Being able to add notes to entries in del.icio.us can be helpful-- especially if your whole circ staff or reference department uses the same account as a list of organized links. This is also helpful if one is not familiar with the link but would "just right" during a reference interview. Also, if you have an extensive list of links, it would be easy to forget the nuances of some of the links when looking to match a question with a link when choosing between a couple.
I do like that you can rename tags in del.icio.us easily. Much easier than LibraryThing the last time I tried to add consistancy to my catalog. LT may have made it easier than it was, I do not know. And I only have a modest collection-- under 1000 titles.
Some of the other features available for del.icio.us would be useful, though I do not use them currently. The rss feeds would be especially good for keeping up on certain topics. This would be really useful for business libraries. Or if you find a really good set of bookmarks off of another library's list.
I have bundled a couple of my tags together the first time in semester one, but it does not display until I click on "bundle tags." Right now I am not too concerned, as I only have about 33 entries, which is all on one page, if I change the display settings at the bottom of the page.
My library has the del.icio.us software blocked from our circ computers, so that I can not add links if I log into my account, as it requires downloading software onto each circ computer. Though, with the new director we have, we may be able to get this changed. I think all we have to do is have SCLS to add something to each computer. I would love to be able to use del.icio.us at the desk. So that each computer had the same links on them.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Low-tech, or Who needs lights?
Yesterday was just another day in libraryland... until the thunder struck somewhere nearby. Then we were in the dark! No lights, no computers, no phones. The emergency lights came on in some places for only a couple of minutes. We had just let out storytime. People were trying to check out and we were shelving holds. Time to get out the flashlight. We had a few sheets of paper already gridded out for library card numbers and item barcodes. It was at least 20 minutes before the power was restored. And half the day before the phones were back online. Our staff did take it with ease though. We have a pretty level headed group of librarians. We had patrons asking if they could still check out materials. I said, "Yes, we can. We'll just do it the old way, before computers." The only thing we did not have was the cards in the back or front of the books.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Dirty Jobs: Librarian
There is nothing worse to come into the library as germs. We are bombarded with germs everyday. The books, CD's, DVD's and everything else that circulates are full of germs, not to mention the fine money we take in. We can not even come close to disinfecting it all. Sick children and adults alike come into the library or at least handle the library materials, coughing and sneezing on the items before turning them back in. And they do not try to clean off the items before returning them... not that we ask them to.
Why do I bring up this topic? I am one of three people on staff from one afternoon that was out sick from the stomach flu. At least two of us were out for two or more days. I would be out for three if today was not my day off.
What can the staff do? Almost nothing, as germs are invisible to the human eye. We can only wash our hands often and periodically wipe down the check out counters and try to clean the covers of books and A/V.
Why do I bring up this topic? I am one of three people on staff from one afternoon that was out sick from the stomach flu. At least two of us were out for two or more days. I would be out for three if today was not my day off.
What can the staff do? Almost nothing, as germs are invisible to the human eye. We can only wash our hands often and periodically wipe down the check out counters and try to clean the covers of books and A/V.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Curiosity and Project Play Year-in-Review
I am both curious and passive. That means that sometimes I have to be dragged, kicking and screaming into trying new things. I was afraid at the beginning of PP when the first assignment was to create a blog of our own that we would use to comment and try out web 2.0 technologies. When I discovered how easy it was to use many of these tools, I lost the fear.
As stated in the 11-12 week assignment post, not everything will be useful to all libraries and all people or situations. Evaluation of each need will determine what steps are taken to solve a question posed by a patron, fellow staff person, or new need in the library environment. The six steps are a great reminder of this. Mashups definitely are examples of curiosity and creativity to fill needs people have encountered, trying to make life easier. Blogs, bloglines, survey monkey, Gabcast, Flickr (for events pictures), Librarything, del.icio.us and tags are definitely things that I can use in my library in what I do on a regular basis. I recommend Librarything to patrons, as I have used it for several years. I would like to see myself using web 2.0 technology to have a social community book review/what-I-am-reading-now site.
My curiosity will keep me interested in keeping up with new technology, and my passiveness will probably keep me from trying any new technologies until I find a need that the new technologies can fill in my personal life. Thank goodness for newsfeeds (rss). My library life... I do not know. I am certainly more outgoing with people when living in my library environment.
As stated in the 11-12 week assignment post, not everything will be useful to all libraries and all people or situations. Evaluation of each need will determine what steps are taken to solve a question posed by a patron, fellow staff person, or new need in the library environment. The six steps are a great reminder of this. Mashups definitely are examples of curiosity and creativity to fill needs people have encountered, trying to make life easier. Blogs, bloglines, survey monkey, Gabcast, Flickr (for events pictures), Librarything, del.icio.us and tags are definitely things that I can use in my library in what I do on a regular basis. I recommend Librarything to patrons, as I have used it for several years. I would like to see myself using web 2.0 technology to have a social community book review/what-I-am-reading-now site.
My curiosity will keep me interested in keeping up with new technology, and my passiveness will probably keep me from trying any new technologies until I find a need that the new technologies can fill in my personal life. Thank goodness for newsfeeds (rss). My library life... I do not know. I am certainly more outgoing with people when living in my library environment.
Mashups
I added Verona Public Library to the Mapbuilder sandbox. That was pretty cool. Easy to do too.
