APIs were mentioned in one article, too. They are the way software programmers enable others to make use of the software. I liked the lawn mowing neighbor examples.
I separated my mashup comments and the Rollyo assignment post for my ease of future use.
Thank you SO much to all the teachers who coordinated this exercise. While it took MANY more hours than an in class 8 hour credit CE course would have taken, I have no doubtedly absorbed much more by doing.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Rollyo
At Rollyo I found a searchroll on knowledge management by Ahren Lehnert. Something to investigate further.
However, our assignment was to study the librarianblog by Gabe and use the search term "privacy." That led me to a post from June 26, 2002, by the Shifted Librarian who mentioned she had seen something that says "Baby Boomers are worried about their privacy and being tracked, while Net Gens want to be found and "seen." So they don't have the same privacy concerns the rest of us do, mainly because they don't understand the issues yet and they're so used to switching identities online."
However, our assignment was to study the librarianblog by Gabe and use the search term "privacy." That led me to a post from June 26, 2002, by the Shifted Librarian who mentioned she had seen something that says "Baby Boomers are worried about their privacy and being tracked, while Net Gens want to be found and "seen." So they don't have the same privacy concerns the rest of us do, mainly because they don't understand the issues yet and they're so used to switching identities online."
Week 8 -- the end is near! Mashups
Assignment -- find a mashup and write about it.
I located one through the most popular listing on ProgrammableWeb (you know it would be nice if these websites standardized their names, sometimes TheyAreCamelCase and other times not). The one I chose first was "Where's Tim Hibbard?" -- he carries a phone with GPS and the location data plots on a Google Map. Then I found a more interesting one linked: Dog Coats -- using eBay and ? but when I went back to find that one the link had already changed, so I guess it is somewhat random. I then searched "dog" and found one that shows "dog friendly hotels" -- but here is the dog coats one. "This site offers discounted dog clothing from eBay, and Google Maps of local dog shelters and pet adoption agencies."
I located one through the most popular listing on ProgrammableWeb (you know it would be nice if these websites standardized their names, sometimes TheyAreCamelCase and other times not). The one I chose first was "Where's Tim Hibbard?" -- he carries a phone with GPS and the location data plots on a Google Map. Then I found a more interesting one linked: Dog Coats -- using eBay and ? but when I went back to find that one the link had already changed, so I guess it is somewhat random. I then searched "dog" and found one that shows "dog friendly hotels" -- but here is the dog coats one. "This site offers discounted dog clothing from eBay, and Google Maps of local dog shelters and pet adoption agencies."
Friday, May 2, 2008
Week 7 comments -- podcasting and YouTube
YouTube has many humorous videos relating to libraries and to other topics, but it is also a useful tool for freely sharing valuable educational information. I have enjoyed the many YouTube sessions included in this CE course, particularly those by Lee LeFever of Commoncraft (and thanks for the intro, Bart!). I can see that providing links to quality podcasts and YouTube videos would be a way to enhance the educational value of your site if you find relevant ones. People simply enjoy watching videos! Plus the iPod is so common now you do have a chance of conveying information if your users choose to download podcasts to listen to at a convenient time. I would like to actually learn how to make a broadcast, but thank you for not requiring THAT this time!
Quality is certainly a consideration. Some videos look professionally done, others look like home videos. Some podcasts have good sound quality, others are harsh or difficult to understand (sometimes due to accents). I think the quality would reflect on your service. If it is difficult to understand or poor quality but you still think it is worth including then perhaps there should be an explanation.
Here is an example of a well photographed (although boring, not making as entertaining a use of the medium as Lee LeFever does) session and an opportunity to learn from an hour long conference they are sharing freely -- Building Academic Library 2.0, from the University of California, Berkeley.
Below is an example of embedding the same Berkeley YouTube video rather than just adding the link as I did above. To do this I copied the "embed" code (easily found on the YouTube page) while in the "edit html" frame of Blogger.
Quality is certainly a consideration. Some videos look professionally done, others look like home videos. Some podcasts have good sound quality, others are harsh or difficult to understand (sometimes due to accents). I think the quality would reflect on your service. If it is difficult to understand or poor quality but you still think it is worth including then perhaps there should be an explanation.
