Beginnersmind

Libraries and the value of free

2010-12-05T11:24:00.000-08:00

One of the distinctive aspects of American public libraries is that they are free. In other countries, and during the times of the Founding Fathers, subscription libraries were the rule. However, both philanthropists and local governments soon realized the importance of access to information. The foundations of democracy depend upon an informed citizenry, so free libraries became one of the civilizing aspects of a community.

But now, there are many sources of information and entertainment that are approaching the "free" price point. Chris Anderson suggests that every industry that becomes digital becomes free. Google and the internet provide free news, information and entertainment. And, very low cost subscriptions such as Netflix or Hulu are within the reach of all but the very poorest as long as they have an internet device. In addition, e-books have significantly reduced the price of the novel. At the same time, public libraries, looking for new sources of revenue, may be charging for some items or jacking up their fines and fees. This does not appear to be a good strategy, in what Anderson calls an economy of abundance.

At my library, it is usually the poorest who end up with fines--often in the tens or even hundreds of dollars. So, at what point does a library cease to be free? How does this affect the library's value proposition? At what point is it cheaper for a patron to get a Netflix subscription rather than to check out movies from a library?

Total fines per day may be an excellent quality indicator--not how much we generate, but how little. I suggest that fines are a proxy for customer dissatisfaction. Their expectation when they come to the library is that they can check out items for free. Fines, although probably necessary, indicates a failure to make it easy for the customer to return their items on time. And, fines make it easier for our competitors to compete with us.

Chris Anderson's talk on "free" is available here: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1815813330?bctid=1813637601

Here is what a post could look like using Apture

2009-11-24T09:16:00.000-08:00

“Based on a true story from the author’s family history, Jarrettsville begins in 1869, just after Martha Jane Cairnes has shot and killed her fiancé…”

‘The story is set in Northern Maryland, six miles below the Mason-Dixon line, where brothers literally fought on opposing sides, and former slave-owners live next door to abolitionists and freed men.’

Meet Cornelia Nixon, author of Jarrettsville at the Jarrettsville Branch on Monday, November 2 at 6:00 pm for an exciting discussion and book signing.

For more information and to register for the program, call the Jarrettsville Branch at 410-692-7887!

Apture and Websites--Success

2009-11-15T09:08:00.000-08:00

I set up a quick website using Webs.com to see how Apture might be used in a library setting. Webs is a typical free web hosting platform that uses a site builder. (Most libraries will have something more sophisticated but this seemed to be a good test as to how intuitive the installation might be.)

I signed up for Apture and copied the snippet of code that I needed to put at the end of the HTML document--just prior to the tag. But where to put it? The Webs site builder did not let me see the entire HTML document (at least not that I could find easily). I experimented and finally found the footer template for my site.

Success!

So, I set up a website published it and inserted all my Apture links. It looked OK but I decided to change a few things. So I republished the page and the links were gone! When I checked on the Apture site, there was a mismatch with the site token.

I had to go back, make sure all the left over code was out of the document and reregister the site with Apture before I could recreate the links. That's a bit messy.

Sample Library Blog using Apture--Help with Job Searches

2009-11-12T11:40:00.000-08:00

Looking for a job? The library can help.

Here are a few things you will need:

An email account. You can set up account from a variety of hosts. See how to set up a Yahoo Mail account.
A resume set up in plain text format so you can submit it online.

Other Resources
Aberdeen Workforce Center Bus Schedule
34 N. Philadelphia Blvd, 3rd Flr.
Aberdeen, Maryland 21001
410.272.5400

Bel Air Workforce Center Bus Schedule
2 South Bond Street, 2nd floor
Bel Air, Maryland 21014
410.836.4603

Apture and Blackboard--no dice

2009-11-11T12:32:00.000-08:00

For the past few days, I've been trying to use Apture with Blackboard. Unfortunately, there is no way I can find to install it or even use Super Embed which is supposed to work with everything. I can't say that I find this surprising since Blackboard wiki is pretty temperamental. The next step is to try it with other wikis and then some websites.

I also tried this with PB wiki. Wikispaces (a compatible wiki) says to put a specific embed applet under theme. When I tried this with PBwiki, theme related settings were locked out on the free version. Oh well.

I also tried this is Wikispaces which is supposed to be compatible. I was able to preview the template and it seemed to work, but required an upgrade for me to use it.

A few hiccups

2009-10-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

Apture seems to conflict a little bit with Snap shots, an application that I already installed on my blog that gives you a mouseover preview pages before you click on the URL. Of course, with Apture, there is no longer a need for Snap shots.

I also tried to set Apture up on my Facebook page--to no avail. But, Facebook tends to really restrict these types of aps.

And I tried to install it on the Blackboard wiki at my school through the html screen. Of course, I haven't even been able to install video links on Blackboard (even though there is a button to do it) so I wasn't expecting much.

Is there an easy way to integrate Web 2.0 technology?

2009-10-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

The next few blogs will record my attempts to use Apture, which purports to be an easy way to create blogs and websites with embedded multimedia. You can create a blog or webpage, insert helpful links, and your readers do not have to leave your page to access these links. Seems like a great idea.

I've installed Apture on my Blogger blog. It is very easy to link to articles, definitions, etc. You can see that I have added a Wikipedia definition of Blogger. There are buttons right in the Blogger toolbar (once you install the application). Just click on the link and Wikipedia opens in a popup window.

Here is a quick overview of some of the things you can do--like embed video.

That is pretty cool. In the next few posts, I'll be exploring some of the ways this might be used. Then, I'll try to put it all together to see how this technology might benefit libraries.

Web 2.0 and Libraries

2009-01-29T07:02:00.001-08:00

The Web 2.0 question for libraries is an interesting one. First, I highly recommend this article What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software by Tim O’Reilly. Tim O’Reilly is one of the folks that coined the term Web 2.0. In my reading of this article, Web 2.0 is a service using a web platform, which allows users to share their own created content in a mixable, scalable way, where the collective action of an increasing number of users adds value to the service. Here is an interesting graphic from that article that illustrates the key concepts.(O'Reilly, 2005)

Now, in what ways have Web 2.0 services been integrated into library offerings? I would have to say in very minor ways but in my experience, more effectively internally than externally. For our patrons, my library has a Facebook page, a Myspace page, we have Blog a book where patrons can blog about their latest great reads. We have a social book network: My Next Good Book. We have the capability to push RSS feeds on various book searches so folks can keep track of new books that we receive according to their interests. Are any of these things well utilized? In a word, no. Internally we have probably 10 or 15 wikis. One of these, the Childrens Services wiki, is a great success and we were cited by pbwiki as a model. The Childrens Librarians use this wiki to coordinate programming, planning for the Summer Reading Program, sharing booklists, etc. It really cut down on email and made us much more effective as a group.

What is the difference between internal offerings and external offerings? First and foremost, the Childrens Services wiki tapped into a fairly vibrant, established community and gave more global access to activities that they were doing anyway. In the book, What would Google do? by Jeff Jarvis, there is an interesting story about a meeting between Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, and the head of a large news organization. The publisher wanted to know how he could start a community like Facebook, and Zuckerberg replied, “You can’t.” He said, that the publisher was asking the wrong question. “You don’t start communities, he said. Communities already exist. They’re already doing what they want to do. The question you should ask is how you can help them to do it better.”(Jarvis, 2009, p.48)

The libraries that I know want to put out blogs and Facebook sites, etc and expect users to do all the work without giving them any benefits. It was evident in the Glazer article that he put quite a bit of effort into the library’s Facebook activities. And, he was working on developing the community in other ways than through Facebook. A better approach, I think, is Penn State’s Tools and Widgets, where a student can place catalog searching and “Ask a librarian” chat widgets right on their Facebook page. Now that is a benefit! The Penn State library is starting to ask the question, “How can I help them do it better.” And the more things that the library provides that the patron can integrate into their daily lives, be greater the barriers to your competition. As O’Reilly indicated, Amazon started with a data dump from its vendors—the same data that its competitors like Barnes and Noble received. However, they have continually enhanced their database, with help from their users, creating a new database that cannot be matched by the competition. This is what libraries need to strive for to really adopt Web 2.0.

