10 Random Things about ME!

1. My height is only average. I seem taller because of my towering ego.

2. I have never won the Iditarod or the lottery, for similar reasons. However, I would love to win a prize in Learn & Play! If I win, I promise to keep my acceptance speech to under five minutes.

3. Many of you know my real name and have speculated that my middle initial, L, is for largesse, the name you recognize from Flickr, Twitter, Digg, LibraryThing, Delicious, and marquees everywhere. It's not true.

4. I have selected @jimbodino to write my authorized biography. He will do this on Twitter, in 140 characters or less.

5. Over the years, I have learned to appreciate a person who can carry his/her own luggage as well as mine.

6. I have a valid driver's license and am fully capable of driving myself should the need ever arise.

7. I am way too old now for those crazy stunts, so don't even try to persuade me.

8. It's true! Avoiding the paparazzi is a simple matter of going without makeup. When I go around without makeup, only my most ardent canine fan recognizes me.

9. I would like to thank my parents and all of my ancestors for my genetic material.

10. Most of all, I would like to thank you, for reading my blog. You are one of my favorite people!

Photo by disneymike.

I'll meet you there: Thing #23

I do not exaggerate: Learn & Play has been the most fun I've had at work in years!

Plus, I have learned so many things (or Things) and have found ways to apply them already in my personal life. For example, I now have a pro Flickr account so that I can more easily share photos with my widely-scattered family. I have also created a private blog so that these same family members can keep up with the central Ohio branch of the family tree. As for my own reading, Bloglines has really streamlined my work. All of my updates, in one place!

One of the best things has been Twitter. I love reading what everyone is doing and saying. It's like being part of a huge conversation, where I can participate however much I want. As Jimmer has said, it's a great way to reconnect and stay connected.

How can I apply what I've learned to work? I like to think that I am better ready to meet the customer where he or she is right now. If the customer needs really basic help, like how to create an email account, no problem, I've been doing that all along. But if the customer wants to learn about blogging, wikis, social bookmarking, podcasts, or downloadable books, hey, I can help with those things, too!

Would I participate in more discovery exercises given the chance? Absolutely! How else can I be prepared to help the customer as new "Things" evolve? Bottom line is, I want to be able to tell the customer: wherever you are, I will meet you there.

Photo by netwalker.

Downloadable: Thing #22

MOLDI, the Mid-Ohio Library Digital Initiative, can be a fun place to browse for free, downloadable books, movies, and music.

Keyword searching worked pretty well when I tried to find a recording of The Swan, from the Carnival, by Saint-Saens. I immediately located this recording which I will have to download and play soon: PROKOFIEV: Peter and the Wolf / BRITTEN: Young Person's Guide to Orchestra / SAINT-SAENS: Carnival.

I had a little more trouble with my book and movie searches. I found Great expectations by Charles Dickens, in both print and audio. However, when I used the browse title search for the book The Marshal's own case, I got bizarre titles like Developing your own psychic powers and Complete kit to selling your own home. Advanced search worked much better. Author (or "creator") searches worked well. I'll try a classic book or two that I found.

For movies, I enjoyed browsing categories like Thriller and Classic Mystery. I found Dressed to kill, for example, a Sherlock Holmes mystery starring Basil Rathbone. Keyword search failed me, though, when I tried searching for more movies with Basil Rathbone or Sherlock Holmes; no results at all, even though some movies are there and available. The advanced search features were otherwise useful, though I would have liked to be able to limit by rating. I'm not sure I want to watch a movie on my computer at home, but I may have to try one, just to see what it's like!

I appreciated the “If you like this title, then you’ll love…” feature which often points the way to more items I may want to investigate. Looks like I'll be busy exploring!

Photo by oskay.

Podcasts: Thing #21

I explored podfeed.net and listened to a few podcasts about libraries, music, books, and science. I did not find much that captured my attention. Maybe I just need to explore some more.

I like the idea of the podcast reviews, with the star rating system, except that I found myself uninterested in some podcasts that others thought were really great. The lists of top-rated and most-played were helpful, too.

