Thing Twenty-Two: Podcasts

I already subscribe to a few podcasts, mostly of NPR shows. I get email alerts and them when I'm working in my office at home. If I ever decide I can afford to upgrade to a smartphone, podcasts are an option that I expect I would make frequent use of for listening to while driving.

I'm not feeling ambitious enough to pursue creating any at the moment. But here are TNCC we have made use of iTunes U (other 23 Things participants may have noticed theFeed@TNCC in the list of education podcast sites). In addition to the news feed, several faculty have created podcasts of lectures and presentations and made them available throuh iTunes U.

Thing 21: Mashups

After looking at these sites it's clear that I've been taking advantage of Mashups for quite a while without knowing it. Since I have never entirely embraced flickr and twitter I wasn't all that excited about the Mashups between them. But I did get more interested when I started looking through the Google Mashups and the ones created for the Apps for Democracy contest.

One Mashup that I found particularly intriguing is #Ask4Stuff a trial service whereby you use Twitter to find results within Worldcat. The reports from people using it were positive, however when I tried it I never received any results. Perhaps I'm just not using it correctly?

Thing 23: The End?

I've enjoyed this process. Learned a lot, got excited about the possibilities of some of the things. Also experienced a bit of frustration at the college's firewalls and other security measures which completely blocked some of the applications, but even that process enabled me to become a lot more familiar with the network staff and I believe we'll be able to come to some accommodation.

The things I found most interesting were:

1. Wikis. As I mentioned in the original entry, I want to use this tool to create a new version of the library's policy and procedures manual. Something similar to the example in week five: Antioch University New England Library Staff Training and Support Wiki . I think we've just about worked out a compromise with IT to actually allow a wiki on the college's servers, so now all that remains is to create the thing.

2. Youtube. I have a much better appreciation for the educational videos that Youtube has to offer. We've just started a subscription to LibGuides here and I'm planning to incorporate some Youtube sources into our new guides.

3. Photos and Image Generators. That was just plain fun.

4. Creative Commons. Having had some frustrating experiences with the current copyright codes in the past, I am gratified to know that there is a grassroots movement of sorts creating another way. Maybe as this grows it will encourage lawmakers to revamp the codes for everyone.

Overall I'd say that I've become much more aware, and more interested in how media, the web, and emerging technologies have become integrated into and are shaping our lives (that's just about what the intro to 23 Things said, isn't it?).

Thanks to Tara and all the other participants!

Thing 20: Tagging and Social Bookmarking

OK, looked around delicious. Explored the site options. Created an account and bookmarked a few sites. I like the portabiity of the bookmarks. Since I'm traveling between two campuses these days, that could really be useful.

Didn't think much of the comments. Everything I saw seemed to just be brief reiterations of the basic site info.

We don't currently have a social bookmark collection, but I mentioned before that we've just started working with Libguides, and I can see delicious working into that nicely. One of the tabs in the Libguides template could be for a delicious list. We'd just have to create a generic TNCC account so that any of the librarians who are editing the Libguides could add links to the delicious list.

I created a collection of bookmarks related to an event we have coming up in October. Author Orson Scott Card will be speaking at CNU, brought in by the Virginia Peninsula Literay Consortium.

Thing 19: Multimedia

I was not aware of the Text-to-speech options in Ebsco, Gale, and Factiva. How cool. I couldn't find the option in Ebsco, but I did in the other two and tried them out.

I was aware of the other audio options listed, and have used all of them except Last.fm

I haven't used Youtube much. I know it has a good deal of useful, educational material, but I get tired of filtering through the dross. We've just started a subscription to Libguides, and I'm hoping that we can use some of the more useful Youtube material in some of our guides.

I found several videos done created by academic libraries. This was a good one, though a bit overlong:


And I liked this series, "The Library Minute" from Arizona State University. Short, coherent, easy to understand:


Lastly, this old one, more general tech than library oriented and a bit dated now, but one of my all time favorites:

Thing 18: Audiobooks

In my opinion Farrell's article summed up the whole audiobook experience quite well. A bit confusing, often frustrating, and very, very popular.

