I once wrote an opinion piece regarding the so-called "death of books". In it, I compared book formats to music formats (vinyl, 8-track tapes, cassettes, CDs, and digital). Just like music formats, the old ones never completely go away. Just look at how vinyl records are making a comeback. I feel the same can be said for books. Despite the raging popularity of e-readers, printed books will never go out of style. There will always be people who prefer one over the other. For me, I'm an unofficial fence-sitter. Actually, I play for both sides. I prefer to read physical books except in situations where physical books are an inconvenience. And that, I think, is the main reason for the popularity of e-readers: convenience. I recently discovered a blog called Bookfessions. One of them aptly conveys why I play both sides: "Those who don't travel will never understand how fabulous ereaders are. How else could I take 500 books with me on an airplane?" This is true for me too. During the christmas holidays this year, I will be spending a week away from home (and away from my books). This includes two 4-hour flights. Thankfully, it also includes a day of bookstore-hopping. Having an e-reader means ALWAYS (and I do mean always) having reading material at hand. That is why I say yes to e-readers. But I will only buy physical books. I personally will never pay for a digital version of a book regardless of how much less they cost than a physical book. If I'm spending money on books, I want something that can sit on my bookshelf, not something I can accidentally erase. I feel the same way about digital music. If it is easy to accidentally make it gone, I don't want to pay for it. Therefore I'm grateful for the plethora of free ebooks available to me. But you can usually find me reading a physical book. I think there should be no argument whatsoever about which format is better. Because none are better; they are just better for your personal lifestyle. People who would never pick up a physical book are now reading on e-readers. And that's a good thing. I am disheartened by bookstores that are closing due to poor sales but I have hope for the future. I believe that people will still be buying physical books for years and decades to come, regardless of the current digital media craze. That's my opinion anyway.
Also from Bookfessions: "A lot of people don't like ereaders, but I think they're amazing. They make it so much easier to read under the covers when I'm supposed to be asleep." I personally discovered this ability in September with the Day/Night settings on my e-reader.
Edited to add: Here is the most eloquent, well-written article about the whole topic I have ever read. I think I'll print a copy for safekeeping.
Read on,
Paula
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Widgets
The only thing complicated about adding the Goodreads widget was finding out how to do it. Shelfari has a Widgets link on the home page. But I like the look of the Goodreads widget better so I'll tweak the Shelfari widget until I'm happy with it. I'm proud of myself because this is the first time I've ever added a widget to my blog. Hopefully they continue to work well and not take too long to load.
Nope, I just don't like the look of the Shelfari widgets. I much prefer the Goodreads ones. So I'll stick with them for now.
Read on,
Paula
Nope, I just don't like the look of the Shelfari widgets. I much prefer the Goodreads ones. So I'll stick with them for now.
Read on,
Paula
Dropbox, Evernote, and iGoogle
A coworker introduced me to Dropbox. She uses it personally and professionally. One of the things we like about it is that you can share certain files with certain people. I use it for accessing files I want to "take with me". I use the app and the website. I used to have the software on my home computer but I don't like that any files I put in there are no longer accessible on my home computer, only through Dropbox. Perhaps there's a setting to fix that but for now I've uninstalled the software. But I still use it online and on my phone.
I love Evernote. I would love it even more if I could access the picture notes I've added. I can preview them but not actually access them. Evernote tech support is working on it. Evernote is another one of those programs that are accessible at home, online, and mobile. I love that I can access my notes anywhere. I have the 'Clip to Evernote' function on my web browser, which is so easy to use. All my notes are in one place and I don't have to go hunting for them. I like that Evernote keeps improving their service. When I first joined, I had difficulty opening the notes. Now I don't. I am also interested in reading the book "Evernote for Dummies". If they can write a whole book about it, I'm obviously not using the service to its fullest potential.
I will be creating an iGoogle account for my personal account. I just don't have enough "stuff" to add for it to be worthy work-wise. But I can link all sorts of stuff from my personal life. I like the idea of having it all in one spot, especially since putting in my postal code means my local weather forecast pops up too. Since I walk to/from work, this is important info for me.
Read on,
Paula
I love Evernote. I would love it even more if I could access the picture notes I've added. I can preview them but not actually access them. Evernote tech support is working on it. Evernote is another one of those programs that are accessible at home, online, and mobile. I love that I can access my notes anywhere. I have the 'Clip to Evernote' function on my web browser, which is so easy to use. All my notes are in one place and I don't have to go hunting for them. I like that Evernote keeps improving their service. When I first joined, I had difficulty opening the notes. Now I don't. I am also interested in reading the book "Evernote for Dummies". If they can write a whole book about it, I'm obviously not using the service to its fullest potential.
