Stumbling past the finish line. (Yeah I said it)

I am here! I am here, at the end, with my twenty-third thing. It's very exciting. I wish I was more prepared with clever words and gifs and all that. But it's 8:30pm and I want to leave at 9:00 when the library closes and so I should be brief.

I signed up for StumbleUpon, it's a neat idea! I am a fairly regular trawler of the internet and so I do come across a number of weird and wonderful things on a regular basis, but the nature of the internet is that there is just so much there and much of it is very hard to find. StumbleUpon is easy to use, and I found some neat websites. A virtual reality Sistine Chapel, Russian kaleidoscopic website that doesn't seem to do anything other than hypnotise me with colours and patterns, and even drinkify.org, a website that takes the music you're listening to and turns it into a drink that you can enjoy along with the music. It might be best to take the notion of "drinkification" more as a novelty; I typed in David Bowie and the response was an entire box of wine.

So I won't celebrate the end of 23 Things with an entire box of wine, but I did enjoy myself. The tasks were fun, a lot of these things I was familiar with, but some of them I was not. No doubt even more new things will come along in the years to come, and some of the things we learned about will fade away, but that's just the nature of the internet. I made it to the end, and not as terribly late as I could have been! Yay!

APPS! (And catching up)

Aw man, things got busy and I fell off the wagon a bit with the 23 Things. Though I'm told not as bad as some people, so at least we're all in this together.

"This week" (and by "this week" I mean two weeks ago) is about apps. I like apps! I am, as one would say, the kind of person who is "plugged in". I have my iPhone and iPad and Mac and my Evernote and calendars synch up between them so I can send myself messages or write notes and develop an increasingly horrid ability to recall or remember things. I like it!

Sidenote: As a kid, I watched Inspector Gadget a lot. I liked that show, and was particularly enthralled with Penny's "computer book". To have such a portable bit of wondrous technology was something I used to think about a lot, and play pretend with. (Holding a regular book and pretending it was a computer book in my head). I look at myself now holding my iPhone and all the things it does (some of them useful, some of them frivolous) and it BLOWS MY MIND. Especially facetime and skype and that sort of thing. We are living in the future. I feel bad for kids who grow up with it as normal who don't get to be as excited as we are.

Okay anyway. On to the THINGS. As it happens I have OverDrive on my iPhone and my iPad. I tend to use the electronic library for audiobooks rather than ebooks, and I quite love that. I can easily listen in the car or around the house. CHEAP SPEAKER PRO-TIP: just put your iPhone in a mug (one not containing any beverages) and the sound will be amplified nicely. I don't have any speaker dock thing for my phone, and I quite like the mug solution because it's more portable around my apartment.

I have BiblioNB on my phone as well. I have to say I don't use it a whole lot, as I spend a fair bit of time sitting in front of a computer (in the library no less) so if I want to search the catalogue I do it through Symphony. I can say, though, I like the barcode scanning functionality. I enjoy being able to be in a bookstore and scan a barcode to check to see if the library has copies, or even better, when I am in the middle of library purchasing, to use the app to check to see if we might have a copy already.

One more post left!

Curation Online: the Doc Martens of the internet.

Ah, "curation"! The driving force behind so much of what we do online these days. Curation takes many forms and has many uses, so I know I can't really cover it all, but I just want to say a little bit (because this whole blog thing goes to my head sometimes). But anyway. Online curation. I have so many thoughts. Scooping.it, reblogging, repinning, retweeting, links posted to facebook timelines. It seems it's not what we create, but rather what we point to that has become, in some way, how we identify ourselves online. Our online personal style, if you will.

In the mid-90s, I could wear my hair messy and my ripped corduroy pants, doc martens and a child's soccer shirt (ironically, of course -- sports? me??) and the other teenagers around me at school would not have to be Sherlock to know just by looking: this is the kind of girl who listens to grunge music. But what about now? When you hang out online, people can't see your shoes. They can see the youtube videos you link to, tumblr reblogs, articles you post, or tweets you retweet. We create ourselves online by aligning ourselves with the things we point to, and those who follow us can draw their conclusions from there.

There are ups and downs to this, of course. Diversity and representation in the media. Trying to find things that adequately speak to us, it's easier said than done sometimes. Even sophisticated search engine algorithms - designed to more accurately show us what we're looking for - can effectively prevent us from finding some of the things that we might want or need to find, because google doesn't anticipate that we're interested in that, based on our previous online activity.

