Leo's Lair

Thing 23

2008-06-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

In the 13 years I have lived in North Carolina I have done customer service and reference training in two different library systems. One of the main points I emphasized to staff I have trained is that public libraries are not without competition. The growth of the big bookstores and the Internet were the primary sources of that competition in the past. Bookstores and the Internet are still part of the challenges faced by public libraries, except the Internet has morphed into a collaborative venture for the most part. If public libraries take the luddite point of view and resist technical changes they are eventually doomed to go the way of the dinosaurs.

I have spent most of the last fifty years working libraries. When I started in 1955, Al Gore was seven years old and was a long way from inventing the Internet. Everything was done manually and libraries had little competition. By the time I went to library school in the mid-1970s computers were being used in universities for statistical research and personal computing was just over the horizon. In the mid-1980s the system I worked for purchased PCs for managers and internal email changed our lives forever. A few years later I retired and the Internet was just taking off. Over the past few weeks I, and my colleagues, have been introduced to blogging, Flickr, Goodreads, del.icio.us, Library 2.0, Google Docs, Google Reader, Podcasts, etc. The 23 Things we have spent this time studying are tools that librarians in the present and the near future can use to bring new users to public libraries and point their way to the resources libraries can provide their communities.

Thing 21

2008-06-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

Podcasts are another way for libraries to publicize their activities to the internet savy. For example, Sara Long, director of the North Suburban Library System in Illinois has a podcast (see Leo's Lair Thing 15, 5/27/08)in which she interviews authors and/or persons of interest to the library world. A library I used work for has a radio station that podcasts interviews with authors. Other libraries use podcast to provide instructions on how to use their resources.

I tried to use the suggested podcast finders, but I found if I asked them to find "public library" podcasts, I got all sorts of libraries, plus public radio. As I am writing this, I am listening to Garrison Keillor giving the news from Lake Wobegon, from a podcast I found. In addition to Lake Wobegon, I am interested in podcasts dealing with libraries, books, baseball, and football, the real kind they play in the UK. I did find a number of podcasts to which I subscribed, but some of these I knew the source of the podcast.

Thing 20

2008-06-18T08:19:00.000-07:00

YouTube is a wonderful mix good stuff and garbage. I guess it is up the viewer to determine which is which. Here is my favorite video: This is a concert Frank Lee and Isaac Deal performed at Marianna Black Library recently. I picked this video because it illustrates how libraries can use YouTube to publicize events and the others things they offer. (I also know to suck up!!)

I added this other video because I love Alison Krauss' voice. I didn't think anyone could sing this James Taylor song better than him, but she comes close:

Thing 22

2008-06-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

I have had a NetLibrary account for about seven years now. I have checked out ebooks before, but this the first time I have tried downloading an eaudiobook. I personally think a number of our patrons would just as soon check out a cd book as fool with audiobooks from NetLibrary. In the first place, you can’t bookmark NetLibrary eaudiobook on your computer. You can do this on a MP3 player as long it’s not an Ipod, which are not compatible with NetLibrary eaudiobooks. Secondly, unlike ebooks, you cannot return an audiobook before it’s due; it will stay on your computer or portable device until the due date. The only way I would checkout a NetLibrary eaudiobook is if it was the only way I could listen to a particular book.

Thing 19

2008-06-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

I looked at a number of the Web 2.0 award web sites, but the one I had the most fun with was Live Search Maps. It is possible download a 3D version of the program, but unfortunately, here at work, you have to have adminstrative capablities to do this. The 3D aside, in larger cities you can look at a site from a satellite photograph from four different directions. I found my son's house in Memphis and I was able to see his car parked in his back yard. I think I will email him and tell him I am spying on him (just kidding).

Thing 18

2008-06-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

Google documents can be used libraries for many different things. Internally, new procedures could posted for staff to read and edit. Some libraries are publishing staff newsletters on line, Google documents could be used for the editing process. Externally, library customers could make a list of their favorite books or suggestions for programs and/or books they would like see added to the library's collection.

