Overdrive announced several months ago their intent to start releasing material in MP3 format to allow iPod users to use their digital audiobooks and music. They have now delivered on that promise. Checking the MOLDI site (mentioned in a previous post), I saw a big announcement of their inclusion. I have to say I’m pleased as punch, both as a iPod owner and a Librarian. This sould go a long way toward making this service more useful for our customers and I couldn’t be happier.
This service is still in the larval stage of course. There are currently only 177 titles available in MP3, only 4.4% of the 3,993 titles available in WMA format. However, this will only increase. It also looks (at least at first glance) that a good job has been done in selecting interesting titles for the “first run”.
I look forward to having the chance to take advantage of this new service.
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!!!
For those not Learning & Playing along with the rest of CML, one of this week’s tasks was to ruminate on “Library 2.0“.
As the post on the Learn and Play blog indicates, Library 2.0 is different things to different people. To me there are three essential concepts.
The first is Connectivity. The idea that libraries and their customers and their communities are all linked, communicating, and sharing in both directions. Libraries to customers and customers to libraries. This communication helps the library to be attuned to the needs of the community and responsive to them. Libraries also need to be farming the intellectual capital of their communities, organize it, and reflect it back to its community.
The second is Flexibility. Libraries need to be open to the idea of change and renewal. The need to be willing to act on the information with connectivity affords and produce products and services that utilize it while improving their existing services.
The third is Addition. In my view, Library 2.0 is an additive model. It is new of layers of new possibilities on top of what already exists. We cannot afford to heedlessly dismiss the past becasue we want to move in a new direction. Instead, you use the past as a foundation for the future. In a library example, you don’t get rid of Interlibrary Loan service because you add a huge new e-book collection. One is not a replacement for the other, merely a supplement.
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.
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!
My latest “Learn & Play” assignment was to play around with Bloglines and RSS feeds. I tried Bloglines a long time ago and was pleased to see its better than I remember. I still prefer using the aggregator in Outlook 07. I can’t “take it with me”, but it’s more intuitive for me to check my feeds at the same time (and in the same interface) that I check my email.
It’s too bad that GroupWise at CML doesn’t have a RSS aggregator module installed. I’m pretty sure it’s available. I’d be all over that!
Here’s a look at my Bloglines account. I’ll try to add additional feeds later…as a public service if not for me!
Have you ever seen anything more pitiful? Hmm? If you stare at the picture and listen very carefully you can almost hear them saying, “Digitize me! Digitize me!”.
In my, “money is no object” library dreamworld, poor defenseless local history like this would not go undigitized! I had the fortune to see the “inside” of a yearbook digitization project during my MLIS practicum at Upper Arlington Public Library! Its a lot of work, but entirely worth it in my mind. Think of the treasure such a resource could be both locally and even nationally (think genealogists).
Flickr, by the by, rules! I have to say that I never really, “got” Flickr before. I was never a real big “picture-taker”. Now I’m begining to see the appeal. I think I’m going to upload my photos from my recent Washington DC trip (so look forward to that with bated breath!).
Appearently. Check out this article from newsweek. It discusses new attempts to reign in the bohemian, democratic world of Web 2.0. Yes, my librarian friends, authority is enjoying an upswing! (Best not ditch those reference desks just yet).
This comes as welcome, if unsurprising, news. After all, inaccurate information is as valuable as no information. The only thing that suprises me is how long it took…
