Thursday, September 20, 2007
More neat stuff
What's neat about Photobucket is that it allows you to upload photos, videos, and other animations for sharing over the web. For embedding images and videos, I think it's much easier than Flickr--the tools are more like YouTube's. Though there doesn't seem to be a filter for searching--a few of the photos I saw when searching "dressage" were a bit sketchy.
Scrapblog is really fun and cool. I made a quick scrapblog:
I like that it costs nothing, looks great, very easy, doesn't make a mess like real scrapbooking. However, it doesn't look like you can print your pages, which doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to me. Still, the templates are stunning, and it's got all the web 2.0 social tools like sharing, embedding, and RSS feeds.
Letterpop
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Some updates
Charlotte-Mecklenburg has continued their program of web 2.0 learning tools. I've subscribed to their blog feed for the program, and I think I'll try out the tools they mention, if I haven't already. Such as Thing 24: Zamzar. Free online file conversion, with a link to the result emailed to you. That's brilliant. Maybe we can finally have a good solution to the battle between Microsoft Word and Microsoft Works. I have to admit, I need and use Word so exclusively that I've never used Works, but it's a battle to try to open Works files here in the library so that patrons can work on the files they've brought in, which then dooms them to working in the library on their new Word files. Of course, the solution to that is probably Google Docs or Zoho, but in a pinch Zamzar will probably be a good thing. Let's not forget that it will convert many kinds of files to PDF, which is a fairly universal format, so if you need a quick PDF, you don't need to shell out megabucks for Adobe Acrobat and you don't even have to install a program on your computer. And when I was converting tons of scanned TIFFs to JPEGs for the Flat Tops Blog, because TypePad won't accept TIFFs in its photo galleries, I could have used this service and had them all emailed to the blog. I do wish it would convert Publisher files, though--Publisher is really kind of a crappy program, but I use it all the time because the templates are okay and it came with Office--I run into problems all the time sending Publisher files to other people because they have different versions or don't have it at all.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Week 9, Thing 23: Maryland Libraries Learning 2.0
I would love to do a program like this again. Only I'd, er, like to find out about more stuff that I'm not already doing, not that I didn't learn about some great web 2.0 stuff. :-) I'd like to see more people comment on blogs--there's time yet in the program, but it seems to me that it's one of the real rewards of this kind of program, getting to see what other people are doing in their learning journey and chatting with them about it.
I know it's been a bit of a slog for a lot of people who are not so technologically inclined as me, but I think folks have had an opportunity to have a bit of fun too--learning isn't all fun all the time, but gaining some of these skills is very valuable in our jobs and can be a way to open the mind to new possibilities in library service.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Week 9, Thing 22: Digital audiobooks
What I really love are ebooks. I download ebooks from Overdrive whenever I can (I've read pretty much anything I'd be interested in that's in the MD library collection), but since the audiobooks are so much more popular than the ebooks, we don't add many new ebooks to the collection. I download them at home and transfer them to my PDA. I like reading books on my PDA because I can do it one-handed--don't need another hand to flip the page, the little button on the front does it--and I can read them in any kind of light, because it's backlit. As more portable devices become the norm, I think we'll see more of an interest in ebooks. We'll have to see how the Sony Reader perfoms--I'm a little skeptical, because ebook-only devices have done very poorly in the past, and the trend seems to be toward multiuse devices.
Jessamyn West points out that there are iPod-friendly free public domain audiobooks available at Librivox, serialized science fiction at Podiobooks, and free poetry readings at Classic Poetry Aloud (although I like to read poetry aloud for myself, thank you). And of course at Project Gutenberg. It's been a while since I looked at Project Gutenburg--good to know that they are branching out. Great resource.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Week 9, Thing 21: Podcasting
I'm not so into the podcast, myself--I don't have an MP3 player (very much want one, promised myself one when I get a job from a new editing client), and for me, it would take too much time to listen to them without having an MP3 player to listen to podcasts when having downtime driving, grocery shopping, cooking, etc. I don't even have time to watch television, so podcasts are something I'd have to add in while doing something else.
