Monday, November 19, 2007

Week 10, Post # 23 Summary

The 23 Things fit in my life plan of taking any training offered to broaden my knowledge base and to keep up with changes in the library field and beyond. My goal is to "keep up with the times." Fat chance, however before going through the 23 things, I had already created a blog, created a Del.icio.us account, had an RSS feed to a bloglines account and downloaded books from Overdrive to my MP3 player. I learned more about each of those things, as well as picking up new information for use at work and in my personal life.

Some of my favorites were blogging, Wikis (Book Lovers Wiki) and LibriVox. I blog about the book club that I moderate monthly at the library and I use many sources to select books for the group to read. I think the Book Lovers Wiki will be helpful in that regard. I plan to look closer at LibriVox to see if it is easier to use than Overdrive.

It would be very easy to waste a lot of time pretending to work when blogging, social networking, listening to podcasts and viewing videos on YouTube. I can also see where these type of activities can suck up a life. No wonder it is hard to attract people to the library for programs.

I am looking forward to more training, but I hope the next round is scheduled better. Three activities a week is too many when we have other work to do and desks to man (or woman). Someone mentioned once a month, but I think once a week would be OK as long as there was truly only one project that week. I wondered from the start how we were going to do 23 projects in only nine weeks.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Week 9, Post #22 Downloadable Media

I have used Overdrive several times since it was introduced to us through the HCPL website. I love having books on my MP3 player and not having to mess around with CDs and cassette tapes (although I still use those too since Overdrive doesn't have all of the books I am interested in).


LibriVox was a great sight. Not only was there a catalog 0f digital books, but Podcasts were also available. There was a volunteer link and a place to visit forums. You can volunteer to record entire books, or chapters of books.


The goal of LibriVox is to record all books in the public domain. I searched for Emma by Jane Austen and found that is was all recorded by one person, whereas Daisy Miller by Henry James had each chapter recorded by a different person. The books on Overdrive are not in the public domain and are read by the author or by a professional and Overdrive is not free.

WOWIO is based here in Houston. Here is information from their website:
"WOWIO opened on the World Wide Web in August 2006 endeavoring to dramatically expand access to important written works by eliminating the economic, geographic, and logistical barriers of readers while also ensuring that content owners are fairly compensated.WOWIO is today the only source where readers can legally download high-quality copyrighted ebooks from leading publishers for free. Readers have access to a wide range of offerings, including works of classic literature, college textbooks, comic books, and popular fiction and non-fiction titles.WOWIO is a privately owned company with headquarters in Houston, Texas. "
These are not digital audio books, but are e-books. They are not in the public domain, but are still free.

I have found the Overdrive has many of the titles that I am interested in listening to, including: Winesburg, Ohio by Anderson, Legacy of Ashes by Weiner, God in not Great by Hutchins and Pontoon by Keillor.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Week 9, Post #21 Podcasts

I looked at the podcast directories. However Podcast.net didn't work and I initially thought that I would have to download an aggregator when using Podcast Alley. Margaret pointed out that there was another place to click to subscribe to the podcast and add it to Bloglines. I first added Audio books with Annie, however when I listened to it, I realized that she was reading Anne of Green Gables, chapter by chapter. So I went looking for another podcast to subscribe to and found "Written Voice" which is book talks and author interviews hosted by Allan Hunkin. I listened to part of an interview with Alafair Burke.

Libraries could be in the podcast space, but it would take a lot of time, dedication, and writting skills, and imagination.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Week 9, Post #20 You Tube, etc.

I looked for a couple videos on You tube by category, holiday home tours and christmas decorations. On the Holiday Home tours I was really looking for Holiday Tour of Homes, fund raisers where people can tour rich people's homes and see how the other 1/4 of the people live. What I got was a tour of a holiday home in England - where a family rented a home for a vacation (holiday to them).

The video I chose to write about is "Show Me How - Christmas decorations sample." It gave instructions on how to make some tree decorations. I don't know why I chose this one, I am not the least bit crafty and I couldn't make a Christmas decoration to save my life. I was looking for houses decorated for Christmas and came across this craft video.

In honor of Veteran's Day, I viewed a video "Thank You Veterans." it was only 51 seconds long, but was moving nontheless.

