Thing #40: Funky Photos



For this assignment I used the same photo and modified it in several different ways using both Pixlr and Aviary.

The first two image files included in this post are modifications I made to my photo using Pixlr. I created the first image using the Find Edges filter and the second image using the Hope filter.



The next two image files are modifications I made to my photo using Aviary. For the first I used the Brush Pen filter. For the second I accessed the Peacock tool and used the Kaleidoscope effect. I played with the Horizontal and Vertical Offset properties until I got the baseball caps to form a ring.

Like others, I found Pixlr much easier to use that Aviary.

I can see using Pixlr with a group of kids, either in school or at a library event. I bet they'd love it if you took a picture of them with a digital camera and then helped them upload it to Pixlr to mutate in all kinds of interesting ways!

Thing #39: Managing Your Online Identity

I started out with a Google search on “Susan Knisely.” The first hit is my LinkedIn profile. It provides basic information about my professional employment history and education, which is fine with me. (Actually, I was glad to be reminded that the information is there, because I always forget the exact years I was in graduate school, the specific date I started my current job, etc. Since I went to the trouble to figure it out when creating my LinkedIn profile, I can refer to it when I need to be reminded!)

The second hit is the Nebraska Library Commission’s “Send Email to Susan Knisely” page.

The third hit is from MyLife.com, which lists lots of different people named Susan Knisely, including me. One listing includes my current city and my spouse’s name. It looks like I would have to create an account on MyLife.com or login with my Facebook username and password to see what additional information, if any, they have about me. I am not particularly interested in creating a new account on this site, and I also don’t want to provide my Facebook username and password to the site, so at this point I returned to my search results.

(Note: from what I can surmise and from the little research I’ve done, MyLife.com is a people directory/revenue-generating tool masquerading as a social networking site. )

At this point the results become a mixture of links to profile information from various services for other people named Susan Knisely, intermixed with results that are relevant to me. Adding Lincoln Nebraska to my search returns results with fewer false hits. From these additional results you can find out that I am a mother (according to my Blogger profile) and you can see a listing of several books I’ve read (courtesy of GoodReads).

I had similar results on Yahoo and Bing when I searched on “Susan Knisely” Lincoln Nebraska.

For the most part I am satisfied with these results and don’t feel the need to change anything. Almost all my online presence is related in some way to my profession, and while I’ve included some personal information I’ve tried to keep it to a minimum.

I am not trying to actively promote myself online, so the fact that additional information about me isn’t readily available isn’t a problem. In fact, I’ve set my Facebook profile to not appear in public searches, and I’ve also set my Facebook privacy settings to pretty much restrict all information about me to Friends only.

Within Facebook many of my friends are Nebraska librarians, some of whom I know personally, and others who I may never have met but nevertheless “know” professionally. I do mix personal and professional more freely within Facebook because it’s a somewhat protected environment, but I still practice some restraint.

Because I don’t strive to maintain a high profile online, I also don’t feel the need to track myself online using an alert system. Yes, I will continue to search on my name occasionally just so I can be aware of what others might find if they do the same, but I don’t feel the need for up-to-the-minute reports.

Thing #38: Use Things to Market Your Library -- Or All Roads Lead to Facebook

I've spent some time thinking about what my top "Thing" would be if I were in a position to market a library. One thing I believe about libraries using Web 2.0 tools is that each library (and librarian) has to figure out which tools work for them -- not only in terms of their own personal preferences but also in terms of what will connect with their community.

I like to write and am comfortable writing, so if I were a library director, or the person responsible for marketing my library, I could see myself putting a lot of energy in to a blog. I have a co-worker who really hates to write though, so I imagine she would choose a different tool, perhaps Flickr. She'd come up with clever ways to market using Flickr that I'd never think of, and I'd come up with ideas and topics to blog on that she might not.

Ultimately, though, my thoughts always came back to the problem of how to get patrons to take notice of your blog, or go to your Flickr site, or subscribe to your Twitter feed. And at this point I always wind up back at Facebook.

