Test

Blogging 101

Digital Photos Class Review

I completed the 3-week digital photo “boot camp” and have to say it was a curate’s egg. The first class focused on hooking the camera up and transferring photos. That one went over well and I think the students were very pleased with it. Everyone brought their cameras and transferred a photo to My Pictures. It turned into pretty much an entire class of Q&A but that seemed to work well. The second class was all about Flickr and I think it was a total disaster. None of the 2.0-esque community aspects of Flickr seemed to grab anyone, and no one seemed quite sure why I thought it was a good idea to use Flickr for photo sharing. The third week involved 90 minutes of having fun with the sample pictures in Picnki — now that was a hit. I’m not sure how many of the students will open their own accounts, but if nothing else, they’re more aware now of what kinds of tools are out there and how easy they are to use.

The class is definitely worth repeating, but I might remove Flickr and make it two weeks long. Or try to explore ways of making Flickr more appealing.

Awesome Online Word Processor (And More!)

My previous post — the one so imaginitively titled, “Test” — was a trial run of using Zoho Writer to publish to my blog.  I’ve been a loyal Google Docs user for sometime now (I think Google has brainwashed me, but I’m not complaining!) but how incredibly awesome is it that there is now a tool that you can use to do word processing for free, collaborate online, view your docs offline, and publish to the web?  What a fascinating modern age we live in!

Check it out for youself at zoho.com.

UPDATE

I showed this site to a friend while we were collaborating on a long-distance blog post.  I hadn’t fully explored it before inviting her to the document.  After a few moments, I realized that there was a chat window next to our document and she was asking in wonderment, “What is this place?!”  The site was definitely overwhelming to a new person, but the fact that we could be chatting while working on the same document, all in the same window was extraordinary! 

(We did end up not using it because translating the formatting from Zoho to WordPress seemed a bit clunky.  We’re just too in the habit of writing html tags while we write.)

Test

I have been looking for an alternative to Google Docs ever since my account got a little wonky.  From what I could tell, though, most online word processors didn’t have the collaboration features Google Docs did.  This is why I was so thrilled to see Zoho mentioned on Lifehacker.  I can’t wait to give this product a whirl.  I am especially intrigued by the feature that allows you to upload a document directly to WordPress.  I must give this a try!

Call Me Marian

As this blog probably makes pretty clear, I’m most excited about the technological aspects of library-work.  I like to joke with my friends that the only time I interact with books is when I’m discarding the old and feeble books we don’t need anymore.  Today, however, I was busy shifting the books around when I noticed a new art technique book.  I instantly thought of a young patron who used to come in often to look up painting online.  I realized I hadn’t seen him in quite a while, and thought it was a shame I wouldn’t be able to offer him the book.  And then, as if on cue, he wandered over two minutes later!  He was thrilled with the book and was very appreciative that I’d thought of him when I’d seen it.  It’s not often — okay, it’s almost never — that I have such a stereotypical, olde-tyme-y librarian experience, so this was pretty rewarding for me!

How to Hook Non-Web People on 2.0

I taught a class not long ago called “Getting Organized Online”.  The idea was to show the various Google apps and how they can help one get, well, organized.  I showed Calendar, Reader and Google Docs.  Everyone flipped over Calendar and how easy it is to use.  Everyone oohed and aahed over Reader, although I’m not convinced many students would remember to use it again.  Everyone was completely befuddled by Docs.   I tried to show real life applications for it (keeping lists and budgets and the like) but it just didn’t float anyone’s boat.  However, I mentioned Google Maps and that I’d used it to plan out every stop along the way from NJ to Buffalo, NY to assuage the fears of my co-driver who hates on and off ramps.  The idea that you could use an webtool for something so obviously <i>useful</i> was a very, very exciting prospect for the class. 

What I need to do is somehow harness this into an uber class that shows real-life applications for web 2.0 tools.  And then find a way to advertize it in some meaningful way…

My First Case of Technolust

A friend informed me today that Google has officially announced they will produce a Google phone.  I’ve seen the iPhone in action and had thought, “Meh.  I just don’t think I need one of those.”  Then last week I found myself in a situation where I would have been thrilled to be able to photograph the scene going on around me and blogged it immediately.  Hm… I wonder what device could have helped me with that?…  Of course, I’m still not sold on the iPhone because I don’t want to learn all new stuff.  I live my life online and mostly through Gmail, Gtalk, Google Calendar, Docs and Reader.  I know I can download that stuff to my phone, but I’m still a little bit stuck in the mindset that my phone is a phone, not a computer.  But by the time the Google phone comes out, I’ll be ready.  Ready to have access to all my Google apps on my phone-sized computer.  In related news, I discovered recently that I have pretty much completely phased phones out of my personal life.  I talk to friends via email and IM.  I can use my cell at work to call for doctor’s appointments and the like.  So making my phone into just another (tinier) computer that I live my whole life on will make paying phone bills so much easier to stomach!

