Q & A
What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
My favorite was learning abuot wikis. It was something I was already interested in learning about, and this sort of forced the issue for me.
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I've always been a lifelong learner, and this was just another interesting course on that road.
Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I've gone Wiki-Wild! A few years ago I started a Readers' Advisory committee at my branch at SWC. We haven't done much with it, but I had a project in mind that I wanted to do - I wanted to create a website of some sort about Florida authors. We started the project originally thinking about using Google Docs and Excel to collaborate and collect information. But after learning how easy it is to use wikis, we went that route instead. It's been very easy to do, and so accessible. All the committee members are happy with it and it looks like it will be a very successful project that we hope to have linked to the county website in the near future. Check it out:
FLORIDA AUTHORS
It also came in handy for school. I'm taking a class called Medical and Consumer Health Sources. One of our projects was to create a tutorial as either a PowerPoint presentation or a website, teaching others how to use a particular medical or consumer health database. After Rachel Mick did a presentation on the Community Health Information Service, I asked my professor if I could do my tutorial on that, and she agreed. It's not done yet but I've started it:
PBCLS COMMUNITY HEALTH TUTORIAL
What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Perhaps some scheduled voluntary meetings with either the branch coordinator or someone who was comfortable with the technology to answer questions and encourage participation, especially from those who are somewhat technologically challenged or computer-phobic.
And last but not least…
If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?
Definitely! It was fun and incredibly useful, and how often do you get to say that?
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Overdrive
It's really a shame that Apple hasn't seen the light and gotten on board with these downloadable audiobooks. Since they have approximately 75% of the market, they are disenfranchising their customers.
I am not a big audiobook fan, my mind wanders too much but my husband likes them. We got a small Sandisk MP3 player just for books for him.
I am not a big audiobook fan, my mind wanders too much but my husband likes them. We got a small Sandisk MP3 player just for books for him.
Podcasts
One of my favorite podcasts is NPR's Books.
"NPR book reviews, news and author interviews -- for people who love to read. The best of Morning Edition, All Things Considered and other award-winning NPR programs."
NPR Books Podcast
"NPR book reviews, news and author interviews -- for people who love to read. The best of Morning Edition, All Things Considered and other award-winning NPR programs."
NPR Books Podcast
YouTube and PowerPoint
For anyone who's ever had to do a PowerPoint presentation, or had to sit through a really bad one...
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Web 2.0 "awards"
The very first award I looked at was the one under the "books" category (what did you expect??) and I was very surprised and disappointed to see it was a website for self-publishing. I know it is gaining in popularity, and maybe the site is fantastic, but to have a site like that beat out Worldcat (which got an honorable mention!) told me a lot about these awards. To me, they lost all credibility with that one award. It led me to wonder if these awards are bought and paid for. I have no way of knowing that, but I can't help but be suspicious.
Friday, June 20, 2008
ZOHO-HO-HO
ZOHO-HO-HO
Never heard of this before 23 things but I'm very happy I know about it now. I've been working on a cookbook for my kids of all their favorite recipes. My son lives in Tampa and I've got a Word file on my computer that I tried to share out with him via Google Docs - but Google Docs severely limits the size of Word documents that you can upload, and the document I want to share is over 200 pages long. I had no trouble uploading an experimental document of 199 pages to Zoho Writer, although I haven't figured out yet how to delete it! But at least I now have a way to share my son's favorite recipes with him via Zoho Writer. And my daughter will be going off to college in a couple of years...
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Wiki-bandwagon
I like wikis. Libraries should definitely be jumping on the wiki-bandwagon. User friendly, easy to maintain and change and grow, all the good stuff.
Here at SWC our readers' advisory group is working on a wiki we hope to share with the library eventually....we are only at the very early, planning stage right now. Will share when ready.
Here at SWC our readers' advisory group is working on a wiki we hope to share with the library eventually....we are only at the very early, planning stage right now. Will share when ready.
Wiki wikki wachee
So I checked out the PBCLS wiki and immediately found the "favorite books" page. I added a few of my favorites...okay, a dozen or so of my favorites. Very easy to do and oh yeah, I added the author to someone else's favorite, Gone with the Wind.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Folksonomies
I had to look this word up. This what Google found for me, in case anyone else wasn't familiar with that word either:
Definitions of Folksonomies on the Web:
Are collaboratively generated, open-ended labeling systems that enables Internet users to categorize content such as Web pages, online photographs ...www.infodiv.unimelb.edu.au/metadata/glossary.html
The tagging of content with metadata or information by users and community members based on their personal preferences. Folksonomies allow any user to add comments or information that other users can take advantage of when looking for or organizing their own information. ...plc.fis.utoronto.ca/tgdemo/Glossary.asp
Definitions of Folksonomies on the Web:
Are collaboratively generated, open-ended labeling systems that enables Internet users to categorize content such as Web pages, online photographs ...www.infodiv.unimelb.edu.au/metadata/glossary.html
The tagging of content with metadata or information by users and community members based on their personal preferences. Folksonomies allow any user to add comments or information that other users can take advantage of when looking for or organizing their own information. ...plc.fis.utoronto.ca/tgdemo/Glossary.asp
You say technorati, I say okay
Interesting. I learned that the BookBitchBlog has an authority of 20. Or 19, depends on which computer I use, oddly enough. I also enjoyed reading some of the comments. I didn't enjoy learning that someone is using the BookBitch name, however, as it is protected under copyright law. Will have to pursue that in my spare time...