I will be creating an iGoogle account for my personal account. I just don't have enough "stuff" to add for it to be worthy work-wise. But I can link all sorts of stuff from my personal life. I like the idea of having it all in one spot, especially since putting in my postal code means my local weather forecast pops up too. Since I walk to/from work, this is important info for me.
Read on,
Paula
Work email and wikis
For the last two or so years, I've used Hotmail as my work email. A few months ago, all employees at my library got official work emails. I think that a professional email address is, well, more professional than a Hotmail/Yahoo/Gmail/whatever free email address. Two weeks ago, for no reason that we've been able to figure out, I and I alone was no longer able to access my email. Finally today I was able to get access again. I immediately forwarded all the pertinent messages to my Hotmail, just in case. Under other circumstances, I wouldn't have worried as much about the problem. But wouldn't this be the week I have Learning 2.0 homework that can only be accessed from a message in my work email that I can't access? Figures! So my homework is a little late but at least I'm getting it done.
The late week's topic was wikis. Almost everyone has heard of Wikipedia. Almost everyone uses Wikipedia. We were given a link to FAQ For Librarians, which I found highly informative. Until I read this article, I had no idea how accurate Wikipedia was. The big issue for libraries and researchers about Wikipedia is the fact that absolutely anyone can edit the information in Wikipedia. That sends up all sorts of red flags because we want the information we pass on to our patrons to be solid. For this reason, some people won't use Wikipedia and probably never will. That's sad but each person is entitled to their own opinion, especially when it comes to resources. When doing any kind of research, I use Wikipedia as a jumping-off point. I start there, looking for topic-specific terminology and jargon that I may not know about. I then seek out other resources to verify the information I've found on Wikipedia. It's always good to have backup.
As for using wikis themselves, they are very useful for having the most comprehensive details necessary for the specific purpose. I likened Shelfari to a wiki because anyone can edit the information about a title. In fact, I have done this myself. The information is then verified by a Shelfari editor. Anyone with access to a wiki is yet another source of knowledge when information is incomplete. As the saying goes, "two heads are better than one". And more than two is even better.
Read on,
Paula
The late week's topic was wikis. Almost everyone has heard of Wikipedia. Almost everyone uses Wikipedia. We were given a link to FAQ For Librarians, which I found highly informative. Until I read this article, I had no idea how accurate Wikipedia was. The big issue for libraries and researchers about Wikipedia is the fact that absolutely anyone can edit the information in Wikipedia. That sends up all sorts of red flags because we want the information we pass on to our patrons to be solid. For this reason, some people won't use Wikipedia and probably never will. That's sad but each person is entitled to their own opinion, especially when it comes to resources. When doing any kind of research, I use Wikipedia as a jumping-off point. I start there, looking for topic-specific terminology and jargon that I may not know about. I then seek out other resources to verify the information I've found on Wikipedia. It's always good to have backup.
As for using wikis themselves, they are very useful for having the most comprehensive details necessary for the specific purpose. I likened Shelfari to a wiki because anyone can edit the information about a title. In fact, I have done this myself. The information is then verified by a Shelfari editor. Anyone with access to a wiki is yet another source of knowledge when information is incomplete. As the saying goes, "two heads are better than one". And more than two is even better.
Read on,
Paula
Saturday, November 12, 2011
I'm doing my homework backwards
Week 6 is about wikis. In order to do my homework, I have to access a link in my work email account which I only access from work. I'll be doing that homework on Monday. Instead I'm doing my homework for Week 7 today...the week I've been most excited about and most dreading.
You may be wondering why I could possibly dread the week we work on social cataloguing (think Good Reads, LibraryThing, and Shelfari). Okay, so this is how addicted I am to books: I have an account with Good Reads, Shelfari, AND LibraryThing! There, my secret is out! Go ahead, mock me. I have all these accounts mostly because some friends are on one or the other.
Just for you, here is the chronology. I joined LibraryThing first (back in April 2007), added a few books and never went back. Even I don't know why.
When I had a Facebook account, I joined weRead (2008). It was okay but hard on computer performance (slow to load). Being fed up with weRead, I went in search of something better. That's when I found Good Reads (October 2010). I convinced two of my friends to join and have been happy there. I even won a free book through their First Reads program. And their Recommendations feature is awesome (more about that later). They have a Reading Challenge feature where you enter how many books you would like to read during the year and it keeps track of how close you are to your goal. I haven't done it but it's interesting to see what others put as their goals. For non-readers, I guess the goal of 4 books in one year is a strain.
