Whole New Mind Toilet Brush Digression

So, I am reading A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink for LATI and on page 34 he has a picture of a $5.99 toilet brush designed by the venerable and esteemed architect Michael Graves for Target. His point with this illustration is to show that only in a time of abundance could such mundane and utilitarian products be elavated to such status. I just looked at toilet brushes on Target and found that the median price was about $17.00. On Amazon I found an Alessi toilet brush for $59.99 - and that wasn't even the most expensive one. Pink then continues on to say that while abundance has brought beautiful material goods and that we are living in a time of prosperity that the paradox of the this is that we are not fufilled by it and are searching for meaning. This made me think of Thorstein Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) and "conspiciuos consumption" truly everything that is old is new again.

Week 9, Thing 23 Summary

1.) What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I really enjoyed the Flickr 3rd party sites and image generators. Pandora was quite a pleasant surprise. Del.icio.us would be great if it was bookmarked on all the work computers in the library...I know that defeats the purpose of Del.icio.us but I can never remember where to put the periods.

2.) How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

I would have continued to poke around the internets and would have discovered some things on my own, but to have a list of tasks and exercises was really helpful and allowed me to try some new things.

3.) Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

Nope.

4.) What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

The program is great; one small thing is that I would suggested is to re-order the steps so that the first task is to set up your blog and then do the 7 1/2 Steps of Life Long Learners.


5.) If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

Absolutely.

6.) How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program?

I loved doing this so much that I dragged my feet once I got too close to the end because I didn't want it to be over.

Week 9, Thing 22 Downloadable Audio

I am a big fan of Overdrive, so I thought I would something different and give Project Gutenberg a try. It was very easy to download and to link to my blog; however, I did not try to transfer to a portable device so I'm not sure how that would work.

Last September I took a big road trip out west - over 1500 miles of driving, it was amazing to be able to take something about a little smaller than a cassette tape (plus a fm transmitter) and then be able to listen to over a half dozen audiobooks as well as a good selection of music. I vividly remembered a previous long trip, about 15 years prior, with only a small collection of cassettes and trying to tune in the radio when possible. Somehow it seemed whenever we could find a radio station they were playing Gary Puckett and the Union Gap...very odd.

The United States Constitution Amendments I - X The Bill of Rights from Project Gutenberg. Here's a little know fact about me - I usually have a copy of the Constitution with me. (I have actually had to refer to it a couple of times.)

Week 9, Thing 21 Podcasts

I don't know why exactly, but podcasts just don't really appeal to me. Perhaps after this I will have some podcast epiphany and realize that they are wonderful things, but as of now I am still relatively unimpressed. I subscribed via Bloglines to a video podcast about movies and to the Denver Public Library storytime podcast. I can see libraries utilizing podcasts for book talking, author events, storytimes, etc. maybe then I will be more excited about them.

Week 9, Thing 20 - You Tube!

I have already spent many hours sucked into You Tube, although for the longest time I didn't really understand what the fuss was about. (Mainly that was because I hadn't really looked at it yet.) I have also looked at some of the other major video sites like Google and Yahoo Video, but You Tube has so much more content than the others it is usually my first choice. In addition to watching cute dogs, old commercials, etc. You Tube or a similar site could also be used by the library for database demonstrations, book talking, and other things.

I've already added a You Tube video in a previous post and have two Google Videos on my sidebar, but thought I would add just one more. . . cause C is for cookie, that's good enough for me!

Week 8, Thing 19 Web 2.0 Awards

Several of the award winners were familiar, and many of them I had not heard of before. I thought that some of the business productivity sites from 37 Signals - Writeboard, Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack, and Ta Da List were really cool.

I clicked around several of the different award winners, but I was really impressed with Pandora. I've created a couple of different radio stations and it is really amazing how they parse down the music and then find similar artist. This is definitely a site that I will continue to use. This is a great way to find new music.

Week 8, Thing 18 Zoho

This document was created in Zoho Writer, again I haven't used this online productivity tool either. I thought that I would try this one as well to compare the two. It looks like they both do the same thing; however Zoho looks like it has more buttons and is a more robust word processing program, but to be honest I don't even know what some of the buttons do.

Technorati Tags zoho

Week 8, Thing 18 Google Docs

This post was written in Google Docs. I've never used Google Docs before, but it is very cool. Microsoft Office is a pretty pricey program, but besides the cost issue Google Docs is totally mobile since you can access your documents from ANY pc with internet access. Also you can save your file into a variety of different formats like Word, pdf, or html.

