The End! (or the Beginning...#23)

I have reached the end and I am very glad I participated in the Queens Library Learning Program. Because I took part, I feel more in tune with current web technology and no longer experience the panic/fear sensations that would wash over me when reading about new things going down on the web. The program forced me to learn (in a fun and low stress way of course!) what I otherwise probably would have gone on ignoring yet feeling guilt about for the foreseeable future. I especially enjoyed the web applications exercise, playing with web 2.0 tools, adding entries to wikis, library thing, and bloglines. the format was just right - not too fast or too demanding. I wasn't expecting to feel as relieved as I do, now that I've completed the program. Not because it is finished, but because I feel I actually understand what's going on in the world around me and I had been getting out of touch. That would address one of my lifelong learning goals of staying on top of trends in every day technology. I know I'll never be a cutting edge player, but I would hate to feel as confused as my grandmother was by her VCR. So, thanks Queens Library, and the moderator of this program! If another program like this were offered, I would participate, and in fact, I think this should be revisited every 2 years or so, to keep up with the newest 2.0 (or maybe 3.0) tools.

Ebooks (#22)

My feeling while browsing our ebook offerings was that we are not quite yet in the age of the digital book. Most of the available books seemed to be romances, manga, and how to books and not many of the types of novels I read. I don't have a PDA and would not want to read an entire book on my computer. None of the books I was interested in were viewable without downloading software. I did find two books I would be willing to download if I had a player: The Bartender's Bible and 365 One Pot Recipes. I would definitely read a recipe on my computer and often use websites for cooking. But, I knew I wasn't ready to use it enough that downloading the necessary software would be worthwhile. Ebooks seemed complicated to use, although maybe I didn't explore it fully. The books I looked at said something about having to be returned which I didn't really get. I am sure someday we will all be happy reading (and ruining our eyesight) with our PDAs or kindles or whatever we'll be calling them, but for now the benefits don't outweigh the negatives.

Podcasts (#21)

I went about this one in a roundabout way, because I had some trouble with it. First, I looked at the three podcast directories suggested in the exercise, but I had trouble finding anything that interested me, either about libraries or anything else. The descriptions of each podcast didn't sound very inviting: "Mike and Carol talk about libraries." Well, who are Mike and Carol and why should I want to listen to them? I chose a few lackluster possibilities just so I could complete the exercise, but then I discovered I did have to download something to listen. I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong, but I couldn't figure out how to listen without getting software. I remembered hearing that podcasts of NPR shows were available in itunes, so I decided to search itunes for library stuff because at least NPR is a known name. The podcasts listed on podcast.net, podcastalley, and yahoo audio were all of the nature discussed above. They seemed to be made by random people which is perhaps democratic and interesting to some, but not to me. On itunes, I found LibVibe which are short podcasts about headline library news. I listened to a seven minute podcast and the news was all bad, but at least it was short and sweet and interesting. The top news stories were about cronyism at Boston Public Library, racial profiling at the Yale University Social Sciences Library, and how rioting in a Paris suburb resulted in a library being torched to the ground, reducing their new DVD and CD collection to ashes. Ah, just another day in the library world. I did add the RSS feed to my bloglines account, so I'll be hearing a lot more library news (some good stuff I hope) in the future.

Do De Rubber Duck (#20)

A few months ago I was watching Sesame Street with my son and I saw an updated version of Ernie's rubber duckie song from my childhood. It made me and my son totally crack up. I figured I could find it on YouTube and here it is! My other choices were 80s videos by local Philly bands I remember from my teenage years (Robert Hazard, Beru Revue) and the godawful Genesis video for the song Mama that my husband and I recently reminisced about. They were on there too, but Ernie seemed more universally enjoyable, so I chose that one. What's not to like about free videos? And the search engine is very easy to use and finds the videos you want with a minimum of fuss. Using the features and components of Youtube on any library website would probably add a lot to it. You could make a video library containing "how to videos" that show people how to repair cars, or TV, or cooking tips, etc. These are the kind of books people constantly ask for and it's always helpful to see something demonstrated. A library website could also show videos of speeches and debates or even movies on demand, if the copyright issues could be overcome. The possibilities are endless.

