What makes a library a library?

A friend and I were having a conversation today about libraries.  There is a new shift in the purpose and functions of libraries these days.  This is necessary to stay useful and needed some argue, but others disagree.  Some people believe libraries are meant to be physical locations that house books and people can come into the physical building and pick up a physical book and take it home.  Other people don't believe that the physical aspect of a library is as important as what a library stands for, which is providing a way for people to access information.  Isn't it?

With the digital age upon us these debates and similar ones have popped up everywhere, and not just in libraries, we are talking all areas of disciplines and business.  Some people don't care as much about the container or how they get the information just as long as they get it and it is easy and convenient.  For some people who have struggled or maybe not even tried to jump on the progressively fast moving technology bus, something a bit more traditional may be easier.  Some people just have old fashioned taste others would say.  Is it right or wrong whether a person reads a book on their kindle vs an actual physical book off a shelf?  In my opinion no, but that is just my opinion.  Sure I have a preference but that is my personal feelings.  Yes mine is to the physical book, I like them and there is nothing wrong with that. If I need information fast though and easiest quickest way to get it is through an e-book, I will use it no problem. 

There is a shift to digitize everything these days. There are pros and cons to this.  Some things cannot be digitized due to copyright for one, which could cause major problems.  Some things are not in a condition to be digitized.  Some people may consider things to not hold the same value in digital form. Plus there are always risks of hacking, viruses, or crashes; then all could potentially be lost.  Good back up systems are necessary.  Sometimes the best backup system is the actual physical item, or as some would argue it is the other way around: the digital copy is a backup to the paper copy. 

There are full electronic libraries and they can be used without a person walking into a physical space.  Some people may not consider that to be a library, just an electronic database.  In a sense I think a library and a database could be argued to be one in the same.  Both are places that hold lots of content, just on different levels and physicality.  These digital libraries are just as prevalent today as a traditional library, it just offers information in a different format. 

There are also libraries that are now being designed without books, or very little space devoted to books. These are places that have an emphasis on technology and digital learning spaces. They also have an emphasis on collaborative work spaces.  These are new trends of user needs in libraries, particularly in academic libraries.  Many libraries are trying to find a way to accommodate this and that is causing much debate and sparking intense conversations amongst the community.  Some people are torn, others are accepting and taking this on head first, while others are fighting in the opposite direction. 

How will things turn out? Progression in my opinion doesn't usually turn back, it just changes.

Why Ipads?

Ipads are all the rave these days and other tablets as well.  I am still trying to figure out what all the hype is about.  It may be because I don't have one or haven't really used one that I just don't get it.

From what I understand the Ipad does not have the same capabilities as a normal computer or laptop, yet in some cases you are paying twice as much! I understand it is an Apple product and those are not cheap.  I do not see the logic in investing in an Ipad when it cannot do as much as my laptop.  I have heard people say they would rather an Ipad than a laptop, why?  Having both okay I suppose I can see a convenience factor for the Ipad, but still there is not enough going for it that I would invest in one.

I see people use them for entertaining their children...that seems like a really delicate and expensive toy to me.

Personally if my laptop can do what an Ipad can plus more, and only cost half the price, why do I need anything else?

Will Apple eventually upgrade the ipad to where it does what a computer can?  Maybe.  At that point would it be anything more than a small slim touchscreen computer?

Just some thoughts on technology I don't totally understand.

Smart Phone

So I am thinking about finally upgrading my phone.  I have had 5 phones in my life, starting with a prepaid phone in high school. 

I have never had a high tech phone.  I have never even had a phone with a camera.  Nor have I ever wanted one.   I have always wanted just a simple phone that I can make calls on and text.  And it took me a bout a year to even get into texting.  That actually didn't happen till I started talking to my boyfriend, before we were actually dating but that is besides the point here.

The point is it has been 7 years since I got my first cell phone and I really need to upgrade.  I want to stay up with technology and hopefully get a career in the digital field so learning how to be digital and connected is important.  What easier place to start than with my cell phone.  It is something I use on a daily basis already. 

I want to get a smart phone.  Currently I need to save up to buy a new phone but I think I am ready.  I even think I am going to go ahead and get one with a 4G network and  face time capability.  If I am going to do it why not do it big. 

