Monday, November 19, 2007

Thing 23--Post Mortem (It's a Good Thing No One Reads My Blog)

Adieu, regular 23 Things entries. I promise not to abandon you altogether, but some neglect, I predict, is in your future. It is not because I don't love you; you have in many ways won my heart (Library Thing, GoogleDocs, Del.icio.us, wikis, and photo-sharing/storing Sites). But the verdict is still out on a lot of you (Technorati, Bloglines, generators, Rollyo, etc.).

I am extremely grateful to have had this opportunity to meet you. I would certainly be willing to do a program like this again. I also thank everyone for their help, hints, and support through this process, with particular thanks to Jaye Holly for steering so many of us "away from the icebergs."

But now for the complaints (oh, don't act like you didn't know they were coming). Time-I think everyone felt they didn't have enough time for this. As a part timer, I spend a lot of time on the desk and while I'm there I am usually helping customers, or shelving books, or cleaning up, or helping with book clubs, or pulling books for displays, or planning some program, or any number of activities. It is time to dispel the erroneous notion that most of us are surfing the Web. Now let me dispel another erroneous notion; I, and many others, are not part time because we're just out of college and are still figuring out what we want to be when we grow up. When I started at the library, I was also teaching at more than one college. Now, I continue to work part time because I am raising two children and helping out with a relative in poor health. I want to devote more time to the library; I do see it as a career and am grateful that I am allowed a position of responsibility even though I am part time. But I don't have tons of "free time." I read at home, when I can; try to keep up with book reviews, hot titles, current events, even new technologies.

But the reality is, there is no built-in time in any of our schedules for play and exploration. As our customer population has grown and changed, as our hours of operation have increased, as the services we provide have grown and changed, as the technologies we offer and use in-house have changed, as the nature and size of our collection has changed, as our partnerships have grown, and as we've tried to maintain our high level of customer service and professionalism, we have all had very little "free time." 23 Things has been fun, but it has also been exhausting and, at times, another burden to an already overloaded schedule. And it is difficult, at least for anyone in the information field, to just "touch and go" through the training. I think most of want to understand, to weigh the pros and cons, to look for the overlap and inconsistency, to think about what will serve us and our customers the best.

It is not, however, just the nature of the job that has caused problems though, it is also the nature of a lot of the 23 Things. Technology is not static. There is no governing body regulating the amount or quality of information or software being disseminated. There is a lot of overlap in what these tools do. There isn't always a smooth transition between the tools we wish to use in conjunction. And there isn't always a clearcut "winner" in what we should be using. And to make matters even more complicated, there is no World Wide Web Janitorial Service to go around and clean up all the failures and the forgotten. So there is a lot of slogging through garbage that one must do. Since we are all lucky enough to work in a library during this exciting time, we are probably going to have to be the chief sloggers. So I guess I'll put on my rubber gloves and fishing boots and cut yet another hour or two of sleep out of my schedule,
and start. Happy slogging everybody, I mean blogging, no, I mean slogging.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Thing 22--Audiobooks: Been There, Done That, Came Back For More

I use Overdrive. I love audio books. Just to be a good do-bee (Romper Room, nothing untoward), I checked out their tutorial (love the qualification about iPod and how one day maybe Microsoft and Apple can play nice). I even put myself on the hold list for Water for Elephants. I didn't bother with NetLibrary since that is a lost cause now. I did go to Project Gutenberg. I've been there before and found it not as sexy as Overdrive, but it's alright. It does seem to have greater access to those hard-to-find text books that people sometimes want. I must be running out of steam because I can't think of much to say. So close to #23...

Thing 21--Podcasts and the Sound of One Hand Clapping

Okay, I don't know what I did wrong. I tried all 3 of the podcast searching tools and only got some positive results from Podcastalley. I used it to subscribe to the Adam & Joe Show on XFM (2 ridiculous British DJs who crack me up) and a book review podcast called Booklog that seems pretty interesting. So far, I haven't been able to listen to either. Perhaps I did something wrong. (Or maybe I'll just stick with iTunes; not to be snotty, but never had a problem.)

I'm too tired to try to build my own podcast now, but I definitely will want to later (I did mention the narcissism didn't I?) But I did look at the libraries using podcasts on Merlin and was way impressed. Okay, the LibVibe Library news seemed a little self indulgent, but stories for kids, book reviews, and seminars and classes via podcasts...brilliant. And Westerville blew me away, not just because they have a nice, clean Site, but the podcasts, the use of video to show customers how to download audiobooks, the RSS feeds, and the various blogs. Man, we have some catching up to do.

