Learning 2.0: Finding New Feeds

Like a few of my other colleagues, I also decided to not add any additional professional feeds. Right now, I feel like my professional feeds are just about at capacity. Any more, and I may have to institute a rule to delete one feed for every new feed I add. (I believe some of my friends and co-workers have that same rule for their children's toys.) Personally, however, it seems like the feeds keep coming. More and more of my friends and family are creating flickr pages, blogs, wikis, etc. It's a lot of fun.

I have most enjoyed finding additional feeds through my current feeds. My favorite librarian blogs will often talk about and link to other blogs and that's where I've found my new favorites. That's how I found The Feel-Good Librarian and a few others. I've tried Technorati and a few of the other feed search engines but have always found the most enjoyable, high quality feeds through my current feeds.

Learning 2.0: RSS and Feedreaders Rock

I discovered RSS and feedreaders maybe a year ago, I think. I started out with a Bloglines account and have recently been experimenting with Google Reader. I love my feedreader. In my personal life, I have several friends and family members who have blogs and Flickr pages, so I was always checking their sites for new stuff. Professionally, I think a big part of my job is to stay "on top of" what other librarians are talking about and what other libraries are doing. I read all of the professional literature, but I quickly discovered that Blogs were, honestly, an almost better place to go for some of this. But to check every site! Then I started using a feedreader and it was like getting to eat cake for the first time on your first birthday. Whoa! Now I can go to one site and quickly see in bold who has new content. I can quickly read a text-only version of each new entry but can easily go to the actual blog if I want to. I can easily see who is referencing other blogs and add other feeds that way. And, I can easily spot the repetition, which, sadly, has been happening a lot lately. (Boy, I used the word easily a lot there....)

Yard Work

We had a beautiful weekend in Central Kentucky and, luckily, actually got some rain last week. Which, of course, meant yard work! So both the husband and I were out yesterday morning working in the yard. First I went to house 1.0 (which we really hope to be closing on this week) and mowed that lawn. Took all of 15 minutes to actually mow. Got back to house 2.0 and started mowing that lawn. The husband came out with the fancy new weed eater. He tried to start it. No luck. Tried again. Still no luck. Of course, I had been using this very same weed eater the entire 5 weeks he was gone. I let him try one more time. Walked over. Started it on the first try.

That totally made my day.

Learning 2.0: More Flickr

lolcat2091702
Originally uploaded by Matt and Nicole

Wow, all the 3rd party applications, mash ups, and more that you can do with Flickr seem almost too much! I didn't realize you could do so much. To be honest, many of the tools just seem silly to me. But, then, like this 3rd party lolcat creator that I did, maybe that's the point?

I'm particularly interested in the Mappr application. I think someone like my husband, who has been traveling places many of us haven't even heard of, could have a great time putting some of his photos on a map. FD's Flickr Toys all seem really fun. Making a fake motivational poster? That's awesome! Add widgets. See where you digital camera ranks among Flickr users. All really fun things. But definitely a bit overwhelming.

Learning 2.0: Flickr

I have had a Flickr account for a year or so now but did not realize how easy it was to integrate your Flickr photos into a blog. After taking some digital photos of the Justice & Safety Library on my digital camera, I uploaded them on Flickr and then used Flickr's Blog This feature to put some in this blog. How easy! Took maybe 5 or 10 minutes. Hmmm, I may have to use this feature again in the future.

Justice & Safety Library, Fire Codes CD

Justice & Safety Library, Fire Codes CD
Originally uploaded by Matt and Nicole

During the Fall and Spring semester, this is probably the most popular item in the library. We're excited to be moving to the Web version soon!

Justice & Safety Library, Funny Sign

Justice & Safety Library, Funny Sign
Originally uploaded by Matt and Nicole

We currently have a faculty member temporarily living in our conference room at the Justice & Safety Library. Here's a shot of the hilarious sign some of the J & S staff put on his door.

Justice & Safety Library, Patron Computers

Justice & Safety Library, Patron Computers
Originally uploaded by Matt and Nicole

A shot of some of the patron computers in the Justice & Safety Library

Justice & Safety Library, Another Shot of Flat Screen

Justice & Safety Library, Another Shot of Flat Screen
Originally uploaded by Matt and Nicole

Here's a shot of the flat screen in the Justice & Safety Library

Learning 2.0: Facebook

I have been on Facebook for a little while now (6 months?) and have really enjoyed this social networking tool. I know I have found myself reconnecting with old friends from college and even high school, as well as connecting on a more personal level with many of my co-workers here at the university library. I think like Julie, I really like how organized Facebook is. It is very clean looking which honestly makes it really pleasing to the eye.

I particularly like a lot of the privacy and control settings available in Facebook. It's very easy to control who can see what and exactly how much they can see. It makes a fun way to share photos and updates about my life with people who are actually in my life.