I like the iPhone, my sister has had one since the very start, and I do mean day 1.  I have learned to use one a little from messing with hers but I am still no pro.  Unfortunately iPhones are a bit out of my current budget.  I already have Metro and can upgrade my phone without really changing my phone bill so that is what I think I shall do. 

I'm a bit nervous but I think once I make the change I will learn and adapt quickly.  Everyone has to start somewhere and I think this will be it for me. 

Google Calendar

I have always used a planner that I could stick in my purse or a wall calendar...or both...to keep track of life and everything I have got going on.  Without some sort of calendar or planner I would be a mess and forget everything.  Even with I forget sometimes...

At work (the library) everyone uses Google calendar and we have different calendars linking together.  It makes it easier to keep track of what is going on in the library and who is available and when.  If we have library events it is a quick way to check and see when and where. 

Once our email service switched from Outlook to Gmail, I went ahead and started using the Google Calendar. Plus I didn't get my paper calendar for Christmas  :( 

I am really loving it.  It is so easy to add things to it whether they are events or tasks.  You can color code to make certain things categorized similarly or stick out if need be. It really helps me organize my time better.  Plus I can add a lot more tasks in the Google calendar than I usually could my wall calendar or daily planner.  It blocks out my time and gives me a great visual for my availability.  I even can get reminder notices about events!  The only down side to this is I have to have my email open, though at work I usually keep it open all the time. 

It is really easy to share calendars too!  You just type in an email address for the person you want to share it with and BAM!  You even have options on what the other person can see and if they can edit your calendar.  I like the busy or available option - then I still have a bit of privacy, because I don't want everyone to know everything I do.  I also like that I can invite people just to events I add in my calendar.  When I do that they get a notification in an email and can choose to accept and if they do and they also have a Google account it will be added to their Google Calendar as well.  If an event is cancelled it will notify the invited guests also. 

There really are some cool features to this calendar.  I use one calendar for work, school, and personal use and it is easy to organize and work with.  This calendar is my life and I really have grown to appreciate it.  Plus I can pull it up anywhere I have Internet access which makes it nice if I am not at my desk.

So this is my new favorite technology tool. Out of all the different Web tools I have tried this one I use everyday and really has made a positive impact on my life. 

iGoogle

     I was playing around with some of the other web tools and thought I would see what iGoogle was.  A homepage you can customize, brilliant!  I played around with it for more hours than I care to admit.  I added stuff, deleted stuff, moved it all around.  It's fun and I like being able to adjust things to where they suite me best.  I also like have several of the features I added all in one spot, very convenient.  I added a date and time gadget at the center top.  I have my email, my Google Calendar, a to do list; all my organizational necessities.  I of course had to have a weather gadget, very essential for me.  I threw Google maps up there and the NY Times news.  Of course everyone has to have a few fun feartures right?  I added GRE word of the day - adding to my vocabulary seems necessary, as well as a recipe of the day because I love food and cooking.  Who says you can't have buisness and pleasure all in one spot? 

    This is a feature that will save me time because it has many features all in one place where before I was going to several locations to look at each thing.  Plus it's still the google page and I can get to the other tools like Google Reader which I try to look at daily.  It seems like a productive tool and if you are pinched for time but like a one stop place for news, weather, email, and a look at your to-do's for the day this seems like a great tool!  I made it my homepage so it is the first thing I see when I get online.  Plus if I get bored I can always switch things up!  This is something any professional could use to stay organized and save time and be efficient in my opinion. 

Too Many Things To Do!!!

Like many people I sometimes have a hard time remembering when things are do or what things I am supposed to be doing when.  I have all sorts of ways I try to use to keep track.  I have always used a day planner and a regular calendar to keep track of things.  I write things in both places so in case I don't have access to one the other.  At work I have an Outlook account and I have recently started using the calender there.  I really like having this calender because it i something I look at everyday to check my emails and it sends me alert notices when things are due or when meetings are scheduled.  This is a great feature because sometimes I sign up for webinars or schedule meetings weeks or months in advance and wouldn't remember otherwise.  The only downside to this is that I only have Outlook on my work computer, not my personal computer. 

