Amy's Aimless Articulations

2008-07-11T11:59:00.003-04:00

I wish BCL had an ILL instructional video like this on our site!

Google Maps Street View

2008-07-06T16:14:00.002-04:00

After ogling every nook and cranny of NYC up close & personal via Steet View, I can now look at my very own house. Google Maps finally added the whole Miami area! I am really glad that I wasn't out front in my underwear, watering the palm trees, when they cruised by my neighborhood.

View Larger Map

Open World Cat - check it out!

2008-01-25T10:49:00.004-05:00

FRAPPR Map - Please add yourself!

2008-01-14T11:51:00.002-05:00

2008-01-14T11:51:00.001-05:00

Amy the Audiobook Addict

2007-12-28T09:54:00.001-05:00

As a long-time audiobook fiend, I am thrilled to be finally forced (thank you, TLC 2.0) to learn Overdrive. I guess I'd been procrastinating about it because I've been perfectly content thus far with Main Library's Books-On-CD collection for my listening pleasure. I've always liked to listen in my car during my daily commute to & from Hollwood to Ft. Lauderdale; I started out in the old cassette-deck days because I got hooked on the golden voice of George Guidall, my favorite reader. But now I see that I can also burn my very own CDs or transfer directly to my MP3 player - yea!
First, I took the Digital Media Tour, which I found to be amazingly detailed. If you cannot figure out how to access/use Overdrive after viewing that tutorial, you may as well give up on audiobooks... Next, I browsed and searched Overdrive in every possible way - by author, subject, immediate availablity, etc. Very very very easy to locate titles, but not many of the titles/authors I was seeking were included. I would have to say that the limited choice of books is the biggest drawback of Overdrive at the current time. I did select a couple of interesting titles: one is on HOLD and one is now Checked Out. (I don't think I would ever actually sit & listen at the computer, although I practiced using the Bookmark feature.) It was simple to download the Media Console, then simple to download my checked-out title, and subsequently totally simple to download it via the TRANSFER icon to my MP3!!! Listening to CDs in the car is great - but I only wish it was legal to listen on my scooter to audiobooks with headphones. And now let me leave y'all, and this great TLC 2.0 program, with a holiday audiobook video finale!

Facing Up to Facebook (I'm shy - no, really)

2007-12-24T11:56:00.000-05:00

I joined Facebook with some trepidation, as illustrated by these weenie pics I've inserted. Where o where is that fine line between nice networking and intrusive interaction?!! But so far I am pleasantly suprised - no weirdness yet. In fact, I already had a FRIEND awaiting me when I did the initial log in; one of my stepsons had invited me to join several weeks ago but I had totally forgotton to reply, oops. That is because Facebook is like so many other 2.0 technologies: wonderful but waaaaaaay too time-consuming for a person with a job, 2.2 kids, 1.5 pets, etc. I see my sons on My Space almost every hour of every day, so it is easy to conclude that social networking is the exclusive domain of kids, teens, and single people. However, the work-oriented groups one can join in Facebook obviously have value due to the free exchange of ideas. How much I will actually use this as a professional communication tool (rather than just for big FUN) remains to be seen. I did join the group called No, I don’t look like a librarian because that name made me laugh; hopefully, I will find some amusing people there. I also added the Funwall application, so please give me a shout out there!

PODCASTS = Invasion of the Time, Mind & Body Snatchers

2007-12-14T13:51:00.009-05:00

I have really not enjoyed this exercise at all! Trying to navigate the three recommended podcast directories made me want to curl up inside a pod just to get away from them. I had to wade through lots of junk just to find what I was looking for - and then I could not readily get anything to play. I was finally able to locate some interesting feeds on Digg Podcasts. But it is a good thing that I could send them to my Bloglines account via the RSS button since I definitely do not have time to listen and/or watch them now. Does anyone actually have that kind of time?!!! Or maybe y'all are not really librarianpeople at all - perhaps YOUR body has been snatched and subsequently replaced by a librarianclone? Better take a good long look in the mirror when you get home...

I added http://digg.com/movies to my Newsreader. I must admit it has tons of great stuff for those of us who enjoy movies almost as much as books. But again, only Amy's pod-clone might actually have the time to page through them all, since there is no realistic method of sorting. However, I can see that an instructional or advisory library podcast could be effective - just not as much FUN for our customers as You Tube

Fun with YOU TUBE

2007-12-13T16:10:00.000-05:00

I love You Tube. I find the HOW TO & STYLE page especially useful; all you do from there is search for whatever in the whole wide world you want to learn about! I am sure you could find zillions of how-tos on any number of library related topics - but let's try disco dancing instead! After all, who doesn't want to brush up on The Hustle?! You can follow that LINK to a swell You Tube video, but I prefer to embed directly into the ol' blog since merely copying/pasting the code makes it easy. So in keeping with Main Library's "Out of This World" Holiday Party theme, here is another disco how-to for your perusal, entitled Buck Rogers Disco Dancing.

