BPL 2.0 and beyond

Blogging for a Good Book

2009-03-05T17:48:00.000-08:00

I am in love with this blog -- Blogging for a Good Book. !! I guess there is a reason it won the 2009 Louis Shores/Greenwood Publishing Group Award given for excellence in book reviewing.

Just what I need is more books to read, but I can't seem to get enough. It is a great place to look for examples of what a good book review looks like -- not a review of a good book, but a well written review.

So I am off to read some reviews (I need a lot of practice) and to add to my list of TO READ books.

I feel naked

2009-02-27T13:01:00.000-08:00

I borrowed the camera 3 weeks ago and have walked to work every day since with it in my hand (you never know when you will see something picture worthy). Joel borrowed it yesterday to take to Donna Gartenmann's award ceremony (a very good cause) and so I didn't have it with me on my way in.

I knew when I left the house this morning that because I did not have the camera I would see something that I wanted to photograph. And I did. As I walked past the Walrus on 11th and Walnut I happened to look in the window and saw something cool and gross. There was a huge pile of garbage on the floor. I guess the cleaning crew just pushes everything into the center of the room and picks up/throws out from there. I know it doesn't really sound that interesting, but you should have seen the size of this pile! It was Thursday night (college night) they were cleaning up after, so I guess it makes sense, but it was enormous. You will just have to believe me, since I couldn't document it.

When I got here today Joel returned the camera to me and I returned it to the gadgets cabinet. I think 3 weeks was enough this time around, though I do feel bereft, naked, like I have forgotten something important, like pants. I guess I am just going to have to put Digital camera on my wish list, for that day when I come into a ton of money...Or I could just wait a respectable amount of time and take the library camera out for a spin again.

Holds Process Spoofs on YouTube

2009-02-21T10:15:00.000-08:00

I have an idea for a link on the your Hold request was successful page of our website. I want to educate the patrons on the entire holds process, and I want to use some of the cool toys we have. During our recent All Circ Staff Meeting I told my fellow coworkers about the serious ideas and then we went a little crazy and came up with some fun silly ideas.

I was telling Tony about my idea and the silly ones and he said it might be fun to actually do the funny ones and put them on YouTube.

I am hoping for some help here, so I sent an email to the circ staff, but I am now opening it up to all who read this blog (all none of you!!)

These are some of the ideas we talked about.

Spoof Holds:

Runner at computer station waiting for requests to come in. Sprinting to shelves and putting books on Holds Pickup shelves... Picture either serious runner or Pauly Bleeker (Juno) type guy.

Fleet of runners at the ready, announcement comes in, many run off to retrieve books...

Library worker at bus stop with big armload of books moving them from MDE to Main for holds...

Car with flashing lights and siren -- says "Library Holds" on side of car...

Feel free to run (ha) with these... Use these ideas or come up with your own. Have fun!!

LibraryThing v. GoodReads

2009-02-13T13:33:00.000-08:00

I thought it was time for a good old fashioned showdown. LT and GR are going head to head right here, right now.Each has things I like and things I don't like.

LibraryThing Pros and Cons
+ I get to create all the tags I use to 'catalog' my books
+ I get to chose the cover (I like the covers to match the edition of the book I read/own)
+I get to organize my library in many different ways (author, title, year, however I want)
-Add books is a separate screen
-the social networking aspect of LT seems clunky
-LT allows you to add 200 books for free then wants a membership fee to add more

GoodReads Pros and Cons
+ easy to see what friends are reading, and to add their books to my list
+really easy to add books
+ GR is free
+ GR hav a trivia game
-has set 'shelves' and it seems like a lot of work to add new ones
-there does not seem to be a way to choose book covers
-there does not seem to be a way to choose how books are organized

To be fair I have not spent a lot of time messing around with finding friends on LibraryThing. I like these sights more for their ability to keep track of the books I want to read, have read, didn't finish, etc. and less for the social-ness of them.

I imported all my books from LibraryThing to GoodReads so instead of adding them one at a time, I had none then over 2,000. Some arrived at GR as books I have never heard of, I am still trying to go through list to delete the ones I do not want.

GoodReads

2009-02-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

I lied. GoodReads is not one of the things I included when I was going through BPL 2.0. I hadn't signed up on my own and Melinda didn't ask me to to join until after I had finished BPL 2.0 so there are no old posts about GoodReads on this blog. I do talk about LibraryThing in a previous post.

So, to let people see what I had on the LearningAlliance wiki (one of the things that was taking up so much space) I am adding it here.

Learning Alliance wiki

2009-02-12T17:21:00.000-08:00

I got permission today to put my blog (yes, this blog) on the Learning Alliance wiki BPL 2.0 in Action page.

I navigated to the Learning Alliance wiki from the HelpDesk page and logged in. I had added something 2 days ago the wiki (twice and it kept disappearing) so I thought I would try it one more time before I called in the big guns (Terzah). The disappearing link was not there, but I tried to add the new link anyway. It took forever to save. Then I realized that I had mixed up the title of the blog and needed to move some words around. I got a weird message. I stopped. Started again and got the same message (something about an overflow on line 140). Sighing, I picked up the phone to call in backup. Not a minute later Terzah was here to help. Luckily, she had never seen the message either, and was as confused as I about why we kept getting it. We think that all of the Action we have seen in BPL 2.0 has filled our quota and it is no9t allowing us to add more lines.

Well, it seems that I have been a bit of a space hog; I had my GoodReads list, a Flickr link and this blog listing. Whew, with all that you would think that I actually had something interesting to say. You would be wrong!! All that cool stuff is still around, you readers are just going to have to do a little work. My GoodReads and Flickr links are here in the blog.

Flickr and the camera

2009-02-06T12:51:00.000-08:00

I took the camera home with me last night and left the house early this morning so I could take some pictures on my way to work. I am not a photographer, so some of the pictures look like I was running past the subject as I pushed the button (you will not see those, they have already been deleted).

Today I created a flickr account and successfully moved photos from camera to computer to flickr, no small feat, I am telling you! At first I couldn't get the computer to recognize the camera, I plugged and unplugged everything I could think of, then I realized that the camera needed to be in view picture mode, not take picture mode. After that it was a cake walk!

Flickr is very easy to use and I am filling up my free account very fast. Click here to see my masterpieces.

I plan on taking more pictures, experimenting with the camera to see what it can do, so check back soon.

The Digital Camera

2009-02-05T16:33:00.000-08:00

Today at the Staff Chat I had some ideas. I wrote them all down in my paper plate with a borrowed pen (obviously I was unprepared). One of my ideas was sparked by something Tony said about the Library and Boulder as a community and how we should/could honk our own horn.

Every time I walk on Pearl Street I trip on something because I don't watch where I am going. I am looking up instead. Most of the stores on Pearl are in buildings that have been there for a long time. Many of the buildings have the date on them, up high near the roof line. I love walking along looking at all the architectural detail there, way above our heads.

I thought that it might be interesting to use the Library camera to take some pictures of these cool details and maybe put it on flickr. I could include the coniod, though there are few people who haven't noticed it, to tie the idea to the library.

What do you think?

OverDrive

2009-02-05T16:23:00.000-08:00

I am listed as the Downloadable Audio expert and I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing, so I surfed the OverDrive site to find a book I wanted to listen to that was available (a lot are ’checked out’). I found a good one, and tried to download it.
I had the Overdrive console already on the desktop and have listened to other books so I figured it would be a piece of cake. It was not. I tried everything, put the file in every place I could think of but it still would not play. Argh!

I swallowed my pride and emailed Joe for help:
Joe, I am having some trouble with Overdrive. I know you installed the Overdrive Media console onto the desktop, I just can’t figure out how to put the OverDrive audiobook where I want it, and get it to play. Do you have a few minutes to help me? You could even just email me simple instructions (I don’t mind stumbling around trying to work it out…). I have been messing around with it for the past 15 minutes and need to stop before I throw the computer through the window in frustration. I am supposed to be the OverDrive expert, so I am a little embarrassed to ask for help…Thanks, Melissa

Joe was at my side in a flash and went through all the sames steps I did, and still it did not work. For some reason this comforted me, I was not completely useless, I tried all the same stuff as the IT guy...We went back to the instructions and tried to interpret them again (they were as clear as mud). Finally Joe figured it out -- the version of OverDrive I had was outdated and we needed the update. I do not think this is something that I have permissions to do, but we got the new version and then successfully downloaded the book I wanted to listen to, putting it exactly where I had thought it should go.

