Rhymes with "Park Benches"

I told my sister that I had a blog, and she said, "Wow. You are now pretentious."

But I told her that it was for work, and I think I got a pass. If I ever start collecting vintage wine or pronounce the "t" in often, though, I'm sunk.

I've been only reading top shelf books lately - if novels were alcohol, the last five books I've read are literary Glenlivet. Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane, the fifth and final book in the Kenzie/Gennaro series, does not break this trend.
I picked up the first in the series in January, for two reasons: when Brian Freeman, author of Immoral, visited by library, a patron asked him about his favorite books. Mr. Freeman replied that we should all read Dennis Lehane's books, because they are impossibly good. The second reason is I saw Gone Baby Gone in the theater, and liked it quite well.
But let me tell you - not that anyone will be surprised - the books are much better. The final installment sees the two main characters Patrick and Angie reconnecting after a prolonged estrangement (see Gone Baby Gone) after a former client of Patrick's commits suicide in a particularly strange fashion. I won't go into further details re: the plot; suffice to say that the dialogue is mesmerizing, the situations occasionally brutal but always interesting, and the characters are, well, not endearing, but at least sympathetic.

Thanks, Brian Freeman.

Sunday at the FMM desk

I don't really mind working Sundays, which, at my library at least, makes me weird. But really, I have my morning free (we only work 1:15-5:45), I get to take a half day off later in the week, and staff members get time and a half. What's not to like?*

Anyway, we thought that the library would be very quiet today, since the weather is be-u-ti-ful, but if anything we're busier than normal. Go figure. I'm spending time between patrons alternately working on ordering large print titles and thinking about the book Candyfreak, which I re-read a few days ago. I have a notorious sweet tooth, and although that generally manifests itself into a need for baked goods (cake, bread, scones, etc.), I do love candy. So reading this book was heaven because 1) the author is really funny and sarcastic, which I like, and 2) it's about CANDY.

I went online right after reading it and ordered one of every random candy bar that the author mentioned. Or at least, I purchased one of every candy bar that is still available. No Caravelle, but still plenty of other options. I'm now waiting with bated breath for them to arrive so I can see if they're as good as I imagine. (Note: I did find a Clark bar locally, and they are definitely not as good as I remember. Not too bad, because hey, there are very few chocolate-coated foods that are without value, but there are other peanut butter-crunch bars that get higher marks.)

Now I need to find something new to read that will create the same visceral response. Maybe a cookbook...

*Unless I want to go out of town, or have company, or enjoy the first nice day in weeks...

Thing 23: Final Thoughts

I've recently been told that the hallmark of a good blog is it's brevity. Which is a good reason to keep this short (aside from the fact that I have to go to the public service desk in exactly 9 minutes).

The tools I was most intrigued by, and the ones that I am guaranteed to make use of on a regular basis, are the image generators. I do quite a few posters, bookmarks, and displays, and some of the options available online to make these posters/bookmarks/displays interesting are absolutely wonderful. Not that other tools - Flickr, del.icio.us, facebook etc - aren't helpful and interesting, but as a person with some computer skills but absolutely no creative ability, my introduction to image generators really made me smile.

Finally, my feelings on 23 Things: "Participating in 23 Things on a Stick is like learning how to drive - sometimes the ride is smooth and you feel confident your abilities, sometimes you're afraid that you can't handle what's coming next, but in the end you're glad you made the effort."

Thing 22: What did I learn today?

I will devote 15 minutes per day to maintaining my blog and checking out new Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 tools. (Boy, it's in writing now...I really hope I can live up to that statement.)

One of the first things I'm going to do is take a WebJunction webinar. Well, the first thing I'm going to do is take a bit of a breather - trying to get all 23 things done has been a bit of a challenge, esp. since February and March are often the busiest months of the year for me. So the second thing I'm going to do is enroll in in webinar. I've done them before for things like reference and dreamweaver, but maybe it's time to branch out a little further. And goodness, WebJunction definitely has a lot of options to pick from.

I'm also going to make more of an effort to maintain my LibraryThing account. I was aware of this tool before, but until I actually sat down and entered a bunch of titles, I didn't realize how addictive it could be. Uh, and helpful for RA. (Same holds true for many of the other websites out there, esp. YouTube! and Digg, two of my personal favorites.)

This has definitely been an eye-opening experience. On behalf of my fellow Minnesota librarians, let me just say Uf dah.

Thing 21: Beyond MySpace - Other Social Networks

I liked the WebJunction article well enough to print it off, but I had trouble accessing the Publisher's Weekly story...the link provided didn't work, so I searched instead for any article published in the last year in PW that was about social networking and included the search term "gather."

