Transmedia and Mr. Morris Lessmore

It isn't often that an animated film about books gets any kind of attention. As bookaholics and library students you should know about the 2012 winner of an Oscar® for Best Animated Short film.

The Fantastic Flying Adventures of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a touching film about a man's adventures with books. The movie does not contain dialog but there is an expressive musical track.  If you haven't seen the movie take a look at the trailer.



You can watch the full authorized version of the movie on iTunes. There are bootleg versions in other locations. We all need to make a better effort to respect copyright. I won't link to those versions.

For me, the movie operates on many levels. I can appreciate it as a love poem to reading and traditional books. According to the producers of the film, it is also an homage to the great silent film start Buster Keaton. I can clearly seen Buster's spirit giving the okay on this honor.

Transmedia

It is also one of many growing examples of transmedia. Think of transmedia as a tree with many branches. You have your source material that can be extended with new content to other platforms.

This isn't new. Spiderman started out as a comic book. Then an animated series, a live action television show, a movie series and a theatrical show on Broadway.  This is the digital version of transmedia.

Mr. Morris Lessmore's adventures will be converted to a picture book based on the movie. There is a supporting iTunes application where users can explore the world of Mr. Morris Lessmore and interact with some of the characters.

What Does This Mean?

Well, it could mean that when you get a request for a book you might need to consider offering related content. There might be a physical book, a recording, and an app on Android, iOS or Windows smartphones and tables. (Trust me, there will be an Windows tablet.)

There could be a web site that supports the book or a fan community that is adding content to their shared experiences. Or an electronic book that is only located in the Nook, Kobo, Google or Kindles stores.

This is an extension of knowing your collection. Collections, as the trailer and movie demonstrate, have a life of their own.

ALA 2011 Virtual Conference

If you were wishing you could have been in New Orleans for this summer's American Library Association's annual conference, it is still possible to get in the fun and wealth of information and resources that this conference can offer.

Check out ALA's 2011 Virtual Conference and see what they have to offer. It's being held July 13-14th online and only costs $69. If I wasn't so busy with my two summer school classes that begin this next week, I would definitely check out these two workshops:


10:30-11:30
“Download This! How One Library Embraced Its Downloadable Future”
Sponsored by PLA
In 2010 the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County conducted an evaluation of its downloadable materials collection. A team collected data on 83 other libraries' collections, ranking the collections and noting best practices for presenting and supporting those collections. The team recommended dramatically increasing the Library's downloadable budget, improving its catalog and website, marketing its collection, implementing staff and customer training, and improving customer support. The session will present the results, one year later.

1:30-2:30
“Seriously Social: Leveraging Social Media”
Sponsored by PLA
Explore the fundamentals of social media, learning how to effectively use social networking to engage patrons and foster personal relationships. Discover how the Grand Rapids Public Library leverages the power of social media to provide outstanding customer services and promote their library. A live demonstration of Twitter and Facebook (or the reigning social media at the time of this presentation) will illustrate the assets embedded in online relationships.

This is just a sample of these wonderful workshops that ALA is offering for those who simply could not get away or afford traveling to beautiful New Orleans for this year's annual conference with ALA. This educational resource is great for anyone who works in libraries.

The Library Radio Network

I'm a big fan of audio and video podcasting so this is an excellent idea. The Library Radio Network allows users to listen on-line or download the programs to the mp3 or media device.

For those of us on mobile devices you can visit http://kiesermanmedia.podbean.com/mobile to stay in touch with the program. (Watch your data rate folks if you are not on an unlimited plan.)


From the announcement I received:

We are pleased to announce a new online news source for librarians called The Library Radio Network (TLRN) which will debut on February 15th.

TLRN will feature library news you can use as well as fascinating interviews with library leaders from throughout the world.

TLRN will also feature a monthly radio magazine called Library Perspectives, which will be a hosted hour-long downloadable program using the NPR format featuring interviews and segments on libraries and librarians.

This can give folks in the library biz a chance to make their case for the importance of libraries, what they are doing, what works and what needs to be re-visioned.

Abby and A Look at What Digital Natives Want From Libraries

We have to get ready for Abby and her peers. Actually, they are hear but some of the adults want to pretend that they are not.



If you have ever seen a four year-old pick up an iPad and master it in five minutes you know that this is not that much of an exaggeration.

From the web site:

VALA - Libraries, Technology and the Future Inc. is an independent Australian based not-for-profit organisation that aims to promote the use and understanding of information technology within libraries and the broader information sector. VALA also offers its members access to a dynamic and professional network of information technology practitioners.

Yes, she may have been coached in what to say but the words are true. Wow. The times they are a changing.

Research Channel - Feed Your Head

If left to my own devices I would be watching TED videos and those of the Research Channel. Intelligent information, discussions and alternative sources to the barking reality shows of prime time television. No insult to canines intended.

