Whew! -The 23rd thing (for now)

I have mixed feelings about this "end of the beginning". One is relief at not having another thing to do among all the "happened over the weekend" stuff when I get to work on Monday. One is a let-down feeling that I'm sure will surface next week because part of me looked forward to the new challenges this training brought.

My favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey: Easy and honest answer! Hands down favorite was Play Week. I found the Web 2.0 Awards interesting. Both Bloglines and del.icio.us are helpful. It was great to find an RSS reader that was web-based and great to have Favorites I can access from any computer.
How this program assisted or affected my lifelong learning goals: It's enhanced my lifelong learning and made me stretch myself a bit more. In fact, I should be 10 feet tall by now.
Take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised me: I kinda scoffed at the idea of blogs but I've been won over. I can see some practical uses beyond online journaling and cyber-exhibitionism. I'm hoping that I can get an ILL Informational blog approved by the higher ups that would answer the FAQs not covered by the policy FAQs. The beta version is at: http://jplinterlibraryloan.blogspot.com/ .

What can be done differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept:

• I would suggest either doing a self-paced tutorial-- kind of like the old LAP (Learning Assisted Program) packs ca 1970's--instead of the weekly releases. Some of the weeks seemed more labor intensive than others. While I knew to peek at PLCMC's program to see what was coming up, I knew I couldn't count on our lessons being the same as PLCMC's -- though they often were. It would have been great to have been able to pace myself and be able to fit the lessons in with my workload a bit better. Half my staff dropped out because they couldn't fit the lessons in with their workloads.
• I -and many of my colleagues- got the impression that this supposed to be geared toward newbies. There were a lot of times that I stumbled upon what I was supposed to do, rather than had it spelled out for me. Instructions needed to me more spelled out. My staff and I coached each other through this and nlisted the help of other participants from time to time.
• Speaking of which- having coaches on the sidelines help. We did have the online help offered during specific time periods in the later weeks but on-demand coaching would have been great. Having them a bit earlier would have been more helpful. Now that a group of us has been through this, we may be the source of a cadre of coaches for the next group.
• The program needs to be constantly updated and tweaked. It definitely is not a "copy and run" training. At times- links failed to link or I found myself at a site with a different name. When you're just learning, this can be unsettling.
• Having it come at the end of the FY as it did provided less of an incentive to follow through. My staff and I had already completed our training requirements so dropping out of this training didn't have any great consequences for them-- apart from missing out on the MP3 player. The MP3 player- hint, hint, hint.

If offered another discovery program like this in the future, would I again chose to participate: Yes. In fact there are opportunities out there in Library 2.0-land which I'll look at later after a short break:
http://explorediscoverplay.blogspot.com/
http://www.librarybytes.com/
No doubt others have already done this, but why not have a version of this for our library users (albeit without the MP3 prize) accessible from the JPL website?

Thanks for this opportunity. All in all, it was a great experience.

MP3 Playa?--#22 Audiobooks

This and being able to download videos to a portable device would be what I would like. (I think we've already established in my last post that my cousin is to remain in the dark about this? Agreed?) Did I locate a title that I might want to try out and download once I have my player? Why, yes, I did. There was a collection of Twilight Zone radio dramas featured. Way kewl. When I was commuting to college, I would tune in to this show on the drive back at night over mostly unlit country roads. Very spooky- just the setting for my very own TZ episode. The collection is trying to load onto Overdrive right now and is taking its own sweet time, I might add.

I don't suppose that I can get that MP3 player soon- like before this current storm (on track to visit Jacksonville) hits?

Revenge of the POD People- #21-POD-CASTS

My dear cousin the MAC-maniac who is semi-retired at the moment has tried for many long years to convert me to Apple-ism. His latest thing is to get me to get an iPod and download the Pod-casts he recommends. I'm still waiting for the prices to come down but part of me resists having one more thing to do and part of me is resisting his nagging just because it is nagging. I have to have a compelling reason to lay out the expenditure and time. It would be a bit different if he were giving me one-- of course.

Still- I can see some reasons to shell out the dough. A friend of mine plans to buy an iPod and load it with books and videos so she can carry with her on her trip to Serbia and Ukraine so she won't be bored during the long plane ride. That I can agree with. With airlines laying on the excess baggage charges, it would be nice to have lighter carry-ons. So (don't tell my cousin), I'm open to the possibilities - if I could afford the iPod with the bigger screen for video viewing, that is!

I added the RSS feed for North Suburban Library System director Sarah Long's Longshots podcasts to my Bloglines account. I found this via Media-fly beta which is the search engine connected to Podnova. I was glad NOT to have to load one more piece of software to my poor overworked PC. Did I find anything useful here? Well....the podcast froze up halfway through the Podcast on the uses of podcasting. Nice bit of irony, that. It was interesting up to the point it stopped. The voice quality wasn't good since it was a recorded phone conversation. I can see podcasting readings of stories for children, downloading of podcasted books for teens and adults, downloading recordings of lectures and talks, downloading episodes of TV shows for playback whenever and wherever you wish. But---shhhhhh--- don't let my cousin know I'm weakening!

