Infographics as Storytelling

If you have taken my Storytelling 2.0 class through ALA, then you may already know how much I love infographics. We all know the line that a picture can tell 1000 words. A creative writing assignment that always sticks with me was one where we looked at a famous work of art and we had to write a short story about what was happening in the picture. One picture, twenty students...we all had completely different stories.

Infographics tell the story of data. It uses visuals to help us relay information and explain the meaning. Words can be forgotten, but images stick with us. I could go on and explain this is further detail, but why do that when there is an infographic that can do a much better job?

Storytelling Is Not Just for Campfires (Infographic)

View more documents from Fathom

Sources to find more infographics:
Flickr 
Visual.ly
http://www.scoop.it/t/awesome-infographics
http://www.coolinfographics.com/
http://www.good.is/infographics
http://dailyinfographic.com/
http://www.infographicsshowcase.com/
http://mashable.com/follow/topics/mashable-infographics/

Looking for something specific? Just do a google search with you topic keyword and add "infographic". Want to create your own? Keep your eye on Visual.ly as they are creating a infographic generator in their lab. Really though all you need are some good editing skills with knowledge of a good graphics program...maybe there is an app for that!

Digital Booktalks

Reposted from 23...the Dealer Wins


YouTube Booktrailer for Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book

Welcome to the new age of booktalks where Web 2.0 technologies are being utilized to make the booktalk experience a new and exciting one for librarians, teachers, and students. Lights! Cameras! Read! It’s time for booktalks to go digital.

Clark (2009) states that “Unlike many other reading incentive programs in public and school libraries, booktalking does not cost a penny” (p. 504). Digital Booktalks are another great free programming concept that can be utilized by many libraries. Some possibilities on how to extend the use of Digital Booktalks beyond the Librarian using them as promotion would be to allow young patrons to create their own videos. This can be done either as a library workshop or faced with a library with limited hours, it can also be incorporated as a contest-type program where patrons produce the videos on their own and hand them in to the librarian for posting.

Libraries can also use the idea of the Digital Booktalk as an additional source of a volunteer credit opportunity. Teen Advisory Groups can create these videos for volunteer credit and have the videos place on either the library website or the TAG Facebook Fan Page.

Belben (2007) gives a link to what looks to be a now extinct website that used to review book trailers using a “trailer park” theme. This hilarious take on website reviews can be incorporated in the library setting as well. Have teens create their own themed reviews. See how many trailers or booktalks can be found on the same book and then rate the best ones. Use some form of rating system like Sherlock Holmes’s pipe for mysteries or vampire fangs for supernatural genres.

There are many different websites out there that can explain how to make a Digital Booktalk. Valenza (2007) sums it up perfectly by saying “These videos are not all that hard to produce. Simply show some of the following examples to student readers who also know how to use such free or inexpensive production tools as: iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, GarageBand, VoiceThread, or Final Cut. Remind those students to use copyright-friendly images, sound, and video” (par. 5). Many digital cameras and cell phones now have features that allow them to take short video clips that can be uploaded to the computer. Also, while maybe not a preferred method of creating a Digital Booktalk, still photos may be used to introduce the concept to a beginner.

Digital Booktalks can be a great resource for inspiring reluctant readers to branch out and try new books. It bridges the gap for student’s understanding of the differences between a book and its movie counterpart. Production of a Digital Booktalk is simple enough that it can serve as a standalone program done outside of the library. It is also an enjoyable enterprise that gets students motivated to read as well as building upon their comprehension of the story by helping them make inferences and interpretations of what they read.  It can also be a valuable programming tool in the face of declining budgets and the trend towards incorporating Web 2.0 technologies to best serve new learning styles.

Belben, C. (2007 October). There are no booktalking police: alternatives to stand-and-deliver presentations. ''Library Media Connection, 26(2)'', 28-9.
Clark, R.C. (2009 February).  Listening to teens talk back. ''Voice of Youth Advocates, 31(6)'', 501-04.
Valenza, J. (2007 August). Booktalking 2.0 (2.0). ''School Library Journal''. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/.

Actions Speak Louder than Words

We are all storytellers. Our every action is telling a story about our lives. As we are in the midst of the holiday season and we hear stories about frantic shoppers being maced at the local Walmart, it is nice to hear a story about the good in people.

