Thing # 23 Is this really the end?

Reflections on the 23 Things…

Try as I might it often takes more than 15 minutes (from start to finish) to put together a quality blog.

If no one is actually reading the blog perhaps I shouldn’t worry too much about quality.

At first, I thought this was geared toward those of us who hadn’t already discovered Flickr, RSS feeds, YouTube, etc. But after dropping a little bit of cynicism it was fun to jump in and get with the program.

By trying to make some blog cartoons I learned some extra stuff about downloading programs to convert images to different file formats (ex: pdf to jpg).

If we did something similar again, it would be fun to see how in depth we could go. Rather than skimming the surface by “discovering” elements of 2.0 perhaps we take more time to work toward how we can creatively apply things to our work.

I liked how the “Things” weren’t really assignments so much as discovering what you want within a certain framework.

If you take a good idea (43 Things You or I Might Want to Do This Year), refine it (boil it down to 23 Things and create learning activities), then allow others to copy and use your idea for free you end up with a very popular program. Seriously, try Googling “23 Things” and you’ll see how many libraries jumped in. Seth Godin would be proud.

Thing # 22 MOLDI

When the Mid-Ohio Library Digital Initiative started there was no compatibility with iPod. So the novelty of this initiative was pretty much lost on me. I know this is Apple’s fault due to the proprietary rights they maintain on their system of digital formatting etc. I’m not laying any blame on MOLDI, but without titles for iPods there’s little incentive for me to dig deep into this system. However, a few months ago I did participate in the online tutorial so I could better help customers with questions. It turns out that there are now some titles available for download with the iPod (199 to be exact).

Trivia:

Most popular iPod compatible MOLDI download? The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card.

Least popular? The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

Thing #21 Video Killed the Radio Star

Podcast - named “word of the year” in 2005 and then crushed by YouTube. Do people still podcast? Of course they do, but the idea seems quaint now. That’s not a slam on podcasts. As Triumph the Insult Comic Dog would say, “I kid…I kid…I love the podcasting.” Best podcast directory? There are sites which are designed better, but Emergency Podcast System gets my vote for the name alone.

Thing # 20 YouTube

A few years ago I received a CRAZY message on my voicemail. I have had plenty of random messages from people, who just had the wrong number, but this was a phone conversation between two people I don't know and somehow my voicemail recorded the whole thing. It was such a random audio event that I saved it. After Hillary Clinton came out with her 3:00 a.m. campaign commercial last spring I found a fun way to put this voicemail to use by mashing the audio with some pictures of her and Barack Obama. It has had over 10,000 views. Not exactly a viral sensation, but not bad. If you Google “white house phone call” it’s the second link.

Thing # 19 CML’s tool box

So far I have hesitated putting the CML toolbar on my browser. It’s just a personal preference about not wanting all that extra stuff in the field of view. But I’ll admit it is handy. The RSS feed that gives updates on new CML items is pretty cool. Right now it does not have any listings for DVDs. Do we not update this?

Firefox & Gmail are here. I like both of them. Gmail is especially great for saving articles that I want to keep and read later. Scan or send them to yourself with keywords in the subject line. Then later you can just do a keyword search within your Gmail box. E-mail can also be a sweet Lo-Fi database.

BoingBoing looked pretty whimsical so I took a peek. There’s an interesting article on Candy Land that begins by comparing the game to a Markov chain. Not knowing that mathematical term I had to Wiki it.

Thing #18 Web 2.0 Awards List

Thing #18 Web 2.0 Awards List

The SEOmoz 2.0 awards feature one of my favorite websites: Zillow! I’ve been a Zillow addict for about a year. While looking for a house to buy, I became obsessed with local real estate. Zillow is a fun tool to compare prices and listings. Similar to Google Maps you can zoom in on and rotate satellite images.

After perusing the list some more I found a site that I’ve heard about, but hadn’t yet looked at: Backpack. Filed in the Organization category, Backpack lets you create pages of notes, lists, files, pictures, etc.

How could I use something like this?

-I’m working on a tactical plan item and there is currently a blog that was set up for sharing. The simple layout of Backpack could be a little less cumbersome than a blog.

-A coworker and I now collaborate on volunteer coordinator duties at our branch. We keep work in a shared PC file. Backpack pages are visual and you can embed different file formats (excel, word, pdf, etc.) to a page. This would be so handy!

What’s the huge drawback with this tool? It’s not FREE.

Thing #17: Web-based apps

Thing #17: Web-based apps

September of 2007 was my first experience with Google Documents. They have a spreadsheet document and I played around with to see if it could be used for our branch schedule. Ultimately it didn't get used. L&P has pushed me to check out Google Docs again and they have added quite a few functions since my last visit.

One potentially useful thing will be the document templates they have on file. Just the other day I was looking for an invitation template on the microsoft website. Just about everything I found required Word 2007 and we have Word 2003 at CML. Downloading updates to make the template compatible was a big hassle so I just made a document from scratch. Next time I'll search Google Docs.

You can also post blogs via Google Docs. To experiment I typed my Thing #17 blog in Google just to see how it works. Here goes...

