Method 7 – Social Bookmarking
1. Commoncraft YouTube instruction – You gotta love these simple, quick instructional videos!
2. Tags Help Make Libraries Del.icio.us - article – use of LibraryThing as a catalog substitute for small collections. (How about using this to catalog my son’s extensive baseball card collection or son in law’s personal book collection, many hundreds of books, both Information Technology and science fiction).
3. View the Otter Group 8 minute Delicious tutorial to get a good overview of its features. Did not load for me so I went to the YouTube tutorial
4. I set up a Delicious account with an existing Yahoo account.
5. http://www.allbusiness.com/management/change-management/3875646-1.html - found the web site for Several Habits of Wildly Successful Delicious Users – must have changed.
The bookmark mobility factor is the shinning star for me. I work on several machines and this keeps everything together.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Method 6
YouTube is truly transformative. There is not a day that goes by that a friend or relative doesn’t send me a YouTube video of something fun to see. Have you seen this one? Great Chinese State Circus - Swan Lake http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sMc-p19FIk
In the Spring, my nephew sent out a very creative YouTube video inviting his many adoring relatives to help send him to London for a special class in his field of specialization. It worked – with cash and ticket in hand he went for his creative marketing class.
Round Rock Public Library’s "Sail Away with Books Reading Program" was so much fun to watch and so creative it made me wish for a job in a public library with wacky and fun staff. I am in a one-librarian shop so I will have to settle for enthusiastic, virtual staff members to populate my video. Both of the other two videos were equally charming and gave me some ideas.
I thought I might bypass the skins but decided to explore instead and came away with 3 that I plan to “try on”. My favs were “Diamonds”, for a glam look; “Tropicana” for a refreshing look; and “Paparazzi” to give something the red carpet treatment – maybe a new book or database to announce! Why the heck not!
The channels showcased ,The Library of Congress , The American Library Association, and The New York Public Library were new to me and I will be exploring those on Saturday.
Teachertube did not load for me so I decided to explore the Education channel at YouTube to see what is available. Bummer…my own educational institution does not have a Channel of its own…yet. A fun, informative channel was the CIA – Culinary Institute of America –Boot Camp Holiday Tips – http://www.youtube.com/user/CIANetwork#p/a/C0FAC741C4B287D1/0/2HGNEUhlbgQ
The one for Halloween Punch was clever. http://www.youtube.com/user/CIANetwork#p/a/C0FAC741C4B287D1/1/SB8xk8LHcnE
The concept of the “Participatory community” discussed by Dr. Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University in his lecture, An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube is very exciting. It is so much fun to see how concepts can take off and assume a life of their own.
Note to Santa: I want a new camera that can post video to YouTube.
In the Spring, my nephew sent out a very creative YouTube video inviting his many adoring relatives to help send him to London for a special class in his field of specialization. It worked – with cash and ticket in hand he went for his creative marketing class.
Round Rock Public Library’s "Sail Away with Books Reading Program" was so much fun to watch and so creative it made me wish for a job in a public library with wacky and fun staff. I am in a one-librarian shop so I will have to settle for enthusiastic, virtual staff members to populate my video. Both of the other two videos were equally charming and gave me some ideas.
I thought I might bypass the skins but decided to explore instead and came away with 3 that I plan to “try on”. My favs were “Diamonds”, for a glam look; “Tropicana” for a refreshing look; and “Paparazzi” to give something the red carpet treatment – maybe a new book or database to announce! Why the heck not!
The channels showcased ,The Library of Congress , The American Library Association, and The New York Public Library were new to me and I will be exploring those on Saturday.
Teachertube did not load for me so I decided to explore the Education channel at YouTube to see what is available. Bummer…my own educational institution does not have a Channel of its own…yet. A fun, informative channel was the CIA – Culinary Institute of America –Boot Camp Holiday Tips – http://www.youtube.com/user/CIANetwork#p/a/C0FAC741C4B287D1/0/2HGNEUhlbgQ
The one for Halloween Punch was clever. http://www.youtube.com/user/CIANetwork#p/a/C0FAC741C4B287D1/1/SB8xk8LHcnE
The concept of the “Participatory community” discussed by Dr. Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University in his lecture, An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube is very exciting. It is so much fun to see how concepts can take off and assume a life of their own.
