elizabeth's 23 things

The End, On Deadline Day, Even! (Thing #23!)

2008-05-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

First of all, I have to say that being a part of this here Web Challenge has been a TON of fun for me. As you can tell by scrolling down the page, I clearly like the excuse to ramble about web technologies. But even more fun has been reading all of the other players' blogs (okay, not all of them, obviously, do you know how many posts have been written so far? A whole hell of a lot!) and talking to people about web 2.0. And desperately trying to convince all of you nay-sayers that RSS really is worth it.

My favorite thing was definitely google docs. I didn't use it before, and now I use it all the time. I'm even trying to convince my department members that we should start using google docs for all sorts of crazy things, like meeting notes! keeping track of librarian-by-appointments! or maybe even... the schedule! I'm being a bit silly here, but honestly, using google docs has really changed how I approach the internet and working at the library in general. And the simple fact that I can access my google docs from any computer I'm using at work or home makes my life SO much easier (see also: why I love del.icio.us!). Honorable mention has to go to flickr and my old pals RSS feeds, because I use them day in and day out and would be very sad to give them up.

As for my least favorite thing, I'm not sure. I will say that the RSS feeds Things weren't concise enough... and I really don't think I'll end up using LibraryThing seriously. I keep a list of what I'm reading elsewhere, and since I don't have any friends on LibraryThing, I just don't see myself using it all that regularly. Also, Technorati. I wasn't a fan, although I don't think I'm alone.

I think the library can definitely get more involved with wikis, and del.icio.us (one of these days I'll stop talking about making a reference desk del.icio.us account for our branch and just do it), and google docs, just for the collaboration.

As for that loaded last question, what's web 3.0? I can't even imagine. I did a pretty rudimentary google search and read some stuff that frankly went over my head a little bit. A lot of the articles (like this one I saw in PC Magazine) mention something called the Semantic Web which seems to be something where intelligent computers can read the web sort of like we read the web, to find what we're looking for, effectively turning the web into one giant database. .... What? I think we may have to wait and see what happens with Web 3.0. But I'm pretty content to continue to spend some time using and exploring Web 2.0.

Thing #22: ListenNJ, Interrupted.

2008-05-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

At the last library I worked, I would occasionally have to teach a customer how to download a ListenNJ audiobook. We even had a practice mp3 player at the reference desk to use. I got into the habit of listening to audiobooks when I worked at Rutgers, because it somehow kept me less bored during the 3 hours I'd spend each day in the car. But have I ever downloaded a ListenNJ audiobook to actually use for myself? Of course not! I tried this out at work, although I was a bit skeptical that I'd be able to download the software successfully... and I was right, so I'm going to have to try this at home tonight. Talk about cutting it down to the wire!

Update: Well, after some rigamarole about upgrading Windows Media Player so the Overdrive player would work, and a few restarts, I finally got my audiobooks to work. I downloaded Goldfinger by Ian Fleming. I've long been a fan of the James Bond movies (is it bad if I tell you that while I adore Sean Connery as 007, I secretly prefer Roger Moore?), I've never read any of the actual stories that the 007 movies are based on. But anyway! The bottom line is that I got the audiobook to work, and I'm already digging the very British narrator (Robert Whitfield). Something about the fact that ListenNJ audiobooks are, I don't know, FREE, will get me to make a habit of this, especially now that this Thing got me to actually go ahead and download the software. I also downloaded the audiobook of Dracula, one of my very favorite books. Yay!

Podcasts Are Still a Bit of a Mystery. Or, Thing #21.

2008-05-28T10:46:00.001-07:00

Honestly, I get the idea of podcasts. They sound pretty cool, truly. I just haven't yet found a use for them in my real life, I guess. Some of the blogs I enjoy reading post podcasts, but I haven't ever actually listened to one. When I'm in my car or at home, I'd prefer to be listening to music (or to have the Mets game on in the background). Here's another confession: I haven't even listened to most of the web challenge podcasts! (Ack! I know!)

