Friday, December 12, 2008
Federated search: hats off to the U of Wisconsin!
I have great admiration for the University of Wisconsin Libraries, and their willingness to share information on their various projects (I should send them a fan letter sometime.) Their materials have helped me more than once. This time my hat (black fleece, since it's below zero) is off to their Metalib Assessment project. This year they've been assessing their federated search product, Metalib. And they're terrific enough to share their working bibliographies and other documents. We're thinking of assessing our federated search product (we have CentralSearch), and some of the conversations stray away from actual assessment of the product. The UW Libraries are providing a great example. Thanks to them!
Friday, December 5, 2008
End of term is in sight
I've been "away" at the Minnesota Library Association conference, and then the Thanksgiving holiday, so I haven't posted for awhile. When I got back to work after the holiday, I had several requests for student appointments. Aha! It's December now, so the semester is almost over, and the students need me (it's nice to be needed.) While it can be challenging to deal with this, juggling their schedules and yours (just coming in to find me may not be the best option), it IS great to be helpful to students. And it's nice in a way to have another marker in the turning of the year (so THAT assignment is here again.)
One way that I think I'm good as a reference librarian is that I can usually put myself in the place of the novice user (I've been confused by many web interfaces in my day, much less subject headings, etc.) While I've been through THAT assignment many times, I can understand what it must be like to a novice. I went to a very interesting presentation at MLA about what some of our high school students are and aren't learning about library research (I need to post on that in the near future), and I realize that for many first- and second-year college students, this whole idea of Subject Headings is a new thing. Knowing this helps me help them.
One way that I think I'm good as a reference librarian is that I can usually put myself in the place of the novice user (I've been confused by many web interfaces in my day, much less subject headings, etc.) While I've been through THAT assignment many times, I can understand what it must be like to a novice. I went to a very interesting presentation at MLA about what some of our high school students are and aren't learning about library research (I need to post on that in the near future), and I realize that for many first- and second-year college students, this whole idea of Subject Headings is a new thing. Knowing this helps me help them.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Generation Jones Goes to the White House
I'm one. President-Elect Obama and his wife both are. So is Alaka governor Sarah Palin. But have you heard of Generation Jones, aka "The Jonesers?"
I first heard about them in 2000, in the midst of "Baby Boomer this" and "Gen X" that. "You're a Boomer," said my coworkers and the pundits. "You were born between 1946 and 1964 - Woodstock, Vietnam." "Are you kidding?" I'd think. "I was just a kid then." I didn't know from Woodstock, except as a Peanuts character.
Then I read an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about Jonathan Pontell, who coined the term, and now has a Generation Jones website. Generation Jones are the people born between 1954 and 1965: the end of the Boomers and the beginning of Generation X. Why Jones? There are several definitions: it embodies the idea of a large, unknown, invisible generation, or a generation longing for its own identity (or "keeping up with the Joneses" and conspicuous consumption.) We are the generation of shag carpets, avocado appliances, the Brady Bunch, and Watergate. We are one quarter of the adult U.S. population. (Interestingly enough, the article disappeared from electronic sources for awhile after the Tasini court decision, so I was glad I'd printed it off.)
The president-elect will be the first Joneser in the White House. I heard Garrison Keillor last week on A Prairie Home Companion noting the end of the Booners in the White House, and I was intrigued to see on the Generation Jones website a section on its impact on the Presidential election. We've hit the big time, with coverage in Newseek, the Chicago Tribune, and YouTube. Obama's older daughter is the same age as my daughter, just as my brother and I were about the same ages as President Kennedy's kids. In my quiet, Midwestern way, I'm celebrating. My people have arrived.
I first heard about them in 2000, in the midst of "Baby Boomer this" and "Gen X" that. "You're a Boomer," said my coworkers and the pundits. "You were born between 1946 and 1964 - Woodstock, Vietnam." "Are you kidding?" I'd think. "I was just a kid then." I didn't know from Woodstock, except as a Peanuts character.
Then I read an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about Jonathan Pontell, who coined the term, and now has a Generation Jones website. Generation Jones are the people born between 1954 and 1965: the end of the Boomers and the beginning of Generation X. Why Jones? There are several definitions: it embodies the idea of a large, unknown, invisible generation, or a generation longing for its own identity (or "keeping up with the Joneses" and conspicuous consumption.) We are the generation of shag carpets, avocado appliances, the Brady Bunch, and Watergate. We are one quarter of the adult U.S. population. (Interestingly enough, the article disappeared from electronic sources for awhile after the Tasini court decision, so I was glad I'd printed it off.)
The president-elect will be the first Joneser in the White House. I heard Garrison Keillor last week on A Prairie Home Companion noting the end of the Booners in the White House, and I was intrigued to see on the Generation Jones website a section on its impact on the Presidential election. We've hit the big time, with coverage in Newseek, the Chicago Tribune, and YouTube. Obama's older daughter is the same age as my daughter, just as my brother and I were about the same ages as President Kennedy's kids. In my quiet, Midwestern way, I'm celebrating. My people have arrived.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Ups and Downs of the Long Tail
The Long Tail (in recent popular parlance) is the string of unique items, sold in small quantities, which are more "findable" in the online age. It's cool in a lot of ways, making all sorts of things float to the attention of possibly interested people ("if you like Doctor Who, maybe you'll like Diana Wynne Jones!") But for me, there's a downside. I keep finding all of these out-of-print, not-at-my-local-library, hardly-anyone-on-the-planet-seems-to-have THINGS that I get interested in. The local public radio station used to play a particular version of the Marseillaise (French national anthem) every July 14, Bastille Day. Out of print. One of my favorite writing blogs has a "what books do you read again and again?" posting, and someone mentions some intriguing books I've never heard of. Out of print, and copies of area public libraries are missing, withdrawn, or in storage.
Now back in the day (ah, my misspent youth), if something was out of print, that was it. My favorite author as a child was E. Nesbit, a British author from the early 1900s who wrote books about children and magic (magic cities, magical creatures, mermaids) and name-dropped some of her favorite authors in her works. E. Nesbit was born in 1858, and in the 1950s there was a British publisher who republished most of her books in a somewhat uniform edition, a few of which managed to make their way to the children's section of my downtown public library (while we lived in the suburbs, my parents worked downtown, so I was there a lot.) Of course I read and reread them, and wanted them for my own. But they were British books, and for some reason it was almost impossible back then to get a British book through an American bookstore. So I managed to get a few, found others in American editions, and hoped that some day, I could find them all.
Flash forward many years, and online bookstores make it possible for me to use my disposable income to find them used in various locations (I even found some at used booksales, which is a story in itself.) I have over the years picked up copies of nearly all of E. Nesbit's children's books (and ran out of shelf space in the process.) So I'm tempted to do the same when I want that recording of the Mareillaise, or those historical novels that the public libraries don't carry. You can even buy things online from British bookstores now - how cool is that? The Long Tail makes it so easy to spend our money, darn it. I have to reign in my desires and be fiscally prudent, especially these days. I make my little lists, and allow myself a few at a time.
But I do have to commend the Long Tail effect of that popular author, J. K. Rowling. With the popularity of Harry Potter, publishers looked around and said, "who else writes books about kids and magic? What do we have on our backlist?" So the great author Edward Eager comes back in print, the writer whose book Half Magic I found in fourth grade, which led me to E. Nesbit and so many other writers years ago. So I can flesh out my Edward Eager collection, and buy my daughter her own copies (in print!) I guess I can't complain too much.
Now back in the day (ah, my misspent youth), if something was out of print, that was it. My favorite author as a child was E. Nesbit, a British author from the early 1900s who wrote books about children and magic (magic cities, magical creatures, mermaids) and name-dropped some of her favorite authors in her works. E. Nesbit was born in 1858, and in the 1950s there was a British publisher who republished most of her books in a somewhat uniform edition, a few of which managed to make their way to the children's section of my downtown public library (while we lived in the suburbs, my parents worked downtown, so I was there a lot.) Of course I read and reread them, and wanted them for my own. But they were British books, and for some reason it was almost impossible back then to get a British book through an American bookstore. So I managed to get a few, found others in American editions, and hoped that some day, I could find them all.
Flash forward many years, and online bookstores make it possible for me to use my disposable income to find them used in various locations (I even found some at used booksales, which is a story in itself.) I have over the years picked up copies of nearly all of E. Nesbit's children's books (and ran out of shelf space in the process.) So I'm tempted to do the same when I want that recording of the Mareillaise, or those historical novels that the public libraries don't carry. You can even buy things online from British bookstores now - how cool is that? The Long Tail makes it so easy to spend our money, darn it. I have to reign in my desires and be fiscally prudent, especially these days. I make my little lists, and allow myself a few at a time.
But I do have to commend the Long Tail effect of that popular author, J. K. Rowling. With the popularity of Harry Potter, publishers looked around and said, "who else writes books about kids and magic? What do we have on our backlist?" So the great author Edward Eager comes back in print, the writer whose book Half Magic I found in fourth grade, which led me to E. Nesbit and so many other writers years ago. So I can flesh out my Edward Eager collection, and buy my daughter her own copies (in print!) I guess I can't complain too much.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Error 2.0
I've been writing lately about Millennials as well as Library 2.0, and it occurred to me that there's one area in Computerland that really needs some 2.0 attention. You know it, I know it, we all know it. It's those Dreaded Messages from Computers. You know what I mean. "You are low on disk space." "Memory error." "Error in line 27." "Mistake in line 9." "Illegal operation."
