There is something about a blog

Blogs seem to take on a life of their own. I was not comfortable with blogging when it became a class requirement. As the class is coming to a end, it seems a good time to reflect on my experience.

Before starting this class blog, I had very limited experience. I had used another blogging tool but wasn’t very happy with it and eventually abandoned it. I think that the WordPress format is easier to use although most formats keep getting better over time. In addition, I used this blog more frequently and as is so often stressed in articles about technology, practice and frequent use help people become more skilled.

As far as writing my comments on a regular basis, this is a major hurdle for me. Like so many people today, I am too busy living to reflect and this is a problem. I think a journal, meditation, or a blog is a good thing because it slows you down and makes you stop and think about what you are doing.

I liked the interaction with the other students and enjoyed reading and replying to their comments. I also found it interesting to read their blogs and voice my opinion. I received a few comments from outside of the class group but they appeared to be spam and were caught by the filter.

The most recent external comment was a reply to my post on Need4Feed and Twitter. I think that Twitter has an automated search feature that looks for content about Twitter or maybe it is generated due to the pingback feature. The comment that I received was a means to activate a hashmark so that a Tweet about my blog post could be broadcast to all. Needless to say, I am still not ready for that although I am sort of pleased that someone liked my post and found it of value!

 

Web 2.0 and memory

This experience of using so many Web 2.0 tools has had many ups and downs. I like trying new things so it was generally a positive one for me but there was also a lot of stress. It is always challenging to try new things even when you are in the perfect learning environment. Of course, my computer environment is far from perfect and that played an important role in my experience.

In hindsight, I should have upgraded the memory in my PC before trying so many Web 2.0 tools. I found that these tools use lots of virtual memory and my 2005 laptop only had 512MB. I didn’t even try the computer that I bought in 2000 since it has trouble creating a simple mailing list these days. If there was ever an industry that knows about planned obsolescence, it is the computer industry.

I finally realized that I needed to upgrade my laptop memory. My fear was upgrading might create more problems. I had never done it before. I might take the PC apart and not be able to put it back together or corrupt something important. Thankfully, I got over my fear and added 1GB of memory. That has made a huge difference in the quality of my Web 2.0 experience. I realize now that it should have been the first thing that I did when my PC started freezing on a regular basis.

If you think that you are having memory issues, you should consider upgrading the memory in your PC. The website that I used to check this out is Crucial. It analyzed the situation on my PC, gave recommendations and even made it easy to buy the upgrade needed. This is an example of a simple solution to a customer’s painful problem. I am sure there are other companies out there but this one worked well for me.

 

Web 2.0 tools for other Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter

Obviously, I am not alone in feeling overwhelmed by content as I mentioned in my recent post, Content Overload. Based on an article from the November issue of eCampusNews, there is now a Web 2.0 tool to help control the content on Twitter. The web developers at Purdue University have created a new tool called Need4Feed that will help you find the most popular and relevant items on Twitter.

The program was road tested recently at the HighEdWeb 2009 conference. It allowed those in attendance to find the tweets that were the most popular without having to wade through all the others manually. The article mentions that the academic world has not embraced Twitter and cited a study that stated that 69% of the faculty respondents did not use it in any way. The reason for this lack of use seemed to be because a large portion of the tweets are meaningless comments that distract from the valuable content.

The staff at Purdue took this to heart and embraced the challenge to improve the Twitter tool. By helping to find the valuable content and make it clearly visible, they are hoping that the faculty will use Twitter more as a teaching aid.

It is also important for librarians to know about add-on tools like this one. They can bring them to the attention of others and show them how to make the technology work more efficiently. A recent Pew study found that 19% on the internet user are also using Twitter so knowing how to make more efficient use of Twitter is something that may help our patrons.

If you are interested in a free subscription to eCampusNews, here is the link.

 

Content overload

The final reading for this class is chapter 15 of the book, Social Software in Libraries by Meredith G. Farkas. In the chapter 15, which is called, “Keeping up: a Primer,” Farkas has a 7 step lesson plan that includes the following:

1. Keep up with the professional literature
2. Keep up with blogs
3. Keep up with other librarians in online communities
4. Keep up with webcasts and podcasts
5. Keeping up with conferences and continuing education
6. Keep up by playing with technology
7. Keep up while keeping sane.

All of these steps offer good advise. The ones that speak to me the most are 5 and 7. It is great to stay on top of the latest news and technology but you also need to get out and about to meet the people in your field. I agree that national conferences are wonderful and so are the local ones. It might even be better to concentrate on the local ones unless you are trying to market yourself for a career in a different area.

As far as continuing education, this is very important. We live in a age of rapid change and this makes lifetime learning crucial. New York State has recognized this since librarians that graduate starting in 2010 will be required to meet a minimum number of 60 hours of professional development every 5 years. This requirement is like that of continuing education credits for doctors, lawyers and other professionals.

The other lesson that really struck a chord with me is to try to sane while keeping up. This is very good advice and I think most of us tend to become overwhelmed. As Farkas mentions, it is important to prioritize what is important to us and stay focused so that we don’t lose ourselves in unimportant details. I hope that I remember this advice since it is a key to staying sane.