But along came Thing #21 and I couldn't escape any longer. I use itunes for my music, but the idea of browsing itunes for a podcast didn't really appeal to me. Instead, I decided to go with the recommendation route. I've been reading a lot of interesting things (through some of my photography buddies, actually) about a Couch to 5k running program designed by coolrunning.com. I have been meaning to get back into exercising, and being that this program starts with the assumption that you're a couch potato, I figured it might actually work. And THEN I discovered that someone had created a Couch to 5k podcast. This guy Robert Ullrey created these podcasts to go along with the Couch to 5k program. With Couch to 5k, you're supposed to go through week by week and gradually increase how many seconds/minutes you're running at a time. I'm sort of lazy, and didn't really like the idea of timing myself. But! The podcast takes all of the thought out of it - Ullrey recorded himself telling you when to run and when to stop (with some crazy techno music thumping in the background). I tried it out last week, and while I wouldn't say I'm a total podcast convert, I do quite enjoy this particular podcast. As for the running, we'll see if that sticks.

Thing 20: The Web 2.0 Time Waster Prize Goes to... Youtube!

2008-05-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite examples of this whole "web 2.0" thing when talking to people who aren't too familiar with the concept is youtube. It's clearly an entertaining website where you can waste quite a bit of time. One of the things I use it for quite often is to find new music. Because so many bands are posting their music videos to youtube, it's a surprisingly easy way to listen to some songs before you decide to buy the entire album. Another particularly entertaining youtube pasttime is watching old tv commercials. As I was surfing youtube, trying to find the perfect video for this here blog post, I discovered something pretty awesome: there are old Mets commercials on youtube! Two years ago, there was a series of Mets commercials featuring my favorite mascot, Mr. Met, getting into trouble while the Mets were playing games away from Shea. Here's one of my favorites of the bunch, because I absolutely couldn't resist:

Thing #19: The Best of the Web 2.0y Best

2008-05-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

With Thing #19, we're asked to explore SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Awards, a really great way to explore the best and the brightest of web 2.0 tools and tricks. There are so many that it was hard to know where to start. I picked a few random ones to look at.

The first I looked at is Backpack, which falls under the category of Organization. When I wrote about Google Docs and Zoho, I briefly mentioned my personal quest to find a way to stay organized online - all in one place. I already use Google calendar and Google docs and Tadalist, an online to do list manager. While Zoho has an online organizer type thing, I didn't like it because it's not pretty enough for me. Backpack, though, seems like it might be a good solution. What I was most surprised about as I looked at it today, though, was that in reality, it looks just like a wiki... a wiki without the collaboration. Like a wiki, Backpack allows you to gather all types of information (links to sites or products, photos, a to do list, uploaded files, all sorts of stuff). Actually, now that I think about it, Backpack looks like a strange wiki-del.icio.us-tadalist-calendar hybrid. Or a wonderful one. I am torn, because I'd sort of like to try it, but do I need another account with something? Probably not.

The next two sites were just for fun, and they are pretty darn fun. One Sentence is a blog of sorts, where users can submit stories that can be told in one sentence. It's a relatively simple idea, but one that can be unexpectedly poignant. Coverpop is a sort of strange site... it's a collection of giant mosaics, and you can hover over them to see the source (a flickr image, online store, etc). Here's one of cell phones that's pretty interesting to look at. It's not necessarily a useful site, but one that's very visual and undeniably 2.0.

The Scanner. Or, Thing #7, Better Late than Never

2008-05-20T06:46:00.000-07:00

It's hard to get to a scanner at my branch, so I've been putting off completing Thing #7. However, someone pointed out recently that there's a scanner over on the children's side, and no one's ever over there using the computers at 9:30 in the morning.

So! Here's my scan. It's one of the postcards I bought to hang on my desk. I've got a thing about birds lately, so that's why I picked it out.

