Thoughts on Things

Ok, to sum up (Thing 23) and ponder (Thing 15) what all this 2.0ness means to me, the library, the world, and the nature of the Universe:

Um... Ok, here goes... (The author stares at her keyboard for several minutes)

I am a young librarian. I just turned 29, and I have been at this, my first library job, for 4 years. I foresee working as a librarian until I retire. That's about 40 years to go, give or take. What will my library be like in 40 years?

To tell the truth, I have no idea what the world will be like in 40 years, let alone my library. I do know this: it will be very different.

I believe there will be a fundamental change, in my lifetime, in the nature of information, media, and especially concepts of copyright and ownership. It is becoming increasingly clear that content cannot be effectively "locked" in the digital age, and eventually the creators and "owners" of content will have to give up on tactics like DRM ("Digital Rights Management," which keeps library audiobooks from working on my iPod, among other things).

I believe that printed, bound books will still exist and be printed in great number, but print-on-demand will account for a huge part of publishing. Books and other "printed" matter will exist as flexible-format digital files, ready for P.O.D., display on a screen, or transfer to personal devices or e-paper. The library's collection will probably consist mainly of an access portal to these digital works, offering a multitude of formats for viewing/listening/experiencing.

I believe the chaos of incompatible & proprietary media formats that now compete for market share (Windows Media Player? RealAudio? iTunes? Adobe eBook?) will settle into a set of seamless cross-platform standards so that stuff just works, regardless of where you got it and what you're using to access it. And the continued evolution of social networking and user-created content will mingle with the evolution of formats so that there is a continual ebb, flow, and change in the content streams on the "Webbernet," as the Ask-A-Ninja likes to call what the Internet/World Wide Web/Worldwide Cellular network is becoming.

My place as a librarian in this ever-changing sea of information and content will be to help people access and use it in order to do their work, meet their goals, and enrich their lives. Just what we librarians do now, but with more and different "stuff," and in different ways. The "stuff" will be out there, supposedly free to everyone, but a divide will remain between those who "have" and "have not:"

• The technological tools to access the "stuff" on the network(s)
• The information literacy skills to find, choose, evaluate, & use the "stuff" they need and want

And I believe that public libraries and librarians will be there to bridge that divide. We will keep striving to provide the needed tools and expertise to everyone in our communities, so that no one is left out.

Oh yeah, and there will always be Story Time. I guarantee it.

mdlearn2 23things libraries future

Google Docs- More!

Did you know that Google Documents does presentations? Really! Here is my Google Documents Presentation all about Google Documents Presentations:

Introduction to Google Documents Presentations
23things mdlearn2 google

Thing #23 Summarize your thoughts about this program and learn more about where to go from here

I did it! I did it! I finished all 23Things! (Ok, so if you were really paying attention you'd know that I kind of skipped Thing 15)

Summarize my thoughts? Later. First I deserve some chocolate. Or a lot of chocolate.

Update:
See Thoughts on Things for summarized thoughts, ponderings, and general philosophizing.

mdlearn2 23things

Thing #22 Learn about Audiobooks

Overdrive audio and video are not compatible with Macs. They weren't compatible 2 years ago when I first tried to download an audio from the library, and two years of rapid growth in the Mac-using population later, they still aren't. And Overdrive does not seem to be the least concerned with trying to build a compatible product. How does this make me, a Mac user, feel?
Frustrated. Angry. Dismissed. Cheated. Cranky.

(One might think, then, that the solution would be to use another computer to download an audio. Say, for example, the wonderful free hi-speed public internet computers at my local public library? But oh, no. Downloading from Overdrive is not permitted on library computers. As a tech-knowledgeable library staffer, I know the many good reasons why this is so. As a customer, it's still incredibly stupid and frustrating.)

There is more to this compatibility problem, and it's actually a much bigger deal:
Overdrive is not compatible with iPods. The exact numbers vary widely by source, but well more than 50% and perhaps as many as 80% of all portable digital audio players are iPods. This is not likely to change anytime soon. What's the relevance of Overdrive if they're not even trying to develop iPod compatibility?

I love audiobooks. I listen to them a lot. I check them out from the library on CD in great number. I would greatly prefer to listen to audiobooks on my iPod, but alas, the library ones don't work, and the retail downloads (Audible, Amazon, iTunes) are much too costly.

mdlearn2 23things

Thing #21 Discover some useful tools for locating podcasts

I so want to podcast. I even bought a little headset thingee for my laptop and downloaded Audacity. Unfortunately, recording and editing something that's worth listening to takes time, and time is a precious commodity in my life right now.
I subscribe to a number of podcasts. It's easy for me because I have a Mac with iTunes and a teeny-tiny iPod Shuffle (the cheapest one they make). What's on my podcast directory right now?