That, and the sheer volume of what we might find when we start delving deeper into what is available online. People are staggered by the volume of information online, combined with the fact that a surprisingly small amount of it is actually visually apparent to the average internet user. Think of it: When most of us go online, we see our facebook "news", perhaps the headlines on CBC or BBC, whatever someone we know happens to tweet about. Putting us in control of the information we consume does not always amount to us consuming a great deal of it. Especially in an ad-driven internet economy, where someone has to pay for all this stuff, so we're more likely to get exposed to clickbait videos or tabloid stories than what's going on in Venezuela, for example.

I think that's why librarians love things like Scoop.it. Naturally predisposed to want to organise knowledge, we see a tool like this and latch on immediately. Where the average person (and even ourselves at times) might be stuck inside our filter bubbles or wondering what we might be missing, we've got other people trying to pick up the slack. Collect what matters that we might not have seen.

I hadn't used Scoop.it before, so I signed up with my Twitter and found it all fairly simple. I'm not sure how much scooping I will do myself, though I can see it's a very useful tool. One issue I have with these kinds of sites, though, is the reliance on suggestions. Similar to Pinterest and tumblr, if most of the things that we scoop are the things that the site suggests we scoop, or the things we get in our feed from the people we follow, then it merely turns into a feedback loop of sameness, and doesn't get at so much of the hard to find bits of the internet. The real trick with proper curation is to find the useful things that aren't getting attention, and bring them to the forefront.

I just wrote way more than I intended to. Ack.

tl,dr: What we curate online is very involved with how we present ourselves to others. And how we curate online can help others find what they need, or it might just tell them the same old things.

Multimedia: Videos!

It's multimedia week here at 23 things, that's exciting! Being a citizen of the internet myself, I have seen and participated in the various developments that have taken place online, and how the evolution of technology has allowed for increasingly rich experiences, fostering connections between people all over the world.

The best aspect of this is that it's not limited to type or theme, these tools lend themselves to creation, education, business, wasting time. Changing the world or goofing off, there's room for all of it, and sometimes it can be slightly hard to tell the difference.

Today I will share with you a library-cover of the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" music video. It is one of the most beautiful things to ever be recorded.



The sound is a bit off because the original upload had the sound removed. This calls into play our previous weeks' topic of copyright - I would argue that this video clearly rests in the realm of parody and fair use, but the other thing about technology is that sometimes people let computer algorithms make the decisions instead of human brains, and the computers can't always tell what is an infringement and what is not.

If you've never seen the original, you truly must. It will deepen your appreciation of the  book-cart chase scenes and fake moustaches.


But not all online video is purely entertainment. Some is educational. We had to find a video or a podcast that relates to libraries, and I've got a TED talk from Ron McCallum. Dr. McCallum is a human rights advocate, former Dean of the University of Sydney Law School, and chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He became blind shortly after his birth, and in his talk he gives passionate warmth and insight into the value of stories, reading, and the technology that has allowed his life to be enriched with books despite being unable to see.



I had always been proud of the efforts NBPLS had undertaken (and continues to undertake) by way of accessibility services, but watching this video definitely gave me a deeper perspective. Having our adaptive workstation and audio formats in the library makes it possible for people to read things that they may otherwise not have been able to. It's one thing to know this logically, but to have someone spell out the ways these technologies have enriched his life, a man who has accomplished so much and continues to work on behalf of others, it brings further motivation for the type of services we strive to offer to every patron, and I'm quite glad to have watched it.

I go through phases of being Pinterested.

Pinterest! This week's Thing is rather easy, because I have a Pinterest account already. I signed up for it a long while ago, when it was new and flashy. Despite the fact that I hadn't had a physical pinboard since my teenage bedroom, (which was stuck with drawings and band logos and pictures of Tank Girl and Stone Temple Pilots) I thought that an electronic pinboard might be fun.

It's like imagining out loud. Quietly, yet on display. These are not the clothes that I have, but they are the clothes that I would have, if I were wealthy. This is the food that I would eat, if I liked to cook (or, had someone cooking for me). Elegantly posed pictures of artfully arranged accessories, appetisers, and minimalist furniture. It's fun to look at all the pretty things.

My boards are pretty standard: recipes, style inspiration, crafty things I might like to try someday. I go through phases of using Pinterest regularly, and then drop down again. I try not to get into a feedback-loop of simply repinning what shows up on my feed, unless it's something I actually want to keep and make reference to.



I tend to find most of my fashion inspiration from either attractive young men, or else women who tend at times to dress like attractive young men. No apologies.

