stay tuned!

okay so 23 things is done(see the last 2 entries) but the blog isn't. today is my last day of "work" but family and friends can stay tuned for updates over the next few months. happy reading!

step #20~canuck chicks rock!

okay so i have spent a bit of time playing around with last.fm and i have come to the conclusion that this might just be my favourite part of 23 things! you see i am in love with a canadian singer, jann arden. she is so canadian you can hardly hear her anywhere outside of canada even though she has won countless awards and has about a zillion cd’s out and european/north american tours. but since i moved here to the land of cheese and chocolate i haven’t heard her and even missed that she had a new cd out!!!!!! horrible!!!! what kind of pathetic fan am i? but now thanks to last.fm my troubles are over! i can listen to her again. and what is also super duper about last.fm is that the majority of the other recommended tracks and artists are people i regularly listen to like other canuck chicks like amanda marshell, chantel kraviatzik and sarah mclachlan. and other great artists i totally enjoy like indigo girls, shawn colvin, melissa ethridge and the likes. there were some where i thought what in the world is this? but still the majority have been dead on to my taste. even the artists you find via via via have been to my liking. i can over look the fact that each song is a different volume and requires adjusting if the music stays this good. i also really like the info. they provide over the artists. i’ve always enjoyed reading bios over artists and now i don’t even have to look them up myself, they are provided! i enjoy that!. the one thing i don’t really find interesting for myself is the “making friends” option. i don’t really see this as a social networking opportunity for myself. i can see how one could desire the social aspect of it. chatting with other people who all enjoy the same music as you, meeting up at the same concerts and such but really…i don’t feel the need. what i do feel the need for is to see if i can use last.fm on my new smartphone! now that would be something totally super duper! i’m off to play some more…

step #23~the end

this time around i'm just going to fill in the answers cause i'm really not sure how else to do it. i hope that's not too boring...

wat waren je favoriete Dingen die je onderweg hebt leren kennen en gebruiken?

well i really like netvibes...i use it daily and really find it handy for keeping my web stuff organised. i also really like last.fm. i liked spelling with flickr for a bit of creative mindless fun and have used flickr to share photo's with family and friends.

wat heeft dit leerprogramma “gedaan” met jou en met de organisatie waar je werkt?

personally this learning program has really just helped me to get off my lazy butt and try the various things i had already read about and talked about or passively experienced. it has created the opportunity for me to take the time to actually do things i had just never gotten around to.

it has been really interesting to observe how people here have responded to having to do 23 things. at first there were a lot of negative murmurs and every once in a while there still are but there have also been quite postive conversations that have not only brought co-workers further in their journey towards library 2.0ification but also just plain closer as co-workers. it has been great to see people being more open to asking for help and trying to help eachother out. i have really seen that as a postive from this experience. and lets face it having done it we are all a step...or 23 steps closer to being able to lead the 2.0 pack. the majority of us are still sheep following along with the trends and that will always be i think. but we are now better equipped to help those following after us.

waren er dingen die je verrasten, als onverwacht resultaat van dit programma?

i think i was more suprised by the team building effect of the program then the actual contents of the program itself. it has just been so postive in that respect. i feel like we should do something else like this to keep it going.

wat kan er gedaan worden om 23 Dingen te verbeteren?

a more advanced option would be great for people who are already quite handy with web2.0 applications. there were often more advanced options that were seen as like " if you really like this then dig a bit deeper" but that's not quite what i mean. i mean like other programs and such so that when you know all about podcasts and social networks you can check something else out. is that clear at all?

En vul aan: “23 Dingen is voor mij …”

for me 23 things is a great learning tool that has the potential to help inspire librarians and being the libary to the next needed service level. but i think it is just the beginning. now it is time for us to try things out and incorperate what we experiment with into our libraries and see how we can better our selves and our services.

thanks management for the great chance for a bit of fun, team building and even learning!

a librarian's 2.0 manifesto

A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto from Library 2.0: An Academic Librarian's Perspective. Copied from the original blog post.

