Thoughts now that BiblioCommon is live...

I just wanted to post some of the issues that I have discovered since BiblioCommons went live to the library public. People seem to love the catalog. It is so much more responsive, but I have had complaints from the public that I am hearing other staff members mention also. The main complaint that I have heard is that everyone must go through registration before they can put items on hold or renew items. I spoke with a very upset older lady today who could not understand why the website wouldn't let her renew her DVDs. I explained that she just needed to register with the catalog, at which time I was informed that she had registered for a library card over a year ago and that she didn't understand why the new catalog kept kicking her out. After trying for several minutes to get her to provide a username, I ended up renewing her DVDs through WorkFlows. She was getting more and more upset the longer I tried to explain about the new catalog, so it made more sense to accomplish her goals than to use this as a learning experience. If anyone has had a better experience, please leave me a comment so that I have a better response next time. I really don't know what the answer is, but this does seem to be a problem. I do believe once we have more people registered on BiblioCommons, this will be a catalog that will be well-liked and widely used. I realize that any time you do something new, there will be glitches to deal with and this new catalog seems to have fewer than I have dealt with on other programs.

New catalog/networking site

I have been playing with BiblioCommons every chance I've had and I am looking forward to it going live! Not only is it easier for patrons to use, but there are many cool features for people to usethat go beyond just discovering what materials our library owns. My favorite feature involves holds. BiblioCommons tells you where you are on the hold list. I also like the fact that you can create a list of books that you want to read later. Too often I discover more titles than I can read at one time and end up with piles of books checked out that I never have time to finish. Hopefully this feature will help me and others that have this problem. I didn't get my Scavenger Hunt turned in on time because of the problems with the system on Friday evening, but that's what I get for waiting until the last day! I did go ahead and do the activities once the system was back up and learned a lot.

The Joy of RSS Readers

Ok, I admit, I got carried away! RSS Readers are so cool because they consolidate all of your sites on to one page, so I ended up signing up for Library Journal News to keep me up on what going on in the larger library, our site so that I keep up on local happenings, then four other libraries that I enjoy, including Iowa City Public, Hennepin County, Phoenix, and Kansas City Public Library. I tried other library sites and got error messages, even though I was working from the RSS icon, so I'm not sure what the problem was. It is nice to be able to go to my reader and keep up, except that I need to be going there daily or I get overwhelmed. That's one of the joys of finding too many interesting sites out there on the internet!

Some many options... so many I already know!

For this lesson, we are supposed to look at a site that made it on the Web 2.0 Award List. I looked at several of the categories and was suprised to see how many of the sites I already knew.



Under music, I have both Last.FM and Pandora, but I have never used MOG. I was a little unnerved when they said they allow a free 1-hour trial, but when I looked at the site, I couldn't find anything about cost after the trial.



Under Maps, I had worked with Google Maps and Google Earth pretty extensively, so I tried Live Search Maps (bing.com/maps). The "bird's eye view" is better quality than Google Map's satellite, but otherwise they are pretty equal.



The Social Networking Mainstays included Twitter and Facebook, which I am very comfortable with, but added which utilizes AOL account log-ins and which they state is more popular in Britian and the Australasian markets.



I looked at books, thinking it would be reviews and might include GoodReads and other similiar sites, but instead it included Lulu, which is more attuned to aspiring authors, Biblio.com where you can purchase out-of-print titles, and VuFind for libraries. While I'm sure these are great sites for people looking for those specific focus, none of them interested me as much as my GoodReads account, which connects me to my friends and reviews of what they are reading.



Finally, I ended up at Fun Stuff. It included Cocktail Builder, which several people have blogged about already. The site that I enjoyed the most was hairmixer, which allows you to take other people's hair styles and edit them on to your picture. Beware though, if the faces are not tilted the same way or if one picture is closer than the other, the effect is very disconcerting. I was able, after putting Marcia Cross' hair on Reese Witherspoon that it is a good thing Reese is blonde! This is a fun site and the option where you can upload a picture of yourself and try different hair colors was lots of fun!

There are so many new options out there and new way are spawned every day, so it is nice to have someone evaluating all the options that are out there. I may not always agree with their choices, but I would probably never see some of these sites if it weren't for the Web 2.0 Awards!

I like this... from Wine wOOt

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Favorite books?

I had someone ask me the other day what my favorite book is. I thought for a while and then told them that the only way I can answer that, without going into an exhaustive list, is to tell you what my favorite book is at this moment. This is currently "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman. I finished it in less than a day and started recommending it to friends that I thought would enjoy it also. It may only remain my favorite for a week or a month, not because it will have lost any of its impact, but because I will continue reading and may find other books that stir me equally. That is why I finally put down an album. "Bat Out of Hell" by Meatloaf on the list of staff favorites. It has been my favorite through two records, two casette tapes, and into a CD, which has been played near to death. It is this kind of long-term approval that I don't often find with books. I can say that the "Dragonriders of Pern" series is among my favorite, but I did not like every one of the books equally. I can say that I enjoy what I have read of Jodi Picoult, except that I didn't enjoy the ending of her last book. I know that "Water for Elephants" continues to be one of my favorites and one that I recommend, but I hate to limit myself to stating it is "my favorite" as long as I continue to read and enjoy new titles and authors. What a conundrum. As long as I read, I will add to the long list of favorites and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Picasa

Ok, I think I have Picasa figured out, so I will be sharing pictures of my kids (who, unfortunately are no longer as young as I would like). Tabitha, my oldest, is 22 and in college at the Columbia Campus of Moberly Area Community College. These pictures were taken while we were out in Colorado several years ago while we were out there for a family reunion.

Kena, my younger daughter, looks more like my younger sister Corinne and currently lives in Joplin, MO. She does some modeling and also does tele-marketing to pay the bills. In this picture, she was around 14 and already beautiful. That was the last year that she lived with me, because she is my wild child. We are friends now, but we didn't always get along, which is frequently true with parents and teens.