Google Docs and Zoho Are Untapped Resources: Thing #18

2008-05-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

It's not really a secret by this point that there are quite a few of these web 2.0 tools that I'm a bit ... obsessed with. (Flickr, RSS feeds, del.icio.us, I'm looking at you...) Well, along those same lines, I'm a bit of a Google junkie, too. I've been using Gmail and Gchat for years, and a few months ago, I started using Google Calendar to keep track of being at the reference desk, teaching computer classes, going to meetings, all of that stuff. (And I probably spend too much time trying to get the colors perfect, because having each item be color-coded is one of my favorite parts.) And Google Reader is my go-to RSS feed reader. One of the reasons I like the Google suite is that I just log in once and I can get to each of the tools from the navigation bar at the top, no matter which one I'm logged into. (I'm lazy, what can I say?)

I didn't really start using Google Docs until I worked for OCL, though, but like a lot of these other web-based tools, it's just simply convenient to be able to get at my documents from any computer I'm using. I'm constantly moving around from the reference desk to the office and back again, and while I do have a flash drive that I use constantly, sometimes it's just nice to have it right there online already. And then I joined the Committee for this very OCL Web Things Challenge, and my Google Docs use went through the ROOF. We have been using Google Docs to share our meeting notes, edit our blog posts before they go live, and even to keep track of players' progress. We can all get at the files when we need to, and the ability to collaborate from anywhere at any time is simply awesome. But even just back at the reference department, I think Google Docs could really help us plan computer classes. If we shared the handouts and lesson plans for the classes several instructors teach, we'd ensure that we are all working off of the same material. Hmm.....

I also looked into Zoho, which honestly I hadn't explored before because Google Docs works fine for me. I was especially happy to see that I could log in with my existing Google (or Yahoo) account, so signing up was quick. It looks like Zoho's slideshow, spreadsheet, and word processing apps can do just a bit more than Google Docs, so if you are really looking for a Microsoft Office replacement (ie if you were going to buy a new computer and avoid buying Office), Zoho might actually be a better bet. What I didn't know, though, is that there are so many OTHER Zoho apps... Wiki, Notebook, Planner, and a few others. I couldn't really tell what makes Notebook all that different than a straight up wiki, other than the ability to move objects around the page in an interesting way, almost like designing a website in Dreamweaver. I did like Planner, though, although the interface isn't the prettiest. Because so much of my life is online (email, calendar, RSS, you get the drill), I've been wishing there was one magical program that could combine a to do list, notes, and a calendar all in one place. (I think I am way too picky, though, because I've looked at Tadalist and Remember the Milk and Google Notebook, and ruled those out for various superficial reasons. Backpack looks cool, though.) Zoho Planner does a pretty neat job of it - allowing you to add appointments, organize to do lists, add notes, email notes to the page, and even attach files. Once it's all there, it looks a bit messy, and although it's probably silly, I'm not too likely to keep using it if it is so cluttered. Clutter doesn't exactly make me feel more organized. ;)

So I didn't quite know I had that much to say about Web Apps, but there you go. I like them. I am definitely going to continue to use them, and I will try to spend some more time looking at Zoho, just to see what it's all about.

Messing Around in the Sandbox: Thing #17

2008-05-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Playing around with editing the OCL Web Things PBwiki was a lot of fun. I haven't ever actually edited a wiki before, but it's just like editing any other sort of document when you get right down to it. I added my blog, of course, and added the Mets to the list of favorite sports teams. Have I not mentioned that yet? (In sort of related Mets news, I realized recently that I always seem to use the RSS feed from Mets.com when I explain RSS feeds to people. Why is that the one I pick? It's not intentional, I promise.)

And also, since sharing technology is one of my favorite parts of being a librarian, I also added a tip to the list of Our Favorite Computer Tips. I posted a link to Zamzar, which has quickly become one of my absolute favorite web tools ever since one of our customers showed it to us a few months ago. Zamzar is a free file conversion website that lets you upload files so they can be converted from one file type to another. They then email you a link to download the new file. At first it just sounded like an interesting tool, but I have used it for so many things. Mostly, I use it to convert Word documents and Excel spreadsheets and Google docs into .pdf files. I've also used it to help customers who come in with .docx files, which we can't always open on the public computers at the library. It can also do all sorts of music and video file conversions, but I haven't explored that as much yet. I'll have to try it one of these days.

