October 25, Thing 10, the last one!

For the last decade libraries changed tremendously and they’ll continue to change. There are many articles written in professional and non-professional literature about where libraries are going and what is their future if any. One thing is clear – libraries should change and will change, adapting any new technology to the traditional library setting. The idea will stay the same, but the form might be different: from traditional book to ebook; from fliers to electronic newsletter; from regular video’s/DVDs to downloadable videos, etc.
I am actively use and submit information for SkokieNet, SkokieTalk, Flickr, I actively use SPL toolbar which I like a lot. For the last several days I played with the downloadable digital collection, and I successfully downloaded several audio books. The Netlibrary books are much easy to download, but North Suburban Digital Consortium gives much more possibilities, even if you need to download some software.
Finally I can transport my audio books to my Palm.
It’ll be nice to merge the Skokie Net and Skokie Talk to one big blog, or perhaps create one big library blog with different sections, where each librarian might have a portion to be responsible for. I get used to our library web site, but I know it'll be changed relatively soon because it is a non stop process. I might have more ideas in the future.

October 23, Thing 8, Wikis

Wikis is one of the reference tools we use at the library. Some times Wikipedia has more information than many other sources. I like Wikipedia and the concept behind it, I like wiki and the methodology of the open open source. I assume for many people who came from "old" academical world, Wikipedia is not a reliable source of information. Several years ago, a research been done by the Nature magazine, where they compared results in Britannica and Wikipedia. When they summarised everything, it was quite clear that Wikipedia is about as good a source of accurate information as Britannica. As librarians, we almost always use several sources for information, that's why I think W. is a great reference tool. The idea of "radical trust" is even more applicable for the library community. Establish Wikis for the library, we'll be able to have close contacts with our patron and colleagues; we'll be able to put out information in a timely manner, avoid going through the lairs of censorship. As we all know libraries should change, and using wikis is one of thous very positive changes where "radical trust" between librarians and patrons could occur. I can picture Reference Wikis, Business Wikis, Teen Wikis, etc, as a part of our library web site.
I contributed to 10 Things wiki, and to the Librarians Resources and Library Success.

October 17, Thing 9

Every now and then I use Google Documents. The first thing I did, I moved some of my important documents to Google, and for me it is very handy, I can retrieve them literally from anywhere in the world. We can't compare Google Documents with Microsoft products, because the key feature for Google is sharing and editing, and this is what makes them unique so far. The sharing, editing and publishing options are great. I can picture kids or college students working together (two heads are better than one) on different projects. Of course we can't expect many formatting options from Google, but I am sure this program will serve many people. As for the SMS products from Google, I've checked the demo, but do not have this options on my phone to try. I am still pretty happy with traditional SMS exchange.

October 12, thing 7. Podcasting

Podcasting is a great thing, and it has a lot of potential for the library community as well as for the whole internet community. It wasn't difficult to add podcasts to the Google Reader, although I spend more time looking through different podcasts from the 10 team list. Thank you very much, I found many interesting podcasts for my own and professional interests. I liked the list of podcasts from the National Library of Medicine on many current issues, I liked teen podcats from libraries like Boulder PL, Warthington libraries, etc. Santa Cruz Library put together a "Synergy Lecture Series"- a great educational resource. But most of all I liked the ESL podcasts through the Learn out Loud. These are highly educational podcasts for those learning english as a second language. The host speaks slowly, he uses both formal and informal language, and explains the the nuance of each new word or phrase. I also liked the topics chosen.
These ESL podcasts could be a good addition to our online resources. In SkokieTalk blog we are using podcats for quite a while.

October 9, thing 6

My experience with Social Bookmarking was very positive. I new about del.icio.us but I never used it before. It was very easy to add websites to the list, but using the browsers buttons it is much more easier and faster. I found an interesting site on essentials of blogging and send it "for:skokieten" tag. The most useful tags for the Library might be: library, libraries, reference, programming, blogging, libraries 2.o, books, databases, research, etc.

