When I began this, I kind of thought it would be reviewing a lot of things I already knew. And while this was true in many cases, there were almost just as many sites that, even though I spend much too much of my free time on the Internet and am quite comfortable with it, I had never really explored, not really. I had heard of sites like Technorati and Del.icio.us, but never actually used them. Even though they may not be things that I personally would use everyday, I think it's good for me to know them in case I am asked questions that those sites would answer. And in being asked to help my colleagues out with the sites I was familiar with, I learned more about them. I had really just learned out to use them in an intuitive, slapdash sort of way, but you can't do that so much when you're teaching someone something, so in approaching them in a more orderly fashion with other people I discovered features I'd either missed before, or that had been released after I gotten to know the site.
I think I've also learned more about the services on the library webpage. Before the only site I had used enough to say I was comfortable with it was the R.E.A.D.S. site.
I think my favorite discoveries that I didn't know before were Google Documents (at least so that I can access copies of important documents anywhere) and the Pandora music site. I'll probably continues to use those, as well as the ones I already loved (LibraryThing and Wikipedia and Youtube).
I think I might do other programs like this, if they were offered. There are still quite a lot of things I need to learn.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
#23 Podcasts
I've been really into podcasts before, but I have listened to one every now and then. I used to listen to some Tim Gunn did for Project Runway, simply because that man has the most delightful vocabulary of anyone on reality television ("Designers, let's caucus!") And just in the last few days I started listening to one I found one that's a year or so old, done by a British student studying abroad in Japan. Here's the link for that.
I did look for some library or book related ones, but nothing really jumped out at me from the descriptions. They all seemed kind of too technical for my experience or more geared towards educating patrons. But I'll check out everyone else's suggestions.
I did look for some library or book related ones, but nothing really jumped out at me from the descriptions. They all seemed kind of too technical for my experience or more geared towards educating patrons. But I'll check out everyone else's suggestions.
#22 R.E.A.D.S. and MyLibraryDV
These sites are like little hidden treasures that more people need to find out about. I think it's always nice to go on R.E.A.D.S. and find books that the system doesn't have hard copies of, ready to check out as an ebook or audio. I used it before and found some lesser known books by Meg Cabot (author of the Princess Diaries), these two that are sort of...I suppose you'd call them teen chick lit Regency romance? The only downside is that the staff checkout time of a month doesn't apply there, so I never finished them, haha. But I can always go back and reread them later. I've also used the site to download audiobooks, but they're not compatible with all mp3 players, or even all of the big ones (specifically iPod, the most used one), which is definitely an issue if the service is ever going to kick off.
MyLibraryDV is pretty good too. I think the collection is a good start - but I think if I were really into travel or cooking, I'd say it was a lot better than a good start. Those sorts of things are really popular, bookwise, so I hope more patrons find out about the service and how to use it because they'd probably really like them.
MyLibraryDV is pretty good too. I think the collection is a good start - but I think if I were really into travel or cooking, I'd say it was a lot better than a good start. Those sorts of things are really popular, bookwise, so I hope more patrons find out about the service and how to use it because they'd probably really like them.
#21 Youtube
Youtube has been a favorite of mine for a while. The sheer variety of things to be found is amazing. Also I like the idea that anyone can post things. This video, for example, is the sort of thing my friend does when she'd bored. She's really into drawing things in a cartoon/Disney type style, and sometimes she puts them to music. I think her dream is to animate all of Les Mis with animal cartoons, and you can see some of the beginnings of that in her account.
I have an account myself and use it post random videos of my cat. I once also posted some videos I'd taken of some traditional dance I saw at an ikebana convention in Japan, that turned out to be surprisingly popular. I really only posted them for my own benefit, so I could go back and watch them easily later, but since there wasn't much more of that sort of thing on Youtube, they ended up getting 2500-6000 views each. I just finished the book Extras, by Scott Westerfeld, where the main character lives in a society where the economy seems to be based on a thing like Youtube popularity - post a video a lot of people watch, and you get paid more suddenly. I think those videos would have helped my financial situation dramatically for a few months. Too bad it was only a book!
I rather like Mel's idea of doing staff recs through Youtube. I'd make some! As long as we had a camera with a mic good enough to pick up my voice. I tend to read a lot of books that I think would be popular with the demographic most likely to be using Youtube, I think. I also like Al's idea of making some how-to videos on there, about express checkout and the reservation system. One that teaches them how to find all the good new DVDs that never actually get put on the shelf because they're always being checked out might be a good idea (as much as I don't want the 'competition' in the DVD reserving race, haha). I don't have any new ideas myself, I'm afraid, but those were such good ones I thought I'd just repeat them.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
#20 Other Web 2.0
I picked the contest winner for music, Pandora, and I am quite impressed. It calls itself 'Radio from the Music Genome Project', and as the title implies, it really does seem to dissect music into tiny little elements that make the song what it is. It asks you for your favorite artist, and then it plays you a song by that artist. If I didn't know better, I'd swear there was a music genius in there, telling you that it had just picked a song that exemplified Franz Ferdinand's *long string of musical terms I don't really understand*. I got the basic idea, though, and the song it played did seem to be one that represented the band's style. Then it picked another song by a different band that it felt, according to it's mysterious complex 'genome project', matched the things I probably liked about Franz Ferdinand. I'm pretty amazed by this point! And if by some chances it messes up and gives me a song that I don't like at all, I have the chance to give it a 'thumbs down', and I guess that tweak the song chooser's choices even more, giving it more data to work with.
