i always cry at endings

Oh, dial-up. I almost forgot what using you was like.

Meaning, hello from Ohio! And the slowest internet connection I've had to use in a long, long time. I really should've posted my last assignment before flying out Thursday, but I've always had a problem writing conclusions ...

Nevertheless. I've had a grand time participating in the QL2.0 project. I wish that more people had taken advantage of it, but maybe they'll do so the next time around. And yes, there should totally be a "next time." Maybe with some people who are more comfortable with a lot of the content serving as mentors to those just getting started. I know that this happened on a lot on an informal level, but codifying it might make it easier for some. I've really enjoyed the process and would be keen on other learning or training that utilized this format.

In terms of what which assignments have made the biggest impact on me, I'm going with Bloglines. I know I was a bit hesitant at the time, but I've been using it pretty consistently since then and have truly come to adore it. I guess it was true love after all. And with a tendency to add feeds on a whim, the blogroll just keeps growing and growing, so I don't see said love fading away any time soon.

I am also hugely keen on Google Docs. In fact, I've already started preaching it to anyone who will listen, sort of like on of those tent revival evangelists out of a Flannery O'Connor story. Patrons, co-workers, my boyfriend ... all have had to listen to me enthuse about it and I hopefully haven't bored them to tears in the process. You know, like Rollyo bored me to tears. Sorry, I know some people fell for it and by all means, more power to them, but I just don't get that one. Del.ic.ious (is that how it goes?) I like in theory but seldom remember to actually use it. It would be handy now, when I'm in Ohio and away from my regular computer, but I'm mostly using the beloved Bloglines to keep up, especially because I won't really need my Netflix queue or the MTA homepage in the next few days.

Other stuff, like social networking and Flickr and YouTube I knew and loved already, but I liked how this project compelled me to look at and use them from a different perspective and explore them on a deeper level. There's so much stuff out there in this 2.0 environment that there's pretty much no way for anyone to keep up with it. And I suspect that if you try, it makes your head spin on a regular basis and you just have to take a wee break from all things electronic every now and again. Which I do, only I always come back; happily.

Anyway, I'm really curious as to whether or not people are going to maintain their blogs. As suspected, reading what others have had to say has been one of my favorite things, even if I didn't always pipe up with the comments and whatnot (although I did try). I've had personal blogs for ages - since before it was called blogging, even - and have wanted to give a more professional web presence a go for some time, but never made it happen. This project was a great way to ease into that and now that I'm here, just watch out blogosphere!

Um, or something.

um, did you know there's a dead guy in your bathtub?

Well, I thought that I was going to wait until I had finished listening to my audio book before I made this post. But. I've had it for over a week and I'm only about half-way through, and that end-of-project (not to mention vacation/home-for-the-holidays action) is quickly approaching. Best to get on it. Besides which, the fact that it has taken me over a week to listen to a thirteen chapter novel that I probably would've read in a day or two if I had the book could perhaps be indicative of something.

Like, audio books are not really my thing. I want to love them, really and truly I do. I know so many people who swear by them and they strike me as such an efficient way to make the most of time spent doing busywork. Maybe then I just don't do enough busywork? Or if I do, I prefer for it to be accompanied by the sounds of something else. Including silence, which I'm not particularly adverse to.

I'm trying though, really and truly. And I'm pleased to see that the digital offerings at Queens have increased quite a bit since the last time I took a look at them. Alas, I am one of those people who aren't particularly keen on downloading the software, free and easy though it may be, in order to play them. I think maybe if I were then able to easily transfer that media to my iPod, I would get over that particular hurdle. Alas, that one-two punch of necessary proprietary software AND incompatibility with the dominant media player which I happen to employ works out to something along the lines of "too much investment, not enough payoff." Again, I offer the thought that maybe I'll get over it, but I haven't yet.

So then, where does that leave you? Or me, rather? Especially if I am feeling not-so spendy?

Choosing from a veritable buffet of classics, brought to your listening pleasure by a team of dedicated volunteers. By which I mean, LibriVox. I have long been curious about this particular project, an auditory Project Gutenberg, whose "goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books." It is easy to browse and use and I found more than a few titles to tempt me. I've been on a British Mystery Kick for a while now though, so I ended up going with Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. Which I'm happy to say I am enjoying, even if it's taking me a while to get through it - probably because I really only listen to it on the bus, and even then not every single bus ride.

I like LibriVox a lot, especially because it is a grassroots, volunteer sort of thing, without any monetary motivation. And on a people-are-interesting tip, it's cool to hear different voices working with the same text, although I suspect some might find that jarring or disconcerting. Obviously, one of the huge things that would prevent people from using it is the fact that a whole lot of literature isn't in the public domain, so if you don't have an inclination to the classic or the obscure, you won't find what you want here. For people like me, though, it's a good way to ease into this world and you just never know. Maybe I'll get so in to it that I'll make that hurdle to paying for audio books, or at least checking them out from work.