I love audiobooks, and jumped right into Overdrive when the VCCS first got the service. My initial experience was very much like that depicted in "Webcomic Takes on Audiobook DRM" - I spent a several hours downloading and updating various players and files before I finally got it to work at home. Since then it's been great, at home. At work it's a different story. When we first got Overdrive I was able to download the media player just a couple days before the latest draconian security protcols were put in place. I used it for quite happily until a few months ago when I received a new computer (a necessary evil, the old one had smoke coming out the back). Since then the multiple layers of security and firewalls have made it impossible to use. So what I do now is download at home, transfer to my Sansa recorder, and then bring that into work. And I probably ought to note that I only listed to audiobooks at work when I am engaged in those most tedious of tasks that would put me to sleep otherwise.

Students and faculty also seem to love Overdrive. We have a modest collection of audiobooks on CD, cassette, and Playaway, and whenever someone checks out one of those we make it a point to show them the Overdrive links on the webpage. The universal response is some variation of "OMG - this is great! And it's FREE? Wow."

Week 20 addendum

Gaak. Classes start on Monday. I'm not ready.

Thing 17: Social Cataloging

I already have a Librarything account. I set it up specifically for keeping track of the music books and scores that I own. In my other life I'm a musician, and in the intersection of that and my professional life, I do research on folk music and songs. I've amassed quite a collection of books and manuscripts and sometimes when I'm researching a new topic, I forget what I already have in my collection. So I created a catalog through Librarythng to help me keep track. (my only problem now if remembering to check it and keep it updated)

Here is the link to my Librarything catalog, if anyone is interested:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/slawlor314

I've toyed with the idea of using one of these sites for my book club, but that impose an undue degree of organization on my book club (we're a pretty casual bunch).

While not for cataloging, I have made extensive use of Bookmooch to benefit the library. We often receive donations of books that we really don't need in the collection but which are still of interest. I took it upon myself to add them to my Bookmooch inventory, and after accumulating a good points balance, I also started using Bookmooch to acquire books for TNCC. I've been able to replace worn out copies in our paperbacks collection, and get extra copies of titles for the campus book club. The mailing cost comes out of pocket, but it's minimal and I enjoy the global book exchange.

And while it wasn't one of the options mentioned in the 23 Things list, I also want to put in a plug for the "WeRead" feature on facebook. I've used that to post titles that I'm reading and it always generates a bit of discussion.

Thing 16: E-Books

What do you think of PsycBooks?
     I liked it. Since I wasn't looking for anything in particular I poked around in the browsing featured. I liked the terminology finder and the nav bar choices for narrowing down topics.

Are e-books the wave of the future? An aesthetically-challenged plot to empty your wallet? A wild west frontier?
     Yes, all of the above. I think e-publishing is the overall wave of the future and e-books are simply a part of that. As for the "empty your wallet" part - I remember reading somewhere that half the books purchase each year are never read. People buy books and get the feeling that they then somehow own the knowledge that's in them, even if they have no idea what that knowledge actually says. Buying e-book downloads is even easier and I suspect far more than half of the those purchases are going unread.

Are e-books popular with your students?
     They are once they've been introduced to them. Students still think of the library primarily as a place to get hard copy material, and seem to be surprised when we show them the e-books collections. But they do use them once they know they're there. I think out most popular collection is Safari, great for looking up technical information.

Do you own a dedicated e-book reader such as the Amazon Kindle or Barnes & Noble Nook? If so, what do you think of it?
     I don't own one myself, yet. I have several friends who have and love them and I suspect I'll be getting one in the foreseeable future. I'm envisioning e-readers becoming the new format for daily newspapers and magazines. Publishing them for free online hasn't worked very well, at least not for the publishers' bottom lines. But a modest subscription fee to allow one to read the morning paper while sitting on the couch with your coffee might just do it.

Thing 15: Creative Commons

I am continually frustrated by the current copyright laws. I agree with the spirit, but the application often either leaves works in limbo or obstacles to use that potential creators simply give up. And I don't believe that the laws can handle the explosion of new media and the fluid nature of the Internet.

I definitely think it would be a good idea let faculty know about Creative Commons (if they don't already). There are many great resources already available under CC licenses which can save faculty time when preparing presentations and class material. And the more who know about it, the more collaboration is possible.

Thing 8: Screencasting

We have a license for Camtasia here, though we haven't made much use of it. Rather than wait for the process of getting permission for Camtasia I downloaded the free version of Jing and used that. I created a soundless video of the process for renewing a book online.

I'd like to make another version of this using sound and callouts with notes, but that will have to wait for the Camtasia permissions and for finding a microphone (I believe we have USB mics somewhere on campus...)

I tried for quite a while to embed the video here but wasn't able to do it, so I have just included the link.

