Thing #15 - On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0...

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Library 2.0 is term used to describe a new set of concepts for developing and delivering library services. The name, as you may guess, is an extension of Web2.0 and shares many of its same philosophies and concepts including harnessing the user in both design and implementation of services, embracing constant change as a development cycle over the traditional notion of upgrades, and reworking library services to meet the users in their space, as opposed to ours (libraries).

Many have argued that the notion of Library 2.0 is more than just a term used to describe concepts that merely revolve around the use of technology; it also a term that can be used to describe both physical and mindset changes that are occurring within libraries to make our spaces and services more user-centric and inviting. Others within the profession have asserted that libraries have always been 2.0: collaborative, customer friendly and welcoming. But no matter which side of the debate proponents fall, both sides agree that libraries of tomorrow, even five or ten years from now, will look substantially different from libraries today.

Discovery Resources:

OCLC Next Space Newsletter – Web 2.0: Where will the next generation of the web it take libraries?

Five Perspectives:

• Away from Icebergs
  
• Into a new world of librarianship
  
• To more powerful ways to cooperate
  
• To better bibliographic services
  
• To a temporary place in time

Wikipedia – Library 2.0
Library 2.0 Discussions (list of great references from Wikipedia)

Discovery Exercise:

1. Read two or three of the perspectives on Library 2.0 from the list above.
2. Create a blog post about your thoughts on any one of these? Library 2.0 - It's many things to many people. What does it mean to you?

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, library2.0, web2.0

Thing #14 - Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

[Your eyes do not deceive you - there's no podcast to listen to this week!]

So now that you’ve been blogging for awhile, you might be wondering just how big the blogosphere is. Well, according to Technorati, the leading search tool and authority for blogs, the number of blogs doubles just about every 6 months. Technorati currently tracks 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media!

Yes, these numbers are astounding, but as you’ve already seen for yourselves, blogging is so easy that these publishing tools are being taken advantage of by almost every industry, including libraries.

So how does a person get their blog listed as part of the blogosphere and how can you tag your posts with keywords to make them more findable through a Technorati search? The answer to the first question is that your blog is probably already being captured by Technorati due to the fact that you're already using Blogger, the most popular blogging tool. But if you want to join the party and have your blog officially listed on Technorati and also take advantage of the watchlist and other features, you’ll need to claim your blog yourself. As for tagging posts with Technorati tags? This is easy, too. All you need to do is add a little bit of HTML code to the bottom of your post (see my example below) and Technorati will pick up these tags when it spiders (or web crawls) your site.

There are a lot of new features that have been added to Technorati this past summer, including new ways to search for blogs. You can search for keywords in blog posts, search for entire blog posts that have been tagged with a certain keyword, or search for blogs that have been registered and tagged as whole blogs about a certain subject (like photography or libraries).

Discovery Resources:

• Technorati Tour – videocast of new features & new look (requires QuickTime)
  
• Technorati Popular lists of blogs by fan popularity, searches and authority (based on number of blogs linking to a particular website in the last 6 months)
  

Discovery Exercise:

1. Take a look at Technorati and try doing a keyword search for “Learning 2.0” in the search box on the main page. Take a look at some of the newest posts tagged "Learning 2.0", then click the Blogs tab and look at a few Learning 2.0 blogs. Think about how the trend of lifelong learning goes beyond libraries into education, technology, and business.
   


2. Explore popular blog, searches and tags. Is anything interesting or surprising in your results?


3. Create a blog post about your discoveries on this site. Did you find any blogs or websites you want to continue reading?
   
   
   
   OPTIONAL: If you're up for a challenge, learn how to tag your posts by with Technorati tags so they can join tag searches. Create a post about something. It can be anything you want and add the HTML code to the bottom to tag it as “OCLwebthings” You may also want to consider claiming your blog and creating a watchlist.
   NOTE: When adding HTML code, you'll want to make sure you're in Blogger's Edit HTML window.

There's a lot to explore.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, tagging

Thing #13 - Tagging, folksonomies & social bookmarking in del.icio.us

powered by ODEO [3:53]

Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures & posts). Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e.Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data any way they want.

In the past few weeks, we’ve already explored a few sites – Flickr and LibraryThing to name two --that allow users to take advantage of tagging, and in week 3 many you used a common tag (oclwebthings) to create an association between photos that we individually uploaded. For this Thing, we want to take a look at a popular social bookmarking site called del.icio.us (typed in as http://del.icio.us).

