Web tools
The 2008 Web 2.0 Awards had a lot of tools I already know about and some that were more obscure.
For libraries, VuFind is a open source catalog tool.
One of the more curious ones I found was under "Classifieds and Directories". It's called Parking Search and is a tool to seek out parking spaces to buy or rent. The audience is obviously quite limited and really it's only helpful for those in the largest of cities. There were no results for Omaha or St. Louis. Cincinnati had 1 result. But I liked that it serves a niche market compared to general classified sites.
I also like the idea of niche social networking. TuDiabetes is for those who have diabetes. It seems a lot more social than a traditional message board site.
I looked at 2 sites in the Health category since that meshes well with my job. One, imedix
seemed very user driven with a high possibility for non-credible information. Users post questions and others respond with advice and maybe relevant links. Some may link to Wikipedia but others like in this case, link to more reputable information sources. I will give them credit though for having a disclaimer with every question that says the answers are written by non-professionals. They are very upfront about that so buyer beware.
Another Health site seemed much more reputable, but perhaps not as social as others. Revolution Health features content from both average users and experts. Some articles are reviewed by doctors while others come from sources like the Cleveland Clinic. Users can create health pages and also post to discussion forums.
The biggest caveat to these sites is the question of credibility or authority that they raise. It's good to break down the barriers and promote more open content production but that mindset clashes with what students are taught so it's really about teaching them how to utilize different types of tools and sites on the web. There's a time and place for a Diabetes social networking site but there is also a time and place for professional medical journals about diabetes.
Urban Spoon is another tool for restaurant reviews. It was under the food category. Users can become "fans" of restaurants. It also aggregates in reviews from City Search.
BackPack was one I've never heard of that sounds really cool and helpful but alas it's one that costs $. I think it would really help me organize all my post it notes of random information, notebooks, etc.
FixYa is a social tech support community where you can submit problems with products and hopefully others can help you out or you can discover fixes to your particular issues. I think a site like this is a great idea but only helpful if it has a large following. There's probably lots of questions on there that have not received solutions and as impatient as people get with technology, that may be frustrating.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Thing #19
Apps
I started using Google Docs for word processing as my computer got older and inevitably slower. It was easier to just surf the web and work at the same time without slowing down my computer by running Microsoft Word.
I use the word processing docs a lot for personal use to keep lists of things like restaurants I want to try. A lot of these lists I share with my husband so we can both keep track of information.
I like these apps because they are convenient and free. I use 2 different computers at home and several at work depending on what I'm doing, so having easy access to materials is great. I'd like to recommend these tools to students because they help keep everything you need in one place. No forgetting your assignment at home, it will be available to you online with your Google or Zoho account. It would also be helpful for people who don't own their own computers and rely on libraries or computer labs. There wouldn't be a disk or flash drive to remember or have get corrupted.
For this exercise, I experimented with the presentations app; I hadn't used it before. It was easy to import PowerPoint slides and there were a lot of options for colors, designs, etc. I like that when you view the presentation you can include an "audience" who could watch it with you over the Internet. That would be great for when you want to show someone something but you don't want them to be an editor.
The only real drawback I see is what if Google's servers fail and you somehow lose your documents. But really that can happen with any computer crash or glitch with commercial products. I guess for the ultimate cautiousness you could back up your Google Docs in Word or vice versa since you can easily export to the .doc format.
For library staff this would be another tool like a wiki to collaborate with and easily share documents.
I've never used Google Docs to post to a blog before so I'm going to try that with this post.
......
and it worked!
I started using Google Docs for word processing as my computer got older and inevitably slower. It was easier to just surf the web and work at the same time without slowing down my computer by running Microsoft Word.
I use the word processing docs a lot for personal use to keep lists of things like restaurants I want to try. A lot of these lists I share with my husband so we can both keep track of information.
I like these apps because they are convenient and free. I use 2 different computers at home and several at work depending on what I'm doing, so having easy access to materials is great. I'd like to recommend these tools to students because they help keep everything you need in one place. No forgetting your assignment at home, it will be available to you online with your Google or Zoho account. It would also be helpful for people who don't own their own computers and rely on libraries or computer labs. There wouldn't be a disk or flash drive to remember or have get corrupted.
