I was happy to find that I already knew about a lot of the stuff that we covered on Learn & Play. And I thought I was so behind! But I really enjoyed learning about the stuff I didn't know about. The only problem was finding the time to do it. We are all stretched pretty thin these days, and some of the stuff wasn't always easy, especially when it messed up, like the wiki sandbox.
I'm especially excited about Google docs, Google reader, wikis and blogs. I've discovered lots of cool blogs, though they tend to be more about personal interests than professional. I'm even thinking about starting up our own family blog.
I think the most important thing to come out of this is that we'll have a common language now. We can talk about wikis and blogs and podcasts to our colleagues and customers and we'll know what we're talking about. I think that's the biggest loss for the people who didn't do it--this whole CML conversation that they've missed out on. It's also been fun (even though I'm late to the game) to go through this all together, as a system. I think it's been extremely useful. Hooray us!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
MOLDI
Wow, yes, as everyone has pointed out, what a horrible acronym.
I'm very familiar with MOLDI, and have recommended it to friends who live in Mt. Vernon when they're going on a car trip.
MOLDI will be MUCH more useful to me personally now that it's compatible with Ipods, since I have one and have a long commute. In fact, I was thinking about ordering in some books on cd for our upcoming holiday travels, but I think I'll try Moldi first. CDs are so often scratched up, and they're easy to lose on a long journey. And my ipod will remember where I stopped in the story, too.
I think it's so important that we offer this to our customers. I hope it continues to get better & easier to use. A lot of customers are very frustrated by all of the stuff you have to download. I'm not even going to try it from work because I know it will be a total pain--I do my downloading at home.
I'm very familiar with MOLDI, and have recommended it to friends who live in Mt. Vernon when they're going on a car trip.
MOLDI will be MUCH more useful to me personally now that it's compatible with Ipods, since I have one and have a long commute. In fact, I was thinking about ordering in some books on cd for our upcoming holiday travels, but I think I'll try Moldi first. CDs are so often scratched up, and they're easy to lose on a long journey. And my ipod will remember where I stopped in the story, too.
I think it's so important that we offer this to our customers. I hope it continues to get better & easier to use. A lot of customers are very frustrated by all of the stuff you have to download. I'm not even going to try it from work because I know it will be a total pain--I do my downloading at home.
Podcasts
Once again, I'm amazed that people have the time in their lives to even search for podcasts, let alone listen to them all...
My husband is a techie and a Mac user, and we have an ipod, so I am intimately familiar with Itunes. It is awesome. The great thing about itunes (and most mac products) is how intuitive it is--heck, I just stick a cd into my husband's laptop and it automatically downloads it, without me having to do anything at all. How cool is that?
I poked around on the podcast search tools, but I didn't really find them very helpful or easy to use. I am much more likely to go to a site I know and trust--particularly NPR--and download podcasts from there. Other news organizations as well.
Posting podcasts of booktalks and other presentations is an excellent use of this technology for CML.
My husband is a techie and a Mac user, and we have an ipod, so I am intimately familiar with Itunes. It is awesome. The great thing about itunes (and most mac products) is how intuitive it is--heck, I just stick a cd into my husband's laptop and it automatically downloads it, without me having to do anything at all. How cool is that?
I poked around on the podcast search tools, but I didn't really find them very helpful or easy to use. I am much more likely to go to a site I know and trust--particularly NPR--and download podcasts from there. Other news organizations as well.
Posting podcasts of booktalks and other presentations is an excellent use of this technology for CML.
YouTube is awesome
Well, of course I know YouTube! Youtube has become a really important thing in our culture. Just look at the Jeremiah Wright video that surfaced on Youtube. And also that amazing video of the baby wildebeast who was caught by lions, then crocodiles, then escaped them both! I heard that National Geographic has now made a film about that, and it's the first example of a film being based on a Youtube video.
We've also watched things like news shows we wanted to watch but missed, and the tv station's website does a crappy job of it. Especially during the election--i think we watched one of the infamous Catie Couric interviews of Sarah Palin on Youtube. We also use Hulu to watch some tv episodes of the office that we've missed.
