E-Books

Project Gutenberg is an incredible project that makes it possible to download or read books online. Obviously only books that are no longer subject to copyright can be made available and the site warns users outside the USA to check for copyright in their own country. The Project Gutenberg Philosophy is to make information, books and other materials available to the general public in forms a vast majority of the computers, programs and people can easily read, use, quote, and search. The books are text only because of problems of space, but they are planning to incorporate pictures as soon as technological advances make it possible.

I browsed the catalogue by author - letter O and found Scottish Ghost Stories by Elliott O'Donnell (1872-1965). There are various different ways of downloading - in HTML or plain text or Adobe (all zipped or not) or Plucker [free software]- which lets you read plucker files on your Palm organizer or smartphone. Or, of course, you can just read online. You can bookmark your e-book, just as you can a 'real' book. There is also a GoTo Page function, so you can browse the book. As my chosen book has many stories, I can choose which page to go to from the index A site like this is ideal for the classics, which are out of copyright, and I read a little of Emma by Jane Austen, one of my favourites. Project Gutenberg are looking for volunteer proofreaders for this huge endeavour, and this is certainly a place where library employees could help.
Of course you can't curl up with a computer in the same way you can with a book. Which is where Kindle comes in - a wireless electronic book reader, priced at around US$400. You can download up to 200 books to Kindle, in the same way that you can download songs to an IPod. Kindle does not need a PC to be loaded with books, blogs or papers - instead the content arrives via wireless. According to Amazon, around 90,000 titles are available for downloading. Bestsellers are available for download for as little as US10.00 - quite a bit less than the book price. You can also subscribe to magazines, newspapers and blogs on Kindle - but at a price. There would be little point in subscribing to the Herald online when you can view it for free on the internet. This looks very interesting and I look forward to seeing one. At the moment the technology used by Kindle is not much used outside North America, so it might be a while before it gets here. Reading on computer is unlikely to replace reading books, but this book reader might well. What role will we have then - renting out readers and facilitating book downloads?

Podcasts

I signed up for Podcast.com and started looking for library and book related podcasts. I thought The Washington Post Book World Podcast looked interesting so subscribed to that and listened to some interviews with authors and snippets of book news. A great way to learn what's happening in the book world - and something we should explore for our website. I'm sure our customers would love to tune in to Manukau librarians talking about new books - even if we couldn't run to interviews with authors. I couldn't find any New Zealand book sites, so we could be first in this field. Alternatively we could just have feeds from the professional podcasters. These podcasts can be accessed on cellphones and Ipods as well as computers, so are really versatile. It's good having the podcast playing in the background while I write in my blog. I then visited The Library Channel and tried to subscribe to the RSS feed to my bloglines account but unfortunately it did not have an RSS feed. My next stop was Nancy Pearl Book Reviews - Nancy Pearl is a librarian with a love of books so strong it has been officially classified as lust - and I found such a lovely mix of reviews. The first was a book on the Olympics, the next a children's book by Allan Ahlberg. Then I found a review of Dear American Airlines by Jonathon Miles and I have to read it. A traveller stuck overnight at O'Hare airport in Chicago writes a letter to the President of American Airlines demanding a refund, as he will now miss his daughter's wedding on the West Coast. As he writes he takes stock of his life and explains why it is so important to get to his daughter's wedding. It is recommended as a good trans-American flight book. As I'm off to Vancouver tomorrow, I'll be looking for it at the airport. On the technical side, I set up an RSS feed to my Bloglines account and now will be able to listen in regularly to Nancy Pearl from there.

Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode live

Just for fun - some vintage 60s rock.

Podcasting in Plain English

These Plain English videos are awesome!

You Tube

I'm quite familiar with You Tube and have used it quite a lot over the last year or so. I have recently watched some pretty good Web 2.0 learning videos by The Common Craft Show and a very funny public education video from the 1950s on how to treat loose women! I have just done a search for a friend's video, and even though I didn't know the title of it, I found it easily. I also had a look at Google Videos and searched on both sites for 'Paris Hilton' - You Tube returned 113,ooo results and Google Videos 88,000, but a lot of the Google Videos came from You Tube! The 60s music videos had been removed from You Tube because of terms of use violation. I've frequently wondered about copyright when copying things from various sites to my blog - is copyright forfeited if one publishes to a site like Flickr or You Tube?
I've chosen the video Podcasting in Plain English to share, because it explains the next step on our discovery journey, and the link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-MSL42NV3c. I've also just posted it to my blog - I already had an account with You Tube so it was quite easy to add my blog and then post to it. Adding instructional videos to the library websites has possibilities - especially if they're in Plain English.