And now be sure to get one more dose of Spaced Out Disco here, all you futuristic dancing librarians!

Web 2.0 Awards: best Real Estate site

2007-12-07T10:19:00.000-05:00

Ah, check out my ultimate dreamhouse; too bad it's only for dolls! Since I cannot move into this home, guess I'll have to use ZILLOW instead when I am really ready to find a new crib. For a nosy neighbor like me, this Real Estate site has it all. First of all, the site is totally easy to negotiate, letting me scope out all the features without even creating a log in. If I was actually in the market to buy or sell a home, I would definitely register. Even if you are not on the verge of selling, you just might receive an offer you can't refuse using the MAKE ME MOVE feature. It is also helpful as a prospective seller to see how much $$$ houses in your own area are going for. First you can look at the cool hybrid view, then limit by price, number of bedrooms, desired sale dates, etc. When you zero in on a property, you can click on ZESTIMATE to get the realistic scoop - it even graphs changes in the Market Value of the property over the prior ten years. I can certainly see why this swell site won 1st place in the 2007 Web 2.0 awards!

Testing Zoho Boring Paragraph

2007-12-06T10:32:00.001-05:00

Blog Entry WARNING for the aimless babbling below: I did not write this in my blog - instead I wrote it directly into ZOHO and then "published" it right to my blog. Pretty cool.

This is my first ZOHO document; it is strictly a testing device.

This is because I really have no time to write even one measly paragraph. I just want to test how to save, insert, colorize, etc. my documents in ZOHO. I will also be testing the Import function, since I have about a zillion already-created documents. (It worked - yea! And after I imported the document, I exported it as a PDF!!!) I have been meaning to try out Google Docs & Spreadsheets for a long time, but that nasty old time issue delayed even a cursory try. The reason I want to try is simple: collaboration! My colleagues and I are constantly editing mutual documents, attaching and re-attaching them to cumbersome emails, so this will be much more efficient. I also imported my spreadsheet from the prior fiscal year into ZOHO SHEETS and wanted to publish it below via the proscribed code, rather than publish it to a separate blog post, but it was waaaaayyy too big.

P.S. I see a ZOHO toolbar icon for INSERT LAYER; anybody know what that means? Also, I see FAQs here in Zoho but I do not see a general HELP/search for dummies like me. Yikes.

Technorati Tags zoho, applications

Wiki Posting Frenzy

2007-11-26T19:53:00.000-05:00

Wow - don't you think that PBwiki is totally The Bomb?! I am hoping to use it to begin a wiki for my section here at BCL. Hey, maybe a total COMPIS wiki would be even better??? That way, everyone in Periodicals, Interlibrary Loan, and the Computer Center could put in their collective two cents; believe me, between us we've got a LOT to say! Anyhow, I added this blog to the NSUlibs Wiki and also to the BCLtlc wiki page, where I put in the obligatory Kilroyesque shout-out. But the best part was adding a couple of entries to the NSU Wiki FAVORITES! I started by putting in a link to ShareILL, an interlibrary loan wiki to which I contribute. The ILL Custom Holdings there are a perfect fit for wikization, because they a constantly evolving. Then I had to decide between linking or embedding my Favorite Brian Setzer Xmas videos under Favorite Music - I decided to try one of each in the wiki. Since the holidays are upon us, check out the very hippest & most compact version of The Nutcracker you'll ever hear. I guarantee that you're going to love it, ho ho ho!

WackyWikis

2007-11-26T15:10:00.001-05:00

These are my two Wiki gods; they assist me in both finding and editing interesting wikis! I took a good long look at Charlotte-Mecklenberg's wiki, along with the swell Library Success: Best Practices wiki. I also think the 2006 ALA wiki is mega-convenient for those that attended AND those that did not get to go. As far as I am concerned, one of the best things a library can do with a wiki is use it to replace their tired old staff intranets, ZZzzzzzzsnoreZzzzzz. Wouldn't it be great to check out a brand new BCL WIKI on a daily basis?!!! I suspect that lots more staffers would contribute than the few who are 'editors' in our current info incarnation. I really like the oh-so-democratic concept of a wiki: everyone can put in their own two cents! (please see Amy's 2 cents below.) Also, I am hoping to begin an Interlibrary Loan wiki here amongst our wee staff so that we can all contribute to a Standard Operating Procedures manual. Obsolescense overtook me everytime I began an SOP Manual in the past using conventional word processing; the procedures for both lending and borrowing always changed before the ink was even dry!

