Wow, I can't believe I really finished this! Literally, it is 11:44 pm on Dec. 23. lol. Sounds like the rest of my life. But I'm glad that I did it. I feel like I learned some new things and reinforced some of the things that I already knew. So not to ramble on, here are my answers to the questions.
1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
My favorite was Rollyo. I didn't know it was there, and I like it so much. Besides that: flickr mashups, facebook, wikis, library thing. I actually think that all of the discoveries were worthwhile. I hate to have to play favorites :)
2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I did this program really fast, most of it in a couple of days. And it made me realize that I need to be more agressive in keeping on top of new things like this. It's relevant to our careers of course, but also, it's really cool stuff to know. I would like to make learning about new things more of a priority all around.
3. Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I thought it was nice to be able to see everyone else's blogs and read what they were thinking.
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I think that it could be done over a longer period of time. I felt a little rushed to be honest. Also, as I said before, I liked reading other people's thoughts. So maybe it could be more of a requirement to comment on other participants blogs. Also, I am the greatest offender of this I know, but I really don't feel like you get as much out of it by cramming the whole experience in right before the deadline. Maybe there could be more incentives to stay on track and get the exercises done in a timely manner.
I did 80% of the work at home. I found it really difficult to work on this at the ref desk and we frankly don't have that much time off of the desk or access to a computer. So I really did not feel that I had an opportunity to make this a priority at work. Maybe a different time of year would be easier?
5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?
Yes, most definitely. Thank you so, so, so, so much for all the work you did to make this program.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
#22 Audiobooks
Well I have been using this feature of our website for quite some time, and I think it's great and I mention it in all my class visits and to anyone who likes audiobooks.
I have found many Overdrive audiobook titles that I've really enjoyed that I downloaded from our website. I think my favorite is the Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot. I thought that Anne Hathaway, who also played Princess Mia in the movies, did an amazing job reading this series.
Everyone should also realize that we have foreign language learning audiobooks to download. I know that a lot of customers want audio materials for language learning.
The only thing I wish is that Young Adult was one of the browsable categories.
I have found many Overdrive audiobook titles that I've really enjoyed that I downloaded from our website. I think my favorite is the Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot. I thought that Anne Hathaway, who also played Princess Mia in the movies, did an amazing job reading this series.
Everyone should also realize that we have foreign language learning audiobooks to download. I know that a lot of customers want audio materials for language learning.
The only thing I wish is that Young Adult was one of the browsable categories.
#21 Podcasts
I tried a few of the podcast directory and I liked using podcast alley the best. It seemed to find a great variety of podcasts that sounded interesting to me. It was easy to subscribe and listen through my bloglines account. However, I have been using Zencast Organizer for a couple of years and I think I'm going to stick with that because it's easy to load them quickly onto my mp3 player from there.
My favorite podcasts are the World Today Select headlines from the BBC, the NY Times Front Page, and the SirsiDynix Institute podcasts. I would recommend the SirsiDynix Institute podcasts to any librarian who is interested in Library 2.0 or who saw the presentation by Stephen Abrams that we had at Central a while back. The podcast is not updated that frequently, once a month or less, but the topics are really interesting (second life, gaming, podcasting, etc.)
I like getting the news by podcast also, but my problem with podcasts is that one only has so much time to devote to listening to things. If I listened to every podcast that struck my fancy, I would do nothing else, so I prefer blogs and other print sources in that respect. They're easier to scan to see if you really want to spend time reading it.
My favorite podcasts are the World Today Select headlines from the BBC, the NY Times Front Page, and the SirsiDynix Institute podcasts. I would recommend the SirsiDynix Institute podcasts to any librarian who is interested in Library 2.0 or who saw the presentation by Stephen Abrams that we had at Central a while back. The podcast is not updated that frequently, once a month or less, but the topics are really interesting (second life, gaming, podcasting, etc.)
