I wonder what Shakespeare and Jane Austen would have made of Zotero, Mendeley and CiteUlike?! What an odd question I hear you cry! Well I've seem to have these two on my brain since we came back from a lovely holiday where we visited Stratford Upon Avon and Bath. They would have probably found it amazing to be able to pull quotes and ideas from everywhere and manipulate them by a click of a button! Imagine just how much more they might have been able to write by being able to manage all their information in this way. Not that you can rush the creative process I've been told, but it may have speeded up their research. I certainly wish I'd had access to these tools when I was an undergrad 10 years ago ploughing through all those obscure articles and extracts on music librarianship and trying to assemble a clear picture of what was happening in UK public libraries at the time. When I was investigating these resources tonight, I think the whole street could hear me cry out to my hubbie who is just finishing his PhD at the moment, "are you using any of these tools to reference your resources and if you aren't, why ever not?!" I particularly like Mendeley for the fact that you can retrospectively populate your account with previous PDFs and references that you've saved and was pleased to hear that you can even become a Mendeley advisor if you're teaching it to students. However, personally I don't think I'd use these resources in my job as a public librarian, although it's great to know about them in case we do get any students enquiring. At a push I could include it in the information literacy classes that I deliver to 6th form students, but it would have to be a passing referral to these tools rather than an in depth look as since most of the students have never used a catalogue or a library database before, we tend to spend the two hours we have with them looking at those. But I will ponder anon about if there are any other ways I can use it in my role......I was also challenged when reading Thing 15 about speaking at conferences. I've been so fortunate to have incredibly supportive management at Newcastle Libraries, that I've attended a diverse number of training days and conferences all over the country, as well as helping to organise a local children's literature conference for two consecutive years. In the last year I've even co-presented at a regional health conference where my colleague Fiona Hill and I shared our experience of setting up health and wellbeing services, including books on prescription, dementia titles, computerised cognitive behavioural therapy to name but a few. It was a fantastic experience, as although I do get nervous, I love speaking in front of people and presenting on a topic I'm confident in. So it seems silly that when other opportunities pop up on JISCmail lists etc that I tend to shy away from applying to do these things as I think "what do I have to say and why would anyone want to listen to me?!" But Thing 15 has persuaded me that I should have less self doubt and more get up and go in speaking at such events. And on that note, I think I'm going to see if mini umbrella 2011 still has any need for some speakers........
Picture used under creative commons license and supplied by Lincolnian (Brian)
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