Lambert Wedding

 I just spent the afternoon playing with Animoto - what a blast!  Would this video slide show I just made count for the video Web 2.0 assignment?  If so, I would rather submit this than Picasa - I've enjoyed that, but this is really cool!

Oh - this is a brief (very brief - the free version is only 30 seconds long) collage of some pictures from my daughter's wedding last August.  The song is Caedmon's Call's "Lead of Love" because that was sung at her wedding!  Enjoy!  This picture was on their "Save the Date" cards!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Lambert Wedding

Skype and Stuff

I think I erred by not commenting on my Skype experience in last week's blog.  I will fix that by mentioning in this blog.  Up until last week, the majority of my Skype experience was with my son overseas, and the quality of the audio and video were subject to time of day, weather, and number of Internet users online in my son's apartment.  I was very impressed with the quality of the sound and picture in those experiences I had for our class.  I was also pretty excited to learn about "sharing screens" with the other person.  I must point out that my mechanical engineer husband had never heard of that - and so I was able to educate him on the many resources available through Skype.  I heard him pass along that piece of new information no fewer than 4 times throughout the weekend to various family and friends - so I know I taught him something he felt was important!  Thanks, Library 105!

My Skyping partners, Joanna, Audrey, Amber, Mary and Susie (yes, I had five...what can I say, I'm blessed!  Tifarah and Sharon - you owe me one to make it unanimous!) were all easy to hear and see (when they had a webcam) and made the whole experience so enjoyable!  I knew you were all smart and friendly through your writing, and Skype just confirmed that in person you are just as approachable and patient.  I appreciate you all!

 Speaking of Twitter...

I am still enjoying my Twitter experience, adding to my Wiki, conversing with others on my Goodreads account, and assembling a Picasa slide show with pictures I've long been wanting to organize!  Yes, distance education is definitely not for the lazy, because there is always something to do!   Which reminds me, it's time to go work on my presentation!  Have a great weekend!

Hooray for Distance Education

I appreciated the pithy wit in Joanna's response to the question of whether we have participated in distance education:  "That's kind of a silly question! :)"  I remember thinking the same thing when I read that question! Hello - we are living, breathing examples of students experiencing the asynchronous technology the book describes!  If nothing else, the author's question shows that the textbooks used for distance education courses are no different than  those in the more traditional classroom!  There are a multitude of class options out there - and a week doesn't go by that I don't get an email adding additional classes to IUs offerings.  As participants in the distance learning technology I feel we are experiencing education in a much more hands on way.  For example:

• Our class time is not limited to a certain time of day.  We can access and work on our courses 24/7.  We can capitalize on the time of day when our minds are freshest and most creative.  We can work non-stop as the inspiration allows, or postpone our work when life gets in the way.  I greatly appreciate the flexibility of distance education.
• Our courses require us to become familiar with technology.  Even when I was taking the correspondence courses at IU I still had to learn how to use the course management system called "Dragon."  I had to request my classes and exams online.  Ivy Tech's Blackboard system requires us to become familiar with how it works so that we can acquire our assignments and tests!   Years ago when I was in college, (and I will confess that was BEFORE PCs were readily available - in the Stone Age!;-)) you went to class, took notes, and left.  When I "go to class" today I am navigating not only Blackboard options, I am viewing multiple websites and podcasts and links and increasing my confidence and skill in using the Internet. 
• We are exposed to learning in multiple medias.  In a classroom, we get a lecture.  In distance education, we get to read, listen, and interact with programs such as our StudyMate link...which I find extremely helpful! 
• We are more "hands on" in completing the course because we must discipline ourselves to get the work done.  I have always thought that part of the schooling experience was learning how to discipline yourself to "get the job done."  The teachers held you accountable, and made up deadlines and calendars to help you.  To a certain extent, we have that in this class.  In my IU courses, I have no such deadlines.  This can be extremely freeing....or, it can mean that I NEVER finish unless I set goals and deadlines FOR MYSELF.  

Since I work part time, I am so grateful for distance learning because I do NOT want to have to spend my time physically getting ready to go to class, and spending the extra travel time and gas money to get there, and worrying about getting to class when there is a snowstorm or tornado warning!     I can do my lessons in my pjs....and believe me, I have! ;-)  I can do my work while the snow falls, and feel nice and toasty in front of my computer monitor!  I feel blessed and spoiled!  I say, Hooray for distance education!  Enjoy the cartoon!

