#23 Finished at last!

TS Fay sort of interrupted my progress on this learning program but now I'm finished at last - yay!

Overall, this was a very, very good experience for me, both personally and professionally. It reminded me of some services that the library offers that I had kind of forgotten about (like Overdrive); it turned me on to some cool things that I had not done before (like Bloglines - I am a total addict now!), and it helped me get more comfortable with current Web technology, which will definitely help me in assisting library customers.

I do think, however, that the time commitment was greater than predicted, although I spent more time on some lessons than others. It was hard to find even one free hour a week to get to it, especially in the last few weeks, and I know of quite a few people who simply quit because they just couldn't find enough time to do it. Which is sad, but that's the climate in public libraries today - not enough funds to pay enough people to do the job. I worry about our future as an institution.

But back to the matter at hand. The other issue I had was that there wasn't a lot of consistency in the links that were included in each lesson. Some opened up a new window when you clicked on them, some didn't. Some were even broken and wouldn't work at all. This would have been very confusing to a newbie who didn't know their way around a Web site.

For the next go-around, I'd recommend a longer period of time to work on the lessons (how about just one lesson per week instead of several per week). I'd also like to recommend that someone go over each lesson with a fine-toothed comb and check all the links to make sure they work and are consistent. I'd recommend new windows for all offsite links so that learners don't navigate away from the original page, to which they must return to post their comment to finish the lesson.

As to the question of whether I would participate in similar programs in the future? Absolutely yes. It was very valuable and lots of fun. Thanks so much to everyone who worked on this!

#22 Overdrive

I enjoyed looking through Overdrive to see what new titles have been added since the last time I used it at least two years ago. Looks like there are some new titles since I last looked, so that's pretty cool.

It was easy to log in with my library card number & PIN - I liked not having to set up a separate account in order to use Overdrive like we have to do on so many of our online services (and in the ILLiad system as well - customers get very confused having to have two separate accounts for requesting things. But I digress.)

I'm not a fan of having to download a piece of software onto my PC in order to use Overdrive but I guess in order to have a book checked out and usable on your PC for a length of time, you have to have the software that enables you to access it until your checkout period has expired. I have the software loaded onto my home computer and have listened to a few titles (again, this was a while back) but probably won't do it at work - no time!

It was easy to search for titles and look at the selections by category, although I wish there were an easy way to break down the levels within each category. For example, I can look at all fiction, juvenile fiction and young adult fiction but I can't limit the SciFi/Fantasy category to exclude juvenile fiction and have to wade through many titles I'm probably not interested in. It would be nice if some additional searching capabilities were implemented to make it easier to find exactly what you want. The keyword search box is fairly limited but works well.

Other than that, though, I wonder how long we can afford to continue offering this online resource? Are people using it enough to justify the cost? I am not a big fan of audio books but I can see this increasing in popularity as more and more people get MP3 players that they can carry with them on trips, etc. If we can't afford to buy more titles due to the budget situation I'm concerned it won't get enough use to justify the cost. We can let customers know about it but if it doesn't offer what they want, they won't use it.

Nevertheless, an interesting resource, and one I tend to forget about, so thanks for the reminder.

#21 Podcasts with Odeo

I looked through Podcast Alley because I liked the name. It was easy to find podcasts of interest to me using the directory. When I found a podcast I was interested in I went to subscribe and found out this is one of the sites that requires you to download some software. Since I am at the public service desk right now (working on this between customers), downloading software isn't an option.

So I tried Odeo, and found that it was extremely easy to find a podcast I liked and add it to my Bloglines account using the RSS feed link on the podcast page. I added an audio program called The Skeptics Guide to the Universe, and although I haven't had a chance to really listen to it much, I did test it and found that it works perfectly with no requirement to download software of any kind. Much easier to deal with.

Fun!

#20: YouTube

YouTube is a great way to waste a LOT of time! My favorite thing to get on YouTube is music videos - here's a video by one of my favorite artists, Iron and Wine:



I found it fairly easy to search for videos using the search box. I like how they offer search suggestions, I assume based on previous search strings, as you type. I also used the video tab to see Most Recent, Most Viewed, Most Discussed, etc., which I found pretty fun. The subject directory wasn't all that useful as it is more time-consuming to drill down to what you want - keyword searching is so much quicker! But if you don't know exactly what you want I guess it might be useful.

As a reference librarian I can't recall too many reference questions that could be answered with YouTube but it's not inconceivable that I will get one in the future, so I will definitely keep this in mind.

#19: Mango Languages

I looked at Mango Languages, a free, interactive language instruction site. Twelve different languages are offered, with recordings of native speakers included in the lessons so users can hear the correct pronunciation. It was easy for me to do a free trial of the site, and I assume it is just as easy to register and get the full thing.

I liked this a lot and might recommend it to a computer-savvy customer who wants to learn a new language, especially if materials on a particular language are checked out or unavailable.

I'm glad to know about this site.