Google Books Revisted

2008-06-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

Google Books is arousing interest in various places. Here is a link to article written by the director of Harvard University Library: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21514. This article was published in the "New York Review of Books."

Thing 8

2008-05-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

I think I skipped Thing 8, so here goes:

Of all the mashups I looked at Locale - the random day out generator http://www.webmashup.com/cgi-bin/jump.cgi?ID=170 was my favorite. You can any zip/postal code in a number of different countries and this site will provide you with a map, access to Microsoft Virtual Earth or Google Satellite pictures and a list of places to go and things to see in the immediate vicinity. It sometimes shows pictures of neigberhood buildings as well. Good tool if you are planning a trip.

Wikis (Thing 16)

2008-05-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

Wikis! Wow!! How could Fontana use them?? Let me count all the ways!! I would like to, but I don't have the time. But here are some suggestions--

Internally: Meeting agendas, calendars, blogs, ideas for programs, staff suggestions, etc., etc.

Externally: Requests for purchasing new books; patron reviews of books, cds, dvds; community information; staff reviews of materials; how to (reference, genealogy, use the computer catalog, etc.); etc.; etc.

Thing 15 (Library 2.0)

2008-05-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

Library 2.0 is more than a computer program, it is rather a philsophy for library service now and in the future. Succinctly, libraries must be open to change and must involve their customers in determining what new services to provide instead doing internal studies and/or surveys. Libraries will no longer be contained within four walls. Michael Stephens, a professor at Dominican University's Graduate School of Library and Information Science, is the guru of Library 2.0. Here is a link to a podcast interview Sarah Long, Director of the North North Suburban Library System in Illinois did with Stephens: http://www.librarybeat.org/podcast/?_episode=100. Listen Long's interview with Dr. Stephens and you will learn more about Library 2.0.

Google Books (Thing 14)

2008-05-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

Google Books will eventually be one of the sites that expands the library's offering to the public besides what's on the shelves. In my opinion it's too limited in what it has to offer at the present time to much use. Of course, if you put in it the catagory with the ebooks and the audio books you can download from the LC Live sites Fontana holdings are greatly expanded.

Tagging (Thing 13)

2008-05-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

I love tagging. Ever since I have been involved in reference work (over 30 years) I have cursed LC Subject Headings because it took LC so long to catch up with contemporary language. If LC could find a convoluted to approach a subject heading, it seemed to me, the catalogers there would find it. For a while I even started thinking like LCSH and I almost checked myself into rehab to solve the problem. With tagging, I can label a site anything I want. Even better, on Goodreads, I can give a book a subject heading that makes more sense than anything the catalogers at LC could use!

Things 11 and 12

2008-05-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

Digg: I didn't dig Digg. I get enough news from CNN, BBC, the Drudge Report, and all the local newspapers' web sites to do me. I'm sure the off beat news stories that are posted on Digg amuse some people, but I'm not one of them.

When I started working in libraries in the mid 1950s, there wasn't much competition, save for the lending libraries in some department stores. Fifty years later libraries are having to compete with the big chain book stores and the Internet. Now the Internet has changed and libraries are struggling to keep up.

A presenter* at the recent SOLINET conference in Atlanta worried because 1% of people seeking information on the Web start with a search engine rather a library home page. ( http://tametheweb.com/talks08/TransformedLibrarySOLINET.pdf) The growth of social networking, Wikipedia, Web 2.0, and Library 2.0 means more people are using other Internet sites to find information, rather than coming to libraries to check out books or using databases such as NC Live either in the library or online. Libraries in the present and future will have to use the technology we are learning about, both internally and externally, to reach current and potential customers.

My preference for my reward is the MP3 Player.

