Goodbye LIS768

I'm so glad I took this class.  I couldn't have taken it at a better time-it totally coincided with the purchase of my smartphone.  That small detail completely changed my relationship with technology and my appreciation for what the goals of this class were trying to accomplish.  I loved the concept of playing.  That's how it all begins, by playing with technology and seeing how it can enhance your life in small or significant ways.  I played a lot this semester.  I am NOT afraid of technology; in fact I've grown to become quite a gadget-y girl.  I think the 2.0 tool I've come to love the best is Twitter even though I was skeptical at first.  I love getting little links to cool things I wouldn't have otherwise known about and getting ideas for library related stuff.  It's definitely going to be a huge part of my learning community.  Fortunately, this is a class whose contents I won't be packing up and shoving to the back of a closet.  I am going to stay connected using my new tools and by keeping up with all the cool stuff out there.  I'm going to play!

Paper abstract

oops! I somehow missed this due date! Here is my abstract:

I explored a few different ways libraries could incorporate mobile device technology into their services.  I first looked at FB and Twitter apps and discussed how libraries could offer catalog searching and RSS feeds through their pages.  Libraries could also do mobile tweeting.  I discussed the use and creation of QR codes to promote library events.  In reference, I looked at using two way video chatting which is a feature and a free app that lots of mobile devices now offer.  Librarians could introduce instant reference using free video apps to have a more authentic reference experience. Creating mobile friendly websites was another topic I covered.  Libraries have to consider a lot of different factors such as content, platform, and the creation of apps that connect to the OPAC.  Finally, I looked at augmented reality through the use of mobile devices and explored ways that libraries might create fun, interactive programs designed with specific demographics in mind.  In addition, I briefly looked at how libraries might offer ways to download e-collections to mobile devices.  A lot of this technology exists, but not a lot of libraries have incorporated it into their service model.  My paper tries to illustrate how libraries can make small changes to reach more patrons through mobile device technology.

Research Paper Resources

Umm....Yeah, I read a LOT of articles for this paper. Not included are the blogs yet or the stats from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, but they will eventually make it here.  For now, these are the sources I used to construct my paper.  So far, I have completed exactly one paragraph. Ugh!!!! Good luck to everyone!

Agosto, Denise E., and June Abbas. "TEENS AND Social NETWORKING: HOW PUBLIC LIBRARIES ARE RESPONDING TO THE LATEST ONLINE TREND." Public Libraries 48.3 (2009): 32-7.

Bala, Adarsh, and B. M. Gupta. "Perceptions of Health Professionals regarding use and Provision of LIS through Mobile Technologies." DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology 30.3 (2010): 7-12.

Balas, Janet L. Carrying the Library in Your Pocket. Vol. 27. Information Today Inc, 2007.

Barack, Lauren. "QR Codes Connect Students to Books." School Library Journal 56.10 (2010): 13-.

Blumenstein, Lynn. "Pew Highlights Digital Divide on Mobile Devices." Library Journal 134.9 (2009): 17-.

Booth, Char. "Developing Skype-Based Reference Services." Internet Reference Services Quarterly 13.2 (2008): 147-65.

Breitbach, William, and J. M. DeMars. "Enhancing Virtual Reference: Techniques and Technologies to Engage Users and Enrich Interaction." Internet Reference Services Quarterly 14.3 (2009): 82-91.

Cramer, Theresa. A Case of Taking QR Codes to the Park. Vol. 33. Information Today Inc, 2010.

Crowell, Karen, and Julia Shaw-Kokot. "Extending the Hand of Knowledge: Promoting Mobile Technologies." Medical reference services quarterly 22.1 (2003): 1.

Cuddy, Colleen. "Mobile Computing." Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries 6.1 (2009): 64-8.

"EBSCOhost is Going Mobile." Library Times International: world news digest of library & information science 26.3 (2010): 34-5.

Farkas, Meredith. "Guided by Barcodes." American Libraries 41.8 (2010): 26-.

---. "A Library in Your Pocket." American Libraries 41.6 (2010): 38-.

Fletcher, Jon. "Marketing for the QRious: The Beginner's Guide to using QR Codes for Library Promotions and Resources." Multimedia Information & Technology 36.3 (2010): 26-7.

Forsyth, Ellen. "Fancy Walkie Talkies, Star Trek Communicators Or Roving Reference?" Australian Library Journal 58.1 (2009): 73-84.

