Final Finally Finished!!!!

Well, I have to say that the last 12 hours of my graduate school career were pretty darn stressful. I tried troubleshooting for hours, but was unable to get either Jing or Audacity to work in order to make a screencast or a podcast of my final presentation.

I finally realized I wasn't going to be able to get either to work and started thinking about an alternative method of presentation. So, rather than screencasting my presentation, I ended up doing it via Voicethread.

Here are the other elements of my project:
Staff Wiki
Staff Blog
Staff Ning

They say you usually learn more from your failures than your successes, and the experience I had with trying to get my presentation recorded last night and today really showed me how true that is! I want to thank Steve again publicly for introducing us to so many different technologies and applications this semester. We all now have so many different tools in our social software "bag of tricks" and never know when we might need to use one of them.

I really enjoyed working with all of you this semester too and hope everyone enjoys the much deserved time off!

Social Software Class

I also want to thank Steve for having developed this class for SCILS. I feel that the knowledge and experience I gained from it will be invaluable to me in my career and think all the material covered was important. I also think the order of the topics presented flowed nicely.

If anything could be added, I would have liked to have learned a little more about/gotten to use Skype. (I know now we at least know about it, but I like having my hand held when trying new things.)

I also think that while using the different applications (like Twitter and Blogger) each week for our posts was important in helping us develop familiarity with them, I don't think class discussions ever got as deep and involved as they did in the other online courses I've taken which used the threaded discussions in eCollege. I'm not suggesting adding eCollege discussions to each week's class assignments (that would just push the workload way over the edge!) I'm just pointing out the observation of my experience. In past courses, I was always sure to read what everyone had written already before I posted anything (just as one would hear everything that was said in order in a F2F class), but I found myself usually posting my own blog entries here before reading everyone else's. I think the threaded discussions in eCollege also encourage people to comment more on their classmates' comments and explore different topics and tangents each week. I missed many of the comments people had made on my comments (until I realized I should check the "email notification" option in blogger's comment section...but, even then, I didn't always check my class-made emails on a very regular basis, so still became aware of new comments sometimes weeks afterwards.) While GoogleReader and Bloglines made it very convenient to read everyone's blog posts each week, their not showing comments made to each post was a major drawback. (I initially tried clicking on everyone's blog post to read the comments made to it, but that ended up becoming very time consuming.) I'm sure aggregators will improve over time and perhaps, this will one day be a feature they will have. If this were the case, blogging each week would be more like like a real "class discussion" and less like individual weekly presentations.

But, overall, I really loved the class and enjoyed "meeting" and working with everyone. I love the idea of meeting up again virtually somewhere too after the semester.

Alcohol, sugar and caffeine aren't all that good for us either, but still serve a purpose in our lives

What's "bad" and what's "good" are really subjective and personal designations. I think librarians have traditionally always refrained from passing judgement on different works and allowing their own personal opinions influence the titles they acquire and recommend. Johnson's book reminds us how we have to extend this position beyond books now and to other forms of media and information. Whether or not we think a particular movie, show, game, etc., is "bad" or "good", each has some inherent value (and Johnson makes the strongest case I have ever heard/read as to how worthwhile and complex that value actually is.) I once had a customer come up to me in the library and ask me to make a young girl get off a library computer because she was "only" playing a video game on it while she herself had "real work" to do. I told her I couldn't do that using the old "equal access" policy, but a part of me wishes I could relive the scene and throw a line about how video games contribute to people's cognitive development into my denial of her request.

Libraries are already including DVD's and video games in their collections and I'm sure this is a trend that will continue and expand. Understanding the value of different types of media will aid librarians in their collection development decisions.

As far as educators go, I think they should be more aware of the educational value of movies, tv shows and games. (Someone earlier blogged about making them read Johnson's book, which I totally agree with.) My 5th grade son told me their school librarian made a statement to them that computers should be used for research and not video games (and also proudly added as an aside that she never played a video game in her life. I was astounded, and asked him how old she was. He answered, "Older than you," which, in his mind, is REALLY old!) Dismissing any of the media our children use and enjoy without understanding it is very counterproductive and widens the gap between us. I was never a huge video game player myself (things got a little too complicated for me after the Atari system) but these past two weeks' class materials and Johnson's book really helped open my mind to their inherent value. Educators must realize this too, and should work on making learning scenarios more engaging for students, the way games are.

Jenesea Swansong hated Second Life until she discovered ALA Island!

Gabrielle made the comment that perhaps "the third time's the charm" and that was also my experience in exploring Second Life this week. The first couple of times I went there, I felt like Alice right after falling down the rabbit hole: lost, confused and wondering what everyone I met was smoking. I wonder if it had anything to do with my "visiting" at night? (Maybe that's when all the loonies come out?) Like Amy mentioned too, I felt kind of silly in my little pink polka dot dress amidst all the leather, animal parts and other get-ups the people I encountered were in. My "home" was set in Wengen in a ski lodge (I thought I had chosen to visit and set my "home" there, but after reading GC's post, I wonder if that's a default?) I played some kind of game there with everyone (where we grabbed these things that were falling out of the sky for money, but I don't think I did very well, since my bank account is still empty!) I also got myself teleported to Information Island and walked around a bit, but didn't see much to do and was too shy to walk up and talk to anyone.