Here is an example of a well photographed (although boring, not making as entertaining a use of the medium as Lee LeFever does) session and an opportunity to learn from an hour long conference they are sharing freely -- Building Academic Library 2.0, from the University of California, Berkeley.
Below is an example of embedding the same Berkeley YouTube video rather than just adding the link as I did above. To do this I copied the "embed" code (easily found on the YouTube page) while in the "edit html" frame of Blogger.
Week 7 - Podcasting and Online hosted videos
on to Week 7! Here's what they say about podcasting:
"Podcasting is a method of publishing audio (and sometimes video) files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a RSS feed and receive new files automatically by subscription, usually at no cost." So you need something to listen to podcasts with and the location of the podcast (the RSS feed). They say that iTunes is the most popular "podcatcher" but Odeo is a free online service that is useable from multiple computers.
"Podcasting is a method of publishing audio (and sometimes video) files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a RSS feed and receive new files automatically by subscription, usually at no cost." So you need something to listen to podcasts with and the location of the podcast (the RSS feed). They say that iTunes is the most popular "podcatcher" but Odeo is a free online service that is useable from multiple computers.
Photo sharing -- Week 6
This image is important because it was made by my son to serve as the computer wall paper for my library computers. The furniture is orange and teal so this is a perfect background. I have to keep it posted online because occasionally the background disappears and I have to have an easy way to recover it quickly.
I am working on the week 6 assignment by posting this image to my blog. For the Facebook part of the assignment I am using my college "facebook" equivalent and started a library group branded with a photo of my own library that I uploaded there.
Photo sharing is a great tool, but I think it is important to focus on one system if possible to minimize confusion. I use Picasa frequently but have not investigated its sharing tools. However, my intern recently took photos of my library and shared them using Picasa, so I can see that will be useful. It would be nice to link to library photos on my library website. I do see that if we include photos of any library customers we should ask permission to post the photo.
I encountered a trick when I tried logging on to Flickr today after setting up my account almost a month ago. It is connected with Yahoo, and I have one account name for Yahoo and another for Flickr. It was confusing because I went to Flickr to log in but I actually had to first enter my Yahoo name to reach the right account. I have had the same problem with multiple Google accounts. So confusing to keep track of it all.
Back to work
Well, it has been almost a month since I could work on this. A very hard month of helping various family members.
Anyway, I plan to finish this course now. Thank goodness we have a couple of extra weeks.
Anyway, I plan to finish this course now. Thank goodness we have a couple of extra weeks.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
New Facebook subgroup
Some of the participants have created a subgroup in Facebook. You have to have a Facebook account to use it.
Goggle Docs -- the future?
Is this the future of all software products? What do you think?
This is an excellent bit of software.
1. free, which seems to be what most people prefer of course, unless your own company pays for it -- but then that software must be able to invite others in to collaborate and view. So someone has to be paying all the writers unless they are doing this on their own time.
2. collaborating, sharing and viewing options are amazing benefits
3. Concern as to whether potential users will want to set up their own account. Once they are in, the learning curve seems pretty low -- if they are already familiar with the idea of the types and uses of the different features -- document, spreadsheet or presentation. Actually though this might be easier to use intuitively than PowerPoint and it doesn't have all the extra features.
4. I think this is the way to go. Accessible from any computer, no need for thumb drives or remembering to email it to yourself.
This is an excellent bit of software.
1. free, which seems to be what most people prefer of course, unless your own company pays for it -- but then that software must be able to invite others in to collaborate and view. So someone has to be paying all the writers unless they are doing this on their own time.
2. collaborating, sharing and viewing options are amazing benefits
3. Concern as to whether potential users will want to set up their own account. Once they are in, the learning curve seems pretty low -- if they are already familiar with the idea of the types and uses of the different features -- document, spreadsheet or presentation. Actually though this might be easier to use intuitively than PowerPoint and it doesn't have all the extra features.
4. I think this is the way to go. Accessible from any computer, no need for thumb drives or remembering to email it to yourself.
