#23 These exercises took a really, really long time to do. Not being as computer savvy as many, I'm sure it took me longer than some others. But even on the exercises that were relatively simple it took time to do them thoroughly, to really explore things and feel like I knew something about them. I think the estimates of time needed that were given by the team were not at all accurate. I don't regret the time I spent, but my expectations were not properly set. I would never have been able to complete all of this at work, partly because of the amount of time involved and partly because I needed uninterrupted time to devote to it. If you do this again as a course or if some other library asks you how it went, I think it would be helpful to future learners to give them a better estimate of the time involved.
It got really frustrating at times and it was not the reward that kept me working on this--although I think it's really nice that you are offering an incentive to participate. I kept going because I really appreciated the opportunity to learn about things that I would not have known about and/or explored on my own.
One thing I wish I had known when I started this was the number of accounts I would have to set up to use various sites. If I'd known, I would have made an attempt to make some kind of a system for the account names and passwords that would have helped me remember them. Doing the exercises partly at home and partly at work sometimes left me unable to access something I wanted to work on because the password I needed was on my list at my other location.
One thing I would have been happy to see included was a section on MySpace. Yes, I already know about it and I can use it if I want to, but I don't because it is so geared to younger people it just feels weird to be on it. If I had an assignment I'd feel I had a legitimate reason to be there.
I think it would be interesting to do something like this again in a couple of years. I imagine things will have changed alot--the things we know about will have better features (or not be used any more) and there will be new things that it would be helpful to be guided to.
Thanks for bringing this to us. Thanks for your comments and all the effort you put into it. It was definitely worthwhile.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
#22 I do not have any patience for ebooks. I can hardly stand to read a screen for very long; --my eyes tire of it very quickly. I did look at what's available and I'm glad to know there are free books that can be accessed because I may be able to refer a desperate customer them at some time. I was surpised to see that when I searched for "Little Women" on Project Gutenberg I got so many hits. It took so long to load the book that I didn't have time to go back and look at what some of the other things were, but I would like to do that at another time. I'd also like to see if they have a "search title" function so you can weed out all the stuff you don't want. I'm glad SJPL offers ebooks because they are sometimes the only information I can offer a customer on a topic if he needs it right away (no time to place a hold.)
I would probably use audiobooks if I spent a long time in the car each day. I've tried them on long plane trips but unfortunately I didn't pick titles that really grabbed me and I haven't finished an audio book yet. I guess I need to audition them before I waste ipod space on them.
I would probably use audiobooks if I spent a long time in the car each day. I've tried them on long plane trips but unfortunately I didn't pick titles that really grabbed me and I haven't finished an audio book yet. I guess I need to audition them before I waste ipod space on them.
Monday, March 26, 2007
#20 I like YouTube. I use it mostly when I have heard about something I want to take a look at. I don't use it a lot but, so far, everytime I've wanted to find something it has been there. This morning I was reading an article about the making of a GM commercial so I went to YT to see if it was there--it was. People often send me links to YouTube videos and they are usually good ones. I don't spend a lot of time just poking around looking for good videos, though. There is a lot of chaff out there with the wheat. I'll let others look and send me the good ones. Here's one someone sent me that I like alot (don't watch it if you don't like humor mixed with religion.)
#19 Here's my LibraryThing link: http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=wensley4 (Perhaps you will tell me why, even when I used the "insert link" option above I still didn't get a live link.)
LibraryThing is ok. I was surprised when choosing which site to use as a source for a record to attach my books to that Amazon was more helpful than LC. LC consistently had "(date?) after the title. Amazon let me see the dates of various editions. The books I listed, not necessarily my favorites--just titles I could think of, are not especially popular. My most popular book was #396 on the popularity list. I did look at the lists of some of the other people that had listed some of my books hoping to find other titles I would like or could use, but the results were disappointing. Maybe if the site catches on there will be more people and more books entered and that aspect will improve. Some of the recommendations were good, though. This could be an alternate place to Amazon to look for things I might like to read. I like that LT links you to Amazon, etc. so you can get more info on the recommendations immediately.
There were discussions about only 2 of my titles and the discussions really weren't about my titles anyway. The books were just mentioned in passing. So, so far, the social aspect of this site doesn't offer me much. I'll probably go back to it, though, for the recommendation aspect.
