#55 The First Time Ever I Saw Your Facebook

With over 175 million active users, the social networking site Facebook is an interesting and enjoyable way to keep in touch with friends and family. I started using Facebook a few months ago, after a high school classmate suggested giving it a try. It's been fun reconnecting with people I haven't seen in many years. Some friends have expressed trepidation about using Facebook, because of privacy concerns. A friend of a friend of a friend could stumble upon your information and use it for who knows what purpose. I certainly understand these concerns. Would-be trolls, stalkers, old flames, or even potential new flames, can be foiled though. There are ways to control how much information on your Facebook page is shared, and with whom. Read about how to use Facebook privacy settings here.

This brings me to the things I don't like so much about Facebook. I think it takes a lot of time for new users to understand how the site works. Directions, such as how to change privacy settings, aren't easy to find, at least they weren't for me. I didn't even know some of the privacy options existed until I read about them in the iHCPL Next Generation blog. I'm not sure I'm really keen on the actual Facebook lay out either. It doesn't seem logical. I've also noticed that applications sometimes take FOREVER to load.

In spite of these drawbacks, I'm still planning on keeping up with friends and family via Facebook. It's pretty addicting. There are so many fun applications to explore and share. I play a game app called Scramble and so do some of my friends. We can challenge each other to games and compare scores. I really like Adopt a Reef too. With this app you can decorate your own patch of ocean with sea creatures and send things like octopi and giant kelp to your friends. Based on usage, Facebook sends a portion of advertising revenue to the Surfrider Foundation, an organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's oceans. Sharing Flair is fun too. Oh SNAP! There's a Harris County Public Library flair! I could not resist adding that to my bulletin board, and sending one to a coworker. Thanks, whoever made that :D (Who did???)

#54 Social Networking Through Books

I was delighted when I found out that my local library had started a book club. Opportunities to share my love of reading with other adults were rare. I still remember the first book I read after joining; it was "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark Haddon.

There are many online social networking sites where people can share their love of books, such as LibraryThing, Goodreads, and Shelfari. Facebook has added an application called Visual Bookshelf to their interest-based online community as well. I prefer face-to-face interaction with my fellow book club participants, but I also enjoy using web resources. LibraryThing has dozens of groups in which one can participate. I looked at a few of them and had to stop, because some of the posts are hilarious. (Try reading "The Person Below Me" thread on the LT group called "Off Topic". And no sniggering in the workroom.)

I like our library book club. We try to vary our reading "diet" by selecting books from many genres, and selection is driven by input from members. Once we read "My Life in France" by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme. I just found out that a movie, based on the book, is in production, and it stars Meryl Streep. I think it would be fun to invite the book club to take a field trip to [France or] go see the movie when it comes out in August. Taking the time to do something a little different, once in awhile, can spice up any bookclub; however, I won't be encouraging field trips abroad or suggesting a "Read it and eat it" based on next month's selection, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich".

I'm not very comfortable using live book club resources to recommend books to others. Many of the sites have lists of recommended reading, or most popular books, or top books by star ratings, etc. I found a few titles that intrigued me, for example "The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits", and "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" came up quite a bit, as did a graphic novel entitled "The Pride of Baghdad", but I think I'd really prefer to read the book for myself, before recommending it to others.

I searched Goodreads and LibraryThing to see how their members rated "Owen and Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship". It wasn't surprising to find that almost everyone gave this appealing book about resilience and love at least 4 stars.

#53 Buy the Book, or not, Online

I had to laugh when I read that the founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, was a precocious child who, as a toddler, attempted to dismantle his crib with a screwdriver. I, for one, am grateful that such genius was channeled into the creation of a dot-com retail business whose priority is books. Because who knows what he would have done with all that energy otherwise.

People in marketing must really love the internet. It seems so easy to sell books online! In addition to Amazon, the larger book stores such as Barnes & Noble and Borders have web sites which are available 24/7. I didn't realize that you could also check the availability of books, for a specific zip code, on these web pages. I checked Barnes & Nobel's site for my bookclub book, "The Fiction Class" by Susan Breen. Once you get to the title, there is a link and a pop up for typing in your zip code. Area stores which do not have the book in stock are displayed with a red "x", while those that do have the item earn a green checkmark. It couldn't be easier to get great customer service.

