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.
Playing in the Sandbox (Exercise #17)
I thought it was kind of weird the first time I heard our web librarian use the term "sandbox" to describe an area of the website under construction, but now I think it makes perfect sense.
After I posted my blog I clicked on it to make sure the link would work. At first I kept getting an error message saying I had a "slash" in the wrong place. I switched to "Source" so I could see what the code looked like, and I found the problem. Somehow an extra slash got added to the beginning of my link. I wonder though if people who didn't know at least some basic coding would be able to figure that out if they got that kind of error message.
It was fairly easy to use (possibly because I've added things to the one at work) and made me think about the possibilities now that I know there's a free wiki program that I can use. I definitely see the potential for using this if you're working on a project long-distance with a colleague. It would be an easy way to add content and edit information.
After I posted my blog I clicked on it to make sure the link would work. At first I kept getting an error message saying I had a "slash" in the wrong place. I switched to "Source" so I could see what the code looked like, and I found the problem. Somehow an extra slash got added to the beginning of my link. I wonder though if people who didn't know at least some basic coding would be able to figure that out if they got that kind of error message.
It was fairly easy to use (possibly because I've added things to the one at work) and made me think about the possibilities now that I know there's a free wiki program that I can use. I definitely see the potential for using this if you're working on a project long-distance with a colleague. It would be an easy way to add content and edit information.
Wiki, Wiki, Wiki (Exercise #16)
I'm excited to get to wikis, not just because it's fun to say, but because it's something our library has started using to create subject guides. I created one on Literary Criticism. Unfortunately ours doesn't fully take advantage of what wikis can do because only librarians can edit the entries. Not my decision, but not much I can do about it. I can see the point that we want our information to be as accurate and scholarly as possible, so we don't want just anyone to be able to add any kind of content. I wish though that patrons could at least take part in the discussion tabs of the entries, so they could make suggestions. After all a lot of our professors know as much and probably more as we do about the best resources for any given discipline.
Still I'm happy about what we've done so far. One thing that wasn't mentioned on the list of benefits for this exercise is how easy it is to organize your entries and link to other things. It's really easy for people to navigate. I once tried an assignment where I had students compare a biographical entry from Wikipedia with a biographical entry from Literature Resource Center. Though most could see how the information in LRC was more thorough, they all agreed that Wikipedia was so much easier to read.
Out of the examples that were shown I really liked the SJCPL Subject Guides . It seemed like they had really personalized it. For instance I looked at the Arts&Entertainment section, and it included a Staff Favorites section. I like the idea of using a wiki to help create a community at the library. I can see public libraries maybe setting up a wiki for their young adult patrons as a way to get them more involved. I can also see how an internal wiki might be a good way for librarians and staff to communicate. Blogs can be good, but with a wiki you could link to relevant resources that you find, especially for those times when you have a bunch of students coming in all working on the same assignment.
When I went to the ALA conference in D.C., I saw that they had a wiki for it, but for some reason I really didn't use it that much. Maybe because I knew I didn't really have time or money to go explore restaurants and attractions. I just wanted the basic facts of the conference. I didn't really hear about that many people using that wiki for their conference planning. I wonder what makes some wikis popular and others not.
I've heard of a few libraries that are adding links to some of their collections to Wikipedia pages. For instance if it's an entry for a famous person or place, and they have a special collection for it, they add a link to it. I hear it's increased the traffic to those sites. It sounds like an interesting way to use Wikipedia to our advantage instead of trying to ignore it in the hopes it will go away.
Still I'm happy about what we've done so far. One thing that wasn't mentioned on the list of benefits for this exercise is how easy it is to organize your entries and link to other things. It's really easy for people to navigate. I once tried an assignment where I had students compare a biographical entry from Wikipedia with a biographical entry from Literature Resource Center. Though most could see how the information in LRC was more thorough, they all agreed that Wikipedia was so much easier to read.
