Thing 24: Zamzar the File Converter

Who thinks up the names for these sites?
The 24th thing is Zamzar - Helene Blower's new best friend according to her 2007 Learning 2.1 posting. The website answers the not-so age-old question: "Have you ever wanted to convert files without the need to download software?" with a way to convert a file into another format.
The Discovery Exercise suggests that we convert a Word document into a pdf file, something I've only been able to do with the aid of the elderly but stalwart scanner in ZZ.
Hmmmmm...... How long does this take? It's only converting one measly sentence. Well- this seems to be a case of check your e-mail tomorrow for an answer and the magic .pdf.
What Helene says she really likes it for is to convert YouTube videos to .mpg files so you can use them in a PowerPoint presentation when you don't have ready (or reliable) access to the Internet. I always wondered how that could be done. That I would find useful.
As far as recommending this to customers- well- they may be disappointed. This is not (Zamzar! It was ONE sentence! What's the deal here?) for the impatient or on-demand user.
Not that I know anyone like that.

LATER- Caveat- it will take a few hours for the file to be converted and sent to you- at least that's how long it took for my sentence-long document to get to me. There are advanced features on Zamzar that you can take advantage of if you are willing to pay for them.

My MP3 and Me

Finally, finally, finally- I got my MP3 player on October 16th. And- finally, finally, finally- I was able to download audiobooks from Overdrive. This is what I've learned in the process:

• Some MP3 player manufacturers assume that you already know how to use an MP3 player. The instruction book that came with the player was more of an "Okay, this is how to get started, now figure it out for yourself" book.
• It's a big, big mistake to listen to big, big books on this player. It's better to start out with small books and leave Pillars of the Earth until later. Not only does it take forever for big tomes to download, it takes much longer to listen to a book than to read it. And....
• If you doze off while reading a book, it's easy to find where you left off. If you doze off while listening to an audiobook, you have to flip back and listen multiple times to find where you dozed off.
• Some audiobook narrators should market their voices as sleep aids.
• Dozing off while listening to books where characters are being maimed, dying by various means, being abused, etc. when you are in doze-mode is injurious to your dream state.
• My cats and my housemate are envious of the player- though I think one of my cats just wants the earphones.
• I wondered how JPL got these in bulk for -what I found out- was $20 under list price. These have to have been seconds. The ear buds are weird. The earbuds I got and a colleague got have one side a foot longer than the other. One of my staff noticed the same thing with her MP3. I ended up getting another set of earphones to use with it.
• But, I like my MP3. I'll use it. It'll be great for long trips. BUT...
• I have to develop restraint. While I used to be able to watch TV and do homework as a teen, I can't multitask as well as I used to. Watching TV, skimming the newspaper, AND listening to an audiobook isn't working for me.

Still waiting for my MP3 player.....

The promised MP3 player is still not in my hot little hands. I'm going to have to go back over what I learned in Learning 2.0 when-- and possibly if-- I ever receive it. The second session of JPL's Learning 2.0 initiative. After a hiatus of nearly 2 months, I'm going forward and looking at what Learning 2.1 has to offer. I've signed up on the Learning 2.1 wiki. So- I'll start to look at the first of these this week. The best thing about doing this on my own is that there's no pressure to get it looked at and done in one week because there's another lesson hitting the mailbox on Monday.

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.