Are you a 598er?

For those following the tweets this week you probably saw some of us discussing a class meet-up on SL. Well a few of us managed to get together. Gabber Delicioso (GC), Isobel Jinx (JH), Mira Delicioso (TK), Oracle Rothmanay (RR) and me, Himawari Yuhara.

The final verdict--- Wandering around dazed and confused as a group is a lot more fun then wandering dazed and confused by yourself.

We met up and figured out how to teleport to Info Island where we marveled at the Mystery Manor. After a brief stop at the Christie Cottage, Gabber and Oracle asked me to show them where the Santa was I had talked about in a previous post. We tromped on over to the winter wonderland display, sat on Santa's lap and took pictures.
































Gabbers and Oracle take turns on Santa's lap.


About this time is when Mira and Isobel joined us. We talked for a bit, tried to figure out some technical problems and I learned how to stop flying without landing in a tangled heap.

Another pic:

We decided to look at the Banned Books area of the Info Island. Once of us had been there previous and she wanted to show us.

While waiting for the teleport invitation we were approached by a male avatar. However, before we received an answer to that all important question that would determine if we would be willing to speak with him or not --"Are you a 598er?"--It was time to teleport.

Once the area rendered it was indeed worth looking around. After a brief rendition of Romeo and Juliet, however, it was time for us to part ways.

Johnson redux

As I stated in my last post on "Everything Bad is Good For You", I think Johnson makes a very convincing argument. I have in the past argued the benefits of table top RPGs but I had never thought about this in the context of video games, movies and TV. There is much more to all of these then their content. That said, I don't believe the content can be completely ignored. There is some content that simply is not appropriate for certain ages/players. As librarians, we are called to provide information and materials without judgment or bias and I believe in that very strongly. On the other hand, we have separate sections for children, YAs and adults for a reason.

So what can we learn-

• We now have more ammunition for defending programs like video game nights and movie nights. (Its about more then just pulling kids into the library)
• If we don't offer such programs, then it would be a good idea to start
• This is one more way libraries can help bridge the digital divide, by making video games available to kids who can't play at home and thus are missing the benefits
• It could be worthwhile to create some information literacy games (as some libraries have already done)
• We shouldn't make assumptions at least until we have tried something ourselves
• We can use pop culture to spark interest in delving deeper into a subject (Like Ninja Gaiden? Take a look at these books/programs/web resources about Japanese weapons!)

Class suggestions

I have really enjoyed this class. The subject matter works very well in an online form, using the technologies as part of the class really reinforces what we are learning.

As for what changes I would make, here are a few suggestions.

I would keep the ‘monkeys with typewriters’ reading, it makes for a great discussion starter.

The Social Life on Information, however, I really did not benefit from as much. I would replace this, perhaps in favor of specific blog posts of professionals using this technology.

Several people have mentioned moving social networking to an earlier point in the class. I agree. That would give us more time to explore how these can be used and would be helpful in connecting with classmates.

As I mentioned in my previous post, a SL class met up would be fun and helpful.

Second Life

After reading some of the other blog posts I'm not sure if i should be relived or disappointed that my time in SL was so ... quiet.

The first time I logged on, I spent some time in the learning area just trying to figure things out. I spent some time working on my appearance but was rather disappointed that I could change so many tiny details like lip thickness but could not change my clothes. I talked to one girl(?) what was even more lost and confused then I was. (She had somehow gotten stuck as a glowing cloud) She eventually decided to try logging out and back in again and at this point my computer was running so slow that I logged out as well.

The second time, I tried changing my hair so at least that would be different from everyone else, however the 'hair' my avatar came with was apparently attached to her hat and the hair I could change was an entirely different entity. After creating a truly bizarre look, I scrapped it all and went out to explore. I landed in this Japanese garden/pavilion area that was quite pretty (though I felt a bit jealous of the several avatars in very pretty dresses that I saw).

I wondered about the burning Christmas tree, played with a ball and then moved on to Info Island.

By this time my computer was running really slow, to the point where my avatar was walking in slow motion when she was moving at all. I eventually managed to sit on Santa's lap and got a snapshot after my camera angle stopped freaking out.

I wandered around info island a little bit, there were only a few people there and no one talked to me. I explored the library and then found a nice couch to curl up on in the manga section.

Overall SL is a lot to take in all at once. I think as I became more comfortable with the world it would be a lot more fun. If possible I thing a class meetup in SL would be a lot of fun, giving us a social interaction without having to deal with some of the stranger strangers.

In Which I Fail at Kicking a Soccer Ball

I checked out the miniclip games website because it looked like it had a lot of games with multiple players rather then trying to find a certain friend on the web and challenging them.

I found a penguin game that looked cute and attempted to play that.

Warning: The following screencast contains much confused wanderings.

You can see me play here.

Chosing a console

These are the questions that would help inform my decision--

• What is popular at the moment? While I don't want to follow every fad, I do want a system that will draw people in.


• Does it tend to have more multi-player games or single player games?


• Pricing, how much extras you need to buy?


