you mean the guy from "that's so raven" didn't also write the series based on the show?

I just don't know how I feel about the striking writers penning children's books. On one hand, it's way better than not-working actors and other celebs writing children's books. But on the other hand, I can't say any of the story ideas have me hanging in anxious anticipation. Although maybe the Vikings in New York. Because, um, hello? Vikings!
(via Pop Candy)

txt me l8r

I'd heard a while ago that there was going to be a webcast of the Youth Literary awards this year, but today's e-mail from the ALA tells me that you can get the results via text message too. I'm thinking I might sign up, not only because I do so love a little text message action but also because I am working the evening shift on Monday and, as such, will probably still be asleep at 7:45. How not a morning person am I? As much as one can possibly (not) be.

I just wish that I felt more vested in the awards this time around. It might change when the results are actually in, but I'm not feeling particularly passionate about the topic this year. I read a lot of books last year - about 240, if I counted correctly, and that's not including picture books or easy readers. And while a good number of them "grown-up" books, Children's and YA titles made up a good portion of that. Some of them were good and I loved, some of them ... not so much. Maybe I feel sort of blah about it because some of the most buzzed about books of the years were either ones that I didn't get around to or ones that left me feeling pretty underwhelmed. But then, so have more than a few recent winners, so it could just be par for the course.

I do feel a little more interested in the Caldecott this year - thanks in large part to the Mock Caldecott that we did. Even though Laura did all the hard work, it was fun to have a voice and to see all the librarian's in discussing the different titles. It was the first "mock" I've ever been a part of - and not just because I don't really like the word "mock" and the images it conjures up (nothing good: fake turtlenecks and apple pie made with Ritz crackers and mean-spirited teasing). Now, I totally want to get in on some Mock Other Stuff action next year.

In any case, all of this is just sort of blathering at this point and I'm way more distracted by the tv white noise going on right now that I'm comfortable admitting. If, by some chance, books I love win next Monday, I could totally be singing a different tune.

hip-hop hooray

I am pleased to report that, after working on it piecemeal forever, this afternoon I finally finished weeding the entire Juvenile Non-fiction collection. And I have the stack of books awaiting book sale to prove it. And can I just say here, publicly, how much I love weeding? Because I do. I really, really do. In fact, some days when I am feeling particularly, "Grr, argh!" - you know, because I overslept, the bus was late and then the driver was crazy, and I don't get any coffee and the computer won't work and someone is randomly mean to you for no reason - I take solace in weeding the collection. And it totally works as a pick-me-up.

In any case, I then spent the last few hours of the day beginning what I shall henceforth call the Great Shift of '08, wherein I making use of all space vacated by those dingy, outdated and unloved books. It was a little bit more labor-intensive than your average day at the library, but totally worthwhile. And given how not-busy our Saturdays have been lately, I should be able to complete the task tomorrow (fingers crossed). My goal is to make enough space on the regular old shelves to have room for the kids series books, which currently reside on a sad little spindle. Which has not nearly enough room and keeps breaking. I wish, wish, wish that I had been able to make enough room to interfile the hardcover and paperback fiction (is there a logic for such separation beyond the logistical? I am genuinely curious.), but that particular dream will have to wait until our library is renovated and I get a brand-spanking, sparkly new room.

Oh, and also - my gift card came when I was off yesterday. I think this weekend I am going to take all of my change-in-a-can to Coinstar and opt for an Amazon card and combine it with that for all sorts of post-holiday treats!

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.

i know that already because i saw it on your facebook

Oh, Facebook. As previously noted, I was quite determined not to become one of your minions. Er, I mean users. Social networking sites are a dime a dozen these days, and a girl could get a headache trying to keep up with them all. Or, just by trying to remember all those passwords.

But if there's one thing I learned from watching Star Trek (TNG all the way!), it's that resistance is futile. You tell yourself that you're just going to register to find out what all the hype is about and initially you are pretty unimpressed. Slowly though, you start to enjoy the constant string of information. Oh look, she is having pizza for dinner tonight! He is attending a rugby match! I bet I can answer more questions about The Goonies than him! Can thousands of Stephen Colbert fans really be wrong?

Almost without even realizing it, you are logging on a dozen of times of day, hoping desperately that someone has played a move in one of the ten Scrabulous games you have going. You find yourself thinking that crafting your profile is a good way to kill two hours. You upload pictures. You consider this a valid form of communication between friends. You feel like, gee, I bet we'd have a great time hanging out because Flixter says so and we have so much overlap in our iLike profiles.

And, it's like totally legit, because people are networked by their schools and employers and NPR did a story about it.

Maybe it's a facade. Maybe, probably it will fade.