One small downside - I think it still must be limited to artists published in the US, because the only Japanese artist I could get it to find in it's 'genome project' was Utada (Hikaru), and then it was one of her English songs. But I guess that's understandable.
One small downside - I think it still must be limited to artists published in the US, because the only Japanese artist I could get it to find in it's 'genome project' was Utada (Hikaru), and then it was one of her English songs. But I guess that's understandable.
#19 Social Networking
Ahh, the social networks. Being my age, you pretty much have to have a Myspace or facebook page, or you end up terribly left out of a lot things in your peer group. Actually, I was a little too old to get in the Myspace trend. When this all starting getting big I was just entering university, so it was more useful for me to join facebook, which at the time was university students only. I have lots more friends there than on myspace anyway, especially since it expanded so anyone could join, and all of my friends who went to schools in other countries or didn't go to university could join as well.
Also, I confess I have this snobby aversion to MySpace. I don't what it is, but something about everyone having the ability to put automatically starting music and any background on their pages makes for some hideous and ear-splitting combinations. I think 75% of MySpace users don't understand that no matter how cool their background pic is, it's more important for people to actually be able to read the text! Maybe they'll learn, eventually. That and there are always tons of people wanting to be your 'friend', who you've never even heard of. I guess I find it sort of creepy, and don't really care at all that I only have 13 friends. With the exception of a few comics and bands who I really wanted to support, I actually know all of my 'friends' personally.
Anyway, as to the question of libraries using MySpace...I think it's a nice try, but that the purpose of libraries doesn't really mesh well with the purpose of MySpace. I can understand the need to want to woo young patrons over, and convince them that cool stuff can be had at the library. I just don't know that MySpace is the way to do it. Just making a web page to share all the information, and making events they will actually be interested in, would probably be better plans than MySpace. I think most teenager's reactions to the library wanting an 'add' would just be rolling of the eyes.
Also, I confess I have this snobby aversion to MySpace. I don't what it is, but something about everyone having the ability to put automatically starting music and any background on their pages makes for some hideous and ear-splitting combinations. I think 75% of MySpace users don't understand that no matter how cool their background pic is, it's more important for people to actually be able to read the text! Maybe they'll learn, eventually. That and there are always tons of people wanting to be your 'friend', who you've never even heard of. I guess I find it sort of creepy, and don't really care at all that I only have 13 friends. With the exception of a few comics and bands who I really wanted to support, I actually know all of my 'friends' personally.
Anyway, as to the question of libraries using MySpace...I think it's a nice try, but that the purpose of libraries doesn't really mesh well with the purpose of MySpace. I can understand the need to want to woo young patrons over, and convince them that cool stuff can be had at the library. I just don't know that MySpace is the way to do it. Just making a web page to share all the information, and making events they will actually be interested in, would probably be better plans than MySpace. I think most teenager's reactions to the library wanting an 'add' would just be rolling of the eyes.
#18 Online Word Processing
I tried out Google Docs, because I use a lot of Google's services already: email, the personalized home page, and Google Reader for RSS feeds, mainly. Maybe because of that, I didn't have to sign in or anything - when I clicked on the link it took me right to the main page of Google Docs, with me already signed in (because I keep my personalized homepage always signed on my home computer, I guess). So it was very easy.
I like the idea of being able to access documents from anywhere. Before I've always either put documents I know I'd need on other computers into an email attachment or uploaded it to some free webspace somewhere. And that works pretty well, of course, but this is better because I can edit the document right in the same place I am accessing it. And if I wanted to share them with other people, let them edit it, I could do that too. I can see where that might be useful. Especially for projects multiple people are working on. Someone could write up an outline or make a presentation and share it here, and others could go in and make changes to it, without all the emailing back and forth and extra versions that no one is sure what the latest one is.
I uploaded both my resume and the file I keep extra resume type info in: all the addresses of my jobs, and contact information of references. I took the chance to finally update these documents with the information for my job at Kohls, too, which I am ashamed to say I haven't done yet even though I've worked there for three months now. It was pretty easy, just like a word processor or blog post. And now I have created this third document, which I will try to publish in my blog (I think I have the settings right). So, here goes!
I like the idea of being able to access documents from anywhere. Before I've always either put documents I know I'd need on other computers into an email attachment or uploaded it to some free webspace somewhere. And that works pretty well, of course, but this is better because I can edit the document right in the same place I am accessing it. And if I wanted to share them with other people, let them edit it, I could do that too. I can see where that might be useful. Especially for projects multiple people are working on. Someone could write up an outline or make a presentation and share it here, and others could go in and make changes to it, without all the emailing back and forth and extra versions that no one is sure what the latest one is.
