The next big thing occuring AS WE SPEAK is the development of PBCLS's audiobook collection via Overdrive. You can check out the collection here. Audiobooks and ebooks are a rising interest which will continue to increase demand in the wake of new technology and competition between companies like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Between the hightened popularity and competitive pricing of the Sony eReader, the Nook and the Kindle, libraries are feeling the pressure to increase their ebook collection. The PBCLS is adding hundreds of new items a day to their Overdrive collection.
The system is very easy to use. simply download the Overdrive Media Console and select material on the webpage to download. Because of Digital Rights Management, the library purchases licenses, rather than items. This way, the license acts as the physical item that is checked out. Only one person can access the license at a time. So for each item there could be 5 (or more, or fewer) licenses. This is kind of a pain for the patron because it means that when you select an item to download, you may have to wait for several days for the item to be available. It's just like putting a book on hold through the online catalog, except you don't have to go to the library to pick up your item.
It's hard to tell how much of this trend in e-materials is a fad and how much of it will stick with us. There are so many people who still enjoy reading from a book rather than reading from a screen. However, the newer generations are born in front of a computer and may prefer reading from their electronic devices rather than a dusty, smelly, and sometimes sticky book. For now, we can relax with the knowledge that not all items and materials are available electronically. So people will still have to come into the library for certain things.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Web 2.0 Revisited: Online Applications
I recently got back into using Goodreads.com as a means to keep track of the books I have read and what I thought about them. You read a lot of books as a librarian - some for pleasure, some for reader's advisory, some for book discussions - and sometimes you forget if you've read a certain book or what the book was even about. Goodreads gives you the opportunity to keep track in a simple to use format. My friend and I are now using it to suggest books to eachother. You can even add books to a "to read" list - way better than having scraps of paper with titles and authors scribbled on them, scattered around your desk! I can't begin to tell you the number of paper lists of books I've meant to read that have been lost over the years. Tragic really.
Another interesting online application is LibraryThing. We actually used this site in my cataloging course as a way of creating our own little library. It's a neat site and could be very useful for people who have large personal collections. As it is, my persoanl collection fits neatly on two shelves on my desk, but of course, I get a lot of books from the library or through interlibrary loan.
While LibraryThing is a cool site, I can't really think of a good use for it for established libraries. As far as reader's advisory is concerned, I think Goodreads is better because you can rate books and send suggestions to friends. It looks like LibraryThing is developing a new RSS tracker to upload news to Facebook etc. You can subscribe to an RSS feed of your Goodreads friends to be sent to your email. So if you like your librarian's suggestions, you could subscribe and follow what he or she reads. It could be interesting if it was set up by genre. For instance, patrons could follow my Mysteries Goodreads account. Depending on your community, it could be very useful or not at all useful.
Another interesting online application is LibraryThing. We actually used this site in my cataloging course as a way of creating our own little library. It's a neat site and could be very useful for people who have large personal collections. As it is, my persoanl collection fits neatly on two shelves on my desk, but of course, I get a lot of books from the library or through interlibrary loan.
While LibraryThing is a cool site, I can't really think of a good use for it for established libraries. As far as reader's advisory is concerned, I think Goodreads is better because you can rate books and send suggestions to friends. It looks like LibraryThing is developing a new RSS tracker to upload news to Facebook etc. You can subscribe to an RSS feed of your Goodreads friends to be sent to your email. So if you like your librarian's suggestions, you could subscribe and follow what he or she reads. It could be interesting if it was set up by genre. For instance, patrons could follow my Mysteries Goodreads account. Depending on your community, it could be very useful or not at all useful.
Web 2.0 Revisited: Photos/Imaging
Some how, Flickr is still a very confusing tool for me to use. There seems to be a lot going on with Flickr that would require me to actually spend more than a day playing with all the features to figure out what I can do with it. On the whole, it does seem like a nice place to dump all your photos and organize them in some way that would make it easier to share them with friends. As it is, I just upload my photos directly to Facebook from my phone. :/ I don't take a lot of pictures, so for me this type of service is kind of useless. I have a good place to share photos with my friends. (For now, it is FB, but we'll see how long that fad will last - anyone remember Friendster? I didn't think so.) I keep all my photos private to avoid the creepers online, but just to prove that I actually did go back onto Flickr, I posted a pic from the scifi/fantasy convention I attended over the Fourth of July weekend.
