Kim-23things

Many of my friends who have started blogs have done so because of a need for self-expression. For some their blogs are personal journals that they want to share with a select group of people. I think using the blog as a learning journal, such as with this program, is an excellent idea. Many of us have been asked to write learning journals when we were younger; and often getting our thoughts out on paper help us to solidify what we have learned. A journal is also something we can look back at as a record of our learning experience. Writing about learning experiences in a blog format adds the element of sharing and collaboration. Now others can read and benefit from our learning experiences. Readers can also add comments and perhaps provide more insight into a mentioned topic. In this way I think I have learned a lot from 23Things. I hope to continue expanding upon my 23 Things entries. There is still so much learn!

Favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey:
I loved exploring the award-winning mashups. Before 23Things, I assumed mashups were exactly like they sounded: haphazard combinations of different web applications resulting in horrible sites with little usability. Again, I recommend Mashup Awards

I have this fantasy that every book will one day be available online. Not that I don't like physical books... I love physical books! But the idea that I can sit at home, be in the mood for a specific title and be able to immediately pull it up... Maybe I'm just lazy! The offering of eBooks and eAudioboooks may not be as great as I'd like, but it's improving. See screenshots below of several titles I'd like to read from NetLibrary (click on screenshot to enlarge):

Some people are visual learners while others are auditory learners... Podcasts are a perfect option for the latter. I think that the secret to a successful podcast has to do partially with the content provided, but also with the personality/ties involved and the creativity of the podcast. Below are some of my favorite library and reading related podcasts (Note: Click on the title to go to the podcast site and click on the screenshots to enlarge them):

1. Just One More Book
Discussion of great children's books over a cup of coffee. Features interviews as well. Fun, fun, fun (At least for a children's librarian :)


2. STUN!
A podcast featuring interviews with comic book creators. What works about STUN is that it is very polished, mainly due to the fact that it is a side project of a professional on-air personality: James VanOsdol


3. Behind the Desk: Podcasts from Alden Library (Ohio University Libraries)
Librarians can use podcasts to introduce themselves to their patrons, as demonstrated here by the academic librarians at the Alden Library. There are also library tours in Malay and Portuguese.


4. DiMenna-Nyselius Library Podcasts (Fairfield University)
At DiMenna-Nyselius University, you can find out more about different topics that student have reports about from professors. What I find most fun, however, are their "Meet the Databases" podcasts. You can listen to the databases tell you about themselves.

I may have previously mentioned my internship at National Geographic promoting the use of Web 2.0. Well, one of the things I especially pushed was the use of wikis for collaborating and sharing information. Often, when thinking of wikis, the first thing that comes to mind is Wikipedia. But at National Geographic, librarians as well as staff used wikis as forums to discuss future events and to record meeting minutes as well as creative ideas.

Libraries also use wikis for reader's advisory. I started such a wiki called Children's Lit Love (You can also see a link for this wiki at the top of this blog). Here is a screenshot:



Another example of a reader's advisory wiki is the Book Lover's Wiki. The great thing about a wiki is that it makes collaborating and publishing information in an online medium simple. Collaborators often add information in a format very similar to typing into a word processing window. Depending on the wiki engine (i.e., WetPaint, MediaWiki, etc.), collaborators will have to learn certain types of coding. However, it is extremely easy and publishing information on the web is as simple as clicking on a button. Also, information is organized by different web pages and not restricted to reverse chronological order as with a blog.

So you no longer have to know HTML and Dreamweaver to create your very own website about something that interests you!

Did I ever mention that I boycott MySpace? I boycott MySpace due to how "ugly" it looks. I've seen a few well-designed MySpace pages, but for the most part, I think that MySpace pages break every rule there is in regards to good design. As I've previously mentioned, my preferred "social networking" site is also a blog site: LiveJournal

The other week, however, I gave in and started a Facebook account. And now, I've noticed that Facebook is the first place winner for SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Awards in the Social Networking category; and I wholeheartedly agree. It has a very clean layout. You can also add different applications, such as iLike, which allows you to share clips of songs you like, as well as indicating whether artists you mark as your favorites are currently on tour. You can post messages on your friends' walls. There is an application that allows you to give your friends gifts. You can post a short statement about what you are currently doing or what your current state is. What I really like is that the photo application allows you to tag people in photos. If a photo is tagged with your name, even by another Facebook user, it shows up in an album of "Photos of You." You can also subscribe to Facebook groups. Currently I am a member of the following Facebook groups: The Hollywood Librarian, 1,000,000 Strong for Stephen T. Colbert and American Library Association Members. See below for an edited version of my Facebook page. This way you can at least see the layout and aesthetics of it.

...commodity to product to service to experience: e.g., from selling coffee beans to selling Maxwell House to serving coffee at Dunkin Donuts to providing an exotic Starbucks’ coffee permutation in its chattering, WiFi, jazz café atmosphere. --Dr. Wendy Schultz, To a Temporary Place in Time...

What value can a librarian add when so much information is now available on the web? This was a constant question that was asked during my library science studies at CLIS from 2005-2007. One answer was what was termed the "Starbucks Model." The library becomes more than just a place to find information. It becomes, as Dr. Wendy Schultz suggests, a community. More than ever before, the library becomes a place where dialogue can take place. Just as people want the convenience of finding information from their home computers, people also want a place where they can meet with others and exchange ideas, share thoughts, and bond over similar situations and experiences.

The physical library must become this "third place" (after a person's home and work) in order to adapt to the proliferation of information on the web. Additionally, the library must meet users at their place of convenience (as mentioned by Rick Anderson in Away from the "Icebergs"). This is where Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 come in. If users prefer to get their information from the web, librarians need to meet this need. Examples include offering live chat reference services and forming reader's advisory blogs (And that is just what librarians are doing!).

As I learned in grad school, now that we as a society are inundated with information, the role of the librarian becomes increasingly important in sifting through this information for quality. Librarians must add value by creating community, and providing convenient, timely, and accurate information to the user.

Check out Favorite Blogs on the Learning 2.0 Sandbox Wiki! (and see if you can find my link to this blog :)

The number of blogs that exists is overwhelming, but not surprising, considering how easy it is to start a blog. On the one hand, the ease with which one can start a blog is inspiring. Anyone can express themselves and have an open dialogue. On the other hand, this means that you have a lot of bad quality sites. Technorati helps us to maneuver this through this overwhelming world of blogs and user-generated content. It is also important to track and to study the web culture.

It is fascinating to see the top favorited blogs, top blogs and top searches. While it is not surprising that there are social networking sites listed in top searches, other searches seem more random, like london. It is slightly surprising to see Engadget as the top blog. I know electronic gadgets are popular, but I somehow thought that it was my "little secret" for learning about nifty tech toys. Now I know better...

I just realized that I might as well be wearing a big sign with the Google logo on it (or maybe a t-shirt). In addition to using Google Docs (See Thing #18), I also use iGoogle, a personalized homepage that uses both RSS feeds and Google Gadgets. I also add RSS feeds to my LiveJournal account. Gotta love RSS feeds where you can have everything you read in one spot.

See below for a screenshot from my Bloglines account (Click to enlarge):

Before Google Docs, I used to send myself e-mails or create drafts in my e-mails. While I have a flash drive, there is something very convenient about accessing a document via your e-mail from any computer with Internet access. When I was a student, I was on the move enough that I didn't want to risk incompatible file formats or older computers that didn't take my flash drive.

And then Google Docs came along and it was a major convenience. Especially the ability to share files with other people. Today, I have a total of thirty-six files saved in Google Docs. Some of them are word processing files. Others are spreadsheet files. I've shared files of terms with my partner in my Thesauri Construction class. I've also shared a spreadsheet file of friend and family contact information with my friends who threw me a graduation party. I've created a bills spreadsheet file that I could share. A person also has the ability to chat live about the document that is being shared (See below and click to enlarge). I found this greatly useful; only I've just learned that you can only do this with spreadsheets. Google Docs is currently working to offer this function for the word processing application as well. I also just learned that Google Docs now offers a way to create presentations similar to Powerpoint and Keynote. This is a great tool for group presentations.

I first discovered LibraryThing through Neil Gaiman's blog. At the time I was cataloging my books through a Mac program called Delicious Library. Using my built-in laptop camera I would scan in the bar codes of not only my books, but also my movies and my video games; and information would be pulled up from Amazon.com for each item. I could also edit each item's record, adding search terms.

So then I discovered LibraryThing. What makes LibraryThing different? There is the obvious: It is web-based and free (though there is a paid account option). As an online tool, LibraryThing is also a social tool. When you add your book, you can see other LibraryThing members who have the same book in their LibraryThing. You can also see how other people have tagged books in your list. And in addition to Amazon.com, information about these books can also be pulled from the Library of Congress as well as a variety of other university and special libraries. The LibraryThing LibrarySuggester, BookSuggester, and BookUnsuggester also use information about members who have similar books to offer recommendations for books you should and shouldn't read. (Also look to the right column to see the "Random books from my library" widget.)

I still mainly use Delicious Library for cataloging my books and media, but LibraryThing is nice as a tool to share my library with others. For my KimLibrarian LibraryThing account (see below), I have cataloged books I want to consider for booktalking. By using the BookSuggester and LibrarySuggester, I can see recommendations for other books I can consider for booktalking.

I learned something about myself recently. I have no patience for cassette tapes. None whatsoever. I always thought that there was something nostalgic and romantic about records and record players. Film, even. But cassettes??!?!?!

Well I recently found a "Classic Cassette Tote." See right. I find that pretty cool; but I think that that is the only cassette I like. I am an iPod girl through and through and currently I burn CDs of music I need for my storytimes. That way, everything is located in one spot and I can choose the track number I want without constantly rewinding and fast forwarding. My ultimate goal is to be able to find an iPod portable speaker that I like. That way I could just create playlists and play the music directly from my iPod.

In the meantime, I've discovered a way to digitize music from cassette tapes. That's a project for this weekend, so I'll tell you guys how it goes...

Gotta love MP3 technology and MP3 players! Greater storage capacity, portability and a way to organize your music library.

Tagging, tagging, tagging...

What can I say except that I love it. Sure, precision isn't always the best. When I try searching for "tiger" in Flickr for instance, I get images of: tigers, tiger butterflies, kids dressed up as tigers, Tiger Crow flowers, Tiger Cub Scouts, cats named tiger... You get the idea. But if you enter a specific search term, you can get pretty good results (Searching for "fishing cat" for instance yields much better results).

Why is tagging better than using folders for organization? Well it expedites searching and there is the whole concept of poly-hierarchy. Note that entries in this blog are tagged and the list of tags is listed on the right-hand side. Recently, when I gave a presentation on Web 2.0, I saved links to all of the sites I used as examples in my Keynote (Mac version of Powerpoint) to Del.icio.us. I tagged these sites by the name of the slides they appeared. Since we were in a computer lab, by providing everyone with a the url to my Del.icio.us site, they could quickly explore these sites for themselves. Below is a screenshot of my Del.icio.us site.


Photo Credits:
1. Tiger, 2. Untitled, 3. Dormindo igual um gatinho ...., 4. TigerLiliesBW.jpg, 5. Phoenix, 6. Tiger, 7. Sam's Halloween Costume, 8. Little Tiger & Mom, 9. eye of the tiger ..., 10. FOA: Drama 2, 11. After, 12. lonely tiger, 13. tiger, 14. Not available, 15. Not available, 16. Not available

There are so many neat library related blogs out there. A wonderful place to search these blogs is LISZEN. Remember Rollyo where one can "roll" all the websites they want to search? Well think of LISZEN as a Rollyo for library-related blogs. Currently, one can search over 750 blogs with LISZEN.

Some blogs that are searchable through LISZEN:
Reader's Advisory Knapsack
The Tao of Searching
User Education Resources for Librarians

And then there are the children's literature related blogs that I love:
Big A little a
The Kiddosphere at Fauquier
Kids Lit

Like I mentioned before, there are a lot of blogs out there. I think that is why specialized search engines such as LISZEN are so valuable. They help you to focus on the information that you need.

Check out my children's lit search tool that I rolled with Rollyo.

Spell with Flickr
This mashup spells out your word(s) with Flickr photographs of letters and numbers. Once you get your message, you can also click on individual letters to obtain different images.

I find myself conflicted about many mashup sites I run across, mainly because they take the term "mashup" too literally, combining functions and visuals from different sites in a haphazard manner so that the aesthetics are horrendous and the usability is absolutely nil. And then I discovered Mashup Awards, a site dedicated to finding the "best mashups on the web." Judging criteria include: uniqueness, creativity, user experience, utility and content. Two award-winning sites I find rather fun and useful are BookTour and LazyLibrary. See below for screenshots.

BookTour is a mashup that aggregates information from Amazon, Google Maps and Google Earth along with information the users and authors enter to provide information on when authors are speaking and their works.



LazyLibrary is a mashup that pulls information from Amazon and filters out books greater than 200 pages. They quote Einstein to sum up their philosophy: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

Ah, Flickr, Flickr, Flickr. Although it seems like I've been a member of Flickr forever, I checked my personal Flickr account and my welcome e-mail from them was sent April 2006.

The beautiful thing about Flickr is the social tagging function. We librarians (especially art librarians) know that access to visual information has always been challenging.

Flickr lets the users add their own descriptors or tags and essentially do the work! You can search your own photos or photos of everyone in the Flickr community. While the precision of the search may be compromised (Searching for a comic character named "Fray" leads to photos of a band called "The Fray," frayed edges, a town called Fray Bentos... You get the idea. "Fishing cat," however, produces pretty relevant results), the recall is pretty good.

As with all of these Web 2.0 applications, practically anyone can now publish material online; meaning, of course that you'll have blurry, ugly snapshots that seem rather worthless on Flickr. On the other hand, you can discover amazing talents. Haiku Garry (see above right) is one such photographer I've discovered. Two other of my favorite Flickr members include: LynnInSingapore and Vision Aerie (Check them out. Their work is amazing!).

I haven't even touched upon how Flickr has allowed me to keep in touch with friends who love to document their lives. I'd like to believe that sites like Flickr and Blogger have made keeping in touch with loved ones more easy. You no longer have to wait for that once a year holiday newsletter. Can these sites also result in people not socializing face to face as often? Sure. But really, how often can you afford to visit that friend living states, even countries away?

So this avatar was created through Simpsonize Me. I was actually impressed with the sophistication of this image generator. The initial image is generated from a close-up photo you upload. You also provide some additional information about yourself. The character is then generated and you get to tinker with specific features (eyes, nose, hair, clothing and background). There is then the option of downloading the resulting avatar or e-mailing it to a friend. So I guess the big question is, do you see the resemblance?

7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

1. Begin with the end in mind.
2. Accept responsibility for your own learning.
3. View problems as challenges.
4. Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner.
5. Create your own learning toolbox.
6. Use technology to your advantage.
7. Teach/mentor others.
7 1/2. Play!

Of all of these habits, I think that the hardest one for me would to be to view problems as challenges. I think I tend to view problems as challenges in general, but it really is difficult to do this when the problem is interfering with a task that has a deadline or when time is precious!

The easiest habits for me would be the last two. I am a teacher at heart and view this 23 Things blog as a record of my journey but also as a way to inspire others with their 23 Things tasks. I've already talked to a number of coworkers, encouraging them to sign up to 23 Things and to come to me with any questions they may have.

And of course playing is very easy. One of my mentors when I interned at National Geographic Libraries, Karen Huffman (Manager, Knowledge Initiatives), is a wiz at Web 2.0 and the excitement she has for these technologies is contagious. It isn't rare for Karen to play with different wiki applications over weekends. Karen is definitely an exemplar of a highly successful lifelong learner. She in fact wrote an article pertinent to the 23 Things community: Web 2.0: Beyond the Concept; Practical Ways to Implement RSS, Podcasts, and Wikis (PDF)

A Summary of My Thoughts About Lifelong Learning

Learning is not easy. When we are children we make many mistakes: falling off bicycles, using words incorrectly, coloring outside of the lines... We stumble and it is accepted as normal--part of the learning process. But as we get older we forget this. Making mistakes becomes an inconvenience and oftentimes embarrassing. We feel comfortable with what we currently know. But we need remind ourselves that it is OK to make mistakes. Learning is hard, but in the end it can be very rewarding. And personally, I think it makes life very new and exciting.

Okay, well I'm skipping around the 23 Things list. This image was actually generated using two image generators. The first is Meez, a site where you can create your own digital persona to use in blogs, web profiles, etc. The second is through the Wired Magazine site, powered by Xerox and allowing you to create your own Wired Magazine cover.

Unfortunately the latter generator didn't have a function whereby you could post just the magazine cover into a blog. Therefore I captured a screenshot and then uploaded it onto Blogger. You can click on the image on the left for a larger version. This is how I look at work.

You may wonder when this would come in handy. For one, avatars are a great option for those who have an online presence but do not want to use their actual image. Also, image and word generators can come in handy in more unlikely situations. I had a girl library patron the other day who wanted to name her summer reading prize (a fish bath toy) a Pokemon-like name. We looked up a list of current Pokemon names online to give her an idea. In the end, we decided to use an online Pokemon name generator.

Certain generators allow the option for you to print your result, a wonderful way to put together customized art for library programming and displays.

For more online image generators, one can visit the following sites: The Generator Blog , Letter James , FD Toys

I first discovered the original 23 Things at the beginning of this year when I was the Learning and Technology Intern at National Geographic Libraries and Information Services. My goal as the Learning and Technology Intern was to encourage and educate employees about the various Web 2.0 technologies available through the staff intranet. Web 2.0 can be best explained as a movement of the World Wide Web toward programs and resources that allow for more collaboration, interaction and participation by users. For instance, blogs allow for user comments and ease of publishing. You no longer have to design a website from scratch in order to publish your writing. Now you can just go to a site like Blogger and set up a blog account in minutes.

An important lessoned I learned at National Geographic is that while Web 2.0 applications provide additional avenues of communication, collaboration and disseminating information, they are not all equal in the benefits they offer. And they aren't appropriate for all situations. Oftentimes, Web 2.0 applications are used in combination and this is when they are most effective.

Although I'm no stranger to Web 2.0 (I've kept in touch with friends through LiveJournal since 2003), I actually have never started a blog via Blogger. At the top of this blog you will see links to two Web 2.0 sites that I regularly use.

Children's Lit Love is a Wiki that I started, using WetPaint. All Consuming is a collaborative site where one adds movies, books and food they've "consumed." Book and movie information is pulled off of Amazon. Here one can also write reviews and thoughts about these items and recommend material to other members. Members can also "cheer" entries and conversely, receive cheers for their entries by others.

All Consuming was created by The Robot Co-op the same folks who created 43 Things, 43 People and 43 Places. I'll go more into these in a later entry (But 23 Things was undoubtedly inspired by 43 Things, at least in name). Meanwhile, here is a list of additional Web 2.0 sites that I use (have used):
Backpack , Del.icio.us , Flickr , Friendster , Kaboodle
LibraryThing , MediaWiki , Stikipad , Yahoo Groups

While here are some others that I've explored:
Facebook , MySpace , Squidoo , Twitter , YouTube

As you can see, the list can go on and on. There is little doubt that collaborative websites and applications are prevalent today in both social networking and in the working environment. More to come on Web 2.0 and an in-depth look at some of these sites.