I'm finished one day ahead of the deadline! I was always a bit of a procrastinator in school, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
I really enjoyed doing this program and would love to do something like this again in the future. Considering how quickly things change and how quickly new technologies come out, I'm sure there would be plenty of other things to explore.
I consider myself to be fairly proficient at using technology, so most of the exercises weren't really difficult for me. But the program gave me a chance to explore some different kinds of technologies and products I've wanted to try but just haven't gotten around to actually exploring. For example I had always heard people talk about an RSS feed, but I didn't know what it was. I kept meaning to find out, but then would get sidetracked and would forget about it.
One of my favorite discoveries was the LibraryThing. I'm looking forward to spending a weekend adding all the books I own to LibraryThing. I also really liked playing with some of the generators and some of the applications on Flickr. I was also surprised by how useful del.icio.us seemed after I tried it out. I knew what del.icio.us was before this program, but for some reason I never really thought about trying it out. Now I really like it.
The program gave me a chance to think about how I could use some of these new technologies in my library and in my instruction. I've thought of new ways to improve my wiki subject pages. I'm thinking about how to use things like del.icio.us and podcasts in my instruction sessions. I'm now planning on teaching a workshop in the fall on how to create RSS feeds and use social bookmarks tools to help find and organize information and research. I got the idea from an instruction list-serv that I'm on, but I don't know if I would have been inspired to do my own workshop if I hadn't participated in this program.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Podcasts (Exercise #21)
I recently watched a really interesting teleconference called "The Classroom Will Now Be Podcast: Podcasting in Higher Education and Implications for Academic Libraries," so I've been thinking a bit about using podcasts. David Free, the presenter, made some great points about how to use podcasts effectively in the classroom. For instance making podcasts of some basic information that students could listen to before they get to class. This would give more time for different kinds of learning activities, which is always great for library instruction because there's never enough time in most 50 minute one-shot sessions. We've also talked at our library about using podcasts of recordings of special events we have in the library, like book discussion groups and speakers.
I like how the Yahoo tutorial described podcasts as being like a radio show. I think that really captures it, especially how you can subscribe to a podcast and listen to a "show" on a regular basis.
I had a lot of fun poking around Podcastalley.com. Under Top 10 Podcasts I found a podcast program called MuggleCast. I love Harry Potter, so I really enjoyed listening to it. I had to add it to my RSS Feed, if for no other reason that I felt reassured that there are people out there more obsessed with the books than me. Looking under the genre Education I found a more "serious" podcast about Harry Potter called Harry Potter Prognostications. It was amusing listening to both.
I looked under the genre Education to see if I could find some stuff on libraries, but I only found a couple of things. I did find one called Econtalk at Econlib.org, which was hosted by Russ Roberts, of the Library of Economics and Liberty and George Mason U. I did listen to some of them because I'm the liaison for Economics. I only found 119 results when I put in the search term "library" in the Search for a Podcast box. Some were podcasts from specific libraries and others were musings of individual librarians. I liked Library Geeks, especially when I saw Jessamyn West was involved.
I like how the Yahoo tutorial described podcasts as being like a radio show. I think that really captures it, especially how you can subscribe to a podcast and listen to a "show" on a regular basis.
I had a lot of fun poking around Podcastalley.com. Under Top 10 Podcasts I found a podcast program called MuggleCast. I love Harry Potter, so I really enjoyed listening to it. I had to add it to my RSS Feed, if for no other reason that I felt reassured that there are people out there more obsessed with the books than me. Looking under the genre Education I found a more "serious" podcast about Harry Potter called Harry Potter Prognostications. It was amusing listening to both.
I looked under the genre Education to see if I could find some stuff on libraries, but I only found a couple of things. I did find one called Econtalk at Econlib.org, which was hosted by Russ Roberts, of the Library of Economics and Liberty and George Mason U. I did listen to some of them because I'm the liaison for Economics. I only found 119 results when I put in the search term "library" in the Search for a Podcast box. Some were podcasts from specific libraries and others were musings of individual librarians. I liked Library Geeks, especially when I saw Jessamyn West was involved.
YouTube (Exercise #20)
YouTube is like the best time-waster. You just never know what kind of videos you are going to find. I like how when you find a video it gives you lists of related videos. Plus you can "subscribe" to some people's videos, so every time they post something new you are alerted. I like how people can make video responses to people's videos. Usually though the comments that people make are lame. The categories section makes it easy if you just want to browse around.
YouTube could be a good way to get videos created to promote a library shown to a wider audience because it can be on more than just your library website. You never know when people might stumble upon it when it's on YouTube.
