Author: Robin

Find me!

Post author By Robin
Post date May 14, 2008
5 Comments on Find me!

Hey – I figured I’d take this opportunity (and give myself a bit of a break in the heavy-duty “thinking” posts I’ve been writing) to let you all know where I’ll be for the next couple of months. I’ve just finished reading Walt Crawford’s post on meeting up with people at conferences (in bars! Can it get any better than that?) and I really wanted to let you all know where I’ll be so that I can get some meetings set up!

May 17 – 21 Chicago, IL – giving a workshop on RSS & Library Databases for the Metropolitan Library System on the 20th (9:30 – 12:30)
May 31 – June 6th Montego Bay, Jamaica – giving two presentations and attending at least one meeting (times to be announced)
June 26 – July 2 Anaheim, CA – on a panel to discuss the role of IT departments in libraries on the 28th (4 – 5:30pm)

And then I get to rest until August, when we’re doing a “reprise” of the Web 2.0 class that Bobbi and I did in February of this year. We’re expanding it to a 4 day workshop in Columbia, MO. If you can make it to the Summer Institute this year, stop by and see me there, too!
If you will be around any of those areas on any of those dates, drop me a line or send me a DM on twitter and we’ll set up a time to chat. I’m pretty easy to get into a bar…

socialseries Web 2.0

4. Flickr

Post author By Robin
Post date May 7, 2008
No Comments on 4. Flickr

Flickr is a social photo sharing site and it has lots of uses for libraries and librarians. With Flickr, you can upload, do basic editing and share pictures in a multitude of ways. Flickr has several different uploading options, one of them a bit of software that you can install on your computer to make uploading pictures really easy. It also has a “basic uploader” that works on the Flickr webpage and requires no downloading or installation of programs. Once you’ve uploaded your images to Flickr, then you can do some basic editing (red-eye removal, cropping and some image manipulation with the included PicNik features), organize them into sets and/or collections (collections are pro – $$ – accounts only) and tag them until they make sense to you and will be easily re-findable. After you’ve done all that, you can then share them. Flickr has built-in “add to your blog” capabilities as well as a way to get a bit of HTML to add to a web page. It has badges and slideshows and unique URLs for each size of each picture you upload as well as for each set, collection and tag you use to organize your pictures. It was built to make sharing your images as easy as possible.
With all of that in mind, how can libraries use this tool? First, the pro account is $25 a year and gives you unlimited uploads and storage. Get it. Second, it’s a really great way to share pictures of your programs, events, book displays, staff members, parties and your building(s) in general. Once you upload those images, remember, they are really easy to then add to your website. One thing that people love is images of themselves. If you post some pictures of a recent event and some of the people pictured attending that event start emailing out links to your website, you’ve just created free, word-of-mouth, viral marketing. Also, those pictures are there for your publicity folks to use in future mailings, fliers and web announcements.
Other ways to use Flickr are:

use your pictures to create inexpensive marketing materials (business cards, calendars, books, etc.)
Use some of the thousands of 3rd party applications to make fun stuff to post to your blog, website or to a community website (custom movie posters, jigsaw puzzles or trading cards).
Find other people’s photos to use in your marketing or creative materials (but don’t forget to respect the creative commons copyrights on each photo in Flickr).
Create a badge that is limited to a single tag and put that badge on your internal, more specifically focused web pages.

Flickr, more than many Web 2.0 applications, offers a ton of really fun things to do with your images (and those of others, too)! I’ve just scratched the surface of “things to do with Flickr” – do you all have any creative uses for Flickr at your library?

