A Hobbesian Librarian

Avatars and Second Life

2008-10-07T15:45:00.000-07:00

Created my Meez virtual avatar. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am very familiar with virtual worlds, as I am a regular player of mmorpg.

Second Life is intriguing because of its "open sandbox" structure. By this I mean the players themselves are active participants in the creation and content of the world. In most mmorpg you are a passive participant, experiencing content created by someone else.

As is true in most things, you get out of it what you put into it. These virtual worlds can be very real but in a distorted kind of way. You are meeting and getting to know real individuals but not necessarily the "real" person. Individuals can create a whole new persona and identity in a virtual world.

There are many positive sides to this. I am aware of a number of individuals who have virtual lives who in their real life are handicapped in one way or another. Virtual worlds allow them to interact with other people in a way that their handicap is not a factor. It "levels the playing field" of the social interaction. The same can be said for age, race, gender, sexual preference, etc.

However, this begs the question: If you are not really getting to know the real person, is this a healthy interaction? Is it a sad substitute? In my opinion it all depends upon how much of your real self you let into the virtual world.

I play mmorpg for an escape. They are like going to an amusement park and meeting people who like to ride the same rides as me. I don't play them for the social interaction but that interaction inhances my experience in the virtual content.

Second Life seems to me to be an attempt to blur the difference between Real Life and Virtual Life. To somehow merge the two. Using the Virtual to address issues of the Real.

This might work for some people but for me that ruins the experience in both worlds.

PS. I should point out that even the mmorpg that I play have issues with Real Life creeping in.
Take a look at this article that talks about real world economics in a virtual world.

Online Applications and Tools

2008-09-19T11:07:00.000-07:00

Becoming a supervisor has caused a number of things to slip through the cracks. 20 for 2.0 is one.
I hope to remedy that, catch up, and graduate some time soon.

I took a look at the Online Apps in Google Docs and Zoho and I was pretty impressed. It makes one wonder if the library system should continue to purchase the Office package for our public PCs.

Having the Office package serves a greater purpose of allowing our patrons to become familiar with those software programs (mostly for employment purposes) but in the future, if we are looking for cost cutting options, that might be one area.

Of course, the devil is in the details. I did notice that Google docs did not recognize docx files. Perhaps Microsoft did this on purpose.

Not exactly related..but I REALLY like Google Calendar. A great feature. I recommended it to my in-laws as a way to schedule a vacation property.

Search Engines

2008-06-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

Google vs Yahoo?

My usage of these sites has changed slighty over the years. I still use both but I think I use Google a bit more now.

Yahoo has a Directory feature that i really like. It groups websites in a subject heading/yellow page heading manner. In the past I could search for a website I knew about, find out how Yahoo had placed it in their directory and then find other sites that have the same heading.

The directory feature is still there but it is not nearly has useful as it has been in the past. It feels like they are not dedicating the same effort to maintaining it and adding new links. The fact that it is no longer an option on the main page is a tell -tale sign. You now have to click on the "more" link over the search box to get there.

I still go to Yahoo for all their "added features", finding movies, news of the day, financial stuff, automobile profiles. I just have gotten used to their layout.

However, for library research I use Google. It just feels "bigger" and I just tend to eventually find sites that are not coming up in other engines. It could be that I just use Google better.

The other search engines mentioned on the 20 for 2.0 page were not terribly noteworthy. Unless I missed something I did not see how they would be any more productive than Yahoo or Google.

I think the most interesting way of comparing all these search engines is to see how they handle a search that is rich in sales potential. Seeing how they list commercial or sponsored sites is interesting.

Podcasting

2008-06-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

The list of podcasting libraries was very handy. I quickly identified the Denver Public Library and the Kankakee Public Library. I subscribed to them via my google reader.

I listened to two from Kankakee and was impressed with their offerings. Their 2007 Poetry
Slam and a presentation by the author Christopher Paul Curtis.

This is a great way of expanding the audience for a library program to those who might be interested but could not necessary make it to the actual event.

They made me curious about any kind of waivers they had to get people to sign.

Another great example of all the amazing stuff that is out there on the internet that is sometimes "hidden".