"Illegal operation" is a good one. So, I think. I've committed an illegal operation. What law have I broken? Are you sending the Computer Police to get me? Do I have the right to remain computing? Or was this a surgical operation I've unwittingly committed? Are we talkin' the American Medical Association here?
How about some helpful error messages? I wanted to call this post "Help 2.0," although I have to admit that online and network help has gotten better in the last few years. I can often find what I need to know in the help, local or on the internet (although it's sometimes under a heading that would never occur to me.) I still make notes in my computer books when I find the answer, because sometimes it takes awhile to find it (or, in the case of our reference desk computer, it gets re-imaged every so often, and I have to change all of the Microsoft-preferred or My-Place-of-Work-preferred defaults and settings back to the Marianne-preferred settings. There's nothing like having your own name underlined because Microsoft thinks it's misspelled.)
What would a helpful error message be like? It would not only tell you what you did, but either what you should do to fix it, or how you can do better next time. What do you think of these reflections on what I think recent error messages have been trying to tell me?
"Illegal operation" is a good one. So, I think. I've committed an illegal operation. What law have I broken? Are you sending the Computer Police to get me? Do I have the right to remain computing? Or was this a surgical operation I've unwittingly committed? Are we talkin' the American Medical Association here?
How about some helpful error messages? I wanted to call this post "Help 2.0," although I have to admit that online and network help has gotten better in the last few years. I can often find what I need to know in the help, local or on the internet (although it's sometimes under a heading that would never occur to me.) I still make notes in my computer books when I find the answer, because sometimes it takes awhile to find it (or, in the case of our reference desk computer, it gets re-imaged every so often, and I have to change all of the Microsoft-preferred or My-Place-of-Work-preferred defaults and settings back to the Marianne-preferred settings. There's nothing like having your own name underlined because Microsoft thinks it's misspelled.)
What would a helpful error message be like? It would not only tell you what you did, but either what you should do to fix it, or how you can do better next time. What do you think of these reflections on what I think recent error messages have been trying to tell me?
- Oh, you silly! Don't you know you can't have that many tabs open? It's really more than this poor program (or machine, or whatever) can handle. I know that YOU, with your superior human brain, can deal with this, but your poor, benighted computer really can't cope. So next time, no more than six or seven tabs at a time, ok? Especially if you're going to be playing music, downloading pdfs, and all of that other fancy stuff.
- Oh, bother. I've run out of memory again. No, really, it's me, it's not your fault. How were you to know my true limitations? Even I can't admit them all. So please, could you shut me down for a bit, and try again a little slower? I'd really appreciate the rest.
- Oops! Um, I don't know how to break this to you, but there's a new version of this program available, at it can handle more things than I can. I know, there's no way that you'd know this. If I could, I would have told you. Really. I wish they'd set me up to do that. But I only hear about it after the fact. So if you go to the Help and look under "New Stuff That No One's Told You," they'll have the answers there.
- Owie! Oh, I really blew that one, didn't I? I've been doing fine all this time, and you had no reason to suspect I would fail you this time. So sorry. I'll try not to let it happen again. So if you sneak around the back and save what you were doing, you should be fine.
My favorite help message of all time (in response to an acutual error) was on our old mainframe network, back at the Dawn of Time. "You have invoked Help," it began. Well, duh, I thought (although it may have been back before "duh" came into the common language.) If you think I need to be told that I'm asking for help, our relationship isn't starting off on a good footing, is it? Like the washing machine repairman who asked my mother, awash in suds, if she was sure that the machine was plugged in.
On this Halloween, let's see if we can invoke some helpful Help and error messages.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Mid-term break
It's mid-term break, so we're catching our breath a bit, and I'm ordering books for my subject areas (business and economics.) We use Blackwell's Collection Manager for a lot of our book selection, and can order Ebrary versions of electronic books. It's interesting to decide on an individual title level - should I request this book in electronic format, or not? A number of the titles I request aren't available electronically yet, or on the platform we've chosen. But I come up with a few each time I go in, and then I think. Is this the sort of book that will get a lot of use, and having it electronically will be a Godsend to patrons? Is this the sort of book that needs some "digesting," and not be in heavy demand, so it would be better to have it in paper? And I know that every title I order as an ebook won't be available to patrons in the rest of our consortium (unless they came into our library - I think they could use it then.) While these are not "life or death" decisions, they are challenging, and not something any of us contemplated back in the olden days in library school.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Google Books and computer tips
The Chronicle of Higher Education on October 13 had an article about university libraries participating in Google Books that have been building a backup to Google Books. They've unveiled it as HathiTrust (pronounced hah-TEE), from the Hindu word for elephant. Says Bradley C. Wheeler, Chief Information Officer at the Indiana University system, "Elephants remember, elephants are large, and elephants are strong."
My favorite computer tip this week comes from David Pogue in the New York Times, who recently blogged on "Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User." Did you know that on pc's you can use the Control key and the Plus key (Ctrl +) to enlarge the text of a web page? How many pages do we see that have tiny fonts? This is one tip I can use!
My favorite computer tip this week comes from David Pogue in the New York Times, who recently blogged on "Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User." Did you know that on pc's you can use the Control key and the Plus key (Ctrl +) to enlarge the text of a web page? How many pages do we see that have tiny fonts? This is one tip I can use!
Friday, October 10, 2008
More on Millennials
In the midst of teaching classes this week (accounting, journalism, and economics), I can share another item on Millennials. Wayne Bivens-Tatum, is the Philosophy and Religion Librarian at Princeton University, and his Academic Librarian blog has several posts tagged with Millennials, including a recent review of Mark Bauerlein's new book The Dumbest Generation (Wayne doesn't think they are.)
I'm off to do my last two presentations for fall semester (at least, those that are scheduled so far.) This term I've done hands-on sessions in our building, online demos on pc's in other buildings, one online Mac-based demo in another building, and this morning a road show with no computer. So I'm running the gamut.
I'm off to do my last two presentations for fall semester (at least, those that are scheduled so far.) This term I've done hands-on sessions in our building, online demos on pc's in other buildings, one online Mac-based demo in another building, and this morning a road show with no computer. So I'm running the gamut.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Some Views of the Google Generation
My local academic library consortium is planning a discussion next month on the current generation of undergraduate students - Millennials, Generation Y, the Google Generation, etc. One of my colleagues has recommended this article from Inside Higher Ed: Understanding Students Who Were 'Born Digital'. And our library director shared with us the NELINET environmental scan, which has a couple of articles on Generation Y and the Google Generation. What our today's students doing, and expecting from us? What is changing in how students do research? This should be an interesting topic for discussion.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Killer Cold on a Stick
This week, half of the people in my department have a killer cold, including me. It started with a slightly scratchy throat about 5 a.m. on Sunday morning, and by the end of breakfast it was in full gear. So I've been loading up on the zinc lozenges and soup this week.
Not much this week on the 2.0 front, I'm afraid. One bright thing in the week was getting my "congratulations on completing 23 Things" package, with the memory stick and lanyard (I like lanyards.) I still need to get my head around the idea of this portable medium, and how it can fit into the greater scheme of hard drives, network drives, shared network space, backups ("we don't need no stinkin' backups" seems to be the philosophy around here, at least as far as one's own computer is concerned.) I'm excited to think that there will be more Things to learn later this winter - something to look forward to once the cold weather hits. (Apropos of nothing, tomorrow my family is going to the Renaissance Festival, which may be about as un-2.0 as one can get these days, but we're looking forward to it.)
Time to drink more fluids, or maybe have a cough drop.
Not much this week on the 2.0 front, I'm afraid. One bright thing in the week was getting my "congratulations on completing 23 Things" package, with the memory stick and lanyard (I like lanyards.) I still need to get my head around the idea of this portable medium, and how it can fit into the greater scheme of hard drives, network drives, shared network space, backups ("we don't need no stinkin' backups" seems to be the philosophy around here, at least as far as one's own computer is concerned.) I'm excited to think that there will be more Things to learn later this winter - something to look forward to once the cold weather hits. (Apropos of nothing, tomorrow my family is going to the Renaissance Festival, which may be about as un-2.0 as one can get these days, but we're looking forward to it.)
Time to drink more fluids, or maybe have a cough drop.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Meetings & More Meetings
I have a full plate of meetings today: a departmental meeting, a faculty committee (librarians at my institution don't have faculty status, but we represent the libraries on certain groups), then a presentation and search committee interview. We're hiring a webmaster for the libraries, and we're learning some things in the process. As library folks, we have little experience in either web design or back-end programming, and we're realizing that these are very different things. Our candidates will be strong in one area, but not the other. How do we decide what we need more? We need to make a decision soon.
Monday, September 8, 2008
New student orientation idea
After my last post, I came across this idea from the Information Wants to Be Free blog: a slide show/movie library orientation. Quite 2.0, and not too complicated.
