My Final Project- Delicious Bookmarks

For my final project option for LIS 635, I wanted to pick a project that would directly benefit the staff and patrons of my library. To this end, I chose the option of reviewing the ALA/RUSA Best Free Reference Web Sites- Combined Index, 1999-2006 and developing a Library 2.0 strategy to promote it to users and our library staff.

For the purposes of this project, I chose to create a Delicious Bookmark account and compile these websites in the Delicious account to share with our library patrons and staff. After the project and course are complete, promoting the finished product will be easy. Delicious offers the ability to embed a link to the Bookmark account directly in our library website by inserting the HTML code into the hypertext of the webpage. At that point, anyone who visits the library webpage will be able to access this Delicious Bookmark account just as easily as you will here. This project will be great for patrons, because the RUSA/MARS Combined Index of Best Free Websites is truly a terrific reference resource.

But, the project will also be very useful for staff- they will be able to search subjects by keyword, tag, tag bundle, or tag cloud. Not only will the bookmarks aid them in locating dependable free reference websites, but they can add their own tags as well!

Setting up the account was easy. I just followed the directions on the Delicious website, which were very through and easy to understand. Each website had to be added individually, which was somewhat time consuming. Although saving Bookmarks can be done manually by typing in each URL, Delicious also offers a bookmarking tool named Bookmarklets. Information on how to save a Bookmark can be found by clicking on the Save a New Bookmark link. The Delicious websites describes them as follows: "Bookmarklets (Buttons) are links you add to your browser's Bookmarks Toolbar. These are the easy way to post and view your bookmarks on the Delicious." I chose this option. It still took a fair amount of time to import all the RUSA websites, but using the Bookmarklets tool streamlined the process and eliminated the "human error" element- typos!

I think one of the best features of Delicious is the ease of use- the site provides easy to follow instructions, so that a near novice can create a list of bookmarks AND figure out how to promote it to others. Obviously, the Bookmarks are also available to other Delicious members because it is a social bookmarking site.

Thanks to the ability to embed a link in a website, I am able to embed the same link here for you to view the final product. So, without further delay... just click on the link below to view my final project option- SchmalingRef Bookmarks from the ALA/RUSA Best Free Websites Combined Index now available on Delicious!

Thing 23- The End of the Road!!!

Wow!! This has been quite an experience. When this project began, I had never created a blog, much less incorporated all the features, bells and whistles as I have done here. This exercise had provided a great sense of accomplishment. But, most importantly, it has provided me with skills that I can readily apply to my work in my library. As a result of the "23 Things" I have already created library accounts on: Library Thing for our library Book Discussion Group; and Delicious for a list of Reference Bookmarks based on RUSA's Best Free Websites. These are both tools that will directly benefit our patrons and staff.

Wiki's, tags, Flickr, YouTube & podcasts... all things I was aware of but had not spent much time really investigating or experimenting with. The best part of the exercise was the whole concept of the 23 Things. Breaking this bundle of tasks down into small manageable assignments made the concept of learning Web & Library 2.0 far less daunting. Sixteen weeks ago, I would have never believed that I would have experimented with all of these different technologies and accomplished some of the tasks that I have on this blog. It all would have sounded a bit overwhelming. But, by breaking it down into 23 tasks, it was manageable and fun.

For the most part it was pretty easy as well. The "Thing" that was the most challenging for me was the Image Generator. I had to spend a little more time on that exercise, but even that wasn't too bad. But, importing pictures and graphics offers so much variety and makes the blog more dynamic.

I really enjoyed the YouTube and podcast "Things" because there is so much out there to be viewed and sampled. ZoHoWriter and Technorati- All truly amazing.

The most gratifying aspect of this exercise is that this is knowledge that I can see applying directly to my work at my library. It was a very good experience and I really did learn a LOT! I can't wait to apply these "things" on the job! Really terrific- I'll never look at blogs and blogging the same way again.

Thing 22- NetLibrary & Audio Downloads

I had a little advantage here as I had already created NetLibrary account for our library. I think it's a great service. But, so far, it hasn't been a big hit at our library. I think this is because most of our patrons find the site rather complicated and because they still tend to prefer the text-in-hand or pre-recorded audio versions. Downloading the versions seems to be too much trouble for them. Although, I can see where this would be different in other demographic groups. It is a service we promote, but it is not highly used.

It is a good place to find the classics. For this exercise, I accessed Jane Eyre by Bronte. It is a good service, but at the institutional level it is limited to the titles that your institution purchases. So, it may not have a great deal of variety. It has been my experience that people prefer to either read text-in-hand or listen to a pre-recorded audio version. Text versions of the classics can also be found on Project Gutenberg which offers 25,000 free books with less hassle. But, NetLibrary has a lot of options that Gutenberg doesn't.

