Relocation to shiny new digs
September 16, 2009
We’re happy to announce that Staff in the Know has moved to a new home: sitk.nashvillepubliclibrary.org
Details to follow…
Morningstar Investment Research Center
August 10, 2009
Morningstar offers investment information for stocks, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds. Find information by Ticker Symbol, Company Name, or by constructing a search with the stock/fund screener.
Look in the Help & Education tab for an investment glossary, primers on specialized investments, and online tutorials in Morningstar’s Investing Classroom.
Learn the basics of finding information in Morningstar:
PDF Quick Guide (1 page)
PDF User Guide (20 pages)
Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
|
Why Twitter? Communicate the Everyday Things
April 20, 2009
@Peabody Twitter for emergencies. Got it. But I still don’t see why a friend would care if I’m at Bongo Java.
@Peabody Instead of just sending eight separate text messages to eight friends, you sent one tweet to all your friends with Twitter?
@Stella Right. And my friends tweeted back – 8 friends talking on Twitter. And my buddy Dan came to watch the 2nd half because of my tweet.
Twitter is a good way to keep up with friends
Last week we talked about how Twitter could be used during an emergency. But Twitter is also useful for casually keeping up with your friends and family.
For instance, you wouldn’t email all your friends just to say you’re watching basketball. And you’d feel foolish emailing all of your friends to tell them you’ll be in Kentucky for the weekend. But your friends might like to hear about the little things that are going on in your life. These little things help us feel connected in between times when we can talk to each another.
So, my brother might tweet “Headed down to Bongo Java for some coffee and cake.” That’s not really worth a phone call or email to 30 people, but it is a fine thing to mention in passing. And who knows, maybe a friend is up for some cake. Because of Twitter you could have an impromptu meet-up, much like we used to stop in when we saw someone out on their front porch.
Twitter is a great way to spread the word
Twitter is a way to know what’s going on outside your own circle. Say you’re on the bus headed for work and you overhear someone talking about the rumored Keith Urban video shooting downtown. You might know one person who’s a Keith Urban fan, so you could email your friend. Or you could tweet the news to your circle of friends on Twitter. Now, anyone you know who has a friend who likes Keith Urban can spread the word to their friends. Without Twitter, the news may have spread much slower in your circle.
With emails, blogs, or texts, we message people we know – our audience is limited. Twitter lets to spread the word to an entire circle of people who can then spread the word to their circle of friends.
Twitter is great for businesses and organizations
If you’re wondering how a business might use Twitter, Comcast is one of the the best examples we have seen. Visit the ComcastCares Twitter page and you’ll see what we mean. You’ll see dozens and dozens of @ replies where the Director of Digital Care it talking to customers who have tweeted to @ComcastCares. If you’ve got a problem with your Comcast service, just tweet a message to @ComcastCares and the Digital Care rep will tweet back and try to help. It is simple, direct and personal.
Starbucks also reaches out to customers through Twitter. Wondering if you should store your coffee in the freezer? Curious to know a coffee similar to the seasonal Christmas Blend? If you have a coffee question, tweet it to @Starbucks and Brad will get back to you.
H&R Block used Twitter to respond to tax questions. Amazon and Dell often post special deals on Twitter. These are just a few of the ways companies can reach out to customers through Twitter.
You’ll even find the library experimenting with Twitter. If you haven’t checked it out yet, visit the Nashville Public Library Twitter page. You’ll see tweets about upcoming events and even questions about the very first Online Book Club pick. Who knows where it will go from there?
What do you think of all this Twittering?
Do you tweet? Do you follow anyone on Twitter? There’s no activity on this one, so just share your thoughts in the comments.
Twitter: Spread the word #mboro
April 13, 2009
Twitter can help you broadcast important news
Last Friday afternoon, hundreds of people used Twitter to report on the severe storm in Middle Tennessee:
#mboro – tornado touchdown on broad at 840. take cover.
Reported Tornado Touchdown in Murfreesboro, TNhttp://tinyurl.com/cewbso
The Carpenter’s House church in Murfreesboro is open as a shelter for those affected by the storm.
Thompson lane and Murfreesboro road area is shut down to all traffic
My dad says his house in Murfreesboro is ok! Thank goodness.
Heard about the tornados in Tennessee. Are you safe?
Glad to hear all my #murfreesboro bandmates and friends are ok after the #tornado
In emergency situations, getting the word out quickly is paramount. After the storm, the first concern is letting everyone know that you’re safe. Cellphones make this an easy task, but you have to make calls to a lot of people. Meanwhile, your friends and family are all frantically dialing all the same people. This is not ideal for keeping emergency communications channels open for rescue workers.