It's del.ight.ful, it's del.icio.us, it's de.love.ly
Several years ago I tried to Digg my way to saving articles but ran into an annoying download, spamware-type problem. So I avoided the sharing networks and just greedily held on to my bookmarks in my Yahoo account.
Enter 23 Things, lucky #13. Reluctantly, I mosied around del.icio.us and decided to give it a try while I was at work. That way if there was any download, spam, spyware type issues, IT could take care of it. (you're welcome, Peter) But there wasn't. It worked like it should work, easily, simply, with a minimum of fuss and bother. So go check out my del.icio.us bookmarks on articles about a new blog that is a dream for Readers' Advisory & Collection Development, the Encyclopaedia Britannica going wiki, and Johnny Depp's brother writing a book.
Enter 23 Things, lucky #13. Reluctantly, I mosied around del.icio.us and decided to give it a try while I was at work. That way if there was any download, spam, spyware type issues, IT could take care of it. (you're welcome, Peter) But there wasn't. It worked like it should work, easily, simply, with a minimum of fuss and bother. So go check out my del.icio.us bookmarks on articles about a new blog that is a dream for Readers' Advisory & Collection Development, the Encyclopaedia Britannica going wiki, and Johnny Depp's brother writing a book.
Key differences between Web 1.0 & Web 2.0
An interesting, very informative article by Graham Cormode & Balachander Krishnamurthy, a couple of AT&T Labs employees. Not librarians, as far as I can tell yet they put together this very well researched, well written article. According to their abstract, web 2.0 started to be commonly used in around 2003-2004. That leads me to believe that the PBCLS has a 4-5 year lag on new technology. Which isn't as bad as the lag on Readers' Advisory, so I'm not complaining. Go forth and read:
Abstract:
Web 2.0 is a buzzword introduced in 2003–04 which is commonly used to encompass various novel phenomena on the World Wide Web. Although largely a marketing term, some of the key attributes associated with Web 2.0 include the growth of social networks, bi–directional communication, various ‘glue’ technologies, and significant diversity in content types. We are not aware of a technical comparison between Web 1.0 and 2.0. While most of Web 2.0 runs on the same substrate as 1.0, there are some key differences. We capture those differences and their implications for technical work in this paper. Our goal is to identify the primary differences leading to the properties of interest in 2.0 to be characterized. We identify novel challenges due to the different structures of Web 2.0 sites, richer methods of user interaction, new technologies, and fundamentally different philosophy. Although a significant amount of past work can be reapplied, some critical thinking is needed for the networking community to analyze the challenges of this new and rapidly evolving environment.
First Monday: Key differences between Web 1.0 & Web 2.0
About the authors:
Graham Cormode is a Principal Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Shannon Laboratories in New Jersey. Previously, he was a researcher at Bell Labs, after postdoctoral study at the DIMACS center in Rutgers University from 2002–2004. His PhD was granted by the University of Warwick in 2002. He works on social network analysis, large–scale data mining, and applied algorithms, with applications to databases, networks, and fundamentals of communications and computation.Web: http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/~graham/E–mail: graham [at] research [dot] att [dot] com
Balachander Krishnamurthy of AT&T Labs — Research has focused his research of late in the areas of online social networks, unwanted traffic, and Internet measurements. He has authored and edited ten books, published over 70 papers, and holds twenty patents. He has collaborated with over 75 researchers worldwide. His most recent book — Internet measurements: Infrastructure, traffic and applications (525 pp, John Wiley, with M. Crovella) — was published in July 2006. His earlier book — Web protocols and practice (672 pp, Addison–Wesley, with J. Rexford) — has been translated into Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, and Chinese. Bala is homepage–less but many of his papers can be found at http://www.research.att.com/~bala/papers. E–mail: bala [at] research [dot] att [dot] com
Abstract:
Web 2.0 is a buzzword introduced in 2003–04 which is commonly used to encompass various novel phenomena on the World Wide Web. Although largely a marketing term, some of the key attributes associated with Web 2.0 include the growth of social networks, bi–directional communication, various ‘glue’ technologies, and significant diversity in content types. We are not aware of a technical comparison between Web 1.0 and 2.0. While most of Web 2.0 runs on the same substrate as 1.0, there are some key differences. We capture those differences and their implications for technical work in this paper. Our goal is to identify the primary differences leading to the properties of interest in 2.0 to be characterized. We identify novel challenges due to the different structures of Web 2.0 sites, richer methods of user interaction, new technologies, and fundamentally different philosophy. Although a significant amount of past work can be reapplied, some critical thinking is needed for the networking community to analyze the challenges of this new and rapidly evolving environment.
