Thing 23 - Reflection

What do you think about social media in libraries?

What do you wish FPL was (or wasn’t) doing? 

Have you learned anything from the program? 

If so, what?

If not, what could we do better?

I am glad to be finished with this exercise, although I definitely feel that a lot of what I learned is useful and very possibly applicable to future questions I may get. I think social media very definitely has a place in libraries, because it has a place in the life of our patrons...in order to stay relevant we need to meet the patrons on their level. I listened to some cool podcasts as one of the "things" and I thought some libraries did an excellent job at that. I don't believe FPL currently does anything like that, and it may be for a good reason, such as no one was interested in listening to them. However, it would be something interesting to explore. I learned a lot from the program, mostly by gaining an understanding of the how's and why's behind a lot of the current internet technology. I like feeling well-educated on things like wikis and rss feeds, even if I don't plan to use them personally. And I think LibraryThing is something I will definitely use in the future, at least on occasion. It's great to know all of these things are out there, because it's hard to predict if/when I may need them.

Thing 22 - Groupon

For thing 22, user's choice, I decided to first do some internet searching to see what new social media sites might have emerged in the last year, after the creation of 23 Things. I found the following sites which lists the top 5 emerging social media sites of 2010: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-emerging-social-media-sites-to-watch-in-2010/ . After glancing through the list, #5 caught my eye because I've heard of it before but never used it or been exactly sure what it was. I figured this was a good opportunity to check out what all the buzz is about. So I went to groupon.com and tried to do some looking around. Basically, in order to see anything you have to join, so I entered my city and my email address and it brought me to a page with todays deals. The way it works is apparently by guaranteeing a large group of people will use a company's product or service, the group is offered a discount. There were 9 discounts offered for the Dallas area today. Unfortunately, none of them appeal to me. The discounts included: golfing at a country club, a session with a photographer, a session with a make-up stylist, a discount to a restaurant, sunless tanning discount, and more. It appears that the deals are changed on a daily basis, so you have to check back in tomorrow to see what sort of discount or coupon can be obtained tomorrow. So you have to make up your mind pretty quickly as to if this is a product or service that interests you. It also appears that some of the deals have a limit to the quantity available, again making it seem necessary to login daily and decide right away if you are interested in the deal.

I admit I'm somewhat skeptical of this. I'm not a big coupon person to begin with. It's not that I don't like saving money, it just seems that if I go out of my way to get a coupon, I've lost it, forget to take it to the store with me, or it's expired by the time I use it. I also don't like being cornered into something, so deals that are "buy 3 get 1 free" sort of deals always turn me off because I don't want to be forced into buying three of that particular item. Anyway, I should probably be more diligent about coupon use, my wallet would probably appreciate it. I'm open to loggin back in to Groupon a few more times to see if there's anything that interests me. But I will probably expect to find a usable/noteworthy deal in the near future or I will probably write it off as not worth my time. I am glad to know what it's all about now, and given the hype I think it's probably earned it's position as one of the top new social media sites - at least for now.

Thing 21 - Wikis

I enjoyed watching the Common Craft video on Wikis, I felt that it was informative and a useful demonstration on the basic workings of Wikis. While I had a general idea about Wikis, like many people, I was previously mostly familar with Wikipedia. Although I knew Wikipedia was wildly unreliable, I never truly understood exactly how wikis work to put together why they are unreliable.I feel much more comfortable with the ideas behind wikis now. After learning about wikis in the video and the Thing 21 discussion, I went to the wiki for area restaurants that was created for us to practice on. Since most library employees had already completed this project, I found most of the restaurants around here to be already listed. I have only actually been to two of them so far, as I don't live in Frisco and am a pretty new employee. I went to the wiki page for one that I have been to, Icehouse Grill, and decided to update the information on that page to include a link to the website. I found the website, copied the link, then selected edit on that page in the Wiki. I then pasted the link there, and chose to save it. When I reviewed the page, the information I added was right there. I found  the experience to be very easy and user friendly, especially after the brief video tutorial. I have not used wikis before (creating or editing) but I am glad to know how it's done and may find it useful in the future. I don't have a specific example right now of how it might be used in the library (other than the Youth Services wiki that already exists) however I am glad to know how to create them, as it may be useful in instructing patrons.

