Narrow Salvo

Dear Abby: YOU'RE FIRED!

2009-01-11T20:33:00.000-08:00

So, I happened to read Dear Abby the other day. Ok, ok, I know. Anyway, here's what I read:

Dear Abby: Six years ago, my 16-year-old daughter was killed by a drunk driver. Just the other day, I found some thank you cards I thought I had sent. I also know that at the end, I just couldn't write any more thank-yous because of my grief. Should I mail the cards after all this time?

---Still Wondering

Dear Still Wondering: Yes, you should. But when you do, include a short note explaining exactly what you have said to me. People who love and care about you will understand.

First of all, I'd like to point out that "Abby" has the easiest job in the country. I answer questions for a living. If, rather than answering all the questions put to me, all I had to do was pick 3 per day and answer them, I think my job would be...quite a bit easier.

Secondly - what?! Thank you notes? Thank you notes?! Someone's got to put a stake in this whole thank you note thing. You still have to send them out after 6 years?! More importantly - and I can't say this strongly enough - if your friends are sitting at home thinking "I can't believe she never sent me a thank you note after that whole her-daughter-died thing", then your biggest problem might not be a violation of Emily Post's etiquette. You might want to look into getting new friends.

How to talk to your wife

2008-11-13T20:17:00.000-08:00

Things I have learned:

When your wife comes back from a prenatal appointment and says that they told her she's actually lost a pound over the last month, the correct response is, apparently, not... "Their scale must be broken!"

Similarly, as I learned about 10 years ago, when you're running late to a movie and your wife wants to take a few minutes to apply makeup, the correct response is, apparently, not... "Don't worry, it'll be dark in the theater, anyway."

Every Silver Lining comes with a Cloud

2008-11-05T19:35:00.000-08:00

Yes, the Presidential election was a great and wonderful thing. But, am I the only one who is depressed about the rest of the election results?

I don't know. Maybe because it had become increasingly obvious that Obama would win, I started to take that one for granted. And, if you look beyond Obama, the rest of the night went about as poorly as it could have.

Let's review:

Franken seems to have lost his race against Coleman. Once again, after millions of votes are cast, it comes down to a couple hundred votes. Is it too much to ask that we come out on the winning end of one of these things? Last time we lost an election by 537 votes, we ended up with a cowboy who had more bluster than sense.

Michele Bachmann won reelection. Let's face it -- this woman is moon-bat crazy. Aside from her much-publicized McCarthyism, she's got no shortage of other craziness going on. My favorite one is where she wouldn't allow her charter school to show Disney's Aladdin because it "promoted paganism and witchcraft".

Madia lost.

Ted Stevens seems to have been reelected. This guy was just convicted of 7 felonies less than two weeks ago! 'Nuff said.

Proposition 8 seems to have passed in California.

And don't even get me started on James Inhofe.

All in all, a bad night -- with one bright, shining exception.

What's in a Name?

2008-10-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

I was looking at the best baby name book for ideas for the upcoming little girl. Naturally, I looked up my other kids' names. I thought the comment on Max's was particularly appropriate.

"...makes you smile, with tons of mischievous life packed into three little letters."

It reminded me of a few Max stories:

Once, at storytime, when you were supposed to make the sound of each animal, Max insisted on "mooing" loudly at each page despite there being no cows.
Another time, he got quite angry at his mother about something. He probably would have used profanity, if he had had the words. Instead, all he could come up with was "You...you...put yourself in a trash can!"
Finally, after helping his mother shop at Target, they went to the car and opened the trunk to put the stuff in. Max - trying to be silly - loudly says, "Mommy, don't put me in the trunk!" Naturally, that elicited some strange looks.

Of course, Max has his sweet side, too. The other day, he had a kindergarten "W" assignment to write three things that he would wish for. He wrote, "I would wish for...

Go to school 7 days in a row
2 balloons
Something to drink

That reminds me. I'm thirsty.

Public Embarrassment

2008-10-06T19:47:00.000-07:00

So, I was at a financial planning thing last week for parents of children with Down Syndrome. They were talking about the cost of setting up some trusts, wills, etc. They were using $2 million in assets as an example. At one point, my wife stands up and asks how much money you have to make this all worthwhile "because our assets are really, really meager". Umm... hello, too much information. Maybe it's just me, but aren't there ways to phrase that question that don't involve public humiliation?

It could be worse, that's probably not the worst she's ever done to me.

Yeah, there was that time that we were taking the kids to swimming lessons for the first time. It was at the Community Center. We wanted to film it because, well, that's what parents do. Anyway, we go into the "Family Locker-Room". The sign says you must shower before entering the pool. Teresa takes the kids into the shower and asks me to stay and watch our stuff. So, there I am -- sitting in the family locker-room by myself and holding a video camera. Nice.