But it hasn't yet, so feel free to look me up there. Especially if you play Scrabulous.

d.i.y.

To all my friends who may be feeling a little intimidated when it comes to adding to a wiki: may I suggest to you WikiHow? You don't need to register or log in if you aren't inclined and the topics are varied - some might even say inane - enough that surely you can find one that you can contribute to. Personally, I like that they're a little cheeky ...

I myself have shared tips on How to Color in a Coloring Book. Although the name is a bit of a misnomer, as it equally applies to coloring pages that are not bound together. I have said, more than once and only half kiddingly, that one of the perks of being a Children's Librarian is sometimes it is your responsibility to color. If I can pass on my expert knowledge to another, I'm happy to do so.

you're so fine you blow my mind

After stalling a bit here over the Library 2.0 assignment (which I suspect occurred because of the "too many options! too much to say!" conundrum that I have already mentioned) this lazy Sunday will find me - hopefully - working through a bit of my backlog. The fact that my cold returned just before thanksgiving and has been persistently lingering since then, thus rendering me totally homebound should help. Don't worry though. I'll take little breaks so the verbosity doesn't hit you all at once.

First off, then: Wikipedia. For which I am full of love. I have to say, reading some of the posts that my fellow participants have made on the subject has warmed the heart a bit. So much affection on display. I'm afraid that librarians, to make a sweeping generalization which I'm never keen on but is sometimes inevitable, have feared it for too long. Or at the very least, feared claiming it as their own. For ages, none of us professionals would admit to using Wikipedia. And then, when a few brave souls would raise their hand, they were certain to tag on: "of course, I always verify the information in another source." You know, just like we learned to do in library school. All well and good, but ...

I am here to admit to you that I use Wikipedia all the time. I love it. And, frequently, I do not verify the information I get there in another source. I do click on links galore - both to other Wikipedia articles, as well as to the bibliographies that are often included. Further, I don't think that confessing this makes me a bad librarian, although I'm sure that there are those who may want to scold me right now.

The caveat: most of my Wikipedia use is limited to my personal use and when answering reference questions and the like, it isn't my first stop. But I do use it at the library, especially when traditional sources don't cover the topic - either extensively or at all. One of the best things about the people's encyclopedia is how expansive it is and topics - especially people and places - that don't garner their own inclusion in a traditional encyclopedia are represented. Every youth librarian in the system has encountered - or will encounter, if they're still new - the infamous Queens Neighborhood assignment. And when they do, my hard-worn advice is to snuggle on up to Wikipedia. Those obscure mathematicians and inventors assignments too.

We all know that there just isn't a book on everything that people are interested in out there. The realities of the market just don't make it possible. But, there are lots of people who are interested in really obscure things and many of them are interested enough to create Wikipedia entries about their beloved topic. So why not use that to your advantage?

A final point I want to address on the topic is why one might prefer to use Wikipedia for a topic that might very well be covered in, say, World Book or a host of Gale databases. (And, for the record, I do use both of those things. A lot, actually and I constantly try to push them on my patrons as well, so maybe that fact that will redeem those to whom I lost points from above. Although I could be lying and just trying to get back into your good graces.) (Also, did you know that World Book was owned by the holding company that also owns Fruit of the Loom, Benjamin Moore and Dairy Queen? I didn't; thanks Wikipedia!) It's simply a matter of ease of use.

Even if you hate Wikipedia with a searing white hate that keeps you up at night, you have to give them props for this. The proprietary databases are a pain, especially if you happen to be using them from home and don't have your library card handy and aren't a librarian who happens to know exactly how to construct your search terms. And once you get in, there aren't embedded links that take you to other, related topics that you might find helpful to know about. So maybe, if you're really hardcore, you might go ahead and construct another search for said related topic. Only, oops, your session has timed out, so now you have to log on again and the server is slow so that takes a while and then you have to choose your database and aye, caramba this is giving me a headache so I'm just going to go use Wikipedia.

revolution, library style, now

So, reading all the different articles about Library 2.0, with the idea that I would be crafting some sort of response to it here, totally made me feel like I was back in grad school. And because I was always good at being a student, that made me oh so happy. I suspect this means I should consider another degree. Or, more realistically perhaps, try to get into that library management class the next time it comes around.

Reading all that also made my head swim a little. There's so many opinions out there, about what 2.0 means, if it's necessary, if it's really all that different from what libraries have always done, whether it should be embraced or scorned. I suspect that most people fall, like me, somewhere in that shady grey middle. I do feel that, philosophically at least, Library 2.0 isn't really revolutionary. Libraries, and especially public libraries, have always espoused equality and the centrality of the user and have adapted and evolved to fit the needs of their communities. I've never really seen us as gatekeepers or viewed library service as a one-way process. Maybe it's just me though. Or at least related to when I came of age and the life philosophies I bring to the table.

