23 Things on a Stick: 23

Final Thoughts

I think these last two could have been combined! Anyway, I did enjoy the 23 Things on a Stick. I learned a lot about certain Web 2.0 components that I have been avoiding because I either don’t have the time or decided they weren’t for me without experiencing them. It turns out that most of them are for me! I just had to get out there and immerse myself in it. I will try to do my own exercises like this for new “things” I discover on my own in the future. One thing I noticed about the exercises in 23 Things was that a lot of them allowed you to choose from amongst their list of sites for a particular topic and do the exercise on that. Other exercises, however, encouraged you to look at all of them but required you to use or sign up for one in particular. If the user is only going to use and experiment with one of them, it basically makes the choice for them. I would like to see a little more flexibility: provide the introduction to a topic and a general exercise that one can do with a choice of many sites (unless there is only one choice). I also noticed a lot of overlap between the exercises, but the internet is not black-and-white, so that is understandable. This experience was insightful and exciting! Thanks!

23 Things on a Stick: 22

What I Learned

If you have read many of my other posts, you have to admit that you can tell I love to blog. I love talking about new concepts and how those relate to my previous experiences (love the stories!). The key component that might prevent me from updating this blog as much as I would like in the future is time. Time (or lack of it, rather) is the reason all my other blogs eventually ended, as well. On the other hand, it is important to keep up with Web 2.0 technologies as they come about because they will prepare us for what is coming in the future. I can imagine that I would have found these exercises very taxing if I had not grown up online using a variety of internet tools. The RSS feeds recommended by 23 Things look to be helpful in alerting me to new Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 ideas… Who knows, maybe I will tackle some of the “things” at this other site listed by Doc Martens! Stay tuned, you know I can’t resist talking about myself…

23 Things on a Stick: 21

Other Social Networks

Oh, dear. I honestly don’t know if I can handle another social networking site on my plate at the moment. In the past, I have had brief flirtations with the following social networking sites: DeviantART, Friendster (when it was new), Outminds (which I think has gone to the dogs, which is sad because I loved it, years ago), Kiwibox (even longer ago), Yahoo! 360 (shut down), and a variety of message boards. Besides Facebook and Myspace, I was also already a member of Ning (for my library employees’ social network), LiveJournal, and Twitter (can be considered social networks). After completing the 23 Things, I am now a member of a few more social networking sites. I joined the 23 Things on a Stick Ning site. Here is the badge (being testy at the moment):

Visit 23 Things on a Stick

I love social networking sites and believe they are great ways to communicate. On the other hand, I think a person can only legitimately keep up with one or two social networking sites consistently before getting fed up with them. Social networking is definitely the current way of the world, though, so your library had better get on there! It’s a great way to attract people to your library.

23 Things on a Stick: 20

Social Networking

I am afraid I can’t try anything new for this exercise. I have had a Facebook account since 2005, when they approved it for my undergraduate college. It used to be on a by-college basis, and there was a petition for each college that had to get so many signatures. I got a Myspace account shortly thereafter. I use them intelligently and make use of extended privacy features to ensure that no one can access my information unless I want it. I don’t put information up that I wouldn’t be okay with a future employee seeing, anyway.

I personally prefer Facebook over Myspace, and I do see why it is becoming much more popular. Facebook profiles have a consistent layout and more control over what your computer is exposed to—on the other hand, Myspace profiles allow full customization and HTML. While this is pleasant for some people, many use the power badly, and Myspace profiles are often very slow loading with several images, loud music, and tacky backgrounds making the text difficult to read. I think the tasteful design of Facebook also encourages people who might not have otherwise used social networking to see it as an acceptable (semi-professional) method of communication. There are also many more options of what one can do on Facebook than there are on Myspace (unless you want music or video). The news feed is something you can’t leave out when talking about Facebook. When you log in, there is a “feed” of recent activity by your friends (this is customizable through privacy settings, and people won’t see any of your actions that you don’t want them to). The feed was initially controversial when it was introduced, but now people love it and can’t imagine Facebook without it. Myspace has introduced a rudimentary news feed, but it does not have nearly the resource sharing, commenting, and interactivity that Facebook has. I use Facebook multiple times a day some days and once a day or two on other days, but I only use Myspace once every week or two.

I’m not friends with any libraries on Myspace (nor am I aware of any pages for the libraries I am associated with… enlighten me if there are!), but I am a “fan” of the OU Libraries and OCU Law Library on Facebook. I am also part of several library-related groups, including the new OLISSA group brought to my attention just yesterday. The cool thing about groups on Facebook or becoming a fan of a page is that the people controlling the group/page don’t necessarily have access to your account unless you are their friend (depending on your privacy settings). On Myspace, most organizations make actual profiles, which can access your profile completely if you add them as a friend. Another comment—we can thank Facebook and Myspace for altering some of our vocabulary (adding to a folksonomy, if you will). I’m thinking particularly of turning “friend” into a verb. You often hear people saying, “I’m going to friend you on Facebook,” or “I was so excited that he friended me on Myspace.”

