Final Project

FYI, my final is posted here. It is also, as required, linked to from my student page.

Johnson reading, Part 2

Towards the end of the reading, Johnson made a comment that saved this entire book for me - "moderation in everything." Yes, video games and television are good for you - they encourage critical thinking and problem solving skills, but sitting in front of them for too long can lead to behavior problems and weight problems (I've seen it happen).

Anyway, what does this mean for libraries and schools? Integration of technology. I'm lucky to work in a school where technology is embraced - students are in the computer lab for at least a half hour each week, plus there are two mobile laptop labs, along with digital still and video cameras, and all kinds of educational software available for teacher and student use. Technology isn't seamlessly integrated yet - some teachers are using their SmartBoards solely as projection screens, not interactive learning tools - but integration will come with education. Teachers and librarians need to be educated in how to best harness educational technology to benefit their students and patrons.

If I ran the circus...

I really wouldn't change too much. This has been a really informative, entertaining, and practical class. I reviewed some things I already knew a lot about (blogs, social bookmarking), and tried some things I never thought I'd try (Facebook, Second Life). Overall, I learned a lot, and I'll certainly put it to practice, whether personally or professionally.

Now that the nice stuff's out of the way, there are a couple of things I'd change. First of all, I'd clarify the grading procedure and make sure to comment on posts. When I checked my grades in eCompanion, I always found one lone comment relative to one of my posts, when some weeks there were several required posts. If I ran the class, I'd make comments about each post, preferably directly on the students' blogs. I think that if students take the time to write the posts (or papers, or whatever), the professor should take the time to grade them and make individual comments (this goes into a larger argument on my distaste for profs who use TAs to grade everything - a prof chooses to teach a course, he should be able to handle the grading - but I digress).

Going along with the former point is I would make sure that each week's assignment included commenting on classmates blog posts. We only had to do this for a couple weeks, but it would have been nice to have done it every week.

Aside from that, I thought the course content was great and I enjoyed the class!

Second Life

Yeah, not so much.

My experience in Second Life was both fun and frustrating. Fun when I was with people, frustrating when I was alone. As soon as I logged in for the first time, Renee and Gabrielle were there to greet me, and took me to Svarga (?) Island, where we formed a band, Mad SCILz, and rocked it out on some percussion instruments. That was fun, because they weren't absolute novices like myself, and were able to help me. We voice-chatted for a while, and then went our separate ways, but not after taking a screenshot of our band (I'm the loser in the middle who hasn't figured out how to change her clothes):


Then, I went back in a couple days later, to try SL by myself. I found Info Island, poked around there, then teleported myself to Eduisland, where a man in a wheelchair rolled up next to me and knocked me over. Not cool. So, I teleported to the art museum on Info Island, and made several attempts at getting into a building. I wasn't able to get in - had I had friends around (or anyone at all, for that matter), I probably could have asked for help and figured it out. But instead, I figured out how to change my appearance, and called it a day:


Overall, SL really isn't a service for me. One, I'm not interested in immersive gaming, and two, my machine had a tough time with it - graphics took a long time to render, even logging on and off was tough. I can see the advantages for, say, hermits, but I'd rather go out and socialize with my real-life friends, not my Second Life friends.

Play a game

I played "Tower Blocks" on Facebook, via mindjolt.com. I played against my boyfriend, Mike. Well, I didn't exactly play against him, but we played concurrently, trying to beat each other's scores. Listen for guest appearances from my boyfriend and my parents.

Screencasting recap

Screencasting - great, except when it's not.

I normally use a Mac, and when I attempted to adjust my resolution to 800x600, the recommended size for screencasting, my screen got all pixelated and was difficult to navigate. Thankfully, I had borrowed a Dell laptop from my school library for another class project. I was able to install Jing and successfully screencast from there.

I also found it helpful to do a dry run of my screencast. I made sure I knew my script, the links worked (learned that one the hard way), and I wasn't near any ringing phones or loudmouth, whiny cats (again, learned the hard way). Part of the Jing screencasting experience is ensuring the screencast is shorter than 5 minutes, something that talkative me had trouble with at first. But after a few practice runs, I was able to get the hang of not being so verbose.

Does pop culture sophisticatedly deliver stupidity?

In response to the question about the Johnson reading: yes and no. I agree with what he says about television and film, as far as developing more complex storylines and making the reader mentally participate in the series, rather than a watching a self-contained episode (like most Law & Order and CSI shows). Johnson also makes a good argument for gaming, with the benefits of problem-solving and storytelling. But, most video games don't allow for true imaginative exploration (unless of course, you're the one developing the game). That's where reading truly wins - a reader has to develop the book's world in his mind's eye, whereas with video games, the player is presented with a pre-visualized world. This is why books are almost always better than the movies made from them: the reader has the "creative control" over how the book is presented.

Time for another personal anecdote: I was studying abroad in England when the first Harry Potter (and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone) movie was released. I had gotten about halfway through the book before I saw the movie, and I had envisioned a completely different world than what I saw on screen, and it ruined the book for me. It was a few months before I could pick up the book again to finish reading it. Since, I've become a huge Harry Potter book and movie fan, but I still have trouble correlating what I see in my mind's eye to what I see on the screen.