Google Doc tips and questions to explore
I found that trying to import an existing document from work had a problem. It had lots of screen shots so I would have to cut it into about 6 sections to upload it. Since I am adding lots of photos to my sample presentation I am wondering whether there is a limit once it actually gets into Google Docs. Similarly, if I do a presentation in Google Docs with lots of photos will I have trouble downloading it to play as a wedding video?
Also a couple of times at work when I select a document it just gives me a blank. Once when it happened I just waited until the next day and had no problem. However the second time it happened with a different document I checked their help section and found that 90% of the time they think if you clear your cache it will help. So I did and it did.
Google Docs is a great idea. My husband just got an iPhone and was lamenting that he cannot create Word documents with it. Now he can use Google Docs to do that!
I see the Presentation option has a way to arrange an online meeting to show the presentation!
I do have trouble with multiple screens opening and then several look like they are the main active screen.
A great piece of software.
Also a couple of times at work when I select a document it just gives me a blank. Once when it happened I just waited until the next day and had no problem. However the second time it happened with a different document I checked their help section and found that 90% of the time they think if you clear your cache it will help. So I did and it did.
Google Docs is a great idea. My husband just got an iPhone and was lamenting that he cannot create Word documents with it. Now he can use Google Docs to do that!
I see the Presentation option has a way to arrange an online meeting to show the presentation!
I do have trouble with multiple screens opening and then several look like they are the main active screen.
A great piece of software.
On to Week 5 -- GoogleDocs!
This is an excellent article on collaborating through GoogleDocs by Christopher Case, Teacher, Miller Creek Middle School, Marinwood, California. The "share" button is the way to collaborate or you can actively chat by hitting "discuss."
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Week 3 a little late -- FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn
I went to the sites for all 3 of these and took their tours.
FaceBook has the equivalent of RSS features that will help me explain the process to my clients when I help them set up table of contents alerts. In fact, the other day I was sharing some of the information I am learning with a young administrator and she understood it because of that -- she is used to reading her FaceBook "News Feed" section -- it alerts her when a friend updates their site or "posts on her wall."
MySpace, "a place for friends," looks like a great place to find a date or mate -- if that were something I was interested in, which I am not.
Similarly, LinkedIn looks like a good site to start if I were looking for a job and wanting to organize my professional contacts and work on networking.
In doing this I realized a program both my universities set up is basically the same thing: inCircle at Baylor and at UT Austin. In fact, it may be a canned software they have purchased since both are called "inCircle." I did sign up for one of them and even set up a career group for librarians. However, very few have joined and there is no interaction.
I understand that once a person joins FaceBook or MySpace they often just check their account to keep up with friends rather than communicating via regular email.
I think that these would be great for a single person or job hunter wanting to make contacts, but personally I prefer using my listservs for professional contact. Possibly if all family members (including ones spouse) joined it would be a good way to share photos and activities, but right now I use email for that. I don't really want one more place I go to for personal interaction, and in fact, I do not think that spending a lot of time on this sort of account would be good for a marriage unless both were on it.
So, in summary, I don't think these sorts of sites will be very useful to me right now, but I am glad to know they exist.
FaceBook has the equivalent of RSS features that will help me explain the process to my clients when I help them set up table of contents alerts. In fact, the other day I was sharing some of the information I am learning with a young administrator and she understood it because of that -- she is used to reading her FaceBook "News Feed" section -- it alerts her when a friend updates their site or "posts on her wall."
MySpace, "a place for friends," looks like a great place to find a date or mate -- if that were something I was interested in, which I am not.
Similarly, LinkedIn looks like a good site to start if I were looking for a job and wanting to organize my professional contacts and work on networking.
In doing this I realized a program both my universities set up is basically the same thing: inCircle at Baylor and at UT Austin. In fact, it may be a canned software they have purchased since both are called "inCircle." I did sign up for one of them and even set up a career group for librarians. However, very few have joined and there is no interaction.
I understand that once a person joins FaceBook or MySpace they often just check their account to keep up with friends rather than communicating via regular email.
I think that these would be great for a single person or job hunter wanting to make contacts, but personally I prefer using my listservs for professional contact. Possibly if all family members (including ones spouse) joined it would be a good way to share photos and activities, but right now I use email for that. I don't really want one more place I go to for personal interaction, and in fact, I do not think that spending a lot of time on this sort of account would be good for a marriage unless both were on it.