Note to Santa: I want a new camera that can post video to YouTube.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Method 5
I viewed all the assignments about Flickr and really appreciate its features. Using it in the private mode with family would be more my speed. In another institution, our library web team tried to use Flickr to provide direction to visitors looking for our 2nd floor space, but had to remove it due what were considered network security issues.
I do use Snapfish for storage, photosharing and photo related products. My favorite photosite is Picasa - it features a useful photo editor and organizer. Even though I have been using Picasa since its inception, I still find it a bit hard to manage my albums.
In web browsing, I notice that UT Austin includes Flickr as a widget.
This is one cloud computing concept that I really appreciate and use. One big value that I see is that use of these photo sharing tools can help create a sense of "community" and foster the idea of the library as "place".
I do use Snapfish for storage, photosharing and photo related products. My favorite photosite is Picasa - it features a useful photo editor and organizer. Even though I have been using Picasa since its inception, I still find it a bit hard to manage my albums.
In web browsing, I notice that UT Austin includes Flickr as a widget.
This is one cloud computing concept that I really appreciate and use. One big value that I see is that use of these photo sharing tools can help create a sense of "community" and foster the idea of the library as "place".
Method 4 - RSS Feed
The RSS feed is a marvelous invention! The ability to round up stuff and send it down the chute to my own corral is a great time saver. Combined with Google Reader these are handy features with lots of applications.
The 3 feeds that I subscribed to are:
1. NPR - All Songs Considered http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?id=37 Just nice to listen to something different sometimes.
2. The Krafty Librarian – a nod to my past life as a medical librarian. There is plenty of great tips and gems that help me keep up with the medical literature. These tips can also be applied more broadly to the general librarian population. http://feeds.feedburner.com/kraftylibrarian/OLay
http://www.gcast.com/user/davekees/podcast/main
3. Dave Kee’s Podcast for Students – this is a nod to my current librarian life on a campus that has a large segment of students learning English.
With an RSS feed, it is like having all my mail delivered to my home so that I do not have to go out and collect it. If my RSS feeds have stacked up and I do not get around to reading or listening to all that I have send to my Google Reader, I can just delete all the entries and start over.
Some good applications for an RSS feed include:
See works by an author.
Get new research on a topic.
Receive current journal tables of contents.
Find new articles that cite an important article.
The 3 feeds that I subscribed to are:
1. NPR - All Songs Considered http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?id=37 Just nice to listen to something different sometimes.
2. The Krafty Librarian – a nod to my past life as a medical librarian. There is plenty of great tips and gems that help me keep up with the medical literature. These tips can also be applied more broadly to the general librarian population. http://feeds.feedburner.com/kraftylibrarian/OLay
http://www.gcast.com/user/davekees/podcast/main
3. Dave Kee’s Podcast for Students – this is a nod to my current librarian life on a campus that has a large segment of students learning English.
With an RSS feed, it is like having all my mail delivered to my home so that I do not have to go out and collect it. If my RSS feeds have stacked up and I do not get around to reading or listening to all that I have send to my Google Reader, I can just delete all the entries and start over.
Some good applications for an RSS feed include:
See works by an author.
Get new research on a topic.
Receive current journal tables of contents.
Find new articles that cite an important article.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Method 3
My first reaction to cloud computing is concern about the “diffusion of resources”… documents and services scattered in various places without compatible or interchangeable standards for the infrastructure, security and accessibility. My personal feeling is a loss of control when there is a lack of centralization. Who is responsible for the infrastructure? Who is responsible for security? Will the organization who pledges that my privacy is of great importance to them have a loophole for selling me out? Do I have enough skill to outwit the legions that are looking at me as a dollar sign? Last week, I googled the color “sea foam” to check out some bedding, paint colors, ideas, etc. As if by magic, my web mail reader is now showing me all manner of products in “sea foam”. The custom ads about “sea foam” have followed me all week from Amazon to Zappos long after my interest!
The Blue Squirrel Blog mentions some interesting tools that are new to me. I like the idea of Google gears to check email offline. I am ready to pop open Mozy and SmugMug just to satisfy my curiosity and add to my “tool belt”.
