Keep the library in mind for upcoming events!

My last few weeks have been very busy, but one of the most exciting things I've worked on is summer programming. The Ely Public Library will have lots of fun things coming up for both kids and adults. Look for programs sponsored by the Arrowhead Regional Library System -- Sparky the Clown and Debra Frasier's paper collage workshop -- as well as programs brought in by our local Friends of the Library -- the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Minnesota Zoomobile, and Chef Roberto's Magical Cooking Show. We'll also have lots of fun with local talents. A musical evening is planned again this year (Henry's Wives may again grace our humble lobby). Kids will have fun (and flavorful) times with the Annual Treasure Hunt, an Ice Cream Sundae Party, and our first Iron Chef Competition.

We hope to see you at the library soon. Registration for summer activities will begin on June 10th.

Thing #23 -- Looking back on the program

I feel that I learned a lot through the 23 things on a stick program. The best parts of the program for me were as follows:

• No driving somewhere in the winter (when the roads are bad) or the summer (when our library is crazy busy) to go over the topics.
• Not needing to block out a specific time during the day to work on learning (this can be a problem when local meetings and regional webinars overlap).
  
• Learning at your own pace ... too often classes proceed so slowly for me.
• Thing #1 - learning to blog. I do plan to keep this blog going, although the focus will change to library events and book reviews.
• Things #4-6 - online graphic design tools. It was so much fun to play with these tools, and our next library handouts will benefit tremendously from what I learned.
• Thing #11 - del.icio.us. I'm using this for my personal benefit; it's great to have access to all my bookmarks on any computer I go to.
• Thing #20 - Facebook/MySpace. I'd heard so much about these sites, and it was great to have a push to actually explore them.
  
• I would add Thing #3 to this list, but I was already working with RSS feeds.

I would definitely do a program like this in the future. Yes, more online at your own pace learning PLEASE! I would suggest that ELM could be a program of its own ... I felt that was the least successful thing simply because there was so much and you could do the (non-challenge) parts just by following directions without really exploring on your own. I also felt the order that the topics were presented could be improved. However, overall, the program was excellent, and I had a great time exploring some new tools.

Thing #22 - Continuing beyond Thing 23

This thing may be the hardest to complete of all of them; however, I will do my very best to accomplish the following:

• Keep up with my work-related RSS feeds. (I've added several in the last few weeks that I had never heard of before.)
  
• Spend time exploring new things I hear about immediately rather than putting it off by saying "some day I'll take time to..." -- this might work out to 15 minutes each day or just larger chunks of time here and there.
• Take advantage of more programs like this.
• Be sure to not to skip articles on Library 2.0 when doing professional reading -- they're a good source of new ideas to explore (even if our library can't currently afford the staff time or money to implement them).
  

Thing #21 - Social Networks

I can see how social networks on the web are a fantastic thing for those who have the time to be active in them -- lots of people with the same particular passion who want to discuss all of the minute details of that activity. However, I find it hard to carve out time to DO my passions, and don't want to spend that time discussing them. If anything, I tend to be a"lurker" rather than a poster in these forums.

I checked out three different sites for this thing. The "23 things on a stick" Ning met my expectations. It sounds like many of the program participants are facing the same challenges and surprises while working on their goals -- not enough time to fit everything in the day was a major theme. I also joined BakeSpace. I don't expect to be very active, but I always love a source of new recipes and it also has the potential as a resource to answer questions. I looked at (but didn't register for) Craftster. I found a wonderful forum thread there on crafting for charitable causes that gave me some ideas for channeling finished projects to a good home where they are needed. I may also use that site as a resource for future questions.

Thing #20 - Facebook

I had fun with this thing -- creating a facebook page immediately put me back in touch with some old friends, it was incredibly interesting to see the profiles of my nephews who are currently in college, and the widgets/quizzes/etc were fun little pop things to do (my dragon currently weighs 274 pounds and has accumulated 52 gold coins).

Leaving my personal fun out of it ... I looked at individual library pages on both Facebook and MySpace. The MySpace pages were very much geared towards teens; so much so that I thought a couple of them would be off-putting to anyone over the age of 23. The Facebook pages seemed to be more age inclusive.