Thing 21- Podcasts

Podcasts! For this exercise I accessed podcast.com . To find a podcast I wanted to listen to, I clicked on the Music tab and searched by "Christmas" to see what they had and I found a podcast of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which is one of my favorite Christmas specials. I expected it to be just the song. But, it is a podcast of the entire program! Very Cool. I have included the link here...

http://podcast.com/episode/30413293/

I also browsed the general categories and spent some substantial time in the music section. I could spend hours here. I also liked the politics and news sections. But, the variety is staggering. I could see that people could spend hours or even days browsing here.

I also checked out some of the other options for podcast directories, but I like the format of podcast.com best.

Thing 20- You Tube

I have previously viewed many videos on YouTube. So this aspect of the assignment was pretty fun and familiar. But, I thought I would try to embed a video on the blog. We'll see how it goes. In honor of Thanksgiving a picked a video on Roasting a Turkey by Alton Brown. Bon Appetit!!

Thing 19- Web 2.0 Awards

For this Thing (19) , I accessed the Web 2.0 awards and the 1st Place Winner for

Food- A site called imcooked-Cook It, Film, It, Share it. It offered a variety of interesting aspects including videos. I was able to watch a video of Christopher Walken Roasting a Chicken called ManMaking Chicken With Pears and Paul McCartney Making Mashed Potatoes! Hysterical, if not a bit surreal! Just in time for Thanksgiving :)

Thing 18- Online Productivity

Hooray! Below this post you will find an entry I created through Zohowriter and posted directly from there to this blog! What a great asset! I am definitely going to play with Zoho some more.

blogpost in Zoho

As part of the 23 Things Assignment I created this post through Zohowiter and will attempt to post it directly from the Zohowriter site.

Wikis- Things 16 & 17

In the assigned PLCMC blog entry entitled Wiki, Wiki, Wiki the philosophy behind the wiki is explained - "The English language has always been a very fluid thing, incorporating new phrases as quickly as there are new concepts to explain, and so a wide variety of terms has arisen to describe the changing technology of the modern world."

Collaboration is the watchword describing the importance and desirability of the the Wiki. I was fascinated to discover the origin of the word Wiki- a Hawaiian phrase for doing something fast "wiki wiki." In the case of online wiki's, the attraction is that information may be quickly added to the collective knowledge base by the users of the wiki, without dependence on HTML. The concept of information as a fluid entity makes the prospect of diverse and dynamic information sources very attractive. Obviously there may be source problems, as anyone can edit or add information. But, wiki's remain a great way to obtain basic ideas and information fast. I loved the idea of Book Review Wikis.

For the Creation aspect of this exercise I created a short Wiki @ http://refthoughts.pbwiki.com/ listing a few of the good books I've read recently. It was suprisingly easy. I wonder if anyone will read it?

Things 13, 14 & 15-Tags, Technorati & 2.0

For this exercise I had a look at Delicious, Technorati and Library 2.0.

Delicious- This was my first experience with Delicious. I had viewed the site before, but never really used it. For this exercise I created a Delicious account and bookmark list for our library staff. This is a great tool for me because I have long ago lost the ability to manage the bookmarks that I find useful AND I needed a way to efficiently organize and develop a tool that is easily accessible to our staff. So far, I have imported some Reference and Readers'Advisory bookmarks I like. I won't make the list public until I have a more complete list. I experimented with one bookmark and created tags I think will work for the staff and other users, once it is made public. When I have more time, I will create additional tags for the remaining bookmarks and further streamline the list. But, for now I am impressed and optimistic on the ways I will be able to use this tool in the future. Keeping lists on paper and in hard copy files just wasn't getting the job done. So, I think this will be great.

Technorati- I was already familiar with Technorati as a RSS feed for News and Political blogs. I really like this site because of its design. It's tabs and tags are really effective navigators. I also like the "rising news stories" and "rising blog posts" sections. But, before this exercise, I hadn't really paid much attention to the tag cloud before. This time I used the tags to navigate the site. Very interesting!

Library 2.0

This is truly one of the most exciting aspects of this lesson and course, so far. The #15 article on Library 2.0 sums it up perfectly : a term that can be used to describe both physical and mindset changes that are occurring within libraries to make our spaces and services more user-centric and inviting. That says it all!

Especially for small libraries without much staff, some of these 2.0 initiatives allow administrators to increase access to resources for staff and patrons in a much more organized and user friendly fashion. But, as this quote suggests, it does describe (and require) changes in mindset and services that will increase the accessibility or usability of library and reference resources. The mindset must change from relying on 1.0 or even paper resources to these types of resources that take advisory to the next level. Quite exciting indeed.