Thing 20 - Podcasting

I have had no real exposure to podcasting prior to working on 23 Things. As part of this exercise, I took the opportunity to explore several podcasts, and definitely feel more well versed in what they are and what's out there and/or possible. I used the link to go to the Library Success podcasts, and found a wide variety of podcasts available. Some of the libraries have podcasts that teach something, such as how to use an electronic source. Other libraries have podcasts with story times or chapter- a-week podcasts. My personal favorite of those I reviewed was the St. Tammany Parish Library. Coincidentally, I grew up about an hour away from that library system, however this is not why I liked their podcasts the best. I was impressed with their podcasts for a number of reasons: the person who hosted the podcasts had a cheerful and engaging voice and attitude. While it may not seem like a huge deal, when something is strictly audio, voice and tone do matter. Some of the other podcasts I listened to had hosts with boring and droning voices that did not make me interested in what they were saying. Another thing that I liked about the podcasts from this library was that they were promoting their libraries, did it in an interesting way, and had a variety of information included. There was an introduction to their upcoming storytimes with recommended books for children to read. There was a clip from a teen, encouraging other teens to come to the exciting upcoming teen programs at the library, and then there was a guest speaker, who gave about a five minute talk about some local area history. Overall, I was very impressed with these podcasts and felt that other library systems could do well to do similar things. I did not subscribe to this podcast or any of the podcasts that I listened to, not because they weren't interesting, just because it's not really something that interests me. I prefer to seek out information when I want it. But I do think that podcasts can have a place in libraries, and think that many of the things that I heard could be tried by our library - such as advertising for story time and upcoming programming, as well as how-to modules on using many of our e-branch services, and even stroytime or chapter-a-week podcasts. I'd be interested to see how successful these are if tried.

Thing 19 - Hulu

I have never before watched any shows on Hulu. I had a vague idea what it was before this exercise, but no real familiarity with it. When I went to the Hulu website for this "thing" I was definitely amazed at the quantity and variety of videos available, I had no idea the collection was that vast. I looked around at what was available and eventually decided to watch part of the tv show Chuck, the same episode that I had watched the evening before. I chose to do this so that I could truly compare the experience to watching it on tv. I watched about 15 minutes of the episode. There was a commercial before it started and a 25 second commercial after about 12 minutes. While I think it is great that this is available, I don't think it is better than watch something on tv. The picture and sound quality is definitely not as good as at home (although the sound degradation could also be due to the shoddy headphones at my desk). It's very conveient that the commercials are so short, however, I don't feel that this beats recording a show on my DVR, watching it on the big screen, and skipping the commercials altogether when going backt o watch the show. I do think Hulu is great for either someone who doesn't have DVR capability or doesn't have television/cable access. I can see myself using Hulu only in two scenarios: one would be if for some reason I did not catch something on tv or DVR that I want to see, and the second would be to watch something that did not come on tv. Personally I wouldn't want to sit and watch an entire movie on my computer, unless on a plane or something of that nature. However, I do have the capability of streaming something from my iPad through a connection to my tv screen, so I guess I could essentially download something from Hulu and watch it on the big screen...I still don't foresee this being a regular occurenece for me. However, for libraries overall, I think an eventual decline in DVD circulation is likely, but not necessarily something we should expect immediately. I think we may see more people in the future download things online and watch them in libraries, however, as long as there is a large number of the population without computer/internet access in their homes, we will continue to see DVDs circulate.

Thing 18 - YouTube

For Thing 18, I learned about YouTube. Of course, I've seen YouTube videos before, but I definitely didn't know all the details about it, such as the EDU channel. I watched some of the Librarian videos on YouTube as part of this exercise. The Adventures of Super Librarian and Super Librarian were definitely funny although I liked that it had a good message underneath. A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto was more along the lines of being thought provoking. On the Allen County Public Library Channel, I watched part of a video that appeared to be an interview with a children's author. I don't feel that video was well introduced or explained; after a couple minutes of being confused about what I was watching and what the point was, I exited that video. I can see how items like that could be useful, but I guess that is maybe one of the problems with YouTube - nothing's cataloged, and everything's just all jumbled up together. I realized at that point that the Allen County Public Library had multiple videos listed underneath to chose from, I didn't have to watch that particular one, but when you click the link to go to their YouTube, it automatically queues up the the most recent one. Libraries could definitely use items like this to their advantage: online storytimes, advertisements for programming, how to guides and much more could all be put on YouTube by a library, but then of course they would need to also promote these for them to be of value.