Friday, September 5, 2008
The Blog Goes On, and school begins
It's the first week of classes. I did two presentations today in Finance classes (30 minute show-and-tell about the best resources for their research.) This week I've been working on library instruction and getting my research guides updated on the library website. I did do a little bit in Facebook and LinkedIn (connected with a few more people), but not a lot of 2.0 learning this week. I did find out that our public printers have been having memory problems for the past several weeks, and sometimes give a "not enough memory" message when people try to print pdfs. Printers having "issues" - not a pretty situation.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Thing 23: Final Thoughts on 23 Things on a Stick
I went to the Minnesota State Fair yesterday, so now I feel truly ready to complete "23 Things on a Stick" in the proper spirit. ;^)
What did I find most useful, and most likely to continue using?
What did I find most useful, and most likely to continue using?
- Bloglines: I had a Bloglines account before, but it needed some tweaking for me to use it effectively. I adjusted what feeds I'm getting, and I'm more committed to using it on a regular basis.
- Social networks: I'm excited about LinkedIn, Facebook, and Ning. They look like exciting ways to keep connected. I need to investigate ways to contact faculty through LinkedIn. I don't think I mentioned in this blog about reconnecting this summer with a friend from 20 years ago (we ran into each other, and she recognized me.) I suspect that with all of the new ways for people to keep in touch with each other, it will be less likely that people totally lose track of their friends. It will be interesting to see ten and twenty years from now if/how technology proves me right, or wrong, or "well,...."
- LibraryThing and YouTube: So far, little practical connection to work (although there are possibilities); they're just fun.
I did a little connecting with others during this time, but I would have liked more. It would be nice to do this with a group of colleagues (at my place of work or in the greater community), but that didn't work out this time. I will continue to talk about this at work, and see if I can stir some interest and support if there's a next-time-go-round.
If there were a follow-up to 23 Things, I would definitely be interested in participating. I didn't participate in the first go-round as it coincided too much with the busy times of my academic year, but I'm a little more flexible in summer. I would like a reason to work on a collaborative wiki and/or map site (a la what people are developing for convention visitors, or vacationers), but I suppose if I found time to volunteer to work on a conference, I'd get that kind of experience! It might be nice to get a nudge to try Twitter.
One word or one sentence about the experience: Get the nudge you need to learn about Library 2.0!
Thank you very much to the opportunity.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Thing 22: Staying Current
Ah, this is a tricky one: resolving to keep up this blog, to keep learning new 2.0 things, to make a commitment to keep up and use the new tools. (I should have known this would be in the fine print somewhere.) I suppose that one doesn't remember what one doesn't use. Years ago in my academic library, we had to know how to Shepardize (tracking legal citations) and how to use printed citation indexes 9oh, they were a pain in print.) You'd get questions at certain times of the year, and then it was the crash course (or, if you weren't ahead of things, an on-the-spot crash course.) Keeping your hand in with these tools was a service to patrons, but darned hard to keep up. Since this is a benefit to me, as well as my patrons, this SHOULD be a priority.
I'll try this, for now: since classes are starting next week (and bringing with them the busy season), I'll start small: I'll try to blog once a week, until the term settles down. I will try to keep track of new things I've learned, as well as "old" things I've relearned (I just reinstalled the "Save to Delicious" link that I lost when I got my new computer a few weeks ago.) I think my RSS feeds are at a manageable size, so I won't add any right now. I will get back into Facebook soon and flesh out my profile, respond to the responses I've gotten, etc. (I found several of them in the email spam filter this morning, so I'm not as negligent as it might seem.) I'll even think about setting up a schedule for checking Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, Bloglines, etc. (I think I'm the sort of person that works best on a schedule, at least for something like this. I guess that's my way to plan on keeping up.)
I plan to be back later in the week, to finish up. Right now, I need to do some collection development.
I'll try this, for now: since classes are starting next week (and bringing with them the busy season), I'll start small: I'll try to blog once a week, until the term settles down. I will try to keep track of new things I've learned, as well as "old" things I've relearned (I just reinstalled the "Save to Delicious" link that I lost when I got my new computer a few weeks ago.) I think my RSS feeds are at a manageable size, so I won't add any right now. I will get back into Facebook soon and flesh out my profile, respond to the responses I've gotten, etc. (I found several of them in the email spam filter this morning, so I'm not as negligent as it might seem.) I'll even think about setting up a schedule for checking Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, Bloglines, etc. (I think I'm the sort of person that works best on a schedule, at least for something like this. I guess that's my way to plan on keeping up.)
I plan to be back later in the week, to finish up. Right now, I need to do some collection development.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thing 21: Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks
This Thing covers other social networks such as Gather, WebJunction, and Ning. I was sure I'd been in Ning before, but it didn't recognize me. And once I got in, when I moved to another section, it didn't seem to recognize me. I've signed in three times so far (maybe it's just having a bad day.) Let's see if I can capture the code....
View my page on 23 Things on a Stick
I looked briefly at some of the other social sites, and again, if I had more time, it might be interesting to explore more. My problem is that I have TOO MANY interests (books, gardening, film, etc.) How to choose?
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I joined LinkedIn the other week. It seems to be a good social networking site for professionals, and has some "cred" at my institution. One of my coworkers teased me yesterday about not responding to him yet in Facebook. I'll get to it soon. I like the fact that you can put in information about what you like (favorite books, films, quotes, etc.), but part of me is still dubious about this. How much do I want the greater universe to know about me? How much personal information do I really want floating out there?
Well, I've spent an hour on this today, and I'd better get back to updating my web guides. I'd like them to be finished when fall classes start in less than two weeks, and I've still got a stack to work on.
Be seeing you!
View my page on 23 Things on a Stick
I looked briefly at some of the other social sites, and again, if I had more time, it might be interesting to explore more. My problem is that I have TOO MANY interests (books, gardening, film, etc.) How to choose?
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I joined LinkedIn the other week. It seems to be a good social networking site for professionals, and has some "cred" at my institution. One of my coworkers teased me yesterday about not responding to him yet in Facebook. I'll get to it soon. I like the fact that you can put in information about what you like (favorite books, films, quotes, etc.), but part of me is still dubious about this. How much do I want the greater universe to know about me? How much personal information do I really want floating out there?
Well, I've spent an hour on this today, and I'd better get back to updating my web guides. I'd like them to be finished when fall classes start in less than two weeks, and I've still got a stack to work on.
Be seeing you!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Thing 20: Libraries and Social Networks (Facebook, MySpace, etc.)
I'm up to social networks, including Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn (not mentioned in this Thing, but it may be coming.) I've heard about the first two for years now, but being a busy professional and parent of a not-yet-teen, I haven't ventured there. Just before I went on vacation, one of my coworkers sent me an invitation to join LinkedIn, so I did. (Then I "friended" several of my coworkers and promptly went on vacation - I still need to go back and respond to their responses.) So now I've joined Facebook, found some of my coworkers and sent them notes, started browsing through the list of people who graduated from the same high school (I stopped at 100, because I need to get this Thing finished. And I'll have to work on my profile more, too.) I was confused about "write on at least one wall," but I watched one of the video tutorials and figured that out (I suspect that the woman doing the Expert Village is Canadian - based on her pronunication of the word "about.")
For now, I just joined the 23 Things on a Stick Group, but I have in my notes that several of my "social networks" (listservs, business/academic librarians, fan groups) have groups in Facebook, so I'll have to add some down the line.
One of my colleagues has set up a Facebook page for our libraries, which he uses in new student orientation. Now that I'm in Facebook, I'll have to check it out and see if he's been updating it, added a link to the catalog and our Ask a Librarian service, etc.
Why do I think Facebook is growing rapidly? Well, I glanced briefly at MySpace, and it looked busy and glitzy to me. However, last year I read an essay by Dana Boyd called "Viewing American Class Divisions through Facebook and MySpace" that makes me think that this question is not as simple as it sounds.
That's all for now - almost time to go home for the day.
For now, I just joined the 23 Things on a Stick Group, but I have in my notes that several of my "social networks" (listservs, business/academic librarians, fan groups) have groups in Facebook, so I'll have to add some down the line.
One of my colleagues has set up a Facebook page for our libraries, which he uses in new student orientation. Now that I'm in Facebook, I'll have to check it out and see if he's been updating it, added a link to the catalog and our Ask a Librarian service, etc.
Why do I think Facebook is growing rapidly? Well, I glanced briefly at MySpace, and it looked busy and glitzy to me. However, last year I read an essay by Dana Boyd called "Viewing American Class Divisions through Facebook and MySpace" that makes me think that this question is not as simple as it sounds.
That's all for now - almost time to go home for the day.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Thing 19: Podcasts
From the 23 Things on a Stick website - a nice definition of podcast:
"The word podcast is used to refer to a non-musical audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet....A podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS."
I've listened to things online (particularly radio program snippets: National Public Radio, Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know.) The Satellite Sisters used to be on the radio and are doing podcasting now.
I haven't subscribed to any podcasts until now, but since I've been nudged, I'll try Minnesota Public Radio's weather podcast, Jet Streaming. I heard an interview on climate change with Dr. James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. I have to pass on the "create your own podcast" option for now, since I'd like a little time to work up a script, and practice. But I'll keep it in mind.
P.S. Since I've been gone from blogging for a few weeks, I forgot about tagging. I have to go back and do some "remedial."
