7 Things On A Stick

I read a couple articles recently that mentioned briefly anectdotal evidence that suggests email is to a certain extent dying off as a viable means of communication. The backlash against spam, combined with the reality of emailing someone in the cube next to you is kinda silly, has resulted in the general public by and large giving up on e-mail. I still check my G-Mail account religiously because it conveniently feeds me all my other email accounts (school, etc.) into one handy dandy package. The trade off as everyone knows is ad saturation and invasion of privacy. That said, demand for seniors wanting to learn how to use email is very popular here at our library. (I prefer G-Mail for aesthetic considerations, personally.)

Email is also used to great effect at our library: patrons can email a reference question after hours, let them know an item is overdue or available for pickup, etc. So perhaps the sky isn't falling after all.

The main drawback with anything computer wise is the time drain factor. It maddens me the time I've lost deleting spam that I will never be compensated for. The 43 Folders tip sheet was good, check out LifeHacker for even more ingenious ways to not let email ruin your life.

The IM we do here at the library is invaluable. I would not have gotten through college if it had not been for the library IM program with the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis! Google Talk is superior in that it doesn't require a bundled download. IM looked like the future in the mid 90's but of course there was too many for people to choose from: Yahoo, ICQ, AOL, etc. You ended up keeping 4 running simaltaneously and then not being able to keep up as 5 people were trying to chat with you simaltaneously. Then you settled with one but then missed out on conversations with friends who refused to adapt to your preferences. Plus it's a bandwidth drain and a security risk and productivity killer so many companies don't allow Skype at work anymore. IMing is available here at the library for staff but I rarely use it, preferring old-fashioned face to face interaction.

I text message constantly. It's easy for me to communicate without being obtrusive to others. The challenge for librarians is a generational one, I feel. I'm 28 which makes me younger than a lot of the staff but even I don't recognize all the abbreviations these young whipper snappers like my little sister are using nowadays. :) Our library does not offer text message communication at this time, to the best of my knowledge. Since librarians aren't issued cell phones, perhaps it could go the way of LiveJournal where a blogger can text a cell phone from their computer if they are granted permission. How to respond back is of course another matter entirely. Texting is also an added charge on cell phones, another hurdle that needs to be addressed as well.

Web Conferencing is also clunky because it's even more of a bandwidth hog than IM. Our network has trouble downloading a YouTube video, so one must become pragmatic about this sort of thing. OPAL is an awesome idea, because they host it. I'm completely behind this one 110%! We would need money for things like webcams, VOIP, mics, etc. We have some of that already, granted, so it would be a matter of who would get to use it, when and for how long. Sadly, I could not attend an OPAL event because none are going on right now and I have to get off the clock. The one on Mary Todd Lincoln's mental illness looked fascinating.

On a final note, the library success wiki is wicked, but I will have to explore that when I have a whole day to click on all those great links. Per usual, InfoToday is oblivious that most libraries have limited IT resources. In review, Email has increased productivity here at work, but with inherent limitations. Case closed, Encylopedia Brown!

6 Things On A Stick

The notion of using specialized graphics via random image generators for logos or projects is a good one. However, one point that was touched on briefly in the prompt was the notion of copyright infringement. It is one thing for a private citizen to bend a few rules under fair use for their own and their friend's enjoyment as long as no money changes hands.

But it is another matter entirely for a not-for-profit governmental institution funded by taxes like a public library to get involved willy nilly. There is no easy answer for the copyright lisencing aspect of this because it is so fruitless to police this sort of thing effectively. Wouldn't it just be so much easier to hire a part timer with a background in graphic design and save yourself that legal headache?

Of course it's fun to make goofy online lisence plates. But caveat emptor nonetheless, people.

5 Things On A Stick

The mashup phenomon is IMOPO a short-lived web 2.0 fad at best. The hidden flaw of these apps is that they rely on a secondary party to help power their content. For example, let's discuss Craiglist using information gleaned from Google Maps for real estate listings. This is a great idea but what if Google doesn't want Craig's List using up their bandwidth? The software developer's response is "Hey! We're giving you free advertising. You should be thanking us, not yanking us off!" But 9 times out of 10, it's a little tiny start-up (i.e. not Craiglist per se) going up against a 800 lb. behemoth. I'm betting on Goliath at this point.

That said, Yahoo! is off to a great start because they are copying the Face Book playbook: allow third parties to look at your code via open source and then let them do all the work for you ala crowdsourcing. The amateurs get recognition for their work, your content is enhanced and some companies turn these competitions into a farm team for searching out new talent. This is actually a time honored tradition within the tech world: a substantial percentage of computer security analysts today are former hackers with past felony convictions resulting from attacks on their current employers.

The majority of Flickr mashups that Web Monkey recommended are, like most of the Internet in general, mindless time wasters that have no real use for serious librarians. I chose not to add a mashup to this blog not because I didn't know how but because I didn't see the point. Not to be rude about this prompt, but how does me being able to sort random photos by color help patrons?!?

