The inevitable: Twilight.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Nothing New Under the Sun
A number of early motion picture shorts from the Library of Congress are now on YouTube. Clearly people have been into lol cat-type humor for nearly 100 years.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
"Teen Appeal"
Author John Green declares "teen appeal" something that "sounds to me like the name of the worst magazine ever" and he implies that it's used in the dumbing-down process, and shouldn't be. After all,
More here, his blog entry for the Battle of the Kids' Books.
I may be alone in thinking this, but I believe that teenagers are far better readers than we often assume. (For example: I have received hundreds--not an exaggeration--of emails from teenagers telling me how much they love Octavian Nothing. You will recall, as I do with considerable consternation, that I did not write Octavian Nothing.)
More here, his blog entry for the Battle of the Kids' Books.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Week 10: Tagging
Tagging can play a useful role in finding stuff.
Controlled vocabularies save the day in nuanced cases (to differentiate a synonym of "floodgate" from "Watergate Affair 1972-1974"), but what speaker of American English will think of the search term "cookery" to get herself to the 641s? If members added tags to our OPAC they could find things using terms meaningful to them. Subject tracing would remain, of course, for authority on the item's "aboutness."
If HCPL YA staff shared a common Flickr account for posting images on our YA webpages, we would tag pictures. That way, we could create a slide show of, say, Free Comic Book Day activities across the County.
A while ago, Platinumb showed me how she used delcious to keep sites handy for use at the reference desk (DU's bookmarks). Eventually, I started one for North Park. I add sites at least once a week using the buttons I added to my browsers, but I consult it only once every ten days or so. I don't think the rest of the staff find it a useful tool, so it fails to bring together the little gems each of us know.
As we did this exercise, Platinum cued me in on some advanced techniques like bundling ("broad terms" for you fans of cataloging) and networking. I networked Norton Park (in my mind that's what nortpark means, but that's a whole 'nother story) to DU and TW. Norton hasn't tagged anything "demographics" but those libraries did. After a search of our bookmarks got no hits, I clicked "network" just under our name and got suggestions from colleagues! Way cool.
North Park's reference staff tags posts in our blog so we can get back to them quickly. A common FAQ: how do I fix it when the image on a public PC's monitor gets rotated 90 or 180 degrees?
In the last 5 - 6 years, tagging has gone from a "controversial" topic in library school classes to something I do daily.
Controlled vocabularies save the day in nuanced cases (to differentiate a synonym of "floodgate" from "Watergate Affair 1972-1974"), but what speaker of American English will think of the search term "cookery" to get herself to the 641s? If members added tags to our OPAC they could find things using terms meaningful to them. Subject tracing would remain, of course, for authority on the item's "aboutness."
If HCPL YA staff shared a common Flickr account for posting images on our YA webpages, we would tag pictures. That way, we could create a slide show of, say, Free Comic Book Day activities across the County.
A while ago, Platinumb showed me how she used delcious to keep sites handy for use at the reference desk (DU's bookmarks). Eventually, I started one for North Park. I add sites at least once a week using the buttons I added to my browsers, but I consult it only once every ten days or so. I don't think the rest of the staff find it a useful tool, so it fails to bring together the little gems each of us know.
As we did this exercise, Platinum cued me in on some advanced techniques like bundling ("broad terms" for you fans of cataloging) and networking. I networked Norton Park (in my mind that's what nortpark means, but that's a whole 'nother story) to DU and TW. Norton hasn't tagged anything "demographics" but those libraries did. After a search of our bookmarks got no hits, I clicked "network" just under our name and got suggestions from colleagues! Way cool.
North Park's reference staff tags posts in our blog so we can get back to them quickly. A common FAQ: how do I fix it when the image on a public PC's monitor gets rotated 90 or 180 degrees?
In the last 5 - 6 years, tagging has gone from a "controversial" topic in library school classes to something I do daily.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Clean Windows?
