Monday, November 19, 2007

Whew! What an adventure :O

Hey hey! Play to Learn is over :( But goodness, all the stuff I learned!

First off, Bloglines has become my favorite discovery of this whole program. I used to spend so much time catching up on things and getting frustrated when I missed an important post. Now, not only can I organize everything into categories, I can add things like library blogs and art blogs easily and keep track of them. It's something that is going to help me learn a lot of new things for a very long time to come.

It really surprised me that, once you sit down and think on it, so much online content and applications can be used in the library system. Going into this program I would have never thought of using something like Myspace or Flickr as a tool for patrons. Sitting down and brainstorming, though, I realised all the possibilities to expand resources to our patrons, and pretty much for free!

I know in the future I'll be reading back over my posts and the PTL to remember all the nifty and fun things I learned. I always considered myself pretty adept at the Internet and such, but thanks to this program I found all sorts of new places and technologies. :)

Now we just have to see about implementing some of these ideas. I'm just a page, so I'm not usually privvy to any planning of events or library ideas, but now I know if they need help with putting into action any of these things, I can step up and volunteer help, plus I'll be informed enough to help patrons who might have questions! You never know when another employee or patron might need help, which is why I feel so good about being informed and learning everything that went on in this program!

I would definitely participate in any future PTL or similar programs! Knowledge and learning helps everyone in every role grow, which makes the team better than ever!

Saturday, November 17, 2007

invasion of the podcasts

Podcasts are something really new to me, since I didn't believe it would interest me, or that I had time to listen. Then I realised how much I love NPR, plus often I am drawing at home or doing crafts and get tired of the same old music in the background.

First, I looked around the Yahoo search and found a site called soundroots.org, which showcases a lot of music from around the world. It looks very interesting.

I also did a search on podcast.net and found a Japanese culture podcast which talks about learning the language, proverbs, people's experiences in the cities and so on. I love learning about Asia, and can read some Japanese, so I thought this might be good to further my study of the language. I added another Japanese language learning course just to compare them when I get home.

I think something like this would be great for libraries, but you'd have to make sure you had someone with a nice voice, and add a little bit of humor to keep it interesting. You could plan a course on a subject and end it with a big event at the library.

You could do, say, a 4 week program about one of the eras from American Girl, have readings from the books, talk about the time period and what children did for fun, perhaps even have music from that time period. Remind the patrons listening that they can come in and find not only American Girl books but books on that era too, and have a display in the library with the books and info on the podcast so patrons on this side can join the listeners. Then, at the end of the course, have an in library party with crafts from that time period, maybe some snacks and a prize given out to those who could answer a short quiz based on the podcast. This way you are reaching out to bring the patrons who come in and the ones who use the internet together in a fun activity.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

youtube and more! wheee~

Oh goodness I watch so much stuff on Youtube its crazy. I don't go for the blog like post much, but everything from strange advertisements to cartoons to funny skits...

Here are two videos featuring a hobby I have loved for years: Super Dollfie collecting. Japanorama is a British television show which goes over the strange, odd things that come out of Japan. (Such as hugely expensive customizable dolls haha)



Here is a news cast showing a "Doll's Party" which is a huge convention sponsered by Volks, the main company that creates this whole phenomena. The owner of the video has disabled embedding, so you'll have to pop over to see. It's in Japanese (but is subtitled in English)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkXODboqQms

and for something COMPLETELY different - The song Thriller as done by India:

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

web 2.0 awards

It was easy playing with all the nifty applications and seeing what was out there. Personally, I loved colorblender.com because it will help me with art. But I couldn't really see a use for it in libraries unless you were teaching a color theory class.

43 things could be useful if you used it as a sort of ongoing program. You could have a series of classes dealing with setting goals and then use the site to help people follow through on them.

Things like One Sentence could be used in creative writing classes.

Untitled


This is a test of the Zoho Writing System!

 

I think something like this would be great for libraries in different states or even countries to work on a project together. You could even assign different colors to participants so you can see who edited what when.  Say you have a large German population in your city and there is the mother of all Oktoberfests going on in Germany. You could have people there write, post pictures, etc to a document that you can print out and display for your patrons.

 

Or say you want to hold a program about exotic animals. You can ask your own staff to not just submit ideas but write their own paragraphs. That way everyone comes together as a team and you end up with a cute little book of weird animals for kids to look at. (My vote goes to the okapi!)

