thing 22) staying current

while i feel that i'm pretty hip with the 2.0, i did learn a lot using NEFLIN's 23 things. i have always tried to stay current with these types of technologies.

one method i find that works is to always browse the technologies segment of ALA's newsletter. i always find an article or two that interest me and teach me about emerging trends.

my resolution is to continue to read that and make my notes here.

i will continue to take advantage of NEFLINS and webinars.

the most important thing i learned about web 2.0 is that to efficiently use these technologies, we must prepare and plan before implementation. i've been learning this lesson all around - what seems like a good idea should be weighed and analyzed before immediately using.

i'm too busy to go through many blogs, but i like the blah blah blog. i check on that from time to time. i feel overwhelmed by too many choices, so web 2.0 leaves me comotose. it's best for me to take one recommendation and become really involved in that, rather than shallowly use many resources.

thing 21) student assignment tools

How might the RPC and the Teacher Guide help you help students plan and manage research projects?

this is fantastic! i wish i had this when i was in school. this is a great resource. the tip sheets for teachers are great for helping students with their research papers. the RPC is wonderful for making a research paper managable in chunks. i will bookmark these sites for parents, high school students, homeschoolers, and college students.

Can you think of any uses for library projects—could you use it to help manage a timeline for a project of your own?

this would be great for proposal writing, publishing, or any project requiring extensive work. i'm pretty good at chunking and implementation, so i wouldn't sign up for this. but, i do think this is one of the more useful 23 things that we have used.

thing 20) books 2.0

What are you observing in your library about books and reading?

i haven't been a librarian long enough to know trends...i've worked reference for over a year now and haven't noticed an increase in fiction reading. but, fiction has always been big here. i definitely notice that more women read fiction than men, but i wouldn't say i've noticed more men reading fiction. i have seen more people of color reading fiction - but it may be that i am now more aware of urban writers. but, our library has certainly enhanced this collection.

Do you think these Book 2.0 tools hamper or enhance one's reading experience?

personally, these tools take too much work. they are too busy, involve too much reading to be worth my time. i prefer to wander book stacks and find books on the new book shelves or in the reshelving area. amazon is great for reader's advisory. it's simple, based on searching paths, and very easy to use. again, i don't have time to learn these tools that i will not use again.

Which of the sites/tools did you visit?

Twitterlit - i'd use this. i like that i only have to read one sentence. that's about all i can handle. i will sign up for this service and see how i like it. my enthusiasm for twitter dimmed quite a while ago. my account hasn't seen use in months. i'm actually considering deleting it.

BookLamp - there were hardly any books on this list?! what's the point?

Overbooked - this site is too busy and difficult to learn to use. it's after lunch and it makes me want to snooze...i will look at the book buzz next time i have to pick a book for my real life book club.

*Booksprouts - i'd use this if i didn't have a regular book club and had lots more time to kill.

Librivox - cool idea. but who wants to read most of these books? i'd like to volunteer though.

*BookBrowse - this looks cool. good for picking books for book club. wouldn't give me full access because i'm not a member. would use again.

book swap - i work in a library. i don't buy books.

***personally, i like amazon. there's reviews, recommendations, links, a look inside, etc. with a very easy to use interface.

****my husband had a very good point yesterday. we're so engrained in our computer lives these days. we spend hours discussing books with strangers, mystalking old classmates/lovers on facebook, and friending people across the country. why expend all of this energy when we don't even know what our partner is reading, what our neighbor's name is, or what our coworker's genre of preference is?

thing 19) other social networks

there are just too many out there! i do not have time to keep track of multiple social networking sites for each of my interests. that's why i like livejournal. it's my blog, my photoblog, my forum, my method of keeping in touch with friends, etc. i can join multiple communities that engage each of my interests and follow them all at once on my 'friends page'.

i'm not sure why this hasn't been mentioned yet. i love livejournal and all of the applications for it. it combines blogging with social networks and interaction among people with a shared interest.

i am interested in last.fm. it sounds interesting, but too much work. i want to type in a web address and just listen. i like pandora.com for streaming music for this reason. i think much of this social networking is for people with too much time on their hands. i just don't have time to play with these sites. and i really don't see how our library can use them.

i don't think i'll ever use these sites. but then again, i said i'd never use facebook...i'd like to join a professional networking site, but i don't have the time to figure out which one...i'd be using the time that i have to actually meet real people!

thing 18) facebook/myspace

i have accounts in both of these already. i used myspace frequently when it first appeared on the scene, but frankly, i'm sick of both of these. i hardly check my myspace page and find that the only friend requests i get come from spammers, stores, and bands. if i didn't have to plan my 10 year high school reunion, i would delete my account.

