hcplc=Lib 2.0

How 2.0 R U Now?

2008-06-23T07:45:00.004-05:00

Way back in January when we first got started on this blogging journey, many of you took a quiz -- How 2.0 R U? We'd like to see what kind of difference this training has made, so please give the quiz another try and let us know, How 2.0 R U Now?

Some of you followed the training all along, some of you participated every so often, some of you read along silently. We hope everyone found something interesting, something new, and something that will help you help our customers in the future if not now.

Please comment on this final post to let us know what you thought, what you liked, what you didn't, what could be done differently, better, or not at all. This is the feedback we will use to decide where we go next in the 2.0 world.

In the next day or so we'll put the names of those who completed the training in a hat and one lucky blogger will receive an iPod Shuffle. Look for the winner on your library news blog -- LibBlog.

Soon all the participant blogs will be detached from this training blog. If you have a blog it is yours to keep up with, or you can delete it. If you don't plan to use your blog you can go to the same screen you use to create a post, click the Settings tab at the top, scroll all the way to the bottom of the Settings screen and Delete your blog.

This hcplc = lib 2.0 training blog will stay here so you can read and work through the lessons and other posts and continue to learn.

So please, take the quiz, comment on the training, and enjoy the blogosphere!

2008-06-20T07:40:00.005-05:00

is for VCarious, "a new way to explore travel destinations." You can read travel guides written by others, post your own photos and journals, and share interesting items with your friends and colleagues. This is based on a core Web 2.0 concept to get the users to create and contribute the content. Actually, this site is quite cool; it's definitely worth a look if you're planning a trip somewhere.

VCarious is a new kind of travel site for exploring destinations in the same way as first-hand travel. Using Web 2.0 technologies, VCarious provides a dynamic, interactive environment for exploring photos, journals, and travel guides. Members can interact with other travelers, share their photos and journals, and participate in creating community travel guides.

VCarious was created by travelers who were tired of canned, one-size-fits-all printed guides and frustrated with disorganized travel web sites filled with sponsored links. With its dynamic and interactive tools, VCarious enables travel enthusiasts to share their experiences and truly explore the world.

and Yes, I know I skipped "U".

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 2 (letters N-Z) were originally published in Information Today 24.10 (Nov 2007): p.15(2).

Gaming in the Library

2008-06-19T11:01:00.000-05:00

Much is happening in the world of gaming right now, and it's not just a lot of teenage boys sitting in the basement staring at a screen for hours on end. No, gaming has tremendous potential for libraries to reach out to new users, offer new services, and help complement efforts in community-building, information literacy, and other areas. - Don't know much about gaming but you want to know how it can benefit libraries? - Not sure what kinds of services your library could offer (especially on a limited budget)? - Are you an avid gamer who would like to offer services but you need help convincing others? - Just want to hear what other libraries are doing? We'll cover all of these topics and more in just one hour. Get the scoop that helps you clarify your thinking about gaming and libraries.

Get the archive of the Sirsi Dynix Institutes presentation by Jenny Levine —Internet Development Specialist and Strategy Guide, ALA:

Gaming in the Library

...or go right to the good stuff:

Listen Now (mp3)

Podcast (php)

View Now (wmv)

Supplemental Material (pdf)

Get a (Second) Life!

2008-06-19T07:07:00.003-05:00

There's been a great deal of talk about the virtual world, Second Life and how it could be used for instruction and for meeting library customers online.

Educause has put together a fact sheet about Second Life - "7 Things You Should Know About Second Life" (PDF) answering your burning questions like:

-What is it?
-Who’s doing it?
-How does it work?
-Why is it significant?
-What are the downsides?
-Where is it going?
-What are the implications for teaching and learning?

I'm a Believer!

2008-06-18T15:03:00.007-05:00

There has been a lot of hype concerning libraries and gaming, with professional publications touting incredible benefits. THPL started down the road to gaming over a year ago as one of many options for Out of School (OST) programming, proving to be enjoyable for our customers and beneficial to our staff.

I became a TRUE believer of gaming in libraries as a result of my interactions with customers during the Teen Tech Week gaming tournament and qualifying events. It was a marketing event made to order! I mingled in the crowds and took advantage of every opportunity to converse with teens and parents, promoting library services and learning more about their perceptions of the library, the services of interest to them, and amazingly, their preferences on how they wish to learn about upcoming events.

There are many documented benefits to gaming, but I believe one of the strongest arguments is that it can help libraries become involved in teen social networking and provide opportunities to promote other relevant library services to this demographic.

Gaming is good for you

2008-06-16T16:04:00.002-05:00

Here is a detailed list of New York State education standards that are met by gaming in the library. Plenty of food for thought.
And take a look at the normally staid lobby at the main research library in New York.
Libraries all over the country are realizing the benefits of gaming and we are too. We have more teen programs, and more teen participation, than ever before!

Gaming and Libraries

2008-06-15T08:22:00.004-05:00

Here is an interesting presentation by Jenny Levine, The Shifted Librarian and gaming librarian extraordinaire. There's a ton of information here but a quick browse will give you lots of facts on the value of gaming in libraries.

2.0 Alphabet

2008-06-13T06:53:00.006-05:00

is for Twitter, "a global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM, or right here on the web!" My immediate reply was, who the heck cares? For some reason, Twitter has received a lot of buzz in the library community. It's not as though we weren't already plagued by information overload.

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter web site, via the Twitter web site, short message service (SMS), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.
Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone is the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application. [Wikipedia]

There's always a lot of chatter on Library 2.0 blogs about the significance, need, point, etc. of Twitter. I'd comment more, but I've got to read my email (8:05am); then I'm going to drink some coffee (8:07, 8:15 & 8:34am); I have an appointment with my supervisor (9:15am) but will stop by the restroom first (9:06am) ... "What are you doing?"

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 2 (letters N-Z) were originally published in Information Today 24.10 (Nov 2007): p.15(2).

Learning Library Skills Through Gaming

2008-06-11T07:08:00.008-05:00

Carnegie Mellon University Library now offers students the opportunity to learn about the library through games in the Library Arcade. The Library Arcade features flash-based games designed to help students develop research skills through entertaining and easy-to-repeat activities.

Graduate students from their Entertainment Technology Center have teamed up with the University Libraries to create educational games to help students develop library research skills. They have two games so far - “I’ll Get It” in which players must help fellow students find library resources, and “Within Range”, a library re-shelving game using the LC classification system. They are still in the testing phase, but have made the games available to the public.

Two learning games are now offered:
(1) I'll Get It! - helps students identify research materials.

(2) Within Range - for students to learn the correct order of items on the shelves.

This information was found in a posting from the library technology blog - iLibrarian.

Gaming Gone Wild

2008-06-10T09:20:00.002-05:00

gaming presentation01
Originally uploaded by ALA staff

I've been saving lots of good stuff to post during our gaming weeks, but then I saw this post on The Shifted Librarian and it's full of interesting links on the value of gaming in libraries.

There's Jenny Levine's presentation on gaming in libraries that she gave in Second Life on the right.

#12 - Gaming in Libraries

2008-06-09T09:39:00.000-05:00

..."If you don't offer them something they value now, you're going to be irelevant to them the rest of their lives." Eli Neiburger (Gaming in Libraries Symposium, December, 2005)

Learning Objectives

Learn how libraries are using are using online and video games to promote learning and technology skills.
Learn about virtual communities, like Second Life and how they are being implented in libraries.
What is Dance Dance Revolution anyway?
What is an "avatar"?
Review the Learn More: Avatars tutorial.

Second Life: Info Insland Archipelago Tour (on YouTube)
"When everything is available online, why come to the library at all?" See how Aarhus Public Library in Denmark is answering that Questions (via YouTube).

Skills Practice

Go to Just for Kids: Games and play one of the education games that the library offers through it's Web site.
Explore one of the more popular online games that our young customers are playing in the library - how about World of Warcraft or RuneScape?
Go to YouTube and watch a view clips of Dance Dance Revolution.
Learn about Speed Stacks; how would you incorporate this into a teen or adult program at the library?

Experience Sharing

Share your gaming experiences on your Learning 2.0 blog.
Did you create an avatar of any of the online games you explored? Why not share that image on your blog as well.

Resources

Library Technology Reports (July/August, 2006) - "Gaming in Libraries."
Christy Branston, "From Game Studies to Bibliographic Gaming: Libraries Tap into the Video Game Culture."
Ameet Doshi, "How Gaming Could Inprove Information Literacy."
Donald T. Hawkins and Barbara Brynko, "Gaming: The Next Hot Technology for Libraries."
Popular Mechanics, "Microsoft Surface: Behind-the-Scenes First Look (with Video)." Is this gaming or computing?
SirsiDynix Institute, "Teen Second Life: Library Services in a 3D World."
"Second Life" on Wikipedia.
"RuneScape" on Wikipedia.
"World of Warcraft" on Wikipedia.

2.0 Alphabet

2008-06-06T07:46:00.008-05:00

is for Squidoo. Squidoo is a network of user-generated lenses --single pages that highlight one person's point of view, recommendations, or expertise. Lenses can be about anything, such as ideas, people or places, hobbies and sports, pets or products, philosophy, and politics. Lenses aren't primarily intended to hold content; more emphasis is placed on recommending and then pointing to content on the web. Annotation and organization and personalization delivers context and meaning.

Squidoo's goal as a platform is to bring the power of recommendation to search. Squidoo's goal as a co-op is to pay as much money as we can to our lensmasters and to charity. And Squidoo's goal as a community is to have fun along the way, and meet new ideas and the people behind them.
Read more about Squidoo at The SquidLens.

Check out Squidoo's Library 2.0 Lens.

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 2 (letters N-Z) were originally published in Information Today 24.10 (Nov 2007): p.15(2).

Picasa Web Albums

2008-06-03T09:53:00.003-05:00

Picasa (another free Google application) is what I use to edit, store and share my photographs. It's so easy to use and to upload to your blog from there. I love the way I can now put together a web album and share with friends. The web album is a relatively new feature and I noticed that Picasa now automatically creates and builds a web album from your blog if you are using blogspot (also a free Google application). It does include every photo ever added to your blog, even if you have edited them off your blog, and it does include some twice, though I am not sure why.

Here's the web album Picasa created all on its own from my blog, om musing. Photo below, of the front entrance to the main library in Brooklyn, is from the om musing album.

Social Media in Plain English

2008-06-03T07:23:00.004-05:00

I know this is somewhat out of order (unless you consider all Web 2.0 stuff to be "social media") - Common Craft has released another great explanatory video.

Take a look!