The only real benefit I can see with these mashup's is from a graphic design standpoint: making the library look cooler. The posters we post for upcoming events, librarian trading cards, etc. But in terms of priorities, I'm putting this one at the bottom of the list. Sorry for being such a Debbie Downer today. :(

4 Things On A Stick

As an amateur shutterbug, I have been a member of Flickr for some time now.

The photos of the Eugene, OR library are gorgeous - me so jealous, me envy you long time! It was also very heartening to see libraries embracing change rather than begrudingly accepting reality. I already touched on the Library of Congress project in a previous post. The "add a note" tagging idea by St John's is an excellent idea. (I'm curious about stats as to how many patrons actually used this feature.)

The photo I uploaded from fototakerspain perfectly illustrates my point about the potential downside of online photo sharing. The photographer posted a 2 tone Photoshopped shot of an attractive female minor who happened to be at the Eugene, OR public library. It was added randomly to a collection of library photos for seemingly no reason whatsoever except for, I assume, that's she's easy on the eyes. That's all well and fine. But consider the cautionary tale of a co-worker of mine at the coffee shop I work at. She posted photo and video online of her getting her hair cut because she had not done this in quite some time. Within 72 hours, multiple creepy fetish websites tailoring to the desires of men who want to watch young girls get their hair cut had linked to her photo and video feeds. Common Craft didn't mention this sort of thing in their handy dandy little video. So maybe "antique" albums and frames aren't so old-fashioned after all.

That said, Flickr is by far my favorite photo sharing web site on the Interweb these days. I used to use PhotoBucket years ago but Flickr has amazingly only improved after being bought out by Yahoo! Yahoo remains the McDonald's of the online world, but that's why Bill Gates wants it after all.

Finally, I would like to add that the difficulty of successfully uploading a photo from Flickr begs another discussion in of itself about copyright and the new Creative Commons "copyleft" movement. I understand the artist's need to not get ripped off, but we need to balance this with the ability to comment on other people's work on our own terms.

3 Things On A Stick

As others have noted before me, the Common Craft video @ Blip TV doesn't work. And I would like to second the emotion about what a lousy job Blogger has done "improving" it's product. Now even running spell check or adding a picture requires the patience of a saint and a Masters in Engineering. Viva Lj! Death to Blogspot!

I like the aesthetics of Google Reader so I went with that one for now. I've had little experience with RSS feeds up until now and I still have mixed feelings on their overall practicality. If the websites you visit are mostly explainable in the headlines or first paragraph, this makes you a much more efficient surfer. But if you are obsessive in your thirst for knowledge like myself, it just becomes yet another giant time suck. Now, instead of just haphazardly visiting a few websites you now know to the second when somebody you like has something new. It reminds me of that scene in "The Man Who Fell To Earth" when a miserable alien played by David Bowie is sitting on a chair slowly rocking back and forth behind a wall of TV's, chanting "Too much information! Too much information!"

Google's Blog Search is helpful but I was unable to add any RSS feeds from LibDex's list as a majority of the links appear to be dead. Not cool. However, just based on the titles alone, librarians still love nerdy puns and lame in-jokes.

Of all the library blogs I read today, Unshelved is by far my favorite. Funny and informative, overall lovely.

As far as how libraries can use this technology, that's an excellent question that I don't have a clue how to answer. (I went to a state school, buddy!) Seriously, the issue with so much of Library 2.0 is how much access we're going to give the general public in this endeavor. At the library I work at here in Rochester, we have several computers for catalog searches on both floors but no internet access. The internet access ones are confined to part of one floor, and limit your time to one hour a day. This is common for libraries of course but is seen as archaic by some members of the public. One solution larger metropolitan libraries have is more internet computers, but less time is allowed per station. The whole concept of libraries is sharing and fairness, so just filling the library with computers isn't the answer either. Even if you put RSS feeds as say a ticker on the intranet-only stations would be cruel as patrons can't click on the links, assuming that's even feasible.

In conclusion, the only application I can think of here at work is for colleagues using RSS to more efficiently cruise library message boards that are invaluable to us doing our job in many respects. The communities on LJ and others of that ilk serve a unique set of purposes for our community: a support group for unruly patrons, updates on new changes in the field, a sounding board with frank and impolite language we're not allowed to use at city council member meetings, job postings, a convenient vehicle to ferret out secret prejudices nestled away in our midst, etc.

It would appear almost everything now is available as a RSS feed but we have yet to concretely harness it's awesome potential, IMOPO.

2 Things On A Stick

Before I begin today's post, I would like to add one comment to my last missive. I am not a fan at all of Blogger's new editing software. Once you've posted, it's nigh on impossible to edit after you find formatting errors or what have you. It's always been tough to get an accurate "preview" of what's it's going to look like, but at least you could fix your work after the fact before everybody else saw the snafus.