i like facebook, but find it incredibly annoying as well. i do not care that my mom is eating popcorn. i do not want you to throw a pillow at me. i do not want to accept a garden patch from you.

but, i do like getting invited to local networking events, being able to send simple evites, and look up friends and acquaintances from my past. i feel like the public is calming down on these sites and learning how to be more mature users of these applications. our users are there, so we need to be.

we need to remember to friend our patrons, not other libraries! we need to be available to answer reference questions via these programs and chat. we need to seemlessly promote our events from here to our web to print. luckily, facebook and myspace allow badges for websites, tweets can be sent to either, and blogs can be cross posted.

the technology is both useful and a waste of time for the user.

i'd rather stick to email for the time being, but can use either application for basic communication with those emails that i do not have.

thing 17) podcasts

1. Which podcast(s) did you listen to?

i used the yahoo search to find podcasts about or by david sedaris.

2. Which of the directories did you find easiest to use?

i like using itunes the best. i didn't really like any of these. i wonder what issues we now have with copyright and the ease of posting these audioclips. i can't imagine that david sedaris gave permission for all of these bloggers to play clips of his audiobook. yahoo now makes it even easier to infringe.

from a creative commons wiki:

"When creating your own podcast, it is important to make sure all necessary rights and permissions are secured for the material included in your podcasts. This is relatively easy if you create all of the material that is included in your podcast but can become progressively more complex the more you include material created by other people. If you do not obtain the necessary rights and permissions, you may get into legal trouble for incorporating third party material into your podcast and for also authorizing others to use that material as part of your podcast."

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide#Legal_Issues_In_Creating_Your_Own_Podcast.

3. Has this Thing inspired you to do any podcasting yourself or to subscribe to a podcast to listen to it regularly?

i have no desire to podcast. the last experience i had was last year in grad school, and it was an annoying nightmare. i do enjoy listening to radio programs and interviews. i find itunes easy to use and finding the free podcasts is a breeze. i'm not sure how careful itunes is with copyright, but i bet it beats yahoo's laxidasical search.

thing 16) youtube

i hope that worked. i often have trouble when it comes to things that are supposed to be easy with cutting and pasting HTML. i chose this video because it relates to libraries and i think it's hilarious. i have no idea what i would do in the situation these staff members are placed in.

we could use YouTube to share short videos of tours of our libraries, how to place an interlibrary loan, how to use databases, etc, etc.

thing 15) rollyo

this seems like it could be cool, but unfortunately i had errors in processing almost 80% of the time that i was trying to search. i had trouble thinking about what to make for a search, but i think that online shopping would be easier with this tool. for instance, i like to search vintage clothing websites. i entered my favorites, and a pencil skirt should be able to be searched for across all the sites! unfortunately, i had errors with almost every search i tried.

there is also no help feature. i want to know if wild cards, quotations, boolean operators, etc are allowed with this search roll. i tried searching for a "shirt dress" and found dress shirts, shirts, dresses, etc. it would not let me limit to something like "day dress size X" (without quotes). this may be why i was getting the error, but i could not tell why this was happening, and without help, i quit.

if i could figure out how to search rollyo better, i might recommend it. we could set up well known reference sites for homework help, student research, egov searches....the possibilities are endless.

thing 14) online productivity tools

while these online tools are great, i've tried many of them and just prefer old pen and paper. i like that i can take my small planner to meetings, on the bus, waiting in line at the grocery, etc. until i have a blackberry or iphone, i'm not interested in keeping track of all these online gadgets. here's my personal experience with some:

iGoogle: i tried out using this as my homepage for a while. pros: i could see the weather, get to google maps, and see my horoscope all on one page. but, i don't check most of these daily anyway, so i was constantly searching for gadgets just to fill my page. cons: it loaded slowly, so i eventually took it off my homepage. i searched for gadgets and more often than not they did not work. i wanted a twitter gadget, so i could tweet from this page, and it didn't work (aside: twitter is a tool i quickly grew tired of). my livejournal gadget did not work. and i'm leery of downloading these third party applications...my overall impression of this product was not impressed. but i do think that it could be quite functional for some people.

i recently tried the Google calendar. again, i could only access the calendar while online. i also don't trust that a time change (ahem) or other online disturbance won't funk up my calendar...i didn't like the automatic emails either. while it's possible i may forget my planner at home, i'm pretty well trained to keep it tethered to me wherever i go. i like pen and ink...

the list makers look neat. i looked at joe's goals, a goal tracking page. however, i'm partial to creating my own goal tracking on excel, so i don't need this tool either. great idea though.

