Reflections

Podcasts

I love podcasts, so for me the discovery process for exploring podcasts seemed more like fun and not work. Which must be why it took me way too long to post about them!

I have a new ipod nano, which has a tiny video screen with color. So I've gotten really into the video podcasts available (and they are too numerous to list here). These are especially wonderful when stuck in an airport. I downloaded a some vintage hollywood movies from the itunes store (and for free; just select Podcasts, then select TV & Film) and watched them in the airport on my layover and on the plane.

Libraries are using podcasts in all ways imaginable. I think our library might library use podcasts to provide information about the library and library services. And if video was used, for library tours and instruction.

You Tube Videos: 90 second book review: Austenland

Oh course I liked this website, who doesn't love YouTube?? The reason why did I chose this video is that I read about it in the January 2008 issue of the Library Journal and thought it sounded intriguing. What a creative (and low budget) use of both the library's resources and YouTube to generate interest in books! Especially classic books, like Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and make the story relevant to millennials by using pop culture references to make a video.

Unfortunately however, the possibilities of YouTube for my respective organizations are limited since it is blocked from our access. But if it weren't I would: add any dining & wine or famous chefs and or comedic food/dining/wine references to the culinary institute to encourage both students and teachers to engage and offer combined learning/entertainment opportunities. As for the hospital library, I would add healthy cooking or exercise videos that are consistent with the organizational mission. Or create some library use videos to help "market" the library and library services.

Web 2.0 Awards

There were so many great sites/apps on the Web 2.0 Awards list! But I will only pick one, and that will be...the "personalized google" under the Start Pages category. I'm really not sure why it came in 3rd place, since the winner, Netvibes takes forever to load (and offers google as their main search engine anyway!) and, sadly, is just not esthetically pleasing. It looks like something made with Microsoft Publisher circa 1991. My guess, google envy! Everyone has it right now, even the EBSCO vendor who showed me their "google experience" search interface they will soon release.

What I like most about the tool is that it's great to integrate all your other useful stuff like email/gmail, rss reader, google docs & apps etc., which I'm already using. It offers some killer add ons, specifically related to libraries. I just ran a search in the add ons page for "medical library" and found so much useful "stuff".

Obviously libraries can use this tool to store their favorite useful web pages or news feeds in one place including, but not limited to: Worldcat, Librarian's Book Revoogle, and ALA's Best of Free Reference search boxes.

As a complete cheesy side note, you can pick your own theme for the header. Mine is (of all things) a fox who hangs out at an Asian tea house and does such things (according to the time of day) as row her boat on the lake, wash her clothing in the lake, eat lunch, make paper cranes, feed the ducks, eat dinner and sit on the dock at night to watch the sun set and the fire flies come out.

I love this thing so much!

Google Docs & Apps

I've been using google docs for quite some time. I love it because with this tool, you only need an internet connection to have all your work at hand. It's just like using a social bookmark but with documents.

In my opinion, using google docs is just as easy as using the word processing software we're all familiar with using. The features that I like the most are the portability of the docs and applications like the calendar.

The aspects I disliked the most are that some of the formating you get in a word doc, just doesn't translate the same when you try to print a google doc. [Another thing I disliked was that when I published this google doc as my blog entry, it removed all the formating so I had to go in a put back in the paragraphs.]

I read a cool article in Wired about one person's experience with relying on Google docs & apps exclusively for a month. The author summarizes the good and bad aspects of using the google docs much better than I can!

My Wiki as ePortfolio

I was so impressed by the wiki's as content manager, that I decided to let my web page ePortfolio go, and switch to an ePortfolio using PBWiki. It's not completely finished, I still need to update my resume, which I'll then add for a completed portfolio.

I really like the PBWiki because it let's you use HTML/CSS code, but you don't have to know any to use it. PBWiki also lets you block edits, so it was an obvious choice for me to use this as a personal portfolio.

Wikis

I love wiki's. The thing I like the most is that it can be anything you want it to be used for. It's so much better than a spreadsheet, since multiple users can get in there and update it at the same time. I would use a wiki for information, similar to a webpage, where you can manage content.

Some of the benefits to finding information on a wiki is that it's easy to include relevant bits according to those who use it most (for example, an HR wiki could have policies added by the records department and benefits added by the benefits department.) Some drawbacks to finding information this way would be that you may not be able to trust the source, as with the infamous wikipedia hoax.

