I think I've already done a lot of reflecting and commenting on the experience as I've been going but maybe I can summarize a few central issues as a way of wrapping things up.
I think this has been a good experience and very worthwhile. I've been surprised in quite a few cases by things I didn't know or didn't appreciate sufficiently before I started this program. I'd number Flickr and del.icio.us as two highlights of the 23 things and I feel that I gained some appreciation for blogs (as a communication medium, not as an information resource) along the way. I also learned about some tricks and tools that I could apply to known quantities, adding feeds to my Yahoo! page or spinning off info from my LibraryThing collection.
A couple of things could use rethinking. It doesn't feel like there were really 23 things and I think there are more things we could be looking at than those described. It seems that blogs, feeds and kindred resources were really the same thing repeated several times. And I'm not sure that it is possible to get much out of some of these things by sitting alone at our computers. I didn't attend any of the drop-in sessions, so maybe this was addressed in this way, but a few items might have profited from a demonstration or maybe some sort of group activity. Further, the program could have benefited by substituting some newer things for some of the more tired ones. Finally, more library-related examples of how to apply some of these resources would have brought the lessons home more.
Beyond the program itself, I had a few thoughts about issues about where we, both the UCSC Library and libraries in general, can go from here. One lesson I took away is that this is a continually shifting landscape and it will take constant vigilance to keep up with developments. Tools and programs for keeping up-to-date are needed. we can't stop here. I hope through a couple of services I signed onto that I'll be getting updates about new developments but I think something programmatic needs to be put into place, perhaps an updated 23 Things every summer.
How do we decide which tools to adopt and which to pass by? I think the answer lies in developing a good sense of balance. We need a sense of playfulness and adventure. with the slack to forgive wrong turns and dead-ends, but we also need a sense of responsibility and an understanding that at some point we need to settle on certain solutions in order to build reliable, stable services. We also need to balance easy, one-off solutions that work for specific cases and in the short-run with the deeper, organization-wide developments that require institutional commitment. Putting some of my work on an outside blog-hosting site may have little service implication for the organization, but we may need eventually to select a blog platform to support library-wide. The short-term and long-term solutions come with entirely different considerations. We need a development model that leaves room for the first but provides a structure for the latter.
As a last consideration, I think balancing past and future is going to be critical to the survival of libraries. So much of the talk about where we are going appears to be completely dismissive (and sometimes ignorant) of our past. And there is also much foot-dragging that misses what in the new technology is integral and supportive of our traditional roles. We need to embrace the future with respect for the past, and not adopt what is new simply because it is new and not hold onto what is old just because it is old. Here the balance comes from a better and deeper understanding of what makes libraries libraries (and not Amazon or Blockbuster) and then select those services and the related tools that move us in that direction.
So, I'm done. Where do I pick up my gift certificate?
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
#22. Explore Web 2.0 Award winners
I decided to focus on the winners that we hadn't already seen, starting from the top.
Findory: seems ok, but only really useful if you don't already have a home base that will allow you to add live content from other sources. My Yahoo! page let's me do this, so this isn't interesting to me.
http://ma.gnolia.com/ : another social bookmarking site that seems similar to del.icio.us but it doesn't appear to have the same integration with desktop browsing. Interestingly, I did a search for "library" and it came up with the "Curious Expeditions" site that was posted to libstaff recently, plus "Kids Click", "The Open Library", "Podiobooks" free serialized audiobooks (per our last Thing), and another "Library 2.0" site. That's pretty impressive.
Furl: another social bookmarking site, this one managed by LookSmart. Not as good in terms of content as the others I've seen. It does have desktop tools including a bookmarklet, as well as toolbars for IE and Firefox, and a Firefox extension.
Clipmarks: this looks really interesting and a bit different than anything else I've seen. It allows you to mark parts of pages that interest you. It has private and public marking and it appears to integrate with del.icio.us. I may be burning out on new things, because I'm not willing to join or load another service right now, but I will get back to it later.
Under "Books:"
Lulu : a self-publishing sales/sharing site; when they say books, they mean ink on paper. Hmmm? This won a Web 2.0 first place award. Seems like they are going the wrong way.
Biblo.com : a used-book meta search, but not a good one. (It found only one copy of Summer at Buckhorn for sale while AddAll found several.)
