Week 8 -- Mashups and API

This past week I experienced what mashups and APIs are all about. First I checked out some mashups via the "mashupawards." Then I checked "Programmable Web" checking on some of the most popular mashups. Truthfully, I am not at all impressed with mashups. I would probably find these "toys" to be more useful in a social form of Web 2.0. A couple of mashups that looked rather interesting were called "22 books" which seemed to be created by one individual who has opened up this source to others to add their contributions. The creator mentioned that his/her mashup is "dedicated to the creating, sharing, and viewing of book lists." It is possible that I could see something like this created and made available in a public library -- again, on a social basis. Another mashup that I found listed was "50 Top US Medical Schools." Again, this sounds slightly useful, but would/could be useful putting something like this on a social network, i.e., Facebook, or even tagged as a social bookmark. The only usefulness I could fathom for my medical library would be using a Google map and a data source that would locate all of the hospitals throughout the country that are in the same health system as the one my hospital is part of.

Our second exercise took me to check out Rollyo and explore searchrolls. I found this a bit interesting. I checked to see what I would find by typing "librarianblogs." I was pleased to see many blogs I'm familiar with. I further searched in the librarianblogs searchroll for "privacy." I found that David Rothman wrote about Microsoft's HealthVault and Michelle Kraft (The Krafty Librarian) wrote about Google's project that would contain one's medical records. Both commented on the privacy of one's medical records within these two projects. This is something everyone has been talking about, yet we are all concerned as to how "private" can one's medical/health record be when it's posted on the web.

Week 7: Podcasting and Online Hosted Video

This week's discovery and reading exercises have been related to podcasting and online hosted videos. We were to consider how it would relate to our library and if there was any potential use for either resource in the medical library.

I've been aware of and familiar with podcasting (on the receiving end) for a few years. I have listened to a few podcasts via I-Tunes, and find this service to be fairly easy and user friendly. I listened to portions of the assigned podcasts: Univ TN HSC and Claude Moore HSL. I didn't care for any of the presentations from University of TN HSC. However, the Claude Moore HSL has aptly utilized the podcasting source by using it for CME lectures. Although there is no video to go along with the lecture, the audio portion is excellent. I find this good for doctors who may not be able to physically attend a lecture on the assigned date, but can download and listen to the audio portion at a later date. This way, there is the possibility for a doctor to earn CME credits. I also listened to portions of NEJM this week; MedlinePlus; and Ann Intern Med podcasts via I-Tunes.

This resource could be a possibility in some community hospitals who would be able to set up podcasting capability, possibly through the Nursing Education department, or the Medical Library, or even through the Continuing Medical Education department in cooperation with their IT department. Other possibilities for podcasting can be helpful if a doctor would want to listen to some other audio resources, such as NEJM this week, or Annals of Internal Medicine.

Online hosted videos are a horse of a different color, especially in using YouTube. Many community hospitals have firewalls and security issues that prevent people from viewing even the health-related resources on YouTube. On the other side of the coin, I personally cannot see community hospitals or their libraries using online hosted videos. I feel this resource is best used by the academia. I did find a video on YouTube by a university library that I found useful for students who would be attending the school in the future, or even possibly to help familiarize a student presently attending the school with the library facility and what they have to offer. This video was not a "true" video. The Montana State University Renne Library chose to use slides and audio to create their "video," and was well done. See below.

Week 6: Online Photo Sharing

This week's assignment asked us to upload photos, creating a Flickr account and posting the photos to our Facebook page and our blog. Here are two of the four photos I put on Facebook.





After reading all the links provided for Creative Commons I still do not understand how it works. If nothing else, I'm more confused about it.

As for setting up a Flickr account, I already had one. My experience uploading photos from Flickr will be explained later. Other online photo sites for sharing that I'm also familiar with and have accounts and photos in them, are Photobucket and Webshots. I have had a Webshots account for more than 10 years. I registered for an account in Photobucket only a couple years ago. And another one I have just checked out is Google's Picasa. Apparently I already have an album (and several photos) saved in Picasa because of my Blogger account. It looks like a simple enough program, but I haven't yet tried to create a whole new album. I have heard from another source (family member) that they have the best type of slide show when one wants to create and post a slideshow of their photos.

Getting back to the assignment, I tried to first upload to Facebook, since I had no idea how to do it and I was already familiar with uploading photos to my blog. First of all, Facebook's format is NOT very intuitive when it comes to uploading photos, except for the "Photos" icon listed under applications. When I first clicked on the icon it took me to a box that showed me "Recent Photo Albums," two of which belong to one of my "friends." Then the other tab, "Recently Tagged Friends," showed me another small box of another friend, saying "View photos of ..." Above these tabs and to the right is a button that says "create a photo album." And above that are two links, one that links to "my photos," and another that links to "photos of you."

