Okay, forgive me but I am from the “olden days." Ya know when we actually put cards in the card catalog, and there was no such thing as the internet or "social media!" Did I mention this before? Did I mention this before? Did I mention this before?
Am I getting "old-timers" disease already? The only technology I can recall was having a copy machine in the library and that in itself was a big deal. Today we still have patrons only coming in to use the copier (if you can believe it?)
I guess it can be interesting to find out what's "popular" but I've never been "in" with the in-crowd. It's definitely difficult to keep up with everything that is out there, so I suppose this is a handy way to consolidate or have a clearinghouse for preferred information.
I didn't care for any of it really, but I will say that since the Newsvine website has stories from established media organizations, it appeals more to my sensibilities.
1. I watced the “Social Media in Plain English” video from the Common Craft Show. I'm beginning to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Common Craft people. They should do ALL staff training from here on out!!! Of course I still think "social media" should be taken with a grain of salt, as opinions are like a*******s, EVERYONE's got one! And the grain of salt is better left for the ice-cream makers.
2. I explored the sites and though all seemed to have some sort of a subject menu, Mixx was too busy, Digg was popularity-based, Reddit just seemed like rambling nonsense, and Newsvine at least had some of the top wires listed. Of these, again-- Newsvine is the only one that really speaks to me, socially or intellectually.
3. So I learned how to share. Not only did I share, but I replied too. What a good person I am! :-) I found the most appropriate article and I shared it to the site I least disliked, but you probably could figure that out by now, duh--Newsvine.
1. It's funny that on this assignment we're being asked to tag (label) when I have been tagging my posts all along! I feel like I've got this one in the tag, I mean bag!
I previously had a Delicious account, but I wasn't really crazy about sharing my bookmarked items with the general public, I mean they're MINE, and I'll admit I'm basically selfish! I'll share when I'm good and ready. What's mine is mine! Talk about big brother getting into all of your goodies. I'm sure he's watching over my shoulder as I type my blog... That is until I discovered I didn't have to share with everybody, as I could edit my "Network Privacy" and make my own bookmarks private.
Then after I FINALLY figured out how to export my considerable amount of bookmarks from my work computer and import them back to Delicious, it was like an "AHA" moment. It did not put them in subject folders like I already had them, and the only option for sorting is either "alphabetically" or "most recent." It was kind enough to add instant tags to my just imported bookmarks, and I suppose that's where the tagging/labeling comes in handy, but quite frankly I don't have the time to do this now. I hope the instant tags are relevant for searching later on.
It seemed much easier for me to create a folder and just throw them in the folder!
The fact that Delicious lets you access your bookmarks from any computer is very appealing, but it will only be a great timesaver once I've invested the time in sorting and tagging the bookmarks in a much more usable way other than the two default sorting methods. As far as it being "Delicious" in that the social aspect of the bookmarking service rates highly with many, but for me... I'd rather be offered a big slice of fresh carrot cake, thank you very much. Now THAT's delicious! mmmmmm....
And while we're at it, can I share this great recipe website?
2. DOH! “Social Bookmarking in Plain English” Why didn't you put this video FIRST? I'm going to have to look at ALL the videos this Common Craft Show produces, because they make everything so easy to understand. I a may even start recommending some of their videos to my patrons. After viewing this, I think my "anti-social" viewpoint of Delicious has just changed. Actually, I still don't have that much time to go back and tag, but at least now I do see the relevance. YAY!
People have saved this 53923 times, and 7693 wrote notes. It was first bookmarked on 05 Dec 04, by streetblader51.
5. I tried several times to save my "Network badge" script and it failed every time? I followed the instructions, so I don't know what went wrong. Running out of time... argggghhh!!!
P.S. I briefly unfurled Furl but did not have the strength at this time to sign up for yet another account, so I merely used this mostly as a search engine. Even through the search box and the "Explore" menu, I was able to find some interesting websites so it's worthy of keeping as an extra tool.
I don't know why I had such a hard time with Mosaic Maker from BigHugeLabs, but I did. Maybe it's because I had to upload individual pictures from my computer instead of my Flickr account, but I wanted it to be ELECTRIC! You know the assignment said to add some pizzazz to your Web page or blog. Well I'm pretty certain my travel pictures couldn't cut it, but maybe some of these will.
I briefly viewed SlideShare and felt it was certainly a great resource for PowerPoint type presentations. Definitely could "borrow" some ideas here.
PictureTrail offers some very cool Photo Flick Slideshows!
After spending SO much time on Thing #8, I was determined not to do so on this assignment, and I can see already how it can suck all my time away like an energy vacuum...