LibraryThing: the only real Web 2.0 tool in the pack and it comes in 3rd place. I think the Web 2.0 are so removed from the book world that they are easily wowed.
Reader2 : honorable mention reading list version of LibraryThing. It looks like a worthwhile social-networking site/tool.
I skipped the Business section ...
"City Guides & Reviews"
Yelp: is a local directory with review which provided mixed results. I searched "taco" in 95060 and retrieved 50 items. A sponsored link for Los Gatos Brewing Co. was at the top. It appears to rank by star ratings, with El Palomar first, then Tacos Moreno... oh, well.
Judy's Book : a bargain hunters' directory with local focus; searching 95060 got some local sources (Bocci's, Bruno's BBQ, and Star Bene) scattered amongst mostly online (non-local) sources.
Yahoo!Local came in 3rd and Google Local, Live.com, Menuism and Citysearch got honorable mentions.
Under "Classifieds" I looked at oodle which was, again, a mixed bag. It occurs to me that the key to any of these sites is content. That's why eBay was a winner, it got a lot of listings. That's why Amazon works, there is a lot of stuff there. That's why Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, and iTunes are successes If you check a site and can't find what you want because there isn't much there, you'll go somewhere else. If you get there first and gather a lot of stuff, it often doesn't matter that someone comes along later with a better service. First=biggest=winner.
I'm burning out on this exercise and I think I've done what was expected.
Findory: seems ok, but only really useful if you don't already have a home base that will allow you to add live content from other sources. My Yahoo! page let's me do this, so this isn't interesting to me.
http://ma.gnolia.com/ : another social bookmarking site that seems similar to del.icio.us but it doesn't appear to have the same integration with desktop browsing. Interestingly, I did a search for "library" and it came up with the "Curious Expeditions" site that was posted to libstaff recently, plus "Kids Click", "The Open Library", "Podiobooks" free serialized audiobooks (per our last Thing), and another "Library 2.0" site. That's pretty impressive.
Furl: another social bookmarking site, this one managed by LookSmart. Not as good in terms of content as the others I've seen. It does have desktop tools including a bookmarklet, as well as toolbars for IE and Firefox, and a Firefox extension.
Clipmarks: this looks really interesting and a bit different than anything else I've seen. It allows you to mark parts of pages that interest you. It has private and public marking and it appears to integrate with del.icio.us. I may be burning out on new things, because I'm not willing to join or load another service right now, but I will get back to it later.
Under "Books:"
Lulu : a self-publishing sales/sharing site; when they say books, they mean ink on paper. Hmmm? This won a Web 2.0 first place award. Seems like they are going the wrong way.
Biblo.com : a used-book meta search, but not a good one. (It found only one copy of Summer at Buckhorn for sale while AddAll found several.)
LibraryThing: the only real Web 2.0 tool in the pack and it comes in 3rd place. I think the Web 2.0 are so removed from the book world that they are easily wowed.
Reader2 : honorable mention reading list version of LibraryThing. It looks like a worthwhile social-networking site/tool.
I skipped the Business section ...
"City Guides & Reviews"
Yelp: is a local directory with review which provided mixed results. I searched "taco" in 95060 and retrieved 50 items. A sponsored link for Los Gatos Brewing Co. was at the top. It appears to rank by star ratings, with El Palomar first, then Tacos Moreno... oh, well.
Judy's Book : a bargain hunters' directory with local focus; searching 95060 got some local sources (Bocci's, Bruno's BBQ, and Star Bene) scattered amongst mostly online (non-local) sources.
Yahoo!Local came in 3rd and Google Local, Live.com, Menuism and Citysearch got honorable mentions.
Under "Classifieds" I looked at oodle which was, again, a mixed bag. It occurs to me that the key to any of these sites is content. That's why eBay was a winner, it got a lot of listings. That's why Amazon works, there is a lot of stuff there. That's why Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, and iTunes are successes If you check a site and can't find what you want because there isn't much there, you'll go somewhere else. If you get there first and gather a lot of stuff, it often doesn't matter that someone comes along later with a better service. First=biggest=winner.
I'm burning out on this exercise and I think I've done what was expected.
