Thing 62. The Creative Librarian

Photos & videos are a great way to engage library users and the community in what happens at the library. You can document events like the summer reading program finale. Post photos or videos of  author talks. How about a "sneak peek" of what goes on behind that "Staff Only" door? A photo booth with fun backdrops might be a hit at a teen night at the library. A family portrait day (special guest or not) is fun.

It has never been easier to be creative with photos and video. Digital cameras make taking good quality pictures simple and inexpensive. No more taking the film to FotoMat & waiting a week only to find out you have a lot of blurry pics to store in that shoebox with the others. Digital cameras let us instantly evaluate the pictures, retake as necessary, upload the pictures online or to our computer, print them out, or store them online. In a flash, you're ready to show the world your events. Flip & similar pocket-size video cameras make documenting those action events at the library almost as easy.

Once you have a collection of digital images, there are many Web 2.0 tools that will help you manage and display them. Online tools let even the least artistic among us edit and display our photos and videos for the world to see. Think how you can use some of these tools to spark up your website or other resources. People like to see what's been going on.

iPhoto & Picasa can help you organize, label and rate images, view and edit metadata, and navigate using the folder structure of your computer. Web-based services like Picasa Web Album & Flickr offer easy ways to share your photos with others by storing them in the cloud.

Once you have your originals saved in a safe spot on your computer or online, you can play around with the photos and then upload the new versions while keeping the original for another project.

Picnik is a great (free & premium versions) tool that lets you improve the quality of your photo and add special effects like color changes, blur effects (we want those now!), frames, captions, and more. For videos, Macs come ready to edit with iMovie, while Windows machines offer Windows Movie Maker. Take advantage of this benefit to put together a few video clips or a full-length movie.

BigHugeLab and other sites like Dumpr and PhotoFunia let you put your photos into posters, puzzles, games, and more. Everyone wants to be on the cover of Rock Star!

Now that you have a set of cool photos or video--nicely edited to eliminate red eye, cropped to focus on the subject, and tarted up with text, frames, and effects, how do you share them? Save the new photos, print them out, and post them in the library. Or, for a more "modern" way to share, there are cool tools that help you easily create slideshows or animations of your photos or video. The tools generate the embed code, too, so you can easily post these to the library website or blog.

PictureTrail lets you upload your photos to create a "Flick"with many options for transitions, glitter, music, and more. Animoto automatically produces unique video pieces from your photos, video clips, and music. Both tools are fast, free and easy. Note that iPhoto and Picasa also offer a slideshows, but without the special effects.

Resources
Here are couple of places to look for help and ideas. The blog Free Technology for Teachers offers this Making Videos on the Web guide that is useful for media specialists and librarians. The ALA TechSource Take Pictures, Tell Stories is a multi-part series on photography for libraries.

The Fine Print
Librarians have been looking for legal/ethical guidance about taking and using photos in the library. Here are some sources to review, but be sure to check with the powers that be in your organization to avoid issues with posting photos or videos. Whatever the decision on photography, be sure to have a policy.

• Laws for Using Photos You Take at Your Library
• Photography Not Allowed – 33 (Photographs of a local library)
• Library staff privacy and staff pictures on library websites
• Photography of and in libraries

Libraries are creative places, packed with creative people. How have you used photos or videos to promote the library? What tools did you use?

Ann Walker Smalley, Metronet

Image: 'Kodak Brownie Starlet, 1957 - my first+camera'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/89142790@N00/2345575389

Thing 61. Online Professional Development for Library Staff

As libraries of all types face budget cuts that have an impact on hours, service, and collections, the ability for staff to attend professional development events out of the library may be reduced, too. However, in times of stress and retrenchment, continuing education is more important than ever. CE events can help libraries find new efficiencies, increase the ability of staff to understand and refine their responsibilities, as well as encourage staff continue to learn and grow as library employees. The investment a library makes in professional staff development is a morale booster because it recognizes that we value our employees and their ability to learn and contribute.