I found the tags useful, but with no advanced search features, I had trouble combining terms. For instance, are there any podcasts about science books? The basic search seems to default to OR, e.g., science OR books.

I added a feed to my Bloglines account for a podcast from Los Angeles Public Library, ALOUD at Central Library.

Photo by JadePhotography.

The late, great Buddy Holly and Thing #20

I could get lost in YouTube, spending hours looking at video clips! I really enjoyed looking at some old clips, like this one of Buddy Holly on the Ed Sullivan show in 1958. I also learned how to be a ninja and how to waltz and how to clean my bathtub. All kinds of great stuff!

While YouTube is a lot of fun, I'm not sure how libraries would use it. Maybe we could do video clips for patrons explaining basic things about the library, like how to get a card, in foreign languages.

YouTube might also be useful for staff. Learn & Play videos have certainly been a big hit!

Thing #19: Digg it!

I found Digg through CML's Tool Box. What a fascinating site! Every time I visit, I find new intriguing stories, photos, and videos. I get so absorbed that I can hardly take time to write about Digg!

For example, today I found out about an mysterious explosion that occurred in 1908 which was 1,000 times more powerful than Hiroshima's. I also learned about how to avoid "annoying body glitches" like eye twitches and hiccups.

With Digg, I mark the items of most interest to me by "digging" them. Other users digg, too, and stories move to the top of the ranks by popularity. I can set up my profile so that only subjects of interest to me show up.

The social networking aspects of the site are intriguing, but so far I have no Digg "friends" with whom to share content of interest. Anyone interested? My profile name is largesse.

Photo by Pif the Mighty.

One Sentence: Thing #18

One Sentence - True stories, told in one sentence.

Posted using ShareThis

I found this intriguing site on the short list of Web 2.0 awards (http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/short). To quote the About page: "One Sentence is an experiment in brevity. Most of the best stories that we tell from our lives have one really, really good part that make the rest of the boring story worth it. This is about that one line."

So, readers of the site submit their own one-sentence stories. They are fascinating! Some are funny, some are sad, many are poetic. I may try submitting my own one-liner, just for fun.

Here's one of my favorites, posted by FrogGirl: "Everyone knows me as Jessica, but he knows me as the girl who actually wept with him when his frog died."

There are lots of good features here. The tags make it easy to find more stories on a particular subject, like frog or death. The blog is interesting to keep up with. I also loved the "ShareThis" feature which allowed me to publish directly to my blog and follow the new stories on Twitter. I could also have shared via rss feed, my Facebook page, my Delicious bookmarks, or numerous other avenues.

I've already recommended this site to my Twitter friends and mentioned to others. A fun place to visit if you appreciate a good sentence!

Photo by Minnesota Children's Museum's photostream.

Web-based apps: Thing #17

I am largesse.

You are not.

I created the short document above in Google Docs and published it to my blog--easy! In fact, I found Google documents, spreadsheets, and presentations all very easy to use. I was able to create new files, save them, save them again as Microsoft products or pdfs, and publish them to my blog and to the web. Importing Microsoft products was equally easy as pie.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my colleague, http://ridiculology.blogspot.com/, had already introduced me to some of these amazing features of Google. I suggested to my son (he's in college) that he use Google docs for some of his collaborative projects. I can also see how my sister and I could use a Google spreadsheet to help us manage our mother's finances.

It's a little harder for me to see how I might use these wonderful collaboration-enhancing products at work, since it's so easy for us to save files in shared locations. And, hey--where's the Ariel Narrow I'm required to use? However, some of our collaboration is between library systems (e.g., CML, Worthington, Southwest), and it might be much easier for us to share files with Google than with, say, emailed versions of files.

Here's the best thing: Google docs might be exactly what some of our customers need. Google might be the perfect place to store resumes and other documents. Just think of it, no more lost files because the session times out!

Playing in the sandbox: Thing #16

This was my first experience with editing pages in a wiki. It was a breeze with PBWiki!

