As Easy as 1, 2, 3 ... but Who's Counting?

Today's self assignment, pre-Tech Petting Zoo, was to put necessary software onto computer and then download an audio book to play on shiny new iPod Nano 4. Or maybe 5.

Easy as pi according to the Maryland Digital eLibrary Consortium:
•Step 1 - Download and install free software
•Step 2 - Activate the software
•Step 3 - Check out, download, and enjoy.

Make that pi to the 100th place. I should have taken notes, but this is how it went.

1. Recharged iPod, which runs out of charge even if it's turned off. (3 hours, using handy AC adapter plug.)

2. Read useful Library Journal article with handy PDF on differences among NetLibrary, OverDrive and Ingram Digital, ignoring the latter since we don't have it. Find that to download from OverDrive to iPod, the computer needs to have iTunes and the OverDrive Media Console, plus updated Windows Media Player. (30 minutes, simultaneously with #1.)

3. Installed iTunes on computer. First effort stalled out at 17 percent complete after 45 minutes. Second effort went through in 30 minutes. Heaven knows what I agreed to when clicking "I agree" on their mandatory security agreement. It installed iTunes set up on my desktop.

4. Clicked on the iTunes setup to find iTunes itself was not yet installed. Went through a bunch of clicking and eventually ended up with two more things on the desktop.

5. Proceeded to OverDrive's Media Console download. This went quickly until:

6. It told me to upgrade my Windows Media Player Security Certificate. I clicked on a bunch more buttons and got a message telling me I needed to save my updated Security Certificates. I told it to remind me later. On to:

7. Selection of a book to download. I browsed the iPod-compatible titles, selected "Inkheart" because it was available and I haven't read it, went to the checkout and whizzed through that until a dialogue box popped up telling me of a DRM Active X Network Object problem.

8. Clicked on a bunch more buttons and that seemed to work, bringing me to:

9. Selecting parts of the book to download. I chose 7 of the 14 parts but after a long while only 1.5 had loaded. Meanwhile,

10. I read the OverDrive instructions on transferring an MP3 audiobook to an iTunes library on Windows. Uh-oh, I thought, looking back at "Inkheart," as it slowly loaded. This says it's WMA, not MP3, even though it was under the iPod-compatible heading.

11. Aborted further slow downloading of remainder of first half of "Inkheart," and attempted to follow transfer instructions by hitting the Transfer button on the OMC. It told me it couldn't find my device, which I didn't know it wanted since the instructions said it would look for iTunes and iTunes was right there on the desktop.

12. Decided would risk blowing up shiny new iPod and possibly entire library branch by attaching iPod to CPU with USB bungee cord.

13. Shiny new iPod insists it needs USB 2.0 port or 2.0 card installed. Shiny new plug did not fit into dull old USB port.

14. Listened to 30 seconds of "Inkheart" played on WMP on computer. Unfort. cannot fit computer in pocket for listening while taking long walk desperately needed after latest Adventures With Technology.

The Uploaded Goddess

Thought Yahoo would be easy since I had an account, and I managed to click through a bunch of accessories etc. until I designed a younger "me." Eventually discovered the search window and found a library background. So here you are. Er, here I am.


Found in the process that I had to fix my Yahoo settings to avoid sharing everything with everyone. So now I share nothing with no one. Their terms of use for avatars is a little scary, too, so I hope the Yahoo police don't mind my sharing it here.

As for the questions:

Use in library setting? To disguise our true selves yet present "human" faces with some character to our online patrons.

Literacy connections? Have kids design avatars to represent their favorite characters in a book. Imagine Atticus, Scout and Boo Radley as avatars ...

Teen appeal? Be who you want to be. Remake yourself constantly. Change your "mood" instantly. Wear the clothes your mom won't let you out of the house in. Have fun.

Put a New Face on the Info-Dispensing Biz

Dumpr.net is a free photo-manipulation and sharing site. It's easy to use and the FAQ are helpful, particularly regarding privacy and copyright. You don't need an account to play with it and can save a link to your work without sharing it.

Uses in a library setting? Fun for staff to morph pictures of themselves or branch scenes to have as a revolving display on the Web site. It would personalize us for people who know us primarily as a Web address/database and either don’t come in or come in only to pick up their holds.

Certain people might have a field day with this for GSM presentations. I used a picture of two staffers at the branch enjoying the bright sun of our new lighting, stuck it in Sketch Artist and was thrilled with the result and astonished at the time it took – like, 3 seconds.

Our littlest patrons have been enjoying a box of puzzle blocks someone donated, with six laminated illustrations to guide them in assembling each of the matching pictures on various sides of the 12 blocks. If we could find some stiff cardboard or cheap wooden blocks, we could make our own using some of the transmogrified pix from Dumpr. Or make jigsaws as Dumpr suggests.