Out of the examples that were shown I really liked the SJCPL Subject Guides . It seemed like they had really personalized it. For instance I looked at the Arts&Entertainment section, and it included a Staff Favorites section. I like the idea of using a wiki to help create a community at the library. I can see public libraries maybe setting up a wiki for their young adult patrons as a way to get them more involved. I can also see how an internal wiki might be a good way for librarians and staff to communicate. Blogs can be good, but with a wiki you could link to relevant resources that you find, especially for those times when you have a bunch of students coming in all working on the same assignment.
When I went to the ALA conference in D.C., I saw that they had a wiki for it, but for some reason I really didn't use it that much. Maybe because I knew I didn't really have time or money to go explore restaurants and attractions. I just wanted the basic facts of the conference. I didn't really hear about that many people using that wiki for their conference planning. I wonder what makes some wikis popular and others not.
I've heard of a few libraries that are adding links to some of their collections to Wikipedia pages. For instance if it's an entry for a famous person or place, and they have a special collection for it, they add a link to it. I hear it's increased the traffic to those sites. It sounds like an interesting way to use Wikipedia to our advantage instead of trying to ignore it in the hopes it will go away.
Library 2.0 (Exercise #15)
I read through all the articles since they were very short and found them to be very interesting. I really wanted to read the Wikipedia entry to see how maybe such a trend is seen by the outside world. It looks like it's had some input from librarians though. I liked the quote from Walt Crawford: "Library 2.0 comprises a combination of tools and attitudes which are excellent ideas and not new to librarianship, a few business- and tool-focused attitudes which will not serve all users and user communities, and incorrectly places libraries as the appropriate source for all users to gather all information." I think that Library 2.0 does mean that there is increased possibility for patron participation, which is great. But I always find it a little insulting when it's implied that libraries were never responsive to patrons' needs and wants before. Of course a patron can make their needs known a lot quicker and in a lot of cases changes can be made faster. Still it's unfair to say libraries never took their patrons' needs into account.
Out of all the OCLC Next Space Newsletter articles I liked the one by Michael Stephens because it wasn't looking at the trend as a whole but instead looking at what individual librarians can do and should be thinking about. I liked the balance that he shows. Librarian 2.0 embraces Web 2.0 tools and is a trendspotter, but Librarian 2.0 also controls technolust. I think it's always tempting to just embrace some new technology just because it's new without really thinking about whether or not it will be useful. I thought the last one about content was really interesting: "this librarian understands that the future of libraries will be guided by how users access, consume and create content." Definitely in the past the library's relationship to content was very different. Libraries provided content to patrons and that was the end of it, unless that content inspired the patron to write his or her own book. Now people can create their own content a lot more quickly. As libraries how will we preserve these new kinds of content? And how do we decide if all this content needs to be saved? I always wonder about things like blogs. In the past people would find old diaries in an attic, and if they seemed valuable enough they would end up in a Special Collections library. We have access to diaries that are centuries old. Will blogs last that long? What happens if Blogger goes bankrupt? Will my blog disappear?
Out of all the OCLC Next Space Newsletter articles I liked the one by Michael Stephens because it wasn't looking at the trend as a whole but instead looking at what individual librarians can do and should be thinking about. I liked the balance that he shows. Librarian 2.0 embraces Web 2.0 tools and is a trendspotter, but Librarian 2.0 also controls technolust. I think it's always tempting to just embrace some new technology just because it's new without really thinking about whether or not it will be useful. I thought the last one about content was really interesting: "this librarian understands that the future of libraries will be guided by how users access, consume and create content." Definitely in the past the library's relationship to content was very different. Libraries provided content to patrons and that was the end of it, unless that content inspired the patron to write his or her own book. Now people can create their own content a lot more quickly. As libraries how will we preserve these new kinds of content? And how do we decide if all this content needs to be saved? I always wonder about things like blogs. In the past people would find old diaries in an attic, and if they seemed valuable enough they would end up in a Special Collections library. We have access to diaries that are centuries old. Will blogs last that long? What happens if Blogger goes bankrupt? Will my blog disappear?
