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