 

Ethics and the web

This week’s readings for class dealt with ethics and the web. I don’t think most people who use the web stop to think about the ethical complexities. I am sure that most of them never really read the terms of agreement before signing up for a new service like Facebook or Twitter. People generally do what ever is easiest for them. I think it is safe to say that reading and understanding legal documents does not qualify as easy for most of us.

Fanton’s article, “Rights and Responsibilities Online: A Paradox for Our Times” reminded me of the issues that were discussed by Lee Raine and Siva Vaidhyanathan at this year’s LILRC conference. I have a post on this dated November 1. Raine quoted a lot of statistics like the ones in the article to show that young people were very active internet users and that at least half of them had created on-line content. Vaidhyannthan focused on Google but his warnings about Google could be applied to other web companies and were like those of Howard Gardner, who is quoted in the article. To sum it up, young people are heavy internet users who are very trusting and apt to make information public that could be used in an unethical manner. The internet is a brave new world where the old laws do not apply and new ones are still emerging. Companies like Google do not have to have our best interests at heart since they are in business to make money. They may do a lot of very good things including donating money to charity but in many cases it is only after something happens and people sue or at least publicly air the bad practices that something changes.

This brings me to the second article by Frances Jacobson Harris, “Ethics from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0” which focus more on the view from a school library media center perspective. I found this to be a very balanced article. It gave lots of great reasons to use the web and even included some wonderful resources. In addition, it was not blind to the dangers that could present themselves when children are using the web. The article stressed the need for proper training so that young people use the web in safe and ethical ways. One of the programs that I am familiar with is the Child Lures program,
which teaches parents and educators about safety both online and offline.

This week in NY, one of the big news stories was that about 3500 sex offenders were banned from the Facebook and MySpace sites. It disturbed me to read about the slow pace at which social networking sites were applying available protective measures. Once again, it is important to realize that these companies are trying to make a profit and it costs money to add these protections. We should all remember this every time we use the web.

 

Move over Black Friday, here comes Cyber Monday

The impact of the web is being felt everywhere but it is really evident when checking shopping trends. Traditionally, the American market watches the amount of shopping at the malls on the day after Thanksgiving to determine how well the economy is doing. Over the last few years, the Monday after Thanksgiving has been gaining a reputation as being the biggest day for on-line shopping. In large part, Monday is the big day because people wait until they get to the office where they generally have a faster, more secure, and more reliable internet connection.

Based on the business reports that I heard today on WCBS880, the shopping on Cyber Monday topped that on Black Friday this year. Not only are people shopping more on-line but they are also changing the way they shop in the stores. One of the reports was about a woman who found an item in Target, took a picture of its bar code with the camera in her phone and then used an app on her phone to check for a better price. It cost less on Amazon so she put if back on the shelf.

Everyone including librarians needs to be aware of how people have changed the way they shop and actually the way they live. It is important to keep up with these changes and adapt to them in order to remain relevant. Libraries could use an app like this one to order books or other items. I have used the on-line search functions to find books in the branch libraries. I haven’t seen any apps yet but I am sure some libraries are all ready using them. If it makes it easier for the patrons, then it is a technology that should be explored.

 

Special Librarians and the future

This weekend I had a chance to catch up with a high school friend who is a Special Librarian in the advertising industry. It was great to have a chance to discuss careers with her. She has been a librarian for many years and all of them have been in the advertising industry.

Immediately after she graduated with her BA, she continued on to library school and got an MLS. She worked for an large firm that was taken over by another large firm and eventually she was laid off during a recent down-sizing. She worked as a consultant until the new advertising firm had a down-sizing and replaced the senior staff with the temps in an effort to save money. So now she has a job, but the librarians that hired her lost theirs. This is a common tactic in corporations. Senior workers are replaced with new workers that are experienced but do not have a large amount of time with the company and thus are paid lower benefits.

My friend is an active member of the SLA and keeps in touch with many other librarians at large firms. One of these contacts is in the publishing industry and has been doing an unofficial survey of corporate libraries and librarians. She has noticed the trend to reduce or eliminate most corporate librarians and this has cause a large increase in umemployment or underemployment of special librarians. This is having an impact on organizations such as the SLA. It may even be one of the reasons that a name change is being considered. In my post dated November 14, I discussed that the SLA members are voting whether to change the name to the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals. I wonder if this will make them more marketable?

My friend and I discussed other options for special librarians and this lead to the possiblity of eventually becoming a public librarian. I had been at some meetings about Civil Service definitions and learned a lot about applying for Librarian I and II jobs in Nassau County. My friend assumed that since she had over 30 years experience and was the director of a corporate library, she would be able to apply for one of the senior positions, at least Librarian II, but this may not be the case. Most corporate librarians are quickly becoming solo librarians due to the financial cut-backs and down-sizings. There may be other staff members to supervise but this may not be enough to qualify as supervisory experience as defined by Civil Service. To include supervisory experience for Librarian II, you must supervise at least 3 full-time librarians or at least 5 staff full-time staff members, one of which must be a full-time librarian.

