Oh to be an Aaronson...

I wonder how many of my fellow Cam23ers are doing the same as me? "Have done something not entirely unrelated to 23 Things - MUST BLOG ABOUT IT!!!"

The Closing Ceremony was a typically glamorous and glitzy affair, featuring wine and balloons with a strong performance by supporting nibbles. I felt overwhelmed by the number of little groups all chatting and laughing uproariously but was swiftly adopted by a couple of UL staff.

The talks were so good. Helen's ability to orate so fluidly without props or cues of any kind is nothing short of amazing, and Angela's dissection of the experience was very humorous. And I'm signed up to TeachMeet as a lurker and really looking forward to it now! (Oh dear, there's that word really again. Didn't my Wordle teach me anything?)

But it was then to be the most gruelling experience of my life¹ as I waited with bated breath to hear whether or not I had actually passed. I mean, I was fairly sure I had, but until I had that certificate in my hand, I wasn't going to be popping the cork on any champagne.

And then?

It flippin' ran alphabetically, didn't it! But after 60 rounds of applause, I heard my name called, and if that wasn't sufficient (I know for a fact that I'm not the only person with my name in the University), there was a picture of my blog, with my lolcat image filched for my blogpost about Wikipedia. Phew. I passed. Officially.

And here's the proof.

Success!!!

---

¹ Okay, maybe not the most gruelling. Perhaps the nineteenth most, between having to teach plagal cadences to A level students at number 20 and falling out of a bobsleigh² travelling at about 30 mph in the Netherlands at number 18.

² Just a few friction burns and the feeling of life passing before my eyes, other than that I was fine. Wasn't allowed to go on the zipline afterwards though.

And finally...My Word!(le)

I did a Wordle when I first started this blog - you can see it in the sidebar on the right. (If it's not, go here.)

Now check out my latest one!

I'm quite pleased with the big words that feature there - think, use, like, library...if nothing else I can say I probably "got" the purpose of the 23 Things! Obvious Web2.0 words appear too - Googe, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr. The one thing I have noticed is that I really need to stop using the word "really"! (But you'll be hard pushed to find a "very" there!)

It's been fun, but now I'd better get back to my backlog of cataloguing. Those books aren't going to magically process themselves, more's the pity.

Thing 23? I'm not stopping here!

A week ago, when the end was in sight, but not quite in reach, I thought I'd be writing this post with relief.

Instead, what I am finding is a remarkable sense of pride at the Things I have accomplished. In just a few months I have learnt so much about what Web2.0 has to offer and how I can use it, and share it, and enhance our services with it. I am in awe of those who put together this programme for us in Cambridge - the enthusiasm and drive behind it is inspirational, and really serves to demonstrate just what we can do with a can-do attitude!

The fabulous Cam23 Team. As Wayne and Garth would say: We're not worthy!

It's been an interesting "12" weeks (okay, 16 then) - I came to it with a skeptical attitude, but with the willingness to learn and explore - to at least have a go without dismissing anything outright. There's still so much I have to discover, and experiment with, but I don't feel so completely overwhelmed by it all as I did even ten Things ago. There have been Things I've really struggled with (like podcasting and image use), but there's always been help at hand, and somehow or other I finally got there in the end!

I think the course itself was excellent. While I don't think there was an issue of too little time to achieve everything, I think perhaps a course like this would be better rolled out earlier within the academic year. What with exams, and end-of-year returning of books, then stock-takes and summer holidays, this time of year can be frenetic! (It didn't help that in our library, the entire staff was knocked out at some point over the last two weeks with illness.) If the course were to be repeated, I think it would work better starting in November or March. However, Web2.0 is the sort of thing you want to know about as soon as possible, so I'm glad I did it now rather than wait for a more convenient time!

On the whole, I found the instructions each week to cover pretty much everything I needed to know. The only real exception was the podcasting, and that was probably more due to my preferred learning style and my antipathy of all things Apple than any deficiency in the instructions themselves. I found most of the further reading interesting (though I have to own up and say I did only skim-read the Shirky article).

Since completing each Thing there have been Things I have stuck with, and Things I intend to try when I come to a point where I'll find them useful, and Things that I think I'll probably not return to. I have been logging in with greater and greater frequency to my iGoogle page (which I think I now have pretty much exactly how I like it), which automatically checks Twitter and Google Reader. I hadn't seen the attraction of Twitter at all before I started (despite being fond of updating my Facebook status quite regularly) but now I'm beginning to see the allure of a feed with no cruft on. And it was thanks to Google Reader that I got to go and see the utterly gorgeous Rhod Gilbert, courtesy of BBC's free tickets RSS, so I'm completely sold on that now!

I think I can cross a few of these off now...only a few hundred left to try!

Things like Zotero, Delicious and Slideshare I haven't yet really used beyond initial exploration, but before the 23 Things I didn't even know they existed, so for now it's just reassuring to know they're there when I need them. I do intend to try out Zotero when it comes to working on my next assignment, so we'll see how it goes then. However, despite having never heard of the Creative Commons aspect of imaging, I'm now sourcing images for every post, both through Flickr and elsewhere, so that Thing definitely counts as a success! Meanwhile, LinkedIn didn't really do anything for me, and I think if I were going to use Facebook for work, I'd set up another account for the "professional" me, rather than use the one I have.

