First, thanks to the Web Challenge team for putting this together. It seems like it was a lot of work, and you did a terrific job!
What I liked best: It's hard to pick one thing... so many of them are useful and fun. In my own life, I read and subscribe to lots of blogs, subscribe to podcasts and listen while I'm exercising or walking, use Remember the Milk to organize my home life, Basecamp to manage projects and Google Docs for collaboration.
What I liked least: There weren't any tools in the challenge that I didn't like at all. I did notice that the library-specific tools that we subscribe to (NetLibrary, Overdrive) are probably the least user-friendly of anything we tried. WorldCat is the exception. I wish LibraryThing had better organization features.
Thoughts on Web 2.0 in the Library: There are probably dozens of ways we could use these tools in the library, both for the public and for staff. I will say this: there has been a lot of hype about Web 2.0 in the library world (and beyond). As with any technology, I think we should first focus on the need: what task are we trying to do? What do we need to do faster, better, etc.? Then we can pick the right technology to do the job - not the other way around!
Enough said - I hope we continue to play and experiment, and carry this attitude into our daily work!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Thing #22: ListenNJ
I downloaded Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It went very smoothly. I will probably burn it to a CD and listen to it in my car.I did try out this service when we first got it. I was pretty excited about it, but the selection at that time was really poor. I haven't used it since then. Until today! I'm glad I did find a book I'd been wanting to read.
Thing #21: Crazy wine podcast
There's a podcast (actually a vodcast) called WineLibrary TV. Its creator is a wine merchant at a store in South Jersey called Wine Library (you can read more about him here).This guy is really energetic - he loves his wine. It's pretty educational - you could learn a lot about wine this way. But he's just so prolific, I think I'd find him hard to keep up with. He does several 15-20-minute episodes each week. But it's fun. And quite well-known: he's been on Conan O'Brien and the Ellen Degeneres show, among others.
Thing #20: Rescued Kittens on YouTube
Mostly I like to use YouTube to watch cute videos of animals. Funny things, too. Perhaps I should make it a goal to use it for productive, educational purposes. Nah...
Here a reporter rescues a kitten who survived the earthquake in China.
Thing #19: I'd like to try Yahoo! Pipes
I watched a demo on how to use Yahoo! Pipes. This tool lets you re-mix or mash-up content from around the web. So, for instance, you can take an existing RSS feed and tweek it. In the example, the Yahoo! Sports feed was filtered so that it only delivered stories on tennis or football. That's a simple example, but it looks like there are all kinds of interesting things you could do with this tool. One idea is to embed RSS feeds or maybe Flickr photos in our web pages while filtering out content we may not want displayed, or don't find useful for our customers.
Things #18: Google Docs
I've used Google Docs here at work before for writing reports collaboratively. It's better than using traditional word documents for so many reasons: multiple people can edit at once without fear of losing work, a history of changes can be viewed easily (as opposed to Word's Track Changes, which can be confusing), and, best of all - no emailing back and forth! No crazy filenames like document_version1_revisionsbyJA_update2.doc! This is a true timesaver.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Thing #17: Using PBWiki
PBWiki has steadily become more user-friendly - you used to have to use some coding, and that pretty much ruled out use by lots of people. There may be easier wiki tools out there, and Google Sites has some interesting potential. But overall, I like it very much.
There are lots of uses for wikis at work. We are collaborating all the time, and spending a lot of time emailing documents back and forth, and probably losing track of them. Departmental wikis are a great way to keep track of happenings and documents within a department. Hopefully our next iteration of OceanNet will have collaboration features similar to wikis - this is definitely the trend in corporate intranets.
There are lots of uses for wikis at work. We are collaborating all the time, and spending a lot of time emailing documents back and forth, and probably losing track of them. Departmental wikis are a great way to keep track of happenings and documents within a department. Hopefully our next iteration of OceanNet will have collaboration features similar to wikis - this is definitely the trend in corporate intranets.
Thing #16: Wanna wiki?
I checked out the Library Success wiki - I used to visit this wiki every so often, but it's been a long time. I discovered something cool - some examples of successful website redesigns, with descriptions of the process. I find this kind of thing very helpful. Why work in a vacuum?
