week 9, #23

Comments

I did the Blog comments, 1 to a CCPL person, 1 to a librarian outside of our system.

Thoughts on the learning journey -
It is very necessary for info people especially to know that these Things exist and have a basic knowledge of what they are. These Things and others like them will become more and more inportant to future librarians.
I do not like putting any personal information on the web. I do not want to share my personal thoughts, pictures, books that I am reading with millions of strangers, some of whom may be very undesirable.
Many Things presumed a level of expertise that I do not have. Many instructions said 'just' do this and 15 min. later I still had not figured it out. Frustrating and a time waster. Please have better instruction.
I am glad I stuck to it until the end and glad to be somewhat familiar with the wave of the future for libraries.

week 9, #22

overdrive, netlibrary, project Gutenberg

Such long-drawn-out and confusing directions for overdrive! I never did find the overdrive media console icon. I have access to these ebooks from CCPL web site. Do I not need to set up an account? This is one more example of my frustration with so many instructions and tutorials in these 23Things. It is such a pain to try to wade through them, it hardly seems worth the effort.
I have been familiar with Project Gutenberg, so further explored this site. There is a title I may download, "The Tiger" by William Blake. I haven't read/heard this in quite a while. This is the human-read version.

week 9, # 21

Locating podcasts
I looked at podcast.net and Merlin. None of the podcasts that I really wanted to add had rss feeds. I finally added LibVibe, a library news podcast to the Bloglines.
Most helpful was reviewing the Bloglines tutorial to refresh myself on how to add rss feeds.
This was a very frustrating Thing because the Merlin podcasts I liked had no rss.
Especially interesting to me was the "History in the Movies" podcast - how movies affect our perception of history, and how to evaluate history in a movie. This would give great information for doing a 'movie talk' instead of a 'book talk'. Could be great fun and up movie circs.

week 9, # 20

Utube
I watched 15 videos on Utube. Most were OK, generally funny. None too objectionable like many on Google. Yahoo was similar to Utube. The video I choose is "My Favorite Commercial". This is the Budweiser one where the foal tries to pull the Budweiser wagon, not knowing that Mom and Pop Clydesdales are pushing from behind. It is a feel good video, imaginative and beautifully filmed. And, of course, it has horses.
Videos could be used to enhance library programs and provide background for research projects.

week 8, # 19

Web 2.0 awards site.
I chose Library Thing. This site has multiple ways to play with books - uses tags to sort by type, wish list, genre, etc. One can see who else shares interest in a book. There is a list of authors who use Library Thing. I liked the option to be private, ease of entering books, list of groups to see who has similar interests. The Suggestions tab lead me to titles and authors new to me, lots of which sound interesting. (Oh dear, more books I want to read!)
The charges for entering a large library and sales items were a bit off-putting, but maybe necessary to maintain the site.
Library applications could be for book discussion clubs for patrons or CARRT or Great Books committee. With this there could be on-line discussion supplementing in person meetings.
It would also be good to compile lists for projects.
An altogether fun and useful site.

test run

test run

 

This is a simple document to learn about ZoHo postings.

week 8, #18

I set up a ZoHo account. Explored ZoHo features. Created a test document and published it to my blog. ZoHo has lots of features useful in library situations - spreadsheets, presentation planner, Wiki. ZoHo is a neat thing to know about.

week 7, # 17

I added my blog to the Favorite Blogs page and posted some favorite things to the Main Page.
Wikis can be fun!

week 7, # 16

Wikis
Wikis are handy tools to get people together. Because they are easier to use than some other applications, people are more apt to post their comments.
I looked at - SJCPL Subject Guides - handy info on all sorts of local venues, Farmers Markets, Genealogy, Cooking. If we had one for Carroll Co. it would be good to refer patrons to who are new in the area.
- Library 2.0 in 15 minutes a day. A self tutorial for 23 Things. This will be good to come back to when we need a refresher.
- Book Lovers Wiki. Great. Applications in Readers Advisory, and for personal use. Also, how about for CARRT?
- Library Success-Best Practices. I can always use new ideas for better customer service.
-ALA '06. Local info so participants can get the most of their conference experience. Would be great if we host a conference.
- Merlin. Looked at this before. It mentions CCPL's Project Forum which we have used for awhile.

week 6, #15

2.0 and the future of libraries

I read all of the perspectives and the other items.