 

Saturday, November 3, 2007

wikiwikiwiki

I have always loved wikis, simply because they bring together a group of people to share knowledge and ideas.

I think a wiki for a library would be a good way to have conversations between the staff. Say you have a children's event about dragons. You could put something up to ask for ideas. Someone could add links to dragon mythology sites (which you could then tag on delicious for the kids to enjoy, too) Or someone might say "hmm, I saw a good medieval craft site for a dragon mask" and link that, so now you have a craft to do just by throwing out ideas and having people chime in.

You could set up a wiki for the Friends of the library to communicate and share ideas and organize book sales. Or the genealogy group could share their favorite links, strategies and ideas for searching online or off. You could have a local history page where you can post reminisces from older patrons about days gone by, with scans of old postcards and photos all shared by the community for today's youth and such to enjoy.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

week 7: a tagging we shall go!

Almost everyone I know uses delicious (I can never remember where the dots go) I have not had a chance to really check it out before now. I added a billion things to Bloglines and have a couple other web places I visit, but I think as a library something like this would be really useful. Imagine having an event on say, alligators, and using delicious to find links on gators or Florida wildlife so kids could look up information before and after. There is only so much you can pass on to kids in an hour or so, right? Something like this would allow them to browse many other resources. Or, for genealogy you could post a tag focusing on census records, local town pages that might have history, and then the patron could use delicious to search along as their whim, almost like a wiki, going from tag idea to idea.

I use tags on my personal blog and if I need to reference a post on something in the past, all I have to do is click the "crafts" tag or "dolls" tag. Tags are a great way to give access to a group of related posts or links without a lot of work organizing them.

With technocrati, you could customize a library blog with tags so people looking up "Florida libraries" or "libraries with youth programs" would find yours easily. If you had specialized blogs, like a "collections" blog listing new books, you could then direct people to that as well.

Wendy Schultz' article onLibrary 2.0 and beyond was interesting. Personally I don't think I would go for a virtual library, but with things like Second Life and such I can see how it would appeal to others. I think, however, there is just something in holding a book, the weight of it in your hands, the turning of pages as you lose yourself within, that a virtual world couldn't replicate. Perhaps in a Library 4.0 we would be equipped with fake "books" that plug into our USB port and get filled with whatever text we want.

John Riemer's article on bibliographic information was pretty interesting as well. I know our own electronic resources get under utilized, and I think it's just because patrons don't know about them. Sure, as college students we know the pros of researching online journals, but say a mother is looking for a medical study on her child's cold medicine. She wouldn't think to go to an online journal, I'm sure. Yet connecting all the catalogs and resources together would allow her to find that with appropiate tags. Of course, tagging everything would take a lot of manpower.

I highly disagree with Stephen's Librarian 2.0 assessment that patrons should be informed and involved in all decisions for the library. Getting their opinions and feelings for what they like in the collection, what they'd like to see improve or change, and feedback which allows us to form our own decisions is very important! However, the same thing that makes the library great - its diverse scope, mixing of communities and ideas -- would be a hinderance if patrons made decisions on how resources were used or funds allocated.

If you say have a hundred dollars and offer to buy a group of new books, one person might want the newest hardcovers in fiction. Another might suggest some older paperbacks to get the most of the money. Yet another patron might want to invest more in your special collection. Someone else might argue that more Spanish books are needed. They all have admirable and important passions, but having so many people like this could lead to confusion and perhaps even resentment if a patron feels another is being favored. Librarians and other employees stay in touch with what is popular in general, through their patrons as well as the marketplace. Who knows? Using that hundred to fund something out of left field might bring in a whole new patron set you didn't know existed!

This is why the "library 2.0" is important, you can reach those who don't usually make it down to the physical library and bring in new materials and programs in order to serve them too while keeping your current patron base.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

week six: PAZOOOW!

Oh dear, I seem to have fallen behind a little! Too much reading CNN and Yarn Harlot on Bloglines, I think! :)

Social networks have been around as long as the Net has. I remember Fidonet, where to even respond to someone you posted a message which then was sent to a hub computer and passed along. It could be days before the intended person even saw it, and then you had to wait for a reply. Nowadays, people can just jot down anything in a manner of seconds.