For this exercise, I experimented with the presentations app; I hadn't used it before. It was easy to import PowerPoint slides and there were a lot of options for colors, designs, etc. I like that when you view the presentation you can include an "audience" who could watch it with you over the Internet. That would be great for when you want to show someone something but you don't want them to be an editor.
The only real drawback I see is what if Google's servers fail and you somehow lose your documents. But really that can happen with any computer crash or glitch with commercial products. I guess for the ultimate cautiousness you could back up your Google Docs in Word or vice versa since you can easily export to the .doc format.
For library staff this would be another tool like a wiki to collaborate with and easily share documents.
I've never used Google Docs to post to a blog before so I'm going to try that with this post.
......
and it worked!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Thing #18
PB Wiki
I added a favorite restaurant and wiki to the Nebraska Learns 2.0 wiki on PBWiki. I also cleaned up a few things in the sidebar because some of the pages weren't linking correctly. I think PBWiki is a good choice because it allows the wiki administrator to set page level permissions, something I mentioned in my last post about wikis. So I might migrate my work wikis over to that site so the access levels can be more detailed.
A wiki like this experimental one is a great tool for community groups since anyone can edit it. I think the opportunities for public libraries to use these are enormous. Patrons could collaborate and library staff would learn a lot about their customers.
I added a favorite restaurant and wiki to the Nebraska Learns 2.0 wiki on PBWiki. I also cleaned up a few things in the sidebar because some of the pages weren't linking correctly. I think PBWiki is a good choice because it allows the wiki administrator to set page level permissions, something I mentioned in my last post about wikis. So I might migrate my work wikis over to that site so the access levels can be more detailed.
A wiki like this experimental one is a great tool for community groups since anyone can edit it. I think the opportunities for public libraries to use these are enormous. Patrons could collaborate and library staff would learn a lot about their customers.
Thing #17
Wikis
So wiki means fast. I never bothered to figure out why they were called that.
I guess I haven't ever cared enough to actually use them for contributing information until a few months ago. The first wiki I edited was the Nebraska Library Camp wiki, a wiki for a day-long meeting in November where participants got to brainstorm ahead of time and store the meeting's revelations for later user.
But I think wikis are great places to find information. I'm not a big fan of wikipedia, because of the usual credibility issues cited by academics but it sure can be fun to read and it's a good place to go first instead of doing a blind google search like if you want to find an actor's birthday.
The Web Junction piece neatly outlined the potential uses and their point about private property notions vs. completely open access is important. Also, the idea that a wiki is in theory a consensus was interesting.
The biggest advantage to a wiki is that it makes it easy to throw something up on the web where lots can access it and non-techy people can edit. I took basic HTML coding as a freshman in college and things have changed a lot since then in terms of how easy it has become. It's great to also eliminate countless emails that take up inbox space and are hard to follow after so long.
As far as uses are concerned, I like their application was subject guides because it makes it so easy to just add in a new link or update an existing link on a page. The Library Success wiki is also cool because it is a place to post and get ideas from others and in theory you should be able to contact who the idea originated with since they have edited the wiki and that information is open.
The potential to fix broken links is very useful. Too many older websites have broken links and sure you can email the webmaster but that doesn't mean the link will get updated or removed. As an active user of a wiki you can take responsibility for fixing any dead links you find. I did that today on several pages I was reading.
I've also created a project management wiki at work for our library tutorials and library instruction. I'm in charge of the project and all library staff are members of the wiki although 4 of us make up the core of people working on the project. I've been struggling with how to be the project leader and yet encourage collaboration, particularly with the possibility of varying access levels. Unfortunately my wiki hosting site, Wetpaint doesn't allow you to control access at the item/document/page level. Each user has one set of permissions for the entire wiki. I'm thinking there are some pages I'd only like to be able to edit, while others could be for anyone so I may need to migrate the wiki over to another space.
And we are discussing creating a continuity of operations plan. The wiki format would be a great place to store all the info (in addition to hard copy for safety reasons) and where it could easily be updated as processes change.
Here's one of my favorite non-library wikis for They Might Be Giants fans.
So wiki means fast. I never bothered to figure out why they were called that.