That aside, I tried in vain on numerous occassions on multiple computers and varied internet connections to load Stephen Abram's Australian kick-off video, all to no avail. :(

To start off, I felt John Blyberg's post was spot on in many respects. As both a paperback lover and Dot Com Bust survivor, I'm always suspicious of anyone claiming the "interweb" is going to change everything. (Ex: remember the "paperless office" myth?) Cynicism aside, he's right. We HAVE to compete with Google when the general public in some cases feels a librarian is an outdated profession not unlike door-to-door knife sharpeners or the ice man. We may need to lay off some old librarians if they refuse to be re-trained in computer software. I don't think this will change the mission of libraries per se - check out Earl Lee for further ammo on that particular front. The new movement is problematic much like Wikipedia or any other "authority" being thrown to the madness of crowd-sourcing. I for one hope it never comes to deciding between more books or internet terminals so Milennials can have more flame wars. It's not so much a paradigm shift so much as another oppurtunity to engage the public rather than scolding them for, say, pirating mp3's on public property. If acquiring video games and opening coffee shops gets people passionate about libraries again, so be it. We are not as obsolete as let-the-market-decide-libertarian types would have us to believe, but we do need to do a better job of showing how cool, invaluable and radical we really are.

The "Ongoing Web Revolution" article in Library Technology Reports had some good ideas as well. The web is not necessarily the royal "us" (if it was, there would be no such thing as "powerful" or "influential" blogs like Wonkette.) Engaging the public means trusting them, and sometimes trusting everyone is a really dumb idea. Everyone's voice doesn't necessarily have to be heard in order for democracy to work. But we do need to let the patrons participate, within reason. That's where we drop the ball. Having an intranet wiki isn't enough anymore. One part of the conversation lost in that article was how web technology like FaceBook physically isolates us in exchange for providing the illusion of community. Yes, you can clarify your identity, track your loved one's every move, chat with strangers, form virtual tribes, earn street cred and share your garage band's demo. But at the end of the day, you are lonely and staring at a computer screen all day by yourself! But it holds promise too: BookSpace, allowing readers to comment on the book they read at the library's URL, the Library of Congress using Flickr to help identify un-catalogued photos, etc. This is all still up for debate, but it does have the potential at least of making the library a more social place.

I was not impressed with the OCLC Next Space Newsletter's take. Why would you ask a "futurist" anything other than to kindly shut up and sit down? Why not query Miss Cleo while you're at it?

The Wiki entry was much better. Two mantras I loved were "Beta is forever" and "Harness the Long Tail". Excellent! The blogosphere is right to proceeed with trepidation, the concept of Library 2.0 is vague at best at this stage in the game.

In closing, my response to the training prompts:

• Time is definitely an issue for me as this is only one of three part time jobs I currently hold down. My boss set aside 2 hours a week for me to work on this, the rest is pro bono blogging.
• I am participating in this because my boss told me to. I hope to learn about things I don't know how to do (like RSS technology) and to get better at the things I do (like Blogger). A new flash drive would be a nice bonus. :)
• The Internet has affected my life drastically since I first logged on to Yahoo in the early 90's. I purposely do not have the Net at home so I can save money but also to be more productive and social. I hate to admit it, but anytime I have unfiltered T3 lines at work, my productivity dips ever so slightly. If you've got AD/HD tendencies like moi, you can easily waste an entire afternoon puffing on WikiCrack.
• I feel my Library 2.0 knowledge is advanced by comparison to some of my co-workers. But that's, again, a gross generalization. Library 2.0 is definitely catching on: a librarian ex-girlfriend of mine in rural Texas has patrons friend her on MySpace, responds to reference problems via IM, etc.

Buh-bye.

1 Thing On A Stick

Hello everybody, my name is Nathan Hall. I am 28 years old and a part time Circulation Services clerk for the Rochester Public Library in Rochester, MN. I have been employed here for roughly a year now. And today marks my first post for the Minnesota’s seven multi county multi type library systems Library Learning 2.0 program.

Setting up a Blogger account is nothing new for myself. I have maintained a personal Blogger account off and on for years and have been required to update others for jobs in the past. I first joined Blogger during Beta testing and have since found Live Journal to be a far superior blogging site. I have been a part of the blogging community since high school in the early 1990's, back when those sites were labelled "personal everything/nothing" sites or EN for short.

That said, if I were hypothetically teaching a class at the library for newbies wanting to learn how to blog, I would probably use Blogger or Live Journal. I've noticed Blogger is now the MySpace to LiveJournal's Facebook. In other words, the general rabble that is afraid of HTML or complicated design schemes favor Blogger's clean, simplistic interface. More technically savvy users prefer LiveJournal. It has more features, more room for home-made applications, and in general is more aesthetically pleasing. I realize this is a gross generalization, but in general that has been my personal observation thus far.

In terms of Web 2.0 context, Blogger and Live Journal have both been incredibly adept at harnessing the power of "crowd-sourcing," as the wags at Wired are fond of saying. An anonymous Blog Spot user (and the communities he set up) played a pivotal indie journalist role at my school, the University of Minnesota, during recent class elections and Live Journal has done a surprisingly adept job of bringing obscure issues like tattoo copyrights into the public consciousness.

Thus ends my dissertation for the day. :)