9 Free Online Storage/Backup Solutions–for Varying Needs

2008-06-02T10:47:00.004-05:00

Originally posted to Web Worker (April 2, 2008):

"The price of storage has been dropping dramatically for some time now, and along with that trend, web workers now have an ever-expanding set of options for backing up and sharing files online. In addition, the various services you can use offer many different kinds of options–so how much capacity you get with free online offerings isn’t necessarily the only issue any more. In this post, I’ll round up some of the best free services to consider, and what their specialties are.

I mentioned Adrive here once before, and after continuing to use it, I’m impressed with it. It’s a no-frills online storage and backup solution, and the real attraction to it is how much capacity you get: a whopping 50 gigabytes. That’s much more than the 5GB you get free with Xdrive, or the 1GB you get free with Box.net.

Speaking of Box.net, its main attraction is the large set of free applications that you can now use in conjunction with it through its OpenBox service. You can do online editing with Zoho, document signing with EchoSign, CAD previewing with Autodesk Freewheel, working within the ThinkFree productivity suite, cropping photos with Picnik, and more.

I’m also a fan of some of the on-the-fly services out there, designed to let you shoot files and images online and share them with colleagues as instantly as possible. Recently, I mentioned Clip2Net, which is really good for these speed collaboration applications. I also like Drop.io which creates a web site for you to deposit files on, and you can password protect it. Another player to look into if you’re interested in this type of online storage and sharing is DropBoks.

For folks interested in a Mac client for backups and storage, Mozy remains a popular choice. And if you’re interested in backups in particular, MediaMax is worth looking into. You get 25GB of free online storage, and you also get a free piece of client software called MediaMax XL Beta which allows you to automate backups so you don’t have to do the work."

We actually used eSnips for the hcplc=Lib 2.0 survey.

2.0 Alphabet

2008-05-30T14:47:00.005-05:00

is for reddit, where users submit links to content and then vote on the links, so the most popular items bubble to the top. Similar sites are Digg.com and Newsvine. A study released in September 2007 by the Project for Excellence in Journalism showed a wide divergence in what the so-called "mainstream media" considers to be important and what "the masses" perceive as worthy of attention. This is proof.

"The site has discussion areas in which users may discuss the posted links and vote for or against others' comments. When there are enough votes against a given comment, it will not be displayed by default, although a reader can display it through a link or preference. Users who submit articles which other users like and subsequently "vote up" receive "karma" points as a reward for submitting interesting articles."[Wikipedia]

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 2 (letters N-Z) were originally published in Information Today 24.10 (Nov 2007): p.15(2).

Even More Cool Online Tools...

2008-05-28T10:03:00.005-05:00

The Internet site - "Webware: Cool Web 2.0 Apps for Everyone" - has just published its list of the Top 100 Web Apps for 2008 (votes by visitors to their site).

Take a look at the follwoing categories for some interesting online productivity tools:

Here's some useful online apps...

2008-05-27T15:57:00.003-05:00

10 Free Web-based Alternatives to Photoshop
LifeClever has put together a nice list of 10 free Web-based applications which can be used for photo-editing. Be sure and check out the full post for screenshots of each:

These were posted to iLibrarian (which posted them from somewhere else).

Lab Graduate

2008-05-27T09:34:00.003-05:00

It's time to have some fun in the lab!

Have you been somewhere -- a branch you don't normally work at, away on vacation, at your parents' house, etc. -- and wished you had your computer with you? Or wished the computer that was available had the software to run the document you have on your flashdrive?

Forget the flashdrive, say goodbye to the software.

When you use Google Docs it won't matter where you are or what computer you have available. You can even use your phone. You can create, access, and import word processing documents, spreadsheets, even presentations.

Google Docs is a graduate of Google Labs which is full of good ideas, some great ones, some that may seem silly to you. The reason so many Google products work so well is that they are made available to anyone to play with during development at Google Labs. You too can test drive and give input on such Google ideas as searching concepts and chat resources.

Some of the Google platforms you know and love were graduated from the Google Lab, like the Reader you use to gather your blogs and news, the Maps you use to get around, and your personalized iGoogle pages.

So play in the lab and take part in creating our 2.0 future.

#11 - Online Applications & Tools

2008-05-27T08:39:00.000-05:00

Learning Objectives

Browse some online productivity tool (ex. word processing, spreadsheets, image editing, calendars, mapping, etc.).
Explore the Web 2.0 Directory categories: Calendar Services, Note Taking Services, Office Services, Mapping Services & Photography Services.
What's a "Web widget"?

Skills Practice

Play with some of the productivity products listed on the Best of The Best Web 2.0 Web Sites.
Create, save and edit a document using ThinkFree.
Create, save and edit an image using FlashPAINT.
Log in to Google Docs & Spreadsheets - how could you put this to good use?
Find a widget that will work on your blog and add it.

Experience Sharing

Share your experienc with the online tools that you used on the hcplc=Lib2.0 blog.
Post the document and image that you created on your 2.0 Learning blog.

Resources

Michelle Boule, "The Internet is for Use." ALA TechSource Blog.
Richard MacManus, "Widgets are the New Black."
The Unofficial Web Applications List.
Check out Widgetbox.
"Learning 2.0: Web-based Applications" by Helene Blowers

powered by ODEO

2.0 Alphabet

2008-05-23T07:21:00.007-05:00

is for Pandora, which lets you create your own streaming Internet radio station that plays only music that you like. The technology at work here derives from the Music Genome Project, which parses a song using 400-plus attributes, making it easy to find more related or similar songs. If you love music, you've probably already found Pandora.

Take a look at the recent article from Information Today - "Pandora lets users create online radio stations.(Link-Up @ Home)." by Thomas Pack. [Information Today 25.5 (May 2008): p.38(2)].

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 2 (letters N-Z) were originally published in Information Today 24.10 (Nov 2007): p.15(2).

Back on Topic

2008-05-21T08:42:00.003-05:00

I know my post yesterday had nothing to do with the current topic but it was so good, hope you all took some time to explore.
Back on topic, tagging, here's an interesting post from the Free Range Librarian, Karen Schneider. She will be in town tomorrow over at TBLC presenting a class on writing for the web. I'm looking forward to it; I worked with Karen long ago on The Internet Filtering Assessment Project.

Imagine this with Burgert Brothers photos....

2008-05-20T07:32:00.003-05:00

Grant Schindler is my best friend's son; I've known him since he was born and I couldn't be prouder of him. He's a PhD. candidate at Georgia Tech and his research project is an amazing mashup of Atlanta in 4D you must take some time to play with. His group is working on a way to make this software they have created work automatically, so eventually we will be able to enter "Tampa" and it would do the same thing they have done for Atlanta, pulling Burgert Bros. and other photos off the web and creating a visual history.

2.0 Books

2008-05-19T07:06:00.005-05:00

Everyone's a cataloger...

"Tagging : People-Powered Metadata for the Social Web," by Smith, Gene.
Berkeley, CA : New Riders, 2008.

Tagging is fast becoming one of the primary ways people organize and manage digital information. Tagging complements traditional organizational tools like folders and search on users desktops as well as on the web. These developments mean that tagging has broad implications for information management, information architecture and interface design. And its reach extends beyond these technical domains to our culture at large. We can imagine, for example, the scrapbookers of the future curating their digital photos, emails, ticket stubs and other mementos with tags. This book explains the value of tagging, explores why people tag, how tagging works and when it can be used to improve the user experience. It exposes tagging's superficial simplicity to reveal interesting issues related to usability, information architecture, online community and collective intelligence. [Amazon.com]

"Everything is Miscellaneous : the Power of the New Digital Disorder," by David Weinberger. New York : Times Books, 2007.

Human beings are information omnivores: we are constantly collecting, labeling, and organizing data. But today, the shift from the physical to the digital is mixing, burning, and ripping our lives apart. In the past, everything had its one place--the physical world demanded it--but now everything has its places: multiple categories, multiple shelves. Simply put, everything is suddenly miscellaneous.
In Everything Is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger charts the new principles of digital order that are remaking business, education, politics, science, and culture. In his rollicking tour of the rise of the miscellaneous, he examines why the Dewey decimal system is stretched to the breaking point, how Rand McNally decides what information not to include in a physical map (and why Google Earth is winning that battle), how Staples stores emulate online shopping to increase sales, why your children’s teachers will stop having them memorize facts, and how the shift to digital music stands as the model for the future in virtually every industry. Finally, he shows how by "going miscellaneous," anyone can reap rewards from the deluge of information in modern work and life.
From A to Z, Everything Is Miscellaneous will completely reshape the way you think--and what you know--about the world. [Amazon.com]

2.0 Alphabet

2008-05-16T15:20:00.005-05:00

is for Ourmedia, "a community of video producers, podcasters and other grassroots media-makers coming together to show off citizen creativity, discuss methods for creating higherquality works, and interact with one another." This one is interesting (at least to me) because J. D. Lasica, who has a long professional history in print journalism, started it. With those at so many print publications scratching their corporate heads over how to remain relevant (not to mention profitable) today, sites such as Ourmedia need to be on the radar screen as an archive for grass-roots multimedia content.

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 2 (letters N-Z) were originally published in Information Today 24.10 (Nov 2007): p.15(2).

Great Google Mashup

2008-05-14T19:33:00.001-05:00

Wikipedia added to Google Maps!

Tagging Gone (terribly) Wrong

2008-05-13T12:06:00.007-05:00

Tagging items with keywords that are meaningful to us and assumedly to other online viewers sounds like a great idea - and it is. What could be better that helping like minded people find the same things we like, using the vocabulary that we share?

But...what about when tagging goes terribly wrong? There's a phenomenon called "protest tagging" where folks tag products, books, videos and anything else they can tag with purposefully misleading descriptions. The single most obvious example of this would be Ann Coulter's recent book, "Godless: the Church of Liberalism." Let the political rhetoric begin...

Take a look at "The Long Tail of Ann Coulter" [on LibraryThing] which details the popular - and very political - tagging of the book.

Here's another summary from Michael Huang's technology blog: “Ann Coulter's Godless shows up [on Amazon.com] as the #1 result, with 9 instances of 'poop'. Other top tags include: hateful (143), lies (101), propaganda (80), evil (73), fascist (64), hateful divisive political rhetoric (49), and horsecrap (48). What I find interesting about the tag "hateful divisive political rhetoric" is that 49 people all tagged it the same 4 words -- it's not "divisive political" or "hateful rhetoric" but "hateful divisive political rhetoric". I'd guess it likely that whoever tagged it "hateful divisive political rhetoric" probably also tagged it "horsecrap" too.” [Micheal Huang]

Yes, that's right - Amazon.com shows Ann Coulter's latest book ranked first under the search tag "poop".

LibraryThing has tried to examine the vialbility of tagging in, "When Tags Work and When They Don't".

Just to be fair - viewers of MySpace TV have also tagged Ann Coulter - she's in the top 10 search results for "pundit"!

It's all about me!

