Second Life

I've had a Second Life avatar (Marian Enoch) since April, but until I attended the recent workshop that Meg Kribble offered, I didn't know about flight feathers or the advantages of avatar underwear! Meg gave a great overview of Second Life's Information Island, and explained a few other mysteries, such as how to change the time of day so that you can get better light for your activities. Above is a snapshot of my avatar, along with several other workshop attendees.

On previous forays into SL, I've met up with several librarians, with whom I've had rather disjointed conversations (I've been using text only, not voice communication). I even encountered a faculty member from a Canadian university, who was doing research on performance art in Second Life! I told him that I thought it was interesting that my avatar has special "female gestures", and he said he wasn't aware of that. I guess that means that male avatars don't have these? Would someone with a male avatar please answer this question?

I remember that, when I first found out about SL, I thought, "I don't have time for this life; how could I have a second one?" I do still have that in the back of my mind, although I find it very interesting to explore this virtual world, and see what other people are doing. I think that one of the ideas behind having library services in SL is to go where our users are. Time will tell whether they want us to be there!

Thoughts on TLC 2.0

I've learned a lot, and had fun throughout this program. If I hadn't had that structure, I never would have explored so many different Web 2.0 tools, or spent so much time "playing around" on the 'net. Some of them were already familiar to me; some were brand new. I think blogs, wikis and podcasts are the most useful tools to me right now, but I'm glad to have explored all 23 "things". Now that I'm familiar with them, I'm more likely to use them in the future.


Thanks to all of the people who worked so hard to put this program together. You have done an amazing job! I would definitely participate in another similar program, should one be offered in the future. One small thing you might consider in a second offering of this program: How about putting thing 15, Thinking About 2.0, at the end? It can easily serve as a summary, with a view of the future to boot!

Facebook

I've been on Facebook for a couple of months, thanks to Meg Kribble! She created a Facebook group for the NSU Law Library, so I created my profile and uploaded some photos. I recently "became friends" with other NSU librarians, as they created their Facebook accounts. I know from observing the young people in my life that they spend a lot of time each day on Facebook and/or MySpace, so creating library groups is certainly one way to take our services to the users. Whether they are actually looking for information on those sites is a question I'm not sure I can answer!
I read the articles about these social networking sites that were listed on the TLC 2.0 site, and found them interesting. I think time will tell how much we should invest, in terms of staff time and resources, in Facebook or MySpace. For now, it's certainly worth exploring!

Podcasts

I think podcasts are a great feature of web 2.0 technology. When I first got an iPod, I subscribed to my favorite NPR shows' podcasts (e.g. Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me!). Of course, since I already had the iTunes software on my computer, I used it to subscribe, and I've never really investigated other podcast directories until now.

Although listed on the TLC 2.0 site as not requiring a software download, podcast.net and podcastalley.com tell users they must download podcasting software before subscribing to podcasts. The software seems to be free, however, so that's certainly no deterrent! Only Yahoo!Search makes no mention of separate software, but maybe I just didn't see it.



I guess the advantage to these directory sites is that they collect podcasts into popular categories, to make browsing easy. On Podcast Alley, you can get the top 10 podcasts, or one of several other selections, in one feed. Another distinguishing feature of Podcast Alley and Podcast.net is the ability to upload podcasts. I guess this makes the the audio equivalents of YouTube!

I added NPR:Books to my Bloglines account. Will I keep up with the podcasts? I have a feeling ...

YouTube

I've been viewing videos on YouTube for what seems like a long time. While a lot of YouTube's content is entertainment, there are quite a few educational offerings. Search for 'berkman center' and you'll get about 20 hits, referencing Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. They have a presence in Second Life, and one of the videos is about a trial that took place in there.







Another category of YouTube videos that I like are the ones related to Web 2.0, like The Machine is Us/ing Us. Creator Michael Wesch, an anthropologist at Kansas State University, uses images to explain how the Web has changed the way we communicate. If you like this one, check out the author's video summary of Everything is Miscellaneous, Information R/evolution.




Libraries can, and do, use YouTube to reach their target audience (chiefly students). The Mabie Law Library at UC Davis created A Monograph's Journey for National Library Week 2007. It offers a humorous explanation of how books get onto the library's shelves. Sadly, the video has only had 255 views in the 6 months it's been on YouTube, and I'll bet most of the viewers were librarians! I still think that YouTube can be a useful part of the librarian's 2.0 toolkit. We just need practice!

Web 2.0 Award Winner Conduit

I looked at quite a few of the Web2.0 Award nominees located on the SEOmoz website. (An aside: Why doesn't SEOmoz have an FAQ page explaining what SEOmoz means? I had to search their site to find out!) I looked most of the categories, since I though almost all of them might offer libraries some new tools. The one that I decided to explore more thoroughly was Conduit, 2nd place winner in the Marketing category. It's free (unlike the winner in that category, iContact), and seemed simple yet powerful. It allows you to put parts of your website in a toolbar that users can put on their browsers. The toolbar has live chat and real-time messaging capabilities, too.



I can see this application being used by libraries. There could be a search tool for the online catalog and other resources, and librarians could provide assistance via the live chat and/or real-time messaging functions. Once the user downloads the toolbar, it appears on the user's Internet browser at all times, reminding him/her that library services are always close at hand. The toolbar eliminates the need to go to a separate web address, or to dial a phone number, in order to initiate an inquiry. Save the time of the user, as Ranganathan said!