Parade etiquette

2008-09-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

I went to a parade. Took my kids to the North St Paul Fall Roundup Parade - which was this past Saturday, September 20th.

It was fine. It's been several years since I've been to a parade. I don't remember there being so much candy. The program showed exactly 100 participants in the parade: marching bands, policitians, local businesses, etc. It seems like every one of them had people handing out, or throwing out, candy to the kids watching. My kids each ended up with a large bag of candy. More candy than they got at Halloween last year. Seriously. Who knew?

There were many politicians in the parade. People running for County Commissioner, City Council, Congress. Betty McCollum was there. Ed Matthews, who is the Republican running against Betty, came by. He had someone dressed in a reindeer suit with a sign that said something like "Ed Matthews thinks we should drill in ANWR and so do I!". Nice -- recruit the reindeer to solicit drilling in ANWR. Whatever. Better yet, Ed had a whole bunch of people doing some chant about how "Betty won't drill" so she's "got to go", or something like that. Classy. When he came up to shake my hand, I just said "Way to go negative in a parade, dude, I've never seen that before."

I worry about this country

2008-09-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

People like to complain about politicians. It's easy to say they're all corrupt or liars. But, does anyone else besides me worry about the electorate?

Obama has been tracking higher in polls than McCain since they became the presumptive nominees. After Palin was announced as McCain's VP, McCain jumped above Obama. That effect has since subsided. I find that to be disturbing.

It'd be one thing if Palin's selection had resulted in a permanent change in the polling. At least that might represent people making a conscious value judgment about her as a candidate. I wouldn't agree with it, but it might make sense. But, instead, we have a brief jump -- which represents what? That people like the newest, shiny thing?! Are we voters, or just a bunch of raccoons? Worse yet, the amount of people who changed their opinion based on the "new, shiny thing" are the difference in who wins the election.

I just don't understand. It's not an election, it's trends. It's fashion. It reminds me of a couple years ago when, apparently, we all just decided it was time to start wearing plastic shoes. I missed that memo, somehow.

Thing #23: Final Thoughts

2008-09-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

Made it all the way through!

While there were definitely some things that are not for me, there was much that was useful. What bigger compliment can I make than that I have permanently added several of them to my life. Let's review some of my favorites:

Things I really like, but was already using:

iGoogle: Love the configurable page. Adapt it to whatever works for you. I'm using it as my homepage.

Podcasts: So much content out there. So easy to get. Free. And it makes productive my travel time or down time.

Wikis: There's so much untapped pontential here. I still think they're really underutilized. I wish more people were into them. I use wikis for two different groups that I'm a part of.

Things I really like, and only started using as a result of 23 Things...

RSS feeds: I knew what they were in principle, but never bothered to figure it exactly how it works. It just didn't seem worth the bother. I'm sure glad I have now. Saves me a lot of running around.

Flickr: I'm using it as an off-site backup to my digital photography. So, when my house burns to the ground, at least I won't lose my pictures...

Facebook: I'm back in contact with someone I hadn't talked to in 16 years, so what's not to like. I definitely wouldn't have done this without the 23 things program.

I look forward to more 23 things programs. I hope you guys haven't used up all the good things out there.

Thanks!

Thing #22: What did I learn today?

2008-09-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

Alright. I vow to consistently work to maintain and enhance my skills. I do like the idea of devoting 15 minutes a day. I've long believed in the idea of setting a small, achievable goal for each day (eg. weed 3 shelves, clean 1 thing out of my garage, etc.). When a problem is so big as to be daunting, it's often tempting to ignore it or "put it off until later". But, when you're only looking at doing a little bit, it becomes a lot easier to convince yourself to get started. So, that gels nicely with my personal philosophy. Maybe it's the "J" in my Myers-Briggs type.

Thing #21: Other Social Networks

2008-09-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

I have to say, I wasn't too impressed with the required reading (articles). The one article about Gather wanting to be the "MySpace of Books" was just that -- about wanting to do it. Just about every website wants to be the MySpace of whatever. Check back with me when you've done it.

Similarly, the Webjunction article about Social Networking at the library talked in a lot of general terms about the good things that can come from using social networking in a library setting. Nothing new there, really. The big hurdle is getting people to use it. The article says, "At that point, we were missing only one thing: getting the word out to our patrons." But, that's a big mission component. The biggest.

I joined the 23 Things on a Stick Ning. I left a post and added a photo. I can see the value of having a social network with a more narrow focus. The 23 Things Ning is, well, not very active.

