Final Thoughts

I'd like to start with a success story. A week or two after the Google Labs exercise, I was helping a woman who updates her church website. The pastor sends her a Word document and she was instructed to add it to the site as a PDF file. I said that we don't have software here for that but that I just learned a way to do that for free via Google, and she was delighted (wrote down the 24 steps) that I could help her. Me too.

So already these exercises have helped (I've also fielded a few MySpace questions) in our customer service. On the whole I've been really impressed with this project and with the information we have learned. I don't know whether to be excited about the direction our culture is going, or horrified. A serious lot of time and effort is being spent by a heck of a lot of people on computer/internet-related activities. I guess I'd have to say that it's maybe like art, or sports for that matter. Some people really like it, and find it very gratifying, and others think it's a waste of time.

Overall, I didn't have much trouble learning the various tools. I found that with some tinkering I could usually figure it out. I do believe strongly that Librarians and other Library workers should continue to learn on the job, so I was really pleased to take part in this project. I think people who work in libraries tend to like to learn, so we are perfect for this sort of thing.

Favorite exercises: Google Labs (especially the documents) and this blog - I like to write.

Surprises: the extent and variety of online applications, goofy inventions, amazing technological advances (mapping, etc.), and the amount of time people spend on all this stuff.

Biggest surprise: that email is too slow and is not cool

Didn't need too much help but yes, it was there when I needed it. Thanks for that.

Improvements: maybe have the option of 2-3 people working in teams? As long as everyone does the exercises, it might make it more fun. Maybe some sort of competition or "final project" - something fun.

Similar trainings? Yes.

Do it again? Yes.

Something else to cover: our biggest tech problem here is the multitude of stuff that people want to connect up to our computers. Video cams, cameras, 21 different MP3 players, etc. I would like to learn some basics about connecting peripherals to our system and what can and cannot be done. Do's and Don'ts of music downloading.

That's it - thanks a bunch.

Podcasts

EUREKA - finally, what I've been looking for these past many years. A podcast from Sirsi/Dynix. I can now go on vacation with peace of mind and a warm heart.

Moreover (I just miss using this word) - moreover, I found a couple interesting library podcasts. My favorite was linked off podcastalley, called "Secret Library Workers Union". I thought it would be labor-related but it's just a bunch of really wacky, poetic clips: Abominable Librarian; Please Leave; Typing - Eyes Closed, Mouth Open are the funniest. The clips evoke the wierdness of library life.

http://podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=45694

I noticed the King County Law Library has a podcast, but the podcast I thought was most useful for our setting was a Teen podcasting program at Hennepin County. We could do something like that. I also liked the Reference Speakers Series, but I wouldn't expect it to be too successful unless we could get some big names to present. A "speakers series" could be used as a training tool, but I think it would be better to have video along with audio for something like this.

Video (YouTube)

What I really wish we could do was take video of some of the kids here and email the video to their parents. What else could we do? Book talks maybe? How about some bibliographic instruction (that'll get 5 stars for sure)? I think it would be interesting to have a short video montage of what all the branches look like. Or a time-lapse video clip of the entrance - it would be fun to see all the traffic coming into and going out of the branch. Hey, I know - a live cam of the stacks when we are closed! We could call it Dewey-Cam, and it would be just like the bald eagle cam, only better.

Anyway, I poked around a bit on YouTube and mostly did searching on the Help Desk spoof idea. I recently saw a video clip of the Medieval Helpdesk and really liked it (I'll embed the link below). I noticed it was tagged "middelage" which made me wonder if I could pull it up searching on the correct spelling. I could, but only because they used the term "middle ages" in the description. So I tried searching on other spoof help desk clips and found a Star Wars Help Desk clip. It's a great idea, but the people acting in the clip were rather horrible.



I liked the dominoes clip a lot too.

Google Labs

I don't entirely get how the trends search works because of the results I got (I did read their "about google labs" blurb).

The first search I did was to compare "library, britney spears, impeach". "library" came out higher than b. spears, which doesn't make sense at all. The spears search did spike a few times in late 2006 and again in early 2007 - when was that hair episode?? A couple months ago, right? So maybe that correlates.

The other search I did was "iraq, wmd, fish" and fish came out a lot higher than the other two terms. The only part that makes sense was the iraq spike in late 2003 (invasion) and the listing for Baghdad, where "iraq" was monstrously high in comparison to searches on "fish".

