Back at it?

My last post from Oct. is interesting to read because my zest for reading news online turned out to be short-lived. The social media sites have turned out to be a disappointment, and it's just not appealing to sit in front of a computer to read news on the the quality sites. So I've been happy to go back to relying on the local paper and MPR for the majority of my information about current affairs.

I see "More Things on a Stick" has been launched. I hope to participate, so maybe that will be motivation for me to complete the last 5 original Things.

Checking in

One of the bigger changes in my home routine since my non-finishing of the 23 Things is that I've started getting a lot of news online - it used to be maybe 5%, now more like 50%. This started with Thing 12 when I joined Reddit. Later I joined Newsvine. It seems a bit better than Reddit but both sites have a lot of contributors who appear to be more interested in attacking other viewpoints than creating a well-balanced and intelligent news source. One nice thing about these sites is that the links often lead me to other interesting news sources.

Other social media sites I've explored are Times People (from the New York Times), Care2, Hugg, and BuzzFlash. A good local social site is a citizen-run blog about events here in Northfield, Locally Grown. I find the commentary attached to each post much more intelligent than any of the national sites I've explored. So I'm still looking for a high quality social news site for national issues. Any suggestions?

On another note, my attempt to keep up professionally via RSS feeds has crashed and burned. I've been about as successful with it as I have been with email lists; actually less so.

no flash drive for me

So yeah, I missed the Sept. 15 deadline. I'm devastated that I won't be getting my prize as well as all the fame and glory due to all those who complete the 23 Things. However, I'm too close to stop now, so I plan to complete the program anyway. Yes, it will be hard, but reward or no reward I refuse disappoint my legions of fans! So stayed tuned, more is on the way...

Thing #18: YouTube and other online video

I've never spent much time on YouTube before now. My overriding impression of it was "scary" - to think that I could be walking down the street and have my pants fall down, and next thing you know it's the top-rated video on YouTube! (And of course it would be top-rated, were that to happen.)

As increasing numbers of YouTube videos are posted on other sites I've watched a few here and there. I'm sure YouTube will have - and has probably already had - a significant impact on this year's presidential election. I find it disturbing when sound bites ("video bites?") are posted in such a way as to be taken out of context. But,with recent developments in the campaigns, well, um, one of the campaigns, I can't help but kind of hope that online videos may help to expose the, er, limitations of certain candidates. But this is not a political blog...

Today I did spend some time watching videos, and it was fun. I see a lot of potential for educational applications. For example, this TV advertisement for Salem cigarettes from 1970 could serve as hard-hitting documentation on the smoking culture that existed before today's 18-22 yr. old college students were born. It would be hard to get the same impact from other formats.



I also enjoyed watching various library tour videos. There are a lot of them, many quite creative and funny. For example, this one from Harper College Library:



I would love to see a side-splittingly funny yet educational video created publicizing the St. Olaf Libraries to our students. Maybe as an introduction to the library scavenger hunt that the freshmen participate in during orientation. (Last year some students made a very funny video about the library as a project, but if it's on YouTube, I can't find it.) Library types tend to have good senses of humor, and that's certainly the case at ours. We should exploit that and show the students that we're fun people!

Thing #17: ELM productivity tools

I'm trying to step things up here with Sept. 15 coming up fast. Will I be the first dog to complete the 23 Things? Can I request a flavor for my 23 Things flash drive? Do you have liver flavor? Peanut butter?

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One of the perks of working at St. Olaf is that I have access to the databases included on ELM as well as many others at work and at home via a proxy server. But it's wonderful that anyone in Minnesota who can get online can also access these databases for free. I wonder what percentage of MN residents know about this terrific service.

Since I'm lucky enough to have direct access through St. Olaf (no login) I did most of this Thing by going through the College's electronic resources page rather than through ELM. St. Olaf's implementation of SFX also allows me to find a copy of an article from a citation using the "Find it" button.

For my search alert I created a feed from LISTA. I hadn't known I could create a feed to my reader that will automatically notify me of new results for my saved search. I don't know if this is something that students and/or faculty know about and make use of. I would think faculty would find it especially handy.

Also, I had no idea that one could get audio feeds in search results from InfoTrac. Very impressive! I'm realizing how far behind I am in using indexes and databases.

The EBSCO page composer is a bit of a mystery to me as I don't understand its intended use. (Perhaps I'm having a senior moment.) Also, I got terribly frustrated trying to use the composer. Among other things, when I added a link my text disappeared. And since, again, I don't understand the purpose of creating a web page in EBSCO, this gets a pretty low rating from me! Maybe it will all become clear at a later time.

Both the Proquest and NetLibrary assignments were learning experiences for me personally. Our reference librarians are very skilled at searching and making use of the features of all kinds of databases so I don't imagine there's much new here for them. But I can use all the help I can get so for the most part I enjoyed this Thing.

OK, this doesn't feel like my best post, but I'm very tired, so that's all for now!

Thing #16: student 2.0 tools

We have very well-developed course-integrated instruction at our library. Although my work supports the teaching I'm not directly involved with it. I won't even venture a guess as to whether or not these tools would be beneficial in addition to what the students are already supplied. The best I can do is to try to remember that they exist so that, should the appropriate time arise, I can mention them.

I don't see any use for these tools for projects that I work on either on my own or with other library staff. They seem to be specifically geared to students completing research papers and other assignments. I suppose the next time I need to prepare a presentation they could come in handy.

Thing #15: online games and libraries

When I saw the title of this Thing my first thought was "Online games? Surely this Thing is for not for academic libraries." But then I saw that ACRL is one of the sponsors for this year's ALA Techsource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium. So I took a closer look and saw that the program includes sessions on how to incorporate online gaming into information literacy programs, including at the college level. Perhaps MMORPGs could play a role in college library instruction after all. Maybe online games could be part of freshman orientation. Could St. Olaf have it's own virtual presence in Second Life, with reference and other services?

I find the social aspect of Second Life a bit baffling. If you're a social type, why not go out and be with real people? If you're less social, more of a private person, wouldn't socializing online be just as repellent as in the real world? I suppose for extroverts it might be a way to meet people with similar interests when it's hard to find them in real life. Maybe SL is a good way for people from different cultures and countries to educate each other. Maybe ... World Peace at last?!?

I admit to being intrigued by Second Life, however, now that I've looked at it. I'd like to "go there" at least once just to explore what it's all about. Information Island is something I would like to explore, at least to understand better what the reading referred to, for example the "theater that seats 50," college classes one can attend, virtual whiteboards, and virtual computers available at the virtual library. I'm having a hard time imagining what all that would be like.

So far my private nature is preventing me from signing up, though. Is there an invisibility option in Second Life? If so, and I don't have to talk to anyone, maybe I'll try it!

I found Puzzle Pirates about as unappealing as I found 2nd Life intriguing. I'm turned off by the pirate theme, the graphics, the terminology, and the apparent complexity. Sure, I like puzzles, but this seems too ... geeky. Not that I'm not geeky myself, but there's good geeky and bad geeky! So anyhow, although I took a look, I didn't get far, and I hope I'm never involved in creating some kind of library program using this particular MMOPRG (love that acronym, btw).