References

Jarvis, J. (2009). What would Google do?. New York: HarperCollins.

O'Reilly, T. (2005). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software.Retrieved 1/29/2009, 2009, from http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/6228

Skills of the New Librarian

2008-11-08T10:55:00.000-08:00

I have been reading about the Standards for the 21st century learner that children will need by the time they get through school and the impact that will have on librarianship. If we are demanding that our school children be able to not only use word processing, spreadsheets, publishing and presentation software but also blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0 social media, it seems to me that all librarians should also be expected to use the same tools. (Standards in Action Draft, 2008) Further, how will we be poised to meet the information needs of these technologically proficient children when they enter adulthood.. What tools will we need to "organize and effectively display" information to meet their needs (RUSA Behavioral Guidelines, 2004)? Will this be through chat, RSS feeds, podcasts, v-casts and twitter? I hope we will at least be more successful understanding downloads to e-book readers than we have been with mp3 players.

And what of the skills of the digital librarian? A recent study(Choi & Rasmussen, 2006) came up with the following list of training gaps that current digital librarians felt that they had.

Overall understanding of complex interplay of software
Lack of vocabulary to communicate with technical staff
Knowledge of web-related languages and technologies
Web design
Digital imaging and formatting
Digital technology
Programming and scripting languages
XML standards and technologies, and
Basic systems administration.

These are all major skill sets that will need to be adopted by the average librarian. A number of our leaders have acknowledged this challenge and in my library we implemented Helen Blowers Library 2.0 initiative, where we used and blogged about 23 technology related things such as wikis, RSS feeds, social networking pages and the like. My observations during this process were that a few people dove right in and excitedly embraced the new social technologies. Most went through the process with distaste (or not at all) and often did not see the use of any of these new approaches.

My experience mirrors a study by Rabina (Rabina & Walczyk, 2007) who assessed the attitudes of librarians about adopting technology. They used an analysis of the diffusion of innovation in societies developed by E. M. Rogers in his book Diffusion of Innovations (Rogers, 2003). Rogers found that people fall into five categories in their approach to adopting innovation:

Innovators (2.5%)
Early adopters (13.5%)
Early majority (34%)
Late majority (34%)
Laggards (16%)

This, like most things in a population, approximates a bell curve. But when Rabina applied this to librarians, she found the following percentages:

Innovators (3.6%)
Early adopters (24.6%)
Early majority (17.2%)
Late majority (37%)
Laggards (17.7%)

The large number of early adopters and drop off in early majority population has several effects:

The preponderance of early adopters confuse the early majority by running off in different directions adopting different things.
The small number of early majority librarians are not enough to mentor the late majority into adopting new technologies causing a drop off in momentum.
The momentum loss may cause the adoption of technology in unproductive ways.

So, what does this mean for the profession? I suggest the following:

Current leaders must at least develop at least intermediate level expertise (i.e., able to troubleshoot and coach) in all librarians in word processing, spreadsheets publishing and presentation software ( things that current high schoolers are expected to know). This will require more effort and time than usual due to the large numbers of late adopters and laggards.
All librarians should understand RSS feeds, chat, twitter and any other Web 2.0 information flow that develops, since information flow is fundamental to the profession. Again, this will take time and resources.
All librarians should have intermediate proficiency in hardware such as mp3 players, digital cameras and cell phones.
All librarians should be developing at least basic proficiency in (be able to readily use) collaborative software such as chat, blogs, wikis and social networking. Organizations should adopt one or more of these technologies now and incorporate them into normal operations so that librarians can get experience using them.
There should be a growing segment of the librarian population that can manipulate advanced forms of information communication and presentation: podcasts, website design, web languages etc.
There should be a growing segment of the librarian population with an understanding of information systems. Perhaps joint degrees would be desirable.
There should be a specific recruitment of librarian candidates who have a preference for technology, since we cannot afford to have a greater percentage of late adopters and laggards.

References

Choi, Y., & Rasmussen, E. (2006). What is needed to educate future digital librarians. D-Lib Magazine, 12(9) Retrieved from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september06/choi/09choi.html

Rabina, D. L., & Walczyk, D. J. (2007). Information professionals' attitude toward the adoption of innovation in everyday life. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science--"Featuring the Future", , 12(4) papercolis12. Retrieved from http://informationr.net/ir/12-4/colis/colis12.html

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations. New York: Free Press.

RUSA Behavioral Guidelines. (2004). Guidelines for behavioral performance of reference and information service providers. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 44(1), 14-17. Retrieved from Full Text HTMLFull Text PDF HTML: http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e1916ca00094d315af44ead79cfd5574583beed98dc22ac760596b6777653ce2e&fmt=H PDF: http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e1916ca00094d315af44ead79cfd5574583beed98dc22ac760596b6777653ce2e&fmt=P

Standards in Action Draft. (2008). Standards for the 21st century learner in action (draft 2) (American Association of School Libraries StandardsAmerican Library Association. (Standards in Action) Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslproftools/standardsinaction/standardsinaction.cfm

The library as a great good place

2008-07-24T07:27:00.000-07:00

I'm probably a little late on the uptake here but I just discovered Ray Oldenburg's 1999 book The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. Oldenburg talks about the three places in a community: the first place is home, the second place is work, and the "third place" is the community hangout(s). Unfortunately, with the rise of the suburb, and the dominance of the automobile, these local hangouts--whether bars, barbershops, town squares, or cafes, are almost gone.

These third places are the bastions of informal public life; a place where you can meet neighbors from all walks of life, have discussions, blow off steam, escape family or work life and then return home. It is Oldenburg's hypothesis that communities without third places are impoverished. Third places are the places that create a sense of community; where

...people develop a fondness for each other and meet regularly...they will give each other things; loan tools, books and other objects, give of their time and labor on occasion and tell one another about useful sources of goods and services.

Lives without access to third places are not as happy as they could be because they are denied acess to an important source of support groups.

However, not all public meeting places are third places or "great good places". They must have the following attributes:

1. They are neutral ground. Individuals can come and go as they please and none are required to play host. But it is a place where people feel comfortable and at home.

2. Good conversation is at the core. Regulars keep the conversation flowing, but even the stranger may engage in the banter.

3. Regulars are crucial. Regulars set the whole tone, feeling and conviviality of the place. The regulars are more important than staff.

As Oldenburg says It is the regulars whose mood and manner provide the infectious and contagious style of interaction and whose acceptance of new faces is crucial. The host's welcome, though important, is not what really matters. p34

In fact, regulars are so important they may be extended privileges denied to other customers.

4. Plainness is important. That is to say that the decor of the place should discourage pretension and encourage a homelike environment.

5. The mood is playful.

6. All types of people are welcome. Although some traditional third places have excluded women, the whole point of a third place is one of inclusion, leveling and lack of pretension. The Midwestern German beer gardens of the early 1900, for example, included women and children!

So what does all this have to do with libraries???? Libraries may be the one local establishment left in suburbia where people can congregate. It is a place that has the potential to be a great good place if we allow it to be. If we

encourage people to linger and converse.
make things homey and not too pretentious
take care of our regulars
encourage a variety of people (including kids and teens)
keep it playful!

Creating an avatar for Summer Reading

2008-05-02T09:53:00.000-07:00

| View | Upload your own

Thing 33: Mr Picassohead

2008-03-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.mrpicassohead.com/canvas.html?id=bca062b&skin=original

Well, here's my link to my picasso. It took about as long as his paintings did toward the last part of his life.

A nice little diversion.

Thing 32 Online file storage with Overdrive

2008-03-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

When I accessed Overdrive, there was a note that they have maxed out their server while in Beta and will be opening signups again during April with their official release. This is not surprising because I've been reading a lot about doing ally your work online.