Finally, I think I might just continue blogging (she says, before the next update comes three years hence). It's been a good record of what I've tried out, and I intend to keep learning about Web2.0, so hopefully I'll still feel a need to keep the record. I also could incorporate it as a study diary for my degree, as there's going to be some overlap. A few modules from now I will be looking at marketing of library services for one of my assignments, and Thing 19 will come in very handy for that!

One thing I have appreciated since doing the 23 Things is that there is almost a dichotomy between the spirit of social media ("just do it!"), and the way libraries have approached it. Social media is easy to use, and often free (as in beer and speech, and frequently as in kittens). That means that you can "just do it", but there are limitless examples of social media poorly utilised on the web. The good Web2.0 libraries have recognised this: that the strategy is key. There's absolutely no point saying "everyone's using Twitter (or YouTube, or Delicious), so we should be too," and then creating a presence simply for the sake of being there. The interaction between content-producers and their readers (or listeners, or viewers) is what makes Web2.0 so vital and dynamic. This should be why you're using these tools - to engage with others, to collaborate, to find shared meaning in an increasingly chaotic world, to create multi-directional channels of information - or just to share with the world what you had for to eat that morning...

Wikis and Wikipeeing

If the title still reads "Wikis" then I still haven't thought of anything better to write there.

Maybe inspiration will hit between the time I write the rest of it and post the article...we'll see. Anyway, I think the majority of us will have come across Wikipedia somewhere in the last few years (if you've ever been a teacher since it existed, it will have been handed in to you at some point, cunningly disguised as a student's own work). Reasons why it might have hit your radar even if you have never used it are:
1. Instances of plagiarism of Wikipedia articles in students' work.
2. Issues of creditability (have you ever looked at Conservapedia?).
3. Sometimes, it's just funny.

I think I probably use Wikipedia itself on a weekly basis. It is my ready reference tool (because all the encyclopaedias are the other end of the library). In fact, I last used it last Friday when a keeper wanted to know where in the library we kept the museum catalogues from the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (we couldn't immediately do a search on Newton because we weren't entirely sure how the name was spelt - you can see why!).

Some time ago, I did get involved in trying to write a wiki for an archery club. I spent hours a day, and still barely scratched the surface of all the knowledge I was trying to impart. The project lost impetus, and was archived and pulled off the internet by an overeager webmaster. I think it is important to stress the amount of time you will personally have to spend creating the wiki, and generating initial content. As the structure gains flesh, more and more contributors will be able to see what's missing and be able to offer their own views, but there's this period of "blank page syndrome" when so much is missing that it's hard to know where to start!

I'm not sure how well a library wiki would work in my present library. It might be a nice way of saving the computer officers from having to do the uploading when we want to change something on the website, but beyond recreating the userguide in a different (more easily editable) format, I'm not sure what we'd actually use a wiki for. I don't think we have the sort of users that would want to contribute to anything (trust me, it's hard enough getting some of them to even use the catalogue without help!). I could be wrong, though. It's an interesting concept to think of researchers who've used the library generating content for a library wiki, so if I get the opportunity to try it out, I may well do so.

Having seen the other sites and how they've used the wiki, I think it's clear that they've thought about what they want to present very carefully. I'm the sort of person who gets lost in tangential information - I could spend hours trying to win the Wikipedia Game - so I'd have to be careful not to create a sprawling behemoth that tries to cover absolutely everything!

Podcasting: Part the Second

Following my exploration of podcasting, I decided it really needed a post of its own. Out of all the 23 Things, this really has been the most complicated so far. Having watched the Common Craft Show's explanation, I reckoned I vaguely had an idea in principle what podcasting was, but couldn't quite work out how it knew when to download next installments. I then - finally! - received my new speakers at home, so then I watched the Common Craft video - this time with sound! It made a bit more sense (surprisingly), and I was confident that yes, I understood the principle behind podcasting.

That was all well and good, but now I had to listen to some podcasts, and I found I didn't quite know where to start. Now, I have a completely irrational prejudice against Apple, so I really didn't want to approach this problem via iTunes. But what was my alternative? This is what Cam23 said:

How do I listen to a podcast?
By downloading them to your iPod or MP3 player, or by listening to/viewing them directly on your PC. If you already use Apple's iTunes software go to the Podcasts section of the iTunes Music Store. Alternatively you might want to use a service like Odeo which allows you to play podcasts from their web pages without downloading.

I went several times to Odeo's website, but never saw anything but this page:

I was stuck - then inspiration struck. Good old Auntie. Right next to the button for "podcast home" on the BBC page was the button for "podcast help". I found the information there to be pitched just right for thickos like me, and there were links to iTunes, Zune and Zencast. However, I couldn't find a way of downloading Zune onto anything that wasn't an Xbox, I'd already decided against iTunes and Zencast looked to be quite spammy (my internet security software informed me within seconds of landing on the site that it had already protected me from at least one Trojan). I then found the BBC podcast FAQ, and again avoiding iTunes (I will not succumb!!), I had a look at Juice.

