Thursday, May 8, 2008

It's a Wrap!

My favorite thing that I learned about was Technorati. I thought that it was very interesting that the most popular sites were technically orientated. I also found it amusing that many of the popular blogs had really nothing to do with current events, but were focused on their own tangents.

My least favorite was ListenNJ. After trying to work with it for several attempts, it has not gotten any easier. Users need software like a refrigerator; just plug it in and off you go. I think that software that makes you go through all kinds of setups & plug-ins to work, eventually turns the user off, and then away.

I would like to see the library get more involved with blogs and wikis. They would allow for more customer generated content and comments. Those two tools in conjunction with a Flickr presence might have added another dimension to my diversity project.

I'm waiting to find the free time, between work & school, to set up a family wiki & Flickr account to connect my wife's family together. It would offer another alternative to the in-person, face-to-face, get- togethers.

ListenNJ

This is about the third time that I've tried to use ListenNJ in an OCL setting, and once again the experience has been frustrating. I'm able to download the software, but keep battling with the Digital Rights Management section so I never really get to download the book to my PC.

The message I usually get is "Error 0xC00D2781: A problem has occured in retrieving the "Digital Rights Management" machine identification. Contact Microsoft product support.

Maybe Listen NJ is easier to download & configure at home?

Pod/Vodcast

I'm a big fan of the podcasts/vodcasts run by the Sirsi Dynix Institute (the text links to their archives where you can listen, watch, or subscribe). They're about an hour long but are well worth it. They deal with such topics as RSS feeds, new technologies to follow, etc., all from the viewpoint of using them in a library setting.

Here's an interesting one about Info Island in Second Life in regards to providing library service there: http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/viewvideo.php?vid=20070403.wmv

YouTube

I'm in the market for a digital camcorder and have been reading a number of reviews. But what would be better for comparison purposes than to find a video made with the camera that I'm considering, and about the camera, too! Here's the video I found:



Here's the link to the actual YouTube video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=T4QtUVzWw4U

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Ning

I think that Ning has a lot of potential for creating a social network on the job. Unlike FaceBook or MySpace, Ning allows one to customize all of the aspects of a social network to meet the needs of any organization or workgroup. The look, access permissions, control of the code used to create the Ning are all under your control. No matter what the needs or interests of your group, you can create & customize your own social network, do it for free, and retain control.

Collaboration

I've used Google docs when working on a group project at school. Rather than emailing a doc back and forth for revisions among the group, it was much easier to have everyone access it online.

When I worked in the Virtual Branch Workgroup in technology, the group also used it to prepare several docs for the very same reason. Members of the group were spread throughout all the branches, and it was an easy way for members to work collectively on our documents without repeated emails or in-person meetings.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Library Success

Other than being a very plain looking website, I like Library Success. I see that it is moderated by Meredith Farkas, the author of "Social Software in Libraries" so it's got to be good.

A link there to online training resources took me to Web Junction. What I found interesting was their online course offerings. Some were free and for most the charge was nominal. Coming from an online learning environment (Rutgers Online MLIS program), I found it refreshing that there were alternatives to online learning other than college programs.

About the only thing that makes me cautious about wikis is the very thing that makes them appealing: anyone can add to them. This is not so much a concern when they're password/key protected, but wiki purists will say that this defeats the entire purpose of a wiki. Some claim that they are self-moderated & policed by their members and that vandalism is quickly corrected. But I'm still a little sceptical.

I still think that they're a great tool for online collaboration, and have emailing a Word doc or PPT presentation back-and-forth beat. They put the richness of web design within the typical users' reach, and are inherently simple to use.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Wiki as Collaboration Tool

I had to do a presentation recently with a colleague in my Rutgers class on library management. We could have done a PowerPoint presentation, but since all of our classes are online, this would have necessitated emailing the PPT file back-and-forth as each of us made our contributions to it.

Instead we chose to do a wiki. Each "slide" was done as another page in the wiki. My partner was able to go in anytime and make additions or deletions, and so was I. No need to email a file every time changes were made.