Discovering Web 2.0 tools

When I looked at the list of categories, I was drawn to maps. When I saw Google Earth on the list, I had no difficulty making my choice. I was only surprised that it only came third in its category. I have used this tool a number of times. I have had a look at my own home and my previous house in South Africa. I am soon going to visit friends in Vancouver and have had a look at where they live. I've also checked out the house I grew up in in Wales. I have also used it to look at an area in the city where I have to visit, in order to get a feel for the area. It is also possible to get the street names superimposed on the image. Sometimes I look at a place in Wales and then move to New Zealand - I feel quite dizzy as the world spins before my eyes, especially the huge amount of ocean, before settling here. On a practical level I have just zoomed in on Half Moon Bay Marina and checked that our boat is securely tied up after this awful weather. I've also just had a look at my library and have been trying to see which staff cars were parked there on the day the satellite took the photograph. For the council it's quite easy to check all the swimming pools in the area without leaving the office - I wonder if they do that?! As for library use - it could be used to direct customers to other libraries, to parks, swimming pools, the council offices or anywhere else they want to go - but then a street map does the same thing. I'll have to think about it's practical uses, but in the meantime, it's a lovely toy to play with.
PS - I've just looked at Webmum's blog and I think the cookery demonstrations are a fantastic idea for our website.

Zoho Writer again

Well I published successfully to my blog, but it was not as easy as with other applications we have used and I had to enter my blog username and password without a secure connection. I also published my document roll to my blog, so that I can move easily to my documents in Zoho Writer from my blog, and that was easy to set up and works well. I also tested the publishing aspect and that seemed to work easily, although I cancelled before publishing.
I had a look at Google Docs and found it quite easy to use and to publish to my blog - I deleted the published item as it was a copy of a previous blog. Sign in and out was also done via an encrypted page. It looks a lot simpler than Zoho Writer and I don't know if it has as many features, but I don't have time to investigate right now as I need to move on!

Zoho Writer

The idea of sharing and editing documents online seems a very good one, so i approached Zoho Writer positively. However, I've had some problems getting it up and running in work as it just closed Internet Explorer down every time I tried. I'm now trying at home using Firefox and it still took a while to get going, so my first impressions are not favourable, and I will definitely have a look at Google Docs to see how they compare. As I don't want to share this document with a group of people, I will try to publish it to my blog.

Week 7 - Social Networking

I'll talk about Facebook first because I have been a member for some time and love it. I have linked up with family and friends all over the world, and have made new friends through Facebook. I regularly chat to a lady in Port Elizabeth who has the same birthday as me - pretty random, but we get on well. I play Scrabble, Sudoku, Word Twist and other games with friends and strangers. I have friends in China, Malaysia, Canada, the USA, Cayman Islands, UK, Australia, Spain, Serbia and South Africa. I'm always happy to add new friends, so I tried a few library names and found one of the community library managers, and have now asked her to be a friend.
Now I'll have a look at Myspace and Bebo and see how they rate compared to Facebook.
I've had a look at Myspace and decided not to join - it looks like a network for younger people, and I think I'm happier on Facebook, but I'm sure it's just as much fun as FB. Bebo looks pretty similar to FB in the way Auckland Libraries have set up their site. I use FB for fun, but my daughter, who works for a large company, uses it for work networking. It's a requirement that employees set up a FB account. So these social networking sites are obviously something we need to know about. If, as librarians, we want to see what the youngsters are doing and to get their attention, then we need to be on social networking sites. The Hennepin County Library site on FaceBook is fantastic and I think it would be a good idea for Manukau Libraries to use social networking sites to communicate with customers and potential customers.

Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

Michael Stephens says:
Librarian 2.0 embraces Web 2.0 tools This librarian recognizes how services might be enhanced by the Read/Write web and how new services might be born in a climate of collaboration. This librarian uses Instant Messaging to meet users in their space online, builds Weblogs and wikis as resources to further the mission of the library, and mashes up content via API (Application Program Interface) to build useful Web sites. A Google map mash up of local libraries created by Chicago librarians is one such instance of building tools via new resources. Other librarians creating MySpace profiles and participating in other thriving communities build connections online where their users live. (my emphasis)

But, at the moment, libraries have to deal with two diverse groups of customers - older people who have had little or no exposure to information technology, and 'digital natives' who have grown up surfing the net, texting, gaming and whose brains are apparently wired differently because of their constant use of technology. For about the next thirty or forty years, until the digital natives are the majority of library customers, we will have to continue to offer services to both groups. So don't throw out the books yet!
The major change that libraries need to embrace is that of the interactivity of Web 2.0. We need wikis and blogs that customers can access and contribute to from their own homes. We need to provide reliable information online - such as Ebsco and encyclopedias - which we already do in Manukau. I see the changes as incremental and developmental while we still have the two diverse groups of customers to deal with. And of course, as older staff members retire, the 'wired' generation will in any case be providing the services. But, for the time being, we must still provide for our 'non-technological' customers. And even the digital natives like to curl up with a book, not a laptop. Is Michael perhaps neglecting a large number of his customers with his enthusiasm for Web2.0? We are not only about information - we provide recreational reading, a place to meet, to chat, to read newspapers and magazines, to bring the children to storytime or Tusitara Club. Technology must be our servant not our master.
But as far as library management is concerned I cannot argue with Chip Nilges and John J. Riemer - cooperative cataloguing and resource sharing are definitely the way to go. WorldCat is a wonderful resource. And to finish, I had to chuckle at Wendy Schulz's idea of Library 4.0 - as a luxurious Library 1.0!