I liked the idea of mapdango's where you can type in a city and see the weather, see a list of events in the area, music playing, flickr images, and wikipedia info about the different sites to see... all color and number coded on a google map. I did not see any source information except that the site says that it is not affiliated with flickr, Wikipedia, Weatherbug, Eventful, Gruvr, or any other third party. It was a Mashups award winner. I can see its usefulness in a reference interview regarding events or music. All you have to do is type in a city and state to find the info that you are looking for.
Soon I will be putting up my condo up for sale again. To see my competiton, I tried to look up real estate mashups. I also thought it would be cool to look at crime in my area. I tried many real estate search mashups for my zip code and found that they were not very helpful. It is easier to go to realtor.com to find the information I wanted. I tried the mashups to see if I could find one with info on crime rate by neighborhood and see if one was connected to real-estate and did not find one that was useful. I looked for a mashup that stated that there was information on crime included; so far I found one that claimed to. Fizber.com had census data, and other info by city, but nothing was broken down by neighborhood, only city. Other sites did not include the crime info, but were simply property search sites that had less information than a realtor's website.
I learned that for some searches mashups will be useful, and other times a straight website will work better.
I liked the idea of mapdango's where you can type in a city and see the weather, see a list of events in the area, music playing, flickr images, and wikipedia info about the different sites to see... all color and number coded on a google map. I did not see any source information except that the site says that it is not affiliated with flickr, Wikipedia, Weatherbug, Eventful, Gruvr, or any other third party. It was a Mashups award winner. I can see its usefulness in a reference interview regarding events or music. All you have to do is type in a city and state to find the info that you are looking for.
Soon I will be putting up my condo up for sale again. To see my competiton, I tried to look up real estate mashups. I also thought it would be cool to look at crime in my area. I tried many real estate search mashups for my zip code and found that they were not very helpful. It is easier to go to realtor.com to find the information I wanted. I tried the mashups to see if I could find one with info on crime rate by neighborhood and see if one was connected to real-estate and did not find one that was useful. I looked for a mashup that stated that there was information on crime included; so far I found one that claimed to. Fizber.com had census data, and other info by city, but nothing was broken down by neighborhood, only city. Other sites did not include the crime info, but were simply property search sites that had less information than a realtor's website.
I learned that for some searches mashups will be useful, and other times a straight website will work better.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
YouTube
YouTube is fun. It is entertaining. I especially liked the YouTube video "Tour the Harper College Library" listed on Project Play and in my own search, the video "The L-Team" which is a take on the A-Team. Of course, who can forget the "Conan the Librarian" clip from UHF?
Videos on YouTube are either very good or very very bad... but they are homemade videos made by regular people and not necessarily professional actors. My spouse recently got an account for YouTube. I will keep to my current 5 email addresses, so if I want to use the account, I will use his. I think that for fun, librarians can have fun watching librarian related clips on YouTube, and it can be used for all ages by libraries for promoting services or teaching, or even giving a tour of the library.
I do like the idea of having contests for library patrons and using YouTube as the format. All ages are using it. YouTube is a fun way to teach something simple, if you want something a little more fun to watch than a screencast, if you already have a way to record the picture and sound, such as with a camera, phone, or camcorder.
Videos on YouTube are either very good or very very bad... but they are homemade videos made by regular people and not necessarily professional actors. My spouse recently got an account for YouTube. I will keep to my current 5 email addresses, so if I want to use the account, I will use his. I think that for fun, librarians can have fun watching librarian related clips on YouTube, and it can be used for all ages by libraries for promoting services or teaching, or even giving a tour of the library.
I do like the idea of having contests for library patrons and using YouTube as the format. All ages are using it. YouTube is a fun way to teach something simple, if you want something a little more fun to watch than a screencast, if you already have a way to record the picture and sound, such as with a camera, phone, or camcorder.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
screencasts
Screencasts, video and audio recordings of what is on the computer screen that are shot in real-time, could be helpful in demonstrating new databases available to the public on the library's website, wiki, or blog. Audio is optional, depending on what content is being shown.
The reference or circulation department could do a screencast of how to use LinkCat or any database for patrons to use. A different database could be screencast each month. Other options for the SCLS users could be how to place holds, check the availability of a book at the library, reserve a computer online, and more. Also, how to set up a free email account could be shown too. The Children's department could demo Ebscohost, Searchasaurus, and ERIC databases too.
If permission was given by the instructor, the library could even record a class on how to use excel or word or other computer classes, a powerpoint presentation or other class and keep it online or on the blog or wiki, though these might be really long screencasts.
I thought about suggesting book talks on screencasts, but that is more like a video option, not a screencast.
The reference or circulation department could do a screencast of how to use LinkCat or any database for patrons to use. A different database could be screencast each month. Other options for the SCLS users could be how to place holds, check the availability of a book at the library, reserve a computer online, and more. Also, how to set up a free email account could be shown too. The Children's department could demo Ebscohost, Searchasaurus, and ERIC databases too.
If permission was given by the instructor, the library could even record a class on how to use excel or word or other computer classes, a powerpoint presentation or other class and keep it online or on the blog or wiki, though these might be really long screencasts.
I thought about suggesting book talks on screencasts, but that is more like a video option, not a screencast.
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