Online Image Generators

2008-05-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

Created an online image. It is too bad there needs to be the advertisement on the image you created. Seems to me that it would seriously limit any uses it will have.

A fun excercise.

PS. Cropped the ad out of the bottom. Much better.

Overdrive downloads

2008-05-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

Although I have not been much of a user, I am a big fan of the downloadable content on our website.

The process itself is fairly straight forward. Our patrons who already have mp3 players and have some familiarity with the technology don't seem to have many problems.

However, in my experience we are leading some of our patrons into this technology ( a good thing ) and it is these "newbies" that are having difficulties. Getting them to download the console first is a important step. Additionally, getting them to understand that we only have a single "copy", that you can't return it early, and that the catalog always says it is Not Checked Out seem to be the biggest hurdles.

I did not find much of interest to me in the music "Pop and Rock" area nor in the Soundtrack titles available. In fact, I did not recognize most of it. That might be more of a commentary on how "out of touch" I am.

Our selection of audio books is much better. I think the nonfiction titles are a great resource for patron...especially the language instruction titles. I find myself refering to those most often.

It seems that these audio titles might still be undiscovered by our patrons. On a number of occassions I have found a title available when all the of the print and Book on CD copies are charged with waiting lists.

Social Bookmarking

2008-05-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

I created a del.icio.us account and added a few websites from my favorites. Ones that have long URLs and at least one that took me forever to "refind" after I found it the first time.

For the librarians in the audience that URL is: http://www.geocommunicator.gov/GeoComm/landmin/home/index.shtm
(Click on the map in the grid...to the right of Mining Claims Map. A clunky interface, but very powerful.)
It is a Bureau of Land Management mapping tool that allows you to search for mining claims. Very handy. With the price of gold going through the roof I have had a number of patrons who were interested in panning.

So anyway, I added them and then checked out who else had bookmarked them. I did not gain any great insights or new websites from the little poking around that I did.

I can see the value of this kind of resource for our patrons or anyone that finds themselves using lots of different PCs. (Although, you can not load the del.icio.us toolbar on the public PCs.) However, professionally I will always have access to both my personal favorites and the Snohomish Reference ones simply by logging in with that profile.

Will i ever need them at home? While away at some conference?
(My former and current supervisors will get a chuckle out of that.)
Potentially, but it sure seems like a lot of work for an odd chance.

So, in the end I don't see myself becoming a contributor to the social bookmarking world...however, I could foresee myself using it as a tool for research. I guess that makes me a parasite...taking but not contributing.

So be it.

Wikis

2008-05-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

I have a love / hate relationship with wikis. My very first post gave a little clue.

LOVE

I use wikis. Probably the one I use more than any other is for the great time sink I mentioned in my flickr post, it is eq2.wikia.com. This is a great example of the power of wikis. It is harnessing the input of thousands of individuals to build a massive database.

The movie from Commoncraft (how do i get a link to an embedded video?) illustrated another reason why i love wikis. As my email Inbox gets more and more cluttered I find it difficult to process a series of Re:'s on a given topic. Wikis have the ability to present a group "conversation" in a manner that is much easier for my brain to follow. I find a forum environment to be helpful as well.

HATE

This is where my pessimistic views come in.

The very "open" nature of wikis, which is their greatest strength, is also their greatest weakness. When you couple the complete anonymity of the internet with the malicious potential of human nature you have a recipe for at best inconsistency and at worst, disaster.

The word discriminating at one time was used to describe a virtue. The American Heritage College Dictionary has the following definitions:
1a. Able to recognize or draw fine distinctions, perceptive
1b. Showing careful judgement or fine taste.

The internet in general and wikis in particular are the antithesis to this kind of discrimination. The whole ethos of cyberspace is that everyone has something to contribute, all contributions are equally valid and useful, and collectively out of this cacophany wisdom will be created.

I recognize this criticism does not apply to a wiki that is limited to a finite and known group of individuals. However, when applied to the anarchic internet at large, Hobbes and I would agree, the worst in man comes out and progress stalls.

This kind of criticism is excessive in many cases. It is certainly possible to have an "open" wiki that never degenerates from a respectful and productive dialog. However, the more people you include "in the loop" the potential for folly increases.