• I will recognize that the universe of information culture is changing fast and that libraries need to respond positively to these changes to provide resources and services that users need and want.
• I will educate myself about the information culture of my users and look for ways to incorporate what I learn into library services.
• I will not be defensive about my library, but will look clearly at its situation and make an honest assessment about what can be accomplished.
• I will become an active participant in moving my library forward.
• I will recognize that libraries change slowly, and will work with my colleagues to expedite our responsiveness to change.
• I will be courageous about proposing new services and new ways of providing services, even though some of my colleagues will be resistant.
• I will enjoy the excitement and fun of positive change and will convey this to colleagues and users.
• I will let go of previous practices if there is a better way to do things now, even if these practices once seemed so great.
• I will take an experimental approach to change and be willing to make mistakes.
• I will not wait until something is perfect before I release it, and I'll modify it based on user feedback.
• I will not fear Google or related services, but rather will take advantage of these services to benefit users while also providing excellent library services that users need.
• I will avoid requiring users to see things in librarians' terms but rather will shape services to reflect users' preferences and expectations.
• I will be willing to go where users are, both online and in physical spaces, to practice my profession.
• I will create open Web sites that allow users to join with librarians to contribute content in order to enhance their learning experience and provide assistance to their peers.
• I will lobby for an open catalog that provides personalized, interactive features that users expect in online information environments.
• I will encourage my library's administration to blog.
• I will validate, through my actions, librarians' vital and relevant professional role in any type of information culture that evolves.
  

Posted by Laura Cohen on November 8, 2006 01:01 PM

step #22~the evolution of the library…

1. Lees twee of drie artikelen over Bibliotheek 2.0 uit de bronnenlijst (engels en/of Nederlands). 2. Schrijf een blogpost waarin je je gedachten weergeeft over één van deze artikelen
3.Meld je aan bij de Nederlandse Bibliotheek 2.0 Ning community met je cursusaccountgegevens. 4. Schrijf een blogpost over waarin je iets schrijft over hoe jij tegen Bibliotheek 2.0 aankijkt.

okay so me being i in all my super geekdom glory am convinced that you can make a great parallel between the history of the library and the history of the church. in fact, i am convinced that in some respects the two even go hand in hand. however, i am aware that no one is interested in reading this comparison but me so i will save everyone from extreme boredom and refrain. however, i came to this conclusion while reading the articles about library 2.0 and that the whole idea about library 2.0 being about the evolutionary process of public access. if you think back, even just in library history, that has been a trend from the beginning. moving from monastic libraries to closed stakes to open stakes. library 2.0 seems like the next logical step where we as librarians continue to move from keepers of the information treasure chest to being the tour guides. yeah, we have made several steps towards that already but if the patron still can’t understand our way of doing things then we have to change to meet their needs. and as the times change so do the needs and our way of meeting them need to change too. that doesn’t mean we throw everything we’ve done out the window but it does mean that we need to be open to compromise without compromising our core. i think really the Librarian Manifesto sums it all up very well. it does not at any point say that we as librarians throw our current system out the window but that we let ourselves be receptive to the changes of the world around us and attempt to incorporate those into the library world so that we can continue to do our job effectively. we need to evolve our ideas, our programs and our services in accordance with the desires of the user and changes of their culture while being open to failure, criticism, input, and remaining positive through the whole process. I think that that is basically what we have been doing very slowly over the last few hundred years…normally in response to a crisis of some sort… and now we need to make that step a bit faster to keep up with the extra fast moving people of this time period…and we do this in response to the crisis that if we don’t, we not only stagnate, we find ourselves out of a job. this is where something like bibliotheek 2.0 ning and library 2.0 ning are super handy networks that help us as librarians help each other to track trends, evolve our services and give each other feedback on how we are doing. the evolutionary process is much easier of you do it as a team and not just on your own. Instead of being the single salmon fighting the current you become one of many going with the flow, moving forward together…but don’t worry, at the end of this story you don’t die like the salmon, you evolve to a higher level of service, standards and patron satisfaction. and that is really what being a librarian is all about.

step #21~ pop rocks and diet coke

&

due to technical difficulties i have been forced to temporarily skip step #20 and move on to #21…the aquabrowser…what do i think? i like it! i like the cool interface. it has the potential to let patrons and in particular students make actual use of the OPAC and maybe just maybe even make it fun! it fits with the professional look of applications, social networks, gaming and the likes that students now view as the norm. heck even i view it as the norm and like the eye candy of the new browser. i like the idea of a social browser too where patrons have input into how they find things like with a tag cloud. maybe it will help people find what they are looking for. sure a tag cloud doesn’t replace standard search methods made possible by fastidious cataloguing but it can enhances it, since student brains definitely work differently then cataloguer brains. i like the idea of reviewing and ranking too. students can give a heads-up to there fellow students “like this was super great for my paper about nietzsche” or “don’t be fooled the title says this is about hair but really it’s about rabbits” but i think it would be great if this could be done by both users and librarian to provide a fuller picture of the book…in an academic setting i think this is important so that students don’t discard an important book based on a fellow students poor review or vice versa…in a public library i see this as less of an issue. and i like that you can make lists of books you like, were useful you wanna read, etc. super handy when you are working on your these and you realise you forgot to cite a book and have to find it again or when you want to tell you mom about this great book you read last month but can’t remember the title or whatever your scenario is…but all of the things that i have named as advantages do beg the questions…is it necessary to cater to the student with a new sexy OPAC or should we as the library continue to indoctrinate users and force them to follow our rules…and i think it is both. we should provide a stimulating interface with input potential while sticking to our core business of providing information and teaching students proper researching techniques to do so. one shouldn’t replace the other it should bring things to a new and better level like a glass of wine is said to enhance the flavour of your dinner…i have heard anyway. i personally prefer diet coke but that only really enhances the taste of like pop rocks… know what i mean? so maybe the OPAC is the diet coke and the aquabrowser is the pop rocks? okay i have seriously digressed. i’m moving on…does this country have pop rocks? okay i’m really moving on….step #22…