#21. Audio eBooks (week 12)
I don't get what's Web 2.0 or even Library 2.0 about audio books. In fact, I'm worried that we're adopting terminology like "audio ebooks." Have we been so mesmerized by the technology ("ooh, pretty shining things") that we've lost all our critical thinking functionality?
Ok, I'll get off the soap box. I like audio books. They've gotten me through a rough patch and some long car trips. Back in my early career as a media librarian, I even reviewed about a dozen audio books for library publications. And I'm glad to learn that there are ready sources, free ones no less, for these.
I am a little disturbed to find that we're having format wars in cyberspace, that proprietary software is required and standards are being eschewed. I do use a Mac at work and at home and my only means of carrying audio recordings with me is my iPod. I find this a challenge. Unfortunately, I can't find my SCPL card, or I'd be trying to hack the format issue.
Instead, I headed over to Project Hindenberg. I'm interested in what Hart is trying to do (I hosted him during a visit to this campus in the 1980s), but skeptical of his absurd claims and I thoroughly disagree with the way he's chosen to go about this work. It's an enormous collective labor pointed in the wrong direction, on the whole. The books produced are useless for any sort of scholarly work and, personally, I could never see the use of large ASCII files for recreational purposes. Quality control also has been an issue. At one point they released an edition of Moby Dick missing a whole chapter.
Hart's main merit, as far as I can see, is that he's been at it a very long time. However, even this merit is diminished by the fact that he hasn't adapted his core vision to any of the changes in the online world. Check out some of the better conceived and better managed etext projects that have emerged in the meantime, such as the Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts where there is better quality control and more forward thinking about established standards. Or, better yet, he should be moving to something like a LOCKSS-type implementation.
Having said that, my visit to the Gutenberg site was a pleasant surprise. The search interface was intuitive and effective. I was pleased with the range of titles that came up and I even liked the fact that, though I started with a search for audio books, the results list mixed print and audio formats. I'm very grateful that they use accessible MP3 format. However, all the audio titles I looked at were of the computer-generated sort and, downloading a sample, I can say that you'd have to truly desperate to make use of these.
I think I will continue to explore titles here, dig out my SCPL card, as well as those available through other sources. A Google search for "free audio books" discovered Librivox which seems like a well-managed collaborative collection worth noting. (I'm listening to a good version of Daniel Deronda as I write.) There were other promising sources which I haven't explored yet.
Ok, I'll get off the soap box. I like audio books. They've gotten me through a rough patch and some long car trips. Back in my early career as a media librarian, I even reviewed about a dozen audio books for library publications. And I'm glad to learn that there are ready sources, free ones no less, for these.
I am a little disturbed to find that we're having format wars in cyberspace, that proprietary software is required and standards are being eschewed. I do use a Mac at work and at home and my only means of carrying audio recordings with me is my iPod. I find this a challenge. Unfortunately, I can't find my SCPL card, or I'd be trying to hack the format issue.
Instead, I headed over to Project Hindenberg. I'm interested in what Hart is trying to do (I hosted him during a visit to this campus in the 1980s), but skeptical of his absurd claims and I thoroughly disagree with the way he's chosen to go about this work. It's an enormous collective labor pointed in the wrong direction, on the whole. The books produced are useless for any sort of scholarly work and, personally, I could never see the use of large ASCII files for recreational purposes. Quality control also has been an issue. At one point they released an edition of Moby Dick missing a whole chapter.
Hart's main merit, as far as I can see, is that he's been at it a very long time. However, even this merit is diminished by the fact that he hasn't adapted his core vision to any of the changes in the online world. Check out some of the better conceived and better managed etext projects that have emerged in the meantime, such as the Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts where there is better quality control and more forward thinking about established standards. Or, better yet, he should be moving to something like a LOCKSS-type implementation.
Having said that, my visit to the Gutenberg site was a pleasant surprise. The search interface was intuitive and effective. I was pleased with the range of titles that came up and I even liked the fact that, though I started with a search for audio books, the results list mixed print and audio formats. I'm very grateful that they use accessible MP3 format. However, all the audio titles I looked at were of the computer-generated sort and, downloading a sample, I can say that you'd have to truly desperate to make use of these.
