A recent post on 3 Great Ways To Read Your Google Reader Feeds [via AL Direct] reminded me that I should revisit the topic of Google Reader.
Four years ago (almost exactly) I wrote about my first experiences with Google Reader. I was not a happy camper. I had some colloquy with colleagues about tips and techniques for using Google Reader. I tried a second time, and was still unhappy. I remained a Bloglines user for a long time. Well, Bloglines essentially went away.
I now use Google Reader, pretty exclusively, to follow the 164 blogs that I care about.
I think Google Reader has changed some. What else has changed is that I now use Gmail for most of my personal email. It has the handy little link which will automatically open Google Reader. That makes it incredibly easy to read the blogs. As a result, I am very caught up, and don't mind (as much) the assumption that you want to read the latest posting first. I have set several up (manually) to post with the oldest first, and - for now - I am content.
I ran across my posts, and realized that I should "fess up" to having been converted, later rather than sooner.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Links: Late January - Early February
Stephen Abram provided a link and summary of the Pew report on Americans living with disability and their technology profile. And as often as I have thought and talked about the digital divide, my focus was more on the socio-economic factors. I have not thought as much as I should about the digital divide between those of us who are people without significant life disabilities, and people who have some important life disability.
My friend Jessamyn and I have shared many conversations about the other digital divides. Her perspective focuses on the rural issues (like in her home state of Vermont). She talks about some of the issues here. Many of my thoughts are centered around the urban poor who are often equally disadvantaged.
David Lee King did a great series of posts on how to do better presentations.
I know that there are some libraries which have been doing this for years. The Ferguson Library in Stamford CT was doing it about 10 years ago. American Libraries has a post with some simple "how-to" instructions on running a passport acceptance facility (it can be a revenue stream!).
I always worry when Library 2.0 is brought up and the topic turns to 'discovery.' What exactly is meant by that. I probably should spend some time thinking about it, but Lorcan Dempsey talks about a recent report out of the University of Minnesota on discovery in the library. It is well worth reading. (And by putting it here, I won't lose it.)
Eric Hellman has thought a lot about a "national digital library." He has written a post with a proposal on how such a library could be funded, in the US at least, through tax deductions. It is very thoughtful.
Leo Lo (a recent find for me) has started a series on screenwriting for a librarians by starting with a promotional video. I expect that this will be a very useful series.
Finally, my friend Karen Schneider has written about success. She was reacting to a question about stories of failure. Early in the essay she says (and I cleaned up the shorthand a little), "Another blog post I don’t have time to write: how failure is overrated, and often confused with iterative design." I like that last part...."confused with iterative design." That is a great phrase, since I am generally a half full glass person. She draws very heavily from her experience in a MFA writing program. It is a great post.
My friend Jessamyn and I have shared many conversations about the other digital divides. Her perspective focuses on the rural issues (like in her home state of Vermont). She talks about some of the issues here. Many of my thoughts are centered around the urban poor who are often equally disadvantaged.
David Lee King did a great series of posts on how to do better presentations.
I know that there are some libraries which have been doing this for years. The Ferguson Library in Stamford CT was doing it about 10 years ago. American Libraries has a post with some simple "how-to" instructions on running a passport acceptance facility (it can be a revenue stream!).
I always worry when Library 2.0 is brought up and the topic turns to 'discovery.' What exactly is meant by that. I probably should spend some time thinking about it, but Lorcan Dempsey talks about a recent report out of the University of Minnesota on discovery in the library. It is well worth reading. (And by putting it here, I won't lose it.)
Eric Hellman has thought a lot about a "national digital library." He has written a post with a proposal on how such a library could be funded, in the US at least, through tax deductions. It is very thoughtful.
Leo Lo (a recent find for me) has started a series on screenwriting for a librarians by starting with a promotional video. I expect that this will be a very useful series.
Finally, my friend Karen Schneider has written about success. She was reacting to a question about stories of failure. Early in the essay she says (and I cleaned up the shorthand a little), "Another blog post I don’t have time to write: how failure is overrated, and often confused with iterative design." I like that last part...."confused with iterative design." That is a great phrase, since I am generally a half full glass person. She draws very heavily from her experience in a MFA writing program. It is a great post.
