I, like lots of people, have been watching things from YouTube for years. I've never uploaded a video to it, but I keep a long list of favorites under my account so I can easily re-find anything that I thought was interesting or funny. I've seen the old Conan the Librarian video before, as well as the Introducing the Book one. Here's one more bookish/librariany video that came up during one of my classes last year:
The whole point of using Disney for this is that they're one of the most rabid supporters of copyright law; in fact, the Disney company is pretty much single-handedly responsible for the ridiculous copyright laws we have today. Every time Mickey Mouse comes close to losing his copyright protection, Disney starts lobbying like mad to get copyright extended another few decades; so far, they've already succeeded. I mean, seriously: how many years has Walt Disney been dead, and nothing he ever made is in the public domain yet? I can see protecting works and ideas during the creator's lifetime, and perhaps even for a short length of time after their death, but it's gotten to the point where it's the people who inherit the copyright from the deceased creator that are just capitalizing off of it for all it's worth, and it's a highly destructive cycle. Anyway, long story short, this is a clever video that uses such short and varied snippets that they still fall under fair use.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Thing #14 - Productivity Tools
Well, this heading seemed awfully broad, but once I logged into My Yahoo! and started editing things, I can see how it stands alone as its own "thing." I also looked at iGoogle a bit, but although it had some widgets that I would prefer and that My Yahoo! doesn't have (like Humor/Comics, Recipes/Cooking, and the ability to link to Youtube), I like the layout of My Yahoo! better, and use my Yahoo! account more than my Google one, most of the time.
What really struck me was the immediate and in-depth customization options for the pages. You choose or create themes, layouts, add the content types that you want on the page, drag and drop to put them in the right place, and it still contains all the Quicklinks found on the lefthand side of Yahoo.com, so you can still quickly navigate around the Yahoo! universe. What I really liked was how my e-mail account was integrated right into the page - not as a fully-fledged e-mail account (I can't move or delete e-mails), but I can read them simply by hovering over the e-mail title and a popup will display the email body, plus I can write and reply e-mails from right there. Next, I added a movie widget - not because I go see movies very much, which I (unfortunately) don't, but because, without television, I've found myself not even hearing about a movie until it's in theaters, and I like to at least keep abreast of what's out there, even if I can't go see it. So, I thought that was super-cool, since I rarely remember to go browsing for movies, anyway. I added a few extra news feeds that sounded interesting, removed a few things (like Horoscopes) that are complete wastes of space for me, and shuffled everything around a bit. Overall, it has a lot of potential to take everything I may be interested in and condense it so I can browse it at a glance.
I was never a fan of online calendar programs, preferring to tack a calendar to my wall and scribble my most important things to remember on it, but since coming to the UW, I've been forced to adopt the MyCalendar widget integrated into every student's UW account. It never really came in much handy until this past week; my adviser is super-busy this semester, and has more distance students than normal to advise about class registration, so she decided we could all pick our own schedule times by syncing our calendar with hers and picking an available date/time. Granted, I plan to remember to go to registry advising due to the note scribbled on my wall calendar, but I wouldn't have been able to make an appointment at all if I hadn't had MyCalendar loaded up like I did, so they can definitely come in handy, too.
What really struck me was the immediate and in-depth customization options for the pages. You choose or create themes, layouts, add the content types that you want on the page, drag and drop to put them in the right place, and it still contains all the Quicklinks found on the lefthand side of Yahoo.com, so you can still quickly navigate around the Yahoo! universe. What I really liked was how my e-mail account was integrated right into the page - not as a fully-fledged e-mail account (I can't move or delete e-mails), but I can read them simply by hovering over the e-mail title and a popup will display the email body, plus I can write and reply e-mails from right there. Next, I added a movie widget - not because I go see movies very much, which I (unfortunately) don't, but because, without television, I've found myself not even hearing about a movie until it's in theaters, and I like to at least keep abreast of what's out there, even if I can't go see it. So, I thought that was super-cool, since I rarely remember to go browsing for movies, anyway. I added a few extra news feeds that sounded interesting, removed a few things (like Horoscopes) that are complete wastes of space for me, and shuffled everything around a bit. Overall, it has a lot of potential to take everything I may be interested in and condense it so I can browse it at a glance.
