Interactive mirror draws reader into book

Designer Romy van den Broek has managed to combine two of my most favorite things into a very exciting new idea!! Through the looking glass is his latest idea of creating an interactive story book. Combining classic children's literature and what looks like your ordinary floor mount mirror, van den Broek has created a way to draw a reader into the story as the main character! Readers stand on a mat that is connected to the mirror unit where the pictures of the story are displayed, and while the book is read aloud, readers have to perform specific tasks as the character in order for the story to continue! You get to literally be the character. Kids of every age will love this!! I want one now! Too bad it's only a prototype, and likely to be pretty expensive! His idea is to bring children back to classic children's literature such as Alice in Wonderland and to instill in them a lifelong love of reading. Most likely it will make a regular book seem boring and even more outdated than do audiobooks now.

Literary mirror

Future Of Libraries: Cutting Edge Services

Hi Everyone,

I was fortunate to be able to attend the Future of Libraries: Cutting Edge Services through the ALA Symposium. Thank you ALD for making this possible.

I found the OCLS Shake it quite interesting and maybe a little silly, but I get the point of trying to make the application not only informative but most importantly fun for its users. I think it was wonderful how they were able to go from a catalog to an interactive readers' advisory application. I agree with the presenter that this application makes it a FUN WAY TO DISCOVER. I also like the fact that this application works with an iPod, iPad and an iPhone. I can see how this is not only an innovative but also a great way to reach our patrons. Please share your thoughts......

ALA Annual Virtual Conference

I listened to the Keynote Speaker, Danah Boyd, who studies social media, with particular attention to youth engagement, privacy and risky behaviors. Some key points that caused me to think about Facebook in a new way include:
1. Teens today are still making decisions about privacy. However, they come at it from a different direction than in the past. Formerly, all conversations were private and it took a conscious decision plus effort to make something public. Now, teens tend to make many things public, but have to make a conscious decision to keep something private.
2. Part of being on Facebook for teens is the desire to be part of the crowd - to see and be seen, so to speak. The peer pressure to "be there" is huge.
3. Librarians may be in a unique position to help patrons deal with biases of information access that Boyd calls "filter bubbles". Most people may not realize that as they put personal information out there, they will be presented with individualized information offers - so each person ends up having a unique, but somewhat biased information flow. It is important to realize this if one wants access to unbiased/neutral information (or at least would like to try for that - not sure it is completely possible).
4. And finally, while grandparents get a pass if they comment on Facebook, nothing kills a conversation like a "Mom post". :)

June Winner for NL Tech Talk

Hi all,
Our NL Tech Talk blog continues to thrive as new staffers find us and many of us get more excited about sharing what we're learning. I know I'm learning a ton from all of you. This month I challenged the Neighborhood Libraries supervisor team with picking a winner for our NL Tech Talk for June. They took their task seriously and had a good discussion about the merits of the various postings, comments, and learnings. After rigorous debate, the NL Supervisors have chosen Melissa Depper as the NL Techie of the Month for June. They liked Melissas posting on 23 Things finding it gave staff a road map to follow in improving their own tech skills. They also liked her posting about Tumblr and how she is applying this in her own life. They also noted that Melissa is a consistent poster and mentor on our blog, helping us know what works and also helping us with the things many of us are struggling with ourselves. Thanks, Melissa. And congratulations! A $10 Amazon gift card is on its way to you.

For July, I've decided to bring in a mystery judge from outside of NL's! Who knows what criteria he or shee will use to pick this month's winner?!

Google at war

I read a good article about Google by Semil Shah. The article stated that "While the tech world is buzzing about the launch and implications of Google’s new social network, Google+, it’s worth noting that Google isn’t just in a war with Facebook, it’s at war with multiple companies across multiple industries. In fact, Google is fighting a multi-front war with a host of tech giants for control over some of the most valuable pieces of real estate in technology. Whether it’s social, mobile, browsing, local, enterprise, or even search, Google is being attacked from all angles. And make no mistake about it, they are fighting back and fighting back, hard." Read the full article at:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/03/google-six-front-war/
Google’s Six-Front War [TechCrunch]

Social networking tools and professional purpose

I set goals for myself this year to expand my knowledge of social networking tools for professional networking so I can evaluate if social networking tools or email is a better /useful/valuable tool for meaningful networking in addition to the experience(which I will share through this blog too) To that end, I went ahead and set up a Facebook account and even learned how to split my friends list into professional list and regular friends list. This link provided me with helpful steps to create this professional list and I will share with you in months to come how I've been able to make use of that list. http://mashable.com/2009/08/14/facebook-networking/

As I also have a twitter account, I wanted to see who are the library professionals who have the most following on twitter and lo behold, there's already great info regarding the top ten twittering librarians in this exciting link- http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2008/07/01/top-ten-twittering-librarians/ I'm sure most of us have heard Jessamyn West speak at various conferences and it was great that I was atleast familiar with one of the top ten librarians listed. The last I checked, our very own ALD rock star, JoAnne Pulcino has quite a twitter following too.

How Google keeps getting better and better

You don’t always have to click on “search”, when you do a Google search as Google search also comes with voice capabilities. I found out about this as I was trying to find ways seniors can search the internet if they cannot use the mouse due to severe arthritis or low vision
Look at this link for more useful information
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/voicesearch.html
Useful For
Hard-to-spell searchesMakes searching words you're not sure how to spell quicker and easier.
Longer searchesSearch long queries, even really, really long queries, just by talking.
Searches that are just more fun to search out loudNow you can ask your computer anything.
Searching without typingUse it in the kitchen, in the garage or anytime your hands might be full.