Things 15 & 16 Wikis

Librarians are sometimes skeptical of Wikipedia (the mother of all Wikis). I have met teachers that seem to view Wikipedia with the same skepticism as many librarians. They have asked me, "What do you think of Wikipedia?" I love Wikipedia, therefore I could be convinced to be pretty fond of wikis in general. This occurred. A coworker pitched our circulation staff on the idea of using and contributing to a circulation wiki. As a sign of solidarity I made an information wiki. We used pbwiki.

For quite some time I have kept a file in our G: drive (now a V: drive for some reason) called the Information Desk Rolodex. This was an attempt to ween our staff off the practice of keeping EVERYTHING in a printed file at the desk. Having a wiki made this file better. I dumped most of these saved items in the wiki. Now my file is searchable by keyword.

Years ago I suggested that our branch obtain a scanner and software that allowed for scanning documents and tagging them with keywords to create a searchable database. Since our copiers can scan items allowing us to store things digitally we can now keep them in the wiki too. In this case a wiki can replace that database idea.

So yeah, I love wikis.

P.S. I have played in the wiki sandbox.

Thing #14 Library 2.0

How 2.0 are we really?

Web 2.0 begat the concept of Library 2.0 and now I have managed to read a few articles on the topic for L&P (sources roughly cited below). Having seen Stephen Abram speak at OLC a few years ago, I figured his article would be a good place to start. He views Web 2.0 as being “about the more human aspects of interactivity…conversations, interpersonal networking, personalization, and individualism.” Michael Casey states that services must successfully reach users, be evaluated frequently, and make use of customer input to be considered Library 2.0. So if we keep these elements in mind it makes me wonder: How 2.0 are we really?

Right now I’m primarily considering our own webpage. I love how we got away from trying to be a web portal (eliminating weather and news updates which seemed to be an attempt to have the CML page replace yahoo as a one stop page for our customers). Our page is vibrant and pretty focused. Could it be more 2.0-ish? I think it could, while also admitting that I don’t know all of the technical constraints involved in changing our page. To be a little more 2.0-ish it seems like we could go further to foster interactive conversations/input from our customers and evaluate ourselves more frequently. Here are some “What If” thoughts about Library 2.0 and CML.

WHAT IF we increased the profile of our “Power Users?” We privately identity this group behind the scenes at CML. Perhaps we could pull back the curtain and allow them to make their presence public. Allow them to help shape what we are. Maybe they are self-identified. Maybe they earn a power user rating by submitting reviews to our website that are deemed helpful by others. If ebay buyers trust power sellers more, would our CML users trust reviews from our Power Users?

Speaking of reviews, WHAT IF we allowed public review and comment on titles featured on our page rather than just a star rating?

Patrons have long asked for a way to record and keep track of the books they have previously checked out and returned. LibraryThing & Shelfari have beaten us to that task. But WHAT IF we developed a widget that allowed our customers to upload the books from their CML account to their LibraryThing or Shelfari shelf? (Incidentally, I found something called LibraryThing for Libraries, but it seems to work in the opposite direction by populating library catalogs with reviews.)

WHAT IF the book of the day on our front page was actually 3 to 5 books? If the featured book doesn’t look like your cup of tea, click it to cycle through several more.

WHAT IF we had a similar featured book that was up for a whole month rather than one day? And WHAT IF we allowed users to submit potential discussion group questions? And WHAT IF we hosted several discussion groups based on customer input?

Having solid functional database sources are good. Allowing customer reviews of sources could be better. But WHAT IF we allowed customers to share their stories of how they have actually used our sources? For example, Reference USA happens to be pretty boring. One of our customers has used this for the past couple years to find old friends from his military days. After his wife passed away he used it send thank you letters to her friends that had sent flowers of condolence. WHAT IF he chose to share this and turned a boring source into a story about what we have to offer?

WHAT IF we opened up some of our organizational challenges to public suggestion? For example, a few years back a problem was posed to staff. Our online catalog was working too well. Improvements made it easier to use the catalog and place loan requests. We were being overwhelmed with incoming materials on hold. Putting books into the hands of our users was a good thing, but what about the books that were requested and never checked out? This had a negative impact on our transportation costs. The question was posed to staff: How can we encourage the public to reserve what they need but also make sure they aren’t reserving so much that it goes unused without being checked out? Why weren’t we posing this question to the public too? WHAT IF we packaged some of our tactical plan items in an online “think tank” allowing the public to submit ideas? Would we be obligated to use every idea? No. But we might find useful ideas that were overlooked by our staff.

Perhaps not all of these ideas to open up interactivity with our customers will be viable. That’s where Michael Casey’s Library 2.0 element of evaluating frequently would come in. It seems to be even more 2.0 we need to try more ideas, more often, from more sources, and evaluate these ideas often. Throw out the things that don’t work and allow the ones that do to grow.

articles read:

Web 2.0 - Huh?! Library 2.0, Librarian 2.0Stephen Abram, Information Outlook, Dec 2005

Library 2.0
Michael E. Casey & Laura C. Savastinuk, Library Journal, Sept 2006

Library 2.0: The Consumer as Producer
Beth Evans, Information Today, Oct 2008

which then led to reading:

The Long Tail
Chris Anderson, Wired, Oct 2004

The Rise of Crowdsourcing
Jeff Howe, Wired, June 2006