Thing #21 for Learn & Play is dedicated to Podcasts. This is one thing that I never got into in the past, so the fact that I “have to” is actually a great thing.
I played around with the podcast directories made available and I have to say, the one in iTunes is the best. I tried to get something out of podfeed.net, Podcastalley.com, or Google Podcast Directory and I failed in large part. I used the keywords “library”, “library news”, and “public library” and found alarmingly few pertinent hits. I had a lot more luck with iTunes’s directory. I got better results that were more easily navigable.
I did see that there were several libraries that did podcasting. Lansing PL has a number of Podcasts that are, if not regular, at least ongoing. There were also a number of special libraries (like Pritzker Military Library in Chicago, IL).
I tried using Bloglines for my Podcasts, and I’m pretty sure I don’t like it. Not because of anything Bloglines did wrong, I just think iTunes will work better for me. I can sync my iPod and listen to them on the go that way. This also keeps them well organized and separate from my music.
Podcasting would be an excellent addition to CML’s website. People are what separates libraries from their “competitors”, especially for CML (if I say so myself). Podcasting would be a great way to tap the passion and energy of our staff. Imagine a Youth Services booktalk cast that goes to a different branch every month. Our Geneology, History, and Travel department could put on a weekly Geneology Tips cast.
Thinking bigger, CML (and libraries in general) should start to provide podcasting stations with tools to record, host, and maintain them. These could be added to the catalog and be searchable that way. This would be an excellent way to farm the intellectual capital of the community and disseminate it.
I enjoy YouTube. I don’t obsessively explore it like some, but I think there’s a lot of cool stuff there (and a lot of total crap or worse, but that was bound to happen). Libraries as a whole need to get better at this. There’s so much stuff we could record (storytimes, programs) that we don’t really make an effort to do. It would also be a great way to share the library’s story. Imagine a series of videos shared with the world, telling the library’s story and selling it. Video book reviews are another possibility. How cool would it be to have them embeded in the catalog so that you could click a link and have a librarian booktalk that book for you, especially for Juv and Teen books! I can think of a couple colleagues that would be great at this!!!
Thing #18 for CML’s Learn & Play program is to explore different Web 2.0 tools (and toys).
I looked around on the SEOmoz list of Best Web 2.0 sites. There was a lot of cool stuff there to be sure, but what really caught my eye is a site called Pandora Radio. This site is truly astounding! It allows you to create custom “Radio” stations based on the music you like. Everything you can imagine is in here! From Top 10 Hits to Classical to Progressive Metal, nothing seems to be too obscure. Once you’ve started your station you just listen and tell the site when you like something.
The interface is very slick and compact. I quickly figured out where the basics were and how to navigate around effectively. You can query the system about why a song was selected for you after clicking the “more” button under the album art. You can click on your station name and select “add variety” to include other song/artist styles. You can also go deeper and set up a station in more detail by selecting edit.
It seems that it becomes harder and harder to impress me these days (a source of some concern). Pandora led me to say “wow” about a website for the first time in a long time. Try it, I think you’ll like it (musicphiles especially). Four Stars!!
Thing #17 in CML’s Learn & Play program is to work with Web Applications like Google Docs. Since I have experience with these, I won’t get too info what I did. Basically I created a doc, and shared it with myself (using my work email) so I could re-familiarize myself with the process. I also published it to share it with the world!
The implications of things like Google Docs are tremendous. You never have to worry about leaving your report behind again (or spreadsheet, or presentation…). One can also easily collaborate on a document from a distance and even make presentations with the presentations component!
Libraries could get a lot out of this. We Google Docs affords a great deal of flexibility for transferring and sharing documents. I personally don’t think it replaces Productivity software on one’s PC (the internet does experience outages, from time to time). I imagine the utility would go up for smaller libraries that may not have the software and network resources that CML enjoys.
