Thing #23 - The End/The Beginning

SAPL's 23 Things program was a lot of fun for me. I was able to explore a lot of websites and online tools that have been on my list of things to try for a while now. I like that we were allowed to do this on work time, as I do think a lot of these tools can be put to use in our workplaces. I'm disappointed in (what seems to me) the small number of people who followed the program all the way through. While I'm sure there were more folks reading the staff blogs, it's not quite the same as doing it yourself, so I do hope more staff members will take advantage of the program.

My favorite things were the ones where we played with Flickr and explored YouTube. I'm embarrassed to admit that I never really looked too deeply into YouTube, I always thought it was a bunch of home videos and music videos that didn't interest me much. It's a lot more instructional and inspiring than what I thought.

Would I participate in another program like this? Definitely. As for making it more accessible, maybe we could highlight a different staff blog on the Intranet each week, have admin participate, designate a person or two at each branch as consultant, maybe a bit more explanation at the beginning, so staff can have an idea of what to expect.

Thing #22 - Downloadable Media

Well, maybe I should have taken advantage of the training that was offered a couple of months ago... As mentioned previously, I don't use my iPod all that much. That being said, I haven't had much interest in downloading books - I prefer to hold an actual book and read it myself. But it would be a shame to not take advantage of one of the services offered by the public library, so I tried out both netLibrary and OverDrive. 

My first problem with netLibrary was that I couldn't remember my user name and password! I had signed up with them back when it was new and couldn't get it to remember any of the email addresses I use now. Solved easily enough, by setting up a new account. Maybe I needed to spend more time on it, but I found it difficult to find anything interesting. Or maybe I'm just a picky reader...

OverDrive was a bit easier to browse, but like Jamie, I would have liked to be able to browse only Mac/iPod compatible titles. Or maybe sort the categories by format. Or more results per page. I also noticed a lot of titles had the option to "place a hold" instead of "add to cart", hopefully that means that people are using the service? Either way, you should be able to browse just the titles that are available. On the plus side, I really liked all the info you get on the title. Aside from the library friendly bibliographic info, it gives you reviews, an about the author bit, and then there's that Amazon-ish "If you like this title, you might also like these" suggestions. (I'm not sure how my being interested in I Am Legend means I might be interested in A Woman in Charge, so maybe that part's not quite working.)

So, I may have to chalk this one up as the Thing I didn't like. In the interest of public service, I'll practice it a bit more, but I don't see myself using this on a regular basis. 

Thing #21 - Podcasts

I usually use iTunes to find, download, and transfer podcasts to my iPod, so I looked around at the other podcast directory sites. I like the NPR one, it seems I'm always catching either the tail end of a broadcast, or I don't get to hear all of the story, so I may have to subscribe to some of these. I did a search for "book" on Podcast Alley and it brought up some interesting things. I may have to give one or two of them a try. Right now, there are only three podcasts that I listen to regularly: Ritmo Latino, an hour long mix of Spanish language music, covering just about every genre of musica en espanol that you can think of; Podrunner, from LA based DJ Steve Boyett, an hour's worth of fixed BPM exercise your butt off music; and Yarncraft, all about knitting and crocheting, from Lion Brand Yarn.

My iPod is only a 2G, so I'd probably subscribe to more if I had more room. I'd probably listen to more also if I had a longer commute to work. I do like the way iTunes works like an RSS reader, in that it goes out and checks for updates for you whenever you launch the application. But I don't think I'll add them to my Reader account, since you don't actually read them. I tend to use Reader to keep myself occupied at the reference desk, where headphones would definitely be frowned upon.

Thing #20 - You Tube

Didn't we do YouTube already? Anyway, here's an example of an instructional video found on YouTube. I've got a small laminated booklet that shows illustrations of crochet stitches, but sometimes, it's still hard to understand a stitch and watching it makes it much easier to understand.



As for the entertainment I came across this on another blog. Seems the dance in Beyonce's All the Single Ladies video was inspired by a Bob Fosse dance called Mexican Breakfast. Here's a nice hybrid of the original dance, with Beyonce's song.

Thing #19 - 2.0 Toolbox

There were several sites on the Web 2.0 Awards List that I've used before, so I chose one I haven't used and looked fun. Doof is a social gaming site, and if I'm not careful, I could spend hours there! As with the other social sites, you set up your profile with as much (or as little) info as you'd like. When you log in, you're "announced" to everyone on the site, in a small pop up window. You can see everyone who's playing your game, and you can challenge other players, too. I went for the easy gem swap game, so I could keep track of everything going on - the site is on the busy side. You can earn points, too, that give you more options for the site. The site keeps track of what you play and your scores, and also recommends games and people to meet.