socialseries Web 2.0

3. Facebook/MySpace

Facebook seems like an odd application for library use. It’s totally a social “utility” – as they say on the log-in page – and doesn’t seem to have many obvious library uses, beyond advertising programs and such. MySpace is much the same – it is intended for individuals (and bands – it started as a home page for bands to upload and share their music) and there aren’t many compelling reasons for libraries to “be” there… Unless you consider that part of the “philosophy” of Web/Library 2.0 is to be where your users are – whether that is in your library or in their browser (or cell phone text messaging application…).
Facebook has made it easier for organizations to use the service recently. People get profiles, just like in all the other social networking sites, but organizations get “pages”. From those pages, libraries can post information about their services, events and just about anything else that they want to advertise. Facebook also provides an application platform that allows 3rd party developers to create their own facebook applications. Because of this, Facebook has a lot of cool stuff to do while you are logged on. Many libraries have jumped on this application platform and created ways for their “fans” (people who friend the organization) to add a catalog search onto their own profiles. I modified a previously created catalog search for use at MRRL, and posted the code, with instructions, on the application’s page for other libraries to use.
Besides another platform for application programming, there are lots of other uses for it in libraries, too. Obviously, it is another way for patrons to contact us – opening a new line of communication, as it were. It’s a way to get your name out there – one public library in Edmonton, Canada, is doing tests on the effectiveness of highly targeted ads – and they are pretty pleased with the cost of getting in front of all of those eyeballs! It can also be used as a replacement for expensive “special use” software. One gentleman who attended the UKSG conference last month mentioned that his academic library is using Facebook in place of the very expensive VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) that they purchased and subsequently grew to hate.
MySpace has many of the same features and abilities – although it is sometimes difficult to stray away from the social aspects (friending, commenting, etc.), it can be done. One of the coolest interactions I’ve experienced was when I made our local radio stations friends of my library. One of the DJs for one of the stations left a comment on our page that basically asked if we had any poetry by Charles Bukowski. I left a comment on his radio’s MySpace page with a link to the catalog page that listed all the works we had by that author. He responded on the library’s page with a note saying thanks, but he owned everything we did. I finished the reference interview via MySpace with a final comment on his page asking him if he was familiar with Interlibrary Loan. That sort of interaction with the public – a real, not forced, natural conversation that was held on both of our MySpace pages – is the best way to get folks who may not be aware of your collection, programs or services to take a look at their public library.
Besides reference interviews via comments, you can republish all of your library’s content onto your MySpace page as well, making it much more likely that patrons (and soon-to-be patrons) find your “stuff”. I was recently asked by our Digital Librarian, Bobbi Newman to add the MySpace Crossposter plugin to our WordPress blog installation to allow automatic posting of all blog posts to our MySpace blog as well – no more duplication of effort!

presentations

Announcement!

I have told my boss, so now I can make my announcement here – I’ve accepted another speaking engagement, this one in Jamaica for ACURIL. Karen Schneider (aka Free Range Librarian) had referred me to the conference organizers to do a couple of presentations in her place. I will be doing a presentation on Collaboration and Cloud Computing and then one on either Mashups or Web 3.0 – that hasn’t been decided yet. So, back from England for 3 days and getting ready to do Chicago and the MLS workshop in 3 weeks and Jamaica a week or so after that. I’m gonna be a tired girl this summer!!

Update – I’ll be doing the Mashups presentation that I did at MORENet’s conference in Jamaica. The decision has been made!

Crash & Burn and the Recovery

Post author By Robin
Post date April 16, 2008
2 Comments on Crash & Burn and the Recovery

Yesterday I crashed. I got up – late – and blearily made my way to the breathtakingly gorgeous Westminster Abbey. I toured and I enjoyed, but I was so tired I’m sure I missed a bunch. I came back to my hotel after the tour and promptly passed out on the bed, sleeping from 3pm to 7pm. I got up, ate dinner, came back to the hotel, called my family to let them know I still lived (sort of) and went right back to bed.
Today I woke up much refreshed and ready to start touring again! This morning I ran off and spent a lovely couple of hours wandering around Hyde Park. It was particularly interesting to me, since I read so many romances set in the 18th & 19th century in London – and they are always riding through Hyde Park, or walking along the Serpentine Lake. I didn’t get on a horse (though it was available), nor did I take a boat out on the lake (though if my son had been with me, I would have!), but I did get some beautiful views (and a few nice shots) of the park as I wandered aimlessly along.