I'm impressed with the number of results from Yahoo! Podcast. It seemed like I got better results from Podcast Alley, though, more focused on actual libraries (search: "library"), even though not as many results. I don't like the interface of Podcast.net--too cluttered, and not enough results. I subscribed to NPR: Books from Yahoo! and Library Geeks from Podcast Alley. I might give them a try for a while.
As much as I myself am not into podcasting, I think it would be terrific for libraries. (I'm not into social networking like MySpace or Facebook either, because I am basically an introvert...but I can see their amazing potential!) Some libraries, such as the Orange County Library and the Denver Library, have podcasts--I particularly like the Denver Library's storytime podcast. How awesome would it be to have a story arrive in your RSS inbox every week? Although I think a videocast, for storytime, would be even better, because the librarian could engage the child in the pictures and do some dialogic reading. Not only would the library be encouraging and teaching early literacy skills in the library, but also online, reaching people who have a computer but aren't able to come to storytime. An events podcast, like Orange County's, could be fun too. Lots of possibilities with this technology, and with free tools like Audacity, the price is right too.
I tried quite a few times to record a short podcast on Odeo, but to no avail, it simply refused to save what I had recorded. Ah, well.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Week 9, Thing 20: YouTube
I really love this series of library videos, which show the bridging of the traditional divide between librarians and IT professionals:
The first Infotubey Awards were given at the 2007 Computers in Libraries conference. The winners made some amazing videos for library promotion--just think of the possibilities!
YouTube has really become a cultural phenomenon. Yeah, there's a lot of crappy stuff there, but there are also amazing gems like these library videos.
Week 8, Thing 19: Web 2.0 awards
Zillow--how can you not like knowing what the retail price is on your and your neighbors' homes? Mesmerizing.
Craigslist--the best part is being able to create custom RSS feeds for your searches. Okay, so I haven't bought anything from a Craigslist listing yet, but I've seen all kinds of cool merchandise. Alas, there is no section of Craigslist for Southern Maryland, probably why I haven't bought anything that's in my RSS feed listings--too far to drive to D.C. or Baltimore areas.
Meebo--great product, I have several patrons who use it because we don't have IM software installed on our machines (who wants to deal with the viruses and spyware?). All your regular options for your favorite IM vendor are there.
Feedburner--cool to see how many people are subscribed to your blog, traffic on your blog, etc. Very easy. Of course, I only have 2 people subscribed to my blog. There were seven subscribed yesterday! That bad, huh? :-)
Pandora--I listen to Pandora sometimes when I edit--I can't listen to anything that I know the words to, because those words get mixed up with the words on the screen. I think it does a pretty good job of picking music that I like.
Picnik--easy photo editing tools, no program to download. You can get pretty good results with it.
Personalized Google--I start here every day. I have modules for Gmail, Google Reader, custom searches, Google Maps, Google Bookmarks, LOLcats, Amazon search hack, and lots more. Loooovvve it.
Some new stuff I tried:
Etsy--a friend of mine is wild about Etsy, and I can see why. It's like going to the hugest craft fair ever without having to either sweat or freeze. Really fun and beautiful handmade things for sale here.
BeGreenNow--a simple calculator for finding out your carbon footprint (the damage you're doing to the earth, basically) and tips for reducing your carbon footprint. You can also purchase carbon offsets--pay the company to do green things on your behalf, such as buying renewable energy, funding reforestation, and supporting technology that helps offset carbon credits. To completely offset my household's carbon usage, I'd have to pay about $20 a month. I'm very seriously considering it--I'm a pretty green person, drive a very efficient car, use fluorescent lightbulbs and other energy-reducing devices, recycle, compost, etc., but it's very difficult to completely offset one's carbon use and this company's efforts may make a serious difference in the fight against global warming (think this summer's drought was just seasonal variation? Think again....)
Biblio--I'm not sure why Biblio won anything. They have fewer books than AbeBooks. It's great that their costs for sellers are lower than other places, but I don't really see anything special about this site, it's just a place with books for sale, and there are lots of those sites out there.