In the Learn & Play @CML wiki, I was able to add my blog to the Favorite Blogs page, list my dog as my favorite animal (and link to his photo), describe one of my favorite websites, and list a favorite quote from my grandfather. I may just go on and on, listing my favorites of everything!

It was also fun to read everyone else's favorite things and share opinions. The sandbox is fun!

Photo by thawizard

Wikis: Thing #15

I enjoyed exploring wikis today. A wiki seems like an ideal way to share knowledge and do collaborative work. There were loads of great examples!

I especially admired a couple of library applications. Wikis would really work well in place of our usual subject pages (e.g., business and job seekers). The librarians who specialize in these areas could easily add or modify content. A good example is Ohio University's biz wiki (http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page) .

Another great example is the Michigan Libraries Wiki (http://mlcnet.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page). It was so easy to browse the pages to find and compare, for example, library policies on Interlibrary Loan. A similar collaborative effort for Ohio libraries would be really useful.

I think that our customers would also love the chance to add content to our website in the form of discussion--about books, local information, reviews, or just about anything. A great way to get their opinions and input.

Photo by cogdogblog.

The long tail: Thing #14

As I am working my way through the 23 things, I am having a wonderful time but keep finding myself thinking about whether our customers will really use these 23 things. I help customers every day who are not even proficient with a mouse and keyboard, let alone Flickr and Twitter.

However, after reading the five perspectives in the article "Web 2.0: Where will the next generation of the web take libraries?" as well as the Wikipedia article and its references, I started thinking about this "long tail" concept mentioned in the article "Library 2.0: Service for the next-generation library" (http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6365200.html). (I also looked at an earlier article, "The long tail" (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html?pg=1&topic=tail&topic_set= ). As the Library Journal article explains, "the demand for movies or books that are not hits far outnumbers the demand for those that are hits. Match those nonhits with the people who are interested in seeing them, and suddenly you have a group of constituents equal to or greater than those who want to see and read the hits."

So, which customers are we currently underserving? Maybe we will hear new voices as we begin to join in these social web spaces. Maybe we will find ourselves serving a whole population we didn't know existed.

Photo is by J Pride.

Delicious: Thing #13

I have used Delicious in the past to set up our Division bookmarks (http://delicious.com/sciencebusinessnews). We used these bookmarks primarily when we had Internet access but our web page was down, in order to access databases without the links from the website.

My supervisor (http://sbnjck.blogspot.com/) had initially recommended Delicious for this purpose. I had maintained our bookmarks previously on Yahoo! Bookmarks, but we were reluctant to access our bookmarks account on public computers because we had to log in and thus leave the bookmarks vulnerable to "editing" by the person using the computer.

Delicious worked perfectly for our purposes. However, since we were not particularly interested in the social aspects of bookmarking, I hadn't bothered with tags. Now that I have been introduced to the benefits of social bookmarking, I am starting to add more tags.

Meanwhile, I have created my own Delicious account in order to have quick access to things that have taken me a long time to find. I started with a collection of sites for government sales of real estate, property, and vehicles on various levels (federal, state, local). My bookmarks are at

http://delicious.com/largesse.

It's interesting to see that many people (94) have bookmarked the Government Sales and Auctions site, yet few (9) have bookmarked Govsales.gov, the official site to purchase federal government property. And almost no one seems to be interested in the vehicle auction sites. Maybe someone will notice, now that I've bookmarked--and tagged--some good sites!

Photo is by Donnali.

I've got followers! Thing #12

Twitter has turned out to be more fun than I thought it would be. It's fascinating to log in and see what the people I'm following are up to. It's a little strange being followed, too, but I'm getting used to it! My Twitter name is largesse.

I also noticed that Twitter can be a useful way to keep up with library events, as some tweets today filled me in on which locations were open and at what time. Very important to know, in the aftermath of the storm.

I liked the advanced search features, too, and got interesting results by searching for columbus library or columbus weather. I even tried searching just for everything "near" columbus.

I think the Twitter news services might be real handy. It's kind of like getting scrolling headlines. I liked http://twitter.com/googlenewsus, for example.

