Friendly Technology

After assisting several patrons with technology in our public library branch today, I feel both elated and secure.
Elated because there is a growing excitement about new digital resources. A patron who was checking out books on CD was delighted to learn we have downloadable audio books. Another patron e-mailed to say "thanks" for purchasing more than one subscription to downloadable audios and videos. Many patrons logged on to surf the Internet. Many others checked out books, recorded books and/or movies to while away a rainy day in the cozy warmth of their own homes.
Secure because during the same work day I helped other patrons navigate basic library technology, including photocopying, finding an article in Consumer Reports (it's online now but my patron preferred print), and tracking down an interlibrary loan that went astray.
The question of the day today (April 14) was all about income tax -- forms, publications, economic stimulus, AARP, VITA, etc. Next week it will be different, but I am pretty sure that there will always be a question! Public librarians still provide a much needed service: a friendly and (mostly) seamless connection to the world of information.

Reference 2.0

Today I learned that there is still a need for the old fashioned reference librarian. Monday morning brought several patrons to our Library Branch with urgent questions. Where can I find a list of all the social services agencies in Alachua County? What is the range of a rocket propelled grenade? How many African nations are part of the African union? Where can I find free income tax help this week? While a really thorough google search might have yielded answers to all of these questions, our library patrons instead picked up the telephone and called their local library, or came in to ask the librarian on duty. I find this strangely comforting. The thing is, no matter how good technology gets, and how skilled people become in using it, they will still rely upon the oldest, quickest, easiest method of finding out something: ask someone else. And, if you want to make sure the information is reliable, "ask a librarian."

Thing 22 - Staying Current

My very first post on this blog was way back on January 12! That was nearly 3 months ago. I remember wondering why anyone would want to have a blog. Well, now I have a blog. It feels a little like a diary, only this diary is anything but private. Blogs will be a way of life for me now, since I've discovered how easy it is to keep up with my favorite people and places through a travel blog or a grand child blog. My daughter started a recipe blog, and it has come in very handy, too. No more recipe cards filed away in little boxes!
I think that I will continue to use many of the tools I've experimented with in 23 Things. The best part is I will be able to assist patrons who ask questions about them. It's been fun -- sort of like getting a license to play for pay. I have completed all of the 22 things so far on work time. I can still remember the not so old days when surfing the net on work time was frowned upon. Working on 23 Things has successfully removed the shadow of guilt! I think that 21st Century Librarians will need to stay very tuned in to technology, not only to relate to the younger generation, but to be able to help the older generation navigate the Information Highway. To do this I plan to look at the Internet at least once each day (OK, more like 10 or 15 times a day). I will continue to blog; perhaps I will post a daily epiphany. I will continue to view the beautiful flickr photos and those entertaining you tube postings; perhaps I will post a few of my own. I will keep up with all the latest world news with my CNN feed and with all my 23 things bloggers on Google Reader. I will continue to use the biggest and best wiki, Wikipedia, and I will visit Library Thing from time to time to see what's going on in library land. I will revisit each of the 23 things and perhaps add to my blog. After some time passes, I expect I will gain a new perspective, and possibly even learn something new. Above all, I will not be afraid of new technology. I will run headlong into the surf and live in the 21st century.

Thing 21 - Student 2.0 Tools

The Assignment Calculator and the Research Project Calculator are both excellent tools to help students complete a research project on time. Where were they when I was in school? Oh, that's right, we didn't even have PC's back then! No one had ever heard of "e-mail." For today's busy and focused students, however, I believe these tools will be their salvation. I will definitely recommend them when helping students gather the resources they need to research a topic. The student research planning guide, although very basic, could be used as a handout for a teen program on how to do a research paper. The Teacher Guide does not appear to be very useful in the public library setting. My experience is that handouts are not very helpful to students unless the handouts are specific to your library. I would instead attempt to work with the student to determine the parameters of his/her assignment and then to suggest appropriate resources from among the library's holdings.

Thing 20 - Books 2.0

"Future of the Book" does not convey any startling messages. Some people still buy books because they want to underline and write in the margins. Concerning the new print to voice capability of Amazon's Kindle, some people worry that readers will become so lazy they won't even bother learning to sight read. In my humble opinion, the only observation in this article that is worth thinking about is this one:


"Abandon all technology and live in the woods for a week and see if it's your laptop you miss most." Bob Seidensticker, "Future Hype: The Myths Of Technology Change"


The PowerPoint presentation entitled "How Libraries Can Survive in the New Media Ecosystem" did have one surprising message: "Many Americans would just as soon turn their local libraries into museums and recruit retirees to staff them." I do not agree; I believe that libraries give a great return on the tax dollar, and the taxpayers actually appreciate this. As long as we keep returning $6 worth of services for every $1 of taxpayers' money we don't have to fear being turned into a museum that is staffed by retired volunteers. Besides, as one who is approaching retirement age myself, I can tell you that many retirees would not have the physical stamina to staff a public library. We have some pretty dedicated volunteers, but even the most stoic among them limit their volunteering 2 or 3 shifts of 2 to 3 hours each week. To provide the 10 hours a day 40 hours a week 7 days a week service our community is accustomed to getting at their local public library, you're going to have to find some pretty robust retirees. Librarians have been fighting this stereotype for years, though, so it's really no surprise to see it cropping up again, only this time in response to the digital revolution.


I was intrigued with the title, "Fiction Reading Increases for Adults." It's true! The U.S. Census and Dana Gioia, who has headed up the BigRead for the past 6 years, both confirm that Americans are reading more! Even more astounding, the biggest increase has been in the 18-24 age group! Shall we attribute any credit to the advent of the graphic novel? Or the Manga craze? Oh wait, here's a clue: "Internet reading was included in the 2008 data."


This trend was reiterated in the article, "More American Adults Read Literature According to New NEA Study." This writer also notes that the U.S. population now breaks into two almost equally sized groups – readers and non-readers.


"Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?" attempts to distinguish between Internet reading and reading a book. The assertion is that Internet reading is easier, because you can search for your terms and retrieve your information in nuggets rather than read a constant stream of information, some of which will be irrelevant. Those of us who have survived college classes learned the art of retrieving nuggets of information a long time ago. One does not necessarily need to read the ENTIRE book to obtain the pertinent details. So what's new? Nothing, really. Reading is reading is reading.....etc. I personally believe that there is a place for both online information/reading as well as traditional reading from the book. If I'm trying to find out about a new concept I may search online to get the quickest and simplest idea of what it is. If it interests me, then I may opt to read about it in depth. I may even check out a book from my local library!


So next I tried DailyLit and I LOVED IT!!! I've had James Patterson's latest Cross Country on hold since January, and I'm still #15 in line. DailyLit gave me the first 5 pages for free, and it is as good as Patterson gets. Will I ever tire of Alex Cross? Probably not. I can purchase 159 installments (pages) for $9.99. After a little rush of excitement, however, disappointment came with the realization that some of my other favorite authors (Grisham, Connolly, Cornwell, Reichs) were not listed in DailyLit. I found three short stories by Poe in 7 installments for free, and posted this to my Facebook account. Then I took a couple of surveys and learned that my nickname should be PJ and I am lively, charming and usually the center of attention. Haha so you see how serious the Facebook crowd is?

Next I tried "What Should I Read Next?" After typing in Cross Country by James Patterson, I instantly retrieved a list of 10 books. The first on the list however was Janet Evanovich's Plum Spooky. Now I haven't read Plum Spooky, but my guess is that it's funny. James Patterson's books are never funny. Hmmmm. This deserves a closer look. Perhaps I'll read Plum Spooky and see if it's anything at all like Cross Country. To be continued....

Next I explored an online book club, Unbound Reader and BookGlutton. You can read a book online by yourself or along with others. You can make comments as you read the book, which can then be kept private or published and shared with others. If you choose to share your thoughts, others can comment back. Sound pretty interesting. I am interested in the comments option. But who will serve the cucumber sandwiches?

Next I tried BookVideos.tv and I also LOVED this one! I've always enjoyed meeting authors. This is the next best thing to meeting them in person. If my computer was able to play the entire video without stalling, that would be nice, too. Lucky for me I always have a book near the PC to read in case the program stalls. I learned this trick during a webinar that I took for library training. After spending the better part of an hour gazing at the frozen talking head of the workshop presenter, hoping the video would start rolling again, I decided never to put myself through that again. It's back up books for me!

