1265days... a library 2.0 blog

Cool Tool: Zotero

2008-04-10T11:38:00.001-07:00

Cool Tools for Library 2.0 Vidcast by Libr246

Cool Tools for Library 2.0 Podcast by Libr246

Zotero
Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself.

The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis, by Bill Moyers

2007-12-06T07:53:00.000-08:00

Can a Public Library Screw Your Constitutional Rights?

2007-05-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

Epilogue

2007-03-29T17:46:00.000-07:00

Poor Willy, even after he passes on he won't excape.

Interlude 8

2007-03-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

Willy in the throws of DTs . . . delirium tremens--"the horrors", "the shakes", " the rum fits." He can't believe that Library 2.0 is over.

23 Summarize your thoughts. . .

2007-03-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

Day 1188

Willy could accurately summarize his thoughts by leaving this space blank. However, something tells him that more is expected.

At first Willy was skeptical but he soon got on board. When you hook people on narcotics, they soon come around.

1. Willy's favorite discovery, from an addiction point of view, is the video sites. Patrons have learned not to go near Willy until he has had his daily fix.

2. It seriously affected Willy's educational goals. He has so many more goals now that it will be difficult to reach any one. From a goal orientation this might not be a good thing. But for Willy, who is counting the days until he can wallow er retire, he just ate this stuff up.

3. One unexpected outcome is that this introduced new ways of organization. Del.icio.us is a great concept. Stupid name but great concept. The concept can be used elsewhere. On computers, people think in terms of files and folders but keywords can also be assigned to files and they can be searched the same way. Wikis are another great way to organize and retrieve information. Willy sees them as a collection of highly accessible living documents that he can share with others or use purely alone. He is creating an ebooks wiki and is finding that it is far easier and faster to write wiki pages than Word document pages--he does not have to pay attention to the limitations of the 8.5"x 11" format. If he needs handouts he just prints out wiki pages. Since the Internet is becoming ubiquitous the wiki pages are available almost anywhere and are easy to keep up to date.

4. Willy is shocked, just shocked to admit that this was a great exercise. He suggests making it a permanent fixture in the library. Of course that is what a junkie would say. But it would continually expose people to new ways of doing things--something that is necessary to keep up in today's world. Not everybody will participate but that is ok. The ones who do will start using the new tools. The ones who don't will see how the new tools are being used and will eventually follow along.

#22 (Week 9) Ebooks and Audio Ebooks

2007-03-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

Day 1190

Willy is a a pusher of eContent so he knows a little about this. Unfortunately, because he is, people think that he knows everything. There is too much for any one person to know and what can be known is growing. More and more formats, different providers using different methods. It seems the more Willy learns, the less he knows.

Then there is Digital Rights Management--a form of extreme electronic bureaucracy designed to protect copyright entitlement far past the original intent of the copyright law--damn the mouse! It may explain the reoccurring nightmare Willy has where he always wakes up in a cold, sweaty terror. People are chasing him at night with flaming torches and when they finally catch him, they pin him down, shake their iPods and scream at him--why can't they download to their iPods?

But despite this, Willy is not just a pusher, he is also a client. His latest addiction is in trying to learn a language. He uses Pimsleur language ebooks that he transfers to a digital audio player. He listens to it while commuting to work on foot. People find him stumbling along, oblivious to the world and muttering to himself in strange languages. For some reason they keep offering to give him their spare change.

Interlude 7Another One Bites the Dust

2007-03-19T07:05:00.000-07:00

Day 1199

#21 (Week 9) Podcasts. . . Not a lot of whoopee... just straight talk

2007-03-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

Day 1202

The Lone Willy The legend begins . . . .

Willy already has many NPR podcasts listed in his Blogline account. One of his favorites: Science Friday

Investingating Podcast.net he came across an old favorite.

The word podcast is used to refer to a non-musical audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet.--Learning 2.0
Although this video comes from YouTube it fits the definition of a podcast. Dr Gene was not musical--colorful yes, musical no--except when he got out his sax. He could really wail on his sax.