Tame the Web Blog also had some great tips…I agree that banning the cell phone in the library is probably a lost cause…it may be better to focus on cell phone etiquette. The cell phone is an information source, just not traditional and in most cases the librarian is not part of it. The author refers to his “tiny tone” when his iphone notifies him of an email. My experience as a campus librarian in a small library space is that tones run the gamut of heavy metal, hip hop, classical, strange voices and once, an Elvis song. It can be quite a racket in a small space!
I appreciated Jenny Levine’s (The Shifted Librarian) We are Not All Ready for the Cloud Yet post about teaching users the implications of the technologies they use, privacy issues, multiple options, and especially how to recover and/or backup their documents and files. Many a student has placed way too much trust in typing in a template (i.e. course management system) for an important assignment or resume only to discover for one reason or another, the action failed and they did not create or save the document in an alternate place.
While I like the idea of Cloud Computing (specifically, something free) I am always reminded of the adage, “…you get what you pay for... “
The Blue Squirrel Blog mentions some interesting tools that are new to me. I like the idea of Google gears to check email offline. I am ready to pop open Mozy and SmugMug just to satisfy my curiosity and add to my “tool belt”.
Tame the Web Blog also had some great tips…I agree that banning the cell phone in the library is probably a lost cause…it may be better to focus on cell phone etiquette. The cell phone is an information source, just not traditional and in most cases the librarian is not part of it. The author refers to his “tiny tone” when his iphone notifies him of an email. My experience as a campus librarian in a small library space is that tones run the gamut of heavy metal, hip hop, classical, strange voices and once, an Elvis song. It can be quite a racket in a small space!
I appreciated Jenny Levine’s (The Shifted Librarian) We are Not All Ready for the Cloud Yet post about teaching users the implications of the technologies they use, privacy issues, multiple options, and especially how to recover and/or backup their documents and files. Many a student has placed way too much trust in typing in a template (i.e. course management system) for an important assignment or resume only to discover for one reason or another, the action failed and they did not create or save the document in an alternate place.
While I like the idea of Cloud Computing (specifically, something free) I am always reminded of the adage, “…you get what you pay for... “
Methods 1 and 2
Steven Abrams made some excellent points about time management in learning new skills.
I find the equipment for learning sometimes a challenge. Ipods, Blackberry, Palms, tablets, etc. Purchase of these digital doodads and their support may not be provided in our libraries, especially smaller or state libraries. We may find our own personal equipment out of date to support the latest versions of the software. In some cases, certain web technologies may be blocked from our campuses due to security issues. For example, Meebo and Flick’r were banned from a previous campus where I worked.
But what I have found is that if I explore about 3 technologies at a time, it is more manageable for me. Using them for a personal application helps with motivation to gain skill and to contemplate additional applications perhaps with my colleagues, campus or students. For example using an Ipod Touch with iTunes allows me to explore the use of uploading and managing my photos (want to see photos of my son’s wedding?); downloading music for my choir rehearsal; checking my email while out at lunch in a place that offers free WIFI.
In some cases, the web based technology was too time-consuming or difficult to follow. I found the Sakai Wiki too hard to master. There are so many types of wikis, I just looked for another that met my needs and skill level.
I find the equipment for learning sometimes a challenge. Ipods, Blackberry, Palms, tablets, etc. Purchase of these digital doodads and their support may not be provided in our libraries, especially smaller or state libraries. We may find our own personal equipment out of date to support the latest versions of the software. In some cases, certain web technologies may be blocked from our campuses due to security issues. For example, Meebo and Flick’r were banned from a previous campus where I worked.
But what I have found is that if I explore about 3 technologies at a time, it is more manageable for me. Using them for a personal application helps with motivation to gain skill and to contemplate additional applications perhaps with my colleagues, campus or students. For example using an Ipod Touch with iTunes allows me to explore the use of uploading and managing my photos (want to see photos of my son’s wedding?); downloading music for my choir rehearsal; checking my email while out at lunch in a place that offers free WIFI.
In some cases, the web based technology was too time-consuming or difficult to follow. I found the Sakai Wiki too hard to master. There are so many types of wikis, I just looked for another that met my needs and skill level.
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