Well, I got way more out of this course than I thought I might. It pushed me to explore online resources that I had heard about but hadn't taken the time to get to know how to use. I found out that I despise Delicious and I love Twitter. Before I began, I expected the opposite to be true! I also learned how to post to this blog in a kind of elaborate way with embedded links and so on. I am so happy to know how to do that now.
23Things covered so many free things on the Web, but left out MySpace, Facebook and searching or uploading to institutional repositories, among other things, and it didn't cover anything that has fees attached, like Skype and iTunes. In all, I think that the course was well planned, and I sure enjoyed going through it. I loved--in fact, required--that I could do it at my own pace during an allotted time. If the time schedule was much shorter or stricter, it would not have worked well for me.
I enjoyed learning about some of my proximate colleagues through this course, but it doesn't hold a candle to sitting in a room with people week after week. Really I think it's better to have actual human contact when learning. Who will I keep in contact with after the course is over? That part will be missing.
If the Commission offered another discovery exercise, I would certainly consider participating if it met my needs at the time, and if I felt I had the time to do it. Also, that it was free was a big draw for me.
Many compliments to the NLC staff who organized the course and to the originators at Mecklenburg Library. Best wishes to the instructors and to my "classmates," and Happy New Year to you all.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Podcasts
Podcasting is the topic that drew me to participate in 23Things, ultimately. I was hoping to learn how to post podcasts through this course, so I am so glad that there are resources listed for doing that. As for listening to podcasts, I have done that off and on for a couple of years now. To fulfill the requirements for this Thing, I subscribed to NPR's Sunday Puzzle with Will Shortz, and I added the RSS feed for it to my Bloglines account. I often miss it on Sunday because it is on at a busy time in my house. So subscribing to it will help me catch it each week.
Podcasting is a great way to share audio and video sessions with a potentially wide audience, so it has innumerable applications in libraries and academia, etc. Also, I imagine that some version of it is probably going to be around for a long time. The only thing that I don't like about subscribing to podcasts is that they just keep coming, whether you have time to listen to them or not. It's one more thing to keep track of and to incorporate into every day life. But I know that I am free to delete one if I don't listen to it--though that is somehow easier said than done. In all, I am amazed at all the content that is available, and I adore the audio format.
Podcasting is a great way to share audio and video sessions with a potentially wide audience, so it has innumerable applications in libraries and academia, etc. Also, I imagine that some version of it is probably going to be around for a long time. The only thing that I don't like about subscribing to podcasts is that they just keep coming, whether you have time to listen to them or not. It's one more thing to keep track of and to incorporate into every day life. But I know that I am free to delete one if I don't listen to it--though that is somehow easier said than done. In all, I am amazed at all the content that is available, and I adore the audio format.
YouTube
Some months ago, I wasted--I mean *spent*--a lot of time exploring YouTube, looking at everything from video of Letchworth State Park in New York, near where I'm from, to Mark Morris dances and rehearsals, to the Stone Roses music (Fools' Gold, one of my old favorites) and lots of other music uploads, and so much more. I enjoy YouTube, but I have learned not to read the comments very much. They are often off-topic, abusive, inane and otherwise unhelpful. There are many obvious possible applications in libraries, and I'm sure that some library staffs are using YouTube in very creative ways.
I have not uploaded a video to YouTube, but this is a little video that my husband uploaded a while back.
By the way, I love the Dr. Horrible video that one of the posters on the 23Things site directed us to!
I have not uploaded a video to YouTube, but this is a little video that my husband uploaded a while back.
By the way, I love the Dr. Horrible video that one of the posters on the 23Things site directed us to!
