Thing #23 -- Summary

I really enjoyed this learning program! The hands-on self-discovery was fun and I learned a lot more about 'things' that I had heard about but never experienced on my own. I really appreciate knowing how to operate Flickr, as this is something I can use personally, sharing important events like weddings with my far-flung family. Library Thing was a lot of fun to play with, as was online productivity. Whether I use them personally or not, tagging and blogging and rss feeds have become standard means of communication in today's world, and my goal is to continue to learn and keep aware of new trends in technology. The online community has clout! And they are affecting and changing the way libraries serve their public.
In the future, I would like to see more in-depth classes for some of these 'things'. Sometimes I felt a little lost, alone in the great sea of cyberstuff :) I would love to gain more experience and confidence in the use of things like digital music, podcasting, and digital video. There's only so much I can figure out on my own, but time spent in a class or with other co-workers with more experience, would help me a lot. So please do continue to offer discovery programs like '23 things' -- this is just what we need to keep up with our patrons! And its a lot of fun. Thanks for offering this for us -- and thanks for the MP3 player!!

Thing #22 -- Podcasts

Akin to video hosting sites such as YouTube, Podcasts enable people to share their views and/or expertise with the online world. It was difficult for me to find a podcast that worked on my computer, likely because I'm missing some linking software but I was able to find some interesting sites. 'Great Books' is a site that reads a chapter a day of a classic or famous novel. I linked to the reading of Chapter 2 of 'The Scarlet Letter.' It did work, and was very clear. The SirsiDynix Institute has a podcast for library professional development. It will be easy to keep up with these as they are now in my list of rss feeds on bloglines. The directories are not all that well indexed; I had to scroll a lot and do a lot of rabbit trails to find anything that interested me. The Podcast.net worked a little better for me than the PodcastAlley.com site. And again I tried Yahoo and found it too busy with advertising to bother with. But I found the Great Books site under Arts, then Books and Poetry, then scrolling down to # 26 on the list in Podcasts. What's nice is I don't actually have to download anything, I can click on the button to 'listen now' and it works.

thing #21 -- Online Video

The task today is to find a video worth sharing...I'm off to find one, be back later--probably much later...OK here's a cute one called "I Love the Library." This was created by McKracken County Public Library, Padukah, Kentucky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3z7VGJSrQ4

(I tried to upload the whole thing but it didn't work.)

I'm a bit leery of just browsing around in You Tube, (although Wierd Al Yankovich's EBay song is pretty funny.) Still, to find one to paste in my blog, I typed in a 'books' and 'libraries' search. This brought me to quite a few library and reading promotional videos. What a great way to promote the library --perhaps kdl could produce a creative promotional video--why not?! I think using online video technology for things like this is fun. Even teen library groups could produce something cool. I'm all for using technology for helpful and educational and, yes, even fun things. Perhaps libraries can help be a positive presence on the web.

Thing #20 -- Special Treat

Wow. That's my initial reaction to Professor Walsh's "The Machine is Us/ing Us" -- a crash course, indeed, it covered just about everything we've been looking at in this '23 Things' course. Actually, what I thought about the first time I watched it was, 'amazing, I understand what they're talking about!' And that is due to the Technology 101 class I took at Wayne State, which covered html and xml, as well as the ground we've covered in '23 Things.'
Is this for a general audience? Sure, it's on youtube, after all. But the main point I think is about education. I rabbit-trailed into the ethnography blogs and viewed the video about students and learning, which is also very popular in the 'blogosphere.' I agree that 19th century teaching procedures just don't work with 21st century students and life. I fully agree that education needs to reinvent itself to teach students how to learn, not just how to parrot the teacher.
The file sharing questions in the last 'thing' apply here, as well, as net 2.0 challenges us to redefine copyright, privacy, and commerce, and therefore the laws that currently govern them.
Perhaps I may presume to disagree on a minor point--at the very end of the video, Walsh et al was suggesting we redefine everything, including family and ourselves. Frankly, some things don't change, regardless of the technology. I am me apart from my machine! And the nuclear family is still the cornerstone of civilization, regardless of opinions to the contrary. Technology has been changing and upgrading since the discovery of fire and the invention of the spearhead, but people are still people.