The topics range from geology, medicine, engineering, genetics, psychology and more.
Per the channel description:

Research Channel is a nonprofit media and technology organization that connects a global audience with the research and academic institutions whose developments, insights and discoveries affect our lives and futures.

This is a video from 2008 by the California State University Monterey Bay on the role that libraries play on the university campus.

The web site seems to be down at the moment so the best place to catch up on the video archive is the YouTube channel or visiting YouTube.edu

Bloglines Transfering Ownership to Merchant Circle

I received an e-mail from Bloglines/Ask.com informing me that they are transferring Bloglines to new owners MerchantCircle.com.

Per the Bloglines/Ask.com e-mail:

• Ask.com will maintain the current Bloglines service as is until December 1, 2010. After December 1, 2010, the service will transition wholly to MerchantCircle. During the month of December, you will be able to easily port your feeds over to the MerchantCircle-powered service. It's an easy process, and we.ll provide you with complete instructions well in advance.
• Logging-In: You will keep your same password as before.
• Current Bloglines features: Your Bloglines subscriptions will seamlessly transition to the MerchantCircle service, however, the Clippings Tab will no longer be available and you will not be able to transport saved articles to the new service. We're very sorry for any inconvenience this will cause; the infrastructure requirements and costs are simply too great to justify maintaining this type of archiving feature.
  

MerchantCircle is a directory of small and local businesses. The company offers services to those vendors such as advertising placement, web directories, web site hosting and other similar services.

I am really not clear on how this is going to be a good match. The general focus of MerchantCircle is to attract small business owners to help them connect with customers. Nothing wrong with that; support your local businesses when possible.

I have to be honest. When I did use Bloglines it was not to shop. It was to connect with those sites and blogs I needed to track or visit. I'm not totally opposed to ads that support a web business. I'm just not sure how these two different kinds of web services are going to mesh with each other.

My main concern is that I don't want my contact info transferred to vendors without my explicit permission. If I don't like it I want an easy Opt-Out process.

For more info you can visit the MerchantCircle blog or e-mail your questions.

Social Networking - Twibes

It's been over a month since I first tried to join Twibes. Joining Twibes itself didn't seem all that difficult. But joining an individual twibe, I have to say it wasn't as easy to do as adding people to my Twitter account for technical reasons it appears. Every time I'd go to my page, I'd see I still wasn't in the Librarians Twibe that I tried joining multiple times. I have to say I was getting mighty frustrated. Here I was trying to venture out and be more bold in joining online groups and not getting very far in doing so.

Today I decided to check my page once again and expected not to see myself a part of the Librarians Twibe. Much to my surprise and delight, I finally succeeded! One of the reasons I like this twibe is its members come from different areas of librarianship. So come and check out this group and see what they are sharing.

The Next Step - First Days Part I

Three weeks into the UNT/CSUN MLIS program, I'm feeling more positive. I think a lot of what I was feeling was nervousness and anticipation about how everything would go those first days at the institute when we were in class sessions 8 hours for four days straight. As many predicted, we were all exhausted by the end of that long weekend but one well worth it. I looked at this weekend similar to my first ALA conference last year: jam-packed with information and great experiences.

We started out with an optional pre-institute dinner on Thursday night so we could begin to get acquainted with our fellow classmates or co-horts as the term they use in this program. Friday through Monday, they squeezed in orientation and a semester of lectures which obviously is impossible but nonetheless they tried their best. We did experirence some hands-on as we had homework to complete during that time as well. This semester our two courses are Introduction to Information Professionals which is a bit similar to LIB 101 and Introduction to Information Access and Retrieval which is like a refresher of LIB 102 Reference and more.

I did my best to become acquainted with as many of my classmates as possible over this long weekend. But with 50 people in our class, it was not an easy thing to do. I could probably have made more of a point to be more sociable Thursday night but I find dark, noisy restaurants not an easy situation for having conversations. I did meet at least three people that first night though I didn't really see them the rest of the weekend. I made a point of talking to as many different people every day we were there. Saturday night, there was a dessert social which I did attend and got more of a chance to talk with our professors along with classmates. Over the course of the weekend, I discovered that there are four of us that are alumni of the PCC Library Technology Program. In addition, there's another classmate whose taken a few courses and was debating whether finishing the certificate program or not since she's in this MLIS program now.

I know a lot of students wonder if they could really get through graduate school. I will admit since I'm just beginning I can't really say for sure but I believe if you can get through the Library Technology program at PCC, you can do this. I am amazed at the huge diversity in my class from ethnic, education, work experience and more. For those of you who English is not your first language, a handful of students like you are making their way through this program as well. In addition, one of the professors for our first classes is not a native English user which shows that if one wants to, one can truly achieve great things.

