Week 10 #23

YEAH!!!!!
Looking back over this journey, I find that "the more things change, the more things remain the same." I can't help but compare nearly every aspect of the 23 things to it's precursor in the non-computer world. Blogs are just computerized diaries (Mary Chestnutt would have had a ball in the 21st century!); wiki's are lists (these aren't attached to the frig door but same difference); youtube is an in-your-home equivalent of the traveling circus/vaudeville; and avatars are paper dolls for adults (with WAAAAAAYYYY more choices!). I'm glad to have learned many of these things just so I can help our patrons (I've already started developing a Zoho class for my computer students), but as I've posted before, I think that many of these things are not positive, not helpful and desperately need cataloging rules!

Week 9 #22

Now this (emedia) is something I can wholeheartedly endorse! I'm not thrilled about the books to read online because I find it hard to curl up comfortably with a computer (someone should invent one about the size of a teddy bear and extremely mushy!) but I love the downloadable audiobooks, music and the videos. And, as a librarian who is constantly deaccessioning items that have been ruined because someone (who shall remain nameless but whose initials are "patrons with children and/or pets") has allowed the DVD to be used as a frisbee, the cassette to be used as a chew toy or video to be put in the player right after junior finished stuffing a PB&J sandwich in the slot, I really appreciate the fact that this item I'm borrowing will be just as good when I get it as it was when it was new. And even though I've used this technology in the past, in really looking through it, I am amazed at the selection.

Week 9 #21

This is one of those things I'm undecided on. I can see that it could have some positive effects (I love the information about library exhibits and enjoyed the Library channel offerings) but, like most of the internet, there has been too much adding and not enough editing. Just sorting through one keyword listing is a nightmare. But with diligence, I think this could be a great thing.

Week 9 #20

Not only am I back to kicking and screaming, I am appalled that this site, which is semi-BLOCKED by our filters (although there is a way to get around the filter by clicking on that it is being used for "work-related purposes") is being used as a teaching aid. This may be a generational thing or it may be that I am not a TV watcher but I actually think the problem is that after you've seen the kitten massaging the puppy and said the obligatory "AAAWWWWW!" the point of this site is to promote free filth. There is no other explanation for why a site that is supposedly a place to share videos allows film of hard core sex, live executions and people shooting up heroin to be shown to children. Let's be real, if I want cutesy, I can watch America's Funniest Animals; if I want news there are a lot of legitimate news sites but if I want filth, it's been gathered, sorted and filed alphabetically. Thanks YouTube!

P.S. I do appreciate that the filters do not allow me to order Victoria's Secrets.

Week 8 #19

I am now embracing the technology! This Zoho thing is wonderful! One of the most asked questions I get in my computer classes is: Does my computer come with Word (or Excel or etc.) and I have to explain that no, that's extra most of the time. This is a fantastic application for people who don't want to buy MS Office and the best thing is it's available wherever there is a computer. I love being able to save my stuff and then just open it up on another computer and its there - this is especially good for people who are job hunting. Instead of having to carry disks or flash drives (many of which get left behind or get corrupted from being schlepped around!) you simply open up the application and voila! there it is! And with it being MS friendly - you can easily pop it open, save to a Word file and then send it if you must have a Word document.

Week 8 #18

I think I pretty much talked about my feelings on computerized social networking last blog - I don't like it. I think it's a way for people to hide behind words and avatars. Just as with the wikis, I can see that a group might have a social network to keep up with what's going on - my mother's family has one for the family which is spread out all over the states and into Europe, but just to put information on the web randomly, like casting a worm into the lake to see what you get, is simply beyond me. If these people are so interested in actually having a relationship with someone, why don't they get out and have one? Instead of joining myspace.com, why don't they volunteer somewhere or join an actual club with real people? Sorry, I just don't get it.

