Foodies luv libraries

Here's a cool discussion going on over at I'm Mad and I Eat about how to get the most from your library amongst foodies- not really any library insiders posting, just people exchanging info - you can get email holds? I didn't know that - kind of thing.

Call me pimp-mommy master . .

This is a rush job because I am just so damn excited I am posting in the midst of school work: I knew Ask Jeeves had reworked itself. I recently read about Gary Price's new job over there. And so when the class assignment for Principles of Searching had us compare a search using Dialog to a search engine of our choice (what results did they think we were going to come up with? Dialog? Seriously.), I decided to take a break from my love affair with google and test out Ask.

Coolness. Expanded search suggestions on the side, narrowed suggestions, too. I can save my searches? I can save my searches! And tag them!

There are plentyo'things I haven't played around with yet, and a couple features I haven't figured out the point of - like the little binoculars giving me a super small peek at the website I'm going to. It's way too small for me to make any judgements about. (Maybe I just need to put on my glasses.)

But holy cow. Tagging of my saved searches. This is just what I've been looking for.

Weekly Echo

Weekly Echo draws together images of the things/people/events most in the news/blogs/search engines of that particular week. Really interesting for me - I don't have tv, and I read my news in an aggregator and listen to NPR - in other words, I just don't see many images associated with the news (and this is also pretending that entertainment news is actual news).

It's simple but well done - mousing over images gives you a little pop-up to explain the image (and I needed a lot of explaining for some of them), clicking links you to a news story somewhere about the subject of the image. And soon there will be commenting. Social fun.

an interview . . .

. . . but not a job interview.

Heidi over at Quiddle asked me about my lack of membership in ALA and other related stuff. It's good to think these things through a bit more, and the act of answering her questions helped me do that. For now, it seems I am happy to be active on the local level, though I'd like to be more active.

The World Is Small . . .

So I've told you I applied for a couple different jobs. I also read Heidi's blog Quiddle, which is about a lot of things but is recently mostly about her experiences applying for jobs, the interview process, and so on. Quite excellent for all newer job seekers in the library field.

So the other day she posted about a telephone interview, including the questions and the vague description, "a public library in a small town about an hour away from a major city."

And I thought, nah, couldn't be. Heidi lives on the west coast of Canada. She's applying for jobs all over the country. But I emailed her anyway. And actually, it was one and the same job.

She was really gracious in the exchange, and I learned a lot, namely, a) that if that's the caliber person being interviewed, I'm out. But also b) if that's the caliber person willing to seek out a job in po-dunk NH, I need to step up my game if I'm serious. I didn't know before if I was, and this has only muddled that issue for me. Not the question if I would be serious about the job (I most definitely would be, it sounded fabulous in many ways), but if I didn't get that job, I hadn't really thought through how far I'd be taking this job applying thing. Still haven't thought it through thoroughly, but it is on the brain now.

PostSecret

Not 1, but 2 library related secrets in today's new batch.

If you are unfamiliar: the author encourages people to send in, anonymously, a secret written on one side of a homemade postcard. They are endearing, they are funny, they are disturbing. They create a connection with a stranger. Mostly, I love the art of it.

Now there is a book.

Small news

When I first talked to my wonderful current boss about applying for a different job, she took a look at the job description, nodded, said she'd be happy to write a recommendation, which she did, wonderfully.

Now another job opportunity has come my way. I went through the same thing, told her about it, asked what she thought, and she got really bummed. Paraphrasing, "I thought you'd go to the interview of that first job and say 'forget it.' The job description showed nothing promising. This position is worth applying for, and taking if it is offered to you." So she will give me the recommendation, and it will be a good one, and she will keep me without reservation if I don't get the job, but she is bummed.

So yeah, I'm applying for a job that looks really good. I didn't set out to do all this, I just needed something to give me a fresh perspective on my own job, which is great but pays poorly and is tiresome and repetative. I think this second job is much more of a reach and I am much less likely to be a super-strong candidate, though I think I'll make candidate status.

As I told my reference writers, I've never applied for a professional position before, so I consider these excercises in that - part of my grad school education.

