RSS & Newsreaders week #4

Back in the day...when newsmen read the news, timed, and you had to listen for something that was of interest to you, it was such a long time ago!...lol...but now with RSS feeds, the news is channelled to you...just like you were one of those important business magnates...with a ticker tape...built in to your very own computer. Now you can keep up with the exact details on any subject line...it's a pretty amazing thing when you think of it!

There are those who could care less about this level of technology, but with the way that this is going,....the uninformed will be left to the side of the electronic road. Life will not stop for them, to be sure, but they wiill not be anywhere near the crowd when interesting developments occur. But then again, perhaps they didn't ever want to be there in the first place? Not everyone is curious enough to pursue some things. Not a bad thing in itself...

Here be bloggers #3

The only difficult thing was trying to keep up with the time to put something down....blogging is second nature to me, as I tended to journal...by the old fashioned pen and ink method, and still do...but in terms of ease, nothing beats blogging!!

The End of the Line? #30.....

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?And last but not least…
If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

This has been overall an interesting and informative way to be introduced into the new ways and means of communication within the library...an enjoyable exerise. I would love to keep learning this way...self directed learning is a great way to keep up with things of this nature. I constantly do it with many small applets on my webpage. Whenever an new article comes in on the RSS feed, it's almost like chirstmas everytime I head over to thier wbsite and see what new applet, what new gizmo has come out. Not everything is useful or can be used within our framework...but just having knowledge of forthcoming trends is a satisfying thing...at lreast to me.

podcasting!. your very own talk show!

The idea of podcasting seemed at first to be a rather limiting function for us in the library related fields, but I have found the exact opposite to be true! I have been able to assist a number of patrons with free podcasting software that can be found on the net, and then even participated in a number of monthly podcasts with a group of study groups. It's like having a serialized book on tape, made just for the group of friends in the exact subject you're interested in.

I think this is going to be a very useful tool in the future...as long as we remember...podcasting doesn't make you an expert...or assure that the content is correct. So do your homework and check your facts before you rely on a blog or a podcast for credit on a grade!

Looking back...by looking forward...

This has been an interesting experience for me, I was familiar with a good number of the tools mention in the training, but it was nice to be able to share...as a group...our experiences and little hidden steps to making things work a little easier.

I am also finding that these exercises have been helpful to me in working with our patrosnn.mI no longer have to look at someone with a somewhat blank face when they ask if I'd wiki's this, or blogged that! While not on the cutting edge of the wave of technology, I feel that we are on the curl of an awesome ride to come.

Back To The Future!!

All of this "new" technology is so much fun, but boy is it time consuming!...But I have found an interesting difference in learning styles. I have seen, worked on and participated with many of the items that have been set forth in this learning 2.0 process...and while I can appreciate the orderliness of it all, the things that I have already been working with for well over a year or two in the past, such as Library Thing, blog spot, wiki, podcasting, etc...I find it rather difficult to go over the exercises and "re-talk" about these items? I stumbled across many of these items due to the forums that I lurk about on and when something "new" is discovered...I try it out, and see if it is something that can fit into my time frame of a useful application, and wonder "how will this make my life and work easier?".

SO, for all you folks out there discussing how "none of this will help me" to "I don't have the time"...consider that I have been stumbling across many of these items in my own way for a number of years, and it would have been nice to have had it all set down before me in a nice, neatly ordered structured environment. True, we are not going to need all of these items in our everyday lives, but as information professionals, I think that our job is not just 'readers-advisory'...it is also as a 'web-advisor'...Because our patrons have little or no experience in dealing with these applications and might not know that they are even out there, in much the same way that we introduce them to a new author or a new series, it is our responsibility to introduce our patrons to new applications that will make their experience at the library and even better one...

Have You Seen My Library Thing???

As an inveterate reader and bibliophile I was always envious of those people who had their own personal catalog for their personal collections. I knew how to do a database file in Access, but it was so cut and dried...in fact, it was downright boring! Then one day someone turned me on to Library Thing! What a joyous day that was...(you have to know me...)Now I was able to catalog and tag my books...according to my likes and terminologies...I could then search for those books by author, by title, by subject...by my own personalized tags...even by book cover! If I were quite....ummm...anally retentive, I could catalog my books by cover design, color and size. You know, if you've worked in the public library system long enough....someone always comes in with "I don't know who wrote it, or what the title was...and I can't remember the subject, but it was this tall and this thick and it had a red cover"...well...by jiminey...it can be done that way...if you want...all with Library Thing. And the best part is...it's free! Yes...free...well...for the first 200 books it's free. You can buy a years subscription to their service for $10 or you can buy a lifetime subscription for the astronomical price of $25....talk about value for your money...but wait...it gets even better...not only can you catalog YOUR books, you then have access to thousands and thousands of other book geeks around the world and their collections also! But wait!...it gets even better....(can you believe it?)...you can communicate with everyone else (if you make your profile public) and discuss books and authors. There are so many plus's to this site, I could go on for hours...and I have...but not here....You need to stop reading this and head over to librarything.com and check it out for yourself.

It is possibly the absolute best thing to happen to the net...since the net! The only thing...and this is a rather small gripe...the only thing I wish is that there would be a way to save your personal collection of books as a database file...in case of catastrophic failure. I know....'it'll never happen' and it won't because the folks who've put library thing together have done a great job of running it on multiple servers and while it might go down for service or maintenance...there will most likely always be a library thing out there...but the person that I am would love to have my library thing collection on my computer...available whether I was online or off...little thing...I know...but we book geeks are like that!

So go...what are you waiting for??? Go...right now....we'll talk later!!!