Jun 14, 2010

Nebraska Learns 2.0 Project Update

Please excuse this non-Thing post, but we just wanted to take a moment of your time to update you on some of what's been going on behind-the-scenes with Nebraska Learns 2.0.

First, we noticed a few months ago that participation was down. As a result we re-doubled our efforts in publicizing the program and since then have seen a significant rise in Thing completion and new participants. Whenever a new Thing goes live we're blogging it, tweeting it and Facebooking it. If you know of anywhere else we can let people know about the program, just leave a comment and we'll do what we can.

Second, as you may have noticed, we've started to re-visit some previously discussed topics such as Flickr. This was a response to the number of new participants who hadn't done any of the original 23 Things and due to the fact that some of these services have evolved since we originally posted them. Don't worry, not everything coming up in the future will be review-like in their nature. We've got plenty of new Things in the works.

Third, and lastly, we've been looking at the Participants list and have decided that it needs some weeding. We know that you're not required to do each and every Thing, but some folks signed up for the program, started their blogs, got them on the list, and then haven't done a single Thing yet. This isn't a judgment on your level of participation (we understand how things can fall by the wayside; see above), but we've decided to remove from the list anyone who hasn't logged a single completed Thing. What this ultimately accomplishes is that it gives a more accurate picture of the participants in this program. Looking at the list now makes it seem like not many people are active with the program and that's not what we'd like to portray.

So, if you're reading this and you have every intention to have this month's Thing be your first, no worries. We won't be weeding the list until after June is over. If you're thinking that July will be your first thing, just leave a comment with a link to your blog and we'll be sure to keep it on the list. If you've done any previous Thing, it's all good, your participant entry is safe with us.

If your blog is removed from the Participants list next month, but you decide to revisit Nebraska Learns 2.0 sometime in the future, just e-mail Jeannette to let her know, and your blog will be added back onto the Participants list.

As always, if you have any questions about this post or any other part of the program, leave a comment below and we'll get back to you ASAP.

Thanks for participating in Nebraska Learns 2.0!
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Jun 1, 2010

Thing #37: Engaging Your Users with Polls and Surveys

Taking a cue from my colleague, Kathryn Brockmeier, who is offering a three-part online webinar series on conducting surveys, I thought it might be fun and useful to devote this month’s Thing to a review of some free web 2.0 tools that librarians can use to obtain feedback from their users.

As you’ve probably noticed, most discussions of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 place great emphasis on the user. The following passage, excerpted from the “Library 2.0” article in Wikipedia on May 19, 2010, is a good case in point:

“With Library 2.0, library services are frequently evaluated and updated to meet the changing needs of library users. Library 2.0 also calls for libraries to encourage user participation and feedback in the development and maintenance of library services. The active and empowered library user is a significant component of Library 2.0. With information and ideas flowing in both directions – from the library to the user and from the user to the library – library services have the ability to evolve and improve on a constant and rapid basis. The user is participant, co-creator, builder and consultant – whether the product is virtual or physical.”
There are many informal ways to solicit and encourage feedback from users, especially given the social nature of many of the online tools and services we use (e.g., blogs, Facebook, Twitter). However, there are also plenty of tools designed for the express purpose of conducting surveys and polls. These are the tools we are going explore this month.

Why Conduct a Survey or Poll?

Surveys and polls are great ways to get direct user feedback on a wide variety of topics. Obviously you can use them to find out which of your current services users value most and want more of! Or to solicit feedback on past programming and suggestions for future programming! Or to learn what folks think of your web site!

You can also take a more whimsical approach by asking fun questions for the sole purpose of engaging your users. For example, if a popular book is being made in to a movie, ask visitors to your web site to submit the names of actors and actresses they’d like to see play particular characters. Or ask them to vote on which book series they’d most like to see turned in to a television series. Then, be sure to display sample results!

Surveys vs. Polls

So what is the difference between a survey and a poll? While it’s true that both are used to collect feedback from multiple respondents, there are some definite differences. Most significantly, surveys typically include multiple questions and take a longer time to complete, whereas polls often consist of a single question which can be answered in a minimal amount of time, possibly with a single mouse click.

Tools to Explore

There are numerous online survey and polling tools available on the Internet, offering a wide range of functionality at a wide range of prices. For the purposes of this exercise I will be asking you to choose one of the following three products, each of which offers basic functionality at no cost, to explore in more depth:
  • SurveyMonkey – SurveyMonkey offers a free Basic plan, a Pro plan for $19.95 per month, and an Unlimited plan for an annual cost of $200. For obvious reasons we will be looking at the free Basic plan. With this plan you can create as many surveys as you’d like, but you are limited to 10 questions and 100 responses per survey.