"The word podcast is used to refer to a non-musical audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet....A podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS."
I've listened to things online (particularly radio program snippets: National Public Radio, Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know.) The Satellite Sisters used to be on the radio and are doing podcasting now.
I haven't subscribed to any podcasts until now, but since I've been nudged, I'll try Minnesota Public Radio's weather podcast, Jet Streaming. I heard an interview on climate change with Dr. James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. I have to pass on the "create your own podcast" option for now, since I'd like a little time to work up a script, and practice. But I'll keep it in mind.
P.S. Since I've been gone from blogging for a few weeks, I forgot about tagging. I have to go back and do some "remedial."
Just one more YouTube!
OK, I'm being geeky here, but I just can't resist one more (from another of my interests), the 1938 match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral:
Back again with Thing 18: YouTube/Online Video
I've been gone for awhile (mostly vacation in Denver, Colorado), but it's time to move on to Thing 18. YouTube and I are old friends. I've watched bits of old television shows (Monty Python, Star Trek, Mathnet), commercials, library-related videos, and more. I've seen on various websites, LiveJournal, and blogs that you can embed a video, so now I get to try it (woo-hoo!)
And it's not going to be just ANY video. As a Doctor Who fan (SciFi Channel site, BBC site), I can't resist linking to a Doctor Who video. In 2007, David Tennant and Peter Davison (the current Doctor and a former Doctor) teamed up to produce "Time Crash," a special for Children in Need:
WELL, how cool is that!
I wish I had the technology to make my own videos, but I don't. I think it would be good for our library to produce one (and maybe we have, and I'm just not aware of it.) Some academic libraries are developing these for student orientation, or a "produce your own library video" contests for students to enter. Fun stuff.
I think to get a good library promotional video, you need some level of production values - a decent script, people that can act or perform reasonably, music as well. You need to be something of an artist to produce this, which I'm not (sigh.) I also prefer videos with a decent picture and sound (not always easy for those copy-of-a-copy for old TV things. Sometimes, you take what you can get.) Every now and then that old Copyright Fairy whispers in my ear, "You know, those film companies (TV companies, etc.) don't like this idea" - but I think some of them are learning to roll with the punches.
I almost lost this post once, so I'm going to publish it now. Then, on to the next Thing!
And it's not going to be just ANY video. As a Doctor Who fan (SciFi Channel site, BBC site), I can't resist linking to a Doctor Who video. In 2007, David Tennant and Peter Davison (the current Doctor and a former Doctor) teamed up to produce "Time Crash," a special for Children in Need:
WELL, how cool is that!
I wish I had the technology to make my own videos, but I don't. I think it would be good for our library to produce one (and maybe we have, and I'm just not aware of it.) Some academic libraries are developing these for student orientation, or a "produce your own library video" contests for students to enter. Fun stuff.
I think to get a good library promotional video, you need some level of production values - a decent script, people that can act or perform reasonably, music as well. You need to be something of an artist to produce this, which I'm not (sigh.) I also prefer videos with a decent picture and sound (not always easy for those copy-of-a-copy for old TV things. Sometimes, you take what you can get.) Every now and then that old Copyright Fairy whispers in my ear, "You know, those film companies (TV companies, etc.) don't like this idea" - but I think some of them are learning to roll with the punches.
I almost lost this post once, so I'm going to publish it now. Then, on to the next Thing!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Thing 17: ELM Productivity Tools
I've known about ELM (the Electronic Library for Minnesota)for a long time, mostly in my worklife. We've relied on the "statewide databases" (as we sometimes call them) to cover some of our basic subjects, and when ELM has picked up a subscription that we had (as when they picked up the EBSCO databases), it influences how we allocate our dollars. I've used them a bit for personal things, most notably last year when my daughter had a report for school on Native Americans that she hadn't finished (due the next day, of course), and she'd left most of her notes at school. What a help the ELM databases and the Minnesota History Center website were for us! I must agree with the one commenter on the 23Things site (near the bottom): thank you to the legislators and taxpayers that make these resources possible (as I often say to students, "our tax dollars in action!) The ELM databases that I use the most are Business Source Premier (hey, I'm a business librarian!), Academic Search Premier (good for economics), ProQuest Newsstand (wonderful), and of course WorldCat (good for verification, collection development, etc.)
It's easier for me to do this Thing through work (direct access vs. proxy server access), so that's what I'm doing. [Later] OK, I tried to use the Page Composer through EBSCO, and it lost several minutes of work just now, so I'll capture what I was trying to say here instead. I've been creating web pages for some time, using programs such as HotDog, Microsoft Front Page, Liquid Matrix, and Collage (not to mention our intranet.) I'm not happy with EBSCO losing my content so quickly and completely (no Undo, no Are You Sure, etc.), but I understand the need for something like this to let people experience creating a web page for the first time.
Ah, netLibrary. We go way back. We benefit from the statewide collections, and were part of the CLIC consortium group purchase for several years (I was a netLibrary selector a few years back.) I've used the notetaking feature, all of that fun stuff. A year or two ago, my library decided to look for another option for ebooks, which we're doing, but I still find the netLibrary titles, and I've benefitted from them. Students find ebooks very convenient.
How can I use these tools? I use them every day in my work. For my job, we do searches to keep current in the field, or do environmental scanning to see what's up. As I said above, I use WorldCat weekly for collection development, referring patrons to nearby libraries, etc. Our students and faculty use these resources in their coursework, and for their research. Bravo!
It's easier for me to do this Thing through work (direct access vs. proxy server access), so that's what I'm doing. [Later] OK, I tried to use the Page Composer through EBSCO, and it lost several minutes of work just now, so I'll capture what I was trying to say here instead. I've been creating web pages for some time, using programs such as HotDog, Microsoft Front Page, Liquid Matrix, and Collage (not to mention our intranet.) I'm not happy with EBSCO losing my content so quickly and completely (no Undo, no Are You Sure, etc.), but I understand the need for something like this to let people experience creating a web page for the first time.
Ah, netLibrary. We go way back. We benefit from the statewide collections, and were part of the CLIC consortium group purchase for several years (I was a netLibrary selector a few years back.) I've used the notetaking feature, all of that fun stuff. A year or two ago, my library decided to look for another option for ebooks, which we're doing, but I still find the netLibrary titles, and I've benefitted from them. Students find ebooks very convenient.
How can I use these tools? I use them every day in my work. For my job, we do searches to keep current in the field, or do environmental scanning to see what's up. As I said above, I use WorldCat weekly for collection development, referring patrons to nearby libraries, etc. Our students and faculty use these resources in their coursework, and for their research. Bravo!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thing 16: Student 2.0 Tools
This Thing considers some tools developed by the University of Minnesota, Minitex, and MnLink: the Assignment Calculator (for undergraduate students) and the Research Project Calculator (for secondary students.) I have had my eye on the Assignment Calculator for a long time, and had it on my "wish list" for our library website. Why can't we use this, or at least link to it? I've asked more than once. But it's never risen to the top of anyone's priority list.
So now I have a chance to look at it in some detail. I didn't realize that it links to content beyond the U of M (UNC, for example.) That's interesting, and very collaborative. I have one problem with the layout of their steps: on the timeline it produced for me, finding and using websites comes up as Step 7. Why is this so late in the process, out of synch with how most students do research today? Yes, it makes sense to look at books early on - they take time to get, to read, to take notes, etc. But not addressing the fact that many students START their research with the web, it's like not addressing the elephant in the room. (And does it make sense not to address evaluating sources until Step 10, AFTER you've written the first draft? Oh, well.)
With that said, there's a lot of good information here. I like the fact that you can get email reminders for the project (I wonder if students today would prefer text message reminders?) I'm not sure how I would use it with the students I work with (mostly upper division and graduate students.) This would be great in connection with an English writing class, or an introductory class in your major field in connection with a specific project.
The Research Project Calculator is a fantastic idea - I could have used something like that myself. I suspect that my daughter (she just finished fourth grade) has brought home some sheets like this. Hmmm....
Could we use this for project management at work? Perhaps. It would take some adjustment. I haven't had a chance to use some of the commercial project management tools that people talk about (some people assume you have access to this and understand project management concepts, even if you've never been exposed to them.) It's worth pondering.
Oops, I have to go to a meeting now - on staff training!
So now I have a chance to look at it in some detail. I didn't realize that it links to content beyond the U of M (UNC, for example.) That's interesting, and very collaborative. I have one problem with the layout of their steps: on the timeline it produced for me, finding and using websites comes up as Step 7. Why is this so late in the process, out of synch with how most students do research today? Yes, it makes sense to look at books early on - they take time to get, to read, to take notes, etc. But not addressing the fact that many students START their research with the web, it's like not addressing the elephant in the room. (And does it make sense not to address evaluating sources until Step 10, AFTER you've written the first draft? Oh, well.)
With that said, there's a lot of good information here. I like the fact that you can get email reminders for the project (I wonder if students today would prefer text message reminders?) I'm not sure how I would use it with the students I work with (mostly upper division and graduate students.) This would be great in connection with an English writing class, or an introductory class in your major field in connection with a specific project.
