Thing 23: Reflection

I would like to add my thanks to the folks at Norrth Texas Library Partners for setting up this program. For me, the more fomalized setting helped me to stick with it 'til the end and I experienced a lot of web2.0 things I never would have done on my own.

The "Things" I liked best were Flickr, Facebook and LibraryThing. Things I like least were probably Twitter and Ning. The Systems side of me gets nervous with too much information out there about me and not being able to control who has access to it. My daughter also does tech support, and I could not talk her in to signing up for some of these things to practice with me. Facebook, at least allows some minimal control--only your friends (and their friends) can actually read your posts. I also like the way Facebook pushes info to your email.

There seemed to be a lot of duplication--rather like everyone, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft had to offer their own version of a "thing." I guess that makes sense since we have a gazillion browsers.

One of the things that I saw at the SD conference in Dallas was ChiliFresh. ChiliFresh is Beta testing a new product which at this point is called "Connections." Its a good simple way to integrate Web 2.0 things with your catalog and yet keep some control over what is ultimately visible to the public. We were invited to participate in the Beta testing, but had to decline because we do not have a test server. Bummer!

Thanks again for a great experience!

Thing 22: Developing your own 23 Things for your library

Although we started out with five of us participating in the library, at this point I am the only one likely to see this project to completion. Unfortunately, the stresses of Summer Reading Club and the fact the Information Services had blocked access to many of the function from desks on the public library floor made it difficult for many of our librarians to complete these tasks.

I am committed to the belief that if we want to reach our public we must hang out where our patrons do and it is not just the young adults who spend time on Twitter and Facebook! One of our volunteers in Tech Services is an 88 year old retired gentleman who is one of my Facebook friends.

I have done a lot of thinking about how our library can best use some of this technology and I believe that the first step is to get as many people as I can to complete as many of these "things" as possible. For one thing, I believe that will help eliminate the fear of the unknown. We have been able to establish a twitter page for pushing out Summer Reading Club activities. Recently City Hall started a Facebook page (which was rather nice when our fiber line recently got cut--they posted updates on the repair progress which those of us with Smartphones could access.

I have learned a lot in this process and tried many things that I otherwise would not have tried. Some I liked a lot and will continue to use and some I was just not comfortable with and will probably never use again, but learning them all has helped me to make a better informed decision and made me want everyone to get on involved so we can collaborate on our decisions. I plan to work with some of the staff to get them to eventually complete the project.

If you have been reading my blog, by now you probably realized that I admit to pretty much being a Geek, but I don't see technology as the only answer to a problem. There are still some things that can be done more efficiently without technology. My philosophy is that I should use it were it makes my life easier. If it doesn't simplify thingsk then don't use it.

Thing 11: Instant Messaging Redux

In my life away from the library, I am taking over our orchestra web page (again). Matt is no longer able to play with us due to a concert day change so I get the web page back. Matt created his version of the webpages on his Mac using iWeb software.

Mac offers this very cool version of chat or instant messaging and since Matt and I are both using Macs we can take advantage of it. We had to transfer the files from his mobileme space to mine. To transfer a file is incredibly easy--you just drop the file into the conversation box and voila! its now on my computer. This is a really cool way to transfer files that are too large to email. Since I do desktop publishing, I get alot of those. Through it he can also take over my computer should I really screw something up.

Mac uses the aol AIM software but in addition can connect with Jabber and Google talk. You can do audio conversations and video chats.

Could be useful. I think I will get my grandson to chat with me!!

Thing 21: Podcasts

I have found that Podcast vary wildly in quality. When I checked the listing of libraries who have Podcast, I found very few Public Libraries listed. The first public library selected produced a 404, Page not found. I checked my Alma Mater, WSU, and found that the libraries there had used PodCasts as tutorials for students to learn how to use their catalog. Not a bad idea, but the narrator talked too slowly.

Denver Public users their podcast for reading childrens' stories. DeKalb county publicizes programs with podcasts. Boulder Public produces Teen PodCasts. PodCasting seems to be difficult to sustain. Many libraries only produce two or three a year. And it seems to be most successful at the college and university level.

Many of the podcasts listed on the wiki proved to be available. I would imagine that to make podcasts available takes an unbelievable amount of time. If we could find someone with both the talent and time, I could see these being used to teach patrons how to use the online reference databases. The biggest problem is that these databases are constantly changing and it might be hard to keep the podcast current.

For myself, I have found several technology podcasts that I find useful and entertaining. I like a lot of the NPR podcasts, especially the Car Talk Guys and Wait, Wait don't tell me!

Thing 20: YouTube

YouTube is a lot of fun!

There are videos on anything you can imagine. Lots of technical help and answers! There is even a recording of a PDQ Bach concert that was performed for the musicians retirement fund when I lived in Boston with Itzhak Perlman as one of the soloists.

