And in Conclusion...

No more Play to Learn? Usually I'm playing or teaching so it seems I have that play part down. I found that the required tasks were manageable. I was disappointed to read that people were working on their blogs at home because they did not feel as though they had time at work to do them. The point of this exercise was to learn new tricks at work. Other library systems seemed to have conveyed to the staff the importance of this program as legitimate training. Did we drop the ball globally or on a local level was there lack of support or are staff overworked? I feel strongly that everything we learn enhances our work experience and has potential to benefit our patrons. Just operating with the same vocabulary to navigate MySpace and Twitter and the rest will help us, even if we never go back to those Web sites again. I enjoy facilitating progress and change and if that's ultimately what this exercise does for LCLS, then I'm glad we did it. I would participate in a similar program on another occasion.

I hope that we will be able to use many of the technologies we have explored during this Play to Learn process. Certainly podcasts and videos have applications for our programming. Book discussions, genealogy, and crafting programs could all be delivered or enhanced through technology. Subject guides, bibliographic instruction, and library tours are also fair game for technological improvement. What I hope and require of us is that we remember many patrons are not as technologically savvy as we are (and we have not always been this way, ourselves). We do not serve the machines, they serve us.

On the Download

YouTube is fun. I have used it for personal enjoyment as well as for reference. One time a patron was looking for an example of the bluegrass playing style of Grandpa Jones (later of Hee Haw fame). Sure enough, I found an old b&w clip on YouTube. When Dreamgirls was released and Jennifer Hudson was receiving so much publicity, I was curious about whether YouYube had clips from the original Broadway production. Having grown up an hour from Manhattan, our television stations were NY stations and we had commercials for Broadway shows. I found the commercials that ran all the time for Dreamgirls as well as Jennifer Holliday's Tony Awards performance, which still gives me chills.

For the Professional Collection blog I enjoy posting YouTube videos that are educational or amusing in a library-related way.

I played around with Podcast Alley because I wanted to add Goodnight Burbank to this blog but I could not get it to work for me. As far as downloading audio, I haven't done much, but the last time I went to Mexico I did prep with some Spanish and I loaded a book for the plane.

This is my selection for my YouTube posting here:

Week 9

Let me lead with this...I admire Google. Google technology is incredible. The maps, the Froogle, the cute thematic way they do the name, all of it. I also admire the massive data mining venture that Google has turned into, which in turn, has turned into a monstrous money machine. I find it creepy as all get out, but impressive. That said...I'm a YAHOO! librarian. I recognize that data is mined every time I click around in amazon.com, too, but that is a commercial site and I view it as the price of doing business. Plus, I'm not always logged into my own account when I'm checking on materials. Additionally, I often look up materials for work and if I am logged into my account, the data amazon.com has mined is quite diverse. Back to Google...CREEPY...I attended the SWFLN workshop offered by Google on all of the fabulous features of Google. Fabulous, yes, and CREEPY. The targeted marketing that means I'm not bombarded with junk also means that the algorithm that has been developed to profile me is pretty spot on. I search Disney World and they know it, keep it, and work with it. Google also scans gmail and targets ads to that. I can see the logistical upside to online office apps, but the creepy privacy issues really bother me. I also don't like not storing the originals on a computer I don't control. How is that different from work and our shared drives or our H: drives? Maybe because at least here IT, such as it is, is local and ostensibly is on our team. For me, creepy does not outweigh convenience and I don't have any needs that make me want to give give Google any more information than I already do. I will, however, give Google a big thumbs up for MyMap and to public radio station KPBS in San Diego for their innovative use of it during its recent fire coverage. Read the NPR story here.


Web 2.0 - I chose to play with Pandora , "Radio from the Music Genome Project." This Web site won 1st place in the music category. I have been using Last.fm (2nd place) for some time and like it very much so I thought I'd check out the the winner. I like Last.fm and now Pandora because the music I enjoy is a little more specialized that what something like Yahoo's Launchcast would typically play. While Pandora was determining my preferences, one of the songs presented was from an album I actually own. I felt right at home.