I can see where You Tube could be useful in marketing the library as long as the videos were of professional quality, clever, fun, and interesting. It is hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, and there is a lot of chaff.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Week 8, Post # 19 - Web Applications - Zoho

I can certainly can see the usefullness of web applications for documents and spreadsheets. Having documents available online for others in your group to look at and/or edit as needed could be very helpful. It also spares you the expense and computer memory needed to have the MS Office products loaded onto your computer. There's sure to be a way that someone makes money from this, or it won't get developed much further. I know people in the computer industry have been looking for ways to stick it to Microsoft for years.

Using Zoho Writer is as easy as using Office and many of the tool bar buttons look the same. Here are some of the advantages of using Zoho:
Documents can be saved online and so can be accessed from anywhere.
Can export this file as a Word or txt file document
It has an e-mail feature
Can publish document as a public file and also can export it as a .pdf or html.
Can publish document as a post on your blog.
(adapted from Helene Blowers)

It is free and no installation needed. I'm all for that.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Week 8, Post #18 Social Networks

I looked at most of the social networking links provided. They weren't very helpful since you had to login to most of them to get very far. This looks like one big time sponge! I tried out Yahoo 360 since I already have a Yahoo account. I spent a lot of time trying to get my RSS feeds on my page, and posting a picture and favorite hobbies on my page. I even sent my daughter an invitation to be my friend on the site. We'll see if she responds. She has even less time than I do to mess around on the computer. Just let me e-mail my family and friends and I'm happy.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Week 7 Post #17 Technology

I think that technology has been tremendously helpful to the library world and our customers. I just never planned on spending so much time as a repairman and trouble shooter on computers, copiers, fax machines and printers. Not to mention having to teach people how to get on the Internet, open or save a file, send things to the printer, or how to just plain turn things on.


I graduated with my MLS in 1994 and so came in about the time the libraries were making the big change to automation and online catalogs. The small library branch in Ohio where I started still had a card catalog, but they were no longer keeping it current, and things just kept changing all the time the Dayton&Montgomery County Public Library - now called the Dayton Metro Library.

Whatever, we know technology is here to stay and the pace of change is ever increasing. So buckle up.

Week 7 Post #16 Wikis

Information from the various resouces:
A Wiki is a quick-to-build, easy-to-edit website on which all information can be edited, changed, or rewritten by the users or members of the site. It is an incredibly useful tool for collaborative writing, pooling knowledge or exchanging ideas, especially on a subject that changes or needs updating frequently. It comes from the Hawaiian phrase "wiki wiki" which means something fast. The advantage and the weakness are the same: anyone can edit it. A wiki is a good way of gathering facts quickly and pooling expertise from a large number of people.

"A wiki can become a repository for the collective knowledge of the library community; a place where anyone can share their success stories, advice, and useful materials. I created the Library Success Wiki http://www.libsuccess.org/ to be a one-stop-shop for great ideas for librarians. If a librarian has done something at their library that they consider a success, they can write about it in the wiki." Meredith Farkas.

Libraries and Librarians can use wikis in several ways, some of which include: subject guides, annotated catalogs, ALA conference info, policy manuals, and as a resource pool. Of course there are many more ways to use wikis, it is only limited by our imaginations.

I enjoyed looking at the different wikis. The one I will probably find most useful is the Book Lovers Wiki. I can use it for reader's advisory and to help with book club selections.

I added my blog to the iHcpl wiki and several movies to the movie favoirites:
I have several favorites too, one is (like Margaret) The Princess Bride and another is Christmas in Connecticut with Barbara Stanwyck. I really like the Mummy movies with Brendan Frasier.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Week 6 #15 Library 2.0

About 2.0
February 26, 2007
In the spirit of the academic librarian 2.0 - Alejandro Chiner Arias

"There seems to be an implication that librarians should avoid being over-cautious, or perfectionists, and that they should be more willing to make mistakes. I suppose she means to take risks and manage those risks.
The universal truth that any trainee librarian soon learns is that one cannot keep everybody happy all the time. To please one impatient user by imperfectly releasing a resource, often cannot be done without causing mayhem and disadvantaging other users."

Above is an opinion on being in beta at all times.

I think there is much to be said for Library 2.0, but let's not change for change's sake. Are we really improving service to all of our patrons, or benefiting one set at the expense of another?

There are some road blocks on the way to Lib 2.0, which one of the authors called icebergs. These include "Just in case" collection; reliance on user education; and a "come to us" model. There is no point in having a large "just in case" collection with so much information available online now, but we still need collection development, it just may look different. As far as user education goes, if a service can't be used without training, then it is the service that needs to be fixed, not the patrons. We need to be more in the space where our users are. They won't want to come to us much longer. We are trying this with chat and IM. The libraries may need to push out information to users in the future.