I really hope I read the right one.*


Regardless, I successfully created an account, left a random message for my coworker Ginny, added a picture of myself, and (drum roll, please) put a badge for Ning on my blog. I also checked out some of the other social networking websites, particularly the movie-related sites. I don't belong to any social networking sites at the moment except for MySpace and Facebook, and they're about as much as I can managed for the time being. But Flixter looked pretty darn interesting...


* I checked the user comments for on the Thing 21, and I did NOT read the right article! But thankfully another member posted a link that worked, so all is well.

Thing 20: Libraries and Social Networks

I'm actually already a member of Facebook and MySpace, both for work purposes. First, in order to contact an specific author I wanted to invite to my library, I had to me one of his "friends"...hence the MySpace page. I joined Facebook at the prompting of my supervisor, after we both attended a Minnesota Library Association session on Library 2.0, and the value of networking sites for readers' advisory. I haven't kept my MySpace page updated, but I've actually had several old (read: haven't talked to them in at least 3 years) friends find me on both sites.

After logging on to my Facebook account, I added a new coworker to my Friends (Hi Pam!), joined the ALA Members group - because I'm curious to see what the less-censored ALA chatter is - and wrote on another friend's wall. And I think Facebook is so popular because of the privacy issues, and, frankly, it just seems to be a little more grown up than MySpace. Oh, and I didn't have problems with annoying pop-ups (see MySpace comments below).

When I went to log on to my MySpace page, I found to my dismay that there are tons of pop-ups that obscure my profile - I couldn't even see the SignOut link because it was obscured by an advertisement.

I've checked out Hennepin's page before, and it's colorful and fun and chock-full of information and cool stuff. I don't know how many teens think to check out their local library when they are playing around on MySpace, but if they do they won't be disappointed. (Oh, and I particularly liked the Denver PL's music - it changed the browsing experience significantly.)

Thing 19: Podcasts

I was most interested in the American Public Media podcasts located on the MPR website, but you needed to download special - though free - software to listen. Again, my work computer is a bit sluggish, plus we have a policy of not downloading any software to our desktops. However, before I gave up I went to Ira Glass's website, and low and behold he a link to Chicago Public Radio's podcasts of his show. So I was able, w/o downloading any software, to listen to an episode of "This American Life" from 1.16.04, which I haven't listed to since...2004. Awesome. I've also added an RSS feed for "This American Life" to my Google reader page.

As for ease of use of the directories, I was able to find the podcast I was searching for on all of the directories...except Podcast.net. And GCast looks like a pretty convenient tool, but I must admit that I haven't had the time to give it a try.

With the help of one of the reference librarians (okay, confession...he does most of the work), I've been podcasting some of the adult programs that we host at our library. When one particularly popular author visited, we digitally recorded the session and put it up on our website; so far it has gotten over 70 individual hits - admittedly not great, but not too bad either.

Thing 18: YouTube & Other Online Video

Let me just come right out and say it: I love YouTube. I love it. I don't often spend much time browsing, which is sad, but if I want to see a clip of Will Ferrell doing his fabulous George W. Bush impersonation, or watch a scene from a musical broadcast from Lincoln Center in 1990 (and NEVER broadcast again or released on video), YouTube is there to help.

And if it can help me, think of what it can do for patrons...if only it didn't suck so much bandwidth. I did check out some of the recommended videos (sadly, I couldn't identify any MN librarians), but I did like the idea of library tours - a live-action version of a second life library experience.

I really don't see how uploading the video to my blog could have been any easier, which is funny because I was a little nervous trying it. I chose to include the song "A Weekend in the Country" from the musical A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim. It was the previously mentioned "Live from Lincoln Center" version, which my mother taped off of PBS in 1990, and which I watched many times during my childhood. Unfortunately, there was a sad incident involving a box of videos and an exploding watermelon, and despite my best efforts, I haven't been able to watch it for half-a-dozen years.

Until YouTube.

Thing 17: ELM Productivity Tools

1. Gale
RSS feed...crash and burn. I had no trouble searching InfoTrac Student Edition via ELM (I used it quite a bit as a student and when I worked at the reference desk), but every time I tried to add the RSS feed to either my webpage or Google Reader, I got some variation of "Oops...an error occurred." I did try...it's just that apparently http://find.galegroup.com.proxy.elm4you.org/itx/generateRssFeed.do?qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28SU%2CNone%2C13%29youth+smoking%24&DB=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&tabID=T003&prodId=STOM&digest=2f511610d02dd02e918c3b118349add4&userGroupName=mnsminitex
is not recognized as a valid RSS feed.

2. EBSCO
Creating the webpage wasn't difficult, but there are better tools out there...I wouldn't want to have to use this on a daily basis.