Then I took a look for what might work best for my library. I wrote down a list of 20 teens who regularly visit us and checked both sites to see if they were listed. The results were as follows: 10 were on neither site, 2 were on both sites, 5 were only on Facebook, 1 was only on MySpace, and the last 2 were possibly on MySpace (they were more common names and had private profiles, so it was hard to tell for sure). Both of the 2 Facebook teens I asked "friended" me, and their profiles looked very active. In contrast, the MySpace profiles list the last activity date and most of the teens on the list hadn't used it in several months. If I was going to choose one site over the other to maintain for this library, it would definitely be Facebook.

Thing #19 - Podcasts

I have to admit that I went into this thing with a preconceived notion that I wouldn't like it. I hate talk radio and that's very much what my notion of podcasts was. I think that the investigating that I did both supported my notion, but also gave me a few pleasant surprises too. There were many podcasts that I immediately rejected because of their length ... both because I'm feeling like I'm getting close to the deadline for the 23 things and feeling some time pressure and also because of my already stated dislike of talk radio ... one interesting-looking Harry Potter discussion had individual 'casts that lasted almost 2 hours.

I did try listening to podcasts both on my iPod and on an RSS feed on my computer. The casts I tried included Travel in 10, On Board Games, MN Public Radio's Song of the Day, and the NPR's Food Podcast. I am planning to continue an RSS feed on the travel and games podcasts although I will probably be very selective in which bits I listen to.

The pleasant surprises ... there was a better variety of topics than I expected, it was easier than anticipated to download the casts I wanted to hear, most of the directories (especially Podcast.com) were very easy to navigate, and those podcasts I subscribed to through the RSS feed gave very clear descriptions that made it easy to make listening choices.

The down sides ... yes, it's talk radio.

Thing #18 - YouTube

Thing #17 - ELM

The most important lesson I learned from this thing: CHECK YOUR DIRECTIONS! A good lesson for those of us who have little time to recheck all our flyers, handouts, etc. It was really frustrating to do the first part (partially due to several interruptions while I tried to watch the quicktime video and needing to reload it each time) until I realized that RSS feed wasn't accessible in the Student version of InfoTrac. Once I switched to Cengage, I had no problems completing the task.

I've used ELM tools for finding information for a long time, but I hadn't tried all of the tasks (RSS feeds, webpages, etc) before. I can see where the RSS feed would be great for someone who's following an ongoing topic - especially medical or technology related where you want the most current news. I didn't see that I would use the EBSCO webpage feature again. I liked the feature of searching within a book on NetLibrary -- that wasn't something I was aware of before this thing.

Thing #16 - Assignment Calculators

It was interesting to compared the 2 sites listed. If I was actually doing a project, I think that the University of Minnesota's tool would be more helpful. It seemed to have everything ... even a link to information on formatting notes, etc. If you are actually a student at the University, all of the on-campus resources available to students are listed along the way at the appropriate point in the project (with special attention to the aids specific to your topic). However, Research Project Calculator did have one huge plus ... in all of the scenarios I inputted, it had the "finished" date for the project before it was actually due. The UMN tool spread things out right up until the due date. The other minor point in RPC's favor was that it covered different formats of projects rather than just papers.

I'm not sure how I would use this in a public library. Many of the students who come here looking for information are either already down to the wire or have the project fairly well under control. I will recommend it to some of the homeschooling families in the area as a resource. I know that I wouldn't use it personally ... although I do many large projects both in my work life and privately, research is usually a small part of the project and both of these tools assume that research will take the bulk of the time.

Thing #15 - Gaming in Libraries

Ahoy landlubbers! For this thing, I tried the Puzzle Pirates site. I did some interacting with other players (mostly other greenies - or new members) and tried 4 of the different skill games (carpentry, sailing, bilging, and swordfighting). I found that most other players were quite willing to chat or test their sword skills; however, in all cases, I had to initiate the conversation. The puzzles themselves were something of a disappointment ... they all seemed to be simplified variants of tetris/poppit puzzles. I found it especially hard while bilging not to be able to swap pieces upwards as well as across.