While I will admit that online learning is not my first choice, the reason I like this program is that it gives you a little bit of that face-to-face in addition. It's nice being in a relatively small class where most of your classmates don't live too far from you so it's possible to form study or support groups as needed. It's also nice not having to go to class every week but there is what seems like more homework to make up for that. An example of that are the weekly discussions that go on in both classes which makes sense. One thing that makes this program more personal is we have a class roster where we had to post our picture along with a brief biography about ourselves. One can always look at this roster or use a web tool called SNAP which allows you to view someone's picture simply by clicking on the person's name link while participating in the discussions.

Describing a whole weekend of everything I experienced and learned is impossible in one post so I'll continue later this week.

Social Networking - Twitter

Recently, I was enjoying lunch with a writers group when the topic turned to social networking. The evil necessity of being visible online as writers-published or not. As one writer proclaimed her love for Twitter, it made me realize I felt the same way once I started using my account on a regular basis. Why? Because it's simple and easy to use. The pure fact that I can send and receive tweets from my mobile phone without having to log online is amazing to me. Unlike MySpace or Facebook, there's very little maintenance, no updating or adding more photos, etc. once you've set-up your account.

Basically, Twitter asks you "What are you doing?". In 140 characters or less, you can inform those interested in keeping updated about what's going on with you. You can do this via text messaging, instant messaging or from online. In addition, you can use a widget on your MySpace or Facebook account so you can put your Twitter updates there as well. Personally, I think that's a little redundant since MySpace and Facebook already has a place where you can post updates. It states you could also put a widget on your blog page, so that could be a nice addition. You can find this information on their home page under Goodies.

Even though you can use their general Help Page to learn how to use Twitter, I really liked how the help page geared for businesses was set-up much better. So I'd suggest checking out both.

If you have any questions or problems with Twitter, check out their Support Page. One thing I noticed is that I didn't always get the updates sent to my mobile phone which I wasn't too happy about. Their answer for this was: "Missing Twitter text updates is fairly common. If the Twitter text queue is too overloaded with text updates, some will be dropped." Should I have expected that technology is never perfect in the first place? I suppose so.

Upon further investigation, I came across this: "Twitter sends and receives an extremely high volume of tweets each day. We're now sending and receiving so many that we're occasionally exceeding carrier limits. When this happens, we're unable to deliver more text messages to that carrier or phone for a short period of time. If you're not receiving all tweets via text, this is most likely why." They do give solutions though if there seems more to the problem than that. In addition, they do mention that they're working with mobile phone carriers to fix that problem though in the future. Keeping my fingers crossed that they do.

If you're interested, Twitter has their own blog. Their most recent post talks about a new book, Twitter Wit, that features the funniest tweets.

Speaking of books, in the Resources area geared toward businesses, there are two books listed, "The Twitter Book" and "Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets". I haven't gotten a chance to see any of these books but do plan to. There are also articles and blog posts on Twitter and using it effectively.

And for more on Twitter, check out Gena's post from last year.

So far, I'm not following that many people but I do have Library Journal, RefWorks, and the Shatford Library so far along with some friends and acquaintances. In a step beyond Twitter, there now is Twibes which are Twitter groups. More on that next time!

Social Networking - Part I

About 10 years ago, I was having a discussion with a friend who doubted that online social networking would ever catch on. And actually, I didn't realize myself just how huge this phenomenon would later become as I had tried to convince him that people would change their tune later. Who would have thought he'd belong to Facebook before me?

Anyone who knows me has had the experience of dealing with some resistance from me through the new waves of technology over the years. The first time I came in contact with a computer was ironically at the library at CSULA when I was a student in 1984. They started out with one or two catalog terminals back then. If you were to walk in there now, it seems as if the computers have taken over the library. Who would have thought?

Shortly after my first introduction to computers, I found out that the small company I was working for then was taking that forward step into technology as we all got our own computers. No more tedious work on an electric typewriter for me!

For 15 years, my viewpoint was that computers were about making work more efficient. Not about meeting and connecting with people online. The whole idea of going online just seemed bizarre to me when a boyfriend tried to explain how it worked. Time and time again over a year's period, he tried to convince me to just try it. The only thing I was willing to do on his home computer was play solitaire. Finally, one day I decided to take that next first step in the land of technology- the Internet.

My first experience involved going into an online chat room which for a hard-of-hearing person was a dream come true. I could understand what every single person said in my open and private conversations in that online room without having to ask anyone to repeat themselves. If I had known what a life-altering experience it would be, I would have tried it out much sooner. I will admit I did become quite addicted to going online to chat to people all over the world. I do still have some cherished friendships from that time even though I no longer have gone to chat rooms for quite some years now.

Back then, if you admitted that you had met someone from online in person, people would often look at you like you were crazy. What sane person would do that? Was it even safe? That was the the just tip of the iceberg. Online dating sites were fairly new but starting to become popular slowly in the late 90s. I have taken that route before and have met some interesting people but never found love there as some have.