Juice. Image from PicturePurrfect685 on Flickr.

What bothered me about Juice was that the software hadn't been updated since 2005, and was ostensibly only compatible with Windows 2000 or XP. I run Windows 7 at home (through no fault of my own, I happen to live with a CompSci), so a quick search on Google for "Juice", "compatibility" and "Windows 7" threw up a couple of pages with simple instructions for fixing it. I found the instructions on Spiceworks to be short and simple, and having followed them, I was finally able to start subscribing to podcasts!!

While this all probably sounds very convoluted and confusing, on the whole I was okay with it. Having to tweak the program files meant I engaged with the software on a deeper level, so I have a much clearer idea of how it actually works. However, until I find a podcast to which I would actually consider subscribing, and a portable device actually worth using (I have a very old phone which will play mp4 files, but the headphone socket is totally knackered and I have no intention of annoying the other passengers on the bus into work!), I think I will be perfectly content to simply listen to the podcasts while sitting at my computer at home.

Right. That aside, what do I think of podcasting's use in the library context? I listened to a few from the University of Aberdeen and the British Library, and I was impressed. Students missed the tour at the start of the year? No problem - they can find a time to suit them and do it themselves! In fact, what makes it even better is that usually the beginning of the year is marked by total information overload, so being able to come back a few weeks later, once you've settled in, to remind yourself of everything you'd forgotten that the library does, is so much better than having to bother the staff!

Meanwhile, discussion of exhibitions can really add something new when you're visiting a gallery - and while many museums have audio guides now, by downloading the podcasts in advance you can really plan your visit thoroughly. The museum where I work has a variety of podcasts available on current and past exhibitions, so the resource is there if I ever want to have a go at creating my own (alas, I have no microphone at home so I can't subject you all to my piano-playing). But for the moment, I think I've spent long enough investigating podcasts, and now it's time to watch Maru.

Podcasting, YouTube and Ninja Librarians

I read somewhere recently that someone suggested if Facebook, Twitter and Youtube were to merge, they might call it "YouTwitFace". Silly names aside, I'm familiar with YouTube, if only for ninja kitties, amusing pianists, Maru, Star Wars kid, Simon's Cat, the sneezing panda...is it any surprise it's blocked at work?



Which is a shame, because I think if you can get over the whole being-seen-on-camera thing, you could do an awful lot with it. So many people, particularly younger students, don't learn best through reading and writing, and are more likely to respond to and engage with visual stimuli. Things like crafts - knitting, to take a particularly librarianish (sorry!) example: I could try to describe how to cast on, and even static pictures might be sufficient for some people, but really the best way to learn is to see a demonstration.

You could use videos to demonstrate searching the mystifying Newton catalogue, upload them to YouTube, embed them on your website, then when students look on there for opening hours, they'll see it - and some might watch it. And once they've watched it, they might even try and look for a book themselves instead of coming to you in the first place...perhaps.

As for podcasting - I'll confess this is something I heard about a long time ago and never really understood. Now I think I'm beginning to understand it, but haven't been able to explore it fully yet because - quelle surprise! - all those podcasts suggested by Cam23 are blocked at work. Are the sysadmins trying to tell me something? Coupled with the fact that I currently have no sound on my computer at home, it's been singularly frustrating trying to learn more.

Docking with Google

Only four more things to go, and not much time left! Next stop, Google Docs. I have come across this before, but stopped using it years ago. The 23 Things has made me realise both why I used it, and why I stopped - and why I should perhaps start using it again!

Why I started using Google Docs
The thing is, I'm the secretary of the <shameless plug> Cambridgeshire Archery Association </plug>. I write my minutes in Word and then attach them to an email which I circulate to the clubs. For a while, one of the members complained that he wasn't receiving my emails (because his email client wouldn't accept any emails with attachments). So, I tried out Google Docs. I set it so that anyone who had the link could read but not edit the minutes.

Why I stopped using Google Docs
There were two main problems. The first was that I found the formatting much trickier when writing into Google Docs than in Word (to which I've become much more accustomed). I'd upload the minutes, then spend the next half an hour changing them back to how they were supposed to look. In the end, when the member left the committee, I switched back to emailing everyone with the attachment, because it saved time. The second was that if the minutes were sitting in an inbox, they definitely had a greater chance of being read than if only the link was sitting in the inbox. I'd get to meetings and I'd be almost the only one who knew what the matters arising were!

My Google Doc drawing...waiting for replies...

Why I should start using Google Docs again

Through the 23 Things, I've since realised that, like a lot of the other social media, Google Docs's strength is in its collaboration. Minutes are a push-out of information, so frankly, email is definitely the best form of communicating them. No one is that bothered about what we get up to that they actively seek out the minutes! And while it's nice to have them online for all to view, the URL is a string of meaningless letters and numbers (I understand why, but it's not pretty, nor terribly memorable). Given that we have a website, it makes much more sense to post them there under a meaningful link.

