{"id":80765,"date":"2014-09-09T07:30:40","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T12:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=80765"},"modified":"2014-09-07T11:08:04","modified_gmt":"2014-09-07T16:08:04","slug":"drive-your-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=80765","title":{"rendered":"(Google) Drive Your Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ashley Mancill, Senior Assistant,\u00a0INALJ Alabama<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

(Google) Drive Your Library<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"ashleymancill\"<\/a>An overwhelming number of patrons I assist in the library have Google email\u00a0accounts, yet only a handful of them use the Google Drive service it comes with.\u00a0Most of them have never even heard of Drive. And more and more often, I find\u00a0myself teaching patrons how to use the cloud-based storage system and its web\u00a0editors.<\/p>\n

Drive is great for storing and organizing personal documents, which is why many\u00a0libraries provide in-house workshops, LibGuides, and one-on-one reference help.\u00a0But it\u2019s also a fast and easy tool that library staff can use to collaborate, quickly\u00a0retrieve documents, and manage workflows.<\/p>\n

Here are a few ways to use Google Drive behind the scenes at the library:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Collect and share department statistics using Sheets<\/p>\n

\u2022 Create a checklist for training new staff<\/p>\n

\u2022 Similarly, compose or store training materials and orientation documents for\u00a0new employees (such as the library\u2019s strategic plan, a copy of the budget, and\u00a0an organizational chart)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Compile a listing of software vendors and create a spreadsheet comparing\u00a0packages, features, pricing, and ease-of-use<\/p>\n

\u2022 Upload PDFs of documents that line staff may need readily available and can\u00a0easily access such as: the library\u2019s policy and internet use policy; volunteer\u00a0applications; handouts on library resources and instructional guides; and\u00a0brochures and informational pamphlets<\/p>\n

\u2022 Share programming ideas with department supervisors and others who\u00a0work in the department and track expenses<\/p>\n

\u2022 Create a slideshow presentation of the newest additions to the library\u2019s\u00a0collection in Slides to play on a digital display (such as a stand-alone\u00a0computer or smart TV) or stream on the library\u2019s website<\/p>\n

\u2022 Use Forms to get feedback by creating surveys for patrons who have\u00a0participated in programming events and whose contact information you have<\/p>\n

\u2022 If your library has graphic designer or someone well versed in web\u00a0technology on staff, see if that individual can integrate surveys created in\u00a0Google Forms into the library\u2019s website for patrons to access remotely. PDFs\u00a0of other documents such as Interlibrary Loan forms and book request forms\u00a0are also great ideas to consider adding<\/p>\n

\u2022 Use Drive to store photos and graphics for the library website<\/p>\n

\u2022 Create a staff communication document to share reminders, important\u00a0information about happenings in the community, brief announcements that\u00a0relate to changes in policies and procedures, etc.<\/p>\n

\u2022 For academic and research librarians as well as those who are researching\u00a0and writing grants, use Drive to save and organize research notes and\u00a0sources<\/p>\n

One of the benefits of using Drive is that it automatically converts documents to a\u00a0Google format and also allows those who have access the option of downloading\u00a0a copy in a format that his or her computer recognizes (pdf, docx, csv, ods, etc).\u00a0Because not every staff member will need to have access to all library documents,\u00a0department managers and document owners can set viewing and editing privileges\u00a0so that professional staff can access and modify documents that relate to their work\u00a0and library operations while nonprofessional staff can access documents shared\u00a0with them to carry out their duties and responsibilities (which varies from library to\u00a0library and may or may not include editing privileges).<\/p>\n

Google Drive provides free users with 15 GB of space. Systems and libraries with\u00a0larger budgets that are interested in moving to cloud-based storage may opt to\u00a0purchase one of two plans that provide 30GB or unlimited storage space and\u00a0includes business emails. While having all that extra storage space has its benefits,\u00a0it\u2019s unlikely most libraries will need that much space for at-work collaboration\u00a0and sharing (unless storing and sharing large files or files that are graphic heavy).\u00a0Additionally, librarians and staff would need to consider the sensitive nature\u00a0of some documents (i.e., information that is better left on a hard drive than on\u00a0a cloud). For libraries with smaller budgets in need of some cloud storage or\u00a0ones that are just interested in simple office software without the price tag,\u00a0there\u2019s the option of creating individual or shared Google accounts for staff to use\u00a0(example: librarynamecirculation@gmail.com) and allocating storage across Drives\u00a0accordingly. Administrators concerned with the addition of a Google+ profile will be\u00a0happy to know that feature is easily disabled<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ashley Mancill, Senior Assistant,\u00a0INALJ Alabama (Google) Drive Your Library An overwhelming number of patrons I assist in the library have Google email\u00a0accounts, yet only a handful of them use the Google Drive service it comes with.\u00a0Most of them have never even heard of Drive. And more and more often, I find\u00a0myself teaching patrons how…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":63294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,5363,3592,4392,6521,953,3624],"class_list":["post-80765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-ashley-mancill","tag-blog","tag-google-drive","tag-google-drive-benefits","tag-google","tag-inalj-alabama"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/ashleymancill.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-l0F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}