Library Podcasts

I was more successful today accessing podcasts and vidcasts from our public computer lab.

I clicked on 6 or 7 podcasts and vidcasts from the LibSuccess wiki--only three of them loaded. I never got into the Denver PL's podcasts, but I did listen to a few teen podcasts from the Boulder PL. Arizona State University made good use of 3 and 4 minute "mini" introductions to doing library research, searching online resources, etc. Although it was video, the ASU screens didn't change that often, which would have made it more interesting and useful, I think.

I couldn't get any of the story presentations to open...

One thing is for certain: if podcasts and vidcasts are going to be useful for libraries and their customers, they have to load quickly and run smoothly. Why bother creating these things if the network you're on doesn't have the bandwidth, power (whatever) to support it.

The quickest way to lose a customer is to frustrate them with new technology that doesn't work effectively.

A Bad Day

I think I chose a bad day and time to investigate podcasts, vidcasts, and their directories.

It was 2 o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon in the Central Library's public computer lab. I kept getting thrown off the sites I was searching such as podcast.net and podcastalley.com--frustrating!

Finally I got a search result list that was sort of related to my search (libraries and reviews). I ended up with 'The Genealogy Guys' and listened to them for a while. If you're a genealogy researcher I'm sure they'd be very interesting. To me, not so much. However, they are on my Google Reader now. I'm sort of surprised--one of the times I got pitched out of the Internet was when I was adding them.

The vidcasts were a complete wash-out. I'd found a 2 minute video interview with the Coen brothers talking about 'No Country For Old Men" but after about 10 seconds the whole thing shut down.

Again, frustrating...

Sir Bob

A Hard Rain

YouTube was just WAY too much fun!

I had the best time watching my favorite scenes from 'Dirty Harry' and 'Animal House'--two underappreciated masterpieces of American film oeuvre in my humble opinion.

And then I moved on to clips of some of the music masters at work. There's wonderful video of Jimi Hendrix, Janice Joplin, and Jim Morrison that I had no idea even existed. One clip is a true rock and roll gem: Jimi, Janice and Jim singing Jimi's hit 'Red House.' I would have put that on my blog, but the embeddable player code said "Embedding not allowed by request..." or something like that.

So here is a baby-faced Bob, that musical Oracle of Delphi, predicting a Hard Rain back nearly 45 years ago...

P.S. The natural language keyword searching on YouTube is Fab-O !!

Wow! It's Amazing!

I just used Trading Card Maker and Flickr to create a tribute to my little cat, Lily. The two sites were easy to move between, and making changes to background colors, icons, and text were easy.

There's probably some way to remove that demonic green glow from her eyes ( !! ) but I'm not sure how to do it.

Imposing Order onto Chaos

It's all about the organization--tags help make order out of chaos on Flickr.

With multiple tags on each picture, the photos on Flickr are accessible by the content of the photograph, the person who took it, the place depicted, the event occurring, and numerous other details that result in an individual picture standing out from the masses of others.

Without this kind of organization and access, Flickr would just be a hosting site for individuals-- and not a photographic library for the world.

The Beautiful Rijks.

I visited this wonderful place in 2004. It's the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is more than just a liberal city that has "decriminalized" marijuana...some of the most wonderful museums, concert halls, and historical venues are located there. And the locals are the friendliest I've ever encountered in Europe.

The tulips in the springtime are to die for...

I found this photo on Flickr when I searched the tag "Amsterdam." This was from the collection labeled "Amsterdam (Mokum)."

Exactly how to you give proper credit for public photos from Flickr? Is stating the contributor's name enough?

It's obvious how libraries can make great use of Flickr groups and tags. Back in the day the VBPL had library-related photographs saved in a folder on our W Drive. The subject matter included storytimes, SRP activities, computer lab classes, etc. Now we could use Flickr to host the photos we all need access when we're creating brochures, posters, and other marketing items.