I guess I haven't ever cared enough to actually use them for contributing information until a few months ago. The first wiki I edited was the Nebraska Library Camp wiki, a wiki for a day-long meeting in November where participants got to brainstorm ahead of time and store the meeting's revelations for later user.
But I think wikis are great places to find information. I'm not a big fan of wikipedia, because of the usual credibility issues cited by academics but it sure can be fun to read and it's a good place to go first instead of doing a blind google search like if you want to find an actor's birthday.
The Web Junction piece neatly outlined the potential uses and their point about private property notions vs. completely open access is important. Also, the idea that a wiki is in theory a consensus was interesting.
The biggest advantage to a wiki is that it makes it easy to throw something up on the web where lots can access it and non-techy people can edit. I took basic HTML coding as a freshman in college and things have changed a lot since then in terms of how easy it has become. It's great to also eliminate countless emails that take up inbox space and are hard to follow after so long.
As far as uses are concerned, I like their application was subject guides because it makes it so easy to just add in a new link or update an existing link on a page. The Library Success wiki is also cool because it is a place to post and get ideas from others and in theory you should be able to contact who the idea originated with since they have edited the wiki and that information is open.
The potential to fix broken links is very useful. Too many older websites have broken links and sure you can email the webmaster but that doesn't mean the link will get updated or removed. As an active user of a wiki you can take responsibility for fixing any dead links you find. I did that today on several pages I was reading.
I've also created a project management wiki at work for our library tutorials and library instruction. I'm in charge of the project and all library staff are members of the wiki although 4 of us make up the core of people working on the project. I've been struggling with how to be the project leader and yet encourage collaboration, particularly with the possibility of varying access levels. Unfortunately my wiki hosting site, Wetpaint doesn't allow you to control access at the item/document/page level. Each user has one set of permissions for the entire wiki. I'm thinking there are some pages I'd only like to be able to edit, while others could be for anyone so I may need to migrate the wiki over to another space.
And we are discussing creating a continuity of operations plan. The wiki format would be a great place to store all the info (in addition to hard copy for safety reasons) and where it could easily be updated as processes change.
Here's one of my favorite non-library wikis for They Might Be Giants fans.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Thing #16
On Library 2.0 and Web 2.0
I really like the definition given by Tom Storey in the OCLC newsletter piece, "Where will the next generation Web take libraries?"
He says, "In Web 2.0, the Web becomes the center of a new digital lifestyle that changes our culture and touches every aspect of our lives. The Web moves from simply being sites and search engines to a shared network space that drives work, research, education, entertainment and social activities—essentially everything people do."
This really sums it up for me since I'm a heavy web user both personally and at work. Some may call it an addiction, but really I view it as a super useful tool where the possibilities are endless. Knowing where to find information and how to use that information is powerful. Need directions to a restaurant? Check. Need a recipe for dinner? Check. Need opinions from other librarians about a resource? Check. What can't you find?
The problem is how to effectively put web 2.0 to use without getting overwhelmed by the latest thing and making things too overwhelming for the varied demographics you serve.
Library 2.0 to me, at least, means always looking for and considering new ways to help your users, whoever they may be. It's being aware of who your users are and where they spend time online or where they spend it if they aren't heavy users of the Internet and web 2.0 (or why they don't use the Internet). It's about providing ever-evolving content and services and having users be engaged with those services in a way that is easy for them to use and convenient for their lifestyle while not sacrificing quality.
I read most of the pieces and each made me think. Here's some random thoughts, mostly for my own use later.
Anderson's Icebergs: I agree we need to put our services in the daily patterns of our users. If they check Facebook first thing in the morning, then we should be there with some type of message for them.
I disagree with him about there being less of a need to teach research skills. Until there is a computer and Internet access available for every person and each person desires to use it and learn about it, there is always going to be a learning curve that exists for some users. Instead of tossing these tools out at them, someone needs to help them adjust. Eliminating barriers to access isn't enough. Even the simplest designed tools can be problematic for an inexperienced user depending on their interest level, generation, socioeconomic background, etc.
Stephens' Into a new world of librarianship
His statement about projects existing in "perpetual beta" is a fantastic concept. The web isn't static and any projects involving it in any way can't ever be "finished".
Reimers' To Better Bibliographic Services
How cool would it be to have geographic names in subject headings as a way to browse by using a map. I'm obsessed with places. I "google map" any town or city I come across that I've never heard of.
