Friday, May 28, 2010

End of the Journey

Overall this has been an interesting exercise. I was familiar with quite a few of the tasks, had fun playing with the ones I didn't know and am kind of glad it's over.

I'm already using the things that I like and will probably cancel the rest of the accounts I set up, but it was still nice to learn about new technology and social networking so when someone mentions del.ici.us or podcasting I'll know what they're talking about.

SuffolkWave

I love, love, love Suffolkwave. I think it's very easy to use and I download books all year long then transfer them to my IPod when I walk. Suffolkwave gives me another way to listen to books so I can then read three of them at once - an actual book at home, a BOCD in my car and a downloaded book on my MP3 player while I walk.

Suffolkwave really comes in handy when I have to read books for a meeting like Battle of the Books. If the books are available to download, I can get through them a lot faster and it takes me half the time.

It's also nice to use when traveling. When I go home at Christmas, I can load a few books on my MP3 player to use while I walk there and if I finish them, I can always use the computer to download more.

Suffolkwave also gives you the option of adding titles to a wish list. If I'm not ready to download something or I need to read a series in order, I can add the titles to my wish list so I remember them for later.

Suffolkwave isn't all puppies and rainbows, though, it does have its downside as well. The two major complaints I have are selection and availability. There aren't always a lot of titles to choose from. Often, I'm looking for popular YA titles to download or a series that everyone is talking about, but it's not available on Suffolkwave. My other complaint is that often there is only 1 copy available of a title and if someone has it checked out, you have to wait for it. It seems strange since it's not a physical book, but I guess it has to go with licenses, etc.

Overall, though, I think Suffolkwave is a great program.

Podcasts

I went to a Podcast meeting at SCLS about a year ago where Andrew Bollerman of Sachem showed everyone how to create their own podcasts. It was kind of cool and a neat idea. He said he did them with his teens and they posted them on the Library's website (at the time, I believe he was working at Hampton Bays).

As far as listening to podcasts goes, I'm not really interested. I find it boring to sit here at the computer and listen to someone talk. I did try looking at a few different types just to check it out though.

I looked at a cooking webcast where a woman from Good House Keeping showed you how to make different things. It was ok and I might go back to look at specific recipes, etc., but I didn't feel the need to subscribe to it in order to watch it every week. Before I found this one, there were also some creepy ones with weird people cooking.

Then I tried an audio cast of a walking tour of a London neighborhood to see how the travel podcast was. The idea of this one is to download it to your ipod, etc. then use it when you're in London or whatever other city they're covering. This is an interesting idea and probably would be useful because it's an insider's view of the city one is traveling to. Often, people only visit the main tourist areas and miss the lovely, local ambiance. Again, I'm not going to subscribe because just listening to it at my computer made me start to yawn. However, I might think about it if I'm traveling.

Lastly, I went to the Lindenhurt Library's site because I know their Director is big on podcasting. They have a section on the website where children's books have been read, author interviews have been done and where they're using podcasting as a way to document local historical narratives. They also have a section set up for music where you can listen to the school's jazz band, etc. All of these things are a nice idea, but again, thinking about sitting at my computer listening to these things for 15 minutes, half an hour, etc. puts me to sleep.

We're going to try a TAG here at the Library in September and I mentioned to Ms. Peter's who will be running it that maybe as part of the TAG the teens can do book talks or book commercials for their favorite titles or recent books they have read and we can put them on the teen page of the Library's website. I'm not sure if anyone will listen to them, but it will definitely give the kids something creative to do.

Monday, May 10, 2010

YouTube

I've used YouTube here and there to look things up, like when Jennifer Lopez fell at the Grammys. I totally had to see that again. LOL. I also watch movie trailers here and there - checked out the Eclipse trailer today just to see what it looked like (and can I just say that Kristen Stewart's hair extensions look horrible). I also used YouTube once to watch an instructional video on how to tie a tie.

