Thing #24 - Download from Overdrive

I think I must really be in a pscyhological experiment designed to find out either 1)how rewards, or even the possibility of a reward, motivates your average library employee or 2) whether librarian-type people would "fudge" having done something when given the opportunity. Well, for you researchers out there who want to delve into the psyche of a middle-aged librarian, the truth is that I am motivated by nearly any small token or glimmer of a potential reward, AND I would never, ever fudge.

So, I did download a book from Overdrive and put in onto my ***NEW*** MP3 player. The system was very easy to use and loaded quickly from my home computer. My only complaint is that there does not appear to be a wide selection of books. I tried to look up several books which I know have been best sellers over the past two years or so (such as The Tipping Point) and did not find them. I ended up getting "Agnes Grey" by Anne Bronte, to see how Anne measures up to her more-famous sisters. But it's hardly a new release, eh?

So, onward into the brave new world of Library 2.0!

Discover Exercise #23 - The End!

I am actually a little let down that the 23 Things exercise is over. I have enjoyed learning new things, and although not all of them appear to be useful to me right now, I will be able to come back to them if needed.

The things I will continue to use regularly are:

The blog: I would like to start a blog for the families who attend story time at the library (and for families who don't). It would include the titles of books read, song lyrics, links to related activities, etc. I also will be starting a blog for a club that my daughter belongs to.

RSS Feed: I am enjoying checking my RSS Feed every few days. I enjoy the feeds about children's books, as well as some that are just for my personal enjoyment.

Social Networking: Coinciding with CCLS's 23 Things, my sister encouraged me to join Facebook. I certainly have a better understanding of what social networking is, and I do enjoy seeing old friends, but I feel this is a time consuming endeavor. I would probably not use Facebook or other social networking sites for work.

Wikis: I am also more comfortable updating our library staff wiki, and can see potential for creating my own wiki for a number of personal and work-related projects.

Also: I enjoyed Library Thing and Flickr. I will try to maintain my Library Thing account, and want to start using Flickr to share family photos.

Overall, I feel much more up to date on how technology is being used, which is one of my learning goals. I had never even heard the term "Web 2.0" before this training!

I think CCLS did an excellent job with this training. The initial in-service day gave a good overview of Web 2.0 and introductions to some of the applications. The 23 Things blog was easy to follow, and each of the "lessons" was well-composed. None of the lessons was too hard, and the more difficult items were broken down into several lessons.

Since it appears that a small percentage of people participated in the 23 Things program after the in-service day, in the future I think it would be better to offer this as an optional training so that the people who attend are motivated to complete the program.

And speaking of motivation, I can't wait to get my MP3 player ...

Discovery Exercise #22 - E-audiobooks

This site was very easy to navigate and use. My experience downloading an audiobook did raise a few questions for me that I plan to investigate.

1. Does OverDrive only display the audiobooks which are currently available for download, and not audiobooks which are currently "checked out?" If so, I wish there were a way to browse all audiobooks so I would know everything that is available in our system.

2. I was searching for an audiobook for my daughter who is 15. When I went to the "teen" section of OverDrive, only 12 books were displayed. However, when I went to "kids" section, there were many titles that are actually for young adults. Is there someone I can contact about cataloging issues with OverDrive?

3. Is it realistic to expect that our patrons will follow the "honor code" of deleting all digital versions of e-audiobooks after the two-week period ends? This raises a whole host of questions about copyrights of digital materials, which is the subject of many separate blogs, I am sure.

4. Is it possible to "renew" an e-audiobook?

5. Do e-audiobooks and due dates show up on a patron's check-out record?

All in all, I think this is a great service for our patrons, and now that I have used it, I will encourage patrons I know to check it out.

Discovery Exercise #21 - podcasts

This is totally new territory to me. I am not an auditory person (hence the love of books, eh?), and rarely listen to audio books or even to the radio. I really only listen to audio books when I'm flying to drown out the engine noise, and when I get to my destination, I have no recollection of what I've heard.

But, I'm trying to get that MP3 player, right? So podcasts may become useful to me, and may even help me develop my listening skills. So I will forge ahead bravely ...