Discovering Web 2.0 Tools (#19)

Out of the short list of award winners, I checked out the music winner - Pandora.com.  I love it.  It's a music stream that you tailor to your own taste, like the coolest radio station you ever heard.  You can enter the name of an artist you like and they will play songs they deem similar which you can then say you like or don't, or you can pick from an extensive list of genres and listen that way.  There is basically almost nothing not to like.  Since NYC radio has been taken over by giant media conglomerates, radio stations don't play anything but the biggest hits or the same old "classic" music we've heard for years.  If you want to hear anything different, you have to listen to college radio which has a lot of talking and isn't on a predictable schedule or pay for satellite radio.  So, this is free, and you can tinker with it to make it match your tastes.  I've already heard a few bands that are new to me that I'd want to hear more from.  The only negative features are ones that I don't blame them for such as the fact that, like with radio, you can't go back and play songs again that you liked, or bring up a particular song and play it.  If you could, it wouldn't be free and it'd be, well, itunes.  You also can't skip ahead more than 5 or 6 times, but you can't that at all on the radio.  I'm not sure that this would have any application for libraries, but it sure is cool.   

Let's Collaborate & Have a Good Time (#18)

Okay, now I am really excited. I had trouble getting into the social networking tools and the mashups that this exercise introduced us to, but the web based word processing applications are actually useful. They feel like progress and not just another time waster. I tried all three of the suggested apps and liked Google docs and thinkfree the best. This is because I already understand how to use them due to their similarity to Microsoft Word. I uploaded a spreadsheet to Google Docs and it was very easy. The only thing stopping me from using Google Docs exclusively for all my former Microsoft Office needs is Fear of Google. I write this as I blog in my Google blogger account. But, I am afraid that Google will take over the universe, so I would rather spread it around a bit, and explore whether Thinkfree is as easy to use. I created a document there and the functions were the same as in Word and I see that it also does spreadsheets that look like Excel. Writeboard was the least cluttered of the three. I liked being presented with a blank screen and the simple invitation to write, but it looks like you have to learn some simple code to do any formatting in it. I was also disappointed that the backpackit application that helps you organize all of your writeboard documents is not completely free. I wanted to use the sharable calender to coordinate my schedule with my husband's, but discovered that I would have to pay to upgrade my account. Lo and behold, Google has a free, sharable calender application. See, they ARE taking over the universe!

Facebook (#17 1/2)

I don't have a Facebook account so it's hard to say exactly which applications for librarians I (or our customers) would like, but from the descriptions there seem to be a few. I would be interested in the Subject guide links and, if I ever get myself to use it, the links to del.icio.us bookmarks. Those sound helpful and convenient. If Queens Library had access to Jstor then that would be a useful link, and one that customers would like as well. I think the customers would definitely use the Ask A Librarian application. I would like the Book I read application, but I am already doing that in two places already - goodreads and Library Thing. I doubt I'd want to enter all that information again and then keep it up to date in three places. Isn't this a problem in general? Do people with Facebook, Myspace, and maybe even other social networking accounts spend a lot of time entering redundant information or abandoning certain accounts when they fall off the "hot list?" Friendster was the original site and I'm wondering if a lot of people still use it. I'm still a little wary of relinquishing too much of my privacy, but I am sure I will eventually create a Facebook page for myself.

Playing Around with Wikis (#17)

I love this! If I didn't have two young kids, I'd probably spend all my free time updating wikis. I added some Kevin Ayers song lyrics to LyricWiki. I had to search for a slightly more obscure musician, because all the usual suspects' lyrics were completely up to date. The Kevin Ayers lyrics haven't yet been broken down by album and though I'm still confused about how to do it, I'll probably go back on and try to categorize all the songs by album and download the artwork for them. This could be something I could get entirely too obsessed with, appealing as it does to all my tastes - pop culture, lists, research, and an encyclopedia that I contributed to as the end result.