A colleague and I played around with trying to make a video to promote our Term Paper Clinics, a service to help undergraduates write their term papers. We put it up on YouTube just for fun. Only 82 people have viewed it. We're hoping to maybe make more videos promoting our services in the future. Though this video wasn't a complete success (the sound quality is quite poor), we learned a lot from the process and I still think it was a good concept.
YouTube could be a good way to get videos created to promote a library shown to a wider audience because it can be on more than just your library website. You never know when people might stumble upon it when it's on YouTube.
A colleague and I played around with trying to make a video to promote our Term Paper Clinics, a service to help undergraduates write their term papers. We put it up on YouTube just for fun. Only 82 people have viewed it. We're hoping to maybe make more videos promoting our services in the future. Though this video wasn't a complete success (the sound quality is quite poor), we learned a lot from the process and I still think it was a good concept.
NetLibrary (Exercise #22)
I'm skipping ahead because I'm at work. I think I should probably do YouTube and podcasts at home, where I won't feel bad about using sound. Most of our e-books are provided by NetLibrary, so I'm very familiar with their materials. I've even selected some stuff from them. It's nice that the books we have from NetLibrary are listed in our catalog. I find that most people don't like to read books online though. Often when I tell patrons, even supposed "NetGeneration" people, that we have an electronic version of a book, they'll ask if we have a print version too. It's nice though for books that are very popular. In those cases the print is often checked out, so it's nice to be able to give people another way to have access.
Project Gutenberg is really great. I used it from time to time as an undergraduate and in graduate school. It gives you access to some really unusual stuff that isn't always in the collection. You can find books, pamphlets, essays. Plus there's foreign stuff. It can be a little hard to search (though it has gotten better), and you don't get to see what the original document looked like in most cases (unlike some databases that libraries subscribe to). Still it's free, and it does give you access to some really great materials. I was surprised by all the links to Wikipedia. I don't remember seeing that before.
Project Gutenberg is really great. I used it from time to time as an undergraduate and in graduate school. It gives you access to some really unusual stuff that isn't always in the collection. You can find books, pamphlets, essays. Plus there's foreign stuff. It can be a little hard to search (though it has gotten better), and you don't get to see what the original document looked like in most cases (unlike some databases that libraries subscribe to). Still it's free, and it does give you access to some really great materials. I was surprised by all the links to Wikipedia. I don't remember seeing that before.
Web 2.0 Awards (Exercise #19)
I decided to look at the Travel category for the Web 2.0 Awards because I wish I could go on a nice long vacation somewhere exotic right about now. I was kind of surprised by the sites they listed as #1 and #2. To me they just looked like slightly more sophisticated versions of Travelocity and Expedia. Maybe I didn't look close enough. I actually really liked the third place one called RealTravel. I liked it because it allows you to search for cheap flights and hotels, but it also gives you lots of information about places to travel. People can read and post on travel blogs, create free travel plans, look at travel photos, and ask questions in the forums. You can also click on a destination and find top spots, maps, deals, attractions, etc. I wonder why it only won third place.
I don't know if this site would be too helpful for the academic library I work at, but I can definitely see it being useful at a public library. When I worked at a public library, we often had people come in looking for travel books. One could suggest this site to a patron looking for travel information. It might also be useful for any programs a library does that center around travel. This site could give some good information, and one could also point it out during the program. I do a fair amount of traveling going to conferences and such for work. Though I usually don't have much time for sightseeing, this site might be fun to look at before I travel to a conference. For instance I'm going to Winnipeg, Canada in August for the ACRL Immersion program. I'll definitely want to check out what stuff they have on Canada.
On a side note I was happy to see Guess-the-Google win third place under games. I've been using the game in some of my instruction sessions to help students understand keyword searches better and how it can be difficult sometimes to think of just the right keyword to use. I usually have students play for a minute or two at the beginning of the session. Students really like the game.
I don't know if this site would be too helpful for the academic library I work at, but I can definitely see it being useful at a public library. When I worked at a public library, we often had people come in looking for travel books. One could suggest this site to a patron looking for travel information. It might also be useful for any programs a library does that center around travel. This site could give some good information, and one could also point it out during the program. I do a fair amount of traveling going to conferences and such for work. Though I usually don't have much time for sightseeing, this site might be fun to look at before I travel to a conference. For instance I'm going to Winnipeg, Canada in August for the ACRL Immersion program. I'll definitely want to check out what stuff they have on Canada.
