Thing 23: the last thing

My favorite thing was delicious. I really liked the idea of being able to orchestrate stings of knowledge using bookmarks.

I feel that I was pretty tech savvy prior to enrolling in this program, however there were some things that I had not heard of, so I thought it was beneficial. I know that here are a lot of librarians who have a lot less technical experience than I do and I know that this introduction had to be beneficial for them as well.

I will seriously consider the catalog application that I found after it has probably 2-3 months of low bug rates. I know that there are a lot of Linux applications out there that are specific to libraries but I have not really researched them. In this area I am unsure of the patron response if I were to try and set up my work stations using Linux and Linux applications.

I do think that this program took a lot longer than the fifteen hours of CE's that we can get for this program. Perhaps that could be adjusted? Twenty three CE's would be better! If another discovery program like this is made available in the future I would probably participate again.

Thing 22: Podcasts

I like podcasts. There are a lot of interviews that I can look up and listen to while I do otherthings on the internet.
Here is a fun one:
http://americanfolklore.net/mp3/blackcatsmessage.mp3
And several others are available here:
http://www.americanfolklore.net/spooky-podcasts.html

Thing 21: youtube

Yep I am familiar with this too. Looking to see if I can find an old slideshow. When my husband was deployed he would email me pictures and I woudl post them mainly on veoh, but sometimes on youtube. They have all expired though. So I guess I will find a different video to post.

Who can resist cookie monster in the library?

Thing 20: Library 2.0 Tools

Looking at the list of 2.0 tools, the one that most interested me (that we had not already covered) was VuFind at vufind.org.

What a great premise and online catalog application that my patrons can use to see what books I have on hand. Best of all it is open source, which makes it within my budget and the user can modify the origianl application based on thier own needs. So I take a look at it and am really disappointed. I searched by author for Brooks, Terry. He is a fantasy author who has tons of books most of which center around Shannara.

http://vufind.org/demo/Search/Home?lookfor=brooks%2C+terry&type=author&submit=Find&search=new

In this list I see verything but Mr. Brooks which makes me question the applicability of the information found in searches. I don't really think that I would have fun with something that was this out of whack for any search. Further searching by "terry brooks" or "brooks, terry" found no books.

But perhaps they just don't have many books listed on the online demo application. There were links to the libraries that are using this application for their cataloging. I checked out king, stephen on the Colorado State University website and got a list of his books right away:

http://discovery.library.colostate.edu/Search/Home?lookfor=king%2C+stephen&type=author&submit=Search

It is a nice looking application. I begin to look at time consumption. Many open source programs are prone to bugs and I simply do not have programming skills to overcome other programmer's bugs.

I was really impressed to see that they offer support at sourceforge.net. Many applications do not offer support especially for open source apps. This is a programmer who will help end users work out bugs for the programs that they have written and are giving away freely. most people don't have the time for this as they have other things to do, like work. But since this application was developed at a college I can only assume thatt here is a steady stream of programming majors who tweak this application and correct any issues as they come up.

It does look like they have a lot of bugs currently. Until they get most of these corrected I will probably steer clear. But soon enough this looks like a very promising application.

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=vufind-general

VuFind: Social Features from Falvey Memorial Library on Vimeo.

Thing 19: Applications

Well this is a rather easy one for me as I really like Google docs and am familiar with it simply because I use gmail for my personal email. If someone sends me a document that I cannot open or read I am usually able to open it in Google docs, without having to download any converters, whoich I get really annoyed by. The downside to Google docs is that it can take a long time to open (take a nap, walk the dog, do some dishes and ta-da it's there)!

Since I already have some knowledge of Google docs I elected to use the other online application listed, Zoho writer.

I signed up for an account (I wonder if I will be able to remember all these passwords?) and then I get to choose from a lot of applications, I choose writer and get a document with all kinds of instructions. Hoping that this is intuitive enough for me to use without them I click new and am on my way!

I had no problems exporting it to word to save it on my desktop and everything transferred over , which is impressive in itself.

Madison Public Library is on the map!
Come take a look at our collection of over 20,000 books!
For a small town library come see what we have to offer!

The color and the picture did not import to blogspot. And since it is not in a picture format or a video format I can't import it that way (scratching head).

Best I can figure out is how to post it on zoho. Take a look:

http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/bbbudv

Nothing much just checking out what I could do with the various buttons, and how it worked, as far as changing my fonts, adding pictures, inserting emocons etc.