If you're interested in a particular topic: Knitting, Star Wars, American Idol, whatever, you could join a group on it. The topics I searched had groups on Ning but, frankly, they didn't appear too active. I joined a couple of gaming Nings, but I don't think I'll stick with them. Maybe I'll see if I can set up an RSS feed of the posts so that I don't have to keep going back there to check on them.

Thing #20: Facebook

2008-09-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

I got an account on Facebook. Honestly, I wasn't too interested in social networking. I know it's popular and lots of people swear by it. But, I don't know, if I need to communicate with people, e-mail seems to be working fine.

Anyway, I got an account and proceeded to look into getting "friends". It felt weird to have to ask for friends. "Will you be my friend?" It's embarrassing. I really felt like a loser. But, I did find a couple people that I hadn't seen in a long time. So, it could be interesting. Also, I know a lot of people have some interesting tools and gadgets on their Facebook pages. So, I've just scratched the surface, I think.

I do have two friends now, though...

Thing #19: Podcasts

2008-09-02T12:16:00.000-07:00

I love podcasts. I've been listening to them regularly for over a year now. You can find them on just about any topic you're interested in, subscribe to them, then listen at your leisure. I like that I'm able to learn and make productive time out of time that would otherwise be spent commuting, mowing the lawn, staining the deck, doing the laundry, etc. I put them onto my iPod and then listen to them as I can. In the car, I don't have a direct input jack into my stereo, but I have a device that plugs into my cigarette lighter and broadcasts my iPod output, which my radio picks up and I can hear in the car without headphones.

Here are some of my subscription list:

The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe: A science and skepticism podcast. Lots of humor and science news, plus debunking of claims ghosts, bigfoot, astrology, etc. Hosted by Dr Steven Novella, neurologist at Yale University. Very funny. They have the main podcast, plus a shorter (5-minute) one.

Pulp Gamer: A podcast about non-electronic games - mostly boardgames. They have several different podcasts, actually, including a "family night" podcast, reviews of games, interviews with game producers, etc.

Shields and Brooks on Jim Lehrer's NewsHour: A solid political overview for the week.

Real Time with Bill Maher: Humor and politics from his HBO show. You'd have to pay to watch it (it's on HBO), but you can listen to the podcast for free.

Midmorning: From MPR with Kerri Miller. Haven't added this one to my list yet, but I'm going to.

Thing #18: YouTube

2008-09-01T18:47:00.000-07:00

I have used YouTube before. I actually have an account there already. YouTube is pretty popular right now at my library. Ever since we went to 45 terminals with sound capability, we might have more YouTube usage than any other single thing. So, it's definitely helpful to have a working knowledge of YouTube.

It seems like you can search for just about anything on YouTube and get some hits. We've been having some noise issues at the library, so I thought I'd check to see if they have any YouTube videos on library noise. Here's a good one I found:

Finding the video and embedding it into this post was among the easiest things I've done on the 23 Things. No problems.

Thing #17: ELM productivity tools

2008-08-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

I created a search alert for articles and added the RSS feed to my Google Reader account, which I am checking regularly. It was easy enough. I can see how you might want to get automatic updates of news stories on a particular topic.

For example, say you're in withdrawal from Michael Phelps stories. You were getting to hear about him for 14 hours a day, but now...nothing. If you chose to get updates on him, you can find out that he's going to be appearing on Oprah and hosting Saturday Night Live.

Mini rant:

I mean, I know this guy is great, but I heard NBC swimming announcer, Rowdy Gaines, say that Phelps' accomplishment was the greatest physical achievement in history. Bah! It wasn't even the greatest physical achievement of the Olympics this year. Try this: from a standing position, do a flip and land on one foot. Oh, and did I mention you're doing this on a 4-inch wide beam? That's crazy. Heck, I can swim.

As for the greatest physical achievement of all time, I would submit Jim Thorpe - who won an Olympic Gold Medal in the Decathlon, an Olympic Gold Medal in the Pentathlon (now there's a well-rounded event), was inducted into the pro-football Hall of Fame, play baseball professionally for the Cincinnati Reds and did it all in the face of racism.

Anyway, I was a little disappointed that the alerts that I received weren't full-text. I'd like to read them right out of my RSS feed, rather than have to track down the articles.

I did the searches and set up the web pages in EBSCO and ProQuest. Frankly, I'm having trouble thinking of a situation where I'd actually do that in real life. I have used the feature where you e-mail yourself (or someone else) an article, but setting up multiple articles as a webpage? I just don't see myself using that.

Finally, NetLibrary. Again, I've used it before. It feels like a last line of defense. If patrons (or myself) have the option to get the regular print-version of the book -- they always choose that over the electronic version. That should tell us something. Still, the full-text searching feature definitely comes in handy at times.

