Thursday, February 19, 2009
Monday, March 24, 2008
And in conclusion...
We have learned so many things since this class started, and at such a fast pace, haven't we? I had to go back and read my own Blog postings just to remember all I learned.
Back at the beginning, we created a blog. Since we had to use it all the time to report on what we were learning, I now feel really comfortable with blogging-- I can say with confidence that I know I will continue to use it.
Next came RSS feeds. My initial reaction was that I would probably drop my Bloglines account after this class was finished. But guess what? After checking Bloglines routinely for 3 months, I have had lots of interesting discoveries from them. I think the trick is not to overload. I dropped several after realizing that I was never getting any "WOW" moments from them (you know-- the lightbulb above my head...) So Bloglines stays for the time being.
I like Flickr (except for the spelling of it). But I didn't use it enough in this class to make it be something that I can do effortlessly. It will stay on the back burner for now, at least until I get a digital camera. (My kids and husband all have digitals, so I just let them do all the picture-taking in the family.)
Podcasts. I thought they were okay at the time we studied them, probably not something I'd use. But after accidentally running into podcasts on other sites and seeing how they were used, and having my sister sending me a link to a very inspiring TED talk podcast, I'm finding myself more and more impressed. Podcasts are cool.
YouTube. My kids are really into this. I hear one yelling to the other, "Hey come look at this," followed by hoots of laughter. Unlike podcasts, I haven't really run into anything on YouTube that "feeds my brain." Perhaps it's there, and I just didn't look hard enough, but this one's going by the wayside for now.
The tagging I liked a lot, but now that I am thinking back on it, I don't think I really grasped the "social bookmarking" aspect of it. I guess that's where you tagged something and found out that 678 other people had tagged it too, and you got to see what tags they used. I liked my own tags just fine, I guess.
Wikis. I can really see the value in them for collaborative projects, but there are a lot of people out there who get their kicks putting their sicko marks on otherwise good stuff. Take the "Definition of a Librarian" page that I recommended in one of my posts. I went back to that wiki myself about a week after my first visit there, and found some pretty crude content had been added. I have a friend who has many wiki entries out there in wiki land. He monitors them daily for changes, and spends a lot of time repairing the damage on a routine basis. He finds it pretty frustrating.
Incidentally, he is the one who is heading up the National Historic Landmark Wiki. Those of us who are part of that project have to log on with a password in order to add content or make changes.
I would definitely be interested in future learning opportunities in this format. If I were to do anything differently, it might be to provide classes in shorter bursts. Say a three-week course just on using Flickr, Podcasts, and YouTube, for example. One extra week at the end for those who fell behind for one reason or another. I know that I got overwhelmed at a point in the middle of the class, and it took some effort to pick it up and get going again.
And on a final note, thank you so much to Lauren, Maggie, Suzanne, and Tracy. This was a huge undertaking for you all, and I want you to know that it was very much appreciated.
Irene Scheidecker, Butte Public Library
Back at the beginning, we created a blog. Since we had to use it all the time to report on what we were learning, I now feel really comfortable with blogging-- I can say with confidence that I know I will continue to use it.
Next came RSS feeds. My initial reaction was that I would probably drop my Bloglines account after this class was finished. But guess what? After checking Bloglines routinely for 3 months, I have had lots of interesting discoveries from them. I think the trick is not to overload. I dropped several after realizing that I was never getting any "WOW" moments from them (you know-- the lightbulb above my head...) So Bloglines stays for the time being.
I like Flickr (except for the spelling of it). But I didn't use it enough in this class to make it be something that I can do effortlessly. It will stay on the back burner for now, at least until I get a digital camera. (My kids and husband all have digitals, so I just let them do all the picture-taking in the family.)
Podcasts. I thought they were okay at the time we studied them, probably not something I'd use. But after accidentally running into podcasts on other sites and seeing how they were used, and having my sister sending me a link to a very inspiring TED talk podcast, I'm finding myself more and more impressed. Podcasts are cool.
YouTube. My kids are really into this. I hear one yelling to the other, "Hey come look at this," followed by hoots of laughter. Unlike podcasts, I haven't really run into anything on YouTube that "feeds my brain." Perhaps it's there, and I just didn't look hard enough, but this one's going by the wayside for now.
The tagging I liked a lot, but now that I am thinking back on it, I don't think I really grasped the "social bookmarking" aspect of it. I guess that's where you tagged something and found out that 678 other people had tagged it too, and you got to see what tags they used. I liked my own tags just fine, I guess.
