End of the Line! Reflections on 23 Things

I do well with boundaries, so I'll start by answering the provided questions before I go off on rambly tangent of my own.

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I thought that Google Docs, learning about podcasts, and getting familiar with RSS feeds were the three most interesting and useful things I learned from this program. Since I was familiar with about half the technology we explored in this program already, I'm not including anything I understood before, so these would be counted among the best new discoveries I found along my 2.0 Journey.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
It taught me that I'm very good at learning things when someone sets timelines and structures for me to follow. When I'm self-learning, I kind of wander around aimlessly and never get anything accomplished, but with a simple set of guidelines, I'm too OCD not to follow them in a timely fashion. Perhaps I should go back and really try to work on that element that I thought would be hardest for me in the beginning: setting goals ahead of time. If I could learn to do it for myself, I'd be a much more efficient learner.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
It did expose me to a lot of technology I wasn't familiar with before, and as a librarian, I definitely think it's important to have an idea of what's out there that our patrons might be using. Even if we don't use all of these technologies on a daily basis, we have a duty to know what they are, what they're about, and basically how they work so that we can be useful and current resources for the folks who come into the library.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I don't know if it's possible, but the number of accounts we had to create for this program was a little daunting. Personally, having grown up in the age of the internet, I'm a bit wary about what's out there about me floating around on the net that can be tracked down with people who have a knack for using Google to their advantage. It's hard to keep track of all the places you leave your digital fingerprints when you have a billion accounts all over the place, and I was a little frustrated to have so many logins and pages and registers created that I know I might not ever use again and will just sit there uselessly in cyberspace for someone to stumble upon.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?
Sure, if for no other reason than to have someone point out new technologies I might not be aware of but should.

How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program?
For those of us who are already familiar with computers, 23 Things is a great program to turn our basic knowledge into something much more in-depth and useful for our patrons. It's a big internet out there, and even librarians can use a helping hand finding the latest and greatest tools available.

* * *
And now for some personal thoughts...
Throughout the program, I found myself getting kind of grumpy because according to my co-workers, even though I'm young, I'm still an old-fashioned matronly librarian at heart. I've grown up in the technology age, and I like it fine when I need it to do something. However, I do not think that the world should exist solely online. I think there's something to be said for handwritten letters and big, thick leatherbound volumes and music played on vinyl and meeting people the usual way - face-to-face instead of as pixels on a screen. I don't understand why people think that technology should replace the real world. It seems like a dangerous thing we're doing here, replacing everything with its computerized counterpart. I'm all for time-saving tools and technology that does things no human ever could, but when co-workers are emailing back and forth from ten feet away instead of talking, and when I read articles about how we should have "paperless libraries" or see people spending more time and effort (not to mention money) on second lives instead of their first ones...I wonder what all this technology is doing TO us while it's doing things FOR us. Halfway through 23 Things, I found myself despising technology and all the stupid little doohickeys and doodads and trinkets that people make, and I wondered why these people didn't have anything better to do with their time. If I used all the technology we learned about just in this short, by-no-means-inclusive program every day, I would never move out from in front of my computer screen.

Now, I don't mean to sound like a hypocrite. When my internet goes down, I get heart palpitations and start panicking and texting people to let them know why I suddenly disappeared in the middle of a conversation or why I won't be back online for a while. But at the same time, I know when it's time to go lie in my hammock and listen to the waterfall in our pond and daydream for a while. It reminds me of that old saying, "The things you own end up owning you." In this case, the tools we use end up using us. Are we masters of our technological domain or its slaves? It's hard to tell sometimes.

Probably the huge influx of technology every week made me have a bit of a knee-jerk reaction where I wanted to turn off my computer for a week and go live in a cabin a la Walden, but overall, I think we can make good use of technology in libraries and in our lives. As long as I spend more time away from a screen a day than I do in front of it, it's all good.

Thanks, 23 Things, for teaching me new things and also helping to give me a bit of much-needed perspective.

E-Libraries and Downloadable Audio Books

For this exercise, I explored Maryland Overdrive because that's our system and I figured I should be familiar with the one our patrons will be using. I've experimented with MD-O before because patrons were asking questions about the downloadable PDF books - whether they could transfer it to their portable mp3 players, whether they could burn the books onto a CD, whether they could print the PDF books out - and I wanted to be able to answer those questions. I find first-hand experience is the best way to know a product, so I went home and downloaded Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel as a PDF to my home computer.

