Same Song only Louder

This will be (I hope) my final "homework" post here, but contrary to my expectations when I created this blogsite, I won't reset the thing to "idle."

It's just too handy to have a blog-presence that I can use for booktalks, for when the Carnation Library blog isn't working/is down. It's a place to stash instructions (like Sarah Hunt's Easy-Peasy booktalks on Youtube scheme.) It'll be a place to stash my library-info related Blogroll links (reference, authors, etc.) that I don't want cluttering up my "home blog")

I'm even hanging on to my MySpace page--despite the wonderfully memorable and euphonious name I gave it: 160808247. I'm not joking--that's my name, and I still don't know how I wound up with it! Even though I remain convinced that MySpace is slow, ugly and too-full of dancing baloney for my taste, it's where most of my teen customers are--so I need to keep in touch with it.

And of course sites like Flickr and YouTube and YahooPodder (not its real name), which are "blog compatible" - I can now reflexively use them as needed to "flesh out" my blogs.

Basically, I'm singing the same song I did before I started "learning stuff:" only louder, on tune and more often.

The rest?

Except for LibraryThing (for my home library), all the rest is still a bit overwhelming. It's not that they were hard to learn how to use--they mostly weren't. It's not even that I couldn't see how useful they could be. I can. I'm just not sure how I can incorporate them into my daily, or even occaisional work-a-day life. In fact, I'm pretty sure I won't (for values of "won't" that will turn out to equal "can't") unless some form of integrated support: KCLS's "library 2.0" presence is created.

Too many different sites. Too many different log-ons and passwords.

Too much information.

So the answer to the question: what other "library 2.0 thing" should the KCLS learning project have covered--? Great Scott! Nothing, nothing else at all. Please--!

What I wanted was a unified playground: KCLS's web2.0 presence (Beta edition) to play with, to make the new information and new skills, "sticky." I still do. I hope the I.T. Powers that Be will let us have one--as opposed to just rolling out Teh Final Product^TM (bugs and all).

We'll see.


* * *
So that's the end for now. Thanks for the mp3 player (the winning Read 3 Summer Edition teenager, whoever he is, thanks you, too, in advance)

How to Put Your Booktalks on YouTube

From Sarah Hunt, teen services librarian extra-ordinaire:

Download covers from catalog:

Use the link "reviews+more" at the top of the book's entry to get KCLS-library-use authorized images.
Example:

Put together visual representation of whatever else you want in the talk:

Such as: Read Three, Game On, whatever
How to:

Make a PowerPoint presentation,
choose File: Save as Web Page.
In "Save As Type" drop-down menu select GIF or JPG.
Have it convert all slides.

Record yourself doing your booktalks:

Use a new file for each picture, naming them something that indicates what it is for easy matching up.
Audacity is available for free download at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Export each sound file from Audacity as .wav file.

Open Windows Movie Maker.

Import the pictures and audio files from your computer into the "Collections" window.

Have the bottom bit of the window show you the Timeline (I found it easier to edit this way).

Drag the pictures down into the Video portion in the order you want them.

Drag the audio files down.

As you drop each one onto the audio track, click on the picture that goes with that part of the audio.
Drag the right hand side to make that picture last as long as that audio clip. Repeat until everything matches up.

Test by playing your video so far in the right-hand play window.

Happy? Save your file.

Now export it into a usable format.

Click File: Save Movie File.
I used "The Web" option and saved it at DSL quality, saving a copy on my computer.

Now you should have a WMV file, ready to upload and share!

Tolt Booktalks Redux

Since I can't seem to get the Carnation Library's Blog to take my update (or at least, take it in any practical way that makes the post visible) here's the information on my kcls27things homework blog:

I've been booktalking at Tolt Middle School and thought you all might like to have a handy (annotated) list of the titles. Please note that the titles are also links to the KCLS catalog.

Mythbusters: Don’t Try This At Home* (507.8) *Unless we tell you how to. Which we will.

I Wanna Re-Do My Room (745.5) Everything you need to know to make your room fabulously yours.

The Acme Catalog (818.602) From portable holes to personal rocket-launchers (Warning: most products won’t work on roadrunners).

Bodies from the Ashes (937.7) Strange and pitifully preserved from the volcanic eruption (A.D. 79) at Pompeii.

How to Be Popular by Meg Cabot: An old self-help book turns Steph from outcast to queen bee.

Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz: Baseball or tradition? in early 1900s Japan, Toyo’s father’s life hangs on the answer...

The Coming of Dragons by A. J. Lake: When the dragon Torment returns, it’s up to a king’s son and sailor-girl with strange gifts to save their kingdom.

True Talents by David Lubar: Psychic powers are way cool, until you’re kidnapped by ruthless men who want to experiment with you...

Kiki Strike by Kirsten Miller: Four renegade girl-scouts led by the mysterious Kiki Strike take on the Shadow City beneath New York..

