Thursday, August 20, 2009

The Last Thing

Well, I've finished the last "Thing" of this series. This is the end. And, for at least the time being, the end of "Upnorthlibrarian." If you're interested, you can check out my other blog, "In a Chilly Place.".

"Chilly..." mostly focuses on a particular trend in modern life and libraries, neoliberalism, and how I see it affecting libraries in general. It's a little bit dated now, but I may return to blogging on these topics, too. See what you think and feel free to comment.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Thing 46. WebJunction Minnesota

I've used WebJunction a bit, and find it a great resource. Best yet, the price is great! (Free for Minnesota library employees.) I've had a few problems, though. For instance, I recently took a class on PowerPoint. After spending an hour or so on it, including the testing segments, I discovered none of the results had been recorded. Thus, WebJunction considered the course incomplete. I e'ed from the WJ website and got quick responses, but the suggestions weren't helpful. So, I guess I gotta do it again. Still, WebJunction is a terrific way to add to one's knowledge, whether the subject is libraries, technology, diversity training, you name it.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Thing 45. Cloud Computing

Cloud computing, that is, no application or storage on your box or laptop, seems to be the way to store info. Once a few bugs are ironed out, that is. At this point, I've only used the cloud via some of the more common applications mentioned on this Thing: Google docs, Zoho, etc. Access and retrieval have worked fine, though at times a bit more sluggishly than if I had the application stored on my own hard drive. (Oh, I did have had some formatting problems with the various PP copies.) Another plus is having the ability to easily access documents, work with 'em and share with other folks.

At this point, access to a person's stuff is what may be the big problem with the cloud. Consider what's been happening in Iran and China. If you've got all your information sitting on servers rather than on your own box or laptap, big brother surely has pretty easy access to it, no matter how well firewalled or otherwise protected. Govs have ways of getting around that kind of stuff and there's always lots of Dick Cheney types who love to stick their noses into other people's biz. And of course, it's not only governments. Using the cloud means whoever's doing the hosting also has access. And their company's motto may not be as nicey-nice as "don't be evil."

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Thing 44. The Economy

This Thing started off with some thrift and money-management sites that I found conceptually problematic: for the most part, they offered money management tools that I'm reluctant to use. I'm just not comfortable letting such sites have access to account numbers, the accounts themselves, credit-card transaction records and the like. I mean, most folks in the know about internet security scoff at the mere plausibility of online safety; for the most part, they think that the sheer number of numbers (social security, checking account, and so forth) out there is the only safety factor to be guaranteed--too many numbers, too few blackhats...yet.

That said, some of the sites this Thing linked to seem worthwhile:
GasBuddy.
A site that lets you find the best gas prices in the area. Cool--if you're ready to accept the irony of using up gas while driving to get it cheaper.
Craigslist.
What can you say: buy anything, anywhere. It's what killed the newspaper.
Freecycle
This site is a great idea. It allows you to recycle your stuff and find other things that folks have made available. I checked my local group and was pleased to see so much activity.
MadCity Chickens
I just like this site 'cause our neigbors used to have a couple chickens, and I miss seeing them strutting around in the yard, cockle doodlin'.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Thing 43. Online TV and video

Hulu's a great way to spend some time; there's tons of content like old tv shows and movies. Not all are complete shows, but there's enough of 'em there to spend DAYS watching. Of course, Hulu's not the only site offering such stuff. It seems like there's more of them every minute. Joost is from the Skype folks, and it's a lot easier to use now that you don't have to download a player. The site has lots of movie, tv and music, too. Then there's YouTube (improving their player, so complete episodes can be viewed) and other sites such as LikeTelevision and Veoh, which offer similiar content and are pretty cool, as well.

The network and cable channels are also offering more and more stuff. In the case of the networks, it's free, but the cable network sites often bait you with a few episodes of a new show, then turn it over to pay-per-view only. Jerks!--what are they trying to do, make a buck or something?