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking manager which allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize your bookmarks. You can use and add to your favorite internet bookmarks at ANY computer with internet access. Watch the video from Common Craft below:





Many users find that the real power of del.icio.us is in the social network aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you. You can think of it as peering into another users’ filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user's filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network.

For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at del.icio.us and learn about this popular bookmarking tool.

Discovery Resources:

• Otter Group del.icio.us tutorial (8 min video) - Highly recommended!!!
• Us.ef.ul: A beginners guide to del.icio.us (This is an excellent guide to signing up for your own del.icio.us account if you want one)
  
• Check out how other libraries use del.icio.us :
• San Mateo Library's reference links
• Nashville Public Library has it's del.icio.us tag cloud displayed on their teen page
• The College of New Jersey uses del.icio.us in place of traditional subject guides and pathfinders to help students find resources (scroll to bottom of page to see cloud)
• Check out Stafford Branch's version of The Southern Regional Middle School's Summer Reading List (much better than a pdf file!)
  

Discovery Exercise:

1. View the 8 minute del.icio.us tutorial to get a good overview of its features.
2. Take a look around del.icio.us using the OCLwebthings account that was created for this exercise. There's also a tag cloud from our account in the sidebar to the right. Note: In this account you will find lots of resources that have been highlighted or used throughout the course of the Learning 2.0 program.
3. Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorize this reference?
4. Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool.Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?

OPTIONAL: If you’re up to the challenge, create a del.icio.us account for yourself and discover how this useful bookmarking tool can replace your traditional browser bookmark list. You can import your bookmarks from your Favorites list on your pc so you can tag and organize them, and be able to access them from any computer!

Note: If you do setup a del.icio.us account, here’s a quick word about the del.icio.us Buttons. On PCs that have the toolbars locked down, these will install as options in your browser bookmarks. Use the “Post to my del.icio.us” link to add the current webpage to your account (you may need to log in). Use the “My del.icio.us” link to view your online account.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, tagging, folksonomy, del.icio.us

Thing #12 - NetLibrary and WorldCat

Thing#12 has two parts: NetLibrary and WorldCat

NetLibrary ebooks

There are free ebooks all over the Internet (examples include Project Gutenberg and the classics available from the University of Virginia. Websites like these are great for out of copyright classics. There are many ebook websites including Amazon.com and ebooks.com where you can download new ebooks from bestsellers to textbooks for a fee. NetLibrary offers access to both out of copyright and new ebooks that are free to library customers who sign up for an account with their library cards from subscribing libraries.

While NetLibrary offers audiobooks for downloading to libraries, the subscription that Ocean County Library gets through an arrangement with the NJ State Library only includes ebooks. The option to download the ebooks is not part of our subscription.

The new copyrighted titles available in NetLibrary depend on what each library choses so just as different libraries have different collections on their shelves, the NetLibrary collection from the State Library is different from a collection chosen by a library elsewhere. This collection tends to be heavy with business and computer titles.

Unlike the other electronic subscription databases, customers (and you) have to be inside a OCL location to sign up for an account. Once you have a free account you can use it anywhere but the first time you have to be inside one of our buildings using one of our computers (not a laptop using our wireless connection).

Discovery Resource:

NetLibrary Help and FAQs

Discovery Exercises:

1. Go to our list of subscription databases about Books and Reading. Click on NetLibrary and sign up for a NetLibrary account. Remember you have to be inside a library building when signing up.

2. Take a look around NetLibrary. Find a book either through browsing or a keyword search. Learn how to move around the chapters and pages. Don't know what to search for? Try a basic search term like BUSINESS or COMPUTERS.

3. Blog about NetLibrary. Was it easy to use? Could you show a customer how to use it?

Optional Advanced Exercises:

1. For a different ebook experience, explore the classic reference books on Bartleby.com including Respectfully Quoted, a great quotation book that was created by the Library of Congress. Even though this book was published in 1989, as a US government produced title it is free of copyright restrictions.

2. Visit Project Gutenberg and download a book to your computer. You can search for specific titles in a variety of ways or just browse the Top 100 Ebooks downloaded recently. If you're interested, you can subscribe to an RSS feed that will keep you informed as titles are added. Project Gutenberg has public domain audiobooks and digital sheetmusic, too. Hint: it is easy to find a downloaded file if you download it to the computer desktop but when you've completed this optional exercise, please delete the book from the computer. Too many unnecessary files on the desktop can slow a computer.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

WorldCat

WorldCat lets you search the collections of libraries both locally and thousands more around the world. WorldCat doesn't include every library but it is the largest collection of searchable titles in the world.

