Podcasts

Unfortunately, I can't download itunes on to my work computer, my favorite method of collecting and organizing my podcasts. I tried all three of the podcast directories and still had the best luck with doing a google search on my topic and adding the word podcast. Podcast.net never loaded on my computer, I kept getting the File not Found page. Podcastalley required downloading a podcast aggregator, which I assume I also cannot do on my work computer. So I was left with the Yahoo audio search. When I typed in "children's book review" I got 3 results, 2 of which were PRINT not audio. The one audio result was for a podcast I am already familiar with, Just One More Book, which reviews kid's books. Another library-related podcast I listen to is A Fuse #8 Production, by New York Public Librarian Betsy Bird. She review books, does booktalks and shares industry news. When I did my google search for podcasts, I found the Seattle Public Library's podcast for teens. It was fun to listen to and a great example of what public libraries are using the technology for. It featured a book review by an actual teen, an informal discussion with a group of teens, and the chance to win a prize at the end. It was short and sweet.

When I left Multnomah County Library they were experimenting with podcasting. They had recorded booktalks for all of the current YRCA titles, but I don't see them posted on the library's site yet. They also recorded School Corps' Gotta Read This booktalking program for educators which I was a part of, but I don't think they ended up getting good quality sound. One thing I noticed about the podcasts I listened to was that they mostly sounded like they were recorded in a cave. Compared to the NPR podcasts that I regularly listen to the quality of home-grown podcasts leaves something to be desired.

I think a podcast of FVRL's newsletter would be nice, maybe some book reviews and booktalks. In general, I feel like we've passed audio podcasts and it's time to get creative with the video podcasts. I think Sam's One Minute Critic booktalk site is a great example of what library's can do with video podcasting. I especially like that he is getting other staff involved AND anyone can make a video and he'll link to it. Very cool.

Like with any new technology at the library, before we put alot of time and money into it, we should determine if there is any desire for it. Will people subscribe/listen/view what we are producing? Will we need to educate patrons on how to use the new media? Stuff to think about...

Audio continued

Ok, there were a few more sites I needed to look at for the first audio portion, but I felt the post was getting too long and texty, so I started a new one. I've been to the Internet Archive site many times, but always only to use the "way back machine." I love to see how websites looked 8-10 years ago and I LOVE to show it to students and remind them that NOTHING is ever really gone from the Internet, so don't put those skanky photos of you and your friends on your myspace page! I see I have a lot more playing around to do with this site. I watched one old Pall Mall (they pronounced it Pell Mell) cigarette ad. I'm definitely going to check this out from home and see what classic movies they have. And of course, who doesn't LOVE watching home movies of someone's vacation? Hours of entertainment! I'm not even going to get started, because I know it would suck up the rest of my day. And it looks like there is a good selection of audio, too. Fun!
I think I've used the Sound Effects Archive before, back in my movie-making phase. Gutenberg is hit or miss (if I'm remembering correctly) as far as audio quality goes. Some of the recordings I've heard are real duds. Mango Languages is new to me and seems pretty cool. I like that you can get 50 lessons for free. I'd definitely do the free 50 lessons before traveling to a non-english speaking country. I think it would give me a few phrases to have on hand, though certainly wouldn't make me fluent!

Audio

Alright, I'm checking out the audio sites. First up: last fm, the social music revolution. Right away one thing I don't like about the site is that you can't listen to a song while navigating around the site. That's weird for a music site. I do like the social aspect...connecting with other users, finding similar music,etc. I could see myself using it to find music similar to stuff I already like and previewing it. I didn't like that it wanted me to sign up to listen to some music. I just don't need another user name and password, so I'm going to skip that! Next up: Pandora. I've been using Pandora for a year or more and I really like it. I think Pandora does a good job of selecting similar music. Sometimes I just like to have it on in the background while I work (though not very often AT work due to the bandwidth issues.) I like it's simple interface as opposed to last fm's very cluttered and busy site. And finally, Imeem. I hadn't heard of this site. It looks like it might be better for music videos, I'm having a hard time just find audio. Again, it seems like I need to create a profile before I can access full length songs, and I'm not going to do that. My absolute favorite music audio site (at the moment,) is Songza. I don't need an account, I type in the exact song I want to hear and it plays it! It's that simple. It really is like having a free jukebox. Yeah, not all the songs play, but the majority of them do and I've found lot's of covers and re-mixes that I probably wouldn't have heard otherwise. Oh, and I love that I can email a song to a friend or post a song to my blog, like I did here.