Wikis (#16)

I love, love, love the idea of wikis. I'm completely sure I am not the first person to notice this, but the ultimate wiki is the real life hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. From anywhere, you can use your handheld device to look something (anything) up. That's so cool! As a librarian, I can't think of anything cooler. The reality is though, that people have to actually work on the wikis constantly, because if they aren't up to date, they're nothing, right? The library wikis we were asked to look at were a mixed bag. The best one was the Princeton Public Library's Book Lovers Wiki. I wished I lived in Princeton so I could participate. I'm a sucker for anything that contains reviews. I found a link from the Library Success wiki to a search engine for librarian written book reviews. Genius! Except when I tried to use it I couldn't get any relevant results. Too bad. I thought the SJCPL Subject Guide was merely so so, because the specific subject guides weren't really all that informative and many of them hadn't been updated in quite some time. At least they didn't seem to be wrong or offensive. For about three weeks last year, the Wikipedia entry on Uzbekistan contained someone's idea of a joke and I kept meaning to find the time to change it, but didn't. That to me sums up the problems inherent in wikis. But, it's always great to find information on the most obscure of topics which is what a wiki guarantees. There will be a person out there who is an expert on the strangest thing you can think of!

Library 2.0 (#15)

Reading all the example articles from the Queens Library Learning blog has definitely helped me better understand the concept of Library 2.0. I've been hearing the catchphrase bandied about for so long, but it didn't mean much to me beyond thinking I had to learn how to use myspace or something - ha ha. Now that I've read the articles, I not only have a better understanding, but I also feel, dare I say it, kind of excited about the whole idea. I found Library Journal's article "Library 2.0: Service for the next-generation Library" the most clear-cut, jargon free, and impartial of the lot. The author defines Library 2.0 as any service that reaches users, is evaluated frequently, and makes use of customer input. This means Library 2.0 doesn't have to be technology related if it's an especially good idea, but technology is a great facilitator. I like the idea of having an OPAC that customers can input to, and I think pointing customers to on-line applications that do what in-house apps used to do (i.e. Wrightley for word processing instead of MS Word - fight the power!) is a fantastic idea. However, I'm wary of the all beta all the time part of Library 2.0 where we implement new programs/ideas as fast as possible in a potentially imperfect state and then fix them as we go. It seems to me that that is already the modus operandi of the public library and it often bites us in the rear. I realize we sometimes spend far too long in the "planning" phase without moving quickly to "doing,"but in reality things that aren't fairly thoroughly planned out have a way of becoming a morass that is never really fixed. Also, I worry about the phrase "the just in case collection," as in, we really need to get rid of the "just in case collection." Until the majority of books are accessible digitally/on line, we still need repositories of possibly obscure and arcane books, because I think those books are still a part of the collective knowledge/information that libraries should preserve. The public library may not be the place for them, but in the OCLC article I read, the person advocating getting rid of these kinds of things was an academic librarian. I sometimes feel afraid that the democratization of our culture via the web, blogging, etc can also be a kind of dumbing down of it, or a reducing of it to the lowest common denominator. Just because it's not for everyone doesn't mean it shouldn't be preserved. And, I wish my library had some cool blogs about what to read or what's going on in the community, but I'm not sure anyone would read them except librarians. There is also always so much going on on the OPAC that it's hard to find stuff like this on there. But, I guess it is true that if we all start thinking in 2.0 mindset, we'll be ready for it before the customers. And the customers wil eventually want these things I am sure.