Okay now this blogging stuff is getting serious. First off I have to say that communication styles are as different as the personalities around us. Just look at all the 23 Things Blogs. As I look at some of the ones my coworkers have created, it is amazing how much their personalities actually shine through on their blogs. Of course, technology has made even the most shy come out of their shells and explore new ways to send a message from point A to point B and those with some creativity got even MORE CREATIVE!
I LOVED this quote from Flymolo77's "Thing 8" YouTube video - How Blogs are born: "Why waste it on us when you can have the whole world ignore it?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was so much to go through at this lesson, I didn't think I would ever get through it but let's just say for now am "stylin' and profilin'."
The thing that bothers me about today's communication is how much of it interferes with everyone else's "space." A ringtone that's too loud and obnoxious! A group of teenagers gathered around an UrbanChat webpage. A man who appears to be having conversations with himself, only to turn to the left-- on his earlobe is a "bluetooth" headset. At least from a social standpoint, an IM is a straight line, direct piece of information sent exactly from a sender to a receiver without too much interference sans the bells and whistles to indicate the IM has arrived.
I enjoyed the How Stuff Works website. It was VERY thorough. How Stuff Works usually is.
1) Instant Messaging-- The explanation given for this was outstanding, and I was not surprised by their "Coming Soon" message.
"IM technology is constantly changing. New features are rolled out so frequently that a roundup like this is almost obsolete before it’s posted! MySpace is developing an IM service, which could have a considerable impact on the IM world. The next big thing could also be location-aware IMing, in which services pinpoint users’ locations and allow them to communicate with people who are IMing in their areas. AOL has introduced a plug-in for IM users who have WiFi capabilities—their locations are tracked using WiFi hot spots, and users can open a map to find out where people on their buddy lists are. Meetro, currently in beta, is a multiservice IM service that encourages users in the same area to chat and view each others’ profiles and pictures. This technology isn’t yet available for cell phones and mobile devices, but you can bet someone is working on it."
With that said, 1a.I watched the video from the University of Buffalo and thought it was a clever marketing campaign, but we are already using IM at our statewide Ask-A-Librarian service. I know we continue to try to improve and market this service all the time.
Personally, I have chatted on Google chat with friends, and especially one of mine who lives in Montreal, so we can save money on phone bills. I've also used YAHOO messenger and Facebook chat at times when I see friends online.
1b.IM me Instant messaging may be controversial, but remember, we also debated telephone reference By Aaron Schmidt & Michael Stephens -- Library Journal, 4/1/2005 This article has some valid points, but for a very busy reference desk it is not very practical. If at least one staff person can be "dedicated" to this task so as not to be juggling phones, in-house patrons and IM all at the same time, then this might have more value.
1c. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
2) Text Messaging (SMS—Short Message Service) Good for upcoming news and reserves, I suppose... but I don't want to pay for this service on my phone so you have to find the folks who are willing to do so. They already argue about the DVDs they don't remember checking out and aren't willing to pay for so why would they want to pay for messages that weren't coming from their friends? Maybe some of our patrons in the higher income-tax earning brackets might find this a useful tool, or if they had unlimited texting plans.
3) Web Conferencing I really like this technology especially when travel budgets are falling and the expectation for staff development is still increasing. I have attended many "webinars" and some were better than others. My problem has always been sound quality and mostly when it has been a "shared" or group webinars. I have also attended various committee meetings and "conference" calls online which were successful. Sites like Doodle and GoToMeeting offer shared places for long distance web conferencing and online meetings. Even document sharing is possible. This afternoon I attended a webinar via Microsoft Office Live Meeting. It worked fine using a phone and a my computer except for the crackling on our lousy phone system. Perhaps we should consider replacing the old technology before jumping into the new?
I haven't used OPAL yet, but I like the real ones.
Just ask me about Coober Peedy!
3a. WebJunction Quick Guide to Web Conferencing-- I read it. No surprises. Hope to be more proactive with WebJunction.
3b. Of course I took a very brief look at the Archive of Travel Programs and though there was some useful info, some of it was dated. I imagine some of the OPAL Podcasts might be interesting, if I actually had time to listen to them.
Our library has been using email reference for quite a few years. As a result, our patron base has expanded to even national service. We offer reference and scan articles and obituaries and send them via email to patrons who are not even library card holders. Has it improved productivity? I'm not sure. I think it takes more time for staff, but in most cases it saves the patron a trip or a phone call. It certainly does help the people who are long distance.
So here's another thing now that adds some fun and creativity to my Web sites. YAY! The problem is, I am not the one designing any websites around here.
Oh well, I do very much enjoy the "fun and creativity" part of this assignment and I can see some aspects of this being used in my private life for some great party planning!!! I'm sure quite possibly this could be used for designing in-house displays, program/marketing posters and as suggested for PowerPoint presentations. I'll have to think about that one...