Thing 19 is about online productivity tools.  They had a list of several different tools but the one I decided to check out was Remember the Milk, a to-do list manager.  With this I am able to go in and set tasks and due dates.  I can even enter how long a task should take.  One feature I like is that you can set a priority to each task and it is color coordinated.  They also have different category tabs such as personal, study, and work.  Keeping the different category tasks separate is a nice feature and keeps things nice and organized.  It also had an option to add it to a calender, and since I wanted to do something about being able to access my schedule on the computer at home I set up a Google calendar and added the Remember the Milk calendar to that.  Now if I wanted I can keep my Outlook calender restricted to only work tasks and appointments and use Remember the Milk for personal and school tasks.  If I need to access work information from home though I now have a way to do that, I just have to add it to the calender.  It's very simple, and even offers keyboard shortcuts. 

Since libraries are all about organization I think this is a great tool to help people stay organized.  Sticky notes and lists posted all over the place can get messy or lost.  This is something that is neat and can keep you on track.  It also has a feature where you can share your to-do list and calender with others.  If a library wanted to make a public events or meetings calender they could do so and share it with everyone in the library.  That way everyone would be able to easily look up what was going on.  There is always so many things going on, events and meetings, so having a public way to share all that is nice.  It could save time too because you could  just look at the calender instead of trying to track down a person who may not be there.  It is a place you could look up when and where an event is for a patron even.  I think even more than a public sharing tool, if that seems like a big step, using it as a personal professional tool to help stay organized it is a good tool to use.  Outlook has a great system, but if you don't have an Outlook account this is a great alternative I think. 

Library Thing - Something Fun

I decided that the next thing I explore will be something fun since I wasn't to thrilled with Technorati and got more frustrated with it then anything.  I chose Thing 14 which is exploring Library Thing.  Library Thing allows me to catalog books, only it does most of the work.  You can do it manually if you want or need to though.

This I thought sounded fun. It is a way to keep track of the books you own or have read.  They even have a category for books you have read but do not own - which is where all the books I have in there so far are since I usually check them out from the library. It was super easy though.  All I had to do was create an account and then add books by typing an author, title, or ISBN.  It comes up with a list of books and then you choose the right one for your library, and if you don't see the one you want you can add the book manually. I may have to do that if I add some of my books I have at home that I actually do own.  That might actually be kind of cool.  Once you choose a book it does all the cataloging work automatically, but you do have the option to edit if necessary. 

There is also the social networking part of Library Thing that I really like.  Not only can you share your books and interest but you can see what others are reading and saying about books.  The best way to put it is this is like being apart of a really big book club.  They even advertise themselves that way.  There are even groups you can join and talk about different topics and follow different conversations.  One that I looked at was Librarians who Library Thing.  This could be something great to use for people working in libraries!  The conversations were not just about books but library issues too!  What a cool way to communicate.  One of the conversations was a student conducting research and trying to conduct a survey of the people in this group. Any librarian or even student could be a member of Library Thing and find it very informative as well as find and meet people who share common interests.  I love the idea!  I even added the Library Thing widget to the blog here.

As for using Library Thing as a cataloguing program in a library, that I am not so sure about.  It seems simple and easy enough but I think mistakes could be made much easier.  I think I would feel safer using the methods already in use.  Though if Library Thing was used as a widget on a libraries blog or homepage, it might be a good way to advertise new books, or a recreational reading section in say an academic library. It would be something quick and easy to maintain and display.  At my library on our current homepage (although our website is undergoing a face change) we have a link to new books.  It might be something worth adding to our new page as well but using Library Thing instead of just a link with a listing of the books.  It would be possible to use the social networking part of this too, and see what kinds of books library users are reading and maybe get ideas to add things collection that way.  c

Technorati

After checking out Delicious and tagging the next thing on the list (Thing 6) was blog directories.  I went ahead and tried out Technorati, which was the original blog search engine.  I created an account and did some searching to try and check it out.  Personally it was nothing all that impressive to me.  I'm not sure this is necessarily something I would use often, unless really looking for a blog about something.  Even then I may go to Google first just out of preference.