Thing #16: School Tools

2008-08-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

I checked out the Assignment Calculator and the Research Project Calculator. Mostly, it seems like a tutorial on how to write a paper. I can see how it would be useful since it is user-friendly and laid-out in a step-by-step way. To someone to hasn't tackled a college level report before, that'd probably be less daunting than grabbing a whole book on the topic.

In my setting, I don't see a lot of direct application - aside from referring someone to it who is asking for help with their assignments, a question we do get occasionally.

Thing #15: Online Games

2008-08-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

I've been known to play a game or two in my day. Actually, I was sort of surprised that RuneScape wasn't listed as one of the games to try out. It's certainly the most popular game I've seen played in the library. I've tried it, but it just wasn't as slick & fun as some of the games I normally play (Civ4, Heroes of Might and Magic).

Anyway, I watched the Second Life video. I'm familiar with Second Life, so it wasn't anything new to me. Frankly, I didn't think the video was very good at selling the 'game'. There just didn't look to be anything to do. I know there is, but the video didn't show any of it -- just running around empty space.

I downloaded and tried Puzzle Pirates, though. I tried the bilging and the carpentry. The bilging was pretty much the same game as Bejeweled, if you've ever played that. Speaking of Bejeweled, if you like that game, try "Puzzle Quest" - which is an adventure game on the Nintendo DS or PSP. There's one on Xbox now, too. So. in Puzzle Quest, you have a fantasy character that goes on an adventure and quests, but whenever you get into combat, you use a Bejeweled-type game to determine who wins the fight.

Ok, back to Puzzle Pirates. I also tried the carpentry game. That was actually pretty interesting and challenging. I'm not sure how much replay value it has for me, but it did make me think and probably delayed the onset of Alzheimer's by a few hours.

In summary, I learned a few new games. Nothing too innovative, from my perspective. But, I'm always willing to learn a new game.

Thing #14: Library Thing

2008-08-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

I tried out the Library Thing...umm...thing. Anyway, I know some people are using it to catalog their personal collection of books. But, personally, I don't have the space in my house to maintain my own 'library'. Plus, I work in a library, why would I want to own stuff?

On the other hand, I've been using a notebook to maintain a list of the books I've been reading since 2005. This might be a more elegant way to approach that problem. I like being able to rate them & leave my own comments/notes. I'm not feeling an overwhelming urge to tag my catalog. Speaking of my catalog, I'm supposed to provide a link to it. Here it is: Catalog I haven't gotten around to entering my whole list of titles yet, but there's a start.

I'm also not sure about the reviews and the conversations on Library. The quality of the discourse seems to be at a higher level than, say, on Amazon. But still, I don't want to read spoilers in advance. And after I've read something, who has time to read what strangers think of it? Not me - I work full time and have 3 kids (4, if you count the one on the way). Yes, you read that right. Due in February or thereabouts.

Thing #13: Online Productivity Tools

2008-07-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

iGoogle: I had been using iGoogle since before "23 Things". I've got some useful things on there: local weather, IMDB search box, Wikipedia search box, calendar. Because of "23 Things", I have added Google Reader to manage my RSS feeds. So, I've got all that stuff right on the my main Google screen -- really saves me some running around. I'm sure there are other good Google gadgets that I haven't found yet. If you're reading this and know a good one, let me know. I just told you mine, it's only fair.

Calendar: I tried Spongecell, mostly because I like the idea of being able to sync it to my iPod. Then, I could carry one fewer thing. But, I don't know, it's sort of a nuisance to enter all that data in there. I'm not convinced it's worth the return. I'd like to have info about all the shifts I'm at the Reference Desk, etc. But, it'd take a long time to fill that in. For my purposes, a small paper calendar probably still works best.

Ta Da List: I signed up for this list-making tool. Again, I don't know if it's worth nuisance of doing it online. I do make lists, but I like them to be portable -- and I don't always have the internet right in front of me.

Here is a sample list I made.

Things I need to do at the library:

Walk up to the Reference Desk physically trying to tug a museum pass away from another patron (yes, two people did this -- one says "We have a problem"...)
Sit down at an internet terminal with a soaking wet swimsuit (yes, it happened -- next patron didn't appreciate it...)
Ask the librarian about info on "traps for catching leprechauns" (real question from 3/8/02)
Tell the librarian, and I quote, "My scorpion is acting funny. Do you have any books on them?" (real from 10/16/99 -- by the way, what does your scorpion have to do before you notice it's "acting funny"?)
Heat up my lasagna (yes, a week or two ago someone came up and asked if we have a microwave to heat up their lasagna. Ok, I like the idea of food in the library, but now people are bringing in pans of lasagna?!? When did this place turn into a Garfield comic strip?)