I also walked through the helps/faq on the Second Life site, but I chose not to sign up for an account. I hadn't heard of either of these 2 online sites before I started working on the 23 things. However, Runescape is very popular with tween age boys in our library, and I'm aware that WoW (World of Warcraft) is heavily played by some of the young adults (late teens and early 20s) that I know.

I am fine with patrons (of all ages) using library computers for online gaming as long as they abide by our rules (the primary problem we run into here is players respecting the time limitations when other people are waiting).

Thing #14 - LibraryThing

This was an interesting site. I thought that the recommendations based on the titles I had added were fairly accurate. I also found that the reviews/discussions about individual titles were interesting and more thoughtful than many of the reviews I've read on commercial sites. I enjoyed looking at members who had the same books as I did although I didn't spend as much time on this.

Although I really like the ideas behind it, I was dismayed by how cumbersome it is to add titles. I tried several of the advanced options, but even those were not very effective in adding a long string of titles at once. The suggestion of using a barcode reader to scan titles in didn't seem like a great option for someone adding a home library -- first, you'd have to buy the reader and then either transport books to computer or vice versa.

I can see how this would be a useful reader addition to a library's homepage if you had the staff time to enter in both new titles as you get them and the older parts of the collection. It is something I may consider for my library in the future.

Thing #13 - Online Productivity Tools

I wasn't particularly impressed with the tools offered in this thing. I made a personalized Yahoo page, but I tend to rely on RSS feeds to keep up with my favorite news interests and tend to use Yahoo and Google more as search pages than start pages.

Most of the other sites are not things that I choose to do on computer. While I like making "to do" lists (okay, what I really like is that satisfaction of crossing off something I've finished), it seems much faster to use a scrap of paper rather than log in and out of a website. In the same manner, a small datebook works great for me as a personal calendar and can be stuck in a bag and taken from work to home to a meeting where there isn't a computer available for me to check an online calendar. It also seems like an extra step to have to enter these things onto a computer -- especially since my home computer is dial-up, so online use takes some time.

However, I can see the advantages to some of these tools. An online calendar could be great for a business professional who is generally connected (via wireless or otherwise) throughout the week, but not spending all his or her time in one location. I think the Backpacker site has some nice features for groups of people working on projects needing to share information on deadlines, etc -- perhaps that would be a good site for use by teams in a larger library environment.

Thing #12 - Digg, Mixx, Reddit, etc.

After trying all of the sites suggested on the 23 things page, I decided to set up a Mixx account. Mixx was very easy to navigate and the initial page of offerings seemed closer to my interests than some of the others listed. Adding a link to a story was very simple. I thought it was interesting that all 4 sites had several of the same articles about the presidential race tagged on their start page -- evidently, it doesn't matter with major news which site you choose to favor, the same source articles will show up.

I'm not sure how I would use this professionally in a library. It is another source to sort through the amazing amount of information that's available on the web (always a plus); however, if I was looking for some specific information, I don't think it would be a site I would use unless several others lacked information.

Thing #11 - Tagging & Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is an interesting site. I spent just a few minutes trying out the 23 things account before I went on to set up my own account. Then the fun REALLY started. I liked the idea of being able to share the bookmarks on my work computer with the ones I've saved personally at home. (It sounded much easier than trying to remember either the URL or how I found a specific site). So, I piled in a whole bunch of sites into my newly created Del.icio.us account and tried to remember some other sites that I used semi-regularly, but haven't bookmarked. Then I started following links out to other people's accounts. Wow, more cool / useful / interesting sites that I never knew existed! This site is a great way to find hidden gems of the internet without using a search engine. And, there's a small social observer side to me that had fun creating a picture of other users by what they had tagged -- student who travels a lot, avid reader, another librarian? -- I'll never know if I'm correct, but a part of my brain had a great time making up backstories for each of those folks.

While I was having fun, I did note a few downsides based entirely on my own quirks. First, I have a habit of putting commas into a list -- this confused my tags. I'd have a set of "travel" and another set of "travel,"; it was easy to fix, but I had to concentrate after I figured it out to stop myself from continuing the comma problem. Second, I also don't follow capitalization rules when making lists only for myself - so I know I cut down my possibilities by labeling things like London as "london". Again, this is my problem, and not that of the site, but it was slightly annoying to have capitalized and non-capitalized letters separated.

