Thing #23: Wrapping up

Well, here's the end of the program. But not the end of ongoing learning. It's been interesting to note that even with technologies I was already using regularly (flickr, Delicious) there were aspects I hadn't yet explored - I still need to go back again and revisit some of those in more depth. And there were of course plenty of new things I discovered in the course of the program.

I was struck earlier today by a comment from another staff member here that showed exactly why a program like this is important: he wanted more training in a particular service offered by the library, and he wanted those of us already familiar with it to provide it. Seems reasonable, and we do try to provide such training. But in fact it's impossible for us to provide training in everything we do to every member of a staff as large as ours. And it would be even more difficult for us to provide training in all of the basic skills that support those things. That being the case, it's absolutely critical for staff to assume a high level of responsibility for their own ongoing training. The other side of the coin is that it's equally critical for administrators to support such training (and ensure that individual supervisors support it as well) by allowing staff time for self-directed training.

The difficulty of providing such time for staff leads to the main thing I would suggest changing in future programs of this type: allow more time for people to complete the program. I'm aware that as we approach the deadline, only a fraction of the staff here who started the program are close to finishing, and that is, unfortunately, likely to make them reluctant to participate the next time around.

For myself, I certainly would participate in another such program, if at all possible.

Thing #22: Podcasts

I've subscribed to a number of podcasts over the last few years, some of which are now defunct or very irregular; as with blogs, the upkeep of them can be daunting.

Searching for library-related podcasts in the available search tools can yield some surprising results - search for "library" in PodcastAlley, for example, and you get not only the "Library Survival Guide" and the Salt Lake County Library podcasts, but also "Erotic Xpressions from the Lusty Library" - so search with caution!

Some library-related podcasts stand out: Denver PL's podcasts include readings of children's books (apparently they have contracted with certain publishers to allow this). The Seattle Public Library has podcasts aimed at both adults and teens. Some library-related podcasts are aimed at librarians, such as "Uncontrolled Vocabulary" (note to Michael: sorry, but you are a number; this is a global Village, after all). Nothing wrong with that, but it's an inherently limited audience.

As I type this, I have just finished editing our library's 56th podcast, which should be posted tomorrow. We regard our podcasts as being part of our Readers' Advisory services, with (usually) weekly talk-show format programs discussing books. We also regard some of our podcasts as a way to make some of our programming, including book talks, guest speakers, and other events, available to a wider audience. Making these live recordings listenable can be a challenge, but at their best the results can be very interesting and fun to listen to.

For those interested: our podcasts are also available through the iTunes store.

Thing #21: YouTube

Somewhere between the "some people have too much time on their hands" videos and the "let's see if we can get away with this copyright violation" videos, there's a place on YouTube for videos that can actually be useful. Here is an example of a video (which is also embedded on our Library's Web site) from one of our library programs:







We've also used it for posting things like Summer Reading promos, and are looking at the possibility of putting up video tutorials. Certainly it's easier to post a video to YouTube and embed it than to configure our own server for streaming. But we may need to modify the release form we ask people to sign before we post videos we create: there's a difference (at least in perception, if not in substance) between putting something on our own site and putting it out on the wilds of YouTube.

But my biggest concern with using YouTube is actually the bandwidth demands. Even with a fast connection, it's been rare in my experience for a video to stream without some interruptions (depending on the time of day and so forth), and on my DSL connection at home it's out of the question: I have to let the video download completely before trying to watch it. Maybe someday these issues will be resolved, but for the time being it's of limited usefulness for anyone with less than the fastest available connection.

Thing #20: Discovering Web 2.0 tools: Pandora

Let's talk about Pandora (2nd place in SEOmoz's music category). Pandora provides streaming audio, and allows you to create customized "stations" that will (theoretically) play only music you like.

Here's how it works: start by entering the name of an artist you enjoy (or you can select one of their existing "genre" stations). Pandora will start playing music by that artist, and also by other artists who have (in their view) similar musical characteristics. As each song plays, you have the opportunity to give it a "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down". If you give a song a thumbs-up, Pandora uses that information to refine the selection of music your station plays; if you give it a thumbs-down, Pandora will remove it from your playlist. (If you're tired of a particular song but don't want it permanently removed, you can tell Pandora to skip it, and the song will be removed from you playlist for a month. There is a limit, however, to how many songs you can skip in a day.) Information about the individual songs and the CD's they are taken from is available; you can buy individual songs from iTunes or Amazon, or order the complete CD from Amazon.

How well does it work? Fairly well. The "listen-alike" selections seem to work best (predictably) for artists whose sound is not really unique, and it can take awhile to refine your playlists to be what you really want. Some artists seem to be represented by only a few songs, so you may hear a lot of repetition. On the other hand, I've discovered some interesting artists whose work I didn't know before.

Like any streaming media, Pandora takes a fairly fast Internet connection to work well. It also will sometimes suddenly stop streaming mid-song for no apparent reason; sometimes it will then skip to another song, but sometimes it just stops streaming for an extended period. (This latter problem could possibly be due to something elsewhere in the chain, rather than Pandora itself.)

The concept is good: customizable, commercial-free Internet radio. The execution is not perfect, but is good enough to keep me coming back. I'm not sure about its library usefulness, I must admit, though it could be a site to recommend to patrons looking for new music.

Thing #19: Online apps

OK, I'm composing this post in Google Docs. I can certainly see some advantages to using online apps: not having documents tied to a particular PC, not having to wonder whether a shared computer will have the right software, being able to share files, etc. And there are some possible uses for libraries. For example, staff throughout our system use Google Docs spreadsheets for scheduling; supervisors have editing access, while other staff can view the schedule from wherever they happen to be (including checking it from home if need be).

I also tried out Google Docs form creator, which was very interesting; here is the result (I had to add this in Blogger after sending the post from Google Docs):



(Mind, I'm not sure yet what becomes of this information after someone clicks "Submit"; I'll post a follow-up when I know more.)

There are, however, a few drawbacks or limitations as well. If all of your schedules are on Google Docs, a loss of Internet access (which does happen from time to time) can become a significant problem instead of a minor inconvenience. Forgetting to log out of your account on a shared computer opens up security and privacy issues. Less important, users who like to use a variety of fonts in their documents are now likely to be satisfied with the limited number of fonts available in Google Docs.

So while online apps can be very useful, I don't think I'm quite ready to give up my desktop apps just yet.