This is a test to explore Writely.

This is a test to explore Writely.

This is a test to explore Writely.

This is a test to explore Writely.

This is a test to explore Writely.

Writely does not support Linking from Images yet!

(Aren't these guys cute?!)

Writely for blogging.

I was a little more comfortable exploring Google's Writely, since I already teach a class on "Getting More Out of Google" AKA "Google Yourself Silly." I thought that learning Writely might be more relevant for me. (Also, I am feeling overloaded and overwhelmed with having to create so many new accounts online lately.)

So I just "blogged" my Writely document. I am going to finish this post and see how that blogged entry turned out. If it's nice, I think using Writely to blog may be a better alternative that this Blogger interface. It always seems like I am on the verge of loosing my work typing in Blogger!

...OK, the main problem with using Writely for blogging, at least at first blush, is that it messes up my Blogger Template. I may try to figure this out, or I just may leave the Writely post up temporarily.

Wikis vs. Message Boards

While the old school librarian in me bristles at content being propagated online that is not authorative, I have found Wikipedia to be a great source to at least get me started for subjects I know nothing about.

My husband talks about finding obscure, yet interesting facts in Wikipedia about his favorite childhood cartoons, comics, toys, and shows. I know a huge amount of content is there that I may have trouble finding fast in traditional print resources.

And of course the better Wikipedia articles include some bibliographic citations.

Someone cited my websites on using a lucet in the external links part of that record.

I have even set up my own Wikipedia account and added content, both editing an entry and adding further content.

For collaboration, I can see Wikis as a good tool to manage a knowledge database. If I was going to make a Wiki, the topic would be on knitting patterns. It seems like almost all knitting patterns published today have errors. I would like to be able to search for a particular pattern, and see reviews of the pattern and corrections to known errors.

I know of a message board on Knitters Review that should fulfill my desire to find out about pattern errors and corrections. I have been trying to compare and contrast its Message Board with the Wiki model, and I think I probably prefer the Wiki model for its clarity and ease of use.

Technorati vs. Bloglines

Technorati and Bloglines seem to me to be very similar products. Technorati's Favorites feature probably makes Bloglines redundant. If you don't care about how your personal blog sits in relationship to other blogs, the Bloglines aggregator is probably adequate. Also, I think a blog has to be "claimed" by a user in Technorati to take full advantage of Technorati's searching and tagging features.

So I "claimed" my blog from my 2002 India trip in Technorati, because I feel that the content there is in better shape than the content I am creating here in the PLCMC Learning 2.0 experiment. I felt tagging that blog with "Yoga" and "Meditation," as well as other tags to specific places I traveled, was more meaningful to me.

Technorati's three search features are pretty effective:
1) "in blog posts" is like keyword searching in full text content. The broadest search.
2) "in tags" is like Subject Heading searching in databases. The most useful search.
3) "in blog directory" is like choosing a topical database. The most narrow/specific search.

There seems to be so many aspects in Technorati that I have trouble getting my mind completely around what it can and cannot do. Maybe once I get caught up on Learning 2.0, I can go back to Technorati.

Useful Library Blogs

I am just trying to catch up with my Learning 2.0 exercises...

I have had a Bloglines account for several months now, so I already understand that blog aggregators are useful.

Howver, as far as being a regular blog reader, I am just not there yet. At least five years ago, blogs were online vanity presses, where people I knew IRL (in real life) exposed themselves more than they should have.

So while I have begun to get my mind around some blogs which are useful information tools, I don't read them habitually.

I realize that team blogs with many participants posting have the potential to be useful, but at this point I don't think all members of teams have the "blog" mindset. Even recently an in-house blog was left languishing because the team members were simply used to hitting "Reply-All" in their email. In this case, blogs keep a record of conversations better than emails, in my opinion, and might be better than email. Yet, how this is an improvement on groups is not clear to me.

My boss, Martin House uses his House Notes blog as a communication devise with MLIS staff. So for my part, his is my favorite library blog, since its usefulness is clear to me.

Library 2.0 Perspectives: How about "the Long Tail"?

I read many of the OCLC NextSpace online articles shortly after I attended the "Computers in Libraries" conference in Washington D.C. last March, so re-reading these perspectives was just a refresher for me. I was already aware of Rick Anderson's and Wendy Schultz's work. I heard Dr. Schultz speak at that conferece.

