Relax and reflect

This was really a great program and I am so glad it has been offered. While most of the topics have been part of my Web life for quite some time, it is always good to look at things fresh and I did use a few tools that I don't use much but were good to play around with such as IM.

The best part of this program is that we have a whole community of staff who are familiar with the terms and the tools and as we continue to offer these services on our Web site and Intranet they are now familiar to staff.

I think it is wonderful that Sno-Isle has supported this exploration into the brave new web world.

Perhaps we'll have a Web 2.5 or Web 3. in a year or so? There will be a whole new load of applications by then, so get ready!

Gaming

This is a dangerous area for me as I can easily become addicted to computer games. I love math games and quick reaction skill games as well as hunt and find games. I haven't done much online collaborative gaming, but I can certainly see the attraction in it.

I think there is loads of learning potential in gaming that could be applied to work situations. I could see many situations where it would be great to have a game that could teach staff how to do different tasks and maybe even work collaboratively on them, but it would require development to make a game for our specific types of jobs.

I think it is also important to take into consideration the fact that a whole generation of gamers are growing up with different expectations and we need to keep that in mind as we develop services.

Maps and Geotagging

I love google earth. It is one of the most amazing applications on the web and I think has even more potential than I realize just yet. Google street view is pretty cool also.

I once saw a map where someone had geotagged all of the Sno-Isle Libraries. I can't find it any more, but it is a nice idea. One of the things I have noticed about Library Web sites is that it is not always clear where on earth they are. They give their name of course, but it is often a county or city and it is hard to tell what state they are in. I think it would be nice to have a geotagged google map on library pages.

Testing a widget for book display

I am using this blog to test something that is in development.

Avatars and Second life

Avatars are a great alternative to allow people to express themselves in ways that photos can't. They are fun to make and fun to look at. Since so many Web 2.0 networking sites ask for images, an avatar is great alternative.

It is so interesting how Second Life has developed and matured. It is great that librarians were early adopters and have such an established presence. It is excellent outreach for libraries and librarians. I personally don't participate as it is time consuming and not an area I can focus on right now, but I can see where there is a need for virtual librarians to actively participate and maintain the presence.

Online Apps Lesson 16

I have been using Google Docs for a long time for both personal and some work documents. I love it. Since I use a personal linux laptop that is very small and has very little storage capability to keep it lightweight, I rely on Google Docs to access my work no matter where I am. My only concern is losing data, but so far it has been extrememly reliable and I always back up my work anyway.

I used both Google Docs and Zoho last summer when working on a joint conference presentation with people at the Denver Public Library. It worked really well when we were putting the info together, but just before we were ready to give the presentation, Zoho lost some of the data. We were able to quickly recreate the work in PowerPoint. I think Zoho is fine for collaborative work, but it was a good reminder to me to back up work.

Search Engines Lesson 15

It is true that 9 times out of 10 I use google and usually get results that I need. It is great to have alternatives out there when I either don't see what I want in google results or I want to do an extensive, thorough search.

Rollyo, Mamma and dogpile give good results and I would use in situations where I want to make sure I capture as much as possible, but I probably wouldn't use them on a daily basis. I think the issue is time more than anything. As long as I find what I need with google, then that is sufficient and I don't need to spend time any place else. It is in the cases where I want to spend time and do deep research that I would use the other options.

Podcasting

As you will see from the list below of the podcasts I subscribe to (and this isn't all of them) I am a podcast addict and I have been for years. This is the way I get most of my audio and video news now, but I also enjoy them for the entertainment as well. It does require some regular daily maintenance, but they are well worth it.

I don't listen to many specifically library related podcasts except for talking with Talis --good interviews with industry leaders and I used to listen to library geeks, but I haven't for awhile as I don't think they podcast as often as they used to.

I think there is absolutely a role for Sno-Isle Libraries. I was surprised to see that our own podcasts were not listed as an example for staff in the course blog or just mentioned to bring about awareness that we have them. I think our storytimes are worthwhile, but I feel there is much more content that we already create that could be recorded both for public and internal purposes. Having information in audio or video format is always a good alternative.

Some of the already produced podcasts such as Writers' Almanac, Book Reviews and NPRs Books would be topics that our users would be interested in.

talking with talis
top 5 from cnet
this week in tech
this american life
PRI's the world technology podcast
Open source
One minute Irish
Thistlepod with Fiona Ritchie
NPR -- talk of the nation
-- fresh air
-- pop culture
-- books
Newspod from BBC
Newshour with Jim Lehrer
net at night
library geeks
La revue de presse
diggnation
CBC vinyl cafe
Buzz out loud
book review
boagworld.com web design
BBC history magazine
Splendid Table
APM Marketplace
The Writers Almanac
APM Future Tense

Image Generators

Fun, easy and could have useful applications. I had used these a couple of years ago when I first started seeing these type of services created but I hadn't been back to see what was still available. They have taken it quite a bit further, with more options and easier to use. More commercial than they used to be, but I guess they have to pay for their time of making it available.

SIL Downloadable Books

I think this is a wonderful service and I am really, really looking forward to when they make it available for Ipods. I hope it will be the entire collection and not just some titles. I am very satisfied right now with the selection but I don't use it that much since I use an Ipod.

I had problems getting the book to download to the player I installed on a staff machine. However, I have used it at home and it works just fine. I think it does take a little effort to learn and for people who do not like to read directions and are not completely comfortable with downloading. It would be nice if it were just a little easier. I love the Ipod method of dragging into playlists and syncing. However, I am just glad that we have this product and that it is expanding and more and more people are using it.

Del.icio.us

I have been using Del.icio.us almost since its inception. I first found many uses for it for my personal information, then saw the potential it could have for libraries. Eventually, I think it would be useful for us to have our Web site links on our www.sno-isle.org organized in this way, but for now our web site links are in a searchable database. If we can find a better way to incorporate Del.icio.us I think it could offer us a lot of advantages.

