PB WIKI

Yes, making a wiki is really as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich. Actually, it is probably easier since you don't have to wash dishes!

http://www.pbwiki.com

I have found this site to be pretty intuitive and easy to work with. I'm having a lot of fun figuring out how to create links and images on the wiki. The new editing interface and tools make it easy to add lively content to the wiki and the cut and paste code - like the one that put the image and url in the current post - makes it easy for those of us who don't know html.

There is always something new out there - how about this for 24/7 access? This kiosk in Portugal is applying video store technology to library holdings.

I am going to use the blog to share documents with other staff. These are items that cannot be sent via e-mail in a single message, but can be accessed on a web page. Google Pages is a very user-friendly way to create a web presence.

The 23rd Thing!

Twenty-three things seemed like a very long list when I began this journey, but here I am all done. Well, I'm done in the sense that I've completed the exercises and thought about how all this technology could be useful in the day-to-day interaction among library staff and patrons. I will have to review several things and get more practice with some but this has definitely been most interesting and eye-opening. I know now that 23 things is just scratching the surface of what currently exists and that more new options for communication will be forthcoming.

I am excited about the possibilities of using some of these technologies to promote, extend, or enhance library operations and services. The tools I've investigated should make it possible for us to connect with patrons in very different ways than we are used to. Different is not always welcomed with open arms, the immediacy and social nature of Library 2.0 will require not only the mastery of new skills but the willingness to relinquish some controls in order to permit the user feedback and participation inherent in the Library 2.0 model. Are we up to the challenge? I certainly hope so!

Thing 22

Downloading an audio book from NetLibrary is not an option for YPL as we have no audio content from that provider. An alternative is to go to the Librayr's e-book page http://ebooks.libraryvisit.org/ and download an audio book from the OverDrive collection. I have downloaded e-books to my computer since we began offering them and find it a different but satisfactory way to "read" books - I've used both the Adobe and MobiPocket formats. I have also downloaded a few audio books, but since my mp3 player is not compatible with the OverDrive downloads I haven't been able to really make the audio books very portable, unless I put them on my laptop which is more portable than a PC but no IPod.

Here is a video from a library that offers OverDrive audioBooks


I think it is helpful to do this exercise to be more aware of what the patrons who use these formats, and statistics indicate they are being used, encounter. I note that some libraries are now offering in-library kiosks for downloading e-books. Is this something we might want to consider?

Thing 21

Podcasts are much more prevalent than I'd ever imagined! There are literally thousands of them and on all topics you can think of and several you'd never imagine. I found the Pirate Comedy Show and many podcasts about Harry Potter and Lost. There are libraries doing podcasts to provide publicity for programs and services as well as interviews with literary visitors - take a look at this http://www.lions-online.org/Podcasts.html from the Kankakee Public Library. I can see possible uses for this form of communication in reaching not only patrons, but staff as well, in new ways.

Should we reconsider the old "a picture is worth a thousand words" saying? I'm looking for a microphone, might try my hand at creating a podcast...

Grandpuppy Trading Cards

Thing 19

Just as I'm trying to downsize... more places to buy things! I really liked the Etsy shopping site for unique gifts. Will have to bookmark it for next Christmas. I guess the downsizing would be a place to employ craigslist as a seller. I had heard of craigslist, but who knew about all this other stuff? It seems like many people have similar ideas and I just can't bring myself to have to create another user id and password right now. I will get back to these innovative sites another day. I think of all the things I've seen the online and collaborative methods of creating documents and web pages is the most interesting and exciting. I also think the ability to share information through podcasts and short videos may be quite useful as ways to deliver information and training when classes or staff meetings are not possible.

Thing 18

The green statement below is brought to you by Google Docs* (formerly known as Writely) and was posted directly to th blog with no help from me. I did set up an account in Zoho Writer, but it was unable to post to my blog. I will try from another computer to see if there is some setting in the way...

Now is the time for all good librarians to attempt to complete 23 Things.

Even though I could not publish anything from ZoHo Writer it seems to me to be something that can be promoted to our patrons to expand their software capabilities from computers not so fortunate as to have been equipped with the full gamut of Office applications. I will examine more of the productivity sites later.