October 6, Thing 5. Flickr

I am using another program for my pictures called fotki.com. Fotki is one of the leaders of photo sharing service & offer almost the same as Flickr features. After I started playing with Flickr for the project, I looked closely for some extended features in fotki.com, and found many similarities. I had a very positive experience with Flicker, and the Newbie's Guide to flickr was very helpful. Also, I am using another program from Google - Picasa 2, nice thing where you can e-mail pictures directly from the site.

Internationals

Internationals
Originally uploaded by theskokieten

The "Internationals" folk group performed many times @ Skokie Public Library. Their leader- Genadij Sergeenko

The Queen

The Queen
Originally uploaded by theskokieten

The young Russian actress was a Queen in the famous "Tumbelina" performance

Russian Children Theatre Club @ Skokie Public Library "Tumbelina" Performance

"Tumbelina" group
Originally uploaded by theskokieten

October 4, 2007, Thing 4

Some of my friends encouraged me to have Facebook and MySpace accounts some time ago, but I never really used them. I have heard about Linkedln, but it never applied to me eider. I was surprised today when I checked Eons. Even it was originally designed for older people, I found many interesting discussions their on various topics of my interests. I am an active user of another social networking group in Russian language called Odnoklassniki.ru. The idea is similar to Clssmates.com. It is a relatively new site, but it is growing every day technologically and user wise. It is a great tool to found classmates, college mates, former colleagues, and even people you new in the Summer Camp many years ago. Like in many other networking sites, you can create profile, upload pictures, search for people, check who is online in the same time with you, etc. Anyway, it is a great addictive site, not even mentioning the emotional component- I have been able to found people I have lost 20 something years ago.
Back to the library world, I registered in both LibraryThing and GoodReads today. I liked both of them, but I spend some time researching GoodReads, and I found many interesting features like “Choose a friend you want to connect with”, “Shelve” system, where I found some Health/Medical books reviewed by users. I liked the “group” component of the site, and when I put “Russian” as a search term, I found two groups: “Russian Readers Club” and “White Nights”, where Russian readers and lovers of Russian literature can share their thoughts about Russian literature as well as about foreign one. I have read many interesting posts, and many positive thoughts about the libraries and their future. I am pretty sure our library could benefit by offering some of these features. It is the matter of time and proper usage.

October 2, 2007, Thing 3

I forgot to mention another great product - Skype. Skype makes communicating people around the world easy and fun. With Skype you can say hello or share a laugh with anyone, anywhere. And if both of you are on Skype, it’s free. Instant messaging is a valuable component of Skype.
Thanks to all these products, it is really easy to be in touch with anybody in the other part of the world. How we managed to live without it before???

October 2, 2007, Thing 3

I am using Gmail chat for a long time and I found it very useful. Likely many of my friends and now colleagues are using Google mail as a primary e-mail account. Chatting with Google is fun, and it is very easy and fast to send big files like You Tube files using Gmail chat component.
I never had Meebo or IM before, but for years I've been watching my son talking to his friends in between anything he is doing. So, I can say that I had a passive experience using IM until today when I created my meebo screen name. It was fun, and I already chatted with my son.

October 1, 2007

I have several hours OFF desk time, so I decided to accomplish 2 Things in one day.
RSS and Feed Readers. I am using them for quite a while. The best thing about them, they'll save you a lot of time. You just spend some time once compiling the list of your favourite staff and then, it'll take several minutes to check updates, news, etc. And of course for the library world, it is a great thing to save space and time for our patrons in searching for information and updates.

October 1, 2007

Hello!
Even being a blog user for years now, I never had my own blog. Some times I still think that to discuss certain issues I'll better talk to a friend, or use the e-mail to talk directly with someone. But life is changing more rapidly than we think, and blogging is another great way of communication.
It wasn't difficult to create one , although, I was getting more critical on the way: what to put on the page, in what order, what colors should I use, etc. So it was like a creative process, and I am sure, I'll change my blog many times.

There are millions blogs around, but being more close to the Library Community- blogging is definitely the future for the libraries. In a simple words, using blogs it is much easier for the libraries to provide many different services , be current , and have a better contacts with patrons.
That's why more and more libraries have their web sites in a blog format. I am adding to the skokietalk blog for a while, and it is a great way to see what's going on in the Skokie community.