On the other hand, there are some more fearful implications that libraries should heed. If everyone switches over to Google Documents (as Google hopes) for all their routine document creation needs. Think of the power this gives Google, a for profit corporation. They would literally control everyone’s information. I probably sound like some sort of survivalist nut, but this makes me personally and professionally…uncomfortable. All the reports we write, the data we collect, and the presentations we make would be stored on servers owned by Google. We would be trusting Google to keep their fingers out and to keep prying eyes away. If you can trust them, you’re a better person than me.
Its not that I think Google’s a bad company (now anyway), its just that I don’t really think its a good idea to keep all that information quite that centralized. Maybe I’m just being a cranky old librarian.
The wikiwas set up with PBwiki, which I have used in the past with success. I like the ease of use if not the appearance of the interface. The WSYSIWYG editor takes a lot of the heavy lifting out of the process of course. I added my blog to the Favorite Blogs page and a favorite website. Really, anyone who’s already used to using Blogger or WordPress should have no problem with wiki editing. It is important for a “real” wiki that there be editing standards so that there’s a consistent look, but since this one is just for playing around there’s no problem here as far as I’m concerned.
Wikis are a fabulous tool for creating information storehouses. The ability to allow a community to create a storehouse of knowledge is fantastic. The only concern I have about them is that they be used properly. There is a tremendous urge on the part of Librarians to limit wikis. The well-publicized stories of vandalism on Wikipedia are certainly foremost in their minds. However, by limiting access to library staff you cut out potential gold mines of information in your own community and defeat the purpose of a wiki in the first place. In addition, wikis create an expectation that one will be able to edit content, and the fact that a public wiki is closed off to editing can be off-putting.
I know this sounds old school, but if you want to be able to control the content on a page, its perfectly alright to make a normal web page for it. I know wikis are “in” and all, but to make a wiki just because they’re more hip is just plain goofy (I feel like I’m repeating myself). If you chose a wiki because of the ease of use, consider that there are ways to add content to a regular page that are just as simple. For that matter, you could create a wiki, but take the time to make it look less like a wiki. There are services out there that let someone with a little CSS know-how customize the look of their wiki enough to disguise the “wikiness” of their site without compromising the ease of use. Of course, most of these cost money at least a little money…
I guess ultimately, my mantra is “use the right tool for the job”. That’s not always a wiki.
Thing #15 for Learn & Play asks those following along to look at library wikis. Looking at the four mentioned specifically (three of which I’d seen before), I was struck by something. Librarians don’t really seem to ”get” wikis. I think it’s great that there’s a willingness to try out new technology and explore new concepts, but I doesn’t look like they understand said concepts yet. Just look at the four blogs highlighted in the post.
SJCPL Subject Guides- This is the best of the four in many ways, but take heed! This wiki can only be edited by Librarians! I truly do get why, and fully respect the reasoning. After all, as librarians we are charged with providing accurate and useful information. Therefore, the idea of a publicly editable wiki of Subject Guides goes against the grain of our professional ethos completely. However, a publicly accessible wiki editable only by a small group of people goes against the wiki ethos just as much. Libraries need to decide if they trust their community and create something in collaboration with the community (content reviewed by librarians rather than created wholly by Liberians). If not, then maybe an “old fashioned” public website with subject guide pages would be more appropriate. A wiki format has built into it the expectation of user participation, and if the user is kept from participating, then the wiki format may well prove counter productive. If I were to be completely honest, the staff wiki for my branch isn’t even publicly viewable, let alone publicly editable. However, any member of its intended audience can edit, and that makes all the difference.