The next night, I went to a "library" that seemed to be somewhere in Asia (I couldn't read any of the signs.) Seeing that I could visit different countries, I tried to go to Italy but was denied access. I then, after noticing it advertised somewhere, went to Candy Cane Lane (which I found out once I was there was in Hong Kong Island.) It was pretty, but a little spooky because it was empty. So, I tried to go back "home" again thinking it might be better than the night before, but it was still one big freak-show. So I teleported myself back to Info Island and sat on someone's chair (hoping he wouldn't mind) before logging off.

Today, however, I found ALA Island and had a much better in-world experience! I didn't meet anyone there, but upon entering, was greeted with a welcome message and found helpful signs and explanations everywhere I went. It is very well organized (every round table and sub-organization has its own little "information booth") and there are directional signs and different events at every turn. (It's definitely a "place" created by librarians!)

I found a big, comfy couch to chill out on and was able to make a READ poster of my Avatar reading the free book I acquired there (step by step directions on how to do this are right there if anyone else wants to check it out/try it.)




So, while Second Life isn't as intriguing a place as I had originally expected it to be, ALA Island helped me see the potential it has.

Anyone up for a quick game of Scrabble?

Talk about pressure (trying to play a game like Scrabble while videoing/talking about it!)!

Here is a brief look at playing Scrabble online through pogo.com

Click Here to View

Screencasting advice

This is a bit difficult for me to write about screencasting "best practices" as I feel that I'm still trying to get comfortable with the whole practice myself. (I still find that it's much harder than it looks!) To someone just starting out, I would remind them of that fact. I would also encourage them to really research and make sure they invest in the best microphone/headset that they can. (I've been having a lot of trouble with mine over the past few weeks.)

I would also recommend writing out an outline and practicing the presentation at least a couple of times. (I found the more I had to re-record because of mistakes and technical difficulties, the more natural sounding I became.)

I would recommend not allowing your kids or spouse to be on the same floor where you are recording because they'll either a)make too much noise, b)inadvertently walk in and say something that will mess your whole recording up, or c) eavesdrop and then later make fun of you.

I'd also say that less is definitely more (and shorter is better for the most part.) Refraining from cursing, no matter how frustrated and aggravated you might get, is also a good habit to adopt because, in a pinch, a screencast with a couple minor mistakes might work, but one where you totally lost it won't.

Which game console to get?

If I were in charge of selecting a game system for our library, I would start my research by seeing what other libraries similar to ours are using and would ask their librarians why they selected the system they did, how are they using the system, what's the response from their customers and would they have chosen something different if they could make their purchase decision over again. I would also consult various library blogs to get a feel for which system generally seems to work best (and would consider contacting those blogging librarians who are expert "gamers" if I had specific questions.) Most importantly, I would ask our customers themselves if they would come to library sponsored gaming events and, if so, which game console would THEY prefer?

As far as criteria to consider after doing this background research, I would primarily focus on which system would get the most use (among all patrons, which would include children through senior citizens in a public library setting.) Secondly, I would (be forced to) consider cost.

Based on these things, I would currently choose the Wii system. Based upon what I've read and heard from other librarians: the PS3 is currently too expensive (for both the system and the games; the PS2 is more affordable (but probably lacks the "wow" factor the wii and xbox360 have); and, the xbox360, while affordable, good for multi-playing games and great graphics, is more limited in game selection for children and many senior citizens. The Wii seems to have that Goldilockish-"just right"-fit for public libraries trying to acquire a system that will appeal to most of its customers.

As new games and gaming systems are continually being developed (and things like price, selection and users' wants and needs change,) librarians will constantly have to reassess their gaming offerings.

Are we smarter than a fifth grader?

I once read that the particular way animals play when they are young helps them develop the skills they’ll need to survive and function as adults. (For example, lion cubs like to wrestle and drag things around which helps them develop the skills they’ll need to be effective hunters, and much of human children’s play involves emulating things adults as they develop cognitive, socio-emotive, motor and other necessary skills.) Steven Johnson’s book reminded me again about the importance of play, not just for children, but for us all. As our world becomes more complex, all types of entertainment seem to follow suit. I think Johnson’s book (at least from what I’ve read so far-Part I) shows that he clearly disagrees with George Will’s statement about pop culture being a “more sophisticated delivery of stupidity.”

While I personally feel that reading a book is “better” than watching a movie or playing a video game, media definitely plays an ever-increasingly important role in our society. We’ve all seen how the definition of “literacy” has evolved recently. I’m reminded of the Wesch videos we watched earlier this semester and the idea of how scanning hundreds of web pages for information is essentially a form of “reading” today. (And I’m sure teens who play fast-paced, hi-tech video games are much more skilled at this than I!) I think Johnson’s explanation of how media has evolved and the cognitive effects this has had on us all was very interesting and pretty convincing.

Ning's place in the online world

I think Nings have an important place in the "long tail" section of the online social networking arena. It's easy for someone to either find or create an online social network for any particular niche. (Here are just some examples.)

Personally, as one who is still a bit uncomfortable using sites like myspace and facebook, I feel that the option of creating a private networking site is one of the greatest advantages of Ning. The privacy and control features might be especially useful in a school setting where the use of any kind of social software tools is generally looked down upon. Even in a public library setting, I think many customers might feel more comfortable participating in a smaller, private online community, and they can be a great thing to use for book clubs, discussion groups and teen advisory boards.

