Thing #8: share your creations

I haven't gotten past the 1st part of the Thing: slideshows. On the Slideshare site I watched a presentation called "Death by Powerpoint." What a great hook! That's the inspiration for the title of the presentation I created, below.

The content of my presentation was inspired by everything I'm not doing because I'm having such fun with my computer. Since all the Flickr madness of Things 4-6 I've started a Flickr account, scanned a bunch of photos, and now, yesterday, I bought a digital camera! So, dear 23 Things, not only did you give me a bulging butt during the Tetris episode of Thing 3 (which, btw, I'm over, thankfully), carpal tunnel hypochondria (Thing 5), but now you're trying to drive me into poverty as well!

To combat this, 23 Things on a Golden Retriever presents:

Death by Web 2.0: 10 life-essential things the online world does not supply

One major problem I see with the Slideshare version is the picture resolution is much, much worse than on the my original Powerpoint creation. This distresses me because I spent quite a long time with it. The photos really do look lovely on Powerpoint!

more Thing #7: online communication tools pts. 3 & 4

3) Text messaging. Interesting that one of the assignments is to practice texting, which assumes that all the participants have a cell phone. Yeah, I do have one, I admit. But texting seems too clunky to be really useful for many library services - or is it my phone that's clunky? On the other hand, I wonder if the newest smart phones (is that what they're called?) are too smart for texting. That is, if these phones can get email, why bother with text? Is instant messaging available on the new iPhone?

The video of the students sitting right in front of their computers and using a cell phone to text the librarian seemed nuts to me. And the assigned reading seemed oddly dated until I saw that the article is dated: 2005. But then again, maybe it's me that's dated!

4) Web conferencing. I think the reality of global climate change to some extent transcends the debate of other benefits vs. costs of online conferencing. We simply have to consider online meetings and conferences as one small element of the strategy to fight climate change. Perhaps the high cost of gas will force us to do this even if the ethical reason doesn't.

One of the listservs I follow had a recent discussion of the advantages/disadvantages of online conferences. The overriding disadvantage mentioned is the loss of spontaneous conversation and networking opportunities offered by in-person attendance. I agree this would be a serious limitation of web conferences (although secretly I see it as an advantage since I dislike the social/networking side of conferences).

As for the webinar assignment, I've "attended" webinars in the past. I didn't see anything of interest on the upcoming lists for Minitex and OPAL, but I promise to keep my eyes open. When I do sign up for one I plan to watch it with an evaluative eye.

Thing #7: online communication tools pts. 1 & 2

1. Ah, email, the ultimate love-hate relationship! So time-consuming, such fun! And how did we manage before when group communication was accomplished by routed memos and meetings? Email should be making our working lives easier, shouldn't it?

There was a link in one of the readings to a New York Times article by Katie Hafner about the fractured attention at work caused by today's technologies. It seems to me, as useful as the web 2.0 tools are, for some of us the temptations for distraction multiply the more we learn. The article alludes to what I refer to as a "zone," or, for me specifically, a "cataloging zone," a state of long-term concentration in which I'm able to be highly productive. It seems I rarely find my zone during the working day.

I agree that it makes sense to try to reach our patrons where they're comfortable communicating. In our library we have both email and IM reference service.

2. Instant messaging. Talk about potential for fractured attention! Being logged into IM at work sounds dangerous. I've played with Google Chat a bit with a friend, but it's fun more as a novelty than anything. I thought using Chat was IMing, but now I see there's also Google Talk. Chat? Talk? Huh? I guess one can do more on Google Talk than on Chat. Well, I downloaded Google Talk ; I'll try it and report back.

Our library has been using Meebo for reference for awhile. This seems to make a lot of sense, but for me, a cataloger, I'm not so sure. I can see limited uses for IM for conferencing with my fellow catalogers because I'm in a separate building from them. But at work I think I would want to have IM turned off most of the time.

Thing #7 sure is long! I'll complete the other steps another time.

Thing #6: Online Image Generators (and a bit more on Thing #5)

Those who know me will roll their eyes when they see that I've created a trading card of my dog. But to those people I say: How could I not? Really. Think about it.

Most of the tools I explored for things 5 and 6 didn't do much for me personally. But still it's been useful to explore and know that these things are out there. Perhaps the most valuable thing I learned was the concept of the mashup, which appears to have limitless potential.

I can imagine going back to some of the thing 5-6 sites when preparing presentations or contributing to web sites. I do think, however, that we should remember, and help our students remember, that a glitzy presentation doesn't compensate for lack of substance. I've attended plenty of presentations with flashy elements added that seemed to serve no purpose.

Still not sure how to add a caption to images added to my blog. I made this billboard image using ImageChef. The photo within the image is from the Dublin City Public Library collection on flickr and is not attributed. This photo was taken in their Music Library. I found it in the Creative Commons section of the flickr site but I'm still feeling muddled about correct attribution and appropriate linking.

It's clear to me that all of this would go much more smoothly for me if I had more than a handful of my own photos digitized. I've add that to my personal "to do" list!

Finishing up Thing #5

The 23 things are such fun that I'm having trouble keeping in mind their intended purpose. That is, I tend to judge on entertainment value for me rather than looking for uses in the library.

I used splashr to create a slide show of what is quite possibly the most beautiful place on earth, Arches National Park (see previous post for the show). Eventually I'll get some of my own photos onto flickr and might then replace the slide show with my own shots. I found the splashr tool limited when I wasn't searching in a pre-defined collection because I had to take whatever photos it gave me. It's probably intended to be used with one's own collection.

I originally attempted to create a slide show a bit more original than this one. I thought: libraries, and I'm a music librarian, so, photos of music instead of books, and lp covers are fun to look at... In attempting to create this I spent a good bit of time searching in flickr. I won't go into the alternations of amusement and frustration I felt at the way tags are applied! I probably could have created the slideshow I imagined, but I was uncomfortable with the idea of creating a collection of other people's flickr photos in my own account (if this is even possible). It felt weird and wrong.

Thing #5: more Flickr fun

I think I just gave myself carpal tunnel.

These are public photos from Flickr, not my own. More later... (If this doesn't work, you may need to download the Flash plug-in.)

Arches National Park slide show

Thing #4: Flickr

There must be a way to put a caption on this photo. But anyway, it's credited on Flickr to Northfield.org. When I read about Flickr, I was intrigued most by the maps feature. So I went to the Northfield map location. Some of the first pictures were of the hailstorm from a couple of years ago. So then I did a search on the terms "northfield" and "hail" and chose this photo. I was a little nervous about copyright and proper crediting; I hope I did everything I was supposed to.

Flickr was fun to explore. I love what St. John's/St. Ben's are doing, especially interesting to me since they're academic libraries.

It's funny to me that, while cataloging as a profession is stereotyped as dry, boring work, much of what people are doing for fun on Flickr is essentially cataloging! And I think tagging is such an interesting concept. I would like to see the natural language of tagging combined with the controlled vocabulary and cross-referencing of LC Subject Headings. On the Flickr site there are some interesting attempts to create semi-formal lists and standards for tag creation.