Finito!

My favorite library related video is on Vimeo. It is called Questions of the Heart. My nephews love any Chad Vader or Lego clips on YouTube. They also like the OK Go’s Rube Goldberg Machine Music Video. My boyfriend finds Eliijah Wood’s guest appearance on Yo Gabba Gabba funny where he is doing the Puppet Master. He also likes Auto-Tune the News and The Viral Video Film School.

I took the quiz and I’m a Digital Collaborator, meaning I am confident in my ability to manage digital devices and information. I’m glad I took the opportunity to learn about these new technologies, many of them I had only heard about and had not taken the time to try myself. Now, I feel like I could teach people how to use these tech tools. It was beneficial reading other people’s posts and getting a sense of their usefulness (pros and cons).

I’d like to go back and check out some of the CCBC’s shorts in order to be able to recommend more books this summer. I’m also leaning towards buying a Kindle if all goes well with the negotiations between Amazon and Overdrive.

Shelley - Thanks for all of your hard work! Additionally, you have been great about offering assistance when it has been needed.

And then I just ran out of time

I've been putting this one off. Not because I don't think all these things are important (I do!) but because I've never had a satisfying wiki experience. There, I've said it. They usually come off well-intentioned and often quite useful, but only for an fixed moment in time and then eventually fall off. I know this doesn't have to be the case, but...

I am a FB fan of OPPL and have often thought that we could promote a page specifically for Children's. Announce events, etc. ("Sign up starts today for the Baby Derby!")

Getting better about using GoodReads and keeping it updated, but like everyone else, don't buy enough books anymore to really find LT as useful.

Tech Adventures: Final Week!

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, you guys! We are finally in the last week of Tech Adventures.

We got behind with the extra week for eReaders and I'd hate to have this run into May and SRP busy season. So this week, make note of the different things here to explore at your leisure (or spare moments) in the future. Use your blog post to discuss any of these you've looked at, anything you missed talking about in past units, and/or to sum up your thoughts of the entire program.

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Webinar: A webinar is a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar shown online - often a cheap alternative, and easy to attend from your desk. Publishers offer webinars to show off upcoming books, ALA recently had a graphics tutorial, and Syracuse offered gaming class on YouTube – free to anyone, or pay to get credit and additional lecture/discussion. Some are live, others archived for downloading whenever you have time.

Here are some webinar archives:
CCBC Shorts
Downloadable from Nebraska
TechSoup Archive

You can also see what is coming up for library topic webinars. Find something interesting and listen to some of it. Would you attend another?

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Video hosting: YouTube is obviously the most popular platform, but there are other options. You can browse around at Vimeo and Veoh to see how they all compare, and share others that you’ve used.

The Library has an account with YouTube and Rebecca wants to start uploading program highlights. There are a few up right now. Other libraries upload tours, storytimes, collection highlights, etc. How can we use it?

St Paul tour
YouMedia ad
RCPL Storytime
Addison Public Library Children's Dept Tour

These can also be done as audio only podcasts.

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Book Trailer: These can be basic or these can rival what you see in movie theaters, but they all try to drum up interest in a book. Sort of a book talk on steroids. Here are some cool ones:
Shiver
Mockingjay
Hush Hush
100 Cupboards
Mr. Schu finds and makes good ones, as well.

Are there others you like? Link ‘em.

Try to make your own book trailer or podcast. We have the software you need on the iMac: iMovie or GarageBand. Use stock photos and videos, and royalty free music. Or use the Flip camera from the IT Tool Kit to make your own visuals. Or use XtraNormal - that’s what ATS used to make their printing adventures video for staff day. There are many options, so have fun! This is also something that JVs might like to do. We can upload them to the Library's YouTube site and also display them on our site.

Public Domain Images and Media, for teachers, librarians and students
Wikimedia Commons
Royalty Free Sound Effects
Open Music Archive

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Don’t forget to do your final blog. What are some of your favorite videos? (Professional development or just plain fun.) What did you like learning about the most over this whole project? What do you think you’ll want to use in the future? Here's a quiz for you: What kind of digital user are you?

Thanks for participating!

Wiki is just so fun to say

Wiki, wiki, wiki! See what I mean? Anyway, I enjoyed exploring the wiki but I'm still not sure when I would use a blog vs. a wiki. What do you think the pros and cons are of each in comparison with each other? A wiki seems like a google doc just with more widgets. I couldn't find Jenny's pet page for a while, so I'm not sure how to navigate very well. Still, I like the concept of a group created web site. Maybe our patrons could also contribute to the wiki we create? Most of the wikis I had seen before were boring, text-based documents and so I'm glad to see some color and photos on ours!