And if Library 2.0 isn't a revolution, per se, I do think that I'm okay with deeming it an evolution of practices. Which means it's more than just a collection of tools that some may be tempted to reduce it to. The question to ask is how do you incorporate the technologies that characterize our time in order to offer the best library services to your users? And to do that, you have to first and foremost know who your users are and then take a look at the questions that naturally follow: what are their needs, which of those needs should the library be filling and how is the best way to go about that and the like.

In doing that, it's entirely possible that you'll realize that they don't need library blogs or rss feeds. This article was a good anecdotal representation of that. Another: when I told a friend of mine that I was participating in this project, she commented something along the lines of "Argh! I'm so tired of hearing about Library 2.0!" I was a little taken aback, but she went on to explain that her system had just unveiled a new website, full of widgets and wonders. Turns out the only ones who noticed were other libraries, who oohed and ahhed and maybe even included their url on a presentation slide. But from the community she works in? Deafening silence.

Which makes me wonder, just how do you measure the success of these things. Is there a rubric? Everyone knows that a bureaucracy loves a statistic, so which ones to use? Hits? Comments? Links? Subscriptions? And what's the magic number? How few makes for "wasting time/money/effort"? And if people keep not coming, do you keep throwing it out there? I don't have any answers. Thoughts and opinions, yes, but answers no. But then, I don't think anyone else really does either. The Annoyed Librarian can pooh-pooh it all they want (and really, what doesn't the Annoyed Librarian pooh-pooh?), but I don't think perpetual beta is a bad thing.

Of course, implicit in that is the idea of change. And there's so many places to go with that one. But if I got into it now, we'd be here all night and nobody wants that.

observations:

Technorati is way less annoying and overwhelming when you are signed in as a member.

Claiming your blog is really easy.

I need more authority. But how does one do this without trolling for links? Guess I'll have to make myself witty and insightful and learn the art of self-promotion.

You definitely get different results depending on how you search Technorati.

The popularity rankings indicate that the geeks (and I say that totally considering myself one of them) have certainly inherited the earth. Or at least the internet. Or maybe it just goes to show that even though everyone and my mother is using the internet, the people who get excited enough about it to be a presence and join things like Technorati are still the geekily inclined.

People really like cats, especially when they talk funny.

Also people really like gossip and politics and gossip about politics.

No matter how many articles New York Magazine writes about them, Gawker Media is doing a-ok.

take a bite, you know you want to

In thinking about technology and all of these applications we are busy using and experimenting with here, it's funny to think about just how many of them when, upon first hearing about them, my initial thought was "Eh, not for me." I can remember when the popularity of Myspace was on the rise and people had just begun to ask the question, "Hey are you on Myspace." And my answer was always no, because, duh, I wasn't. And I really didn't intend to join. I had been on Friendster and other precursors, and I'd quickly found them frustrating. But suddenly lots of my friends were on Myspace and using it pretty extensively to communicate with one another. I felt very out-of-the-loop because I hadn't received a bulletin notice or a message, so I reluctantly joined and became all about it.

And then, Facebook started to become popular. And I thought, "Hey, I have a Myspace. Isn't that enough? Do I really have to join another social networking site?" So I didn't and resisted as long as I could. But then a really good friend who wasn't on Myspace at the time sent me a Facebook invite. And I joined because I wanted to keep in touch with him. And these days, even though I know more people on Myspace than on Facebook, I find myself on the latter more often. Although I suspect that this has way more to do with the fact that I can play Scrabulous on there than anything else.

Anyhow, my whole point to that story is to illustrate how very frequently we initially might dismiss technology that might someday, perhaps someday very shortly, come to play a significant role in our lives. And that's certainly the case with del.icio.us. Known about it for ages and had no interest in it at all. Yes, the idea that all my bookmarks might be in one place was appealing, but not appealing enough to tip me over into membership. Besides, I tend to only use two computers - the one I have at home and the one I use at work. And for the most part, the sites that I frequent in each place are different, without a lot of overlap. I'm all about compartmentalization.

As such, I dismissed del.icio.us, thinking it was simply online bookmarking. And, at it's very essence that is what it is. But using it for this exercise, I've come to see how it can be much more dynamic than that, if you want it to be. For me, the big use I see of it will be as a place to bookmark not just sites that I might visit regularly, but individual articles and posts and really, that's huge! So frequently do I read stuff online and I'll think it's interesting. But it's not so interesting that I want to bookmark it, especially because I know it's not something I'm going to find myself frequently consulting. I tend to trust my memory too much and think "Hey, I found it once, I should be able to find it again." Only, sometimes I can't. But now I'm able to use del.icio.us as a way to keep track of those things. Very handy. I think that means I'm a convert.

totally not feeling it

I have to say, I've been avoiding a post for a little while, because I really wasn't so keen on Rollyo. I kept hoping that if I used it a bit more, I might learn to find some good things to say. Maybe I just wasn't getting it, or didn't give it enough of a chance to win me over.

