Infoblog

When Infopeople and its wonderful instructors introduced many of us to Web 2.0 through a magnificent series of workshops underwritten by the California State Library last year, we couldn’t have imagined what a difference it was going to make in how we viewed and interacted with the world. Those of us who had not explored any of the online social networking tools and services at all, read or written for blogs, or done anything beyond giggling over how silly the word “Wikipedia” sounded in comparison to the names of the solid and respectable encyclopedias we still admired— even if we rarely opened them—were in for a big surprise.

Looking now at the massive transition we have made as a result of our acquaintance with and use of Web 2.0 tools, we have to acknowledge what a difference a year or two of experience can make.

Absorbing several news and journal articles this week for a graduate-level online course I am taking through the University of North Texas, I was struck by how quaint some of those articles written about the Internet not so long ago felt. Pieces like Benjamin Barber’s “The Uncertainty of Digital Politics” from the Spring 2001 issue of the Harvard International Review, and “The Internet Paradox: A Social Technology That Reduces Social Involvement and Psychological Well-Being?” from the September 1998 issue of American Psychologist—both written before Web 2.0 tools began to be widely documented and promoted—warn that Internet use might divide rather than unite people and that it runs the risk of destroying rather than creating communities. Barber’s suggestion that “students are increasingly ignoring social life, community, and school activities in favor of time alone on the computer” (pp. 44-45 in the original publication) has been somewhat overtaken by students’ use—our use—of Internet access to a variety of information sources (including libraries); social and professional networking tools (including LinkedIn); and services such as Skype which combine computer time with social and academic life. The political divisiveness which he was seeing in 2001 certainly is far from gone, but the two most recent presidential campaigns demonstrate how candidates, their advisors, and their supporters united through efforts such as MoveOn.org have learned to use Web 2.0 tools to do everything from creating online and face-to-face communities to encouraging political involvement and donations from large numbers of previously unengaged voters.

Barber’s prediction that “we will have to start not with technology but with politics” if “democracy is to benefit from technology” (p. 47) is closer to fruition just a few years after Web 2.0 tools began spreading as a means for communication and community-building. His fear that “many of our problems today arise from the fact that we no longer know how to talk to neighbors, to husbands, to wives, and to fellow citizens” seems to have missed the mark in the sense that the existence or nonexistence of online communication is not going to increase or resolve the problem: these problems are resolved or exacerbated, as he concludes, through our own efforts to confront them (p. 47), and those of us working in or with libraries are in a great position to help the members of our extended community learn better how to use these online tools to their—and our—advantage.

Posted by paul signorelli at 11:49 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (2)

It’s not as if we haven’t heard of podcasting—producing simple and inexpensive audio and video recordings which can be shared online with anyone interested in what we are doing. We may, on the other hand, be wondering what it means to us and to the library members and guests we serve. As mentioned in the first of this two-part series, the answer can affect our ability to meet our users’ needs.

“I think it’s something that is a technology or a tool that has become very mainstream,” Infopeople instructor David Free noted recently in discussing the Practical Podcasting and Videocasting workshops he is offering between now and November 2008. “You can get podcasts of TV shows and radio shows. It’s a technology that people in communities are going to be more used to seeing in other areas.”

And it is already a format which is providing library staff and library members and guests with resources when they need the information—not just when we’re available to provide it. Podcasting is increasingly used to post basic as well as specialized information of interest to library users as well as to staff in need of brief and readily available training on a variety of topics.

Infopeople itself offers a large variety of podcasts on its website—Michael Cart’s “Reviews” on books and those who write them; Joan Frye Williams and George Needham’s “Thinking Out Loud” series on innovations and contemporary issues in libraries; and archives of Infopeople webcasts and webinars from a variety of presenters. Free also suggests other podcast archives which may be of interest to those unfamiliar with the full potential of the format and the content it offers: the Los Angeles Public Library speaker series which has featured podcasts hosted by Alfred Molina, Debra Winger, Robert Scheer, and many others; the “Library Audio and Video to Go” series produced by the George C. Gordon Information Technology Division at Worcester Polytechnic Institute; and the “Behind the Desk Alden Audio Tour” produced by Ohio University Libraries.

Those attending Free’s workshops “are going to have a better understanding of what podcasting is—both audio and video podcasting—how libraries are using the technology for outreach and as a learning tool,” he promises. “They’re going to have had the experience of creating an audio podcast. They’ll also have an understanding of how to make a video podcast. You don’t necessarily have to be an expert to use this technology in libraries.

“I’m not going to say, ‘You all have to go back and make podcasts in your library’…but I think it’s important that everybody has an understanding of what it is,” he concluded.

Posted by paul signorelli at 10:09 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

If we’re feeling overwhelmed by all the relatively new tools and theories out there—podcasting, Cascading Style Sheets, and Experienceology come to mind—and wondering why we should be interested, we might find solace in the familiar truism that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Reading Jean Freer’s “Louder Please” (Libraries & the Cultural Record, Fall 2006) and Vannevar Bush’s classic piece “As We May Think” from the July 1945 issue of The Atlantic Monthly suggests that facing up to and mastering the jargon and technology of our times is a never-ending challenge with ample rewards.

