More zombie library games

Image from Matthew Stewart on flickr 

This is a paper that Ashley brought to my attention and I think it's totally awesome! ...

The Library is Undead: Information Seeking During the Zombie Apocalypse

Also, check out Zombie walks! (found this via the flickr image)

Short blog post cause I'm off to Sardinia tomorrow!

Adventures with Chocolate

I've always loved chocolate. If anyone ever offers to make, bring or buy a cake my preference is always chocolate. But my recent adventures with chocolate are worth noting because they began in April when Dave and I were given a 5kg block of finest quality dark Belgian chocolate as a wedding gift. This sizable block is quite daunting to behold. I hope this image gives you some indication of the quantity of chocolate I'm having adventures with! First of all carrying this gift when it was still wrapped, I had no idea what was inside. Then when we opened it I was astonished to discover it was all chocolate. Then the amazing moment of opening the packaging and smelling the deliciousness. The next step is what you can see in the flickr slideshow below. Since April I've made a chocolate fudge cake with chocolate ganache for Dave's birthday, chocolate truffles with my family for Easter, a flourless chocolate Chinese five spice cake (just because it required a large amount if chocolate!), a chocolate and coconut banana bread that I brought in to work and lastly black bottom cupcakes for a celebratory afternoon tea at work today. I've also experimented with hot chocolate and variations of chocolate and ice cream! So far this delicious adventure has resulted in using up less than half of the block. So I have about 2.5kg to go. It's only taken me 2 months to get through this much so we'll see how long it lasts!

Books read in 2010

The books I read in 2010 were mostly highly enjoyable. Taming the beast and Dead Europe win the award for most disturbing and that's saying something as many of them were. I really enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy and of course all vampire related reading! A special mention for The Lacuna which I read before going to Mexico and was surprisingly good! I can highly recommend Jasper Jones as a great Aussie read and lovers of animal fiction must read White Fang and Call of the Wild! Happy reading in 2011!

Room by Emma Donoghue

A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

White Fang and Call of the Wild by Jack London

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
also, Catching Fire and Mockingjay (Hunger Games Trilogy)

Dead Europe by Christos Tsiolkas

So much for that by Lionel Shriver

The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris

Taming the Beast by Emily Maguire

History of Love by Nicole Krauss

Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger

Spirit Bound and Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy series)
Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris (Last Sookie Stackhouse novel)

Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist

The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver

The Red Tent - Anita Diamant

Transforming information literacy through experimentation and play

Last week I attended ALIA access 2010 in Brisbane and gave a presentation in the information literacy stream. The presentation was based on the paper written by Jemima McDonald and me titled: Transforming information literacy through experimentation and play. The presentation illustrated some of the ways UTS Library is creating a more dynamic and engaging information literacy program in physical, digital and mobile spaces. Some of the things we're using are games, vodcasts, podcasts, screencasts, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, flickr, blogs, QR codes, interactive teamboards, fun days and hands on workshops! Toward the end of the presentation I emphasised that none of this would be possible without the hard work and enthusiasm of all the staff at UTS Library who are willing to experiment and play to make all these projects a reality. The presentation was created in prezi and includes animations created using xtranormal.

Information literacy is seriously fun! on Prezi

The idea behind all of this is that Web 2.0 has changed the way we engage with information. Information is now everywhere created by everyone and we need to transform our information literacy programs to better support the 21stC learning, teaching and research of our clients in their information worlds. Not only online but in physical and mobile spaces by understanding the concept of Library 2.0 which is about users, participation and interaction (Luo, 2009). If you're interested, I recommend reading the paper - it's not too long!

We've had a lot of great feedback about the presentation and genuine interest in what we're doing at UTS Library. I'd like to thank everyone who came to the presentation and shared their thoughts with me at the conference. I also have many people to thank for their help in making this presentation happen. Firstly, my co-author Jemima for all her hard work and support through this experience from initiating and leading many of the projects, to abstract submission, paper writing, presentation creation and presenting! Thanks to Sally for help with the abstract, making the projects happen and grilling me with potential questions, Belinda for super quick editing, Mal for reminding me I'm from UTS Library and that means no rules,  Ashley for being my spirit lifter and helper in all things, Fides for beaming at me from the back row and Alex for his leadership in all of this and trusting a newbie like me to represent the Library! Finally I'd like to thank all the staff who've made it all possible. This is becoming a bit of a love fest but I really want to express how much I appreciate the people I work with. They're a great bunch!

Getting to know our clients on 'wallwisher'

A few months ago we installed a 'wallwisher' suggestion board in our foyer for client comments and feedback. It replaced an antiquated system of pen on paper comments posted on a notice board. It's caused quite a stir among clients and staff and some of  the comments are hilarious. I particularly like the ongoing discussion about our Kenny G elevator music and the problem it's causing... clients ask our advice because they start to feel a bit romantic in the lift and they're worried one thing might lead to another... I've wanted to blog about this for a while but I've asked the wonderful Ashley to be my guest blogger for  this post because she's more involved than me and quite the comedian. I hope you enjoy.

~

Serious Asks: Does the Library have plans for response on a wizard attack on Blake Library?
Library: The Library has plans for earthquakes, fire, wizard and zombie attacks. However no one can stop Godzilla; except maybe ninja. Please dial 6 in an emergency.