I was never a fan of online calendar programs, preferring to tack a calendar to my wall and scribble my most important things to remember on it, but since coming to the UW, I've been forced to adopt the MyCalendar widget integrated into every student's UW account. It never really came in much handy until this past week; my adviser is super-busy this semester, and has more distance students than normal to advise about class registration, so she decided we could all pick our own schedule times by syncing our calendar with hers and picking an available date/time. Granted, I plan to remember to go to registry advising due to the note scribbled on my wall calendar, but I wouldn't have been able to make an appointment at all if I hadn't had MyCalendar loaded up like I did, so they can definitely come in handy, too.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Thing #13 - LibraryThing
Well, I've heard a lot about LibraryThing for Libraries, but I actually didn't even know that they had a personal version. It looks like something that can be a lot of fun... not to mention useful for someone who has a ton of books, and may or may not even remember which ones they own or not! That's one of the best features of it, though: besides creating your own categories, you can add books into a bunch of different categories, including Your Library, Currently Reading, Read but not Owned, and more. You can import records from a bunch of different places (searching Amazon is the default, since they DO have most books available there), and then sort, tag, and share them as you see fit. You can link your account to almost any other kind of account you have (blogs, IM services, eBay, del.icio.us, etc.) and add as much or as little personal information as you like. I also really like their "Local" tab, as well, which shows you, not only which companies/groups/libraries in your area have pages, but book events going on nearby.
While plenty of libraries have their own pages (including most of the different UW libraries around Madison), personal pages could be useful for librarians as well; in fact, libraries could even feature them, if the librarians could all put up links to their different "Recommended" or "Reading Now" lists where patrons can find them, updating them periodically. Otherwise, of course, libraries can use a page for the entire institution to do something similar, especially if they have a "New Materials" area, where they could put all their new titles up. I don't know that it would be feasible for a library to upload its entire holdings onto LibraryThing (I'm not sure if records can be imported from catalogs, or if there's a space limit or anything, plus searching could get a bit cumbersome), but for selected collections, it can certainly offer some good highlights.
While plenty of libraries have their own pages (including most of the different UW libraries around Madison), personal pages could be useful for librarians as well; in fact, libraries could even feature them, if the librarians could all put up links to their different "Recommended" or "Reading Now" lists where patrons can find them, updating them periodically. Otherwise, of course, libraries can use a page for the entire institution to do something similar, especially if they have a "New Materials" area, where they could put all their new titles up. I don't know that it would be feasible for a library to upload its entire holdings onto LibraryThing (I'm not sure if records can be imported from catalogs, or if there's a space limit or anything, plus searching could get a bit cumbersome), but for selected collections, it can certainly offer some good highlights.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Thing #12 - Wikis
I've only been using a wiki for about 8 months, but I know just how handy they can be. Since I'm with the Jail Library Group, and a bunch of different people running on very different schedules, all have to coordinate who is going into the jail library, and when, most of the collaboration is done through the wiki. That way, we can separate all of the different systems, leave contact information and notices such as dates for new-book-processing parties, and make notes for the date and time that people are going in, or if they would like anyone to accompany them. A blog or forum couldn't really lay anything out that effectively, and a proper website would require administrative access and know-how, among other complications, so a wiki is by far the best way to manage something like that.
Of course, the JLG wiki is only a single page, so it doesn't have any of the searching or browsing features that characterize most other wikis. When you take things like that into account, though, I can see how a library could have a lot of use for a wiki, to organize things either for patrons or for staff (though, I have to admit, letting any patrons put anything onto or delete anything they wanted from a wiki could cause some trouble). I especially liked the St. Joseph County Public Library wiki, which includes a lot more than just subject guides. It's a great resource for patrons, and seems to essentially function as the library website, though a wiki is much easier to edit and update than an HTML-coded site. As such, in that regard, it works pretty much as a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get HTML editor, the main differences being 1) WYSIWYG editors give you a little more customization of layout, and 2) anyone who has ever browsed Wikipedia will be immediately familiar with the layout, and probably immediately comfortable using the wiki. Pros and cons aside, I took an Information Architecture class last summer, where the final website could either be HTML hand-coded or created with a WYSIWYG editor; wikis weren't allowed for the project, but considering how well-done some of these library wikis are, I think they make perfectly legitimate websites.
Of course, the JLG wiki is only a single page, so it doesn't have any of the searching or browsing features that characterize most other wikis. When you take things like that into account, though, I can see how a library could have a lot of use for a wiki, to organize things either for patrons or for staff (though, I have to admit, letting any patrons put anything onto or delete anything they wanted from a wiki could cause some trouble). I especially liked the St. Joseph County Public Library wiki, which includes a lot more than just subject guides. It's a great resource for patrons, and seems to essentially function as the library website, though a wiki is much easier to edit and update than an HTML-coded site. As such, in that regard, it works pretty much as a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get HTML editor, the main differences being 1) WYSIWYG editors give you a little more customization of layout, and 2) anyone who has ever browsed Wikipedia will be immediately familiar with the layout, and probably immediately comfortable using the wiki. Pros and cons aside, I took an Information Architecture class last summer, where the final website could either be HTML hand-coded or created with a WYSIWYG editor; wikis weren't allowed for the project, but considering how well-done some of these library wikis are, I think they make perfectly legitimate websites.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Thing #11 - Social Media Sites
The suggested list includes Digg, Reddit, Mixx, and Newsvine, all of which I had a look at. Digg, Reddit, and, for the most part, Mixx all seem to focus heavily on popular media and topics, rather than news or reporting. For instance, the article at the top of the page for Digg was a funny picture of a goat; for Reddit, a post arguing whether dates should be written MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY; for Mixx, about Google cars driving themselves; and for Newsvine, a news report on a car bomb in Los Angeles. While all of these sites could be good for keeping up with popular trends on the internet, I get the feeling that only Newsvine would provide that much information for trends and occurrences in the real world, as well.
Besides that, the sites seem to go about posting content in quite different ways. Digg's article titles link directly to the off-site locations of the information, which can help the user judge for themselves more easily how credible the article is. Reddit, on the other hand, seems to work more as a forum, where anyone can start a topic thread, and anyone else can comment/add to it. Mixx lets you view a short abstract of the article, as well as user comments, before providing an off-site link to the original content. Newsvine incorporates articles and content into its own site, instead of offering off-site links, to which users can add comments as they see fit. Considering that they do all have their own styles, and all cover different and somewhat random content, it could definitely be a good idea for a library to browse these every day to see what comes up, or offer them as recommendations to patrons, to see a random sampling of what's out there.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Thing #10 - Del.icio.us
Ok, I have to admit, I totally missed that you can click on each of the 23 things and get a great walkthrough of how to go about exploring that "thing". That having been said, I think my previous posts really weren't too far off the mark (mostly), but it will be a lot easier to follow a more guided approach to exploring the different topics from now on. Whew.
About del.icio.us - I actually used it not too long ago for the first time to transfer over all my bookmarks from my old computer to my new one. I imported them from my browsers to del.icio.us, where they were automatically sorted by the folders I had them in, then booted up del.icio.us on my new computer and imported back the bookmarks that I thought were useful enough for me to have access to immediately. While I can see how it can be useful to have inter-computer and inter-browser access to all of your bookmarks (often when I go home for vacations, I don't bring my clunky desktop along, and end up forgetting about certain bookmarks I'm supposed to check), at the same time, I'd rather be able to manage my bookmarks in a browser's dropdown menu. I find it's a lot easier to keep the bulk and useless junk down, a lot faster to access, and I like the layout better. Del.icio.us can be sorted by tags, but I'm more inclined to spatial than sorted arrangements - put something in its designated place, and it will always be there. So, I prefer bookmark menus, where you can choose where, exactly, on the list you want a specific thing to be. That's just personal, though; libraries would do better to keep a del.icio.us account or two, for patrons and staff, so everyone has quick access to the same standard links. I know College Library, where I'm doing my practicum, has a del.icio.us account for the reference desk, so the many students and librarians that work there can all find the exact same sites.
About del.icio.us - I actually used it not too long ago for the first time to transfer over all my bookmarks from my old computer to my new one. I imported them from my browsers to del.icio.us, where they were automatically sorted by the folders I had them in, then booted up del.icio.us on my new computer and imported back the bookmarks that I thought were useful enough for me to have access to immediately. While I can see how it can be useful to have inter-computer and inter-browser access to all of your bookmarks (often when I go home for vacations, I don't bring my clunky desktop along, and end up forgetting about certain bookmarks I'm supposed to check), at the same time, I'd rather be able to manage my bookmarks in a browser's dropdown menu. I find it's a lot easier to keep the bulk and useless junk down, a lot faster to access, and I like the layout better. Del.icio.us can be sorted by tags, but I'm more inclined to spatial than sorted arrangements - put something in its designated place, and it will always be there. So, I prefer bookmark menus, where you can choose where, exactly, on the list you want a specific thing to be. That's just personal, though; libraries would do better to keep a del.icio.us account or two, for patrons and staff, so everyone has quick access to the same standard links. I know College Library, where I'm doing my practicum, has a del.icio.us account for the reference desk, so the many students and librarians that work there can all find the exact same sites.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Thing #9 - Implement Said Web 2.0
Well, to be honest, a lot of the stuff I listed in Thing #8 doesn't work too well for my blog here (I guess I really wasn't thinking ahead). BUT, as far as blog technology for sharing slides and photos, I'm going to fall back on good old Picasa, which already implements well into Blogger as an add-on (as does Flickr and several other photo-sharing sites). So, I posted a slideshow on the right sidebar with my pics from Nijo Castle in Kyoto, Japan. It was surprisingly fun and easy, even though this is more of an integrated than outside technology for the blog.