Monday, July 23, 2007
Tagging with Technorati (Exercise #14)
I liked the advanced search features for Technorati. I think it really allows people a lot of choices in the kind of searches. I did the search for "Learning 2.0" and was surprised how many of the results were from librarians' pages. Many of the results were from programs similar to ours. It's nice to see other libraries and librarians I got the fewest results from doing a tag search for "Learning 2.0."
Technorati seems very mainstream in the kinds of results that come up. I have no doubt that the Popular tab shows what's really popular these days, but what's popular isn't always what I'm interested in. About the only search listed on the top searches that I was interested in was Harry Potter, and I didn't need Technorati to tell me Harry Potter was popular. I think I would be more interested in a site that highlighted more obscure and unusual blogs.
I usually like to try all the optional challenges for these exercises, but I wasn't really interested in trying to claim my blog. I can see if I was creating a blog for my library the use of having it show up on something like Technorati because you want it to reach as many people as possible. But I don't really care if the whole world can find my little blog for this program. I did though try to tag my post. We'll see if it works!
[PanLibAccNet]
Technorati seems very mainstream in the kinds of results that come up. I have no doubt that the Popular tab shows what's really popular these days, but what's popular isn't always what I'm interested in. About the only search listed on the top searches that I was interested in was Harry Potter, and I didn't need Technorati to tell me Harry Potter was popular. I think I would be more interested in a site that highlighted more obscure and unusual blogs.
I usually like to try all the optional challenges for these exercises, but I wasn't really interested in trying to claim my blog. I can see if I was creating a blog for my library the use of having it show up on something like Technorati because you want it to reach as many people as possible. But I don't really care if the whole world can find my little blog for this program. I did though try to tag my post. We'll see if it works!
[PanLibAccNet]
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Once Upon a Furl in a Podcast Long Ago
I wanted to mention a presentation I went to called "Once Upon a Furl in a Podcast Long Ago: Using New Technologies to Support Library Instruction" at the ALA conference in D.C. I thought others might be interested in this presentation because it helped me think about the activities I've been doing for this project in a different way. I liked that it gave me some ideas of how I could use this "web 2.0" stuff in the library instruction sessions that I teach. For example, somebody mentioned using the concept of tagging to explain subject headings. You can compare and contrast them to help students better explain how subject headings work. I thought that was simple and yet really clever. Also, someone talked about using social bookmarks as a way to get students more actively involved with the learning process, especially when working with distant learners.
Del.icio.us (Exercise #13)
I found del.icio.us really easy to set up. I've already starting adding links to the page I created . I really like that I can bundle stuff into different categories based on the tags I used, so I can have sections for work, wedding planning, and hobbies/political interests. I like the fact that I'll be able to look at my bookmarks no matter what computer I'm on. I've always found it frustrating when I've changed computers having to redo all my bookmarks.
It can definitely help with research because it can help you remember where you found good information. Plus you can add notes so you can remember why you liked it. I can see it being as useful for researchers as the citation management programs, like RefWorks. Our library has links under our electronic databases and other resources that allow people to add them to their del.icio.us accounts. It's set up so it automatically takes the user to our off-campus proxy log-in. They log-in, and they can see any of our sites.
I thought it was interesting to see what sites had been bookmarked by a lot of different users. I think seeing that a site has been considered useful by a lot of people and reading their comments can help people decide whether or not they want to use a certain website (kind of like reading people's reviews on amazon before deciding whether or not to buy a book). It certainly shouldn't replace the other methods we stress that people should use to evaluate websites, but I think it could be another tool that people use.
It can definitely help with research because it can help you remember where you found good information. Plus you can add notes so you can remember why you liked it. I can see it being as useful for researchers as the citation management programs, like RefWorks. Our library has links under our electronic databases and other resources that allow people to add them to their del.icio.us accounts. It's set up so it automatically takes the user to our off-campus proxy log-in. They log-in, and they can see any of our sites.
