Make sure it adds value...

I drove 4 of us to the RA 2.0 (Adult Reading Round Table) program the other day in Schaumburg and I knew all of the jargon (thnx ELL!).  Having lived much of this info in the whirlwind of ELL, it was good to hear some additional applications for some of these tools and also be reminded that this is where we are right now (and we're all there).

Some good ideas for Children's - bibliographies up on wikis, a Caudill wiki, reading suggestion forms online, blog and youtube ideas...I'm still not sold on twitter, but that's okay because the mantra was make sure it adds value to what you're already doing and that's really something to remember.  

Lots of good conversation in the car, even though we were in boatloads of traffic and we were a little directionally-challenged  -- I was glad to see that someone besides me needs to physically hold the mapquest directions upside down to re-trace our steps and figure out which way to turn!

Trap and rescue (me)

I came in for my evening shift the other night, and overheard the end of a conversation with one of the desk staff.  A little boy, maybe 4 years old, was looking for a "trap and rescue" book. Hmm, trap and rescue?  I wasn't sure about that (maybe everyone knows about trap and rescue but me) but he seemed satisfied with a couple of emergency rescue books. 

Then he came up to me and wanted the "trap and rescue everything" video. Yes, he was very sure that this video existed and, no surprise, this title doesn't actually exist in our catalog and there wasn't going to be a very informative reference interview. So I took him over to the videos and dvds and we looked...for a longggg time. We couldn't find the "trap and rescue everything" video, but I found him other rescue av material and we had the following conversation:

Me:  "Here's water rescue."
Kid: "I think I've had this one but I still need the other one." (he held up 2 fingers)
Me:  "Okay, but we don't have a trap and rescue everything video. How about air rescue?"
Kid:  "That's good. But I need trap and rescue everything."
Me: "How about emergency rescue? That's got a lot of different rescues."
Kid: "Yeah, that's good, too, but I need trap and rescue everything."

We were stuck in a friendly though endless loop.  After lots of conversation, he did take 1 video and 2 dvds that we had found (yay!) and finally his mother appeared and said, "Great! You're so lucky because you can take out 3 movies!" To which he replied, "No, I only want to take one. And I want the other ones to wait for me here with my name on it until next time."

Okay, I missed the donuts, so I've got my fingers crossed...

In memory of Matthew Shepard, October 6, 1998

The Laramie Project: Tectonic Theater and About Face Theatre

Mackerel Economics (Life after ELL)

Seems like the right time for a new currency but apparently there has been a healthy mackerel economy in federal prisons since 2004.  Given the prohibition on smoking in prisons, cigarettes have lost their value and since prisoners can't possess cash, the currency is mack, of course! 

The downside? Besides what is becoming a shortage, the other real problem seems to stem from what happens when a prisoner's sentence is up -- amazingly, mackerel can't be redeemed for cash (!) and has little monetary value on the outside.  

Woo hoo! 23 Things

I'm glad to have worked my way through these 23 things -- I feel like I've uncovered some useful tools, both personally and professionally. How to employ these technologies is something I look forward to experimenting with -- and I hope that this is done in concert with my colleagues. One of the most exciting moments for me came when 3 of us were working on the same exercises at the desk and trading information back and forth.

I do feel that there were some weeks with too much to do and that I couldn't reflect as much as I would have liked to. For me, most of the work was done at home because although I was given off-desk time once a week for ELL (really as generous as possible), I needed that time for my storytimes and my other work. Now that I've got a million different accounts, assuming I can remember them, I will definitely go back and investigate some of these technologies and leave some behind. And now I've got this handy blog, too.

MyMediaMall

I've advised patrons about downloading ebooks and videos, looked up compatible devices and loan periods but, until tonight, I had not downloaded the software on my own computer. I downloaded the software to my laptop and I looked at books in the Children's collection. I downloaded Dave Barry's Peter and the Starcatchers, Starcatchers Series, Book 1.

Honestly, the software download was pretty straightforward, but getting the book in my cart to download wasn't as intuitive as I thought it ought to be. It was also pretty slow but that could be my computer and the book does have 7 parts. Fortunately, I was otherwise occupied watching the debate, so the download could go on and on. The listening is yet to come.