For sharing slides/slideshows, I also recommend Prezi: http://www.prezi.com. It's not a slideshow, more like one big slide with a revolving/rotating camera angle. Despite that overly-simplistic description, it doesn't seem to cause motion sickness, and it's really interesting and engaging (much more so than normal Powerpoint slideshows, in my opinion!). I've only used it a few times, and it takes a bit of tinkering with, but I know a lot of fans with Macs who don't run normal Microsoft Office and prefer it to, say, Google Docs or Open Office. For regular photos, I have to say, I still recommend Picasa. I've been using it less than a week, but I'm extremely pleased with it, and have to admit, I will probably discontinue my (also short-lived) use of Flickr in favor of it. For videos, there's always Youtube, but I also recommend Jing: http://www.techsmith.com/jing/. It allows you to take videos or screenshots of your monitor's display, then upload them to Screencast.com, to be shared or searched however you set limits on it. I've had a lot of fun with it in the past year or so, and it's great for posting and sharing tutorials, in particular.
For sharing slides/slideshows, I also recommend Prezi: http://www.prezi.com. It's not a slideshow, more like one big slide with a revolving/rotating camera angle. Despite that overly-simplistic description, it doesn't seem to cause motion sickness, and it's really interesting and engaging (much more so than normal Powerpoint slideshows, in my opinion!). I've only used it a few times, and it takes a bit of tinkering with, but I know a lot of fans with Macs who don't run normal Microsoft Office and prefer it to, say, Google Docs or Open Office. For regular photos, I have to say, I still recommend Picasa. I've been using it less than a week, but I'm extremely pleased with it, and have to admit, I will probably discontinue my (also short-lived) use of Flickr in favor of it. For videos, there's always Youtube, but I also recommend Jing: http://www.techsmith.com/jing/. It allows you to take videos or screenshots of your monitor's display, then upload them to Screencast.com, to be shared or searched however you set limits on it. I've had a lot of fun with it in the past year or so, and it's great for posting and sharing tutorials, in particular.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Thing #8 - Web 2.0 In the Library
There are lots of ways for libraries to take advantage of Web 2.0. Plenty of libraries already do some kind of chat or IM-reference, including the library where I'm doing my practicum. While this might be a bit less of a priority for something like a public library or a research institution, the main undergraduate library for a large academic institution (such as where my practicum is at) gets bombarded with questions every evening by students who have trouble finding something, but don't want to have to pack up all their stuff, give up their seat (which, most nights, will fill immediately and they won't be able to reclaim it) and march down to the reference desk. Libraries are also getting big into blogs, since most blog editing programs (such as this one!) allow for easy, what-you-see-is-what-you-get website creation, which can then be edited by anyone on library staff regardless of web-programming knowledge, making such sites much more likely to be kept up-to-date.
On the Library 2.0 end of things (which I've already gone into a bit more detail about below), libraries are really getting into OPACs and programs that allow for more patron input into the library catalog, with things like tagging and related-item searching. LibraryThing is by far the most successful and most cited resource for this, and can add a great deal to a library's catalog, if they feel ready to implement it. The tag cloud takes a while to build up, but once it is, it can be very helpful for browsing patrons looking for a quick search. Implementing things like links to the Amazon site, for reviews and other recommendations, could be a thought as well (the new WorldCat interface does this, and the MadCat catalog used at UW-Madison links automatically into WorldCat... it's somewhat roundabout, but can be useful and fun). Regardless, Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 are already inveigling themselves into many libraries' everyday functions.
On the Library 2.0 end of things (which I've already gone into a bit more detail about below), libraries are really getting into OPACs and programs that allow for more patron input into the library catalog, with things like tagging and related-item searching. LibraryThing is by far the most successful and most cited resource for this, and can add a great deal to a library's catalog, if they feel ready to implement it. The tag cloud takes a while to build up, but once it is, it can be very helpful for browsing patrons looking for a quick search. Implementing things like links to the Amazon site, for reviews and other recommendations, could be a thought as well (the new WorldCat interface does this, and the MadCat catalog used at UW-Madison links automatically into WorldCat... it's somewhat roundabout, but can be useful and fun). Regardless, Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 are already inveigling themselves into many libraries' everyday functions.