There are so many book-related sites on the internet, I can't imagine anyone not being able to find what they need. At Alibris.com, one can search for textbooks and rare items, or even purchase a signed first edition of Winston Churchill's "Thoughts and Adventures" if you have an extra $12,500 lying around. It's as easy as clicking "Add to My Cart". BookMooch looks like an interesting resource for recycling and trading books. There's an ultimate guide for the best places to get free books here.

Many libraries, including the one where I work, have added digital media to their collections, and these items are offered free to the public. Patrons can browse the collection and check out books and music to enjoy on their MP3 players, iPhones, and iPods.

How does my real world compare to my cyber world? If I search for book stores in my zipcode, google gives me a list of 16 stores. The book store closest to me is Barnes & Noble, about 6 miles away. (As already mentioned, their website is amazing.) Other nearby places which sell books are Walmart and CVS. Both are within a mile or so of my house. Walmart has an online presence, and you can search for books, but you can't tell from the webpage if the item is in stock at specific stores. From the CVS webpage, you can order "Hooked on Phonics Discover Reading - Baby Edition". From the description, this sounds like a great item. It's actually a kit that includes board books, a music CD, a DVD, a parent guide and more, but it's not available for purchase locally.

"Pompeii" by Robert Harris is available from Amazon.com for $11.16 new. Used copies start at $4.88. Alibris has used copies in paperback for $1.99. Harris County Public Library offers this title through the digital overdrive catalog, at the best price, free.

It took my really slow computer at home several minutes to download and install Windows Media Player, but it did, eventually. Then I listened to the audio version of "Pompeii", which I checked out from HCPL's digital catalog. Maybe it was because I was tethered to my desk (instead of my Zune), too many familial distractions, or some combination of these and other reasons, but I found it difficult to concentrate on the audiobook.

Nobody ever said teaching an old bibliophile new tricks would be easy.

#52 What to Read

How could I NOT instantly admire a woman who, in 2003, wrote a guide to good reading called "Book Lust"? I think I've found a new literary guru in Nancy Pearl. Despite her academic background and celebrity, Pearl promotes books with the understanding that the most important aspect of reading is enjoyment. Of course, educators and others will still want people to be familiar with the classics (I recommend "The 5-Minute Iliad" by Greg Nagan for time-strapped individuals). Classics provide us with cultural bedrock and exemplary literary models, but Pearl's philosophy is simple. Serve patrons by attempting to address their needs without pretense. To me, Pearl's outlook was like discovering the Tao of Reader's Advisory. Her "Rule of 50" is simply divine. It states, "If you still don't like a book after slogging through the first 50 pages, set it aside. If you're more than 50 years old, subtract your age from 100 and only grant it that many pages."

In my opinion, the best way to recommend books is to read lots and lots of them. Go to any book on Amazon.com and scroll to the "customers who bought this item also bought" section, for some surprisingly good suggestions as well. I also like Stacy Alesi's advise on providing great reader's advisory service:

Start off simply: if they're looking for a best seller that isn't on the shelf, ask if they've read other books by that author or authors who write in a similar style.
Ask them for the name of the last good book they read. This can lead you to the style or author or genre or setting that is appealing to your customer.
Always resepect a person's reading tastes. Just because you liked a book doesn't mean everyone will.
Be familiar with current and popular books and know your collection.
Ask customers to share their opinions about books they've read.

I searched for a read-alike using the NoveList data base, for "Pompeii" by Robert Harris. When submitting a request, the user can choose to narrow the search, and so I did that, restricting results to historical fiction and ancient civilizations. The results included "The Price of Victory", "Maia of Thebes", and "Dawn of Empire". I was surprised that, out of the first 20 results, I hadn't heard of any of these titles! Then I proceeded to Fiction_L Booklists, the Morton Grove Public Library's Reader's Advisory website. I searched "genre based lists" and "Historical Fiction of Different Cultures" (just because those seemed like the most appropriate options). The result was different from the NoveList search, and included authors such as Pearl Buck, Ken Follett, and James Michener. The NoveList search was faster...I simply typed the book's title....but I liked the results of the Fiction_L Booklist search better.