Other small news - I'll be giving two talks at NHEMA later this spring. My wonderful boss is organizing the conference, so there's that. But there's also something I am still coming to terms with: in comparison to a lot of library folks, I am very techy and cutting-edge. If I compare myself to librarians online, I am ten steps behind. But the people I give the talks to are comparing themselves to me - and I am 20 steps ahead. It's all very weird to me, but since a lot of the stuff I talk to my cool boss about is new to her - and she is smart and in general keeps up with stuff - that makes me sure I have things to share with all these other school librarians. One talk is on digital audiobooks, the other is more generally on "Library 2.0" (gasp! I used that buzzy term! I didn't on the conference thingy though - I entitled my talk, "Keepin' Up With The Kids: The interactive web and how it can work with and for school libraries and their librarians.") So blogging, but also rss feeds and aggregators, social software spaces like LJ and myspace, flickr and other photosharing spaces, and so on and so on. You get the idea.

Thinkin' about moving on . . .

I'm applying to a different job. A public library job.

As I told my boss, I'm not necessarily leaving, and it'll be a miracle if this new little library (just opened last summer) can pay me enough that I can actually go, and on top of that be populated by a director as cool (read: supportive, progressive, risk-taking, relaxed, and able to let people do their thing) as she is. So it's not that I am jumping ship here.

I've just been really run down lately by the little things. The endless non-stop process of asking kids for passes in order to make sure they are really supposed to be in the library is number 1 on the short list of things that are making me look elsewhere. (What happened to the school library being a place for geeks and nerds? Ours is full of those kids, but also is destination central for all kids skipping class. A lot of libraries struggle with bringing patrons in. We struggle with only allowing in a number that can sustain learning.)

Also as I told my boss, sometimes it takes looking elsewhere to know how good you got it where you're at. I've gotten to do a lot of things that library aides like me don't get to do in a lot of places - collection development, cataloging (yeah, I love it, so I'm a dork), book club blogs, knitting clubs, teaching classes, developing lesson plans, bringing audiobooks on ipods to students . . .

But it would be nice not to have to ask for passes all day, and to work in a different and new place (I *heart* change), and mostly, not to have to get to work until 10am.

Patriot Act News

it's bad, but not as bad as it was before. These days, I take small improvements in the land of suck as good news:

The provisions that drew objections from lawmakers included one that allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation to subpoena business and library records to gather information for a counterterrorism investigation. The agreement requires the FBI to show the information it seeks is relevant to a counterterrorism probe, a claim that is reviewable in court, Specter said. (from Reuters)

To clarify: before, FBI could take any library records for any reason (and you can be damn sure they weren't handing out reasons like it was Christmas). Now, they've got to have a reason directly related to counterterrorism (though who defines what that means is a whole 'nother pot of worms).

Also, this provision is one of the few that won't go perm. 4 more years to fight against it.

Better coverage from npr.

It's still not a done deal, so if you are a voice raiser, the time is now.

conference blogging - CMTC - Copyrights (and Wrongs) in a Digital Age

CMTC 2005
Susan Adams, Educational Technology Coordinator, NHPTV

• Overview of patents, trademarks, and copyright
• No real laws per se, guidelines that have been interpreted by judges in court cases

History:

• Article 1 Section 8 U.S. Constitution
• Copyright Act of 1790
• and so on . . .

If something is created when the person is "on the clock" it is owned by the employer. So for teachers, anything created at work or during work hours - lesson plans, curriculum - is owned by the school district.

5 rights of a copyright holder:

1. reproduction right (copy, transcribe, imitate the work)
2. modification right (create new or derivative work) with the notable exception of satire or parody
   
3. distribution right (sale, rental, lease)
4. public performance right (musical, play)
   
5. public display right (on the wall, on tv)

Everything prior to 1923 - public domain

Fair Use based on 1841 Supreme Court Case Folsom v. Marsh

• nature, quantity, and quality

1976 Revision, section 107 fair use, section 108 library/archival copying

Fair Use:

• criticism
• comment
• news reporting
• teaching
• scholarship
• research

4 Fair Use Factors

1. Purpose and character of use (entertain or occupy not cool)
2. Nature of the work
3. Amount and substantiality of portion used.
   
4. Effect of use on potential market for or value of work

Taping Off Air

• may be used in face-to-face for 10 consecutive school days and then held for review 45 days after
• only broadcast, not cable channels
• may be used once in a class, may be repeated once per class
• programs can not be recorded in anticipation, only by specific request of a teacher
• no broadcast program (like wizard of oz or something) can be recorded off air more than once at the request of the same teacher (you can get it every year)

Text

• complete article, story, essays less than 2,500 words
• excerpt from prose not more than 1000 words or 10%
• no more than 5 poems from an anthology
• only 3 poems per poet

Motion media

• up to 10% or 3 minutes, whichever is less

Images

• must be used in their entirety
• no more than 5 images of an artist's work
• no more than 10% of 15 images from a collection, whichever is less

Music

• Up to 10% of a copyrighted composition, but no more than 30 seconds

nhptv.org/kn/christa

Playaway, review by Brendan

B just sent me a written review of his experience using the Playaway we bought last week:

My Review of the Playaway digital audio book.