Checked out itunes, since I already have an account, but I really wasn't sure what to search for, and my itunes software doesn't seem to categorize or otherwise make suggestions.

On podcast alley, I looked under Parenting, Family and Childhood, where it said 71 podcasts were available. For some reason, only four showed up when I clicked on the category, and none of them interested me. In the Arts category, I saw lots of Twilight-related podcasts. Basement Boyz Boob Tube was the first video podcast listed ... think public access and Waynes's World. Also saw plenty of porn, which is not surprising.

On to odeo, after some hunting around under "family" and "arts," I finally found a podcast worth subscribing to called "All Ears." This podcast reviews, and includes excerpts from, children's audio books. It seems to me that the information in many podcasts is available in print or in blogs (I know, I'm old fashioned), so why add the audio element? After all, I already told you I am not an auditory learner. But it makes sense to me to subscribe to this particular podcast, since it is beneficial to both have a review, and to hear the excerpt, in order to make ordering decisions. I added this podcast to my bloglines account.

A few notes:

Podcasts are obviously beneficial to patrons who are interested in music, or who prefer to get their information in an auditory format.

Many of the podcasts that I came across while searching had not been updated for one, two, or more years. I would not feel confident helping patrons to find a "reputable" podcast on a particular subject using the tools I know about so far.

One of the best sources for podcasts I found was the npr.org website. I knew that NPR has podcasts of many of its member stations' programs. Their podcasts are searchable by topic, and you can choose to subscribe to as many different podcasts as you wish through the npr.org website.

In conclusion: I found one useful podcast, to which I now subscribe. I feel that I will need to learn better tools to help patrons find useful podcasts.

Discovery Exercise #20 - youtube

I have a fifteen-year-old daughter, so I would have to be a pretty uninvolved parent not to have checked out youtube.com. I think my first exposure to youtube was probably the "Muffins" video; if you have a teenager, you know the one I mean. Then it was Charlie the Unicorn. It seems that every video has its five minutes (or five seconds?) of fame on youtube.

I've checked out many different videos on you tube. Sometimes I just surf for the fun of it. My daughter likes to see favorite songs from Disney movies in other languages. I like animated shorts, and heartwarming, "feel good" videos. You can see some of my favorites if you visit the 23 things wiki (#s 2, 3 and 4 at this site).

And if you search for blonde in the library, you'll have a good laugh (unless, of course, you're naturally blonde).

Discovery Exercise #19 - Social Networking and Microblogging

I'm already familiar with social networking websites, since I have a facebook account, and have spent time checking out our own WCPL facebook and myspace pages.

I was not as familiar with twitter and microblogging, so I was interested to see how other libraries use twitter.

I do use (and read) peoples' status updates on facebook, so I do understand the concept of microblogging. From a personal/social point of view, I think they are a time-waster. I don't think there are that many people who are interested in the minutiae of my life. Likewise, I just don't have time to keep up with the moment-to-moment activities of my friends and acquaintances. It's hard enough to keep up with emails, and now I've added some blogs to the mix -- enough!

But I think twitter (and other microblogs, although it remains to be seen who will win the crown of most popular microblog) would be an excellent tool for keeping library patrons up to date on happenings at the library. As anyone who has planned a library program knows, patrons are forgetful and have a memory span of about two hours. It would be great to be able to "twitter" to all the participants in a storytime to remind them about the next day's (or today's) storytime, tell them the theme, etc. It's also a great way to update patrons on holiday closings and other business.

However, I haven't seen twitter catch on with our patrons at this point. Once microblogs are more commonplace, I think this could be a really good tool to communicate with patrons.

Discovery Exercise #18 - Web 2.0 Tools

I explored MyHeritage.com, a web-based geneology tool. I chose this because we have many patrons who are interested in researching and creating family trees. What I like about MyHeritage.com is that you can invite others to contribute to your family tree. You can add data, such as dates of birth and death, as well as photos, remembrances, and other tidbits of family history. MyHeritage.com also has its own research tool which simultaneously searches multiple geneology databases. However, it was running very slowly on my computer, so I was not able to complete a search on one of my ancestors today.