The concept behind Technorati is pretty cool though.  It is basically a place where people can register their blogs and then people can search through them for topics they are interested in. It is also a good way to get your blog out there and maybe gain a few followers.  They are categorized in different fields which the author can choose when setting up their account.  For example when I went to register this blog I registered it under Technology and Info Tech.  If you are doing a quick search and want to find something recent that has been blogged about in the field of technology you can do a search in Technorati.  It also provides you with links to other sites that are similar. 

If you are interested in finding blogs about libraries you would type that into the search box and click blogs or post depending what you are more interested in.  Then a list of results will come up and you can find one that works then from there it will link you to other related sites.  It seems like a quick and easy thing but when I did a search it came up with a lot of material that I found to be irrelevant.  There was one blog that came up that had "library" in the title of the blog, but it was about fashion and had nothing to do with libraries. 

By looking at some of the tags people have put on their blog may also give you other ideas of what to use as search terms.  The terms are supposed to be folksonomies which are words we use in everyday language, which might be different than what a cataloger might use. I know personally I have had trouble with search terms while looking for a book or an article.  I have had to try several different ways to say one thing just to get results I am looking for.  I always found that to be annoying.  Floksonomy tags seem to make that easier on the searcher, becaus ethey are more commonly used terms. 

I think that it could be used in a library for a quick and dirty search maybe to get some good current information on a topic where if you did a google search it may not necessarily be new.  But if a student had a paper to write on a current issue this could be a good tool to help them get a start and see what is relevant now on their topic.  It also gives you the opportunity to see what online conversations are going on about a certain topic.  To keep up with current events I can see this being useful.  That is true in means of helping students with a paper or even trying to find out the latest about library issues.  Say you wanted to know more about current e-book policies and what other people were saying and thinking, this would be a good place to start a search for that. 

I'm not sure if this is my cup of tea, but I won't give up on it just yet. 

Thank you Blog!!

    I have been having this issue with seeing all my subscriptions on Google Reader and have yet to figure it out but I have found an alternative solution for now, at least that will get me through this class and this last paper I have to write about the blogs I have been following. 

    I was able to stream the RSS feeds from the blogs I am following straight onto my blog.  Now I can always see which ones I am following.  It also does the same sort of thing Google Reader does and shows the newest entries on the sites.  Now if I really wanted all I could do is just come to my blog and have everything here I need!  That is even one less step.  I can read about things then write about them without ever leaving the web page!  I think that is pretty darn cool!  I'm so glad I looked at other people's pages who were doing the 23 Things project because that is where I saw I could stream my feeds right through my blog.  I'm quite excited about this if you can't tell.  :)

Delicious

    Alright so Thing 5 on my list is tagging and social bookmarking with Delicious.  I had not heard about social bookmarking or Delicious until this LIS 5020 class.  The idea of social bookmarking is that it is a website where you can keep track of your favorite websites and such like if you were to bookmark them or put them in your favorites.  The difference is they are not tied to one single computer.  You can be on any computer and as long as there is Internet access you are able to get to your bookmarks.  I love this idea because this is something that used to drive me bonkers!  I would have some things saved on one computer at work and then I would go home and get on the computer and I wouldn't have it saved in my bookmarks there and I would have to go looking for it.  Now that will no longer be a problem thanks to Delicious, and I am pretty excited about this concept.

    Tagging I knew about thanks to Facebook and tagging people in photos.  I never actually tagged anyone in a photo, but I understood the concept.  On Delicious you can tag a bookmark with different relevant words that describe it or that will help you or someone else find it.  I think it is a pretty cool concept because I can tag something in a way that will help me remember what it is and find it as opposed to something someone else might say which wouldn't cross my mind.  It makes it more personal and unique.

     According to SLA's 23 Things program I should have first gone to the Delicious page and searched some tags.  I of course did this much later in the game.  I find that the best way to learn is to jump right in sometimes (not always because it can be confusing and overwhelming).  The first thing I did was create an account. After that I decided to try and import the my bookmarks I had in my favorites folder into Delicious.  That worked out smoothly, and I was even able to delete the ones I no longer wanted; some good spring cleaning I hadn't yet gotten around to.  I then went through and tagged everything.  I tried to keep it simple but so I could still identify everything.  After I did that I tested my tags and was able to find some of the bookmarks I was looking for without a problem.  I even retried this a few days later after it wasn't so fresh in my mind and still had no problem. 