So, I'll go to ... uh ... Roseville and do all this stuff in the next couple of days.

Anyway, I'm not convinced by Ta Da List. But, I've added a google list-making gadget to my iGoogle page. We'll see if I stick with it.

Backpack: Please. I'm not paying for a service like Backpack. Aren't I entitled to cool, free internet tools?!

Thing #12: Social Media Sites

2008-07-20T08:49:00.000-07:00

I have used a social media sites a couple times before. I had not been too impressed with the content, so I hadn't bothered to go back. Nevertheless, I took another look.

Mixx: There are 4 main categories listed on the front page (more categories are available through the tabs): Popular Stories, News Stories, Entertainment Stories, and Tech Stories

They list the top 5 stories in each of these categories, with the number of votes. I was a little bit disturbed by the number of votes for these 5 stories in each category, as follows:

Popular Stories: 24-28 votes
News Stories: 16-22 votes
Entertainment Stories: 6-9 votes
Tech Stories: 10-12 votes

This feels like far too few votes to generate a reasonable list. If you had an axe to grind, or wanted to push an agenda, how hard would it be to push something onto one of those lists? Not too hard, it seems to me. The other categories they offer (Sports, Business, Health, etc.) had even fewer votes. If I was going to use a social media sites, I'd want something that was going to be a lot tougher to intentionally skew.

Digg: I've used Digg before - awhile back. It does feel like they get enough votes to make the evaluations "valid" -- hundreds of votes in most cases. Nevertheless, there are always things getting lots of votes that don't have any appeal to me. The day that I looked, one of the top vote getters was the "1964 Flintstones Cigarette Commercial". I think that says something about the kinds of things people are voting for - and it just isn't the kind of stuff I have time to be reading.
Digg is also sticky. It did that thing to me where I tried to click "back" to go back to the previous page I was at before Digg and all it did was reload Digg. Tried it several times - but it kept doing the same thing. I hate websites that do that. Is that on purpose? Anyway, as with other pages that do this nonsense, if you click "back" a couple times in rapid succession, you can go back faster than it can reload and keep you trapped there.

Newsvine: Newsvine is sort of interesting. The layout is appealing and the stories that were on there the day I looked seemed to "real" news stories. One I tried to read, you had to click on the story - which led you to a summary and comments page - and then click again to get to the real story. More of a nuisance than it should be. I want to read the story, I have no interest in the comments page. Frankly, I don't really get the comments pages. The Obama New Yorker cover story had 1,518 comments. Who reads 1,518 comments? I've seen Youtube videos that have over 20,000 comments. That's just too many. Personally, I rarely read more than 10-15,000 comments at a time.

Reddit: Reddit has all the visual appeal of craigslist. In case I'm being unclear, that is not a compliment. Beyond that, it's heavily skewed towards humor/silly/entertainment stories. If I want to read that kind of stuff, all I have to do is read the silly e-mail jokes, etc., that my friends, relatives and coworkers send me -- instead of just deleting them. If any of you are reading this, I'm not talking about you. Yours are interesting. It's everyone else's that are boring.

No "thing" at all

2008-07-05T19:41:00.001-07:00

How about a post that is not related to 23 things? Any objections? No?

So, we had downtime earlier this week. And, I was wondering why it is that people can walk past 45 terminals that all have large signs on them (System Down: Internet & Library Catalog) and still come up to the desk to ask if the internet is down? It seems like they're asking a question to which they already know the answer.

I've wondered that for awhile, but this week a light bulb when off. Here's my theory: we have to guide them through the five stages of grief. Here's a typical conversation:

Patron: Is your internet down? (DENIAL)
Me: Yes, it is.
Patron: You know, most places do their maintenance when they aren't open so people can get their work done! (ANGER)
Me: I'm sorry, this wasn't planned downtime.
Patron: So, are you expecting it back up in a few minutes? (BARGAINING)
Me: I'm really not sure. I'm not even sure they've found the problem yet, so it could be 5 minutes or 5 hours. I really just don't know.
Patron: Now, I'll never get my project done in time. (DEPRESSION)
Me: I'm sorry. I could give you directions to the Hayden Heights library in St Paul which isn't too far from here. They should be able to provide you internet service today.
Patron: No, I think I'll just hang out in the coffee shop for a bit and see if your system comes back up. (ACCEPTANCE)
Me: Ok. Hopefully, it won't be too long.

So, if we just hold on and guide them through the stages of grief, we can usually get them to acceptance.