I also checked out some of the arts web tools, and liked millionmasterpiece.com, a website which seeks to collect one million pieces of artwork created on their website by artists and non-artists. It is cool because you have to create your artwork on the site, therefore you can "play" the creation process of any piece on the webiste.

Not sure if this counts as a web tool, but have you checked out freerice.com? It is a vocabulary building game which will contribute 20 grains of rice for each question you answer correctly. A good way to start your day, with some brain food for you, and real food for people who need it. Bookmark it! (Or should I say, delicious it!)

Discovery Exercise #17 - web apps

I used Zoho writer to compose the beginning of a story. Then I posted it to my blog. I am also sending the story, through Zoho, to other staff members to add to the story.

Although this is a somewhat frivolous and fun use of Zoho writer, I can easily see the application of using a web-based word processing program to collaborate on other types of writing.

Here's the story:

It was a typical November evening in West Chester. A light drizzle had been falling since dusk, and the lights of the houses on North Church Street were reflected, like illuminated mosacis, in the irregular brick sidewalks.

It was my turn to empty the bookdrop, one of the dreaded library duties that goes along with the glamour of being a library goddess. Since the library is closed on Sundays -- and Sunday is apparently the day most people remember their library books are due -- the book drop is usually stuffed to overflowing by five o'clock.

I turned my key in the lock hard right and then back to the left, punched off the alarm, and slammed the door behind me. I got the lights switched on and started up the circ computer as quickly as possible, to dispell the lurking quiet. Then it was out the other door, empty book cart in tow, rumbling across the courtyard.

Before I even got to the lift that takes the book cart down to street level, I could see a large cardboard box next to the book return. "Great," I thought, "someone cleaned house and has given us a 'gift' of their outdated, musty textbooks." Just my luck, I'll have to drag the box inside, too, so we can just throw the books in the trash tomorrow.

I never thought of books as trash until I started working at the library, but now I know the dirty truth. Books have a very limited shelf life, and it is our job to keep the shelves current. We are not a museum, I have to remind myself, everytime I cull forgotten books from the stacks. Most donated books we are able to use, or redonate to other worthy causes, but outdated textbooks are nothing to us but extra weight in our trash cans.

The lift stopped abruptly at street level, and I pulled the empty book cart behind me, making an angry storm of noise as it went over the bricks donated by our most faithful patrons. In the mornings, I like to look down and read the dedications on the bricks while I perform this routine library task, but at night I want to get the job done, and besides, it's impossible to make out the words with only the light that spills out through the library's stained glass windows.

As I approached the book drop, I saw that the cardboard box had been placed there some time ago, and the whole thing was soggy. Even if it contained rare manuscripts -- every library director's fantasy -- they would be ruined and worthless by now. And, I wouldn't be able to just lift the box and carry it inside. I'd have to empty the box first, then throw the useless, limp cardboard carcass in the recycling pile.

I paused, let go of the book cart, and stepped toward the box. I pulled up the first flap and immediately could see this was not a book donation ...

Discover Exercise #16 - Playing Around with PB Wiki

This was fun! I added some of my favorite youtube videos to the ccls23things wiki. It was easy to create the links. I find I prefer to label the links so other people will have an idea where they are going, and so I can remember which link is which. I enjoyed looking at the lists of others' favorite restaurants and favorite movies. Great choice of topics to encourage us to "wiki" with each other. See my previous blog post for ideas about using wikis at WCPL.

Discover Exercise #15 - Wikis

Our library staff already has a wiki, but now that I've read the tutorial, I feel that I better understand the intent and how it can be useful. I will try adding an entry to our wiki.

I thought the Bull Run Library wiki was really more like a blog. I didn't see a lot of user-created content. So this model wouldn't really add anything to our current communication with patrons, since WCPL has a blog.

I thought the SJCPL wiki/subject guide model would be very useful for our staff and patrons. It provides links to many community resources. I especially liked the entries on local authors, geneology, and recreation. I could see our library creating something similar, although it would take a great deal of time to build up the number of resources available on the SJCPL wiki.

I also think a wiki would be an excellent way for our patrons who are living in local homeless shelters to share information with each other. It would empower them by providing links to social service agencies, job resources, job applications online, etc. Could our library be a leader in helping some of the underserved members of our community?