Reflections

Many, if not most, of the places that Discover 2.0 has led me have been new to me. I feel that what I've gained is not so much technological expertise in each of them, but rather a sense of what's out there.

It's no news that there's a generational divide in using social applications such as Facebook, blogging, IM, etc. I believe in many cases, it's not a lack of aptitude that causes older people to be less comfortable with them; it may be a matter of culture. Younger people gain an easy familiarity with these technologies as they interact with peers who teach and encourage them to use them. We older folks already have other well-established other ways of communicating with family and friends.

There are so many options right now technologically, so how does the library figure out which ones to embrace? I think this is a time to watch, test the waters, try out new ideas, and expect the 2.0 scene to continue morphing and settling out for some time. The variety of applications out there is fairly overwhelming, and for this tutorial we had just enough time to read a little, poke around in each website a bit, then move on. But I think the exposure to all of these things was really the point, and I'm glad for the opportunity I have had here at the library for exploration. As projects come up in the future, I'll be more likely to think beyond traditional limits and more open to utilizing elements of web 2.0.

Personally, I was surprised to discover how much I truly enjoyed creating and tinkering with my own blog. It was a much more creative experience than I expected it to be. I also am now actively using my own delicious account for reference websites (losing all my IE bookmarks when my computer crashed helped me to see the light in this regard).

All in all, this has been an interesting, sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating, journey through the 23 steps of the tutorial. Whew!

Microblogging: Tumblr and Twitter

I signed up for both Twitter and Tumblr. Twitter is text-only, Tumblr lets you insert photos, videos, audio, links to URLs, etc with your text. I really liked the way Tumblr gently guides you at sign up to help you post your first few microthoughts. I found it very easy to get started creating entries with Tumblr.

Could these be useful tools for library purposes? Some libraries seem to use microblogs as yet another venue, added to a variety of others, for publicizing their events and services. At least one library seems to be using Twitter to receive reference questions; not sure how they respond to the patron if the answer exceeds 140 characters. I could see staff who specialize in certain aresas sharing interesting finds with technically advanced patrons via Twitter or Tumblr. For example, a genealogy librarian might post links to helpful websites, news of updates to genealogy databases, etc. Of course, she could also use a regular blog or a newletter or an RSS feed or maybe even a delicious account or...??? Too many options! My head is starting to ache!

Videos

I thought it would be fun to try Dabble to group together a few videos I have enjoyed from YouTube. I tried adding a video two different ways (first without, then with, the toolbar tool they provide), but neither way worked for me. There are tutorials on the Dabble website; not enough time to look at them now.

Jumpcut seems kind of like a Google Docs for video format: it provides a way to share and group-edit videos online. Even if you don't have film to upload to the site, you can create a video from clips available on the site. Strangely, most of the clips I've found so far are still photos; I've seen only one moving clip (of a kayaker). Here's a little test slide show of clips I created with Jumpcut.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a handy way to keep up-to-date with programming you don't want to miss. Awhile back, using iTunes on my home computer, I subscribed to free podcasting from NPR's "This American Life" radio show. I was surprised that the weekly show downloads into my iTunes account only after I have clicked on an icon on my computer; there's a wait of several minutes before the content is actually there to listen to.

This technology could be useful for certain library applications. Staff at San Mateo County Library suggest some interesting possibilities in their Guide to Podcasting, such as services for the visually impaired, book reviews (e.g., Sam W.'s "One Minute Critic"), and poetry readings. Emory University podcasts a Library Survival Guide to help students and faculty learn what's available at the campus library, and how to use the resources there. (For example, their first episode was "a discussion of peer-reviewed journals: what are they, how do you find them, why do you care?")

Working with a blog -- creating posts, even adding photos, audio, and video -- is at a level of difficulty that hasn't seemed overly daunting for an individual. With podcasting, it seems that while recording may be something most of us could do given the equipment and some basic instructions, the jobs of editing and uploading the podcast to a website probably would be handed off to the techies in our midst.

I'm listening! (Audio sites)

Pandora is "radio from the Music Genome Project." You create a "station" based on a favorite song or artist, and Pandora provides a steady stream of music that the genome project's analysis shows to be similar. So you get an interesting mix of songs. Right now, my Beatles station is playing Pink Floyd's "The Wall," which I do like. My "Heart of Gold" station (based on Neil Young's song) just played "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin, which I'm not too crazy about. Still, it's interesting to hear Pandora's range of choices. One complaint: maneuvering around in Pandora seems a little clunky, with pages taking a long time to load. I keep finding myself routed to their FAQ page, and unable to back out. Maybe this is a temporary computer glitch?

Last FM seems for the most part to allow you to listen only to parts of songs. It does have some interesting features, though. Type in an artist name, and you get a bunch of information organized under tabs, such as "Bio" and "Similar." The Similar tab for Joan Osborne lists Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge, Alanis Morissette and others. With Last FM you can create a Pandora-like custom radio station, but you need to download software for that feature.

IMEEM does allow you to select individual songs to listen to all the way through. I wondered if IMEEM is providing this access legally, but didn't find an answer to my question on this website. My colleague Sam thinks it may be that songs have been purchased by other users, who then share them online. Possibly it's legal to share for listening (but not downloading) purposes.

Mango Languages looks interesting, but I couldn't try one of its language lessons without first downloading updated Adobe software. Maybe later, as IT will have to enable the download.

I'd like to try downloading one of the classic, public-domain books available at the The Gutenberg Audio Books Project. Some of the texts here are read by human voices, others use computer-generated sound. The audio formats available vary title by title; I didn't see a way to search for all titles that are available in, for example, the format for iTunes or MP3.

Google Docs

I'm glad to learn about Google Docs. I can see how knowledge about this type of application could become necessary in the workplace in the not-so-distant future. For awhile now, many jobs have required you to know the basics of software such as Word or Excel. The future may be that you'll also have to know how to edit and share these formats online.

This would be an extra challenge for those who are still getting their bearings on such basics as email. Technological change has come so quickly. You just acquire tentative proficiency with one new item, when something even more innovative pops up and gains favor. Many of our patrons are struggling with computer basics. They probably won't have to worry about something like Google Docs this year, but in 4 or 5 years, if they are looking for a job, or submitting a document to a government agency, how much more will they be expected to know?

I must say, though, that Google Docs appears to be very easy to use. It's pretty remarkable, really -- the folks at Google excel at avoiding unnecessary complication in developing their applications. When I first opened up Google Docs, the familiar Word interface put me at ease. So if you know Word, creating a document isn't too scary. Sharing and publishing require familiarity with the Internet, of course, and some online reading to figure out just how it all works.

I typed this entry in Google Docs, as well as a cheat sheet for Word.

"Cool Stuff"

1) Blog Readability Test (BRT)
A couple of other people here have mentioned their blogs got a "Genius" rating from this test, and mine did too. The BRT gives no information about how it assigns rankings, so I suspected that it gives EVERY blog a genius rating. I tested it with three blogs that I thought would be readable by the average high schooler or below. Here are the blogs and their ratings:

--Paris Hilton fan blog. Rated: College (Post-grad)
--Steven Seagal blog. Rated: College (Under-grad)
--Hannah Montana fan blog. Rated: Elementary level

The Hannah Montana blog was definitely elementary level, so BRT gains a little credibility with that one. But only a little!

2) Sketchcast
I created my masterpiece, "Spring," with Sketchcast. It expresses the simple beauty of a lovely spring flower sprouting up through the ground and growing steadily in the alternating warmth of sun and raindrops from cloudy skies. Seriously, though, Sketchcast is basically an animation device for an etch-a-sketch-quality medium. Not much choice in line, color or any other effects.

3) Delicious redux
My computer's hard drive has self-destructed. Among other things, I lost all the bookmarks I had carefully saved in folders on my browser toolbar. So I feel more motivated than I was earlier to learn how to put my bookmarks on an external server. I started to set up a wiki (using Peanut Butter Wiki), but then thought I'd try delicious instead. So I'll see how it goes.