Monday night a woman approached the layaway desk at a Michigan Kmart and asked if she could pay off some layaway items for three strangers. Her only requirement was that there must be toys in those orders. Three very lucky people received the call to inform them of their lucky circumstance, one of these people being the mom of an autistic child. 

This true to life story sounds like something out of a modern day Christmas parable. What story do your actions tell? Remember, sometimes actions speak louder than words. 

Happy Holidays!

All good things must come to an end!

* Please note that this post and all the ones previously posted before this date were part of the Brevard County 23 Things project that I participated in. I have decided to merge the two blogs together because of their overlapping themes. Enjoy!

That's it! What to do now?

I have enjoyed participating in the 23 Things Project because it gave me a chance to practice my blogging skills (which had really great timing!). I have been debating where to go from here. I have thought about keeping this blog as a place to talk about library techie stuff, but to be honest managing posts on 3 different blogs is tiring (it was almost 4, but they never got back to me about it).  I have also thought about merging this blog with Not Quite Superhuman, but that would take some tweaking and I am just too tired to do it.

I like the stuff that I posted here, so it is not going away (basically, I just really like the blog name). I don't think I will make any additional posting to it though.

Some great things I have learned during this project are RSS feeds (I am addicted to Goggle Reader now), incorporating Flickr into blog posts, gmail (still haven't received spam, so loving it!), rediscovering SlideShare, and bloggy gadgets (like LibraryThing). I am also more active on my other blog which I attribute to a renewed interest sparked by these Things.

Good luck to everyone still hanging in there!

Falling for FEL

Of course it goes without saying that some day I would like to visit ComicCon in San Diego, CA. But that is not the only big conference I would like to participate in. I am looking forward to 2016 when ALA is finally back in Florida. However, what has really tweaked my interest is SXSW and TED. Both of these conferences have a decidedly techie friendly vibe and I have really enjoyed the posts Mashable has been kind enough to share about the events.

For this final Thing, I decided to check out what results the Florida Electronic Library (FEL) could come up with. I love how the results are divided up into tabs like Academic Journals, Magazines, and News; this would be really helpful if I was writing an article or paper on the topic and had to have specific sources (deja vu Grad School). Lexile numbers are given as well as citations which makes this a very valuable resource for students and teachers. The best thing is that it is free.

Click on the About Books tab and select Books & Authors for all kinds of information about fiction and non-fiction of all kinds. There is even a wizard to help suggest additional reads, though it couldn't seem to find a match for any of the books I read. I did find some suggestions for The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (so no vamps, faeries, elves, warlocks, witches, but at least we have zombies). I do however wonder how The Prince of Fenway Park by Juilanna Baggott can come up as a suggestion based on Fantasy and Monsters as the criteria, so guess it is not a great wizard and should maybe stay behind the curtain. (okay, so maybe it has curses and half-elves, but still not on the same level as a zombie apocalypse book.)

Despite the Books and Authors let down, I still like FEL because of my favorite four little word: free!

LibraryThing is the Thing

I have an account for many of the different book sites like Goodreads and LibraryThing. LibraryThing is one of my favorites; I am Notquitesuperhman. I have it embedded on my other blog and add star reviews to my selections. On Not Quite Superhuman I blog about books a lot. When I blog a new book, I add it to my shelf. I don't have as many titles listed as Marlena at SBPL, only about 40 or so right now (I really need to edit it), but you can definitely get a feel for my eclectic reading tastes.

I just recently signed up to receive review copies of books from LibraryThing, so I can't really say how that is going. A lot of my ARCs come from NetGalley or I have requested directly from the publisher or author. Monitoring the ALA list-serves is also helpful because they will have ARCs up for grabs a lot for the first responders. My all time favorite site for book recommendations is TeenReads. They have contests, recommendations, reading lists, and more on their site.

BTW I am currently reading Supernaturally by Kiersten White. Yeah, it's not out yet. :)

Books from my LibraryThing

Powered by LibraryThing

Another You

I try whenever possible to avoid using my real face on the net. I don't like cameras in general, but I especially don't like the idea of having my face out there. As of this moment, I use an avatar that was created through the yahoo avatar generator. Because I have used this image for many professional aspects, I have tried to make it look as much like me as possible, it even has a library in the background. That is why I love avatars. They can be another you or even another side of you.

