#13 Del.icio.us

Yum. Again, Del.icio.us is something I have been meaning to do for some time, but never found "some time." The budding librarian in me gets a little overwhelmed at the possibility of the variety of tags one could use. I typed a simple "frugal-living" tag for a blog I follow, then looked to see what others had tagged: cooking, coupons, recipes, frugal, budget, food, frugality. This is from just a little blog that only 25 people have tagged. Others are even more crazy. As Vonnegut was so fond of saying, "So it goes."

A couple of things I really liked about Del.icio.us: It was EASY to import my existing bookmarks. I literally pushed the import button and that was it. Excellent. Perhaps I need to spend more time with my Google Reader, but I was frustrated that I couldn't easily find a way to RSS my bookmarked sites, but had to manually set each one up. That was slow, irritating and I didn't do all of them because I didn't have time. RSS is supposed to SAVE me time! I like things that work with the click of a mouse or push of a button. Call me Simpleton!

I also like that Del.icio.us is similar to LibraryThing in that it can be as simple or complex as the user wishes to make it. I can use Del.icio.us as a portable folder for my bookmarks that I can access from any computer. This alone is a great feature and is very simple. Or I could use the powerful networking and tagging to share research, conduct searches or find information. I like applications that have multiple layers of use.

In terms of library use, Del.icio.us has several options. Libraries could create their own accounts that users could view from the library homepage. These accounts could include the various sites that the library has deemed authoritative and most useful to their particular patrons or even a specific group of patrons (genealogy folks, for example). I think the broader idea of having applications with multiple layers of use is a good one for libraries to keep in mind, as well. Some patrons don't want to or are unable to wade through all of the bells and whistles of a particular program, but it's nice to have them as options for those who do.

#12 Rollyo

Very cool! I can see where librarians could Rollyo a search tool that utilizes the sites they regularly use. For the purposes of this exercise, I created one for Green Living. I have several blogs and sites that I regularly check. By Rollyo-ing them together, I am able to search those sites for specific topics. So for instance, I searched "chicken meals" and got numerous hits that utilize chicken in an eco-friendly, local living way. I also searched "household cleaners" and got a bunch of hits for environmentally safe cleaning products. My favorite thing about Rollyo is using the word Rollyo as a verb (as evidenced by this post!).

#11 Library Thing

I became aware of LibraryThing several years ago and always thought that in my "free time" I would someday start an account and catalog my books. Well, "someday" has arrived, not that I have any free time! I am glad that I have an account since now I can grab a stack of books, enter a few at a time and voila! I have my own personal catalog. I was impressed at how easy and user-friendly this site is. While still powerful and useful, it is not overwhelming.

This is what I like most about LibraryThing. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want. You can easily open an account, add some books and you're all set. If you never use any of the other tools, you still have a nifty way of managing your personal collection. But LibraryThing offers much more through the use of tagging, recommendations, user-generated reviews, blogs, news and other content.

I am going to systematically add my titles, so the items showing on my catalog now are an odd sliver of my collection, but will be more indicative of my reading as time goes on.

Will you look at that? I got through an entire post without a picture, image or visual!

Hey, Chicago, What Do You Say?

So somebody else has been having fun with mashups and generators!









And to keep it all literary and relevant, here are a couple of titles we can add to our collections:


And my favorite children's selection:
Excuse me. This brought back all of those terrible feelings I had buried until next season. I'm leaving now to go have a good cry. I hate being a Cubs fan sometimes. . . .

Living Library

Check out this excellent article on the Living Library concept.

From the article: "An eclectic collection of books will be on loan for a few hours Saturday at the Bainbridge Island Library, covering such diverse topics as life as a quadriplegic, a female police officer, a young gay man and an atheist.

The titles are thought-provoking for a reason: All represent people who have been stereotyped. In fact, the "books" are people -- local residents of different backgrounds who have volunteered to be "checked out" for 30-minute periods by "readers" for one-on-one discussions."

This idea grew out of a One Community, One Book program that focused on prejudice through To Kill a Mockingbird. I hope to someday be instrumental in bringing a similar idea to our community. Awesome!