One of my favorite blogs, Zen Habits, recommends doing as much as possible online. http://zenhabits.net/2007/08/cyber-minimalist-how-to-work-almost-completely-online/

Take a look at his office:

I'm psyched. I want my office to look like that, too. So when Overdrive opens up in April, I'm all over it.

Testing a new browser, blogger, email, feeds consolidator--Flock

2008-03-19T18:26:00.001-07:00

Garden 2007:

I dragged and dropped this pic directly from my media stream and then blogged on it. This certainly beats saving the photo somewhere then uploading it. I could publish this directly to either of my two blogs (one in WordPress and one in Blogger). And I was able to go back and edit it through Flock. Flock is based on a FireFox browser with all these neat features. This really seems like the precursor to a fully integrated desktop.

The downside is that there is very little in the way of explanation on the website. You just have to toodle around and see what works. But, it is a little intuitive so far.

Very cool.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Thing 31--Plaxo

2008-03-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

I am up to Thing 31 in Learning 2.1 and find that it is something I have been using for quite a while now: Plaxo. Plaxo can coordinate all your calendars and contacts in various programs like Outlook or Yahoo and combine them into a web based application. You can also share calendars with your colleagues or your spouse (if I could convince my spouse to have an online calendar that is.)

The thing I really like about this is that I have access to my contacts no matter where I am. I just wish it cold consolidate my email accounts, too.

Thing 30 LOL cats

2008-03-03T08:53:00.000-08:00

Not a cat fan but some of the posters were cute. There are a number of youtube ones too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu333ZX_IQs

I prefer lolpoodles.

2007 is one of the warmest years on record

2007-12-31T08:07:00.001-08:00

Another warm one.

clipped from www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (Dec. 31, 2007) — The year 2007 is on pace to become one of the 10 warmest years for the contiguous U.S., since national records began in 1895, according to preliminary data from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The year was marked by exceptional drought in the U.S. Southeast and the West, which helped fuel another extremely active wildfire season. The year also brought outbreaks of cold air, and killer heat waves and floods. Meanwhile, the global surface temperature for 2007 is expected to be fifth warmest since records began in 1880. Preliminary data will be updated in early January to reflect the final three weeks of December and is not considered final until a full analysis is complete next spring.

Thing 29 Scrapblog and my first attempt as a director

2007-12-12T10:59:00.001-08:00

Thing 27 Photobucket

2007-12-12T10:08:00.000-08:00

Photobucket is very cool. I really like the ability to put together a slide show. It looks pretty easy and I would definitely like to play with this.

I created a subalbum based on the book Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. There was a lot out there (due to the creativity of the many fans). I would like to do a Twilight program this summer so this may present some ideas for it.

Thing 26 Yourminis

2007-12-12T09:21:00.000-08:00

I am continuing Libraries 2.1 to see what other wonders are out there. Thing 26, a site called Yourminis allows you to add widgets to your website. A widget is a little program, an applet, that does something. Apparently, if you have the know how, you can create these widgets for anyone to use.

Many of the widgets on Yourminis were fairly silly. There are a variety of clocks, calendars, feeds from videos, mp3 players and the like. I liked the phases of the moon and added that. So I guess if I'm too busy to look at the moon (or it is cloudy), I'll know what it looks like.

My favorite widget is actually from Meebo (a site that consolidates all the Instant Messaging services so you can talk to everyone from one log in). You can place the widget on any web page or blog and folks can talk to you from your website or blog, even if they do not have an IM account themselves. You can see this widget on my blog as well. I also put it on our Teen Advisory Group Wiki so the kids can ask me questions if I am on line.

So, I think the concept of widgets is pretty cool but I am interested in seeing some other applications. Websites are busy enough and computers are too slow to clog them up with meaningless things.

A librarians search for truth

2007-11-15T11:02:00.000-08:00

When I became a librarian, I had no thought that I would be involved in deep philosophy, but I find that I am becoming more interested in "how one knows if something is true." Part of the impetus behind this interest is due to Web 2.0 and all the new sources of information that are available out there. The second is due to my eroding faith in traditional sources of information: newspapers, TV, and radio. (My blog of October 7 talks about the centralization of media ownership and lack of accountability that this fosters.)

Then, in the book Everything is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger discusses the impact that Wikipedia's community of interested parties has on the accuracy of its articles and throws the ultimate responsibility to determine what is truth back in our faces:

Deciding what to believe is now our burden. It always was, but in the paper-order world where publishing was so expensive that we needed people to be filters, it was easier to think that our passivity was an inevitable part of learning; we thought that knowledge just worked that way.

Further, he says:

In a miscellaneous world, an OZ-like authority that speaks in a single voice with unshakable confidence is a blowhard. Authority now comes from enabling inescapably fallible creatures to explore the differences among us, together. p 143

So, how does one recognize what is true on the internet, in a newspaper, from our government, or a neighbor? The Buddha in the Kalama Sutra was asked how one could determine the truth when two groups of priests and monks were espousing diametrically opposed doctrines:

They leave us absolutely uncertain & in doubt: Which of these venerable priests & contemplatives are speaking the truth, and which ones are lying?"

In other words, what are the hallmarks of truth? How can we know truth when we hear it?

The Buddha suggested the following:

That views must be tested by the results that they yield when put into practice. (Is the fact consistent with what we know of the world?)
That they must be checked against the experience of people who are wise. (The opinions of a community of interested parties can help us.)
That views of those who are greedy, have aversions or delusions are suspect.
Views of those who have goodwill, compassion, awareness and equanimity are preferred.

Weinberger suggests the following criteria to determine the reliability of Wikipedia articles:

Is the article so minor that few people will have worked it over?
Are there obvious signs of a lack of NPV (neutral point of view)
Is the article badly written and organized?
Are there any notes or debates on the discussion page? (evidence of input from the wise)
Does it cohere with what we know of the world?

I would be interested in hearing other ideas about what constitutes "hallmarks of truth".

Changing my mind about Wikipedia

2007-11-13T07:11:00.001-08:00

I have been reading David Weinberger's new book Everything is Miscellaneous: The power of the new digital disorder an he has changed my thinking about Wikipedia. It has been common knowledge among librarians that the information in Wikipedia is suspect and should not be used in a reference search. But, Weinberger brings up a number of things that I was unaware of.

First, although it seems that Wikipedia articles are produced by individuals without specific qualifications, most are, in fact, produced by a community of interested individuals. If there is enough interest in the topic, the article is reviewed by many eyes and is reviewed in real time in response to new research and changing circumstances.

Second, the real power of Wikipedia is on the discussion page of the article. In traditional encyclopedias, you never get to see the workings of the editorial board playing out. I looked at the article "Biofuel", since controversy is raging over the topic. On the discussion page, the biofuel wikipedia community is debating various aspects of the article and how best to present the information. The debates are completely transparent. And, you can really get more information about a subject from the debates that are going on around it.

Finally, Weinberger reports on a study by the journal Nature (Nature 438 (7070) p900-901) concerning the accuracy of Wikipedia versus Encyclopedia Britannica. The study found the accuracy to be roughly equivalent (although Britannica was found to be better written.) Although more studies will need to be done to prove or refute this point, initial results are encouraging. They also point out that even the venerable Britannica has inaccuracies.

Ultimately, the individual seeking the information is the final arbiter of what is true. Weinberger says

Deciding what to believe is now our burden. It alwasy was, but in the paper-order world where publishing was so expensive that we needed people to be filterers, it was easier to think our passivity was an inevitable part of learning; we thought that knowledge just worked that way.

Before the internet, we assumed (to our detriment) that whatever is in print is true. This was never a safe assumption and now with the plethora of information available to us, we can no longer act in this manner. This is a call to get off our duffs and take responsibility for finding out what is true. And, it seems to me that one of the best indications of truth is the debates on the discussion page of Wikipedia articles--can the information hold up to community scrutiny.

