Week 9 continued

September 14, 2007 at 6:42 pm (23 Things, Audiobooks, Childrens Services, Democracy Now!, Library 2.0, M. T. Anderson, MP3, Overdrive, Podcasting, Technology, Web 2.0)

21.  Discover some useful tools for locating podcasts. 

All right, on to podcasting!  As I have an ipod, I’m somewhat familiar with the concept, but I rarely it for anything besides music.  And it’s an ipod mini (“It’s for girls”) so it doesn’t do any of that fancy video stuff.  So I searched all three of the podcast directory sites for Democracy Now!, a news radio show.  On podcast.net the most recent one was from December 13, 2006.  On podcast alley, I couldn’t even figure out how to listen to different shows, there was just the option to “Subscribe” or “Listen.”  On Yahoo, the most recent on was September 7, 2007…better than podcast.net but still a week old…a bit too old for a news show.  Then I did something crazy and went to the Democracy Now! website.  There I found the option to view or listen to TODAY’S SHOW!  Hmm, for news shows or anything timely, I definitely will not be using podcast directories. 

Thinking about podcasting in libraries, I wanted to see what else is out there (especially podcasts that are not time-relevant) so I searched for the words public library.  Some of the results were impressive, with guest speakers, poetry slams, authors, books being read aloud, and storytimes.  I like all of these ideas but the storytimes.  While part of the purpose of storytime is to listen to stories and do the fingerplays, there is so much more to it.  There’s the socialization aspect of being around other children and adults.  And while it is important to hear the stories, without seeing the accompanying illustrations, children will lose part of the story and lose the opportunity to think about the story or engage in dialogic reading and prediction.  The development of print awareness skills is lessened if children do not see the book and intuit the concept of reading from left to right, both through by seeing the words and watching the action of the illustrations.  Also, many of the rhymes and activities lose their basic educational influence if you can’t see the visuals than go along with the words.  However, I do like the idea of having books being read aloud as podcasts, as long as the child has the book there.  That idea is similar to the books with CDs that we have in the collection, which enable the child to follow along with the words on his or her own.  While I think podcasting can have a place in delivering library services, I think we need to be careful of using new technologies just because we can without thinking of if these technologies alter our objectives or the outcomes.

22.  Take a look at the titles available on Overdrive or Netlibrary or Project Gutenburg and learn about downloadable audiobooks.

This one I have done in order to learn about these products that we offer our customers (which translates to “I have an account but I’ve never listened to a downloaded audiobook”).  Plus I can’t listen to audiobooks on my ipod, so I’m looking forward to downloading books to my new MP3 player soon!  I’m so close!  I find browsing a more effective searching tool in Overdrive, as there’s a good change that a specific title I’m searching for won’t be found.  I was impressed with how many children’s and YA books are in Overdrive.  I was also intrigued where the record says “burn to CD allowed.”  I mean, once it’s burned to a CD it’s permanently yours, correct?  Wow.  I am going to download Feed by M.T. Anderson, in honor of all this new technology. ;-)   With my limited experience, I like the audiobooks and have been hearing more and more positive feedback…almost shock and awe…when customers learn that we offer downloadable audiobooks and movies.  Once I have my new MP3 player, I’ll do some more exploring!

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Wikis…aka Week 7

August 9, 2007 at 11:24 pm (23 Things, Amazon.com, Childrens Services, Collaboration, Harford County Public Library, Libraries, Library 2.0, Wikis)

16.  Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them.

I saw Meredith Farkas speak at ALA at a session called “Wiking the Blog and Walking the Dog”…and I LOVE the idea of adding user input or wiki functionality to the catalog.  I blogged about that for Thing 7 regarding John Blyberg’s presentation from the same ALA session.  In addition to making a library’s catalog look more familiar to the many people who use Amazon or Barnes and Noble’s website, it also provides more of a comprehensive portrait of a specific book, movie, or program.  If someone found a book in the catalog, they could tell what others thought about it (either by its rating or by comments) and other materials they might like.  It also gives I think this ties into the idea of serendipitous discovery, which is something I like about Aquabrowser as well.  It would also reduce our workload, as when customers are making recomendations for books to each other we are tapping into their knowledge and experience in order to help other customers.  For example, a co-worker had a question today for a family-friendly movie that teaches moral lessons.  Honestly, I think customers could answer this question better for each other through ratings, comments, recommendations, and lists than I could as someone who doesn’t have children and probably has a different concept of what is “appropriate.”

I really like the SJCPL subject guides as well.  It provides an explanation for each topic, simplifies the search for materials by listing titles AND Dewey numbers, and successfully meets the customers in their space, on their time.  For example, the subject of “Voter Information” includes upcoming elections, current elected politicians, and information about where and how to vote.  In short, it contains answers to questions that people frequently have, and using a wiki to provide this information would simplify their journey to finding it.  Also, with a typical library website only one or two librarians have control over the website or list of subject guides and links.  But with a wiki, if ANYONE finds a new source, they can simply add it to the wiki themselves, which is less work for everyone involved and gets people intrinsically involved in information sharing.  I know there are downsides to this open editing as well, but it seems that with the regular monitoring that goes on with a wiki, it’s not a serious problem (at least with a public library-sized wiki…I’m not talking about Wikipedia and authority). ’

A use that I think would work in HCPL, in addition to the subject guides, is using a wiki for deparmental connections.  As a children’s librarian, I value the information that’s shared at Children’s Services meetings about conference attendance, educational experiences, program ideas, and miscellaneous valuable resources (both in print and people).  However, there are continuously more and more people at these meetings as the library grows and with a static amount of time per meeting, it can be a less than ideal opportunity to share these experiences and ideas.  If there was a Children’s Services wiki, we could share information about these topics!  I don’t think a wiki would take the place of the meetings, but it would give more of an opportunity to include the parts of a discussion that are likely to get cut out of a meeting, or only given 5 minutes, so that we could focus on making decisions and planning at the meetings.  What do people think of this possibility?! 

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