Sunday, January 28, 2007

Week 7: Thing 17

I'd love to be able to use wikis at work for planning meeting agendas. It would be great to be able to collaborate during the process vs just seeing the finished result. It could also elminate several people proposing the same topic or no one proposing something, based on the idea that someone else probably already did it. Even better would be having a discussions of what to not talk about. For every person who suggest "we aboslutely need to discuss x" is a person who thinks "I was at the beatings in Sept, Oct, and Nov of last year....isn't the horse dead yet?"

Week 7: Thing 16

I was surprised and impressed by the Stevens County Rural Library District's wiki. I have a bad habit of assuming that rural equals behind the times, but that's not the case at all. If they can do it, maybe we can to? My favourite article on their site was their Manga booklist. It's a list of the series that they own, and a brief summary of the series, with a link to their catalogue. At my last job I ordered the manga, and all I can say is "I wish I thought of that!" It's #9 on their list of popular articles, so I'm not the only one who likes it.

I don't understand what "What types of applications within libraries might work well with a wiki?" is asking. Applications? I'll wait for the official week 7, ask for more information, and come back to this one.

Week 6: Thing 15

Library 2.0 sounds absolutely FANTASTIC! I am giddy with anticipation. It's what I dreamed being a librarian would be like. It's the library that attracts customers for more than just "it's free, and Blockbuster charges almost $5/movie..."

I heard Michael Stephens speak at CLA last year, and he definitely knows his stuff, which is why it pains me to disagree with one of his points. In his "Into a new world of librarianship" article he states "(t)his librarian asks what new technologies or new materials users need." This is Library 1.3. Library 2.0 would include "and providing them with what they need or finding an alternative solution."

For example, Library 1.3 provides customers with an opportunity to "Suggest a Purchase...." and then tells the customer we're not going to bother acknowleding your input or let you know if it's being purchased or not ie "Due to the large number of suggestions we receive, we cannot notify you about our decision regarding your request."

Library 2.0 provides customers with an opportunity to "Suggestion a Purchase for SJPL Collections" and then gets the item (either through purchase or ILL) for the person who requested it, and if the item can't be found/purchased that person is informed. Of course this is impossible, and the Santa Cruz City-County Library System needs to be informed, so they can cease and desist immediately.

Week 6: Thing 14

After looking at the number of redundant tags (library, libraries, librarian, librarians, etc) on one blog, it makes me fully realise why Mr. Dewey decided to use a controlled vocabulary, instead of natural language, in his catalogue. The naming of things seems so random and disjointed. This is hell for those of us who hated "I'm thinking of a number between 1-50. Guess what it is?" as kids. One of the primary benefits is that slang, words spelled incorrectly and "bad words" are useful search terms. A disadvantage of course is trying to "guess" what tag to use to find what you are looking for.

Something that I find interesting, is the "Top Searches" while I was working on my assignment, 2 of the top searches were 7. Hilary Clinton and 9. Barack Obama.

Blue team:2
Red team:0

Of course, I have no idea what this means. Republicans don't write about who they want to be president in 08? Republicans don't search blogs? Democrats should stop writing and start VOTING? Democrats need to back away from their monitors and go outside where First Life (no dot com necessary) is happening even as you read this? These are questions best left for the philosphers of our time.

Week 6: Thing 13

I'm curious about why del.icio.us was chosen as the name. I find it incredibly awkward, but there are side benefits. After looking at the site several times over the course of several days, I can spell delicious. All I have to do now is find my 4th grade teacher who told us "they easy way to remember the difference between dessert and desert is that desert has 1 s like sand, and dessert has 2 like delisious (sic)" and tell her of my discovery.

After spending more time on blogger, flickr, and now del.icio.us, I'm starting to think that "Web 2.0" really should be "Web 2.0: Good-bye to Privacy." Should everything be shared with everyone else? Are we really living in such a reality tv show world, that nothing should be kept to yourself? Nothing? Feel free to search for pregnant porn. There are a lot of people willing to share their favorite sites with the world.

In the book The Wisdom of Crowds (blah blah blah) the author states that the decision by a group is better than the decision by any one individual. When we apply this theory to del.icio.us for research purposes, we have more minds finding and tagging things that could be useful. The list that I make as an individual is going to be shorter than the list made by us.

I'm already happy collecting my bookmarks on my personalised google homepage. I already spend more than enough time online. Do I really need to look at thousands of bookmarks from thousands of strangers?

Libraries can take advantage of it by sharing sites they've used and liked. If I find a great craft site and share it with other Youth Services Librarians, I could be saving other hours of useless searching.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Week 5: Thing 12 - Part 2

I need a new pair of shoes. Dansko Clogs, professional, black, size 39, thank you very much. I named my searchroll Dansko Clogs, and added several sites that I've bought from before (ebay, amazon, zappos, overstock.) The results were underwhelming. It worked. I hope that's enough.


