Listen NJ

Aargh! this task was much more challenging than I anticipated. First, ListenNJ was difficult to find from the Library home page. I had to go to the alphabetical list of databases on the Research & Information page to find it. I did not see any link to it on the home page, nor was it one of the "Quick Links". How are people going to find out about this? And then find it? Sure, it's great once you know about it. Anyone can make Listen NJ a Favorite on their home computer. But it feels like a service that is only for those "in the know".

Then, I had to find a title that looked interesting to me. This took a while. As a user, I was confused by the array of downloadable formats available. I was not sure which was the one I needed! Consulting the Sansa Clip box helped. I thought I would browse the Teen Fiction titles, hoping to find some recent fiction, but most of the available titles were classics. This could be a turnoff to teens looking for contemporary fiction.

So, I finally settled on a title. When I tried to download it, I got error messages saying the security on the computer prevented this action. (Yes, I was on a PC Plus machine.) I had to reboot the machine and start over again.

So I got to where I needed to be and then had to download the OverDrive software. That took a few minutes, but it was not too bad. Okay - ready to download, right? No, I still could not download an OverDrive WMA file. Security message again. So I selected an MP3 title. Success!

Alas, it took 1 hour just to download the entire audio book to the OverDrive program.

Total time spent on this task - 2 hours! I consider myself fairly competent, technology-wise. And I had played around with ListenNJ before.

So I am not sure where things went wrong. I think the security settings on our branch PC Plus machine need to be tweaked before this is offered as a viable option for customers to use for downloading audio books.

New Challenges

It looks like I will be using this blog to track my progress on a new set of Web 2.0 challenges. Some will be a review, but others will be new to me. I can't wait to get started!!

Thing #23: That's a Wrap!

My overall impression is that the Web 2.0 Challenge was a really good motivator for me to try some things I had previously been hesitant to approach. I also enjoyed the sheer variety of blogs created by OCL staff and I hope people keep on bloggin'.

The favorite thing I learned about is probable wikis. They had seemed so intimidating to me before. Now I really want to use one for something in the near future. (More on that below!)

What I liked least was Technorati, because I am not immersed in blogging culture and not so invested in blogging either. It's not a meaningful tool for me.

What areas of 2.o should the library get more involved in? I propose that OceanNet become a wiki! If more staff could update the information it would be kept more up to date. Just imagine, each branch having their own page to share photos of recent programs, instead of having to see the same old links from Ripple Effect every day because Technology staff are stretched to the limit.

I would love it if we could offer feeds of new acquisitions in different subjects to library customers. Wouldn't it be cool to get an email once a month with the newly acquired Italian cookbooks listed for me?

I also expect that more and more webapps will be used by systemwide committees as well.

I have not shared much with my family. They seem to still be comfortable with email. It's the most exciting thing for them. We also use a site that has been around for a long time, called MyFamily, which actually started doing what MySpace does a long time ago!

All in all, this was a cool exercise. I have one more suggestion. I have not been able to figure out who's who among staff bloggers. How about a lunchtime meet and greet of willing bloggers at staff Development Day? We could wear nametags with the names of our blogs on them!

Thank you to the hardworking committee who put this challenge together. I know it was a lot of work, and a lot of e-mail. you did a stellar job!

Thing #22: Listen NJ

I have an ipod, but so far I don't think it's usable on Listen NJ (although I read somewhere that that might change soon. Of course, now I can't find the article!!!) . I burned "On the Road" to a CD. I didn't like the fact that there were no tracks. It was hard to pick up where I left off. Also, I don't understand why you cannot return something before its "due date". This makes items unavailable for longer than they need to be. The overall look and feel of the site is very clean and user-friendly.

Thing #21: Podcasts

I played around with podcast.com and found a series of lectures on autism from the UC Davis MIND (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute. I think this is just a great tool for researchers who can't afford to go to conferences. I hope that more colleges do this kind of thing. It could enhance education and expose people to lots of ideas.

Frustrating note: I had no problem viewing a lecture from my office computer. But now, as I sit at the Reference Desk, I am running into all sorts of difficulties downloading and viewing. So I went to the UC Davis MIND Institute website to find the podcasts. You can find the lecture series I viewed here.



The one I watched is called:

Tony Charman, Ph.D. - "Looking for Subgroups Amongst Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders"

Thing 20: YouTube

I keep tripping over my expectation that the Internet has all the information known to humans. It simply does not. I am currently reading Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad... It's a hybrid biography/oral history of Bella Abzug and her role in the feminist movement in the early 1970's. I have dim memories of Bella - she wore hats all the time and she spoke with a pronounced New York accent. I thought it would be cool to see Bella in action in her prime. So I trotted over to YouTube and found: next to nothing. There's a snippet of her in a documentary about breast cancer, but it's very brief and she looked very old and tired. It was not exactly the inspiring clip I was looking for. I did find the following clip of Rosie O'Donnell giving the Bella book to a girl at some conference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDtjgLg-9JM

At least SHE remembers Bella.

I trotted over to digital overlords Google Video and found this clip:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1858775945321622894&q=%22Bella+Abzug%22&ei=ae4lSL65BpLw-gHntujmCQ

But could not get it to load.

So this is what YouTube, and the Internet, is not so good at - anything that happened prior to 1990. Are events that occurred prior to the Internet age going to be lost to the masses, like the contents of the Alexandria Library? Sometimes I wonder if this might be true.

PS- I tried to embed the video but cannot figure out how to paste the entire piece of code into my post. If anyone could help me with that, I would sure appreciate it.

Thing #19: Web 2.0 Awards

I checked out several award winners. I think I could use and enjoy Yelp (Best in City Guides & Reviews). It seems like a good place to get insider information on different locations - where to eat, where to shop, where to catch the best live music. Unfortunately, it will only work for major cities. And it is subject to shills disguised as regular users (I know there is a cool term for this but I can't remember it). Again, if enough people commit to it, the wisdom of the crowd will prevail. But there are lots of services out there like this one - what makes this the one that will stand the test of time?

Honorable Mention: I loved Guess the Google! That is too much fun. So random and addictive.