Things 21: pocasting

Pocasts have been used to good effect throughout this training. Doing the Discovery exercise, however, revealed that Yahoo no longer has a podcasts site and that the podcast.net link is broken. I did get through to podcastalley.com and spent some time searching, but found it hard to yield much in the way of podcasts I could easily use for free, although I did find an interesting discussion of selected science fiction titles. Reading the blogs from Montgomery participants, I discovered others having the same difficulty, so I took the suggestion of one and googled instead, using libraries and podcasts. This brought up www.libsuccess.org, a best practices wiki. From there I was able to follow links to a number of libraries using podcasts. I looked at a couple of academic libraries using podcasts for tutorials, introducing library services and procedures to students. Following the links for various public libraries, I found some using podcasts for booktalking, some for promoting library programs, some to present library programs like author talks; one presented an interview with the new library director. Not all had been kept up to date, which, as this training is proving, is one of the biggest challenges to online presentations of various kinds. Montgomery County might be able make use of podcasts on our site in the next fiscal year to explain the changes in hours and services coming with out budget cuts and also to explain the enhanced ways service will be available online and through Ask-A-Librarian. Podcasts would also be useful to promote, introduce and explain any online tutorials we decide to offer in the future, as has been discussed in the Learning Organization.
I do agree with the Montgomery blogger who felt that for teens, a presence on YouTube is probably more effective than podcasting. The RSS feed I decided to add to my bloglines account is Booktalks quick and simple by Nancy Keane, who does booktalking for K-12. I am interested in YA titles, so I will keep up with any of those she is adding.

Thing 20: YouTube

YouTube is a wonderful experience- the good, the bad, and the ugly. The quality of findings depend search terms used- For me, it is mostly a place to go when I've heard about it from somebody else. I am not a YouTube surfer. But it is a wonderful visual communication tool. I found two YouTube videos to share. Pi day happens in March. The calculus teacher at my son's school does an assembly each year in honor of Pi day, after which pie is offered to each student in honor of pi day. She also honors the day in song with her original lyrics- it's quite entertaining. Her presentation for 2010 is not on YouTube yet, but her 2009 pi day presentation is on YouTube, searchable by Burke pi. Also found a very entertaining Dewey Decimal rap searchable by those terms. It illustrates the use of a site like this for publicizing library-related information for students. Libraries could use YouTube to promote services in a catchy-entertaining way- or put up summary videos perhaps about the upcoming renovations of two of our library branches, or the unfortunate changes coming to our library system in terms of hours changes at the branches. These are the links to the two YouTube videos I enjoyed. The first is Burke Pi Day, the second is The Dewey Decimal Rap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER47HkP7ogQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHiUQb5xg7A&feature=related

I also took a look at Yahoo Videos. We are planning a spring trip to Vermont, so I looked for items of interest related to our trip. Many of the postings were actually links to videos on other sites, like YouTube.

Thing 19: Any site from Web 2.0 awards list

I took a look at CareerBuilder.com, the 2nd place winner from the short list of Employment website listings on the Web 2.0 awards list. It seemed appropriate in the current economic climate, not only for our customers but also for our own County employees, who may be facing layoffs. The site has a lot to offer employers and job seekers. Employers post job listings. Job seekers can ask to search posted jobs in predetermined categories or by keyword, specifying specific locations or not. Each listing says how long ago it was posted, a complete job description, a link to a mapit feature to get a specific location for the job offering and by clicking on the company name, information about the company offering the employment. There are options for saving, emailing, sharing the job listings- Options offered include a salary calculator for specific job markets, setting up a job alert to keep abreast of new developments and an RSS feed- a resume poster, as well as a free resume review and a caution about detecting fraudulent job postings. Under advice and resources there are career tests to get ideas for choosing a career, links to online skills training offerings, links to career fairs, career resources and educational resources. It is a complete employment site and easy to navigate. We have a lot of job seekers in the public library, and I would feel confident directing them to this site, if they are looking for job-seeking direction.

Thing 18: Zoho writer

This is the document I created on Zoho writer- This seems like the wave of the future- not having to worry about a flash drive (I have already lost mine since starting 23 things, and have had to recreate my log sheet as a result)- I could see making good use of a site like this or Google Docs, as it is only dependent on being able to access the site, independently of applications available. This is good to know for our library customers, who may be using public PCs that don't have the necessary apps or have a way to save and store their documents.

National Poetry Month


I am working on a list of novels in verse to use in a library display for National Poetry month in April 2010.

I recently finished Helen Frost's Crossing Stones, a recent young adult book written in this format. It is not only

verse fiction, but within the verse it uses different structures of verse depending on the character narrating.

It is a wonderful way to make verse accessible for the less poetic among us.

Thing #17 : Sandbox Wiki

I followed the links in the learning exercises to the Maryland Libraries Sandbox and created an account with password: but the password sent in the confirmation didn't work, so I asked to have it reset, and the new one didn't work either. So I started reading other blogs and found that some people early on in the process had gotten in and others later on had not. Then I saw Kate Tavakolian's email from last September directing one to go to marylandlibrariessandbox.pbworks.com and create an Open ID account- I did this and successfully got an account with pb works- but when I went to the marylandlibraries sandbox I still could not get in, and I could not find any favorites blog on the pbworks page. At this point, I've spent three times the amount of time just trying to figure out how to get onto the wiki and failed- anything this difficult to access can't possibly be worth it. I did however, learn what an open ID is, so all is not lost. This thing should definitely be reworked. It's giving the wiki a bad name.