I was skeptical at first. To be honest it looks a little cheap and is powered by a normal AA battery, but it wound up being very good. I have a couple of issues with the design. I found the earphones too big so I switched them out for my apple ear buds. The Apple ear buds are too big for most people I know so I doubt that these earphones would fit in most people. To minimize the number of buttons there is only one volume button, which to be honest you only really need to set once. This poses a problem that if you want to turn it down you have to go all the way up and blow out your ears to get to the lowest. The other buttons work well skip forward and back, fast-forward and rewind, and Play and pause all work well. I was nervous that there was no hold lock. I thought that when I tossed it into my bag the play button might get pressed and I would lose my spot or run down my battery, but that did not happen. You have to press the play button twice to activate it, once for it to load your last place, which takes a couple of seconds, and again to play. The buttons don’t seem too prone to accidental pressing.

The book that I was listing to was a double feature Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, by Road Dahl and read by Eric Idle. This gave me the opportunity to use another feature of the Playaway. While the first book is good and fun the Glass Elevator is not that great of a book so I used the speed up button. There are three speeds you can listen to book in, normal speed, one star, which is a little faster, and two stars, which is much faster. It speeds up the rate at which the book is played back. At first it sounds a little “chipmunky” but you get used to it real quick. This is such a cool feature. I wish I were able to do it with my iPod.

The one button I did not use was the bookmark button. I did not have to. It remembered exactly where I was when I restarted. I would be cool if it rewound a couple of seconds before you played so your not immediately thrown into new stuff, but that’s not that big of a deal.

Hears another kicker. I listened to both books, total time 7 hours (it is closer to 5.5 since I listen to the second double time); the battery is still _ full. If I was to listen to this on my iPod it would have taken 7 hours and I would have had to charge it at least once, or kept it plugged in. The price is comparable with both the CDs and the MP3s available from the iTunes music store.

The sound quality was quite good, but this book was rather short. I wonder if for longer books, like The DaVinci Code, if the storage inside is expanded or the audio is compressed. I don’t think it would be as good if it were more compressed and tinny.

To answer his last question, according to the Playaway website the audio is never compressed - the memory inside is expanded to accomodate longer books. And just to mention a previous point, some of the books are comprable pricing, but some Playaways are much more expensive than the ITunes version.

conference blogging - CMTC - iPods across the curriculum

CMTC 2005
Stephanie Estes, South Portland High School (Maine) Special Superstar Apple Technology Educator.

“There’s a coolness factor to an iPod” (I say this all the time, and my coworkers shrug me off and laugh at me - so it was nice to hear my words come out of someone else's mouth.)

Using ipods for recording oral exams for world languages – kids just step out into the hall, record for a few minutes, come back in, pass it off to the next kid. On average, every two weeks. 5 world languages teachers share 2 ipods. Before, oral exams only done twice a year because it was a long involved project.

Local oral history projects.

Audio tour of neighborhoods – uploaded to community website.

NHS students reading books – creating audiobooks – chapters reflect actual chapters in book – ok copyrightwise according to people in the room if you don’t distribute and if you own a physical copy of the book.

One audience member shared examples – has so integrated it into the classroom that the kids are asking/letting the teacher know when they should be recording – kids read their own written work aloud, want it recorded to hear again – special guests come and read books, kids suggest that it be recorded so they can listen later.

Got my hands on an ipod video for a few moments – tres cool. Video is so clear. Bright enough for daylight. Sold.

conference blogging - Christa McAuliffe - Moodle

CMTC 2005
Daryl Hawes presenting on Moodle, opensourse web-based course management system, to a totally packed house - floor sitting space only.

• Available online but really need a local server.
• moodle.org - free support and very strong online community
• moodle.com - business side
• Instant Messaging! within the class - also just general messaging - so I can see who else in my class in online right now, and message with them - also, I can send them a message and they can either get it when the login or they can set their preferences to have those messages emailed. HOT! (and I really really really want it for my own online learning - ecollege bleck)
• RSS feeds (created by Daryl himself) Also something I want.
  
