End or Beginning

For much of the last 13 weeks, I didn't think that I would finish Nebraska Learns 2.0. But here it is a week early and this is my last post. I've learned quite a few things unexpectedly, including that my old online home computer will only let me blog in "edit html" rather than "compose"; now that I know, it's not really a problem.

I think I got as much or more out of the exercises where I was already a little bit familiar with the tools being examined. Having a purpose made the journey of exploration more memorable than just seeing somebody demo something at a conference or training session.

I'm taking away an exposure to a variety of 2.0 tools and a knowledge that as the tools change (soon we'll be having 3.0 symantic web tool), I'll be able to play with them enough to make decisions as to appropriateness and usability for whatever my needs (and my customers' needs) are.

I also learned that my tolerance for different passwords is very low, so I really appreciate what I can do through a single Google account.

If I could do anything differently, I'd make sure that no week had three things to do -- that was a mental block for me (and many of the colleagues I've talked to). And I would do a self-paced program like this again.

As an actual result (and early on in Nebraska Learns 2.0), I did create a blog for my music library. I also recorded part of a podcast, which is now available. I will be using additional tools when they are the right tool.

And I will continue my lifelong voyage of exploration.

Podcasts

I decided to look for the podcasts from Lincoln City Libraries in each of the podcast directories. Podcastalley and the iTunes podcast page brought up the current podcasts from LCL quickly. Podcast.com didn't bring up any podcasts from Lincoln City Libraries and what I found in the Podcast Directory was way out of date.

I subscribed to the Lincoln City Libraries podcasts in both Google Reader (my preferred reader) and Bloglines. The specific podcast that I wanted came up in both. I just happened to be my first podcast book talk and I had been waiting for an excuse to listen to it. What I liked best about Google Reader was that there was a fast forward (or tab) so I could get to my part of the joint venture (the middle of the cast) without listening to the whole thing. In Bloglines, I didn't find that feature, so I just had to listen. FYI, my podcast was #29 in the Casting About series from Lincoln City Libraries. In the future I will need to speak louder and stay closer to the mic, as I kept fading away. (Of course, that's part of my pattern of speech).

Pachelbel Rant

My favorite video on YouTube is Rob Paravonian's Pachelbel Rant. It has had more than 6 million views in the couple of years it has been up. It is 5 star rated with more thn 38,000 ratings. In the video, the musical comedian talks and sings about the 8 notes of the bass line in Pachelbel's Canon and the changes/chords show up in popular music all over the place. I have yet to find a trained musician who doesn't find it funny. For all the humor, the video imparts a tremendous amount of information in a way that is really understandable. Best of all, Pachelbel Rant has spurred copies with subtitles in various languages as well as other videos related to the Pachelbel Canon and Paravonian's rant.

Yes, YouTube has a role in libraries -- in training staff and customers and in public relations. And it could have a place in supporting staff morale. The videos must be short and carefully targeted. And well scripted and presented. Obviously, the production qualities don't have to be the greatest, judging by what's on YouTube. One topic per video, please.

Image Generators

I played with several of the image generators, but the one that was most useful for this exercise was ALA's Mini-Read Poster. It was very easy to use. The main problem I had was not using a jpg for the first try, even though the site said I could use the type of image I tried. I got a message explaining that I needed that jpg format, so I tried another image. Also, the text box was larger than the amount of text that could be added. I saw that I couldn't print the resulting graphic without a license. My ALA mini-read poster is above.

More Flickr Fun

I tried quite a few of the fun with Flickr things. I had fun with Montagr and the Flickr Color Picker. I made montages with westie images -- there are so many westie images it didn't want to stop adding images. For a 3rd party app, I looked at the Norad Santa Tracker.

Then there's Experimental Chia Pet. It was fun to plant the seeds on a photo and watch them grow into a chia pet. Could it have a library use? Possibly for YA activities. Or for staff morale. I don't see a serious enhancement of library service through Experimental Chia Pet.

Photos

I skipped over the Flickr exercises because I was going to be traveling and taking some pictures. It's now time to get back to the Flickr exercises.

