I've been downloading audiobooks from the QL website for awhile. They are wonderful to listen to while doing needlecrafts.
There are also children's audiobooks in TumbleBooks. Access to these ebooks and audiobooks requires returning to the Digital Media home page.
I tried to listen to an Agatha Christie book on my mac, but it would not accept my library card # and PIN. I signed up on a pc, maybe the information won't transfer.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Thing #21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!
podcast.net
Only one result came up for "school library journal", thus I think that multiple words are automatically combined in an "and" search. I liked the user interface of this one the most. Doing a search for "children literature review", I found the podcast "Book Voyages" here, which is "a podcast about children's literature from the point of view of a school library/media specialist. It features reviews of books as well as inteviews with students and authors." http://www.podcast.net/show/39068. (11/29/07)
I added this to my Bloglines account. I haven't listened to it yet because it takes a long time to buffer.
podcastalley.com
200 results for "school library journal" suggests that this engine does an "or" search when there is more than one word in one's query.
Yahoo Audio
I didn't see a way to limit one's search to podcasts. Three results came up for "school library journal", thus it must be doing an "and" search.
Only one result came up for "school library journal", thus I think that multiple words are automatically combined in an "and" search. I liked the user interface of this one the most. Doing a search for "children literature review", I found the podcast "Book Voyages" here, which is "a podcast about children's literature from the point of view of a school library/media specialist. It features reviews of books as well as inteviews with students and authors." http://www.podcast.net/show/39068. (11/29/07)
I added this to my Bloglines account. I haven't listened to it yet because it takes a long time to buffer.
podcastalley.com
200 results for "school library journal" suggests that this engine does an "or" search when there is more than one word in one's query.
Yahoo Audio
I didn't see a way to limit one's search to podcasts. Three results came up for "school library journal", thus it must be doing an "and" search.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Thing #20 I Tube, YouTube
There is a great video clip for library training on YouTube. It is called Angry Librarian and can be found here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7XvAakX__cQ
Although not filmed at QL, the issues that this library worker deals with (often inappropriately) are common at QL.
But YouTube is also great for entertainment. My favorite clip is from the Carol Burnett Show with Robin Williams as the guest, performing a black comedy skit called The Funeral. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfDyTUiL8xs
I liked that the site is easy to use and easy to search. I really like the "cloud" results, bringing up videos similar to what one is looking for. I found the Angry Librarian and The Funeral during a bubble or cloud search. I was looking for something else, and serendipity lead me to them.
Although not filmed at QL, the issues that this library worker deals with (often inappropriately) are common at QL.
But YouTube is also great for entertainment. My favorite clip is from the Carol Burnett Show with Robin Williams as the guest, performing a black comedy skit called The Funeral. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfDyTUiL8xs
I liked that the site is easy to use and easy to search. I really like the "cloud" results, bringing up videos similar to what one is looking for. I found the Angry Librarian and The Funeral during a bubble or cloud search. I was looking for something else, and serendipity lead me to them.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Thing #19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools
I'm happy that the tool that won my little feed contest a few Things ago (Technorati) also won 1st place under Blog Guides.
One of my friends is in computer school right now and has thanked me for sending her the list of web 2.0 awards. Her professor is talking about all these things too.
I'm going to explore 43 things and write up my observations. It wants me to decide what to do with my life. "Sleep" doesn't seem to be an option, so I'll need to think about this a bit. Maybe learn reiki. I'll write more later.
Later:
The reiki link in 43 things was gone the next time I checked and now the short list and full list are both down. This seems to be a list for browsing, although it can be searched if you create an account. I'll have to come back to this one.
EDIT: The site is back up. I've given up on reiki, and chosen "live in a foreign country" instead. I chose this because America is the 4th country that I've lived in.
I read all the comments by various people and I agree that living in another country is extremely mind expanding. Some things that are considered to be inherent truths in one country are not in another. It was interesting to see that many of those who post about living in other countries also have military experience. I grew up in the military. This experience makes working for Queens easier - being transferred around the borough seems natural to me.
There are user questions at the bottom. One person asks if you need to quit your job to live in another country. One of the reasons that I decided to become a librarian is that it allows me to live in work in Canada, America or Mexico. It's very exciting to be in NYC and staying in one place is a brand new experience as well.
