Reflections on the 23 Things

I enjoyed the experience. I would certainly participate in something similar again.

I would consider restructuring the program - maybe more time? I know a lot of people felt immediately overwhelmed. Perhaps twelve units over a year - one a month. Each unit could be comprised of a few tasks/lessons.

I enjoyed playing with the different kinds of applications and websites. I especially enjoyed Rollyo - now there's a useful concept! - and LibraryThing. Some of them I don't have much use for right now - Flickr - but that might change and it's good to know about them regardless.

I also enjoyed the opportunity to ruminate more on what Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 mean and how they have/will change the environment we work in. I especially enjoyed Tim O'Reilly's "What is 2.0" which applies the 2.0 concepts to the software business, but gives a cogent and accessible argument as to the meaning of 2.0 in general.

I find that I enjoy having a blog as a platform for my views and what I want to share with others. I don't know if I'm going to end up keeping it up, but I might. I also like having an online depository for stuff I want to remember.

Web 2.0 Awards

I found three sites that really caught my interest.

I played Guess-the-Google, and that is one cool game. The game chooses a keyword and presents you with a montage of 20 pictures it finds on GoogleImages with that keyword (one would assume the top 20 hits). You then have to guess the keyword in 20 seconds or less. Very good for the organizing instincts - kind of a variation on the "how many ways can you think of to organize this pile of objects" game. My only complaint is that they don't tell you the answers for the one you missed. (I emailed Grant Robinson, the creator, about this.) It is thus not the perfect training tool.

I also liked Boxxet, which is a mixed media (videos, photos, blogs, news, etc.) RSS aggregator that finds "the best of" and "what's hot" information for various topics. However, instead of you choosing the feeds, you choose the pre-formed Boxxet about the topic you're interested in. Boxxet chooses the feeds. I looked at the Boxxets for books and Doctor Who, and it really is about what's currently being talked about. Books was all about J.K. Rowling/Harry Potter (of course), Terry Pratchett (Alzheimers, so sad :( ), Naomi Novik, author of the Temeraire series (LAist recommends), and Tolkien/Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson is filming "The Hobbit"). Doctor Who was all about the Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned" with a few tidbits of news and gossip about the upcoming season. So not so good on breadth, but good on currency and depth and variation of media. Also, you can tell them what you think they should have Boxxets on. I suggested libraries/librarians. We'll see how responsive they are.

Coverpop (a webpage of Jim Bumgardner a.k.a. KrazyDad) is mostly a way of displaying current information or grouped information through mosaics of images. For instance, he has "1,001 Science Fiction Books" which is the covers of 1,001 science fiction books tiled into a mosaic. Each cover is a link to it's page on Amazon.com. Or, he has "YouTube: Today's Picks" which is "today's 101 top rated videos from YouTube, updated daily," which works the same as the science fiction books mosaic - each still is a link to the video at YouTube. He has also created the Whitney Music Box which the website describes as "a musical realization of the motion graphics of john whitney as described in his book "digital harmony"." This is a site you can spend a lot of time on, and really brush up on your pop culture, among other things. Jim Bumgardner's Blog is also really fun; he create puzzles and new mosaics and shares them.

Zoho

Zoho has a lot of different functions - word processor, spreadsheet, database, wiki, etc. I played with the creator a little bit and found it a little clumsy, but it seemed to have good functionality. The clumsiness might lessen with familiarity, and a clear purpose. I also couldn't watch more than the first little bit of the explanatory videos at the library - something with our servers?

I like the chat and meeting ideas. They look fairly simple, and how many people would love to have a meeting utility free and with all the software online? I can think of many possible uses with family and friends.

I also like the idea of having all these functions (all of which you can get elsewhere separately) together, using the same interface. That way, if you get along with the interface, you don't have to figure out somebody else's thinking patterns.

One concern I have is privacy. The example given in what I could view of the explanatory video for Zoho Creator was for a contact list. I'd feel unsure about putting my friends and family's contact information online, even in an application I set to "private." How secure is the information?

Also, can I back this information up? How safe is it? What if Zoho's servers crashed?