Privacy concerns: I hate to say it, parents, but your kids are probably more secure on Facebook or Myspace than they were before. There are just so many more kids online now, and social networking sites are so prominent in the media, that parents are worried. Social networking sites definitely put someone “out there,” but it is associated with their name, so the parents are able to know they have it and keep track of it. It is possible to put a fake name in your account, but few people are willing to do that because then their friends can’t find them even if they’re hiding from their parents. I know several kids who have Facebook and have their parents as friends (not on Limited Profile) so they can keep track of them. It all depends on the kid, how much you trust them, and the way they are using their account. A kid will still get in trouble if he or she wants to. When I was younger, we didn’t have social networking, and my parents were unaware of the implications of spending so much time online. They were good parents, but not as many kids were online then, so it wasn’t such an issue. No chat rooms or websites I was involved in included my full name, so my parents couldn’t find it unless they asked (and they didn’t). I am definitely a supporter of keeping track of your child’s activity on the internet, but don’t restrict them completely! Trust is important—let them have the account, but make them “friend” you.

23 Things on a Stick: 19

Podcasts

I had never listened to a podcast before this exercise. I perceived them (erroneously, since I hadn’t experienced them) to be of poor quality, covering trivial topics, and slow loading. I have been pleasantly surprised throughout this exercise. Podcasts are actually pretty cool, and I’m glad something finally made me go listen to them. Of the podcast sites listed at 23Things, I found Podcast.com easiest to use. I liked the way the podcasts were arranged and the design of the website. Podcasts are free, at least to listen to online. I listened to a couple of CNN podcasts initially because they were among the “Newest podcasts” feed. I found it interesting that almost all the most popular podcasts listed were news podcasts, and then there was a random word exploration of the day by Dictionary.com thrown in there. I listened to that, too. I went to the Books section and found a surprising number of comic book podcasts versus “traditional” books. Another note… I went to the Sexuality & Adult section during my browsing and found a lot of really adult podcasts, judging by the titles. I did not listen to them, but I found it interesting that there was no “need to be 17/18 to listen” warning on the page for certain podcasts. I don’t think all of the podcasts in that section needed warnings by any means, but ones that sounded like pornography probably did. I would have liked a short description of the podcast on the main feature pages—for instance, the “Most popular” feed had simply the icons associated with the podcasts and alt text containing the title of the podcast. That information is sometimes obscure, and you have to click on the icon to figure out what the podcast is… then you can’t do a one-time playing (without subscribing) without going back to the page where you found the first icon. Still, I liked Podcast.com better than some of the others I looked at. I will be more likely to listen to podcasts now that I have discovered how easy it is. I can see how podcasts can be helpful in libraries to broadcast current library news, new books, and other information.

23 Things on a Stick: 18

YouTube and Other Videos

I have used YouTube in the past, as most people my age have. It can be a great tool, but it can also have negative consequences for some people. For instance, people want to be careful what videos they post of themselves, just as they are with photos. This relates back to the Halavais chapter on Privacy from Search Engine Society. Old videos or photos can come back to haunt you. I know one of my friends in particular has a video she let people make in high school at a party involving a deer’s head (like the kind you hang on the wall) on YouTube. She can’t contact the person who posted it to take it down, and they put her name with it. There’s no way to escape that. Other things to worry about with videos are copyright concerns. People are posting content from movies and television shows without a second thought, and each issue must be examined individually to determine the nature of the copyright problem.

I found a few interesting videos documenting the “flash rave” at W. T. Young Library earlier this year. Here is one video from the ground floor, but some of the others (from above) were pretty impressive:

I’m posting this because it is completely outside of what I expect in a library. I’ve heard of “flash raves” before, particularly overseas in the middle of university finals week, but it holds implication for the (perhaps unwilling) “hosting” library. The video I posted had some sort of papers fluttering through the air. I was hoping people weren’t ripping pages out of books or something. Typically people can behave, but that sort of mob mentality can get out of hand. Not sure what I’d think if I were working in a library at the scene of a flash rave!

Also, this will probably fall under the category of videos not worth watching, but I simply can’t help myself, being an animal lover. Please (if you would like) enjoy one minute and fourteen seconds of a tiny puppy falling asleep on a step:

I just had a discussion with my roommate, who has been looking over my shoulder and making uninvited comments while I’ve been writing this blog post. :) I basically had to justify the use of YouTube videos and other Web 2.0 applications in libraries. She has a lot of misconceptions about libraries for someone living with a library student! There are several ways YouTube videos can be used in the library (like for advertisement or events), but we have to realize that a lot of people, like my roommate, will still be taken aback by this parting from what they see as the traditional library (particularly academic libraries).