Short AP article here on some Windows 7 features. A theme seems to be that they "mak[e] Windows 7 quieter than Vista" and trust people to do things like right click to see what an icon can do.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Week 9: Social Networks
What I did this week:
By promoting her involvement with the event, my FB friend helps create buzz about it: not only have I seen an ad, someone I know is involved and suddenly I am thinking about going. How great would it be if library events had that buzz and cache? If people friend (it's different for places / businesses than people, but I'll use that word) the library, then we would promote events to them. If someone indicates they are attending an event, then everyone they know would see our logo and a message like "attending book club tonight" or "going to environmental film program at Tuckahoe" and a whole new image of who we are and what we do emerges.
PR always means getting your name out via different media: an article in the paper and TV coverage; a listing in Connections and a flyer posted in YA. Social websites are just one more format. (More on branding with FB, here.)
- Used LinkedIn as a test case for a feature I don't often use -- the one that checks my email address book for people I know. I wasn't surprised that it turned up only one person: I was surprised by who it was.
- Read the tips for using Facebook professionally -- I am test driving the To Do List app.
- Noted for the umpteenth time that "personal" and "professional" use of Facebook (FB) intertwine. College classmate / YA author Leigh hipped me to a virtual YA event. In any 2 week time span, nearly every librarian friend posts a link or an article of professional interest.
- The Top Ten FB Apps for Librarians mostly look like tools I would use if HCPL had a FB presence.
- Signed up for Shelfari app for FB without reading all the comments first: oops. If the only thing folks have said for 3 days straight is, "hey it won't show up on my profile!" then there's no point to getting it.
By promoting her involvement with the event, my FB friend helps create buzz about it: not only have I seen an ad, someone I know is involved and suddenly I am thinking about going. How great would it be if library events had that buzz and cache? If people friend (it's different for places / businesses than people, but I'll use that word) the library, then we would promote events to them. If someone indicates they are attending an event, then everyone they know would see our logo and a message like "attending book club tonight" or "going to environmental film program at Tuckahoe" and a whole new image of who we are and what we do emerges.
PR always means getting your name out via different media: an article in the paper and TV coverage; a listing in Connections and a flyer posted in YA. Social websites are just one more format. (More on branding with FB, here.)
Friday, April 10, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Week 8: Gaming
An unexpected benefit of this week's exploration: experiencing the confusion and apprehension of a first-time user.
Treating a frustrated computer-user with patience becomes rote. I remember only vaguely a time when I didn't know how to double-click or where to type the website address. When I say sweetly, "it just takes practice" or "you'll get the hang of it," it's because I know I should, not because of an outpouring of empathy (ain't I a stinker?).
I signed up for RuneScape, created a character with pink hair, went to the orientation place, and immediately thought, Well durn, now what? I completely failed to follow Louise's always-appropriate "RATS" advice and so clicked randomly around and felt frustrated. Then I remembered "Read All The Screen"! and scrolled down a little to see the text directions. "Yuck, I have to talk to people?" Well, it seemed that I only had to "listen," and I exited before I found myself having to talk to someone.
I play word games on Facebook and on Merriam-Webster's website. I can (usually) hook up CHPL's Playstation 2 and play a slightly-awful session of Dance Dance Revolution. I get that gaming involves text, critical thinking, following a story, esteem-building, etc. I uphold the right of 11-year-olds to "waste time" on our PCs and prevent Conspiracy Theory Guy from doing his "important research." I don't see myself closing NP's lab to do an event that's just online gaming, though.
And don't look for me in any MMORPGs -- I'm a little too timid for those, I think. Or, who knows, maybe I will "get the hang of it."
Treating a frustrated computer-user with patience becomes rote. I remember only vaguely a time when I didn't know how to double-click or where to type the website address. When I say sweetly, "it just takes practice" or "you'll get the hang of it," it's because I know I should, not because of an outpouring of empathy (ain't I a stinker?).