2008-05-13T11:56:00.003-05:00

My delicious site is what I'm talking about. And it really is. It's got urls to things I might post on a blog one of these days, recipes I might cook someday, things and people I might need when I move one of these years, stuff I might buy as a gift for someone, or for myself, and so on. Lots of library 2.0 links. Anywhere I see something I want to come back to I just grab that url and put it on my delicious page. And as long as I tag it right I will be able to find it when I need it. There is much more that can be done with delicious, but I love the organized way it helps me keep track of things I might want to find again one day.

#10 - Social Bookmarking, Tagging & Folksonomies

2008-05-11T07:28:00.000-05:00

Learning Objectives

Review the Learn More: Tags & Tag Clouds tutorial.
Learn about the process known as “tagging” – why is everybody trying to catalog the Web?
Explore del.icio.us and learn about collaborative tagging or descriptive indexing of the Web.
Review the Learn More: del.icio.us tutorial.
Take a look at the CommonCraft video, "Social Bookmarking in Plain English."

Using del.icio.us (tutorial on YouTube)

Skills Practice

Create your own portable bookmark page using del.icio.us , Diigo or another online bookmarking service; create an RSS feed for a topic that interests you and subscribe to the feed.
Explore Technorati and see how blog tags/labels relate to this search engine of the blogosphere.
Play with the library database – Fiction Connection – and see how tags/subject heading relate to each other in a graphical display.

Experience Sharing

Share your experience on your 2.0 Learningblog.
How could a service like del.icio.us be used in the library – comment about this on the hcplc=Lib2.0 blog
Discuss how this trend to collaborative description could effect libraries on the hcplc=Lib2.0 blog (visit the library catalog of the Ann Arbor District Library for some ideas).

Resources

Pew Internet & American Life Project. “Tagging.”
Jason Morrison, "Why Are They Tagging, and Why Do We Want Them To?"
Joan Beaudoin, "Flickr Image Tagging: Patterns Made Visible."
Thomas Pack, "A 'del.icio.us' Way to Use Bookmarks."
"A Librarian's Guide to Creating 2.0 Subject Guides." at iLibrarian.
"Folksonomy" on Wikipedia

"Learning 2.0: Tagging & Del.ico.us" by Helene Blowers

powered by ODEO

"Learning 2.0: Getting not so Technical with Technorati" by Helene Blowers

powered by ODEO

2.0 Alphabet

2008-05-09T13:17:00.007-05:00

"is for Ning, an oddly named service that lets you "create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds." Well, we like anything that is free, and that's a good thing about Web 2.0 apps in general. Ning is one I really don't get, but apparently plenty of others do; thousands and thousands of networks are listed on the site. I couldn't tell you how many are active. I'm not sure why someone would choose this particular social network rather than Facebook, for example, but a Library 2.0 Network exists here."

Here's another example of a user created social network: The Barista Exchange - just for Baristas (one who has acquired some level of expertise in the preparation of espresso-based coffee drinks):

"Ning hopes to compete with large social sites like MySpace and Facebook, by appealing to users who want to create networks around specific interests or have limited technical skills.[5] The unique feature of Ning is that anyone can create their own custom social network for a particular topic or need, catering to specific audiences. At its launch, Ning offered several simple base websites developed internally and by members of a closed beta. In late September of 2006, Ning narrowed its focus to offering a group website, a photos website, and a videos website for people to copy and use for any purpose. Later, these three templates were superseded by a single customizable template aimed at allowing non-developers to more easily customize their copy of the social website. However, Ning does allow developers to have some source level control of their social networks, enabling them to change features and underlying logic." [Wikipedia]

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 2 (letters N-Z) were originally published in Information Today 24.10 (Nov 2007): p.15(2).

Take the challenge

2008-05-06T09:03:00.002-05:00

or just read along, for now. The 31 Day Comment Challenge encourages blog readers to become blog commenters and take part in the great 2.0 conversation.

Make it yours

2008-05-06T08:57:00.002-05:00

Here is a nice and simple example of how a library attracts children and teens to use their homework help site. Check out the drop down menu on the right under the log in boxes -- Choose page style.

No April Fools Joke?

2008-05-06T07:22:00.009-05:00

There's really a book for Amazon.com!

Amazon.com for Dummies. by Friedman, Mara. Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, c2004. You can learn all about the personalization services and how Amazon recommends items for you based on your searching and shopping preferences - wouldnt it be cool if the Library catalog did that?

Of special interest:

-Chapter 3: You Are the Master of Your Account
-Chapter 11: It's All About You!
-Chapter 12: Putting Your Two Cents In

You could just visit Amazon.com and check out how their recommendations feature works.

2.0 Alphabet

2008-05-02T08:19:00.005-05:00

is for meebo, which is "instant messaging everywhere." If you're stuck at a place where the IT department has locked down the computers to keep people from installing stuff, head for meebo to use popular IM programs, including AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber. Its versatility makes it useful for librarians doing chat reference or as a bookmark on public access computers, if you don't want to mess with separate applications for all these IM services.

Remember meebo? Way back in Lesson #2 - IM & Virtual Reference we used meebo to sample chat with each other -> take a look...

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 1 (letters A - M) were originally published in Information Today 24.9 (Oct 2007): p.17(2).

My Times

2008-04-29T08:13:00.003-05:00

It's worth the time to personalize sites that you will use on a regular basis. Your reader, whether it is the Google Reader or another, is a highly personalized site, almost all the content is there at your request. A relatively new one that I like a lot is the My Times page on the New York Times web site. It allows you to use it as a news aggregator, pulling in headlines and other links from your preferred sources. Also, you can take a look at what sources your favorite NY Times writers are using on their own My Times page.

Here is my page:

And you can check out it out for yourself here.

iGoogle, do you?

2008-04-29T07:21:00.007-05:00

Have you noticed those iGoogle/Sign In links at the top of the Google search page? Using iGoogle you can create your own, personal Google search page seeded with a huge selection of widgets, google tools and your favorite sites & feeds.

Sign in to iGoogle and...
*Indulge your creativity: Select a visual theme to decorate your homepage and drag and drop individual sections to rearrange the page however you'd like.
*Focus on your interests: Pick and choose from thousands of Google Gadgets to add games, news, pictures, weather and more to your homepage, all for free.

*Organize your cool widgets into tabs by topic.
*Change your mind: Switch back and forth between your iGoogle page and Google's "Classic Homepage" through the link in the upper right-hand corner.

Here's mine...

#9 - Personal Relevance (aka Online Personalization)

2008-04-28T13:06:00.001-05:00

Learning Objectives

Learn about online personalization for Web sites ans search engines.
Take a look at Netvibes - you can personalize your entire online experience...

Skills Practice

Create a MyYahoo or iGoogle page and have some fun showing off your personal style.
Go back to Amazon.com, create a login if you don't already have one, and do a bit of nrowsing for items you like - check your recommendations.
Check out a few of the specialized search services on the Web 2.0 Directory; create your own search engine ar Rollyo.

Experience Sharing

Take a look at Library ELF - how could personalization be used in the library?
Design your ideal library catalog using Library 2.0 principles - what features would you include.
What about the concern for privacy with all this personalization and collaborative filtering?

Resources

Steve Abrams. “Growing Your Own Search Engine.”
Nitin Karandikar. "Top 17 Search Innovations Outside Of Google."
Chris Payne. “Everything You Need to Know About Personalization.”
Suzanne Cohen, et al. “MyLibrary: Personalized Electronic Services in the Cornell University Library”.
Micheal C. Habib. "Managing Your Online ID." (LJ netconnect)
ALA. "Personalized Library Services."

"Learning 2.0: Roll Your Own Search Engine" by Helene Blowers

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1.0 Stuff About Online "Collaboration"

2008-04-25T07:16:00.007-05:00

Here's a few recent - thought provoking - books that discuss about the mass participation in creating Internet content, ratings, reviews, etc.

Wisdom of Crowds (why the many are smarter than the few and how collective wisdom shapes business, economies, societies, and nations) by James Surowiecki. New York, Doubleday: 2004.

"While our culture generally trusts experts and distrusts the wisdom of the masses, New Yorker business columnist Surowiecki argues that "under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them." To support this almost counterintuitive proposition, Surowiecki explores problems involving cognition (we're all trying to identify a correct answer), coordination (we need to synchronize our individual activities with others) and cooperation (we have to act together despite our self-interest)."[Amazon]

Smart Mobs, The Next Social Revolution, by Howard Rheingold. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2002.

"Mobile, wireless, Net-connected devices are now being hawked by the computer and telecom industries, prompting technology author Rheingold to take stock of the incipient revolution. Glimpsing the future in vignettes of wireless users in Helsinki and Tokyo, Rheingold primarily explores the sociology that might characterize a world of "ad-hocracy," in which people cluster temporarily around information of mutual interest. Rheingold describes how consumerism might change when pedestrians, as their mobiles detect stores and restaurants, patch into electronic gossip about an establishment. The location-detection feature of these devices will inevitably breach privacy, which informs Rheingold's somewhat skeptical stance toward this brave new world, and contrasts with the enthusiasm of certain computer scientists he interviews, such as Microsoft's promoter of a wireless urban space pervasively connected to the Internet. The cyber-savvy and socially aware will be interested and undoubtedly concerned by Rheingold's informed report. " [Booklist]

Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture, by Andrew Keen. New York: Doubleday/Currency, c2007.

"Keen's relentless "polemic" is on target about how a sea of amateur content threatens to swamp the most vital information and how blogs often reinforce one's own views rather than expand horizons. But his jeremiad about the death of "our cultural standards and moral values" heads swiftly downhill. Keen became somewhat notorious for a 2006 Weekly Standard essay equating Web 2.0 with Marxism; like Karl Marx, he offers a convincing overall critique but runs into trouble with the details. Readers will nod in recognition at Keen's general arguments—sure, the Web is full of "user-generated nonsense"!—but many will frown at his specific examples, which pretty uniformly miss the point. It's simply not a given, as Keen assumes, that Britannica is superior to Wikipedia, or that record-store clerks offer sounder advice than online friends with similar musical tastes, or that YouTube contains only "one or two blogs or songs or videos with real value." And Keen's fears that genuine talent will go unnourished are overstated: writers penned novels before there were publishers and copyright law; bands recorded songs before they had major-label deals. In its last third, the book runs off the rails completely, blaming Web 2.0 for online poker, child pornography, identity theft and betraying "Judeo-Christian ethics." [Publisher's Weekly]

Virtual Soapboxes

2008-04-22T07:43:00.003-05:00

This past Sunday NPR unveiled the Sunday Soapbox, an opportunity to have serious conversations about politics with a variety of bloggers and NPR listeners, or at least users of the NPR website. Lots of news organizations, radio, TV, print, offer something like this. But this is unique as it doesn't necessarily spin off the stories on the radio and it offers the blog entries in podcast format.
Another way to participate in online conversation is by sharing items of interest-- podcasts, vodcasts, print, photos, etc. -- on your blog, or delicious page, or your personal social networking page.
Blogrunner allows you to see who is blogging what and how often. It's presented by the New York Times but covers blogs and content from elsewhere. It's organized by topic and is a good way to find other blogs, and content, of interest to you. Here's the Books page.

