Reflections on the First Semester of Project Play

I've enjoyed the structured look at the relationships among and between all of these tools. And I'm sure that my use of all of them has become more efficient and I'm getting more value fromt them. I've made some changes to the "New on the APL Intranet" blog that I think will make it more useful as a historical tool. Also I'm excited about the potential of WikiSpot for FOCOL development.

At this point I'm not sure about the second semester, but if there is room I will certainly participate. Nice job putting this together! Thanks.

PowerPoint Presentation Creativity

This slide show on making good slide shows is all over the "best" lists lately. I can see why - its very good. Keep for the next all staff training session.

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WikiWiki

We've tried several Wikis at APL, using pbwiki. We have one for developing collection plans, one for our periodical committee, an overall one started by Admin for communication and policy development, and several of our taskforces have used wikis to work on documents of various sorts collaboratively. In general, some people pick up the techniques easier than others, and the wikis have met variable success.

I use a wiki for collaboration with other members of an organization I belong to called the Torch Club. We are hosting a convention here in 2009 of the International Torch Club and we're using the Wiki to plan to agenda for that conference. In truth, most of the members are sort of technophobic, so I'm doing most of the editing. But I'm using it as a documentation tool mostly, and it is useful for that purpose.

I'm really enthused to discover the Davis, CA community wiki! About 13 years ago, we had a vision for the organization called Fox Cities Online (FOCOL) that was very much like what Davis has done with this wiki. We didn't find the right technology back then, and FOCOL has developed into a community directory and non-profit web hosting service. It is quite successful, but I intend to show the board the Davis wiki and begin a discussion of incorporating something like it into our site.

For purposes of documenting completion of the assignments: There already was a link to the Appleton Public Library on the Wikipedia entry for Appleton - I think Terry Dawson put it there a couple of years ago. And I added my name to the "I've been here" list on the Project Play sandbox wiki.

Tagging, Tag Clouds, etc.

I've noticed tags and tag clouds for a long time, and generally I haven't been a fan of them. The Cloud concept is cool to be sure, but the tags seem so undiciplined. I became a librarian relatively late in life, and I remember how easy it was for me to "grok" the concept of a controlled vocabulary, and what a revelation that was for me. Now we seem to be moving away from it.

However, that said, this lesson has called to my attention some really good reasons to do it, and I've incorporated tags into my posts on the "New on the Intranet" blog that I maintain. It allows easier access to past posts than scanning through the headlines, and that will only become more important as time passes.

I also found a site that allowed me to display Blogger labels in a cloud instead of a list.

I've had a del.icio.us account for some time, and basically I used it to port my bookmarks from one computer to another. I haven't shared my account, and haven't done much with tagging in del.icio.us, but I can now see how helpful it would be to do so. I'll share once I get things organized a little better. The whole "social" aspect is wierd to me. I get privacy easier than I get sharing...

LibraryThing

Not sure exactly what I think of LibraryThing. I remember that way back before I became a Librarian I tried to "catalog" all of my personal holdings. Never really got that project completed, and pretty much lost interest once I had a "real" library to play with. The ability to keep a list of things I've read is nice, but frankly I used the InfoSoup reading list to help me remember these to add to LibraryThing.

On the other hand, it is certainly easy to use, and easy to link a nice feed to this blog. Not sure anyone else really cares what I've been reading, but if they did it would be easy to tell them. So - Library applications: staff suggestions, program background, featured author's works, .....

The "unsuggester" says that, based on having liked "Water for Elephants" I wouldn't like "Bill Clinton, My Life", so that will save me alot of time. I guess I also won't be reading Wittengenstein's Tractatus logico-philosophicus any time soon.

SurveyMonkey

Survey Monkey is one very useful tool, in my opinion. I use it in a variety of ways.

Our library does an annual survey of patrons, and for years we have just printed up copies of the survey and had people fill them in. But for the last two years we've also done a Survey Monkey version. We've noticed some significant differences between the in-house people's opinions and the online user's. I'll share more details if you'd like.

I also use it for feedback and requests for links on the Fox Cities Online website. I was getting a huge amount of spam when the link requests were coming via email. Survey Monkey cuts down significantly on the spam.

Both the Library and FOCOL have signed up for "professional" membership in Survey Monkey - that allows us to have more control over things like what happens when people complete the survey, and it lets us put a personalized logo on each survey.

RSS feeds

I just checked the Project Play spreadsheet and notice that I haven't yet completed weeks 3 or 4. Actually, I guess I just didn't write about the related activities here. So, for the record: I've had a bloglines account for some time now, and have found myself in the trap of subscribing to too many things to keep up with.

Lately, I've been using the built in feed reader in IE 7 - much easier, and its all right there in my browser now.

I also use a service called Feed2JS to create a script for use on the APL Intranet that posts the latest 4 headlines from Terry's New Cybrary blog and my New on the Intranet blog on the front page of the Intranet. I really like that utility - it allows our staff to see very easily whether there have been any updates to either of the blogs.

Another long travel day

I'm sitting in the airport in Orlando, waiting for our flight to Detroit, and then to home. Not much to do, and there seems to be free Internet wireless here, so I'll get in another post.

Yesterday, Lisa Stand invited me to be her "friend" on Facebook, so I set up a basic account there and hooked up with her. Before the end of the day, Rhonda Puntney invited friendship as well. Not sure where it will all go, but I have found Michael Nitz and Peter Gilbert there, as well as lots of other WLA folks.

Today we are on the move, and the only good part is that there is a restaurant in Detroit that has wonderful sushi and we will be getting there at an appropriate time to indulge. (on the way here it was 8 AM and it just didn't seen like a sushi time of day.

Will be good to be home tonight - hope it all works out.

On Vacation, but still Playing...

OK, so I'm still behind on Project Play stuff. But this is "playing" right?

I'm taking a few days off after the hectic WLA Conference, and relaxing down here in Orlando. Staying at a beautiful resort called Coronado Springs, while my husband attends the Learning2007 Conference. We've been here several times before, and it is a very confortable, relaxing place. (though it isn't often that I find pop machines demanding $2.50...)

There isn't much that I have to do here, and I can't sit in on many of the activities. But there will be a party tomorrow night with Melinda Doolittle (of American Idol fame) and tonight my husband is learning cooking from Bobby Flay.

Some of you may remember Judy Brown, previously from Fox Valley Technical College, and, along with Terry Dawson, founder of Fox Cities Online. She is here - has been every time we have come actually. But this year she's a presenter. Nice to see her again.

So - I'll take a couple of pictures while I wait around for dinner, and try to put them up on Flickr. This should be a link - about 15 minutes later... Gee, I like my new computer!

Oh, and by the way, it isn't hard to get 10,000 steps in on this trip! I'm at 16,000 and counting for today.

First Post to Get out there

OK, here's a new blog, created for Project Play. Yes, I know I'm behind, but I'll catch up.