Hello all. It’s been over a month since I surveyed you about an Internal Communication question. Specifically, whether we should have a regular newsletter for internal communication within the libraries or whether the blog would be a better tool for this function.
Since we were looking just at INTERNAL communication, not news to the public or the students, the majority of responses (about 80%) said that since we already had the blog in place, and since it is searchable, that the blog would be the best tool for the job. Many did say that they knew they would have to develop the habit of checking it, but that it still was the best tool.
Therefore, I will be increasing the number of categories for our posts on our internal ButlerLib blog so that topics of interest are easier to find. I will also be contacting everyone later this month to offer a training session on how to use the blog. Stay tuned for further details.
Lately there have been some questions about the public pay phones
downstairs in the basement (or “concourse level”, if you prefer). After talking with a few different people, I found out that
there are different ideas of the phones, and that I was totally
clueless about them. So, thanks to Heather, I now have an official
diagnosis of the public phone situation.
The pay phones downstairs don’t work. They haven’t for about a year. I
tried them myself today and all I got was a buzzing sound but no dial
tone. They are supposed to have been removed from their prime real
estate on the walls downstairs, but that major construction project is
still pending.
In contrast to these nonfunctional monoliths of telecommunications,
there is also one “campus phone” downstairs in one of the booths. I
tried it this morning and was able not only to get a dial tone and call
other phones on campus, but pushing 7 first did indeed get me an
external line with which I was able to call someone off campus.
Summary: The payphones don’t work, but the campus phone does, and can even call off campus.
(Sure, I could have said that right at the beginning, but it wouldn’t have been as interesting, would it? have?)
Hi all. Sorry about the confusion with the blog(s). I explained the
reason for switching sites on DawgBlog, and this has also had the
effect of making our internal blog (“ButlerLib”) independent, rather
than inside the other blog. But this one will still be the one where
our internal communications and announcements get posted.
This means that you’ll either need to get used to checking two blogs or else you’ll need to use an aggregator.
An aggregator collects RSS feeds and allows you to view them all from
one webpage, making it unnecessary to visit multiple websites just to
check and see if anything new has been posted. You just visit your
aggregator page, and if anything’s new on any of your sites, it tells
you! This comes in very handy if you visit a variety of websites
regularly, whether they be blogs, news sites, or even library
listservs. 🙂
One recommended aggregator is Bloglines.
It’s free and is easily configured to collect your various feeds. The
sites with new posts show up just like unread email messages, complete
with the number of them.
Another free and easy one is Google. Now you can have a “Personalized Home”
page via Google. Just click that link in the top right. You can add all
kinds of content, including your own custom sources. Just click on
“Create a Section” and paste the URL of the RSS feed you want to
subscribe to. Google does the rest, listing the latest 3/5/9 posts from
that site. It’s very easy to use and is worth a try. The end result
with this one is your own personal Google page. It still has the Google
search interface at the top, but now it also has news headlines, blog
feeds, etc., below it. A true all-in-one page.
The one caveat: right now, our blogs are set up so that you must log in
with your Butler ID to get to them. I think this will prevent you from
adding these blogs to an aggregator. If I find a way to overcome this
obstacle, I’ll post a followup article here on ButlerLib.
Scott
Just FYI for those of you who interact with the public, our Labor Day hours have changed.
The Science Library will be opening at 10:00am instead of Noon. Irwin Library will remain Noon to 8:00pm.
Signs and the website have been updated.
Librarians:
The SRG order is in (with a few
minor delays).
After looking at all the leftovers I
reduced the number ordered this year. (They end up getting recycled and costing
us money)
So, if you plan on any large
instruction sessions where you hand out large numbers of SRGs, PLEASE SEND ME AN E-MAIL that details the
quantity and type needed AT LEAST A WEEK IN
ADVANCE.
(I prefer e-mail as opposed to notes
or verbal because if I get 10 people “telling me” I’ll likely
forget.)
Finally, you may also want to consider referring your students to the Electronic SRGs as an alternative to paper.
http://www.butler.edu/library/research/srg/index.html
Thanks!
Brad
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