I'm a Zora princess. (Princess Ruto from The Ocarina of Time in girl-form and EGL style.)
One of the cool features of Flickr is that you can actually edit your photos there, rather than having to use a photo editing program and then upload the photos. This is super useful for those of us on-the-go who would like to be able to edit images from any place. You can also upload images to Twitter, Blogger, LiveJournal, Facebook or Tumblr directly from Flickr. Super useful now that we all have a Blogger account, eh?
You can also use the RSS feed to receive updates from all your favorite Flickrers.
PBCLS has a Flickr here, but apparently, they haven't used it yet. :/ Which is a shame, because they could be posting all those awesome pictures we take during our programs that we supposedly use to promote our programs. It would be really cool if the photos on our home page linked back to a Flickr account that showed our patrons all the fun and interesting things we do with them at the library.
I'm a Zora princess. (Princess Ruto from The Ocarina of Time in girl-form and EGL style.)
One of the cool features of Flickr is that you can actually edit your photos there, rather than having to use a photo editing program and then upload the photos. This is super useful for those of us on-the-go who would like to be able to edit images from any place. You can also upload images to Twitter, Blogger, LiveJournal, Facebook or Tumblr directly from Flickr. Super useful now that we all have a Blogger account, eh?
You can also use the RSS feed to receive updates from all your favorite Flickrers.
PBCLS has a Flickr here, but apparently, they haven't used it yet. :/ Which is a shame, because they could be posting all those awesome pictures we take during our programs that we supposedly use to promote our programs. It would be really cool if the photos on our home page linked back to a Flickr account that showed our patrons all the fun and interesting things we do with them at the library.
Web 2.0 Revisited: Social Networking
Ah, social networking. I can't even remember how long I've been using Facebook - close to the time it started and word was just starting to get around about it. You won't be able to see any info about me on my FB page because I have painstakingly tracked down all the privacy settings and changed them so that strangers can't kidnap me from my little league game. Only my friends can. :D You'll know it's me because my profile pic (right now) is of a green unicorn My Little Pony cartoon. MLP is really big right now - don't judge.
The best part about Facebook for libraries is that A LOT of people use it, so there is the potential to reach out to a lot of your patrons. The YS staff at my branch started using FB several years ago to connect with our teen group. ** WARNING!!! CREATE A PROFESSIONAL FACEBOOK ACCOUNT JUST FOR CONNECTING WITH PATRONS ** It is seriously poor style to let your (teen or adult) patrons see pictures of you smashed at your birthday celebration, etc. Keep all those goodies on your personal page - under heavy privacy settings.
Facebook is constantly changing it's policies, settings, and format, so you really need to keep up with the changes. Most of the time there is nothing you really need to do besides re-memorize where to find everything on your "wall" - which can be enough - but sometimes they get tricky and change privacy settings on us. Normally, on a professional account, this wouldn't be a problem, because you aren't posting anything inappropriate (right?). However, Facebook recently made a change to the system allowing other people to "tag" you in any one's photos. So naughty little mischief-makers could fake-"tag" you in an inappropriate picture and it will show up on your photo page. Yay. Even if it's (clearly) not you, it's still not cool to have those kinds of pics up there. I'm not if they have fixed this issue yet. Because my page is private, only my friends can tag me and only my friends can see the pics, so I'm not all that concerned about it.
Another cool and (semi)useful feature is the FB chat function. Although it's definitely not the best chat device out there, it's useful that it's linked to FB. If someone has a question they can just chat directly with a librarian right from the library's FB page. The best new feature of the FB chat is that the FB "message" function keeps track of the chats. So if you miss a chat IM - like, if the internet just stops working or FB reloads or something - it will show on your FB page that you have a message and you check it and get back to that person. You can also set up notifications that can be forwarded to your regular (non FB) email or directly to your phone via SMS.
