The Man of the House

For all you cat lovers:



Toffee! He showed up on my parents deck one fall with his frost-shortened tail and ears, and very few teeth. So we fed him and loved him :)

He was a friendly cat, but lacking in manners. He ate a quarter of a chocolate cake on the counter on day. He even ate the bristles off a pastry brush that had been used to spread barbecue sauce on meat. We had to learn to keep the counters clear of anything remotely edible.

Today he shares an apartment with me, my sister, and two friends. His manners have improved greatly and he adds some character to our humble abode.

Social Networking

I am not a complete stranger to social networking. I have been using Facebook for three years and it is a like/hate relationship. It does help me stay in contact with some of my friends that I otherwise might have lost touch with. But after that, it just gets messy with all the applications and 'friends' that want to add you (even though you didn't speak to each other once in high school).

For this lab I signed up for Twitter. I am following a few classmates and my brother. I thought I would dislike it, but I am not finding it abhorrent. I appreciate that it is simple, clean, and to the point. I was also able to customize my page with a photo and a different background.

I don't think I will ever learn anything revelatory on Twitter, but I’ll keep trying it for a while.

I checked out a few libraries and they did have followers so it is an outreach tool to keep in mind(what’s new in the library, library events etc.) Libraries can use Twitter to keep in touch with patrons; however, I feel that this information is largely redundant as it is likely to be on the library’s website.

Request for Followers

I have joined Twitter for our lab in social networks. In order to have the full experience I would like to follow a few people I know and have a few followers myself.

If you are also on Twitter find me under my user name: moventure

Social Bookmarking

Another first in my adventures with Library 2.0!
Social bookmarking is a new concept to me. At least the social part, if not the bookmarking and tagging part. I've bookmarked a website or two in my laptop's web browser, and noticed tags or labels on blog entries. However, with a website like delicious.com, people can bookmark and tag websites, see what other websites are being tagged, and who is tagging which websites. It is an intriguing concept because of the user generated tagging. Instead of a controlled vocabulary of subject headings, a person can tag a website in any way they see fit.

Activity One:
I typed "pilates" into delicious.com. I came up with 9000 results. Of the 50 or so that I glanced over, most appeared to be instructions or descriptions of some sort. I found wikipedia articles, about.com articles, podcasts, and youtube videos. Most of the other tags on these results mentioned exercise, fitness,and health which were all expected.

The same search in google yielded 4 million results. These results tended to be associations (e.g. The Pilates Association of Canada), certain systems (Stott Pilates or Winsor Pilates), and pilates studios in various locations.

In broad terms, at least for a topic like pilates, the sites that people are tagging in delicious seem to be more "how to" than the sites that seek to gain in google (i.e. that you'll pay to join the studio Guelph or Kitsilano).

Activity Two:
I signed up for delicious, and saved a few websites. Honestly, I don't see myself using this website for bookmarking since it's generally not an activity I take part in. It's simply a personal preference, because I do appreciate the theory behind social bookmarking.

I can, however, see myself using the site to explore some of the tags. For example, in preparation for my oral presentation, I can now read the pages that "louisethelibrarian" has tagged on information literacy. Then I can see the pages all delicious users have tagged on information literacy. Nifty! I feel like it brings the serendipity back into searching.

There is one thing I am curious about... when I search for a tag, why do the results display as they do? It seems that the results are not sorted alphabetically, by number of tags, or by number of users saving it. Is there some kind of relevance system?

For Your Listening and Viewing Pleasure

I am inspired to share a few tidbits today.

First, the NAXOS Music Library. If you ever have a hankering to hear Brahms Fourth Symphony but do no have ready access to a physical music library, like me, then NAXOS will be a welcome resource. From the Winnipeg Public Library website, under the "Find It Online" tab, click on "Search NAXOS Music". Five hundred thousand "classical" tracks are available, but don't be frightened away! Try searching "Christos Hatzis Constantinople" and listen to a track or two. "Old Photographs" is a good one to start with.

Second, my brother's photo blog. His wife's brother and sister-in-law just had a baby girl and the photos are "awwwww!" inspiring.

Enjoy!