A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Moss: What if you saw numbers and sounds as colors—?

Polly & the Pirates (Graphic Novel) by Ted Naifah: Kidnapped by Pirates to become their Queen...

Vampire High by Douglas Rees: He’s the token “normal” in a school for vampires....

Her Majesty’s Dog (Graphic Novel) by Mick Takeuchi: She’s a powerful, lovely psychic. He’s her handsome guardian spirit. Together they fight the vengeful dead in Tokyo’s elite high school.

Ask a Ninja About Overdrive Audio Books

Seriously. If you could have this (admittedly chock-a-block full of actual factual Useful Information^[TM]) web-tutorial on Overdrive Audio Books at the Library... or,

Well... This:


C'mon. You know which one you'd want.

Kind of Like the New OPAC...

My library's "new" OPAC (that's on-line public access catalog for the non-library-nerds) is called Aquabrowser, which is an amazing tool for finding things in the library—unless you know exactly what you want. In which case, it's usually not there. Or you're looking it up wrong. Or something.

Either way, it's pretty frustrating.

Today, in the Internet Neat-o-Stuff Training Thingummy (that's ordinary nerd speak for KCLS's "Learning 2.0: 27 Things") we were supposed to "look up" podcasts) at one of three sites Podcast Alley, Podcast.net and Yahoo Podcasts

Well me, unless it's a language, I hate having to learn from audio: Visual and tactical are my media. Talk radio--? Blech. So the whole wide (web) world of pod-ville is not so much terra-incognita as that swampy area behind the town dump that, yeah, I suppose you think you saw a Great Blue Heron there once, but, ah... I'm going stay here and have another cuppa', mkay?

So I decided to go looking for the one podcast out there in Teh internets that I actually find kinda nifty: James Lileks "The Diner". On the first two sites, just like the old Aquabrowser, "The Diner" was nowhere to be found. I looked for another on-line aural experience I enjoyed: John C. Wright's (BookCast interview with the Fairfax Library : no joy. But Yahoo Podcasts actually worked, and pulled them both up.

And then, I admit, I remembered what Aquabrowser is absolutely great for: serendipity. You're not sure what you want, but you have a vague idea and you plug in a few things and poke around and boy howdy!, there it is: Something cool.

And sure enough I found this killer Early Music Website.

Here's the Yahoo Podcast link

(Because, yanno, that's just what makes me such an empathetic teen services librarian: I know my musical tastes are utterly bizarre and don't expect anyone to understand them, but thanks to the magic of the internets, I can get my 11th century funk on, just the same.)

In summary: Yahoo=good. Author interviews=good. Wacky music=good. The Podcast Alley and Podcast.Net: Meh.

Just a few more lessons to go, before this blog retires into well-deserved obscurity.

Been There, Done That--

Got the T-shirt Blog Entry.

What would a homework-set be without at least one cheat recycled assignment.

From my "real" blog: That's What Bilbo Baggins Hates--

If Bilbo Baggins were a librarian, that is.

A strangely satisfying^* video, "I want to be a Librarian"

Hattip to my fellow librarian Michelle at KCLS.

* * * * *

[*] Though, to my Winterdark (RPG game) friends, not nearly as nasty as what my librarian-character did: She had Helion smite book-thieves and vandals with Fire from Heaven. Maybe it's all just as well that librarians are (relatively) powerless...

Who Knew (Part 217)--?

So I drop by the web 2.0 awards and I try various categories: books, marketing, photos and digital images, health, etc. etc. etc. (as the King of Siam said to Anna). Nothing really new (or seemingly useful)

Finally I hit "fun stuff" and right at the top--? Cocktail Builder.

Plug in what you happen to have on hand and bam--! Up comes a list of nifty to drinks to build with it. Yum. Plus, it's dead easy to use. Color me impressed.

(What, you think I was kidding in the title of this blog--?)

Nice Try (But hey, it's Beta, right?)

Thanks to the KCLS Library 2.0 study-project, I finally took a gander at the stuff in Google Labs. (And it's about time: cue "nerdette hangs head in shame at appalling lack of ordinary curiousity" image)

So:

"Nice Try" in that snarky unimpressed voice: Google search "by timeline" is pretty pointless, compared to any library's magazine index. It doesn't actually set the wayback machine for you. How do I know? I call it the "Kenneth Starr" test. Do a magazine index search and grab anything prior to the 1990s. Consensus? An all-around decent fella and a fine lawyer. Post 1990s--? El Grand Inquisitor who eats babies for breakfast (why this should be, I leave as an exercise for the student)

The interesting thing about easily-accessed digital media is that it preserves the opinions and attitudes of the time. Why librarians should care? Because we're proud members of the anti-"we have always been at war with EastAsia" team.