Just last week Facebook announced that they had half a billion active users. Half a billion! And it does seem to me that people are most likely to be on Facebook, even if they don't use other social networking services. And if your patrons are on Facebook, and they find out that the library has a Facebook page, it takes very little effort for them to "friend" you or "like" you. And once that happens, you can push content to them--even content from other services like Flickr or Twitter or your blog.

So even if you are going to put a lot of your marketing effort in to blogging or Flickr or some other tool, I think having a Facebook page for your library is almost essential. If Facebook is where your users are (everyone from grandparents to middle-agers to teens) then that's where you're going to catch their eye in order to redirect it to your blog post, your Flickr pictures, etc.

A PollDaddy Survey with Branching

Okay, in this post I am trying out the option of embedding JavaScript. It appears that it inserts a "View Survey" link. When you click on it your survey will open on a new layer above your website and will disappear when the user is finished. This way your user never has to leave your site!

A PollDaddy Poll

What Do You Think of My New Blog Template?

(This is an example of a PollDaddy Rating Widget!)

Twtpoll

Here is an example of a Twtpoll poll. In this case I have embedded it in my blog post. I could have embedded it in my blog sidebar or on a regular web page. I also had a choice of what to embed: just the question, just the response, or both. I was also given the option of sharing this poll via Twitter, Facebook, or Google Buzz.

Popup Survey

I have embedded code in this post that should cause a window to pop up and invite you to take a survey when you view this page. This was done using SurveyMonkey. Personally, I don't like windows popping up and asking me to take polls -- I'd rather there be a static link on a web page asking me to take a poll -- but I thought I should at least see how this works.

Thing #36: Flickr Revisited

I haven't posted anything to my Flickr account for awhile, so theoretically Option 2 was available to me. I feel like I am pretty comfortable using Flickr though, so I chose Option 1. I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed watching the WebJunction recording of Library Images: Engage, Inspire and Tell your Story.

I was really impressed with the way the Lester Public Library director used photography and Flickr as a way to simultaneously familiarize himself with his new community, contribute to the community, and promote the library. What a win-win situation!

I think one comment he made early on in the presentation is particularly noteworthy. He mentioned the fact that before moving to the community he'd looked online for pictures of it and hadn't found many.

Think about this for a minute. It just makes sense, doesn't? In this day and age, just about everyone is going to go online to see what they can find out about a community before moving to it. As librarians, wouldn't it be great if we could "hook" people before they even move to our community?

If I was getting ready to move to a community and the local library had an active and appealing online presence, it would certainly predispose me to make the library one of the first community resources I plugged into when I arrived! And if the library's online presence made it seem like a vibrant, friendly, helpful place, maybe I'd even call or email with re-location questions before my move!

I think it is also worth noting what the director said at the beginning of his presentation -- that before moving to Two Rivers, his social networking experience was pretty much limited to posting to his former library's blog. Now, just a few years later, because he wasn't afraid to try something new, he is considered a social networking expert in his community! It's a good reminder to all of us that just because we haven't done something in the past, doesn't mean we can't do it in the future.

Thing #35: Wakoopa

In order to do this Thing, I signed up for Wakoopa, but I didn't download the tracking software. At work my machine is locked down and I would have had to ask someone on the computer team to download it for me; and at home I share a computer with two other people and pretty much know what programs we use.

I added Michael Sauers as a contact with no problem. I wasn't able to figure out how to join "the librarians group" (per step 2 of the assignment) but I was able to join "the librarians team" (per step 3). (Maybe those are the same thing? Michael?)

My Wakoopa username is bluedonkey.

As far as my thoughts on Wakoopa, I don't see myself using it to track my own software usage, just because I don't tend to use a huge number of programs. I can actually see it being useful in a public computer lab, however, particularly if you want to get a good sense of what sorts of online activities are popular. These sorts of statistics could not only help you with software purchase and management decisions, they could also help you tell the story of how your library serves its customers and give you programming ideas.

One feature of Wakoopa that interested me was the ability to browse software by categories. What a great way to get ideas about new software to try, especially if other Wakoopa users have reviewed the software. Plus, it's nice to know how many Wakoopa users have used a particular piece of software before trying it.

