North Texas 23: Project review and do-it-yourself expo

Jeff BondScience Librarian

Texas Christian University

This session will: Provide an overview “23 Things” types of programs

Review the North Texas 23 program

Provide some starting points for developing similar programs at your own institution

Video

23 Things Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (North Carolina) created the first such program

1,000 programs worldwide 15 countries

23 Things Overview Program offering opportunities to learn new technology

Online—tasks revealed through a blog

Focus on Web 2.0 tools Participants record their progress and reflections on their own blogs

Go at your own pace Fun

Other 23 Things programs Arizona “Baker’s dozen”

467 participants, 13% completed Minnesota “23 Things on a stick”1600 participants, 38% completed

“Nebraska Learns 2.0”165 participants, 50% completed

“Our” 23 Things

North Texas Library Partners coordinated this program for libraries and librarians in District 7

Asked me to lead this program Added additional Leadership Team members as necessary

Participant to leadership ratio of 15:1.

Participants 316 participants from across northern Texas

Library staff from over 140 libraries participated

Library school students from UNT and TWU participated

Libraries of all types (school, public, academic, special) were represented

Leadership Team, Tools Leadership Team

Tools

Positives

Learning Many participants have completed this program

People are learning new technology tools that they would not have learned otherwise

People challenge themselves in new ways

Application to libraries Because our patrons use these services, it is important for our librarians to use them, too.

Applications aboundMarketingHelping to relate to patronsHelping to assist patrons

Self-confidence The build in self-confidence and self-empowerment can be amazing

No longer “What is Twitter again?” when watching a newscast.

Both personal and professional application

Evidence People are asking for another round of 23 Things

People turned away after the deadline

Participant comments indicate they enjoyed the program and were challenged by it

Challenges

Incentives We had no prize incentive for each completing participant

Most other programs had such incentives

Somewhat of an experiment

Target audience and deadlines Defining our audience was more difficult than expected

Started with District 7 librarians and TechNet attendees, and further expanded, including CYC attendees and select others

We set a deadline of June 1 to register

Size of participant pool Original goal was 50-60 participants

Participant pool kept expanding

We needed more leaders and stronger organization

Keeping that “personal touch” was more difficult

Holding deadlines became very important

Technology disruption In mid-June, the main North Texas 23 blog went down

Access to participant information was interrupted also

This came at a very inopportune time, as I was away at a conference

End result: The interruption only lasted about a day. Things returned to normal.

Consistency With 21 persons reviewing blogs, consistency in checking participant blogs was difficult

We tried to develop clear guidelines and expectations for participant blogging

Comments

I think I will try a little bit

of all the technologies that I learned in my library to see what works

for my particular library.

I feel that I went from a “rookie” technologically disadvantaged librarian to a

somewhat “seasoned” technologically “in-

the-know” librarian!!

The Debonair Librarian

I started this program with

such reluctance and am ending it with hesitation of the fun being

over.

I hope I can make a difference in

someone else's life the way that this learning experience

has made a difference in mine.

pagemaster

I liked the freedom of

working at my own pace and I liked [the] hands on aspect of

actually doing all the 23 things.

I really hope to use some of these in my library

organization & committee work…

here23learn

Cissy’s Blog

Not another social network--is this all Web 2.0 really has to offer? Does our society

really need this and have that much to say?

What I both liked and found most

challenging at the same time was the revealing of the private me online

through the blogging, Facebook, and Flickr. While I've had fun with them, they go

against my privacy grain.

Becca’s New BlogBookdog

Do-It-Yourself

Over 1,000 23 Things programs have been created

Will you run the next one?

Choosing a target audience School libraries:

You could involve all teachers in your building (or district)

Public libraries:You could involve all librarians in your library or library system

Team up with nearby libraries if you are small

Offering Incentives With administrative buy-in, try to offer incentives

You know your target audience best

Something tech-related is always nice

Flash drives or small mp3 players

Drawings for bigger prizes Certificates

Choosing tools Choose tasks that relate to your library situation.

Choose a combination of tools that will be easy and challenging

Some might be more “fun” than others.

Put some easy ones up front to serve as a catch.

Making it fun Try to keep posts light and fun

Use video tutorials to help explain

Insert pictures

“Grading” Make expectations clear to both participants and the persons who will monitor participant blogs

The monitoring persons should encourage and help, not “nag” participants to successful completion.

Training sessions Consider having weekly “coaching” sessions.

Play a video or demonstrate the basics of an activity.

Make it fun. Leave time for people to explore or ask questions

Buddy up Encourage people to team up to help each other out.

Participants will have different strengths.

Party Have a party at the end Give away prizes Food—yum!

What is next?

Short term This program finishes; drawing deadline is August 15

Certificate/credit deadline is Sept. 1

Prizes need to be delivered

Medium term Several persons have asked that we keep our blog up to use in classes and in other 23 Things programs

Gather feedback from participants, both ones that complete and ones that did not.

Long term Consider repeating the program Use feedback to modify program to make it even more successful

Consider a “Part 2” program for those already finished.

Thank you Dona Weisman All NTLP staff

SupportPrizes

23 Things Leadership Team Participants Supervisors at libraries allowing time for participation

Thank you for attending today.

Jeff BondScience Librarian

Texas Christian University