Then I looked for 2 books about animals for a 4th grade girl. NoveList has a link for "older children". I clicked on "recommended reads" and "animals", which took me to a linked page of animal groups. When I chose the group "horses", there were oodles of results. I decided I would recommend "Album of Horses" by Marguerite Henry, because my own daughters loved this book, and we have a copy at our branch. When looking further for a 2nd book, I suddenly remembered a book I really like called "Owen and Mzee" by Isabella Hatkoff, so although I didn't get the actual recommendation from the database, it was NoveList that jogged my memory of this lovely story.

The next challenge was to find 2 books for a 13 year old boy interested in ghost stories. I searched the Welles-Turner Memorial Library site for young adult books. Unfortunately, the link to a list of ghost stories, as well as several of the other links, didn't work. I was able to access a list of horror stories, and since I'm not familiar with this genre at all, I found the brief summaries after each title very helpful. I decided to recommend "A Fate Totally Worse Than Death" by Paul Fleischman, and "Cirque du Freak" by Darren Shan (the description told me this series is about vampires, but the Cirque books are so popular I felt I should include them in my choices). Hmmm...I think I need to read both of these!

For the patron who has read everything by Dean Koontz and wants an author read-alike, NoveList recommends Greg Bear, Dan Simmons, and Robert McCammon. The What Should I Read Next site recommends Richard Laymon, Joe McKinney, and W.E.B. Griffin. I thought Stephen King or James Patterson would come up. I wonder why they didn't?

Finding what's next in a series is a breeze with Kent District Library What's Next database. To find the book after "Alanna: the First Adventure", all you have to do is type in the author's name. There are eight series (serae?) by Tamora Pierce. "Alanna..." is the first book in the Song of the Lioness quartet. The rest of the books, in order, are "In the Hand of the Goddess", "The Woman Who Rides Like a Man", and "Lioness Rampant". Piece-O-Cake.

My hero, Nancy Pearl, has stated that the biggest challenge facing librarianship today is that "we have yet to balance the three important functions a library has in a community: information access, providing people with books and material for their recreational learning and reading, and offering quality programs for our patrons. The pendulum swung way over on the information access side and has yet to right itself. We graduate people from library schools (information schools) knowing how to build a website, but not knowing how to recommend a book to someone who comes in asking for something good to read."

Ms. Pearl obviously wasn't talking about individuals completing IHCPL training.

#50 Global Nation

The purpose of this exercise is to become familiar with internet tools which make planning a vacation easier.

According to Tripbase.com, a travel site which suggests destinations uniquely suited to one's budget and interests, I need to plan a vacation to Florence Italy. What an astute site and a fabulous idea! Tripbase.com told me my airfare would be $1160 round trip to the aptly named "Land of Wine", and just for the sake of argument I checked the Travelocity web page as well. Prices there were similar: $1169 roundtrip on Lufthansa, and $1328 on United.

Now that I am drooling over this fantasy of leisurely indulgence, it's good to know that I can apply for a passport close to home. The web site http://travel.state.gov/passport has all the information one needs to start the process. The U.S. Department of State official application forms can be accessed through this site, and I learned I can also go to my post office to submit the paperwork.

There are tons of links on both the Tripbase.com and IgoUgo.com sites. At one point I clicked on a link which led me to http://www.guardianhomeexchange.co.uk. This is a site which enables interested parties to "house swap", so that accomodations are free! There are 3 listings of interested swappers in Florence......perfecto! And since I'm indulging in an aggrandized and really creative delusion, I'll assume the Doctor and Forensic Professor who make their home in the Florentine countryside are just aching to spend some free time getting acquainted with suburban Houston. Hey, "la vita e bella" if you're where you want to be, n'est-ce pas? So, while I enjoy the famous Galleria dell'Accademia there, my counterparts could take in, say, the National Museum of Funeral History here.