Freer, in examining American librarianship from 1926 through 1956, documents how “librarians struggled to define their role amidst competition from new media and information providers.” As we read about arguments as to whether phonograph records, films, and radio and television programs even belonged in library collections, we might look with longing at what feels to be a quaint debate—and then we have to wonder whether questions about the role of podcasting, Cascading Style Sheets, and Experienceology might be equally quaint to people looking back at us 30, 40, or 50 years from now. And just as Freer documents how “public and academic librarians produced films to promote their libraries” 50 to 80 years ago, we can already document how staff of libraries throughout the United States are producing podcasts with the same goal in mind. And much, much more.

Turning to Vannevar Bush, we find a great, imaginative, and creative mind writing at the end of the Second World War about someone who is “staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers—conclusions which he cannot find time to grasp, much less to remember, as they appear.” Bush, as many readers probably know, described in great detail and with incredible prescience, ways of storing an entire encyclopedia on a device the size of a matchbox—flash drives, anyone?—and imagined a device (the “memex”) where we could “turn the crank” and produce exactly the information we were seeking—do we, between the lines, hear the birth of computer workstations connected to the World Wide Web, but without the crank?

What must have seemed absolutely fantastic in 1945 is commonplace and hardly fodder for conversation now: a “web of trails” which became our World Wide Web; a memex which in many ways is not too far removed from our typical computer workstation; “repositories” which are our servers; a “transparent platen” on top of the memex which has become our scanner; and a system of jumping from one item to another as hyperlinks routinely allow us to do today.

And just as our predecessors had to learn about and absorb the changes they encountered in the past, we need to take advantage of the resources we have to stay current in our endeavors so we can better serve the library members and guests who come in search of the assistance we can offer.

Next: David Free and Practical Podcasting and Videocasting for Library Staff

Posted by paul signorelli at 4:04 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (1)

We don't always post the information here, but Infopeople (okay, me) creates a podcast (MP3 audio format) version of its webinars after the live event. This audio version enables folks who have a hard time catching the webinars (either live or archived) another listening option. They are all linked on the appropriate archived webinar page and are also posted to iTunes. Here is a list of some recent podcast/webinar offerings (these links go to the MP3 files):

• Jul 22, 2008: Attracting Baby Boomers to Volunteer Service with Carla Lehn


• Aug 14, 2008: Understanding Health Literacy: Why It Is So Important and What Librarians Can Do to Help with Kelli Ham


• Aug 19, 2008: State Library Update with Susan Hildreth, Stacey Aldrich & Carla Lehn

Enjoy!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 6:56 PM in Podcasts | Web 2.0 | Webinars | Permalink | Comments (0)

If we want to visualize a future drawing upon library mashups—combinations of data from different sources into a newly created tool for training-teaching-learning and many other purposes—we could do worse than to view a few of the search engines which are incorporating mashup technology into the way they display search results.

Jill Tinsley, an MLIS candidate from the University of Arizona, was among the presenters at the California Academic & Research Libraries North Information Technology (CARL North IT) Interest Group workshop “Mashup the Library” late last month at Santa Clara University, and her one-hour overview of “Information Visualization Using Mashups and Web 2.0 Tools” nearly inundated us with possibilities. (The PowerPoint slides, which were previously used for a New Media Consortium (NMC) presentation in February 2008, can be found at the bottom of an NMC page under the heading “Attachments” and provide fodder for hours of exploration on the topic.)

Starting with Grokker.com, she led us into a world of searching which currently draws from Yahoo!, Wikipedia, and Amazon.com to provide information on a wide variety of topics. Although the results can be viewed in a text-based “Outline” format, the fun begins when we choose the “Map View” format. The “map” is actually a large circle taking up about half of a screen, and includes smaller circles of interrelated topics; searching for the term “mashups” itself, for example, gives the large circle of the mashup universe, and smaller circles labeled “new application,” web applications, “music mashups,” and several others. If we choose to focus on music mashups, we click on the music mashup circle to view a new, larger circle with links within that category. By drilling down further into that visual display by clicking on new links, we continue until we find what we want or we zoom back out to the previous visual maps.

An entirely different display comes up through oSkope, which can be set to search Yahoo!, flickr, YouTube, and a few other sites we can select before proceeding. The results are displayed as a series of full-color thumbnail images, and we can manipulate the displays by choosing from several options on the screen. Placing the cursor on an image quickly brings up information about where the link will take the us and displays user tags which have been attached to that site.

The lesson here for teacher-trainer-learners is fairly obvious: if we want to display more visually interesting searches while engaged in workplace learning and performance, we can incorporate Grokker, oSkope, and many of the other tools which are quickly becoming available to us.

For further exploration: Online recordings of a dozen sessions presented during the NMC Symposium on Mashups held April 1 -3, 2008 are available, as are resources on nmcpedia. CARL North IT plans to post recordings of the “Mashup the Library” program. One other new development: another interesting example of mashups went live several days after the CARL North IT conference, in the form of the cuil search engine; it’s well worth exploring and has one the cleanest displays I’ve seen in online search results.