I uploaded both my resume and the file I keep extra resume type info in: all the addresses of my jobs, and contact information of references. I took the chance to finally update these documents with the information for my job at Kohls, too, which I am ashamed to say I haven't done yet even though I've worked there for three months now. It was pretty easy, just like a word processor or blog post. And now I have created this third document, which I will try to publish in my blog (I think I have the settings right). So, here goes!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
#17 LPLS Wiki
Putting the articles on the staff wiki wasn't terribly difficult to me (actually for me the most difficult things to do were A) Finding the time to use a staff computer, today is the only day when we haven't been so overflowing with books that I felt right taking off time from shelving to do it, and B) Learning just exactly where all the files on ther server were. Because I don't usually use the computers here, I never even knew these were all here.
Amusingly enough the thing that took me the most time was figuring out how to put spaces between each list line. The first article I did, entering after each item worked fine, but on the second it didn't. Trying to press enter at the end of each line when I was actually in the wiki editor made the list 'start over'...for example, if I pressed enter after List Item 1, I think it assumed I'd made a new list and List Item 2 became a second list item 1. I ended up just highlighting all of the text in the original article, right clicking and choosing the 'paragraph' option, and choosing the option to double space the whole lot. Then I copied that text into the wiki editor, and it seemed to work.
Here are the articles I did: Checking in Bookdrop Materials and Transit Items. When I searched for these words the right articles came up, as well as a few other words I tried, so I think the search option works pretty well.
I think this wiki will be pretty useful to me because, even though I personally don't deal with most of these procedures evry day, it is probably good to know them. I can only learn so much by just happening to see or here things when I am at the front desk, so I will definitely be reading over the articles as they are posted.
Amusingly enough the thing that took me the most time was figuring out how to put spaces between each list line. The first article I did, entering after each item worked fine, but on the second it didn't. Trying to press enter at the end of each line when I was actually in the wiki editor made the list 'start over'...for example, if I pressed enter after List Item 1, I think it assumed I'd made a new list and List Item 2 became a second list item 1. I ended up just highlighting all of the text in the original article, right clicking and choosing the 'paragraph' option, and choosing the option to double space the whole lot. Then I copied that text into the wiki editor, and it seemed to work.
Here are the articles I did: Checking in Bookdrop Materials and Transit Items. When I searched for these words the right articles came up, as well as a few other words I tried, so I think the search option works pretty well.
I think this wiki will be pretty useful to me because, even though I personally don't deal with most of these procedures evry day, it is probably good to know them. I can only learn so much by just happening to see or here things when I am at the front desk, so I will definitely be reading over the articles as they are posted.
Monday, November 26, 2007
#16 Wikis
I think these library wikis are a great idea - but I've always loved wikis anyway. From the big one, wikipedia, to several smaller ones on specific subjects, they're quite useful ways to find information quickly (for all that one can't take the results too seriously, because the communal nature of letting anyone or a lot of people add information increases the chance that the information will be wrong. But as a way to find information for informal purposes - they're great. I've even contributed to several pertaining to some online communities and games I'm in - where we make articles about our character's histories, and such, for our own and other's reference.
I'll admit I wasn't sure how a library could use this kind of thing, though, until I saw the St. Joseph County library wiki. It's pretty neat. All the topic subjects people are looking for, with individual pages that include everything from books on the subject to staff recommendations and links to webpages that could help people find things in the community - all very useful. Especially the 'government' section. I'm forever wondering just how some facet of the city/county/state/country bureaucracy works; how I'm supposed to go about getting a passport or renew my driver's license or pay my bills or taxes. And it looks like a lot of that can be found here, with maps and links to relevant websites.
Of course only part of this project seems to relate to books, but, after all, the library isn't just about books. People rely on us for countless things, asking for directions and information on the government, etc. I think this is a good way to get that to him (as well as throw in a few book recommendations, if that can be done. Or to find the information ourselves if we don't know it.
I'll admit I wasn't sure how a library could use this kind of thing, though, until I saw the St. Joseph County library wiki. It's pretty neat. All the topic subjects people are looking for, with individual pages that include everything from books on the subject to staff recommendations and links to webpages that could help people find things in the community - all very useful. Especially the 'government' section. I'm forever wondering just how some facet of the city/county/state/country bureaucracy works; how I'm supposed to go about getting a passport or renew my driver's license or pay my bills or taxes. And it looks like a lot of that can be found here, with maps and links to relevant websites.
Of course only part of this project seems to relate to books, but, after all, the library isn't just about books. People rely on us for countless things, asking for directions and information on the government, etc. I think this is a good way to get that to him (as well as throw in a few book recommendations, if that can be done. Or to find the information ourselves if we don't know it.
#15 Perspectives on Library 2.0
Perhaps it's my youth and geekiness showing, but most of what I've read about web 2.0 so far are things I'd already gotten used to on my own, and these opinions on library 2.0 only make me thing 'well, yeah...obviously'. Like in Rick Anderson's 'away from icebergs' article, I don't find the idea that there won't be such a need for a 'just in case' collection of reference materials in the future very crazy or shocking. I myself haven't picked up an encyclopedia in years (well, except when I'm shelving one). I always search in a database or something. So I've always expected there to be a day in the future when I might work in a library with no hardbound encyclopedia at all - we just have to wait for a day when most patrons know that databases exists and are comfortable with searching them instead of using a print version. And as for making services as user friendly and intuitive as possible so teaching isn't required, and giving access to them on the Internet - again, obviously!
