Chronicles of Bean

Do Not Power Down This Machine: It Is The Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:24:00 +0000

Do Not Power Down This Machine: It Is The Internet
Originally uploaded by sbisson

A fairly large physical disaster has taken down the servers in the datacenter where LISHost.org lives, including the new location of this blog. Blake Carver, the owner and operator of LISHost, has been working diligently to move all the library blogs to his other set of servers, lishost.net.

Citegeist.com is down until backups can be restored. Blake hopes to restore from backup late today, June 1, 2008.

Many thanks to Blake for working so hard through a Sunday, and when away from home!

Farewell to the Chronicles

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:27:00 +0000

Five years ago this month, I started this blog. I was not new to blogging, as I'd had and discarded a pitas.com site a couple of years before. But my friend Randy insisted that I should try it again, so I did, and these Chronicles were born.

Fast-forward through more than 350 posts, a cross-country move, a new job, the advent of many social networking and other online tools, and we land at today, which will mark the final post here.

Oh Blogger, I've had fun with you, and I know our journey together doesn't end here, even though this blog is kaput.

What next, you ask? Please direct your bookmarks and feed readers to the new site: Citegeist.com. A better name than Chronicles of Bean, at least, I hope. I'll be watching to make sure that you do! :)

Parallels Drag and Drop Goodness, or: Where There's a Will, There's a

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 02:04:00 +0000

Drag n Drop
Originally uploaded by cindiann

I was much chagrined to note that the music application on my new phone, the LG Voyager through Verizon wireless, would not run under the Macintosh operating system. All my favorite music has been ripped as mp3s into iTunes; for a while my only recourse seemed to be to install the Verizon app on my home PC and copy music from there.

Then I tried installing just the USB drivers from Verizon in Windows XP that I run on my Mac under the emulation program Parallels Desktop. I can map drives in Parallels; even better, when I have to get to a folder under Mac OS that I haven't yet mapped, instead of having to stop the virtual machine, add a drive mapping, and restart the virtual machine, I could open the folder in question in Finder and simply drag the files to the appropriate Windows Explorer window.

Ta da! I'm copying my music to my phone now...

PS You don't need to install the Verizon VCast application OR Windows Media Player 10 to access your Voyager as a USB drive. Plug the phone into your computer via its USB cable, then on the phone, touch menu > Tools & Settings > Tools > USB Mass Storage. When you're done, click Exit on the phone to eject (the usual Windows method of safely removing hardware doesn't seem to work, at least for me). Bonus: while your phone is connected to the computer, it's also charging!

One last tidbit: Before you put the Voyager into USB Mass storage mode, you must enable it as a USB device in Parallels: Devices > USB > LG USB Modem. (when it's in USB mode, it will be labelled USB MMC Storage). If you turn on USB Mass storage mode and all the phone will do is shut itself off, check this setting.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:11:00 +0000

I am glad that this is the last day of 2007. It's been a wild ride, and I look forward to a calmer 2008. Perhaps if I stay in one state, one house and one job, that will help. :)

I hope that this version of Jingle Bells helps you to usher in a pleasant new year.

PS the lyrics are: "Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas all the way / all the fun, mister ride / something something sleigh, hey!"

2007 - a year in first lines and first photos

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:17:00 +0000

Yes. Another meme. I can't help myself. Kathryn did it. Walt did it. My turn to reminisce over 2007 by sharing the first sentence of the first post from each month, as inspired by CW at Ruminations. Some sentences are from my paper journal (remember those?), where blog posts just weren't funny, appropriate, or, well, there. I'm going to put my own twist on it, though, and also share the first photo uploaded to flickr for each month. :)

January - I feel sure I've written these words in some journal, somewhere far away, long ago.

February - I am sitting in yet another airport, Ontario this time, waiting to depart for Atlanta for the Electronic Resources & Libraries 2007 Conference.

March - It was a little, self-conscious "hee hee" of a giggle, conspicuous in its joylessness.

April - A is watching Little Einsteins, B is jumping on her bed, and K is asleep.

May - My first impressions of EKU were that the staff are lively, enthusiastic, friendly and creative.

June - I attended the SAALCK Directors' Council meeting today in Louisville with Betina.

July - Today marks the first day of the Learning 2.0 @ EKU Libraries program.

August - I'm sitting in a Harvard building waiting for the first session of the Academic Library Leadership Institute to begin.

