Well, this one was really cool. After doing the retroconversion of over 100,000 library items with cataloging tools provided in various library software and OCLC, some of them not really easy to use, adding books with LibraryThing was as simple as falling off a log--maybe easier. I added fifteen items just to see how easy it really was. Nice that you can add tags to enable finding them that way too.
There is really a lot of stuff at LibraryThing, book discussions, groups, and more. Since some of the books I added were J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, there were lots of others who had them. I used the widget to put a selection on my blog, but it would be a great tool for libraries to use to put a special collection on their web page. It will be interesting to see how this site develops if they really are interested in cooperation with libraries.
I can see using it to make available the small collection of materials that NCLC has available for use by member libraries and putting it on our web page so members would know about them.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Thing 13 - Online Productivity Tools
As it happens, having recently gotten a new laptop for work, I had just set up my homepage to have handy those things I use frequently or like to have at my fingertips. I used Google and my home page has these things on it (with more to come as I have room to spare): notes (like stickies), cat of the day, T olkien quote, Ebay search box, Betty Crocker recipe of the day, Wii news, Gmail, Dell support, online English grammar, news, gmail tools, word of the day, google calendar, google map search, babblefish translator, lyrics search, youtube videos, tetris, google search, weather, wikipedia search, dictionary/thesaurus, and still have lots of room for more. The widget supply seems unending.
I investigated Pageflakes and my Yahoo in addition to Google and they look just as easy and similar. I chose Google because Dell had made it easy for me to customize and their link were already in place, besides having accounts with them already meant no new passwords to create and remember.
The lists of other tools available had lots that I had already looked at or bumped into, but have more to investigate. One tool I have used quite a bit is tiny url. This has made it easier to refer long web addresses when doing reference work for others so they can see the results for themselves.
Remember the Milk and some of the other list applications look interesting, but you'd have to have almost a constant ability to contact it to be really useful. Seems like it might be kind of labor intensive to me. I think I will stick with my handy "filing cabinet"(pants pocket) where I put the notes of what I need to remember and then pull them out at night before they hit the hamper. It's worked pretty well for as long as I've worked in libraries and I am accustomed to using it. And, you don't lose access in power outages.
Backpack looks like a great management tool for group projects and includes a calendar feature. It might have worked well for something like planning the 23 things project, or when working on selecting an automation system with the ability to share documents and input with others in your group.
Going to have to come back to these tools and investigate more possibilities to add to my homepage.
I investigated Pageflakes and my Yahoo in addition to Google and they look just as easy and similar. I chose Google because Dell had made it easy for me to customize and their link were already in place, besides having accounts with them already meant no new passwords to create and remember.
The lists of other tools available had lots that I had already looked at or bumped into, but have more to investigate. One tool I have used quite a bit is tiny url. This has made it easier to refer long web addresses when doing reference work for others so they can see the results for themselves.
Remember the Milk and some of the other list applications look interesting, but you'd have to have almost a constant ability to contact it to be really useful. Seems like it might be kind of labor intensive to me. I think I will stick with my handy "filing cabinet"(pants pocket) where I put the notes of what I need to remember and then pull them out at night before they hit the hamper. It's worked pretty well for as long as I've worked in libraries and I am accustomed to using it. And, you don't lose access in power outages.
Backpack looks like a great management tool for group projects and includes a calendar feature. It might have worked well for something like planning the 23 things project, or when working on selecting an automation system with the ability to share documents and input with others in your group.
Going to have to come back to these tools and investigate more possibilities to add to my homepage.
Thing 12 - I Don't Diggit
I looked at Digg, Reddit, Newsvine and Mixx. I frankly found the stuff at most of these what I would rate as lowest common denominator pop culture junk. Maybe I just looked at a bad time. I did find that I like the layout of the Newsvine page, kind of neat and like MSN's page. For content topic, I guess I would have to go with Mixx. I did join and recommend a story but found it had already been recommended and had 28 votes. The choice of topics at Mixx seemed to be more in tune to what I look for than some of the other sites. It's plainly laid out, but clearly divided by category topic and best of all uses fairly large print.