Godwin, Peter. "Information Literacy Gets Mobile in Vancouver." Journal of Information Literacy 3.2 (2009): 91-5.

Greenall, Rurik Thomas. "Mobiles in Libraries." Online 34.2 (2010): 16-9.

Hadro, Josh. "Interfaces Galore for Mobile Devices." Library Journal 134.4 (2009): 19-20.

Harris, Christopher. "QR Codes in the Library." School Library Journal 56.10 (2010): 12-.

Harris, Siân. "Device Independence and Mobility Help e-Book Growth." Research Information.47 (2010): 18-21.

Hill, Nate. "Hyperlinking Reality." Library Journal 134.12 (2009): 38-9.

Kenney, Brian. "A Rosy Future for Self-Service, Say Vendors." Library Journal 135.12 (2010): 26-7.

"Library Mobile Initiatives." Library Technology Reports 44.5 (2008): 33-8.

Lippincott, Joan K. "Mobile Technologies, Mobile Users: Implications for Academic Libraries." ARL: A Bimonthly Report on Research Library Issues & Actions.261 (2008): 1-4.

Liston, Samuel. "OPACs and the Mobile Revolution. (Cover Story)." Computers in Libraries 29.5 (2009): 6-47.

Loomba, Kapil, and Pooja Loomba. "Mobile Learning in Knowledge Development Scenario." DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology 29.5 (2009): 54-6.

Marcoux, Elizabeth "Betty". "The Phone: A Tool for Learning." Teacher Librarian 36.4 (2009): 73-4.

Marcum, Brad. "Digital Reference: "Stressmaker" Or Savior?" Kentucky Libraries 69.2 (2005): 19-24.

"Mobile Devices." Library Technology Reports 44.5 (2008): 10-5.

Olson, John A. "Mobile Maps and the Research Library." Journal of Map & Geography Libraries 5.2 (2009): 174-6.

Pope, Kitty, et al. "Twenty-First Century Library MUST-HAVES." Searcher 18.3 (2010): 44-7.

"Qr Codes to Extend Library's Reach in Contra Costa, Ca." Library Journal 135.1 (2010): 22-5.

Ragon, Bart. "Designing for the Mobile Web." Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries 6.4 (2009): 355-61.

"Refworks Adds Refmobile Interface for Citations." Library Journal 134.9 (2009): 18-.

Roberts, Gary. "So Many Mobile Devices, so Little Time." Computers in Libraries 26.4 (2006): 29-31.

Robinson, Kathryn. "Point-of-Need Customer Service: Mobile Service using Wireless Technology." Journal of Access Services 3.2 (2005): 1-14.

Sekyere, Kwabena. "Enhancing Your Virtual Reference Services with Video Snippets." Kentucky Libraries 73.2 (2009): 18-20.

Thompson, Samantha. "On being a Virtual World Librarian: Experiences in Offering Live Reference Services in a Virtual World." Reference Librarian 50.2 (2009): 219-23.

Top Tech Trends Include "Mobile" and Openness. Vol. 134. Library Journals, LLC, 2009.

"Trialling a Service Model of the Future: Mobile Technologies in Student Support." Multimedia Information & Technology 36.2 (2010): 26-7.

Walsh, Andrew. "QR Codes - using Mobile Phones to Deliver Library Instruction and Help at the Point of Need." Journal of Information Literacy 4.1 (2010): 55-63.

West, Mark Andy, Arthur W. Hafner, and Bradley D. Faust. "Expanding Access to Library Collections and Services using Small-Screen Devices." Information Technology & Libraries 25.2 (2006): 103-7.

Wilson, Sally. "The Future is here Library Services for Mobile Devices." Access (1204-0472) 15.4 (2009): 18-9.

Wisniewski, Jeff. "Bridging the Other Digital Divide." Online 34.5 (2010): 55-7.

---. "Mobile Websites with Minimum Effort." Online 34.1 (2010): 54-7.

Social Media Policy

I created my social media policy with the idea that I wanted it to feel approachable, with natural language for students of a high school.  My policy could easily be presented as a poster in a high school library.  I kept it simple and positive.  I also tried to put the onus on the student so that he/she takes ownership of his/her behavior and understand that they are the creators and stewards of their own environment.