I like getting the news by podcast also, but my problem with podcasts is that one only has so much time to devote to listening to things. If I listened to every podcast that struck my fancy, I would do nothing else, so I prefer blogs and other print sources in that respect. They're easier to scan to see if you really want to spend time reading it.
#20 YouTube
So this is a little childish, but I feel the need to share my most favorite youtube video of all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59pM7yLlG8Y
It is called German pranks with Water. And for some reason it's the funniest thing I've ever seen. It is apparently on some German version of Candid Camera. Basically they dig a pit in the middle of a jogging trail, fill it with water, cover the pit with leaves to disguise it and then wait for the inevitable hi jinx to ensue. I think it's extra funny because it's in German, I'm not sure why. So anyway, that is my great discovery on youtube :)
I definitely think that library websites should incorporate more video content. It would be nice to advertise our successful programs by posting videos of past programs to show people how fun they were. This also might encourage people who are reluctant to attend library events to show up. Maybe we could include video tours of our newly renovated community libraries before they open.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59pM7yLlG8Y
It is called German pranks with Water. And for some reason it's the funniest thing I've ever seen. It is apparently on some German version of Candid Camera. Basically they dig a pit in the middle of a jogging trail, fill it with water, cover the pit with leaves to disguise it and then wait for the inevitable hi jinx to ensue. I think it's extra funny because it's in German, I'm not sure why. So anyway, that is my great discovery on youtube :)
I definitely think that library websites should incorporate more video content. It would be nice to advertise our successful programs by posting videos of past programs to show people how fun they were. This also might encourage people who are reluctant to attend library events to show up. Maybe we could include video tours of our newly renovated community libraries before they open.
#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools
Twitter
The Web 2.0 tool that I chose to explore was Twitter. I was attracted by the name, and I haven't got to try it yet, because it's a little scary to me, but I think it's an interesting idea. Basically Twitter lets you send out short updates (up to 140 characters) about your status as often as you like per day. Then everyone who is in your network will be able to see them, and you will be able to see the updates for all of your friends. Groups of friends or family can keep updated on each other's lives that way in minute detail. And some companies are also taking advantage of this for marketing purposes.
I couldn't really see using this because I think that most people don't really care when their friends are "at work" or "eating soup" or whatever. Most people's lives are really boring. But it would be good to send out important information to a lot of people at once like "it's a girl!" or something like that.
Maybe libraries could use it to help keep on top of what's going on in the library system. Each branch could post anything important and all the others could stay up to date. It's nice that Twitter limits it to such short messages, so that only the most important things will be posted, rather than like a forum or a blog where sometimes there is too much reading to be practical for everyone. In fact, some people call Twitter "micro-blogging" which seems like a pretty accurate description to me.
The Web 2.0 tool that I chose to explore was Twitter. I was attracted by the name, and I haven't got to try it yet, because it's a little scary to me, but I think it's an interesting idea. Basically Twitter lets you send out short updates (up to 140 characters) about your status as often as you like per day. Then everyone who is in your network will be able to see them, and you will be able to see the updates for all of your friends. Groups of friends or family can keep updated on each other's lives that way in minute detail. And some companies are also taking advantage of this for marketing purposes.
I couldn't really see using this because I think that most people don't really care when their friends are "at work" or "eating soup" or whatever. Most people's lives are really boring. But it would be good to send out important information to a lot of people at once like "it's a girl!" or something like that.
Maybe libraries could use it to help keep on top of what's going on in the library system. Each branch could post anything important and all the others could stay up to date. It's nice that Twitter limits it to such short messages, so that only the most important things will be posted, rather than like a forum or a blog where sometimes there is too much reading to be practical for everyone. In fact, some people call Twitter "micro-blogging" which seems like a pretty accurate description to me.