Which console for me?

If I were in charge of buying a gaming system for my library... well, first of that, I doubt that'd ever happen, because I work in a public school library, and we barely have enough time for computers and library instruction, let alone time to play video games. However, if I was to buy a video game system for a library...

First, I'd take into consideration the capabilities and limitations of various systems. I know from personal experience that the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii can wirelessly connect to other global users, and all three systems use wireless controllers. The Xbox and Wii allow up to 4 controllers to be connected at a time, while the PS3 allows up to 7 controllers to be connected via Bluetooth technology.

Armed with this background knowledge and the experience of having played on all three systems, I'd first look for other libraries who have a gaming program, to get their input on the program. Next, I'd look for reviews of the systems, either from CNET or Consumer Reports. I'd also look into expandability (extra controllers, extra memory, the library's own internet connectivity) and cost (the system itself, games, extra controllers, possibly upgrading to wireless internet).

Finally, I'd make my choice. I'd go with the Wii. I've played on all three systems, and the Wii is the most fun. It's "Mii" feature is a fun way for users to identify themselves on the system, and the family-friendly nature of many of the games is appealing to a broad audience. On the negative side, the Wii can be somewhat dangerous (my boyfriend put a hole in his friend's basement ceiling while playing Wii baseball), so I'd definitely utilize a "referee" while the system is in use. Otherwise, the Wii has broad appeal and is easy to use. I'd recommend it.

Boyd reading

If this were a strict question, the lesson that libraries should take away from the boyd reading is that libraries should be cognizant of where they advertise online, because certain networks appeal to certain audiences. If a library is in a lower-class area, it should advertise on MySpace, where it would receive the most attention. If a library is in an upper-class area, it should advertise on Facebook, where its users are likely to be members.

What propels this disparity? How many times has MySpace been on the news as a vehicle for pedophiles and stalkers? Many. How many times has Facebook gotten the same bad rap? None that I can recall. I don't believe that either service is inherently bad or for one class only, but because it's a social networking site, users will gravitate towards the site their friends are using. Because Facebook started out as a ".edu" only site, they naturally have more college-educated users. MySpace is open to all, and doesn't require any kind of credentials, making it accessible for the working class and beyond.

Ning

Overall, Ning seems like it would be great for use in a work environment, if you work with people who are accepting of new technologies and willing to participate. For the comparison, I love pros and cons, so here we go:

Pros:
- can be set to be totally private, including a member log-in and new member approval
- because of privacy settings, would be good for office/school setting
- nice templates, easy to customize
- easy to set up, add/drop features
- allows personalized domain name (for a fee)
- if used in business, allows for younger employees to keep Facebook/MySpace accounts separate from work

Cons:
- hefty price for ad removal, extra storage
- if used in business, must educate users on how to use Ning
- has potential for being a timewaster ala Facebook/MySpace
- may be automatically blocked by some business networks

Facebook screencast

I was totally new to Facebook, so I made myself a little tutorial on how to upload and change your profile picture.

Watch it here: how to change your Facebook picture

MySpace and Facebook stickiness

So when I first looked at this question, I interpreted "sticky" to mean difficult or awkward. I had to dig a little deeper to understand that "sticky" means what keeps people coming back. The obvious draw is the social aspect of it - if all your friends are doing it, you should be too. It's easy to keep tabs on your friends this way. Aside from being a personal, customizable web space, Facebook and MySpace have a kind of built-in Twitter aspect, your "status." Your status is basically like a tweet on Twitter - it's your mood, what you're doing, how you're feeling. Aside from that, there's the popularity contest side - the more "friends" you have, the more popular you are.

I never used Facebook or MySpace before this class (before this Monday, actually). Friends of mine who use Facebook and MySpace on a regular basis say they're a good way to keep in touch with people and to coordinate group activities. I always shunned them, because I wasn't interested in being "found;" I would rather see my friends in real life than virtually. But I can see the advantages - keeping in touch quickly and easily, sharing photos and videos.

If all else fails, both of these sites would make a great interface for stalkers.

How to make a pie graph in Excel

For my screencast, I decided to create something that I could show to the 598 class as well as my students. Students in 3-5th grade use Excel to create graphs, so I thought I'd demonstrate how to create a pie graph using Excel 2007. Enjoy!

Please click here to view - http://screencast.com/t/BVV6jdla

YouTube

I've never been a huge fan of YouTube, save for looking up funny videos of animals. In fact, the whole video week was new to me overall. I was surprised at how professional some of the videos looked (and how amateur mine were in comparison). However, there were many that I enjoyed.

My favorites:

Librarians must have cardigans - I have a deep and abiding love of cardigans

Bah humbug! - my sentiments exactly

How to clean your house in a minute or less - love the use of baskets!

Addicted to the net - cause I am, too.

Thanks to those who enjoyed my videos!

Education vs. entertainment

Ah, educational videos. When they're done well, they're great. When they're done poorly, students know it. The best educational videos that I've seen are also entertaining (edutainment?). For example, Bill Nye the Science Guy videos are fantastic. Bill Nye presents with a lot of enthusiasm and science content, and simplifies science topics without dumbing them down. These videos have their place in the classroom and in the home, as both education and entertainment.