I think wikis are a great tool. And like any tool, they have appropriate uses and not-so-appropriate uses. They are really for collaboration. So if you want to post information, but don't expect several other people to contribute, a traditional web page is probably best. If you want to post thoughts on a topic, but want to be the sole voice, a blog is really better. And if you are going to collaborate, a big user base is key. Wikipedia is generally successful because the user community is so huge that it can be self-policing. But if the library were to start its own public wiki, for example, we could not expect a user base of that size - we'd have to watch content carefully ourselves.
I think wikis are a great tool. And like any tool, they have appropriate uses and not-so-appropriate uses. They are really for collaboration. So if you want to post information, but don't expect several other people to contribute, a traditional web page is probably best. If you want to post thoughts on a topic, but want to be the sole voice, a blog is really better. And if you are going to collaborate, a big user base is key. Wikipedia is generally successful because the user community is so huge that it can be self-policing. But if the library were to start its own public wiki, for example, we could not expect a user base of that size - we'd have to watch content carefully ourselves.
Thing #15: Library 2.0
My take on Libraries and "2.0" in a nutshell:
What about Library 1.0? I think most of us in LibraryLand have skipped a step. In the 1990s and early 2000s, companies and other organizations were scrambling to get themselves "on the net." They engaged in earnest web development that has gone through many phases and has become something clean, simple and user-generated, in many cases. Very few libraries invested this kind of energy in their web presences.
Libraries have been online for many decades, with our catalogs and databases, and we should be proud of that. These tools, however, are based on outmoded technologies (MARC, having to choose an index to search, for example). Search engines came along and made web search into an entirely different beast, and until library technology catches up to web technology, our products are going to function and feel clumsy and confusing.
So yes, there are many ways to apply Web 2.0 tools to libraries in fun and productive ways. But we also need to work on our core systems and get them to a point where they can interact with the rest of the web world in ways users can grasp. They can't herald our fabulous resources if they can't find them!
What about Library 1.0? I think most of us in LibraryLand have skipped a step. In the 1990s and early 2000s, companies and other organizations were scrambling to get themselves "on the net." They engaged in earnest web development that has gone through many phases and has become something clean, simple and user-generated, in many cases. Very few libraries invested this kind of energy in their web presences.
Libraries have been online for many decades, with our catalogs and databases, and we should be proud of that. These tools, however, are based on outmoded technologies (MARC, having to choose an index to search, for example). Search engines came along and made web search into an entirely different beast, and until library technology catches up to web technology, our products are going to function and feel clumsy and confusing.
So yes, there are many ways to apply Web 2.0 tools to libraries in fun and productive ways. But we also need to work on our core systems and get them to a point where they can interact with the rest of the web world in ways users can grasp. They can't herald our fabulous resources if they can't find them!
Thing #14: Technorati
I wrote a bit about Technorati's stats in Thing #9 on finding feeds. I'll just add some interesting tidbits I found:
- The #13 search was in Arabic
- I can't believe ICQ is #1... I didn't think people still used that... I'm assuming it's the chat service, but I can't check because the link is broken
- Fox News is joking about Obama getting killed.. and calling him Osama... in the same breath
- In searching "Learning 2.0" I came across the concept of Edupunk - that was cool
Thing #13: del.icio.us.ly sim.ple
I hardly keep any bookmarks in by browser favorites since I started storing them online. I started using Furl some years ago and just recently made the switch to del.icio.us (it is kind of a pain to migrate bookmarks over, so I was avoiding it). Actually, the experience of doing that was funny - it was interesting to see what I found important enough to save years ago - especially if it seems totally insignificant now.
I appreciate the functions of del.icio.us - it seems targeted toward librarian- or other geek-types who like to organize things. I do think that Furl and some of other bookmarking tools are more fun to use - better graphics, buttons, layout, etc. But I see a lot of potential with del.icio.us, especially since we can take content from a del.icio.us account and plop it onto one of our web pages (so the plainness of del.icio.us won't matter). In fact, that is part of our plan with OCL Labs...
OPTIONAL EXERCISE: This is the del.icio.us page that we share in Web Services - Katelyn actually created it. This is my old Furl page (though I guess I didn't make much public - there are only three websites in the public view).
