Ginger Gellman’s WebBlob

Imagine my surprise when, doing this week’s readings (which actually are the readings for about a month ago - boy am I behind, thanks to Vermont’s March 08 flu extravaganza) when I found myself reading about Library 4.0! I’m barely getting up on the two’s….

I really enjoyed this stuff.

What is Library 2.0 to me? The themes that resonated for me were (a) user-driven and collaborative, and not “one-directional,” (b) open source, (c) collective intelligence, and (d) community building.

John Blyberg’s article was particularly interesting… he repeated the phrase “beta is forever,” which I loved, and was also was completely unnerved by…. That’s one of the things that’s been hardest about playing with these 2.0 tools… not knowing how they’re helpful, if they’re helpful, when they’ll be helpful, and–ultimately– if they’re worth my time. I’m reminded of a comment from another VT librarian who noted about a new project sweeping the state, “I’ll let someone else do my R&D.” I don’t blame her… it’s hard to keep the faith — and the budget — to be on the front of the curve.

Then there’s the idea of 2.0 and how it relates to community. Ultimately, I got into the public library business because of the Colchester library’s mission to serve town needs by acting as a community hub. This means providing information, environment, programming, connection and connectivity. It’s a fascinating concept to me, however–how is it that libraries have come to be the conduit, the keepers, the binding, for community?

I’d signed up with deliciou.s (where do those periods belong, anyhow?) a few weeks back. One thing I was happy to learn, upon revisiting the site with the company of Vermont’s 23 Things, is that it can be used by one user on mutiple computers. Very nice!

I managed to export my bookmarks from my home computer to my delicious site. Now I just have to figure out how to get the TAG button into my browser without signing up for a whole new account. Baby steps, baby steps.

Also, in the process of reading more about delicious, I really enjoyed the Egg Song (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/eggsong). Why do things like this amuse me?

Happily, I had learned of Library Thing a few months ago, from the VOL’s Rob Geiszler. Unhappily, I entered some books back in October and hadn’t revisited it until now.

I have yet to get a handle of how to use the tags to my advantage, and how to get other readers’ recommendations based on similar interests to mine.

One thing I don’t like about Library Thing is how the book titles can get so parsed into pieces… for example, if I pick one edition of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” I have the benefit of 2418 other readers’ opinions. If I pick another edition, I get two. If I’m not careful about the edition I pick, I’ll miss the best part of Library Thing, which is the ability to learn from other people with similar tastes.

Like with other online tools, I find that I’m interested in the possibility, but pessimistic about making the time to revisit these sites. I really like the concept, but until I get a handle of it, it’s not fully useful for me.

I just downloaded a sample of fontographer this week. Lets you make fonts — though the free version I found only let you draw the fonts, and didn’t let me generate the font file.

But speaking of fonts, I did search for “text generator” and found this Pretzel Font… my own name rendered “with real pretzels.”

Last I knew it was still catch-up week #6! Whew!

It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks at the library. I’m slowly trying to move up my timeline for getting our promotional materials out — which means that every time I finish a calendar or press release, it’s time to start the next one! It’ll be worth it once I get on schedule, but right now it’s a bit nuts. That, and I’ve caught that nasty cold that’s been running around Chittenden County and have been our of work for a week straight!

But I digress: image generators.

Today, in my struggle to balance the mellow of being out of work with the need to get a little more productive, I generated my first online image: a compromise between enjoying the outdoors (mellow) and getting busy (frenetic). Alas, too small to read, but it’s my first try.

I also made a great avatar for myself, complete with my red glasses, but the “save” button didn’t work on the site and I didn’t manage to post it.

Still simmering this idea of social networking and libaries. In concept, I like the idea.

For example, there’s already a strong tradition of library patrons using computers. (Can I call it a “tradition?” when public access to the web is but 15ish years old?!) And as far as I know, accessing the teen market is a holy grail for many libraries. Patrons and teens use computers, libraries want to reach teens and patrons. So it seems like it could work.

However…  I’m not seeing it, yet.

Yah, yah, I know there’s potential. But I don’t yet see the reality. Online book groups? Maybe. Message boards for our local patrons? Perhaps. In Vermont, maybe this could help start regional connections between our many local libraries. And of course, outreach to teens.

But first our patrons have to understand, and need, this kind of community from their library. And we have to come up with content and services that fit in a web environment.

The cynic in me can’t help but recall the many clients with whom I’ve worked (in a former life, working in an ad agency in the ’90s) who “had to have a presence” on the world wide web. They spent $500k-$2MM a year developing and trying to update content on their web sites. Today, most of those sites are gone. They just weren’t useful, or needed.

I know there’s a future for it, but I don’t yet have the vision of how all this is going to work.

For our library here in Colchester, the big question will be: how do we get people to use it? We have our hands full building attendance at regular, bricks-and-mortar programs. Maybe online will solve that problem — or maybe it will add another dimension (and more effort) to create a program that has slimmer attendance than we’d like.

Ok, I have definitely become a late adopter. 

I started this week’s lessons on RSS thinking,

 ”Okay, I sort of get what RSS is, but I’m really, really going to spend some time with this and figure it out.”

I have spent a good bit of time, but I’m not sure if I’ve ”figured it out.” I mean, I get what RSS is, but not being a person who tracks down internet news on a regular basis, I don’t know if I have an immediate need for this in my life.

For example, I thought I’d add to my technology knowledge and sign up for Feedreader’s tech feeds — only to find that within 5 second of signing up I was already 188 messages in the hole! Good gracious!

However, there is a nugget of uselfulness in all this RSS-business for me. I like the idea of knowing — for the sites I visit already — when the site owner has made updates. I’m also excited to see whether I get attached to any of these new sites that we found in our searches.

Of the four sites that we reviewed, my preferences were :

(1) sage — what a clean look! ahhh!

(2) google reader — easy to navigate and manage

(3) feedreader - nice interface, though I’d rather not download

(4) bloglines - busy! ack! overwhelmed!

For me, the key to enjoying RSS will be: manage, manage, manage! With three local listserves, plus RSS, plus all my regular emails, I could definitely lose myself to a new time thief.

Hoping to get my RSS’s under control soon….

   Today was my first experience with Flickr, and boy, was that fun. Historically I don’t consider myself a technophobe, but in the last three weeks I’ve learned that (a) most of my friends on the west coast are on LinkedIn.com, and (b) most of my friends in the east are on facebook. Now I’ve navigated my way around both those sites (a friend of mine is still hounding me to get a photo up on Facebook) and now I Flickr.

It’s really an incredible site. It offers great potential for artists, for example, in terms of sharing work. I spend $70+ per title on design books simply to get inspiration — with flickr, I can just log on and find so many ideas for free.

 Here at the Burnham I have the wonderful job of doing publicity, which often means drawing pictures. I posted a number of them to a librarians’ site on flickr. I hope someone else can find some use for them.

I see that my site is listed as “Ginger Gellman’s Weblob” on the participant site of Vermont’s 23 Things. I thought about contacting Mara to change it… but then quickly decided that it has a nice ring to it, particularly if spelled “WebBlob.”

In fact, I may rename my site in honor of the Blob that is the world wide web. Here, here, for we librarians as we navigate our way around the Blob!

Greetings from the Burnham Library in Colchester, where I design the publicity pieces for the library’s youth and adult programs. I’ve worked at libraries only since July-Oh-Seven and am enjoying the great exposure to new books, great music, good stories, and inspiring ideas. I live down the road in Jericho, VT.