Posted by paul signorelli at 2:17 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

For trainer-teacher-learners who had not yet made time to read the New Media Consortium (NMC) – EDUCAUSE 2008 Horizon Report on emerging technologies, the California Academic & Research Libraries North Information Technology (CARL North IT) Interest Group workshop “Mashup the Library” last Friday at Santa Clara University provided a day of revelations.

Data mashups—“custom applications where combinations of data from different sources are ‘mashed up’ into a single tool”—received the bulk of the attention from NMC Vice President Rachel S. Smith and other presenters throughout the day, and those of us in attendance couldn’t help but walk away with an appreciation for this as both an old and new technology. Old, in the sense that mashups by different names and formats have been around for centuries in the form of data such as population figures combined with maps to provide graphic illustrations of how these pieces of information interact. New, in the sense that combining a Google Map with information about apartment rental data from craigslist is less than a few years old. As new technology tools such as VUVOX are developed and users combine data from different sources into VUVOX presentations, all of us involved in training-teaching-learning are going to find that we can push beyond the limits of what has previously been possible in designing and presenting effective learning opportunities in the library workplace.

The current ability to combine library location information with a Google Map to help library staff, members, and guests find library facilities is rudimentary compared to what is possible. A far more sophisticated mashup I recently encountered is the GeoLib project coming out of Florida State University College of Information under the direction of Christie Koontz; users can view mashups of maps and data including population characteristics from the U.S. Census as well as library-use statistics for thousands of American libraries.

And when we apply mashups to workplace learning programs, we don’t have to stretch much to imagine a new-staff orientation session prepared in VUVOX and delivered live, online, and even asynchronously through a mashup of graphics, links to pertinent documents, and connections to audio and audiovisual files created with Flip cameras and other easy-to-use tools which are being introduced to library staff through Infopeople workshops. The same tools might also be used to create introductory tours of libraries for new employees as well as for library members and guests via mashups delivered to cell phones as mobile broadband capabilities increase over the next couple of years.

Best of all is the probability that new authoring tools which are being developed will “enable non-technical users to create sophisticated products without programming,” the report’s authors confirm—which means that those of us who are more enamored of providing learning opportunities than in immersing ourselves in the complexities of coding will soon have incredibly productive tools at our fingertips.

Next: Mashups in the Search for Information

Posted by paul signorelli at 6:42 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because I’m a soft touch for creative uses of presentation tools, I was completely taken by New Media Consortium (NMC) Vice President Rachel S. Smith’s use of a cutting-edge online resource last Friday during an onsite event at Santa Clara University.

Serving as the first of several presenters at the California Academic & Research Libraries North Information Technology (CARL North IT) Interest Group workshop, “Mashup the Library,” Smith provided an engaging overview of the 2008 Horizon Report on emerging technologies (published jointly by NMC and EDUCAUSE) by using an emerging technology mashup tool: VUVOX.

To call VUVOX a step up from PowerPoint is like calling IMAX a step up from early versions of color television: the relationships and parallels are there, the results dynamically and explosively different. PowerPoint, at its best, offers a series of slides which can be interconnected through combinations of text, images, and links to websites as well as online audio and video files to produce a narrative flow—one slide at a time—for trainer-teacher-learners and other presenters. VUVOX, which is currently in its testing (beta) phase, functions as seamlessly as a Chinese scroll by using every online resource imaginable to provide an uninterrupted audiovisual flow of information. The result is visually stunning. And memorable.

As Smith herself noted in a brief conversation after her presentation, VUVOX was not specifically designed to be a formal training-teaching-learning tool; the VUVOX site itself promotes it as a way to “create one of a kind stories in an instant” by mashing up (combining) whatever video, audio, and text we have available. Recognizing the integral nature of story in training-teaching-learning, however, sets all of us up to explore VUVOX’s possibilities for onsite as well as online learning, and it appears that a well-designed VUVOX presentation can be an effective learning tool for live as well as for asynchronous learning if links to VUVOX presentations are created on a library intranet’s training site.

What was most engaging is that most audience members hardly commented on VUVOX and how she used it. Smith’s presentation, which was created with NMC colleague Alan Levine, is true to the spirit of first-rate training-teaching-learning experiences in that the tool is subservient to the information being shared with any audience she faces. It includes things as simple as copies of the Horizon Report covers for the past five years, screenshots of the Horizon Project wiki, links to videos illustrating the use of emerging technologies such as grassroots video, and an invitation to participate in the creation of upcoming Horizon Project reports. And it is up to the presenter or an individual viewer at a computer monitor how quickly or slowly the scroll moves since it is easy to pause, forward, or reverse the flow of the imagery.

Next: More on What the Horizon Report and Mashups Offer Trainer-Teacher-Learners

Posted by paul signorelli at 4:58 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (1)

I tripped on Pandora when I was looking through the iPhone App Store recently. It's a great app for the iPhone, but it's also just a neat website and cool tool if you like to listen to Internet radio (for free). You customize the music selections by selecting groups, then Pandora finds songs that sound like or are of the same genre of what you select. It then builds a station for you - and you can say yea or nay to its selections, to further get it your way. It's all free. Sign up here.

