Third Blog on the Left

Thing #5 Revisited

2009-08-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

OK, Jeff wanted me to actually say something about Image Generators rather than just post a funny picture (spoilsport :P ).

As I mentioned in Thing #4 one of the problems I had with this assignment was that my campus IT department blocked almost all of the listed sites. Many librarians who have had similar problems have usually railed against the computer folks and have cried Censorship! However it's important to see their point of view as well.

Yes it is nice for the library and library patrons to be able to utilize the new technologies available to use. However it's also nice to have a computer network that doesn't constantly crash or not have a virus that eats your homework. The main job of the IT department is keep the patron computer user happy and secure and we, librarians, often forget that point.

In the long run it's about communication and comprise. Too often I see fellow librarian merely sit and stew over some computer policy that adversely effects them rather than ask for help. Often the IT departments CAN accommodate the libraries needs or at least illuminate on why such policies are in place. Also once the library staff is aware of the IT department's position, they can be more proactive and go out and find solutions themselves that will make all parties happy.

Thing #23 Judgement Day

2009-08-11T10:50:00.000-07:00

Well, that's done with.

It might seem like I did a ton of work today. The truth is however that I actually looked at everything on the list weeks ago, I just never blocked out enough time to actually post about it.

Reflections -
What was your favorite Thing?
This part, where I finished everything.

What was your least favorite Thing?
Everything before this part.

What was challenging for you?
Getting to this part.

What did you learn?
That I need to schedule my time better in order to do the parts.

What new technologies will you use in your library?
Thesaurus.com to come up with a different term besides "Part"

OK OK OK Serious answers this time.

What was your favorite Thing?
LibWorm was bookmarked almost immeadiately. It's a great resource for the kind of information I need. Setting up this Blog was also a great deal of fun.

What was your least favorite Thing?
Ning: I have little use for social networking especially on a network which didn't seem to have much on my hobbies and interests.

What was challenging for you?
Well I spent a hour trying to delete or move around my entries on Wetpaint or find FAQs tutorials or Help pages that would tell how to. Eventually I read the comments on the NT23 page and found out that only Jesse could delete or move entries. Not really the Wetpaint's fault but it was challenging. Also some of the setup and login pages were extremely frustrating for me.

What did you learn?
OK this one is the same. That I need to schedule my time better in order to do the parts. Some of these tools could actually help me in that regard.

What new technologies will you use in your library?
I pretty much listed these in my last post.

Thing #22 My Library

2009-08-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

This is a list of Things that Midwestern State has implemented or will be implemented by the end of the year.

Transferred the library newsletter to an online library blog
A Facebook page for the Moffett Library
An instant messaging service for reference questions
Campus calendar RSS feed
A Reference Desk wiki for professional staff
Podcast tutorials for the general public

Not bad. I surprised myself with the number of things we've had in place for a while now.

Thing #20 Youtube and Thing #21 Podcast

2009-08-11T10:22:00.000-07:00

I'm posting on these two topics at the same time since I think that they are closely related.

Youtube has it's uses (beyond the leaked footage of Ironman 2 from the San Diego Comic Con that showed up today... well I thought it was the most useful thing I've seen lately on youtube :) ). Youtube is a great resource of free and public use library tutorials that everyone can get a hold of.

That being said I think podcasts are the better way to go. Our library has just purchased Camtasia and will have a series of online tutorials in place by the end of the semester. Podcasts have the advantage in the fact that they can be individually costumized for the specific needs of your institution. Also even if you can't not aford to make your own podcasts there are numerous institions, companies and sites that provide free podcasts and often will allow others to link or even repost their work.

Thing #19 Google Docs

2009-08-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

Well as a North Texas 23 Coordinator I've been using this since I began this project. (It's how the main coordinator keeps tabs on who has done what).

However I have seen a practical aplication used at out library this week. The reference desk has started suggesting google docs as an option for our students given that the libary computers don't have any word processiong and the campus lab computers (which do have word processing) are all closed this week.

I haven't seen anyone actually use it yet, but at least the professional staff here was impressed by it.

Thing #18 Wiki

2009-08-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

Well I have put together a Reference Desk wiki by the end of this semester. So unfortunately what I really need to see is all the backdoor administrator options that the casual user doesn't have access to.

