Looking Back at Nebraska Learns 2.0

Yesterday, at the Lincoln City Libraries In Service Day, some questions came up about Nebraska Learns 2.0. I thought I'd post my responses on my Nebraska Learns 2.0 blog.

I learned a tremendous amount in NL2.0, but what I learned depended on the time and effort I put into each "thing." It also helped to follow the instructions for each "thing."

I did hit roadblocks. Some of them were psychological -- like my aversion to the weeks with 3 things instead of 2. Some were the result of computer glitches or the sites/tools we were to be using being not fully functional at the time I was trying to use them. And some were just my not being in the frame of mind to concentrate at the time I had set aside to work on NL2.0.

I successfully got around the roadblocks. For the computer problems, I tried another day or used a different e-mail account (my Gmail) to get the confirmation message I had to reply to. I broke down the "things" into little steps and always started with the resources. Sometimes I had to print off the instructions. And I did skip over things, moving on to the next, but making sure I did eventually get back to what I had skipped. It also helped to have a buddy or two within the building to talk about what we were doing before we blogged about it.

If I did the program again, I would keep a list of my user names and passwords in an organized fashion, rather than the pile of p-slips I currently have stashed away. I would print out more of the instructions in order to help break down the "things" into tiny steps I could do throughout the day and week, since it's hard to get that big block of uninterrupted time on public service, or even off the desk. And, I would try the extra credit ideas. I would also sign up for accounts in some of the tools we could just browse for NL2.0.

I would try to incorporate more of what I was learning directly into my library work. Last time, I started the blog Polley Music Library's Cadenza as a direct result of NL2.0. What's next?

I would highly recommend Nebraska Learns 2.0 to library staffers, if nothing else, to become familiar with other people are doing even if you don't care to do it yourself. Go ahead. Sign up for the next session.

And for the Nebraska Library Commission: When will be be getting Nebraska Learns 3.0?

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.