Powered by Rollyo

Week 5: Thing 12

This is not fun. On the not-fun scale this falls somewhere between 8. a poke in the eye with a stick and 14. a poke in the eye with a SHARP stick. I'm just not sure where.

It started ok...
Do you have a group of websites that are your favorites? YES
Or a set of online resources that are similar that you frequently use to answer homework or reference questions? YES

This is where I got lost...
Rollyo allows you to create your own search tool for the just the websites you know and trust.WHY? Sadly, searching my favourite websites (wikipedia, amazon, bank of america, netflix,etc.) all at the same time just makes a mess. They don't seem to "roll" together.

I know I'm doing it wrong. I'll have to redo it, to find out it's potential use, 'cause right now I don't see it.

Week 5: Thing 11

Web 2.0 Award winners? Where's Wikipedia? For me, Wikipedia, is the perfect example of everything that "Web 2.0" supposedly encompasses, and yet it's not even included. Instead I looked at clusty.com (which is an honourable mention in the "Trusted Search" category.)

Clusty.com is a great search alternative to Google. Granted Clusty is slower, where a search might take 1 second as opposed to 0.0000454 seconds, and gives fewer results i.e. University of Guelph got 705,700 hits vs 1,270,000 from Google. Ah, but the results are more usable. Note: more usable, not perfect.

Why is Clusty great? 1) Because it's results are "clustered" (which is the basis for its unfortunate* name) search results are sorted, roughly, by topic/emphasis. It's this sorting that helps people limit their search to what they really want. 2) For those who have already "googled" something this could be a great second search. 3) it's also an opportunity for us to demonstrate that we in libraryland *know* stuff. Cool stuff. Stuff that works. That libraries aren't just about "SHHHH!" and books anymore.

*Unfortunate name? I'm sure that the engineers at Google sleep well at night, because they know what I know; that large segments of middle America will never search with anything called cLUSTy. Personally, I like it, but I also don't have teenage children (and their virtue) to worry about.

Week 5: Thing 10

This was entirely too much fun. Today's favourite website: http://generatorblog.blogspot.com

If you like what I did, you can do it too!

http://www.redkid.net/generator/fortune/sign.php

http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Studio+Neon+Animated


ImageChef.com - Create custom images

For the Lie-Bear-Ians in the house: Did anyone else try the "Dublin Core Generator?" All this and people still think we're boring? Amazing!

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Week 4: Thing 9

I tried Feedster and Technorati, but didn't have much luck with either. I tried searches for librarian, library, and public library. For Feedster, I didn't see anything relevant. For Technorati, if we stretch the word relevant I did find a few things, but nothing interesting.

Full Disclosure: Because of time constraints, I only spent 20 minutes on this.

I was happy with how my Bloglines search went. I ended up subscribing to:

1. The Misadventures of Super_Librarian

2. Modified Librarians (thanks for the suggestion....I hope you know who you are!)

3. CILIP – Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals - I'm probably never going to move to London, but I'm still curious about what libraryland is like over there.

4. bitter librarian - It's science project time of the year (aka the worst time of the year for YS Librarians) so this suited my mood perfectly.

Sadly, the Depraved Librarian, wasn't even remotely depraved. I even looked up the definition for "depraved" (a Google search using define depraved means I never have to get out of my chair) and I do know what it means.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

23 Things at Work

Today I finshed cleaning up from yesterday's 2 storytimes, working on planning next week's, read all my unread email, reference, supervised volunteers, read for tomorrow's book club, shelved, cleaned my desk, worked "Greet", etc.

That gives me about 10 minutes to work on my 23 things. I spent 5 minutes reading the next assignment, which I won't have time to do, and 5 minutes looking at the picture of my cat. Ahh, that was very relaxing.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

The Google Connection

If I had $1 for every time I accidentally signed out of Google, and then had to sign back in, using the email that matches my blog, not my regular email, I'd have more than enough money to buy my own flash drive. I might even buy a few and still have enough for a cup of coffee from Starbucks. Really. It's frustrating and time consuming.

Thing 4 - Part 2

I just registered my blog, and that's all I'm going to be able to do today. I'm glad that I have a head start, because at this rate, it would take me several months past the deadline to finish.

Sunday, January 7, 2007

Week 4: Thing 8

Based on my previous experiences, Bloglines works best for people who check their feeds everyday. For me, Bloglines was "out of sight, out of mind." I would forget to check it, and then when I did, checking it became a huge chore. It was a vicious circle of I don't check it because it's too much work-it's too much work because I don't check it.

Something that serves a similar function for me, is my personalised Google homepage. Here I have a list of my favorite sites and brief headlines. So that if something attracts my interest or I have some free time, I just click on what I want. Without feeling overwhelmed by days worth of stuff waiting for me.