BP High School Social Media Policy

Social Media: what are we talking about? We’re talking about Twitter, Facebook, Formspring, Flickr, YouTube, blogging, forums, chat rooms, instant messaging, and any other sort of social networking tool that is accessible by the internet that allows you to interact with other individuals either as yourself,  anonymously, or with a pseudonym.

Why do we care? Because we all like to interact online and we think collaboration and self-expression are good things! We want the internet to be a place where you feel safe, creative, and free to explore your interests.  Because the internet is an unmediated environment, is it of utmost importance that we check our own behavior in order to make sure it remains a safe, respectful, and kind place to visit.

This is what we ask you to expect of yourselves when interacting online:

Be Respectful-

Treat others as you would want to be treated.  The internet is not a place for you to be mean, hurtful, or otherwise rude, even if you are anonymous.

Respect your mind and body.  Think twice about what information you really want to put out into the world.  How you treat yourself says a lot about how you want others to treat you.

Be Transparent-

If you are not willing to take credit for something you have posted, there must be a reason.  Be willing to take ownership of what you put out into the world, and if you are not proud of it, ask yourself why.

Keep certain information to yourself.  Not everybody needs to know everything about you, especially information that might expose you or your family to potential harm, such as phone numbers, home address, social security numbers, ID’s, etc…

Be Kind-

Remember how good it feels to be nice to someone.  The internet is just another place where you should practice this age-old dictum.  Anonymity is not a license to be mean.

Be Smart-

Not everyone lives by the rules in our policy.  Be certain to question people’s identities if they are making you uncomfortable in their interest in you.  If something concerns you, share with someone.  Never agree to meet an online friend privately.

If you feel threatened physically or mentally in any way, you must tell someone.  If that person can’t help you, keep telling until you get the help you need.

Consider yourselves stewards of the internet. Take care to make it a place you want to visit.  Take care to treat it as if you were a grateful guest.  We know you will make it a great place!

Inspirations:

Baldwin-Woodville Social Media and Online Communications Guidelines

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35858003/Social-Media-Policy

Navy Command Social Media Handbook

http://www.slideshare.net/USNavySocialMedia/navy-command-social-media-handbook-web

New Zealand State Services Commission

http://www.e.govt.nz/policy/participation/guide-to-online-participation

San Francisco Public Library

I decided to check out San Francisco Public Library because I figured they'd be on top of their game as far as self-promotion.  I was assuming that since they are close to a major technological hub and since they  serve a very eclectic and large community, that following them would turn up some pretty interesting results.  I was right.  I ended up using all possible angles known to me: Facebook, Twitter, blogs, technorati, Flickr, Yelp, and I even signed up to receive text messages on my phone from SFPL.  I loved that feature because I was imagining myself living there, hanging out with an afternoon free ahead of me, then getting a text from SFPL about  a cool exhibit going on or an author presentation and then deciding to go spur-of-the-moment all because of a text.  Pretty cool. The SFPL website was incredibly user-friendly with a logical organization and  clean interface. In the center of the page were all the library's exciting events.  In the horizontal tabs on the top of the page is where one could explore further into the library services offered.

I love the fact that their e-library was so extensive and easy to access.  They also offer a mobile version of sfpl.org for those of us addicted to our mobile devices.  Nice! In addition, all their blogs were aggregated on one page where patrons could RSS whichever one he/she chose to follow.  There are around 20 incredibly diverse blogs written by SFPL librarians. I followed a few different ones and found them to be equally updated, yet totally unique in their content.  In other words, there was a blog to suit all tastes.

Check out their Facebook presence too! They really take the time to keep this updated with amazing photos of art exhibits and events.  Being a "friend" of SFPL, I received an update feed on my mobile app for Facebook so every time they changed their status, I would know about it.

With Twitter, I both followed SFPLNews and also put in San Francisco Public Library in the search box. As I mentioned before, I was able to send the tweets as texts to my phone which is an awesome feature, in my opinion.  It's better than just getting an update on a Twitter app because you're more compelled to check your phone texts as they beep.  On average, I got about one text per day. I was up on all their events around town.  A lot of the people posting tweets about SFPL had nice things to say, however more than a few felt compelled to mention the sketchy homeless element.  One cool thing I saw on the tweets was that a ton of people were tweeting their Foursquare location at the SFPL.

Things started getting interesting once I started digging around the places where the actual patrons have something to say.  I found out that the use of the library by the homeless is a big problem.  Yelp was particularly honest in stating the facts.  It appears the major complaints come from the fact that the library stinks of homeless people and that, although the building is full of books, they never seem to have the ones you want.