As far as work applications, I'm not sure that it would benefit staff, except maybe as a stress reliever, but it might make an alternative site to recommend to tweens looking for games.

Thing #18 - Online Apps

One of the best things about Google Docs is the ability to have multiple authors on one document. That would be really helpful when you have to get several people's opinions on things, and it's a lot easier than emailing an attachment back and forth. I've not had the chance to use it for work, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for opportunities for collaboration!

So, I'm going to try to make this one interactive: If you've left a comment on my blog, I've invited you to be collaborators on my Google document entitled "List of Pet Peeves." (I had to use work emails, blogger won't show me emails used to leave comments.) Feel free to add your pet peeves to the list and share with friends!

Thing #16 & #17 - Wikis

St Joseph County Public Library's Subject Guides are fantastic! Oh, and did you notice the library's url: "library for life" that alone makes a statement. I like the linky-ness of the subject guides, but really they're not that much different from what we've got on the websites by topic pages. What makes it different, and better, is the ability for people to comment. I noticed that only "librarians" can edit the info, so it's not completely open for editing, but anyone can comment on any of the pages. Talk about community involvement! It would be interesting to see something like this for library events, especially for things like book groups, it might increase attendance, or it could be the start of virtual book groups.

After a good 15 minutes mucking about the plcmclearning wiki, I was about to give up on adding my blog to the "Favorite Blogs" page. Then I saw the red print in the left hand corner about scripts being disabled, and ta-da! Now the page isn't blank anymore! It's surprisingly easy to add links, but I think this particular wiki is a bit large and unwieldy. Of course, it's a "sandbox" and not a final product, so that's ok.

Things #13 - #15

Who does this sound like? "It has been a while since I visited this blog - sorry for the absence." heehee. And I don't even have the excuse of a busy schedule. Well, it does take a bit of work to get all the 2007 magazines withdrawn, so I'll use that as my excuse. I'm cheating a bit and tackling a few things in this one post.

Thing #13 - Social Bookmarking
I first heard of Del.icio.us a few years ago, probably from one of the library themed blogs I follow. Anyway, as with most of these things, I thought it was kinda cool, but didn't think it was for me. Who cares what sites I find interesting? (This is also the reason why it's hard for me to maintain a blog.) But getting to the point of this thing, it's the social aspect that counts. And that's where I have the issues. No, really! Even my Birkman results will tell you I'm not much of a joiner.

If I were involved with the online librarian movement, or "biblioblogosphere", I might be persuaded to keep a site like delicious active. I could see other library folks checking it out and finding useful sites that would help them in their jobs. It's not that I don't want to share what I know, it's just that I'm not sure that anyone really wants to know. :)

Something like delicious might be good for maybe the Central Reference staff to use, so that we in the branches could find info we need. We don't get as many reference requests at the branch, but when we do, it might be helpful to have a handy list of sites that reference folks use often.



Thing #14 - Technorati

I've explored Technorati before, on my own, and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that, well, I don't get it. I wasn't really finding the sorts of things I was looking for, and could usually get better results when using Google. Maybe I was doing something wrong? Looking at it now, it's a bit easier to understand. I like the What's Popular page, reminds me of a feature one of the search engines used to have, that would show you the latest search terms. Strangely enough, they list the first 5 of their top 100 blogs, and I already read 4 of them!

I understand now how tagging your blog posts helps to make your searches better. That's something I need to work on, not surprisingly, that ties in to that whole social aspect of these 2.0 things, doesn't it?



Thing #15 - More on 2.0
OCLC is doing some cool online things and I really like their newsletter, NextSpace. I went back to Issue No. 1- Extreme Makeover: Library Edition and found some things that I found to be very applicable where SAPL is right now. For example:

Organizations exist to provide value. If that value is no longer perceived to be in sync with the consumers’ needs, the perceived value of the organization, and its brand, will be minimized.

Being a City department, SAPL is always having to improve the "perceived value" of our organization, especially around budget time. Things like a new bookmobile, a new website, online services, and outreach services are all ways for us to stay relevant to our community. By now, everyone's read the articles about how our country is in a recession and library use is up, now folks are starting to realize we're more than just books.

Then there's this part:

Changing the library’s image in the marketplace, however, must start with changing librarians’ perceptions. That means adjusting the librarianship culture and operations before persuading consumers that libraries have been reborn.

