Ning

Wow -- I really like Ning! I would think it would be especially good for small group projects, or work. I want to spend a lot of time learning more about the options available. The fact that you can create your own social network, add your own users/members, and photos, video, etc is very empowering ;-)

I really see a lot of potential with using Ning in my library work. Since this is my first attempt at creating a social network, I just created one for fun this time, but will be using it to learn about the various options and see what I might be able to do with it in the library world. My ning page can be found at http://libblue.ning.com/

Facebook

I created a facebook account a couple of months ago on my husband's recommendation -- he was right! I like it, and find it fun, especially to "play" with friends. I realize that there are more work-related utilities available, but so far I'm just really having fun! Stacey told me about Catbook, which I absolutely love!!! (Thanks Stacey!) I created a profile for both Pickles and Rosie and they now have online cat friends. My profile page is
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1127731634

I like the Blue 2.0 at UK Libraries facebook page too. Great idea for a program like this!

MySpace assignment

My myspace page can be found at the following link:
http://www.myspace.com/lmcdavison

It was easy enough to create the account, but I must confess I haven't spent very much time playing with it. I tried to add friends to the account twice without success. I've been using Facebook for a couple of months now and I think that I just need to read up on the MySpace FAQs to learn how to do more.

One thing that I did do on MySpace was to add an event to my calendar. I went back later and deleted it when I discovered that anyone can view it from the web - so I definitely need to go back and figure out the privacy options first!

I liked the UK Libraries MySpace page - I suspect that undergrads especially would find it appealing.

YouTube review of library video

My favorite YouTube video that I found when searching for libraries was “The Adventures of Super Librarian,” a short publicity type video for the McCracken County (KY) Public Library. I liked the fact that it was short and hit only the highlights of services, while keeping the whole message light and fun. The Librarian was dressed as Superman/woman, breaking the traditional stereotype of a bun haired older lady shushing everyone.

Another video that I found relating to academic libraries was “The Otis Library Tour,” a tour and informational video about the Millard Sheets Library at the Otis College of Art & Design. This video had fast, upbeat music and a lot of humor, yet it quickly conveyed some of the great services available in the library. The video ran through each of the areas of the library while highlighting the staff at each location. It is a small library, but they did a great job of showcasing it, such as the laptop lounge where the patron was able to rearrange the furniture. They also made the staff seem extremely friendly and eager to help – not everyone can do a back flip over the Circ desk to assist a patron, but they all conveyed an inviting image of the library workers in order to encourage student interaction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS28qydjfsg

I think the YouTube format would be a great publicity tool for libraries, and maybe a short educational video would work as well. However, I think the short videos are better at capturing the attention of our college-age patrons. I’m a librarian and I got bored and quit watching a lot of them!

Podcasting - not so fun

So, it's taken me over a week to get the podcasting assignment completed. I had to download the Audacity software to make the recording, and then I had to find a software program to convert my file to MP3 format -- there seemed to be a lot in google, but I chose AceZ Mp3 Wav Converter and it worked great.

In general I found the whole podcasting experience to be a bit complicated, and am still pondering how one might use a podcast for their library. I'm sure there ARE lots of good uses, but I'm more of a visual learner, and I've been a YouTube fan for a long time.

The biggest problem that I had in this assignment was trying to find out how/where to post my podcast. Then I saw on our Blue 2.o blog that Bunheadky kindly offered us a couple of options. (Thanks Bunhead!) I chose to go with podbean. I was able to post my podcast, but am still trying to learn all the tricks and options of podbean -- it essentially creates a blog for you to post your mp3 files to then act as a podcasting host. There are lots of options for changing the look of my page, but I haven't had time to figure them out yet. At any rate, here's the URL to my podcast http://lmcdavison.podbean.com

Flickr

Flickr is great! It was very easy to create a free account, and they give you lots of space for posting photos. I also like that the site is so user friendly, it uploads your photos quickly and makes it easy to manipulate your collection. I think this would be a really great publicity venue for libraries -- especially for special events that you want to publicize, or even for a photo tour of your library. If remodeling or building a new library, the fact that anyone can access the photos without having an account would be another fantastic way to show the world what's going on at your library.

My flickr account is located at the following URL
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lcdavison

twitter try 2

Over the weekend, I was able to get my twitter account setup http://twitter.com/lcdavison and I managed to add a co-worker as another twitter-er to follow. I also added "I Can Haz Cheezburger" to follow, and of course I LOVED it due to all of the cat photos!