Here's my station, as an example. Good stuff if you like to listen to music at work (or at home

Posted by eileen o'shea at 3:46 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's a new kid on the Web 2.0 block as of today. It's called Trusera, and it is a social networking site for people looking for health information, and/or looking to share health information. From the site:

We believe there’s power in sharing personal experience and knowledge to help others in their health journey. We are more than just the sum of our conditions ... That's why we created Trusera, an online health network where you can find and share real-world experiences. By connecting with others, you can find valuable insights that help you take control of your health. At Trusera, you get relevant, credible and useful health information and insight from others who’ve been there.

Sign up is free.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 3:53 PM in Keeping Up | Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (1)

"Sunnyvale Voices: From Settlers to Silicon" includes more than 20 short reminiscences about the history of Sunnyvale as told by residents (Vince Cala's were my favorite.) Each oral history is available in print, audio, and video. The project was funded with an LSTA grant. If you're thinking about doing an oral history project for your community, more information about what it involves can be found in the Project Manual [PDF].
Are there other California Libraries using YouTube? Please let us know via the comment section.

Posted by carole leita at 4:07 PM in How We Did It Good | Interesting Libraries | Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a cool teen program you and your library can apply to be part of: How I See It: My Place. It's a California Council for the Humanities program, in partnership with Califa.

Here's the short spiel:

"How I See It: My Place" is a new program for California libraries that will provide all the resources librarians need to successfully implement a ten-week digital photography documentary project for teens – activities, equipment, supplies, funds and training.

Applications will be accepted from today (Dec 10) until Jan 17, 2008. 20 libraries will be selected to participate in the program, which will take place in the summer and fall of 2008.

A tip o' the hat to the California State Library blog for the link.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 9:20 AM in Interesting Libraries | Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

SOPACs—Social Online Public Access Catalogs—are expanding so quickly that yesterday’s dream (or nightmare, depending on your point of view) is on the verge of becoming today’s routine.

Take, for instance, the interactions between library staff, library users, library catalogs, and libraries themselves in one small way: through a library-sponsored author event. One year ago, before John Blyberg unveiled what he dubbed a SOPAC at Ann Arbor District Library and then moved over to Darien (Connecticut) Library, the library user might have learned of the event through a flyer, a library newsletter, a listing in a local newspaper, word of mouth, or by searching an online calendar of events provided by a library. The interactivity of SOPACs like the one currently in use at Nashville Public Library is inspiring additional connections between library users, OPACs, and websites.

Visitors to the Library’s website are able to see a brief and visually attractive listing of a few featured events. If they choose the link for a specific author event, they jump to a description of the event, can click on a link to have an email reminder sent to them shortly before the event takes place, and can use additional links to find other “Books & Writers” events which include access to the Library's collections (note added 11/30/07: library catalog link is to the left of the events column). Trying the initial "Books and Writers" link myself, I discovered that a documentary film about Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam and the writing of his final book will be held at the Library on December 11—news compelling enough to make me wish I could be in Nashville that evening.

The same Library home page can help readers make even more direct connections to the online catalog: following a link from a brief news item about novelist Ann Patchett receiving the 2007 Nashville Public Library Literary Award leads to a detailed press release which allows readers to check on the availability, through Nashville's online catalog, of any of her works which are owned by the Library.

Nashville Public Library Public Relations staff was the driving force behind this innovation, according to Library Automation Specialist Jamen McGranahan. Library staff worked together to develop the links between the pages and Nashville’s WebPAC. The winners, of course, are the Library’s users—and any others who decide to implement their own versions of what Nashville has accomplished.

Posted by paul signorelli at 3:01 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Less than a year ago, most of us would have asked “Michael who?” if someone mentioned Michael Wesch. That was before the Kansas State University Anthropology professor posted a short video, “The Machine Is Us/ing Us,” on YouTube in January 2007 and became one of 22 winners of the 2007 Wired magazine Rave Award a few months later for his exploration of how Web 2.0 is changing the way we see the world of information and ourselves.

The number of people who have watched the video has increased exponentially. It has now been viewed 3,610,519 times, so Wesch’s posting of two new pieces within the last week—including one on how students view the learning process, “A Vision of Students Today”—has already attracted over 140,000 viewers. More importantly, Wesch and his students in his Digital Ethnography project, are making us sit up and pay attention not only to what is happening in contemporary classrooms, but how students are discussing it: with an enchanting and poignant burst of creativity.

His work is a great example of everything that is right about Web 2.0: the use of shareware to quickly produce thought-provoking pieces which challenge us to reconsider much of what we know; the open sharing of what he and his students are producing; and an invitation to join them as they build a new community through the Digital Ethnography Working Group and its blog.