And:

"Nice Try" in "Howza-bout that" impressed voice: The King County Metro Trip-planner sucks hard vacuum. Trying to help library-customers get from point-A to point-B is an exercise in pain all-round. The nice folks at Google seem to be going for the "We Love Capitalism" award. Follow the link (above) and go ahead and try to figure out how to get from down-town Duvall to Redmond Town Center. I dare you. Now try Google Transit. Here's what I got.

Pretty sweet. So, even though they're still weasels for playing footsie with the Chinese gulag-masters, I have to say: Go Google!

Now This: I Like!

New toy!

New useful toy!

Specifically, Google Docs and Zoho.

Since I have google accounts (this blog, my gmail) I expected to be happy about adding the on-line documents feature to the mix: No new passwords, no new user-interface, just new functionality. Yes, it's all that and a bag of chips. Best of all, the "file download" options let me dump it as a fully-functional word document onto whatever computer I'm using, so I can "share it" using those old-time-y e-mail attachments, print it using the Word features on my (several) computers and so forth. Very nice--!

Zoho surprised me: I think this is the one I'll be sharing with my library-customers who don't have discs and for whom the shared "P-drive" stands for "Painfully-inadequate-drive" (What happens to your documents accessibility when you "run out" of internet time on your card--? Uh huh...)

I'll probably be using the "poll-generator" feature right away, myself: both on my "real life" blog (rather sadly neglected for this student-driver-edition) and for some of my group projects. Here's the one I wrote for the Evergreen Nominating Team:

You Can't Always Get What You Want...

...and no, I don't think that even if I try "real hard," I'll get what I need. Well, not unless you count logging in to the WorldCat feature of our OCLC database whilst at work (the which is very cool, granted).

What I wanted (needed?) is an ability to search local library catalogs "all 'twonc't" as the saying goes. Sno-Isle + KCLS + Seattle Public (for all of which I have library cards) = Totally Cool.

Or would, if I could, using this week's tool: Google Search.

No joy.

The thing of it is, as a librarian, the sites I usually "search" aren't sites: they're the databases hosted by said sites. Mostly, that is [cue Newt voice]. Mostly.

Because I did build a one-stop booktalk-shopper for when I need to build-a-booktalk. These days, I mostly write the things in between customers on the circ/reference desk: Short-cuts are definitely a plus.

And did it work? Yes: just as well as searching each of the book-talking sites individually. But (and it's a big "but"), not appreciably better than just using the main Google search page. For why? Because both the Google "Custom" Search and the Google main page grouped the "best answers" at the top.

Does that mean I found it useless? No. It might still come in handy at some point, some day. But for now, the "custom search" tool won't get pride-of-place in my "Library 2.0" toolbox.

And It's All True, I Tell Ya--!

Your Superhero Identity For Today Is:

Name: Blaze Sister

Secret Identity: Rosa Nutkana

Special Power: Somatic Stick

Transportation: Electric Bathtub

Weapon: Lightning Bolt

Costume: Fibersteel Gauntlets

Sidekick: Igor (Igors are very handy. Considering the random damage I do myself on a regular basis, they'd make a fine sidekick)

Nemesis: Cindy the Younger

Tragic Flaw: Fear of spiders

Favorite Food: Cheese (Mmmmmm.... Cheese)

Hattip to The Generator Blog for the link to the Humorscope Super-Hero Page

Too good to be true?

Wikis.

I haven't built one yet--my library system is just getting started building them--but already I want one.

They're like uber-databases, only much more user-friendly (Quoth the woman who has only ever used Microsoft's database program, pain-in-the Access) and I just love databases. Organized, searchable information=LOVE.

I want a booktalks wiki and a teen program-builder wiki and the wiki for my Teen Advisory Commission and middle school board...

It's not that I'd never used wikis--I worked on a tiny corner of the Hurricane Katrina Wiki, made copious use of ALA's Midwinter Conference wiki, robbed blind was inspired by the "uncyclopedia" for Solinus, even made my own tiny contribution to the famous-est wiki of all. Of course, my entry has been updated and changed--the changes are correct, as far as they go--but less informative.

Knowing what I knew (or thought I knew) they all seemed so... frivolous, uncontrolled and disorderly.

I just didn't perceive how, well, how incredibly librarian-cool wikis could be.

And it's Tasty, Too--!

Today I discovered Del.icio.us.

You know: the tagging site? For organizing web-documents?

The site with all the yummy, yummy cataloging possibilities: Indexing information is LOVE--! The tool that's totally portable from job-site to jobsite (cough. clusters. cough)

What an ultra-maroon.

Me, I mean. I can't believe it took me so long.

Hitting the Wall

I knew it was coming.

I breezed through photo-sharing and RSS feeds and this blogging account: no worries.