Thing #19 -- Digital Music

Digital Radio? Yes! I've been using it for years. It's so handy to be able to play music at my work computer that's close & quiet and not disturb other people in the room. The problem with audio streaming is that it is not always consistent. It's a few seconds behind the actual station, which sounds odd if the radio and the computer 'edition' happen to be on at the same time. Worse, it just stops every once in awhile and I have to wait while it buffers up once again. If the computer I am working on doesn't have quality speakers, or, more likely, no speakers at all, the sound quality can be pretty poor.
Still, I can listen to my favorite station, or easily find a station with nice background music, with no need to purchase or take up space with other CD players or radios.
I was entranced by Pandora; I only needed to type in one name, and it played beautiful music for me for as long as I wanted! The Yahoo site is just a mess, sorry. There's too much stuff to have to sort through to find the one thing on the page that I'm looking for. Then when I finally found it, it didn't support Firefox. No thanks! Pandora was much nicer, ie simple, user-friendly.
A few years ago I did download a few songs from iTunes, when they had a free Pepsi promotion going on. I felt pretty geeky that I was able to do it successfully! I would really like to learn more about this, because there are a lot of songs on the radio that I would like to have, but I don't feel like I know enough about the whole digital music download world. There's so many possibilities! I want to be better informed! I need a whole class just on this topic :)
The only kind of file sharing I'm interested in is the legal kind. My brother wrote a book and made it available for downloading, so I was able to put it on a cd. There are other sites for authors where you can post a poem or short story with no copyright restrictions attached. This is the sort of file sharing that I am familiar with. I do agree that future laws need to take changing technology into account.

Thing # 18 -- Social Networking

Seems to me the internet world is redefining the word 'social'. Social used to require human contact in the form of 3-D experience, real-life encounters with actual in-the-room people. Now 'social' networking is happening with people isolated in private rooms, staring at a 2-D screen. I'm getting that eerie sci-fi music playing in my head...I've read this book!! Futuristic fiction is now, thanks to machines taking over our social lives... OK enough cynicism.
On the positive side, people are more globally in touch personally than ever before possible. Does this impact information distribution? Are you serious??!! We've got way more information available through these kinds of sites than we need or care about!
I'm a bit surprised that the common assumption is that these sites are 'for' teens, are 'their' space, that 'we' would be invading 'their' space by building a presence. Why?? It looks to me like anyone can put a profile out there, even presidential candidates, and why not? Personally, I have a big why not, it's personal privacy, but I realize that's so last-century...
I think it would be a great idea to put some sort of intelligent, useful 'library' stuff out there along with the wierdness, just for balance...

Thing # 17 -- Wikis

Wiki is an interesting concept in use of the web to provide information. It allows collaboration, editing, and linking, which any user can modify at will. (almost) Wikipedia figures it's easier to fix bad content than to try and prevent it. Other wiki sites have limited which users can modify data in order to help prevent contamination. Wikis are especially useful for in-house collaboration, intranets, etc., as they can operate safely behind firewalls.
I think it would be a good idea for a library homepage to include a wiki for a community bulletin board service. Any local organization could add a note about an upcoming event and it would be an easy way for users to find local services.
I liked the St. Joseph library's wiki subject guide (limited to librarian editing only). As my daughter is planning a wedding, I searched the 'wedding celebration' link and found a cool book about making wedding flowers. I hope I can find this book locally! The site gave me the call number, keyword tags, a color pic of the front cover, and links to more information about the book. It was visually easy to read, pretty graphics, and flowed naturally. Excellent!
The Princeton book lover's wiki was more print oriented, but the 5-star reviews that I searched gave me some interesting ideas for the next book to read.
The Library Success site had all kinds of great information. This wiki also has restricted its access due to vandalism. I checked out some links under Readers Advisory which suggested good books for a discussion group. The procedures link had more rabbit trails of links. I scanned a few about materials weeding. They looked authoritative and practical.
It's so good to know about sites like this, and the ability to collaborate with other librarians like this is win-win all the way.
Wiki=quick (and good)

Thing #16 -- Technorati

What Del.icio.us does for websites, Technorati does for Blog sites. If you want to know what a blogger has to say about a subject, Technorati does the subject search for you. Using the advanced search tool gives more Boolean options. When I searched Learning 2.0 by URL, the results came up with 627 posts, marked by authority numbers.
Surprise, there's several libraries across the country who are doing this same program, and a few post a video of their awards drawing.
Using the tag search function brought about 560 hits, but seemed to focus on more of the academic aspects of learning technology, also showing authority numbers. Sorry, but I didn't see much of a difference between these two searches.
Using the directory function resulted in 774 blogs, and these showed fan numbers rather than authority numbers. The fan numbers were not impressively large :)
Other blogs I found were indeed interesting. A site about the San Diego fires showed how some people were able to make virtual maps of the evacuation sites, and they learned to do that by 'playing' with the technology--much like we are doing with this project!