Week 7, Thing 16 & 17 Wiki wonderland

Exploring wikis took a long time, I just keep clicking on interesting links and went down the rabbit hole into a whole new world. There are a lot of applications here that I could see BCPL using especially internally like for workplans, best practices, or a consolidated internet resource reference site. A reader's advisory wiki, as long as there was some oversight before things were posted, would be great.


I added my blog to the list & I left something in the sandbox.

Week 6, Thing 15 Perspectives on Library 2.0

The Library 2.0 Meme Map from bonariabianco

I’ll admit (again) that “Library 2.0″ probably isn’t the best label. That assumes that everything that came before now was “Library 1.0″ (including Alexandria). That’s silly. I’d suggest, then, that the term was coined amidst a flurry of excitement, partially spurred by Web 2.0, but mostly by the promise of an exciting new era in modern librarianship. Instead of arguing over the efficacy of a label, look inward and evaluate your own institution’s efficacy.

11 Reasons Why Library 2.0 Exists and Matters blyberg.net

I liked the "Machine is Us/ing us" video the pace of the video seemed somewhat analogous to the pace that technology is moving. I read all of the suggested articles and then looked at the links from the Wikipedia entry and links from those pages. I think that the Library 2.0 Meme Map by Bonaria Biancu very clearly, completely, and succinctly explains the concept.

With RFID, self checkout, wifi, internet access for all within the branch and then online reference materials, Ask Us Now, ebooks, downloadable audio, etc. available to customers remotely BCPL is an active participant in this "new" library mindset.

Below are some links to library websites that are utilizing some web 2.0 / library 2.0 concepts and technology like RSS feeds, tagging, social computing, blogging, and open source. Library 2.0 might be here now and for the forseeable future, but I must say I find Library 4.0 most appealing:

Library 4.0 revives the old image of a country house library, and renovates
it: from a retreat, a sanctuary, a pampered experience with
information—subtle thoughts, fine words, exquisite brandy, smooth coffee,
aromatic cigar, smell of leather, rustle of pages—to the dream economy’s
library, the LIBRARY: a WiFREE space, a retreat from technohustle, with
comfortable chairs, quiet, good light, coffee and single malt. You know, the
library.

Schultz, Wendy To a Temporary Place in Time ... OCLC Next Space

Library websites to look at:
http://www.aadl.org/
http://www.summerreading.org/
http://www.hclib.org/
http://www.georgialibraries.org/lib/pines.html

Week 6, Thing 14 - Technorati

While I originally dismissed most personal blogs as too much navel gazing, it is amazing how in such a short period of time how blogs have grown and in some respects have become almost full fledged members of "the media," as well as, becoming an established means of business communication and marketing. There are now several work related blogs, besides our own CCD and Merchandizing blogs that I read regularly.


Technorati is an amazing search engine and aggregator of what's hot in the ever expanding blogosphere. I claimed my blog (in the name of France), did a few searches, and looked at some of the most popular blogs boingboing, lifehacker, and engadget. And then I looked at some others, finally, I went to Del.icio.us and bookmarked a couple. I added some tags to my blog and then I pinged my blog (it did not require a machine that goes ping) on Technorati and did a search looking for my post - Success!!

off topic - classic book quiz & classic movie quiz

I took the classic book test , but I wasn't particularly taken with the book that it said I was so I tried again. I then took the classic movie test. Much better.

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Week 6, Thing 13 Del.icio.us

I dragged my feet on this assignment, initially I was put off when the site wanted to download buttons on to the tool bar. I thought that I would try to use the site at home where I could download if I chose to utilize Del.icio.us. The distractions at home proved to be numerous, but I finally tried Del.icio.us yesterday and at 12:30 a.m. I was still adding sites. No buttons actually needed to be downloaded. After creating your account, if you click on the post tab it will take you to a screen where you enter the url that you want to add. (The buttons are just the easier way.)

This is a great tool and since in the branch we use several different computers during the day, I think that it could be quite useful. It is really easy to organize your bookmarks by tags and interesting to see what sites others have bookmarked and tagged. When I was using the same computer everyday at work and then at home I probably wouldn't have continued to use Del.icio.us after this assignment, but now I'm hooked.

Week 5, Thing 12 - Rollyo

Rollyo is very cool! I created my own search of news websites including local news.