When browsing the software categories, I did find myself wishing for a bit more granularity. Some categories seemed perfectly sufficient, but other times the software listed in a particular category did such a variety of different things, that I wished for subcategories.

In trying to use Wakoopa to search for potentially useful software, I found that search wasn't as powerful as I'd like (you can filter your results by platform, category, license, price, and users after the fact, which is cool, but I'd like to be able to apply some of these ahead of time). I am not really complaining, since I am well aware that I'm not using Wakoopa the way it's designed to be used. I know I'm supposed to track my own software usage, and that based on that usage Wakoopa will suggest similar software for me to try. I'm sort of doing an end-run around that mechanism. Still, it's been interesting.

I did go in this morning with the intention of writing a review. I looked all over for where I could do this, but couldn't find anything. Eventually, in the Awards area, I saw that you could "Write a review for an app you've used over 1 hour" and earn 5 points. I'm guessing that if I was actually tracking my software usage, I'd get an option to review a program after an hour of use. Makes sense.

One final comment -- It's interesting to see the ranked list of software used by the librarians group. This past week Facebook was first, but WorldCat did show up at #9!

Seeking peace : chronicles of the worst Buddhist in the world [WorldCat.org]

Here is an example of using WorldCat.org's Bookmark & Share functionality to post a book link to a blogger blog.

Seeking peace : chronicles of the worst Buddhist in the world [WorldCat.org]

Shared via AddThis

WorldCat Widget Test

Below is a test of the WorldCat List widget:

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Below is a test of a WorldCat Search Box widget:

Search for an item in libraries near you: Enter title, subject or author
WorldCat.org >>

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Below is a test of a WorldCat link with an embedded search term:

"A number of books have been assigned the subject sensorimotor integration"

Slideshare

Here is a PowerPoint presentation I created on instant messaging:

Instant Messaging Trends & Practice

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: im instant)

Welcome to Nebraska Learns 2.0!

Well, if any of you Nebraska Learns 2.0 participants have looked at my blog, you'll have seen that I don't update it very often. In fact, I haven't updated it since I was using it to record my progress when the Nebraska Library Commission was doing an in-house version of the Learning 2.0 program!

I did want to let you all know that I've been enjoying following your progress. I am trying to subscribe to all of your blogs through my Bloglines account so I have half a chance of keeping up with your posts! Thank goodness for RSS feeds!

Thing 23: Beginning or End?

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I've really enjoyed the blogging, though I probably won't keep posting to this particular blog in any kind of regular fashion. More than my own blogging though, I've enjoyed reading the blogs of my co-workers here at NLC. I found it interesting to read their thoughts on various topics, and the fact that we were all working on the same exercises made it really feel like we were all participants in a learining community!

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? I don't think this program has affected my lifelong learning goals in terms of changing them. It did give me a chance to formally explore some technologies I wasn't familiar with, and I liked that. Probably the part that affected me most was realizing how much I enjoyed being part of a semi-structured, semi-formal learning community.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? Not that I can think of at the moment.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I wonder if we should have decreased the number of things covered in nine weeks, or increased the number of weeks devoted to exploring the 23 things. I know I had trouble keeping up at the end, and I had some familiarity with the content of the program.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate? Absolutely!

Thing 22: IM

I've been using instant messaging for a year and a half, primarily with my co-workers. Since I work four hours a week at the reference desk, I also have been on the receiving end of some of the chat reference questions that come in through the Meebo Me widget that appears on the Ask a Librarian page.

I believe offering chat reference is a great way to expand the reach of the reference desk to folks who might not otherwise use our services. I think what makes it especially effective is the fact that a link to the page containing the Meebo Me widget appears on many State of Nebraska web pages, so people who are searching for state government information have a quick and easy reminder that we are available to help. When they click on the link and see that they can just type a question in the Meebo Me widget box and don't even have to identify themselves, I think that makes it even more likely that they will ask their question.

