Tuesday, November 11, 2008
L&P 6: Flickr Mashups
Clearly I should have sued a photo that wouldn't pixelate so much. :-)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aeolussurf1/2867321899/
L&P # 5: Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aeolussurf1/
Sorry for the brief posting!
L&P 23: The End (or is it the beginning?)
Would I do another L&P initiative? Absolutely! It would make me find time to explore. Please don't do Twitter again. It makes me feel guilty for not taking time to follow it but without a portable device I simply don't have the time. The biggest complaint I've heard from staff, speaking of time, is that they simply don't have the time to keep up, given our branch's workload. We told them they could, encouraged them to, even alloted time in the schedule, but most felt a greater obligation to public service and made sure branch work was done. Commendable but not ideal for learning. Maybe it would be different had we been fully staffed.
Farewell, dear non-readers.
L@P # 22: MOLDI
It's very exciting that MOLDI will support IPODs now.
Digital downloads are the future of media; it will not be too long, I suspect, before the library has no discs and is offering several types of download, from music to movies on demand. User behavior will drive this trend, not technology. Several different vendors are already offering library databases to support this trend, some of which offer holdings as or more interesting than what we find on MOLDI. I hope that CML can trial and perhaps subscribe to some of them. So far, film offerings are a bit scanty but we can expect to see that change.
The ability to "check out" digital offerings and have them automatically "return" will offer customers the same ability to enjoy content that we now have with check out of physical items; the library can remain a source of enjoyment and instruction for those who wish to enjoy without the necessity of purchasing, enhancing public literacy and knowledge.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
L&P@CML: Podcasts
L&P@CML: YouTube
Here a YouTube favorite, from Weird Al himself. Many of you have probably already seen it. It inspired me to become a librarian:
Friday, October 17, 2008
L&P@CML: Creative Commons
L&P@CML: LuLu
One can also upload files to create music CDs or visual DVDs.
Lulu adds a marketing feature, so that one can put one's materials up for sale.
Library use? Well, a library could use Lulu as an option for printing/selling an annual report or a library history. I think it more likely that this will be a source from which we are asked to purchase items. Without any reviews other than user comments, I'm not sure how authoritative/reliable/high quality the materials here will be. It represents an interesting dilemma, doesn't it: we may wish to foster web/library 2.0 content, but how much will we trust such content in guiding purchases with tax payer $. Libraries with local history/author collections are perhaps likely to benefit from having another source where such materials could be obtained.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
L&P@CML: Web-based Apps
Leanr & Play @ CML: Wikis 2
L&P@CML: Wikis. Our Branch Wiki Rocks!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Work&Play@CML: Web/Library 2.0, or Who's using Who?
L&P@CML: del.icio.us
Friday, September 19, 2008
L&P@CML: Twitter
At least one academic library (or so I have seen reported in the liteature) has begun to use Twitter with students, tweeting about new item arrivals and library hours and library closures due to weather (generally snow emergencies in their case--they used it for this purpose this past year).
It seems a good way to make the library visible, but they have a more captive audience than do we in the public library realm.
If we were to learn that enough customers were following our tweets, it could be a good way to market the collection ("New Janet Evanovich "Tortuous 24" arrived today--Get it at the Library!") or to advise about hours/closures, etc.
Personally, I wouldn't use Twitter, at least now. I'm strained enough to have time to do everything I need to do without taking an extra minute on top of it to tweet what I'm doing. I might someday set up a cell phone to receive tweets from others, if they wanted me to knwo what they were doing in this way.
What am I doing? I typing a tweet about how I'm using Twitter to type a tweet.
L&P@CML: Library Thing
It's interesting that LibraryThing is entering into partnerships to be part of LibraryLand's various catalog overlays.
Here's my LibraryThing link, such as it is:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/aeolussurf
Michael
"A catalog is good, but knowledge is better."
L&P@CML Image Generators
Soon you to can have results like the following without having to think at all; you'll finally be able to satisfy that nagging need to blog while still having time for a life.
"Abject apologies I just returned from my daily swim on the beautiful Fijian beach and realised I have not updated this since Paris Hilton was in jail... You would not believe I spend all my time in front of a computer. Apologies to my regular readers! Even the little blue ones!.
I am absolutely consumed with only your readership as life preserver, choosing my retirement village, just generally being of great concern to the secret service, my day is dreadfully busy from the first cockadoodledoo from the rooster to I run out of alcohol. I am putting money aside so I can run away. it will be fun fun fun till they take my TBird away.
I won't promise anything to you but that when the weather turns bad, I will blog more often. No, really! This is for my ever faithful, devoted public."
No good? Well, at least it was quick and easy and fun.
Signed (it being International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and having used a pirate name generator),
Iron Black Mike
L&P@CML Finding Feeds
Okay, time for true confessions.