Rolling my own with Rollyo

2007-11-16T20:44:00.000-05:00

Okey-dokey, that's pretty cool. I was thinking that I could just visit all my regular Interlibrary Loan sites (one at a time, natch) to search for whatever I needed in the Resource Sharing community, but now I see how this one ILL search engine could be uber-convenient. My own little search engine - not too shabby! For example, today I had to draft a response to a Rumor Mill question regarding the price of an interlibrary loan. Since this is a secret more closely guarded than the whereabouts of the key to Ft. Knox, naturally I went to tons of ILL sites/databases to find the cold hard facts. Ha!!! If only I had rolled my own ROLLYO ILL Site earlier, I could have gone home on time! Plus, it was totally simple to boost the Rollbar up in Firefox, no sweat. Please feel free to try it, right here on the old blog - go on, put in some swingin' ILL terminology you've always been curious about... I'll bet you don't know what IFM is, do you? After all, don't inquiring minds want to know?

Library Thing

2007-11-12T10:22:00.000-05:00

Library Thing has got to be the greatest site of all time. It is so easy to use! Please scope out my catalog anytime - I mostly read mystery & history. The cataloging via tags is new to me; I am used to looking at regular bib records all day so it may take a bit of getting used to... I definitely see the need to be consistent with my tags, for my own ease of use as well for facilitating searches by other Library Thing users. The best part is peeking at other people's catalogs!

Image Generators

2007-11-12T08:16:00.000-05:00

This was the most FUN exercise yet! I could happily generate wacky images all day long... A quick search showed me dozens of other slide show generators; hope you enjoy this one showing my travels around Oregon following the NW ILL Conference.

http://www.blyberg.net/card-generator
http://www.signgenerator.org/books/dummies/

selfish Library 2.0 thoughts

2007-11-11T12:04:00.000-05:00

I shall keep my thoughts on this vast topic limited to a few brief comments on the relationship of 2.0 to Interlibrary Loan, aka Resource Sharing. At the recent Northwest Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing Conference, the keynote speaker was Dr. Joseph Janes of the University of Washington. He kicked off the conference (themed ILL 2.0: tools to meet the demands) with a thought-provoking and amusing presentation that had us rolling in the aisles. Please take a look at his PowerPoint; too bad I don't have a video of his accompanying performance because he hopped, skipped, & jumped all over the stage, all to drive home his point: if we do not evolve, we are going to get left in the dust.
As part of the Discovery exercises, I read Chip Nigles' essay entitled "To more powerful ways to cooperate." He stresses the importance of the Open WorldCat website on several levels. First of all, it does something the WorldCat database cannot do: once a user has established an account, he/she can build (via marking) an entire bibliography, refered to as a "list" on the site, and subsequently share it. What a great tool for students doing a research paper together! In the database, users can only convert one bib record at a time into a citation, then paste them into a Word document to build their bibliography.
In both formats, however, user participation is encouraged (wiki style) using their Review This Item feature. I am proud to say that when this new feature was added to the database, long before the emergence of Open WorldCat , I was among the first to add a very brief plot summary (OCLC #365453) under Add/View Comments! (It is called Public Notes on the website.) There I was, using Web 2.0, without even knowing it!!! Also, Open WorldCat has the easiest social sharing link of all time - simply click on Share It and you can send to Facebook, Del.icio.us, etc.
The next step for ILL at BCL is for our customers to request interlibrary loans from the Open WorldCat site, instead of from the WorldCat database. This is already being done in the Northwest via the experimental WorldCat Local program. Since customers vastly prefer the site to the database, this is coming soon to a library near you! Unless, of course, BCL wants to get left in the dust...
P.S. I would like to hear what my MARC-oriented colleagues think of LibraryThing, in terms of Web 2.0. Can y'all really be that loose?!!

Schadenfreude of tagging, technorati, geeks & stars

2007-11-06T12:33:00.000-05:00

I viewed the Geeks on Tour site but did not find the labeling aka tagging section real helpful on the HOW behind it. I found a more academically-minded cite site (sorry) entitled CITEULIKE. This organizes papers via tags; as an ILLer, it may help me locate some grey literature. Anyhow, you can see that I have tagged this post with LOTS of labels; also changed my blog settings so all labels appear as a separate sidebar as well as just beneath the body of the post.

I would rather not blog about a hobby (boring!) but I will just briefly mention the recent preponderance of celebrity Schadenfreude.
It seems that people are taking more and more pleasure in the misfortunes of others lately, especially current movie/pop stars. Don't you think that's sad & bad?! Anyhow, I hope someone comments on the many tags I chose for this post! I commented on another BCL staffer's labeling but looks like most are forgetting to assign tags to their posts.