Dr. Gene Scott. . .
He got Willy through many a sleepless night.

#20 (Week 9). Discover YouTube, etc., etc.

2007-03-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

Day 1202

Finally, something Willy already knows about!

Now, all those hours of studying at work has paid off.

You can see Willy's Youtube favorites under Willy Toys and Distractions on the left.

Weird Al Yankovic - My Bologna

#19 (Week 8) Take a Look at LibraryThing

2007-03-15T17:40:00.000-07:00

Day 1203

Willy made his library at LibraryThing:
librarything.com/catalog.php?view=1265days
All of his titles are 0 star, . . . of course.

The limit to the service is 200 titles before you have to pay. Ha! Years ago Willy created a database of his books (in Paradox later imported into Access). He had so many he lost track of what he had bought and would end up buying the same title over again. He used the database to make a printout he could look at when in the store so he did not waste money buying duplicates. He also had so many books squirreled all over the house that he had a hard time finding what he was looking for. He created location codes for each room and shelf so he could find the book he was looking for!

This is definately a tool for collaboration. For personal use, a spreadsheet works fine and is cheaper if you have more than 200 titles.

#18 (Week 8). Look at some online productivity candy

2007-03-15T16:56:00.001-07:00

Day 1203

Willy is already familiar with Google Docs and Spreadsheets. The Google applications work great and he has them on his Google Personalized Home. But the Zoho tools look even more sweet.

With all of these applications to choose from, Willy feels like a kid in a candy factory.

Willy Wonka, Willy weally needs you!

This Bloated Willy posting was published from Zoho Writer and edited at Blogger.

#17 (Week 7) Go Play in the Wiki SandBox

2007-03-07T17:20:00.000-08:00

Day 1211

Willy got carried away and made his own wiki: 1265days: A Willy Makit Wiki. Check it out and see the Willy behind the Willy.

#16 (Week 7) Learn about wikis and discover innovative ways that libraries are using them

2007-03-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

Day 1212

Today Willy wants to dive into controversy. Many teachers and librarians do not feel students should use wikis because they are "not authoritative" and that the information may not be accurate. Willy happens to think the accuracy is near-par with authoritative sources. What a wiki lacks in authority it makes up for in number of eyeballs of knowledgeable people who take ownership of the articles. But more importantly, accuracy does not matter!

Willy is a dinosaur--a pre-Internet librarian. Before the Internet, when a client approached him with an information need and neither of them knew much about the topic, the first stop was to the encyclopedia. Students would say that their teacher did not want them to use encyclopedias. Ever willing to corrupt young minds, Willy would tell the students to just not tell their teachers and don't cite from the encyclopedia. The reason for using the encyclopedia was not to get content for a paper but to learn enough about the subject to focus their research to locate the authoritative stuff that can be used for the paper. A twenty-minute investment with an encyclopedia could cut down hours of unfocused searching.

Wikis are just forms of encyclopedias. Most wiki articles are well written with overviews, vocabulary, names, dates and bibliographies. But if a wiki article is not completely accurate, it does not matter--the article will almost always help to find good authoritative sources. As the authoritative sources are found any mis-information in the wiki article will be corrected by the authoritative sources.

I once heard research described as an iterative process. You start with what you know, and do the best you can. As you find information, you learn and use that information to help focus further searching. Wikis are a great place to start the research process, not to end the process, but to start it.

On the list of wikis Willy was suppose to look at, the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki looked interesting. Willy thinks he may want to become a contributor.

#15 (Week 6) Read Perspectives on Web 2.0. Future of Libraries

2007-03-02T14:58:00.000-08:00

Day 1215

Willy says . . .
Go with the flow, but remain centered.

#14 (Week 6). Explore Technorati and learn about tags

2007-03-01T18:12:00.000-08:00

Day 1216

Willy visited Technorati and "claimed" (registered) his blog. He was so excited, he was already ranked at: 2,710,648. Don't tell Willy but that puts him at dead last.

His tags are: 1265days, sjlibrary2.0, willy makit. He tried a search on the tag 1265days and found out that there is nothing in the known universe tagged 1265days. How deflating--from hope to dispair in one easy click. Oh, well, it probably takes awhile for the tags to be indexed. . . he says hopefully. If you want to help Willy out, click on the "Add this Blog to my Technorati Favorites" link located somewhere on the left edge.

What Willy learned about tags . . .
Spelling is everyting

Interlude 6

2007-03-01T16:45:00.000-08:00

Day 1216

Blogging about the social bookmaking sites reminded Willy that he was suppose to report back on using the Google Personalized Homepage. It works well although he did have an interesting moment. More precisely, about one hundred and eighty interesting moments . . . .

There is this link on the side called "Add stuff »". He added stuff--250 stuffs. He did not realize, until he went to his home page that each link opens up a channel to another web site. So going to his home page now opened up 250 channels. It took about 45 minutes for his "personalized" homepage to load. He tried to delete all of the channels but as soon as he refreshed the page, all 250 channels came back. It took about three hours to fix. Willy has seen many things on the web, but this was the first time he ever saw a web page revel in the throes of constipation.

What Willy learned . . .
Moderation in all things

#13 (Week 6). Tagging, Del.icio.us and social bookmaking sites

2007-03-01T13:37:00.000-08:00

Day 1216

...and social bookmaking sites? Spellchecker strikes again. Willy's experience. . . when email replying apologies to patrons he always misspell the word "inconvenience." The ever helpful spellchecker always turns his words into "sorry for the incontinence. . ."

When Willy started his foray into Del.icio.us., he found out that FireFox has an extension that allows for uploading existing bookmarks into Del.icio.us. Great he thought, he doesn't have to do any work--he'll just import his bookmarks and have a fully developed Del.icio.us site.

Forty-five minutes and three thousand bookmarks later, he realized there were things in there that perhaps should not be exposed to the world. He knows that they were set as private but he did not want to take a chance. Smart boy, this is not a website designed for private bookmarks. And, no--there was nothing salacious--you dirty old (wo)man. It turns out the only practical way to delete all of the bookmarks from Del.icio.us is to delete the account and start over--drastic but it works.

Willy also realized that most of his FireFox bookmarks are really detritus from years past. So he is starting over. He'll keep his FireFox bookmarks as backup but will form new ones in Del.icio.us as needed. He also realized that he is not that dependent on bookmarks anyway. He finds it faster to Google the name of the needed website. So his bookmarks will probably be much fewer and for more arcane things leaving Google as the primary way to get to a site.

#12 (Week 5) Roll your own . . . with Rollyo

2007-02-24T10:28:00.000-08:00

Day 1221

Well, Willy managed to roll his own. It is amazing how, once one has learned a skill, it is never really forgotten--even after decades.

Willy had to admit that after the first obligatory "out-of-print books" type search engines he was stumped as to what to do. Then he thought of his good friend Dubya and was instantly inspired. The result is on the left edge of the blog.

Week five is done. Now he is only two weeks behind.

Interlude 5

2007-02-22T16:59:00.000-08:00

Day 1223

The cover up . . . .

Ock·ham's razor also Oc·cam's razor (ŏk'əmz)
n.
A rule in science and philosophy stating that entities should not be multiplied needlessly. This rule is interpreted to mean that the simplest of two or more competing theories is preferable and that an explanation for unknown phenomena should first be attempted in terms of what is already known. Also called law of parsimony. ~American Heritage Dictionary

Sherlock Holmes' Law - After eliminating the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, is the truth. ~Sign of the Four (Chapter 6) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

First we were told . . . .

Within the past couple weeks or so, you've been seeing lights in some public areas (mostly on Lower Level, 3rd Floor, 4th Floor, & exterior) [of the King Library] going off & then back on sporadically & intermittently. I was informed that the server for the lighting control system had just been upgraded & the technician were still working out some glitches. The problem should be resolved soon.

Then we were told . . . .

Earlier today, this restroom [5th Floor Public Men's Restroom] got hit with vandalism. All the faucets were bent sideways. The plumber responded to this problem, removed all the faucets, & closed down the restroom awaiting new parts.

