Overall, I really enjoyed this training. I discovered all sorts of things--some about which I'd heard, but hadn't explored and some of which I didn't even realize existed.
I had waayyy too much fun on some of the exercises--i.e. I'm still occasionally tweeking my Meez--and I've enjoyed sharing some of my discoveries with friends and family. For example, I was able to mount some pictures online that I'd been meaning to send a friend for weeks. Also, I've told members of my sewing group about Library Thing (we're all avid readers) and they were astounded and could hardly wait to get home from our meeting to explore it on their own. I've seen otherwise technophobic coworkers develop actual fondness for the Internet and the things they could accomplish with it.
On the other hand, the program was not without it's flaws.
I think that most of the Things took far longer to comprehend fully than the planners might have assumed--particularly by us Internet immigrants. Add to that the somewhat redundant nature of some of the "Things" and the [avoidable] necessity of having to create so many logins, and you've got a recipe for frustration and stress. Suggesting that staff "move on" if they don't "get it" after spending just one-half hour per "Thing" rather defeats the purpose of the training--i.e. to actually learn about each thing--and is contrary to the thinking of any conscientious employee who feels they should finish something they start. Although time limits are important goals to set, 8 weeks (or even 10) seemed like insufficient time to finish this training. Most of the folks that I know that have actually finished by or before the deadline, did so by spending a great deal of non-work time to do so. [NOTE: check out the post-times on most of my blog entries.]
I also was surprised and disappointed that the Maryland folks that modified the original SC program for use by Maryland librarians didn't bother to add, or even mention, chat reference. Maryland was one of the first to create a state-wide consortium to provide chat reference to its residents. There should have been at least one "Thing' devoted to exploring Maryland AskUsNow! I think that there are far too many Maryland librarians that are far too unfamiliar with this service.
That being said, I'll go back to my original assertion that this was an interesting training with primarily positive results. I hope that the Maryland sponsors of this Fall 2007 training will strongly consider offering it, in some form, on a regular basis.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Thing 21: Podcasts
I got a little carried away with this one. I ended up adding several podcasts to my RSS feeds. Now it's just going to be a trick listening to all of them! Hey, I can just put that "23 Things Happening Here!" sign on my door for, like, forever, right?
Anyway, I found Podcast.net the easiest of the pod-search engines to use. I liked the hierarchical table set up on the main page. It was easy to navigate down through the hierarchy to find things I liked--it's like the work was already done for me. And, once I found a podcast I liked, I could navigate to the actual website of the podcast. This was particularly helpful when I realized that there were multiple audiobook podcasts being published by Babblebooks.
Conversely, Podcastalley.com seemed to be too much of a, well, dead-end. And Yahoo Podcasts didn't inspire me to even search. I'm extremely happy with my Podcast.net results!
Anyway, I found Podcast.net the easiest of the pod-search engines to use. I liked the hierarchical table set up on the main page. It was easy to navigate down through the hierarchy to find things I liked--it's like the work was already done for me. And, once I found a podcast I liked, I could navigate to the actual website of the podcast. This was particularly helpful when I realized that there were multiple audiobook podcasts being published by Babblebooks.
Conversely, Podcastalley.com seemed to be too much of a, well, dead-end. And Yahoo Podcasts didn't inspire me to even search. I'm extremely happy with my Podcast.net results!
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Thing 20: YouTube
I've played around with YouTube and there is so much wonderfully silly stuff there you can lose yourself for hours upon hours. This is still my all time favorite video. The video artistry is astounding. I can't imagine how many hours it must have taken to create this animation. Awesome!!
BTW -- Thanks go to Michele H. for pointing this one out to me. If you are unfamiliar with this tapestry, here is a little background. First, it isn't a tapestry, it is a large piece of embroidery. It is thought to have been commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux in the late 1070s to commemorate the victory of the Normans over the Saxons in the Battle of Hastings in 1066. This video shows only a portion of the entire piece, which is over 70 meters long. For more information about the tapestry, go to http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk.Thing 19: Award Winning Web 2.0
I looked at a lot of the winners, but just fell in love with the Guess-the-Google game. This is such a fun, yet very simple game. Basically, you are shown 10 sets of 20 pictures. You get 20 seconds to guess the keyword that was used in Google Image to pull up those 20 pictures, before you are shown the next set of 20 and are given 20 seconds, etc.
In order to do well you need to hone your skills of visual observation, word association and vocabulary, and speed typing--all of which are great skills to have if you are doing chat reference or some other form of speed searching for just that right image or page.
Get addicted at http://grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google
In order to do well you need to hone your skills of visual observation, word association and vocabulary, and speed typing--all of which are great skills to have if you are doing chat reference or some other form of speed searching for just that right image or page.
