Thing #46 -- WebJunction Minnesota

Every once in a while I go to WebJunction Minnesota and poke around. I usually find something useful that I thing I should explore more in depth, but don't have the time right at the moment. Then it falls off my radar... This time it might stick because I found courses for which I have an immediate need.

While I have been involved in web design and development for more than a decade now, I've realized that I need a stronger grounding in using XML. In fact, several of the things I would like to accomplish over the coming 6 months to a year require knowing how to use style sheets to output XML files in various formats. I've looked at some books and searched around on the web, but was very pleased to see a course on WJMN covering XML style sheets. I will definitely take this course sometime this summer. And perhaps, after taking one, I will be more likely to keep WJMN on my radar.

Thing #45 -- Cloud Computing

I commented on the rise in web applications in Thing #2. It's an update of early days of computing. Back then, everything was kept on a large mainframe computer, and so-called dumb terminals (basically monitors and keyboards) were hooked up to it. Then desktop computers became more and more powerful, and everything was done locally, using the workstation's own processor and memory. Now we've arrived at cloud computing, which is just the modern day equivalent of the mainframe and not-so-dumb-anymore terminal--applications, documents, all kinds of data, really, are stored on a server somewhere and accessed anywhere via an Internet connection and a web browser.

My primary experience with cloud computing is using Apple's MobileMe service, and account that gives me space on the cloud to store files, and access to my email, calendar, contacts, and photos. My husband and I are able to synchronize between what is on the cloud and all our computers, whether at home, at work, or on our iPods. Eventually we would like to purchase a new router for our home network that would allow us to use the Back to My Mac feature. Then we would be able to access files between computers directly, without needing to upload them to the cloud for sharing first.

For work, I've used both Google Docs and Zoho, and written about them in previous posts. I haven't used Zoho beyond the one, rather unsuccessful, experience. Google Docs, on the other hand, continues to be an important tool as I collaborate on projects with librarians from other instutions.

There's always a tradeoff between access and security, and cloud computing is no different. It's nice to have access to files from anywhere, but that also leaves open the risk of others getting unauthorized access to those same files. Our campus, like most others, has a firewall in place to prevent many kinds of access to campus networks from off-campus. However, as more and more tools I use are web based, I have discovered that I can do increasing amounts of work from home without running into firewall problems. This can be important as the college makes contingency plans for how to continue operations in the event of a swine flu pandemic, or other severe outbreak.

Thing #37 -- Photo Tales

For organizing personal photos I use iPhoto and combine it with the Gallery feature of my MobileMe account to share them on the web. I've found iPhoto extremely easy to use, and it's pretty economical for getting prints of pictures. The application comes with tools to design cards and upload the images and your design to Apple for printing. We used this for our Christmas cards this past year. One other project my husband is working on is a family memory book of old family photos. He is using iPhoto to layout the pictures on each page and add captions of who is in each photo. Once he's finished we'll be able to get a hardcover book of the pictures to give to family members.

Obviously, I have found a lot of use for these kinds of tools in my personal life, but (as with many of these Things) I'm not sure what place they have in my library. My college has a Flickr account used to share photos of student events and other happenings on campus, but the library doesn't. Photos that we share are posted to our Facebook page. One potential use of the tools in this thing would be to post links to some of the stock photo sites or captioning sites for students who may need to use images in presentations. But then again, how likely would students be to think of the library web site as a resource to fill that need?

I've played around some with iMovie, but for this Thing I tried One True Media's montage site. It is pretty intuitive to use, and offers a lot of choices for editing, even if you don't have a premium (ie. paid) account. My only quibble is the image quality of the online sharable version isn't very good, and the watermark takes up a lot of real estate. I used it for this project, but don't know if I will go back to it agian. Given the time of year, I created a story about my garden.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Thing #35 -- Books 2.0

As an academic librarian, I don't get much chance to help people find books to read just because they want to--mostly they're looking for books for class assignments. Those students who are looking for books for pleasure are thrown off by the fact that all our fiction isn't in one place like at their public library, and they don't want to browse huge chunks of the P call number range to find a book. (Or sometimes they want audio books to listen too as they drive home for vacations. We don't have any of those.) This is changing, though. We're trying to foster "extracurricular" reading on campus by beginning a browsing collection. A small portion of the book budget is now dedicated to purchasing books for pleasure reading, and these books are shelved in a prominent place at the entrance to the main stacks area. No confusing LC call numbers, instead it's alphabetical by author. I'm interested to see how much that collection will be used once students really discover it.

