Thing 9 addition

23Things at VCCS
Originally uploaded by stevesgal91

Here is the photo I was trying to add into my Thing 9 posting but I could not figure out my password to Flickr.

Thing 21: Mashups.

Looking through the various mashups were interesting, esp. the ones related to books. I like one that gave you a list of book sales going on in libraries close to you. But the one I really liked, since I am a huge history buff, was conflicthistory.com. It starts with a google map of the globe and a timeline. You can pick a geographic area and a span of years, and it will give you all the various conflicts in that area arranged chronologically. If you want to know more about a specific conflict, you can click on the letter 'i' in the corner which brings you to the beginning of a Wikipedian article. You can read just what is given and that usually is enough but if you want to know more, there is a link to the original wiki article you can follow. Naturally, as with all Wikipedia articles, you would not want to suggest this for use in a research paper but it would be useful to get an overview of what was going on in a certain time period in the various countries across the globe.

Thing 19: Multimedia

Even though I do admit to watching YouTube videos when people send me certain links, by and large, I usually think of it as a vast wasteland. But like anything else, I can see it does have its uses. A video promoting the services our library can provide might get the message across to students who ignore our pamphlet - plus it can show administrators what we actually do here.

I did look through a few YouTube videos that were done through academic libraries - I looked at one from the Berkely Campus of the University of California titled Building Academic Library 2.0 which addresses many of the topics we have learned about through this project.


I picked the YouTube video (from the Central Rappahannock Regional Library) that I included here because it shows the effects of budget cuts on libraries in a humorous but effective manner. It is a tad long, but if you watch it all the way through, I think you will definitely empathize with a library staff that is still trying to meet its demands by the patrons while going through budget cuts ( I esp. liked it when the front desk computer used to check out patrons was suddenly replaced by an abacus).

Thing 20: Tagging and Social Bookmarking

I can definitely see the advantages of tagging and social bookmarking for both students and library staff. It would be handy to have a social bookmarking site compiled by our library that we could suggest to students as an easy way to have all the databases and other websites handy for them to access. Our library webpage has too many layers to navigate through so students often do not realize what they have available. I liked the other bookmarks compiled by the VCCS library because it had other types of materials students often need but do not know where to look, such as the City and Building Index and the Photo Archive. The bookmarks for copyright and fair use would also be useful to instructors. I also like the idea of being able to comment on the bookmarks chosen. Sometimes other people will know of other websites that offer the same information and they could comment directly on that bookmark so others can see it.

Thing 18: Audiobooks.

I am not entirely new to downloading audiobooks. My local public library has had Overdrive available for its patrons for several years now and I have downloaded several books both on my computer and onto my iPod. And I completely agree with most of Farrell's article on the pluses and minuses of this technology. Although it is extremely handy to have the audiobooks on my iPod that I can directly play through my car stereo, it can be very tedious loading the Overdrive Console onto your computer, downloading the audiobook, and then transferring all the chapters onto the iPod. Also, I did not realize the heavy cost of each title to libraries; however, I understand the reasoning that each title is available to multiple users. Still, unless the library is part of a consortium or has a great fundraising capability, the cost is nearly prohibitive on a large scale.

I really have not noticed that many ratings from people on the audiobooks I have downloaded. Reader ratings I always take with a grain of salt anyway, because I have found that I will enjoy books that others have panned. It depends on the makeup of who is doing the rating, I guess.

I know you can download books through http://audible.com/ - in fact, my GPS has a feature that lets you download audible.com books to it so you can take it on the road. And I have downloaded a couple audiobooks to iTunes so I can download them onto my iPod. But to me, the expense of purchasing the audiobooks does not often justify the cost. If it is something I would listen to more than once, I would probably be better off with the print version.


We have not had much success in interesting our patrons in using Overdrive. Most of the ones who inquire about it are community patrons who cannot have access since they are not affiliated directly with the college. Most of the ones I have heard talk about downloading the books are the students themselves who are in their late teens to early 20s. They are the ones most comfortable with the technology and who are used to downloading and exporting files to audio players. When Overdrive first came to VCCS, I tried explaining and demonstrating it to several of our older staff members and they still could not fathom how to help anyone with questions. Our own library has not done much with publicizing the availability either other than with posters in the library and brief notes on the library homepage. I think if more of our students and faculty knew about it, they would use it more heavily than they do now.

Thing 17: Social Cataloging:

I never used any type of social cataloging before. I used GoodReads because a couple people in our library already belong so I know at least two people to compare reads with. But once I looked at the site, I realized I would enjoy adding this to my Facebook groups anyway. I tend to read books a little on the esoteric side - linguistics, specialized history books, etc. - so it is good to see reviews of mainstream books I may want to read also. I liked the idea of virtual "book clubs" since there does not seem to be any book clubs where I live that I can join.

At some point, I would like to also take a look at LibraryThing because I would love to have a complete list of my library online that I can just send my friends to or that I can check against to see if I have a book before I purchase it.

Here is a link to my GoodReads page: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4160543. I have only added one book but promise to add more a little each day until I catch up with what I have read recently and what I am reading now.

Karen's bookshelf: read




More of Karen's books »

Thing 16: E-Books.

I think that the many varieties of e-books can be confusing! Some you can only read online, some you can download and print, others you can read everything but you are not allowed to print the whole content, and some you need a special reader for. But I also think the concept is exciting, esp. the ability to download and take several books with you to read on the airplane without physically having to carry three or four books. And when Project Gutenberg first came out, I thought it was a great way to give everyone access to the classics.

I explored the PsycBooks database and liked what I saw. It was easy to search and easy to download the material. I think this gives our students a great resource that we otherwise could not afford to buy book by book. And I like saving the shelf space, which is a constant problem in our library.

However, our patrons do not always like it when the only way they can get to a book is through online access, such as NetLibrary. Even our 18-20 somethings still would rather have the book in their hands when trying to find information. I somewhat understand their thinking. I took a Spanish class at a local university and we had to purchase an e-textbook. To me, I hated not being able to highlight or notate. If I wanted a section of information to study while I was not around a computer, I had to print it off. So there is some good along with the bad when it comes to e-books.

I would like to have something like a Kindle, but will probably buy myself an iPod Touch this fall when they come out with the version that matches the new iPhone. A couple people I know swear by it as a viewer for downloaded books. And as an iPod owner, I am familiar with the format.