Library Ninja

Information R/Evolution

From the people who brought you "The Machine is Us/ing Us" comes:

Information R/Evolution


I found this by way of Please Be Quiet & The Shifted Librarian

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

Thing #15: Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 & the future of libraries

I'll come back to this one. My "thoughts on Library 2.0" are a more than a little disjointed at this time.
-J.

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

mdlearn2 23things

Thing #14: Discover Technorati and learn how tags work with blogs

Ok, I spelunked around on Technorati a bit and claimed some of my various blogs. (Woohoo!- I have an authority of "1"!) I also tagged all my posts in this blog as "mdlearn2" and "23things."As I mentioned in Thing 9, I like Technorati's directory search for finding blogs. I imagine that if I were a more serious blogger looking for a large readership, Technorati would be more important to me. For now, though, I think I've pretty much reached the extent of its usefulness to me.

mdlearn2 23things technorati

Thing #13: Tagging and Discover Del.icio.us

I'm all over this Thing. I've been using Del.icio.us since May, when I was introduced to it at an MLA pre-conference. I hop from computer to computer constantly, especially at work. I have my ready-reference, homework help, professional development, and readers' advisory websites tagged "Library" in my Del.icio.us account, and this lets me help patrons and/or work on any project from whatever desk I happen to land at. I even have the Del.icio.us bookmarks extension installed on my Firefox browser. Del.icio.us and I are friends.

mdlearn2 23things

Thing #12: Roll your own search tool with Rollyo

I rolled a search on Rollyo called Jill's Animal Search, made up of animal-related sites from our Internet On-Ramp page and ALA's Great Web Sites for Kids.

Select Search Engine...JillsAnimalSearchSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

At first, I was very excited about Rollyo, but now that I've played with it, I'm a little disappointed by its limitations. I thought I would be able to create a true federated search, but Rollyo doesn't seem to be able to search any search engines or databases, only flat websites. Furthermore, it seems to search the entire domain of any web address you give it. For example, if I asked it to search "http://kids.nationalgeographic.com," it searched everything on "http://nationalgeographic.com," not just the kids' site. So my search results, which were supposed to be drawing from sources appropriate for kids, were full of stuff for adults. These are serious drawbacks. Phooey.

mdlearn2 23things

Thing #11: Take a look at LibraryThing and catalog some of your favorite books

Oh, I am so there. I found LibraryThing some time ago, and I already have a lifetime membership and a nearly-complete catalog of my personal library. I can't decide which I like most, the Suggestor or the UnSuggestor. Wanna see what's on my bookshelf? (See also my LibraryThing widget, "Random Books From My Bookshelf," at right.)

Here's what I wrote on my personal blog on that fateful day when first I met LibraryThing:

Monday, October 30, 2006

Call Me a Thingamabrarian

LibraryThing is the coolest Thing ever. Long have I longed for a card-catalog of my personal library (ok, you already knew I was a bibliophillic geek). Now comes LibraryThing.com, which has quickly become my favorite new time sink. You make up a user name and start building your bookshelf. All you do is enter the title or the ISBN (I like the ISBN's b/c I can do 'em fast), and LibraryThing links to Amazon & the Library of Congress to fill in all the rest for you. It even puts up pictures of the covers. I did 6 of my bookshelves in an evening- only 3 shelves to go!

Then comes the extra fun part: LibraryThing does lots of stuff with your book list. You can rate your books, tag them with notes and keywords, and write reviews. LibraryThing shows you how many other Thing-ers have the same book as you, and how many of those have the same edition. There are discussion circles for titles, authors, genres, and subjects, and you can start a new one anytime. Then there are the recommendations. Oh, never have I seen such spot-on recommendations! You have to check this Thing out.

By the way, if you want to see my book collection, it's here.

mdlearn2 23things

Thing #10: Play around with an online image generator

Online image generators are fun little time wasters. Every now and then you even come up with something pretty good. Here's a golden egg I made myself, courtesy of www.LetterJames.de:


See also my lovely Yahoo! avatar, at right.

mdlearn2 23things

A minor rant, related to Thing #9

When I went to MERLIN, I remembered right away a big reason why I don't like that site. I HATE that talking avatar that starts its spiel (loudly) as soon as the page loads. In fact, I hate anything that starts playing as soon as any web page loads. If I visit a site out there in web-land that has embedded theme music, or some video or embedded application that starts running by itself, I instantly click the back button or close the window. I just really hate that stuff. Sensory assault. It's fine to embed that kind of content in your page- in fact, that's what 2.0 is all about. But nettiquite should tell you that auto-play (except for unobtrusive Flash intros, perhaps), is a no-no. Give your user the chance to fully load the page, orient their eyeballs, and decide that they're ready to click-to-play your content. Especially if it's noisy. Sheesh, you MERLIN people. We all work in libraries, for goodness sake. We can't have sound just start blaring out of our speakers without warning.

Update:
The talking avatar doesn't seem to be there anymore. She appears to have been displaced by the MERLIN Site Supporters. I feel much better now.

Thing #9: Explore MERLIN; Locate other useful Library feeds

Somebody stop me, I've got 30 feeds already.
As far as blog-searching tools, I like the "Blog Directory Search" on Technorati (It's at the bottom of the "advanced search" page), and Syndic8. These were the only ones that searched blogs by topic. Everything else I tried searched individual blog postings by keyword. So, for example, if I searched "aviation" I got thousands of hits, but only a very few of them were from blogs devoted primarily to aviation content. The vast majority were blogs on different topics that just happened to include one recent post with the word "aviation" in it.
The main way I've been collecting feeds, though, is just to go about my usual web surfing but keep a look out for the little orange RSS button.
I'm enjoying a lot of these feeds. I love the Kitchen Contraptions blog, and as I said ad nauseum in Thing #8 Update, I love love LOVE the custom feeds from EBSCOhost. And I used to get a library comic strip, Unshelved, delivered by email; I switched over to the RSS feed of that as well. Wheee! Feeds are fun.

mdlearn2 23things