#18 Collaborative Word Processing Tools
I'm going to blog about Google Docs, because that's the program that I've had the most experience with. I have been using it for a while now to save some documents that I need to constantly edit, and I have no complaints. I like that fact that it's the same google account and password that I need for my gmail account, my blogger account, and now my google docs account. It's nice to have everything together. I like to keep my resume up there so that I can add something to it whenever I do something resume worthy like serve on a committee. That way the next time I need my resumes it won't be such a chore to update it.
We also use it for the YA Summer Reading Club Committee, and I think it's been a good tool for us so far. We posted a list of the book selections for this summer and all the members of the committee can log in to see new information about the committee and to add annotations for the books. We were trying to decide between using Google Docs or a wiki, but I think that Google Docs is working well.
We also use it for the YA Summer Reading Club Committee, and I think it's been a good tool for us so far. We posted a list of the book selections for this summer and all the members of the committee can log in to see new information about the committee and to add annotations for the books. We were trying to decide between using Google Docs or a wiki, but I think that Google Docs is working well.
#17 1/2 Facebook
My favorite of the Facebook apps for librarians were Books iRead and the UIUC Library Catalog. I like Books iRead because it is a nice way to keep track of what you've been reading in a place that you can access from almost anywhere. If you are stumped on a readers' advisory question, you could open up your facebook page and remind yourself of all the books you can't remember, and then you could look at what all your librarian friends are reading as well.
I thought that the UIUC Library Catalog was a nice feature too. It brings the library customers one step closer to the catalog and the databases. One of the big problems I have with teaching people about the databases is that you have to click on like 500 links just to get into them. Any way to make that process shorter would be a good thing.
I thought that the UIUC Library Catalog was a nice feature too. It brings the library customers one step closer to the catalog and the databases. One of the big problems I have with teaching people about the databases is that you have to click on like 500 links just to get into them. Any way to make that process shorter would be a good thing.
#17 Playing Around with Wikis
This was a fun exercise. I didn't really know what I was an expert on so read the entry on my hometown Springville, NY in wikipedia. I noticed that the Catholic Elementary School was not listed in the schools section so I added it. It took me a little while to figure out how to link to the school's web page from wikipedia, but I got it eventually.
#16 Wiki me this
I thought that the Book Lovers Wiki was a nice idea for their summer reading club. Maybe we could use something like that for our summer reading program. We already have the teens and kids write reviews of their books and put them online, but I think that there are too many steps for a lot of the teens I worked with to really want to be involved. I think they need that visual connection between the review they are writing and where it will appear online. But of course it is problematic because we would have to incorporate the librarians approving the reviews somehow.
I had mixed views about the SJCPL Subject Guides. I thought that it was an improvement over the way that most libraries do this, because it would be easier for all library staff to add websites and create content. But I still don't know how much it would be used by customers. Most of the customers I meet pretty much believe they can and should be able to find everything from google, and don't really understand why I tell them to try a different site.
I am a fan of the Library Success Wiki. I've used it before and I think it is a nice alternative to listservs for getting advice from lots of other librarians.
As far as implementing wikis into libraries, I think that maybe our own QL Chat could also work as a wiki. Right now I get kind of lost trying to keep up with all the posts. Maybe having it as a wiki would make it easier to navigate? Like the Library Success Wiki? Just a thought.
I had mixed views about the SJCPL Subject Guides. I thought that it was an improvement over the way that most libraries do this, because it would be easier for all library staff to add websites and create content. But I still don't know how much it would be used by customers. Most of the customers I meet pretty much believe they can and should be able to find everything from google, and don't really understand why I tell them to try a different site.
I am a fan of the Library Success Wiki. I've used it before and I think it is a nice alternative to listservs for getting advice from lots of other librarians.
As far as implementing wikis into libraries, I think that maybe our own QL Chat could also work as a wiki. Right now I get kind of lost trying to keep up with all the posts. Maybe having it as a wiki would make it easier to navigate? Like the Library Success Wiki? Just a thought.