I think if I use Google Docs again, it would have to be in order to make use of the advantages it has over Word-in-an-email-attachment. I used it wrongly before, which was why I didn't see its benefits. Now I have a better idea of what it can really do. I experimented with a drawing, since I couldn't think of anything to write which needed sharing (to which my blog will attest...). I've shared it, and now I'm just waiting for my collaborators to add something. It felt fairly simple, but I guess the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

Mmm, pudding. From lynn.wabbit on Flickr

As an entirely tangential aside, I feel my soul has been carved in twain, with half rendered unto Google (what with iGoogle, Docs, Calendar &c., &c.) and the other half rendered unto Facebook. Alas no soul left for Yahoo.

Marketing libraries with social media

Oh dear, Cam23 fatigue has definitely hit me now. I can't decide whether it's a bad thing to be playing catchup to practically everyone else (those unread blog posts labelled Thing 23 sitting in my reader are possibly the most depressing sight I've seen all day, and it's been raining), since I'm almost certainly rehashing territory everyone has already explored with a finetooth comb, or whether it's good, since it means I can read all these wonderful posts and work out why a Thing has worked for one person, why it hasn't for another, and what of it might be useful to me.

Nevertheless, blog I must, and so on to marketing with social media. As I've just mentioned, there are many wonderful posts by many others on the programme, so I'll try and add my own take on it. I think most people agree that it is important that your library doesn't just dive in, without really taking the time to consider what it's trying to achieve. I've noticed from reading others' posts that opinion is divided as to how much time marketing on social media is likely to take. Some are fervently in the camp of "it's so quick and easy" while others are much more circumspect - largely I think because they realise that it's not enough to set up a Twitter account, or a blog, but that it must be frequently updated. Yes, it does only take seconds to write 140 characters, but how long did you spend on planning how your web voice would sound? How much time was spent formulating a policy about when and what to update? I'm not saying it would necessarily take a long time, perhaps only minutes, but that all needs to be accounted for in the budget!

I work in a library which is great in size and small in manpower. Our users range from school students doing projects, to serious academic researchers, to people who just like a quiet and sunlit space to work that's not too far from a café, to people who've just come in from the street to get out of the rain and thought we were the café. Just last week we even had a chap visit asking for somewhere quiet to sit and inject himself with insulin! I think we'd have to seriously look at what we can offer these different groups of people before I start thinking about how best to use the most appropriate social media to address the gap between the user and the information we offer. I thought Aidan Baker's approach to marketing made a lot of sense here.

I'm not sure I can really say what might be best to try in our library. Perhaps a more concerted effort to bring new books to people's attention would be a start. We get some lovely exhibition catalogues from places like the Tate and the Royal Academy, after all. However, I think that we as a library get lost behind the institution as a whole, and people often come in and say "I've been coming here for years and didn't know there was a library" - so I think we have a bigger problem to address first!

Zero to Zot-hero

Okay, I think we can safely say that puns are officially Not My Thing™. Anyway, I'd never heard of Zotero before, but the cam23 description of it had me drooling. A way to keep all my citations together? One click and it's saved for whenever I need it? Brilliant.

Bit of a brain meltdown - I'm doing this at home with a newly-built computer (from old parts), and frowned mightily when I couldn't read the .pdfs. Hadn't automatically installed Adobe Reader, duhhhh. But now that's done, and I can see how other people have used this little gizmo. I have to say, it looks very appealing. I'm not so keen on the way it says:

Intuitive Interface

Zotero's iTunes-like interface allows you to quickly organize your research sources

 But that's mainly because I don't like iTunes, and don't find its interface intuitive. So, I guess I'd need a while to get to grips with how it looks if I did use it, but I think it's almost certainly worth it. I have quite a few assignments to do for my degree, and I think I'll have a go at using Zotero for the first one at least, to see how it goes. It will almost certainly be better than what I currently do when pulling research together, which is have an email sitting in my draft folder, and every time I find a new source, or quote, or link, or anything useful, I add to it. Mind you, the advantage of that is that it's available anywhere, doesn't require downloading/installing anything, and is backed up to at least 3 different locations!, but then I still have to rewrite the citations into Harvard APA, which was a great pain until I discovered this.

In conclusion, I very much like the sound of it. It's got obvious practical applications, and while Chrome still fails to set my world on fire, it's not a problem that it's only available on Firefox. I think I'd need to try it out further by actually doing some research - but that will have to wait until after I've finished the other Things!

All Linked Out

The big push is getting to me now, and just whizzing through the tasks for LinkedIn left me exhausted. I'm not sure what I think of this yet, and I have to say I'm reluctant to join it to further explore its features. Maybe if I had a CV with lots of flashy stuff on I might be less disinclined. I also wouldn't pay for it (I'm an old skool interwebber, who doesn't believe in paying for anything on the internet if I can avoid it - thank Tim Berners-Lee for that mindset).