The other perspective I read was Dr. Schultz's 'To a Temporary Place in Time'. I rather like her point that things are always changing. What I get from this is that perhaps we should less be saying 'web/library 2.0 - This is the future!' to just saying 'this is the path we seem to be taking to...well, wherever it leads us'. I think the Internet and quick to instant access of information has already changed libraries drastically (hey, I'm not so young I don't know what a card catalog was!) in the last few years, and will change them even more drastically in the future. I think the key to being comfortable in all this change is to be adaptable, and not be too shaken up by the fact that things will change almost as fast as one can learn them. To, instead of being flustered by this, see it all as kind of fun.
I do kind of wonder what she's going on about with this 3D library 3.0 stuff, though. Book avatars talking to us! I do like the idea of being represented by an avatar rather than having to go to work, but I don't quite believe that will happen. Maybe we can have AI versions of the authors talking to us too. 'Well if you liked my book, you might also like...'
The other perspective I read was Dr. Schultz's 'To a Temporary Place in Time'. I rather like her point that things are always changing. What I get from this is that perhaps we should less be saying 'web/library 2.0 - This is the future!' to just saying 'this is the path we seem to be taking to...well, wherever it leads us'. I think the Internet and quick to instant access of information has already changed libraries drastically (hey, I'm not so young I don't know what a card catalog was!) in the last few years, and will change them even more drastically in the future. I think the key to being comfortable in all this change is to be adaptable, and not be too shaken up by the fact that things will change almost as fast as one can learn them. To, instead of being flustered by this, see it all as kind of fun.
I do kind of wonder what she's going on about with this 3D library 3.0 stuff, though. Book avatars talking to us! I do like the idea of being represented by an avatar rather than having to go to work, but I don't quite believe that will happen. Maybe we can have AI versions of the authors talking to us too. 'Well if you liked my book, you might also like...'
#14 Technorati
So, the main difference I see in searching different ways on Technorati is that if you just search for posts with 'learning 2.0', you get all posts that mention it at all, which leads to a lot more results of the type where the blogger mentions it in passing, then goes on to talk about other things. Searching for the phrase within tags is more likely to bring up results where the post is almost entirely focusing on 'learning 2.0'. And then, obviously, searching in blog directory brings up entire blogs about the subject!
I guess having different ways to search is good, if you don't know just how talked about the subject you are looking for is. If it is a very common subject, it might be good to do a blog search or tag search. But if one is really having trouble finding anything, it might be time to just do a post search and sift through all the results.
As for the most popular blogs, searches, and tags...no, I can't say I find anything that interesting or surprising. Except for the fact that I'm surprised there isn't something startling and interesting among the popular searches. Something I didn't know before. I'm very used to seeing very new and different things on the Internet, so learning that most people on technorati like searching for blogs about gadgets and making money, and blog posts about myspace, Ron Paul, and Paris Hilton is sort of anticlimactic. I already knew people were wanting to read about those things.
LPLS
I guess having different ways to search is good, if you don't know just how talked about the subject you are looking for is. If it is a very common subject, it might be good to do a blog search or tag search. But if one is really having trouble finding anything, it might be time to just do a post search and sift through all the results.
As for the most popular blogs, searches, and tags...no, I can't say I find anything that interesting or surprising. Except for the fact that I'm surprised there isn't something startling and interesting among the popular searches. Something I didn't know before. I'm very used to seeing very new and different things on the Internet, so learning that most people on technorati like searching for blogs about gadgets and making money, and blog posts about myspace, Ron Paul, and Paris Hilton is sort of anticlimactic. I already knew people were wanting to read about those things.
LPLS
Monday, November 12, 2007
#13 De.licio.us
I think the idea of keeping one's links online is a great idea. Every few months I at least back my links up that way. I don't use public computers that much, but if I did it would be invaluable to be able to access them anywhere. As it is, I do use a personalized Google homepage, so I at least have my email, a few links, and my RSS feeds able to be accessed from anywhere.
I don't so much like the public part of it - meaning, anyone can see what you have linked. Luckily you don't have to make any of your links public - and I haven't. I do realize that this means I'm missing out on contributing all of my tagging info and the numbers of what pages I have linked to the 'community' at large...but, the thing is, I don't really want everyone to know what I think is worthy of being bookmarked.
I do really like that when you type in a word, and it retrieves links what that tag, it tells you how many other people have that bookmark saved. It helps you figure out which links are worthy of being clicked - well, at least what other people think is worthy.
As for it's usefulness as a research tool...both yes and no. It is a good way to find other links regarding a subject. When I searched 'Heian', for example (that's the name of a period in Japanese history), I got a great website on The Tale of Genji I had never seven seen. It would have been very useful to me when I was writing all of those Japanese history/lit papers. But because anyone can add their links to del.ici.ious, I had just as many results, maybe more, regarding an anime where one of the characters is a ghost from the Heian era (which admittedly also interests me, I love that show - but it's not useful at all in research unless you're writing a paper on Japanese pop culture). I think people would have a hard time looking at it as a serious academic tool when fun and entertainment was so mixed in with the rest.