Libraries and Peer Services

2008-04-18T07:25:00.003-05:00

As we continue to work through this Web 2.0 training, I think it's helpful to observe how other libraries have begun to incorporate some of these technologies. The Ann Arbor District Library has an interesting website (blog) which allows customers to comment on employee posts concerning upcoming events and programs. The Pierce County Library System allows customers to comment on book reviews written by staff. In both cases the community is inivited to provide content and quite often they help to promote the library collection and services. Is it possible that a very powerful form of marketing could arise from giving library users and advocates in our community a similar opportunity to provide comments or reviews?

Instant Feedback & Ratings on Tech Help

2008-04-17T15:45:00.005-05:00

Social networking meets technical support with FixYa, a social networking site dedicated to helping people with their computer and gadget problems. Recent solutions and problems, as well as a plug for the top experts, can be found on the homepage. You can search for both products and solutions or browse by manufacturer to find the help you need.

The site also lets you register and store all of your product warranty and support information in one place. Registering also gets you alerts when warranties are about to expire and direct manufacturer contact information, among other things. Nice!

There are thousands upon thousands of problems and solutions in this database - a great place to check when the library (or one of its customers) needs help with a technical problem. [From Librarian in Black]

FixYa lets users rate the effectiveness of the help provided so that you can use only those tech tips provided by the highly rated postings.

Useful sites

2008-04-15T08:53:00.003-05:00

Reviews can be very important when making a committment -- to a new camera, to a auto mechanic, to a vacation spot. There are many places now where people submit their reviews and you get to read all about it. Ebay is huge in this area, every thing is based on buyer and seller reviews and many people make it a practice never to buy from someone who has not garnered lots of great reviews.
I used cnet Reviews recently before deciding on my new digital camera. Lots of information here, but the user reviews are what finally tipped the balance for me.
Trip Advisor can be useful when deciding where to stay. User reviews, and photos, can be an enlighting addition to the official hotel site.
One of the best collaborative sites I have use is Car Talk. Maybe you listen to Click and Clack on NPR, but have you ever tried their web site? Full of valuable information, my favorite is the Find a Mechanic section. It is how we found our trusted mechanic and how we will find our next one if he retires before we do, as he's been threatening to do.

#8 - Peer Services: Comments, Ratings & Reviews

2008-04-14T08:15:00.000-05:00

Learning Objectives

Learn about Web sites that allow browsers/customers post comments, reviews and product and/or service ratings.
What is "collaborative filtering"?

Skills Practice

Visit Amazon.com and post a comment/rating for a book that you have read recently.
Locate few Web sites that allow user driven comments and reviews
Visit LibraryThing and catalog some of your own books online, comment on someone elses personal collection.

Experience Sharing

Discuss your experiences by posting to your 2.0 Learningblog.
How could this type of participation be applied in the library?

Resources

"United We Find." The Economist (March 12, 2005)
Neal Wyatt, 2.0 for Readers (Library Journal 11/1/2007)
Pew Internet & American Life Project, "The Use of Online Reputation and Rating Systems."
How Amazon.com's Recomendations Work and the Amapedia.
Squidoo at http://www.squidoo.com/
Epionions at http://www.epinions.com/
Hotels.com and Travelocity

"Learning 2.0: LibraryThing" by Helene Blowers

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2.0 Alphabet

2008-04-12T08:30:00.002-05:00

is for Last.fm, which "taps the wisdom of the crowds, leveraging each user's musical profile to make personalised recommendations, connect users who share similar tastes, provide custom radio streams, and much more." Listen online. Yes, it's very cool; CBS liked it so much that it bought the site last May.

Last.fm is a UK-based internet radio and music community website, founded in 2002. It claims over 21 million active users based in more than 200 countries.[1] On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for £140m (US$280m).
Using a music recommendation system known as "Audioscrobbler," Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of all the songs the user listens to, either on the streamed radio stations or on the user's computer or portable music device. This information is transferred to Last.fm's database ("scrobbled") via a plugin installed into the user's music player. The profile data is displayed on a personal web page. The site offers numerous social networking features and can recommend and play artists similar to the user's favourites.

Users can create custom radio stations and playlists from any of the audio tracks in Last.fm's music library, and are able to listen to some individual tracks on demand, or download tracks if the rightsholder has previously authorised it. Registration is required to acquire a profile but is not necessary to view any part of the site or to listen to radio stations. [Wikipedia]

The Charms of Wikipedia

2008-04-10T12:14:00.003-05:00

"Without the kooks and the insulters and the spray-can taggers, Wikipedia would just be the most useful encyclopedia ever made. Instead it's a fast-paced game of paintball." Nicholson Baker

Take a look Nicholson Baker's latest - The Charms of Wikipedia [New York Review of Books, March 20, 2008] in which he reviews the new book Wikipedia: the Missing Manual by John Broughton. He also gives a few of his opinions too.

25 Useful Social Networking Tools for Librarians

2008-04-09T10:09:00.003-05:00

Librarian Jessica Hupp recently published a profile of 25 social networking sites which can be used by libraries to share information with customers and students. Very specifically she highlights tools which can be used for communicating (blogs, MySpace), distributing (Flickr, You Tube) and organizing information. How many of these are new to you?

2.0 Alphabet

2008-04-04T12:46:00.007-05:00

is for Keyword Density Checker. This is actually aimed at Search Engine Optimization (SEO) people who need help deciding which advertising keywords to buy on various Web sites. But it's a cool toy too. Type in a URL, and it generates not only a tag cloud ("visual depiction of keywords" with more frequently used words in larger fonts), but also a keyword density chart, with a count and percentage total for each keyword. It's easier to use than to explain.

Here's the tag clound for the hcplc=LIB 2.0 training blog:

Here's the keyword count:

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 1 (letters A - M) were originally published in Information Today 24.9 (Oct 2007): p.17(2).

Wikipedia as a Reference Tool?

2008-04-03T14:10:00.000-05:00

How could we avoid looking at Wikipedia - the mother of all wikis - during this section of our training? Wikipedia always stirs a lot of strong feeling from librarians when it is discussed as a reference source along side standard tolls like the World Almanac, Dictionary of American Biography or (gasp!) Encyclopedia Britannica.

First some “Wikinews” – The ten millionth article has been written on Wikipedia - a Hungarian biography of of 16th century painter Nicholas Hilliard (English version here ).
Those ten million articles have been written across 250 different languages, Wikipedia says. English is still the most popular language on Wikipedia, with 2.3 million articles (they reached 2 million English articles in September 2007). After English, the next most popular languages are German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.
Click here for an article count by language. [TechCrunch]

Check out a few articles - both scholarly and popular - about Wikipedia as a reference source (links to InfoTrac Power Search results).

How about a Google search about using Wikipedia as a reference source?

What do you think? Have you used Wikipedia with success (or not) when helping a customer?

The Queen of Wikis

2008-04-03T08:15:00.001-05:00

Meredith Farkas is known to some people as the Queen of Wikis. She's probably most famous for creating Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki, and the event wikis for the ALA Chicago 2005, ALA New Orleans 2006, and the Internet Librarian conference 2007.

I attended an online seminar that Meredith taught through Sirsi Dynix and I was most impressed with her practical uses of the tool. She says she isn't "wiki crazy" its just that she happens to have found a lot of good uses for them in her life. Her theory seems to be that they're useful, available for free, easy to create, and practical, so why not use them?

Social Networking for Book Lovers

2008-04-02T07:45:00.000-05:00

If you would rather spend a day curled up with a good book than in front of a computer, have I got some 2.0 sites for you!

I discovered LibraryThing about a year ago and decided to organize the books in my home library using the site.

More recently, a friend sent me an invitation to join her on Goodreads, and, while I am partial to LibraryThing, suddenly I had lots of friends on Goodreads, so I set up an account and invited some other people and now I know what my friends are currently reading, what they thought about books they have already read, and what they plan to read next. I've found books to add to my "to read" shelf this way.

The book club I belong to, which has had trouble finding a good meeting time lately, is considering having some meetings online.

You can even find out what is going on in local bookstores and libraries on some of these sites, as I mentioned in my post on mashups last week.

Listen, or read, more about these sites as heard on NPR's All Things Considered recently.

Maybe you'll decide to sign up for one of these; let us know if you do in the comments and let us know how you like it on your blog.

It's Finally Arrived!

2008-04-01T07:06:00.013-05:00

First the online course - now the book!

In partnership with Wiley Publishing and the Florida Library Association, we are please to announce the first edition of HCPLC=Lib 2.0 for Dummies [Chicago: Wiley, 2008]. This is now the official "1.0" workbook for the library's 2.0 learning experience.

Reserve your copy now. -->Click here.

#7 - Wikis & Social Networking

2008-03-31T08:04:00.000-05:00

...or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love MySpace”

Learning Objectives

Learn about Wikis and discover some of the innovative ways they are being used as information sources.
Learn about the ever popular world of online social networking.
Take a look at the CommonCraft video, "Social Networking in Plain English."
Take a look at the CommonCraft video, "Wikis in Plain English."

Skills Practice

Browse Wikipedia or any other library related Wiki (hint: search Google with "library wiki" and check out the results).
Be bold, be one with the collaborative masses - edit a Wiki entry!
Browse MySpace and see how libraries are using it to reach out to its online customers.

Experience Sharing

Discuss - by commenting on the hcplc=Lib2.0 blog- how Wikis and social networking Web sites could be used by the library as information resources.

Resources

Library Technology Reports (July, August, 2006) - "Wikis."
Pew Internet & American Life Project, “Wikipedia Users.”
Pew Internet & American Life Project, “Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview.”
Caroline Middlebrook, "The Big Juicy Twitter Guide."
OCLC Report: "Sharing, Privacy & Trust in Our Networked World." (2007)
Social Networking GOD: 350+ Social Networking Sites (at Mashable.com).
SirsiDynix Institute, "Wiki: The Ultimate Tool For Online Collaboration."
Marshall Poe, “The Hive, Can Thousands of Wikipedians be Wrong?”

"Learning 2.0: What's in a Wiki?" by Helene Blowers

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Boston Public Library on flickr

2008-03-30T11:18:00.003-05:00

Boston Public Library has over 1000 historical photos for the world to see.