So.....uses for the public library?

I think they have great potential for internal use. They are an excellent tool for groups to collaborate on creating a document or formulating a plan.

Even externally they have potential. It would be possible to have an entire book discussion club online using wikis and forums. Naturally there would be some kind of moderator to keep things flowing.

Wikis are great for expressing and sharing opinions.

Streaming Video

2008-04-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

I have been a big fan of Youtube ever since someone turned me onto the British Television series QI.
All of the seasons (or series as they call them) had been uploaded on Youtube and I dutifully began working my way through them.
I got up to series 9 when most of them got pulled off...perhaps due to some kind of copyright violation.
However, you can still view some of them. Why not start at the first one here?

Since then, other items have increased my affection for this online service. Access to my new favorite band...Dragonforce. (aka The band that plays the hardest song on Guitar Hero) View them in all their metal fury here. (Beware of flying hair.)

My nephew created a Youtube video as a school project.
Here it is. Our educational system at work.

Facebook

2008-04-24T18:03:00.000-07:00

Created my Facebook profile: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1232004419

Not something I foresee myself maintaining.

Personally/privately I am pretty happy with my small little world and don't have much desire to expand beyond it.
Professionally, I don't foresee much use for this.

However, I can certainly appreciate the term "social networking".
Within two minutes of creating my account I found a number of people that I had not seen since high school or college.
I would imagine making contact with these people would then lead to additional connections..and so on...and so on.

Maybe when the kids are all grown up I will look to expand my little world.....maybe.

Flickr

2008-04-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

I am a week behind but luckily I found Flickr very easy to use.
I think i enjoyed browsing for photographs more entertaining than i thought i would.

Photography is an art form that is completely lost on me. I can appreciate an interesting photo and can enjoy looking at them but as far as recognizing what is "good" art....no way.

However, in a way this saves lots of time. I can look through a whole book of photography fairly quickly!

Rather than uploading some images of myself or family I decided to create a set of screenshots from my "other" life. The great time waster in my life. Here is a sample:

More images of my alter egos can be found here.

Streaming Music

2008-04-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

Just goes to show how vast and amazing is the internet. I spend my life staring at a web browser but i have never heard of these features.

I gave Pandora a whirl. It was both interesting and frustrating.

I listen to music but am completely ignorant when it comes to musical terminology. The librarian in me was fascinated by the "subject headings" they assigned to the kind of music that i liked, even though it was like reading another language.

However, I couldnt help but feel that the connections it was making between songs and artists were failing someone. It reminded me of the same way Novelist fails to match books. It compares books by plot descriptors which in many cases has nothing to do with why someone likes a particular book. The same goes for music, sometimes a band just has "it" and another band might sound like them...but they just don't have "it".

I do think this service is superior to Novelist in the sense that it is dynamic and takes feedback from the listener and can compare lists created by other users.

I could see how tools like this could be helpful for someone just getting into a "genre" of music and looking for some direction.

I sure wish you could Fast Forward a song. I wish there were more soundtrack songs included.

A fun exercise.

RSS

2008-03-31T12:49:00.000-07:00

I set up my RSS reader with Google instead of Bloglines as instructed. I hope that is OK.

I just didnt want to create yet another account when it was not necessary.

I added three sites to my RSS reader, Heretical Librarian blog, the SIL Coll. Dev. blog, and The Onion.

I don't really foresee myself using this feature very much. There are only a handful of websites that I visit regularly and none of them will work the way I want them to.....as near as I can tell.

For example, I like to read Christopher Hitchens column at Slate.com. It will come as no surprise to any who knows me that I like to read this contrarian.

However, he does not post regularly. Slate has a RSS feed option but as near as I can tell it wont let me limit it to a particular contributor. The best it does is allow you to limit it by "department". So it doesnt really save me any time in checking to see if he has a new column up.

RSS feeds don't seem to be too much of a time saver. It would just become another thing that i need to check everyday to make sure it doesnt start overflowing and become unmanagable.

I guess I am just a browser at heart.

