Random thoughts

krl2pt0

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:46:00 +0000

Well, it took a while, and some of it was frustrating, but I've learned a lot and feel that I'm finally living in the 21st century! SharePoint was a wonderful thing to finish with-- easy, and fun, and useful.

Sites for students

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:05:00 +0000

I'm writing this on Zoho Writer! We'll see how it goes ...

The resources in this lesson look a lot more practical than something like Twitter. (Although playing in Twitter helped me understand what the people in that Alli commercial are doing.) The organizing and notetaking possibilities for students blow my mind -- I'll bet when the current generation grows up we really will be able to get closer to a paperless society.

I enjoy organizing things, so first I tried to look at Stikkit, but when I clicked on the screencast links I got blank screens. I'll check some other day, because I really want to see how that works.

Jobster was interesting. I learned I could make a lot more money as a GS-12 cataloger at Library of Congress, if I wanted to live in Washington, DC, rather than Washington State. I think not, though. Their cost of living is much higher, and their climate is appalling.

The welcome screen for Zoho writer said that with Zoho you could use tags as folders. What a wonderful idea!!! I can't always remember which folder my document is in. How can we convince Microsoft to do this?

Changing type fonts. Hmm, this one is a little small. Changing the point size. The older I get, the larger the type font I enjoy. Nice assortment of emoticons!

1234567890-=qwertyuiop[]\asdfghjkl;'zxcvbnm,./ (WingDings. Cute, aren't they?)

ISBN	Title
9781406542608	Bardelys the magnificent
9781594482731	Teahouse

Tables work well.

I like Zoho writer and now that I have an account with them I'll investigate their other applications. Free word processing, free spreadsheets, free lots of things that are good for students and for people at home who don't want to pay for Microsoft products.

Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:56:00 +0000

Hmm. I created my Twitter account (I'm Cataloger), started following Udweller, Jeannie, and the library, and I've put a couple of tweets out there. Underground Dweller was kind enough to do a tweet so I could see if I'd done everything correctly. :-)

I looked at five library accounts and found that they're using Twitter for short announcements-- classes, building hours, computer downtime, additions to the catalog, etc. I can see that this is an easy way to get such information out to people, but I noticed that none of the libraries has many followers, so I'm not sure how useful this could be. Stillwater free library has eight followers. Houston Library has only 58 followers, and that must be a big library. When we add new formats to the collection (CDs, DVDs, etc.) we wait until a large number of people have the equipment and start asking for them. We probably should do the same with a lot of the krl2pt0 technology-- see what lots of people are actually using, and focus on that. Blogs before Twitter, for instance.

Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:22:00 +0000

I think the three most important points in Meredith Farkas' post about libraries on Facebook and MySpace are that libraries should put themselves where their customers are, that the library's presence should be more than just a picture of the building and a profile, and that libraries could educate young people and their parents about privacy issues. Brooklyn College Library and Hennepin County Library have presences on Facebook that are useful, and it would be nice if we could do something similar. I doubt that IT has the time to do this-- would this be a good, ongoing project for volunteers?

After saying all of that, though, I have to admit that I don't understand the appeal of sites like this. A face to face visit is best, then a phone call, then a nice, long letter that you can read and think about and then re-read. I just don't think that something like "hi, cute picture!" is real social networking.

Wiki, week two

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:49:00 +0000

Jeannie showed me how to create a link by linking my TS tour page to the sidebar (thank you, Jeannie). I also copied and pasted another TS document into wiki and created its link on my own. This is the "Why doesn't the author's name on the spine label match the name on the book" explanation about transliteration tables. I get this question every few months, and I posted the explanation on the web page, and now it's in the wiki as well. It really was easy, and it is immediately visible to anyone using the wiki, unlike posting it on the web page which may have to wait several weeks until someone in IT has time to post it.

I really would like KRL's wiki to become the one place to put any information that more than one person needs, and I will start by getting all of Technical Services' information in there. I'll also talk to Paulette about putting circulation procedures on the wiki, because that's what I have the hardest time finding.

Wiki, week one

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:20:00 +0000

The Stevens County wiki has not just a lot of library info on it, but also a lot of community info that could draw in non-library users. I especially liked the reading lists-- the Princess booklist is an excellent readers advisory tool, for instance. I also looked at Booklust and made a list of some of the titles in her "I love a mystery" section-- I'm always looking for new reading material!

I think Wiki could be the most useful thing we've looked at so far, used as a tool for pulling together all the documents, procedures, and forms that we have spread out over the web page, the transfer file, bulletin boards, notebooks, etc., as long as we can keep it organized. Wouldn't it be nice to have just one place to go to find things? I think we need to add functional areas to the wiki home page, in addition to the branches and departments. I know that I would like to be able to see system-wide procedures such as how to handle snags. I'll talk to Paulette about this.