Thing 20--The Magical World of YouTube

So I was going to post a YouTube video about Web 2.0, maybe a video on Wikipedia or an interview with Tim O'Reilly (edutainment, if you will); I was going to post a funny bit about libraries or cell phones, perhaps the commercial with the blond in the library ordering food or the cell phone Karma commercial from Kyocera (satire, how bold). Then I thought of posting some bit of remembered childhood fun, "Hanker for a Hunk of Cheese" or some Schoolhouse Rock (how nostalgic); I even thought of putting up a video from a good but under-appreciated band, such as The Dears or Saybia or Mew (promoting good music--a public service). But I didn't.

Most people have known about YouTube in some way for some time now. I think most people use it for some of the reasons mentioned above or to see some celebrity make a fool of him/herself or to get their 15 minutes or for some other mild entertainment. I use it to distract one of the Cheeky Monkeys more than anything else. Listen, I don't know why someone would take 4 minutes of video of a garbage truck making the rounds, but my Monkey loves it. It's not to say that YouTube can't be used for better things, but for most folks it is about distraction (either self or of another). So be it. If you need to see the cat flushing the toilet or the baby panda sneezing to get you through the day, then go wild. I mean, how else would I have been introduced to the high-brow world of the school bus wheelie?

Thing 19--Web 2.0 Awards...And the winner is...

Reader2 Okay, so it was only an honorable mention and not a winner. It is a place to keep track of your reading list and find new books. I like Reader2, not as much as The Library Thing, but I will explore it more.

You don't actually have to log in to Reader2 to get some of its advantages (which is good because I haven't decided if I want to join it yet). I like it's "What To Read Next/Find Similar Books" search tool (even though the first two titles I put in produced no results). I also like the "Go To Book List" but couldn't figure out how this list was compiled (that made me a little nervous). It could be a really helpful readers' advisory tool, but it may still need time to grow. The question is: Do I (or does anyone) have the time to help grow it and The Library Thing and any other similar sites?

I think there's a lot of repetition in some of these tools, and I, like most people, don't have that much time to play or explore. So I think we are all looking for simple, fast, one-stop shopping. That's probably why Google is still everyone's first search engine.
Display Schedule for Fiction Cubes

Date
Person/People In Charge
Display Theme or Title
Nov. 18-Dec. 1, 2007
Elizabeth/Joanne
Thanksgiving, Family, Food, Home
Dec. 1-Dec. 15, 2007
Jean?
Dance (for Nutcracker)?
Dec. 15, 2007-Jan. 1, 2008
Cristina?
Christmas/Holidays?
Jan. 1- Jan. 15, 2008
Elizabeth?
A Fresh Start (books where characters change their lives ala New Year's Resolutions)?
Jan. 15-Feb. 1, 2008
Joanne?
Beating the Winter Blues/Blahs (books about summer or travel to warm places)?
Feb. 1-Feb. 15, 2008
Lisa?
Anti-Valentine's Day (books about how love stinks!)?
Feb. 15-March 1, 2008
Jean?
Viva Italia (books to coincide with the Italy program)

Thing 18--Online Productivity Tools

In an effort to move a little faster, I'll try to give a straight response (for once). I tested out GoogleDocs because it is award winning and it is what my Hubby uses. (BTW, Hubby said I should throw out SaaS-Software as a Service--when discussing this because that is the corporate buzz in the Software World with regard to these apps. He also said the big talk is reduced need for an infrastructure among small to medium business by using apps. like these. For a good example of more of these apps., he suggest checking out salesforce.com and centraldesktop.com)

Anyway, GoogleDocs rocks (as ridiculously stated in the youtube video). No, really. It was easy to use, and, in fact, I killed two birds with one stone a created a schedule for the Fiction Department Display Cubes (see actual document above). I then sent this schedule to my fellow Fictionistas, so the could collaborate (I really need them to collaborate the heck out of it). And as I said to all of them, "Google Docs is both fluid and organized." And I actual mean that.

Thing 17--Don't Forget To Cover the Sandbox...

..."Why? Because of rain?"
"No. Cats." (Part of an actual conversation I had with my mother when my Hubby built a sandbox for the Cheeky Monkeys.)

Anyway, the sandbox. I put a post on the 23 Things sandbox. I added my blog to the Maryland Libraries Sandbox and even made an entry in their "What I am Reading" category.

Will I be visiting these sandboxes a lot? Probably not. It's not that I don't like them, but it requires time that I may not have. In some cases a recommendation or solution from one or two reliable sources is just a bit quicker than everyone's 2 cents. For now anyway, I've covered the sandbox.

