Thing 17 - Podcasts

The "Podcasting in Plain English" was short, but very informative. I was not impressed with the podcast.com selections, because they took so loooong to load and play. CNN radio is pretty useful, and right up to the minute. On the morning after Obama's interview on the Tonight Show, they already had a podcast about it. I found a podcast for one of my favorite TV shows, 24. It was voice only, and consisted of two people discussing characters and plots. They talked about the results of a survey on the most popular villain, the least favorite scenes, etc. Interesting, but not something I would ordinarily choose to spend my free time on.
My favorite podcast remains Radio Arlecchino. This was created by the University of Texas at Austin, and offers a variety of different ways to learn Italian. Each podcast covers a particular aspect of Italian grammar, and it can also be downloaded in pdf format and printed. Users have the ability to send questions in by email. The podcast can be delivered to your iPod through iTunes. This is by far the most effective (and least expensive) Italian lesson I've ever found. And I've been trying to learn Italian for nearly 2 years now. Here's the site in case you'd like to take a look at it yourself.
http://tltc.la.utexas.edu/ra

Thing 16 - You Tube

You Tube is, by far, my absolute most favorite of all the 23 Things. Who could have predicted this phenomenon? The world has certainly become a smaller place since You Tube. We can now share our happy moments, our sad ones, even our silly ones, with everyone else in the entire world. What a blessing this is. I found a great clip of a young girl performing a flaminco dance that I would like to share with you now. Take a look at it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAUwCEbPhA8

Or for those among you with more sophisticated tastes, here is a clip of Elvis singing
"Amazing Grace:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDyXLnarP7Y

And another live recording of Elvis singing "I Can't Help Falling in Love" that has been viewed more than 800,000 times since it was posted, about a year and a half ago. I wonder what Elvis would have thought about YouTube???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7VG4I_b2Fk


One day soon I'll have the courage to add a video of my own. Wait for it with measured anticipation.

Thing 15 - Rollyo

I've just added a Rollyo search box to my blog, so I think this is what Rollyo does--it gives you a way to search all of the relevant websites for your term. You can list some of your favorite or recommended websites to search, so the results would be a better (more reliable) list of hits to peruse. This might be a better way to present the Great Links on the library's webpage. As it is now one must first know that they are listed under "Look it Up," and then "Great Links." There are some really great websites there, but I wonder how many patrons actually find them. If we used Rollyo for these, they could be grouped into the same categories they are now.

Thing 14 -- Online Productivity Tools

There are so many gadgets (or is it widgets) that you can put on your blog or your website. I don't really see the need for most of them, although I must admit to forgetting an important appointment recently. Perhaps I do need a gadget! One that will stun me into consciousness and make me remember where I am supposed to be and at what time! My old fashioned hand written date book works just fine, when I remember to use it. And I can carry it around with me wherever I go. What could be better than that? Ah, well, but the assignment is to examine online productivity tools. So I will start with a definition. What are they? I found a list among the online resources provided by NEFLIN. They include things like Zoho, 30 Boxes, Google Docs, Bloglines, and Pageflakes. I've seen or tried most of these, so I think my focus for this exercise will be the online calendar. The name "30 Boxes" sounds fun, so I have set up another online account with yet another user name and password. Now I have my schedule for the month of March online. I can have "buddies" who could have access to my calendar. The calendar will be available to me when I am not in the office. And the calendar will also be on my blog!

Thing 13 -- Library Thing

OK, this one I really love! It's like MySpace or Facebook for librarians and other booklovers! I've been putting my own book reviews on MySpace (yes, I know, it's like spitting in the wind). Now I think I'll just put them into Library Thing. You can instantly connect with others who have read the same book. After you've entered enough titles, you will probably begin to see a few people whose reading tastes are similar enough to yours and you may want to join a discussion group. The Library Thing tour was short and sweet. The sign up was very easy. I now have 5 books in my "library." My books on the whole are pretty popular. I've read some other reviews. I've added a Library Thing gadget on this blog. How? From the Library Thing account, go to add a widget, copy the html code, then go back to your 23 things blog. Go to Layout, then click on Add a Gadget, then choose Add html. Here you will paste the code you copied from Library Thing. Tada, you now have a search box on your 23 things blog that allows your viewers to type in the title of a book they might be interested in reading and quickly see a review. I'm still investigating discussions and local events. To be continued....
Well, now, it seems there is a fly in the ointment. Unfortunately Library Thing has a commercial side that is not apparent at first glance. Upon clicking deeper and deeper into the information, I found this statement:
"Enter 200 books for free, as many as you like for $10 (year) or $25 (life)."
All of the book covers must also provide a link back to Amazon, it seems. So this Library Thing is not exactly free. I'm a little disappointed. Mainly because I plan to read way more than 200 books and will not be paying anyone to talk about them online. Guess I'll stick with the freebees, MySpace and Staff Intranet.