I am sure that this site will continue to be useful to me personally. I am less sure how much I will use it as a professional resource. I certainly can use it for reference work, but I had my bookmarks on my work computer well organized and could have continued with that system without much fuss. It could be very useful in finding new links and sources of information on specific topics, but, as a librarian in a small public library, I don't spend much time compiling topical resource lists for patrons or classes as suggested in the introductory video. I will certainly mention this tool to patrons that I know rely on several computers or mostly public access as a way for them to compile a personal bookmark list that will "follow" them from place to place.

Thing #9 - Online Collaboration

These were interesting tools. I found Google's version much easier to use; however, Zoho seemed to have lots more bells and whistles. For basic text editing by a group that had a variety comfort levels with the software, Google would be by far the better choice. However, for anything involving graphic design, Zoho might be more useful.

I can't see that these tools would be very useful for working directly with the public. I can see that they would be a fantastic resource for regional committees trying to put together any sort of project (RFP specifications, new policies, brochures, etc) since they would allow each member to contribute wording and comments at their own pace.

Thing #10 - Wikis

This was an interesting topic. I've used larger wikis before for quick overview information or as a starting point on tough reference questions. I don't usually give Wikipedia info out as solid fact, but it's good to know things like the approximate date of a battle to look up more information with a history question. I've found that sometimes the information is more specific than what I can find elsewhere -- that always makes me wonder what the author's source was.

I added a link to the MN 23 things on a stick wiki - the resource page - to a similiar program that's running in WI libraries. Of the wikis listed to look at, I thought the Princeton book one was the most interesting. I can see it's application in even a small library or for an associated book group to give out recommendations for others to read.

Although I work in a public library, I know that some of the teachers in town will not accept wikis (or, in a few cases, any websites) as resources for projects. I can see the validity of both sides of this stance ... they want the kids to learn to judge the accuracy of information rather than just writing down the first facts they find; however, sometimes wikis can lead to finding great new sources of data AND some wikis do include traditional source notes.

Thing #8 - Sharing Creations

I used Picture Trail to create a slideshow of photos from an evening of making gingerbread scenes with some friends. While the site was fairly easy to use, it seemed to take a looong time to bring up each successive change when I make it. I'm not sure if that was just the circumstances of web traffic at the time or if the site normally runs a bit slow. I found that wiggling the mouse (without clicking) made the photos move through faster.

I looked at the other resources listed for this topic, but didn't try to create anything on them. I thought eFolio was especially interesting -- what a nice way to share some of your accomplishments in a resume sort of presentation. However, I can see that using this resource as a job tool means that you need to have employers who have the time and inclination to follow through and look at this site.

Thing #7 - Web 2.0 Communication

Although I was fairly familiar with the tools listed on this thing, it was good to stop and think about them from a library perspective. I love email as both a personal and business tool. It's so easy to send a quick message or question to someone while you are thinking about it and gives the receiver the ability to respond at their leisure. I have several patrons who contact me regularly with questions in this manner and most of my day to day communication with staff at the regional level takes this form.

Personally, I prefer instant messaging as a business communication tool. Our library does not offer an IM reference service, but I think it could be a great addition for a place with enough staff to support it. I've generally had very positive experiences with online IM help desks from a user standpoint. However, IM is not a tool that I choose to use to communicate casually with friends; I would rather pick up the phone than log on to the computer when at home. The few times I've chatted online with strangers in a casual environment I've felt it to be a surreal experience and didn't have any interest in getting to know those strangers better when it was over.

Text messaging was the one item I hadn't tried before. (I don't own a cell phone). However, the daughter of one of my friends gave me a tutorial lesson in this technology. The most intimidating part of using this service is all the acronyms; however, the webinar I viewed gave a helpful site for translating the terms (go to http://www.transl8it.com); the best part of this site is that it will not only start from the chat or text lingo, but also translates from "regular" english to txt. The best application I can see for this tool in a public library is not reference but notification of patrons that they have books ready to be picked up.