#15 Library 2.0 and Web 2.0
The selection of readings about Library 2.0 was interesting but also confusing. As the Annoyed Librarian and the Cool Librarian point out, there are some librarians who are very Library 2.0 happy and have a deprecating attitude towards librarians who are doubtful. It seems to me that there are a lot of librarians who are really discouraged that librarianship doesn't seem to be changing fast enough to keep up with the way people gather their information. And we compensate by hyping Library 2.0 as the wave of the future or something. So I'm a little confused about the whole debate and I'm not exactly sure where I stand personally.
I was impressed by Michael Stevens' statement about the 2.o librarian: "This librarian understands that the future of libraries will be guided by how users access, consume and create content." I like the concept of "content" and I think that librarians should really incorporate it into the way we think. So much of the time when a customer needs a piece of information they ask us "where are your books on..." and sometimes I find myself thinking after they leave that it would have been so much easier for them to use an online resource. For example I think it is hands down always easier to access journal articles electronically than in print. I think it would be good for us to get more in the habit of thinking of all possible ways to answer a question. That is easier said than done of course.
In Away from the "icebergs" I agreed with the author's assertion that patrons expect to find everything at the library. For example a customer was very shocked one day that I couldn't snap my fingers and give the financial records for a certain nonprofit organization. Library 2.0 does seem like it is quick to provide answers, you just have to know how to navigate it and to judge its authority.
I laughed a lot at the post by the Annoyed Librarian. It was very cynical but I liked it because I think it put a little bit of perspective on the whole Library 2.0 issue. To me, Library 2.o is exciting and I'm happy to be learning about it. I think there is a lot of potential to implement it into the way we do things, but we should be careful to design tools that will actually help the people we are trying to reach and not just do it because it's new or fun.
I was impressed by Michael Stevens' statement about the 2.o librarian: "This librarian understands that the future of libraries will be guided by how users access, consume and create content." I like the concept of "content" and I think that librarians should really incorporate it into the way we think. So much of the time when a customer needs a piece of information they ask us "where are your books on..." and sometimes I find myself thinking after they leave that it would have been so much easier for them to use an online resource. For example I think it is hands down always easier to access journal articles electronically than in print. I think it would be good for us to get more in the habit of thinking of all possible ways to answer a question. That is easier said than done of course.
In Away from the "icebergs" I agreed with the author's assertion that patrons expect to find everything at the library. For example a customer was very shocked one day that I couldn't snap my fingers and give the financial records for a certain nonprofit organization. Library 2.0 does seem like it is quick to provide answers, you just have to know how to navigate it and to judge its authority.
I laughed a lot at the post by the Annoyed Librarian. It was very cynical but I liked it because I think it put a little bit of perspective on the whole Library 2.0 issue. To me, Library 2.o is exciting and I'm happy to be learning about it. I think there is a lot of potential to implement it into the way we do things, but we should be careful to design tools that will actually help the people we are trying to reach and not just do it because it's new or fun.
#14 Technorati
I searched for "Learning 2.0" in blog posts and got 3,226 results. In tags I got results. In the blog directory I got 451 results. The most useful would probably be the blog directory results. It seemed like the results from the blog directory search were blogs entirely devoted to the topic of "learning 2.0", whereas the results from the other 2 searches were not really relevant. The tag search was sort of useful, but the first couple matches on the tag search were kind of minor posts that had a million tags, one of which was "learning 2.0." It was kind of hard to understand them out of context and then the search in blog posts was all over the place. It's basically like the difference between subject and keyword searching I suppose.
I explored the popular blogs on technorati. They ranked them 2 ways: by most favorited and most linked to. I found that a lot of the most popular blogs were about technology or about blogging. I guess that is not surprising when you think about it, but it's not exactly what I was expecting. The most favorited blog on the day I checked was boing boing. It is a blog about cultural curiousities like a giant shoe that is actually a piece of furniture for a child.