"Todd Stabelfeldt, a quadriplegic, speaks to a group of students at King's Junior High School in Shoreline on Wednesday. Stabelfeldt, who started a foundation to help people with spinal cord injuries, is one of the living "books" who can be checked out from the Bainbridge Island Library."

#10 Play Around with Image Generators

This "task" was loads of fun. (Again listen for the giant sucking sound as time goes swooping into the Internet vortex!)

I thought that The Generator Blog was excellent and easy to use. I was so impressed I added it to my Google Reader so I will always be on the cutting edge of generator technology! One fun one was the BabyMaker 3000, which surprisingly is found on the Volkswagen site. Here is a picture of my husband and me with our real kids:

Using BabyMaker 3000, I used this exact picture, isolated our faces and uploaded us. Here is the baby generated:

It is a lot better than I thought it would be! I was expecting more along the lines of what Conan O'Brien does! Cute, but my real babies are still way cuter!!! And then here is another one I tried for comparison from Make Me Babies. This site allows you to choose celebrities as well, which I guess is supposed to be fun for some people. . . .

Frankly, most of these just creeped me out, but a site that I thought was awesome and that had some possibilities for librarians was Letter James. They offer all kinds of standard images that can then be personalized like the two below. They offer calendars too, which would make great gifts. For libraries, their images could make excellent publicity or signage as easy as just typing in some text, saving and printing. Awesome!

Please note that the graffiti is the work of an amateur tagger (of the "old skool" variety)! I had no idea what pithy statement to write . . . And the "Go Cubs!" is rather sadly very belated. There's always next year. . . .

And lastly, there are literally thousands of name generators out there, but one fun one was the Hip Hop Name Generator. My Hip Hop name is Tha Notorious La Vida Loca. I want a nametag for work with that on it. You know, building rapport and all that.

#9 Finding Feeds

Wow. This was a lot trickier than I thought it would be. I went to all four tools listed at 23 Things: Feedster, Topix.net, Syndic8.com and Technorati. I did not find any of them very user friendly. There seems to be quite a bit of assumption on the part of the creators in terms of how much they feel their users already know. I didn't find any of them intuitive or user friendly, and I consider myself to be fairly tech savvy.

This is a good lesson for libraries. Just because someone can push a few buttons on the OPAC does not mean they know exactly how to use the catalog or what to do with the information that they find there. This is a fine line to walk since we don't want to assume patrons know nothing and risk appearing condescending, but we must not assume they know everything about our sources no matter how technically literate they seem.

I resorted to some more "primitive" methods of Internet searching, namely Google, previously bookmarked library-related sites and links to other sites from library sites to add to my RSS feeds. I follow a few library blogs regularly. Shifted Librarian is not one of them. I think I am one of the only people in Library Land who just isn't over the moon in love with SL. Actually, one blog that I really like is from a classmate. Her site The Library Student is very relevant with storytime themes and ideas, children's book reviews and annotated book lists. I also added Library Stuff and Librarian.net. Good stuff, although that giant sucking sound keeps getting louder. . . .

#8 RSS and Newsreaders

I've been wanting to set up an RSS account for a long time, but have resisted partly because clicking on to a friend's blog and finding a new post is like unwrapping a small present and it brings me a little happiness. But as I discover more and more blogs that I enjoy reading and my favorites folders fill to bursting, clicking on each blog to see if there is something new becomes really time-consuming. So the time for RSS has arrived.

In a moment of rebellion, I have not signed up for Bloglines as instructed, but instead have opted for Google Reader. I have received many recommendations to use Reader, and I already have a Google account (obviously, since Blogger is a Google product!). My homepage is an iGoogle page, so the whole affair is seamless and integrated. It is relatively easy to add a blog or feed to Reader, just time consuming since I have so many that I enjoy. This will be an ongoing project!

An aside: OK, I think we all know about my penchant for adding pictures to my blog. I usually use Google image search to find good pictures if they are not self-generated. But tonight I couldn't find what I wanted so a drew down on my new-found knowledge of Flickr and found the above gem. Perfect!