Web conferencing is a tool that I have mixed feelings about. I guess I could sum it up best by saying that it works okay, but there has to be a better way to accomplish the same thing. It definitely makes it easier for lots of diverse people to attend a training or informational session without travel, allows sessions to be saved and viewed later, and usually does a fair job of getting across the information (generally this success is more on the part of the presenter than the format). On the down side, if people are listening by phone, there is often a lot of background noise and sometimes lag time on the Internet makes a verbal/visual mismatch which can be frustrating. I did look at both the offerings on OPAL and Minitex and chose to watch a saved Minitex session - "R U Ready - Setting Up and Running IM Reference". If anyone out there is interested in the basics of IM Reference, it was definitely a good starting point. I thought it well worth the time simply to get the transl8it site mentioned above.

Thing #6 - Online Image Generators - thoughts

I've always loved working with graphic design, so this "thing" was lots of fun for me. I think that the tools listed on the Big Huge Labs site could be used in many, many ways in libraries. Anytime that a library hands out a preprinted piece of paper (bookmarks with hours, lists of themed titles, handouts for programs, etc), there is an opportunity to add visual interest. And these tools can give you professional looking results in a very short time. Making posters or other visual aids for your library takes almost no time with premade templates available. And, if you have enough computers available, you could do lots of crafting programming that ranges from kids looking to make cool art projects to adults that love to craft and scrapbook.

Thing # 6 - Online Image Generator - part 3, Motivational Posters

Yet another tool that was fun and easy to use. I can see lots of library applications in this one -- both to liven up the library visually with images of local people and places and also as a fun way to get kids involved in putting their messages/wisdom out in the world.

Thing #6 - Online Image Generators - part 2, "Warholizer"

This was a fun tool to turn your photos into art a la Andy Warhol. I've included the starting photo to give you an idea of how much detail was retained. The first photo that I tried had a busy background and didn't work nearly as well.

Thing #6 - Online Image Generators - part 1, the trading card

This was my attempt at a prototype for a literary-based trading card set. The vacation photo I had of the stage at Shakespeare's Globe made a lovely visual for the quote. I could see myself spending lots of time with this just for fun; it was highly addictive.

Thing #5 - Flickr mashups

Wow, what a fun way to waste time. If you look below this post, you will find the two mashups I added to my blog. The first is a mini version of the Fastr game. The software randomly supplies a public photo from Flickr, and you get to guess the "tag" or keyword that describes it. The second is spelling with Flickr -- books seemed to be a very appropriate word that was short enough to fit all in one line on the screen.

I tried all of the different mashups listed in the Webmonkey article. The only one I had trouble using was Flickrball. (I may have been too impatient to wait for everything to load properly). I found it was much more difficult to keep track of pictures (as opposed to numbers) while doing a Sudoku puzzle but much more fun to be able to change the photos while solving without losing your place. Retrievr reminded me of why I hate playing Pictionary ... obviously my drawing skills are not stellar because the photos pulled up matched my intents only in the color I chose. The most interesting to me was Tagnautica. Some of the keywords with the largest nodes were not words that I would have associated with my original keyword; for example, "cats" linked to "canon". How are the 100 "matches" selected? I loved the visual progression of using the site though; it reminded me of stringing beads on a necklace.

I can see lots of applications for graphic design in library use ... especially with the tools listed at the Big Huge Labs link. With staff time and enough available computers, I can see middle school/teen programming opportunities too. I imagine many of that age group can use these sorts of tools without even thinking twice, but do all of them have the opportunity/resources to try them on their own.

Thing #4 - Flickr

Ahhhh ... now I know a place to start for all of those confused grandparents who come in and say "But my daughter put the pictures of my grandson's birthday on the web, don't you know where they are?" I found Flickr very easy to use; I haven't used a web-based photo service before. Posting directly from Flickr to the blog went quite smoothly. I can see that libraries could use its resources to organize photos taken at events (or brought in by patrons) and then make them available to the public.