We could have teens bring in their cameras, or lend them the branch camera, shoot people or things they see at the branch, upload and display the results.

Literacy? Book-cover or character jigsaws, maybe; made with printables from authors’ sites.

Teen appeal? Take the ordinary and give it a twist. Share it. Have an excuse for playing with toys even if you really are too old. Do something totally visual as a break from the auditory input from teachers and iPods.

Oddities. I accidentally clicked on the cartoon-image link to zwinky.com and found it blocked by our filter. Also kinda wonder why there is a link right next to Dumpr's Terms of Service to "Loose Gemstones," which takes you to a site that sells colored rocks. The site was created by a video game designer, who apparently has a sideline in gaudy jewels. Hmmm.

Still perplexed by the name. It conjures injured girlfriends or landfills but not a place that "pushes digital art to the boundaries." Fetchr might be better. Or -- I got it! -- Pitchr.

Voice Threads for Info Goddesses

Second link on the Quarterly Exploration was to VoiceThread, a much richer and more ambitious tool than Screenr.

In some ways analogous to Wimba and other online learning platforms, VoiceThread's collaborative program allows for a chorus of people to narrate, draw, post and more on an interface that is more elegant than Wimba's whiteboard. The examples I viewed were more artistic than business-like, but VoiceThread charges users. The professional version is $60 a year, and others are aimed at businesses, schools K-12 and colleges. A free version is available to educators. One plus over other online collaborative tools: VoiceThread requires no installation of software.

The information given on its site wasn't too detailed, but VoiceThread does not seem to be synchronous; people just add their contributions whenever. For those desiring anonymity, VoiceThread allows use of multiple identities, with photo icons or avatars. Anonymity might invite misuse but the platform can be moderated to avoid posting of the inappropriate, off-point or boring, or to edit the outpouring to the best of the bunch. A Thread moderator also can limit who views it. On the other extreme, a Thread can be made public, embedded on a Web site, for example.

How might this tool be useful in a library setting? A VoiceThread might work well for in-system collaborations (say, the library's environmental team). With a moderator in charge of the Thread, it could become a spot for teen librarians to brainstorm program ideas with younger patrons or get their feedback on the collection and ways to draw more teens into the library. The New York Public Library's uses of VoiceThread are pretty darn exciting. Read about them on the VT blog.

Literacy connections using the site? Possibilities include an online book club in which the moderator posts the topic and a few opening questions and patrons add their thoughts. Among the VoiceThread Digital Library examples is this one, which would be translatable to the library and includes useful comments by the teacher who made it on her experience.(This Thread, while totally enjoyable, does also raise the question of why this particular tool for this particular project? As these technologies evolve and proliferate, choosing the one that is the best match for the message should be a primary goal. "Because it's there and it's new and cool" probably isn't the best answer.)

A Thread I found through the Browse feature gives sound clips from flicks and invites people to "Guess the Movie." The library could do "Guess the Book" for young readers by showing an illustration while the librarian reads a bit of the text; or the same for adults, perhaps showing a picture of the author with the narration of the opening paragraph.

Appeal to teens? VoiceThread is a flexible format that requires creativity, both in the ideas for using it and in developing the content, which can take many forms, from speaking to videos. It also is collaborative, a place to hang out online with friends (or librarians). And the results can be published on the Internet while maintaining the creators' privacy.

Info goddesses, you need to wait your turn. Sorry.

Screenr Screamr

The Explorations continue. A look at this gizmo plus three other tech tools was supposed to take me an hour, counting posting of my findings. Hahahahahahahahaha!

On to the first: Screenr is a simple-to-use recording tool that provides quick linkage to Twitter, or YouTube, plus embed code for use in, say, your blog. (Happily, it also offers the option to manually tweet the link, so you don't have to break a news embargo or ruin a birthday surprise, or whatever. Or tweet it at all, ever.)

I went looking for more info on Screenr and how to use it on the Web site but the simple minute-long video really does tell what you need to know to get started. Once you make a recording, you find Screenr also has a bookmarklet you can drag to your browser toolbar to record from anywhere.

You do need a Twitter account to post your work, but I was happy to see if you already have one you don't need to divulge to Screenr your email or other information. Though since they seem tied to Twitter, they probably know that anyhow. "They," btw, are Articulate.com, which makes "e-learning software tools."

Using the app is quick and easy -- even a dinosaur can do it. Viz: This is my attempt to develop a brief tutorial and convert it from a PowerPoint to a Screenr.

