2-4-6-8 .... what tool do we best appreciate

Sometimes in the dark of night I ponder how the fields of librarianship and archival studies differ, I don't always come up with deep thoughts, they tend to hit me at other times, such as during an MLA Annual Conference when I realize that I have never heard anyone at an archival meeting refer to a spouse, child, or any family member, while at MLA, no matter the topic, families frequently come up. Also, new electronic tools are simply mentioned at archival sessions (ie. we decided to place our new finding aid on the web using whatever-whatever and it has receive blank number of hits because this other new dandy thing) while at library meetings (not at ALA, but elsewhere) they are presented as the holy grail -- now if we do this cool thing online all those folks who don't understand us and appreciate what we do will now think we are wonderful.

Library 2.0 they say ... well, I have yet to hear a discussion of this which did not forget or ignore what has really come behind us ... take the info to the user, ok, where they are may be different now (they are online) but we have often take it to the user (whether we used a pack mule, a bookmobile, or went to a prison) ... a library will be "socially and emotionally engaging center for learning and experience" --- American libraries have been doing that all along.

I am not saying that things are not changing, but it is, in large part the tools that are changing. Yes, we should utilize new tools that are right and appropritae but we should not ignore all that we have done so far and how we have done it. We are coolier now, we are hippier now becuase we are online, we have always been cool and hip ...

Tag You're It

I spend an incredible amount of time online and I have for over ten years, buy the major thought I came away with from this thing is that there is too much out there and while a wonderful useful tool we all don't need to know what we are all doing. Some things shouldn't be claimed, shall we say. It is like in my fields of genealogy and local history, where self-publishing has always been prevalent and respected, it is easier to produce a book now but it doesn't make it any better. Instead of "can't we all just get along", the mantra of the web should "can't we all just mind our own business". If only all this energy spent on foolishness (foolishness always being relevant) could be harnessed for a common good ...

Almost done

I still have one week to finish -- just can't get in to 13 -15, but thought I would go ahead and have some thoughts. It was a fine learning experience, it reminded me some of Pat Crispen's internet introduction mailing list of many, many years back. I can't say that I had a favorite discovery or exercise, I will say once again how boring I found doing the image generators and one or two other things. I can't say that the program had any affect on my life long learning goals -- just one more dandy learning experience, not earth shattering or life altering. I may have found the before mentioned Geeks class more useful, perhaps as it was a true introduction of many of these things for me. I would take part in another such experience, again I am all for those learning experiences. Librarianship is a profession closely ingrained with life long learning and the emphasis is one of the benefits of the field. I would like to stress again how annoying, if not insulting, I found some of the tone of the things -- again the emphasis on fun and play, I also found some of the other wording also insulting "If you are up for it ...", as an example. I have gotten used to the fun tone which is prevalent in many Maryland public library learning experiences, but it still often drives me crazy, as if we are not all professionals (and I don't mean degreed) and the only way that we would take part in a learning experience is if it is "fun" or if it constantly labeled as "fun". Yes, some may find it as fun, some may not, but the inherent value of learning is often enough. Fun and play used in that context is talking down to the profession. I also find it personally intrusive. Like many I was not really able to do many things at work, but had limited time at home during this period, but am not opposed to taking part from home, but I my system can handle it. Knowing the amount of time some of my colleagues spent on this, the ceus don't seem appropriate for many. I would say it has also encouraged me to start looking at a doctoral program again, so I guess that could be a life-long learning affect.

Reading By Any Other Name

I have, of course, been familiar with downloadable books since FCPL stated to get them, or, actually, the meeting about them right before. Have not used them myself, but probably will some day, been meaning to practice with my Treo. I am more likely to use the audio books than the book book, I don't like to read on screens. Project Guttenberg is not new news, but it has been a long time since I have checked out there webpage and found much of interest -- such as the sheet music. Also found the distinction between the people voice books and the computer generated voice books interesting.

Can you hear me, can you hear me running?

Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?




I was already theoretically familiar with podcasts. I had my friend Drew's podcast, Genealogy Guys, on the Bloglines account that I forgot I had. I did play around with several of the search engines and went ahead and added an Irish Genealogy one to my Bloglines. The other day I called in, via cell phone, to finally listen to one of Drew's casts or would that be pods.

I did not try to pull together a podcast, but am impressed at how easy it appears to be. This is an application I could imagine using in the near future. However, to quote George Harrison, but not word for word ...

"It is going to take patience and time to do it right"

I've never known anyone who didn't love Hawaii

I have taken a look at several Wikis, and, of course, have used Wikepedia, for good or bad, these last couple of years (have also chided many a History Day student for Wikepedia-ing) ... Although I am all for the ownership of ideas, especially my own, in a controlled environment I can see Wikis being useful. And the ability to put a webpage up quickly and easily is certainly a big plus. I will admit that I wasn't bowled over by many of the Wikis I did take a look at, but perhaps they were still in their infancy. What I like best is the outline format many take! :) I am not creative enough to see them being used for groundbreaking work amongst patrons, except for Readers Advisory, Book Clubs, other groups or clubs. I can see them being very useful internally for staff training.

A large part of my job is warning patrons about sources and instructing them to check their sources, trace their sources, evaluate sources; on that front an editor-less Wiki puts the fear of the Almighty in me. While in some communities they may be self-controlling, in fields where so much information is hard to prove as it is, genealogy and local history, I don't see that happening.

Perhaps someday when all users understand them and know what they are they will be less of a concern for me, when the day comes when all researchers know that just because it is on-line don't make it so. :)

My time in the sand

Have spent time in the "box", even if it was a forced play experience, but I do enjoy talking about myself so not great burden ... here is my entry

http://marylandlibrariessandbox.pbwiki.com/HowIReallySpendMyTime

Too much noise!

I find many of the communication features\opportunities\whatever of many of the "Web2.0" things -- such as YouTube -- very annoying, which, as I understand it, is at the heart of the whole 2.0 phenomena. It is like the Mel Gibson movie "What Women Want" where he gets electrocuted and he hears everything every female thinks. I don't want to "hear" what everyone thinks about everything, truthfully most of us don't have that many memorable or insightful things to communicate and certainly not to the whole world. It is as if we walked up to a library book and suddenly heard everything that everyone who every touched that book thought of it -- what a great writer, I hate green covers, that last book was better, why didn't they publish this last year, I hate short stories, I should have gone to Borders, etc. Too much noise!!!!!!!!! Too much stuff in the way of the information!!!! Too many comments in the way of the document, the photo, the video!!!!

And I Am telling you ....

that here is a video from YouTube ....



Although I don't regularly take a look at YouTube, I have spent some wasted evenings looking around, Kathy White has also shared more than one fun video with me. I was aware of YouTube, but did not investigate it until several reviews of the movie version of "Dreamgirls" mentioned that the original Jennifer's rendition of "And I Am telling you" was on YouTube. There are, of course, several different Jennifer Holiday renditions, but I like this one because it is from the Tonys and has the original Broadway cast -- always a good thing. Also poor deceased Tony Randall does the intro.

While I'm telling you that I am not likely to ever spend a great deal of time with YouTube, etc., I just don't have the patience for it, it is pretty darn amazing what is up there and it is certainly a very handy way to put videos up for mass, or specialized, consumption. One never knows when one might have a reason, professional or otherwise, to put up a video of something.

and the towie goes to

or would that by the webbie goes to ... to many twos\tos in the first

Very insightful to look at the winners list, as we have google stock, happy to see so many google products :).

and

just had a patron talking about Lulu ... so many of my patron types are self-publishers here is some real info for me!

I believe this to be a very useful resource to see the best of the best.

A Sampling of the Virginias in the Maryland Room

Not including family histories and the Civil War.