Tune in next week when I show how library services are based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Ok, maybe not.

Thing #11: Del.icio.us and tagging

2008-07-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

I watched the 8 minute Del.icio.us tutorial. Then, I went and tracked down the Common Craft video on Del.icio.us because I've really liked their introductions to other 2.0 tools. Once again, they did good work.

There's something to be said for creating your own tags. You never have to worry about whether the tag/subject you want is available. But, there's something to be said for a controlled vocabulary, too. The MINN23 account on del.icio.us has tags for "blog", "blogs", "blogger", and "blogging" (not to mention "bloglines") -- each with a different quantity of items. That seems like a problem. There's a lot more clutter than seems necessary.

Also, one of the stated advantages of this system vs "favorites" is that you can take it wherever you go. Your bookmarks are available from any computer. Fair enough, but doesn't having to install the tagging buttons on your browser cut into that argument? Between home, office and the Reference Desk, I use about 5 different PCs regularly -- several of which are shared. Having portable bookmarks would be an asset. Having to install buttons on multiple terminals (including several I share with other people) to update them is not an asset.

It seems like where this could be really useful is if you look up a tag and see what are the popular sites with that tag. Unfortunately, the examples that I checked resulted in finding 'popular' sites that were less useful than the ones I was already aware of. To take one example, I looked at the tag "polls", which I had added because of Pollster. The most popular site with the "polls" tag was Polldaddy. Not at all what I was looking for. Plus, you had to sign up for an account. Sigh. Don't get me started on signing up for accounts.

Anyway, I'm going to keep adding my bookmarks to Del.icio.us so that I have access remotely. But, so far, I'm not finding a lot of use for the social aspect of the system. I just don't have time to dig through others' "useful" sites only to find them worthless to me.

Thing #10: Wikis

2008-07-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

I watched the Common Craft video on wikis. Those people do some good work. It was a simple introduction to wikis that, I think, would be effective at teaching someone their value -- even if they hadn't had any prior exposure to wikis. It really wasn't news to me, though.

I looked at the some of the sample wikis that were listed. One I looked at the "Adult Services" page of their wiki and saw that it hadn't been updated in over a year. That is, I think, one of the problems with this type of thing. You can have good intentions, and produce good content, at the beginning. But, if you get away from it for awhile - it just gets stagnant then totally ignored.

On the other hand, there were some good things out there. I really like St Joseph County Public Library's page. They've got some interesting things on there -- sort of a mix of fugitive facts and pathfinders. I had actually been toying with the idea of remaking our reference-desk-3ring-binder of info into a wiki. Eventually, we just get so much "useful" info into our 3-ring binder that it becomes unwieldy and difficult to find things. It seems like remaking this into a wiki could provide a better method for arranging the info. This site nudged me in the direction of trying that idea. Of course, finding the time for that...

As I said, I have updated wikis before. Our Trivia Weekend team uses a wiki to compile answers, team roster, etc. I've updated that wiki many times. In addition, I've made updates to Wikipedia on more than one occasion. For the 'update a wiki' requirement of Thing #10, I updated my team's wiki with the dates of the 2009 contest (Feb 13-15, in case you were planning to come).

Thing #9: Online Collaboration Tools

2008-07-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

So, I went to try to edit the online sample documents. I've got a Google account and everything. Sadly - they tell me "We're sorry, but [my account] does not have access to this document." I understand that's normal and that I need to request access to the document. I did that last week. Still haven't been approved. This strikes me as a problem with this sort of situation (and many of the other "things") -- the nuisance of getting the correct account, password & permission can potentially outweigh the benefit yielded by the tool. If I had really needed to work on a document, it could be a big problem to have to wait a week or more for access when the other person could've just e-mailed it to me as an attachment and I could've made changes 5 days ago. Obviously, there are some benefits to having a master document online that multiple people can work on, but there's definitely a downside, too.

I do know how to edit a document, however, though -- so no big loss.

Moving on...

Thing #8

2008-06-25T09:56:00.001-07:00

As you can see, I did the Picturetrail thing -- even though I really don't like moving, flashing, rotating, gyrating, spinning things with shooting stars and fish swimming past on web pages. In other words, I'm opposed to inducing seizures in people who visit my web page. So, I don't think I'd use this "in real life". I used the 'auto-post it to your blog' option on Picturetrail rather than trying to cut-and-paste a link in. Worked well, except that when I came here to edit it (in order to include this text), someone had already posted a comment. You know who you are. Were you wondering why I hadn't included any accompanying text?

Anyway, I was more interested in the database option - and can conceive of uses for that that may be productive. Though, I wasn't really able to come up with a sample database idea for the purposes of this blog.