An interview with blogger John Battelle offers insight into how Wesch works and reveals that, for “The Machine is Us/ing Us," it took “about 3 days to put the video together, but of course it took months of thinking and research.” The Digital Ethnography site at Kansas State University includes items such as his posting on October 18, 2007—a discussion of the immediate reaction to “A Vision of Students Today” and an accompanying piece on how we obtain and process information, “Information R/evolution.”

Then there is the work itself. It’s edgy. Emotional. Controversial. Captivating. And it inspires reactions, as evidenced by the more than 200 responses on the YouTube site and the growing number of posts on Digital Ethnography. Wesch, on that site, claims it “is currently the most blogged about video in the blogosphere,” and it’s not hard to see why. The students featured in the video tell us what—and how much—they read (books vs. websites), write (term papers vs. emails), and listen to; how much time they study every day; and how many hours they need per day to accomplish all they set out to do.

“Vision” is about far more than one group’s experiences in school: it makes all of us who are involved in training think about what we accomplish, how we accomplish it, and what we might be doing differently in a world where the time it takes for lessons learned to become obsolete diminishes year by year. (One student suggests that by the time she graduates, she will be accepting a job which doesn’t even exist at the time she is earning her degree.)

The good news for trainers and other educators is that there isn’t going to be a lack of work for us anytime soon. The even better news for those of who like to learn is that there’s no end in sight for that part of the process, either—particularly when we have people like Michael Wesch and his students around to teach us.

Posted by paul signorelli at 6:06 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kaiser Permanente has designed a FREE online video game you'll want to bookmark on your children's area computers. Titled The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective, this free interactive video game for kids aged 9 to 10 teaches players about healthy eating and activity habits—and it is engaging and fun.

Junior food detectives, in English or Spanish, solve the cases of eight diverse kids who need to learn healthy habits. Kids can also print out fun health information to share, such as games (Whack A Snack, Soccer, and Zap the TV), scavenger hunts, exercises and recipes.

Not only does the game teach kids how to eat healthier foods, but also how to get more active and manage how they spend their time in front of the computer and television.

Kids can print out classified clues on ways to be healthy, and are encouraged to share them with their parents, teachers, and pals.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 8:28 AM in Odds & Ends | Web 2.0 | Permalink

A Librarian’s Guide to Creating 2.0 Subject Guides offers a neat compilation of Web 2.0 tools that you can use to create subject guides for your library! Among the tools noted: Squidoo, del.icio.us, and koonji (this last one is new to me). Check them out! Included are examples of how libraries are using them. Neat!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 2:20 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are you still on the fence about social networking at the library?

A year ago the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) division of the American Library Association launched the 30 days of positive uses of social networking project. Every day throughout October three YALSA bloggers posted ideas and information about using social networking in the school and public library.

You can download the compilation as a PDF.

Some of the highlights of the posts were ways that social networking can be used to:
• Empower teens
• Give teens the chance to meaningfully serve the community
• Support teen reading and writing/text-based literacy needs and skills
• Give teens opportunities to create and collaborate
• Make sure teens are able to plan and manage projects
• Communicate with community members
• Provide teens with opportunities to choose how to be smart and safe when using technology.

Here's positive use #1 to give you a flavor of the quality of the compilation:

del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/) is a great tool for collecting and publishing resource lists. In a public and school library teens can use del.icio.us to collect reviews of materials that should be purchased for the library, bookmark and annotate resources that support classroom projects, and collaborate on collecting resources on topics of interest from music to web design and from favorite authors to craft how-to tips.
If teens are interested in using del.icio.us as an information/resource gathering tool they could setup a joint account. (This would allow the teens to collect resources together in one del.icio.us area.) Then, wherever the teens are, if they find a resource that fits their del.icio.us focus they can quickly and easily login to their joint account, add the link, annotate the link, and off they go. del.icio.us even has RSS feeds so that others who are collecting resources on the same topic in the same del.icio.us space will know something new has been added.

If you still want more information, don't miss these Infopeople master speakers at the California Library Association Conference:

Saturday, October 27 - 3:45 – 5:00 pm
Shawn Gold, MySpace head of marketing and content development
Social Networks as Marketing Tools?
Do you think social software is just for getting a date for Saturday night or a whole new style of communication that will be shaping the way libraries reach customers in the future? Is MySpace just a fad or a key tool for reaching younger audiences? Learn why and how MySpace, with over 200 million registered profiles, has become an Internet phenomenon and get a sense of what social networks are accomplishing and where they’re going in the future.

Sunday, October 28 - 3:15 – 4:30 pm
Craig Newmark, Craigslist founder
Insights into Connecting People and Information
If you think that non-library information is all in the hands of money-grubbing moguls, think again. Come to this session and meet Craig Newmark, customer service rep and founder of craigslist, a non-commercial community bulletin board with classifieds and discussion forums.

Sunday, October 28 - 4:45 – 6:00 pm
Shel Israel, co-author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk With Customers
Libraries: Staying relevant in the Online Age
Blogging and the related social media are having a transformative impact on every aspect of society. There are now 70 million bloggers. By year end there will be more than 200 million registered members of MySpace, making it more populace than all but five countries on Earth. For every New York Times reader, there are 125 people who download YouTube everyday. A majority of these people are under 25 and the social media have become essential to their everyday lives.

