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.