electronic content

I've just finished loading up my ipod for my train ride to NY tomorrow night - or so I thought.

I don't have a kindle but I think that technology is WAY cool! I'm not crazy about the current corporate model, but I'm sure it will be exploded soon enough. It certainly seems to be a major challenge to the book publishing world and those who make a living by warehousing and selling pulped literature. What we as librarians clearly have to do is be loud and vocal about not allowing access to information - the foundation of free speech, become all contracts and only available to those who can afford it.

BUT - back to my train trip - I've of course seen Whitman's Leaves of Grass many times, yet I haven't bothered to pick it up yet. I found its on LibriVox. So I downloaded the first book and will load it up to see how it strikes me. Poetry is always best listened to, so I'm pretty psyched. (oh, I hope my second attempt at downloading goes better than the first which failed at Opera and let it manage the download - for some reason it seems to reliably do a better job than Firefox)

IMing

Is IM still new?

I first used Trillian at least 7 years ago. Even before the internet took off I recall using Apple Talk to keep in touch with friends in College across campus. I've had multiple occasions when I've sought tech support from a vendor using an IM interface, but I often had the impression that the person I was talking to was IMing with too many other people at the same time because it always took so long for them to reply.
Lately I've been a bit frustrated by facebook's IM feature - all too often I try and chat with someone only to have their status change to offline. Perhaps its just me?
I know people who've used Meebo, but too often the library networks aren't reliable enough for it. I think texting is really a better alternative, as its not as reliant upon someone being on the other end to receive it immediately - but can be a good, quick tool when someone is.

catching up - delicious!

I've been using del.icio.us for quite a while. My links are here:
http://delicious.com/ccheever
I just used it earlier today to remember a page I found that can create pdfs online - I had a publisher file I needed to view but I didn't have publisher installed and didn't want to download the huge trial version just to get a printable copy.
Another site I bookmarked a while ago that I like and mean to look at more frequently than I do is "the librarian without walls" Marylaine Block's "Neat New stuff". It brings me back to the days of Yahoo magazine and the joy of discovering new stuff I didn't know I needed - I love serendipty and often feel there's not nearly enough of it online....

be a dad - to your brain

I've read "Who moved my cheese" and expected "Who moved my brain" to be similar - buts its way better. Seriously. Go read it now.

Haven't read it yet? Have you ever read, been encouraged to read, or even thought about reading Getting Things Done? If so, you owe it to yourself to read this. It doesn't take long and is worth the time. Its a slide show from a 45 minute presentation, but it will take you maybe 5 minutes to read.



Ok, if you need further convincing, here's the crib sheet:

1. Identify leeks
2. Govern access
3. Minimize notifications
4. Work in dashes
5. Renegotiate
   

Thanks Staying With it!

onlne learning for Hyde Park Teens

hmmmm., I'm challenged to think big about "What kind of online learning program could you develop for your patrons?"

The best online learning program I recall is no longer available for libraries - Rosetta Stone. The way they combined images, sound, and text to immerse you in a language for rapid growth was wonderful. It probably still is, its just not something they're letting us make available to the public anymore, which is really too bad. My ideal online learning program would be similarly completely immersive. Think second life, but easier to enter, with more photo realistic graphics.

There was an online component to my master's program, which usually simply consisted of copies of the week's power point presentation, the course syllabus, and discussion boards. I know some if not all of the classes in the Harvard School of Public Health are filmed and the video is available from the course web site. This could be great, and would be really cool if there were a way to share all these courses with the world.

In my ideal online learning environment, a real person would be (virtually) present to act as a mentor with video conferencing or another means of intimate communication....

office online

I keep a few files online in my google docs account and have tried to interest others in using shared docs and spreadsheets, without much success so far. I love the idea of saving everything online and introduce patrons to it every chance I get - especially any patrons still using floppies.

I hadn't played with google presentations yet, so I decided to create a basic presentation with halloween pics we just got today. Feel free to take a peak.

social shopping

I'm grateful for the introduction to Etsy. It looks like a great way to find cool stuff from cool people. I ended up checking out some vegan food that people will prepare and send to you - cool idea! I've bought from other online vegan sites but I like the idea how this takes the stress out of this side of the business model.

I've used Vista Print for years - you can usually get a bunch (at least 250) free business cards from there for only the cost of shipping (< $8 last time I needed some). They through an advertisement on the back, or you can pay more and have it removed. One year I think we used them to maje holiday cards using a picture I uploaded and they were very nice. I do NOT recomend getting on their email list. Its probably easy to get off, and I really should, as they send emails avery day or two about some "amazing" new sale.

Being broke, I don't plan to use any of these sites much, but I'm grateful to know they exist for when I do get some dough....