The other area that we discussed was of course, Web 2.0. She was not very interested in new technology but now realizes that this will negatively impact her job prospects. It was funny that although I am new to the field, she was looking to me for advice on how to upgrade her skills. I recommended that she start experimenting with some new Web 2.0 tools or take a few seminars. All in all it was an interesting conversation.

 

The National Tree Movie and new media

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I love Thanksgiving because it marks the beginning of the holiday season and that means lots of movies with Christmas or New Year’s themes. Saturday night on the Hallmark Channel there was a new one called The National Tree. I watched it because it had a good cast (Andrew McCarthy played the dad.) and the premise seemed interesting, bringing a tree from Oregon to Washington D. C. as the new national Christmas tree. If you want to see it, there will be many more showing before Christmas and there are several clips on the web such as this one from YouTube on this post.

I found the movie to be an entertaining way to introduce people to many of the new network and Web 2.0 tools. Rock is a high school junior and likes to keep in touch with his friends on-line. His close group of friends includes a girl from Wyoming, a girl from China and a guy from India. He is described by his Grandma as “a citizen of the world” and he keeps in touch via the internet and Skype. Grandma is also pretty tech-savvy since she follows her grandson’s VLOG. Rock likes to video everything and posts it on-line. He does this on the cross country trip which creates interest and causes people to come out at all the stops to see the tree and meet Rock. This really shows the power of the internet and VLOGs.

The reason that Rock’s Sitka Spruce is selected as the national tree is that Rock won a contest on FaceBook. He entered a video of himself with his tree and why it should be selected. Another reference to the internet was when he and his dad are talking about movies and Rock impresses his dad by knowing lots of movie information because he likes to use IMDb.

As I mentioned, a lot of internet and Web 2.0 concepts are introduced such as: FaceBook, Skype, VLOGs, and IMDb. These are shown as a normal part of the everyday life of a millennial. Although the dad appeared clueless without even a cell phone, Rock’s grandma was very open to new technology such as the internet since it helped her stay in touch with her grandson. I think this shows that it is easy to connect with teens if you remain interested in the things they like. Librarians can learn from this since the key to staying relevant with patrons is to understand what they like and how they want to be contacted.

 

Discovering new tools

I found this post from September 22nd, in my drafts folder and realized that I never published it, so better late than never. This is what I wrote then:

I may be a bit late to the dance but I am finally on FaceBook!  I have been invited to join FB many times but always declined because I was too busy, or afraid of losing my privacy but I finally gave in yesterday.  Since I have to try some Web 2.0 tools for this class, FaceBook seemed to be the obvious choice. 

I have been a member for only a day and already have lots of “friends” on FB.  I admit that I sent several invitations but I was amazed at how many people found me so quickly!  It that a good or bad thing?  I don’t know yet but I will keep you posted.

This is what I think about Facebook after about 2 months of use.

I continue to be amazed by how easy it is to connect or reconnect with people I used to work with or go to school with. It is a great way to send messages, even when you don’t know someone’s email. For example, I had a photo that I wanted to send to a Vincentian in PA. I didn’t know his email, but found he was a friend of one of the Vincentians on campus so I followed the link from my campus friend’s list to his in PA and sent him the photo. It was much quicker than waiting for someone to give me his email or snail mail address.

I like Facebook but realize that it can easily become addictive. I already have about 75 friends and keeping up with all of them can be very time-consuming. In addition, I have found that many of my friends are avid fans of Farmville, Mafia Wars, Cafe World or some other sites that get people to spend a lot of time playing games. It is great that this is relaxing for them but I find it annoying that pigs and cows are constantly coming my way even though I have no desire to play.

I guess my opinion of Facebook is that it depends. If you are looking for an easy way to connect with people, this is a great tool. If you are looking for a fun way to spend time, this can also be a great tool. If you are looking for something more professional when networking then I would recommend LinkedIn over Facebook but that is another post so stay tuned.

 

What’s in a word? Here comes a new one, ready or not.

I always find it interesting when they announce the new words that are being added to the New Oxford American Dictionary. The press story from Reuters had the news last week.

“Unfriend” is the word of the year for 2009. It beat out others including “hashtag” which is the hash sign added to a word or phrase that lets Twitter users search for tweets that are similarly tagged. It is a big acknowledgement to the impact of social networking that these words are now main stream and have been added to the dictionary. “Unfriend” is a verb used when someone removes a friend from their social network such as Facebook. This concept didn’t exist several years ago and that is what makes it remarkable. Social networks are spreading very rapidly.

I remember back in 2005, when “podcast” was named the word of the year. At that time, podcasting was just getting started and this made it much better known to the average person. Being called the word of the year may sound insignificant to some but it really means that these words are in common usage and should be known by others. It is sort of a marketing concept for words which in turn promotes the new technology.

As I look at all the recent additions to the dictionary, I realize that it is time to update my on-line dictionary or at least upgrade to Office 2007. When I write about Web 2.0, I am finding that many of the words I use are not in the 2003 dictionary and it would be better to upgrade that continue to add them. Technology has a way of making us keep up with changes whether we want to or not.