Links (see what I did there?) Image from Chris Fitz on Flickr

I can see that if it was the place to go to look for people to make contact with, it might be worth it, but I'll be honest - I'd only heard of it because one of my university friends with whom I lost contact (and horror of horrors isn't on Facebook) was on there. I didn't join then - partly because, as a lot of others are finding now, I'm suffering account overload (yes, I have taken to writing down all my passwords, but in a secret code that no one will figure out, mwahaha). Profiles for this, registration for that - I feel like thirty different people once I'm logged in to everything.

LinkedIn might be more useful if more people used it. That sounds nonsensical, but it makes sense in a success-breeds-success sort of way. I guess that there are probably fields of work that utilise it well, but while it hasn't really captured the imagination of the general library populace (and it hasn't, from what I've read of others' posts), it doesn't seem to offer an awful lot to make it worth my using it yet.

Having said that, if I ever do finish my degree, who knows? When I've got something wonderful to actually put up there, I might actually register. Then I might get in touch with that friend too...

The IT Crowd | Friendface | Channel 4

The IT Crowd's take on Facebook.

Friendface - no, myBook - no...look - a three-headed monkey!

Well, who hasn't come across Facebook? Looking back, I can see that I joined it waaaaay back in March 2006 when it was a little exclusive site just arrived from across the pond (where it had been even more exclusive being as it was a way for Harvard students to stalk each other). Since then I have upped and upped the privacy, and shared less and less of myself on it.

I use Facebook as my current awareness, to keep up to date with my friends, to play hideously time-sink-y games, and as a way of sharing photos. The debate about the "Millenials" was a bit confusing, because I disagree that they "grew up" with Facebook. When I joined, I had strong links with the undergraduate population at university. They liked it for being something that wasn't Bebo or Friendster (which were for high school kids) or Myspace (nice idea, but looked so messy). At that time, I garnered the impression that it was popular with university students for its exclusivity (may that rest in peace), while Myspace continued to win over the hearts of musicians for its ability to share and the level of customization available. Now of course, everyone and their mother - but not my mother - is on Facebook, and about 75 million of them are logging on to harvest virtual farms. Score.

So how do libraries fit in? Despite my initial skepticism, I'd have to say very well indeed. In particular I really enjoyed reading the Trinity Hall page, and if I was a student there, I would have become a fan of this straightaway. It was so friendly and welcoming, just like a college library ought to be. I might not visit actively, but having the news there in the background as I log in just reminds me that it's there, it's a resource ready for me when I need it. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that putting your library on Facebook is a no-brainer. 200 million people are on Facebook. Probably 70-80% of your readers are on Facebook. Why aren't you?

I guess the minor issue is that you might not immediately think to look for your library on Facebook - but that can be counteracted by mentioning Facebook when you take your hundreds of students round on their tours in October (not long to go now...who's terrified?). The other issue, obviously, is that Facebook is probably reaching its critical mass, and soon everyone's going to be jumping ship and finding the next big thing. Google Buzz, perhaps?

Libraries and Things

I decided in the end that I would develop my personal profile on LibraryThing rather than create a new one for my library. While it does mean I have one fewer password to remember, here's the main reason why I think my personal profile could do with a bit of enhancing:

That's right. No books. How embarrassing. And I call myself a librarian (occasionally, though I secretly prefer the term information ninja). So this Thing is the perfect opportunity to find out how I could actually be using this tool, instead of logging in once two months ago and then never returning.

So here is my newly edited profile - much better! Now to add some books. I grabbed a handful off the shelf, and was pleased at how simple it was to add them when all you have to do is type an ISBN. I came slightly unstuck when my M.C. Beaton books weren't on Amazon (which is odd, because that's where I bought them), but they were found using Overcat instead, so that was okay. I then tested it with a book of madrigals published in 1905, and a heraldry book from 1886. No problem finding either of those, which was great.

It's a bit hard to see how my library might use it. I suppose it might be a quick and easy way of adding recent acquisitions to a website (certainly easier than running the report query, and turning the resultant data into something readable), but if you can only add 200 books then it would last about a month. Unless it works differently for libraries than it does for personal users? Would you have to delete previously added books (eg last month's acquisitions list) to make room for new ones? That seems shortsighted to me. Maybe I'm missing the point. But when your library has in excess of 300,000 books, LibraryThing looks like small fry.

I think before I dismiss this site as "nice, but not really useful for me" (barring the obvious exception of the booksearching fora mentioned in my earlier post), I will create a profile for a society I'm a member of. It has a small collection of books - small enough that everything will fit without having to pay. Once I've done this, I might be able to use it in imaginative ways. So - the jury's still out on LibraryThing.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Happy Hump Day! I have reached more than halfway in the 23 Things programme, and it's getting easier to be strict with myself and get it all done - I think blasting through, rather than doing a little bit here and there each week, is definitely my style. Heh, as far as I'm concerned, if it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would get done!

I've used LibraryThing before - a friend of mine happened to mention a book he'd read when he was younger, but he could barely remember the plot, much less the title or author. I thought this sounded like the sort of challenge a librarian could tackle, and a friend on the librarianship course I'm on mentioned that LibraryThing had a forum for exactly this kind of question. Registration, posting of the question and a few hours later, I had the answer - and a very grateful friend.