the academie bestuur en recht ABRi

here are some pictures of the little reference library i have been working on for the last year. it doesn't look like much but a lot of time, work and money has gone into making it what it is. thanks bittersweet librarian for taking the shots with your super duper camera!

thanks aadl for this great trick! to make your own card catalog entry visit the ann arber public library online catalog: http://www.aadl.org/catalog

step #19~ can't live without my facebook!

okay so step #19 is all about discovering social networks and thinking about how you can use social networking in your library. i think the best way for me to discuss this issue it to tell about my personal use of facebook cause lets face it i can no longer live without facebook. not because i am some kind of addict who relies totally on it for all social contact but because it has become the primary way for my friends and family who live around the world to keep in touch. that is how i got on facebook to begin with...when i moved here it was a free way to stay connected with my friends and family in canada as well as norway, israel, the states, england, etc. and stay up-to-date about the day to day events in life. over the years i have found more friends and they have found me. we have reconnected, picked up where we left off and now keep in touch with what is all going on in our various parts of the world and lives. but i have also used my facebook account for the good of the library world. via fellow library school friends and professors as well as various library related groups i belong to, a sort of library support system has been created for me and the others involved. we share reference questions, help find new jobs(no i'm not looking but others were) and swap stories about how we can futher enhance the library universe. i have also answered reference type questions from my no-library friends but i don't think that is the place to be in order to draw people into the library. i just happened to be in the right place at the right time. via the groups offered and such it can be used to support for outside library users as well as librarians with like "friends of the library", "ala", book discussion groups, etc. it can shed light on library opportunities and good books to borrow and spark reading interest but i don't think we as librarians should get all hung up on that. i think that is just an extra...well with all this talk about facebook i wonder how people are doing. time to check up on some friends!

step #18~ stepping away from my paper version in favour of the web...do i wanna i make the jump?

1. Ga naar de Nederlanse versie van LibraryThing en maak een persoonlijke account aan
2. Voeg tenminste 10 boeken toe aan je bibliotheek
3. Schrijf een blogpost over je ervaringen, waarbij je ook een link legt naar jouw virtuele boekenkast. Hoe populair zijn jouw boeken? Werd er over gediscussieerd?

i thought that librarything would be my very favouritist part of this little 23 things event. what could be better than virtually organising your personal libary? and for the real world this has the potential to be a handy little web2.0 thing. you can record all the books in your library with the click of the mouse. but for actual cataloguing purposes i would have to say i prefer my paper version...yes i am one of those strange people who have taken the time to catalogue my own little library in a super handly little book that allows you to cross reference titles and authers and the likes. my collection is also organised by genre and alphabetical order according to auther. i am fully aware that i am a geek and i have made peace with this but i like the organisation. another geeky thing about me is i like to be accurate...in order to be accurate you need to know the isbn of your actual copy so you have to have the book in front of you. do you think the real world knows this? or are they just randomly selecting? but a distinct advantage to librarything regardless of personal idiosyncrasies is the social part of it. you can see who likes the same books as you, discuss your books with people and see what new books you could check out next. i entered mostly the popular books in my collection and they are pretty popular. there are discussion about them...nothing deep and insightful...but there isn't really anything deep or insightful about a maeve binchy or sue grafton book...but they are popular and are on various book challenges and the likes. and i got some nifty ideas about what to read next. i quite enjoy that part of it. maybe i'll continue in my geekworthy fashion and make a new list of book to read during my month off. but for the actual cataloguing i'm still sticking to my little orange book. sorry. i know it's not very forward thinking of me and it is totally not web2.0 of me but i can't let go of the control i have with the paper version.

step #17~ going on a bear hunt…well a web2.0 hunt really…but i’ll still catch a big one!

