Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Thing 16: LibraryThing

I have followed the assignment by adding about a dozen books from my collection. I still don't quite get tags, but I went ahead and added some.

(Actually, I may be getting the hang of using tags, after all. But what do I do with fiction? I could use the typical genre categories, but should I add other tags, as well? Should I include other markers? Am I to think of it this way--that I should use any term as a tag that I may want to search under later?)

I think this is going to be a great app for me. I was planning to set up a multimedia database for all my family's books, movies, and music. This seems a lot less time-consuming. However, I wish I could add movies and music. It would be a lot easier to have everything in one database. We do a lot of trading around and we all want to keep track of our stuff.

I am looking forward to adding the rest of my collection and to playing around with the other features. The local looks like a bust, nothing in my area, though the app kindly explains that most users don't include geographic information. But some of the groups look really interesting; I mean, who wouldn't want to check out the Pedant's Corner (tee hee).

Thing 17: LibWorm

My first search used the term "next generation opac" and provided some exciting results. The 7045 results included blog entries, surveys, and even an audio conference on libraries investigating or implementing NGOs. Lots to delve into here!

When I clicked on the "tags" and "subjects" links, I wasn't happy with the results I discovered. The tag cloud contained multiple variations on "books," "libraries," and "web 2.0," and the subjects were all very general. One would think users of a library-related app would avoid using variations on "library" and "librarian." Perhaps greater variation will appear over time.

I did a phrase search for "UT Arlington Library" and got 176845 results, most of which related to other libraries (Arlington Public Library, Arlington Heights Library, etc.). Looking at the first four pages (of 5895), the only relevant hits were old job listings. That was disappointing. I was hoping our university library was more newsworthy than that!

I will definitely play with this some more. At this time, I prefer to subscribe to blogs and news services to get my library news, but maybe this would introduce me to a greater variety of sources. Or it could just drive me nuts. Only time will tell!

Thing 18: Wikis

I've been using a wiki at work since January. Our branch (nine staff members) are ambivalent about using it. We're using UT Arlington's official wiki site, powered by Confluence. It is not nearly user-friendly. It is, however, very useful for collaborating on projects. I look forward to the day when it will be as easy to use as Wetpaint.

I had a great experience with Wetpaint, though I accidentally made "Usability" a subpage of "Cognitive Science." Oops! I can't see how to fix it. You can see my pages at http://dfw23things.wetpaint.com/page/C.D.

Wikis appear to have been very useful for creating collaborative works. As they become more powerful and more user-friendly, I believe they will be adopted by more work-spaces and individuals. (See Wiki Patterns for a fantastic example of how a wiki turned into a book, and then grew from it's original content into a truly magnificent site.

Thing 19: Google Docs

I really like Google Docs for creating collaborative documents, as long as you don't much care about formatting them with any depth. I have a few shared spreadsheets that are nice. People can contribute content at any time of day or night. As far as I can see, though these documents and spreadsheets must remain very simple.

For collaborative working, I prefer using a wiki. Google Docs does have it's benefits. At work, we use both a wiki and Google Docs because some people find the wiki more difficult learn. (Well, let's face it, it IS more difficult to learn!) So we currently maintain some types of documents on Google Docs and others on the wiki. We will evaluate again in a few months to see if we should move everything to one or the other.

I appreciate the link to the Official Google Docs Blog. I scanned through it and found some helpful hints. I look forward to exploring it further to discover more tips and techniques for using Google Docs more effectively.

Thing 20: YouTube

YouTube is very relevant to my library branch at the moment, because we are smack-dab in the middle of creating a tour video. Shooting was last week. We have spent a lot of time preparing for it, yet I still expect the production value to be fairly low. I can't imagine how libraries have time for regular shooting, though maybe we are aiming rather high for our first video. (We are getting professional help for the shooting, lighting, audio, and post-production, btw.)

I enjoyed viewing a variety of library-related videos on YouTube. We had come across a few of them while seeking ideas for our video, but I came across a good variety. Production value is all over the map, which I suppose is an indication of the value placed on video by a library's administration.

I believe that videos can be very valuable, not only for marketing, but for training. Showing a student how to use library services and resources has got to be more effective, particularly for visual and kinetic learners.

As bandwidth increases across the general population, I believe libraries will depend more on video (and possibly 3D animation) to communicate with patrons.

Thing 21: Podcasts

At first, I thought I wasn't going to find any library podcasts that work. The first few either went nowhere or timed out. One site required installation of a plugin I didn't want, and the next few had podcasts that were related to subject areas, but not to library issues. Several dropped me into iTunes without directing me to the specific podcast I was seeking. Very disorienting!

Then I hit the Tisch Talks. This podcast series provides a plethora of information about the Tisch Library at Tufts University, including information about the library facilities, services, resources, staff, etc.