But not all Nings are "small" and "private". Joyce Valenza's TeacherLibrarian Ning has over 2,000 members and anyone can register to join. Joining (or even just visiting) a ning such as this allows one to quickly connect with people who share common interests more efficiently, I think, than they could on the more "social" social networking sites.

boyd on board

I really enjoyed reading Danah Boyd's account of the history of social networking sites. Reading about the rise (and, in some cases, fall) of different sites reminds us that, as with most social software applications, social networking sites are just a means to an end (and not an end in and of themselves.) A library can't set up a myspace or facebook account and then pat him/herself on the back and think, "There. I am now on the cutting edge of technology and am where my users are so we can connect online." Boyd's articles clearly show that all these applications will continue to evolve and that we need to keep abreast of the changes.

I also found her explanation about how the different sites appeal to different "class divisions" a bit troubling, but can clearly see the points she makes. (I also respect how she repeatedly admitted to being uncomfortable even broaching the topic.) Just as libraries have different collections and items that appeal to different users, it's essential that we are aware of the differences in social networking sites and can understand how each may appeal to different groups of people for different reasons.

"Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name..."

I was never really a diehard Cheers fan, but I think the whole concept behind its theme song, the fact that we all need a "place" to go "hang out" and connect with others, is the reason why social networking sites like Facebook and myspace are so "sticky".

Running into people we know and getting a chance to catch up with them is a very fulfilling experience. Sadly, our hectic, modern day lives don't usually allow this to happen enough in the "real" world on a regular basis (unless, of course, we're lucky enough to live by a corner pub or coffeehouse!) Social networking sites, though, allow us the opportunity to do this very easily and conveniently in the virtual, online world. I think this is why they have become immensely appealing and addictive to so many people over the past few years.

How to make a profile badge in Facebook

Click here to learn how to make a profile badge in Facebook and insert it into your blog.

Favorite Class Videos

Oh, this is so hard to pick "favorites" because I really enjoyed viewing everyone's videos the past couple of weeks!

To mention only a few,

I thought Jenna's "Do you want a treat?" was particularly hysterical.

Heather's "Strong Female Characters for Girls" was both informative and enjoyable to watch. (The Paper Bag Princess is one of my favorite picture books and I'm looking forward to checking out the other books too now!)

Renee's "How to make crabby patty cookies" was fun, and demonstrates how "seeing" something being made is much more effective and appealing than merely reading a recipe.

And Gabrielle's "Entertainment Video" was such a clever idea and shows how using the various effects in Windows Movie Maker can be utilized to easily (well, somewhat "easily") create interesting and professional looking videos.

But, again, I think everyone did such a great job. I also think using video can be a very effective and enjoyable educational tool for students in a school setting. (Though I doubt schools would condone the use of YouTube and blip.tv for hosting them.)

Can you recommend a good book?

When I first decided to become a librarian I used to envision myself skillfully helping people find the "perfect" next book to read. But I was shocked to discover how difficult providing readers' advisory services actually is, since the concept of what makes a "good book" is such an abstract, individual and personal thing. I've come to rely on resources such as Novelist to help with the task and feel that anyone who loves to read would enjoy using it too to explore the universe of books.

Because of this, my screencast is an introductory look on how to use the Novelist database:
http://www.screencast.com/t/36kqkOm5kj

I need to add that making a screencast was much harder than I ever imagined it could be. (Once again, Steve makes things look so easy and looks can be deceiving!) I apologize in advance for the quality/length of mine. My mouse is dying, I think, and kept "sticking" when I wanted to click and scroll on different parts of the screen. Can't tell you how many recordings I ditched prior to finally settling on this less-than-perfect final project. I can see how useful screencasts can be in the library world, but I also understand now that it takes a lot of time and effort to produce quality results.

Educational vs. Entertainment Videos

This question about whether educational videos stand a chance against entertainment videos is kind of like asking whether vegetables can ever prevail over dessert. While one might be "better for you", both are necessary in their own way. And, depending on how they're "made" or "prepared", both can actually be enjoyable.

As Mary Madden's Pew Internet report clearly shows, watching videos online (both for entertainment and for educational purposes) is a growing trend. Producing and uploading videos is also increasing (especially with the younger, 18-29 year old generation.) I would love to see more schools embrace this vastly popular medium and use it more for educational purposes. Even more so than having students watch educational videos, producing their own can be a very effective learning experience. Also, as more people turn to the Web for their informational needs, I believe there will be a greater demand for better produced educational videos. For all the aforementioned reasons, I think educational videos will always have a place on the Web alongside the more fun & entertaining ones.

SCILS598f08 flickr pools

Looking at the tag clouds of both our "about us" pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/scils598f08/pool/tags/
and our "ed-experience" pool:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/scils598f08-edexperience/pool/tags/

shows that (besides the obvious connection of this class!) we have many things in common. We all seem to have very crazy lives, but still are somehow able to make time to be with the people (and pets!) we care about and to do the things we enjoy. The different interests attest to the fact that one can no longer stereotype what a "typical librarian is like"!

I'd also like to add that I really enjoyed seeing what the scils mlis experience is like on-campus through the pictures those of you who take classes on campus shared.

Disney in December

While Disney World can sometimes be a little chilly in December, it's a very festive time to visit. My entertainment video shows some scenes from our family's trip there a few years ago:



This can also be viewed in YouTube

How to clean your house in a minute or less

Although I hate to clean, over the years I have perfected a quick method for getting it done. Step-by-step directions can be seen in my instructional video here:



You can also view this video on blip.tv

Can we utilize the "long tail" of our collections?