Thing 18: Zoho Writer

I'm creating this with the Zoho collaborative online word processor. After reading the Welcome document I decided to play around with various features just to see what they are like. So here goes:

Here's a table.	Works pretty much the same as Word.	It's pretty easy to use.
Although it's not so easy to change the width of the columns.	If you right-click on the table you can go to table properties and see some additional stuff you can do.	But I still couldn't figure out how to change the width of the columns. Oh well.

Next, here's an image. Again with a right-click, it was pretty easy to align it on the right and have the text run down the left of the image. It was a bit big at first so I decided to re-size it and ended up having a LITTLE trouble with keeping the aspect ratio consistent. Grabbing onto the corner "handle" does not insure you will maintain the aspect ratio of the image like (I believe) it does in Word. No matter, as long as you are aware of it you can make allowances.

It doesn't look like you can set it to "float" over your text or be able to be moved around and have your text accomodate it. Word's better for that.

Let's see, what's next? How about an emoticon? Well, that's not very exciting, but it was easy.

I know - I'll insert a link to my blog:

http://cbaileyjpl.blogspot.com/

Guess that's all for now.

Well, now that it's posted I see that the emoticon didn't transfer over. Oh, well. Still fun and pretty easy to use.

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

I thought the wiki sandbox exercise was fun and fairly easy. Added a few favorite movies and added my blog to the Favorite Blogs list. Um, that's all I have to say...

Wacky wikis

I'm a big fan of wikis, although I have to admit I haven't spent a huge amount of time using them, except for Wikipedia, one of my favorite reference resources. I looked at Book Lovers Wiki and SJCPL Subject Guides, and thought they were both fun and extremely useful in a library environment.

Book Lovers Wiki appears to be a site where anyone can post a book review. I can see where this might appeal to teenagers and get them more interested in reading because it allows them a forum for personal expression. The dangers in this type of thing would be of course if someone had a personal grudge or wanted to post something inappropriate, and I assume that library staff has site administrator powers to review submissions before they are posted.

The SJCPL Subject Guides site is even more limited - looks like only SJCPL staff can post anything to the wiki, which isn't even clearly identified as a wiki. Not that this is a criticism - again, this is a very appropriate and useful application of the wiki concept in a library environment.

Wikipedia is often maligned for being an unreliable resource, and maybe that's true in some cases. But think of it this way - imagine interested subject-area experts around the world inputting information about topics they know extremely well without having to go through the hassle, road blocks and red tape of trying to get a book published. These people OWN this information - I imagine they are very protective of it. If anyone posts something inaccurate, inappropriate or libelous, I would imagine that the various people who care about accuracy of the information they posted would correct that as soon as they become aware of it. This is true world-wide intelligence here, folks - what could be more egalitarian and empowering?

Libraries can definitely use wikis for putting out information that might be useful to their users. What if we had a little wiki on our public Web site called something like "Reading Corner" - library staff could list their favorite books along with reviews and recommendations, and allow users to do the same (moderated, of course). It would be fun.

There are probably lots of other ways we could use wikis in the library but I'm running out of time - gotta go to the public service desk, you know - so let me just say I like them and hope we can generate some great ideas with this exercise.

Thoughts on Library 2.0

Well, I think this whole conceptual framework of Library 2.0 is nice but unnecessary. I understand that libraries have to change in order to be relevant in today's quickly-changing world. There are so many new ways to communicate with others and create your own personal statement for the world to see and hear, and the pace of how things are changing seems to be increasing.

I guess my thought is that it's not really helpful or necessary to give ourselves a brand-new name as if everything is completely different. These developments are just the next step in the evolution of the overall concept of library. Calling it by some different, high-tech-sounding name is basically just confusing and potentially intimidating to people, making it even harder for staff and long-time library users to make the transition.

That having been said, I consider myself a fairly savvy user of library technology, having worked in that specific field for seven years, so it's not like I'm some Luddite who doesn't like to see things changing. I just think all the hoopla is much ado about very little. To quote one of my favorite people (no, I will not say who), "It is what it is."

#14: Technorati

Today I spent more time looking through Technorati than I ever have before. I did learn some things but found it pretty frustrating, which has been my experience every time I've tried to look through Technorati previously. It doesn't do a good job of telling you what you are looking at so if you are a new user it can be pretty intimidating to try to find your way around and understand what their postings actually are.

For example, one of the assignments was to do a keyword search for Learning 2.0 in the Blog Directory. I went to the Blog Directory page and did a search for that term. I got a different number of results than when I did a search on the main Blogger Central page but it was only a slightly different number. Neither results pages indicated where my results came from - what grouping I was actually searching. I thought this was confusing and sort of irritating.

I was hoping to be able to see a tag cloud of the most popular tags but all I could find was the 10 most popular tags on the main Blogger Central page - way less than I would find useful.

But speaking of useful, now that I've looked through Technorati much more thoroughly than I have ever done before (and I did this mainly because I HAD to for this assignment, because the whole process was pretty irritating), I still don't think this is something I would be likely to use much. I guess I just don't care what some random person thinks about Obama, or Brittney Spears, or Apple.