However my time with Wetpaint spawned this subtopic in my Wiki -

Stuff that frustrates me about Wetpaint

No free tutorials (or if they exist no easily found tutorials) on how to use this site
Can create but not move or delete (I sort of understand this one, but you should at least be able to delete or move content the is user created).

Thing #17 LibWorm

2009-08-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

OK this was very useful.

AS I stated earlier I've been trying to put together a bunch of online tutorials before school starts. So I tried a search on "online tutorials". The first result was Blog post. The post reminded us librarians that just because we put up an online tutorial doesn't mean that everyone will know how to use it. The blogger recommend that one also have a tutorial on how to use online tutorials.

At first I thought it was one of stupidest things I've ever read. But then I realized it was absolute genius.

Thing #16 LibraryThing

2009-08-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

Ditto... Eh,

Who has time to read any more?

I have a vast, vast personal library of books I've been collecting for 30 years. I have bought perhaps 20 new books this year to add to the collection.

I haven't read a single one all the way though.

Several have been sitting on my night stand for months now, never opened. I have checked perhaps a half dozen books from work over the last year. I think I got to chapter three in one of them, the rest were returned to the library unread.

I used to be a voracious reader. My first week of college I found out that UT had the complete collection of Frank L. Baum books that I had enjoyed as a child. many of the books I had never seen before. I read the complete collection (20 or so books) in 4 days. This was quickly followed by every Nebula and Hugo award winner.

Sadly now-a-days I just have other things that take priority. Maybe it's just a phase and I'll my excitement in books will return. But right now LibraryThing just isn't my thing.

Thing #15 Digg

2009-08-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

Eh,

I've seen a overview of Digg before.

I still like my news related Bulletin Boards better. I can see how this sort of thing would be widely popular. However it's TOO MUCH in many ways. There's TOO MUCH information to plow through. I prefer to draw from a much smaller pool of people. I prefer to find Blogs or Bulletin Boards used by folks who have the same tastes as myself. If they find something through Digg that they feel is interesting, they'll post about it. In other words I prefer to have my information filtered by folks I trust their judgment on rather than what is most popular to the unwashed masses.

Thing #14 Delicious

2009-08-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

Wow time got away from me. What happened to the summer? I got a ton of work currently in my "in box." Since the North Texas 23 is due this week (boy that snuck up on me). I guess I'll try and finish all my duties here first.

OK I'm going to kill 2 birds with one stone. Since I need to have bunch of online video tutorials scripted by next week, I'll use Delicious to bookmark some of the online tutorials examples I found.

See I'm actually getting use out of stuff.
http://delicious.com/ryan.samuelson

Thing #13 Tagging

2009-07-09T08:32:00.000-07:00

Is it wrong of me that this is the first thing that comes to mind when I see "tagging"
One problem I have with tagging is the same problem I have with much of the internet - the disturbing rise of cultural enclaves. One of the advantages of authority records and cataloging subject headings is that they are standardized and constitute a universal language. By allowing users to define metatags, you will to some extent get a type of balkanization of internet users and internet information. People more and more use their own unique language to communicate with unique individuals and access information through their own unique channels.

Thing #12 Twitter

2009-07-08T15:10:00.001-07:00

I'm tempted to let this be the entire content of my post. However I will go on to say that I did have a lengthy conversation about Twitter with my friends a couple of months back. I believe the general consensus was summed up by the statement, "I really don't care to know what you are doing on a daily basis. You're not that interesting."

Thing #11 Instant Messaging

2009-07-08T14:44:00.001-07:00

The library I work at has used instant messaging for some time now via an online reference chatline. For the most part the service is great but I do have a few reservations about using online messaging in the library environment.

1 - The lack of follow up.
Several times when I've responded to reference questions though instant messages, the patron on the other end has left the program while I was in the midst of an explanation and I have no idea why. Did I already fix the problem? Did something else come up? Did they just give up? The sad thing is that I'll never know if I was helpful at all.

2 - textual communication sucks
As I librarian I rely upon body language, voice tone, facial expressions, etc. to fill me in on what the patron is often unable to express in words. I often find that a 10 second conversation can do what it would take me several e-mails over a week or dozens of instant messages to accomplish.

Still instant messaging is the communication of choice for today's college student. Several librarians here at work have commented on the fact that often times they will find patrons using the chat line even though they are physically sitting less than 10 feet from the librarian on the other end.

