On the journey of 23 things

First, some commentary on the experience of 23 things. The nature of web 2.0 leads to a sort of solitary blogging in the dark. I know my friends are out there somewhere. It is just that while you are blogging it is more of an internal dialogue that you would wish someone else was interested in but are not really sure that they will be.

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

It takes courage to venture boldly into new territory, to try new things and to try to rush through the learning experience so you can get back to all your work with ticking deadlines. I waffled between the joy of discovery and the frustration of trying tools that just did not seem to do what I thought they should do. I did enjoy sharing my frustrations and successes with my co-workers. Searching through everyone else's blogs for ideas was very helpful and illuminating.

Blogger was perhaps the most in-depth of the learning experiences. I enjoyed adding items to the layout, sending pictures and widgets back to my blog and commenting on other people's blogs as well as picking up some really great sites and widgets.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

This program reminded me why I stayed in college as long as I did: The joy of discovery! Having to spend a specified amount of effort on some of these tools helped to encourage my interest. Many of these tools I have looked at before but have not attempted to use.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
We discovered far more things than the 23 things assigned. I also gained more knowledge and appreciation of my fellow library employees in this experience than all of our Annual Training Days combined.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

Perhaps the only improvement I would suggest is not to ask for a blog for each thing. Some things were easy to blog about. Others were hard to take an interest in much less find something entertaining or blog worthy to say about them. It left many of us without an opportunity to blog additional topics of interest.

The branchs that linked each other blogs seemed to be more successful. I think it encouraged group competition as well as provided emotional and technical support.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

This is perhaps the most fun I have had at work in ages. The program was well designed and the directions were very helpful. Some of the links to what to write about were found in odd places and I am not the only one who missed the directions about the seven habits. I do think a little slower pace would be helpful. We have had an unexpectedly busy summer and this impacted the amount of time available for this project.

And last but not least…

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate? Yes!

Podcasting

Podcasting can be used as way to entertain as well as accent library services. The Denver Public Library has two audio services that are very patron friendly: Denver Public Library Podcasts and Phone-a-Story. The Sunnyvale Public Library provides podcasts as part of their Downloads and E-Books services. Their podcasts are audios or videos of their various library programs. The use of any media needs to have a reliable, repeatable purpose. To use any tool for the sake of the technology lacks sustainability. Podcasts can be used to widen availability of a popular program.

I found an article from LJ about creating podcasts. It is written by Jeffrey Griffey who has a new book Library Blogging with Karen A. Coombs. He also has a library technology blog called Pattern Recognition. He is the Head of Library Information Technology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

YouTube or the video is the thing

My daughters are both avid YouTubers. So my personal experience with YouTube is more in the nature of a facilitator. I make sure they type google correctly and I write down whatever they are not sure how to spell. There is no stopping them visiting the library to watch videos at least once a week. Their interests are primarily anime characters and television shows but several musicians often pique their interests as well. This week Madonna's Die Another Day was a must have.

As a parent, my concern with YouTube is the uncensored component to YouTube. Having had this personal experience helps as a librarian to realize just how easy it is to find inappropriate content as well as trying to balance the interests of young adults.

As a librarian, video format is a great way to learn new skills. I tripped over this video while I was searching for library blogs with technorati. Serendipitious!

Building Academic Library 2.0 sponsored by the Librarians Association of the University of California, Berkeley Division

Overdrive

I am an avid reader but I find my audiobook preferences very different from my reading preferences. The first difference is that I prefer listening to non-fiction rather than fiction. The second difference is that the acting skills of the performer can make or break my interest in listening. Jim Dale is my all time favorite performer.

Now on to Overdrive. I always like to try out our databases at home to see how that experience is different for our patrons. Downloading audiobooks is different with each service and there are little eccentricities to learn with each service. The primary problem that I have had with Overdrive has nothing to do with software but with the limited selections of books. So far I have only found one fiction book that I wanted to download and I had to wait months for my reserve to become available. This really takes the document delivery aspect of audiobooks away from Overdrive. I fared better this time choosing a non-fiction title which became available in less than a week.

Friends and other things

As a librarian, moderating appropriate behavior in the library is simply a facet of my job. Patrons, be they any walk of life: adults,teens,or pre-teens for example, may easily have what I will call a social networking obsession. Facebook is one of these social networking tools that may cause such an obsession.

As part of a different Web 2.0 class, we had several exercises including signing up for Facebook. I completed that exercise with great trepidation. I found my best friend from Library School. That was fun! I invited her to join Facebook and now she has tons of friends. See, I am only a teeny bit jealous. I also have been able to keep in touch with library cohorts who have had the audacity to move away from the Sunshine state.

Like many people, I lead a busy to very busy life. I also am not a good letter writer. Facebook allows me to touch base with family and friends as well as entertain myself with cool time-wasting applications with very little effort. This week, for example, I was reassured that Kristen arrived safely for her vacation and I was able to throw several purple octopi at my friends with great glee.

Sometimes I love Facebook. Sometimes I wish I had enough time for Facebook. Sometimes I have to repeatedly remind patrons about appropriate behavior while using a social networking site. Standing on the chair leg and leaning over your friend while breathing on the neck of the person at the next computer is not appropriate library behavior. Laughing even while covering your hands if your voices carry more than half-way across the library is not appropriate library behavior. And running across the library to tell your other friends something funny is also not appropriate library behavior. Finding a balance between moderating patron behavior and providing good customer service is also simply part of my job.

Facebook is wonderfully web 2.0 interactive. You can add all sorts of foolish and not-so-foolish applications to your facebook account like worldcat and superpoke.

Favorite things.....pbclswiki

Wikis are like many other web 2.0 things we have tried....The hardest part is to gather up the courage to click on the edit button! The pbcls wiki like the blogs is a great way to get to know your co-workers.

Zoho, ho hum

I posted the last post with Zoho. It looks all right. Having access to a document from whatever computer you are sitting at could be convenient. I am, however; pretty attached to my laptop. If my daughter begins confiscating my laptop again, I will try to remember this option.