The Anderson book initially started losing me this week as I felt it was getting deeper and deeper into economics. I, personally, hated taking economics in college (and hoped I'd find an industry to work in where I never had to deal with it.) The more of Anderson I read as the week progressed, however, the more I realized how economics really plays a huge role in libraries (as I know now, alas, it does in almost all fields. I guess this is even more evident in harder economic times.)

Anderson's discussion about all hits eventually losing their "hit status" and becoming a part of the tail made me think of the carts and carts of library materials we weed from our collections on a regular basis. Because most libraries are still brick and mortar institutions, this is inevitable (physical limitations prevent them from being able to "carry everything.") Individually, I don't think libraries can truly be effective Long Tail organizations because of these limitations. If they work together with other libraries, though, both to ensure that they can collectively cover all niche markets, and to build their digital collections (promoting the "libraries without walls" concept), they can, as a whole, be long tail information providers. I think we can most effectively make this happening by focusing our collection development efforts on the "tails within tails" that Anderson discusses (pp. 139-141.) I don't think all libraries can really be everything for everyone. But if they combine their efforts and each works to fill a certain niche (library A, for example, builds a solid business collection; another library in the area, library B, focuses on medicine, etc.) they will be better prepared to meet everyone's needs and wants.

podcasting vs. text-based blogging

I definitely think that people's preferences of listening to podcasts or reading blogs stems from whether they are mostly auditory or visual learners. I, personally, prefer reading to listening (for example, I'm not a big audiobook fan and not a big phone person, but I love to read print books and communicate via email or even old fashioned "letters".) But there are pros and cons inherent to each medium as well.

Good podcasts (ie, those that are well-produced and delivered) can oftentimes be more engaging and entertaining. The fact that they are portable is another big plus. And they (literally) give a human voice to their message which can oftentimes help listeners feel more connected to their authors.

While the podcasts we've listened to in this class have all been very well produced, I can imagine how painful poorly produced ones would be to listen to. I think people may have more of a tendency to ramble on when speaking (as opposed to writing...though I guess they can ramble there too!) Another detraction is that podcasts can't be skimmed through as a blog post can be. (That's another reason why I prefer print books to audiobooks....if something is boring or irrelevant, it can be skimmed and parts can be skipped over. One might miss "important stuff" by doing this in either an audiobook or a podcast.)

On top of everything else, I killed the hermit crab

I don't really like hermit crabs. I wasn't all too thrilled when my parents bought a couple of them for my daughter this past summer. I was even less thrilled when I was the one who ended up getting stuck taking care of them.

But I really feel horrible about what happened to one of them the day before Halloween.

The whole sad story is here:

http://www.switchpod.com/users/jgscils598f08/crabs.mp3


Or, you can listen to it with this player:

Libraries and Librarians as New Producers, Markets and Tastemakers

I like definitions and appreciate how Anderson concisely explains: "A Long Tail is just culture unfiltered by economic scarcity" (p. 53). Thinking about how libraries and librarians fit into this made me think about both the differences and the similarities between libraries in the past and those of today. Whereas in the past, patrons came to the library hoping to find something they needed, nowadays they often come to use the computers and other technological resources for their own personal needs (writing their resumes, creating video games, etc.) This is one obvious way libraries now fit into the new production model. Librarians themselves also produce more today than they did back when they were merely "keepers of books" through blogging, podcasting and other informational-producing avenues.

Library collections have also been changing dramatically too with their increased emphasis on media and greater amount of digital resources, all of which exemplify the new market concept of the Long Tail in libraries. Our library just introduced a downloadable video collection called MyLibraryDV which is one of the clearest examples I've seen of this concept: why should library patrons have to wait for a copy of a dvd to be returned to the library when they can more conveniently just download it to their computers from the comfort of their own homes?

And collection development itself seems to be much more patron-focused and driven these days. Instead of asking if a library has an item, patrons today are more apt to ask for the library to "get" an item. As Anderson observes, we all are working "in an era of empowered customers" (p.99). These customers do view themselves as the "tastemakers" and want their libraries to get them the things they want (as opposed to in the past when they came and more or less chose what they "wanted" from what the library had available.)

These differences aside, however, I think that the role of librarians as "tastemakers" is one that has traditionally always been there. They have always served the essential task of filtering information which, as Anderson shows, is more crucial now in this "long-tail-onomics" world of "infinite choice" (p.52) than ever. Librarians serve as that "3rd force" and "help people find what they want in this superabundance of variety"(p.107).

My Online-MLIS Experience at SCILS

I was kind of at a loss when I first heard Steve say he wanted us to take pictures describing our experience at SCILS. The total mess my house has become was the first thought that came to mind, but I would never subject myself to the embarrassment of showing that disaster to the world. I thought about snapping a shot of the sorry state of my face (I'm prone to breaking out when I'm stressed and am prone to stressing out when I'm in school) but figured that was kind of gross. I also thought about photographing my newly found white hairs (which I'm probably just starting to get because I'm starting to get older, but it makes me feel so much better to blame them on grad school!)

While I have albums upon albums of pictures from my undergrad days (remember back in the 90's when people got pictures "developed" and put them in "photo albums"?) taking pictures of anything in my online graduate experience was something I never thought to do. It has been a wonderful educational experience and I have met and learned with and from an incredible bunch of people. I'm also thrilled about the exciting library career I have ahead of me. But, it has been a pretty tough and grueling experience. The lack of sleep has been the hardest part, I think.

