Not Part of Work - Moving On

I don't know if I'll keep this blog up, I've got a livejournal account for personal stuff (and yes, it's way more intuitive and easier to just follow another blog by friending it) but, still, I hate to give up stuff - so I just might still comment here. We'll see.

Week 10 #23 The very, very, very end. Amen!

Using my beginning picture as a metaphor for the whole thing -- A Universe to Explore and this is only a tiny piece of it. But it's very pretty.

What were my favorites? I adore Library Thing, and will probably upgrade to get the max from my addiction. You Tube was a guilty pleasure, since once you start it's like eating popcorn, and you go from one to another until, oops, it's time for bed and you didn't get anything done! I can see Bloglines being useful, if I can find a way to integrate it into my opening up the computer each day, especially now that I configured it to only show the headlines, and I can check those that interest me quickly and then mark the rest as read - and feel all good about my informedness.

To really take advantage of the downloadable media, I might have to break down and get an Ipod or another mp3 player. Music hasn't lured me to the darkside, but storytelling podcasts might.

How my long term learning goals were affected? Well, it made me do some stuff that is only the things to do before I die list in a much more timely manner. I'm now in a position to kinda know what the customer is talking about when they call to complain they can't download something from Overdrive, and I'm better prepared to take work home by loading it into ZOHO Writer, since my flash drive is always at the bottom of my purse.

Unexpected outcomes? It was fun to be participating on the same level, or lower, than my co-workers - it was something new to talk about, and reading the blogs made me realize that there is much more to some of the people on staff than I knew. I especially loved the lyrical titles of some of their blogs!

I have no ideas for how to use these technologies, except in that moment of recognition with a customer that lets me tell them that, hey - they can do Zoho, or get that tech book from Safari Tech, or solve some other access problem that blocks their use of information. The whole collaborative thing - well, I've never felt comfortable doing that, even when I had to. I guess I'm too lone wolf to want to move in step with others. I do think that a library wiki for our customers would be cool, but I don't want to maintain it!

I don't know at the moment what I want to learn about - my mind is stuffed and I need to let what I've learned assimilate. Given time to feel comfortable using some of what I've tried, I'll be more ready to move on. But maybe in smaller chunks ... like one app at a time. I do know that it was way more than ten hours!

Week 9 #22 Downloading Media - or DVRing the Web

Of course, I'm weeks behind on my DVR watching (that's the Comcast version of inferior TIVO,) so now all I need is to add more stuff to watch and listen to. Of course, if I check it out from Overdrive, at least it will return itself on time! I've watched Henry the VIII and His 6 Wives, only to discover it's the abridged version (sniff) which came down as quite watchable on my computer screen - maybe because I'm nose to nose with the screen (of course I brought my laptop to work so I could take advantage of the faster downloading speed!.)

Free ebook sites are just full of stuff I've always been meaning to read, but never did, and probably wouldn't now listen to them unless I was trapped in an airport. All the good stuff is for pay, or on library sites ... if I want to listen to a book it won't be the Illiad, it will be vampires or werewolves or dragons or ... maybe a bit of poetry read by a really good voice actor. What I've listened to on LibriVox is very uneven as far as the voices are concerned - I've shut down things within paragraphs because the voice was just reading Robert Frost like a cereal box. LibriVox is easy to use, and since it's free - just moving on isn't painful. I especially like not having to create an account to listen to something, since I've got acres of passwords out of the istar project to remember already. Wowio is more interesting visually, however.

However, on our library site, I've discovered to my dismay that things I do want to download are often on waiting lists - hey, just like the new dvds!

Week 9 #21 Sodding Podding ...

Well at least the word of the year in 2005 wasn't "woot."

I have I-tunes installed at home - which would make this so much easier, but since I'm at work (looks pointedly at Network Services) it must be done otherwise.

Digging around, I've listened to Syd Lieberman tell stories, subscribed to LibVibe a library news service, and an ALA bootcamp on Web 2.0 (may only dip a toe into that one,) and added feeds for many storytelling podcasts until I made myself stop.

SO, I've added the RSS Bloglines feed, uh feeds, well - many feeds. But I don't know when I'll have time to listen. Of course, as noisy as the library gets, headphones might make it easier to listen, learn and type reports.