3. ProQuest
I sent the "webpage" to myself and my friend Margie - I wish I'd know about this tool when I was still doing research papers!!!

4. NetLibrary
Done and done.

How can these tools be applied to your everyday work? If I ever need to do a presentation (an all-to-real possibility), then these tools are fairly painless research aids. And of course I think students who may not be aware of the functionality of electronic databases at their library would be if not excited, then at least interested. The thing I though would be fun, however, is if, when we do committee work and have to read an article, if we could create a "group" login, and all make notes that everyone could read.

Thing 16: Student 2.0 Tools

The Assignment Calculator is interesting, but personally it seems like too much effort and not enough payoff, particularly for non-U students and faculty who don't have access to email reminders. But if a particular student has real time-management issues regarding long-term research projects (impossible!), then having every piece of the process laid out neatly would be of use.

I though that the Research Project Calculator was much more useful, particularly because you could email the page and get reminders, not just be stuck with the option of printing the project schedule. I'd be a lot more likely to recommend this site to teachers and students, not the least because of the added content (support materials in various formats, advice to teachers, etc).

If I were to ever use this professionally, it would probably be either for a long-term project where the steps were clearly defined, or if I were asked to give a presentation.

Thing 15: Online Games and Libraries

Second Life:

I should really remember to never ever watch anything on YouTube in the afternoon. We have a lot of patrons using the Internet at that time, and everything is soooo sloooowwwww.

So I've signed up in second life and created an avatar. However, when I went to create an account, I was asked to download special software, which, as I am sitting at my (as previously mentioned) slow work computer, I am reluctant to do. It's not a requirement so I won't worry, and instead will mention a a couple of possible applications for this service.

If you could create a fairly accurate replica of your library, it would/could be a useful application for giving virtual tours our your facility, and also highlight resources. Since much of the content we provide is now online (not the majority, but still quite a bit), it might help guide patrons to resources that are inadvertently buried in our web page.

Plus I thought the idea of using it for distance learning was great. We offer an eBay class at RPL, and it is always filled to capacity. For those Internet savvy library users out there, it would be an interesting experiment to try offering a class exclusively over the Internet.

Think 14: LibraryThing

I created an account for myself on LibraryThing a year or two ago, added a few books, then promptly forgot it. When I went to log on today, I find that I no long have an account - or if I do, I have no idea what email address I registered.

So I'm now katherinews (my usual boring handle of kstecher was already taken), and you can learn all about the books I like at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/katherinews And I'm sorry to say that I am now totally addicted to this online tool.

This could be a very useful tool for readers' services at my library; patrons are always interested in what the "experts" (oh, if they only knew) are reading, and this would be a good way for us to book talk our favorite titles, and potentially reach a very wide audience. My only qualm about throwing myself into this project is that I know it will end up buried on our library's fiction page, where good reader's advisory tools go to die. How can we make this info more accessible?!?!?!?!?

Thing 13: Online Productivity Tools

As is becoming my habit, I selected the Google option, not because it is the best, but because I'm having trouble remembering all of my passwords, and it is nice to be able to do one-stop shopping. (Just like Wal-Mart...oh wait, I hate Wal-Mart...)

So iGoogle it is! Pretty slick, I must admit; they only problem I've had so far is when I try to use the Google Calendar gadget it crashes my computer. So that was bad, but I solved it by deleting that particular feature from my brand-spanking new homepage. I didn't like the recommended countdown widget, but I searched iGoogle and found one that was a bit more intuitive and that I liked just as well.

Calendar: according to the article in Wired, "Google Calender sets the standard," which is great for me (see first paragraph of this posting). Seemed clear and easy to manage, although I must admit that I just added a few appointments and didn't delve too deeply into the resource. Still, I did see that you can sync your google calendar with your Microsoft Outlook caldenar...although unfortunately my library relies on GroupWise.

Lists: I am an old-fashioned girl, and I still like paper notes - did you hear me?!? PAPER! However, I realize that while written lists are acceptable for my grocery list, it isn't as practical for my work tasks. I am resigned. I tried ta-da, and while fun, I still prefer the daily task lists on my GroupWise Calendar, mostly because I like putting a task on my calendar and not having to even look at it until a reasonable time before it is due. (If there is a way to do this on ta-da, I didn't see it.) Plus, according to Ta-Da's FAQ section, you can only have ten simple to-do lists before you have to start paying.

I need waaaayyy more lists that that in my life.

Finally, I breezed through backpack, but if I hold electronic tools to the same standard that I have for shoes, I cannot buy a new one (pair) if it isn't any better to the ones I already use (have). Backpack didn't thrill me.

p.s. I did think zamzar was pretty nifty.