This time around I used it to check out some of the Glee music videos because quite a few of my friends love the show and can't get enough of it. I thought, "Well, let me check out a few videos to see if it's something I might want to watch." It actually looked interesting and the singing is pretty good so I headed over to the catalog to reserve season 1.

I don't think I'll be downloading the soundtracks any time soon, but it was good to see that not only did I have to reserve season one since it was checked out, but that all of the Glee soundtracks that we own are also checked out. Apparently the Library is up on the current pop culture which is always a good thing.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Library Thing 19

Since I update the Myspace and Twitter feeds I guess I shouldn't really talk about them. Although I will say that I'm not having much luck getting people to follow the Library on Twitter.

As for facebook, I love facebook. I'll admit it, I'm addicted to facebook. I don't really use it as the social networking tool that it's meant to be though. I'm mostly on there to play games. I do enjoy looking at other people's pictures and catching up with people I haven't seen in a while, but I don't really post anything of my own.

To help the Library, though, we could post pictures from programs on Facebook and Flickr to show people how much fun everyone has at the Library. Between the music and cooking programs it's a rip-roaring time! We could also use FB to post when new books from popular authors come in or to announce when new DVDs are released to the public since that's all anyone seems to want anyway. LOL

Friday, April 30, 2010

Web 2.0 Directory

First I went to the entire directory and browsed a little bit. I'm thinking about trying my hand at cooking, ok, stop laughing, so after looking at a couple of sites, I signed up with one called Foodari (kind of like my favotire site shelfari but only for recipes). You don't need to register if you only want to browse recipes, but if you want to store your own recipes and find friends that can share recipes then you need a profile. I decided to register just to check it out. What I didn't realize is that although you can view videos on how to make different things and get tons of recipes, the site is UK based so everything is in grams and a lot of the items used in the recipes are not normal to the things you'd find in US recipes.

Then I looked at the Top 20 list and was surprised as to how many of the applications I've actually used at one time or another especially now that I have an iphone. I have the Urbanspoon, Yelp, Twitter, Pandoa, Flickr, Zillow and Facebook apps on my phone.

Friends have sent me links to Bebo and LinkedIn so although I looked at them and have accounts, I don't really use them.

I tried using Flock as a browser at home for a while, but didn't take advantage of all of its uses and wasn't completely enjoying it so I went back to Internet Explorer.

I have a Pageflakes account and use that on occasion, but not very often. It's kind of like having your own Google page where you can customize what links are on it - flickr, games, calendars, facebook, etc. so everything is within the same interface without having to go to separate pages to use them. I learned about Pageflakes at the last LI Library Conference I went to I gave it a try. It's too bad I'm set in my own ways and that it takes forever to load.

I've shopped on Etsy before and really like it. They have such cool and unusual stuff which is right up my alley. Sometimes things can be a little expensive, but it's cute so who cares! :)

I also have apps on my phone for Foursquare and MyTown where you check into the places you visit to earn points and badges. You can post where you've been to Twitter and Facebook and can also add your friends from there as well. I'm still getting used to them so half the time I go someplace I forget to check in until I'm already on my way home.

There are so many cool apps out there that I'll probably keep looking. I hope you guys find one that you like as well.

Google Docs

I've actually used Google Docs as part of a committee that I joined last year. There was a list of books, about 15 or so, that the 6 members needed to read. Instead of trying to get everyone together for a meeting, Barbara Moon loaded all of the books onto a spread sheet, made a column for each member and sent the link to everyone on the committee. We were able to read the books in any order we wanted and as soon as we were done with a book, we logged on to the Google Docs site and added our commentary. It was very easy and we were able to see each other's comments immediately.

Another plus was that the members could see if a particular book wasn't getting read. Since everything needed to be covered, a user who wasn't sure which book to read next could look at the list, see which titles hadn't been read yet then choose one of those titles in order to benefit the group.