Next, I went to Podcast Alley and searched using "library" as my search term. Unfortunately, all the podcasts here appear to require installation of a podcast aggregator, which I didn't want to do, at least at the moment. Maybe later.

Podcasts can definitely play a role in the technology services libraries provide their patrons. They would be particularly helpful for auditory learners. However, I think for most instruction, something visual (video or animation) would be more useful for most learners. If I were looking for help on a library website, I would not look for podcasts, but I would certainly subscribe to a podcast that discusses library topics--particularly if they provide deep and nuanced discussions of current and relevant issues.

Thing 22: Developing your own 23 Things for your library

As far as I know, I'm the only staff member at my library participating this year. However, last summer the library offered staff members an in-person 13 Things program, which I assume was based on the 23 Things concept. I presume the number was truncated to have one Thing per week for 13 weeks.

This summer the program continued, though fewer people participated. I think we need to come up with new tools to showcase; I suppose people believe that once they've attended one class on Twitter, they don't need another.

Though I have previously not participated in planning or instructing for this program, perhaps next year I'll volunteer to introduce my colleagues to a new tool. I intend to keep stretching and keep trying new technologies and see which can be adapted for our purposes.

Thing 23: Reflection

This has been an interesting and valuable, if sometimes painful, experience. I have learned a lot in the process of moving through the assignments.

Of course, I learned some new tools, but I'm not sure that's the biggest benefit I received from this exercise. When it comes to exploring a new application, I often abandon them if I don't immediately see a need to continue, or if I find it confusing, or frustrating.

Because I wanted to complete the program, I had an incentive to keep trying, to dig deeper, to open my mind to possibilities that I would have rejected by giving in too quickly. And so I have re-evaluated my notion of how I approach new technology. Because I feel bombarded by new tools every day, because it often feels overwhelming, I tend to want to dislike new tools. I'll give something new a cursory try in order to say that I tried it and didn't find it useful. Then I can feel superior to the crowd who accept it unthinkingly.

I didn't even know this about myself until I began this exercise. I want to learn, to know what's out there, to consider possibilities for new ways to tackle issues or connect with others, but I sometimes feel resentful about the sheer number of new stuff to learn.

This program got me over the hump with at least a few of them. What I have discovered is that, while not all tools will work for all people in all situations, but investigating them will only open doors. I've found that if I hang in there, if I open my mind, I just might encounter something life-changing.

Thing 15: Digg

I foresee Digg becoming a site that I will begin using regularly. I chose not to register and play around with the customization features yet, but I do intend to do so later on when I have a good amount of time.

What I did do is look at the articles available on the main page. I went in three times, and I found several articles each time that I probably wouldn't have otherwise find. This convinced me that Digg would provide a useful service to me.

Then again, maybe I won't customize, because I'm enjoying the serendipitous nature of the group of articles I'm finding. Were I to limit to topics I'm interested in (and am most likely already subscribing to), I would also be limiting the information I would be exposed to. For now, hurray for serendipity!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Thing 14: Delicious

As I wrote in my Tagging blog entry, I haven't quite yet taken to social bookmarking. But I'm open to experimenting.

So I returned to the Delicious page. I had imported 269 bookmarks, but they seem to all be lumped together in one folder called "Imported." This is not very useful. Not one of the categories listed on the page are ones that are useful for me. I'm remembering why I found it so confusing and so NOT useful for me.

Perhaps each organization type suits the cognitive abilities of specific users. Perhaps the way my brain organizes information doesn't correspond well to the tagging format. Perhaps I am not a "drill down" kind of gal. I never consult a table of contents when an index is available. I gravitate to a search box rather than than categories when given an option.

I'm afraid this is going to be another tool that I'm going to have "take to" in the long run. Or not. I'm unwilling to force the use of a tool that I find confusing when another tool will work.

I will give Delicious more time. As I wrote in my last post, I believe in the collective intelligence experiment, and will continue to explore whether Delicious contributes something useful for me. (But in the meantime, give Twine a try.)

Monday, July 27, 2009

Thing 13: Tagging

I'm afraid I haven't gotten the hang of tagging yet. Where I can categorize (blog, libguides) I just use categories. I opened a Delicious account last year, but didn't get the hang of it and never returned. I find tag clouds a bit confusing. I suppose social tagging is a skill that requires practice.

I like the idea of collective intelligence. I believe that a group can create something greater than the sum of its parts. For that reason, I think tagging could (and does) result in some wonderful and surprising connections among disparate ideas. (Check out Twine, which I mentioned in my Ning Thing, for an example of what could turn into collective intelligence in action.)

