Playing @ Your Library

Project Play

2008-04-04T13:00:00.001-07:00

Play
Originally uploaded by sudergal

Am I a curious person? That's how I ended up in library world - I have an unquentchable thirst for information and learning. Project Play really helped give me the nudge past my fears. These are the fears that keep one in the state of mediocrity that Godin referred to. PP provided a wonderful means of sampling a lot of technology. Half the work is knowing what's out there as far as technological tools go. Now when we are looking for a solution to some issue in our library, we have a toolbox to dip into. Also, having sampled many technologies has raised my awareness of the possibilities. I will always be looking for new tools. There's that curiousity again.

Play more, learn more, and fear less!

Week 10, Semester 2 - Mahsups

2008-04-03T12:42:00.001-07:00

The Mashups Are Coming 3
Originally uploaded by serenamarketing

I couldn't resist a visual like this one. Makes you think of the alterego that lurks within all librarians. I better stop there. Might need a little pyschotherapy.

This week's lesson was very interesting - one of those technolgies that you wonder how you made do without it. It was very empowering to utilize mapbuilder. Since the Stoughton Public Library was already on the map, I added a great restaurant in Stoughton that you might want to try - El Rio Grande.

As for library uses of mashups, mapping the historic homes in Stoughton and including a photo and background info would be priceless to the "This Old House" homeowners of Stoughton. Kind of the like the barn mashup of Winnebago County (I think).

One question that was raised in the SirsiDynix presentation was "As a librarian, how do you know the sources that were utilized in any particular mashup?" The answer was "It's not easy to see or to tell." Hmmm... It was a very interesting presentation - lots of useful information.

Week 9, Semester 2 - YouTube

2008-03-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

I thought the "storytime" was a fun plug for the Calgary Public Library. YouTube is a great platform for getting library info out there, given it's current popularity. Also loved the "Bob Ross" video help in YouTube. One comment on YouTube is that you are never quite sure about video content and quality until you have already watched it.

Week 8, Semester 2 - Screencasts

2008-03-06T12:10:00.001-08:00

Screencasting: hardware
Originally uploaded by Hans on Experience

Screencasts - how did we live without them? As a visual learner, I love them. The instructions sink in on a deeper level when I see the screenshots.

In the library they would be great when patrons need instruction on utilzing certain databases - EBSCOhost, Literature Reource Center and more. As staff, they are great for the CE's that we attend via our PC. Or would these be podcasts? I'm having cast confusion.

Week 6, Semester 2 - Podcasts

2008-03-04T12:57:00.001-08:00

Podcasts
Originally uploaded by Mingo.nl

Once I stopped looking for the visual part of the podcasts (as I am a visual learner) and reread the lesson, I realized that I simply needed to listen.

How libraries are using podcasts -

Reading picture books to children - this makes me sad that there isn't a real live person reading to them. I'm sure there are instances where podcast books would be wonderful though.

Teen podcasts - perfect! Meet them where they're at.

Continuing Ed poscasts - great way to get your CE without having to travel.

Week 5, Semester 2 - Social Networking

2008-02-13T12:02:00.001-08:00

this is social networking?
Originally uploaded by skampy

I felt compelled to create a Facebook page so that I could fully embrace this week's tools. Besides I wanted to see the various library facebook pages and needed an account to do this. As I created my accout I truly worried about being "too public." After all, this is one point we are really driving home to the YA's today.

As I reflect on the usefulness of a library presence in the Facebook realm, I find myself wondering, do Facebook users actaully add libraries as their "Friends"? In order to answer this question, I feel like I would either need to get into the brain of a college-aged kid (yikes!); or perhaps simply chat with people of this age bracket and see how they tend to utilize facebook. If it's realistic to say that college aged kids would access the library via Facebook, then there's no question. What a great way to tap into that population!

Week 3, Semester 2 - Productivity Tools

2008-01-30T14:40:00.001-08:00

I spilled my milk :(
Originally uploaded by Boered

I am all about making lists and checking things off my list. So I was excited to read about this week's tools - Remember the Milk & Jott.

Remember the Milk is like the ultimate tool for list lovers. I did walk through the Getting Started option in the Help menu. Sounds like you can get pretty fancy with your tasks and lists of tasks. That was when I started feeling a bit overwhelmed. I was having feelings of fondness for my little slips of paper that currently hold my tasks. As with any new tool though, it's usually just a matter of trying it out and getting used to it.

Regarding Jott, it sounds great! Reminds me of a friend who calls her answering machine at home when she needs to remember something, only this tool allows many more options. I can see how coordinating the use of your tools, eg. using Jott to call your Google calendar, would be quite handy.

Week 2 , Semester 2 - Google Docs

2008-01-24T14:20:00.001-08:00

Warmer Days
Originally uploaded by hynekamy

Had to add a photo of a warm memory to counteract these chilly days. Yes, my photos are digressing from library world.

Google Docs is yet another great feature of Google. They seem to have thought of most everything. Gone are the days of having to be working on the "right" computer. Now we can work on our interlibrary loan spreadsheet from any computer at the library.

As for using Google Docs in my personal life, there are many ways. A friend is starting to share recipes with a group of us. This would be another way, besides email, for her to share.

Week 1, Semester 2 - IM'ing

2008-01-15T17:38:00.000-08:00

At Stoughton Public Library we IM in-house amongst staff and we offer IM reference services in the evening hours. So I'm fairly comfortable IM'ing. I must say that IM reference is quite different than face-to-face reference. As the name implies, patrons expect an answer immediately.