Where I think I like LibraryThing over other web 2.0 Things is in its demographic. The forum is so much fun to browse - I spent literally hours chuckling over one debate which discussed at great length what people thought was the worst children's book. The best part - the almost total absence of trolls and flames in what could have been a heated debate but instead remained erudite and well-reasoned discussion.

Anyway, I explored LibraryThing a litle bit more. I took the tour. I read the articles. I hadn't considered its use in libraries as an alternative to a cataloguing client, nor the use of the folksonomical tags as subject searches rather than my own pet hate, Library of Congress, but I can see advantages in using both these things in a number of cases.

I shall explore a bit more, then blog a bit later. But now it's time to go home. =)

Through a glass darkly

It's very exciting. I've reached halfway, and now it's time to reflect on everything so far.

Photo by dynamosquito on Flickr

Here - have a reflection. Incidentally I want to say how thrilled I am that adding captions seems to have been moved from the draft version of blogspot (which didn't work for me at all for some reason) to the normal version. Properly credited, properly sized photos shall abound from here on in! Huzzah!

So...looking back at everything, how do I feel? First I feel terribly unaccomplished, since nearly everyone else has already finished their 23 things and I still have another ten to go. However, of the things I have done, most were new to me, or I was using in a way I hadn't done before. So I may be slow, but I certainly feel like I'm being thorough!

How have your skills/knowledge improved?
I've become a bit more capable at blog posts, but for an ex-art student I'm surprisingly physicky, and like to know how or why things happen the way they do, rather than just following instructions. However, I've found that for the most part over this course, it's been easier to follow instructions than to work out how things are done behind the scenes. So, as I said, my blogposts have improved, and I have been able to embed things, but it's largely through cut and paste and not through any development of my own knowledge.

Elsewhere, again, I feel like my skills per se have not improved, but my knowledge of certain tools has expanded. Having a programme like this gives a much-needed focus to web 2.0. For example, I had tried Twitter before, and absolutely failed to see the point of it. Having someone else explain how they've used it successfully and telling me exactly what they did helps enormously.

Have the 'Things' covered everything that you need to know, or think it relevant to know?
Well, in a nutshell, my feeling is that web 2.0 is still this big faceless monster, and these things have barely chipped away at the surface. There's still a whole lot of internet out there that I haven't got to grips with yet - but I'm sure I'll cover it all in the next ten things ;)

Please - no more internet! (from Rocket Scientist X on Flickr)

From a work point of view though, it's been pretty wide-ranging and has covered a variety of media. There's enough to dip your toes in, find out what works in your library, add it...and the community that has sprung up around it has meant that when I've said "oh it's nice, but it doesn't do this", there's often been someone else saying "no it doesn't, but have you tried this instead?"

Have the activities suited your learning style?
Apparently I have a "multimodal learning preference". Helpful. However, it says I take a holistic approach, which is quite true. I read around a subject and like to totally immerse myself in it before I feel comfortable with trying to understand it - which I feel doesn't really work with the web as there's always so much more to learn. I'm not generally happy with only knowing half of something, which means that I've probably spent a lot longer because I've been trying to gain the overall picture every time, and I feel frustrated because there's too much to take on board if I do.

The activities, on the other hand, were tasters, and while I feel they do only skim the surface and cover the most basic elements of the web tools we looked at, I needed that. There was always a point where the activity was completed, and I would be expected to stop and blog, regardless of the feeling that I hadn't really got to grips with it. Thinking about it, this is probably why I liked Doodle so much. There's nothing to it!!

Do you feel more competent and confident?
Yeeeees....she says doubtfully. Though that's probably more due to my learning style than actually being incompetent. I mean, apart from images, I managed to complete the tasks without any significant problems. So I guess what I'm saying is that I know I am more competent, therefore I should be feeling more confident...

What would you do differently - and what might change about how you approach the next 12 Things?
Coming back once again to the learning style, I think I'd like to have accepted sooner that I wasn't going to learn absolutely everything about all of the tools, and be a lot more strict with myself in sticking to the instructions at the beginning.

On a slightly more practical note, I think I would have found the programme a bit easier to follow if I could have two monitors at the same time. That way, I could have the instructions on one screen and the web tool du jour on the other. Even better, if I had three then I could have my blog page up and be making notes for the next post as I worked on the tool following the instructions on the cam23 blog. Even better, if I had four screens, I could also have iGoogle running in the background to keep up with everyone else's blogging. Even better - maybe I'll stop there. The fact is, I like to spread everything out and see it all at once when I work. This is much easier with books strewn across a desk than on a computer with one screen and Alt+Tab-induced RSI in my wrist!

Looking forward to a holiday... (Image by Giampaolo Macorig on flickr)

Is there one (or more) Thing that you would be happy to recommend to a colleague? Why?

I've divided the Things so far into those I would definitely recommend, might recommend and probably wouldn't recommend:

Definitely Recommend

RSS Feeds - it's a bit antiquated, sure, when compared with most of the other tools, but at the end of the day, when you want customised current awareness, only from the sources you trust, it can't be beaten. The trick is definitely being very selective, because if you forget to log in for a week and find you have 481 updates to read, you won't have a clue where to start.