I created a new page listing TS staff and how a book moves through the department by copying and pasting. That was as easy as pie, but linking it to the home page ...

YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 23:06:00 +0000

Okay, YouTube could be seriously addictive! I started by watching the first suggestion from krl2pt0, "Evolution of dance", and enjoyed it very much. That led to an animated hippo singing "In the jungle" which led to the horrifyingly hilarious "der arme Kerl" which led to "Road kill bird" which led to ... Well, anyway, I had to force myself to quit watching!

There are a lot of very professional-looking videos on YouTube, but also some very amateurish-looking ones, and unfortunately most of the library videos I watched were amateurish. I did like"Perry the Penguin discovers the Dewey Decimal System".

"March of the librarians" was fun, and I watched it very carefully to see if I could spot anyone I knew.

I found the KRL video, and enjoyed seeing staff on it. I thought the music was a little over the top, though-- it's not a shark, guys!

Library Thing

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:59:00 +0000

As you can see from My Library on the left, I like fantasy! Our imaginations are wonderful things, and we can create marvelous places with them.

The Mercedes Lackey books are set the The Five Hundred Kingdoms, and have fairy godmothers, dragons, wicked sorcerers, and some really spunky princesses. Terry Pratchett has a whole series of hilarious books set on the planet Discworld. Going postal and Making money feature former con artist Moist von Lipwick (pronounced Lipvig). Poor Moist, the tyrant of Ankh-Morpork has caught him and is using his skills to revive the post office and the royal bank. Both series are funny and charming.

Looking backward and Walden two are more serious works that lay out new ways of living that their authors thought would create utopian communities. Edward Bellamy was a social reformer who believed that nationalizing industry would eliminate poverty. His book was written in the late 1800s, and it's kind of depressing to realize that the problems he was railing against are still here-- the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. B.F. Skinner was a psychologist who was developing a science that would train people to be good members of society.

Library Thing's Very Short Introduction was very easy to follow, and I was able to set up my account and catalog seven books in very little time. I had to have Dweller Underground's help to get the widget into my blog, though.

I like Library Thing's reviews much better than Amazon's-- Library Thing's members seem to be literate, and you can't always say that about Amazon's contributors. The recommendations are also good-- I've already started a list of additional books to read.

Here is the link to my library (I hope): http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Cataloger60

Flickr

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:00:00 +0000

I think sea shells are some of the most beautiful things on the planet, and I enjoyed looking at them on Flickr.

I started my Flickr assignment by reading most of the suggested "additional background information" sources. The Wikipedia article on Flickr is everything an encyclopedia article should be-- it covers the history of the site, its features, how it's used, etc. The BBC article on Flickr talks about how it can be used in social networking, and the Wired article has short descriptions about Flickr and a couple of its competitors. All of these are worth reading.

I'm not planning to get an account with Flickr, but I went through the tour and it looked very easy to use.

Anemones are beautiful and come in all sizes and colors. I have an orange one that's bigger than my fist, and a little green one like the one below.

I learned a little about Flickr this week, and a little about putting pictures into my blog!

My first picture!

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:23:00 +0000

I love fog.

Words of wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:34:00 +0000

"It is best to do things systematically, since we are only human, and disorder is our worst enemy." Hesiod

Funny mysteries

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:53:00 +0000

I like my mysteries to have a lot of humor, with a focus on interpersonal relationships, and not much gore.

The Meg Langslow books by Donna Andrews are some of the funniest mysteries I've ever read. In the first book, Murder with peacocks, Meg goes home to Yorktown to organize three weddings-- her best friend's, her brother's, and her mother's. The Kirkus review said it "will leave you helpless with heartless laughter", and it does. Meg's parents, brother and sister, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., have their little quirks, but they're very endearing, and they play important roles in all the books in the series. Some of my other favorites in the series are Revenge of the wrought iron flamingos (Meg at a Civil War reenactment), Crouching buzzard, leaping loon (Meg investigates problems at her brother's computer games company), and We'll always have parrots (Meg attends a fan convention for her fiance's TV series).

Anne George's Southern Sisters mysteries star Patricia Ann (60 years old, 5' 2" tall, 110 pounds) and her sister, Mary Alice (she started counting her birthdays backwards when she turned 65, says she's 5' 12" tall, and admits to weighing 250 pounds). Patricia Ann says that if they hadn't been born at home she'd swear that one of them had been switched at the hospital. If you have a sister, you'll agree with me that she has their interactions down perfectly. I can read these over and over, and laugh every time. The series begins with Murder on a girls night out and finishes with Murder boogies with Elvis.

