One in a series of introductory screencasts created by the ALA Emerging Leaders Group I
FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://connect.ala.org
It’s easy to track your groups’ conversations and work with ALA Connect. Once you’re logged in to ALA Connect, your groups’ newest information is displayed right on your homepage, alongside information from other active groups and communities. For more information on getting the latest from other groups, check out the What’s New with Other Groups screencast.
To find out more about what’s new with any particular group of which you’re a member, just head to the group page via the My ALA Groups section, or the My Member Communities section. Remember, your ALA Groups are formal ALA divisions, sections, or committees that you’ve joined. Member communities are informal groups organized around a specific topic.
To find out more about groups and member communities, check out the Groups FAQ from the Help section. From your group’s homepage, browse the running list of new and updated posts, events, online docs, and more.
Click on a particular content type to filter your display. View only the calendar, for example, to see upcoming group events. Some information from your group may be made publicly available to a wider audience. But as a group member, you will be able to see all information from that group by default.
To monitor your group’s activity outside ALA Connect, just subscribe to the feed available at the bottom of the page, or set your email preferences, linked from the group’s right sidebar, to receive an email each time a message is posted to the group. From your profile, you can configure your email preferences for all groups simultaneously or choose to set preferences by individual group.
If you create content in your group, the content will be easily available and publicized to all group members through the group page. If you want to share content with ALA members outside your group, or even with non-ALA members, you can make any item public.
Let’s create an online doc in the ACRL group, for example. Just choose the Public option in the Audience section for any message. That will make the item findable through the search feature, displayable to the public via the group page and feed, as well as linkable without requiring the viewer to log in. Once it’s published, just use the message’s URL to share it directly, like in this ACRL post. This can be useful to feature events, as well as documents your group is working on.
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: Momentum by Crepusculum, available at www.archive.org.