The Research Project Calculator is a fantastic idea - I could have used something like that myself. I suspect that my daughter (she just finished fourth grade) has brought home some sheets like this. Hmmm....
Could we use this for project management at work? Perhaps. It would take some adjustment. I haven't had a chance to use some of the commercial project management tools that people talk about (some people assume you have access to this and understand project management concepts, even if you've never been exposed to them.) It's worth pondering.
Oops, I have to go to a meeting now - on staff training!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Thing 15: Online Gaming and Libraries
I just noticed that Blogger is going down in 25 minutes for maintenance, so I'd better make this short. This Thing is about online gaming, including the examples of Puzzle Pirates and Second Life (which is a 3D world, not a game, but whatever.) I watched the Second Life video, and may come back later to explore it more. (I'm getting a new computer in the next few days, and I realized after I downloaded the del.icio.us stuff the other day that it probably won't transfer to my new computer. I wonder what else I'll have to do over?) I've seen presentations on Second Life, and it's just not my thing. The closest I've come to intense gaming is the computer game Myst (CD-ROM, rather than online.) My husband was quite involved, and solved many of the puzzles (I think he has both the first and second games.) I tried, but the puzzles were too mechanical for my mind. I need to get off Blogger before it goes down. Maybe I'll try one of the above and come back later to blog about it.
Thing 14: LibraryThing
Aha! I thought. I'm one up on this Thing! I played with LibraryThing a year ago, so I should be just find. And how long do you think it took me to FIND my LibraryThing account? Don't ask. And LibraryThing doesn't require an email address, so I couldn't email them to ask. And then Life Happened again. Anyway, I found my LibraryThing information (from December 2006, further back than I thought.) While I have 40-odd titles in there already, I took this opportunity to add a few more. You get 200 books for free, then you can pay $10.00 for a year, or $25.00 for life. LibraryThing is very cool, definitely what I'd call a "killer app" (as in "killer application," something to really get you to use a computer product.) If I had more time, I would be putting in a lot more of my books.
I know of a couple of colleagues who use LibraryThing for collection development, adding the library's new books in their subject to LibraryThing and encouraging faculty to look and make suggestions. (Obviously, I haven't gotten there yet, but it's an interesting idea.) While the students I work with don't use books very much, we do publish a summer reading list which would lend itself to LibraryThing very well.
I was going to try adding a LibraryThing widget to this blog, but I'm still leaning on the "do I really want the world to know this?" side of things, so I'll abstain.
I know of a couple of colleagues who use LibraryThing for collection development, adding the library's new books in their subject to LibraryThing and encouraging faculty to look and make suggestions. (Obviously, I haven't gotten there yet, but it's an interesting idea.) While the students I work with don't use books very much, we do publish a summer reading list which would lend itself to LibraryThing very well.
I was going to try adding a LibraryThing widget to this blog, but I'm still leaning on the "do I really want the world to know this?" side of things, so I'll abstain.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Thing 13: Online Productivity Tools
Now, THIS is more like it! Here is a Thing that makes sense to me. We've been talking about user customization and portals at my library for some time, and now I get to see some portal-like things in action. I don't know that I'll convert to using one as my home page (I'm still not excited about sharing so much personal information etc. with a dot-com entity, and signing away my rights to my own information), but it's a very interesting concept.
Before making my choice, I looked at all three customized home page options: iGoogle, PageFlakes, and My Yahoo! Of the three, I had heard of iGoogle and My Yahoo before. I was least impressed with iGoogle: as a native St. Paulite, I was annoyed that iGoogle thought I was interested in Minneapolis! ;^) It's default news was from CNN - just not very "in touch" with me yet. My Yahoo knew I was from St. Paul, had St. Paul Pioneer Press news stories, and had weather information on the top (the weather is always important to Minnesotans - we know what it can do to us.) But the My Yahoo page design at my browser display required me to scroll across to see the entire screen, which I don't like (nothing like a "hey, can't you read this screen" reminder in your face.)
So I went with PageFlakes, the unknown quantity. It had the weather in the upper left (which I totally agree with.) It knew I was from St. Paul, and had St. Paul news stores (from the Strib, but that's life.) And it just felt better. So I spent too much time tweaking my settings. I could play with this a lot more, but I need to move on.
Online calendars: curiously, the link went to page 2 of the Wired magazine article about them. Google and Yahoo again - have I mentioned that I don't like to put all of my online eggs in one basket? I don't like the world according to Microsoft, so I don't think I'm going to give my life to Google just yet. (Personally, I use Ask.com for my web searching.) And while I have an email account with one of the big names (I think it's Yahoo), I don't use it. I'm still hoping that my personal tech person will get my old personal email account fixed, since we are paying for it and all.
We use Outlook Calendar at work, and while it has its quirks, I've gotten used to them. Back in the day, I could sync my handheld at work, and have my stuff in two places. But I lost that with the last computer upgrade. We rely on Outlook Calendar at work, and rely on it heavily for scheduling meetings, etc. My work calendar is too crucial to risk confusing it, and unfortunately I don't have time to maintain multiple calendars. However, I could see using one if you're scheduling people in multiple organizations, or for volunteer activities.
By the way, I do sync my handheld at home, and its "killer application" is the list feature. I have all of my lists there - books I've read, things to buy, ingredients for some of my favorite recipes, movies to watch/buy, clothes my daughter has/needs, etc., etc. It might be nice to use one of these productivity tools for that, BUT the way it is now, at least it's private.)
For the list options (Remember the Milk and Ta da List) - again, my handheld lists are my killer ap. I'm not ready to share them with the world yet. Although I can see the point of it in project management, event planning, etc.
Before making my choice, I looked at all three customized home page options: iGoogle, PageFlakes, and My Yahoo! Of the three, I had heard of iGoogle and My Yahoo before. I was least impressed with iGoogle: as a native St. Paulite, I was annoyed that iGoogle thought I was interested in Minneapolis! ;^) It's default news was from CNN - just not very "in touch" with me yet. My Yahoo knew I was from St. Paul, had St. Paul Pioneer Press news stories, and had weather information on the top (the weather is always important to Minnesotans - we know what it can do to us.) But the My Yahoo page design at my browser display required me to scroll across to see the entire screen, which I don't like (nothing like a "hey, can't you read this screen" reminder in your face.)
So I went with PageFlakes, the unknown quantity. It had the weather in the upper left (which I totally agree with.) It knew I was from St. Paul, and had St. Paul news stores (from the Strib, but that's life.) And it just felt better. So I spent too much time tweaking my settings. I could play with this a lot more, but I need to move on.
Online calendars: curiously, the link went to page 2 of the Wired magazine article about them. Google and Yahoo again - have I mentioned that I don't like to put all of my online eggs in one basket? I don't like the world according to Microsoft, so I don't think I'm going to give my life to Google just yet. (Personally, I use Ask.com for my web searching.) And while I have an email account with one of the big names (I think it's Yahoo), I don't use it. I'm still hoping that my personal tech person will get my old personal email account fixed, since we are paying for it and all.
We use Outlook Calendar at work, and while it has its quirks, I've gotten used to them. Back in the day, I could sync my handheld at work, and have my stuff in two places. But I lost that with the last computer upgrade. We rely on Outlook Calendar at work, and rely on it heavily for scheduling meetings, etc. My work calendar is too crucial to risk confusing it, and unfortunately I don't have time to maintain multiple calendars. However, I could see using one if you're scheduling people in multiple organizations, or for volunteer activities.
By the way, I do sync my handheld at home, and its "killer application" is the list feature. I have all of my lists there - books I've read, things to buy, ingredients for some of my favorite recipes, movies to watch/buy, clothes my daughter has/needs, etc., etc. It might be nice to use one of these productivity tools for that, BUT the way it is now, at least it's private.)
For the list options (Remember the Milk and Ta da List) - again, my handheld lists are my killer ap. I'm not ready to share them with the world yet. Although I can see the point of it in project management, event planning, etc.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Thing 12: Social Media Sites
I've heard of Digg, Reddit, etc., but never had occasion to use them. I think (hope) that this is the wrong time of year to be evaluating something like this. Here's a sampling of today's popular stories:
Digg: Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo talking to a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee; movie review for the new Batman/Dark Knight movie; pictures of the most memorable home runs in Yankee Stadium history. I was impressed that this did change from when I first looked at it 10 minutes ago (the "Yankee Stadium home run pics" item was at the top, now third on the list.)
Reddit: Something about Karl Rove posted directly to Reddit; a picture of something about asbestos; Comcast cancels MSNBC but keeps Fox News.
Today these don't seem to be earth-shattering items. I could see when a big story hits (as we come up on August 1, the 35W bridge collapse comes to mind) that these would be compelling, but today's sampling seems a little more ephemeral. On the news sites, the BBC has footage of the Queen when she was a child, and it's usual good selection of international news. I could see these tools being both enhancing or detracting from productivity (you could spend way too much time with this sort of thing.) I think the fact that I'm in an academic library gives me a certain perspective on this; we don't get many questions about newsy items at my library (the economy, sports economics, social responsibility - all yes, not so much pop culture. We do share stories from the New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education with colleagues.