Thing 17 - Music Streaming & Sharing

Thing 17 is another "thing" that is not new to me. I have used Pandora and Slacker quite a bit on my iPhone. When we take road trips, my husband and I always sync our phones to our car stereo so that we can listen to one of these on the trip. Slacker was the first one we used, and I liked it because I could skip songs I didn't like, and I could also "ban" a song I didn't like so that it would never play that song again. Still, the Slacker stations weren't that different from regular radio stations besides the lack of commercials, in that you pick a station that plays a genre of music and you may like some songs and not others. When I discovered Pandora, it was a whole new world. I really like that it creates custom stations based on what music you like. I have to say I think it is very smart technology. The station I use most often is one that plays Cowboy Mouth type music. Basically it ends up being a lot of 90's rock, but I have to say I like almost all of the songs it chooses for me, so it seems very intuitive. I haven't bought a cd since I got my first iPod several years ago. And now that I've discovered music streaming to my iPhone, I can't imagine a reason why I would ever buy a cd again. I see that the library has already reduced the cd collection and it seems to be on the verge of disappearing altogether. There is just no way to beat the free, 24/7 accessibility of music streaming. I think the cd as a library material to be checked out has all but died.

Thing 16 - Google Docs

I have already used Google Docs, but only very recently. When I started with the FPL a few weeks ago, I setup a google account and was added to the shared list for a document we use for scheduling purposes. However, this was my first experience with Google Docs, and I haven't done anything else besides log in and view this one shared document. Today, as part of thing 16, I logged into Google docs and explored. I created a new document, and found the functionality to be very similar to Microsoft Word. Some of the options are more limited than working directly within Word, however most of the basics can be accomplished here. Additionally, what makes this really useful is the ability to publish and share documents. The whole idea of cloud computing really comes to life with Google docs and makes it a reality for anyone that wants it. I can't imagine why it isn't used more often, and I'm surprised that I haven't encountered its use before in previous positions at other companies. It seems like an excellent solution that would benefit almost any organization or company, as well as individuals.

Thing 15 - Google Maps

I think I may have used google maps in the past, but I more frequently use Mapquest as my online map tool of choice. For this Thing, I took the opportunity to use Google maps instead and familiarize myself with that tool. It is a bit different than the Mapquest site. I like the traffic options, but there is also a similar option on Mapquest so that didn't end up being too new for me. I do really like the tool that allows you to see the "real" view of a location, for example I typed in my home address as the starting point for a location and then clicked on the marker icon and it showed a picture of the front of my house...almost a little creepy, but cool too. Overall, I would say that Google maps probably has more functionality than Mapquest, so I will probably try to transition myself to use Google maps more often, although it will be hard since I'm so used to Mapquest!

I used Google maps to map from my house to the Frisco library. I was surprised to find that the route I take to work is actually the route they suggested. They do have an alternative listed which includes using the TX121 tollway, and I would have guessed that this would be their first or recommended route, but it's not. The link to this map is:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=2100+Torrey+Pines+Way,+McKinney,+TX&daddr=6101+Frisco+Square+Boulevard,+Frisco,+TX&hl=en&geocode=FYhe-gEdzEI9-in1iDvY7hNMhjGBTyLQICrodA%3BFczW-QEdh2s6-ilb02r6BzxMhjHm72CvmFkAwA&mra=ls&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.630055,78.662109&ie=UTF8&z=12

Thing 14 - YouSendIt

I found YouSendIt to be a helpful resource, although not something I currently can see myself using on a regular basis, simply because I'm not aware of having a big need for it. It is however one of those tools that is great to know about, because when the need does arise, I know about it know and will easily be able to solve my problem by going to YouSendIt.

Thing 13 - Tiny URL

I've seen and used tiny urls before, but I've never created one. It may have been my first time using this tool, but it certainly will not be my last! I had no idea that it would be so simple to do this. What I like about it even more is that it allows you to create url "shortcuts" to the portions of websites that you really want to go to. So rather then always having to go to a home page of a website then click on three different links to get to the actual page that you want, you can create a tiny url of the long obnoxious url that represents all of those clicks within the webpage. I will definitely be using this again.

Thing 12 - Facebook

I already have an active Facebook account, complete with profile, photos and lots of friends. I don't log into my Facebook account very regularly, it's more of something I look at on occasion when I'm bored, to see what my friends and family are up to. I do have several friends and acquaintances who use their Facebook account religiously, almost like Twitter they update their Facebook every time they go somewhere or do something, or even think about something. As far as organizations "humanizing" their Facebook pages, I think some do it very well and others don't do it at all. For example, a coffeeshop I once worked at in college is fantastic at humanizing their FB page. At least once a day there's a status update from them with some tidbit of information, sometimes it's the coffee blend of the day, other times it's about a new treat or piece of merchandise they're stocking, and sometime's they use it to advertise specials. I live 600 miles away from this coffeeshop now, but I know what's going on there as if I stopped in for a daily cup of joe. On the opposite side of that is the SLIS department at UNT. I've belonged to their FB group for well over a year, and I can't tell you when, if ever, I have ever seen a status update from them. I think it could be used much more purposefully than it currently is, even with mundane things like reminders about school deadlines, updates on social events, and advertisements on new class offerings in the upcoming semesters. I think the FPL FB page could be used in a similar fashion, to advertise upcoming events and programs, to post information about new books that have just been stocked, to give early literacy tips for kids, and much more. The article about humanizing FB pages really stresses that it's important to post lots status updates and I think this is something that could easily be done.

