Monday, October 13, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Week 14 - delicious
I have set up a delicious account and downloaded the bookmarlet thingy. I subscribed to a feed on toilet training. I had a good time investigating tags and seeing all the content that comes up under other people's tags. This was a lot of fun and I can see good reasons to get info this way.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Week 14 - Tagging, Social Bookmarking & Del.icio.us
Yes I have to say I find the idea of tagging unsettling. Having learned my library science at a time when computers (just the boxes, not all the stuff that goes with them) were brand new, I got steeped in abstracting and indexing traditions. In my job I have done a lot with indexing of news and magazine articles, and working from a controlled vocabulary list. It was (and is) my belief the mix of free text search and also a searchable field of "correct" terms can enhance retrievability.
But there is practically no way to have librarians set up all your retrieval terms, we're not living in that world. So tagging comes in handy. I can see for the first time the wisdom of the "herd" being a good pointer to content.
Will tags replace subject headings? I think not. It's still great to have Sears and LC to help us classify and arrange hundreds of thousands of items in a collection. That ain't broke and it doesn't need fixing. But tagging may well prove superior in getting people in to a catalog from outside, where they can then find good things, and link on the associated subject headings (or other internal tags), and maybe leave a tag of their own.
By the way I tried to get a Meebo account the other day and it got hung up on step 2. I will keep trying on that.
Now I will venture forth in search of tags....
But there is practically no way to have librarians set up all your retrieval terms, we're not living in that world. So tagging comes in handy. I can see for the first time the wisdom of the "herd" being a good pointer to content.
Will tags replace subject headings? I think not. It's still great to have Sears and LC to help us classify and arrange hundreds of thousands of items in a collection. That ain't broke and it doesn't need fixing. But tagging may well prove superior in getting people in to a catalog from outside, where they can then find good things, and link on the associated subject headings (or other internal tags), and maybe leave a tag of their own.
By the way I tried to get a Meebo account the other day and it got hung up on step 2. I will keep trying on that.
Now I will venture forth in search of tags....
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Week 13 - IM stuff
Of course I have been using Google Talk for almost a year, and it works well for work. Although I sent several messages for the purpose of this assignment and no one answered!
That points out that communication is a 2-way street!
I was and have been excited about the possibilities for reference and catalog help that were shown in some of the links.
In our catalog, we could put a persistent meebo widget (even on every page of our web site too) letting people know they could 1-chat and ask a question, 2-leave a message for reply to their email, or 3-get our phone number if they wish that.
What a way to say in every place "We're here - no we're really here - to help you!"
That points out that communication is a 2-way street!
I was and have been excited about the possibilities for reference and catalog help that were shown in some of the links.
In our catalog, we could put a persistent meebo widget (even on every page of our web site too) letting people know they could 1-chat and ask a question, 2-leave a message for reply to their email, or 3-get our phone number if they wish that.
What a way to say in every place "We're here - no we're really here - to help you!"
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
It's a Wrap - yum, I'll take Chicken!
I just erased my whole post, and it was great, and poetic and beautiful, and it's all gone! #@(^. Now you'll have to take what ever I can remember ...
It's been great working through this set of lessons. I think it has dragged us out of our comfortable armchairs, where we held our books and flipped the pages by hand ...
Not that I fear ever losing the "book experience". We used to worry about that (remember reading about Vannevar Bush?), but now we see this is about connections, and joining in with the race as it undergoes a social facelift.
I hope to use the flickr - my favorite site by far - and facebook, myspace and LT at a minimum. I can see YouTube also for library applications, and work/personal applications like poetry readings, which makes me think the process will probably blur the line for all of us.
Leaf falls, page turns, book opens ... we are seeing ourselves as part of a growing, protean organism - the world - and we are gestating. If we feed ourselves well, we will find a thousand ways to be born for our patrons and our communities, and ... our selves.