Photo is titled My Twitter Class of '08, and it's by mallix.

Sharing books: Thing #11

I used Library Thing to list a few of my very favorite books. My catalog is here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/largesse.

I was intrigued by the recommendations that appeared as a result of my selections, and I've added a couple of these to my reserve list.

I also like the concept of sharing thoughts about books in an online community. However, I might have trouble finding many who share my taste in books, considering that NO one on Library Thing besides me has added Always Home and Other Stories, by David Ely, and few members have Harvest of Stories: From a Half Century of Writing by Dorothy Canfield (whose picture appears with this post). I can see how our library users would benefit by participating in Library Thing's community.

Newspaper headline: Thing #10

I have had a great time playing with some online image generators!

I made an avatar, created posters, made billboards, wrote things in the sand, and...

made this newspaper headline! The Newspaper Headline generator came from http://www.imagechef.com/.

Feeding happiness: Thing #9

I tried out all three of the feed-finding tools for Learn & Play: Topix, Syndic8, and Technorati. I found useful feeds and added them to my Bloglines feeds.

In Topix, I found a great source for updates on research on hypertension, Hypertension News.

In Syndic8, I found a feed for low sodium recipes from Recipezaar.

In Technorati, I found a blog called HighBloodPressureConnection.com.

I think I was most taken with this blog I stumbed upon in Technorati, called the Happiness Project, http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project. This blog is chock-full of tips and advice for...staying happy! I added it to my "misc." category in my Bloglines account. I also added a Happiness Project feed to my blog!

Photo by docbertus.

RSS feeds: Thing #8

Today I set up my own Bloglines newsreader account. It's so convenient to have a single place to look for the latest news, weather, and--best of all--postings to all of my coworkers' blogs! Now I can see what everyone else is accomplishing with the 23 things without searching through the participants' list every time.

I'm also really happy to have the latest weather reports in my feeds, because my dog is terrified of storms and I want to have as much notice as possible.

Thanks to everyone who has voted in my poll so far. Looks as if most of you hope that I win the laptop. :-) Good luck to all of you, too!

Here is the URL for my public Bloglines account:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/largesse

Photo by finepixxler.

Technology: Thing #7

Technology, especially the tools I use to do my job, have changed so much over the course of my library career. (21 years!) When I was in library school, I'd never heard of the Internet, for example.

Nowadays, my favorite tool is--Google! Surprise! ;-) I keep discovering wonderful things that Google does. For years, I have loved all of the advanced search features. But Google keeps coming up with new stuff. My coworker (http://ridiculology.blogspot.com) recently introduced me to the wonders of the Google calendar and the potentials for group work and document sharing. Wonders never cease.

I got this image from flickr, originally uploaded by clicksense.

Oh, don't forget to vote in my poll! What prize should I hope for? What prize would you like?

Demon kitty: Thing #6

I explored some of the flickr applications and was fascinated by this retrievr application. You can make your own sketch or upload a photo, and retrievr tries to find a flickr photo similar to your sketch or image. Wow, I got some really bizarre matches!

For this one, I uploaded that picture of my coworker reading the newspaper, and I got this demon-kitty among my results! See the similarity?

I noticed that, no matter what I put into retrievr, I always got back at least one image of an eye. Interesting, huh?

I sure am excited about these prizes. Wouldn't it be great to win a video recorder?

Man reading newspaper: Thing #5

I used the division camera today to take this picture of my coworker reading the newspaper.

I created a new Flickr account and added this as my first photo! I enjoyed reading all about Flickr and have plans to upload some photos from my recent vacation.

Wouldn't it be cool if I won my very own digital camera after completing all 23 things?

Habits: Thing #3

I listened to the Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners as part of Learn & Play@CML, checking off number 2 on the list of 23 things I must finish before I'm eligible to win a fabulous prize!

I think that the easiest habit by far is #7 1/2--play! Having fun is always easy.

Maybe the hardest habit is #3, view problems as challenges. I tend to view problems as...problems. Too many of them can make a task seem impossible.

Hey, I'm blogging!

How about that, my first post.