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!