Fin!

Where is the Card Catalog?

Being tech savvy in libraries. What does that really mean anyway? Is it being knowledgeable about computers to help patrons create resumes? Is it knowing how to create a MARC Record or even read one for that matter? Is it creating blogs in order to communicate with other libraries and librarians?

The most common question I get in the Children's room from parents is "Where is your card catalog?" To which I respond, "Our computer catalog is right here."
I think being tech savvy really just means staying hip with the young ones and trying to keep ahead of them in order to continue to captivate their interests.

I think it is important that we push ourselves to try new things as this class has. I had never created a podcast, website, brochure, or discovered so many different ways to do one thing before this class. There are so many steps and realms I had never explored. So my goal for 2011 is to do 43 new things and to be sure to share them with everyone through web 2.0 and eventually in library 2.0.

Thank you Professor Austin for the opportunities and experiences you exposed me to.

Communications (23 +1) - Overdrive Study

Overdrive is a new way to download audiobooks and e-books. Many people at the library are now using it and are very happy that there is something new and innovative out there. A common response to Overdrive is "I had no idea the library was okay with digital books". I think that many patrons think librarians only feel that books should be in print and librarians should pretty much just live in caves.

I also discovered that Alachua County has a large quantity of e-books, audiobooks, music, and even DVDs on their Overdrive. All Florida residents are able to withhold an Alachua County e-card to check out all digital materials. Give it a try if you haven't already. You may find that you will even become addicted!

So, I decided to observe and note how many patrons within the course of a day were aware that our library had a digital library. I decided to be fair and stay within the children's area and ask parents rather than kids. Within the course of an entire day and asking about ten parents I found that none of them knew. A handful of parents knew about our Playaways which are new Mp3 players that allow patrons to listen to audio books through a handheld Mp3 player. The fact that they knew this was a given since we have had the Playaways for almost a year.

Unfortunately, none of the parents I asked knew about our digital library even with the advertising through fliers, bookmarks, and website. On the other hand, people were very surprised and excited that the library was so innovative. One patron even mentioned that she was reluctant to tell me that she had a digital reader because she thought the library would be offended!

I decided to use my activity in this case for my 23 things + 1 New thing:

The patron and I completed the following steps in a matter of 10 minutes (as long as you are a Florida resident you can do this for free):

1. Go To: Alachua County Library System
2. Apply for an e-card
3. You will receive your e-card number in your personal email account.
4. Once you have retrieved your e-card number - Go To: Overdrive
5. You will need to download Overdrive to your computer.
6. Proceed to browse Overdrive and checkout digital materials for FREE!

When I cannot find books on my library's Overdrive, I cross check materials with Alachua County's Library and I also refer patrons to it as well. The patron in this case was very happy and excited about the idea of free and new materials.

So, little by little we will inform and instruct our patrons of how innovative and cool the library is and that as librarians we really do not live in caves but rather try to live on the edge of new technology.

23 Things

My favorite things along this 23 things journey were the discovery of classifications and awards of web 2.0 technologies. It feels like there is a purpose and that there is some sort of validation or recognition for what's out there. There is a whole new wave of technologies and we are sometimes blind as to what is available.

As librarians I think we limit ourselves as to what we can use in the field and it is great to have an exercise like 23 things to practice and learn what are possibilities are. Thank you 23 things! I look forward to the next discovery program!

BlackBoard Part II

After playing around with Blackboard and finding all of its different uses for new web 2.0 technologies, I decided to find more information about it. I found that Blackboard had been around for awhile and as Karplus explains it is one of the most used management systems in academia.

In fact, she states that Blackboard has been around since 1997 and was intended for students to check grades, assignments, discuss and eventually incorporate things like RSS feeds, podcasts, and blogs. Blackboard has become a great tool for students on campus but most importantly for distance learning students. Today students are able to attend classes through Elluminate on Blackboard.

I can hardly wait to see what becomes of Blackboard in ten years or who and what may challenge Blackboard in ten years...

Karplus, S. S. Integrating Academic Library Resources and Learning Management Systems: The Library Blackboard Site. Education Libraries v. 29 no. 1 (Summer 2006) p. 5-11

Blackboard

Blackboard is a very interesting topic. This semester has really changed and as I was just getting used to the old version they changed it on us again. I do like the current version better however. I like the fact that you can open different windows and tabs from a master control panel. I also like the option of just being able to focus on the important things such as email, blackboard, and especially the addition of the Oasis tab on the "My Newsfeed" panel.

Furthermore, after I became acquainted with the new version of Blackboard I proceeded to play around with it and see what I could find and learn. I discovered that there are games, all different kinds of apps for iTunes and more, and I even personalized my page! Who knew there was so much to discover on Blackboard.