Jane Haddam wrote five funny mysteries under the name Orania Papazoglou. They take place within the romance-writer community in New York City, and you have to love them just for their titles: Sweet, savage death; Wicked, loving murder; Death's savage passion; Rich, radiant slaughter; and Once and always murder.

Week 4 - RSS

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:21:00 +0000

I did the activities for Week 4 all by myself! This is the first week that I haven't had to ask Dweller Underground to come over to my computer to tell me what to do next. (I did get a lot of help from her blog, though.) I'm using Google Reader so more of my krl2pt0 stuff will be in the same place, and I didn't have any trouble with Microsoft trying to steal my stuff.

I've subscribed to two KRL blogs so far-- Dwelling on Technology from Underground, and Humor Memoranda. They're both amusing, with different slants on the whole process. :-) I'm sure I'll be subscribing to more, once I work my way through the list. I've also subscribed to krl2pt0.

I subscribed to the Cataloging News blog from Hennepin County Library. They used to have a radical cataloger, Sanford Berman, who did battle with Library of Congress over subject headings. He thought we should be using common language for subject headings, rather than LC's weirdly-formulated constructs. As an example, the LC subject heading for house plans is not "House plans" but "Architecture, Domestic--Designs and plans". Not exactly intuitive, is it!

Tomorrow I'll search for an interesting podcast so I can do the extras for the week.

Tagging: krl2pt0 assignment

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:49:00 +0000

I took me a while to understand how tags worked, but once I got it I realized that my del.icio.us list bundles could be much more organized than my favorites list. I put all of my vendor catalog websites in one bundle, and now I'm working on putting all of my OCLC websites into bundles-- one for MaRC manuals, another for Connexion documentation, etc. Other bloggers have mentioned that social-networking reference sites would be helpful to them, but probably nobody else is interested in cataloging websites.

I did add a couple of websites to the network-- iLibrarian, and Librarians internet index: websites you can trust. LII has lots of good websites divided into catagories like business, ready reference, recreation, etc. The acronyms and holidays websites are especially helpful.

Social networking seems better than our email groups-- we could pick and chose what we want to read, share things more easily, and keep them in better order.

I'm not happy with computers right now

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:34:00 +0000

Grrrrr.

Friday I tried to install the delicious buttons-- it didn't work. Very discouraging.

This morning I tried to ftp the first chunk of our catalog to OCLC-- first it took forever to get the file in a place the ftp program could access, and then once that was working, OCLC decided it wouldn't accept any of the passwords I had. And no one has replied to my email asking what I should do next.

This afternoon I tried to install UnitimeClient on my computer-- it didn't work. Nancy had to come and do it.

And it took me three tries to get into this blog.

Good books about dragons

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:25:00 +0000

Genetically enhanced dragons and their riders fight a serious threat on the planet Pern in the series by Anne McCaffrey. Start with Dragon flight.

The enchanted forest chronicles by Patricia Wrede are very funny children's books. Princess Cimorene gets so fed up with embroidery, dancing, and batting her eyes at princes that she runs away from home and ends up living with the dragons! The first book in the series is Dealing with dragons.

I just finished reading Dragonhaven, by Robin McKinley. It's a young adult book that I think would appeal to both boys and girls.

Web 2.0 and libraries: best practices for social software, by Michael Stephens

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 18:26:00 +0000

This is a publisher's listing for a book available from ALA, and the sample pages I looked at were interesting enough that I think the library should buy this book, and also his followup book-- Web 2.0 & libraries: trends and technologies. I'll pass the information along to Gail.

There was a silly thing in the author's blog (http://tametheweb.com/)-- he asked readers to vote for the shirt and tie he should wear when he gave a talk, and then he showed which one won.

There is a link in the author's blog to another blog called iLibrarian which included a very interesting article about creating subject headings for blogs. I've bookmarked it and I'll read it next week. http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/

Do libraries matter? by Talis

noreply@blogger.com (Cataloger) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:14:00 +0000

I found this paper very helpful in explaining what Library 2.0 can do for libraries, and how and why it could improve our service.

My interest is in the ILS, and after experience with three different companies and their patchy functionality, I really like the idea of connecting different components designed to deal with a "specific area of complexity" (think acquisitions and serials control) that can be "made available to any other component through an Application Programming Interface". With this we could put together an ILS that would really work for us! (Does anyone have any idea how soon this could happen?)

I do have to wonder about their recommendation that there be a single library catalog based on Amazon's pattern, though. When I'm in Amazon unless I search on something very specific, I get page after page of hits, and I don't have the time or patience to look at all of them. John once told me that a study he saw said that people were willing to look at only 40 things, and Martha recently said that 23% of our circulation comes from the new title shelves, which tells me that people want fewer things to look at, not more.