I don't so much like the public part of it - meaning, anyone can see what you have linked. Luckily you don't have to make any of your links public - and I haven't. I do realize that this means I'm missing out on contributing all of my tagging info and the numbers of what pages I have linked to the 'community' at large...but, the thing is, I don't really want everyone to know what I think is worthy of being bookmarked.
I do really like that when you type in a word, and it retrieves links what that tag, it tells you how many other people have that bookmark saved. It helps you figure out which links are worthy of being clicked - well, at least what other people think is worthy.
As for it's usefulness as a research tool...both yes and no. It is a good way to find other links regarding a subject. When I searched 'Heian', for example (that's the name of a period in Japanese history), I got a great website on The Tale of Genji I had never seven seen. It would have been very useful to me when I was writing all of those Japanese history/lit papers. But because anyone can add their links to del.ici.ious, I had just as many results, maybe more, regarding an anime where one of the characters is a ghost from the Heian era (which admittedly also interests me, I love that show - but it's not useful at all in research unless you're writing a paper on Japanese pop culture). I think people would have a hard time looking at it as a serious academic tool when fun and entertainment was so mixed in with the rest.
Monday, October 29, 2007
#12 Rollyo
I used Rollyo to create a search engine that searched all the sites I normally use to look for books (Amazon, librarything, and trading site called Bookmooch) and movies (Internet Movie Database and Amazon again). It was easy enough to put all the URLs in and 'create' I tested it out with a book I had just read, and quickly decided to take out Amazon - it dominated the results to the extent you could barely find the others. Besides, I figured it would be obvious nearly everything I could search for would be on Amazon. It worked a little better without. I do wish there was some way for it to 'know' which of the search results were most important - the actual item description page, for example. It seems to rate everything kind of equally. So I think there is a room for improvement, but it is still pretty neat.
Here is my search engine:
Here is my search engine:
#11 LibraryThing
I've been a member of Librarything since January, and I really love it. I even paid the one time subscription fee to get a paid account. (NB: You don't have to pay for the site at all - it's free - but if you get really serious about it and want to catalog more than 200 books, you can pay to upgrade to an unlimited account). Librarything is interesting in that way, since they suggest that you pay $10 for a year's membership or $25 for a lifetime membership, but let you choose how much you pay: 9-20 for a year or 19-55 for lifetime. The creator of the site is pretty active in the forums and with keeping his blogs, and I've seen him say most people really do pay the suggested fee, or more.
This site is not only useful for keeping track of just how many books you own, but also what they are about, what other people think of them, and what other books on related subjects you might like. The site reccommends books according to what you already own - what books do other people with similar libraries to your own, that sort of thing, One thing I wish I could do, though, is go in and tell it to stop reccommending me so much manga. I like manga a lot, but not so much as I used to, but because I have a lot in my library, as well as books about Japanese history and culture, nearly 2/3 of my recs seem to be manga.
I mostly use the site to keep track of what books I own and haven't read yet. I use tags 'reading' and 'unread' to remember these. So whenever I feel like reading, I can just go to my bookmark of the 'unread' tag, and pick one. (The number of books with this tag is quite a large number, so I can't keep them all on their own shelf somewhere.
Another nice thing about the site is the groups, where people discuss their favorite genres of books, or many other kinds of topics. 'Librarians Who Librarything' is actually the largest one on the site, I believe. ;)
I feel a little weird about linking to my actual library, though. I don't mind thousands of strangers being able to know every book I own, but somehow I feel awkward letting people who actually know me see it. So instead, I made a new account, and added the books I currently have checked out from the library. I also went ahead and added tags, so everyone could see how I usually do that, too. If anyone has any questions about the site, feel free to ask me, because I'm on it pretty much every day.
This site is not only useful for keeping track of just how many books you own, but also what they are about, what other people think of them, and what other books on related subjects you might like. The site reccommends books according to what you already own - what books do other people with similar libraries to your own, that sort of thing, One thing I wish I could do, though, is go in and tell it to stop reccommending me so much manga. I like manga a lot, but not so much as I used to, but because I have a lot in my library, as well as books about Japanese history and culture, nearly 2/3 of my recs seem to be manga.
I mostly use the site to keep track of what books I own and haven't read yet. I use tags 'reading' and 'unread' to remember these. So whenever I feel like reading, I can just go to my bookmark of the 'unread' tag, and pick one. (The number of books with this tag is quite a large number, so I can't keep them all on their own shelf somewhere.
Another nice thing about the site is the groups, where people discuss their favorite genres of books, or many other kinds of topics. 'Librarians Who Librarything' is actually the largest one on the site, I believe. ;)
I feel a little weird about linking to my actual library, though. I don't mind thousands of strangers being able to know every book I own, but somehow I feel awkward letting people who actually know me see it. So instead, I made a new account, and added the books I currently have checked out from the library. I also went ahead and added tags, so everyone could see how I usually do that, too. If anyone has any questions about the site, feel free to ask me, because I'm on it pretty much every day.