Twitter, makes spreading the news much quicker. One tweet from your cell phone can let all of your friends know if you’re okay. In turn, your friends can retweet your news to further spread the word among your peers. This frees up the communication channels and allows you to reach more people with one text.
Another unique thing happened: Twitter connected the online community to the event as it occurred. Eyewitnesses, local residents, media, and weather agencies, were tweeting information, pictures, and links. Twitter satisfies your curiosity to know what is happening. And it allows you to leverage the power of many people to find the information you need during and after an emergency.
What do you think? Do you see a future with this kind of communication?
And the winners are…
October 15, 2008
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like it when I enter a drawing and a) don’t get to see the drawing and b) never find out who won. We didn’t want to put you through that kind of misery, so we videotaped it!
Ten names were drawn – these staff members will be getting a spiffy new mp3 player.
We didn’t want to share this silliness with the world, so please head on over to the Intranet and see if you won.
Wednesday 15th is the mp3 player drawing! Last chance to enter!
October 13, 2008
You could win one of 10 mp3 players!
If you’ve completed seven Staff in the Know missions (this includes Tenn-Share Learn & Discover activities) this summer, you’ve earned a T-shirt from the Friends of the Library.
If you’ve reported your progress, you have also been entered into a drawing for one of ten mp3 players!
What’s that? You did the activities and didn’t tell anyone? No worries – there’s still time!
To enter, Email Kyle Cook or Jenny Ellis and ‘CC’ your library manager. You MUST enter by 8pm on October 14th to be eligible.
Check Staff in the Know and the Intranet Bulletin Board for the winner! The drawing is October 15th.
IM Made Easy with Meebo (47)
October 6, 2008
Instant Messaging is so simple and convenient. I can talk to all of my friends just by chatting online! Well, it should be simple and convenient. But it isn’t. Here’s why:
My mom uses AOL Instant Messenger.
My brother uses Google Talk and AOL (to talk to mom).
My best friend uses Yahoo Messenger.
My sister-in-law uses Windows Messanger (MSN).
And the list goes on, with hardly anyone using the same service. What should I do? I cannot login to all of these at once. No way. Can you imagine what a pain that would be?
That’s why I signed up for Meebo.
Meebo is a Instant messenger site where you can use all these services at once, on one screen. It works online, so you don’t have to download anything. Once you sign up for the service and set your username and password for any IM network you’re with, you’re set. After that, one login to Meebo automatically connects you to all the other IM networks.
And, so what if I’m so happy that I sound like one of those product placement deals in the old TV shows? You know, where the mom turns to the camera and says “Jimmy, would you like some Choco-milk Powder?” And Jimmy says, “Gee, mom, that’d be great. It’s so tasty and I can feel my muscles grow with each swig.”
Meebo is that cool.
“Jimmy, would you like to chat with all of your friends online after dinner?”
“Sure, mom! Since we signed up for Meebo, it’s real easy to catch up with Billy, Sam, and Ronny. I haven’t missed a baseball card trade in weeks!”
Be like Jimmy. Try out Meebo.
| Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
1. Visit Meebo. 2. Login with any ID you already have: Yahoo, AOL, Google, MSN. 4. Take the survey. |
Election Day is Tuesday, November 4th
September 29, 2008
Election day is right around the corner and that means the library phones are about to start ringing off the hooks!
Voter Registration
We have always had voter registration forms at our libraries, but have you ever considered that to some, we are a voter registration table? By state law, we are now required to mail the voter registration forms if we are asked to. But we don’t have to wait to be asked. What is someone really saying when they ask, “Do you have voter registration forms?” They aren’t just looking for a form, they want to register.
The registration process can be challenging. Many citizens are not literate or have trouble with the form’s small print. Some are not near a post office to mail the form during open hours. By offering a little assistance with this form and offering to mail it for them, we make the library a helpful experience, rather than just a bulletin board with government forms. Maybe equally as important, many people who visit the library to register to vote are not regular library users. This could be their first and only impression of the library. We can win new library members by showing them exceptional service in this unique situation.
Deadline
The last day to register in-person (at Election office): OCTOBER 6, 2008
Last day to postmark voter registration application: OCTOBER 6, 2008
Links
Voter Registration (nashville.gov)
Tennessee ID Requirements for first-time voters registering by mail.
Vote411.org (League of Women Voters)
Features a Polling Place Locator, facts about voter registration and an absentee ballot form.
The Provisional Ballot in Tennessee (.pdf)
If a voter has registered or has not received a Voter Registration card, they can still cast a provisional ballot. Be sure they are familiar with items they can bring to the polls, including Tennessee Driver License, Residential lease agreement, Utility bill,Mortgage statement, Income tax return, Credit card bill, Bank Statement, Preprinted check or bank deposit slip, Vehicle registration.
