Class Evaluation

• What would you add? subtract? change? with this class

Of all the classes I have taken, no class has significantly impacted my perspective on technology as did this one. As I sit here watching the season finale of Survivor Gabon, I am now conscious of the complex narrative involved with the show's structure as well as the overwhelming number of threaded story lines that add to the complexity. When watching the news the recent crimes involving social networks such as the mother involved with the suicide of a teen girl over a myspace hoax I now am thinking of the security the site offers and how future tragedies may be prevented. Even when evaluating my own graduate experience, I am now aware of the long tail of marketing in effect. Of course this new perspective should invariably be applied to library studies and the world of education as a whole.

So when asked what I would change, I would say absolutely nothing. The content was very captivating and presented in a very fun and interactive manner. Although I have never met any of my classmates or the professor for that matter, I feel I have really gotten to know them via their pictures and videos. The course material presented via camtasia was a great way to provide instruction and was a great tool in simulating a live course.

As mentioned by Professor Garwood in a video recording, it may be nice to have future courses built in a virtual world like second life. The one apprehension I would have in making this suggestion is the learning curve. I would want to be sure the virtual platform is a bit more mainstream and the audience is a bit more technically inclined prior to embarking on such an endeavor.

On a personal note, I am very saddened to learn that Professor Garwood has chosen to focus on his work with Princeton libraries. Of course I am happy for his professional achievements, however the selfish side of me wishes I could continue my studies under his tutelage. He will be dearly missed :)

Second Life/MMO experience

Tell me a little about your experience...frustrating, fun, weird, surprising, scary...

The first time I entered the virtual world of second life I was overwhelmed. With a poor sense of direction to begin with, initially I found it to be quite disorienting. I very rarely spend time in second life, so I am still trying to conquer the learning curve. However, I think overall the ability to navigate in a three dimensional world immersed with graphics, video, and sound is very fascinating. Similar to Professor Garwood, I also made a connection between second life and feed in particular the large number of advertisements.

Second Life is definitely increasing in popularity. In April 2008, the first congressional hearing was conducted in second life. Rutgers University has also begun participating in the virtual world. Various departments at Rutgers, including the Continuous Education & Outreach have begun creating a virtual environment within second life. I have included some screen shots of the Rutgers virtual world within second life below.

slurl:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/RUCE%202/82/76/30

Rutgers Second Life Competition
Rutgers University Second Life FAQ's


Student Center, Winants Hall


Old Queens Campus



Grease Trucks


Football Stadium

Virtual Tour (Youtube)

Johnson Reading

• If everything "bad" is indeed good for you, what does this mean for the world of Libraries and/or Educational organizations?
• Feel free to disagree, just back yourself up with some good info

I found the second half of the Johnson reading to be as equally interesting as the first. The hypothesis presented which connects the variables of the Sleeper Curve discussed in the first portion of the book with the overall rise in IQ is quite convincing. The more advanced skills acquired from pop culture such as the probing and telescoping techniques as well as complex narratives seem to positively impact pattern recognition skills in IQ tests. With such positive impacts, I believe it is crucial for the educational community as well as library organizations to re-evaluate their current curriculum and/or structure to incorporate the power of such findings. Perhaps by applying the techniques of the gaming world to traditional educational content may further increase the scores in math and verbal areas of IQ.

Another component that would be valuable to transpose from the gaming world to the educational and/or library organizations is the reward structure. It is very easy to acquire motivation and participation when a reward system is in place. Application of the probing and telescoping techniques as well as complex narratives along with a set reward structure would create a more engaging and interactive learning environment. Although I was a fairly studious child, I would always be interested in the practical use for many of the theories, formulas, or other information I was taught. If a specific reward can be presented for learning the subject at hand, such as, you need to learn A in order to complete B and C and obtain Z reward I feel I would have been more attentive and inclined to learn. I feel it would be incredibly advantageous to continue probing the notions brought to light by Steven Johnson and begin to put a more positive spin on today's pop culture.

Screencasts Best Practices

• You've now made a few screencasts, What best practices have you discovered to get your best results?

After doing a number of screencasts using Camtasia version 5, I found that keeping that a few short clips work better than one long and drawn out screencast. I also find that if you mess up it is easier to just pause and restart your sentence as you can easily cut out your mistake as opposed to starting over. I find rehearsing the screencast prior to recording is also quite helpful. I have also been experiencing problems with my sound that I am still trying to address. The videos playback fine, however it seems the sound distortion occurs when I upload the video to screencast.com. Finally, use your voice. Be wary of the monotone, use as much diction and intonation as possible.

Getting a gaming system for your library or a local organization

* How would you research?
* What would your criteria be?
* Which do you think you would get?

Having very no experience in the working in the library environment, I would begin by visiting libraries in the area as well as conduct online research to determine the following:

*Which consoles are the most popular?
*What is the average usage for each of the systems?
*What rules do each of these libraries have in place? (in house play, lending
rules etc)
*What equipment is necessary to run the systems?(internet connection,
*projector,speakers etc)
*Is there a trained staff member that to assist with gaming questions.
*What type of supportive documentation is on site to assist game play (gamers tips
and tricks journals and magazines)


Of course I would need to consider budgetary constraints in selecting the gaming systems, as well as the potential user population. However after dong some quick research I found an article that nicely lists some interesting pro's and cons from the various console units. However, keep in mind the purchase was for a fifteen year old boy.

I have listed some of the articles findings below:

"Xbox 360 - 64%: The Xbox 360 hands-down came out on top of the console heap as far as retail employees were concerned, beating out the Wii (for the most part) and PlayStation 3 by a very wide margin. Apparently 15-year-old boys and the Xbox 360 were made for each other. Out of all the responses I received to my questions, those who gave the Xbox 360 as an answer generally didn't dance around the decision.

Pros:

Largest game library with widest selection
Best system for online games
More user friendly

Cons:

Hardware reliability
Not as powerful as the PS3"

"Xbox 360 or Wii - 18%: A surprising number of employees across all three chains wouldn't answer the question without at least asking one question - is your nephew and indoor child, or an active outdoor child? A more active child would love the Wii, while one prone to sitting still would prefer the Xbox 360. Given that my criteria for asking the question didn't allow me to offer specifics about my theoretical nephew, I had to record the double answer. I guess that whole Wii60 idea people were kicking about prior to the Wii launch isn't as far fetched as it first sounded.

Quotes: "If he never had a video game system before he might like the Wii.""

