developing ourselves: productivity for librarians

Internet Librarian International 2011

Developing ourselves:Are you a twit? Using microblogging and

social software to Get Things DoneJo Alcock

Evidence Base at Birmingham City University, UK

jo.alcock@bcu.ac.uk @joeyanne

23 Things

• Used these tools and techniques to organise 23 Things for Professional Development (CPD23)

• Tips were shared as part of ‘things’ in CPD23

Look familiar?

Online?

Productivity for librarians

• Information management a fundamental element of librarianship

• Crucial in today’s information age

• Productivity web tools often an integral part of 23 Things courses

• Even a book on topic!

Getting Things Done (GTD)

• Record all ‘stuff’ so it’s out of your head

• Prioritise actions (and do them!)

• Create a trusted storage space for reference materials

• Schedule future tasks• Review regularly

http://dots-loops.tumblr.com/post/8144103070/this-weeks-cpd23-thing-is-about-tools-for

Filtering tools/techniques

http://www.flickr.com/photos/verbeeldingskr8/3638834128

Filtering email

• Set up labels (or folders)

• Keep inbox purely for incoming messages, not storage

• Establish rules for different types of email (do all need to go into inbox?)

Filtering RSS

• Organise feeds into folders (topics or priority based)

• Weed feeds on a regular basis

• Don’t be scared of ‘mark all as read’ button!

Filtering tweets

• Lists to focus on certain topics/areas– Work colleagues– Peers– Organisations

• Saved searches to follow topics of interest– #chartership– #mlibs

Useful web tools for GTD

http://www.flickr.com/photos/galactic/2963937719/

Nirvana (web)

• Rapid entry• Send to inbox

from email• GTD

functionality• Drag and drop• Focus list• Projects• Tags

Evernote (web/desktop/mobile)

• Collect from email, web, and other tools

• Store text, images & audio

• Notebooks/tags• Sync across

multiple devices

TripIt (web/mobile)

• Store travel details (private or public)

• Generated automatically from emails (it can even collect itself!)

• Export to calendar• Local weather/info

MeetingPad (iPad)

• Store meeting notes

• Record audio• Include images• Sketch

features• Attendees• Actions• Email minutes

PlainText (iPad/iPhone)

• Use offline to make plain text notes

• Sync with Dropbox when online

• Great for distraction free writing

Nozbe (web/desktop/mobile)

• Collect via email, Twitter (and SMS)

• Record and schedule actions

• GTD functionality• Projects, labels,

contexts• Evernote notes• Dropbox docs

IFTTT (web)

• If THIS, then THAT

• Set up automatic rules for info management e.g. if I mark e-mail with Archive tag, then send copy to Evernote

I hope these tools and tips help you to get things done!

Jo Alcockwww.joeyanne.co.uk

@joeyannejo.alcock@bcu.ac.uk