When checking on "Create a Photo Album," you have to fill in a name for the album and choose the privacy level. When I clicked on the button after giving a new album a name, it then took me to my computer's files. Now that IS NOT uploading from Flickr as the assignment was given! So I backed out and went to the search box typing in "photos." I got a whole bunch of possible widgets to install so I could upload and share photos in Facebook. Not good!

I then went to my Flickr account. Again, this site is another that is NOT intuitive or user friendly. At least that is my perspective. Where am I supposed to find the so-called "Flickr apps?" OK, home page says "upload photos." I click on it and where do I end up? Back in my computer's files! What is going on here? So I then click on the link next to "upload photos" that says "tools" in small print. I go to another page and I'm supposed to download a 12MB version of Flickr Uploadr. Uh, no thanks! I then went back to Facebook and ended up installing "my stuff," and then uploaded my photo from Flickr to Facebook. At this point, I'm not a "happy camper." It took too much time to try to find apps both in Flickr and Facebook.

I then went to Photobucket, chose one of my albums and chose a picture from it. I then clicked on one of the links under the photo (I think it was the HTML code link) and pasted it in "My Stuff" on Facebook. Well, that was easier.

I then went to Webshots, to my account and chose a photo. Right on each photo page there are several choices of what you can do with the photo. I chose "Share on ..." Another box popped up asking me to choose where I wanted to share it, and Facebook was listed. I clicked on the button that said "Facebook" and then clicked again on another button that said "post" and it took me directly to my Facebook page, and there was my photo in My Stuff.

By far, Webshots is the easiest to use. It is the most user friendly and intuitive photo sharing source of the three I tried. Photobucket is a close second. But as for Flickr I am NOT impressed.

As for using this tool in my library, it will never happen. One, I find no use for it, and secondly, our hospital's network has most, if not all, of these apps blocked.

Week 5: Web Office Tools

This past week we reviewed Web office tools and how useful they can be. In particular, these tools can be useful when a group is working on the same project and each individual wants to contribute. And the upside is that the "project" or documents sit on a web server rather than emailing corrections to each of the group members.

I have been vaguely familiar with Google docs and the assignment was quite easy to work on. In the past I have used the document format, but this was the first time I used the spreadsheet and slides format.

I checked on the reviews for Zoho Office Suite, but did not bother to sign up; I also checked the reviews for the Webex Weboffice, but I do not feel one should have to pay for this tool if something comparable is free. Additionally, I checked the reviews for Microsoft Office Live, and went to the web site and went through the tour/tutorial, but again, did not bother to sign up. I feel that what I would use in the future Google would be sufficient.

Question for this week: Is this the future of all software products? What do you think?
I'm not sure it is the future of all software products. It's just another method of getting one's work done. I personally would prefer to still have the software on my computer since most of my work is done as a solo librarian.

Social Bookmarking - Week 4

This week's assignment was to check out the social bookmarking site del.icio.us. I know there are other social bookmarking sites, but I have yet to check them out. It's difficult to judge social bookmarking as a whole at this point in time. But at least I have an idea of how it works. Before this course I had no idea what social bookmarking was. Now that I have had a taste of it, I'm willing to check out some others in the near future.

It seems that del.icio.us is quite simple to use. The tagging takes on a whole new world. One can check out other sites others have tagged by typing in a search term. One example I tried was "birding." I wanted to see what other web sites are tagged by that term and how many people have tagged those sites. For instance, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's web site has been tagged and saved by over 300 people using the term "birding."

Another site that I saved was MedlinePlus, using the terms health, medical, reference, medicine, drugs, encyclopedia, Government, database, and consumer_health. Surprisingly there are 1845 others who have also tagged and saved it. That certainly is an impressive number.

I can see how social bookmarking can be an advantage over bookmarking on one's own browser. It's nice to know that you can be other places to check on something and know that your bookmarks can "travel" with you.

Would I use it professionally, in the hospital library? Maybe. It would be nice to socially bookmark all of the web sites I presently have bookmarked in Internet Explorer. But then, I don't see any reason for using those sites or bookmarks other than when I'm at work. But, then again, it would be quite interesting to see how many others have bookmarked the same sites and if they have any extra notes written about any of them.

Social Networking - Week 3

This past week we were to check out and evaluate some social networking sites. The three sites were Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace. Interesting enough, I found these three to be quite different from one another, and they seemed to focus on different social groups.

