Completion!

This has been a great series of exercises. They've been very useful in my work with customers here at Sno-Isle and in my career development. I got a late start because I was scheduled for a medical leave right at the launch of the project. When I got back to work, I was already behind. Because of that, I can't say I looked forward to every moment of the project, but it has been worthwhile.

One of the hardest parts of the project for me was just getting to publish my blog initially. When I finally got past the Google filters, it worked OK. I'm glad to know that it really isn't difficult to launch a blog, and I think I might use one for some of the volunteer work I do. Other favorite discoveries: Pandora and streaming music, streaming video, and Google Earth. I told several friends about these. I thought that using Flickr was great fun, but I don't think I'm likely to post to it myself. Of course I had heard of delicious before but wasn't really convinced of its value. I do plan to use it outside of these exercises, and I think it will be helpful both personally and professionally. I had some difficulty with the OverDrive downloads, so now I can feel our customers' pain, and, I hope, help them troubleshoot to make it work for them.

Yes, I would choose to participate in Sno-Isle's next technology initiative--I want to be ready for Web 3.0, if it's not already here! Thanks for this opportunity to learn and grow.

Podcasting

I listened to podcasts recommended through Learn Out Loud, including career advice from Seth Godin and Liz Cornish. I thought these were very professionally presented and useful. I also listened to an OPAL (Online Programming for Libraries) podcast featuring Meredith Farkas. The OPAL podcasts were recommended by a fellow Sno-Isle staff member. I listened to several of Nancy Keane's "Booktalks Quick and Simple" and found that her model of very brief talks inspired me to offer more talks of my own. Finally, I listened to some of the Killer Innovation podcasts by Phil McKinney. I believe that listening to podcasts is one way to promote my own lifelong learning goals, and I would recommend podcast subscriptions to some of our more tech-savvy customers as well.

Sno-Isle is already offering podcasts to our customers. An example is the children's stories recorded by staff and available through the kids' website. I'm sure there would be an audience for podcasting some of our adult programming too--book discussion groups, author appearances, practical seminars on gardening, children's nutrition, home organization, and similar topics. Brief booktalks similar to the ones presented by Nancy Keane would also fill a great niche in our readers' advisory services. I'm glad I could explore this area and will look for additional ways to apply podcasts to my work life.

Fake magazine covers and more!

I looked over the online image generators unit, and I can see lots of potential for fun. Some of our customers, I'm sure, would enjoy using the scrapbook page generators, and the fake magazine covers could also bring hours of amusement. I plan to create a special issue of "Woof" for a pet lover I know, and I think I might use "Drama Queen" for some acquaintances as well. These are great resources to know about. Thanks!

OverDrive downloading for beginners

Well, I've been working on this assignment off and on for several days. It's been quite frustrating, and I feel that it's taken way too long. I hope that our customers have an easier time when they're trying to download to their home computers or portable devices.

When I began browsing the list of available titles, I was interested to see that the title"Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" was available in this format. I had seen the book at Costco and thought it might be fun to read, but at Sno-Isle there were over 150 holds for the book itself. No one, however, was waiting for the downloadable version, and I thought I could listen to it right away. I read through copious instructions and managed to download the player and check out the item, but then it vanished. It showed that it was checked out, but I couldn't find it anywhere on my computer, and of course I can't "return" it early and try again. Meanwhile, someone else has placed a hold on it, but when I tried to put a hold, it wouldn't allow me to because it's already checked out! I tried checking out two Beverly Cleary books but they disappeared too.

Finally, with the help of a co-worker, I was able to download a couple of titles, and I listened to selections before writing this post. I don't have an MP3 or other portable audio device, so if I want to listen, it means sitting at the computer. I think it's great that we have more than 500 MP3 books available, and I'm considering getting my own player. And just today I spoke with a customer who wanted to download "The Last Lecture." After completing this assignment, I was much better able to show her how to find the item in the digital media section of our catalog and help her place a hold. This is a valuable service, but some of our less tech-savvy customers may have difficulty with it...

Delicious Internet sites

Well, I explored del.icio.us a bit and created an account. At first I looked at popular tags and felt a bit overwhelmed because a lot of them seemed to be for programmers and web designers, and I was in over my head. (One was Top 10 YouTube Hacks.) I was gratified when I found "Cliff Notes on delicious--making it useful," which says that the interface is geeky and has even baffled many experienced computer users. Oh yes, now that you mention it, I was finding it difficult to navigate. But I added about 10 bookmarks, mostly related to the 2.0 project. Of those I chose, it was interesting to see which ones were bookmarked by the most other people--for example, Pandora Radio. Library Journal's Movers and Shakers article and People StyleWatch both had 17 other users at the time I created my bookmarks to them. It might be interesting to explore the bookmarks of those people and see if there are common intersections.

I printed out a bunch of articles from the S-I 2.0 syllabus and hope to read them soon. Yes, I can see how using delicious would provide research assistance, though I don't think it will ever take the place of databases. It is a fairly easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere. I think I will use this in my work/personal life, though I also thought that about RSS feeds and haven't accessed them again since I completed my blog post for that unit... Still, I remain optimistic.

Wiki Wiki Fun

The subject guides in the St. Joseph County PL system are interesting and innovative. I explored the travel, craft, and tax guides for this assignment. I liked how they provide links to their online catalog and local stores. And I found a book I wanted to check out from their list, so their guides must serve their local customers well too. The tax guide had some useful info; even more helpful would have been lists of places where people can get (free) tax help, if they offer such services in their area. (Now of course I realize that it's not tax season now, so perhaps that's why there aren't any of these listings.)

I also looked at the ALA annual meeting wiki and read some of the entries listed there. The ground rules for the ALA wiki seem reasonable: No content unrelated to Annual Conference and Washington DC, no defamatory remarks, no ads or spam, no politics, etc. Some kind of moderator must be necessary to enforce these rules, and it makes sense to establish some similar rules, especially for a wiki with a large membership such as ALA.

I could see using wikis to create subject guides, or for book discussion groups. It might also be useful to try the next time I'm a participant in a meeting with more than two or three people. This was a good learning opportunity, and I hope to apply it soon.

Streaming Video

What a lot of cool stuff to explore! I was of course already familiar with YouTube, but I had not used hulu or fancast before. On YouTube, I looked at some of the ways libraries are promoting themselves, and there's a lot of innovation there. I'm sure that some of these videos will help libraries reach a wider audience than they might otherwise have been able to reach. I looked briefly at a couple of videos on sewing from the authors of a website called threadbangers.com. It was certainly not your mother's sewing lesson. They might entice some young people to try sewing for the first time. And, because I had a customer request on the topic this week, I looked for videos on parallel parking and found many relevant clips.

I looked at some brief clips on hulu and later watched an episode of "Monk" on Fancast. I was very impressed with the video quality. Everything seemed to go smoothly, with very few interruptions or glitches. And with the episode of Monk that I watched, there were a few brief commercials, but nothing terribly intrusive. I notice that at the time of this posting, we have 72 people waiting for Monk Season Six. I could see recommending to customers that they try using fancast if they need a fix of Monk (or other available programs) before they can get the DVDs from the library.

I plan to use all three of these sites at home--there's a lot that interests me. And I can recommend the sites to library customers, especially those who have home computers. For long movies, it wouldn't work well to watch them at the library because of our time limits, but for material that's less than an hour in length, it should still work OK. And now we have headphones to lend to customers. So I think these are really useful sites to know about. This was my favorite assignment yet!