Yelp--was okay, but not a lot of reviews on there yet, at least not in our area. Might have to write a few myself. Would be very useful while traveling, so you can find out what the good restaurants, places to stay, etc., are.
All in all, there are wonderful web 2.0 tools out there. Internet tools are becoming much better integrated, tons of mashups, and as developers see the kind of use that people have for the Internet, they are designing tools that fit the user, rather than the other way around.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Week 8, Thing 18: online office tools
I'm not nearly so enthused about Google Docs. I'm a power Word user and I use track changes extensively while editing, use a lot of find and replace with wildcards, and do tons of formatting. But if Google Docs can dream up a better system than Word's endnotes and footnotes, I'd be all for it (no endnotes or footnotes now). And they do have keyboard shortcuts, which I depend on--I can be soooo much faster if I don't have to take my fingers off the keyboard. The sharing features are very cool--RSS feed for changes, email, invite collaborators, create an event with collaborators in Google Calendar (one of the few Google features I don't use--I have to use Outlook for my calendar because it synchronizes with my PDA). And as you can see, I published a document directly to my blog (below). But the export functions are also very nice. They're good tools for a lot of projects.
Hey, this is web 2.0: the Internet is your computer. :-)
Zoho: the word processor style is nicer than Google Docs. (I feel so disloyal! I love you for everything else, Google!) It's more familiar (i.e., looks more like word. :-) It's nice that the HTML tools are right up front--especially layers. I like using layers, especially after building my latest website in Dreamweaver. The template library isn't as big as Micro$oft, but it is also FREE and is just a cool feature. Ooh, you can email docs into your Zoho account. Neato! And again, great sharing and exporting tools. No RSS though.
Zoho Sheet is okay. I don't think it's as easy to use as Google Spreadsheet, but carrying over the basic layout from the word processor is efficient and helps you use the whole suite.
Zoho Show--enhh. Yawn. Without cool templates, it's very, very dull. The good thing would be that you can import PowerPoint files and then export them as HTML or make them publicly available or embed them in a website. But to actually create workable presentations would be mighty difficult.
Zoho Notebook, Zoho's answer to MS OneNote, is really pretty cool, cool enough that I installed the Firefox plugin to play with it some more. For some reason, the images I inserted by URL didn't work, but video worked fine, and there's way cool stuff you can add to your notebook, like RSS feeds, audio, and other files, and you can publish the page online or to your blog and share it with friends.
My Zoho Notebook:
Zoho Wiki, Planner, Chat, and Meeting look like great integrated products, but I'm not so much interested in them. But Zoho Creator, a database program, is definitely something I'm going to look more into. You can create web forms with it and I think it might be an easy way to create an online patron request form. Maybe.
Let's see if the form I made works--try it out! It should email the results of the form to me, so I'm going to try it out myself after I post.
Okay, I officially love Zoho Creator. That was a ten-minute form, tops. :-) Zoho might get my vote for office-type applications, even though I still think Google Spreadsheets is the better Excel knockoff. This kind of FREE software is great for sharing documents between colleagues, for our patrons to be able to save their stuff without having to bring a disk or drive, and heck, for building web forms. I'm really excited about the web forms. I've never bothered learning to do them before, but this is soooo easy. All these options!!
Update: MY FORM WORKED! Thank you, Zoho!