Thing #7: Web Communication tools

2008-05-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

E-mail:

I think I'm reasonably adept at managing my e-mail effectively. I've got some useful folders, etc., to keep the volume under control. The tips (eg. "pick off easy ones", "write less", "use templates", "be honest -- (delete stuff)") were useful. I really haven't used templates. I probably don't deal with too many things that could make us of them. There might be a couple areas where I could make use of them: Booking the meeting room; or people wanting to apply for a job.

I think I do pretty well on the "write less" tip. I try not to send out frivolous stuff. Actually, what I really need is for other people to write less.

IM:

Yes, we use IM internally. It sure has it's uses. I can see it's potential uses for responding to Reference questions, but I do have some concerns. For one thing, I worry that it creates an expectation of speed of service that, at the current staffing levels, we might not be able to meet. So, now I'm handling internal & external IMs, fielding phone calls, order materials and making the Reference Desk schedule -- oh, and there are people right in front of me with a question! Do you ever wonder what they think we're doing as we type furiously into the computer as they walk by? Speaking of which, when I try to check-in at a hotel, what is that person doing staring at their terminal for 10+ minutes before they give me my key? Solitaire? Updating their Facebook page? World of Warcraft?

By the way, that Youtube video about IM Reference just screamed "We're really old people trying desperately to look hip and 'in touch'". Also, it actually highlighted the worst of IM. Get over the frivolous small talk and get to a point, please. Because if you don't have a question to ask, I might answer one for the people who bothered to come into the library today.

Sorry, I'm a little cranky today.

TEXT MESSAGING:

You have got to be kidding me. Seriously, this is a joke, right?

The video shows these kids 'texting' in a question about which database to use 'for technology'. Huh? Sounds like the librarian did an outstanding job on that reference interview. He deserves a raise. Also, watch the video, there is no way that kid actually input his question in the time it showed him doing it. And, that's a problem. It's just way too slow.

Ok, ok, I know one of the four people with an RSS feed to this blog is thinking about posting a comment about how they know someone who can text really, really fast. Go ahead and post that if you like, but I'm still not buying it. Watch the video -- does he really text what he's saying? And, if not, why not? I'll tell you why not - because it takes way too long to do it. If they can't be bothered to do it for the demo, why would I want to in real life?

One of the things you learn working Reference (or Trivia Weekend, for that matter) is that sometimes is just easier and faster to call someone who has the answer rather than find the answer yourself. What I recommend you do, rather than use the phone, is carve your question into stone and have it delivered to the Reference Desk, then ask them to carve a response and send it back. Or, you could use text messaging. Either way works fine.

In other words, I am a text messaging luddite. Sue me.

Web Conferencing:

Been there. Done that. Nuff said.

Summary:

Don't think I didn't notice what you guys did there -- slipped like 4-5 things into "1" thing on a stick. Tricky.

Thing #6: Online Image Generator

2008-05-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

I used a trading card maker at Big Labs to make this image. Honestly, I'm not really sure how this thing is fundamentally different from the tools in the previous thing. In fact, I thought about choose this very thing for my Flickr tool in thing #5. Good thing I didn't -- or what would I be doing for this thing?

In any case, I could spend a lot of time playing with images like this.

Creating this card was quite

easy. In fact...

My 7-year old daughter watched me make a couple of cards and wanted to make one for herself. She made the one on the right all by herself. Really. Ok, she could afford to work on her spelling a little. But still.

Posting it to the blog was more of a nuisance than I expected. It's just not as easy to move the images around within the post as it ought to be. Putting images on both sides mashed the text in an unpleasant way. I really shouldn't have to keep looking at the preview to see if it's going to cut words in half. I'd like to have a better sense of that from the compose screen.

Thing #5: Flickr tools

2008-05-28T14:21:00.000-07:00

Obviously, there are lots of interesting things you can do with your images.

Here's a cute little cube I made with one.

I printed it out and folded it into a cube. It worked fine. However, you do all this stuff with technology and then...umm...get out a scissors and tape, cut it out, fold it up, and tape it together. That just seems wrong. Can't we get a printer that will do all that for me? Maybe one with buttons that say: PRINT, COLLATE, CUBE-IFY, etc. Ok, maybe not.

Anyway, so I made my cube and took it home. The kids liked it. Better yet, when there was only one 'cherry ice' left and both kids wanted it for desert, we settled it by rolling the die (yes, the singular of "dice" is "die"). Max won and got the 'cherry ice' and Molly got to pick something different. Now, if they can only come up with a Flickr tool that will help me get my kids into bed on time...