To see other images about my experience, check out my "long, strange trip" set on flickr.

For a more interesting and varied look at what it's like being an MLIS grad student at SCILS, see our classmates' group pool at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/scils598f08-edexperience/pool/

Analyzing usage of my little ol' blog

I have to admit I was a little excited to see proof on Google Analytics that some people (other than myself!) have actually visited my blog. What a neat little tool this is! I can just imagine how interesting and useful it would be to use it on a real site.

IE was the most popular browser used to view my blog (59.42%), followed by Firefox (37.68%) then Safari (2.9%).

Cable was the most popular means of Internet connection (71.01%) followed by DSL (11.59%), TI (10.14%) and Dial-up (4.35%...is that you, my buddy, JeHa?).

I'm sure these figures are skewed somewhat by my own viewing (I'm an IE/Cable user.) I like how Flickr gives you viewing stats that exclude yourself. It would be nice if Google Analytics could likewise be set up to disregard the blog/site owner's visits for a more accurate analysis.

pbwiki vs. wetpaint

I peeked at wikispaces, wetpaint and wikidot when trying to choose another wiki service to use this week. I ended up choosing wetpaint for reasons more subjective than its features (I liked its look and was touched by the reason it was created: a group of friends had a friend with cancer and wanted a way to find and share information about all he was going through.)

I found it to be just as simple to set up a new wiki on as pbwiki is. There are also many pretty templates to choose from (which I felt made my site look more like a non-wiki-website, if that makes any sense.) The biggest downside with wetpaint is that it has those darn ads (which makes the site appear less professional I think than pbwiki.)

Two features of wetpaint that I liked (and have yet to find on pbwiki, though I might just not be looking hard enough) are the ability to email particular pages and the "To-Do" tool. "To-Do" lets users write a memo (to oneself and other users) about what needs to be done on the wiki. (It reminded me of the messages you sometimes see in Wikipedia saying that an article needs citations or something.) This is a good feature not only to encourage collaboration and input, but also to alert readers in a sense when a particular page or section is not yet complete. (I was thinking this feature could be especially useful when a wiki is being used for a group project or presentation to communicate what needs to be done among group members.)

Google Docs for class projects

I think online collaborative programs like Google docs and spresent are amazing tools whose worth is only beginning to be realized in the Education world. This was the first time I was actually assigned to use Google docs for a class (I've only puttered around with it in the past for "fun" stuff like making vacation and party lists with friends) and it made me see how it can be a much more powerful collaborative tool than I had originally realized. While I share some of the reservations Farkas mentioned new users often feel of not wanting to change "other people's work", I think the open source movement is creating a new world where sharing and collaborative creating/editing are going to become more commonplace and accepted.

Maybe I've been one of the lucky ones but, for the most part, I feel that I've had rather forward-thinking professors in SCILS who pride themselves in keeping up with the latest technology and learning methods. Because of this, I feel they would accept (and possibly even require) the use of programs such as these for group projects.

Sadly, though, I don't think these tools would be welcomed in most K-12 settings. I'm sure many teachers (and awesome school librarians!) would see the potential and learning benefits of using them, but their principals/superintendents/boards of ed. wouldn't allow their use (mostly out of fear that they are "web 2.0" applications that cannot be controlled.)

The Long Tail and Libraries

Wow, what an interesting read Anderson's The Long Tail has been so far! More than just explaining an economic phenomenon, his insights paint a vivid picture of what our cultural landscape has become in the 21st century.

I found it ironic to be reading this book now, when I've finally (after over a year) gotten the hang of weeding in our library. Until very recently, I absolutely hated the task, and wondered if I would make a better archivist than librarian since I preferred to keep books rather than discard them. Without even knowing what it was, I had "the long tail" in mind, thinking, "Someone might need or want to read this someday," each time I sentenced a book to the weeding cart. The public library where I work definitely espouses more of a "hit driven" collection development policy: acquiring 20+ copies of all the most recently released DVD's and bestselling books because they circulate.

With this in mind, when I first started Anderson's book earlier in the week, I initially felt that our library didn't quite "fit in" with the long tail concept. As I read more, however, I began to think otherwise. Perhaps re-reading Steve's question helped me broaden my vision. He asked about "the library world as a whole" which made me realize that our particular library serves the particular niche of our community in mostly satisfying their entertainment needs (and, as Anderson observes, ours is now a niche-driven culture.) Academic and school libraries serve other purposes for their users. Now more than ever, it seems important for libraries to have mission statements that define their purposes. I think all libraries could truly benefit from the long tail concept by doing this, and then working together with all the other different libraries in their state or consortium to ensure that all the various "niches" are filled.

Delicious as a class "Virtual Introduction"

I really like the idea of using Delicious as a "virtual introduction" process in other classes. The majority of my online classes had us write an introduction and, after several classes with most of the same people, this got a little trite at times. Having students pick 10-15 sites that currently best describe them would be a fun alternative. As others have blogged already, this exercise would be most effective if participants were required (or, at least, strongly encouraged) to write a description for each bookmarked site. I had initially held back from elaborating on my sites because I felt that since my descriptions would be out there "for the whole wide world to see", I should keep them generic. After seeing how much more interesting it was to read the bookmarks from my classmates who included more personal descriptions, however, I loosened up a bit and included my own. (Realizing that the vast majority of readers on the Web don't really give a hoot about what I'm writing anyway is kind of liberating!)

Brown & Duguid and education in the U.S.