I agree that the library twitter account is going well, but personally, I just can't get into Twitter very much probably because I'm very long winded, and I don't like word counts! Also, I get confused about where the thread starts/ends sometimes. It's like having a conversation on a cell phone, on a train. In a tunnel. I do like facebook a lot and I agree with SH that OPPL could and should be doing a LOT more with it. It's important for us to remember that whereas the kids aren't on there (at least not until they turn 13), the parents are using facebook like crazy.

Good Reads is wonderful, and I love reading other people's reviews, but I am always feeling guilty about not keeping up with my own posts. I'm a lurker. I also don't buy that many new books any more now that I get everything so easily from the library, so while Library Thing is interesting, I wouldn't use it that much.

OPPL 2.0

Wikis
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At first, I had trouble linking my pages in OPPLkids. With help from Shelley, I was able to figure it out. I didn’t realize how easy it is to create a wiki and that you can add so many different features, like slideshows, calendars, etc.

My favorite wiki is Wikitravel. It is great for tips on how to Get In, Get Around, See, Do, etc. when you need travel information quickly.

Twitter
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I had my own Twitter account for a little while. When I had it, I tweeted for a conference and I texted updates through my phone. I tried to post things that were relevant keeping in mind that my audience had a wide variety of interests. I don’t follow anyone regularly, but I’ve looked at some of TIME’s 140 Best Twitter Feeds.

Facebook
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Facebook makes it so easy to connect with people. I use the private messages the most since it is helpful when you are making plans with multiple people. I also like that I don't have to update friends, family, etc.'s contact information, like their email addresses, when you can simply communicate through the network. On a occasion, I'll use the chat function to send people links when we are on the phone. I've found Facebook great for sharing and viewing pictures since you don’t have to have accounts with the same photosharing site. I'm, however, tempted to delete my wall altogether because now when I send out a status up-date I’m sending it to so many different people, my mom, college friends, professors, the list goes on... Similar to Twitter, it is hard to figure out your audience.

GoodReads.com
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I use it to keep track of the books I have read for fun, my book club, storytimes, and literature classes. I peruse others reviews or look for books to add to my to-read "pile" I have been meaning to add tags and a bookshelf. I frequently search for books and use the covers for bibliographies and look to see if they have won any literary awards. Like Rory, I don't buy a lot of books in order to save $, space, and the environment, so Librarything does not make sense for me either.

Wiki Fun

The exercise I liked the most for this unit was our Wiki. I created a Library Pets page with a picture of our favorite gerbil. I think the Wiki is easier to use than our blog. I also answered a Yahoo question, I think some people are trying to get out of their homework!

I created a Twitter account awhile ago to follow our favorite pigeon but then got cold feet when strangers started following me. I give myself Kudos for remembering my log in and password! I added the library and Bill Cosby to my list. I read an article in the Sun-Times about how he uses social media.

I also joined Good Reads so now all I have to do is read some books! I think the thing I'm afraid of most with Twitter, Good Reads and Facebook etc. is sounding witty, interesting and intelligent. Man, you could spend all day just reading your blogs and the links and writing concise smartly worded posts yourself!

Library uses? Twitter would be great to let people know of events or links to book trailers.
A wiki might be fun to post what was done in storytime and getting patrons to contribute reviews.

Socialites

I have to say, I find wikis very useful for content and such a pain to create. It just always feels awkward and I'm not sure why. Part of it is that you have to consider navigation as you create, I think - pages need to link to other pages as well as be linked from others, so there's a lot of editing involved, trying to figure out how it all slots together and what people will be looking for next. The benefits of a wiki is that with so many connections, you can pretty much follow a stream of consciousness to learn more information. (Best observed when you realize you've lost an hour going from wikipedia page to wikipedia page.)

Heather has talked about wanting to do a website with storytime song and rhyme videos, and I really like how this library uses their wiki to do that: Tell Me a Story. You can find songs easily through categories or alphabetic lists, and each song page has recommended similar songs as well as links to back to categories it belongs in.

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I adore twitter. So easy to keep up (provided you don't go overboard on followers), so easy to update. It's not for everyone, I understand, and it's easy to get lost in a sea of obnoxious updates. I have a mix of librarianship and friendship people listed and use it accordingly. This probably violates some twitter social rules, but I am too lazy to manage more than one account and no one has complained yet.

I love the creativity that the medium forces - it's hard to be witty and/or smart and/or interesting in 140 characters or less, especially consistently, but some people manage well. I only linked Betty, but all the Mad Men characters have accounts - during the season, they will chat back and forth, or hold parties, which is great. I also just learned that Clara Barton is "live" tweeting the Civil War, via the National Park Service. The first bullet was just fired on Fort Sumter 12 hours ago. Nifty.

It is also a very easy way to push information to people - I like hearing about events, sales, brand new books, etc straight from the brands without having to go hunting. I like being able to surprise people with book recommendations or answers to questions thrown out into the twittersphere. I can also choose to get text messages when certain accounts update, which can be very handy.

I think we have a nice balance on the OPPL account - there's three of us posting (me, Sharon and Monica, with Anne rejoining soon) - and we are able to push events, answer questions and just chat with our patrons, all of which is appreciated. Ten Ways Twitter Will Benefit Your Library sums it up pretty well. Also see: The four stages of understanding twitter.

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I think the article overstates the importance of having a Facebook, but since we do have one, I wish we used it better. It's missing the social aspect that our twitter has, and I agree with Rory that we need to engage the patrons who are there more. I think we could ask questions, share reviews, share links, solicit opinions, etc. Why didn't we post asking for snapshot quotes there? We're half-hearting it there, and it shows.

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One great thing about Library Thing is that it offers you recommendations based on the books you add and the tags you give it. There's also a quick link to Project Gutenberg, and it tells you if there's a copy available there without any clicking required. I like that a lot. I like the idea behind it quite a bit, but the thought of actually cataloguing my own collection is overwhelming. I'll stick with GR, which serves my purposes pretty well.

I do like the idea of using LT for book reviews/recommendations for patrons, though. In addition to the automatically generated recs, we could add our own read-alikes. I think it might work as a replacement for the staff recs page, which I generally forget exists. An LT widget on the home page would be neat.

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My best friend loves to go on Yahoo Answers and answer math questions (she's an accountant, and a geek). I hadn't tried it before, but I liked the idea as suggested at ILA. There is a books and authors section, and a homework help, which could be a good place to start. Like Rory, I haven't responded to any under the authority of a librarian, but maybe some day. I think it's a great way to remind people that librarians are there to help with any kind of question.

Always Wanting to Be First, I Am

It was really fun playing with our new department wiki. In the current context of both the brand new wiki and this blog...well, they feel like they could serve a lot of the same purposes. The wiki is more about organizing and sharing information that we might want to have saved, though, while a/our blog is more about "whoa, cool, check this out!"...anyway! The wiki's discussion feature would probably be better for dialoging with each other than keeping up with blog comments from each other, that's for sure.

I "improved" the wiki with some colors in the headers and added some images and made a new page, too [a page which wants your additions]. I wasn't quite sure what Shelley meant by making sure I link my new page, but I think I figured it out. I did wonder if, whether we kept this wiki up, if we'd want to all have a different login to keep track of who was changing/adding what? (I was looking at the "History" tab, see.)



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I'm fairly familiar with Twitter, so forgive me if I don't create a new account and connect with anyone (been there! done that!). I did check out all of Shelley's suggested accounts, though, and that was a lot of fun. It made me realize that, as a "lurker," I'm sometimes put off by Twitter streams with tons and tons of @ messages and inter-tweeting communication. Makes me feel like I have to pick through for original content, and that I'm not in on the conversation (because, well, I'm not). Does that make any sense?

I think OPPL's Twitter is pretty darn good (and, nope, I'm no longer contributing to it, so that's not a pat on my own back).

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I made sure to like OPPL's Facebook page, feeling a little doofy for not having done that before. And I love feed prompts listed in that Library Journal article that Shelley linked to. We should do a bit more "Hey, throw us back your take on this!" to our followers, I think. Put more "social" in our social media efforts.

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I'm a huge GoodReads fan and agree with Shelley's take that it's more about sharing and reviewing books than Library Thing's more personal, organizational set-up. I haven't ever actually signed up with Library Thing (because I tend NOT to own a lot of books), so I just did. Like I was supposed to. Good Rory.

I'm not going to be converted away from GoodReads, but I did like/prefer some things about Library Thing. Like that it asks you what your preferred source of cataloging info is? And included links to local book events? But mostly, Library Thing seemed a bit clunky and slow and...sorry...like something catalogers would like.

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Go answer something on Yahoo Answers, huh? With research? Um...that seems like a lot to ask at 5:05 pm. Am I learning enough and expanding my horizons enough if I just answer something FROM MY HEART? Seriously, I've always wondered how easy the interface was for responding to questions (or how, exactly, you find questions which need answered), so I did learn something! And I answered this (not admitting I was a librarian).