Thoughts on 23 Things

Overall, I enjoyed learning about all the new 'things' of Web 2.0. While it may not directly help me with my customers, who mostly are into 'My Space', it gives me a broad base of understanding of what is actually out there. Most people that I know outside of the library field have never heard of wikis, blogs, & other cute little technie things, so I feel like I've gained some arcane knowledge of the future of the Internet.
In particular, I found that I could actually use what I learned about online bookmarking and office applications. Very practical. However, most of the 23 Things were simply recreational and only appealed to my intellectual curiosity.
One major drawback to learning the 23 Things is that the instructions to accomplishing a particular challenge were not broken down into the smallest incremental steps. It presumed that the user had some knowledge of the process and could learn intuitively. You should always start with the basics and build, bit by bit, from that point. No step should be considered insignificant. Then the student can be successful and feel good about the project.

Downloadable Audible Books

I can tell you right away that I can't stand 'Overdrive'. It is ridiculous to offer a downloadable book service with so little selection and so few copies that you end up with a waiting list on all the bestsellers. You might as well just come into the library and check out the same books on CD. You could also get on their waiting lists and perhaps get them sooner. And, to add insult to injury, you can't download them from library computers. You need an 'Overdrive' station. Finally, if you you do find something that you want to listen to, you have to download special software. It's very laborious.
'Net Library' is, simply put, a superior product, but, alas, much pricier. 'Project Gutenberg' has promise, but at the present all it offers are a few tired, old public domain books. It's of limited use. 'World eBook Fair' won 'hands down' in overall quality and selection, but then it is paid for directly by the consumer and not by institutions. It doesn't fit the model of 'free' public library offerings. Perhaps, this is one of those situations where you should pay your money 'up front'. It would simplify life.

Podcasts

I don't find podcasts very interesting, because I don't 'listen well'. I just don't enjoy it. I am a visual person. As a result, I prefer reading. However, reading looks like a 'lost' pleasure. So many people want to 'read' their books on CD or tape. These are the folks who would adapt very well to the world of audible podcasts.
Of course, there are exceptions. I love Garrison Keillor's deadpan sense of humor on 'Prairie Home Companion' on PBS radio, and since that is available as a podcast I added it to my Bloglines Reader. It will be good as a chuckle. http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/podcasts/xml/prairie_home_companion/news_from_lake_wobegon.xml
I found http://www.podcast.net/ difficult to use. http://www.podcastalley.com/ & http://podcasts.yahoo.com/ were much more 'user-friendly'.

Scottish Fold

'You Tube' is fun to look at when you have nothing better to do. I love looking at videos and pictures of cute cats. I like this one in particular.

Web 2.0 Awards

Map search engines have come a long way with http://www.wayfaring.com/. You can create personalized maps. However, I will point out that it is a little difficult to manipulate and somewhat frustrating. For example, at first it told me that Leonardtown, MD didn't exist. It's an exciting promise of what map search engines might become, but it has to become a little more 'user-friendly'.
A lot of award winners were interesting, but they fell into 2 categories, either strictly recreational or serious IT professional. Very few were appropriate to the public library environment.

Online productivity tools

I love the whole concept of online office applications, because that means you can easily access and work on your documents anywhere you have an Internet connection. No more floppies, CD's or zip drives! This is analogous to going from land line telephones to cell phone technology. I've tried Zoho Writer which seems easier to use than Microsoft Office. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I've checked out Google Docs & Spreadsheets, which seems to be a 'bread and butter' type application and not have as many functions as Zoho. However, you can integrate it into a personalized iGoogle page which is a major advantage if Google is your home page.
The next thing that I am going to look into is publishing from both programs. Which is easier, and which is better?

Sandbox Wiki

Sandbox Wiki is supposed to be fun? I don't think so. I've registered, which is easy enough. I could even add it to 'Favorites Blog' page. However, when it came to making the link work, I spent over an hour, probably close to two, going around in circles, trying to locate what I was doing wrong.
It finally worked, but I have no idea how it happened.

Wikis

The whole concept of 'wikis' is rather mind boggling. Anybody can edit anything, and that means no control, no quality assurance, and no limits to the kind of information you can find. The plus side of wikis is freedom; the negative side is anarchy. It truly is like the Wild West.
Since I do like to read books, I enjoyed looking at 'Book Lovers Wiki' developed by Princeton Public Library. I like to see what other communities are reading. It's usually different from your own, and you can get a lot of good suggestions that you wouldn't have otherwise. And it goes without saying that our library system could use this successfully.
Also, yousendit.com looks intriguing. You can send large files (up to 100 mb) to an e-mail account. I suppose that you better hope that the e-mail account in question can handle it.

The Future of Libraries

Libraries have to adapt to customer-initated changes, or they will not survive. Already, I can see a shift away from the demand for a 'brick & mortar' library to a 'virtual' library. Customers are using book collections less and less. Judging by the number of reference questions that I get in information service, and, yes, the numbers have decreased over the decade, I have to conclude our customers are getting their information from 'somewhere else' and that 'somewhere else' must be the Internet. I spend more time helping the customer with technological issues than finding information.
Our library websites must be highly visible, easy to use information portals. As our customers become more educated about online resources, the demand will increase.
For Die-Hard Book readers: One interesting suggestion is to adopt a 'NetFlix' model for lending books. The customer builds a reading list, and the materials are sent by 'snail mail' with a return envelope. It's just an idea, but an intriguing one.
It's very difficult to speculate about the future of libraries since the changes are occurring so quickly. By the time you have absorbed an idea, the whole 'landscape' has changed, and what you have learned is passe'.

