Here's the most treacherous stacks in our library. You have to suck in your gut and hold your breath before venturing down this one.
Actually, this is a swinging 2X2 --you can access these resources from a wider aisle in the next stack.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Thing #4: Flickr
I'm the type of person who doesn't take a camera on vacation as I want to look at things with my eyes and not through a photo lens. (I also don't like having to label photos and throw them into an album--no, I don't own a digital camera).
However, after viewing the CommonCraft video and poking around in Flickr, I think Flickr is the solution to the problem of organizing and storing photos. I bet it would even be fun to set up photo sets on Flickr.
I decided to set up a Flickr account, so I borrowed my son's digital camera, and took a few pictures of my library. Here they are.
The Skinny_Stacks photo is a very narrow aisle where you have to suck in your gut in order to retrieve an item. (Actually, the stacks are 2X2 shelving units, and you can rotate them from a wider aisle that isn't in the picture.) Some days, just for fun, I go down the skinny stacks. It's a bit claustrophobic.
These white binders are our State of the Industry (SOI) reports. We save special issues of journals that have industry rankings, best new products, top manufacturers, etc.
Here's the oldest book in our collection: History of Corn Milling, Vol. 1, Handstones, Slave & Cattle Mills, by Richard Bennett and John Elton.
London: Simpkin, Marshall and Company Ltd, 1898. I need to send it to our company archives, but for now, I'm hanging onto it.
I'm working on getting our entire collection cataloged (we've been working off of a paper shelflist and are moving to an automated system). I've found some interesting things in the stacks, like an ancient copy of a Cutter table. Inside was a copy of Charles Cutter's instructions on how to use the tables, including this catchy first sentence: "It has been found convenient by librarians to arrange some classes of books alphabetically…” and later, this comment: “Some persons are apprehensive that this decimal arrangement will be hard to use, or at least hard to teach to stupid assistants and (when the public are allowed to go to the shelves) to a public unwilling to take the trouble to comprehend..."
I think I'll use Flickr to set up a virtual tour of my library. We're planning a grand roll-out when the cataloging project is completed. Having a virtual library tour via Flickr on our website would be a nice accompaniment for the roll-out celebration.
Parting thoughts/questions: Even though I tried to use the layout tools, it wasn't easy to format the photos and text (I wound up copying and pasting the html code into the right spots in my blog). Does anyone have advice or places to look for help on formatting images and text within a blog?
However, after viewing the CommonCraft video and poking around in Flickr, I think Flickr is the solution to the problem of organizing and storing photos. I bet it would even be fun to set up photo sets on Flickr.
I decided to set up a Flickr account, so I borrowed my son's digital camera, and took a few pictures of my library. Here they are.
The Skinny_Stacks photo is a very narrow aisle where you have to suck in your gut in order to retrieve an item. (Actually, the stacks are 2X2 shelving units, and you can rotate them from a wider aisle that isn't in the picture.) Some days, just for fun, I go down the skinny stacks. It's a bit claustrophobic.
These white binders are our State of the Industry (SOI) reports. We save special issues of journals that have industry rankings, best new products, top manufacturers, etc.
Here's the oldest book in our collection: History of Corn Milling, Vol. 1, Handstones, Slave & Cattle Mills, by Richard Bennett and John Elton.
London: Simpkin, Marshall and Company Ltd, 1898. I need to send it to our company archives, but for now, I'm hanging onto it.
I'm working on getting our entire collection cataloged (we've been working off of a paper shelflist and are moving to an automated system). I've found some interesting things in the stacks, like an ancient copy of a Cutter table. Inside was a copy of Charles Cutter's instructions on how to use the tables, including this catchy first sentence: "It has been found convenient by librarians to arrange some classes of books alphabetically…” and later, this comment: “Some persons are apprehensive that this decimal arrangement will be hard to use, or at least hard to teach to stupid assistants and (when the public are allowed to go to the shelves) to a public unwilling to take the trouble to comprehend..."
I think I'll use Flickr to set up a virtual tour of my library. We're planning a grand roll-out when the cataloging project is completed. Having a virtual library tour via Flickr on our website would be a nice accompaniment for the roll-out celebration.
Parting thoughts/questions: Even though I tried to use the layout tools, it wasn't easy to format the photos and text (I wound up copying and pasting the html code into the right spots in my blog). Does anyone have advice or places to look for help on formatting images and text within a blog?
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Thing #3: RSS
This was easy to set up. I used RSS feeds in library school, so it's a familiar topic. I set up five different feeds including: 1) my public library system feed, 2) Stephen's Lighthouse (Stephen Abrams of SLA & SiriDynix), 3) National Public Radio feed on Election 2008, 4) National Public Radio feed on new books, and 5) one blog from a fellow 23 Things participant. I found it easiest to copy the RSS feed URL into Google Reader.