Early Voting
All Early voting sites will be open Wednesday, October 15 through Thursday, October 30. Hermitage, Edmondson Pike, Bordeaux, Green Hills, Madison, and Bellevue Library (community center) are among the thirteen Early Voting sites. Any voter registered in Davidson County can go to any of these locations during the early voting period.
TumbleBooks & other fun stuff for kids (45)
September 15, 2008
Do you ever wish there was some kind of magical book where the pictures moved around? A book that told you a story and let you follow along?
I don’t know, maybe a talking picture book?
Such books exist! And you can find them in the TumbleBook Library!
TumbleBooks is the library’s newest online database. It has a large collection of picture books for young children, including quite a few books in Spanish and French. Many books have games and puzzles that reinforce concepts from the books. There are even longer books, like Anne of Green Gables, for older kids.
Take a look at the online tour and see what TumbleBooks is all about.
(And ignore the part about logging in and registering – we’re doing that with a library card like all of our other databases.):
Where can you use TumbleBooks?
At the library: kids can use TumbleBooks on library computers – all they need is a pair of headphones.
At home: all you need is a library card and a computer with a high-speed connection.
Want some stories kids can bring with them?
Do you wish you could find a friendly podcast for your kids/grandkids/nieces/nephews/etc? Is the kid in your life not quite ready for NPR or Good Morning America?
Here are a couple of kid-friendly podcasts for your kids on the go:
1. Crazy Dave’s Kid Show
2. The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd
3. Molly and the Sugar Monster
4. DragonflyTV
5. Super Why
6. NodCast Podcast
7. Book Wink
8. Family Folktales (an NPL podcast!)
Do you know of any other great podcasts for kids? Share them in the comments.
| Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
1. Go to TumbleBooks. It’s on the Kids’ Books & Reading section of the library website. 2. Look for one of these books: 3. Find a Spanish language book. 4. Take the survey. |
Back to School with Library Podcasts (44)
September 8, 2008
Staff in the Know is back from summer break!
We were thrilled to see so many of you over at the Tenn-Share Learn & Discover Ning. Do you like the Ning better than the blog? We’d love to know – tell us in the comments.
Quick note:
If podcasts are new to you, we’ll try to give you a lesson that will open up a new listening world. If you participated in Tenn-Share Learn & Discover, you might remember William and his podcast discovery. But we’ve got new info for you, too!
Now, back to business!
Ah, podcasts. Don’t you just love getting on the bus, with your new Metro bus pass and losing yourself in the latest NPR podcast? Or commuting with your favorite music podcast? Or setting off on your bike – wait, are you crazy? You really shouldn’t be listening to podcast while riding your bike!
What? You’ve never listened to a podcast?
Podcasts are a great way to keep up with your favorite programs. Instead of tuning a radio at a set time every day or week, new episodes are automatically delivered to your computer. Listen on your own time.
NPR delivers most of their stories as podcasts. Hear the most recent Storycorps segment every week. Television programs like Good Morning America (ABC), Frontline (PBS), or The Colbert Report (Comedy) are podcasting too, both video and audio.
Find podcasts at NPR Podcast Directory, iTunes Store, and Podcast 411. To subscibe, select the appropriate link from their web page and select your feed reader/podcatcher. This will work a little differently depending on your Internet browser. Alternatively, you can cut and paste the podcast web address into your feed reader, as you would an RSS feed.
There are 4 ways to listen to podcasts:
Browser: Visit the podcast’s web site and play the files from there, just as you would any other sound file.
RSS Reader: Subscribe using an online RSS reader like Google Reader or My Yahoo!. Podcasts will arrive along with your blogs.
Podcatcher: Use a podcatcher, like iTunes or Juice, to organize and play podcasts for you. You will need to be able to download these.
mp3 player: Take podcasts on the go with your portable mp3 player. Listen to your favorite programs while you are out walking, waiting for the bus, or anywhere.
Nashville Public Library is podcasting!
Take a look at what’s new on the library’s RSS page.
Art Matters (info)
With Art Matters, you’ll get a peek behind the scenes as gallery coordinator, Liz Coleman, talks about the artwork with visiting artists and other interesting individuals.
Family Folktales is a storytime on demand read by Childrens’ librarian Susan Poulter. Hear classic stories just as they were written, before they made it to the big screen and had to be polished up with a happy ending.