• Zoogoer Magazine/ Friends of the National Zoo
• Uncontrolled Airspace General Aviation Podcast
  
• Eat Feed, the Sound of Good Food
• Mo Sermons, from Momentum Christian Church

Often, I'd rather listen to a good podcast than watch TV. I mean, what's on TV anyway? I pop in the earbuds and listen to 45 minutes' worth of an excellent feature article about the misadventures of migratory bird scientists evading crocodiles in Costa Rica... while getting stuff done around the house. Or I use my $14.99 car stereo adapter to turn my twice-weekly 2 hour round trip to Dunkirk into something much more enjoyable.

For this Thing, I checked out podcast.net, and found the TeenLinks Podcast from Hennepin County Library. I subscribed to it on Google Reader, to which I've returned after getting too disgusted with Bloglines. I think I'll link to TeenLinks from our TAG pages, and see if it inspires any of our teens...

mdlearn2 23things

Thing #20 Discover YouTube and a few sites that allow you to upload video

I like YouTube a lot. So far I only have 2 videos of my own on there, admittedly not very interesting, but I plan to put more up soon. Really! I foresee video podcasts on Taekwondo (I'm a brown belt and assistant instructor), and flying (I'm a student pilot, check back soon for news of my flight test!).
I've even used YouTube for reference in the library. Somebody wanted to know what "Capoeira" was. Turns out it's a form of martial art/dance/acrobatics that started in Brazil, and is now spreading across the globe. Here's a video:



mdlearn2 23things

Thing #19 Discover any site from the Web 2.0 awards list

I'm investigating Google Apps. I'm very impressed, but waiting for the 12-minute overview video to come back online (it's currently unavailable) before I write the meat of this post. Meantime, I've been trying out the individual components that make up Google Apps:

Here is my Super-Easy Website, created in about 15 minutes using Google Page Creator. The potential power of this tool when combined with other Googlish online apps is incredible. I foresee great things.

Update:
Ok, I've seen the overview video now and looked at some of the implementation examples for Google Apps, and I'm officially impressed. If I start a business or organization of any kind, it'll be using Google Apps.

Here's what's involved: All the various Google services and online applications (Gmail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Start Page, and Google Page Creator) are bundled together and set up inside your organization's own domain:

Gmail
Everyone gets an account to access their email via Gmail (the email addresses are your own, i.e. "somebody@company.com," not ...@gmail.com), and that same account logs them into all the other Apps as well.

Calendar
Each person has their own calendar, and teams or departments can make shared calendars. There are even "resource calendars" for booking meeting rooms and reserving equipment. To set up a meeting, you "invite" open time periods on the calendars of other people, and they accept or decline.

And all the rest...
All the other Google tools work together seamlessly too, safely inside your own network. It's very cool and potentially very powerful.

mdlearn2 23things google

Thing #18 Take a look at some online productivity tools

I'm writing this blog post on Google Docs, which is a wonderful tool! I share it a lot with students, who often work on their assignments at school, at home, in the library, at their friends' houses... With Google Docs they don't have to worry about saving their work to disks which then get damaged in their backpacks, or left behind in a disk drive somewhere, or aren't compatible with the next computer where they might sit down to work. And Google Docs is excellent for group work. While a wiki is great for lots of projects, Google Docs is ideal for something that will eventually be turned in as a typed paper. I've been using Google Docs for almost a year now, and I love it.

Update 9/18/07:
See Google Docs- More! about Presentations on Google Docs.

mdlearn2 23things googledocs google

Thing #17 Add an entry into the Sandbox Wiki created with PB Wiki

Did so. And while I was there, I organized the page of blog links by library system (lest anyone think it was me who deleted the lost blogs, it wasn't! They were missing before I got there.). That's the beauty of a wiki. The users can edit it, so if a page like this one grows too unwieldy, someone can come along and straighten it out and make it better for everyone. Yay for wikis!

mdlearn2 23things

Thing #16 Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them

I like wikis a lot. Also, I just like to say "wiki." Wiki wiki wiki! It's a fun word. Ever since I was introduced to PBwiki back at the beginning of the year, I've been a wiki maniac. I have a personal wiki, a cooking wiki, and a private password-protected wiki that I use with friends and family for event and travel planning. The Library's new TAGs (Teen Advisory Groups) will be using a wiki site for their book reviews, and I'm in the process of replacing my church's website with a wiki.

When I was getting ready for my trip-of-a-lifetime to New Zealand this past spring, my travel buddy, our hosts, and I used a wiki to keep our collective lists of potential things-to-do and places-to-see, along with the itinerary details as they developed. I put up the airline information when I booked the flights, and my buddy added the hotels and hostels as she booked our accommodations, etc. It worked like a dream!

How to use wikis in libraries? Many excellent uses have already been demonstrated. The most obvious use is probably the pathfinder/reading list/book review wikis that are becoming quite common. Event planning and project collaboration work well on wikis, too. Creating a wiki of information and resources for a special-interest group and then opening it up to editing by members of that group is a powerful way to enrich content and build community. I'd like to replace our librarian-created (and very small) Homeschoolers' web page with a wiki that our homeschooling customers could use to share resources and ideas with one another.

mdlearn2 23things