Discovering Web 2.0 tools
I saw that last.fm won first place in the Music category of the SEOmoz's awards. I was a fervent user of last.fm for a while and discovered some great music that way. But the site kept losing my data somehow. I forget the details of what exactly went wrong by now, but I do remember that it was so annoying that I deleted my whole account. One other funny thing was that artists and others can manipulate the site to mess with what you see depending on how you enter a name. I entered "Winehouse, Amy," for instance, and on that page it said something like: "There ain't NOBODY called WINEHOUSE, AMY, so update your ?*&#$! files!!!" (I know that I shouldn't have been, probably, but I was a bit put off by that.) At least that taught me that you couldn't rely on how many other users listened to an artist because some entered the names inverted (like this cataloger did) and some put them in directly, and that changed how the site worked. I went so far as to put all the names in both ways--a bit much, I admit it ...
Another site that I have used some is Lulu.com. The very large Dictionary of Invertebrate Zoology was getting so many hits on the UNL Dig Comm Web site that the authors were asked if they would like the full book-length version of the dictionary to be made available via Lulu and the authors agreed. From the Dig Comm site: "The Dictionary is now available for purchase in an 8.5 x 11" hardcover edition, 381 pages, for a price of $90.00. Copies may be ordered at http://www.lulu.com/content/2080614." I don't know yet how well the book is selling, but it's been fun to help with publishing a scholarly work this way.
I hate to say it, but I was glad to see that LibraryThing did not win an outright award in the books category. Though I use their site very often, and to record thousands of books, I see huge flaws with what they're doing, as I have talked about in earlier posts. This exercise has led me to Vufind, and I will be curious to look into what that is all about. I like the look of it, but there's a lot to absorb about it. It could be really good, depending on how you can import data. I see that some major libraries are trying it out, and a few are even live with it. This looks promising so far.
Another site that I have used some is Lulu.com. The very large Dictionary of Invertebrate Zoology was getting so many hits on the UNL Dig Comm Web site that the authors were asked if they would like the full book-length version of the dictionary to be made available via Lulu and the authors agreed. From the Dig Comm site: "The Dictionary is now available for purchase in an 8.5 x 11" hardcover edition, 381 pages, for a price of $90.00. Copies may be ordered at http://www.lulu.com/content/2080614." I don't know yet how well the book is selling, but it's been fun to help with publishing a scholarly work this way.
I hate to say it, but I was glad to see that LibraryThing did not win an outright award in the books category. Though I use their site very often, and to record thousands of books, I see huge flaws with what they're doing, as I have talked about in earlier posts. This exercise has led me to Vufind, and I will be curious to look into what that is all about. I like the look of it, but there's a lot to absorb about it. It could be really good, depending on how you can import data. I see that some major libraries are trying it out, and a few are even live with it. This looks promising so far.
Thing #19 12-27-08
Thing #19: Apps, They're not just for desktops any more
I have wanted to try Google Docs for a while now and just hadn't gotten around to doing it. I see that it has the look of Word in many ways. I use Word when I am prepping documents for uploading to the UNL institutional repository (UNL Digital Commons Web site). I almost universally use Book Antiqua font there and I use the symbols a ton. The symbols list looks pretty good, but Book Antiqua is not a built-in font. I don't know if you could add a font some way. Otherwise, I am looking around at the menus and see that a lot of what I use in Word is available here, too (subscript, superscript, and some other formatting things). So, on the face of it, it could work for the preliminary editing that I do in Word. I do my final editing in InDesign, and I don't know of an app that would be like that.
I don't see of a way to place a new command on the tool bar. I went to the Google Docs blog and did a search on "toolbar" and still didn't see a way to customize the toolbar. Also, the paragraph formatting tools seem pretty meager in Google Docs, though I was able to do some fiddling with the paragraph spacing. So, I still prefer Word for my Dig Comm work, but I can see using G-Docs from time to time for other things. Or, I could start my work in G-Docs and then download the file as a Word doc and go from there. Good deal. It sure is handy--could use it at a public computer, for instance.
I posted this right from Google Docs, and then I added this one sentence with the Compose feature in Blogger. Easy and intuitive, wow.