While trying to convince another friend to join Good Reads, she was trying to convince me to join Shelfari (January 2011). She likes that it looks like an actual bookshelf instead of a list with covers. And I've been happy there too. They have a fabulous feature called My Reading Stats. Not only does it show you how many books you've read each year (this is how I know I have already read 102 titles and I still have the month of November and December to go) but also a graph of your ratings (I use 3 stars a lot) and other interesting factoids. One of the things I really like about Shelfari is that it is sort of like a wiki. You can edit the information on a title's page. You can even add titles that aren't found.
When I saw the outline for the Learning 2.0 course I'm taking, it mentioned LibraryThing. 'Oh right', I thought, 'I haven't been to that account in ages'. So I dug out my account password and got reacquainted. I love that LibraryThing has library standard information like Dewey classification so I can use it to organize my personal library. I've decided that (for now?) I'm going to use LibraryThing to catalogue only the titles I actually own. I spent two days entering the ISBN (because I wanted the exact edition) of all the books I own. I now know that I have 134 titles. Part of today's homework was to take the LibraryThing tour and I learned some things I didn't know. You have a limit of 200 titles with a free account (that's what I have). I have 134 titles already. 200-134=66. Since buying more books is on my list of things to do, I'll have to upgrade my membership. I'm visiting family in BC for a week at christmas and my itinerary includes spending a day in a minimum of two of the town's bookstores (one selling new, one selling used). I highly doubt that I'll be buying 66 books before the end of the year so I'll let upgrading to a lifetime membership be my New Year's resolution. The tour also mentioned LibraryThing's Zeitgeist tab. I'd seen it but not explored. There is a list of authors who LibraryThing. There are 6256 authors listed. The list is sorted by popularity but you have other sorting options. I saw quite a few names I recognize but have never read.
About the Good Reads Recommendations feature: it sparked a contest between myself and one of my friends as to who had the most books on their "to read" list and overall. This is why my "to read" list is now up to 354 instead of 230. The feature is amazing. By creating "shelves" (a more complex version of tagging, really) about the books in your profile, the Recommendations feature finds books similar based on some behind-the-scenes criteria. This has helped my friend find titles she's already read but had forgotten to add. I made the happy mistake of creating a shelf called 'books about books' (because I'm a freak who loves to read about libraries, reading, and books in general) and it is the recommendation shelf I visit the most. But I had to call off the unofficial contest; I can't live like that. If I allow my reading life to become competitive, it loses all enjoyment. Current standings: she has 801 read and 274 to read; I have 477 read and 354 to read. I know for a fact that I am missing books because I just can't remember them all. But here is how I finally let the contest go: She is 17 years older than I. I'm sure I could read 324 books in 17 years (did I mention I've read 100 already this year?) The important thing is that we both read and we both read what we enjoy and we keep track of it all on whatever site we prefer. We talk about books and we are always seeking out more.
One thing I've learned from using more than one book cataloguing site is that each one IS different. I've found a few titles that are on one site but not the other (which is infuriating since my tallies will never be exactly the same on all sites). I enjoy each of them for various reasons and will continue to use them all. Thankfully the multiple tab feature in my internet browser means I can use them all at the same time to cross-reference. One thing I wish to change about all three sites is that you can't print a basic title and author list of your books. Shelfari is mean enough that you can't perform this function until you've reached 80% on your public profile (I'm at 76%). Good Reads and LibraryThing will let you print the list as shown on your screen (aka in table format). For people who don't have cellphones (yes, they do exist) or who don't want to use up all their airtime with searching their Good Reads/Shelfari/LibraryThing sites, having a print option would be wonderful for book shopping. I think I'll go submit that as a site recommendation.
If you want to see my various accounts...
Good Reads
Shelfari
LibraryThing
Read on,
Paula
You may be wondering why I could possibly dread the week we work on social cataloguing (think Good Reads, LibraryThing, and Shelfari). Okay, so this is how addicted I am to books: I have an account with Good Reads, Shelfari, AND LibraryThing! There, my secret is out! Go ahead, mock me. I have all these accounts mostly because some friends are on one or the other.
Just for you, here is the chronology. I joined LibraryThing first (back in April 2007), added a few books and never went back. Even I don't know why.