Thing #15 -- Tagging

I think it is amazing that people are actually trying to organize the Net :) -- people who think like librarians, whether they realize it or not! I set up an account with Del.icio.us and found some tags for "libraries" :
http://del.icio.us/search/?fr=del_icio_us&p=libraries&type=all
which listed some interesting sites. What's impressive about this idea is how easy it is for people to connect with each other, and help each other find information on...well, on just about anything!! And that my searches could also be of help to other people, simply by tagging my finds. Del.icio.us use of tags is way more informal than catalogers' use Sears Subject Headings or traditional cataloging rules, but it's the same idea. hmmm...are library catalogers going to go in this 2.0 direction in the future?? Is OCLC in trouble??!! Probably not, but helping people find particular sites or info amidst all the millions of websites and blogs is definitely a good thing.

Thing # 14 -- Best of Web 2.0

Wow, they're all here, and we've been exploring the best of the best! I'm referring to the 2007 Web 2.0 Awards list, impressive in it's subject matter and variety. Because I enjoyed the "Library Thing" site a few 'things' ago, I chose the book category and visited Biblio. I typed in my favorite lost book, "Fair's Fair," and zing! Biblio came up with 3 hits, ranging from $18 to $70. Including paperback in the search added a few more. The interface was simple to use and the results were quick and accurate.

So if a library patron is looking for a book that just doesn't show up in the system, this is a good place to go to find a copy that might not be too expensive.

While I was at it, I took a look at Lulu as well--this is another whole world of wonders for my writing/authoring/publishing fancies. Lulu offers writing services from editing to marketing, with blogs and forums for writers to share ideas and questions. They even offer advice on how to get a LC control number assigned to a novel! (mine already has one, but it's still cool to know!) There's so much to this site that it will take hours to explore it all. It has a colorful, graphic interface, the links work quickly, and it's easy to move around the site. I'll be able to recommend this site to library patrons who would like some publishing information, and to my writer friends who are always looking for new ideas.

Thing # 13 Online Productivity

Because I spent the time and money to take the tests to be certified in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2003, I don't feel a personal need for other productivity tools. I already paid for my own copy of MS Office 2003!! I need to get my money's worth out of all of this! But these tools will be useful for library patrons who need an online tool to create a document. I'm not sure this looks easier to learn than Word, however. What are all these icons??! Anchor?? Man, do I have to learn another whole program??

Ok so it was super easy to post this Zoho Writer paragraph to my blog. All I had to do was tell it my blog address, and -zip- it was here! Cool.

It didn't work as well with Zoho Notebook--I couldn't find anywhere on the screen to publish my note to my blog. I had to cut and paste:

Zoho Notebook would make taking speaker notes quite easy -- if I had a laptop, if I had web access on a laptop. Without a laptop, it still would be easy to access this program on the web if I am taking notes in a lab on an connected computer. Seeing as I am without a laptop, I'm still taking notes w/ my own peculiar frm of shrthnd. :)

I published a paragraph to the web from Google Docs -- view it at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg73h6n8_0jj75fs Like I said in this paragraph, Google docs looks great for collaboration projects. I still prefer Word for my own stuff though!

Thing #12 -- Customized Search Engines

In Library School Reference class my professor defined search engines quite tightly. In fact, she believed Yahoo was not a search engine, it was a directory. I remember getting that wrong on a quiz because I disagreed! But in the case of Rollyo, I can see what she meant. I'm sure she would define the lists of sites created on Rollyo as directories more than search engines per se.
Regardless, if you like to go on rabbit trails, this is the place to be! Searching 'recipes' produced an impossibly long list that could have lost me forever. However, the rare books site couldn't find "Fair's Fair" by Leon Garfield. KG used to have this book, which I read to my 6th graders every Christmas. Then they weeded it!! Augh!! I haven't found it anywhere, since. But the search site did land me finally at Amazon, where someone is selling it for $120. Good grief, Grandville, you should have kept it!!
My search roll is "Tolkien Things" and it's nice to have all my favorite fan websites in one organized place. Find it at http://www.rollyo.com/index.html
The Google coop is interesting, but at first glance it looks like it is more oriented to business than to lay people 'playing' with the web. It's quite formal in its layout and more high tech. My search for Tolkien here produced some good sites for use in, say, a school research paper. Teachers should know about the possibilities here. They could create a search engine of approved sites to use to research assigned topics. They could attach it to their own home page and make it a lot easier for students to find research sources.

Thing #11 -- LibraryThing

This is way cool!! You can view my 'library' at : http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=medda&shelf=shelf&sort=title I could spend days here, adding my own favorites, getting to see who's read what that I might like, this is a real treasure trove. I might even sign up to be a reviewer--why not?! This will really help people who want to read 'something like' an author they have previously enjoyed.