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Thing 18: PBwiki

Woohoo a play area? Now this I can handle! I am not allowed to leave a comment until I sign up for PBwiki, which is a breeze. I sign up and leave a post, after reading many of the other posts from other people. It is really interesting to read some of the places that different people have gone and where they want to go.

http://nebraskalearns.pbwiki.com/Favorite%20Vacation%20Spots#comment1232734158I also left a comment on music http://nebraskalearns.pbwiki.com/Favorite%20Music#comment1232734443

This was an onteresting way to read the thoughts of the other people who are also completing 23 things, and since we are all in the same field yet have so many differences, it is very interesting and a great way to feel like I have a better understanding of other librarians.

Thing 17: Wikis

Well here is an application that I have not heard of or used ever before. I have heard of and used Wikipedia though so perhaps that will be of assistance to me?

So first I checked out the first hyperlink:

http://www.libraryforlife.org/subjectguides/index.php/Main_Page

Honestly, I don't like the format. BORING. Too much like Wikipedia. Everything here is a hyperlink, with no real content.

I clicked on the top hyperlink of biography and memoir. The page is again very reminiscent of Wikipedia however now we at least have some content, and we see some library offerings. Looking back at the home-page I see that they also listed local offerings and local information. Some of this I can see as a positive. Still I find the overall too boring.

Where I think this application could be of use to my library: offering wikis on our webpage to list local offerings, and entice people by informing them of what their community has to offer them.

Next I clicked on the second hyperlink for the Princeton book club

http://booklovers.pbwiki.com/Princeton%20Public%20Library

Now this one is a little better. There is some color and some content, and more than just hyperlinks, however here I think we see to little in the way of offerings, simply a listing of book categories to check out books. Clicking on a link allows users to see what reviews members of the club have read and reviewed, also includes a pic of the front cover of the book being reviewed. I do feel that this site is better than the first in most regards but it still lacks a lot.

Last I checked out http://bullrunlibrary.pbwiki.com/, and overall I prefer this wiki by far. It lists misc. content on the sidebar, that local patrons would be most interested in, it offers content, pictures and hyperlinks to entice readers to learn more about the items that interest them and offers an immediate hyperlink to local area contents.

Thing 16: Library 2.0

Reading and understanding the concept of Library 2.0. I started with the first listed link:

http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm.

On some points I agree with him and on some points I am unsure. We are in Nebraska, and many of the patrons that frequent my library are very Internet inept. But since we are so small helping people individually is not an issue. There is no 600:1 ratio here. I do foresee a time when even small town libraries will have to offer more online, but for now I have found that most of the patrons who visit here are looking for books in print and access to the library's public use computers, as they have no access at home. In fact until I get my patrons up to speed on computer and Internet usage there is no reason to offer Internet resources.

Next, I went on the the second link:

http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/3.htm

And one thing that he wrote that was simply an exemplary quote was,

"This librarian understands that the future of libraries will be guided by how users access, consume and create content."

And this is the most simple yet profound comment I have read today. We as libraries have to understand our patrons, the way that they want to access our content and provide them options that are convenient to them. Does that mean offering everything online? Not unless your patrons all have computers and Internet access and are too busy to leave their cars houses and offices, even briefly. I do not see this is as the current state of things in rural Nebraska. Yet it is definitely the state of things in bigger cities. Knowing this, and knowing that such things will begin trickling down into our own communities allows us to prepare for the new technologies that will help us remain an integral part of the lives of the communities around us.

Last I chose the last link for Library 2.0 debased:

http://www.blyberg.net/2008/01/17/library-20-debased/

Here the author makes a lot of good points about libraries becoming too technology based, and how only a specific segment of the population is using this content that is aimed at everyone. Having personally come from a bigger city back to the rural Nebraska area, I know how technologically advanced things are getting. But honestly that creep has not extended to the rural areas nearly as much. I have to help almost all of my patrons with basic computer skills. This tells me that much of my library's patron population has not learned as much about technology. And many of my patrons are retired. These folks know next to nothing about computers and want to know even less. So when we do offer online books, and online content we are going to have to realize that the main patrons with this interest will be younger, probably high school age up to late twenties, or early thirties.