I have always kept in touch with my friends through a journal/blog site called Livejournal. In fact, they know the entire story of my triumphant journey into the library system. They cheered me on everytime I posted that I got an interview and went crazy when I got the job :) I have blathered on about how wonderful my library is and all the nice and sometimes quirky patrons we have. So, in a way my friends have been getting their own personal view of the library system.

I started with this story because I have not had much to do with my Myspace account. I started it because the co workers at my other job were all into it, but I have had my LJ for so long it seemed superflous to post the same thing twice in different journals.

MySpace is a lot more user friendly than LJ; even with a blogging program I still often hand type HTML, while Myspace uses a very nice posting interface. The one thing that turns me off MySpace is all the ads. It makes it a bit cumbersome to read.But the ease of reading and being able to reply easily makes MySpace a better tool for communities. You can easily see who is writing and reply to them quickly. It would be easy to list Youth Services activities or post music from a local band you know. You could even post audio files of a welcome message, or librarians reading parts of books. I think the audio and visual parts of Myspace make it a great tool for widespread communication.

By the way, Tom's sign is Libra.


Gaming: I am a huge gamer. My husband and I have all sorts of old and new systems, we play multiplayer games, puzzle games, all sorts of games. Gaming is very popular and pretty prevelant with today's kids. And not just the shoot im up or violent games. There's a lot of games that have minimal fighting and teach good storytelling and reading skills (a lot of the roleplaying games, such as Final Fantasy, have a lot of reading and often use strategic planning for skill systems, have defined good/evil storylines, have strong female roles and characters, often have a hero who is likeable and honorable and willing to do whats right for his friends, a few have had little mini games within a game that used math and planning skills, etc)

You have games like Monster Rancher, Pokemon and Nintendogs, where you have to raise and take care of a creature or pet. In some of these games, you have fighting, but it's not violent and usually the game's focus is on collecting or raising your pet.

A lot of games are multiplayer too. My husband and I sometimes play an online game call World of Warcraft, a fantasy multiplayer game played by roughly 4 million people in the US alone. It's actually a great way to network with people and meet people from all over the world. Sometimes if I am wondering about a game or movie I just log on to get everyone's opinions. :)

Moderation in all these games are important of course! But I think libraries starting to have gaming days is wonderful. Most games are multiplayer and can introduce even shy kids to new friends.

My score on the billards was a miserable 4. I'm not very good at billards, haha. The title of my blog post comes from the noise I imagined the stick making when it hit the ball. So I guess I got sidetracked making sound effects for the game and that's probably why the computer beat me to a pulp. ;)

Thursday, October 11, 2007

small bloglines update

I am so glad I looked into Bloglines. I used to keep a bunch of favorite sites saved but it was always so much trouble to keep track of them. Now I can subscribe to a bunch of nice things, like knitting and library blogs, and still keep up on them. Even better, I can scan headlines like CNN or Time to see if I am interested in the article.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Image Generators

These things are always floating around my friends' blogs.
My Doll

The pony one did not work so I edited it for another one. I realized the code was for forums use and not in html for a blog, whoops!

LibraryThing: Oh wow, this is something I may just have been searching for. I was just discussing with my husband the need for something to help us keep track of our books at home (he was seriously trying to convince me to label each book in LOC call numbers - keep in mind at last estimate we had at least a couple thousand titles...) However, when we moved into our apartment together we didn't organize them very well, so I'm definitely going to use Librarything once I sit down to do the big rehaul. :)

I added some of the more recent books I've pulled off the shelves.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/noisycat

Rollyo: I usually only use Google for finding things and it works for me really quickly, but I can see for research reasons how Rollyo can be a great help. I'll have to fiddle with it a bit to see how I can use it.

RSS

I have used RSS very briefly in the past. A few years ago, not many sites were using it and there certainly wasn't anything like bloglines, where you could subscribe to non RSS blogs, photos and more. So, I never really saw a use for it.

This past year, however, I have been trying to keep updated on current events as well as some blogs and it is a bit of a pain to check everything only to see nothing earth shattering has occured. So it's great to see how Bloglines works! I heard about it while watching the "20 Technologies in 50 minutes" presentation on Dynix's site. I'm so glad I finally signed up and got some stuff subscribed. Right now all I have is news sites like CNN and Time, but I have a big list of library and book related blogs at home so I'm going to enter those as soon as I can. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them.