After taking this course it made me realize just how much I didn't pay attention to detail. I usually just logged into Blackboard to do my course work and submit my assignments, but now I have a better understanding for technologies and web 2.0. Blackboard itself can become a tutor to show students how we can use all different kinds of technologies in useful ways and fun ways as well.

Digital Readers

Previously I discussed the discovery of Overdrive. Originally I was downloading e-books and audio books straight to my computer or my iPod. Now, I have discovered the digital readers! And yes there are more than 2 or 3.

The Amazon Kindle, being one of the most important ones is unfortunately not compatible with libraries. The Barnes & Nobles Nook is compatible with libraries as well as the Borders Kobo. The Sony e-reader was also a very popular e-reader being one of the first to come out and it too is compatible with libraries.

The great thing about all the digital readers regardless if they are compatible with libraries or not is that they are certainly making reading a thing of the future. People are rediscovering their love for reading and some are discovering it.

Social Networking

Has social networking become a thing of the past or is it still relevant? If you ever go around the library to see what people are looking at on the computers it is usually Facebook. As an observation, I have noticed that patrons are rarely on Myspace or Twitter. Needless to say it does not mean people are not using Myspace or Twitter. The Martin County Library has chosen to use Facebook as their social network of choice.

Patrons are able to use the library's Facebook page as a way to become a fan and post comments or pictures. It is a fun way for story time story time parents to connect with the library world. When I asked why they prefer to use Facebook as opposed to Myspace the response tended to be that Facebook is more adult and safer. My assumption as to why they would prefer Facebook to Twitter is due to the pictures as opposed to the one liner comments.

In any case, even adult patrons are finding ways to connect to the library through technology and social networking. It does not seem to be a thing of the past and is still very relevant at least for adults. Facebook seems to be just another easy and free way for libraries to connect with the community. The library can use as many ways as possible to connect with patrons.

Delicious Part II

Using Delicious in the library is a great way to incorporate Library 2.0 technologies. Delicious allows librarians and patrons to create lists or social bookmarks. As Darby mentions, Delicious can be used with several different tools to make it even more advantageous.

Some of the different methods mentioned by Darby are by using Linkrolls and Tagrolls, RSS, and JSON. Some can produce larger results than others but each has a unique way of collaborating with Delicious.

Darby, A., & Gilmour, R. (2009). Adding Delicious Data to Your Library Website. Information Technology and Libraries, 28(2), 100-3. Retrieved from OmniFile Full Text Mega database

Digital Portfolio

I created a digital portfolio to share all that I have learned and explored in this semester's class. Visit my digital portfolio to see what librarians or media specialists can do with a podcast, brochure, website, and blog. The portfolio is also meant to get ideas on how to use technology to our advantage in order to stay current and fresh with the youth that we serve.

Delicious

What is Delicious? As Green (2010) explains, it is a way to tag or save information from the web to a specific location. He goes on to say that Delicious is the most popular social bookmarking tool among libraries because of all of its attractive features.

Furthermore, Green (2010) stresses that Delicious is one of the fastest, simplest, and cleanest forms of social bookmarking out there. If RSS feeds are used with Delicious then new bookmarks can be tracked as well. As a result, Delicious can be a first step towards adding Library 2.0 technologies to your library.


Green, C. (2010). Tag! You're It! Experiencing Delicious.com at Your Library—Introduction to Social Bookmarking. Kentucky Libraries, 74(1), 4-8. Retrieved from OmniFile Full Text Mega database

Website

Creating a website through Microsoft is easy. You pay $15 a year and the template is all drawn up for you. It is as easy as tweaking the template and customizing your design to the way you would like. Creating a website from scratch is a little different! I had a few problems but thankfully I was able to get some help through USF's wonderful IT Desk. As a result, I was able to develop my own website by using a seperate program to write script (well, I let the program write the script) and then transfered it into USF's student website program. The program I used to help me design and write script was SeaMonkey and the program that I used in order to upload my SeaMonkey page onto a live website was WinSCP.

I had to play around with it a great deal especially when it came time to add pictures and files. Make sure you have the time and patience to create a website. If you do have time and patience you will see that the benefits can be large, as your school or library can always use a website. Check out my website!

Wikis Are Not Just For Apple Pie

Wikis can be a very powerful tool. When Wikis first came out many people looked at them as a recipe sharing resource or a homework tool, but with the recent Wiki leaks that has all changed. The adage "Knowledge is Power" has been used to its extremity in 2010.

Wikis are now used to leak political, financial, and social information. Web 2.0 has allowed the common patron to be aware of what crimes are going on in government or major financial corporations. Wikis are no longer just for sharing grandma's recipe for apple pie.

E-reader Book Clubs

I have a teen book club right now that just started to use Sony e-readers to read the book club books. We started out with downloading "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. We were fortunate enough to be able to purchase four e-readers and a copy of Collins' book to each device.

Due to the holidays in November and December as well as final exams we have not had a successful turnout thus far. The teens have been pre-occupied so we will have to start the book club up again in January and definitely for the summer. We tend to have a better turn out in the summer. I will keep you up to date as to how the "new age" book club proceeds.

Moodle - Book Clubs

YouTube is being used in all different kinds of ways today. An innovative way that libraries can use the YouTube concept is through online book clubs. Scharber states that a public library can use http://www.moodle.org as a safe and free way to host online book clubs.

Our library just received a donation for our teens and I am going to see if we can start an online book club or find a way to use technology in our teen book club. Scharber's observations of the Moodle program has some great ideas for using technology in book clubs both for youth and adults.


Scharber, C. (2009). Online Book Clubs: Bridges Between Old and New Literacies Practices. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(5), 433-7. doi: 10.1598/JAAL.52.5.7

Text-Messaging as Science Fair

Science fair projects are in progress right now and parents along with their kids are panicing for ideas and topics. But not one young gentlemen, he has decided to do his science fair project on text-messaging and the effects it has on driving. We found some great articles through the library's databases. We found several news articles, but one in particular was very scary.

In a 2009 article entitled, "Teens Under the Influence of Cellphones...and Texting", in USA Today, Nanci Hellmich reported that "About half of teens ages 16 and 17 who have cellphones say they have talked on the phone while driving, and about a third of those teens have texted while behind the wheel". More scary statistics were found and became a real eye opener to the adults in the library that day as we all huddled around the computer to find out more on the subject of texting and driving.

Kids today are growing up with this contreversy and hopefully by the time they are adults the problem with texting and driving will be resolved. In any case, children are receiving cell phones at earlier ages every year and I believe there will continue to be more problems on the topic of texting. But for now we can at least start with tackling the texting and driving just like the young gentlemen decided to do by choosing a very relevant topic for his science fair project


USA Today, Nov 17, 2009 p11D "Teens under the influence of cellphones ... and texting". LIFE Hellmich, Nanci.

Rollyo

Rollyo is a search engine that allows you create your own personalized method of searching. It has been set up for specific searches for gossip news or reference for example.

There are all different types of search engines people have made on Rollyo. Knowledge Managament, Ask Mr. Fix-It, and The Search Search are just several that appear when you explore the various Searchrolls already made. I tried to create a Young Adult Searchroll, but I think I need to work on it a little more...I still have not gotten the hang of the Rollyo.

Web 2.0 Awards

I visited SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Sites in 41 Categories to find that Web 2.0 technologies received awards. I had no idea that this even existed. I did not even know about several web 2.0 technologies.

When I dug a little further to find out which social networking sites were ranked the highest I was surprised to discover Bebo.com. So, naturally I signed up for it and created an account. It is very clear and simple much like Facebook but very similar to Myspace. It seems to be more for youth rather than adults since there a great deal of games and applications.

I also discovered Rollyo and 50 Matches among many other sites and technologies. I think SEOmoz's is going to be my go to website to hear about the latest web 2.0 trends.

LibraryThing

LibraryThing allows you to create a shelf to help keep track of what you have read or what to read next. We often get patrons who come up to the desk and cannot remember if they have read the book they are about to check out - this site can act as an excellent reference in cases like these.

So, after reading about LibraryThing I created my account. I realized that they had the most hillarious security question: "To Verify Your Humanity Please Type The Name of the Author". This was too funny - I knew right then this site has to be good! Here is my profile.

Flickr

Several years ago I created a personal Flickr account. Now that I work at the library we have been using a Flickr account for all our youth programming. Visit the Hoke Library's Flickr account to see all the recent programs we have had.

Flickr is a useful and fun way to capture and promote special events that the library holds. Once the community can see what we have been up to, they seem to have a different outlook as to what our purpose is. We were also able to use our Flickr account as a way to save these special moments and submit them when budget cuts hit.

Is That Really MY Voice?

So creating a podcast was a little more complicated than I thought. Once again I thought almost everything in this course was going to be easy peasy lemony squeezy and yet I am proven wrong. The creation process is very involved and does not always require one step. Each assignment thus far has shown me that there are several steps and many tasks to accomplish before going on to the next level. The podcast is an example of this discovery. I used Audacity to create my podcast but be sure that you also download the Lame encoder or else all the hard work you have put into your project will NOT pay off.If you are indeed interested in making your own podcast (which is REALLY cool), check out this tutorial offered by Audacity.