I found better information on blogs/feeds on SUBJECTS faster with a Google Search than any of the above (they were good for showing me popular blogs on general or broad areas of interest). And why use Bloglines at all when one can simply use the browser Reader feature to get the same information faster and easier? I found I could subscribe to reads much more quickly with the reader than with Bloglines. I can get the information without logging to any sites. With 100 million (or however many bloggers there are) out there, making the likelihood of anyone I don't know caring about my feed list EXTREMELY small, does the social networking aspect provided by Bloglines make it worth the extra time to sign up and to log in? I want my feed information now and fast and with as little fuss as possible, and browser readers give it to me more efficiently than Bloglines.
It was fun to investigate. I do like the ability to get to my feeds from any computer buy logging into bloglines, for tiems I might not have a laptop with me.
Michael
Thursday, September 18, 2008
L&P@CML: LISNews
LearnNPlay at CML--Dublin's Children's Area
These are photos of Dublin's Children's Area--of our two showcases, O'Reilly the Bookworm and a window that looks out upon a garden. Notice, however, how bland everything else is. :-) We are re-modleing the entire Children's area, however, so stay tuned for future pix that will show what we've done--with BIG WOW Factor added!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Fat Boys need BIG sails
This is not necessarily the same as being a fat boy, plain and simple. I don't have three chins and rolls of fat hanging over my collar. I only have about 1 1/2 chins. When I walk down the street, people don't gawk with astonished eyes or make comments about whales. But 108 kg (kgs are SO much nicer than pounds! Doesn't 108 sound svelte? Well, maybe--if one does not know how many pounds that is) is not small for a windsurfer.
Fat Boy windsurfers do have some advantages. We can hold down sails in high winds much more effectively than tweezer butts. And when a big windsurfer gets going, the speeds can be impressive.
But we do have disadvantages--when pencil necks are powered up, we (unless sailing HUGE clouds of monofilm) are still slogging.
When my less weighty friends are rigging 7.5's, I'm cranking the downhaul on a 12.5.
And big sails (with big masts and long booms) cost more.
In the unlikely event that somebody actually reads this post, here are some sail sizes I think (based on a little bit experience, but not as much TOW as I'd like) are right for fat boys. If you have any suggestions about sail size (especially about wave sails that might work for fat boys), I'd love to hear them.
Wind: up to 15 knots; Sail = 12.5 race
Wind: steady 15, gusts to 20; Sail = 12.5 race still :-)
Wind: steady 18, gusts to 25; Sail = 10.5 race/10.0 freeride
Wind: steady 20, gusts to 28; Sail = 9.0 race/ 8.5slalom
Wind: steady 25, gusts to 32; Sail = 7.5 race/slalom
Wind: steady 30, gusts to 35; Sail = 6.0 to 6.5 no-cam freeride.
The mantra for many years was, rig big or go home. I can't get my carcass off a slog any other way. More recently, the trend has been to smaller, more powerful sails. Any big guys had any luck with them?
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Upper Arlington & Religion
The judge did not rule on the Constitutionality of the case, simply positing that eliminating the specifically religious parts of a meeting was "viewpoint discrimination."
The case is certainly an interesting one and raises questions about library meeting room policies, especially in light of a case that the ADF earlier lost in a higher court and that the Supreme Court has refused to visit in spite of a supporting brief from the Bush Administration:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214929,00.html
In this case, the court ruled "Prohibiting Faith Center's religious worship services from the Antioch meeting room is a permissible exclusion of a category of speech."
So, the issue seems to be whether a meeting is a religious service (which seemingly may be disallowed in library meeting rooms) or a meeting discussing religion that might contain so many religious elements that it may as well be a religious service. It would be nice to get a unified legal ruling on this issue. In the meantime, libraries will evidently have to look at their policies to see what they want to allow and what they don't. We may owe our taxpayers a rigourous separtaion of church and state, so that tax dollars to not support religion in our meeting rooms; on the other hand, we have always been advocates of free adn open expression. An interesting dilemma. Any thoughts?
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Learn & Play: First Library Post
Okay, because I'm an optimistic kind of guy, I'll talk about a strength first. Item #3 suggests we view problems as challenges, and I'm all over that one. I love challenges, and I see all challenges as opportunities. I'm not easily discouraged by anything, and never discouraged by a problem--I look for solutions and keep going till the problem is solved or (as sometimes happens) no longer matters.
My big weakness is harder to choose because I have so many weaknesses. I'd say it was item # 7 1/2: "play." I love to play. I have so little time, however, that I usually work first and leave myself little time for play. I'm trying to prioritize play and have more simply have fun. Hey, I don't want to be known as the guy who had no fun. Somehow it just seems too ironic and post-modern to rigidly schedule play time, though, so wish me luck getting around to the fun stuff. Though who says work can't also be fun and play?