Monday, December 31, 2007

Thing 23: Exploring YouTube

What I didn't like about Youtube: videos stopped and started jerkily because of low bandwidth. Sometimes there was no sound, and I could not tell if that was bandwidth or bad editing. Poor tagging or labeling meant that searches pulled up lots of false hits.

What I liked: the actors were obviously having fun. There was great creativity and variety. I could find images from my childhood.

I am showcasing a Summer Reading Program promotional trailer obviously created by teens. I chose this because it is a project I would like to see our teens involved in. I liked that this was a simple video with the simple theme that the library could add color to your summer. It also made me want to go that particular library.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell


Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, originally uploaded by sarah.eyre.

Two weeks ago I started listening to this on CD in the car during my daily comute. I am now about two thirds of the way done...Arabella Strange, Lady Pole, and the Thistle Haired Man are haunting my dreams. I have not been this caught up in a fantasy for years. Clarke has woven together a rich tapestry with many subtle storylines.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Thing 22: Playing with Flckr Mashups


Youth Services Librarian, originally uploaded by petejosieberg.

After my last blog about Vowel Man, you know I had to create a trading card with superhero traits! That was fun. I may play with some more of these.

Thing 21: Why tagging is essential


now what, originally uploaded by S. Balcomb.

One summer, we took to calling my brother-in-law, Tim, Vowel Man, because he had such a talent for picking his Scrabble tiles. We made him a T-shirt using iron on printer paper to celebrate his newly acquired superpower. On the front it read, "Vowel Man: with the power of A, E, I, O, U” and on the back, "And sometimes Y & W". Unfortunately, the iron-on letters did not adhere very well, and after the second washing, the message was a faded, ragged version of what we had imagined. I can't help but think what a cooler, more graphically pleasing shirt we could have made with Zazzle and a digital photo of some scrabble tiles.

So why is tagging essential? That is like asking, “why do we catalog books?” So that we can find the information we need. Sorting and classifying is one of those basic skills that we focus on before we even enter preschool. When we start working at the library, we are told that the library uses classification systems to collocate materials on the same subject to make information easier to find. We add cataloging records to help us locate similar information that might be in other books. It is all about accessing information. Computers have given us keyword searching which means we expanded item records to include more descriptors that we can latch on to in a search. Since photos do not naturally contain text that can be searched by keyword, we need to tag them if we ever want to find them again.

In the article, Flickr + Libraries= Scary, scary, scary - Blog post by Michael Stevens, ALA TechSource, 7/28/2006, Stevens makes the point that you can also use tags to exclude what you don't want. You can tag images, "May Offend." As soon as I heard that, I found myself wanting to run a search on that very term just to test my sensibilities.

Which leads me back to my search for Vowel Man.. When I searched "Flckr" using the term "Scrabble,” the first image I found with all vowels was titled "spells screwed". I debated uploading that image to my blog, but my mother, who has never used the word "screwed" in any but a carpentry context, may read my blog someday and be offended. So I added the tag "vowels” to "Scrabble" and found a more Mom-Friendly captioned photo. I imagine good and accurate tagging means people can filter out (select out?) the content they do not want.

Thing 20: Blogging a photo from Fickr


Midwinter, originally uploaded by Roger B..

I am borrowing a little frost for my Winter Solstice from Flckr. I celebrated yesterday by working then partying with a retiring co-worker, my husband and about 30 other people. I had a great time, but my inner introvert longed for a solitary walk in the hills.

Thing 20: Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Thing 19: Explore any site from the Web 2.0 Awards list

Biblio.com bills itself as a "booksearch and marketplace". I was curious to see how it would stand up against searching Amazon...

I searched "megan lindholm" and found only one book on Biblio...The Gypsy co-written with Steven Brust, going for $1. On Amazon, I found The Gypsy going for $11.16...but I also found half a dozen other titles I have been browsing for including Wizard Among the Pigeons, which I have been looking for for ages. So why buy from Biblio? Sometimes books are cheaper. And it supports a network of independent booksellers. But those same sellers are also listed on Amazon. So I guess the main advantage is, in their own words...

"When you buy books at Biblio, you support literacy and education! Since 2004, Biblio has used a portion of its profits to help build 7 community libraries in South America. Find out more about Biblio and its commitment to communities. Not only that, but Biblio.com is the most eco-friendly book marketplace, offsetting the emissions from the delivery of every new & used book you buy! "

Thing 18: Technorati and tagging blog posts

As part of this week's assignment to explore Technorati and tag blog posts, I signed into Technorati and claimed my blog. My blog had an authority of 1, which I think means it had at least one link/association from another blog--the VBPL Learning 2.0 blog. It had no fans--This feels almost as bad as having only one friend on MySpace. In the process of claiming my blog, I tagged it with "VBPL", "VBPLL2", "Virginia Beach", and "Learning 2.0". I added biographical information, but decided not to upload a photo. Currently, my blog is rated 4,446,976.

