Thing #10: eAudioBooks

I'm tickled that the netlibrary eAudioBooks is one of the 23 Things if only because I just had the eAudioBooks training here a couple of weeks ago. So this gave me the chance to practice those skills again, while the training was still fresh in my mind.

Admittedly, I've had a hard time with netlibrary in the past--simply logging in, or showing patrons how to log in, has been frustrating. Of course, it might have helped if I'd practiced that a bit, but rare is the time I've been asked how to access an eBook. I'm thinking, though, that the eAudioBooks are going to become very popular as mp3 technology spreads and becomes even more pervasive. With that being said, it is extremely unfortunate that netlibrary cannot support iPods because of the DRM protection needed for the eAudioBooks. I sincerely hope they can find a solution around this--iPods and now iPhones are everywhere, and I will hate having to explain to an enthusiastic patron that yes, we have eAudioBooks to download, but no, they can't play them on the most popular mp3 player in the world.

I was surprised by the available titles list--I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting, but I found it interesting that the majority were mystery/suspense and popular reading, whereas there was a mere 1 title listed as nonfiction. However, I'm sure the collection will continue to grow as the technology blooms and becomes more integrated into LibraryLand--like video, dvd, cd's, and databases all once had to do.

If I had a regular player, this is something I'd probably give a go at somepoint, particularly for nonfiction titles. Alas, I have an iPod Shuffle, so I lose out two ways there, lol. Like I said, I'm sure the companies will eventually catch up with the culture and technology.

Thing #9: Podcasts; or, How to indulge my not-so-inner fangirling tendencies

Ok, so podcasts--I have to admit that while I kind of understood what they are, I didn't really understand their full capabilities. I've downloaded missed MPR programs, but I didn't think of them as "podcasts" I guess--maybe bc they were on a regular radio station that I can get in my kitchen or car, you know?

But haha, I am now much better informed! I trolled around podcast.net first, but I found the layout difficult to follow, and every podcast I looked at seemed to have not been updated since December, 2006, which I found to be very strange. I switched over to podcastalley and voila! *cue angelic music* Nirvana. (and no, not the group, thank you.)

And don't look at me like that--I did find a non-fandom podcast: Hardcore History. I'm a big fan/student of history, and I'm sure I could become a wee bit obsessive about this podcast and never leave my computer if given the chance. People, this is watercooler history--I love it!! *is geek*

But ok, yes...I did find a fandom blog...or 4. For SciFi in general, there's SCIFI SEEN, for Battlestar Galactica there's Galactica Quorum and Galactica Watercooler, and for Star Wars there's TheForce.net's The Force-Cast.

Ok, and I found lots of gems on the NPR podcast directory, but I'll only highlight Nancy Pearl's Book Reviews, bc she's been recommended to me at least 3 times in the last month, so she must be someone worth listening to. (Plus she has those groovy little Reference Librarian Action Figure sets!)

Now, if only I had the time to listen to all of these! Maybe when I get to the rss feeds I can circumvent some of this. But first up...audiobooks.

Webcomic--"Excessive Quotation"

From xkdc, A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math, and Language, which comes with the following, uh, disclaimer, lol:

Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).




BTW, the xkdc comic is also available as an rss feed through livejournal. I have yet to understand quite what this means, as I've not done Thing #11. All in good time, peeps. (Although since I have an lj account, I do actually know how to subscribe to it through lj, so that's kind of a cheat, I know.)

Thing #8: YouTube!

This week we got to play with YouTube. I've been a huge fan of the site for well over a year now, mostly bc it only encourages my very serious StarWars fandom habit. Ironically, I don't spend a lot of time surfing through the site bc both my connection at home and my connection here at the library is sooooooooo slow that it takes a lot of time and patience to watch a video. I either need to watch it in starts and stops, or load the whole thing first and then watch. Truthfully, most of the vids I've watched on YouTube have been sent to me by friends, and I've enjoyed them immensely.

I love how YouTube plays to not only my fandom habits, but also to my giant nostalgia gene. I can watch old videos from 80's pop groups, vids fans have put together to music of their favorite clips of their favorite soap opera supercouple, or some of the best spoofs and parodies out there. For a library's use purposes, I can see programming being recorded and embedded into the library's website (like giving patrons a choice between a vid or a podcast), or any kind of tutorial, meeting, or training. It could really be used to bring the library "out" of the building, beyond what just the Web has done.