• Range of appeal


• Who is my target audience? Will I only be running teen game nights, or is there interest in family game nights as well?
  
• What kind of space do I have?
• Are there certain games that my teen group (or other patrons) have expressed interest in?
  

Most of my decision will be based on community profiling and seeing where my patron's interest lies. Once I have a sense of that, I would check out the official web pages for each system, which should also give me an overview of the games they offer. I would check out Wired for reviews of the major systems.

http://www.wired.com/reviews/productlisting/gaming_gear

Jenny Levine's presentation also gave some links that would be helpful for researching staring a gaming program in the library. I would also look at what other libraries have and how those systems are working for them.

For information of what games would be a good choice for the library, Gamespot has some good reviews.

http://www.gamespot.com/reviews.html

I would choose to buy a Wii for the library. It has a wide range of multi-player games and can appeal to a wider range of audience and experience levels. The motion sensing aspect also have a large 'cool' factor.

Depending on my budget, I would also like to get an xBox 360 for variety, the excellent graphics and to appeal to the more serious gamers.

Screencasting

I have found the following to be helpful:

• Always do a test run to make sure everything is working properly
• At the same time check where/how new windows appear so that they will be inside your recording area
• If possible try to avoid having to resize windows during the screencast
• I haven't tried reading from a script, but mentally going over what I want to say is very helpful
• The more I screencast the easier it is

Video games are good for you

Is pop culture just stupidity in a brightly colored package?

I admit I don't watch a lot of TV or play a lot of video games. Mainly because I don't have the time too. I do play table top D&D and have since I was 12 so I'm fairly aware of the gaming community, even if I'm not 'up' on the video game end of things. I'm used to defending the benefits of RPG games, but I've never really put to much though into the benefits of video/computer games before.

I have to say, Johnson makes a pretty convincing argument. The fact that his argument is used along with several other very good sources to make a convincing argument for games in the library reinforces this argument in my mind.

So no, I do not think that popular culture is simply delivering stupidity. I admit, I'm not particularly trilled with the content of some TV shows or video games (particularly compared to some of the really excellent shows that have been cancelled *coughfireflycough*), but I agree that the plot of the show or game is not all there is to it.

Johnson articulates this very well. A lot of the benefits that I would list off to defend my playing "that evil D&D game" also apply to video games and TV/movies. There is a large social factor. Many of the games can be played together, and even the single player games become social when your friends also play. The same goes for movies and TV shows. People like to talk about what they are watching and playing. There are countless online communities dedicated to fans of TV shows, movies, games and books. There are even communities dedicated to certain romantic pairings within a TV show. And through these communities, people can meet others who share their tastes and speculate what will happen next or who will end up with who.

For me playing D&D made me use math skills and gave me an understanding of probability. Decision making and problem solving are a large part of the game, and this transfers to video games as well.

I would also say that a certain amount of escapism is good. There are times when I've had a bad day, or I'm tired or I have something on my mind and I need to lay all that down and focus on someone completely unrelated for a while. Watch TV or playing games as a way to give us a break can be a very good thing.

Ning rhymes with Jing

The major benefit of Ning is also its greatest drawback. The reason why Myspace and Facebook are so popular is because so many people are on them. In order for social networks to work there needs to be a large group of people using the sites, adding friends and creating content. While there are several reasons why I personally prefer Facebook to Myspace for my private (though can I really say its private?) life, the main one and the reason I decided to create a Facebook profile is--my friends are on Facebook. If none of your friends are on a SNS then it isn't really worth joining.

Ning allows you to create and customize your own, selective, social network. Getting enough people to join your network and contribute, especially when competing with the big boys of SNSs is very difficult. If your purpose is to create a social network of your library users, you are better off creating profiles on Myspace and Facebook and trying to connect to your users there. Frankly, there isn't that much to draw them to yet another social network service.

However, if your have a specific purpose in mind, targeted to a specific group and want to be able to control the setting (especially privacy) then Ning is a great tool to use. For example, you may want to use Ning to add dimension to your book groups at the library. You can post reminders of the next meeting date and book to be read, host discussions before and after the group meets, post about upcoming library events of potential interest, and share reviews and discussions of others books members enjoy and recommend. "The book we are reading this month reminds me of this other book I read..." or if the novel is set in a certain location, like London, a member could post pictures of places mentioned in the book from the trip they took to London. There is a lot of possibility for Ning to enhance your library programs and connections with your patrons, if used correctly.

Ultimately, you need to assess what you what to accomplish and what your needs are before you can determine if Ning is the right tool for the job.

Because all the cool kids are doing it

heather's Dewey Decimal Section:

944 France & Monaco

heather = 8510858 = 851+085+8 = 944


Class:
900 History & Geography


Contains:
Travel, biographies, ancient history, and histories of continents.



What it says about you:
You're connected to your past and value the things that have happened to you. You've had some conflicted times in your life, but they've brought you to where you are today and you don't ignore it.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Boyd's library lessons

What lessons can libraries take from Boyd observations?