Why are we doing this? - part 2

2008-03-30T10:09:00.003-05:00

David Pogue, tech columnist and blogger for The New York Times, asked this week, Are You Taking Advantage of Web 2.0?
The answer for THPL would have to be no, not really, not yet. But we are learning about it. And we are beginning to take advantage too, mostly through BookLetters so far.

2.0 Alphabet

2008-03-28T09:29:00.007-05:00

is for Joost. Watch TV online and interact with friends (or complete strangers) while you do. This is another potential time sink.

Joost (pronounced /j ooːst/ "Juiced") is a system for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web using peer-to-peer TV technology, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa).
Joost began development in 2006. Working under the code name "The Venice Project", Zennström and Friis assembled teams of some 150 software developers in about six cities around the world, including New York, London, Leiden and Toulouse. According to Zennström at a 25 July 2007 press conference about Skype held in Tallinn, Estonia, Joost has signed up more than a million beta testers and is on track for an end-of-year launch.[1]
The teams are currently in negotiations with FOX networks. It has signed up with Warner Music, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Productions (Indianapolis 500, IndyCar Series) and production company Endemol for the beta.[2] In February 2007, Viacom entered into a deal with the company to distribute content from its media properties, including MTV Networks, BET and film studio Paramount Pictures. [Wikipedia]

Yes Jason, you can watch every episode of Jericho right at your desk...

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 1 (letters A - M) were originally published in Information Today 24.9 (Oct 2007): p.17(2).

Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes to Be a More Successful E-learning Professional

2008-03-27T07:25:00.002-05:00

By Stephen Downes, National Research Council Canada [reposted from eLearn Magazine]

The following list was inspired by eLearn Magazine Editor-in-Chief Lisa Neal's blog post "Ten Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes To Be a More Successful e-learning Professional." We'd like to offer the "Web 2.0 Edition" of Lisa's list:

(1) Listen to a conference presentation. When you run across conference presentations while reading your RSS feeds (EDUCAUSE Connect is a prime source, as is OLDaily), save the conference site as a bookmark and revisit it to hear a presentation.
(2) Record a 10-minute presentation about something you are working on or learning about, either as audio (use Odeo) or video (use Ustream), and post it on your blog.
(3) Do a search on the title of your most recent post or on the title of the most recent thing you've read or thought about. Don't just use Google search, use Google Blog Search and Google Image Search, Amazon, del.icio.us, Technorati, Slideshare, or Youtube. Scan the results and if you find something interesting, save it in del.icio.us to read later.
(4) Write a blog post or article describing something you've learned recently. It can be something you've read or culled from a meeting, conference notes (which you just capture on the fly using a text editor), or a link you've posted to del.icio.us. The trick here is to keep your writing activity to less than 10 minutes—make a point quickly and then click "submit."
(5) Tidy your e-portfolio. For example, upload your slides to Slideshare and audio recordings to Odeo and embed the code in your presentation page. Or write a description and link to your latest publication. Or update your project list.
(6) Create a slide on Zoho. Just do one slide at a time; find an image using the Creative Commons licensed content on Flickr and a short bit of text from a source or yourself. Add this to your stick of prepared slides you use for your next talk or class.
(7) Find a blogger you currently read in your RSS reader and go to their website. Follow all the links to other blogs in their blogroll or feedroll, or which are referenced in their posts. Well, maybe not all the links, or it will take hours, not ten minutes.
(8) Write a comment on a blog post, article, or book written by an e-learning researcher or practitioner.
(9) Go to a website like Engadget, Metafilter, Digg, Mixx, Mashable, or Hotlinks and skip through the items. These sites produce much too much content to follow diligently, but are great for browsing and serendipitous discovery. If you find something interesting, write a short blog post about it or at least a comment.
(10) Catch up on one of your online games with a colleague—Scrabulous on Facebook or Backgammon on Yahoo. Or make a Lolcat. Or watch a Youtube video.

About the AuthorStephen Downes works with the E-Learning Research group of NRC's Institute for Information Technology and is based in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. He spends his time working on learning object and related metadata, blogs, and blogging, RSS and content syndication, and raising cats.

More Mashups

2008-03-25T12:00:00.004-05:00

I love the social networking sites for readers and LibraryThing is my favorite (though not the one I use often because you gotta be where your friends are...more on that in the future).
Now there are these great mashup opportunities on LibraryThing Local where you can plug in your location and see libraries and their programs, bookstores and their author events, and other literary events in the area. Here, for example, is Tampa, and since there is not all that much to see yet on this one, here is Brooklyn.

Kelly N. created a mashup of Bertie Wooster's London that is pretty cool and some other staff have been creating them as well -- so useful when going on a trip.

And speaking of traveling, here is a reminder of a mashup that is worth recommending to customers planning a trip or to kids who are doing a country or state report.

And the Award Goes To...

2008-03-24T07:28:00.007-05:00

Check out the daily and monthly Mashup Award winners (also subscribe to their RSS feed).

What is a "mashup" anyway...

"In technology, a mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool; an example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data from Craigslist, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source.
Mashup originally referred to the practice in pop music (notably hip-hop) of producing a new song by mixing two or more existing pieces. Mashups currently come in three general flavors: consumer mashups, data mashups, and business mashups.
The best known type is the consumer mashup, best exemplified by the many Google Maps applications. Consumer mashups combine data elements from multiple sources, hiding this behind a simple unified graphical interface." [Wikipedia]

Three of the most common editors to use to create mashups are Google Mashup Editor, Yahoo Pipes and Microsoft's Popfly. There's a great section on the Mashup Awards page about the process of creating a mashup.

Have you seen a mashup lately that you think would really help library customers? Have you used any mashups with library customers?

2.0 Alphabet

2008-03-21T15:30:00.008-05:00

is for ImageGenerator.org, which is actually a humongous collection of links to tools that let you "Create free custom graphics & clipart online without any software!" Make your own Presidential Seal, Dummies book cover, Nigerian Scam placard, various flags and banners, bar codes, logos, signs, and much more. This site should be labeled with a "time sink" warning. Excuse me while I take a few minutes here and make my own Monopoly Chance and Community Chest cards.

One of my favorite image generator sites (not included in the one above) comes from the New Zealand National Library -

Click the catalog card to givce it a try!

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 1 (letters A - M) were originally published in Information Today 24.9 (Oct 2007): p.17(2).

Flickring Libraries

2008-03-18T09:29:00.002-05:00

There are so many good reasons for libraries to post photos to Flickr including enticing people to come to programs, encouraging them to come back to your web site again and again, sharing visual collections, etc.
And there are a great many libraries finding cool ways to use Flickr -- here are just a few.

Historical photographs from the Library of Congress

Celebrity Read Posters from Lansing Public Library

A Day in Allen County from Allen County Public Library

#6 - Photo Sharing & "Mashups"

2008-03-17T08:15:00.001-05:00

Learning Objectives

Review the Learn More: Flickr tutorial.
Learn about photo sharing & online photo albums.
View the video, Online Photo Sharing in Plain English by CommonCraft.
Explore Flickr and learn about this popular photo sharing Web site.
Flick is a popular site for "mashups" - learn about mashups.
Check out Mashable.com.

Flickr (tutorial on YouTube)

Skills Practice

Post a photo or image to your 2.0 Learning blog.
Learn how to "blog" and image from Flickr to your 2.0 Learning blog.

Experience Sharing

Discuss the possibilities for using photo sharing and mashups in the library by commenting on the hcpls=Lib2.0 blog.

Resources

Library Technology Reports (July/August, 2006) - "Flickr."
SirsiDynix Institute, "Mashups : A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That."
Rachel Singer Gordon and Michael Stephens. "Priceless Images: Getting Started with Flickr. (tech tips for every librarian). "
Lauren Pressley, "Flickr as a Training Tool." (MP3 - right click, "Save target As" and download to desktop)
Darren Chase, "Transformative Sharing with Instant Messaging, Wikis, Interactive Maps, and Flickr."
Laura Gordon-Murnane, "Mashups, Blogs, Wikis Go Federal: Creative Uses of Government and Public Data."
Robert D. Hof. "Mix, Match, And Mutate "Mash-ups" -- Homespun Combinations of Mainstream Services -- are Altering the Net."

Why are we doing this?

2008-03-14T16:37:00.001-05:00

For our future...

2.0 Alphabet

2008-03-14T09:58:00.003-05:00

is for Hype Machine. The Hype Machine is here to make music discovery fun and get artists paid. The Hype Machine tracks a variety of MP3 blogs. If a post contains MP3 links, it adds those links to its database and displays them on the front page.
Some of the frequently accessed tracks are cached by the Hype Machine server, much like Google Search caches web pages, to reduce load on the bloggers' servers and protect their bandwidth.
Those tracks are NOT available for download, but you can preview them via the play buttons that are next to each track.
The blog that posted a particular track is identified under every track by name so you can read more about why they posted it. If you enjoyed a track someone posted, stop by and let them know!

The Hype Machine is an MP3 blog aggregator created by Anthony Volodkin. It enables "one-stop shopping" of postings from thousands of MP3 blogs.[1] Volodkin created the website in 2005 while enrolled at Hunter College.[2]
Some MP3 bloggers have complained that aggregators (such as The Hype Machine) allow users to download music without taking in the entire experience of a music blog, such as its editorial content. [Wikipedia]

I Spy 2.0 Libraries

2008-03-12T08:33:00.006-05:00

Some libraries have reimagined their web sites to include lots of 2.0 features in order to better connect with their customers and community at large. In fact, some library web sites are nothing but 2.0. Here are a couple of great ones; see how many 2.0 things you spy!
Ann Arbor District Library
Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
Vancouver Public Library

Audio Available (already) @ HCPLC.org

2008-03-12T07:17:00.005-05:00

Did you know that the library already provides - locally created - downloadable audio content to our library customers. Here's a summary of the library's Oral History Project provided by Cody Shelburne, the library's "technologist" behind ...

Hillsborough Remembers: Voices of Our Community
Curious about Tampa History? Did you know that you can experience it in the first person? Just go to Hillsborough Remembers on our website! There you will find over 60 interviews of Tampa residents, recounting Tampa’s past as they remember it. The Civil Rights and WWII eras are prominently featured. You can even download and listen to mp3s of the interviews! There are over 40 hours of interview audio available. So go to our website and put a little local history in your iPod today!
-Cody Shelburne

Many library employees and volunteers have worked on the Oral Histoiry Project in the past few years. The Project is currently managed by Paule Fahle @ JFG.

How about a Podcast about Blogs?

2008-03-10T07:50:00.003-05:00

NPR has done a series of stories - now available as streaming audio (not really a podcast). The term "Web log," which was then shortened to "blog," was born 10 years ago. Blogs have made their mark on American culture, especially on politics. In this series, NPR looks at the blogosphere's evolution, as well as who blogs, the language and culture of blogs and how blogs are changing our lives.