Week 7 #17

I know this will sound anomalous since a lot of people believe that the new technologies are bringing more people together, allowing people to share their thoughts, wiki-ing, blogging, etc., but the few times I have looked at places like myspace.com, blogs, and other technorati that are "bringing us together" I have thought that technology is actually keeping us apart. First of all, each of these sites represents a person sitting alone in front of a computer (even our patrons that are sitting elbow to elbow are strangely alone in their own little world) and that means the person is not sharing with a real someone. And, how much are we losing by limiting our face-to-face contact? How many of these people behind the blogs/spaces can live up to whatever they are writing? And why aren't they involved in a flesh and blood relationship (I don't necessarily mean boyfriend/girlfriend, but just friend/friend)? Are we turning into a nation that lives through a screen? And if you only connect online, are you losing the ability to have a "real" relationship where the other person sees you with your not so perfect hair and a few extra pounds instead of the beautiful avatar you have posted? And are we turning into a people that likes the shadow instead of the reality?

Week 7 #16

I find it hard to see the point of a lot of these wikis. Wikipedia is a good example of what librarians are here to prevent – the dissemination of maybe wrong/maybe right or downright bad information. One of the things that we stress constantly in helping people use the computers is to find a TRUSTED source. The Wikis for information may or may not be trustworthy. And, the SJCPL seems to me to be totally useless. If you are computer literate enough to navigate through the wiki (for example to get to the tax forms) then you are computer literate enough to simply do a search using a search engine. Why go through more clicking? The Book Lovers Wiki from Princeton is another case in point. How do we know whether the person doing the review even read the book? Many of the reviews sound like cobblings from amazon.com. I think this goes back to what I said earlier; I don’t have time to read things my friends suggest, much less strangers.

I did like the Library Success wiki since it is a specific forum for a specific group to share ideas and we can always stand to look at new ideas. I think a system-wide wiki on ideas for bulletin boards, posters, reference, etc., would be nice except that (as has already been mentioned during the reference meetings) no one has the extra time that would be needed to setup and maintain it. And (as has also been said) each library is different in time, space and money restraints (although I think we all share the not enough of any of the three) as well as in patron demographics so what works at one may not work at another. I can see the point of specific group wikis to share information among a related group but I still don’t see the point of general wikis.

Week 6 #15

Library 2.0. I think that it means we change to meet the needs of the community. And the quote from our lesson, "libraries have always been 2.0: collaborative, customer friendly and welcoming" is definitely not true. I think that the public concept of libraries (and to a great extent, librarians) is more of a bank that holds the information as opposed to a store where they can come get information. Some libraries are customer friendly and welcoming, but there are still libraries that are not welcoming and there are still a lot of librarians who want to withhold information more than they want to disseminate it.

Of course, one of the problems (as noted by others) is that the library is different things to different people. One of the problems we have at ours is that to be more welcoming to teens and kids means that a lot of our adult customers feel estranged. People who want to use the library for a quiet refuge are out of luck because our library is more of a community center. We cannot be all things to all people. At our library we offer computer classes but because of space restraints they are out in the library proper - so although we are providing a service for those wanting to learn, we are not providing a service for patrons who want some peace. I think that patrons (as well as librarians) need to understand that there will always be time, money and space restraints. The successful library is the one that juggles these restraints successfully.

Week 6 #14

I think I might have to kick and scream a little.

This section is another one that I don't really get. For example, the first exercise (take a look at Technorati and try doing an advanced search by typing "Learning 2.0" as a keyword search in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory. Are the results different?) - yes, the results are different but a lot of them are the same - NOT related to Learning 2.0! I think this goes back to the last post - we really, really need structure.

And one other thing I found, which is not surprising but definitely worth noting - is that so many of the people blogging (90% is a conservative estimate) having nothing to say and can't say it in an interesting way.

What did these people do before they were not communicating well via internet? Watch TV is my guess.

Week 6 #13

I'm not sure about this "delicious" thing. I can see that for an individual to make their own tag for their own use, it makes sense; but the problem comes with "tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data anyway they want" - we at HCPL have already experienced this "free form" type of thing when anyone was allowed to put items into the catalog and it became a nightmare. I don't know about the rest of the world, but Americans do not seem to do well with "unstructured." In fact, the beginning problems are talked about (changing cooking, cook, cooks to one word: cook) but the implications are ignored. I think the internet has already proven to us that more information needs stricter guidelines, not looser.

