Ning Thing (Thing 19)

I joined Ning group Library 2.0 almost as soon as I started 23 Things. I wanted to be as in-the-loop and connected as possible, staying ahead of the Thing curve as I learned more and more about web extensibility and its application to libraries.

Today, to flex my Web 2.0 skills, I logged into Ning to do a couple of things. First, I clicked onto a post link titled “CMS is required for better library services.” Although I felt the argument for CMS over LMS wasn’t presented in the post, it did give me a moment to think about CMS. I had planned to use some library free-time to play around with Drupal this summer and determine if it would be useful to Flagler College’s small special collections holdings. I’ve always said I wanted to get my information into MARC and drop it in our OPAC, but I wonder what Drupal will do?

Thinking of Drupal somehow made me think of another interest, FRBR. When I read about FRBR in print resources, it seems quite promising. I thought I’d do a Ning search and see what the real world was saying on the virtual world. My search results weren’t huge, but I did find lots of interesting links posted by commenters that looked like they’ll be fun to follow when I have the chance.

Interestingly, one Ning commenter called for pronouncing the Library 2.0 group dead. He posited that everyone had migrated to Facebook. Hmm. While the Ning board seemed relatively inactive when I logged on (did I see tumbleweeds just then?), I wonder if he’s right about Facebook? Library 2.0 in Ning felt so physically dispersed as to demand different perspectives. Facebook seems like cliques of people who already know each other, which I believe produces redundancy. Where will L2 take the L2-ers next? Reminds me of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast.

Facebook v. Myspace (Thing 18)

I already have both Facebook and Myspace accounts, but they are personal sites I use for communicating with friends, and I don’t feel comfortable sharing my links here.

Myspace is already a thing of the past for most social network users. The common belief is that Myspace pages are used to sell products and promote bands, and Myspace friend requests are almost always someone trying to get you to promote their band for free or catch your interest in adult services. As both a Facebook and Myspace user, I see far more adult entertainment spam on Myspace than I have yet on Facebook.

While some younger users feel that Facebook is going to be the next Myspace let-down now that anyone can join, it still gets heavy use. Since I see Flagler College students’ use of campus computers in the library, I can gauge how much time is spent on Facebook versus Microsoft Word.

I like Facebook better than Myspace because of the tools it brings together. I can watch my friends’ activities and updates as they scroll across my home page in real time, I can check and see who is online at that moment and chat with them in real time, and I can join groups that express my interests.

Groups that I join are often created by my friends regarding an upcoming event, where I get requests for social club meetings that are coming up. I also seek out and join political groups that reflect my concerns, especially during this past presidential election. It was probably pointless to say “Christine supports this presidential candidate,” but at least I felt like I was doing something.

Ultimately, Facebook has been the social meeting ground that Myspace tried clumsily to attempt. Myspace required blogs to broadcast information, and posting notes to friends was so cumbersome that it took days to have a simple online conversation. Facebook is probably on the verge of becoming obsolete as its newer better replacement rolls out, but, for now, it’s the place to be.

Listening in (Thing 17)

I listened to the Library of Congress podcast, “Voices from the Days of Slavery: Stories Songs and Memories.” Fountain Hughes was interviewed as part of the WPA collection in the 1930’s, recounting his days as a slave and his time after slavery was abolished. He described being a slave as worse than being treated like a dog, and he described his days after slavery as being lost like cattle turned out in a field.

The Library of Congress podcast was easy to find and easy to use. On the loc.gov home page, there was a link on the left that said “Podcasts.” I clicked on it to see what I could see, and Mr. Hughes’s summary interested me: “Fountain Hughes reflects on his childhood experiences before and after the end of slavery in Charlottesville, VA. Among other events, Mr. Hughes recollects slave auctions and the hardships endured by freed slaves after the end of the Civil War.”

I have been wanting to try my hand at podcasting, and had hoped to get one up for this Thing, but it didn’t happen (microphone/computer compatibility issues). Podcasting is a project I definitely look forward to experimenting with in the future.

A missing page and YouTube book video (Thing 16)

I already love YouTube because my friends post fun links to videos of themselves and share links to videos they’ve found interesting. I have found several helpful videos for my personal life, especially hula hoop tricks and how-to’s. While endlessly entertaining, YouTube serves up enough serious video to complete this Thing handily.