I think Gabrielle stated it the best in her post here:

http://gcscils598f08.blogspot.com/2008/11/danah-boyd-library-infolessons-1.html

Libraries have committed themselves to reaching out to diverse groups. A major part of being a librarian is finding out who our patrons are, what they need and meeting those needs. Preschool story time, employment information, ESL help, LGBTQ collections and many, many more all come out of the commitment to serve all our patrons. So if our patrons use a diverse range of social network sites (be it for reasons of class, ethnicity, economic standing or simply personal preference) we need to be prepared to bring our services to where they are, rather then expecting them to conform to one website of our choosing.

Sticky? Y/Y?

Why are places like Facebook and Myspace so 'sticky'?

I decided visual aids would help answer this question, so have another screencast.

http://screencast.com/t/w32PmVKJhI

Facebook how to

Click the link below to view a screencast of how to add photos to your Facebook profile.

http://screencast.com/t/ZwJCfcrxI

Favorite Videos

There were a lot of cute, fun and educational videos, but two stood out as my favorites.




I love dressing up, my closet is full of RenFaire garb and I've done some anime 'cosplay' as well. Steam punk as a genre intrigues me, and I love Steve's outfit and the creativeness of this idea.

The second video I really enjoyed was the "Do you want a treat video?" seen here. I love cats and this video shows just one of the reasons why.

Place a hold on a book in less then 5 min!

This short and easy tutorial shows you how to place a hold on a book using the Morris County Inter Library Loan system. You can do this from your home computer, then, like magic, the book will be sent to your home library to be picked up at your convenience!

View it here.

Flickr photots

We have a lot in common. As someone else pointed out, we all seem to have a caffeine addiction (tea, coffee, or other). We are all extremely busy trying to juggle school, work and life. Many of us posted pictures of the important people and pets in our lives.

Getting to campus appears to be an obstacle course for many of us. We have established places where we eat or grab a snack. At home we have routines as well. We all have a space where we do our work (sometimes shared with others). Many of us like to have a snack or something to drink while working. Most of us like books and surround ourselves with them.

While the people, places and food that are an important part of our life differ, we can each say that there is a person, a place and a certain kind of tea/coffee/snack that is important to us.

It is in the details that we differ. Some of us take the train, some of us drive. We have different hobbies. Some people like to travel, some like to ski. JC has a favorite pair of socks, SC likes mushrooms and has a cool pair of goggles.

The photographs we take give an insight into who we are and what is important to us. We get to see an aspect of our classmates that we would never have seen in a classroom.

Educational vs. Entertainment

Do educational videos stand a chance against videos made for entertainment?

I feel it depends on the video. Common Craft makes some very entertaining short videos that are very educational. However, many people would rather watch a video of a dog chasing its tail then an hour long video of someone lecturing at a chalkboard. The great thing about videos and the Internet now is the possibilities. It is possible to create a video that includes recorded footage (for example- of a lecture), then cuts to images that support and enhance the point (like charts and graphs) or to photographs (a historical lecture could make great use of this). Music, and sound effects can also be added in.

Image a lecture given by a history professor that is recorded and placed on the web exactly as is. Unless the professor is a phenomenal public speaker, the video will probably only be watched by students who are assigned to watch it. Now image the professor is creating this lecture/video for the web. He may include the best clips of his live lecture, but then he cuts to a photograph of FDR and plays a clip of FDR's "Nothing to fear" speech. Then he cuts to video clip of a news broadcast about race riots. Then a slide is displayed with the major points he is trying to make while audio plays of him discussing these points. Instead of one 2 hour video, the Professor decides to break it up (by time period, by major point) and posts a series of 20 min videos. Done well, this could attract the attention of people who are interested in the topic, not just students who are forced to watch the video (and who are probably skimming it).

I believe educational videos have a place on the web and can be a great way to supplement in-class learning and written material. However, the creator of the video has to have their audience in mind and put effort into creating a video that is lively and stimulating and will increase the audience's interest in the topic, not make them zone out. It requires more work on the producers end, but the end result is far more valuable.

Entertainment videos will always be more popular, because they are, well, entertaining. However, educational does not have to mean dull. Educational videos can be entertaining and are indeed far more likely to get their point across and stick with the audience if they are entertaining.

After all, I still remember how much I enjoyed "Donald Duck in Mathematics Land" when I was a kid.

Rochester Children's Book Festival

This weekend I attended the Rochester Children's Book Festival. The following video is a sort of travelogue of the experience. It combines video and still pictures. I took some other videos of the trip, but they did not come out well.

The trip itself was a lot of fun, even though I had to wake up at 4:30 am Saturday to drive to Rochester, stayed over at a hotel and didn't get home till this evening.





or view it here on YouTube.

Note: There is a mistake in the audio. I am not actually in the picture with Paul Zelinsky.

Strong Female Characters for Girls

This little video was inspired by a presentation I did for my materials for children class. I believe that for girls to be 'strong' (however you want to define that) they need to see, read and hear stories with active, witty and strong female characters. I love fairy tales, but sometimes I need stories where the Princess rescues the Prince from the dragon.