Technorati (#14)

I thought I was getting the hang of this web 2.0 thing, but Technorati has made me feel like an old fogey again. Maybe I'm not really down with "the blogosphere", because I had a hard time finding much of interest in the blogs listed in the Popular area. Many of the ones listed were highly technical, as if most of the bloggers out there are tech heads which they probably are, or at least compared to me. And, I already knew about many of the others like Boing Boing, TMZ, etc. I also found the constantly updating screen annoying. I know it makes the results more up to the minute, but give me a minute to focus on something before it changes please. I did find some stuff on Library 2.0. The directory search yielded the most relevant results. The tags and posts search gave me pretty much the same list of semi-relevant posts. The directory search found me blogs that directly addressed Learning 2.0 where the other two searches gave me any post that mentioned learning 2.0 in passing. If you're really into blogs, I could see using this, but I don't see myself doing so, until the blogosphere gets more varied.

Tagging (#13)

This week's assignment was to check out the Queens Library Web 2.0 del.icio.us page and/or create your own account. I did both. I am really digging the fact that I can store all my bookmarks in one place on my new account since we have 9 computers we can use at work and I have one at home too. I don't have a blackberry yet (thank god) but I imagine it would help there too. I found the link to the Library Journal article about del.icio.us tagging for libraries on the QL page. I'd tried to read it before but now that I've explored the site, I understand it much better. It seems like another good way to introduce the kids to libraries so I see nothing wrong with it. However, my fusty old librarian side is somewhat disturbed by the lack of authority control in all this willy nilly tagging. White it's nice to escape from the imposed "library language" of subject headings, I also feel like what if everyone has a different way of describing certain concepts or things? Could it make things MORE complicated in the end rather than less so? It's certainly a fun process though.

Eat in NYC! (#12)

I had a good time with this one and I hope my rollyo search is useful. I was torn between doing one for book or movie reviews and one for food. In the end I choose New York city eating, something I love to do, but can't do as much since the kids. Therefore, every time I have the opportunity to go out to eat, I do a lot of prep ahead of time - checking reviews, neighborhoods, making reservations, etc. - so I knew about more websites that would be relevant to this topic. It was very easy to create a Rollyo search and when I tested mine, I seemed to get relevant results. I would still be very interested in a rollyo search for book and/or movie reviews, so maybe one of my fellow Queens 2.0 travelers can make one.

Eat in NYC

Library thing (#11)

I really like the concept of library thing because I love to collect and to catalog. I also love to read - strange for a librarian, huh? I like the idea of creating my own folksonomy with my tags. The only criticism I have is that I actually signed up on Library Thing a few months ago and couldn't remember my username and password. Since the sign up process is so simple and doesn't require you to enter anything at all, there is no way to retrieve my account. I hadn't done too much on it, but still. It should be a bit more complicated to get onto it so they can help you if you lose track of yourselrf among the many usernames and passwords the Web 2.0 Society requires. Also, when I stopped using Library Thing, I began a goodreads account and now I am a bit too lazy to duplicate all that information on another site. Like so many of these 2.0 tools, Library Thing seems too ephemeral to me. I am going to create a "What I am Reading Now" widget for this blog and let's hope I can stay on top of it.

Image Generating (#10)

As usual I am using pictures of my kids to experiment with the Web 2.0 tools. Any excuse to show off my daughter eating cake! FD toys was fun to use and of course very easy too.

Feeding Frenzy (#9)

Hmmm...This thing was very difficult for me. It seemed like it should make more sense than it did. I honestly did not like any of the RSS feed search tools better than the others and found them all lacking. I found most of the feeds that I did not already know about from previous travels through the web in Bloglines. When signing up for feeds you can look at an area called "Quick Pick" subscriptions which has popular feeds broken down by general category - bookworms, music, news, etc. I find more things of interest when provided with categories. When I entered terms into Feedster, Technorati, and Topix, I didn't get anything relevant, really. Just because someone has blogged about something doesn't mean the overall theme of the blog is of general interest to you. Maybe my search terms were too broad? I tried entering "music news" and "book reviews" and also more specific terms relating to my various collections, some of which are pretty idiosyncratic and shouldn't yield an overwhelming number of results, but all these strategies did just that. I got a ton of results for feeds that didn't really relate. I had better luck when I entered "Leo horoscope," but I only did that because I read someone else's Library learning blog and although I got results, it turned out I didn't really want a daily horoscope after all. So, I'm still a bit confused about what this one is all about.

