What a nice surprise. A positive article on a hipster librarian in my tiny local newspaper. I hope I get to meet this librarian some day soon. Nice job!
And that reminds me, the podcast of VPR’s Switchboard on libraries is available here, featuring three Vermont librarians. I called in toward the end of the show, to follow up on the caller who said that there was no open source software being developed in the US. (I don’t think he really meant to say that.)
Now this is some serious and highly useful fun for librarians. Use del.icio.us to organize bookmarks and generate feeds to insert into a web page whenever you need them.
The beauty of del.icio.us is any time I run across a site that would be helpful for classes, I tag them with subjects that make sense to me, including the name of the class I’m planning on using it in. I used to make bookmark folders for different subjects, but the ability to assign multiple tags to items means I can cross-reference them in countless ways. For example:, astronomy, planets, David’sRoom, Jodi’sRoom, NASA, etc.
I also love the del.icio.us add-on for Firefox. It puts a little tag button on your toolbar for quick additions to your del.icio.us. You can also just right click on a link to tag it, you don’t even have to view the page (handy when I’m in a rush. I can tag things “ViewLater” to remind me to check out sites when I have time.) When the units come up in class, I’ve got a ready-made list of sites handy.
Here’s where it gets really exciting. Each tag has its own RSS feed. I can just insert the feed into the class web page using a feed to javascript converter (like this one). And all the links with that tag appear on the webpage. (See the del.icio.us list on the bottom right of this blog for a small example.)
Whenever I run across a new site, I just tag it. And magically the list - and the class’s webpage - update automatically. Having to update every page every time I find a new site is time consuming. I can’t believe how easy it just became.
WhooHoo!
Ian Frazier’s Shouts in Murmurs in this week’s New Yorker is hilarious. He starts with this excerpt:
Check books out of the library instead of buying them. . . . New releases of hard-cover novels cost $25 and more these days. If you buy just two a month, that’s $600 a year.
—From “Ten Sure Ways to Trim Your Budget,” in the News.
Then follows extremely amusing letters in response, such as…
Mitch Gelman, West Hempstead, New York: “As an accountant, the first thing I tell my clients is ‘Get a library card!’ Otherwise, you’re too subject to temptation, and liable to find yourself in over your head. Few people know that the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is the ‘Clan of the Cave Bear’ novels. You overspend on one, and, just when you begin to dig yourself out, the next installment comes along. Public libraries began during the Depression as a government measure against this very problem. They’re there for our protection, so we should use them.”
Go read it, it’s short.
When I first heard about Library Thing, I thought, “jeez, catalog your own books? yikes!” But I finally took a little trip over there, and ran across some of their more useful, lesser trumpeted features.
I can easily import all the books I bought recently (for work, not home - I’m still not into that idea) into my Library Thing library. Then I can use their utility to generate a javascript that will display those books covers and titles on my library webpage. The covers link to Amazon, the titles to my Library Thing library.
Whenever I add books, they will automatically appear on my website. (Scroll down to see them, I’ve put them here as well).
It wasn’t that long ago that I was downloading book jackets for each book we bought and inserting them into tables, linking them up, yada yada. Those “recent acquisitions” pages used to take me hours to get right.
Not only does this greatly simply things, but it also steers me toward using Library Thing as a teaching tool with the students. I’ve been thinking about the best way to have the students share book reviews and recommendations, and try out another 2.0 site. And I can always use another readers advisory tool. I’m still thinking through all the implications of that, but I’m getting excited about it.
I’m also really excited about the prospect of them releasing a pro-version that I could implement on a more local basis. It seems to me that Library Thing could come very close to a highly functional and user-friendly, basic OPAC. An OPAC that grew from the user perspective, not the librarians’. Imagine a catalog with in-depth subject access for novels. Useful recommendations. Book Covers. Student reviews. mmmmm
update: I just saw that “children under age 13 are prohibited from using LibraryThing” which makes me even more excited about the idea of a local, private version. I can’t find much about these plans, however. I’ll see what I can dig up.
I’ve been having some fun on PBS Teacher Source. There are lesson plans and links to some great media sites. I’m pretty disgusted by many of the sites targeted at teachers and kids. The content is often mediocre and the design beyond gross. And the amount of adds… oy!
Teacher Source does recommend some doosies, but I’ve also found some good ones. Some of the fun places they sent me to are Asia for Educators
and Mountain Voices.
There is so much media available online, and the kids really respond to it. I’m finding something for just about every lesson. The internets still just blow my mind.