Technorati

I created an account in Technorati and enjoyed playing around on the site - especially their range of widgets. Two weeks ago I had no idea what a widget was, now I copy and paste HTML like an old pro! I selected their news feed to put on my blog, but it updates so slowly that it is not really worth having, unlike the NZ Herald feed, which is always right up-to-date, and opens the Herald site in a new tab when you click on a story. Then I had to get to the business side of the exercise. I searched for Learning 2.0 in the blog posts and got 727 hits, the first of which was 'Giving up on work e-mail'. I had a look at a few entries including this, which looked promising:

Random Thoughts about the Hyperlinked Library at CML

http://tametheweb.com/ 2008/ 08/ 13/ random-thoughts-about-the-hyperlinked-library-a...

Yesterday was a great day at Columbus Metropolitan Library. I did two sessions of a customized version of the Hyperlinked Library to help launch the Learn & Play program. The staff seemed very excited to begin and some had already ramped up their blogs. I talked to some good folks over the wonderful vegetarian-friendly lunch, including Nick, who shared the following from my morning talk at his blog he’ll be using for the program. I like the fact that he’s capturing ideas, actions and things to ponder further and putting it out there.

2 days ago

Tagged:

• Learning 2.0 & Beyond

In the blog directory, I got 540 posts, mainly of very limited interest. I couldn't work out how to search under tags. I then went to Google and did the same search and got some great results, mainly from libraries and schools.

Searching other people's blogs presupposes that the majority of people have something interesting and/or erudite to say. The entry I have copied above (probably breaking copyright law) is of very minimal interest, as were the rest of the blogs I had a look at. Blogs are great when run by people with something to say - the National Library's 'Create Readers' is a good example, but the millions of people blogging generally are not worth reading. I enjoy having a look at the blogs of my colleagues, but only because they are my colleagues, not because they have earth-shattering ideas. Even though I claimed my blog, I did not set up a ping to Technorati, as I don't think the world needs to read my learning experiences! Well that's my rant - I should rename my blog 'Library Musings by a Reactionary Gran' perhaps. My favourite saying is: They said if a million monkeys typed continuously they would eventually write the works of Shakespeare - now we have the internet and we know this is not true.
I have to add a postscript to this rant - some of my colleagues do have some very good ideas, which I have been reading more of since I wrote this post, and blogging within the library staff is a pretty good way to share those ideas in a semi-structured way.

Del.icio.us

I had a good look around Del.icio.us, first using the PLCMCL2 account, and then I created my own account, thinking this looked like a pretty good idea. But after following tags and finding some really random sites, I decided that, for the time being, I'd rather stick with Firefox bookmarks. The Youtube video made it look so easy to find relevant sites, but you're still ploughing through masses of sites, some of which have some very odd and random tagging. I also couldn't see how to limit the sites called up by language and got quite a few foreign language sites. Probably the biggest plus of Del.icio.us is the fact that your 'Bookmarks' can be accessed from any computer. Personally, if I want to access a site that I have been to previously, I find it pretty easy to find it again through Google.

PB Wiki

I just popped into PBWiki and added my favourites to the favourite TV shows. I also had a look at some of the other entries - especially favourite books. Quick and easy to use and edit - nice easy task for once!

Wikis

Wikis are fast becoming part of our accepted information sources, but remain controversial as far as the reliablity of their content is concerned. The New Zealand school library Listserv regularly hosts discussions on whether students should be allowed to use Wikipedia or not. It has been claimed that research shows that Wikipedia actually contains less factual errors than Encyclopedia Britannica - I am not sure whether this is true or an urban myth. Editing, revising and bringing out a new edition of a conventional encyclopedia takes years, but advances in knowledge can be added quickly to a Wikipedia, so they are a valuable resource in areas such as information technoloy, which develop and change quickly. As far as reliability goes, the fact that people are constantly editing wikis means that false information will soon be removed. Objectivity is a problem, but this applies to conventional information sources as well.
As far as libraries are concerned, wikis offer lots of possibilities. Library staff can't possibly read all the books available and write reviews on them, so encouraging customers to add reviews to the library website would be great. The same applies to community information - organisations like Lions and Rotary which change their office bearers every year are hard to keep track of, so it would be helpful if they added their own information. Moderation of information would have to be considered, as you'll always have the problem of people who add inappropriate content. But the pros definitely outweigh the cons. Within the library service wikis can be used to disseminate ideas and information among staff. For conferences, wikis are an incredible way of organising all the information that is generated - and one person doesn't have to collate all that information. The big plus of wikis is that they are so easy to use - anyone who can type can contribute even if they don't know what HTML means.