Ok, below you'll find one of the best vids I've ever found on YouTube (the all-time funniest I can't link to here, bc, well, it's not entirely clean), Star Wars Shortened. Three guys act out all 6 movies from the Saga. They're obviously total fanboys (George Lucas Appreciation Society??), but they're so funny and accurate and they know their stuff. Enjoy! (In two parts bc YouTube vids can only be 10 min or less.)

Part 1:


Part 2:


PS. I'd like to toot my own horn here for figuring out how to embed #1 since YouTube had disabled the embedding code for that vid. Go me!!

Take a little vacation, fall a lotta behind

Ok, so I'm completely behind in this project! Let's see, where was I?

Ok...flickr. Flickr and I don't get along so well, and in the throes of trying to use flickr for some personal use, I became utterly frustrated and opened a photobucket account, which I much prefer. For my personal stuff, for my blogs and whatever, I just need a place to basically host pics that I post, and of that it's precious few. I don't have a camera phone or any great need to publish my mug for all of the internets to see, haha.

However, with flickr, I did open an account and played around a bit. One of my favorites was krazydad's Flickr Chia Head. Check it out! Pick a pic and select where you want the chia plant to grow, and then watch as it fills it out. It made me laugh. Unfortunately I've not found a way to save a pic, so that's kind of a bummer.

I also made a trading card/name badge thingy, courtesy of fd's Flickr Toys, and I see the potential uses in such things, especially for any kind of recognition program, like for kids/schools, or to make some nice and fairly inexpensive gifts for family or whatever. It was fun to make:


As for technology itself...I enjoy technology when it is easy, fun, intuitive, and when I can see a use for it myself. That being said, I reluctantly admit to being wholy unimpressed with email, the web, digital cameras, and blogs with my first few exposures. Likely someday flickr will just knock my socks off and be my new best friend...or maybe not, lol.

So, I'm a Lifelong Learner

(Note to self: Learning 2.0, blogging, and migraine do not equal happy fun time. Nuh-uh.)

Ok, hi!

Got some off-desk time and finally watched the Lifelong Learning vid. What was the easiest of the 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners? It's a toss-up between creating my own learning toolbox and using technology to my advantage. For the toolbox, I use whatever I can get my hands on to further my learning: books, web, radio, classes, mentors. It seems to be second nature to take and file away at least a little bit of something from everything I encounter. With technology, I try to use it whenever possible, or I should say, whenever it is efficient to do so, especially time or ease efficiency.

What's the hardest of the habits? I loathe goal-setting. I am easily discouraged by huge goals with lengthy timelines, so I like to break them up into smaller victories and successes. (These "23 Things" works well for me, rather than a big monster "YOU WILL MASTER ALL OF LEARNING 2.0 BY DECEMBER 31st" directive.) But even worse than that, probably, is that I don't tend to view problems as challenges, but more as crises that need to be solved; I react rather than resolve. Talk about lifelong learning--I'm still working on that one.

I can't even think about Flickr until next time, or why I can't make Blogger do all the stuff I want it to do and think it should do, like make a link, right on my blog, to the Learning 2.0 blog, so I don't have to dig through email every time.

Ok, now I must go crawl into a dark room and whimper. Kthnxbye.

Uh...welcome to my blog?

*waves* So here I am, Darth Librarian, with my new blog for SPPL's Learning 2.0. Do you have any idea how much time went into picking a name for this bugger? It's worse than naming a pet or a child! I really wanted some kind of Jedi truth or wisdom, or even something witty by my favorite hero, Obi-Wan Kenobi, but alas, nothing clicked (I figured Jocasta Nu, the spinsterish archivist in Ep. II, was not a healthy rolemodel since she gave Obi-Wan totally bum advice--"If it's not in our records, it does not exist"--what kind of answer is that???), so I'm stuck with Darth Librarian. Besides, admit it, there are days when a good Force-choke or Jedi mind trick would come in handy, right?!?! Uh huh, I see you nodding. *does not mention Sith Lightning*

This would be where I say yes, I'm a big ol' Star Wars dork, and I make no apologies. I know an alarming amount of minutiae about that fandom--too bad there aren't patrons storming the reference desks in need of my skills!

Ok then, I totally skipped the previous lesson in Learning 2.0 with the video, since I'm never at my desk to watch said thing, so I'll have to figure that one out. Anyway, so far, so good.

See you on the Darth side!

Later, Vaders!