Using Infographic Design to Make Common Core Connections

In a recent article in Phi Delta Kappan, Moeller discusses the use of visual thinking strategies to “strengthen students’ communication and critical thinking skills and creativity” (2013). Visual literacy, data visualization, and design thinking are buzzwords in the education rhetoric and are becoming more popular in the classroom partly because of the accessibility of visual …

Promote Your Library With Snapchat Stories

This is probably the best way libraries can start implementing Snapchat for promotional purposes. According to an article published today by Business Insider, Snapchat Stories has increased 100% with over 1 billion stories being viewed a day! Since this app is so widely used by individuals under the age of 25 (traditional college aged students), it's a …

Graphene Valley: What This Super Material Is and How It Will Affect Libraries

Graphene! It’s the materials science buzz word you've most likely heard on repeat for the last few years. It's being touted as the "wonder material" that will revolutionize technology as we know it. It was isolated in 2004 by Nobel prize winning physicists  Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, and since then scientists have been creating …

Data Visualization: An Effective Way to Encourage Librarian/Faculty Collaboration

    In our digital environment big data rules. It's changing they way brands market to consumers, how programmers develop apps, the list goes on but it is all resulting in a significant shift to the digital landscape as we know it. One way researchers are capitalizing on this trend is by using data visualization to depict …

Increase Your Productivity With a WiFi Coldspot

Sometimes I need to just disconnect from technology so I can reconnect with myself. If you're like me you probably have calendar reminders, new tweets, breaking news, blog posts, and a whole plethora of various other digital distractions all suffused across your desktop in about 50 tabs. According to Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows: What the Internet …

Be a Twitter Fly on the Wall

In the past year I have become a Twitter fanatic, attending every Twitter conference session I can get into, and reading as many blogs, articles, and tweets that I can. I predominantly use Twitter for my library and not personally. Anywho while I attended TLA last year I went to an awesome session by Jim …

What Google’s New Search Algorithm Means for Libraries

In the nostalgic garage where Google first operated, Google celebrated it's 15th anniversary with the announcement of Hummingbird. Hummingbird is Google's new algorithm that has been silently implemented for about the past month. The algorithm is intended to produce more relevant results based on natural language search queries and networked relationships (think a more robust …

Mashies Finalists for Library Promotion Inspiration- Part 3

Please view past posts for more background: Mashies Finalists for Library Promotion Inspiration Part 1 and Mashies Finalists for Library Promotion Inspiration Part 2 In my first post I stated that I was going to create library ideas based on each nominee for every category each day. This has proven to be a bit too time consuming so …

Mashies Finalists- A Great Way to Glean Information for Amazing Library Promotion

Yesterday Mashable announced their finalists for the 2013 Mashies awards. The Mashies awards celebrate the best in digital marketing, advertising and social media. The finalists were selected by a panel of experts and include categories like Best Use of Twitter  and Best Branded App.  In my opinion librarians can learn a lot from events that …

Streamline Your Workflow with Two Simple Extensions

With the semester in full swing I find it harder and harder to stay focused on the task at hand. Most of my work is done digitally, and I find my self hitting ctrl+t for no other reason than to browse Yahoo or check my Facebook for the 1400th time. I'm surrounded by so many enticing …

Computer Graphics Laboratory Makes Skype Interviews Much Easier

Geared up for my first interview post grad school, I donned my trusty business professional attire, put on my best (but not too eager) smile, and sat down at my laptop. I promptly launched Skype and commenced my digital interview. While I was interviewing I was frusterated by the fact that every time I tried …

Top Ten IFTTT Recipes for Librarians

Ok if you're a librarian then you're probably familiar with the statement "if this then that" (IFTTT). It's pretty much a Boolean search that performs an action in a web application. If you've ever performed an advanced search, run a list in your LMS, forwarded your email to another email carrier, etc then you've used …

Use a Backchannel in Your Next Presentation/Lecture

I went to the Texas Library Association's annual conference for the first this year. I attended a bevy of sessions and felt like my head was spinning from all the fantastic information that was entering my limbic system! One valuable gem that I gleaned was from instruction technology specialist Jim Holland. He introduced me to …

My Library Usability Study Stage 1

You don't have to be an expert on user experience to conduct your own usability study. Determining how your users prefer to use your site, collection, product, etc is something that everyone can benefit from and anyone can do. Usability studies are conducted to understand how your users actually use your system. You can then …

Best Pinners, Twitterers, and Bloggers to Follow for Awesome Content Creation Inspiration

How many of you become inspired when listening to an awesome TedTalk or conference presentation? When I attended sxsw interactive recently I thought my hand was going to break from writing down all the new ideas I was whipping up! I have created my top lists of people who post quality content for retweeting, repinning, …

Top 10 Hotkeys, Shortcuts, and Terms for Scholarly Research

Ok, in the spiraling vortex of information saturation lists of top shortcuts and hotkeys are about as prevalent as grumpy cat memes. So to ease your overly stimulated brain I am going to bypass the common sense shortcuts (CTRL + V, CTRL + C) and share some that you might not be aware of (or …

Use TED-Ed to Flip Your IL Sessions

Last week I attended the Texas Library Association's 2013 annual library conference. My head was spinning with all the innovative fresh ideas that were shared! One awesome session I attended was Flipped Classroom: Supporting New Educational Models. The session consisted of a panel of 6 educators who shared their experience flipping their classroom. While it was primarily aimed …

Using Hashtags to Teach Subject Headings

One of the hardest concepts, that I have found, for students to grasp and actually utilize are subject headings. Because students don't regularly employ them in their day to day life they tend to be cast aside for a comfortable natural language search technique. I show students how useful subject headings can be when searching …

Here’s an APA formatted template I made that you can download. Enjoy!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/windrebi0qerxlc/APA.dotx?dl=0

Formatting a Word Doc for a Paper in APA

There are pricey software programs available that will do this type of formatting for you, but with a little effort on your part you can bypass the price tag and do it on your own for free! This tutorial will cover how to set MS Word to check for grammar and style that is specific …