I've explored Flickr and discovered more than 1500 pictures of Westies. I couldn't choose just one. I looked over the pictures of Budapest. Since I've yet to join Flickr -- probably next exercise -- I'll use the photo uploader in the blogger, and my own image rather than one from the web. The blogger photo uploader allows either.

The photo is of a part of the CD collection in the music library of Budapest's city library. You can find more about my library visits in Budapest in Polley Music Library's Cadenza posts.

Farecast

I played with Farecast (beta), the number one winner in the travel category. It was easy to use, and had links to several other travel sites for purposes of fare comparisons. In order to get the information, I had to click to allow pop-ups. It also allowed me to use the airport codes, giving me boxes to choose from, but not requiring me to click anything in the box when I had typed a matching code. It was not forcasting fares for any of the international flights I was looking at from Lincoln, but then I wasn't expecting it to -- that would take going back in a few days or weeks to look for the same flights.

Apps

Well, we use Google Docs for sharing schedules and other stuff, so I know how easy it is to use. Really neat are the form templates. Why keep redesigning the wheel when the basis of what you need is already there. And, best of all, it's the same user name and password as the other Google account things. So much for this thingy -- apps.

Editing a Wiki

It couldn't have been easier to edit the Wiki when I was in the right spot and looking for the edit tab. And adding a link on the wiki to my blog was just like adding one in my blog. My, my the icons matched. Then I went to add a comment on another favorites page, and that was easy except for the save, when I got a message that the site was having problems. Even so, it really did save my comment, much to my suprise. Yes, I might just contribute to a wiki now.

Wiki wiki

Whose got the wiki?

Wikis can be used in any number of ways, as the examples indicated. They work best for collaborative documents or projects, which each participant can access and change as needed. Hacking is a potential problem, as the best practices wiki indicated, and even wikipedia has discovered. How open do you go?

My library uses several wikis. Some have been created to great fanfare and then quickly wither on the vine, as there may be better or quicker ways of dispersing the information to those involved. For the reference categorized list of websites, it does allow staff to have input as to new sites and to keep the dead links at a minimum, relieving the techies of some tasks.

I liked the book review wiki as a way of involving customers and staff -- with those prizes to encourage public participation.

I was involved with an international project that involved a wiki. Participation lagged. And the group is now looking for other ways to share the information, as the wiki really didn't fulfill its promise.

I'm not sold on wikis. Maybe I just don't like to share with the possibility of my work being changed or removed.

Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

As the web is hurrying along towards web 3.0, we as librarians are mired in a lust for web 2.0 tools as an end in themselves. Web 2.0 provides a variety of tools, but do they really help us function as librarians? If they really help us connect with our customers, fine, but if the tools aren't helpful, but rather just "techno-lust", we need to say a firm no to them.

I was interested in Wendy Schultz's take on library 2.0 and web 2.0. Everything is evolving; the library will, and the role of the librarian will, too. The library 4.0 will take the library beyond product and service to experience, and include parts of all the library's previous lives. Librarians will be valued because of our skills linking knowledge from a variety of perspectives. The library 4.0 is a library -- a retreat from "technohustle".

And, I was really taken with "Library 2.0 Debased", with its idea of the library as a delicate ecosystem. Technology we use must be beneficial to our users (and us), and it must be transparent, intuitive, and a natural extension of the customer's experience with the library.

Are we helping our library customers with their information needs? Or their recreational needs? Or are we on Facebook just to be on Facebook?

Presentations go social

Or, too many power points.

Slide Share was very easy to use after I finally got an account. Getting the account was the problem. Obviously, I'm not human, as that was the question that kept me from getting an account for about an hour of trying. I gave it a rest and when I went back, a different set of crazy letters and numbers worked for me and I got registered. I did not feel comfortable giving much of my profile info. I tried several searches, one of which came up empty and the rest brought up things that were not particularly related to my understanding of the terms I was using. Making favorites was just a click of the mouse, and adding comments was a breeze. Whoops! I forgot to add nebraskaaccess as a contact. I'd better go back and do that before I post the link to my comments.

I didn't add a power point. Frankly I don't want to share. And aren't there more than enough power point presentations in the world already?