It has been some journey! Many times I felt frustrated and others I thought I couldn't go on.
The best compliment came when a young and computer savvy coworker asked me something about Wiki. I couldn't believe my ears! he was really asking me something and I was able to show him the little I knew!
Some of the Things were really of no use for me personally: like Facebook , Ning and Twitter (I have no plans to keep track of them) and naturally I would never consider having a personal YouTube account but said that... I think we can make good use of YouTube and Twitter at the library, if only we can get approval to have a direct link on our website. I would love to see a YouTube video showcasing our library and branches and some of the great programs we offer. We can also do a virtual tour of the Central library to show patrons where are the Large Print books, the Spanish section, the Teen Center, the Youth Library, Genealogy, Media, etc. Many patrons would appreciate that.
I am sure many patrons will appreciate also the Librarything site: they can organize their private libraries or the books they have already read, find other people with similar reading interests, read some book reviews and learn what is new and get suggestions based on their book preferences. We could advertise it as an RSS feeder, having a link to the video they can watch and learn how to use the site.
I loved the Flickr Mashups and Image Generators for the many possibilities to personalize your images and showcase photographs. Perhaps we can use it also to show attendance to the library events, special presentations and classes and why not?, we can even advertise our services using Flickr.
Delicious is certainly a delicious site to store all my favorite websites. Now I use it very often since I don't want to try to remember on which PC I store a particular site of interest. At the library I have 5 different PCs from where to work and, you guess it right, I don't have all my favorites on all of them! With Delicious I can just go there and find what I am looking for. It could be also very helpful for our patrons. We just need to have a link with instructions on how to use it on the library's website.
Instant Messaging... is so common now that I am pretty sure everyone doing the 23 Things has done it before. I like it better that talking by phone to receive instructions on how to fix my computer!
Google Docs, this was enlightening for me. I found it very useful and easy to use and I am sure our patrons will love it, provided we show them how to use it. We can add some computer classes on how to use several of the 23 Things, only if we can add hours to the day and staff to our library.
Thanks for offering this opportunity.
I truly learned many Things and some more about myself!
About Me
- Matilda
- According to my Mom I am the cutest, little B/W Shih Tzu on Earth. I was adopted by my parents when someone else abandoned me, with a broken arm, at my parents Vet. Luckily my parents loved me "at first sight" and were ready to adopt me once the "legal time and documents" allowed them to do so.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Thing 22: Developing your own 23 Things for your library
How to adapt this program to my library?
Well, I know for sure that several of my coworkers are participating in the program but not all of them. It would be great if all the library staff could be able to take it. In some cases some staff members are pretty knowledgeable and would only need to learn some of the Things they haven't used.
Since not all the library staff have work stations with PCs and access to Internet I don't think it would be feasible to make it mandatory (Also, many of us do not have a computer at home). I know for sure that many of my colleagues would love to steal some time from their daily duties to browse at least some of the Things but, they simply have too many chores to complete (we are short staffed at the library).
I know there are also other gadgets that we should know how to use like the famous and popular iPods or MP3-players. Knowing how to use them could be handy at the library since we have audio books that can be downloaded to such devices and patrons that request help but, for example, I do not own neither an iPod or an MP3-player and I know many coworkers that can't afford to buy one neither.
Our library has been rotating a Kindle reader and that is wonderful because not everyone can afford to buy one in order to learn how to use it. Kudos for my library for thinking about it! Hopefully very soon I will have the opportunity to try it.
Well, I know for sure that several of my coworkers are participating in the program but not all of them. It would be great if all the library staff could be able to take it. In some cases some staff members are pretty knowledgeable and would only need to learn some of the Things they haven't used.
Since not all the library staff have work stations with PCs and access to Internet I don't think it would be feasible to make it mandatory (Also, many of us do not have a computer at home). I know for sure that many of my colleagues would love to steal some time from their daily duties to browse at least some of the Things but, they simply have too many chores to complete (we are short staffed at the library).
I know there are also other gadgets that we should know how to use like the famous and popular iPods or MP3-players. Knowing how to use them could be handy at the library since we have audio books that can be downloaded to such devices and patrons that request help but, for example, I do not own neither an iPod or an MP3-player and I know many coworkers that can't afford to buy one neither.
Our library has been rotating a Kindle reader and that is wonderful because not everyone can afford to buy one in order to learn how to use it. Kudos for my library for thinking about it! Hopefully very soon I will have the opportunity to try it.
