Exercise one...view a mashup and "blog about it" Okay, here I go! The mashup I chose from the mashupawards.com web site was World New Map. It was the first one I thought I'd find interesting and it was very cool to roll over the various countries and have them highlight and then show a name in a little label above the cursor. Clicking on the country then gave you a brief look at a few recent news stories. Interesting concept and I could see it being a useful tool for someone taking a class on the world (history, politics society, etc). Of course you get a fair amount of sports news along with the politics!
I also went to programmableweb.com and found "Oral Histories of Route 66 Map" which did what I expected it to do which was pull up a map, with little bubbles; which I could click on it would give me a "blurb and picture about that point on Route 66. This mashup is a very neat idea.
Exercise 2...Rollyo and librarianblogs and privacy....
The second exercise was to visit www.rollyo.com and explore the searchroll the instructor created and then to search within for discussions on privacy. This is an interesting way to scan several librarian blogs and then search within them for a specific topic to view various librarians’ takes on the topic. I have to admit the view that the "Next Gens" want to be found versus the rest of us for whom the thought of being "found" leaves us cold was right on. I'm not sure I want to be found at all times! I don't have a cell phone and have to admit I don't really need one! I don't need to be "found" at all times and I sure don't want "the world" knowing everything I do (obvious which generation I fall into!).
Have to admit this week is one where I really felt at a loss to make a connection to the tool, until I listened to the podcast from The Library 2.0 Mashup Gang. Scott Pluchak’s idea of adding the “Go Local” information to an OPAC in such a way that when a patron clicked on a subject that they would also see the local web agencies and groups and where they were located made a lot of sense. North Carolina has also participated in the “Go Local” project and I can see where it would help the public libraries especially for there to be a way that not only can they get to information for their patrons but they can also refer them to agencies/groups which might further help them.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Podcasting & Online Hosted Video lesson
A perfect example of a YouTube video for our MLA online CE class on Web 2.0 is: http://youtube.com/watch?v=q_uOKFhoznI [Building Academic Library 2.0]. It is a good example of a library using a tool to make information readily available to more than those who were able to attend the presentation.
The YouTube video summarizing the presentations by Crutchfield and Miller from the OCLC 2008 Midwinter symposium is fascinating and worth a listen. Here's the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Is0BYCTeh_M
My Director forwarded it to the professional staff from the AAHSL listserv.
I found the podcasting interesting (when I could finally listen to something! The internet was incredibly slow (either that or the sites/selections I wanted to listen to were very, very busy!)
I can see using the podcasting as a way to do short demos/instructions for various features/items on a library's website and it would be easier than learning a more complicated piece of software. (such as Camtasia, etc).
The YouTube video summarizing the presentations by Crutchfield and Miller from the OCLC 2008 Midwinter symposium is fascinating and worth a listen. Here's the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Is0BYCTeh_M
My Director forwarded it to the professional staff from the AAHSL listserv.
I found the podcasting interesting (when I could finally listen to something! The internet was incredibly slow (either that or the sites/selections I wanted to listen to were very, very busy!)
I can see using the podcasting as a way to do short demos/instructions for various features/items on a library's website and it would be easier than learning a more complicated piece of software. (such as Camtasia, etc).
Monday, April 14, 2008
Photo sharing using Flickr
Well, this is a picture from June 2007; from my 30th high school reunion...ouch!
This was a fun assignment. I already had an account with Flickr, so I just added a few more pictures for this assignment. I added some from my high school reunion last year; and then used Flickr's edit tool to crop one to just me so I could have a picture for my Facebook account.
That was interesting experiment as I learned how to upload, and then share my own images. Using a photo sharing site such as Flickr is certainly easier and more effective/efficient when you wish to share a lot of pictures from an event with others who were there.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Week 5 Web Office Tools
Well, I've created a document, uploaded a couple spreadsheets, and as I type Google is trying to digest my "presentation" (two slides with images and it seems to be having indigestion or it can't gobble what I want!)
Don't know about this being the future of ALL software, but having used them for Chapter committee work I can certainly see the advantages of using them for that purpose. Do to the slow load time I'm experiencing with the presentation piece, I'm going to guess it may not be the best option. The spreadsheet upload and document creation went quite well so I'm guessing it may have to do with size, but who knows!
I already had been using Google docs because our Chapter's Honors & Awards committee used it last year (Bart Ragon was our Chair and he started us on them). Having been asked to take over as committee Chair for the 2007-08 year, I am carrying on with this use. We have a spreadsheet with assignments and time line and a couple of letters. We will probably add some other items as we create them this year. The committee still needs to do an article for the June newsletter, and solicit member nominations for our annual awards (we used Survey Monkey last year to great success for nominations).
Don't know about this being the future of ALL software, but having used them for Chapter committee work I can certainly see the advantages of using them for that purpose. Do to the slow load time I'm experiencing with the presentation piece, I'm going to guess it may not be the best option. The spreadsheet upload and document creation went quite well so I'm guessing it may have to do with size, but who knows!