First Monday: Key differences between Web 1.0 & Web 2.0
About the authors:
Graham Cormode is a Principal Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Shannon Laboratories in New Jersey. Previously, he was a researcher at Bell Labs, after postdoctoral study at the DIMACS center in Rutgers University from 2002–2004. His PhD was granted by the University of Warwick in 2002. He works on social network analysis, large–scale data mining, and applied algorithms, with applications to databases, networks, and fundamentals of communications and computation.Web: http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/~graham/E–mail: graham [at] research [dot] att [dot] com
Balachander Krishnamurthy of AT&T Labs — Research has focused his research of late in the areas of online social networks, unwanted traffic, and Internet measurements. He has authored and edited ten books, published over 70 papers, and holds twenty patents. He has collaborated with over 75 researchers worldwide. His most recent book — Internet measurements: Infrastructure, traffic and applications (525 pp, John Wiley, with M. Crovella) — was published in July 2006. His earlier book — Web protocols and practice (672 pp, Addison–Wesley, with J. Rexford) — has been translated into Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, and Chinese. Bala is homepage–less but many of his papers can be found at http://www.research.att.com/~bala/papers. E–mail: bala [at] research [dot] att [dot] com
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Encyclopaedia Britannica To Follow Modified Wikipedia Model
In a bid to wed the comprehensive, grassroots information factory of Wikipedia with the authority of the traditional encyclopedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica is opening the floodgates for online user submissions into its 240-year-old publication -- a move it long resisted and sniffed was akin to intellectual pollution.
What Britannica wants to do, on the other hand, is create "a welcoming community for scholars, experts, and lay contributors," it said in an announcement last week.
Read the full story here: Encyclopaedia Britannica To Follow Modified Wikipedia Model
What Britannica wants to do, on the other hand, is create "a welcoming community for scholars, experts, and lay contributors," it said in an announcement last week.
Read the full story here: Encyclopaedia Britannica To Follow Modified Wikipedia Model
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Library Thing
I've been on Library Thing almost since its inception, but I confess to not keeping up with it as well as I would like. Here is a link to my library.
So today, in honor of my committment to 23 Things, I posted five new books and included reviews, which I pulled from my reviews in Library Journal. I found that LJ had posted my review of The Dirty Secrets Club by Meg Gardiner. Sort of. It may have started out as my review, but several editors later it had been tweaked beyond my recognition, not to mention they ***starred*** the book.
Now, normally when they feel the review is strong enough to warrant a star, my editor will shoot me an email and say should we star this. Usually I'll say yes. Once, I remember, I said no - it was for The Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson. I liked the book, and thought it was one of his stronger books in a number of years, but it was very good for a James Patterson book, not very good (nor star worthy) as compared to other books in the genre. So they didn't star it.
But they starred the Gardiner book, which was good, but if they had asked - and I'm not sure why they didn't - I would have said no star. She's getting a lot of press because she's an American who's been living in London for a number of years, and has been writing and being published in England for quite a while. It took Stephen King writing about how fabulous she is in his Entertainment Weekly column to get her published here, not to mention the blurb from King on the cover, and all the ensuing publicity. It's a good book, but not any better than say the first novel from David Levien, which I also "highly recommended" but was never even asked if it should be starred. It's been my experience that first time authors rarely get starred reviews unless there is some sort of big buzz going on in the publishing community. There wasn't for Levien, but there was - and is - for Gardiner. And there you have it.
So today, in honor of my committment to 23 Things, I posted five new books and included reviews, which I pulled from my reviews in Library Journal. I found that LJ had posted my review of The Dirty Secrets Club by Meg Gardiner. Sort of. It may have started out as my review, but several editors later it had been tweaked beyond my recognition, not to mention they ***starred*** the book.
Now, normally when they feel the review is strong enough to warrant a star, my editor will shoot me an email and say should we star this. Usually I'll say yes. Once, I remember, I said no - it was for The Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson. I liked the book, and thought it was one of his stronger books in a number of years, but it was very good for a James Patterson book, not very good (nor star worthy) as compared to other books in the genre. So they didn't star it.