Comments on "Away from Icebergs". Rick Anderson presents 3 concerns for libraries.
1 - Getting away from the 'just in case' collection. This is not thinking first of the print collection, but of all the other ways of getting knowledge. For many patrons, especially the younger ones, this comes easily. But there are a significant number of other patrons, generally older ones, who need to be convinced of how much more accurate and easy to use the new options are. This will be one-on-one help. See change as an opportunity, not an 'iceberg'.
2 - Not relying on user education. If there is a problem, fix the service, not the patron. I am all in favor of that.
3 - Don't try to make the patron come to us, find a way to get the service to the patron. Libraries will need to do this to move forward.

Week 6, #14

Technorati -
I had explored this in #13 and didn't think much of it. So I gave it another chance here - and think even less of it. Cannot think why I would want to keep track of 5.1 million personal opinions. Found 28,482 Blog posts, 524 Blogs about Learning 2.0. Never could find the Blog directory.
Looked at Top Favorited and TopBlogs which featured BoingBoing - why would I want to learn how to piss in Germany? In the list of Top Searches there was nothing I wanted to spend time on.
On to the next thing.

week 6, #13

tagging

Technorati had very recent pictures of the Mississippi river bridge collapse today. But similar ones are on all the major news sites. I tried several searches and most of the posts were very personal ramblings of people who need to get a real life, not a virtual substitute. I have many other things to do with my time.
Watched the alternate tutorial for del.icio.us. Explored the site and liked BookFinder. I would think del.icio.us to be valuable for research projects.
Looked at several of the listed libraries d pages. Could not find how to access them except from the links in 23 things. I don't see that this is so valuable. A catalog search would be quicker and less cumbersome.
Clicked on several popular bookmarks and saw the comments and other possible tag names.
del.icio.us could be very useful in doing research, especially where one may need to use various computers.

week 5, # 12

Rollyo could be very useful in certain situations, as when doing a project.
I checked out the 4 sites listed and was not able to find much on eBooks or Rare Books. What is the definition of a rare book? A list of rare books, divided into catagories or dates would be nice. Maybe I am doing something wrong.
Free photos was good - lots of photos and user friendly.
Quick quotes was very good. I looked successfully for the person who made the quote, first lines of poems and poem titles. This will be very useful when helping patrons.

I set up a Rollyo account and made a search box on Health.
http://www.rollyo.com/editroll.html?sid=305405

week 5, #11

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/charvirg

Library Thing is interesting. It is very useful for a list of books I would like to read. But I was not able to find a way to add all of an author's books at once. This would be for a list of books already read. With prolific writers, it would take awhile to add them one at a time.

week 5, #10

Nap time for me too! This is a fun site. From Image Chef.
http://www.imagechef.com/ic/final_widget.jsp

week 4, #9

There were lots of sites to explore here. I looked at: Second Life; There; Yahoo Avatar (this would have fascinated me as a teen ager); Food Forces; Washington Post Video mashups; Study Mates (good for reviewing for tests); Viritual Worlds. Topix was good. I found Social Networking confusing. I set up a Merlin account and will probably take at least one of the on-line courses offered through Library U.
I did not set up an Avatar. It involves entirely too much time, which I do not have. And at this stage of the game does not interest me.

WEEK 4, #8

RSS - Finally, something that may be useful for me. It is nice to be able to see what is in the publication without the bother of getting the actual print copy. This should save lots of time.

WEEK 3 #6

I looked at trip planner, retrievr,montager, wallpaper generator, librarian trading cards, and many others. Since I do not have any photos, I was unable to do a lot of these.
One site that I liked was Color Fields experimental color picker. It was fun to play with all the colors and intensities. So many choices!

WEEK 3 FLICKR

I explored Flickr. This is not something I will use. If I had any pictures, which I don't, I would not want to put them where everyone can see them. I would send them to the people I want to see them.

WEEK 3 TECHNOLOGY THAT INTERESTS ME

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WEEK 3 - technology that interests me. This article from CNET news. Seems to me this is a cost cutting stragety to get customers to do the work and also to cut the number of employees needed (in spite of what they say).

The next step in self-checkout


POSTED: 12:04 p.m. EDT, June 21, 2007
var clickExpire = "07/21/2007";
Story Highlights• High-tech tools promise to make shopping more convenient• Personal scanners let customers keep a running tally• Customers can bag items as they shop• Technology eliminates having to wait in long check-out lines
Adjust font size:
SCAGGSVILLE, Maryland (AP) -- Stephanie Cerneck doesn't go through the checkout line at her supermarket anymore. Or even the self-checkout line.
She uses a personal scanner offered by the Bloom grocery store near her home, scanning each item as she takes it off the shelf and bagging as she shops. When she's done, she pays at a terminal at the front of the store.
"When I come up to the checkout, everything's already bagged, I go to my car, I'm done. No waiting in line," she said at the suburban store between Washington and Baltimore.
The handheld scanner lets customers keep a running tally as they work their way through the aisles, allowing them to spend more time shopping and less time waiting to check out.
Today, personal scanners are more common in Europe, but their use is growing in the United States as grocers introduce high-tech tools that promise to make shopping more convenient and seem less like a chore.
In Maryland, scanners are available at Bloom stores in Scaggsville and Rockville and a Martin's Food Market in Eldersburg.
Scales with printers let customers create bar-coded tags for fruits, vegetables and other produce that isn't priced. Bloom stores also have computerized kiosks that print out recipes and a map showing where the ingredients can be found.
Once shopping is finished, customers head to the front of the store -- a process that involves scanning a bar code generated by the personal scanner, swiping a personal card and -- of course --paying. Shoppers are randomly picked for audits to ensure items haven't been placed in the shopping cart without being scanned.
Karen Peterson, a Food Lion spokeswoman, said the subsidiary of Brussels-based Delhaize Group has the scanners in about half of its 52 upscale Bloom stores and shoplifting has not been a problem. The company offers the scanners to give its customers "another option in the way they like to shop."
"It saves time, they can watch what they're spending, it's a convenience," Peterson said.
Tracy Pawelski, spokeswoman for Martin's parent company Giant Food Stores LLC, said 11 Martin's stores offer scanners.
The scanners are "purely about convenience for customers" and do not replace store employees, who can be deployed elsewhere in the store, Pawelski said.
Lisa Sympson, a mother from Laurel, Maryland, said the scanner was easier and "a lot faster, too," saving her about 15 to 20 minutes a trip. "So, that's quite a bit of savings for me."
"To the extent that this makes the checkout process quicker and helps them with their purchasing decisions, it seems like a real winner for consumers," said Marshall Kay, a retail analyst with the consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates.
One system built by Motorola Inc. is used in 1,000 stores in Europe and more than 100 in the United States, said Frank Riso, senior director of the company's retail solutions group.
Besides keeping track of items as they are dropped into the cart, shoppers can use the scanners to build bridal and gift registries.
"You can scan everything you'd like people to buy for you," Riso said.
Shoppers also can use the scanners to create lists of items for delivery, such as bulky items at hardware stores, Riso said.
In New England, some Stop & Shop supermarkets offer an International Business Machines Corp. system that arms shoppers with a scanner and wireless touch-screen display attached to the shopping cart.
Plano, Texas-based Media Cart Holdings Inc. also offers a "kiosk on wheels" system that includes a cart-attached screen that flashes relevant ads as users walk through the aisles. It also has a scanner for keeping track of what's put in the cart.
William Stewart of Sykesville avoided lines while shopping with his father at the Eldersburg Martin's store. Stewart said he prefers the system over the traditional checkout, except for its occasional problems accepting coupons.
"I do miss the interaction with the cashiers because my dad and I are people persons. But you do beat the line and, once you get used to it, it pretty much works for itself," Stewart said.
Sue Jones of Sykesville said the system makes shopping with her child easier.
"I usually have a little one, so it's easier to check out," Jones said. "I scan the little bar codes and at the end I can just pay. Usually by the end that's when she starts to scream, so I can get out fast."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The easiest thing for me is to take responsibility for my own learning.
The hardest is learning new technology.

testing, testing