violet views

Summary -- The End -- Hooray!

2008-07-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

This Web 2.0 project had so many diverse things in it that much is a blur. Things that stand out are the personal blog, the fun stuff like the image generator, Facebook and Library Thing (although I haven't gotten back to them). It was good to get exposed to these things, but I can't say that I'm comfortable with most of them simply because I haven't used them enough and don't really expect to. I'd seen youtube and flickr before because people had sent me things. But simply looking at them is a lot easier than trying to add them to blogs and feeds, at least when those activities are new to me.

The biggest unexpected outcome is that now I have a cumbersome folder of new sites I should check regularly but don't really want to. My Bloglines, Gmail, Facebook, Pandora, LibraryThing etc. accounts will probably all languish because I won't remember my sign-ins and because in my regular daily life I won't think about them for weeks and months at a time. Remember that I'm a "connected but hassled" -- I can do it if I have to, but usually it seems more bother than it is worth.

The program format was good. Great job, Ellen! I would never NEVER have dug out all of this on my own. And I hope the page stays active for that future time when I may actually have a reason to want some of these tools and need to refresh.

NO NO NO I don't want to learn about anything more -- danger: brain overload -- danger ... danger ... overload ... meltdown ... brain exploding ... NO-NO-NO-MORE ...

If a similiar project was offered, I would probably participate because I don't like to acknowledge that I am basically a lazy wimp.

Thing #23 -- Podcasts

2008-07-23T13:27:00.001-07:00

This one had me stumped for awhile. I explored several but couldn't find any podcasts with the RSS icon. I think that I finally did some kind of windows podcast download, but by now I'm not honestly sure what I did. At some point a feed for "blogging from the Alley" showed up in my bloglines account; maybe that made the difference. From there, I could then see an RSS icon in the podcast I chose, "uncontrolled vocabulary," which I am absolutely certain was not there the first few times I tried to find it.

I like the concept of podcasts, but disconnected voices totally annoy me. That's why I can't stand to listen to talk radio, and have major difficulty with the interludes between songs on regular radio. I'm not able to ignore voices, yet I vigorously attempt not to listen to them. The same words in print form might interest me, so the content isn't the issue. I can't stand full-length audiobooks either, even with exciting plots, although for some reason I did enjoy listening to the brief, one-chapter readings of Alice in Wonderland and other stories that used to air on the Friday morning show on KDHX (I believe that the segment was called Something A Little Fishy, but it doesn't seem to be on anymore).

Monty Python's Gorilla Librarian

2008-07-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

Mongolian Fiddler (Thing #22)

2008-07-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

A fascinating video, slightly over 7 minutes long, featuring Mongolian musicians (anyone squeamish, be warned -- there's a sheep-slaughtering episode in the middle). I love the opening sequence, with the lone fiddle player just a speck against the massive snowfields of the mountains. So remote! yet we can watch from the comfort of our computers. I chose it because I was curious about the music, but what captivates me is the sense of peeking into a community that is almost unimaginable to me. I can't understand the words, but that makes me even more curious. I wonder about these people as if they lived next door. Why does the small boy need crutches? Do they ever get any vegetables, or is dinner always plain mutton? Does the snow fall year-round? How do they get/make the lovely objects in their home? Is their culture falling apart as the larger world intrudes?

Wish I could figure out how to imbed. Here's the URL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r7X--vtRgs

but I can't find anything that says "embed" as directed. Is this another one of those places I need to create a sign-in for? Oh, now I see something I missed before -- this particular video says "embedding disabled by request." I'll have to find another. The next one will not have dead sheep, I promise.

Thing #21

2008-07-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

This was a little frustrating. First I had to get a gmail account (I'm getting tired of constantly registering for new logins, at this point I never remember if I've done that one before and just forgotten about it or if I'm truly a first-timer). I tried Google Ride Finder, but kept getting server errors. I tried Page Creator, which was easy, but trying to save it (not publish it) froze the page. I looked at Extensions for Firefox and Experimental Search. The Experimental Searches were interesting -- maps and timelines. I thought about joining the Keyword search experiment but hestitated because I didn't know what I'd be letting myself in for.

Relevance to the library might be something like timelines of authors or medical specialities. Everything will be useful to somebody, but that would have to be a noticeable pool of users before it should "graduate."

On the Graduated list, I liked Google Transit (but it doesn't cover St. Louis yet).