Click to play

Or see it here.

Chasing our tail....?

Warning: Contains questions and no answers.

The question I'm interested in is not so much can we utilize the long tail, but how far down it should librarians/libraries go?

Imagine for a moment that the limits between the library and the end of the long tail are removed. We have a consortium of libraries that can each rival the shelf space of the Strand bookstore. We have a crack team of digital archivists, unlimited digital storage space for all media formats and ebook reader technology has evolved to the point where skimming, searching and reading digital books is as easy or even more so then reading the print version. Say we can chase the long tail to the very end and collect within the library all the infinite niche markets.

Should we?

Should we collect every book, magazine, video, audio recording, blog, podcast, and picture ever created? After all just about everything could potentially be important to someone. Does anyone care what Jane's cousin is feeding her baby for breakfast. Probably not. But you never know, years down the line a sociologist may do a study on what people in the early 21st Century were blogging about. So should we collect as much quantity as possible?

Or should we as librarians focus on quality? Should we continue evaluating what we add to our collection and only select the 'best' and 'highest quality' sources? Who determines what is considered a 'quality' or 'worthwhile' source. Which is more important, the opinion of a learned/self-important (choose you adjective) scholar or the rating on Digg?

On the one hand 'one man's trash is another man's treasure', on the other hand we have an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters. Are we serving all our niche markets no matter how obscure, or are we chasing our own tail?

Text Blog vs. Podcast

Podcasts

Pro-

• Can use special effects, add music
• Vocal emphasis that is lacking in written format (ie sarcasm)
• Listening can be more interesting then reading a long text
• Saves eyestrain from staring at computer screen
• A good format to reach people with poor eyesight or who are blind
• Gives a human element
• Good for audio learners

Con-

• Difficult to search the content without a transcription
• poor audio quality can make it difficult to hear
• Quality of speaker becomes more important, a dull monotone speaker will lose the audience
• Uhhh, Ummmmm, You know
• Some people are embarrassed to have their voice recorded
• Some places it's not possible to listen to a podcast where it is possible to read (ie work)
• Recording, rerecording, editing, uploading and then posting can take a long time

Text-based Blogging

Pro-

• text is searchable
• Just type and hit post. ~Spellcheck optional but encouraged ;D
• Better for visual learners
• Can read a blog places where you might not be able to listen to one
• Easier for second language speakers (who can often understand written better then spoken)
• eliminates difficultly understanding accents/dialects or speech problems
• (See podcasting cons)

Con-

• Potential misunderstandings due to lack of vocal cues
• Difficult for those with spelling/writing disabilities
• For some people it is easier to say something then to write it
• (see podcasting pros)

Jamal and the Forty Thieves

This is one of the stories that I told last semester in my Storytelling class. It comes from Persia.

MP3 is here.

Libraries the new (?) tastemakers

One of the major reasons niche markets are expanding is not only because they are easier to access, but because of bit torrent, YouTube, media fire and all of the ways for people to share files for free. This makes people far more willing to try something new and outside of their established tastes. This is an area libraries have been excelling at long before the invention of the Internet. As Steven Colbert recently pointed out, at libraries, everything is free (unless you don't return those books).

Libraries already have systems in place for introduction people to new ideas, authors and tastes. Readers' advisory is a great way to introduce patrons to new books (music, videos ect.), authors and genres. It is also a good way to match books to patrons' interests. Recently I was helping a high school student find a book to read. While he was looking for an author he had read before, I asked his mother about his interests. Finding out the boy liked chess, I recommended a book about a teenage boy on a chase through Europe looking for a grand chess master. The boy was interested and took out the book. It is unlikely that without the recommendation he would have asked for a fiction book about chess.

Bibliographies are another way librarians match people with books. Fliers and bookmarks with recommended reading lists can be created for just about any interest. Many libraries have also been posting these types of lists on their web pages. BCCLS's teen page is a great example of what can be done with this. http://www.bccls.org/teens/bookBonanza/

Programing and guest speakers also help people develop new tastes and explore new interests in a familiar environment. People who don't want to travel to a museum may attend a lecture of a local artist at the library (or wander past the program and get 'sucked in' while looking for the newest People magazine).

Because libraries are still primarily physical places that have limited staff and budgets, they can not reach people the same way Amazon and eBay do (yet). However, with expanded inter library loan, collaboration between libraries and librarians to create content to help people find new niches, downloadable audio books and other digital services, libraries can expand the materials and services that they offer and reach greater numbers of people.

Will libraries ever go all the way down the long tail? Probably not, but we already have many of the necessary tools to help our patrons navigate increasing larger areas of this new territory.

I got Stats

I checked out my Google Analytics stats and found that IE was the top browser and that cable was the top speed of all the people viewing my blog. All of the times I visit my blog are obviously affecting the results, still its fun to see the statistics.