I thought it was interesting to see what sites had been bookmarked by a lot of different users. I think seeing that a site has been considered useful by a lot of people and reading their comments can help people decide whether or not they want to use a certain website (kind of like reading people's reviews on amazon before deciding whether or not to buy a book). It certainly shouldn't replace the other methods we stress that people should use to evaluate websites, but I think it could be another tool that people use.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Rollyo (Exercise #12)
I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. But I've been really busy with work and personal life. Going to the ALA conference in Washington, D.C. didn't help. I'm still determined to finish this before the end of July, even if I've gotten a little behind.
I can definitely see these kinds of search boxes being a time saver in the fact that you can search more than one place at a time, but at the same time you are only searching relevant sources instead of using something like Google, which searches everything.
It reminds me of some of how some libraries are starting to use metasearching programs for their databases. For instance when I was in library school at Indiana University, they had just started to roll out something called "One Search @ IU". It had a lot of problems though. For one thing the searches took a long time. Another problem was that different databases used different kinds of subject headings and had different kinds of search methods. As a result your results didn't always reflect everything that was in all the databases. I imagine programs like this have similar problems. If different websites use different kinds of tags and use different terms for the same thing, you won't always get all the results you could have gotten searching each website separately.
This would be a helpful addition though for library subject pages and research guides. I made a searchroll for websites that deal with Economics because that's one of my liaison areas. Though I was a little concerned about all the advertisements, I wanted to post it to my library wiki page for Economics. Only I couldn't get the code to work. In fact the first time I tried to add it to this post, I got an error message. But the code was so messy I couldn't see where the problem was. I finally figured out I was having trouble with the "style" part of it. I redid it and then it worked. I'm frustrated that I can't seem to add it to my wiki page though. I think something about the links in the code is messing it up when I try to paste it into my wiki page.
I can definitely see these kinds of search boxes being a time saver in the fact that you can search more than one place at a time, but at the same time you are only searching relevant sources instead of using something like Google, which searches everything.
It reminds me of some of how some libraries are starting to use metasearching programs for their databases. For instance when I was in library school at Indiana University, they had just started to roll out something called "One Search @ IU". It had a lot of problems though. For one thing the searches took a long time. Another problem was that different databases used different kinds of subject headings and had different kinds of search methods. As a result your results didn't always reflect everything that was in all the databases. I imagine programs like this have similar problems. If different websites use different kinds of tags and use different terms for the same thing, you won't always get all the results you could have gotten searching each website separately.
This would be a helpful addition though for library subject pages and research guides. I made a searchroll for websites that deal with Economics because that's one of my liaison areas. Though I was a little concerned about all the advertisements, I wanted to post it to my library wiki page for Economics. Only I couldn't get the code to work. In fact the first time I tried to add it to this post, I got an error message. But the code was so messy I couldn't see where the problem was. I finally figured out I was having trouble with the "style" part of it. I redid it and then it worked. I'm frustrated that I can't seem to add it to my wiki page though. I think something about the links in the code is messing it up when I try to paste it into my wiki page.
Friday, June 15, 2007
I Heart LibraryThing (Exercise #11)
I've always wanted to try LibraryThing, so I was really excited to see this was one of the exercises. For a long time now I've been wanting to make a list of all my books because I have this paranoia that all my books are going to be burned up in a fire. This way I have a list of the books that can't be destroyed as long as the Internet lasts because I can access it anywhere I am. Assuming of course that I can get all my books into the program. I need to get one of those RFID machines. I do like that I can put in the ISBN and get the exact edition that I own, though I've noticed it doesn't always come up with the exact one that I have. And it can search the Library of Congress or Amazon. At first I tried to stump the site by putting in obscure books and foreign language books, but they found everything. I like that you can add your own tags but that you can also used LC or Dewey Call Numbers. Plus you can add comments about the book to make it really personalized. I've enjoyed playing around with different ways to organize and display my books.
The social aspect of the site is really fun. You can see what other people own the same books you own, you can share your catalog with friends who are also users of the program, and you can join different groups. I thought it was funny that the largest group is the "Librarians who LibraryThing" group. I was really amused by the Unsuggester option under Suggestions. Basically you put in a title of a book that you own or have read, and the Unsuggester tells you books that you probably won't like by showing you the"books least likely to share a library with the book you suggest." I find though that my tastes are so electic that often I also liked the books that they didn't suggest.