Thing 12 -- Wikis

I am an easy convert to wikis, because I've been using Wikipedia for some time now, and find it to be a great resource. As if that weren't enough, one of my colleagues recently established a Zoho wiki for the purpose of managing our floating collection. So I'm already convinced that wikis are useful. The thing I would love to see in a wiki format is the ACLD Circulation Manual. It has always been an enormous document. Right now it resides on the staff server and can be accessed from any staff computer, but it's still just a long unwieldy document. And it has been very slow to be updated as new technology has come along that changed everything circulation, such as RFID. Wouldn't it be grand if we could put this huge but important manual into a wiki that could be key-word searched, and updated immediately, as soon as we figure out new and better ways of doing things? Yes.
I did also enjoy the Common Craft Video on Wikis. The guy who produced these must be some kind of training genius. I also looked at Princeton's Booklover's Wiki. I liked it, but it seems the reviews are written by staff? Could we have a booklover's wiki that would allow patrons to log in and add a review? To be continued.....
Next I took a look at Neflin's Wiki. I signed up for another account (aargh) and then I added a page (Sharon's Page) to this wiki, with work schedules for myself and two other Millhopper staff. You will see it listed on the right "side bar" of the front page. I also tried to edit the front page, but it doesn't appear to have changed the background color to purple as I requested.

Thing 11 -- Social Media

Social media??? OK how many accounts with user names and passwords am I going to have by the time I get to thing 23? The words in this post do appeal to me, however. It's the idea that library services can be user driven, not librarian driven, that I find intriguing.
The description of Reddit states, "we want to democratize the traditional model by giving editorial control to the people who use the site, not those who run it.” This I find is much to my liking. We have been searching for a way to get candid feedback from library users and non-users for years, perhaps decades, perhaps longer. I think we may have it now. If library users can rate library services in much the same way they rate movies or products online, we will finally have the information we have been vainly seeking by collecting dry and boring statistics. How many books we checked out last month is not nearly so interesting to me as hearing from the readers of those books, who can tell us why they liked them and how their lives were impacted as a result of reading them. Noble words, but unfortunately the Reddit site did not score so high on usability.
Next I tried Digg, and found it to be much more user friendly. I set up an account and recommended a website that I like to use for learning Italian, called Radio Arlecchino. Will check on it in a few days to see if anyone else likes...or rather, Diggs it, too.
As suggested by NEFLIN I looked at the New York Times online and found an article about the end of analog television, then recommended this news article on Digg. It was very easy to do. After reading the article, I clicked on the "share" button. This offered me a variety of options, such as FaceBook, Yahoo Buzz and Digg. I chose Digg. The Digg site first checked to see whether or not another user had already recommended it. When it found no matches, I had an option to select a graphic to go along with the post. I chose a simple drawing of a television set. Then I was asked to log into my Digg account (yes, another user name and password to remember). And then, tada, it was posted. I'll check back in a few days to see how popular this article is among Digg parcipants.
3/18/09 Update: So it appears that no one else in the world is interested in Radio Arlecchino, and only one other person looked at my fascinating article on the end of analog TV. OK, I can take a little rejection, and am willing to try again. (Sigh)
I read an interesting article recently in American Libraries online about the Nebraska state auditor's objection to the purchase and use of gaming equipment by state library employees. Apparently a concerned taxpayer saw a video clip on You Tube showing state library staff setting up a Wii game they purchased for the purpose of luring more teens into the public libraries, and the auditor and news reporters are now asking "is this an appropriate use of taxpayer's money?" At least one taxpayer thinks it is not. Possibly they have not heard about the Library 2.0 revolution. See the article for yourself by clicking on the link below, or better yet, go to http://www.digg.com/ and search for it!
http://www.action3news.com/Global/story.asp?S=9900719&nav=menu550_2