I know that this may seem a long and uninteresting tale, but I feel like this little story has a moral (not all of them do!). Sometimes you are doing exactly the right thing, but either you don't have security clearance for the change, update, whatever or the instructions are less clear to us regular folk than they should be.

Outlook

2009-02-05T16:21:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 1/21

I volunteered to help Ghada with some Outlook questions. I am no expert, but am not afraid to mess around and try to figure things out. Here's what happened:
Ghada was having some trouble with a distribution list -- it was empty. We clicked around and figured out how to add names to her Teachers list. Right clicking Properties on list allows you to rename, add, remove...
We tried sending a test email to the list, and we got a failed to deliver message back from one email address. This contact person had 2 email addresses and we had chosen the wrong one, so we needed to go in and get rid of wrong and add right address.
We went back to Properties and hit the X. DO NOT do this unless you want to delete entire list!!
Fortunately Ghada is still speaking to me and there is a way to fix this! Find list in deleted items folder and drag back to contacts. Whew.
To get rid of an incorrect or old email in a distribution list use remove (never delete). This was the perfect kind of lesson, we will never do the wrong thing again (and it was fixed without tears -- thank you Joe).

On Beyond BPL 2.0

2009-02-05T15:18:00.000-08:00

So, BPL 2.0 is a thing of the past. I completed the 'program' and went on to explore 23 Things. Now comes the hard part. I need to figure out how all this information, these cool new toys, move from the classroom into the real world. I am a member of the LearningAlliance (sounds a bit like some kind of underground military group, doesn't it?) and that seems to be picking up where BPL 2.0 left off. Now that I know what the tools are, I have questions about how to use them.

Obviously, I have mastered Blogging, but what about videos, podcasts, ipods, digital cameras, scanners, etc. How do I use these tools at work? How do I make this stuff work for me? How would we use a video? What benefit would a podcast bring? How does having an ipod help me finish my work?

I am not sure how to answer these questions, but I am going to try.

23rd Thing

2008-03-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

The 23rd Thing is to give myself a pat on the back and to tell you my thoughts on this entire journey. Well, I am not really all that good at keeping my feelings to myself, I get all blotchy and I really don't see the point... So I do feel that I have been giving you my thoughts all along but to recap: BLP 2.0 was awesome. 23 Things was great, more of the same but I am glad I made the trip. Thanks.

Podcasts

2008-03-13T18:32:00.001-07:00

I don't mean to be rude, but all I have to say here is "Been there, done that." 23 Things did not have anything to add that BPL 2.0 missed.

I still feel that PodcastAlley is easier to use than Podcast.net and I still don't think that I am ready to create one of my own.

Here is a BLP Teen who was brave.

Check out other brave BLP Teens at
Boulder Public Library Teen Webcasts

NetLibrary and downloadable audio

2008-03-13T18:27:00.000-07:00

Here is another exercise that I have already completed. It is becoming more and more obvious (to me, at least) that although the 23 Things had more steps, more exercises, the BLP 2.0 program covered everything pretty thoroughly. Congrats to you BPL 2.0 team. Good job!!

YouTube and others

2008-03-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

This is another lesson that I completed in BPL 2.0. I will not bore you with a recap of my experience.

I found this BPL Library tour on YouTube.

Web-based Apps

2008-02-26T11:27:00.000-08:00

No these are not the apps you get at Happy Hour, they are Applications. I have tried and use Google Docs. I looked breifly at Zoho Writer, but do not think I will create an account. See GoogleDocs for my impressions.

Sandbox 2.0

2008-02-26T11:20:00.000-08:00

I like this. I didn't have enough time to look through all the favorites, but I did add to Favorite Books. I love the idea that this Wiki is purely for pleasure. The democratic nature of the wiki works well here, everyone is just giving an opinion, no one can be wrong.

