#23 [Drum Roll please]

I am a fan of learning new things, so I loved doing the 23 1/2 things. When I started I thought I knew more than I did. There is so much out there, being created all the time, that it's important to find a way to keep up with it (to the best of our abilities and without becoming too overloaded!). One way to keep this going (I suppose without the gifts, though they were really nifty), would be to keep up the Queens Library Learning 2.0 Blog and continue to add to it. Maybe one or two new things once a month. Or,

maybe we could start a section in QLChat dealing with Library 2.0, so everyone could add to it and discuss. It would go well under the category QL Chatter.

What interested me the most was the area of tagging (i.e. Del.icio.us and Technorati). I have always been intrigued by the use of additional metadata to locate things. What is contrary to the librarian in me is the non-controlled nature of it. But that's the point, really, that we're going to be happy with the results we get. Is it the best, most comprehensive, most accurate...nope, but that's OK. Maybe trying to control the EXPLOSION of books, articles, websites, blogs, podcasts, evideos, etc. is futile. I still love searching for things, using my library tools of controlled vocabulary, etc. and finding something someone was looking for but couldn't find in the great google mass of keyword searching. Or maybe, we've got to continue to do the best we can, to work with the LIS vendors and the Search engines to make sense of this mess. Or maybe, messy is inevitable. ;->

More to come on Library 2.0 overload soon, as I continue this blog into the future.

EMedia #22

I found Karma Dogs by William Brooks and Soul Rush by Sibelian. Two eMusic selections I found via browsing. Looks like they might be good. I like the amount of information they give on the artist. I also want to check out the National Park Series in the eVideos, also found via browsing.

I tried the search and advanced search. Had success with the regular search but I had trouble with the advanced search. Beware the Keyword search in Advanced Search. I searched for "sushi" in the regular search and in the Advanced title search, but it didn't find the video: Easy Sushi when I typed "sushi" in Advanced Keyword search.

There are A LOT of materials available in our eMedia collection. Some of it quite interesting. However, most of it could be considered "obscure." Searching is probably not as useful as browsing is with this collection.

Cure for Web Overload STRESS...Birding!!

and to hear more about this fascinating hobby, check out the Podcast feed at the bottom right hand side of this blog. I used Podcast.net to find this podcast.

I also found this podcast using the Podcastalley.com directory:

Library Survival Guide

Hudson Valley Birding

Hudson Valley Birding -- YouTube is Fun...#20

Find the video in the next post. (Couldn't seem to get it in the same post!)

At the risk of being perceived as a total geek, I love birding. I'm new to the hobby (getting my first pair of birding binoculars from Santa this year). Can't wait to start journaling my birds. Libraries can definitely utilize YouTube to promote its services, collections, and job opportunities. It can also be used for training purposes.

The Tools of Web 2.0...my #19

Looked at FURL, which is a bookmarking tool. "Store your favorite corners of the internet and let others discover the cool stuff you’ve found. Comment on the content you find and read what other users are saying about your bookmarks."

I am always looking for ways to better manage my bookmarks. I started using MyYahoo to stash the bookmarks I wanted easy access to on the road. Furl.net appears to be a better solution. I like that you can make your bookmarks public, so they can be shared. This tool has LOTS of features, which I will look at after 23 1/2 things.

I would like to see more librarians at Queens sharing their bookmarks. It would really add to our toolbox at the reference desk.

Ooops! Forgot 17 1/2 -- Facebook, etc.

I've been on Facebook and Myspace for a while now. I'm still trying to figure out if my Facebook account is more "professional," because many of my co-workers are my friends on it, or more personal because of all the cute applications I've added. My daughter likes to send me growing gifts, pet our cats and my fluffy friend, add flowers to my garden, and add fish to my aquarium. I like the idea mentioned in one of the articles (have two Facebook accounts 1) work 2) home). I might split at some point.

As far as what libraries can use it for...having a link to a library's catalog seems a little weird. I think it can work for small libraries that don't have a big Web presense. For larger libraries, I suppose it would be good to have as a marketing tool. Alert the public of its existance and include links to the library's website and a few selective applications.

And now for #18 - Let's Collaborate

As I mentioned in a prior post, my mother and I are involved in fleshing out our family history. I can see this application working great for us, as we find interesting newspaper clippings or want to share some of our writing on this history. I tried Google Docs and Writeboard. I like both, but felt more at home with Google Docs because of all the formating options and similarity to regular Word.

Painting by my great grandfather, William Merritt Post, called The Forest Stream.

I DID IT on a wiki!! #17-Playing

I added my $.02 to the Weeding Library Collections page of the Library Success wiki.

Under the heading, "Ideas for Disposing of Weeded Books" I added a link to the company that handles our booksale books.

Sell books on consignment:
B-Logistics

I had to register first and confirm my email, but once I was in, it was very easy to edit and add.

Number Sixteen...WIKIS

Checked out a whole bunch of wikis. I really liked the one called Library Success: A best practices wiki. I also liked seeing wikis for places (i.e. Rochester: RocWiki) and I'm now inspired to Wiki my new neighborhood, College Point.

The good, the bad, the ugly: anyone can easily make changes, it can be a little disorganized, vandalism and spam.