My personal evaluation on Facebook is that it seems to be geared mostly for the twenty- and thirty-somethings, although any age group seems to fit in. I found this resource to be a mostly social site among professional types of people. The social aspect allows one to connect with others within your own or other networks. Other social perks are one's ability to upload photos, videos, or music. You can also (on your own page/site) add links to other organizations - much like a short-cut. One can write on another friend's "wall" -- a form of message board. As for the professional side of things, the information you get to input about yourself, such as your education and your job/career. You can also add other personal interests, such as favorite movies, books, music, etc.

LinkedIn, on the other hand, comes across as a strictly professional and adult (post college) "social" network. This particular site connects one with "friends" whom you may have graduated with, but only on a college/university level. Other searches are processed by the names of companies one may have worked for, and looks for other people who may be working at the same company you presently work for, or worked for in the past. Facebook allows you to search for "friends" from high school as well as college; LinkedIn does not give you that option.

MySpace, for those unfamiliar with it, is mostly for teenagers, high school age and college age. The web site's home page is quite "busy." The graphics seem to be oriented to today's entertainment media - celebrity info; what's hot on TV or the movies; what's the most popular music/song/artist. They even feature top videos on "MySpace TV." This, to me, is very youth oriented, definitely not professional. The assignment for MySpace was to check out Denver Public Library's "eVolver" and Brooklyn College Library. I was quite impressed with these two sites, and I can certainly see why they would be on MySpace. Denver Public Library is attempting to globally reach out or solicit the young people to influence them to use the library's resources, either in person or online. I think that is an excellent marketing resource. Brooklyn College Library's website is geared only for the students attending the college, but again, is an excellent way to reach out to those students who may be using MySpace.

One of the questions for our assignment was "how can social networking be used by MLA to connect members?" Personally, I would lean toward Facebook. I would recommend that MLA create a "group" on Facebook (probably called MLA, or Medical Librarian Association) and allow MLA members to join so that we librarians can socially network with each other. This would be an excellent way of networking since we would not have to remember everyone's email address for those we may want to contact. The best part about this is that if someone should have a question, they can post it. And those who may have an answer can post it to the group's wall or to the member's own wall. This same sort of thing can also be done in LinkedIn. Facebook also allows you to post events, such as the annual MLA meeting, or even chapter meetings. It's a good place to also post upcoming Webcast classes, etc.

Another question: Should your library have a Facebook or MySpace page?
I work in a community hospital, one of many other hospitals owned by a Corporation. These types of medical libraries would not have a use for Facebook, and certainly not for MySpace. First of all, access to such would be (and presently are) blocked. These types of networking tools are more on the social side of things and would not be appropriate or appropriately used in our environment.

Wikis

This past week's assignment was for creating a wiki and adding content to it. It was also suggested to add content to the class wiki. I added a photo and a brief description to the page that asked for participants to tell what state we are representing. It was definitely easy to do. I have only begun to get my wiki established. Other than the home page describing what it is about, I added a couple of pages, but have yet to add more content to it.

Questions for this assignment: What is the difference between a blog and a wiki? And what sort of things might be better suited for a blog vs a wiki?

I have noticed with blogs the author(s) can write on anything of choice. It does not have to stay focused. Blogs are very much like journals or diaries. Participation by the reader(s) are in the format of comments made briefly in a few sentences. And since blogs are more journal-like, they tend to be the opinion of the author.

On the other hand, wikis are created focusing on a specific subject. They are more community oriented, allowing readers to contribute more authoritative material. Wikis tend to be more informative and academically oriented. I would find wikis better suited for community based and useful information.

If I would try to relate these media forms in a library setting I would probably use a blog to set opinions and facts about what is happening in the library. It's probably a good place to post the latest editions that have arrived in book format. It's also a good place to let the library community know if one has added new journal titles, new electronic subscriptions, or even notifying readers of any subscription cancellations.

Meanwhile, I would find a wiki to be useful in giving content that would be more stable, such as a list of the current journals the library subscribes to, and post links to the various electronic books and journals. This is also a place where one can place the link for the OPAC, and give instructions on how to use it. A wiki may also be the place to post policies and procedures of one's library. Other uses for a wiki can be instructions for doing a search in PubMed, or other databases the library subscribes to.

RSS uses

A question has been asked how one can use RSS feeds in a medical library. It certainly is a quick and most up to date way of organizing information specific to what is being requested. For example, a doctor wants the most updated information regarding narrow-band UVB. One way of doing this is to perform the search in PubMed, and after saving it to my NCBI searches, I can send it to an RSS feed to get updated material as it arrives in PubMed. Another possibility is to go directly to specific medical journals and subscribe to their TOC updates through my RSS feeds. That way when I see any info regarding narrow-band UVB, or whatever other subject a doctor may be requesting, I can email the link or abstract to him/her.

On the other hand, I can also help my patrons set up their own RSS feed tailored to the specific subjects each patron is interested in receiving the most up to date information.