At my school, we subscribe to a service called United Streaming, which is owned by Discovery. It offers thousands of educational videos on a range of subjects for all grades. Many of the videos are dull and difficult for young students to sit through. However, the nice thing about United Streaming is that the movies are available to download as clips, so instead of watching a full 20-minute video on the history of Thanksgiving, teachers can pick a specific 5-minute clip that pertains to their lesson. United Streaming also offers Weston Woods books on video, which are fantastic video productions of books. The illustrations are animated and the books are nicely narrated. These clips and video books are educational in the content, but entertaining in the way they're presented.

My entertainment video

This is what happens when you ask the same question to a ferret and a cat...
do you want a treat?

Watch it here:


or here.

Enjoy!

My educational video

How to make great coffee. It all starts with a French press pot.

Watch it here:


or here.

Enjoy!

Flickr project - bringing us all together

In this post about our Flickr project, I'd like to get mushy and focus on what brings us together as MLIS online students (why yes, I have had a brandy alexander in celebration of Obama's early lead).

In the scils598f08 group, it seems that family, home, and pets are important to all of us. Nearly everyone posted at least one picture from one of these categories. Personally, I posted a picture of my "second home" in VT (the home of close family friends), and a picture of my darling cat. It was nice to see that family and home are important across the board. I also think it's kind of funny how nearly none of us posted pictures of ourselves, but we've gladly posted pictures of our children/pets/homes.

In the ed experience group, there were lots of computers, books, and modes of transportation. It seems like there is a mix of strictly online and on-campus/online students in the class. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who spends nearly as much time getting to class as I am in class. There were also some good pictures of distractions, including various drinks, pets, and toys. It's nice to see that even though we work hard, we can play hard, too.

Overall, seeing these pictures made me feel a better connection with my online classmates, only a few of whom I've met before in person, in other classes. The project was a good introduction to Flickr, which I've never used before, and also a good introduction to our classmates.

Can librarians utilize the Long Tail?

Short answer: sort of.

Long answer: I think the only way librarians can effectively utilize the Long Tail effect is by guiding patrons to the Long Tail by the power of suggestion. As I mentioned in an earlier post, librarians hold some power as "new tastemakers." If a patron is looking for a "hit" that's unavailable, the librarian can guide the patron to a "nonhit" that's similar, but part of the Long Tail, rather than the mainstream.

I do this all the time in my work. Kids will ask me for the latest, greatest book, and if it's not in, I try to guide them to something similar but less popular. I'm sure that I say "if you like [book x], then you might like [book y]" a dozen times a day. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, but it's important to me that I at least introduce the students to a new book or series.

Podcasts vs. text blogging

So... I've never really been into podcasts. I subscribe to a couple through iTunes, but I always forget to check the podcast section for updates, so I end up with dozens of unheard episodes, and I just delete them all. The way my iPod connects to my car stereo doesn't allow me to play podcasts from the directory on the iPod; I have to put them into a playlist, which is annoying and I forget about. So, podcasts aren't my modus operandi for blog consuming. For blog producing, podcasts are a nice way to add a personal touch, but I'm self-concious of how my recorded voice sounds (on the phone, I've been mistaken for a teenager; I'm 27). Recording is certainly easier than writing, but there's no "delete" button if I make a mistake; I have to either finagle with the cut function in Audacity or re-record the whole thing. Not a big deal for my 2-3 minute podcasts, but could be an issue if I was using podcasts to teach a class, a la Steve.

I really prefer text blogging, as a producer and consumer. With text blogging as a consumer, I can easily skim a post to find information that I'm interested in, and can easily skip the stuff I don't want to read. As a producer, I find that I have a good level of control over a text-based blog. I can save a half-finished draft to finish and post later, I can easily integrate links and pictures, and in general, have more editorial control.

Tell me a story...

My story is about my recent (Christmas 2007) trip to Disney World, with my boyfriend Mike and his parents. One of the things we were really excited to see was his friend Ryan, a stunt actor who plays Indiana Jones in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at Hollywood Studios.

Listen!



Here's the mp3 file

Here's Ryan:

Anderson reading 2

So, Anderson defines three forces of the long tail:

1. New producers - Democratized production - populates the Tail
2. New markets - Democratized distribution - makes content freely/widely available
3. New tastemakers - Amplified word of mouth - connects consumers to products, the "new" supply and demand

I can see libraries/librarians fitting in within the first and third forces. Let's first discuss the third force, the amplified word of mouth. Anderson defines the new tastemakers as "people whose opinions are respected." (p 107). Traditionally, libraries are respected as repositories of knowledge, making librarians purveyors of knowledge. It should follow that librari* (my new made-up term for "librarians/libraries") set the standard for what is important to know. After all, librari* decide which new books to acquire, which books to advertise in book clubs, and which books to feature in displays.

Even though librari* influence is over books, they can still have some play in the first force, as "new producers." Librari* can use web services, such as blogs and emails, to advertise books. Anderson discussed a new "exposure culture," where being found is the end-all. Librari* can use blogs to advertise new books and programs, and expose themselves to new users.