On a side note I was happy to see Guess-the-Google win third place under games. I've been using the game in some of my instruction sessions to help students understand keyword searches better and how it can be difficult sometimes to think of just the right keyword to use. I usually have students play for a minute or two at the beginning of the session. Students really like the game.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
samplehandout
Writing about the Hipster
Library Session
Library Contact: Arianne Hartsell ahartsell@mailer.fsu.edu
Library of Congress Subject Terms:
Bop (Music) -- History and criticism
Counterculture -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Protest movements -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Social conflict -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Reference Works:
Dudley, William, ed. The 1960s: Opposing Viewpoints. STROZIER LIBRARY Reference E838.3 .A16 1997
Hamilton, Neil A. The ABC-CLIO Companion to the 1960s Counterculture in
Hickey, Morgen. The Bohemian Register: An Annotated Bibliography of the Beat Literary Movement. STROZIER LIBRARY Reference PS228.B6 H52 1990
Hitchcock, H. Wiley, and Stanley Sadie, eds. The New Grove Dictionary of American Music.
STROZIER LIBRARY -- Reference -- ML101.U6 N48 1986
Olson, James Stuart. Historical Dictionary of the 1950s. STROZIER LIBRARY Reference E169.12 .O44 2000
Pendergast, Sara, ed. Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th-century
Theado, Matt. The Beats: A Documentary Volume. STROZIER LIBRARY Reference PS228.B6 B467 2001
FSU Libraries Services:
Ask Us Now, Circulation, Course Reserves, Special Collections, E-Journals
FSU Libraries Online Catalog for finding:
-Books
-Journals/periodicals
Databases for finding articles:
- EZ Proxy
- E Resources by subject
Some suggested databases:
America: History and Life: Bibliographic database covering the history of the
Humanities & Social Sciences Full Text: Humanities Full Text brings you full text plus abstracts and bibliographic indexing of the most noted scholarly sources in the humanities, as well as numerous lesser-known but important specialized magazines.
Alternative Press Index: Indexes journals covering cultural, economic, political & social change since 1991.
Philosopher's Index: The Philosopher's Index provides indexing and abstracts from books and journals in the areas of aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic and metaphysics. It is also a rich source of material on the philosophy of various disciplines, such as education, history, law, religion and science. Philosopher's Index covers from 1940 to present.
More Resources:
Find it @ FSU button: Searches FSU resources for available Full text.
RefWorks: Online citation management tool
Research & Documentation: Offers Guidelines for documenting print and online sources with Sample papers and Tips for evaluating print and online sources.
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/
Term Paper Clinics: Help offered every semester. http://www.lib.fsu.edu/form?form=termpaper
Technorati Tags handout,hipster,Navigating New Technologies
Zoho Writer (Exercise #18)
I really like that you don't have to worry about different software versions or file types when you e-mail your documents to someone or change the computer you are using. I remember being a student and then later being an instructor that this was always problem when you had to e-mail a paper or upload it to a course management system like Blackboard. I also like the collaborative aspect of it. I know I've worked with different colleagues on work documents, and it's like we write our different parts, then stick them all together, and start making changes. Usually one person ends up editing it. These kinds of tools could really let people be more involved with the editing process.
The Zoho program is fairly easy to use. I like that you can import documents. I also like some of the extra features that you don't get in Microsoft Word, like the strikethrough option. Still I'm so used to using Microsoft Word now that I was struggling to find some things. I couldn't figure out how to do a page break or add things like headers and footers. I understand that page breaks don't matter if it's going to be a web document, but if you plan to print it out, page breaks can matter. It's possible those things were there, and I just couldn't find them. I hate that Microsoft Word help guy that comes up from time to time, but I do like having an easy to find help box, so I can get those kinds of formatting questions answered quickly.
I played around with e-mailing it to myself. It was amazing how easy it was to e-mail a pdf version of it to myself. It messed up some of my formatting a little bit, but it was still impressive. I liked how easy it was to share.
I'm going to try to post the document I created with Zoho Writer. It's a handout I did for a literature class about The Hipster. I've also made the document public.
The Zoho program is fairly easy to use. I like that you can import documents. I also like some of the extra features that you don't get in Microsoft Word, like the strikethrough option. Still I'm so used to using Microsoft Word now that I was struggling to find some things. I couldn't figure out how to do a page break or add things like headers and footers. I understand that page breaks don't matter if it's going to be a web document, but if you plan to print it out, page breaks can matter. It's possible those things were there, and I just couldn't find them. I hate that Microsoft Word help guy that comes up from time to time, but I do like having an easy to find help box, so I can get those kinds of formatting questions answered quickly.
I played around with e-mailing it to myself. It was amazing how easy it was to e-mail a pdf version of it to myself. It messed up some of my formatting a little bit, but it was still impressive. I liked how easy it was to share.
I'm going to try to post the document I created with Zoho Writer. It's a handout I did for a literature class about The Hipster. I've also made the document public.
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