Online TV is the future. With increasing bandwith availability and better players like Flash 9, as well as increasing use of devices like Slingbox to enable internet access on your living-room flatscreen, online will eventually take over from cable and broadcast. DVDs, too. Look at how Netflix and Blockbuster are doing the streaming thing now. In fact, I predict the DVD store will be a thing of the past eventually, just like the video store. To rephrase the title of MTV's very-first video: The internet killed the DVD star.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Thing 42. Music 2.0

I've been using Pandora for quite a while, both on the home box and laptop and on Touch, too. There's a free ap. from iTunes called Slacker that's pretty cool, too. It's just a bit more youth oriented than Pandora, with more stations offering electronic stuff and hiphop.

I like the search engines that link you to radio stations around the world. It's kind of like when you were a kid (this will date me) and you've got your transister radio under the pillow. It was way-cool to be able to pull in baseball games from faraway towns like St. Louis or Cincinatti on hot summer nights when the ionsphere was weird and allowed cosmic radio shenanigans to happen. Once on vacation in Brainerd, I even got an Orlando station on an old black and white TV! Anyway, it's very cool to be able to access radio stations from just about anywhere. The only trouble is most of the stations don't stream very well.

I also use LastFM, which is a great site. It's fantastic to find both music and vids at the same place. Here's a widget with my profile (very limited at this time):


Thursday, June 25, 2009

Thing 41. Mashup your life. FriendFeed

I starting working with FriendFeed, but found it kinda problematic. I mean, I like the concept of being able to aggregate all your 2.0 items on one site and allow friends to access it and share their stuff. As the conservatives would say, it's downright socialism! A nifty concept. As long as one isn't too paranoid about all your eggs being in a single basket and available for all to see (depending on your privacy setting).

Now the problem(s). As stated, the coolest thing with FriendFeed is bringing all your 2.0 stuff, in FF called services, under one roof. But, just try to find a way to do it. Like so many new 2.0 sites, the developers place very little information on the front page. Often, you have to register just to get an "about" link. So, you're entering like a new-born babe, all blinking and blind and trusting and who knows how your registration info is going to be used. Hopefully it won't be hooking you up to a Russian mob's botnet or something.

After giving in and registering and posting my pic (easy), I needed to set up my 2.0 stuff on FF. But, lo and behold, I couldn't figure out how to do it. I ended up clicking around the site just about forever, tried Googling for more info, even found YouTube vids that weren't too helpful. Finally, under "settings," I discovered the tiny little RSS icon for services and started adding stuff.

But, get this: to do this, you need to find the right url for your 2.0 items within their respective web pages and FF isn't too friendly about helping you do this, either. After more hand-wringing and a few f-bombs, I managed to get the links for my blogs and Delicious to work, but none of the others. So, my FriendFeed page has the blog links and a bunch of Delicious bookmarks and that's it. And as for the other cool thing about FF, being able to add friends and their stuff, that doesn't work so hot either. I send invites off to folks and they all found the site either too confusing or didn't want to register just to take a look around.

So, while FF is a good concept, I think the developers need to user-friendly it a bit. Make adding the services simpler and add some content to help folks join in, that's all. Good idea, but clutzy execution. So far.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Thing 40. Mashup the Web

I took a look at several Mashups on this Thing. I especially liked LibWorm, an RSS aggregator that allows you to track blogs and podcasts on feed catagories (ex.: Academic Libraries, Art Librarianship) and subjects (ex.: Reader's advisory, Reference) from the library world.

My other focus was on mashups that used Flickr: Visual Headlines provides a cool interface and links to photostreams about current news events. Favorite Surfer, from Big Huge Labs, allows you to browse Flickr user's photostreams. Interestingness is a great-looking site, using Flickr images, but it's got little in the way of navigation and is thus hard to work with.