Wiki Wonderland. Or, Thing #16.

2008-05-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, first things first: as a librarian, I know I'm not supposed to love Wikipedia. My uncle, whose hobby is asking me questions about libraries and books and research, recently asked me, "So what's the deal with Wikipedia? You really mean that ANYONE can edit it? What a bad idea!" I explained that there had been some controversies and like anything on the Internet, you have to consider your source, that Wikipedia has made some adjustments to just WHO can really edit the articles... but in reality, it's very often still the first site I check for basic trivia and ready reference type information. I wouldn't use it in a research paper, and I wouldn't tell a student to use it, either, but it can be a truly valuable resource when you are just getting started. Or if you have a question about something pop-culture or technology related. Or if you want a quick list of an author's published works instead of trying to sift through Amazon's search results. Or if you are bored and want to learn about dragons or history or where they filmed Casino Royale and how it fits into the overall story arc of James Bond.

But anyway, this Thing was not created so I can write about my own personal love of Wikipedia. At least I am fairly sure my fellow committee members didn't have that in mind. Wikis in general are pretty cool, and I have to also take a minute to say how much I love the Common Craft video about wikis. (Well, all of the Common Craft videos, really.) Wikis are things that maybe people have heard of, but I don't know a lot of people (even tech-savvy folks like myself) who actually USE them to share information. Which stinks, really, because wikis can be so useful for any sort of collaboration - having one for the reference department would be wonderful, in the same way that having all of our reference department links together in a del.icio.us account would be wonderful. The Library Best Practices wiki is something I haven't seen before this challenge. As someone who hasn't even been out of library school for a year yet, I still have a lot to learn about being a librarian. This is a great resource that I'm honestly going to have to bookmark and read through later, because I know I'm not internalizing it all now. But honestly, how cool is it that it's even out there? I <3 web 2.0, as nerdy as that means I am.

The Reason We're Here: Library 2.0 and Thing #15

2008-05-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

We've been talking about this web 2.0 thing for a while now, and we've talked about how many of these web 2.0 tools can help us in our work as librarians. But as Thing #15 reminds us, there has also been a lot of talk lately (in the blogosphere, among other places) about the notion of Library 2.0. I'm a big fan of most of this 2.0 stuff, but even I have to admit that it gets a little silly, making everything 2.0 this or 2.0 that. I don't know if it's that important that we label it "library 2.0", but rather that we just adjust how we think about libraries and our users and how we can best serve them.

Working in a busy urban branch like I do, my opinions of libraries have evolved. I suppose it goes along with the whole library 1.0/library 2.0 thing. I like a lot of the perspectives about what library 2.0 is. I particularly liked how Michael Stephens talked about how library 2.0 is user-centric. This was something that actually used to make me very angry in library school. In one of my classes, we read a lot of theory, and I distinctly remember reading an article (that was fairly recent) that talked about molding the library's services to what the users need and want as if that was groundbreaking rocket science type of stuff. It just seemed obvious to me. I know that isn't that old a concept for libraries, but honestly... how else will libraries EVER stay relevant? I mean, really.

I feel a bit like I'm writing in circles without saying much of use, but here's my basic opinion: Libraries definitely need to change some basic things in order to continue to be relevant. There needs to be some sort of vision of Library 2.0 (or just libraries NOW rather than how they always used to be). I don't personally think that libraries need to have cafes or be like bookstores with displays and hand selling. But I DO think that libraries need to pause a moment, think more about how users do research and connect with information in this Internet age. People are social. People like to collaborate. Like web 2.0 allows us to connect in new ways, libraries need to find new ways to make connections: between our users, with our users, and above all, between our users and information. That's why we're here in the first place. Information isn't just books anymore, and maybe our users can find some of it on their own, but we can still do so much as librarians to foster all of these connections. And that's why we need to be 2.0 librarians.

