscript. You have a lot of options!<number>
Again, READ THE LICENSE.As long as you don’t plan to redistribute Wink, you should be fine.<number>
For Windows and Linux. Macs get no love from Wink.Different places to download the file. File will be a zip file. Download and unzip.<number>
Work station.Start a new project…<number>
Use the green square to mark out what you are going to capture. The program can be told to capture the screen in two ways: timed and input driven.You can record audio as well.<number>
Workspace after capture.Here you can edit what was captured (below menu), add audio, text, images, links, etc. (right menu). When you are done, render and select which format you want the tutorial to be in.<number>
Live demo – flash movie and pdfStandardized training class/material24/7 trainingTrainer – more free time to deal with unique issuesTrainee – reference, opportunity to learn in preferred learning style<number>
Jing is great for quick and dirty screen captures and screen casts. Limited in what you can do and edit compared to Wink (ex 5 min max on video). Captures are saved on desktop or on screencast.com. Requires screencast.com account. Works on Win and Mac (wink only for win and linux). Free!<number>
Why yes, you are doing redundant things on the computer. Redundant things like typing that 504 field for the 600th time. Copy and pasting titles from Word/email to your ILS to Connexion or to Gobi or Amazon, etc.Redundancy costs money, time, and quality of work.<number>
Humans != computers. Computers are fast and dumb. They are good for constant data, codes, quality checking.Humans are slow and smart. They are good for making complex decisions about subject, making sure that the physical item matches the item in the record.Humans can also pet cats, while computers cannot.<number>
OCLC Connexion Macro Editor. You probably want something easier than this…Also, OCLC macros work only in OCLC. ILS macros in ILS only. Word macros in word – you see a pattern?<number>
Windows only. Sorry Mac and Linux.<number>
$$$/computer. One time cost.Discount for multiple copies<number>
License info… basically copyrighted.<number>
Start up. Comes with set of macros for ME.4 ways of creating a macro:Quick wizardCaptureDirect editorScripting editor<number>
Scripting editor.Click to view screen cast.Note that I’m using hot keys!<number>
Database cleanup project – 008/III LANG fields.<number>
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If you follow these easy steps, you too can one day code in LOLCODE.<number>