Zoho--Book Club 2007
Second Monday of the month, except for October (third week due to
Columbus Day) and November (third week due to Veterans Day)
January 8th Marley and Me by John Grogan
February 12th The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
March 12th River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest
Journey by Candice Millard
April 9th The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneggar
May 14th The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
June 11th The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder,
Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon
Winchester
July 9th The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
August 13th Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen
September 10th A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
October 15th Widow's War by Sally Gunning
November 19th Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by
Nathaniel Philbrick
December 10th Digging to America by Anne Tyler
Google Docs
Second Monday of the month, except for October (third week due to
Columbus Day) and November (third week due to Veterans Day)
January 8th Marley and Me by John Grogan
February 12th The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
March 12th River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest
Journey by Candice Millard
April 9th The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
May 14th The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
June 11th The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder,
Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon
Winchester
July 9th The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
August 13th Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen
September 10th A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
October 15th Widow's War by Sally Gunning
November 19th Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by
Nathaniel Philbrick
December 10th Digging to America by Anne Tyler
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Week 7, Thing 17: Sandbox wiki
The function for "save page as PDF" is great--doesn't work on my Javascript, but the formatting is beautiful, with the little sandwich at the top and the wiki name and page name. The "build a portfolio" function is very cool. Say you were working on a long project or series of projects--you could select the wiki pages that pertain to a report and put them together in a slideshow, PDF, or Word file. Then you could share the files or the URL of the slideshow. I picked some wiki pages that had some reference to 23 things in the title. You can add this particular wiki to Digg or del.icio.us, you can get an RSS feed for changes that are made to the wiki, and you can share the URL or full access to editing the wiki. Even though I don't like the Javascript disfunctionality, the tools available with this wiki software are well in line with other web 2.0 tools--lots of social networking, changeability of formats, easy enough for anyone to do. Excellent tool.
Week 7, Thing 17: Wikis
Friday, August 3, 2007
Week 6, Thing 15: The future of libraries
The participation gap (the new digital divide), the transparency problem, and the ethics challenge are things that libraries will have to work with. The millennials, although they are digital natives, may be more comfortable with technology, but they still may not have access to the technologies and skills they will need to be successful participants in American culture. Growing up with lots of media, these young people may not realize how much the media influences them. They also may lack ethical training on web participation, because publishing tools are eliminating the traditional publication tracks where they would have learned ethics from colleagues. Again, like we've seen in Shift Happens, the millennial generation will need lifelong learning skills more than any other generation. And we're going to need better search and finding tools. Like Tim O'Reilly says, "Data is the next Intel inside": data powers the web. We need proper federated search for website databases; Rollyo isn't going to cut it.
I find it interesting that Michael Stephens points out that the 2.0 librarian will have to be a trendspotter. I think he's right. We're going to have to be on the cutting edge of technology and services, and in order to be fiscally responsible in the technology we adopt, we'll need to be able to identify the technologies that will be of the most use to our patrons for the most amount of time. We need to know demographics and social data and ask our patrons what kind of technology they would like to use at the library and why. Being flexible enough to keep up with the pace of technology and modern society will be more important than ever--keep trying new stuff, and if it works, great; if it doesn't, scrap it and find out why. Just like in the learning process, permission to fail will have to be part of the "perpetual beta" of library 2.0.
Stephen J. Dubner, one of the authors of Freakonomics, had an interesting blog post on libraries and the digital economy. He points out that libraries have had an effect on book publishing that publishers may not really like--yes, libraries buy lots of books, but they then lend them out for free. The idea of licensing agreements for books is interesting and the comments are also well worth reading. Libraries are going to have to think about economics in the digital era and how different publishing models are going to affect what libraries can own, use, and lend.
To wrap up, innovation is what library 2.0 needs. The library will have to compete, kind of like a business, for our patrons' time and energy. Just because our things are "free" (if you're paying taxes, the library isn't free!) doesn't mean that people will use them. The library will have to be more memorable, create a better experience, allow patrons to create their own individualized library environment and services. It's within our reach. Fortune favors the bold--we just have to jump in.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Week 6, Thing 14: Technorati
Again, Technorati is okay, but I really get my blog feeds by reading other blogs and seeing what other people are reading. That way the blog is already previewed and vouched for by someone I'm already reading. Kind of like an author doing his or her own reader's advisory: "If you like my books, you'll also like to read...."
We'll see if this post gets linked under learning 2.0 on Technorati--I used both the HTML tag and Blogger's native tagging. Though if you don't already understand HTML, changing around the tag might not make sense. I also claimed my blog and we'll see what kind of links or favoriting I get. So far, I've only got an authority of 1, from the mention in St. Minutia's blog.
learning 2.0
Monday, July 30, 2007
We now interrupt our regularly scheduled program....