One of my friends is in computer school right now and has thanked me for sending her the list of web 2.0 awards. Her professor is talking about all these things too.
I'm going to explore 43 things and write up my observations. It wants me to decide what to do with my life. "Sleep" doesn't seem to be an option, so I'll need to think about this a bit. Maybe learn reiki. I'll write more later.
Later:
The reiki link in 43 things was gone the next time I checked and now the short list and full list are both down. This seems to be a list for browsing, although it can be searched if you create an account. I'll have to come back to this one.
EDIT: The site is back up. I've given up on reiki, and chosen "live in a foreign country" instead. I chose this because America is the 4th country that I've lived in.
I read all the comments by various people and I agree that living in another country is extremely mind expanding. Some things that are considered to be inherent truths in one country are not in another. It was interesting to see that many of those who post about living in other countries also have military experience. I grew up in the military. This experience makes working for Queens easier - being transferred around the borough seems natural to me.
There are user questions at the bottom. One person asks if you need to quit your job to live in another country. One of the reasons that I decided to become a librarian is that it allows me to live in work in Canada, America or Mexico. It's very exciting to be in NYC and staying in one place is a brand new experience as well.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Thing #18 Let's Collaborate and Have a Good Time
I've created a Writeboard account and invited a few friends to edit sentences that I placed there. If they make changes, then I'll comment.
About 15 years ago, we used to email Word documents around at work for editing. One problem was that you never knew whether you were applying your changes to the most recent version of the document.
It would be useful to write the Quarterly Report in this format.
I found the sidebar with information about updates useful.
It was quite fun to write something with others. My whiteboard is here:
http://123.writeboard.com/c3a1db1bda3c7fa68
About 15 years ago, we used to email Word documents around at work for editing. One problem was that you never knew whether you were applying your changes to the most recent version of the document.
It would be useful to write the Quarterly Report in this format.
I found the sidebar with information about updates useful.
It was quite fun to write something with others. My whiteboard is here:
http://123.writeboard.com/c3a1db1bda3c7fa68
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Thing #17 1/2 Explore Facebook and Social Networking
The apps I think are useful:
30 boxes calendar
Store bought calendars can be very expensive. Making your own in Word is time consuming. I think this one could be used by me or our customers.
Likeness
This one reminds me of the website bored.com. It seems to be a fun way to waste time. However, I don't know if it would be blocked at QL for resembling a game.
Aquarium
My cell phone has more life-like fish! :-) This one could be entertaining for kids though.
Books iRead
This one looks interesting both for me and our customers. It seems to have more networking opportunities than LibraryThing.
Word a Day
I subscribed to one of these years ago. It's how I learned the word chi-chi. I forget why I canceled it. It may have been because I was only reading it once a week and it became overwhelming. Some customers may like it. When I'm doing homework help after school I notice that there are many words in my BOOST kids' homework that they don't understand.
How-to of the day
This one may draw the attention of any do-it-yourself-er. It's something that I should use but probably won't. I'm more of a hire-someone-to-do-it-er.
I'm not a fan of Facebook. It seems like a great way to get stalked.
I think it is important to learn how to use it, though, because many of our customers are using it. If I could create an account with a false name and have my identity kept secret, I probably would.
30 boxes calendar
Store bought calendars can be very expensive. Making your own in Word is time consuming. I think this one could be used by me or our customers.
Likeness
This one reminds me of the website bored.com. It seems to be a fun way to waste time. However, I don't know if it would be blocked at QL for resembling a game.
Aquarium
My cell phone has more life-like fish! :-) This one could be entertaining for kids though.
Books iRead
This one looks interesting both for me and our customers. It seems to have more networking opportunities than LibraryThing.
Word a Day
I subscribed to one of these years ago. It's how I learned the word chi-chi. I forget why I canceled it. It may have been because I was only reading it once a week and it became overwhelming. Some customers may like it. When I'm doing homework help after school I notice that there are many words in my BOOST kids' homework that they don't understand.
How-to of the day
This one may draw the attention of any do-it-yourself-er. It's something that I should use but probably won't. I'm more of a hire-someone-to-do-it-er.
I'm not a fan of Facebook. It seems like a great way to get stalked.