It's pretty rough; I couldn't record it from the public PC because, well, people were out there and I wasn't sure the computer set-up would let me do it, so I put screen shots on a flashdrive, took it back to my computer, made PowerPoint slides and then tried to Screenr (or whatever the verb is) the PowerPoint. Couldn't figure out how to Screenr a running slide show, and doing the animation manually wasn't working so well either, but you get the idea. [Helpful Allan pointed me to these "Cursor Tricks" for when you want to, um, point something out on your screen shot.]

The idea, or content, or concept is where I hit a snag. A slew of patrons lately have stomped over to me saying the computer wasn't working, they'd signed in and couldn't find a Web page. So I thought having a quick tutorial on what to do after signing on at a public computer would be useful. Ideally, it would pop up when they sign on. I thought Screenr might be a quick way to show what I had in mind to whomever might be able to put it on the public computers. Not so quick, as mentioned above, since before using Screenr, I still had to design and develop the content.

Optional reading: A brief rant. Back in the Ice Age, when newspapers roamed the Earth, reporters wrote, editors edited, and printers and pressmen did the rest. The physical product was slow to change, the readership was well-defined. But now if you want to get out Message X, you need to expend considerable thought on which platform is ideal. You face the newspapers' problem, too: In massaging or creating content for new media, are you neglecting, not reaching, alienating, losing the bedrock of your business, the people who pay for the dead-tree version that lands in their driveway every day? And do you actually reach those much-desired but elusive and possibly uninterested Young People on whom your future depends? Libraries are evolving, but how much time should already strapped and diminishing staff spend on 2.0 tools when your core audience is still those people who are incapable of even finding the Internet? End of rant.

Now, back to the assignment. (My personal ground rule is not to read anyone else's suggestions before developing my own, so I'm not stealing the posted ideas, I'm merely being unwittingly redundant.)

How might Screenr be useful in a library setting? In addition to possible use for quick tutorials per above, Screenr blurbs might make catchy promos for library programs; just put up a visual and a 20-second voiceover giving details and embed on the Web site or tweet to the library's followers, whoever they may be. For Summer Reading Club, we could use photos of the performers or a voice clip for each.

Literacy connections: Readers' advisory is an obvious possibility. Spotlight new books on a Screenr recording; whip through pictures of a few covers while saying a few words about each book. You could probably do five or six in a couple of minutes.

Screenr seems perfect for teens because they can share photos or silly stuff they found online, narrate the information, hit the Twitter button and bingo, off your recording goes into the evanescent perpetuity of the Internet. It might be easier than uploading pix to Facebook, plus you get the vocal enhancement, and it doesn’t have to be pegged to your name, just your tweet self.

In looking through the "public stream" on Screenr, I was surprised to find that most of the recordings there weren't by kids and weren't personal. Lots and lots of business-related Screenrs. There doesn't seem to be a way to search them but I happened upon one done by someone named "soundsorange" (relative of yours, Sam?) at the Nashville library.

With one of the next three tools dubbed "dumpr," I wonder: What form will the next-gen Web names take? Less a combination of rapper cool and drug-name phony, one can hope. Truly, it's no wonder people can't spell anymore.

Ready to Roll on Byki

Bolstered my brief ALA intro to the new language database with a brief Webinar walking through Byki's features. The quick-glance summary:

*90+ languages including transliterated, phonetic versions of several and ESL programs for eight languages, with 11 more coming in September

*"Intelligent Learning System" tracks the student's progress, recognizing need to repeat words/lessons, flags "stale" lessons that might need to be refreshed

*Emphasis is on vocabulary not grammar (yes!)

*Covers four skill areas, reading, writing, listening, speaking; and draws on user's visual, auditory, speech and motor (typing) skills. For more on Byki's language-learning approach read this and "The Five Principles of Effective Second Language Acquisition. I am particularly fond of the phrase "Limit forced semantic elaboration." Can almost hear the Daleks repeating it.

*Dialogue and reading exercises

*Pronunciation analysis -- by far Byki's most popular feature -- provides audio and visual comparisons of native speaker's and learner's pronunciation in terms of wave, fricatives (ch, ts, etc.), vowels, pitch

*Picture/word association, with "flashcards" for vocabulary building

*Word of the Day feature allows a library to put a widget on its Web site as a marketing tool, or normal people to stick one in a blog, and other "World Community" features allow users to link to Byki from Facebook, Twitter etc.

Get widget

Learn German

*Online support for both technical questions and knowledge base questions

*Requires Windows 6+, Safari or Firefox 3+ on the Mac

*Includes background on languages, separate grammar lessons, hundreds of hours' worth on 80 to 120 topics

*Coursework includes proficiency tests, conversation practice, reading, writing

*Key-mapping feature allows users to type foreign characters, accents using their own keyboard

New stuff: Byki Beam, coming in August, brings back Internet search results for vocab words; a good way to find idiomatic usages, etc., Byki presenter said; new Flash interface in October; Android will join the mobile Byki fleet (can now download to iTunes and onto iPod, we Brand-New Shiny Nano users were happy to see.