How to Renew Books Online

Thing 14 : Online Surveys

OK, I know that firewalls are necessary, but they're really getting in the way here. After the segment on Wikis here, I got excited about the possibility of recreating our policies and procedures manual in a wiki format. It needs to be updated in the worst way and the current format is cumbersome. A wiki would be easier to update, would allow several people to make changes, and would make it more accessible. Great, but the firewalls in place here have thwarted all my attempts to set one up.

Likewise, the local firewalls completely block Doodle. Very frustrating.

Google works all right though, and I I'd like to rework some of our library survey with Google. We conduct an annual user survey but only in paper format, it would be interesting to see how many additional responses we received if we added an online component.

And, my one question survey...

Thing 13 : Document Sharing

I've used Google docs quite a bit for committee work. As the Common English clip stated, it eliminated the issue of having multiple copies of a document floating and being passed around, often with different versions of editing.

I've been trying to get the rest of the staff here to warm up to the idea of putting our operations manual into Google docs or into a wiki but so far only a couple people are on board. One question I still have is whether it's a good idea to have our policies and procedures manual publicly accessible. That wouldn't have been possible with the old hard copy version, but web versions make it easy.

I posted a document in my google account, one of my favorite Yeats poems. And shortened the url to boot.

http://bit.ly/a6DRO7

Things 10 & 11: Tweeting and Shortening a URL

I've had a twitter account for some time, though I don't really use it. I set it up to follow some of the threads at the ELUNA conference in Richmond last year, and have kept it, though all I really follow is the VCCS library and TNCC news threads (is "threads" the correct term to use here?)

I was interested to find out about the search engines and the twitterfall site, both could be potentially useful in doing research, or at least for gathering information. And I liked the scenarios that were presented describing how twitter could be used in professional collaborations. Although all these would take a good deal of tweaking to filter out the dross.

URL shortening - I've also been aware of these services but have never used them. And I suspect that if we shortened the links to our databases, for instance changing Academic Search Complete from
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/search?vid=1&hid=110&sid=7b6bd863-f795-4d4d-920d-9709528c2c3b%40sessionmgr110

to http://bit.ly/d9mmCU

that it wouldn't work from off campus. I'll have to try it from home. And just out of curiosity, I shortened the shortened link that we already have, this one:
http://library.vccs.edu/license-bin/linker.plx?ebscoa9h which takes users through the proxy server.

Shortened it looks like this: http://bit.ly/aFVU5o

Tried another, which doesn't have the proxy issues, this is the link to the listing for "The Secret Life of Bees" from our catalog, shortened from http://vccslinc.vccs.edu/F/QCU2RNSQ3UHHKYB8BDKI3K1B2ABGSLFSR6DUSAMMJQ3GA9VRYV-61032?func=full-set-set&set_number=005626&set_entry=000002&format=999

to http://bit.ly/aaXbxa

But again, the true test will be how these links work from off campus. Results to follow...

Thing 9: Photos and Images

I was familiar with flickr, but only as a site for sharing vacation photos and the like. I wasn't aware of all the apps and other features. We've been talking about creating a virtual tour for the library, and also for the new Williamsburg Campus, and this may be just the tool for the job.

I've created a mini tour of the Williamsburg campus using some photos that we took back when the new campus opened in September.

Week 9.5: Generators

Well this was fun. As I mentioned in the previous post, I was familiar with flickr before this, but not with all the apps and features.

I created a banner fo the library using the spelling app, I'd like to use this as the banner for our blog if I can figure out how to get it in there.




And tried this with the ImageChef generator:

Thing 7: Sharing Slide Presentations

In an interesting juxtaposition, I jut returned from a two day workshop on hand book binding. Rather at the opposite end of the spectrum of library work.

This week's information was mostly new to me, and I can see how this sort of service could be useful for creating short demos or instructional clips on using databases and the like. Though I have to say I'm not terribly impressed with SlideShare. I've tried multiple times to create an account and it keeps timing out, either telling me that the site is too busy to show the page, or just freezing up.

So, I haven't been able to create a presentation, or use the share feature (that wasn't working either). About all I can do is imbed a link, which I'll do with the Reality Check slide show.

Reality Check 2010: 5 Trends Shaping Libraries

on to flickr... (did anyone else notice the typo in the Reality Check show? "5 trands...")

Thing 6: Chat

Hmmm, I thought I had posted this last week, but it doesn't appear to be here...