I would suspect the Wikis that work best are the ones where most of the people who know about it and add to it are people that really care about the topic and have a vested interest in it.

Wikis would make a great "homegrown" intranet. Our staff page is fairly well maintained and pretty organized, but it's not easy for staff to add "best practices" or "conference notes," etc. Library Chat is good for sharing, but it's more temporary. We might want to consider creating a QueensLibraryStaffWiki...????

Library 2.0 ... Moving forward with a critical eye

Here's a pix of Second Life's Library 2.0. Hmmm. It's still a picture of a building. I'd like to see multiple planes here...maybe a picture of a galaxy, sort of like the Jetsons. I'm babbling. I just read about 20 articles on Library 2.0.

#15 -- Library 2.0

I felt a little psychizo reading Annoyed Librarian's "A Librarian's Anti-2.0 Manifesto". I kept going "Yeah!," but for both her comments AND the Library 2.0 Manifesto. We've got to be critical when viewing change AND we have to have great vision. We need to be grounded in reality (who really are our customers now and who are our potential customers), what changes make sense and what's just 2.0techywow stuff?. I sometimes feel like a nighttime soap actor, calling out "The baby, the baby!!!" I'm referring to the baby that's always being thrown out with the bathwater.

I like the concept of "the long tail." Here's a quote from the LJ article called Library 2.0, "users might be better served if librarians consider what's called the long tail. Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired, who coined the phrase in an article of the same name in 2004, argues that the demand for movies or books that are not hits far outnumbers the demand for those that are hits. Match those nonhits with the people who are interested in seeing them, and suddenly you have a group of constituents equal to or greater than those who want to see and read the hits." This is what many librarians at Queens have been trying to articulate in regards to our collections. While I want to reach the individual (who combined make up a mass) with our existing collections, I also believe that providing more electronic documents and other digital items is also needed.

Customer input is an essential part of Library 2.0 and we are definitely not doing enough to engage our customers in a dialog about our offerings. Customer reviews of our titles would be great, as well as polls on our Website. And another big one: customer and librarian crafted bibliographies on particular topics that can be accessed on results screens.

One of the articles mentioned that librarians should not be trainers (that if our electronic resources are too complicated, we need to adjust the resources). While I am all for making our databases more standardized and user-friendly, I believe there is still a lot of training we can and should do. Helping customers identify the best database to search for a particular need; explaining the process of multiple searches to narrow a topic; providing tips for databases (use "and" between concepts and click on Full Text). Also, championing the multiple formats (print, electronic, audio, etc.) to meet their needs.

Oh, I could go on, but then I wouldn't finish my 23 1/2. More to follow as time permits!!

Took the Technorati Tour

and then joined. #14 Technorati
After I joined I claimed my blog.
I have no authority yet; my rank is: 8,911,336; and I have 1 Fan.

Here's my description:
Originally set up as part of a Learning 2.0 activity. Plans are to continue to add to this blog about all things Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and most importantly...Web 2.0 OVERLOAD. Focus will be on finding solutions for managing the overload.

I added a Technorati logo Favorite link to my blog. I also added some favorites by searching on "Library." Did a whole bunch of searches. I could really get lost on this Site!! It's pretty easy to search and find the top layer of results.

Del.icio.us is DEEEEE Licious! #13

However, I still find it baffling. I have not created my own account yet (plan to when I'm not rushing to finish 23 QL things). I think it will probably make more sense once I do that. It took me a while to find out how to search for tags within QL.things account. I kept putting my search in the main search box (ugh). I'm so used to hierarchy and files and well, I feel a little lost. I will create my own account and will try to use it and see what happens. It would be interesting to have our customers tagging our Site. It would help us to see what is most popular for our customers.

My very own search tool!!!!!!!!!

There's going to be a lot of development going on. What a great tool. Thinking about all the applications. I'm gonna need more time with this!!

#12 - Rollyo

Checked out someonelse's Rollyo on Knowledge Management. Searched for Overload and got some great hits. Here's one: an article called Companies tap RSS to tame info overload from Infoworld.

Here's a link to a Rollyo I created on College Point, NY.

Checked out that Library Thing (#11)

Well, I like it. Found some obscure "family history" materials and added them to My Library. This will be a great place to add books related to my crazy ancestors and share the list with my mom.


Interesting ancestors:

Jeremiah Vanderbilt, Town Clerk, Flushing. In 1789 his house, along with the bulk of documents relating to the Flushing Remonstrance of 1657, were destroyed in a fire. Queens Library is participating in the 350th anniversary of the Flushing Remonstrance.


Abraham Van Nest, wealthy merchant, owner of Van Nest Homestead that covered what is now known as the West Village (why oh why did some of this bounty not trickle down?!?)


John and Priscilla Alden. Yup, I'm one of those Mayflower descendants. Of those that migrated to America on the Mayflower, John and Priscilla probably have the largest number of descendents.

William Merritt Post, my great-grandfather, was a turn of the century painter of streams and trees.