So, in summary, I don't think these sorts of sites will be very useful to me right now, but I am glad to know they exist.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Delicious for these MLA links
I have been trying to capture most of the links we use in the course at my personal Del.icio.us account under the term "MLA."
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Citation bookmarking
I did not know about Connotea and CiteULike -- they are great! They allow the user to capture all the citation details into their personal online social bookmarking account and share them. I quite often have new staff who do not yet use EndNote but are doing research. This would be a great way to get started and later be able to import into EndNote. CiteULike says it can do that and I'm assuming Nature's Connotea would also. CiteULike explains how to handle PubMed results when there is only one result (and apparently thus does not provide a usable URL for this system). From what I read, Connotea may import the MeSH subject headings, too.
I will want to see which one would be better to recommend.
I will want to see which one would be better to recommend.
Week 4 - Del.icio.us
The excellent direct YouTube link was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x66lV7GOcNU
called Social Bookmarking in Plain English from CommonCraft.
My colleague and I took the "Geeks Bearing Gifts" course a couple of years ago and immediately adopted Del.icio.us. We use it for work to gather sites and I have a separate account at home for personal bookmarks.
At work it is really helpful for sharing links off of our personal computers. We have used it for health fairs both at work and at church since the address is one that anyone can access anywhere. My main complaint is that the tag cloud titles are not searchable. The trick we have used to work around that is making sure to assign that "folder title" as a tag. Here is an example: http://del.icio.us/TSRHClibrarians/consumer-health
If you scroll down on the right you will see the real folder for "consumer health" but at least the sites are also tagged with that term. However, you will see that the "related tags" and the tags in the actual "consumer health" folder are different.
The other way I use Del.icio.us is as a quick way to add links to my website. My actual library website is more cumbersome to update. I have an area that includes links to DFW area sites, transportation, amusements, etc., for our visitors. It is easy to tag something in Del.icio.us without getting into updating the actual website. You can see these at http://del.icio.us/TSRHClibrarians/DFW
I appreciate the information about Connotea and CiteULike for professional journal article citation bookmarking. I had not heard about them and will begin assessing and recommending them to my users.
called Social Bookmarking in Plain English from CommonCraft.
My colleague and I took the "Geeks Bearing Gifts" course a couple of years ago and immediately adopted Del.icio.us. We use it for work to gather sites and I have a separate account at home for personal bookmarks.
At work it is really helpful for sharing links off of our personal computers. We have used it for health fairs both at work and at church since the address is one that anyone can access anywhere. My main complaint is that the tag cloud titles are not searchable. The trick we have used to work around that is making sure to assign that "folder title" as a tag. Here is an example: http://del.icio.us/TSRHClibrarians/consumer-health
If you scroll down on the right you will see the real folder for "consumer health" but at least the sites are also tagged with that term. However, you will see that the "related tags" and the tags in the actual "consumer health" folder are different.
The other way I use Del.icio.us is as a quick way to add links to my website. My actual library website is more cumbersome to update. I have an area that includes links to DFW area sites, transportation, amusements, etc., for our visitors. It is easy to tag something in Del.icio.us without getting into updating the actual website. You can see these at http://del.icio.us/TSRHClibrarians/DFW
I appreciate the information about Connotea and CiteULike for professional journal article citation bookmarking. I had not heard about them and will begin assessing and recommending them to my users.
Week 3 - Facebook
Well, last week I had to do my taxes and go out of town, so I am skipping this one until later! I thought I would be able to get it done Saturday afternoon but I got home too late and was too tired to face Facebook on Sunday.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Hotpads, a 2.0 company
My son is involved in another type of web 2.0 company, HotPads. They mix real estate listings -- for finding a new apartment or buying a house -- with mapping software. "The place to find your space." If you are looking, check it out!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
NetSquared - "remixing the web for social change"
NetSquared or "Net2" is an organization that helps educate folks in non profits to use Web 2.0 social networking tools.