"Nintendo Wii - 1%: This low score for Nintendo's console is a direct reflection of the age I picked. We all know this. If I had said 10-year-old then the graph would look very different, but according to many a store he's right at that age where he'll be growing out of it - and about 50 years too early for liking it a second time.

Pros:

Promotes physical activity
Whole family can play

Cons:

Many of the games aren't good
Too "cartoony"
Better graphics on other systems

Recommended Games: From the one store that flat-out suggested I buy fake-boy a Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Quotes: "The Wii is for younger kids - and old people." Yes, he really did say this."

I really thought these assessments were great in providing a background to the positives and negatives of each system. If possible I would purchase both the Xbox 360 and the Wii as they seem to cover the full spectrum of the user population. It seems the Xbox 360 is popular among the teenage population while the Wii may better serve the younger as well as the older population. The Xbox 360 is more suitable for more passive users, while the Wii is more attractive to those more active and athletically inclined. These two consoles combined seem to nicely serve the greater community.

Some examples of gaming consoles in libraries:
ALATech Source Gaming in Libraries
ALA Games and Gaming
Gaming in Libraries Blog
Carvers Bay (SC) Branch Library: Gaming the Way to Literacy (August 2006)

Family Fued - Multiplayer

This version of Family Feud provided by Games at Miniclip allows you to play against others online. I found it much more fun and definitely more addictive or "sticky". I am competitive by nature, and this factor alone kept me playing in order to make it to the final round as only the top four players advance. Have fun!

Family Feud - Single player

Thought the Family Feud provided by Yahoo was a fun game, however with this version you can only play against a friend or family member and not anyone online. Despite this fact I included a quick screen cast of the game below:

Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson

* From what you've read (read first), is Popular culture (games, tv, film) just a method to "sophisticatedly deliver stupidity" (paraphrasing George Will)

After the Johnson reading I feel much better about many of what I previously deemed as my guilty pleasures. I do watch a number of reality shows on a regular basis such as Survivor, Top Chef, Project Runway, and The Secret Millionaire (new!) to name a few. I believe I have watched at least one episode of almost every reality show that has hit the airs. I thought it was sad that I was the go to gal of my group of friends to catch up on missed episodes, find out the premise of a new show on air, or get the full story from some comment that was made on the morning radio show or perhaps some posting on TMZ. However, not only I am the go to gal on all things reality, I am also a huge fan of Lost and Heroes. I really enjoy following the multi-layer of threads from episode to epsiode and season to season trying to decode the mysteries of the island or origin of their super powers for that matter.I have even been known to read the blogs and add my comments after certain pinnacle shows.

Working in the world of academia, I was not proud of the fact that I devoted so much time to what the public (as I knew) it deemed as utter nonsense. But I must say, I now have shed a few layers of shame as Johnson asserts its not the content that matters, but what is important is the problem solving skills and cognitive workout one receives. I felt many of the points Johnson made regarding the gaming world were extremely insightful. Although I wouldn't consider myself an avid gamer today, I was a Nintendo player as a child Super Mario Brothers and Zelda were the games of my day :) The probing & telescoping skills described by Johnson very closely resembled my gaming experience. Wandering though the forest in the Zelda game aimlessly firing at random bushes hoping to find a new weapon or door to a hidden room. As I probed along in the game I finally began to understand the game a bit more realizing there were various weapons one can retrieve, and a number of "bosses" to destroy which fits Johnson's "telescoping" technique. But I must say I never did master it, only experiencing minimal success with the game.

This probing and telescoping represents a method of participatory thinking and with a built in reward system that creates mass appeal, it seems like a win win situation. Unfortunately, with critics like George Will it is easy to take aim at targets of mass appeal focusing on simply the content and not the real skills and collateral learning that are intrinsically involved with the gaming world. Johnson also translates this interactive complexity to the world of television, but on a much smaller level. Many of todays most popular shows are built on multilayer structures where viewers must connect messages or plots from previous shows or season to the present in order to understand the big picture. In some multi layered structures, the knowledge drawn upon may be from outside the show perhaps a current event, movie, or some other pop culture tidbit.

Unlike some shows of the past like, I Love Lucy, where the viewer would sit back and watch, this new multi layered structure is allowing for more viewer participation. After the last episode of Lost I ran to the message boards to see what other fans may have grasped from the show, and get their thoughts on the nail bitting ending :) I myself am dying to know what exactly happened to the island, how can an island disappear?? As you may have gathered by now, I could write pages on the topic but I digress to the following point made by Johnson which nicely addresses George Will's sentiments. If Will believes that pop culture"sophisticatedly delivers stupidity" in regards to the content then lets examine the content of a basic math word problem.

Joshua has 22 socks in his drawer. Twelve of the socks are white. The rest are
green. How many pairs of green socks does Joshua have?

Would George Will feel a math problem "sophisticatedly delivers stupidity" as well? It is clear the content of this math problem is not intellectually stimulating nor does it convey a greater message of good. Aren't the skills necessary in solving this math problem what's most important?

Ning

• What advantages/limitations do you see with using a Ning?
• How could you use a Ning in a work environment?

Well a clear advantage to using Ning is the price is right, its free:) Unfortunately, there are limitations involving the storage space and bandwidth with the free service. However, you can chose to pay for more storage & bandwidth, but there is a maximum capacity. Once this maximum capacity is reached you will need to move your network to a hosting service that provides unlimited bandwidth and storage which is no easy task.

As I began learning more about Ning I realized some in the world of education are utilizing its service as a platform for online learning. Ning provides you with the ability to easily create a web page, social network, and blog for classmates, friends, work colleagues or any other type of community so I am not surprised it has become a tool in education.

Check out some of the uses in Ning in education I found on the web:

Using Ning in Education
General Information on he potentials for Ning in education
Ning in Education

Boyd Reading

• What information/lessons should libraries take away from the Boyd reading

The Boyd readings provide great insight to the user population of both facebook and myspace. Boyd attributes many of the differences in user population to social status. Boyd's observations show that many individuals from lower socioeconomic class prefer myspace over facebook. However, Boyd does not reference "socio-economic class" as a division in income, but rather adopts sociologists, Nalani Kotamraju's argument that "class divisions in the United States has more to do with lifestyle and social stratification than income. " This concept in itself is quite interesting, providing a new perspective of the term which may have implications for the library world. Perhaps the differences in social class which traditionally affect the access to information could be researched from this perspective. Rather than attributing these differences to income, the differences in lifestyle and social stratification could be studied further.

There are many differences among the two social networking platforms, and it is my opinion that individuals choose one service over another due to the structure, features, and niche market that it may serve. Boyd discusses the emergence of various social networking sites such as six degrees, friendster, Orkut, myspace and facebook among others. It seems that members tend to migrate from one service to another based on performance, cost, accessibility and flexibility. Boyd's readings nicely highlights many of these differences which could prove to be very useful to the librarian looking to reach the teenage population. Librarians should also take note of how quickly one SNS can rise in popularity and should stayed informed of the newest SNS hits.

Myspace Screen Cast - Adding an Application to your profile

The following screen cast will show you how to add an application to your myspace profile using the application gallery. Since recently upgrading to the myspace 2.0 interface I have just begun adapting to the new design. Due to the learning curve I have provided quite a basic demo, but I hope it is still enjoyable none the less.


Adding an App to your myspace profile:

Getting Stuck on Facebook & Myspace

What makes services like MySpace or Facebook "sticky"?

An easier question might be, what doesn't make a social networking site (SNS) like MySpace and Facebook sticky? As stated in one of the class screencasts;it combines various different aspects of the social software world such as the blog, microblog, rss feeds, media enhancements with picture/video embedding, as well as various ways to customize the profile and interface of your site. Not only does it combine all of these great tools, many social networking sites are also very user friendly, allowing even a novice user to create a web page, post a blog, add pictures or video, and customize the look within minutes. With all these fabulous tools so readily available, who wouldn't want to spend time dabbling in various unique ways to represent yourself or business?

A member can also just as easily get lost in browsing the profiles of friends or perhaps those of other members. Whether it be checking out the photos on a friend's profile or perhaps searching for potential new friends with similar interests, SNS sites provide numerous methods for interactions via posts, comments, email, and instant messaging services, although not all SNS's provide all of these features.

Personally I have a profile on both myspace and facebook. I do check the sites on a regular basis, mostly the profiles of my closest friends in everyday life. I like to view any new photos they may have posted as well as read any new blogs or tweets. However, I find it very easy to lose track of time finding yourself spending more time perusing the site than you had initially planned. Considering my friends are fairly active users with frequent updates, I found it very easy to get stuck in the "sticky" web of SNS :)

Scils598f08 Youtube Videos

I really enjoyed viewing everyone's videos, and I must say we do have quite a creative group! I have included a quick description of some of my favorites below.


Lauren's entertainment video featuring pictures from Costa Rica was great. I loved the beautiful pictures and thought her selection of music was fabulous. You can view her video here.

Heather's video featuring strong characters for strong girls was also very nicely done. It also sends a great message to young girls and reaches them using both music and a media in which they could easily relate. To view her video please click here.

Finally, I found Gabrielle's entertainment video to be outstanding :) She was very creative and thoughtful with her graphics and choice of music. It was very very entertaining. You can check out her video below or by clicking here.

Easter Eggs

Let me begin with a quick definition provided by whatis.com:

An Easter egg is an unexpected surprise, perhaps a message, an image, or a sound, hidden in a Web site or in an application program.

You can also check out wikipedia's more lengthy definition here.

Years ago when I used to teach software application programs, I would usually end the class with an easter eggs hunt. Unfortunately, many of the fun easter eggs once found in the Microsoft programs are no longer available in the more recent verisons. As per wikipedia, "Microsoft formally stopped including Easter eggs in its programs as part of its Trustworthy Computing Initiative in 2002."

I have provided a screen capture of two easter eggs as well as a quick blurb about each egg and the steps to locate each below.

The Kitchen Sink - Mozilla Firefox

Type "about kitchensink" in the address bar of any version of Mozilla Firefox and hit enter.

If you have trouble locating "the sink" click here to view it.

You can also view my screen cast here.



The Flight Simulator - Google Earth

If you don't currently have Google Earth installed on your computer, click here for the free download.

Launch Google Earth
Hit Ctrl+Alt+A to activate the simulator

To view a complete list of shortcut keys to utilize while flying click here.

You can also view my screen cast here.

Happy Flying :)

Educational Videos vs Entertainment Videos

Do educational videos stand a chance vs. entertainment videos? Why/Why not?

Videos on the web have greatly enhanced collaboration on the internet and web 2.0 as a whole. Whether it be your favorite television show, news broadcast, or demo of an exercise workout, you can find it on the web. You can even easily produce your own video with the help of a basic webcam and upload it to youtube or blip.tv within minutes.

Of course the most popular videos on the web may not be classified as educational, I do believe that educational videos do stand a chance. Prior to reading the PEW Internet & American Life Project I assumed the most popular videos were those with comedic value. The Pew reports that amongst adult internet users, comedy videos placed third with educational videos placed fourth (22%) amongst the user group however more interesting "Yes to any" and "News" placed first and second respectively. Even without the viral nature of humorous videos on the web, the news and educational videos still rank amongst the top. Not to mention, that "yes to any" was overwhelming the winner with a 57%. All of these statistics clearly indicate that educational videos do stand a chance against entertainment videos.

I have included a short video featuring CEO of Cisco Systems discussing the power of video. To view the original video click here.

Flickr groups

What do we have in common? what are our differences?

Scils598f08
I really enjoyed viewing everyone's photos. It was nice to place some faces to the names of my fellow classmates. I noticed several of us are nature lovers with various pictures of scenic landscapes. Many of us are also animal lovers, with man's best friend showing up in several shots...As for the major differences, some of my classmates seemed to have quite a skill behind the camera where I am definitely an amateur in that department. Several of you were also quite creative with the photography the pictures of the two shadows and family of skies comes to mind, Great Job :)

ScilsEd-Experience
As expected plenty of shots of laptops and desk shots. Also oddly enough books were also a popular pic (lol) and I simply adored the picture of the little girl peering behind the large stack. Again I must comment on the creativity of some of the pictures :) I loved the fatal error with the bags of chips, simply hysterical. Especially since I have a small bag of 100 Calorie Doritos next to me as we speak :)

And the librarian action figure....priceless

Foo Fighters Concert

I apologize for the late posts, but I had a doggie emergency this evening and just returned from the vet :( But no worries all is well ....

As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, Monday evening the conference hosted a private concert for all attendees. I was lucky enough to see the Foo Fighters perform. So I decided to create a montage of photos from the evening accompanied by their song "My Hero."

The original video can be found here.