Podcasting...I'm in.

Okay, I'm hooked and it's so cool! As it turns out, this exercise was one of the most poweful for me. There's a lot of junk out there but I found amazing stuff and I loved listening.

I pulled up itunes directory of podcasts and searched under Books and by chance clicked on the podcast itunes: Meet the Author. At an Apple store in Soho, author Chuck Palahniuk (I recently finished his book Rant: The Oral Biography of Buster Casey, which I really liked) and director/screenwriter Clark Gregg were talking about Palahniuk's novel Choke and its film adaptation --kismet! I find his writing really compelling and I liked hearing his reading, the movie excerpt and the interview and now I'm a subscriber.

But I also listened to NPR: Children's Literature with Daniel Pinkwater and listened to Daniel Pinkwater and Scott Simon trade off reading Bonny Becker's A Visitor for Bear.
Interestingly, we had just been talking about how a storytime via podcast would fly and I was a little skeptical -- thinking it would be flat without the interaction of the listeners but it was actually fun to listen to. I think having 2 different voices worked really well -- there was conversation about the illustrations as well as the audible enjoyment of the two reading out loud together. It gave me something to think about and maybe something we can do in Children's.

And I listened to This American Life, Episode #364, Going Big, and the first chapter was set in Harlem and was about a program called Baby College which emphasized the importance of reading and language to children for future learning; of brain development and the importance of talking, singing and reading to your children; that the biggest factor determining a child's later success in school is determined by the sheer number of word parents spoke to children; and as a solution to poverty -- exactly the stuff we do and teach in our LEAP program. More validation for something I believe passionately in and love to do and yes, I subscribed to that also.

Podcasting

These little tutorials are very clever and make everything seem very simple although I think this one is as simple as subscribing. Although I have not yet listened to a podcast (I see the writing on the wall, er, screen) it's hard for me to blog intelligently or even semi-intelligently but I have the sense that this is much like watching something on youtube. I looked up NPR's podcast directory and there are 625 podcasts to subscribe to which is just a little bit overwhelming.....

Music, web 2.0, Part III - mog

Lastly, mog, was kind of a cool site - it feels like a more serious site, more about the reviews of cds, songs and concerts. I pulled up someone I'd never heard before and I was really interested to hear him but the full track required a plugin so I was stuck with a 30-second sample. There was less competing information on the page which I appreciated.

Basically, the music sites are interesting ways to find new artists (or artists new to you) but they require more patience than I currently have. I could see going back to last.fm and minimizing the page to try and just listen or going back to mog if I want to read up on someone. For the moment, though, I'm still opting for my itunes library for my listening pleasure.

Music web. 20, Part II - Pandora

I didn't like Pandora at all although lots of folks I know swear by it. I chose my genre and then wasn't interested in the first 5 songs that were played and Pandora got irritated with me and suggested I switch to another station (there's apparently a limit to the number of songs you can skip in an hour). Not interested.

Music web 2.0 tools, Part I - last.fm

I've been somewhat resistant to plugging into music web 2.0 tools -- I have a pretty large library on itunes and I like to shuffle the stuff I have or listen to a particular artist when I'm at the computer. I'm always interested in hearing new artists and exchange that information with friends, but I'm not so interested in what strangers are listening to. Still, I decided this was my opportunity to check out music tools and I clicked on the short list of Web 2.0 2008 Awards under the music category. I checked out last.fm, Pandora and mog.

When you open last.fm, it tells you what thousands of people are listening to and gives you the option to tune into an artist, watch videos, listen to a radio, see charts or music events. I picked my genre and turned on the radio. It was actually kind of interesting, although I didn't end up listening to one entire song because I kept getting side-tracked checking out who was considered similar to artists I like and I found that I kept jumping from artist to artist . My hope was I might discover someone new to me and that I did. Alternatively, you can pull up someone you know and listen to their 10 top tracks. You can listen to some full tracks and some samples. There's opportunity to post reactions to songs, read related journals, join fan groups, etc. but in some ways the page set-up felt way too frenetic for me.