Most Used Browsers:

Most Used Connection Speed:

My kingdom for a good cup of tea

I almost always have a cup of tea in hand. I come from a family that, if at a restaurant the tea selection is not up to par, someone will pull out a couple spare teabags and ask for hot water instead. I spent time in China, where you can get hot water for free just about anywhere, and in Japan where there are usually about 3 vending machines on every street corner, each carrying a wide selection of canned hot tea and coffee (real brewed tea), with sugar and milk or without it.

After that, this is a disappointment.



The hot chocolate is passable, but the tea tastes like weak coffee.

I can (and do) run to the cafe (I forget the name of it) by the Student Center and they have always been happy to fill my travel mug with hot water (some other places on campus have charged me 50 cents for hot water). However, lugging my laptop, purse, lunch bag, books and anything else I happen to be carrying with me from the SCILS building there and back every time I want a cup of tea gets tiring fast.

Mostly, I've ended up buying the green tea citrus thing from the soda vending machine. It's not bad, but its not really tea either.

For the positives of my SCILS experience (except for the hair-eating chair) check out my Flickr set. And here is the 598's group SCILS experience.

Virtual Introduction

Looking at all the favorites shared on Delicious was fun and gave me an insight into my classmates that doesn't often come out in normal class interaction. While only a few of my websites were also listed by other people, I recognized many of the websites and also found some new ones that I will have to check out. It was fun to see that some of my classmates shared my interest in things like Dr. Horrible, steam punk, Lord of the Rings, cat macros, travel, tea and the PHD web comic.

I think this would be a fun 'get to know you' activity in future classes.

The Long Tail

I'm not a business or economics person and was honestly not looking forward to this reading. Then I picked up and actually read Anderson's book and found myself really enjoying it.

So is the library world ready to benefit from the long tail? I would say not quite yet, but we're working on it. Libraries are still primarily a physical place and still have to deal with the limits of space and budget. However, websites like the Internet Public Library and the Librarian's Internet Index are collecting vast amounts of knowledge while circumventing the traditional limits of space and budget. Librarians are also creating their own mini indexes and databases of specialized, helpful information by bookmarking favorite and often used websites or starting wikis.

Many libraries have subscribed to digital audio book archives, though according to the feedback of patrons at my library, the service imposes limits on how many copies of a file can be "checked out" at a time, creating waiting lists to download the most popular audio books (which to my mind defeats the main benefit of a digital audio book service).

Before we are ready to truly grasp the long tail, services like the one mentioned above need to improve. Web sites like IPL and LII should become commonplace on the computers of librarians and we should follow their example (and the many examples presented in this class) and share our knowledge, experience and bookmarks with our colleagues. We are moving toward a library world ready to take on the long tail and I believe that as the current group of library students bring their personal and school experience with web 2.0 technologies into their professional lives this shift will increase greatly.

Online Collaboration

In the first class I took for this degree one assignment was a major group presentation. While my group met up and worked together a bit, in the end my partners emailed me their notes and I dropped them into a PowerPoint. A wiki or other online collaborative service would have made the project much easier to put together. I think wikis, Google Docs and other web 2.0 services are a great way for a group of people to create something, especially when they can't meet in person often or are working at different times.

A few of my professors have already started incorporating wikis and other collaboration tools and methods into their classes. All of my professors have at the very least used eCollege to share class readings and some have allowed their students to post related articles or work as well. While I'm sure not all the professors would be comfortable with a group writing one paper in Google docs, I believe that the professors I have had thus far would at least consider the idea.

Wet Paint and PBwiki

Wetpaint and PBwiki have a lot of stylistic differences and Wetpaint seems more accessible to people unfamiliar with wikis then PBwiki (little notes explain each step). However, the main difference I noticed was how prominent Wetpaint's collaboration tools were.



Part of the set up process is to invite friends and there are several notes in this section explaining the importance of multiple contributors for creating content. At the top of every page are various tools like a forum, a to-do section and a page that lists all the members of the wiki. Each page you create can be tagged with keywords and when the page is posted a box pops up inviting you to add a note about the page that other contributors can see. Wetpaint makes communication with other authors and maintainers of your wiki very easy and its communication tools are very visible.

Wetpaint is easy to use and set up, making it a good choice for people new to wikis. However the site is supported by ads. PBwiki has a more serious appearance making it a better choice if you want a professional looking wiki.

Re-education?

(First off I'm sorry this is so late, my roommates are getting married on the 18th and I'm in the wedding party so this weekend we were dealing with a lot of prep stuff plus we have two people who flew in for the wedding staying with us right now so its been crazy.)

Current technology and future developments are changing (and I believe will continue to change) how universities and schools in general will work. Will the digital classroom replace the traditional classroom? I feel this debate has a lot in common with the question will digital libraries replace physical libraries? I believe the answer to both is no. The Internet and all its capabilities will supplement both schools and libraries and broaden the services that can be made available but ultimately we are social creatures and need face to face human interaction. Social software imitates this but ultimately chatting with a friend online is not as satisfying as seeing them in person.