There is a wonderful series of spoofs on the Mac/PC ads with the Allen County Library:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWY8OBMlroI


There are videos from ALA conferences. The Burbank(Ca) library did a simple but elegant video for their One Book, One Community Reads program. I like the Burbank video because it was simple to produce and could involve a lot of patrons in the mix (although one reviewer called it "boring.") Burbank has a pretty active blog, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AcrhvLGPDU

I think that simple is more effective and doesn't cloud the message. I can see using you tube for library produced "help" files, links to our calendar of events.

Thing 19: Google Docs

Google Docs is an extremely convenient way to share doc and collaborate on them. I also like that they can easily be converted in Adobe. I often send docs in Adobe formate because I do not want them to be modified in any way. I had the ability to convert to Adobe Reader for quite some time because I own Adobe Pagemaker for Desktop publishing. Now everyone else has this ability, too.

One of my pc's is a netBook and I think it makes more sense to use Google Docs than to store a full version of Office on the PC. The formatting at Google Docs was a bit different than of Office 2007. Spacing between the paragraphs was removed. This was a little annoying, but then I sometimes find Office 2007 annoying. Actually to tell the truth, I find any Office product annoying. They always try to think that they know what I really want and often they are so wrong. WordPerfect was the first program I learned and I still can accomplish any fancy formatting so much better and faster in it!

I think it will be so much easier to use Google docs than to have to transfer everything to a Flash Drive.

Thing 17: LibWorm

On Saturday I could not access LibWorm either from the library or from home so imagine my surprise when today I was able to get it from my office.

I searched RFID and various permutation of RFID including specific vendors, open source RFID and the majority of articles I received in response were in german or french. The few I received in English were old, 2006. I wanted something newer so for this topic it did not meet my purposes.

I also tried open source as in ILS's, again foreign info and old info.

Decided to try one of the recommended searches, OPAC. This did contain some more current info, references to John Blyberg from July 2009 but the top hit was an article in what I believe to be Dutch (its certainly not German because I can read German).

The search for Hurst Public Library yielded only a bunch of unrelated searches containing the word Hurst.

I must reluctlantly conclude that LibWorm is not going to be helpful to me.

AARRRGGHH!!!!!

This is mySaturday to work and I had planned to totally catch up on the 23 things....

The first thing that happened was that I couldn't find a computer in the library that would access libworm, so I will have to do it at home. At least, I assume I will be able to access it from home. That has happened before!!

So even though it annoys me to have to do these out of order, I decided to go ahead with wiki's only to find that main page with the instructions is temporarily unavailable.

So now its onto Google Docs. I hope I have better luck here!

Thing 16: LibraryThing

Being in Tech. Services, I could really get into LibraryThing. I entered the first two books that happened to cross my path and will add more (a lot more) after I finish this project. I even started thinking, "gee, it's too bad, I weeded my collections last summer, I could have added more to LibraryThing!"

Some of the discussions were interesting and stayed on topic, and some veered way off topic. One Harry Potter discussion was talking about the pregnancy/delivery of apparently one of its members. Wierd librarian stories was funny, but unfortunately all too familiar.

I was never able to find the suggested sections for reading. Can anyone help?

I liked that when you go back after entering a few books, you find reccommendation of other books you might like. So the more books you enter, the more recommends you will get.

Thing 15: Digg

Help! I am on information overload! And since I deal in information in my professional life this is really becoming a problem.

Playing around on Ning was a lot of fun and I found some really interesting articles, including one on what Web 2.0 can learn from Web 1.0. It brought back a lot of memories abouut CompuServe, BBS.s. I used to read PACS-l. Does anyone else remember this?

I already try to keep current. I admit to considering myself a news junkie, I read USA Today and Wall Street Journal on my iPhone, watching way too much CNN (except when the Food Network trumps it. I read selected news feeds on the Web. I am note sure I want another news source to monitor.

I know that I could waste hours on Digg. I am glad to know it is there and to learn about it and will probably spend some time there in the future. Thanks for the experience!

Some random thoughts on this Web 2.0 Thing

Over the week end I heard that the wife of the head of MI6 posted some family shots to her Facebook page including her husband playing Frisbee in his Speedo. Apparently the site also include their residence address. While not necessarily a security breech, it does in a very public way point out some of the issues involved. (Note: the site now has its access limited.)

CNN now has a new feature in addition to reported blogs, facebook and twitter. It's called "Talk to Tony" or whoever. It features an actual phone number.

I think this is funny because really, I prefer the old fashioned sneaker network. You just don't have the same kind of communication in writing--its missing the body language which can be very important.

Thing 14: Delicious

OK, so I signed up for delicious, but the first thing that happened, because I use Firefox as a browser, was that I was asked to install a delicious add-on for Firefox. I decide I am willing to do that. However, this add-on wiped out (disabled) my Microsoft .net Framework which is required for NetLibrary audiobooks and I am addicted to audiobooks!

I did you delicious for some bookmarks that I made for my music groups program booklet. I can really begin to see how it could be useful. Because I have 2 macs and 2 pcs, it really becomes a time saver.

I am not sure how this could translate to using them in our iBistro catalog because those pages are dynamic and the web address varies from session to session. The sessions can be modified so it would work, but it would not be useful for the "woman on the street."

Thing 13: Tagging

Being a cataloger, for me open tagging makes little sense. We were taught in library school that in order to help people sucessful in finding meterial, we needed to have some sort of controlled vocabulary!

I think the fact that librarians often have standardized on fairly esoteric terms. How many people do you know who talk about cookery books? And from an earlier time, do you know who Eric Blair is? This from the time when librarians insisted on not using popular pseudonyms or pennames.

Addendum

Also, this probably stemps from having to clean up a library database where these was no controlled vocabulary when I first came here. It took hours and hours and hours.

Librarians need to become more proactive in using contemporary vocabulary rather than sticking to the old traditions.

Thing 12: Twitter

I attended the SirsiDynix user group conference in Dallas in April and twittering was incredibly popular. The conference was hastagged at #SirsiDynix

I signed up for an account when there was a contest between Ashton Kutcher and Larry King. Immediately after signing up, I got email from two women who wanted to follow me. Both had rather suggestive names.

At the moment I am following CNN, two fellow system admins, and an RFID guy in England.

And our library. Yes, we do have a twitter page for summer reading club.

Where did I most recently hear about Twitter? During the recent Iranian elections apparently the only news that was getting out of the country was coming from Twitter.

Thing 11: Instant Messaging

I do not like it, Sam I am. I not like IM. With apologies to Dr. Seuss.

I tried instant messaging almost 15 years ago with my brother. I found it frustrating because my brain works much fast than my fingers and I was always wanting to jump ahead of my typing. I also did it with my friends brother when he as home. At that time, the service came under fire for security issues so we quit using it. At that time I did get a few people whom I did not know asking to chat with me.

My plan is to revisit this task a bit later when I can talk some of the other staff who are doing this project to have a chat session and then disable me account.

For me, this is another service that seems to be better implemented in other packages. You can chat in Facebook. Texting on cell phones. I have read about libraries using texting in reference work from patrons who are actually in the library. Seems strange to me.

More later. . .

Thing 10: Ning

I did visit Ning.com, however, I I also read the information at the ChartingStocks blog and will not be creating a ning account at this time. I am just not comfortable with their policies. I am also not convinced that I see the advantage of Ning. It seems to duplicate what can be done at so many other sites!

I did watch the tutorial and unfortunately the audio was still compromised.

I searched the site for clarinet(ists) and fouond one site for Band Geeks. I also found one of my fellow system admins had start a "by invitation only" site for her library staff and I can see that as possibly a good use of ning. I also found several RFID groups inclulding some for specific vendors.

I did find the ALA site unlike several of the North Texas 23 participants and listened to the Open Source ILS.

Thing 9: More Facebook

One of my Facebook friends just got a new job and is moving from Texas to Rockville, Maryland. He has been commenting on selling the house, packing the truck and moving on his blog and Facebook. It has been interesting.

The groups I joined were "Free Prizes", "FacebookLibrarians@ ALA", and "Official: Facebook Clarinetists" I am also a fan of Alton Brown and the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving. It takes a lot of time to find groups because there are so many and even so I really did not find the right ALA group. What I found was a group for folks who are going to the conference. I'll probably drop the group! I never could find North Texas Regional Library System.

I am not sure that I really can see the purpose in a Group, although I suppose it would be possible for our group to post rehearsal announcements there.

I do most of my Facebook stuff on the iPod Touch. I do plan to go for the new iPhone. It has some really cool new features.

Thing 8: Facebook

I recently joined Facebook in part because the Community Orchestra I play in started a Facebook page. I found several people there that I had lost contact with, so asked them to be friends. The orchestra had planned to use Facebook as a communication tool, but never really put it into practice. I never did manage to join the orchestra's page.

I like that on Facebook, you do have complete control over who can see your info. Most of my friends are either work colleagues or professional colleagues from the SD conferences that I have been to over the years.

Tuesday, I had lunch with a former staffer. We made all the arrangements over Facebook. Really cool way to do it!

I have read the blogs of others who did not feel comfortable with Facebook, but I feel more comfortable with it than I do with this blog where anybody can read it, but I am fairly cautious and would never give my password to anyone! -- for any reason.

Thing 7 RSS feeds

I am not sure that I understqnd the difference between RSS feeds and blog readers. Both seem to accomplish the same thing--putting all the blogs in one place for the user's convenience.

The Mac has a really good blog reader/aggregator and I tend to use it to keep up with "current events." My daughter used to support Mac's at St. Thomas University in St. Paul and she suggested that I get a Mac Book Pro last summer. I am extremely happy with the Mac. It just works!

I did subscribe to a couple more blogs on Google Reader although I had some trouble with Helene Blowers' blogl For some reason, I could not access it at work. (Maybe this is time for my rant on the fact that as a librarian, I want to give people access to all types of information. As an IT professional it is their job to keep people out. It is unfortunate that we can't get any dialogue going because as a System Administrator I am very sympathetic to their problem and we might be able to figure out a way to keep both of us happy.

Because I am doing some of this work on a 8 1/2 in Acer Netbook, I had a lot of trouble finding the link on Helene's page, but in the end I did succeed.

Now, to te next challenge. . .

Thing 6 Blog Readers

I have had an account at Google Reader for a long time just so that I could read Stephen Abrams posts. I also subscribe to Rableonsylvie (who does the same job as me at Martin County FL), the Library Moose (from Burbank, CA whose owner does the same job at Burbank), and the Shifted Lkbrarian, Jenny Levine. I chose Google Reader then because it did not require installing additional software on the PC which is a practice our Information Services Department frowns upon.

I was surprised how integrated Google Reader in Blogger were. All the folks I am following on Bllogger were already listed on Reader! I have encouraged everyone at Hurst to follow each other so that we can get the full experience. Already we have found one user who can not post comments. I suspect that this may be that my work PC is nowhere near the public floor and as system administrator I may have privileges she doesn't. My next step will be to have her try sending a comment logged onto my PC.

The major problem with this task was that the screenhots were pretty blurry and because I already had an account my screens did not always remotely resemble those pictured, but it did all come together. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that there is just too much information out there!

Thing 5 image Generators

I used existing pictures that I were already on Flickr and was totally amazed at how easy the cube was to create. I have a glass cube that I bought at Aaron's frame shop and never created the pictures to fill it. I think will be able create this cube, convert the image to a pdf by using cute.pdf as my printer, then I should be able to print it at a specified percentage to fit the glass cube.

At this point, all reader's eyes glaze over). Being the library system admin I am used to glazed eyes, especially when I do a demo to the Library Board.

I took my cube to staff meeting and everyone seemed to think it was really cool! I wish I had been able to talk up the project to staff sooner, but I feel that getting four other staff to participate has been invaluable.

I left my cube at work, so I had to print another one for home. I plan to come back, edit this post, and add a picture of the cube--the one I took at work on my cell phone is of very poor quality.

Later, , ,

I have added the cube photo.

Thing 4 (continued)

I am experiencing some frustration on thing 4. I created the images with Flickr toys, but when I try to add them to the blog, they come as separate posts. Since one of the things I do in my free time is desktop publishing for a volunteer group, I want this to look the way I envision it should, so I plan to keep trying until I get it right.


I am happier with the way these look and now have a better feel for how these work.

Thing 4: Flickr mashups

I was surprised how easy the mashups were. I had down similar stuff using Photoshop elements (baby Photoshop) and compared to that this was really simple!

I sent an email to the staff saying I was doing the project and motivated 3 others to start. I believe that we all need to become familiar with Web 2.0 to select what we want to utilize in our library.

Thing 3: Flickr

I love Flickr. This is one of the 23 that I have been doing for quite a while. When I first joined Flickr I had just gone to a conference in Colorado Springs. What a beautiful place to take pictures!

I spent a lot of time visiting places I used to live on Flickr, Spokane, Portland, Boston, Bedford. I also have a mobile me account, bit jave never tried Picassa although I have it on my PC at work for storing photographs locally.

Here is a link to my Flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jfyoung/

It contains a mix of personal and library-related photos.

Thing 2

Well, Thing 2.0 was learning about Web2.0. I know Stephen from the SD conferences and have his book. I have participated in many of his webinars. Really cool and funny guy!

I had also seen "The Shifted Librarian" You Tube video and read some articles from her blog. I had read the Tim O'Reilly article when Web2.0 as a topic first came up.

I am still not sure how I feel about Web 2.0, although I have been doing selected Web 2.0 things for some time in my personal life. What I hope to get out of this project is learning a way to incorporate them into our library.

Yesteryday, we finally got the word that our RFID project would be going forward to City Council. The first thing I did when I got home was to go to my facebook page and enter that on my feed, I never thought I would feel that it was important to do that and I still can't why anyone would care about some of the routine details of my life (like going shopping.) but on the other hand a lot of my facebook friends are librarians and they would care about this.

Thing 1 of the 23 things was creating this blog, so here it is. I realize that I probably did not do it right with my first post after looking at some posts. I kind of have a lull until the next city council meeting on the RFID project, and no more symphony til fall, so will make an effort to catch up.