Thing #7 - Image Generators
I really had no idea what this meant, until I managed to find BigHugeLabs.com, and promptly wasted an entire afternoon. Being a huge nerd, I first went for their Trading Card creator and Motivational Poster customizer, but I also had a look at their Color Palette generator, the Badge Maker, a Calendar generator, and LoLCat generator. This can be a great way for someone to do fun things with their own photos, but it could also be really useful for libraries, especially libraries on a budget, to come up with fun, quick, and easy ways to put together interesting creations with their pictures. I could easily see a library making fun calendars for a sale or giveaway, or using posters, trading-cards, or one of the other image generators, especially for something like a kids' summer reading program. Here's a few of the things I came up with from my last trip to Japan:
Thing #6 - More Image Mashups
Of course, right after posting my month's quota of images on Flickr, I find a program that lets me give my photos some badly-needed touching-up. Perhaps next month I'll be able to put a few of those up for display on Flickr, then.
The program I'm talking about is Picasa (or, to be more precise, Picasa 3). I've used Photoshop extensively at work, so I have GIMP on my home computer (since GIMP sells itself as an Open-Source Photoshop alternative), but it really didn't do what I needed it to as far as correcting my bad camera lighting for my photos. Picasa, though, touched them up exactly as I wanted it to, and then re-saved them to my desktop. The downside of being able to do this is that it's not an online program, but a downloadable one, which you have to put onto your computer to use, and can't access from anywhere. The other downside I've found so far is that it can only edit certain file types =\ namely, it can't even open PNG files, so I had to convert all of mine to JPG first in order to edit them. Regardless, I'm very happy with the results it's gotten on my photos, which tend to be way too bright if taken outside, and way too dark if taken inside. I really love the "Auto-Contrast" feature (I do in every photo-editing program I've used) as far as brightening up colors and picking out details go. Despite my deep and growing mistrust of Google, I have to admit, they're conquering the world for a reason: they've got good products, and they usually offer them for free.
The program I'm talking about is Picasa (or, to be more precise, Picasa 3). I've used Photoshop extensively at work, so I have GIMP on my home computer (since GIMP sells itself as an Open-Source Photoshop alternative), but it really didn't do what I needed it to as far as correcting my bad camera lighting for my photos. Picasa, though, touched them up exactly as I wanted it to, and then re-saved them to my desktop. The downside of being able to do this is that it's not an online program, but a downloadable one, which you have to put onto your computer to use, and can't access from anywhere. The other downside I've found so far is that it can only edit certain file types =\ namely, it can't even open PNG files, so I had to convert all of mine to JPG first in order to edit them. Regardless, I'm very happy with the results it's gotten on my photos, which tend to be way too bright if taken outside, and way too dark if taken inside. I really love the "Auto-Contrast" feature (I do in every photo-editing program I've used) as far as brightening up colors and picking out details go. Despite my deep and growing mistrust of Google, I have to admit, they're conquering the world for a reason: they've got good products, and they usually offer them for free.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Thing #5 - Fun with Flickr
My plethora of e-mail accounts are now coming in handy with so many company conglomerations. I'd never been to Flickr before, but logged in just fine with my Yahoo! e-mail account, and promptly started uploading pictures from my various trips overseas. Unfortunately, because there's a monthly limit to free uploads, it will probably take me about 5 months just to get my last trip completely uploaded, much less the three before that! Like any for-profit company, though, they'll only give you so much for free. In the meantime, I just browsed through other photos.
The tagging feature is great, and makes things a lot easier to find. However, it can cause problems too - my search for "morning glory" (though perhaps I should have pluralized it) brought up only 3 flower images on the first page, and only 2 of those were actually morning glories. I really like all the features that show up on the right-hand side of the screen, actually, including the date and place that the picture was taken, as well as the set that it appears in (at least in the case of the ones I was looking at). It also seems like a disproportionate amount of the pictures on Flickr are professional or semi-professional quality. Not that that's a bad thing - it makes my own photos seem a bit inadequate in comparison, but I just never really thought that there were so many photography enthusiasts out there before.
The tagging feature is great, and makes things a lot easier to find. However, it can cause problems too - my search for "morning glory" (though perhaps I should have pluralized it) brought up only 3 flower images on the first page, and only 2 of those were actually morning glories. I really like all the features that show up on the right-hand side of the screen, actually, including the date and place that the picture was taken, as well as the set that it appears in (at least in the case of the ones I was looking at). It also seems like a disproportionate amount of the pictures on Flickr are professional or semi-professional quality. Not that that's a bad thing - it makes my own photos seem a bit inadequate in comparison, but I just never really thought that there were so many photography enthusiasts out there before.
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