Below is a mashup from Bubblr.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Thing 39. Digital Storytelling. Part 1

I used Smilebox to create the online scrapbook, adding Flickr Creative Commons images to those from family vacations. The application runs on Flash and is a bit clunky in design: there appears to be no logout button, it's hard to find and re-enter a scrapbook in progress, that kind of stuff. But, once you click around the various layers of the site, you can find what you're looking for. All in all, Smilebox is pretty cool. Turn off the music, though, it's gawdawful!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Thing 38.Screencasting

I used Screen-O-Matic to create a simple screencast. I tried some of the others, including Jing (didn't work 'cause the IT folks at my shop wouldn't allow the download) and ScreenToaster (worked ok but I couldn't figure how to post it to the blog). Screen-O-Matic worked fine, but it's a big Java application that flooded the profile on my work box, making me have to go into My Computer, find the folder and delete the darn thing after I was done). I still couldn't figure on to post the 'cast into the blog, but at least I've got a url to link to. The screencast is just a trial, get-to-know the application kind of thing, a simple Ebsco search. It's readily apparent such a tool could be useful for all kinds of library stuff, but especially for tutorials like the one demo'ed here.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Thing 37. Photo Tales. Part 1

Lots of fun stuff on this Thing. I used Animoto to create a video from images, Collagr to build a collage of Flickr photos, FlickrSLider to create the slideshow on the blog and Picnik to do some image editing before I got down to work. Each worked easily, was fun to use and had great results.

Of course, libraries could make use of any number of the apps on this Thing. Each one offers ways to make photos and videos more interesting, to provide information and/or publicity for the library.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Thing 36. Comic Relief. Part 2

As the "Thing" folks said, this was a fun one to do. I explored some of these sections:

Password Generators
Hashapass worked pretty well, and much more simply than other generators I've found. I'm a bit reluctant to use it, though, as I'm not sure of the site's security.

Illustration/Images
Big Huge Labs has some fun tools to play with, including one for creating your own magazine cover and another to turn an image into an Andy Warhol-style image. Obamaconme was easy to use and created a stylish take of yours truly on the famous/infamous Obama poster.

Tag Cloud
Wordle is a pretty slick tool for creating tag clouds from blogs, websites, etc. It's also cool to be able to adjust the design, etc., once you've got your cloud.

White Noise
Simply Noise works easy as pie, too. I can't see having the laptop in the bedroom at night, sucking up power while drowning out the sound of the birdies, but the website is a lot cheaper than the machine I just bought from Target!

Silly Generators
I used the application that converts your name to a Dewey number. Hmm, interesting that I got a 200 (Religion, if you ain't a librarian). Maybe Melvil is trying to tell me something?

I also used some comic generators. Hence the posting you see above from ToonDoo. I also created my own comic using Stripgenerator. It's a bit balky to use. I may have created a strip, but I can't figure how to post it here yet. Maybe if I was Slovenian (like the folks who do Stripgenerator), it'd be easier to figure out.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Thing 35. Books 2.0

This was another one of those complex "Things." So many sites to look at; so many tools to try out. It was quite impressive to find all this stuff in one basket. Here's a quick summary of what I looked at and checked out:

Lib.rariou.us (Book organization site)
I found this site a bit hard to use, as it's not intuitive. For example, I don't get the ASIN thing at all. What is it? Why is it necessary, and how come you have to figure out that clicking in the box is the only way to make it work? Liked the tag cloud, though.

Twitterlit (Phone application)
I added this to the blog, just for fun. Can't see much use for it, however.

Reading Trails (Reader's advisory site)
I liked the concept of this site: creating or following a theme and adding/changing it to suit your tastes. Nonetheless, I found the search engine to be pretty balky. Also, like most of the sites on this "Thing," the "help" content was either nonexistent or hardly useful.

Overbooked (Online book community)
This is a good site. I like the idea of finding reviews via searching by title or author, or browsing a number of ways, including genres and themes. The only aspects I found funky about the site are the links to downloadable Excel files (how 20th century is that!) and that there are no links from discovered titles to sites like Amazon.

Wired for Books (Book group resource)
Cool site. It's great to have access to author interviews through MP3s.

Podiobooks (Audio book site)
Another excellent idea for a site, with great accessibility: MP3 content available as an RSS feed or by direct download. Pretty cool.