Thing 11 - LinkedIn

I have had a LinkedIn account for several years, so learning about this "Thing" was nothing new for me. I had not updated my profile recently, since beginning my position at FPL, so I did go ahead and log in to LinkedIn as part of this exercise and update my profile with my current information. I think LinkedIn is a useful social networking tool for some people, but it definitely does not hold a purpose for everyone. I created my account long ago, because it was the thing to do at the time, but since then I have probably only logged in a handful of times. I believe many people use this site to either recruit for positions at their company, or to try to "link" with a recruiter to find them a job. People also use this site to "network" more in the traditional business sense of the word rather than the common "social networking" found today through MySpace, Facebook, etc. I can see LinkedIn being useful for people and I'm glad I know about it so that I can share this with anyone whom it might seem helpful for.

Thing 10 - LibraryThing

LibraryThing is awesome! I've never heard of it before (I don't think). I went to the site and explored for awhile as part of the 23 Things exercise. Then I signed up for an account and added a few books to my library, and then I added tags for those books. It was fun to be able to tag them with whatever I want. I don't however see myself using using that feature on a regular basis. I will probably use LibraryThing as more of a reference to look up books, find reviews of books and other information. However, regardless of how I use it, I believe it is a great resource and I'm glad to know it's there and how it works. I could also see it as a good site to recommend to patrons to find information on books, reviews and more.

Thing 9 - Social Bookmarking

I actually already had an account with Delicious prior to reading about social bookmarking as part of 23 Things. However, I signed up out of curiosity not too long ago but after creating my account and saving several bookmarks, I have never gone back to use it. It is not a site/service that I feel is very useful for me personally, and I doubt I would ever use it regularly. To me, it is nice to have, in case I am ever at a strange computer and need quick access to a site, I could easily login to Delicious to find what I need. But the reality is that I don't foresee this happening very often. I could see library patrons finding social bookmarking helpful if they come to the library to use the public computers, that way they can easily access their favorite sites from any computers that they use.

Thing 8 - Tagging

Prior to the 23 Things exercise, I knew what tags were but have not had much experience using them. I do think that they are very useful and certainly have their own place in the web world now. I don't think that they are meant to replace subject headings, but they certainly can complement them. I don't think there's anything wrong with having more ways to access information so if this keyword style of connecting data helps users find what they need, then it's a great thing. I don't have any actual experience with tagging in an OPAC system, I am trying to imagine how that would work and if it would be a good thing. It is definitely not something that I would discourage.

Thing 7 - IM

Instant messaging - thing 7 - is not something that is new to me at all. I've previously used Yahoo and Live instant messaging services, and once worked in a job where we were expected to have live IM open all day for quick intra-office communicating. In my personal life, I currently utilize IM'ing only occasionally. It is one way that I can reach my husband at the office (he and his colleagues also use it as a form of communicating at work), so I have the Live IM app downloaded on my iPhone so that if I need to speak with my husband during his work day, I can quickly open that app and be in touch with him. Personally, I don't feel that IM can replace texting, which is what I use more commonly than IM'ing.

I do have some exposure to reference service via IM. I once spent a day at the UNT Wilson Library ref desk as part of an assignment for school. They offer reference services via IM although it is only when they have someone "available" via IM so it seems like a spotty service to me. The ref desk staffer that I was observing signed into the reference IM about halfway into our day. One user did contact him via IM and he was able to successfully assist them. It seems like it would be a good idea but it needs a little more consistency, at least in the case of that library. There are long periods of time, from what I can tell, where no one is available via IM, but there is ref desk staff there to assist people, they're just not signed into their instant messaging account.