B&D's clarification of the difference between "information" and "knowledge" in their chapter on learning points to many of the potential pitfalls and shortcomings of our education system today. Traditional methods of instruction where students passively receive information from teachers and books (and then throw it back in the form of a paper or test to show that they've "learned" it) are both outdated and ineffective in preparing students to succeed in today's world. I loved B&D's statement: "Knowledge's personal attributes suggest that the shift toward knowledge may (or should) represent a shift toward people" (p. 120). Likewise, to effectively educate our children, our schools need to become more student-centered and focus on making students active learners.

The "Re-education" chapter was very thought-provoking in its discussion of distance education. While I don't believe it will ever fully replace traditional, in-person high school and college programs, it's clear that online learning is a growing trend in education. Having (nearly) completed my entire degree online, I am an advocate of the concept, but think it's essential for educational institutions to carefully plan and develop their online programs in order to ensure they are effective. I think SCILS did a great job with grouping incoming classes to its online program into "cohorts". This helped tremendously in developing a feeling of community (which B&D also mention as being an important element in the learning process.) I think that as this trend in education continues to grow, it's important for us to be aware of the social software tools such as the ones we're learning about now (and those that have yet to be invented!) so that we can help people foster a greater sense of community in the online world. (Scils, for example, created an online student lounge with a cafe for us, but I'm still pining for a virtual pub!)

del.icio.us vs. ma.gnolia

Next to the obvious difference in appearance (ma.gnolia has a much "cleaner" look than del.icio.us) and some other features (ma.gnolia allows users to rate bookmarked sites and saves/displays a copy of each bookmarked webpage), I feel that the most pertinent difference between the two sites lies in their number of users. Delicious appears to have a substantially greater following in the social bookmarking arena. (Using my own bookmarks in the two sites as an example, 954 other people bookmarked the poetry site I marked in Delicious, while only 15 others did in Magnolia. 169 people marked the Scrabble site I marked in Delicious, while I was the ONLY one to do so in Magnolia.) This makes me feel that Delicious would be a better site to use for social bookmarking (no matter what it looks like and despite any other bells and whistles it may lack) because the power of social bookmarking in organizing the Web and allowing users to find sites of interest and relevance lies in its users. This really is an arena where there is "power in numbers".

Shelfari review

Setting up an account on Shelfari this past week was the first time I have ever used a social bookmarking "book" site. While the concept has always sounded intriguing to me, the idea of inputting all the books I own or have ever read always seemed a bit too overwhelming a task to undertake. I also never really understood the reasons (before this week, that is!) why people needed to advertise to the online world what books they were reading. But this week's assignment forced me to bite the bullet and jump on the book-bookmarking-bandwagon. I chose Shelfari because I hadn't heard people raving about it as much as I had in the past with goodreads and libraryThing: http://www.shelfari.com/o1518075727/shelf

I can see how people get addicted to this type of thing. Shelfari makes it very easy to add books to your "shelf" and displays them in a very visually pleasing manner (one even has the option to change the stain of the shelf's "wood".) Books can also be viewed in a "list view" as well. Your shelfari shelf is divided into three sections: "Books I've read," "Books I'm reading" and "Books I plan to read". I can see how this "plan to read" section might especially serve as a helpful reminder whenever one hears of a good book he or she would like to read in the future. Books read can be tagged and rated (and marked as favorites, owned or "wish list" titles.) People using shelfari can add friends and set up different "groups". A nice thing about the group option is that they can be private (which could allow the group to, more or less, discuss books together as they might in a book group.) All users can read (and write) book reviews in the public domain, and "shelves" can be displayed in one's blog or website. Like most other social bookmarking sites, reading users' reviews and searching for books by tags is a great way for people to find book recommendations.

While I found shelfari to be a very visually pleasing site, I also felt that the book information windows that pop-up whenever one rolls over a book's image were rather annoying (albeit necessary to the site's purpose.) If I were to continue using shelfari in the future, I'm sure I'd eventually end up abandoning the pretty "shelf" view of the books and opt to use the more efficient "list" view in order to avoid all the pop-ups. I also would love to spend more time reading the author features and clicking through the most popular books links when I have more time to spend. To me, shelfari seems to be more of a place for readers to have fun tagging, finding and reading about books online, than as a necessary tool for organizing one's personal library.

Is RSS part of the solution or part of the problem with regard to Information Overload?

Earlier in the week when I first recognized all the potential uses for RSS, I initially thought it definitely was a great way to combat information overload. The more I read and learned and thought about RSS, however, made me realize there really are two sides to the coin. Like Gabrielle mentioned in her blog, I was dumbfounded upon hearing that Meredith Farkas reads 170 blogs on a regular basis. (And, I believe, she mentioned in the podcast that she knows people who keep track of somewhere around 500!!!) This would be absolutely impossible without RSS. Because RSS makes it so simple to bring all the information people want to keep up with directly to them, people are trying to keep up with more and more. It all appears less overwhelming on the surface, but I think, somehow, it's ultimately going to lead to more overload.

another "new to me" social software site

I can't wait to get a chance to play around with the new site I just discovered for this week's "find a new site" assignment! It's called dabbleBoard and is an online, easy to use, easy to share, collaborative whiteboard application. You can check out a quick (3 1/2 minute) tour of the site to see how easy and fun it can be. Watching it reminded me of the UPS commercials that are on TV these days, with the guy effortlessly drawing images and diagrams and charts. DabbleBoard gives all of us similar tools, as charts/drawings can be created with simple clicks and movements of the mouse (and very limited visits to the toolbar.)