I tried searching "VBPL" and found blog posts from our Learning 2.0 blog. The only blog under that search was mine. : ) I tried "Learning 2.0" and was overwhelmed by the results. Some looked like familiar, like posts I might have encountered on earlier assignments. "Virginia Beach" provided some amusing blogs and posts--"Grumpy Gustav" and Kerry Daugherty from the Virginian Pilot.

I am not sure if I will ever sign back into Technorati, but I have added the log in information to my planner...I find that is the only way I can keep track of all these cyber-presences.
That was England...this is my yard in Norfolk, VA

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Thing 17 Tagging, Folksonomy & Del.icio.us

After spending the last couple of months building a bookshelf on Shelfari, I found it easy to understand tagging and folksonomy--it is the amateur's AACR2, really. It is open to more inaccuracies than conventional cataloging. Probably searches are more comprehensive than precise, since tags aren't defined as sharply as AACR2 subject headings.

I am having a harder time with Del.icio.us. I decicided to create my own account. Once I got past trying to find a username & password that hadn't already been taken and that fit the citeria, it was kinda cool. In Microsoft, all my favorites are organized into folders, which turned into tags in Del.icio.us. My next stumbling block...I don't know if I will ever be able to use Del.icio.us on another computer, because I don't remember which username and password I settled on...

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Sharing photos...

Social Networking with Scorch in England.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Thing 11: Investigating Instant Messaging

I really thought I had already written a response to Thing 11, but I didn't see it posted. So here it is out of chronological order.

When I was at UK in 1994, I participated in an experiment in virtual reference. My role was as information seeker logging into a MASH--MUSH??--MUD???--a virtual room. A library student in another physical space played librarian. He logged in; we chatted about my question. He was able to actually take over my computer and show me some websites that might have the answers to my question. Later I found out we were the only pair that had success at answering the question. The researcher running the experiment said our success was because of communication style. My librarian asked open ended questions, and I gave good feedback, refusing to be satisfied until my question was truly answered.

IM is faster than email but slower than a telephone conversation. It has it's own code and abbreviations. It has a spontaneity that you don't get in email. I haven't used it much since I graduated from college. But then I am a troglodyte who still hasn't subscribed to cable television and rarely checks her personal email. (Yup, last time I looked I had 999 new messages. I think I will shut that account down and start a new one).

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Thing 16: Journey into MySpace

WebSense, the City of Va. Beach's filtering software, intruded more in MySpace then in any other Learning 2.0 assignment to date. I could not load a photo because my java client was out of date, and all attempts by MySpace to load the right software were blocked by WebSense. When one of my potential Friends emailed that she wanted to be my Friend, WebSense blocked my adding her. My popularity suffers.

That said, my eureka moment was discovering my high school, Princess Anne High, had 5 MySpace group pages. And looking through them I found someone I actually remembered fondly from those tortuous years. I am not sure he will recognize "Library Dragon" with no photo, but hey, it was fun looking at his picture.

When I can get up with my more web savvy co-workers, I will see if he/she can help me work around the photo upload glitch. In the meantime, I successfully added my potential friend by going in through my home page in MySpace. I have a Friend!!! Other than the generic Tom who is busy, away, and not taking emails. : )

Monday, December 10, 2007

Thing 15: Get the 411 on Social Networking

This week in our Learning 2.0 class, we are exploring online social networks or OSNs such as MySpace and Facebook. My gut feeling is that the library really needs a presence in the social network, simply beacuse that is where the teens are. If we want to reach them, interact with them, we need to be where they are and to use the tools they use. If we aren't there, they won't think to use us. We will become the last resort rather than the first place they think of for information.

Some other thoughts on the assignment...

I liked the Cornell University policy for Facebook. It reminded me how a year and a half ago, I googled one of our potential SRP performers and found his entry on a dating website where he described what he looked for in a potential date. TMI.

The Business Week article hammered home how so many online resources make their money from sponsorships and advertising; it makes you wonder if they can be unbiased.

As for online predators, they are out there...and they are walking around on the streets as well. We can't keep them out the cyberworld anymore than we can keep them out of our buildings. All we can do is educate parents and teens (and tweens) about the dangers and the precautions.

That is my two cents...now let's see if ComIT will let me set up a Facebook account. : )

Monday, December 3, 2007

Thing 14: Adding content to the VBPL Reader's Advisory Wiki

Adding content to the VBPL Reader's Advisory wiki was kind of fun. First, I went into the books to movie list and added Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising and Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass. Then I did the assigned, add two titles to the staff picks page. My picks were: Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! and The Daring Book for Girls, which I just bought my niece for Christmas. Then, I found myself wanting to rearrange the page by reading level and genre. But I didn't. So far so good.

