Librivox

I was directed to a nice site, Librivox. Their goal is to get every book in the public domain into audiobook form. There is some great stuff here, but they are also missing some important works. On of the first books I looked for has been essential for my research, Plato's Laws wasn't there. Many of Plato's works were and I suppose I could volunteer to read for an entry. Unfortunately I do not have the time, and like most of my favorite sites like IMSLP they operate with no maoney and acquisitions and submissions are a labor of love.

Anyway, for giggles, I am downloading Jabberwocky by various readers just to get new interpretations on Lewis Carroll's nonsensical masterpiece.

Podcasts

I don't subscribe to podcasts. It's just one of those things like TV, that if I get a chance, I will listen. I probably should pay closer attention now that I have an FM transmitter for my car radio and droid, and therefore can use my drive time between Buffalo and Rochester productively, but then again there is much to say about down-time.

Regardless, there are some podcasts that I download individual shows from regularly. Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and Sound Opinions are my favorites.

For my exercise in my info technology class I went looking for a podcast dealing with issues in digital music libraries... no luck... but serendipitously I found a podcast of lectures from the Library of Congress on Music and the Brain which is absolutely fascinating.

Youtube 23 things

Youtube has become a go to place. With tags one can find the info they want very quickly. It’s kind of a neat experiment as it takes some of the tools that information professionals use and puts it into the hands of the user. The user who uploads a video needs to know how to tag, index, and classify their video if they want it to be viewed. Also creating simple titles that will include common but specific words that will promote their video to the niche they want. For example, “Library Tutorial” could be a great tag or title as someone who is looking for info on how to search catalogs could find your video easily. The problem then lies in the reality that “Library Tutorial” could also link you to tutorials about other things, but are offered in libraries. The solution that I like in Youtube is playlists. If I create a playlist for Library Tutorials, a number of videos present themselves, and I can easily browse through the sub-categories for the specific tutorial I want.
Kind of unrelated, but not really, I use Youtube as a music player. Instead of digging up random playlists on Pandora, I can immediately seek, through tags and titles the music I want. The problem here is the numerous violations of intellectual freedom and copyright laws. There are more bootlegs on Youtube than in a serious Deadhead’s tape collection. Gail Zappa (wife of the late Frank Zappa) hires people to scour youtube and pull videos of her husband which are violations of copyright…. But she can’t keep up with them. Here’s my favorite Zappa Video (Music conducted by Pierre Boulez)

3rd party FilckR site

Just playing around on my 23 things to do and discovered that the montage tool, while really cool, only works well wiuth good tags and good photos. So instead I thought I'd use http://flickrslidr.com/index.php to set up a slide show of my January trip to LA. Enjoy!!!


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Just a Gorgeous Find on Flickr

Only a quick blog here. While playing around on Flickr I found this beautiful little pic. You'd be hard pressed to find something like this in a Worldcat search. Gives me the thought that maybe we should be cataloging old card catalogs!

7 1/2 things

As a requirement of 23 learning things for Web 2.0 I get to reflect on 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners as presented by Lori Reed.



I will not list all the habits, (visit link above) but rather tell you what i find easiest and hardest:

Easiest: I am goal oriented. If I don't have a clear outcome I am working for, I won't work for it. Therefore, prior to beginning any project, I ask myself, "Why am I doing this?" If I can't answer, I won't do it. Sometimes the answer is to achieve a small result on my way to a larger goal. For example, i don't like to blog unless I have a specific message I want to convey. But this blog that you are reading is not about a passionate message which I hold dear. It is an exercise that needs to be accomplished in order to fulfill the requirements for a required class in acheiving my MLS degree.... which I am passionate about. GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!

Hardest: I would say creating a lifelong learning toolbox... and it's not really in the creation of it, it's more the organization and upkeep of it. I must constantly remind myself that if I spend 15 minutes upfront organizing my work (toolbox) that it will save me countless hours on the back end looking for the resources I need to complete my task at hand.

So between the easiest and hardest is the disconnect. In order to accomplish any goal I need to A. know where I am B. know where I'm going C. create the plan and methodology to get there D. prepare the tools necessary E. implement

23 learning things

So here I am taking on way too much. After graduation from Nazareth College I spent the summer working, raising the kids and planning a wedding. The wedding went off without a hitch (the perfect day) and the honeymoon was flawless with the exception of misplaced charging cables and a stolen iPod Touch.

How does one top an insanely busy summer? Easy! Take on full-time work in Rochester (Music & Arts in Pittsford... come see me!) continue to raise 4 kids, and commute 4 days a week to Buffalo to pursue a dual masters in Library Science and Music History.... oh did I mention, I'm still gigging with my blues band?

So there it is, just a little bit about me and my current situation, and with that my first blog post regarding 23 learning things for Web 2.0 as a requirement for LIS 506 is complete.