Week Four Part Nine MERLIN / Other RSS Feeders

Merlin.lib.md.us (MERLIN) is a great site! It is definitely the place to cruise during random minutes to keep updated about Maryland libraries in today's world. Very nice to have everything under one roof! I subscribed to it on my bloglines account after I read another poster's description.

As for the other sites, I think that syndic8.com would be useful for avid bloggers -- or blog followers, especially as it is a community site. topix.net seemed a little choppy for me -- too surface maybe (do I mean shallow?) -- snippets of information.

All in all, I liked Bloglines.com best. I used the "200 most used RSS feeds " to get started. I then used Time Magazines "50 Best RSS Feeds" from Bloglines' front page.

As I said earlier, not being a big fan of blogs, I so far have limited my searches to newsfeeds with news. Chugging pell mell through the hands-on learning of all the new "Things" tools, while I can feel my attitude about technology changing emmensely, I haven't had time to digest exactly how I will end up evolving blog-wise.

It's been my experience that patrons age 30 and under are amost often computer connected enough to be blogging away with perfect ease already, probably with RSS firmly on board, while over-30's (way over?) are still in the process of making up their minds about the community, collaboration and computers connected merely to individual viewpoints and opinions.

Either way, the RSS feeder is worth demonstrating in patron classes.

Week 4 Part Eight: Bloglines/Blogrolls/RSS

As the title to this blog implies, I found it to be extremely intensive in both content and labor. If one is an older hand in the RSS feeder world (I am older now than I was a week ago), it must seem very simple. Hmmm.

How do I think this might affect library patrons? I think that as patrons advance through our library's computer classes, this might be a really inviting offering for them -- especially if they enjoy blogs.

A. I would like to see the classes structured to library patrons who are learning to use a computer in the format of tutorials, like those in Part Four of 23 Things, accompanied by sitting down with them and guiding them one-on-one, step-by-step through the process of the world of RSS, bloglines, and choosing and creating their feeds . Because the process can be long, frustrating and a pain in the brain if one gets lost along the way, I think for beginners it is better to have a live body helping.

This is my own prejudice since I opted to work through this section solo partly because it seemed so straightforward (which, to someone more tech savvy than I it may be) and partly because when I looked through other FCPL bloggers's posts, no one (except James) was on week four yet. I limped and cursed and struggled.

B. For library patrons whose computer knowledge is more in the adept range the tutorials like those that 23 Things offer would be great guides, accompanied by library staff to help with any questions.

What did I accomplish in this week?

1. I now have a bloglines account with 20 feeds (and two folders). That is sufficient to let me explore and play with how RSS feeders work...later. My feeds are all news-based; I am not a fan of blogs in general, including mine. It took me all of the seven days of week four to barely meet the minimum requirements of getting the framework in place. Entries such as the NY Times bestseller list, the Unshelved cartoon, and the vegetarian recipes are all intuitively obvious in use. I have yet to figure out the advantages of having a list of seemingly (to me) unconnected headlines in my newspages. So my play has been limited. Probably time is an answer to all my puzzlements -- I just don't have anymore right now.

2. I have a public link with my blogline at http://bloglines.com/public/rexstout.

3. I have an RSS button on my blogspot account (note address bar above) -- my only "play" attempt so far.

4. I added the FCPL particpants to my RSS feeder.

5. I added my blog to my feeder.

Wikinomics Week Three Part Seven

I picked up a copy of Wickinomics last week to see if I could glean anything helpful about what I was learning during the 23 Things Course and I stumbled on a very interesting section about the world for today's young people.

The book said that the world that the baby boomers grew up with --riding bikes in the neighborhood until dark with packs of friends, for example -- obviously does not work in society today. Though 10-15 years ago kids transferred their social lives to malls, today kids are banned from loitering or meeting in groups unsupervised. Many teens (and young adults living at home) have to share their living space with parents and guardians without an avenue that allows them to connect with each other on their level with any sense of freedom or age appropriate interaction. There is no sense of privacy, something vital at that age group (maybe all age groups?)

Thus, according to the book, something like MySpace is the ideal connector for 2007. It allows social experimentation, peer recognition, self expression and a chance to learn what works and what doesn't work in relationships for people who have constrained physical interactions.

While I don't know that I would have labeled what I have seen on MySpace accounts in such glowing sociological and psychological terms, I found that I have changed my attitude about their purpose and results in a community setting, such as the public library.

Week Three Number Six Mashups

Actually, this was more like smashups for me. I understood the concepts and caromed around the sites but I remain bewildered. I activated fd's Flickr toys and attempted a magazine cover but managed to bump my pictures off -- again! I know where to find things if I want a nifty gift for my nephews but otherwise I am moving on to number 7, my technical article for this week.

Week Three Number 5 Continued

Hassan1
Originally uploaded by rexstout

I found my own pictures. Here's one of them. I will attempt to get it on the big map next...

Week Three Number Five Beautiful Mongrel

Beautiful mongrel
Originally uploaded by csavules

At long last!

After uploading photos from my digital camera, tagging them, attempting (without success) to attach them to a map, joining a group and then spending an inordinate amount of time with other flickr offerings that flopped I finally just went with the find-someone-else's-work-and-use-it-scheme.

This is the result of my Week Three part 5 "PLAYING!"

Week Two Part Two Registering Blog

While this step was even easier than creating the blog (very simple indeed), I found it to be very frustrating.

Trying to take into account where I have time crunches in my schedule, I wanted to work ahead in weeks two and three. And unless I am an idiot (which may very well be the case) there was no way for my library system to register our participants until the Monday of week two, when the liaison set up the link, so I was stuck. I tracked down other library systems that were active but not ours.

Week Two Part One Creating a Blog / Posting to Blog

Creating the blog was extremely painless --and very straightforward. Follow 3 simple directions and I now own a blog.

Posting was another thing entirely. Writing "off the top of my head" for an unknown audience was very uncomfortable and I spent too much care (and time) choosing my words. Knowledge of my topic was not the issue -- presentation was.

Week One Part One

Samples of fellow bloggers / Participants

Outine of course with weekly titles and links provided

Suggestion of Tips page

All course creators very enthusiastic

Week One Part Two 7 1/2 Habits

Teaching/Mentoring is the easiest and strongest habit for me. I was a university lecturer for almost 20 years in stateside and European schools. After receiving my MLS 30 years ago, the bottom dropped out library funding and one couldn't find a job anywhere near a reference desk. I ended up with a second master's out of necessity and ended up teaching. That was a journey of amazing and exponential growth for me because of what the students brought to the classes. I discovered that no matter how much prep I had done, I always came away with new resources and skills given to me by my students. My last 8 years have been in a public library in reference -- the best of both worlds. Mini-teaching, no homework to grade. I am involved in mentoring in the library system and public teaching for patrons.

Describing my writing instrument for the majority of my years of teaching will clearly demonstrate why technology is my weakest area in the 7 and 1/2 habits. I wrote with a field typewriter that my father brought home from Viet Nam and bequeathed to me for my college career. It was tiny, extremely lightweight and designed to be carried in a field pack during war. It had minuscule keys that took the strength of an Olympian athlete to strike. The use of 2 carbons was effective, 3 carbons was pushing it. Never mind that I had to retype my syllabi AND all my handouts for every class for every semester. Social scientists say that the formative years of learning influence the attitudes of the learner throughout life. I am ready to stop thinking using ancient, painstaking pathways and "embrace the technology boom".