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.