I saw an entry on a colleague's blog about finding old Sesame Street clips on youtube! I would love to look at stuff like that for fun, but I just have no free time right now.
We've also watched things like news shows we wanted to watch but missed, and the tv station's website does a crappy job of it. Especially during the election--i think we watched one of the infamous Catie Couric interviews of Sarah Palin on Youtube. We also use Hulu to watch some tv episodes of the office that we've missed.
I saw an entry on a colleague's blog about finding old Sesame Street clips on youtube! I would love to look at stuff like that for fun, but I just have no free time right now.
CML power tools
I was already familiar with most of the things on the power tools page, but I explored a few I hadn't heard of: MAKE, for example, has some cool stuff on it, but it's kind of wacky and not organized well, it seemed to me.
I think the library toolbar is great. What a great thing to provide for our power users! We should be right up there on their toolbar with a google search box and all the other cool stuff.
I think the library toolbar is great. What a great thing to provide for our power users! We should be right up there on their toolbar with a google search box and all the other cool stuff.
Web 2.0 tools
I ended up looking through the entire list of award winners--I was surprised to see that I knew lots of them. I guess I'm more savvy than I thought! All of the ones that were possibly work-related I was already familiar with.
I took a look at Backpack, an organizational tool. It looked interesting--but really, we deal with SO much information, and so many multiple projects, especially at the management level, that it would just be more cumbersome to have to put them all in a separate place.
I was interested in the calendar aspect of the site--but since Google is, as we know, The Company That Does Everything the Best, I will use Google calendars instead. My husband has been nagging me to do this for a while so he won't forget when he's supposed to take Leah to choir practice and that sort of thing, so I guess it's time to do it.
I was also interested in the games site--zango?--that has all kinds of free games. My 10-year old is always looking for online games and god knows what she's stumbling upon. That will be a good site to check out.
I took a look at Backpack, an organizational tool. It looked interesting--but really, we deal with SO much information, and so many multiple projects, especially at the management level, that it would just be more cumbersome to have to put them all in a separate place.
I was interested in the calendar aspect of the site--but since Google is, as we know, The Company That Does Everything the Best, I will use Google calendars instead. My husband has been nagging me to do this for a while so he won't forget when he's supposed to take Leah to choir practice and that sort of thing, so I guess it's time to do it.
I was also interested in the games site--zango?--that has all kinds of free games. My 10-year old is always looking for online games and god knows what she's stumbling upon. That will be a good site to check out.
Wiki Sandbox is frustrating
Well, I kept trying to get into the CML sandbox, so I requested access and kept getting an email that said, in a kind of annoying happy voice, "Guess What! You already have access to this wiki! Isn't that awesome??!!" or something like that.
But then I'd click on the link it gave me right there in my email, and it says, in a not so very nice voice, "You do not have access to this wiki. Go away." Or something like that.
After this happened several times, I gave up. OK, so obviously I shouldn't have waited until the last day to do a bunch of the things, but hey, I'm busy.
But I won't give up on Wikis! I still look forward to using them in our library system.
But then I'd click on the link it gave me right there in my email, and it says, in a not so very nice voice, "You do not have access to this wiki. Go away." Or something like that.
After this happened several times, I gave up. OK, so obviously I shouldn't have waited until the last day to do a bunch of the things, but hey, I'm busy.
But I won't give up on Wikis! I still look forward to using them in our library system.
HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS?!
Oh my god, google docs is the best thing ever! Is this finally an answer to the most super annoying of technology problems, when customers try to open a Microsoft Works document on our computers?
For that incompatibility alone, Microsoft totally deserves to go DOWN.
What I want to know, and will explore more to find out, is if we can go to Google docs and open a Works document from a disk or flash drive. That would be so freakin' awesome!
That settles it. Google is officially The Company That Does Everything Best.
For that incompatibility alone, Microsoft totally deserves to go DOWN.
What I want to know, and will explore more to find out, is if we can go to Google docs and open a Works document from a disk or flash drive. That would be so freakin' awesome!
That settles it. Google is officially The Company That Does Everything Best.