Will some guy in Hungry be able to get a degree from Rutgers without ever leaving his country (or desk chair for that matter)? Will a professor be able to teach a class while pursuing research deep in the rain forest? Yes. The services universities provide, the audience they reach and the range of facility they draw from have already and will continue to expand.

However I have seen in libraries, while people want more information available from home at all times, people still come into the library for more social reasons. In my own library I have seen parents and siblings sit and read to younger children and parents and their older children sitting side by side on a couch each reading. They could just as easily do this at home, they don't need to spend more then five minutes in the library if they didn't want to. They can order books ahead, pick them up and then leave. Yet despite the busy world we live in some people still linger in the library. Last year, at the patrons request, we started a knitting circle in the library. It is still going strong and the patrons really appreciate the social aspect of it as well as how easy it is to share what each knows. Those with greater experience help those with are still learning.

As someone else pointed out, to undergrads who are transitioning from teenager to adult the social interactions and independence of the college setting are just as important to their social development as the traditional classes are to their education.  Because of this I believe we will see more changes on the graduate level where this social education is not as imperative.

 

I am really enjoying this class and the subject matter lends itself to an online class, however with a few exceptions, I don't feel like I'm getting to know my classmates the way I do in an traditional classroom setting.

One of the best classes I had at Rutgers incorporated both an online component and the traditional classroom setting.  We would have class discussions in a face to face setting, then use the class wiki to work on our assignments collaboratively.  This is how I see colleges changing, not a total reorganization but a melding of the traditional classroom and digital technology into one seamless whole.

Shelfari

Shelfari is a web site that allows you to create a virtual bookshelf. It is easy to search by author, title or ISBN #. You can browse other users' shelves, share your own bookshelf, read and write reviews and find information on your favorite author. People who share similar interests can create groups dedicated to a certain topic. Shelfari is a great way to meet people who share your tastes in reading. It also allows you to create lists of what books you own, what books you want to read, what books you've read but don't own and so on. There are many ways to organize your lists of books. Shelfari can help you keep track of things what books you already own (for though of us who can't remember if we bought that book or only though about buying it) and what books you are planning to read (in your infinite spare time).

The coolest feature is that graphical interface. Your bookshelf really looks like a bookshelf with the cover images of the books you selected displayed on the shelf. Shelfari can easily be added to a blog or web page so you can show your friends what your currently reading. In a library setting, Shelfari is a great way to promote the new books purchased by the library.

Mmmm delicious magnolias

I'm fairly new to both Delicious and Magnolia.

So far as I can see, both have their benefits and both have head scratching moments.

Magnolia

• Its pretty. Very superficial of me perhaps but its pretty. :)
• User Profiles so you have some idea who is creating these bookmarks
• You can associate your Magnolia account with other accounts like LJ
• Avatars (again more pretty then useful but it pulls in more of the social aspect/expression)
• Groups we multiple users can compile bookmarks related to a certain subject (while tagging and networking on Delicious may be similar, this feature appears to take it a bit farther into true collaboration)
• It saves a copy of the web page when you bookmark it so if the page disappears you can still access a copy

Delicious

• Easier to search all tags ie find all bookmarks tag with "tea", not just within my friends
• In general a bit easier to navigate, certain features more prominent
• You can see immediately how many times a web page has been bookmarked and easily find the users who bookmarked it
• Toolbar add on makes it very easy to add bookmarks (though only on computers where you can download and install the toolbar)

New Web 2.0 (2)

Through Delicious I found the SlideShare website and recognized it as the service that hosts Peter Bromburg's RSS slide show.

http://www.slideshare.net/

The site has a tag list so users can browse for slide shows they might be interested in. Slideshows can be shared, commented on, added as a favorite (and thus easy to find again) or downloaded. Slideshows can also be embedded into a blog for website.

What really intrigues me is the possibilities for libraries. Using SlideShare it would be very easy to set up a simple tutorial to explain anything from how to get a library card to how to set up an email account that can be embedded into the library's web page. I think SlideShare would especially be useful for patrons who aren't as tech-savvy and who might not have headphones or speakers set up on their computer (or who do but don't want to mess around with them) to listen to a screen cast or video. Also, SlideShare allows the viewer to go at their own pace, unlike a video format. SlideShare would also be good for making a tutorial available to a hearing impaired patron.

Information Overload

(Warning: I've been horribly sick all week, so I'm not sure how coherent this will be.)

Do RSS aggregators help or contribute too information overload?

The short answer is yes.

They help us to manage information. We can screen information so that the information we are most interested in comes to us. We don't have to go to each blog or news source separately which saves time. We also don't have to wade though a lot of irrelevant information to find the relevant information we want.

However, whenever I've been away for a few days and not checked my friends list on LJ (basically an aggregator of the journal posts of my 'LJ friends') I can have several pages of new posts to read. This can very quickly get overwhelming and lead to the feeling that one must check their blog readers every day or even multiple times a day to keep up. Because the information is coming to you there is more pressure to stay on top of it, rather then a more casual approach of checking a journal you enjoy when you have some free time.