Thing 50 described how to keep up with the library world by creating a Personal Learning Network (PLN), managed with a customized homepage like iGoogle or Netvibes. Sending all your RSS & Twitter feeds to one spot is an efficient way to keep up with breaking news and new developments,  Add in podcast subscriptions, webinars, screencasts, & videos and you have a wide range of possibilities for free, never-leave-your-desk (or maybe your car) online learning.

Efficient aggregation of information is one thing, but where can we find the time for CE? Podcasts can be downloaded to a personal device--smart phone or mp3 player, for instance--and listened to during your commute, your daily walk, at the gym, doing dishes--just about anywhere. Webinars are often archived which makes it easy to watch/listen on your own schedule. Since the Internet is 24/7, there is no issue with others' schedule to watch YouTube or read blogs. Instead of Glee reruns, how about an informative YouTube video on Google search?

CE on library time may take some creativity, but it is doable with cooperation from administration and co-workers. How about informal brown bag lunches focused on a specific webinar or podcast. Watch/listen when you can, then have a discussion. Working out schedules so everyone gets a chance to do something CE for an hour or so a month means everyone benefits when we share what we learned. If you have creative ways you have integrated CE into your library, share them in the comments.

Here are some of our favorite ways to keep up:

Podcasts
Podcasts are like talk radio, but you get to choose the topic and commentator, rather than being stuck with what's on the radio! You can stream the content or . "Podcast" implies that the feed has a subscription via a feed. Most of these are updated regularly:

• FutureTense
• NYT Tech Talk
• George (Needham) and Joan (Frey Williams) Thinking Out Loud 
• LongShots--15 minutes or so on library topics
• Openstacks: One librarian's perspective of things of interest to libraries
• Adventures in Library Instruction podcast by and for library information literacy instructors & interviews and discussion about teaching in libraries.
• OPLIN 4cast
• OPAL

Find more podcasts here:

• iTunes podcasts
• iTunes U (academic institutions share their faculty lectures)
• DigitalPodcast

Webinars
A webinar is a live meeting that takes place over the web. The meeting can be a presentation, discussion, demonstration or training session. Most webinars are archived, so if you can't watch it live, you can watch it when your schedule allows.

We hope you are taking advantage the the great webinars that Minitex offers on all thing library. Learn about ELM databases, readers advisory, and more. Past Minitex are archived here. Other sources of webinars:

• InfoPeople is continuing library education sponsored by the California State Library 
• TechSoup for libraries has live & archived sessions on many topics 
• WebJunction Minnesota has many free courses, including those from U of North Texas Le@D that are approved for Minnesota Certification. Courses are free if you affiliate with WJMN (also free)
• WebJunction Central also offers free webinars

Screencasts
A screencast is a digital video recording that captures actions taking place on a computer desktop. Screencasts, which often contain voice-over narration, are useful for demonstrating how to use specific operating systems, software applications or website features. These are quick, easy ways to learn something new. Minitex has created a series of screencasts on several topics from Greasemonkey to RSS feeds. You can browse other screencasts here.

Making a screencast either for public use or staff use is CE itself. The screencast maker will not only share what she has learned, she will learn a few things in the process of making the screencast. Here are some free resources for creating screencasts:

• Jing (requires download)
• Screencast-o-matic
• Screenjelly

Video
Where to begin with the availability of video on the Internet? YouTube has millions of videos of various utility. LibraryTube and TeacherTube try to focus on specific audiences. Vimeo and others have a wider range of videos. Here are some places to start:

• TED Talks--technology, history, interesting people--great speeches on just about everything
• YouTube has a lot of library-related videos from the humorous to the thoughtful , as well as the practical. And, don't forget to search beyond libraries for useful videos.

It pays to invest in professional development. Without the investment, when the tempest has passed--and we certainly hope that happens sooner rather than later--staff is in the same place as before, facing new challenges, but "behind the times" in their ability to meet the challenges.

Ann Walker Smalley, Metronet
Image: 'Third Generation iPod nano'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/89892960@N00/1348379764