step #17 is all about finding out about the wonderful world of web2.0 and all the crazy things you can do with the applications now available. i checked out lots of stuff from how to make postcards of your pets to getting money advice to storing backups of your files. but the thing that really caught my eye was biblio.com. found via the website for web2.0 awards. Biblio.com is a great place to look for secondhand and rare books with many different bookstores opening their treasure chests of available books for you to find all in one place! i’m totally in love with the miss zukas mysteries by jo derekse about a librarian who canoes, eats all her food separately not allowing a thing to touch, sucks the coating off m&m’s before actually eating them and does several other things and has several other similarities to my slightly nutty self. She also solves mysteries but that is not my forte. anyway, some super smart publisher (smell the sarcasm) decided to stop publishing the middle 4 books in the miss zukas series. this sad fact means that in order to finish the series i have to find used copies. no worries now! i hit up biblio.com and found them!!! now if that isn’t super duper fabulicious I just don’t know what is!!!! Schaap veronica and cybercybar I think we can attend to some unfinished business now…we just have to wait till jan. cause they’re being delivered to the parental units house. thank the good lord for web2.0 applications! now we can practice some good old-fashioned pre-web reading!

step #16~ the written stuff

Surf door YouTube, bekijk tags, rubrieken, de zoekmogelijkheden etc. en schrijf erover op je blog. Wat kan je bibliotheek ermee doen ter promotie van de diensten? Wellicht wil je een bibliotheekfilmpje in je blog plaatsen? Rechts van elke video vind je de zogenaamde “embed” code. Kopieer en plak deze in je blogpost. Let wel op dat je dan in de HTML weergave van het bericht werkt!

well step #16 is actually something i have never done before. i could never be bothered to search for other people’s videos on YouTube. sure i always found it funny when people sent me stuff they had found on the site but i could never get the umph to check it out myself. today i did and i found super fun stuff. i loved mr. bean and the library and grover’s library lecture and no cookies in the library with cookie monster and i am such a big fan of miss marpel that is was great to see the body in the library up there too…although i am sure that there have to be lots of copyright infringements going on. there were lots of clips from other movies and games that include library scenes and even a few super funny songs about the library. but with the super fun stuff i also found the super lame stuff!!!! seriously i will name no names but there were a lot of seriously boring library tours and stuff meant to entice the public into the library and explain how it all works that made me, a librarian, roll my eyes. how can you expect someone first to find your video and then to actually watch it when it is akin to watching paint dry…and i don’t mean the kind of paint were you can play “which drip falls the fastest”. that can actually be fun. YouTube has great outreach potential but then you gotta give the user some high quality competitive stuff that isn’t like…lets pick our youngest librarian on staff and have them take students through the information finding, book lending blah blah blah process…i mean i don’t care so why should students and users care? and then you gotta get some good pr so people can find what you have made. there is total potential with this free sharing multimedia program to be used as a teaching tool …teaching through fun what better way to learn without the pain of actually using the word “learn”…but we gotta make it worth the viewers while or we are just kidding ourselves wasting time and money on something that could be super duper fabulicious.

step #16~ a little peak at retro library programs

you can't tell me these aren't great!



grover's library lecture



no cookies in the library

the seseame street of our childhood!

step #15~ moving and grooving through 23 things...with my new podcast!

ah the podcast… the anywhere, anytime, self selected music or information program at your fingertips. quite an enjoyable little invention really. before step #15 i had several positive experiences with podcasts. i have a running podcast on my ipod for 5 km runs which is updated ever week. it has different music according to the tempo you should be running at and it tells you approximately how far you should be at which point in the music and tries to inspire you to push that little bit more. needless to say i have not been making use if this podcast lately as i am pretty much thankful i can still move my legs in a running like movement without collapsing let alone trying to keep up with a tempo…i wont be winning any races this year! but my pod experience is not limited to running. i also receive the podcast of the “obnoxious librarian” a very humorous satirical look at the library world(there is also a blog and a christmas book coming out! can’t wait!!!) and i access the biblio file by nigal beale, which has interviews with canadian and international authors and the likes. i think this sort of program has great potential in a public library setting. i mean on the surface it looks like it is just an informative discussion over award winning books but really it has the potential to draw people into the library to get the book to actually read it. i’m sure a variation could be adapted for students…that is perhaps more of a challenge but it has the potential…only you will require a great pr campaign to get the work out i think. something to think about… but now i am off to scour podplaza.nl for a new knitting or craft podcast…you never know what fun tips you might find…if you walk into the office and you hear something about a rib stitch I’m not slacking i’m working…on 23 things!

step #12...#13...okay and # 14 too...

step #12 was to add an entry to the 23 things blog. it had to be something that was your favourite. i added a few of my favourite movies like run lola run, amelie, charlies angles, everafter, etc. i probably should have added some of the classics like the princess bride or holiday inn. That was a pretty easy one…once i got logged in.