Select...hammer28 news searchSearch The Web

Week 5, Thing 11 - Library Thing

I had added some titles on Library Thing a few years ago and then forgot my user id and password. It seems like a really great thing, but the task of actually cataloging all of my books seems a bit daunting . . . and I've alreaded weeded extensively.

I created a new user id and cataloged a few titles, the link is below. I hope to add some more.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/hammer28

Week 5, Thing 10 online image generator

I went to The Generator Blog and then to the Sketch Generator and used a Flickr photograph that I took in the Badlands and turned it into a sketch. Very cool! I saved the code and inserted it into this post, but then I had to edit the html code because I had two and half images. I impressed my self with that.

Week 4, Thing 9 Merlin and other sundry sites

I played around on Merlin and looked at the recommended reading and then created a Yahoo and a Meez avatar. I also added Merlin to my Bloglines list of feeds. I looked at the other sites and was puzzled why despite putting in my zip code in Topix.net it had Virgina news stories. It was interesting to discover different ways of finding feeds, but if you already know the site it is much easier just to go directly to that site and pick up the feed.

You Tube video

Gorilla Librarian

Week 4, Thing 8 RSS Feeds

The first step with RSS feeds was deceptively simple; however, trying to get the RSS feeds from Bloglines linked into my Blogger blog was a challenge. The screen shot on our instructions is not how the site is currently configured. "Share" is actually on the left hand side of the screen all the way down and does not appear as a tab. When first subscribing to Bloglines your user name is your email address, but in order to share your feeds you need to change your user name under "Account" then "Blog Settings" and then click on make your Blogroll public. Then you can get the HTML code to add to your blog. Whew...there was a lot of frustration involved with this thing. But - YEA! The blogroll is now up my blog!

Week 4, Thing 8 - RSS on Bloglines

Easy set up, just user name and password. I signed up for a bunch of feeds and then realized that I needed to scale back, some were duplicates that I had already set up on My Yahoo and others I would still regularly check the site. But I can definitely understand the appeal of having an aggregator for new information from regularly read blogs and websites.

Week 3, Thing 7 - Technology related post

We're supposed to write about anything technology related that currently catches our attention. As I am currently being distracted by downloadable video technology and You Tube that will be my topic. I added video content to my blog - the book cart drill team from the opening of the new Pratt branch (I am actually in the video towards the end in the audience) and a Muppet video of the Mahna Mahna Song. It was surprisingly easy to do.

I didn't have a similar experience when trying my first Amazon Unboxed video download last week, but after the second call to customer support I was assured that my experience was completely atypical. Once the issue was corrected on their end (vindication - first call to their tech support ended with the guy saying "Well, everything here is okay, maybe this isn't going to work out for you.") everything worked fine and I was able to transfer the movie to my video MP3. The transfer was totally easy and gave me the confidence to then try to utilizing a video grabber site (http://www.zamzar.com/) that I saw referenced in a LJ article about web 2.0 . The site allows you to save a copy to your hard drive of a video clip, like a You Tube video, into a variety of different formats. It only took a few minutes of playing with it to get how it works. Pretty cool.

**************
UPDATE:

It was driving me crazy that I couldn't find the article that I read since I wanted to link to it. I finally found it. It was in the eNewsletter American Libraries Direct 5/9/2007 not LJ as I previously thought. Here's the link to the original article that was on Mashable which reviews several other ways to download You Tube videos.

Can't leave out the Naughty Puppy

Here is a Warholized picture of Dash.

Week 3, Thing 6 - Flickr 3rd Party Sites

I played with fd's flickr toys this morning and created a magazine cover and a Warholized picture. Hard to stop playing with this, definitely having too much fun.

Week 3, Thing 5 - Flickr

I have spent some time on Flickr this morning and have registered (hammer28) and have uploaded some pictures. It was a lot of fun, I have used Yahoo Photos, Easy Share, and Snapfish before; however, none of those comes close to all the cool things that they have on Flickr.

Week 2 Things 3 & 4

Apparently, I have problems following directions since I did these first.

Week 1 Thing 2: 71/2 Habits

Well, 7.5 - Play is probably the easiest. I like solving problems and tend to naturally view problems as challenges (#3), but for me the hardest is having confidence (#4).

Week 1 Thing 1: Read Blog & find out about program

Done and done.

this is a test post

This is a test. It is only a test. Now solve for x :

2(x +5) -7 = 3 (x - 2)