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!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
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.
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