Digg: Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo talking to a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee; movie review for the new Batman/Dark Knight movie; pictures of the most memorable home runs in Yankee Stadium history. I was impressed that this did change from when I first looked at it 10 minutes ago (the "Yankee Stadium home run pics" item was at the top, now third on the list.)
Reddit: Something about Karl Rove posted directly to Reddit; a picture of something about asbestos; Comcast cancels MSNBC but keeps Fox News.
Today these don't seem to be earth-shattering items. I could see when a big story hits (as we come up on August 1, the 35W bridge collapse comes to mind) that these would be compelling, but today's sampling seems a little more ephemeral. On the news sites, the BBC has footage of the Queen when she was a child, and it's usual good selection of international news. I could see these tools being both enhancing or detracting from productivity (you could spend way too much time with this sort of thing.) I think the fact that I'm in an academic library gives me a certain perspective on this; we don't get many questions about newsy items at my library (the economy, sports economics, social responsibility - all yes, not so much pop culture. We do share stories from the New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education with colleagues.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Thing 11: Tagging and Del.icio.us
I have heard a lot about Del.icio.us for some time, and now it's time to take the plunge.... OK, so it wants me to close my browser windows after I've installed the Del.icio.us buttons. Good grief. I had to do this yesterday, when the network rebooted, and some things didn't come back on my machine. Don't these systems realize that I have multiple brower sessions open at any given time? (seven at the moment, between two browsers.) Plus I'm supposed to be blogging about this while I do it. Hmmm. So I have to log off, and come back to this.
Later - I'll have to come back to this when I have more time to explore it. I put in a few bookmarks, and it's nice to have the easy-to-get-to tabs now. When I get more of my bookmarks in, I can use this as I go between our campus libraries, as well as at our reference desk (where the computer is occasionally re-imaged, so one's bookmarks go poof.)
At the recent SLA conference, I attended a session about making your content more accessible, and how you should make your content as searchable as possible. I asked, what about those libraries whose major content is licensed, and not owned by them? The panelist suggested creating Del.icio.us lists. I can see this, especially for quick reading lists, projects, assignments, etc. It would be interesting to try it at a larger level. I wonder what current college students think of this - is it "old" technology to them already? It would also be good in a ready reference setting - sources to answer a particular question, assignment, etc. The copyright thing does make this tricky.
I poked around in the Minn23 account a bit. Thanks to whoever posted the list from PLA of librarians in literature (mysteries, etc.) That was fun! I'm always on the lookout for reading list.
I'll be back another time; I have some reference questions to work on.
Later - I'll have to come back to this when I have more time to explore it. I put in a few bookmarks, and it's nice to have the easy-to-get-to tabs now. When I get more of my bookmarks in, I can use this as I go between our campus libraries, as well as at our reference desk (where the computer is occasionally re-imaged, so one's bookmarks go poof.)
At the recent SLA conference, I attended a session about making your content more accessible, and how you should make your content as searchable as possible. I asked, what about those libraries whose major content is licensed, and not owned by them? The panelist suggested creating Del.icio.us lists. I can see this, especially for quick reading lists, projects, assignments, etc. It would be interesting to try it at a larger level. I wonder what current college students think of this - is it "old" technology to them already? It would also be good in a ready reference setting - sources to answer a particular question, assignment, etc. The copyright thing does make this tricky.
I poked around in the Minn23 account a bit. Thanks to whoever posted the list from PLA of librarians in literature (mysteries, etc.) That was fun! I'm always on the lookout for reading list.
I'll be back another time; I have some reference questions to work on.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Back to Thing 9
I forgot to update you on the Flash Player situation (re slide sharing.) My husband was able to look at the slides on his laptop, so at least someone can see them.
Thing 9 is Online Collaboration Tools. I got the email invitations for Zoho Writer and Google Docs. In Zoho Writer, it was a little confusing to know what to do at first, and I had to change my screen display to find the Sign Out button (I don't appreciate websites that don't work on my browser settings!) It was fine otherwise. Google Docs was a little easier for some reason, and I like the ease of linking, and describing flyover text (haven't had the chance to do that before!) And it didn't make me reset my browser!
What would the Founding Fathers think of it? Well, I'm a big fan of the movie 1776, and I just think of Adams and Jefferson quarreling about "unalienable" and "inalienable," much less the southern delegates taking out the condemnation of slavery, and the northerners putting in right back in. At some point, they'd have to come up with what we at work call a "gold" (final) copy.
Next time, on to Thing 11!
Thing 9 is Online Collaboration Tools. I got the email invitations for Zoho Writer and Google Docs. In Zoho Writer, it was a little confusing to know what to do at first, and I had to change my screen display to find the Sign Out button (I don't appreciate websites that don't work on my browser settings!) It was fine otherwise. Google Docs was a little easier for some reason, and I like the ease of linking, and describing flyover text (haven't had the chance to do that before!) And it didn't make me reset my browser!
What would the Founding Fathers think of it? Well, I'm a big fan of the movie 1776, and I just think of Adams and Jefferson quarreling about "unalienable" and "inalienable," much less the southern delegates taking out the condemnation of slavery, and the northerners putting in right back in. At some point, they'd have to come up with what we at work call a "gold" (final) copy.
Next time, on to Thing 11!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Things 9 and 10: Online Collaboration Tools, and Wikis
A couple of updates, first:
My daughter is visiting relatives in Wyoming, so the other night we tried Skype for the first time (I think I can count this as a 2.0 tool.) Skype lets you communicate online, using a microphone and/or a webcamera. My sister-in-law uses Skype to teach non-English speakers online, and this was our chance to hook up with her for a live demo. It was very interesting (although my personal computer support spouse didn't get to tell me why Voice Over IP and TCP/IP don't always play well together.) The same computer spouse would like to point out that it took days, rather than hours, to fix his personal email last summer. That may be, but his is working now, and mine still isn't....
We're having network problems today at work, so while I'll come back to Thing 9 later and move on to Thing 10, Wikis. We have used a wiki in our libraries for a couple of years now; we use it for technology tips, conference and training reports, and some project brainstorming. I like the fact that the wiki software is smart enough to know when you're linking to a web page, and it deletes any extraneous part of the address (the extra "http://" that you sometimes get when you copy and paste), while the content management system we use for our website can't do that. Hmmm.
I like the idea of wikis as collaborative workspaces, whether is trip or conference planning (which I've seen for library- and non-library situations), project planning, or idea collecting. It's probably one 2.0 tool that I've used a lot. I could see it as a way to plan a poster session or conference report, to share departmental information, for teaching - lots of things. We've looked at Chad Boeninger's Biz Wiki at Ohio University Libraries (business research guides in wiki format - very cool.)
About Wikipedia - I'm not very sympathetic with a general ban on Wikipedia or similar resources. I don't think it's necessarily less reliable than any other source; there are times that it's an appropriate resource, and times that it isn't. I use it myself for quick lookups, or background information on certain things.
I went into the 23 Things Wiki and editing a few things (added a comment on the front page, editing some literary classics, and added a B movie.) Very straightforward.
The network is still being slow, so I'll have to come back later for Thing 9.
My daughter is visiting relatives in Wyoming, so the other night we tried Skype for the first time (I think I can count this as a 2.0 tool.) Skype lets you communicate online, using a microphone and/or a webcamera. My sister-in-law uses Skype to teach non-English speakers online, and this was our chance to hook up with her for a live demo. It was very interesting (although my personal computer support spouse didn't get to tell me why Voice Over IP and TCP/IP don't always play well together.) The same computer spouse would like to point out that it took days, rather than hours, to fix his personal email last summer. That may be, but his is working now, and mine still isn't....
We're having network problems today at work, so while I'll come back to Thing 9 later and move on to Thing 10, Wikis. We have used a wiki in our libraries for a couple of years now; we use it for technology tips, conference and training reports, and some project brainstorming. I like the fact that the wiki software is smart enough to know when you're linking to a web page, and it deletes any extraneous part of the address (the extra "http://" that you sometimes get when you copy and paste), while the content management system we use for our website can't do that. Hmmm.
I like the idea of wikis as collaborative workspaces, whether is trip or conference planning (which I've seen for library- and non-library situations), project planning, or idea collecting. It's probably one 2.0 tool that I've used a lot. I could see it as a way to plan a poster session or conference report, to share departmental information, for teaching - lots of things. We've looked at Chad Boeninger's Biz Wiki at Ohio University Libraries (business research guides in wiki format - very cool.)
About Wikipedia - I'm not very sympathetic with a general ban on Wikipedia or similar resources. I don't think it's necessarily less reliable than any other source; there are times that it's an appropriate resource, and times that it isn't. I use it myself for quick lookups, or background information on certain things.
I went into the 23 Things Wiki and editing a few things (added a comment on the front page, editing some literary classics, and added a B movie.) Very straightforward.
The network is still being slow, so I'll have to come back later for Thing 9.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Thing 8: Sharing Your Creations
This Thing is about sharing content. This is good. Some years ago we went to sharing electronic folders at work, the idea being that someone could create a document, and someone else on campus could add to it. We had problems with the permissions across departments and campuses, and eventually moved on to other technologies. (Note: I can't see the "Web 2.0 Tools in Your Classroom" slideshow because I don't have the right version of Flash Player. Grrr. Not my fault.)