LibraryThing is ok. I was surprised when choosing which site to use as a source for a record to attach my books to that Amazon was more helpful than LC. LC consistently had "(date?) after the title. Amazon let me see the dates of various editions. The books I listed, not necessarily my favorites--just titles I could think of, are not especially popular. My most popular book was #396 on the popularity list. I did look at the lists of some of the other people that had listed some of my books hoping to find other titles I would like or could use, but the results were disappointing. Maybe if the site catches on there will be more people and more books entered and that aspect will improve. Some of the recommendations were good, though. This could be an alternate place to Amazon to look for things I might like to read. I like that LT links you to Amazon, etc. so you can get more info on the recommendations immediately.
There were discussions about only 2 of my titles and the discussions really weren't about my titles anyway. The books were just mentioned in passing. So, so far, the social aspect of this site doesn't offer me much. I'll probably go back to it, though, for the recommendation aspect.
Friday, March 23, 2007
#18. This is the third time I've tried to write something and post it on my blog. I'm using Google docs because I find it simpler to use than Zoho. Zoho isn't hard but I couldn't get it to change the font. I don't know if it was me or them, but after I'd tried it several times I went looking for something else.
I think it's great that utilities like this exist, especially for people who do not have a computer of their own or who do not have it with them and need to write something and access it from home later. I'm glad I know about them so I can tell customers about them.
I thought it was interesting that Zoho provided some templates and thought that the resume template would be the most useful. Then I was disappointed to find that they didn't have a general one. I know you can get them other places, but it would be convenient to have it all on one site.
I also tried Zoho's To Do list but I didn't like it. I found it cumbersome--too many separate boxes to put information in.
#16 I looked at various wikis. The one I liked the best was the Princeton (I think) P.L. where people reviewed books they had read. I like that feature on Amazon. If it's a non-fiction book I'm interested in, I really like to look at customer reviews because that's where you find out if a book was helpful, or if there might be something better. I also like that they (Amazon) upload an editorial description of the book and any professional reviews. I'd like to have customer wiki for book reviews at SJPL and I'd like it if staff could include the editorial description and professional reviews. Actually I don't care who enters the latter stuff, but I'd like to have it for all books and if staff did it it would be more comprehensive.
What if we had a wiki that schools could use to load in their accelerated reader lists--that would be really helpful!
What if we had a wiki that schools could use to load in their accelerated reader lists--that would be really helpful!
Thursday, March 22, 2007
#15.1 I read all the articles listed so I'm not sure I'm commenting on one or several but I did like the Icebergs article for its overview; but when I finished it it seemed the future of libraries was very bleak. As laid out there, why have libraries at all? Some organization of programmers can make giant info banks for people to access from wherever.
The author says educating library users is no longer practical, but he doesn't say how people are going to learn to use all the available resources. I do not believe they will be born knowing how to find things just because most or all information will be available from home. It isn't just a matter of putting a lot of information in one huge database. Access to exactly what people want will still be a problem unless we come up with much better indexing than we have so far. And, even if we do, with the amount of information that will be indexed in one place, I doubt it will be intuitive enough to be used efficiently without some education. Perhaps this might lead to a bigger role for school libraries with the teaching done there. But even so, there will need to be some way to help adults who no longer have access to schools, and there will likely be a huge need among people whose first language is not English.
I wonder whether, if there are no physical library buildings, people will think of accessing a virtual library for help. Why would they--what would make them think to do it? Maybe libraries will have to advertise on the web to get customers (maybe they should be doing that already.)
If there are no library buildings maybe all information will be consolidated into just one database and there will be no need for local libraries at all. Perhaps "the library" will be represented on the web by a picture of a building and people will link there and ask their questions. And it they ask, will they just be given the answer, or will they be told how to do it for themselves the next time? If they are just told and not educated, perhaps some kind of library will once again become the keeper of knowledge. Or, perhaps many people just won't care what is good information and what is not.
That's enough thinking about the possible future of libraries. But I still think that if some kind of library continues to exist, education for users will have to be a part of it.
#15.2 What does Library 2.0 mean to me? It means a kick in the head. It means be aware that the way we do many things is changing and will continue to change. It means that I will always have to work to stay current.