I could use this tool at work to subscribe to feeds on key topics. However, I think the most immediate and compelling use will be a personal use--following the Election 2008 news on the NPR feed.
I'm still looking for a blog that I might be interested in reading on a regular basis. I'll try out Stephen Abrams and see what I think. So far, however, there aren't any blogs that have held my attention for very long.
I could use this tool at work to subscribe to feeds on key topics. However, I think the most immediate and compelling use will be a personal use--following the Election 2008 news on the NPR feed.
I'm still looking for a blog that I might be interested in reading on a regular basis. I'll try out Stephen Abrams and see what I think. So far, however, there aren't any blogs that have held my attention for very long.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Thing #2
Several ideas and issues come to my mind as I read and viewed the Thing 2 content. First, I agree with Stephen Abram that we have to experience and try things--just reading about them doesn't help us to learn, remember, and put the tool/concept to use. Second, I like the idead that Library 2.0 is about being relevant to our users--and to all segments of users with different demographics, skills, and needs. Third, I found the comment (by John Blyberg, I think) that there's a "lot of fantastic non-authoritative data--we just need to get off of our high horses and decide to make it available" intriguing and jolting. Intriguing because this comment makes me decide to take a fresh look at non-authoritative data and jolting because I'm a recent MLIS graduate and I've had the "check the authority of your source" rule drummed into me.
I decided to take a look at some of the tools/sites mentioned in the reading. Since my home library is the Hennepin County Library system, I looked at BookSpace on their site www.hclib.org/pub/bookspace and realized that this is a tool I'm already using and loving. Hennepin County Library also has FaceBook on their site--I went to this link but decided not to register to use FaceBook. I have two teenaged sons who use FaceBook daily, and in my mind, FaceBook is a tool for teenagers. While I know this isn't totally true (I read in Business Week recently that the registrations from older adults--i.e. older than 30--is booming), to me, FaceBook is too tightly associated with teens. But maybe this is partly what Library 2.0 is about--giving people options.
Along this theme, another good example of giving people options is Darien Library's Contact Us page www.darienlibrary.org/contact.php with email, phone, IM, and library open hours all listed together. I think I may adapt this for my small, special library.
I also looked at the Ann Arbor District Library's website, including the Director's blog and their catalog http://www.aadl.org/ . I loved the catalog with its link to Google Book and also the image of a the metadata from a card catalog. Catalogs with rich data like this can serve a Reader's Advisory function for patrons--something traditional descriptive cataloging doesn't do well.
Finally, Thing 2 has convinced me that I need to continue exploring these tools and concepts. I don't like using technology for technology's sake (just because it looks flashy) but because it can enhance content and deliver better service. I like the idea that we need to think and reflect on the activities in our blogs. Along those lines, I'd like to share something my younger son, Matt (now 16), told me when he was in elementary school.
Matt: I don't like to read
Me: Why not?
Matt: Because you have to think
Me: So?
Matt: Thinking is hard work.
Yes indeed, thinking is hard work....
I decided to take a look at some of the tools/sites mentioned in the reading. Since my home library is the Hennepin County Library system, I looked at BookSpace on their site www.hclib.org/pub/bookspace and realized that this is a tool I'm already using and loving. Hennepin County Library also has FaceBook on their site--I went to this link but decided not to register to use FaceBook. I have two teenaged sons who use FaceBook daily, and in my mind, FaceBook is a tool for teenagers. While I know this isn't totally true (I read in Business Week recently that the registrations from older adults--i.e. older than 30--is booming), to me, FaceBook is too tightly associated with teens. But maybe this is partly what Library 2.0 is about--giving people options.
Along this theme, another good example of giving people options is Darien Library's Contact Us page www.darienlibrary.org/contact.php with email, phone, IM, and library open hours all listed together. I think I may adapt this for my small, special library.
I also looked at the Ann Arbor District Library's website, including the Director's blog and their catalog http://www.aadl.org/ . I loved the catalog with its link to Google Book and also the image of a the metadata from a card catalog. Catalogs with rich data like this can serve a Reader's Advisory function for patrons--something traditional descriptive cataloging doesn't do well.
Finally, Thing 2 has convinced me that I need to continue exploring these tools and concepts. I don't like using technology for technology's sake (just because it looks flashy) but because it can enhance content and deliver better service. I like the idea that we need to think and reflect on the activities in our blogs. Along those lines, I'd like to share something my younger son, Matt (now 16), told me when he was in elementary school.
Matt: I don't like to read
Me: Why not?
Matt: Because you have to think
Me: So?
Matt: Thinking is hard work.
Yes indeed, thinking is hard work....
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