I explored the popular blogs on technorati. They ranked them 2 ways: by most favorited and most linked to. I found that a lot of the most popular blogs were about technology or about blogging. I guess that is not surprising when you think about it, but it's not exactly what I was expecting. The most favorited blog on the day I checked was boing boing. It is a blog about cultural curiousities like a giant shoe that is actually a piece of furniture for a child.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
#13 Tagging and del.icio.us
Del.icio.us is definitely a useful tool for keeping track of individual bookmarks. It's nice to be able to create your own tags and to play around with the different ways of organizing them for yourself. It strikes me that so many of the tools we're learning about in this QL learning are about making the web more manageable and in a way smaller. I think that one of the biggest challenges facing librarians today that maybe wasn't such a big deal in the past is the absolute glut of information out there. We have to find ways to wade through it so that we (and customers) can find what we need and not get lost. I think that del.icio.us is a good tool for paring down our options to quality sites as we look for information.
Before this exercise I hadn't used del.icio.us for much beyond keeping track of my personal bookmarks, but now I can see that it is useful to check out sites that many, many people have bookmarked. Chances are that it's worth looking at. It's also good to kind of get lost in del.icio.us to find some new sites you haven't come across yet. I also liked being able to check out other users' descriptions of their bookmarks. It was interesting to scan down the list of comments to get more of an idea about the site quickly.
I think that libraries could use this tool to make topic specific collections of links. Maybe for a class visit that is researching a specific topic? It's kind of like the pathfinders we all had to make in library school.
Before this exercise I hadn't used del.icio.us for much beyond keeping track of my personal bookmarks, but now I can see that it is useful to check out sites that many, many people have bookmarked. Chances are that it's worth looking at. It's also good to kind of get lost in del.icio.us to find some new sites you haven't come across yet. I also liked being able to check out other users' descriptions of their bookmarks. It was interesting to scan down the list of comments to get more of an idea about the site quickly.
I think that libraries could use this tool to make topic specific collections of links. Maybe for a class visit that is researching a specific topic? It's kind of like the pathfinders we all had to make in library school.
#12 Rollyo
This is the link to the rollyo search engine I created:
Comic Book Reviews
I really love rollyo! This is something that I've always wanted to be able to do, but never knew there was a way to do it. I've always use the "search within a website" feature on google, but Rollyo lets you do it for many websites at once, so it can save a lot of time. The search that I created was for "comic book reviews." When I first started as a YA librarian several years ago, I was frustrated with the lack of reviews for new graphic novels. I would have to search all over the web to find out if something was any good to decide if I wanted to order it for the library. After a few years of this, I'd developed a pretty good list of websites that reviewed graphic novels that didn't usually make it into the traditional book review sources: booklist, School Library Journal, etc. But even though I knew all these websites, I had to search each one separately to see where a certain book had been reviewed. But now with this search tool that I created on rollyo, I can search all of my selected websites at once and not worry about getting all the extra crap that a normal google search would give me. I think this is simply fabulous.
Comic Book Reviews
I really love rollyo! This is something that I've always wanted to be able to do, but never knew there was a way to do it. I've always use the "search within a website" feature on google, but Rollyo lets you do it for many websites at once, so it can save a lot of time. The search that I created was for "comic book reviews." When I first started as a YA librarian several years ago, I was frustrated with the lack of reviews for new graphic novels. I would have to search all over the web to find out if something was any good to decide if I wanted to order it for the library. After a few years of this, I'd developed a pretty good list of websites that reviewed graphic novels that didn't usually make it into the traditional book review sources: booklist, School Library Journal, etc. But even though I knew all these websites, I had to search each one separately to see where a certain book had been reviewed. But now with this search tool that I created on rollyo, I can search all of my selected websites at once and not worry about getting all the extra crap that a normal google search would give me. I think this is simply fabulous.
