About FollowThat....

As well as using the 23 Things format to give an introduction to some new tools, we're eager to improve the team work of the library staff.

To do this, we think it would help to learn more about what we each do. But who's got time for work shadowing?

Instead, we thought that tracking processes would be more useful - how does a book get from the supplier to our shelves? What's involved in getting an inter-library loan from another library?
We've integrated "rest" weeks into the format, so there's an opportunity to catch up on the tasks set in 23Things, but also to learn from colleagues what their part in:

• the processing of books,
• the processing of journals, 
• inter-library loan requests from our readers, and from other libraries
• reader registration and
• responding to complex reader enquiries

Each of these tasks is carried out by a particular combination of staff, allowing great expertise to develop. But there is also the danger of silos being created, whereby we lose sight of the impact our contribution has on the next step in the process.

Each member of staff who carries out one step in any of the processes outlined above will give a brief overview to their colleagues, and then we'll move on to the next step as we follow that book to the shelf, follow that journal to the shelf, that article request to the reader and so on.

FollowThat... was born!

The 23 things, and what we're following

Overview:

10th -17th May 2010 Week 1 - Personalised Homepage

• Thing 1 – iGoogle ID
• Thing 2 – gadgets/ widgets

17th – 21st May 2010 Week 2 - Blogging

• Thing 3 – Blog
• Thing 4 – register your blog and find other peoples’ blogs to read

24th – 28th May 2010 Week 3 - RSS

• Thing 5 – Browser based RSS Reader
• Thing 6 – Web based RSS reader
• Thing 7 – NHS MyLibrary RSS reader

31st May – 4th June 2010 Week 4 – catch up & Follow that…. BOOK!

7th – 11th June 2010 Week 5 – Bookmarking

• Thing 8 – Browser based bookmarks
• Thing 9 - NHS MyLibrary
• Thing 10 – Delicious

21st – 25th June 2010 Week 6 – Office 2.0

• Thing 11 – google docs
• Thing 12 - wiki

28th June – 2nd July 2010 Week 7 – Mobile technologies

• Thing 13 – Wireless access to the internet
• Thing 14 – Mobile access to the internet

5th – 9th July 2010 Week 8 – catch up & Follow that…. READER!

12th – 16th July 2010 Week 9 – Video & Podcasts

• Thing 15 - YouTube & YouTube Channels
• Thing 16 - Podcasts

19th – 23rd July 2010 Week 10 – Maps

• Thing 17 – Google maps & streetview

26th – 30th July 2010 Week 11 – Google Scholar

• Thing 18 - Google scholar

2nd – 6th August 2010 Week 12 – catch up & Follow that…. JOURNAL!

9th – 13th August 2010 Week 13 – e-books

• Thing 19 – Cambridge e-books
• Thing 20 – NHS e-books
• Thing 21 – Google books & Guttenberg Project

16th – 20th August 2010 Week 14 – Institutional repositories

• Thing 22 – dSpace

23rd – 27th August 2010 Week 15 – catch up &Follow that….. ENQUIRY!

30th August – 3rd September 2010 Week 16 – Reflection

• Thing 23 – relax!

About 23Things@CamMedLib

The aim of this programme is to introduce library staff to Web 2.0 technologies – working on the principle that exposure is the first stage in learning. Over the 13 weeks, the aim is for staff to spend a little time each week working on the project, building up their own skills as well as adding to their abilities at work. It is hoped that having an average of 2 Things to do per week will make this challenge realistic as well as wide-ranging within the time available.

http://23things-cammedlib.blogspot.com/ is based on the original 23 Things program which ran at the Public Library of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County in the USA in 2006, but offers thanks to Imperial College London Library, Oxford University Libraries, Liverpool John Moore University Library and  University of Huddersfield.

You may find it useful to read the FAQs and the Hints and Tips pages on this blog.

We're also incorporating FollowThat... into the format of 23Things - more details are available.