At first, I was excited about how easy it was to download the book and how quickly it was delivered, with no needing to go to the library and hunt down the book and take it home. Just click, wait five seconds, and boom, you've got a book on your computer. The problem came when I began trying to read said conveniently-acquired book. I couldn't stand to read it on the screen. I longed for the feel of a thick book in my hands and the sunshine on the back of my neck while I lounged on my back porch with a glass of tea. Not only that, my eyes hurt after a while, and I couldn't keep up with where I was on the screen. It allowed me to print, but who wants to use up all that ink and paper to print out 200+ pages? In the end, I came to the library and checked out the physical book because I couldn't stand to deal with the online version.

Now, I'm not much of an audio book listener. Usually the only time I bother with audio books is when I'm going on a road trip and need something to keep me awake for seven or eight ours at a stretch rolling down the highway. I think that I could get into the idea of checking out audio books, though, perhaps for afternoons when I want to knit and read at the same time, or when I'm working on a project that won't allow me to have a book in my hands. It's certainly easy enough to download, just like the PDF books, it's convenient and simple to use, and you don't have to worry about overdues because the book simply expires off your hard drive. (Digital library collections are probably a very good idea for those patrons who have a hard time returning their materials on time!)

The only thing I don't understand about the eLibraries is the fact that there are only certain numbers of copies available for download. I understand that this is probably a copyright issue, which is fine, but my technological-friendly brain thinks, "Why should I have to put a hold on a digital edition of something? It's a file; it can be downloaded a billion times - that's the joy of digital copies!" If copyright law is the issue here, that makes perfect sense, but it still seems a little counter-intuitive to me to put a hold on digital material that I know should logically be available at all times to as many patrons as are requesting it.

One more thing I'll note for the record is that the Overdrive people are extremely helpful in terms of customer problems. If you have a patron who is having technical issues with downloading materials, Overdrive is very willing to help solve the problem. Great customer service.

Locating Podcasts

Being the music junkie that I am, I've come in contact with podcasts before, usually in the form of interviews of my favorite musicians or perhaps album commentaries they recorded and released as "exclusive bonus material!!!!" for their website and message board subscribers. However, I didn't realize before now that podcasts are considered an audio or video file that is NOT music. Learn something new every day.

In a way, the websites that allow people to create and upload their own podcasts are much like YouTube, or at least are in the same vein of self-publication on the web. The neat thing is the ability to subscribe to these podcasts; that's definitely new and different from YouTube. It's funny to see all the self-published "radio stations" people have created. For someone with a creative mind, what a fantastic resource this could be. The only problem that presents for the person seeking a podcast is that you have to weed through a lot of less-than-reputable podcasts to find ones that provide you with reliable information. (If you're looking for reliable information, that is. If you just want something entertaining to listen to, then no problem!)

I found the search engines, like Podcast.net and Podcast Alley easy to navigate, although I prefer Podcast Alley just a bit more because of their system of listing search results (nifty drop down information when you click a link) and their easier-to-navigate tags. I found half a dozen kind of cool podcasts, three dealing with library- or book-related subjects, and three dealing with random fun stuff:

KCRW's Bookworm
Uncontrolled Vocabulary
Written Voices

Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir
KneeJerk Radio
Brain Food

I subscribed to KneeJerk Radio on my Bloglines account (the Bloglines account that never gets used, I should add...), and I was pleasantly surprised at how the podcast search engines just give you the address for the RSS Feed so you can pop it right into your Bloglines account. It's a happy shock when websites work together so well.

Overall, I think podcasts are kind of cool, and I think mainly it would be a great alternative to regular radio. Basically, that's what the podcasts that you subscribe to seem like to me - a radio show that gets delivered to your inbox or wherever. Right now, I tend to use podcasts as a one-shot deal - hunting interviews I want and whatnot, but if I was ever in a position to have a specific time set aside every day to listen to radio-type broadcasts, I'd most likely subscribe to a podcast.

YouTube

Sometimes I wonder how the world existed before YouTube. I mean, where else could we find great Bollywood videos like this one and funny commercials like this one and wacky and hilarious homemade videos about men's bathroom etiquette like this one? Could you live without seeing videos like this? Yes. Would I want to? No.

I remember when YouTube first started getting really popular. It seemed you couldn't go anywhere without seeing people posting up their favorite videos all over their blogs and websites, and now that it has grown in popularity, the selection has only gotten broader. I particularly love that networks like NBC are getting into the game, uploading their own copyrighted content legally, like this digital short from SNL. (Don't watch that one if you're easily offended!) That's the sign of a hip network right there. Also worth note is the fact that YouTube doesn't charge anything and allows the average user to upload anything they want. It's easy and fun and all-around spiffy.