Some types of applications within libraries that would work well with a wiki are: policies & contact information including instant messaging apps, online collections, finding and subject aids. I am really impressed with wiki's as content management system.

Library 2.0- What It Means To Me

In "Library 2.0- It’s many things to many people", I really enjoyed reading what others' concept of Library 2.0 is.

And what does Library 2.0 mean to me? Well, I'm really glad you asked. I get so tired of the negativity that some librarians express when asked to learn or use 2.0 technologies. It's depressing in general and discouraging to those of us that are starting out in this profession. In what other career area is it acceptable for members of the profession to eschew change and growth in their work environment, or to explicitly state that they refuse to learn the technological aspects of their jobs? Hello, unemployment line.

But then I have hope, because of efforts like the Vermont's 23 Things and the nationwide participation of libraries/librarians in the 23 Things project. I think the best thing about this endeavor is that even if you don't (or won't) use these 2.0 skills on the job at library, you will understand the concepts and see how 2.0 tools support learning and/or information seeking.

My hope is that those librarians who deep down are still clinging to the icebergs, will lend their support to those of us who want to be Librarian 2.0. Because both sides of the 2.0 debate love libraries and are hopeful for it's viable future.

And I believe both sides can be hopeful if we contemplate Dr. Wendy Schultz's vision of the Library 4.0, as our evolution continues.

Technorati

I explored Technorati, including running searches for topics of interest, following tags, and I even claimed this blog. But frankly, I just don't see how I would really use it.

I can see how it could be a useful tool, but mostly for those that are either into blogging as a hobby or use it as an aspect of their job (for example, those in the media or larger institution libraries that might write and monitor others' blog entries, or for monitoring our blog participation in Vermont's 23 Things!).

For my own personal and job related purposes, I think I'll stick to my RSS feeds.

Social Bookmarking

In my experience social bookmarking tools like de.licio.us, are very helpful since they allow you to access (and share with others) the sites you'd mark as "favorites" but is accessible from any computer.

Although I played around with de.licio.us for this exercise, my favorite bookmarking site is furl. I like furl because I think the format looks cleaner than delicious, and because it offers really handy tools such as: allowing you to designate your links private, a feature to import sites from your computer's bookmarks, and allows you to export your archive (you can select which ones by choosing designated tags) into XML, a zipped file, or a a hyper-linked list. It will also create citations of your archive according to whichever format you want (MLA, APA etc.)

Libraries can take advantage of social bookmarking sites by sharing with their patrons useful quality sites.

This type of sharing resources also has great potential for research assistance since you can aggregate quality websites as subject guides, writing guides, or any other information rich resources.

The del.icio.us blog has written up ways in which teachers and librarians are using social bookmarks.

Simpsons avatar

From http://simpsonizeme.com/

LibraryThing

Although I've been a member of LibraryThing since late 2006, I didn't realize that libraries could get in on the action. I think it works great for libraries, since I find it too much "work" to enter in my home collection of books, or even titles I'm currently reading from the library. I guess after all the cataloging I do at work, I've lost all interest in coming home to do it some more!

That said, I used to work at an optics library while I was pursuing my masters degree and I think that LibraryThing is a great tool for special collections (which are book oriented) because users with their special knowledge can add subject tags. This is an awesome tool that allows librarians to harness the knowledge of the users who know more about a subject than the librarian does!

Obviously, I've only sporadically used this site personally, but would love to implement it in our culinary library here at NECI to find out how useful the tag clouds are in guiding patrons' book searches.

Image generators: (Meez are the beez kneez)

I had such fun playing around with image generators! I especially liked creating a Meez avatar. It was easy to pick out which features and clothing I wanted to add.

There's so many directions to in with creating an "avie"; one with fantasy features (clown shoes and makeup with a krumping pose anyone?) or one that resembles you. I chose to make one that actually resembles me and added clothes that I might be caught wearing on the weekend. I then chose the "chillin" pose and put myself in a library background! Too much fun.

It was very easy to add the image to my blog afterward too. One of the selections on the "export" page is an icon for blogger. After I selected the blogger icon, entered my login and blog title, and viola! it populated directly to my blog's sidebar.

Social Networking sites

I think it's important for libraries to be a part of the social networking sites because:

1. It's a way of projecting a library's presence out into the web in a fun and easy to use format (some libraries OPAC are overly sterile and/or unwieldy).
2. It's a free way to make announcements and market your events or projects.
3. It's an opportunity to get feedback from your patrons who might not be willing to approach someone at the library.
4. It let's libraries/librarians see what other libraries/librarians are doing and get inspired.