The author says educating library users is no longer practical, but he doesn't say how people are going to learn to use all the available resources. I do not believe they will be born knowing how to find things just because most or all information will be available from home. It isn't just a matter of putting a lot of information in one huge database. Access to exactly what people want will still be a problem unless we come up with much better indexing than we have so far. And, even if we do, with the amount of information that will be indexed in one place, I doubt it will be intuitive enough to be used efficiently without some education. Perhaps this might lead to a bigger role for school libraries with the teaching done there. But even so, there will need to be some way to help adults who no longer have access to schools, and there will likely be a huge need among people whose first language is not English.
I wonder whether, if there are no physical library buildings, people will think of accessing a virtual library for help. Why would they--what would make them think to do it? Maybe libraries will have to advertise on the web to get customers (maybe they should be doing that already.)
If there are no library buildings maybe all information will be consolidated into just one database and there will be no need for local libraries at all. Perhaps "the library" will be represented on the web by a picture of a building and people will link there and ask their questions. And it they ask, will they just be given the answer, or will they be told how to do it for themselves the next time? If they are just told and not educated, perhaps some kind of library will once again become the keeper of knowledge. Or, perhaps many people just won't care what is good information and what is not.
That's enough thinking about the possible future of libraries. But I still think that if some kind of library continues to exist, education for users will have to be a part of it.
#15.2 What does Library 2.0 mean to me? It means a kick in the head. It means be aware that the way we do many things is changing and will continue to change. It means that I will always have to work to stay current.
#14. Technorati. I did find that searching Blog posts, tags and blog directories yielded different results. For the Learning 2.0 search directories were best, followed by tags. Posts were not very productive.
I looked at some of the popular searches and tags and I was surprised to see people (e.g. Cathy Seipp) and things I had never heard of (twitter) among the most popular. I was not surprised to see that the most popular all seemed to relate to technology and subjects younger people would be interested in. I looked at actual posts to see what they were about, but I am not really interested in any of the popular searches. Obviously, I am not limited to the most popular searches, but that's what you asked about.
I spent a lot of time looking at this site and I have to conclude that I am neither a blogger nor a blog reader. I do not want to tag my posts; I do not want to tell the world at large about me; and, although I did find some interesting things, they were not enough to draw me into spending my time looking at other peoples' blogs. I already spend enough time on Google looking things up and getting, for me, satisfying results (mostly without anyone's opinion thrown in.) I did get one glimmer of what might draw people to blogging: I got a comment from a complete stranger. It was a surprise, and slightly scary to me that a blog so obscure as mine was found by a stranger (since I am definitely not writing this for anyone but the originators of this project), but still it was a positive human contact and it carried its own positive charge.
Tagging, I think, is essentially the same as cataloging--not everyone is equally good at it. It helps you to find things that you want, but it surely isn't foolproof. With all the "information" out there you can still wade through a lot of stuff that isn't precisely what you're looking for. If I was willing to spend even more time I would try refining my searches with longer tags to see if anyone is trying to be more precise, but I'm only on #14!
I looked at some of the popular searches and tags and I was surprised to see people (e.g. Cathy Seipp) and things I had never heard of (twitter) among the most popular. I was not surprised to see that the most popular all seemed to relate to technology and subjects younger people would be interested in. I looked at actual posts to see what they were about, but I am not really interested in any of the popular searches. Obviously, I am not limited to the most popular searches, but that's what you asked about.
I spent a lot of time looking at this site and I have to conclude that I am neither a blogger nor a blog reader. I do not want to tag my posts; I do not want to tell the world at large about me; and, although I did find some interesting things, they were not enough to draw me into spending my time looking at other peoples' blogs. I already spend enough time on Google looking things up and getting, for me, satisfying results (mostly without anyone's opinion thrown in.) I did get one glimmer of what might draw people to blogging: I got a comment from a complete stranger. It was a surprise, and slightly scary to me that a blog so obscure as mine was found by a stranger (since I am definitely not writing this for anyone but the originators of this project), but still it was a positive human contact and it carried its own positive charge.
Tagging, I think, is essentially the same as cataloging--not everyone is equally good at it. It helps you to find things that you want, but it surely isn't foolproof. With all the "information" out there you can still wade through a lot of stuff that isn't precisely what you're looking for. If I was willing to spend even more time I would try refining my searches with longer tags to see if anyone is trying to be more precise, but I'm only on #14!