Thing #4: Flickr

2008-05-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

Flickr is pretty cool. I was aware of it -- and had used it to search for images. But, I had never bothered to sign up for an account. Frankly, my pictures aren't really something that I thought would be of use to anyone -- they're mostly just of my family. So, I didn't think I really had anything to contribute.

Meanwhile, I had actually been thinking about buying an external hard drive to make backing up my photos more convenient (I had been backing them up periodically on CDs). The Common Craft video was pretty convincing for me. Using Flickr as your tool for backing up your photos was a great idea, which I hadn't really considered. I've got a collection of a couple thousand photos (and growing), so a tagging system is going to come in really handy for finding stuff. Often, I'm looking for a particular photo and have to scroll through my whole collection to find it.

This has, however, created a couple problems for me.

#1 Now, I've got to go through my whole collection, upload them all, and tag them all. Oh well, at least I have to look forward to a better system once I've put in all that work.

#2 The 100 MB monthly upload limit on Flickr is actually a barrier for me. I hit that limit after 86 photos. So, it'd probably take a couple years to get my whole collection on there. Of course, you're thinking, I could simply pay for a better account. But, who wants to pay for something I can get for free?

Finally, I'm probably underusing Flickr by setting all my photos to private, rather than public. I've got a wife who is not too keen on posting pictures to the internet. I guess she thinks people are going to see pictures of our kids and think, "wow, those are cute kids, I think I'll go steal them". So, for now, my pictures will be private.

Thing #3 : RSS feeds

2008-05-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

I was aware of what RSS feeds were, but had not bothered to figure out the details of how to set one up. I chose Google Reader and found it to be pretty trouble-free. I particularly like the expanded view and how, as you read the various posts within a feed, it knows which ones you've read and marks them as read without having to do anything special.

A couple disturbing things about RSS feeds:

1) This reminds me of TiVo. On TiVo, it's so easy to subscribe to things that there is always the temptation to add something you have a passing interest in to your list. Before you know it, you're signed up to read (or watch) more things than you otherwise would have and you've got all kinds of things to get through. And, not enough time in the day to do it.

2) Even more disturbing -- according to Google Reader, there are 4 people with RSS feeds to my blog. I signed up to write this blog with what I thought was the reasonable assumption that no one would be reading it. Perhaps some of you signed up for this just to test RSS feeds when you were working on Thing 3. Let's hope so. I'd hate to think anyone was actually reading this. Who are you people?

Finally, if I can figure out how to get my Google Reader account right into one of the windows on my iGoogle account, I'd really be onto to something. Haven't looked for that yet. That would give me my stuff right away on my home page (iGoogle). I'm a little concerned I won't think to login into my Google Reader account and I'll fall way behind on it.

Thing #2

2008-05-19T16:15:00.000-07:00

I didn't think I needed much convincing about the Library 2.0 tools. The short video really didn't tell me much I didn't already know.

Meanwhile, the blog post by John Nyberg and the article from Library Technology Reports didn't really sit well with me. Rather than motivate me, they only served to make me angry. Nyberg says that Library 2.0 "requires fundamental change" in our mission, which I'm not sure I agree with. Certainly, it is less of a change than we have already seen since the early 1990s.

Much of the debate is semantic. What is a Library 2.0 tool? Nyberg quotes a definition as:

"Library 2.0 simply means making your library’s space (virtual and physical)

more interactive, collaborative, and driven by community needs."

Is that all there is to it? Because I think we were all in favor of that before we heard the term Library 2.0. I think people get hung up too much on the terminology. This is the same thing that happened with "blogs". People had blogs before anyone knew the word. But, now that we call them blogs, they're somehow more important.

Nyberg really crosses the line later, though, with this gem:

"It’s obvious that the Millenials have very little interest in the “traditional” library."

Really.

I can't stand this generational stuff. Could you possibly paint with a broader brush? And, it's obvious? To whom? Not to me. I have been lobbying for blogs and extra content on our web page, among other things. I'm all for it. It's going to be nice and useful for a segment of our patrons, but let's not get carried away. Last time I checked, we circulated over 4 million "traditional" items last year. When we've got more blog replies than that, let me know. Until then, I'm going to assume everyone still has interest in the "traditional" library -- in addition to whatever "non-traditional" services we end up offering.

Ok, first go at this...

2008-02-20T09:15:00.000-08:00

Fine -- with a little "encouragement" from my employer, I've decided to take the plunge into blogging. So, bear with me while I get the hang of this. So far, it's no different than filling out any other online forms. As usual, the hardest part is figuring out a name that I can live with. Remember the days when you could pick an e-mail name just go with it -- (as opposed to trying 57 different things before you find one lame name, that you don't really like, but that, at least, no one else seems to like either)? But, I digress.