They were nice about it, the training people at Library 2.0. They eased me into the thing with intriguing essays about user-stats for Facebook and a real (!) virtual library on second life and a podcast from a very cool librarian.

It didn't make it any easier: Social networking.

MySpace.

Bleh.

Dancing baloney? Check.
Messy, cluttered, visually-appalling page-design? Check.
Reader-unfriendly? Check.

I stuck my the Library 2.o training course on the shelf: Later Dude.

Much later.

But! And!

I know MySpace = love for so many, many people.

So I did the lesson.

And I've got a Myspace page.

And I even volunteered to help moderate my library system's teen MySpace presence next year, when, presumably, I may still be giving it the hairy-eyeball, but it'll be a hairy-eyeball of user-competence.

Here goes nothing.

Ayup

Yes, Virginia, I can embed my bloglines account--and since bloglines grabs feeds from sites that do not, as it turns out, have feeds--?

Pretty cool.

I'm still not getting my news from some MSM-online-clone, though.

Yes, But Can I Embed It?

New this week: RSS feeds.

It sounds nifty, agglomorating all your "information" in one place, but I'm particular about my news. I get it in magazine format (The New Republic, The National Review, ET and Science News) and I'm covered.

Sure it's slow. Sure it's old-school (Dead Trees, not those groovy electrons. Dude--!)

With all the misinformation abounding in the MSM, one is really better off waiting a week for the Fog of War Bias to dissipate and then collect what data apppears from reasonably (intellectually-speaking) reputable, but conflicting (assumption-wise) perspectives. That, and the MSM reporters are just bone-ignorant about the sciences. After all it's not what you know, but what you think you know that just isn't so that usually gets you in the end.

Still. R.S.S. is the New Thing.

Let's see if this new blogger-thinggumy can embed the Bloglines feed-service. Then I really can have it all in one place--and this blog might be worth keeping as something more than a place-holder.

More "Fun" with Flickr (Redux)

This was (briefly) "Mashups are Love" using Spell with Flickr. And they are, aren't they?) but not so much until I get better at Blogger's html-editing software. Massaging the alignment. Trying to get paragraphs to para:

So yes, making the mashup was cute, but exporting it here: meh. Ditto with the library trading card:

Of course simple, dancing-baloney-free info is the bestest fun of all. But I'm an Olde Tyme Farte that way.

And yes. If the alignment is all to blazes, too bad. There's a reason this is a (mostly) throwaway blog.

More Fun with Flickr

"Div" and "p" curse you. DIV--! P--!, I said--!

And also? Preview? Lies like a RUG.

Ahem.

Let's try that again. From scratch.

Group Hug-!(Now more text-y and link-y-!)

I wasn't expecting to have to do much de novo for the KCLS Learning 2.0 coursework (*) since I've been noodling about on the 'nets for a while now, and this week's excercise was no exception. But I did discover something nifty. (For "geek" and "nerd" values of "nift") We're covering "Flickr," the site which, as you know Bob, is more than just a free convenient place to

1. Upload photos of the baby for all her adoring relations to view, or


2. Dump images for your blog because you're too cheap to get the paid account with file-space.

No! There's more: Flickr is also all about the community and the sharing (Mmmmm. Sharing) and--here's what I hadn't been paying attention to--do you know what powers this (virtual) visual group hug--? Wait for it...

Cataloging!

Yes, my dear Bob, it's the tags, those descriptive terms slapped on the books media images that enable Flickr users to group like items together and find what they're looking for. There's even the sweet little beginnings of an authority file. Which is not to say I'm going to go all taggy on my own Flickr site: I'm not really looking for more (virtual) community in my life--Flickr's still just a tool I'm using along the way to the other things I want to do.

But homework calls: Here's the (properly tagged) photograph to share with my fellow KCLS-ers. I was going to give you a milkmaid, but doing the tag search on that one--? Not what you'd call "family friendly." Instead, I chose Saint Minutia, the Patron Saint of Catalogers (follow the link to "Great Moments in the History of Technical Services.") Now when you search Flickr's tags for "catalogers" you get her, too. Go St. Min--!

* * * * *

(*) "Library 2.0" is library-speak for all the groovy intramanet stuff your teenager discovered 4 years ago: blogging, podcasts, MySpace, YouTube... Since I'm a Michael Gorman fangirl ("there is no communication without automation) it's all good.

I've Got Homework--!

I'm debating whether or not the schadenfreude (for them, obviously) is worth the disillusionment. Do I tell the kids with whom I work that yes, you can grow up, get a job, a home, a husband, dogs and kid and then yes! Your boss (or organization) can and will assign you, you know... Homework?

Yep. Homework.

So: If you wandered over here from the original (or from googling) "Overgrown Hobbit," [Jedi Mind Trick] this isn't the blog you're looking for... you can go about your business... move along [/Jedi Mind Trick]

***waves to the nice people at KCLS***

How's this--?