One of the articles I read was Into a New World of Librarianship by Michael Stephens. He aptly defines Web 2.0 as the “strategy guide' for helping users find information, gather knowledge and create content." Users and staff don't just want access to information they want to interact with it. 2.0 provides a strategy and opportunity enabling them to do so in ways that allow the user to contribute their knowledge to the interaction. He also outlines some of the most effective methods for librarians to utilize in promoting 2.0 technologies to staff, users and the communities they serve.

Things 11 & 12

Winding my way down through the list of 23 Things, I have just completed Things 11 & 12- Library Thing and Rollyo.

Library Thing- For this assignment we were asked to catalog a collection of books. This was a great opportunity for me, as I have been looking for a Web 2.0 option for listing all of the books our library book discussion group- The River Bend Readers- has read over the years. I started out with the list for 2008-2009. It was easy and fun. The finished product looks like a lot more work than it was. I really like the product and the options it provides for readers. I plan on updating this catalog, adding past group titles as time allows. My list is called publib http://www.librarything.com/home/publib. I would like to rename the list, but the site says that the function is " out of order". I'll have to look in to this.

Rollyo- The Rollyo list is also called Refthoughts and it is a collection of Reference Sites- some of my personal favorites and some I use that are also included on the ALA RUSA Best Free Websites list. The Rollyo list was easy to compile and can be found her on by blog under My Blog List to the right. Have a look.

Reflection

As I continue to post to this blog, I realize how far I have progressed in the last month. Prior to this exercise, I had participated in a variety of blogs, but had never constructed my own. Rudimentary though it may be, I am getting more comfortable with the process in each post. As Homer Simpson might say, "Oh, technology, is there nothing you can't do?" Except, he was talking about donuts.

Things 8 & 9- Rss Feeds

I set up my Bloglines Account. I chose to enter mostly news, political, library, music and book review feeds- my primary areas of interest. I think this will come in most handy! I have all the sites I visit most frequently and all in one place.

For the rest of this assignment, I reviewed a few other RSS Feeds. As a political junkie, I am partial to newsfeeds. Two newsfeeds I reviewed as part of this assignment were Technorati http://www.technorati.com/ & Topix http://www.topix.net/ .

Of the two, I preferred the layout of Technorati. Visually, Technorati appears less cluttered than Topix. Technorati's design provides tab selection of categories such as Politics, Business, etc. contributing to a more streamlined appearance. The Blog tab directs the user to a fairly extensive Blog Directory, which is divided among other categories, as well. Blogger Central directs the user to the "What's Percolating in Blogs Now" feature, which includes subcategories: Blogosphere 2008, Top 100 Blogs, Watchlists, among others. Technorati won the SXSW 2006 awards for Best Technical Achievement and also Best of Show.[2] It was also nominated for a 2006 Webby award for Best Practices, but lost to Flickr and Google Maps.[3]

Technorati is a newsfeed I plan on revisiting and using.

Thing 10: Image Generator

This was the first time I have used an Image Generator, which probably makes me sound supremely uncool! It was fairly straightforward. After figuring out how to copy the image to my blog, the next most challenging part was determining what type of image and what to say? A very brief moment in thought reminded me that it is Monday and I am already soooo ready for a vacation or just one full weekend off from work and classes. So, welcome to my daydream of a weekend off in Vermont! For anyone interested I used Jellymuffin.com @ http://www.jellymuffin.com/generators/textpix2/

Myspace Picture Generator

Things Five, Six & Seven

It's Week Three and one of our tasks this week is to create a post on anything technology based. Since "Things" 5 & 6 relate to reviewing Flickr and mashups, I thought I would post on some of the Flickr aspects that interested/intrigued me. I checked out FDToys and was amazed by varied options offered here- particularly MapMaker and Jigsaw. Both offer what you would expect from the names. Mapmaker allows you to design and produce maps based on your travels. Jigsaw allows you to customized your photos turning them into puzzles. Has anyone ever tried either of these products? The mashups were interesting. I am particularly interested in the tremendous current cultural interest in sharing photos. I was impressed by the vast and varied options for turning photos into almost every conceivable product, even personalized trading cards for librarians. As a librarian, I have to say this is the last group I expected to see on trading cards! Ha, Ha! Cute though. I can see the attraction here, but is anyone concerned with privacy issues? I'm not judging, but interested in what you think?

Day One in the Life of a Novice Blogger.

It turns out that you do learn something new everyday! It was with curiosity and a little apprehension that I set out to create my first blog. I am a librarian and creating this blog is part of an ongoing assignment for a Reference class in Library Studies. While I have participated in other blogs, I have never thought of creating my own. I was never very good at keeping a diary. Will I have enough to say? We'll see...

I named this blog RefThoughts because I thought it would be a place to discuss and reflect on a variety of Reference and library related issues. With so much going on in libraries right now, there should be plenty to discuss - from recent reference finds to best new "reads." Well, here we go....