The second force, the new markets, really isn't relevant to libraries. The new market is online and available 24/7, worldwide, to anyone with an internet connection. Libraries are open 8-10 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, and are limited to the physical space which contains them. A library's physical market confines it to whatever the library physically holds, plus the holdings of associated libraries. There are a finite number of items and a finite number of people who can use those items at a given time. A pure digital market, such as iTunes, carries millions of holdings, and because they are stored digitally, can be accessed many times by many people.

Personal anecdote time: the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series is extremely popular in my K-5 library. We have 4 or 5 copies of the first (red) book, and 7 of the 2nd (blue) book. They flew off the shelves once school opened, and have been continually on hold ever since. Kids are extremely disappointed when they can't have one of the books right away, and some have said that they'll just have their parents buy it, so they can have it right away. The library cannot compete with Barnes & Noble, where dozens of copies are available at a moment's notice. Even though we physically advertise the book (force 1) and personally discuss it (force 3), we have a finite number of copies for a finite number of users. Simply said, we are an old market.

Library2.0

Found this link on Fark:

Check it out: libraries now happening places

Discusses how libraries in Arizona are catering to teens and the modern public by opening cafes, holding Guitar Hero parties, and generally not shushing people.

SCILS educational experience

My decision to attend SCILS was a result of what I call my "quarter life crisis." I graduated from college with a BA in Elementary Education in 2003. I bounced around with summer camp jobs, substituting, and finally ended up teaching preschool. I worked there for a little over a year, and quit just before Thanksgiving 2006, due to "irreconcilable differences" with the management. I became disenchanted with preschool, and didn't want to stay in the business. I started substituting again, and ended up subbing the libraries in my district. I loved it, and within two months, had taken the GRE and applied to SCILS. I'm enjoying school, but not really getting involved with my classmates or any kind of "extracurricular" activities, like clubs or anything.

Anyway, here's my history at SCILS:
Fall 07: 522 (Cataloging & Classification) and 547 (Materials for Children)
Spring 08: 550 (Info Tech) and 548 (Materials for YA)
Fall 08: 530 (Principles of Searching) and 598 (Social Software)
Spring 09: (hopefully) 540 (Ref. Sources & Services) and 555 (Multimedia Production)
What's left: 510 (Human Info Behavior), 514 (Learning Theory...), 575 (Ed Media Center Mgmt), and 592 (Field Experience)

Even though I'm technically an on-campus student, I spend most of my time between my desk and my car.













You can see more of my pictures here, and the ed experiences of my classmates here.

Google Analytics

I must confess, I set up Google Analytics a few weeks ago (or whenever it was required), and I forgot about it. It took me a few minutes to find it through Gmail, but reading it was interesting.

So far, the bulk of visitors have been using Firefox, with 31 visits (70%). Next up is IE, with 12 visits (27%). Finally, we have one lone visit via Safari (2%). Glad to know I'm not the only one in the class with a Mac :)

Not surprisingly, 30 visits have been via a cable internet connection. 7 have been on DSL, 3 have been using T1, and 2 on dialup (really?). There were 2 visits from an "unknown" connection. GA didn't give any further information on the unknown connection.

I also learned about the network locations from whence these visitors came. The bulk were on Comcast, which is what I use at home - I think I'm unintentionally driving up my own stats.

Some of the information seemed a little random, like the screen resolution of my visitors (68% had 1024x768), all of my visitors have been from NJ (good to know, no out-of-state stalkers), and 6 visits have been via Bloglines. I can see how that information would be valuable to a more serious blogger, but it really doesn't serve me a purpose.

Anderson reading

So, will the library world benefit from the Long Tail effect?

I don't think so. The Long Tail is all about the niche market. Anderson refers to the internet as the "ultimate discovery tool," (p. 37) and the Long Tail is about using the internet to find the myriad non-hits. He discusses how online retailers like amazon.com have eradicated brick and mortar stores by offering a no-boundaries online shop. Online stores are global; they are unfettered by things like walls and location.

Libraries, unfortunately, are limited by walls and location. My local library is four miles from my house. However, via the public library system, I can borrow from any of the 38 libraries in Morris County. There are still walls on those libraries. Borders.com, on the other hand, doesn't have walls. If I can't find a book at my local library, or any of the other 37 libraries in Morris County, you bet I'm going to find it online. Because libraries are only able to hold so many books, I think that as the niches get narrower and the tail gets longer, libraries won't be able to supply the demand.

Wikispaces vs. PBWiki

I have experience using Wetpaint wikis (a former prof used it), and Wikidot didn't look too appealing, so I went with Wikispaces for this comparison. Wikispaces seems to be a pretty basic wiki service. Setting one up was easy, but there was a lot of push towards paying for one, as it would be ad-free and have greater content control. Editing the page was easy, too. However, the layout tools, the "pretty" factor, is where Wikispaces failed. There were only 4 available themes, none of which were fantastic. There was also an option to change the background, text, and link colors, but no options to change the font or basic layout. Again, there was a lot of push to pay for a wiki, to have a wider variety of themes. I only used Wikispaces for about 15 minutes, and I'm sure that if I played with it longer I'd feel more comfortable with it. However, because we've been using PBWiki for the duration of class, I feel more comfortable using it, and if I ever had to set up my own wiki, I'd probably opt for PBWiki.

