Final Exercise: Summarize Thoughts

I have tried out several sites that I know customers are using in the library and at home, and feel more confident that I can discuss these sites with them.  MySpace and Facebook, obviously, but podcasting and flickr and delicious are very common and used by many people.  I have found some great blogs that I am keeping track of, and some sites that I plan to go back to again.  I really found the webinar of Library 2.0 informative and plan to view other webinars in the future.   The idea of making the library experience more interactive, and giving the customers a place to comment and add content, intrigues me.  Children’s departments have done this for years, with the hanging of artwork or tracing around the storytime kids’ hands and cutting them out to use them as the feathers of a Thanksgiving turkey on a bulletin board come to mind.  But to think up ways for others to use the library and think of it as their destination, their third place, is an interesting challenge.

CHUH is doing a lot right on our website, with the blogs, the IM a librarian, and the banners that let viewers know what is going on in the library and community.

Thing 23: Web 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

I was very interested in the Web 2.0 awards, and will indeed go back to check out more of these sites, but for this Thing I clicked on the webinars. I watched Creating the Web 2.0 Library.

Topeka and Shawnee Public Library formed a team to make their library more user friendly and social.  They really thought outside the box when they created the Travel section of their adult nonfiction.  They pulled the books and other materials that a traveller would desire, and placed them all in a special Travel section at the end of their nonfiction.  They kept the Dewey numbers, but placed all the items in a clearly marked section with many books face out.  They had travel bags, so that if a customer wanted items on a particular destination, such as Chicago, they could grab the Chicago bag and check out the several items in the bag that all pertained to Chicago.  This is the user-friendly aspect.  The social aspect is where they got creative.  They handed out a t-shirt with each circulation of the travel bags.  The t-shirts were printed with “I booked my trip at TSPL” and requested the patrons to wear the shirt while getting their photo taken at a famous spot at the location they travelled to, and then these photos are displayed in the travel section back at the library.  They have increased their travel circulation by 10%, and are looking at other special sections in the future.

I do agree that libraries are traditionally set up so that librarians were (and are) needed to help the customers find the items that they desire.  Our challenge is to come up with ideas like these that are interactive, and make the library experience fun, helpful, and a destination.

Thing 22: Podcasts

I have listened to podcasts on the computer and downloaded them to CD for use in the car.  In library school, one of the students did a project on podcasts in which she made a podcast CD for everyone in the class, and made sure to mention that podcasts were free from iTunes.

For this Thing, I tried Podcastalley.  I listened to a couple of podcasts, including Family Anatomy, which sounded sped up so that the psychologists sounded like chipmunks.  Annoying, and got old quickly.

So I browsed some more, and found a plethora of gaming podcasts.  Then I found Barknknit, and listened to Knitting in Public.  I have had a few wonderful conversations with knitters in public places, such as waiting for my daughter at the hairdresser.  And my daughter, who learned to knit this past winter also, is an avid knitter who goes nowhere without her latest project.  So I wanted to know what this podcast had to say about knitting in public. 

First I had to listen to a lot of chatting about how the podcaster has not had a podcast for a long time, due to a list of reasons, and then an advertisement for her knitting website.  I noticed that the rewind button goes to the beginning of the podcast, and I can’t skip just a bit. I did find out how to rewind later, by dragging the marker.  She then discusses her dogs (the bark part of her title), then goes on to her just finished knitting projects. 

Podcasts would be fun to listen to while doing things such as knitting, cleaning, clearing out a closet, activities that don’t take a lot of brain power.

Thing 21: YouTube

I have used YouTube, searching for Chris Bliss juggling to Beatles songs, and Evolution of Dance, and of course Henry singing at the Indians game.  For this Thing, I searched for many library videos, and found the Library Game, reminding me that this link was sent to me by email a couple of years ago.  I did not realize there were so many versions of this game.  I also enjoyed several library storytimes via video.  I also saw a short news clip about Vicki Myron, who wrote about Dewey the library cat.  I have had several requests from customers to place this book on hold.

I also searched for knitting videos, and began watching a woman knit socks.  The camera was not held completely still, which caused some uncomfortable feelings on my part.  Thus I found one of the drawbacks of YouTube: they may look as unprofessional as they are.

Thing 20: Widgets

Upon going to the Yourminis page, I see in the Recent News column that yourminis startpage link has been removed, and the startpage itself will be closing on October 27.  Hmmm.  Today is October 25.  Let’s see if I can get this to work.

First I browsed the widgets, and like the weather.  I would like to have the current weather placed here, but with the startpage link gone and only four (4) more days in which to finish my 23 Things, I am taking the easy way out and trying to add it to my facebook page.  I see a very convenient link to add it to facebook, so here we go.  I did try to add it here, but just got the code, not the widget.

I viewed this post, and when I clicked the link I got a message that the widget is no longer available.  I also notice that only a fraction of the link is highlighted like a link.  Perhaps I will try again later.

Thing 19: Web 2.0 Awards

Intrigued by the choices of going to the complete list or the short list, I decided to peek at the complete list to see just how many there were.  Over 300, whittled down to 174 in 41 catergories, it turns out.  This is the list from 2008.  Browsing through the categories, I was drawn to food.