For me, it seems technology has taken me full circle as I once viewed it as a way to achieve your work more efficiently. Social networking now has become a visible and viable way to live your life. From myspace to Facebook, Twitter and so much more, it can include every facet of your life- from school to work to hobbies and more. It still astounds me the explosion of technology in what seems a rather short time in history.

My next installments are going to cover various social networking sites as I attempt to familiarize myself with more of them. I've had quite a few myspace accounts that I've opened and deleted until I stuck with the current one I have. In the last year, I've had countless requests to open a Facebook account. I just roll my eyes as I say, "I don't need something else to worry about online." I already have multiple e-mail addresses, a myspace page and a Twitter account I had opened up back in December and forgotten about till I was recently reminded of when a couple of friends added me. That doesn't even include the message boards and blogs I hardly visit any more due to a lack of time or forgetfulness. So whether you're a seasoned social networker or a newbie, follow my journey in becoming more knowledgeable.

At Your Local Library

It's that time of year again, folks! If you're looking for a way to cool off and enjoy a baseball related event, come on down to the Donald R. Wright Auditorium at the Pasadena Central Library on Sunday, July 19, 2009. The doors will open at 1:30 pm, the festivities begin at 2:00 pm, and admission is open to the public and free of charge. The inductees will be Steve Dalkowski, Roger Maris, and Jim Eisenreich. Terry Cannon, founder and Executive Director of the Baseball Reliquary (and graduate of the PCC Library Technology program) said it's always a standing-room-only event. So it's my recommendation that one arrive early to get good seating and the chance to mingle. I went last year for my first time and I have to say it was quite a treat even for someone who is not quite a die-hard baseball fan.

In addition, one can view the Cardboard Fetish exhibit which consists of intriguing baseball card collections past and present all month long throughout Pasadena Central Library.

Uncontrolled Vocabulary Library Podcasts

Uncontrolled Vocabulary is a library podcast by and for librarians and the people that hope to work for them.


The podcast covers a wide range of topics such as:

• Episode #62 Library students bill of rights that was generated by a Tame The Web guest post by Char Booth,
• Episode #63 What Happening to Library Blogs in reference to Pegasus Library's concern that folks are burning out or Tweet happy,
• Episode #66 On how a parent was concerned when he noticed that the new public school plans being did not include space for an actual school library.

There is plenty in the archives to feast on and you can listen on-line or download the program into your media players that accept the .mp3 format.

Swiss Army Librarian - On The Front Line of the Reference Desk

Folks talk a lot about library 2.0 and technology. I know I do it but I'm a book loving nerd with a thing for gadgets. But what if we are being distracted from what is really necessary? Serving the patrons at the various level of services that they need.

Swiss Amery Librarian thought about this and he graphically should what is necessary and what is possible in today's public library.


This is a quote from his post:

It is the role of the library to take what we can get, and do the best we can with it to meet the needs of our patrons. Sometimes this means offering limited or abridged services, or services that sort of do what we want, but aren’t ideal (i.e., the current state of downloadable audiobooks). But even by working within the constraints placed on us by the groups that support us, we should always strive to provide patrons with services tailored to meet their needs.

That is getting harder to do with budget being squeezed, patrons increasing use of libraries and limited staffing hours. Yet, librarians and library workers make it happen every day.

It is a good post and has given me much to think about. I'm not giving up my gadgets just yet.

Pasadena Public Library Reviewed onYelp

A few weeks ago I was mentioning the importance of being aware of social networking for library workers. There are online communities that share information and hip each other to what is good and what is bad in their opinion.


Yelp is a community that allows users to review and rate a restaurant, hotel, theater experience and yes, even a library experience. The Pasadena Public Library (California) has a Yelp page and at least 23 people have chimed in about their experience about using the library.

For the most part, it is a positive experience for patrons. They like the atmosphere, the beauty of the library, that it has wi-fi, and for one user that it still have VHS videos.

Now some folks felt it was creaky as in creaky chairs and tables and didn't care for the restroom. I understand, as did others people that particular issue related to certain members of the homeless population. There is no easy answer about that situation.

Check out the reviews and if you want to chime in on the Pasadena Public Library, most of us who are or have been in the program have been roaming the halls, then you can add your opinion as well.

The other thing to keep in mind about this is that other libraries can be reviewed as well. Especially if you are looking for work in a library and want to know what the patrons feel about their experiences.

The advantages for libraries this is a way to gauge how the public perceives your services and what they found valuable. It gives libraries an way to take a truth pill as to how they are doing.
It is important to remember that these are people that are motivated to share what they think. It may or may not be unbiased but it is one person's opinion gathered in a collection.

For one library in the valley that might be a bitter pill to swallow. I mention no names but people will talk. Some of that conversation is happening on Yelp.