The next thing I tried was Open Culture. Again, I LOVED it! There are free online courses here from prestigious universities like Yale, UC Berkeley and MIT. This is such a good deal, I posted it to my Facebook page. Hopefully some young friends will take advantage of this opportunity. There are also another 1/2 dozen more free Italian podcasts to be listened to. I will definitely be visiting this again. Remember, I'm still working on my Italian skills.

So just when I thought things couldn't possibly get any better, I find Bookbrowse! Readers' reviews and ratings, along with a short synopsis and thumbs up/down from the critics make this a wonderful source of reader's advisory. I've already placed two holds as a result of my short visit to this site. This should definitely be listed in the hotlinks from the library's webpage. Although I hesitate to give up my best reader's advisory friend NoveList, I am wondering if Bookbrowse is a worthy competitor!

I've been adding my own book reviews to MySpace for some time now. I feel very isolated, like maybe I'm the only one of the millions on this site who likes to read. So imagine how delighted I was to discover that Facebook has "Books We Read" for the readers among us. Awesome! I've signed up and listed 5 or 6 of my favorite books. We'll see where this leads.

Storyline is great!!! Real actors read children's books in streaming video. I have only just begun to explore this site. If it is as good as it appears to be, I will recommend it to my children and grandchildren, since I seem to recall that there are never enough adults around to read to kids when they are little!

Thing 19 - Other Social Networks

I read the article about Gather trying to become the MySpace for books, and I'm not so sure this will work. Who would go willingly into a new site where the stated objective is marketing? What's in it for the average (non author) user? I know MySpace was originally intended to be a place for musicians to market their work, but look what it has become. Sure, music is still a part of it, but not, by far, the biggest part. Next I looked at some of the other sites. I'd already used WebJunction, for some library training in the past. So I checked out Gather, but, as I've already explained, was not too excited about their mission. Next I tried Ning, and was pleasantly surprised to rediscover that I'm already a Ning user, having joined the James Patterson Community some time back--I even have one friend. I've been a fan of Patterson for while now--Alex Cross is one of my favorite good guys. The chat on Ning's James Patterson Community so far hasn't been riveting, but maybe it will get better. And I get an occasional email update about new releases. This must be one of the reasons Patterson is such a popular author among the young adult crowd--he knows where to find them (online).

Thing 18 - Facebook and MySpace

I set up an account on MySpace a couple of years ago, at the invitation of my daughter. A complete novice at social networking, I neglected to fill in the details on my profile, so in the space after the question, "children?" the default response was "no." Of course this sent my daughters into peals of laughter. I think they said they were lol or something like that. As soon as I figured out how to edit my profile, I changed it to "proud parent." For quite a while I used MySpace as a way to "network" with my own family. When they didn't answer the phone for example, I checked their MySpace page for updates and the latest photos. MySpace has been a lot of fun, and has allowed me to explore some things I did not know how to do. It was here that I learned how to "blog." I started blogging book reviews, in the hope that I might connect with other readers. And here that I learned how to upload photos, and I even created a slide show. Once you try it you'll be hooked. And don't worry about safety issues. It isn't that hard to become your child's friend on MySpace. The one thing that I do not like about MySpace is the commercialism that crops up -- I know that nothing is free, and the ads probably pay for the site maintenance. But I'm talking about the so-called "friends" who seek you out and then, once you've accepted them as a friend, they try to sell you some Omaha Steaks! I really don't need to purchase food on a social networking site, so these friends will be deleted.
Here's a recent photo of my little granddaughter, Grace, hamming it up with a pair of sunglasses. Her Aunt Leah took the photo, uploaded it to MySpace, and I was able to see it, save a copy, and print it immediately. How cool is that???



Facebook came next. I don't understand why it is so popular, really. It's about the same as MySpace, but it is easier to find people you once knew. Not for me, because many of the folks in my age group are not into social networking. But the software apparently looks at your friends' friends and gives you suggestions on who you might want to add as a friend. I'm not too fond of this feature, but must admit that I've added some friends as a result of it. Of course, most of my friends here are also related to me. We've even added a family reunion group just for us, that cannot be viewed by the public. So far the only ones to sign up for it beside myself are under 40! Come on, all you baby boomers, get with the program and set up your own social networking page! You can be my friend!