Friday, December 21, 2007
#11 library thing
Library Thing is really really great. I liked being able to add whatever subjects i wanted to books and to have complete control over the library catalog! I used the widget to post 5 random books from my library thing into this blog.
#10 Image Generators
I made this using "the captioner" http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/captioner.php. It lets you add word balloons and thought bubbles to pictures. It's a fun tool.
#9 Feeding Frenzy
I played around with the feed sites that were mentioned: Bloglines, Technorati, Syndic8, etc. I liked Bloglines and Technorati the best. I thought the the Technorati FAQ was really helpful and well organized. I had a lot of luck with the Bloglines search feature. I liked the pull down menu that allowed you to choose to search posts or feeds. I found some interesting librarian related feeds out there. There are so many librarians creating web content. It's hard to keep up. But I guess that's what tools like this are good for.
#8 RSS
I have been using RSS to read the news at home for a while from my google homepage and I have found it to be very convenient. It's nice to have all the headlines right in front of you and then you can choose which ones you need to read. It's also interesting to see all the different topics of RSS feeds are out there. I subscribed to the New Urban Legends feed so I could keep up with all the new email hoaxes that are popping up every day.
I like the setup of my google homepage better than bloglines however. I felt pretty overloaded with information with bloglines. On your personal google homepage, you can limit how many headlines from different sites can be displayed, and you can arrange it into tabs. Perhaps I didn't fully explore bloglines enough.
I remember hearing that the library is already using RSS to give customers the option of being notified when new books on selected topics are added to the catalog. I think that it would be very useful for customers if they could be notified whenever the newest book by their favorite author became available or requestable.
I like the setup of my google homepage better than bloglines however. I felt pretty overloaded with information with bloglines. On your personal google homepage, you can limit how many headlines from different sites can be displayed, and you can arrange it into tabs. Perhaps I didn't fully explore bloglines enough.
I remember hearing that the library is already using RSS to give customers the option of being notified when new books on selected topics are added to the catalog. I think that it would be very useful for customers if they could be notified whenever the newest book by their favorite author became available or requestable.
#7 Blog About Technology
The technology that I'm choosing to blog about is video gaming. Where I work, at LIC, I run video game programs twice a week. We play dancing games, fighting games, and racing games. The program is very popular and keeps the kids and teens busy so that they do not wreak havoc out in the main part of the library. It's also a really easy program to run once you get comfortable with the equipment.
I think that the kids like the games because they get to socialize and compete with their friends and because they get a sense of accomplishment when they practice enough to get good at a game and win at it. I wish that the library did not block the gaming websites. Some of the kids that come to the library ask about game sites like Runescape and why they are blocked. I think personally that playing a game online would be a better use of time than just going on myspace and looking at pictures of people and making fun of them.
I think that the kids like the games because they get to socialize and compete with their friends and because they get a sense of accomplishment when they practice enough to get good at a game and win at it. I wish that the library did not block the gaming websites. Some of the kids that come to the library ask about game sites like Runescape and why they are blocked. I think personally that playing a game online would be a better use of time than just going on myspace and looking at pictures of people and making fun of them.
#6 Flickr mashups
The mashup that I am choosing is "Delivr Digital Postcards." I sent this postcard to my sister after I found this picture of the evil Santino from Season 2 of Project Runway. I liked this mashup because you can send email greeting cards but you can choose your own pictures so it doesn't have to be cheesy. It could also save you a lot on stamps.
#5 Explore Flickr
This is the image I chose from flickr. It is a view of the Skyline of my hometown, Buffalo, from a boat out on Lake Erie. You can see the HSBC tower in the middle, city hall off the the far left, and the Skyway, which is an elevated highway that goes right over a part of the lake. It is a nightmare driving over it in winter. Buffalo is a funny place to have a boat because you can only use it for such a short part of the year. In summer everybody has to cram all their activities into about 6 weekends a year when it's warm enough. But if you do get a chance to go out on someone's boat on the lake it's really nice.
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