Items in WorldCat include

* books

* music CDs

* DVDs/videos

* article citations - sometimes with links to full text

* documents and photos of local or historic significance

* digital versions of rare items

WorldCat is a version of what our Interlibrary Loan department uses to find what libraries own items so the items can be requested for our customers.

Discovery Resources:

About WorldCat

WorldCat help and FAQs

WorldCat Advanced Search screen

Discovery Exercise:

1. Take a look around WorldCat and search a recent book title. Click on the title for more detailed information and in the Enter location box put in your home zipcode and click go. What's the closest library that owns the title?

2. Click on the different tabs on the screen for a individual title such as Details and Subjects to find what information is hiding under those tabs.

3. Go to the advanced search screen and play around with some searches, then blog about WorldCat. Do you think WorldCat will help you and your customers with the form below?

Optional Advanced Exercise:

1. Use the Ocean County Library catalog and search any New Jersey or Ocean County history topic. Pick a book with an old publication date (the older the better). Now search that title at http://www.worldcat.org/. See how many libraries are listed in WorldCat as owning that book. Can you find a title where OCL is one of 500 or less libraries that own it in the world? Or just search the Pauline Miller title, Ocean County: Four Centuries in the Making to see who owns a copy of our local history.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, ebooks, netlibrary, worldcat

Thing #11 - A thing about Library Thing

Are you a booklover? Do you enjoy finding lost and forgotten gems to read? Would you like an easy way to keep track of what you've read or want to read? Or, would you like a way of finding books by what they're about in a way that a standard library catalog just can't? Then LibraryThing may be just the tool for you.

What is Librarything? Enter what you're reading or your whole library —LibraryThing is an easy to use book catalog created by people in classic Web 2.0 fashion. LibraryThing also connects you with people who read the same things.

Add a book to your catalog by just entering the title and doing a little clicking. The LibraryThing tour explains the details. Then you add your own subjects or tags to organize your titles. The tags can be whatever you want: "Want to read", "Bookclub", "Recommend to grandchildren", "Books for Class" as well as more familiar subject heading like "Science", "Mystery", "Nonfiction" or "Cookbooks." Connecting with other users through your similar reading tastes is easy. LibraryThing tells you how many other LibraryThing users have your books. There are lots of other ways to use LibraryThing, too.

Libraries have started using LibraryThing. Small libraries are using LibraryThing to catalog their collections. Libraries are using the LibraryThing widget on their web pages to recommend books and list new titles.

So why not join the fun and create your own library online? With over 389,000 registered users and over 25 million cataloged books in LibraryThing as of March 2008, you're bound to discover something new. The podcast below from The Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg is a little outdated in its statistics but otherwise is worth listening to as a start for your thing about Library Thing.

Listen to this podcast [1:52]-->

Discovery Resources:

* About LibraryThing
* Library Thing tour
* LibraryThing blog (updates & news)
* How libraries are using LibraryThing

Discovery Exercise:

1. Take the Library Thing tour around LibraryThing and then create an account. It is one of the easiest and quickest accounts to sign up for yet. You don't even have to give them an email. (Giving them your email is recommended because if you ever do forget your password, then they can help).

2. Add a least 5 books to your library. You find a title, click add to your library, then type in your subjects (called tags in LibraryThing) and save. Separate different tags with commas.

3. Blog about your use of LibraryThing. Be sure to link to your LibraryThing catalog on your blog. How popular were your books? Did you find any discussions about your favorites?

Optional Advanced Exercises

1. Visit a library catalog that uses LibraryThing to give their customers lists of similiar books and tags for more connections. Here's a list from the LibraryThing website of libraries or go directly to these examples: a Harry Potter title, a nonfiction title on economics called Freakonomics

2. Go to the Search page on LibraryThing and do a Tag Mash search. You search two terms like sailing and mystery together (called a mashup) and LibraryThing finds books with both tags. Tags assigned by LibraryThing users aren't as formal as Library of Congress headings but they often include topics in books that the LC headings ignore. So you can find really interesting connections and ideas on what to read next or that book a customer sort of remembers had a detective who was an librarian! When you enter the terms in the Tags search box, separate the terms with commas: librarian, detective. Try out your own Tag Mash.

3. Explore the groups of LibraryThing users. They range from I see Dead People's Books (A group for those interested and involved in entering the library catalogs of famous readers, including books owned by Thomas Jefferson) to Nonfiction Readers and Crime, Thriller & Mystery fans. In the groups there are discussion threads and a list of the most commonly shared books of the group members.

For Thing #11, our thanks go not only to the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County but also to the Minnesota Libraries whose variation of the 23 things on a stick was very helpful.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, librarything, tagging

Thing #10 - Technology Blogging

You've tried a lot of new things in the first weeks of the challenge. Now we're asking you to express yourself about technology on your own blog and comment on someone's else blog.

Discovery Resources:

Not sure of what to blog about? Looking for a technology related topic to get started? Here are some places to look around. Each has a different approach. If you have something in mind, go straight ahead and blog about it.

Interested in some serious ideas about what will impact libraries?

• Read 20 Things to Watch by Stephen Abram for his list of what will be the important technologies to affect libraries in the near future.

More interested in personal technologies (including fun stuff)?

• The New York Times Personal Tech page. David Pogue's weekly article and email newsletter are a great source of technology news that doesn't expect you to be an expert. His newsletter is a good reason to sign up for a free NY Times account.

Want to see a variety of blogs on all sorts of technology topics?

• Visit this list of some popular blogs on technology you could explore.

Discovery Exercise:

1. For Thing #10, simply blog about anything technology related. Yes, it can be anything that relates to technology! Just share a few thoughts. If you are unsure of what we expect of a successful blog entry, check out the second of our Frequently Asked Questions.
   
2. Add at least one comment to another participant's blog or to one of the committee members's blogs. That's what online communities are all about - connecting and communication.
   Where can you find links to the blogs? Scroll down the page at this Web Challenge blog. On the right, below the Timeline, the Labels and the Useful Links, you'll find links to the blogs belonging to the Web Challenge committee members. Keep going down and below the RSS Feed links and the Blog Archive links you'll find links to the Player Blogs.
   

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, technology, web2.0, library2.0

It's Spring Break!!!

Kick back and relax or take the time to catch up!

Haven't signed up yet?!? Become a player today, you still have time!

Next week's Things will be posted on Friday, April 4th. See you then!

Thing #9 - Finding Feeds

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Now that you have a newsreader (your Bloglines account), you can begin adding other newsfeeds that interest you. There are several ways you can locate newsfeeds:

• When visiting your favorite websites -- look for news feed icons that indicate the website provides it. Often a feed icon will be displayed somewhere in the navigation bar of the site. (Here's an image that contains a sampling of several feed icons).
  


• Use Blogline's Search tool - Bloglines recently expanded search tool lets you search for news feeds in addition to posts, citations and the web. Use the Search for Feeds option to locate RSS feeds you might be interested in.
  


• Bloglines has a feature to allow users to make their blogroll (the list of blogs they subscribe to) public. You aren't required to do this to complete Thing #9, but you might be interested in seeing a public blogroll. Here is link to Jill's public Bloglines account: http://www.bloglines.com/public/bibliaddict.There are over 50 library-oriented blogs listed in the left column. Click on the blog title to see a preview on the right column. If you want to subscribe to the blog, click the subscribe link in the bar over the title to start the process.
  

Other Search tools that can help you find feeds:

• Topix.net - This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching. The tool focuses specifically on news and media outlet RSS feeds for information, not weblogs.
  


• Syndic8.com - Syndic8 is an open directory of RSS feeds that contains thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted.
  


• Technorati - Technorati is a popular blog finding tool that lets you search for blogs. Since RSS feeds are inherent to all blogging tools, Technorati Blog Search can help you find RSS feeds for topic specific blogs you may be interested in.
  


• Additional Resource: Technorati Tutorial on finding and adding your blog
  

Discovery Exercise:

1. Explore some of the search tools noted above that can help you locate some news feeds.
   


2. Create a blog post about your experience. Don't know what to blog about? Here some questions to think about:

Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use? Which Search tool was the easiest for you? Which was more confusing? What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? Or what kind of unusual ones did you find? What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?

EXTRA STUFF: Feed Icon Info
In February of 2006, the adoption of a standard feed icon among websites and browsers finally began to assist in stopping the madness and confusion caused by so many variations. So far this icon has been adopted by many websites and browsers, including Opera and FireFox, where it displays in the address bar:

While you're surfing the Web, you can quickly subscribe to a website by clicking the orange feed icon in the address bar.


Technorati tags: feeds, rss, oclwebthings

Thing #8 - Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader

powered by ODEO [5:15]
FYI & ICYW: This is the longest podcast in the program.