But, even with lots of experimentation, it's just not working. Like, at all. Sorry, Rollyo, I just don't like you.

Why not? Some of these observations have been made by others, but let me lay my objections out here anyway.

1) It's redundant. I could get the same results by using and advanced search in a general search engine that I already employ - and which gives results on a much cleaner interface - or by just going to the sites in my lists and searching them individually. Which, yes, might be a wee bit more effort, but would be worth it, since I wouldn't be ...

2) wading through a lot of sponsored links. TOO MUCH ADVERTISING, y'all. And yes, I did just shout on purpose. Maybe it's just the part of me that used to go to indie rock shows and scorn the man, but I don't like a lot of advertising when I wander the 'net. I deal with it, because I know that money makes the world go round, but I like to pretend that the internet exists for more esoteric purposes than making some fat cat richer. On each results page for my Rollyo search, there were six sponsored links for ten non-sponsored ones. Plus, two bigger-picture ads along the side. No, thanks.

3) If there's enough demand for it, an aggregator site probably already exists that would do this better.

4) If you include large sites, it will search the entire domain and not let you specify smaller segments. Er, that was badly worded, so let me explain: the first search I made was for home decor/hipster homemaking sites and I included the website for Blueprint Magazine, which I happen to adore in physical form. But, it's a Martha Stewart production and as such is hosted on Marthastewart.com. So when a search is done, I get results from the entire website, including aspects of it I might not care about, like the weddings magazine or from the tv show.

5) As such, if you include large domains (marthastewart.com, cnn.com, wikipedia, amazon) and small domains (random blog), the results from the large domains will dominate. When I removed Blueprint, Apartment Therapy results dominated my results, because it, too, is very expansive. Why is there no option (that I can find) to weight, filter or prioritize the results?

Anyway, those are my objections off the top of my head. Overall, I just don't think I would ever use this. I can think of situations when other people might - many of which my fellow 2.0ers have noted - so, I'm glad it exists for them, but I cannot conceive of a situation in which I am a regular.

a long time ago, we used to be friends but I, haven't thought of you lately at all

Confession: I tend to be obsessive about things I'm keen on. I can't recall, but I think maybe I've indicated as much in some of these posts. But if not, it's good to just get it out there. Thus, if I like something, chances are I'm going to want to immerse myself in it completely. At least until some other obsession replaces it. It's probably not the healthiest thing in the world, at least not always, but it is what it is.

And, about a year and a half ago, I came across LibraryThing. And I liked it a lot. So much so that I thought it would be a really good idea to catalog every single book that I own. Or, at least every single book that I own that was sitting in my apartment at the time. There's still a few gigantic boxes sitting in my mom's garage in Ohio which I hope to someday be reunited with, when apartment space allows. Probably I do not really have the space for the 2000+ books crammed into this Queens studio. Certainly if I didn't have so many, furnishing options would be greater and I wouldn't have to worry about the leaning towers of books collapsing and causing dire injury if I shut the closet door to hard.

But, let's get back to LibraryThing, shall we? I shifted piles and I squinted at copyright pages and I made long lists if isbns and when the entire process was said and I shelled out ten bucks so I could catalog more than 200. And when all was said and done, I had a very complete LibraryThing, felt ever-so accomplished, loved looking at my LibraryThing and, well, proceeded to completely forget about it. Not right away. I was good about updating it for a little while.

But then gradually, it just slipped my mind. Maybe if I acquired books at a normal rate - one or two every now and then. But I'm a librarian who is fortunate enough to get the occassional ARC. Especially when I'd go to conferences and events like Book Expo. And, I have a boyfriend who works at an indie bookstore, so he's always bringing things home. Add to that the fact that no one on staff at said bookstore has the slightest interest in children's or YA books, so every now and then the manager just boxes up dozens of advances and sends them to me. Things have a way of spiraling out of control. Which is why, a year or so later, I find myself realizing that I can't remember the last time I logged books onto LibraryThing. And if I want to do some more, I'm going to have to cough up more cash and endure some major headaches as I try to figure out what's already in the library and what isn't. Somehow, I don't think it's going to happen. The moment has passed and until I get that cataloging itch again (which, I admit could totally happen), I'll be content to observe from the outside.

In the meantime, just last week I finally joined Good Reads ...