Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Results of the last poll are in. Amazingly, the comfort food with the most votes was graham crackers dipped in milk. I promise, I only voted once! Next was freshly baked cookies, followed by macaroni & cheese. Sadly, popcorn and homemade soup ended the week with no votes. I guess that makes graham crackers dipped in milk the minority leader of this poll. It's possible the other comfort foods will form a coalition and overthrow the crackers & milk. Time will tell...
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Have added what is likely my last (sniff, sniff) polling question. Another important issue to collect your opinions on. I'll admit, I consider every one of these options to be comfort food, so it was hard to narrow it down to one favourite. Those who know me well though, will know which answer was mine. (Not necessarily the first vote cast!) I only wish there was a way to allow a write in option on the poll as I'm sure that there are many other possibilities and it would be fun to hear what others consider comfort food. Feel free to add a comment if your favourite is not listed.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Assignment 10
Had some trouble getting to the podcast sites. I tried a few times during the week but was unable to get to podcast.net or yahoo podcasts. No trouble with podcastalley though. Lots to see on that site. Could see the benefit of having some library related podcasts. Thinking back to earlier weeks of this course and the podcasts we looked at. It was a useful way to pass along information. I envision podcasts on subjects like 'using iBistro', 'using Novelistplus', 'downloading audio books'. Patrons could access these podcasts and be instructed in these topics.
YouTube. I love YouTube! My family has fun looking up videos here. As my kids tell me, 'you can find anything on YouTube'. Was hard to decide what video to share. Narrowed it down to two. First one is funny. If you are a mom, or know a mom, or have a mom, you might enjoy this. It's called 'The Mom Song'.
This next one is inspiring. It's called 'Yes, we can'. A musician from the Black Eyed Peas took a speach made by President Elect Obama following the New Hampshire primary, put it to music and added video. Very powerful. Wonder what I'd be capable of if I watched this video every morning and took the message to heart. Something to think about.
YouTube. I love YouTube! My family has fun looking up videos here. As my kids tell me, 'you can find anything on YouTube'. Was hard to decide what video to share. Narrowed it down to two. First one is funny. If you are a mom, or know a mom, or have a mom, you might enjoy this. It's called 'The Mom Song'.
This next one is inspiring. It's called 'Yes, we can'. A musician from the Black Eyed Peas took a speach made by President Elect Obama following the New Hampshire primary, put it to music and added video. Very powerful. Wonder what I'd be capable of if I watched this video every morning and took the message to heart. Something to think about.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
assignment # 9
Well, here we are in Zoho. My standard username & password were accepted. Hurray! Seems pretty simple, type here, save it online, post to my blog if i want to, end of story.
My parents just bought a new computer. Their old one was too old and slow for internet connection and the family finally convinced them that getting online would be a good thing. So, first step, getting the components arranged (thanks, Howi) and connected properly. I sat down with dad one morning this week and gave him a very basic tutorial on Microsoft Word. They had been using Wordperfect and their computer was so old that they still had to use the function keys to do things! So, learning how to maneuvere a mouse and getting used to the icons will take a bit of practice. He did quite well and I'm hoping he'll soon see that this new way is easier.
At work these past couple of weeks, I have spent some time with patrons on the public computers, helping them navigate and find their way around. We have upgraded the public computers and some things have changed.
My point is that we need to keep these most beginner computer users in mind when we change things and make improvements. Even something as simple as changing the resolution can throw some users for a loop because it 'looks different'. The way we print from the public machines has changed. It is not hard to find the new way and it is logical but it 'looks different'. More experienced computer users have the confidence to explore and fiddle around to find what they need but for a beginner, that is too much to expect.
I think Zoho is a great tool. Patrons can work on things at home or a library computer. If it is saved online, it is accessible from both places. No need for a memory stick or a floppy disc. (Yes, a floppy disc. We still have patrons who keep their files on these!) Not all of our patrons embrace new technology. They want to use what is familiar to them. I will encourage the use of sites like Zoho but it means learning something new.
Wow. Very easy to post this on my blog. In fact, it was so easy, I was surprised to actually see it here when I checked! I enjoyed my introduction to Zoho. Looking forward to using it again and I will also recommend it to people.
