YouTube

I've played with YouTube and TeacherTube a number of times over the last 2 weeks. I'm just delighted that real people who know "stuff" can record and show others what they know. After I took my first 6 classes in how to play the mountain dulcimer, there was NOBODY within an hour's drive that could show me how to do a hammer-on or how to flat-pick. I was thrilled that I could request books and tapes on interlibrary loan on how to play the dulcimer, and I thought I went to heaven when I discovered a dulcimer listserv. But I still couldn't SEE how to do something.

On both YouTube and TeacherTube I found dulcimer champions, professionals, and just plain folk who demonstrated their own playing styles. By watching them, I saw flaws in my own playing style; I saw techniques I'd only read about; I learned skills faster.

Our students will also find visual/auditory ways to learn skills and concepts by using the Tubes. Many learners can visualize something as it's taught to us, but many learners can't. Many learners have the patience to reconstruct a process in their minds, but many don't. I see the Tubes as being a way of having a personal demonstrating instructor nearby throughout the learning process. And you can slow down the image if you need to catch all the nuances of some skill--slick!

TeacherTube teaches teachers, too. Professional development right at your computer. Not all of the entries are fantastic. But sometimes teachers need to see a bad demo to learn how to do it properly. What a wonderful time for teachers and learners alike!

17. Pennsylvania Curriculum Connection

I tried adding a comment to the Pennsylvania Curriculum Connection--twice! But I didn't have the key (username/password), so I emailed the administrator....twice. No response. I just emailed again; we'll see if I get the key. I noticed that no one has posted to the wiki in six months...could be a problem.

LibraryThing

I love LibraryThing!!! LT is absolutely incredible! I discovered it sometime last year (probably someone mentioned it at one of my librarians' meetings), and I sat on it for a few months. Then last summer, as I was working with a college student majoring in Library Science, I decided to give it a try for our local historical society. We now have a working, fully-functional online catalog for the society. Sign up was so easy, set up was so easy, entering titles was so easy, editing our entries is so easy--it's simply a delight to use.

So I 've had so much fun with LT that I decided to share the wealth. At a librarians consortium meeting last Fall my friend and I did an hour-long program on LT, which was very well recieved. Recently I've offered to do a program for another group of librarians. And last month I did a demo at the English Department meeting in my school.

My friend and I started the Historical Society's card catalog years ago. We added 25-30 books to the catalog each year. But it was such a struggle locating programming to create the cards, maintaining a computer with the programming installed, then the old DOS programming would no longer work with our newer equipment. And after all the effort our historical society members still didn't know how to use the card catalog.

But LT is so intuitive. It's like God's gift to little libraries. Thank you, thank you!!

Zoho

Today I tried Zoho, and I'm not impressed. I'm not sure what the problem is, but it appears as though the producers of Zoho haven't kept up with it. The writing aspect of the site appears to be working fine. But when I switched to other applications, like spreadsheet, the page comes up incomplete. And Creater wants me to pay for the plan.

I've used Google Docs with other librarians to create common documents to share with our employers and staffs. That programming didn't take long at all to learn. Making changes together was pretty simple. I'm sure we'll use that service again.

My husband writes a newsletter for his church. The pastor types his articles, prints them out, then hands them to Tom to be re-typed for the newsletter. Maybe we can teach the pastor (a computer newbie) to use one of these online wordprocessors so that each article need only be typed once.

And I think I'll show this (or Google Docs) to my Aide. She types our memorial letters, prints them out, gives them to me to proofread, then goes back to the computer to make the changes. One of these online writer programs could streamline the process, and maybe save a small tree.

Wikis, Lesson 16A

As recommended I took a look at some of the WebTools4u2use. Saw some neat ideas, but my favorite is still one I want to try on my own library's website: Serve as an electronic handout for classes and workshops (no repeating those dreaded long RLs). That idea is just too rich; I know I can make it work. All I need is a little time to put it together--maybe during the Book Fair next week I can work on it. I'm not sure if our SchoolWires programming has a wiki tool; I may have to set up a PBWiki account to make it happen. But at least now I know where I can find free wiki tools.

I'm also thinking of a wiki for our Historical Society webpage--a wiki for writing our local history. Few of our senior Senior Citizens would be able to add to the wiki, but many of us younger Senior Citizens are gaining some fancy computer skills. It won't be long before "we" will be comfortable enough with Web 2.o tools to be able to maintain a wiki on the history of our area. I have to remember to divide it up into categories like Lumbering, Mining, Retail, Religions, Schools, etc. It's one way to give everyone in the community a chance to add to our combined history. What an exciting concept!

Wikis (Lesson #16)

This afternoon I investigated a few wiki sites.  I found Library Success to be a wonderful treasure trove of information for librarians.  I clicked around many of the topics, then found wikis embedded in wikis.  (I actually lost my way a few times and had to go back to the beginning to figure out where I was.)  If I was a new librarian I would probably be checking that particular wiki regularly, like some kind of librarian's bible!  Since I'm closer to retirement, I need encouragement to do some tasks I don't do as often as I should; one post recommended weeding 15 minutes each day just to keep the collection fresh and keep the librarian conscious of the collection's strengths and flaws.  Not a bad idea.....

I also looked at Sample School wiki.  There I found an idea for a class assignment wiki for an AP class that was so good that I immediately emailed the page to the teachers in my school's history and English departments.

I occasionally use Wikipedia when I need some basic background information on particularly unusual topics, but I caution students about using it.  This particular Web 2.0 assignment helped me see the value of wikis in a library setting.  Fortunately, I don't have to "invent" a wiki for favorite books in my library; we have Follett's Destiny which now gives patrons the opportunity to write reviews for books.  But I'm willing to bet that as I let this wiki concept roll around in the juices of my brain I'll decide to add a wiki to my teacher page or my school library webpage.  Anything that gives kids (and staff!) a sense of ownership in their school library is something to give a try.

Web 2.0: The future of libraries

   When I started reading the recommended articles from OCLC, I immediately thought that the future they were discussing is already here.  (The articles were originally written in 2006--practically a generation ago as we tell techno time now!)  The refinements mentioned for the future WorldCat are already available:  The links with Amazon, the proximity indicators for local holding libraries, etc.  My own library uses Follett's Destiny with its social functions like submitting book reviews.  My library's webpage has links to the ebooks I've purchased and the newspaper database to which we subscribe.  I have tutorials on how to use the Power Library databases on my library's webpage, and I've created my own tutorial on the slick features of Destiny.   

   But the articles gave me something to chew on.  One of the authors mentioned the concepts of super librarians, and of collecting librarians with specialized research skills for each type of research a patron would do.  I like that!  Librarians as a kind of research coaches.  Huh.

   The expert who discussed the "icebergs" gave me some concepts to consider.  I especially stopped at the "just in case" collection.  I'm old enough that I still do this, particularly when I'm weeding:  I shouldn't get rid of that history book from the 1950's.  Up to that point the info was valid.  I may need it just in case.....  And so the old book with the dull cover sits on the shelf and makes all the other books on the shelf look less appealing.  Not good for the 21st century student patron.

   I'm glad I'm doing this exercise.  With each topic I'm a little less Librarian 1.0 and a little more Librarian 2.0.