Thing #19: Pandora

This Thing had us wandering about in the list of Web 2.0 Awards nominees, and picking one to write about. I picked the music category and what do I find as nominee #1? Pandora! One of the single best music sites on the Internet.

Here's how it works. You start with an artist or a song that you like and create a "station". That song is then played for you, followed by another, and another, and another, all fitting into the same general style as your original song. To adjust the types of songs that are being sent to you, click on the thumbs up or thumbs down for the song currently being played. Too much bass in that song, thumbs down. That song's perfect, thumbs up. It's a great way to hear artists you may not be familiar with.

I mostly use Pandora at home. Despite an extensive CD collection (thousands) most of which is not yet on my network, I'll often got to Pandora on the laptop hooked up to my HDTV and have Pandora supply the soundtrack for the afternoon.

Here's the favorite of my stations based on the classics of Miles Davis. This and my other stations can be access through my profile page.

Thing #17: PBWiki

I'm a firm believer that PBWiki is a great way to get your feet wet when it comes to creating and editing a wiki. My only complaint is that the WISIWYG editor locks up Firefox. Oh, well, off to IE I go. I added to the Favorite Music page in our wiki. Check it out if you're wondering.

Thing #16: Wikis wikis everywhere

I'm a fan of wikis but when used appropriately. In other words, no matter how much you like wikis at a technology, that doesn't mean they're right for all situations. Here's a way to think about it: blogs are for conversation, wikis are for collaboration. Just because you have three people editing your Web site, that doesn't mean it should be based on wiki software.

Additionally, those that say that Wikipedia isn't a good resource, are using a different Wikipedia than I am. I use it almost daily. Occasionally I find myself looking elsewhere to verify the information Wikipedia contains but generally it is right.

Thing #15: What is Library 2.0?

I'm going to cheat on this one and post a screencast created by my friend Cindi Trainor since I agree with every word she has to say about the topic. (The text is small in the embedded version so you'll want to click the Full Screen icon once it starts playing or view it on blip.tv directly.)

Thing #14: Technorati

I have a love/hate relationship with blog-specific search engines. On the one had I long-ago "claimed" this blog in Technorati to make sure that it was indexing my content. I also appreciate that those of us attending conferences like Computers in Libraries can tell those who wish to follow along to just watch for the conference tag in Technorati.

On the other hand, I don't use it for searching at all. I rarely find myself asking "Gee, I wonder what's being said about this topic in the blogosphere." Is it that I don't care what bloggers have to say about a topic, no. It's just that I already follow via RSS the bloggers I care about so I already know what they think.

I suppose I could use something like Technorati more and maybe I should give it a second chance, but it just doesn't come to mind when I need to search for things.

Thing #13: Del.icio.us

I use Del.icio.us a lot! I've still got a a set of my most used bookmarks in my browser for quick access but pretty much everything else goes into my Del.icio.is account. Most importantly I use my account to post the links that are relevant to my workshops and presentations. For example, I've tagged all the links for my blogging workshop with "class-blogs". This way, I can sent all of the blogging workshop attendees to http://del.icio.us/travelinlibrarian/class-blogs instead of giving them a piece of paper with a long list of sites and URLs on it. Also, with this method, after class, attendees can return to this URL whenever they like and see the most recent resources that I feel are relevant to the topic. I've been doing this for a little over two years now and all my students have grabbed onto the concept quite well.

Thing #12: Rollyo

I've played with Rollyo in the past and didn't find it of much use as I don't do many subject specific searches. However, on further investigation, I could see a library setting up some specific topic-based searches for use on the reference desk. For example, Lincoln City Libraries setting up a search that runs against all sorts of Lincoln-related resources.

I did end up creating a pseudo ego search for myself. Use this one to search against all my different sites and profiles that I've got online. For example, if you want to see what I've posted online involving the commission search the box below for NLC, choose "The Travelin' Librarian" as your search engine, click Search and see what you get.