I'm a little surprised to realize that I don't have recent Powerpoints or slide presentations that are just mine. For my library instruction sessions, I've gone much more to the joys of live demos, rather than using slides. And the slides that I have done are group projects, so I don't feel right in posting them. So I've done a quick-and-dirty slide show just to test SlideShare, waiting for it to load...
Well, here it is, my Slide Show for 23 Things on a Stick. And guess what? I still don't have Flash Player 9, so I can't see it!
I can see that sharing like this can be great. While some conferences (Computers in Libraries is one) makes an effort to get presenters to post their slides on the conference website, others do not. I know that at the recent Special Libraries Association conference in Seattle, some people mentioned that they would be posting their materials there. And I can certainly see it if you're doing this collaboratively, with people at a distance. I'm a little annoyed about the Flash Player business. I wonder how many others run into this roadblock? I assume when my computer is upgraded later this summer that this won't be a problem, but what would I do otherwise?
I'm a little surprised to realize that I don't have recent Powerpoints or slide presentations that are just mine. For my library instruction sessions, I've gone much more to the joys of live demos, rather than using slides. And the slides that I have done are group projects, so I don't feel right in posting them. So I've done a quick-and-dirty slide show just to test SlideShare, waiting for it to load...
Well, here it is, my Slide Show for 23 Things on a Stick. And guess what? I still don't have Flash Player 9, so I can't see it!
I can see that sharing like this can be great. While some conferences (Computers in Libraries is one) makes an effort to get presenters to post their slides on the conference website, others do not. I know that at the recent Special Libraries Association conference in Seattle, some people mentioned that they would be posting their materials there. And I can certainly see it if you're doing this collaboratively, with people at a distance. I'm a little annoyed about the Flash Player business. I wonder how many others run into this roadblock? I assume when my computer is upgraded later this summer that this won't be a problem, but what would I do otherwise?
Thing 7: Web 2.0 Communication Tools
This Thing deals with communication tools.
Email: Where I work, we've been using our current email system (Microsoft Outlook) since 1999. I have some emails (meeting minutes, etc.) from our previous email system going back to the early Nineties. Outlook has more features than our previous system (All-in-1, I think) - folders, good searching.) We use email a lot at work, for communication and reporting. I haven't used many other systems, but I've reached an OK meeting-of-minds with Microsoft on this. We have an external spam filter that is slow to load, and seems to change its settings every few weeks (you know this when a email from someone you need to hear from gets caught there.) It can only display 1000 messages at a time, so if you don't check every day, it can take you awhile to figure out just how much is in there. I would say it improves productivity as a convenient way to share the same message with many people, plus we can save it in a central location for use later (for example, for minutes, why did we decide to do something a certain way?)
My personal email disappeared last summer, while we were on vacation. Our provider did an upgrade, and my stuff went poof. (Needless to say, my personal tech support-spouse's account with the same provider was fixed within hours. Since he is one of two people that actually might READ my blog, I'll just add, hi, dear!) A few months ago I got a Yahoo Mail account because I had to register for something within Yahoo for my work, but I haven't really used it yet.
Instant Messaging (IM): We've been using IM for reference for about a year and a half. We started with AOL, then GAIM/Pidgin, now we're pretty much using Meebo. We set up accounts and practiced in-house for awhile before we started offering it as a service. We have divided responsibility for checking IM between two of our libraries, with whoever is covering the reference desk also covering IM (we also have an evening supervisor who covers late night.) Some questions I've had are quick ones (where do I find my barcode? do you have this journal?), but some are complex enough that I ask the person if I can email them back (I had a question like that last week, that turned into a lengthy consultation.) Meebo doesn't always notify us when there's a question; maybe we need to check some settings.
Text Messaging (SMS - Short Message Service): We don't offer text messaging yet in my library (no one has pushed for it, so far.) Hmmm. Let's see if I can figure out how to do this on my cell phone (someone sent me a text message at a conference last month, but I had never used that feature on my phone!) ***** OK, I've sent a text message, and found where the other one is. It took too many keystrokes for me to figure out (someone said to me, "you're phone doesn't have many keys, does it? I'll hope it's the phone, and not me.) I wouldn't say that I'm an "active" user of these services, but I regularly cover IM as part of my job.
Web Conferencing: Oh, yeah. I've done Minitex webinars, vendor webinars, OPAL once or twice, ACRL, Learning Times, etc. I even did a presentation for some of my colleagues once that we recording in Breeze, so that people could watch it later. Recently I've attended "Teaching Old Services New Tricks" and "Best Practices in Online Reference Services" (both from Minitex.) While I don't have my notes handy, I recall that the "Best Practices" session had several useful tips. Webinars are very convenient. I'm more likely to do something online (if the price is reasonable) than schlep somewhere else to do it.
More: we used Google Groups in May to discuss "discovery layer" options in our library consortium's online catalog. I'm going to pass on Twitter right now; I heard on public radio this morning that they're having some problems right now (and I've spent enough time on this Thing as it is!)
Since I don't think I linked to this earlier, for my two regular readers, here's more information on 23 Things on a Stick.
Email: Where I work, we've been using our current email system (Microsoft Outlook) since 1999. I have some emails (meeting minutes, etc.) from our previous email system going back to the early Nineties. Outlook has more features than our previous system (All-in-1, I think) - folders, good searching.) We use email a lot at work, for communication and reporting. I haven't used many other systems, but I've reached an OK meeting-of-minds with Microsoft on this. We have an external spam filter that is slow to load, and seems to change its settings every few weeks (you know this when a email from someone you need to hear from gets caught there.) It can only display 1000 messages at a time, so if you don't check every day, it can take you awhile to figure out just how much is in there. I would say it improves productivity as a convenient way to share the same message with many people, plus we can save it in a central location for use later (for example, for minutes, why did we decide to do something a certain way?)
My personal email disappeared last summer, while we were on vacation. Our provider did an upgrade, and my stuff went poof. (Needless to say, my personal tech support-spouse's account with the same provider was fixed within hours. Since he is one of two people that actually might READ my blog, I'll just add, hi, dear!) A few months ago I got a Yahoo Mail account because I had to register for something within Yahoo for my work, but I haven't really used it yet.
Instant Messaging (IM): We've been using IM for reference for about a year and a half. We started with AOL, then GAIM/Pidgin, now we're pretty much using Meebo. We set up accounts and practiced in-house for awhile before we started offering it as a service. We have divided responsibility for checking IM between two of our libraries, with whoever is covering the reference desk also covering IM (we also have an evening supervisor who covers late night.) Some questions I've had are quick ones (where do I find my barcode? do you have this journal?), but some are complex enough that I ask the person if I can email them back (I had a question like that last week, that turned into a lengthy consultation.) Meebo doesn't always notify us when there's a question; maybe we need to check some settings.
Text Messaging (SMS - Short Message Service): We don't offer text messaging yet in my library (no one has pushed for it, so far.) Hmmm. Let's see if I can figure out how to do this on my cell phone (someone sent me a text message at a conference last month, but I had never used that feature on my phone!) ***** OK, I've sent a text message, and found where the other one is. It took too many keystrokes for me to figure out (someone said to me, "you're phone doesn't have many keys, does it? I'll hope it's the phone, and not me.) I wouldn't say that I'm an "active" user of these services, but I regularly cover IM as part of my job.
Web Conferencing: Oh, yeah. I've done Minitex webinars, vendor webinars, OPAL once or twice, ACRL, Learning Times, etc. I even did a presentation for some of my colleagues once that we recording in Breeze, so that people could watch it later. Recently I've attended "Teaching Old Services New Tricks" and "Best Practices in Online Reference Services" (both from Minitex.) While I don't have my notes handy, I recall that the "Best Practices" session had several useful tips. Webinars are very convenient. I'm more likely to do something online (if the price is reasonable) than schlep somewhere else to do it.
More: we used Google Groups in May to discuss "discovery layer" options in our library consortium's online catalog. I'm going to pass on Twitter right now; I heard on public radio this morning that they're having some problems right now (and I've spent enough time on this Thing as it is!)
Since I don't think I linked to this earlier, for my two regular readers, here's more information on 23 Things on a Stick.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Thing 6: Online Image Generators
Hey, this is fun! (I'm going to have to play with Image Chef sometime. I like that idea.) Here's the trading card (left), and here's the full shot, captioned (right.) My dog, Moccasin, is in the photo with me. I realized as I was working through this Thing that to make a trading card, I really should have a recent photo of myself. Tricky. So I went to our family's website and looked to see what was there. I chose not to use one of our Harney Peak photos from last summer, since my daughter was also in those, so you see me in our neighborhood, walking Moccasin. I had a technical problem with the trading card (the image was larger than the space allotted, and I don't have the skills to crop it), so it took me awhile to adjust it to my satisfaction. While flipping through our photos, I saw that my husband had a really nice photo of the 35W bridge reconstruction (they've been doing tours every Saturday, and we went in May), and I really think he/we should post it to Flickr. We'll see.
I really, REALLY like the Carleton trading cards. I could definitely see us doing something like that to reach out to undergraduates, if some camera-shy folks would give it a try. I wonder how they made the "Librarian Heroes" image?