I think I will continue to explore titles here, dig out my SCPL card, as well as those available through other sources. A Google search for "free audio books" discovered Librivox which seems like a well-managed collaborative collection worth noting. (I'm listening to a good version of Daniel Deronda as I write.) There were other promising sources which I haven't explored yet.
Monday, September 10, 2007
#20. Podcasts (week 11)
For some reason this technology has never grabbed me. I appreciate that audio and video are important and any technology that makes it easier to get to these and use them is a good idea. But for reasons that elude me, podcasts are up there with flossing and tire rotation in terms of excitement. I've downloaded plenty and rarely have listened or viewed more than 30 seconds. Several sites I check regularly use podcasts to distribute information and I almost never listen and never all the way through. I have listened to recorded books, hours and hours at a stretch but for some reason this is different.
I realize what I like or don't like isn't the point of these exercises but for some reason I felt like it was important to mention this.
On the other hand, I think using podcasts for distributing course information makes perfect sense. Well, almost perfect. I've noticed in a lot of cases that audio alone doesn't always convey all the content -- chalk talk or PowerPoint presentations -- and that many video presentations don't capture the presentations well when things are happening in more than one place. The fact that it is technically easy to produce a podcast doesn't mean that it is easy to create good ones.
I realize what I like or don't like isn't the point of these exercises but for some reason I felt like it was important to mention this.
On the other hand, I think using podcasts for distributing course information makes perfect sense. Well, almost perfect. I've noticed in a lot of cases that audio alone doesn't always convey all the content -- chalk talk or PowerPoint presentations -- and that many video presentations don't capture the presentations well when things are happening in more than one place. The fact that it is technically easy to produce a podcast doesn't mean that it is easy to create good ones.
#18. Firefox Add-ons and Extensions (week 10)
This is very, very cool. (Yay Open Source! Need I say more?)
I didn't know about the search add-ons and I've added several, in addition to the CRUZCAT module.
I've added a couple of extensions in the past without really knowing I was doing it. Another colleague turned me onto Zotero a couple of months back, I installed it but I haven't ever gotten into it. Maybe there are just too many other toys (er... tools) out there that are easier to get going. Under other circumstances, I might be doing more with Zotero.
I also added the del.icio.us extension as part of starting up with this service. I like the extra buttons it has added to the control bar but I'd like to get rid of the extra "recently bookmarked" bar it added. I can't find settings that would allow me to do remove this.
There is quite a list of add-ons, many with intriguing descriptions, at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:1
But I'm loathe to start adding things until if I can't remove them again later.
p.s. Removal turned out to be simple once I found the answer searching the "KnowledgeBase". From the Firefox menubar, Tools > Add-ons. You have a choice of disabling/enabling or uninstalling add-ons from there. Disabling the del.icio.us add-on disables all of it. I haven't figured out how to remove the annoying extra control bar without losing the useful buttons. Oh, well...
I didn't know about the search add-ons and I've added several, in addition to the CRUZCAT module.
I've added a couple of extensions in the past without really knowing I was doing it. Another colleague turned me onto Zotero a couple of months back, I installed it but I haven't ever gotten into it. Maybe there are just too many other toys (er... tools) out there that are easier to get going. Under other circumstances, I might be doing more with Zotero.
I also added the del.icio.us extension as part of starting up with this service. I like the extra buttons it has added to the control bar but I'd like to get rid of the extra "recently bookmarked" bar it added. I can't find settings that would allow me to do remove this.
There is quite a list of add-ons, many with intriguing descriptions, at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:1
But I'm loathe to start adding things until if I can't remove them again later.
p.s. Removal turned out to be simple once I found the answer searching the "KnowledgeBase". From the Firefox menubar, Tools > Add-ons. You have a choice of disabling/enabling or uninstalling add-ons from there. Disabling the del.icio.us add-on disables all of it. I haven't figured out how to remove the annoying extra control bar without losing the useful buttons. Oh, well...
Sunday, September 9, 2007
#17. Online Applications & Tools (week 10)
I tried Zoho. It feels like there is a bit of a learning curve but nothing fatal. It looks very useful.
#19. YouTube (week 11)
Blinx seems to work better than Dabble. I tried a couple of searches in Dabble ("skateboarding dog" and "library" - separately, not together) with no hits while Blinx found numerous items with the same searches.
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