i guess i've figured out how to be productive without these tools. but i think that they will appeal to those who are not yet organized and like to be tech innovators. i just find that i waste too much time trying these tools and then reverting back to pen and paper. there's just too much to sift through - and who has time for that?

thing 13) library thing

luckily, i already use library thing and have a paid account. i had to use library thing extensively in library school for a YA literature class, writing reviews, tagging, commenting, etc. i'll admit that i've slacked off with entering books into library thing, but i do enjoy the tagging feature. my two favorite personal uses for this account is tagging books "to read" and also keeping track of what books i've read in my book club.

as for the library, i think that we could use this to tag books as staff recommendations, award winners, for book groups, for summer reading, etc. the possibilities are endless. once again, consistency and planning in organization are a priority for efficient use of this site.

we use BookLetters as a way to disperse reading lists to our patrons, so we could also tag books with book lists and BookLetters tags/names so that it's easy to pull all the books together online.

thing 12) wikis

i tried using a wiki years ago, when i first heard about them in library school. the idea is great, but again, i think that planning and organizing before launching the wiki is important. i also know that others at work have had difficulties with wikis.

i can see how these can be valuable in my personal life and at work. my family is working on its genealogy, and a wiki would serve well for the family tree and other information discovered by family across the globe. at work, we could edit policy or procedures on a wiki. i think this would have helped me most in library school, when multiple drafts were edited by many hands and passed back and forth through email.

i just posted to the NEFLIN wiki. i added a fact about joining the New Librarians Online Community wiki. i've found it very helpful and seems well thought out.

thing 11) social media

this could be good or bad. i really enjoyed the layout and function of digg, so i joined. i found an article about frugal travel on the NY Times website and "dugg" it. i found other articles in the travel area that were interesting.

this could be a great way to waste time. often i have a break at work and could see myself relaxing by surfing through some sites. however, i don't know how we could use this at the library. it's useful to know what this is, since the share button is cropping up on all good websites...but with so many different types of these "share" buttons, how can the public use just one? again, this is great for hobbies and web surfing, but i do not see how this will lead to quality research.

i enjoyed digg and reddit's layouts the most, so that would be what i would recommend to patrons.

thing 10) delicious

i enjoyed using delicious. for me personally, i like the fact that i can carry these bookmarks from home, to work, to vacation, etc. i also like that i can carry bookmarks from computer to computer at work.

i think we can use delicious with our patrons to instruct with personal searches such as job hunting, hobbies, and other associated web sites. we can also tag all of our resources for areas such as eGovernment, teens, seniors, etc, and share them on our new website.

i would not recommend this for a student working on research, as i would be afraid that the person may stumble upon a site that is not scholarly or relevant. however, patrons may enjoy learning about delicious in a webinar or podcast from our website.

thing 9) sharing

** mosiac created in big labs using my flickr pics.

What uses do these tools have for library or personal use?

i think that the slide show presentation is great for sharing presentations among staff. all too often we duplicate work and don't realize that someone has already invented the wheel. i am also involved in training, and this would be easy to use for training purposes.

the photo mosaics and slideshows would be great for young adult librarians. teens always want to see pics of themselves, and adding slideshows would generate visits to the website.

the database would be great for booklists, book clubs, bibliographies, patron lists, new arrivals, etc, etc.

Was the tool you used easy to navigate and understand?
the big labs tool was very easy to understand. i didn't use the slideshows because i do not want to post personal pics up here. i do not have a presentation to display publicly, but i can forsee this in the future. the bandwidth here at the library has really been a problem today, so i can imagine that i would not encourage patrons to use these during peak hours.

i liked that i did not have to create an account to use the big labs mosaic. i do not think i could stand to create yet another free account that i will never use again. these sites should allow you to try their product before registering.

Would you recommend it to others?
yes. i think there are many uses for these sites and i'm glad i know a brief overview of them.

Do you use other sharing tools for photos, documents, or other creations that you would recommend?
no.

thing 8) communication tools

i recently graduated with a degree that i obtained through distance learning. luckily, i learned about many of these communication tools through my education. we used chat, virtual classrooms, and IM for coursework.

i think that the chat room and virtual classroom offers many advantages for collaboration among coworkers. i'm happy that we can limit driving and increase productivity. transactions of meetings are already archived for those that could not attend. i wish that our library district used chat more often for meetings and collaboration among branches.

i have to admit that i find that i cannot learn as well in virtual classrooms. i am too distracted by multitasking, checking email, or surfing the web while an online seminar plays. however, in these economic times, these would be great for financial savings. our patrons might find webinars useful, but i have to doubt that attendance would be high. online storyhours or booktalks might be attractive to families who cannot make the trip to the library.