Thing #10 Ning

2009-07-08T14:35:00.000-07:00

OK while Facebook creeped me out, I was able to find dozens of different groups based on my hobbies, my favorite shows, things my friends were interested in, etc. However Ning searches were coming up completely empty. Either the search engine was crap (a distinct possibility) or there just isn't that much content. It's good to know that somethinng like this is out there though. I can see an application like Ning being useful for a smaller dedicated group to social network.

Thing #8 & #9 Facebook

2009-07-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

OK I've been out on vacation and otherwise occupied lately so I've fallen behind on my postings. So this is me catching up.

Facebook creeps the hell out of me.

No seriously.

The first thing, facebook asked me was if I wanted to be friends with my old gaming buddy, I guy I worked with for several years and my gradschool roommate. How did it know?!? I swear I almost looked behind me. Of course it took a few seconds more before my brain synapses began firing I figured out that it was my e-mail address.

Still it is scarry to think about how much information is out there as public information. It is easy to see why facebook is so popular. It does all of the hard lifting for you.

I'm not really impressed with the facebook groups though. I'm already a member of a yahoo group where I'm able to share information with a tight group of friends. I also am a member of several web boards where I can go to ask or answer questions. I also subscribe to a few RSS feeds to keep up to date on topics I'm interested in. Those types of site seem to me to have far more practical use for my interests.

The Facebook groups on the otherhand seem to me to have have a much higher "noise to signal" ratio to me. I guess I'm just not a online social networking kind of guy. If I want to hang out and talk I'll go see my friends in the flesh.

Science Fiction SHORT Short Short Stories.

2009-06-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

When I was 10 or 11 one my favorite books to check out of the public library was an anthology put together by Isaac Azimov called 100 great science fiction short short stories ISBN: 9780385130448. It was a variety of very short (often just a couple of pages or even just a single paragraph) stories. I loved it. I could breeze through a dozen or so really cool ideas, themes, plots in little more than an hour.

It started my life-long love of short stories. I still love them however there doesn't seem to be as much of a public outlet for short stories now-a-days. Go to any book store or, what the heck, maybe a library and you will see shelf after shelf of never-ending multiple volume series. I hate most multiple volume novels series. I usually find them bloated, meandering and in bad need of good editing. What ever happened to less is more? A good short story has to be well written; when you have fewer words to choose from, you have to choose them far more carefully.

But this is the sort of thing that people will come back to over and over again. The industry follows the money and it's getting harder and harder to find anthologies and anthology magazines. This is a far cry from the way it was a century ago when many to most novels were published in serial form in newspapers and magazine publications.

A few years ago Wired Magazine decided to ask some of the biggest writers in the field to tackle the very, very short story; just 6 words. Here are the results.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html

Texas 23 Parts #6 & #7

2009-06-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Well originally my Blog post this week was going to be about how something like a Blog Reader and an RSS feed really weren't all that useful to me. I only really keep track of a few sites on a weekly or daily basis and they are simple enough to scroll through using my browser bookmarks first thing in the morning.

Then of course I realized that I was a coordinator and was put in charge of checking 15 other blogs to make sure they were updated on a regular basis. Suddenly these tools seem INVALUABLE.

Thing #5 (posting from home)

2009-06-11T16:45:00.000-07:00

TAKE THAT IT department!

I'M the BOSS?!?

2009-06-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Well I've been named one of the project coordinators for North Texas 23. I guess this means that I should get off my butt and actually DO some of the assignments for a change.

THING #2 Learning 2.0

Pardon me while a voice a somewhat negative view here for a second. I see the biggest obstacle for library’s adaption of Library 2.0 to be the librarians themselves.

Historically librarians have been taught to value those things that have static and unchanging properties: standards, authority records, peer-reviewed sources, call numbers, etc. Before, it had always been in the best interest of the librarian to use the same tools that have stood the test of time. Many librarians’ entire work load consists of archiving and conserving. Also librarians have always been told that we are the gatekeepers; we are Prometheus bringing fire and knowledge to the people.

Unfortunately these are exactly the wrong set of values with which to implement Library 2.0. The whole “bottom-up” “grass-roots” system where the people bring knowledge to the librarians and where resources and knowledge is a dynamic ever-changing process is anathema to historic role of the librarian. It goes against the grain of many of the core values imparted by Library Schools of the 20th Century.

