Science Museum tours on twitter.

This came to my attention because I follow Medium, and read this article about Museum tours on twitter by Will Stanley.  It is a good idea to read the article before reading this post.

The Storify is beautifully done, because it records the twitter tour and it bring the comments about it to the stream as well, highlighting the conversation.  I like the use of the Science Museum twitter account, and that the curator being identified as leading the tour.  This is lovely.  This could be done for so many local studies events and location.  Imagine tweeting a walking tour, so that someone could do the tour by following the tweets or be able to able to see the tour without being there.  It would be great to highlight collection items, the way the Science Museum has. It would also work well for local festival (to help record them for local studies).

Have a look at more of the use of Storify from the Science Museum.

Staff can help...

I saw this in the Waterstones Bookshop at Sydney


You could see staff in the shop helping people, but this seemed another way to let people know that they could ask for staff assistance.

They also make it easy to connect with them on facebook.

Mini Maker Faire and a few other things at the Powerhouse Museum 16 August 2014

The @OpenROV stall at @MakerFaireSYD is set up! #MMFSYD pic.twitter.com/bV1WFAs6eu
— Dominik Fretz (@codewithpassion) August 15, 2014

You can follow other OpenRov devices as well for example, the one in this photograph is @rov1081

 This was part of the Mini Maker Faire which is at the Powerhouse Museum this weekend.

I had been to maker fairs before, they just have had many different names.  This one was a lot of fun because of the diversity of makers.

The Embroiders Guild was present encouraging people to add to a collaborative piece of embroidery, and to have a go.


Lace makers were in the Lace Centre showing needle and bobbin lace methods.
You could have a try at bobbin lace, which was was soothingly mathematical.

The fablab was going apace with the Hack the collection items being printed. The museum objects were in their cases, and their new partners were being printed.  You can read about it here, and access the museum files here.


And of course there were drones
 
I enjoyed seeing the range of makers, and being able to talk with the people behind the ideas. This was fun. People were generous and enthusiastic.  I liked the broad interpretation of maker, which is appropriate.  There are many exciting ways libraries can connect with the makers in their community.

Pico Branch at Santa Monica

This link shows some lovely photographs of the Pico Branch Library.

Share the good stories

I have been a fan of the way the National Theatre of Scotland uses social media for a long time.  It started when I saw Black Watch at the Sydney Festival, and then looked them up online to find more about their work. This recent storify is very interesting because they have very deliberately put a neutral/negative comment at the start, and then followed it up with positive ones.  They could have chosen to to leave out a comment that said "bit disappointed", but they didn't - and I am impressed by that.

As an aside I am also a fan of the National Theatre of Scotland as the two productions I have seen (both thanks to Sydney Festval), Black Watch and Beautiful burnout have been incredible.

Skill sharing

I came across this site by Michele Carragh recently, about embroidery.  Unfortunately I did not record the referring site).  I found this site interesting because she is obviously really skilled in what she does, it is her income, and still she shared information so that you can also create dragonscale.    I liked the sharing (I am not an embroiderer), because it does not reduce her income, and yet she did not need to do it.  She was being helpful.

I felt there was an analogy to libraries.  Just because I can sew a little does not mean I will be able to produce her level of product/artwork.  So we still need people with her skills, like in libraries, we share our skills and knowledge, but we still need people with advanced skills and knowledge - an increasing the skill of everyone rather than a deskilling of professionals which can sometimes seem to be happening (because "anyone can do a Google search").  Michele Carragh is an amazing artist, but still she shares her tips and methods, exactly like a skilled librarian helping someone learn how to search, or improve their searching skills.

New technology cart at Los Angeles Public Library

This is a nice way of showing what will be available for a technology sandpit at Los Angles Public Library.It shows a range of staff experimenting, presumably as a way to encourage members of the public to also experiment.  Very nicely done.

Gov.ify

To quote from the Gov.ify site

One of the biggest barriers preventing governments from embracingOpen Data is the ability to produce documents in a government-ready, paper-based format. Like a PDF. Or a book. In most governments today, well-formatted XML and machine-readable text are not considered government-friendly formats.To solve this, the OpenGov Foundation has created .gov.ify, a tool which converts machine-friendly text into Government-Ready PDFs.

This is via Steven Clift.

What if your next strategic partner is a public library? from Nate Hill...

..
Quoting the text shown with this image on Flickr

Public Library as ______________. 

"I’ve seen libraries drive downtown redevelopment projects, aid public schools, or lead economic development initiatives. At their best, libraries become the finest collaborators in their communities; they flex and act as a bridge between individuals, between organizations, and between individuals and organizations."

- Nate Hill

Deputy Director

Chattanooga Public Library

Make sure you go to Medium and read the full article by Nate Hill.