Sometimes I think I should re-name my boards or make them more interesting, more niche. Similar to the subject headings our cataloguing department assign to books so we can use keywords to find them, it's good to do that with Pinterest boards. My board names are pretty vague. "Art", "food", "style", and so on. One of my favourite boards and board names on Pinterest arised from when I was looking for reference photos to take to the salon: Tilda Swinton being awesome with mostly great hair. Not only is this an excellent and interesting board name, it is also incredibly and accurately descriptive as to what sort of pins we'll find within.



Auntie and Uncle being awesome with mostly great hair (last Thanksgiving).

Up until now, I haven't followed any library boards! I wasn't sure where to start or what kind of boards I wanted to follow. There are a lot of what some might call "bookshelf porn" on Pinterest. Can I use that term? There are no naked people in these images, so no worries. It's mostly pictures of tall bookcases in some country house or old library with rolling ladders or maybe a dusty chair with a cup of tea waiting. These pictures say: These are the books I would be reading, if I could afford my own dream library.

I decided to check out my library social media supercrush, Lawrence Public Library. (I mentioned their Twitter account a few Things back). They just know how to get things right. A quick search later, and sure enough, they have a Pinterest page! Great balance of readalikes, staff picks, craft ideas, quirky humour, local history, and even a board named "Moustache Party". I followed some of their readalike boards, and also the "Altered Books and Book Art". Pretty sweet!

All your memes are belong to us

Quick! There’s a half an hour left in the week – I KNOW I CAN DO THIS. Someone fortify me with an appropriate meme. A cat at a desk. Maybe keyboard cat? It’s not that kind of keyboard. DON’T CARE.

 

This was going to be a long post, but I decided against that in favour of some more entertaining youtube videos that say a lot of what I would try to, in such a way as to hopefully retain your attention! I care more than is necessary about copyright law. And when I say I care more than is necessary, what I mean is I care more than most people do about the fact that it is MESSED UP, jacked in a way that favours corporate interests over cultural expression, when the whole purpose of copyright legislation in the first place (fair, justifiable copyright legislation) was to encourage creators and artists and smart people of all disciplines to share their work with the world. Many people blame Mickey Mouse. I know, I know, but he’s so loveable. “Don’t hate the player,” he said to me once.  

That video was skewed to the US, but you get my drift. It’s also worth noting that copyright got tighter as it became easier for people to copy things. We don’t do it like this anymore:

 

But collaborative culture, that’s what people do best. That’s what keeps us going. Cover songs, homages, adaptations, “based upon a true story”. We take things and we spin them around in a slightly different way. It’s how we build culture and it’s how we communicate. So much so, that copyright law had to account for it at least a little bit, with fair dealing clauses. But even more so, in the way that people are recognising the cultural and social value of collaboration and sharing. Things like Creative Commons, Copyleft, wikis of all sorts. We make great things when we let people fiddle around with them.

LIKE MEMES! Ooooh, I brought it around, full circle. (15 minutes left!) Meme culture, aside from being silly, ridiculous, often smart and always weird, is an almost perfect example of collaborative culture and identity building, online expression and even maybe art? Memes are the folk songs of our times, our schoolyard rhymes and campfire songs. Who knows who made them, we all made them. They are for all of us. All your memes are belong to us.

And finally, a wordle of this post. I don't know why it's so small! Why is it so small? I am not sure. It's 4:58!
 
 
 

Giving my brain a kick in the pants

I like making things. I'm a librarian, but I would also edge myself toward "artist" as well. Someday I will feel confident enough to take the quotation marks away from that word, but for now I try as best I can to spend some of my free time messing about with paints and pencils and bits of string and whatever else strikes my fancy. But sometimes... it happens. The dreaded CREATIVE BLOCK. It's not uncommon. It's the time of year, it's waiting for the sunshine to return, it's being busy with work, and housecleaning, and all sorts of tasks that fill our days. Eventually we notice that a number of days have gone by, and our brain feels a bit rusty. Imagine it like so:

It helps to have something to reach for, something to give our brains a bit of a kick in the pants. It's not surprising that for me, it's often books. Picture books, art books, science books, all types of books. Books with pictures and sometimes not. This week's "Things" are to do with Bibliocommons lists, so I decided to make a list of what I call "Creativity Boosters". That's kind of a lacklustre name, but maybe once I have kicked my brain around I will come up with something better. Christin pointed me toward Rainey's book list carousel tutorial! So GET READY FOR IT:



Look at that! Pretty sweet. I might add some more books to this at some point.

And books are great, but what about while you're waiting for those holds to come in? Let me present you with some YouTube videos. I find watching creative profiles of artists and authors from far and wide really inspires me to push forward with what I want to do. Here we have library-favourite Oliver Jeffers: Butcher Baker Picture Book Maker



And Alaskan garment artist Enzina Marrari: