#12 – Netlibrary

Netlibrary, as a resource, is woefully understocked. I would only recommend attempting to use it if it’s already known that the book the customer is looking for is part of their database. The basic search function is too broad in its scope, and it seems to place no weight on authors or titles over miscellaneous information. The advanced search works much like Horizon’s advanced search, and is the only search I would tell a NetLibrary user to employ.

I’m of the opinion that digital delivery of books is the obvious direction we’re headed in, but reading on computer screens (at least with the standard black-text-on-white-background setup) is far too harsh on the eyes, and eReaders won’t become popular until they start coming preloaded on devices we already have.

Somebody painted over paint
Painted wood

#11 – Library Thing

I’m almost a fan of this application. It comes so close to being what I want.

Library Thing catalogs the books that I’ve read, convenient for the forgetful, but what I’m looking for is something a little more forward-looking. I want something that will facilitate future reading, I want an application that not only records what I’ve read, but allows me to keep a list of what I want to read. Also, if I’m being critical, the adding books function needs the ability to add multiple books at once, or at least save your search so that you don’t have to reenter it after every addition. Not long ago I read a fairly decent amount of Kurt Vonnegut’s repertoire, and after the 6th search I was getting tired of typing in “Vonnegut” after every search.

Criticisms aside, I really feel that this is a solid site; one that I’ll be using in the future, even after the web challenge is over. If it had a wish list-style function, it’d be perfect.

Book after book
I get hooked
everytime the writer
talks to me like a friend

#10 – Emergent Technology

I figure it’s a good idea to comment on the “20 Things to Watch” article by Stephen Abram, since he brings up some interesting points.

On mobile devices – These will gradually get bigger as more functions are added to the standard phone (GPS, larger screens, possibly eReaders, etc.), and then shrink back down to current size as the technology improves. Most people won’t notice this, because only the early adopters will have the oversized prototypes, it’s the same pattern that mobile technology has been weaving for years. With the addition of the Blackberry into the nations periphery a decade ago, features have been the name of the game. The end result, as I see it, is that mobile devices will become a ubiquitous tool (if they aren’t already) containing the abilities of everything from the standard phone/scheduling device to the versatility of a pc, with access to GPS, the internet, and things that haven’t even been thought of yet.

On streaming media – Abrams states that we shouldn’t wait to adopt this until it’s a finished product. I wholeheartedly agree. This technology is important, we’re not talking about the youtube of 3 years ago, with it’s grainy videos and poor streaming abilities. Streaming videos are constantly making strides, in both frames per second and video fidelity, that’s making viewing them easy to accomplish and aesthetically pleasing.

On personal homepages – Like RSS feeds, the ability to add a feature or function of a website to your own home page is something that people are clamoring for more of. For nonprofit organization like the library, who don’t have to satiate advertisers, this is an important way to connect to our technology savvy customers.

Rise Above

#9 – Finding Feeds

Given my earlier post, you should be aware of my general disdain for RSS. I haven’t found it useful or compelling, and certainly loses any aesthetic value web designers put into making their sites. Having said that, I still evaluated the 3 feed search engines provided:

Topix.net : I have little-to-no interest in local news to begin with, so it’s tag line did nothing to sway my opinion in it’s favor. Without it’s selling point, Topix.net boils down to a simple news aggregate, with little to differentiate it from other sites. Grade: C- : for sheer unimpressiveness.

Sindic8.com : Probably my favorite of the three. Due to my lack of interest (hate to beat a dead horse and keep repeating that, but I think it’s important to keep that in mind since I am evaluating these for my own personal use, and that may differ from what others may be looking for), I enjoy their randomized feeds displayed on the front page. This is the sort of thing that’ll get and keep my attention in these matters, the ability to come to one of these sites with nothing in mind to look for, and be given random places to start perusing. Grade: B+ : would’ve been more, but this is an ugly, ugly site

Technorati : Easily the best designed and aesthetically pleasing site to use of the examples. Plenty of categories to browse, no real complaints. This is what I would use if I was serious about this sort of thing. Grade: B+

I wanna see their faces turn into backs of heads and slowly get smaller

#8 – RSS

To be perfectly honest, I’m not a big fan of RSS.

This, I’m certain, has a lot to do with the websites that I visit. Blogs hold little appeal to me: while their information can be interesting and the best of them have engrossing writing, I’ve yet to find one that’s content would be less of a waste of my time than wikipedia.

The sites I do happen to frequent don’t lent themselves to the rss format. For example, a music site I check regularly (pitchforkmedia.com) has several sections, each with its own feed ranging from reviews of albums to news to feature articles. Since it covers a diverse array of tastes, the layout of the site allows me to parse through them all at one and choose what I will read for the day.

I’m an aesthetics person. I want things to be pleasing to the eye as well as engrossing to the brain, and forgoing well-designed sites to take one click out of my day is preposterous. Both bloglines and google reader do little to keep me wanting to look at them.

Of course, it isn’t all bad. One of the nicest things about rss is that you won’t waste your time checking sites that are updated infrequently or without schedule. Also, putting your individual branch’s events calendar feed can keep you up to date on every program your branch is holding, and everyone appreciates an informed worker.

I give RSS feeds and their reader programs a very personal thumbs down. I just don’t find them useful enough to use, and I believe the only way that they’d bring me into the fold would be to either greatly improve the reader’s design and interface, or if there’ll ever be a blogger I don’t find instantly insipid and/or self-serving.

My Manta Ray is alright

#7 – Scanners

Here we have a scanned image of the front page of a handout to a class I teach here at the library.

Not much else to it than that, for most of my time dealing with computers at home I’ve never had access to a scanner, now that I do, I never find a reason to use it. Everything I’ve learned about scanners and scanning I’ve learned from helping out patrons here at the library.

How can I keep you outta harm’s way!

#6 – Around the Branch

This is one of the ceiling-hanging mirrors that we have in the Stafford catacombs.

I find that the ability to see people from around corners kinda takes away from the horror movie feel of the downstairs of the branch.

Lightning struck itself