Friday, September 28, 2007

23 Things - #23 The End, or at least a pause

Wow, finally made it, what wit h the mad dash up to this point. It has been fun and interesting. I liked checking out these sites I have never heard of and learning about terms I had only heard of in passing. I think I will have to spend a week playing on LibraryThing in the very near future, and wonder if there version of it for video and not simply books.
I think I walk away from the program a little more in touch with contemporary Internet users who have more time on their hands then I do sift through all their favorites sites on a daily basis. As I said once before I like the idea of RSS feeds and the like, but at least for me I don't go to enough sites in a day to require such a device but knowing how to use one should help work with library patrons who need to know.
I think that there could be more guidance with this program. In almost every exercise we are told simply to play and explore on the site but honestly I would have preferred more definitive tasks to help show us all the features the sites have to offer. I grant that letting people look for themselves is a great idea but sometimes being shown an example of something works better.
If another opportunity like this came along in the near future I would probably check what we would be looking at, and how before deciding to join simply because I would have liked more direction on some of the tasks.
Overall I had fun and enjoyed learning about these Web 2.0 sites. I think some of them are utter crap, at least for me, and as such may never go back to them again. But overall in the long term I think I will continue to use some of the sites from this program and will be looking forward to the opportunity like this.

23 Things - #22 Gutenberg on Overdrive

Ahh online libraries, how cool. So looking at Overdrive I find it very cool, in terms of who they are partnered with to provide both books, audio, and video. I also forgot how challenging it was to actually get onto the consortium site from the 23 things page. This means they have a very nice selection and checking out the materials seems easy enough. My only concern would be the software and the fact that I really don't like sitting in front of my computer that long, and lacking an MP3 player probably not my cup of tea just yet. Now if only they would get some better video downloadables.
Project Gutenberg was interesting, in what they are doing with the ability to download entire CDs full of content for the purpose of burning, and the fact that all of the material is off of copyright. Or rather the material is no longer copyright controlled....why can't I think of the right term? I liked the idea of offering up a CD ISO worth of material but as most the material is 75+ years old some of it seems almost comical compared to contemporary material but still very cool. Gutenberg could also use a better search tool as I had a hard time trying to use it, but it may have been my error. Still fun sites.

23 Things - #21 Podcasts

Ahh Podcasts, such an interesting take on radio for the internet age. I actually do occassionally listen to a few podcasts but often those times are few and far between. The suggestion I would have would be Anime World Order. The show has a couple of wonderful hosts and covers everything under the sun with a specialty towards reviewing older/out of print titles. It is a fun hour long show and helps on those long car trips to conventions.
Of the poscast searches I liked Yahoo Podcasts the best given the ease of use, the review tab for each of the sites found, and the summary of each of the found sites. Podcast.net was similar in style but I found Yahoo was simply easier and had more sites. I really disliked PodcastAlly given it simply gave you titles for the podcasts with no idea what they were about.
I like podcasts but as I still don't own and MP3 player or want to hook up my computer to a stereo I think I shall continue to pass on listening to these things on a regular basis. And that actually is a concern because you do need an MP3 player to easily use a podcast unless you like sitting in front of your computer for a lengthy period of time. Just my 2 cents.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

23 Things - #20 YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4

The above link is for the "Potter Puppet Pals - The Mysterious Ticking Noise" video on YouTube. This is the third of the Potter Puppet Pals skit and the first one with actual puppets rather than the flash version they used initially. I like the video because it is an interesting twist on the joke first done on Homestar Runner with the idea of spoken Rave Music.
But the video also helps show the interest in YouTube and user generated content because before this site existed think how hard it would be to set this sort of video up and have people find it.
The idea of having a video review site for books would be very attractive. The concern is that it is not maybe the best idea. I grant it worked for Reading Rainbow but maybe video is not the best place for this, and a simple podcast would be better. Of course you could also make a video tour video of each library this way, to help aclimate staff who are being moved to a new location before their first day there. Just an idea, but I do really find YouTube a great fun site occassionally.

