The 10 best books of 2007

It's pretty amazing how out of touch I have become with the new/popular book culture since I started working here at the UAF Library. I only recognized one of the titles from The 10 Best Books of 2007 list. This probably just means I should go to Barnes and Nobles more often.. ;)

Digital library exceeds 1 million books

Here is an article from yahoo.com about a joint project to digitize books between several colleges in the U.S., India and China.

Digital library exceeds 1 million books

Books in the New York Times

Here is an interesting book resource with reviews and everything book-related.

New York Times - Arts - Books

Pimp (decorate) my Bookcart!

This is such a great idea – decorating bookcarts! I think this summer when it slows down here at the library, each department should work as a team to decorate a bookcart! We could put the entries on display on level four. Here are some (of the 129) entries submitted from across the nation. Pimp my Bookcart

Books on the web

Here's an interesting article called Libraries Shun Deals to Place Books on Web. This article discusses the project Google Book Search . Google has been scanning full books into their search engine. I am wondering how InterLibrary Loan is affected by this and if they know about this emerging service.

Unshelved!

Cool! I just happened upon this comic stip about libraries. It is called Unshelved.
Here is some history behind it.
Here is the link to the daily comic.

Librarians in Pop Culture

Wikipedia has an interesting running list of librarians in pop culture.

Summary!

I thought Learning 2.0 was a great program. It was very comprehensive and ambitious!

I would have liked it broken down into bite-sized pieces for us - to truly take in all the information. (i.e introduce 10 new web applications at a time, several times throughout the course of the year.) The job related sites could have been addressed lecture-style in the media classroom in mini sessions - step-by-step for everyone.

I thought it was somewhat unnecessary to both blog our thoughts and put them in Blackboard. It would have been really nice to be able to access the Learning 2.0 site remotely from home (without installing anything), so you can share the sites with friends and play with it at home.

Three things that I would have liked to have seen on the Learning 2.0 is:

1) Instant Messaging and how it could be productive in the workplace (i.e. ILL instantly communicating with BIOSCI).

2) The issue of computer security, firewalls, security software upgrades etc. What do we need to know?

3) What are our work Email options? Many people are still using UAF squirrel/webmail. Mozilla Thunderbird is becoming popular. Are there others?

Learning 2.0 definitely got the communication flowing in our department. Everyone was asking eachother questions and complaining. :) I sat down with Asha once a day for an hour and we helped eachother with this. We learned a lot from eachother. The blog also gave me more of a voice to bring up work related thoughts.

I now know more than I ever dreamed/wanted to about the internet and its uses. I’m almost up to speed with other people my age on what the internet has to offer – and in some cases I know more. Thanks Learning 2.0!

P.S. Thanks Robyn R. for introducing the Common Craft Plain English site. It made Learning 2.0 much more understandable!

Technorati

I’m not that impressed with Technorati...why do you need a search engine just for blogs? Can’t you just use google? I don’t like the name (techno - rati?) and I don’t like the format. This is a downer activity to end my Learning 2.0 experience with. I suppose if I look at the site long enough, I might stumble upon something interesting/worth reading…

Del.icio.us

Delicious is such a cool idea! I have a lot of websites that are in my ‘favorites’ on my work computer. Sometimes on the weekends I want to access those websites and now I have a way of doing that. I will definitely have to explore this site more and set up my own account! I wonder how they thought up the name...?

Web and Library 2.0

Library 2.0 is the concept of the evolution/modernization of the library systems. There is no doubt in my mind that libraries are changing to adapt to our technology-based society. I agree (to varying levels) with most thoughts out there about Library 2.0 and what that encompasses. In August I wrote a blog entry about this subject – check it out!

Wikis and Libraries

Wikis are very useful. Wikipedia is among my top five most-used websites. I use it when I am curious about anything (academic or entertainment related). At first I was somewhat leery about random people posting information on a website that is supposed to be factual. But Wikipedia has a few safeguards in place to try to prevent fraud. They require posts to have cited information and they warn readers at the top of the page if they think the information may be one-sided, made-up or incomplete.

I think using wikis for the library is a great/progressive idea. I like how some libraries use wikis to allow patrons to post book reviews. I like how we use the wiki for procedural information. I’m sure there are endless uses for wikis in the library realm – I just can’t think of anymore at the moment…hmm..

I also noticed the Rasmuson Library has an entry in Wikipedia, which is great…but it looks a little pathetic. Since we now know how to post things to wikis, we should put a nice picture of our library up there with much more information and links!