Title: Obituaries Berkeley County, Virginia (West Virginia), 1791-1855 and other news

Publication info: Martinsburg, WV : Berkeley County Historical Society, 2001.

M 929.5 OBI 2001

Title: Obituaries Berkeley County, Virginia (West Virginia), 1856-1879 and other news

Publication info: Martinsburg, WV : Berkeley County Historical Society, 002.
M 929.5 OBI 2002

Personal Author: Bockstruck, Lloyd DeWitt.

Title: Virginia's Colonial soldiers.
Publication info: Baltimore : Genealogical Pub. Co., 1988.
M 929.3 BOC

Personal Author: Burgess, Louis Alexander, 1864-

Title: Virginia soldiers of 1776, compiled from documents on file in the Virginia Land Office; together with material found in the Archives Department of the Virginia State Library, and other reliable sources.
Publication info: Baltimore, Genealogical Pub. Co., 1973-
M BRIGHAM 973.3 BUR 1973 VOL. 3

Corporate Author: Daughters of the American Revolution. West Virginia. Bee Line Chapter (Charles Town, W. Va.)
Title: Tombstone inscriptions, Jefferson County, West Virginia : 1687-1900

Publication info: [West Virginia] : Daughters of the American Revolution, Bee Line Chapter, 1981.
M 929.509 DAUG

Title: Index to burials in Frederick County, Virginia

Publication info: [Athens, Ga.] : Iberian Pub., 2001.
M 929.5 IND 2001

Personal Author: Duncan, Patricia B.
Title: Loudoun County, Virginia, birth register

Publication info: Westminster, Md. : Willow Bend Books, 1998-
M 929.509 DUNC 1998

Personal Author: Greene, Evarts Boutell, 1870-1947.
Title: American population before the Federal census of 1790
Publication info: Baltimore, Md. : Genealogical Pub. Co., 1993, c1981.
M 317.3 GRE

Personal Author: Gwathmey, John Hastings, 1886-1956.
Title: Historical register of Virginians in the Revolution: soldiers, sailors, marines, 1775-1783. Introd. by H.J. Eckenrode.
Publication info: Baltimore, Genealogical Pub. Co., 1973 [c1938]
M 973.3 GWA 1987

Personal Author: Hoffman, Charles E.
Title: Berkeley County Historical Society, Births in Berkeley County 1883-1888

Publication info: [Martinsburg, W.V.] : Berkeley County Historical Society, [1998?-]
M 929.3 HOF 1998

Personal Author: Hume, Robert, 1955-
Title: Early child immigrants to Virginia 1618-1642 : copied from the records of Bridewell Royal Hospital.
Publication info: Baltimore, Md. : Magna Carta Book Co., 1986.

M 929.3 HUM

Personal Author: Ring, Constance.

Title: Index to the Fairfax County Virginia register of marriages : 1853-1933

Publication info: Lovettsville, Va. : Willow Bend Books, c1997.
M 929.375 RING 1997

Personal Author: Schweitzer, George Keene, 1924-
Title: Virginia genealogical research

Publication info: Knoxville, TN : George K. Schweitzer, c1982.
M 929.1 SCH

Personal Author: Taylor, Evelyn M. E., 1948-
Title: Historical digest of Jefferson County, West Virginia's African American congregations, 1864-1994 : with selected churches in neighboring Berkeley County, W.V., Maryland, and Virginia Publication info: Washington, D.C. : Middle Atlantic Regional Press, 1994.
M 277.54 TAY

Personal Author: Torrence, Clayton, 1884-1953.
Title: Virginia wills and administrations, 1632-1800; an index of wills recorded in local courts of Virginia, 1632-1800, and of administrations on estates shown by inventories of the estates of intestates recorded in will (and other) books of local courts, 1632-1800.
Publication info: Baltimore, Genealogical Pub. Co., 1965.
M 929.3 VIR

Corporate Author: United States. Bureau of the Census.

