Thing Six

This is pretty fun. I wish there was some cost-effective way to figure out how to use book trading cards for a summer reading programs. Wouldn't it be cool for kids to have their own, personalized decks of cards showing what they had read instead of the traditional written down lists? They could write reviews on the bottom part. That would be so much more slick. But again, I can't think of any way to do it that would make financial sense. Maybe choosing selected books and reviews ...I dunno. I think there are some really fun things to do with these.
And yes, I am very concerned with legalities and making sure that artists get their due. I just think it is very important to educate (especially kids) that just because it is available, doesn't mean it is yours. The lego man image is from this article.
The photo itself is by Paul Vreeker for Reuters

What do you think of this bling? I am so funny I can hardly stand it.

Thing Five

I really like lip balm. I mean, I have big lips,so maybe it's justifiable that I'm using lip balm as a search term. Or maybe it's pathological:

LOOK AT LIPBALM

I love seeing the contents of people's purses and backpacks. I like it when it's all out in an orderly fashion. It makes me think that order is achievable. Anyway...

These APIs are fun and I think the main use for them is to make things look more slick. That may or may not be the top priority, but I really think that appearance gives credence and draws people in. The whole concept gets kind of dangerous to think about, especially with web design becoming more and more easy. One of the qualities that we were taught to look for when evaluating a website for library school was design:; how sophisticated the site was. I don't think it's as simple to tell as it used to be, because now there are so many ways to get code. Don't get me wrong, I love the look of well-designed things (duh),but so many things in the library are more important, yet I loathe the dated look of our libary's homepage, so I guess maybe I feel it's more important than I want it to be.

It's just nice to know that these mashups are available to use in whatever way you can think of. Integrating them into blogs and sites richens and enlivens the visitors experiences.

Thing Four

photo by massdistraction

I can't say that this is going as smoothly as I would like. I've been really distracted here at work (the only place where I have computer access currently)and it's all because I'm obsessively trying to upload photos to my blog. First of, let me say that I think visuals are intrinsic to the Web 2.0 experience. I don't think that they (the visuals) necessarily have to be photos, but I can tell you that when photos are involved I am fifty percent more likely to be interested. Even for simple things like finding books: despite what's been said, you can tell a lot about a book by it's cover. I love the concept of scrolling over a picture of something, like a bookshelf, and having it give me information about that thing. I've seen it done with aerial view maps, too, and that's totally rad.

I already had a Flickr account but, as I've mentioned, I'm not really interested in posting my own image or those of my friends and family online. I know, I know-I reap the rewards without having to take the leap myself. I struggle with how much people are willing to put out there about themselves ; but I LOVE IT!!!! I, however, cannot do it myself.

So, let me say that one of my favorite bloggers is Sharyn Morrow from right here in St. Paul MN, and it just so happens that she is a voracious Flickr-er also.

She's awesome, isn't she? With all of that said I don't know how much I will use Flickr. I would definitely recommend it to people, I will certainly peruse it when my favorite blogs link to it, if I continue blogging I'll most surely use it to add pizzazz to my pages, but I don't even own a camera. I have a three-year-old and I've probably taken no more than twenty photos total of him his whole life. Yes, that's how lame I am about photography. Personally. Come to think of it, I think this is fundamentally about me: I want everyone else to do the stuff so that I can enjoy it.

Thing Three

Hey, only twenty more Things to go! Yeah team!!!
I think RSS feed is intrinsic to a convenient, usable, useful Web. I've been using Google Reader as my aggregator for over a year now, and have the updates directly on my homepage. Before that, I bookmarked all my favorite blogs (sometimes as many as fifty!) and would have to check them whenever I logged on to see if they had been updated. How lame. And time consuming and disappointing if there were no updates. For me, RSS feed has revolutionized my Web use and allowed me to check out the usefulness of many more sites than I would have been able to monitor without it.
I have to say, I use it much more with blogs than any newsfeeds. I just don't need to know if the local paper has updated its feed because I already know that it has. For more general sites such as those, I think it is just easier to have them bookmarked so that your reader doesn't get bogged down by too many updates. Or, make sure that the update from a newsfeed that you want is specific, like choose the food section or the sports section. Otherwise you'll be getting hundreds of updates throughout the day.
Also, I feel that while tools for finding feeds are interesting, I think they'll be going by the wayside any day now; there's barely a legitimate site out there that doesn't have a feed. I have found most of the sites on my reader through links from other sites and have maybe come across one or two that doesn't have a feed. I just think it's almost a thing of the past, like trying to find a listserv. But what do I know?
Really, one of my favorite library blogs is Brian Herzberger's Swiss Army Librarian. He's just got a great voice, and features a reference question of the week which I find helpful considering my lack of experience. Jessamyn and Michael Stephens were two blogs that I had on my reader but got rid of because mostly they just updated me on where they were going next to give lectures. I became totally bored. Obviously they are two great people in the library field, especially as far as advancing Web 2.0, I just wanted more description of service in the trenches. Plus, Jessamyn is the one that linked me to Brian's site, so that was good.
Another site that I think is absolutely a must for Web 2.0 is iLibrarian. It keeps me informed of the latest technologies and how they relate to libraries. I think 99% of my knowledge of new technology comes from this site.
Do not hesitate to use RSS feed. It is not an option not to.

Thing Two

See, I'm already way behind: It's taken me weeks to get to number two.
I think the"Library 2.0" label is just a faddish way of saying that it is of utmost importance that librarians and libraries keep up with the needs and, yes, wants of the public. I feel that libraries in the past have always done an excellent job of fulfilling the expectations of those patrons who came in and asked, but more and more people don't think that they need to ask,or even come in. And libraries have to stay open. Libraries are vital, it's just that a lot of people don't understand how vital. So libraries have to show they are current, and currency means ACCESS.
Capitalist don't have time to wait for anything. It all comes back to money and time. And why should people wait if they don't have to. If libraries aren't going to help, then people will find a way without them.
We need to be "Library 2.0" because that is what we are expected to be. It's not about books, it's not about customer service, it's not about computers. It is about democratic access. To as many things as your brother, your sister, your government or, heck, your president, have access to so that you have a fighting chance to live as quality a life as you choose to live. Access should not be self-conscious: libraries should be matter-of-fact about their capabilities, that we are indeed ahead of the curve as far as providing access in all manner of ways. I think this is a duty of the librarian, just as it has always been. Now there are just new ways of doing it.

Thing One

I am such a great fan of blogs. I thirst for postings and follow some voraciously, yet I've always been so timid about trying new things on the internet for a number of reasons:

1. I've found that the more you know about using computers, the more you don't know.
2. I could spend the better part of a day figuring all this stuff out and getting it exactly the way I want it. And that's too much time. Especially when my three-year-old is wondering why he has to wait for my attentions.
3. Security. I don't trust the government. I don't necessarily trust my fellow man. I wonder just how much of an online presence I am comfortable with. On the one hand I love the online community and the personalities that I have seen there, but on the other I don't like the thought of being watched or tracked or any of that. I mean, it's easy enough to monitor people without being given a carte blanche into their lives as it sometimes seems personal blogs provide.

But, I really want to learn to use these things for myself, my friends, my kid, my patrons, and the only real way to do that is to do it online.

So here goes.