Tonight, I go on a walking tour of Jack the Ripper’s old haunts – of course, they don’t offer these during the daytime (I checked), so I’ll be completely freaked out on my last night in London. Oh well…
I don’t know if I’ll get my pictures from the tour uploaded tonight – I’m going to try to get everything pretty much packed up this afternoon and ready for me to head out of here at 6:30am tomorrow morning (that’s 12:30am CST…). I’ll probably keep my laptop out until I go to bed – I’ll have to Skype everyone when I get back and make sure that my getting back home arrangements are set up!
This will undoubtably be my last post of the trip, however, so I’ll say goodbye now and I’ll see you all when I get home!

Eyeing London and The British Museum

Post author By Robin
Post date April 14, 2008
2 Comments on Eyeing London and The British Museum

Today I went on a ride on the London Eye and got a fabulous view of the city. The conditions weren’t perfect, but they were pretty darn good! I could see all of the city, at least, and a bit into the countryside – but then it got a bit hazy. After that, I made my way to the British Museum…
I have to say, I entered this building with a sense of awe – more so than any other place I’ve been in my travels around town. That sense of awe did not diminish in the slightest as I wandered around, seeing the Rosetta stone, all manner of ancient statues, jars, jewelry and such and entire temples relocated into the museum itself. (The Nereid Monument, taken from Turkey and set back up in a side gallery in the museum – how is that for awe inspiring?)
I saw lots of mummies – from fancy Egyptian ones to accidental English ones (Lindow Man). All in all, it was a fabulous way to spend an afternoon!

More London

You didn’t think that just because I was no longer in Devon, I’d be giving up my Devon clotted cream, did you? Ha! That was my lunch yesterday while I was getting ready to head into St. Paul’s Cathedral. I toured that AMAZING structure yesterday afternoon, after visiting the Tate Modern Art Museum in the morning (Kadinskys and Picassos and Warhols, oh my!). Quite possibly the best moment of the trip (so far) was watching a little girl of about 6 or 7 years look straight up into the dome of St. Paul’s and watching her face light up in awe. That was an amazing sight!! No pics allowed in either the Tate or St. Pauls, so I gave my camera a bit of a rest yesterday.
Not so today, however! Today, I went to the Tower of London!

It was fabulous!! I got the audio tour, since it was raining and the Yeoman Warders don’t do their guided tour in the rain, but when the sun came out and my audio tour was over, I joined the guided tour as well. I saw the bloody tower, where the two princes “disappeared” and are said to be haunting the area, I saw the crown jewels (the yeoman said not to let us ladies compare our jewels to the Queen’s – the guys would get horrible inferiority complexes) and I saw the royal armory (with Henry the 8th’s armor – something else guys shouldn’t be comparing themselves to! The yeoman said that the codpeice on that suit of armor was psychological warfare before it became popular…). I saw the White Tower, where a number of prisoners were held and I saw the Queen’s house where both Guy Fawkes and Rudolph Hess (of WWII Nazi infamy) were held as prisoners. I, unfortunately, didn’t see much of the Tower Bridge because I decided to visit the Tower on the same day the London marathon was running over the Tower Bridge and around the Tower itself. Talk about crowds!!
I’m back now, and ready for my mid-day siesta before I go out to eat tonight. It’s been rainy today and I need to do a bit of drying out…