Rollyo

Rollyo has the potential to be useful especially for researchers. But it seems like too much work to set up specific Rollyo accounts when you could just do a google search for the same thing. True Rollyo might filter out some of the not-so-useful information, but is it worth the trouble?

Online Productivity Tools

Well, isn’t this a helpful idea? I can’t even count the number of times that I needed to print a resume and 1) I couldn’t find the disk it was saved on or 2) somehow my disk was deformatted or corrupted and I had to type the information from memory.

This seems cool that you can access this information (word documents, calendars, mail, projects etc) from any computer with internet. It seems like a virtual laptop..in a way…

I like the usability and look of Zoho better than Google Docs. Zoho also has all of your computer functions in one location. Google is a much more established company – would that make the site more secure/reliable?

Podcast searching

Podcasts are fun and functional! I found all the podcasts for this Learning 2.0 project to be helpful in understanding these new terms. It seems kind of silly to me to have search engines just for podcasts (couldn’t you just google: podcasts and Learning 2.0?). But I guess they do filter your searching a little.

I am most familiar with the podcasts through religious outlets. Churches all across the world are starting to put their sermons up on line using podcasts. It is interesting hearing other people’s points of view. Here’s one from an Anchorage church.

RSS Feeds

RSS Feeds are definitely a cool idea. It would save lots of time to have all the new information from your favorite websites in one place. I was wondering what that orange box symbol was on all the websites - now I know. I just noticed there is a newsfeed at the bottom of my blog on this page. Cool.

Different Web browsers

I normally use Mozilla Firefox. I like it a lot more than Explorer. I like the tab functions, so you don’t have to open up a dozen different windows. I like how (if you want it to) you can have it remember your username and passwords for different websites. It is much more user-friendly and ‘clean’ looking to me.

I haven’t used Netscape since the internet first became main stream when I was in grade school. That is before Explorer took over as the most popular web browser. Evidently, AOL owns it now and is trying to bring it back..?

I am sort of surprised the Safari web browser was not on this list. It is the third most used browser on the market (to Explorer and Mozilla). I am not that familiar with it. I know it is owned by Apple Corp. so we will be seeing more of it in the future.

I have never heard of the Opera browser – it doesn’t seem all that special from their website.

Grokker

Grokker is a little confusing. I’m having difficulty finding the usefulness of the map view in relation to my search results. I don’t particularly like the “Source” options they give us.

The outline view is pretty interesting. They are attempting to filter my results through the ‘exclude’ option. I like that I can email or export the results.

I don’t think I will ever need to use this website, but I could recommend it to others who are doing research..

Web 2.0 Award Winners

Wow, I love this list of Web 2.0 winners! I could spend a whole month browsing through all of these. I was happy to see many familiar applications – thanks to Learning 2.0. I wonder who actually votes for these winners or do they base the winnings on popularity determined by number of users..?

I stumbled upon some new fun web applications. The winner for the “Lists and Polls” category was 43 Things. This is a website where you create a “Life List” of things you want to do in your life time.

The winner for the “Fun Stuff” was the Cocktail Builder. You simply type in all the drink ingredients you have at home and it will tell you what cocktails you can make and how to make them. Also, if you are missing one ingredient for a drink they will give you suggestions on what to buy.

The winner for the “Music” category was Pandora. This is a music lover’s paradise. All you need to do is type in musical artists you enjoy listening to and they will create a radio station with similar sounding artists and the ones you love.

Library Quotations

I found this great website of inspirational library quotes. If I were in charge of a library I would print off all these quotes and hang them up around the entire library. All of them make me smile.

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” Jorge Luis Borges

"A great library contains the diary of the human race." George Mercer Dawson

"A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library." Shelby Foote

Libraries and Technology

I found this article on Yahoo's home page this morning about public libraries struggling to keep up with the internet demand. Thankfully, UAF doesn't have a huge problem with this.

The title of the article puts a negative spin on the situation, I think it should be reworded to 'Despite demand, libraries can't add PCs.' Never-the-less here it is:

Despite demand, libraries won't add PCs

Google Base/Labs

Google Base is very clean and easy-to-use. Item postings are clearly broken down: recipes, events, housing, vehicles, products, services etc. with many search fields to choose from. With all the postings you can see what site it was pulled from to be on Google (just like any other search) and a thumbnail picture of it looks like to the left of the posting.