Technorati, Tags, and Thing #14

2008-04-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

I have heard of Technorati, but I haven't really used it very much. I know what it does (blog searching, surfing popular tags on blogs, seeing what bloggers are writing about right now) but I never really had a reason before the challenge to explore it very much.

The front page is a bit overwhelming, although it looks a lot like a regular online news site, like cnn.com or yahoo.com. It's interesting that there are lists at the bottom of the Technorati front page of news articles and blog posts that are rising in popularity. It would be sort of interesting to take an afternoon and watch the popular items for a few hours, just to observe how it changes over time.

After doing a quick search for Learning 2.0, I found quite a few blog posts and actual blogs devoted to 2.0 and web stuff and libraries and learning. I like the ability to see tag clouds for each blog that comes up; it helps you get a better idea of what type of blog it might be before you go to the trouble of clicking on the link. (We are growing so lazy, aren't we?)

Then, I looked at the Popular page, and that seems fairly straightforward. Interesting that "web 2.0" is the number one search for today! Are there other Web Challenge folks catching up on last week's post as I write this? You never know. The internet is a pretty wacky place.

I <3 Del.icio.us (Thing #13)

2008-04-21T11:24:00.000-07:00

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that I have actually been using for quite some time. Well, that’s not entirely true. In actuality, I have had a del.icio.us account for a million years, and my actual use of it has waxed and waned dramatically. The basic idea is that it’s a site where you can save the sites you would be bookmarking in your browser on your computer. (My main del.icio.us page is here: http://del.icio.us/elizabetht)

Web 2.0 comes into play with the option of adding descriptions and tags, as well as being able to see how many other people have bookmarked the same site. You can browse the main del.icio.us page by what people are bookmarking, by popular tags, etc.

So how am I using it? Well, at its simplest: I use del.icio.us to save articles, websites, craft ideas, recipes, book reviews, things I want to buy, etc. The best part is that because it’s online, I can access it from all of the computers I use, whether it’s the three or four different terminals at work I may be using, or my laptop at my apartment. I love being able to come back to it no matter where I am.

Since I started working as a librarian and reading more library blogs, though, I’ve been using it more to save articles about libraries and librarianship that I want to refer to later. I don’t always have time to read things when I stumble upon them, so this seems to be a good way to make sure I come back to it. I even added the most recent links to the sidebar of my blog.

One of the coolest features I discovered only after I had been using the site for a while is the ability to create individual pages. As soon as you add a tag to one of your links, you can to go a new page to view all of the things I have tagged like it. In our case, you can to go http://del.icio.us/elizabetht/libraries to see all of my library-related links. This is cool for our purposes here, but also if you want to keep a list of recipes, or things you want people to buy for you (tag them “wishlist”), or books you want to read (tagged “toread”)… I could go on forever.

I’m sure any librarian could use social bookmarking in the way that I am already using it, while also exploring what is popular and getting lots of buzz all around the web. I think it would also be cool to use del.icio.us as a homepage or reference center for librarians, too. For example, you could create a del.icio.us page for your library, or maybe your library’s reference desk. Then you can add links that answer commonly-asked questions specific to your library, links to local codes, pages you use a lot, all without having to bother with regular old bookmarks. I haven’t seen it in action in this way, but I really like the idea of it. You could even use tags to create individual pages for different librarians - del.icio.us/PublicLibraryRefDesk/elizabeth. I like it.