Title: Heads of families at the first census of the United States taken in the year 1790 ... Virginia
Publication info: Washington, D.C. : Govt. Print. Off., 1907-08 ; Spartanburg, S.C. : Reprint Co., 1961-64.
M 317.3 HEA 1790

Corporate Author: Virginia State Library. Archives Division.
Title: List of the colonial soldiers of Virginia. Special report of the Department of Archives and History for 1913.
Publication info: Baltimore, Genealogical Pub. Co., 1961.
M 929.3 ECK

Personal Author: Vogt, John.
Title: Loudoun County marriages, 1760-1850

Publication info: Athens, Ga. : Iberian Pub. Co., c1985.
M 929.3 VOG

Personal Author: Voress, Hugh Ellison.
Title: Burials in Jefferson County, West Virginia, 1978-1997 : supplemental to tombstone inscriptions to 1980

Publication info: Charles Town, W.V. : Jefferson County Historical Society, 1998.
M 929.509 VORE 1998

Stop losing those disks! (or thumb drives)

I have been using Google Docs since I found it via my gmail account. Also, finding in more e-mails that I get that deal with official stuff, like ALA, people use it more and more for drafts, memos, etc. Had hever heard of Zoho, I am smarter now. Have published to the blog a bibliography, one of several, that I put together earlier this summer for the Frecogs MD\VA Conference and was handing around my gdocs account. This actually could be a handy little feature. That was the bib before this message ... had some order issues, sorry for the confusion.

Del. ... whatever

I was very entertained in the Us.ef.ul article: have seen no history usage, but most of the history professors I know are still using wordperfect and PINE so they’re not exactly “nouveau.”

I still mourn the loss of WordPerfect and loved my PINE account.

I don't really use bookmarks, but could see the usefulness of this for many people, especially folks utilizing several computers. I could see using it if I was every heavily involved in a serious research project; that would probably also be the only time I would see poking around in other's bookmarks, like following their footnotes.

Library Thing

Though I don't care much about the social side, this is a great thing, this thing, I am not sure yet how it will change my life, but hope to fine some useful application for it ...

I just picked the first six books that came to my mind ... I love all the Amelia Peabody books equally, but love the title of Last Camel ... and the Aubrey\Maturin books are the latest great love of my life, don't know what I will do when I finish them.

Not bowled over with the Book Suggester function, but it is always good to have a variety of those up your sleeve, but Novelist much, much better, as it should be.

Rollyo

Had not heard of this previously, so very good to know about, sadly after deep thought there are not many webpages that I search regularly and would need to use such a feature, but sure will come up someday. My first attempt did not seem to work right, was trying to use a variety of library catalogs -- the one time I do really need to search a bunch of pages at one time looking for a particular thing or things. Saw that some of the other engines did do this, so I probably just need to rebuild it or something. Will go back to that someday. Very, very easy.

But after saying that I seem to have broken my blog ...

Later that evening ... if I remove my search engine from the blog the error message goes away ... let me try putting it here ...

Select...ListsearchSearch The Web

Hummm ... no error message now ... will need to investigate the customizing blog further and at another time ...

Since not all that self-evident, this engine it to search the archives of Genealib and The Archives List ... originally also had H-Net, but too many hits ... searched all H-Net lists, not just the one I wanted.

Image Generators or call me Dancing Corpse

Have tried to work on it twice ... it is like torture ... so boring!!! can't stand it!! requires an artisitc sense and an amount of patience I do not have ... avatars -- blick!!! ... no fun here!!! Worse than the bookmaking course at MLA. Will try again, but will go forward and work on others not so boring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On the other hand ... in the non-image generators .... my goth name is Dancing Corpse. Also was intrigued by an online "typewriter", have to go take a look at that again. Image generators ... boring, boring, boring. Or, more nicely, just not my cup of tea.

And ... I haven't said anything about the physical build of the female avators and what deep rooted influence that must be having on the body images of our teenage sisters ...

Ok, I made an avatar and it was not fun.