instant messaging would be a great service to our patrons. while i don't see the same use of AIM and such as i used to, i think that people are still using it. we do offer the ask a librarian service from the library website, so i do not know if adding IM to our site would disrupt this service. while i did use IM at a former job, i find this service counterproductive. i do not like being interrupted from my workflow by pings every minute or so. i will check my email when i get to it, and there's a reason i may be delayed in a response. i only see myself being distracted by IM with my coworkers, and the banter that would ensue could probably script a film. i personally stopped using IM back in undergrad. i felt that too much time was wasted when i logged on, and that email was a more direct and efficient form of communication. now that i can send and receive unlimited text messages, i no longer see the need for this dated form of communication.

i feel that adding text reference would be a great idea at our library. patrons use texting more than any of these other tools. i would be very interested in learning about how this service could be used patron to staff computer for ease of librarian use.

thing 7) imaginary bulldogs

(picture cred: flickr user tanakawho)

i had fun using image chef (http://www.imagechef.com/) to create a few posters. i need to work on sizing...last post was too big, this is too small.

i can imagine using this for promoting library programs and the volunteer program. we have a graphic artist, but this would be good for quick projects that are temporary or one-time events.

i do not see myself using this at my current position, but the skills i'm learning are great for future positions and for personal time-wasting.

thing 6) flickr mashups

i started out by trying out several of the listed flickr mashups.

i couldn't get the clockr to work. did anyone have trouble? nothing would happen or link to anything when i moused over the clock numbers...

i really liked the colr pickr. i can really see how i'd use this to make my personal journal more interesting. i love picking things out by color...it reminds me of the etsy website where you can buy art based on color. however, i wish that the search could be limited. i'd like to search for graphics with only a CC license. now that i know that flickr has that option, i always want to use images with permissions and credits.

i found the big huge labs site confusing at first. where do i go to find the flickr mashup? then i discovered the photo altering and puzzles mashups. i guess this is what 23 things is pointing me towards? i had a lot of fun playing with a color photo of a tabby kitten. i can definitely see using this in my personal life. (EDIT: i learned a good lesson...you cannot blog a flickr photo and then delete it from your flickr account, it will not display! i had to do this again and then just save it to my desktop.)

i think that flickr and these mashups with make me take more photos in my personal life. i've been lamenting how i never use my digital camera or do anything with the photos that i do have.

so how can i use this at work?

i think that with these easier photo sharing capabilities, it's easier to share our story with the public. we can be where the public already is. we may be more likely to take photos at events and share these online. a picture is definitely worth so much more than words. if we are creative with our photos, patrons may view the library as a changing institution. we can also have programs that help patrons organize photos or teach them how to become more creative with their photos.

these tools would make great teen programming. teens love to look at pics of themselves! and, with so many kids on social networking sites, maybe we can get them into the library to work on digital projects.

i'm really starting to enjoy 23 things. i feel guilty having this much fun at work!!

thing 5) flickr

i had a lot of fun playing with flickr in thing 5.

i started out with hesitation. i am so sick of the abundance of social networks and photosharing programs that require a log in to view. i have to sign up for 40 different applications to view the photos my friends share. i want just one place to upload, share, and blog my photos. i have both a flickr and photobucket account.

it seems that photobucket is good for some applications, and flickr others. if i only want to paste one photo to a website, then photobucket appears reliable. i am disappointed that free flickr only offers a limited storage capacity, because i really wanted to settle down with just one photosharing site. oh well.

it seems i must go on with uploading pics to facebook, myspace, livejournal, blogger, flickr AND photobucket. i do have to say that uploading has become much more user-friendly, so it's not too much of a pain. and sites are starting to work together, or utilize third party software that allows multiple uploads to various sites at once.

i played around with posting from flickr to both my livejournal and blogger blog. it was very easy, and makes my photo posts much easier. it didnt' seem that one could blog several photos at once, which i find less useful.

other parts of flickr that i found useful were:

1. exploring and finding creative commons photos that i could use for user pics, on my different websites, or display pictures and give creators credit
2. the groups were interesting, but i feel so inundated with different forums and networks that this kind of just blew my mind. people post pics AND have discussions? it's like one just needs to pic 3 different social areas and only stay within those walls & communities...
3. i think flickr is only useful with a paid account. i'm now actually thinking about upgrading...

so, if anyone has a recommendation, i'd be most grateful. should i stick with flickr and upgrade? is there a free site that has the same functionality?

thanks!

thing 5) peas & carrot know how to party

Peas & Carrot
Originally uploaded by tiger_brockbank

head bangin' kittens, uploaded from flickr.