What's in a wiki?

2008-02-26T11:02:00.001-08:00

This 23 Things exercise is the same as one I did for BPL 2.0. I called my blog entry Oh the wikis I have seen. I don't think I will bore you with a repeat of my comments.

Library 2.0

2008-02-14T17:14:00.000-08:00

In reading the Five Perspectives I see that for every person there is a different point of view (not a surprise) when it comes to Libraries and Library 2.0.

The guy from the University of Nevada (read his article here)
sees libraries easily moving from books in a building to information online. He thinks we hold to closely to past ideas that not longer serve the library or the public... His 'icebergs' include realizing that there is not longer a need for a "just in case" print collection, becuase everything is, or could be accessed online. I am a huge fan of the computer, and I understand that books are a very old information delivery method. But I still love to read books, not a computer screen. He says we need to eliminate the barriers between patron and the information they seek, and I agree with this, but as an employee in a Public Library I don't see all MY patrons happily learning or using only online resources. His third iceberg is to bring services to the patron rather than the patron to the services. I get that in the grand scheme of things it is a good idea to make more and more of the information available in the library available to the public without having them have to come into the building. This will help with the last minute "My son has a 5 page report about the Inca due tomorrow. I know you close in 5 minutes but I was hoping you could find me the 6 resources he needs..." Yesterday I was in a training and we learned all about ValueLine. At my library we have the print information as well as access to the online database. While in the training I was not able to see the online info because we have a cretain number of lisences and had maxed out our users. While the idea that all information should be available to all people all the time is a great one, it is just not feasible. Many times online information is more costly than the print version, and as I learned yesterday, not always as readily available.

I know that I have ranted on and on about this one guy and his opinion, but he seems to be speaking only to, and for academic libraries, and I wonder if he is even speaking for most of them. As a public library girl, I see that while we should be learning more and more about what is new, we cannot forget that we are here for the public. Everyday we have people wanting copies of books in regular print, large print, on compact disc. In the 5 years that I have been working in this library I have never had anyone angry with me because the newest most popular books were not available digitally. I am not saying this will never happen, but for me, I am still a lover of the book, and will be until it is safe to take my computer, or my Kindle reader into the tub!

Technorati

2008-02-07T19:17:00.000-08:00

This is pretty cool. I like the idea of making this blog more connected, more accessible, but am feeling a little shy about my posts. I searched Technorati for BPL 2.0 and found Eladia's posts. Let's see if this tag works. I have attached (I hope) a tag to Technorati.

Technorati

I think that I have claimed my blog in Technorati, but am not certain. It is closing time and as much fun as this has been, I really want to be at home now.

del.icio.us again

2008-02-07T19:13:00.000-08:00

This is still a troublesome lesson for me. I have been doing all this Library 2.0 work on public computers and am not sure how I go about wroking with this without making it public to all, or having all my hard work disappear the next time we restart this computer. So, sadly, I will just have to believe that this is as cool as some of the other stuff I have learned, and move on.

Rollyo

2008-02-01T16:40:00.000-08:00

This is cool! I have just started playing around with Rollyo, so I don't yet have anything to show you, but I will soon. Okay, so I have had some more time to play with this, and I think I have it figured out.

My Books Now

Here is search engine I 'rolled' for looking for books to buy online. All my favorites are included all in one place, so I have less typing to do (and fewer typos to fix)!

LibraryThing again

2008-01-31T19:35:00.000-08:00

Step 11. Well, if you have been reading my blog from the beginning you know that I have a thing for LibraryThing! I read about it on one of my ListServs and signed up that day. I don't think that a week has gone by that I haven't logged in at least once. I use it for books to read and books I have finished. Anytime someone makes a suggestion I enter it, with a tag for the person who suggested it.

Image Generator

2008-01-31T19:14:00.000-08:00

Online Image Generators...Well PickHacks is like a funhouse mirror . Here is an example of what it can do... My Faceflip EEEEEWWWWW! Again, I am not sure how this would help promote the library, but it is fun to try.