Into the Home Stretch- Lesson #20: You-Tubing

I tried - I really tried to find a good example of a "How to make an ILL request" video but the ones I found were either not close enough to what we do or were really ---ummm----BORING.
So- I went with something halfway entertaining- a library cat. This one also had the advantage of having some suspense. How many of the books would stay on the shelves?



Not exactly what you had in mind???
Oh, all right!
Presenting the most entertaining mash-up video EVER on the subject of copyright.
Really!
Trust me!
How many of these cartoons can you name?


All together now! What the heck is copyright law?

And now- the questions and answers:

What did you like or dislike about the site and why did you choose the video that you did? Likes:There's a lot here to see and choose from. There's little if no regulation so anyone can post. Dislikes:There's really no quality control and some of the videos are hard to make out. You have gems like the copyight video and some really very poorly done videos. I expect this to be the site that gets regulated like Napster did. I chose the videos I did because they were library-related. Can you see any features or components of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites? Yes- I mentioned that I saw some library instructional videos that could be marketed as insomnia cures.On the other hand, if you make an enteratining instructional video- such as this Disney mash-up- people can laugh as they learn and they'll come back to see what else you have to offer.

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

And the pertinent questions (and answers) are:
I chose Pandora Radio.
Submitted for your approval. Say- you were up late watching the Olympics or your neighbor - fresh from her viewing of Mama Mia!- plays all her ABBA albums at mega-decibel levels until the wee-wee hours of the morning. You're trying to stay awake and multiple cups of coffee aren't doing the trick. You know that a certain songs- like Morning Dance by Spiro Gyra- energize you. You wonder if there are other songs out there that will have the same effect. Pandora can help you find the songs you need to hear right now
What did you like or dislike about the tool?What were the site’s useful features? . I really like that Pandora can locate other artists similar to the artists I like and other tunes similar to a song I like. I like that Pandora asks for my input to make sure it's getting me what I want- a thumbs up or thumbs down. When I've used this site in the past, there have been times that Pandora is having a bad day and completely missed the mark. At times like those, I've wished that there was something stronger than a thumbs down. You not only hear the similar tunes, you see what albums they appear on. One drawback would be that on a day like today where -according to ITD- the web provided by JPL and the City of Jacksonville is at 80%+ capacity; music files get interrupted because there's so much demand on resources. During the busy times, you get chopped up versions of songs which really takes the joy out of the enjoyment for me. Can't complain too much; it IS free, after all.
Could you see any applications for its use in a library setting? Not directly. I can see that it might be a source for music collection development a sort of music version of the Readers' Advisory "If you like" lists. To me, this is more of a personal use site than a social networking site but there is a social networking side to it.

Zoho-mania!--#18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

Whoa! That was so easy! The only things I found that I disliked about Zoho are:

• They didn't feature the font that I usually use. You know- the City of Jacksonville approved font Century Gothic. And they didn't allow odd sizes of the font- like 11.
• It had a very busy toolbar array.

Other than that, getting started with it was pretty intuitive. I didn't give Zoho Writer too many challenges when I was composing my blog entry on it. Everything transferred over and the fact that the font (Tahoma) doesn't exist in Blogger.com-land fazed neither Zoho or Blogger.

In some ways- it was easier composing the blog entry in Zoho and then transferring it over to Blogger.

WOW!!! Olympic Opening Moments - a Zoho Exercise

I was really impressed by the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremonies last Friday night (8/8/08). I'm still trying to figure out how they were able to:

• make the big torch (known at other Olympics as the Olympic cauldron) appear out of nowhere.
  
• make the people-powered movable type work so well
  
• and wondering what I missed that occurred during the commercials.
  

I'm hoping that someone does a DVD of the entire show.

The Uninivited- Crashing the Sandbox Party- Test #17

So..... I dutifully attempted to do the exercise for Playing Around with PBWiki only to find out that I needed an invitation to the JPL Learning 2.0 Sandbox. It would not let me in. I did not have an invitation and did not know the secret word. So, I sent out some SOSes. And NO ONE ANSWERED ME! sniff! No one told me that it was exclusive invitation! HA! We'll just see about that!

So- I guessed it. And I got in there and played around in the sandbox. Don't worry. I raked the sand so it's not that obvious that I was there.

Wiki Tiki Tavi- # 16 So what's in a wiki?

Assignment: What did you find interesting? What types of applications within libraries might work well with a wiki?
I work with and have been published in a Resource Sharing Wiki: shareill. It's a great tool for ILL staff to use and saves a lot of searching through the Internet for information we need. It was also very easy to add information and correct information. The shareill wiki does make it clear, though: "if you aren't open to what you write being changed around, don't post here."

I like the way wikis have been used by other libraries in this exercise. It would be easier if JPL's recommended websites could be in a wiki that's accessible by JPL librarians as in the SJCPL Subject Guides. It would speed up correcting defunct websites. I also like the way other libraries used the wiki as a way to get customer input and build community oriented sites. I was puzzled by the Bull Run Public Library site. It's more of a Twitter-type site with the short bits of information they give. I was concerned about the ads showing up in some of the wikis.

So- I can see how libraries could use wikis in two different ways- for building community and support through customer participation and for making it easier for staff to update information for recommended websites while exercising some professional and local control over the content. But as the shareill founders said- you can't count on what you place in the wiki being unchanged. Librarians pride themselves as trying to provide accurate verifiable information and that's not always a given in a wiki set-up.