Monsanto wins in Pennsylvania over milk labeling

2007-11-11T09:40:00.000-08:00

clipped from www.nytimes.com

As of Jan. 1, Pennsylvania is banning labels on milk and dairy products that say it comes from cows that haven’t been treated with artificial bovine growth hormone, which is sometimes known as rBGH or rBST. State officials say the labels are confusing and impossible to verify

Monsanto has long challenged milk producers regarding the labeling of their products as rBGH free or hormone free. Many dairy farmers give their cows hormones to increase milk yield. Yet many consumers feel that these hormones have a negative affect on their children and on the environment.

Now, Pennsylvania has become the first state to ban labeling of milk as BGH free. So, Pennsylvania neighbors, time to come to Maryland to buy your milk. Or, contact your state representatives to reverse this strike against consumer rights.

Library 2.1: Thing 25: Letter Pop

2007-11-08T13:29:00.000-08:00

I played around with Letterpop and find it a little clunky to use. Adding photos is a real pain unless you have all your photos in Flickr. I add a lot of photos to newsletters through clip art and stock photos from the web. Adding them to Flickr first is an extra step.

The templates are nice but a little restricted to where you can place text.

It is cool, though that the newsletter can be easily emailed.

How to help people frightened by new technology

2007-10-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting article in Science Daily about people who are afraid of new technology. The study, performed by Economic and Social Research Council in the UK found that people afraid of new technology tended to be poorer and less educated. They are frightened by media reports of virus and the hazards of computer use and tend to be hampered by their ability to spell.

The study found that most computer courses that were available are concerned with work related subjects (how to use spreadsheets and wordprocessing) but did not address what people needed to do in their personal lives (email, shopping and finding information online).

I believe that this provides a huge opportunity for libraries to become more relevant to their communities. We could make an impact on computer technophobia by developing classes, courses and tutorials that specifically address these fears and needs. Wouldn't it be great if we could produce an online tutorial, perhaps using podcast or videocasting technology that would address these problems!!! Then, when folks drop in the library, we could hook them up to the tutorial and we could address their needs in real time instead of directing them to a class.

More on Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur

2007-10-02T06:57:00.000-07:00

Andrew Keen's book the Cult of the Amateur has started me thinking about news organizations. He says:

Newspapers and news magazines, one of the most reliable sources of information about the world we live in, are failing thanks to the proliferation of free blogs and sites like Craiglist that offer free classifieds, undermining paid add placement pg 8.

While it is true that newspapers and magazines are failing, it does not necessarily follow that this is due to blogs and Craigslist. Circulation is certainly declining, but is because of blogs? A study by the Pew Research Center as reported in the State of the Media Report 2007 suggests the following reasons:

Why People Are Not Reading the Newspaper

"What is it that you like less about newspapers compared with TV, radio or the Internet?"	%
Don't have time	23
Inconvenient	10
Biased/opinionated	8
Don't like to read	7
Inconvenient to get/don't subscribe	6
Not interesting/nothing there	6
Cost/not free	5
Layout (small print/big pages)	5
Just pile up/clutter	5

Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, “Online Papers Modestly Boost Newspaper Readership,” July 30, 2006

I can think of several other reasons that Americans might be abandoning newspapers.

The consolidation of newspaper ownership reducing the points of view expressed in an area.
Americans increasingly distrust newspaper journalism (see below)
Corporate ownership of newspapers driving profitability goals. Since state and national reporting is a big expense, many newspapers have reduced their news staff and have focused more intensively on local (and less expensive to report issues)

The State of the News Media Report 2007 indicates that local newspaper credibility is at an all time low.

Overall, local daily newspapers sat on the lower end of the scale among media on believability, lower than CNN, Fox News, NPR and local television, and above only the Associated Press. In 2006 19% of people said they believed all or most of what they read in their daily paper, down 10 points in eight years. (Another 40% believed a good deal of what they read in the paper, though less than “most”).

Looking in today's Baltimore Sun, I found one small paragraph on page 7 about the crisis in Burma/Myanmar, nothing on Darfur, and barely anything about Iraq or Afghanistan. Is it a wonder that we have no clue about what the world thinks about us.

I believe that newspapers lost their audience log before Web 2.0 and blogs came along. Many newsrooms abandoned international coverage, professionalism and integrity for profitability. This is reflected in the drop in circulation and subsequently, advertising. Many people are turning to blogs or major newspapers online coverage to get the news that the local papers cannot or will not cover.

Keen does bring up a good point about the demise of news staff and professional journalists. I hope that the public will always support good journalism wherever it can be found. It is worth its weight in gold. But I maintain that newspapers abandoned us long before we abandoned them.

Andrew Keen's polemic on Web 2.0

2007-09-25T12:39:00.000-07:00

I have been reading Andrew Keen's Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is killing the Culture. His main point is that anyone, irrespective of talent, truth or taste, can publish anything on the web with little or no ramifications. This causes:

the replacement of professionals by mostly untalented amateurs with no responsibility for integrity
the demise of legitimate sources of information and culture i.e., closing of newspapers, independent record and book stores.
so much internet noise because of all the untrue, untalented and tasteless items that it isn't worth sorting through it

This made me think quite deeply about the value of user provided content. First, Keen seems to believe that the work of the amateur is worthless. I think that this is a grave overstatement. What is the definition of amateur? Is is simply that they do not get paid for their work? I do not believe that it follows that just because a market economy does not value a piece of work, that it is worthless. Van Gogh's paintings were worthless during his life. Does this make him an amateur?

The explosion of creative expression on the internet is partly due to the consolidation of market driven outlets for it. During the early 60's it was much easier for bands with unusual sounds to land a record contract. Now, if the bandmembers don't conform to a specific physical and auditory ideal, they can forget about a wider audience through the traditional record label. But the internet changes all that. Same for publishing and art.

What about social discourse? It has always been difficult to get your thoughts out into the ether, especially if your opinions do not mesh with the prevailing ones. This is more and more true as newspaper and media owners want journalists to reflect their own bias (or at least the bias of the people who buy the advertising.) Cutting edge social discourse has often started outside of traditional journalist channels, whether from a soapbox in Hyde Park or through self-publishing. For example, Thomas Paine self-published his pamphlet "Common Sense"--yet another amateur according to Keen's definition.

Amateurs throughout history have made significant contributions to art, science and philosophy and this is no less true today. And Web 2.0 is not only a haven for the tasteless and untrue, but also of the creative talent that is not YET recognized by the public at large.

It is true that it is difficult to sort through the true versus untrue, the valuable from the tasteless. Perhaps here lies a role for librarians. Sites like the Librarians Internet Index may be a good start but we also need to address the blogosphere in our vetting efforts.

I will be discussing Keens remaining points in upcoming blogs. Stay tuned!

Zamzar redux

2007-09-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a follow up to my previous post. Just a few days after I learned about the website zamzar.com that allows you to convert files, a patron came in with a document saved in Microsoft Works. We called up the website, found the file on her CD, told it to convert to work, and enter her email address. Then we hit convert.

It took a few minutes for an email to show up in her account with the link to her converted file. (Apparently, the bigger the file, the longer it takes. This was a 2 page document without graphics and it probably took about 4 minutes.) She opened the email, clicked on the link that took us to her file. We clicked on the converted document and voila!

Grandmom was a hero because she could print out her grandson's homework which was due the next day!

I have a feeling I'm going to be using this site a lot.

Zamzar is a great new tool for file conversion

2007-09-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

For all of you who have completed Library 2.0, I encourage you to go to the first item in Library 2.1. The assignment is to explore a site called Zamzar.com. This is a god send for all the librarians who have had patrons with Microsoft Works who were frustrated that they couldn't use Microsoft Word. Zamzar will convert these files!!!!!!

I also find it helpful to convert photos from bmp to jpg format. This is especially helpful for bloggers since most blogs require jpg.

