Mashups

Very interesting video to begin this lesson. I've been using the word mashup fairly loosely, and not quite correctly perhaps. Some of the things I've been calling a mashup were actually done "manually", eg the FOCOL assistant and I built a Google Map locating all of the members of Fox Cities Online and we added a link to the map to a Wiki we've been experimenting with on another site. Perhaps a more proper mashup if we take the time to actually display the map on the FOCOL homepage.

I did go to the Map Builder site and add a pointer for the Gordon Bubolz Nature Preserve. At first for some reason the site wanted to put Bubolz in the middle of Nebraska somewhere despite the fact that I think I gave it the correct address. But evenually it settled down in approximately the correct location.

I have more work to do before I will feel like I really understand mashups. But this exercise has helped some and at least broadened my perception of the topic and made me realize that I don't know as much about them as I thought I did.

Final Thoughts on this Semester of Project Play

I have had a wonderful time Playing this semester. I appreciate all of the time and effort that Beth and Stef and Joy have put into making this a true learning experience for all of us.

The Seth Godin video is wonderful. It is a slightly different expression of the meaning behind one of my favorite quotes. The version I like is a quote from recently departed wise man Arthur C. Clarke: "Bring me into the company of those who seek the truth and deliver me from those who have found it." I think that "those who seek the truth" are the curious and "those who have found it" are those whom Godin calls fundamentalists. I prefer the company of the curious, and strive to be one of them.

I think that one of the tools that I have found the most useful through Project Play has been del.icio.us When this started I had an account, but I didn't use it much and I didn't "grok" why I should. But I use so many diffenent computers that it has become my mobile link list. I use it all the time.

And I have come to really appreciate tags. I used to dismiss them as undisciplined and unprofessional. Perhaps they are. But they are also very useful. Last night Pete referred to the keywords we use on Fox Cities Online as tags, and although I never thought of them that way before they most certainly ARE. Now if we could only figure out a way to generate a tag cloud out of the FOCOL database...

As I contemplate a future some day where my computer tools will have to be completely self provided these things that I'm learning about will be very useful to me.

Here at APL we actually do use a wide variety of these tools to make our services work better and our internal communications more effective. But we haven't deployed many in publicly visible areas yet. That's an area we need to work more on.

YouTube

I've seen cool things done with YouTube, and I do use it to find things that I hear about on the web or in conversation. I missed Obama's speech on race, for instance, and intend to go out and watch it on YouTube. I have little doubt it will be there.

And you can certainly find pretty much anything you're looking for.


In another blog I wrote of the flock of starlings I saw around my yard last week. This is a video of another amazing flock.

Screencasting

There are probably many uses for this in libraryland. Sara, our webmaster, created a really nice screencast of instructions for people adding events to our new online calendar. I found several of the examples in this lesson to be pretty slow to load and the first one, CuePrompter, never really seemed to be able to keep up with itself. As Stef mentions in her podcast, there can and probably will be a variety of problems with using this technology for a wide audience.

Podcasting

I've really never liked the sound of my voice when I hear it recorded, so I'm not going to try to create my own podcast. But I do like to listen to NPR Science Friday on the way home from meetings in Madison, and since I don't go to Madison as often anymore, the podcast version is a way to catch it any time. I have been using my itunes software to capture that and other podcasts, including the Onion Radio News. I can set it to grab the latest episode whenever there is a new one, and keep only the most recent 5. That way I always have something, but I don't fill up all of the space on my device with old stuff I'll never get around to listening to. Sort of similar to the way I maintain my DVR to keep 2 episodes of the Colbert Report and the Daily Show always available.

I really liked the Denver Public Library use of podcasts to present readings of children's books. I can see a big audience for that among young parents, who could check out the book, and use it together with the podcast to take advantage of youngsters' seemingly "natural" inclination to pay more attention to media than to a person in the room. I'm sure that there is some significant amount of negotiation and rights management that would have to go into doing something like that, but it would likely be worthwhile. The teen podcasts from Boulder were less interesting IMHO. Seems if you're going to provide a context for teens to learn about the technology it would be worth doing a bit of curriculum development so what they create is more useful. (I know, only old fogies like me think things need to be "useful" to be good...)

Social Networking, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

I did most of this assignment quite some time ago, but really don't know what to write about. I'm ambivalent about libraries having Facebook or MySpace accounts, none of the examples seem to get much action from patrons. But I find some aspects of these sites quite interesting. I've been trying to hook up with old friends and acquaintances and have had little success. Pretty tough to find people I knew in College - there were over 30,000 people at UW Madison when I went there. And my old high school pals don't seem to have taken up this medium.

But I did find the Facebook account of one of my husband's nephews, and he actually agreed to be my "friend". I think I've talked more with him since then than everything else since he was about 6 years old.

I do like "simpsonizeme.com" and created the character at left. Fun and easy.

Week 3 Semester 2 - Jott and Remember the Milk

Well, I just don't know about these. They seem too "cute" to be very useful. I do use lists, but tend to do them on paper for very immediate, what do I have to accomplish this afternoon sorts of things. I can see how these tools can be integrated into other things, and wonder if Google may become the manager of my life some day, but for right now it is easier for me to use the well integrated workgroup software we have with Outlook for most things.

That may be the key to some of this: if you are on a well organized network, and most of your collaborations are done among people also on that network, then the tools there will be of more value to you. But if you work with people who are otherwise unconnected, and need to communicate and share tasks, etc. with people in many different places and on different networks, then these web based tools are great.

And I use my cell phone so little that I don't know if I would find Jott very useful at all. Again, maybe in the future...

Another pet peeve (or unfullfilled need) is that I'm getting tired of remembering all of the usernames and passwords that I have for these services. Some can be re-used of course, but it always seems that each service has its own requirements and/or already taken names. Trying to remember which variation I used on this or that service makes the use much less convenient than it should be. I would welcome the advice of others on how you manage all this stuff.

Google Docs

Yes, Google Docs is pretty neat. And useful in a library context too. We want to let our patrons do work on our catalog machines, but they are secured using the Public Web Browser shell. We can't really put any software on them, because that would require letting patrons out to Windows. And, in addition, it would be expensive - We have 17 catalog workstations. So, we will just add Google Docs to the list of allowed websites. That will let patrons do research in our databases, the resources we share with OWLSnet, InfoSoup, etc. and then use the results in a term paper, report, etc.

IMing, Meebo, and all that Jazz

I'm not sure that I really get IM. It seems that the demands of being right there all the time and responding immediately make IM more like the "old fashioned" telephone than the newer, more convenient, email environment. With email, you don't have to interrupt or be interrupted, but you can send off a message when it is fresh in your mind and the person you are sending to can reply at their convenience.

That being said, I can see how a Meebo gadget could very well be a useful service point for the library to offer its patrons during hours that we are staffed. Patrons who need an immediate answer may well appreciate this method - a little less personal than phone or in-person contact, but still right there.

I've embedded a meebo gadget into the Administration home page on our library Intranet. I'll be interested to see how long it is til someone finds it. Now all I have to do is remember to log in to Meebo every morning (and log out again when I leave...) The next tool I need is some sort of universal tool that logs me in to my network, my email, the supervisor's in/out board, Meebo, etc. all in one swoop. And then grabs me as I walk out of the door and makes sure that I log out of all of them. Ideas anyone?

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.