Doodle - it's like the Ronseal of web2.0. It does only one thing. It does it well. I especially like that it doesn't require registration.

Might Recommend

iGoogle - if you don't have the same computer all the time, it becomes handy having everything in the one place. However, that's not an issue at work, so everything's there when you need it already.

Flickr - a great resource, particularly the Creative Commons stuff - but a terrible timesink!

Delicious - as a more subjective version of Google it's quite interesting, and like Doodle, it has one basic function which it performs well. 

Probably Wouldn't Recommend

Google Calendar - it might work for some people, but it seems an unnecessary faff for a staff of three who share a desk diary. And given we don't run events ourselves per se, there's not really a need for a calendar that our readers can use.

Blogging - I still don't see myself continuing this blog when I have completed the 23 Things. I don't feel I have much to say, and while a blog is useful to bring attention to things I might consider important, the majority of the time I'm the last to know about something anyway!

Twitter - maybe I haven't found the right people or things to follow, but I still find it's left me cold.

Slideshare - for reasons of Death-by-Powerpoint.

Looking at it, I feel a bit of an old codger judging by what I'd recommend - or is that more of an indictment on my colleagues, who haven't really got to grips with web 2.0? Perhaps I'd better shut up now...

Playing catchup: Delicious

Oh me, oh my. Holiday, illness and a part-time degree have somehow got in the way of me blogging for over two weeks, and I am officially out of the loop. 481 things in my Google reader to whizz through, and 12 more things to go before I can finish the programme, so let's get on.

What is Delicious?

cartoon by Penny Arcade

I can't help but think of this cartoon whenever I hear that question. It's got nothing to do with social bookmarking, really, but it's still a funny comic.
So where to start? I looked at the lists of bookmarks created by Emma, and the Judge Institute, then thought I had better venture forth and try immersing myself without the metaphorical waterwings. I searched for "music", and Emma's bookmarks with that tag were clearly displayed at the top, while the most popular across the web were displayed below. Nice and clear, and all were relevant (which I suppose you'd expect when it's been filtered by approximately 60 thousand people). Refining it a bit further ("free sheet music") got me more refined results, though I defy anyone to explain how paying $9.99 a month makes sheet music free.
Still, the infrastructure seemed to work pretty well.

I can certainly see this as being a useful way of storing your bookmarks, and sharing them with readers in what is effectively a uniquely tailored web portal. When I used to work at the Squire I created pages and pages of bookmarks to international law sites, and this would have been a bit quicker. However, I'm not clear what happens when a website or page dies - presumably the bookmark remains, and you get taken to the dead page? Is there a quick way of finding out which of your bookmarks still work? In the past I've used Xenu, a linkchecking tool, but it would make sense to have something internally built into the collection of bookmarks itself.

On the whole, this feels like a human version of Google (which I guess it pretty much is!). It's good to see whether a lot of people have thought that a link is useful - but then, it depends on what those people are like! For example, and very crudely speaking, I would rate the opinion of five librarians over the opinion of 500 football hooligans, but the website www.lets-throw-things-at-players-heads.com would get a higher Delicious rating than www.books-are-my-opium.org.

Slideshare and the perils of powerpoint

On to Thing 11 and this time it's Slideshare. I looked at the presentations suggested by 23 Things Cambridge, and Heriot-Watt looks like they might have had a change in policy or personnel or something, since the last time they added a presentation was 2 years ago! I picked the exam survival guide, and immediately felt nostalgic for the time when all I had to worry about was exams! I also checked out one by Phil Bradley and despite this course feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of Web 2.0 "stuff" out there - Pageflakes, Squidoo, Tagxedo &c., &c., &c... Still, I once spoke to the man himself about this, and his advice was plain and simple: try it out. Have a go. If it works, keep it, if it doesn't, lose it. And don't try and read everything on the internet! With these words of wisdom ringing in my ears, I blithely skip through the others suggested and then have a look at the search window.

I typed in "cambridge library" to see what came up. I found the slides from a presentation I attended during the libraries@cambridge 2009 conference, and to my surprise a presentation put together by a fellow cam23er! I also found some potentially interesting presentations about how to improve your library with tips for increased visibility, improving user experiences and so on.

I don't like sounding negative, particularly given I have only spent the sum total of about four hours browsing the site, but I think Slideshare doesn't really do it for me. The reason comes back ultimately to use of Powerpoint and/or other presentation software. In my experience as a student and as a conference attendee, I've probably been subjected to about 30-50 presentations which used Powerpoint, and possibly 10% of them were any good. People make a variety of mistakes when using slides, notably putting too much information on them, and then reading everything out verbatim, or adding slides which are distracting or irrelevant. The biggest mistake however, is taking them out of the presentation forum. I couldn't find slidenotes to accompany any of the sets of slides I looked at (maybe I'm being useless again). Now, if the presentation is good, and the use of slides thoughtful and serving to enhance the presentation, then the slides tend not to make sense without the presentation. On the other hand, if the presentation is bad, and all the information is on the slides instead of in the presenter's talk, then the slides are useless as a means of accompanying a good presentation... I'm not sure I'm explaining myself well here.

