Remember the what?

Things 20ish -

I've been using Google docs for quite a while, for lots of things - collaborating with library colleagues on a Powerpoint presentation, sharing programming ideas, maintaining a closely itemized household budget on a spreadsheet, accessing an address book, saving forms that I may need to access both at home and at the library, and converting/opening other files that the reference desk computer can't handle. I understand that it might not have some of the functions or flash of other online workspaces, but I also use Gmail so it's really convenient to stick with the Google products.

I'd love to see more of our patrons using Google docs (or some kind of online document editing/storage) because, way too often, patrons' computer time expires without their having saved or printed their documents. Nothing is saved to the computer so things are just LOST a lot of the time. Yes, warning/reminder boxes pop up at 5 minutes and 1 minute till log-off, but so many people are used to clicking away every dialogue box without reading it. So we have a lot of sad people who lose an hours' work because they weren't paying attention to either the timer or the fact that they have to save the document somewhere.

Also, we have a lot of patrons who are upset when they come to our library and learn that our only "Microsoft" programs are Word (actually, ThinkFree) and Publisher. It seems like lots of people have Powerpoint or Excel assignments, or even want to open/print WordPerfect files--neither of which our computers support. (Don't ask me why we can't add ThinkFree's Powerpoint and Excel programs to our website. These are touchy questions in our behemoth behind-the-times library system.) So Google docs are great for those scenarios as well. The library home page has a link to Google docs, but I'm not sure how much it gets used.

When I help patrons, I often respond only to their requests of "how do I get to Word" rather than asking a few questions about whether they have a way to save their work or if they'd like to try working online. That's sometimes because I'm swamped with other reference questions, or sometimes because it might seem nosy for me to go there. Also, sometimes people aren't ready to create a Google account (like if they don't already have an email address) and setting that up can take the whole hour that the patron needed for typing. Because of that, I wish that there could be a safe, secure way for a library card account to be automatically associated with a Google account through our website. How easy that would be! But I'm sure there would be many privacy issues with that idea.

Finally, the idea of putting my to-do lists online via RTM, or something similar, also makes me feel a little uncomfortable about living my life online (whether private or public) but mostly just makes me feel overwhelmed, like it would increase my to-do list to store it on a computer. Maybe if I had a smartphone I would use the RTM app, because it seems useful. But using some technology like that makes me feel like my life is way too controlled by screens. It can get oppressive.

Book Trailer

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

I threw this animation together using some of my flannel board images from Flickr. It's not really a trailer because it shows components of the entire story (although lots of movie trailers do that, which is why I don't often watch them!), and it's not featuring a book but a folktale for flannelboard. But it was so easy to make and share this, that I suspect I will return to the site and see what else I can do with the simple tools there. (I also love how the song nearly matches the story, especially because I picked it at random without listening to it first!)

A lot of folks at our library, especially children, are totally captivated by Internet video. Sometimes it seems they don't even care what they are watching. So if I could find a way to connect them with some "trailers" from the library, perhaps we could actually advertise storytimes, new books, and other events. A few simple "trailers" like this on our library home page might catch an eye or two, informing current patrons about services they might not have known existed. More exciting "trailers" posted online in the right places or by the right people might actually draw new folks to the library.

I also wanted to share a real book trailer that my mom (a 1st grade teacher) sent me. Warning, total cuteness overload, but also made me want to buy the book for our library and gave me some ideas about how to use it.

Tags, tags, tags, and another plug for my wiki!

I've been working on the flannelboard factory website. I love how it's turning out. The wiki format makes me feel really comfortable with imperfection, though more about that in a minute.

I created a flickr account in order to store and manage my flannelboard photos...and I've been tagging them. So that knocks out a few of these 21 things with one stone. Or whatever the analogy should be.

One of the things I love about tags + the Internet is how this function allows things to be equally categorized (and thus located/found) in multiple places. So I don't have to decide if a story belongs in the file for food, turkeys, Thanksgiving, holidays, my own designs, felt-only designs, designs smaller than 5", et cetera. Something I don't love about tags/labels is that it sometimes seems like so much extra work to come up with tags, and keep them consistent. And I'm saying that as someone who loves creating thesauri and indices! I think I just get a little lazy sometimes when using Web 2.0. It seems more ephemeral, and thus less important to create excellent tagging. But even as I work on my wiki, I realize that good tagging will make the website really easy to use. Since I would like to eventually share it with my colleagues in a formal way, I want to work on making the tags, if not perfect, at least orderly and helpful.

I collected stamps for ages, and although I would generally organize them in albums by country, as is usual, I really wanted a way to also label and categorize them by other interesting features - such as what they depict, unusual size or shape, and so forth. I don't know if I would want to digitize my stamp collection (still too much work at this point in technological history) because it's so fascinating to examine the objects themselves, but at the same time it would be amazing to quickly call up all the stamps with bicycling themes, for example.

But, let's be honest, if I am a serious collector, I'll just remember where all those stamps are and be able to find them in an instant. Same as I can dig through my huge box of flannel board stories (which are each in a ziploc bag, no flags or titles or anything) and easily pick out the ones that fit my requirements. I can't quite do that with library books... that is, pull all the picture books that fit a certain theme without using the catalog first, but I feel like managing the juvenile collection at this branch for 3 1/2 years has made it easier and easier to do that. Just for me though! So I'll keep including tags!

Wiki: The Central Southern Flannelboard Factory

I've been more or less keeping up with our "21 things" but due to another long vacation weekend and a new work schedule, I haven't had time to do much writing about them. And I certainly haven't had time to do clever or insightful blogging, but I want to spew something at least to help stay on track--so huzzah! huzzah! huzzah! for the fight against perfectionism.

I created a wiki--the first I've ever made on my own--and I'm hoping to actually use it in real life at my job! I would like to help children's librarians in my area of the city share flannelboard storytime ideas & materials. I envisioned an online space where librarians could upload photos of their flannelboard creations, and then we could use the wiki all-edit format to suggest stories, rhymes, fingerplays, etc. that would go with each set.

Some thoughts on how it would be useful:

• Sometimes a librarian may unearth an ancient flannelboard set from the library dungeon. After ascertaining that it has no monetary value via the Antiques Road Show, and becoming puzzled as to its educational value since it has no text or title attached, sharing it on the wiki would draw on collective knowledge to figure out just what kind of story would have a goose, a pelican, and a frying pan--for example.
• Some flannelboard sets lend themselves well to multiple stories or uses. Groups of items, such as ten little teddy bears, work with multiple rhymes and fingerplays. Other sets, such as the animals from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, can be used in other stories as well. Wiki editers could add in more rhymes and ideas on the page for each set, or suggest connections to other sets and stories.
• The online format would make it easy to hyperlink to items like youtube videos (to share songs) or other websites with related content.
• Perhaps we could add an informal calendar to each page so that librarians could request to borrow sets on certain days if desired. The wiki could also include the current location of each set, making it easy to see which librarin should be contacted to send it out.
• Other librarians and teachers around the world could browse the wiki to get ideas that they could replicate in their own areas. I've often searched Etsy for flannelboard stories or browsed Flickr to see what others have made.

Now, some drawbacks:

• I may be the only local librarian who will use the wiki, at least in terms of finding time to photograph flannelboard sets and upload them to the website. I work at one of the smallest and slowest branches of a very large public library system, so I just have more time to do projects like this.
• Another hindrance is that our library system prohibits staff from connecting anything to library computers via USB port. Thus, I'd have to upload my photos at home. Hmm... I guess I'm willing to do that.
• Since many of us in this area have already created dozens of flannelboard sets, getting things started would take longer than, say, adding a flannelboard set once in a while when someone makes a new one.

Overall I think it has potential as a way to share, showcase and develop ideas. Feel free to take a look at what I've done so far. (Keep your expectations low. It's very plain and I clearly need to spend more time learning how to make it functional and awesome.)

http://southcentralflannelboardfactory.wikispaces.com/

A little about me... via online Image Editors

[COMPUTER] ILLITERACY

http://www.slj.com/slj/printissue/currentissue/856655-427/of_mice_and_mentors_an.html.csp

Here's an article from March 2010 that discusses an inner-city charter school librarian's efforts to teach elementary school students to become "capable computer users." The librarian was surprised by having to start with basics (like how to turn the computer on) when working with this generation that everyone assumes is already familiar with using a computer. The article details some of the things that worked (and didn't work) in helping the kids become more confident using technology in many varied ways.

Although I don't teach computer classes for kids at our public library, I really identified with some of the hurdles she mentioned, as I've noticed some issues while helping kids at the computers. The kids at our branch seem to be highly skilled in playing flash games, so you might think that they could do other things like use the mouse correctly and maybe even begin to navigate the Internet (at least through Google). However, most cannot. Another problem is that many of the kids here can hardly read. Even if they know what it means to "click on" something, giving directions like "click on the word 'games'" may not be adequate assistance. At our branch, we also have a group of teenaged computer users who are wonderfully adept in playing certain MMORPGs but who are also illiterate and thus cannot be said to be computer literate--at least if you believe that literacy is a fundamental part of successful computer use.

When I think about trying to use Web 2.0 in my job, I've been considering mostly how things will help me professionally and how I can connect with colleagues and obtain/share ideas.

I know I need to think more about how to connect kids with computers, and I hope that will also give me ideas about how to connect kids with reading (whether via the computer or through books).

MEDIA MOVER!

I just took a quiz at the Pew Internet & American Life Project website called "What Kind of Tech User are You?"

The result:
"You are a Media Mover...you have a wide range of online and mobile habits, and you are bound to find or create an information nugget, such as a digital photo, and pass it on. These social exchanges are central to your use of information and communication technology. Cyberspace, as a path to personal productivity or an outlet for creativity, is less important to you."

Yes, I do like to move media around. I love shelving books (too bad it's not part of my job). But, yes, in my experience, cyberspace is not a place for making things; it's a place for making connections.

What about you?
http://www.pewinternet.org/Participate/What-Kind-of-Tech-User-Are-You.aspx