Adding tags was not as simple as it is on my Shelfari page. I had to search "help" and even then I tagged the list, not the title, so I am not sure I did it right. I would have liked to tag just the books themselves.

Finally, I had font issues. I wrote my blurb for The Daring Book for Girls in Word so that I could run the spell check. When I cut and pasted it into the list, I realized the font was too large. I had to play with sizes to find one that looked right. Maybe if I had pasted it into notepad first? Stripped it of all mark up language?

This is a learning process...if you don't make mistakes, you aren't pushing yourself. : )

Thing 13: Learning about Wikis

Today in Library 2.0 we are learning about wikis and looking at how they have been used in libraries. Of the samples we were given, I liked how wikis were used for 1) book reviews/discussions (like BookLovers Wiki), 2) conference sharing, and 3) program idea sharing. I could see VBPL using a wiki any time collaborative work needs to be done, for example, the SRP team could use one to share ideas for programs, publicity, sponsorships, etc. We could also create group specific wikis for our patrons to discuss their interests: the Otaku Anime Club could create one defining and discussing the different characters/genres of anime, the garden club could create one to share information about growing plants in Hampton Roads, we could even have an old movie wiki...but maybe I am going overboard and recreating the wheel? hmmn...I need to find out what is already out there and being used by these groups. Will let you know what I found out in Thing 14...

Things 9 & 10: Feeds

In March Nicole McGee did a short "RSS Feeds" workshop at Princess Anne Area Library during which we learned how to set up an RSS feed reader using Bloglines and subscribe to feeds. I played with it for a few weeks, adding feeds for book reviews, cooking, the local news, weather, and other interests. Finding a feed for my co-workers blog, Sara's Hold Shelf, was the highlight for me. Then work became busy, and my account went unchecked until the Library 2.0 Thing 9 assignment. When I finally recalled the password, I discovered I had over 800 unread postings. Surprisingly, some feeds had little or no new postings. One had a notice that it had been officially discontinued.

One of the reasons my Bloglines account went unused for so long is that after wading through all my email, I don't really feel like looking at another page of input. My unassigned time is spent responding to email and doing tasks--I don't feel I have the time to just read at my desk. However, as blogs are created containing more job specific content (VBPL Talks, Readers Advisory, etc) , I may start opening my Bloglines reader everyday.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Thing 12 Not so instant messaging

This week we are exploring Instant Message Reference services. I tried out the VBPL site which was supposed to be available Thursdays from 3:00 - 7:00 p.m. Service started late--it was offline until after 3:37 p.m. Then my question took almost ten minutes for the librarian to answer. I found the answer myself by googling in the first three minutes. So...while impressed with the concept, I was disappointed with the reality.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Thing 2: Lifelong Learning

The library where I work has embarked on a program called Learning 2.0, an online exploration of Web 2.0 technology. We have 30 Things to complete by January 21st. Thing number 2 involved watching a video on Life Long Learning, then determining which of the 7 1/2 traits of a life long learner we most and least identify with. The first trait was straight from Steven Covey's Seven Habits, "Begin with the end it mind." Identify your goals, but even more importantly, the reason behind the goals. I always liked that and try to keep it in mind whenever I am trying to make a hard decision or resolve a conflict. I am not sure if it is the easiest or the hardest....just the one I know I revert to the most.

Though that 1/2 at the end, "have fun", is important to me too. : )

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Thing 5: Am I thinking differently after talking with a co-worker and reading more?

Nope, I stand by my earlier posting.

Library 2.0 Thing 4--what do I think Library 2.0 is?

Library 2.0 is the adaptation of libraries to the Web 2.0 environment...so what does that mean? My take on it is that in Web 2.0 content is user driven--designed for maximum user input. Users personalize their information feeds, provide input, and write/create content. When that information is shared with other users, it becomes a form of social networking. As a society we are still learning/experimenting with this content. Libraries are trying to recreate services and programs so that users can personalize them and share their experiences/thoughts with others.

One of my goals this fall/winter is to read Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson which is about the emergence of goup intelligence. I heard him talking on NPR this summer about how group intelligence can make better predictions than the individuals in the group. One example he cited is the guess the number of jelly beans in a jar contest. When the average guess is determined, it is frequently closer to correct than any individual guess. (This violated one of my core beliefs that mobs/groups always act more stupidly than most individuals. There is no thinking involved. ) Johnson goes on to draw connections between group think and the software that drives search engines. I will let you know what other nuggets I glean from this book and how it relates to Library 2.0.

Pimping my blog

Today Sara Norman, a co-worker, is teaching us to add widgets and spruce up our blogs. So far I have added a link to my Shelfari reading list--which I realize is out of date, played with alternative templates, fonts, and colors, added a photo, and added some library related links. A good morning's work, I think.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Thing 8: Creating & registering my blog

I have successfully created a blog. Now I have to think of something to say. Sigh.