I think it is important to learn how to use it, though, because many of our customers are using it. If I could create an account with a false name and have my identity kept secret, I probably would.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Thing #17 Playing Around With Wikis
This exercise has me stumped for two reasons:
1. I don't think I'm enough of an expert at anything to add anything useful.
and
2. I don't know how to add to a wiki even if I did have something to say.
I will work on these two problems and post more later.
Later:
My class visit called today to cancel because of the rain. While I was feeling disappointed, I realized that class visits are something that I am really good at.
Now I have a topic to wiki and just need to find a proper place to put it. WikiHow may be too broad, and I don't know whether the library services wiki has a how-to component. I check and try to post something later.
Later:
I found a great spot for my class visit wiki - LISWiki which stands for Library and Information Science Wiki. Here is the link for my wiki about class visits:
Class Visits
1. I don't think I'm enough of an expert at anything to add anything useful.
and
2. I don't know how to add to a wiki even if I did have something to say.
I will work on these two problems and post more later.
Later:
My class visit called today to cancel because of the rain. While I was feeling disappointed, I realized that class visits are something that I am really good at.
Now I have a topic to wiki and just need to find a proper place to put it. WikiHow may be too broad, and I don't know whether the library services wiki has a how-to component. I check and try to post something later.
Later:
I found a great spot for my class visit wiki - LISWiki which stands for Library and Information Science Wiki. Here is the link for my wiki about class visits:
Class Visits
Thing #16 Wiki Me This
I love the idea of library pathfinders. Perhaps we could put our booklists on one.
A good use for a staff wiki could be "Tips and Tricks" for each job. We are sharing tips & tricks in QL Chat a little. For example, one of the best "tricks" that I have learned is to apply a strip of invisible tape to the edge of the staff schedule before you 3-hole-punch it to put it in the staff schedule binder. In every branch I've worked in, those schedules are always falling out of their binder from overuse. One of my old CLMs told me that one. Almost everyone who works here has picked up little kernels of wisdom. It would be incredibly useful to have them all in one spot.
I love the way that amazon.com has reviews from customers for their books. It would be interesting to do that for our catalog.
And of course, announcing our programs on a wiki would be great.
I must confess that I worry whether a wiki would work with all the potential cussing. It's a lot of work to read all the kids' book reviews in the summer to check for swearing. I'm happy to say that I only found some once or twice.
A good use for a staff wiki could be "Tips and Tricks" for each job. We are sharing tips & tricks in QL Chat a little. For example, one of the best "tricks" that I have learned is to apply a strip of invisible tape to the edge of the staff schedule before you 3-hole-punch it to put it in the staff schedule binder. In every branch I've worked in, those schedules are always falling out of their binder from overuse. One of my old CLMs told me that one. Almost everyone who works here has picked up little kernels of wisdom. It would be incredibly useful to have them all in one spot.
I love the way that amazon.com has reviews from customers for their books. It would be interesting to do that for our catalog.
And of course, announcing our programs on a wiki would be great.
I must confess that I worry whether a wiki would work with all the potential cussing. It's a lot of work to read all the kids' book reviews in the summer to check for swearing. I'm happy to say that I only found some once or twice.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Thing #15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...
I am going to look at a few of the links suggested and post comments as I go.
Web 2.0: Where will the next generation Web take libraries?
The line in this article "You and your mobile and nonmobile devices—...—are always online, connected to one another and to the Web" reminded me of the chilling book Feed by M.T. Anderson, a science fiction novel in which people have feeds wired into their brains permanently, feeding them information and commercials. The idea is that this makes people always connected, but in reality it causes people to live inside their heads and not connect as human beings.
That scary thought aside, I am excited that I am familiar with and have used all the examples that the author brings up - Flickr, MySpace, FaceBook, del.icio.us, YouTube, LibraryThing - mostly because of Learning 2.0.
Away from the icebergs
a. "Just-in-case collection" - this has been a stumbling block that QL is conquering with the radical weeding necessary for RFID. I love to weed and love that QL has embraced it so strongly. I truly believe that less is more.
I wish I could practice this philosophy in my home life - my apartment is a haven of clutter. I have boxes that I brought from Canada full of "junk" that I feel that I need.