Technorati

I've looked at 'technorati' and don't find it particularly interesting. It seems to consist mainly of rambling musings and thoughts, nothing particularly useful. I suppose that if I were 'into' blogging and excited by the idea I would like it. As it is, technorati leaves me cold.

del.icio.us

Wow! I really like del.icio.us! Of course, I've good reason to like it, since I've lost my 'Foxfire' bookmarks, not just once but twice. It took a long time to upload 1710 rather old 'Explorer' bookmarks, but it was definitely worth it for the peace of mind. Now, I'm learning to tag the items, so that they're easier to locate. The hard part is to recover some of the more recent bookmarks that were irretrievably lost. Ah me!

Rollyo

Rollyo is not worth a whole lot. It's just as easy, perhaps easier, to use the search engines that I'm familiar with.
For all it's worth, here's a link to a very simple Rollyo that I created, based on what I learned at some Medical Reference classes.
http://rollyo.com/rlrudigier/medical/

More about feeds

More about feeds. Merlin has a 'Social Networking' link. At first, I thought, "This is not very interesting." However, I was proved wrong. I was able to locate a musician cousin, Paula Kelley, in 'Wink', a search engine for social networks. I was able to view her 'My Space' profile and listen and download her music.
I also liked syndic8.com. It is a simple, straightforward open directory of RSS feeds, which is very easy to use. I got great results the first time I searched for different feeds. No tedious learning curve involved!

Library Thing

I love 'Library Thing'. I have been looking for a product for years (literally) that can easily and effectively organize all the books I own, and 'Library Thing' appears to fill that need. I'm sure I'll have to upgrade to the lifetime paid version. Yes, I have that many books. However, that is something that I'll worry about another day.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/rlrudigier

Swimming with Dolphins

I created a Yahoo avatar which looks exactly like me. She lives on the ocean and swims with the dolphins. I live in a dream world.

Bloglines URL

Hooray! I finally managed to find my public URL on Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com/blog/Marian-Librarian

It wasn't easy to find.

RSS feeds

I love RSS feeds. After setting up my Bloglines account for the library environment, I set up another for strictly personal use. I also have 2 Google Readers, one for the library and one for myself, that I set up, following Staff Day. I tend to prefer using Google to Bloglines. You can integrate it into your own personal Google web page and continue whatever else you are doing without going far from the Reader. It doesn't feel as clumsy.

Trading Card

My creation
Originally uploaded by rlrudigier

I love cute cat photos. This one sums up Monday mornings.

Mashups

I must be clueless. How do you use mashups? There's Colr Pickr where you can select images according to a color scheme. In addition you can adjust the tone. Big Huge Labs http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ looks interesting. You can make lots of things from calendars to CD art to wallpaper to badges. However, I can't figure out the use of most of the applications.

Mornings

Sumatran Tiger Cub (OOB)
Originally uploaded by Nikographer [Jon]

I feel like this in the morning.

Flickr is addictive. I couldn't resist adding this to my blog. After this I'll get down to work and decide what to do with mashups.

Flickr Flickr

Willows, pound and water-lilies in Claude Monet's garden
Originally uploaded by jeamag

Well, I've checked out the Flickr site, and it definitely has a lot of pretty pictures. I have no idea what I'll do with them since I'm not into digital photography or web design. Maybe I'll find some cool wallpaper for my computer.
This photo looks like it could be the inspiration for Claude Monet's 'Lilies'.

7 1/2 ways a blog can be useful

I hope to find some personal relevance in the blogosphere and relate it to different aspects of my life.

In simplest terms, a blog can be a useful communication device for groups. It can share information that all individuals, in any given group, need to know in a variety of formats. It is not limited to text, although that is highly useful for the verbally literate. Movies, photos, songs, you name it , can be shared with ease. Best of all, you don't have to decide if what you are saying is important. Once you have the thought, all you have to do is post it.

Sarcasm aside, there are some very pragmatic uses for blogs. I hope to come up with no less than 7 1/2 of them for different interest groups:

1. Consumers: ratings & rankings of products & services. A good example would be the type of consumer feedback you see on 'Amazon' or 'Tripadvisor'

2. Medical patients support groups: tips & ideas for dealing with specific conditions.

3. Other support groups: Some types that come to mind, would include those that deal with

relationships affected by specific issues such as alcoholism or mental illness.

4. Hobbyists: images for collectors; lyrics of songs for those who don't want to pay for them; help for challenges. In particular, I am thinking of when I hit a 'brick wall' in trying to get information on an ancestor of mine when doing genealogical research. I posted a question to a forum, and a distant cousin contacted me with the missing information.

5. Professionals: issues affecting different professional fields, such as (gasp!) libraries

6. Workplace: intradepartmental, interdepartmental communications. This is particularly useful in organizations that have not had a formalized method for sharing 'need to know' information'. So much work is defined by computers, so it should not be a big problem.

7. Communities: information about neighborhoods

8. Politics: information about candidates and issues

9. Friends: playtime for the young. I don't have to name 'My Space' as a prime example of a social network, but I will. However, if you have friends why not spend time with them instead of yakking on computers?

10. Miscellaneous: One example, that doesn't fit into a neat category is on St. Mary's County Library's web page, 'Flat Tops', which has a lot of interesting photos and information on a Lexington Park neighborhood that no longer exists.

Okay. So I've come up with more than 7 1/2 uses for blogs, and I suppose that the list could go on. One good thing that has come out of this exercise, is that I've developed some enthusiasm for the idea of blogs. However, I'm sure that most people are not truly interested in my feelings about it. Perhaps some of my ideas about uses will stimulate others in their pursuit of 'The Blog'.

Ready to Go

I'm ready to launch my first post. I have completed 'Things" 1, 2, 3, & 4.