Week 2: Introduction to products, programs and services

Class

When Monday 27 July, 5.30pm til 7pm
Where Online: Adobe Connect *
What  We’ll cover

  • An introduction to products, programs and services
  • Common buzzwords and acronyms you might have encountered in your first week of classes
  • Assignment 1 and the assignment criteria
Can’t make it to class? You’ll be able to watch a recording and complete activities online after class.

* After a disastrous week with Blackboard Collaborate, we have decided to move all online classes to Adobe Connect. Find out about using Adobe Connect.

Recording

Libraries in a Google world

I went on a bit of a ranty tangent about the role of libraries being to empower people, which is really what we’re on about in this unit. If you’d like to see the slides I briefly flicked through from a previous presentation, they’re embedded below.

Makeup activities

Programs, products and services encyclopedia

This week, we’re creating a wiki-based encyclopedia of programs, products and services in libraries (and information organisations more generally, if you’re keen!).

I’ve built a wiki on Wikispaces where you can add to lists of programs, products and services for different types of libraries.

Here’s what you need to do:

  • Access the wiki.
  • Navigate to the page.
  • Click Edit.
  • Enter your item into the appropriate table cell. Need to add a new row? Put your cursor in the last cell on the last row and hit tab.
  • Where possible, please link to an example of the program, product or service (open links in a new window if you remember).
  • You can also add a bit of explanatory text or trivia if you’d like.

I’d love everyone to aim to add one item for each letter of the alphabet.

Stuck for ideas? Head to the website of your local public library and see what services, programs or products they offer.

Not sure if it’s a program, product or service? Never fear! Whack it in the place that makes most sense to you and we can talk about it next week.

We will debrief this activity in an online class following our Twitter chat next week.

Buzzword bingo

Here’s a little activity I used to run in a now defunct unit. It’s a simple one: your job is to see how many of the terms on the buzzword bingo card you can define. Don’t go looking for definitions – I’ll debrief the activity next week and give you a run down on anything you missed. Just make a note of your definitions so you can paste them in the chat, or even just for your own memory keeping.

I run this activity for two reasons. Firstly, this is a jargon filled industry and I know the number of acronyms and buzzwords can be overwhelming, so we’ll cut through some of that by running through definitions for some key terms. Secondly, I think it’s really useful for you to have a visible record of what you knew about industry lingo at this point so you can meaningfully reflect on how much knowledge you’ve gained in a single semester. You’ll learn lots of stuff – more important stuff than terminology – but this is something you can actually measure at a glance.

So download the buzzword bingo card and have a go at defining as many of the terms as you can… Without Googling them!

I’ve also started a forum where you can note other words you’ve heard that you don’t know the meaning of. Feel free to add words or define them for your peers if you can.

Other things to do in Week 2

Week 1 things to do

If you haven’t worked through the list of things to do in Week 1, you should do this asap, and no later than the end of Week 2.

Assignment 1

You have some decisions to make about Assignment 1. I’ve set up a survey, which closes at midnight Sunday 2 August. Once the votes are in, I’ll finalise the assignment brief and criteria sheet.

Don’t forget to take a look at the criteria sheet and add any suggestions you’ve got for changes to the survey.

The comprehensive catch up list

(Or: ‘Argh! I don’t know what I need to do!’)

If you haven’t worked through the Week 1 tasks yet, you might be feeling like you’ve got some catch up to do. There’s actually not that much to do, but pulling it together in one place will make it easier for you to get clear in your mind what you need to do. So here is one big handy list that you can just power on through. This includes everything from Week 1, as well as new stuff from Week 2.

(Disclaimer: this looks like a lot. It’s really not. Promise.)

Unit site

  1. Sign up for an account on the unit site. Note you must use your QUT email address.
  2. Populate your profile. You can find it by clicking on Me in the main navigation of the site. Once you get to your profile, you can edit it by clicking on the cog. Add a
    • Cover photo
    • Profile pic – this doesn’t have to be you, but you do have to put up a pic so everyone can identify you easily around the community. Cats, coffee cups, favourite literary heroines… It can be anything!
  3. Work through all the profile fields and populate them. You don’t have to share all of your social media profiles if you’d prefer not to. You’ll notice, for example, that I haven’t shared a link to my Facebook profile.
  4. Introduce yourself in the introductions forum. Start a new topic to add your intro.
  5. Work your way through the site and read through key information.
  6. Subscribe to the teaching team blog by email or RSS.
  7. Read through the assignment information and make a note of any questions you’d like to ask in class in Week 2.

Twitter

Get started with Twitter!

  1. New to Twitter? Create an account. Don’t want to create a Twitter account? I’d really like you to reconsider… Please read my thoughts on this.
  2. Take a look at Kate’s Getting start with Twitter guide on Storify.
  3. Follow Kate and Clare on Twitter.
  4. Tweet Kate (tip: just stick @katiedavis in the tweet) with hashtag #ifn614 and Kate will add you to the class Twitter list.
  5. Follow your peers. Either follow the class Twitter list or use the list to find your peers and follow them individually. To do the latter, click on each person’s handle or photo to go to their profile.

Assignment 1

  1. Read the criteria sheet.
  2. Respond to the survey.
  3. Sign up for a week to be the Twitter Chat Champion! (BTW, I’m thinking we’ll go for an alternative to the debate, so I won’t be asking you to sign up for a debate week.)

Do all three things by Sunday 2 August, midnight.

Week 2 make up activities

  1. Play buzzword bingo – note down as many definitions as you can for terms and acronyms on the buzzword bingo card.
  2. Contribute to the programs, products and services encyclopedia. Aim to add one thing for each letter of the alphabet.