Thing #10 -- Library 2.0

According to Wiki, Library 2.0 is defined by a modernized form of library service, which focuses on innovation, a strategy for keeping up with technological and social change by, in part, encouraging user participation and feedback. It has been decades since libraries weren't struggling to redefine themselves and to keep up with technology, so this idea isn't really new. What is new is the impact of Web 2.0 on how library users expect to find information. I disagree with M. Stephen in that I see that libraries are struggling with how to eliminate barriers and integrate library service -- this isn't something he needs to convince us to do. I did appreciate J. Riemer's news that OCLC is working to make WorldCat more accessible. Yes! I was intrigued by the idea of broadening relevancy rankings to include circ activity, class reserve lists, & sales data-- ideal, but practically speaking, how much work and time would that ideal require? And if we create a technology to do this automatically, would it be invading anyone's privacy? I do agree that Google and Amazon have demonstrated what's possible, and our OPACs would do well to follow their lead. People know how to use them, why make our catalog harder to follow? I think W. Schultz is really pushing--we're still working to accomodate 2.0--please don't stress us with 3D and 4.0 already!!

Thing #9 -- Library Blogs

At this point I have quite a collection of feeds, including news, family, staff, and just interesting fun stuff. I found Feedster to be the easiest, next to Bloglines itself. It was a lot like the Bloglines add site. Topix is great for Grand Rapids info. Syndic8 is too big to browse, I found it confusing and not helpful. Technorati froze on me so I can't say much about that one. A lot of the comics I read online daily do not have RSS feeds, but its just as easy to bookmark them into a folder that I can open in tabs or just select, much like the RSS feeds list. I think with too large a feeds list, it becomes time consuming to read through them all, which is self-defeating, if the original idea was to short cut and save time... all the same, this has been a really educational exercise, and I feel like I've learned something practical and useful.

Thing #8 -- RSS Feeds

http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?html=1&id=localauthor will connect you with my blogroll at Bloglines. RSS feeds are a great idea! I can organize the sites that I would like to keep updated with, without having to continually check if they have been updated today or not. I am not personally big on internet news, I prefer to sit down and read the Press in a comfortable chair. But there are so many sources of interesting items that keeping up with all these feeds could be a time consuming affair. On the job, I can see how these sites would be helpful to the info staff, to stay current and ahead of the next patron question. Feeds on the website would give patrons automatic access to information on new best sellers, music, dvds, the possibilities are endless!

Thing #7 Image Generators

There are hundreds of ways to manipulate a picture--this could be unsettling! if it wasn't so much fun to play with. I saw"Framer" used in a fellow staffer's blog and thought it was a great idea, so here's TweetiePie, the family Calico framed in autumn leaves which match her coat. Check out "Framer" at: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/frame.php I also had a great time playing with the "Scrabble Score Generator" at: http://www.solfire.com/scrabble/ It makes what you type look like Scrabble tiles and gives you the scrabble score for it. But I found that each tile is a separate picture so it didn't work to copy the whole word.

Thing #6 -- Mash-ups

One can truly get lost in the labyrinth of these convoluted but fun programs. I don't think Retrievr is useless, but it takes a lot of time to make it work. I drew a sketch of a generic smile face, and the resulting "matches" were pretty wierd. A coffee cup? A baby's behind?? I tried to upload a photo to match, but it didn't seem to work, so... The match-by-color is amazing, but I dont' generally need pictures for presentations based on what color they are. What I would use is Spell with Flickr -- very cool!! I'll use it for my next ransom note! :)

Thing #5 -- Cascade's Beautiful Landscaping

I believe that the Cascade Branch has the most beautiful landscaping in kdl-land. Yes, Kent City does have some really gorgeous flower beds, and the water wheel at Comstock Park is picturesque. But if you will check out the pictures I took at Cascade this week, I think you will agree that we have a garden park here as nice as Fred Meijers'. I especially like the statue of the Newsie, as "The Newsies" is one of my all-time favorite movies. Click on this link to view my Flickr photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12507856@N05/sets/72157601931644826/show/

Would you like to see my books?

"The Spy and the Miracle" and "Not by Accident"can be viewed at www.amazon.com or at Koenisha Publication's website, www.koenisha.com.

Thing #3: Musings on Lifelong Learning

We really can't help learning--it's instinctive--even this deer learns where to feed and when to leave (when I get too close with the camera!) What's important is to not leave learning to chance and environment, because learning something that is not True can be harmful. For me, it's easy to make a learning goal and take responsibility for my own life long learning. Perhaps viewing the problems as challenges rather than as just plain problems, is something I am learning to do better as I go along. I'm fine with using technology in learning, as long as I see the advantage -- I still believe in the book, and in 3-D hands on experience, as being the best teacher :)