One more thing or two: Library 2.0 Activity #29

I'd like to know more about location-based services using Google Maps have become very important to a lot of people (for example, tracking your delivery packages in real time, finding businesses in a certain area, or plotting where your ancestors and friends lived or traveled on a map). I'd also like to know more about online privacy and security services. People are always complaining about viruses, malware, adware, cookies, spyware, worms, phishing, etc., which impede their computer's performance. If they post content online, they need to know how it can be protected. I also wonder about doing more outreach to gamers. So many come only because our PCs will give them access to online games. We don't carry this media in our collections, except for published guides and educational software. How do we reach this audience? How about online vendors which offer music and movie downloads? I would also like to know about search engine optimization, improving website visibility, as well as measuring traffic. We need to know how to increase visibility for online services, especially the expensive databases we pay for, as well as our physical collections.

Summary: Library 2.0 Activity #28

I enjoyed the stretching and exploration this program encourages. The activities, for the most part, weren't difficult and, in almost every case, introduced me to resources which I hadn't tried before. I will admit I have a certain amount of anxiety about learning new technologies. Although I grew up in Silicone Valley, I will admit a certain amount of Luddite sympathy. But I'm committed to helping people with their informational needs, and I want people to use their local libraries. So, I will learn what I need to know to keep my workplace relevant. I like to read about new inventions, but tend to shy away from instruction manuals. I'm glad I finally started blogging and playing with the digital camera my spouse got for me over a year ago. I'm finally making the transition from film. I'm starting to benefit from using RSS feeds instead of aimless surfing. I want to be more creative in my choices of information resources and even add some content. I want to make more use of social networking. I've been used to bookmarking and sharing sites via email. Deli.cio.us, Technorati and Library Thing are much more useful for this purpose. I would like to make more use of online office software, too, since I'm tired of the roadblocks created by Microsoft's usage rights. Above all, I've been encouraged to do more exploration of what's out there. Plus, I can finally communicate with my stepdaughters and other family, since almost all of them have MySpace pages. Now, if I could just get my texting to work...

Netlibrary: Library 2.0 Activity #27

I use Netlibrary and Overdrive (via the County Library website). I find Overdrive easier to download and copy to an MP3 player than Netlibrary, which has to work through Windows Media Player and seems to incur Digital Rights Management warnings whenever I perform the operation incorrectly. It has always felt more awkward to me. They also download as one long file. Overdrive breaks the files up into 1-2 hour segments. On the other hand, I don't have to wait to download a book from Netlibrary. Overdrive seems to license only one copy at a time, which seems absurd for a digital download portal. The collections don't seem to overlap. I haven't tried downloading to my mobile phone yet; ebooks would be probably easier to read on that, with a larger screen, than with my MP3. I do like the audiobooks, in any case. Although the initial downloads to my PC have a time limit, the copies synced to my MP3 seem to stay indefinitely. While I always wish more of my favorites were available from the two sites, I can usually find something worthwhile. And both vendors are getting surprisingly new titles. While not all books lend themselves to audio formats, I'm able to do much more reading this way, since I do a lot of listening while walking and doing data entry at my other job. It's much more convenient then schlepping large containers of cassettes and CDs around with you, which may or may not be damaged, and which can easily go missing. More patrons need to be aware of this service. It would, of course, be very nice if these and other services worked with Ipods. I hate the way DRM obstructs the sharing of information, discourages patronage, and ultimately stifles potential commerce.

Podcasts: Library 2.0 Activity #26

I've known about podcasts, and Internet Radio, for a long time. Podcasts remind me of the Video on Demand feature when I had cable. It's nice to be able to go back and catch a show at one's leisure, rather than stay glued to the transmissions or streams whenever they go out. I found quite a few podcasts for my esoteric music interests, Learning Company-type lectures, and geospatial information systems that interest me, besides the library-oriented sites. One of the hardest things to find these days online for me is a book review source besides Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble, or familiar news sources like the New York Times. I realize that our periodicals databases have quite a few, but they require more digging. I can find movie and music reviews quite easily, but book reviewing sources seem more scattered. Podcast Alley seemed the easiest directory to search, with the most hits. I settled on The Great Read Radio Show podcast. I am definitely going to use podcast resources more frequently. It looks like some have been used to record entire books in audio format. I've always wanted to volunteer at some place like KRCL. I realize that I could be podcasting to a larger audience online.