    Responses can be solicited via email, a web link, or a website popup invitation. To see an example of a website popup invitation, visit my “Popup Survey” blog post. (Note: Cookie settings on users’ browsers may prevent invitations from popping up. For this reason it is always a good idea to link to your survey from your post/page! If you read through my blog post you will find a link to my survey!)

    To get started with SurveyMonkey, go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/ and click on “Sign Up FREE” under the “Get Started Today! Basic Plan” heading. At this point you can either create a free SurveyMonkey account, or sign in with a pre-existing Google Account.

    SurveyMonkey has created a series of tutorials to help you get started. If you decide to explore SurveyMonkey further, I recommend reviewing the following three tutorials:


    When you review the various tutorials you will notice that skip logic (a process that directs respondents through different paths in the survey based on a response to a previous question) is not supported in the free Basic plan, nor are some of the more sophisticated reporting and analysis features. For a complete comparison of plan features, see the Detailed Features List.

  • Twtpoll – With Twtpoll you can create an unlimited number of polls and collect an unlimited number of responses for free. You can share your polls via Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, or email or embed them on your blog/website. You must have a Twitter account to create polls, but your responders don’t need one to respond.

    To create a poll, go to http://twtpoll.com/ and click on the “Create a Poll” button. The simple poll-creation form asks you to input your Twitter name, select a question type (e.g., multiple choice), enter your question (140 character limit), list answer choices, and specify a closing date. You are also asked to choose whether to allow multiple votes per IP address. After completing the form click on the “Create a Poll” button :

    After you click on “Create a Poll” you will be presented with a number of options for distributing your poll.

    Take a look at my Twtpoll blog post to see an example of an embedded poll, displayed with real-time results. Twtpoll results are organized in nice, presentable ways: Pie charts, bar charts, or tables. All answers are recorded anonymously.

    A Twtsurvey application is also available for a one-time cost of $49. This gets you unlimited surveys, questions, and responses forever. However, you can create one free survey (unlimited questions / 100 responses) before deciding on whether to pay.

  • PollDaddy – The free version of PollDaddy allows you to create unlimited surveys, polls and ratings.

    • Surveys – With a free account you can ask up to 10 questions per survey and collect 100 survey responses per month across all of your surveys. Skip logic (or conditional branching/question forking as it is called in PollDaddy) can also be applied by free account holders. To see skip logic in action, take my sample survey several times. Be sure to answer the first question differently each time!

    • Polls – You can create as many polls as you’d like with your free account. Each poll consists of a single question, and a list of possible answers. You can limit poll takers to a single answer or allow them to select multiple answers. You can also give them the option of entering their own answers. Finally, you can choose whether or not to allow voters to see the poll results, and whether or not to allow them to easily share your poll via services like Facebook and Twitter, in order to drive more traffic to it.

      After creating a poll, you will be presented with multiple options for embedding or linking to it. The recommended method is to copy and paste JavaScript code into your website or blog. You can also copy a link to share via email, IM, or Twitter. Finally, if you plan on posting a variety of different polls to the same location over a period of time, consider embedding the code for a poll widget. Then, all you have to do when you want to change out your poll is log in to PollDaddy and assign a different poll to the widget. I used this method to post a poll to my blog.

    • Ratings – This feature is still in beta. It allows you to create a 5-star ratings widget or a thumbs up / thumbs down ratings widget that can be posted to your website or blog. Like this.
Assignment
  1. If you haven’t already done so, complete the following polls and surveys:


  2. Now, using one of the services listed in “Tools,” create your own survey or poll. This survey or poll can be designed to collect serious feedback from staff or patrons, or it can be silly and lighthearted, aimed at family, friends, or fellow Nebraska Learns 2.0 participants. Post this survey/poll to your blog using one of the options provided to you by the service you used. If you find you are struggling with this step, at least include your survey/poll URL in your blog post so readers can get to it.

  3. Finally write about your experience taking and creating surveys/polls as part of this Thing. Was it easier or harder than you thought it would be? Do you think survey and polling tools like these would be useful to your library? If so, in what ways? If not, why not?

For Those Wanting More Information (Optional):

To learn more about the theory and practice of designing, administering, and analyzing surveys, be sure to check out Kathryn Brockmeier’s three-part online webinar series on conducting surveys:
Additional Reading
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May 3, 2010

Thing #36: Flickr Revisited

This month we are going to revisit Flickr. Don’t stop reading if you already have a Flickr account or did Thing #8 Discover Flickr back in 2008. We’re going to do things a bit differently this month and give you some options that will hopefully work not only for folks new to Flickr but also long time Flickr users. Before we go any further, if you don’t know what Flickr is step through the short What is Flickr? tour.

For Thing #36 participants have three options.