Some useful things to do with podcasts in library youth services:
-Record your own storytelling.
-Create Book Talks to intrigue young readers.
-Make podcast tutorials for:
- Teaching the Dewey Decimal System
- Educating on proper citations - Database training
- Webinars

I suggest just trying to create a Book Talk for your first podcast and see what you can make of it. Even if you do not like the sound of your own voice you can get someone else to read what you wrote and still create a podcast.

Happy recording!

Blog, Blog, and Blog Some More!

Blogging is a great way to communicate with other librarians, co-workers, other departments, friends, and even strangers. Our library set up a NING account for awhile. It was a short-lived idea that was able to allow all of the branches to communicate in an alternative way. We were able to share information, discuss, debate, and as a result communicate more often.

I encourage all librarians to create some sort of means to communicate digitally, whether it be a blog for your young adults to submit book reviews, or to set up a homework helping blog, or even a reader's advisory blog. There is always a reason to blog. So give it a try and you will see you will not be able to stop yourself from blogging all the time!

Voila! La Finale!

PowerPoint Presentation
I started out gearing my PPT towards something just for my work - the Martin County Library System (MCLS). But, then I thought -wait- maybe I should change this to help ALL patrons even those that cannot use the MCLS. So, then I took out some of the MCLS information and added more links to IPL2.org. Only at this point my PPT did not have as much information for MCLS and it was not as fluid and cohesive as it should have been.

After presenting my PPT to my boss, I ended up keeping the IPL2 information and adding more MCLS information and MCLS is now going to use my PPT on the new website. The new website will be up and running in several weeks. I am ecstatic that I was able to create something to benefit the library system as well as patrons all while completing a project in the MLIS program at USF. Here is my final PPT on the Martin County Library System website!

Elluminate Part II

Second Elluminate Session:
Today will be my second attempt at the Elluminate session. I do like the 6:30pm meeting time a little more as it may give me time to eat dinner first. I believe I have my presentation topic ready and will try to get an approval for it this evening – as long as Elluminate does not crash…if it does not I have three major questions to ask:
1. Can I do my project on preparing for science fair using your public library.
2. Can I use music throughout the length of the ten slides – I found a great science song on emusic for elementary age children.
3. Should I gear this toward Martin County Library System or general public libraries?

Elluminate Part II Result:
Looks like I am going to try and gear my presentation towards something I can use at work. I will pitch the idea to my co-workers and boss to see if they could use the a science fair tutorial in their branches. I don't think I will be using the music I found only because of copyright issues and this presentation will be going online. So, my questions were answered and I feel more confident about my topic choice and hopefully I can use it at work.

In addition, we will be working on podcasting and a publication next. I am really excited about the idea of recording audio and being able to share it through technology - I might be able to use this for storytime or something else work related. Looks like we will be able to use FREE technology through Audacity as mp3 format and possibly even VODCASTING.

Furthermore, if all goes as planned with Audacity, you can save audio in an mp3 format by downloading the software and saving the mp3 as a project file. Then export it as an mp3 file and add the music to the audacity project. It also looks like vodcasting can be done through Picasa, Photostory, Imagemaker, and/or Jing (only a five minute tutorial).

This class gets cooler each session!

PowerPoint Practice Presentaion

Practice PPT Assignment:
I have not put together a PowerPoint slide show in awhile, and I am excited to add media to it. One professor a few semesters ago managed to add music and silly pictures to his slide show which made learning the material much easier. I will be interested to see how I do with media such as music and special inserts.

Practice PPT Result:
I had to go back a few times and add more music, number my slides, and tweak some graphics. PowerPoint has so much potential I just wonder why I never explored it more. The graphics, music, transitions all help to entertain the crowd or provide many alternative options depending on who the intended audience is. My goal for the next presentation project is to create a slide show for an elementary age audience. Something I can use for my current job. As a children’s librarian I do tend to repeat myself several times during the day for different parents and/or children on different subjects pertaining to library services. At the moment the most popular inquiry is in regards to science fair. It may be a good idea to create a slide show on how to find science fair resources in the library…

Elluminate

First Elluminate Session:
Today will be the first time I use the illuminate live program. I think I will need to logon an hour or two in advance to get the hang of things. I do have a head set that I bought for Skype a few years ago when I was living overseas. I will try to use the headset but I have been informed they can be frustrating when using illuminate so I may resort to the simple instant messaging function – we will find out!

Elluminate Result:
Unfortunately Elluminate crashed right after a gave an introduction. I thought my computer crashed but then found out through another student’s email that it was in fact Elluminate that crashed. Technology is great but it does sometimes have it flaws. Never the less, Elluminate was resuscitated and recorded. Then thanks to technology I was able to listen to the recorded Elluminate session at my own convenience. Thus, all the course information for the week is available for all to listen to for the first time or to even go back and review, which normal face to face sessions fail to provide. One more reason technology is great even with its flaws.