Finally, even though this post is already very long, I have to add that I know my comments have been limited to audio books and in reality digital media is a whole lot more. I have pretty much zero interest in e-books , however. Digital audio video is a whole other story but, even as a librarian, I don't really think of the library as my go-to source for it; rather Netflix or iTunes or a host of sites somebody somewhere would like to see shut down. I like that libraries are keen to carve out a niche in this world, although it seems difficult and I suspect that we'll always be sub-players at this particular ballgame. It would be nice to be proven wrong on that point.

P.S. In looking for an image to accompany this text, I notice Whose Body? offered by Overdrive at a few libraries, but it's not in our catalog. I wonder how these things are decided ...

when i can't sleep i post things

* Best municipal tree ever? I think so, even though everyone knows that Ms. Pac-Man was a superior game. (viaNeatorama)

* Tim Burton is directing a film of Alice in Wonderland. Does this make you feel a) excitement b) despair or c) something else? (via Boing Boing)

* I'm really bummed that Blueprint is going out of business. It seems my devotion to a magazine almost inevitably means it will fold. Watch out, Venus and Bust!

* Um, I thought I had more links than that saved. I guess not. If only I had finished my audiobook, so that I could post about that. Guess I'll just have to attempt sleep again instead. Which is probably what I should do anyway, because that alarm ringing is going to happen awfully soon. Relatively speaking.

the world is collapsing around our ears

Unlike with a lot of internet things, I can pretty much pinpoint exactly when I began using podcasts - almost to the day. October 2006, which is when the fine people at WBEZ finally began offering weekly podcasts of This American Life. Now then, I don't want this entry to entirely consist of squeeing, fangirl fawning over TAL, so let me just say that it's pretty much one of my favorite things ever and I love it beyond measure.

But. It's been really difficult for me to listen to since I moved to New York. Radio reception in my apartment is spotty at best and non-existent at worst and I never seem to be in the right place at the right time to listen. We do have satellite radio, which I'm keen on (and listening to at the moment actually), but the TAL episodes they play on there tend to be from the archives. Listening online was always a possibility, but very inconvenient. Therefor, to say that I was excited to hear about the podcasts is a major understatement.

And, as often occurs, one thing led to another. I poked around and found other shows that I enjoyed, some of them, like This American Life, professionally produced and distributed by NPR, the CBC or the BBC, others very much homemade projects. In the latter case, I've been somewhat frustrated, because it seems that as soon as I'd find a podcast I enjoyed, the people making it would go on hiatus. Right now, other than Ira Glass and company, the only podcast that I get regularly is the Pop Candy one.

I do think that searching for podcasts can be tricky. I wish the descriptions were better and/or more consistent in many of the directories. I tend to just use iTunes, because of a few features, like the user reviews and the "similar podcasts" links. And, I'm always asking people I know who listen to podcasts for recommendations, because as with so many things, that's so much more reliable that stumbling along randomly.

In any case, I hadn't perused new podcasts in awhile and I'm really happy to see that so many old radio shows are now offered for download. I have a weakness for old time radio shows. But the last time I searched for them, they weren't many available - I assume because of copyright issues. As such, I usually rely on the XM station that plays them or listen at the computer. Now it looks like there's a few of them and I'm excited to be able to take them along on the bus and the subway.

the muppet show would totally not be allowed on the air today

Okay, more thoughts about YouTube. I'm still not certain how legit and professional they are.

I suppose I can just say "It's swell" and leave it at that?

Probably not, but it is swell, and I have much affection for it. And not just for when I'm inclined to waste time by glimpsing cartoons from childhood, watching alternative rock icons (or, um, punk or country or heavy metal icons) partying with Jim Henson creations, or catching up on viral marketing I missed by not seeing many movies in the theater.

There are a lot of authors reading, chatting and answering questions. This video of recent National Book Award winner Sherman Alexie has recently been making the blog rounds. Book trailers, made by both professionals and amateurs abound, for titles both contemporary and classic.

Or maybe you're looking want to help your patrons understand just what services your library offers. Or check out ways other library systems have advertised themselves. And see a synopsis of the conference you didn't attend. I know a lot of libraries have used YouTube for programming, hosting contests or short film festivals. I think it's a great way to take advantage of the technology that people are already using and hope that more of us will follow suit.

Me, I just want to watch more Muppet Show clips and figure out a way to use Yo Gabba Gabba! in storytime.

why i miss buffy (no. 137 in a series)

Continuing the Buffy theme that I am sort of going with today.

Actual, legitimate and semi-professional thoughts about YouTube are forthcoming. As in, maybe tomorrow if I feel like it.

twittering into the void

For some reason, before the ql things project began, I thought that one of the assignments was to Twitter. As such, I signed up and made a few half-hearted attempts to add to it, and then pretty much abandoned it.

And then, I took a closer look at our assignments and saw that it wasn't even on the list, so I didn't even have to feel bad about abandoning it. Only - look! It's a Web 2.0 award winner, in the category of mobile technology, so it looks like I can write about it after all.