step #13 was making use of free online office software like google docs. for some reason i was a little hesitant about being able to retrieve and share documents with the program. there was really totally no justification for my hesitation and in the end it worked totally like a charm(thanks bittersweet librarian). this concept has the potential to create quite an easy way for interactive paper writing and collaborative works. I kind of like…i have no idea when i will personally have the need to use it but i can see it being very useful for students…perhaps easier then the currently used and sworn at quickplace?

step #14 was really nothing new for me. I read the background lit. provided but chatting is something i use every sunday with friends and family. it is the bane of my husband’s computer existence because every time he logs in on our computer someone wants to chat with me not him. It is a fabulous way to keep in touch. when i was a student and when i worked for a university with chat reference it was also a very handy function. as a student you can be helped while you’re at home working on your assignment and as a librarian you can us the chat function to really hone in on what the question is rather then just having to relay on a sort of one dimensional email where you have the potential to give the right answer to the wrong question because the question is so vaguely formed. i’m not sure it is something that can be implemented at the library where i work now…perhaps the info. email address could make use of it but the standard reference I don’t know simply because the questions we get are more concerned with the copiers and the catalogue then actual reference questions but it could be a chicken egg questions…if you build it they will come concept…if we make use of iming in our library we will get real reference questions…i don’t know…there are too many variables at this point and i am no expert. but in my private life iming is a must…right amanda!

okay…onward and upward to step #15...how many do i have left now? 9 things, 4 weeks...should work don't you think?

step #11~what the wiki...

1. in deze oefening ga je enkele bibliotheekwiki’s bekijken.

2. Schrijf een blogpost over je bevindingen. Wat vond je interessant? Welke toepassingen zouden goed zijn om in een wiki te doen en welke niet?

okay so as it asks in step #11 i checked out a few of the library wiki’s. wiki’s are in and of themselves a cool concept…being able to easily and quickly share knowledge over a particular subject in an open and collective environment… they are great for sharing info. in a work setting or using as a forum for faq. i mean really the list is endless. in work situations where the wiki is used as a sort of forum or opinion outlet or faq is the issue of content control no problem. it is your opinion or your experience that is important. but when the wiki is used to share more information than that which is first hand i think you have to be careful. for example wikipedia is a great idea for sharing information with each other but I don’t think it can be considered “research appropriate” material . just like in tagging, the issue of control remains and is actually a bigger issue here since you need to be sure that the information provided is accurate. i think you can use the likes of wikipedia as a spring board so you have a very basic understanding of the topic before you dive into further deeper “real” research but because of the essence of the wiki, the open sharing, it is not a source in and of itself. it is just not trustworthy enough for me. you can use the references provided(if they are even provided) for further research but not the wiki entry itself…that is like 3rd hand information…my brothers, roommates, goldfishes, next-door neighbours, long lost cousin said… and it just doesn’t cut it for me in the research world whether we are talking academic or elementary school level…does that make sense? so my conclusion for step #11 is lets use it in and out of library world to share info. but lets keep it out of the research world…i can get enough 3rd hand info. from my 92 year old neighbour!

step #10~my new job found via delicious!

the ring, originally uploaded by mmasquerade.

i think i have discovered my new calling in life! i think i am going to quite my day job and dedicate my life to urban knitting!!! yes you have read that correctly. i am going to devote my life to the beautifying of the world by creating knitted graffiti! i mean what could be more fun??? and now all 3 of you are wondering how i came up with such an inspirational vocation...delicious is the answer. someone else on the 23 things delicious account tagged a website over urban knitting and via the tag “breien”(knitting) i found the site and now my prayers are answered and i have found THE job for me. super fun! for private use is tagging via delicious a fun way to discover new sites, keep track of your new found favourite sites and so on and so forth. the free thought everyday language used to tag creates open access and opportunity for the everyday homosapien to explore a whole new world and keep track of it using the words that make sense them. i don't believe it can be used to replace the controlled vocabulary of a cataloguer in the library world. we still need a structured thesaurus to find both physical and virtual information in both the physical and virtual world of the library. but it can enhance our use of the virtual world experience and perhaps library world experience we a whole as well. there are issues of inconsistency, overlap and user generated flaws, which are just some of the reasons why the controlled vocabulary is still required. but tagging can provide alternative perhaps more user-friendly ways for users to access information in our logical but not always user-friendly system. we shall see what the future holds. regardless my natural inclination is to create my own thesaurus for delicious use that i can create my own logical and purposeful schema for finding and keeping track of my websites. however the reality of the situation is that as fun as it is delicious isn’t something i really see myself making full use of at the moment. It was useful for a second though…watch out world here come my knitting needles!

ps. this photo was found on flickr and was uploaded by mmasquerade the 20th of may 2007. for more information about urban knitting check out:

http://deputy-dog.com/2008/11/urban-knitting-worlds-most-inoffensive.html

happy looking and reading!