Our library also has a collection of juvenile books. These are to support the Education department, but they are also used by students, faculty, and staff with children. I was interested if the sites listed for this Thing under Children's Books would be useful for the Children's Literature Guide I maintain for the Education department. I already link to International Children's Digital Library, and was disappointed to see Lookybook no longer online.

I spent a lot of time looking around BookCrossing to if any books had been released near me, and viewing the histories of books that had several entries. I will definitely keep this site in mind the next time I have books I no longer want to keep. I also looked at BookStumpers. This site would have been useful a couple of years ago when I tried, unsuccessfully, to discover the name of a book a friend remembered from her childhood.

Thing #29, part 1 -- Google Tools: Productivity

I should have gotten to this Thing earlier...it solved an annoyance I've been dealing with for several years.

The Background
For what seems like a long time now, I've been using 2 separate calendar applications. My husband and I share several calendars on Apple's iCal to keep track of various schedules, and I use Mozilla Sunbird at work so I can print my weekly agenda and post it outside my office (my library doesn't use our campus' calendar program to share staff schedules). While the 2 applications use the same calendar format, they couldn't share calendars. That meant I either had to remember to enter everything twice, once in each place, or continuously export and import from one app to the other.

The Solution
I had looked at Google Calendar a little over a year ago to see if it was a better alternative than Sunbird, but it wasn't then. This Thing made me take a second look. Upon reading this sentence: "You can sync you calendar with Outlook, Blackberry devices, and Apple's iCal" [emphasis mine] I became excited. Finally, no more double entry calendaring! A quick install of Google's calaboration code on my MacBook, and I was all set. Now, anything I add to my Google Calendar while I'm at work will show up in iCal at home and my husband's work, and anything either of us add to iCal will show up for me at work.

Productivity tool indeed! This Thing is the winner so far for most immediate application of something I've learned.

Thing #14 -- LibraryThing

My husband told me about LibraryThing several years ago in relation to all the books we have at home. I think I even created an account and library at that time, but didn't do much with it. When I tried to use my old account for this Thing I couldn't find it.

I'm interested in using LibraryThing for new book or other kinds of lists, playing around with various ways to import books so the work is easier. And I did create my own account and add some books.

Thing #8 -- Tools for Sharing

This Thing includes lots of tools for putting content on the web. In general, I prefer to work with other non-web applications, probably because I value features and efficiently over sharing. As a Mac user at home, I am familiar with Apple's iLife suite of tools for personal use. Plus, it is fairly easy to share content using those tools and my iDisk. (I don't need to share with the world, just friends and family.)

For creating slideshows, I tried Thumbstacks and Zoho Show. Thumbstacks was extremely tedious to use--I can't imagine ever using it for anything. Zoho, by contrast was easier to use and more robust. I created the same presentation in both applications and it took me far less time in Zoho. My presentations are below.

First, from Thumbstacks. Unlike with the Zoho presentation following, I couldn't find a way to embed this in my blog.

Then from Zoho:



I also like that Zoho allows you to import an already created file. If I were to use Zoho for presentations I am likely to still create them using PowerPoint and upload them to Zoho. One use that struck me with both Thumbstack and Zoho is the ability to give the presentation remotely.

Of the other tools mentioned for this thing, I played around with LazyBase and eFolio Minnesota. (I decided I'd worked with pictures enough already and so skipped those.) LazyBase is certainly easier than Microsoft Access or FileMaker Pro, both of which I use for work and personal reasons. I like their template for "restaurants I need to try."

One thing with all these tools that I see as a drawback is having to create, and remember (!) all the different accounts I create to access the tools. Both Google and Zoho provide several different applications for one login, but these other stand alone tools make things more complicated.