The Librarian 1947

One of my assignments for libr 200 Information and Society asks the question of how the librarian has been portrayed in the media. I figured I'd get a head start and link to this video The Librarian 1947. I'm sure I'll find others. My favorite line is "Working with the public means working with all types of people." and you see a room full of white middle class patrons. The sexism is also a bit much "I didn't mind the research on them doctor, but the pronunciation had me stumped for bit." ugghh!

OMG You have got to see this!

Ok so my friend Chris told me about this, and after I watched it I thought it would be the perfect post to follow up the last one. Take a look. . .



Just thinking of the immediate, not to mention the long-term, possibilities is exciting! I just hope that we get game designers who are interested in creating real pieces of art and not just another Doom 1st person shooter.

My opinion of Second Life and a request for "Google History"

I have played around a little bit with Second Life, making an avatar and some exploration.  My opinion so far is that operating in 3d environments is the inevitable future of the internet but I'm afraid that Second Life is going to be the Betamax of these 3d environments.  The user interface is too complicated to attract large numbers of people.   And as much as 2nd life doesn't want to be compared to games like World of Warcraft, until the interface is as beautiful, easy, and bug-free as these types of games, people will always wonder why in the hell they would want to do anything- learning or otherwise there.  I'm sure that Google is preparing for the 3d environments that are on the way.  Learn Sketch-Up and be ahead of the curve.  I can't wait until we see a mashup of Google Earth and 3d environments created in Sketch-Up with historical simulations so that you could actually watch historical events occur.  Just as now Google Earth is a realistic model of the earth, "Google History" would be a realistic model of global history.  You will be able to rewind and fast forward through history.  Most of the data required for this kind of simulation tool already exists, Google just needs to hurry up and create it already.  Sorry, I'm impatient to see the future.

Good Examples of Fair Use in Video

This site has examples of Fair Use of copyrighted material for video. This would be good for explaining to students what is and is not acceptable in their mashups.

Acceptable Use Categories:
Satire and Parody
Negative or Critical Commentary
Positive Commentary
Quoting in Order to Start a Discussion
Illustration or Example
Incidental Use
Personal Reportage/ Diaries
Archiving of Vulnerable or Revealing Materials
Pastiche or Collage

Students Today Video

I found this through the BAISL Ning (Thanks Chad!)



The tone of the video is similar to others that I have seen on youtube. It has a certain desperate pathos yet slick marketing feeling that strikes me as being a little insincere.

Here is Michael Wesch's blog that describes the collaborative process of making the video-- a good example of integrating web 2.0 into the classroom. I was curious enough to see the original google doc that I emailed Wesch to ask him for it. Let's see if he replies.

Here is an interesting critique of the video.

Screencasting

I'm reading up on screencasting because I think it is a wonderful way for librarians to communicate how to use databases, do smart web searches, or just to use software that the library offers. The wikipedia article on screencasting is informative, but while reading it, I ran across this gem of a screencast showing the evolution of a wikipedia article. I will definitely be showing this as an introduction to wikipedia.

Just playing around with google gadgets

Now that I'm done with the 23 Things, I'm going to go back and play a bit.

Go ahead and doodle a bit and then save it. Don't worry, I draw stick figures.

#23 (Week 9) I am a slow watermole, but the trip is always worth it!

"Find an example or attribution that shows this program has been modified from it's original."

Learning 2.0 is a discovery learning program created by Helene Blowers. Content and style for School Library Learning 2.0 and Classroom Learning 2.0 have been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

#22 (Week 9) ebooks and audiobooks

I'm still a purist when it comes to books. I love the feel of the printed page; but I do enjoy being able to listen to a good book on my mp3 player or read a book on my phone when I don't have my favorite paperback with me. I've never read a book-length work online, but I have been to Project Gutenberg before and I have used it for research. I discovered LibriVox through the 23 Things and was excited about listening and even recording some of my favorite books. And even though I haven't taken the time to do that yet, I still hope to. I think it would be a great project for students-- one way to know for certain that they read the book!

A site I found interesting was Gutenberg's top 100 ebooks downloaded.

A google gadget for finding free ebooks

"Justfreebooks is a search engine that allows the user to search the pages of more than 450 sites of free ebooks, including gutenberg.org, wikibooks.org and archive.org. With Justfreebooks, one can find public domain texts, open ebooks, free audio books, ad-supported ebooks and more."

#21 (Week 9) podcasts

I already subscribe to a few librarian podcasts with iTunes so that part was easy:
Book Lust with Nancy Pearl
California Library Association Podcasts
iTunes:Meet the Author
Library Geeks
The Washington Post Book World Podcast

I did have a problem though when I tried to click the Yahoo: What is a podcast tutorial. It only takes you to the Yahoo audio search page.

I also read the Wikipedia entry on podcast which led me to the Podcasting Legal Guide.

Just this semester, two of our teachers assigned podcasts to students who used library computers to mix the audio. We have GarageBand on five Macs, but given my librarian sensibilities, I think the free and dual-platformed Audacity is a better choice for libraries.