Week 9: #20 You Tube Without Pity

Skipping right over the optional video producer page ... no time! no time! Maybe later, since Animoto looks doable.

SO ON TO YOU TUBE

Embed a video? We'll see if it works:



Apparently not. Sigh. I've tried the help, I've hit the edit html and paste, I've tried to share my you tube account with blogger and I've been foiled, foiled I say ... and not with the best aluminum either. (Tosses aluminum into wastepaper basket and decides to try again at home where websense does not lurk.)


What I chose was the History of LOL casts, by Ben Burnns, since this is the kind of thing that always makes me smile, and this one, in particular, because I adore Ken Burn's documentaries. Though I do mourn for HappyCat.

I can see the training usages, but mostly, I think You Tube sucks up a lot of bandwidth at libraries. So first, kill all the politicians, or there won't be enough bandwidth. Unless we install coin-operated bandwidth - I can see it now, 25 cents for just text, $3.95 for streaming video ... Ahem.

Using them on our websites is another thing entirely, since we can be having their bandwidth instead. I just hope we don't have LOL Librarians everywhere.

Week 8: #19 Web-based Apps - Looking for Spiderman

I've registered myself with Zoho, and am writing the blogpost in Zoho, just to see if I can post it easily.  I spent the weekend with my brother, struggling to use Google Docs to help him edit a paper he was doing for a class.  I didn't have too many problems with Google Docs, but he got very frustrated.  This application seems to have more choices, and most especially, a way to document changes while leaving the original there to compare, which we couldn't figure out how to do in Google Docs.  I'm very motivated to use a Web-based program so we can work on it in real time, instead of me doing the edits and waiting for him to get back to me, and then he just takes what I sent and sends it in before I can check to make sure it's what his professor wants.  (What can I say, he's impatient!)  This will be particularily important when he has to do citations, since in my scholarly days I managed to avoid APA, but him - not so much.

 

Background color is a nice feature^{, and superscript _{and subscript are easy to use, font color is nice but I plan to avoid the nasty emoticons, since I've never like them, and}} although getting back to where I was isn't quite as intuitive, I guess I can catch on.   Inserting html is a recipe for disaster if you don't know what you're doing, and I don't, but popping in an image is easy as long as you aren't startled by the just popping onto the page.  DigiSign gives me hope of one day submitting my timesheet in a paperless fashion, and you know, I think I like Zoho pretty well now!

Week 8 #18 Networking Acquaintances into Friends

I've made the rounds of the social networking sites, read the Newsweek articles, especially the one where Facebook users revolted against the selling of info to advertisers (what were they thinking?,) and signed myself up for a Facebook account. Why Facebook? Because I want to keep up with my nieces and nephews and their My Space accounts gave me the creeps. The boys looked totally drugged out and the girls look like they are auditioning for a stripper pole. Facebook is much more sedate and allows me not to fear the worst. Not to mention the music - I've never muted pages so much in my life. Ning, LinkedIn, Xanga, etc. didn't have any one I knew on them, so what's the point? Yahoo!360 freaked me out since I already had an account with a message in it, and I never registered for it. I think it just came with my Yahoo e-mail. The speciality accounts for rooms, and dogs, and cats, etc., don't appeal at all, since I'm used to going directly to forums for questions and sites like HGTV to see how the big boys and girls decorate.

So I settled on Facebook, where I now have nine whole friends, one who I haven't seen since college, and five of my kin - who actually like Auntie enough to friend her back. I don't know how often I'll use my Facebook, since I'm maxing out my ability to leave windows open on the desktop without getting totally confused, but I'll check in from time to time, at least when I remember names of people I'd like to get reacquainted with. And I'll be keeping an eye on my kinfolk, of course!

Week 7 : #17 Talking About Tech

Technology is such a broad subject, particularly in the sheer velocity of change in technology. If I write about the technology that I grew up with in the 50's - 70's, the pace of change, while fast, didn't seem to whiz by at such a rate that if you blink you are hopelessly behind. Back at the beginning of the 80's, I felt in front of the curve - my household had vcr's set up to record four different programs at a time, the refrigerator made it's own ice, and my stereo system had a subwoofer. Now, in 2008, I still want the newest thing - as in I crave an Iphone, but it makes me tired to even think about reading the manual. Now I'm behind the curve, and falling further behind every day, and I feel like the marathoner who stops running at the 16 mile mark and figures out that she just doesn't feel like doing that next 10 miles.

