The 23rd thing: Survey

Here we are back in library world. Whoops...too late for the survey.
Respect to all my library colleagues who finished on time. May the force be with you all in Library 2.0 and beyond.
Susan...aka Jade X. Libris

The 22nd Thing: Resolutions & tools

So here we are at the end of the road and back at the circulation desk, where we see about 600 people through the door and handle about 1400 items per day.
Truth be told, it's hard to keep up with that workload and it is, after all, our first priority....when workload data is counted, we don't get points for spending time in the virtual world....circulation rules!!!
The excercises in 23 things were a pleasant diversion. Some things are more useful and relevant to my library situation than others . I can say some staff would like to make a career out of attending to their Facebook pages, be they library or personal. All in all, it was a good learning exercise. It is sad not to have a nexus of collaborators to continue the good work.
It was good to gain some confidence but intimidating and sometimes disheartening to see how quickly so many others progressed. But hey, everyone should feel like a slug at sometime...helps with the empathy factor.
My resolution would be to return to many of the things presented in the exercises and to try for mastery. The other part of that would be to actually visit the many other blogs.....I know I was truly impressed with some of what was being done by some individuals and in some libraries.
And now it is back to Jade's library. Welcome to my world. It's for real.

The 21st Thing: Student 2.0 Tools

The research and assignment calculators could be particularly useful tools for students who were busy texting or twittering when their teachers covered "how to do a research paper" in their student 1.0 classes. If you can catch the students early in the "due date" process, the calculators can help provide a framework and a structure to help guide the search for appropriate library material. So many students are clueless about the process.
Summer reading lists queries might provide an opening to informally introduce students who visit the libraries to the calculators, perhaps along with http://www.bibme.org/ in order to allow them to have time to experiment with these before the school year starts. For teachers, I would probably include a link on the library website, perhaps making this one of several tools, including library databases, that teachers might find useful.
Teen volunteers might also enjoy learning about these and demo'ing them or blogging about them on the library website.

The 20th Thing: Books 2.0

“What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation,” he wrote, confessing that he now found it difficult to read long books

-Nicholas Carr.

The blog exercise asked what we witness at our library. Relating to the above quotation, I witness a stream of teenagers who spend their afterschool time on the internet with no purpose other than to look at booty shots and social network sites. I am not sure exactly what set of skills is being acquired by their doing this. I have another story to tell....for several years two middle schoolers skipped school to spend their time on computers at the library. They spent the whole day playing games and chatting. A call to their school brought absolutely no concern. Now they have returned as young adults....they never finished high school and the only jobs they can get are flipping burgers. All the time they spent on the internet.....what good has it done them??? I see too many kids who are rudderless wasting their time on seedy websites. I see too many adults who don't have the basic skills necesary to fill out a job application.

I've watched library checkout skew to DVD's over books. It's now close to 50 per cent. Many people utilize the library as a free video store. They never check out a book...not for themselves and not for their kids. I've watched kids be turned loose in the library for entire days while their parents are glued to social networking sites, and get irritated when the kids start crying or want something to eat. How sad.

The many sites mentioned in Books 2.0 are worth a look and offer opportunity for those who still read books to gather together in their name online. Bless them. In a few years they will probably be regarded as cultists for appreciating the written word in ancient book form. Some of the sites seem to duplicate info found in the library press with regard to book reviews.

The articles mentioned were interesting. It remains to be seen what will evolve with the future of the book and of public libraries as we presently know them.

The 19th thing: More Social networks

If you would like to join the herd, wherever it is headed, you can find a social network that will appeal. No doubt about it...from baking to bonding, it's all there....most with way too much self-important sounding commentary and way too little information.

Yep, that's the herd factor.....not much direction, but hey, let's all go anyway, there might be something there.

Munch and moo and a whole lot of cow patties down on the virtual farms.

The 18th Thing: MySpace and Facebook

Libraries are finding their way to social networking sites to play to the demographics they represent. An example is Jax Public Library teen page. The thinking is that teens already using social networking will find their library info accessible on these sites and perhaps be more participatory.
The challenge for libraries outside of content is site maintainance, if it has to be paid staff doing it.
Personally, I have tried both sites mentioned but do not care to have a presence on these type of sites at this time. But for those who like to have a door open to their personal and professional lives at all times and invite people in, good for them. I do think it was a comedown for Facebook to drop their edu requirement. It was a better site with only college membership.
And as for My Space....I can't say how many times I have witnessed 15 year olds pretending to be 23 on My Space and 14 year olds looking at booty shots on Urban Chat, thanks to the library.
You better be careful who you choose as friends.

The 17th Thing: Pod casts

I looked in the podcast directories that were presented. I'm not sure how useful many of these are, outside of the news casts, assuming you want to eternally be in the newsloop, but some are mildly entertaining with varying quality. Once again, this seems to be dominated by commercial and professional producers, and CNN, PBS and sports seem to dominate the "most viewed category"
I suppose if you were out on a trail like the one pictured here, and really had a desire to get your newsfix, you might be able to be podicated on your Ipod or MP3 player. But why would one even want that? If however, you were in some boring and purposeless staff meeting, a podcast might be just the thing to transport you to a better place more deserving of your attention.
Ill try to get a podcast here later. Before I download any additional software, I need to query some knowledgeable sources about what would be best.