End of the road?

I went through the instructions for Overdrive, which the nice lady explains very calmly, but we'll see what happens when I actually attempt to download something to MY BRAND NEW MP3 PLAYER!!!!

And the one title I'm really looking for is not available yet.

LibriVox seems a very ambitious project. I'll try it out too, but I think I prefer the "professional readers"-- I find the narrator really affects my enjoyment of the story.

Final thoughts

Overall, this has been a good experience. I like the way it was laid out, so we could follow the agenda, instead of just being left to our own devices and stumbling onto things (notice that I'm still a linear thinker and started at 1, and continued in order to 23). The only limit as to how to use all these "Things" is your creativity, and of course there are a million more Things out there, popping up all the time-- we didn't even look at Twitter or Nextopia or...

There are a lot of ways libraries can use and adapt Library or Web 2.0 to enhance patrons' library experience, and new technologies are a great way for people to access certain kinds of information. But as I read in a (physical) newspaper article recently, when people are looking for narrative (which the majority of our patrons are), books are still the best format!

#22 Podcasts

At first I thought so I can listen to a radio program whenever I want, that's a nice convenience, but hardly innovative. But when you think about it, now pretty much anybody can create their own "radio station", about whatever they want, and they can have a global audience. That's pretty innovative!

Youtube, Metube, Wealltube!

Here's a video showing how to sign out books using a form of RFID. Wouldn't it be neat to do our own (and better!) version for our patrons? It could be on our website and right at the check out desk. Or we could have a behind the scenes look at the autosorter, or numerous other things.

Maybe next June I'll just do a youtube video with my Summer Reading Club spiel and set it for constant replay, turn the desk monitor around, and sit back & relax!

Random thoughts on Part 8

Email Best Practices: it's good to remember to always be careful when emailing, and that sarcasm doesn't necessarily translate in print!

Shared Calendars: I use shared calendars to book programs in the children's programming room. I've also booked meetings, which is kind of fun.

Office 2007: so far I'm finding it fairly easy to use. I like things that are fairly intuitive, as I don't like reading manuals. This is not always a good thing: I remember way back when, when Word Perfect first came out and we had just got a home computer. I tried to teach myself WP while typing an essay that was due tomorrow. It was a bit tense. Also, I've never figured out Excel because I don't have the patience for it. Something to work on!

Subscription Databases: Confession time-- I don't use these near as much as I probably should. I have taken webinars for QP Legaleze and other products, but I rarely use them. It's good to remember we have World Book in French.

Askaway: I have done the Askaway training, but have yet to do an actual session yet. I've tried Askaway as a patron, and it felt a bit weird waiting for replies and I felt vaguely rude when I signed off abruptly. But it's a good service for people who don't think to use the phone (!) or who don't have physical access to enhanced library services.

Library 2.0

First Impression of Library 2.0?
Originally uploaded by mstephens7

Library 2.0

The short essays in the discovery exercise seemed mostly focused on academic libraries, but there are plenty of applications for public libraries. I think one of the challenges is identifying which aspects of Library 2.0 fit with our strategic plan and then implementing them in a timely manner. I think there's a tendency to talk a lot about it, but not actually do anything!

I was at a party on the weekend and eavesdropped on a conversation where one person was explaining del.icio.us and tagging to another, and comparing it to library subject headings, and even used the term Web 2.0. Wow, I thought, civilians talking about social networking and all in Real Life. Later I was introduced to the speaker, and it turns out she's in SLAIS. Oh well.

Social Networking

I looked over Elizabeth's shoulder to see Facebook in action, as it appears you can no longer take a Facebook tour (I guess you're just suppose to want to sign up regardless). It is definitely geared to inviduals, but I can see the library using it to reach out to potential users instead of waiting for them to come to us.

MySpace seems especially good for finding your favourite obscure singer/songwriter, but Friendster seems (and don't be offended if you belong!)a bit desperate-- the most important information about you appears to be your age and relationship status.

I'm not inclined to sign up for any-- as Dehydra noted, I'm pretty sure once the shiny newness wore off, I wouldn't have much to say and it would become like work keeping up with everyone. I've just been persuaded to attend my 25th High School Reunion, and that will be enough catching up for the next 25 years.

Technorati

Well, Technorati sounded good on the pod & videocasts. I liked the idea of being able to search within the blog posting, by tags, or by a blog directory, but unless I was doing something wrong, you can only have those search options by joining Technorati, and I didn't want to join one more thing. Nothing on the front page made me change my mind, either.

Yesterday, election day, I wanted to see if I could find blogs of people who were posting the results during the blackout, but I found Technorati unhelpful. I can see how Technorati may be useful if you spend a lot of time reading blogs, but I don't see myself using it.

Del.icio.us

I visited Del.icio.us, and can see how it could be extremely useful as a reference tool for us (Askaway has already done it). It's a more sophisticated way of bookmarking useful sites, and will come in handy when the "usual suspects" of homework assignments start up.

Despite the fact that the social aspect of sharing sites is supposed to be a big part of Del.iciolus, I didn't find that many people make notes about the sites they tagged. I guess the tags are enough. And really, who cares how many other people have tagged Wikipedia?

I added Unshelved to NVDPL's sites, but I didn't create my own account. Being one of the five people in North America who do not have a home computer, I don't need to worry about saving bookmarks on different computers.

And why is it written that way? Because people can't spell "delicious" without help?

Note that this is the first post I have tagged.

Library Thing

I am setting up a group in Library Thing for the book club I belong to. I'm hoping we can keep track of the books we've read, and that the other members of my club will want to do this.

Library Thing is great for finding out what other people are reading (which I love to do-- I'm one of those nosy people who will check out your bookshelf at home).

Here are a few titles my book club has read:

Image Generator

OK, so far image generators are the funnest thing. I can think of many wicked uses for them.

I found this one on The Generator Blog here

Remembering how to fill out an index card was hard (Mr. Hagler probably won't approve), but the hardest part was making the link work!

RSS feeds continued

I subscribed to a few more using Google, including a blog by the editor of Horn Book, a children's literature review journal, and a feed from PW (although I have a stack of actual PW's to go through on my desk...). I've added the Horn Book blog to a blog list (below My Profile) to prove I actually did it!

I found Technorati, etc. a bit difficult to navigate, as the front pages are so busy-looking (and seem to be dominated by American election coverage), but I can see how they would be useful tools if you were doing doing research on a esoteric topic and wanted to keep up with what other researchers are up to.

RSS Feeds

I learned about RSS feeds (I like those youtube tutorials) and created a Google Reader account. RSS could be dangerous for a recovering people.com addict like myself, but when it comes down to it, I'm not really a news junkie, and at the moment can't think of how 5 subscriptions would Make My Life Better. Also, "feed" makes me think of Feed by M.T. Anderson, so I'm a little paranoid. I did sign up for CBC's Election coverage, to give the illusion that I care, and I think RSS feeds are good for keeping up with current events that will have a definite end (I was going to subscribe to an Olympics feed, but it turned out my vacation coincided with the Olympics). Perhaps I'll change my mind as I explore further.

P.S. I did get a new (well, new to me) car, a 2008 Nissan Versa, which I haven't scratched or dinged yet. I'm getting used to all the luxury features I've never had before, like a passenger side mirror and a CD player.

Audience participation!

Let's see how many of you are actually reading this.
Real life scenario: I'm in the market for a new car. There are 4 cars on the shortlist (in no order of preference):

Nissan Versa
Toyota Yaris
Hyundai Accent
Suzki SX4

Not factoring in price, what would be your top pick and why?

Please respond by commenting.

Thanks, and stayed tuned for my next scintillating post about RSS feeds.

Moderating Comments

I set up my blog so that any comments come to me first, and then I can post them if I want to, because I know some of you are extremely jealous of my most excellent blog and may try to post bitter remarks. I just had my first comment, and allowed it to be seen (Thank you, Jacqui).

Library People in their various habitats

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


Here's a slideshow of the NVDPL group on Flickr. I used flickrSildr to create it. I chose flickrSlidr because of all the tools it was the most in-plain-English and self-explanatory (except for Girls of Flickr, which I declined to explore). It was easy to do until I tried to cut & paste it into a post, but lucky for me, Francesca knows what she's doing and showed me where I was making a small but critical error (choose "edit html" before you paste, not after).

Libraries can be dangerous places!

liberry- philly style
Originally uploaded by jpettit

My favourite from a "library signage" search on Flickr. I'd love to know the whole story behind this. Did someone think they saw a wolverine? Or possibly a wildebeest? Are they sending patrons in one at a time and seeing how many come back out?

Posted by jpettit in March 2006

My first post

Alison, meet the 21st century; 21st century, meet Alison.

So here I am in cyberspace. I guess I'm glad to be doing this, because without a push, I'd still be idling on the on-ramp to the information superhighway.