Obviously, I'm the geek who loves YouTube for the bootleg videos that people shoot at concerts of my favorite musicians and the fact that even if I missed someone performing on late night TV because I had to be at work early the next day, I can just pop over to YouTube and catch the performance the next day. Bliss.

So, in keeping with my predictability of always talking about music, I present you with a list of videos of My Favorite Musicians No One Has Ever Heard Of:

~Neal Casal - "Eddy & Diamonds" Recording Documentary
~Regina Spektor - "Samson" Music Video
~Martha Wainwright - Cover of Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song" on Letterman
~Teddy Thompson - "Everybody Move It/I Wish It Was Over" on Jools Holland
~And a bonus... OK Go - "Here It Goes Again" The viral music video that took YouTube by storm and made this band famous.

YouTube makes me happy.

Web 2.0 Winner

Okay, I hope it's not cheating for me to write about a site I was already familiar with, but I was so surprised and pleased when I clicked on the winners list of the Web 2.0 awards to find that one of my favorite sites, Pandora, won top honors for the music category!!

It totally deserves it. The site originally started as the Human Genome Project, and after they realized their classification system of music could be turned pretty easily into a predicter of musical tastes, Pandora was born.

The best thing about Pandora is that it helps you discover new music you might not have otherwise known about. The more you use it, the more "intelligent" it gets at predicting your tastes. It's kind of like having a personal music advisor right in your computer, and you can tap into it any time. By a system of 'thumbs up' and 'thumbs down' approvals, you can either accept or reject their suggestions of music you might like, and if you say you really hate something, they'll never play it again.

Sites like this are in danger because legislation is being pushed to start taxing streaming music sites, and a lot of these online resources are run by small companies with no more than a half a dozen people, start-ups who had a great idea and took advantage of the World Wide Web to get a business started. It would be a shame to see resources such as these go out of business because they crack under heavy taxation.

Pandora is user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, and serves a great purpose for those of us who are always looking for that next new artist to try out. Getting to play around with it at work was a joy; almost as much fun as playing around with it at home.

Google Docs

Woooow. Okay, for the first time since I started doing 23 Things, I've discovered a technology I was unaware of before that I think is totally and completely fantastic! The ability to word process online, ooh! No more copyrighted software that you try to update over and over again as the years go by, taking up room on your hard drive and driving you crazy when you get a new computer and have to suffer through the reinstallation process! Google owns my heart, truly.

I already used gmail before I created my blogger blog because I think the service is streamline, easy to use, and incredibly efficient and useful - not a lot of extra stuff cluttering up the place. I find that Google Docs & Spreadsheets is much the same! Clear, easy-to-understand layout, not a lot of clutter. In short, it's exactly what you need without a bunch of crap you don't. Once again, the Google empire has won over my heart.

P.S. And it actually posted properly to my blog! Yippee!

Sandbox Wiki

This was an interesting activity. I expected the sandbox to be more organized and less chaotic, but then, it is a playspace, and there are a ton of beginners (including myself) poking around in there, so no big deal.

I think that I'm so unused to communal webpages that I tended to use it more like a message board than a website editor. I wanted to sign my additions (and did) because you can't tell who added what, and it felt strange and wrong to edit someone else's webpage. I know this isn't an uncommon feeling - after all, as the last activity said, we're very picky about our personal space! I kept thinking...what if I change something that the original person doesn't like? How will anyone know which are my contributions and which were already there? Maybe if I could get used to and start to enjoy the idea of anonymously adding content, I could get into it more. Actually, I think that's pretty much required in order to use wikis a lot - that's the whole point! Maybe I'm too much of a control freak for the concept not to make me twitch a little bit around the eye.

In any case, I thought it was fairly easy to use, but as someone who actually knows a bit of html, I found it annoying that I couldn't use my coding but had to rely on their WYSIWYG buttons. Since it's a bulletin board, it also uses that odd alternate html with brackets instead of carats (carrots? carets?), which may or may not be called CSS? I'm not sure. I don't really know anything but basic html, and I definitely don't know CSS. But I added my contributions nonetheless. I edited the blog page, the What I Am Reading page, and the Rather Be Knitting page.

Kinda fun, not too difficult.