Thing 15 Slideshare

I signed up for Slideshare, created a brief slideshow and uploaded it to my new account.

http://www.slideshare.net/madlibr/madison-public-library-in-ne-presentation

I also explored the Nebraska Library Commission's posted slideshows and searched under Nebraska Libraries to see some interesting presentations. I also added Nebraska Access as a contact. I posted to the NLC wall:

http://www.slideshare.net/nebraskaccess/wall

Thing 14 Delicious

Watched the bookmark networking video. I love the concept! So, I signed up and took a look around. Now I need to figure out how to use this, I guess I will have to suffer through the instructions, darn. Aha, well I had thought that the delicious buttons on the left side were the buttons I need, but nope the ones I need are on the right, I guess the left side is backup? lol. Anyways I tagged a site, was able to add tags to it rather easily, as they pre-listed and I only need to click them.

Then I looked at the NLC delicious account. Wow there are over 450 pages of bookmarks. I will have to take some time to review these.

Thing 13: Twitter

I watched the introduction to Twitter via the linked youtube video listed on NE Learns 2.0. From the sounds of twitter it already reminds me of the little thing that myspace added, where you can post at the top of your myspace page what you are doing or feeling currently along with a little emocon showing your feelings.

I went through all my personal contacts including all my chat buddies and only 2 people were on twitter, and one of those is from the NLC. The other is a board member. So now I am following them. Since my list was so small I added a couple of interesting libraries that I found searching for library. Sadly, I did find that I could not search for two things, like Nebraska and Library. I was told no one with a twitter account is named Nebraska Library. I also do not have the patience to read through the entire list looking for Nebraska Libraries. I gave up after approximately 3 pages. So now I have 9 entites that I am following, and I added my own update: learning about twitter! I also added a picture of the library and changed the background theme. Woohoo.

I like the idea and think that it can be a useful way to let people know what is happening at our library, however until it's usage becomes more widespread I don't see Twitter as a real need.

Thing 12: Library Thing

I read through the Library Thing intorduction, signed up and listed my books with absolutely no problems. Thier book listing was absolutely EASY! I listed 18 books, which is a listing of our adult and young adult books which are on display. I then went in and added account details and a picture of the library. Check out my library:

http://www.librarything.com/profile/madlibr

Thing 11: Blog about technology

Okay, telling me to blog about anything is like inviting me to write a book. Uh-oh! My technology gripe would have to be the IT aspect of being a small library director. In my area the IT people are um, (trying to say this nicely) undesirable? I am not impressed with their abilities. Or the results that I have seen. My predecessor used the different IT locals commonly and all I can say is that the setup at my library is horrible. My home setup is better.

My advice to all those people who call these so called IT professionals is that you could possibly do better without them. Try googling the issue that you have. There are issues posted on bulletin boards everywhere addressing all sorts of issues, from the very minor - how to program your computer so that the number lock doesn't unlock everytime your computer shuts off, to how to problem solve connection issues, trojans, spyware, etc. It is cheap and easy to look up and print out some promlem solving techniques for connectivity issues. Then, when you have connection issues, give those items a try before you have to call the techs over and over trying to get them to take a look, you also won't have to pay for them, and won't have to feel that you paid WAY TOO MUCH for WAY TOO LITTLE!

I posted a comment to the Quiltin' Library Lady's blog.

Thing 10: Image Generators

Well, this was fun. First I went to the Einstein form writer. I am a big fan of the genius of Mr. Einstein. Really simple to use, just type in your text, click a button and kazaam, Einstein's chalkboard has your text on it. I may have to print this out and display it at the library. Next I looked around the generator bog, which lists tons of generator sites along with discriptions of what each site does. There is a site where you can have your post cut into a cutters arm, not my favorite by any means, but definately something that people will give a second look.

Thing 9 : More Flickr Fun

I decided to try Montager for some additional Flickr fun. What immediately came up was a collage of faces. To see what I could do with this application I used the search bar to look for pictures of dogs, and it created a collage of dog pics for me. I could then email my collage to others using this link:

Checkout this photo mosaic: http://www.deviousgelatin.com/montager/image.php?image=3215220369.

By scrolling your mouse over the mosaic (I still like the word collage better), you can see the individual pictures that compose the mosaic/collage.

Overall a fun little application. Since there should be a bunch of people who titled their picture NELearns2.0, I decided to likewise create a mosaic/collage of it as well.

Looks like someone had fun taking pictures of their cookies?

Wow, there are a ton of picures in this one too: http://www.deviousgelatin.com/montager/image.php?image=3199432080

It is a cool application, though limited in purposes for a library.