Thing 21: Podcasts
This is another example of a Thing that can be very attractive for some people but not exactly for me. The thing is I do not own an iPod nor an MP3-player and do not plan to acquire one soon. Maybe a should!
I have to admit that the first two podcasts I "listened" to I was expecting to also see images or a video... Yeah... then I got it! This was just for listening.
First I visited the City of Los Angeles Public Library Teen Podcast and I listened to an interview and also learned about the Teen services. The sound seems to be good quality but from my computer I can only barely hear what they were saying. The problem was not the podcast but that I don't have earphones to better listen or that from my PCs the highest volume is not enough for me. This, I am afraid, applied to all the podcasts I tried.
Also I visited the Education Podcast Network in the hope to listen to some educational podcasts but whenever I tried to listen to any of them I received the following Note: "Unable to open RSS feed".
Then I tried a podcast about Frank Sinatra called "The Frank Truth". Since I don't like Frankie well I moved out pretty soon.
One that I found interesting was the "Free talk live", a radio show where they were talking about the profiling from some Border Patrol agents towards people with Hispanic names. They talked about the case of a Carlos González guy who frankly has been constantly persecuted by the Border Patrol agents in Laredo, Texas.
I also tried something called "Great Smokey Mountains" where a professor teaches people how to make clicking sounds like African Bushmen but again... a Note appeared telling me: "Quick Time is missing software required to perform this operation. Unfortunately not available on Quick Time server".
Could a Podcast work on a library? Perhaps. There seems to be many patrons listening to something on their iPods or MP3-players so why not!
I have to admit that the first two podcasts I "listened" to I was expecting to also see images or a video... Yeah... then I got it! This was just for listening.
First I visited the City of Los Angeles Public Library Teen Podcast and I listened to an interview and also learned about the Teen services. The sound seems to be good quality but from my computer I can only barely hear what they were saying. The problem was not the podcast but that I don't have earphones to better listen or that from my PCs the highest volume is not enough for me. This, I am afraid, applied to all the podcasts I tried.
Also I visited the Education Podcast Network in the hope to listen to some educational podcasts but whenever I tried to listen to any of them I received the following Note: "Unable to open RSS feed".
Then I tried a podcast about Frank Sinatra called "The Frank Truth". Since I don't like Frankie well I moved out pretty soon.
One that I found interesting was the "Free talk live", a radio show where they were talking about the profiling from some Border Patrol agents towards people with Hispanic names. They talked about the case of a Carlos González guy who frankly has been constantly persecuted by the Border Patrol agents in Laredo, Texas.
I also tried something called "Great Smokey Mountains" where a professor teaches people how to make clicking sounds like African Bushmen but again... a Note appeared telling me: "Quick Time is missing software required to perform this operation. Unfortunately not available on Quick Time server".
Could a Podcast work on a library? Perhaps. There seems to be many patrons listening to something on their iPods or MP3-players so why not!
Thing 20: YouTube
Oh, my! I never thought I would be raving about the YouTube possibilities. This experience has been enlightening, I have been forced to visit YouTube and watch some videos, library related videos, and now I want my library to do something about it. I wish we could have a link in our web page directing patrons to the Library's own video at YouTube.
I have seen some great examples of attracting videos that our patrons might love to see about their own Fort Worth Library:
The video "Discover a new world at Columbus, Ohio" is a wonderful example to show Columbus, Ohio citizens know all the resources the library has to offer like Story times, ILL, High Speed Internet, quantity of books own by the library, meeting rooms, helpful staff and much more!
There was another interesting video called "Ray of Light" by the St. Joseph County Public Library version, in which you can see from before the sun arises what is going on at the library: the guard does his rounds, opens the door, staff arrives and start pulling off the books and doing all sorts of activities the people never see when they visit the library.
There is one video for the New York Library where different recognized personalities talk about their love for libraries and what a library can do to help other people in these dire times. The "Shout it Out for Your Library" video ask for public support in the voices of Bette Middler, Ellen Burstyn, Nora Ephron, Jeff Daniels, Mario Batalli, Amy Tan and her little Yorkie and many more.
There are also videos to explain the TexShare Databases 24/7 services available for Public Libraries. Even the City of Plano, Texas has one advertising their library services. Surely we at the Fort Worth Library can have one too, can't we?