Click To Play

LincVolt- Educational Video

One of the guess speakers at the Dreamforce conference was Neil Young. He presented the LincVolt, a smart car utilizing clean automobile propulsion technology the dream he was able to turn into a reality. He and his group utilized salesforce collaboration techniques to gather the knowledge to build the vehicle as well as build the site where potential customers can request to have their cars converted. Salesforce is also used to collect and compile the output data from the control center calculating mileage, total distance traveled etc.which can also be viewed here.

I found the idea of LincVolt to be quite interesting, refurbishing old vehicles and thought some of the pictures I took from the conference would serve as a good movie. Who wouldn't enjoy the thought of using a car to power your home :)

I hope you enjoy :)

To view the original video click here.

To view a video of LincVolt on the road click here.

SaaS..a brief inroduction

So as some of you may have read from my previous blog postings, this past week I was fortunate enough to attend the Dreamforce convention's Global Gathering conference in San Francisco, CA. However, up to this point I haven't really discussed much about the service. Since I plan on using some of the information and photos I collected during my experience at the event, I figured I should tell you more about the service itself.

Salesforce.com is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions vendor, which is delivered using the software as a service model. In the past software programming was once static, Saas allows for dynamic attributes where the vendor can click a button and deploy a new version to over 47,000 companies utilizing its services.

Salesforce.com's Platform-as-a-Service product is known as the Force.com Platform. The platform allows external developers to create add-on applications that integrate into the main Salesforce application and are hosted on salesforce.com's infrastructure. This setup provides a collaborative environment where partners are able to build on the platform allowing users to share applications. So not only is the CRM's design and structure built in a collaborative environment, completely customizable, but the platform itself is as well :)

I have quickly summarized a few of the many features that make this tool extremely powerful:

Deployment
There is no software involved with the salesforce vendor. All services are web-based so updates to the service are rolled out seamlessly without the user having to perform any system changes. The service also provides price points for non-profit vendors making it quite affordable for higher ed, and perhaps the library world.

Design & Structure
The interface is easily customizable. A user can easily change field labels, add or remove fields without having the skill set of a DBA. Many of the table relationships are pre-defined. However, the user can easily add additional lookup fields to establish their own connections. A more advanced user can even choose to change the code driving the web pages themselves with the complete flexibility of html/xml code.


Integration (with other web services)
In addition to the web-based interface and design, Salesforce has many partners and offers a Web Services API enabling easy integration with other systems. One partner is Google which allows for full integration of their products which include Google Calendar, Doc's, Talk, Adwords, Analytics etc. Some other systems that can be integrated include Facebook, Plone, even Mobile devices, PDA's, and much much more.


"It's the best of both worlds: a complete, fully customizable customer relationship management (CRM) solution that's built on the cloud computing model, so you can get up and running right away and get more bang for your buck than you ever could with traditional software." - salesforce.com

I could blog on and on about the genius of Marc Benioff and the other salesforce creators, but I would rather provide a brief video clip that talks more about the technical evolution of Saas and the platform as a service concept as well as demo's some of its uniquely powerful tools. I think the video definitely gets it right as my one word summary of the service so far is simply amazing.

To view the original video click here or watch a short webcast from the conference here.

Having A Bad Day?

Found this video on Youtube and found it hysterical :)

Ever have trouble printing a document? Did you ever get so frustrated you considered attempting to photocopy your monitor?? Check out this guy's day at the office and hopefully it may give you a chuckle and help brighten yours...Hope you enjoy!

You can also go directly to the original video by clicking here.

Anderson Reading

• Can libraries as a whole effectively utilize the "long tail" of our collections? Is it worth it? What would we have to do?

In order to successfully implement the long tail concept with libraries, I suggest following the nine rules to help create a thriving environment for the long tail to grow. However, like the music industry, legal restrictions such as copyright may impede the rate of growth. I have listed a brief description of the nine rules below, along with my suggestions as to how they may applicable to the library world:

More inventory- In order to create the long tail phenomenon, first and foremost an ample selection of inventory must be available. Since traditional shelf space is limited, the optimal collection would be a virtual with a corresponding virtual catalog.

Let customers do the work - Create a user interface that allows them to search the virtual catalog and easily locate their need. With so much added noise as you travel further down the tail, findability is a crucial element that needs to be addressed.

One size doesn't fit all - There are really three rules that fit this one idea which I listed below. Put quite simply, most of the long tail success was from providing an almost unlimited number of choices in distribution methods, products, and prices.

• One distribution doesn't fit all
• One product doesn't fit all
• One price doesn't fit all

Share Information - The ability to offer recommended readings to patrons would also help in crease the length of the tail by driving customers to lesser known novels.

Think "and" not "or" - Rather than assuming a consumer is looking for one or the other of an item, our thinking needs to shift to "or". Providers need to become conditioned to offer multiple selections.

Trust the market to do your job - Avoid pre-filtered content. Unlike the old days of limited shelf space, the virtual world allows you to offer every product available. The market will dictate to the producer the supply & demand as opposed to vice versa.

Understand the power of tree - More choice is changing demand

Benefits/Detractions of Podcasts vs.Text Based Blogging

There are clear advantages and disadvantages to using podcast vs text based blogs. One of the clear disadvantage with any text based entity is that you lose a sense of inflection which is often vital to communicating a message. When people communicate verbally they are able to stress certain points by raising their voice, changing their tone, or take pauses when necessary to add more emphasis. These speech tools are lost in a text based environment. Sure we can add bold text or use ALL CAPS to add more stress, but this pales in comparison to the flexibility of the verbal communication.

However, podcasts are not a perfect tool either. Many times users may want a transcript or text based document of the message communicated in the audio file. So only using a podcast may have its drawbacks as well. In my opinion, using a blended model of both podcasts as well as text based blogging is the most beneficial and well rounded approach.

My Story...

As I mentioned in a previous assignment, last year I was fortunate enough to attend the salesforce convention in San Francisco, CA. Salesforce.com is the worldwide leader in on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) services. I was lucky enough to be able to participate in the Dreamforce conference again, and am creating this podcast from San Francisco. As you can imagine after traveling over 51/2 hours via plane with a crying baby on board, driving & checking into the hotel, experiencing difficulty with my Sprint wireless card, and attending the welcome reception I am quite tired L So I will keep this as brief as possible…

For the next three days I plan on attending various administrator training sessions as well as research some of the services and products available through the salesforce partners. The conference also keeps us quite busy with after hour events. For example, tomorrow evening they are hosting a private concert for all attendees with the Foo Fighters scheduled to perform. They also have some great guest speakers lined up. Last year I was fortunate enough to hear George Lucas speak. You would never guess that he is so actively involved with edutopia, a hands on learning initiative (very interesting please check out the link!!). Once again I am looking forward to this year's guest speakers some of which include, Neil Young (Musician), Larry Brilliant (Google.org) and Sheryl Sanberg (Facebook). If you want to see what else I may be up to this week please feel to browse the conference website here.