Thing 8 Flickr

Well I have honestly never used Flickr, though I have heard of it. I don't post alot of pictures online, even on Myspace. Much to the dismay of the people who want to see myself and my kids. I must admit a strong avhersion to pictures of me, which is made even stronger by the idea of publishing said pictures where *gasp* anyone might see them! lol.

Okay so getting back to the task at hand I click take the tour on Flickr. it tells me that I can edit, upload, organize and share my pictures online, all for free. So I continue on with the 'Magical Tour.' Looking at the perks, it looks very similar to snapfish which is how I send my photos to get developed at Walgreens. They also sell calendars , allow you to mass upload, edit and organize pictures. They don't really allow you to share them (to my knowlegde, though as I have never had the inclination, I might be entirely wrong).

So for this thing I am doing option 2, you guys got me with EASY CHALLENGE. :D

Sadly though the digital camera route is out of the question. One of my employees appears to have used the last of my AA batteries so I will have to utilize some previouslytaken photos for this challenge. I am scoutring my email sent box now.

So I uploaded pictures of my family, some great ones of my kids eating dinner, as I know everyone needs a little humor sometime. I even added *gasp* pics of me.

I titled a picture of the Madison Library as NELearns2.0 and included it here in my blog. My Flickr account can be accessed by anyone and can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/34594335@N02/.

As I noted above I found flickr to be very easy and simlar in content and features to snapfish and other photo entities.

Thing 7: Finding Feeds

The first thing that I did was sign up for the librarian feeds, which signed me onto 5 feeds right away. This is more than I can hope to read daily (at least it is if I plan on doing anything else), but I figure I can always read them bit by bit and delete those that do not interest me. The feeds that I signed up for are:

librarian's internet index

the shifted librarian

social networking librarian

Comments for free range librarians

The Digital Librarian

and Libworm query to look up feed by 1500 different libraries.

Explore some of the search tools noted above that can help you locate some news feeds.
I cannot say that I had any real issues adding feeds. You can open them up and preview a bit before you add them from their page or you can read the general topic, add them then if you don't like them delete them. Simple stuff. Librarians have some very different interests so as I read some of these I envision that some will intrigue me and others I will find less interesting. honestly though I do not think that I will keep up with this much reading on a daily basis. Maybe a once weekly journey?

Return to Thing 6

Uggh. Well I had an error and must re-type my previous entry. Why did I not save? Too busy? Ha, that will teach me.

I am returning to thing six, as the NE learns 2.0 is almost over and I am sadly lagging. I subscribed to three fellow 2.0 enlistee blogs. One from someone who has completed their 23 things. To Allanah's blog simply because I had so much fun chatting with her and also to my employee's blog. Sadly she is way ahead of me. Good thing she has listened to all my remarks to keep doing her 23 things. Sadly I should have listened to me too.
Hahaha so here I go in an attempt to get back on the bandwagon and finish before the end.

Thing Six: Really Simple Syndication

So far I have signed up for Bloglines and it had a pre-made category for Librarians, which sets me up with fifty feeds right away.

Thing Four - post a comment w/ blog info

Hmmm. I cannot seem to find my original post. Drats.

So re-posting access to my blog:

Madison Public Library's blog can be found at:http://madlibr.blogspot.comI was sure I had posted this when this first began, but cannot find it now.

Thing five - Instant Messaging

I personally love instant messaging, but here at the library we block it from our computers. People have to ask to get access to any messaging applications, and none of the actual applications are downloaded or allowed on any of our computers. I do feel that especially where children are involved there is a safety issue, as we can be anyone when we instant message, and children are pretty susceptible to this (or is gullible a more apt term?).

Another disadvantage to chat in my community is that so much of my adult population lacks computer knowledge. Help with basic computer skills is something of a daily job skill here in Madison.

In my personal life I use IM to beat boredom and interact with other adults and often to learn about different people from different cultures. I love getting in contact with people of different nationalities who can tell me a bit about their world, their culture and their people. it is so interesting to me that so many different cultures teach english to their students from an early age on, making it easy to communicate for those of us who are interested.

Okay moving ever onward to thing 5, instant messaging. This I can do! I am a chat-a-holic! I have an account in MSN, Yahoo, and maybe AIM (not sure if I closed that one or not).

Well, crazy thing, I have put this off until it is getting late in the game. I know that the Nebraska Learns 2.0, officially ends on January 30th of this year, so I have returned to complete the series of tasks. And look... it's not even the middle of January yet - woohoo!