The very fact that a program like 23 Things exists says a lot about the mindset of the Baby Boomer and Gen-X generations of librarians. Many of the younger generation don’t need to be told about these tools; they are already using them. It’s the kids that are in library school now or those that will be graduating in the next 10 years that will drive the change in core values of librarians in the future. It is those generations that fully and truly embrace the new values and new tools.

Hopefully with a project like Texas23 some of those tools will be in place when they get here.

THING #3 Flickr

OK confession time…

I have never owned a camera of any sort. I think I can count the number of times I’ve taken a picture throughout my life on one hand. Heck I can count the number of times I’ve had my picture taken in the last 10 years on one hand.

That being said I have scanned, phototouched and indexed next to 10,000 of my father’s digital pictures in the last 5 years. I guess the next step is to ask him if he wants me to put any of them up on Flickr.

Here’s a pretty pic from a place just down the road from me.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d2cool/2034509638/

THING #4 Flickr mashups
Heh,

I keep seeing this sort of thing A LOT

Most folks response has been “Well then try and do the assignments from home.”

OK time for a second confession…
Until a couple weeks ago I didn’t have internet connection at my house. And it’s the first time I’ve ever had any internet connection at home. That probably doesn’t shock any readers out there as much as it shocks my co-workers as I’ve been the site master for our libraries webpage and the e-mail and chat-line contact for any library questions.

It’s probably genetic. Until they retired my father was a systems engineer who wrote the guidance programs for missiles and the auto-pilot systems for military fighters and my mother telecommuted to work for a telecommunications company that was located over a thousand miles away.

To this day they don’t have any internet connection either.

But I guess I should try and do the assignment from home.

EDIT: Jeffery Bond pointed out that I didn't have a Mashup listed here

I guess

The Handley Case

2009-05-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

"Won't someone please think of the children?" - Simpsons

On May 20th, comic book collector Christopher Handley pleaded guilty to obscenity charges in Iowa court. While this story has story is fairly well known in comic and manga circles, it has mostly flown under the radar for many librarians. All librarians should however be aware of the consequences and repercussions of the Protect Act.

Now I'm not going to defend child pornography or even make the argument that the material in The Handley case has some sort of artistic or literary merit. However I am going to question the motives of a law that has criminalized a work of pure fiction. No actual minors were harmed in any way by the material that the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has described as simply "lines on a page." Also this was material that was confined to only to Handley's own home. There is no evidence that he attempted to share this material with anyone let alone present the material to minors.

So where does that leave libraries? A quick check of our catalog at work shows that our library has 3 copies of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. And unlike the Handley case, we have no restrictions on who can check the book out. Any minor, so long as they have a library card we accept, can check out and read Lolita. Now under the law as it now, if jury members decide that Lolita is obscene, we are in deep trouble. But let's look at an even more disturbing scenario. The Handley case began with a shipment of comics that had been purchased and shipped to Iowa. How often has your library's collection development librarian bought a lot of books or has had a lot of books donated to the library without knowing the full contents? Now imagine that the same manga that convicted Handley was part of that lot.

Scary isn't it?

Lo, It Begins...

2009-05-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

This week my employer informed everyone that all staff members were required to create a Blog as part of an Internet training exercise. This one is mine.

If you have trouble finding it, just remember that it is the 3rd blog on the left.

I suppose I should try and come up with some goals and parameters for the nature of this Blog. Why is this blog here? What purpose does it serve? Hopefully it will be something beyond just "My boss made me do it." Seeing as this Blog has it's origins with my place of employment perhaps I should start there.

I'm a profession librarian and I've been a professional librarian for over a decade. I worked in the library field for a number of years before that (Hmm, does that mean I was an "unprofessional" librarian for a number of years). So to some extent this Blog should perhaps reflect my chosen profession. However I don't define my life primarily through the fact that I am a librarian. A lot of the stuff I share with friends and co-workers through e-mail has little to nothing to do with libraries. I'd like this blog to reflect those interests I have outside of libraries as well.

I guess this is the part where I come up with some sort mission statement.

OK how about this.

The goal of 3rd Blog on the Left is to hopefully entertain and inform the viewing public.

There! That is significantly vague and toothless enough to be good mission statement.

All kidding aside the mission statement is there to remind me to try and present something that will be of value to those that read it, as opposed to just something I'll get a kick out of.