Library Stuff

10 Random Things

2008-11-24T14:32:00.000-08:00

1) I think Burger King has the best hamburgers. In fact, I once ate a raw crawdad on a dare to "win" a BK coupon.
2) When I was 17, I fell in love with the girl who lived next door to me and ended up getting in a fist fight with her boyfriend in my front yard (her parents and my parents had to pull us apart).
3) I have been to Europe four times and have visited a total of eight countries over there (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Italy, Malta, Hungary and Ukraine).
4) My favorite movie of all time is Conan the Barbarian.
5) My favorite rock band is Black Sabbath.
6) I am of Welsh, German, Italian, Scottish and English ancestry.
7) The most beautiful place I've ever been drunk in is the Hula Moons Bar & Grill at the Grand Wailea Hotel in Wailea, Maui, Hawaii.
8) My 20 year high school reunion is this weekend.
9) I'm working on two novels. One is a horror comedy and the other is a dark medieval fantasy. Both are so offensive to the average person's sensibilites that the publication of either in my lifetime will be nothing short of miraculous.
10) I would like to get a PhD in ancient history but I don't want to quit my job here to go to grad school. Any suggestions?

DONE!!!

2008-11-18T08:19:00.000-08:00

My favorite Learn & Play discoveries were/are Bloglines (w/RSS feeds), LibraryThing and a site I found through the Web 2.0 Tool Box, Stumble Upon. I also found Twitter, YouTube and a few of the Online Productivity Tools to be of some value (for their work related utility and/or entertainment value). The remaining "things" (especially del.icio.us) I was not so hip to, but time (and possible continuing experimentation) will tell.
How has this experience affected my life long learning goals? Well, it's encouraged me to be a bit more daring with new technological discoveries and not be so backward when it comes to developing web applications. These exercises have stirred my curiosity and prompted me to look into websites from home that I, honestly, never would have bothered with (or even known about) had it not been for Learn & Play.
The biggest unexpected outcome/surprise take away from my L&P experience was/is my enthusiasm for the family tree builder at myheritage.com . I spent a lot of time working on this and will no doubt spend lots more time on it in the future. This is yet another website that I discovered through the Web 2.0 Tool Box. Also, I found a neato Random Dungeon Generator through a Flickr 3rd party link (yes, I am a D&D geek).
As for things that maybe should have been done differently, I only have a couple suggestions. First, the program should have been LONGER (perhaps a full calendar year). I really think that participating staff would have got so much more out of this experience if they hadn't have felt so RUSHED! Second, maybe the program should have focused a bit more on day to day practical applications in a working library environment (I know, I know, the second word is "PLAY", afterall...). What I mean is, throw in a little something that deals with what a typical customer may expect from public service staff out in a branch (a very concrete example would be anything ipod related...I know we don't deal with this stuff now, but I get the feeling we're going to have to at some point in the not-so-distant future).
Yes, I would participate if another Learn & Plan came about (AND the organizers were mindful of my suggestions in the above paragraph!).
It's been interesting!
Out

MOLDI

2008-11-17T07:23:00.000-08:00

I messed around a bit over on the MOLDI website (Mid-Ohio Library Digital Initiative). I browsed through some of the e-book and audio book titles and experimented with checkout procedures, just to get a feel for how the whole thing works.
Honestly, I'm not a big fan of the whole digital media movement. I don't think that a person should have to have access to some sort of gadget at all hours of the day just to read a damn book...however, I have a creeping suspicion that all readers of print media will be forced to go digital by the powers that be (publishers, libraries) in the near future. Of course, consumers could resist this trend en masse, but I know that most people will just go with the flow instead of actually exerting any effort to take a stand on anything. You know, it's that whole "give me convenience or give me death" mentality.

Podcasts

2008-11-14T08:24:00.000-08:00

I found lots of fun podcast stuff by going through podfeed.net . I ended up adding an RSS feed for Kryptographik to my Bloglines account. Kryptographik features reviews of science fiction, horror and dark fantasy literature.
Podcasts would be a great resource for CML customers who want information about library programs and/or policies and procedures (you know, save them the trouble of making a phone call!). However, the casts would have to be EASY TO ACCESS (from library AND home PCs) and instructions would have to be VERY LUCID. Remember (and I know there are many within our organization who DON'T want to talk about this!) a VERY LARGE percentage of our customer base still have problems correctly using the self checkout machines and Aquabrowser...we must be patient while the public (and many staff people) get used to the whole concept of podcasts!