Schultz's To a Temporary place in Time
Commodity-Product-Service-Experience
I think a lot of librarians can take comfort in her opinion that experts will be needed to help people make sense out of the new information explosion that results from web 2.0 and library 2.0 So many people worry about losing their brick and mortar job as more and more goes online. I like her vision that library 4.0 will transcend the "technohustle". Really, that's harnessing the power of information to simplify our lives, which I don't think is a place we are at right now.
Also, the "Debased" piece brings up an interesting point about tagging. Social niches could easily start to "control" tagging and preferences. If an active specific group overwhelming tags library resources, their thoughts could over influence the larger population by skewing the "top tag" lists. This particular niche could drown out other groups. Individuals may only look at what is "top" and not try to find the resources that are best suited for them.
I really like the definition given by Tom Storey in the OCLC newsletter piece, "Where will the next generation Web take libraries?"
He says, "In Web 2.0, the Web becomes the center of a new digital lifestyle that changes our culture and touches every aspect of our lives. The Web moves from simply being sites and search engines to a shared network space that drives work, research, education, entertainment and social activities—essentially everything people do."
This really sums it up for me since I'm a heavy web user both personally and at work. Some may call it an addiction, but really I view it as a super useful tool where the possibilities are endless. Knowing where to find information and how to use that information is powerful. Need directions to a restaurant? Check. Need a recipe for dinner? Check. Need opinions from other librarians about a resource? Check. What can't you find?
The problem is how to effectively put web 2.0 to use without getting overwhelmed by the latest thing and making things too overwhelming for the varied demographics you serve.
Library 2.0 to me, at least, means always looking for and considering new ways to help your users, whoever they may be. It's being aware of who your users are and where they spend time online or where they spend it if they aren't heavy users of the Internet and web 2.0 (or why they don't use the Internet). It's about providing ever-evolving content and services and having users be engaged with those services in a way that is easy for them to use and convenient for their lifestyle while not sacrificing quality.
I read most of the pieces and each made me think. Here's some random thoughts, mostly for my own use later.
Anderson's Icebergs: I agree we need to put our services in the daily patterns of our users. If they check Facebook first thing in the morning, then we should be there with some type of message for them.
I disagree with him about there being less of a need to teach research skills. Until there is a computer and Internet access available for every person and each person desires to use it and learn about it, there is always going to be a learning curve that exists for some users. Instead of tossing these tools out at them, someone needs to help them adjust. Eliminating barriers to access isn't enough. Even the simplest designed tools can be problematic for an inexperienced user depending on their interest level, generation, socioeconomic background, etc.
Stephens' Into a new world of librarianship
His statement about projects existing in "perpetual beta" is a fantastic concept. The web isn't static and any projects involving it in any way can't ever be "finished".
Reimers' To Better Bibliographic Services
How cool would it be to have geographic names in subject headings as a way to browse by using a map. I'm obsessed with places. I "google map" any town or city I come across that I've never heard of.
Schultz's To a Temporary place in Time
Commodity-Product-Service-Experience
I think a lot of librarians can take comfort in her opinion that experts will be needed to help people make sense out of the new information explosion that results from web 2.0 and library 2.0 So many people worry about losing their brick and mortar job as more and more goes online. I like her vision that library 4.0 will transcend the "technohustle". Really, that's harnessing the power of information to simplify our lives, which I don't think is a place we are at right now.
Also, the "Debased" piece brings up an interesting point about tagging. Social niches could easily start to "control" tagging and preferences. If an active specific group overwhelming tags library resources, their thoughts could over influence the larger population by skewing the "top tag" lists. This particular niche could drown out other groups. Individuals may only look at what is "top" and not try to find the resources that are best suited for them.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Thing #15
Slideshare
I don't make a lot of Power Points so for me the main use would be finding presentations from others. Really useful would be seeing presentations from conferences and meetings that I can't attend.
The most useful presentations contain transcripts but it's a shame the transcript comes so far at the bottom of the page. I'd rather have that more prominently displayed towards the top. I missed that on the first several I looked at.
It would be easy to embed Power Points into our tutorials that we build with Lessonbuilder. Then all the tutorial content would be in one place and embedded into the webpage.