23 Things on a Stick: 17

ELM / Oklahoma Digital Prairie

The “thing” wants us to talk about the Electronic Library for Minnesota, but since we are not part of the Minnesota libraries, I will instead discuss an Oklahoma equivalent. I actually don’t know that much about the public library system in Oklahoma, but I did some searching and found the Oklahoma Digital Prairie. It provides access to EBSCOHost databases, SIRS Discoverer and eLibrary Elementary, Books in print Professional, the ODL catalog, and firstsearch/WorldCat. Any library that is part of the ODL (Oklahoma Department of Libraries) has access to these materials, and patrons can use them from any of the libraries that are part of ODL. Patrons should also be able to use these resources from another location if their library provides a remote access username and password for login.

This resource can be incredibly valuable to libraries in Oklahoma and their patrons. Smaller libraries or those with minimal funding do not have to worry about purchasing these databases, for instance, but they can still offer access to these to the patrons through the OK Digital Prairie. Access to the collective ODL catalog will help patrons wanting to travel to locate a particular work. Students doing research projects will find many ways to utilize these resources if they do not have access through their school or another location. I think it is great for certain databases to be available through public libraries instead of just academic. If funding were not an issue, I would like to see more resources incorporated into public libraries as well as other types.

23 Things on a Stick: 16

Student 2.0

These are helpful tools! Had I been aware of these earlier in my student career, I certainly would have used them.  Alas, I had to learn time management on my own.   Libraries, particularly school and academic libraries, could advertise these services as ways to increase student productivity.  While it might take some persuading, or perhaps a demonstration, I wouldn’t be surprised if some students at least used this sort of thing for a guideline.  Question: do you think the assignment or research calculator records queries into it?  It would be really interesting to see what timelines student left for their projects (one day, for example)… Of course, this might cause some controversy over privacy concerns.  Overall, these calculators seem like really useful tools.  Teachers can utilize the handouts/supporting materials made available, but they need to be location-specific (not just in Minnesota) and updated frequently.  This blog post is short because the “thing” didn’t have much to it, either.  :)

23 Things on a Stick: 15

Online Games and Libraries

I explored Puzzle Pirates for this exercise. It took a very long time to load, and I was only in the game about 20 minutes before the connection reset and lost any information about myself or my character. On the other hand, it was fun, and I enjoyed the puzzles. I had just finished “bilging” and was learning to “sail.” I really can’t see the benefit of using Puzzle Pirates in libraries… I think it is a great learning tool, and it would be okay for children’s programs encouraging learning through puzzle playing, but it doesn’t seem like as much of an interactive community as other RPG type games I have played. I didn’t interact at all with the other pirates when I was in the game, even though we were technically part of the same ship crew.

I didn’t explore Second Life myself, but I watched the videos about it and how some libraries are using it. I think I would have liked Second Life more, but it does require a download. The idea reminds me of Sims, which I never played, but I knew people who were into it. I think the idea of incorporating Second Life into teen services is a great one—while some adults might find the program useless, teens would likely enjoy the interaction and be more likely to use the library services through the game. I was intrigued by the idea of online classrooms and lectures. It would be interesting to sit in on or take an online class that incorporated a second life classroom in addition to a program like Desire 2 Learn. This could facilitate interaction between people who are reluctant to get involved in an online class. Libraries can also offer workshops through Second Life.

23 Things on a Stick: 14

Library Thing

Please, someone stop me from spending the rest of my day on LibraryThing! I have resisted it for a long time, actually. I have visited and used LibraryThing before, but I never created an account. I did for this exercise, and now I have spent far too much time today exploring it. :) Apparently Tumblr doesn’t like the scripts for the LibraryThing widgets within the blog posts, so I have added the widget into the layout of my blog (in the sidebar).

I wish I had realized when adding the books that I could tag them right then, but I didn’t. I went back and added tags to a few books, but time constraints will have to allow me to go back and add tags later. I do love the LibraryThing tag clouds, though. A few features I personally enjoyed at LibraryThing were seeing how many people had also added certain books I own and the “compare” option, where I can see what other users had similar collections to my own. I am actually a little jealous of the collections of some of these people and want to be friends with them (so I can borrow their books). LibraryThing reminds me a lot of a Facebook application I use called Visual Bookshelf. Instead of books you own, it encourages you to make lists of books you have read in general (with an option to say you own them), are currently reading, and want to read. I noticed LibraryThing offers options to mark books as currently reading, wishlist, etc., as well. Visual Bookshelf also searches Amazon for book titles you search for and will display your books in lists or “shelves” of the covers. I actually used my Visual Bookshelf want to read list for my “Books I Want to Read” database in Thing 8. I greatly prefer LibraryThing, but a lot more people I know use Visual Bookshelf because it is part of Facebook.

I can see LibraryThing being used more effectively by public libraries than academic. Avid users of the libraries would likely utilize the LibraryThing pages of their library to keep track of the collection, particularly new book lists and recommendations. It is much more user-friendly than online catalogs for people who are not familiar with using the catalog.