ALA Emailed Me My Password!

I'm a member of the American Library Association. In the past two months, I've received two email reminders to renew my membership. Within the body of the email, ALA included my login and password. It was not a secure email.

I have never experienced an organization or business sending me unsolicited login and passwords before this encounter.

Usually, when a user forgets his or her login or passwords, he will be directed to a secure website where he can answer a secret question and then have an email sent to him. When he opens his email, he will find a link to a secure website that has contains his login and password.

Why can't ALA institute similar procedures. The ALA prides itself on defending Americans' right to privacy, so why does it flaunt it's members' privacy?

"Most people just want to get in, get it and get out"

Usability guru Jakob Nielson says that the hype to embrace Web 2.0 is resulting in sloppy, hard to use web pages.

Read this for more.

Second Life?

The one last thing that we have not touched on is Second Life. It seems to be all the rage right now, and some libraries are putting in a presence there.

I personally am not excited about spending real time in a virtual world. If could somehow spend virtual time in a virtual world I would have an alternate life there.

But I think it's worth having staff explore. I can understand not having it in the the Learning 2.0 program, since it takes time to set up one' own presence there, and takes time to get acclimated.

Perhaps if KCLS continues this program, as I suggested in my last post on say, a monthly basis, this could be an option to explore.

Again, I want to thank all thos responsible for making this happen!

Reflections

My experience with Learning 2.0 was completely positive. The program was set up in such a way that I could explore a topic, idea or tool in as much depth as I had interest or time.

I like to learn new things, whether it helps me in my work or otherwise, so this was really an extension of my normal daily life. The difference is that the program led me to material that I would not necessarily have found on my own or would have found but would not have taken the time to explore,or think about the consequences of such a tool on the library world.

Nothing really surprised me. The Internet technology industry continues to develop at an exponential rate, so I was not surprised that there were so many tools that I had never seen.

So, of course I would do this over again for the experience. It was fun exploring on my own, but it was equally interesting to talk with my colleagues about what they were doing.

As an advocate, it was also gratifying to help others jump into the mix.

I think this kind of learning opportunity is a great one. I actually would love to continue receiving exercises, maybe on a monthly basis to showcase new technologies and tools coming down the pike.

Thanks for making this happen!

KCLS Digital Audio Collection

I have been exploring the Overdrive and Listening Library collections, as well as the digital video collection. It's all very impressive and handy. I've downloaded some digital audio, and video, but I own an Ipod, so it has not been convenient for me to listen to the selections I've downloaded. Once I have the compatable mp3 player, I think I will begin to use the service more.

Patrons who have discovered it really love the service. I gave a demonstration to one of our Friends' groups and they were impressed and began to use our digital content.

I think the different formats are confusing though. It's difficult toconceptualize the differences between the digital books to read, from the digital books to listen to, from the digital players that patrons check out. I think we need more distinct icons separating them on the catalog. When searching from the home page, it is easier to keep a handle on the different formats.

I have not looked to see how other libraries are doing this yet, but I should.

I think that these digital books may very well eventually replace cd's and tapes. From a user's point of view, this is great. It's so much easier to carry a tiny device that doesn't skip when you move, than it is to lug around a cd player and those huge boxes of tapes or cd's.

However, from a professional point of view I have some questions. Once we start moving into digital content, libraries no longer own that content. I worry about public libraries becoming dependant for content on corporations who own the digital material. We will simply be renting content on behalf of our patrons, and we will have no control over what that content is.

I lament that libraries were not on the cutting edge of the digital revolution and didn't think to create their own digital content cooperatives or companies. I know that academic libraries have done this to some extent with serials, I think it could have been done with digital audio as well.

Public Libraries seem to be lagging in this area, and I think they need to catch up soon. PLA should be taking the lead on this, rather than accepting so many large donations from big corporations to keep PLA's leaders placated.

Wild World of Library Podcasts

I have been an ITunes devotee for some time, so I have not looked at other podcast download sites. I explored two provided for us on the KCLS Intranet and found much more interesting content on the Yahoo Podcast page than the Podcast.net page.