* - Michael Stephens

Goodreads (Thing 10)

2008-05-15T12:04:00.000-07:00

For the past five years I have been maintaining a reading log so I can up what I am reading. The nice thing about Goodreads is I can see what others are reading. Today I added a number of books to my Goodreads site: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1108805. My pastor kids me about reading heavy history books and I harass her about the "light" subjects she studied in seminary and both enjoy good fiction. At any rate, I added some fiction titles today so my Goodread friends don't get the impression I do not read light fiction.

Flickr and Friends

2008-05-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

This flickr is a little different from the Flicker in the children's book. This is another tool that allows people to share information and/or pictures across the world-wide community of the Internet. In the process of learning about flickr, I also learned how to email pictures from my cell phone to my computer and uploading them to flickr.

The Generator Blog was the most fun to play with. It has a number of ways: postcards, badges, magazine covers, etc. with which you can adapt your pictures. I chose to make my picture into an Andy Warhol like poster a la Marilyn Monroe. I also superimposed my picture on a jumbotron. I also thought about using this make my wife a Mother's Day card, but I went to Hallmark instead.

How Techie Are You?

2008-05-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

If you want find how "techie" you are, take this quick test from the Pew Foundation. You can be rated from "omnivore" at the top to "off the network" at the bottom. Let me know how you score.

Leo

RSS

2008-04-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

RSS: another new term to learn!

New Tools! New Terminology! Social Networks! How are libraries going to stay ahead of the curve? Reference by text messaging or chatting! Reference customers in cyberspace instead of on the other side of the desk. Reader's Advisory by email. We'll have our presence on MySpace or YouTube.

I remember the first library where I worked in 1955. Way back in the middle of the twentieth century! There was a sign over the information desk that said "Reader's Advisory." I started out as a shelver (pages we were called then.) I also worked on the circulation desk where we checked out books manually by writing the patron's card number on the book card. We've come a long way, baby!!

All this to say I've set up my Google Reader and subscribed to six RSS feeds concerning libraries.

Persons You Do No Want to be Mad at You!

2008-04-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

A customer came the library yesterday on crutches. When I asked what happened, she told me she had torn a ligament in her knee. "How did you do that?" I asked. "Cheer leading," she replied. "I thought that was a non-contact sport," I quipped.

That interaction made me think of the people in your life you don't want to be mad at you:

A restaurant employee or relative who is going to be alone with your food.
A health care professional who is participating in your care.
The person who is supporting you in a cheer leading pyramid.
Any sibling younger or older who is bigger than you.
A spouse or significant other who is devious.
A cop is writing you a ticket.

If anyone can think of any others, feel free to add to the list!

Stuart Macbride

2008-04-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things on the Internet is to visit author websites to see what their up to. One my favorites is Stuart Macbride.

http://www.stuartmacbride.com/en/ He is a Scot who writes police procedurals set in Aberdeen, Scotland (picture to the left). (Maybe I'm partial to him because he sets his books in my home town!) Anyway, he lives there with his wife (She who must be....) and their cat, Grendel. If you haven't seen the movie "Beowulf" or forgotten your English lit course, Grendel is the monster that Beowulf has to fight to save his people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grendel So that you something about his kitty. He loves blog about Grendel and her prey. If you're cat lover you'll love his musing about his feline's behavior.

Other subjects dear to Macbride's heart are his wife's foibles, his writing, and his appearances as an author or people who irrate him.

If are a mystery fan and you haven't tried his books, Cold Granite is his first novel.

Learning Habits

2008-04-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

Using technology has always been easy for me. I started using computers with a Mac in 1983. The library I worked for started using personal computers in the mid-eighties before the Internet was quite so ubiquitous. I was one two staff members exempted from training on word processing when supervisors were assigned personal computers. I later taught myself to program on DBase II+ to make my job serials librarian easier.

Viewing problems as challenges is the hardest for me to do. As I get older I would much rather find someone with the skills to solve the problem quickly than to take the time to do it myself, particularly if I don't have the skills myself. Maybe I'm getting lazier I get older. (Don't say anything, Faye!)