I initially went to The Generator Blog and tried to open several different pages and had problems just to get them to open. It may be because it was the afternoon on a Friday and it typically slows down to a crawl here. I may have to come back to this at a later time.*
On Image Chef I customized Surfs Up without any problems, except that you have to keep their "logo" unless you pay for the premium service.
I thought Letter James was like most any other photo sharing website that offer the same products these days, including Kodakgallery and Snapfish. Perhaps the only difference was the "AlphaPicture" image personlization service. No matter which, you'll still end up paying.
Carleton College's trading cards were a cute idea, but I'm VERY sure I would not want that information out there for the general public at our headquarters library. I do see the potential for something like this for updating bookmarks and booklists (if these graphics truly fall in the "public domain" under copyright) as well as other information resources such as our "Street card" that has basic needs info for our homeless population.
As I played some more I did my own Google search for "image generator" and found Image Generator Links 2009 and from there found many different links including the Dummies Book Cover Maker (4 styles, change the cover on the DIY learning book covers) It seems they will publish "dummies" books for almost EVERYTHING these days!!!
*Update to the The Generator Blog I still found a lot of broken links, and some really useless sites, but I must admit I also had the most fun here. Web Economy Bullshit Generator
Yeah, I'd love to print my own money! Wouldn't THAT be an economic stimulus??? I wouldn't have to invent a new soft drink, drive in to work, blog about 23 things...
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming, er um, job duties! :-)
Okay, so now I'm really thinking there are people out there with too much time on their hands and all they do is come up with things to have fun and entertain us! I'm sure there are some real uses for mashups beyond the entertainment value, but at this moment I am still playing. I wanted to try something different than what I have seen the most on other blogs here which is the Spell with flickr tiles. Those looked cool, but I wanted to look for something different.
I tried to use Flickr Squared Circle Kaleidoscopeand could not get it to open. Then I tried Flauntr and of course it wanted me to create a new account. I don't want to start creating new accounts in places I will never use again. Flickr Chia Pet wasted a few more precious moments of my time, then I found Flickr Logo Makr which creates logos for any word, but they look like the Flickr logo.
I tried several times to save an inspirational poster that I made via Big Huge Labs--fd's Flickr Toys but it would not upload the Flickr graphic here as a URL. Instead, I saved it as a jpg and it seemed to work just fine. Gotta love technology...
Of course all this playing eventually led me to the "The Commons: Your opportunity to contribute to describing the world's public photo collections." and I wasn't extremely familiar with that before. I had heard something about sharing digital collections via Flickr, and even though this wasn't part of our mashup assignment, I felt that if I was still learning something new, this was a good thing.
I think THIS is where the technology is leading us and where it will definitely be useful for libraries. The shared digital photography that may have once only been housed at one location is now being able to be shared with the rest of the world with the click of a mouse. This part of sharing photos online makes so much sense to me. It makes the world a smaller place and affords all libraries and patrons access to what was once inaccessible.
All the other stuff just makes it more marketable, and
I've had a Flickr account in the past, but stopped using it because the amount of free space they offered was too limited for my photographic needs. My friends and family much prefer using other photo sharing/hosting websites such as Kodak Gallery or Photobucket because we take A LOT of pictures.
The first time I ever heard of Flickr the first thing that came to my mind (honestly) was a kid flicking the boogers out of his nose... or that paper game we used to play "flicker football" where we literally flicked a piece of paper between the thumb and forefinger across a two-thumb and two forefinger setup for a "field goal." ;-)
I did find it interesting to learn about how photo tagging on Flickr can help index photos much like catalogers catalog our books and media to allow for more photo sharing. I was especially interested to learn about "machine" tagging which is being used already by Last.fm Is this the "Jetson" technology they warned us about? Will the machines take over the world and will the humans just be the subjects in the camera lens?
I like that Flickr has geotagging capabilities too, which allows the tagger to place a location for where the picture was taken.
When I clicked on libraries I searched for something familiar or interesting to me, so I clicked on the ALA - The American Library Association's photostream page and found all kinds of conference and event pictures, so I can see how that could also apply to us locally for our programs and events. I think that Flickr offers the equivalent of their PRO account to nonprofit groups for free as long as they can provide proof of nonprofit status.
The Clemens and Alcuin libraries "add a note" features to highlight books in their collections are very creative and useful. I agree, it is a very cool use of Flickr in a library,though I think may be time-consuming to set up. Burger King Lear??? NOW I'm hungry! Maybe I need some Lord of the Fries?! ;-)
Fortunately for me my cousin just happened to send me a link this week to his Flickr gallery of a photo "recipe" for Muddy Chicken Soup, so hopefully it will satisfy requirements for uploading pictures and my food cravings! Mmmmm, it does look tasty!
Life has its daily struggles, but I prefer to live for the moments that make me happy. Seafaring travelers have one thing in common, they usually can't wait to plan out their next maritime adventure.