Thing 5: More Flickr Fun
I'm not sure how much fun I'm having with Flickr. It seems to take me too longer to figure out how to do things. I can hard-code html if I have to, so I must be trying too hard, or something. Let's see if the Fun Flickr thing copies over the way I want it to....
Err. The above is from the Spell with Flickr feature - my name, in Flickr images. It's kind of fun, actually. But for some reason, Blogger loaded it at the top of the page, rather than where my cursor was. And when I copied the code, I got twice as much code as I needed, so I had two sets of letters, and some messed-up code. But I was able to go into the "Edit Html" tab and delete what I didn't want. I wanted to do the puzzle one, but it took a while to find a photo on my computer that I could safely assume was not copyrighted, and then the service wanted me to create an account. Since I'm planning to set up Facebook and LinkedIn accounts this summer, I don't need another account right now. ;^)
If I had more time, it would be fun to play with the Yahoo! Travel Trip Planner (listed under "Look here" in the first paragraph of Thing 5.) We're going to Denver in August, and no one has done a Yahoo Travel mashup with Denver in it, yet. Recently I saw a mashup for this year's ALA in Anaheim, which had maps and photos of the conference location, information on local restaurants, etc. That looked VERY handy. As someone who goes to science fiction conventions, I appreciate how hard it can be to find some of that local information (what IS the nearest grocery store, drug store, or copy center outside the hotel? what about good cheap food?)
Sharing photos of objects (buildings, signs, sights, etc.) is fun. I'm still a bit uncertain on the "sharing pictures of people" part, especially children. How we could we use these tools at my library? Advertising/promotion for sure. A mashup might be a nice addition to the directions and maps we have on our website. On to the next Thing!
*****************Well, not yet, I guess. I just got this error message from Blogger: "Your HTML cannot be accepted: Tags cannot enclose tags.." etc. Oh, well. I told it to ignore the html error, and it did.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Thing 4: Photosharing and Flickr
I've used Flickr several times to find particular pictures - things that I've seen traveling, or at conferences. When I visited the Seattle Public Library recently, I was quite impressed with their building and floor directories, so today I shared some photos of these with my colleagues. This photo was taken by TheLostDutchman in July 2007. It's a building directory showing all levels of Seattle Public.
By the way, I'm probably one of ten people left on the planet who don't have a digital camera. Nada. Spouse has two (I'd use his old one, except that the battery died and I don't know how to charge it, or where he put the memory card), daughter has it more or less on her new cellphone. No easy access to a digital camera at work, either. Sigh.
I have mixed feelings about the privacy of all this. My husband has posted photos of my daughter on our family website since she was born, but we don't like to have anything that gives away too much personal information. We're just touchy that way.
I think it would be great if my library got going on getting photos onto Flickr (but as I am technology-challenged in this area, it won't be me doing it at this point.)
Thing 3, coming up
Thing 3 is about RSS feeds, and subscribing to feeds. For me, this is a "clean up your house" exercise. I've had a Bloglines account for some time, but I haven't used it for quite awhile. For me, if I don't conciously add something to my routine, it may not be on my radar. So I went in and tidied: cleaned up the accumulated feeds, unsubscribed to some feeds, then added some. I also added Bloglines to the part of my Favorites list that I check on a regular basis, so maybe this time, it will stick. (I know some people favor Google Reader, but I don't like to put most of my eggs in any basket. I like to spread out the market share.)
I will try to be more faithful and more judicious in my use of Bloglines this time. Previously, since I had several subscriptions suggested by colleagues, I always had feeds that I didn't have time to read. So I felt guilty, or irritated, or something. I have now weeded down to things that I REALLY want to check regularly, so this should work better for me.
My favorite library-related blogs include ALA TechSource, LibrarianInBlack, The Shifted Librarian, and Free Range Librarian.
I will try to be more faithful and more judicious in my use of Bloglines this time. Previously, since I had several subscriptions suggested by colleagues, I always had feeds that I didn't have time to read. So I felt guilty, or irritated, or something. I have now weeded down to things that I REALLY want to check regularly, so this should work better for me.
My favorite library-related blogs include ALA TechSource, LibrarianInBlack, The Shifted Librarian, and Free Range Librarian.
Before Thing 3
I've been away from 23 Things for sometime - partly using up vacation time before the new fiscal year, also attending the Special Libraries Association Conference in Seattle. Best freebie at SLA: IBISWorld's "Flingshot Flying Monkey." I think it's an Outdoor Toy, but the nice folks at the IBISWorld booth thought it would be a great addition to a library instruction session, to keep students on their toes. ;^)
Fun things that I did in Seattle: toured the new Seattle Public Library (and bought a new tub duck for my daughter's collection), visited the Elliott Bay Book Company, and I took Bill Speidel's Underground Tour.
I still have to put up my notes from SLA; I may link to them down the line.
Fun things that I did in Seattle: toured the new Seattle Public Library (and bought a new tub duck for my daughter's collection), visited the Elliott Bay Book Company, and I took Bill Speidel's Underground Tour.
I still have to put up my notes from SLA; I may link to them down the line.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Thing 2 Musings
Before I muse, I have to say that Blogger has gotten more complicated since the last time I logged on. It wasn't happy with my cookie settings (which haven't changed lately, so it must be Blogger or Google that's being fussy.)
One reading that struck me in Thing 2 was the "The Ongoing Web Revolution." Some comments:
One reading that struck me in Thing 2 was the "The Ongoing Web Revolution." Some comments:
- "We trust our staff, and we know that when we expect the best of people that is usually what we get." There have been substantial changes at my workplace in the last year or so, and trust has taken a huge hit.
- "A well-trained staff is the key to utilizing social technologies." For various reasons, we don't have much training right now. We are encouraged to go to conferences and workshops, I give full marks there, but for the ongoing technology tools and questions, we don't have many resources.
- I really think that 2.0 is important, and that we need to push ahead on this (I'm here, and I've been touching base with 2.o ideas for awhile now.) But it's sometimes an uphill struggle.
How has the Internet affected your use of time at home or work?
- At home, not as much. I'm married to a tech guy, but we have one computer monitor (many computers, but one monitor.) At home, he's online much more than I am. I do have a website I check every day, and I do online ordering and look up the weather, but I'm online much more at work.
- At work: I'm a mid-career librarian, so I can remember the dark ages when doing an online search was a Big Deal (modems, dial-up, BRS and Dialog information utilities, and do a good search because the meter's running!) It is fantastic that patrons have so many resources at their fingertips, and can get to many things in full-text from home or work (even in their jammies.) But it's a continuing challenge for them to find what they need, to know where and how to look. I spend most of my workday online in some way, shape, or form, with looking things up online (through subscription resources or free websites), teaching and helping users how to do it themselves, updating web pages, giving users tips on the quirks of various resources (scroll down and hit the grey button to get to the reports, the link to the full text is in the left margin, here's how to find that company report or industry analysis.) We have gone from days of "we may not have much on your topic, but we can order it if you have time" to "yes, we have the International Journal of Really Cool Stuff," and even the full text of journals I've never heard of! But we still have the challenge of getting people to their stuff.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Thing 1
I had used Blogger before, but I spent some time looking around, changing settings, fonts, etc. I had never done an avatar before, and spent too much time playing around with that. After trying out several fashion options, it seemed a shame to just use the head of my avatar, so I opted for the full outfit (so fancy, basic jeans and t-shirt.) At least I found the glasses!
It's funny to have a Yahoo account on top of a Google account (like I needed another account.) I had to activate my Google account recently for a work-related project (did I remember setting up a Google account? No, but there it was.) The PTA at my daughter's school uses Yahoo Groups; now I could check that out (now that the school year's almost over.)
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a technophobe. I'm a mom. I get at most ten minutes of online time at home per day (can you say, computer spouse?) I'm online constantly at work, but doing work-related stuff, so having this chance to explore new technologies will be fun.
Thank you to the 23 Things on a Stick folks for running this over the summer. Many of us in academe wanted to participate, but just didn't have time earlier in the year.
It's funny to have a Yahoo account on top of a Google account (like I needed another account.) I had to activate my Google account recently for a work-related project (did I remember setting up a Google account? No, but there it was.) The PTA at my daughter's school uses Yahoo Groups; now I could check that out (now that the school year's almost over.)
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a technophobe. I'm a mom. I get at most ten minutes of online time at home per day (can you say, computer spouse?) I'm online constantly at work, but doing work-related stuff, so having this chance to explore new technologies will be fun.
Thank you to the 23 Things on a Stick folks for running this over the summer. Many of us in academe wanted to participate, but just didn't have time earlier in the year.
Initial musings
I'm signing up for 23 Things on a Stick, Minnesota's answer to the Library 2.0 program developed by Helene Blowers. Thing 1 includes creating a blog. Now this I've done before, for my place of work, but I haven't done a personal blog before. So I thought, my name's somewhat unusual. How many librarians named Marianne are there likely to be? It turns out there are at least two: one address had been deleted from Blogger and is no longer available; the other is MariannetheLibrarian from Texas. Who knew?
I'm a reference librarian at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. My subject specialties include business and economics. I'm also a science fiction fan, which I think helps in things 2.0.
I'm a reference librarian at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. My subject specialties include business and economics. I'm also a science fiction fan, which I think helps in things 2.0.
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