To go directly to my podcast click here.

NBC News Grows a Tail!

I justed watched a news clip featured on NBC's seven o'clock show describing the launch of the NBC news online interface re-design and felt compelled to blog about it :) The site's design featured in the demo was very streamlined and seemed to be quite user friendly, reporting breaking news from various sources around the world. The demo showed blogging features as well as an area where users can submit photos to the site. Now the amateur can be part of the news that gets reported. Just as many other industries mentioned in the Anderson reading, the news industry is now tapping into the strength of the long tail. Although I was quite disappointed when I logged onto the website and found the same old interface design. After poking around the site for awhile with no success in finding the design I just saw demo'ed I turned to Google. Although it didn't help me find what I was looking for, I did come across the following article which I found interesting and wanted to share :) Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts!

The success of Hulu.com makes big Media rethink its distribution strategy

Flickr Post

• Describe your educational experience at SCILS?

My SCILS experience began on campus last Fall with Human Information Behavior. The course provided a good overview of library and information studies. During the spring semester I enrolled in two courses, Information Technologies which was face to face and Principles of Searching which was my first experience with the online platform. Since then I have enrolled in strictly online courses. I enjoy the freedom that comes with taking a course online. It allows you to dictate you own schedule listening to lectures and completing assignments at your discretion.

I enjoy reviewing the course material while eating lunch at Panera, a local eatery that provides wi-fi access. Although I generally like to eat healthy, my Sunday splurge is a bowl of broccoli cheddar soup, Frontega Chicken Sandwich and lemonade. Another place I like to frequent is the Barnes & Nobles located just a few doors down. When I decide to stay in I often complete my work in my office located on the second floor of Geology Hall on the College Ave Campus. My office is located next to the Geology museum, I must say it is quite interesting to be working next to a mastodon, sarcophagus, and various other artifacts. I have included a picture of my niece and nephew taken at last year's open house event. Check out some more of pictures of my SCILS experience here or my fellow classmates here.

Google Analytics

• What's the most popular browser that people use when viewing your blog? What's the most used connection speed?

In reviewing the Google analytics reports some of the data reported seemed to be on par to my predictions while other statistics were a bit unexpected. I wasn't surprised too see spikes in activity on Sunday as that is the deadline for most assignments.

However I was a bit surprised to see that firefox is the most popular browser among visitors. Although I have noticed that Mozilla Firefox is preferred browser of our well loved and highly admired professor, I didn't realize so many of the students in class also use the browser on a regular basis making it the clear winner with Internet Explorer being a distant second. I have included a screen shot of these stat's below.


As for connections, it is not surprising to see that most connections are via cable modem, with T1 line being a very distant second. I have included a screen shot of these stats below.

Anderson Reading

• How do libraries/Librarians fill roles as New Producers, New Markets, and New Tastemakers?

New Producers
The Long Tail phenomenon has transformed various methods of production by providing direct avenues for amateurs to tap into the world of professionals. This is evident in the music industry with album releases, written publications, as well as scientific arenas such as astronomy with the SETI at home project. With the advent of the personal computer and with the added features of the web 2.0 environment, we are now attempting to harness the wisdom of the crowd and utilize this collective knowledge to further length the tail.

Just as the science world is using the general audience to identify craters on Mars, librarians could also utilize public assistance. The one of the most powerful tools offered by web 2.0 is that of social tagging. The ability to add descriptive information to documentary units could be very beneficial to librarians world of indexing. Trends show that individuals are motivated to contribute for reasons other than monetary gain. Librarians should take full advantage of these trends perhaps by supplementing current classifications systems with collaborative elements such as social tagging. Personally I think people also just like feeling like the feeling of being part of a bigger whole.

New Markets
The days of agonizing over shelf space are long gone. The power in the Long Tail is best harnessed when utilizing on demand inventory. Many book services are going purely digital by reproducing manuscripts once an order is placed rather than having an inventory stock. However, success is not achieved by simply going digital, viral marketing is also essential in order to help guide potential consumers to find your products through all of the noise.

Librarians could benefits from the on demand environments by digitizing their inventory and services. Scanned documentary units as well as virtual reference services are just two ways to optimize their marketability by reaching out to a much broader audience.

New Tastemakers
I just loved Anderson's statement that "the ants now have megaphones" as I thought it perfectly described the power shift which is transferring the power from the company or the brand to the favor of the consumer. It is these ants that are helping to guide potential consumers through the noise of the Long Tail to a particular area of interest. Consumers have turned to the web 2.0 service of the blog to comment on their experience or knowledge of a product. Just as viral marketing can benefit the success of sales, if the rating of the tastemakers is favorable, it will also help to boost the sales. However, on the flipside, the tastemakers could also negatively effect sales with a bad review.

Libraries could look to creating a blog or social networking profile to reach out to patrons and extend their client base. For example, a basic book review blog could help promote those lesser known novels or "niches" to a broader audience. Allowing the blog readers to also add their commentary may also be beneficial to the marketing of the product as well as provide them with an interactive experience.

Wiki Spaces vs PBwiki

I am fairly new to pbwiki and am a first time user to wiki spaces so this comparison by no means will be as thorough as an experienced user. However, I will do my best to point out the similarities and differences among the two services.

Both offer:

• Free service for easily creating a wiki
  
• GUI toolbar interface
• WYSIWYG editing

Wiki Spaces

• I like the interface of this service much more and felt it had a greater selection of widgets you can add to a page. The pop-up window used for inserting the widget was also much more streamlined than the pbwiki interface.
• Provides a toolbar button that allows you to insert special characters
• Utilizes the wikitext markup language which can be difficult to understand.
  

PB Wiki

• Allows you to edit using HTML
• Provides additional services such as various levels of user access for a small monthly fee.
  

Google Docs

• How well do you think something like Google docs, spresent, etc. would work with an online (or oncampus) group of students? Would it make project creation easier? faster?
• In GENERAL (no names please), do you think this type of document will be welcomed, accepted, etc. by online/on-campus faculty? why/why not

I think Google docs is a great addition to both online and face to face class environments. I first utilized Google docs for a group project in my information technologies course and have been a fan ever since. Google docs makes team project creation much more efficient. It is a great tool when needing to collaborate with others as it eliminates the need to send countless emails. It is a very user friendly program that provides a universal interface for users. Varying computer systems (Mac vs PC) and software versions are no longer a problem when using this web based system. Documents are easily created, formatted, saved and can be downloaded if desired.

Despite Google doc's appeal and user friendly interface, many individuals may be reluctant to utilizing such tools. Some more traditional professors may be unwilling to use the service as they me be adverse to technology in general. Although those from younger generations may be more welcoming of such a new valuable tools, there will always be those that are wary of change.

Anderson's Long Tail

Is the library world as a whole set to benefit from the Long Tail?

The Anderson reading discusses the cultural shift from a world of big hits to one full of endless niches, where the digital age has helped transform the market place and contributed to the growth of long tail industries. Once restricted by the constraints of shelf space, the internet has limitless potential and provides the capability of providing consumers with more choices. No longer is the list of choices comprised of the most popular selections, marketers can now provide an infinite list of items.

With such a robust number of selections, consumers are also contributing to the growth of the long tail by branching out from the traditional hit list and choosing items in less demand. The total number of these niche selections equate to a large portion of today's market place. The long tail phenomenon is evident in countless industries such as cable/satellite television, the downloading of music, and Sirius/XM radio.

New techie gadgets such as the iPod, Tivo, and DVR are also contributing to the growth of the long tail. These devices enable users to make many more selections; The average iPod can store more than 30,000 songs similarly Tivo and the DVR can hold hundreds of your favorite television shows and movies.The ipod also has contributed to the growth of the long tail in the library world. For example, the ebook enables consumers to download audible books to the device.

The library world has also benefited from the effects of the long tail by utilizing peer to peer networks to better advertise the books in their collection. Viral marketing amongst these social networks in conjunction with the use of suggested reading lists have also contributed to the increased popularity of those lesser known novels. Gone are the days where catalogs are updated once a year, electronic catalogs have dramatically lowered the costs of these updates while also allowing them to be completed in fast and efficient manner. I am simply amazed at the lengths of which this long tail has grown. It is difficult to find industries to which it has not affected in some way. However, with the mention of the long tail in the areas of national security it is clear that not all of these effects are positive.

Del.icio.us-Virtual Introduction

Using delicious as means to further acquaint students to each other is a very creative idea and innovative use of the tool. You can definitely learn more about an individual from the websites they might frequent. In addition it is a great way to share favorite links and useful resources.

In reviewing the links of my classmates, I noticed some individuals tagged their bookmarks with their user name so it was much easier to identify their submissions throughout the network. When working with a network such as this it would be beneficial to have various ways to groups the bookmarks within your network such as by user, by site (grouping duplicate sites and listing the submitters), by tags rather than the simple sorts of most recent and most popular. These suggested additions would help streamline the information for those with less experience with social book marking such as myself.

Digg

Digg is a great website to share content on the web. The service also allows users to vote on the information or stories to collectively determine the importance or page ranking the item will receive with the most popular stories appearing on the site's homepage. Users can also comment on stories as well as register for the categories that seem most interesting or submit their own. Finally the service provides a community feature allowing a user to add their friends and check out what they are digging. You can also share your favorite links with friends by customizing your profile to include a few photos of yourself, urls to your blog, pages on Facebook or other interesting sites.

After joining and working with the service I have listed a few of the pro's and con's I encountered below:

Pro's

• Social networking site that has numerous capabilities such as sharing information.
• Ability to vote on stories to increase the stories rank
• Homepage displays the top rated stories
  

Con's

• The form associated with the initial signup was a bit lengthy and requires email verification
• The homepage interface is a bit overwhelming and looks very cluttered and busy

One of the stories ranked most popular was one that I recently saw on tv. I thought it was such a feel good story and serves as a reminder that there are still good people out there urging others to pay his gift of kindness forward. Warm and fuzzy stories are always needed in economic times such as this, so I felt I should share it with those that may have missed it.

Man Fills Stangers Gas Tanks

Del.icio.us vs Ma.gnolia

Del.icio.us

I began searching del.icio.us only a few weeks ago when I first saw it mentioned in class. However, I am new to social bookmarking, and this is my first account with the service. I found the homepage to be a bit busy and would imagine might be overwhelming for a novice. Although, I believe those experienced with social software would have no problem navigating the site.

Side note: Last week I came across a neat firefox addin I discussed in a previous blog that also has del.cio.us as in item on a toolbar menu and is worth checking out.

Pro's

• Easy navigation (both have top navigation bar)
• Ability to easily add buttons to browser toolbars for easy bookmarking
  

Con's

• Homepage is a bit cluttered and busy
• The layout of the help area could be more user friendly and better organized
  

Ma.gnolia

I initially encountered a problem when attempting to create an account with ma.gnolia using the mozilla firefox browser (version 5.0). The sign in page webpage would not properly load after an itemed was selected from the drop down. I am not sure if this was due to a setting that may need to be changed on my end, but as a new user I didn't get a great first impression of the service as I was quite frustrated when a simple refresh wouldn't due the trick. Being that my firefox browser was having issues I switched it IE., and found the drop down field to be successfully working :)

Once I was finally logged in I found the homepage to be quite streamlined. As I am sure many of my class mates have mentioned, it definitely has an appealing look to the interface design. The site was also very user friendly making it easy to add bookmarks, tags, and to navigate the site.

Pro's

• Appealing interface and very user friendly
• Offers help for beginner users as well as a abridged version for users with experience in social bookmarking.
• Easy navigation (both have top navigation bar)

Con's

• Interface glitches with mozilla firefox
• Offers "bookmarklet" feature which allows a user to add a button to the toolbar, however the setup is not user friendly as I was unable to successfully install it.

Brown & Duguid

As a member of the Rutgers staff working for Continuing Education and Outreach, one of the main units responsible for providing distance and outreach services, it has been interesting to see how such a traditional school has evolved over the past couple of years. As more online institutions like The University of Phoenix, continue to increase in popularity, traditional schools may need to re-valuate their current system in order to remain competitive in the market. However, by no means do I believe online education will completely replace that of the traditional class environment, but I do feel traditional schools should be open to the needs of those students unable to participate in the standard classroom setting.