I appreciate the functions of del.icio.us - it seems targeted toward librarian- or other geek-types who like to organize things. I do think that Furl and some of other bookmarking tools are more fun to use - better graphics, buttons, layout, etc. But I see a lot of potential with del.icio.us, especially since we can take content from a del.icio.us account and plop it onto one of our web pages (so the plainness of del.icio.us won't matter). In fact, that is part of our plan with OCL Labs...
OPTIONAL EXERCISE: This is the del.icio.us page that we share in Web Services - Katelyn actually created it. This is my old Furl page (though I guess I didn't make much public - there are only three websites in the public view).
Thing #12: NetLibrary is not the bomb, but WorldCat kind of is
It's great that we have a collection of books online, but I can't really see people using this for pleasure reading. I have used it myself when I need an answer to a technical question. In this context, clicking through panes of text and viewing them in ugly font for a few paragraphs at a time is ok - if I find the answer, I don't care. But I couldn't imagine reading more than a page or two like this.
The other issue is the content itself. I got a lot of strange results - why should a book on resume writing result from a search on ASP.NET (a web programming language)? In the several searches I did on web technologies, there were only one or two books available from within the last 4 or 5 years (I wouldn't consider one older than that for tech purposes).
NetLibrary might be better if they decided on a strength and build on it.
I searched for The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters in WorldCat. It came up second in the results - not sure why. WorldCat guesses the Bayville zip code for my location - it has always done this - also not sure why. But OCL still comes up as the first library owning the title.
WorldCat has a clean, appealing interface. I think it's a much better interface for finding materials than most any traditional OPAC. I like the interactivity features, but I wonder if anyone uses them... I have never seen any user reviews on WorldCat. As a librarian, I see the usefulness of this tool, but I'm not sure the average library user would agree... it's yet another interface for them to learn. But I do hope that staff take advantage of this resource - it would definitely help fill out the request form.
The other issue is the content itself. I got a lot of strange results - why should a book on resume writing result from a search on ASP.NET (a web programming language)? In the several searches I did on web technologies, there were only one or two books available from within the last 4 or 5 years (I wouldn't consider one older than that for tech purposes).
NetLibrary might be better if they decided on a strength and build on it.
I searched for The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters in WorldCat. It came up second in the results - not sure why. WorldCat guesses the Bayville zip code for my location - it has always done this - also not sure why. But OCL still comes up as the first library owning the title.
WorldCat has a clean, appealing interface. I think it's a much better interface for finding materials than most any traditional OPAC. I like the interactivity features, but I wonder if anyone uses them... I have never seen any user reviews on WorldCat. As a librarian, I see the usefulness of this tool, but I'm not sure the average library user would agree... it's yet another interface for them to learn. But I do hope that staff take advantage of this resource - it would definitely help fill out the request form.
Thing #11: That Library Thing
Here's my little Library Thing catalog. I was very excited about LT when I first started using it, but I find I haven't added anything to it in a long time. I find all the social features interesting, and there's some terrific tagging, but that doesn't really meet my needs. What I really want to do is track my own reading and organize my books. I want to keep lists of what I own, what I have read, what I want to read, and what I've borrowed from a library, and LT doesn't really allow for separate lists, as far as I know. I know, I could create separate accounts, but that's a hassle. I would like to be able to keep a reading diary as well, but I don't really want to share it - my reading is kind of personal to me.
I'm still excited about LT, and I'll watch to see how it develops. And there are certainly interesting uses for libraries - we'll see about LT for Libraries when we get the new ILS, I hope.
I'm still excited about LT, and I'll watch to see how it develops. And there are certainly interesting uses for libraries - we'll see about LT for Libraries when we get the new ILS, I hope.
Thing# 10: The Internet Typology Quiz
This is kind of old, but I just came across it, so it's new to me! The Pew Internet & American Life Project does all kinds of research into how people use technology. They produced a report called "A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users" in which they categories technology use into several different types. You can find a description of the types on page 3 of the report.
I took the quiz to determine which type I am. I am an "omnivore," which is the most tech-absorbed type. Though I beg to differ. I think I am one category lower, a "connector." The questions ask if you've ever done this, or ever tried that. There are lots of technologies that I've tried, just to see what they're about, but I don't necessarily use them all the time. To be honest, since I spend each workday steeped in technology, I tend to go home and do analog things, like go outside and cook and hang out with my husband. And that's the way I like it!