Are CDs dead? Not yet. My preferred method of music acquisition remains checking out CDs from Multnomah County Library and saving them to my computer. However, when I just want to OWN that one song, I do go to Itunes and buy it for .99. Instant gratification. Vinyl isn't dead yet, so I don't think we need to worry too much about CDs just yet. But what about the library? Should a library, like FVRL, who doesn't currently have a CD collection consider starting one? That's a tough one. I have a new car that has a port for my ipod, but the majority of people don't have new cars. Do they have ipods and ipod speakers? Are there companies out there providing downloadable music for libraries like the ebooks, video and audio book providers? I'm not sure, but if they haven't started, I would think they will soon. It's the never-ending dilemma between keeping up with current technology while attempting to provide access to everyone.

Video

I skipped ahead and did the video assignment this morning. Because of our bandwidth issues I needed to do it first thing this morning, even though it felt wrong to be watching TV at my desk at 9 am. (Somehow more wrong than watching TV at my desk at 3 pm. Go figure.) I checked all of the suggested sites (because it's so important to me to do the assignments correctly!) and saved youtube for last. I'm already quite familiar with youtube but had never seen any of the rest. I tried searching sewing and vegetarian cooking on each of the sights. Some had no results, some few, and some quite a few. Youtube won hands-down on every search. I did find Threadheads on Meta Cafe and it was my favorite sewing video. I thought that the two science video sites, ScienceHack and Jove, were excellent. I can see how these would be really useful for teaching and you don't have to wade through all the softcore to get to the videos. The other video related sites were all interesting and I'd never heard of any of them. I have reservations about the suggestion to use Dabble to collect how-to videos into a library account to share with the public due to the amount of potentially offensive videos in their most popular videos section. I like the idea of libraries collecting online videos to share with patrons, but I don't think a commercial sight is the way to go.

Here are a couple of public library ads I found on youtube. They're clever and well-done. I like the idea of YAAB groups making commercials for the library and maybe competing in a contest for the best video. I think that would be a great way to get teens excited about the library AND to make sure they know all the great resources the library has to offer.

Here's Cambridge Public Library's Locker Ad:



Here's one from Fulton County Public Library:




And don't forget my Topeka Barbie bookgroup post!

Ok, I guess now I should do some real work!

Google Docs

I was unable to load the "quick tour" and the video didn't work for me either, but I have used Google Docs in the past, so am somewhat familiar with it. I didn't know I could publish to my blog from here, so we'll see how well that works out. I really love GD. I collaborated with a group of colleagues from different library systems last year on an article and we used GD. It was great because we could all access the document and edit it from wherever we were. However at least one librarian had a difficult time using it and ended up sending her edits through email. I am a Mac user at home and so it is very frustrating when I receive attachments in Word (like my FVRL paystub,) and am unable to open them. GD allows me to view these documents without purchasing the pricey MS Office suite for Macs. (Though it is rather time-consuming and it would really be easier if our paystubs at least were PDFs.) The spreadsheet and presentation software also seems very useful. I wonder how much money a library could save by getting rid of MS and just using Google? The downside, of course, is permanence, privacy and it continuing to be free. There might be limits on how much information you can store and for how long. Overall, I think it can be very useful but will unlikely make MS Office obsolete.