Thinking about 2.0

Week before last, I read the group of commentaries, Web 2.0: Where will the next generation of the web it take libraries?, but I felt it required more time than I had then to write down my thoughts about it. I still feel that way! I hope to write more when I finish the 23 Things. I found Dr. Wendy Schultz's article especially interesting. Judging from the name of her company, she seems to be a futurist, and they always fascinate me. Our society is so future-oriented that people can actually make a living by predicting what will happen, based on what has happened in the past and is happening now.



Or maybe it's something else that enables this career path, something more over-arching in human nature: a desire to know what lies ahead. Are futurists the modern-day equivalent of oracles, astrologers, diviners, psychics, or fortune tellers? Are they just telling us what we want to hear? For example, perhaps Dr. Schultz formulated Library 4.0, the neo-library, in order to appeal to those of us who grew up and worked in Library 1.0. Since it's unlikely that any of us will live to see whether this prediction comes true, why not comfort us with a retro-vision of the library as a retreat from the hustle and bustle of the outside world? I would certainly prefer to imagine this scenario, than to think that, in the future, libraries will disappear altogether!



Taken together, the 5 articles give a comprehensive overview of Web 2.0's potential for libraries. More later...

Cream Cheese Flan (Published Using Zoho Writer)

Mary Paige’s Cream Cheese Flan

(Flan de Queso Crema)

Oven temperature: 350° F

Cook time: 50 min. – 1 hour

Caramelo

2/3 c. sugar

1/3 c. water

Have ready an 8” x 8” glass or metal baking pan. Using a wooden spoon, mix sugar and water in small sauce- or sauté pan. Continue to stir over high heat until mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat slightly to maintain a bubbling boil. Allow mixture to cook, stirring occasionally, until it turns a golden amber color. REMOVE FROM HEAT IMMEDIATELY or the sugar mixture will scorch. Pour quickly into baking pan, then tilt the pan in all directions, allowing the syrup to cover the entire bottom of the pan. Set aside to cool.

Custard

1 4-oz. package cream cheese, at room temperature

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

1 c. milk or half and half

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Reduce mixer speed to low as soon as possible (after the first or second egg). After all eggs have been incorporated, beat in sweetened condensed milk. Finally, stir in milk or half and half with wooden spoon or spatula. When mixture is smooth, pour it through a strainer into the cooled baking pan covered with caramelo.

Place baking pan in a larger pan, and fill the larger pan with approx. 2” of hot water (baño Maria). To prevent the hot water from spilling, wait until you’ve placed the pans in the oven to fill the larger pan with water. Bake until flan is set but still wobbly (it will continue to cook as it cools). Remove flan from pan of water, and cool thoroughly on wire rack.

When pan is cool to the touch, run knife or metal spatula around the edge of the flan to loosen. Place a serving tray or plate over top of the baking pan, and invert. Lift pan off of plate. If any caramel sauce remains on the bottom of the pan, pour it over the flan, using a spoon or spatula. Serve on small plates or bowls, with some of the caramel sauce spooned over each serving. Very good with strawberries, too!

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I put this recipe into my blog using Zoho Writer, posted as a draft. I wanted to put this paragraph before the recipe, but I couldn't figure out how to insert anything before the title of the recipe. I was able to insert lines, but I couldn't format the text in any way.

This little problem aside, I really like the Zoho suite. It seems to have all the commonly-used features of MS Office, plus all the advantages of web-based tools. It's another way to collaborate with others on documents, spreadsheets, or presentations, or just to work on your own from wherever you are. You don't have to lug your laptop around, or send versions of files from you work computer to your home computer. You can even digitally sign your documents via a link with EchoSign. Brilliant!

NSULIB's Sandbox Wiki

Although it's pretty skeletal right now, there's a lot of potential in our sandbox wiki! We could have book of the month reviews, and the same for movies, website and wikis. Of course I think wikis are most useful in the area of collaboration. An NSU Libraries wiki could have a lot of the same things that are probably on 'staff-only' pages right now, plus we could use it to work on documentation, policies, etc. The Electronic Resources Management Working Group has a wiki that we use for this purpose, and it's really helpful.

Thoughts on Wikis

I've been using wikis for a several years now. I discovered Wikipedia one day while searching for something on Google, and have used it regularly from then on, to get general information about a wide range of topics. At the time I discovered it, I didn't know anything about wikis, so I didn't realize it's potential or its pitfalls. As I used it, I saw that some articles were very complete, while others were minimal. However, I've never come across any incorrect facts (that I know of!), and I think the benefits greatly outweigh the drawbacks. I love Wikipedia!

A couple of years ago, we started a wiki for the Law Library. It never got much publicity, and it didn't really catch on. I think I'm one of the few staff members who uses it. It has direct competition from our intranet, where we put our procedures documents, our list of database and workstation passwords, etc.

A successful local wiki that I've worked with was the one that was created for the libraries to use during preparations for the SACS accreditation visit. We put our responses to questions about the libraries on the wiki, so all committee members were able to add, delete and edit responses. So much better than having one person edit and distribute the latest version of every questions every time there was a change!

I took a look at the wikis that were listed in the TLC discovery exercise, and found them to be good examples of the range of purposes to which librarians can put the wiki. Subject guides can be updated quickly and easily. Readers advisory and book review wikis are great ways for librarians and library users to share opinions, and we as librarians can learn a lot from library users through their postings.

I've seen the Library Success wiki before. It's more like Wikipedia in apprearance and intent: a great one-stop resource for all things library.