Here's what they say:
"Net2 is created by TechSoup, a project of CompuMentor. Our organization has worked directly with non-profits for nearly two decades, providing direct assistance, web-based knowledge and resources, and donated technology.
Our mission is to spur responsible adoption of social web tools by social benefit organizations. There's a whole new generation of online tools available – tools that make it easier than ever before to collaborate, share information and mobilize support. These tools include blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, podcasting, and more. Some people describe them as "Web 2.0"; we call them the social web, because their power comes from the relationships they enable."
They have an annual invitational conference to help projects link up with funding. This year's will be in May in San Jose.
You can register and voting closes March 24 -- if you do, vote for SquarePeg!! My nephew is involved with that project.
Here's what they say:
"Net2 is created by TechSoup, a project of CompuMentor. Our organization has worked directly with non-profits for nearly two decades, providing direct assistance, web-based knowledge and resources, and donated technology.
Our mission is to spur responsible adoption of social web tools by social benefit organizations. There's a whole new generation of online tools available – tools that make it easier than ever before to collaborate, share information and mobilize support. These tools include blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, podcasting, and more. Some people describe them as "Web 2.0"; we call them the social web, because their power comes from the relationships they enable."
They have an annual invitational conference to help projects link up with funding. This year's will be in May in San Jose.
You can register and voting closes March 24 -- if you do, vote for SquarePeg!! My nephew is involved with that project.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Week 2 assignment list
I joined the class wiki
Designed a wiki and added content TOCtalk about managing the table of contents situation at work.
Added links to my blog and my wiki on the MLA CE class wiki.
Added links to the MLA blog and wiki to MY blog.
Added Paws Across Texas link to the Therapy Dogs wiki and posted a comment.
Organized my wiki page and another into a group on serials
Posted a comment to the RSS feed list page.
Next, write a discussion comment on the MLA wiki -- nope, I don't think I have to do that.
Finally, submit my blog comment via the MLA weekly form.
Yay!! My brain is expanded!!
Designed a wiki and added content TOCtalk about managing the table of contents situation at work.
Added links to my blog and my wiki on the MLA CE class wiki.
Added links to the MLA blog and wiki to MY blog.
Added Paws Across Texas link to the Therapy Dogs wiki and posted a comment.
Organized my wiki page and another into a group on serials
Posted a comment to the RSS feed list page.
Next, write a discussion comment on the MLA wiki -- nope, I don't think I have to do that.
Finally, submit my blog comment via the MLA weekly form.
Yay!! My brain is expanded!!
CamelCase
I learned a new term from WikiMatrix.org:
CamelCase
aka "medial capitals."
"CamelCase is the practice of writing compound words or phrases where the words are joined without spaces, and each word is capitalized within the compound."
I think in some wikis you are supposed to run words together like that but I have not seen evidence of that in Wetpaint.
CamelCase
aka "medial capitals."
"CamelCase is the practice of writing compound words or phrases where the words are joined without spaces, and each word is capitalized within the compound."
I think in some wikis you are supposed to run words together like that but I have not seen evidence of that in Wetpaint.
Week 2 -- wikis for personal organization of thoughts
My initial thoughts were right, but I see a wiki is a great way just to organize your own thoughts. It seems more flexible than just a Word document. It is accessible from multiple computers -- you don't have to remember to send the document home! Plus it will be easy to break into sections and add links and images. It is getting easier to understand with the exercises we were assigned.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Week 2 comments -- blog vs wiki
Step 7: What is the difference between a blog and a wiki? What sort of things might be better suited for a blog and better suited for a wiki?
The neat thing about a blog is its archiving ability. You can look back at a particular month to see what was posted then or what was going on. However, its format is pretty well limited to certain features -- the diary part, the list of links and archives and a few other things you can add over to the side. There is usually a main author on a blog and others can comment.
A wiki is more of a collaborative effort. It is a great way to record and compile information that can be edited. The edits can be tracked. Lots of people can contribute to the wiki on more of an equal footing.
I could use a wiki to handle the following:
online procedure manual like this one -- https://wiki.lib.umn.edu/
online disaster manual
journal table of contents situation instructions
subject pathfinder like this one for business -- http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page
(this one also uses Meebo for chat reference)
I am a solo librarian so in many cases these would just serve as an online way to collect and update the information in one place as opposed to using a Word document. However, it would be a handy way to share procedures and a way for an intern to handle updates easily. Privacy would be a concern.
