Regardez!

La loutre francaise lit les livres - sur l'estomac, bien sur!
Sassy!

Thing 23: Fin

OK, so this isn't French cinema, but the otter cannot help its Frenchness!

This Web Challenge has been like a buffet - I'm so stuffed I'm not sure I can remember what I ate!

I'm not sure I had a favorite. I liked Library Thing and am trying to think of how to use it easily. So many times when I am selecting, I look at a title and think, ooh - that would be great for teens, or oooh - I need to buy that for myself, or oooh- that relates to 3 other titles I've bought in the last year. I am always looking for an easy way to store that kind of info without having to go 32 clicks away from what I am primarily doing. I'm not sure Library Thing would actually save me lots of time in that regard, but I do like the organization possiblities. I also really enjoyed Google Docs - I am definitely going to try to think of ways to incorporate interactive documents into my work. That might save me a few trips up and down the stairs - although I'm not sure that's a good thing!

My least favorite by far was Technorati. I just didn't think its search functions were tight enough to be specific, and even when I found interesting results I was still getting frustrated over all of the time I was spending "browsing" them. I just don't see too much immediate need for blog-searching at this point. I almost feel more comfortable with links from blogs I already enjoy, rather than searching them.

I think the Library should be using some of these mediums to put our staff expertise in front of our customers. I really enjoyed the blogging experience (which I'm sure you can tell by my tiny, concise postings, hee hee). I am really hoping to continue in some format to do some marketing of my beloved non-fiction books. Maybe not the most appropriate forum for the French Otter (Sacre Bleu! You Otter Read This?!), but I will find another use for him - stay tuned!

I haven't shared any adventures of the French Otter with my posse, yet, but you can bet they will be assaulted with my booktalking if I succeed in launching it!

Au revoir, Web Challenge, we'll always have Toms River!

Thing 22: NetLibrary

I took a look at the non-fiction titles on NetLibrary, and was very happy to see a healthy use level on them! Many titles were only available to put on my waiting list, so lots were in use. I chose one that I've been meaning to pick up for a while now, Here If You Need Me by Kate Braestrup.

Now, sit back while I wax poetic and booktalk! Kate's husband was a Maine state trooper with a goal of becoming ordained as a minister but was killed in a car accident. So, Kate became ordained and now chaplains during search and rescue missions for the Maine Warden Service. Imagine being the person who has to figure out what to say to someone who is suffering through the disappearance of a loved one, wondering whether they'll be found and what condition they'll be in if located. That is Kate's work.

I listened to the intro, where Kate talks about learning Greek during her divinity studies. She talks of the religious idea of "in the beginning there is the story," and goes on to contrast her minister's role as "storyteller" and her confessor's role to guard the privacy of all to whom she ministers. Hello, this librarian is hooked! I had to stop the recording, however, when chapter 1 opened with a missing 6-year-old girl. I could already feel some tears welling up, so that will have to wait until I'm not out on the public floor of the library - can't wait to get my MP3! I didn't even check the title back in yet, because I am anxious to continue listening. Kate narrates this title herself, and has an enchanting down-to-earth articulateness about her. (We own it in print, too, in case I've talked anyone else into reading it!)

I found the download to work quite smoothly, after KK righted an ailing PC Plus and got OverDrive access, that is! I only downloaded part 1 of my book (don't know if that's an option for all titles, but for this one it was), but the download went much more quickly than I anticpated, anyway. I had tried this 2 years ago on a staff PC in BKY, and it was like pulling teeth. Looking back, I'm thinking it must have been the downloading of Overdrive that took so long, perhaps combined with a smaller memory on an older PC. This time it was very quick and straightforward, and I am definitely looking forward to using it more with my MP3!

On an added note, I found Kate's juxtaposition of "storytelling" and "storykeeping" (confidentiality) to be particularly appropriate for the Web Challenge. I think this will be a huge issue for libraries as we pursue 2.0. Web 2.0 is all about the open interaction, whereas libraries have always clung to the charge to protect user confidentiality. I see many thought-provoking issues ahead!

Thanks, Kristin, for making my download possible!

Thing 21: Finding & Listening to Podcasts

I love podcasts! I ran into some Canadians last week, and listening to them made me really miss being close to Canada. I went to college about 12 miles from Ontario and love to travel to Canada - especially Quebec. Must be the call of my French-Canadian ancestors! One of the best things about being geographically close to Canada was getting Canadian radio and TV stations. I fondly recall watching the 1996 Winter Olympics on Canadian TV - I found that their commentators are SOOOOooo much less annoying than ours!