Technology and Baby Boomers

All technology is fascinating to baby boomers - many of us grew up without even colour television or telephones. So, what do I like best? It's hard to choose. Using Skype to chat to my daughter and grandchildren in Australia is obviously major - especially getting to see the little ones on webcam. It also helps to remind them who we are between visits. Facebook plays a pretty big part in my life too and I love having friends all around the world. My particular favourite is playing games with groups of these friends - my evenings are often taken up with games such as Word Twist, Paradigm and Challenge Sudoku. E-mail is incredible - do children still have to learn how to write letters at school? Keeping in touch with friends from the three other countries we've lived in is so much easier with e-mail. If I still had to write letters, I think we would lose touch with so many of them. Digital cameras speak for themselves - so much easier. But I do still use an old fashioned camera occasionally, much to the confusion of my three-year old granddaughter who can't understand why she can't see the photos immediately! VCRs have never liked me, so the advent of DVD recorders was important to me - now I can confidently record anything I like without mishaps such as chewed tape. There's just so much, but I need to get on Facebook and feed my pet dog, so I'll leave it there.
I went to the blog register to choose someone to comment upon for this section. My first two attempts were unsuccesful as they hadn't written on the topic yet, but I enjoyed having a look at what they had written. Then I found someone who had written about Ipods, clicked on comments, and added my thoughts. The bonus was that another interesting comment had been added. The security prevents mass comments being made by hackers which is good.

Flickr Fun

For some Flickr fun, I headed to Montager and created a mosaic of boats. It came up with five hundred photos of different aspects of boats and boating that you could zoom in on. It was really quite fascinating. The link is:
http://www.deviousgelatin.com/montager/image.php#
Some more fun involved looking for something interesting to comment on - and finding a photograph of the delicious Colin Firth - he might also be Del.icio.us, but I haven't got to that yet so I don't know.

Flickr

This is a photograph I took in Ouvea and which I have uploaded to my Flickr account. It is a lovely sight in this cold, wet New Zealand winter! It was incredibly hot that day and the white sand made the heat even more intense. We spent a lot of time in the sea attempting to cool off. The cruise ship can be seen in the background, but even with a thousand 'cruisers' on the beach, there was plenty of space for us to spread out on this practically unpopulated island.

The hyperlink to this photo is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29327722@N08/2749302658/

I've been meaning to join Flickr for some time to upload some photographs for family and friends around the world to see, so this was an ideal opportunity to do so. I already have photo albums on my Facebook account so uploading the photographs to Flickr was quite straightforward. Getting one onto my blog was a little more difficult and took a bit of trial and error, but here it is!

Rollyo

I had a look at Rollyo and set up a couple of search rolls - one of travel sites that I often use, and another of New Zealand libraries. It was pretty straightforward to set up, but I'm not sure if this is something I'd really use much. The sites I chose are all very easy to find on Google anyway. However, I can see the potential for its use for study or hobby sites. But gathering all the sites together in a folder in your Bookmarks would have a similar outcome, so I'm not too sure about the utility of this particular tool. I managed to get the Searchbox onto my blog with a bit of head-scratching and a little bit of help again from my web-master. After doing this I discovered that the instructions were actually given under Week 3 - so next time I will read the instructions first!

Library Thing

Now this was the easiest task of all, as I already belong to Shelfari and I'm used to uploading favourite books and putting them on my virtual bookshelf. I did find adding tags a little erratic, as they wouldn't add from the Tags to add box, and I had to add them through quick edit. It also took a little while to find out how to change from a list to a virtual bookshelf, but I got there. At the time of writing I haven't figured out how to change it back into a list - but I'm sure I will.
It's interesting to see how many [or how few] other people rate your personal favourites.
Adding a widget to display titles from my library and adding a search box were a little more difficult and I had to call in help from my personal web-master. With a little guidance, I soon got them up and running. Feeling confident, I then added a widget from Shelfari, which was easier to do than on Library Thing, but is not as pretty to look at. Overall, Shelfari seems to be easier to use, and quicker to add books to.

Image generators

I decided to use Big Huge Labs to discover what image generators are all about:

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/

I found it pretty easy to use and I enjoyed making this photograph, taken in the Waitemata Harbour, into a jigsaw - I think it would be pretty difficult to complete as a jigsaw though!
My next task is to make a custom mosaic of my grandchildren - but I won't post that to my blog.