Chat - starting at the end of the reading and working backward. I set up the Questionpoint Qwidget for the VCCS libraries, so I'm quite familiar with it. We've put it on our webpage, as has TCC and it seems to have been incorporated into the Live Reference queues without much problem.

Chat boxes seem to be popping up everywhere these days. I've used this method several times when troubleshooting computer issues (mostly at home), or when looking for information on wireless plans and the like. I've also use IM services for meetings on a couple occasions, seemed to work like a conference call with the added benefit of being able to copy and paste the entire conversation for use later as notes.

However, I don't particularly like having chat constantly active whenever I'm online. I don't like the assumption that just because I'm online I'm available for (or even interested in) conversation. When I am online and a chat window pops up I feel that it would be rude not to respond and because of that I disabled the IM clients that I used for the aforementioned online meetings. I'm trying to figure out how to disable chat in facebook but have had no luck so far.

Thing 5: Wikis

I was already vaguely familiar with wikis, I've used a couple in the past but viewing the Wikis in Plain English video got me thinking of ways to use them here. Most immediately, a wiki might be a good way to carry on a discussion that we're having about redesigning the college website, what we've been doing is flinging around a lot of email and it's getting hard to keep track of the ideas.

I had a mixed reaction to the suggested sites. The usefulness of wikis is often more apparent to the people using them internally than it is to someone just viewing them. To a viewer they really don't appear much different than a web page. However, I was impressed with the page at Antioch that has what was basically the library operations manual turned into a wiki. We've been struggling here to keep our operations manual up to date and turning it into a wiki might be the way to go.

The challenge would be getting everyone involved to adapt to a new format, and to use in rather than reverting to tried and true methods (like flinging email). I started a library blog last fall and so far have had very little success getting anyone else to post to it, or even to comment.

Thing 4: Social Networking

In the NYTimes article How Privacy Vanishes Online Jon Klingberg is quoted giving the following advice "When you’re doing stuff online, you should behave as if you’re doing it in public — because increasingly, it is.” I realized that quite some time ago, just dealing with email. Once you've sent a message to someone you have no control over to whom or how many times it is forwarded. We had some ugly situations arise here on my campus with email jokes that were sent to friends but then forwarded to entire contact lists, resulting in complaints about misuse of state computers, reprimands, and dismissals (as I said, it was ugly).

That potentiality has only gotten worse with the rise of social network sites, listserves, blogs, etc. I approach use of these sites with the attitude that anything I post (writing or photos) can potentially be seen by anyone in the world, forever.

That said, I do use social networking sites, facebook in particular, and I enjoy them. I use them more for social and family activites than for work, but the college has a presence on both facebook and twitter, and we are looking into creating a facebook for the library as well.

Several of my collegues are also my facebook friends and this reminds me of the idea I posted a few days ago, that the use of the internet and social networking in particular is blurring the lines between work, home, and study.

Thing 3: RSS Feeds

Well, I have to admit that while I knew about RSS feeds, I had thought they would be too much trouble to set up. Not so. The trouble is that I still have multiple pages and sites that I go to for information: home email, work email, Nelsonlink (TNCC intranet), facebook, and now an RSS feed.

I subscribed to the TNCC news, VCCS news, This Day in Virginia History, Marketplace from American Public Media, and Gluten-free girl (my favorite cooking blog).

I recently read an article that was describing the Library 2.0 users as those who operate in a world that appears to have no boundries between work, home, study, and recreation. I've tried to maintain some separation - different home and work emails, two facebook accounts, etc. but with this RSS feed I've obviously combined work and "extra-curricular" interests and I'm starting to wonder how long it will be before I have to combine everything just to keep up.

Thing 2: Getting Started / Web 2.0 Concepts.

Thing one but actually it's week two on the schedule. I'm behind already.

And while I was catching up on the first week's tasks, I kept thinking of Dr. Seuss. While images of Thing One and Thing Two running around on the blog page would be entertaining, it probably would also be a copyright violation.

I really liked "The Machine is Us/ing Us" - so much so that I posted a link to it on my personal facebook page.

Meanwhile, back to the matter at hand. I started a blog for the library last semester http://tncc.edu/library/blog/ using Wordpress. The impetus for starting it was to provide a forum for online discussions of the college's book circles, and it's worked well for that. But in addition it's given us another avenue for announcements and for highlighting library events.

Getting more familiar with Web 2.0 concepts is one of the reasons I'm participating in this project. I'm familiar with some, have heard of others and I suspect am completly ignorant of quite a bit more.