It is free and signing up is not required to use it. (Although, if you want to save your drawings to access at a later time, you must create a free account.) You choose whether to make your creations public or private. Another great feature is that you can email what you're working on to someone and both of you can edit/change it in real time.

Final Thoughts on Feed

Learning this week about the prevalence of RSS made me think that we actually are closer to the world of Anderson's Feed than I had originally imagined. I see many people in the library where I work (mostly senior citizens) who pride themselves on not having an email account and never having used a computer for anything. I'm sure there will come a time, however, when people will eventually be forced (like Violet's father in the book) "to connect" in order to fully function in society. And, once connected, we all do somehow become dependent on systems like Google in particular and the whole infrastructure of the Internet in general.

What bothers me most about the society in Feed is how the easier access to information oftentimes lessens people's ability (or even desire) to think for themselves. Our education systems are partly to blame with their emphasis on finding the "right" answer (and this is a realm where school librarians can really champion by helping teachers design better units of inquiry...but that's a whole other topic covered in a whole other class!) As in Feed, students can very easily find most of the "answers" to their homework questions (and, sadly, buy complete papers) online these days. While I love providing chat reference in our library and believe that it is an incredible and important service, I oftentimes feel that we "virtual librarians" are part of this "Feed" phenomenon. While I'll refuse to give students answers to their specific homework questions and continually try to redirect them to helpful sources, they will continually ask, again and again, for the "answer". The saddest (and scariest) thing is that, like Titus, many kids actually believe that typing a question and getting an answer online is not cheating, but thinking.

New to me Social Software site

Prior to this class, my experience with any types of social software had been very limited (I'd only briefly dabbled with IM and blogging before; never flickred or tagged or networked online in any way.) So my mind's been spinning a bit the past few weeks. When trying to find an even newer "new to me" application to discuss this week, I happened upon this useful list of some "award winning" Web 2.0 sites: http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/short

I checked a bunch of them out (and admit, was drawn in by some of the funny names...where do they come up with some of them?!?) One of the ones that I thought could be potentially quite useful (even for a not-yet-initiated-in-the-2.0-world user) was Yelp.

From its "About Us" page, Yelp is "word of mouth marketing---amplified". It's a place for people to write reviews about anything "from martinis to mechanics." While it's apparent that the yelping communities have a wider scope and voice in bigger cities (and especially in San Francisco, where it was founded), even smaller local neighborhoods have been "yelped".

I think Yelp would be most useful for someone looking for a hotel or restaurant recommendation in a city or town they've never visited before. This is part of the beauty of social software, how one can get friendly, "word of mouth" advice about a place where one doesn't even have any actual friends. I like how Yelp lets users limit what they're looking for with its very specific filters. A google map follows you up and down the screen too so you can see exactly where the recommended places are (but, if it makes you dizzy, you also have the option of telling the map to "stop following me".)

This is a type of Web 2.0 tool that I think would only get better with time as more people start to participate. More reviewers would provide more extensive coverage of each area as well as balance out some of the reviews. I'm excited to give it a try the next time we visit another city.

Thoughts on Feed & Anderson's idea of the future

M.T. Anderson's Feed was one of my favorite books from the YA Lit course I took last year and I'm glad to have the opportunity to read it again this semester (especially because I realize I had missed a lot of the little details the first time!)

I love speculative fiction that makes us think about where we are and where we're going. I think Anderson's portrayal of the future is so powerful and thought-provoking because it reflects what people are already demanding from technology today. We want what we want when we want it and would prefer to have it all while expending as little thought and energy as possible. The "dumbing down of society" idea sounds cliche, but Anderson's story makes it, frighteningly, all too believable. Titus and his friends looking up words they don't know on their feeds reminds me of how many of us simply google a word instead of taking the time to look it up in a dictionary. And the way they programmed their up-cars and relied on the feed to tell them where they were made me think about how our reliance on GPS devices today makes us think so much less about our journeys when we get in our own cars now.

Information is not knowledge, but, sadly, it seems that many teens today often think cutting and pasting info from the Web shows that they "know" something. Such an attitude mimics Titus' thoughts: "That's one of the great things about the feed--that you can be supersmart without ever working. Everyone is supersmart now" (p. 47).

We all desire instant access to information and the convenience of portable computing devices. I'm sure we are, in a way, moving towards a more "Feed-like" world as far as this convenience and "connectedness" goes. But I truly can't imagine humans ever reaching a point where we would allow computers to be connected to us internally.

Bloglines vs. Google Reader

Being very new to this whole "feed reader" scene, I tended to see more similarities than differences between Bloglines and Google Reader this past week. Both were very easy to set up and conveniently displayed all of the feeds I had subscribed to. I was disappointed that neither automatically showed the comments of each blog post. (I tried playing around with the different settings to see if this is an option in either service, but couldn't find it. Please, someone, alert me if I'm mistaken in this!)

The differences I did notice are as follows:

• Bloglines has a bit of a "cleaner" interface.
• Google Reader has links to all your other Google services which makes for a more cluttered screen
• Blogger posts appear in one's Google Reader faster than in his or her Bloglines reader. (I just noticed this difference today, Sunday, 9/28, with Steve's latest announcement...it's already showing in Google Reader but has yet to be picked up by Bloglines.)
• Google Reader puts a date/time stamp at the top rt corner of each entry (and does the math for you, letting you know how long ago a post was written) while Bloglines dates each post under the entry. GR's method highlights newer posts.
• Bloglines allows readers either to display all posts from each feed or to show only those posted in the last hour, past 6 hours, past 12 hours, day, 2 or 3 days, week or month. This is convenient if one only wants to see the latest entries.