    I did like that I can choose whether I want a bookmark to be private or public.  For the most part I kept my work related items private and my school and personal items public.  I figured if I keep my school items public it might be easier to find other people who are learning the same things and maybe I will even find sites that help me out.  That is the point of the "social" part of this bookmarking site anyways. 

   When I first set up my Delicious account I was on a computer at work and it has lots of restrictions on it for security purposes.  One of the things I could not do was set up the add on button on my toolbar.  I later tried this at home but ran into a problem.  I have the latest version of FireFox on my laptop and when I tried downloading the add on it said that it was not compatible with that version.  I was able to put it on using the newest version of Internet Explorer.  I used another computer at work that is not as locked down and was able to put the add on to both FireFox and Internet Explorer.  I like using it on FireFox much more because the tag button is also there but is not on Internet Explorer.  The tag button on the toolbar makes bookmarking a page so much easier and automatic which I really like.

    Delicious could be a great tool to use in a library.  For one it is a great way to share and find sites that other people in libraries are looking at and using.  you might find something you like and that could be useful to you or your library.  Also it is a great tool if you work in multiple locations and multiple computers.  For example I would have things saved on my office computer bookmarks that would not be in my bookmarks on the from the  desk computer, where I spend half of my day.  With Delicious all I would have to do is bring up the site and all my bookmarks are there.  If librarians are teaching a class they could pull up their bookmarks in any classroom just as easily as they could their office or the reference desk.  Even if you are away from the library, say out of town for a conference, you could still access your bookmarks and add more from things you may learn about at the conference.  It is a fast way to share information with everyone back home at the library before you get back and can tell them about it.  The options and advantages are incredible, it really depends on how creative you want to be.

How about this?

I still haven't been able to figure out why once I have read all the new entries of posts on the Google Reader why my subscription list disappears.  This is somewhat frustrating to me.  I decided to try a new tactic.  I broke up my subscriptions into folders.  I'm hoping that even after everything has been marked read the folders will at least show up and I will be able to click them and see what feeds I have in each folder.

This problem has been annoying to me because sometimes I have tried to go back to look at a particular entry but the subscription is not readily available there in my reader and I have had to go search out the blog anyways, which has not saved me time, but wasted my time. 

I'm not going to give up, I am going to keep trying to find a solution.  Hopefully the folders will work. *Crosses fingers*

RSS (Simple?)

     Before I actually set up this blog was set up an RSS feed. (Things 10 and 11 from SLA's 23 Things) http://wiki.sla.org/display/23Things/Welcome+to+23+Things%21+%282%2C120+SLA+members+registered+so+far)

    I did this to follow two blogs for my LIS 5020 class.  Before this class I had not even heard of RSS.  RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.  RSS feeds help you keep up with updates on websites or blogs you follow.  This can be done through email or a reader.  As it turns out you can even stream RSS feeds in blogs, which I just figured out how to do today and added to my own blog.  Now the blogs I follow in my RSS reader I can share through my blog too. 

   I decided to go with Google Reader because that is what was suggested in the 23 Things program as well as being mentioned in a few information articles I read about RSS.  Before I set up the RSS Reader I went to Common Craft and watched the tutorial.  I found this to be really easy to follow and very helpful.  It made actually setting up the reader easy! Trust me I was relieved at this.  Personally I wish setting up my blog had been this easy, but I managed. 

    After I set up the reader I used a few lists provided by my professor along with a Google search on blogs by librarians to pick a few blogs to follow and put in my reader.  We only had to follow two for class but I ended up added a few different ones that sounded interesting to me.  I even picked one thaat dealt with space planning because I am on a space allocation committee at my library.  I thought this was a great way to learn and keep up with the different things going on in libraries.  This definitely beats trying to just do Google searches on the topics. 

    The feature that was most attractive to me about an RSS reader is that it sends the new entry for the blog or website as they are updated and it is all in one place!  Instead of trying to bookmark each blog and then visit each page and see if there is a new entry, the reader highlights when there is something new.  All I have to do is check my reader  two or three times a week and see if there are any updates, and if so I can read them then.  It makes keeping track of everything, and keeping up with everything I am interested in much more easier. 