IN THIS SERIES
Blogging Becomes More Mobile
December 28, 2007 · New "microblogging" tools give people the ability to post short blogs — just a sentence long. A new generation of tools lets users publish audio and video blogs simply by using their cell phones, which means people can blog from almost anywhere and at any time.

Blogs Scoured for Book Deals
December 27, 2007 · Blogs can rocket ordinary people into sudden notoriety and fame as some book and talent agents trawl blogland to find the next big thing. Dawn Meehan, a stay-at-home mom, started blogging about the everyday rigors of family life and got thousands of readers and a book deal.

Blogs Become Serious Business
December 26, 2007 · Blogs matter more than ever — to political candidates, to a colonel managing a war, to human-rights advocates trying to deliver their message. Two experts discuss the growing impact of blogs.

The Big Book of Blogs
December 25, 2007 · Are all blogs just scattered rantings and mundane diaries? Reporter and critic Sarah Boxer trawled the Web for solid examples of blog writing and assembled them in a book, Ultimate Blogs: Masterworks from the Wild Web.

'Web Log' Celebrates 10th Anniversary
December 24, 2007 · Ten years ago, the phrase "Web log" — which was then shortened to "blog" — was born. Now there are more than 100 million blogs, and about 100,000 new blogs are created daily.

Learning to Embrace My Inner Blogger
December 24, 2007 · Blogger Andy Carvin writes about his experience keeping an online journal, and how the tools have changed over the years, resulting in the explosive growth of the blogosphere.

Timeline: The Life of the Blog
December 24, 2007 · Personal journals and professional logs, concepts rooted in ancient times, are two types of precursors to the modern blog. Read a timeline tracking the development of the blog as we know it today.

(the return of ) 2.0 Alphabet

2008-03-07T12:43:00.003-05:00

is for Google Labs, a sandbox for all kinds of Google-based Web 2.0 toys. Not all innovations will become permanent features, but here you can find a definitive "Graduates" list of those which have, including Google's suite of online office applications (Docs & Spreadsheets), Google Reader, and Google Maps (an application programming interface that provides the basis for many Web 2.0 goodies).

Google Labs is a website demonstrating new Google projects "that aren't quite ready for prime time". It serves as a testing ground for new services being developed. This is a way for Google to gain feedback on the products before releasing the final versions. Google's services do not always appear on the Labs page; some are beta tested by invitation-only, like Gmail and Google Calendar once were. [Wikipedia]

Take a look at Google SMS - reference help by cell phone!

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 1 (letters A - M) were originally published in Information Today 24.9 (Oct 2007): p.17(2).

Podcasting in Libraries

2008-03-06T09:34:00.009-05:00

Podcasting has been around for years but we noted in the eMarketer report posted earlier this week that the podcast-user base is growing at an incredible rate. How have libraries responded to the growing availability of this resource as a means of distributing audio and/or video content? The Bou lder Public Library has podcasts created by teens linked from their Teen page. Visitors to the site can listen to the teens provide news from the library Teen Advisory Board, interview artists displaying art in the Teen Gallery, or listen to reviews on books, movies or music. The Denver Public Library provides podcasts of storytime favorites.

Many libraries are creating podcasts but I have found that the Pierce County Library in Tacoma, WA has found some very interesting and diverse uses which help to promote library services. They’re using podcasts to instruct parents on Early Literacy Skills, to inform the public on What’s New at the Library, How to Apply for a Job at the Library, How to Volunteer at your Library, Booktalks for Adults, Virtual “sightseeing" Tours of the Library for Children, Teens and Young Adults, Librarian Book Reviews, and an interview with the Library Director on her background and where she sees the library going in the new millennium.

Our library system has a wonderful collection, outstanding electronic resources, numerous special services, programming for every age group, and a very talented staff. How can we use podcasting to inform the public and expand our service base?

Podcasting Books (yes, books!)

2008-03-05T08:39:00.007-05:00

Take a look at...

Absolute Beginner's Guide to Podcasting by George W. Colombo & Curtis Franklin Jr. [Indianapolis, Ind. : Que, 2006].

If 2004 was the year of the blog, 2006 may well be the year of the podcast. Podcasting, a form of recording and syndicating audio programming over the Internet, is rapidly gaining in popularity, and libraries may want to consider purchasing a guide or two on the topic. Absolute Beginner's Guide lives up to its name, giving new and wannabe podcasters the background they need to start and create listenable shows. From an overview of podcasting and how it works to processing, posting, syndicating, and promoting content, it covers all the basics.

Podcasting for Dummies by Tee Morris and Evo Terra. [Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley Pub., Inc., 2006]. Also available as an eBook from NetLibrary.

Podcasting is like blogging out loud! It gives you a voice—one that can be heard worldwide on computers, iPods, or other MP3 players. You can podcast to boost your business, promote your passion, share your opinions, or just have fun. The point is to say what you want to say to those who want to hear it. With step-by-step explanations, screen shots, and tons of examples, this guide clues you in on recording, producing, and hosting your very own podcast with info on:

-Finding your voice and your niche, whether you want to talk tech, make your own kinds of music, educate listeners, make people laugh, do soundseeing tours, serialize your novel, or invent a new podcasting genre
-Getting the bare necessities (if you don’t already have them), including a microphone, recording software, and an audio card
-Audio editing software such as Audacity, Cakewalk for PCs, GarageBand for musicality, and Audio HiJack Pro for Macs
-Recording, including understanding dB (decibel levels), capturing or minimizing ambient noise, and more
-Editing with GarageBand or Audacity, adding bed music, and including intros and outros for a signature finishing touch

You want your podcast to be heard. Podcasting For Dummies helps you launch and promote it with info on how to:
-Downsize your audio files with MP3 compression
-Change bit rates and sample rates in Audacity and iTunes
-Create and edit your ID3 tags in Audacity or iTunes
-Post your show notes using Movable Type or Libsyn
-Simplify the RSS 2.0 feed by using blogging software or a podcast-hosting company such as Audioblog.com, Podcastamatic, and Feeder
-Ping for publicity
-Communicate with your listeners on your blog, through online discussion groups such as Yahoo! Groups or Google Groups, or on online forums

Of course, if you want to be a podcatcher (a listener) and subscribe to podcasts, this guide shows you how to do that, too! Complete with a companion podcast—a free weekly audio commentary that will keep you up to speed on the podsphere—this guide helps you get your message heard, loud and clear. [Amazon.com]

I've always loved Harriet

2008-03-04T08:55:00.007-05:00

I was 12 when Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh was published and I was an avid reader. I loved this book right away. Not only was it set in my city, the main character was completely different from anyone else I'd ever read about, or met. Now I have a little more insight into Harriet and Louise, because yesterday morning I heard this story on NPR's Morning Edition. You can listen to just about anything on NPR via podcast, entire shows or just the story you want to hear. You can subscribe to your favorite shows and listen via computer or iPod or other MP3 player. This is true of other radio stations as well, including "the best little radio station on the planet Earth", WMNF.

Heard the Latest about Podcasting?

2008-03-03T16:35:00.001-05:00

Engagement via headphones.

Ever since podcasting was introduced, the question has been the same: Will anyone listen?
The answer is definitely “Yes.”

eMarketer estimates that the total US podcast audience reached 18.5 million in 2007.

Furthermore, that audience will increase by 251% to 65 million in 2012. And of those listeners, 25 million will be “active” users who tune in at least once a week.

”As the US podcasting industry matures it is unquestionably creating a listening audience,” says Paul Verna, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the new report, Podcast Audience: Seeking Riches in Niches, “And along with a larger audience comes increases in advertising spending tied to podcasts.”

Driven by this audience growth, US spending on podcast-related advertising (including sponsorships) will rise to $435 million in 2012, up from $165 million in 2007.

A number of factors are driving the growth of the podcast-user base:
-Greater ease of consumption for podcast content
-Growing awareness of podcasting
-Terrestrial radio’s use and promotion of podcasting
-Increased penetration of portable players
-The evolution of smart phones and proliferation of affordable mobile data plans

”No one will argue that mobile devices and communication are becoming widespread,” says Mr. Verna. “Even so, the majority of podcasts are actually experienced on PCs, not portable devices.”
The situation might change in time, but for now podcasts are mainly a desktop phenomenon as opposed to a mobile or portable one.

Reposted from eMarketer (February 4, 2008 ).

#5 - Podcasting & Streaming/Downloadable Media

2008-03-03T10:31:00.001-05:00

Learning Objectives

Review the Learn More: YouTube tutorial.
Learn about the current trends in creating, sharing & downloading multimedia content.
Discover some useful tools for locating podcasts & downloadable media

Skills Practice

Locate & download a podcast for a subject that interested you.
Take a look at the library's oral history project - Hillsborough Remembers - and find an audio; download and listen.
Explore YouTube (or another media sharing site); locate and watch the Florida Ask a Librarian "commercial".
Take a look at the library's collection of eAudiobooks on NetLibrary or OverDrive and learn how to download and play them.
Post a YouTube video or podcast to your 2.0 Learning blog.

Experience Sharing

Summarize your experiences locating and working with online media content on your 2.o Learning blog.

Resources

Pew Internet & American Life Project, “Podcast Downloading.”
Pew Internet & American Life Project, “Teen Content Creators and Consumers.”
SirsiDynix Institute, "A Beginner's Guide to Podcasting: Part A-Consumer's Guide or Part B-Creator's Guide."
SirsiDynix Institute, "What's News in Podcasting."
Thomas J. Peters, et al. "An Overview of Digital Audiobooks for Libraries."
HCPLC's "Introduction to Digitial File Management." (via MERLIN)
Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson, "Podcasting in the School Library, Part 1 - Integrating Podcasts and Vodcasts into Teaching and Learning."
Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson, "Podcasting in the School Library, Part 2 - Creating Powerful Podcasts with Your Students."
Check out ODEO for some free downloadable content.

"Learning 2.0: YouTube" by Helene Blowers

powered by ODEO

Learning 2.0: Podcasts" by Helene Blowers

powered by ODEO

We are so 2.0!

2008-02-28T22:03:00.003-05:00

Here's John Russell's post today from his blog ...Best!...Dream...Ever! This is really what web 2.0 is about, sharing ideas, posting from one blog or website to another. Are you reading any of the blogs by the our staff? Take a look through them, find a few that interest you, and add them to your reader. Don't forget to read the comments on the posts on this blog (and others). This is how a conversation gets going, and when the conversation is about library services, this is how change happens.

10 Ways Libraries Can Use RSS

2008-02-28T11:46:00.003-05:00

Cheryl Wolfe from JFG added the following great post to her blog, The Moxie Librarian.

