and so let's wrap it up: Thing #23

I found this program very informative and helpful, and a fun way to catch up on the newest "things". I won't be staying on MySpace, but I use Bloglines daily and LibraryThing often.

From the perspective of visual resources, I think we need to explore the photo sites and consider how they might complement the content that we pay for, i.e., ARTstor, AP Accunet, Pictures of Record, etc. Would flickr be a good way for faculty to share their own slide collections?

Also, with all of this user-generated content, copyright concerns are growing. Sigh. That's a can of worms, or maybe cobras.

The session downtown with the Cabrillo librarians and the SC Public librarians was excellent, I thought.

Thanks, Learning 2.0 Team, for putting this together for us!

Thing #22: The Best of Web 2.0

"... what is life, Mira, when you come to think upon it, but a most excellent, accurately set, infinitely complicated machine for turning fat playful puppies into old mangy blind dogs, and proud war horses into skinny nags, and succulent young boys, to whom the world holds great delights and terrors, into old weak men, with running eyes, who drink ground rhino-horn?"

These sites are recognized for offering users ways to personalize, organize, and share web content. Some tools might be useful for the Library (some, like GoogleDocs, we are already using)-- I'm thinking the city guides, the communication tools, Wufoo for feedback, and the feed managers (if the Library web page will have local feeds).

Personally, I love Pandora and the Music Genome Project. TheBroth, "a virtual library of online art," is interesting; Zillow is depressing (the condo we rent could probably be ours for only $909,075).

Thing #21: Audio eBooks

"It is not a bad thing in a tale that you understand only half of it."

Audio books make a long road trip with young people go by much faster. Audio eBooks in the car would be great...

It must be frustrating for iPod users not to be able to access this material, and I wonder why the library doesn't make the audio eBooks available for the most common player. The OverDrive Media Console is Windows only. Does this have something to do with copyright protections?

Thing #20: Podcasts

Searching "libraries" on Podcast.net brought up "The Library Channel" by Arizona State University Libraries. I found the podcasts dull... the special collections curator talking about an exhibit (which the listener can't see, of course)... announcements about library closures (useful)... lectures about improving library services... I guess some people would prefer to listen to this material, but I would prefer having it as a paper to read and annotate. (How many people subscribe to our UCSC Library's podcast feed?)

The toast needs butter and jam.

The best podcasts imho are the ones that work like radio, whether news (such as NPR's Science Friday) or entertainment (such as Old Time Radio). Also, like YackPack and video conferencing, podcasting would be useful for distance education.

I subscribed to an NPR podcast feed; it shows up in my iTunes and on Bloglines.

Thing #19: YouTube

Although my son considers me old and geezerish (bless his 15-year-old heart), I have watched many videos on YouTube. Perhaps the Library could create instructional videos on how to use the journal databases, or resources such as ARTstor? Some patrons would need the personalized help that only a reference librarian could give, but short videos might serve as introductions or refreshers.

Through Blinkx I found the following ad for Cambridge Public Library:
http://blip.tv/file/334707

It makes me shudder slightly to see how the kids toss things around...

And here's a discussion of the Archimedes Palimpsest:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8211813884612792878

Thing #18 (almost done!): Firefox

I've been using Firefox for a few years now both at home on our PC and here at work on my Mac. It's a good browser, handling most websites quickly and easily.

The ability to add CruzCat to the list of search engines is nice, but the LibX toolbar is even better. The control-click (Mac) option to highlight text and search for it using Google-- really handy. Thumbs up on this tool. :)

Count Seraphina

"Count Seraphina," said Miss Malin, "meditated much upon celestial matters. And, as you must be aware, who have read his poems, he was convinced that no woman was ever allowed to enter heaven. He disliked and mistrusted everything female; it gave him goose flesh... He liked to imagine himself the abbot of a highly exclusive monastery, whereto only fair young monks of brilliant talent and soft manners were admitted. He and his circle of young friends sat down to dinner in old sculptured oak pews, and wore cowls of purple silk. His house was an abbey upon the northern soil, a Mount Athos to which no hen or cow is allowed to come, not even the wild bees, on account of their queen bee. Aye, the Count was more zealous than the monks of Athos, for when he and his seraglio of lovely youths sometimes drank wine out of a skull, to keep present the thought of death and eternity, he took care that it should not be the skull of a lady."