That is where avatars can get pretty addicting. My husband plays WoW, those of you unfamiliar to the world of online gaming might not be aware that this stand for World of Warcraft. We joke that he has character ADD because of the option the game allows for him to create characters who not only have many different abilities, but also looks very different. When I was playing City of Heroes (one of the few MMORPGs {Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game} that I have played), my characters often looked like something out of one of Stan Lee's comic books...yes, even right down to the red hair. Those of you who know me in real life know that I am far and beyond looking anything close to a statuesque red-haired vixen and my husband is definitely not a pointy eared Elf or Orc or whatever the character of the day.

Here are some more avatar sites you might enjoy:
Otaku Avatar Generator
LEGO Avatar Generator
Hero Machine
Create Your Own Marvel Superhero

*Please note a word of caution, as with anything free on the web, you run the risk of being vulnerable to malicious code. To my knowledge none of these sites are associated with any type of virus, but you never know.

Nothing is Safe

Internet Bank Robber by Flickr user michaelmolenda  

The second Wednesday of the month used to be known as Exploit Wednesday. Why? Well, those evil guys who sit around with nothing better to do than be malicious used to wait until after the second Tuesday of the month to release any new foulness onto the net. Why? Well, because it was after Microsoft Tuesday. The second Tuesday of the month was when Microsoft would release critical security patches. Systems that did not have the patch would then be left vulnerable, but also this would leave systems vulnerable to any unexpected fail-points until Microsoft would release the another critical update, the next month.

In August, my laptop bit the dust two days before my last semester of grad school. It started with a Google redirect virus. I would type in a search and click on the link, but the site I was redirected to was anything but what I was searching for. It progressively got worse from there. Eventually, I had to wipe my entire laptop. Not easy since I was using Windows 2007 and ended up deleting all my pre-installed drivers in the process. Then it happened again. I even know where it came from, watching anime. The sites were fine, but the ads that would pop up on the anime sites were pretty malicious. The sad part was the McAfee program I had paid for never caught any of this. I ended up using a Google BETA anti-virus that was a free download and it worked perfectly. But I learned my lesson and stopped reading manga and watching anime on the laptop.

Last year, a virus was being spread over the net through Facebook links. This virus was particularly foul because once it was on your computer, it would open countless porn sites and lock you out of your computer. (I know, a teenage boy's dream, right?). This was my husband's birthday present. He was so proud that his mother figured out how to post the link to a funny video that he didn't even stop to think first and clinked on the link. Bye-bye computer. I will be honest, I tried the link too, but on my blackberry. It wouldn't open.

That is one of the good things about using a mobile device to search the internet. The operating system is different and so not susceptible to viruses. It is the same for Macs. Caught that last part? Well, Mac is Apple which is iPad. (You knew it was coming right?) I do all my internet on my iPad or my blackberry and yes I am back to reading and watching whatever I want. Do I think I am perfectly safe? Well, no, but a lot safer than using windows. I mean even their windows phones can get viruses.
Check this link out for more information on the history of viruses. The History of Computer Viruses [INFOGRAPHIC]

Needle in a Blogstack!

My Dog Ate My Website! a photo by FindYourSearch on Flickr.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been a devoted Google user for a few years now. When Microsoft first came out with Bing, I had already heard the rumors about their own people using Google over their Microsoft search engine. The new search engine, Bing, was suppose to be better, so I tried it. I hated it. I could never find what I was looking for. I kept with Google and avoided Bing.

However, for this project I decided to take another look. I did two different keyword searches using Google, Bing, and Technorati. I did not use any librarian friendly booleans in my search and just typed in my keywords sans quotes (just like how one of our patrons might do it). Here are the results of those searches

Multicultural Storytime
Google 114,000
Bing 54,300
Technorati 1

Recycled Crafts
Google 3,600,000
Bing 5,290,000
Technorati 41

Surprisingly, there really wasn't much difference between Google and Bing as far as web search results went. I did, however, prefer Google's formats that image and video search results were presented in. Google gave me information along with the video thumbnails, whereas Bing only gave me the thumbnails. Technorati was the dark horse because it was only searching blogs. Well, to be honest, for a lot of my searches that is exactly what I am looking for. Most of the time when I do a web search it is not just to see what another library or group is doing for their programming, but also what they did and how they did it. Because of that, I spend a lot of time reading library, book, crafting and other types of blogs. Using traditional search engines means a lot of weeding through the muck to find what I need. In fact, a lot of the blogs I follow have been found because they follow the same blogs that I do (i.e. Social Networking at its best!). Using Technorati provides a shortcut around all that.