Google docs, for better or for worse

Google Docs and services like it have their place in both a physical and virtual college campus, particularly with students who are working on group projects. For use as a collaborative document service, Google Docs is great. It's easy to set up and share, and has basic editing tools. Personally, I don't see myself using it as a Microsoft Word replacement, but it serves its purpose as a quick and easy document editor.

However, I can see why some people, both faculty and students, would be opposed to it. If it's a class-wide effort like ours, everyone would need a Google account. Most people already have one and wouldn't be bothered by it, but for the technophobes that somehow still exist, it would be another online account to keep track of. I can see how a prof wouldn't want to have to keep track of various accounts, and how students would not want their prof to be able to "check in" on unfinished work.

Luckily, some of my previous professors have welcomed the idea of document sharing. I had a professor last year who used a wetpaint wiki in lieu of eCompanion. Another professor required the class to keep blogs. She used hers as a general announcement tool, we used ours to turn in assignments. For a "progressive" or "nontraditional" professor, social software such as this can be successfully harnessed to enhance the class. It's a move I'd like to see more people make.

I am my bookmarks.

Wow. I can certainly say that from our little experiment, I learned a lot about my classmates. This was a nice way to get to know everyone. It was a little tedious to read through 264 bookmarks, but it was interesting to see the overlaps, and I learned about some cool new sites from my classmates. I think that with a little tweaking, this could be a great virtual introduction for other online classes.

Some suggestions for making this a more viable "virtual introduction":

• maybe take the number of bookmarks down to five per person. Having 21 people provide 10 bookmarks each is a lot of links to go through - it's great, but it's a lot.
  
• don't require everyone to bookmark the class wiki (I know this was just part of the exercise, but it seems unnecessary to include this as part of a virtual introduction)
  
• make sure people include personalized descriptions with each link, so the rest of the class knows why the sites are important - I felt more connected to people when they did this
• to differentiate between the "virtual introduction" project and other bookmarking projects on delicious, use a specific tag (ex: scils598f08_intro)

Brown & Duguid

(Let me start by saying that I followed the Twitter conversation about these chapters, and I agree with everyone else who complained about B&D. It's boring and dense and I just don't get it. Disclaimer: I work with children and am more well-versed in picture books than "academic" readings. I am not an "academic" in any traditional sense of the word, though I do wear glasses and read a lot.)

One point that I took away from the B&D readings this week were the differences between knowledge and information. Particularly, I was interested in their description of how each is acquired. Information is a commodity, while knowledge is a possesion. When you want to learn about something, you need information. When you want to learn to be something, you need knowledge (p. 128).

This relates to their discussion of learning by doing (pgs. 130-131). They discussed a study done by educational psychologists on how children best learn language - by practice, or by reading a dictionary. Children who learned by practice learned far more than children who learned via a book. I saw this firsthand when I taught pre-K. I taught my class the "theory" of letters - what they look like, the sounds they make. Some kids had trouble with the rote learning, but they all blossomed when we played with the letter mats. I scrambled up letter mats on the floor, and had children jump to certain letters - random at first, then spelling out their names and sight words. Learning the theory of something is important, and gives you a lot of information. Learning by practicing something gives you knowledge. If information gives you power, knowledge gives you success.

As far as implications for the US education system - teachers should be concerned with cultivating knowledge, not just delivering information. B&D say on p. 136 that "people learn in response to need." Shouldn't it be a teacher's job to ensure that there is no need? When my private school preschoolers moved on to public school kindergarten, several parents said that their children were miles ahead of the other kids, because they already knew letters, numbers, counting, writing, etc. They possessed that knowledge, which made them better students. Teachers, especially elementary school teachers, have the incredibly important job of delivering information and helping students convert that information into knowledge.

Delicious vs. Magnolia

First of all, what's with the periods in del.icio.us and ma.gnolia? What purpose do those periods serve? They bother me. (It wouldn't bother me as much in ma.gnolia if it was placed at the syllable - mag.nolia - but it would still bother me.)

Now that that's out of the way, each service has its pros and cons. So... list time!

Delicious...
- has a simple, clean interface.
- intuitive bookmarking - comes up with suggested title, tags
- integrates with Firefox (and probably other browsers too)
- separates tags with a space, so you have to tag with oneword or one_word (which annoys me, but not as much as the periods in the middle of words thing)

Magnolia...
- has an aesthetically pleasing website
- adding a bookmark through the site is cumbersome - it doesn't suggest title or tags
- separates tags with commas, not spaces, so no oneword or one_word tags
- puts the "social" in "social bookmarking" with its many public groups

That said, I'm a Delicious user. It's become a web standard, and I don't think I'd switch. Maybe it was just me, but I had a lot of problems logging into Magnolia and bookmarking sites (had to click the "go" link several times before it would let me bookmark something, had to copy and paste the link directly from the browser).

Digg

As with many other social softwares (is that the right plural?), I had a passing knowledge of Digg. I had seen Digg chicklets and read about Digg, but never really explored it. I chose to review Digg because I'm a (very passive) user of Goodreads, and a quick look at Librarything and Shelfari told me they were very similar services. After another quick look at the other three options, Digg had the most asthetic appeal, so it won my review for this week.