What does this mean to your library? How can and should it adapt to this change? How can libraries use social media to remain relevant to young people and connected to their communities? Can blogs be used to educate communities on what libraries have to offer? Most important, how do libraries relate to a new generation who is more accustomed to getting information online than from bookshelves? How does the modern library adapt to this phenomenon? As the new conversational medium becomes part of people’s everyday lives, what will the library of 5, 10 or 15 years look like?

Posted by gail mcgovern at 2:18 PM in Conferences | Keeping Up | Web 2.0 | Permalink

Over on our 23 Web 2.0 Things blog we're maintaining a blogroll as a diary of each participants' work on the 23 things. There are almost 200 blogs! I will be highlighting some of the really interesting posts as I run across them.
Today's is from Siegel's Droppings and is on how Twitter has to have a critical mass of friends or co-workers to become a useful communications tool. Check it out at Others looking at Twitter.

Posted by carole leita at 10:35 AM in Web 2.0 | Permalink

Over the long weekend I received a couple of invites to a new social networking site. Guess what? It's a fake, and if you join it can spam your contacts! The site is called Quechup. Don't accept the invites! Read more here. And if I inadvertently spammed anybody, my apologies! I don't think I did, but better safe than sorry, apology-wise.

The moral of the story: always check out the social network site's URL to make sure it's legit BEFORE you click on an email invite (that's basic smart email policy, but with Web 2.0 stuff, I for one have gotten lazy).

Posted by eileen o'shea at 7:48 AM in Web 2.0 | Permalink

Can you measure the ROI (return on investment) value of the time your employees spend exploring social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook? Is it worth the staff time to develop content on all of these various sites? If you've ever pondered these questions, you might want to try out the Social Network ROI Calculator. It's fairly complex and you need to know a fair amount of information about your organization's operating costs, staffing, and outreach and/or advocacy campaigns.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 2:18 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink

A big round of virtual applause goes to Jacqueline Siegel of the California State Library! She is the first official finisher of Infopeople's 23 Web 2.0 Things challenge! You can check out her blog here. Congrats, Jackie! Keep up the good work, and keep twittering!

For those of you wrapping up your 23 things, be sure to check out Learning 2.1, and try out more 2.0 things.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 8:40 AM in Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Four Infopeople staff, fondly referred to as "peeps," (Eileen, Gail, Gini and Linda) have been using a FREE, easy-to-use and very practical Web 2.0 online "to do" shared list service, Ta-da Lists.

You can use the website to:

• make one list to keep track of things you personally need to get done

• make multiple lists you can share with other people (co-workers, friends, family)

• subscribe to your lists in RSS

If you're doing the Infopeople 23 Things Challenge, don't forget to blog about trying this idea!

Posted by gail mcgovern at 12:56 PM in Cool Tools | Odds & Ends | Web 2.0 | Web Resources | Permalink

Just when you thought you were getting a handle on Library 2.0 along comes Learning 2.1. This is the PLCMC's followup to their Learning 2.0 program which was a huge success. Learning 2.1 picks up where Learning 2.0 left off, and has a wiki and a Ning network to support it. It's all self-paced, so jump right in!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 11:32 AM in Keeping Up | Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Infopeople launched our own 23 Web 2.0 Things challenge this past week, and here is the blog entry that explains it all.

Anyone in the California library community who's taken an Infopeople
Web 2.0 class can participate - and that includes watching the Helene Blowers' May 9 webcast (live or archived), or listening to the podcast version. The challenge will last from May 9, 2007 until October 19, 2007.

The following training events qualify: the May 9 webcast with Helene Blowers; any session of the on-ground workshop Web 2.0: A Hands-On Introduction for Library Staff; any session of the on-ground workshop Web 2.0: Searching Innovations; the online course Web 2.0: Developing a Successful eBranch; the online course, Web 2.0: Connecting with the Community Using Social Software; any session of the on-ground workshop, Web 2.0: Teaching the Public about Social Software; any session of the on-ground workshop, Web 2.0: Using Social Software with Teens; any session of the on-ground workshop, Web 2.0: Applications for Children's Services, the LLWIP online or on-ground training.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 8:47 AM in Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know we're beginning to sound like the Helene Blowers fan club here, but there is now a podcast version of her May 9 webcast available for listening! It's 53 minutes of good Web 2.0 info, so give it a listen!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 11:42 AM in Podcasts | Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Helene gave a great webcast yesterday on all things Web 2.0, with an emphasis on what library managers need to be thinking about regarding Web 2.0 technologies. She mentioned a del.icio.us bookmark file, and we wanted to get that out to people. Here it is: http://del.icio.us/Web4Managers.

The archive of the webcast is up and ready for viewing.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 7:52 AM in Web 2.0 | Webcasts | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been following an interesting series of blog entries regarding change, innovation, libraries, and Web 2.0 (among other things). It started with a very interesting post by David Lee King. One of the big points he makes is that in the face of intractable management, innovative techie-type librarians will flee for greener pastures. He does a good job of stating the problem and challenges all of us to come up with solutions. His key questions:

• Steps to take to convince administrators that the library world is different than it was in the 1970’s?