This is where it comes down to us. We are the face of the library and our attitudes contribute to the perceived value of SAPL. How many of us work with librarians who don't know how to copy and paste? How many of us have staff that are nicer to stray dogs than to our customers? It doesn't matter that you didn't learn how to upload pictures in library school, if it's something you've been asked about more than once, it's your job to learn!

We've introduced our patrons to CMS, where they sign themselves in to use the computers, self-serve holds are in several branches, self check-out is just about system-wide. These things are supposed to "free us from the desk" and although the learning curve is steep, we're starting to see some patrons really take advantage of these services. My question to you is this: What are you doing with this "extra" time to improve the perceived value of your library?

Thing #12 - Rollyo

Select...Crochet infoSearch The Web

Looking for crochet patterns or instructions? Use the custom search engine above to search seven crochet websites! My preferred sites are Lion Brand Yarn and Ravelry, but a search engine isn't very comprehensive with only two sites, so I added a few more. Some of them I'm familiar with, others I haven't used as often, but they are a wealth of information. I wanted to include Crochetville, but it's a discussion forum and I wasn't sure how that would work in a search engine. Another good source for instructinal videos is You Tube. You can easily search for a particular stitch and find a demonstration to help you along.

Thing #10 - Image Generators

This mini READ poster was made using ALA's image generator. I wish it would give you the option of resizing your photo, like you can do on Ravelry. Then you'd be able to see that my son is reading his first year scrapbook. Seeing how he's 5 now, it'd be nice if he could read his 1-5 year album, but I would have to create that first...

Using yet another Big Huge Labs app, called Motivator, I created this "motivational" poster with a picture from my children's 5th birthday party two weekends ago. Not quite as clever as Barney's motivational posters, but still kind of fun.

Also from Big Huge Labs comes this fun jigsaw puzzle maker! Made with my most recently made elephant amigurumi, you can also order actual puzzles from the website. That would be a great gift for family and young friends, especially if they are featured in the photo.

Thing #11 - Goodreads

Well, for this Thing, we're supposed to sign up and explore Goodreads. It looks like a great app that shows what you're reading and will update your friends with the info. I've seen it on a couple of blogs, but, I don't really think it's for me. I'll admit, I can be a girl of a hundred lists, but I'm decidedly 1.0 about it. I tried using Remember the Milk, even integrating it with my gmail, but I gave up on it after a couple of weeks. I prefer to keep lists on paper.

As for books, I keep an Excel file listing the books I've read, when I read them, a rating (1-5), and notes about the book. I can tell you that my reading always slows down towards the end of the summer - I'll go from reading 3-5 books a month, to one or even none. No, it's not very social, as the list lives on my flash drive, but I'm not sure that anyone else would really be interested in my reading choices. I also keep a list of books I own on LibraryThing. Ok, ok, I haven't used my LT account in a while, and the books skew heavily towards anthropology and Latino writers. I essentially quit buying books when I started working for the library. :)

There are so many social networking sites online, I simply don't have time to keep up with all of them. I've resisted joining Facebook, and only set up a MySpace page so I could help the teens fix up their pages. I have a Twitter account that I use, sparingly, am an active newbie on Ravelry, a long time lurker on a couple of scrapbooking sites, and have a LinkedIn account that I check every so often. I just don't have the time to be active on all those sites, much less to add any more!

Thing #9 - RSS Feeds

As a lot of people have expressed, I think I'm at my limit of subscribed feeds. It's hard to catch up if I skip a weekend of reading, so I'm not keen on adding more. However, there's a lot of cool stuff you can do with feeds. If you take a look at the sidebar at the right, I've added a clip of the feeds I have filed under "Librariana". That's just a small view of some of the library-related blogs I read. Reader also allows you to make a webpage of individual folders. Here's one for what I call "Personal Development" which is mostly blogs on personal finance and productivity sites. I don't want to clutter the sidebar, but you can also add a "blogroll" to your site. Since blogger is a Google product, it's super simple to add these things to your blogger-hosted blog.

History Making

Wednesday, November 05, 2008: 714 front pages from 66 countries. Cool.

Thing #7 - About Technology

So, I've been mulling over a topic I wanted to blog about. A few years ago, I read an article (with so many feeds and websites, who knows where I read it) about how MySpace was starting to lose ground to specialized social network sites. I don't remember the article too clearly, but I do remember thinking: I wonder how long that will take to trickle down to our everyday users? It had to have been about three years ago, but we still haven't seen a decline in the number of people using our computers to access MySpace! Without that article to point to as the premise, the rest of it's no good. I wanted to talk about trendspotting, access, and how the "digital divide" still exists, despite the access to computers we provide.