Google Labs is crazy. My friend from high school works for Google. They have hundreds (if not thousands) of web engineers developing these different sites/applications. It is cool to see what applications ‘graduated.’ I wonder how many people actually send them feedback to improve the Beta versions. It is like a free focus-group.

Library Blogs

There are countless library related blogs out in the web. I find this Alaska Library Blog fairly informative. But the ‘blogroll’ on the right-hand column I find even more useful/interesting.

I found this great YA Literature blog from that Blogroll. It has over 500 book reviews! I love the format of the site and picking recommendations for great reads!

Image Generators

Kind of a fun thing to play around with and give images to your friends. I don't see much application in the library setting especially related to our jobs..

Google Maps

Google maps is such a useful, easy-to-use website! My family and I use it for road trips, driving directions, mapping out garage sales, finding businesses and just for fun.

It is entertaining seeing how much the towns have changed since the aerial pictures were taken. It is cool how close you can zoom in on the property and how far away you can view the world.

It would be interesting to find out if these Maps mashups are violating any copyright laws or if they have to get permission from Google before they can manipulate their site…

Rasmuson Web Resources

The Rasmuson web page has a lot of useful information on it. The archival stuff was new to me. There is a lot more going on in this library than I thought!

I already look at the DVD browser on a regular basis to see what new movies have come in. The ‘staff picks’ are particularly helpful to weed out some of the academic DVDs. It is also neat to see what media equipment patrons have to check out.

Flickr Mashups

I am happy for the people out there that are computer-savvy enough to meld two websites together to create their own mashups. That would take a lot of imagination (and possibly boredom). “Hmm.. if only I could combine the pictures from Flickr with a map from Google..” I am not quite sure the usefulness of any of these mashup besides being fun to look at. I liked the colors in Color Pickr.

Rasmuson Wiki

The Rasmuson Library Wiki has a lot of potential. A ton of information can be stored on there and added by ‘the experts’ of the tasks listed. It would be interesting to find out how many people actually use it and can they find what they are looking for?

I would like to see a ‘mission statement’ of sorts on the main page of the wiki. Is solely used as a ‘how to’ manual for new employees and ones that just need a refresher? Or is it used as a documented basis for all work to be done uniformly? Or any combination of the above?

The wiki could also use some sprucing up - it looks rather dull to me (no pictures?). I also noticed not all departments post items on the wiki while others post enough to make up for the rest of the library…

UAPortal

I actually find UAPortal to be a helpful tool (if I remember to log onto it every morning). Instead of having to open multiple windows everyday to access information on UAOnline, my email, the Walking Program, my calendar, events information and various other university webpages, they are all right there. I just have to log on once.

The most time consuming part of this program was formatting the pages the way I like it. I deleted about half the web channels and added the ones that interest me.

ListenAlaska

I’m not a fan of ListenAlaska and Project Gutenberg. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE listening to audio books but it really shouldn’t be this hard. It is difficult to search titles on Project Gutenberg.

It is easy to check an item out on ListenAlaska (if they happen to have a copy available). All you need is a library card number. However, you have to download Media Console Player and do various security upgrades on your computer. And even then I couldn’t get it to open.

I also think it is weird how few copies of the new release and best sellers they have for check out. Why can’t you check the item in if you are done with it before the two-week loan period is up?

LibraryELF

This seems like a really practical idea! I was amazed when I worked at the public library in Anchorage. A mother with four children would check out the maximum amount of material (50 items per card) and she never had an overdue! I am convinced she was using Library ELF, otherwise how did she keep track of it all?

AkLA Conference 2008!

The Alaska Library Association Conference will be here in Fairbanks at the Princess Riverside Lodge Feb 28 - March 2! I went to last year's seminar in Anchorage at the Hilton. It is pretty neat to see all the different librarians from around the state - some of them even looked familiar. Attending the different focus groups was very informational. There were local and national presenters talking about different trends and issues libraries face. Should be interesting to see what topics they come up with this year!

(R)evolution of the Librarian

Anne Christie from BioSci recently sent me this interesting article from the New York Times about young up and coming librarians. It is called A Hipper Crowd of Shushers

I was convinced that library school was becoming outdated/obsolete before reading this article. It reminds me why we are doing this Learning 2.0 activity. All these new technologies are the things that are going to keep libraries alive for future generations. Librarians must learn to adapt to our ever-changing world of technology. Otherwise they will be left behind.