The best part about Facebook for libraries is that A LOT of people use it, so there is the potential to reach out to a lot of your patrons. The YS staff at my branch started using FB several years ago to connect with our teen group. ** WARNING!!! CREATE A PROFESSIONAL FACEBOOK ACCOUNT JUST FOR CONNECTING WITH PATRONS ** It is seriously poor style to let your (teen or adult) patrons see pictures of you smashed at your birthday celebration, etc. Keep all those goodies on your personal page - under heavy privacy settings.
Facebook is constantly changing it's policies, settings, and format, so you really need to keep up with the changes. Most of the time there is nothing you really need to do besides re-memorize where to find everything on your "wall" - which can be enough - but sometimes they get tricky and change privacy settings on us. Normally, on a professional account, this wouldn't be a problem, because you aren't posting anything inappropriate (right?). However, Facebook recently made a change to the system allowing other people to "tag" you in any one's photos. So naughty little mischief-makers could fake-"tag" you in an inappropriate picture and it will show up on your photo page. Yay. Even if it's (clearly) not you, it's still not cool to have those kinds of pics up there. I'm not if they have fixed this issue yet. Because my page is private, only my friends can tag me and only my friends can see the pics, so I'm not all that concerned about it.
Another cool and (semi)useful feature is the FB chat function. Although it's definitely not the best chat device out there, it's useful that it's linked to FB. If someone has a question they can just chat directly with a librarian right from the library's FB page. The best new feature of the FB chat is that the FB "message" function keeps track of the chats. So if you miss a chat IM - like, if the internet just stops working or FB reloads or something - it will show on your FB page that you have a message and you check it and get back to that person. You can also set up notifications that can be forwarded to your regular (non FB) email or directly to your phone via SMS.
Web 2.0 Revisited: RSS
You go to a shoe store to get shoes. You go to a lingerie store to get your underoos. You go to a jewelry store to get your shinies and you go to a fashionable dress shoppe to get something to go with all these other purchases (right). Or you could go to a large department store and get everything you need in one place. Sounds like a dream! Well, if you effectively use your RSS tools, you could be living this dream ONLINE!
RSS - Really Simple Syndication - is one of the most useful features developed for the Internet. It's so much fun to get sucked into reading a million blogs and websites, but it's so much work to go to every site just to see the one update they posted that day - or worse, to find that you've read that "update" yesterday. And then what if you forget one of the million web addresses and end up missing an update?? *Sad face* When you set up an RSS aggregator, you are automatically updated by the minute on your favorite blogs etc. The most convenient RSS aggregator for me is the Google Reader. Since I'm already set up with a Google account, it's super easy to just change tabs from email to Google Reader and read through my updates. As with most other features on Google, the Reader is easy to set up and it's easy to add feeds. There are other RSS aggregators out there, though. You can Google "RSS feeds" and see them all. But since you're already opening Google.com, why not just sign up for a Google account and start your RSS aggregator there? :)
RSS - Really Simple Syndication - is one of the most useful features developed for the Internet. It's so much fun to get sucked into reading a million blogs and websites, but it's so much work to go to every site just to see the one update they posted that day - or worse, to find that you've read that "update" yesterday. And then what if you forget one of the million web addresses and end up missing an update?? *Sad face* When you set up an RSS aggregator, you are automatically updated by the minute on your favorite blogs etc. The most convenient RSS aggregator for me is the Google Reader. Since I'm already set up with a Google account, it's super easy to just change tabs from email to Google Reader and read through my updates. As with most other features on Google, the Reader is easy to set up and it's easy to add feeds. There are other RSS aggregators out there, though. You can Google "RSS feeds" and see them all. But since you're already opening Google.com, why not just sign up for a Google account and start your RSS aggregator there? :)
Web 2.0 Revisited: Blogs
In my current MLIS course, we were asked to explore the world of Web 2.0/ Library 2.0. Since I participated in this program already, I chose to review my experiences with Web 2.0 and address the features from this program which I still use. I will create a blog post for each task, as we did before.
I will begin with the topics of blogs. Since 2008 and my last engagement with 2.0, I have only used this account to keep a diary of my recent success with the Atkin's Diet program. This blog was very useful for me because I agree with the belief that writing out your accomplishments makes them more fulfilling and creates a source of motivation to continue to succeed. Keeping a food diary also helps you to understand what you are putting in your body and how it may be affecting you. And, of course, what better way to keep yourself accountable for your actions than to post them on the Internet and let your friends criticise/encourage you along the way! :D
I also have a WordPress account to contribute graphic novel reviews for the Palm Beach County Library System blog, ToshokanComix. Although, with attending school and working full time, I don't find a lot of time to contribute reviews.