The one article I read recently that I agreed with strongly had to do with "harnessing the long-tail". For instance, Netflix and Amazon have captured "the Long Tail" by providing access to specialized titles, other than just bestsellers. The proportion of consumers who want specialized individual titles is greater than the proportion of those that want a limited pool of bestsellers.

With respect to the Web, "harnessing the 'long tail' refers to the content on the seemingly infinite number of small sites that make up the web vs. so-called 'important' sites.

I think Google Books 'harnesses the long tail' by providing keyword searchable full text to many great books. Granted, just a content sample is typically provided, and interlibrary loan might come into play to actually see the entire book, but my awareness of what books are even available that might interest me has grown exponentially.

Now, here at Main, I call our Nonfiction collection "the Long Tail." While I agree that our print collection's content should be accurate, and the condition of our collection needs to remain good, I baulk at the idea that books should be weeded because they do not circulate enough.

I understand the need to innovate and rethink library services, but I hope no one throws out the baby with the bathwater!

Getting off the ground with Del.ici.ous

I started picking up speed...I am also getting better at changing my Blogger template, because I've tried to take more of a "what's the worse that can happen" attitude to my Learning 2.0 blog.

I have been thinking about why I am having trouble getting my mind around Del.ici.ous. I understand its social networking and tagging features, but because I have not had my own desktop at work (about 15 staff members share roughly 4 PCs), I got out of the habit of using personal bookmarks. Instead I rely on websites like PLCMC's Online Resources and Bizlink for my starting off point to accessing information. I also tend to email websites to myself, and bookmark them at home.

Am I recreating the wheel each time I search, instead of bookmarking? In an information universe where the only certainty is change, and information self-life tends to be very short, I think not. On the other hand, though, I am intrigued by the possibility of using Del.ici.ous as an alternative information gathering/sharing tool.

Rollyo vs. Advanced Searching

I am a big fan of getting the most bang for the buck, whether it's learning all the features of my PDA, digital camera, or my PC. Effectively utilizing search engines, whether they are database search engines or web search engines (e.g. Google), really make a big difference in the quality of search results.

The Rollyo utility seems to me to be like using an Advanced Search feature limiting result to those from certain domains, or particular websites. I have to play around with Rollyo more to figure out how much more there is to it.

Library Thing

I put some titles from my yoga book personal library into Library Thing. I can imagine how Library Thing could be a really neat social networking tool, but the titles I put in were pretty obscure, so I don't think I saw anyone else out in Library-Thing-Land with those titles.

Also, I lifted the scripting code from HBlowers' blog to put my Library Thing into the sidebar of my blog. This is like the good ole days where I learned HTML by lifting code I liked from other websites.

Hopefully I will have more time to play with Library Thing in the future. "Play" takes lots of time!

Tarot Card Image Generator

The Page of Wands is a Tarot Card that represents a student of subtle knowledge, a seeker of the understanding of things both seen and unseen. While other Tarot cards are visually more feminine and glamorous, I have typically relied on the Page of Wands as a basis for my readings.

Generate your own Tarot card here!

Adding Bloglines Script to Blogger Template

I had some trouble messing with the Blogger Template and incorporating the script from Bloglines here, but these are some of the things I think I learned:

• The script generator for Bloglines creates a usable script only if you name your Bloglines account. It didn't seem to work when I typed in my entire email address, as I had not already named my Bloglines account.
  
• Templates using CSS are finicky. I could not insert the Bloglines script just anywhere.
  
• The long list of PLCMC Learning 2.0 blogs caused my left sidebar to drop to the middle of all the entries, so I used a script for a short list of PLCMC Blogs.
  

On to Learning 2.0 Week 5 activities. With the holiday, it's been a short workweek, but that does not mean there is a shortened amount to do at the library!

Technical Difficulties 1.0 in Learning 2.0 land

I had a good long weekend, but I feel a little frustrated and behind the Learning 2.0 curve because Blogger was down last Wednesday and Thursday, at least as far as our access in the library was concerned. Heck, Main Library was completely without Internet Wednesday from about 2 until we closed at 9 pm. Some problem with a Bellsouth router...let me assure you how much fun it is...NOT...to explain that to patrons. They believe the rain takes down the Internet.

Hopefully I will get some help with incorporating my Bloglines feed into my Blogger template for my Learning 2.0 assignment from last week soon.