Week 8--Mashups and API

For Exercise 1, I looked at two mashups dealing with cell phones. The first was called BillShrink, which is a free service that recommends the best cell phone plan for you. After plugging in all of my information, it basically told me that the plan I currently have is the best one! However, I don't think it considered any of the pre-pay or pay-as-you-go plans. The other mashup I explored was called CellReception.com. This mashup combined a database of 117,000 cell phone towers with Google Maps to help people see where coverage is (or isn't) in a particular area. This was very interesting, and one that I may use again.

Exercise 2 dealing with Rollyo and librarian blogs as the Searchroll was interesting. I liked seeing the collection of librarian blogs together in one place to search. We were instructed to then search the word "privacy." I found an interesting post that talked about potential privacy problems with the Google Toolbar installed on public university computers. The problem is that once one of the "advanced" features is enabled, the Google Toolbar sends all sorts of information to Google, including "the log information and additional information, such as the URLs you visit or the text on the page." It goes on to say that:

"if one student enables the advanced features, he or she has now opted-in every other user of the machine to sending all of their browsing information (OPAC searches, etc.) to Google. Of course, this will cease if the machine is reimaged or a student knows enough to turn these features off, but how often will that occur?"

Something to think about with our library computers....

Finally, I created a Seachroll on http://www.rollyo.com/ for genealogy sites. To check it out, click here.

Exploring mashups has been interesting. It seems that many of them are combinations of different kinds of information with Google Maps. I think in terms of libraries, it would be great if our catalog could be combined with Amazon to show pictures of book covers and publisher descriptions. Or possibly, the WorldCat search could be combined with Google Maps to show exactly where you could find a particular book. Overall, something to think about...

Week 7--Podcasting and Online Hosted Video

This was an interesting week learning about what podcasting really is, and exploring YouTube videos more in-depth. I enjoyed seeing the library applications for podcasting, and think this would be a great tool for archiving lectures sponsored by a library or a medical school grand rounds. Faculty and staff at health sciences centers are so busy, they can't always attend a presentation in person, so this would be a good alternative to be able to listen whenever it was convenient for them. On a personal note, I found a weekly genealogy-related podcast which is of interest to me and to which I intend to subscribe.

I had never considered library uses for YouTube before, but I think it has possibilities. I found an excellent 2-part tour of the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library, so one very possible use is to post library tours there. It could also be used for instructional videos. I'm not sure I would want to put an hour's class on there, but I think it could be extremely useful to demonstrate shorter snippets, like how to log on to the library's e-resources from a remote location, or ways to find electronic articles.

It was also beneficial to learn how to post videos to our blogs and how to share them on Facebook. It was an enjoyable week!

Video Tour of the Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library

Week 6--Online Photo Sharing

I was glad to have the opportunity this week to learn more about online photo sharing. I had used Picasa some in the past, but this was my first experience with Flickr. It seems easy enough to use, and I liked having the opportunity (and challenge) to export photos from Flickr into both my blog and my Facebook page. I found that I liked the zuPort application best for importing an "album" of photos into Facebook.

It was great to see how the Library of Congress is using Flickr to help identify photos. Regarding other uses of Flickr for libraries, I think photosharing could be useful in giving virtual library tours or in augmenting a library's blog or presence in Facebook.

WVU Health Sciences Library

WVU Health Sciences Library, originally uploaded by sarnoldwv1.

This is the new West Virginia Health Sciences Library/Learning Center which opened in January, 2007. It has 55 public computer stations and a study area which is wired for laptops. The whole building also has wireless connectivity. It is home to the commons area, which has a Starbucks coffeeshop, more study areas, and the famous white pylons which represent the Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry, and Nursing.

Week 5--Web Office Tools

I love Google Docs! This is the first week of the course that I have actually known something about what we were working on. I have used Google Docs for four projects so far in my work. First, I encouraged our Education Coordinator to set up a Google Docs spreadsheet for all of our librarians so that we could record our instruction sessions there, and then the coordinator would have easy access to all of them to compile statistics and produce the annual report. We have also put our official reference desk statistics there. Third, I am on a library-wide committee to revise our peer review document. I am in charge of writing the changes along with one other librarian, so Google Docs has proven useful for us to collaborate on this project. It has eliminated the dreaded "track changes" in Word. And finally, I am on the planning committee for an upcoming regional library association meeting, and I have posted the budget for this meeting to Google Docs to share with a librarian in another state. I really like the ease of collaboration with this online tool. Another advantage is that if your computer crashes, you still have your saved documents on the Internet.

The assignment asks if we think this is the future of all software products. As the Web gets more social and collaborative, it very well may be. I think of all of the software/data that was on CDs 10 years ago, and is now on the web. These web-based tools are easy to use and definitely enhance collaboration. It's much better than emailing attachments back and forth. I still think, though, that users will want to have software installed on their computer unless the web products eventually contain all the bells and whistles that one currently has in regular software programs.

Week 4--Social Bookmarking

This has been a fun week learning about and using del.icio.us. I really like the idea of having my bookmarks available from the web, so that I don't have the problem of "losing" them between my work and home computers, or worse yet, really losing them in a computer crash. It is also cool that del.icio.us will automatically alphabetize tags, and that it gives you the option to bundle your tags into specific subject groups. I spent most of my time this week transferring my genealogy bookmarks from AOL into del.icio.us. Now I feel they are much better organized, plus I discovered some that were no longer available at the URL I had originally bookmarked.

I haven't had a chance yet to really explore the "social" aspect of bookmarking. I can see where this could be very useful to a reference staff or a professional committee working on a project. Different people can contribute bookmarks and all can benefit.

I hope to be able to more fully explore the social reference managers, CiteULike and Nature Publishing Group's Connotea, to see exactly how they work. I think some of the researchers at our Health Sciences Center might appreciate informal classes in learning to use these tools. All in all, this was a great week in our journey of Web 2.0 Tools!