We’ll See How This Goes: Ask Away

Consider this a trial-by-fire.  We’ve taken an interest in this Formspring, “ask us anything” service, so the library has started our own page:

http://formspring.me/JCCCLib

You can now anonymously ask us things like:

  • Important reference questions
  • Things you’re too afraid to ask at the desk
  • Questions on embarrassing topics
  • Curious inquiries into librarianship
  • More random errata

Honesly, we have no idea how this will go, but ask away, and we’ll find out.

We’re Interested in your eBook Reader Experience

We’ve got some toys and ideas coalescing into a full fledged project, but we’ll need your help.  Feel free to comment on on this blog, DM us on Twitter (@JCCCLib), or contact me via the e-mail (bbaile14 [at] jccc [dot] edu) if you’d be willing to spend some time sharing your experience with a Kindle, Sony Reader, Nook, or any other type of eBook device or software.

digitalLabs and Such

digitalLabs has been through a few changes.  First, logos are ready for a lot of our services.  Second, outside of projects we’ve created, we’ve put in links to a lot of our other services.  A quick rundown on what we have and where it stands.

  • The Facebook page is still a little lonely.  It has a few feeds running into it, and we’ve made at least 11 friends.  Still, that’s a little lonely!
  • Our Twitter account has more people following it than we have Facebook friends, but it is still fairly new.  At this point, its been linked from our Web site for a weekend.
  • LibGuides are quite the phenomenon for us, and they’ve been, as a whole, linked from the library’s page since Tuesday.  But even without that, we’re getting hundreds and hundreds of hits a month. We’re getting closer to replacing all of our old subject guides.
  • ScholarSpace is taking submissions and has a few well-defined spaces receiving papers and presentations.
  • The New Items RSS feed is integrated into multiple services we have, and has subscribers.  Hopefully we’ll be able to break down the feed into subjects.
  • 10 Minute Paper Guide:  I think a lot of people will be pleased with this.  Soon, students will be able to search books, articles, and our libGuides while building their bibliography and chatting with a librarian: all in one page.  It is so close to done.
  • This blog is still in the labs, and it is doing quite well. I hope its been fairly enjoyable, but moreso, I hope we get more than Books of the Day on here a tiny-bit more frequently.
  • The Mobile Browser is not yet finished, but for catalog searching, works fairly well with minor annoyances.  Here’s hoping that the completion of 10MPG will give me more time to flesh this out.

So there’s a quick update.  Check some of these out, leave feedback, e-mail me, etc. Here’s to getting things done.

digitalLabs: A work in progress

visit digitalLabs
visit digitalLabs

I’m quite proud to announce that our digitalLabs page at JCCC is in full swing.  Many of the projects, including this blog, which are considered experimental, are available for your perusal.

As the projects become available, updates will be made known on the blog.  Projects available include a New Items RSS feed, the libraryMobile page, and this blog right here.  Please feel free to comment and let us know what you think!