We did already try doing a wiki to handle an Excel spreadsheet for keeping statistics. PBWiki didl not work, it apparently didn't handle Excel yet. Instead we have used Google Docs. I will keep that in mind as I look at Wet Paint.
The neat thing about a blog is its archiving ability. You can look back at a particular month to see what was posted then or what was going on. However, its format is pretty well limited to certain features -- the diary part, the list of links and archives and a few other things you can add over to the side. There is usually a main author on a blog and others can comment.
A wiki is more of a collaborative effort. It is a great way to record and compile information that can be edited. The edits can be tracked. Lots of people can contribute to the wiki on more of an equal footing.
I could use a wiki to handle the following:
online procedure manual like this one -- https://wiki.lib.umn.edu/
online disaster manual
journal table of contents situation instructions
subject pathfinder like this one for business -- http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page
(this one also uses Meebo for chat reference)
I am a solo librarian so in many cases these would just serve as an online way to collect and update the information in one place as opposed to using a Word document. However, it would be a handy way to share procedures and a way for an intern to handle updates easily. Privacy would be a concern.
We did already try doing a wiki to handle an Excel spreadsheet for keeping statistics. PBWiki didl not work, it apparently didn't handle Excel yet. Instead we have used Google Docs. I will keep that in mind as I look at Wet Paint.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Comments on Week 1 Assignment
Well even though I was very familiar with blogs I ended up spending way too much time on this lesson! I spent over 3-1/2 hours. So many new and interesting things to read and learn! I especially liked David Rothman's PubMed RSS feed column and his tip on using it to set up a journal table of contents feed. Also I captured what I thought were the most important points so I will be able to get to the information in the future.
RSS -- PubMed search vs Journal Table of Contents
The value of keeping up to date by using a PubMed search via RSS instead of a feed of a journal's table of contents:
- the table of contents is not personalized to the needs of the clinician.
- RSS feeds from PubMed can be used to guide the clinician straight to any available full text of the journal if the search is set up to access the library’s PubMed LinkOuts.
- an RSS reading service like Google Reader allows the user to organize feeds by subject and to star especially interesting items.
RSS Feeds
Question: How do you think you could use RSS feeds at your library? How do you think patrons could use RSS feeds? Write a brief response on your blog.
The problem of staying aware of new journal content is pretty overwhelming. I manage a very small library and have provided routing of journals for the years I have been there. I personally prefer seeing a hard copy -- but am guilty of allowing it to languish unread on my desk (or in one of the many stacks lying around, well organized of course, but messy). Thus the disadvantage of routing -- only the first person on the routing list gets a time-value product.
Now that more electronic tables of contents are available I am hoping I can use them to discontinue the routing but still enable people to see at least the titles easily.
The problem has been that there is no single service that serves as a central place to manage all the tables of contents links whether you want to get them by email or some other way. Although I use a journal vendor and purchase several online products they do not have a table of contents management service that meets all my needs. Furthermore, hospital staff do leave their jobs occasionally and I imagine if they have set up an online management system for the journals they read they would still be interested in those titles -- even if they can no longer get to full text via my library.
So, the RSS feed system seems like a real possibility. If a customer is willing to use such a system it will take the notices out of their email in box and give them one central spot to purposely go to and peruse new information. It has a search box for their selected materials, too.
This service will take a lot of work initially to set up whether by the user or by me. I will also need to provide some links on my webpage to these neat YouTube videos for instruction. However, I do think the use of an RSS reader service has potential to solve my journal routing problem.
The problem of staying aware of new journal content is pretty overwhelming. I manage a very small library and have provided routing of journals for the years I have been there. I personally prefer seeing a hard copy -- but am guilty of allowing it to languish unread on my desk (or in one of the many stacks lying around, well organized of course, but messy). Thus the disadvantage of routing -- only the first person on the routing list gets a time-value product.
Now that more electronic tables of contents are available I am hoping I can use them to discontinue the routing but still enable people to see at least the titles easily.