Check it out and the next time a patron comes in with a Microsoft Works file, you'll be able to help them.

Talk like a Pirate Day is Sept 19

2007-09-10T07:47:00.000-07:00

Arrrrr!

Following the Second Law of Thermodynamics

2007-09-06T07:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I am following the second law of Thermodynamics and increasing entropy. I've created another blog. It is called the Bee Sutras at http://lindabeekeeper.wordpress.com.

This blog was getting a little too schizophrenic even for me. Local eating and Web 2.0 seemed to be a strange mix. So, the Bee Sutras will focus on local eating, sustainable living, environmentalism and occasionally Buddhism and beekeeping. Beginnersmind will be my Web 2.0 and libraries blog. So, I hope you will be interested in both and not feel like you've fallen down the rabbit hole when you read them.

Aquabrowser and Feeds--It's soooo cool!

2007-09-05T06:18:00.000-07:00

I just tried the feeds feature of HCPL's new Aquabrowser search function. It is soooo cool. I searched under knitting, clicked on the feed button, selected the "new items" feature and added it to my bloglines account. Now, when I go to bloglines, it will tell me if the library has any new books on knitting.

Yes, you CAN search on DVDs, click RSS feed and it will alert you to the newest DVDs the library has received.

I love this!!! Check it out.

From Alternative Underground Website

2007-08-21T06:47:00.000-07:00

Global warming has promised us extremes in weather and we surely are getting it. If you are not a gardener, you may not be aware of the current drought, the unusually cold then hot spring and many other factors that affect the food we eat. One benefit of shopping at farmers markets or belonging to a CSA (community supported agriculture) is your conversations with the people who grow or raise your foods. It is not uncommon to hear "The girls were very hot this week so we didn't get as many eggs." Or, the tomatoes are a little late but this is a great bean year!

Our food is one way of staying plugged into what is happening around us: in our neighborhoods, to our neighbors and community. So, as I enjoy my tomatoes and eggs this year, I am a little more appreciative of them for I know they are hard won. As I brush my teeth, I'll try to remember to turn the water off, hoping that the farmers will be getting the water they need. And I promise not to grumble if it rains on my day off.

From www.altunderground.org July 29, 2007

When is a disk not a disk?

2007-08-19T08:13:00.001-07:00

I admit I have always been confused about saving to a CD. This is an embarrassing admission since I am supposed to be fairly computer literate. Every time I've needed to save something to a CD, I've managed to mess around until I accomplished the task, but I've never really understood CD-Rs, CD-RWs, what is compatible with what, and why the error messages I get while I am messing around happen.

I recently found a great website that does take pains to explain things. It is www.cdrfaq.org
by Andy McFadden. It was originally a Usenet newsgroup. It is pretty technical but I came away with some important learnings (that are probably pretty obvious to the techno savvy).

First and most importantly, CD-Roms are NOT just like floppy disks. They have very specific limitations. You need special software to use a CD like a floppy. Roxio is an example.

With more traditional software (like the built-in burner in Windows XP where you use the "Send To" function and select CD drive X), you collect the files in a staging area and then burn them all at once by clicking on the CD drive and "writing the files". This burns the data onto a single track and then the disk is ejected (http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.php) This creates files that can be read on a broad range of computers but CANNOT be updated. It cannot be used for backup where files are overwritten repeatedly.

Burning audio files is a different deal altogether. Using Windows Media player, you can burn audiofiles to a CD in one operation. But once you do, you can never write to that disk again. What is on there for the first burn is it.

Now, to use a CD more like a floppy, you need a CD-RW, and special software (like Roxio--also called Drag and Drop) that allows you to format the disk into "packets" or tracks. You have to format the disk in advance and this may take a very long time depending upon the speed of the CD drive and the size of the disk. 45 minutes may not be unusual. To format the CD-RW, it needs to be completely blank so if you've used it before, you'll have to use the erase function (do not use "quick erase") before you format it.

Another tip is that you must let the writer complete the operation for the disk to be usable. If you take the disk out before the software is done writing , you have ruined the disk. If it is a CD-RW, you may be able to erase it and start over.

As you see, this stuff is pretty complicated, and it will be difficult for us as librarians to help our patrons through this maze. I suspect that unless the CD technology gets more user-friendly pretty fast, it will prove to be a dead-end. Already, many patrons have switched to memory sticks which behave just like another C: drive.

I'll try to place other tips about burning CDs on the blog as I learn the ins and outs of this technology. In the mean time, I would suggest to patrons that they invest in a memory stick.

From Altunderground.org website

2007-07-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures we snapped of Swissland Acres, a sustainably managed farm near Glen Rock, PA. Jenny Shearer and daughter Brea told us about their approach to raising animals as nature intended. Their healthy animals produce healthy food.

Swissland Acres is one of the few places you can get raw cows milk. It is also one of the few places around where you can get milk from pastured cows. In fact, they have a mobile milking parlor and they milk the cows right in the field. Even "organic milk" may be produced in industrial dairies. In industrial dairies, cows are penned in barns their whole lives and never taste fresh grass. As long as the cows are fed organic substances (most often grains) and hormones are not used, the government considers them organic. You should see the difference between Swissland Acres milk and store-bought organic. The milk is a rich, creamy ivory. (I bet you didn't know that cream from naturally raised animals IS actually cream colored!)

Swissland Acres also offers grass fed beef, veal and lamb, pastured chickens and turkeys. They are a local resource worth supporting!

How I spent my Saturday

2007-07-24T09:56:00.000-07:00

Eating Locally

2007-07-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

In the last few months, a number of books have come out about people striving to eat locally. So, what's the big deal about this? Apparently, food in the US travels and average of 1500 miles to get to our plates! Of course, we are all aware of being able to get out of season fruits and vegetables from Chile, Mexico and California. But also, corn, wheat, meat and most other staples are controlled by a few companies, produced by a few mega factory farms and distributed centrally. Not only are the agricultural practices of these companies harmful to the environment but an amazing amount of fossil fuel is consumed to transport the food to our local supermarkets. And, to add insult to injury, the food that we receive is selected for its ability to be transported, not for its nutritional value or taste.

Barbara Kingsolver (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle); Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon (100 mile Diet); and Bill McKibben (Deep Economy) have recently written books describing their attempts to eat locally. In their attempts they found a number of things. First, much of the local food production infrastructure has been dismantled. For example, even though oats were grown locally in Bill McKibben's community, the ability to convert oats to oatmeal had been lost.

Alan and I just got back from Ithaca NY. What a great example of people consciously trying to develop a local, earth-friendly economy. Not only were there lots of opportunities to by local meats, dairy and produce, but restaurants also let you know which items were local.

Alan and I are trying to stimulate a local foods network through our website http://www.altunderground.org. We are highlighting local foods, art, music and writing. We even have a new RSS feed, thanks to learnings from Library 2.0. Check it out and tell us what you think.

SOS for RSS

2007-07-03T14:55:00.000-07:00

Are you confused about Bloglines and RSS? Are you having difficulty adding a feed when you click on the orange button?

Here are the basics.

An RSS is a feed from your favorite website or blog (not all websites or blogs have one). This feed will tell you about all the new things that are added to your favorite sites since you last clicked on the feed in your bloglines account. So, you could track the NY Review of books and Publishers weekly. Each week, the new stuff would appear in your bloglines account.

Next is how to subscribe.
If you are in Bloglines, you can search for your favorite website in the box on the right.

Once you identify the site you would like to add, look around for anything that refers to RSS or Feeds. You might have to use the search box on the site to find it. (Or, it might not have one)

The feed buttons look like this but are smaller so you may have to hunt for them.

Or you might see something that says add feed to bloglines or another RSS reader.

Even if you are within the bloglines screen it may be complicated to add the feed. Many internet service providers have RSS readers built right into their software (e.g.,newer versions of Explorer and FireFox). So, you may get a dropdown list so you can select the reader you want to add it to.