I don't know that I would use Flickr for personal photos. If I did, I almost certainly would mark them private. I wondered while watching the video if this sort of web tool has put some stock photographers out of business or if it helps them find new markets. I have a sister who is trying to start out as a professional photographer and that makes me wonder about the copyright implications of a site like this.

space guy

space guy
Originally uploaded by smartcookie23

Remember the space theme for summer reading a few years back ... Well, we had a very off-the-wall summer aide that year. He was willing to try to do just about anything. This is a shot of a costume he made for our "Alien Tea Party" out of tin foil, green face paint, and a fake plant. He was a big hit at the party -- he communicated with a little sound effects key chain he held in his hand the whole time during the party -- but when he first came in the door, he did a dance and sang a rhyming song (made up on the spot). The kids were fascinated.

Thing #3 - RSS

This is not a new technology to me, and something that I find fairly useful in saving time. I have to admit that I get a little frustrated with new sites that I find that I can't add to my feed. Of course, the downside is that it's easy to overload yourself with lots and lots of feeds and then waste time looking at stuff that you wouldn't have taken the time to look at individually just cause it's already there and you've got it up on the screen and what's another 2 minutes or 5 or ....

Thing #2 - Web 2.0

Here are some questions and my answers (in no particular order) that I had reactions to on this topic...

What do I want to get out of 23 things? Definitely a structured chance to try some new things just so I know how they work. I have experimented with a few of the things on the list already (mostly at the behest of younger relatives), but I know I wouldn't take the time to just play around with them as part of my busy day simply to see how they work. It would be great to have some background with some of them before I NEED to use them.

Is Web 2.0 bringing a revolutionary change in the way libraries function or simply an adaptation to new technology? After reading/viewing the links on the 23 Things site, I'm inclined to side with those who say the latter (at least from the public library standpoint). Public libraries have for many years responded to patrons using technology as appropriate. And, though this may brand me as a Luddite, "new" isn't always more efficient; there have been many times when I've challenged another staff member to accurately answer a ready reference type question with the Internet while I use a book. If you know which book, the print almost always wins ... few ready reference questions can be answered without going through several computer screens or your bookmarks. The challenge is not just keeping up with new technology, it's knowing which technology is appropriate to a particular patron or situation.

How much emphasis should libraries put on new technology? It depends on the situation. One of the articles mentioned that circulation was declining steadily at that library; I can see where they want to find new ways to connect with patrons. I'm in a different situation; our circulation is steadily increasing ... both books and media. Do I want to reach more people? Yes. Can I afford (both tax dollars and staff time) to push beyond the current core user group? I don't know. I do know that I don't want to put the library into a situation where we are extending new services at the cost of sustaining the old ones that are still very popular. There are many, many people who simply want to use their library as a source for the latest reading material. The phrase "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" comes to mind. Public libraries are just that -- public -- most of our operating revenue comes from tax money. I think individual libraries need to make decisions on how much technology will be used by their patron base rather than simply what's new.

What does moving toward Library 2.0 mean? Definitely more resource sharing among libraries, especially different types of libraries. I think that as a library community, we need to look at efficiencies as well as the technologies to keep costs down.

Thing #1 - Setting up a blog

On the technical side, I was surprised at how easy it is to set up a blog ... although maybe it should have been self-evident considering how many blogs are out there nowadays. The most time consuming part was definitely making the Yahoo avatar. I suppose that could have gone more swiftly, but I was having fun "trying on" all of the different looks. After successfully adding the first element, all of the others went swiftly. The only ripple I had was in adding sitemeter and that was just because I couldn't see it on the blog I had already pulled up on another browser. Refreshing the screen fixed that problem just fine.

On the philosophical side, I can see why this appeals to young people. They can create their image of themselves complete with idealized portrait, lists of favorite things, personal philosophy and put it out for the world to see. I don't think it's chance that all of the avatar face/body choices look like they are about 16. What I find myself asking is does anyone read these blogs? Or, more specifically, why read a stranger's blog? I'm doing this blog as part of a continuing education experience, so I expect that my readers will be others participating in the program and perhaps a few friends. How does a random blog get readers who don't know the author regularly following their posts? Perhaps those readers have more time than I do to browse a stranger's thoughts.

Practically, I would recommend to anyone setting up a blog to establish a list of site identities and passwords in a safe place. I already had a yahoo account personally (though not an avatar), but different sites we've used even in "thing one" have different requirements for ID and passwords .