September 14, 2007

Thing 23: In Closing

I'm done!
What a ride. Some of the greatest activities included some playing...Flickr, Meez, LibraryThing and YouTube. Some of the hardest 'challenges' were Rollyo, Del.icio.us and Technorati. And some of the activities that will need re-visiting were podcasts and audiobooks.
Overall the experience was positive and I learned A LOT. Do it all over again? Certainly!
Good luck!

Thing 22: Audibooks

Audiobooks are a great alternative to traditional print IF you have the technology to use them. I did take a look at OverDrive and found several book titles of interest but do not have the ability to download. Another time, another place.

Thing 21: Podcasts

I used Yahoo podcast search and found one or two possibilities. Quite disappointing tho, it seems I can't listen due to missing plugins. Oh well, we learn thru the process, correct? I'll add the feeds and try again later at home or when we're updated at the branch.
I like some of the ideas out there suggesting book review or club podcasts, how about instructional podcasts similar to the one-on-one classes for using the catalog or databases?

September 13, 2007

Thing 20: YouTube

Why?
Captain Underpants
is one of the lesser know superheroes adored by many a reluctant reader.
Go Captain Underpants!!

September 12, 2007

Thing 19: Web 2.0 Awards List

Etsy...one of my favorite crafty sites was on the list..and won second place for retail sites! This site is awesome if you're into crafts. The site is a place for crafters to sell their wares online. The best feature of the site is the ability to search the items by tags (we've heard that term over and over). You can combine title, material and/or description tags to search for items of interest. I like to use the site myself to look for craft ideas. Awesome!

Thing 18: Online Productivity Tools

Played with Zoho and Google Documents...great for starting new BUT frustrating with an 'uploaded' or pre-existing doc. The formatting differed a great deal from the original Word and OpenOffice documents I chose to play with. Also, being 'online' there was some time lags involved with the site refreshing. Overall, I liked Zoho a little more. Nice layout, more icons and the ability to view the doc as a webpage.
Great choice for those customers that are disk- or USB-less.

September 11, 2007

Thing 17: Learning 2.0 SandBox Wiki

I was expecting a little more...sand castles at least. Maybe as the community grows?

Thing 16: Wikis

One of my favorite wikis was Princeton's BookLoversWiki. What a great way for customers and librarians to share reviews! Think of the Adult Summer Reading Game going towards this angle. It would also help staff with reader's advisories. Maybe even a film lover wiki! The list is endless. This even seems a safer venue for a public wiki since the information is opinion based and not hard fact...this would pose less problems for malicious content and spam, I would think.

Internally, a wiki for children's programming may be useful. Since many of our programs are developing and morphing as our customer's (and our) needs change...a collaborative effort on program plans and booklists may be useful.

Thing 15: Whoa Icebergs!

"Away from the icebergs"
What metaphors...libraries as boats headed for disaster if we hit those three icebergs of collection, education and services.
ICEBERG #1: PRINT vs. DIGITAL COLLECTION
This is a given...all of that print media we were used to is now found digitally. Our reference collections have gone to online databases. Our everyday reading has gone to digital and audio format. Just to keep up the library will have to funnel monies from print media to computers...seems we've been on that track for a while. Now if we can only keep up with the electrical and phone services needed to keep moving computers in.
ICEBERG #2: USER EDUCATION
We can't always be educators too. It's amazing how one customer's computer knowledge differs from the next...just look at us too! the need for Web 2.0 is here. We need to come up with quicker and easier ways for our digital information to reach the public. We would once pick up that reference book and open it to the needed page...we need to pick that correct database and get the information fast!
ICEBERG #3: GO to THEM
At one point customers came to us...we had all the print material collected here. Now, most customers have computers of there own and access information that was once in print on the 'world wide web'. We need to keep those customers but not necessarily have to bring them in. Our website (so glad it's getting a makeover) and databases become more important, especially for the student. But what about play? more Web 2.0?!...access to social networking sites.

Howard County Library seems on the right track in regards to some of these icebergs...let us just hope our navigation experts continue in the right direction.

September 6, 2007

Thing 14: Technorati

Technorati is certainly for the "tech" minded. All top searches are technology related blogs, fields, devices, etc. Once again...information overload!
Using the advanced search option for blogs, tags and posts was similar to using a regular search engine but instead of the 'world wide web' you're searching the 'big blog biosphere'...did I create a new term??!!
I think Technorati will stay in the background as a personal search option unless a customer specifically wanted blog information...which is possible.