Then again . . . .

Recently, we've been experiencing different problems with the sensor faucets in the Staff restrooms on the Lower Level & 4th Floor. Typical problems are non-working sensors, no hot water, high pressure water dispensing, & the most recent - water running for a long period after users step away from the faucets. The technician have been working on these problems but different issues keep arising. We are still working on different solutions right now, and will keep you posted.

The truth . . . .

There is really only one simple explanation for all of this phenomena . . . .

we have a poltergeist.

The Willy Scream

#11 (Week 5). Explore a Web 2.0 awards site

2007-02-16T15:26:00.000-08:00

Day 1229

Willy found Google Start. . . .

Google Start has tabs. They appear to work great--allowing many entries but keeping them organized and uncrowded. Willy is now transferring much of what he had set up from hiw Bloglines account. He will do a comparison over the next few weeks/months between the two different ways of organizing sites he wants to visit regularly.

This feature requires using Google personalized pages. The personalized pages include keeping a search history--the thing that Big Brother wanted from the search engine web sites. So the first thing Willy did was turn it off. Instructions for doing so can be found at:
Personalizing your search results
To stop, you need to "pause" your search history. You may also want to "remove items."

Homeland Security doesn't like it when you pause your search history.

#10 (Week 5) Play around with an online image generator*

2007-02-16T12:57:00.000-08:00

Day 1229

* and get out a secret message. . .

Interlude 4

2007-02-15T17:38:00.000-08:00

Day 1230

Now Willy knows he is hooked. He is starting to worry about backup. You can find out about backing up by searching in help under backup.

Interlude 3

2007-02-15T17:24:00.000-08:00

Day 1230

Golly, Willy thought week 4 would never end. Now he is only 1-1/2 weeks behind. . . .

They found the shrink wrap!

#9 (Week 4) Locate Useful Blogs and RSS

2007-02-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

Day 1230

Willy took a quick look at the feed find tools. He may be missing something but he don't think he needed them at this time (but they are bookmarked). His problem is not finding blogs/RSS feeds but limiting/weeding them.

RSS is not a source but a medium and it is becoming ubiquitous. Willy already has an idea of the sites he wants to tap and most of them have RSS.

As far as blogs are concerned, a directory is not what Will needs. He is interested in selected blogs. So the resources he is currently tapping are things like the Webby Awards. As he locates blogs that fit his needs they will help him find others--quality tends to link to quality. This is a method Willy discovered in graduate school. Most articles are junk; only a few percent are worth reading. A skill that students should learn is how to locate that few percent. One method is, once you know a good author, you find more by seeing who that author cites and who cites that author. Good authors cite each other. This is the pot growing method of discovery. Once you have a little bit of the good stuff, it is easy to grow more.

Useful blogs. . .

The Shafted Librarian looks like a good blog for keeping up on what is going on in Libraryland.
Librarians' Internet Windex blog is good for looking at new, selected (clean) websites.
One of the most incredibly inciteful sites Willy found was Unshelved. Did you see the one about the chicken?

Interlude 2

2007-02-15T12:14:00.000-08:00

Day 1230

From YouTube (another one of Willy's habits) . . .
showing yet another one of Willy's habits. . .
which makes this habit squared?

Gollum and Smeagol sing Barry White

#8 (Week 4) RSS feeds/ Bloglines account

2007-02-14T14:56:00.000-08:00

Day 1231, Habit #4

@#$%!!! Willy just spent 40 minutes writing this post only to have it lost when he tried to upload it. This is a learning experience. He should save; either by saving as a draft or just publishing each paragraph as it is written. This is the same strategy used in word processing.

Damn! He was on a roll too . . . .

Willy already had experience with RSS so he thought this module would go fast. Ha!
He has been using Sage on Firefox. It is a great RSS reader but it is client-side software--it has to be installed on each PC that is used and is also browser specific. But Willy is an itinerant PC user—always on the run--often using different browsers on different PCs. It takes too much time to maintain RSS for all of those situations. So Willy only had it installed on a couple of machines. The result is he was not using RSS the way it really should be used--regularly and often.