I understand why many librarians it uncomfortable to imagine users tagging content, especially as a replacement for librarian-created subject headings. We can see the problems with a lack of authority control when we try to find content organized solely by user-created tags. (How badly should we mis-spell words to attempt to get all relevant returns?)

But I don't think we have to resort to an either/or scenario. Several applications are available that allow users to add tags to catalogs. I haven't heard or read much yet about how well that's succeeding. I suspect it will take some time to determine the results. I consider myself cautiously optimistic that tagging could result in a richer experience for our library users.

Thing 12: Twitter

I have to admit, I'm a bit perplexed about Twitter. I set up an account last week during a class on social networking. I follow 16 people and have seven followers.

I think the reason it's not clicking for me is that I follow most of these people on Facebook and most of them have set up to show their tweets on FB. For that reason, it appears to add no value for me, so I rarely remember to check it.

I'll play around with it to see if I can find people or groups to follow who are new to me, and I'll see if I can figure out a simple way to check Twitter regularly so that I don't have to remember to check it. Can it be added to Google Reader, for example?

Since I wrote this more than a week ago, I've started following some of my favorite public radio shows and added a few colleagues. I have found myself much more interested in checking Twitter regularly since doing that. I'm still waiting for it to grab, though, so that I look forward to checking it throughout the day.

I didn't discover an easy way to follow Twitter using Google Reader, but I added a Twitter gadget to my iGoogle page. It turned out to be too confusing, so I removed it and just put a link in my Google Bookmarks gadget, which sits prominently at the top of my iGoogle page.

At the moment, I'm committed to giving Twitter a try. I'll keep looking for content that's relevant to me and thinking of ways to make it a regular part of my day.

Thing 11: Instant Messaging

I've been using instant messaging for many years. I started at my last job (2000-2003) using ICQ to communicate with my co-workers. Currently, I am using IM at work using Spark (the official UT Arlington IM client).

We are also using IM for online reference. The Science & Engineering Library uses Meebo to login to Yahoo, Google Talk, AIM, MSN and Meebo accounts. At the moment, the person manning the reference desk monitors the Meebo account. We have widgets set up for users to contact us (on our blog, on our subject guides, etc.). So far, we get very few IM reference calls (1-5 per month), so it's working. We have discussed, should use pick up, whether we ought to have a dedicated monitor for the reference IM client.

I rarely use IM for personal use. I do have accounts, but as a rule I don't log in, since few people I know use it regularly. It also conflicts with IM reference, knocking me out of being logged in to the library's shared account. I do not accept users I don't recognize, but I will accept anyone who identifies themselves with NT23. If you can catch me logged in, I'll definitely reply!

Google Talk: cdwalter
Meebo: cdwalter
Yahoo: c.walter@prodigy.net
Spark (Jabber): cdwalter (might need to be cdwalter@uta.edu)

Thing 10: Ning

I did not join Ning, but I did play around with it. I watched the tutorial, looked around in the ALA network and searched for a few topics of interest to me.

What I like about Ning is that networks connect people interested in a particular topic as opposed to just creating an ever-widening network of people based on your friends, family and colleagues like on Facebook. Not to say I prefer it over Facebook, but it appears to fill a different need. It is also much more customizable than FB. Not only does each network differ from all the others in looks, each one provides different features, depending on the needs of that network.

Ning reminds me of Twine, which provides a means for people to share information on a specific topic (a twine). It seems to focus less on social networking and more on idea networking. Ning seems to combine the features of both Twine and Facebook to provide a complete networking tool.

I intend to play around with Ning some more. I might be induced to join if I find (or think of) a network that I simply must join.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Thing 9: More Facebook

As I wrote in the Thing 8 post, it took me a while to warm to Facebook. Now it is my home page at home. It reminds me to see what my friends are up to before I go on the task at hand.

I rarely contribute thoughts to the “What’s on your mind” field, mainly because I can't seem to come up with anything funny/profound in the few minutes I'm in there. I would like to post more, though. It seems a bit one-sided to get to keep up others and not let others keep up with me, if they want to. Sort of like lurking on a LISTSERV--receiving a lot, but giving little back.

For this assignment, I posted two comments, one with a link to my favorite library site, Unshelved. I also became a fan of the ALA. I also joined three groups. I joined a group called "Really cool people from Rapid City Central," which is the high school I attended in Rapid City, SD. It's an embarrassing title, but I thought it might be a good way to connect with old friends.
I also joined Dead King's Pillow, a now defunct band of which my brother was a member, and American Library Association Members (though I'm not one yet).

Overall, I enjoy Facebook. It seems to be a good way to follow friends, public personalities, groups, and causes of interest.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Thing 8: Facebook

I've had a Facebook account for a couple years now, so I'll talk about how my relationship with the site evolved over time.

I joined reluctantly because my daughter asked me to. At first, I couldn't get the point. Why did she have to poke me or write on my wall? What was wrong with good old fashioned email, after all?