Thing 6 - Digg

Digg was a new site that I discovered through the 23 Things project. I took some time to review the website, and created an account. I don't know that I will personally use it very often, it does not seem to fit any need that I have, although I can see how others might find it useful or interesting. But analyzing it from a different perspective, I considered how Digg compared to a library. And actually Digg is very similar to a library when I stopped to think about it. A library reviews information sources, obtains those that seem popular, have good reviews, and that they think their patrons will be interested in, so that the patrons can use the library to then search through those information sources for what they need. Digg similarly collects data and news, uses user reviews to rank those items, and users can come to that one location and select from what Digg has already collected. Digg's approach to news should not change the way that the public views news but it might. I would think that it should be understood that the news stories are ranked by other users and therefore do not reflect actual importance of news. However, it certainly cannot be said that all of the public will understand this fact naturally, so in some cases it may occur that the public has a distorted understanding of what news is important.

Thing 5 - Twitter

For thing 5, I set up an account with Twitter. I have previously steered clear of tweeting simply because I didn't see the point. However, after watching a couple of videos on Twitter and how it can be used for news updates as well as business functionality I do see how it could be useful for some people. Trying to think of how it could be useful to libraries is a bit more of a stretch for me. I do see that library users may want or need to use Twitter. As far as the library itself tweeting, I guess it could be a handy tool for sending out updates regarding news and events at the library. It would first be necessary to establish a "fan" base to receive these tweets that a library sends out. However, as a part of this exercise, I did find the FPL on Twitter and became a follower. I'll admit I was surprised to see that there were 101 followers, and so it does seem that there is a genuine use/need for the library to have a Twitter account. Despite my misgivings that Twitter is not very popular or useful, I did like reading the history of the FPL's past tweets and while I may not be a total convert, I'm willing to continue to follow it on Twitter and perhaps I'll continue to be surprised by it.

Thing 4 - Picture Sharing

I already have a personal account on several of the common picture sharing sites, including Flickr, Photobucket and Shutterfly and am very familiar with navigating these sites and using them. So for this exercise of learning about picturing sharing sites, I chose to go to some of the links to various library photo sharing sites to look at it from a professional angle. Across the board, I will say that I am impressed at all of the libraries for venturing into this world. However, some of them definitely do it better than others. The one that I was most impressed with was the Alexandrian Public Library in Mount Vernon, IN. They seemed to have photos of every event in their library, big and small, and the photos were all organized into clearly labeled albums/sets. By contrast, the Marathon library photos were also well organized, however there were much fewer of them, and they definitely did not seem to represent all of the events or photographable moments at that library. So while that library seems to be trying to enter into the photo sharing world,they clearly need to better integrate either photo taking or photo sharing as part of their regular tasks.

Thing 3 - RSS Feeds

I must admit that I've previously been a bit fuzzy on exactly what RSS Feeds are and how they work. After the tutorial on this, I definitely have a better understanding and feel comfortable using the RSS Feed options in both Internet Explorer and Outlook. However, similar to the readers/aggregators I'm not sure that this is a service that will be all that helpful to me personally. I typically don't follow alot of news, choosing to seek out specific sites and pieces of information based on the situation. But I do see how it could be extremely useful to me in the future, as I develop professionally and need to follow more news feeds. It is definitely a handy tool at bringing the information to the user, rather than the user having to seek information. At this point in my life though, I don't feel it would be much of a timesaver. For example, if I go in search of news I do waste time looking for the news that could have been saved had an RSS feed delivered it to me directly. However, because I don't religiously follow any news at this point, I feel that if I subscribed to a feed I would spend just as much time receiving, reviewing and deleting news which I don't want.

I definitely can see how this type of tool can be useful to some people. Additionally, in the world of librarianship I think RSS feeds pose amazing possibilities for providing information to patrons. Rather than having to come to the library to search databases or even log into the library's electronic resources, instead information can be delivered directly to the interested patrons.

Thing 2

'Readers' occupy the #2 spot on the 23 Things list, and so I learned how to use Google Reader as a part of this exercise. The site is relatively simple to use and reminds me of a standard web-based email account setup as far as page orientation. Adding a new subscription is quite easy and they can be organized within your account in a series of folders, again, similar to email folders. So overall, I believe the usability of this reader is easy and user friendly. However, as far as usefulness, I haven't quite made up my mind as to how useful I feel this tool will really be to me. It seems to me that it would be just as easy to use a browser bookmark as opposed to adding something to Google Reader. I think if I were someone who had a large number of subscriptions to sites, especially blogs, then it might be more useful, especially to keep these organized. But as someone who is just venturing into the world of blogs, I don't think I'm going to incorporate Google Reader into daily use at this point.

Hello

As a new member of the Youth Services team at the Frisco Public Library, I'm starting this blog as part of 23 Things. The creation of this blog is 'Thing 1.' I look forward to sharing Things 2-23!