Reflecting on the 2.0 experience

Discussed the 20 for 2.0 project at district meeting yesterday: It was considered valuable, but everyone expressed difficulty in keeping up and the feeling of “snowballing” as the weeks went by quickly. Libraries that scheduled time for training were most successful - that was certainly my experience. All agreed that it should be made available for public.

Most useful applications: blogging, Wiki’s, streaming and downloading media and delicious (tagging). Here is Oak Harbor Library’s delicious bookmarks address - www.delicious.com/oakref. Joyce is working on this site, converting our extensive Explorer Favorites to delicious while also verifying each site. Most loved application: Facebook - look for me under Mary Campbell Purcer (I need more friends!)

Gaming

Well, I do enjoy the Sudoko - it's almost as good as reading to soothe those savage brainwaves before sleep comes. I'd rather do it on paper though - the yahoo site has too many sound effects. I've also convinced myself that it's the process rather than the product - i.e. the brain is exercised in exactly the same way regardless of whether you get the final answer right or not. Seeing things from every angle does come more easily now - we've been reading left to right for so long, it's about time we stretched in a different direction.

Gameplaying for all ages is certainly a reasonable thing for libraries to provide. It's really an extension of social networking. People are connecting to their neighbors, friends and, yes, to strangers, in new ways. The library's role may be to find alternate games that are not all about sniping, killing or stealing cars (all my kids' favorites). We can also use games to teach skills. Teens may have as much fun creating their own games as they do in playing them (and certainly learn a lot more about technology and about themselves).

Google Earth

This is such an amazing product. I've used it many times to help customers over the years and it gets more and more sophisticated. The tour informed me of the new "see the sky" feature where you can start at earth and head out to the galaxies via hubble images - fantastic!

Last time I used google earth at the library it was for two older couples who came in to ask if we had a map of Chicago. When I asked a few more questions, I found out that one of the women had grown up there and wanted to show the others the street where she had lived. Imagine her amazement when we were not only able to pull up a map, but to zoom in on the view from above, then look at the 360 images of the buildings, cars, etc. all around. She saw the building where she lived, the school she attended and the park where she played. Much joy all around.

I also noticed that the gps coordinates and elevation change as you move around the map - very cool.

Avatars

I don't even have time for my first life... let along a second life! It was fun to create an avatar, though. The Doppelme site was easy to use. I've done one on Meez, too, and was going gangbusters with a great triathalon look until I somehow lost all my clothes! Here's my doppleme:

Online Apps

Google Docs seems like a great idea, especially for working with community members who might not have the same software or version. Since we switched to Office 2007, for example, I've heard that some board members and other committee folks in the community cannot open minutes or spreadsheets I send via email. I was surprised to hear, though, that people who are learning to use software are adamant about learning the Office products - i suppose it's because that's what employers are looking for. Zoho and Google Docs seem easy to use once you've learned Office. I noticed that Google has added a Reader to organize RSS feeds etc. Sound familiar?

Search Engines

Okay, I admit it. I am addicted to Google. It's fast, it gives good results (for example, when you search for consumer health topics, MedlinePlus usually comes right out on top) and better yet, it loads really quickly even when things are running slow. Interesting (and smart) that the new search engine that gives to charity, goodsearch.com, comes up when you start typing google - unfortunately it takes a lot longer to load. I learned three new things at the google site: +, -, and I feel lucky. Thanks!

Podcasting

I listen to NPR podcasts pretty frequently, especially when I've caught part of something I want to hear more of. It's probably a useful tool for Sno-Isle Libraries, although most of our customers would rather have images as well as sound. Podcasting seems to lend itself to stories, read alouds or speeches. For example we could podcast an author doing a reading from his or her book. We have Sam Green, Washington's Poet Laureate, coming to Oak Harbor in November. It might be fun to record and podcast him reading his poems.

Image Generators

Had fun with this one - I really like the generator that takes words and google images and puts them together in creative ways. Here's my very own Read Poster:

Listening to Faure

Overdrive was a bear to load successfully. Thank goodness for tips and instructions from Jim and Ray. I followed the directions precisely, navigating past every error message, half the time not really knowing what I was doing, and it worked! Since we started doing web 2.0 I have a new computer with speakers attached. The music is wonderful! I love the streaming music, but this is even better since it comes as a package. The quality is great - I'm feeling very inspired.

I have not been able to load Overdrive at home. We didn't get error messages, just taking way too long to load. We have high speed (cable) access, but perhaps not high enough? I'll try the settings as directed - see what happens.

