Podcasts

I am a huge fan of Podcasts and have many that I download to my iPod regularly.
I particularly enjoy NPR programs.

After visiting a few of the sites from this 23 Things Assignment, I am convinced that FPL could make good use of podcasting in several areas.

I listened to a very good reading of Jan Brett's book The Mitten from the Worthington Library page. It was well done and enjoyable. We could offer this kind of children's programming from our library as well.

The Denver Public Library offered Podcasts of children reading some familiar nursery rhymes. This was pretty painful. I guess it would be okay if you were the child's parent. But for the casual listener, this was just excrutiating. Let's not do this.

Many of the sites were inactive. I don't know if the website was not working or if they had ceased podcasting all together.

Here are some of the ways we could podcast

stories
nursery rhymes/songs
booktalks (grouped or individually)
book discussion groups
student storytellers could record their stories to promote the Lone Star Storytelling Festival
poetry contest winners reading their work
Tips of the day
something to do with New arrivals

Those are my thoughts. I like the podcasts and hope that we can get the equipment and time to do this on a regular basis.

Hulu, Who knew?

I have tuned into to Hulu a number of times to find some tv shows.
It has worked reasonably well. A couple of times I had sound issues, but that MAY have been with my computer and not Hulu.

Mostly I choose to watch things on my NetFlix instant watch account since that is already paid for and commercial free. But if it is not available from NetFlix, I next go to the NBC, PBS, CBS site and watch it there. As a last result I will go to Hulu. Seems to be a fine system I have developed for myself.

I think the most thought provoking thing about the 23 Thnigs questions were the ones about how this will impact public libraries. I'd like to think that maybe we could spend less of our dough on dvds in the future as folks find other ways to watch movies, tv shows, etc.

Right now, Frisco Public checks out 10,000 dvds a month from our youth and 10,000 dvds a month from the adult services collections. So 20% of our monthly circulations are dvds. I don't see it going down soon (with the poor economy). But perhaps as technology catches up, we can find ways to direct people to downloads of video and not house the physical dvds in the library. That would be fine by me.

Plus, I want to put in a plug for Redboxes. $1 to rent a movie in a minute from a Redbox, 1 minute to return it to ANY Redbox (try THAT with a Blockbuster Video!). This is my next go-to way to see a movie that is not available from NetFlix. You can find them all over the place and they even send you a thoughtful email about your rental (where it came from, when it is due, etc) AND then sends you an email when you have returned the movie! That is very cool.

Why Tube?

I, along with millions of people, have determined that You Tube is GREAT! .....and .....stupid.

As for usefulness to our public library, I think Book Trailers are a KILLER idea! I think you can get so creative with them, reach a new audience, have fun at work, and keep a wide variety of Book Trailers on our site. I would love to see us embrace this technology and use some space in the teen room to show our creations.

Some other uses might include:

How to check stuff out : e.g. check out videos, audios, books, etc. using our self check machines.

How to search for items.

Keep folks up to date on library changes and even the parking structure!

Short bookclub questions and discussions.

Virtual Tours of the Library

Storytimes or puppet shows for kids

How to do research for teens

.....stuff like that......

My two cents.

Pandora's Box

I created a couple of different Pandora radio stations for myself. I found this really easy and intuitive to do. But when I wanted to move it/post it/mention it/ on Facebook, I got some NONintuitive questions that I didn't know how to answer (to avoid getting a bunch of junk of my Facebook, or screwing it up, or allowing others access, etc.) so much for ease of use from that end.

However, the radio stations are very cool. The suggestions are pretty well targeted. And I enjoyed using it. I don't know how often I will be listening to music on my computer just because I am from a generation that has lots of cds, moved music to an iPod already, or can find it on satellite tv. But at least it is there.

Google Docs!

I have loved using Google Docs! I am able to access all sorts of spreadsheets and other shared documents from any computer. Sharing is easy and fast.
I really think this is an huge step forward and appreciate Adam showing me this a while back!

NYC Public Library embedded google map

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=denton,+tx&daddr=45th+Ave+to:30.372875,-90.966797+to:New+york+city+public+library&geocode=FXnR-gEd9N01-inRsYjAoExMhjEb-xRIy3REcg%3BFSo6vAIdUgtd-g%3B%3BFTzWbQIdmCCX-yk7ynZ9AFnCiTEz1RUn5gAUtw&hl=en&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=2&sz=4&via=1,2&sll=37.09024,-77.607422&sspn=31.564064,56.162109&layer=tc&ie=UTF8&ll=40.752589,-73.981504&spn=0.013329,0.054846&z=14&cbll=40.752623,-73.981515&panoid=79UozX-FNDI3Y5ga1RdJTA&cbp=11,208.13652299999998,,0,-11.732978&photoid=fr-2576086795

good time for tiny url huh?

TinyURL and USendIt

Yippee! A couple of applications that I will definitely use.

1. TinyURL: Great for making a memorable (and usable) URL for some long, complicated thing that no one would use or remember. This is great for sending out photos of the Lego buildings or linking things to our website that make for a quick and easy click-it!

Very easy to use, no problems emailing the tinyurl out, piece of cake!

2. USendIt: Whether it be a library video or something that we try to video on a new MinoHD Flip Video camera (that I really want to buy), this will be a simple way to send the large video files via email. I can send videos out to patrons or to family members and not have it kicked back due to the large nature of MPeg files. or other other video files.

Great tips! Thanks!