#10 Image Generators
I went to the Generator Blog, and from there found the eLouai Harry Potter Doll Maker - so I thought I'd make myself as a Hogwarts student - Ravenclaw, of course.
#9 Feed Searching
I've never really searched specifically for feeds before. Usually I just check out blogs linked to blogs I already enjoy, and save the ones I like. But here are my thoughts on the sites:
Feedster: Not having any luck at all with this one. Maybe it's because I'm doing searches for things with the word 'library', but I seem to get mostly lists of books, and nothing else. Okay, actually, forget that - I just did a search for 'satire' and got another set of results like this. Granted, they are all satire books, but...it's a little ridiculous not to get any blogs with people talking about their opinions.
Topix - I'm not really sure how useful this one would be for me...I already know how to find news items in other ways, and that seems to be most of what it does.
Syndic8 - I couldn't make sense of this one at all. None of the subjects I entered brought back anything relevant, and when I tried just searching the names of some blogs I already enjoy nothing appeared either.
Technorati - not much luck with this one either. I do think the way the frontpage updates ever few seconds with a new blog post is pretty neat...I think it was making my browser lag like mad, but it was neat. I learned some interesting things this way, like a rumor from K-Fed's new girlfriend that Britney Spears used to breastfeed her kids while she was drunk.
Overall, I didn't have much luck with any of them. But maybe I just wasn't using them right. All in all, I still prefer the 'old-fashioned' method of searching - if you can consider Google 'old-fashioned' anyway. A simple search for 'library blogs' returns sites like: this one, which divides them up nicely by country and is a nice way to get worldwide perspectives, and this one, which divides things by various subjects including libraries and books.
Feedster: Not having any luck at all with this one. Maybe it's because I'm doing searches for things with the word 'library', but I seem to get mostly lists of books, and nothing else. Okay, actually, forget that - I just did a search for 'satire' and got another set of results like this. Granted, they are all satire books, but...it's a little ridiculous not to get any blogs with people talking about their opinions.
Topix - I'm not really sure how useful this one would be for me...I already know how to find news items in other ways, and that seems to be most of what it does.
Syndic8 - I couldn't make sense of this one at all. None of the subjects I entered brought back anything relevant, and when I tried just searching the names of some blogs I already enjoy nothing appeared either.
Technorati - not much luck with this one either. I do think the way the frontpage updates ever few seconds with a new blog post is pretty neat...I think it was making my browser lag like mad, but it was neat. I learned some interesting things this way, like a rumor from K-Fed's new girlfriend that Britney Spears used to breastfeed her kids while she was drunk.
Overall, I didn't have much luck with any of them. But maybe I just wasn't using them right. All in all, I still prefer the 'old-fashioned' method of searching - if you can consider Google 'old-fashioned' anyway. A simple search for 'library blogs' returns sites like: this one, which divides them up nicely by country and is a nice way to get worldwide perspectives, and this one, which divides things by various subjects including libraries and books.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Just in case you hadn't heard yet-
I feel this is important library related news!
Dumbledore is gay.
They even already have t-shirts for 'Dumbledore Pride'. I kind of want the left one, because, to tell the truth, I rather did suspect something between he and Grindlewald, when I read about their frequent intense late night letters to each other. But I probably shouldn't get the shirt because I don't want shocked parents throwing things at me when I'm shelving children's books. Especially the Harry Potter books themselves. I mean, ow.
Dumbledore is gay.
They even already have t-shirts for 'Dumbledore Pride'. I kind of want the left one, because, to tell the truth, I rather did suspect something between he and Grindlewald, when I read about their frequent intense late night letters to each other. But I probably shouldn't get the shirt because I don't want shocked parents throwing things at me when I'm shelving children's books. Especially the Harry Potter books themselves. I mean, ow.
#8 - RSS!
Apparently I'm one of the few was already using this? Everyone I've talked to says they haven't before, so I guess I'll be helping some people this week (if they can pull me out of the book mines). Anyway, I'm glad everyone else is learning now, because it really is the most convenient thing ever. I must admit, I myself have only been using RSS feeds for a few months, but I'm already quite addicted. The feeds I subscribe to vary from comics, to library blogs, to news, to generally interesting articles of the day, to things that I really could not explain, except to say 'they're funny'. But I'd probably never read them without RSS, because who wants to go look at two dozen websites, every single day, just to see if they updated or not? With RSS, if the site updates, it comes right to you.
I've been using GoogleReader to read mine, because I use gmail and a Google personalized homepage, but for the sake of this exercise I opened a bloglines account and I think I'll test it out for a few weeks to see if it is better or worse than GoogleReader. Conclusion so far - they both seem equally good for my purposes. I was able to import all the feeds I read (22) at Google into my bloglines account pretty easily. Both sites had an easy to find 'import/export' area, so I was able to save a file over at Google and then upload it at bloglines. My feeds all appeared, still in their obsessive little categories. I then went ahead and added a bunch of my coworkers blogs, to their own special category.
As for how the library can use these things...I'll have to think about it. I see we already have a feed for news, which is a good idea. Making one for new books and DVDs may be a bit much, and would anyone read it? (Well, I don't know, I'd definitely read the DVD one. I need to know which DVDs to go put on hold before everyone else finds out about them and the hold list is 30 people long.) But as for, would anyone else use it...I don't know. Probably not, at least not now...but when RSS really catches on and more people start to use it, I think they would.