Option 1: Watch the hour long WebJunction recording of Library Images: Engage, Inspire and Tell your Story. "In this entertaining and heartwarming presentation you will learn how two librarians teamed up to advocate more effectively (and boldly) while staying true to the personality of the communities, the libraries and the staff they serve. You and your library really can market your services and engage more effectively, and images, video and authenticity can be a key! Learn how you too can use images and video creatively and effectively to inspire Libraryland, engage the communities you serve boost staff morale and get more enjoyment from your job."

Option 2: Set up a Flickr account and upload 5 pictures. If you already have a Flickr account but haven’t done much with it you may also choose this option.

Option 3: You can always do Option 1 and Option 2. :)



Option 1

On March 30th Jeff Dawson from the Lester Public Library in Two Rivers WI and Michael Porter from WebJunction did a great online presentation titled Library Images: Engage, Inspire and Tell your Story. This presentation is an hour long. If you don’t have a free hour block of time to watch the video you can watch it in sections by following the instructions I’ve included below.

Note: This presentation does have audio so you will need speakers or a headset.
  1. The presentation is located at: http://www.webjunction.org/marketing/articles/content/94460985
  2. There are a number of resources listed on the page related to the presentation. To view the presentation click on View full Archive. A new page will open.
  3. Select Playback.
  4. You may be taken to an Installing… window. Selecting the Install using Java option worked well for me.
  5. This should open a new window for the presentation. NOTE: You will need to wait about 50 seconds before you will hear anything. There is a clock/counter in the bottom left corner of the window.
  6. If you don’t have time to watch the complete presentation in one sitting you can watch parts but it will take a bit of patience and attention to elapsed time on your part.
  • If you need to stop watching the presentation for a few minutes you can use the pause button located in the bottom left corner
  • To completely stop watching and exit the presentation you will want to note the time displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen. The first number tells you how many minutes you’ve already watched. The second number is the total time of the presentation. You’ll want to note the first number.
  • To resume playback go through steps 1-5 again. Now you will have to have a minute or two of patience as you wait for the presentation to load. The bar at the bottom of the screen shows the progress. If the bar is green that means you’ve moved past that point either by watching it or moving forward. If the bar is blue that means the presentation has loaded. If the bar is gray that means it’s not done loading yet. Next open the Table of Contents. It’s located under View – Table of Contents. Scroll down the list until you find a time that’s close to the time you stopped. Double click on it to jump to that location in the presentation. Jeff’s part ends and Michael’s starts right around the 17:28 time point. The Q & A part starts around 38:07. Don’t skip the Q & A portion. It contains good information.

Option 1 Assignment

Write a blog post about the presentation. Here are some questions to think about.
  1. What do you think about Lester Public Library’s approach to taking pictures?
  2. Is there currently anyone in your community who takes photos of library and community events and publicly shares them on Flickr?
  3. Would this be good PR for your library?
  4. Is this something your library could do?

Option 2

For option 2 participants will need to setup a Flickr account and upload 5 items or if you already have an account but haven’t been using it now’s your chance to starting using it again. For this exercise you can use either a personal Flickr account or your library’s account.

Setting up an Account

Flickr offers both a free and pro account. The free account should work just fine as you get started with Flickr. You can learn about the limits of the free account and upgrading to a Pro account options at: http://www.flickr.com/help/limits

In order to use Flickr you will need a Yahoo! account. If you already have a Yahoo! account you can sign in to Flickr. To create an account follow the Sign Up link and complete the form.

Below I’m going to cover a number of topics that I think you should be aware of but if you have additional questions or want to learn more I’d suggest starting with the Flickr’s FAQ page. For each of the topics below I’ve also included the URL to the appropriate FAQ page.

Your Profile (FAQ: http://www.flickr.com/help/profile)

Your Profile can be accessed by clicking on the down arrow next to the word You which is located on the top navigation menu. On the right hand side of your profile page will be links to Manage your profile. The most important thing to know about your profile is that you don’t need to set one up. Providing information in your profile is optional. You may also want to Edit your profile privacy options. I would also suggest that you go into the Your Account area and quickly look at the Privacy & Permissions settings.

Uploading Photos (FAQ: http://www.flickr.com/help/photos)

There are multiple different ways you can upload photos to Flicker. Today we will use the upload option available on the Flickr website. The upload page is available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/upload/ or there is a link to it under the You dropdown menu. Follow the steps on the page to upload an image. For the assignment you will need to upload 5 photos. In the future you may want to explore some of the upload tools available at: http://www.flickr.com/tools. Don't forget you can also upload videos that are up to 90 seconds in length.

Now that you have your Flickr account set up you can easily share your photos with other sites.

Option 2 Assignment
  1. Upload 5 photos to your Flickr account and provide the URL to your account.
  2. If you're new to Flickr write a few sentences about your experience. If you already had a Flickr account write few sentences about why you haven't been using Flickr recently or how you intend to use it in the future.
  3. In conclusion write a few sentences telling how Flickr could be used to promote your library.

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