What exactly can one do that would top seeing Michaelangelo's "David" in person? On IgoUgo.com, people post travel journals describing their experiences, and these are a rich resource of ideas. I would love to go on the Segway tour of Firenze. I could also sign up for a cooking class in Tuscany, or go shopping at the Mercato Centrale, or take an Italian language course at Centro Lorenzo de Medici. I probably could spend a day sitting in the Plaza della Signoria, amazed by the statuary, history, and, from what I hear, the gelatto. It was hard to find anyone who posted anything negative about Florence, except "don't eat the street pizza", "make reservations for the museums so that you can avoid standing in line", and "the street noise of cycles and scooters is grating". I'm glad I am forewarned.

Many people expressed sadness that their vacation in Florence had to end. It's a good thing I found www.crownblueline.co.uk, where you can arrange to hire a boat and cruise the canals and inland waterways of Europe. Planning another trip will hopefully ease the transition from one dream realized to another flight of fancy.

#43 Buying and Selling Online

The Guinness World Record for the most successful internet trade belongs to Kyle MacDonald. On July 12 2005, MacDonald used a free online classified service called Craigslist, to post about his desire to trade one red paperclip for something bigger and better. MacDonald pursued this bartering chain for approximately one year, and ultimately traded a movie role for a two story house in Saskatchewan.

Online buying and selling sites are so convenient and easy to use, they have flourished. Almost everyone I work with has made a purchase from eBay, the online auction and shopping site. PayPal is a business (owned by eBay) which makes transfers of money over the internet secure.

One of the things I like about eBay is the Advanced Search feature. With this tool, you can refine your search by price range, catagory, specific seller, location, or listings ending within a certain time period. I used this option to select listings within 25 miles of my zip code when I wanted to buy a cabinet. I was able to locate an item, win an auction, and pick it up right away without having to worry about shipping. I also used a local yard sales site to sell my car. There was no charge for me to post my advertisement, and I quickly found a buyer. It was wonderfully simple and painless.

It was not wonderfully simple and painless to view the "What is PayPal?" video. I could not find this video anywhere on PayPal's web page. Many online stores accept the PayPal form of payment, such as The Sharper Image, Omaha Steaks, Barnes and Noble, 1-800-Flowers, etc., but my favorite store, Amazon, does not. They will, however, accept a "PayPal debit card".

#44 A Fine How Do You Do (That)

Online "How To" sites are fun to explore, but I'm not sure just how seriously one can take them. I enjoyed looking at a few topics on eHow, such as "How to Add Solar on a Tight Budget", and "How to Survive Tough Economic Times With Your Dog", and while the instructions were amusing I came away a bit dissatisfied with the content. One subject, "How to Properly Inflate Your Tires", said it featured a video. "Now this could be useful," I thought as I skipped off to learn how to do that job correctly, once and for all. Unfortunately, I was not happy with the video. In fact, I felt like a victim of bait and switch marketing. I clicked on that story particularly because I wanted to see a video of proper inflation technique, but instead of enlightenment I was subjected to an extremely short clip of someone's radio controlled car navigating their driveway. Ummm....huh?

I did like that you can choose to write for eHow and earn cash for articles. I also signed up to receive the "eHow of the day" email. Some examples of the email alerts I've received thus far include: "How to Vote Conscientiously" on 11/2, "How to Get a Ride to the Polling Stations" on 11/4, and "How to Deal With Your Presidential Candidate Losing" on 11/5.

Other "how to" sites include WikkiHow, HowStuffWorks, Instructables, Quamat, ExpertVillage and VideoJug. At HowStuffWorks.com, I enjoyed watching 5 year old Emilien Combaret solve the Rubik's cube in less than 2 minutes but I didn't learn the protegy's secret, because the video was more like a news report than it was instructive. Instructables.com had such a wide variety of information, including How to Make a Senegalese Style Drum, and How to Build a Sarcophagus, I found it a bit intimidating. I began to think that probably the only thing you wouldn't find posted there is how to build a nuclear bomb. Actually I checked. And I was shocked to find an article. It turned out to be a joke though, involving protecting oneself with some lead, building a rocket, and procuring a quantity of beans.

So far, the video I've liked the best was one I found on VideoJug.com.







General Etiquette:The Fist Bump: America's Handshake


I think that covered Fist-Bump etiquette very well, thank you.

Now I'm off to further explore the virtual cornucopia of learning on "How To" sites. I absolutely HAVE to find out "How To Use Tree Spirits for Self Transformation".