This program is very easy to use and it definitely solves the problem of having to worry about remembering to save something you're working on at work onto a flash drive, etc. so you can bring it home and work on it there as well.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Wiki Editing

The wiki editing was quite easy but also quite boring. I didn't like how you could see the different people who have edited a particular page but not exactly which items they added. I want to know who else thinks Criminal Minds is a great show that way we can discuss it or who else likes to eat at The Library Cafe because then maybe we can plan to meet there for dinner one night.

I guess since it's really only supposed to be informational it fits its purpose, but I wish it was a bit more dynamic.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Wikis

Ah, Wikis, who doesn't love doing a Google search and getting all of their information from Wikipedia?

I think Wikis are both good and bad. When used for groups such as friends planning a trip like we saw in the YouTube video or for Libraries, wikis are a great thing. When used for research, etc. I'm not so sure if I like them. I'm worried that the fact that anyone can edit a wiki might mean there's a lot of misinformation out there.

Another problem with wikis (and blogs, etc.) is keeping them updated in a timely fashion. I took a look through some of the wiki links and noticed that one said their book club ended in 2006 and they didn't do one in 2007. Um, we're now in 2010 so I'm not sure how current that wiki is.

In general I don't think they're a bad idea, but to me, it's just another thing you have to keep up with. If you're not willing to spend all of your free time maintaining it, why do it in the first place?

Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

A lot of the articles make sense on what Libraries should be doing. I love that WorldCat is open to all and free to search so someone looking for a book that may be more academic in nature can see that it's available at Stony Brook or Hofstra and although they might not be able to check it out since they're not a student, they can travel to the Library to browse through it and make copies if necessary.

I also recognized some of the new aspects in out updated catalog from talking points in the article "To a Temporary Place in Time." The author says that catalogs should be fluid and use 2.0 aspects to appeal to all users with such things as tag clouds, digital downloads and recommendations. These are all things that SCLS has done by subscribing to Suffolkwave and adding tagging and reviews to the current catalog. Although I don't think everything is perfect, I do think we're definitely taking a step in the right direction.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

It's yummy, no it's Del.icio.us!

So I finally got around to setting up my Del.icio.us account after spending a few days trying to remember what my yahoo email address was.

As an aside, who else is annoyed when they have to create an entirely new address just to sign up for one of these things? I can barely remember the user name and password for the e-mail I check everyday; now I have to create a new one on a different provider to sign up for new social networking sites which need yet another user name and password! Ugh!

Ok, back to Del.icio.us...it too me a little bit to get used to it and I was having a hard time figuring out how to tag something with a two-word tag like readers' advisory without it separating the tag into two different words. To let everyone know, you can't use spaces. You either have to smoosh the words together, readersadvisory, or add a hypen between the two words, readers-advisory, or abbreviate it, RA, to get the full effect. And whatever you do, don't use commas - I'm totally good at that! I'm queen of the run-on sentence! Really though, if you use a comma it will show up attached to the word before it so you'll have readers, or advisory, and that's just silly.

It's going to take me some time to get used to Del.icio.us and really feel it out, but I'm guessing it's going to be a good tool to save sites without having to write everything down or clog your favorites buttons in Internet Explorer.

Now I just need to figure out how to make categories so I can separate my whites from my darks...

Monday, January 11, 2010

Grandma: Long Distance Calls - Cell Phones vs. Land Lines


Every Christmas my step-mom bakes and sends the goodies to my family here in NY. When my grandma got the goodie box she wanted to call to say thank you. However, when she tried to call, she couldn't get the call to go through.


When I got home from work that night the first thing she asked me was whether she needed to use an area code when she called Vegas. In my head I was thinking, "Well, since you need to use an area code to call your daughter in Massapequa then yes, you definitely need to use an area code to call your son 20 states away." What I asked instead was which phone she used, the cell or the house phone thinking maybe she used the cell phone and thought the long distance was automatic. When she told me she was using the house phone I told her yes she needed an area code but since we don't have long distance the call wouldn't go through anyway. She asked how she was supposed to call then. Now the thing is, we haven't had long distance in at least 10 years & she's been using 10-10-220 since before I moved here so I'm not sure why she didn't remember that, but ok...