One thing I learned this week is the first step of adding someone as your Buddy - ask her for her screen name. Then you can go through the remaining steps of actually adding her (or him) in. Thanks for the tip Jean.

(By the way, it's birthday month at our house, thus, the cakes.)

Week 10 - In Closing...

2007-12-04T18:21:00.000-08:00

Project Play tools we are using at our library

Internal blog
Newsreaders
Wikis

The week I liked best - this had to be the Flickr week simply because I conquered some of my fears as far as working with images.

Continue with Project Play? This is still in the think tank. Leaning towards yes since I got so much out of the first semester. I just need to let go of completing tasks in a perfect world and participate to the level that I am able. The program itself is very well-organized and comprehensive. The catch-up weeks were the lifesaver.

Week 9 - Wikis

2007-11-20T17:53:00.000-08:00

The library staff at Stoughton have already made use of wikis internally (thanks to our progressive and fearless leaders). In one instance a portion of the staff all needed to add their input to a particular document. If I am remembering correctly, the edited portion was a different color. My memory fails me as to how we differentiated each of our edits.

Here are two comments based on my experience with wikis that were also stated in the lesson:

Start with a skeleton of a document that all involved can then edit.
Make the time allowed for editing finite, shorter rather than longer.

Week 8 - Tagging & Social Bookmarking

2007-11-12T19:05:00.000-08:00

The idea of tagging can be a bit unnerving at first - everyone picking their own subject headings. Yikes! And viewing tags on del.icio.us can make your eyes go a bit buggy (nasty format); but then you come across a site where tags are nicely utilized and you say "Aha!" The tag clouds are very eye catching. They tend to draw you in and make you want to click on one of those tags. I think they might especiialy draw in the YA's. Tags might also be useful if you had a ready reference section to your library's webpage. Patrons could quickly connect with online resources that cover their subject headings of interest; and they would know that they were getting credible websites which were hand-picked by their trusted librarian.

Week 7 - LibraryThing, again

2007-11-06T10:05:00.001-08:00

I seem to be having trouble uploading this image from Flickr while I am in Blogger. So I thought I would post it to Blogger while in Flickr. Hmm...not sure how I did this for last week's lesson. Darn that short term memory!

Week 7 - LibraryThing

2007-11-06T09:26:00.000-08:00

My present reading log consists of a Word document, accessible from one computer. Need I say that LibraryThing is a quantum leap beyond this? Now the task of entering "all" of my past reads into LibraryThing. Whew!

Strengths of LT: You can look to others tags for help in tagging your titles. Love the Suggester feature. Keying in one of my reads - Love Walked In generated Sunday List of Dreams by Kris Radish, amongst many other titles. Yet another way to add to my list of books to read.

Weaknesses of LT: The tagging is rather subjective; but I guess this helps distinguish what you liked about the book.

Question about LT: This really pertains to any software application that allows for tagging - are there tagging conventions, ie. do you separate tags with a space or a comma? do you enter a multiple word tag as one strung together word? do you worry about capitalization?

Week 6 - Upload an image from Blogger

2007-10-31T14:17:00.001-07:00

Now I know that I can upload pictures from Blogger or Flickr into my blog. Yeah me! There's one barrier that would keep me from using images conquered.

Play more. Learn more. Fear less!

Week 6 - Image Sharing & Editing

2007-10-30T14:18:00.001-07:00

White Deer Lake
Originally uploaded by hynekamy

I'm finding this process a wee bit confusing. If this works, I'll have posted to my blog from my Flickr login.

The is a picture of one of my favorite places to visit when I am "up north" - White Deer Lake. It was a gorgeous fall day to hike around the lake. Note the killer snapping turtle in the right foreground; or maybe it was just some driftwood.

As for posting personal photos to the public, I'd rather not. With respect to posting library-related photos, I can see this being a handy tool, as long as you've gotten permission from those indiviuals in the photos. I liked seeing the different ways that libraries have used image sharing - PR for library programs, prize winners, sharing ideas with other libraries using "Groups" and more.

Week 4 1/2 - Surveymonkey

2007-10-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

Do you have any suggestions or feedback for the Stoughton Public Library? If you do, visit our online suggestion box. Prefer paper and pen? You can find our sugggestion box in this format at the front desk as you enter the library.

Week 4 - Feedback Thingies

2007-10-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

Blogs seem like an easy way to solicit feedback from library patrons. Of course, you are only getting feedback from the technologically literate population and those who have computer access. It would be important to provide access via several means, ie. print and electronic. There was recent mention by staff to add a link for patron suggestions to our homepage. This would nicely compliment the paper suggestion box we have at the Circulation Desk. Of course we still would not be obtaining suggestions from non-library users. What ways have other libraries found to acquire feedback from people who are not actively using the library?

Week 3 - RSS & Newsreaders

2007-10-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

I had already created an account in Bloglines a while back. So I did some tweeking - adding a few feeds and organizing all of my RSS feeds into folders. I didn't find that the feed I wanted was always the first one when a site had multiple feeds. Still not sure exactly how to determine which feed is "the right one".

To me, setting up my Bloglines account and selecting my feeds helps remind me what I should be keeping up on. Anything that helps me remember is a good thing.

Another handy use for a newsreader would be creating a feed for any comments that I may receive from coworkers on our internal library blog, or from patrons on our book blog, should we choose to create one.

Week 2 - Let's Start Blogging

2007-10-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog! I love things that are made into three simple steps, like creating my own blog via Blogger. Truthfully, I thought it would be much more difficult. It's entirely helpful that I have already utilized a blog. The Adult Team at Stoughton Public Library uses a blog as a communication tool, since staff generally aren't working at the same time.