I will sign up for the second session. I think the process was great. I would only suggest, speak up on the podcasts a bit more. And I suggest putting more specific instructions for some of the sites, so we don't have to search for hours to find what we need.
Thanks for allowing me to take part in this process of building our future history.
For my incentive I choose the iTunes gift certificate for $25.
Looking forward to the second set of lessons!
It's been great working through this set of lessons. I think it has dragged us out of our comfortable armchairs, where we held our books and flipped the pages by hand ...
Not that I fear ever losing the "book experience". We used to worry about that (remember reading about Vannevar Bush?), but now we see this is about connections, and joining in with the race as it undergoes a social facelift.
I hope to use the flickr - my favorite site by far - and facebook, myspace and LT at a minimum. I can see YouTube also for library applications, and work/personal applications like poetry readings, which makes me think the process will probably blur the line for all of us.
Leaf falls, page turns, book opens ... we are seeing ourselves as part of a growing, protean organism - the world - and we are gestating. If we feed ourselves well, we will find a thousand ways to be born for our patrons and our communities, and ... our selves.
I will sign up for the second session. I think the process was great. I would only suggest, speak up on the podcasts a bit more. And I suggest putting more specific instructions for some of the sites, so we don't have to search for hours to find what we need.
Thanks for allowing me to take part in this process of building our future history.
For my incentive I choose the iTunes gift certificate for $25.
Looking forward to the second set of lessons!
The Library Thing that Ate Cleveland ... film at 11.
I give Library Thing 3 Trekking Poles. It was super easy to sign on, I am happy with the no-personal info requirements. I only don't like that there's a cost for over 200 titles. Although if there is going to be one, offering a lifetime option is good. (I have seen other "lifetime" offers collapse with time though - usually when someone else takes over the operation.)
I could not find the way to link until I did a search and figured out it was under widgets. I will try to paste in the code here and hope it comes out all right.
My link should show what titles I have listed. In addition, I am trying to find a title given by the suggester, but I get no tab or link saying suggester, and there is no page in the help for Suggester or Library Suggester. This is frustrating. I will try the link given in the AIT, but I don't see why that page isn't located somewhere when I am logged in. Something ain't right!
... OK, I couldn't make the Suggester work under tags. But the Unsuggester did respond. I got Kant - Pure Reason and Confession of Augustine, both of which I highly prize. But, however, I only had poetry books listed as a baseline to measure against. There was also one of the shopaholic books my wife might read but which are not of interest to me.
Here I am going to try to paste my link: (see you next week) :
Nope, didn't work...oh well...
I could not find the way to link until I did a search and figured out it was under widgets. I will try to paste in the code here and hope it comes out all right.
My link should show what titles I have listed. In addition, I am trying to find a title given by the suggester, but I get no tab or link saying suggester, and there is no page in the help for Suggester or Library Suggester. This is frustrating. I will try the link given in the AIT, but I don't see why that page isn't located somewhere when I am logged in. Something ain't right!
... OK, I couldn't make the Suggester work under tags. But the Unsuggester did respond. I got Kant - Pure Reason and Confession of Augustine, both of which I highly prize. But, however, I only had poetry books listed as a baseline to measure against. There was also one of the shopaholic books my wife might read but which are not of interest to me.
Here I am going to try to paste my link: (see you next week) :
Nope, didn't work...oh well...
Face the book, this is my space, dude!
This week gets 4 Trekking Poles for being absolutely new to me, yet getting me started on what will be an adventure lasting a lifetime.
Facebook was hard, MySpace was easy. That was my experience.
And after looking all over, trying help, searching google for advice, and exploring everything I could find, I could not find a credible, easy to understand way to put a link to my facebook page here. (So I feel it's not my fault after all that effort!)
But my MySpace link is:
http://www.myspace.com/johndey18
On to the next week!
Facebook was hard, MySpace was easy. That was my experience.