Web 2.0 Projects

For my projects, I have opened a Twitter account, reactivated a Goodreads account, and plan to set up a Picasa web album. 

Twitter:  OK, so I am quickly becoming addicted to this.  I really thought this was going to be a waste of time - but I can see the value of the immediacy of the tweets.  I mean, I was getting hour by hour tweets of news from the news sites I follow about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  I am mainly following libraries, political and news organizations - but I did find one of my friends in California and I get a kick out of his tweets.  Michelle Malkin has been tweeting regularly about her missing cousin in Seattle - and I don't recall hearing anything about that on the mainstream news.  Anyway - this has proven to be quite fun.  I see the value in Twitter as it relates to news and sports updates - but I still cannot fathom the benefit of personal tweets.  For me, Facebook status updates are hard enough to make and follow!  But, if you want to follow me on Twitter - just look for @hoosiervess, and you can follow me!

Goodreads:  I set up a Goodreads account a couple years ago, but have not used it for quite awhile.  I get updates daily from my "friends" on Goodreads, and I guess I was just a bit overwhelmed by the volume of reading they get to do every day because they are always adding titles and reviews.  For myself, I've been in the textbook mode ever since I started back to school so I don't get to spend much time reading for pleasure.  However, I did log back in and attempted to include some updated titles to my "read" list.  I plan to spend some more time writing reviews and commenting reviews, so stay tuned....

Picasa:  Since my other two assignments deal primarily with words, I thought this last assignment would satisfy my need to learn how to upload and arrange pictures on the web.  For years we took pictures with our 35mm camera, developed and then put in a shoebox until I get around to putting them in an album.  I am still stuck at the year 2004.   My husband promised me it would be different with our digital camera and he is right:  now we take pictures, and once every six months they get uploaded into our camedia file and never get looked at again! I would like to use this assignment to work on little mini albums with the 100s of pictures we have.  I hope you are not bored, but then again, I'm doing this assignment for me! ;-)

To Terminate my monitoring or not to terminate my monitoring..that is the question!

I cannot believe it has been six weeks since we began monitoring our technology sources!  Mainly, I cannot believe it because I have yet to find an updated posting to my Educause site "Seven Things You Should Know About."  My first posting from that site had to do with open ended response systems - where students could immediately respond to a teacher's lecture through their mobile device.  That posting is still there - and the only other post I did from this site came from their archives, on "cloud computing."  But alas, or as they say "wouldn't you know" - I happened to check my RSS feed today and guess what- not one, but 2 articles!!!  Apparently, this is a monthly feature, and for some reason, they have not changed the website...yet.  I guess that proves the value of RSS feeds!  The new article is dated March 14, but has not posted on the website yet.  Now that I understand this is a monthly column, I will have to rethink my original decision to NOT keep monitoring it.  

Librarian in Black was a blog which I found to be much more interesting.  Although she did not have a new post every week, her posts were extremely relevant to life in a library.  I am still very excited about the fact that I was the first one in our department to learn about the HarperCollins/ebook controversy because of her column.  She has continued to blog about that subject, and I have enjoyed her take on the controversy. Anyway, what I also liked about LiB was that people could enter their comments and responses to her blog - and those responses gave you even more information and perspective.  Last week, the LiB posted the results to the book censoring survey that was taken at the beginning of my monitoring period.  The bottom line from this report is that #1:  libraries are not reporting material challenges to the ALA, and #2:  Of those materials withdrawn from the collection due to complaints, items were twice as likely to be removed in defiance of library guidelines. (If that's the case - why bother with guidelines?  Interesting!)
     This week, Sarah Houghton-Jan (the Librarian in Black) continues her theme of dissing ebook publishers by commenting on an earlier 2007 article she wrote lamenting the restrictive nature of DRM (and thanks to this class, I knew exactly what DRM was!!!!)  DRM restricts the free use of the digital material - and she proposes that due to the extreme actions of HarperCollins (restricting ebook useage to 26 check-outs) the library community is finally coming together to #1 - present an ebook users bill of rights, or #2 united advocacy against DRM.  According to LiB - the library community is "going Egypt on this one" - referring to the revolt by the Egyptians against their controllling dictator.   Our library is taking a stand - we will be participating in a semi-boycott of Harper Collins books, when we select our titles from Overdrive and for our printed collection.  I say "semi" boycott, because unfortunately, Janet Evanovich is one of their authors, and we can't boycott her books - they are too popular! ;-)  I will definitely continue to monitor LiB because I think it is something that will help keep me informed of library technology and library topics.
http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/
As an alternative to the Educause/Seven Things site, I checked the ALA TechSource site.  I was pretty excited to read about the 3D printers - and as a follow-up to that, I was very impressed to see them demonstrated on the Saturday morning show "Fox and Friends" a few weeks ago.  A doctor brought one in and made a "plastic" ear during the show.  Fascinating!  It felt good to be already somewhat familiar with this technology - proving that monitoring these sites DOES educate you!   This particular site intersperses blog reports on new technology, and workshops on technology offered by the ALA.  Sometimes they will have summaries of the workshops in the form of Powerpoint presentations.  I felt that this site was most helpful when it came to specific technology information.  I hope to one day participate in a workshop as well.  This is definitely a site I will continue to monitor.  http://www.alatechsource.org/blog