Now for the tech stuff... Creating a blog on Blogger is definitely easier than figuring out WordPress. There are fewer options here and, as far as I'm concerned, they are not at all confusing. WordPress has many more options to provide for multiple bloggers to contribute to the same blog, making it easier to use in the library setting where multiple librarians will likely be charged with keeping the blog interesting and relevant. I do find it useful to know some basic HTML for including links and changing the format, but both of these programs offer formatting toolbars for those of us who prefer to not overstress about where to place the . and /. They've really made it easy to create a blog.
PBCLS uses ToshokanComix to promote new and classic graphic novels that are currently circulating in our system. Everyone on the internet (presumably our patrons and staff will be the only people actively participating with comments) is welcome to suggest new titles or simply share their opinions regarding graphic novels, comics, manga, super hero movies, comic movies, or whatever else they feel is relevant. Anything really.
Blogs are a great way to engage in passive reader's advisory with your patrons, so long as they are tech savvy - at least, savvy enough to access the blog from home. Another great way to utilize blogs is to create a "news" blog. Our library home page displays links to programs that are offered across the county. However, patrons cannot receive an RSS feed from our web page to keep them updated. They could receive an RSS feed from our blog.
I will begin with the topics of blogs. Since 2008 and my last engagement with 2.0, I have only used this account to keep a diary of my recent success with the Atkin's Diet program. This blog was very useful for me because I agree with the belief that writing out your accomplishments makes them more fulfilling and creates a source of motivation to continue to succeed. Keeping a food diary also helps you to understand what you are putting in your body and how it may be affecting you. And, of course, what better way to keep yourself accountable for your actions than to post them on the Internet and let your friends criticise/encourage you along the way! :D
I also have a WordPress account to contribute graphic novel reviews for the Palm Beach County Library System blog, ToshokanComix. Although, with attending school and working full time, I don't find a lot of time to contribute reviews.
Now for the tech stuff... Creating a blog on Blogger is definitely easier than figuring out WordPress. There are fewer options here and, as far as I'm concerned, they are not at all confusing. WordPress has many more options to provide for multiple bloggers to contribute to the same blog, making it easier to use in the library setting where multiple librarians will likely be charged with keeping the blog interesting and relevant. I do find it useful to know some basic HTML for including links and changing the format, but both of these programs offer formatting toolbars for those of us who prefer to not overstress about where to place the . and /. They've really made it easy to create a blog.
PBCLS uses ToshokanComix to promote new and classic graphic novels that are currently circulating in our system. Everyone on the internet (presumably our patrons and staff will be the only people actively participating with comments) is welcome to suggest new titles or simply share their opinions regarding graphic novels, comics, manga, super hero movies, comic movies, or whatever else they feel is relevant. Anything really.
Blogs are a great way to engage in passive reader's advisory with your patrons, so long as they are tech savvy - at least, savvy enough to access the blog from home. Another great way to utilize blogs is to create a "news" blog. Our library home page displays links to programs that are offered across the county. However, patrons cannot receive an RSS feed from our web page to keep them updated. They could receive an RSS feed from our blog.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Family Central
Yesterday the YS department of SWC went to visit Family Central in WPB. It was really cool. It's a pretty small location but they manage to have a lot of great materials including puppets, story time kits, professional books, cds, and toys. The best part is it's funded by the government so it's totally free to the community. YAY! We all signed up for memberships and borrowed some materials. The staff is super nice too. The only issue is that it's in WPB. :(
It will just become a special treat for me. :D I got a few books for baby story time - crafts and activities. Yes, I said crafts. We are SO doing keepsakes this session! I'm excited.
Here's the Family Central page so you can check out all that they offer. There are also locations in Broward and Miami/Dade counties.
It will just become a special treat for me. :D I got a few books for baby story time - crafts and activities. Yes, I said crafts. We are SO doing keepsakes this session! I'm excited.
Here's the Family Central page so you can check out all that they offer. There are also locations in Broward and Miami/Dade counties.
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