I will definitly NOT claim my blog, nor tag my posts so more people can find them. Are you kidding? Nobody gives a hoot what I have to say about Learning 2.0. I guess I'm not much of a social networker! :-)

Del.icio.us

I like the idea of sharing favorite Web sites with others through a social bookmarking site like Del.icio.us, but I doubt I would do this myself. I mean, it's cool and all, but other than photographs, there's not much about myself I really want to share with the world.

I can see how it might be useful if you were doing research, but is it really better than Google? Would I get better search results going to Del.icio.us and searching tags? I don't know the answer to that. I guess if I was working on something very in-depth it would be a good way to be as thorough as I possibly could be.

Generally I'm not really interested in viewing other people's comments about Web sites but I suppose the ability to see who else has bookmarked a certain site and commented on it might be kind of interesting.

All in all, this is something I probably wouldn't use but am glad to know about.

Adding a JAXCAT Search Gadget

It's added now to my blog. I'm not too fond of the way it looks, though - probably will take it off eventually. The instructions were pretty easy to follow although not totally accurate - I wasn't quite sure how to access the dashboard of this account from the blog itself, although I reasoned that "customize" might get me there and it did - yay!

Once there it was pretty simple to add - thanks for supplying the script!

Not that I will actually USE it. Since it offers limited functionality I doubt I would routinely search JAXCAT from my blog page, and I don't know that I would recommend it to anyone else, either. I wish it opened in a new window - anyone using it on my page would be directed somewhere else rather than staying on my page, which I really wouldn't want.

It's still pretty cool, though, and I would have no idea how to create it, so kudos to whoever did!

LibraryThing is my thing

I've been using LibraryThing for quite a while, mostly just to keep track of books that I have read. It's cool that you can add books to your library, review (or just summarize) them, rate them, and sort them in a variety of ways. I usually sort by date - most recent to oldest.

I use it to just REMEMBER books I've read, though - not to discuss books, or trade books, or look at the LibraryThing blog, or any of the other things you can do with LibraryThing. I LOVE to read but generally don't really enjoy discussing books(hence I will probably never run a book club!), so all those other functions really aren't for me. It's a record-keeping system. Guess I will have to upgrade to the paid account when I reach 200 titles - only about 75 more to go!

Here's the link to my LibraryThing catalog:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/camtb

Playing around with image generators

Well, this lesson just seems like more of the same. Didn't we already do this last week? Sigh...

Anyway, I didn't really find any image generators that really thrilled me but I did do a Wordle, which was kind of fun:

Using search tools to locate RSS feeds

Well, this was mostly a bust for me. Bloglines search tools were pretty easy and intuitive to use but I really didn't think much of all the other ones. Feedster was not up when I tried to access it. Technorati seems like much ado about nothing to me. You still have to follow the link to each news item to get the feed (unless I missed something) and they don't even cite the source unless you go into the detailed screen. I kind of liked Topix.net 'cause the news items were local but, as above, I still had to follow each link for each news item in order to get the feeds.

I think what I would do would be to go to Web sites that I use frequently to get news and get the feeds directly from there. These aggregators are not my cup of tea.

Bloglines & RSS

I found the RSS feeds assignment very enlightening. In the past I have not really understood how to set up RSS feeds, but with Bloglines it's pretty simple. The thing I had the most trouble with was coming up with 10 RSS feed to add to my Bloglines account. I think this is something I will be tweaking over the coming weeks.

Here's the public URL to my Bloglines account:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/CBailey

Technology at JPL

Okay, I'm up on my soapbox now. Much of the technology at JPL is so incredibly, woefully behind the curve that it's embarrassing. Thank you, City of Jacksonville. Our computers are way out of date and don't have anywhere near enough memory, processing power, updated plugins, anything. I know it's extremely expensive to keep public PCs up to date but when the computers freeze up CONSTANTLY (which happens at Pablo Creek all the time and I understand at other JPL libraries as well) then something obviously needs to be done.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had our own independent source of technology funding and didn't have to rely on the City for any of it? I know that's unrealistic but I'm just dreaming...

Don't mind me, just venting.

Warholized!

I found a bunch of fun Flickr tools on bighugelabs.com and decided to be Warholized! Here is the result:

Flickr pic

I love this pic by Jay Wilkie:





Jay is an extremely talented local photographer whose pictures never fail to impress, astound, amuse or entertain. This photo just blew me away the first time I saw it - the tenderness in the man's face and the utter trust and relaxation on the child's face are so moving to me. What a lovely representation of love.

Flickr is more my style

I've already said I don't blog much and that's true. It's hard for me to imagine anyone would be interested in anything I might have to blog about so I hardly ever post anything. My thing is photos, and I am very, very active on the photo Web site Flickr. So if anyone is interested, my Flickr site is http://www.flickr.com/photos/35547288@N00/.

If you like to take pictures, Flickr is for you! There is an active local Flickr group that has fun online activities, lively discussions and great get-togethers now and then. Here's the link if you're interested: Jacksonville, Florida.

Enjoy! :-)

7 and 1/2 habits exercise

Let's see, what did I say before? I think using new technology will be easiest for me and setting a definite goal about exactly what I am going to learn when will be the most difficult.

My new blog

This is for the Learning 2.0 assignment. I'm not much of a blogger so I probably won't do much with this.