I think the idea of Twitter is interesting, but not really sure how it would be an effective communication tool for work. But as Sarah commented in the post below there seem to be a lot of technical difficulties with Twitter so far. I think it just isn't "cooked" yet.

weeme - weeks 7 & 8

Since I had difficulties with Twitter timing out yesterday, I decided to create an avatar. First I used Mr. Picassohead, which I really liked and made an all blue, abstract avatar. The problem is I can't figure out how to save a copy to use as my blog profile picture. I can go to Mr. Picassohead and look at it, but not save it :-(
http://www.mrpicassohead.com/canvas.html?id=8d7f98b&skin=original

Then, I decided to try the WeeMe app, and made an odd avatar in bunny slippers which I have now loaded as my blog's profile photo! This was fun. I think that I'll put the WeeMe on my Facebook page too.

Play Week, application #2

So the second app that I decided to play with was Twitter. I heard about microblogging at the MLA webcast on Web 2.0 yesterday, and didn't really get it -- so I thought that would be a good choice for play week! Hummmm, not going so well -- I created an account with no problems, but having trouble adding contacts. My computer is extremely slow, so I'm thinking it might be a "timing out" problem. I'll keep working on it.

Play Week - online image generator

So this assignment is to play with some of the various options our kind Blue 2.0 instructors have listed. The first one I tried was "Free Online Image Maker." Interesting, but since I know very little about editing photos it wasn't too helpful to me. It was very easy to load a photo though, and if I knew much about photography it's great that the tools are there online (and free!). So then I went to Photo Spread Effect Generator, and did this.

The assignment: Write a brief summary of your experiences with either del.icio.us or google docs or both.

I LOVE del.icio.us -- the whole idea of it is great for outreach activities from our library, and it is soooo easy to create and manipulate. I only wish I could spell -- that's the hardest part for me (spelling delicious).

Google docs so far is working quite well.

del.icio.us account

OK - I now have a del.icio.us account, the address is http://del.icio.us/lmcdavison

I was really pleased with how easy it is to create & manage. I think this is a great tool - especially for reference, and outreach.

PBwiki creation

Well, I finally was able to create a pbwiki. I started on Sunday, but had a lot of problems -- in order to create the account, you must get a confirmation message in your email. My work email wouldn't deliver the message (it wouldn't even put it in spam folder), and my hotmail also filtered it out without letting me see it. So, I finally had to create a gmail account, and it worked fine. The address for my wiki is
http://pickiroro.pbwiki.com

I named it for my cats, Pickles and Rosie (big suprise huh?) ;-)

I looked at some of the Albany County Public Library wiki and also at Librarian Sarah's wiki. They are definitely good examples of using a wiki for work. I was especially impressed with the public library staff's wiki; and I recently learned that two of our ILL folks at the MCL have created a wiki about ILLiad! It's great!

Bloglines account created

I've successfully created a Bloglines account as the next part of our Library Blue 2.0 assignment. I added the Blue 2.0 Blog, the About Cats Blog, and the Dilbert Blog (I've always been a fan of Dogbert's Top Secret Managment Handbook).

I also added Michael Stephens "Tame the Blog" site - I often go there to view it, but think this will be easier having it in Bloglines.

This was a good experience setting up this account. I'm still working on creating a pb wiki though - for some reason I'm not receiving the email confirmation message that I have to have to finish the wiki...

Blue 2.0 assignment continues

So, now I'm to the part of the assignment where we're supposed to record our experience with the instant messaging portion of the program. For me -- it was not pretty. I found the AIM interface to be very user UN-friendly, and all of the ads & flashing gee-gaws distracting. Eventually, I did manage to create an account in AIM & was able to chat with a very patient and helpful co-worker (thanks Susan!). I've used MSN messenger in the past and didn't have nearly as many problems with it as I've experienced with AIM (so far).

Yes, I could see using this technology at work, particularly for short ref questions. I personally would not want to use it for friends & family - keeping up with their email is challenging enough, I would be concerned that IMing would become very time consuming, which would cut down on the time I have to take photos of my cats ...

back to the Blue 2.0 assignment

Oops - I forgot to do activity 3 "Blog It!" in our Blue 2.0 assignment -- this is where we're supposed to talk about our experience in creating our blog. I thought creating it was pretty easy, but coming up with a name and/or something to blog about was incredibly aggravating. Obviously, I don't meet the criteria of a person well suited to have a blog ;-) Still not sure what I'll be blogging about over the next few weeks, so you'll probably see more cat photos... As far as using a blog in my day-to-day work, I'm not seeing it yet. The majority of patrons in our library need clinical evidence based resources rather than personal opinions.

Pickles

As I was discussing my newly created blog at home last night, Pickles became concerned that she was not featured. So, here she is on the left, and on the right along side Rosemarie.

I'm not sure what my blog is going to be about - it wasn't intended to be about cats, but I can't seem to resist posting photos of them!

First Post

Obviously my first post -- this blog was created for the UK Libraries Blue 2.0 experience. It should be fun...