Blogger vs. LiveJournal

My fellow classmates, JH & JF:

Forgive me for taking until nearly the final hour to get this final post posted this week! I honestly had a bit of difficulty determining many differences between Blogger and LiveJournal (apart from the obvious, annoying & obnoxious overuse of ads in LJ!) Whenever I made note of some feature I thought was unique to one platform, I’d dig around a bit in the other to, lo and behold, find that it offered a similar feature as well.

Here’s a summary of the differences I was finally able to ascertain:

Blogger:
~Very easy to set up and use
~Clean interface
~Can also be posted to via txt messaging and email
~Comment notifications can be sent via email
~Can customize with HTML editor
~Ability to set up a “team blog” with multiple authors
~Automatic save feature


LiveJournal:
~Main emphasis seems to be on “creating communities”; lots of encouragement to find journals of those who have similar interests as yours
~Easy to set up and use (yet not, IMHO, as simple & straightforward as Blogger)
~3 levels of account types: Basic, Plus & Paid: http://www.livejournal.com/site/accounts.bml
~Plus account pages are littered with many distracting ads
~Can also be posted to via txt messaging, email AND voice (5/month on plus plan; 20/month on paid)
~Comment notifications can be sent via email, text message and IM
~Can customize layouts with CSS
~Lots of (also imho “gimmicky”) features: users can pick different “userpics” to display on each post, users can set their mood for (and get a LiveJournal-generated emoticon attached to) each post, posts can be marked as “memories” as well as others (such as, in the paid version, setting “background music” to one’s journal)

Thoughts on Brown and Duguid

I think Brown and Duguid make an especially astute statement in their preface that really sums up the catch-22 most libraries find themselves in nowadays: “[w]here many old technologies inherently forced people together in factories, office buildings, schools, and libraries, new ones tempt them to stay apart, working for organizations without working in one, joining schools or libraries without going to one” (p. xix). This reminds me of part of the discussion we had back in week 1 and the idea of how people can utilize the library without ever physically stepping foot into it with all the remote and digital services offered. I believe this has been a major driving force behind all the changes we see in most public libraries today with their cafes, concerts, classes (like belly-dancing, art, yoga,) and myriad of other programs. Whereas people before went to the library for the most part when they NEEDED to, a growing number of the clientele today are there because they WANT to be there.

The “Home Alone” chapter also alludes to another reason for these changes. Brown and Duguid discuss the importance of office workers’ physical spaces and of the value-added “incidental learning” (p. 76) that occurs when one is in the proximity of others. Likewise, people often happen upon worthwhile materials serendipitously and also benefit from the human interaction they experience when they physically come into a library. This is why the concept of the “Library as 3rd Place” is such a big idea these days. As B&D illustrate, people are social beings who crave social interactions with others. Libraries are places where this can happen. But, as this course we’re taking also shows, social interactions are no longer limited to physical places. We can, as the subtitle of Farkas’ book stated, build “collaboration, communication, and community online.”

B&D also remind us that “technology alone cannot dictate its ultimate route” (p. x). Librarians, as others in any industry, need to remember that the people we serve always remain our first priority. Technology gives us the tools to better serve them. It is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself.

I had a great opportunity to attend NJLA’s Future Tech for Libraries symposium this summer (http://www.njla.org/njacrl/FutureTech08.html). The Brown and Duguid reading this week reminded me of many of the points its fabulous keynote speaker, Steven Bell, made in his opening presentation, “Why are we doing this? Designing future technology adoption into the business of libraries.” Dr. Bell’s focus is on library design and he strongly advocates the importance of keeping the user’s experience in mind whenever we design any program, tool or service for our library. He urges us to think about how our users will benefit from new technologies and warns us, like B&D, not to automatically adopt every new technological tool that comes around.

Finally, I really enjoyed B&D’s sharing of the story of how the telephone was introduced and finally accepted by society. I found it hysterical that people originally thought the telegraph was a superior means of communication since it was kept in the hands of “the experts” (pp. 87-89). As librarians, we need to be careful that we don’t fall into similar lines of reasoning today (especially when we are defending those more complicated systems of which WE are “the experts”: databases, opacs, dewey arrangements, etc.). We can make the best use of technology by making it work for us and the people we serve.

Nice model for a HS media center blog

Though it's missing a collaborative element (ie, readers are unable to comment on posts), I feel that Ward Melville High School's Information Center's blog is a great example of how school media centers can more effectively serve students (and teachers) by utilizing blogs:

http://wardmelvillelibrary.blogspot.com/

The blog highlights school library news and services, and is organized in a way that allows users to clearly see in one glance all the digital resources available to them (with pertinent links logically arranged in the sidebar.) Blog posts primarily consist of various assigned research projects and delineate not only the assignment guidelines, but also specific resources students would find most useful when doing their research.

I know many media specialists make research project pages like these for their students, but they are often hidden somewhere deep within the media center's website (where many students may be less likely to take the time to access them.) Posting research guides on a blog gives students an easier and more useful way to find what they need. It has the added benefit of allowing other teachers to see what their colleagues are doing and is easy to search to get ideas on what others have done in the past on different topics.