Virtual is a patient

As a reference librarian, I am quite familiar with the databases we offer and use them quite frequently, as do my daughters. You don't know how nice it is to have the convenience of using these databases from home. I know that patrons appreciate them, also, especially students. I've used them to look up historic articles in the Chicago Trib, obituaries, census records, articles in magazines that I've missed, etc.

Podcasts, IM and Downloadable books

I have listened to podcasts and they're great if, say, there is a regular feature on a radio station that you enjoy listening to but aren't near a radio when it airs. One example is "Lin's Bin" on WXRT. It airs Monday and Friday mornings at 7:15 and, while I'm not always around a radio to hear it live, I can get the podcast whenever I have time. Just a few minutes of fun.

I kind of missed the IM boat. It seems as if most people started doing it in college or with their college-aged children as a way of keeping in touch. I do that now with texting on my phone, as do my kids. I would like to see us start using it at work throughout the building; it might be a quicker way of communication.

We used to have downloadable books at the library and, from what I hear, we will be carrying them again soon. This time, they will be iPod compatible, which they weren't before. I can't wait for that, and I'm sure our patrons can't, either! I have listened to books on CD in the car and now that I have an iPod dock in my car, I know I would really take advantage of downloadables.

Wikis and Googledocs

Here's the biggest open secret in the reference world: Reference librarians use Wikipedia. Whenever I'm trying to help my daughters with a paper on some subject I'm not familiar with, I end up on Wikipedia and they say, "Mom, we CAN'T use Wikipedia!" Of course, they can't--their teachers tell them expressly NOT to.

But, here's the thing. If you're at the reference desk and a patron asks a question about something of which you have only a passing knowledge, you will almost certainly google a keyword, then navigate to the Wikipedia reference that will surely appear on your first page of results. Say you don't even have a passing knowledge about what the patron is asking you, but it seems like THEY know what they're talking about, again it's Google and Wikipedia. True, it's not the most reliable source, but it is one way to get a feel for which direction to go to find more information on a subject.

Google Docs is pretty neat. We in the Social Committee just used it recently as a different method of communicating with everyone in the committee. It keeps all the information in one place. I can see where this would be a useful tool for business purposes or even for a busy family to keep track of schedules.

Facebook Fun

I've been on Facebook for awhile and it's pretty neat. I have connected with many people from my past, mostly in a good way. The way is works is, from the information you input, Facebook finds other people in their network with the same information (school you attended, place of employment, hometown, etc.) and those people are suggested to you as possible friends. You man choose to add them as a friend or not. Also, you may search for people by name or email and send them a message asking them to 'friend' you. They can confirm or ignore your request.

I wasn't sure if reconnecting in this way would be my cup of tea. But alas! Just recently, through Facebook, I've received some friend requests from people I used to work with in my pre-library life and it's been a lot of fun communicating with them and seeing what they're up to. Most have left the Chicago area but through our chats on Facebook it's almost like being in the same space.

All that said, here's my two cents on Facebook. Don't put too much information out there. I have deleted some of the personal information that I originally posted after I thought the better of it. And if you have personal comments to somebody that you don't necessarily want blasted all over the internet, send them a private message instead of commenting to their wall. That way, only they can read it. Not everyone wants the whole world to be all up in their biznass.

Fractured Flikr

I actually found this lesson a little confusing. When I was helping in the training room a lot of questions came up. Joy has tweaked the directions slightly so I hope this will help future Tech Tuneup students get through this lesson with a little more ease. It's important to remove your blog from Flickr so the next person can post to their blog. As Ed Norton would say, "Ahhh, the small details..."

TPPL-Fall 2008-Rudbeckia

TPPL-Fall 2008-Rudbeckia
Originally uploaded by TP Tuneup

This is some beautiful rudbeckia from the library's walking trail.

Pandora and YouTube

This is the portion of the Technology Tune up that I was responsible for. I am a big Youtube fan and I only wish it was around in the early to mid-1990s when my kids were small and kept me up at night. It would have given me something to look at besides TV Land in the middle of the night. You can find just about anything on Youtube. I've found the theme song for a show I used to watch in the 70s (Kids from C.A.P.E.R) and unreleased concert footage (Beatles at Shea Stadium).

Pandora is great, although since I wrote this section they have begun to play advertisements. But it can introduce you to artists you might not have heard before. I have discovered a lot of performers that way, mostly obscure ones I probably wouldn't have heard of any other way. If you're sitting at the computer and want to listen to something besides your iPod where you know everything that's on it, or a radio station that plays the same forty songs over and over, then Pandora is a nice alternative.