Week 5 #12

The reminder Elf is a great service - I think that most people check their emails regularly (as opposed to their library accounts) so they would see that they need to do something and it organizes everything so nicely. I particularly appreciate that I can add the cards for the entire family and see everything at once as opposed to having to go to three different accounts. Very nice!

Week 5 #11

I'm not back to kicking and screaming but this exercise made no sense to me until I read the part where you can access it on your cell phone and see if you own the book - this one thing makes it all worthwhile - I cannot tell you how many times I've seen a book on sale and could NOT remember if I had it. I do have to say that I see no value to it otherwise but I think this is a personality thing because I prefer to interact with live people in person as opposed to sharing thoughts with strangers that I don't know and will never meet.

See what I like to read:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/gbonefas

Week 5 #10

OK - I've decided to go into the 21st century with no kicking now that I've found an avatar to kick for me! This was the best yet. I love the avatars and would still be dressing mine if we didn't keep having to open the doors to the patrons. And the different text styles are SO COOL - my displays are going to go up a notch now, although I may never get another one done since I have several million fonts to choose from.

My avatar was generated at http://avatars.yahoo.com/

Week 4 #9

Well, I think I'm back to kicking and screaming. I explored Feedster, Topix, Syndic8 and Technorati and thought that all of them were equally confusing to use. Particularly on Technorati - first it defaults to "All" which gives you an array of information that is too general, then when you click "Entertainment" you get way too much information on Britney Spears, which frankly isn't entertaining. I bypassed "Technology" "Sports" and "Business" since I know nothing about any of them but I did take a peak at "Politics" which should probably be labeled "Entertainment" so that no one confuses it with real life.

I don't really see the point of these search tools - I would think that the easiest thing to do would be to go to a site (news or otherwise) that you like and RSS from there - or mention to friends that you are interested in certain topics and they can send you links.

Week 4 #8 RSS Feeds

Not being a big fan of reading on the computer, I never thought I'd be doing this, but now that I have I'm really glad. I love Aaron Elkins and he has a "whenever he feels like it" blog and I have wasted a lot of time going to see if he's posted anything new, but now I'll automatically get updates! Yea! I guess I'm going to be dragged into the 21st century kicking and screaming but maybe a little less loudly now.

Mashup smashup - I just want to add a photo!

Wow, this photo stuff is amazing. Since I think Labs Rule, Retrievr is my favorite although with my drawing skill I doubt that I'll get a match. Captioner is cute too. The others are way over my head and seem to be aimed at major computer geeks.

But the Library Trading Cards are awesome! We need to have these for everyone in the county! I love the avatar ones and the descriptions. In fact, they would make great business cards or we could use them as name tags.

grommett

grommett
Originally uploaded by jennylcarver

This dog thinks he's people.

Internet Safety

I think that internet safety is important for children and for those who are using credit cards online. However, just as some people have lost their minds about using their credit cards and are now carrying large sums of cash, which to me seems much more dangerous, internet safety can be taken to extremes. If the people who are posting were concerned about others seeing their information, they wouldn't put it out there. Anyone who is capable of posting information is capable of understanding that NOTHING on the internet is private and it could get out regardless of safeguards.

September 18, 2007 Afternoon

I was thinking about learning styles and I noticed that my son and I have a lot in common. We are both very hands on and learn best when we can do as we watch. My husband is one of those lucky people who can read about something and understand how it works. I don't think I could read about how to open a book and then do it without someone showing me.

September 18, 2007

Just wanted to take a few minutes to remember why I became a mom. Oh, yes. Because I wanted a sweet, intelligent, beautiful child to share my life with. Well, I got the sweet, intelligent and beautiful but they didn't tell me that I would also have to put up with stubborn, whiney and spoiled. Not to mention greedy. Actually, at six years old the whiney is winding down. The stubborn is about the same, (spoiled is grandma's problem) but the greedy is driving me crazy! My son wants EVERYTHING he sees on TV, every toy at the store, everything that his friends have. In fact, he will even take the dog's toy if it looks interesting enough. I had one child (for several reasons) but one of the main one's was because I did not want to be a referee. Well, that didn't work since I now have to protect the dog.