When Willy discovered Bloglines he went nuts (well ok, he was already nuts, so maybe he went psycho-nuts). Because it is a web service, rather than client-based software, he can now access it from any PC using any browser. RSS is great for him because:

It allows him to reduce his environmental impact. He kills less trees by reducing hard-copy subscriptions. He is working towards, not a paper-less existence, but a reduced paper one.
It allows Willy to organize and tailor the news he gets--increasing the quality and decreasing the time-cost in keeping up with the news.
It allows Willy to use the time that would ordinarily be wasted waiting for things to happen, e.g., waiting for a patron on the reference desk. He also has client-side software (MobiPocket) that synchronizes RSS to his PDA. He uses this to read RSS while off-line, e.g., waiting in line at Costco.

Here is Willy's Bloglines public URL:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/1265days

#7 (Week 3) Post on technology

2007-02-02T13:37:00.000-08:00

Day 1243

For this exercise Willy had to blog about anything technology related and also add a comment on someone else's blog.

One of Willy's most useful pieces of technology is the USB drive he wears clipped to his collar. It's his old-fart technology bling. It is a god-send for a person with no working memory. He considers it an extension of his mind. If he ever loses it, he will have lost his mind.

Also for this exercise, Willy had to choose a target er, he had to leave a comment on someone elses blog. He chose poor Bookcharmer--he mentioned the 23 things they have in common.

#6 (Week 3) Flickr mashups, etc.

2007-02-01T18:00:00.000-08:00

When asked if we will find out what happens to Willy, the only answer was a soft chuckle from producer Dale Neverno.

Day 1244

Habit #3 (fd's flickr toys)

Willy is starting to count up the "habits" he is acquiring through Learning 2.0. He is using the term habit because at the beginning of this program he listened to a podcast of the Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners.

Habit #1 is blogging. Willy never thought he would be interested in it. Now he wonders if he will be able to break it.
Habit #2 is Flickr. Boy, did Willy get sidetracked on that one.

One of Willy's weaknesses is staying focused on the task at hand. Admittedly, he is easily distracted. . . no, easily amused. . . no, not that either. With few exceptions, just about everything fascinates Willy. This means as soon as he is introduced to something he gets hooked on it. Aw, geez, now it sounds like he has a problem with addiction.

Anyway, his interests start piling up. he starts dividing his time up into more and more projects. It takes longer and longer to get something done. Learning 2.0 will give Willy 23 more excuses for why things don't get done.

Interlude 1

2007-01-25T14:39:00.000-08:00

Day 1251

Willy just checked his schedule to find out what he had to do for the sesquicentennial closure. He became worried when he saw that he was going to be put on ICE.... But then he found out that ICE meant Ice Cream Social, not. . . you know.

Later that night. . .

Dropping in on the Sesquicentennial Opening

#5 (Week 3) Explore Flickr

2007-01-25T07:25:00.001-08:00

Customers show their appreciation

Day 1251

Sidetracked already. . . Willy got so interested in Flickr that he started neglecting this blog. If by any chance you have looked at this blog before, you may see that it has changed (a little). Willy has gone back, done some clean-up and will start moving on again.

What did Willy learn?
He must learn to. . . deal with addiction. Perhaps "thing 24" can be a 12-step program to help people deal with all the addictions they will acquire while investigating things 1-23.

#4 (Week 2) Register blog

2007-01-23T15:59:00.000-08:00

1253

Willy just sent the Virtual Services Team his blog address. . . .

They now know where he lives.

He had to send it so they can keep a log of his blog (web log)--a web log-log. Sounds like drowning. . . a portent of things to come?

#3 (week 2) Set up blog & add first post

2007-01-17T19:35:00.000-08:00

Day 1259

What Willy did. . . .
He forgot the name of the new blog and the new gmail account he created last week. So he starting all over again. Sigh.

What Willy learned. . . .
Keep track of new accounts.