What I appreciated about this exercise, was reading the posts from my fellow blogging students that led me to check out their sources.  As a result of your posts, I enjoyed adding Glengage, Tame the Web and Gizmodo to my list of sources to monitor.  I will definitely keep those on my monitoring list as well. I guess the only one I'll be terminating is Educause/Seven Things....

This was a fun and valuable assignment!

Dieting on Delicious- Web 2.0 Projects

 Introduction
I must confess, I am a bit of a late bloomer where Delicious is concerned.  I didn't quite "get" what we were supposed to do for this assignment, and so I think I got out of it, what I put into it.  Now that I'm putting together my experiences for this blog, it  occurs to me that when we started this project, I did not fully understand what I was looking for because I did not have an adequate  understanding of the keywords   "web 2.0" and "technology" that I was using so early in the course.  I found sites that answered the question, but I lacked the foundation of understanding the chronology of library technology.      After learning more about the different types of library technology that is available, and after being introduced to examples of social networking and web2.0, I feel that I am more equipped to appreciate Delicious.  If we were to begin this assignment today, I know I would be more confident and less confused with its benefits.  But like I said, I'm a late bloomer.  So  I will continue to monitor and use Delicious, because like anything, the more you use it, the more confident and efficient you become in its use.    The title of my post is intended to be a bit of a pun, but also, to reflect the fact that although I did check out Delicious and bookmark different websites, I did so in a limited fashion.

Appetizer - Delicious Favorites
Many of the pages I bookmarked were those sites I was monitoring as Technology sources, so I did not have to "enter" Delicious  to access them.  Once I bookmarked them, they were conveniently placed on my Delicious toolbar, and I found this to be quite helpful.  One thing that I appreciate about searching for sites to bookmark on Delicious is the timeliness of the postings.  I just did a tag search for HarperCollins, since this is the publisher that recently imposed a restriction on the number of times their ebooks may be checked out.  I found the first 17 pages of 1086 posts were directly related to the current controversy.  This reveals the timely nature of the information you get when researching Delicious.  One can use Delicious to do a tag search and find up to the minute information.

I also appreciated the fact that you can access your favorite websites from any computer.  Going back and forth between work and home, I sometimes forget where I have bookmarked a site.  I have some at work, and some at home; Delicious allows me to carry them with me wherever I go.

Another  feature of Delicious that I liked was the note feature.  I can see where at some point your bookmarks grow so large you may forget why you put them there.   This feature helps you to remember what the site contains so you don't have to open it first and read through it, saving yourself time. It also provides you the option of  recording where you found the bookmark.   At a glance, this can save you time as you can immediately see the name of  it's  contributor whose bookmarks you value, without pulling up their entire bookmark list.   When you look through my bookmarks, you may find your own names mentioned, because I got them from you!

Main Course - Delicious Research
As for doing research using Delicious,  I limited myself to just finding interesting sites to my keyword searches.  It was definitely a different way of researching than just doing a search engine search, mainly because these were sites already considered important enough to tag by other Delicious users. This would narrow down the field when researching a topic.  When searching the term "library 2.0" I came across 5,789 hits in Delicious; on Google I got 101 million.  More importantly, the very first hits were scholarly articles. Delicious allows you a smaller search area, and this may make research easier, but it is far from complete. Like Wikipedia, I think Delicious provides some great sites to note, but it shouldn't be the end of your searching.  Incidentally, it is kind of funny to note that Google's second hit on "library 2.0" was Wikipedia!

