Tuesday 30 August 2011

Thing 9 - Evernote

Evernote is a service for notetaking and archiving digital items including web pages, photographs, and audio recordings.  You can then add comments and edit your items before tagging them which allows you to group them together and search for them by tag later.

I like the idea of having a tool to let me organize what I’m looking at online.  Sometimes I feel that there is so much out there that you could almost drown under all the information, so anything that helps you keep (the illusion!) of control is a good thing.

Unfortunately, Evernote is yet another thing that I've downloaded but just not had the time to really play about with.  I've downloaded it to my phone and had a go at sending photos taken with the phone straight to Evernote, which was very successful.  However, I know that is only scratching the surface of what Evernote can do, so I guess I'll have to make the time to explore it more fully. 

Monday 29 August 2011

Thing 8 - Google Calendar

The theme of thing 8 is organising yourself, so it's ironic that it's taken me weeks to get round to posting about it.

I told myself it was because I really wanted a chance to play about with Google Calendar before I passed judgement.  But the truth is I haven't really been all that motivated to try it out, on first glance it just hasn't really grabbed me.

I already use a calendar in Microsoft Outlook to record work appointments, deadlines, and meetings.  However, I don't tend to use it to record non-work related appointments.  Also, I only work three days a week at the library, the other two days of the working week I have another job which doesn’t involve using a computer at all.  So, I use a diary to record appointments and to write reminders as I can carry it around with me in my bag. 

I had been thinking for a while that perhaps a diary that combined everything, personal and both jobs, would be of benefit, because at the moment it’s a bit like I change heads depending on which job I'm at.  But it would need to be something I could use on the go, so I downloaded Google Calendar to my phone and I fully intend to start playing about with it.

Monday 1 August 2011

Library Day in the Life #7 part 3

I started writing this post on Friday to record my final day of the Library Day in the Life project, but for one reason or another I never got round to posting it.  Even though the project has finished now (for this round) I thought I might as well go ahead and post it any way.

Today I manage to get in relatively early, as it’s just gone 8.30 when I arrive.  I bring the morning’s papers up to the library with me, and sit down and go through the local ones for any mention of the museum.  We cut out and paste into scrapbooks every newspaper cutting we find from the local papers regarding the museum.  Our scrapbooks go right back to the formation of the museum, and make for fascinating reading, although some of the early ones are practically falling to pieces these days.

After that I set about weeding the main library new books and journals displays.  All new books and journals are displayed for a period in the main library, and for many staff they are the first place they head to when they visit us.  I tend to weed the books once the shelves get full, so how often I do that tends to depend on how much new stock we have coming in.  Occasionally we make exceptions for books that we think lots of people are going to want to see, and they get to stay on longer.


I nip down to the main hall coffee shop to grab a takeaway coffee, I don’t really have time to take a full break this morning.  When I get back up I start going through the morning’s post.  This is not one of my regular jobs, but rather something I do when my colleague is away.  I end up getting side-tracked by Plastiquarian, the journal of the Plastics Historical Society (more interesting than it sounds), and in particular by a photo of Ekco’s Novaware by David Harman Powell, tableware that was designed in the 1960s.


Also amongst the post were a few journals for the Cambrian Archaeological Association.   In addition to our own library collections we also house the libraries of the Cambrian Archaeological Association and the Cardiff Naturalists Society.

After lunch I package up some museum publications to send to the copyright libraries.  The museum is obliged to send out copies of all its publications to the 6 legal deposit libraries; the British Library, the Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Library of Trinity College, Dublin and the National Library of Wales.  The publication I am sending out today is the new companion guide to the Museum's art galleries, in both English and Welsh.


The end of the day comes around before I know it, and it's a mad rush to get things finished off before I'm back in again next week.