All the states I've visited, from 43 things

Clearly there is a large part of the country yet to be seen...

create your own visited states map

Thing 20 - I'm going out of order again!

I found a video I want to post to the wiki if I can so I had to skip to the YouTube section of Learning 2.0 to find out how to do it. I've already seen lots of stuff (mostly funny cat videos) from YouTube but signing up and figuring out how to do embed the video was a bit challenging.
I've seen quite a number of interesting uses for videos including things that might work for staff and/or public training.




Mark Peyko from the Metro Monthly was in the other evening and has been making video presentations of Youngstown historic and architechural topics - these can be found on YouTube as well as on the Metro Monthy website. Very interesting.

Things 16 & 17 -- Wiki cool!

Have been investigating wikis via PLCMC's links and am constructing one in response to discussion at yesterday's meeting. Would a wiki work for us to share thoughts about hot topics? There are certainly lots of places using wikis in interesting ways. have you seen Wiktionary, the dictionarylike companion to Wikipedia? One of the most interesting wikis I saw in this exercise was Library Success where you can see what is being done and working well at other libraries. I also thought the Princeton Public Library book review wiki was interesting. I played in the PLCMC's sandbox and posted my blog there. Onward to the next thing...

Thing 15

WOW. An opportunity to blog about Library 2.0 and Web 2.0. These are onrushing and we need to get with the program to become and remain a technologically viable resource. The literature is all about being more user centric and offering our services in ways that 21st century technology users will respond to. This is not to say that we will immediately cease more traditional services but if we don't make contact with some segments of the population we may have a hard time reclaiming their interest.

While I see responding to technological changes as a good thing I also feel there is a down side and that is the resistance, reluctance, whatever, of some who see this as too much, too fast and too confusing. I agree there is a lot to consume, that one may never get it all, but I think we have to try to get much of it. We should at least know the vocabulary and have some idea of what is happening.

This whole 23 things project has been a wonderful source of learning for me and I think it will be for others as well. I hope YPL adopts this program and encourages all staff to participate. I think it is especially important for everyone from administration on down the hierarchy to participate and experience the same joys and frustrations of becoming familiar things technological.

One component of this assignment was to read several pieces about Library 2.0 and react. The thing I saw that made me most anxious about how well we can deal with Library 2.0 here is Michael Stephens assertion, in Into a new world of librarianship, that "Librarian 2.0 makes good, yet fast decisions This librarian recognizes how quickly the world and library users change with advancing technology. Project timelines that stretch on for months simply do not work in Library 2.0 thinking. Perpetual beta works well for the library’s Web presence."

There are already libraries implementing services and projects based on this new stuff (some of which is actually not so new) we need to get going...

Thing 14

Talk about an information revolution - when this program was created in mid 2006 there were (according to the podcast accompanying this lesson something over 55 million blogs) when I looked at the Technorati site just now they are monitoring over 63.2 million and there are even more (including this one) that are not "claimed" and are not monitored. Everyone has something to say about something even if nobody else cares!!!

Technorati provides a way to search all of this and is therefore a useful thing. Combined with Delicous (can't remember just now where the dots go) this provides more ways to find and organize information. In doing this exercise I found two great YouTube presentations that I tagged and saved. Can't wait for the YouTube lesson.

Thing 13

I guess Del.icio.us is the place where those of us who are not catalogers get to be organizational anarchists. I looked at the tutorial and created an account. Now I can get social with my bookmarks and tag the bookmarks however I want.

It is pretty cool to be able to have bookmarks available anywhere, my home and work bookmarks are not in synch and it never fails that wherever I am my bookmark is at the other location. I can see this might be helpful for folks collaborating on a project and will give some thought to how it might be useful at YPL for staff and/or public applications.

Things 8 and 9

Ok, these are out of order and that bothers me more than it should -- but I'm getting over it. I finally got the RSS videos to work and from there it was pretty easy to set up a Bloglines account and set up feeds. It is amazing that, once you know what to look for, there are links everywhere! I found most of the RSS tools fairly straightforward and easy to navigate. I linked to a few library blogs as well as the news and sports sites I check fairly regularly. I won't miss the ads or the spam. My library blogs are the Shifted Librarian and Unshelved.