Thing 21: Podcasts

I tried searching several of the podcast directories, and didn't find them that useful. There were so many podcasts listed, and when I selected a subject area to browse I just got podcast titles which didn't tell me much about them. The lists were so long I didn't want to click on each podcast name to get to more information about it to decide if I was interested. I didn't find anything of interest this way.

I had better luck going to the NPR website and clicking on their Podcast link. It took me to their Podcast Dirctory, which listed podcasts by NPR and their "partners." Here I found podcasts for lots of shows I enjoy listening to, such as Fresh Air and This American Life. This was a much more productive directory to look in!

I actually didn't subscribe to any of the podcasts listed in the NPR directory, primarily because I've done it before and I still never got around to listening to the episodes. In the case of This American Life, the podcast is only available free for a week after the original broadcast date, so if I didn't get to it within that timeframe, it was too late.

Trying to be more practical and realistic about my available time, I subscribed instead to the Grammar Girl podcast, which I knew about because a couple of my co-workers subscribe. Each of these podcasts is less than 5 minutes in length, so I might even find time to listen!

Thing 20: YouTube

I think YouTube is great. You often hear people deride it as being full of drivel, but you know what? It actually restores my faith in people's creativity. Yes, a lot of what is posted is of no interest to anyone but the poster and a few of his or her friends or family members. But so what! The people who the video was intended for will enjoy it; the rest of us can ignore it!

There is also great stuff on YouTube that in my opinion beats the heck out of most network programming. Really creative people now have an outlet without needing a lot of money, and without needing to fit their content into some sort of format that fits on tv between commercials.

I think a great example of this is Dan Brown, the Lincoln high school student who recently won a YouTube contest with his video demonstrating how to solve a Rubik's cube. He has posted over 70 videos and has developed a huge following (over 19,000 subscribers). His videos run the gamet from comedic rants at his friends to a presidential endorsement, but all are impressive in their own way. See for yourself!

Other folks have already pointed out some of the cool library videos out there on YouTube, so I won't spend a lot of time on them. I will say I think it would be cool for a library to videotape patrons talking about books they've read, and then posting them to a library YouTube account and the library website.

Just for fun I did a search on YouTube for the tag CIL2008 - which I know folks are using to tag material from the Computers in Libraries 2008 conference. Take a look at the results and see if you can spot a couple NLC staff members!

For my finale I was going to embed into this blog post a video that I uploaded to YouTube. Unfortunately, it looks like I disabled the "embed" option in my account, and I can't remember or track down my password at the moment to get in and change it. So you will just have to follow this link if you want to see my "channel."

(Disclaimer: My videos definitely fall into the "only of interest to friends and family" category. But hey, it was me experimenting with two things for the first time - taking movies with my digital camera and uploading videos to the web!)

Thing 19: Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

For this thing we were to select one tool from the list of Web 2.0 Awards nominees and write about it. Under the Communication category I chose Meebo.

We use Meebo, a service that allows you to associate multiple instant messaging accounts with a single Meebo account, in both the Network Services department and the Reference department. This tool is useful, because if you want to be able to IM people who use different IM services, you need accounts on each of the different IM services (for the most part). It's a pain to have to login to multiple IM services at the same time, however, and Meebo solves this problem.

If libraries are going to offer chat reference services to their patrons they are going to have to be available via multiple IM services, so a tool like Meebo is really essential for making that managable. Also, Meebo has something called a Meebo Me widget that you can put on a web page (see my blog sidebar for an example). This lets people chat with you even if they don't have an account set up on any of the IM services. All they have to do is type in the Meebo Me chat window and if you are logged into your Meebo account you will get an instant message from the person.

This is a great tool for libraries wanting to make it easy for patrons to chat with them!

Thing 18: Web-based Apps

I really like the notion of online word processing applications.  Especially when you consider how much it costs to purchase something like MicroSoft Word for personal use.  I'm not sure I'd want to try to format something really structured like a resume using an online word processor yet--there is too much fine tuning involved.  But maybe some day!  For most things I type at home though, something like ZOHO writer would be fine.

 

I've used Google Docs before when I wanted to have a document going that I could access from multiple locations, and that my husband could also access.  I've also used Google's online presentation application before, just as an experiment.