I think this program has some really fun features that perhaps library catalogs could consider. I know many catalogs are starting to show pictures of covers. I think things like that are a step in the right direction. Library catalogs of course are more complicated than most people's personal library collections and the need to be precise is so much more important. If only there was a way to incorporate user-friendly things like tags without losing out on the efficient systems we already have.
Unfortunately I haven't had that much time to add more titles, but here is my library. I'm going to try to see if I can get the widget to work on my blog.
The social aspect of the site is really fun. You can see what other people own the same books you own, you can share your catalog with friends who are also users of the program, and you can join different groups. I thought it was funny that the largest group is the "Librarians who LibraryThing" group. I was really amused by the Unsuggester option under Suggestions. Basically you put in a title of a book that you own or have read, and the Unsuggester tells you books that you probably won't like by showing you the"books least likely to share a library with the book you suggest." I find though that my tastes are so electic that often I also liked the books that they didn't suggest.
I think this program has some really fun features that perhaps library catalogs could consider. I know many catalogs are starting to show pictures of covers. I think things like that are a step in the right direction. Library catalogs of course are more complicated than most people's personal library collections and the need to be precise is so much more important. If only there was a way to incorporate user-friendly things like tags without losing out on the efficient systems we already have.
Unfortunately I haven't had that much time to add more titles, but here is my library. I'm going to try to see if I can get the widget to work on my blog.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Generators (Exercise #10)
I had so much fun playing with these programs. Some of the programs kind of reminded me of playing with Madlibs as a kid. I just couldn't resist the Motivator program. I also enjoyed the Nietzsche Family Circus generator. I kept refreshing, and each one was funnier than the last one. I also enjoyed the Bart Simpson one! I even added one image I made to my Flickr account.
It's amazing how easy most of these programs are. I remember how hard it used to be to make these kinds of images using programs like Photoshop. Now you can do it with a touch of a button. I can imagine how some of these generators could be used in promotions for libraries (like the custom Read posters that you can have made). I wonder if there are any copyright issues with these kinds of generators?
It's amazing how easy most of these programs are. I remember how hard it used to be to make these kinds of images using programs like Photoshop. Now you can do it with a touch of a button. I can imagine how some of these generators could be used in promotions for libraries (like the custom Read posters that you can have made). I wonder if there are any copyright issues with these kinds of generators?
Newsfeeds (Exercise #9)
Playing around with these different search tools was interesting because it reminded me of learning how to search databases and other library resources, and how even though most databases have similar search functions, each one is slightly different.
I thought Blogline's Search tool was easy once I clicked on the "advanced search" option and saw that I could search for feeds instead of posts. When I searched for the word library among posts, I got lots of random blogs. When I search for the word library among feeds, I found blogs and feeds that specifically pertained to libraries.
I liked that with Feedster I could search for blogs, news, or podcasts. I enjoyed playing around with the podcasts. I found it harder to get more specific though with the kind of searches that I did.
I had no idea that there was a Library and Information Science Search Engine, so I really enjoyed playing with LisZen. I enjoyed doing searches for library-related topics. I also liked just browsing some of the blogs. I did a search for information literacy and found some really interesting blogs, like the Information Literacy Weblog. Some fun blogs I found while browsing the List of Blogs included Annoyed Librarian and Library Games. It's truly amazing to see how many librarians are blogging.
I liked Technorati. I thought it was easy and fun to use. The tags on the homepage reminded me of Flickr. It was fun looking at the WTF section (though I thought WTF stood for something else besides "Where's the Fire"). It's always interesting with these kinds of websites to see people who become really obsessed and dedicated to defending whatever it is that they feel so passionately about. I can't imagine Technorati having as much potential for my work as LisZen, but I can see how it would be fun.
I thought Blogline's Search tool was easy once I clicked on the "advanced search" option and saw that I could search for feeds instead of posts. When I searched for the word library among posts, I got lots of random blogs. When I search for the word library among feeds, I found blogs and feeds that specifically pertained to libraries.
