23 things at Royal Holloway – is go! #RHUL23

 

 

The week before Christmas we launched Royal Holloway’s 23 things programme (RHUL23). For those who don’t know –  23 Things is an online learning programme designed to introduce library staff at Royal Holloway to new media and technologies (more information is on the About page of the 23things blog)

 

I am a bit nervous about it – I know how brilliant it can be as a concept and I really want this to work as well as it did at City but as with anything you can’t tell until it is well underway how it is going.

 

I have to thank Emma Cragg, Laura Wilkinson and Rowena Macrae-Gibson for their advice and encouragement in getting this started – all their tips from their own experience was invaluable. I can only hope this goes as well as their iterations.

 

The first week concerned blogging and RSS feeds. I used to think blogging was an indulgent frippery, all navel gazing and self-importance but have found that it has become a more and more essential part of my working life. Sometime things can be a bit introspective but I have also found the use of reflection as a learning tool has helped me a lot.

 

I’ve blogged before about professional versus personal in social media and RSS Feeds both posts say much of what I would say now in reflection on week one of RHUL23 – blogging saved my sanity two years ago after major surgery and gave me a different perspective on blogs. Couple that with the fact this blogging has helped me find an outlet for my film reviews as well as interact with my profession and I really feel a place for blogging.

 

Professionally I also think that blogging is an important tool which helps maximise the library’s reach to our users as shown in my work on the Cass Library Blog – it works because it is part of a set of tools, including Twitter and Facebook (and Libguides). There is no point in only having one of these outlets in isolation – you might miss a whole swathe of your users but I shall blog about that next week when we do Social Networking …

 

This is the Prezi introducing the programme:

 

http://prezi.com/7f3ok_bctm8h/23-things-rhul-rhul23/

 

 

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Week 2 #23thingscity – Keeping up to date (Rss Feeds)

This week’s set of things in 23 Things City is all about keeping up to date. Before I go on I will just say I used to deliver a great workshop at Brighton on this very topic. During this workshop I espoused the virtues of RSS feeds and so on.

Now for confession time … I don’t use RSS feeds. Gasps! I never use them. Not even while doing my film studies research or for following blogs or professional articles. I just don’t like them. I understand the point of them, I can see how they are a great idea but I, personally have never taken to them. I’ve had accounts with bloglines and google reader plus linked them to my outlook but they all sit there blissfully unread and unloved. My bloglines account still uses my brighton email address. That is how unloved it is.

I guess, quite simply when I need information I seek it out. My academic interest is in second world war film, when I’m in the mood I search for articles/blogs/books on it and get a plethora of information which goes back however far I want it to. I know I could do RSS feeds from tables of contents/blogs/websites which would give me tables of contents or even articles but for me it just doesn’t work. I feel like I am quite on top of current thinking and research in the history of film (ok not the largest moving  field).

Professionally I follow people on twitter who blog too and have to say my appreciation for blogs has increased through twitter. If they post something I click on the link in my feed and read it or if it is someone who blogs often about things that interest me I bookmark/favourite the blog and click on the link when I have time to catch up on their blog. I guess using it more like a magazine to dip into. I also post interesting things I might want to look at again on tumblr or follow tumblrs that interest me.