September - A friend told me that John McDonald accepted the offer for my old position; he starts at Claremont on 8/22, almost five months to the day after I left.

October - I'm sitting in the Tates Creek Country Club; B just went back for her dance class.

November - Jason found the work diary I'd kept in 2004 and brought it to the Charleston conference: a nice trip down memory lane, even if it was the hardest year in Claremont.

December - This is really pretty cool.

(Ok, I cheated on this one, but the first photo I posted was of a mite! ugh! Isn't this one better?)

Upon reflection, this has been a very challenging and rewarding year, having changed jobs, moved across the country, met new friends... and all the rest.

I hope that everyone has a rewarding 2008.

Learning 2.0: My Things

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:55:00 +0000

Week 2: Social Networking and Facebook
Week 3: Photos and Images
Week 4: RSS and Newsreaders
Week 5: Play Week
Week 6: Tagging, Folksonomies and Technorati
Week 7: Wikis
Week 8: Online Applications & Tools
Week 9: Podcasts, Video and Downloadable Audio
Week 10: Play week 2: Mashups

Yay, I'm done!

Learning 2.0: Mashups

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:03:00 +0000

The final two lessons in our Learning 2.0 program are on mashups. For the first "thing," we're to experiment with some mashup sites and blog about our experiences. There have been two ways that I use Google Maps mashups: in real estate hunting and in travel planning. I've already written a post on "Real Estate 2.0," but here are a few ways you can use Google maps mashups to plan for travelling:

Figure out how to get from the airport to your hotel using local public transportation.
Create a customized map outlining all your destinations and save to "My Maps."
Use a Flickr/Google Maps mashup to get photo ideas for a beautiful destination.

Our final lesson is on mashup editors. Since the deadline to finish the Learning 2.0 program is less than 40 minutes away, I am not going to have time to experiment with creating my own mashup. :( But here are links to my favorite mashups created by individuals (rather than companies--I think):

Twittervision
Flickr DNA
My Facebook profile!

No mashup list in a library Learning 2.0 program would be complete without a library mashup. Go-Go-Google Gadget is John Blyberg's winning entry to the Talis Mashing up the Library competition: it enables Ann Arbor District Library (his former employer) patrons to display hottest or newest books in the library or to display their current holds or checkouts. Other libraries have followed suit, of course. I would be interested to know if libraries using Google Gadgets have any use stats or have done any usability tests.

Learning 2.0: Video

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:39:00 +0000

Yay! Teh Tubez!

I love YouTube and have posted several videos to my blog over the last few months. Here is one that I haven't posted here before but enjoy very much:

That's quality stuff!

Learning 2.0: web-based applications

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:12:00 +0000

In this Learning 2.0 "thing," we were asked to look at the UCD Library 2 Go blog, which highlights online applications. The "Customize your homepage" entry caught my eye. I recently experimented with NetVibes to collate my social networking "stuff" into one page. I abandoned it pretty quickly, as the tab for meebo had to be over on its own instead of a column on my NetVibes page:

I would love to trade out that flickr section for a small version of my meebo buddy list and movable chat windows--a mini version of the meebo page--but that's not the way it works, apparently. Too bad.

Another recent online application I've used is Picnik. It's an online image editor that allows you to make changes (like crop, exposure, contrast...) to images that you've stored on flickr, Facebook, Photobucket and more. The free set of tools would be sort of limited for someone used to using Photoshop, but for quick fixes, it's great, and if you're interested in more flexibility, a premium upgrade is only $24.95 per year.

Learning 2.0: processing words online

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:45:00 +0000

This lesson will be easy for me! In this week's lesson, we're to get a Google Docs or Zoho account. I've used Google Docs quite a bit before, for collaborative editing of essays, conference presentation proposals, to-do lists, our Christmas card list, meeting minutes and agenda. It's an excellent way to work across the miles or across the room.

How to remove the QLOUD plug-in from iTunes

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:11:00 +0000

I posted this to the My Music application discussion page on Facebook today:

I had to reinstall the My Music app (which I had uninstalled because it never worked right) in order to click on the "Remove the plug-in" link. It took me to a page, not an uninstaller. Here is the text, so that you, too, don't have to reinstall the app:

Windows Users
1. Quit iTunes. (Or Windows Media Player)
2. Go to Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs
3. Then select the Qloud plug-in and click "remove".

Mac Users
1. Quit iTunes.
2. Go to your home folder.
3. Select the following: Library/iTunes/iTunes Plug-ins/ and delete the folder called "Qloud Plug-in".