Book Lovers Wiki- This one really confuses me. This wiki is no longer in active use because its supposed to be a “snapshot in time” of what folks were reading in the 2006 Summer Reading Club. That’s all well and good, but that’s not what a wiki is really supposed to be! A wiki is a living, breathing, evolving website that changes with time rather than sit statically. If they wanted to create such a snapshot, a section integrated into their public web site would have been more appropriate. Let me emphasize this point again. If your creating content that you don’t expect to ever change (with any frequency anyway), you don’t need a wiki!!! A web page/site will suffice!!!! (End of sermon)
Library Sucess: a best practices wiki- Another wiki that confuses me, but for different reasons. Where exactly is the content!!! Some of the sections are fleshed out well, but a startling majority are quite barren (one or two sentences, if that). We’re supposed to be librarians people! Do you mean to tell me that this is the best we can do? This could be an excellent resource if we get folks to participate! I guess this isn’t so much a knock on the site as it is on us! Lets get moving people!!
Bull Run -This site confuses me as well. First of all, it defaults to the “external links” section on the sidebar. Are we trying to get rid of people? It should default to your own content, “the sidebar” tab. Be proud! Highlight yourself!! Second, the site seems to specialize in sharing news and upcoming event information. These are not exactly specialties for wikis. A blog would be much more efficient for a sharing news and a calender app like Google Calender would be more effective at sharing the event information. Finally, doesn’t it seem like this wiki has a lot of information that should appear on the library’s web page? Granted, looking at the Prince William County Library site, I can see why the Bull Run branch would want their own web presence. Still, the library system web site should be there to provide a lot of this information.
I don’t want to come off as a jerk, it just seems to me that libraries need to think more about the appropriateness of the technology their using to the tasks they’re trying to accomplish. Having a wiki for its own sake is borderline silly.
I just love del.icio.us, and I have for quite some time! There’s nothing quite like having your links so conviniently available anywhere you go!! So once again this Learn & Play assignment was easy for me! The best way to use del.icio.us, in my opinion, is to use the buttons and plug-ins. In fact, firefox has a plug in that lets you work with your del.icio.us bookmarks as if they were an intgral part of your browser. I make them very convinent and a very powerful tool, especially for information desk work.
Twitter and I have history. So, some of this Learn & Play exercize was repetitive. I must admit that I did learn a lot about some of the special features from the SLJ article (I didn’t know you could send “directional” tweets).
However it mostly consisted of me dusting off my Twitter account and giving it another go. I have to say that I found it better this time. Its amazing, but in the few months since I last gave it a go, the number of organizations (LJ and gaming sites like Gamespot) with twitter accounts has grown tremendously. \
Still I have to wonder sometimes about the whole concept. What purpose does it really serve? I mean, if you can say it in fewer that 140 characters, is it worth sharing with the whole world? Do we need yet another separate tool to do so?
Don’t get me wrong, I see the utility in some respects. For professtionals at conferences its a great way to share with others whats going on and note one’s initial impressions. For organizations trying to disseminate information its a very efficient means of doing so. However, on an individual level I just don’t know. Do I care that you’re watching Project Runway. Nope, sorry… Do you care that I’m doing housework? Not unless your my mother!
I stand by what I’ve said in the past. Twitter is great for the compulsively in touch. Otherwise…well…(shrugs).
I’m actually an old hand at LibraryThing, so when I saw this was a Learn & Play exercize this week, I was relieved (its been busy). My profile and library have been around since Dec 15, 2006.
LibraryThing, in addition to being a lot of fun (for geeks like me), is also an invalable tool! In my opinion, anyone who is involved with reader’s advisory should have an account and needs to know how to get to their colleagues libraries as well. This is a great way to find good book for customer in unfamiliar genres. For ecample, folks at my branch could use mine for Science Fiction and Fantasy help (provided that I actually kept up with it).
I would actually like to do more with LibraryThing, as I have only a fraction of the books I own or have read included in the catalog. Back around January, I actually bought a CueCat to speed up the process of adding books to my library. Here’s hoping I find the time to use this time-saving device!
To the right you see the results of my Image Generator play for Learn & Play. This was created with the FD Toys“Framer”. This tool could not be easier, especially if your’re using your flickr account.
FD actually has a number of fun little tools, some that I thought were cooler. However, for various reasons, I chose to the time effective approach and made myself a little faux-stamp.