Wikis. I can really see the value in them for collaborative projects, but there are a lot of people out there who get their kicks putting their sicko marks on otherwise good stuff. Take the "Definition of a Librarian" page that I recommended in one of my posts. I went back to that wiki myself about a week after my first visit there, and found some pretty crude content had been added. I have a friend who has many wiki entries out there in wiki land. He monitors them daily for changes, and spends a lot of time repairing the damage on a routine basis. He finds it pretty frustrating.
Incidentally, he is the one who is heading up the National Historic Landmark Wiki. Those of us who are part of that project have to log on with a password in order to add content or make changes.
I would definitely be interested in future learning opportunities in this format. If I were to do anything differently, it might be to provide classes in shorter bursts. Say a three-week course just on using Flickr, Podcasts, and YouTube, for example. One extra week at the end for those who fell behind for one reason or another. I know that I got overwhelmed at a point in the middle of the class, and it took some effort to pick it up and get going again.
And on a final note, thank you so much to Lauren, Maggie, Suzanne, and Tracy. This was a huge undertaking for you all, and I want you to know that it was very much appreciated.
Irene Scheidecker, Butte Public Library
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Wikis...wicked!
Well, there I was, just reading the Lesson 9 page of our Library Challenge. Suddenly, an interesting link caught my eye, so I clicked, and that led to more clickable links, and two hours later I have read so much interesting stuff my head is spinning. If this were a labyrinth and I had to find my way back by retracing my steps, I would be lost forever. (Luckily, I can find the place from which I started by going back to my "Bookmarks," but I might never see again some of the places I passed along the way.)
I was lost the longest in the LIS (Library and Information Service) wiki. There was a list of Articles of Interest, and also a list of Areas for Development. I saw things in both lists that caught my eye, so of course I had to click and read. I read the discussions about cell phones in libraries (so that I could find out that there is no definitive answer) and about laptops for patron check-out (although this is primarily being done in academic and not public libraries).
Some of the categories in Areas for Development were weblogs, digitization, Library 2.0, and RFID (which I now know what is). I followed the links to all of these, read the main wiki pages, looked at the discussion pages, clicked on other links contained within. I found one weblog I liked so much I added it to my RSS feeds, something I haven't done since I added my first feeds the week we studied about it (and luckily I could still remember how to do this from Lesson 3).
So, here is the link to the Library Computer Guy's blog, and although he's blogging from Oklahoma, I think some of his observations of working in a public library are universal. http://librarycomputerguy.wordpress.com/
I also ran into this podcast on his blog, which thanks to Lesson 6 I knew how to share with you. (I didn't know it was going to run for nearly 20 minutes when I first clicked on it, but I found the speaker so interesting that I listened to all of it.)
On a final note about wikis, I am a small contributor to a wiki project that started here in Butte, Montana. The goal of the project is to document every property in the National Historic Landmark District of Butte-Anaconda (over 6000 individual properties). We do historical research, mostly at the Archives, about the buildings, original owners, historical uses, architects, etc. We add all this content along with photos or whatever else. In the hopeful end result, a user will be able to look at a map of the historic district, click on any building, and up would pop a photo/ basic info page. From there one could click on additional links to go into as much (or as little) detail as one wished. I think it will be a very cool thing.
I was lost the longest in the LIS (Library and Information Service) wiki. There was a list of Articles of Interest, and also a list of Areas for Development. I saw things in both lists that caught my eye, so of course I had to click and read. I read the discussions about cell phones in libraries (so that I could find out that there is no definitive answer) and about laptops for patron check-out (although this is primarily being done in academic and not public libraries).
Some of the categories in Areas for Development were weblogs, digitization, Library 2.0, and RFID (which I now know what is). I followed the links to all of these, read the main wiki pages, looked at the discussion pages, clicked on other links contained within. I found one weblog I liked so much I added it to my RSS feeds, something I haven't done since I added my first feeds the week we studied about it (and luckily I could still remember how to do this from Lesson 3).
So, here is the link to the Library Computer Guy's blog, and although he's blogging from Oklahoma, I think some of his observations of working in a public library are universal. http://librarycomputerguy.wordpress.com/
I also ran into this podcast on his blog, which thanks to Lesson 6 I knew how to share with you. (I didn't know it was going to run for nearly 20 minutes when I first clicked on it, but I found the speaker so interesting that I listened to all of it.)
The speaker, Howard Rheingold, talks about the coming world of collaboration, participatory media and collective action — and how Wikipedia is really an outgrowth of our natural human instinct to work as a group. As he points out, humans have been banding together to work collectively since our days of hunting mastodons.
On a final note about wikis, I am a small contributor to a wiki project that started here in Butte, Montana. The goal of the project is to document every property in the National Historic Landmark District of Butte-Anaconda (over 6000 individual properties). We do historical research, mostly at the Archives, about the buildings, original owners, historical uses, architects, etc. We add all this content along with photos or whatever else. In the hopeful end result, a user will be able to look at a map of the historic district, click on any building, and up would pop a photo/ basic info page. From there one could click on additional links to go into as much (or as little) detail as one wished. I think it will be a very cool thing.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Experiments in Tagging
There are times in my life that I just have TOO MUCH going on, and that has been the case for the past couple weeks.
I actually did do the tagging assignment before I disappeared from my blog. Since we are putting a new focus on the Young Adult section of our library, I went out "surfing" for ideas on the Internet. I have always been pretty good about organizing my bookmarks. For example, in the past I would have created a favorites folder called "Young Adult" and inside of it there would have been other folders called, for example, "Booklists" and "Cool Webpages" and "Program Ideas."
But tagging takes that process one step better, as in the case when I found a library YA webpage with a really cool look to it, and it had links to excellent Young Adult booklists, and it listed the programs for teens that the library would be doing for that month. Tags: teens programming booklists WebpageDesign.
The one tricky thing about tagging is to remember your previous tag labels, so that you don't label something "teens" one time and "YoungAdults" the next. (You notice I also figured out the other tricky thing about tagging-- if you want to give something a two-word tag, you have to join the words so that you don't get something tagged with both "young" and "adults," for example.)
By the way, if anyone from Great Falls ever reads my blog, I loved your teen webpage!
I actually did do the tagging assignment before I disappeared from my blog. Since we are putting a new focus on the Young Adult section of our library, I went out "surfing" for ideas on the Internet. I have always been pretty good about organizing my bookmarks. For example, in the past I would have created a favorites folder called "Young Adult" and inside of it there would have been other folders called, for example, "Booklists" and "Cool Webpages" and "Program Ideas."
But tagging takes that process one step better, as in the case when I found a library YA webpage with a really cool look to it, and it had links to excellent Young Adult booklists, and it listed the programs for teens that the library would be doing for that month. Tags: teens programming booklists WebpageDesign.
The one tricky thing about tagging is to remember your previous tag labels, so that you don't label something "teens" one time and "YoungAdults" the next. (You notice I also figured out the other tricky thing about tagging-- if you want to give something a two-word tag, you have to join the words so that you don't get something tagged with both "young" and "adults," for example.)
By the way, if anyone from Great Falls ever reads my blog, I loved your teen webpage!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Cassie at DublinBridge via webcam
If you ever get the chance to travel, this is a fun thing to do for the family back home. Find out where the webcams are located in the places you will visit, study the webcam's view so that you will know the best place to stand when you get there. Then you choose a time that is convenient both for you and for the folks at home, let them know to log on and they can see you (although somewhat small) in person.
This photo sets the scene. No one is there yet.
DublinBridge2
DublinBridge2, originally uploaded by imscheid.
My daughter Cassie is currently with a college tour in Ireland, and let us know to log on to ireland.com this morning at 8 AM (middle of the afternoon there). In this shot her group of about 6 has arrived at the location, but since it's before the designated time, no one is looking at the webcam yet. Cassie had the good sense to wear something bright-colored -- an aqua blue jacket.
DublinBridge3
DublinBridge3, originally uploaded by imscheid.
There's Cassie, right at the bridge's corner, with a bright bit of sunlight shining on her.
The webcam refreshed once a minute, so every time it refreshed we saved the new view in a folder on our computer, which I later uploaded to Flickr. Although I'm sure most of you readers have already seen enough, I'm going to keep showing the views until the group finally departs about ten minutes after the hour. This is so that Cassie and friends can go to an Internet cafe in Dublin tomorrow, log onto my blog and see themselves (and laugh).
DublinBridge4
DublinBridge4, originally uploaded by imscheid.
If you are tired of looking at Cassie and friends, check out the Irish traffic in the background.
DublinBridge8
DublinBridge8, originally uploaded by imscheid.
The pedestrian light must have just changed. Sudden big crowd on the bridge. Who's the little red jacket person near Cassie?
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