Noah, it would have been nice of you to reply to this thread with these instructions instead of a link to the app, thereby boosting its statistics...

Noah is (presumably) one of the developers. He had made a snarky reply to someone asking how to uninstall the iTunes plugin.

Dude, if you want people to use your softare, 1) make it easy and 2) be nice!

After spending an hour in the ninth circle of Windows configuration and upgrading hell last night, I have very low tolerance for developer hubris. I know how ironic this is, working in a library, where information products can be counterintuitive at best, totally counterproductive at worst. Yeah, working on that.

</rant>

Photophlow - hey, your chat is in my flickr! Hey your flickr is in my

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:45:00 +0000

Photophlow - hey, your chat is in my flickr! Hey your flickr is in my chat!
Originally uploaded by cindiann

This is really pretty cool. Each flickr user and group has its own chat room within the photophlow software. Neal, one of the developers, was kind enough to give me a quick tour this evening.

Quick bits:
1. Choosing photos from the "browse" menu at top displays that set for all users in the room.
2. clicking a photo on the left displays it on the right for all users in the room.
3. All the tags n stuff (including the photographer's flickr ID and comments) are clickable.
4. to smile, type /smile. Better: tag a photo with ( ) and it will display the thumbnail for you.
5. Give the folks at photophlow your IM ID and they'll set it up so that you're notified when someone enters your room (see URL above for mine)
6. Advertise your Photophlow room with a badge.

Learning 2.0: Gettin' Wiki with it

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:44:00 +0000

I'm trying to get caught up with my library's Learning 2.0 program before the grand finish on December 17. One of the week's lessons I'm lacking is on wikis, and coincidentally, I was in the Library Society of the World meebo room earlier! Worlds collide! OK, maybe I need to clarify: one of my favorite library-related wikis is the Library Society wiki. It's a place to find library-related silliness and the occasional curse word. OK, more than occasional, so put on your tough pants and wade in!

A wiki idea that I would love to steal replicate is the presentation wiki. Someday, when I have a free few minutes...

As much as I love wikis and can see potential for their use in libraries for collaborative work--my dean created a pbwiki site for us to make collaborative changes to our mission/vision statements and our strategic plan!--I found that I have been using Google Documents a lot more.

Random thoughts on the library's role in the Information R/evolution

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:23:00 +0000

The newest video from Michael Wensch's Digital Ethnography @ Kansas State project is titled Information R/evolution. It picks up where the first video that we watched, "The Machine is Us/ing Us," left off. Go ahead and watch it; I'll wait:

There is so much to love about this video, not least of which that it begins in a library and is seemingly pro-librarian: "Managing information IS managing categories; it requires experts." Then the fun begins... "[W]e must rethink information" and "Yahoo, faced with with possibility that they could organize things with no physical restraints, added the shelf back."

Fast forward through the concepts teased out in David Weinburger's excellent Everything is Miscellaneous. Are we as human beings beginning to be able to think about information without the shelf? I think of it as a vast, jumbled pile (sorry, but I do) at which we aim different lenses in an effort to tease out just the right piece of information.

Another idea that hit me full in the face from this video was the idea that there are 5 trillion words on today's web, which is about 15 years old, a microsecond on the timeline of human history. Information generated by humans is generated at an astonishing and increasing rate. It is already, as Wensch points out, hard to find the right bit. It will not get any easier. If classification systems are no longer important--"there is no shelf"--what is a library's role here? I would argue that libraries are more important than ever here, and that our role MUST continue to be to teach users to sift good information from the bad by being deft searchers and critical thinkers, but also to create environments in which users of information can connect with each other as well as information they need and create themselves. John Blyberg said in a recent interview [Quicktime] that the library of his dreams is "a place where, [from] the moment you walk in, you're being engaged by your surroundings, by the people, by your fellow patrons," and upon leaving, it is still "present in your life," on any devices used to locate and utilize information: phones, PDAs, computers, TVs, DVRs. I agree wholeheartedly and hope that librarians continue to set aside our pride and get out there and become engaging.

Wensch points to Wikipedia as an example of the idea that "together, we create more information than the experts." Well, yeah. Debates about the scholarly (or not) usefulness and applicability of Wikipedia aside, this, too has implications for librarians and for users of information alike.

