Tag: social media

Presidential Reads

by Lindsay Davis

Earlier this week on the CJCLS Blog, we shared some statistics related to reading habits of Americans and asked how you promote reading in your community and junior colleges. President Obama’s summer reading lists and song playlists have been popular over the years. These lists might make for an interesting book display or content to share on library social media pages.

Check out this list of all the books the President has recommended while in office, “Every book Barack Obama has recommended during his presidency.” A few days ago, The New York Times published “Obama’s Secret to Surviving the White House Years: Books,” which offers a look into the impact reading has made on the President’s life. You may also be interested in reading “President Obama’s Reading List.”

Powell’s Books has put together a “Presidential Reading List” for President Obama and President-Elect Trump. What might you add? Let us know in the comments.

And for those of you who may be wondering about the reading habits of former presidents, we have you covered. In 2014, Buzzfeed put together “The Favorite Books of All 44 Presidents.” Also in 2014, Business Insider shared “8 Fascinating Stories About Presidents and their Favorite Books.”

Tags books, displays, lists, Powell's Books, president, President Obama, President-Elect Trump, reading, reading lists, resources, social media
1 Comment on Presidential Reads

Fundraising

#GivingTuesday

By Lindsay Davis

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. #GivingTuesday is upon us!

Does your community college do a fundraising campaign for scholarships? Does your library participate in some way?

I’m now at a university, and I’ve been looking over the scholarships the university is highlighting for this year’s giving event. I know many of us make monthly deductions from our paychecks to our community college communities. Some may give in other ways, too. At the community college I was at previously, the faculty, which includes librarians and counselors, would raise money to purchase Thanksgiving turkey dinners for students in need. In our local communities, many of us are probably involved in our local public libraries in some way, which often includes holding office or membership in the local library’s Friends group.

One thing that I hadn’t realized about Giving Tuesday is that it is more than making financial donations. It’s also about donating your time, goods, or voice. As librarians in public education, we constantly advocate for issues facing our students, campuses, communities, profession, and the information landscape. Giving Tuesday can offer another avenue for raising awareness about these and other related issues via social media.

For Giving Tuesday, I do plan to donate money for a scholarship, but there are many other ways to give. I also plan to raise awareness of other library-related organizations I am involved with in my personal channels. Is there something you plan on doing?

Graphics Presentations

Presentation and Infographic Design Tools for Librarians on a Budget

Post author By Guest Blogger
Post date October 28, 2015

by Lindsay Davis

Like many of you, I’m in full-swing with research instruction and have been spending time fine-tuning presentations. While I am not a designer, I like to keep visual content fresh, so I am always experimenting with online tools for presentations and graphics. Check out the list of free (or cheap) resources below. These tools do require users to create accounts, and while full functionality may not be available for the basic versions, many have upgrades available at reduced rates for educators.

Which have you tried? Are there other tools you can recommend?

Canva can help you create social media images, presentations, infographics, and more. While Canva is free, many of the pre-made layouts have special elements that cost $1 each. However, you can upload your own images and icons and draw inspiration from the existing layouts for free. Designs can be downloaded as JPEGs, PNGs, and PDFs. You can also share them to social media. Canva for Work is the upgraded version of Canva, which allows you to resize images without recreating them from scratch, but it is $9.95 a month with an annual plan.

Easel.ly can help you create infographics with templates and design objects. You can also upload your own images for free. You can share your infographic via a link or get the embed code. The pro account is $3 a month.

With a Google account, you can access Google Slides and import a PowerPoint presentation—or download a Slides presentation as a PowerPoint. With Slides, you can also share your presentation via a link or embed it.

Piktochart is another tool that can help you make infographics. The free account has free templates and icons, and you can also upload your own images. You can download your designs as JPEGs, PNGs, and PDFs or share your designs via a link, email, or through social media. You can also export them to a variety of services. To get more functionality, you can upgrade to the pro account. The Education Pro price for an individual is $39.99 a year.

Prezi is presentation software that works spatially. You can share your presentation via a link or get the embed code. If you sign up with your college email, you can elect for one of three levels—Edu Enjoy, which is free; Edu Pro, which is $4.92 a month; or Edu Team, also $4.92 a month.

SlideShare allows you to upload files so that you can share them via email, social media, as links, or embed them. You can also create presentations directly in SlideShare with Haiku Deck, although the functionality is little limited through SlideShare.

If you design presentations directly in Haiku Deck, you get more functionality and more ways to share your design. You can share to social media, email, get a link or the embed code, or you can embed directly to a WordPress blog. With a pro account, you can even export your presentation as a PowerPoint or PDF. The cost for the pro version with the educator discount is $4.99 a month or $2.49 a month billed yearly.

Smore helps you make online newsletters or flyers. These can be shared via a link or through social media, and you can also get the embed code. You can also create an email list within Smore. The free account allows you to make five newsletters for free. The personal account, which allows you to make as many newsletters are you want, is $15 a month, but the educator rate is $59 a year. Once a year, there is a sale for educators—$39 for the whole year.

With a Microsoft email account, Sway can help you can create and share interactive reports, presentations, personal stories, and more. You can upload your own images, and you can share Sways via social media or get the embed code.

Visme can help you create infographics, interactive presentations, reports, and more. The free account is limited, but if you sign up with your college email, you can get full functionality for $5 a month through the education discount. With full functionality, you can download your designs as JPEGs, PNGs, or as PDFs, get the embed code, share to social media, or even download to present offline (HTML5).

Tags graphic design, graphics, infographics, instruction, presentations, social media, visuals