I took the quiz to determine which type I am. I am an "omnivore," which is the most tech-absorbed type. Though I beg to differ. I think I am one category lower, a "connector." The questions ask if you've ever done this, or ever tried that. There are lots of technologies that I've tried, just to see what they're about, but I don't necessarily use them all the time. To be honest, since I spend each workday steeped in technology, I tend to go home and do analog things, like go outside and cook and hang out with my husband. And that's the way I like it!
Thing #9: Finding Feeds is Fun
I usually subscribe to feeds simply by looking for them on websites I come across. This is the method that I am most comfortable with - I don't need to seek out more information to track - it seems to find me just fine! Sometimes I will do a search within Bloglines, choosing Search for Feeds from the drop-down menu.
I do like poking around on Technorati from time to time to check out their neat statistics. I like to see what the top 100 blogs are - it's interesting to me that it's mostly politics and tech stuff on top of the list. You can also see top tags and rising posts for each day at Blogger Central. People still car about Lindsay Lohan?
I do like poking around on Technorati from time to time to check out their neat statistics. I like to see what the top 100 blogs are - it's interesting to me that it's mostly politics and tech stuff on top of the list. You can also see top tags and rising posts for each day at Blogger Central. People still car about Lindsay Lohan?
Thing #8: Bloglines is the bomb
I have been using Bloglines for a few years now. I check it everyday, after checking email. If you don't do a lot of reading online, RSS probably doesn't make much sense. But if you do read online as part of your daily routine, RSS makes it so much simpler.
The thing I like best about Bloglines (or any RSS reader) is that I can easily digest mountains of information on all kinds of topics - work, world news, hobbies, friends' blogs. Posts definitely build up fast, but I can take them or leave them - an RSS reader makes it easy to skip over material I don't really care about on that particular day. And I don't feel badly about that!
It's really helped me to keep up with developments in the world of library technology, especially. Anytime I need to learn more about something (right now it's intranet management products, for example), I find some blogs (or sites with feeds) and subscribe to them. I'll start learning about the subject with very little time investment.
If you read online at least a few times a week, I can't recommend this enough!
The thing I like best about Bloglines (or any RSS reader) is that I can easily digest mountains of information on all kinds of topics - work, world news, hobbies, friends' blogs. Posts definitely build up fast, but I can take them or leave them - an RSS reader makes it easy to skip over material I don't really care about on that particular day. And I don't feel badly about that!
It's really helped me to keep up with developments in the world of library technology, especially. Anytime I need to learn more about something (right now it's intranet management products, for example), I find some blogs (or sites with feeds) and subscribe to them. I'll start learning about the subject with very little time investment.
If you read online at least a few times a week, I can't recommend this enough!
Thing #6: Kate and Barcode
This picture was taken using my phone's camera. I already sync my phone with computer every day, so getting the photo off the phone was a snap. Fortunately it was a nice day and Kate and I could explore outside. Bonus!
Thing #5: Two clicks of separation
This is a photo by John Faherty of the beach at Anse Cochon, St. Lucia. Who is John Faherty? I have no clue. But my husband and I took a trip to St. Lucia in February and stayed at a resort called Ti Kaye. I had tagged my photos from the resort with the name Ti Kaye. I clicked on my tag, and there was an option to see any flickr photos tagged the same way. John Faherty's photo was one of them. So there you have it - some other person, from some other place, who spent time on the very same small beach in the Caribbean that I did - and posted the photos on flickr!
Thing #3: Habits easy and hard
The lifelong learning habits are all noble goals. I think the easiest one for me will be #6: Use Technology to Your Advantage. I am comfortable with most any web-based technology. Actually, a cool web tool will motivate me to work on something I wouldn't otherwise be inclined to do!
The hardest habit will be #3: View Problems as Challenges. I know that for me, an obstacle will make be turn away from a task, at least temporarily. I'll try to approach any obstacles I face here with the mindset that they are just part of the process.
The hardest habit will be #3: View Problems as Challenges. I know that for me, an obstacle will make be turn away from a task, at least temporarily. I'll try to approach any obstacles I face here with the mindset that they are just part of the process.
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