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If you’re interested in getting involved with podcasts, search the Intranet for “podcast” and find out how you can submit your idea!
| Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
1. Go to the library’s RSS page. 2. Subscribe to one of the new library podcasts. 3. Take the survey.. |
Survey time is running out! Oh, and it’s picture day…
September 1, 2008
A big thank you to everyone who participated in TennShare Learn & Discover this summer. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot of new things. Don’t forget to complete the Learn & Discover Survey for your chance to win a prize. The first 100 respondents win!
Survey must be completed by Tuesday, September 2nd, 11:59 PM CT.
Learn & Discover is over, and that means school’s back in session here on Staff in the Know. And today is picture day!
What? We didn’t tell you picture day was coming up?
Sorry, I know you had a new outfit picked out. But don’t worry, you can put yourself in a yearbook photo of the past!
Just go to yearbookyourself and upload a photo of yourself (or anyone you want, for that matter). Pick a year and watch yourself transform.
Then pause and be glad that you don’t have to have any more yearbook photos taken ever, ever again.
We’ll get back down to business on Monday, September 8th.
Be there or be square!
Tenn-Share Learn & Discover (wrap-up week) (43)
August 25, 2008
We hope everyone has enjoyed playing around in Ning and sharing info with library staff from around the state. We sure have had a good time!
If you haven’t finished up the eight activities on Tenn-Share Learn & Discover, head on over this week.
Keep On Learning – Tenn-Share Learn & Discover (week 9)
August 18, 2008
Seven tasks down, one to go and you’ll have completed Tenn-Share Learn & Discover!
“How will I keep learning without a weekly mission to keep me motivated?” you ask.
Don’t worry. We’ve got some independent study ideas, sources for information, and favorite websites to get you started. Plus, you can always keep in touch with the friends you made over the last nine weeks!
This week we’d like you to choose your own site and report back to the community. Take a look at this year’s Webware 100 Winners. They include familiar names like YouTube, flickr, facebook, and picassa, but there’s sure to be sites you’ve never heard of before.
You can also choose one of the sites we like:
James: Hulu, dealnews,
Jenny: Jumpcut, Wordle, Mr. Picassohead
Kyle: 30 Boxes, Remember the Milk, BillMonk
Sue: Sketchcast, LOLinator
Tricia: The Daily Plate, YouContertIt, Virtual Tourist
Pam: StumbleUpon, Dead or Alive?, TinyURL
Or you can look through this dizzying list of sites.
Ways to keep on learning:
Read Blogs.
Pick out some blogs written by librarians, like Tame the Web, Stephen’s Lighthouse, or ALA Tech Source. Next, pick up a few technology blogs. Webware, Read Write Web, Lifehacker are a few good ones. They’ll mention crazy things you won’t understand or ever need. But they also have things that you will want to remember. You don’t have to follow 200 blogs. Find a blogger who does this for you, and then tells you about the good stuff.
And add some fun stuff to your feeds!
Realize you cannot know everything, nor do you need to.
We’re all short on time. But, staying current doesn’t take long. 15 minutes a day is all you really need. If you don’t get through all your RSS feeds, don’t worry about it. You don’t have to read everything. But, doing a little bit will keep your mind fresh with new ideas. You can pick and choose which ones are appropriate for your library and your projects. You don’t have to do it all.
Share your finds.
When you find good web sites, don’t keep them to yourself! Email them to your colleagues, tag them for friends in your delicious, or share them with your social network.
| Keep on Learning Activity:
1. Choose one site from this year’s Webware 100 Winners.
2. Take it for a spin – what do you like about it, what don’t you like? 3. Tell the group what you think in the Keep on Learning forum. Do you have any questions? Discuss them in the Keep on Learning Forum. |
Library DIY – Tenn-Share Learn & Discover (week 8) (42)
August 11, 2008
It is a truth universally acknowledged that librarians tend to be people who like to read.
This week we’ll explore tools to help organize your books, further your reading obsessions, search for books, create lists, and even get “new” books.
Oh, and we’ll get to Santa and the READ poster in a bit…
LibraryThing
Norman is a prolific reader of History and Military Fiction. He has kept a list of over a thousand books he has read since he was thirteen. Norman keeps this list on a dozen legal pads in his desk drawer. He’s been having trouble lately. He’s enjoys Nelson DeMille, W. E. B. Griffin, and Stephen Coonts, but he cannot recall which books he has read or not. The librarians have been helpful in providing him with their complete bibliographies, but he is not looking forward to comparing these lists with his own note pads. Norman should try LibraryThing.
Norman will spend a few evenings identifying all the books he has read using LibraryThing’s enormous catalog of titles from libraries. Then, he can sort his collection by any heading he wishes: year, author, genre. Norman can even make up his own cataloging system by adding tags to his books, whatever words he wants to sort them by, such as: korean.war, read.on.the.train, audiobook, favorite.