For me, I like work to be clean and sparse because my personal life is full of clutter. I wonder if those who hate to weed their library collections have tidy houses with lots of clear surfaces. :-)
b. "Reliance on user education" - I'm going guess that our patron-to-librarian ratio at QL is about 2,000,000 to 500, or 4,000 to 1. I welcome any comments if this is incorrect. One way that I try to help is by walking a patron over to the public catalog when they ask for a book or movie, looking it up there in front of them while I explain everything I'm doing, and staying with them so they can look up the next book themselves. As to be expected, kids pick up using the catalog the fastest. I wish there was a catalog computer in the J room.
Into a new world of librarianship
The concept of technolust, or buying technology simply because it exists, seems to be gripping our country. Some have said that our abundance of databases is an example of this.
Rather than filling a need, technology sometimes creates a need. For example, many people rushed out to get their iPhones and PlayStation 3s as soon as these products came out because they "needed" these products that have never existed before.
Web 2.0: Where will the next generation Web take libraries?
The line in this article "You and your mobile and nonmobile devices—...—are always online, connected to one another and to the Web" reminded me of the chilling book Feed by M.T. Anderson, a science fiction novel in which people have feeds wired into their brains permanently, feeding them information and commercials. The idea is that this makes people always connected, but in reality it causes people to live inside their heads and not connect as human beings.
That scary thought aside, I am excited that I am familiar with and have used all the examples that the author brings up - Flickr, MySpace, FaceBook, del.icio.us, YouTube, LibraryThing - mostly because of Learning 2.0.
Away from the icebergs
a. "Just-in-case collection" - this has been a stumbling block that QL is conquering with the radical weeding necessary for RFID. I love to weed and love that QL has embraced it so strongly. I truly believe that less is more.
I wish I could practice this philosophy in my home life - my apartment is a haven of clutter. I have boxes that I brought from Canada full of "junk" that I feel that I need.
For me, I like work to be clean and sparse because my personal life is full of clutter. I wonder if those who hate to weed their library collections have tidy houses with lots of clear surfaces. :-)
b. "Reliance on user education" - I'm going guess that our patron-to-librarian ratio at QL is about 2,000,000 to 500, or 4,000 to 1. I welcome any comments if this is incorrect. One way that I try to help is by walking a patron over to the public catalog when they ask for a book or movie, looking it up there in front of them while I explain everything I'm doing, and staying with them so they can look up the next book themselves. As to be expected, kids pick up using the catalog the fastest. I wish there was a catalog computer in the J room.
Into a new world of librarianship
The concept of technolust, or buying technology simply because it exists, seems to be gripping our country. Some have said that our abundance of databases is an example of this.
Rather than filling a need, technology sometimes creates a need. For example, many people rushed out to get their iPhones and PlayStation 3s as soon as these products came out because they "needed" these products that have never existed before.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Thing #14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati
Courtesy of Wikipedia:
"Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs"
I include that here in case this is being read by anyone else who didn't know that. EDIT: Our instructions say that too, but they use bigger words and a longer sentence. :-)
--------
Our instructions ask "So how does a person get their blog listed as part of the blogosphere"?
I have a different question - how can a person make sure that their blog is not listed in Technorati? I think that 99.99% of users are good people, but I don't wish to be found by one of the remaining 0.01%. If there are 110 million blogs being tracked, that adds up to 1,100,000 unstable criminals in the mix, if I did the math properly.
I searched my username and was happy to find no results.
By clicking on "advanced search", I found:
484 results for "Learning 2.0" in blog posts.
658 results in tags
802 results in Blog Directory.
I clicked on "Popular" then clicked on "advanced search" and found:
506 results for "Learning 2.0" in blog posts.
605 results in tags
807 results in Blog Directory.
The most interesting thing that I discovered is that Paris Hilton was one of the top searches - I thought she was over years ago. :-O
I will search some of my hobbies and write up my results.
EDIT: I missed that the Technorati used here is the same one that won my "Hunt for Feed" contest a few Things ago. It is one of the tools to search for feeds, and it looks like it searches for blogs too.
"Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs"
I include that here in case this is being read by anyone else who didn't know that. EDIT: Our instructions say that too, but they use bigger words and a longer sentence. :-)
--------
Our instructions ask "So how does a person get their blog listed as part of the blogosphere"?
I have a different question - how can a person make sure that their blog is not listed in Technorati? I think that 99.99% of users are good people, but I don't wish to be found by one of the remaining 0.01%. If there are 110 million blogs being tracked, that adds up to 1,100,000 unstable criminals in the mix, if I did the math properly.