Lord Scorpion No More

Although it’s sometimes hard for me to believe it, there is still a stereotype that people who interact with other people online are all nerds and dorks who live in their parent’s basements and who are all socially dysfunctional losers.  After seeing how easy it was to start this blog, I embarked on a blog with a friend (it’s not about libraries, and I like to keep it separate from work [and relatively anonymous] so sorry, no link!) back in March.  Since then, we’ve met a so many fabulous, wonderful, like-minded people online.  Through commenting on blogs, emailing and IMing, we’ve had the pleasure of hanging out virtually with all kinds of cool folks from all over the country.  This was something I totally expected, having done enough reading about the kinds of connections that can come from 2.0 technologies.  However, I was shocked when over the summer and in this past week, I was able to meet some of these online friends in person.  Even for someone like me, who’s more than a little cynical, and just old enough to remember not having email in high school, the idea of meeting online contacts in real life is a little scary.  There was no reason on Earth to be scared.  The people I met were all exactly like what they seemed to be online.  Funny, smart, clever, intelligent, witty and confident.  We’re in an age where one doesn’t need to be a tech savvy genius to have a blog, so the idea that all bloggers would be socially dysfunctional parent’s-basement dwellers is completely laughable. Still, it was nice to be reminded that this is so.

What does this have to do with libraries?  After meeting my new blog friends in real life, I realized that I consider them to be as close to me as the friends I’ve made the traditional way (i.e. through school and through other friends), in large part becuase the people I’ve met online all share common interests.  If they didn’t love the topic I blog about, I’d never meet them.  For the first time in my life, I have the opportunity to meet people based on interests, without the limitations of geopgraphy.  This is a great thing to keep in mind when attempting to assist patrons.  People aren’t just looking for information anymore.  Often times, people can find so much more to fill their information needs with by accessing a group of people or a network whose interests intersect with their own.  For example, a person looking for information on breast cancer might be well served to be given the latest medical information, but also assistance in locating an online support group where people facing similar challenges can offer help beyond the latest books and journals.  

Part of the uphill battle though is getting patrons to recognize that, while the web is certainly still pretty much the lawless frontier, it’s also a gathering place for people of all cultures, backgrounds, and interests. 

Blogging Class

I finally got a turn-out for a class on blogging.  8 people showed up to take a 90-minute Blogging 101 class here at the library, and while I doubt any of them are going to keep at it, they all seemed pretty happy when they left.  I organized the class so that I gave a breif (about 20 minutes or so) slide presentation describing blogs and showing examples.  The rest of the class involved everyone starting a Blogger acount and writing a post.  (Although I prefer WordPress, it seems  a tad less intuitive for computer novices.)  There were some bumps in the road (two students didn’t have email accounts, and one was more concerned with learning to type than learning to blog) but for the most part, the students were engaged and asked interesting questions. 

One of the hardest elements of teaching the class was getting across how flexible the concept of blogging is.  I tried to give examples from all across the spectrum — from my friends’ cooking blog to Global Voices — but the blogosphere is so vast it can be hard to comprehend without having much prior knowledge.  I’m wondering if a Blogging Boot Camp is in order, where students learn what blogs are and spend a class period reading a bunch, before coming back the next week to start their own.

The Slow Evolution of Computer Classes

When Computers in Libraries concluded this year I was all gung-ho for overhauling my library system’s computer classes.  We’re still offering Mouse Skills and Internet Basics, and the ocassional advanced Excel or Word class.  I had, previously, tried offering more fun classes like blogging and advanced searching, but had gotten no turn-out at all.  My patron-base is still comprised on beginners, so I finally had to concede that I couldn’t rush them.  However, I think I may have found a way to spice things up a bit.  I had a big turn-out for a recent 3-session course on Excel.  At the end of the final session I took a few minutes to demo Google Docs and Spreadsheets.  It was amazing to see the light bulbs go on over their heads when they saw a real-time demonstration of the collaborative features of 2.0.  Based on just that demo, I drummed up some serious interest in a class covered just what Google’s Office-esque components can do.  Once I have a few students turned on to the wonders of web-based applications, who knows where I can go from there!  Maybe at the end of that class, I can do a demo of Flickr or del.icio.us or Picnik… Hey, wait!  What if I built into each class, a 10 minute presentation of one applicable-to-the-class topic web freebie!  I think I might be onto something here!