Select Search Engine...The Travelin' LibrarianSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

Thing #11: LibraryThing

I've been using LibraryThing for a few years now and love it! You can find my profile here. I've paid the $25 for a lifetime membership and (geek that I am) imported all of the ISBNs from my home catalog into my account to get started. Since then I add all my new books as soon as I get them home. Just seven more books and I'll have 4,000 in my account. My favorite part of the whole thing is being able to access the mobile version of my account on my cell phone in order to be able to answer that age-old question: Do I already own this? LibraryThing has come to my rescue many times. I've also met Tim Spalding, the creator of LT and he's both wonderful and intelligent. If you're interested in knowing more, check out this talk that Time gave to the staff of the Library of Congress in 2007.

Thing #10: Puzzled by Sushi?

Today's the day where I catch up, if not complete since I'm at CiL all next week, with our Learning 2.0 program. Thing #10 is image generators. I've got to say that I LOVE playing with image generators. I've got quite a list of these in my del.icio.us account. (Check 'em out.) So, having played with many of them in the past I tried to find a new one and, courtsey of fd's flickr toys, I've now used the Jigsaw generator. Here's the result:

Thing #8: RSS, part 1

This week's Things deal with RSS and Thing #8 has us signing up with Bloglines and subscribing to some feeds. Well, no problem for me there as I've already got an account which contains about 500 feeds. So, yep, I'm stuck for something to specifically blog about. Well, the thing's built in questions have come to the rescue!

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?

Simple, the fact that they make keeping up simple. If I had to actually bookmark all of these resources and check daily for what's new, at best I'd go insane. With RSS, all I need to do is subscribe and all the information comes to me as soon as it can

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?

My problem is that I use this all the time in both my work AND personal life so much so that sometimes it's hard to differentiate between the two. If I read a feed about cool technology, is that for work or is that personal? The answer is "yes".

How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

Libraries can use RSS in two ways. First librarians can use it to keep up with news and the opinions of other librarians. The libraries themselves can use it as a great way to distribute information to their users.

Thing #6: New Trading Card

New Trading Card
Originally uploaded by Travelin' Librarian

Thing #6 has us playing with flickr mashup tools. I created a trading card for myself way back when but I never really like the photo so I've taken this opportunity to create a new one. Hope y'all like it.

Thing #5 : Blogging from flickr

Miles Davis
Originally uploaded by jazz matrix

Thing #5 of our Learning 2.0 series involves playing with and optionally signing up for a flickr account. Well, got the account already (approaching 15,000 photos) and I'm pretty familiar with how it works. The last item was to blog a photo from flickr. So, I poked through my recent flickr favorites and figured I share this classic photo of Miles Davis. (I'm a big Miles fan!)

Learning 2.0, Thing #3

Well, it's NLCL2 time again folks and this is the first blog-based assignment. Thing #3 has us creating a blog and writing some posts. Well, I've got the blog already and I don't seem to have any problems coming up with topics lately. However, as part of the assignment we're supposed to blog about the 7 and 1/2 lifelong learning habits and "which one might be easiest for you and hardest for you & why?"

This is a hard one for me. I just skimmed through the list again and honestly, I don't find any of them difficult. My guess is that this is because it's my job to constantly learn new things and that I'm a trainer so I'm constantly teaching others. This does put me in a unique situation compared to many others on our staff but I know I'm not totally alone.

As for what's easiest, habit 7.5 most definitely: play. In some ways though this makes separating my work life from my non-work life somewhat difficult. I'm allowed to play at the office and many things I play with outside of work have job-related outcomes. I'm not complaining, I just have to force myself to separate some times.

Learning 2.0 in Salt Lake City

It looks like the folks over at the Salt Lake City Public Library are also currently in the midst of a Learning 2.0 program. According to Elizabeth's Endeavors they seem to be a few things ahead of us as she found this blog via Technorati. I will add that I've been to SLCPL many times and it is one of the most beautiful public libraries I've ever been in. (I also got out there several times during the construction. Unfortunately all of those photos I took before I started using flickr.)

Learning 2.0 starts today

I'm in my office this morning about an hour before everyone else start to appear. This in itself, isn't bloggable since that's my SOP. However, this morning I just put in the links to the first two of 23 things for the Commission's Learning 2.0 program. This week there's just some reading and thinking to do for the participants so there won't be too much excitement. Next week, they all start blogging. I'll be participating too so watch this space for my thoughts and comments on the learning exercises.

(If you're not an NLC staff member, which I'll assume you're not, you're welcome to participate in our program. Just follow along via the link above. Unfortunately, you won't be eligible for the prizes.)