I think that RSS could be a great tool for libraries. Assuming that we can use it correctly. There's a delicate balance between too many posts/useless noise which people tune out and too few/"Hello? Is there anyone there?" which people lose interest in. It's be a great way to let people know about new additions to collections, especially for popular authors, to announce upcoming programs, and changes in the schedule.


Here are the RSS that I picked:

http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?html=1&id=vanessa

NOTE: The email I used to create the account is slippersb@gmail.com

If this is the "most difficult one of the whole 23" I think I might be able to finish!

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Week 3: Thing 7

Got lost? I did.

In the past there were 3 ways to get from point A to B. 1) plot your route on a map, 2) ask a friend and 3) throw yourself on the mercy of a gas station attendant.

Now there are 2 better options: 1) online maps ie google maps (my personal favorite), yahoo maps, etc. and 2) GPS.

On Friday I used Google maps to find directions to the Campbell Library, a 15 minute trip, that round-trip would have used half my lunch. I got lost, I couldn't find the street I wanted. I drove around in circles. I tried to get directions at a gas station. I had to spend $5 for a map. It took 1 hour to get to the library.

What I want is GPS navigation. There are fantastic companies out there ie Magellan, Pharos, Garmin, etc. with great products. When the price drops? Ooooh, I'm so there.

Week 3: Thing 6 - Part 2


Thing 6 - Part 2
Originally uploaded by vanessam.
Easier than I thought it would be. Now I need to think of other types of cards I could make, and how I could harrass my friends into sending me pictures for the cause.

Of course I'd need to some editing. I was amazed at the number of people who thought "a new home in a lovely fish pond" was a snynonym for a dog "living on a farm" or to put it more bluntly. Dead.

Note to self: Find out how to merge this and the other "Thing 6"

Week 3: Thing 6


My creation
Originally uploaded by vanessam.
I had never tried the mashups before and they were a lot of fun. Look I made a mosaic! If I had known it would be this easy, I would have done it before. Now I have the motivation to download some more pictures :).

1. Day 1 of the Inca Trail, 2. Floating Island in Lake Titicaca (Peru), 3. Peru, 4. Juliaca (Peru) baggage claim, 5. Lima, 6. Peru, 7. Peru , 8. Peru, 9. Peru, 10. Guinea Pig on the Menu, 11. Llamas in Peru, 12. Go Gryphons Go!

Week 3: Thing 5


Slip in the box
Originally uploaded by vanessam.
I already had a Flickr account, but I don't use it very effectively. For example, I have a ton of pictures tagged "Wat" and "Thailand"....because I saw about 25 in a two week time period and I can no longer remember which Wat is what.

I have Flickr on my personalised Google homepage. So I get to see a variety of different pictures. I haven't seen any of my own yet, but maybe one day...

I looked at Picasa and Smugmug, and they both seem very user friendly. Of course, if I'm too lazy to download pictures to Flickr, downloading them in 3 places isn't going to happen either.

If we have a branch camera I haven't seen it. When we've needed pictures taken we've used staff members personal cameras and 1 camera phone.

This is Slip (aka Slippers) who inspired the email account I'm using for this assignment.

Week 2: Thing 4

I'm at home, so I'll have to send myself an email to my work address reminding me to register. I suppose I could stop here and continue at work, but I'm on a roll.

Week 2: Thing 3

I love Gmail (not so much for Google as a search engine), but both of my personal accounts (Gmail and Google are linked) have my last name, so I created myself a new Google account with Gmail address so I would be able to log on with some annonimity.

Blogger has been around for years. I've been on Blogger since 6 Jan 2007. As a result Vanessa, VanessaM and my other first 5 choices were already in use. My sister likes to drive me crazy by telling people I'm either a Children's Liberian ('cause I work at the lieberry) or a Children's Barbarian. Since Conan has already claimed "...the Barbarian" I decided to go with "...the librarian."

I decided to call my blog "Vanessa Loves Her Job" so that when the going gets tough, I remember why I'm doing this.

There was a nice variety of templates, but I was pretty indifferent to all of them. Since many people will pick one of the first 2, I picked something a little farther down to be "unique."

Week 1: Thing 2

The 7 and a half learning points were all very interesting, but 2 really struck a cord with me. The easiest for me is "Accept responsibility for your own learning." Learning in library school was easy, because either the information was handed to you or you were told what information you needed. The real world is drastically different. So now I make an effort to sign up for as many workshops, seminars, conferences, and talks as I can. Either not enough or maybe too many, depending on your perspective.

"Begin with the end in mind." is difficult for me. The end is always in the back of my mind, but for the goals that seem impossibly far away, it's easier to focus on the steps towards the goal. It's easier to work towards "losing 5 pounds in January" than "looking fantastic in the summer."

I wonder why they made the list 7 and a half instead of making "Play" the 8th point.

I'm feeling pretty good about this.

Week 1: Thing 1

I'm glad I decided to try this at home. At work I don't have speakers or headphones, so I wouldn't be able to hear the introductory podcast.

Thanks for the easy start.