RSS feeds

2008-01-31T18:57:00.000-08:00

The next lesson in the 23 Steps is RSS feeds. I have already done this in the BPL 2.0 tutorial, so I won't bore you with a repeat. I will say it is amazing what you can find (or get Bloglines to find). I have quotes and words of the day, book reviews, library news, comics, music info... you name it, you can get it!

Flickr

2008-01-26T09:34:00.000-08:00

Okay. I have set up a blog and posted my findings. Those are steps 3 and 4. Step 5 is to explore Flickr. I have friends who have sent me links to Flickr so I can see their photos, but I have not tried it myself.

I surfed through Flickr, searching for library photos and found this one. So Cool!! Too bad it is only the temporary building.

Cardiff Central Library

I would love to try this for myself but I am not much of a photographer. I don't have a digital camera, and most of the photos I take are of my blurry thumb! I think I get the gist of this site, but I am not really sure how a library could use this tool. I searched "public library" and found tons of photos of beautiful libraries, but didn't see Public Library 'hosted' pictures. Can you help?

I played some more and found this: Colrpickr so fun! And this: Montager . I could just play with these all day!

7.5 Habits

2008-01-25T16:54:00.000-08:00

Here are 7.5 Habits of Highly Effective Lifelong Learners. When I started this podcast I wasn't sure what I was going to see, but I was sure that I am a lifelong learner. The fact that I sped through the BPL 2.0 tutorial and have moved on to this proves it.

1. Begin with the end in mind
2. Accept responsibility for your own learning
3. View problems as challenges
4. Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
5. Create your own learning toolbox
6. Use technology to your advantage
7. Teach others
7.5. Play

23 Things

2008-01-25T11:10:00.000-08:00

I have finished the Boulder Public Library's BPL 2.0 course and am hungry for more. I have moved on to PLCMC's online tutorial- 23 Things. I think that this is the model that our own BPL 2.0 staff used to create the course I just finished. I guess that some of the information will overlap, so I will only blog about the things we didn't cover in BPL 2.0.

The end of my journey

2008-01-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

Here I am at the end of my BPL 2.0 tour. I am so sad that this is over. I have had such a good time trying all these new tools. I want more! I am going to have to get my Bloglines sniffers to seek out new stuff for me to learn about, new technology to try. My tour guides had already responded to my plea for more knowlegde...Stay tuned for more.

Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklinberg Counties' Original 2.0 Program

Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklinberg Counties' New 2.1 Program

del.icio.us

2008-01-23T16:45:00.000-08:00

This one is proving tricky for me. I have created an account, but because I only use public computers I am having a bit of trouble with the saving sites part. I understand tagging, I use tags in my LibraryThing library. I also understand having a "private" favorites list that you can access from any Internet computer, I just can't figure out how to make it work from me right now. I have a list of favorite bookmarks on my personal Google homepage. I get the lure of categorizing them any way I want. In theory it all works. I just am stuck on the "in practice" stage...

Books from My LibraryThing

2008-01-23T16:11:00.001-08:00

I love LibraryThing!!

2008-01-23T15:17:00.000-08:00

I love this site! I am a lifetime member with 2013 books in my library. I used to keep a paper list of all the books I wanted to read, but since it was pages and ppages long I kept getting duplicates. LibraryThing keeps me from listing a book twice and lets me note a brief subject (tag), if it is fiction or nonfiction, and if it is a book I want to read, or ones I have finisghed. If they were gifts or suggested to me... I can't say enough about how much I have enjoyed using LibraryThing. Ooh - and I am an early reviewer so I get AR copies!!

Downloadable Audio

2008-01-23T15:04:00.000-08:00

Overdrive rocks! This was so fun. When I am in tech services I work with my hands and like to have something to engage my brain. I like to listen to books or music. It takes forever to put books onto my ipod, but Overdrive takes no time at all. It is really fun to see what is out there. The process of downloading is so easy I thought maybe I had done something wrong. I love that these can never be overdue!

GoogleDocs

2008-01-23T12:29:00.000-08:00

I have had a gmail accout since the beginning (when it was still being beta tested) and have tried out most of the features. I quite like GoogleDocs. I use it to jot down thoughts, ideas, things I saw on the way to work...I like that it is always available, wherever I have internet access, and I only have to remember one password. My posts can be public or private. I can share with everyone, no one, or a specific group. The fact that more than one person can write, edit a document means that I can work on something with someone even if we are not together, cool. I just created a presentation and I think I shared it with the BPL 2.0 team.