Meanwhile, I watch my younger users, who seem to effortlessly suck up the newest things and my older users, who sit in helpless confusion because the world has reset to a new standard where they have to get their kids grades online. Using a computer to access the information world is no longer a choice, it's a necessity.

So I start that next 10 miles, but I'm just walking fast, not running.

Week 7 #16 Wiki What?

Now that I've wikied, what have I done? Signed up for the sandbox, added my blog, recommended some music and some resturants, read through the recommended wikis and tried to figure out whether or not I personally find them useful. Things like HCPL's print wiki work for me since it's so easy to use and check the status, but socially - not so much. A wiki wouldn't be the first place I'd look for resturants, or favorite anythings - mostly because I prefer to just google for professional opinions. I think wikis might work more for me on a microcosmic level, like a family wiki, or a social group wiki so that the opinions voiced would be framed by my knowledge of the person editing the page; or on a macrocosmic level where reputations would be the frame of reference.

I do use wikipedias for quick sourcing of info for reference, i.e. a child comes in with the name George Ferris as a topic, and using a wiki as a frame of reference and for basic informaton work well for me, especially since I know not to take the info posted as totally 100% valid - but it gives me a starting point.

An concept worth watching, but not always my weapon of choice.

Week 6 #15 Library 2.0

After reading the OCLC articles, the Wikipedia article, etc, etc., I thought that while the intentions are inspirational and worth pursuing - or as they say, have to be pursued - that once more the assumption is that someone is going to pay for this. As we have found in the past, nobody wants to pay more for their public libraries. So what will we stop paying for in order to implement Library 2.0?

Implementing 2.0 is even more labor intensive than the "traditional" concept of a library. There at least the public had a familiarity with the tools - books, cds, dvds, etc. But much of the access for 2.0 is via the computer, which for in-house users in a public library, often means users that have to be instructed on the use of the hardware and software required to use the access we provide. And, it's no quick reference question - assistance is often on-going over two or three hours.

And it's the people we need to hire to implement things properly that's the rub - because I don't know that it's possible in the public library sector to effectively purchase the needed equipment, access to information, and enough bodies to hold the hands of the novice users.

Call me pessimistic, but I see a lot of great stuff for the computer savvy, and a slower (in fact as well as metaphor - since we have to purchase the physical lines, which are too slow already) road and less access for those who already are starting behind the curve. And I can see a lot of stressed librarians trying to hold things together with duct tape and wire.

Week 6 #14 Technorati, Wrecknorati

Okay, I've claimed my blog, added favorites, set up searches, etc. on Technorati. I like the clean look of the site, and its layout, but am baffled that it is so high up in the web hierarchy. It may be something that grows on me, like ivy ... over time, since it is probably "results" that make it so popular. I'm not sure I like the idea that its spiders will be checking out my blog, ick ... couldn't they call them, oh, lizards?

Week 6 #13 - TAG You're It!

De.li.cios ... well, I've opened my account and added some links, but I really think the site likes Firefox better, 'cause you can do more stuff. However, I can see this would be way more useful than having my bookmarks at work, then my bookmarks on two different computers at home, not to mention when I'm over at a friend's house on their computer! My only caveat is that what happens if the Web goes Poof? (This is a deep down anxiety of mine, fueled by apocalyptic media like "What If It Happened Tomorrow?" on the Weather Channel.) My anxiety is only partially alleviated by the fact that the Internet was built to work during a ballistic missle attack by the Soviet Union. However, then there's the whole other electricity conundrum - since my batteries only last 3 hours. (Quick time out while I look for solar powered computers, which of course, will not work during nuclear winter ... sigh.)

I've been using the tags of other people's accounts, however, so that I can look for their favorite stuff that might be like my favorite stuff. Someday I may find everything I want to know, but it won't happen any too soon. My favorite thing in my own account is the list of suggested tags, which let's me use what's left of my brain for other things than thinking up what to tag things.

Checking out hcpl's de.li.cios page led me to some sites I hadn't known about, but most of it is familiar from my own reference bookmark list, i.e. Librarian's Guide to the Internet, etc. But I was pleased to find a bibliography generator for my brother who is in agony over APA cited sources for his bibliographies!