I also got this semi-rant claimed via Technorati! Once I registered to CLAIM my Blog, I copied/inserted the necessary code in the Edit HTML screen - easy! Then I edited all my prior posts so that they would have the Technorati Faves icon, too.

del.icio.us certainly is

2007-11-06T00:17:00.000-05:00

I've always been a mega-bookmarker, but like most nerds I rarely went back because I could not find the good stuff. Not to mention the fact that I had different favorites on my home computer, library computer, and laptop. Thus, I am an instant fan of del.icio.us, because tagging to just one place makes a lot more sense to me.
I have already mentioned how much it appeals to me to get other people to do my research for me. I had stumbled across a few librarians' websites and/or del.icio.us accounts of interest to me, and subsequently set them up to feed into my newsreader. However, the domino effect of viewing so many del.icio.us networks of mutual interest (and subsequently RSSing them) has made this my new guilty pleasure. It's so easy (the new Firefox toolbar install sure beats IE) and so fun to navigate around del.icio.us that I almost feel like a really nosy neighbor...

Blogging about Technology

2007-11-01T08:56:00.000-04:00

Real writers say you should write about what you know - and as the mother of two sons and two stepsons, what I know is waaaaaaay too much about video games. What I've always hated about them is that they are basically all alike, no matter what guise they are sold under. From Pacman to Grand Theft Auto, it's all about one thing: point and shoot. Some are less violent, some are more violent - but basically, all I see my sons doing during this television and/or computer screen time is pointing and shooting, with more or less blood per game.
However, all that changed when Guitar Hero came along! This is the best $100 bucks I ever spent. Now my sons are learning songs I danced to in high school and college; you just gotta love it. There is a swell article about this wonderful revolution in several national newspapers this month, but columnist Cynthia Wahl says it alot better than I can.
Also check out this ALA tech blog on the very same subject. If we don't want to get left in the dust, BCL definitely needs more of what Deerfield Beach is doing right. My sons are waiting for ALL of our branches to stock good games like Guitar Hero! Maybe by the time Rock Band comes out later this month, we can actually put a HOLD upon it...
http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2007/10/coming-up-for-air-guitar.html

Library Blogs

2007-10-31T16:48:00.001-04:00

When I attended the 2.0-themed Northwestern Resource Sharing Conference in September, presenter Rachel Bridgewater mentioned feeding in Del.icio.us tags (from folks interested in the very same topics as you are) to one's own newsreader as a great way to get other people to do your research for you. I did not totally understand it at the time, but now I shall even receive her stuff via the Bloglines feed! Ha! I find the idea of glomming onto other researchers' results extremely appealing; nothing like having someone else, with perhaps a wee bit more time on their hands, do the digging for you...

Mashups

2007-10-31T15:49:00.000-04:00

I enjoyed playing around with FLICKR'S Montager because it let me create a Resource Sharing mosaic. I think mashups are fun - but I just can't see myself having enough spare time to really utilize these APIs. I was unable to save, and subsequently post to this blog, the montage that was created... But here is the link to the ILL Montage which I made.

I also thought creating my own Trading Card was amusing. And it's true: we ILL types are so excited about sharing books, music, & movies from all around the U.S. that we even deliver via scooter!

Flickr: Halloween angst

2007-10-31T14:48:00.001-04:00

Halloween cliché: existential angst meets pumpkin positivism head on
Originally uploaded by Barbara Rich

I chose this for my very first Halloweenie FLICKR post because it is one of my all-time favorite pics. Long before there were lots of choices for photo editing and/or sharing, by husband stuck his head onto this picture to create a screensaver that made me laugh every time I sat down at the computer.

RSS feeds/Newsreaders

2007-10-23T12:29:00.000-04:00

I know my new Bloglines account can potentially save me lots of time in the not-too-distant future, as I will no longer pay daily or weekly visits to my favorite news sites, ILL sites, and book sites to keep current. However, there is just so much swell stuff out there that I can also see myself spending 24/7 reading all my feeds! I think the interlibrary loan feeds, however, will prove very valuable here at work. I found the search tool in Bloglines itself quite helpful, and Feedster and Technorati also brought up great blogs, wikis, and photos/videos. I do not have much in there yet, but my blogroll is publicly accessible at http://www.bloglines.com/public/aimless, for those of you who may be interested in the same weird stuff that I am.

Lifelong Learning

2007-10-11T09:40:00.000-04:00

I have just viewed the Lifelong Learning tutorial; it is easy to identify which habit is the hardest one for me. Or am I the only one that has trouble viewing obstacles as mere challenges to be overcome?! The easiest lifelong learning habit for me is teaching others, since that is the very essence of what we do in the library.