Spokeo = spooky?

An article in Newsweek, Friends under the microscope, first brought the site spokeo to my attention. It's one of those web 2.0 apps that are bound to bring fear and loathing to the hearts of privacy lovers everywhere. Being somewhat of a millennial, I don't have the paranoid tendencies of most technophobes, so of course, I wanted to check it out straight away! I have to admit, I can see both the appeal of the site and yet understand why it can be disturbing.

The site is dedicated to allowing users to track this friends online content (which is public information since it's is out there in cyperspace) without having to access each application- much like a RSS aggregator allows one to read various blogs in one central format without going to each blog's site.

Spokeo specifically advertises "Track your friends. Spokeo tracks your friends' new content, so you don't have to visit their websites one by one." And, "Spokeo find your friends' blogs and photos that you never knew about, guaranteed."

And they are right. I uploaded my address books from my various email accounts. I found people's (including my husband's) amazon wish lists and shopping carts. I found pictures uploaded from site like Flickr and Picasa from old co-workers or friends that I'm no longer in contact with (but since I have their email, they are tracked on this site). Which of course, made me feel like some kind of stalker type. Or at least like an uncomfortable voyeur.

It is a little spooky, even for this tech enthusiast. That said, I will continue to use this site because it's the only way I can track updates on everyone's online content without having to visit their various sites, which is so much easier for me (just like RSS). And I can easily delete the people that I am not interested in tracking from my "friends" list on spokeo, so I don't have to feel uncomfortable viewing their online info.

RSS

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?

What I like most about RSS and newsreaders is that I can synthesize my reading(s) into one area. I especially like google's because I can read my feeds regardless of what computer I'm using. This is very convenient for me, to keep abreast of my reading whether I'm on the home desktop, my lap top or my work computers.

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your library or personal life?

I think this technology is very useful for any library because there are blogs for most types of employment types. There are even some cool dewey blogs! I like the also like the medical library blogs.

How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

Obviously libraries can take advantage of RSS by pushing updated info out to their customers by keeping their own blogs or by subscribing to relevant blogs out there that will keep the librarian abreast of relevant information.

Flickr

For the Flickr exercises, I decided to do option B: I brought in my digital camera to take pictures of the NECI Essex Child Library. I uploaded and tagged the photos, and joined the group setup for the Vermont 23 Things to share my photos.

The photos I took are of the outside of our building and all the inside rooms of the library.

In my experience, as a first time Flickr user, the process was easy. I really liked the fact that (unlike blogger) you can upload a group of photos at once and it doesn't take very long.

Blogs and the workplace

Although we are currently exploring and using Flickr in fun and creative ways, and posting our experiences in our respective Vermont's 23 Things blogs, blogs and the workplace can also spell trouble.

Came across this reminder in the New York Times today, "CNN Producer says he was fired for blogging", on how sometimes personal views on blogs may be perceived negatively by employers. In this case, resulting in job termination for violation of company policy. I think some good points are made here about where the line is drawn- over comments on social networking sites, or even anything posted in an online forum can be considered by the company. We even get to find out what the NY Times own blog policy is for their employees.

Lifelong Learning

For the exercise on Lifelong Learning, I watched the tutorial on the 7 & 1/2 habits of successful lifelong learners.

Of the 7 & 1/2 habits, for me the easiest is: Habit 6 – Use technology to your advantage.

I've really enjoyed the advances in technologies that make my life easier and more interesting. For example, email and the internet allow me to stay in touch with friends and family on the West Coast. Also, at my job where the campuses are split between Montpelier and Essex, we are able to email back and forth with little effort to keep the libraries running smoothly and to share our resources via the online catalog.

The habit that is hardest for me is: Habit #7 – Teach and mentor others.

As a newly minted librarian myself, I really haven't had the opportunity yet. Although when I think about my own mentors, and how much of a positive impact they've had on me, I can understand why this is included in the list.

My only confusion is on Habit #7 1/2 – Play; why is it considered 1/2 of a habit rather than the 8th Habit? Perhaps because play is a common trait found in mammals, ergo there's less to learn? I'm really not sure...

Getting started on My 23 Things

I'm getting started with my initial post as a participant in Vermont's 23 Things.

I am very excited about participating in the 23 Things, which I hope will: let me earn 10 technology credits in continuing education, motivate me to post more in my Burlington or Bust blog, and learn a lot of useful web 2.0 skills.