And if anyone cares, here's the link to the feeds I read.
I've been using GoogleReader to read mine, because I use gmail and a Google personalized homepage, but for the sake of this exercise I opened a bloglines account and I think I'll test it out for a few weeks to see if it is better or worse than GoogleReader. Conclusion so far - they both seem equally good for my purposes. I was able to import all the feeds I read (22) at Google into my bloglines account pretty easily. Both sites had an easy to find 'import/export' area, so I was able to save a file over at Google and then upload it at bloglines. My feeds all appeared, still in their obsessive little categories. I then went ahead and added a bunch of my coworkers blogs, to their own special category.
As for how the library can use these things...I'll have to think about it. I see we already have a feed for news, which is a good idea. Making one for new books and DVDs may be a bit much, and would anyone read it? (Well, I don't know, I'd definitely read the DVD one. I need to know which DVDs to go put on hold before everyone else finds out about them and the hold list is 30 people long.) But as for, would anyone else use it...I don't know. Probably not, at least not now...but when RSS really catches on and more people start to use it, I think they would.
And if anyone cares, here's the link to the feeds I read.
Friday, October 19, 2007
#7 Digital Archives
For this exercise, I chose the Nashville Public Library archives, and did a search for 'people'. I'm not sure how well that worked, as most of the results didn't seem to have people in them, and if they did they were small and what I wanted to see was older photographs of people close up. So I got a little more specific with 'women' and got a few interesting ones.
I especially like this one, of WWII pilot Cornelia Fort. Her story is a short but interesting one. She got her pilot's license, became Tennessee's only female flying instructor, was flying in the air over Honolulu when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, was one of the first members of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, and became the first female pilot killed in the line of duty, all in three years, when she was barely older than I am now. And before that? She was a Nashville debutante.
More info on her here and here.
I especially like this one, of WWII pilot Cornelia Fort. Her story is a short but interesting one. She got her pilot's license, became Tennessee's only female flying instructor, was flying in the air over Honolulu when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, was one of the first members of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, and became the first female pilot killed in the line of duty, all in three years, when she was barely older than I am now. And before that? She was a Nashville debutante.
More info on her here and here.
#6 Librarian Trading Card - The Page
I couldn't resist the trading card thing. Click on the picture to see it better, and to read the text.
Also in the description I have an uncalled for little speech about the 'biography section'. I hope you all understand, that is my most 'frequently asked question' and people always look so perplexed when I have to tell them there isn't one! (Or at least not one certain section.)
Also in the description I have an uncalled for little speech about the 'biography section'. I hope you all understand, that is my most 'frequently asked question' and people always look so perplexed when I have to tell them there isn't one! (Or at least not one certain section.)
#5 Flickr
Is it cheating to post one of my own pictures from over a year ago? I've used Flickr for a long time now, it was really a great help in Japan. My family, excluding my sister, isn't very tech-savvy, but most of them can look at a web page. So before I left I opened the account and bookmarked my gallery on all their computers. Then all they had to do was check it every few days to see what new pictures I'd put up. And I took a -lot- of pictures....so many in fact that I purchased a paid account for a while, because if you post over several hundred a month they start trying to restrict you. ; ) I'm not paying for the account anymore, so most of my Japan pictures are archived, but I managed to save the ones of my favorite city, Uji.
The last ten chapters of Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji take place in Uji, so there are lots of attractions in the city related to it (though the city is also known for it's tea and the World Heritage site Buddhist temple, Byodo-in. This statue commemorates the Uji chapters of Genji, and depicts the character Ukifune and one of the two men that loved her - I forget which. The entire book is a spider web of relationships anyway! Anyhow, I always really loved this statue and the nearby one of Murasaki herself, as they somehow depict the flowing layered robes of the Heian period in -stone-. It's pretty neat.
The last ten chapters of Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji take place in Uji, so there are lots of attractions in the city related to it (though the city is also known for it's tea and the World Heritage site Buddhist temple, Byodo-in. This statue commemorates the Uji chapters of Genji, and depicts the character Ukifune and one of the two men that loved her - I forget which. The entire book is a spider web of relationships anyway! Anyhow, I always really loved this statue and the nearby one of Murasaki herself, as they somehow depict the flowing layered robes of the Heian period in -stone-. It's pretty neat.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
#4 Gale Biography Resource Center
For the online resources, I chose to explore the Gale Biography Resource. I'm not sure why exactly I chose this, but looking for small biographical articles is something I find myself doing a lot (generally when I'm watching a historical movie or novel, and want to find out more about the real person depicted), so this should be useful enough in the future. This database gives library patrons access to biographical articles from many sources.
First I did a search for Murasaki Shikibu, the author of my favorite book, The Tale of Genji. There was only one article, about 900 words, but it was a pretty good one. I've done tons of research on her because I was always picking her to write papers about in university, and I can say that I only know of one book source that was better than the article retrieved, and it was better than several of the ones I always had to use. Not very much is known about Murasaki's life, after all - not even her real name. And if you click on the tabs in the search results, you can also see magazine articles and websites about the person. There were no magazine articles about Murasaki, but there were a few websites. The most useful one was probably Murasaki's diary, which is in the public domain so translations are available online.