Flickr

Fascinating picture I found on Flickr. I just typed in “Fairbanks” and “Library” and this came up. I am wondering what state this library is in – doesn’t much look like Alaska…

Flickr is very new to me, so I am sure there is more to this site than meets the eye. But it seems like an amazing way to share high quality photos with many photographers both amateur and professional. My sister will LOVE to hear about this site! She is going to school to become a photographer. Many of last year’s SunStar covers were my sister’s work. (*so proud*)

FaceBook!!!

I LOVE my FaceBook! I must check this social networking site several times a day! It is really the only way I feel connected with all my friends, since I don’t see them in person on a day-to-day basis. I have been a part of this network for almost two years.

You can find out so much about your friends and your future friends on this site. People should be careful about what they post on these sites because employers have been known to check these sites for photos of substance abuse and reckless behavior.

Fun things you can do on FaceBook are: write on your friend’s Wall (forum), send them a private message, invite them to a group or event, share book/movie reviews, place an add in the marketplace, post your photo albums and now you can add all sorts of applications (100s of them) to more easily keep in contact with your friends. I found some of my friends from elementary school on this site.

I MUCH prefer FaceBook over MySpace. MySpace doesn’t seem quite as controlled or clean as FaceBook. When FaceBook first started you had to have a university email address to set up an account. Since then, high schoolers and people with generic (hotmail or yahoo) email accounts could set up a FaceBook account without being affiliated with a college. But FaceBook seems to be more closely monitored.

On MySpace you will probably get several dozen “friend requests” within the first day for people you don’t know or have no desire knowing. Some advantages that MySpace has over Facebook are more people have access to MySpace. Many local/national/international bands can set up MySpace accounts/websites for free. It is very easy to access.

Once you have set up your FaceBook account feel free to search my name: Amanda Huff and request me as a friend! : )

Technology Sites

These websites just for technology seemed a little dull to me. The only one I was half interested in was http://www.technewsworld.com/ because it talked about everyday technology applications.

The new cellular devices seem fascinating to me: iPhones and Blackberry. You can do pretty much anything on your cell phone, watch TV/Movies, check email, browse the internet, find GPS coordinates, check the stocks or weather and take pictures. It is amazing what they will think up next!

YouTube!

I LOVE YouTube! I am normally on this website 15-30 minutes a day. I like to watch clips from TV shows and especially music videos from my favorite bands. I have never searched for library-related videos but was surprised to see so many.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k8BKX2eQ0Q
This video is pretty funny. You gotta love the soundtrack!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXKNA7ThrCg&NR=1
This video was funny, but I was confused on how Mercedes Benz fit into the commercial….?

I like how you can read people’s comments on the video, see how many times it was viewed, see related videos, and see other videos posted by the same user.

Anyone can post videos on this site, so unfortunately there is a lot of junk..

LibraryThing!

Pretty fun program! I like how you can see all the covers of your books - I’m definitely a visual person. I also enjoyed how when you click on a book it tells you all the tags (subjects) that are associated with the book. It also shows the reviews, synopsis and a generated recommendation list.

I still need to rate/review all my books and explore the groups a little more. I wish that you can categorize your books into three groups: books already read, books I'm currently reading and books I want to read. You can check out my library by clicking on the widget in the left hand column of my blog!

Blogs

Yah! This is my first work-related blog! It will also be fun to see what other people's blogs look like.

Lifelong Learners

I totally agree that we are learning new things everyday of our lives.

The most challenging thing sometimes is just getting started and staying motivated after you encounter speed-bumps. The easiest thing for me seems to be encouraging and helping others.

Learning seems to be getting more exciting the older I get (I’m still very young). I used to dread school and homework. But now I am looking forward to learning new things. I would like to take more UAF classes - there are some pretty interesting ones out there.

The public school system in Anchorage was not all that helpful in establishing a desire to learn. My senior year history class consisted of completing one word-find per class period and a poster-board project at the end of the semester…mmm, simulating!

Blackboard

Blackboard can be soooo frustrating! The initial and second log-ins are the most complicated/crucial. It took me awhile to get my password set.

Evidentially, I am in the UA System under four different usernames - from when I attended classes at the University of Alaska Southeast (in Juneau), UAA (Anchorage) and here at UAF as a student and staff. OIT was very helpful though, in resetting my password! Thanks!

Getting Started

Cool! I finally started Learning 2.0. I will probably be skipping around alot on the task list. I have used some of these applications before but most will be new.