Week 5, #11 - The Thing About Library Thing

The Thing About Library Thing is that it could just suck you down in a black hole of adding stuff when you have as many books as I do. It does irritate me that I haven't found a way yet to bring up an author and just check off all the books by that author and add them all at once - when you are a completist and you buy everything by an author it gets damn repetitive. Maybe I've just missed an easier way to do this. I do think I'll keep playing with this, because it scratches my list-making obsession beautifully. And because it would be nice to know what I have. I've been known to end up with multiple copies, because (a) I don't remember it (which, shudder, happens too frequently these days,) or (b)I can't find it. Or it's in a box somewhere in the closet.

Week 5 #12 Elves!

Well, I signed up with Library Elf last week, but am just getting to blogging about the experience.

Welcome Cynthia
Help

Account ID: clockwoo@hcpl.net

Elf user since: Dec 12, 2007


Notices Total
Total emails sent 1
- Advance notices 0
- Overdue notices 1
- Holds ready for pickup 1
- Holds about to expire 1
- Other notices 0

I really like the layout of the page - it makes it easy to see everything at a glance, and is easy to print out (unlike Horizon.) What I particularly like is that I can nag myself with daily reminders about books that are due - and that's what it takes to make me look through the piles of books in my office or in my car or beside the sofa for the library books amidst the piles of books I order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Half com and Ebay. (There's a reason this blog is called Maxed Out with Books.) I also like having my holds status shown on the same page. The suggested book section and the calendars (I never know what day it is) are also helpful.

Of course, the best part is that once you set it up, it keeps going by itself! So a big thumbs up from me!

Happy Holidays!

This is the new pupster, Connor. And he is just as hyper as he looks in this Meez picture!

Week 5 #10 - Dressing for Christmas

Here is a festive avatar for the season. Not enough or too many choices at Yahoo Avatar. I would have liked to have layered some of the choices, such as having more cats and dogs for a truer representation. I also wanted to decorate the cat, although some might think that way too twee! And when I copy the code to post all the movement disappears!

Meez on the other hand, was neat, and since it lets you export directly to your blog on Blogger, all the movement stays, though the avatar is somewhat diminished when it is directly loaded as an avatar. I think there's a way to fix that back on the Meez page, and I'll try that later. Later ... hmmm, well the image is full but now it's in its own post and one of the other meez's is in the avatar slot. I dunno. Later, again.

Week 4 #9 THE NEWS DEALERS

I'm not sure an information junkie like me should have access to something that pushes info ... I might just overdose, and there's no antagonist to inject for news overdose. Of the sites suggested for the dealers, well ... Feedster is not working as it is rolling out some new something and I don't have time to watch that space, I'm not fond of the display for syndic8.com - which left Topix and Technorati. What surprised me was that there was such a difference in what they showcase, using both doesn't really overlap to the point it's not worth visiting both. I don't think I'll join either one, just visit as needed in case my current fix of news doesn't meet the need. I like the Topix layout better, since I still like my info laid out like a newspaper, but Technorati does cover some interesting ground.

Of course, now I'm up to 26 Feeds and it's all ihcpl's fault.

Week 4, #8 RSS Feeds - Intray of the Mind

This assignment is much more to my taste than dealing with pictures. Maybe too much so, since once I created my Bloglines account, BooksinChaos, I went crazy adding feeds. I've got feeds to weather sites, earthquakes, news, librarian blogs, ihcpl blogs (though I'm so far behind there's not much popping up from there in my updates)and tons of stuff that allow me to check in on my favorite magazines headlines without having to track down the actual paper copy. It does, however, create a time sucking info whirlpool that I need to make an effort to plug. So I played around with the display setups so that only the subject lines show up and I have to actually click on something to read it. That does allow me to filter things out for time allotment - allowing me to at least slot things into "later I'll read that if I have more time - " and "I'm really, really interested in this."not ....

Of course, that means I'm selecting my info flow for tasty treats rather than veggies, but it mimics the way I've been reading the newspapers for some time. I sometimes miss the leisurely reading every word of everything, but there's just too much information, and I only have so much room on the intray of my mind. My blogroll is up to 22 feeds ... and counting.