Now I'll try and post this to my blog.



Ok, I just did it and it was INCREDIBLY EASY! Maybe even easier than using Blogger to post. The only think I'd have to do is go back and edit my tags in, and I'd be very unlikely to take the time to do that. I mean, what's the point? It's so easy to add tags as I type in blogger.

"Cool Stuff"

So I wasted some time playing Wordshoot,which was awesome. But then I started to feel guilty that I was sitting at my desk playing a video game, so I quit and headed to Yahoo Answers which seemed vaguely more work-related. I wasn't too surprised by the dumbness of the questions asked:
Club penguin?
i kno theres a cheat so that you can buy stuff but not spend your money. i kno i sound cheap but my friend needs to buy alot of stuff and i want to help her so please help me! ♥
But I was blown away by the quantity. Obviously people (esp young people) have got some questions! In 10 pages of questions, the oldest question was asked 5 minutes ago! The majority were unanswered and will probably remain that way. Who's going to scroll through pages and pages of questions in order to answer one? I did feel for this guy and considered replying, but I didn't want to go through the log-in process:

I need help with the college process?
alright, i have a couple questions:
1. How do you know whether or not you can get a full ride somewhere? Is it after you apply to the college, or do they tell you before so that you'll want to apply there? Do you have to ask them if you qualify for merit based scholarships?
2. Around what time should I ask my teachers to write letter sof recommnedation? And do you have to ask your principle and guidance counselor for one, or do they all do that themselves?
3. What are some good national clubs and organizations to join that look good on college applications?

I'm glad librarians "slam the boards" once a month and answer questions. I'll try and remember to check it out next month.

So what are we doing wrong that ref questions are falling while online questions are skyrocketing? How could we improve our marketing to reach those questioning citizens?

So I'm at the FVRL website and the "Ask a Librarian" button is in a really good location on the homepage. But then I click on it and I get this long list of fill in the blank questions, including my name, my contact info, my library...etc. We've already lost the majority (?) of young patrons looking for answers. And where's the librarian avatar (thank you, Manya!)? I'd love to see a place on the website where questions could be posted anonymously and answered by a FVRL librarian.

When a problem comes along...

YOU MUST WIKI! Ok, I have so far managed to avoid the cutesy post title, but I've just gotta sing about wikis! I really like the idea of wikis, I like the way they're organized, I like that lot's of people or only a few people can edit them, I like how most (all?) of the wikis I've seen are very visually plain with the emphasis on the information, not the graphics. And I love, love LOVE Wikipedia. I can't tell you how many times I've stood in front of classrooms of students, (elementary-college age,) and warned them of the perils of using Wikipedia for homework, just to turn around and use the heck out of it at home. I've even used it on the ref desk! (Wikipedia is great for current and past pop culture.)

In the library, I think wikis are great for booklists, for technical manuals, even for committees to post their minutes, agendas and collaborative projects. I've edited wikis and find them very easy to use (much like this blogger software.) At MCL I helped with a multicultural booklist wiki and found that even some colleagues who were wary of editing the wiki quickly became comfortable using it. I created my own wiki, zines for teens, on which I was going to review zines that would be of interest to teens (it's HARD to establish collections with little to no reviews out there,) and setting up the wiki was very easy. Maintaining it, (reading zines and writing reviews,) proved too time-consuming.

The main thing to watch for with wikis is sources. I looked at Wiki Books Wikijunior and the Bugs page I looked at listed a bunch of great information about beetles, but not a single reference. Another page I looked at said it was a "junior version of the wikipedia article." So then I'd need to go to that site to see what sources were listed. I'd definitely steer kids clear of using this for homework.

But Wiki Books Cookbook is a perfect example of the greatness of wikis. A searchable cookbook that anyone who writes in English can edit. I'm less interested in their nutrition information (the page I looked at had no references other than Wikipedia,) but for recipes or cooking techniques, I think this could be very useful.