Archive for August 29, 2008

Wild about the Wild Card

August 29, 2008 at 6:37 pm · Filed under Library 10 Things

Before I go into what I think about web 2.0, let me thank whoever was the “instructor” for the Wild Card Week and added Todoist to the overview. Oh My Gosh – FABULOUS! In the spirit of 2.0-ing, I was trying to use Google docs to create and keep up a To Do list at home, work, wherever, but left it during my vacation and haven’t gone back to it. I had to create a new document every day, add things from the day before I didn’t do, etc. etc. etc. Too much work than it was worth. I’ve also tried to use Lotus Notes at work, but it is slooooooooow and I don’t particularly care for the format.

Todoist may now become my new best friend. Admittedly, I just signed up today and I do tend to get overly excited about these things up front – but it seems simple to create and I don’t have to reenter tasks every day, it plugs in to Firefox, which I use at work and home, and I can easily keep it open on my computer screen when I have my browser open, so its a visual reminder at all times – like the notebook I keep sitting on my desk next to my computer to check throughout the day.

So – about Web 2.0 – it ain’t going anywhere and I’d rather be involved and knowledgeable about the applications and tools – both with regard to how they might be appropriate as library tools and just in general – I never like to be put on the spot by someone, and our library users know and will know about all this stuff – there is no doubt about that! We need to be where our public is. Yes, they are coming to the library itself, they are enjoying our buildings and collections as a community center, and entertainment venue and a resource for information, but they are also online – for community/social purposes, for entertainment, and for information – and we need to be too. On the professional/work side of things, I find the networking, information sharing, communications possibilities limitless. I am now in conversation with librarians, professionals, and friends from around the globe on topics that are pertinent to my work and life – this will help me do a better job, it will help raise the visibility of libraries and of our library – and it’s FUN!

I plan to keep this blog up. If you’re interested – keep checking back!

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Pod, Vod, and You

August 29, 2008 at 6:08 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

I’m on iTunes, I have subscribed to many, many Podcasts over the years – and I NEVER listen to them! I’m not sure why, it seems like such a good thing. I’m an NPR junky and often have the radio playing at home. I thought that having podcasts targeted at the topics I’m particularly interested in would be a good substitute for that, but it appears I like to have it on more as background noise (and to perhaps have a few things sink in) rather than to have on something I feel I should really listen to.

But, I digress….we’re not here to talk about that! I have to admit that I get a little overwhelmed searching for podcasts and vodcasts. Perhaps its because I started the assignment without having anything specific in mind. So, I did as I often do in the book store, the movie shop, the music store – I end up browsing because I can’t remember a dang thing I wanted to read/see/hear. Until I get my iPhone where I can call up the list of things I want to read/see/hear on my Google Docs site….I tend to wander. Which can be fun. I found library stuff, NPR stuff, training for a marathon stuff, and LOTS of Obama today!

With YouTube, I’m a late adopter. If I’m looking for something specific, I like it, but I just haven’t found myself that interested in browsing YouTube – I just don’t get that excited about the random things people put together. I have used it to search for demonstrations of how to do certain exercises or how to do certain crafty things.

As for the Library and Pods, Vods, and YouTubes……CCCL does storytime podcasts and for the Reading Festival we posted an author interview that was great! I see vodcasts and YouTube videos as tremendous marketing/publicity opportunities for us in the future – to make great events that we do in our libraries available online to a much wider audience, and to raise our visibility in Library Land. They’re great formats for creating community participation – through video contests, etc. We’ve done that at CCCL and, as the YouTube assignment showed, so have other libraries!

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…..a few days later

August 29, 2008 at 5:10 pm · Filed under Library 10 Things ·Tagged ,

Well, it took me a few days, but I have finally made it back to my Social Networking assignment for Week 8. I responded to the Library 2.0 post about pitching 2.0 to staff and I took a gander at other Ning networks that might be interesting to our CCCL community. The two things I thought of right off the bat were 1) a Book Club network for folks who want to be in a virtual book group. This could be targeted to certain age groups, focused on genres – anything, really. 2) The Government Documents Network, which, admittedly is a library staff network, but has great implications for how we might be able to use 2.0 applications with the public to communicate/share/make available government information as we move toward a more online-social environment.

Extra Credit – I joined the following groups……Public Libraries 2.0, Creative Librarians, Adult Library Programs & Services, and Library Leadership.

Bonus – I may have already mentioned this, but I created a network for Orinda Library staff a while back. Does that count?

On to Week 9…..

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