Wikis
Wow, so wikis are simpler than I thought. I didn't delve into how you actually create or add to one--but I can totally see the application in libraries.
I would love to have, for example, a youth services wiki, where we could post all of our ideas, fingerplays, RA booklists, etc. It could basically take the place of the boards on our intranet, and it would be SO much better because the information would be organized and easier to find.
Boy, a lot of those wikis out there sure are ugly, though. We'd have to pretty up anything that could be viewed by the public. I'm mostly thinking of them as staff resources right now, with access limited to library staff. But obviously there's a lot of information on there that could be useful to the public.
I can't wait to see the CML wikis that will be born out of this project!
I would love to have, for example, a youth services wiki, where we could post all of our ideas, fingerplays, RA booklists, etc. It could basically take the place of the boards on our intranet, and it would be SO much better because the information would be organized and easier to find.
Boy, a lot of those wikis out there sure are ugly, though. We'd have to pretty up anything that could be viewed by the public. I'm mostly thinking of them as staff resources right now, with access limited to library staff. But obviously there's a lot of information on there that could be useful to the public.
I can't wait to see the CML wikis that will be born out of this project!
Library 2.0
While I found some of those articles a bit overblown, I think the opportunities for "Library 2.0" are very exciting. I'm especially pleased, for example, that we're going to have a Reader's Advisory wiki. I'm looking forward to the wiki chapter so I can learn more about how they work--but from what I know, it sounds like a great way to store, organize & easily access information.
I liked one of the last articles that mentioned "Library 4.0." This about the library becoming like a knowledge spa, with users reveling in the luxury of ideas. The author points to country manor libraries as an example; the smell of leather, good coffee, a good book, and single malt (if only...). The comparison to Starbucks is interesting. I've thought for years that the library should trend more toward the Starbucks/Barnes & Noble model: that is, a complete experience for customers, not just a repository of knowledge. Comfy chairs, good coffee (when will we get that in the branches?!), non-industrial lighting. A whole atmosphere. People can get information many places, but the library is luxurious--here you find your community and a knowledge repository, and all for free--and it should FEEL that way too.
I liked one of the last articles that mentioned "Library 4.0." This about the library becoming like a knowledge spa, with users reveling in the luxury of ideas. The author points to country manor libraries as an example; the smell of leather, good coffee, a good book, and single malt (if only...). The comparison to Starbucks is interesting. I've thought for years that the library should trend more toward the Starbucks/Barnes & Noble model: that is, a complete experience for customers, not just a repository of knowledge. Comfy chairs, good coffee (when will we get that in the branches?!), non-industrial lighting. A whole atmosphere. People can get information many places, but the library is luxurious--here you find your community and a knowledge repository, and all for free--and it should FEEL that way too.
delicious (can't remember where the dots go...)
Delicious is cool, and I can certainly see it having relevance for research in particular. It's kind of like (in acedemia) looking at people's citations and following those.
I don't see myself personally using this, because I'm usually on the same computers. And while it could be neat to have a library account, I would rather see recommended websites for the public on our own website. It could be useful for staff--but once again, it's a matter of having to log into yet one more website, and remember the password and all that. I could see it being more useful for sharing between libraries, perhaps.
I don't see myself personally using this, because I'm usually on the same computers. And while it could be neat to have a library account, I would rather see recommended websites for the public on our own website. It could be useful for staff--but once again, it's a matter of having to log into yet one more website, and remember the password and all that. I could see it being more useful for sharing between libraries, perhaps.
My twitter username: jamilibrarian.
I can certainly see how twitter would be very appealing for many people. But as for me--well, I did 2 Baby Laptimes this morning, and after each one I of course hang out and play with the babies and chat with the moms; I ate lunch at my computer while answering emails and reading the news; and did several management/figuring things out type of things. What I want right now (besides chocolate) is SILENCE. Did I mention that I'm an introvert?
And that makes me wonder if Twitter really appeals to a certain personality more than others--namely, extroverts. I am talking to people and "directing" things all day, at work and at home, and on my down time I just want blessed, golden, silence. Or at least something passive like a good mystery on dvd while I knit.