I signed up for RuneScape, created a character with pink hair, went to the orientation place, and immediately thought, Well durn, now what? I completely failed to follow Louise's always-appropriate "RATS" advice and so clicked randomly around and felt frustrated. Then I remembered "Read All The Screen"! and scrolled down a little to see the text directions. "Yuck, I have to talk to people?" Well, it seemed that I only had to "listen," and I exited before I found myself having to talk to someone.
I play word games on Facebook and on Merriam-Webster's website. I can (usually) hook up CHPL's Playstation 2 and play a slightly-awful session of Dance Dance Revolution. I get that gaming involves text, critical thinking, following a story, esteem-building, etc. I uphold the right of 11-year-olds to "waste time" on our PCs and prevent Conspiracy Theory Guy from doing his "important research." I don't see myself closing NP's lab to do an event that's just online gaming, though.
And don't look for me in any MMORPGs -- I'm a little too timid for those, I think. Or, who knows, maybe I will "get the hang of it."
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
![\Shelf Check 335\](http://static.toondoo.com/public/p/o/e/poesygalore/toons/cool-cartoon-692992.png "\Shelf Check 335\")
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Week 6: Wide World of Wikis
What is it about the word "wiki" that makes you want to play with it? WikiWikiWIKI. See also comments on this post.
Anyway. I've been reading wikis since the dawn of Wikipedia. I didn't contribute to one until CHPL launched its YA programing one. Mostly, we put common documents there such as volunteer forms and the list of which branch has which "permanent set" of graphic novels. The YA librarians did use it as a collaborative work space to brainstorm and vote for which paperback series we wanted cataloging to approve as ones to catalog with the series title.
YALSA uses wikis -- I'm guessing when a group produces the page/product, so everyone can contribute easily. Sample: Teen Read Week. As the consumer of this info, I don't care about the format. Similarly, what's cool about St. Joseph County's subject guide wiki is the content more than the form. We already post subject guides on our homepage; if we like the way that works now, there's no need to change. If, however, many reference staff folks said they would update guides on the fly, then we might want to change to a wiki and keep our guides up-to-the-minute.
For this lesson, I enjoyed contributing to the CHPLearning wiki -- I like pbwiki's interface and tools much better than the one we use for YA Programming! I easily created new pages and edited my work. I had been working away for several minutes before I realized I was still in Firefox, my preferred browser, something our current wiki can't tolerate.
I like to work collaboratively, and whether we use a wiki or some other cool tool, I'll be on board.
Anyway. I've been reading wikis since the dawn of Wikipedia. I didn't contribute to one until CHPL launched its YA programing one. Mostly, we put common documents there such as volunteer forms and the list of which branch has which "permanent set" of graphic novels. The YA librarians did use it as a collaborative work space to brainstorm and vote for which paperback series we wanted cataloging to approve as ones to catalog with the series title.
YALSA uses wikis -- I'm guessing when a group produces the page/product, so everyone can contribute easily. Sample: Teen Read Week. As the consumer of this info, I don't care about the format. Similarly, what's cool about St. Joseph County's subject guide wiki is the content more than the form. We already post subject guides on our homepage; if we like the way that works now, there's no need to change. If, however, many reference staff folks said they would update guides on the fly, then we might want to change to a wiki and keep our guides up-to-the-minute.
For this lesson, I enjoyed contributing to the CHPLearning wiki -- I like pbwiki's interface and tools much better than the one we use for YA Programming! I easily created new pages and edited my work. I had been working away for several minutes before I realized I was still in Firefox, my preferred browser, something our current wiki can't tolerate.
I like to work collaboratively, and whether we use a wiki or some other cool tool, I'll be on board.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Results In
Last week's poll asked what question you answered the most. It looks like most of us spent time clicking into SAM or WorkFlows because here's the breakdown:
80% looked up PINs most often
20% helped people find books
80% looked up PINs most often
20% helped people find books
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