Digg is essentially a user-edited "news" aggregator. I use the term "news" very loosely, as recent headlines include blog posts about last (Tuesday) night's debate, an article about a video game for wannabe DJs, and a picture of a cow with a child's toy car stuck on it's head. Digg is very easy to set up and has a pleasing interface. There are various categories at the top, and a small arrow next to each heading lists several subcategories, which is helpful if you're looking for something specific. However, the point of the site isn't to search for a specific article, it's to discover news that really is new to you. Submitting a link is fairly easy as well, though the several links I tried to submit were already on the site. However, you can make something more popular by "digging it," clicking the "digg it" link next to a headline. If you click on the number of diggs, it goes to a statistics screen about the link - when it was "dugg," who has "dugg" it, who has blogged about it, etc. On the negative side, because the site is user-edited, there are a huge variety of sources, and you never know what you're going to get. For some, this may be exciting and interesting. For others, it may be overwhelming.

Although there were a lot of interesting and positive points about Digg, I don't know that I would continue to use it in my personal life. The immense variety of sources, both authoritative and not, was a little off-putting. Additionally, though the categorization is great, I would get annoyed by having to click back and forth between categories. Overall, Digg is a very well-designed site with lots of interesting features, but it's just not for me.

RSS and Information Overload

Depending on how you use it, RSS can either mitigate or aggravate the problem of information overload. In last week's exercises, the use of RSS as a consumer greatly controlled my information overload problem. Instead of visiting numerous sites and checking individually for updates, updates are sent to me in real time (or close to real time). It was somewhat overwhelming to log into Google Reader for the first time and see nearly one hundred new updates. However, since I don't read every post on every feed, it was easy to get through, and now I keep on top of it.

However, in this week's exercises, RSS as producer, I found RSS to be somewhat aggravating. Part of this week's exercises included creating a feed digest on our wiki. I understand the point of the exercise - to become familiar with digests - but I don't understand the greater purpose of feed digests. It only served to clutter my wiki page and annoy me (I don't like clutter). I don't check my wiki page very often, so even though I created the feed myself, I'd never use it. I'd rather check each page either manually on Google Reader. I think I'd be afraid of missing something by only using a digest.

Social Software that's new to me part 2...

I hate to admit it, but Facebook is a "new to me" social software site. So new in fact, that I'm not a part of it yet. I'm one of the only people - if not the only person I know -who is not a registered user. I was even chided by a member of this class for not being on it, for the simple reason that everyone else is, so I should be too. I never got into Friendster or MySpace, so this whole online social networking thing is pretty new to me. I'm torn about whether or not I want to join, so may I present a list of points-counterpoints (as I see them) of Facebook:

point: I can keep in touch with college friends who are now spread out all over the country.
counterpoint: That's what the phone and email are for.

point: I can join interest groups.
counterpoint: I've never really been interested in making online friends. I find it all a little Dateline: To Catch a Predator. You never know who's out there. (Maybe I'm grasping at straws here.)

point: Most of my friends are on it.
counterpoint: So are many of the 40something-year-old teachers I work with, as well as the teenagers I worked with in summer camp a few years ago.

point: I can put reconnect with my old high school friends.
counterpoint: Let's face it, I wasn't all that popular in high school, and I've stayed in touch with the people (ok, person) I really care about.

point: But all the cool kids are doing it.
counterpoint: .... (whatever I say here will make me sound like an overbearing mother - which I am not - so I'm just going to stop)

I feel pretty safe in saying that unless it's absolutely necessary for whatever reason, I'm probably not going to join. I'm not one to really worry about identity theft or privacy issues, but I'm happy in my anonymity.

Feed, pt. 2

So I guess I went a little overboard with my first post on Feed. This one will be shorter :) I both enjoyed and disliked the book. As a stand-alone piece of literature, it was great. I'm not a big sci-fi fan (unless you consider Harry Potter sci-fi, which is a whole 'nother discussion), but as a piece of literature, I thought it was well written.

However, as a societal commentary, I was a little disturbed by it. I hope this isn't where society is going. The idea of feeds literally becoming parts of our bodies disgusts me. I believe that it's important for everyone, not just kids and teens, to "disconnect" every once in a while. As much as I enjoy my general internet tomfoolery, there are some days when I just don't want to be around the computer. The children in Feed didn't have that opportunity, and it makes me sad that some people actually want a life so connected.

The dumbing-down of language, or "teenspeak," is another disconcerting point. I hear it all the time, and it drives me crazy. Many of the students at my school, and many of the students in my graduate courses (about 20 years dividing the two groups) pepper their sentences with the words, "like, um, yeah, uh, y'know, I dunno." Not only is it difficult for them to be understood, it makes them sound unintelligent.

Overall, I think the book was written as something of a warning. If we continue at the path we're going, look at where we'll end up - feeds in our heads, hacking our own bodies, disconnect and die. Anderson seems to believe that we're too connected for our own collective good.

Feed

I had read Feed for another class (Materials for Young Adults) last spring, and enjoyed it then. However, re-reading it in the context of this class was different. I picked up on things I hadn't noticed before, and it made me think about my own habits.

