Saturday, November 22, 2008

Thing # 23: The final entry (?!!)

So I have finally reached the end of this program. When I started, I was aware of blogging and some of the technology presented, but only in passing. Therefore one of the best features of this process was the fact that there was a wide variety of technology and web-sites explored through the various exercises. This allowed me to do some side by side comparisons. Some sites I found were better by far than those I visit on a regular basis, however I also found that there are still a few which are (in my opinion at least) the "gold standard" for my needs.

One thing that I did bring away from this is a new realization of how learning is a continuing process which does not require a structured classroom setting by any means. Does this mean I will continue blogging? I'm not sure. I tend to prefer flying "under the radar" as it were, so I don't know if I am ready to bare my soul for the whole world (literally) to see, but who knows?

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Thing 22: Downloading movies and other media

Due to restrictions on the computers at work, I had to work through this exercise at home so as to be able to download the applicable software to view movies. Having done so however, I came away with mixed feelings. The concept itself is great in that I won't have to run out to blockbuster in the dead of winter to find a good movie or tv show, but I am still a little reluctant to watch shows on my computer monitor as opposed to a television screen. I know that puts me firmly in the minority as the line between tv and online media is getting more and more blurred, especially with the ability to download movies on one's I-phone, or similar hand-held devices, or with companies like Apple working to integrate the pc into regular TV formats.

Beyond any doubt though, I think it is imperitave for any library staff to keep themselves current on the available options so as to be able to recommend (or upsell as they say in fast food circles) alternative means of getting the latest audio book or finding a classic film.
Thing # 21: Podcasts

Similar to the Youtube exercise, this is a fairly straightforward endeavor. For this exercise, I added two RSS feeds onto my Bloglines account which caught my interest: Books on the Nightstand, which is a book review podcast, and The Jazz Session, which is a music and interview program. Beyond that, the uses within a library setting are very similar to the potential offered by Youtube or similar video feeds, and would make an excellent means of providing information for those patrons who are visually impaired, whether it be a children's librarian reading a story to uploading selected audio-books both classic and contemporary. Just as an observation in passing; of the two suggested sites, podcast alley was (to me at least) much better organized than the Podcast directory.
Thing # 20 YouTube



By far the easiest exercise to date and one site I am very familiar with. I have long used this site to get a good laugh, or find old music videos and television clips. For my personal clip, I chose a video related in part to the title to this blog, which is also near and dear to my heart: The winning of the World Series by the Boston Red Sox in 2004:

There are unlimited possibilities associated with streaming video in a library format as well. Author visits and Staff Day activities or similar discussions can be made available for future reference, distance learning can be enhanced with videos rather than just reading dry text, the list goes on and on......

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Thing # 19: Web 2.0 tools

For this exercise, I looked at both Recipes and the Web 2.0 awards. Both are very well put together, though each serves a distinctly different purpose. I liked recipe mainly because it not only outlines some of the available tools, but illustrates the potential uses for each in a library environment. This is done by setting forth a "problem" or "need" such as Virtual Assistance and then giving the possible solutions and/or tools for resolving that issue. Each of the main tools is also broken down into subsections which can help narrow down your options to fill your specific need.

On the flip side is the Web awards page. Like Recipe, this site is broken down by major categories, and then each subject is broken down into subsections. However rather than reccomending sites based on specific needs, this site only provides info on sites that have been nominated and won awards for content and design. I spent some time looking at the Fun Stuff awards page, and was impressed with some of the featured award winners, however I can see this as being more of a general info resource for those people who don't know exactly what they are looking for rather than purpose specific info. In all honesty, I would more likely use a meta-search engine like Dogpile rather than Web2.0.
Thing # 18: Web-apps

While this is a relatively easy tool to use, and it would come in handy if I were constantly needing to access documents from multiple computers, I don't see a practical use for web-based docs at this time in my personal life. And there is another concern in the fact that I am not quite comfortable enough with computers in general to store my data on a remote server, unless I had a backup file that I could physically hold in my hands. Too many horror stories of hackers and data file corruption have me a little distrustful.
Thing # 17: The sandbox

Pretty straight-forward operation on this task. Although instead of typing in all of the HTML code, I was able to simply copy and paste my URL to the page by positioning the cursor at the end of the prior blog and hitting , then SAVE.
Thing 16: Wiki's

As a long time user of Wikipedia, I am fairly familiar with Wiki's in general. Because of that, I can say with relative certainty that the wiki is one piece of technology which I could easily see becoming a replacement to email as a primary method of communication for non-personalized info. The ability to edit and add information "on the fly" has fantastic potential for people working on group projects where they are separated by distance or schedule. In the library world, this technology can also be used to reccomend and/or review books or authors or keep staff apprised of changes to schedules and events, which is evidenced by the Bookloverswiki.

There is of course a potential downside as having free access to change the data on a page could be seen as an invitation for malicious or incorrect edits or postings (as does happen on Wikipedia).