If you are not in bloglines when you come across a website with a reader you want to add, it is a little more complicated. You can add a "subscribe with bloglines" button on your favorites tool bar. Then when you are on the page with the feed, just click "sub with bloglines" and you are done.

If you aren't allowed to add to your favorites list, then you can add a feed by going to bloglines and clicking add at the top of the left hand window in bloglines. Then put in the URL of the feed page (it may end with "feed.xml").

Hints from the Hive: Bogged down in Bloglines?

2007-06-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Do you want to put your Blogline blogroll in your very own blog? Here is how you do it.

Go to Bloglines and click on Account

Then click on Blog settings

When you get to Blog Settings, enter a User Name. WRITE IT DOWN
Click the radio button "Yes, publish my Blogroll.

Click on the Feeds tab on the top of the page. This should take you back to your normal view.
Look at the right hand box with all the writing.

The top looks like this:

Scroll down until you see Publish and Share your blog. Click on "Share your Blogroll".
This screen will pop up. Your user name (the one you just made) should appear in the box.

Click on the Generate HTML button. You will get this screen.

See the computer code gobbledegoop that I circled in yellow? That is HTML code. Highlight it and copy it to your clipboard.

NOW go to your blog and from the dashboard, click on Layout. (If you don't see this screen when you log in, you probably linked to your blog from HCPL's blog. Click on Customize in the upper right corner and it will bring you to this page. Or you can log in from Blogger.com log in page.)

Click on LayoutThen Add Page Element. You can add it to the right or below your Blog posts. You will then see this screen.
Select HTML/JavaScript and click on Add to Blog

Give your blogroll a title, then go to the content box and paste in the HTML code from your Bloglines account.

Click Save Changes.

Now view your blog. Your blogroll should be there!

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!

Hints from the Hive: The nine billion names of blog

2007-06-22T14:31:00.000-07:00

Are you having difficulty logging into your blogger account? Here are some hints.

Your User Name is always your email address.

There are different ways into your blogger account. Sometimes it asks for your Google Account name. That is also your email address.

Your display name was the first name you were asked for when you registered with Blogger. It is the name that is used to sign your posts and for your blog address. Your blog address is always [your display name].blogspot.com. This is the name you give to Maurice when you register.

Your blog name is whatever you named it the first time. I named mine the same as my display name, but many of you named yours something different. When you go to HCPL participants page, your blog name will be listed on the right.

Now that you are totally confused, take a break by checking out this amusing short story about cyberspace. http://www.365tomorrows.com/09/12/the-nine-billion-names-of-god/

Hints from the Hive: Bookmark your sites

2007-06-22T06:29:00.002-07:00

Are you having difficulty remembering how to get to HCPL's Learning 2.0 blog or how to get back to your own blog? Try adding these things to your Bookmarks or Favorites lists. (Or you can skip ahead to Thing 13 and set up a Del.icio.us account. Delicious is basically an online bookmarking or favorites list.)

To add something to your favorites list, click on "Favorites" on your toolbar. (Depending upon your browser, it may say bookmarks instead of Favorites.)

You will then get a drop down box. The first item will be "Add to Favorites" The you will get a pop up box allowing you to add the address (URL) of the website you want to bookmark.

Once you bookmark something, you can go back to the Favorites command on the toolbar, scroll down to the item that you bookmarked and click on it. It will take you right to your favorite sites.

On a lighter note, I just came across a great quote from Groucho Marx in a link from Helen Blowers (LibraryBytes Blog)

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read."

A friend's poetry reading.

2007-06-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

One of my friends just emailed me with a video of a poetry reading he did.

Here it is.

Tips from the Hive: Don't forget to record your URLS so you get credit

2007-06-19T05:58:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

One of the things that I missed when I started 23 Things (and Alan clued me in on) is that we have to record the permanent URLs from our blogs on a form to officially complete the program and get CEUs. Here is the link to the form (Just click on it and then on the 23 Things Tracking Log hyperlink.)

http://www.merlin.lib.md.us/?q=node/98

It looks like this:

The URLpermalink is the thing in your address box when you click on the time indicator on your blog. Mine was something like http://lindabeekeeper.blogspot.com/207/06/summer-reading-program-is-underwayHave fun!

Summer Reading is underway!!!!

2007-06-18T10:35:00.001-07:00

Summer Reading 2007 is on the road.

As you can see, Summer Reading is a family project here at Whiteford. And, a whole pod of globes showed up in our meeting room one day, so we are finding new homes for them.

Enjoy!

The 23rd Thing but the Journey Continues

2007-06-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

This is my 23rd thing--to blog what I thought of the program. First, I must say that I had a GREAT time doing the Things. So, for anyone that is reading this and is ready to give up because I completed it and you are just beginning--Don't despair. I completed the program as soon as I possibly could because I am a Childrens Librarian and summer reading is upon us, and because I am a tech head (I think messing with the computer is very fun.).

That said, I made a lot of new discoveries in the course of this adventure. I really loved wikis, meebo and blogging. I see a lot of potential for collaborative wikis and I'm brainstorming how they could be used. Meebo solved a great problem for me since I have friends and family on many different IM products. Now I can be more available to them. Finally, I had a blogger account way back in the beginning of blogging but haven't visited it recently. There is so much more to it now and it is much easier to use.

The 23 Things fit in nicely with my goal of keeping up with technology. I was surprised to find a lot more uses for the technology that is out there than I thought going into the program. Handled intelligently, many of these technologies could enhance my life. However, some of them are an outlet for creativity that must compete with all the other things that might be part of my play time.

The format of the program was a good one for me. I learn by doing and don't mind writing about it. People who are not as comfortable with playing around with technology (and navigating the inevitable glitches that occur) may need some help. It might be good to partner newbies with old hackers to provide support. I found that there were a couple of tricky bits. For example, It wasn't self evident how to initially register. Clicking on the calendar entry was not something I initially though of. And, I know that some people completely missed the Register your blog step. Finally, it was a little confusing after you created your blog to be confronted with the sign in that requires a Google Account. But, all these things are fairly minor.

I would love taking another course like this and am very impressed with the job Helen Blowers and Charlotte-Mecklenberg did in creating this concept.

In the mean time, my next steps will be to learn podcasting and to help my coworkers with their 23 Things Journey.

Downloadable Audio books: I'm Already a Fan

2007-06-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

Alan and I have been downloading Audiobooks ever since HCPL offered this service. We are big fans and it is so much easier carrying an MP3 player than a boom box or CD player. The only difficulty we've had is that not all MP3 players can accept audiobooks. And, when you go to a place like BestBuys to find one, the employees generally cannot advise you which ones will do audiobooks and which won't. Even MP3 players that say they play WRA-DRM, it doesn't mean they actually will play audiobooks. In addition, the list of tested devices is pretty small and some are no longer available. Finally, we have found that the Creative MP3 players (on the OK for audiobooks list) are not compatible with our Dell computers. We think that the Dell computers cannot recognize the Creative MP3 players because of the way that they are partitioned. The best advice is to find someone who is using one for audiobooks and get the same one. (But make sure you keep the receipt so you can return it if need be.)

I did not know that Project Gutenberg had audiobooks. Project Gutenberg is a great service, since many of the books included are no longer carried in many smaller libraries. These titles do not tend to "fly off the shelves". But it would be cultural loss if we had no access to them. The audiobooks vary in quality. The reading of the John Donne poem was pretty bad, but the Sherlock Holmes Sign of Four reading was quite good. It seems that some of the readers are not professional and it shows. But, I'd rather have access to an audiobook than not have it at all.

Podcasts: A whole new world

2007-06-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

I have been listening to internet radio for quite a while. Our house is not in the best area for radio reception, so we often tune into NPR via computer. I also listen to WZEN in Mt. Tremper NY. However, I had no idea there were so many folks doing podcasts. I was quite overwhelmed. I liked Yahoo Podcasts and Podcast.net but I didn't like Podcast Alley. Podcast Alley was organized a little too flat to be able to find things efficiently. Yahoo Podcasts was a little difficult to use when you wanted to add a feed to Bloglines and not to their reader.