I might even make Bloglines my default homepage, it seems so useful to keep updated, I'm glad I gave it another try!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

The call numbers of DOOM!!


The call numbers of DOOM!!
Originally uploaded by jsavino

I have always loved the Dewey system. Something about it just tickles me in a weird book geek sort of way. I can still tell you the number of my favorite book as a child that I checked out every time I went (398.2454 Hath)

Even so, it boggles my mind that there are sub categories for everything.

Here, we have the quiet 236.9, tucked away with only a few books to its name. Yet, as it happens, this is the call number for books regarding the apocalypse. I took this picture because while shelving I actually stopped and was amazed by this. It never occurred to me anyone would need to denote a number just for apocalyptic books.

Of course, these refer to religious end of the world scenarios, Four Horseman and the like. I'm sure other theories such as the earth falling into the sun, the ice caps drowning us all, or invasion by robotic kittens are under different numbers.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

not quite so ready flickr post

http://flickr.com/photos/jsavino/1448668047/

I took my photo and just have to upload it. To tide you over, here is, as promised, a trading card of my cat, Gidget, after whom this blog is named. :)

Monday, September 24, 2007

Preemptive Flickr post GO!

I'm going to be discussing Flickr and all its glory later this week so I can bring in my own camera to take a picture of something in my branch. I need to find something interesting and out of the ordinary to photograph. The reason I have to do it at home is, I already have a Flickr account...I just...er...can't remember my password. Right now it is a depository of my wedding pictures and my yarn projects.

Playing with the little mini tools/programs linked in this week is already fun. I do art as a hobby and the color picker which offers all sorts of textures and ideas promises to use up about five hours of my time when I get home. It's a bit like Wikipedia where you look for something and 300 clicks later you are still entranced by something not even slightly related.
"Oh, I feel like a nice teal today." *click*
"Ohhh...pebbles..." *click*
"Oh hay look the same photographer has a nifty red brocade closeup..." *click*
"Ohhhh... now I should go back to the color wheel and click red..." *clickclickclick*

About this time I realised I should grab a crowbar to pry my eyes off the screen and see what other links there were on the PTL blog. :)

So I will update soon once I get my Flickr password, a photo, and probably a trading card of my cat. ;)

Monday, September 17, 2007

7.5 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

Oh boy! Here I am, blogging away with gusto for my learning adventure! I suppose my enthusiasm would be seen as being rather cheesy, but I can't help it, I really like these sort of activities.

Last week we were asked to review a presentation on the seven (and a half) habits of highly successful lifelong learners. It was rather interesting and I had to think for some time before I could decide which ones I had trouble with and which ones come naturally to me.

Since it's so much easier to write about what I like rather than delve into my weaknesses (or challenges, as the presentation would have me believe) I will state that habit number 7.5 - Play! - is of course probably the easiest for anyone. Who doesn't like to have fun? I admit, I feel a little strange taking time at work to post...I think "Maybe I should do this on my own time, at home." But I have to remember that this is all to help me grow as a part of this library, plus it doesn't take that long. :)

The other habit I feel I do well is 6. Using technology to my advantage. I've been a computer nut since I was a kid, so stuff like blogging, Youtube, Myspace etc are familiar to me.

I also realized that I do 1. Begin with the end in mind. I used to be rather bad at setting goals, but when I put some thought into it I saw that over the past couple years I've become really good about setting a goal and working towards it. So even the first week I am seeing new things about myself!

Okay, now thinking about what I need to improve on was easy, though not as exciting. I seriously need help with 4. Having confidence. I've worked around books for so long, but since I am relatively new I get shy and second guess myself here. It's really weird going from one job where I am the "go to" person, to having to ask dumb questions like "where do we keep the phonebooks?"But with time I know I'll gain more knowledge and be able to help out more!

Since I get quiet and flustered, I think I'd also have to work on 7. Teach and mentor others. I always get tongue tied and end up repeating the same thing fifty times, I really don't know how anyone understands what I'm trying to teach them! They catch on somehow (thank goodness) but my tendency to ramble and worry about my message getting across is tripping me up. So I will work on organizing my thoughts before speaking, and try to understand that if someone asks me for help, or someone asks me to help someone else, that they have the confidence in me to do right, so I should too!