Wikis in Libraries

This has been one of the most interesting things for me to explore. I'm a fan of Wikipedia already because if you're just looking for some quick information on something and don't necessarily need it to be collegiate-level accurate, Wikipedia's got everything. Surprisingly, the information usually seems to be pretty accurate, despite the fact that anyone on the web can add content. And sometimes, it's handy to use Wikipedia as a springboard to find search terms you can use in more reputable databases.

To be honest, I never knew that a wiki was something independent of Wikipedia. I'd never even heard of a wiki outside of that website. I think that it's a really unique tool, and I'm not sure I've quite organized my thoughts on all the things it can do yet, so bear with me as I talk it out.

At first, it seemed like, to me, that if everyone could just log in and change things, it might as well be a bulletin board, but then I realized that bulletin boards aren't organized to be easily searchable, so that's not really an apt comparison. So it's a website, and that's handy, because the more content you have, the better the site, and opening it up for multiple people to contribute (who might not necessarily do so otherwise due to computer illiteracy) is really handy. Being a part of a team that is attempting to create a library website and worrying frequently about how we will generate content to keep it going, I can see the obvious benefits to having many, many contributors.

However, I can't help but think that, in terms of a library wiki, the content would need to be monitored a bit more carefully than any old wiki out there in cyberspace. Obviously, this could be handled by only allowing the wiki to be edited by librarians, but then you're not allowing your patrons to have much of an involvement in the project. I love how Princeton Public Library's Book Lovers Wiki incorporates reviews from their patrons, but I have to wonder how they monitor their content. Surely, someone must be watching out for cursing, inappropriate commentary, spamming, harassment, etc? And if that's the case, and someone is spending a lot of time making sure propriety is maintained, then wouldn't it be just time-consuming as monitoring a message board or screening every post that goes through?

I don't know. I love the idea of wikis to which patrons can contribute, but I don't understand how it can be done and content-screened without creating a lot of extra work. The whole idea of allowing a bunch of people to contribute is to SAVE yourself time, so policing the site seems like it's a bit counter-intuitive to the point. Overall, though, I think I'm of the opinion that wikis rock.

Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

I decided to break this post up into four different sections, the first three addressing articles I read and the final one discussing my own particular opinions on the subject of the future of technology in libraries.

Away From Icebergs
by Rick Anderson

I don't mind saying it: this article pissed me off, and I'll be glad to explain why. Number one, the whole tone struck me as fairly arrogant...as though this man somehow has his finger on the pulse of libraries all across the nation and what the needs are of librarians and patrons. Statements like, "Our patrons have no such qualms, of course, as the emergence of Web 2.0 demonstrates" are broad generalizations about what patrons are comfortable with, and frankly, I don't agree that patrons ARE so agreeable to web technology. But aside from the overriding tone of "The All-Knowing Library Technology Expert," I had a few more specific issues that got under my skin.

The first "iceberg" that Anderson describes as being a problem for libraries as we move into the future is that "it no longer makes sense to collect information products as if they were hard to get." I read this paragraph once, and then I read it again because I really was certain that this gentleman was suggesting that it would be wise to completely digitize libraries and do away with physical collections completely. But after my reread, it seemed to me that that's what he was trying to argue. ...is he serious? Do away with physical collections completely? It's absolutely insane. It's so insane, it makes me want to rant and jump up and down and wave my arms and yell a lot (possibly throwing in some nonsensical angry noises in there as well).

Has anyone ever tried to read an eBook straight off of your computer? I did. I got through 20 pages and had to quit because I couldn't stand to look at the screen that long. My eyes hurt, it was hard to follow along, and not only that, when I want to read, the last place I want to be is parked in front of a computer. I want to take my book outside and sit under a tree where I can feel the breeze and the sun on my legs. I spend enough time indoors with a keyboard at my fingertips. The last thing I want is to take the one activity that I can do anywhere - reading - and let it chain me to the computer for one more minute than I have to be already. I'm certain I'm not the only person who feels this way. Above and beyond the aesthetic reasons for preferring physical books to electronic books or resources, Mr. Anderson seems to function under the misconception that everyone loves technology! They might not understand it, but if we could just get them to learn how it works, they would fall in love! This is a load of hogwash. I have to wonder when the last time was that he worked the desk in a public library and fielded questions from real patrons running the gamut from young to old, rich to poor, underprivileged to college-educated. Some people simply don't like technology. And I don't blame them. Sometimes I hate it myself. The day libraries go completely digital is the day I stop using them. Technology and progress is fantastic, but how long have books been around? Nothing is better than the feel of a thick book in your hands and the smell of the pages. Getting rid of physical collections is taking the soul out of reading. I'm all for progress, but the thing Mr. Anderson seems to forget is that there's something to be said for tradition as well. We shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. It's certainly not good to alienate technologically-savvy patrons by eschewing all computer-based reference service, but we have a responsibility to provide for those who like their information the old-fashioned way as well.