When I had a Facebook account, I joined weRead (2008). It was okay but hard on computer performance (slow to load). Being fed up with weRead, I went in search of something better. That's when I found Good Reads (October 2010). I convinced two of my friends to join and have been happy there. I even won a free book through their First Reads program. And their Recommendations feature is awesome (more about that later). They have a Reading Challenge feature where you enter how many books you would like to read during the year and it keeps track of how close you are to your goal. I haven't done it but it's interesting to see what others put as their goals. For non-readers, I guess the goal of 4 books in one year is a strain.
While trying to convince another friend to join Good Reads, she was trying to convince me to join Shelfari (January 2011). She likes that it looks like an actual bookshelf instead of a list with covers. And I've been happy there too. They have a fabulous feature called My Reading Stats. Not only does it show you how many books you've read each year (this is how I know I have already read 102 titles and I still have the month of November and December to go) but also a graph of your ratings (I use 3 stars a lot) and other interesting factoids. One of the things I really like about Shelfari is that it is sort of like a wiki. You can edit the information on a title's page. You can even add titles that aren't found.
When I saw the outline for the Learning 2.0 course I'm taking, it mentioned LibraryThing. 'Oh right', I thought, 'I haven't been to that account in ages'. So I dug out my account password and got reacquainted. I love that LibraryThing has library standard information like Dewey classification so I can use it to organize my personal library. I've decided that (for now?) I'm going to use LibraryThing to catalogue only the titles I actually own. I spent two days entering the ISBN (because I wanted the exact edition) of all the books I own. I now know that I have 134 titles. Part of today's homework was to take the LibraryThing tour and I learned some things I didn't know. You have a limit of 200 titles with a free account (that's what I have). I have 134 titles already. 200-134=66. Since buying more books is on my list of things to do, I'll have to upgrade my membership. I'm visiting family in BC for a week at christmas and my itinerary includes spending a day in a minimum of two of the town's bookstores (one selling new, one selling used). I highly doubt that I'll be buying 66 books before the end of the year so I'll let upgrading to a lifetime membership be my New Year's resolution. The tour also mentioned LibraryThing's Zeitgeist tab. I'd seen it but not explored. There is a list of authors who LibraryThing. There are 6256 authors listed. The list is sorted by popularity but you have other sorting options. I saw quite a few names I recognize but have never read.
About the Good Reads Recommendations feature: it sparked a contest between myself and one of my friends as to who had the most books on their "to read" list and overall. This is why my "to read" list is now up to 354 instead of 230. The feature is amazing. By creating "shelves" (a more complex version of tagging, really) about the books in your profile, the Recommendations feature finds books similar based on some behind-the-scenes criteria. This has helped my friend find titles she's already read but had forgotten to add. I made the happy mistake of creating a shelf called 'books about books' (because I'm a freak who loves to read about libraries, reading, and books in general) and it is the recommendation shelf I visit the most. But I had to call off the unofficial contest; I can't live like that. If I allow my reading life to become competitive, it loses all enjoyment. Current standings: she has 801 read and 274 to read; I have 477 read and 354 to read. I know for a fact that I am missing books because I just can't remember them all. But here is how I finally let the contest go: She is 17 years older than I. I'm sure I could read 324 books in 17 years (did I mention I've read 100 already this year?) The important thing is that we both read and we both read what we enjoy and we keep track of it all on whatever site we prefer. We talk about books and we are always seeking out more.
One thing I've learned from using more than one book cataloguing site is that each one IS different. I've found a few titles that are on one site but not the other (which is infuriating since my tallies will never be exactly the same on all sites). I enjoy each of them for various reasons and will continue to use them all. Thankfully the multiple tab feature in my internet browser means I can use them all at the same time to cross-reference. One thing I wish to change about all three sites is that you can't print a basic title and author list of your books. Shelfari is mean enough that you can't perform this function until you've reached 80% on your public profile (I'm at 76%). Good Reads and LibraryThing will let you print the list as shown on your screen (aka in table format). For people who don't have cellphones (yes, they do exist) or who don't want to use up all their airtime with searching their Good Reads/Shelfari/LibraryThing sites, having a print option would be wonderful for book shopping. I think I'll go submit that as a site recommendation.
If you want to see my various accounts...
Good Reads
Shelfari
LibraryThing
Read on,
Paula
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
A photographer who won't use Flickr?
Photography runs in my family. My uncle was a professional photographer. My brother helped to start a photography school. And I have loved photography for a very long time. So why don't I want to create a Flickr account? In recent years I've become far more picky about the photos I take. Most of the photos I take now are what I call "event" photos: concerts, weddings, and other special events I attend. Predominantly my photos are of people, and I don't like to publicly share photos of other people, and certainly not without their express permission. I do have a Webshots account though. If you've never heard of it, it's kind of like Flickr except Webshots uses the photos for your computer's background and screensaver. But I haven't even used that in a while; blame the previously-mentioned outdated hard drive. I really like Webshots. I will like it even more when I can use it again. If you're interested in seeing my photos, you can view my profile.