I think I have found a new favorite site. ;)

I will use Google before asking dumb questions

I will use Google before asking dumb questions
Originally uploaded by Andréia

I still remember being an undergrad, student teaching at a local high school. The English department had one computer that the staff shared in the department lounge (*hint* this was over ten years ago). I had always used AltaVista and Yahoo! as my search engines. The default page was set up instead for www.google.com. Here was this page that had just a simple search box across the screen. No flashy gimmicks, no members pages...simple. The results were also more accurate then any of the other sites I had used. I was immediately hooked.

One of my favorite options available on Google is the Google Images search option. It provides you with list of thumbnails of all kinds of images to fit your search needs, which means no scrolling through webpages. If you are looking for images for marketing purposes, you can even tailor your search needs to fit within creative commons attribution requirements.It is very simple to download the images and even to check out the site they came from.

Google Books is another option that I like. Yes, I know those gatekeepers of the copyright holder rights association (I made that up, but I am sure there is probably one out there) are probably cringing right now; That's stealing! Well, no it isn't, it's more like sampling. (Even the courts agree.) You don't get the whole book, you do get most of the book, I will agree. However, it is not like you can read it cover for cover if it is not open sourced or public domain. What you do get is enough of a snippet to see if the book is really worth dishing out your meager funds for. It has also come in handy for some grad classes where the teacher decided weeks after I returned the obscure assigned reading title that we were going to have group discussion about it, very specific group discussions (i.e. "on page 93, the main character says").

Google is always trying to make our lives easier. Go Google!

INCIDENTAL COMICS: The Library

Here is a smile for Valentine's Day. I love this cartoon. Check out the YA room on the top floor. He forgot to add a zombie section. ;)
INCIDENTAL COMICS: The Library: "I spend an inordinate amount of time browsing the shelves of Kansas City's downtown public library. To the staff there, I'm probably known a..."

Love on First Slide!

I love SlideShare. There are some really awesome presentations available on their website. It is a great place to get ideas and information. I am also in love with marketing and if it wasn't for it being a part of a business degree, I might have majored in it (I hate math!). Now marketing isn't just promoting your product (or library!), it is about researching your target demographic so that what you want to tell them will not only reach your target, but also interest and relate to them. Make an impact!

One person that I follow on SlideShare is jessedee. He has found some awesome presentations that really catch your attention. One of my favorites is

Steal this presentation

View more presentations from Scott Hoag.

It really catches your attention. Now unfortunately, there are some really boring presentations on SlideShare. Yes, they are informative and they do get to the point, but they don't stick with you. I did a search on Library 2.0 (another one of my obsessions; can you tell?) and of course marketing. The results were kind of, well...

I picked the one below because the lizard just jumped right at me and grabbed a hold of my attention. Turns out the information it contained was really on target and very helpful. I have to admit the mention about Huffington Post kind of cinched it for me since Gatekeepers Post is a spin-off of that website. (Sorry, blatant self-promotion there *wink* )

Library 2.0: Jump start your library with blogging and Twitter

View more presentations from Nathan Wright.

Face it, sometimes we do judge a book by its cover. Take a lesson from SlideShare and look at how many times the presentation has been viewed. What do they all have in common? Next time you have to do a presentation, what can you incorporate from what you have learned?

To the Cloud!

I use Google Docs all the time. Unfortunately, I have had the bad experience of having my hard-drive crash too many times or not being able to find a flash drive to save a document. Using Google Docs I can create my document and edit it on any computer. I have had trouble exporting to a .doc file, so usually I cut and paste into a new Word document when I need to send the file somewhere. The formating is usually a little off, but it is very easy to fix.

Cloud computing is wonderful. I use Delicious for my bookmarks and Google Docs for my papers and I have everything at my fingertips only a few clicks away from any computer. My favorite part about Google Docs? Well, Ms Susan, you can probably guess what is coming next. Pages is a $10 download form the app store (I am cheap, remember?), but I can use Google Docs for free. ;)

There's an app..err...gadget for that!