Thing #20

2008-07-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

Ooooohhh, I'm glad I did this. I picked Pandora (#2 in the Music category) and now I have great music playing. I'll have to figure out how to have multiple profiles, since sometimes I want to hear Willie Nelson and other days B. B. King or Joni Mitchell. I really like how it finds comparable music and lets me rate it to guide future choices. As someone who can barely tolerate the DJ's talking between songs, this is a great option for variety without annoyance. If only I could access it from my car, I wouldn't need to carry my CDs around. But I'm sure that built-in Internet will be a future option in the automotive industry. Then we can all worry about people surfing the web while plowing through traffic and pedestrians.

Thing #19

2008-07-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

I had fun with the Resume Circle Template on Google.Docs although it was annoying that I couldn't use my mouse to cut and paste -- I got a message box saying my browser (Firefox) couldn't do it and I needed to use keyboard functions or the top browser menu toolbar. And now I think something's frozen; I saved it and tried to send it to myself, but nothing happened and I can't close it either. Maybe I can retrieve it at a later time.

Basecamp looked fun; I didn't sign in to actually use it, but took some of the tour. I think these types of easy collaboration are definitely going to be popular. How we'd use it in the library is not immediately clear to me, but assembling a group project (esp. one that didn't require much security) seems like a great application. Students may find it particularly useful.

Thing #18

2008-07-23T07:38:00.000-07:00

The Wiki is a neat idea and seems easy, editing was quick, but I didn't see how to add a totally new page. I couldn't think of anything particular to add, just wanted to see how to do it. Probably I'm overlooking something very obvious. Time for more coffee.

Thing #15

2008-07-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

I don't really see great applications of Library 2.0 for Becker, but perhaps that's because my own work focuses more on the backend and not much direct patron interaction.

Of the several things I read in this exercise, only one contained something that particularly struck me, and that's because the topic is at the front of my mind lately. This was in John Blyberg's 11 reasons why Library 2.0 exists and matters:

"ILSs have not functionally changed much at all since their inception. We’ve reached a level of critical mass now, however, that will require vendors to open up their black boxes and let us in. This is not some small increment of change, but a complete overhaul in the relationship we have to this software and its vendors."

Because of Simon, we've always been blessed with near-total control of our ILS. Giving up any part of this control will be the most difficult barrier if we migrate to another system. I hope that ILS companies are truly realizing that each library must be able to customize and respond promptly to user (and staff) needs. Yes, let's give the patrons as much freedom as possible, and still allow our library professionals to guide them to authoritative and relevant resources. Library 2.0 must serve the traditional searcher as well as the technologically-savvy innovator .

Facing Facebook

2008-07-22T07:54:00.001-07:00

Although I signed up for Facebook about 2 weeks ago, I'm just now getting around to this exercise and the required blog post. Facebook is very fun, but would become too distracting if I looked at it much. So I'll put an automatic reminder in my e-mail to check it once a week.

Thing #12 -- online image generators

2008-07-03T13:21:00.001-07:00

The online image generators are lots of fun. I wasted an hour when I should have been working. Now I want to design a whole town of small businesses with jarring names. But I'll have to think up a really extra good one for the town library.

RSS

2008-07-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

My blog is mad at me because it's been so long since I logged on. Maybe subscribing to RSS feeds will force me to think about it more often and become more active. It will nag, nag, nag at me.

Red Dwarf

2008-04-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

Recently I bought the complete set of Red Dwarf from the BBC, all 52 episodes on 8 DVDs. My sons were too small to watch it when it used to air on PBS late on Sunday nights, so it is all new to them. It's fun to find something to share with them since our entertainment interests don't generally converge. Lister, Cat, Kryten, Rimmer, Holly, the scutters and ever-crashing Starbugs have found a permanent place in our home.

Technorati Tag: Becker Learning 2.0

How to set background color in Blogger

2008-02-21T19:19:00.000-08:00

1) go to blogger.com and sign in
2) when at the "dashboard", click edit layout
3) click on the tab near the top of the screen called "edit HTML"
4) navigate to the line that says: <Variable name="bgcolor" description="Page Background Color" type="color" default="#fff" value="#ffffff">
5) change the characters in the value attribute to the desired hexadecimal value for the chosen color
6) preview, then save when result is acheived
7) that's all folks!

-Marysue's Son (Daniel)

Thing #1

2008-02-21T12:37:00.000-08:00

Lifelong learning is like breathing -- if you're alive, you must do it constantly even when you aren't aware that it is happening. Of course it does require thought if you have a specific goal in mind.