I used keyword searching for both, but the Yahoo page simply seemed to have more interesting content with regard to podcasts in general. I subscribed to the Science Friday podcast. I noticed that some libraries are simply posting every program that they host, and I think that it may be a waste time. Not all programs transfer well as Podcasts. Yahoo seemed to have more content that was specifically designed for podcasts, and topics seemed interesting from a professional point of view, but none seemed to be consistent in their publication. They didn't seem to be suitable choices for Bloglines.

Back to Podcast.net. I added Kankakke Public Library's program podcast series which has 52 episodes to Bloglines. I'll take a look at it occasionally to see if there are any adult programming ideas that I could glean from them.

Julia Child Visits the Library of Congress

I was surfing Youtube for a good video to post here and found one that featured two of my topics: cooking and libraries. What could be better than Julia Child visiting the Library of Congress?

Well, you be the Judge.

Web 2.0 Awards

I took a look at Propsmart, which is a real estate hunting website. At first glance it doesn't look much different than some of the other sites I've looked at, except for the commenting possibilities, which I didn't have time to closely explore.

If I can add comments to properties that I've actually taken the time to look at in the real world, I could save time for other house hunters. If this works like Trip Advisor, it could be really great.

I also found some properties that our agent and other websites had not turned up. Alternatively, possible properties that were found elsewhere online were not listed here.

The lesson here is to use many sources when looking to purchase a home.

Catch Up Weeks are Dangerous

I was all caught up, so I created a few avatars and had a couple of laughs with my colleauges. But I also got lazy, and now I'm a few weeks behind.

I also forgot to post for this week. So here it is.

Documents To Share!

From the point of view of our patrons and general usability, this is the best tool to have come across so far.

I've been reading about free online applications for some time, but have not tried them, so I'm glad that they are included in our learning process.

I tried both Google and Zoho, and was happy with both. I didn't really spend too much time on either, as my free time is limited.

The pros are numerous. Most powerful to me and my work are the collaboration possibilities and multiple format access.

I've always been a fan of open source software.

Web 2.0 Commentary

I've just completed reading three articles that were found on the kcls27things blog. Before getting to the articles, I want to mention that I disagree with part of Sarah Houghton's definition of what web 2.0 means with regard to libraries. First of all, she does not simply supply a definition of web 2.0. Rather, she supplies the reader with a short definition and then adds editorial comment. She opines, "The basic drive is to get people back into the library by making the library relevant to what they want and need in their daily lives…to make the library a destination and not an afterthought."

This seems to be circular reasoning. Based on the quote above, libraries are relevant when they give patrons what they want and need in their day to day lives. How can a library possibly remain relevant by trying to accomplish such a huge goal? It also does not define which wants and needs are relevant to libraries. So hence the tautology that she seems to imply: Libraries are relevant by being relevant. What makes a library relevant is so much more complicated and delicate than she implies. She also seems to be stating that at this point in time, libraries are not giving patrons what they want and need, because they are not fully grasping web 2.0 tools, and if they were to do that, poof! patrons would have what they want.

I want to clarify that my understanding of public libraries is that they first develop a vision statement, goals and then objectives. They provide programs and services based on that vision statement. They don't simply give patrons what they want because they clamour for it. That would be a definition of a big box store. Public Libraries are not stores. They have limited budgets and need to necessarily limit what they do based on budgets, priorities and visions. Libraries are relevant because they do what they do better than any other agency, not because they give patrons everything they want and need, whatever that might be. An important point to consider and to remember is that public libraries are not businesses, they are government agencies that necessarily need to provide access to all who reside in a given community. Important questions to consider are, whose wants and needs are most important? How does one serve the under served if they don't clearly define their wants and needs? How do you provide for a community with diverse wants and needs when budgets are small? Properly answering those questions can be complicated and requires dedicated professionals to work through solutions to those questions.

If libraries are truly to remain relevant, they need to remember what it is that they have done well traditionally, and enhance that with web 2.0 tools. Collections have never been designed simply based on what patrons want. Yes, the patron's needs are relevant and it's important to survey patrons to ascertain what those needs and wants are that also fit in with a library's vision, but there may also be other outlets to satisfy some of those patron needs, and that's OK. The library will always be relevant if it continues to keep focused on top notch collections, great customer service and most important, facilitated access to credible information.