the first post didn't go through. i hope this does!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

thing 4

thing 4 was all about RSS feeds.

i explored how i could use RSS feeds in my personal life and tried to understand how i could show patrons how these feeds could be used in their lives. i think the technology is really interesting, but i had to rack my brain to figure out for what sites i could possibly want an RSS feed.

i tried to think about the sites i check daily or weekly. when i have time, i tend to scan the news headlines, look at stores' circulars to check for sales, and look for updates on my sister's blog or friends' flickr pages. i also follow a few blogs on subjects that interest me. so i found a CNN, Politico, and Pop Candy feed. i tried for a Publix and Target feed, but they mail the circulars to your email...so what's the point? i also signed up for the new releases from Netflix...which was overwhelming, plus, they have a new releases page on their site. the cool thing about this feed was that the videos could then be put on my queue right from my reader, rather than having to leave the site.

overall, i find my Google Reader annoying. it reminds me of how much i still have to do, and makes me feel like i have yet another task to accomplish. i finally end up marking all as read and closing the page. i do not have time to keep up with the updates that flood from news sites.

i only find this useful for checking into other blogs that rarely post, like my sister. i was overly zealous when signing up for librarian blogs and find the amount of new posts daunting. i would suggest starting slow with the feeds and only adding one at a time. too many feeds defeat the point.

i really think that RSS feeds would benefit patrons who want new releases from the library. if we could set up a feed for new items added to the catalog separated by format, we'd be rockin'. also, in my professional world, if updates to sites & specific pages to organizations like NEFLIN, TBLC, and SOLINET could be emailed to my address, it'd save me a lot of time.

for now, i do not see how this technology saves me time. i'd rather just go to each website at the point of need. however, the possibilities for this advancement are amazing.

thing 3

so this week we had to search blogs using technorati and another search.

first, i tried technorati. i searched for french bulldogs, my current obsession. i did not understand the results right away. they did not seem relevant at all. then, i limited it to only searching blogs, rather than posts...this seemed to help.

i got more relevant hits. it groomed from 151 to 19 hits, which all seemed connected to the canines in some way. then, i was curious about authority, but it would not let me limit this...i guess because i had few relevant hits? i understand better how this technorati program works, but i just don't care enough about reading blogs for it to interest me much.

i tried to get into reading blogs back in library school, and just find that it's too overwhelming to try and keep up. i'd rather read only 1-2 good blogs. reading more than 3 posts a day does not interest me...

okay, so then i tried google blog search. at first click, i was overwhelmed with over 80 thousand hits. how can that many blogs mention frenchies? using an exact search limited my hits to 8 thousand. even though i picked "search blogs" i am getting hits for other websites, such as flickr and etsy. i don't understand.

it is good to know about this technology, but i honestly do not see myself using it.

i'd rather hear about a blog through a friend, see it linked to a blog i already follow, or read about it in a journal/magazine.

thing 2) preparation = lib 2.0 success

some random thoughts about library 2.0 after reading materials for NEFLIN's 23 things...

making library 2.0 work for our library takes forethought and planning. i went to a library 2.0 seminar last month (offered through NEFLIN) and realized that we can learn about each type of program and application, but if we don't plan how we are going to use them, it will not be efficient or productive. once we are familiar with these applications, we need to plan which, how, and why we will use each at our facility.

i've fallen behind in the 23 things, and the presenter on the video had a great point. just scheduling in 15 minutes can be productive. i get caught up in filling out profile info, changing the blog's appearance, and things like that, which are real time-suckers. if i give myself just 15 minutes to finish a task, then what i've gotten done is it.

i also agree that we've got to start thinking differently and outside of the box. we can use these apps for many different things. if my hairstylist and seamstress can tell me to find her on facebook, i know the world of relationships and communications are certainly changing.

my mom is on facebook...yesh! it's certainly not just for teens any longer.

i really enjoyed the formula from darlene fichter, as quoted in the ongoing web revolution:

library 2.0 = (books n stuff + people + radical trust) x participation

i'd like to add preparation and planning into that equation:

library 2.0 = [(books n stuff + people + radical trust) x participation]/preparation

that's it for now...

first of many...at least 23.

this is my first attempt at NEFLIN's 23 things. i created a new blog. i've used blogger before, so i thought i'd try wordpress.

ew.

i didn't like it at all...too busy and not at all intuitive. so i trashed that blog and recreated it on blogger...

ahh.

the perks i've heard about wordpress is that you can add more blurbs on the side and personalize it more. i think that it may be for the more experienced blogger, so i'm okay with reverting back to blogger to understand the basics of blogging.