library style

library info, articles, more

[kickinitlibrarystyle-blog]

Gamification

I have used gamification quite a bit with the free online weight loss website Sparkpeople.  It used a points level system for the user to graduate different levels.  It gave points for logging into the website each day, fitness activity time, entering your daily food into the daily log, posting on the forums and other things.  It was motivating to see the point levels change and it did encourage doing a few more things to get closer to the next level.  This site was really good and it was free because the founder was successful and wanted to create something that would help people.  This is similar concept to fitbit and that is really popular right now.  Many people do need external motivation to spring them into action.

I can see how this would be used in the summer reading club because a reward system is already in place.  Maybe a library could encourage people by giving them badges for finishing all the books in a series or attending every session in a programming series.  That could boost circulation, library visits, and program attendance.

I think the idea of earning badges that could be carried through after graduation is a good idea because in this market any leg up is beneficial to the recipient.  Also it could encourage students to do things more completely and in order to make sure they received the badge.

Although it would be great to not have to give rewards to create good habits or encourage good behaviour I think many people really respond to this method and it definitely could be and is beneficial.

[kickinitlibrarystyle-blog]

Social media Social Networking I would say I fall somewhere in the middle for social network use.  I use Facebook and check it probably a couple times a day but I don’t post maybe 4 times a month.  I usually share a picture I have taken or comment on something in my life.  I will like friend’s posts and pictures and like to know what is going on in their lives.  I post on Facebook at our library and just watched on webinar on social media for the library.  The presenters suggested spending time gathering posts for Facebook and twitter so they are ready to go out on a regular basis.  I find this is where I haven’t done the greatest job and those before me either so this will be my next task so patrons come to expect posts from the library. I love Pinterest and agree that it can be consuming of your time when you get started.  I have done quite a few things off things off Pinterest because it is so easy to locate what you have found at a later date.   I do have more pins then I will probably do.  I love that you can see all the pins from people with similar interests.  I like searching for thrifty and DIY posts.   I use twitter sometimes but not on a regular basis and I don’t find tumblr very user friendly.  My daughter loves tumblr and Instagram and likes to spend a lot of time on it but the stuff she looks at is geared to her age group.  Pinterest and facebook are much more my style.

[culturenlifestyle]

Paper Sculpture and Jewellery Designs by Malena Valcárcel

Spanish artist Malena Valcárcel constructs unique and stunning sculptures made from paper. To maintain an ethical value to her work, Valcárcel uses recycles materials, which also add to the authenticity and charm of each individual piece. Drawing inspiration from nature and literature, her creations are a whimsical and beautiful representation of her skilled craft. You can find more of her designs on her Etsy shop. 

View similar posts here!

[kickinitlibrarystyle-blog]

Augmented Reality                This article was a good basic overview of augmented reality.  It talks about what you can do augmented reality and the new developments being made. I find all the advances in technology challenging because I can see the good in so many of these advances.  I can completely understand how much easier it would be to learn anything with the aid of augmented reality with virtual additions like in the lecture example of the internal organs or in the case of the article where mechanics are learning how to repair equipment.  I think the learning capacity with augmented reality is just the beginning and will grow exponentially.  I am a visual learner myself and learn so much more by discussion or participation than I have ever learned from a book but I see the danger in always having everything be exciting for young people to be interested. The article talks about an associate professor of bio- nanotechnology making a contact lens that has a clear electronic circuit that contains an LED. The hope is that in a few years the lens could translate speech into words on the contact using a cell phone in the person’s pocket.  A deaf person using the contact would be able to read it immediately therefore being included in the conversation. This shows the unbelievable potential of augmented reality and how soon it could be in so many aspects of our lives.  I am excited for people with challenges for when they will probably be able to live a more regular life.  I am concerned about how far augmented reality is going to go and if it will be regulated.  As the pace of technology speeds up will safe fails and regulations be able to be kept up? As a mother of four children I am struck by the last paragraph, asking how this change in a world that is already so easily distracted will affect the upcoming generations. I think more about how this affects us socially more than anything.  Already kids are sitting in the back seats of cars and texting rather than speaking and I can’t imagine what this will all look like in ten years. What does this mean for my newborn twin nephews?    I am concerned for attention spans which I have noticed has significantly decreased since my fourteen year old son has gotten a phone, when he previously had an iPod.  To me augmented reality seems very invasive taking over a person’s personal space, focus and vision. Another concern that I have is the loss of appreciation for simple things. To tell this upcoming generation that they should enjoy playing in snow, or the beautiful colour of the autumn leaves, would result in them calling me crazy.  They seems to have a tendency to want to be entertained and constantly plugged in.  I notice when I drive my son around on his paper route that there are no kids outside on a playground.  Who knows, maybe incorporating augmented reality into the playground will bring the kids back.  Having said that, when I saw the zombie game in the lecture that is played at lunch at the library I thought: That’s cool.  My kids would like that.

[kickinitlibrarystyle-blog]

[kickinitlibrarystyle-blog]

    The article Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites like Twitter discusses how blogging has changed since its inception in the nineties.  While it was once an exploding industry, with Blog being the word of the year in 2004, the demographics of its users have changed.  A theme of this article is that many people feel blogging can be lonely because your thoughts seem to be sent out into an abyss and maybe a younger generation are making a switch to social media to counteract that loneliness.  By switching to social media like Twitter and Facebook they are going to where the audience is so they can then get their message out quicker and more effectively. One blogger suggests that he was lost in the sea of bloggers and needed to go to where his presence would be better seen.  Also Facebook and Twitter allow users to do all the same things they had done with blogs only now they could do it quicker and easier with shorter text and pictures.  The younger generation enjoy the quick and easy blogging of these new forms and can still complain and comment about life.  Statistics show the opposite for older participants who are actually increasing their usage of the blogs which seems to be due to their need for more in depth discussions than Facebook or Twitter can provide.

In order to support their point the author quotes results from a survey done by the pew research center that cite the rise and decline of the blogging industry.  They also cite executives in the blogging industry like Live Journal and Word Press. 

I think the article makes a lot of sense because the younger generation is more adaptable to different technologies and their peers are on those Medias.  I think there is many young people are driven by the number of “likes” and “followers” they are receiving while older bloggers are more concerned with getting their point across and being heard or understood.  For me it felt like the article was explaining both the decrease and the increase and the title doesn’t really address that.  For the same reason the younger are leaving the older are staying. I think they used good evidence to support their ideas and overall it was an interesting informative article.

[kickinitlibrarystyle-blog]

First Tumblr Post!!