Week 9 # 23 Summary and Comment

"Paradigms are mental models that constrain our thinking and are often based on assumptions so strong we don't notice them. New paradigms cause disruption and uncertainty, even calamity, and are nearly always received with coolness, hostility, or worse. Vested interests fight against the change, and leaders of the old are often the last to embrace the new.(emphasis mine) Consequently, a paradigm shift typically causes a crisis of leadership." ( Wikinomics, p.274)

That paragraph certainly describes my approach to being wedged between the traditional library world and Library 2.0 before taking 23 Things!

What were my favorite enlightenment exercises? Wikis and the Word Processing (Zoho and Google Docs) because those are valuable and pertinent to me in reference and teaching; YouTube (who'da thunk?) and Podcasts just because I liked them.

What was involved in the entire process? 23 Things filled me in on the definitions of the hottest buzzwords in the Internet community today -- and dragged me with through a brief stampeding of their applications.

Even being familiar with how the buzzwords are applied, however, does not mean I will use all the applications 23 Things taught in my professional capacity as a librarian, except in public teaching. It's good to be proficient in what patrons might want to know.

The reality of retention because of the speed of this class: to be able to demonstrate ANYTHING proficiently after today will depend on my consistently pursuing what I've glimpsed these last nine weeks. The time was short and the information was very rapid-fire. I worked hard to get ahead of schedule during 23 Things so that I could take 2 1/2 weeks of leave in the middle of the course. When I got back to work I couldn't remember a thing I'd done before I'd left! I had not worked with any of the lessons, merely through them. I had to go back and review everything.

What surprised me? Even after feeling like I was panting and playing catch-up through the whole 23 Things experience, my interest and enthusiasm were so sparked that I checked out three books on blogging and MySpace (all brand new titles) because I'm interested in what's going on in the 2.0 world. When I read about episodes like four volunteer computer geeks creating a mashup that allowed thousands of families to track each other after disaster of Hurricane Katrina (when all the government lines of communication were inoperable) I understood that the applications of new technology can be practical and valuable. So my attitude as well as my knowledge base has been broadened.

The course itself? Many of the sites could easily have been offered by themselves for the 9 weeks because there was so much to them. This fact coupled with the multiple assignments within the lessons warrants more than 1.8 CEUs for the finished product. Pare down the number of topics, otherwise 3.0 CEUs would be far more accurate for the amount of work involved as the course is now, especially for those novices that this course is supposed to be geared toward. Two hours a week did not even begin to cover the time involved for everyone in my library except the technocrats who already had the skills and were cruising for easy CEUs.

How did this experience affect my lifelong learning goals? Besides introducing me to Library 2.0 philosophies and technologies, this course reignited my passion for teaching. It also gave me new things to teach. I am involved with five new courses for our patrons this Fall and I plan to incorporate some of the 23 Things into the classes. (Teaching for me has always been about growth through an exchange of information.) I am very happy to have been challenged to expand my repertoire.

What encouraging words would I give to others? My outlook has changed significantly -- for the better -- about 2007 library philosophy and the technology available to our community today. I feel less creaky in my brain. My vocabulary has expanded. I have new skills that I have already begun to put into practice.

Would I take another course like this one? Yes.

Week 9 #22: Audiobooks

The Frederick County Public Library has had OverDrive and NetLibrary for some time now, so I am familiar with both. For practice I checked out from OverDrive Beyond the Band of Brothers by Major Dick Winters and downloaded it onto my computer at home. I listened to the prologue to make sure it "took".

I had to register with NetLibrary at a public computer at the FCPL library since our professional computers inadvertently log us into the local community college catalog, which is ebooks only -- no audio. Once I set up my account I put Erma Bombeck's Just Wait Till You Have Children in my favorites.

Downloading the software needed to support the audiobook sites was very quick and painless on my computers at home. Personally, I would never listen to a book FROM my computer, but if downloading to a personal listening device is as painless as getting the book, then I understand why all our patrons are really pleased about the service. (All of those except our i-Pod users.)

Week Nine Number 21: Podcasts

I looked at the 3 directories, Podcast.net, Podcastalley.com and Yahoo Podcasts.
Podcast.net was the most helpful and from it I incorporated the audiobook:
Against the Tide
the yesteryear cinema:
Matinee Movies
and Arizona State University Library's:
LibraryChannel
into my
RSS Feeder

The Merlin podcast link listing the examples of how libraries are using podcasts ( storytimes, booktalks, relevant library news) was like something from future. The podcasts definitely gear libraries toward the new technology savvy patron.

Week Nine Number 20: Embedding YouTube (NOT!)

The whole Embed into HTML escaped me, even after several tries. I finally got a Mr. Bean at the Library embedded at the bottom of the page. It's time to move on to the "how would I use this in a library setting" part of the question.

The Holocaust video sample came from a patron this week who was very knowledgeable about computers and very heavily loaded down with Holocaust material by the time we were finished searching. The YouTube pieces about her area of study (ranging from 1.5 minutes to 10+ minutes) might prove very intriguing to her in light of her recent research.

The music videos were fun -- snippets of memories purely for pleasure.

The range of possibilities for viewing myriads of subjects seemed to be extensive.

Much of the YouTube phenomenon appears to me to have burgeoned out of the same soil as MySpace and others -- rapid-fire, homemade, self-serving attempts to connect with the world;
some educational, some enduring, some entertaining, some disturbing.

This puts the library as a center-for-the-community page once again as an offering of both the traditional and the new. Books about the tragedy of the USS Indianapolis accompanied by videos online.

Week 9 #20 Boldt Castle - 1,000 Islands

I choose this clip because the castle is close to my summer home. There's nowhere like the St Lawrence Seaway!

There is definitely a grainy and amateurish quality to this -- extreme conrast in both quality and content from my Holocaust selection.

Week 9 #20 Never Again-The Holocaust

I recently had a patron extremely interested in educating herself about the Holocaust so I had recent experience looking for information on this topic.

I did find all sorts of garbage (skinhead types)while I was looking, in addition to powerful videos like this one. I chose this as a sampling.

I am finally conditioned enough by 23 Things to skim through the postings (by strangers) after blogs and videos as opposed to dismissing them out of hand, and I'm glad that I did because I discovered the translation of the song that accompanies the images.

I found this presentation to be poignant and penetrating.

Week Eight Number 19 Googles Doc Test 1 Blog

Google Docs Test 1

After exploring the options on this site, I found that they are far more comparable to Zoho than I first thought. Though the word processing features are not so easy and obvious, they are available.

For example, I ever could find a spellcheck though until I went to the FAQs. There I I discovered spellcheck in many, many languages. Zoho has spellcheck for English only so Google is more advanced on that feature. (Also, I felt a bit dimwitted since the spellcheck option is highlighted in bright yellow on the bottom of the page I was typing on.)

There are several other differences, such as the word count feature listed under File as opposed to its automatically appearing in Zoho, but all in all with perseverance it seems straightforward enough to eventually create a document without having to resort to the HELP section.

Google Docs seems as though with practice it would be very close to the effectiveness and versatility as Zoho, though as a novice I still find Zoho easier to work with. Google Docs remains my second choice to share with patrons until I wrestle with it more. I am very excited about both though. I repeat -- just when I thought that Wikis were my favorite lesson -- the word processing lesson came along!