NetLibrary and WorldCat

2008-04-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

NetLibrary:

At the reference desk, I have helped a handful of customers sign up for NetLibrary accounts, but I haven't ever actually used it very much myself. It's always a bit difficult to get the customers to understand that they can access the site at home, but that they have to come into the actual library building to sign up to use it. It's worth it, though. For Thing #12, I finally signed up for my own account so I can delve into it a little more. I did a search for books about computers, just to see what's out there. I'm a big fan of starting out with a really broad search, to get an idea of how much more specific I can get as I go along. It's good to know that these books are out there - especially when the more recent computer how-to books are either checked out or missing. The navigation through the book was a bit slow, but I LOVE the ability to search within the book itself. That has got to be one of the best features of ebooks.

For the advanced/extra task, I also looked at Project Gutenberg. I have been reading Christopher Moore's books lately and I totally love them. One day a few weeks ago at work, I was complaining about how I only have one or two of Moore's books left, and how I wasn't sure what else I could read that might be similar. My coworker recommended P.G. Wodehouse, and together, we discovered that most of Wodehouse's stories are available on Project Gutenberg. I always get a little nervous when I don't have anything to read, so knowing that there's a whole bunch of stories to read for free on the web is very comforting. Too bad I don't have an iphone, or I could read it everywhere! :)

WorldCat:

WorldCat is pretty cool. I remember using it for projects during my cataloging class in library school, but honestly, I sort of forgot that I could use it in my everyday life now that I'm actually a librarian. I tend to default to using amazon.com when I need to look up a book's title or author when it's not in the Ocean County Library catalog, but now that I'm exploring WorldCat a bit more, I'm realizing that hm, maybe this would be a better resource. And oh man, will it make filling out ILL forms so much easier! I will have to add this to my repertoire.

Also, just for fun, I found a book in the OCL catalog that is fairly old - Biographical cyclopedia of Ocean county, New Jersey, which was published in 1899. I looked it up in WorldCat, there are only four other libraries that own this book at all - Rutgers, the NJ State Library, the New York Public Library - Research Library, and the New York Historical Society Archives. (Although I do have to be up front and admit that there are 16 others that own it on microform.) How cool!

Techology and Twitter

2008-04-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

I kept putting off Thing #10 (Technology blogging) because I couldn't decide WHAT I wanted to write about. I read quite a few technology blogs, so it was hard to narrow it down. In the end, I decided to use this Thing to explore a web 2.0 tool that I have never used, but was always curious about: Twitter.

Twitter is often called "micro-blogging", because your posts are limited to 140 characters. You can update from the web or send text messages to Twitter from your cell phone. So why would you even want to use Twitter? That's sort of what I want to find out. I've only posted a few things so far. I like that the question on the homepage is "What are you doing?" People use Twitter to write short posts about anything - observations, just an update on what they're doing, any sort of tidbit. I have seen people put Twitter in the sidebar of their blog as a way of having short little updates, maybe if the big posts aren't so frequent. I put a link to my tweets in my sidebar here, just for fun. (My Twitter page is http://www.twitter.com/elizabetht).

Granted, some people write their everyday blogs in such short format that it would negate Twitter. However, what makes Twitter 2.0, and what I am still trying to figure out, is the web-like nature of Twitter. Other Twitter users can follow you, and consequently, you can see updates from all of the people YOU are following on your homepage when you log in. What can emerge are conversations. If someone sees your post, they can respond directly, so it becomes very interactive and web 2.0. I have heard stories of librarians who ask advice from other librarians using Twitter, and who get many responses in the blink of an eye.

Of course, I haven't exactly HAD any of these super web 2.0 Twitter conversations quite yet (having only one friend would do that!) but I'm enjoying having a place to keep all of my dumb little observations. So tell me, are you on Twitter?

More useful than you might think

2008-04-10T08:07:00.000-07:00

I've known about LibraryThing for a long time, although I never set up an account. I suppose it never seemed necessary, because while I own a lot of books, they spent a lot of time in boxes while I lived with my parents. Actually, when I finally moved into my apartment this past September, one of the things I was most excited about was being able to put all of my books on shelves to be organized and gazed upon adoringly. Still, I didn't ever really feel a need to catalog them all online. I work at a library, I don't really need to catalog things in my free time.