Delicious

I've used delicious before, but always through a shared account. This time I set up my own tags for web sites on best hikes in the North Cascades. It's always easy to find through google, but delicious makes it even easier. I did find sites by searching there that I might not have seen otherwise (also some garbage, but I suppose that's inevitable. I had to go back to reregister since the first time through I neglected to add the tag button to my explorer page. I'm still struggling with that... Mary

Oak Staff Input on Strategic Plan Goals

Visit the Oak Harbor Library staff strategic planning Fast Forward wiki to share ideas about Sno-Isle Libraries long range goals.

Pandora!

Okay, this is a great site - I love being able to build my own radio station. My cd player at home has been out of commission for some time. It's like a watch, you get used to not wearing one and find that you don't really need it anymore. Finding and playing music on the computer is so much easier - and I'm assuming that Pandora is all legal (as opposed to Dogpile downloads that my kids tend to want to drag in). Must get decent speakers...

Downside: are we going back to the old days of listening to singles (that one song that somehow grabs us) and missing all the stuff on the other side of the "album"?

RSS Feeds

I've added a few feeds but rarely have time to look at them. This seems like a luxery for people have extra time on their hands. One thing about being a librarian, no matter what you read or find online, it will probably come in handy some day. Maggie's USGS Feed (which I added, just in case I want to worry about earthquakes more than I already do) has a great link to Wildlife Disease map sites - we can watch as West Nile Virus makes its way toward Whidbey Island again this summer.

YouTube

My kids have been showing me videos on YouTube for some time, but I had not used it myself. I have a couple of videos up on Facebook, and only just recently realized that my digital camera can do video (complete with sound!) Oh boy.... there's no stopping me now.

My husband Steve has been serving as a "legal observer" in support of immigrant rights at the Anacortes Ferry Terminal. He was recently filming the ferry terminal area to create a training video for volunteers. Shortly after that we had a visit, at our house, from the FBI. My 16-year-old son was the only one home, but he duly checked their identification and then gave them Steve's cellphone number. You'll be happy to know that the ferry terminal is being protected - once they found out what Steve was doing, the agents were very receptive and reasonable. Maybe he'll get his training video up on YouTube.

One last thing about YouTube - it has LOTS of great music videos. I was at a party recently where that was all they played - YouTube clips. Great for those old classics.

Flickr

We've been using Flickr at Oak Harbor for a while, mostly as a place for people to share photos from vacations. The old days of leisurely perusing albums in the staff room appear to be gone. For my personal photos, I prefer Facebook. I'm not a serious photographer, but I love seeing pictures of family and friends. The library's flickr account is at http://www.flickr.com/people/ohlib/

Fun with Facebook

I love Facebook. I started using it when my son went off to college. He did not seem to mind me lurking on his site - mostly looking at photos. What was really cool is that I could check in with his friends, too - kids that practically lived at our house before they all dispersed to the winds. Then I started getting hits from my nieces and nephews, as they saw me on Evan's site and invited me. It's a wonderful way to stay in touch with this younger generation who I would probably never call (and they certainly would not call me - it's hard enough for them to find time to call their parents!) An old friend from elementary school found me online, too, and we've gotten back in touch - we're planning to visit her this summer. I especially love the photo albums, and have used those a lot.

Midwives ramblings

Visit the Whidbey Reads web site at www.sno-isle.org/whidbeyreads

Several libraries have already held successful discussions of Midwives. Carter says he was mobbed by the 60+ crowd at Coupeville, and Debby had 18 people at Clinton (where did they all fit?)

Favorite question for discussion: Number 6 - "After Charlotte's death, Tom says to Connie, "So, they're going to have to blame someone." (p. 101) Do you think this is true? Should someone be held accountable for every death of this sort, or can some be simply attributed to tragic accident?"

In Blink: the power of thinking without thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell, this same question comes up (Seven Seconds in the Bronx). Gladwell thinks that there are ways that we can prepare ourselves for making better decisions in overwhelmingly stressful situations. Unfortunately (or fortunately) most of us do not get much practice with this. Those who must make life or death decisions on a regular basis need to be prepared as well as possible so that they do not make mistakes that will change their lives forever.

Googling IM

Okay - trying Google IM - contacted a few people with whom I would be happy to chat - they do not appear to be online (dang, they must have lives....) I have a feeling this could be very useful between librarians at the desk (e.g. please rescue me - there must be an important phone call or something) and friends who need lightening up during the day. I have plenty of screen time and face to face contact all day long and really don't feel the need for much more! However - with the right person - wait and see.