I tried to upload the Simpsons themed presentation a coworker and I did for new student orientation last August but I kept getting an error message when I was uploading. I tried on Firefox and IE but no luck. I got the following error:
Conversion failed! Invalid title. Please enter a valid title for your file.
EDIT: Okay I tried again today and managed to get it working. Here is mine:
Here's one about archives that I found to be informative. It had a lot of good practical information:
I don't make a lot of Power Points so for me the main use would be finding presentations from others. Really useful would be seeing presentations from conferences and meetings that I can't attend.
The most useful presentations contain transcripts but it's a shame the transcript comes so far at the bottom of the page. I'd rather have that more prominently displayed towards the top. I missed that on the first several I looked at.
It would be easy to embed Power Points into our tutorials that we build with Lessonbuilder. Then all the tutorial content would be in one place and embedded into the webpage.
I tried to upload the Simpsons themed presentation a coworker and I did for new student orientation last August but I kept getting an error message when I was uploading. I tried on Firefox and IE but no luck. I got the following error:
Conversion failed! Invalid title. Please enter a valid title for your file.
EDIT: Okay I tried again today and managed to get it working. Here is mine:
Here's one about archives that I found to be informative. It had a lot of good practical information:
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Thing #14
Delicious (formerly del.icio.us)
I don't know why I never joined Delicious until today. I have the worst habit of bookmarking anything and everything I find even remotely useful that I *think* I *might* want to view again. Of course I add so many things I never go back and look at those old bookmarks because it seems like too much to wade through. For 5 years it has been around according to the Delicious blog. Wow! I used to think the old spelling was kind of funky. I like that it was unique, but I admit I could never remember what the site actually was and that probably kept me away from it. I can be lazy like that sometimes! I really like Delicious because it allows you to tag and add a greater level of detail. I think that is what is fundamentally missing from saving bookmarks in your browser. Also you can keep all your bookmarks online so you don't have to worry about what happens when you use multiple computers, browsers, etc.
The potential for this helping me organize links I find through various listservs is huge!
You can also see how many others have saved the link. I think that's a good tool for gauging how much people might be aware that a certain site exists. It's fun to see the first person who ever saved a certain site to Delicious. For example, I'm the first one to save a site about ADHD and marriage from about.com
I understand part of the purpose is to make the terminology social and more open to anyone. But it's hard for me to use a consistent tagging scheme. I know I can view what tags I've used but when I'm in the middle of adding something really quickly, I'd rather not have to go looking for tags I've used before so I can keep everything standardized and easy to find later. If only when you start typing in a tag, it could start to auto-fill the tags in based on what you have used before? Also, I wish all the sites you can tag on could work together. I'd love to be able to click on the tag "library" and see content from Delicious, Flickr, Blogger, etc.
I don't know why I never joined Delicious until today. I have the worst habit of bookmarking anything and everything I find even remotely useful that I *think* I *might* want to view again. Of course I add so many things I never go back and look at those old bookmarks because it seems like too much to wade through. For 5 years it has been around according to the Delicious blog. Wow! I used to think the old spelling was kind of funky. I like that it was unique, but I admit I could never remember what the site actually was and that probably kept me away from it. I can be lazy like that sometimes! I really like Delicious because it allows you to tag and add a greater level of detail. I think that is what is fundamentally missing from saving bookmarks in your browser. Also you can keep all your bookmarks online so you don't have to worry about what happens when you use multiple computers, browsers, etc.
The potential for this helping me organize links I find through various listservs is huge!
You can also see how many others have saved the link. I think that's a good tool for gauging how much people might be aware that a certain site exists. It's fun to see the first person who ever saved a certain site to Delicious. For example, I'm the first one to save a site about ADHD and marriage from about.com
I understand part of the purpose is to make the terminology social and more open to anyone. But it's hard for me to use a consistent tagging scheme. I know I can view what tags I've used but when I'm in the middle of adding something really quickly, I'd rather not have to go looking for tags I've used before so I can keep everything standardized and easy to find later. If only when you start typing in a tag, it could start to auto-fill the tags in based on what you have used before? Also, I wish all the sites you can tag on could work together. I'd love to be able to click on the tag "library" and see content from Delicious, Flickr, Blogger, etc.
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