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

Thing 10 -- Tagging and Delicious

Social bookmarking is one of those phrases that makes me stop to think--what does it mean? After watching the video and reading the comments on NEFLIN's blog, it appears to be an easy way to keep up with your favorite websites, to organize them according to indexing terms you assign, and to share them with others. It sounds like it would be a great way to organize websites for library users. Hopefully our library patrons will find the new library website so useful they will bookmark it! Tagging makes the concept of bookmarking even more appealing. The ability to organize websites using terms you come up with yourself could be very useful. Beyond that, the ability to see what websites other people are bookmarking and tagging would be a very powerful resource....especially if you find a user with similar tastes.
Next I looked at del.icio.us to see what all the excitement is about. This is another Yahoo product which does make it easy for one who already has a Yahoo account. I already had some sites bookmarked as a result of a NEFLIN workshop I attended in the fall of 2006, called Social Software in Libraries. It was a hoot to see Unshelved pop up on my list of bookmarks. I had forgotten all about this. Haha. Today I added another, more important and serious bookmark -- Medpedia. I only hope that I remember to use it! I also added a gadget to my 23 things blog that will allow anyone to bookmark my blog using Delicious. It was pretty easy to do, since they have the answer to this question in their help file: "How do I add a "Bookmark on Delicious" button to my website or blog?" It's a matter of copying and pasting the html code for bookmark on delicious into your blog. After you sign in you click on dashboard, then on layout, then on add a gadget. The next screen is where you will paste the code you have copied. Then save it and tada! you have succeeded.

Thing 9 -- Sharing - slides, photos, databases

Sharing information comes naturally to librarians, so this should be an easy thing. I think that it will be useful as a way to promote library materials. Maybe we could create a slide show that shows the work in progress as they work to expand and renovate our building. A photo mosaic of a library program might be fun. Of course, we all love databases! I can see it now: staff picks loaded into a database that our patrons can view!

The Mosaic above was created using Big Huge Labs. I was able to link to my flickr account and select the photos I wanted in the mosaic. Then I clicked a button to create the mosaic. Now comes the tricky part. At first I attempted to copy and paste the html code into my blog. But I kept getting an error message, then the blog closed.

Finally I simply saved the mosaic onto my hard drive and was then able to load the mosaic the same way you load any other photo from your computer, by clicking the browse button, then locating the picture you want and clicking upload. Whew! I'm hoping it gets easier as I go along.


Below is a link to a slide show of photos that I took in Cedar Key in November 2007. It was pretty easy to get this into my blog. First I opened another window, then logged into my flickr account, clicked on one of my favorite photos, and then clicked "view as a slide show." Once the slide show came up I clicked on "share." There I "grabbed the URL," and copied it to the clipboard. Then I came back to my 23 things blog and pasted the url into my blog. Simple enough. If you get organized and keep your photos in albums, then your slide shows will have a theme. I will definitely recommend flickr to patrons who are looking for a way to organize and share their digital photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16407621@N03/sets/72157603228924401/show/with/2043976390/

Next I took a look at Picture Trail. It was pretty easy to create another free account. I did have to "skip" the free offer. But then I was able to upload some photos of the Millhopper Branch in its temporary location, on the 2nd floor of the Bank of America building, at 2627 NW 43rd St. I'm pretty sure I followed the directions correctly, but the html code does not translate into a photo slide show as expected. Could it be because I don't have the latest version of flash???

Well, anyway, here is a photo of the Bank of America building where Millhopper Branch Library is temporarily located, at 2627 NW 43rd St. Take the elevator to the 2nd floor, you will see the library on your left as you exit the elevator.

Thing 8 -- Communication - Web 2.0 Style

I've always wondered about IM'ing. It looks pretty cool, and apparently if you have a web cam you can also do a video chat, or leave a voice mail, if the person is not available. I invited 3 other google users to chat with me. We'll see how it goes.
Several days later: So far nada on the google chat scene. So I took advantage of the widget offered by the cool folks at NEFLIN (Meebo) and installed it on my blog dashboard! So come on all you bloggers, Chat with Sharon!
Several days later, a slender ray of understanding slipped into my consciousness. To sum it up, here is a quote from Howstuffworks describing instant messaging:
"Send notes back and forth with a friend who is online." Tada! If your friend is not online, there will be no messaging. Aargh.
3/28/09 News Flash!!!!
I received my very first IM this morning, from my son who lives in Atlanta. He happened to be online at the same time as me and sent me a hello how are you message! Wow that was exciting. It's kind of like a phone call without sound. Anyway, I felt compelled to share this new experience with someone. Why not here, in 23 things?

Thing 7 -- Online Image Generators

This is so cool! You can use your own photos to create art! Here's a warholized image of sweet baby Grace:

Thing 6 -- Flickr Mashups

I already had a flickr account, established during a NEFLIN workshop on Digital Cameras back in the Spring of 2005. I've not used it much since then, but here's a recent photo that I took of a quilt I just finished making. It is called a Nine-Patch Scrap Quilt. I made it from scraps of fabric that I've been collecting over the last 30 years or so.

This is a picture I took at sunset in Cedar Key in the fall of 2007. Can you believe we have this beautiful natural treasure just 50 miles from Gainesville?

I also looked at a "mashup" from Flickr. It wasn't very hard to get to it. After clicking on the link for "spell with flickr," I typed my name, then photos popped up from the millions that are stored in Flickr. I had the option to change one by clicking on the letter. Once I got the photo letters I liked, I copied and pasted the html code into this post. That's all there was to it. I was able to view the photo letters once briefly during preview, but after publishing all I can see are those little red x's that say here's a picture but you can't see it. What gives????
I'm not one to give up easily, so I let this rest for a while and then came back for another look. On 2/12, checked in on my google reader, where I am receiving rss feeds from several other Millhopper staff bloggers. Two of them had successfully spelled something using mashup!!! Lucky for me, one of them included instructions. So now you can see my name spelled out with flickr photos. Hurray!
Here's my attempt to use splashr:

My Presentation

Thing 5--Flickr

This is a photo I found on Flickr, loaded by pollobarca2, and located in the "creative commons" area. It is a picture of the beach in Montorosso, on the coast of Italy. I was there last October. It was a bit chilly in October, and the beach was not so crowded. But the water was that incredible shade of aqua blue.