From Zoho right to my page!

This document was written online using Zoho Writer. The tools are all laid out on the toolbar -- very convenient and keyboard shortcuts also work. I can't say that I miss Word butting in and

• capitalizing every new sentence

• moving the bullets when the line spacing change
• suddenly overwriting instead of inserting words

I also don't miss that stupid paper clip (though, I always disappear it when I see it). So what are the other benefits to word processing online? The ability to access your document without emailing it to yourself or using a flash drive is really pretty cool. We've had plenty of kids come into Children's, work on a document and then have no way to carry their document away short of printing it. You do have to set this up with an email address which is the only sticking point for some of our kids.

I also like that you can share a document (either read only or read and write), add the individual or group contacts and set up collaboration online. Our LEAP team has worked on several grants collaboratively but we email sections to one another and rely on the Track Changes tool to edit -- it's effective but slow and repetitive and results in too many emails. Reading through the Faqs, it appears that you can edit collaboratively and lock in your sections as you write. (It also computes word count and number of characters when you save!)

I found Zoho Writereasy to use and very appealing. As long as documents are secure (and I always entertain some niggling doubts about that) I would be inclined to use it for specific applications.

ELL Wiki

I added my two-cents to this wiki under Drink and Play -- I even added a new category to the Play page. It was gratifyingly easy to do.

At this moment, I could see using a wiki at EPL for staff reviews of books. I could also see a wiki used in Children's for D65 school research assignments -- it would be another tool to keep each other informed of search strategies and resources related to the more challenging assignments. In both cases, I'm thinking of wikis that would be open to library staff only to edit.

Wikis

I found the short video not only useful but also a pretty convincing tool -- in the example given, it makes sense for interested parties to communicate via a wiki rather than send a boatload of emails. I've complained to my LEAP team members about the difficulties of responding back and forth via email as well as reading all the threads in order and a wiki could eliminate a lot of that frustration and allow us all to add comments to the joint work we do.

I read through the Library Outreach Wiki which had interesting information and was easy to navigate. I also really liked the Graphic Novels articles at the Grand Rapids Public Library's wiki. There were links to new titles, popular authors and artists in the GRPL catalog as well as to review websites, publisher's websites and the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco -- all things that fans would find very useful and interesting.

The wiki application at GRPL allows for librarians to add and update new pages -- the usefulness was the organization of topics of interest and specific collections and the links to the catalog. I think a wiki like this would definitely enhance the library's collection by focusing on subjects of interest to the community and to the librarians.

Library 2.0, 3.0., 4.0, oh. oh.

I found the article by Dr. Wendy Schultz pretty compelling with her emphasis on putting people and meaning at the center of the discussion of the changing world of libraries and librarians.

I like the idea of Libraries 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 being absorbed into 4.0 rather than being replaced by it-- recognizing what's good, building on the value of that foundation and refining it rather than discarding it. Picturing Library 4.0 as she does, as the space for the dream society who will need libraries as idea labs and art salons as well as the addition of the knowledge spa is all incredibly seductive but it also presupposes the luxury of time, which seems to be in short supply. I wonder if that could change.

In the end, it's the image of the physical world of quiet, good light, a comfortable chair and coffee side by side with the emerging technologies of VR and AR that resonates with me. And as much as I like and am interested in new technologies, as I add 2.0 skills to my toolbox, I have to admit that though I know it's in the offing I'm in no real hurry for 3.0., 4.0 and beyond.

The wordle fun never stops

Radiohead - Creep.

More wordle fun

Damien Rice - Elephant
Cheers, darling!

Twitter

I signed up to follow 2 of the 10 most followed librarians on Twitter.   I'm interested and even tend to embrace new technology (my daughter and I would often be incommunicado without texting) but I'm not entirely sure about Twitter.  I might be more interested if my tweets were from people I know.  That being said, reading my tweets did lead to an interesting blog about Sarah Palin.  

While I don't know that I need to know every small thing some one is doing,  there were a few microblogging applications that were interesting to me.  One was writing small stories -- an article in ars technica talks about NY Times writer Matt Richtel using Twitter to write a "Twiller" a thriller story in 140 character bits as well as writers writing one line microstories on Brave New Fiction,  a web application.  I'm thinking I may need to subscribe to Brave New Fiction!  Another article in ars technica referred to a classroom application where students used twitter as homework to reinforce material covered in class with real life --as things came up that reminded them of stuff in class,  twitter became the tool to connect conversations inside and outside of class.  

So, in the Library setting, in the scenario where you're working with a patron to answer a difficult question and find an additional source right after they leave (for those of us who have a hard time giving up working on a question! ), Twitter might be a great way to get that info out.  If only it didn't require yet another log-in to remember! 

Del.icio.us

I use 2 computers at home - a Dell laptop and a mac desktop. I have a Dell desktop in my office at Invest at ETHS and use any of the 3 desk computers in the Childrens' Room at EPL. I check 4 email accounts daily, have different bookmarks on different computers and spend lots of time typing in urls wherever I am. I think I'm a good candidate for a tool like del.icio.us, so I created an account.

Del.icio.us is extremely easy to set up and use - it's truly intuitive. My bookmarks include my email accounts and the sites I check regularly as well as the ones I check as the need arises (I find myself needing to refer to Knitting help much more than I'd like).

I looked at the evanstonpl account and clicked on the OneLook site that 5159 people have bookmarked. It's a really useful dictionary site but I was even more interested in looking at the history tab and seeing everyone's bookmarks for this site as well as some some of the comments in the notes tab. I looked at the tags people used which led me to a crossword tag and right to a crossword puzzle answer site that I ended up adding to my bookmarks.

I haven't wanted to check out strangers' book choices on LibraryThing but I found it really interesting to see what people had bookmarked. I could spend a lot of time browsing through these, noting the tags and discovering sites that I want to bookmark. I think the potential for using this tool for research assistance is pretty compelling

Blogging along

I realize that I actually like to blog (gasp!) although not exclusively about the "Things". Now I've added another thing to my life to obsessively check (along with my Facebook and multiple email addresses) which can't be all good as it takes time and means I'm up way too late at night.

I can't get past my disappointment, however, when I see a big fat zero next to comments. I think about the millions of blogs out there -- who's actually reading them? Even if they're being read, how many people comment? I definitely want the affirmation that I'm not writing in a void but maybe the exercise of writing is enough.

John Kappas and his four-way harmonization!

Library websites and web 2.0

The number of libraries using web 2.0 tools in their websites is staggering! Hennepin County Library's BookSpace is a very cool idea -- allowing you to make your book lists and link to the library's catalog all from the same page, although it's crammed with a lot of information. I liked Ann Arbor District Library's patron review space and for me it was clean looking and easy to read.

Some of the sites are packed with so much stuff that there's too much to look at -- there are so many tools that it's hard to see them all and it becomes a little chaotic. Lansing Public Library, Allen County Public Library and Westport Library, on the other hand, have a relatively orderly look which is much more appealing to me. In general, I gravitate more to the calmer and cleaner look and am more apt to check out the tools when they're laid out in that fashion.

Making the library's website interactive would be very appealing to some patrons. The capability of adding tags and reviews could provide people with a real sense of connection to and investment in the library -- essentially making it their own and leaving their footprint. I wonder what percentage of the community would respond?

Another thing about LibraryThing

I looked at some of the libraries using LibraryThing in their catalogs. It's an interesting way to browse and maybe find your way to another title that you might otherwise miss, although I'm not always crazy about the clutter it can create on the catalog page. I liked the use of a box with tabs from Web-Pac in Deschutes Public Library's page as well as those utilizing the Horizon Information Portal like Randolph County Library and Richland County Library. Unfortunately, I wasn't as thrilled about Sirsi-Dynix...

I could definitely see the value of EPL adding LibraryThing to our catalog. I think it could empower patrons to search by lots of tags and interests as well as help with reader's advisory when you're coming up empty.