Basically, I doubt I would look here for new slides to accompany a presentation I want to give. If they're from a good presentation, I won't necessarily get the point they are serving to illustrate if the slidenotes aren't there. If they're bad, then I condemn my presentation to be bad by using them, but they may well serve as a tool for creating my own, better presentation. Looking at the one from the conference I attended, I can get a sort of gist of what was discussed, but without looking at the notes I made on the day itself, I couldn't tell you what the main arguments are just from the slides. Epic fail for this one!

Flickr part 2: The Image Strikes Back

MMMMmmmmmm. If I had a thousand hours to spend browsing images of beautiful old libraries, Flickr would be my favourite website. The Creative Commons search was wonderfully simple to use, as was the advanced search (I guess learning to grapple with Newton has given me transferable skills). I managed to find a picture of a page of a version of the Shah Namah (Book of Kings):

 

Image by Beesnest McClain on Flickr

which is on my mind recently since there'll be an exhibition about it at the Fitz in the autumn.

 Image by Curious Expeditions on Flickr

So I'm very happy with using Flickr. I am less happy, however, with using images in Blogger. I have two problems which I'm really struggling with:

The length of time it takes to use images from other websites. So far, every photo I've wanted to use comes from a website. In an ideal world, I click on "Add an image", then select "website address" and insert the URL, and a few minutes later, an image appears. However, I've been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and nothing appears, so I've had to download every (or nearly every) single image I've wanted to use so far, in order to upload it from my hard drive instead (which takes seconds).

Captions. I want to credit the people who took the photos I'm publishing, I really do, but why is it so complicated to add a credit in Blogger? I tried following various instructions on help pages, but it involves an understanding of HTML that I really don't have. I lose my place very easily in the code, but I feel there needs to be a better way of adding a clickable caption than by just taking the text, shrinking the font and centring it underneath a central photo. Ideally I want a caption to be part of the photo so that I can have a photo and caption on the side of my text, but my experiments have been messy at best - as you can see!

The next step will be experimenting with image manipulation software and using it for work. Alas, I've never progressed beyond MSPaint, and cannot install anything at work, so this will be an experiment for another time. I have come across Gimp before, and found it utterly incomprehensible, so I think I shall try out a different program when I do.

Far Flung Flickring

These are the images from my searches on Flickr. So far this is all I have done for this particular thing. I found I had to be quite specific in my searches and I was surprised by the search results when I searched for "fita star", a particular kind of badge you can achieve in archery - fewer than half of the images on the first page were actually relevant, and quite a few were about shoes! Out of interest I Googled for images with the same search terms and came up with much more relevant results... I haven't set up an account with Flickr yet, but I might well end up doing so. It's one of those things I kept meaning to do, but not being much of a photographer (and only recently getting a digital camera) I haven't felt the need to be all that pressing.

Finally, a question to muse upon: Idlethink's pictures of the UL violated Library Syndicate rules, which forbid photography, but the resulting pictures are beautiful records of the building and its treasures. How would you feel if you came across similar pictures of your library?

I'm a bit pedantic by nature, and I follow rules as a whole. My personal opinion is that if you want to take a photo so badly, you should ask permission - there's no harm trying (particularly if it's for study purposes). There are often good (and maybe less good) reasons why you can't take photos of libraries, or galleries and museums, or people's places of work, or events - copyright issues, trade secrets, over-zealous subscription to child protection laws, damage to the item being photographed...

If someone had taken photos in our library without permission and posted them on the internet, I think I would ask for them to be removed and the photos deleted. However, I'm not sure what I would do if they ignored my request. Therefore I was quite pleased to see there weren't many photos from the inside of my building on flickr!

Tagging

I read the essay by Clay Shirky with fascination. The concept of classification is one I'm very soon going to be tackling in my librarianship course, so this is something I shall be investigating much more thoroughly over the coming weeks (okay, months - I'm quite slow!).

Before I start playing with tagging, my initial thoughts are thus: I am not a fan. Yes, I love Google over Yahoo for the reason that I don't have to know what directory something is in - I type, I find (or refine, or give up...). However, people tag according to how they perceive, and I generally find I don't perceive the world in quite the same way. In fact, I get quite uppity about tags I think are inappropriate for the object being tagged, and feel like someone is enforcing their world view on me!

I have added tags to all my cam23 blog posts. I'm not an imaginative person, so they are almost all tagged with three things. Anything to do with cam23 things (ie pretty much all of it) is tagged 23 things; each thing is tagged by its number (thing 1, thing 2 etc) and then if I've used a particular program or widget, I've tagged by its name (so Twitter, Doodle etc). Beyond that, I can't really think how I would need to tag anything. Did I mention I was unimaginative? I did like the idea of Yay/Nay/Meh, but I find I need so many qualifiers: "this one is mostly yay but there's this bit which is nay so I'll tag it as both" is too spammy to be worth me using it...