Friday, November 14, 2008

Thing # 15: Web and Library 2.0



I could go on for days on this subject, but in short, I am 100% in favor of integrating available technology into the library system. However, that being said, I also believe that caution should be used when deciding which tech to bring into the library. It is all well and good to jump at the shiny new technology, but if it is not user-friendly or does not significantly improve the experience of our patrons and workflow of the staff.
Thing # 14: Back to Technorati


The best I can say about this exercise is eehhhhh...... I didn't really pick up anything new from searches on this site, as all of the results seemed similar to other tag-based searches on other sites. As a result, this will be an abbreviated post.
Thing # 13: Delcious

Took me a minute or two to figure out where this could be of use to me, until I read the article/resource entitled: Us.ef.ul. It was there that I realized that having the ability to consolidate all of my bookmarked sites from multiple computers would be very handy indeed. I have had many occasions where I have a particular web-site bookmarked on my favorites file at home, but need to access that site from an outside computer. Not having to search for the URL will make life a lot easier. I am not too sure of the social networking aspects (things like that I will leave to my teenager) but for researching and viewing sites I go to often will be great.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Thing # 12: Rollyo

There are a lot of similiarities between this site and other meta-search sites (i.e. dogpile.com) which allows integration of many search engines, as opposed to the revenue driven results given by google. I can also see where this particular site may come in handy for those people who have a need to view multiple (but similar) web-pages at the same time with few changes of topic, but for myself I think I will stick to just hitting my favorites toolbar on my web-browser. For my own profile, I put down three of my favorite book sites: http://www.rollyo.com/dashboard.html
Thing # 11: Library Thing

Of all the sites visited, this one is right up my alley!!! Just by virtue of working the circulation desk, I have a chance to see what other people are reading, which has vastly expanded my circle of authors and genres. With the addition of a tool used by people accross the globe, that circle expands exponentially. I don't know that I am in favor of being charged for the "privelege" of posting favorite titles, but it is still a good site. To see my first (but not last) list of books: http://www.librarything.com/profile/Pendragonswoe
Thing # 10: Generators

I have mixed emotions on this particular bit of tech. While I can see the fun side of creating random video and text, such as providing a chance to write your own A-team episode (http://www.egowar.com/ateam_episode_generator.) much like Mad-Libs were popular back when I was a kid. However, I could see some other potential problems in generators such as "create an Apple rumor". The reason that I say this is that I have noticed that too many times the information that is put on the web is taken at face value with no real attempt at verification. Even my own kids have hit me with the "I saw it online so it must be true" speech. I remember a number of years ago when a major news station was busted for having their reporter standing in front of the Capitol building on a sunny day, when in fact it was raining. Turns out that the reporter was in the same studio as the news anchor, hundreds of miles away. Things like that unfortunately bring out the cynic in me.
Thing #9

Of the three RSS search engines suggested, I found that Technorati and Syndic8 are by far the better laid out sites, though my own use of each site would be based on need. Technorati is nicely geared towards a user who wants a headline based page, where they can choose which feeds to go in-depth with. I also like the fact that it breaks the page down into general categories (business, entertainment etc.) as well as lists the relative age of each headline so you can determine at a glance the "freshness" of that story.

Syndic8 on the other hand, is geared more to the casual user, as shown by the "random feeds" section and the emphasis on entering search terms/keywords. The section on site usage I found to be rather useless, unless you were gauging where to post a link to your own blog or were considering investing in that site, but other than that, I would see myself revisiting this site also.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

RSS: Thing # 8

This is one piece of tech that I am fairly familiar with. Being a news junkie, I often visit web-sites which use the RSS feed to update things like the tanking stock market or scores of my favorite team. As for use in libraries, I found a great list on this page: http://moxielibrarian.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/10-ways-libraries-can-use-rss/ which outlines some excellent suggestions for how to use "real-time" updates for everything from new book arrivals to posting emergency messages.
Thing 7: Technology


This could go on indefinitely as just in my lifetime technology has completely taken over our lives in both visible and invisible ways. It was not that many years ago when something as simple as cable television was a novelty (remember the first day of MTV?). And when computers were just beginning to make their appearance and every command had to be entered manually on a monocolor screen. Compare that to now where there are more channels than programs it seems, and computers do everything but think for you. CNN even experimented with a live hologram of one of their correspondents on election day. I can only imagine what the world will be like in 25 years. Already there are viable patents on flying cars and invisibility suits. Even in the library technology is making itself known. With electronic downloads of books, and even (someday) RFI technology, it makes me think that maybe Star Trek wasn't so sci-fi after all.....
Thing 6: Mashups


Mashups do seem to allow for those of us without natural born artistic ability to create fun and informational features on our blogs or web-sites rather than just endless rows of script.

I was looking at the award winners and came across this one: http://mashupawards.com/diaroogle/ which at first glance struck me as odd because 1) who would have taken the time to plot all of the clean restrooms in the country and 2) do you really want to be known as the person who did the research?. But on reflection, I can actually see a useful purpose to this, especially as a person with kids who finds it cheaper (though more time consuming) to drive rather than fly.
Thing 5: Flikr

I had heard of the Flickr site but not actually gone on there. It was interesting to see the differences between this site and everyone's "go-to" site (google images). I especially like the idea of the tags, as it provides a way to refine your search results by keyword rather than typing in "cats" and getting non-related images (some of which can be rather inappropriate unless you change the safety settings). For exercise, I found this fantastic scale model of my personal baseball mecca, Fenway Park. Having been there, I can vouch for its authenticity of detail:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/b-tal/123562758/