Then I went on Youtube.  There are lots of videos where one can check out various events that have taken place.  It is also a place where people leave comments.  This one was particularly enlightening:

See this video about the homeless problem at SFPL

What's annoying is that I'm unable to embed this video into my post.  Argh!! I tried everything under the sun, but my code just disappears after I paste it into the html side.  Strange.  Anyhow, this video is worth watching, showing both sides of the issue from different perspectives.

Flickr didn't turn up a whole lot.  While I did find lots of photos of the San Francisco Public Library posted by random people, SFPL did not have their own account/group.  It would be fairly easy for them to transfer their photos from Facebook, though, so I'm not sure why they haven't done so.  Maybe they don't think it's necessary. Apart from that,  I found  that SFPL is really integrating technology into their marketing.  They have a strong presence in most of the platforms I chose to look into.  I'm not sure what happened with Technorati.  It may be that I just don't know how to use it properly, but when I typed in either SFPL or San Francisco Public Library in its entirety, I got very few results and most of them had nothing to do with the library.  Not sure.  I thought since Technorati is a blog search engine, it would have pulled some of their own blogs, but no.

I thought this assignment was helpful in a couple of ways.  The obvious one is that I was able to experience first-hand how using participatory services in the library helps to reach users and keep them updated almost effortlessly (as long as they know where to go).  The other is that you can experience information overload if you don't choose carefully and/or put the brakes on the feeds you sign up for.  Also, you really can get the flavor of a place by checking out comments and other review sites like Yelp.  The other, less obvious way this assigment was helpful was that I learned a lot about Wordpress and how to better use it.  My posts aren't fancy, but I'm slowly figuring out how to make things look a bit better.  Sorta.

Mobile Devices and the Library

My research paper is going to be about the use of mobile devices in the library.  I became interested in this topic when I bought my first smart phone and now my Galaxy touch pad.  I really think the library has to embrace all the possible ways of communicating and being available through these devices since people are beginning to rely almost exclusively on this type of communication.  Within this topic I will explore augmented reality, all the various phone apps, reference service through instant messaging, and  how schools and other libraries can incorporate certain technological services to take advantage of this new medium.

Social Networking is...

...many different things to many people. I really think the level to which a person gets involved depends on his/her personality, which is what's ultimately great about social networking.  You can choose just how much you want to divulge, which groups suit you, and what it is you want to convey to the world about yourself.  Obviously I'm approaching from the perspective of an adult and from someone who understands the risks involved in divulging too much, but I also know it's not going away any time soon, so I may as well know all there is to know about it.   I'm pretty reserved when it comes to telling people about my life, so my Facebook stays fairly clean and streamlined.  I do not check it everyday and actually, it doesn't really enhance my life all that much, but I want an account because I might just want to keep up with up what my old acquaintances are doing.  I was all jazzed initially about it, but as soon as my curiousity was quenched about what happened to so and so from high school, I was pretty much over it. 

As for my professional life, I do see the benefit of social networking and as an experiment I signed up to a Web 2.0 Ning.  I had to get approval from the moderators so I just found out that I got in! They deemed me safe and non-spammy.  I really like the ning communities, though.  I definitely see the advantage of belonging.  I was saying in the last class that I was worried that my learning community would dry up after grad school and now I know that I have access to great ideas for technology and the school library through these communities.  I also belong to delicious, twitter, librarything, and a bunch of others that I don't use regularly, but probably will once I am in a position where it matters that I do stay connected. 

Libraries-school, academic, public really need to be accessible by these avenues even if not all their patrons take advantage of them.  The ones that do use social networking will appreciate the ease of accessibility.  The ones who do not won't be missing anything and may even perhaps learn about its usefulness through the library.  Not every social networking tool is going to make sense for all people and/or library, but I look at it as just another way to advertise and let people know what's going on.

Hyperlinked

The overarching theme in many of our readings has to do with having a malleable mind-being able to adapt and change and try new things in order to best serve our library patrons.  Becoming a hyperlinked library is not only about the technology involved in making this happen, but it's a philosophy that you either get or you don't.  If you don't, however, maybe you shouldn't be a librarian.  The hyperlinked philosophy is one that celebrates change, understands that change is part of nature, looks forward to the challenge of finding new solutions, is not afraid to try new technology, is built on trust,  and refuses to hide in the back room.  