• How to convince administrators that constant change and innovation is good, and that it’s also a necessity in our new millenial world?


• How can we become change agents in a field that’s apparently not used to changing?

What sort of leadership do we need from innovators and change instigators in librarianship and how can we as librarians learn the difference between leadership abilities and more traditional management/administrative skills? In other words does it take more than a presentation, plea or rant to decision makers on Web 2.0 tools to bring about change?

I think that is a key question, and in the library world a critical one. We as a profession have fallen into a tendency to view leadership and management as one and the same thing, and not a good thing at that. She mentions that when she was in library school, very few of her fellow students were interested in management or leadership; they just liked books and information. I had the same experience, and in fact would group myself in with those people. But if we just take a back seat (again) with the whole Web 2.0 revolution, it will be Yahoo! all over again. Librarians should have been the leaders in the development of tools like Yahoo! Instead, we ended up as an afterthought: the last hires rather than the fist hires.

For me a key question (and one that I don't have the answer to) has always been: are leaders born or made? Managers/administrators are definitely made - through promotion or appointment. But a leader - that's a different thing. Sarah Houghton-Jan's key question is:

...Think about how you (yes, you) could be blocking change and innovation in your library. Think about why you're doing it. You may feel that you have very good reasons (budget issues may be one of those). But you may be doing things subconsciously or as a knee-jerk reaction without thinking. Just do some self-reflection here.

Change is undeniably hard. Bureaucracy makes it harder. But change can also be exciting. Here's a first step: the next time you hear about a new technology, rather than think about the problems it presents for your library, let yourself think about how the technology could be used to benefit your library. Give yourself (and your library) a chance to dream. I know, I know, that's a pie-in-the-sky approach. But isn't it worth a try?

Posted by eileen o'shea at 10:42 AM in Keeping Up | Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Need to explain Web 2.0 and what it means for all of us and feeling a bit stumped? Check out this amazing YouTube video! It encapsulates in a few minutes what I've struggled for hours to express in words. And it nicely captures the vitality and excitement of it all, too.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 3:00 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink

Library 2.0 Ning is my favorite social network because it promotes serendipitous searching among people who have the same profession as well as an interest in web 2.0 in common.

I invite you to join this group of intriguing people from all over the world and add me to your friends list; see my profile.

Also, if you are a fan of serendipitous searching, check out Steve Nelson's BananaSlug, which was designed to promote serendipitous surfing.

"Directed Google searches return pages most relevant to your search term, based on the pages' popularity on the Web. You may never see some of the pages way down the list that are relevant or interesting, but off the beaten path."

Here's an example using BananaSlug. I tried "learning 2.0" and chose the Great Ideas category. The random word was time. While I found a number of the library programs with which I was familiar, the search brought me others I wouldn't have ever found by using typical search terms...e.g. a blog entry from Training Day.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 8:36 AM in People | Web 2.0 | Web Resources | Permalink

If your library is a Polaris PowerPac (v3.2 or later) or a Dynix library system (Classic or Horizon - excluding Java-based Dynix WebPAC) and hasn't yet signed up for Elf, an Internet-based tool your users can use for keeping track of what's due, overdue and ready for pickup for one or more library accounts, take a look at the demo.

Reminders are sent based on user preferences - before items are due (up to seven days advance notice, weekly notice or everyday reminders). For families or anyone who'd like reminders before an item is due (user-selectable number of days notice).

There is a list of those libraries already using ELF.

For those library users who have Macintosh computers, there is a a great OS X application, Library Books, that offers tracking as well as displays the information in the menu bar.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 11:42 AM in Cool Tools | Web 2.0 | Permalink

The Menlo Park Presbyterian Church website is a great example of moving to Web 2.0.

Take a look at the Sermons Online website feature.

Here's the description

"We are pleased to provide you with several options for experiencing sermons here at MPPC. We hope that these resources will help you on your spiritual journey.

In the table below, you can watch the video, listen to streaming audio, download mp3s for the last year, or read the transcript.

We've also added a new search feature to make it easier to find a certain sermon. Just click "Show Search" and you can then specify sermon title, or first or last name of the speaker. As always, you can scroll by date using the arrows at the top or bottom.

We also have a podcast for your convenience, just click here."

Those who worship by Web 2.0, can also donate that way too!

Interesting timing for discovering this website as the Infopeople online course, Religion and Public Libraries: Do You Do Dewey 200? has just started!

Posted by gail mcgovern at 12:29 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink

If you missed the SirsiDynix online Mashups presentation by Darlene Fichter, be sure to take a look at it and the resulting Frappr map

Here's the description of the presentation.