BookMooch (Book swap site)
This a nifty concept: a Netflix for books. Just search or browse for a book, put it on your want list, get it and mail it off again when you're done. Or make your own books available in the same way. Pretty slick, with even a point system to keep things fair for all.

A final note:

None of my comments dealt with the 2.0 functions of the sites I reviewed. I guess there's a couple reasons for this:
1. I'm not a big 2.0 person. I like being able to access content like book reviews or MP3 files of author interviews, but, frankly, I'm not really interested in what other people have to say about such things.
2. You need to sign up for most of these sites or become a member to access the 2.0 aspects. I really didn't feel like joining yet more websites at this time. So many passwords; so little time.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Thing 34. Competition...

Obviously, the influence of the internet and web/library 2.0 has drastically changed the reference universe. A part of this shift, of course, is more common acceptance of websites that allow the user to ask a question and receive an answer. For me, such sites involve too much uncertainty: who has the authority to give the right answer? When will the answer come? Will the answer ever show up?

Another consideration is the type of question asked. In looking at several of the sites linked in "Thing," some questions were simple, some complex and many just plain weird. My favorite, from WikiAnswers (unanswered animal life questions): "What is the Meaning for releasing a trapped wren?"

In a way, answer sites mirror what is problematic about the internet: there's too little authority and too many people who think they know something, too much information and too few ways in which to organize it. Certainly this could change, but the solution might be not be websites that rely on the 2.0 world for answers. Instead, I anticipate smarter search engines to be developed. A glimmer of this is Wolfram Alpha, a "computational knowledge engine," that the tech. blogs are starting to chatter about.

I have yet to receive a response from the sample questions I posted on a few sites. I have no way, either, to know if anyone is, or will ever consider them. While I'm waiting, of course, I could always call the library....

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Thing 33. Travel 2.0

This Thing, unlike the last, is a good one. I mean how could you go wrong: it's based on the whole idea of interactive travel. What could be better than a bunch of sites that give you ideas for travel, help plan your trip, provide booking for planes, trains and automobiles AND allow folks to tell you about their own journeys.

Here's a few I took a look at:

Notes from the Road - This blog is one of most striking visually that I've seen. You can choose a region, then check out way-cool images as well as blogs about places there.

Trip Advisor - This site's been around for a while, and you can do a lot with it. But, as I especially enjoy exploring new cities, I find Trip Advisor's "Things to do" tab an excellent tool for suggesting itineraries. You can limit to topics like "history and culture" and get a nice list even further broken down, like "education sites and libraries." Warning--the site is pretty slow.

Vcarious - This site is based on a great concept: you can read about trips people take, then post photos and journals of your own. I didn't sign up to use it, but the site seems to run well and has tons of useful content besides images and text, like maps and ratings.

Wines and Times - Another useful site. You can plan a wine tour (just about anywhere, apparently), using Google maps to pinpoint locations. In some cases, you get just a sick amount of hits, such as Healdsburg, California's 400+. And each hit links to the winery's website. Cool, if the place has a decent site. Not so great if they haven't built one, or the one they have sucks. Still, it's a step beyond the print version of a wine guide. Real cool aspect: there's a pulldown in the corner that brings up each winery in a region and locates it on the map. Pretty sweet!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Thing 32. Google Maps and Mashups

While the last Thing on Twitter was great, this one sucked. I find Google Maps to be very difficult to use. For example, there's no documentation other than that slick Google video linked from the Thing page. Let me tell you, it ain't as easy as the kid does it in the vid!

Besides the lack of help, Google Maps is just a pain. The navigation tools are clunky, the features, placemarks and line-drawing tools don't work very well and God help it if you start using the mouse wheel to scroll! (You'll need an airsick bag from the resultant nausea as the world spins by on your computer screen.)

As long as I'm complaining, I'm not even sure about how to do this Thing. The blog prompts suggest describing the mashup you've created, but you're supposed to create a map, not a mashup. In my understanding, a mashup combines various sources of data, like a map and another application. While the Thing page links to some examples, there's very guidance about creating this critter called a mashup--besides the fore-mentioned not-too-useful vid.