And this philosophy doesn't just apply to the library, but to world at large in the 21st century.  As a student becoming a school librarian, I keep hearing the popular buzzwords-21st century learner, globally connected, collaboration, inquiry-based learning.  What scares, but also excites me is that the hyperlinked philosophy is surprisingly absent in many of the schools I have observed.  It scares me because I know the challenges are monumental. I will have to try to change the minds of the faculty,  administration, and the district.  I will have to prove that adding certain technologies are beneficial to the students.  I will have to teach everyone how to use and incorporate that technology.   The exciting part is knowing that people will eventually see the pay off and the students and teachers will be both better learners and better educators.

You Are Not a Gadget

Check out this interview with Jaron Lanier from Library Journal

Jaron Lanier is one smart dude.  He is way smarter than me or anyone I know.  He is also concerned; VERY concerned about where our current technology is taking us culturally, spiritually, and economically.  In his book, You Are Not a Gadget, Lanier describes a thing called lock-in wherein certain software is designed to fit within an existing one and gets “locked” into place simply because nothing better was ever invented and because it would be too difficult to change the existing model.   As a result we become complacent and accept that there is only one model even though that model might not be ideal.  A lot of web 2.0 designs fit this description.  This is a problem because while these trivial designs seem innovative and seem to promote limitless freedom of personal expression, in reality the communication is impersonal, fragmentary, and made to fit within the pre-set boundaries of the design thereby making authentic interpersonal communication obsolete.

A new philosophy is borne out this complacency and lock-in, something he refers to as the “hive mind” or the collective brain of all the people on the internet.  Because anonymity and pseudonymity are built into the designs, people, as individuals, cease to become the important commodity, making the “network” more real than the individuals who contribute to it.  It also allows for people to behave badly since there can be no consequence for a non-entity.  We begin to define ourselves as multiple choice options that the standardized software programs offer us.  We become flat and one-dimensional; defined by the software. He rejects the idea that the intellectual contributions of the collective mind are superior to the individual (something that Clay Shirky calls Cognitive Surplus) and warns against falling into this misguided mindset.

Within this new “open” and “free” culture, we are trading in the original artist or expert in exchange for the ability to “mash-up” so-called new products from already existing ones.  This is leading us to a dark age culturally because nothing truly new is being created.  The idea that all information should be free is actually the cause for mediocrity.  The hive mind cannot produce what one creative individual can and there is no capital incentive anymore for the true innovators to create.  We can already see this in the music and publishing industries. He proposes a universal system in which bits have value and are no longer free.

He believes the most important thing to ask about technology is how it changes us.  It may seem he is anti-technology, but it couldn’t be further from the truth.  Lanier is one of the pioneers of virtual reality and has been involved in countless cutting-edge projects that have shaped the present state of digital technology.  He simply wants people to realize that there can be alternatives to the current design(s)-alternatives that celebrate humanity, human kindness, and individual intelligence.

You Are Not a Gadget is a heavy, intellectually-challenging read, but definitely worth it.  Reading Jaron Lanier will expand your mind.  There is just no getting around it.

Lanier, J. (2010). You are not a gadget: A manifesto. New York: A.A. Knopf.

Keeping up with the Tech-ians

I thought it was fun going back in time to see  the Twelve  Techie Things for Libraries in 2005, which, technologically speaking, is like 15 years instead of just 5.  More interesting to me was that all those trends can be seen in use today. I don't think anyone can argue the value of keeping up with tech trends, especially as it a) becomes more mainstream, and b) provides easier access to information, and c) is just fun and cool.   There is no escaping technology.  So goes the saying, if you can't beat 'em...

I've got a story about technology.  Before too long ago, I didn't have Twitter and didn't really understand the point of it.  This past weekend I really wanted a great recipe for braised short ribs for my husband's birthday dinner.  I googled like you wouldn't believe.  I just still kept coming up with the same old results and wasn't finding the exact thing I wanted.  So, I took it to Twitter.  I remember reading somewhere for this class that you could just post a question and people will give you all sorts of interesting feedback.  Problem is, I've only got 18 followers-you guys, so my pool is quite small.  I put "braised short ribs recipe" into the Twitter search thingy and voila! I got exactly what I was looking for.  I never even conceived that Twitter could be used as a search engine, but I really learned a lot from that experiment.  I now am following this weird blog called The Pioneer Woman because she's got amazing recipes that include step by step photos which I love when trying new recipes.  Anyway, it just opened up this whole new world to me by accident really,  and I understand the value of being part of a community where you can have human interaction and human feedback; not just Google algorithm results.  Pretty pleased with that.