I can certainly see the usefulness of Twitter to libraries. But I do wonder about all of these technologies just piling on top of each other. How many sites can a person log into in a day? How many passwords can a human brain retain?
Also, I didn't find it as intuitive as many other technologies. Starting & posting to a blog is super easy. I had a little more trouble finding how to do stuff on twitter.
I can certainly see how twitter would be very appealing for many people. But as for me--well, I did 2 Baby Laptimes this morning, and after each one I of course hang out and play with the babies and chat with the moms; I ate lunch at my computer while answering emails and reading the news; and did several management/figuring things out type of things. What I want right now (besides chocolate) is SILENCE. Did I mention that I'm an introvert?
And that makes me wonder if Twitter really appeals to a certain personality more than others--namely, extroverts. I am talking to people and "directing" things all day, at work and at home, and on my down time I just want blessed, golden, silence. Or at least something passive like a good mystery on dvd while I knit.
I can certainly see the usefulness of Twitter to libraries. But I do wonder about all of these technologies just piling on top of each other. How many sites can a person log into in a day? How many passwords can a human brain retain?
Also, I didn't find it as intuitive as many other technologies. Starting & posting to a blog is super easy. I had a little more trouble finding how to do stuff on twitter.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Library Thing
http://www.librarything.com/home/jamilibrarian
Library thing is pretty cool--but I have a lot more than 200 books! And I'm too cheap to pay for a subscription. Still, it was neat to see what other people who listed the same books as me also had in their library.
This could be a good thing to show customers, though--until we get a feature on our catalog or website that tracks what people have checked out in the past, this could be a substitute. Instead of entering what people have in their personal library, they could enter what they've read from the public library.
Library thing is pretty cool--but I have a lot more than 200 books! And I'm too cheap to pay for a subscription. Still, it was neat to see what other people who listed the same books as me also had in their library.
This could be a good thing to show customers, though--until we get a feature on our catalog or website that tracks what people have checked out in the past, this could be a substitute. Instead of entering what people have in their personal library, they could enter what they've read from the public library.
Generators
Here's my word cloud from "wordle." Kind of cool, if you can make it out. There are lots of fun image generators out there, and a great, great, many silly ones. While it's very fun to know what my mafia name or Harry Potter name would be, it's not so very useful.
I got really excited when I saw the ALA Read poster generator, but the link didn't work and I couldn't find it. Bummer. I could see lots of good uses for these tools with photo editing--I saw some for creating a mat, etc.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Finding Feeds
This is cool--I always kind of vaguely knew what RSS feeds were, but never used them at all. Now I see why this whole blogging thing is so addictive!
I didn't really care for Bloglines. It didn't really work that well for me, it kept going back to one page and not doing what I wanted it to do--so I skipped over that and went straight to Google, which does everything better than anyone else, apparently. I set up a Google Reader account, and voila, I'm good to go.
I really didn't like any of those blog search sites listed, I'm sorry to say--I got my links the more organic way: recommendations from colleagues. And colleagues' own blogs that I'd like to follow. I also went to magazines, newspapers, etc. that I already know & trust, and signed up for some of their feeds. The blog search sites were klunky, not easy to use, and very ugly. And the blog directory on one of them was ridiculously small. I will just use Google to search blogs because, as I said, they're the Company That Does Everything the Best.
I look forward to all of the great info. I've already found, through one feed on tighwaddery, a great deal on the Barbie horse & carriage which will make a perfect surprise Christmas present! (20 bucks at wal-mart online, if anyon'es interested.) Next I will try to get some feeds that are actually library-related...
I didn't really care for Bloglines. It didn't really work that well for me, it kept going back to one page and not doing what I wanted it to do--so I skipped over that and went straight to Google, which does everything better than anyone else, apparently. I set up a Google Reader account, and voila, I'm good to go.
I really didn't like any of those blog search sites listed, I'm sorry to say--I got my links the more organic way: recommendations from colleagues. And colleagues' own blogs that I'd like to follow. I also went to magazines, newspapers, etc. that I already know & trust, and signed up for some of their feeds. The blog search sites were klunky, not easy to use, and very ugly. And the blog directory on one of them was ridiculously small. I will just use Google to search blogs because, as I said, they're the Company That Does Everything the Best.