According to the Wikipedia entry for lolcat:
"These images usually consist of a photo of a cat with a large caption characteristically formatted in a sans serif font such as Impact or Arial Black.[11] The image is, on occasion, digitally edited for effect. The caption generally acts as a speech balloon encompassing a comment from the cat, or as a description of the depicted scene. The caption is intentionally written with deviations from standard English spelling and syntax,[11] (presumably how the cat might type, with typos and spelling errors) featuring "strangely-conjugated verbs, but [a tendency] to converge to a new set of rules in spelling and grammar."[12] These altered rules of English have been referred to as a type of pidgin[11] or baby talk.[13] The text parodies the grammar-poor patois stereotypically attributed to internet slang. Frequently, lolcat captions take the form of snowclones in which nouns and verbs are replaced in a phrase.[13] Some phrases have a known source[14] while others seem to be specific to the lolcat form. Common themes include jokes of the form "Im in ur noun, verb-ing ur related noun."[6]. "I has a noun" pictures show a cat in possession of an object while "Invisible noun" show pictures of cats interacting with said invisible object.[6] "My noun, let me show you it/them" pictures are accompanied by cats apparently presenting or offering an object."
icanhascheezburger.com, a blog of lolcat images, is the 20th most popular blog on Technorati, with 8,974 unique links to it.
Back to our regularly scheduled program....
Friday, July 27, 2007
Week 6, Thing 13: Del.icio.us
My del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/amy_librarian
Revisiting my bookmarks, I was tickled to see that strangelibrarian has subscribed to my bookmarks! I know of this librarian from a Maryland library service (can't be too many librarians out there with the same handle) and am therefore flattered. :-)
Week 5, Thing 12: Custom search
Of course, Rollyo is okay for websites that aren't database driven or have very transparent databases that are expressed in HTML (Amazon.com), but it doesn't necessarily search everything you think it's searching.
I set up a search for horse information from some of my favorite horse sites. Of course, not all my sites are available to use because of the formatting of the sites. One in particular, the user forum of Equinextion.com, is difficult to search because it's hosted by a popular user forum software company and every user forum is hosted at the same site. Rollyo doesn't allow for modifications to the URL that would allow me to search the section that belongs to Equinextion. Though Google Custom Search does, and I created a Google Custom Search for the same set of websites.
Here's my Rollyo search box:
Here's my Google search with the same sites:
For some reason, the Google search isn't working either. I have a separate custom Google Search just for Equinextion, using a URL pattern, and it works just fine. I don't get it. Grrr. You can see how very difficult it is to roll a search engine that actually searches for what you want it to search for. I'm a pretty advanced searcher and tech person, and I have a heck of a time getting a custom search to come out right. How about people who don't know how to evaluate the search engine they've just created? They'll think they're getting good information when they aren't, really. And that bugs me. Seems like false advertising, somehow.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Week 5, Thing 11: LibraryThing
I've been wanting to catalog my whole personal library forever and I think I'll use LibraryThing....but I don't want to start without knowing that I'll be able to finish. :-) So I've never started. Because yes, I own that many books. They're double-stacked on my bookshelves and on the top of them and on the floor next to them. The library books don't even have a place--they're stacked next to the bed and the couch. Of course, I managed to catalog 15 books of my top favorite books in less than 15 minutes, so maybe if I took a whole weekend....
Other than Tim's product for libraries, I'm not really sure about a regular library's use of LibraryThing. Might be good for small or unusual collections, so that people who are on LibraryThing could find out who has those books. Might also be a good place for searching for unusual items such as small-run genealogy books and putting patrons in contact with the people who have them. Makes for an even larger library than WorldCat....