On another techie note, I helped my non-techie friend design her business website and taught her how to add links, video, gadgets, Twitter, Facebook, etc... I am now her consultant. I get paid in compliments, though.  It's okay-it's my first practice teaching.  More than just knowing how to  physically do these things, though, I was able to show her the value of these tools.   Originally she was just going to have a very basic website with little extraneous information on it.   She is a therapist with a private practice. From being her friend for over 20 years, I know that teaching her clients how to help themselves is very important to her.  I got her to re-think the purpose of her website.  She will now have an educational area of her website where she can post videos, articles, etc... for that purpose.  People will also be able to connect with her via RSS, Twitter, Facebook.  Even though she will still have to build her business by word of mouth, it will be easier for her to spread her tentacles and reach a broader audience. (SOCIAL NETWORKING!)

For me, technology has to be convenient for the user, convenient to the user,  and easy to learn.  Technological trends that have a steep learning curve are just not going to make it.  Example-Second Life.  It's just too complicated to learn to be effective in more than a few specific realms.  Personally, I am completely on the bandwagon when it comes to mobile devices and augmented reality.  I can't tell you how many times I wished I knew an area better so that I could eat at a good local restaurant.  Like that hilarious video we all saw about the girl losing her phone (a fate worse than her cat dying), I live by my phone too.  I read books, I look up information, I text people, I blog, I upload videos to YouTube, I use the Layar app to find cool stuff.  I like that information is now at our fingertips. It leaves more time to Twitter...

Twiterature

I identified wholeheartedly with the idea of the fragmented mind-not being able anymore to concentrate on one task at a time, especially if that task is taking place on or near a computer.  I found myself reading an article for this class, toggling over to iGoogle to see if I had any updates on Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, or my RSS feeds, switching over to Amazon.com to get a review for a book that was mentioned in one of the articles, and then clicking on Dictionary.com if I wanted the definition of word I didn't know. Being aware of this, though, didn't change my behavior at all. Having immediate access to  potential trivial information was/is just too tempting.  I imagine everyone else feels the same way.   Nicolas Carr talks about how the internet is actually changing our brains, how we think, react, feel, act in his article, Is Google Making Us Stupid?.  We don't read like we used to, we don't concentrate like we used to, our expectations for short, fragments of info interspersed with snippets of flashy multimedia is becoming the new norm. The threat of artificial intelligence actually becoming smarter than us is lurking around the dark corner of the future.  Well, maybe it's not so doomsday, but he does have a point.

Okay. Let's realize something, though-computers cannot be programmed but by us (humans, that is) so I'm not really that worried about a world being taken over by smart machines.  Are you? That being said, technology definitely IS changing us, our behavior, our expectations.  We want it faster, more accurate, in our homes, at our fingertips.  If that is the case, who are and how must libraries reach their users? Will they even have users in the future? Are millennials really all that different from us oldies? For the obvious reasons that they have never  known a different, analog world-yes.  And they get to do much cooler stuff on their computers than we ever did. They get to create, have a voice (anonymous or not), be in constant contact with their peers, download and share music quickly with their friends, get instantaneous answers that we used to have to look up in a paper encyclopedia.  Someone else posted that they didn't really feel that far removed from millennials in the sense that they have stayed more or less up on technology.  I feel the same way.  And I don't think teens are a whole lot different than we were; they just have a new platform from which to express themselves.  It's fun to think about the ways a new generation will be-the new mindsets, the new ideas that are yet to be born, the differences in new values vs. the old ones, but one thing always remains the same-change is change.  As librarians, we have to be in tune with how the world and the people in it are changing and keep up with it.

L2 oh.

Let me just start by reminding everyone that Halloween is right around the corner.  Okay, I'm a first time parent, blah, blah, blah, but this means that I am looking at baby costumes and I just have to share one that I found on amazon.com.  It's hilarious. Okay, I probably won't end up doing that to my daughter, but aren't you glad you saw this? Yeah, I thought so.