step #9~and now it's time for "deep thought" with little miss librarian.

okay so step #9 is all about telling you...my oh so faithful readers(all 3 of you:)...how i feel about web 2.0. i think i have pretty much shared my thoughts over the last 9 steps but whatever...maybe i have something new to say...maybe not...i think it is safe to say that the basics of web 2.0 is sharing. wikipedia, blogs, flickr, facebook..you name it, it is all based on the principle of sharing. i think web 2.0 is a fun and super fabulicious way of sharing with your friends and family. i like that i can write one story on my blog, post a picture one time on flickr, update my status once on facebook and they can all check it out when they want to. i'm not doing 3 zillion different things 3 zillion different times for 3 zillion diferent people(3 zillion being a very accuret number. i am totally not exagerating) it gives you the opportunity to express yourself and be creative in a place where your peers can see it all together. on a bigger level, outside of my little friendship group, web 2.0 also give us as a society the opportunity to make a fuller use of the experties of other people to better educate ourselves and really exploit our intellectual and creative resources. wiki's, mashup, folksonomies and the like give us the chance to tap into resources(aka smart people) who would otherwise be left behind for whatever reason. it makes the information world a more level playing field...as long as there is some dude smart enough to create the softwear or whatever required we can all tag along and use it to share whatever we are smart at. but it does mean you are sharing things in a very public way. some sceptics really focus on this and sure sharing naturally leads to privacy issues and sure it has the potential to be "dangerous" but so do credit cards. just like we keep our wallet close to us and don't share our pin pass number with our neighbour we need to make sure the information we share in a public forum...be it a blog, wiki, social community, flickr, whatever...isn't more revealing then we are willing to be and isn't an unnecissary risk. and yes there is the issue of people thinking they are smarter then they actually are and sharing things that are better left in the dark. what can you do about that? about the same thing we can do about the daily news we read in the newspaper or see on the tv...you get the good with the bad and thus we need to be critical about what we read, see, experience through web 2.0 just the way we are critical about what we accept as actual news...like the sun verses the globe and mail and even then you have to read the globe with a critical eye. i'm sure i have missed things. i'm sure i have said things that are inflammatory or that i have contradicted myself in some way. i'm sure my ideas will change at some point and i have just shared some not so smart ideas with the public world...read it with a critical eye and consider the source...little miss librarian is no web 2.0 expert she is really just a sheep attempting to stay with the flock.

who is the big dark shape?

if you look really close you can make the shape out...look really close!

hit over the head with a camera...gee my face really looks like my mom here!

this is the "i'm totally stund, i took a shower, took a nap, and just woke up" look. very becoming but maybe gives you an idea.

a little personal note for the friends and fam.

okay fam. no more complaints! here is a photo for you guys...it is week 30. 10 more to go...okay you can't really see how big i am. i just look like grey boobs...that is actually what i have mostly become, just more boobs(as if that was needed!). the photo was for our new promotional stuff for the accountmangers. i'll get you guys a good one soon i hope but it is a start right? i know i have to do better.

step #8~more play time!

Ontdekoefening

1. Zoek hieronder een image generator uit (of waarom niet alle drie uitproberen?), waar je kunt manipuleren met plaatjes en woorden en schrijf erover op je weblog
2. Toon ons het resultaat van je bewerkingen.

got to play around with some very fun toys using things found on Generator Blog, FD’s Flickr Toys and CustomSigngenerator. i loved making my own ice cream with Ben & Jerry's(pb&j...yummy! if only it were real) but you can't stick the end result on your blog so i used the wigflip superstickies i found out about via the blog schaap veronic.

http://wigflip.com/superstickies/


i'm hoping to get some photo's up later today andmove on to step #9. check back later for the next round.

step #7~ what's in a word?

step #7 ~ Ontdekoefeningen
Ontdek en speel wat met een van de hierboven genoemde Flickr mashups en third party toepassingen. Wil je er nog meer bekijken? Kijk eens rond op Flickr Bits and Pieces / webapps en The Great Flickr Tools Collection.
Schrijf er een bericht over op je weblog.

so this time around we got to play with picture toys other smart people developed. first i scanned photos by colour with with the flickr color picker. seriously cool!!! even photos in all the different shades of grey...

then i check out some of the photos from my parents neighbourhood available via the google maps and flickr mashup. there was one of the swimming pool down the street and the main shopping street up the road. there were a few of the parks and creeks and such around. oh and a really funny video of an extra long accordian bus doing a 180 degree turn...it was only funny cause you don't expect that from such a huge bus. when you know the actual size of the place where it turned all you can think of is what a skilled driver. she/he makes it look soooooooo easy!

and finally i checked out the spell with flickr...now that is fun! i love how you get to play with each letter and make up your own words and ...just so fun!