For this Thing, I decided to revisit a grad school independent study I loved—book repair. I typed “repair torn book pages” into the YouTube search, and I didn’t have to look any further than my first three results to see relevant information out there on the web. While I don’t think any video will replace the hands-on instruction, YouTube does provide a good introduction.

Enjoy how to tip in missing pages.

Rollyo over to St. Augustine (Thing 15)

Starting out in Rollyo, which I had actually never heard of, I found the “Quick Quotes” search roll appealing. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the results I wanted, which I guess was me begging the question to presuppose what I should see.

I tried “Elba” in the quest to find “Able was I ere I saw Elba.” No such luck. I found actual informational sites on Elba, which, I gotta say pleasantly surprised me. OK, “able Elba,” still no luck. Time to move on.

For my on Rollyo search roll, I went with a St. Augustine, Florida history theme. I named my search, “St Augustine Sites.”

I like my St. Augustine search because I think it’s practical to the educational mission of our academic library at Flagler. My search also ties in with my roll as college archivist and keeps me easily informed about my local peers.

Customize it (Thing 14)

To create a custom start-up page, I was instantly drawn to iGoogle. I like Google services quite a bit, and I’m familiar with their, I don’t know, “je ne sais quoi” (har har)? Their layout is pleasing to me, their customizable features are extensible enough for my needs, all-in-all a good fit. In addition, I got to pick which zip code and items of interest I wanted pinned to my home page. I got custom weather, arts and entertainment, and, yes, the indulgence of humor.

I added a calendar, which I think would be great for tracking library events. Library programmed events like movie night, game night, children’s story book hour—all are right on my start-up page, ready to be tracked. Shared calendars are not just great for me though, they also work for alerting patrons to upcoming events.

I also added the suggested NEFLIN’s 23 Things countdown calendar, and shnikey if I’m not running out of time! Time to move forward to Thing 15.

My personal tastes (Thing 13)

I created my Library Thing badge to share just a few of the books I've read in, oh, relatively recent memory. Or just books I love. I hope you love a few too.



Flagler College library home page has a "New Acquisitions" blog type list, but there are so many buttons on the home page that I wonder what its use stats are. I don't know whether Library Thing would improve our current system or not, actually.

I have asked to have my 23 Things blog linked to on the library home page, but the director thought it wasn't a good idea. If I had my own library blog, I would definitely use Library Thing because of its bright colors and attractive appearance. I haven't used the tag clouds for my books, but they could be useful for our library's virtual visitors.

Winki-wiki-wiki-Wah! (Thing 12)

At last! I have made my list of a few of my vintage cameras!

Welcome to it: Christine's camera wiki.

If I weren't sitting two floors away from the archive, I would use the wiki to share some of the more prominent collections held in the archive I manage. I could list unique book holdings, files on Flagler College, and photos of Henry Flagler himself.

As a library application, I would love to see the wiki used as a departmental pathfinder. I often get students at the reference desk writing for programs I know little about, like criminology. When I click on the criminology pathfinder, I don't feel comfortable suggesting that route of research to the student because of its lack of content. I would like successful search strategies to be shared in a wiki format, whether provided by library staff or students.

I understand why instructors are wary of online resources because of their questionable validity. However, I often explain to students that information on the web provided by respectable resources like universities can be valid information. A wiki from a reliable source should not be banned as a student resource, but some instruction in the library or classroom must be provided to explain evaluation of reliability of online information.

Just because a technology is new doesn't mean that it faills to provide valuable information. As students become more and more digitally minded, their research strategies need to be taken into account and directed in helpful ways. Banning online information teaches the students nothing. My experience is that students resist instructors who impose digital bans. Work with the students to improve information literacy--don't quash their natural search abilities.

(Thing 9) So tardy

I took the easy way out on this Thing. I stuck with applications I know, and I feel like I cheated. Thing 9 seems really cool, so I look forward to revisiting it and learning about these other nifty applications.

I did put my neck out there earlier, but it was the application that seemed to not be working--Lazybase. I tried to make a spreadsheet of my vintage camera collection, but Lazybase had different ideas. I'll have to go back one day and put together a power point with photos describing each camera one of these days.

www.flickr.com Go to wysocki.christine's photostream

Great. And then my Flickr flash badge didn't work. I settled for the Flickr HTML badge. Grr. What gives Thing 9? You need some work.