So, I listened to some podcasts from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and am looking forward to listening to some in French in the future to sharpen up my French listening skills. Just in case I ever need to talk to a true loutre francaise.

I had some trouble making a link to my chosen podcast, so I did an enclosure link, which means that if you click on the title to this post you will link to a fascinating history of Quebec City. Vive le nord!

Thing 20: YouTube, Moi, and Otters with Good Real Estate

Well, here are some otters who are lucky enough to live in Paris. If you watch you can even hear some zoo-goers exclaim with delight over "les loutres." I just love how they swim, all bendy and swirly and sleek!

I am a big fan of YouTube. Possible another forum for library training - a la quick video instruction of how to do a catalog search? Beaucoup possibilities.

Thing 19: Web 2.0 Awards

I found my next favorite tool - www. wayfaring.com, a web 2.0 award-winning mapping service. You can create your own maps and then share them (or not share them). So, you can send a friend a map to your house that marks not only your casa, but all of the coffee drive-throughs in your neighborhood, too! Or we could post a map of all of our branch locations - a nice county map with landmarks for all of our buildings, for those intrepid explorers wanting to complete our branch tour (and maybe that would be a cool initiative - a little passport that can get stamped and a prize for any patron who visits each library in the county - hmmmmmm....).

Anyway, I love maps (does that somehow go with the number-loving?!), and I will definitely be exploring the joys of wayfaring as I have already started my (free) account. It would be cool to have the option to post a map for our programs - or, now that I think of it, a map of places to park for anyone visiting the TR location. Sha-zam!

Thing 18: Web Apps

At first I was thinking, what would be the big difference between online collaboration on a wiki and an app like Google Docs - I'm a little slow, but I finally caught on: format and style! Being a number-phile, I especially like the idea of collaborative spread sheets. I am in the midst of visiting different branches to look at their collections. It would have been great to do that scheduling on a collaborative spread sheet and thus avoid waiting to hear from some people at the expense of those from whom I got fast responses.

Since I am not "on the floor" too often anymore, I am also wondering about Reference stats - I know they are submitted online now, but are we using Google Docs? That could be a good use.

I was really getting a lot of good ideas looking at the testimonials in the Google Docs tour, but I had to stop reading when I got to the one about the guy who is basically doing his mother-in-law's job for her thanks to Google Docs! GRRRRrr!

My main thought for these types of applications is T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G. OCL could have a whole set of basic training for new employees using Google Docs. How to fill out a Request for Materials slip. How to fill in a voucher and/or purchase order. How to teach a basic Internet skills class. Consistent system-wide trainings that don't have to be re-invented in each location. Could be huge!

Thing 17: le Sandbox

I was on a workgroup who used PBWiki, and it was just great for sharing minutes, tasks, and discussions of common readings. With that kind of power to do group edits on content, PBWiki makes lots of online task-achievement possible with a lot less meeting time in person. It is incredibly useful - it becomes more critical to have broad online access for staff, but makes for a lot of savings on gas and travel time as bodies of a workgroup travel to a physical location. Also, the resulting work is there for all to see - less time going back trying to remember where work left off or what decision was made.

I think there is a lot of content on OceanNet that would work well in a PBWiki setting. For instance, I happen to be working a Sunday while considering this challege. A PBWiki would be a great way to share things like computer logins, building issues, etc. - info that can change periodically but needs to be in a central place that can be updated immediately for staff to reference.

PBWikis might also be nice environments for weeding projects. If staff in one location weeds an area and discards titles that are outdated and have been updated, or are outdated and inaccurate, they could post those titles to a PBWiki so other locations could look for the same titles - system weeding made faster and more consistent!

Thing 16: Learning About Wikis

I see lots of good opportunities for the use of Wikis. I really enjoyed Nancy Pearl's and Albany County's. Book-sharing is the perfect thing to do on a wiki, and I saw that Albany County is using some wiki applications for staff input on selecting materials. I can certainly see some uses that relate to my job, as part of what I do involves consolidating communication among 21 branches!

The Library Success wiki is a spot I will be visiting again. In all of my wiki-exploring, my favorite option is the "recent changes" link. On a wiki like Library Success, I can choose a topic like Cataloging and see very quickly if there has been recent activity, or whether there has been a post that generated a ton of discussion. I know that can also be managed via RSS, but truthfully I don't see myself becoming an RSS junkie, so I like to know my options for quickly browsing new material!