I added a couple of local food/organic sides to by Bloglines account, but I am really looking forward to figuring out how to podcast myself.

OK. I know you're thinking--that's JUST what we need. Linda on the airwaves. But just think. If I can do it, so can all of you.

Week 9: YouTube experience

2007-06-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

There surely is a lot out there in video land. And YouTube did make it easy to embed a video in my blog. the only tricky thing I had to do was adjust the width in the HTML code to 230 so the video would fit on my sidebar.

Copy the code from the Embed bar while you are watching the video. Go to layout, click on "Add a page element" then HTML/Javascript Add to blog button. In the popup window, paste the code that you copied into the content area. Look in the code and change the width from 425 to 230 and clickSave. You're done!

I chose the TVTurnoff Week video because I am a passionate believer in the concept. While I was growing up, the TV was always on and I also watched a lot of TV as an adult. It is amazing what we will watch even though we are bemoaning the fact that there is nothing on. After a Scientific American article on the addictiveness of TV, Alan and I gave up TV completely during TV Turnoff Week 2004. (We do watch the occasional DVD) It was hard in the beginning (It is a real addiction--you do go through a withdrawal of sorts).

Here is the link if you want to check out the article. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0005339B-A694-1CC5-B4A8809EC588EEDF

Clearly, this kind of video would be appropriate on the library website as we celebrate TV Turnoff Week. And I am sure there are many other things that can enrich the content of a website or blog. To keep our sites user friendly, we need to use all these kinds of tricks to get people to keep visiting.

Have fun with your video. (And I hope you don't watch too much TV!)

Web 2.0 Awards: Meebo

2007-06-13T17:49:00.000-07:00

Wow! This just solved a big problem for me. I am on Yahoo but my family is on AOL. How do I IM them. With Meebo! And if that isn't cool enough, you can even IM me right from my blog. I can even IM myself if I have two windows open. (This may be getting way too weird, even for me.)

I was impressed with all the tools that are out there in Web 2.0 land. Ray Kurzweil says that the rate of technology development is exponentially exponential. So, just think how many more applications there will be when I wake up tomorrow. The trouble is, who has time to evaluate them all?

A post from ZohoWriter

2007-06-13T17:00:00.001-07:00

Now I am blogging in zoho writer. This seems to be a little more robust. The fonts are still a little limited. But they are easy to use. Now let's add a picture.

At least this program liked the picture of our neighborhood pheasant, Morley. Alan named him Morley because he thinks that the bird looks like Robert Morley.

I don't know.... What do you think?

I think ZohoWriter is much better than Google Documents. Easier, less buggy, and more robust.

A post from Google Documents

2007-06-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

I am working on this blog in Google documents. I chose Google over Zoho Writer because Google is a larger company and is more likely to be around for a longer time. In addition, many of our patrons are already familiar with Google, but may not know of the doc and spreadsheet option. I had a little problem with inserting this picture. (Actually, I wanted to insert a photo of the pheasant that lives in my back yard but it didn't work. The fonts are a little limited as well.

So far, this is a little more limited than Word
but it is less complicated (Yeah!!!)
and it works.
I do like the share function and especially the RSS feed that lest you know of changes made by your collaborators.

and to quote Shakespeare using the quote button (which seems to insert a text box)

"there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Week 7 Sandbox Wiki

2007-06-13T07:29:00.001-07:00

Great fun. I also added a new page entitled New Websites, Widgets and Tech Tools. I thought it might be fun to track websites that turn up during the Library 2.0 process.

Week 7 Way cool Wikis

2007-06-13T07:05:00.000-07:00

Before now, I always thought of the problems associated with Wikipedia rather than the cool things that could be done with a wiki format. This could be an awesome tool for collaboration. Right off the top of my head, I could see using wikis to maintain Storytime plans, to track computer user issues and their solutions (i.e., computer couldn't find patrons MP3 player--here's what I did), to keep booktalks, to track school assignments and resources, etc.

This definitely has potential. Is there anyway staff could access HCPL's WetPaint account to create our own wikis?

Week6 the web and the future of libraries

2007-06-13T06:20:00.000-07:00

The future of libraries is an ongoing topic of conversation at our house since Alan and I both work at HCPL. We are definitely at a crossroads and there are many directions a library system could choose to go.

First, I think we have to recognize that the nature of literacy and even the definition of "book" are changing. Even physical books are becoming more nonlinear. And younger folks are gravitating toward the experiential story lines found in computer games. Even though I strongly prefer the physicality of a book--it is more pleasurable to snuggle up on the couch with a book than with a laptop--we cannot be sure that younger folks will feel the same way. So, will physical book collections remain? Who knows.

Anderson makes an argument that "Just in Case" collections are already passe. This is probably true given the staggering number of books you can get online. However, in Steward Brand's book The Clock of the Long Now, he makes the interesting point that just because something is digitized, it doesn't mean that it is forever safe. In fact, computer platforms change so frequently that many digitized things are lost because they are not migrated to the new software. While there is a cost to having a physical collection, there is also a cost to having a digitized one. Librarians have a big role in guarding the digitized "just in case" collection by ensuring that books are migrated to new technologies.

Anderson also makes the point that there are not enough librarians to physically train our users so we must make our software as user friendly as possible. I totally agree with this, however, he misses the larger point of the librarians role in helping the computer and information illiterate navigate the virtual world. I spend a lot of my time as a librarian helping people access websites that they are required to use, yet have no idea how to. While it is true that there are classes to help people with computers, libraries are still the final resort for the technology have-nots.

I also agree with Anderson that we have to get over our "come to us" mode of operating and I think HCPL has done a good job trying to reach out through downloadable e and audio books and movies. Of course, the selection of titles in these vehicle are still limited but it is a good first step. I am also intrigued with the concept of virtual librarian. I've spend some time on Second Life so I can imagine how this might work. However, Dr. Schultz brings up a good point about the community center/socialization role of the library and I hope that will continue. The library is one place where you can go for free, be entertained, meet your friends and no one tries to sell you something. It is often the one place in the community that is reasonably safe for young people to congregate. As people spend more and more time in the virtual world, I do hope that the physical role of the library will continue.

Library related blogs

2007-06-12T16:27:00.000-07:00

I have been looking at the library related blogs for the past few days. I am excited about Merlin, the Maryland website. It seems to have the potential to keep us moving forward with new technology if enough people participate. I would hope to see courses on things other than Microsoft Office.

I have enjoyed Librarybytes. Helen Blowers seems to be an incredible person. It takes a lot to maintain a site and I have learned a lot from some of her links.

I have also enjoyed the Shifted Librarian. I have all these sites on RSS but I think I will switch them to Technorati since it will be easier to monitor.

I have NYT Book Review and the New York Review of books on RSS. That has been a great boon, since I can review the new books quickly. I also have a few other sites on RSS that I tend to monitor regularly like Union of Concerned Scientists. It will be interesting to see if I keep up with all these monitoring type sites.

Back to Beginners Mind--A riff on Technorati and Delicious

2007-06-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

Here I am again, thinking about keeping a Beginners Mind which is open to all things. Yet tools like Technorati and Delicious are all about paring down the information that is out there to something manageable.

I was fortunate to hear Barry Schwartz (the author of The Paradox of Choice: Why more is less) speak at an MLA conference a few years ago. His thesis is that given too many choices, people tend to shut down. If, for example, shoppers were given a choice of six types of jam, they tended to buy one. If they were given a choice of 20 types, they tended to go off without buying--they shut down. On the web we have a world of choices and it is no wonder that tools like Technorati and Delicious were developed. It is a way to limit our choices. Dr. Schwartz said that there is a danger in this. We are apt to develop our ivory towers to hear only those things we want to hear and see only those things we want to see. (It is amazing how often our tools have both opportunities and dangers.)