#8 - Bloglines

This is one thing out of the 23 1/2 that I actually already use. It makes it very easy to monitor all the blogs/sites of interest and immediately see which ones have new feeds you haven't seen. It can also make you feel a sense of "i'm falling behind" panic when you see that something has 200 new entries that you haven't read and you've got to catch up. Of course, if all you have to catch up on is gossip, this is probably okay. I think a media professional probably gets a lot of mileage out of Bloglines. As a tool for monitoring your feeds, bloglines works extremely well, but when I tried to use it to get recommendations for blogs I might be interested in, I was not impressed. The "news" feature doesn't seem to work. There is never any news as far as I can tell, or maybe I am missing something?

Thing # 7 - One Laptop Per Child

I've been reading a lot about the so-called $100 laptop (now $200 dollars) which is supposed to be a low cost, extremely durable computer for kids in poor countries. The concept was developed by Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Media Lab and in November it will be available for purchase. I first heard about it only a few months ago and was intrigued because originally the battery was going to be charged by hand crank which I thought was an amazing idea. The newest design uses a pull charger or a solar panel which is still pretty cool. The computer will have a camera, a microphone, memory card slot, and game pad controllers. It won't have the usual software (like Microsoft word) installed on it because it is designed to work as an educational tool in whatever country it is being used in. It'll be plugged into a network, so kids can use it in a classroom setting. The fact that people are working on something like this makes me happy and hopeful. The idea has been criticized because some people feel that kids in developing countries need food and clean water more than computers, but I think giving kids computers will help them keep up with the rest of the world while we're all still working on the essentials too. It can't hurt. Here's a link to the last Ny times article about it: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801E4DF123FF937A35753C1A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Thing #6 - Warholeo

Warholeo
Originally uploaded by Labelle3968

Wow, with the amazing power of technology I have Warholized my son! I used fd's Flickr toys to do it. The mashups are fun but in my case not too much more. I'm sure they do improve other applications like google Maps with Craigslist apt listings, but I can't see spending a ton of time with mashups. I guess I still sound kinda curmudgeonly. I also played with Retrievr and the mosaic generator. Fun, but it didn't change my life.

Thing #5

IMG_0656
Originally uploaded by clabelle70

This is a picture of the gallery at Central Library in Jamaica. I think it's very cool that this is here. They have rotating exhibits throughout the year. Right now there is an exhibit on line drawing that has this interesting big balloon/intertube type sculpture right in the middle of the room. I would have taken a picture of that, but I'm not sure if that's legal and appropriate, so I'll just leave the description as an enticement for you to visit.

Lifelong Learning

I am not that old, yet lately have been feeling like a bit of a geezer when it comes to technology( "these crazy kids, what are they up to now?"). I do remember when learning new things about computers and the internet seemed natural, intuitive, and fun, but somehow within the last few years, those feelings of ease have vanished and when I hear about social networking and blogging I feel more like my own grandmother trying to send an email. So, I am relieved and excited to find, through Queens Library, a fun and low pressure way to get back into learning. Our first assignment was to go through the "7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners" and discuss which steps were easy for us and which were hard. I thought the 7 1/2 habits in general were kinda obvious, especially given that we all work for libraries and should be eager learner types to begin with, but I am willing to put in my two cents. For me the easiest steps would be accepting responsibility for my own learning (if not me, then who?), having confidence in myself as an effective learner, and teaching/mentoring others. I like learning and helping others to learn, especially when it is about something I also enjoy. The hardest habit would definitely be viewing problems as challenges. It's usually only in hindsight that I can see I learned something from dealing with a problem. So, in setting up this blog and writing this post, I've taken the first step in towards learning about Library 2.0...