From Wikipedia:
The Librarian 2.0 listens to staff and users when planning, talks about successes and failures, allows staff time to play and learn, and dream of the best library services. The key principles of Lib 2.0 are innovation, people, community building and participation through social computing. It is not a closed concept, it is beta forever.

Some librarian bloggers have argued that the key principles are not new and have been part of the services suggested by library reformers since the 19th century. Others would like more concrete examples on how to implement Lib 2.0. Walt Crawford indicates that it incorrectly places libraries as the appropriate source for all users to gather all information. The proponents of Library 2.0 argue that while individual pieces of Lib 2.0 may not be entirely new, the convergence of these service goals and ideas with many Web 2.0 technologies has led to a new generation of library service.

One thing I would like to see happen with 2.0 is in library architecture. Since we have so many more people on computers and phones rather than studying quietly, buildings need to be designed for quiet areas where the noise from the computer areas and circulation doesn't penetrate. I think the most complaints we get around the amount of noise in the building. Some people are amazed that libraries aren't quiet anymore like they used to be. Maybe this will call for more computer lab type rooms or more individual study rooms for groups of different sizes. This may not be considered 2.0 because in isn't technology driven, but it is important to me, and to the comfort of the customers who visit the library.

Yesterday I came across an article about the World Digital Library. It will be the ultimate, multicultural tool for researching and retrieving information about knowledge and creativity from any era or place. The WDL (http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org/) will provide free access to original documents, films, maps, photographs, manuscripts, musical scores and recordings, architechural drawings, and other primary resources through a variety of search methods. This sounds like Library/Web 2.0 to the max!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Week 6 Post #14 - Technorati

Today I spent a some time on Technorati.

1). I searched for "Learning 2.0 in Blog posts section and got over 6,000 hits. The terms didn't stay together, even with "". Even using exact phrase - I got 554 hits. Using a tags search for Learning 2.0 the results list was more manageable, only 127, and searching the directory only brought 59 more focused hits - blogs about Learning 2.0.

2) I explored the "popular" blogs and found that most of them were technical. Under the "top searches" I clicked on Colbert and found many comments on Steven Colbert's big announcement last night on The Daily Show (and continued on Steven's show) - both of which I happened to watch. I watched a video called "Vision of Students Today" that I found under the video heading.

I had some technical problems with Technorati - it often timed out or was too slow going from one page to the next. It was frustrating.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Week 6, Post #13 Del.icio.us

Since I have had a Del.icio.us account for about two years and have added sites to the HCPL Del.icio.us account, this is a something I am familiar with. I did go ahead and add a few more URLs to my site and tag them and I looked around at other bookmarks and the comments that go with them.

It is interesting to see how many other users have tagged similar sites, and it is easy to see how this could be useful when doing reference - if I remember to use it. Right now I primarily use it as place to store bookmarks so I won't lose them if the hard drive crashes. And so I can access them from anywhere.

The 8 minute video about Del.icio.us was fuzzy and many people had trouble getting it to run past the first 30 seconds. Fortunately it ran fine for me. Too bad it wasn't in focus.

Are there bonus points for already having a Del.icio.us account?

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Week 5, Post #12

I created a Library Elf account today. I will delete as soon as this project is over. I don't feel it is a necessary service and I didn't like putting my library card and PIN out there. I check my account almost every day and I know when I have books overdue. It may be helpful for families with multiple cards to get notices when their items are coming due. I am happy with the notices sent by HCPL.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Week 5, Post #11

I have been using LibraryThing for more than a year to keep track of books I've read. I use the review section, tags, and stars. I don't look at other people's book lists and I don't use the group or blog features. It could be a reader's advisory source, but I have several of those already where the information is more handy. Today I added several books I've read recently in preparation for future book club selections and author visits. I have created a link to LibraryThing's homepage.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Week 5, Post 10

I was not impressed with FDToys, Avatars, or comic strips. I guess I just don't want to spend that kind of time on the computer. It is good to know what an avatars are, but I doubt that I will ever again use what I learned in this lesson. I liked the Meez site. It was easier to use and had a "post to blog" after you created your image.

I added the Generator Blog to my feeds on Bloglines.

Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Great guys


My creation
Originally uploaded by librn_2000
My nephews

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Week 4 - Post #9

I clicked on and explored Feedster, Topix, Syndie8, and Technorati. I found Topix easier to use than Feedster. Feedster wanted a registration and to make a widget. I've had enough of registering for this week. Topix let me add a feed to Bloglines without registering. On Syndie8 I saw only XML and when I clicked on it, I got a screen that said that Internet Explorer didn't support DTD's - whatever they are. Technorati was an interesting blog site. The posts came in live as I was viewing the page. I'm not interested in reading a lot of blogs on so many subjects. Sure don't have that kind of time, on or off work. I am happy with the feeds I have coming to Bloglines now and may even delete some of those when this project is done. No wonder people spend hours and hours on a computer.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Week 4 - Post # 8

This was an easy assignment since I have used bloglines for at least a year - one of the benefits of attending TLA conferences. I added several new RSS feeds to my site. I doubt that I'll keep all of them coming to the site. Way TMI.

I use the site mostly for library-related blogs and other information feeds. My feeds include Librarian.net, Librarian at the Table, Readers Advisory, Tales of an Infomage (Margaret's blog at CC), Library Stuff and a Quotes feed, plus several others.

More next week.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Week 3 - Post #7

See my edited photos below this post. I registered with Picnik because I saw that it used Flickr and my photos were already on Flickr. Using photos already on Flickr worked very well for me and I ended up editing the same photo twice.

Both yesterday and today's exercises could be very useful if I continue to blog and want to add pictures to the blog.

Arno river - Florence


Arno river - Florence
Originally uploaded by librn_2000
In vignette format

Arno river - Florence


Arno river - Florence
Originally uploaded by librn_2000
Light added to the sky to make it look like early morning.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Week 3 Post #6

Wow, is there a lot of stuff out there that I know nothing about, and probably never will! I enjoyed looking at the Flickr mashups and could have spent way too much time on this assignment, just clicking to see what things do. I doubt that I will use any of this for my job (or personal use), except to be aware that it is there.

The Colr Pickr was very pretty. You select a color from the color wheel and the Colr Pickr loads a selection of 12 photos from Flickr that best match your selected color.
The Triggermap was fun to look at. I personally don't spend that much time on my computer after work. I may use the trip planner though. I have started a "my trip" to Alpharetta, GA since we are going there for Thanksgiving. Thought I'd give it a try.

Tagnautica sounds like an interesting application. You navigate through Flickr images by browsing related tags. Each related tag is supplied with a background image from Flickr and a number indicating the number of Flickr photos with that tag. You can zoom in on each tag by mousing over its node, and clicking on a tag draws a new ring with that tag at the center. You can keep drilling down, finding new images and new relationships between tags.

Ponte Vecchio - Florence - Week 3 - #5 Linked


Ponte Vecchio - Florence
Originally uploaded by librn_2000
This is the wonderful old bridge over the Arno River in Florence, Italy. There are still many gold and silver merchants on the bridge.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Week 3 Post 5

I have created a Flickr account and uploaded two pictures from my trip to Italy several years ago. Using the blogger "edit page elements," I posted one of the pictures on my blog. I don't know if this is the proper way to add pictures to the blog, but it was easy and worked for me.

Since I already had a Yahoo account this didn't take me very long (and I previously had a gmail account.)

More tomorrow

Monday, September 17, 2007

Week 2 Blogging and Safety

Hi
Since I created my blog last week, ahead of schedule, today I registered it and read the information on Internet safety. I am always a little leery of putting any personal information online and usually opt out of registering if given the chance.

A couple major points from today's reading are:
1. Don't expect privacy or safety online
2. Don't share personal or financial information
3. Get permission to share anyone elses' photos (a parent's if the photos are of a child)
4. Think before you post - once posted it is there forever

Remember that what you post, text or pictures, is there forever and can come back to bite you. Don't use your blog to complain about co-workers, your library system, network services, or administration. Never refer to anyone your work with by name.

Find out your internet service provider's privacy policies and practices and exercise your options for how you personal information may be used.

Don't reply to e-mails that are suggestive, obscene, threatening, or telling you that you have won a prize. Be on the look out for scams that come from Nigeria.

Remember that the person you are chatting with or sharing blog comments with may not be who they say they are.

For a web of privacy protection for data and communications to come about, we will need cooperation among the business community and the nonprofit community. We need to use a combination of tools: legal, policy, technical, and self-regulatory.

Talk to you again for Week #3

Val

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

iHCPL

I have set up this second blog to make use of the training in the 23 things. I already have a blog for my Evening Book Club - Valsbooks http://valsbooks.blogspot.com/

Check out the ValsBooks blog for discussions and information about the Evening Book Club at the library - the 2nd Tuesday of each month.