for those of you looking at the letters going what in the world did this chick spell...read.c66...what does it mean...the word "read" what every librarian wants to encorage and then "c66" which is my cutter number. and now the next question entering every non-north american librarians head...what is a cutter number? be really web2.0 and check out the wikipedia definition of cutter expansive classification:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutter_number#Cutter_Numbers

happy reading!

step #6~ my friend flickr

Books_03, originally uploaded by Javier Pico.

a dude named javier pico took this great photo. it is part of his books series and is entitled Books_03. you can find it and other equally super duper fabulicious photos on flickr. as part of step#6 of 23 things i kind of did a combination of exercise a and b. i have searched through flickr many times before i thought it was about time i opened my own account instead of just checking out everyone else’s cool stuff. my stuff isn’t cool but it is a great way to share with the friends and fam. around the world (think of it as a step closer to some bump photos guys). so this time around i opened up my own flickr account, added some of my own pictures that my friends and family can check out but i added someone else’s photo to my blog. this is actually the second time i have attempted to add a photo to my blog. the first time it didn’t work…no one knows why. i asked around and got no real answer so i tried it again and now it is working. Perhaps it was feeling moody. i have no idea. but it works now and hopefully i can beautify my blog a little with some fun library themed photos. maybe I’ll even get totally crazy and include stuff that has nothing to do with a library…we will have to wait and see. in the meantime mom, go check out my triathlon photos on flickr.

oh ps. flickr might be a sharing kinda thing but you still gotta respect the property owner. i emailed mr. pico to get permission to use his photo. i haven't heard anything yet but if he doesn't like the idea that i used his stuff i'll find something different.

step #5 ~ the hunt for the rss feed

Ontdekoefeningen
Experimenteer met enkele van de hierboven genoemde zoektools, die je helpen om nieuwe RSS feeds te vinden op het gebied van bibliotheken. Een ander onderwerp is natuurlijk ook goed
Abonneer je op een aantal van die nieuwe RSS feeds en schep orde in je Netvibes pagina door het toevoegen van nieuwe Tabs
Schrijf een blogpost over je ervaringen. Welke zoekmethode vond je het prettigst in gebruik, wat vond je moeilijk? Heb je nog andere dingen ontdekt, andere zoekmiddelen?

it turns out that i had actually done part of step #5 without realising it. i just started looking up all my favourite sites and blogs and added the feeds. but since step #5 also asks you to look things up via certain search engines (like google blogsearch and bloglines) i did a little surfing and hooked myself up with some new blogs about knitting from friends from the international scarf exchange i did last year (mandy knits and and sew knitting begins) and found myself some new website rss feeds like jamie oliver’s diary and real simple magazine. an egofeed about myself was totally not interesting but i tryed it out for the sab...we'll see what that brings. i had added tabs earlier and organised it according to messages, news and blogs but i feel i miss the whole picture by having everything on a separate page. i like it organised in the three separate blocks but i like it all visible on one page, so i am sticking to my columns. i know i’m very picky that way. i also eat my dinner one food sort at a time separated on the plate, put all my information in tables, organise my craft supplies in separate labeled boxes by kind, and so on and so forth. it must be a personal idiosyncrasy. but i also realise that eventually my newvibes will get out of hand and i will be forced to reorganise my information so that i can remain on top of things. we will see then what i do. in the meantime i think it is time to move on to jazzing up my blog with a little fliker…time for step #6.

step #4~rss feeds!

Ontdekoefeningen

the ontdekoefeningen is way to complex to cut and paste this time around so I will attempt to summarise…

• read about rss feeds
  
• make a netvibes account
  
• include the following rss feeds on your account-nos, dok, marktplaats, gizmodo,
  
• add your co-workers blogs
  
• add the rss feed from 23dingen
  
• add the 2 rss feeds from the nlbiblioblogs wiki
  
• use it regularly

i actually already had a greader account that i made use of on a regular bases. since netvibes was recommended i figured i would give it a shot too. i actually like it more then greader i think. the way i am wired (i like to put things in boxes and label them…i like to make sure things are colour co-ordinated…i like structure…it helps me function on a far better stress reduced level…and in case i hadn’t figured that out on my own that accoumanagement test we did proved it) enjoys the fact that with netvibes i can move things around and put them in columns and colour code them according to what type of thing they are and move them into order of importance and play with the settings until i’m a happy camper. plus i can add a cool themed photo and such should i chose. the only thing i’m not willing to take advantage of is the ability to publish your rss feeds publicly so the world can view everything you have hooked yourself up to. that is going a little to far for me. not that i’ve linked to anything risqué…peoples magazine is still usually pretty g-rated…but i’m just not down with that kind of sharing…don’t be a sheep, go find your own stuff!