Instead, let's talk about white space. If we get to the point where there's free broadband wifi, I'll definitely have to get an iPod Touch, or a netbook, or some sort of new device that is sure to be out soon. With as many people as we get who come in with their wifi ready laptops, can you image how much demand there will be for this new access? For much less than a laptop, you could pull an internet connect from just about anywhere. How cool would that be?

Thing #8 - RSS

Before I started using an aggregator service, I used to spend a lot of time trying to remember all the websites and blogs I liked to read. I had a huge list of bookmarked sites and I'd spend a lot of time visiting sites that hadn't been updated since my last visit. When I started seeing that little orange square with the radiating white lines and started reading about RSS and aggregators, I jumped in and signed up on Bloglines. How convenient to have all my sites updated, in one place, just waiting for me to read! My "sites I read list" kept getting longer and longer, but it wasn't a problem to keep up with them. I even suggested the aggregator to co-workers.

After a while, though, Bloglines started having these weird hiccups, where it wouldn't update feeds for a few days, then all the posts would come thru at once. That wasn't too bad with moderate posters, but with a site like kottke.org, I'd be overwhelmed with the backlog of posts! I had heard about Google's Reader, but when I tried it out, I didn't like it as much as Bloglines. I already used Gmail and Google Docs, and mostly turned to Google for general searching. I didn't like how central Google was becoming to my online activities. If Bloglines hadn't had so many problems, I would never have switched.

Thankfully, after a couple of weeks of using Reader, I really started to like it! I like how my Gmail address book is integrated, it makes it super easy to send finds like this to friends:


The other cool thing about Reader is the Share/Share with note function. Instead of emailing your friends the funny link, you can "share" it. It's mostly functional for your friends who also use Reader (helps spread the love), but it also creates a webpage with your shared posts. The Discover feature is good, too. It looks at the blogs you read and suggests others on the same topic. I've found it's sort of hit or miss, but, I think most blogs are like that too.

Thing #1 & Thing #3

(Backtracking a bit, because I didn't actually document things 1 and 3.)


Thing #1 - Discovery

When I heard about the Learning 2.0 program Helene Blowers was starting at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, it sounded like so much fun! This was about two years ago, in August 2006, and a lot of the discovery exercises really were new. I followed along with most of the program, mostly on my own time, since "playing around" on the computers at work hasn't always been sanctioned. I vaguely recall mentioning it to a couple of admin types, but really, SAPL wasn't ready for all that 2.0 - yet.

Two years later, the lessons are not quite so new, the original group has moved on to 2.1, and SAPL is finally on board! I appreciate the push my branch manager has given all of us to participate, or at least explore, the SAPL 23 Things project. The way the lessons are set up, in small "bites" makes it much easier to work on. It may help some tech-wary folks become more familiar with the medium, and in turn, help our patrons who are exploring on their own. For those of us a bit more comfortable with web "things", it gives us a chance to share our skills with our co-workers. I'm looking foward to all 23 lessons, and a chance to win a prize! Any chance of it being a G1 phone? :)



Thing #3 - Grab a blog
As I mentioned previously, I'm not new at blogging - I think the first blog I kept was hosted on iVillage, way back around 1998. I moved on to a few other sites, somehow bypassing LiveJournal completely. I started hand-coding my website and blog, then moved it to a Movable Type platform, which continues to serve me well. For work related committee communication, I've used a WordPress blog, in order to have more than one author. This is my first experience with Blogger, and I must say, it's not the friendliest thing!

I'm surprised at how bare-bones it is - you get a lot more in a free WordPress account. The Blogger "dashboard" doesn't tell you much about your own blog, and I haven't figured out how to get it to show me recent activity. The things I like are all the easy to add gadgets, the variety of templates to choose from, and the ease of posting. I can't say that I'll keep this blog up past the 23 Things, but I do hope to explore Blogger much more in the coming weeks.

Thing #6 - More Flickr!

Explore Flickr mash-ups and 3rd party APIs! I found this mosaic maker from Big Huge Labs on Stephanie's blog and it was really easy to do. I used slightly different search questions and had to drop some photos that had opted out of the service. The "rules" of the mosaic game say you have to use a picture from the first page of results. What I've discovered about Flickr though, is that you'll get different results each time you search. At least, that was the case with the terms I was searching for.



1. In Memory of Theresa, 2. believe, 3. everyday's fortune, 4. a new school year, 5. Opera in a dream, 6. 4 New Flavoured Ice Cream Plush Toys

Thing #5 - Flickr!