Anon asks: this wall is amazing, I bet the person who set this up is amazing too. And handsome.
Library: We suspect this was put up by a member of our IT Staff.
Library (aka PinkFairaeDust): If you think the IT guys are cute, you should see the Librarians who write on this wall ;)

I suppose you realise by now that this is not one of lovely Sophie’s clever posts. She has asked me to write something about our Brilliant Library Suggestion Board. I am not entirely sure she has picked the right person. I am generally known for doing silly things like naming my lemon tree Fredrick, or asking my boss’ boss’ boss if the new ASRS will be pretty. Ah well here goes!

Above you can see me in front of our gorgeous suggestion board. I am one of the people who respond to students comments and have fallen head over heels in love with the process. They have surprised and thrilled me with their comments and general Geekery.

I guess what I really enjoy are the cheeky comments designed to test our boundaries. Most of the time they are not testing our boundaries by being bad or rude. I guess I can only describe it was testing out how human we are and if we have a sense of humour. So far, we have only had to moderate them lightly, taking down one racist comment and another with a naughty word in it. Actually, we really wanted to leave the latter one up due to its pertinence to the student experience. Shall we play Blankety blanks? “Life is like a sometimes it gets hard for no reason.” True in oh so many ways. Alas we do have to draw a line somewhere. You can see some of the initial comments in our Facebook Photo Gallery.
 
Some of you might be wondering what this has to do with providing Library Services. Not everyone probably agrees with me, but I represent the silly 25-year-old new graduates and I think it is a crucial step in engaging with students. Sure some of the comments are silly; sure some of them have nothing to do with traditional Library business. That doesn’t bother me at all. Anything that engages students and makes library staff appear less stern and more approachable is fine by me. One bad Library experience will turn you away from Libraries and Librarians for good. Secretly, between you and me, Librarians still petrify me. I was far too scared to approach Librarians in both my degrees – even when I was studying to be one!
 
What matters to me is that our students (patrons? Researchers? Learners?) feel comfortable talking to us no matter how silly the question may seem and know that we are interested in helping them solve their problems. Even if it is only to suggest a game of rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spock to settle who gets to use the computers first (then point out our Online computer availability system). 



Yours, @pinkfairaedust

New Google Tool: Searchstories

I had so much fun when I discovered this yesterday. Yes, many of you will have seen these already because I tweeted them as I did them but I thought they were worthy of putting in my blog. http://www.youtube.com/user/SearchStories

You can now create animated searches and upload them to YouTube within minutes! The great thing about these is that they tell a story, have dramatic theme music and are a bit of a teaser! See 'Google Skills like no other' - made by Ashley (soon to be guest blogger) for ideas on how IL can now be taught in 35 seconds! I also like that this gives a whole new meaning to googling yourself! Enjoy!



Google skills like no other



New way to Google yourself!



UTS Library: a learning space like no other

Library Fun Day: O week, games , prizes and QR code treasure hunt

Due to an extreme amount of peer pressure exerted via Twitter I'm going to do my best to join in #blogeverydayofjune and thought I'd start with this post I began months ago and only just realised I never published! Oh noes!!

During O week this year we held our inaugural Library Fun Day! And what a day of fun it was! There was Wii and Xbox 360 games, library trivia, rogues gallery, free food and drink and a totally awesome library treasure hunt! I really got into the fun spirit of the day as you can see I wore a maroon afro wig and orange T-shirt. This first photo shows people gathering for the first treasure hunt of the day.

I organised the treasure hunt with a little help from my friends (thanks) and gave participants the option of using QR code or paper clues so no one was disadvantaged. We thought most people would have web enabled phones and could download a QR code reader before starting if they didn't already have one. However, we found most people didn't have wifi enabled phones and couldn't utilise the QR code clues (BTW we ran the treasure hunt twice and both winners used the QR code clues)! There were six stations in the treasure hunt and participants had to photograph each station and be first back to claim the prize. The stations were: find the research help desk, find **** in the catalogue, find same book on shelf, take our librarian or not test, become our fan on Facebook and find the printing/copying room.

There was such excitement in the library as everyone scurried up and down the stairs looking for all the stations and clues. At one point @malbooth may have remarked that it was "an OH&S nightmare"! The triumphant winners exclaimed that they'd had so much fun and learnt a lot about the library! In light of this great success we're considering how we can integrate treasure hunts into our usual start of semester tours schedule! Information literacy and fun can be in the same sentence!

Library staff really got into the swing of things by participating in our Meet your Librarians gallery. Before the Fun Day a few of us went around taking photos of co-operating library staff using my iPhone and then manipulated the photos using an iPhone app. The results were so funny that everyone started emailing each other their photos, printing them and putting them up everywhere (see above)! It proved a really fun way to get to know library staff and start a little silliness! Breaking down the perceptions students may have about librarians being all serious and foreboding is a hard task but I think we really achieved this.

We had many goals for the day but I think a real positive to come out of it was students coming to the library, seeing it as a vibrant fun place to be and breaking down preconceptions they might have about libraries/librarians.

It took a team of people, much planning, crazy ideas and enthusiasm to pull off this extravaganza and it was well worth it. We really showed our clients that libraries aren't just about books. We had so many first timers to the library and we overheard many comments from people about how much fun they were having. Can't wait to make it even bigger and better next year!