Web 2.0 tools should never drive visions and goals, rather, web 2.0 tools should be used to help libraries achieve their visions and goals, and this should be done very thoughtfully and carefully.

Rollyo Vs. Google

I've taken a look at both options. The most obvious difference is that Rollyo is very slow. I'm thinking that anyone who is interested in a personalized search engine is probably interested in accessing that information quickly.

Every time I used Rollyo, the results were very slow to come. On the other hand, Google was as fast as ever.

I noticed that results between the two search engines ranked results differently. My search was "author programs". For instance, Rollyo featured Tacoma Public Library highly, whereas the Google Search featured results for Seattle Public Library and Sno-Isle Library.

I don't mind the sponsored adds on Rollyo. It's easy to spot and then ignore them.

You can take a look at my Cycling Puget Sound Rollyo Search Engine

I think the benefit of personalized search engines is to have the information that you need at your fingertips. It helps someone extract specific information from websites, and to keep track of changes. I'm thinking about how this is different from using and rss feeds. They are similar, but having a personalized search engine is more easily shared and ostensibly pinpoints desired information more accurately than an rss feed.

I Want Control!

I completed the two Wiki assignments. Based on my personal experiences and the assigned readings, I think Wiki's have great potential to aggregate useful information that is kept up-to-date in real time. I like the idea of a system-wide Wiki rolodex or a temporary wiki that helps aid in accomplishing a short term or long term project. I see wiki's as information tools that help get a particular job done. When visiting some of the library Wiki's I thought that sought after information might be too embeded for the casual user to find. I also thought that the wiki pages were quite boring. For so long, the online world has been focusingattractive websites that are easy to use. Those wikis that I explored for this assignment seem to be quite rudimentary with regards to design and ease of use. I assume that they will evolve over time and that this criticism will no longer be valid.

I feel less comfortable using Wiki's in libraries within free for all environments such as for patron book comments or general commenting sited. Libraries need to remain controlled environments in order for them to be safe places for everybody. The blogosphere is a pretty wild west kind of crazy place, where people are routinely attacked, tags are used maliciously, and flame wars abound. While I like the idea of tagging and linking, libraries were originally designed as places where information was kept confidential. I don't think cataloged items should have any baggage linked to them. I believe our items should be in the catalog bias free. If folks want opinions expressed from the general population, there are already many sites to visit.

Libraries are necessarily controlled so that we have balanced collections that represent all aspects of society. Each item should stand on it's own.

What Was Old Is New Again

According to an article in the Guardian Unlimited, actual literary magazines are experiencing a comeback. What's the message for libraries? Don't put all of your eggs in the virtual basket. They may break. Read further here.

My Library Thing Link

I realize that I sometimes am not the best at following instructions. I had not posted my Library Thing page. Here it is.

Library Things

I am already a member of Library Thing, but I did link my collection to my non-27things blog today.
People are always asking me about what I've been reading, so now I can easily refer them over to my blog.

I checked out Shelfari, but I'm already biased against them, beacuse Oprah has been pushing this sitein her magazine. Also Shelfari claims to be the original book cataloging social networking site, but Libray Thing actually is. Shelfari came into existence in October of 2006 and Library Thing got its' start in May 2005. This I know from looking at both websites. I don't like misleading statements. I also notice that Amazon is funding Shelfari.

Libray Thing also has a more grass roots feel to it, and it seems to be attracting a more eclectic group of readers.

Gurlib lost my interest because it includes music and videos. I would like to stick with literature for now.

Technorati

So I gave Technorati a whirl. It seems to do its job well. I tried searching "web 2.0" in all three categories, but I've got to tell you that it is such a big topic that I couldn't really interpret much from the differences.

So to really see how this works, I searched the name of a blog that is eponymous with its author. Her writing has been controversial of late, and I got a very good idea of how this all works.

So I first looked in the blog directory and I found nothing, though she is a popular blogger. She must not have registered her blog with Technorati.