YouTube

2008-11-11T06:25:00.000-08:00

I experienced YouTube for the first time yesterday. I spent a few minutes watching a video of a Battle of Hastings (1066 AD) reinactment (I'm a big medieval history freak). I think it was actually filmed on location.
For the remainder of that lunch hour, I watched videos of rock band performances. I caught clips of Black Flag, Orange Goblin and Venom. Now, I'm a big Black Flag (Rollins & co.) fan and I followed their career pretty closely, but even I was stunned by the amount of footage of their early 80s performances that's still floating around out there. I'm amazed that this stuff has shown up all these years later.
The site is easy to use. Just type a keyword into the search field (after selecting the appropriate tab, "videos", "channels", or "communities") and be overwhelmed by the number of results that pop up. You can find some really obscure stuff there! The videos play quickly and most have decent sound quality.
I also clicked on "communities" and typed "columbus library" into the search field and CML's web channel popped up. This is a great tool for customers and staff (though I think that staff should have their own private channel featuring things like tutorials in the vein of those presented by Gerald and Joy throughout Learn & Play).
YouTube is a lot of fun, but unfortunately it's not of much use to me at home because I still use dial up and the videos take forever to play! Hence, I'll just have to access it from here at work!

Web 2.0 Tools

2008-11-05T12:31:00.000-08:00

I skimmed through the offerings over in the Power Tool Box. I'm already familiar with several of these from earlier exercises. Of all the remaining tools in the box, however, only one struck me as interesting/fun (that exception being Stumble Upon). Not that Stumble Upon serves that much of a practical purpose, but I've already experienced hours of enjoyment "stumbling" from one interesting webpage to another (you basically list your interests and Stumble Upon leads you to relevant sites that you can rate, comment upon, send links from, etc....you can also see profiles of folks who have similar interests to your own).
If nothing else, this whole Learn & Play experience has taught me that I am a creature of habit who needs a lot of time to "warm up" to new concepts and processes. However, once I have time to "mess around" with something I quickly get the hang of it and once I become familiar with it additional (more practical?) uses may occur to me. :)

Web 2.0

2008-11-04T13:25:00.000-08:00

I checked out some of the Web 2.0 Award nominee sites (followed the "short list" link in the Discovery Exercise instructions for Thing #18).
I've been having a lot of fun creating a family tree at myheritage.com (it's free to join). You can add photos of (and add/edit information about) relatives appearing on the tree. There are lots of other features and functions @ My Heritage, I just haven't had time to try them all out yet!
I'm not so sure that this site would be of much use in a CML context, but I'm certain there are many other Web 2.0 award nominees that could be useful for work related tasks. I'll leave any comments on that subject here after I've explored a few more of these sites.
Out,
H.

Online Productivity Tools

2008-11-03T11:23:00.000-08:00

This is an entirely new concept for me. I created an account on Google Docs and messed around with some documents, mostly passages for the book I'm working on. The really cool thing about Docs is that you can access it from anywhere...hence, I don't have to keep saving my writing at home on a disk so I can take it to work. Now I can just log on during my lunch hour and work on the manuscript whenever I feel like it (and then go back home that night to find all of my work saved!).
I also created a spreadsheet for my monthly household budget.
I must admit, I can't really think of any practical use for PDF files at present, but I'm sure something will occur to me...
As for workplace applications, the merits of Google Docs for collaborative projects should be self evident.
Out,
H.

Learn & Play Sandbox

2008-10-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

This has been a lot of fun, probably the most enjoyable L&P activity so far (for me, anyway). Lots of interesting co-worker favorites! I love reading about them.
If anybody is actually reading any of my ramblings on here, let me know what you think about this whole Lean & Play experience thus far.
At first I was not at all into this, but it's kind of growing on me...:)

On the Subject of Wikis

2008-10-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

I'm not exactly a stranger to all this wiki business, as we CML rovers have our own blog, "Speed Bumps", which (at the time of this writing) can only be accessed by rover/infoline staff.
Hence, there wasn't anything too novel in the other libraries' wikis that I examined.
As for Speed Bumps, of course it's great for staff communication, but it's also a very convenient tool for storing updated points of policy, contact information (lots and lots of frequently requested and/or dialed numbers all in one place) and dates for a garden variety of events and programs throughout the city.
One of the coolest features of Speed Bumps, IMO, is that you can access it from home (I often check the rover info schedule, which is always posted there).
Let me know what you think,
H.

Library 2.0 Perspectives

2008-10-22T07:22:00.001-07:00

As we struggle through implementation of "Library 2.0", I sometimes get the impression that we are working in a profession so obsessed with the future that we overlook the needs of much of our customer base in the here and now. The neglect of traditional users (and it's pretty blatant at CML) is disheartening. All the while and furthermore, we are expected to facilitate the needs of the "wired" generation, yet most staff are woefully undertrained for this transition, hence we muddle through the best we can (there are certain branches that would be DOOMED without the expertise of their twenty-something Tech Savvies...). Is anybody else out there picking up these mixed signals?
I'm choosing to discuss Rick Anderson's perspective ("Away from Icebergs"). In his article he compares the library profession to a boat that must steer clear of three obstacles ("icebergs") to avoid a disaster: "just in case" print collections, an over reliance on customer education, and the "come to us" model of library service.
While I agree with much of what Anderson says, I do have some nitpicks, especially in regard to his stance on the "come to us" model. There are still LOTS of folks out there who DO NOT USE COMPUTERS and who prefer print media, so they must (and want to) COME TO US. That's reality, and things will remain this way for some time to come. Sure, there are growing numbers of (mostly younger) users who will expect library staff to know about podcasts, Youtube, music downloads, etc. (things most staff are STILL not trained for), but a substantial number of our patrons still come to the branches for print materials NOT to use computers or to "get wired".
In regards to "just in case" collections, well, I don't think we should have "just in case" collections, but customer NEED should be taken into account and the collection should reflect local tastes. I don't know how many HUNDREDS of times I heard older customers complain at Northern Lights about the branch "never having" the books they came to find. Yes, the younger users were not there for the print collection, but rather for services that staff were not adequately trained to help them with...so, we had a large collection gathering dust, older customers without the books they wanted and younger customers disappointed because staff could not provide acceptable service. Everybody loses.
I totally agree with Anderson's view of over reliance on customer education. We simply do not have the staff or the resources to pick up all the slack of the public education system...

Del.icio.us

2008-10-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

I created an account over at del.icio.us and added some bookmarks to sites that I visit often (a couple film related pages and a website dedicated to American poet and "weird tale" writer Clark Ashton Smith).
It's easy to see how del.icio.us can be used for a research tool as all of the tags provided by other visitors to the websites I frequent can lead me to similar and/or related pages.
As for work related utility, I'm sure it could also be used to store bookmarks to the various reference and community webpages that I use to help customers on a daily basis (Franklin County Board of Elections, Google Maps, Fantastic Fiction, etc.).
Out,
H

Twitter

2008-10-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

Kicked around over there to get a feel for it. Chose to "follow" some old co-workers. Outside of work, there's not much of a place for "micro-blogging" in my life (you'd have to know my friends and family to understand!). As for its uses at CML, I think that I would much rather get system-wide updates through Twitter instead of through e-mail.
My name on Twitter is harl0370

See ya,
H.

Library Thing

2008-10-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

OK, I have an account now. Added books by Henry Rollins, H.P. Lovecraft, Michael Weldon and others.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/harl0370

Out,
H.

Fun with Image Generators

2008-09-30T12:30:00.000-07:00

OK, I went over there and messed around a bitsy. I found a goofy, fun lil' thing called Dummiez Book Cover Maker 2008. I've attached one of my creations here. You can make your own (if you're really that bored) at http://www.signgenerator.org/books/dummies/

Have fun,

Library Related News Feeds

2008-09-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

Hi, all
I've added two news feeds to my Bloglines reader.
Library Journal http://feeds.feedburner.com/LibraryJournalNews
School Library Journal http://feeds.feedburner.com/SchoolLibraryJournalBreakingNewsfeedburner

Have fun,
H.

Bloglines

2008-09-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

OK, I set up the Bloglines newsreader account...now what the #@&^ do I do with it? Can somebody please explain to me in a clear, succinct fashion how these feeds work without assuming that I have any idea what I'm doing? :)

KIN

2008-09-10T09:05:00.001-07:00

Roger McCoy and I will begin doing Know It Now here at Northern Lights this afternoon. While we are certainly excited to be the branch "point people" for this resource, we haven't had much of an opportunity to practice due to a software issue. Hence, we'll be flying by the seats of our pants!
Any tips or suggestions?
Thanks,
H.

Third Party Apps

2008-09-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

Created a custom jigsaw puzzle with an old photo using the "jigsaw" tool in fd's flickr toys.
Here's a link: http://flickr.com/photos/30387005@N07/2845325541
Enjoy,
H.

Flickr Visit

2008-09-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

OK, I went over to Flickr and kicked around for a bit. Here's a link to an interesting pic of Liverpool Town Hall that I found by clicking on the "map of the world" link. http://www.flickr.com/photos/10691940@N08/2833498215

I took note of this one because some of my ancestors came from a little town right up the road from Liverpool.

Out,
H.

Will Need Some Help

2008-09-04T12:56:00.000-07:00

I am a "book person" and a highly sceptical technophobe. I will definitely need assistance as I muddle my way through these assignments.
Help me, somebody, please...

H.

Easiest and Hardest Habits

2008-09-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

For me, the easiest of the Lifelong Learner habits is #2, Accepting Responsibility For My Own Learning.
The hardest is #6, Using Technology To My Advantage.

Bye,
H.