Ways that SIL could use this technology?
It might be interesting if our patrons could create "reading interest profiles" such as political science, fantasy, or Iraq. Then whenever SIL purchases a book that falls within this profile a patron would get a "feed" sent to them, informing them fo the purchase.
Maybe even include a direct link to the catalog so a hold can be placed quickly?

For all i know SIL is already doing this!

I'm IMing

2008-03-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

Set up my Google Talk account. I have yet to use it but I have a few invites out.

I do have a pretty long experience with chat interfaces like this, mostly through mmorpg. (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) My long sordid history includes: NWN on AOL, Asheron's Call, and EQ2. (With a few brief stops along the way in AC2, DAOC, and POTBS)

Additionally, I have been doing chat reference for a number of years.

I am a bit torn on this medium of communication.

I don't think it is a very good for "professional communication", it is far too limiting and the potential for miscommunication is too great.
I believe one of the arguements for incorporating this type of communication is because our patrons are using it and we want to make ourselves available to them. There is a certain level of truth to this and this medium does give us a great tool for remote instruction in catalog and database use.
However, truth be told, when i am doing "virtual reference" catalog and database instruction is only a small percentage of the transactions. (Although, they are the most productive and impactful.)

I think my biggest criticism of chat is that it is too "flippant". When a patron asks me for help I take their request very seriously and in turn expect them to as well. This medium of communication is rife with the internet equivalent of "prank calls".

However, i do think the informal nature of this communication could have its advantages. A potential use for this technology that I envision could be the following:

Librarians at reference desks around the sytem are all logged into a single "chat room".

A librarian somewhere has brain-lock and can't remember the series name for the "Jack and Annie" books.

They throw this question out into the chat room for all the other librarians to see and anyone who sees the question can help out with "Magic Tree House".

Anyone who has worked on a Information Desk with another librarian knows how helpful it can be to "bounce ideas of each other" or to just help out with those "brain locks" we all get.

A librarian might feel silly and reluctant to call another library to do this, but the informal nature of "chat" is more conducive to this kind of communication.

In many ways this form of communication would work better than a phone call. One nevers knows which library to call where you will get a live person and not voicemail. With a chat room you can fire the question out to everyone at the same time.

PS. I IM'ed with Dlyn. Objective complete.

What would you do?

2008-03-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

This is scary on so many levels.

http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080314/NEWS01/803140331

Blogs, Blogging and SnoIsle 20 for 2.0

2008-03-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

20 for 2.0

I think I have had a slight attitude adjustment from my initial views on blogging and Sno-Isle's 20 for 2.0 training.

It will come as no surprise to those who work with me my first impression was a negative one! 8^)

I must admit that I initially thought this training was not very grounded in what I do day-to-day in the library.

As I will address later on, I think in many ways the world is obsessesed with communication, sharing, and all the new whiz-bang ways we can do it. This training seemed to be unnecesarily feeding that frenzy.

However, after getting into it and visiting other peoples blogs I realized this training has a number of benefits.

With a minimal investment of time (that staff can fit in around other activities) Sno-Isle is exposing a large number of staff members to a variety of technologies and internet features.
Even if these are not tools that will help us do our jobs, they are tools that we should at least have a conceptual understanding of, so we can help our patrons who are involved in using these tools.
I have often thought Sno-Isle should have a virtual photo album that contains every employee. The system has gotten large enough that it would be nice to have a anonymous tool for putting faces to names and vice versa. This photo album would be on the Intranet and organized by department/branch. Individuals could be given the option of giving biographical information about themselves, reading interests, special skills, etc.
These blogs provide some of that functionality. Although, I still think we need the photo album!

So all in all, kudos to the 20 for 2.0 team and to Sno-Isle for this training!

Blogs and Blogging

I am often struck by the people who seem to be constantly on their cell-phone, texting, or checking email. Is all that communication actually necessary? Is it possible they suffering from some kind of ADD where being disconnected and alone is an uncomfortable to them?

I recently read a book about the United Nations which for me was a peak into my own personal version of hell. It portrayed the UN as a massive self feeding feedback loop of meetings and focus groups that created memos to be sent to other committees, who then create a final document that had no bearing or impact on the world outside of the UN. Only to be read and argued over by others within the UN. As if the greatest virtue was good intentions and not actually improving something in the world.