To end on a positive note, sure, it'd be cool for libraries to create and use mashups. For instance, a local history collection could use a map and images to show places referred to in the library's books or a library system could build a map that shows building images and webcam shots from inside the libraries.

So, be my guest and create a map and/or mashup for your library. I wish you more luck with Google Maps that I had.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Thing 31. More Twitter

Whew. This Thing is exhausting--so much content. I have to give credit to the Thing folks on this one: you worked awfully hard putting the topic together. And that there is so much to deal with regarding Twitter is interesting in itself; from reading the blogs just a few months ago, the application seemed dead in the water. Now, for some reason Twitter is back and incredibly popular, too.

Still, it's not so popular with me. Sorry--I still just don't see the need for microblogging. In previous posts I explained my reason. I also went into what I considered some plausible functions that Twitter could accomplish. So, 'nough said.

Anyway, since this was is a post about further applications/widgets/add-ons for Twitter, I tried some out:
(Good)
Power Twitter-pretty cool. It's nice to get images and kind of stuff on my Twitter page.
BigTweet--like this one, too. It's nice to be able to post a tweet from my taskbar.

(Not so good)
Foxy- and TwittyTunes--couldn't get 'em to run on my Twitter page. I'll spend some more time on it later.

Later on, I'll work with some Greasemonkey scripts for Twitter. That should be interesting. Now, if I could find some use for Twitter...

Friday, April 17, 2009

Thing 30. More RSS and Delicious

I use Bloglines to keep track of my blogs. I group them into folders, some for professional activities like libraries and art/music, others into topics in which I'm interested, such as politics. And of course, there's a few subjects that cross over, like technology. I also set up a number of library-type feeds using Google Reader, just to try a different aggregator. It works fine. Better, sometimes, than Bloglines, which tends to go down from time to time. But then I got tired of moving all those feeds over and just decided to stay with Bloglines.

Delicious, I use a lot, but not those 2.0 bell and whistles discussed in Thing that could be used to share my stuff, like that Delicious badge. The reason why: I save those items for my own use and organize them into bundles to make them easy to recover. But I don't want other folks looking at them. Selfish, of me, huh?

For me, Delicious is a tool for maintaining and organizing links to websites useful or interesting to me, not a means of investigating what others have done. There's a lot of crap on the internet; I don't need yet another way of finding it.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Thing 29. Google Tools

I used Google Alerts as an experiment, seeking more information about one of the topics in which I'm interested, neoliberalism and libraries. (My other blog, In a Chilly Place, is centered on this topic, if you're interested.) The topic is not one that I figured would generate much content, and it hasn't. I've gotten two hits in a week. So, I think I'll change the alert just to neoliberalism and see what happens. I might be overwhelmed with too much stuff, but we'll see. In any case, I had no problem using Google Alerts, and think the application could be quite useful for gathering current info for research projects, etc.

The other tool I used is Google Sites. I just wanted to set up a simple website for family information. The usual: what's happening with the us, the kids, the pets, some images, stuff for the rest of the clan to enjoy. So far I haven't added any pages to the first, but I'll get around to it. Here's a link to it, Jeff's World (I know, dumb title.) Anybody or group wanting a simple website could use Google Sites; the app. makes it easy to create a site and add to it.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Thing 28. Customized home pages

I've used iGoogle for a while, and found it pretty useful. The design is easy to style, theme-wise, and work with. Adding content, such as widgets, is a piece of cake. So far, I've stuck on a calendar, a chat box, a to-do list, weather info, a SI link, a YouTube search, Flickr and a news feed. Too much, actually, but it's fun to have all that stuff. Some for the office, some for fun. It works for me.

The only trouble I've really had is with Google calendar. It takes a while to load and is often cumbersome when it comes to adding an event. In addition, if you open the darn thing, often you can't get out again--there's no link to return to your iGoogle page.