Into a New World of Librarianship
by Michael Stephens

Now this is the type of approach I like to see when it comes to integrating technology into libraries and introducing it to patrons. Stephens offers reasonable and, more than that, human response to using technology to make information more readily available to patrons. His suggestions don't give you the cold, impersonal feeling of everyone clicking away at home to a glowing monitor, finding the information they want. Rather, he talks about using technology as a tool rather than a solution to some supposed problem with the libraries today.

Particularly noteworthy in his article was his mention that librarians should not have technolust and purchase every online resource available but that she should recognize the needs of the community and its patrons and buy software accordingly, staying ahead of the curve and knowing what things might be useful for their particular library.

Another thing I really appreciate about this article is how Stephens doesn't focus simply on the pursuit of information but also the community aspect of Web 2.0. He encourages librarians to establish online communities of patrons where they can discuss, blog, interact, and generally be involved in their library experience rather than just being a button-pusher who selects what they want and waits for the information to pop out of the machine.

To A Temporary Place In Time...
by Wendy Schultz

One thing: I still do not get why libraries getting involved in Second Life is such an all-fire good idea. Someone please explain.

Schultz had me in the beginning of this one, talking about libraries as not being IN communities but being the communities themselves. I dig the idea of libraries being centers where people enjoy going, the same way we like sitting in the big leather chairs at Borders and Barnes & Noble with our grande mocha lattes while quiet music plays in the background. No offense to libraries, but I'd rather hang out there than at a public library because the atmosphere is nicer. So I agreed with her there...up until the point where she started talking about collecting librarian avatars and her foray into the future...

I feel like an old fogie, but...why does technology have to infiltrate everything? I'm of the generation of the personal computers - the first home computers were starting to come out right when I was born, and I've always had a home computer since I was a tiny little kid. But I know when enough is enough and when it's good to embrace things away from the screen.

Maybe I'm feeling grumpy about technology today, but that's my two cents.

Technorati and Tags

I have to admit, Technorati is a lot less intimidating than del.icio.us. I actually kind of liked Technorati (which isn't to say I disliked del.icio.us, but you read my last post and know how it gave me heart palpitations at the sheer size). My favorite thing about Technorati by far is their search capability. I love that you can search for keywords that appear anywhere within a post, tags that are attached to a particular blog entry, or blogs that are simply categorized about one specific subject. It's one of the most handy search features I've come across, and I played around with it for a good long time.

Since Blogger automatically has tags that can be picked up by Technorati, it eliminates the need to really put in the specialized html tags that will allow Technorati to "catch" the post. (I'm still not sure what the proper lingo is here...so it will "ping" Technorati when a new post goes up? No clue.) I'm not sure I like the idea of my blog being registered and made public for the whole world. I've been blogging for a long time, but I've always locked my posts for friends only, so the idea of having a public journal that is easily found via blog search engines like Technorati and Google Blog Search is kind of scary. I suppose if I were publishing a blog that was meant for mass consumption, that would be one thing - I would be glad to have it registered with sites so I could get a lot of traffic. But when it's just me playing around and musing about technology, I don't feel like it's necessary for everybody and their brother to be able to find my blog.

Nevertheless, that's just the way of the internet, I know, and perhaps being online for more than a decade has made me properly suspicious and overly cautious about making myself findable on the internet. I have a huge online presence on many sites, but I know how to protect myself against being searched and found, and I try very hard to keep myself shrouded because there are a lot of crazies out there. My goal is to only allow myself to be seen where and by whom I want to be seen. It takes a lot of diligence, but I think I manage to do it fairly well, and that's one of the primary reasons I don't like having a billion subscriptions to so many different sites. The more subscriptions you have, the harder it is to keep track of them and make sure you don't accidentally have your name or your location somewhere you don't want it to appear. There are plenty of decent people out there surfing the net (not just the crazies), but I'd still rather be safe than sorry.

I'm getting off track though. Technorati is a great site, and I think it's really useful for searching the blogosphere. Easy to use, fun to play with. This was a pretty enjoyable activity.