RSS feeds can be very helpful or they can be overwhelming. I have found that the key is to be discerning. Instead of subscribing to any feed in which I have a passing interest, I try to only subscribe to feeds that I am strongly interested in or that I know are updated infrequently. Feeds that update multiple time a day, unless they are extremely relevant to the information I want, I probably wouldn't subscribe to but rather visit their site when I have the time to focus on what I want to get out of them. Other wise it is very easy for other smaller but possibly more important posts to get lost in all the clutter or for the reader to feel completely overloaded.

"Feed" ending

I turned on my computer, getting ready to write about "Feed" in this blog, and opened up iTunes in preparation to do the rest of my homework and this pops up in iTunes.

"iTunes 8 includes Genius, which makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together. Genius also includes Genius sidebar, which recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don't already have."

First off, who decides what songs go great together? Secondly, I really don't want iTunes constantly telling me, "oh you should buy this song." Just because I have a song on my computer does not mean I want more songs like it. I have a very eclectic collection of music and what's on my computer is even more so. I can't even imagine the type of profile iTunes would come up with based on what I have on my laptop, but I think it might look something like Violet's profile after her (non)shopping spree.

I downloaded iTunes for this class, but I really don't want iTunes/Apple knowing what music I listen too. Which leads into the main issue that stood out for me in "Feed". Privacy. In "Feed" no one has any privacy. When Titus first thinks something might happen between him and Violet this ad pops up with a web page of pick-up lines (for a small fee). At least now, if I don't want Amazon.com keeping track of my purchases, I can go to a bookstore and pay cash and avoid any electronic record that I bought a certain book. When I downloaded iTunes, it started going though and converting my music files. Having a program downloaded on your computer is more invasive then a web page that keeps track of what on its page you looked at. Moving the computer and all the profiling and tracking software into the human mind brings this to a level that makes my skin crawl. Any amount of privacy we have is utterly destroyed in the society of "Feed". And yet in some ways they are more alone then ever. When Violet fell, she was panicking. The feed knew this and gave her ads about deodorant. When Titus is feeling sad he gets ads for blue jeans.

While I can not say if we will ever have the feed implanted straight into our brains (I certainly hope not) many of the developments in technology are becoming more and more invasive in our lives all in the name of convenience. Slowly, we are losing our privacy and like many in "Feed" we are too distracted by all the new shinnies to notice just what we are losing.

As a non-tech related side note: At one point I wanted to throw the book down I was so disgusted with Titus.

New Web 2.0

I have heard many people talk about delicious for bookmarking sites, but I've never used it before. I really like the idea. While I don't really need to share bookmarks with other people often, I am always using different computers. Being able to access my bookmarks on any computer is wonderful.

Adding the delicious button to my toolbar was easy. Adding new bookmarks is quick and easy but still give you some options. You can add tags and decide weather or not to share the link right as you create the bookmark. I also like the feature of importing my current bookmarks. The only downside is that going through and adding tags to the imported bookmarks can be time consuming.

This would be a great help for reference or reader's advisory librarians. They can use delicious to create a webliography of relevant and helpful sites. Also, each of the librarians would be able to add new bookmarks that they find helpful.

Bloglines vs. Google Reader

I haven't used either one previous to this class so this list will be based on initial impressions.

• Bloglines wasn't hard to set up, but Google Reader was much easier.

I like that with Google I just need to set up one account and I automatically can get into all the other services. (I'm not about to drink the coolaid yet, but... the variety of services and the convenience is tempting).

• Google Reader was easier to add feeds to my list
• The log in for Bloglines is really small and out of the way
• Bloglines is less cluttered, making it easier to read

The main point for me, however, is this. In Google reader, it tells me when there are new posts and I can see them easily, however, I can also look at the older 'read' posts. In Bloglines, once I've 'read' a post, it disappears. So if I check Bloglines at work, see that Gabrielle has a new post, by the time I go back to comment on it from home, that post is gone and I have to go to her blog in order to see it again.

Feed

Looking at a few of the points other people have posted about, it seems like most of us feel that world presented in "Feed" is not desirable. I agree, mostly. Having a computer inside your head bombarding you with ads and telling you what to buy or wear or be is not desirable (and not that far fetched).

However, I don't mind places like Amazon.com sending me recommendations based on my past purchases. For example I had been buying an anime TV show when the company who held the licence went out of business, leaving me hanging a few episodes before the climax of the show. Almost a year later Amazon tells me that the next volume of the show is coming out soon. I follow the link and see that a different company has bought the licence for the American release.

As all of these blog and news readers that we are talking about in class show, there is certain information we want to come to us. There are a lot of benefits to the technology we have today and the technology that is presented in "Feed". Having tried to talk to someone in loud, crowed places the M-chat does hold some appeal.

However, while advertising is all over computers, buildings, signs (in Shanghai I even saw small TV screens in the wall next to elevators) we can, whenever we want, turn off the computer, close the door and retreat to a book. That is an option the the people in "Feed" don't have.

