Week 8 YouTubing continued

You Tube is being used by a lot of libraries already. It can heighten the library's profile and send out information in a new way. We don't yet think in a audio/video way very much but I could see some of our more photogenic librarians doing online booktalks.
Or getting people like Nicholas Campbell to not only pose for a poster but do a booktalk.
We can do storytimes online.
Have YAGs create little videos of what the library can offer teens.
Yes, I think there is a lot the library can do with YouTube.

Week 8 YouTubeing

I inadvertently jumped ahead a few weeks ago- I posted a video about The Long Tail. Definately worth seeing. This time I went looking for interesting videos and found one from a PEN Canada/TPL event. Bruce Cockburn is in it, so I knew it would be good.


I also knew that London Public Library had used YouTube for some of the Summer Reading Club this past summer. This is their Week One video.


And finally, although it has nothing to do with libraries, I include a speech by Joss Whedon about why he writes TV shows and movies with strong females characters. It is funny and powerful.

Week 7: Podcasting

I've actually been listing to podcasts for a couple of years now but I have gotten to them by using a downloader - jpodder in this case. I didn't realize that I could use Bloglines.

I subscribed to one I already knew about -Fireflytalk and one I didn't - Library Geeks. The subscribing was not as straightforward as indicated. The URL you get includes Podcast Alley's URL as part of it and so adding the feed doesn't work until you take out the inital URL and leave juts the URL of the actual podcast.

I also don't like that Bloglines does not indicate in my list of feeds which are podcasts, and which are regular websites.
I didn't add any more podcasts because I do already have 4-5 which I listen to regularly.

Week Six Online Office Tools -Google Docs

This started as an exercise in frustration. I could not get it to save. Then it wasn't obvious how to take a look at it as a published document. I closed it and opened it and yet it wouldn't save. I never could upload a picture from the computer. I'll try that later.

Since we have the S drive, I don't know how useful this might be internally. Externally, absolutely, it could be useful.

I haven't explored it enough, but I didn't see any spreadsheet capabilities. So, that isn't really obvious either. Well, it is still beta.

Week Four. Generators. Feel the Power!

This is the results of a mosaic maker from Big Huge Labs. My search term was "library" in Tags.

I also created this one from Big Huge Labs. The image is from Librarian Avengers.

RSS feeds

I subscribed to Bloglines some time ago but seldom remember to go over and see what is there. This results in big numbers of unread posts. That is why I prefer Firefox or Opera, both of which embed the feed right into the browser.

Bloglines now has a new and improved and beta version which I just looked at today and quite like. It is designed for Firefox, not Explorer but it offers several improved features than can be seen even in Explorer. In the words of Gary Price:

+ Look for the personalization options by clicking the
“Settings” link in the header near the top of the page.
+ You can now choose
between Bloglines Classic or Bloglines Beta mark read behavior. You can either
mark individual posts as read or mark the entire folder as read. This is
something many people asked for.
+ Since the Bloglines beta offers various
views, “Remember View” will do just that by simply selecting the view you prefer
for each feed. The current default is to have all feeds stick with one view.
+ CSS Support. If the publisher uses Cascading Style Sheets in their page
design Bloglines will show them by default. Again, all of these options under
the “Settings” header.
+ Also look for two settings specifically for iPhone
users.
+ Finally, Sorting Feeds. You’ll notice this is no longer a global
preference available from the settings page. Now when you click sort Oldest/Sort
News is changes the sorting view for all feeds

(http://www.resourceshelf.com/2007/10/02/bloglines-beta-roll-out-continues-open-id-support-more-personalization-and-new-mobile-version/)

Day of the Longtail

A funny (but true) look at the Longtail and blogging and... well, see for yourself.

23 things Assignment number 2 aka "Babies"

I decided to use a couple of pictures of my nephew and my niece, as well as the the weird Baby head from the Art Gallery in Ottawa.

I was looking at some of the mashups with flickr and liked this one - splashr. I'm not sure it is at all useful but it is fun to play with. In keeping with my baby theme, I typed in "baby" as the flickr tag to look for. And got these as a result:

http://splashr.com/show/reflect1/baby/25/

I found this through the Great Flickr Tools Collection.

I also like the flickr colour picker. I chose Doors and Windows and got some great pictures in specific colours.

23things Assignment #1 - again!

I went through much of the 23 things training online at the Charlotte and Mecklenberg Libraries but I wasn't doing it at the same time as they were, and I never completed it. Now I will!
I went over to Blogs Canada but on their first page they link to a monthly Top 10 Blogs list. When I click on that, it takes me to a page from 2005 saying they no longer do a top 10 list. How odd and not exactly reassuring.

Edited to add: As I was wandering about, I discovered an interesting blog by a local illustrator who has done some children's books. Interesting writer.
It is here.

Using Web 2.0

Obviously web 2.0 and all of its components can be useful when trying to get information out there. But in many cases, a critical mass is needed for something to be noticed and you can't create critical mass on your own.
In order for a blog to be noticed a lot, many people have to talk about it and link to it. Searching Technorati shows how difficult that can be. Yet, unusual things show up as bigger than they are.
Yahoo has a site called "Upcoming" where you can post an event and others can post if they are attending. The attendees can then post that they are attending other events and the first one gets posted as an "You might also like" event.
For instance this one http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/185007/ about a charity screening of the movie Serenity has sushi making and Open Doors Toronto as similar events when they aren't at all. The only thing in common is the person attending.
It is, a little like browsing through the book truck of returns or someone's personal bookshelves.