Method 12 Last Dance: Reflection and Evaluation

It only took me three years to finish this second round by the Texas State Library…but I have finished! Again, it was a wonderful chance to learn about a variety of web tools and how libraries can use them. Some of my favorite sections were the ones about e-readers and making a 30-second movie with Animoto.
 

There were a lot of programs to learn about, even though some were not imperative to know or to use in my current position. This time around, I did not particularly like or need certain modules, and I found myself less excited about certain topics. That could be attributed to several factors, including the long time I took to do all the exercises and then broken links I encountered. My enthusiasm would wane and occasionally it was a struggle to get through some exercises, not discerning how I would need or use it at work.

As a result, I did not embellish my blog posts much with either words or photos this time around nor was I eager to try the extra exercises. But, I perked up with interesting and interacting topics when I could create something.

Our current culture produces so many new web, app, and software tools, they can be overwhelming as well as quickly obsolete. This was expressed in one method where a public library jumped on service but found patrons did not generally use it much. This could become costly to library budgets if such programs were expensive. With the rush and abundance of so many new tools, it must be difficult for libraries to know whether something will endure or become passé. How can they decide which to use or offer? Popularity or longevity? I imagine those choices will become more prevalent and more confounding.

Method 12

Yay—I’ve come to the end of the exercises in this course and have completed it before the deadline!

Some of my favorite discoveries centered on acquiring more knowledge about Flickr, Picasa, and YouTube. And I loved learning about making movies with either your photos or videos using Windows Movie Maker. These 12 Steps has indeed rekindled my love for learning. It was very energizing. In my art, I always love to try new techniques and use different media. I am always experimenting and asking myself, “what would happen if I did this or that?” Because of that intuitive approach, I become a conduct for the creative process instead of dictating and planning.

In these exercises, there was a lot of high-tech terms I had heard about but not really understood or had ever used. Now, I have a better understanding of RSS feeds, of sharing documents and bookmarks, of twittering and IM’ing, of wikis and podcasts. And I thought of new potentials for social networking that I already used.

This is a well-thought out program that builds on previous steps, so I think it succeeds quite well. And yes, I’d definitely like to take another like this in the future, even if it was not offered through work. As a matter of fact, I put a link to the Dozen Ways to Two Step on both my personal Facebook site and art blog and have a few positive responses for spreading the word!

Method 11

The Wide World of Podcasting

The first several podcasts I tried to play did not work. Exploring other subjects on Podcast.com I lost the signal when trying more pages several times. This was becoming frustrating and I was beginning to doubt I’d really hear any podcast. At one point, the session jammed that made Microsoft Explorer close.

After re-starting, I went to the wiki library listings and randomly clicked on the Belk Library Audio (http://belklibrarypodcast.blogspot.com/) and went to the most recent podcast about their databases. Temporarily, I was waiting, expecting video, like YouTube. Reminding myself this is strictly audio, I skipped over to the Lunar and Planetary Institute Library (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/library/mp3.xml) and listened to what was new at their library.

The next day, I was able to listen to an interview with a writer whose book I recently read. The podcast was about 59 minutes and I could pause, go back, re-listen to sections whenever I found I was missing something.

Being a visual person and comparing the same writer talking about his book on YouTube, I have to say I lean more toward the visual broadcast rather than podcast. However, simply listening can also free you to do other things, like having a radio or music on in the background.

How can my library use podcasts? Good question. I searched for my library and university on the podcast web site. Found podcasts by those who had taught or attended the university. Nothing created by my library, yet.

Off the top of my head, podcasts could be used by circulation to remind patrons of closing times, books are due, and when the coffee bar closes. These updates could be helpful to students, especially during finals. Podcasts of all academic subjects could be used by faculty in classrooms, by staff for software updates (although YouTube might be more helpful), by campus-wide announcements of benefit plan updates.

Method 10

There is a trolley-like bus that can transport you and your bags around the Honolulu airport and it’s called “Wiki-Wiki” which means “fast-fast.” In this learning method, wikis are open documents that can be changed, edited, and added to. Several years ago, I remember reading how someone in a past Presidential staff had his Wikipedia entry changed to show a rather slanderous charge. Uh oh! Having an online document change that fast-fast, open to anyone’s alterations, would be highly susceptible to such shenanigans.

Following the instructions, I added some content to both the “Favorite Blogs” as well as to “Favorite Books” page. Since I once produced a library newsletter, I wondered how to graphically separate each person’s comments. But, I made the mistake of adding an entry (which can be edited or deleted) and then making a comment (which looks like it is permanent)—Uh oh! So right now I’m not impressed with wikis! Probably with more experience, I would be more comfortable.

Just as I was writing up my notes on this method, an e-mail notified me one of those pages had been changed. It took me by surprise, but I guess it happens each time a new contribution is updated. If you added content to a popular page, you might get quite a lot of notifications.

As a library tool, it could help on collaborative efforts: a reference tool, coordination for a specific project, a page for feedback. I’m sure librarians could suggest more ways to use wikis as a great library tool. But, as a library bookkeeper, I won’t be putting any ledger documents up there. Exact numbers are not something you would want changed fast-fast!

Method 9

Do you remember the old-fashioned tin can phone? You took two soup cans and connected them together with string and then you and your friend went into opposite directions. When you both were both at the maximum distance away, you could talk into the cans.

This year, I conducted my first Instant Message (IM) at home through Facebook. When I saw another friend was online the same time I was, I tried the IM function. It was the first time she had instant messaged also, and we had a nice chat. Since we live in different states, it had all the positive features of an e-mail but with instantaneous replies. I learned not to hit “enter” to begin a new paragraph because in IM, that is the signal to send! Oops! Well, that’s how we learn, isn’t it? Since then, I have IM’d other friends. Once, my sister left to check the mail and never returned! That made me wonder--is there a special etiquette involved in signing in and out?

A few months ago, my home account provider set up IM through its mail page. You have the option of being available, offline, or invisible. It also lists your contacts who are available to chat, as shown by their e-mail address. IM can be easy to learn; I showed my Mom how to use it by giving her step-by-step directions over the phone. It’s a lot of fun, really.

Reading the articles for this method, I noticed “IM Me: Instant Messaging May be Controversial, But Remember, We Also Debated Telephone Reference” is from 2005, four and a half years ago, so it’s pretty old hat by now. It had some good points though, showing how IM is used as a reference tool by the Plugged-In-Generation.

The text messaging abbreviation article shows what looks like a foreign language. It appears that Texters have their own secret code; bet teenagers love that! Some abbreviations were recognizable having evolved from their e-mail inception. NetLingo, the Internet Dictionary site shows how texting has caught on in a big way and is more popular than making phone calls on a cell phones. Another very interesting article on NetLingo described how teachers can get creative with texting terminology by allowing it in first writing drafts instead of freaking out about improper English usage.

Turning to the world of libraries, IM’ing a librarian would be helpful, especially when searching the catalog and getting stuck. It puts a friendly face on reference work. Checking my library I found we have an “Ask a Librarian” Meeb on our main web page. I wonder how much it is used. Conceivably, students could IM from anywhere on campus. It would be convenient and helpful, reaching those already familiar with phone texting.

But, I wonder if some librarians who staff that service might need that “cheat sheet” of abbreviations handy? A lot easier to learn than those tin can phones, though!

Method 8

This method is about Social Networking. Didn’t Facebook begin as a way for college students to connect with each other online? Yet since then, everyone has hopped aboard such sites as MySpace and Facebook.

Previous to this method, I already had MySpace and Facebook accounts at home. When I first searched, I didn’t see my library on either site but noticed our web home page was being revised. Trying the Beta site, I found it DID have a Facebook page with photos, videos, and events. How odd I couldn't find it searching within Facebook.

Looking around, I saw many other campus employees with accounts. It made the article about separating accounts for your professional and personal life quite relevant. An interesting point was made about some needing a different place to relax with friends and not worry about censoring everything they said or posted. Each individual's decision of how work and home overlap or do not overlap will depend on their life style.

Technology is speeding so fast some Method 8 links were already broken or incomplete. One discussion about what if the person who sets up the MySpace /Facebook/Twitter page leaves their library had indeed occurred. In addition, the article “Do Social Networks Bring the End of Privacy?” only brought up the introduction and to continue reading you either had to subscribe to Scientific American or pay for the issue. That was too bad, as it seemed like an interesting piece.

“Your Guide to Online Privacy” showed how technology is leaping years ahead of any privacy legislation. Until social networking sites have safeguards in place, it behooves us to clear our cookie cache on our computers and be wary of giving out too much information. Of course, this also means we’ll need a whole notebook listing all our log-ons and passwords!

How I feel about online socializing is an open and evolving question. When I first joined MySpace at home, I enjoyed creating a page with my own photos and designs, uploading video for family and friends, creating my first blog posts, and being able to connect with lost friends and family. Personal identify is so fluid on MySpace that many have created pages as historical people (a quick check showed there are currently 183 John F. Kennedys!).

Earlier this year, some family members urged me to try Facebook, which I did. Now, I hardly ever log into MySpace and, apparently, neither do other friends. There is a pull to check Facebook’s Newsfeed each evening, bringing you everything at once--from inane comments to philosophical thoughts, from trivial games to gorgeous photos. It runs the gamut and depends entirely upon the friends you accept. Based on that criterion, I’ve found out how to “turn-off” some people’s comments or silly quiz results.

Online socializing is both appealing—instantly sharing thoughts, photos, videos, and links all at once—and appalling—there are a few degrading and disgusting quizzes, videos, and games.

One thought has occurred to me, as I admit to sometimes spending too much time on my home computer: in the time it takes to read and update my social status, couldn’t I have read a couple of chapters in a real book? At what point do I "switch off" and relax? These days, it does feel like there is an obligation to be connected all the time. Why? Because, technically, we can? That might not be very healthy.

In trying to connect with our patrons, is our library putting more time constraints on our overscheduled and over-tech'ed students? In the long run, will the new web page linking to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, RSS, Delicious, and Flickr become a time burden, distracting their study time? Or will their always-been-connected way of life continue and be natural for this generation and all who follow?

Method 5, Extra Credit

Whenever I write and add photos to my art blog at home, Blogger tracks the amount uploaded and has a posted limit. I have noticed some artists using Flickr to upload photos instead of Blogger’s Picasa and wondered how to do that. Also, what happens when you reach Blogger’s photo limit? Do you stop uploading photos all together? Or create a new blog when you run out of space? Or must you limit the number of pictures or upload directly to Flickr? Or switch to a blog provider that allows unlimited space?

Exploring Picasa for extra credit on Method 5, I created an account for my art blog and was dumbfounded--seeing duplicates, even triplicates, of photos previously uploaded. Remembering many frustrating weekends when Blogger would lose both my post and photos, I would begin the process all over again. Is that why Picasa had extra copies? Because Blogger lost them but Picasa didn’t? Why couldn’t one of them have alerted me about those duplicates? Or tell me I could retrieve them through Picasa? No wonder I seemed to be running up my photo size limit in Blogger. Not only that, but when I changed my mind and deleted some photos from my blog, there they were--still in Picasa.

Guess this means that once you upload something, it is really out there—cloud computing!—and will continue to be out there until you personally delete it. Since Picasa saved them each time, I conclude only Blogger lost them. This is a big lesson.

The coolest thing about Method 5 exercise was posting to my library blog from Flickr! I had never tried that before. All you need to do is just set up the link in Flickr, compose and edit your post in Word, go to any of your individual photos in Flickr, click on “blog” above the photo, copy and paste from Word in the Flickr space it delivers up, and—zip!—the blog post appears! The only downside was not being able to add blog tags or do further editing.

Personally, I am not impressed with my first view of Picasa. But, I learned some very interesting things, including how to save time on the weekends.

Methods 1 and 2

“A Dozen Ways to Two-Step, Essential Web 2.0 Training for Texas Librarians” is a work program I am participating in. This blog is one of the results. Of all the introductory material, my favorite was the YouTube The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version) by Michael Wesch, showing vividly how the information world is undergoing a radical shift.

What does this mean for my library? It means our primary users, college students, view technology in ways we never did. Instead of just books and magazines and visual aids of the past, the library is a wired, humming archive of activity. Online, students can read articles, search the catalog, instant message a question to a librarian, borrow books from other libraries--all from the comfort of their laptop!

It also means circulation of old-fashioned books is down, purchase of traditional books is down, and things will not be the same. Indeed, the livelihood of library staff could be threatened. This was clear in our meeting last week when our supervisor showed us graphs marking this downward swing. As a bookkeeper who pays for all library materials, I have seen annual increases in online products and services but had not marked the slump in book purchases.

There were two article and two videos in the introductory material. Not surprisingly, I related more to the visual presentations. This is a departure since most of my life I was an avid reader and writer. But becoming an artist several years ago has changed the way I see.

Just as I have changed, so too are libraries. Physically, they are responding to the need for more computers, for wireless connections, for food and drink purchases, for study groups rooms, for more comfortable seating, for the most up-to-date software and services. When I began working at my library, 16 years ago, a few librarians were openly hostile to evolving new technology. As new devices and web tools leap ahead so fast, it may be hard for older workers to understand much less catch up with. But, as these articles and videos prove, we need to embrace the change. Otherwise, we might get left behind.