Reflections - Thing 23

Reflections on this course in one word – AAAAHHHH! Really, this has been an excellent course. There is just so much to learn in this whirlwind course and the time to keep up all the sites after connecting to them. I will probably focus on a couple and let the rest go away. I created accounts in most of the things and have a new list for just user names and passwords! I now have to figure out how to keep up with all the new things I have learned.

My least favorite this was Digg – I still haven’t figured out why I can’t get it to work the way I expect it to function. That is one “thing”, I’ll go back and practice with. The ones I enjoyed the most are the graphics. In fact I used the automotivator to create a background for my desktop.

The “thing” I’ll use most is Facebook. My family found out about my facebook account and within 12 hours, I had 14 invitations and many requests for farm items!

The big help to this course is the ability to understand just what is available and being able to help patrons as they ask. One other outcome is a directive from our director to find one piece of new technology and find a way to incorporate it in our library. After looking at all the sites, I will be focusing on the hardware that can connect to make it easier for users. An example is the bar code scanner, “CueCat”. Web 2.0 will be something I’m expecting to use on a day to day basis anyway. Many of the things will be used in promotion of the library.

Developing for our library - Thing 22

How true! How true! Serving patrons in a public library brings new, exciting, and often unusual requests every day. Learning the 23 Things touched on many of the questions we are asked. Our library was one that required the entire staff to participate in 23 Things. The good thing about total participation is that when one is having problems with a specific “thing” there is always someone to ask.

There is so much to learn within the 23 Things that combining this course with the increased summer traffic in a public library, made it very difficult to learn the details. This means that additional time for future review is a must. I would almost like to recommend that staff (including myself) take the course again in the fall and take their time with the things in order to learn them better. I am a firm believer in hands on use is the best way to learn. So, the encouragement to continue with a thing or two is probably the more realistic way to continue learning.

Pods - Thing 21

I looked at several of the libraries including Arizona State, DeKalb, Denver Public and Kankakee Public Library. Most of the audio quality was very good. When listening to the Arlo Guthrie visiting Kankakee the quality was really bad. After rereading the introduction of the podcast, they specified that the there was technical difficulties during recording. It was interesting listening to the Guthrie family discussing the music business during a trip on the City of New Orleans to benefit Katrina victims. I would consider subscribing to Kankakee’s podcasts because they had some very interesting topics. Some of the other libraries were okay; the topics were not quite to my taste. Although libraries are my bread and butter, listening to author talks don’t hold my interest unless it is an author I am extremely interested in or a local author that I want to learn more about as a person of interest to the community. Denver library has “Stories for Kids” that is impressive for children. Their nursery rhymes, folk tales, and fairytales are really good.

YouTube vids - Thing 20

I really liked the “Shout It Out for Your Library!” video, a promotion from regular and public people in support of the New York Public Library. The ending tells that libraries are more than just books; they are job searches, computer access, education, imagination, and much more. As one participate says, bang on a pan to raise awareness.

Thank you to all the libraries that explain Technical Services!!! We are often told volunteers can do the cataloging – hey it’s just data input. The different libraries that show what goes on behind the scenes are awesome!

I can see where libraries can use videos from finding the library to using the databases to checking out books. Marketing of the services by showing clips of programs would be a great way to explain the different programs offered at the local libraries.
ALA videos are called screen casts. They function just like YouTube videos but have a few options that are not as obvious like “guide details about this episode” the ability to embed or email the video to others and the option to easily full in full screen mode.

oogling docs - thing 19

I'm learning google docs. creating a document is pretty easy. This document will be shared with a few others, let's see if the sharing works.

Okay sharing and collaborating is easy as long as one has the correct email addresses.
I'll be using this as part of the Infoquest txt referencing project. They already have an area setup and have added me, now I just need to figure out how to enter their area. Does anyone know how to link areas or can this be done? It looks like I'll be doing some experimenting :-)

I also used the Form utility. It reminds me of some web programs that create browser pages using front-ends. It fairly straight forward and could be used for alot of different applications. When exported to adobe, the file was not as expected. The format was similar to an excel spreadsheet, not the expected form. Nor were the drop down options shown. Something else with which to experiment...

wiki - thing 18

I viewed several of the wiki sites linked to Wikipedia. My favorite is the wikisource, the free content library. I was amazed at the amount of literature available and the fact that individuals can edit it. Looking at the history of “Around the world in 80 days” by Jules Verne shows how detailed some people are. Many of the changes were formatting only. The best line I found was under the discussion tab at the very bottom of the page, under notes:
“Please note:
If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly or redistributed by others, do not submit it. “
That is so true of most things on the Internet!

I also searched wikipedia for Dewey Decimal and found some information. But it is posted that they are looking for citations for verifications. And they warn that "unsourced articles may be challenged or removed." This tells me that someone is watching what is posted.

Creating Wiki pages was fun. I just had a few problems when the page did not create when expected or it was created somewhere else – sorry if it shows up in someone else’s pages. Good luck, Jeff keeping all of us in line!

Gone fishin with LibWorm - Thing 17

It is comforting to be able to search a site where most of the information is valid. Thoughts posted by others in the library field and the different published articles agree with outside data I had already researched. This will be valuable when planning projects within the library!

One of the searches I did was on Cuecat scanners. The search was done in all areas with the first six results identical. That’s unusual for any Internet searches; usually the results vary to some degree.

When searching on Little Elm Public Library all kinds of articles came up except what I wanted until I changed the search to Phrase. Then two articles, 1) Collaborative Text Messaging Reference project , a project just starting and 2) Teen Tech Week Display winners from 2007 ALA Weblog were our teens won Honorable Mention. I also added this feed to my Google Reader so I can keep up with other articles about our library.

LibraryThingie – Thing 16

I like Library Thing; then again I have a spreadsheet at home with all my movies and books. With Library Thing I can share with my friends which I trade books with anyway. ThingLang is interesting, but not something I’ll use personally. It is very possible I could use it at the library when cataloging. It is more likely I’ll use ISBN Check.

Question for ya’ll…
Anyone out there use CueCat Scanners? I was wondering if they can be used for general scanning or just ISBNs.

Digg - Thing 15

There is a lot in Digg to wade through. I was able to find a friend (skipping importing my FaceBook friends.) When going back to try to import my FaceBook friends, I could not find the link. This is something to try again later – unless anyone has a short cut they are willing to share. I Dugg our Library Page by Page and a couple of other sites. Some of the articles were really interesting. Check out the article about a bookless library http://digg.com/d16rQ?e.