oh i’m not really anti-sheep. they are quite cute and fuzzy. they make great wool for knitting warm and lovely wearables but it is time we attempting to remove ourselves from the sheep herd mentality and expand our horizons…they say the grass is always greener on the other side.

step #2- beyond reading about 23dingen and starting to do 23things

Ontdekoefening

• Schrijf een blogpost over de weblogsoftware die je gekozen hebt en wat je er tot nu toe van vindt.
• Schrijf een tweede bericht, waarin je iets vertelt over wat jouw ervaringen tot nu toe zijn met Web 2.0 toepassingen. Nog géén idee wat die term inhoudt, kijk dan eens naar wat WikiPedia erover zegt. Of blader eens door onderstaande presentatie over “sociale software”, want daar gaat het in 23 Dingen vooral over.

well honestly i think that this first question is a bit silly(sorry) post a blog over the websoftwear you chose and what you think about it so far. i chose the websoftwear cause jules discovered gmail several years ago and liked the layout so she recommended i check it out for a food feeds you can get through it. the blog i started last year cause i needed to have access to the international scarf exchange weblog and they wanted you to also have your own blog to share stuff about how your scarf was going and such. i never made an actual conscious choice about what i was using it just kind of fell into my lap. i haven't weighed the pro's and con's of different softwear choices i have just used what was offered to me. not a good start i realise but what can i say. it is convenient. and what do i think about it until now...user freindly and simple to use. my only problem is the speel check doesn't seem to work. so sorry for the many spelling mistakes the world is bound to find.

the second question...what is is my experience with web2.0 stuff...well...i facebook daily(a social-networking site) , i've had a blog for a year (that i never used) (a blog), i use greader to keep up-to-date with the rss feeds from my cooking blogs(zuccini&chocolate) my library blogs(obnoxious librarian) my useless celeberty gossip website (People magazine) and my friends blogs(a mashup?), i chat online, i've done live chat reference, i read wikipedia(for fun not to use as an actual source have no fear!) (a wiki) and i have edited articles for it too, i've checked out flickr and all that is has to offer(maybe later i'll start an account there too when i have photo's to share with the world and my friends who live all around it) i use itunes for my ipod and listened to running podcasts with it, i've bought things via ebay, i've tagged things via del.icio.us(folksonomies) and i've read countless articles about web2.0 how to intigrate it into our services as a library. i'm not technically inclined so i stay away from things like personally using rich internet applications an just use those from other people. regardless of my use the whole idea remains a bit of an unknown for me. i grasp the concepts behind it, think it is fabulous but still feels funny and wait to follow someone elses lead. my hair is down and i search for articles on the internet but i'm still a bit of a drowsy sheep.

A year later!

well ladies and gents, I started this blog up more then a year ago with the idea that i would come up with some super stellar theme to write periodicaly about. as you will notice i never got past the first posting. why? well, i just couldn't think of a good enough theme to use. the thought of having a blog that just chatted on about anything and nothing really didn't appeal to me. it has the potential to be incohesive and unstructured and that irkes me. what is the point of having a public space where the world can view your thoughts about important things if you have nothing important to share and what you do have to share hangs on nothing but your own random thoughts...on the other hand perhaps my random thoughts are important and meaningful for more people then only myself and maybe that is the new theme for my blog...my random thoughts count...we will see. but for the next few months this blog will be the breeding ground for my offical fore into the world of web2.0. it is not a theme i feel the world actually needs to read about from me because there are much more schooled people for that topic. but it is part of a new initiative at work called 23dingen...or 23 things. initially begun by helen blowers of the public library of charlotte and mecklenburg county in the states it is now an internatational movement within the library world that is attempting to bring our slightly rusty yet very loveable library as a whole into the now and maybe even the future rather then relying on only a handful of people to push it into the right direction...the direction the rest of the world is heading towards and has already reached...and probably surpassed. this is our attempt to catch up and maybe even eventually supersede as a collective in order to meet the needs of our users...maybe before they even know it is a need. i mean that is really what working in a library is all about. so hopefully this will help us get on the same page as our users so that we can provide services that fit the times and actually meet the needs. what a novel idea! don't get me wrong i don't think we are all light years behind or anything. i've given up wearing my hair in a bun while using the card catalogue to search for a book on monastic libraries but a lot of us arn't really leading the pack. we can't all be leaders but we can't all be drowsy sheep either. but that is in and of itself a seperate issue... for another time? i have digressed!


23 things that's what this is all about...okay so this space is now designated 23 things space. the next few months will bring postings based on the 23 excercises of the program. since i work in the netherlands and this particular program is given in dutch postings will often have bilingual elements. all i can say is happy reading.