The OCL blog post was fun reading, what with all of the local history and lore. I saw lots of potential staff changes in History, from Sparks, to additions pertaining to John Bailey Lloyd, to more mundane edits like style changes. With all of the posts and undoing of posts, I can see where a detail hound like me could while away hours and hours fixing wikis! I can see some opportunities for programming here, too. How about the locations that have knitting groups? A pattern could be shared in the group, and then a wiki could be used to post resulting projects and variations used, etc. Definitely a community-builder!

Thing 15: On Library 2.0

Lordy, lordy, lordy. I have beaucoup thoughts on the readings for Thing 15...many of them critical. The otter has claws...en garde!

In "Away from the Icebergs," Rick Anderson suggests it is time to "look skeptically at the very idea of a library 'collection.'" Well, let me just say that in my job in the COLLECTIONS dept., I see around 100 requests for materials EVERY week. And that is just for NON-FICTION. One can easily surmise those numbers go up for more popular formats like fiction and a/v. So, whose idea is it to look skeptically at physical collections? Not the hundreds of customers who demand items. I also got revved up reading Wendy Schultz comment that "librarians today are not just inventory management biobots." Those 100 requests every 5 days? Those are for inventory. And if we want to find it, we have to manage it. Is that all we do or "just" what we do? Certainly not, I am in agreement there - but let's throw it some attention before we breeze on by it as the mindless work of a biobot.

Which brings me to my next point. All of these 2.0 possibilities in the biblioworld - tagging, reviewing, acquisition/borrowing availability (there's that pesky inventory again!)....use of those functions by customers is going to require MORE participation, assistance, and explanation by librarians. Not less. I enjoyed reading about the possibilites mentioned in "To Better Bibliographic Services" and "To a Temporary Place in Time." But take a customer who linked to a source through a 2.0 interaction that indicates a copy of just the title they wanted is available for sale, and then tell them that you can't order that book for your library because that seller only takes credit cards and you are a government agency that only pays with purchase orders.

There are a lot of details in the mix here. And I accept that the look and format of our services are going to change. But our customers still want inventory. And if they are asking for titles from 1920 today (and trust me, they are), then I believe they will be asking for 2008 titles in 2035. And the author that wrote that 2008 book? I'm pretty sure they're going to be talking to their agents and publishers about getting royalties until their 75-year copyright runs out, so online access to material is going to cost somebody something in that time period.

So, looking at inventory as passé? Let's see, 100 requests X number of counties in NJ X number of states in U.S.A........icebergs, anyone? Call me skeptical.

Thing 14: Technorati

Well, as I found with my first exploration of Technorati way back in Thing 9, I am not at all a fan of the general search tool that looks for tagged posts. When I did the search for "Learning 2.0" I saw lots of results from other folks/organizations who are doing the web challenge "things." Although I can't say I didn't learn anything, because I did come across one post from someone at Columbus Metropolitan Library who was blogging about their new Technology Director, Helene Blowers, who originated the "Web Things" challenge at PLCMC. Full circle!

And then....when I clicked on the "blogs" tag, voila! There was Helene's blog Library Bytes, which, I am ashamed to say, I had never viewed before. I will definitely be adding a feed from her blog. She has a slideshow posted for a workshop she gave yesterday in Ohio, and it looks like it is just chock-full of great info and ideas. Just out of curiosity, I Google-ed the title of her workshop, and the first result was said same slideshow on slideshare.net (incidentally, another resource I didn't know about). SHAMELESS BOOK TIP: She mentions Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky. OCL has 4 copies, just waiting to be read - pick it up or place your hold!

I must say, I'm still a little "on the fence" with Technorati. I never seem to find what I think I'm searching for, but I always come away with some little gem I didn't even know I was missing.

Thing 13: Del.icio.us Otters

OK, so it's not hard to guess what first grabbed my attention about this task: bonjour, Otter Group!

I thought it was interesting to explore around del.icio.us and track thought processes through tags. I enjoyed noticing where I felt the train of thought was "on topic" and where I felt I was definitely veering into other topics. For instance, I started out exploring the "food" tag, which led me to "recipes," then "vegan" where I noticed a bookmark for a site about vegan shoes. So, a couple of tags kept me solidly within the "food" topic and then led me into fashion accessories!

I also like to note the tags and try to imagine whether the "tagger" was just trying to be very thorough or if the tags represent what topics are most important to them for a site. I looked at the tags for a site that had a lemon tart recipe, and it was fun to see how many folks stuck to basics like "dessert" and "recipe" and those who were more specific and tagged "lemon." A simple example, but it made me think about how personalized this tool might be, and how that might really work well for some searchers and be really distracting for others. I liked seeing tags in other languages, too!