Mashups : A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

What's a mashup and why would I want one? Whether you're a reference librarian, library trainer, a library webmaster or teacher-librarian knowing about this new breed of web application is important. A "mashup" mixes content from independent sources to create something new. Many mashups are simple to create and require little technical know-how, allowing library staff and library users of all sorts to wave a magic wand and create something new. Jump on board and take a tour of interesting mashups, including some library examples, and explore the opportunities for libraries to remix library and other data sources to create new and innovative services. Take away tools that you can learn about and build mashups, for users or yourself, and recommended sites to learn more. Jump start your thinking on the new Web 2.0 ecosystem that relies on symbiotic relationships and communities rather than "monolithic systems" or the "kindness of strangers".

Darlene Fichter is the Head of the Indigenous Studies Portal and Coordinator of Data Library Services at the University of Saskatchewan Library. Darlene is particularly interested in the area of human computer interaction and designing positive user experiences. She has been a consultant and project manager for several web site, portal, digital library and intranet projects. Darlene is also columnist for Online magazine and a frequent conference speaker about new and emerging information technologies.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 8:45 AM in Cool Tools | Web 2.0 | Webcasts | Permalink

Okay, I'm a little late to the party, but this series of videos on YouTube from Allen County Public Library are a very cute takeoff on Apple's "Get a Mac" TV commercials. This time it's Librarian vs IT Professional. Good stuff!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 3:55 PM in Odds & Ends | Web 2.0 | Permalink

Thought I'd do a little Friday p.r. for a new Infopeople series. It's called Moving Libraries Forward to Web 2.0 and we have a web page and a wiki that give you all the specifics. The bad news: the online course Web 2.0: Developing a Successful eBranch is completely and utterly filled. The good news: we're going to offer another session! So email assist@infopeople.org to be added to the "Yes, I'm interested!" list. Note: due to a special grant, this series is free to the California library community. What this means for you out-of-state folks is that you won't be able to take any of the online courses, at least in this first round of training.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 5:34 PM in Infopeople News | Training | Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

No matter how you feel about YouTube, you will find lots to ponder regarding the impact of user-generated content by reading a recent article in the Sacramento Bee titled "Media Savvy: Liberal viewer is watching." The article describes the endeavors of "Allen Asch, 41, a stay-at-home dad and a former public defender in Placer County and Missouri" posting as LiberalViewer.

Not only have LiberalViewer's videos been viewed over 800,000 times since July 2006, but also his subscribers already number over 1,500. In addition, his user-comment section "is packed with passionate opinions for and against his points of view."

Why not explore YouTube for additional topical links to recommend to library users—and then even study Asch's approach as one your library might customize for providing information as well.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 6:37 AM in Keeping Up | Web 2.0 | Web Resources | Permalink

NPR's Talk of the Nation today included a fascinating interview with Don Tapscott, co-author of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.

Leadership guru Warren Bennis, author of On Becoming a Leader, commented on the book as follows, "Not only a superb book, but an essential one for anyone who wants to understand the major forces that will revolutionize the way organizations perform and the way they are led."

You can download a free copy of The Wikinomics Playbook if you are interested in seeing how the authors are collecting "ideas about how to embed key Wikinomics concepts and principles in 21st century organizations and business enterprises" from "a community of readers and experts."

Posted by gail mcgovern at 12:47 PM in Keeping Up | Web 2.0 | Permalink

Probably you've heard about Second Life, the 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents by now, but have you ever thought about what it would be like participating in a virtual presentation there?

In this blog entry Jeff Barr from Amazon Web Services describes his experience doing virtual presentations in Second Life. He was a guest speaker at a meeting of the Kuurian Expedition, a group of scientists and researchers sponsored by the Synthetic Worlds Initiative at Indiana University.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 9:14 PM in Web 2.0 | Permalink

If you aren't yet familiar with online productivity tools that rival Microsoft Office, first read an overview article to see a comparison of features.

Then at least take a look at the one getting the most buzz, ThinkFree.

To compare with the others, check out Zoho and Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 7:02 AM in Cool Tools | Web 2.0 | Web Resources | Permalink

State Librarian Susan Hildreth discusses what's happening at the California State Library in this podcast of her Dec 12, 2006 webcast.

Topics she touches on include: her recent trip to Washington D.C. to attend ALA's National Library Agenda Summit, additional LSTA funds for 2006/07, plans for a new Infopeople workshop series called "Moving Libraries Forward to Web 2.0," and the California State Library blog.

You can download the slides that accompanied her talk here. You can also view the archive of the original webcast from this page.

The podcast is 44 minutes long. It's also available on Infopeople's iTunes channel (see the sidebar link on the right, or just search the iTunes Store for "infopeople").

Posted by eileen o'shea at 10:42 AM in Keeping Up | Podcasts | Web 2.0 | Webcasts | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a neat tool for all you iTunes fans. Let your friends know what you're listening to (and give them a chance to get their own copy) by using iLike. It's a free download for iTunes (you can also use the web page as a stand alone tool). You get a web page (here's mine), and/or you can add a link to your MySpace page (here's mine). Folks can see what you're listening to, and then can click on a link to buy it at the iTunes Store (and you can do the same with them). Pretty cool!

And speaking of MySpace pages, the American Library Association has one! Become their friend today!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 11:47 AM in Cool Tools | Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)