But I signed up for LibraryThing for this challenge and I have to say, I may be a convert. Maybe. I'm not entirely sure quite yet. You can view my library here. So far, I have only added the books I've read most recently. I definitely like the ability to add my own tags. Since so many of the books I've been reading lately are library books and not books I own personally, I added a tag "fromthelibrary" to indicate books that I read but do not own. (I wouldn't want to misrepresent my personal library! just kidding. sort of.) So that was all well and good, until I realized that I can use tags in all sorts of ways.

I have been keeping track of all of the books I've read each year since 2005. I'm not sure why I started; probably just because. But it sort of evolved as the years went by, and now I've been making book resolutions, like "in 2007 I'm going to read more than 25 books". But what I realized this morning is that I can use tags like "read2008" to help me keep track of the books I'm reading each year... rather than using a plain old text file. You heard it here first: LibraryThing is useful!

But LibraryThing actually helped me at the reference desk one day a few months ago, which caught me by complete surprise at the time. A customer came up to the desk and said, “I’m looking for a book. Except I don’t know the title. Or the author.” My colleague and I exchanged a brief glance and then I said, “Okay, well what DO you know?” The customer went on, “It’s about a girl who travels back in time to the black plague.” Every once in a while, I can figure the book out right away, and in this case, my colleague knew it was Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. I had already begun my google search, so I saw it through to see if I could come up with the same answer, just as an exercise. I googled “novel time travel black plague” and the first result was a link this page on LibraryThing: Books tagged bubonic plague. One of the first results? Was Doomsday Book! How cool is that? Very.

It completely changed how I think about LibraryThing and reader's advisory. I know that tags are one of the most defining features of 2.0 resources, and I was able to see them in action, helping me answer a real-life reference question. Do I use LibraryThing now as my first resource when someone comes to the reference desk with a question like that? Definitely.

Hello. My name is Elizabeth and I'm addicted to RSS

2008-04-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

For Things 8 and 9, we were asked to take some time to explore RSS feeds, feed readers, and the various ways to find new feeds. I have to be honest here and tell you right off the bat that I have been a hopeless RSS addict for at least a year. It's a great way to get all of your information in one place, no matter where you are. Feed readers like Bloglines and Google Reader allow me to go to one place and see which of my favorite sites have been updated since I last checked. I am a fan because (a) I don't have to go to each site separately to see if there's anything new and (b) I don't have to remember any of the URLs or save the bookmarks on any of the various computers I use. So it's a bit of a double bonus. Mostly, though, I like the ability to log in and quickly check up on news and cartoons (or the recap of last night's Mets game!). If I don't have a lot of time, I can leave posts unread, or star them to read later. When I do have a lot of time do catch up, I can go back through and since it saves everything I haven't read, I don't have to worry about missing anything.

I normally use Google Reader (because it's linked in with Gmail and Google Calendar, which I also use daily), so for this challenge, I set up a Bloglines account so I could see the difference. I added a few of my favorite feeds to get started. You can check out my blogroll here: http://www.bloglines.com/public/elizabetht.

One thing that I like about Bloglines rather than Google Reader is that it's easy to share your list of blogs with others. I organized mine into folders: library blogs, craft and design sites, and diversions (comics and sports and stuff like that). I feel a bit like I'm gushing here, because I get sort of nerdy when it comes to RSS, but it has really changed how I surf the web. I spend almost all day at work in front of a computer, so when I get home, I'm not interested in going to a whole host of sites to see if anything's new. With RSS, I can quickly check in and then move on with my life. So it's good.

For Thing 9, I tried a little blog searching, on Bloglines, and Technorati, and Topix. (I couldn't get Syndic8 to load when I tried it.) I thought that Topix was a good way to find articles and news items in a specific area. For finding new blogs to read (rather than individual posts), I found both Technorati and the Bloglines search to be pretty good. I was searching for blogs written by reference librarians, and I found some that looked interesting using Bloglines and Technorati. With any new blog, we'll see how I like it after a few weeks... but it's always fun to start reading someone new. While these blog searching sites are great, I still feel that the very best way to find new blogs and topical blogs is by following the links from one to another, or in the blogrolls of your friends (and OCL Web Things colleagues, in our case!). I suppose it goes back to why this whole thing is called a Web... but it's the truth.