September 5, 2007

Thing 13: Del.icio.us and Tagging

Del.icio.ous is definitely for the web connoisseur. I can see the benefits from an institutional aspect but way too involved for personal use, but that's because I'm not a web connoisseur.

Tagging has its benefits when the logical sense of grouping items fail. Some costumers (and coworkers) show that when browsing among the stacks. We have all witnessed that 'little nugget' of information found in the most unusual place.

Thing 12: Rollyo

Rollyo -cool idea but what do you search for? I spent hours just trying to come up with a possible search which would include several sites. Shopping anyone? I ended up using "unusual" gift sites that I actually have bookmarked...somewhere. Take a peek.
As for use in the library...medical searches, homework searches, 'child friendly' searches, author/genre searches...the list goes on and on.

September 4, 2007

Thing 11: LibraryThing

LibraryThing is much easier than Microsoft Access and more fun than 'pen and paper' but the 200 book limit is not going to cover a librarian! And to have to shell out $25 for an unlimited catalog is just not possible on a Library Associate's salary. Oh well...


August 30, 2007

Thing 10: Image Generators

Now how do you explain to a coworker why you're laughing and playing online with cartoon characters...oh yeah, 23 Things! I started on Garbage Pail Kids but couldn't find a way to import the character (I'll try again later) but check it out. How gross can you get?

I headed towards Meez because most people seemed to be using that and it was quite fun to do practice runs on a slow night at the desk. I did find an interesting article regarding Meez on Time.com which listed it as one of the top 5 'worst' sites.

Thing 9: MERLIN and Feed Searches

MERLIN was somewhat helpful...did subscribe and will check along with the other library related sites I have found along the way with 23 Things.
As for feed search sites: Information Overload!! I think I'll stick to Google and use the Blog Search, Photos and Images options available. If anything interesting pops up I can check for a feed there. Out of the four suggested search tools, I'd say Technorati was the easiest (and most useful) and that Syndic8.com was the most "unuseful" (very, very messy).

August 24, 2007

Thing 8: RSS Feeds

Something we've had training in recently! Thru training at the branch I actually used Newsgator for a while. It was 'ok'. Bloglines had a better feel and a nice choice of pre-set feeds. BUT I actually chose to go back to my iGoogle page (with the help of a coworker) and added an additional tab with feeds directly located there. No need for the Google Reader directly. I just click on the 'RSS Feed' tab I created and check the newest articles there. You do miss out on some of the options available in readers such as clipping, forwarding, etc. but I'm just interested in viewing the articles and going on to the next bit of news. If I find that I need those options later...I'll just set up Google Reader .

August 23, 2007

Thing 7: Technology


Family Photos
Originally uploaded by amazingknittingkitty
Being familiar with photo sites, like flickr and kodak, what does one do with all those albums at home? It's such fun to watch your child grab their baby book from the shelf and want you to look thru with them and tell them stories of "when they were a baby". But now in the digital age...it's more like gather around the computer or big screen television and view the slide show. I'm not so sure it has quite the same feel. It appears that our own work place is moving in that direction. Good or Bad? Gives one pause.....

August 22, 2007

Thing 5: Flickr


bunnicula timmy
Originally uploaded by bunnyhop
Yes...I've gotten ahead of myself and discovered that I blogged Thing 6 before Thing 5...Oh Well!!
How funny is a real life "Bunnicula"!!?
Found this initially searching on Flickr for random silly photos.

Thing 6: Flickr: Mosaic Maker


graveyard mosaic
Originally uploaded by specialkgal
So, played with Flickr today and discovered the '3rd party apps' quite interesting. Added a mosaic created with 'Mosaic Maker' that I thought matched the all black theme going on here on my blog. Has anyone notice that 'fd's Flickr Toys' were created by a fd aka 'John Watson'? Any relation?

Thing 2: Lifelong Learners

In that I enjoy learning...school was always so easy...I'd say that 'view problems as challenges' would rank as one of the hardest habits since problems/challenges would make the learning process...not so much fun..wouldn't it?
As for the easiest habit....Play! What else would someone with 18 years of experience working with children say?