William Gardner, another one of my great-grandfathers, was a famous yacht designer, including the record breaking Schooner, The Atlantic. The Atlantic "under command of the notorious Charlie Barr won the transatlantic race for the Kaiser's Cup from New York to England in the spring of 1905 in 12 days, 4 hours and 1 minute. A record that stood 100 years."

And many more!!!


Library Thing should prove to be very useful! Glasshalffull's (a.k.a. Lianna's) Library.

On a roll....#10 This is my brain.

according to Brainscannr. Apparently I am ruled by LOVE!! Check out Brainscannr

Revolution Number Nine...number nine...number nine

Tried out Technorati for some feeds. At first I was not impressed, until I found one really useful one under their TOPIC--Life: The Simple Dollar I was interested in Technorati's "authority ranking," which they describe as "the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has." Interesting how they use the term "authority" rather than "popularity." Can one always assume a blog is authoritative based on number of blogs linking to it. We librarians often talk to our customers about looking for signs of authority on Websites. Will they misread Technorati's label. On the other hand, maybe there is a fairly good correlation between popularity and authority. Hmmmm.

You really get the feeling of OVERLOAD when looking at Topix. I followed a few links and found some interesting articles and comments. One article really peaked my interest about a school putting a camera in the bathroom. I added it as a bookmark in MyYahoo. It seems that Topix focuses on the news and comments, rather than following individual's blogs. You can see how much Web 2.0 has spread within media!!

Trying to Catch up--#8

I've been using RSS for some time, so this was nothing new. However, Bloglines was new to me. While I like to pull all of my Web 2.0 life together in one place (I use MyYahoo), I liked Bloglines enough to want to use it too. I figure I can fill it with feeds that are pure fun (where I don't need to look at them all the time). I added feeds such as National Geographic Animal and Nature News and Flickr Photos Tagged "College Point".

I also like the folders you can create for your feeds, as well as, the tab for clippings.

Web Overload...that is my technology topic

Exploding Head Magicians
Originally uploaded by sbfisher

#7 is to blog about technology.I've found the Internet expert, Marcus P. Zillman, to be very helpful. He is author, speaker, consultant on many technology issues and has done a bit of work on "Information Overload." He blogs on this topic at: http://manageinformationoverload.blogspot.com/ He lists some resources to manage information overload, most of which are technological solutions. I tried one of them called NetVibes, but I actually like MyYahoo better for collecting all my "things" together. My "things" are my email, to do list, calendar, RSS feeds, news links, etc.Even with trying to pull my things together in one place, I still feel sometimes like my head is going to explode!!!!!

More Flickr Fun

#6 -- I checked out MANY mashups. This one is my favorite:

FlickrStorm

It's a better search interface for Flickr. You can refine search by looking at related tags.

Three cool cats I found using FlickrStorm

Playing with Flickr Mashups

Salmon fried in Panko, Spinach and Feta Strudel, White Rice, and tomatoes from the farm

Click on this link to see one of my dinner concoctions with a comment bubble. Tool used: Captioner.

Snowboots and Purrrfect

Snowboots and Purrrfect
Originally uploaded by iamglasshalffull

Took this pix on my cell phone and decided to blog it!!

Sushi

Sushi
Originally uploaded by apc33

This looks tooooooo yummy! Here is another cure to overload. When I am stressed and over the top...I simply eat SUSHI!

I'm so glad this sushi feast was free to post!

#5 Discover Flickr...done.

I checked out all the Discovery Resources and searched for a lot of photos. I also investigated the copyright rules. You can search specifically for photos that allow posting on your blog (not all of them do). If you find one that says "All Rights Reserved" that means you have to email the owner for permission. Just use the advanced search and check the box that says "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed photos." However, you can add ANY photo to your Favorites.

Check out my next post for a delicious picture!

Blogging

#3 and #4 Grab a blog and register.

I really like this blogger program and have already used it with my daughter. I helped her create a blog that combined two of her passions "watching her tadpole grow into a frog" and "collecting pictures of license plates from different states." http://toddandplates.blogspot.com/

Setting one up is a very simple process. Registering was even easier. I have been enjoying looking at other staff members blogs, especially those that have combined this activity with another.

7 and 1/2 Habits

#2 -- I went through the tutorial. I find the hardest habit is to "Begin with an end in mind." This comes from my training as a creative writer to move towards something, but not neglect the juicy morsels found in the tangents.
What habits are easiest? It's a tie between "Use Technology to your advantage" and "view problems as challenges" I enjoy using new technologies in discovering and remembering new things. My nickname is Glass Half Full, so you can guess that the latter should come easy for me.

23 1/2 Things -- #1

I'm very excited that this learning program has been introduced at Queens Library. While I am familiar with most of the things on the list, I haven't yet had a chance to work with all of them. I hope that all the librarians in the system take a crack at this. In addition to making Queens Librarians more aware of what's out there (and being used regularly by a large portion of our customers), it will open up communication and sharing opportunities not currently available.

I read the blog and learned all about the program.

If you don't have it yet...

you will!! People have been talking about Web Overload for years (remember "Information Overload" before that?) I decided to pull together tips and tools I have heard about, along with links to other sites that discuss this problem, and post them all here. I welcome comments from people who just want to vent about this and from those who have tried some things.