Then I looked in blog posts, and I found over six thousand posts about the blog and blogger. But I still couldn't find her own blog posts. Interesting.

Then I searched the tags. Photos from her Flickr account came up along with many of her blog posts mixed in with others that tagged her name.

What I am seeing is that alot of people are wasting alot of time writing about flame wars within the blogosphere. I'm also seeing that Technorati allows me to research what bloggerers have to say about people, politics and other bloggers. I can track themes, which isn't personally interesting, but for anyone who is researching a topic in real time, or trying to discern a new trend or trying to keep track of new innovations, this is a terrific tool. Librarians can use this to help people achieve these goals. We can also use it to follow library current library trends.


Now I'm going to try the same thing with "kcls27things". KCLS is impacting the blogosphere. "kcls27things" is the number 10 search term at this point in time. So we're skewing the results. It seems as though a small group of people could wreak some havoc with Technorati if they wanted to. Also at least one blogger is commenting on kcls27things being on this top ten list. This person called it an "A-List Blog" So now we are A list!

Anyway, I checked tags and saw the Flickr photos, etc. This is all very interesting and I'll need play with it more to really understand it's impact.

By the way, the original blog is called Althouse.

Social Networking and Information

I just finished looking at the de.lic.iou.us material. I think it's a great way to track new trends, and to combine information. I think it will serve as an interesting kind of market research, especially if eventually we will be able to break information down geographically.

I'll have more to say once I play with it more.

Myspace and Friends

I easily created a Myspace account and had more difficulty with the confirmation email. It turns out that KCLS email was not working this Sunday.

Anyway, I have my first friend, and explored the site and possible options for awhile.

What I've discovered is that it could easily be a giant time sucking machine, with all the options to personalize and search for Friends.

I was mildly amused by the dead famous personalities I found, and the "relationships"they had with one another.

As a youth, I would have found countless options for fun, mayhem and connecting using Myspace.

One interesting note, I did find my niece, but curiously, she has not logged in since February.

Exploring Myspace

I've read the featured articles about social networking sites, and it makes sense for libraries to be represented. Personally, unless I have a product or idea to market, I'm not very interested. The majority of my life outside of work is spent offline, and I wish to keep it that way.

Interestingly, a recent article in Salon explores the State of Israel's Myspace page. The article concludes that Israeli officials were interested reaching out the the international youth demographic. After some polling they discovered that youth outside Israel consider that nation to be irrelevant. Take a look at the site. It's hip and busy

RSS and Chowhound

Chowhound
Originally uploaded by miridris.

I was thinking about when having an RSS feed would be useful and I realized that I am a viewer of Chowhound a restaurant review message board.

Boards are geographically arranged, and I check them out when I'm traveling to a given area. I also regularly check into the Northwest Board. So having easy updates to new posts would be great.

I think RSS is most useful for those who need quick updates regularly. This is useful for Journalists or and business competitors, or anyone who is a news junkie or addicted to Hollywood gossip.

Salutr

Salutr is a mashup that allows the user to create greeting e-cards fromFlickr photos. I looked at alot of the other applications. Some were fun but didn't have any practical use for me and some were complicated to install, and I didn't have the time to do that. Salutr is something that is simple to use, fun, and has a purpose.

Some of the applications look as though they will be useful for my blogs. For instance, there is one that allows you to link to your Flickr albums directly from your blog.

Paris Window

Window
Originally uploaded by miridris.

I've uploaded this photo directly from Flickr.

It's easy to upload from here, but I cannot add links to my blog text.

Flickr

I just completed setting up my Flickr account. I was impressed with it's simplicity of use and power. I have not yet uploaded photos using Flickr to the blog. I will do that next.

List Mania

The Guardian takes on book lists with a piece ostensibly reviewing The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favourite Books, but the article is actually an exploration of our growing dependence on "best of" lists and prizes. With the increasing onslaught of reviews and publishing information available on the web, the reader is increasingly reliant on these lists as comforting way finders.

Does the reliance on lists create a homogeneous reading public?

Web 2.0 Origins

Where did this term come from anyway. Let's find out.
Here's a really good historical and contextual explanation