Thing 16--Wiki Wiki Hey Wiki Hin...Nevermind (PeeWee Reference)

My del.icio.us account now has some wikis. Wikis are good. Wikis are trouble. They are troubling, but in a good way. I like the idea of wikis--truly (read with no cynicism, really). A wiki is ideally what the Web is for, but in a smaller format. Everyone shares info on a connected topic. It is liquid and specific. I really like that. I do fear the problems: spam, jerks, outdated info never being updated, abandoned wikis floating in space for any innocent student to stumble upon and think "Ah ha, this source supports my theory that there be monsters at the edge of the earth. I'll use it!" But if there is proper wiki maintenance and it is used in a somewhat controlled way, it could be fantastic! Hey, LTS, how about a wiki for customers and librarians about all our new open source software?

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Thing 15--Library 2.0 And My Growing Headache

Thing 15 will be simple. Thing 15 will be quick. Just read a couple of articles and write my opinion. No problem. Ha! In fact, double Ha! This has been the trickiest Thing to date.

I'd already watched "The Machine is Us/ing Us" by Michael Wesch at the beginning of my 23 Things journey. And I remember how it got me excited, how pithy and clever it seemed, how the music and the video fooled me into believing I was hip, on the cutting edge or bleeding edge (no, hipper, I am coining "gangrenous edge"--it's so cutting edge that it is already too late to cut!). So, I moved on to the next assignment. Oh, I read the innocently titled "Web 2.0: Where will the next generation of the web take libraries?," which led me to"Away from Icebergs," and then to"Into a new world of librarianship," and finally to Wikipedia's entry for Library 2.0. But these raised many more questions than they answered.

Reading these made me go in search of more information. Some of which included:
  • OCLC Pattern Recognition, which turned out to be a report described as follows--“The 2003 OCLC Environmental Scan: Pattern Recognition report was produced for OCLC’s worldwide membership to examine the significant issues and trends impacting OCLC, libraries, museums, archives and other allied organizations, both now and in the future. The scan provides a high-level view of the information landscape, intended both to inform and stimulate discussion about future strategic directions.” The main conclusions to this scan seem to revolve around, “An examination of how young people's social interaction and technology skills have created a seamless sphere fusing work, play and information.” http://www.oclc.org/reports/escan/
  • OCLC User Perception Reports, which, thanks to Elaine Johnson, I'd already read something about, but ultimately showcases how most people have a "meh" attitude of the services libraries provide. http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm
  • The ClueTrain Manifesto, which turns out to be a book, a blog, and a movement about how big business (including libraries) needs to wake up and smell the customer (or is it e-consumer or i-patron) and acknowledge that he/she/e/i is human and that the market, thanks to technology, is becoming smarter, faster, better, and more human (more human because of technology--beautiful irony), etc. http://www.cluetrain.com/
  • Open WorldCat--a big open online catalog. http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/open/
  • WebJunction--an online community for librarians (which I dutifully joined). http://www.webjunction.org/do/Home
  • Openly Infomatics--I think it is something that helps OCLC make the Open WorldCat work--still exploring this. http://www.openly.com/
  • G5 Libraries (everybody knows about this, but I'm trying to learn more).
  • And what is meant by The Long Tail. “The phrase The Long Tail (as a proper noun with capitalized letters) was first coined by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 Wired magazine article[1] to describe certain business and economic models such as Amazon.com or Netflix. Businesses with distribution power can sell a greater volume of otherwise hard-to-find items at small volumes than of popular items at large volumes. The term long tail is also generally used in statistics, often applied in relation to wealth distributions or vocabulary use.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail And I'm still trying to figure out how libraries might make this concept work better for them (Specialization? Go Central!)
But the biggies I took away from all of these articles are:
  • Get rid of the superfluous "just in case" collections (I still think that applies more to reference rather than fiction or children's).
  • Skip educating the user and make the technology easier (I am on board with this. I've heard techie folks lament that librarians need to "quit being lazy and explore all the options," but all I can say is "Spend a day on the desk where you are often critic, sheriff, lawyer, doctor, babysitter, whipping boy, bartender, career specialist, confessor, and best bud"--just to name a few. So, it seems to me either more intuitive technology is needed or podcasts or tutorials need to be designed to help patrons, or maybe patrons should be able to write their own Help Desk tickets).
  • Forget the "come to us" model of service (which makes sense except that we are being a bit elitist in assuming that everyone can sit at home with a computer and Internet access or confidence or understanding of computers to access info on their own. Let's not make the same mistake as merchandisers and assume that everyone is under 25 and of upper-middle-class income).
  • Avoid technolust (Hallelujah!).
  • Listen to customers and openly discuss successes AND FAILURES (an interesting concept for an organization that offers no upward or 360 evaluations).
  • Be trendspotters and have time to play and learn (who has time for this? I want to, but here I am at home, at the zero hour, trying to finish 23 Things).
  • Build better data (can I get another Hallelujah?).
  • And "harness collective intelligence" (which suggests, among other innovations in these articles, a more horizontally structured library system; it may be time for the ancient hierarchies to say "Bye, Bye.").

But perhaps I've said too much; or maybe I've not said enough. I think I need some Ibuprofen and a good night's sleep. Then again...

P.S. Please note all the bullet points. It's still long-winded, but I tried.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Thing 14: Technorati-Am I Doing This Right?

Okay, so I'm all "claimed" now on Technorati, but what does it mean? Can the blogosphere be contained (or at the very least systematically navigated)? The most interesting parts of exploring Technorati, at least for me, were these issues of containment, navigation, and structure. Technorati seems noble to want to make a dent in this Borg cube of blogs (sorry, my geek is showing). I found their outcry for a "tagged Web" and a "real-time Web" intriguing, but can it be done? The freedom the Web has brought is beautiful, but it also feels a little like anarchy to me. Maybe I just need to step away and eat dinner.

On a lighter note, I was also intrigued by the fact that the top blogs on Technorati mainly relate to technology, but the top searches seem more often to be about celebrity. Ah, Humans! Only one more Technorati concern and then I'll leave it be for a while: Do I add del.icio.us to my Technorati Favorites or do I bookmark Technorati with del.icio.us?

Thing 13: del.icio.us (mmmm bookmarking)

I LOVE del.icio.us! It is because, OMG, I am like sooooo into social networking (hahahahahah, this is truly hilarious for any of you who know my day-to-day schedule). Seriously, I do love del.icio.us mainly because I do have such crazy, hectic schedule and no memory to speak of (brain came out with babies, ugh). One of my biggest complaints about 23 Things so far has been, "How the H-E-double hockey sticks am I suppose to remember all these sites and tools and thingy-mi-bobs I've signed up for?" del.icio.us is my answer and does what I've needed technology for all along, my thinking. Oh, and I can find other interesting things by checking out other people's tags, but I'm not making friends, you can't make me!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Thing 12--Rollyo, no?

I'm not saying I don't like Rollyo. In theory, it is tres cool. I did, however, have a problem making a searchroll (look, Ma, new vocab.) that I am satisfied with. Originally, I wanted to create a "Desperation Md. Library" searchroll, where someone (procrastinating student or book club member) who doesn't have time to wait for Marina and needs to find an available copy of a book or movie can search all the MD public libraries catalogs at once to see to what ends of the state he/she may have to drive to to get that last remaining copy of Catcher in the Rye or Memory Keeper's Daughter. Alas, I was not thinking clearly; how can a search search a search (clear as mud?). Anyway, I ended up creating a much lamer Rollyo that let's you search the generalpublic library web pages for any key word. The thinking is that some wayward patron may have heard of a program or event at some library, but forgotten which system, viola "Which MD Library?" to the rescue. I'm not really sure yet how well this works or how useful it is, but here it is nonetheless. http://rollyo.com/sobieckj/which_md_library/

One more note on Rollyo. I know it is suppose to help, but it does suffer the fundamental problems that all these new online tools suffer from--it provides more fodder to the already overflowing trough of information and is only as good as the person who put it together.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Thing 11--The Library Thing, A Beautiful Thing

A beautiful thing indeed! What fun, and yet it is another addictive thing I wish I had more time for. Here is a random selection of books loved by me, but I fear, if I can find the time or remember, my Library Thing might spiral out of control with my random loves...I am so fickle.

Thing 10-Generators--Fun but Frustrating


I enjoyed the generators but must have picked the wrong night to play. Everything kept freezing on me. Plus, they seem to be a little bit like Sudoku or sitcoms or "quizzes" in women's magazines--mildly distracting time suckers. Anyway, here's some of what I could salvage from my efforts.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Thing 8 & 9: RSS Feeds and the People Who Love Them

...or is it hate them? Or maybe both. No, hate is too strong of a word. So far these activities have taken me the longest, and it is because I am in love and, well, "not love" with RSS feeds.

I remembered a lot from the in-house RSS training from HCL, when we began our own feeds, but hadn't been back to RSS Land until these exercises. Thanks to Thing 8, I now have a Bloglines account teeming with everything from blogs devoted to digital librarianship to clips from "The Daily Show." Check it out! http://www.bloglines.com/blog/sobieckj

Thing 9 had me explore Merlin, and I found Ms. Beth Tribe's "23 Things ning," which I joined. I've bookmarked many of the feed-finding tools so I can explore them later. Sounds like love, right?

Here comes the "not love" part. All that great info, put aside just for me...but where do I find the time? I am the person feeds may not have been created for. I love the quick accessibility to a variety of info (I mean, who doesn't who works in a library), but it is too much of a good thing. My "inch deep, mile wide" brain has led me to subscribe to more feeds than I will ever have time for.

Any advice out there to help with my problem? I 12-step feed program? Anything?