23 Things #19 2.0 Sites

Well I checked out three websites for this activity. I looked at "Lulu" under books, "Cocktail Builder" from Fun, and Digg.
I thought Lulu was interesting as it is or seems to be a great self-publishing site for small authors. I liked the ability to get an estimate and chose what you wanted done to build a book. I also found the "Sell" area cool, because while you can find some small authors this seems like a great place to find new titles and authors.
I looked at "Cocktail Builder" actually becuase a friend of mine asked me a while back if I had a bartending/mixing guide. I did not but when I saw this site listed on the 2.0 Award winners I thought I would try it. I think it is not as nice as I would have hoped for. I would like a better searcher for drinks with titles but overall a very good site that simply needs more input to build an even larger library of drinks.
And I looked at Digg simply because I know of it. I think it may never get the popularity of Slash-Dot, but it is coming along. And it was created by Kevin Rose who is a most interesting person. I do find the idea of user chosen content interesting but I am always a bit leary of those sorts of sites.
Of these sites only Lulu has a direct application in the library simply because it is about finding small press books by new authors and that is very cool. Cocktail builder of course has no place in the branch unless as a helper to find out about a drink for information purposes, in much the same way as Digg would show you the hot sites/stories of the day.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

23 Things - #18 - Online Productivity

So I looked at Google Docs as I already have two e-mail accounts there and had used them to play with some files before. I do find these new web based applications are cool and viable for easy and quick modification but honestly I feel that Works and Word will still have either place. With the current level of options avalible on these web apps there are too many limitations on what is possible to create.
I also find when I import an existing text document which I build on Correl at home, it will add small bits of text at the titles of the page, often a small 1. And I have no idea why this is. Outside of that I do like the ease of use and the fact that I don't need to have access on the computer for Works or Word, but instead of that software you need to have internet access which can be slightly harder to come by. So while I think this will have a place, I think at this stage it will not replace any existing Word Processing applications, if simply due to the issue of access and that these apps. are still in the infancy stage of both use and function.

23 Things - #17 Sandbox

http://marylandlibrariessandbox.pbwiki.com/FO+-+Favorite+Books
A nice little site. Above links to my entry on the Sandbox site just in case the page has issues on the Sandbox site.
I like the ability to create a page and I like the options on the appearance of that page but I dislike the complexity with which it takes to link site. I know it is streamlined and easy to use overall but I still think it could use some work. It is a bit more complex than I had expected but overall it was a fine site which was easy to deal with.

Monday, September 24, 2007

23 Things - #16 Wikis

Ahh the topics on things I already have a background with. Wiki's are an interesting subject for me as I almost consider them more of an online bulletin board with better control of subjects. I say this because Wikis only exist if a user builds a page, they just don't magically appear with information. I like Wikis they do allow for a communal sharing of information in many ways. I have been a part of the Diacon 4 Wiki which was set up to go psudeo-frame by frame (as in someone excised out frames which were of no significance) of a animated music video that has many many references to other items from books to movies. And in the sense of creating a collabrative effort I like Wikies and I like Wikipedia for interesting snippets of information I don't know but I still take everything stated with a grain of salt.
I find it interesting that people are setting up Wikis to go through and explain their best ways of dealing with library customers and the like. The thing is if no one or only one person is building the entry is it truely worthwhile or helpful? Sharing information is great but I don't think this is the proper medium. Reading a paragraph about how someone handles a situation under different circumstances that your own can lead to problems. As a form that Reader's Advisory could move into I think it is a wonderful thing, but you have to get people to produce meaningful entries and that is always the problem.