My LibraryThing (also in the sidebar):
Monday, July 23, 2007
Week 5, Thing 10: Images
I like the Dumpr.net sketch generator, even though I'm kinda sick of this picture:
I made a neat button at My Cool Buttons, and you can click to subscribe to my blog:
And while we're on generators, even though these aren't image generators:
My Fortune Cookie told me: It is time to change the way you cast magic missile at your moose. Get a cookie from Miss Fortune |
My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Viscountess Amy the Ingenious of Fishbourne Sneething Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title |
My Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom is: Voldemort becomes a billionaire in the software market by clever use of the Goblet of Fire Get your Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom |
Week 4, Thing 9: Blog search
Week 4, Thing 8: I hate Bloglines
However, I LOVE RSS. Love it. Love it. Love Google Reader. I have 75 feeds in my Google Reader, including all my library blogs, different comics and Cute Overload (also several lolcat RSS feeds), the library staff blog, customized eBay and Craigslist feeds, several Washington Post blogs, and dressage blogs so I can get my horse fix. I'd love to add more, except that's really my limit for reading. I like pretty in-depth feeds.
I definitely want my library to offer RSS feeds for different things--blogs for library news, technology training, children's programs; customizable feeds from the library catalog for notification of new things added to the collection; maybe a podcast or videocast to take advantage of the draw of visual media. It's a great technology--both for getting generalized info out to many people without getting caught in spam filters, and for creating specialized information streams without giving out any personal information (such as with eBay and Craigslist feeds).
Week 3, Thing 7: Anything goes redux
Chat has moved up in the world from the traditional IM formats to Meebo, where you can sign into multiple networks without installing software, Meebo Rooms and Gabbly, where you can have multiuser chat, Twitter, a microblogging platform with lots of options for sending and receiving info, and Tumblr and Meshly, which combine microblogging with other tools like social bookmarking and feed aggregation. I love what these tools can do....but I don't want to be available by IM all the time.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Week 3, Thing 7: Anything goes
On the UMPC thought, I am very impressed by the $100 laptop project, especially the ability to make a ad-hoc local network for sharing files. Children's textbooks could be cheaply distributed by PDF, the children can create many kinds of files for projects, and as they would be run by human power, they wouldn't contribute to global warming. Brilliant. We all know that we are living in exponential times--see "Shift Happens" video below--and that information is changing so rapidly that soon, if we wait for a textbook to come out, it will be outdated by the time it is published. Technology, properly applied, may allow developing countries to participate in lifelong learning as well.
Week 3, Thing 6: Flickr mashups
Oh, and as a Warhol painting, thanks to BigHugeLabs.com:
Monday, July 16, 2007
Week 3, Thing 5: Explore Flickr
It's nice to be able to tag photos and share them, but I really do very little public sharing of photos. Thanks, I like most of my photos to stay private, shared to friends by email. However, some of the things that can be done with Flickr are very cool--slideshows, easy blogging tools, etc.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Week 2, Thing 4: Register your blog and track our progress
Week 2, Thing 3: voila, blog!
Edited: Oops, I was wrong about post labeling--Google has added it since the last time I blogged!
Week 1, Thing 2: 7 1/2 habits
#2 Accept responsibility for your own learning
#3 View problems as challenges
#4 Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
#5 Create your own learning toolbox
#6 Use technology to your advantage
#7 Teach/mentor others
#7 1/2 Play!
The hardest, definitely, is to view problems as challenges. I like challenges, like figuring things out, but it can be stressful to have problems with patrons and other people; still, that's where I've done some of my best learning (even if I wasn't fond of the process at the time!). The easiest? Not sure, really, but possibly play, teach, use tech, or have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner--I am a product of my school system's gifted program, which gave me the ability to structure my own learning and be confident in making choices about my own learning process. It's really the way I think all K-12 learning (and lifelong learning) should be structured. I think that our current system of education is failing to provide students with the confidence and tools to tackle their lifelong learning. Instead, schools are often teaching to the test, as if test scores actually measured learning instead of memorization. As anyone who has seen Shift Happens knows, what students learn, especially in upper grades, will be outmoded a year and a half after they learn it. They will desperately need to have lifelong learning skills to learn the jobs that haven't been invented yet, as they will be changing jobs more often than any other generation in history. In Maryland, libraries are part of the education system by design, and libraries will have to step in to help foster those lifelong learning skills in students, because they're not necessarily learning them in school.
Shift Happens: