Supposedly I can add pictures as well ... Let's try it!
That's Bailey's surprised face because she was sleeping and I woke her up to take a picture :)
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Blogger Mobile App
Just downloaded the mobile app on my iPhone, and trying it out :) seems like a great idea for those blogging on the run!
Supposedly I can add pictures as well ... Let's try it!
That's Bailey's surprised face because she was sleeping and I woke her up to take a picture :)
Supposedly I can add pictures as well ... Let's try it!
That's Bailey's surprised face because she was sleeping and I woke her up to take a picture :)
Friday, April 20, 2012
Counting. Down. The. Days.
No, no, not till my wedding. School is almost out classmates, and while it has been a (mostly) wonderful and fantastic journey ... I am tired. I want to read a book because I want to read a book. I don't want to look at a journal article for at least one month, and I am determined to lose a few brain cells in catching up on my DVR at the end of next week. I feel like there is so much fresh information in my mind, every time I try to talk about a topic, all sorts of things are getting jumbled in as well. My poor professors trying to make sense out of my papers. Lucky for me, I have four classes this semester that all tie in together nicely, so hopefully I don't sound like a raving lunatic too badly.
Gaming in libraries. I will admit, before starting this career path, I could have cared less about video games. My fiance is that crazy guy thats addicted to COD (if you don't know what that is, you don't have a guy in your house that plays video games and I don't feel like it matters what it's called) and stays up playing online with people from all over the world. They talk crazy smack to each other, make fun of each other's friends, mothers and other players, and they all love it.
I sat down a few weeks ago after reading "Everything Bad is Good For You" and explained to my fiance why his video game addiction was good for him. All of a sudden, this librarian thing I had been explaining to him for the last two years seemed like a much cooler profession. He still teases me good-naturedly, but he is thrilled I understand the addiction behind the game, even the "educational" values that he couldn't quite vocalize but sternly believed he was getting. I have even joined in some of the games! I am a much better shot in real life, and thank goodness because if I shot a gun like I do in video games, people would be in trouble!
I think many times ignorance comes from not understanding, or not taking the time to research something (even on a basic level) and not allowing video games in the library is the easy thing to do. It's easy to say no. It's not easy to get the equipment donated, get approval from the board, and convince parents and fuddy-duddy patrons that its okay to let teenagers play video games in the library.
I started to watch the video on Second Life, and this must come from a lack of understanding on my part because I don't get it. Maybe that's because I don't have time to be involved in something like that right now, but I couldn't wrap my head around all the work involved in setting up that sort of system. I know it is an outlet for some people, and we all like different things, I'm just saying that isn't for me. There is a kind of redundancy to it that I can't grasp. I could get used to having my office outside under the tree. Yessirree.
Gaming in libraries. I will admit, before starting this career path, I could have cared less about video games. My fiance is that crazy guy thats addicted to COD (if you don't know what that is, you don't have a guy in your house that plays video games and I don't feel like it matters what it's called) and stays up playing online with people from all over the world. They talk crazy smack to each other, make fun of each other's friends, mothers and other players, and they all love it.
I sat down a few weeks ago after reading "Everything Bad is Good For You" and explained to my fiance why his video game addiction was good for him. All of a sudden, this librarian thing I had been explaining to him for the last two years seemed like a much cooler profession. He still teases me good-naturedly, but he is thrilled I understand the addiction behind the game, even the "educational" values that he couldn't quite vocalize but sternly believed he was getting. I have even joined in some of the games! I am a much better shot in real life, and thank goodness because if I shot a gun like I do in video games, people would be in trouble!
I think many times ignorance comes from not understanding, or not taking the time to research something (even on a basic level) and not allowing video games in the library is the easy thing to do. It's easy to say no. It's not easy to get the equipment donated, get approval from the board, and convince parents and fuddy-duddy patrons that its okay to let teenagers play video games in the library.
