Can I Catalog My Book Sites? (MToaS 35)

Okay, first off, I love Library Thing. It's so cool, and I've discovered some great reads there by following the keyword links into other collections. It's one of my favorite Things from the first 23 Things session.

And now, I discover all these new ones! Just as cool. And, as always, it's just nice to realize that there are oodles of us who get so excited about books. About stories. Such things inspire me.

I love the idea of Reading Trails, but was disappointed to find none of my last four favorite books read. Not one. Not sure if this says more about Reading Trails (its number of users of just the type) or me! In contrast, Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan has 118 other readers on Library Thing. So, while I like the idea of Reading Trails, I think I'll stick with Library Thing for now. (BTW: Phenomenal book!)

It is great fun to discover new books by finding out what folks who loved the book you read have also read. That's what makes Library Thing so useful (aside from the cataloging function) and Reading Trails seems to do that same thing in a slightly different way. I finally did find a trail to follow, through Gaiman's Graveyard Book (loved that one, too). That led me to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which only had 6 intersections. That makes me wonder just how much the site is used.

I am most pleased with the Readers Advisory sites. RA is a challenge for me. I have had some great RA days, making parents and kids very happy with my knowledge of juvenile and YA fantasy ("What? You haven't tried The Last Apprentice series yet? What are you waiting for? Oh, you must, it is SO GOOD!!") I'm good at international fiction as well ("Finding Nouf, by Zoe Ferraris, is a stunning work with great insights into Saudi Arabian gender, class, and tribal distinctions. Brilliant!")

But when a patron tells me she's read all the books by Nora Roberts and wants to know where to look next, I have to rely on what I see my other patrons reading. I've checked out, checked in, shelved and relocated numerous books by Nora Roberts (as NR or as JD Robb), but I've yet to read a single word she's written. I appreciate any site that helps me find new authors for patrons to try.

I've been using What's Next for a few years. In fact, when an update to our staff website resulted in a broken link to What's Next, I must admit to sending a semi-hysterical e-mail to our IT staff. They fixed it quickly, as always. But this site is so good and useful for figuring out what book is next in a series. It's especially useful with authors like WEB Griffin who are simultaneously writing two or three series, so you can't rely on publication dates to figure out which books go with which series.

I will be bookmarking What Should I Read Next and BookStumpers. These look like really great and useful sites. BookStumpers was very fun to browse, if only for the queries by readers: they show such passion, nostalgia and general fondness for the written word. Really fun to get to share that.

Thanks MToaS team!

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Pic Credits: "Graffiti Bridge" at www.flickr.com/photos/49503087439@N01/105087819

Can I Google a reference librarian? (MToaS34)

I've been thinking a lot about this issue lately, and not just because of MToaS prompting. Is the function of reference librarians, or at least staff who sit at the reference desk, still relevant? My immediate answer is, "Of course!" But then I have to add, "Just maybe not in the same way we/they used to be."

I've been trying to keep track of the questions that I get asked that could be called "reference." Of course there is the annual inundation of third-graders looking for books on Beethoven. I don't know why the teacher doesn't say, "pick a famous person," or "pick a famous composer." Nope. The whole class does the same subject and my two juvenile biographies and the one circulating "B" encyclopedia get checked out right away, and every

one else needs to put something on hold. This happens every year.

And there are have been patrons who've asked for books about grieving, building bird houses, making good bread, buying a used car. 

But none of these questions take more than a moment to answer. They don't cause me to flex my "reference muscles." (One question, at the SCPL reference desk did, and that was about US troop levels abroad) The questions that make me feel like I'm really stretching are all on technology. Specifically, Web 2.0 technology.

 What is Twitter?

Is Twitter the same as instant messaging?

Is is safe to be "friends" (on a social networking site) with someone you don't know?

How do I get this picture of me from my cell phone onto Yahoo personals?

How do I know which web sites are secure?

I know I'm not the only one who gets questions like these. Yes, lots of our patrons can ~ and do! ~ bypass us and turn to the Internet for answers to their questions. But there are many left on the sidelines, watching this social and technological sea-change occur and feeling more and more stranded. Before we start bemoaning our presumed obsolescence we should take a moment to contemplate how these neighbors and patrons are feeling. And then get busy learning and teaching.

I was talking the other day with some other staff people about the difficulty of getting more people involved with 23 Things, or More Things. I know it takes time. I know life gets in the way of this online studying. I understand that for some people, the blogging aspect is hugely intimidating. In spite of all this, I think we need to keep urging our fellow library staff ~ at all levels ~ to learn about and grow more comfortable with web technologies. 

In an age when many of our patrons can google their questions, and will turn to wikipedia for answers, we need to stay cognizant of the disparity in our communities between the web-proficient and the patrons who picture only a rodent when you say the word "mouse." Our jobs are no less relevant today than they were before Google. They've just changed a bit here and there, and we need to keep up. 

***

Pic credits: "Twitter Logo Map 09",  www.flickr.com/photos/82298325@N00/3346248321. and "Questions Answered" at www.flickr.com/photos/45082883@N00/223839049

Fishers and films

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I've blogged. Life jumped up and smacked me, what can I say? There's been good, bad and the ugly, and the sublimely beautiful too. And, as always, I've drafted the blog entries in my head, then the days and weekends end and I'm too exhausted from the busy, distracting work of living to actually take the time to sit and write. It's too bad. There have been some really good drafts in my head.