Thing 12

Now my blog has a search feature. The first search I did was a list of Black History Month sites I selected. Pretty neat. This could be very useful for those pesky annual assignments. It took some searching to figure out which tab contained the blog linking tool, but once I tracked that down it was pretty clear.
Hours later I was struck with a GREAT IDEA! We are always wishing there was a search feature on our web site, so I made one. It is now on my blog as well as on all IS staff computers because Rollyo allows you to send the custom search engines via e-mail and an icon can be dragged to the links bar. I'm so excited.

Thing 11

Checked out the Library Thing and entered a small collection of titles. This could have potential for the home collection! I made a widget to display titles from the Library Thing on the blog and pasted in html code. Now I want to figure out how to make it into a more compact thing. I see I have enough stuff in this blog that there are now "older posts." Onward...

Thing 10 is out of order...

The RSS assignment was not going well so I opted to move on to something else and let the RSS gods and goddesses get over their snit.



What a good idea. I 'm now doing online image generators and what a hoot that is! Ask anyone in my family and they will tell you that my gift of choice is always a diamond tiara. Now I have found out why I keep asking - I have a title which obviously necessitates appropriate headgear!

Perhaps you, too, are the possessor of a title as yet unknown. Find out at http://www.masquerademaskarts.com/memes/peculiartitle.php

And how about this, I made my own snow globe.

To make a snow globe of your own go to: http://www.glassgiant.com/snowglobes/

Things 5, 6, and 7

Exploring Flickr was a lot of fun. I have used photo upload and storage sites before - there are two weddings, a couple of trips, and many photos of the grandchildren on Snapfish. Flickr lets you do many of the same things, but has lots of additional options to tempt you to play with pictures, colors, etc. Of course I signed up for a free account and added some pix of weddings, grandchildren and grandcats.

Then I started to explore the dozens of things one can do with pictures. I looked at the Librarian Trading Cards, mosaics, and programs that make animations out of your photos (that one was a little too flashy and gave me a headache) but my favorite is the tool that lets you spell out anything using photos of letters in Flickr. You type whatever it is you want to say and the letters that form the words are taken from images in the Flickr database - if you don't like a particular letter click on it and a different photo will appear. Keep clicking until you get the letters you like.



Try it for yourself and see what I mean -- http://metaatem.net/words/

Adorable Grandchildren at Uncle Dan's wedding

New York Public Library

library,
originally uploaded by *Mariko.

From Flickr. I set up the connection to be able to post any image from this site directly to my blog. Now, is that Patience or Fortitude?

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Things 3 and 4

The blog is created and I have begun to track my progress on the 43 Things site. I have spent 1 1/2 hours on this and am having a lot of fun.

Things 1and 2

Things 1 and 2 are complete. I absorbed the information about lifelong learning and am considering the 7 1/2 habits.

The habit that is easiest for me is viewing problems as challenges - I may snarl, growl, and mutter "I hate computers" when I am trying to puzzle out a new skill, but learning new technologies is fun and change makes life interesting! The habit that is hardest is beginning with an end in mind. I sorta know where I'm going, but don't always take the most direct route; a colleague used to say I learned by pushing buttons and seeing what happened which is less true now than it was back in the day...

It is certainly true that the best way to learn something is to teach it to others! Another thing one learns by teaching is that everyone has his or her own learning style and the instructor needs to be flexible and creative in order to be successful. Patience is good as well!

First Post

Today I am a blogger, a Berger blogger by golly!

I am participating in the 23 Things technology learning program from the Public Library of Charlotte and Mechkenburg County and am on Thing 3 - I have already completed Thing 1 and Thing 2 and am ready to proceed to Thing 4. I am keeping an eye out for the Cat in the Hat who may attempt to trip me up. But I digress and babble.

The program is a very clever and well thought-out means of introducing library staff to new technology. This is a great idea as technology is moving at warp speed -- no sooner have we figured out something new than two newer things exist and there are even more on the horizon. I think this is fun and am now moving on to register my blog with PLCMC Central.