• Coming soon - blogs and podcasting features
• Read/Unread tracking that narrows it down to the actual conversation (Daryl uses the word 'forum') and highlights it for you.
• coming soon - better wiki module
• set preferences for emails whenever something new (a post, a news item, etc.) appears. You don’t have to check if there is something new, it tells you and then you go read it.

A lot of my enthusiasm here is not how could this be applied to mpow in the near future, but how realizing for the 20th time how crappy my courseware for grad school, ecollege, is.

love my library, but . . .

Rushing from my work library to my public library this afternoon I was thinking how annoying being there near closing time is. At quarter to, when I still think there's plenty of time to gather a couple more books and get them checked out, they go around telling everyone its time to leave. At five of, the lights go off. No joke. At the hour of closing, all the workers are out the front door and walking to their cars.

Now, I understand how terrible it is to be working someplace and be kept late by an annoying and inconsiderate customer. And I understand how these things snowball - five minutes, ten minutes, suddenly its half an hour you've just volunteered at your own work place (believe me, I know - this is what is happening to me at my work/library).

So perhaps, in my dreams, they'd pay the workers an extra fifteen minutes for the closing type tasks. So they could still kick the people out on time, but they could turn the lights off after, and shut down their computers and the copy machine. All those things that don't take long but when added together means you've just worked an extra fifteen minutes after the last patron left.

Just doesn't feel good when people turn the lights out on you.

Seems Jessamyn is talking similar talk over on librarian.net: balancing the happiness (work hours) of staff with the needs and happiness of the patrons.

Playaway

I read the monstrous article on this new device in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and have been mulling over this little cutie since. Now I am near a Borders, so B and I went over to pick one up. Ours cost $40 for a 7 hour rendition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Glass Elevator, not that much over the $30 Itunes download if you don't have a device. Some others are way overpriced: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was $35. The same is $18 from Itunes, the whole Chronicles was $70 on CD. And the Plain Dealer isn't joking about some of the physical problems - the battery door I find impossible. With a pocket knife, B got it right away.

Another problem I hope they work out - that LCD screen is tooo small. I have sharp eyes, but for people for whom reading is a problem because of sight and want to use the device for that reason, it's a real hurdle.

Bonuses over an iPod shuffle (which is what I'm currently using at my high school library job)- ability to control the speed of narration (well, you can make it faster and faster still, I'd also like to be able to slow it down, especially for my readers who really aren't reading well quite yet), ability to create your own bookmarks for easy reference later, and, duh, any screen at all - even if it only tells you what chapter you're on and how much time is to go in that chapter and how your battery is doing.

I definitely see possibilities for libraries, especially for libraries for whom, for whatever reason, circulating ipods or other mp3 devices wouldn't work. They are small and cute and digital, and erase any need for any kind of player. They would also be easier for libraries to circulate, as they fit into a more traditional model of a tangible thing, easily cataloged, easily checked out, easily returned.

The other thing that strikes me, neither good nor bad but just different - the Playway prominently displays the cover of the book on its front. When you attach the (suprisingly very sturdy and super-high quality) lanyard and wear it around your neck, everyone can see what you are listening to. With any other device, there is a level of anonymity - that iPod or Rio signifies nothing other than you are listening. To music, to audio, to podcasts - we don't know. With the Playaway, it's all right there for everyone to see.

And I agree with this former employee's comment about the sharing. That is so cool. Since the Playaway doesn't involve you loading anything onto the device, you are stuck with the book you bought. What to do? Playaway encourages all kinds of sharing. Give it away, loan it, leave it on a bus - that kind of thing. Mebbe they can include - donate it to your library.

Useful things . . .

My first two classes in library school are very different. One is about information behavior, and is a whole lotta academic journal article reading about different types/groups of people and their information needs and how they react to those needs. It's theory, and right now I am not a fan of theory.

The other class is info tech. In the past two weeks I have doubled my previously cobbled together html knowledge and am making forms, creating cascading style sheets, tables, and frames. The latter two are kinda lame when you know the first two, but I am glad of the knowledge at any rate. I had had this previous thought that forms and css were a huge jump from where I had been. A big step, but just a step, after all.

I love getting my money's worth.

yet another . . .

blog for me, yet another library school student blog for the web.

Why?

Well . .

Being so busy with grad school, I don't have much time for food bloggin'. And I miss blogging. And I find funky fun things that I want to share, and I want to document my experience in some way, and there are a lot of library school student blogs out there for budding academics, and super-achiever types, but not a whole lot for school media specialization kids and regular kids.

So there.