I peeked at another string of "web 2.0" and "web design" tags, just to get a perspective from a different topic. I can see some research use for del.icio.us if you view the common tags for a bookmark. In this instance, the common cloud I viewed contained tags like "javascript" and "css," so I can see where a searcher could use the common clouds as ways to narrow down choices for sites, based on whether a site is tagged for all of the topics you are searching or just one or two - a bit like I imagine "relevancy ranking" to work behind the scenes at Google.

Thing 12: netLibrary and WorldCat

I haven't been a frequent user of netLibrary in the past, but I found it very easy to navigate. I searched for a book on gardening and found a fantastic title on accessible gardening for seniors and the differently abled. Hiyo - netLibary is an additional resource for diversity materials. Since I happened upon a title aimed at the differently-abled, I immediately looked around the interface to see if you could play with the text size of the ebook. No luck - just the usual capability to adjust the text size under the Windows "View" menu. That would be a nice additional feature. Anyway, I found it very easy to browse material and content. I would feel very comfortable showing a customer this resource.

I use WorldCat every single day at work. I have to admit I didn't use it very often before I came to work in Collections, but it is definitely a go-to resource for me now. It is VERY helpful when filling out Request for Materials forms. Just a reminder, though - even though WorldCat shows local owning agencies, that does not necessarily mean those agencies are willing to loan the item through ILL. Customers love to tell us "fyi - Georgian Court owns this," but that doesn't mean they'll end up as the lender!

WorldCat is very helpful in showing information about different editions of titles. And, since the content contains full catalog records from various libraries, you get great MARC record information, which can even include content summaries - a HUGE help for multi-volume titles. That's still a more unusual feature on retailer and vendor interfaces. Libraries are where it's at for bibliographic info, and WorldCat is a great example of a resource that gives better access to superb information.

Thing 11: Library Thing is Good Fun That is Funny

Voila - note my Library Thing library to the left. What a fun place for readers, and I have a sneaky suspicion I may start some compulsive list-compiling in the near future. My books were somewhat popular, except for the 2 brand new ones. Joanna Trollope's new one is just now out, and I sort of cheated with Patricia Wells' memoir because I had access to an advance reader's copy. So, OCL readers and Patricia Wells fans, keep your eyes peeled - 7 copies will be on order for the system after the pub date in May! Here's a teaser: I found out that Patricia is an avid runner and has had to really work to maintain a healthy weight. It's nice to know that it's not all daisies and second helpings for food critics/cookbook authors!

A few of my choices had discussions. I was interested in the discussion about The Archivist's Story, a tale about an archivist in Stalinist Russia whose days are filled with incinerating the works of authors unpopular with the state. He proceeds to save an unpublished work by Isaac Babel, only to come to the realization that his time is running out and he will soon be among those "seized." One reader complained that the narrator of that story was too emotionally detached to draw in the reader. For me, the detachment only served to magnify the random but stark horror of being plucked right out of an ordinary life for probable execution, and having almost no chance of stopping this inevitable fate. If you like fiction set in Russia, you might also enjoy The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean and/or The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander.

Thing 10 - Meez like to Samba!

I popped over to my pal Pea's blog and left a comment on her post that included her furry pet pooch Sasha. I also had to check out the "Meez" action on her site. It was too cool, so in the interest of community I had to totally copy her. (Don't worry, Prisquilla - I mentioned you when I registered so hopefully you got some extra coinz!)

So my technology discovery for this post was Meez.com, where I created my avatar who can samba up a storm. It was fun to create everything from her physical look to wardrobe and animation. I can see this being a fun activity for library customers - not only would young folks love the self expression, but I actually think it is a colorful way to practice PC skills for all ages. Imagine seniors practicing mouse skills by creating a Meez?!! There's lots of precision clicking involved, careful screen reading, making pop-up screens appear and disappear, and all sorts of other "basic mouse skills" that customers need. A great match for adult computer learners who have youngsters at home, too. Imagine how cool a grandparent or other relative would be if they could e-mail their loved one their new Meez! This would probably be a great match for teens teaching/coaching technology, too. A fun forum for training, to be sure!

Thing 9. AKA When does tea really mean cheese?

Cheese shop (3)
Originally uploaded by cathou_cathare

Well, I must say this exercise left me a bit cold. I explored each of the 3 sites searching for gardening, tea, and otters. I did not like Syndic8 at all - so text-y, and many, many blogs completely unrelated to my topic searches. No gold there. I liked the interface of Technorati a bit better, although I'm not sure I can say I was much happier with the search results.