Library related blogs: Library 2.0 Activity #16

I used Topix years ago, mainly to browse the news. It has become much more sophisticated as a news feed, obviously. I like its ability to focus on news from particular types of media for a specified locality, or just a given locality or source. It tends to search general news blogs and news media outlets, not as many of the specialty blogs. If one can search for a topic and click on a bread crumb trail back to Topix's assigned headings, one can then find an RSS feed. Syndic8 has a traditional hierarchical approach, and seemed to have more limited offerings. It had no graphics. The site was down when I revisited it tonight. I like the graphics and tag-intensive Technorati site, which has the most sophisticated means of searching blogs, including separate tabs for photographs, blogs, postings and video content. I frankly prefer the simplicity of Google Reader's interface when it comes to adding subscriptions to specific blogs. Topix and Technorati offer more opportunites for knowledge discovery, for culling information from a variety of sources. I do like Topix's searchability and customization features, though it's a bit rigid with its directory. I liked Technorati's ability to subscribe to particular search results and its links to related tags, including an option to search non-English authorities. I liked Syndic8 the least, because of its limited descriptive information.

Fun with Image Generators: Library 2.0 Activity #17

I tried dressing like Dumbledore for the Deathly Hallows launch party last July, but the heat was too much for the mask. The robe and cap were about all I could handle. Actors have to have a lot of stamina to put up with all the makeup and costuming under those hot lights, let alone exert themselves like they do in films. And we don't get to see all the different takes and preparation beforehand.
Anyway, I liked ImageGenerator.net for its simplicity. It had the least amount of selection, but it was the easiest to just get on and create something. From looking at other sites, I gathered some other ideas for more creative layouts. I have an old story set in medieval times which I'd like to redo to look like an old manuscript. The Cool Text generator definitely has given me some ideas to pursue, as can be seen in this example:

Flickr mashup activity #14

At last I have foresworn all pretense against self-promotion.

You Tube: Library 2.0 activity #25

It's a very fun site, and easily addictive. I like grouping works together by the same person, so it's a little harder to get proper sets together. Since it's mostly clips, one can't really get a sense of the integrity of a work. The clips would work well for instructional purposes. One also has to pick and choose among duplicate versions of the same video that have been posted. There is, of course, no authority control for tags, which can limit how well one can find things at times. I miss not having credits, as one finds on imdb.com. Too bad there couldn't be some sort of merger between the sites. In the future, one may be able to click on a movie in progress and get instant metatag information about a given actor, with external links to other movies. What I especially like about it is that one doesn't have all the media player compatibility issues one encounters when, say, emailing a video clip. It is easy to share and comment on video clips. It is easy to post one's content, though You Tube owns the rights. It is already very popular with library patrons, so I would see it as a way of promoting library services in a creative sort of way. I like the filtering options, too. I chose Prangstgrup's Library Musical because it is simply a classic, because it was filmed in a library, and it is one of the first streaming videos from left field I ever saw on the Internet:

Web 2.0 Award nominee: Library 2.0 Activity #24

After browsing several, and getting a site whose domain was taken over by another, I settled on esnips.com. It bears many resemblances to flickr and de.li.cio.us, but what I liked about it was that it catered to literary and painting, as well as performing arts, content. It allows different sizes for viewing the images. It also offers customizable widgets, which makes it easier to share playable files, without the usual itunes/media player incompatibility issues. Above all, it offers 5 GB of free online storage. Many library patrons on our PCs have problems losing their files when the PCs time out. The PC may not have any office software installed. Or they may not have a thumb drive or flash drive to upload their files to. It makes sense to create everything and store it online, where it can be accessible from any PC, any time, with plenty of storage space to work with. I like the community categories, with opportunity to create more. My main issue might be with privacy (one person complained that her folder had been snapped up by another tagging site) and the amount of advertising on each page, though their pages are considerably less cluttered than those of MySpace. I think library patrons should be made more aware of web services, especially online storage and content posting and sharing sites.

Some Google Labs experimental applications:Library 2.0 Activity #23

I tried loading Google Web Accelerator, and my system seemed to freeze up. It didn't seem to speed up my searching. I decided to uninstall it after that. I tried Code Search, and realized that I would have to have a better knowledge of what I was looking for (though I understand that one can doesn't have to do original programming so long as one knows what code to search for). As far as the Experimental Searches go, I particularly liked the Timeline view (since I often want to limit my searches by time period) and the Keyboard shortcuts (I often like to use shortcuts via my keyboard in preference to mouse clicks). Google Trends was somewhat fun, though I had a hard time understanding the relevance of the links that were displayed (I tried, for example, to get a comparison between "pornography" and "genealogy" in terms of their relative popularity as searches on the Net). I thought Google Suggest was the easiest to get used to. It came up with a limited number of hits when I typed in "Casady", though I was familiar with the links. This one might be ready for prime time, especially if they could improve the linkage. I did come away resolving to visit this page more often. I have become particularly excited over all the Firefox extensions Google and others are coming up with. I looked at the Google Transit (one of the Labs Graduates) and hoped UTA would be using it. I haven't evaluated Google Talk or Accessible Search, but feel that much more needs to be done to open up the web to those with impairments.