Blogger vs. Live Journal

I've been using Live Journal for a few years and am using Blogger for the first time for this class. Here are some points that I have noticed.

• Blogger is able to search for keywords within a certain journal
• Blogger is very simple and straightforward. (Good for first time bloggers)
• Blogger does not have ads
• You can post to Blogger using an LJ or other account
• Live Journal allows more freedom in creating your profile
• Live Journal has space for multiple icons, allowing users to chose an icon for each post and comment.
• Live Journal allows adding voice, polls and charts to the post from the post editor window
• Live Journal has a 'cut' feature for long posts
• Live Journal can adjust comment screening and permissions on a post to post basis
• Live Journal allows 'friends only' posting on a post to post basis

Blogger is very good for first time bloggers and the search feature is very helpful, however Live Journal give the user more freedom. (All points are based on the free account, a paid account has even more options and no ads.)

Brown and Duguid Chpt. 3

In this reading what I focused most on was the idea of how important collective knowledge is. Brown and Duguid's story of the new employee in an isolated office struggling with the technology who's problems cleared up once she was move to a more populated area really stood out to me. When one runs into trouble with technology, or to put it into a library setting, when one runs into an information need of any kind, being able to tap into a shared collection of knowledge is crucial.

In the Human Information Behavior class I took one idea continued to appear. When a person has an everyday life information need, in most cases, they turn first to friends, family or co-workers and ask. (Ever since taking that class I have observed this in my own everyday information seeking behavior) Sometimes they are able to gain a satisfactory answer. Sometimes their immediate circle has not encountered this problem previously and the information seeker must look to other sources.

As was pointed out in the reading, the problem of technology that allows one to work almost anywhere, thus enabling the work from home attempts Brown and Duguid discuss, is that the user is cut off from that collective knowledge generated when groups of people gather. Social Software like blogs, wikis, IM and the others we will discuss in our class can be used to take this collective knowledge online and help to reconnect the user with others to recreate that ability to chat around the water cooler or ask a neighbor for help.

A recent example of this from my own experience is an online friend of mine from LJ posted a question on her blog asking for bibliographic data on the manga art group CLAMP. I saw the question and knew that my library had a manga guide book that would contain that information. During my down time at work I was able to look up and send her the answer to her question. I have also frequently observed blog users ask other users how to perform certain functions like customizing their blog or placing their posts behind LJ-cuts (a function that allows long posts to be collapsed or expanded so as not to take up too much space). This behavior greatly resembles a worker at a desk asking the workers near him if they know how to do "X".

The benefits of social software for creating a virtual shared knowledge collection are great. However, there are limits that need to be addressed. How such knowledge is stored and retrieved for later use is a questions librarians have been grappling with, in one form or another, for a very long time. Also, if your problem is that your computer crashed or your modem won't connect to the Internet then sending out a tweet or posting a help message on your blog won't be easy to accomplish.

Rockaway Twp YA Blog

The Rockaway Township Public library has a teen blog run by Kimberly Garnick. From the library's main page, the patron just needs to click on the teen section and there is a large link to the blog at the top of the page.

http://www.rocktwpya.blogspot.com/ (http://www.rtlibrary.org/)

While this blog isn't the biggest, shiniest library blog with a gazillion comments, I think it is a great example of what a smaller library with a limited staff (one YA librarian who maintains the blog alone) can do with blogging.

The purpose of the blog is stated in a side bar description. "This is the blog for Rock Twp Teens --the space for library events; book, movie & music reviews; cool websites; news; and more."

Kimberly blogs about meeting Holly Black at a Spiderwick book signing, writes a weekly review of a YA book, posts reminders about upcoming events, asks for help from her teens, talks about recently library events and posts pictures taken at them. She also includes information about movies based off of teen books, including trailers and updated release date information. (and this is all in the first page)

While there are not a lot of comments on her posts it is an effective tool for her to disseminate information to her teen users. For example, last February I observed one of her teen programs for a different class. At the end of the program they discussed an upcoming TAG meeting. Kimberly told the teens that if the meeting was cancelled due to weather she would post it on the blog. Her users know that to get the most updated information on library events and cancellations they just need to check the blog.

Kimberly also uses the sidebars of her blog effectively. She posts links to recommended and important web pages such as the Rockaway school's web page, Q&ANJ, teenreads, GLBTQ--Mathew's place, and the library's main page. Prominently displayed is the library's link to home work help and a meebo widget that allows users to IM Kimberly. She also includes a list of links to popular YA authors' web pages and a list of upcoming library events.

This blog is updated regularly and is a good way to promote upcoming events. It also celebrates the teens' participation in the library by recapping past programs and displaying photographs from those events. For example there is a picture on the blog of the goth sock puppets teen users made at a recent program.

Looking at the websites of larger libraries that have well developed web pages and a large staff supporting the library's online presence is very helpful for getting ideas and a better understanding of how the technology can be used in the library. However, I believe it is also important to see what smaller, less tech-savvy and cutting edge libraries are able to do with the same technology.