YouTube

Well, that was fun. You could spend hours and hours on YouTube, but I only spent 45 minutes, and the videos I watched were a real "mixed bag." Some were hilarious ("Adventures of Super Librarian, Harper College Library Tour); some were stupid ("melvin Dewey Speaks"); some were boring ("Allen Co. Public Library"), etc. In this brief tour of YouTube, I think I learned that if you want to catch the attention of your audience, you better be interesting, funny, AND visually effective. We're used to being entertained; a video that is strictly informational without some entertainment value is not likely to succeed; there's too many other ways to get the information quickly.

As far as addressing the "authoritative" aspect of YouTube videos, there may be a possibility that the summary information that describes the videos could provide some direction. The source/creator is a good starting point.

Thing 17 was a lot of fun, especially for someone who has not played around with music streaming before. I started out with Musicovery, because I liked the idea of the “relational map based upon mood, genre, and decade.” But I kept running into “premium member only” restrictions, and when I tried to do the free registration, I always got a form in a foreign language (French, I think).

So I switched to Pandora. I found it very easy to navigate and choose selections. I like the biographical information it provides about the artists, and the many options for finding and playing the music I like. The only thing I didn’t like was the advertisements, but it is free, after all.

What role can this service play in our patrons’ lives? Well, I guess they could listen to streamed songs before checking out one of our CDs. Maybe the library could provide links in the catalog to streamed samples from our CD collection. Will people still check out CDs in the future? I think the technology will change from CDs to smaller devices with online music providers. Oh, that’s Thing 17! It’s already here!

Google Docs

Google Docs was new to me, and it was interesting to work with. I like the idea of online accessibility of files, even if it is just by me, working from different computers (at home or at work, for example). And it would be very useful also for group collaborations. For example, members of a book club could all contribute to "Discussion Questions" they would like to talk about for the book the group is currently reading.
I tried doing a presentation. I could imagine members of a family all contributing to a "memory book" for one of the relatives...or employees for a coworker. If departments of an organization were doing a joint presentation, and especially if the departments were in different locations, this could be an effective way to work together. I also tried a spreadsheet, and a form. Each of these formats seemed fairly easy to use.

Google Maps

I've usually gone to Mapquest, or more recently, a GPS, for directions to a location. But in exploring Google Maps, I found some fun features. My current favorite feature is zooming in via the satellite view to find homes and businesses with a "bird's eye view." Since we frequently travel on I30E to Little Rock, I was wondering how long it would take us for a side trip to Paris, Texas, and see the "Eifel Tower with a Texas Cowboy Hat." Follow this map and you, too, can enjoy the Eifel Tower in Texas!


View Larger Map

Catching up again -- YouSendIt

I used YouSendIt to send a file to myself (to avoid boring any friends), and it went through quickly with no problems. This is a handy service for photos and videos especially. Graphic artists might love it!

Tiny URL

This seems like a handy little tool, especially if you share a lot of links. To try it out, I used the URL of a trailer for a film documentary that I enjoyed in the theatre last year, "September Issue," the story of how Vogue Magazine's biggest (and heaviest) issue of the year all comes together. The TinyURL for this review is http://tinyurl.com/septvogue, quite a bit shorter and definitely more memorable than www.youtube.com/watch?v=lffDrp4uAlQ.

Facebook

Originally, a couple years ago, I created a Facebook profile so I could keep up with my kids. Then more and more friends, especially in my age group, started becoming part of the Facebook network. Now I find that there are many more ways to use Facebook apart from keeping up with your friends. Next to real people, books have a place on my "friends" list, so naturally I was interested in looking at library and book-related pages. I think the Frisco Library does a great job on its Facebook Page. It stays current and puts art and photos to use. Just needs a little more activity from Adult Services. (Uh oh-- that would include me!) Other pages I have found interesting and helpful are Goodreads, LibraryThing, and Texas Book Festival.