And after looking all over, trying help, searching google for advice, and exploring everything I could find, I could not find a credible, easy to understand way to put a link to my facebook page here. (So I feel it's not my fault after all that effort!)
But my MySpace link is:
http://www.myspace.com/johndey18
On to the next week!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Flickr in the night
Before I get to this week's events, I have to amend my last entry on Wikis. I gave it 3 Trekking Poles as a rating, down a notch only because I was already familiar and using wikis in my work as a chat reference librarian.
Now to this week's: Flickr, a really cool photo sharing site. 4 Trekking Poles here.
I am completely new to taking pictures, and also to sharing them this way. I have nieces and nephews who do it like the back of their hand, though none has used Flickr yet. The closest I come is when I got a link for my wedding photos from the photograher. (I should check to see if those are still there.)
It was cool to put up some photos and describe them. I was really easy to find Jill and the library and add them as contacts. I could see having a photostream for different events at the library that I might be involved in, such as poetry readings.
Looking forward to next week's lesson ... dreaming 2.0 ...
Now to this week's: Flickr, a really cool photo sharing site. 4 Trekking Poles here.
I am completely new to taking pictures, and also to sharing them this way. I have nieces and nephews who do it like the back of their hand, though none has used Flickr yet. The closest I come is when I got a link for my wedding photos from the photograher. (I should check to see if those are still there.)
It was cool to put up some photos and describe them. I was really easy to find Jill and the library and add them as contacts. I could see having a photostream for different events at the library that I might be involved in, such as poetry readings.
Looking forward to next week's lesson ... dreaming 2.0 ...
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Wiki Wiki Hot and Sticky
OK, I didn't mean anything by that title, just riffing....I am supposed to "give my impressions of this week’s exercises and any thoughts on how wikis can help libraries". I found the content informative and the search in Wikipedia interesting. I looked up Wind Point, and someone did a demographics page. If you want the census figures for WP, go there. Surprisingly, the burg is 95% white! (Who'd have thunk?)
As for libraries, I already have access to a library-related wiki, so I don't have to wonder. As a virtual reference librarian, I use a wiki sponsored by Questionpoint, the service from OCLC that provides backup for the nation's library chat functions. There we have all loaded on our favorite sites under different categories. So if a question is a real brain-teaser, we can go there instead of fishing on google, and pick a good site for a search on - say - the chemical elements table. It is very helpful to us, and only a click away. Plus we can add content so it is a protean organism!
How do you think a wiki could aid your particular library project? Feel free to leave a comment.
As for libraries, I already have access to a library-related wiki, so I don't have to wonder. As a virtual reference librarian, I use a wiki sponsored by Questionpoint, the service from OCLC that provides backup for the nation's library chat functions. There we have all loaded on our favorite sites under different categories. So if a question is a real brain-teaser, we can go there instead of fishing on google, and pick a good site for a search on - say - the chemical elements table. It is very helpful to us, and only a click away. Plus we can add content so it is a protean organism!
How do you think a wiki could aid your particular library project? Feel free to leave a comment.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Google Calendar
I found it easy to post an event on the calendar. I only want to also say the type on the tutorials provided is pretty blurry. Some better resolution in producing them would make the concepts come in more clearly!
4 Trekking Poles for the Google Docs presentations.
4 Trekking Poles for the Google Docs presentations.
Google Docs
I found the ease of use to be great. I uploaded a picture of Alan easily. Sometimes opening the presentation was buggy for me. I would open it and then see thumbnails on the left, but nothing loaded in on the right, and only ghosty writing. Then I would close and open again and it would load right in, showing all the slides.
I also noticed the slide still showed part of the "Click to add content" message under the pic of my son, AFTER I had saved and closed, then opened again. However, when I looked at the slideshow, it was gone. This discrepancy can make it hard to know if you've done what you need to do.
I MISS MISS MISS my Undo function that Microsoft is keen enough to know I need in all my work; that would be a great enhancement, if anyone from Google is watching! (Aren't they watching all of us all the time?)
I could see using Google Docs for large files that email carriers don't like to transport, for sharing picture files with groups, and for posting documents with a quick link for access.
I am not sure about how well the spreadsheet works with Excel. I seem to remember trying to load and go back and forth with some xcl files earlier in the year and having trouble of the "This does not compute" variety. But perhaps in time compatibilities will improve.
I love the option of turning the work into a pdf.
I also noticed the slide still showed part of the "Click to add content" message under the pic of my son, AFTER I had saved and closed, then opened again. However, when I looked at the slideshow, it was gone. This discrepancy can make it hard to know if you've done what you need to do.
I MISS MISS MISS my Undo function that Microsoft is keen enough to know I need in all my work; that would be a great enhancement, if anyone from Google is watching! (Aren't they watching all of us all the time?)
I could see using Google Docs for large files that email carriers don't like to transport, for sharing picture files with groups, and for posting documents with a quick link for access.
I am not sure about how well the spreadsheet works with Excel. I seem to remember trying to load and go back and forth with some xcl files earlier in the year and having trouble of the "This does not compute" variety. But perhaps in time compatibilities will improve.
I love the option of turning the work into a pdf.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Catching Up
Okay, I'm catching up from the last few weeks. June is a killer month with birthdays, anniversaries + Fathers Day. Plus there was a wedding, planned, and a funeral, unplanned right in the middle of it all. Driving, struggling to pay for gas, and presents, presents, presents! On the good side cousin Lisa's wedding was at Lambeau Field, so I got the tour and saw the Hall of Fame for the first time. (She married into the Crivello family. Yes, that one.)
All that - and - my son is now 1, and has decided he can crawl, so the word NO has bloomed in our household like a spore.
I give the RSS feeds lesson 4 Trekking Poles because it was easy to do, and I can now have content brought to me. What could be simpler? Like my son, who puts his hands behind his head to be fed milk, I'm just kicking back and letting it all happen. It allows the information to flow like milk, yet you can pre-determine the content and change the flow at any time. Perfect!
Now on to the next lesson, as I have some more catching up to do!
All that - and - my son is now 1, and has decided he can crawl, so the word NO has bloomed in our household like a spore.
I give the RSS feeds lesson 4 Trekking Poles because it was easy to do, and I can now have content brought to me. What could be simpler? Like my son, who puts his hands behind his head to be fed milk, I'm just kicking back and letting it all happen. It allows the information to flow like milk, yet you can pre-determine the content and change the flow at any time. Perfect!
Now on to the next lesson, as I have some more catching up to do!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Adventure Scale
I decided because we are embarking on Adentures in Technology, I should construct an Adventure Scale to show how exciting I found each week's material. If it is all boring stuff I already know, I'll mark it low, and if it's all great new stuff I never heard of yet, I'll mark it high.
So here's my Adventure Scale, and the entry for Week 3, the first week of my rating system:
Rollicking Escapade : 3 Trekking Poles (Worth the Effort)
Routine Excursion : 2 Trekking Poles (Day Trip Fare)
Nappy-Time : 1 Trekking Pole (Don't Even Need a Map)
Week 3 : This week about blogs was great because I had always heard about them, and seen them, but this lesson got me to actually make my first blog and to see what could be done with them. Already, I'm planning several blogs for different purposes, and the fun has just begun!Monday, May 19, 2008
Out with a Bang
out with a bang
is the way to start
so i create art
hoping you never see
what makes me me
only the art
see ?
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And now for that pic that has all other computers' screen savers going multi-color with envy, my son's picture warholized...
Want to "warholize" a photo of yours? It's easy and free, go to http://www.blibs.com/editor/index.php?action=warhol and upload your fave!
I put my cute little guy's likeness in an Andy Warhol-like setting with this online tool, then clipped out 4 of the most attractive panes and pasted them into a Paint program. Easy!
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(more to come)
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