IKEA lies - IKEA service sucks
It is strong language...but it is my truth.
I previously believed it wrong. but today it was proved true.
Story to prove the truth:
Well, that is so not 21st Century. It is so not Internet friendly, and most importantly, it is not green. IKEA says on its web site:
I have in my car trunk, a light base, and the pole, but NO way to connect them, and I have to toss them because the manufacturer WILL NOT provide the parts. I have to toss these otherwise useful parts because of the lack of a $2 piece of shaped metal.
So, I say: IKEA lies. IKEA sucks!!!!!
I previously believed it wrong. but today it was proved true.
Story to prove the truth:
We have owned a lamp for several years. (It is not an expensive lamp.)Previously, with another piece of furniture, the customer service folks had been wonderfully accommodating. This time? Not so much. After a series of emails, here is the response I received:
The lamp broke at the base. It is a fundamental design flaw because it is the single week point since it is the single piece which joins the base to the pole for the lamp. The lamp you don't want to buy is the NOT.
Mine snapped off right where the base goes to the upright pole.
Clearly a weak point.
I tried to get a replacement part from the local hardware store, but since two sides are machined, it is not available from anyone but IKEA.
So, I called the national number.
They said to visit "my local store." Yeah, right. The light was purchased in Minnesota, the "nearest" store is in Houston which is almost 500 miles away.
Unfortunately, IKEA simply does not have the availability of anWhich means (to me) that, if you cannot come to our store, you are SOL (Simply Out of Luck).
option to purchase separate components for our NOT lamps, either in
store or online.
We appreciate your inquiry and apologize for the inconvenience, but
the only possible way a replacement component might be obtained would
be at an IKEA store that happened to have availability in its
recovery department.
Well, that is so not 21st Century. It is so not Internet friendly, and most importantly, it is not green. IKEA says on its web site:
The Never Ending list consists of all the improvements we have made for people and the environment. Here’s where we are so far.And you know what? They lie!!
[A long list ... not really environmental. ]
I have in my car trunk, a light base, and the pole, but NO way to connect them, and I have to toss them because the manufacturer WILL NOT provide the parts. I have to toss these otherwise useful parts because of the lack of a $2 piece of shaped metal.
So, I say: IKEA lies. IKEA sucks!!!!!
Monday, February 07, 2011
Libraries and Branding
This is a consciously short post.
I am reading the February 2011 issue of Cites and Insights by Walt Crawford. If you don't read it regularly you should. Walt is a good writer and has a good grasp of many of the issues facing libraries, especially related to technology.
On page 15, as part of a discussion about "Libraries: Not About Books," he expresses a very important concept which I am going to slightly paraphrase:
I am reading the February 2011 issue of Cites and Insights by Walt Crawford. If you don't read it regularly you should. Walt is a good writer and has a good grasp of many of the issues facing libraries, especially related to technology.
On page 15, as part of a discussion about "Libraries: Not About Books," he expresses a very important concept which I am going to slightly paraphrase:
Libraries need to build their brand from books not by running away from them.That is a very, very powerful statement.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Library Day in the Life - Round 6 - Part 2
For the rest of the week, here is a short daily re-cap:
Tuesday: I was worried that the rain would affect my commute, but it did not. Good news for me is that the temp is still in the mid 50s (above zero). Watched "the regulars" come in this morning. It is interesting how each library has its own group. Here some of them are homeless, and use the library as a place to hang out. They also often know each other. I have gotten many of them to greet me with a hello each day. (I try to be welcoming.) There are periodic changes in the group as someone gets a job, or moves away, but this is a pretty well behaved group.
One of my tasks each morning is to open the seminar center if a group is using it. Yesterday and today it has been a training session for math instructors and is being done by staff of the Department of Education. This morning one of them asked me about our services, so I had the opportunity to promote the library.
I also have now become the "go-to person" for stats, and get to play with the state's system of gathering statistics from our agency. And, today, I was asked to help with the library's Facebook presence. Moving forward!! Had a very productive afternoon meeting with the folks who run the other public service departments. We resolved several issues.