Is it possible that blogging is the "common man's" version of the UN hell? Only self inflicted? I update my blog, check yours, make comments, you respond to my comments, check my blog, make comments, I respond to your comments. I add a link to the news story of the day. And pretty soon it is time for me to update my blog again..and the cycle continues.

All this massive amount of communication but to what purpose? What is scary is the communication becomes the work and nothing ever gets done.

The author Robin Hobb has an interesting article on this topic.
She writes much better than I do. Imagine that!
http://robinhobb.com/rant.html

In my first blog I made the statement that if a blog is a diary then it is exhibitionism and if it is an opinion column than it is egotism.

I have never had the desire to keep a diary so I think I am free from calling myself an exhibitionist.

On the other hand, I have never caught myself without an opinion on something and humility is a virtue that I am constantly reminding myself that i need to adopt.

So I freely adopt the label as egotist.

My great hope is that if i can use this blog as an outlet for those comments that I find so clever, (but for some reason nobody else does) perhaps I wont feel the need to express them out loud.

ARGGGHHHHH!!!

2008-03-15T12:37:00.001-07:00

I am a wreak without speall cheke!

Tolkienian boat names

2008-03-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

I am pleasantly surprised by the number of votes I have gathered so far. I had thrown the survey up just as a way to explore the capabilities of this blog service.

I thought I would put up an explanation of the names.

Winged Balrog
This is kind of an inside joke for anyone who has delved into the geekdom that is Tolkien literary criticism. There is a great debate about Balrogs and whether or not they have wings.

For those of you that have seen the movies, a Balrog is the creature that Gandalf fought on the bridge, when he fell to his death (and later rebirth).
In the books it is described:
"the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings"
and then later:
"suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall...".

Another key passage in the debate appears in another work that Tolkien wrote about the Elder Days. In this passage he writes about the Balrogs:
"'Swiftly they arose, and they passed with winged speed over Hithlum, and they came to Lammoth as a tempest of fire.'

Sounds like they have wings, but then the question arises.
If they had wings why did it fall with Gandalf?
Perhaps it has wings but they don't function as wings?

There is much more to the arguement and it is so overwhelmingly geeky that I can't stop looking at it. Like some kind of terrible literary car wreck.

If you doubt the volume and veracity of this debate. Take a gander at these websites.
http://www.glyphweb.com/ARDA/b/balrogs.html
http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/TAB6.html
http://www.xenite.org/tolkien/do-balrogs-have-wings.html

Earendil
Known as The Mariner. He is one of the most famous figures of Tolkien's First Age. He sailed to the Valar (the gods) to beg for their help in fighting Morgoth (If you thought Sauron in the movie was bad. Morgoth was his boss.)
The name of his ship was Vingilot which in High Elven means "Foam Flower".
Now that might be a name for my boat!
http://www.glyphweb.com/ARDA/e/earendil.html

Tar-Aldarion
Sixth King of Numenor. Known as the Mariner King or the Great Captain. His story is a tragic one, he basically loved sailing and exploring more than his family.
On second thought this is probaby not a great name for my boat!

An interesting start

2008-03-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

Not sure exactly how i feel about "blogging". Is it a diary or an opinion column?

If it is a diary then it feels a bit like exibitionism.
If it is a opinion column then it feels like egotism.

Perhaps I will explore that idea in a later blog.

In researching my name for this blog ( I couldn't figure out if it was Hobbesian or Hobbessian ) I stumbled across something too synchronous to ignore.

A Google search on "Hobbesian" retrieves a Wikipedia entry as the very first result.

Beneath the link to the wikipedia article is this brief disclaimer:

"Editing of this article by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled until March 7, 2008 (UTC) due to vandalism."

In a nutshell that pretty much sums up Hobbes' view of man and my view of Wikipedia.

Cheers

PS. I decided to go with Hobbesian because it just looks better next to Librarian. I have no idea if that is correct or not. However, the lack of "authority" seemed to go with the freespirited nature of Web 2.oh.