The weekend of April 10 when we decided to go south in search of open water -- the lakes up here were still frozen over and the rivers running too wild to float. So we took the weekend off of work, we threw the kayaks in the back of the truck, and we headed to Red Wing. It was fabulous. We floated on the Vermillion Slough, the water so high that we parked a half a mile before the parking lot and then floated the rest of the way. The picture of Gabi above is in the parking lot -- and about three feet of water. While there we saw several Bald Eagles, one in a nest, as well as a fisher (aka North American marten) which was quite fun. We feel very fortunate for that, since they are supposed to be very shy animals.

I first saw the fisher in the water, trolling around some fallen logs that were swamped with high water. Then, he saw me and skedaddled, running for the nearest standing tree. He climbed up it very quickly, looking both awkward and elegant (and noisier than I would have expected) and then stopped about twenty-five feet up, in the vee of some branches. From there he peeked out watching us, and seemed to be as curious about us as we were about him.

Then, two weekends ago was the 8th Annual St. Cloud GLBTA Film Festival, and like every year before it was nail-biting mayhem at times and nerve wracking, sit and wait to see who shows up at others. The films were awesome. We had a great film-screening committee and they did a great job. Unfortunately, the turnout was much lower than we'd hoped.

This is the second year that our turnout has been down. This year was the lowest we've had. I can't help wondering if, in an era of Logo network, Brokeback Mountain, and Ellen with not only a highly rated talk show but also her full-page Covergirl spreads, that maybe GLBT film fests just aren't needed as much anymore. We're not starved for lack of mainstream images of ourselves. The popular culture and media landscape is so phenomenally different than it was even ten years ago. It's good, but I'm starting to wonder how and if our little film festival will survive.

***

Pic info: Gabi in the kayak taken by me. The fisher is from the wikipedia entry on fishers, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_(animal).

Catching the Travel Bug (MToaS 33)

I love the options for Travel 2.0! The blogs are fun, and interesting. I love My Kugelhopf! I was thrilled to see that the writer, Kerrin Rousett, is writing from Zurich. And showcasing chocolate. Very yummy.

We're planning to go to Europe next summer. We'd love to go this year, but we're not sure that will happen, what with paying off our fantastic new energy efficient windows. We are saving a lot on heat this horrid winter, but not two plane-tickets-worth.

I've been a big fan of the travel site reviews for a while. We used a few different sites when planning our trip to Lake Tahoe last year, and it was so helpful. I can't now remember which site we used, but because of the online reviews posted by real guests we were able to find a great little cabin, clean but cheap, right on the lake and near where we wanted to be. I went back and wrote my own review after we got back from our trip, figuring I should give kudos where they were due.

My one problem with these sites is that I suspect that for every 500 to a thousand happy guests, perhaps one will write a review. That means that small towns typically don't have any reviews. Even small cities like St. Cloud will only have a few reviews. However, if a person is traveling to a new big city or tourist destination, these sites are brilliant!

Pic Info: Hey, I took this one! Lake Tahoe, from the Nevada side looking toward Sugar Pine Point State Park.

Vermeer Tour (Google Maps)

View Larger Map

(I couldn't figure out how to keep the map at a wider view, so minimize greatly to see what I was actually doing with this.)

I blew way too much time playing with Google maps. This is serious fun, and I can imagine lots of possibilities... from making maps of library service areas and points of interest to planning vacations, to commemorating a favorite meandering weekend with your Sweetie. This was very fun.

I loved the ability to add pics, URLs and other things to the maps, although I didn't do as much of that as I could have. I'll go back and fine-tune this map later, because some day I really do want to take this trip. I find Vermeer's work to be so profound, sensual and compelling... I would love to meet these works in person.

More Twitter (MToaS31)

Forgive me, MoreThings Folks. I know you are trying hard to get us up to speed with the latest and best web technologies, but, I just cannot get excited about Twitter. I'm not sending Tweets. I'm not following anyone. I just can't bring myself to do it, not even to be a good sport for your sakes.

I am, however, thoroughly bemused by Twitter as a social phenomenon. I found this article on Mashable.com that says that Twitter is not only growing at 1,382%, but Facebook is changing its format in order to stay competitive against Twitter's growing popularity. 

So, it seems I will be drug, kicking and screaming, into the Twittersphere. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. 

Gabi and I were talking about Twitter on Monday while we were not kayaking. She said that she could see Twitter being really useful if you lived in a city or on campus, and you wanted to go out for dinner, and so instead of e-mailing or calling all your friends you just send out a Tweet saying, "I'll be at Joe's Cafe at 6. Join me."

From a library perspective, I can see the potential in sending out Tweets about programs, author visits, interesting items in the collection, etc. 

However, my library patrons are the one group who I have not heard talking about Twitter. I've heard co-workers, friends, news personalities... Jon Stewart does a fabulous mock-up, see below... but not the good folks who come to visit my particular library. 

Right now, throughout GRRL, we are offering beginning Internet training for seniors. And when I say beginning, I mean "Here's your spacebar. This is a mouse." And even though the majority of my patrons are not at that level, they are surely not interested in Twitter, either. 

Perhaps this is simply the issue for small, rural libraries. I'm trying to be a good sport with the MToaS program, but I simply can't see how Twitter is relevant for the people who come to my library.

Pic Attribution:Image: 'Rubber duckies.... one last image'  www.flickr.com/photos/43078695@N00/307506216

My Stalker just Grunted on my Twitter

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

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Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

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