I already had been using Google docs because our Chapter's Honors & Awards committee used it last year (Bart Ragon was our Chair and he started us on them). Having been asked to take over as committee Chair for the 2007-08 year, I am carrying on with this use. We have a spreadsheet with assignments and time line and a couple of letters. We will probably add some other items as we create them this year. The committee still needs to do an article for the June newsletter, and solicit member nominations for our annual awards (we used Survey Monkey last year to great success for nominations).
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Week 3 -- del.icio.us
Wow, what a powerful tool. The availablity of my favorite websites at a login? No matter where I am? Too cool! I can see using this for work! It will be very helpful for me when I'm in a consult and wish to share a website with a patron. One of the best features for me is the ability to load bookmarks something I've done(even if it does expose my secrets :) ). I expecially wanted to upload the journal websites I've bookmarked in the course of some work I'm doing for Administration. This will be a nice safe guard against losing all the work that has gone on to find some of them over the course of year!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Social networking
Facebook was interesting, it was an exploration to try and figure out where to go for what and how to do things. It was fairly intuitive, at least I managed to find friends okay, figured out how to find and add a network, how to post to an event and add applications. Once I got into it, I thought it was a fascinating look at how connections within connections could be made.
Linkedin was something I'd already created a profile on and had linked to others and responded to others asking to link to me. I had been invited by another colleague. It seems more professional than Facebook as its more work connections than friends
First impression of MySpace...Wow how much can you cram on a web page! I really didn’t like it compared to the other two. Too much on the page for me and I was a little overwhelmed by all the “stuff!”
I could see where the social networking could help MLA stay connected to its members and created a sense of community within a large organization. It could certainly work for committees, task forces, and perhaps even sections.
I’m not so sure about the need for a Facebook or MySpace page for a medical library. It seems less useful since most in healthcare are so busy and let’s be at least a little honest, most of them are NOT “digital natives” and are more comfortable with the “tried and true” methods of communicating with us.
Privacy could definitely be an issue, how on earth can you expect everyone to “read all the fine print” and look out for themselves. So much personal information is required just to get started and then people don’t understand they are “out there” for all to see and suddenly there’s someone else claiming to be you because there’s enough for them to become you! Not fun by a long shot and something we in healthcare need to be especially sensitive to.
I didn’t like the fact that Facebook required a birth date. That seemed a little intrusive to me, but since it was originally set up by college students for college students and there’s that wonderful clichéd age bias at work maybe that’s where it came from. MySpace was just too busy to me. I found I was overwhelmed by the amount of “stuff” crammed on a page and it wasn’t as intuitive to me as the Facebook seemed.
Linkedin was something I'd already created a profile on and had linked to others and responded to others asking to link to me. I had been invited by another colleague. It seems more professional than Facebook as its more work connections than friends
First impression of MySpace...Wow how much can you cram on a web page! I really didn’t like it compared to the other two. Too much on the page for me and I was a little overwhelmed by all the “stuff!”
I could see where the social networking could help MLA stay connected to its members and created a sense of community within a large organization. It could certainly work for committees, task forces, and perhaps even sections.
I’m not so sure about the need for a Facebook or MySpace page for a medical library. It seems less useful since most in healthcare are so busy and let’s be at least a little honest, most of them are NOT “digital natives” and are more comfortable with the “tried and true” methods of communicating with us.
Privacy could definitely be an issue, how on earth can you expect everyone to “read all the fine print” and look out for themselves. So much personal information is required just to get started and then people don’t understand they are “out there” for all to see and suddenly there’s someone else claiming to be you because there’s enough for them to become you! Not fun by a long shot and something we in healthcare need to be especially sensitive to.
I didn’t like the fact that Facebook required a birth date. That seemed a little intrusive to me, but since it was originally set up by college students for college students and there’s that wonderful clichéd age bias at work maybe that’s where it came from. MySpace was just too busy to me. I found I was overwhelmed by the amount of “stuff” crammed on a page and it wasn’t as intuitive to me as the Facebook seemed.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
blogs vs wikis
Blogs are good for curent awareness where many need to share information from different sources that all may not be "watching."
A wiki on the other hand would be good for collaborative work where many people need to add input on a topic and maintain that input for all to see and for simple, easy modification as needed.
The difference to me is that a blog "rolls," ie each post is an addition and new thing. Whereas a wiki grows in complexity, information or a document is posted and other then modify and add to the information/document allowing the information to stay current and useful.
A wiki on the other hand would be good for collaborative work where many people need to add input on a topic and maintain that input for all to see and for simple, easy modification as needed.
The difference to me is that a blog "rolls," ie each post is an addition and new thing. Whereas a wiki grows in complexity, information or a document is posted and other then modify and add to the information/document allowing the information to stay current and useful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)