I like the idea of cataloging my books and LibraryThing is gratifyingly easy to use. Realistically, I can't imagine ever taking or having the time to imput all the books from my personal collection . In terms of choosing books to read, I prefer to browse, hold a book in my hand and look through it but otherwise tend to lean toward reading reviewers that I trust and listening to recommendations from co-workers and friends.

I added the LT search box widget...it doesn't serve too much purpose since I only have 9 titles up so far and the covers are all already on my blog. Maybe I'll add more titles, but in the catch-up world of ELL, it may take awhile.

Social Networking

I've had a Facebook for 2+ years. Initially, my daughter suggested that I get one as a quick way to communicate when she went away to college at Oberlin. At that time, it was a little more of an ordeal to sign up -- I needed to be associated with my university and get an email address from them. I joined somewhat reluctantly thinking I wouldn't really want to take the time to use the applications or fill out information about myself. That proved wrong!

I actually liked thinking about defining myself and what I like about Facebook is that I can control who sees my profile and how much they see. My daughter had a myspace briefly and I have navigated around myspace somewhat but it feels so exposed to me --it's an open site and I've always felt it had the potential to be predatory.

I look forward to checking my Facebook and I like playing with the different applications. You can be as active as you want to -- exchange messages with friends and write on their walls or just anonymously see what's happening in their lives. That sounds more like a stalker than it is.

I'm a friend of EPL's page, among others, and I like those associations and sharing the groups that I feel committed to with my friends. I do play a little too many mindjolt games but I have a healthy competition going with my younger daughter. I was worried that I'd have no friends but although I don't have the hundreds of friends that my daughters have, I have a decent number (and quite a few are my own age!). I was recently contacted my someone I worked with 25 years ago at the ADA, and that was so cool!

It hasn't turned out that she and I communicate primarily through Facebook, but it's a window on her life when she's away. I'll sign on and see that she's poked me and I know that she's thinking about me.

Japanese Rube Goldberg machines

These are super cool -- maybe we can make one for the Children's Room??!

When we moved into the new Children's space, I searched out time-lapse images on YouTube for our wall screen. It didn't turn out that we used them, but it was a fun exercise at the time. I find if you're looking for something specific, you can uncover a lot of interesting information, often pretty quickly.

I tend mostly to watch music videos on YouTube and my daughters showed me a lot of funny misheard lyrics sites. The quality is all over the place but my kids pass on good sites and I trade sites with some friends. It has become another point of connection and commonality.

Messing around with Flickr

Flickr one more time

I've put up my most recent spell with Flickr (I have spent way too much time spelling with Flickr!) and 2 different photostreams using an html badge and a flash badge.   Although I hadn't remembered where to locate the badge tool, I tend to approach this stuff like a dog with a bone -- I'm not getting off the computer until I figure it out.  Now I actually think some of the information is embedded in my brain.

Some of the mashups and 3rd party tools are pretty fun and intuitive so they're easy to use.  I did make a Librarian trading card but for now (maybe forever) it will remain unseen.  

I do like the idea of using photos for motivational posters on the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County's website-- that's very cool and  I could see EPL doing something like that to make our own READ posters. It would be an easy community project.

My friend Flickr

I thought I was new to Flickr and imagine my surprise when I went to the website and saw that I already  had an account from last year!   It's a little worrisome -- was I uploading in my sleep? Anyway, there were photos from Free Comic Book Day, May 2007 as well as 2 other photos (and yes, they were mine).   I have shaken off the weirdness of that and am determined to approach Flickr in a more mindful way.  

So far, I have uploaded 1 photo from my way too short trip to Hawaii in June -- it was very easy to upload directly to my blog but a super pain browsing in iphoto.  On the positive side, I have begun to organize my photos which usually reside in figurative ( i.e., computer) and literal shoe boxes.  More to come... 

Blue stop sign, Hawaii

Blue stop sign, Honolulu, originally uploaded by lkda.

It's blue!

Caterpillar to Monarch Butterfly - if you missed our's in real life.

I got to release one of our new butterflies outside today! Two little patrons accompanied me and were totally awed by the whole thing, especially walking out of the library with me carrying a butterfly on my finger!

GoodReads? Shelfari? LibraryThing? Everything?