#7 Blog about Technology

Last year, a classmate turned me on to Library Link of the Day. It is what it sounds like -- a link each day to an article, video or other Internet content that is library-related, and it has really kept me connected to a variety of interesting stories in our field. Just yesterday was a link to the conference presentation of a colleague from UW-Milwaukee at the AISTI Ninth Annual Mini-Conference. It is a 48-page document, but if you have the opportunity to peruse Consoles, Clickers and Chat: Tools for the Library of Today, you will find it fascinating. For those who choose not to take a look, I'll paraphrase a couple of interesting points.

John Hubbard discusses the coveted "younger" patron demographic, that group which is technologically savvy, yet reluctant to partake of library services, feeling they are not relevant, needed or offered. Hubbard says, "We don’t need to have the same technological tastes as our patrons, no sooner than we need to dress like them or listen to their music, but it is important to understand where we are in relation to our patron base so that we can meet the most user needs." (2) In talking about who our potential patrons might be, he shows a picture of hundreds of people waiting in line for the release of the video game Grand Theft Auto IV which made more than $500 million its opening weekend outpacing all but fifty movies in history. That's a lot of folks out there gaming. Are we reaching them, meeting their needs, bringing them through our doors?

To further demonstrate the popularity of gaming, Hubbard shows several virtual events including weddings and funerals where peoples' online selves (avatars) participate as though in real life. Two popular sites are World of Warcraft which has "over 10 million users worldwide and a GDP larger than that of many countries" (5) and Second Life. These online communities are so realistic that several libraries, including the Library of Congress have placed content within these virtual worlds. LOC has created an interface that allows users of the virtual community to access their digitized collections. Hubbard goes so far as to say that [Second Life] "is not even what I would call a video game per se so much as a community that happens to be on the Internet. Once you accept that it’s not a game with any set objectives, there are some very interesting applications of Second Life, such as the sharing of library collections..." (7). Wow! I find this fascinating!

Hubbard goes on to argue in favor of technology that enhances patron use of the library including offering video games, clickers and gaming consoles. His arguments are compelling, his evidence both empirical and anecdotal, and his tips practical. If you are looking to take on your local library board in favor of gaming, this would be an invaluable resource.

Frankly, I have mixed feelings about gaming at the library, but I mostly fall on the side of offering it in some form. Hubbard offers great advice about what that can look like in a library setting which will in turn help keep us relevant and cutting edge.

#6 Flickr Mashups

How fun is this? Do you hear that giant sucking sound? It is the sound of my time being swallowed up in the great black hole of the Internet! There is just too much way cool stuff to mess around with on Flickr.

Flickr has an Open Interface Application (API) which just means that anyone can write a program to utilize or present Flickr data. In fact, they encourage it! There are entire websites devoted to toys, gadgets, widgets and applications for Flickr pictures (or is it pictrs?). I made the above picture with Spell with Flickr. The best part was that it was totally easy. Just type in the word, click a button and out pops some awesome letters. If you don't like the letters, click on each one for a zillion other choices.

Here is my son as a pop art icon. This can be done at the Wharholizer. I have wanted to do this for years, and have tried doing it more "by hand," but still with digital pictures. It is amazing that a simple upload of a picture and the click of one button could accomplish this! So while finding the applications and navigating Flickr and its incredible amount of content is overwhelming at the start, the mashups applications could be real time-savers once one becomes familiar with them.

We found the above creature living in a messy habitat near our home. There may be more; scientists are continuing to excavate. Magazine covers can be generated at this page by Big Huge Labs. I found Big Huge Labs' page to be one of the easiest pages to find, navigate and use.

Now, to put all of this in a library frame of reference. . . . In terms of how libraries and librarians could use all of these applications, I am in a bit of a quandry. There are the obvious ideas of using these for marketing materials, generating your own staff "READ" posters and creating pretty impressive content for library web pages and blogs. I think well-versed staff would also be helpful in teaching these applications in either a program setting or more informally as patrons ask. Beyond that, I am curious to see what other classmates come up with.