I also looked at Google Mars, which was awesome. Say you don't remember whether to turn right at the big crater, or left. Just scroll around and see for yourself. I thought it was really great how they linked named geographical areas to the map. Looking for the Tholus Summit? There it is. And you can see where the two rovers are still roving. But I typed in "Bob's Latte Emporium" and nothing came up, which is an obvious glitch.

The world is my oyster

Zowie, this is just grand. And just in time too. My "old" computer at home crashed a few months ago, and although I can still use the internet (after going through the various scary error messages warning me of imminent disaster), all my other applications refuse to open.

So I've been using my wife's Mac, which involves a bit of scheduling and "oops, here ya go honey, I was just getting off now anyway" - and plus, the mouse really stinks and the keyboard is a bit squishy, and darn it all if everything is a bit different. But I like that it's not a PC, just for the sheer audacity of trying to struggle through life without a Microsoft product.

Anyhoo, so this solves my problem of racing over to the phone to call my wife's cell phone to get her off her computer for a few minutes when I need to open a quick word doc (I don't really do that). This also solves the even bigger, and more annoying problem, of having to open an Excel doc every 3 months or so. I refuse to buy the darn software for 4 uses/year. Of course I could just go to the library, like those poor pathetic mortals tromping in every day, shoulders curled with desperation and fatigue.

So back to the options. I imported a doc into both programs. I found, once again, a preference for Google. Again, familiarity - but also the buttons did what I wanted them to do. For example, if you want to save a doc as a pdf, you click File-Save As PDF in Google. This makes sense. In Zoho, you have to click Export. This does not make sense, especially as they have a Save As button right there at the beginning of the line.

I thought Zoho presented more options. The digisign is a great idea, and I haven't seen that Google has something similar. The emotion buttons are cute but not all that useful. I got the impression that Zoho is designed for more academic settings (postcripts/superscripts) or maybe for more professional settings, and Google is designed more for the lay person.

My overall opinion is that this is not only great for me but that it's a very practical tool that we could introduce to patrons.

I decided to post with this image as a counter-argument to Mr. Anderson's University of Nevada perspective. While I appreciate his forward-thinking take, I would argue that technology is on a balancing post, fulcrum in the middle. His "users" are probably all pretty highly educated and media-saavy folk. I don't think his librarians on staff get too many "I've never used a computer before but I just need to type up a quick resume...." questions. So my argument would be that we need to preserve the boat while we grab the paddle, lest we find ourselves up a creek with just a paddle (in fairness, he makes a pretty balanced argument at the end of his article). So going back to the balancing idea, as users are more and more 2.0-oriented, it makes sense to shift more and more resources into that arena. But we must also preserve the library as a fundamental institution as well. There are plenty of areas where people can go to experience Web 2.0. Many people still come in to the library to experience a library. My guess is that as time goes by, more and more people will be expressing an interest in a 2.0 direction. So I would begin modestly in with various 2.0 experiments across the system, and perhaps more aggressively make changes only in branches or areas where patrons express the most interest. As the balance shifts, we can shift our services more and more, but never at the expense of the library as a library.

A co-worker was vacationing in France a few years ago and ventured into a public library there. She asked for DVD's (non), and then music CD's (non), and then something else... The response was "Madam, this is a library!"

I wouldn't argue to get rid of DVD's or CD's, but the point is that we need to remain a library while we gradually add 2.0 services. Try some out - if they are useful, keep them. If not, try something else. I think adding a tagging feature (that doesn't override our cataloging system) is a great idea, for example.

I was glad to see someone warning against "technolust" - seems like a good idea. And I also appreciated the futurist who reminded us that Web 2.0 is just a baby step in the Web trail. The Chip Nilges piece was interesting as a primer on OCLC's newest projects but I didn't see too much in there that would apply to the public library setting. Maybe it's just 'big vision' stuff that went over my head, though.

Custom Search Engines

For the first assignment, I tried searching on "conduct" on both sites, and found that Google's brought back more varied results (Sno-Isle didn't show up in the results of Rollyo even after 5 screens). I liked Google better, though, not so much because of the results but simply because it was familiar. They both pulled up plenty of hits from KCLS and SPL. Neither search engines brought up a code of conduct for Sno-Isle, but the reason became apparent when I went to their website and noticed that their policy is termed "disruptive behavior".

For the second assignment, I tried setting up a Rollyo account and created a search engine for "Climate" - climate change info. I put in a few websites and tried a search. It worked fine and reminds me of that good old search engine Dogpile, or MetaSearch, or some of those others that collate results.

It also reminds me of our woe-begotten search tool (can't remember the name) that finally went the way of the dodo, the one that searched EVERYTHING, from the homepage, and brought back that horiffic long list of EVERYTHING.