---------------------------------

Because using RSS is about sharing and delivering information, it seems perfectly natural for libraries to adopt this technology for library services. Here are my 10 ways for how libraries can use RSS.
10 Ways Libraries Can Use RSS
1. Create an RSS feed for new additions to the online catalog.
2. Create an RSS feed tied to a library card account for hold notifications and/or overdue materials.
3. Create an RSS feed for new programs and events posted on the library website.
4. Create an RSS feed for the library’s electronic newsletter.
5. Create an RSS feed for press releases and other media advisories.
6. Create an RSS feed for library closings, including emergency closings.
7. Create an RSS feed for library job openings.
8. Subscribe to a few RSS feeds, such as local news websites, and share the content on the library’s website. This could be included on a page containing other local resources and local links.
9. Subscribe to RSS feeds of interest to library customers and share the content on the customer’s personalized library webpage. Customers can choose to access selected RSS feeds, their library account information, subscription databases, and email/chat with a librarian all in one spot.
10. Subscribe to a few professional RSS feeds and share with library staff on the library intranet.

Finding RSS Feeds

2008-02-28T10:42:00.008-05:00

Now that you've been exploring news feeds, you might wonder - "how do I find more?" or "does my favorite web site have one?"

Internet Explorer 7 (standard throughout the library) looks for feeds, also known as RSS feeds, on every webpage you visit. When it finds available feeds, the Feeds button, located on the Internet Explorer toolbar, will change from gray to orange.

To view available feeds...
On the Internet Explorer toolbar, click the Feeds button .
If multiple feeds are available, you'll see a list of available feeds. Select the feed you want to view. When you click the feed, you'll see a page displaying a list of items (topics and articles) you can read and subscribe to. Copy the URL to your feed reader to subscribe.

What formats do Feeds come in? The most common formats are RSS and Atom. Feed formats are constantly being updated with new versions. Internet Explorer supports RSS 0.91, 1.0, and 2.0, and ATOM .3, 1.0. All web feed formats are based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), a text-based computer language used to describe and distribute structured data and documents.

Lookybook!

2008-02-26T13:11:00.006-05:00

Lookybook is a new, free, 2.0 site for parents, children's librarians, teachers, and kids, to use and love. It's in beta right now, but can you think of all the ways we can use this one?
Go ahead, click on the book. And keep clicking. Or click those googly orange eyes.

Learn More about RSS

2008-02-26T10:09:00.003-05:00

Learn More is a series of Web 2.0 lessons posted on yet another library blog called Library Stream.
Here's a new one on RSS.
Several supervisors have asked if we can alphabetize the growing list of staff blogs on our hcplc=lib 2.0 blog. Well, we could, but they'd be sorted by blog name since that's how we entered them, not by staff name, so I'm not sure it would be all that helpful. But if you want to follow a few blogs, those of people whom you supervise, or just blogs you find interesting, why not subscribe to them on your news reader?
Need help? Take a look at some of the blog postings since we started this lesson last Monday, or look at the comments and ask someone who has already set one up to give you a hand.

A Library Toolbar

2008-02-22T15:42:00.004-05:00

Look what the library in Columbus Ohio is now making available for its customers!

http://www.columbuslibrary.org/ebranch/index.cfm?pageid=209

Why Meebo?

2008-02-22T15:30:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago during the IM and Virtual Reference part of our training we were using a Meebo room to investigate the virtues of chat. Here's an interesting post from David Lee King's blog on how it works in his library. Don't forget to click on through to Helene Blower's post on her blog to see his inspiration. And Helene is quoting from yet another blog....

101 BLOGS!

2008-02-19T09:39:00.006-05:00

What an amazing response from our hardworking staff!

All 101 training participants will be having fun and learning.

One will win an iPod Shuffle!

Let them come to you

2008-02-19T09:09:00.005-05:00

The more blogs I read, the more I click on the blogs that their writers read and refer to in their posts and next thing I know I have another blog, or ten, I want to stay up to date on. I started with only a few library blogs and now there are more and more that are of interest to me. It can be time consuming, and frustrating, to have to go looking for new posts. And then there are the newspaper blogs, the theater blogs, oh, I could go on and on. Until I hooked up with Google Reader. There are other readers out there, of course, but I'm going to focus on this one today because it is the one I use. And because, since most of you set up your blogs using blogger, also a Google product, you already have gmail accounts. So with one login you have your email, your blog, and your news reader at your fingertips. (There's much more but that's for another time.) It's all so easy to use, and to tie together. But if you would like some help, here's a short tour, here's a short video (a bit dated but you'll get the idea), and here's the official Google Reader blog.

#4 - RSS, News Feeds & Newsreaders

2008-02-18T09:59:00.000-05:00

Learning Objectives

Learn about RSS (Really Simple Syndication).
Be able to subscribe to a feed and use a newsreader/news aggregator.

RSS in Plain English (tutorial on YouTube)

Skills Practice

Locate a few library related blogs and/or news feeds and subscribe to them using a free newsreader (like Bloglines or Google Reader).
Locate a few RSS feeds that interest you personally and subscribe to them.

Experience Sharing

Share your library related feeds with the hcplc=Lib2.0 blog.
Share your experience with RSS feeds on your 2.0 Learning blog - What is the feed address for your blog?
How would you use RSS in the library?

Resources

Library Technology Reports (July/August, 2006) - "RSS."
"RSS" - on Wikipedia.
SirsiDynix Institute. "Free Your Content? RSS for Libraries."
Check out the blog, RSS4Lib.

2.0 Alphabet

2008-02-15T16:46:00.006-05:00

is for Furl , from Look-Smart (remember them?). It's kind of like an online filing cabinet that lets you save, store, and share Web pages of interest. As with del.icio.us, you can get an RSS feed of the most popular items that people are currently Furling.

Furl is a social bookmarking site like del.icio.us or Simpy, Furl enables members to bookmark, annotate, and share web pages. Topics are used to categorize saved sites, similar to the tagging feature of other social websites. Additionally, a user may write comments, save clippings, assign each bookmark a rating and keywords (which are given greater weight while searching), and have an option of private or public storage for each topic or item archived.
Considered one of its main features, Furl also privately archives a complete copy of the html of each page that a user bookmarks, making it accessible even if the original content is modified or removed, an antidote for link rot. This also allows full text searches to be made within the archive. However, as highlighted under limitations below, images that are embedded using links are not archived with user's copy of the html page, so images may disappear over time. [Wikipedia]

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 1 (letters A - M) were originally published in Information Today 24.9 (Oct 2007): p.17(2).

Teens @ the Library

2008-02-14T16:13:00.004-05:00

Our discussions of blogs would be incomplete without pointing to our very own HCPLC teen blog. It was created a year ago and published in time to celebrate the first Teen Tech Week. Updated faithfully by a dedicated team of librarians and LTAs, it provides comments on just about everything that might interest teens in our community including the results of the Gaming Tournament Qualifier Events.

This Week's 2.0 Book

2008-02-13T16:10:00.003-05:00

For more examples of how libraries are using blogs and RSS feeds, take a look at Blogging & RSS, a Librarian's Guide by Michael P. Sauers (Medford, N.J : Information Today, 2006).

Libraries increasingly use blogs and RSS feeds to reach out to users, while librarians blog daily on a range of personal and professional topics. The way has been paved by the tech-savvy and resource-rich, but any library or librarian can successfully create and syndicate a blog today. In this readable book, author, Internet trainer, and blogger Michael P. Sauers, M.L.S., shows how blogging and RSS technology can be easily and effectively used in the context of a library community. Sauers showcases interesting and useful blogs, shares insights from librarian bloggers, and offers step-by-step instructions for creating, publishing, and syndicating a blog using free Web-based services, software, RSS feeds, and aggregators.

Michael P. Sauers is the Internet trainer for BCR's Member Services Division, and a part time reference librarian for the Arapahoe County Library District. He is currently on the Board of Trustees for the Aurora Public Library and the board of the Friends of the Aurora Public Library. He is the author of seven books on technology for librarians and has written dozens of articles for library industry journals. [Amazon.com Review]

Icarus

2008-02-13T14:40:00.003-05:00

This blog for customers of the Santa Fe Public Library has contributors from staff throughout the system. One of the nicest of its kind I have seen. And look how they put that catalog search box right there.

Blogging Journals

2008-02-13T09:11:00.004-05:00

Following up on Andrew's post, quite a lot, maybe all, of the professional journals we read already have seriously invested in the 2.0 world. Blogs, and e-newsletters are common now, and so much more timely than the print journals, especially if you get them routed through the system. I often find that by the time I get a journal I have already read the news, and sometimes the articles, online. Lately even the reviews are becoming available. Lots of the content, however, is exclusive to the web. Book Group Buzz is a Booklist blog that is really valuable if you run, or participate in, a book club.

More than the Front Desk

2008-02-13T08:59:00.003-05:00

Darien Library has lots of blogs, btw. They have a consistent look and are all for the public as well as staff. I particularly like their book blog, and the ones for children and young adults. And their community blog is a great service. Even their director blogs.

Professional Journals as Blogs?

2008-02-12T08:53:00.001-05:00

That's what Marcus Banks thinks. Take a look at his latest blog entry on the subject.
He's became firmly convinced that the traditional journal model is antiquated for sharing research and knowledge among librarians. A better course is to develop and nurture excellent blogs, with multimedia capabilities and guaranteed preservation of the postings. This could be an entirely new blog that starts from scratch, or an established journal that evolves into a blog.

What do you think?

Blogs 4 U

2008-02-12T07:14:00.000-05:00

Have you found lots of great blogs to read? In our next lesson we'll talk about how to keep all this good stuff under control, but for now, in case you have not yet found a few blogs of interest to you, let me tell you about Technorati. This is a website that tracks blogs, 112.8 million of them to date. Here's a bit about blogs in general from Technorati:
A blog, or weblog, is a regularly updated journal published on the web. Some blogs are intended for a small audience; others vie for readership with national newspapers. Blogs are influential, personal, or both, and they reflect as many topics and opinions as there are people writing them.
Blogs are powerful because they allow millions of people to easily publish and share their ideas, and millions more to read and respond. They engage the writer and reader in an open conversation, and are shifting the Internet paradigm as we know it.
On the World Live Web, bloggers frequently link to and comment on other blogs, creating the type of immediate connection one would have in a conversation. Technorati tracks these links, and thus the relative relevance of blogs, photos, videos etc. We rapidly index tens of thousands of updates every hour, and so we monitor these live communities and the conversations they foster.
The World Live Web is incredibly active, and according to Technorati data, there are over 175,000 new blogs (that’s just blogs) every day. Bloggers update their blogs regularly to the tune of over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second.
You can take a look at the most popular blogs according to Technorati right here.

And here are just a couple of interesting blogs I am sharing today.
At the Darien Library, the public service staff have their own blog that they are encouraged to post to, The Front Desk Speaks. I love this recent post.
If you are having a stressful day, try a one minute meditation at this very unusual blog, Moments of Rest.