I can easily see how I could set up my virtual world with only those blogs, feeds and websites that support my world view. I've been fooling around with this diagram of reality. We have the ability to affect what we can know (We obviously can't know everything) and what we do know. (Notice that what we can and do know does not necessarily overlap reality.) If we limit our information sources, we limit both what we can and what we do know of reality until they perhaps become one in the same. And, there may be nothing that challenges the things in our world view that are not real.

Buddha says it a different way. He says that all misery has three basic causes: grasping, aversion, and ignorance. We want certain things, we reject others and we ignore the rest. The more we narrow ourselves to acceptable and unacceptable, wanted or unwanted, the more we suffer because reality has a nasty habit of intruding into our world view.

So the moral of all this philosophizing is that I better be careful about making sure I have at least a few information sources that challenge or expand my world view and not just information I feel comfortable with.

Week 6: Delicious--a tool for a multiple computer world

2007-06-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

My husband and I often compete over whose bookmarks get added to which computer. And of course, the bookmarks that we want are never on the computer we need. And of course, there is my computer at work and the times when I am on the computer at the reference desk, wishing I had access to something I bookmarked at home. Well, Delicious solves all these problems. Truly mobile bookmarks with comments.

In addition, my husband and I often write articles and share sites. So, this would be a great way to view each others research.

I am still wondering about the usefulness of the social networking part of Delicious. Just because a site is hot, it doesn't mean it is valuable. Although it is one way of navigating through the millions of sites on the web, is it the best way? Do millions of opinions gravitate to the most valuable? I shudder to think that websites are judged on the same standards as American Idol and worse yet, that I'm taking these opinions seriously. I suppose I will have to see which sites pop up the most frequently and see if I agree on their value.

Week 5 with Rollyo

2007-06-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

At first I was rather doubtful about whether it would be useful to search among websites that I already knew, but my experience with Rollyo has been interesting. The truth is, I DO refer to a number of websites on certain topics. At work for instance, I often search Maryland laws and there are a number of sites I go to. Setting up a Maryland law Rollyo would be useful. And, I am currently researching residential solar energy, so setting up a Rollyo with those sites could help as I come up with questions. And, how about a Rollyo for all those recipe sites.

Of course, all these little search engines will require some maintenance, but if I can keep the number of them pared down to only the most useful, it may not be too cumbersome.

Thinking again of work, I wonder if a rollyo function would be useful on HPCL website? For example, we have a number of home repair type sites. It may be helpful to be able to search them automatically. So instead of listing links, we could list search engines.

Hmmm. There are possibilities here.

Week 5: LibraryThing could really be useful

2007-06-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

LibraryThing is a great site that had the potential to be really useful. I have a website where folks can contribute reviews on what they are reading. I tried to paste the HTML search function from Library Thing into my website that would serve as an archive for these reviews (I had been erasing them when I had too many). However, this seems much more difficult than inserting it into my blog. My site kept blowing up. Apparently, all HTML code is not created equal. But, my website is free so it may have some limitations. But, this does suggest that blogs are more user friendly than websites and do much of the same things.

I do think that LibraryThing will be useful to help me track potential booktalk books. I had been keeping index cards, but this software gives me the ability to sort and also to see how others react to the book. It will be interesting to see if many Y and J books are reviewed on the site.

Mashups fun but frivolous

2007-06-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

Today I played around with mashups. They are fun but I must admit that I probably can find better uses for my time. The only thing that looked somewhat tempting was a widget that randomly inserted photos on your blog. Also, I might be able to use the trading card mashup for a baseball program.

The Mappr mashup was a little more compelling and might make a good travelogue. I would probably find that more useful if I had the ability to track locations via GPS.

So, I guess that I am open to the technology but I haven't found any use for it that would change my life.

Week 4: RSS feeds

2007-06-07T15:37:00.000-07:00

I am really enjoying the RSS feeds. I had been using the Sage feed with FireFox and Alan seized the computer at home to add his feeds. This is the first time I have been focused enough to develop my own list.

To be useful, it seems that you really need to be selective in the feeds that you add. It is so tempting to keep adding, but it is easy to get to a point of information overload. I like the idea of playlists in bloglines, but I have a feeling that it would be easy to make lists that you never visit. In addition, there is value to having a newsreader that is separate from your browser since I can use it for both work and home.

I also had no idea there were search engines for feeds. It is so much better than stumbling around to websites looking for the orange button. I liked Technorati best. (Alan has been telling me about this site for some time, but I've been ignoring him.) The challenge, as always with information, is to find credible sites. I liked the authority rating that accompanied the blog listed. Of course, this tracks only the number of links to the blog, not a real evaluation of content. But, it does give you a sense of how valued the blog is.

I will definitely continue to use RSS feeds.

Week 3 Technology Related Blog: Aging Gracefully

2007-06-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

Hi all. Ever since I identified "keeping up with technology" as a long term goal, I've been wondering why this is so important to me. I've decided that it has to do with aging gracefully. (For all of you youngsters, this concern is a disease that hits you when you are about 50.)

In previous incarnations, I have worked in the long term care industry. In my experience, it was clear that Seniors who remained engaged with society and with their social networks remained healthier, happier and more independent. What does this have to do with technology you might ask? Technology provides a great opportunity for people to continue to participate in the world when they have difficulty getting around. There are opportunities for learning, creativity and socialization that can last your whole life.

In addition, keeping up with technology allows you to continue to participate in your own family. Some of my parents, in-laws and friends have engaged new technology. My father, for example, is a big believer in the efficacy of play and toys--he is well known in his neighborhood for having every tool known to man. He has now brought that same enthusiasm to the digital world. My in-laws either ignored computers completely or struggled a bit and gave up despite the best efforts of 10 or so relatives (all with different approaches to learning Microsoft Word). When both sides of the family assembled for family parties and the conversation turned to technology, my in-laws could not participate.

Finally, how can we participate in meaningful political dialog if we never have been to the dreaded home of thugs--MySpace? Or if we don't understand the limits and uses of filtering?

So, I feel that my goal of keeping up with technology is to age gracefully--to remain engaged with the world as long as I can. (Hopefully, they'll find some new technology to replace mice and keyboards when my arthritis sets in.)

Week 5: New Technology: I animated myself

2007-06-04T18:51:00.000-07:00

I found this great website www.gizmoz.com where you can animate yourself. Just take a picture of yourself, upload it to the site, customize your look and it pops you into virtual reality.

I then copied the code and pasted Html code javascript feature in "Add a Page Element" (Actually, Alan helped me on that part.)

It is amazing what you can do even if you can't program. My first computer course in college had punch cards. Then again, I also was required to use a slide rule in physics class. We've come a long way.....

Fun with Flickr

2007-06-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

So far, I am having fun exploring Flickr. And I just love Flickr toys. I can see myself using a lot of the toys both for work and play. This would make a great professional portfolio too. I think I'll upload photos of some of the recent programs I have done.

My biggest disappointment so far is not being able to put some of my photos on the map. The city where they were taken is not found! Well, it is in Tibet.

Now I will have to take more pictures.

Beginners Mind

2007-05-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

BEGINNER'S MIND: "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few." Shunryu Susuki-roshi

I feel that learning journeys are never over, so goals can be a hindrance. Zen Buddhists encourage everyone to approach learning with a beginners mind. This leaves you open to all things. So, I tend to think in philosophies instead of goals and steps to live the philosophy.

My philosophy of lifelong learning with regard to technology is

to not be left behind,
to be able to help library patrons and staff access new technology, and
to evaluate each new technology to determine if it adds or detracts from my quality of life.

The first step in this process will be to complete the 23 steps and become familiar enough with various technologies to help patrons. What a great idea and fun as well.
The second step is to adopt those technologies that improve my quality of life.

I would like to complete these steps by the end of the summer.