Other notes: Byki is a Recorded Books entity, it's based on Transparent Languages work, much of it for the U.S. government. As the feds need more languages, they'll be added. It's designed to be used by libraries, unlike (significant throat-clearing noise) Rosetta Stone.

The Defense Language Institute estimates to become reasonably competent in a difficult language, say, Russian, takes about 780 hours of study/practice, but Byki presenter says that after 20 minutes on the site, a first-time user can walk away with at least a little knowledge of a language. A traveler, for example, can zero in on how to order a meal in a Czech restaurant (my example, not Byki guy's) before heading to O'Hare.

Byki offers monthly Webinars for patrons (how do we promote these? would a program either for students at a back-to-school night, or for adults and teens at the library be a welcome kickoff to the database?). It also has bookmarks (please send us a bundle!) and posters (two, please).

Finally, I asked via chat what happens should a library find itself in a position of not being able to continue with Byki after the current contract runs out. Is there a COBRA for language learners that will carry them through their coursework? Can they save what they've done so far somewhere or do they just lose it all?

"Damn good question," said Mr. Presenter. He'll get back to me.

At ALA, La La La

My, there are a lot of librarians out there!

The exhibits at the Washington Convention Center were great -- I dropped in on Byki (pronounced bye-kee, btw, not beaky or booki) and Sirsi-Enterprise-Portfolio-Symphony demos, and bumped into a Mango languages guy who not only knew my library system had dumped his database but looked genuinely sorrowful.

One reason to go to these massive events is that for those of us who deal with databases through platforms and user interfaces it's eye-opening to meet the people behind them. Consider how much human effort goes into massaging information to fit the newest, smallest and most app-intensive device, never mind how much knowledge goes into writing the content in the first place. These are some of the people who not only can show you how to access data but know what it took to get it out there. Behind every word, there is a writer. And with luck, an editor.

The Byki demonstrator, who actually works for Transparent Languages, I think, told a couple of us about their quick turnaround on creating a Haitian Creole app for an Apple device so that relief workers and government types could respond more effectively after the massive earthquake. Read more about it here. Byki appears to be state-of-the-art, with instant audio feedback on the user's vocabulary and pronunciation and even a live-teacher's ability to see that the student has been slacking off and after a few weeks away from the database needs a refresher course. No dessert till you eat your verbal vegetables.

Having barely gotten acclimated to Aquabrowsing, which more than a few people have referred to as Aquanet, I'm curious about what's in store for us with SirsiDynix's Enterprise. Was confused off the bat by the ALA presenter telling me that Enterprise is really only this thing that goes on top of Portfolio (or maybe it was the other way around) and both seem to have something to do with Symphony. All I could conclude from that was that the Trekkers, corporate types and artists couldn't agree on a single theme for their suite of products. Features that were emphasized included Portfolio's ability to spell better than mere mortals and deduce what the deuce you're really searching for; the faceted search allowing quick narrowing of results; the customizable main page.

The demo of an in-progress project Sirsi has with Wyoming was marvelous -- a map of the state with various icons that provide links to historical newspapers, photographs and other media, something like what's been done on Flikr. Again, a computer resource so slick one hardly thinks of the numbers of real people and the months of real time that went into it.

So, hurray for a chance to interact with some of those humans behind the products.

Live authors drew impressive lines of live librarians. And books were everywhere. Great, glorious rows of them. (Of note: the next "Diary of a Wombat" book is coming out in September. The wombat turns out to be a mombat. And "Max & Ruby's Bedtime Book" is due out the same month.) Also check out Electric Literature, a new literary journal, before sending in those magazine orders. Among the free information is a set of Sesame Workshop Outreach packets on topics including grief, deployment, economic recession, emergency planning, school readiness and healthy habits. The physical packet I was given includes a Spanish/English storybook, a guide for parents and a DVD with unspecified content. All are downloadable at sesamestreet.org/grief (or /healthyhabits or /toughtimes etc.)

On the other extreme of people interaction, I watched in fascination as one huckster pitched his super spine glue. Sounded like he was auctioning tobacco, except he was saying things like, "Take this Harry Potter book, you know it's flimsy because it's Scholastic [whamwhamwham goes book on table] but this will hold the cover on..." Sold to the lady in the blue polo shirt.

Many booths seem to have weathered the recession well. Gale-Cengage's ultramarine-and-white area looked like they should either be handing out perfume samples and giving facials or offering very dry martinis to people in tuxedos.