I can see how these sites might drive reference requests at the library. Things do seem to come to the top about which you might not know a lot and would be seeking additional information. Kind of like the trivia requests that come in via phone to settle a bar bet, if you've ever had those. Seeing how many votes a story has might be a way of deciding whether or not there is enough interest in a topic to add a book about the subject to your collection as well, even though it wouldn't necessarily be your patrons who are the respondents.
I also signed up for StumbleUpon which seems to let you be a little more specific in defining your interests. That one lets you click the stumble tab and brings up something you might like and so far based on my input hasn't been wrong yet. It's brought me some humorous pix of cats, a diagram of a cat brain (fun) and clear instructions for creating a self-watering device for the garden, among other things. So far it's been entertaining and instructive. I think I am going to continue to enjoy that. I chose it mostly because that is how I have often found nifty stuff, I've just "stumbled upon" it.
I can see how these sites might drive reference requests at the library. Things do seem to come to the top about which you might not know a lot and would be seeking additional information. Kind of like the trivia requests that come in via phone to settle a bar bet, if you've ever had those. Seeing how many votes a story has might be a way of deciding whether or not there is enough interest in a topic to add a book about the subject to your collection as well, even though it wouldn't necessarily be your patrons who are the respondents.
I also signed up for StumbleUpon which seems to let you be a little more specific in defining your interests. That one lets you click the stumble tab and brings up something you might like and so far based on my input hasn't been wrong yet. It's brought me some humorous pix of cats, a diagram of a cat brain (fun) and clear instructions for creating a self-watering device for the garden, among other things. So far it's been entertaining and instructive. I think I am going to continue to enjoy that. I chose it mostly because that is how I have often found nifty stuff, I've just "stumbled upon" it.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Thing 11 -Tagging and Del.icio.us
I went into a number of posts and put tags on them by editing the posts to include tags. I will have to go in and do the others later when time isn't so short. I viewed the 8 minute tutorial and looked at the Minn23 account, where I noted that several items I had bookmarked at work recently were included, among them the Adobe Photoshop online site which recently launched. I subscribed to the RSS feed for the account in Google Reader as well. Then I set up a Del.icio.us account for me. However, I was using my new laptop where I had not bookmarked much yet. I will have to go to my work computer and add those bookmarks to Del.icio.us which will be an easy way to access them then from my barenaked of bookmarks laptop. It should be much easier than any other way to transfer them and since I use about four different computers having the Del.icio.us account will allow me access to all of my bookmarks from anywhere once I get them added. Sounds like a good idea to me.
With the ability to add notes to the bookmarks, I can also see it being used for research. It has some similarities to Zotero which I just learned about from reading another blog. I called that the Swiss army knife or Leatherman of search technology. That has come in handy in verification of challenging interlibrary loan requests and helped by saving pages and information from pages so I don't have to re-find it later. I can see del.icio.us being used in a similar fashion.
Tagging seems to really make sense in being able to find things later. Everyone doesn't remember things in the same way and it just makes perfect sense to tag things in a way that is meaningful to the individual, rather than by system which is how libraries have always done it.
With the ability to add notes to the bookmarks, I can also see it being used for research. It has some similarities to Zotero which I just learned about from reading another blog. I called that the Swiss army knife or Leatherman of search technology. That has come in handy in verification of challenging interlibrary loan requests and helped by saving pages and information from pages so I don't have to re-find it later. I can see del.icio.us being used in a similar fashion.
Tagging seems to really make sense in being able to find things later. Everyone doesn't remember things in the same way and it just makes perfect sense to tag things in a way that is meaningful to the individual, rather than by system which is how libraries have always done it.
Thing 10 - Wikis
I viewed the Common Craft video and checked out the various links in thing 10. The Subject guide wikis at SJCPL were of varied levels of development. Some were good, some not as well developed. But that's the strength of wikis, they can be edited and developed over time. The Princeton Library (NJ) use of a wiki for book reviews for a book club was a nice snapshot in time, but I liked better their incorporation of the reviews into their catalog. Looking at the Library Success wiki showed that they have had to resort to e-mail confirmation for editing because of vandalism--there's always got to be rotten apples to make things more difficult.