For the first year or so, I went in only occasionally. Then I discovered that several of my co-workers were on, so I "friended" them. Now, I'd say the majority of my colleagues, all my family and many old chums (even from elementary school) are in my friend list.

I love keeping up with the activities of my friends and colleagues, but I'm ambivalent about all the "fun" activities. Some of the games are fun (Lexulous!), but sometimes I find it tedious to wade through all the fish, plants, farm animals, mafia weapons, etc., etc., etc. So I am often way behind on that stuff. I can see how it could be fun, but most of it seems like a tremendous waste of time.

Wish I could have the one without all the other.

Thing 7: RSS Feeds

I've had mixed results with keeping up with Google Reader, so I'm glad to have a chance to work on it some more. My main problem with keeping up with Google Reader is remembering to go there. Since I have added the Google Reader gadget to my iGoogle page, I find myself visiting the Reader more often (once or twice a day).

I think the danger is in subscribing to too many things; then it becomes overwhelming to visit the Reader. I have pared it down to the sites I'm MOST interested in, hoping that I will find it easier to "just take a few minutes" more often without being afraid of being inundated with infomation or wasting too much time.

I subscribed to most of the suggested blogs, and organized them all in a "Lib Info Sci" folder. I also added a wiki (on another topic). I'm greatly looking forward to keeping up with LIS news and info.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Thing 6: Blog Readers

I had registered for Google Reader about a year ago and subscribed to several news blogs. I think I went back once or twice, but found that I preferred to just go to the news sites. This time, on top of subscribing to the two 23 Things sites in the assignment, I joined a few other blogs and set up folders to organize them.

Organizing my subscriptions helps a lot. I found myself reading through the blogs. I also added a Google Reader gadget to the main page of my iGoogle page. We'll see now if I find myself using it more often!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Thing 5: Image Generators

First, I attempted to do the fortune cookie, because my husband proposed using a fortune cookie. I thought it'd be pretty cool to make him one that says, "Will you marry me?" Unfortunately, Image Chef charges for use. Soooo, on to Plan B.

I made this cool bead art using an image of fractal I had lying around on my hard drive.

Image hosted @ bighugelabs.com

One of the things I don't like about trying all these sites is that you don't find out until you've created something that you want to keep that you can't keep it after all. Disappointing. However, there are tons of free stuff to play around with, too, so that pretty much makes up for it.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Thing 4: More Flickr

This was pretty fun! I played with several of the tools, including Big Huge Labs (but I didn't want to join), Flappr, Colr Pickr, Flickr Sudoku, Retrievr, and Spell with Flickr, which I used to make the image below. I had to mess with it to get it to wrap fairly nicely, but it turned out okay.

Clean full stop d full stop
W A letter L letter T E R

Color Pickr was pretty cool, but I think Retrievr has a way to go. It seemed as thought no matter what I drew, I kept getting the same pictures. Neat concept, though. I'll give it try again sometime.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Thing 3: Flickr

I logged in to Flickr with my Yahoo account. (Thanks 23 Things for the heads up on that, or I would have set up a new account.) I uploaded to photographs and gave them headings. I didn't tag them, because I haven't yet developed my tagging muscles, and frankly don't really "get" them. Perhaps this course will change that!

My photos are of me with former (and future, apparently) Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman. A co-worker, one of his childhood friends, introduced it. It was pretty fun!

The other is five generations--my grandmother, mother, me, my daughter, and my granddaughter. That was the only time all five of us have been together.

My photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29043303@N07/

Thing 2: Learning about Learning 2.0

I watched the Stephen Abram and the Shifted Librarian videos and read Tim O'Reilly's "What Is Web 2.0".

I'm glad I watched the Stephen Abram video because it gave a great overview and some tips about following the program. I'm a bit behind in the 23 Things project because I kept feeling as though I didn't have time to participate. But he's right, I DO have 15 minutes here and there. That's all I need.

I also watched the Shifted Librarian video, which was created by cultural anthropologist Michael Wesch. I had seen it several times before, but I always find it moving and inspiring. I love works that "play" with language.

Tim O'Reilly's article provided a lot to think about. I had previously been thinking of Web 2.0 as referring to sites, but, of course, it refers to applications as well--the notion that applications are moving from desktop to cyberspace, that development is moving from proprietary to open source.

I think that the idea of collective intelligence goes along with the idea of Web 2.0, because it connotes a shared space and communal creativity. What's most exciting about Web 2.0 is that people drive it--people contribute, people create, people communicate. What results is not only shared content, but shared content creation. And collective intelligence results in a product that is more than the sum of its parts.

Thing 1: Setting up your blog

I have set up my 23 Things blog. Here it is!