Definitely something to keep in my toolbox.

Library 2.0

Reactions to the Library 2.0 articles:

Reliance on user education: I totally agree about the need for federated searching and making our services easier to use. People should not have to jump through hoops to access our resources, actually their resources - their tax money is paying for it, after all.

The “just in case” collection: I think this idea might be relevant in the middle to far future. For right now, I’m not sure but that it’s just unrealistic. I certainly have lots of questions about it. I don’t think there’s enough available in digital format yet to meet patrons’ needs, and ILL is still too slow to fulfill instant gratification. Where is he planning to get his great “everything” collection from? Are there enough databases and digital collections out there to satisfy a major university library’s mission? There certainly aren’t to fulfill our mission. We could never get away with going all digital. I don’t even know that I agree with his basic premise that current collection development methods are wasteful; one of the lovely things about libraries is serendipity. Also, how do you decide if a book is a waste of space; if it’s only used once? Twice? Three times? What’s the magic threshold?

Library 1.0: Commodity: Libraries have rarely been about the books; they’ve always been about the content. The books and other formats were important, and procedures and rituals were built up around them, because they were/are the purveyors of content.

I'm not sure what form Library 2.0 will take. I do think we need to not get mislead by the similarity of the name to Web 2.0, and remember that it's not about the technology, it's about our patrons and our mission. If we can use technology to better serve both of these, then fabulous. But sometimes it requires the human touch, and technology just gets in the way. Use technology to implement the solution, not to be the solution.

I can also say that librarianship will always be about what it's always been about: people and content and acting as a bridge/facilitator between the two.

Wikis

I really like the idea of making a webpage that's the front end of a wiki, like the Bull Run Public Library. There's probably a limit to what you can do with fancy extras, but what an ideal solution for a small organization without the time or the expertise to create and maintain a standard webpage. And with the free utilities out there, you can do it for very little cost. Also, it looks like a webpage and not a wiki. Minor detail I know, but....

I'm all for the concept of popularizing web publishing. That's one of the main tenants of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 - making things very user friendly so people can be self-sufficient and do for themselves. Setting up a blog is as easy as choosing a user name and password which democratizes access to the web as a soapbox. Wikis do the same thing for websites. This is fabulous. People should not have to know HTML to have a webpage. I built a webpage using HTML once, for a class, and rebuilt a site for my first library job the same way and I have no desire to do that again.

You could do all sorts of things in libraries with a Wiki. You could have a wiki catalog with the bibliographic information uneditable but with patrons/staff (depending on who you want to contribute) able to add to that. We talked about a local history wiki that could incorporate the items in the St. Paul Collection and allow staff and the community to add their own memories.

You could do the same with the history of the library. Billie Young said that there was so much stuff that she couldn't put into her book on SPPL that she would have loved to. How fabulous if they could be in a wiki which would, practically speaking, have no limitations on space.

Fun in the Sand Box

I just played with the wiki, and it was really easy. I can see where this would be a really good tool for collaborative projects - local history, weblinks, project management, etc.

I added to Favorite Movies, Favorite TV Shows, and started a new page about Yarn Harlot's Blog.

I like the concept of a wiki for weblinks, so anyone on staff can add a link they find useful and good.

Melissa.

Warhol In Space

Warhol Space, originally uploaded by bechamp.

This is what I created with the Warholizer. This is a warholized version of the photo in my header. Is it pop culture in outer space, or outer space in pop culture? Whichever, they certainly go together.

Melissa.

Tagging and Folksonomies

I really like the concept of tag clouds for catalogs as at the Ann Arbor District Library or as discussed at the Shifted Librarian. Of course this presupposes that you are building a folksonomy in your catalog, but I think there are a lot of advantages to that too as an additional searching method. I do not advocate losing keyword searching or LC subject searching in favor of folksonomies.

Advantages:

Patrons can use real language to enhance your catalog.

You can have lots of tags for the same concept.

You’ll get terms that librarians probably wouldn’t think of in a million years. (All right, this could be a disadvantage as well as an advantage, but lets accentuate the positive, yes?)