I have been a bit of a lurker on MySpace. In particular, sometimes in fun to see how many people I graduated high school with have pages on there. I have been shocked by the number who do have pages that are completely open. So I can see their blogs, their personal photos, and many other things that I know I wouldn't have out there for the whole world to see. MySpace is just so......ummmm.....assualting? I can't think of a better word just yet. You open up a page and it slams you with music, photos scrolling across the screen, bold colors, etc. So not only are you try to turn off the music -- if you want to actually look at something on someone's profile -- but also you're trying to figure out where to look to find what you want to know.

In terms of librarians and Facebook and students, I think we're still at a wait and see. I know all of our student employees at the library have Facebook accounts, but I am definitely not going to request them to be my friend. A think such a request would have to come from the student. In a lot of ways, I do think it is still their space and they'll come to us when and if they're ready.

Learning 2.0: Why Join a Social Network?

For our first lesson this week in our Learning 2.0 program at my library, we watched the following video on YouTube:



I have been on Facebook for a little bit now and how been a lurker -- looking at open profiles but never setting up a profile myself -- on MySpace. It creeps me out a bit to see all those people from my high school and think they could find me ; ) Of course, almost none of them have Facebook profiles. Interesting.... I have also set up a profile with LinkedIn but have never really done anything with it. My husband, on the other hand, has quite the network on LinkedIn.

I especially appreciate the simplicity of the video. It's silly, but I never really thought about WHY I was joining Facebook or why my husband is on LinkedIn, but the above video explains it entirely and simply. We join to extend those personal networks and to make it easier to contact friends of friends. We join for personal reasons -- to find love, to find work, to share photos and information about our lives with those we trust. We join for professional reasons -- to see what others are doing, to have great contacts, to reach out to students in our libraries.

Privacy and the Web

Today our library met and had our first brown bag session to talk about our first week's experiences and thoughts about Web 2.0. It started a really interesting conversation about the Web and privacy.

There's no question that a lot about each of us is already out there. Admit it -- we all do a web search on our own name sometimes and it's a little creepy how much is out there. Newsletters and alumni magazines on the web, work web sites, etc. So, we're already out there. But then, through social networking sites, Flickr, and even this very blog, we're putting more about ourselves and those we hold dear out there. How much do we share? What do we share? Who do we share with? Are there separate identities and pages for work and personal life or do you just blend them together?

Thankfully, most of these Web 2.0 tools allow us to place privacy protections appropriate for our individual comfort levels. I'm thinking about taking a look at the personal Flickr page, in fact. There are some photos up there that are fine for the whole world to see. But I'm thinking some should actually be private. And, honestly, some probably aren't mine to share in the first place, as they are photos of friends and their children.

Anyway, just some rambling thoughts. I'm not quite sure what I think about all this just yet. But I do know we can't just ignore it. Even if you don't blog, have a Flickr page, or any of those things, stuff about you is STILL out there. And I think it's up to each of each to be proactive and make sure that information is not being used incorrectly rather than putting our heads in the sand and ignoring it.

How to keep track of all those bookmarks!

In having to use two web browsers, I finally set-up an account and started using del.icio.us to try to have all my needed bookmarks in one place. However, I found it was lacking....something. But I wasn't sure what. Sure, all my bookmarks were right there. But there was no way to organize them. Enter, Netvouz which I read about this morning on The Cool Librarian's Blog. Why Netvouz? Netvouz lets you create FOLDERS to actually organize your bookmarks! I've set up an account and am playing with it. I'll let you know how it goes but it already seems to be the solution I was looking for. I think I'm going to be a very happy librarian.

Learning 2.0: The Machine and Web 2.0

My library has just begun a Learning 2.0 program where we are going to be learning more about Web 2.0 tools like blogs, Flickr, RSS feeds, social networking, etc. To get us started, and inspired, we watched this video which was posted on You Tube:



I have watched this video several times over the past year or so. Each time I watch it I notice something I didn't before. However, I think I am always most moved by the idea that WE are creating and organizing the web. WE being anyone with computer and Internet access, whether that be at work, at home, or through a free public library. Expertise, programming skills, and money are no longer needed!

If you are my friend, do NOT let me watch TLC

If you are my friend you must today promise to never let me watch the TLC channel again. Ever. Seriously.


Well, I think it was Sunday night, the TLC channel (channel 35 in Lexington) had a series of hour after hour of everything that could go wrong with a pregnancy. First, there was the story of a young girl in Haiti who had a disease that made her bones grow in weird, tumorous way. It affected her by growing on her face. This story was followed by the tale of an amazing set of conjoined twins in Minnesota, which was actually really inspiring. Followed by the story of a young primordial dwarf in Canada which was followed by a story about several primordial dwarfs.

Not to mention TLC's other regular programming such as "Honey, We're Killing the Kids," "Big Medicine," and there's some show that steps in and tries to save marriages.

For someone considering parenthood, these are NOT good shows to watch. Seriously. So if you are my friend, do not let me watch TLC!