I searched my username and was happy to find no results.
By clicking on "advanced search", I found:
484 results for "Learning 2.0" in blog posts.
658 results in tags
802 results in Blog Directory.
I clicked on "Popular" then clicked on "advanced search" and found:
506 results for "Learning 2.0" in blog posts.
605 results in tags
807 results in Blog Directory.
The most interesting thing that I discovered is that Paris Hilton was one of the top searches - I thought she was over years ago. :-O
I will search some of my hobbies and write up my results.
EDIT: I missed that the Technorati used here is the same one that won my "Hunt for Feed" contest a few Things ago. It is one of the tools to search for feeds, and it looks like it searches for blogs too.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Thing Tag, You're It
I have found a use for this tagging already.
In exploring the QL L2.0 account (http://del.icio.us/ql.things), I read a bit of each link, but nothing was grabbing me. Then I clicked on the word "earlier" at the bottom of the page, and just read the names of the links until something grabbed my attention.
On page 3, I found a link for "meditation room" in the links. http://www.lime.com/meditation_room
This was exciting because I meditate every day. I have never met anyone else in the city who does, which baffles me. There is an Open Learning Center in Soho that you can go meditate in for free (with candles, pillows, incense and QUIET) if there are too many distractions at home.
The "meditation room" has links of slideshows with relaxing music. You can choose between the space room, winter room, floral room, forest room, water room and zen room (my favorite one). I spent almost as much time in the Japanese garden at the Met as I did in the Open Learning Center after 9-11 and just before my separation a few years ago.
The benefit of these online meditation rooms is that you can go there at work, during lunch or after a difficult customer. I was very entertained by reading others' comments afterwards. There is a discussion of shrooms and smoking a fatty!? but someone posted a useful link for free soothing music http://www.freesoothingmusic.com/category.php?cat_id=2
that I have been listening to while typing this.
I am curious about what a "fatty" is, but not enough to google it.
In exploring the QL L2.0 account (http://del.icio.us/ql.things), I read a bit of each link, but nothing was grabbing me. Then I clicked on the word "earlier" at the bottom of the page, and just read the names of the links until something grabbed my attention.
On page 3, I found a link for "meditation room" in the links. http://www.lime.com/meditation_room
This was exciting because I meditate every day. I have never met anyone else in the city who does, which baffles me. There is an Open Learning Center in Soho that you can go meditate in for free (with candles, pillows, incense and QUIET) if there are too many distractions at home.
The "meditation room" has links of slideshows with relaxing music. You can choose between the space room, winter room, floral room, forest room, water room and zen room (my favorite one). I spent almost as much time in the Japanese garden at the Met as I did in the Open Learning Center after 9-11 and just before my separation a few years ago.
The benefit of these online meditation rooms is that you can go there at work, during lunch or after a difficult customer. I was very entertained by reading others' comments afterwards. There is a discussion of shrooms and smoking a fatty!? but someone posted a useful link for free soothing music http://www.freesoothingmusic.com/category.php?cat_id=2
that I have been listening to while typing this.
I am curious about what a "fatty" is, but not enough to google it.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Breaktime!
Here is what I've been doing during our break:
- trying to learn what del.li.ci.ous is (dots may be in the wrong spots). I still don't understand.
- glancing at the links in the Learning 2.0 blog
- reading other peoples' blogs
- I thought of a great use for Library Thing. When I go through my fiction to weed, I'm going to try to add the titles in my library to Library Thing with tags. I may not get beyond the B's, but it would be a great reader's advisory tool if I do. I did this on index cards for my picture books many years ago. I didn't finish, but I used what I did all the time. Thanks Dale for commenting on my post - that's what got me thinking about it again.
I'll come back and add more if I do more on the break.
- trying to learn what del.li.ci.ous is (dots may be in the wrong spots). I still don't understand.
- glancing at the links in the Learning 2.0 blog
- reading other peoples' blogs
- I thought of a great use for Library Thing. When I go through my fiction to weed, I'm going to try to add the titles in my library to Library Thing with tags. I may not get beyond the B's, but it would be a great reader's advisory tool if I do. I did this on index cards for my picture books many years ago. I didn't finish, but I used what I did all the time. Thanks Dale for commenting on my post - that's what got me thinking about it again.
I'll come back and add more if I do more on the break.
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