Online Applications

Today I had a chance to try out Google Documents. Simply put, it was fun. I suppose this had more to do with the situation than the application itself. You can see the fun in adding:

• A sentence to our story about Sue--one that does not rhyme
• My classmates' favorite symbol to the collaborative presentation
• A Feist song to our party play list

I am interested in trying Google docs in serious project; perhaps one where, because of time or location, i cannot work side-by-side with a collaborator. It would be advantageous to have all the information in one place rather than in a multitude of email attachments. In addition, no one will have their lock stolen as they did in the class wiki.

The chat feature is a smart tool--in the midst of writing their lab report, "Johnny" and "Bobby" can decide whether they should mention that their Bunsen burner exploded--and they won't have to phone each other or log on to another chat service to have this discussion.

I found Google documents fairly intuitive, or at least similar to Microsoft Office (which I am used to). I had a bit of difficulty getting some of the tools to load (e.g. the picture upload), but I am not sure if this was the application or my computer being slow.

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Later on, I tried another application. I opted for Shelfari, which is another easy-to-use tool. I created a profile in moments; and began adding books I have read, am reading, or would like to read. I found out who else had read the same books as me, and what they thought of them. I even added a shelfari widget to my blog, which you are cordially invited to view. I am not sure if I will continue to use this tool; however, it would be a neat application to use in libraries as an informal book club or readers' advisory.

Podcasts in the Library

For your viewing pleasure:


This week's topic is streaming media.

I checked out some podcast directories and was rather overwhelmed. I found it hard to find a podcast that interested me, and I couldn't tell which were reputable sources. In the end, I subscribed to a few podcasts from the CBC website through my Google Reader.

I'd been aware of podcasts for some time. I had mistakenly assumed that they were only for use with IPods and other portable devices. I was excited to discover my mistake, as I can now listen to my favorite radio show whenever i want. In fact, at this very moment I am tap-tap-tapping on the keyboard and listening to a radio show directly from my RSS reader.

So what about podcasts in the library? There are two ways to use them. First, as an information source, podcasts can help library staff keep up to date on library and information innovations. Or staff can direct library users to podcasts for their research or enjoyment. Second, library staff can create podcasts for library promotion and information. A podcast could review books (like the book picks video we saw in class), promote upcoming events (a special day in the library, upcoming speakers etc.) , or provide tutorials on library services ("how to renew books online" or "how to use boolean operators in your database searches").

Wikis

I recently contributed to my first wiki. I added my favorite book (Who has Seen the Wind) and my favorite music (currently Patrick Watson and Final Fantasy). I found it simple to use. I was even able to make links to websites of the musicians.

In her article Wikis, Laurel A. Clyde explains how wikis can be used both collaboratively and conversationally. Wikis are unique in their collaborative nature; any user can modify, add or remove information. Blogs are similar to wikis, however, when used as a back and forth conversation. One user adds information and the next responds without modifying the previous post.

Wikis would be an excellent tool in libraries. Any sort of user feedback or list making would be ideal for a library wiki. For example, patrons could share book reviews, create a wish list, or make comments about good and bad service.

Being able to collaborate on wikis is appealing. Giving who-knows-who the power to write who-knows-what is a little less so. However, I wouldn't expect intentional sabotage in a trusted group of people (eg. a library tech class wiki).

Happy wiki-ing!

RSS Feeds

Blogs and news sites are a wonderful way to keep informed. Up until a few days ago I would dutifully make the rounds on the couple of sites that I liked to read. It was mildly time consuming-- especially if there was nothing new to read or look at.

Enter RSS! I started using Google Reader a few days ago. I am hooked! It is as if a newspaper is delivered to my computer at all hours of the day and the articles in it are actually interesting to me. To be honest, I am disappointed when there is nothing new for me to read.

In conjunction with reading "RSS For Non-Techie Librarians", I can see how important RSS is to any professional industry. It allows people to save time (time is money!) and keep up to date on innovations in their area. It's an easy-to-use system to keep informed. What isn't there to love about having all the information you want in one place?

First of all...

Welcome to the Adventures of M.O.!

Here you can read about the ups and downs of my learning adventure as a student in a library tech program.