The only issue I have had so far is being able to see all my subscriptions when there is nothing new.  I'm not sure why this is but I am still on the hunt for an answer.  In my search for the answer I did come across a very helpful site about Google Reader.  As a new user to Google Reader I was happy to find this guide.
 http://thesocialmediaguide.com/social_media/ultimate-google-reader-guide 

RSS feeds area great way for librarians to keep up with the newest trends in the field.  You can choose areas that interest you, your limited only by your choices.  If you have an interest in technology you can follow different technology blogs and maybe even come up with a way to use certain technologies in your library to improve either your services to the patrons, the community, or even just among the library staff.  It is possible to use an RSS feed to follow what other librarians are doing and saying; you might find that you encounter some of the same issues.  Using an RSS feed to follow these blogs or websites could be helpful because it keeps everything in the same place and organized.  It is a great way to save time because you are not going from website to website just to see if there are any changes or updates.  In a busy schedule that most librarians have this could be a great convenience.  Plus libraries are all about the organization of information, why not organize your personal sources of information?

Here Goes Nothing!

Well this is it, my first blog post.  Whew, getting here was not quite as easy as I thought, but not real hard either.  I think the biggest issue is that I haven't really done this before.  That is why I am going to work on the 23Things project.  For one this is a project for class, but I really like the idea of it and I plan to keep learning new things and sharing my experiences.  Until I took this intro class for Library Science I had not even heard of Web 2.0.  To be honest I am still trying to grasp the concept but I think I am getting there.  I've got that is is about technology on the web - a small basic understanding but you got to start somewhere right? 

When I was back in middle school I had a Xanga, and I think from comparing what I am doing here on this blog with that, I think that must have been a blog too, I just didn't know it.  I never really thought of it that way but it had the same components.  I wrote posts, my friends subscribed to my "blog" and I to theirs.  This just seemed a bit more complex to me, but anything new is at first. I suspect that given a few weeks this will feel natural (or so I hope). 

I looked at both Blogger and WordPress as blogging hosts.  I decided to go with Blogger because it just seemed simpler.  WordPress looked a bit more complicated and professional to me.  I like the laid back simple look and feel that Blogger offered. 

I have to say I didn't understand the concept of naming my blog.  I had come up with something to call it like Eager to Learn or something boring like that and my friend laughed at me and said I couldn't name it that, it wasn't catchy.  So what do I do?  I google naming a blog.  I was amazed to find the results I came up with were advice from other bloggers about naming your blog.  There were several rules and tips that a name should follow.  One was be four syllables or less, mine is three.  The Internet really is an amazing information source.  Not everything is reliable, but it is a great place to at least get you started.  I've been told the same thing about Wikipedia which I was always hesitant to use, but now it is generally a place I start at just to get an idea of what I am about to deal with and where to look. 

I picked Tech-A-What as my title because people always talk about these new technologies and I always say, "what," "huh,"really","it does what?"  Technology amazes me and I don't understand most of it but I am going to try.  If I go into the field of Information Science I better know a thing or two.  I don't want to be living in the dark ages.  I've gotten by so far but I think it is time to step it up and get with the times.

So far, for my blog I don't think I have done anything fancy, just some basic stuff.  There are all kinds of features I can add, and I may do so later down the road, but for now simple is good.  I think I will take on this challenge one step at a time. 

This is a great tool for use in libraries though I think.  I have subscribed to a few blogs by librarians so far.  Blogging is a great way to keep up on things of interest.  I'm on a space allocation committee here at my library so one of the blogs I subscribed to is a blog about space planning.  libraries could set up a blog just for their library and make it private so that they could talk about issues in just their library.  I think it could be a helpful way for committees to communicate as well. If meetings are hard to organize due to every one's schedules a blog could be a way to get around that.  people could post their ideas, concerns, information they find, and everyone in the committee could view it and talk about it in the comments.  Blogs are a great place to stay connected with libraries around the world and find out what is going on.  Where better to see what is working or not working in libraries than through a blog from another librarian? 

I like the idea of blogging and although keeping up with it may not be so easy when my schedule gets busy, I'm going to try.  Even if no one else reads this it is a good way for me to get my feelings out about all this technology and my struggles and hopes and beliefs about it.