Tuesday: I was worried that the rain would affect my commute, but it did not. Good news for me is that the temp is still in the mid 50s (above zero). Watched "the regulars" come in this morning. It is interesting how each library has its own group. Here some of them are homeless, and use the library as a place to hang out. They also often know each other. I have gotten many of them to greet me with a hello each day. (I try to be welcoming.) There are periodic changes in the group as someone gets a job, or moves away, but this is a pretty well behaved group.
One of my tasks each morning is to open the seminar center if a group is using it. Yesterday and today it has been a training session for math instructors and is being done by staff of the Department of Education. This morning one of them asked me about our services, so I had the opportunity to promote the library.
I also have now become the "go-to person" for stats, and get to play with the state's system of gathering statistics from our agency. And, today, I was asked to help with the library's Facebook presence. Moving forward!! Had a very productive afternoon meeting with the folks who run the other public service departments. We resolved several issues.
Wednesday: Had to get gas to start the morning trip...But today was sunny. It was 10 degrees (F) colder today when I left than yesterday, and, as usual, got colder as I drove from the city into the more rural areas (i.e. swamp). One staff member is out today, so more desk time than usual. Yesterday it was nice to have a full staff. Quiet at the Reference Desk this morning. I forget what it is, but Wednesday morning there is some event which has our "regulars" arriving late, like 8:30 - 8:45. It was quiet enough that I took the first steps to set up the Facebook page for the Library.
Thursday: Both the wife and I got up very early (middle of the night) so we did a first run at the taxes. Getting a refund! Woot! However, that could be the down payment for her to purchase the car she has been leasing for the past three years....I left earlier than usual, and had an uneventful drive, but the sunrise (in the rear view mirror) was spectacular. There were just enough clouds in the East to make the colors glorious as I drove across the swamps. Down one staff member today (as opposed to a suddenly down 2 yesterday) means less desk time than yesterday, but more than a normal day.
Got a lot done at work, in spite of spending a lot of time on the desk. Spent about 45 minutes, off and on, with an electrician who had been to a job center. They took his resume and reformatted it to post it to the job folks web site. However, this guy, an admitted "three finger typist" did not like how it looked. We went through, cutting it, pasting it, re-formatting it, saving it to Google Docs, and for insurance, emailing it to himself. It reminds me of how much I really do know!
On the drive home I was reminded again about the beauty around me. First of all, there were enough Eastern clouds, that the setting sunlight was reflected nicely in it. Right by where the Interstate leaves the swamp/lake and enters the metro area are two sights that always amaze me. I noticed the firs early in my first spring. There is a large, tall tree which has a cluster of sticks in a crook near the top. One day, I saw a bird there....I looked closely, and it was an American Bald Eagle. I have seen both male and female birds, and even the heads of the young, over the time I have been doing the commute. It is on the south side of I-10, right by the I-310 cut-off. On the other side, there is an area of "bushes" (maybe they are mangroves?). In the morning, and sometimes in the evening, it looks like white plastic shopping bags have been caught on the branches by the water. But that is not what they are....they are roosting egrets. I see egrets all over the place. They are water birds, and a bunch of my drive is along water. I have also seen them in Audubon Park here in the city. A final note is that I can tell when it is "wet" or "dry" based on the level of Lake Pontchartrain along "the Spillway." Lately it seems like the levels are dropping. We are in winter, and I guess that is OK. All the snow up north will melt, and run down, eventually into the Mississippi River, the Spillway is an outlet to keep New Orleans from flooding by diverting water into the lake. We'll see!
Friday: It is payday. Yay! It is also another gas fill-up. But, gas prices are down to $2.81! Got to work and got the last info I needed for my first time entering the departmental data into the state-wide data collection platform. It was an interesting experience, and not as difficult as I feared. Of course some of that is that folks in the other library departments are good about entering their data monthly into an Excel spreadsheet which is the basis for the organization wide data. It was a relatively quiet morning on the Reference Desk with the usual questions about tax forms....and I asked for more state forms from the folks up in the Louisiana Section (who collect all state publications, and therefore deal with the tax forms for us). I will be glad when the instruction booklets come in!