It will enhance patrons’ sense of ownership of the library.

Disadvantages:

All those tags could clutter up your catalog.

Patrons might be offended by tags.

Melissa.

del.icio.us

I've set up a del.icio.us account under bechamplibrarian.

The social aspects of this sort of tool can be very useful - government documents libraries are creating del.icio.us accounts, for instance, to share useful local and national government documents links. Here's the U of MN's Business & Government Information Desk's page.

I also like that you can access your bookmarks from anywhere you have access to the internet.

I must admit that I have to overcome my natural inclination to privacy for some things; they're bookmarks I'm choosing and no-one else needs to know. It's an interesting balance.

Melissa.

Rollyo

I enjoyed working with Rollyo. I created a science fiction searchroll called In Space.

I found the interface a little confusing - there should be a more obvious link to searching for searchrolls than the "Explore" link at the top of the page.

Also, I'd recommend putting tags on your searchroll; I guess Rollyo only uses title and tags to search for the searchrolls. And, where is the Rollyo Directory?

Melissa.

LibraryThing

I really like LibraryThing. Heres' my account.

I like that you can use it as a books-to-be-read list, putting tags in to remember why you wanted to read the book, and being able to date when you found it.

I like that it's a very flexible interface, allowing you to enter as much or as little as you care to, and that there are lots of pretty miscellaneous fields.

I like that it allows for copy cataloging, including a cover gallery.

I like the social aspects and the folksonomies.

I like the price.

Melissa.

Finding RSS

I found the straight-forward search tools - like Bloglines search - easiest to use.

I like Topix' interactive graphs that let you see how often a topic was mentioned in the news over the year. You can see when the topic generated buzz. Then you can click on one of the bars in the graph and it shows you the stories that about it from that day.

I like Technorati's up-to-dateness, and the sheer number of blogs is overwhelming. Who knew? However, the overwhelmingness means, of course, that your more likely to find just the blog for you, as long as the search tech is any good, and theirs seems to be OK. Also, you can subscribe to the RSS of the search results in Technorati - in other words it sets up an alert for new blogs and posts that come up about your favorite topics. Cool.

Melissa.

RSS

I've set up a public Bloglines account.

I like RSS because it makes it much easier to keep on on whatever you're interested in. Most websites have jumped on the bandwagon; only rarely do I run into a website that does not have a way to RSS. I use RSS at work to keep up with my professional reading.

Melissa.

Downloadable Audiobooks

I found the downloadable audiobooks easy to work with. The download times varying so greatly from the times quoted on the NetLibrary is a little worrying, but I guess it's just a matter of being patient, and at least we know it so we can warn patrons.

I think patrons are going to like being able to check out audiobooks from home without having to come into the library and deal with possibly damaged discs or tapes.

I'm a little concerned about the downloadable audiobooks not working on iPods, but hopefully we'll have enough users who either don't have iPods or have a work-around that they'll get used extensively. I hope NetLibrary is working to change this situation.

Melissa.

Podcasts

I looked through Podcast.net, Podcastalley.com, and NPR, and found good content on each. There are a lot of library podcasts, including JJHill. I also searched under Science Fiction and found book reviews, old stories, a movie a week (vidcast), author interviews, etc.

You can use Bloglines to sign up for podcasts, and play them right from Bloglines.

I signed up for Nancy Pearl's weekly review show, and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. I've also sent myself the links to a number of interesting sounding Science Fiction podcasts to sample before I sign up. With the NPR stuff you pretty much know what you're getting.

Melissa.

YouTube Thoughts

I love that the content is so varied. Really bizarre amateur videos, National Archives and Records Administrations videos (including NASA, National Parks, and Newsreel footage), popular culture (Leonard Nimoy sings "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins"), music, and just a lot of random stuff.

Going to the Google Video homepage lets you search Google Video, YouTube and Crackle at the same time.

The Monty Python/Star Trek video in the post below really tickles my funny bone.

