Monday, May 10, 2010

Reflection (Thing 23)

Survey:

What do you think about social media in libraries? I think if this is how people want to communicate and this is how they receive information, libraries should embrace them.
What do you wish FPL was or was not doing? I think what we are doing is a good start. I think the possibilities are endless with how we can reach people and draw them in as participants in the technology and their library. To remain on our patrons' radar we must reach them in ways that makes them feel that library and librarians are not only necessary in their lives but a happening place! We must keep them involved in what is going on inside the walls of the library but also offer ways they can learn and seek information that all remains tied to the library.
How you learned anything from this program? WOW! Where do I begin? I am already using some of the tools such as tiny url, getting back to blogging about books, using Upcoming events, wanting to tweet (still need to work on that one), hulu (told my teenage daughter about this one and she was actually impressed!), using wikis more, podcasting and this list of what I can now do with a little more confidence is massive.
As an older librarian I do feel behind with the now technology but I feel a tad better now thanks to this exercise. I just need to keep using it, keep learning it and be happy with the progress I make each day.
Thanks to all for putting this together!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

User Choice (Thing 22)

At least most of the resources look familiar but I have a long way to go.
I chose as my social tool I chose Upcoming Events and Things to Do.
Who: Upcoming Events and Things to Do
What: A way to keep track of events you want to go to in your area or anywhere in the country. You can also join a group and share and find out what other events people want to go to that have your common interests. Must have a Yahoo account.
How: You can search for events by category or you can key in search terms and place. Your search can be one date, next 30 days, or even in the future.
When: Once you have your list of events, you can click on I'm interested or I'm going.
Where: Once you click on either I'm interested or I'm going you can quickly join Upcoming. You can put events you are interested in or that you are definitely going to on your an (Outlook, Google, Yahoo) calendar. You can also set up reminders, invite guests. Next the event, is a button to click on for a map.


As far as how this relates to librarianship, say you are working the desk and after storytime a family is looking for more things to do in Frisco or in nearby communities. You could then search Upcoming for that date and for family events, voila! Or if someone is going on a trip to Boston in say 30 days you could look up what is happening while they are there.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Wikis (Thing 21)

I went to Wikipedia and searched for Maxwell Parrish, painter. I have one of his paintings. It belong to my grandmother and grandfather. There is a box that states the sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. There is a request for more precise citations. In the Discussion the date of death was questioned. The incomplete article is rated Start-Class. An article that is developing, but which is quite incomplete and, most notably, lacks adequate reliable sources.
The arrangement of the information is logical. I clicked on a link that is a catalog of his work. I found my painting. It is called Daybreak.

As far as the restaurant wiki, I edited the Babes page. Someone will need to fill in information on the environment.

I have had some experience with wikis as the Bluebonnet Committee created one. I have edited it several times.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Podcasting (Thing 20)

1. Podcast: Booktalks Quick and Simple
I listened to 2 booktalks. First one was on the book, Now and Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin by Barretta. Time: 1:11 and the book: One-Handed Catch by Auch Time :58. Sound quality was good. Voices were both palitable. The booktalks were just the right amount of time. Content was good and interesting.(actually I have already read One-Handed Catch but wanted to see how they booktalked it)
2. Worthington Public Library-kids podcasts.
Listened to the story The Mitten. Sound quality was not good. Teller did not have much inflection in their voice. Did not keep my attention. I was not entertained.
3. County of Los Angeles Public Library-teen Podcast.
This was really cool! It was Read the Book, See the Movie. Lasted 3:12 minutes.
Teen voice talked about the upcoming movies, cast, and the books. She talked about 4 total. Timing was just right. Loved how she said the library has these books.
4. Kankakee Public Library
Author Visit: Angela Johnson. Time 48 minutes. Sound was as clear as if I was in the room. She talked about how she had a diary and what she wrote in the day Martin Luther King died. She is so glad she wrote in her diary because she will always know how she felt, what she experienced. She said she saw adults cry for the first time including her father. I will have to go back and finish listening to her talk.

I think all of these podcasts are useful to the customer if they have good sound quality and good interesting content. In addition to what I listened to libraries have done podcasts of their poetry slam, upcoming programs, new books. The list can go on and on.