Fake Week 4

After looking at Teresa's blog I am going to try and be more organized in my blog titles.

Well what do you know ... I already had a Bloglines account! Most have set it up after the Geeks class a few years back. Ten newsfeeds!! Good heavens ... what about information overload. I again cheated ... I already had eight but did add some more. I don't know what ever happened to my Unshelved subscription, so good to catch up on that, though I have a patron who sends me the real choice ones. Happy to put in Richard Cox's "Reading Archives" a brilliant blog. If I lived near Pittsburgh I would do my PhD under him. Brilliant is not the word, though it is the word I use. :) I have frequently said that all roads lead back to the MD Room, Cox proves that all roads lead back to archives.

Can't say I was fond of any of the search tools, but it is difficult when I really don't have anything in particular to search for, just vague concepts. Found some of my feed things from word on the street.

It took me a while and I had to get the assistance of my former CLIS fieldstudy student, the talented Melissa, (g00d thing it is a stats date -- I was just trying to help the system) but I have gone public ... probably with not the financial earnings that going public often brings. :) Please visit http://www.bloglines.com/public/mkmmax.

Number 7 -- a technology thought

Are the bridges falling down because the software the engineers use is too busy making sure they are having fun? Is the trouble not our decaying inferstrucutre, but Mr. Paperclip?

mkm

Made a trading card

Leo Wild Pig Heart
Originally uploaded by mkmmax

need I say more ...

Have you seen the new door

DSCN0084
Originally uploaded by mkmmax

well, this isn't it ... pre-hole in wall, thus pre-door. Tommy and the guys looking for wires ... baby steps ...

I cheated ... being at home and after 11 pm, I did not "use your location's digital camera to capture a few pictures of something in your branch", but I have a bevy of such photos on my computer at home, so used one of those ...

As a former photo cataloger, have to say that my tagging weren't a shininig momemt in my career, but did not have the LC Theasurus (sp.) for Graphic Materials, my personal favorite for images ...

Got me a Flickr account and everything

2007夏の安泰
Originally uploaded by PTMC ─ LIEN FA SHENG FCI

This is a Tibetan Mastiff in a traditional yak collar ... makes him appear bigger ... well not this guy ... and helps if someone if trying to bite his neck

With my Yahoo account it was a breeze, but can't swear I don't already have a flickr account ....

Flickr

Here is a photo of dogs that are Tibetan Mastiffs, proably in Tibetan, or more likely China ... you will notice the guy in front who appears tied up. In Tibet they are called DoKyi -- dog that can be tied, or is tied, etc. They are the largest of the Tibetan Dogs ... in size they go the TM, the KyiApso (a controversial breed -- is it really a breed??), the Tibetan Terrier, the Lhasa Apso, and the Tibetan Spaniel.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/livepine/284395643/

Still the fake Week Two

Well, no longer have the e-mail from J and L on how to register my blog, but have e-mailed J.

But speaking of fun ... love the tracking log ... ceus, how I love ceus! :) Fun, play, pooey ... give me ceus. :)

mkm

Week One and Two

Well ... not really ... I am all for life-long learning and I am all for technology, but if I hear to have fun and play one more time I will hurt somebody ... I find it insulting ... we are not grown-ups, we are not professionals, the only way we can learn something is by being entertained. I just can't imagine lawyers, doctors, and many other professions going in to a learning expericne with the have fun and play command beating them on the head. Well the act of doing it my be fun enough. Have fun ... there are other reasons to do things. Reminds me of many a Microsoft Product ... it is not enough that our software programs do a job, we can't write a letter without Mr. Paperclip jumping up to help. I just don't think it bodes well for our society. Anyhow, enough of that, though I really did contain myself ... I would say that of the 7 life-long learner habits (I ignore the 1/2 since it was the fun one) that one that I have the most trouble with is the end in mind -- not being generally goal oriented (could that be why I am now on weeks one\two???) :). But, think I am pretty good on the others. :) mkm