I also want to let everyone know just how much time I frittered away this week playing with this 2.0 stuff.  Holy #%$$!  A few really good things came out of it.  I completely streamlined my digital life using iGoogle.  I centralized all my various accounts to one page so that I wouldn't have to keep going to different urls to check all my stuff.  I'm sure I am the last person to do this, but if I'm not and if, by chance, there is anyone out there who also hadn't discovered this little gem of info-then please take my advice and do it now.  It has completely changed my life. Okay, maybe not, but it's helpful.  And probably saves me an average of about 45 minutes per day.  The other good thing is that I figured out how to blog by phone.  My original impetus to do so was because I had so many photos on my phone camera and wanted to post some of them to another blog I just started about my daughter.  After HOURS of trying to figure it out, I finally got it, but when I uploaded the pics to the blog, they didn't work.  Ugh.  Next best thing came when I realized that I could upload all my photos to Picasa and have them stored right in the clouds! So, all was not in vain. It's amazing what technology exists and that I am only just figuring it out now.  I'm old.

Jump to-point of this week's reading about participatory services and redesign in the library.  L2? YES!!! We have to, we must, it's the only way! Okay, let's just get something straight, though-I am not THAT old, but I can tell you that most of the people my age and older couldn't care less about tweeting and don't really use too much participatory technology in their daily lives apart from Facebook.  However, I think the only way to stay relevant and to be able to "speak" the language of the younger generations, libraries especially have got to get on board.  And I don't mean just with the technology.  That whole idea of changing the mission of the library in John Blyberg's blog is what I'm talking about and what The Transformation Lab is all about.  I mean that Lab is outrageous! Who wouldn't want to work there? I found myself asking, "what do I deep down think a library's goal and services should be?" Is it to be a meeting place? Is it to get information? Is it to be able to read? Is it a place for entertainment? Is it a place for self-discovery and learning?  What do I use my library for? How often do I realistically use my library? What would make me use it more?

We all know the quiet book library is a dying, if not already dead library.  Libraries have to ask themselves those same questions. Who aren't we reaching? How can we get to those people? What could we offer our patrons that would really enhance their experience here?  What are we doing to make finding things easier? Are we accessible from home? Do we provide relevant programs that our community actually cares about? What does our community care about?I guess that's what L2 is to me so even if a library can't financially do what The Transformation Lab did, they can still ask the important questions and be willing to change.

Bloggity blog blog

I think it's cool we're getting to play with all this 2.0 stuff.  I think it was in Emily's? blog where she said she didn't really see the point in posting totally irrelevant and possibly boring life details at semi-regular intervals on Twitter and I couldn't agree more.  I guess that's why I never really bothered with a blog or with Twitter because, without sounding like I'm some insecure, self-loather, I didn't think my life was that important. And it isn't in the scheme of things, but that's kinda the point I took away from this weekend: that whole idea of being able to be social and find "communities" based on shared interests without having to be an IMPORTANT person.  What's weird is that I started following a few comedians I like (I love stand-up) and now I get tweets from "important" people, like Kathy Griffin and Patton Oswalt. Yeah, I'm cool. I get tweets from celebrities. No big deal.

Anyway, I had a ton of fun playing around with Twitter and starting this blog.  I am totally on board with technology and can see it's usefulness in both the library world and every other part too, really.  I am not necessarily a techie either, but if something is cool and is going to make my life easier, I am all for it.   I recently bought a droid phone because I wanted to feel like I was riding the technological wave and not some old granny living in an analog world.  My previous phone was this old school, have-to-text-by-pressing-the-number-buttons-three-times-to-get-a-letter phone.  I couldn't even get photos texts on that phone. I said to myself, "I'm going to be a librarian. I have GOT to get with it here." So, now I'm swyping, I'm downloading apps, I'm taking photos of my kid and texting them all over town, I synched all my accounts so I can get tweets by phone and check my RSS feeds on my phone through googlereader.  I also wanted to try reading a book on my phone so downloaded Kathy Griffin's memoir (something fun and light) and now I am a total advocate for reading digitally. I even think I could read something deep and heavy on it.   Before that experience I was a complete skeptic.  I liked paper books and I was sticking to it,  but I now know without a doubt the direction books are going which is why I wanted to be in the e-book group.

Whew. I over-blogged today, but I guess my mind is still reeling from the weekend. I am super happy I'm taking this class.  Looking forward to following everyone in the www! It'll be weird to get to know everyone first this way and then meet you all in person  in October.  Anyone going to see Catfish? It looks awesome and it's all about this very thing.