Hooked on WebVideos

2008-01-19T11:36:00.000-08:00

Some ways that libraries could use WebVideos to assist and not just amuse their patron? We just put signs that the self checkouts that illustrate how to check out a book, how to get a DVD out of a security case...I wonder if having a video demonstrating step by step would be helpful. A library tour? Book groups filmed and posted might be interesting. I know that the Teen librarians have been playing around with podcasts and webvideos (I think that anything that gets/keeps teens interested in the library is great).

I remember when the internet was new and I could spend hours surfing, just looking to see what I could see. I am sure that YouTube has the same appeal. I don't spend endless hours surfing anymore, but know people who love YouTube, and are always finding new funny vids to watch. Honestly, I have less patience that they do (that is why I like RSS so much). I did post 2 videos on my blog. The AACR2 trailer came from Terri in Technical Services, and who doesn't love Sesame Street!

WebVideo

2008-01-19T11:32:00.000-08:00

WebVideo

2008-01-19T11:30:00.000-08:00

Podcasts

2008-01-19T11:06:00.000-08:00

I have had an ipod for a while, and so am familiar with podcasts through itunes, but had no idea there were SO many others out there! I look at both Podcast.net and PodcastAlley.com and found that I like PodcastAlley. It seems more user friendly, the lists are more accessible, with a little blurb about the content of each...I am working from the switchboard computer (no speakers, couldn't listen anyway) so I have selected a few podcasts, but have not listened to any yet. I like the fact the I can choose a whole bunch and then weed out later, deleting the feeds I do not like. I, would you say subscribed to?, a kitting , a Spanish lesson, a library, and a wine podcast.

I do not think that I am technologically advanced enough, or interested enough in a certain subject to host my own podcast, but love it that anyone can talk about anything! I have listened to a few amateur podcasts, and you have to be really interested in the subject to stick with a few of them (Harry Potter hosted by tweens is a perfect example)!

Bloglines

2008-01-19T09:37:00.000-08:00

I have subscribed to Bloglines for about 6 months, and like the fact that it does the searching for me. It sniffs out information, news, reviews and puts it all in one place. I have requested so many feeds I have trouble keeping up with all the information gathered. I will keep my eyes open for more feeds to add to my list.

I would like to see the library using this to add book reviews, lists to our website. I know that the RA desk puts out paper copies of the NYT book review, it might be interesting to see if people would look at it online... I am obsessed with getting book suggestions for anyone and everyone, and would love to get unsolicited, unlimited reviews and/or suggestions.

I did try to add Unshelved and the RSS address did not seem to be correct. I do have a little trouble with the way Bloglines is presented, I am distracted by the narrowed screen, and wonder if the information could be presented in a more readable way. I know that I can minimize, shrink the search/list screen but I am still having to slide the text back and forth...

Oh, the Wikis I have seen!

2008-01-12T13:35:00.000-08:00

It seems that wikis have as many different looks as websites do. Some are "Just the Facts" utilitarian (SJCPL Subject Guides), some look just like the familiar Wikipedia (Library Success, NO ALA), some are eye pleasing and fun (BookLoversWiki) and some look like they were created for a specific event (NO ALA 2006, Booklovers). The reputation that Wikis have gotten (facts are unreliable -- anyone can post) has caused all the sites listed on "homework" to restrict who can add/change content.

Library 2.0 in Wikipedia

2008-01-12T10:39:00.000-08:00

This article was just what I needed as an intro to BPL 2.0. Informative without being overly technical. I had no idea that OPAC was considered a Library 2.0 feature, I thought it was all new fangled technology that was beyond my grasp, but it is really just a new way to have libraries and patrons communicate. Cool.

First Blog

2008-01-12T10:20:00.000-08:00

Setting up this blog was much easier than I thought it would be! I am still struggling a little with how to navigate creating, posting, editing, viewing, but I think all that will come with practice.