OPAC, AquaBrowser, Library Thing,...just get me the book!

I have the distinct privilege of working in a library with a generic OPAC system. This means that any time I order books from a vendor, the processing I get will be rather minimal--there's only so much that is clear with the system we use. I did not choose this software, and after one year, am considering shifting softwares since the yearly upkeep cost is close to $1800 (a good part of any budget) and we don't get that many bells and whistles for that price.

I LOVE looking at what other schools find. I LovE looking at the Open Source products from LibLime, like YakPak. I love seeing how other libraries make their cataloging work. It makes me believe that such a thing is possible, even if it doesn't happen in our school (at the moment). Joyce Valenza's virtual school page is certainly made for the user, though the actual OPAC seems a bit more confusing in its access... Queens Library is so...pretty please can I have that instead? I'd be much happier if mine looked anything like that. During the next year, the library work in is scheduled to move, I hope that when that happens I will also be able to change the OPAC to one that is more accessible and user friendly. This may be a larger goal that I hope for, but perhaps something better can come of it. I want to get the book in the students' hands, with as few roadblocks as possible.

I'm a closet cataloger, I really like a lot of this things about it. So I often get caught, when looking at OPACs at the cataloging side of things...can I organize sets of users? How do I export or import files into the program. In our class discussion, this isn't the stuff we talked about. And Linda even warns us to steer clear of thinking about us as the user. To an certain extent, she is totally right. To another extent, as a librarian, the OPAC holds lots of information, and users (in this case the librarian) should be able to easily access information like circulation for the month or recent acquisitions. Again, the OPAC we use is filled with logic statements, the support staff I call always seem a bit befuddled themselves. I guess I just want to put in my two sense for the ability for the Librarians to use the program as well. Perhaps there is a correlation between usability for Librarians and accessibility for patrons.

As a final thought, I don't know if sites like LibraryThing, GoodReads, and Shelfari are the answers for libraries and their users. They have their own set of problems, including the social aspect and tagging,though perhaps those problems are also assets and are certainly refreshing. In the virtual world they help some see the books, but do they help on actually GET the book? On this part, I think I need to think more...

My library and facebook?

Among our classmates, there have been discussions about how facebook pages link in with Twitter and other aps. I don't have a Facebook or a MySpace page, and I'm not sure I want one or need one. It is interesting to me, though, to think that libraries could use these tools to advocate for themselves.

Apparently some bookstores already do it, according to this article from the New York Time about MySpaces pages for City Lights and Square Books. The article ends up focusing more on how the stores are described in the profile (are bookstores male or female?, etc.) than what it means for bookstores to have a face on MySpace (in this case). Sadly, the comments for the NYT article follow this same train of thought, no debate of necessity for their presence on social networking sites, only their question of a bookstore's gender. Yes, world, this is the important stuff. The comments on the MySpace pages are filled with buy my book and thanks for adding me comments, and again, I think I must be missing something. City Lights has a website, though it doesn't seem to acknowledge the MySpace presence. I find it all very confusing. So confusing, in fact, I can't really articulate myself well.

I guess I'm just asking: what are your thoughts on stores or places (or ideas even) having a "face" on Facebook or MySpace? In what way does their presence there fill a need of the user that another resource couldn't?

Daemon update

My Golden Compass daemon, Zotius underwent some serious changes over the time it could shift. It started as a Jackal but as ended as something else. During the time it could shift it was a cat-thing, a mouse, and a jackrabbit. Those are the three other shapes I remember most specifically. It's settled on ocelot, and I'll take that, because that's a pretty sweet animal really, and also fierce.

Ha, I just realized...I've essentially gone from being a dog person to being a cat person. Funny.

Tech transformations

Everytime I check Twitter, there's a new article for me to read. Everytime I read that article, it leads me to another article, and so on and so on. Suddenly, I've spent hours surfing through articles on the librarians at ALA or reviews from the NYT or links to ways to make an avatar on Yahoo!, and then I find the world of podcasts that needs to be explored, like Grammar Girl, and their corresponding websites. I also found a podcast from ProQuest explaining how to access newspapers from home via the internet. How can I create those mini-videos to embed on our website? Those types of tutorials could be sweet.

Then I find new blogs from AASL to read where, instead of talking about ALA, they are talking about NECC, and some comments bring up ideas that don't seem revolutionary to me, though the blogs approach them as such. It makes me realize that as behind in the times as I am in terms of certain technologies, I am not completely ignorant. I've kept my ears and eyes open to learning where people are going with computers, and certain softwares.

As my del.icio.us page attests to, I've found a way to personally use that site for a year now. Though I still struggle with how to integrate some of those/these technologies into the classroom. In listening to the Grammar Girl podcast I think, the English department could really benefit from these, and I wonder what other podcasts I could introduce to the faculty, how they could livestream them so it doesn't take server space, and if there's room on the school server to create podcasts of our own.

Later, I was watching my favorite video blog (vlog) of John Green (author of Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines)and his brother Hank Green called Brotherhood 2.0 and what is Hank doing but reading. The next day, John's talking about ALA. But back to Hank, in his vlog he's reading The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman, and he questions the acceptability of adults reading young adult books. What follows in the comments is lots of cheering for YA novels as well as thick discussion of the upcoming movie for The Golden Compass. Being the surfer I've been all day, I head to the website, and try to create my own daemon. Here's what they gave me, a jackel:



I've tried to embed the image from the site, and hope it works. I figure that is a test in and of itself. I can't see the image when I use Firefox, but can when I use Safari, so please let me know what happens when you read this post.

Seems a little mean to me (the choice of jackel), and apparently it can be changed but...I know this site is created to promote the movie, but there are other books like Lemony Snicket which certainly take advantage of the world wide interweb to help promote their books. How well to libraries and librarians pay attention to this? It seems we should.

Maybe, after all this searching, my real question becomes: what's the priority? Where do libraries and librarians enter the tech world and how much is truly necessary to stay current and provide the best services to users? How do we become efficient surfers so that students can learn from us, how to move through the interweb with limited distraction. Maybe distraction is fine (it is, really), but all the surving and exploring and discovery takes time. What is the minimum a library needs to know in order to serve the most people?

the joy of passwords

Blogger is now linked in with gmail. Apparently, this is old news, but as I am revisiting the blog world, this is new to me. In the meantime, I have managed to forget my username and password for Blogger. Is it my gmail address and password? Is it an email address at all? What password did I use? Unlike some, I have a few, but cant always keep it straight which is which. Then I think I figure it all out and for a while I get to change my password but find NO blogs in my dashboard so I have to try to resolve that. 20 hours later (or what seems like that) I figure it all out and finally get back in.

Around the same time Google Reader, my RSS reader, went all wonky and suddenly Google Reader only showed ONE feed, after I'd just added 5 to the 7 I already had. Another frustrating moment with my technology. Oh 2.0, why do you hurt me so.

There was an interesting article I found on a blog about adults using myspace, and at one point I would have been able to link to it, but I realize that is what began the debacle.

On a positive note, I found a site called GoodReads where one can leave book reviews and add their friends to their network so you can see what your friends and family are reading as well. The only drawback? There's a writing element where people can add their own original writing. This could be considered a good thing, but I'm leary of open authorship like that.