There is a limit to how many things I can join, well, there should be a limit. There's definitely a limit to how many passwords and user names I can remember. Today I tried to join GoodReads (but, unless I'm wrong, blogger and GoodReads aren't friends) and settled for joining Shelfari (which I loved briefly) and LibraryThing (which I believe may be the real thing).

Anyway, I muddled through finding and inserting blog widgets, picking wood for my shelves before abandoning Shelfari altogether, and trading information, how-to's and clearly how not-to's with desk-mates, Gigi and Ted, which was both ridiculously fun and incredibly helpful. All this in between helping patrons and answering the phone! You could almost see the electricity between our heads (enough to power a small appliance?).

In the end, I inserted and deleted my widget a million times and finally settled on my LibraryThing. (It may be a short-lived relationship, so I'm saving my shelves.)

So cool working together! :)

RSS

I'm slogging through this one. Setting up a google reader account was easy and while the idea of having info come to me rather than going out to find it is appealing, finding feeds that I'm really interested in, well, that's something else. Initially, I subscribed to some bundled content subscriptions, but that's all over now. I did figure out how to post some articles from my feeds to my blog.

when I was in library school...

Okay, so I was in library school in the dark ages. We used computer punch cards, the card catalog was wood and had drawers and I typed papers using my selectric typewriter and its amazing correctable ribbon.

My typewriter was pretty cool but I wrote my thesis on a memory typewriter at work--that was really cool! The thing I still miss is the card catalog...

This is Children's

Yesterday we witnessed the melt-down of the century in Children's which turned into the tantrum of the century. It must have gone on for a good 20 minutes (or more) and reached the point of no return for the tantrumee. I was picking up baby toys and books in the baby area and our little patron was screaming nearby underneath a table while her dad alternately ignored her or tried to quietly reason with her. Seriously, you can't reason with a child who is screaming her lungs out.

As I was putting back every board book and toy in that section (while ignoring the used kleenex), an adult patron walked in like he was shell-shocked, stared at the scene and then came over to where I was picking up stuff about 2 feet from the screaming.

Adult: Did she get hurt? I came down from the 3rd floor because she was so loud!

Me: No, she's okay.

Adult: Really? I thought something was wrong - you can hear her all the way upstairs.

Me: Nope, just a tantrum. You get used to it.

Adult: Are you sure? I was on the 3rd floor!

Me: She's fine. This is Children's.

Wilco - Via Chicago

I think I'm in love with word clouds on wordle. I made this word cloud from the lyrics to Via Chicago by Wilco.

Since I'm not going to Lollapalooza this year, the next best thing is listening to the music and playing with the lyrics.

On the 7 1/2 habits

I haven't thought much about life-long learning -- I realize that its something that I just do. I really like the process of learning new things and particularly gaining expertise. I can't say I face change without trepidation, but I like adding stuff to what I know and do.

I've made career changes which reflect that: from working as a Program Assistant at ALA (for ACRL and then AASL) to a Special Librarian at the ADA to a Children’s Librarian, which I think is the best fit. I have run my own baking business, worked as an employment counselor for a nanny agency and was fleetingly an online legal/medical researcher. I also currently work as a Resource Coordinator/Administrator of a small non-profit organization.

I do love to learn and create-- whether knitting or glass bead making or baking or storytime crafts (ah, foam!). Although I do suspect my favorite part about learning something new is setting up/acquiring the appropriate toolbox - I do love the acoutrements!

So on to these habits...habit #5 may be the easiest or most natural for me, habit #3 sometimes the hardest. Really, though, they all fall on a continuum and depending on the situation and my mood, its not so crystal clear. (When I initially tried to set up my blog and ended up deleting it, twice, I was not especially confident or ready to take responsibility, able to view my problems as challenges instead of irritations or feeling too playful --nor was I particularly nice to my children who bore the brunt of my exasperation. But now, its a brand new day...)

On blogging...

Okay, here is my first post. Although I have found some blogs interesting to read, I haven't ever thought about writing my own. A little daunting, to be sure, and for me full of false starts. Sort of like the many letters I write in my head that never make it to paper. So, this one is short but opens the door...