Thing 19. Podcasts

I'll admit it--I'm the last person in the U.S. without a MP3 player. I don't have an Ipod, haven't converted my CDs to digital to be kept snugly on my hard drive, listen to nothing fancier while driving in my ancient Chevy than those shiny silver disks. Yet I like podcasts, even if I have to listen to 'em on my pc. It's just way cool that you can listen to stuff other than music when just strolling around--although the tunes are good, too. (Ex: Minnesota Public Radio's Current has a podcast with the 'caster's favorite gee-tar solos and discussion thereof.) And great that so many educational institutions such as universities, libraries and museums are making podcasts available. One problem, and it's a "good" one: as with much of the 2.0 world, there's almost too many interesting podcasts from which to choose.

Thing 18. YouTube and other online video

Here's a YouTube vid. that anyone who spends time introducing newbies to computers or doing tech support can appreciate. Hysterical. There's another one as well, a golden oldie about librarians from M. Python back in the 70s.

Thing 17. ELM Productivity Tools

Lots of stuff to do here: Gale, Ebsco, Proquest dbs, and Netlibrary to boot. It's very cool that ELM provides these resources; I mean, we get 'em through my library, but making them available as a MN-wide resource is a tremendous value. This brings to mind a pet peeve I've long had of the "industry"--we give so much good stuff to folks, but it's not promoted beyond a library's website or via the print lit a library puts out, or perhaps through an article in the paper somewhere. How about some of those hard-earned dues we pay to the various pro orgs: ALA, MLA in Minnesota, etc., going into TV or online PSA's that promote stuff like the ELM dbs?

In doing this Thing, some of the detail-stuff didn't work as described. That's to be expected. But for the most part, it's great being able to do research and then make it available to yourself or to colleagues via RSS or a webpage. I guess I do question the need for the latter, but I supposed having results published in HTML provides web-based accessibility that elimates the need for sending the same material in an e-mail attachment, etc. The more avoiding PDF, the better as far as I'm concerned.

Thing 16. Student 2.0 Tools

If I worked in an academic library, or taught classes, I definitely could see the usefulness of student 2.0 tools. Both the Research Project calculator and the U. of M. Assignment calculator provide a guiding structure (timelines, strategy recommendations, worksheets, tips, etc.) that would be especially useful for students learning how to organize their scholarship. I could also see the value for those unorganized grownups I see around me. Nonetheless, I don't see much in either of these calculators for library project management. Other tools are better, such as Doodle or Ikordo (for scheduling/sharing meeting dates), Zoho or Google docs for sharing apps, or Nexo for file sharing, meeting setup, collaboration in general. And there's always good ol' wikis.

Thing 15. Online games and libraries

Well, I gave Second Life a shot. I heard folks from Alliance pitch how their library uses it (one librarian on staff even spends half her workweek in SL, per her job description!) during one of those informative quickie-sessions at ACRL in Baltimore last year. They were all pretty enthusiastic, so I signed up. But, much like everybody else (except a lot of Germans; apparently they find it very appealing over there), I quickly became disenchanted.

SL as an app is just too balky. It sucks up more memory than even IE and requires a ton of bandwidth. In addition, it's unreliable: when your avatar is acting like he's lost in space, or the screen doesn't paint, or your mouse sits promptless for minutes, you don't know if the problem is with your connection, your pc, or SL's hopefully gigantic server farm wimping out. Another gripe: lack of decent tutorials or documention--hey, I'm a Virgo: give me details, please. And a final whine: how about allowing go-backs, Linden Lab guys? I mean, your avatar learns the ropes, gets some confidence, you figure it's time to leave Orientation Island and what-the-f....you can't go back! What gives with that! Part of gaming is making mistakes and learning from 'em; it's an empirical digital world, but SL doesn't seem to agree. Once you're off the island you're stuck finding your way around with the crappy tutorials, which give you a few basics: how to pick something up, how to fly, etc., but after that you're screwed--you can spend hours (s-l-ow-l-y) wandering around SL and not getting anywhere.

So, I'm like a lot of folks: tried Second Life, thought it cool for a while, then discovered reality. Don't get me wrong: The concept of SL's digital libraries as a new vehicle for supplying information to people is a great one and I'm all for it--I just wish the vehicle was easier to drive.

Thing 14. LibraryThing

On this Thing, I've added a widget that allows LibraryThing searchability. I guess lots of libraries are embedding such into their sites. It's a great way to show patrons (er, customers, if one is want to use trendy, bookstore = library lingo) some upfront info about a book, including its cover. I can see usability in blogs, too, so folks can check out what's going in somebody's library, or get some insight on a book that's off the beaten track of the usual places such as BIP. And what a boon to home libraries. If you've got some time, this is a great way to catalog your whole collection, as we librarian-types may actually be prone to do.

All in all, LibraryThing is pretty sweet: I love the way you can pull from Amazon, LOC, etc. And, of course, the tagging concept allows more complete searching and interaction with the LibraryThing/book/library community.