“Technology is part of the evolution of the human race. It’s neither divine nor diabolical. It’s up to us how we use it.” -Deepak Chopra

This quote was about robots, but it could be just as applicable in libraries. Often people get hung up on technology. They think the newest thing will be a “game changer” or will revolutionize the way things are done. Or they vilify it as something ruining culture or as just another fad. Chopra points out that technology is not good or evil, but that we should be thoughtful in how it is used and applied.

I’d recommend watching a couple of these 7-8 minute videos. They’re inspirational and they bring up a number of fascinating ideas. The videos got me thinking about how libraries can start dreaming the impossible. Instead of making statements like “we don’t do it that way” or “that can’t be done,” we should be asking questions like “how can I make this vision a reality” and “why not?”

How can libraries dream the impossible?

One simple way to save time and make sure that you post regularly is to schedule tweets and posts. The best tool I have found to do that is HootSuite. HootSuite allows you to connect to both your library Twitter account and Facebook page and easily update them both from one web-based application. In addition HootSuite gives you the option to schedule your posts for sometime in the future.

Scheduling posts makes it easier to post regularly without the hassle of doing it every day. A librarian can take a half an hour once a week to write a research tip of the day and posts about multiple upcoming events, schedule them, and have posts coming out every day that week. This even makes it possible to post on weekends when you’re not actually around.

This is a very useful tool for already overtaxed librarians, yet it shouldn’t be the only thing you use. You also have to answer your patrons when they post on your wall or @mention you. And don’t let scheduled posts kill spontaneity either. Spontaneous posts are the often some of the best and most authentic. It’s necessary to find a good balance, but scheduling posts can be a very helpful practice in dealing with social media work flow.

Here’s a very brief video showing how to use HootSuite to schedule your posts.

photo by lovebuzz on Flickr

A couple weeks ago I completed a video that I made using Captivate by Adobe.  It is the second in depth video I have created, and it turned out pretty well.  I was able to get a little creative utilizing a variety of creative commons pictures on it.  It is kind of personalized towards some of Champlain’s resources, but it explains the research process well.  Have a look.

My holiday break was a lot of fun. I received a web cam from my brother as a gift and was playing with it a lot. The screenshot above is one where I am video chatting with a dinosaur (it is actually my friend that has a bunch of goofy effects on his camera, but the dino effect was, of course, my favorite).

I hadn’t really gotten into using video on the web much before now.  I had fiddled around with Skype, and will likely do more of that in the future.  But now that Gmail makes it so easy (it is already in my personal email), and now that I have my own web cam, I hope to be doing a lot more experimenting with video.

My main hope is that it will allow me to stay better connected with friends and family.  My fairly tech-savvy dad already had a web cam and we were playing with them over break.  I look forward to bridging the distance gap between Vermont and Minnesota using this technology.  I can maybe even chat with my mom and ask her if the new curtains she made me are installed correctly.

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