I can see where the best potential right now is for librarians, techs and other staff to collaborate and organize links that are useful to them in their daily work. I don't think we have begun to tap the value of this tool. I'm so glad to see it be a part of this program.

Wikis

I like wikis when used for the right purpose. Whereever there is collaborative work going on and you want to keep the topics organized and be able to track edits they can work very well. They are good for both short term projects that have an ending and long term projects that are constantly evolving.

I think the conference wiki is a great idea to help people navigate around and meet up. We had a wiki for the Sno-Isle Web Advisory Team that I started mostly just to try out the tool and give others a chance to try it as well, but it has not been updated much since the team is not actively engaged. It has great potential though for this kind of project.

I also used a wiki on a collaborative presentation I was giving in Denver with staff working there and it was a successful effort. We had deadlines and motivation so this really help us keep the wiki active.

YouTubing

I did a search for European Libraries on YouTube and found some interesting things. For instance, the European Library itself introduces it's staff by a video of the staff playing foosball. Another video is about a library in Prague digitizing original historical works and how that is different from normal scanning.

The variety and depth of information found on YouTube is incredible and the success is really in how many people have contributed to it and taken the time to do that. Many of the videos would be enhanced if they backed off the cheesy digital music a little bit, but otherwise YouTube is a goldmine of information.

Hulu is a good start if someone is looking for a movie to watch. Both Hulu and Fancast has a good variety of TV shows and seem to be similar. I think these are important for libraries to know about as a resource for users -- to refer them to the sites, especially if someone is interested in films or is disappointed on a Sat. afternoon that they can't find a movie to check out.

MySpace

One thing learned -- I must always remember to copy text when I post before hitting publish or save because due to whatever computer malfunction occured, I have lost a post in transmission.

I don't think MySpace is the most intuitive thing to use, but once set up it is a great way to keep in touch and meet up. I created my page, but don't have the time today to work through all the settings that need to make it work correctly. I'll get back to it. I can see where a person could spend an incredible amount of time messing around with it, but it is fun.

Irish Trad. Music Archive Dublin

Irish Trad. Music Archive Dublin
Originally uploaded by eggyolk

This is a photo of the front door of the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin, Ireland where I worked for a time cataloging music. Having a little problem with uploading photo. I granted access so blogger could access my Flickr photos, so I'll have to do a little more work on this to figure out what step I missed. I figured it out -- too easy!

Bibliotech de St Tropez

Bibliotech de St Tropez
Originally uploaded by eggyolk

Trying a different route for posting Flickr photos to my blog. This time I think it will work. I took this photo a couple years ago outside of a library in the south of France.

Lesson 6 Streaming music

I signed up for the Alexander Street streaming music on our Web site. This is so easy to use and has such great music. I really like the folk module as it has obscure tunes that are hard to find. I love being able to create my own custom list by song. Usually on full CDs there are a few tracks I don't like so customizing is the way to go.

I probably wouldn't ever use this at work as I would be distracted, but it is great at home.

RSS feeds

I have been using google's RSS feed for maybe a year? However, I don't really check it too often. Mostly I use it to test Sno-Isle RSS feeds to make sure they are working OK so I only check it when I'm in a testing phase or once in awhile.

I also have a personal Igoogle page set up that I use on a daily basis at home and this has been the best place for me to view my favorite RSS feeds.

What I really like is to add the RSS feeds to my blog. This is where I would go more often and see the posts of my favorites. I've added Shifted Librarian, Del.icio.us, Digg and Life of Leo, Leo Laporte's blog, the guy that does This week in Tech podcast among many others.

My problem is there are too many feeds I'd like to have and not enough time or space to view them all. It is a great service and one of the best features of Web 2.0. We are working on improving our RSS page for the Sno-Isle Web site as we speak.

Lesson 4 continued IM

OK, after numerous attempts to catch up, I finally turned off my email and found a buddy to chat with. I have never used GoogleTalk and I think it is great. It took a moment or two to get used to since I do email non-stop I expected it to be something more like that. I really like the informality of the chat and can see where it could really be useful.

For most of my work though, I like email since I can save my emails to followup on and refer to. That is the only drawback of IM. Or maybe it is actually the great thing about it. I think there is a time and place for both.

I haven't found a buddy yet

It's Friday afternoon, raining hard and I can't find any buddies to IM. I don't feel bad though because I will find my buddies next week and it might even be sunshining by then!

Clever blog names

I looked down through the list of what everyone named their blogs and I thought "Wow, what a group of creative thinkers!" It was fun just reading that list and many of the blog titles sparked my interest to want to read their blog.

This program is really well put together. So far, it has been easy and fun and it is so cool to see so many participating. So keeping on my theme of jibber jabbering and asking questions that may or may not have been asked of me at one time or another on the reference desk, here is my next one: Is it true horses can sing? Here is the unofficial answer:

http://svt.se/hogafflahage/hogafflaHage_site/Kor/hestekor.swf

Oops, I guess everyone will read this

I just realized that everyone in our Web 2.0 class will be reading what I write! Well if nothing else, maybe someone will have the answers to my questions and will comment on my blog.

First jibberjabber

This blog is titled jibberjabber because it is what I will be doing. Most of what I say will be of interest to only me and those who want to know my deepest darkest thoughts but will promise to keep them secret and not publish on the Interent. Actually, these are the type of thoughts that led me to be a librarian -- I wanted to find the answers, so I went to the library and never came out.

First deep, dark secret thought:

Do crows all fly in the same direction at night when they go to roost? I have observed that they all seem to fly east, but is this a truth or just my own limited geographical observation?