For the actual class presentation, the URL for the wiki & the key were emailed to the rest of the class and instructor. The wiki made for both easy collaboration during its creation, and easy viewing for the rest of the class. Mo messy downloads of files!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

On Demand Training

In the Anderson article "Away from the Icebergs", the author talks about the patron-to-librarian ratio and how our library applications need to be simpler to use without training. But there's another way of educating users, on-demand training.

I am currently using two Web 2.0 tools, Jing and Camtasia, in one of my MLIS courses. Both tools allow for screen capture along with narration. It is possible to record how-to videos on a number of popular library technology subjects such as using email, or PC Plus scanners. The screencasts can be saved to network drives or even CDs and DVDs for later playback on demand. The possibility of subjects that can be recorded is unlimited.

Library 2.0 is a way to use existing tools in new ways to provide customers with content that they can access in popular and familiar ways. According to a recent PEW report, one third of all of the age groups surveyed that viewed online videos, viewed educational videos. Why shouldn't libraries take advantage of this, and become the producers of educational videos.

Here's a link to one that I did for demo purposes about resizing digital photos:


Click to Play

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Technorati

I've skimmed Technorati before, and I'm always amazed at what people are talking about on Blogger Central. There seems to be a disconnect between what the media would call news, and what bloggers consider important. I looked at the top 100 blogs and it appeared that most of them were technology related.

I next tried searching for Learning 2.0 blogs. I found quite a few. But to tell the truth, none of them piqued my interest. Then I noticed the photos tab. The pictures were a different story. I was immediately drawn to a blogger called "The Shifted Librarian." Their photos made me want to go and read their blog.

It's true when they say that a pictures is worth a thousand words.

Del.icio.us

I like the sharing aspect of using del.icio.us. Not only are you able to see what links others are using, but see what they're about. I think that the ability to tag makes some of the links more understandable. You can also see the frequency of tag usage through the tag cloud for the link, users' comments about the URL, and when the last additions were made to del.icio.us.

But what I really like is that you can set up a del.icio.us account and be able to import & access your favorites from any PC. This can be a real help when you're doing reference and can't get to the PC where you originally stored your Favorites.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

WorldCat

I must confess, this is a tool that I have been using almost daily during my trainee rotation in ACT. I searched for a book (Into the Wild), and OCL came up as the closest library holding the title. About the only difference regarding location results is that when you are logged in as part of ILL, OCL is displayed in green text to make sure you realize that we hold the book, and not to search elsewhere for it.

WorldCat will definitely help you and your customer complete a Request for Materials form. About the only information that I found missing was the publication month and the price. Following the link to Amazon can get you the month of publication, but Amazon did not have a "realistic" price for the edition that I was looking at; only prices which varied by quite a bit from resellers.

WorldCat will work for filling out the form. Whatever info is missing from WorldCat, can probably be supplemented from Amazon.

NetLibrary

NetLibrary is just about as easy to use as our OPAC. It allows for searching by the typical fields or author, title, subject, and keyword. As an added bonus it does full text searching, too. Something that's usually reserved for something like Google.

Once you decide on a book, it's relatively easy to navigate. The side bar will get you to the different areas of the book such as the contents, index, or a particular chapter.

Some of the quirks of NetLibrary that I've found is that it only allows for one copy of the eBook to be open at a time. I tried to show a coworker a particular book once, and NetLibrary would not allow two concurrent copies to be opened. Besides not being able to download, it also limits the amount of text that you can copy & paste at one time. I've also noticed that it displays book contents as a PDF but you must use the NetLibrary buttons at the top of the window to navigate, and not the typical Adobe Acrobat buttons in the bottom of the window.

But a NetLibrary copy of a book still beats no copies at all. And, I think that it's easy enough to navigate for anyone, and has a short learning curve.

It's My Thing...Do What I Wanna Do!

Sorry for the reference to an old song, but I just couldn't resist.

I have another account in Library Thing but it has not been updated for some time, so I thought that I'd create a new account for this exercise. Since I've last used Library Thing, it's been improved. Last time I used it, it did not give LOC or Dewey numbers, or LOC subject headings, but it does now. (Maybe I will go back to my regular account and add more books.)