But they starred the Gardiner book, which was good, but if they had asked - and I'm not sure why they didn't - I would have said no star. She's getting a lot of press because she's an American who's been living in London for a number of years, and has been writing and being published in England for quite a while. It took Stephen King writing about how fabulous she is in his Entertainment Weekly column to get her published here, not to mention the blurb from King on the cover, and all the ensuing publicity. It's a good book, but not any better than say the first novel from David Levien, which I also "highly recommended" but was never even asked if it should be starred. It's been my experience that first time authors rarely get starred reviews unless there is some sort of big buzz going on in the publishing community. There wasn't for Levien, but there was - and is - for Gardiner. And there you have it.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Feed me
I created a Bloglines account and I like it! Very easy to use. Plus I learned that there is something wrong with my website's feed that I will have to investigate.
A few of the blogs I added...see if you can find a pattern!
Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind - Sara Weinman's blog on crime fiction
Off the Page - Sun Sentinel book reviewers blog
Papercuts - NY Times blog about books
A few of the blogs I added...see if you can find a pattern!
Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind - Sara Weinman's blog on crime fiction
Off the Page - Sun Sentinel book reviewers blog
Papercuts - NY Times blog about books
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Vendors keep the party going with Web 2.0
Information With A Twist
Vendors keep the party going with Web 2.0
By Carol Tenopir, Gayle Baker, & Jill E. Grogg
-- Library Journal, 5/15/2008
Social networking and other Web 2.0 technologies led the social whirl of the information industry. Publishers and librarians tried to keep their products and services relevant by mixing authoritative content with user involvement, but that wasn't enough. Enhancing interfaces, adding new forms of content, and making strategic acquisitions—all are necessary to ensure that the information industry party continues.
Read the rest of the article, including a chart of vendor products and who is using them:
Information With A Twist
Vendors keep the party going with Web 2.0
By Carol Tenopir, Gayle Baker, & Jill E. Grogg
-- Library Journal, 5/15/2008
Social networking and other Web 2.0 technologies led the social whirl of the information industry. Publishers and librarians tried to keep their products and services relevant by mixing authoritative content with user involvement, but that wasn't enough. Enhancing interfaces, adding new forms of content, and making strategic acquisitions—all are necessary to ensure that the information industry party continues.
Read the rest of the article, including a chart of vendor products and who is using them:
Information With A Twist
Monday, May 12, 2008
THE MURDER NOTEBOOK by Jonathan Santlofer
Today I'm reading a galley of Jonathan Santlofer's latest, The Murder Notebook. He has two series - this is book two of the second series. Both are set in the art world, and appropriately so if you are a believer in the old adage, "write about what you know."
Jonathan is a contemporary artist with work in galleries and museums around the world. His new series features a protagonist who is a police sketch artist, and the books include original artwork by the author. This is not a graphic novel, but rather a novel with some art that relates to the story. The library owns the first book in the series, check it out: Anatomy of Fear. It's very original, and very interesting. Or check out the author's website: Jonathan Santlofer
The Murder Notebook will be available June 3.
Jonathan is a contemporary artist with work in galleries and museums around the world. His new series features a protagonist who is a police sketch artist, and the books include original artwork by the author. This is not a graphic novel, but rather a novel with some art that relates to the story. The library owns the first book in the series, check it out: Anatomy of Fear. It's very original, and very interesting. Or check out the author's website: Jonathan Santlofer
The Murder Notebook will be available June 3.
Should libraries be blogging?
I'm not so sure that blogging is the best way for libraries to go. Several libraries have been doing it for a while now. The success stories are far and few between, and the failures litter the world wide web's landscape. Web 2.0 is a fabulous idea, but maybe it should come after Web 1.0 - the Internet, AKA the PBCLS's website - is perfected. Or at least bettered.
Just my opinion. And I always have one.
Just my opinion. And I always have one.
Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners
My favorite was the 1/2! I think people do forget to have fun while learning. I am a lifelong learner, and I'm in grad school now working towards my Masters in Library & Information Science at the University of South Florida.
Welcome to my Blog!
This is my official library blog being used as part of the Web 2.0/23 Things training.
Please check out my BookBitchBlog for all the latest in breaking book news, author interviews, guest blogging authors, and much more. My latest interview is with Elaine Viets. Elaine is a stroke survivor and the author of the Dead-End Job Series whose latest book, CLUBBED TO DEATH, just came out.
Also check out my website - I am the BookBitch! I give away free books every month and offer lots of book reviews and updates on the latest author signings in the south Florida area.
Thanks for reading!
Please check out my BookBitchBlog for all the latest in breaking book news, author interviews, guest blogging authors, and much more. My latest interview is with Elaine Viets. Elaine is a stroke survivor and the author of the Dead-End Job Series whose latest book, CLUBBED TO DEATH, just came out.
Also check out my website - I am the BookBitch! I give away free books every month and offer lots of book reviews and updates on the latest author signings in the south Florida area.
Thanks for reading!
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