Friday, April 30, 2010

Library 2.0 thoughts

Really? This profession needs to be told to become innovative and progressive? Really?

Are other professions like this? They have to be told to modernize? They have to be told there are benefits to adapting services?

That's sad.

I liked Anderson's comment: "[I]t no longer makes sense to collect information products as if they were hard to get. They aren't. In fact, it may no longer make sense to 'collect' in the traditional sense at all." Even more reason to weed all of these crappy old things cluttering up my nonfiction and reference sections. Information is out there. If we act like we're the only ones who know how to find things, we'll be the ones left in the dust.

Another one I liked, from Schultz: "What was the library of the past? A symbol of a society that cared about its attainments, that treasured ideas, that looked ahead multiple generations. Librarians were stewards, trainers, intimate with the knowledge base and the minds who produced it. Librarians today are not just inventory management biobots: they are people with a unique understanding of the documents they compile and catalog, and the relationships among those documents."

Great that we are "intimate with the knowledge base," but we need to keep in mind how that base is expanding and changing.

Did she read Steve Berry's The Alexandria Link before she wrote this article, or did Berry read her and decide on a secret society of librarians based on that quote? Just a thought.

Schlutz also mentions collaborating with Amazon. Does Amazon want to collaborate with libraries? Didn't they have a recent kerfluffle over publishing rights with the Kindle? Are they exercising control over the market, or are they bowing up for the inevitable showdown with Apple and the IPad? Just another thought.

Riemer likes his RSS feeds. Still make me feel like a slug.

So, I guess the point is the library has been able to be old school for quite a while. It's sort of a source of pride. But, it's time to step out into the 2.0!

One small however...

We should always be open to evolving and progressing, but it's hard to embrace big-time change when the threat of being downsized or eliminated because of funding looms.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Danny Boy

rolly-olly-olly o

I'm not very linear.
That has been my one frustration about HEB 23. Nothing to do with the project, really. Just how I work.
I've been piddling and playing with different pieces of this for a while. I've just now sat down to compile everything.
Did I go in order? No.
Did I complete one module before picking up another one? No.
Had I, would things have been easier? Probably.
This is part of the reason why it takes me so long to clean the house. I can't stay in one room and complete that room before being sidetracked and going into another room, leaving both half finished.
So, a mish-mash.
Did I mention that I crochet?

That's right. My hair is currently in something resembling a bun (they teach it in library school), my dog is snoozing at my feet, I can barely get up my stairs because of all of the piles of books, and I crochet.

There is a cliche in there. I'm sure of it.


And, Flickr.

I could waste so much time on Flickr. I already have. Most of what you'll find here are pictures from my trip to Scotland. I'm not totally obsessed with Scotland. It's just those are the majority of the pictures I've actually loaded on my computer.


Rollyo would be cool to use for a research project with a class to help narrow things down and save time, which I can tell you is at a premium this time of year having just juggled the schedule so spectacularly in here it would make a clown weep. I know, data base purists. It's spoon-fed research, but for a beginning project or if you're crunched for time making a research roll could save time.

Again, I'm not sure if anything I Rollyo is that exciting. I know I'm supposed to be excited about
people being able to see my inner-most thoughts, but methinks people will be disappointed if
they look too closely. I wish Flickr worked a little better at the little red school house. I guess
they'd know we'd have too much fun!
Audiobooks, to me, are like books. There are awesome ones. There are skunky ones. My plan for world domination with my mp3 player is to devote it to books. I can't always "handle" listening to a book. Sometimes I'll be listening to one and if I'm not sitting still (such as driving), 45 minutes will have gone by and I can't really tell what has happened in the book.

I also can't listen to a book and do something like type. I somehow manage to start typing what I hear. It's the same reason why I could never listen to talk radio while working on the computer during graduate school. I'd manage to type what those clowns on The Ticket were saying in my history paper.

Or, I'd type a response like I was answering what I heard on the radio.

Music, I can handle. I'm not sure what the difference is between the spoken word and singing.

I think that dual process is why I might be the only person on the planet who truly can't drive and talk on the phone at the same time. Oprah's no phone zone has nothing on me

Anyway, I always hope audiobooks will be bigger than they seem to be at my school. Either that, or maybe I wish my English and reading teachers were reading more novels, thus leading to a need for new audiobooks. Hmmm...like I said, the good ones are great.

I have a series of Star Wars books that I've never read, just listened to. I do own the books. That would be because I'm a dork. However, I am so used to the reader's voice and so used to listening to that series in my car that I don't think I could read it or listen to anyone else perform it.

Plus, I'd never have time to read that series. That's sad considering I'm a huge (HUGE) Star Wars nerd. Audiobooks give me an opportunity to read just one more book. I totally count my listening in my book journal.

Am I the only one that thinks the IPad is cool, but am also worried that one entity is about to control music, video, and printed media? Just a thought.

My YouTube requires little commentary. Muppets are greatness, and these music videos that keep popping up are nothing short of genius. Who can argue with Beaker?

I enjoy listening to podcasts...have helped teachers on my campus compile them...found one on book clubs...oh look...Star Wars...but I don't want to listen to my own voice, and would hate to subject anyone else to it. Meh. If you make me post one, I'll do it, but I've never wanted to record myself and always cringed when I had to do it for classes. Yes, I see great classroom applications for podcasts, but please don't make me do it.

Oooooo...LibraryThing.com...it's like a combination of ravelry.com and shelfari.com! For someone who stumbled blindly through cataloging in library school (I'm still not sure what was going on in there), cataloging my books (and my yarn on ravelry) just shows you what kind of sick-o I am!

Again, the whole "social" aspect of it all escapes me. I have no idea why anyone would want to see what books I have or how much yarn is taking over upstairs, but I guess in those communities it would be interesting.

Zoho is interesting...I can understand your comment about it making things like Microsoft Office and that lot obsolete. I guess I got caught up in a training/upgrade/revamp video because I saw a lot of cheering and pom pon waving for the improvements? I agree with what some others have posted-it would make group work/collaboration easier so long as everyone had a computer and internet access.

Will people stop saving and backing their stuff up because everything is "out there" instead of on their individual machine? I see chaos down that road, and mostly because of something stupid I would do.



RSS feeds make me feel inferior

So does the social booking.

Not to whine, but they both make me think I should be reading more and exploring more. The RSS reminds me of the old list-serves we had to subscribe to in library school. I was able to keep up with those for about two days before I was overwhelmed.

Maybe overwhelmed is a bit of a stretch. Maybe just "whelmed."

Same with the bookmarking. I feel like I should be out there more...searching for useful sites to bookmark...

There is a bit of pressure in the aspect of social bookmarking to be social.

Do I really want my coworkers to know that my RSS and Delicious sites are dedicated to the Dallas Morning News and Golden Retriever Rescue of North Texas?

Not that there is anything wrong with these things. They just aren't that innovative or exciting.

Although I like the idea of my bookmarks being easy to get to and not being tied to a specific machine. That's festive. But again, I'm not doing anything that exciting.

Maybe my peeps do, and I can mooch sites to bookmark from them!


Saturday, April 24, 2010

And, while we're talking about Wikis...

I trashed the Maverick Wiki.

I probably shouldn't admit this. Even to you kind souls reading my blog. But, I must face my humiliation.

Sigh.

And, I'm at school on a Saturday.

Ok, so I'm on the Maverick Committee. No, we do not sit around watching and analyzing Dallas Mavericks basketball games (although last night's would give us something to ramble about). No, it is not a think tank organized to discuss my dog, Maverick. It's the committee that reads a gazillion graphic novels and pears those down to a "best of" list each year. It's a fairly new invention, and I am dorking out at the prospect of participating for the next two years.

Rather than throwing e-mails around or running up phone and travel bills trying to meet, we have a wiki. Genius, I say! Pure genius!

The wiki has every flippin' post on it that has ever been posted in the history of posting EVER.

When I was trolling around on it, I immediately went into "online class" mode, coupled with the "maniacal spring cleaning" mode. In my online classes, you were able to manipulate your page. You could arrange however you chose to. You could change how things appeared. You could keep every single flippin' post that was ever posted in your class. You could trash them. You could organize them however you wanted to.

I went to town on the wiki. I don't need that stuff from 2009! Be gone, clutter!

Oops.

I'm surprised the group even claimed me last week when I went to the meeting.\

Sigh.

I hereby vow never to touch anything on the wiki again!