Only, I don't have that much to say. Unlike with a lot of social networking applications, pretty much nobody that I know uses twitter. My initial curiosity about it came from the fact that Whitney, of the Pop Candy blog at USA Today - and one of my daily essential haunts - twitters a lot and often has links to hers on the blog. Besides that, it's gotten some buzz, both online and in traditional news sources. People seem excited about it. I can, actually, see the appeal. I like updating my facebook status, and twitter does pretty much that (and even has an app to do exactly that), only without the obligatory "is" and with more portability, since you don't have to be online to contribute. Plus, I'm the sort of person who finds the minutiae of people's lives fascinating. It's basically why I started reading blogs and maintaining an online presence in the first place, oh so long ago.

It's difficult to maintain momentum though, when no one is paying attention. Which I hate saying, because it seems very needy in a "please validate my existence" sort of way, which is so not the way to come across. It's not just a question of who cares what I ate for breakfast, but who cares if I tell them what I had for breakfast? John Edwards maybe, since he seems to be following a whole bunch of people, but it's not like I really think that he or Barack Obama is actually sitting on their campaign bus, contemplating my affection for english muffins. So, is there really any point?

However, even if the answer to that one is no, there's just something about twitter that keeps me interested. Maybe I just have to give it more time. And while I'm doing that, I'll hope that the people I know will actually start using it. In the meantime, I can at least get a kick out of reliving the Buffy the Vampire Slayer glory days, via Xander's tweets.

Finally, on the other Web 2.0 awards, I have lots of affection for many of these. Here, I'll send shout outs to Digg (but ignore the comments), Etsy and Yelp, since I don't think anyone's mentioned them yet.

productivity (um, i can't think of anything even slightly witty for this one)

The situation: you hear the name of something and you immediately conclude that it will be about x, based on said title. Then much further down the line, you hear more about it - with an explanation this time, and realize that that first idea was totally wrong. Sort of like a misheard lyric but far less amusing.

That was totally me when I first heard about Google Docs. Which, to my unenlightened mind, sounds an awful lot like "government docs," and is the only example I can think of - not being business minded - where the word "documents" is routinely shortened to "docs." Thus, my initial thought was that Google Docs was a lot like that old Google catalog project, where you could search a lot of stuff all at once, only in this case what you might be searching through was government publications.

Oops. My bad. Instead Google Docs is teh awesome. I sort of want to tell everyone I meet about it, especially people in the library who say things like, "My computer time is over, but I didn't finish my report. I need to at least print it. Can I log on again? But I need to use the same computer I was on before. And I need it right now, before someone else uses Word and my stuff is lost. Also, do you have a disc I can borrow, because I'm probably going to have to work on it tomorrow and I don't have one." In the past, I used to recommend that people e-mail their work to themselves, but now I will point them in good old reliable Google's way. And I will totally make use of it myself, as well.

In terms of collaborative projects, I tend not to do very many of them these days. Oh, how glad I am that those infamous library school group project days are over. But how I wish these sort of tools were around when I did them regularly. Way more efficient than constantly emailing things back and forth to one another. If and when the collaborative action returns to my life, I will be keen on using applications like GDocs and Writeboard and the like for them. (In doing the exploring, I really only navigated past the first page in Google, just because I didn't want to sign up for something else I wouldn't immediately make use of, but I'm encouraged by their existence.) Anything that gets me away from my reluctant reliance on Microsoft is pretty swell in my book.

oh so random

A few thoughts about recent topics, that didn't really fit into the posts I made about them ...

* One of the things that makes Wikipedia so useful and successful is the fact that there are so many users. And not just random users, like those of us who check on occasion (or even more frequently), but vested users who monitor content and catch pranksters and update content. Specialty wikis, by there very nature, do not have nearly so many community members and the interests of those who are there necessarily skew what will be present on it. Using Lib Success as an example, as a Children's Librarian my inclination is to see what they have related to that area. Answer? Nothing much. In programming, there's a link to the Mid-Hudson database, which I already know and that's pretty much it. If I expand to include teens, there's a little more, mostly because of the rising popularity of gaming in the library, but it's still pretty paltry.

Is this because as a user group, children are pretty well-covered in traditional library education, or just evidence that we librarians that serve them aren't very new-media inclined? I don't know, but it's a little frustrating. The question that then arises is if want to change the situation, do I register as a contributor here and try to add content, in the acres of free time that I have, or do I just start a new wiki, even narrower in focus in this one, or do I just suck it up and do nothing?


* On QL Chat, someone recently asked if there was still a point in having the website pathfinders on our webpage, and though I didn't respond there, my inclination is to say no. And in doing so, admit straight up that I've never been a big fan of pathfinders, either in print or online. The focus of most of them just seems too narrow to me to warrant them and I hate the clutter that the print versions necessarily incur. If we were to wikify them the way that the SJCPL has, then I might be more in favor of them. I still think the audience is a limited one and there's too much to click through, but the organization at least seems a bit more natural and I think that that helps.

* On both of these points - and as exemplified by the limited number of people who participated in this project - the big issue, and really it's a huge one, is how do you get participants? You can talk and encourage and hope but if people don't show up, you're pretty much out of luck.