I liked that with Feedster I could search for blogs, news, or podcasts. I enjoyed playing around with the podcasts. I found it harder to get more specific though with the kind of searches that I did.
I had no idea that there was a Library and Information Science Search Engine, so I really enjoyed playing with LisZen. I enjoyed doing searches for library-related topics. I also liked just browsing some of the blogs. I did a search for information literacy and found some really interesting blogs, like the Information Literacy Weblog. Some fun blogs I found while browsing the List of Blogs included Annoyed Librarian and Library Games. It's truly amazing to see how many librarians are blogging.
I liked Technorati. I thought it was easy and fun to use. The tags on the homepage reminded me of Flickr. It was fun looking at the WTF section (though I thought WTF stood for something else besides "Where's the Fire"). It's always interesting with these kinds of websites to see people who become really obsessed and dedicated to defending whatever it is that they feel so passionately about. I can't imagine Technorati having as much potential for my work as LisZen, but I can see how it would be fun.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
RSS Feeds (Exercise #8)
I was very excited to do this particulare exercise because it seems like a lot of my more geeky friends love RSS Feeds, and I was too embarrassed to admit I didn't know exactly what it was. And now I know what it is and how to actually get RSS feeds for the blogs and news sources that I read!
I think I will really like it because it seems like a good way to organize information that is important to me. I have lots of stuff bookmarked plus I'm signed up for e-mail newsletters and the like. It takes time sometimes to track down sources I like to read, especially when I'm not on my home computer where most of my bookmarks are (because even though I know what del.icio.us is, I haven't started using it). I think in many ways it will be a timesaver because I won't have to spend as much time looking around for things. At the same time though I can see it actually becoming a timewaster because I might go on my list to look for one blog and find myself checking other stuff too.
I think I can definitely use it in my worklife because, like all librarians, I'm always struggling to keep up with what's going on in the field. I want to stay fresh. Plus I think it's important when you work on a reference desk to stay updated on what's going on in the world because you never know when someone might have questions related to current events.
I can imagine it would be very helpful for libraries to have RSS Feeds that patrons can sign up for so that they can learn about new services and resources. It could perhaps be used for certain parts of the websites or blogs could be created. Right now when I get new resources that are of interest to faculty and graduate students in my liaison areas, I just send out e-mails. With RSS Feeds I could update them in a quicker way.
Here's the Blogroll that I created: http://www.bloglines.com/public/ahartsell
It's becoming an electic list of sources of both professional interests and personal interests. I'm actually thinking at this point that perhaps I should create two Bloglines--one for work and one for personal. That way I can search the professional one at work without being tempted to look at the more personal stuff.
I think I will really like it because it seems like a good way to organize information that is important to me. I have lots of stuff bookmarked plus I'm signed up for e-mail newsletters and the like. It takes time sometimes to track down sources I like to read, especially when I'm not on my home computer where most of my bookmarks are (because even though I know what del.icio.us is, I haven't started using it). I think in many ways it will be a timesaver because I won't have to spend as much time looking around for things. At the same time though I can see it actually becoming a timewaster because I might go on my list to look for one blog and find myself checking other stuff too.
I think I can definitely use it in my worklife because, like all librarians, I'm always struggling to keep up with what's going on in the field. I want to stay fresh. Plus I think it's important when you work on a reference desk to stay updated on what's going on in the world because you never know when someone might have questions related to current events.
I can imagine it would be very helpful for libraries to have RSS Feeds that patrons can sign up for so that they can learn about new services and resources. It could perhaps be used for certain parts of the websites or blogs could be created. Right now when I get new resources that are of interest to faculty and graduate students in my liaison areas, I just send out e-mails. With RSS Feeds I could update them in a quicker way.