Monday, May 3, 2010

hulu (Thing 19)

Watched some clips of Family Guy. One clip was brought to you by Night at the Museum with a box to click on (buy now). Then I watched the trailer of Eclipse which was brought to you by 5-Hour Energy. Then I watched one episode of Andy Barker PI. This show had 3 commercial breaks. The advertisements were for G Series (Gatorade), Whataburger and Toyota. The picture was so clear. Love this site!
I think eventually DVDs will not circulate particularly for adults and teens.
It seems people are willing to view commercials to see what they want for free.
There are more and more venues that people can choose from for what they want to see.
Libraries will need to keep up with the hardware and software to provide these services that patrons will want and demand.
Digital delivery will allow libraries more access to journals, documents. periodicals and literature but libraries will have to change how they operate. With all of this access to so much, librarians will still be needed to somehow manage and scope out the definitive works.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

You Tube (Thing 18)

1. What I saw: The Adventures of Super Librarian
What were they trying to accomplish: promote outstanding assistance provided by librarians, what materials they have you can check out and services they have at the library.
How effective: Pretty entertaining, probably had just the right amount of information in it.
2. What I saw: Super Librarian
What they were trying to accomplish: promote how valuable librarians are, that they are right at your fingertips in your neighborhood and encouraged them to get to know their librarian.
How effective: Pretty effective. Simple advocating of librarians is always a good thing to do. One scary part: They said librarians could find the answer to any question. (We do our best and then refer them if we have to)
3. What I saw: A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto
What were they trying to accomplish: to make a pledge to embrace the future of librarianship.
How effective: words very effective. Pledges I particularly want to embrace: take an active part in moving library forward, embrace change and promote it even when other resist it, let go of previous practices (ouch!), libraries need to remain vital and a relevant voice in information seeking and techniques.
4. What I saw: Allen County Public Library Channel
What were they trying to accomplish: advertise and provide minimal information about the Summer Reading 2010 program.
How effective were they: pretty cute advertisement promoting reading. They covered the what, where, when and how in regards to the summer reading program. Listed prizes kids can earn by counting the number of hours they read this summer.
5. What I saw: Abilene Public Library: Storytimes & Children's Programs
What were they trying to accomplish: two people staff I presume were trying to promote, talk about and explain their storytimes and programs.
How effective: For nine minutes these two staff sat at a table and batted back and forth information about storytimes etc. It was too long, quality of production and their bouncing back and forth with conversational talk about their programs no so effective. I could hear one staff hitting the table as they talked. Could have been much shorter with quick snappy information and visuals. Could not stick with it for nine minutes.
6. What I saw: Webster Public Library/Storytime with Miss A
What they were trying to accomplish: she was teaching the song Little Bunny Foo Foo and then sang it with her audience who were there and who could not physically be there at storytime.
How effective: for the child who recognizes Miss A and who was sick and could not attend storytime but can still experience it in some way, very effective.

* Other uses to promote: Could use it promote most anything in the library; author readings, new databases, tutorial on how to use self check, computer classes.
* How can we address "authoritative" in You Tube searching. I suppose it would be just like the Internet, check the source. Look for links from .gov, .org, .edu, news for authoritative sites.







Other uses to promote:


How can we address "authoratative" in You Tube searching?

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Google Docs (Thing 16)

I created a word document, Storytime Prepartion for this summer storytimes and invited Pat and Kelly as collaborators. I also think the Storytime Teams could share what they havefound to use duriing storytimes; such as books, fingerplays, flannels, prop story ideas and music. If we use Google Docs we can share, and add to each theme document centralizing our planning templates. And,Volia! they are done.

The Bluebonnet Program Committee used Google Docs to create, share and edit our Powerpoint slideshow for our presentation, Bluebonnet 101 during TLA so I have a little bit of experience using this.

As far as how this is different from other programs I have used is several people can work on a shared document, its cut down on the number of e-mails back and forth with revisions, you can view revisions which normally once a change is made unless you save as, the previous document is no more once you make changes and save, and you can easily choose a format for your document and all of the products are right there in a list to choose from.