Flickr, Further

2008-04-01T12:39:00.000-07:00

I have always used Photoshop to edit my photos, because I have an old oooooold version from when I was in college. I don't really know what I'm doing, though, so it's always a bit tough. One of my fellow librarians has been talking about how much fun Picasa is for a while, but I still haven't really played around with it. But recently Picasa and flickr joined forces - and now you can edit your photos with Picasa right from your flickr page! How cool.

So here's a photo I took last week of the magnolia tree in our little courtyard:

I wanted to brighten it up, because it was such a gray day when I took this. So here's some of Picasa's magic:

And THEN I went a little crazy with the effects:

This is definitely a lot of fun... and it's way easier (and faster) than using Photoshop. We may have a convert here.

Hooray! Flickr!

2008-04-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

I have been a big fan of flickr ever since I discovered it last year. Photography is one of my favorite hobbies, and I love that flickr enables me to share my photos with my family, my friends, and people I don't even know.

I waste a lot of time surfing through the tags on flickr. Like today, I was thinking again about how I'd like to buy a new lens for my camera. As I sat down to write this post, I thought, hey, flickr might be able to help me with that. So I searched the tags for the specific lens, and came up with this beautiful photo of a flower. Am I convinced that I want that macro lens? TOTALLY. But this is a good example of how flickr can connect people - whether your hobby is actually photography, or knitting, or gardening, you can find photos on flickr.

But even more, flickr is helping librarians keep up with each other. Libraries are starting to post photos of their events on flickr, and so other libraries can see how a teen zone could be decorated, or even just how cool the Seattle Public Library's building is.

So yeah. I like flickr. Here are some of the photos I took last week of the beginnings of spring in my branch:

Seven and a Half

2008-03-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

Well, the Web Challenge is in full swing, and I have to say, it is so much fun to see this all unfold. I am super into all of this web stuff (which, duh, is why I'm on the committee running this whole nonsense in the first place) and even just talking to my coworkers about blogs and RSS and why they might like them has been very cool.

The Seven and a Half Habits of Lifelong Learners are at the heart of the challenge, and really, at the heart of a lot of what we do in libraries. Whether we're showing a coworker how to save files to a flash drive or sharing a cool website, or showing a customer how to find the information they are looking for, it's what we do every day. Some of the seven and a half habits are easier than others... which is true of everything, I guess. What's the most fun? Play, which is our motto for the challenge. Are you playing? Don't be a player hater.

It's hard to say which of the habits is hardest for me. If I'm being honest, though, I think the thing I have the most trouble with is accepting responsibility for my own learning. There are tons of things I'd love to learn how to do, whether it's getting better at using my fancy digital camera, or how to knit, or sheesh, how to cook (my primarily pasta and macaroni and cheese-based diet will attest to that...). My problem, though, is that I don't always follow through. Sure, my cooking is in dire need of improvement. I buy lots of cookbooks and hoard recipes from my coworkers, but I don't ever seem to take that next step and try a recipe that sounds hard. So I need to work on that.

The habit of lifelong learners that is easiest (and most fun!) for me is teaching. That's why I wanted to be part of the Web Challenge committee.. because I know and use a lot of these web 2.0 tools every day, and I think a lot of people would enjoy them as much as I do. Sometimes having someone show you how something works is all you need. It's my favorite part of learning - sharing it with someone else. So there's that. And I'm certainly looking forward to the rest of the challenge for the very same reason.

First post!

2008-03-06T14:49:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new blog, created for the OCL Web Things Challenge. I'll be writing here as I go through the challenge. I am also one of the committee members, so I'm here to help you along the way as you complete the challenge, too. Ask me questions! I'm here to help!