Personalized homepages are not something new. I used to have one through yahoo.com. The only thing I really liked about it was the daily comic box that let me read Luann and Garfield.

I customized my iGoogle account with news, cooking, and entertainment boxes as well as translators, maps, calculators, and a nice little animated Nemo theme at the top. Will I use this past creation?

Probably not. None of these are things that I will need right at my fingertips and to be honest it is just as quick to bring up mapquest as it is to bring up googlemaps. What was interesting was that as I was customizing I noticed that some of the gadget names seemed familiar. Well, guess what, there is an app for that? A lot of the gadgets I was looking at not only had the same appearance, but were also the same apps that I can download for free on my iPad. So is there a coincidence with the names iPad and iGoogle?

With a Tap of the Page

I will admit that I was against e-book readers. Nothing to me could replace the experience of reading a paperback that I could take anywhere.

Well, that was last month...

Last November I read an review for a series by Meg Cabot called The Mediator. Think of it like a teenage version of the Ghost Whisper with a little Buffy thrown in. I immediate put the first book on a suspended hold to come in when I was done with my final papers and exams. Well, when the book finally came in, I wasn't too excited to read it anymore. I let it sit on my pile of books waiting to be read. The day before a trip to my mother-in-laws for the Christmas, I read the book since I had nothing else to do that day. I was immediately hooked and super excited to read the rest of the series. I went to work the next day with the intention of grabbing the other books in the series. Yes, you see the problem coming, don't you?

My library only had the last two books in the series. It was Sunday. We were leaving for Jersey as soon as I was done with work.

Thankfully, my mother-in-law let me borrow her Kindle and purchase the next book from her Amazon account. I discovered that I am an even faster reader on an electronic device. My husband asked if I would like one for Christmas. My answer was no since being tech savvy (and cheap!), I already investigated to discover that not all of the e-books will be available in all formats from lending programs like Overdrive. I would hate to have a kindle or nook and the book I want to download not be available for that device.

Well, my husband is a tricky sort. All week he kept asking me if I was sure I didn't want a Kindle, cause it just seemed like something I would really enjoy. Christmas day, he handed me a box with the unsure comment "I really hope you like it and use it." I thought he had gone ahead and bought the Kindle anyway. Nope, it wasn't a Kindle and it wasn't a Nook.

As a Christmas/Graduation/10th Wedding Anniversary present I had just received an iPad (Let's just say I am owing for all the upcoming gift-giving holidays). Immediately, I downloaded the Kindle, Nook, and iBooks apps. I have not tested out the Kindle app, but I have downloaded free apps for the Nook and iBooks. (*note* Nook requires a credit card be on file even for the free downloads, iBooks doesn't.) I downloaded Last of the Mohicans to both. Nook had a copy from google e-books. The formatting was awful and I could barely make my way through even the first few pages. iBooks was much, much better. It even had the original illustrations that were part of our Picturing America Grant. I am not sure where they found their copy, but I was really happy with that one.

Okay, so I like instant gratification. But I still can't justify to my cheap self buying the book when I can get it for free from the library. Oh, well, at least it still fits in my purse. Now if only I could get it to connect to the free wi-fi...

;)

Pod People

One of the best things that I took out of my Digital Media class was how to make a podcast. I learned how to use a free program called Audacity. It was easy to use once I figured out what all the little buttons were. I started my graduate school experience with a fear of microphones (this Jersey Girl's voice is loud enough not to need one). Using Audacity helped me get over my fear since I had to take so many takes to get it just right. I admit I love making Podcasts...even though I haven't done one since that class.

Listening to them is a completely different story. I have tried the Podcasts from Podcast.com, but didn't really enjoy the experience because there was so much buffering that needed to be done to get the audio to play smoothly. I am also a visual person and prefer to have an image in front of me corresponding to what is being talked about. About the only ones that I enjoy are the ones that have the most impact for libraries- Storytelling. It would be great to have a link on the library website of librarians telling stories that young patrons can click on and listen. Of course, there is a catch. These stories must be in the public domain i.e Brother's Grimm, Aesop's Fables. Sorry, but as much as we might enjoy all those new and exciting stories out there, I can't see this falling under the Fair Use/Educator Copyright Law exceptions.