I did a search for Jane Austen next, and of course there were too many results to be counted. Among the long biography articles, I was amused to see a 11,602 word article from the Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography. I can only wonder what would have been considered not-concise for them.
This is a great resource that I only wish I had known about in high school (if it was around then) and university. Especially problematic is that I'd always pick some obscure topic that it was hard to find sources for. Teachers were always asking for a certain number of sources, with a limit on how many could be online searches. The rest had to be from real books, they'd insist, and I always knew there were sources online that were just as good. Here is the proof - articles from "real" books, but archived online. I'd definitely recommend this to students needing many good sources about subjects for which there may not be many physical books around.
First I did a search for Murasaki Shikibu, the author of my favorite book, The Tale of Genji. There was only one article, about 900 words, but it was a pretty good one. I've done tons of research on her because I was always picking her to write papers about in university, and I can say that I only know of one book source that was better than the article retrieved, and it was better than several of the ones I always had to use. Not very much is known about Murasaki's life, after all - not even her real name. And if you click on the tabs in the search results, you can also see magazine articles and websites about the person. There were no magazine articles about Murasaki, but there were a few websites. The most useful one was probably Murasaki's diary, which is in the public domain so translations are available online.
I did a search for Jane Austen next, and of course there were too many results to be counted. Among the long biography articles, I was amused to see a 11,602 word article from the Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography. I can only wonder what would have been considered not-concise for them.
This is a great resource that I only wish I had known about in high school (if it was around then) and university. Especially problematic is that I'd always pick some obscure topic that it was hard to find sources for. Teachers were always asking for a certain number of sources, with a limit on how many could be online searches. The rest had to be from real books, they'd insist, and I always knew there were sources online that were just as good. Here is the proof - articles from "real" books, but archived online. I'd definitely recommend this to students needing many good sources about subjects for which there may not be many physical books around.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
#2 7 and 1/2 Habits
The easiest task for me is almost definitely #6, using technology to my advantage. I've been lucky enough to be born and grow up at just the right time - I got into things like the Internet in my early teens, and never had the chance for them to be scary and daunting. Of course new things have been constantly developing since then, but since that's the way it's been for my whole life - accepting new technologies is just part of the process for me, if that makes sense. I expect it and look forward to it. If I meet with a topic I'm less familiar with, I know all I have to do is check Wikipedia for a general overview, then head on over to Amazon or the library website for a more concrete source, google for some pictures or news articles, maybe search youtube for some videos about it. There are dozens of different ways to find out more, and I'm learning about new ones each day - it's kind of fun, I could almost link it to Habit 7 1/2.
Unfortunately, with all this coming so easily to me, the hardest habit for me is 7, teaching and mentoring others. As easy as a lot of technology is for me (maybe because it is so easy) I find it quite difficult to teach others. Imagine someone coming up to you asking:
"How do you breathe? Please teach me how to breathe."
"Well, fill your lungs up with air and-"
"Wait! Lungs? Air? You're going to fast for me here!"
...this is kind of how I feel when my mother asks me how to operate a touchpad mouse, or save a picture online to a certain folder. I can get through it, it just takes me a while to break it down enough for someone who is new to the topic to understand, because I learned it myself in a touch and go, no thoughts, intuitive way. I have a great deal of respect for anyone teaching the technology classes, because I know I'd just be standing there, trying not to twitch!
Unfortunately, with all this coming so easily to me, the hardest habit for me is 7, teaching and mentoring others. As easy as a lot of technology is for me (maybe because it is so easy) I find it quite difficult to teach others. Imagine someone coming up to you asking:
"How do you breathe? Please teach me how to breathe."
"Well, fill your lungs up with air and-"
"Wait! Lungs? Air? You're going to fast for me here!"
...this is kind of how I feel when my mother asks me how to operate a touchpad mouse, or save a picture online to a certain folder. I can get through it, it just takes me a while to break it down enough for someone who is new to the topic to understand, because I learned it myself in a touch and go, no thoughts, intuitive way. I have a great deal of respect for anyone teaching the technology classes, because I know I'd just be standing there, trying not to twitch!
Monday, October 8, 2007
#3 Test Entry and Introduction
I've had a little experience with this sort of thing before...I keep a more private journal that only my friends can read over at another website, and I think I've even used Blogger before (in Japanese class, I think it was). I should really track that old blog down and see what I was always writing about. I don't think it was too in depth, though, as we always had to write in Japanese!
About the title of this, whenever I'm about to go to work I tell friends that I'm going 'Back to the book mines'...or if I just got back I might say it was a long day at the book mines. I may be the only one that finds this funny, but! - it was the only thing I could think of resembling a clever title. And after all, I really do push around never-ending carts of books all day.
About the title of this, whenever I'm about to go to work I tell friends that I'm going 'Back to the book mines'...or if I just got back I might say it was a long day at the book mines. I may be the only one that finds this funny, but! - it was the only thing I could think of resembling a clever title. And after all, I really do push around never-ending carts of books all day.
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