Podcasts!

I'm skipping over Screencasting for now while I wait for Jing to be introduced. That will be totally new for me.

I subscribed to the Podcast for the KGNU radio show 'Musica Mundi' on my 'My Yahoo' page. I was inspired to choose this one because a friends musical group was performing on this show and I noticed you could subscribe to a podcast of this program.

My Audacity software disappeared when I got a new computer and I haven't requested a new download yet since I don't see making a podcast very soon. Hopefully I can be excused from doing a podcast now as I did two for our previous Library Guides pages that were up for the last two years (recently removed) on how to identify journals vs. magazines and tips on finding journals.

Podcasts are really nice when audio is important in getting the message across (intonation; sound sampling; environment; music) and for listening to when doing other things (cleaning, exercising.) The problem can be that some sites allow simpler downloading to portable devices than others. Some I can't figure out at all.

You Tube

Well, hopefully I will not earn a demerit for not watching March of the Librarians again -- but I think once was enough. (Smart, clever, nicely done...but once was enough...life is too short to repeat too many YouTube videos.) So - I don't know what familiar person is in it.

However, I absolutely do see the use of presenting YouTube videos for learning! And so many useful ones exist for librarians to use! Here's just one on differentiating between scholarly and popular journals:

Twitter

I had tried out Twitter in the past and realized it just doesn't really work if you don't use it with your phone. Since I got off Twitter I've gotten false spam from Twitter saying friends are begging me to re-join...friends deny this. This makes me feel rather angry at Twitter for lying to me - but I do understand people it enjoy it

I can see the use of this for activism (i.e. we're getting shot at....) but otherwise I think it's not for me for personal use. Maybe a work use will emerge.

IM

I hate to say I also had a bad past experience with IM - inappropriate messages from people I don't really know. So - I was going to reactivate Yahoo IM and just do a message or two with Elaine for this exercise but I have to have an administrator upload that for me and it doesn't seem worth an adminstrators time right now (I get a new computer tonight). Checked my Google Talk for people in the library but didn't find anybody.

I also sometimes do Ask Auraria and so am familiar with that IM program.

So - this is somthing I do know how to use but have chosen not to use at this time. Should I need to use it for work, I do have the basics down. Thanks!

Week Five: Facebook

I didn't do this part of the 23 Things since I'm an expert Facebooker. In fact, after a year - years? - of non-stop, annoying messages and virtual gifts from people I barely know, I suspended my account. It's still there hanging in cyberspace. I intend to open a more anonymous one at some point after I get over the trauma of my last experience. : - )

For those friends and colleagues who were my Facebook buddies - no offense intended. The annoyances were not from you. They were from friends of friends of .... you get the idea.

I do miss receiving the and giving the occasional vampire bite, I'll admit.

Progress on AUR Things: Wikis and RSS

Ok - I now have a Wiki that I hope people will add majical/magical things to:
http://tinyurl.com/nxykw7

And I'm now signed up forJudith's blog and the Library FYI. I didn't know you could sign up for RSS feeds via Outlook so that is a nice revelation! I had previously done RSS feeds only via Bloglines and Yahoo - both easy as pumpkin pie. To eat, that is. Not make.

And in keeping with the name of this Blog:

Here's an RSS feed from Librivox, announcing the availability of new audiobooks in their collection: http://librivox.org/newcatalog/NewReleases.xml.
Librivox books are read by volunteers. More on Librivox here.

Introduction: Blogging on 23 Things

(This is a sample blog created within the Auraria Library in Colorado to practice using Blogger.)

Photo Credit: Leo Reynolds -flickr photo


I have a very unfair advantage for this 'thing' since the Bloggoddess Gayle has been helping me in the last few weeks establish a blog for the newsletter I'll send to faculty in August, describing services and resources.


I did find learning a little slow going. Some things are not intuitive (i.e. finding 'edit posts' under 'new post' is not something I would have immediately thought of.)


Blogs may be useful for libraries since allowing feedback is generally a good thing. Unless you have people with boring lives, as we sometimes do on IM reference, who send 'make-believe' questions. Of course, I deeply respect this practice.

I'll mention that I there does seem to be alot of help available 'out there' when you have a Blogger question. I couldn't find an answer in the Blogger help the other day so, using Google, I just put in 'Blogger' and my question and instantly found my answer.

Free Downloadable Audiobooks

So - just in case someone with a real interest in audiobooks finds this blog, here's some REAL information.

I adore listening to what used to be called Books on Tape. Of course, since those ancient times, when our knuckles brushed the ground as we adjusted our Sony Walkmans, books have evolved to CD and digital formats that you can download to your favorite digital player. iPods are most widely used though my Zen is fine and there are plenty of others.

Though I want the audiobook industry to survive and so encourage purchasing CD's and downloads, I must admit that the majority of my listening is done for free. Most public libraries offer growing lists of downloadable audiobooks.

Other free resources:

Gutenberg: The Audiobooks Project

Internet Archive. Collection ranges from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry recordings, to original music contributed by users. Includes non-English audio options.

Librivox. Provides free audiobooks from the public domain performed by volunteer readers.

The Spoken Alexandria Project from the Telltale Weekly

Best Places to Get Free Books: The Ultimate Guide - From Friedbeef's Tech - Both audiobooks and text only books. A mixture of great and marginal recommendations.

Some more are also listed on this guide created for Auraria Library, in the process of being updated.