My favorite part of the book is the dedication - "To all those who resist the feed." Right from the start, Anderson displays an obviously dystopian view of the future. In this future world, consumerism is the name of the game, and everyone's feeds are there to tell them what to buy, what's cool, what to think. Life is simple, and nobody needs to think - the feed thinks for them (see p. 80-81 in the book).

Anderson draws many parallels to today's teens and the teens in the book. They both have their own slang, are tuned into trends, are connected to each other, and experiement with drugs. While teens today use internet short-hand slang (lol, brb, j/k) in everyday speech and writing, the teens in the book use null for boring, unit for guy/girl, mal for bad, and (my favorite), brag for cool. Teens today are connected to each other via always-on cell phones, IM, and social networking sites like MySpace. In the book, the teens are connected via wireless chatlines embedded in their brains. Teens today experiement with all kinds of drugs, from prescription drugs to pot. Teens in the book get scrambled or go mal, which is a way of hacking their internal feeds and going haywire. Feed reminds me of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series. The teens in that book use their own language, and though they don't have internal feeds, they do have computers monitoring their every move.

I don't know if Anderson's view of the future is possible in the ways he describes it (pod-like homes, vacations on the Moon, flying cars), but the feeds he describes are practically here, they're just not internalized (yet?). We want to be instantly satiated like the kids in the book are - but to the point that nothing is new and exciting? What's clear is that we have become accustomed to instant gratification. Photos can be viewed instantly on a digital camera, and they can be printed in less than an hour. Whole meals can be cooked in the microwave in a matter of minutes. Everything we need is a click away online. Is this good, necessary? Is it good that in the middle of this post, I stopped to check my email? Even while I'm writing, I'm thinking about the myraid other things I could/should/want to be doing online - emailing friends about a party next weekend, seeing if the shoes I want are on sale yet, planning a mini-vacation for November. Doing all of those things requires me to visit many websites. Would it be good if I could just think about all that content and have it delivered to me? The kids in the book would think so.

Personally, Anderson's idea of the feed scares me. Earlier in the week, I signed up for Bloglines and Google Reader. I instantly fell in love with GR - all my feeds in one place! Yes, it's convenient. But is it necessary? Is it that much of a hassle to visit each website? It has simplified my life and cut down on the time I spend online, but is it simplifying me? Technology does save us a lot of time, but we have to be careful not to lose ourselves in order to save a few minutes.

Social software that's new to me...

I was intrigued by the idea of social bookmarking, and was happy to see it included in this class. In playing around with the websites on the sidebar of the wiki, I came upon Delicious. It looked like a cool way to aggregate my bookmarks from my home computer, my work computer, and my boyfriend's computer. I played around with it and fell in love. All of my bookmarks are now in one place, and they're totally organized.

I especially like how tags work in Delicious. In my personal Firefox bookmarks, every bookmark has a folder, or in many cases, a subfolder. I can't just call a blog a blog, it's a fashion blog, a tv blog, etc., and each has it's own subfolder. In Delicious, instead of creating folder upon folder, the tags function so they both separate and coallate bookmarks. It's easy to sort through the tags to find what I want. I also like that there's a Firefox-supported plugin. Instead of copying and pasting links, I just hit the add button. It took a little time to get it set up and organized, but maintenance is very simple.

Overall, a great little piece of social software, especially helpful if you have bookmarks on several computers.

Bloglines vs. Google Reader

As Steve put it in the homework review video, I'm giving all of my intellectual life over to Google. Well, not all of it, but certainly most of it. Ok, all of it. I now have three Gmail accounts - my personal account, an account to which my Rutgers webmail is forwarded, and the account required for this class. My personal account gets the most use, and from it I can chat, schedule my calendar, edit documents (ok, I don't use this feature too much, but it's been helpful), post pictures, and get directions. And now, I can read my blogs from it, too. I love Google Reader.

Let me start by saying that I had no idea what RSS was before this class. The RSS in Plain English video from Commoncraft really cleared things up. After watching that video and this week's other videos, I felt pretty confident that a service like Bloglines would really help me keep track of this class's blogs, as well as the other blogs I read.

Bloglines was cumbersome to set up, and I didn't like the subcription process. Once a URL is entered into the subscribe box, a list of subscription options pops up. First, at least three different feeds are presented. They all look exactly the same. Nowhere is the difference between these feeds explained. After choosing one and hoping it works, there are several more options. First, folder selection. This worked, but I'd prefer to tag the blogs, and have the option to put them in more than one folder - not really necessary for this class, but helpful for my personal blog-reading. Then, there are display settings to be dealt with. I couldn't find any user-defined-default setting for this - the settings for every blog had to be entered individually. This was annoying and time consuming. However, I think the real reason I didn't like Bloglines is because it's a totally new service to me, and I don't like to wade in unfamiliar waters.

Google Reader, on the other hand, worked wonderfully. Since I'm already a Google/Gmail user, I expected the simple interface. Adding a blog was as easy as inserting a link. The settings are universal and are easy to use. One thing I did struggle with at first was adding tags to blogs. I eventually figured out that GR's folders act as tags. I added my Bloglines feeds to GR, and I also added my most frequently-read blogs to my personal GR account. Setting up those blogs was time consuming only because of the volume I had to add; actually adding them was easy. I opened up the blogs in individual tabs, copied and pasted the URL, and closed the tab. Easy cheesy.