Brown & Duguid discuss how Penn State addressed this issue with the launch of the "World Campus" in 1998. This institution currently offers 50 online degrees programs at associate, bachelor and master levels. Rutgers on the other hand, only provides a handful of online degree programs and is rolling out more individual online course offerings each year, but at a very slow rate to that of its competitors. It is a constant struggle to find departments and faculty willing to create and approve an online course let alone an entire degree program to be approved by the offering school. I feel fortunate that SCILS is one of the few that does provide such flexibility. :)

The Brown & Duguid reading also highlights the difference between "learning about" and "learning to be" which is very important to consider when evaluating the quality of the online environment and learning in general. Practice is key to the educational system as it helps shape and support learning. In seeing where education may be headed, I believe that a blend of both an online collaborative environment coupled with a practicum involving their classmates or peers in the field would be the preferable and prove to be most productive.

Information Overload

RSS and Information Overload: Does the use of RSS/RSS aggregators mitigate or aggravate the problem of Information Overload in today's society?

This is a tough question as I can see both how RSS aggregators can both mitigate and aggravate the problem of information overload. It can be a mitigating factor as it prevents the user from having to regularly check websites for updates. An aggregator has the ability to check for new content at specified times and retrieve the update. However, on the other hand there are users that tend to oversubscribe leading to information overload. In cases such as these you may want to utilize on of the many tools available to help reduce the overload. I have described a few below:

• Aiderss - Filters website to give you the best content possible
• BlogRovr - for quick summaries of your blog
• Google Reader - Use Google reader to view titles only, making skimming easier
  

"New to You" Social Software, Web2.0 or Library 2.0 site

Last week I referenced a great web 2.0 directory that provided links to a large number of interesting social software tools. This week I came across another web 2.0 directory that was also very informative and provided numerous links to some very useful tools. One of the first such tools that caught my eye was a called adaptiveblue. Although some of you may have already installed this feature to your firefox browser, for those who are not familiar with the service I suggest you check it out :)

Adapative Blue provides the following additional features (in the mozilla firefox browser):

• Smart menus-adds a button to the toolbar that is customized to your browsing history.
• The BlueOrganizer - shows you useful information regarding the site of interest description, categories, and tags. It also gives you the ability to add your own tags to the site.
  
• The smartlinks - automatically inserts SmartLinks for links that point to books, music, movies, stocks, wines and more. When you see the blue square icon, hover over it to find out how popular the object is around the web.
• Customize widgets - for your blogs with an easy to use wizard
• Smartmenu - my favorite :) allows you to save and share the site to delicious, with friends on twitter or facebook, or create a tiny url using the shortcut menu. The menu also allows you to find similar sites and pages on Google with the click of a button.
  

Feed - M.T. Anderson

• How close are we to the society of Feed? Are our present systems (Google tracking,single accounts into multiple services...) a simple precursor?

As time passes society as we know it is becoming more and more reliant on digital technology.Gone are the days of the abacus and long division. Nowadays, a student is much more likely to grab a calculator, create a spreadsheet, or locate a website to compute a basic formula. However, I don't believe this reliance will evolve into the society depicted by M.T Anderson, or at least I hope it doesn't :/

It is hard to imagine a society where literacy is viewed as a novelty, where schools are corporately owned, where it is more socially acceptable to chat online that in person, where traditional family values are completely lost, and all media is funneled through one source, creating a monotoned view of the world. However, when dissected, some of the technological concepts didn't seem to far from today's society.

People nowadays are often found driving and surfing through music carried on a portable digital player, chatting on their bluetooth wireless ear piece, or receiving directions from a GPS device. The idea of multi-tasking has driven a number of software developers to re-evaluate many single service tools, opting to consolidate various tools into a more efficient and robust package. The examples I could possible set forth here are limitless, but since we have recently witnessed Google's world takeover :), I will choose two of their services.

For example, Google Analytics, is a great tool for evaluating the performance of a website. A user can determine the keywords searched, benchmark competitors, and determine where the site may need improvements. When such a service is integrated with another such as Google Adwords it becomes even more powerful. Google Adwords would then be responsible for advertising marketing campaigns that would drive visitors to the site.

• What struck you most about the society of Feed? (e.g. acceptance of lesions, twist on the Digital Divide, people don't know how to write...)

It is really difficult to say what struck me most about Feed. Of course the state of the environment was a bit disheartening, the lack of greenery, organically grown food, natural light, and oxygen for that matter was very alarming. Then there was the complete lack of self reliance, where the human mind was replaced with the virtual mind of the feed leaving most with the lack of ability to read and write. Or the things teens will do to stay hip and popular, while making all the right fashion sacrifices. And of course the affects technology had on disjointing society on various levels. The divide among the "have's" and "have not's" of the feed and the social pressure affiliated with conformity to the majority. The lack of family bonds that exist in a traditional family replaced by distant chatting about superficiality etc.


But after I really thought about the book's storyline, I guess what struck me most was the lack of a fairy tale ending. :) My expectation of course was that technology was going to swoop in and save the day. I thought Violet would surely receive the upgrade she desperately needed, but sadly that never happened. Is there a bigger message to the reason M.T. Anderson chose to discontinue my favorite character perhaps, but I'll take the simple one of technology can't always save everything.

Feed - M.T. Anderson

What do you think of Anderson's idea of the future? Possible? Desireable?

I guess I should begin by saying I really thought this was a great read :) So much so that I stayed up late one night and completed the book. I believe the book was published in 1998, which just amazes me. Although that is only ten years ago, technology has grown in leaps and bounds since then. Only a decade ago, I would have never imagined the internet as it exists today. I was still using a dial-up connection back then and Netscape was my browser of choice.

Since then connectivity has significantly increased in speed and access has become much more portable. Technologies new gadgets make it possible for individuals to use mobile devices such as phones and PDA's to access the internet. What would be more portable than an implanted chip or feed? So, do I think that Anderson's idea of the future is possible? With the rapid rate of advancement and the direction technology has taken thus far, I do believe that some of the ideas may be quite possible.

Although teenagers, and society at large for that matter, are not quite chatting via an implanted chip or feed, the usage of instant messenger statistics are continuing to rise. Whether it be using aim, yahoo, meebo, twitter, RSS feeds, texting via phone blackberry, sidekick, or iphone etc we are currently living in the age of information and technology where these new methods of technology are directly affecting the culture of society. Not to mention, the increased forms electronic advertising, the web banners, pop-ups, spam mail, etc that exist today.

