Keeping Up with Connect: What’s Going On

One in a series of introductory screencasts created by the ALA Emerging Leaders Group I FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://connect.ala.orgThere's so much happening on ALA Connect, you may feel a bit overwhelmed trying to find your way. But with a few easy features, you can quickly put your finger on the pulse of ALA Connect.From the ALA Connect homepage you can browse upcoming events, view most recently created member communities, follow comments recently made, and more. Let's take a closer look.

September 15, 2009

One in a series of introductory screencasts created by the ALA Emerging Leaders Group I
FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://connect.ala.org

There’s so much happening on ALA Connect, you may feel a bit overwhelmed trying to find your way. But with a few easy features, you can quickly put your finger on the pulse of ALA Connect.

From the ALA Connect homepage you can browse upcoming events, view most recently created member communities, follow comments recently made, and more. Let’s take a closer look.

The Connect Calendar lets you browse upcoming events from all groups–those events that are made public, that is. Click the More link for a full view of upcoming events, deadlines, and more. Check out, for example, this discussion of The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter on ALA’s Second Life island.

Back on the homepage, we can also view recently created member communities. Of course, you can browse all member communities to connect with others on topics of interest to you. But this section allows you to hone in on what’s happening now. Did you know, for instance, that you could use Connect to touch base with alumni from your MLS program? Or to learn more about gaming in libraries?

For more on finding groups and communities–those you belong to and those you don’t–be sure to check out the What’s New with My Groups and What’s New with Other Groups screencasts.

The Recent Comments section gives you a sense of the current conversations on Connect. What are people saying right now? You may see recent discussion about ALA Council, for example, or tips for teaching government information to kids. Start from the top to follow the whole discussion.

Back at the homepage, you can view popular Connect content–that is, public pages that people are viewing most.

Follow popular tags to browse to content, too! Tags are user-defined keywords describing posts, documents, and events. That means tags help you find content as organized by users, rather than by ALA structures. This tag cloud will show you the most commonly used tags, meaning the topics and themes being most discussed. The bigger the font size, the more often the term has been used as a tag. Click on Gaming, for example, to check out relevant posts and events.

The right sidebar of the ALA Connect homepage is your gateway to keeping current with the pulse of ALA Connect. Check in often to check out the conversations.

For more information about ALA Connect, visit the Help community, always available at the top of the screen, or use the Contact Us form if you have questions.

Music: Cherry Rag by Tom Joad and Gerry Dempsey, available at www.archive.org.

One in a series of introductory screencasts created by the ALA Emerging Leaders Group I FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://connect.ala.orgALA has over two thousand divisions, committees, task forces and round tables, and Connect offers an additional 500 member created communities- and this number is growing every day. So how does one find new groups that might interest them? This is Finding New Groups in ALA Connect

ALA Connect for LIS Students

One in a series of introductory screencasts created by the ALA Emerging Leaders Group I FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://connect.ala.orgALA Connect offers the opportunity for users to create member communities- communities that any ALA member can participate in. This provides a great opportunity for LIS students and alumni to congregate in an unofficial sort of way, network and build those professional relationship!

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Keeping Up with Connect: What’s Going On

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Finding New Groups that Might Interest You

ALA Connect for LIS Students