Thing #23: final thoughts December 1, 2008

Huzzah!  I’m very pleased to be finishing up, and just under the wire.  I have learned new things, and am pleased on a personal note with the garden catalog I’m creating on my blog.  Mostly it is just a great and easy place for me to store information I want, but this was kind of fun:  after I posted info about a rare-ish tree that I have in my yard, I googled that tree to see if I could find any additional information.  My blog post was the second result on a pretty short list, which I am geeky enough to be tickled by.  So just for the push to get started on that project and finding the right format for it, I’m glad I participated.

Some constructive criticism:  15 minutes for each thing underestimates the time involved.  Reading the Learn and Play post and maybe watching the common craft video accompanying it usually took at least 12.  So 3 minutes isn’t a realistic amount of time for anyone to try to then ‘learn’ something.  (Or even create an account!) 

In general, I didn’t find this format the easiest way to learn something.  It was very challenging to carve out the kind of uninterrupted silent time which I find works best for my learning style to work on these tasks.  Everyone has a different optimal learning style, and the set-up of this program and the way things are at my branch made this tough.  Again, it was worth it, just not optimal.   Sometimes trying to track down someone with the knowledge and the time to coach me through trouble spots wasn’t an option. 

One thing these exercises really underscored to me was the vastness of the information and entertainment available online.  We at the library need to work really hard to know what’s out there so we can edit it down to the best and then train our patrons on it.  A big task, and we will surely need to add additional things beyond these 23, and I would participate in any such future training gladly.

Thing #22: MOLDI December 1, 2008

I expected to breeze through this exercise, as I have used it to download items in the past back when we first added this to our collections.   It has been a while since I used it, though, so I took time to browse through the holdings now.  It is exciting to see how much it has grown!  There is so much more available now, it’s great. 

 What wasn’t great was the trouble I had getting it to work.  It wouldn’t open through the learn and play link.  Then after accessing it through the link on the homepage and selecting an item to download, I was unable to do so.  I followed the directions for loading the overdrive media console onto my computer and it is supposedly there and shows up on my list of programs, but when I then tried to download the actual item I got error messages and couldn’t actually get the file.  The same happened when I attempted the adobe stuff for an ebook.  Interestingly, even though I got error messages saying neither file could be downloaded and/or read, both show checked out on my MOLDI account.  Grrrr.

This type of issue concerning ease-of-use is part of why it seems likely to me that a dedicated ebook reader such as Kindle will follow in the trail blazed by the ipod.  Both are small, convenient, and because they are dedicated to downloading their media types, have an ease of use lacking in MOLDI.  For us to be offering it as part of our collection, it needs to be so easy to use as to be foolproof (for example, it only takes basic computer skills to use EbscoHost or Reference USA).  Oh well.

Thing #21: podcasts December 1, 2008

I looked at podcastalley and the google podcast directory for this exercise.  I found some fun stuff (especially liked the genre/top 50 search option on podcastalley…if one doesn’t have something in particular in mind, this is an easy way to browse things.) like some snarky travel tips for touring Paris and a British computer reading Moby Dick.  I found trying to search for anything very specific more challenging  —there’s really a lot out there, and I’m sure searching refinements will come in time. 

Bloglines again proved unwieldy and unimpressive when I tried to add RSS feeds to my account.  Either I’m missing some magical command that will suddenly make that work for me, or CML should consider switching Thing #8 to Google Reader.  I was able to subscribe to my feeds there no problem. 

As far as the issue of libraries and feeds, I think some careful consideration of the content, purpose, and target audience would be critical.  It would be easy to do one just to do one but that would surely doom the whole venture.  Also, high production values would be crucial…with so many other podcasts out there, it would be terrible to have ours get word-of-mouth because it’s bad/poorly done/dopey/pointless.  That said, podcasting about Ready-to-Read skills, kindergarten readiness, or perhaps even storytimes with a booklist for kids to read along with might be options.  (Of course, with copyright issues, the storytime might not be feasible.)  But it seems like it would be easy for that to get lost in the podcast universe, so good publicity and/or integration through our webpage would be key.

Thing #20: YouTube November 28, 2008

Heh.  Getting to poke around on YouTube for work seems too good to be true!  I mean, what’s not to love? It’s easy to use in every way, and is one of the most efficient time-wasters out there to boot. : )  

How to even choose just one video to post?  Well, considering the tech. focus for this whole 23 Things thing, I started thinking about how so much of  today’s technology started off as yesterday’s fiction.  So check this out:  scientists are working to make invisibility a reality, explained here in very layman-friendly terms:

gotta love that.

Thing #19: CML’s Power Tool Box November 28, 2008

For thing #19, we were supposed to go look at the Power Tool Box stuff posted to the library’s webpage.  The option to download the library toolbar is nice, I use the one loaded on my work laptop all of the time, and may also add it to my home computer.  I poked around on stumbleupon, because I liked the idea of it being able to learn what you like and then suggest other sites.  

One quibble:  how does one access the tool box when not using the link through the 23 things?  I tried to find it just from the library’s webpage, and had no luck.  Where is it hiding, and should it really be so hard to find?  Perhaps it could also be linked through the Reference-Computers & Internet portion of the website, too.

Thing #18: discovering web 2.0 tools November 28, 2008

There were certainly a lot of options to choose from on the list of tools we were given!  I looked at lulu, from the “books” category.  It was very interesting, a self-publishing site where you could create content digitally, and then order hard copies, or make it available for others to purchase as either a physical book or an e-book.  Lulu looked easy to use, and I was surprised at how reasonable it would be to create and purchase a hard-bound photobook or portfolio.  Seems like a great option for niche publications like a family genealogy or souvenir from a family reunion or something. 