More on Midwives

"On an icy winter night in the rustic community of Reddington, Vermont, seasoned midwife Sibyl Danforth is forced to make a life-or-death decision that will change her world forever..." Once you pick this book up, you will not be able to put it down. At least that's what we are hoping as we present Readers Theatre at the Whidbey Playhouse on Tuesday, April 15 at 7pm. A local actress, Candice Baker, will do a dramatic reading, playing Sibyl's daughter Connie as a 32-year old obstetrician and as the 14-year-old she was when the events took place. She will also play Sibyl herself, as told through her journals.

We are marketing this heavily with the Chamber of Commerce crowd: the goal is to hook those busy folks who might not otherwise take time to read a book (especially a book of fiction). For all those who always wanted to join a book club but never had time to read.... WE'LL DO THE READING FOR YOU! It should be a lot of fun - coffee, cookies and book sales by the local bookstore afterwards. All in preparation for the big event with Chris Bohjalian himself on May 19.

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

Bohjalian's book has been compared to Map of the World and To Kill a Mockingbird, and it lives up to its reputation. It's beautifully written, thought-provoking and tells a compelling story. Sybil's story seems much like that of Penny Simkin, highlighted in last Sunday's Pacific Magazine in the Seattle Times-PI. She is committed to providing viable birth options for women who want them, and determined to give women the power to control what happens at this very vulnerable time in their lives.
In Vermont, in the 80's, according to Bohjalian, there was no process for women to have their babies at home with anyone other than someone like Sybil Danforth. Says her daughter, Connie, "That's one of the main reasons that my mother became a lay midwife instead of a medically trained nurse midwife, or perhaps an obstetrician-gynecologist: no college degree and - over time - the conclusion that she didn't need one.... If doctors and nurse-midwives deliver babies at home, they do so without malpractice insurance or state sanction. So from my mother's perpsective, there was no reason to get any sort of medical degree. She knew what she was doing." (37) When accused of being a renegade, Sybil smiled and said, "I prefer to think of myself as a pioneer."
Most of us are privileged to attend a birth only if it is our own child. If you are actually giving birth the chances of being in a position to enjoy and even savor the experience is quite slim, even in the most natural of circumstances. If you are the father, chances are you are distracted with many responsibilities and fears as well. To witness a birth is indeed a miraculous thing: even on films it is incredibly moving. I love the description of Sybil's experience of her first birth: "This was life force she was witnessing, the miracle that is a mother's energy and body - a body that physically transforms itself before a person's very eyes - and the miracle that is the baby, a soul in a physical vessel that is tiny but strong, capable of pushing itself into the world and almost instantly breathing and squirming and crying on its own." (42) My neighbor, Mike, is an Anacortes Firefighter. Recently he was part of a team that delivered a baby in a van. The couple was arriving by ferry from one of the San Juan islands, and simply did not make it to the hospital. Mike's response: "I wish I could do that every day!"

Finished Julie and Julia

An old Friend of the library had a shirt that read, "I finished a book today... what did you d0?" It's a good feeling, but whenever you finish a book you've enjoyed there is a little letting go process. Sometimes it's hard to pick up something new - nothing will quite fit the space it has created in your head. Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously was for me that type of book. Julie Powell writes of Julia Child, "I have no claim over the woman at all, unless it's the claim one who has nearly drowned has over the person who pulled her from the ocean." Julia taught her what it takes to find one's way in the world. "It's not what I thought it was," she writes. "I thought it was all about - I don't know, confidence or will or luck. Those are all some good things to have, no question. But there's something else, something that these things grow out of. It's joy." Powell found her way through mastering the art of French cooking, just as Child did decades before. Mastering the art of just about anything can bring endless joy - there's nothing quite like learning something new and really developing competence in what you love. Now, on to the next book....

Whidbey Reads 2008

Wow - that was easy! This is way more fun than doing what I really should be doing - filling out that One Book grant form for next year's Whidbey Reads program. Anyways, thought I would blog my thoughts about Midwives here - started reading it (again) a few weeks ago but had to give up the copy for the Friends of the Library gift basket auction (a glass of wine - actually a bottle - a loaf of bread and lunch with Chris Bohjalian went for $65 - a deal, if you ask me since the bread was foccachia - still warm, hand baked by my husband). Copies are coming.... Meanwhile I'm reading Julie and Julia, Julie Powell's account of cooking her way through Julia Child's MtAofFC (in fact, mastering the art of French cooking) in one year while living in a pretty crappy apartment in Queens, New York. The story is about the blog she kept, and the "bleaders" who kept her going on her quest. It's cataloged 641.5092 - by far the funniest and most thought-provoking cookbook I've ever read - nary a recipe in sight.