 Dessert - Delicious Take-out?
Would I use Delicious on the job?  I asked my co-workers their feelings toward it and I was met with responses such as "it's faster to just Google it" to "what's that?"  Apparently, librarians are not as tech savvy as I thought.  It is always easier to do what you are used to.  I am currently working on a Wiki for my department, so I will probably include a page of "favorite" websites rather than push  them to set up Delicious accounts.  Academically,  I think that it is worth checking Delicious when doing research, and I will continue to add to my bookmarks and use it as a research source.   Personally, I did enjoy my bee sites....but I find it so much faster to bookmark something directly to my computer. So, for personal bookmarks, I think I'm stuck in a rut!  ;-)  But,  speaking of bees, that reminds me of honey, and  honey is delicious....meaning:  no more  dishin' on Delicious because it's time for dinner - and it's Friday, so no diet! ;-)

This Week in LIBR 105

I think the most interesting thing to me about this week's class was learning about mashups.  I had never heard the term before (unless I did, and just assumed someone was talking about potatoes...:-)  I was particularly impressed with the example the book mentioned where someone could look at a google map and have local landmarks indicated on it.  I am going to look into the possibility of including something like this as a link on my Department Wiki.  We are ALWAYS getting questions on where we are located, and it seems to me that this may be a helpful tool for us to view when giving directions over the phone.  Just an idea.

Another big deal this week was my signing up for a Twitter account.  My daughter may disown me, but, hey, it's homework!  For some reason, my kids are big into Facebook, but abhor Twitter.  So that will just be mine! ;-)

It was fun to learn about all the different social networking sites because there were many I have used.  My son has a Picasa account and that is how I view pictures of my grandkids and all their antics in China.  I posted a couple pictures from his Picasa account in one of my blogs.  He also has a blog post where he posts all these wonderful videos of the girls riding their bikes, talking, singing, and even sneezing!  ;-)  I am so blessed to be living in a time when this technology is available.  I don't know what I would do without it!  Also, I recently reactivated my Goodreads account.  It is a site where you can get book reviews from your peers.  It's been quite awhile since I posted to it - I think my last was when I read "Dewey" the Library cat...whew, that was long ago!  Anyway, I continue to get posts from my 'friends" and I need to pay more attention to their recommendations and criticisms.  Having this as a project for this class will get me back on track to participating.

On a personal note, my daughter and her husband (who recently married and live in Ohio) will be moving back to Indiana soon!  David got a job in Columbus, Indiana, and so tomorrow we are all going house hunting!  I LOVE shopping, and house hunting is shopping!  This is a picture of the newlyweds from our living room window.

I am now going to prepare my "social bookmarking" blog.   Have a wonderful weekend everyone! 

Source Updates...

First, I must pat myself on the back for my good fortune in discovering the Librarian in Black blog  from last Friday when it first came out.  I shared what I learned about the new ebook limitations with Overdrive with my coworker on Saturday, and she had no idea.  I didn't see any mention of it on the InPub site I monitor until Monday - and then it was like the floodgates opened!  Our collection management director finally sent an email out to our staff on Wednesday, informing everyone of Overdrive and HarperCollins changes, and warning us that a battle was brewing.  Based on all the conversation on InPub, I think we are on the verge of seeing a Library Bill of Rights being written, and boycotts on the horizon.  Anyway, I am pleased that because of fulfilling the assignment for this class, monitoring The Librarian in Black, I was aware of this BEFORE it became common knowledge in our library.  Thanks, Library 105! 


So that brings me to the follow-up to the Librarian in Black's (LiB) last column, and this new one discusses the lack of response to this ebook controversy by the ALA (American Library Association).  While librarians are all expressing their opinions on public forums and social networking sites, the ALA has chosen not to address the issue on their website, or in their current publication.  The LiB appreciates the president of the ALA's personal condemnation of the problem on her own Facebook account, but sees this as inadequate.  The LiB wants the ALA to take a stand, and in so doing, be the powerful voice for all the anguished and frustrated librarians who feel publishers like HarperColllins are taking away our ability to provide for the public. 

Once again, Educause and the "7 Things you should know about" had the old info.  What a bummer.  I was really thinking this site would be great, cause I'm a real bottom line type of gal, and 7 is a good number.  Anyway, so then I looked at my alternate, ALA Techsource, and found an interesting article that talked about new Discovery Service software that provides massive indexes of search terms that can allow library catalogs to offer searches within ALL of the electronic resource subscriptions they have within their collection.  I think we learned last week that this was called "metasearching."  Here's the link if you want to see it for yourself:  http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2011/03/building-comprehensive-resource-discovery-platforms.html