#23 Congratulations

This has been a really interesting course. It's been quite a long time since I've taken a class of any kind and this one contained information that was totally new to me. It was good to remind myself that I like to learn. I also haven't taken on line classes before so that was a new experience for me and I enjoyed it.

I think the only week that I didn't enjoy was the Flickr assignment and that's only because I'm not all that interested in photography. I found a few things that were useful to me such as RSS feeds and the google calendar information. I was surprised that the assignment I most enjoyed was the Twitter work. I tend to think that Twitter is a silly idea for people with a lot of time on their hands. However, I was fascinated by the program that showed you where the latest tweets were coming from. In just a few minutes I saw the little bird go over at least 15 countries and in several languages. That's a very powerful tool to bring people together.

This program gave me the results I wanted. I have a basic familiarity with these program and how they work. I don't need to use them in a work setting, but I hear the names used all the time. Now, I feel I know what the discussions are about and can form an opinion about their usefulness.

My only suggestion for the program is to remember that there are non librarians who work in libraries. At UMass about 1/2 of the people doing this program were not professional librarians. It would be good to have some exercises that would help us. In the early weeks, it was geared more for a professional.

I think it was a good use of my time and I'd be interested in other on line courses.

#22 Social Networking

This was a really interesting assignment because there was a lot of good informtion and no clear answer as to how libraries can use social networking software. Some lilbraries feel that using social networking software such as Facebook makes their library seem "cool in the public eye" and it provides another place for exchange with their Libraries. Some libraries, especially public ones, have Facebook pages.

For example, the Worthington Public Library uses their Facebook page to advertise their services for children. They are ar "one stop shop for your child's entertainment and educational needs." They also use facebook to promote the library as a community center and add book reviews. They have almost 366 friends.

A few libraries area also using Twitter to promote their libraries. Some larger libraries are using Flickr to show pictures and historic items in their collections.

While social networking sites offer some opportunity for libraries, it's not clear to all that this is a good thing. Some libraries won't use the sites because they think they're too new or too trendy. Some even ban the use of the these sites in their libraries.

There are some rules for Libraries who use social networking. They should pick only one or two types of sites to use. Too many library sites can confuse users and also cause a drain on the staff.
Also, there is a warning not to anger social networking site users. If they are displeased about something, they can spread the work quickly and cause damage to the library's reputation. It also takes time to keep the information updated.

A recent University of Michigan survey showed that social networking users don't want a Library presence. They feel they already have sufficient ways to contact the library and don't need another one. Also they resent the presence on a social "fun" site.

I think it would be foolish for Libraries to totally ignore the possibilities of social networking sites to inform the public about what they have to offer. However, libraries can't do everything and staff members have a lot of responsibilities. Libraries will have to decide if social networking site updating is the way to use taxed staff resources or if that time could be better spent elsewhere.

#21 Microblogging and mashups

I looked into Twittervision, which shows you were Twitter posts are coming from as they are posted. That was fascinating! I watched the map for about 15 minutes and say tweets from France, England, South Aftica, Iran, Germany, Brazil, Finland, Canada, Mexico, Australia, the Caribbean Islands, India, Paraguay and Saudi Arabia. They were also in several languages. The tweets themselves were mostly silly. One person in England showed a picture of a carrot he dug up that had become entwined. Someone in South Africa commented on how unfair it is that the word "lisp" has an "s". It's hardly groundbreaking information. I'm sure that many people write anything just to get the latest spot and see that little bird over their city. I did think the speed and distance of the tweets was really interesting. It's becoming a very small world and twitter is truly a global adventure.

The other site I looked at was FollowFamous, which as a list of celebrity tweeters. I can see why that was interesting for the celebrity and the follower. The follower gets to feel that they're really talking to and know the celebrity. The celebrity gets to put out the information they choose and control it. I looked at Ashley Tisdale's tweets. She was able to put out quick information about her new single, a concert in Las Vegas and what she ate for breakfast. Even though some of it seems like too much information for me, I can see the appeal and I imagine it gets very addictive.

#19 E-Books

I explored the World Ebook Fair site to learn more about e-books. I thought the site was a little hard to use. It's not clear from the front page how to find information. Also, all the tabs are on the left side and it's really hard to read them.

I was impressed by the sheer number of titles that they offered. The total was more than 2 million titles. They had an incredible variety ranging from Census Documents, the CIA Electronic Reading Room, Classic Literature (10,000 titles alone), the United Nations Library, Sheet Music Library and even Open Source Books contributed by the community (30,000 titles).

I imagine that this is a valuable web site for anyone doing research. There are some unusual government publications here that might be of interest. I didn't think it was organized in a vry helpful fashion though. It seemed to be hard to search. The categories were so unusual, (for example, Islamic Ebooks collection) it could be overwhelming to find what you need.

Another site I looked at was called "The Daily Lit". This site delivers 3-5 minute excerpts of a book to email each day until the book is done. You can get another segment at the push of a button. This is an interesting idea. I don't think it would work for me, though. I can't imagine reading a book in 3-5 minute increments. I hate to put a book down after reading at lunch. When I'm home, I read for at least 45 minutes at a stretch. However, any kind of reading is good and if 3-5 minutes a day gets someone interested in reading, that's a good thing.

#18 Podcasts

This was a helpful exercise for me. For some reason, I always associated Podcasts only with audio presentations, but video. This taught me that either can be a podcast. I looked at Podcast.com, which says it has 85,000 podcasts at present. I did find it interesting that their recommended podcasts are all about the economy or politics, while the most popular ones are about sports, such as ESPN. I chose to look at food podcasts. There are over 2400 of them. It was easy to search. It was interesting that the top ten or so were all from California, most of them from newspapers in Los Angeles, Long Beach and Pasadena. I chose to subscribe to a podcast called "In the Kitchen." They're write up said "If you love cooking, fun family meals and making mouth-watering desserts, then In The Kitchen is for you. We bring our magazine’s test kitchen to you with recipes, cooking tips and information that will help make mealtime easier for you."

I also liked that it was last updated more than a week ago, so I will get some recipes but won't be overwhelmed by them.

#17 You Tube

I really enjoyed this assignment. I thought the video "introducing the Book" was very funny and, I hope never comes true.

I can see how people get lost in You Tube. There is so much information out there. Even the bad stuff can be entertaining. I decided to limit myself to two topics. The first was Weddings at Andover Country Club. My daughter's wedding reception will be there next spring. I'm seen the place and it's beautiful. It was nice to see what a wedding looks like at that spot. It makes Amanda's easier to picture.

The other topic I searched was "60s tv show themes". This really made me nostalgic! I found the theme song for Captain Kangaroo, my trusted morning friend for many years in my childhood. Sesame street fills the role for today's kids. Other themes were random and it's just fun to see that they still exist. I found the theme songs to some of the cartoons that I used to watch such as The MIghty Hercules and Thor. Sadly, I still remember all the words! Some of them were just really good music such as the theme from Hawaii 5-0 and the Green Hornet. I'll definitely check again. I think I'm most interested in the nostalgic videos.

Blogging 3-4

I chose to use Blogger.com for my blogs. I was unfamiliar with the software and found it very easy to set up, register and use. I like to write so I think I'll enjoy using Blogger for 23 things.