I look forward to all of the great info. I've already found, through one feed on tighwaddery, a great deal on the Barbie horse & carriage which will make a perfect surprise Christmas present! (20 bucks at wal-mart online, if anyon'es interested.) Next I will try to get some feeds that are actually library-related...
Friday, November 7, 2008
Blogging: one more excuse to put off housework?
#7, Anything about technology.
I saw a colleague on a Google product the other day...dangit, can't remember the name...Google Reader, that's it. It helps manage all the blogs you're interested in following. The same colleague sent me a few links to blogs about tightwaddery, and I found these very interesting.
This is an intriguing thing that I would like to get into more. I read the papers online every day (downright obsessively during the campaign season--did anyone else spend hours on nytime's map, where you could play around with who wins which state, and what the electoral count would be? I will have so much free time now). I could see myself also checking in on favorite blogs about books, gardening, knitting, soapmaking, etc., and also friends' blogs. And library news, of course! (Since this IS a work thing we're doing here.) Another colleague mentioned that she is now completely addicted to blogging, and enjoys posting pictures of her latest sewing or knitting creations. It seems like this Google tool could make all of this blog-watching a much easier process--if I had to go and find each blog individually, I think that tiny little step would be enough to sometimes stop me from doing it.
Also, I would love to start a family blog. Since we are adopting my husband's niece, there's lots of family news to share, test scores and artwork and concerts and such. Hilarious things she says ("I was elected president of the Student Cancel!") There's also the garden, the soap, other crafty things, my husband's bees and beermaking, and our various travel experiences. What a great way to keep in touch (without actually having to call!).
However, here's the problem with all of this potential blogging: I can hardly get anything done as it is! I'm the master at piddling around and wasting time on the weekends, when I really desperately need to be getting some things done (things I don't love so much, like cleaning and laundry) so that the week is a little less chaotic. Obviously my psyche must need that down time, but still, the laundry is not going to do itself. So I'm just kind of worried that I will get sucked into this whole other thing to do on the weekends and I will never get anything done. But I also wonder if it could be cathartic, like writing in a journal, which I've never been able to keep up.
If only I could do it while driving...audio blogs? Would that be podcasts? I look forward to finding out.
P.S. I wonder if anyone else feels weird writing all of this stuff when you're not really writing TO anybody. It's like talking to myself in a way. Obviously I have plenty to say to myself!
I saw a colleague on a Google product the other day...dangit, can't remember the name...Google Reader, that's it. It helps manage all the blogs you're interested in following. The same colleague sent me a few links to blogs about tightwaddery, and I found these very interesting.
This is an intriguing thing that I would like to get into more. I read the papers online every day (downright obsessively during the campaign season--did anyone else spend hours on nytime's map, where you could play around with who wins which state, and what the electoral count would be? I will have so much free time now). I could see myself also checking in on favorite blogs about books, gardening, knitting, soapmaking, etc., and also friends' blogs. And library news, of course! (Since this IS a work thing we're doing here.) Another colleague mentioned that she is now completely addicted to blogging, and enjoys posting pictures of her latest sewing or knitting creations. It seems like this Google tool could make all of this blog-watching a much easier process--if I had to go and find each blog individually, I think that tiny little step would be enough to sometimes stop me from doing it.
Also, I would love to start a family blog. Since we are adopting my husband's niece, there's lots of family news to share, test scores and artwork and concerts and such. Hilarious things she says ("I was elected president of the Student Cancel!") There's also the garden, the soap, other crafty things, my husband's bees and beermaking, and our various travel experiences. What a great way to keep in touch (without actually having to call!).
However, here's the problem with all of this potential blogging: I can hardly get anything done as it is! I'm the master at piddling around and wasting time on the weekends, when I really desperately need to be getting some things done (things I don't love so much, like cleaning and laundry) so that the week is a little less chaotic. Obviously my psyche must need that down time, but still, the laundry is not going to do itself. So I'm just kind of worried that I will get sucked into this whole other thing to do on the weekends and I will never get anything done. But I also wonder if it could be cathartic, like writing in a journal, which I've never been able to keep up.