I did a people search for "public library" on Flickr and got 1234 results. I sorted by the number of items. The first one I thought was Canadian was the London Public Library on page 5 with 1192 photos. But I admit I'm not a geography whiz so it may not actually be the first Canadian library in the list; it's just the first one I found. The London Public Library had a Lego contest (what a cool idea!) and this was one of the winners.
Last year was the first year our summer reading program staff used Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to promote the program. You can view their first YouTube video here.
As for podcasts, I had downloaded Juice on Monday. Tonight I finally figured out how to use it. I'm excited to listen to the Q interviews with William Shatner, Douglas Coupland, Colm Feore, Chaz Bono, Adele, and Alan Doyle!
You realize that all this access to new-found media will take away from my reading time, right? *sigh*
Read on,
Paula
I did a people search for "public library" on Flickr and got 1234 results. I sorted by the number of items. The first one I thought was Canadian was the London Public Library on page 5 with 1192 photos. But I admit I'm not a geography whiz so it may not actually be the first Canadian library in the list; it's just the first one I found. The London Public Library had a Lego contest (what a cool idea!) and this was one of the winners.
Last year was the first year our summer reading program staff used Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to promote the program. You can view their first YouTube video here.
As for podcasts, I had downloaded Juice on Monday. Tonight I finally figured out how to use it. I'm excited to listen to the Q interviews with William Shatner, Douglas Coupland, Colm Feore, Chaz Bono, Adele, and Alan Doyle!
You realize that all this access to new-found media will take away from my reading time, right? *sigh*
Read on,
Paula
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
I promise ...
...to do (that is, finish) my Learning 2.0 homework tomorrow. For now I have other things to talk about.
...to read. I promise to read on my own, in print or on a screen, wherever books appear. That's right, I've just consumed the book "The Reading Promise" by Alice Ozma in one day. Technically, less than one day. Actually closer to seven hours. All 279 pages of it. In this book, a father reads to his daughter for a 3218-day streak. That's 8.8 years. If I had kept track, I could probably beat it. If I had thought to keep track of it, I would have, but I haven't and now I'm kicking myself. Reading is so much a part of my life that I can't even contemplate a day without it. I read during my breaks at work, I read at home after work, I read on my days off. I'm always reading. I always have a book with me, which is easier now that I have an e-reader on my BlackBerry.
My brother and his wife are expecting their first child in December, the first grandchild for our family. Reading "The Reading Promise" only fueled my enthusiasm for being the "book aunt". We don't know if it is a boy or girl and won't know until s/he is born. But I dream of reading to her/him. Because we live on opposite sides of the country, I have a plan for accomplishing this. I'm actually excited about it. In fact, I think I'm a little too eager. I want to read books that s/he isn't ready for. Is it okay to read just anything to a newborn? Can I read it Malcolm Gladwell and Robert J. Sawyer? Is there a "Reading to Babies for Dummies"? No matter what, I promise that my niece/nephew will have access to any books s/he wants.
Read on,
Paula
...to read. I promise to read on my own, in print or on a screen, wherever books appear. That's right, I've just consumed the book "The Reading Promise" by Alice Ozma in one day. Technically, less than one day. Actually closer to seven hours. All 279 pages of it. In this book, a father reads to his daughter for a 3218-day streak. That's 8.8 years. If I had kept track, I could probably beat it. If I had thought to keep track of it, I would have, but I haven't and now I'm kicking myself. Reading is so much a part of my life that I can't even contemplate a day without it. I read during my breaks at work, I read at home after work, I read on my days off. I'm always reading. I always have a book with me, which is easier now that I have an e-reader on my BlackBerry.
My brother and his wife are expecting their first child in December, the first grandchild for our family. Reading "The Reading Promise" only fueled my enthusiasm for being the "book aunt". We don't know if it is a boy or girl and won't know until s/he is born. But I dream of reading to her/him. Because we live on opposite sides of the country, I have a plan for accomplishing this. I'm actually excited about it. In fact, I think I'm a little too eager. I want to read books that s/he isn't ready for. Is it okay to read just anything to a newborn? Can I read it Malcolm Gladwell and Robert J. Sawyer? Is there a "Reading to Babies for Dummies"? No matter what, I promise that my niece/nephew will have access to any books s/he wants.
Read on,
Paula
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)