59 Blogs and counting...

2008-02-11T08:17:00.001-05:00

Yes, that's right - there are already 59 blogs linked to hcplc=Lib 2.0! You still have until next Monday to get your blog created to be able to fully participate in the remaining training sessions - don't forget to send the URL in a comment to the workbook section #3 - Blogs & Blogging.

Do blogs really have global reach? Sure they do. Just check out a comment on Julie Troupe's very first blog posting on her Storytime Staples blog...she mentions using the book "One Frog Sang" and the author of the book - Shirley Parenteau -left a really great comment.

I guess you could say - "One Blog Sang."

How's your blogging?

2.0 Alphabet

2008-02-08T11:35:00.000-05:00

is for eSnips is a free, web 2.0 interest-driven social sharing site that allows users to share content and promote their creations and form social niche communities around their specific areas of interest. Members can upload and share content in any file type from one centralized profile, in folders representing their different areas of interest, and can determine the audience for each folder. eSnips is a Flickr type service for data files.

We've already used eSnips to view the survey results from the "How 2.0 R U?" survey.

There are many free online Image Storing and File Sharing sites:

flickr - zoto - glide effortlessly - Shutterbook - Fotolia - iStockPhoto - PhotoBucket - fotki - BubbleShare - openomy - xdrive - omnidrive

Allmydata - Avvenu - SendSpace - eSnips - StreamLoad - Wiki upload - Pickle

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 1 (letters A - M) were originally published in Information Today 24.9 (Oct 2007): p.17(2).

Blogs: Sources of Social Knowledge

2008-02-07T13:22:00.000-05:00

This past week we’ve read posts and articles which have discussed the many varieties of blogs and how they fit into the landscape of social networking. David Weinberger mentions in his article, Libraries in the Age of Social Knowledge, that successful social networking sites provide social objects, items that the group can share, talk about and build relationships around. Blogs can be included in the discussion of social knowledge even though they tend to be written by one person because they still offer the social functionality of comment fields. The social object Weinberger refers to in this article is knowledge. Yes, we could start a totally new discussion on whether people are sharing information or knowledge, but for the sake of this post I will refer to the social objects being shared as knowledge.

Weinberger goes on to say that libraries have many virtues but treating books as social objects is not one of them. A library book is passed from one person to another, in serial fashion, intact. You are penalized for making the book your own by, say, highlighting passages or writing in the margins, no matter how smart your annotations are…Because libraries have been physical spaces, this has made perfect sense. Your book mark-up, no matter how smart, distracts others. Your jabbering away in one of the library’s reading room disturbs other. That’s just how space and matter work.

How can libraries compete or even keep up with the social exchange of knowledge? Should we even compare our printed materials to blogs and other knowledge sharing tools? I don’t think we have a choice. Libraries will have to continually examine their role in the exchange of knowledge if we are to remain relevant in this digitized, networked world.

Weinberger ends on a very positive and encouraging note when he asserts: As works of knowledge become more and more social, we will still need humans staying one step ahead, guiding us with greater wisdom than the works themselves can muster. Those are our librarians.

2.0 on the Book Shelf

2008-02-06T15:49:00.000-05:00

Here's two books that should get you thinking about blogs:

Blogging for Dummies by Susannah Gardiner (Hoboken, NJ : Wiley Pub., c2008. )

* In Part I, readers learn what a blog is, why they might want to create one, and what they need to get started.

* Part II gets readers up and running with their first blog.

* Part III shows readers how to make their blog stand out in a crowd.

* Part IV teaches readers how to customize their blog by adding eye-catching features like expanding a blog's sidebar (where bloggers are able to post personal recommendations, surveys, etc.), adding photos or even delving into podcasting and videoblogging.

* Part V shows readers how to get the word out about their blog and maybe make some money at the same time.

* Part VI discusses how to keep a blog's comments useful and on topic, ten cool tricks tools to make a blog shine, and examples of successful blogs.

How To Do Everything with your Web2.0 Blog by Todd Stauffer (New York : McGraw-Hill, c2008. )

Incorporate the hottest new Web technologies into your blog! How to Do Everything with Your Web 2.0 Blog makes it easy to choose the blogging tools that are best for you and master the basics of blog design and template manipulation. You'll learn how to add different Web 2.0 services to your blog, including images, video, audio, forums, tags, wikis, and even money-making features. It's time to take your blog to the next level and get more hits, more fans, more friends, and more customers.
*Learn about different blogging tools, including Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, and ExpressionEngine
*Customize your blog's design by editing templates and style sheets
*Share your blog headlines and story feeds via RSS and Atom
*Add photos, video, and audio--including podcasts--to your blog
*Drive traffic to your site with tagging, social bookmarking, and ranking services
*Collaborate with users through wikis
*Promote visitor participation using forums, community blogs, and newsletters
*Make money through your blog with Google AdSense, Amazon, and other affiliate programs
*Track, optimize, maintain, and back up your blog.

Blogs, blogs, everywhere

2008-02-05T08:49:00.000-05:00

Maybe you have started your own blog (lots of you have, congratulations!), or maybe you are just thinking about it. One way to get started is by reading other blogs. Certainly read those of your friends and colleagues, but there are so many more you might want to take a look at, visit regularly, add to a newsreader. (I know, I know, that's the next lesson.)
Anyway, here are some blogs for you to consider reading, commenting on, subscribing to.

It's official, libraries and blogging go together. Check out the Library of Congress blog.

The librarians aren't the only ones in Washington blogging. Yes indeed, here is The Hill's Congress Blog (where lawmakers come to blog).

This one is a wiki, but I just want to point out that lots of public libraries are blogging away.

Since you work in the library there is a good chance you love books. Even if you aren't into creating your own personal library on LibraryThing, you may want to get into the LibraryThing blog.

Stay on top of local happenings with Sticks of Fire.

You can also stay current on Tampa, and the world at large, by reading newspaper blogs. There are so many to choose from, here are blogs from The St. Petersburg Times, The Tampa Tribune, and the newspaper of record, The New York Times. What a wealth of information and conversation! More opinionated, and often more interesting, than the articles in the newspapers.

If you still want to know some more about this blog stuff, here are a couple of blog entries you can read.
How Blogs Work is an entry on a blog called How Stuff Works.
And you can Learn More about Blogs and Blogging on this entry into the Discovery Series on a blog called Library Stream.

Now get blogging!

Intro to Blogging

2008-02-04T13:39:00.000-05:00

Today we are starting workbook section #3 - Blogs & Blogging in the hcplc=Lib 2.0 training.

During this two week period, you will be:

exploring library & non-library blogs,
learning how blogs are being used in libraries (and maybe adding to the list of possibilities yourself),
posting on a few comments on a few blogs,
creating a blog of your own that will be your 2.0 workbooks through the rest of the training.

Don't worry if you haven't created your blog yet, you have another two weeks. Take a look at the "hcplc=Lib 2.0 Participants" area on the training blog - 48 of your eager colleagues have already created a blog and are posting.

Here's some links to get you started exploring blogs:

Top 10 Library Blogs to watch in 2008, from LIS News
Top 10 non-Library Blogs to watch (see comments to post), also from LIS News

Here are the Top Blogging sites in December, 2007 (from Nielsen Media Research):

#3 - Blogs & Blogging

2008-02-04T08:24:00.000-05:00

Learning Objectives

Learn about blogs & blogging by reading some of the articles in the 'Resources' section of this post.
View the CommonCraft video, "Blogs in Plain English."
Find, read and post comments to library related blogs (you can start by exploring the links in the 'Library 2.0 Blogroll' at the right).
Check out Blogger's online Tutorial about blogging.

Blogger Tutorial (on YouTube)

WordPress.com Tutorial (on YouTube)

Skills Practice

Create your own 2.0 Learning blog (using Blogger, WordPress, Xanga or similar free blogging service) and create posts.
Share your 2.0 Learning blog URL (as a comment to this post) for the hcplc=Lib2.0 blog

Experience Sharing

Use your blog to chronicle your Library 2.0 learning experiences
How do you think blogs can be used in the library?

Resources

Library Technology Reports (July/August, 2006) - "Blogs."
Meredith Farkas, "The Bloggers Among Us: A survey of the library blogosphere shows the mainstreaming of the medium." Library Journal (Dec. 15, 2007)
SirsiDynix Institite, "Weblogs & Libraries: Communication, Conversation, and the Blog People."
Pew Internet & American Life Project. “Bloggers: A Portrait of the Internet’s New Storytellers.”
Brian Kenney, "Ann Arbor's Web Site Maximizes Blogging Software: Library's Interactive Site Consists of 7 Web Logs."
Mary Ann Kajewski, "Emerging Technologies Changing Public Library Service Delivery Models."
Tame the Web (blog) - “Ten Things a Blogging Librarian Must Do.”
"Blog" on Wikipedia.

2.0 Alphabet

2008-02-01T12:08:00.000-05:00

is for del.icio.us, "social bookmarking" for the great unwashed (e.g., everybody else). This is the 1,000-pound gorilla of social bookmarking sites (for some reason, I always have trouble spelling this one). If you're a voyeur or just want to make sure you don't miss anything cool/interesting/useful, snag the RSS feed from the front page to see what people are bookmarking right now. del.icio.us is part of the Yahoo! family of sites, along with Flickr, the iconic Web 2.0 photo-sharing site.

del.icio.us is a collection of favorites - yours and everyone else's. You can use del.icio.us to:

Keep links to your favorite articles, blogs, music, reviews, recipes, and more, and access them from any computer on the web.
Share favorites with friends, family, coworkers, and the del.icio.us community.
Discover new things.
Everything on del.icio.us is someone's favorite -- they've already done the work of finding it. So del.icio.us is full of bookmarks about technology, entertainment, useful information, and more. Explore and enjoy.

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website -- the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too. On del.icio.us, you can use tags to organize and remember your bookmarks, which is a much more flexible system than folders.

We'll spend a great deal of time discussing social bookmarking and tagging in session #10 - Social Bookmarking, Tagging & Folksonomies.

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 1 (letters A - M) were originally published in Information Today 24.9 (Oct 2007): p.17(2).

No visitors

2008-01-31T16:25:00.000-05:00

Well I was in the Meebo chat room today and no one visited me. To bad so sad. I would have loved to chat with someone. Maybe next time. I am so glad so many people have jumped on board and created their own blogs. It has been fun reading everyone's and getting to know you all better. So keep on blogging. And in response to the Tutor.com issue, as Susan said this is our product and based on stats it is being used. Last month we had 625 vistors to the site. So it is a
great service.

Some people pay for it!

2008-01-31T09:01:00.000-05:00

Yes, this is the same service we offer for free.