This is one of my favorite craft projects. It's so easy to do and works for all ages. All you need is tissue paper in a variety of colors, some pipe cleaners, and scissors. Stack a few pieces of tissue paper together, a rectangle works well. Fold it accordion style, use the pipe cleaner in the middle to hold the paper together and make a stem. Then open the accordion out and carefully separate the sheets of tissue paper. To mix it up a bit, notch V's into the folded up accordion, round the corners before separating, use more layers of tissue, or use different color combinations.

It's a simple craft that can be used for Mother's Day, Fiesta, Springtime, all kinds of occations!

Thing #4

So, I've explored the participants blogs for this 23 Things project. My favorite so far, even though there aren't any posts yet, is Digital Deliberations. I like it because of all the widgets on the side, especially the one that shows me all the posts by participants. It functions as a SAPL Learns RSS feed, so I don't have to go clicking through to each blog to see what's new.

Part of the fun of this project is figuring out who people are. It's like a treasure hunt, looking for clues that will tell you who the author is. While I think it's fine to blog anonymously, there are others who feel the "secrecy" is not necessary. I don't think it's secrecy, I think it's more about a comfort level, with the medium, the technology, personal writing skills, personality types, etc. I would consider this blog semi-anonymous, in that it wouldn't be hard to figure out who I am, several people already have. So, while I think that transparency is a good thing, I don't think it's necessary for this project.

Speaking of transparency, one of the blogs on the LISNews list has been making the rounds again because of it's lack of transparency. Library Journal is taking some heat for hosting the Annoyed Librarian on their site. The argument there being LJ is supposed to be an authority in the library profession and the AL has a history of, well, being not so nice to those same professionals, all the while hiding behind an anonymous blog. Some feel the AL shouldn't have to hide if he/she feels so strongly about things. Interesting position for Library Journal to be in.

From the 10 Blogs to Read in 2008, I only read two of them on a regular basis. However, I use Google Reader to keep track of over 40 library themed blogs! Yes, I'm kind of a geek like that. Some of my favorite "library" blogs are Michael Stephen's Tame the Web, A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette, Karen Schneider's Free Range Librarian, and Helen Blower's LibraryBytes. It's great to read about what's going on, not only in other library systems, but in the larger library field.

Halloween Costumes (not for work)

For the second year in a row, my son wants to be Superman for Halloween! Good thing we bought last year's pajamas/costume a size larger, if we're lucky, it'll still fit. My daughter wants to be Wonder Woman, which is a welcome change from last year's Snow White. So I thought my husband and I could also be super heroes, a sort of family of Justice League characters. Good idea, right? Except that most female super heroes are um, very scantily clothed! No way that's gonna work for me. So it was suggested that my husband and I be villains! How cool would that be?! Any suggestions for a super villain duo?

7.5 Habits of Lifelong Learners (Thing #2)

Three weeks in and I'm already behind! The first post is supposed to be about the "71/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners". Ok, this is where I admit that while I went to the website and let it play, I didn't actually listen to it very closely. I think I was checking in clear charge that afternoon, it was just sort of background noise. Maybe I'm just not a natural multi-tasker. I don't listen to audio books when I drive, either, but that may just be because I don't drive very far. Oh, did you see that 60 Minutes piece about electric cars? I think it's GM that's developing a hybrid car that will go up to 40 miles before using any gasoline. Here it is, the Chevy Volt.

To get back on track, I think most people find "Play" to be the easiest habit. That sort of goes without saying, but I can see how people who aren't comfortable with computers might have a hard time letting loose and trying new things. I personally learn better when I can get my hands on things and figure out how they work, so I'll name Habit 5 as my easiest. Once I get interested in a subject, I'll read all I can from all kinds of sources to really understand it. For example, I've recently picked up crochet again. I read about a sampler afghan that was too good to not try, so I started reading blogs and found out about ravelry.com, signed up there, saw all kinds of cool stuff, and am now learning to make amigurumi (you can see a sample in my profile pic). I've checked out books on crochet, browsed magazines, listened to podcasts, all the information sources I could find to learn more. It's a lot of fun - I just have to remember to give my hands a break every once in a while!

The hardest habit for me is number 4. I have a lot of hobbies that I enjoy, but I don't consider myself an expert at any of them. I don't share my crafts with many people and I don't think I know enough to teach anyone how to do them. But I'm working on it, at least the sharing part. For example, this blog. :)

Hi!

While I am not new to blogging, I am new to people actually reading what I write, so bear with me, as I type faster than I think...