Monday, March 19, 2007
#13 Delicious -- This one I like! I especially like that I can access my bookmarks anywhere. I'm not crazy about the name, though, because I can never remember where to put the dots. And unfortunately the directions are terrible. Perhaps if you spend a lot of time doing things like this it would seem second nature to you, but even when I read the help it doesn't help much. I tried to add something to the library's delicious site but it asked for a password that I didn't have and couldn't find among the many things I had about L2.0. I looked at other libraries' delicious sites and didn't find most of them useful because I thought the pages were very dense and mostly seemed to offer random things that were not interesting to me. Sometimes I couldn't even find their delicious page from their main page ( good idea on your part to put the delicious link right in your material.) I never saw other people's comments about listings. So, I don't think I will be the person who gets the most out of this site, but I will get something valuable to me. As far as using it for research I suppose a thoughtfully constructed, well laid out site could be useful if you could make it visually clearer than the lists of things I saw at the sites I looked at. Actually, I may have seen a better looking page somewhere on our library's site last week when I started working on this. I didn't encounter it today, though, when I was poking around. I have my own delicious account and I have put some bookmarks on it and I can use it at work so I'm happy with this one.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
#10: The image generator was fun. If I ever do anything with one of them that I like enough to post I will add it to my page.
# 11: In the winner category I looked at Blognicient. It does have the advantage of linking to many blogs all in one place, but on the day I looked at it I didn't find anything useful and
the time I spent was not profitable. I might read it again if I'm looking for a diversion but there are other things I'd prefer to spend my time on. It is mind boggling to see even a fraction of the number of people who are out there giving their opinions on current events (and everything else as well. ) So far, though, I haven't found it compelling.
Other sites explored: Propsmart, which I didn't like as much as Zillow (which was second place.) ; Judy's book-didn't hold my interest. Wayfaring--which looked interesting, but I'm really really tired of sites you have to create an account for before you can use them. If I ever really need to make a map, however, I'll go back to it. I also looked at lots of others not memorable enough to mention. I really tried to find something I'd want to return to, but I eventually had to give up.
#12 Rollyo. I don't get it. It has been a long time since I posted anything on my blog and mostly it's Rollyo's fault. For some reason I started the Week 5 tasks with it and I could not understand anything about it. Their explanation of what they are for is minimal, the examples they show are not compelling to me, and I could not see a use to me. I went back to it several times and explored some of their examples but still couldn't understand why I would want it. Until Sandra sent out an email saying we didn't have to actually set one up I was beginning to think I would never get past this exercise. My final conclusion is that perhaps if you had a lot of favorite sites that were limited to a single interest area, perhaps it would help you search just those sites for some particular piece of information. Is that it?
# 11: In the winner category I looked at Blognicient. It does have the advantage of linking to many blogs all in one place, but on the day I looked at it I didn't find anything useful and
the time I spent was not profitable. I might read it again if I'm looking for a diversion but there are other things I'd prefer to spend my time on. It is mind boggling to see even a fraction of the number of people who are out there giving their opinions on current events (and everything else as well. ) So far, though, I haven't found it compelling.
Other sites explored: Propsmart, which I didn't like as much as Zillow (which was second place.) ; Judy's book-didn't hold my interest. Wayfaring--which looked interesting, but I'm really really tired of sites you have to create an account for before you can use them. If I ever really need to make a map, however, I'll go back to it. I also looked at lots of others not memorable enough to mention. I really tried to find something I'd want to return to, but I eventually had to give up.
#12 Rollyo. I don't get it. It has been a long time since I posted anything on my blog and mostly it's Rollyo's fault. For some reason I started the Week 5 tasks with it and I could not understand anything about it. Their explanation of what they are for is minimal, the examples they show are not compelling to me, and I could not see a use to me. I went back to it several times and explored some of their examples but still couldn't understand why I would want it. Until Sandra sent out an email saying we didn't have to actually set one up I was beginning to think I would never get past this exercise. My final conclusion is that perhaps if you had a lot of favorite sites that were limited to a single interest area, perhaps it would help you search just those sites for some particular piece of information. Is that it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)