I have wanted to try Google Docs for a while now and just hadn't gotten around to doing it. I see that it has the look of Word in many ways. I use Word when I am prepping documents for uploading to the UNL institutional repository (UNL Digital Commons Web site). I almost universally use Book Antiqua font there and I use the symbols a ton. The symbols list looks pretty good, but Book Antiqua is not a built-in font. I don't know if you could add a font some way. Otherwise, I am looking around at the menus and see that a lot of what I use in Word is available here, too (subscript, superscript, and some other formatting things). So, on the face of it, it could work for the preliminary editing that I do in Word. I do my final editing in InDesign, and I don't know of an app that would be like that.
I don't see of a way to place a new command on the tool bar. I went to the Google Docs blog and did a search on "toolbar" and still didn't see a way to customize the toolbar. Also, the paragraph formatting tools seem pretty meager in Google Docs, though I was able to do some fiddling with the paragraph spacing. So, I still prefer Word for my Dig Comm work, but I can see using G-Docs from time to time for other things. Or, I could start my work in G-Docs and then download the file as a Word doc and go from there. Good deal. It sure is handy--could use it at a public computer, for instance.
I posted this right from Google Docs, and then I added this one sentence with the Compose feature in Blogger. Easy and intuitive, wow.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Playing around with PBWiki
I added favorites to the books page and the music page, and added a link to my Nebraska Learns blog on the blog favorites page. I enjoyed this exercise and could see it being useful in many ways in the library and otherwise. Wikis are easy to use and to edit--they're forgiving of errors.
It is Christmas Eve, so now I am going to bake some cookies and start to make dinner. What a beautiful day in Lincoln, Nebraska today. It's cold (9 degrees F) but sunny with lots of holiday mood-enhancing snow on the ground.
It is Christmas Eve, so now I am going to bake some cookies and start to make dinner. What a beautiful day in Lincoln, Nebraska today. It's cold (9 degrees F) but sunny with lots of holiday mood-enhancing snow on the ground.
Wikis
I have written entries for an Oxford University Press encyclopedia and the process was strictly peer-reviewed. Jimmy Wales says not to cite ANY encyclopedia. Well, my entries were reviewed scrupulously, so I can stand squarely by the information I gathered for the essays. As for the dinosaur-version of encyclopedias, it's worth the time and effort to ensure that correct information is available to students, researchers and the public.
Henry Bryant Bigelow
Gail Borden
Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell
Wikis can be a good tool for internal communication, as many have said, or good for starting points on obscure or very current subjects. But as a research tool, not so much.
Speaking of specific wikis, I LOVED the St. Joseph County Public Library cooking subject page! It has the look of an old-fashioned pathfinder, which I learned to create in library school. There's information on the location and hours of the local farmers' market and even a recipe there! All of the library's cooking magazine subscriptions are listed (with links to the catalog records; helpful). There's a link to a local chocolate company's Web site and so much more; I am impressed. If I find out about specific subject pages of interest to me locally, I will certainly participate in the updating and maintenance of those sites. When used like this, wikis are bar-none for information sharing.
An aside: the CommonCraft videos are funny! They use bits of paper to show things about technology. I find that ironic, but charming.
Another aside: When I looked at the site yesterday, I was surprised to see Wales asking Wikipedia users for cash. What's that all about?
Henry Bryant Bigelow
Gail Borden
Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell
Wikis can be a good tool for internal communication, as many have said, or good for starting points on obscure or very current subjects. But as a research tool, not so much.
Speaking of specific wikis, I LOVED the St. Joseph County Public Library cooking subject page! It has the look of an old-fashioned pathfinder, which I learned to create in library school. There's information on the location and hours of the local farmers' market and even a recipe there! All of the library's cooking magazine subscriptions are listed (with links to the catalog records; helpful). There's a link to a local chocolate company's Web site and so much more; I am impressed. If I find out about specific subject pages of interest to me locally, I will certainly participate in the updating and maintenance of those sites. When used like this, wikis are bar-none for information sharing.
An aside: the CommonCraft videos are funny! They use bits of paper to show things about technology. I find that ironic, but charming.
Another aside: When I looked at the site yesterday, I was surprised to see Wales asking Wikipedia users for cash. What's that all about?
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