My parents just bought a new computer. Their old one was too old and slow for internet connection and the family finally convinced them that getting online would be a good thing. So, first step, getting the components arranged (thanks, Howi) and connected properly. I sat down with dad one morning this week and gave him a very basic tutorial on Microsoft Word. They had been using Wordperfect and their computer was so old that they still had to use the function keys to do things! So, learning how to maneuvere a mouse and getting used to the icons will take a bit of practice. He did quite well and I'm hoping he'll soon see that this new way is easier.
At work these past couple of weeks, I have spent some time with patrons on the public computers, helping them navigate and find their way around. We have upgraded the public computers and some things have changed.
My point is that we need to keep these most beginner computer users in mind when we change things and make improvements. Even something as simple as changing the resolution can throw some users for a loop because it 'looks different'. The way we print from the public machines has changed. It is not hard to find the new way and it is logical but it 'looks different'. More experienced computer users have the confidence to explore and fiddle around to find what they need but for a beginner, that is too much to expect.
I think Zoho is a great tool. Patrons can work on things at home or a library computer. If it is saved online, it is accessible from both places. No need for a memory stick or a floppy disc. (Yes, a floppy disc. We still have patrons who keep their files on these!) Not all of our patrons embrace new technology. They want to use what is familiar to them. I will encourage the use of sites like Zoho but it means learning something new.
Wow. Very easy to post this on my blog. In fact, it was so easy, I was surprised to actually see it here when I checked! I enjoyed my introduction to Zoho. Looking forward to using it again and I will also recommend it to people.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Assignment # 8
The wonderful world of wikis. I have used Wikipedia a fair amount but had not really explored other wikis until this week. I think wikis are very useful. Wikipedia, for example, is a great tool. When looking for facts and information, Wikipedia is easy to find, easy to use and contains tons of information. There is a downside, of course, and it is huge. Since anyone can contribute information to a wiki, one cannot assume that what is there is completely accurate. I use Wikipedia as a starting place.
Explored the wiki links in this week's assignment. Played with the 'Mfagan wiki' (maps from Waterloo and area) for awhile. There was a UW map that shows the entire campus, plus a list of things you can select (visitor parking, accessible buildings) which are then transposed onto the map. In a few seconds you can have a map of the campus with all the visitor parking places marked clearly. A neat combination of useful online information, customized to meet a specific person's need. However, this site is a good example of how wikis can go wrong. Yes, there is a great collection of maps of the area but there is also lots of unrelated stuff that has nothing to do with mapping. There is an entire section named, 'Businesses, organizations, things to do, etc'. This wiki has morphed into more than it needs to be.
Found the 'Waterloo Way' wiki to be neat and organized. It highlights stories of entrepreneurship in the Waterloo Region. However, another way a wiki has gone wrong. I checked the 'history' tab and found that this site was last updated in May 2007. Yikes. Surely there have been entrepreneurial successes in our Region since then.
This week, I helped a young patron find information on John McCrae's poem, 'In Flanders Fields'. We started at Wikipedia, got some basic info (correct spelling of McCrae's name, date of the poem), then I showed him how to find other sources (websites, books, encyclopedias) to collect more in depth information. The entire interaction took about 5 minutes. He was able to collect the rest of the info by himself. Using Wikipedia to quickly get the most basic info, the search for more was quite easy.
Explored the wiki links in this week's assignment. Played with the 'Mfagan wiki' (maps from Waterloo and area) for awhile. There was a UW map that shows the entire campus, plus a list of things you can select (visitor parking, accessible buildings) which are then transposed onto the map. In a few seconds you can have a map of the campus with all the visitor parking places marked clearly. A neat combination of useful online information, customized to meet a specific person's need. However, this site is a good example of how wikis can go wrong. Yes, there is a great collection of maps of the area but there is also lots of unrelated stuff that has nothing to do with mapping. There is an entire section named, 'Businesses, organizations, things to do, etc'. This wiki has morphed into more than it needs to be.
Found the 'Waterloo Way' wiki to be neat and organized. It highlights stories of entrepreneurship in the Waterloo Region. However, another way a wiki has gone wrong. I checked the 'history' tab and found that this site was last updated in May 2007. Yikes. Surely there have been entrepreneurial successes in our Region since then.