You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is? Well don’t worry, according to a recent survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web. Watch the video from Common Craft below for a really simple explanation:





Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.

This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Bloglines account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.

Discovery Resources:

• Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative
  

• Using Bloglines Tutorial (how to keep up with dozens of blogs everyday) – This online tutorial walks you through how to setup a Bloglines account and add newsfeeds. Follow Steps 1 to 3 to set up your Bloglines account. Steps 4 – 9 are optional and cover how to subscribe to different types of feeds (podcasts, Flickr albums, etc)
  


• Adding RSS Feeds to Bloglines - A short YouTube video that Helene Blowers of PLCMC created showing how to add feeds.
  


• Additional Bloglines news feed subscription information (screenshot image)
  


• Your co-workers - tap into their knowledge or work through your discovery process together.
  

Discovery Exercise:

1. Follow the discovery resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.
   


2. Create a free online Bloglines account for yourself and subscribe to at least 10 newsfeeds. See Using Bloglines Tutorial steps 1-3 for instructions.
   
   Newsfeeds:
   


• Then try adding a few other types of news feeds from news sources and even OCL's Event Calendar. (Select at least 3 from the list below to subscribe to)
  


• The OCLWebThings blog feed (you'll find a Feeds section in the sidebar to the right; click the Bloglines button to subscribe).


• Newspapers such as The Asbury Park Press, The Star Ledger and The New York Times also have feeds (pick at least one)


• Magazines like Newsweek, Time, Woman’s Day, People and Entertainment Weekly provide feeds, too
  


• Your branch’s Events Calendar feeds (limit search to your branch's location, click Go, then click the feed icon to subscribe)
  


• Unshelved - Library cartoon feed
  



3. Create a post in your blog about this exercise.
   
   Don’t know what to blog about? Think about these questions:
   

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?
How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

Technorati tags: feeds, rss, oclwebthings, bloglines

Thing #7 - The Scanner and You

We'll be taking a technological step backwards for thing #7 and working with some of the software and hardware that navigate between Web 2.0 and everything prior.

Discovery Resources:

• Hardcopy photograph and/or document
• PC Plus and scanner
• If you happen to have an HP Scanjet4070, here is the manual.

(Don't panic if the scanner you're sitting next to is a different model or even brand. Most, if not all, company websites will have complete user manuals. There's also a great website you can check, the usermanualsite.com.)

Discovery Exercises:

1. Scan an image

There are two ways you can intiate a scan:

• open the software and hit the appropriate button
• press the button on the front of the scanner (it may look like a photograph or scanner

After you do this you will most likely be presented with an image of the object you placed on the scanner, as well as the rest of the scanner bed. You can select the area you want by dragging a rectangle around the area. Once you've got the area you want selected you can save it. It is likely you will have a choice about which file format to use when saving. For our purposes JPG is probably your best choice. After the image is saved you can move this file around as would any other.

Trying to give specific instructions for scanning is difficult, without knowing exactly which scanner and software combination you're working with. Luckily, there are some good places to go on the web for help, listed above in the resources section.

If all else fails, check the help menu on the software, or ask a coworker or a committee member for help


2. Attach the image you scanned to an email and send it to us at oclwebthings@gmail.com

Sending attachments is very similar across different email programs. These instructions are geared toward your Outlook email, but the basic steps will be the same in Yahoo or Gmail. Also, keep in mind that you can always look for more specific instructions by clicking on help - Outlook, Gmail, and Yahoo all have detailed help documentation.

To begin, click on "New Mail Message" to start a new message. Write out the message you would like to appear first, just like you'd write a regular email. Don't forget to include a subject and our email address (oclwebthings@gmail.com) in the "To:" field.

Next, click on the little paperclip icon in the menu bar - it should be right next to the Send box. Another way to do this is by clicking on Insert --> file in the menu bar at the very top of your screen.(In other email programs, this will show up as a link that says, "Attach a file".) A window will pop up showing the files and folders on your computer. Select the file from the list and click "Insert".

This will send you back to the main Compose window, but now you can see the file under the box where the Subject line of your email goes. This means that you successfully attached the file. (Sometimes, the file will show up next to another little paperclip icon.)
If you have already put in the person's email address and a message, you are ready to send this email. Click "Send" to send the message.

That's it!


Optional Exercise:

Scan and OCR a document. OCR stands for optical character recognition and tranfsers text from a hardcopy source to editable text. This can either be a very simple task, or very complicated. Luckily, we have some great software that make the process easy.

Next up: RSS & Newsreaders.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, scanning, photos, images