A note on the videos themselves: the method of delivery--YouTube--is very Web 2.0, but the medium of the message itself, which is largely text, is distinctly 1.0. We listen to soothing music and watch animations, but what we are doing is *reading* *static* *text,* a very "1.0" activity, if I may assert as much. It is very interesting that Wensch chose to deliver his message in the form of animated text, often in the context of the websites about which he speaks, rather than or in addition to having a spoken narrative. To me, this underscores the continued and perhaps increasing importance, particularly in higher education, of critical thinking skills, information evaluation skills and traditional literacy skills. Well done.

YAM - Yet Another Meme

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 23:45:00 +0000

Julie tagged me for the 7 random/weird things about me meme. It's Thanksgiving weekend, and having nothing better to do (since my basement is still not officially finished!), here goes:

1. I have 26 pairs of shoes, 21 of which are black. (I have three pairs of tennis shoes, which are white, red w/white polka dots, and blue/green plaid; I have a pair of "duck" shoes and one pair of navy wedge sandals). I threw out at least 15 pairs when I moved from CA, most of which were not black.

2. I like half-caf coffee best. Black, which is a new thing.

3. My biggest shopping weakness used to be (duh) shoes, but now it's cute things for my girls. And camera equipment. And shoes. Especially black ones.

4. I'd like a tattoo, but I'm chicken and frankly afraid of how I might explain it to my daughters, whom I *don't* want to get a tattoo, at least before they're 30. Something geeky yet cool (is that an oxymoron?). Send me suggestions.

5. I bruise like a peach and am constantly covered in "mystery bruises."

6. I am the 2nd oldest of 22 grandchildren on my mom's side. The youngest is 2.

7. I find memes rather tiresome and self-indulgent, but don't fault those who do them. Haven't I said that before?

As memes go, I prefer flickr memes, like this one.

A long lost U2 video sees the light of day...

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:33:00 +0000

...and it really probably should have stayed in the vault. Yikes!

This overwrought piece of crap accompanies my least favorite, most maudlin songs on The Joshua Tree, and it's been released this week in conjunction with the (just past 20 years) re-release of JT.

Wow, I think this post marks the first negative thing I have ever said about the band, and I know I'm inviting flames by saying so, but they really should have kept this embarrassing footage under wraps, from the lamentable canaries tossed by Adam and Edge to Larry's faint and foppish brow-mopping to Bono's Bruce-Willis-style black tank top--not to mention the Messiah shot at the end. Awful.

The best U2 concept video is still "All I Want is You." Go watch it, it will make you feel better.

Another brilliant U2 bit

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:27:00 +0000

...you have to wait for it, but it's worth it. So much to love about this video!

New video from U2

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:45:00 +0000

What a surprise to have an email from iLike in my mailbox this morning (wow, a useful spam!). iLike is a Facebook application that allows users to identify bands and songs that they, well, like. You can see who else likes the same music that you do and connect with other fans by posting on bands' iLike/Facebook pages.

Here's the video:

It's a previously-unreleased song from the Joshua Tree era, "Wave of Sorrow." Pretty awesome. (but geez o'pete camera guy, why the heck did you put Bono in front of a sunlit window?? duh. And Bono STILL doesn't know the lyrics to his own songs... but I forgive him!)

Will the REAL Annoyed Librarian please stand up?

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:39:00 +0000

So here I was just about to jump on another bandwagon, the "I am the Annoyed Librarian" bandwagon, when I realized that I stopped reading AL long ago and don't have a particular desire to hitch my wagon to his or her star, regardless of its direction.

Yes, I believe that a bit of snarkiness and venting about libraries is good for everyone, particularly in a beautiful city over a beautiful meal with beautiful company, but I think that snarkiness can go too far, and that it's a fine line between healthy venting and a toxic workplace.

Instead, I think we should all be the Enamored Librarian! We LUUUUUURRRV libraries! We LUUURRRRV books! We LUUURRV watching the kiddos pull down their first Dr. Seuss and cry tears of joy to see them dribble on their first Sandra Boynton!

Oh who am I kidding? It's me, it's ME! I'm the Annoyed Librarian!

Suckas.

Internet Librarian 2007: I'm not blogging this

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:44:00 +0000

With apologies to David Lee King... :)

I have seen a dozen or so library bloggers at Internet Librarian thus far, and I'm not even done with the first day. Because I have seen so many stellar bloggers here, I'm not going to be writing up the sessions that I attend. It would be redundant, and frankly, I think "live blogging" is pretty pointless. If I am particularly moved to write a summary or if I'm struck by an original thought inspired by my fellow attendees or speakers, you'll hear more from me. And doesn't that make you feel great?