I was pleasantly pleased to find that the Aurora Public Library was among the blogging libraries in the Blogging Libraries Wiki. Their librarian is currently one of those who has completed the 23 things program. You can read her 23 things blog here: Paula's 23 Tech Things
I can understand why teachers might not allow Wikipedia as a source for writing papers. How do you know the author's work is authoritative? But they really should encourage students to visit it to find where else they might go for authoritative material on a topic. And it would be a great part of a unit on how to evaluate reference material and resources which is what students should be learning to benefit them for the rest of their lives. While I can understand teachers wanting to encourage use of many different formats, I don't believe that limiting use by format is at all helpful or necessary. With the ability to access many primary resources online today, the internet should not be excluded simply because it isn't the "standard" accepted print media.
I added an entry to the 23 things on a stick wiki and signed and dated the entry. I included a photo (above) of the birthday cake my husband bought me recently which I immediately thought would have been great to add to a storytime celebration or summer reading program event. Let's hope we never get too old to appreciate storybook characters!
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Thing 9 - Online Collaboration Tools
Knowing that tools like Zoho Writer and Google Documents are available and quite easy to use may change the software marketplace. Having just had a problem with my old version of Microsoft Office 2002 and finding that Microsoft says the cause of the problem I was having was my purchased software (theirs) and recommending I upgrade (read purchase) a new version just rubbed me the wrong way. I have the same hardware and operating system as when I bought Microsoft Office and now it won't work? When free online tools are there for use people having this experience may reconsider what their options are. Maybe buying software which quickly becomes obsolete isn't the best alternative.
I edited both in Google Docs and Zoho Writer after I received my invitation to share the document. Both were easy to use, although I did initially have a problem with Zoho Writer, but a quick look at a few things enabled me to continue successfully. Google Docs was quite intuitive for those familiar with basic word processing software and seemed easier to use, but both were acceptable. I looked at some of the other applications, but playing with them will have to wait for another day.
Those visionary founding fathers would probably be amazed at how productive they could be without meeting face to face, although their documents might tend to get buried in the comments and criticisms that they vented into the air and which never made it to print on paper in their own time.
I edited both in Google Docs and Zoho Writer after I received my invitation to share the document. Both were easy to use, although I did initially have a problem with Zoho Writer, but a quick look at a few things enabled me to continue successfully. Google Docs was quite intuitive for those familiar with basic word processing software and seemed easier to use, but both were acceptable. I looked at some of the other applications, but playing with them will have to wait for another day.
Those visionary founding fathers would probably be amazed at how productive they could be without meeting face to face, although their documents might tend to get buried in the comments and criticisms that they vented into the air and which never made it to print on paper in their own time.
Friday, March 28, 2008
More Thing 8
Despite dreading yet another login and password to remember I signed up for PictureTrail, quickly and easily uploaded a small collection of photos, and created a slideshow. It took hardly any time at all (once I had the pictures selected!) Then it was so easy to send the slideshow right to my blog. Only problem was that the first size I sent was a hair too big for my post area so it was cut off. So I went back and edited the size, copied the new info and replaced it in the edit html window of my post. It now fit nicely into the space. But rats! As I watched it, I realized that the picture that should have been last was #7. So back again to Picturetrail to edit my creation. And even that was easy..just drag the pictures where you want them and save the thing. The changes automatically show up in your post. It couldn't have been any easier. Wow, am I glad I tried it. I know I'll be back with some other projects I want to share.
I'd highly recommend this to even novice users as it is so easy to use.
My subject of choice was my grandson engrossed in his book. He didn't even know I was taking the pictures of him as he was so taken with the pictures in his storybook. (I think it was Flotsam by David Wiesner, but I could be mistaken.)
I'd highly recommend this to even novice users as it is so easy to use.
My subject of choice was my grandson engrossed in his book. He didn't even know I was taking the pictures of him as he was so taken with the pictures in his storybook. (I think it was Flotsam by David Wiesner, but I could be mistaken.)
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