If only I could do it while driving...audio blogs? Would that be podcasts? I look forward to finding out.
P.S. I wonder if anyone else feels weird writing all of this stuff when you're not really writing TO anybody. It's like talking to myself in a way. Obviously I have plenty to say to myself!
More Flickr Funr
Wow, there's some really cool stuff you can do with Flickr. I had no idea. I don't have time to just play around on it, but I love the possibilities for staying in touch with friends & family who are far away. And sending a photo from your cell phone--that's just freakin' cool.
And I like the option to create a group, so different people can upload photos of the same event.
However, once again we run into size limitations. Flickr's cool and all, but I think I'd like to compare it to Google's photo thing--Picasso or whatever it is. Photo storage in general is a problem for us. We still haven't had our pictures from trips that we took 3 years ago. Sad, I know. It would be great to store them securely digitally, because cds or dvds do break down eventually.
And I like the option to create a group, so different people can upload photos of the same event.
However, once again we run into size limitations. Flickr's cool and all, but I think I'd like to compare it to Google's photo thing--Picasso or whatever it is. Photo storage in general is a problem for us. We still haven't had our pictures from trips that we took 3 years ago. Sad, I know. It would be great to store them securely digitally, because cds or dvds do break down eventually.
Flickr Funr
Flickr's great--we already have a personal Flickr account (though I "delegate" all the technical stuff to my husband, since 1. he understands the mac better and 2. he loves to do that stuff anyway). The only problem--not enough space. A few pages of pictures from last summer was enough to fill up our account. Maybe he's not compressing the photos or something.
I love that the library has a teen flickr account--that way we can post their artwork, etc., and it's not using up our server space and I'm sure it makes liability issues easier as well, since it's not really our website. I'd like to have a teen art contest sometime, and post the winners' art on our flickr account.
Now I will figure out how to put my picture on this post. It's our 2008 Halloween Bash, which included music, storytelling, puppet shows, games, trick-or-treating--the works.
Lifelong learning on a tight schedule
Here's my blog, tra la la.
About the 7 & 1/2 habits of lifelong learners: I find it easy to do most of them, as I am interested in many things and want to learn more than I will ever possibly have time for. I guess if I had to pick one, it would be taking responsibility for my own learning. I have taught myself how to do many, many things: soapmaking, violin, gardening, knitting, woodworking, cooking, canning, puppetry, foreign languages, etc. etc. My latest: parenting, fence-building, knitting Actual Things for Gifts, and cheese-making (well, hopefully sometime soon on the last one, anyway--we have the kit all ready to go).
The one I'm worst at right now, depressingly: play. I have no time to finish the laundry and pay the bills, let alone play. The only play I got in yesterday was knitting while watching a Buffy episode at 9:30 at night. And I'm afraid I screwed it up (but I'll be able to creatively cover it up, I hope). And play can become work when you're trying to squeeze it into an overfull schedule. I love playing music with friends, but when we had our first real "gig" and had to practice once a week, it nearly killed me, even though the practice itself was fun. Ah, modern life.
About the 7 & 1/2 habits of lifelong learners: I find it easy to do most of them, as I am interested in many things and want to learn more than I will ever possibly have time for. I guess if I had to pick one, it would be taking responsibility for my own learning. I have taught myself how to do many, many things: soapmaking, violin, gardening, knitting, woodworking, cooking, canning, puppetry, foreign languages, etc. etc. My latest: parenting, fence-building, knitting Actual Things for Gifts, and cheese-making (well, hopefully sometime soon on the last one, anyway--we have the kit all ready to go).
The one I'm worst at right now, depressingly: play. I have no time to finish the laundry and pay the bills, let alone play. The only play I got in yesterday was knitting while watching a Buffy episode at 9:30 at night. And I'm afraid I screwed it up (but I'll be able to creatively cover it up, I hope). And play can become work when you're trying to squeeze it into an overfull schedule. I love playing music with friends, but when we had our first real "gig" and had to practice once a week, it nearly killed me, even though the practice itself was fun. Ah, modern life.
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