London by bus

Today I spent the majority of my day sitting on my butt on a tour bus, listening to facts that I cannot now remember, but will assuredly pull out of my head at random times over the next few weeks. Just a warning to all of you who will have to deal with me!
I hopped on the bus at 9:30ish and rode around for an hour and a half learning about the “famous places” of London. When we got to Trafalgar Square, I hopped off and immediately went into a bookstore. This was an expensive little diversion… After that, I had lunch (and a cider – drinking at noon! I could get used to this!!) at the Sherlock Holmes pub. Next was the National Gallery of Art. It rained while I was in gazing at Monet’s rendition of the Parliament building in the background of the Thames and at Gainsborough, Van Gogh and many, many other masterpieces. I then went to the shop. This too was an expensive visit…
After I’d spent most of my daily budget at Trafalgar, I hopped back on the bus and then got right back off at Piccadily Circus. I wandered around that area for a while – not spending any money – until it was time for afternoon tea, which I had in a slightly frenchified manner – with a tartlet instead of scones. It was satisfying, though and that got me back on the bus for more sightseeing!
After I had taken a million pictures and walked around the spots I wasn’t planning on visiting later, I headed back to the hotel for a brief siesta. I uploaded pics, checked email and searched for a restaurant that was close. I settled on the Blue Jade – thai food, of course – and headed there at about 7pm. It was wonderful!! Excellent food and service!
Now I’m back to my hotel and ready to call everyone and see how they are doing, assure them that I’m still kicking and the like. I was going to do the Tower of London tomorrow, but it looks like it will be nice tomorrow and rainy Sunday and Monday, so I may do Hyde Park tomorrow instead!

Buckingham Palace

After I uploaded this morning’s batch of pictures and rested for a bit, I went off back toward Victoria Station and Buckingham palace. On my way there, I stopped off at the Grosvenor Gardens and sat and watched the pigeons and people wander by (and found a cash machine that will actually give me pounds – took me two tries, but I found one!!). I continued on past the royal mews and finally on to the palace.

That was an impressive sight! I got several pictures, both of the palace at different angles and of the monument to Queen Victoria that sits just outside the gates. They are on Flickr, of course!
After that lookaround, I walked back – slowly – to an Indian restaurant I’d passed on my way to the palace and had a lovely dinner there. A short walk back to my hotel followed dinner and now I’m back in my room – uploading, tagging and organizing all of my day’s photos. I’m going to be talking to the folks at home soon, when they get home from work, and then I’ll be more than ready to get some sleep!

More Travelin’

I hopped the train to Paddington Station at 2:21pm and ended the portion of my trip that required work. Except for the hauling of 75 pounds of crap that I decided was necessary for my trip to England. I’d call that work, too. Anyway, the trip back to London was lovely – all verdent (and I mean blinding, saturated greens on the hills – dotted with sheep, of course – that we passed) and lovely and relaxing. We got to Paddington, hopped the tube to Victoria Station, got bad directions to the hotel and wandered the streets for a bit – until we finally got good directions – and then made it to the hotel – with all 75 pounds of crap still attached. We were going to get an extra bed and Bobbi was going to crash in my room overnight, before getting on a 7am plane to Italy – but my room is barely big enough for the twin bed that is in it (as in the door won’t fully open because the foot of space between the doorjamb and the bed won’t allow it. Private toilet, lots of tea/coffee makings and all, but NO ROOM. They are moving me to a bigger one tomorrow. After all that, Bobbi decided it would be just as cheap to get a hotel room out at the airport than to get a room here and pay 45 pounds (that’s 90 bucks) for the taxi back – since the tube doesn’t open til 6am. She left, I got settled in my closet and went out for dinner.
I stopped off at a cute little pub on Victoria Street (I think – still getting my bearings) and had bangers and mash with a cider to drink. As I was finishing up, a lady came and sat at my table and asked to bum a light – I gave her one, we chatted amiably, then her friend came out and joined her and she lit into him like a banshee. Apparently he (or someone) had been telling people that she will “drain your bank account” and she wanted him to stop. He insisted that he wasn’t saying it. I was fascinated, but had to leave in the middle – it was getting a bit weird for me! They paused in their argument, wished me a lovely evening and continued on as I walked away.
I got back to the hotel at about 9:30 and the “emergency engineering issue” that they had warned me about when I checked in kicked in. No electricity for the rest of the night. I’m typing this up on battery power and will post it tomorrow (Thursday) after the power comes back on to our street.
Sweet dreams, y’all – I’m going to sleep!