Lulu also seemed like it might not be a bad option for librarians wanting to preserve local history items…one could, for example, create a book of our digital collection of “Columbus in Historical Photographs” collection, and make it available for interested customers to purchase.  Not only would people be able to have that as a book for their own reference and/or enjoyment,  but the library would be getting a cut as the creators.  Of course, I don’t know what sort of copyright issues are involved with some of those images in our digital collection, so it might not be that simple.  But perhaps we could create a photo book souvenir for interested people to purchase after a big event like the celebration of learning (although we would have to get all attendees to sign photo releases???)…..ah well.  Cool site, at any rate.

Thing #17: online apps November 28, 2008

I have personally used google docs before and found it useful.  However, when I was working on this exercise and attempting to write my comments in a google doc and then post them directly to my blog, I kept getting all kinds of error messages or the page just abruptly shutting itself.  So, that makes me nervous about using it professionally even though I like it.  How do you get help if the whole thing is running all buggy and weird?  Anyhow, I’m just going to copy and paste my comments from there into here, the old fashioned way. 

How could google docs help in one’s work life?  I think that some of the SRC training documents would be really helpful as google docs.  The PowerPoint for Volunteens and the one for all staff are sort of shared, but in a pretty clunky fashion. They aren’t always sent to everyone, and can take up so much memory that they can be hard to open when they are.  A lot of work gets duplicated unnecessarily.  Perhaps creating those trainings as google docs would be better.  Individual branches could still easily edit and personalize the presentations while not having to start at ground zero, or hope they’re opening the right version, or that it saved to the desktop properly, or whatever other minor problem you can name that seems to plague using those PowerPoints for SRC trainings.

Also, training our customers to save documents they are creating to google docs might help alleviate some of the issues with which version of word is loaded on whatever computer they are using.  Our computers not being able to read stuff created in wordperfect or vista seems (anecdotally) to be increasingly an issue.  Getting our customers to use google docs could help.  Of course, within their limited session times, this may not really be a feasible solution unless they already have gmail accounts and are fairly technologically literate.

Thing #16: Learn&Play CML wiki November 26, 2008

I am having a hard time getting access to the editing function on this in order to leave my comments in the Favorite Blog part.  So….I heart http://gofugyourself.celebuzz.com/ and http://www.engrish.com/ when I need a quick laugh.  I requested access and am awaiting approval…

 

a-ha!  Approved finally, and I posted some of my favorite blogs.  None of them were library related, alas!  I’m really more about the cheap laugh.

Thing #15: wikis November 26, 2008

Just have to take a moment to say how much I love those commoncraft videos- they are great: succinct, interesting, and witty.  Concerning the wikis- I love the egelitarian nature of them, and the idea of them being living tools for their users is very cool.  I can see their use, particularly as a behind-the-scenes internal tool (easier than trying to plow through old emails in search of a specific one) and also as a feature on the catalog -the whole idea of customers being able to add reviews to the catalog is very cool!  Or what a great way for family or friends to keep up with each other   —they’d have this easy to add-to forum they could check in at.

Some of the ones I visited pointed to potential problems, especial if the wiki is created by a library and intended for public use…it seemed like several required users to login due to issues they’d had with “malicious posters”, and another one was sort of twilighted because the function had been integrated into that library’s catalog.  So unless it’s obvious and easy  to get to, I think many wiki’s probably don’t get used by the community they are intended to be a tool for and just languish.   The whole login issue is probably is enough to keep many potential users from adding —too much hassle, another username and password to remember, privacy concerns, and so forth.   Also, with some of the library-specific ones, especially for posting reviews,  I wonder if we libraries aren’t entering into the game a bit too late?  I think a lot of people, if they are looking for book reviews, just go to a major bookseller’s website like amazon or barnes&noble.  They’ve had the review posting function for years – I go there to look at them myself- and getting people to change a habit already in place is probably in some ways harder than teaching something new. 

So while I can see using wiki’s for committees or other behind-the-scenes work stuff, I am a bit more cynical about their applications for the public.  It would take some real thought to either have them publicized well enough to attract users or to intigrate them seamlessly into an existing attraction.    It would also require an ongoing dedication of staff time to monitor content and keep it appropriate and current, because I think the whole creating-of-a-login issue can be a significant barrier.

Thing #9: Finding Feeds November 26, 2008

Okay, so I tried out Topix.net and Technorati.com to find new feeds for this exercise.  I liked them both, especially technorati. 

I tried searching for articles about ebooks and kindle on both.  Technorati brought back the best results for those searchs.  I liked how clean and intuitive the interface was.  So not only was it a great, easy to use tool, but I also learned more about the upcoming updated version of kindle due out early next year (including a larger screened student edition—seriously, the library needs to find a way to make a partnership with amazon happen) and a very easy to use british site with free downloadable books that was super simple and fast (it downloads the books as PDFs, and I downloaded a travel book on New Orleans in literally less than 30 seconds).

I found topix.net a little cluttered and clunky, but I liked how it automatically had a local section to browse.  The searches for ebook and kindle gave me a lot more random hits to sort through, and the returns page again had that sort of cluttered, info-overload kind of feel to it.  I could see using it to search more for fun stuff  that I might be more in a mood to browse through stuff for, though (like the sample search I did for ANTM brought back a lovely interview with the most recent season’s winner and runner-up just like -poof-).  But I think google has spoiled me a little, and is probably why I prefered the layout on technorati more.