Which brings me to the title for today's post. I searched for "tea" on Technorati, and was unhappy with the results list. So I clicked on one of their suggested related tags, which was "brewing." Lo and behold, one of the results was The Cheese Underground, whose main content is neither about tea nor brewing but artisanal cheese-making in Wisconsin. Not at all what I was looking for, but just happens to be another one of my favorite things, so I added the feed. By the way, this photo looks a little bit like heaven to me.

I didn't have too much more luck on Topix. I had been frustrated on another tool (can't remember now whether it was Syndic8 or Technorati - running together in my head now) when I searched for "gardening" and then clicked on a given related tag of "vegetables," only to get a results list that included a blog on how to influence the gender of your baby. Then, in my wandering on Topix, I saw another news item about research that suggests the mother's diet may have an effect on baby gender. Still not what I was looking for, but some trivia none the less.

Since Technorati had at least brought me entree in to the hidden gem of the Cheese Underground, I explored some more and found that I like their Advanced Search a lot better. You can put more terms in your search, exclude others, and search for "Blogs About" your search term rather than just posts. When you get your results list, you can look at related posts or related blogs, which was really what I was after. I ended up with a gardening blog, 2 tea blogs, and another cheese blog for which I'll add feeds.

So, I think I must improve my skills before I benefit from these tools as guided resourcs, but I did get some fun results from the wandering path. A fun exploration if you have some spare time!

RSS/Thing 8

Bloglines, here I come. I set up my account and subscribed to a smorgasbord of feeds.
For my "suggested 3" I went with OCLWebthings, Unshelved, and the NYT (Book Review to be exact). I found some great job essentials and subscribed to feeds from Booklist, After Words (C-Span's BookTV), PublishersNewswire, and former colleague Liz Burns. Liz's blog has already given me a title for a book that I simply MUST buy for my niece. Thanks, Liz - a small ballerina in Massachusetts will be ever so happy I read your blog! Then I went for a few french otter/loutre francaise themes, with a feed from the Monterey Bay Aquarium (where I may retire to care for sea otter pups) and French-Word-a-Day. Today's word is la laque, which is hairspray, originating, I suppose, from some form of lacquer?! That may come in handy if I go to France one day, where I'm sure some uberchic person will take one look at my curls and suggest a local purveyor of la laque. Now I will know they are not trying to give me directions to a lake. Finally, a totally fun feed - from the Dancing With the Stars blog. One never knows when a late-breaking sequin event might be fed to my Bloglines account!

There are so many reader-based blogs that libraries can help customers use. Seeing the strength and passion of the online reading community definitely show me that our readers are a critical customer base. I am trying to brainstorm some ways I can use these new skills in the future to market my beloved non-fiction!

Thing 6: Still More Photo Fun in the Nonfiction!

nonfiction 004
Originally uploaded by curlymjp

Here's a great new title about 4 swimmers' attempts to cross the English Channel in 1926. Have a youngster in your life? While you read this one, give them America's Champion Swimmer by David A. Adler - one of my favorite picture book biographies. It's about Gertrude Ederle (also one of the 4 swimmers featured in Mortimer's book), a sassy American gal who performed a record-breaking (that's male records - she was the first female to complete the crossing) swim. If you dig this awesome swimmer, maybe you'll want to move on to reading Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox, a modern-day American gal who swims long distances in open water - often FREEZING open water. These books are a great way to get in the mood for the Summer Olympics, where open-water swimming is a new event. I'll bet these ladies all love otters!

Thing 6: More Photo Fun in the Nonfiction!

nonfiction 001
Originally uploaded by curlymjp

Well, no surprise here - I hit the stacks and took a few photos of some of the new non-fiction books in Toms River. Here is a shot of the shelves - look at those nice, big books on the top shelf. Keep them in mind for future branch displays on autism or doo-wop!

Thing 5: Flickr this Otter!

Otter
Originally uploaded by sparky2000

This otter appears to be particularly excited to be posted on a blog. You can almost picture his beret, n'est ce pas? Although Flickr identifies him as an Asian short-clawed otter who lives in the Edinburgh Zoo, so I suppose a tartan kilt would be more likely than a jaunty beret.

The 7 1/2 Habits

Bienvenue a La Loutre Francaise, or, for mes amies americaines, Welcome to the French Otter. French, like the smoking berets of the Resistance, and otter, like the member of the weasel family with the deceptively playful nature.

Let's see now, the habit that comes easiest to me would probably be accepting responsibility for my own learning. I'm a pretty independent type, and am usually quite willing to seek out info on my own and try something out. The hardest part would probably be having confidence in myself. It's not self-doubt that gets me down so much as a crippling case of perfectionism, which makes it a challenge for me to get through the "beginner phase" of a new hobby, before I start to feel proficient.