Thing #38 Screencasting

I can really see the usefulness of screencasting for new employees or substitutes. I don't have a microphone so that is not an option. I don't like to download to the library computer so I tried ScreenToaster (http://www.screentoaster.com/). ScreenToaster was not really easy to use and I wasn't able to edit afterwards other then putting in captions (at least I couldn't find it). Also I was not able to save it to the computer.

I then tried Screencast-o-matic (http://www.screencast-o-matic.com./) instead. First I had to download Java. This worked much better and I was able to save it to the computer. Below is the screencast I made. I would get a mic if I used it seriously.

Thing #37 Photo Tales

With the orginal 23 things I started a Flickr account for the library and myself and then right after that I got a Picasa account. I found Picasa much easier to use so I stuck with Picasa. It doesn't offer all that Flickr does, but for what I was doing it did not matter. I tried Photobucket, making a slideshow, but I wasn't too thrilled. I've also tried Picnik, but found it very hard to use. I just now tried One True Media (http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/public_home) doing both a slide show and a video. This was easy and has many options that are free. Below is a video I took at a Bluegrass Festival.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It would be nice to make a DVD each year of all pictures and videos that were taken. It costs $24.95 to have a DVD made at One True Media. I tried burning a cd of all library pictures from last year, but it would not play on all computers.

Thing #36 Comic relief - generate some fun

Lots of interesting things, but I didn't find much of use.

• Citations could be very helpful for students since we have an older version of word that does not do citations.
• I probably could find a use of graphs. I have always loved statistics and graphs.
• I wish I would have known about the timeline last year when planning the Library's 100th aniversary.
• Tag Cloud could also be useful. LibraryThing does that with the 'tags' (subjects) that are put in for your books.

I see some use for some of the generators at the library.

I tried out the comic strip maker, but ToonDoo got stuck. I found the comics about library's pretty stupid and if I tried to make my own it would be just as stupid since I'm not very creative.

Thing #35 Books 2.0 continued

Over the last ten years I have seen a big decline in reading for the chapter book age group. Though just in the last year there have been a few high schoolers that have found that reading is fun. The only thing is, they do not come into the Library and browse the shelves but order everything on the online catalog, getting their ideas from lists on the internet. There are quite a few adults who do this also. My big question is, "how do you get people to come in?" I guess we have become kind of a fast food service. Some of them actually go to book stores, browse the shelves, write down titles and then go home, get on the computer and order them (many we have). Seems like it would be just as easy (or easier) to come into the library. This is a little ranting...it is my pet peeve.

Many of the books 2.0 could enhance a persons reading, but be quite time consuming.

I did look into many of the sites or tools, but not too interested in many for myself.

Thing #35 Books 2.0

I don't use any of the personal book organizers since I don't have the internet at home, but I have been using LibraryThing for the Preston Library for about a year now ( http://www.librarything.com/home/prestonlibrary ). I don't think that it is used much and it is rather time consuming, but we plan to keep it up. I did look at quite a few of these, but I like the look of LibraryThing best. I may set up an account with lib.rario.us (http://lib.rario.us/) to list the Library's DVDs.

Don't have a cell phone that does anything special so I couldn't look into that part.

I looked at a few of the Reader's Advisory sites, Online Book Communities and Book Group Resources. Some really neat things! I liked the BookGlutton (http://www.bookglutton.com/) and wish I had internet at home to read some of the books. It is nice to know about these things to let partons and book groups know what is available.

Checked out a few in Book Swaps. Could be useful in finding books. Not sure about BookCrossing...

Not all the links worked. International Children's Digital Library might be nice for someone learning a new language or for someone unable to find books in their language, but I just can't see reading a book to a child from a computer screen.

Why rent a book when you can go to the Library! The college textbooks may be nice though.

I have been doing the visual bookshelf on Facebook for quite awhile, but it isn't real easy to use and I forget to keep it up to date.

I'm not much into Audio Books, but it might be fun to find one in German...

Thing #34 Is this our Competition?

Being a small library, we have never had a reference desk. Online answer sites are nice because of the anonymity especially when you live in a small town. It is also convenient. But unfortunately too many people trust everything they find on the internet. I think that the Slam the Board events is great, but I didn't join and try to answer anything.

Thing #33 Travel 2.0

Though I would love to travel I'm unable to do much. Most of my travel revolves around Bluegrass Festivals.

• I did not find the blogs listed interesting.
• The review sites were interesting and may use at some time. I, of course, searched Preston, MN, not much listed though, but when I searched on Virtual Tourist up popped a picture of the Preston Public Library! I think that the Preston Chamber of Commerce should look into this.
• Travel Journal sites may be fun and would work best if you were able to get internet service.
• Travel mashups didn't interest me either.

I don't find any of this useful for the library, but it could be suggested to patrons. I enjoyed the review sites the most.

Thing #32 Google maps and mash ups

I have used google maps, map quest and yahoo maps quite a bit for directions. Amazingly they are all different. I made a map of of my town with places that I frequent the most. Not sure if I would use map mashups for the Library.