Get addicted at http://grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google
Thing 18: Web-based Productivity Tools
I decided to use Google Docs instead of Zoho Writer because I just didn't want to create yet another login sequence. I was pleased to discover, quite a few "Things" ago, that a lot of the tools we are exploring are linked through Google, including Blogger, Picasa (which I chose over Flickr), and, now, Google Docs. Anyway, I'm just typing a pretty simple document which I plan to publish in my blog. I'll let you know how that goes.
This is interesting!! I thought that when I published my document--i.e. the above paragraph--it would somehow automatically and/or immediately appear in my blog. Instead, I had to go into "New Post" and then "Edit Posts", where I was able to choose the paragraph above from a list. It wasn't until I did this and clicked on "Publish Post" from within Blogger, that it actually became an entry in my blog. And the thing is, it looks just like all my other blog entries. That is, other folks who've created documents using Zoho and then posted their documents have entries that look like just that--documents made somewhere else and pasted into the blog. I prefer the seamless look I've established with Google Docs.
This is interesting!! I thought that when I published my document--i.e. the above paragraph--it would somehow automatically and/or immediately appear in my blog. Instead, I had to go into "New Post" and then "Edit Posts", where I was able to choose the paragraph above from a list. It wasn't until I did this and clicked on "Publish Post" from within Blogger, that it actually became an entry in my blog. And the thing is, it looks just like all my other blog entries. That is, other folks who've created documents using Zoho and then posted their documents have entries that look like just that--documents made somewhere else and pasted into the blog. I prefer the seamless look I've established with Google Docs.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Thing 17: Maryland Libraries Sandbox
For some reason, this threw me a bit. Dumb, really, it's just that the Link editing feature worked slightly differently than I expected. Anyway, no time at the moment to add any content. But I did manage (finally) to create a link to this blog on the Favorite Blogs page.
This is something I may want to come back to and explore at length some other time.
This is something I may want to come back to and explore at length some other time.
Thing 16: Wikis
This was fascinating! I had no idea that there were so many different wikis or ways to use wikis out there. I found a wiki link on the Bull Run Library wiki that lists the Number One song on any particular date. What was the top song on your birthday! Mine was "Lonely Boy" by Paul Anka. (God, am I old!)
Thing 22: OverDrive, etc.
Okay, so I jumped ahead. Sue me! I just couldn't wait to play with me MP3 player!!
I gotta say, wrestling through the process of downloading an Overdrive audiobook was not an entirely pleasant experience. I thought, mistakenly, that there was a way to do this using my new Ubuntu Desktop. WRONG! Since I use a Mac at home, that wasn't really an option either. Luckily, I still have my old Windows machine in my office, alongside my Ubuntu.
I did refer to John Jewitt's blog, which helped a bit, but, too be honest, after a certain point, several frustrating hours into the process, the explanation to which he provided a link started to look like so much Greek and my eyes started to glaze over and roll back into my head.
Here is the vital information gleaned from John's blog: work only on a Windows PC; make sure that you have the latest version of Windows Media Player, and make sure to run all the latest safety upgrades to Windows Media Player before downloading (see MDeC instructions).
BTW, did you know that using your work PC for this is illegal!?!?!? (see this Si entry, courtesy of Luis S.)
I gotta say, wrestling through the process of downloading an Overdrive audiobook was not an entirely pleasant experience. I thought, mistakenly, that there was a way to do this using my new Ubuntu Desktop. WRONG! Since I use a Mac at home, that wasn't really an option either. Luckily, I still have my old Windows machine in my office, alongside my Ubuntu.
I did refer to John Jewitt's blog, which helped a bit, but, too be honest, after a certain point, several frustrating hours into the process, the explanation to which he provided a link started to look like so much Greek and my eyes started to glaze over and roll back into my head.
Here is the vital information gleaned from John's blog: work only on a Windows PC; make sure that you have the latest version of Windows Media Player, and make sure to run all the latest safety upgrades to Windows Media Player before downloading (see MDeC instructions).
BTW, did you know that using your work PC for this is illegal!?!?!? (see this Si entry, courtesy of Luis S.)
Thing 15: Web 2.0, Library 2.0
Too be honest, I kinda feel like I get Library 2.0, but, then, I don't! I think I'm with those who believe that Libraries have nearly always been fairly forward-thinking, service-oriented organizations that have worked with new and prevailing technologies that prove helpful to customers and/or to the processes of communication with and service to customers.
With regard to the individual essays, I particularly liked the following ideas:
-- "We need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need". (Rick Anderson, para.3) I am SO there!
-- "Librarian 2.0 controls technolust. This librarian does not buy technology for the sake of technology. “Techno-worship” does not exist here." (Michael Stephens, para.4) HA! Would that it were!
With regard to the individual essays, I particularly liked the following ideas:
-- "We need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need". (Rick Anderson, para.3) I am SO there!
-- "Librarian 2.0 controls technolust. This librarian does not buy technology for the sake of technology. “Techno-worship” does not exist here." (Michael Stephens, para.4) HA! Would that it were!
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