The problem has been that there is no single service that serves as a central place to manage all the tables of contents links whether you want to get them by email or some other way. Although I use a journal vendor and purchase several online products they do not have a table of contents management service that meets all my needs. Furthermore, hospital staff do leave their jobs occasionally and I imagine if they have set up an online management system for the journals they read they would still be interested in those titles -- even if they can no longer get to full text via my library.
So, the RSS feed system seems like a real possibility. If a customer is willing to use such a system it will take the notices out of their email in box and give them one central spot to purposely go to and peruse new information. It has a search box for their selected materials, too.
This service will take a lot of work initially to set up whether by the user or by me. I will also need to provide some links on my webpage to these neat YouTube videos for instruction. However, I do think the use of an RSS reader service has potential to solve my journal routing problem.
Sources of Journal Table of Contents Feeds
I found table of contents links several ways:
1. by simply searching for the title in Google Reader's search box (the one under "Add Subscription"). However that often seemed to produce a number of items to hunt through and sometimes double listings -- and I wasn't sure if they were the same or not since they both had different numbers of subscribers.
2. search the web for the title. If I was lucky I found an RSS feed link on that site (which in more cases actually said XML in a little orange box instead of RSS with the orange curves).
3. try the PubMed search limited to a journal title. That was a little discouraging though because my most important journal (Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics) gave no results for the past 30 days. Now I have to research it to see if it has changed its name some way.
1. by simply searching for the title in Google Reader's search box (the one under "Add Subscription"). However that often seemed to produce a number of items to hunt through and sometimes double listings -- and I wasn't sure if they were the same or not since they both had different numbers of subscribers.
2. search the web for the title. If I was lucky I found an RSS feed link on that site (which in more cases actually said XML in a little orange box instead of RSS with the orange curves).
3. try the PubMed search limited to a journal title. That was a little discouraging though because my most important journal (Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics) gave no results for the past 30 days. Now I have to research it to see if it has changed its name some way.
Google Reader Tips
Edit the name of a feed once it gets in -- just go to the Settings.
Star an item by clicking on the star to the left of the particular posting.
Star an item by clicking on the star to the left of the particular posting.
Journal Table of Contents RSS Feeds via PubMed
The article by David Rothman "How to Generate a Custom RSS feed from PubMed" was very useful. One question asked by Hope 7-17-06 was
"Can you make RSS feeds of the tables of contents of certain journals, such as Elsevier journals even though Elsevier doesn’t itself offer them?" and he replied "YES. All you have to do is do a BLANK search, but choose the journal in the LIMITS tab."
Tip -- in Google Reader if the title of the search doesn't import the way you want it to you can go to Settings and change it.
"Can you make RSS feeds of the tables of contents of certain journals, such as Elsevier journals even though Elsevier doesn’t itself offer them?" and he replied "YES. All you have to do is do a BLANK search, but choose the journal in the LIMITS tab."
Tip -- in Google Reader if the title of the search doesn't import the way you want it to you can go to Settings and change it.
Link to the Technologies
Here is the 3-10-2008 comment that lists all the technologies and pages we'll be studying
http://sns.mlanet.org/snsce/?p=3#comment-24
Kind of scary to see all that at once!
http://sns.mlanet.org/snsce/?p=3#comment-24
Kind of scary to see all that at once!
Creating a Blog
Our first assignment was to create a blog. This is it. It was not too hard for me to do since I already have several blogs hosted here at Blogger. However, I found a new phone number management tool to watch for, Grand Central, when I was reading the 2-22-08 Blogger blog http://buzz.blogger.com/ However, it looks like the chance to get in on the beta test has expired, so I'll put that on the back burner.
I start my MLA Web 2.0 adventure
My title "Keeping Up with the Natives" has to do with the native computer users as opposed to those of us who knew the world before computers. As a medical librarian I must constantly strive to stay ahead of my library users. Soon will come those who have never known life without a computer. However, new and useful tools are constantly coming out to help computer users manage the flood of information and even the natives need help with that. I try to stay alert to those so that I can pass along the tips that really smooth the way. I think this MLA CE course will be really useful in continuing and managing my lifelong learning project.
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