I started to watch the video on Second Life, and this must come from a lack of understanding on my part because I don't get it. Maybe that's because I don't have time to be involved in something like that right now, but I couldn't wrap my head around all the work involved in setting up that sort of system. I know it is an outlet for some people, and we all like different things, I'm just saying that isn't for me. There is a kind of redundancy to it that I can't grasp. I could get used to having my office outside under the tree. Yessirree.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Two Weeks ... and Starting to Lose It
Only a couple weeks left of the semester my fellow classmates ... and I will not lie. I am starting to lose it. I have given up all hopes of doing anything for the wedding until April 29th, when I'm done classes. I have 7 projects due in the next two weeks, and it isn't something I could have started earlier, I've been working on them all semester! Ah well, I know I'm not the only one. I just cannot. wait. for. it. to. be. over.
I will be honest - typing this up while at work, because not sure when else I would ever get to it. I started looking at this week's topics, but I cannot watch the video here, so I am exploring the Law Library blog instead. Oh, the goodies I have found there!
If you haven't checked it out yet, my favorite section is under "categories", on the left (the author has started tagging and is considering getting rid of the categories section, but it is still there for now), choose Library Crime. It is fascinating! Apparently someone is looking for videos of "those caught in the library", but it doesn't specify as to what they should have been caught doing. Yummy. Another post tells about a new high school librarian that sold his old unused National Geographic magazines to raise money to buy new computers (plus he put in his OWN money to buy the school computers), and was thereby fired for theft otherwise he would have been charged and lost his job anyway. Soon after this gem, we can read about the child molester that BLAMES THE LIBRARY for ALLOWING him to molest children. They should have prevented him from doing so! Because they did not stop him while he was casing the library, "an innocent boy was victimized as well as the State of Indiana, St. Joseph County, and myself Ladell Alexander," he claimed. Are you serious right now?
Anyway, this blog is definitely worth taking the time to go through because there are some very interesting tidbits along the way! I have a feeling we should be posting about the set up, the tagging, the use of the blog, but I am caught up in the content and having a ball. Forgive me.
As for the article presented to us on privacy in regards to social media, it is an eye-opening avenue of information for me. While I am obviously aware of ALA's stance on privacy for patrons, I have been so focused in most of my classes on using social media for marketing value and to move with the times I honestly haven't taken much consideration about the privacy and profitability aspect for these large corporations, and how it affects the patrons best interest.
Now, I think it is up to the library to establish guidelines when it comes to these prospective 2.0 tools, so how would you let your patrons know that what they contribute to your facebook site or twitter page is not considered "protected", or if, somehow, they are, then what? How do you even accomplish that? Do you assume because your patrons have a Facebook account this means they understand the privacy settings and how they work? Do we educate them if we are using these tools ourselves as librarians? This seems like a pretty sticky area that not many are looking at (at least, not as many as the advocates of use of social media in the library). Thoughts?
I will be honest - typing this up while at work, because not sure when else I would ever get to it. I started looking at this week's topics, but I cannot watch the video here, so I am exploring the Law Library blog instead. Oh, the goodies I have found there!
If you haven't checked it out yet, my favorite section is under "categories", on the left (the author has started tagging and is considering getting rid of the categories section, but it is still there for now), choose Library Crime. It is fascinating! Apparently someone is looking for videos of "those caught in the library", but it doesn't specify as to what they should have been caught doing. Yummy. Another post tells about a new high school librarian that sold his old unused National Geographic magazines to raise money to buy new computers (plus he put in his OWN money to buy the school computers), and was thereby fired for theft otherwise he would have been charged and lost his job anyway. Soon after this gem, we can read about the child molester that BLAMES THE LIBRARY for ALLOWING him to molest children. They should have prevented him from doing so! Because they did not stop him while he was casing the library, "an innocent boy was victimized as well as the State of Indiana, St. Joseph County, and myself Ladell Alexander," he claimed. Are you serious right now?
Anyway, this blog is definitely worth taking the time to go through because there are some very interesting tidbits along the way! I have a feeling we should be posting about the set up, the tagging, the use of the blog, but I am caught up in the content and having a ball. Forgive me.
As for the article presented to us on privacy in regards to social media, it is an eye-opening avenue of information for me. While I am obviously aware of ALA's stance on privacy for patrons, I have been so focused in most of my classes on using social media for marketing value and to move with the times I honestly haven't taken much consideration about the privacy and profitability aspect for these large corporations, and how it affects the patrons best interest.
Now, I think it is up to the library to establish guidelines when it comes to these prospective 2.0 tools, so how would you let your patrons know that what they contribute to your facebook site or twitter page is not considered "protected", or if, somehow, they are, then what? How do you even accomplish that? Do you assume because your patrons have a Facebook account this means they understand the privacy settings and how they work? Do we educate them if we are using these tools ourselves as librarians? This seems like a pretty sticky area that not many are looking at (at least, not as many as the advocates of use of social media in the library). Thoughts?
Friday, April 6, 2012
Yay for YouTube
Let me first start by saying ... 3 more weeks and SCHOOL IS OUT ... forever :o) While I have enjoyed my journey throughout the MLIS degree program ... I will not be too sad to see it go. I think with everything going on this past year, I have just had it. And with my current schedule I am ready to lose it :o) Three more weeks, three more weeks... I'm beat!
So, on to our topics. YouTube. Yay! I like YouTube. I also use it relatively frequently, always on my phone, never on my computer. (I don't sit at my computer often, except at work or to do schoolwork). I use it to catch clips of shows or events I missed (such as an award show performance everyone is talking about), news clips (the stage collapsing on those at the Sugarland concert) or for odd things I hear in the news, like Alicia Silverstone bird-feeding her baby chewed food. Ugh. I also like to look at music videos, or montage clips and jokes people post. It is great for just browsing through, and I love that it is just videos. Some of the short shows people tape themselves are pretty funny as well!
Flickr ... I feel like this is useless if you have a Facebook, or Instagram, or anything like that. How do people keep up on multiple sites that do the same thing? Am I missing something? I also looked at delicious.com, and definitely prefer how Pinterest is set up instead. I tried to do my book review on Delicious.com and got so frustrated I said the hell with it and went to Pinterest. Again, multiple sites that do the same thing - look at goodreads and shelfari. It's all in a person's personal preference for the aesthetics of the site, but what I don't get is how people use ALL of them at the same time!
Can someone enlighten me on that? :o)
So, on to our topics. YouTube. Yay! I like YouTube. I also use it relatively frequently, always on my phone, never on my computer. (I don't sit at my computer often, except at work or to do schoolwork). I use it to catch clips of shows or events I missed (such as an award show performance everyone is talking about), news clips (the stage collapsing on those at the Sugarland concert) or for odd things I hear in the news, like Alicia Silverstone bird-feeding her baby chewed food. Ugh. I also like to look at music videos, or montage clips and jokes people post. It is great for just browsing through, and I love that it is just videos. Some of the short shows people tape themselves are pretty funny as well!
Flickr ... I feel like this is useless if you have a Facebook, or Instagram, or anything like that. How do people keep up on multiple sites that do the same thing? Am I missing something? I also looked at delicious.com, and definitely prefer how Pinterest is set up instead. I tried to do my book review on Delicious.com and got so frustrated I said the hell with it and went to Pinterest. Again, multiple sites that do the same thing - look at goodreads and shelfari. It's all in a person's personal preference for the aesthetics of the site, but what I don't get is how people use ALL of them at the same time!
Can someone enlighten me on that? :o)
Friday, March 30, 2012
Saying "I Do" to Facebook
Before I even begin ... can I just COMPS ARE TOMORROW?!?! Why do I feel like no one made a big deal out of them coming up, and yet our graduation status relies on them? And why am I not too worried? I know it's something we cannot really study for, but I feel like I should be more nervous or something. I'm more worried about getting all my work and projects done on time. Sigh. We shall see what happens tomorrow. Meanwhile, these caramel Cadbury eggs seem to be helping.
So, I went through all the articles we were supposed to read this week, today. I have actually done quite a bit with social media in libraries (mostly public) throughout my two years in the program, so I felt comfortable with most of the stuff on Facebook. The Terrible Two's article was enlightening because while I'm a Facebook aficionado, I had no idea what those terms meant (besides anyone's vague understanding of Web/Library 2.0), though I did recognize them from other discussions and classes. But gosh darn it, I could not remember what any of them meant. AJAX and API's threw me for a loop, but there examples were helpful, and while I understand what a Long Tail is, I don't know if I can articulate it clearly for someone else.
The article on Facebook in Health Libraries was the same information I had read about before (what it is being used for, etc.), but I was surprised that they found 54% of librarians said that FB was not a useful academic tool. That was new, and I tend to disagree. Just getting the word out and being involved in campus life through FB is a useful marketing tool!
The two most surprising things I saw (from the Facebook Friends article/study)
1. That people with more friends on FB have a greater trust for people in general. REALLY? That makes me think people aren't too bright. I have a lot of friends on FB, but that doesn't make me more trusting. Is it our nature? Or does it make them feel closer to those people because they see the ins and outs of their every day lives even if they haven't talked in 20 years? I almost trust people LESS because I see the ridiculousness of some of their every day lives on FB and wouldn't want to have to run into them in real life. Ugh. (Granted, I have defriended a lot of those, and if I don't know you personally (lovely people in this class excluded!), I don't accept friend requests from you. If I didn't talk to you 15 years ago in high school, I don't really care what you are doing now.
Phew. Sorry about that little rant. Sometimes it just comes out :o)
2. The average person on FB has 229 friends. Which, turns out, is pretty accurate in my case. I have a few more now that we have this class, but it seems that's a pretty close figure to where I was. Which makes me think - are there 229 people out there that I want looking at my pictures and my information? Is it people I love to death and I don't get to see all the time? I think it's time to go through my list and evaluate ... I'm curious who is on there!
Which brings us to the topic of privacy ...I think I would rather censor who I am friends with on FB than worry about all the different privacy settings. That also makes me censor what I put ON facebook to begin with. If I'm friends with my boss on Facebook, then no, there will be no drunken pictures posted (I'm not a big drinker, so I don't have any of those, but if I did ... well, you know). I also cannot be bothered with blocking friends from seeing a certain update, or only allowing a select list to see something I posted. If I had to block someone from seeing something then it probably means it would hurt them in some way, or make them angry, or ruin a surprise. So why would I even put it up there to begin with?
Your thoughts? Am I too cynical? I feel like people judge more on FB than they do on Twitter. I'm not sure why, but that 140 characters makes me feel more free than unlimited space and pictures on FB...
So, I went through all the articles we were supposed to read this week, today. I have actually done quite a bit with social media in libraries (mostly public) throughout my two years in the program, so I felt comfortable with most of the stuff on Facebook. The Terrible Two's article was enlightening because while I'm a Facebook aficionado, I had no idea what those terms meant (besides anyone's vague understanding of Web/Library 2.0), though I did recognize them from other discussions and classes. But gosh darn it, I could not remember what any of them meant. AJAX and API's threw me for a loop, but there examples were helpful, and while I understand what a Long Tail is, I don't know if I can articulate it clearly for someone else.
The article on Facebook in Health Libraries was the same information I had read about before (what it is being used for, etc.), but I was surprised that they found 54% of librarians said that FB was not a useful academic tool. That was new, and I tend to disagree. Just getting the word out and being involved in campus life through FB is a useful marketing tool!
The two most surprising things I saw (from the Facebook Friends article/study)
1. That people with more friends on FB have a greater trust for people in general. REALLY? That makes me think people aren't too bright. I have a lot of friends on FB, but that doesn't make me more trusting. Is it our nature? Or does it make them feel closer to those people because they see the ins and outs of their every day lives even if they haven't talked in 20 years? I almost trust people LESS because I see the ridiculousness of some of their every day lives on FB and wouldn't want to have to run into them in real life. Ugh. (Granted, I have defriended a lot of those, and if I don't know you personally (lovely people in this class excluded!), I don't accept friend requests from you. If I didn't talk to you 15 years ago in high school, I don't really care what you are doing now.
Phew. Sorry about that little rant. Sometimes it just comes out :o)
2. The average person on FB has 229 friends. Which, turns out, is pretty accurate in my case. I have a few more now that we have this class, but it seems that's a pretty close figure to where I was. Which makes me think - are there 229 people out there that I want looking at my pictures and my information? Is it people I love to death and I don't get to see all the time? I think it's time to go through my list and evaluate ... I'm curious who is on there!
Which brings us to the topic of privacy ...I think I would rather censor who I am friends with on FB than worry about all the different privacy settings. That also makes me censor what I put ON facebook to begin with. If I'm friends with my boss on Facebook, then no, there will be no drunken pictures posted (I'm not a big drinker, so I don't have any of those, but if I did ... well, you know). I also cannot be bothered with blocking friends from seeing a certain update, or only allowing a select list to see something I posted. If I had to block someone from seeing something then it probably means it would hurt them in some way, or make them angry, or ruin a surprise. So why would I even put it up there to begin with?
Your thoughts? Am I too cynical? I feel like people judge more on FB than they do on Twitter. I'm not sure why, but that 140 characters makes me feel more free than unlimited space and pictures on FB...
Friday, March 23, 2012
Spring ... A Time of New Beginnings!
So ... good news first! I got hired on full-time in the North Kingstown Library :o) Exciting ... I'm filling Maggie's shoes since she is filling Lexi's shoes ... Hope I make her proud! :o)
Bad news next ... I hate cataloging! I had heart palpitations reading the topic titles for this weeks articles, but I persevered and made it through! I think my overall reaction is that it is time the catalogs start to up the ante and are made more user friendly. Like Maggie already blogged about, the OPAC in RI is terrible and not flexible in any way.
I think the goal of the online catalogs now are to be more like search engines, which will also only be helpful if the catalogers "tag" the entries correctly when first setting up the items. It is easy to see how the concept of social tagging can influence an online catalog, and if they are treated similarly, then searching will probably be much easier for the user. Unfortunately, not many people know how to search "properly", therefore no matter what they are using (an OPAC, search engine, or basic info form) they use them the same way. This can make it difficult to use traditional searches because it just won't work.
I'm feeling a bit of relief that my next assignment in all my classes isn't due until April 1st, and even that is a short critique I'm working on with a partner. After that, all hell breaks loose. I think it is in my best interest to start the other projects now ... but where to find the time? I somehow went from being unemployed and being a 25 hour week intern (across 3 libraries) with classes, wedding planning and half-marathon training to working 50 hours a week with 4 classes, wedding planning, and half-marathon training. If my blogs start to sound garbled, my tweets non-existent and my Facebook status' erratic, please forgive me! I will be back to normal by the end of June. :oP
Bad news next ... I hate cataloging! I had heart palpitations reading the topic titles for this weeks articles, but I persevered and made it through! I think my overall reaction is that it is time the catalogs start to up the ante and are made more user friendly. Like Maggie already blogged about, the OPAC in RI is terrible and not flexible in any way.
I think the goal of the online catalogs now are to be more like search engines, which will also only be helpful if the catalogers "tag" the entries correctly when first setting up the items. It is easy to see how the concept of social tagging can influence an online catalog, and if they are treated similarly, then searching will probably be much easier for the user. Unfortunately, not many people know how to search "properly", therefore no matter what they are using (an OPAC, search engine, or basic info form) they use them the same way. This can make it difficult to use traditional searches because it just won't work.
I'm feeling a bit of relief that my next assignment in all my classes isn't due until April 1st, and even that is a short critique I'm working on with a partner. After that, all hell breaks loose. I think it is in my best interest to start the other projects now ... but where to find the time? I somehow went from being unemployed and being a 25 hour week intern (across 3 libraries) with classes, wedding planning and half-marathon training to working 50 hours a week with 4 classes, wedding planning, and half-marathon training. If my blogs start to sound garbled, my tweets non-existent and my Facebook status' erratic, please forgive me! I will be back to normal by the end of June. :oP
Friday, March 16, 2012
Update - Completed Book Review
So, my book review is complete. I will admit I'm a little nervous, as creativity for this type of thing is way out of my norm, but I think it came out pretty decent. I might need to see if I can find a way to add actual tags instead of descriptions, but I think what I need is there for the completed book review. I broke it down into the important sections of the book and reviewed it that way with (hopefully) catchy images for each section of the review.
Jess has so kindly checked my previous link (in the blog post before this one) and it appears to be working fine, even if you don't have a Pinterest account. So exciting!
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's reviews. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, the weather is supposed to be AMAZING next week!
Jess has so kindly checked my previous link (in the blog post before this one) and it appears to be working fine, even if you don't have a Pinterest account. So exciting!
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's reviews. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, the weather is supposed to be AMAZING next week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)