One moment I do want to share occurred in today's Q&A session after the "Integrating Libraries & Communities Online" panel. When asked how to respond to the inevitable question about whether to filter naughty or nasty comments posted to a library log, John Blyberg replied: "Is your library really going to be held hostage by something that somebody *might* do?" He later suggested waiving fines if a patron writes 10 reviews as an incentive to them to participate. As they say on twitter, @jblyberg FTW!

How well do you know your students?

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:14:00 +0000

It's my hope that some of this resonates with the teachers and librarians reading this blog or its feed. We will ignore this at our peril.

Today is Blog Action Day

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:01:00 +0000

On Blog Action Day, bloggers worldwide will be writing about the environment. Here is a list of things of which I am aware but am too lazy to change. Perhaps the shame of it all will push me in the right direction.

I drive 23 miles to work each way daily. Alone. I love it.
I can't have one of those low-water washing machines because our laundry room is on the second floor--the obviously-expert sales person at Best Buy said "you don't want one of those." OK.
We use incandescent light bulbs nearly exclusively (but in my defense, they're all new, since we're in a new house, and we'll replace them with compact fluorescents when they blow. Promise.)
I throw Styrofoam away because my city won't recycle it.
We often have four computers on at once at home. And the stereo, TV and video game system.
I love my electric coffee grinder, ice maker and Jacuzzi tub. Love. Them.
We turn on the fan for noise when the kids sleep.
I couldn't get through An Inconvenient Truth. It was way too truthy.

Now that you think I'm a complete jerk, here are things that I count in the positive column.

I drive a California-emissions-certified, 11-year-old car that gets 28 mpg.
We recycle glass, newspaper, plastics and cans.
I make a point of turning lights and fans off in empty rooms.
We don't water the lawn anymore, though we do water the trees and shrubs once a week, on days when that's allowed for our side of the street.
We have not yet turned on our heater, even though the house gets down to 65-68 at night.
We keep our thermostat on 78 in the summer and 68 in the winter.
We use a mulching mower (when it rains enough for the grass to grow!) so that we generate minimal yard waste.

What do you do? What could you do differently? The first step in doing better is knowing what you can change.

Search your library's catalog from the Firefox Search Bar

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 21:51:00 +0000

This. Rocks.

Edward Vielmetti at Ann Arbor District Library sent me a message via Twitter pointing me to a post on his Superpatron blog detailing a Firefox extension that let's folks search the AADL catalog right from within the Search Bar. Long story short, tonight he blogged about a way to add ANY library catalog (though I love that he calls them "online book finding systems") to your Search Bar.

I followed the steps below, and my Search Bar now looks like this:

(Notice that I added a search to EKU's catalog as well as a search for UK's Encore installation).

Here's how:
Install this plugin in Firefox (click the Install Now button).
Restart Firefox.
Go to eQuest's Guided Search page.
Right-click in the top search box and choose "Add to Search Bar..."
Give it a name that makes more sense to you, if you like, then click OK.
Now it's possible to search eQuest from your Firefox Search Bar, without first going to eQuest's main page.

You can do the same for UK's Encore by visiting this link.

Social Bookmarking in Plain English

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:09:00 +0000

The Commoncraft gang has done it again, this time for Social Bookmarking. In Lesson 13, we learned a little bit about the social bookmarking site del.icio.us. This short video demonstrates the three main points of social bookmarking, using del.icio.us as an example: it's a way to organize your favorite web sites; it uses tags; and it's social because you can see what others are bookmarking. Enjoy!

The weekly "talkcast"--a talk show that is delivered via streaming audio and podcast--Uncontrolled Vocabulary provides us with a good example of social bookmarking: each week, listeners and participants in the show add bookmarks to their own del.icio.us accounts and tag them with "unvocab." Before every show, the host, Greg Schwartz, reads and organizes content to be discussed in the show using these bookmarks. It's added great variety to the articles and websites discussed there. Read this post on how to participate or listen.

Oh. My. God.

noreply@blogger.com (Cindi) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:32:00 +0000

It's a wonder Bill Gates made a single dollar. Someone please tell me that this is not really a Microsoft ad. Why is it FIVE MINUTES long? Oh, 'cause it's MS-DOS 5. I get it. And by "get it," I mean I really don't.