Here's the Blogroll that I created: http://www.bloglines.com/public/ahartsell
It's becoming an electic list of sources of both professional interests and personal interests. I'm actually thinking at this point that perhaps I should create two Bloglines--one for work and one for personal. That way I can search the professional one at work without being tempted to look at the more personal stuff.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Mappr and Trading Cards (Exercise #6)
Though it seems to run a little slow, I was really intrigued with the Mappr program. My fiancé is obsessed with the Google Earth program. Mappr could enhance something like Google Earth by adding personal pictures as well as official maps and satellite pictures. It seems like it might have some really fun and interesting possibilities. If you had a particular kind of hobby or something, it would be interesting to see who else in the country has posted pictures on the hobby.
I was going to create a library trading card, but since several of the other blog participants have included pictures of their cats, I just couldn't resist including a picture of my cat. I had fun imagining making a whole line of cat trading cards. I can see though how trading cards of library staff at a library could be a good promotional kind of thing. You could post the trading cards around the library and the website to make the staff more visible.
I was going to create a library trading card, but since several of the other blog participants have included pictures of their cats, I just couldn't resist including a picture of my cat. I had fun imagining making a whole line of cat trading cards. I can see though how trading cards of library staff at a library could be a good promotional kind of thing. You could post the trading cards around the library and the website to make the staff more visible.
Fabulous Flickr Fun (Exercise #5)
I can't help breaking into alliteration from time to time. I was familiar with Flickr before and didn't find it terribly hard to use. In the past I used a website called Photobucket to post pictures. I like websites that let you post pictures because I always feel bad when I e-mail pictures to friends. I'm worried that it's too big of an attachment and whether or not they can open it up. Things like Flickr save you that problem.
I like the tag option. It's fun to see what kinds of pictures you can find on different tags. I wonder what a cataloger would think of these tags as a way to organize this information.
I posted a couple of pictures of my library (Strozier Library at Florida State University) on my Flickr account. Even though I don't think our building is terribly beautiful, it's one of the better pictures that I took, so that's why I'm including it.
I like the tag option. It's fun to see what kinds of pictures you can find on different tags. I wonder what a cataloger would think of these tags as a way to organize this information.
I posted a couple of pictures of my library (Strozier Library at Florida State University) on my Flickr account. Even though I don't think our building is terribly beautiful, it's one of the better pictures that I took, so that's why I'm including it.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Technology (Exercise #7)
I'm working on the flickr exercises. I created my account and everything, and then I realized that the pictures I want to upload are at home and I'm at work right now. So I'm skipping to Exercise #7. I couldn't decide what exactly to write about, since the topic of technology can include so many different aspects.
I finally decided to focus on this new project called Encylopedia of Life. It looks really interesting. It appears to be a Wikipedia-like project, only hopefully much better, and of course focuing on science. Like the new Citizendium, it's going to include experts and amateurs. It has some major institutions associated with it, like Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution. From the demonstrations it looks like the pages are going to have images, charts, maps, and videos. All the multimedia should make it more exciting than the boring encyclopedias and biology textbooks we had when I was a child (in the not so distant past).
I'm excited to hear aboout a project like this because it will hopefully combine a lot of what makes Wikipedia so popular without some of its baggage. Though I always caution students about using Wikipedia, I do understand its appeal. It's easy to use and easy to navigate, especially with the internal and external links. I like that Encyclopedia of Life looks like it will have that same ease of use and that it will continue the spirit of collaboration that makes Wikipedia such an interesting experiment, despite its many problems.
Now whether or not Encyclopedia of Life can reach its goal of including all 1.8 million species is another subject. They estimate it may take 10 years. That sounds rather optimistic to me. It reminds me a little of people who think that sometime we will have a universal digital library. The idea of being able to have a library of everything is very appealing, but at the end of the day probably impossible.
Still I like seeing ambitious projects like this. I think it shows what makes the Internet still such a powerful concept in so many people's minds---the idea that we can bring together thousands and thousands of people to create a catalog of all the worlds' species, a catalog that could change the way we think about biology, ecology and maybe even our planet. Reminds you that the Internet can be used for more than celebrity gossip, porn, and college hook-up social network sites.
I finally decided to focus on this new project called Encylopedia of Life. It looks really interesting. It appears to be a Wikipedia-like project, only hopefully much better, and of course focuing on science. Like the new Citizendium, it's going to include experts and amateurs. It has some major institutions associated with it, like Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution. From the demonstrations it looks like the pages are going to have images, charts, maps, and videos. All the multimedia should make it more exciting than the boring encyclopedias and biology textbooks we had when I was a child (in the not so distant past).
I'm excited to hear aboout a project like this because it will hopefully combine a lot of what makes Wikipedia so popular without some of its baggage. Though I always caution students about using Wikipedia, I do understand its appeal. It's easy to use and easy to navigate, especially with the internal and external links. I like that Encyclopedia of Life looks like it will have that same ease of use and that it will continue the spirit of collaboration that makes Wikipedia such an interesting experiment, despite its many problems.
Now whether or not Encyclopedia of Life can reach its goal of including all 1.8 million species is another subject. They estimate it may take 10 years. That sounds rather optimistic to me. It reminds me a little of people who think that sometime we will have a universal digital library. The idea of being able to have a library of everything is very appealing, but at the end of the day probably impossible.
Still I like seeing ambitious projects like this. I think it shows what makes the Internet still such a powerful concept in so many people's minds---the idea that we can bring together thousands and thousands of people to create a catalog of all the worlds' species, a catalog that could change the way we think about biology, ecology and maybe even our planet. Reminds you that the Internet can be used for more than celebrity gossip, porn, and college hook-up social network sites.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Life-Long Learning (Exercises Two and Three)
The second exercise for this program involved watching a short online tutorial about Life-Long Learning. Now I'm supposed to write about it for exercise #3. Watching this tutorial was interesting because I'm an Instruction Librarian. We're always stressing how learning information literacy skills contributes to life-long learning. I can see how these habits match up with information literacy, especially habit #5 Create your own learning toolbox and Habit #6 Use technology to your advantage. Being able to find and use information effectively can contribute to anyone's learning toolbox. Knowing where to look is half the battle.
For me probably the hardest of these habits is Habit #3 View Problems as Challenges. When I have a problem or an obstacle in my life, all I want to do is solve it. I tend to stress out very quickly when I have a problem. I'm trying to figure out why it happened (why me?) and what I need to fix it. Plus I might be panicking a bit. I can't see it as a learning opportunity until much later, if even then.
The easiest habit for me is probably Habit #5 Create your own learning toolbox. As a librarian, I'm always thinking of what resources I have at hand for any task. I never thought about it as a "toolbox," but when I start something new, I always think about what I'll need to finish the task, and who I can contact to get help. Plus I always do lots of research. No matter what I'm doing, whether it's planning my wedding or deciding on what plants to grow on the balcony, I always go to the library to get books on the topic.
I like to think that Habit #2 Accept responsibility for your own learning is easy for me. I've always been curious, and I enjoy learning. My school days aren't that far behind me though. I think I might still be in that habit of wanting to get that A, rather than considering how an assignment might benefit me. That's something I'm working on.
For me probably the hardest of these habits is Habit #3 View Problems as Challenges. When I have a problem or an obstacle in my life, all I want to do is solve it. I tend to stress out very quickly when I have a problem. I'm trying to figure out why it happened (why me?) and what I need to fix it. Plus I might be panicking a bit. I can't see it as a learning opportunity until much later, if even then.
The easiest habit for me is probably Habit #5 Create your own learning toolbox. As a librarian, I'm always thinking of what resources I have at hand for any task. I never thought about it as a "toolbox," but when I start something new, I always think about what I'll need to finish the task, and who I can contact to get help. Plus I always do lots of research. No matter what I'm doing, whether it's planning my wedding or deciding on what plants to grow on the balcony, I always go to the library to get books on the topic.
I like to think that Habit #2 Accept responsibility for your own learning is easy for me. I've always been curious, and I enjoy learning. My school days aren't that far behind me though. I think I might still be in that habit of wanting to get that A, rather than considering how an assignment might benefit me. That's something I'm working on.
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