I looked at Im Cooked, and after watching a couple of videos of people heating up and enjoying a chocolate fondue outside on a brisk February day and a man making Kung Pao chicken, I decided to take a look at the Most Discussed items.  I spent an enjoyable 9  minutes watching Paul McCartney making mashed potatoes, and sent the link to several Beatles fans I know.

I also looked at the Groups, but there were only 7, so went on to check out Channels.  Interestingly, here several of the channels, such as Veggie/Vegetarian and Cheese and Dairy had 1728 groups, not sure what that means.

This was enjoyable and educational, and could really be a help for someone who wants to discuss food with other like-minded people, or who desire to learn how to make a new dish.

Thing 18: Online Calendars, Organizers, and To-Do Lists

Now we’re talking!  I was able to add my favorites to my.yahoo page, and can add RSS feedsto my.yahoo as well.  Now I can have  easy access to the links that I have bookmarked, no matter if I am using my laptop or not.  And they are conveniently located on my email page, where I begin most of my personal internet time anyway.

Next I activated the Yahoo calendar, and added my husband as a special friend who can not only view the entries, but can also edit them.  I put in the big events for the school year, so that both of us can try to schedule around our children’s orchestra concerts and such.  I emailed him the link, and asked him to enter the date of his next business trip.

Finally, I looked at zamzar.  What a great site!  At a previous job I had more than one patron create a document at another site, and later come to my branch to print it out, only to find that we did not have the correct software.  If only I had known about zamzar then, I would have made these people very happy!

Thing 17: Tagging and Del.icio.us

I have many sites bookmarked on my laptop.  This does not help me when I am at work and I can’t remember the site, which just happened today.  Del.icio.us seems like it would be very helpful at work, especially since we share computers.  I only have to look up del.icio.us to have all sites at my disposal.

I began by looking at the tags, and clicking on library. I added 12 bookmarks, including ala.org, Nancy Pearl’s booktalks, and a library blog.

Next, I added all of my existing bookmarks. I spent some time adding tags to the ones that will really help me in library work.  This took quite a while, but will be very helpful to me when I am searching for the right blog or website. I notice that if I have delicious open when I open another internet window, the delicious buttons are right there and I can add the new site to the bookmarks or add tags.  Very convenient.  I also played with displaying my current bookmarks in several ways, such as last added and alphabetically.  By site makes more sense to me, as that is how I find them now on my laptop.  I’m pretty excited about this delicious site!

Thing 16: Social Networking

I created an account in WebJuncion and Facebook. I also explored a couple of the other social networking sites, including MySpace and Ning.  I see there are lots of library Nings.
The first time I heard about MySpace I was in class in library school, chatting with other students while waiting for the class to begin.  One of the other students mentioned that she had just looked at her teenage son’s MySpace page and she was going to inform him that he needed to remove a photo.  Another student and I simultaneously said, “What’s MySpace”?  Little did I know that I would hear so much more about MySpace in the years to come.

I signed up for WebJunction since it is for libraries in Ohio.  It will be interesting to see if this is helpful to me in my career.

I signed up for Facebook, since I have been invited to be a ‘friend’ to a friend who was sending out periodic emails to friends and family with photos of her young child, and she decided to use Facebook instead.  I noticed that was given the opportunity to look through what I assume is her friends list, because I found her siblings and her inlaws. 

I know of supervisors who have looked up prospective employees on MySpace and Facebook.  I have told my teenage children that they need to watch what they put online, for many reasons.

Thing 15: Social Media Sites

First tried Digg.  I saw a satirical video from YouTube on how boring the Wii Fit is.  This is definitely the point of view of my teen age son, who claims that Wii is now trying to create games for every age but his.  I also looked at a website from a pumpkin carver who makes amazing 3D jack-o-lanterns.  While admiring his skill, I had to wonder why anyone would take the time to create such intricate pumpkins that will rot in a few days.  I also glanced through the Science and World & Business sections.  I tried to Digg, but am not logged in so it did not count. 

At first glance, the headlines on Redditt read like the supermarket tabloids: Woman Gets On Wrong Bus, Gets Lost For 25 years?  Redditt also had a link to a 3D pumpkin, with a very colorful headline, but no information as to who carved it or how to do it yourself.  So far, Digg gets a higher score in my book.

Newsvine has a post in which a writer is wondering if it is time to have a thumb’s down option to the voting.  Apparently, right now a vote is a positive, and their is no negative votes.  One can indeed make a comment, separately from a vote.  Interesting.

Mixx has a local section, and of course I clicked on it.  I put in the Cleveland Heights zip code, and came up with several blog posts about franchising, a couple about the latest Brown’s loss, and a notice about the 25th anniversary of the “A Christmas Story” movie. 

Stumbleupon: I was immediately intriqued by the thumbnails of the people who liked the items that I was choosing.  I clicked on a few of the the photos, and read their profiles.  This seems like a great way for people with a lot of time to converse about their common interests.