Things 8 and 9: RSS feeds and Exploring Merlin

Okay, I have to say that I'm not terribly excited about RSS feeds and using Bloglines, etc. Perhaps it will grow on me, and I do see the advantages of compiling all the new information in one place where I can view at my leisure rather than going to each blog or news site individually. I didn't find the sites like Bloglines, Feedster, etc to be very intuitive. They weren't immediately easy to navigate or figure out which I see as a disadvantage. That said, this technology is fairly new so I expect the sites will improve and become more user-friendly in the future. I didn't like that some of the feeds I subscribed to through Bloglines were really old with no recent content... if a feed hadn't been updated since late 2006 what are the chances it's going to put out new content any time soon? Of course I know Bloglines has no control over the content of the feeds but maybe they could have some sort of "last updated" information. However, gripe as I might, it is very easy to unsubscribe to these dud feeds. Other times when I click on a feed or news story I want to read I get an annoying pop-up ad or something completely unrelated to what I thought I was clicking on. This drives me crazy.

I can see how this is great for keeping up with a bunch of different blogs in one place. Although I've known about blogs for years now, I admit that I do not read any one blog on a regular basis. Perhaps this exercise will change that.

I subscribed to MERLIN-- not a whole lot of action on their feed either. For the most part I like their set-up with library related blogs on the right hand side, although some of them just seem to be personal blogs by librarians with little or no real library-related content. Most, however, are good blogs with good info. The best part of the site I've found so far is the "learning links" section which will introduce the uninitiated to much of the techie stuff available to libraries and librarians. If you are intimidated by the mention of Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts, Avatars, and Social Networking, this is the place to go to find out what they are and what they can do for you.

Thing 7: Talk about Technology

I always seem to be one of the last to get up to date with technology. I still do not own a cell phone nor do I have plans to get one soon. It's not that I don't like technology, I just don't always see the need to have the "latest and greatest." It took me years to finally purchase a DVD player. The rise of the Mp3 was pretty fascinating to me simply because I never thought it would catch on. Now with the invention of high-capacity Mp3 players, I-tunes, and websites like MySpace (where one can post Mp3s of their own music)it is now the dominant form of music. The idea of buying songs individually seemed ludicrous to me-- all until my wife and I were moving from the West coast to the East coast and she bought an I-pod to bring along on the drive so that we wouldn't run out of good music to listen to along the way. Now I am an Mp3 convert, and I even occasionally buy songs from Itunes. I like having access to my entire music collection on one small device. As a musician I often need to reference music from my collection to learn new material and with an Mp3 player I don't have to sort through a large book of CD's any more or change CD's constantly when comparing one player's style to another's.

I then learned that I could convert many of my own field recordings to Mp3 and then catalog them and download to an Mp3 player. Some old-time musicians like myself often travel around with a recording MiniDisc player-- antiquated technology by today's standards-- and record other musicians to learn one of their tunes in the future or to learn their style of playing. I plug the minidisc into my computer and record the music in Mp3 format. I'm still looking for an Mp3 player with a mic input that will allow me to record directly to it. Some people I know have managed to create a modestly priced home recording studio and have done self-produced albums, but that is getting off-topic.

I guess my point is that new technologies have benefits for even the most cynical folks (like myself) who don't always immediately embrace the latest and greatest gadgets. I think about how my parents used to tell me when I was a child that they grew up without television. At the time that blew my mind. In the future I imagine telling my children (don't actually have any yet)that I grew up without the invention known as the Internet and seeing their eyes grow wide with surprise and disbelief.

Thing Number 6: Flikr Toys

Lots of cool stuff out there for Flickr. I just tried this slide show thing to display photos from my Flickr account.


Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

Thing Numero Cinco: Fun with Flikr

I definitely love Flikr... what a great place to find photos of almost anything. I have used this site before, and in fact I just used it extensively for pictures that I needed for my LATI project. I love that they have the "creative commons" license option where folks upload images that can be used or modified for non-commercial purposes. As librarians this is a great tool for us to find just the right image for displays and programs.

Secondly, this is an amazing site just because of the sheer number of wonderful photos. It allows us to see the incredible creativity of photographers and graphic designers, amateur and professional.

This exercise inspired me to create a free account and upload a few photos from my personal collection (the one above is one of my own). I didn't go so far as to bring my camera to work and take photos. I have since found a few long-lost friends on Flikr and it's great to see their lives through their photographs.

Things 3 and 4: Set Up My Own Blog and Registering

Easy as pie and a fun learning experience!

Thing 2: Lifelong Learning

Probably the most difficult habit for me is teaching/mentoring others-- not because I don't love to impart knowledge unto others, but I'm just not sure it's one of my strong points. I am envious of my colleagues who put together wonderful programs and teach classes at the library. I find I learn things easily, but effectively passing that knowledge along is not as easy for me.

Perhaps the easiest habit for me is seeing problems as challenges. I guess this is because of my thirst for learning. I feel almost any problem can be turned into a learning experience. And if there is a problem I have to overcome it-- simple as that. If I don't deal with a problem effectively or just ignore it, it ends up haunting me much longer than if I had just dealt with it in the first place. Of course I'm not perfect and as I write this I'm thinking of a list of problems needing attention. In learning repetition is very important. In fact if I didn't repeat things a thousand times I wouldn't be able to do them effectively. My wife will tell you I become obsessed with things (games, instruments, gardening, and so on) and I view these "obsessions" as problems I need to overcome. My latest obsession: disc golf-- I simply must learn how to play better and I will do that through watching, reading, and most importantly, doing (over and over again).

Thing Number 1: What's This all About?

As my grade school teachers always said, better late than never!

So I finally signed up for the Maryland 23 Things program albeit a few weeks late. I am excited to delve into these new technologies. I am excited to see more and more resources available to us through the Internet. I'm a huge fan of digital collections and dream of a day when we'll be able to access almost any resource right from our computers. From the title of the Blog you may have guessed I am a fiddler-- I play traditional Appalachian fiddle and banjo (aka Old-Time Music) and I use this great digital resource all the time to learn about the music:

The Digital Library of Appalachia


From here I have access to photographs, manuscripts, field recordings and more. Anyway, the point is, I am looking forward to seeing more libraries and institutions putting their collections online like this. I like that this program is helping to make us aware of technologies out there that our customers are using.

That's all for now!