The Anderson reading really made me look at today's society in a whole new light. Today's pop culture's drastic take over of the teen population whether it be music or fashion trends is just one example. Other thoughts of course involve the state of environment and the issue of global warming. Although some of the futuristic inventions depicted in the book such as the flying car, and traveling to the moon for spring break seem desirable, if those advancements accompanied by implanted chips, malfunctions, artificial suns, destruction of all forests, segregation of population as well as the loss of physical and emotional human interaction then I'd pass :)

"New to you" Social Software, Web2.0 or Library2.0

As I began searching the latest Web 2.0 social software packages, I came across a very resourceful Web 2.0 Directory. This site provides direct links to some very interesting sites as well as a brief explanation of some of the software functions and features. I have selected one very interesting service and provided some more information about a few others that also seemed useful.

OODesk
The web based service allows the user to create a virtual workspace with the ability to upload & share files, aggregate RSS feeds, and create custom widgets. I selected this free service as it is the setup was very easy (the registration process consisted of completing only one simple form). It is also very useful if you are constantly moving from various PC systems as it provides the ability to access documents on a web-based platform. Throughout the average day it is possible for me to be working on up to four systems, my work PC, work laptop, my personal workstation or my personal laptop. The there are times where I may frequent the library or computer lab and utilize a workstation at these locales. Often times I may not have accessible portable drive, may need such a web-based service. Although I do currently use Google Doc's when I'm in a bind, this service also acts as an RSS feed aggregator, and provides you with the ability to create cutsom widgets.

Other interesting sites:

• Pixlar- a free online image editor, no signup required:) or check out Sumopaint which is also very similar
  
• Qrowd - remix the web, organize your web content with custom interface
• Self Cast - create your own free live broadcast
  

Blog Lines vs Google Reader

Bloglines

• Web-based RSS reader; Aggregates posts from any site with RSS feed;free service

• Takes old frame approach with side bar on left things will show up in center RSS written in XML
• More user friendly organizational structure. A user can easily add a feed to a specified folder during the subscription process
• Tabbed side bar interface allows a user to easily navigate between feeds, blogs, clippings, and play lists.
  

Google Reader

• Web-based RSS reader; Aggregates posts from any site with RSS feed;free service
  
• No setup required with google email account
• Users need to access the "manage subscriptions" area to organize their subscriptions into folders.
• Ability to easily star/tag feeds.

Blogger vs Wordpress

Blogger (+)

• Very streamlined and user friendly. I was able to create posts with ease.
  
• Interface's tabbed design organizes the site very well and allows for easy navigation.
• Allows you to edit in html
  

Blogger (-)

• Small selection of templates
  
• Basic WYSIWYG editor
• Limited number of customizable profile settings.
• Basic classification system with tagging feature available but category labels are not.
  

Wordpress (+)

• Large number of templates.
• Allows you to edit CSS as well as html.
• WYSIWYG editor more robust.
• Better classification system with the ability to use categories.
• Ability to link categories to establish relationships between them.
• Provides ability to import from Blogger, Live Journal and other blog services.
• Large number of profile settings to adjust the properties of the blog.
• Offers a "paste from word" feature .
  
• When adding a link have more options to specify. For example, you can use the interface to specify that you want to link to open in a new window. In blogger you would have to edit the html code in order to achieve this.
• More control over site and many more editing options available.
  

Word Press (-)

• Some template designs do not support select feature. For example, initially I choose a design that doesn't support widgets which could be confusing to a novice.
• Dashboard is a bit busy and could be confusing to a new user.
  
• All of the editing and customizable features could be overwhelming to a novice user.
• Upgrades such as increased storage would need to be purchased for a small charge.
  

Brown & Duguid

• What messages can Librarians/Libraries take from the Brown & Duguid reading?

Brown & Duguid discuss the rapid growth of technology and some of the negative effects it has on people and the working environment. I felt the readings nicely highlighted the frustrations felt by many computers users while working from home with lack of access to adequate support. As upgrades in technology continue to be released, I believe some level of frustration will always exist. However, I am also optimistic in thinking that the days of complete systems crashes are in the past :)

As the number of libraries with web services continues to increase, it is very important for librarians to always be conscious of not only the system itself, but the setup and usability of the service as well. For example, when considering a virtual reference service feature for a library, a web based service such as meebo may be preferable as opposed to software package the user may have to install. Such a service would also enable a user to log on anonymously without having to even setup a profile.

It is also important to consider the availability of help support and user training. The readings suggested having a highly knowledgeable user group among the staff is always beneficial. Librarians should consider having a core group of super users that continue to be trained and updated on recent software upgrades. This group's responsibilities should include sharing that knowledge among other colleagues as well as training patrons when necessary.

Finally it is always important to carefully consider the cost implications involved with the maintenance and upgrades required with computer technology. Considering the large number of workstations that may exist, replacement of hard drives, upgrades in storage and speed, as well as complete system upgrades can be costly. These are just some of the messages conveyed in the Brown & Duguid reading that I found to be applicable to the library world. :)

Blogging in Libraries

I must begin by saying that although I do consider myself to be somewhat of a techie and a fan of social software in general, I am completely new to the "blogging" world. So I unlike many of my classmates, I have no past experience to draw on for point of comparison. I also lack experience in the field and am ashamed to say that my interaction with any library settings is limited to the Rutgers libraries . So please understand that these findings are coming from a novice :)

• Find a library that uses a blog that you think is a good model for other libraries, link to it, and explain why.

I started by searching for public libraries in New Jersey that utilize a blogging feature. I must say I was quite surprised to find a good number of the blogs I came across were using blogger. In fact despite my attempts to find variety, all of the blogs I discuss in this posting are on the blogspot domain.

For example, The West Long Branch library uses the service to advertise new books, and DVDs. I do find the streamlined format of blogger to be quite nice, however I thought there was much more that could be accomplished and continued my search.

I then came stumbled across the Newark Public library blog. Although this library is located in New York I thought it was worth mentioning as I thought it advertised a lot of the events and success stories nicely and I imagine it to be a great resource for events in the local community. And who doesn't enjoy pictures of children of having fun :)

The Berkley Heights Public Library blog contains library news and book reviews and was also very informative. However, I found that the site could have been more user friendly by grouping the posts into categories such as reviews, news, interviews etc. Although the blog had a lot of useful information and found the content to be quite interesting, the patron would be better served if the site utilized sometype of category tagging.

The blog I ultimately chose was the Old Bridge Library Weblog. Although there are still some aspects of the site that I would change, I chose this blog as it nicely advertised the library's events with graphics and organized the content by tagging the information. I must say I was also was drawn to the content itself, and am interested in attendig a few of the events.