Features of YouTube that could be useful for library websites? Do you have a while? I'm just going to pick two:

Folksonomies - I really like the idea of patrons being able to tag services and books and other items we own, and building up a network of subject headings that, while subjective, are probably going to be of more use to more patrons than the very stilted language of the Library of Congress Subjects Headings. Don't get me wrong; I'm not advocating getting rid of the LCSH - they serve a very important purpose. They're just often not very accessible.

RSS - I would love to be able to have a list of authors on file in our catalog and get notified when we order something by one of them. Hit or miss is just so...hit or miss.

Melissa.

Monty Python has Trouble with Tribbles

A different kind of mashup.

Remastered Star Trek

Tomorrow we're going to see "The Menagerie" (an original Star Trek episode) on the big screen. This is a limited showing (two nights, three shows) of a remastered classic. "The Menagerie" originally aired in 1966, but includes lots of footage from the original Star Trek pilot "The Cage," which was filmed in 1964 (the 1966 footage acts as a framework for showing the bits of the original pilot). This gives you some idea of the quality of the technical aspects of the show, espeically the special effects; even though they did a pretty good job with what they had, lets just say you can occasionally see the wires suspending the spaceships.

So, for the 40th anniversary of Star Trek Paramount has decided to release remastered versions of the originals, both on TV and DVD in sets that include both regular and HD versions. (I don't plan on buying anything in HD until that whole mess is settled and everyone gets their act together, but that's another story entirely.) This includes new cgi special effects as well as upgrading the picture and sound quality.

Now, I've seen Star Trek episodes on TV that definitely include the new cgi effects, if nothing else (I couldn't see any other changes) and I have to say I'm not impressed. The effects are cool, but they really clash with the whole 1960s mystique of the rest of the episode; which of these things are not like the others?

I'm not sure about this whole remastering craze. I can see the point of just remastering the sound and the picture (making them clearer, etc.), especially with HD. But there's such a temptation to go beyond that as long as you're in there changing things. The Star Wars thing is a prime, if extreme, example. Actually rewriting? Please. That's just going too far. Especially if you decide to not release the old versions on DVD anymore.

One of the original Star Trek's hallmarks is what they did with very little budget and a lot of imagination. In "Spectre of the Gun" for instance, they didn't have a lot of money for sets, so they built very little set and used that to emphasize the dream-like quality of the story. If someone went back and "enhanced" the sets with cgi, it would change the character of the show drastically.

I'm interested to see what I know is a completely remastered episode, and not a regular ep with extra bits thrown in. For sure, I am excited to see the original Star Trek on the big screen. That I know will be worth the price of admission.

Melissa.

Clockr

For some reason I really like Clockr, one of the Flickr web apps. It is a clock that uses random number images from Flickr. http://www.quasimondo.com/clockr.php I'm not sure why it appeals to me so much; maybe just the concept of randomness being used to predict very accurate time (the clock has a second counter, so you can watch the numbers flick past). It may also have to do with my...interesting... relationship with time.

Melissa.

Jantar Mantar Astronomy Complex

Astronomy park 3,, originally uploaded by Netta Bank.

"Between 1727 and 1734 Maharajah Jai Singh II of Jaipur constructed five astronomical observatories in west central India. The observatories, or "Jantar Mantars" as they are commonly known, incorporate multiple buildings of unique form, each with a specialized function for astronomical measurement. These structures with their striking combinations of geometric forms at large scale, have captivated the attention of architects, artists, and art historians world wide, yet remain largely unknown to the general public."

Very cool, and very cool photos. Netta Bank has a whole set of photos devoted to this astronomy complex on Flickr.

The quote above is from this site: http://www.jantarmantar.org/ which has this to say about itself "Jantar Mantar presents the observatories through a variety of media and information sources, making it possible to explore and learn about these historic sites through interactive panoramic "VR" photographs, time lapse sequences, and 3D models as well as articles, drawings, and historic texts. It is a comprehensive resource for exploring the observatories in depth. A "VR tour" of the Jaipur Observatory, and current information about the project can be found by following the links below."

Check it out!

Melissa.