Blogging vs. Podcasting

I'm much more a visual learner than an audial learner, so my preference is for blogging. Blogging is also much more in line with my communication style because I can take time to deliberate over each thought and can go back and edit easily and often. Another reason I prefer blogs to podcasts is that, with blogs, I can control the rate at which I consume information. I can read much faster than most people speak in podcasts; I can also more easily choose to scan parts or to skip some parts altogether with text. Finally, I just don't have much of an attention span for listening to podcasts; when I listen to something, I have to also be doing something else-- cleaning, driving, etc.--whereas with text I can easily focus on just reading.

Still, podcasting does have its "pros." Being able to speak or to listen often gives nuance to language that is hard to capture textually. Also, the very fact I mentioned above, that I like to do other things while listening, is great for learners on-the-go.

A little story about Shakes and Nikki...

Here's a little story about how our cats, Shakes and Nikki, came to live with my fiance and I and about how Shakes got her name...

Librarians as Tastemakers

Like others, I suspect that Anderson addresses "New Producers, New Markets, and New Tastemakers" in his book, since I can't find those concepts referenced in the original Wired articles. Still, while I can't address Andersons constructs specifically, I do have an idea of librarians as tastemakers and market-creators that I can address here.

Obviously, librarians have the power to be tastemakers based on the books they recommend; the materials they display prominently in the library, and simply by collecting certain items and not others. I think librarians factor specifically in creating markets in the "long tail," though because they provide free access to things that patrons might never try if they had to pay for them. For example, you might be hesitant to buy a CD by an artist you've never heard of or even one that's been recommended to you but that you've never heard a song by, but you might go ahead and pick up a CD by an unkown artist from the library because the worst that can happen is that you hate it and you bring back the CD early. No big deal, nothing lost.

I also notice that my library creates a market for DVDs that would probably be considered in the "long tail" for the very reason that they are in the "long tail." It's harder to find foreign films, documentaries, and PBS specials at Blockbuster, so those things check out like crazy at the library. I know I personally often use the library for long tail items that I have a hard time finding through retailers like obscure or out of print books; sometimes I have to resort to ILL, but I'll still do it to get that last book in a series or whatever.

My Educational Experience

I chose to include four thumbnails from my "educational experience" set on Flickr because, while there are many things I could say about my educational experience, I think the most important thing is to highlight that my library school education isn't limited to the physical classroom. Yes, my school and the community of faculty, staff, and students there, are important parts of my education (and of my social life, too!).

The picture of the capitol represents how I am able to take advantage of local resources outside of school. I have been fortunate to have two mentors from public libraries in the area and have taken advantage of several continuing education opportunities through the Central Texas Library Association. I am also a member of the Texas Library Association and thanks to two stipends I have been awarded this year, I will be attending the TLA annual conference in Houston this year.

The picture of my office represents how I am able to connect to other students and librarians around the world through my internet connection. I'm subscribed to something like 30 blogs on library topics, I participate in e-mail listservs, and I am taking this course online through the WISE consortium.

Finally, the last picture is of the public library where I work full-time. Being able to apply classroom lessons at work and to relate work experiences in the classroom has been invaluable to me. I feel that the combination of the two has prepared me quite well for my career as a professional librarian.

Check out more pictures of my educational experience here!
Check out my classmates' pictures here!

Google Analytics

A high percentage of visitors to this blog come through Firefox (67.19% of visitors in the last month). The next most commonly used browser is Internet Explorer, which was used by 21.88% of visitors. The number of Firefox users is more than three times as many! A respectable 9.38% of visitors used Safari.

Just under half of the visitors to the blog (43.75%) connected to the internet using cable. The connection speed of another 34.38% of visitors is unknown.

I probably spent way too much time looking at this today--it's fascinating!

wikispaces vs. pbwiki

I have used pbwiki very minimally in the past, but this week's assignment really helped me to feel more confident with it! Previously I had added content to someone else's wiki using the service (in this class, in the 23 Things program, and at work), but creating a wiki, along with my colleague, was really empowering. I found that pbwiki was as easy to use as any word processing program.

I thought that wikispaces seemed just as easy to use at first. And I really liked the sleek interface and pop-up windows. Also, it seemed even easier to add an image to a page in wikispaces than in pbwiki. However, I really got tripped up when I tried to insert a piece of code from Goodreads into my wikispaces wiki. I'd done this on my pbwiki page, so it shouldn't have been a problem, but nothing I tried worked and the help page was not particularly helpful. I think I'll be sticking with pbwiki. After all, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

If you're interested, here's my extremely minimal wikispace wiki: http://rtscils598s09.wikispaces.com/.

Google Docs on Campus

The assignment asks us to make a prediction about the usefulness and acceptance rate of online document sharing tools like Google Docs on college campuses. However, I really don't need to predict anything. I began using Google docs in my very first graduate school course in the fall of 2007 and have used it on most of my collaborative projects since then (which in library school amounts to a lot of projects--we love teamwork!). Professors and classmates are open to and encourage the use of these tools.

I have yet to share a document with a professor of a face-to-face class as I did this week for SCILS598, though. So far, they do still seem to prefer attachments or printed assignments. Still, I think we're moving toward this. In the case of printed assignments, I think we are all becoming more conscious of the amount of paper we use so some people are bound to start looking for alternatives. Google Docs has the advantage over an attachment because there are no concerns about software compatibility, items getting lost in inboxes or accidentally deleted, or any of the other myriad problems that arise with attachments.

The Long Tail

Before I address the issue of the Long Tail and libraries, let me first say that I found the Chris Anderson article extremely interesting and illuminating. (Though I'm still glad we didn't have to read the book for class! I think I got the point quite nicely through the article.) I think he made a particularly interesting point in noting how we, as consumers, don't always know what we want and often equate popularity with quality but are now able, through companies like Netflix and Amazon, able to discover new things. I liked the idea of the Long Tail as something that facilitates discovery.

Which is an excellent segue to libraries, for what are they if not places that facilitate discovery? Perhaps my library is unique, but I already see the Long Tail at work in libraries every day. Similar to the Rhapsody/Britney Spears example in Anderson's article, readers advisory librarians are often leading patrons from a popular item they've enjoyed to a lesser known or less popular item that is similar. For example, you liked Twilight? Maybe you'll also enjoy the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. If you enjoy those, maybe you'll enjoy a slightly different take on vampires in Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice. Still interested? Well, why not try the granddaddy of all vampire books, Bram Stoker's Dracula?

I also see my library as a repository for Long Tail items not available at Borders or Barnes & Noble. We carry issues of the local high school's yearbook back to the sixties. We also collect broadly in the area of documentary DVDs mentioned by Anderson because they fit two aspects of the library's mission statement in that they provide both entertainment and educational value. We have a large immigrant population in our area so we also collect more foreign films that you can find at the local Blockbuster. Both the documentaries and foreign films have high circulation rates (the yearbooks are non-circulating items).

Introductions via Bookmarks

I think using Delicious bookmarks as a means of introducing ourselves to classmates and colleagues is a really fun and creative idea. In just the few moments it took me to scan through the bookmarks we've accumulated as a class thus far, I was able to see that I share the following non-academic interests with some of my classmates: Etsy, fantasy football, vegetarian cooking, celebrity gossip, and the Smitten Kitchen blog. Now I know that I may find other sites of interest to me by looking at the Delicious pages of those folks. I also liked having the opportunity to share some of my favorites!

It was challenging for me to think of myself in terms of the Web sites I look at, even though I spend hours a day on the Web and references to things like xkcd or Cute Overload occur regularly in my real-world conversations. And, as with any social software, I really thought through each choice and what it would "say" about me beyond "I like sports." On Facebook and other networking sites, I always refrain from listing favorite books, movies, music, etc. because I know people form opinions based on those things that are very limiting. If I post, for example, that my favorite musician is Yo Yo Ma, people will form a very different opinion of me than if I post that my favorite musician is Justin Timberlake. Does everyone think I'm a total geek now that I linked to Whedonesque?

How we present ourselves is, of course, not a concern that is limited to the virtual world, but it seems like a much larger challenge because so much of the information on social networking sites is not couched in any kind of context. When you make a list of favorites, people make their own assumptions, whereas when your favorites come up in the course of real-life face-to-face conversations an explanation is attached. You can relate a funny story or sentimental memory or something else that gives actual insight into your character more so than the simple fact that you like a certain movie. Facebook can make people seem very one-dimensional.

Delicious vs. Furl

It's strange, but I prefer the idea of Furl to the actual execution. I like that you can rank bookmarks and that there are so many different levels of sharing and that you can add so much metadata to a bookmark (the "clippings" feature, in particular, seems neat). In the end, though, simplicity won out with me (and, it seems, with my classmates and the general masses) and I preferred Delicious. As I said, I like the idea of being able to add so much metadata, but in application I like just clicking the button, adding some tags, and saving. Which, of course, you can do with Furl, but it's just so clean and easy with Delicious.