Friday, September 21, 2007

23 Things - #15 Web 2.0

The video about the ever changing web was very interesting and well done. It provided some thought as to where are we as a technologically linked society should be going as technology and its functions change over the coming years. Most of the tools we have looked at during this program seem to relate to various searchs, either of blogs or sites. While trying to sift through the vast melange of webpages out there which these tools are good but at somepoint when are people going to simply say "Enough is enough" and move on and put down the keyboard and simply walk away. I personally always try to spend at least one 24 hour period a week away from my personal computer, and instead read a (or more) book(s).
Library 2.0 is a interesting look on how the rest of the world is changing and while I agree that the library is now not the only bastion of information which people have avalible to them, I am not sure that radical changes are what is called for. People will still read physical books, not simply a screen, and there will always be a place for a library. If it means lessening the non-fiction collection and simply moving to a more comprehensive fiction collection I know not.
With regards to Library 2.0 I think we as a system may want to heed some the suggestions. For example, while I like our new RFID security system, I seriously think that going systemwide checkout/returns with RFID is wasteful. From Michael Stephens' "Into a world of New Librarianship" we need to control technology to truely useful not just cool. RFID is very flashy as technology goes and it will interest patrons but I am not sure the cost justifies the end results. If a RFID tag runs something like $0.35 and every item has to be tagged, I think I would never want to delete items from the catalouge as new ones come in. The system buys something like 150,000 new items each year and much correspondingly delete roughly the same number of items. That is a lot of wasted money annually, in addition to the initial setup costs for the system in both material cost and man hours to tag and deal with the computers. Just my two cents.

23 Things - #14 Technorati

An interesting site and an interesting way to show a search. Once more I am less than trilled with the site. Keyword searches seem to bring up multiple problems, at least with something like "Learning 2.0" because you will get a lot of "Learning" and "2.0" mentions individually, not together. Which is a standard search engine issue of course. The odd question I had was how "Authority" is determined as that seems to affect how a search result is displayed. I did find it interesting that the more popular blogs seem in part to revolve around technology. This really does make me wonder how much free time people must spend on the internet to need something like this on a regular basis.
The site is interesting and I am sure people find it helpful but I found it cluttered and not easily navigated, without much more experience. Once more not my favorite site in the world.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

23 Things - #13 Del.icio.us

Well, this is an interesting idea in collecting together various items under one account. I am just not sure I fully understand its usefulness. The tagging system is interesting and reminds me of a short story about how different people connect/label different objects but I still think it is a rather cumbersome way to work anything. And I could see it being used in the manner which a library is using it to supply information to multiple people, much like a message board, but I doubt that this is a tool I would use on a regular basis. Of course I am also not a fan of either LiveJournal or MySpace and so I am less interested in the social networking aspect of the site, which could be helpful for some. In the sense that you could find information on a topic due to one of the tags linking you to something you had not thought about. It just reminds me of people whom just somehow start on Wikipedia at Bridges and end up finally reading an article on Nicola Tessla.
As a side note, I just want to bid a fond farewell to "Robert Jordan" who passed away this weekend.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

23 Things - #12 - RollyO

So I must say I am not sure I see this as being a great idea. There are of course advantagous points to being able search only specific site but I am not sure that at this stage we are at the point were this is the best option. Yes there are some very nice tools created but in all honestly I have found that often it is easier to simply run a Google search for most things. It is nice to find very specific topic level search tools like Rollyo but given that these are still self-decided sites/blogs to search there could be information that you could miss, or you could come across more info that you could find yourself. It is still an interesting idea but I think it might be a bit early in its life cycle.
I am supposed to link this to my blog but I cannot see a way to do so. There is no link and it does not bring up a separate web address. Any idea?

Saturday, September 15, 2007

23 Things - #11 LibraryThing


Ohh I like the idea of this site and could see me spending an hour or 12 there. I like the idea of creating an online database of the books one has, given I forget this sort of info occasionally it could come in handy. There seem to be some problems with it, at least with the Amazon search, but if a book is out of print that would do it. It this works above you should have the recently added Widget of titles, but I seem to be having a problem with it displaying. Now if only they had a DVD version of this.

23 Things - #10

Yahoo! Avatars U.K. & Ireland


If all goes well you should be able to see the image from Yahoo UK's Avatar creator. This is about the closest approx. I could build for me....in my opinion. The generators are interesting but most of the time you are limited in what you can do in them. I grant I really like Photoshop and all of the options to adjust photos but in a pinch these online image generators are fairly decent....mayhaps this was how all those cat image jokes came about?