This week, I helped a young patron find information on John McCrae's poem, 'In Flanders Fields'. We started at Wikipedia, got some basic info (correct spelling of McCrae's name, date of the poem), then I showed him how to find other sources (websites, books, encyclopedias) to collect more in depth information. The entire interaction took about 5 minutes. He was able to collect the rest of the info by himself. Using Wikipedia to quickly get the most basic info, the search for more was quite easy.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
The results of my last poll are in. 5 people voted on the Milne character they most relate to. Tigger won with 2 votes. Pooh Bear, Eeyore & Owl all tied with 1. OK, not an overwhelming response but I can't have every poll about chocolate! My kids were disappointed that Piglet didn't appear on the list of choices. I am only allowed 4 choices and I thought I'd better include Owl because I'm doing this as part of a library group. My apologies to all the Piglet fans out there.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Assignment # 7
Lots of reading this week. Found the articles helpful. I had never been quite sure what Library 2.0 (or Web 2.0) really meant. Was there a Library 1.0 (or Web 1.0)?
I liked Meredith Farkas' approach. Her advice is to focus on our patrons' needs, not just the cool tools. The big question is, 'how do we assess our patrons' needs?'. How do we know what tools the patrons will use the most until we try them all? We also need staff time to implement these things. It would be great to be able to help patrons explore and learn these new tools but we really don't have the time to do that. She also cautioned that using these new tools to promote the library is only a positive change if the tools are updated regularly. I agree. There's nothing more frustrating than an out of date website.
'Away from the Iceberg', gave me lots to think about. Reduce our print collection? Eek! His point was that as patrons get used to the new technology (blogs, digital books), they will need books in traditional print form less. Made me think about the way I personally use the library. It is not often that I actually go to the shelf to browse for a title. I keep up to date on what is being published and place holds on the titles I want and wait for them to arrive, regularly checking my place in line, of course. Thank goodness not all patrons do that! He also mentioned that libraries used to have a monopoly on information. If you needed to find information, you went to the library and looked it up in a print source. We no longer have that monopoly. What can we do to acknowledge & adapt to that change?
'To better bibliographic services' by John Riemer, gave us some specific goals.
1) package & print metadata
2) broaden relevance ranking
3) adopt web features
4) expand delivery
5) streamline metadata creation (share info between institutions)
His challenge is that libraries should do more with the metadata they create.
In, 'To a temporary place in time', Dr. Wendy Schultz took me on a quick tour of Libraries 1.0-4.0.
1.0 = commodity; 2.0 = product; 3.0 = service; 4.0 = experience
Loved her description of the 4.0 neo library - 'a retreat from technohustle, with comfortable chairs, quiet, good light, coffee & single malt'. Hmmm... think of all the libraries you have been in and then narrow the list down to a few favourites. I'll bet they had most of these qualities (maybe not the single malt). I hope that no matter how much change there is in the way we exchange information from person to person, there will always be a room full of shelved books to do it in.
I liked Meredith Farkas' approach. Her advice is to focus on our patrons' needs, not just the cool tools. The big question is, 'how do we assess our patrons' needs?'. How do we know what tools the patrons will use the most until we try them all? We also need staff time to implement these things. It would be great to be able to help patrons explore and learn these new tools but we really don't have the time to do that. She also cautioned that using these new tools to promote the library is only a positive change if the tools are updated regularly. I agree. There's nothing more frustrating than an out of date website.
'Away from the Iceberg', gave me lots to think about. Reduce our print collection? Eek! His point was that as patrons get used to the new technology (blogs, digital books), they will need books in traditional print form less. Made me think about the way I personally use the library. It is not often that I actually go to the shelf to browse for a title. I keep up to date on what is being published and place holds on the titles I want and wait for them to arrive, regularly checking my place in line, of course. Thank goodness not all patrons do that! He also mentioned that libraries used to have a monopoly on information. If you needed to find information, you went to the library and looked it up in a print source. We no longer have that monopoly. What can we do to acknowledge & adapt to that change?
'To better bibliographic services' by John Riemer, gave us some specific goals.
1) package & print metadata
2) broaden relevance ranking
3) adopt web features
4) expand delivery
5) streamline metadata creation (share info between institutions)
His challenge is that libraries should do more with the metadata they create.
In, 'To a temporary place in time', Dr. Wendy Schultz took me on a quick tour of Libraries 1.0-4.0.
1.0 = commodity; 2.0 = product; 3.0 = service; 4.0 = experience
Loved her description of the 4.0 neo library - 'a retreat from technohustle, with comfortable chairs, quiet, good light, coffee & single malt'. Hmmm... think of all the libraries you have been in and then narrow the list down to a few favourites. I'll bet they had most of these qualities (maybe not the single malt). I hope that no matter how much change there is in the way we exchange information from person to person, there will always be a room full of shelved books to do it in.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Assignment # 6
Whew! What a week. Had a kid-related mini-crisis this week that took up a lot of time. Certainly not a major problem in the grand scheme of the universe but in my tiny corner of the world, enough to stress me out for a few days. Don't you find that even tiny problems can really bug you? OK, enough. Let me try to focus.
Del.icio.us & Technorati. Signed up on both sites. They took the same user name - yeah! Spent some time exploring. Found Del.icio.us easier overall to navigate. Can't help but feel like I don't really get it this week. Not sure how these sites would benefit me in my daily life or work. Why are these better than a google search? I realize that you get comments from others and it is easy to see what links are most popular but that doesn't necessarily give them more credibility for me. I think I need to explore further.
Will watch my classmates' entries with interest this week. Hopefully someone will be super keen on one of these sites and be able to explain to me why it is useful.
My second poll closed. A clear majority of those polled prefer peanut M&Ms. Yum. This topic gave me the munchies. My new question has nothing to do with food.
Del.icio.us & Technorati. Signed up on both sites. They took the same user name - yeah! Spent some time exploring. Found Del.icio.us easier overall to navigate. Can't help but feel like I don't really get it this week. Not sure how these sites would benefit me in my daily life or work. Why are these better than a google search? I realize that you get comments from others and it is easy to see what links are most popular but that doesn't necessarily give them more credibility for me. I think I need to explore further.
Will watch my classmates' entries with interest this week. Hopefully someone will be super keen on one of these sites and be able to explain to me why it is useful.
My second poll closed. A clear majority of those polled prefer peanut M&Ms. Yum. This topic gave me the munchies. My new question has nothing to do with food.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
In honour of the federal election, here are some quotes:
'Vote early and vote often.' - Al Capone
'A vote is like a rifle: it's usefulness depends upon the character of the individual.' - Theodore Roosevelt
(advice to students)'All you need to do is to show up with some official looking mail with your address on it, your student card and your ID. And not your fake ID either, your real one.' - Rick Mercer
Democracy only works when people show up at the polls.
Take the time to vote today. No excuses.
'Vote early and vote often.' - Al Capone
'A vote is like a rifle: it's usefulness depends upon the character of the individual.' - Theodore Roosevelt
(advice to students)'All you need to do is to show up with some official looking mail with your address on it, your student card and your ID. And not your fake ID either, your real one.' - Rick Mercer
Democracy only works when people show up at the polls.
Take the time to vote today. No excuses.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Assignment # 5
Had a lot of fun playing with Library Thing. What a neat website. Sign up process was extremely easy. Quickly added a bunch of books to my list. Not sure that I will keep this up though. I have a good system in place for keeping track of the books I've read on (gasp) paper. In all likelihood, I will continue with my established system for the simple reason that it's quicker and will leave me more time to read. I do plan to spend more time on Library Thing checking out some book reviews.
Now for Facebook. Believe it or not, I had never been on Facebook before. (Perhaps the last human being to venture there?) I have promised myself that I will become a member when one of my kids signs up, so I can keep an eye on them. Had a look at the Green page. Was interesting to read but in my humble opinion it seemed like very few posts actually had anything worthwhile to say. Lots of whining, complaining, swearing, bad grammer and spelling - all things I would like to see less of in the world. From what I have seen this week on Facebook, I don't really think that the library would benefit from having a page there.
Now for Facebook. Believe it or not, I had never been on Facebook before. (Perhaps the last human being to venture there?) I have promised myself that I will become a member when one of my kids signs up, so I can keep an eye on them. Had a look at the Green page. Was interesting to read but in my humble opinion it seemed like very few posts actually had anything worthwhile to say. Lots of whining, complaining, swearing, bad grammer and spelling - all things I would like to see less of in the world. From what I have seen this week on Facebook, I don't really think that the library would benefit from having a page there.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Assignment # 4
Was glad to discover what that little orange box with the curvy lines in it is all about. Had seen the symbol but didn't know what it was for. Find the idea of RSS feeds to be intriguing. Parking sites relevant to me so that I can view them all from one place seems like an efficient way to manage one's quest for knowledge. Had some difficulty getting onto bloglines. The first day I tried, I couldn't get on the site at all (tried on and off for about 2 hours). The next time, I was able to get on the site but it repeatedly froze on the 'sign up now' process (again, this was over a period of more than an hour). Found it quite frustrating. Third time was the charm. Set up an account, subscribed to a bunch of feeds. Once I was actually in the site, it was very easy to understand and to use.
With my frustrating introduction to bloglines in mind, I took a bit of time to make changes to my yahoo homepage. I have customized it and added some rss feeds. For me, this is even more efficient than using bloglines. I check my email account numerous times during the day and while I am doing that, I can scan the feeds that I have selected.
Not exactly sure if RSS feeds would be a helpful tool at the library. Perhaps selecting some feeds for the public computers but I think that generally the patrons using those computers have a specific task or web destination in mind. Seeing as a patron's time is often limited to 30 minutes, that's not much time to read the feeds that we have selected for them and then do whatever it is they actually set out to do.
I added a feed from the 'unshelved' comic to the bottom of my blog. This is a comic strip that takes place in a library. Makes me laugh. Was thinking the feed would display the actual comic but it appears as a link. Hope I did it right. If you like the comic, you can also sign up to have it emailed to you daily. Or, feed it into your blog. Enjoy.
Not much time left for my poll. It's too close to call at this point, so if you haven't voted yet, get to it!
With my frustrating introduction to bloglines in mind, I took a bit of time to make changes to my yahoo homepage. I have customized it and added some rss feeds. For me, this is even more efficient than using bloglines. I check my email account numerous times during the day and while I am doing that, I can scan the feeds that I have selected.
Not exactly sure if RSS feeds would be a helpful tool at the library. Perhaps selecting some feeds for the public computers but I think that generally the patrons using those computers have a specific task or web destination in mind. Seeing as a patron's time is often limited to 30 minutes, that's not much time to read the feeds that we have selected for them and then do whatever it is they actually set out to do.
I added a feed from the 'unshelved' comic to the bottom of my blog. This is a comic strip that takes place in a library. Makes me laugh. Was thinking the feed would display the actual comic but it appears as a link. Hope I did it right. If you like the comic, you can also sign up to have it emailed to you daily. Or, feed it into your blog. Enjoy.
Not much time left for my poll. It's too close to call at this point, so if you haven't voted yet, get to it!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Had a bit of time to fiddle, so changed the look of my blog a little. The other blogs I have been reading looked a lot cooler than mine, so hopefully the changes will help. Made some new colour choices, moved things around a little bit and added a photo of myself. I am also pleased to introduce my first poll. Hope to get lots of votes. The results will be available next week. While I was fiddling, I got a few more ideas, so I hope to add more things soon. In the meantime, I'll be busy thinking of my next polling question. If you have any suggestions, just let me know.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Assignment # 3
Just did a tour of the Flickr site. Seems pretty straight forward. Uploaded a couple of images. No personal photos due to my paranoia of posting things on the internet. I can see how Flickr would be a neat way to sort and organize digital photos. I really like the fact that I can control the privacy levels. Not enough of a tech whiz to know if their different privacy settings really mean anything. (How skilled would someone have to be to hack in, even on the highest privacy setting? I know rationally that it is extremely unlikely that anyone out there really cares about my personal life enough to try to get information about me in this way, but hey, remember I'm the mystery reader and many a plot has been built around someone being careless with their personal information.)