I reminded her about the 10-10-220 thing then said, "You know, you can just use the cell phone Aunt A gave you since long distance is free and it's nighttime so you won't waste your minutes. She said, "Oh, I haven't used that in weeks. I got rid of the cell phone." What? "What do you mean you got rid of the cell phone?" She said, "When Aunt A got me the new phones they replaced the cell phone." Now, if you've read my previous post about the cordless phones, you would know this doesn't make sense. "Grandma, the two phones aren't the same. The house phones are just cordless. They are so you can walk around the house with them and not be trapped by a cord. The cell phone is the one you take with you when you go out so you can call people from the store or mall in case there's a problem, etc." This conversation when on for a few minutes before she finally got that the two phones were completely different.


The cell phone is now charged again and she's been taking it with her when she walks to the supermarket or goes to bingo and she starting using 10-10-220 again for long distance calls, but it was touch and go for a little while there.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Shelfari

I know we were supposed to create a Library Thing account, but since I've been doing Shelfari, an equivalent to Library Thing, for about two years or so now I asked if it was ok to substitute. I have enough accounts, etc. without having to worry about updating one more thing.

I absolutely love Shelfari. I actually put my Shelfari widget on my blog. It allows me to add books that I've read, let people know what I'm currently reading, review and rate the books I've read and keep books in a "want to read" list so I don't have to have a bunch of pieces of scrap paper lying around with a million lists of books.

Since Shelfari is just for reading and there's not really any personal information posted with the exception of the "About Me" blurb, I'm much more liberal with accepting people as friends. If you read and we have similar tastes, I'll let you be my friend. Heck, even if we don't have similar tastes I'll let you be my friend. :)

I highly recommend Shelfari to everyone!

Facebook

Ok, I'm totally addicted to Facebook. When the Myspace craze happened I was the last to jump on board - too much code and crap to go through in order to update your page. Did anyone else think it was hard to find the beginning and end of the code for something you wanted to delete? When I heard about Facebook I thought, "Oh, great, another social networking site..." However, since there wasn't any coding, etc. I totally got into it. I'm now addicted to Farmville where I plant and harvest crops; Cafe World where I make and serve food; Mafia Wars where I do jobs and earn loot; as well as a few other games I play on and off.

I like reading other people's status updates although I don't update my status as much as I used to. Sometimes those status updates worry me though because some of my friends put up exactly where they are and for how long, etc. What if someone is stalking them? Facebook would definitely make that a lot easier. LOL

I also like looking at everyone's pictures although I don't really post any of my own. I mostly just like to play games without putting too much personal information out there.

I have almost 200 friends and it's been nice seeing what people from high school are doing or wondering why someone from high school friended me considering they didn't give me the time of day while we were in high school.

Facebook is like being a voyeur without the skeeviness. You can check in on people without totally getting involved. Plus, there's no peeping in windows.

Twitter

I've had a personal Twitter account for a while. I read about it it Library Journal or School Library Journal, well in one of the catalogs that circulate around the Library. At first I updated once a day then I kind of let it go by the wayside. Periodically I try to update more often, but it never seems to stick.

I also maintain a Twitter for the Library, but we don't have a lot of followers and the people that do ask to follow are usually spammers with lovely porn sites. I'm all for free speech but really, the line has to be drawn somewhere. While I was on vacation the Library Twitter didn't get updated, but I'm going to start updating again today.

I have friends that Twitter all of the time. They leave Twitter on all day and open in periodically to add a new Tweet. I just can't seem to get that dedicated mostly because I can't imagine anyone really caring what I'm doing right now.