The mail brought professional journals, ads for publications, and letters from the prison. One of our jobs is to respond to requests for information from prisoners. This spring, I started an internal wiki to keep track of both the types of questions and the prison from which we were getting them. One of these days (maybe around the first anniversary, or at the new fiscal year), I'll have to sit down and analyze them.
Bonus: When I was growing up, and when my kids were growing up, we often played variations on the "license plate game" while on long trips. There are many visitors to Louisiana. Here is a list of state license places seen on the highway this week (other than Louisiana), in rough order of appearance: New Jersey, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Oregon, Ohio, South Carolina, Wyoming, Colorado, New York, Missouri, Washington, North Carolina, Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Iowa, Nebraska. That's 28 out of the 50 states. I did not see any Canadian or Mexican license plates -- this week.
Blog Bonus: I read 162 different blogs in Google Reader. But I want to give a shout out to one of my favorite Monday - Thursday cartoons. It was created by half of the creative genius team behind Unshelved, and revolves around computer programing. The title says a lot Not Invented Here.
Got a lot done at work, in spite of spending a lot of time on the desk. Spent about 45 minutes, off and on, with an electrician who had been to a job center. They took his resume and reformatted it to post it to the job folks web site. However, this guy, an admitted "three finger typist" did not like how it looked. We went through, cutting it, pasting it, re-formatting it, saving it to Google Docs, and for insurance, emailing it to himself. It reminds me of how much I really do know!
On the drive home I was reminded again about the beauty around me. First of all, there were enough Eastern clouds, that the setting sunlight was reflected nicely in it. Right by where the Interstate leaves the swamp/lake and enters the metro area are two sights that always amaze me. I noticed the firs early in my first spring. There is a large, tall tree which has a cluster of sticks in a crook near the top. One day, I saw a bird there....I looked closely, and it was an American Bald Eagle. I have seen both male and female birds, and even the heads of the young, over the time I have been doing the commute. It is on the south side of I-10, right by the I-310 cut-off. On the other side, there is an area of "bushes" (maybe they are mangroves?). In the morning, and sometimes in the evening, it looks like white plastic shopping bags have been caught on the branches by the water. But that is not what they are....they are roosting egrets. I see egrets all over the place. They are water birds, and a bunch of my drive is along water. I have also seen them in Audubon Park here in the city. A final note is that I can tell when it is "wet" or "dry" based on the level of Lake Pontchartrain along "the Spillway." Lately it seems like the levels are dropping. We are in winter, and I guess that is OK. All the snow up north will melt, and run down, eventually into the Mississippi River, the Spillway is an outlet to keep New Orleans from flooding by diverting water into the lake. We'll see!
Friday: It is payday. Yay! It is also another gas fill-up. But, gas prices are down to $2.81! Got to work and got the last info I needed for my first time entering the departmental data into the state-wide data collection platform. It was an interesting experience, and not as difficult as I feared. Of course some of that is that folks in the other library departments are good about entering their data monthly into an Excel spreadsheet which is the basis for the organization wide data. It was a relatively quiet morning on the Reference Desk with the usual questions about tax forms....and I asked for more state forms from the folks up in the Louisiana Section (who collect all state publications, and therefore deal with the tax forms for us). I will be glad when the instruction booklets come in!
The mail brought professional journals, ads for publications, and letters from the prison. One of our jobs is to respond to requests for information from prisoners. This spring, I started an internal wiki to keep track of both the types of questions and the prison from which we were getting them. One of these days (maybe around the first anniversary, or at the new fiscal year), I'll have to sit down and analyze them.
Bonus: When I was growing up, and when my kids were growing up, we often played variations on the "license plate game" while on long trips. There are many visitors to Louisiana. Here is a list of state license places seen on the highway this week (other than Louisiana), in rough order of appearance: New Jersey, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Oregon, Ohio, South Carolina, Wyoming, Colorado, New York, Missouri, Washington, North Carolina, Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Iowa, Nebraska. That's 28 out of the 50 states. I did not see any Canadian or Mexican license plates -- this week.
Blog Bonus: I read 162 different blogs in Google Reader. But I want to give a shout out to one of my favorite Monday - Thursday cartoons. It was created by half of the creative genius team behind Unshelved, and revolves around computer programing. The title says a lot Not Invented Here.
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