Brown & Duguid, as related to librarians

Brown & Duguid make some interesting points on technology and it's antisocial tendencies. They believe that technology is so driven to bring people together that it drives them apart, as shown in their discussion of the Chiat/Day "hot desking" experiement. While hot desking, the concept of working from wherever there's an internet connection, looked good on paper, it failed miserably in real life. The experiement showed that people need to work together physically as well as digitally to get stuff done. They also discussed how technology is evolving so rapidly that people are expected to conform to it, not the other way around. Technology must be harnessed and used in such a way that it both enhances and expedites office work. Too often, so much time and money is spent to learn or fix technology that it eventually becomes a money pit - a money pit that nobody wants to admit to seeing, but into which everyone will fall.

Libraries and librarians are often afraid of new technologies. They worry that users won't accept them, that technologies will be too expensive or cumbersome to use, or that "the old way works, so why change." Libraries fall into what Brown & Duguid call the "social periphery," a group of organizations that shape the way we live and work. Unfortunately, the social periphery has been cast aside as the digital revolution tunnels forwards, so the social periphery must fight to be included. Libraries must fight to stay relevant, and they must do that by not only embracing, but harnessing new technologies to their best use.

Obviously, not every little piece of new technology will work in a library, but libraries can model the appropriate use of technology, and in turn, the patrons will adapt to it and the library will remain relevant. It's similar to Brown & Duguid's discussion of Bell and his telephone. He figured that if the telephone was put into the hands of the people, they'd figure out how to use it. Give people the opportunity to see firsthand the technology in action, and they will respond. Libraries can do the same with new technologies. They can offer a "virtual reference" service via email or chat. If one patron has a successful experience using it, that patron will tell a friend, who will in turn tell a friend, and eventually patrons will see virtual reference as a standard practice. As users change and adapt to new technologies, so must libraries. They can maintain a physical presence with a brick-and-mortar building, but it is necessary for libraries to develop and maintain a virtual presence online.

WordPress vs. Blogger

WordPress is...

• more customizable, especially if you know HTML
• has an informative and powerful dashboard
  
• for "serious bloggers" or businesses
  

but...

• it has a less user-friendly layout, especially if you don't know HTML
• certain upgrades cost money
• has little social networking; their "blog surfer" feature is beta
• not all layouts support widgets; user has to switch to one that does, or manually fix the code
  

Meanwhile, Blogger is...

• great for the casual blogger or those unfamiliar with blogging
• owned by Google, which explains the simple, friendly interface
• big on the social networking/entertainment aspect of blogs, especially with widgets and add-ons
  
• free
  

but...

• it's not as customizable as WordPress
• it has limited storage for multimedia
• it's easier if you have a Google/Gmail account (for picture sharing, email, chat)
  
• feels like an "entry-level" blog, while WordPress feels more grown-up and "corporate"

Who wins?
For the casual (or class-required) blogger - Blogger. It's free and easy.
For the discriminating (or smarty-pants) blogger - WordPress. It's customizable and has a more grown-up feel.

Admirable library blog

I found the Marin County Free Library's blog to be a notable library blog. It has a lot of great features, but a few minor annoyances. Marin County is located in California, north of San Francisco.

The good:

• Comprehensive information about a variety of programs and activities. Over the course of a few weeks, there are postings about a "henna party" for teens, a puppet show for children, and a poetry reading for adults. A few posts are in-house plugs for library cards, and an FAQ site, but most of the posts are about events happening in the various county libraries. Many of the summer posts were about teen activities. Assuming that many of the library's teenage patrons use the internet and are familiar with the blog, this is a great way to advertise. There is a teen page, part of the library's website, but it isn't as up-to-date as the blog.
  
• User-friendliness. The blog is easy to read, with muted colors and a basic font. A column on the right displays links to other parts of the library's website, along with direct links to recent posts and archives. It isn't intended for one specific age group; rather, it appeals to all ages.
• Frequency of posts. New posts appear several times a week, and the blog is archived monthly to October 2003. The posts are all substantial and feature pictures and comprehensible information about various activities.
  

The not so good:

• Chat? There is a link to "Ask a Librarian," which eventually leads to a site called Ask Now. Essentially, the user's question may be answered by any librarian, anywhere in the U.S. Great for providing 24-hour service, but not so great if a user has a question that is specific to the Marin County Library. Additionally, the chat interface requires that you give your name and town (and requests your email, local library branch and zip code), and looks more like a web-based email form than an actual chat window. Once you get in the chat, it looks more like a regular chat screen, but it's full screen and can't be minimized.
• Internal navigation. Most blogs have links at the bottom which take you to older or newer posts - this one doesn't. Instead, you must navigate to older posts using the Archives links. The heading picture is static, unlike many websites which use the logo or header as a link back to the main page. To internally navigate from an archive page to the main page, you have to use the browser's back button. Also, posts aren't tagged, and there is no search feature on the blog, making it difficult to search for a specific post.

What can other libraries learn from this blog? Be inclusive. Post about activites for all ages. Use a simple, clear format and intuitive navigation. Offer several methods of contact, including email and chat. Post about goings-on in the library and the town, and connect to the schools.