The images I uploaded are done by the artist Mary Engelbreit. She does great work. Lots of prints to do with reading, family, pets and just life in general. She uses bright colours that really catch my eye and I just love looking at her work. Right now at the top of where I am typing, there is a bunch of character lines that mean nothing to me. They appeared right after I uploaded the image. Will be interested to see if the image actually shows up on the blog or if it is just these meaningless (to me!) characters. Just checked and there is the actually picture on the blog page! Yeah! I like how the image looks as part of the blog post and will likely select more to add to future posts.
Just checked out some mashup sites. Pretty funny. I like the Bart Simpson chalkboard one. My kids will get a kick out of that one. Another fun one that I know of is the jibjab site (www.jibjab.com). It is a site that has song videos poking fun at American politics and culture. There are a number of their songs that you can upload photos into so that you (or whomever you choose!) is in the video. Very funny.
I tried the 'add link' function to add a link to the jibjab site but all I got was:
Doesn't look like a link to me. Not sure what I did wrong. A line of characters shows up on my edit page but here on the blog it's just blank. Anyway, it's well worth the effort of getting to the site. Lots of fun stuff there.
Not exactly sure how all this would be useful to me at work. I can't imagine ever having time to actually do to it! Maybe a photo slide show of branch activities? I could envision myself doing a mystery reader blog, giving book reviews of the books i'm reading. Adding a photo of each book cover would be good for all the visual learners out there!
Monday, September 15, 2008
Assignment # 2
So, for assignment number 2, we get to create a blog. I feel so cool! Won't admit to the amount of time it took to decide upon my very uninteresting blog title and signature name.
I think what excites me most about this course is the chance to try out some of things that I've heard about. Blogging would be a good example. I know what it is. I know lots of people blog but I've never even read anyone's blog. I'm already thinking about how neat it would be to blog about the books I read. Titles, authors and a brief summary, including information like 'if you like this author, then try...' would be a neat way of recommending books to patrons.
I think the only thing that makes me nervous about this course is the not knowing exactly what I'm getting into. (That is just the way I am. I would prefer life to be predictable and organized, preferably a few weeks in advance. Haven't figured out how to get the universe to cooperate with me on that one!)
As I look at the course outline, there are a fair number of things on the list that I have never even heard of before. I don't know what an 'RRS' is. My only reference for 'tagging' is playing games with my kids. Only know what Flickr is because I looked it up yesterday after seeing it on the outline! Have heard of Facebook but never gone there. I have a basic knowledge of Wikis and have used Wikipedia quite often. I do know lots about Youtube because I have kids and they spend lots of time showing me all the funny, although sometime completely inappropriate, things that they find there!
Spent a little time adding info to my profile. Didn't use any specific information. Don't like the idea of putting anything that could actually identify myself out there into cyberspace. Maybe I read too many mystery novels but for now my profile will be vague.
I think what excites me most about this course is the chance to try out some of things that I've heard about. Blogging would be a good example. I know what it is. I know lots of people blog but I've never even read anyone's blog. I'm already thinking about how neat it would be to blog about the books I read. Titles, authors and a brief summary, including information like 'if you like this author, then try...' would be a neat way of recommending books to patrons.
I think the only thing that makes me nervous about this course is the not knowing exactly what I'm getting into. (That is just the way I am. I would prefer life to be predictable and organized, preferably a few weeks in advance. Haven't figured out how to get the universe to cooperate with me on that one!)
As I look at the course outline, there are a fair number of things on the list that I have never even heard of before. I don't know what an 'RRS' is. My only reference for 'tagging' is playing games with my kids. Only know what Flickr is because I looked it up yesterday after seeing it on the outline! Have heard of Facebook but never gone there. I have a basic knowledge of Wikis and have used Wikipedia quite often. I do know lots about Youtube because I have kids and they spend lots of time showing me all the funny, although sometime completely inappropriate, things that they find there!
Spent a little time adding info to my profile. Didn't use any specific information. Don't like the idea of putting anything that could actually identify myself out there into cyberspace. Maybe I read too many mystery novels but for now my profile will be vague.
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