I can really see the value of such a customized page for the area in which I work in at the library. As each area (formerly a department) has specialized content, having a page to reflect this would be pretty nifty. For example, we could add links to finding aides, create a vid and make it available via YouTube, add some Flickr images, link to dbs and the catalog. Of course, there's been talk of this for years, but not much has ever been done. iGoogle, Pageflakes, etc., would makes the task a lot easier.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Thing 27. Twitter

Ok. I added a Twitter feed to both my blogs, set up a Twitter page and tweaked the design, stuck in a pic., etc. I even posted a couple of tweets. But...I just don't see the purpose of casual microblogging. No, wait, I take that back. I'd much rather have folks microblogging via Twitter than posting constantly on Facebook. I mean, c'mon, I really don't need to know all the cute stuff somebody's kid is doing hour after hour, all day long. Enough all ready. So go ahead and use Twitter for that.

But for non-recreational microblogging, I can see the value of Twitter. As an example, during Israel's attack on Gaza, I heard there were thousands of tweets coming out each day, reporting directly on what was happening, while the media was kept in the dark. And as for libraries, I suppose there's a value of using Twitter to keep folks current on what's happening that very hour at the library, say, during major programming.

So, go ahead and keep Twittering. Just don't do it so much. BTW, the Twitter handle is Radfo001.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Thing 26. Thing Ning

I joined the ning for "Thing" as well as for Library 2.0.

I haven't done too much with 2.O, but I've added some comments, a video, etc., to the "Thing" ning. I can't find the badge you're supposed to include, though.

I think nings are pretty useful. From what I can see, they're easy to build and work with. It's cool they offer so much as a platform: blogs, vids, widgets, too.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Thing 25. Blogger's Toolkit

I had problems with this "Thing." A lot of the tools just weren't interesting to me (for example, I really don't feel the need to monkey around with more image applications and widgets), and some I found too complex or had other difficulties with.

For instance, I tried Clustrmap. Even though I didn't think I'd get very many hits on my blog, I thought it'd be interesting to be able to map what I got. But I originally set up Clustrmap to run on my old Wordpress blog and subsequently had problems with my account and password when I tried to use it on the new one. With this mapping concept in mind, I also gave Gvisit a shot. The application seemed easy enough to work with, but I had the impression it would be a widget that I could install and use on my blog. Instead, I found it was only a link to Google maps. I didn't find this useful, as I couldn't figure how someone reading my blog could use it.

Another application I considered was for adding a tag cloud, something I've found valuable in such applications as discovery layers. While the documentation on this particular site blog (phydeaux3) made it seem easy, I was a little wary of installing it on my template, even after I'd saved it. Most of the documentation was straightforward, but then it became confusing, not matching up with what I saw on my template. So, once again, I figured it wasn't for me.

About the only thing I added for this "Thing" was a search box. And that, of course, as super-easy, as it came from the list of Blogger widgets. One click and there it was. Presto.

So I didn't get much out of this "Thing." Hope I have more success on the next one.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Thing 24. Refresh Your Blog

I'm starting the new "Thing" all over again. I was going to experiment and use Wordpress as a platform for the next round of "Thing," but just found it too user-unfriendly. Adding javascript, for instance, is a no-no, for security reasons. So, I've back with Blogger.

My goal is to post a "Thing" every week, something I haven't been very good at with my old blog, "The Chilly Librarian." "Chilly..." started out as my "Thing" blog, then evolved into new themes after I finished the first "Thing" round. But those new themes were tough to come up with. I didn't want to blog on a topic just to vent my spleen; there's enough of that out there already. So I started researching some of the topics I want to write about, which takes still more time. I've finally figured out, though, that blogging is like every other kind of writing: you have to make time for it and JUST DO IT. But since "Thing" has a structured plan to follow, I don't think regular posting should be too difficult this time of around. (I know, famous last words, right?)

I'm pretty active with blogs, using Bloglines via RSS to keep track of about 50 of them, on topics such as libraries (of course), tech and politics. I also blog for the Bookspace area of the library website where I work.

So, I'm up and running with the first new "Thing" and a brand new blog. You'll be seeing the results as I learn more.