Thing 16- Wikis

Interesting things about wikis?: a wide audience can be reached- beyond the scope of what an organizer might imagine, and input can come from both expected and unexpected sources. For the library world all of the applications I sampled are exciting: pathfinders, book reviews, best practices, editing articles, conference information.
I particularly liked the Library Success: a best practices Wiki- I'm one who prefers control, so I noticed this site had put up a number of links to make it transparent to me- There was a list of users, and an easy-to-find link to recent changes. It also had an RSS feed, which is a great way to keep up professionally in a specific area of interest and to share one's own experience along the way. I noticed particularly the links in the category Looking for a job: a huge concern in this era of budget cuts and layoffs. I thought the conferences wiki a good idea for a specific event. I also looked at Merlin's links and found there is a link to Montgomery County's Shhout out as well as good links to wiki software. The ability for library users to add book review information a la Amazon.com is exciting- especially as we librarians are becoming more time-limited: as long as there is adequate control to monitor for inappropriate comments. The possibility of collaborative editing of documents is also compelling, especially with the budget downturn, although the primary utility would be to confine it to in-house collaboration. At the administrative level , however, a wiki which would allow a library system to merge it's information with other systems might have some collaborative advantage. I guess Merlin could be a site for that. The use of wikis for pathfinders leaves me a bit ambivalent, as I am with wikipedia- the potential is there for a lot of great information to be added, but the policing of accuracy is vitally important in the library field and not to be jeopardized or we lose our credibility. The pathfinder site I looked at required users to register- I don't know to what extent that helps with content integrity. I guess one can connect wikis to social networking sites also, which should increase their visibility.
This seems like an application that will keep growing and adapting.

Thing 15- Library 2.0

Two observations to start out- The same few names seemed to be linked to most of the articles, and I noticed the Technorati tags at the bottom of some of the blogs, which I would not have noticed or paid attention to before Thing 14. I understand Library 2.0 to be about making the library relevant in the current cyberspace environment, particularly the millenials- meaning making library space, real and virtual, more interactive and collaborative, driven by user needs and recognizing that the IT needs to make this happen will make that piece of the public library world more influential than just tech support. I liked the concept of icebergs being the things that get in the way of achieving these goals. I feel that our library system has made great strides in adopting the goals of Librarian 2.0: being more user-centered, changing the culture of the institution to respect and embrace Web 2.0 offerings- becoming a trend spotter. I was particularly struck by the urging that library users should be able to use library resources to do their own mash-ups and remixes of information garnered from our in-person and virtual services. I think an under-appreciated part of changing our in-house culture, however, comes from the the realities we are now facing from severe budget challenges. We have users who are more and more expecting the types of services offered through a library 2.0 perspective, but who have no notion of the costs needed to achieve this transformation-- these same users who take for granted a lot of free information on the web, who have no notion that all this content came from somewhere and got there somehow, with no notion of costs attached or any idea that privacy, authoritative accuracy, rights of authors or artists or newspapers as content providers play any role. The various articles mention the role of libarians in removing barriers to the public in accessing the various content available, but I wonder if part of our role also is to educate people that it's not all about entitlement to information, that there is also some responsibility that goes along with its use (like acknowledging the rights of others in the above-mentioned areas)-
Every exciting opportunity comes with corresponding responsibility, and I ponder what role the library community has in making this connection. My husband and I were both entranced with the Library 4.0 vision of the library as Knowledge spa- we hope that is part of our retirement experience of the library.

Things 14: Technorati

I tried looking at technorati in January and found it was so so slow I couldn't really get around it- turns out they were doing some redesign- so when I tried again this week, it worked just fine- The link for the tour, though, is gone, like in thing 13- so I just took a look around technorati.com I looked at the Directory of blogs by topic, clicking on a few to see what the top sites listed are, I also looked at the popular tags, clicking on some of those to see what blogs came up- Also noted that it is possible to search by blogger, is one knows of a blogger one wants to follow. If I were a blogger, registering on this site would be a useful way for others to keep tabs on what I am doing- If I wanted others to see the tags on my posts from blogspot, if I wanted to share with others doing Learning 2.0 in other organizations, coding my tags would be way for me to share across organizational boundaries. As with the social networking sites, however, I am not up for that. I am having a challenge just keeping up with my colleagues doing 23 things. Again, however, it is good to know that this opportunity exists.

Things #13 Tagging and discover del.icio.us

None of the links for the tutorials for Delicous work anymore unfortunately, so I went to delicious.com and took a long look at the web site- I learned that it is a social bookmarking site, which uses tagging like in Flickr and LibraryThing to categorize links among users- I looked at Fresh (what's new) and the list of Popular bookmarks, following a few of them to see what other people have bookmarked and looked at (there was a good one for making potato chips in the microwave) and how they have tagged their entries. I did a search for a tag of personal interest, Old Mission Peninsula, where I go in the summer- there were 13 entries- posted by real estate agents, bed and breakfast, a topo map for a state park on a sea kayaking webstie, a bicycle tour map and various wineries on the peninsula. the idea of having one site for saving all my bookmarks is an attractive one, and the social aspect of tagging being used to share links with others provides some very interesting searching, as well as the opportunity to interact about the various tags of interest. I m not, however, into social networking, so I decided that once I understood how the site functions that I will not join at this time. I am glad to know that it is there.