#21: The Proof Is In The Podding

I have iTunes already and have been happily using their podcast directory and downloading for a year. I'm usually looking for a podcast of a particular thing: radio show episode, a particular author speaking or musician; I don't browse. I looked at all three of the podcast tools, but I didn't like the interaction with any of them. I found it difficult to find anything I specifically looked for, and browsing was a frustration since I'm afraid I really don't want to browse audio. I'm strictly a visual browser, that's probably why I prefer YouTube. I can't tell anything from just the titles. Well. I do think podcasts are a great idea, and in a library setting there could be a series to accompany QBPL Gallery exhibits, maybe featuring interviews with the artists.

YouTube? MeToo.

The very first time I ever YouTubed for was not for entertainment but instruction. I wanted to see what kayaking in Alaska might be like, and what riding a zipline would entail. In both cases, I was able to quickly find and view clips recorded by people doing those very things. Some were very short and/or poorly done, a couple were slick professional "commercials," but others were just what I was looking for. Searching YouTube for "Queens Library" brings up just a few clips of library programs now, but I think it would be a great way to commemorate, document, share and generally "talk up" what's going on in your community library. (Insert boilerplate admonitions about filming persons/minors without permission, etc., here.) It might be a while before there's a widespread library-related use for YouTube, only because we still have waaaay more computer-access demand than we do supply, but outside the library, I personally know scads of preteens-and-up who are making their own suspense movies, exploring film editing and special effects, and generally learning a lot while they think they're just goofing around.
The other lovable thing is that YouTube's a "wayback machine" that takes you anywhere you remember on TV. Old cigarette commercials? Check! Captain Kangaroo? Got him! I know these things can be acquired commercially, or viewed in the Museum of Television and Broadcasting, but that avenue is for the serious researcher. For the casual dabbler in nostalgia, YouTube is awesomely handy.

#19: The Web 2.0 Awards

I was all set to write about Etsy being a favorite site, when I saw Bibilio on the winners' list.
Decisions, decisions. I haven't used Biblio, preferring AbeBooks, but it looks like Biblio's site has been redesigned and is quite appealing now.
Both Etsy and Biblio are sites where independent sellers "gather," like a giant cyberspace marketplace, with the added bonus of not having to schlep from table to table. In both cases, you can browse a single seller's wares, or look through everybody's inventory for something specific.
At Etsy you can plug in all kinds of parameters for your search: blue things, for instance, or things in the category "Geekery." There's even a way to shop by the geographic location of the seller, so you can support your local artists (everything on Etsy is handmade, being sold by the artist.) At Biblio you can search by format, limit to first editions or books with dustjackets, indicate a price range, publication date, or indicate keywords you wish to find in the book descriptions. You can even limit your search for a title to only those booksellers belonging to any of a number of local, national and international associations.
These kinds of collaborative "storefronts" seem to me one of the best aspects of the whole "Web 2.0/Social Networking" concept, keeping alive the mom-and-pop shop and bringing it to an enormous audience.

NOW We're Talking: #18

Web-based applications that let you email docs around to others for them to edit, add to, comment on...and no worries about whether they use Word or Wordperfect?! This is bliss!

I'm sure they won't be eliminating the need for those installed desktop applications, but they are perfect for informal situations or for the initial stages of collaboration.

I tried Google Docs first, and like it very much. It let me import Word documents from my hard drive as well as create something new. Then I tried Writeboard and found the interface even easier and more welcoming than Google Docs. I could really get used to the simple keyboard strokes required to bold and italicize your text. (I love to bold and italicize. Perhaps a bit too much.)

I could see this being a great way to solicit input from far-flung staff members, brainstorm a better subject guide, or assemble reviews for the summer reading newsletter.

These are the kinds of applications that, had I merely heard about them, I might have thought "Ah, nice for those who don't have/can't afford Word," not realizing that, while they're not as sophisticated as installed desktop apps, in some ways they do much, much more. I'm so pleased that QL Learning compelled me to look closer.

Facebook, the Half-a-Thing

I took the tour of Facebook. Not very informative. I started the process of signing up, in fact I guess I did sign up, even though at first it rejected my qbpl email address. I didn't feel like providing my personal email yet, so I backed out of the signup. But I was captured anyway, it seems! With my name all backwards and my birthdate wrong but whaddaya gonna do? Any site that requires this much data entry is no friend of mine. I poked somebody, but ya know, I could have called faster and with more of a surprise element. And the poke contains no information, so of what interest is it to them, or me? If I text-message, there's some content; I don't type "poke!" (not that there's anything wrong with that!)
It seems like a time-consuming task to really work a Facebook account, and your friends would all have to participate, too. Even though it sounds reassuring to see that "only friends and people in your networks can see your profile," it turns out there's fifty-three thousand people in my network. Cozy!

I suppose it's just not for me. And now it doesn't seem possible to delete my account, all I can do is edit my profile. That may be very Web 2.0 ("you're connected forever!!") but it's not very customer-friendly.

WikiWatchee #16 and 17

I like Wikipedia for one important reason: it's right there to use when I'm on the phone with a customer, or standing in front of a customer at the ref desk. I can start searching while the customer's talking to me, instead of walking away to get a print source or putting down the phone to look something up. What's more, Wikipedia is a one-stop more comprehensive than any print source, containing as it does traditional encyclopedia topics as well as pop-cultural, esoteric and the downright weird.

The layout is beautiful, with a ton information presented clearly and coherently, that lets you clarify questions so that you can doublecheck in a more thoroughly reliable source.

Wikipedia entries are often rounded out with graphics, and sound and video links. The obsessively attentive overlords of the site keep it remarkably well-policed, and the good parts outweigh the flaws. I give Wikipedia a thumbs-up.

For this exercise I edited the Wikipedia article "pop up book," adding to the references and external links. It was extremely easy to do and somewhat gratifying.

#15: The Whole 2.0 Thing

How long has this Library 2.0 idea been going around? Because Queens has always been
customer-oriented, cooperative,and (believe me!) in a state of constant change for at least a quarter of a century.
I think the biggest changes brought about by the Library 2.0 notion are happening in the cash-poor, somnolent suburban and rural libraries, where growing access to the Internet is allowing isolated libraries to connect with a lot more people, and provide more services without spending more money. Web-based word-processing and spreadsheet applications allow libraries to offer these things to customers without paying for big-ticket brand name apps. Blogging lets them keep wired customers up-to-date on news, events, changes to events. Teach your customers how to use a mouse so they can email their grown kids on the danged computer those kids got them and they can't figure out how to use, and They Will Come.
Yes, libraries have always been welcoming places, designed to provide for the needs of the customer. It was just that intimidating card catalog that was scaring everyone. That, and the electric erasers. (Those were technology once!)
I feel like the notion of Library 2.0 is just a way of talking about a few new things. A few big new things, sure, but it'll be okay. They're the same things we've always done, we just need a new way of doing them if we want everybody to keep talking about our sudden hipness. (Enough with that, already.)