I have seen some great examples of attracting videos that our patrons might love to see about their own Fort Worth Library:
The video "Discover a new world at Columbus, Ohio" is a wonderful example to show Columbus, Ohio citizens know all the resources the library has to offer like Story times, ILL, High Speed Internet, quantity of books own by the library, meeting rooms, helpful staff and much more!
There was another interesting video called "Ray of Light" by the St. Joseph County Public Library version, in which you can see from before the sun arises what is going on at the library: the guard does his rounds, opens the door, staff arrives and start pulling off the books and doing all sorts of activities the people never see when they visit the library.
There is one video for the New York Library where different recognized personalities talk about their love for libraries and what a library can do to help other people in these dire times. The "Shout it Out for Your Library" video ask for public support in the voices of Bette Middler, Ellen Burstyn, Nora Ephron, Jeff Daniels, Mario Batalli, Amy Tan and her little Yorkie and many more.
There are also videos to explain the TexShare Databases 24/7 services available for Public Libraries. Even the City of Plano, Texas has one advertising their library services. Surely we at the Fort Worth Library can have one too, can't we?
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Thing 19: Google Docs
Again, there is nothing mentioned about writing our comments on this Thing.
It is easy to work with Google Docs, apparently, because I wasn't able to find the Share with others option from the drop down menu after clicking on the Share button.
Hopefully someone will understand what am I saying and help me with it. Is anyone revising my work? I haven't received any comments and a fellow coworker says he receives comments anytime he posts something new!
It is easy to work with Google Docs, apparently, because I wasn't able to find the Share with others option from the drop down menu after clicking on the Share button.
Hopefully someone will understand what am I saying and help me with it. Is anyone revising my work? I haven't received any comments and a fellow coworker says he receives comments anytime he posts something new!
Thing 18: Wikis
Ok. It doesn't say to post anything about Wikis but I decided to at least made some brief comments.
I like working with Wiki but I couldn't find the way to change the title of one of my sub-pages.
I was able to upload some photographs but not others because of size and, of course, I don't know how to change the size of the photos so you will find that I don't have enough photos in one of the sub-pages.
It has been fun working with this Thing!
I like working with Wiki but I couldn't find the way to change the title of one of my sub-pages.
I was able to upload some photographs but not others because of size and, of course, I don't know how to change the size of the photos so you will find that I don't have enough photos in one of the sub-pages.
It has been fun working with this Thing!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Thing 17: LibWorm
I like the idea of not having to open accounts. So far I have so many (I can't use the same user name on all of them--it beats me!!!) that even though I wrote almost all the user names and passwords I still have some problems! I totally forgot the password for my e-mail account and had to change it. Now I have it on paper. I guess I can't rely on my memory anymore!
Using the name of my library I found many entries... the last one from April 29 of this year but many are very old.
It also has older job postings for positions that have been already fulfilled and since we are on a freeze hiring I don't think we will be seeing anymore of those postings (at least for the time being...hopefully!).
I tried the Feed Categories... have you read the Art Librarian? All I can say is that I don't find it "interesting" but "boring". Please go and read it and tell me what you think. This is similar to Twitter but with more words.
By Subject Categories is more interesting since you can choose which subject you are interested in and read the latest news. Other thing I like is that you can save some articles to read them later, if you happen to find the time to do it, and save your own comments too!
By Tags is even better. I found an article about Texas Librarians raising money for damaged libraries by showing off their tattoos in a calendar! The comments are fun to read.
Could it be useful at our libraries?... perhaps, but in these times when libraries are short of staff and overloaded with work one has to ponder: Does librarians have enough time for all these Things?
Using the name of my library I found many entries... the last one from April 29 of this year but many are very old.
It also has older job postings for positions that have been already fulfilled and since we are on a freeze hiring I don't think we will be seeing anymore of those postings (at least for the time being...hopefully!).
I tried the Feed Categories... have you read the Art Librarian? All I can say is that I don't find it "interesting" but "boring". Please go and read it and tell me what you think. This is similar to Twitter but with more words.
By Subject Categories is more interesting since you can choose which subject you are interested in and read the latest news. Other thing I like is that you can save some articles to read them later, if you happen to find the time to do it, and save your own comments too!
By Tags is even better. I found an article about Texas Librarians raising money for damaged libraries by showing off their tattoos in a calendar! The comments are fun to read.
Could it be useful at our libraries?... perhaps, but in these times when libraries are short of staff and overloaded with work one has to ponder: Does librarians have enough time for all these Things?
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