Of all my books added for this exercise, the two that were made into movies were the most popular, with well over a thousand people listing them, and one had 700+ readers. Not surprisingly, these were the ones with the most discussions going.

My favorite aspect of Library Thing is its social nature. It allows for tagging, sharing with others, and comments. Sort of a built in readers' advisory function. Not many other library catalogs do that; at least not ones I use regularly.

Here's the link to My Thing: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/traineemark

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Watch This!

The next big thing in "library 2.0", or so I've been told, is going to be vodcasts and screencasts. A vodcast is video content plus an RSS feed that allows one to subscribe to episodes of a show, sort of like a video podcast. Screencasting allows one to capture all that you do on your computer while navigating through a task, and saving it as a movie that can be played back later on-demand.

In the past, equipment, file size and bandwidth issues have discouraged all but the serious geek from pursuing this avenue of expression. But as drives get bigger and Internet connections get faster, you'll be seeing more and more video content make its way into library environments. Computer classes and how-to videos could be made available for instructional purposes, with the added bonus of being able to be re-wound and repeated by the viewer as necessary.

Here's one that I made using a digital camera for still shots, and Windows Movie Maker to pull the whole thing together. It's a real simple tutorial on saving files to a Flash drive, but illustrates the potential of these technologies. Heck, if I can do it, anyone can!



Click to Play

The original video can be found here, on Blip.tv: http://mzscils598s08.blip.tv/file/808818

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Good Eats?

When it comes to finding feeds, I prefer to do it the old fashioned way. When I find a site that I like, and if it has a feed, I'll subscribe. It all depends on what I'm looking for at the moment.

Technorati has interesting content, but if it doesn't match what I'm in the mood for, I would just ignore it. It reminds me of dining out. If I'm in the mood for Italian food, that's what I'll look for, even if everyone says there's a great Chinese restaurant that just opened.

But I won't totally ignore their advice. I'll just try to remember what was said, and investigate it further when I'm in the mood. Sounds like something that might be del.icio.us to remember later.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Feed Me!

RSS is a real easy way to get the latest news from sites or blogs. If there are a number of sites that you visit on a regular basis, RSS allows you to collect all the updates in one location through the use of an aggregator such as Bloglines or Google Reader. No longer do you have to visit each site individually to check for changes, the aggregator automates the process.

There is, however, a downside to feed subscriptions. All of the updates still need to be read. I've heard stories of people subscribing to a hundred or more feeds with the feeling that the aggregator will make life easier. To an extent, it does this by consolidating the latest feeds in one location, but they still have to be at least skimmed. And, the more you subscribe to, the longer it takes.

I think the trick is to keep the number of subscriptions to a manageable level (which varies according to each individual). Unless, of course, you're able to spend all day reading!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Back to the Beginning



Here's where my career as librarian-in-training began, in library delivery.
I worked in delivery,and got to visit all twenty (now 21) of our branches.

As part of the experience, working in the mailroom allowed me to memorize many of the names of our staff. Now my biggest chore is to match the name with the face as I do my trainee rotations at the various locations.

Talk About Small!

I really enjoy looking at photos of really small libraries, and here's one that I found on Flickr. It's from some place called Kimbolton, but it doesn't give a state.




I imagine that if you could work here, you'd be everything from library director to reference librarian, and then some!

The link to the Flickr photo is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21653448@N06/2302895219/

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Hard & Easy

Well, not exactly in that order! We'll start with the easiest "Habit" first.

The easiest thing for me to accomplish was accepting responsibility for my own learning. I started the ball rolling when I applied and was accepted into the online MLIS program at Rutgers, two and a half years ago, and then entered the OCL Librarian-in-Training program.

The most difficult of the "Seven & a Half Habits" is play. It's very tough to balance school, work, and family life. There never seems to be enough time to get everything done, and have time left over to have some fun. I guess I'll have to work on this area...when I have time!

Welcome!

Welcome of what's to be the first of many posts as I participate in OCL's 23 Things. Keep your eyes on this space and watch it progress.