Now, Norman is enjoying sorting his virtual bookshelf based on his favorite book jackets. He might share his catalog with his friends who also use LibraryThing. They can review and discuss books here, but the heart of LibraryThing is keeping and ordering your own book collection.
Goodreads
Penelope loves to read, but she doesn’t really care what she’s already read. She just wants to find good fantasy and spy titles from people with similar taste. Goodreads is a nice way to share books she is reading and get recommendations from her friends.
Once Penelope has a profile, she can join clubs based around her favorite series, The Bourne Identity and Twilight. Plus, she also uses online social networks, so she could use Goodreads to show her virtual bookshelf on her profiles.
Penelope just found a list of historical fiction books with a spy at the center of the story. One of the titles is The Spy: A Tale of Neutral Ground, by James Fenimore Cooper. Then there’s The Spy: The Story of a Superfluous Man, by Maksim Gorky. The copy at her local library is lost. She could try her library’s Interlibrary Loan service. Or she could go out and buy the books. Or, she could try Google Book Search!
Google Book Search
Google Book Search can seem scary for libraries. Is it trying to replace us? Are people going to go there instead of the library? Will everyone buy books instead of check them out? Google Book Search and other websites are changing the way people look for information. But, in our do-it-yourself era, these things are enhancements for the library, not replacements. Allow the big red arrow to illustrate:
Have you seen this big banner sign outside your local bookstore lately?
Yeah, me neither.
You know where I have seen this reminder? On a little website called Google Book Search.
Google Book Search is just what it sounds like – you’re using a special search engine on Google to search for books. You can do a title, subject or author search, just like a library catalog. But, the items you’re searching aren’t just listed in catalog fashion. They’re scanned in. So, you can do a keyword search in the full-text of thousands and thousands of books. The full text – of the book itself. Amazing.
When you find a book you’re interested in, you can often look inside at sample pages and illustrations – not every page, mind you, but enough to see what the book is like. If the book is out of copyright, you can usually download the full-text right from Google Book Search.
Google Book Search can seem scary for libraries. Is it trying to replace us? Are people going to go there instead of the library? Will everyone buy books instead of check them out? Google Book Search and other websites are changing the way people look for information. But, in our do-it-yourself era, these things are enhancements for the library, not replacements.
Take a look at how two people use Google Book Search
WorldCat
One of the great things you’ll find about online book tools is that a lot of them play well with others.
Google Books doesn’t just tell you where you can buy a book you’ve found. It also offers a nice reminder that you might be able to get the book you want at your local library.
When you click “Find this book in a library,” Google Books sends you over to WorldCat. Type in your city or zip code and you’ll get a list of library locations that own the book. That’s nice advertising.
Finding books isn’t all you can do in WorldCat. OCLC has added more cover images and is pulling in reviews from Amazon. They’ve also tried to add a social aspect to the site with user profiles and lists.
Making a list is an easy way to share recommendations with your pals on social networks like delicious, digg, or MySpace. And unlike LibraryThing or Goodreads, Worldcat points users to your library’s books! You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for a list. That means you could create a list of favorite knitting books or genealogy resources and use the RSS feed to post the list on MySpace, Facebook and any other place you can import an RSS feed.
Okay, so it isn’t the next YouTube, but we think WorldCat might be on to something here. What do you think?
To wrap up, here are a few sites just for fun:
Swaptree & Bookmooch
Want a free book? Swaptree lets you trade your used books online for the price of stamps. First, you make a list of the books you’d like to get rid of – type or scan the ISBN. Then, make a list of books you are looking to own. Swaptree will match your list against others’ to arrange trades. You will get an email when a match is found. You can also swap old DVDs, CDs, and video games for books.
Want to trade more books? Try Bookmooch.
READ Posters
The ALA website has a fun online tool where you can create a mini-READ poster. The one that graces this post stars my brother’s bulldog, Wesley. He seems like a literary sort. Take a look at some other mini-READ posters. Then create your own! Be sure to share with the group!
| Library DIY Activity:
Option One: 1. Sign up for one service. 2. Make a book list – any list you want. 3. Share it with the rest of us in the Online Book/Library Tools Forum. (optional) Option Two: 1. Browse Google Books for Philosophy books. 2. Limit the view to see only the full-text books. 3. Use Google Books to find this quote: “No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience.” - John Locke Do you have any questions? Discuss them in the Online Book/Library Tools Forum. |
Do I have to? Tenn-Share vs. Staff in the Know
August 5, 2008
Back in the saddle again, with week five of Tenn-Share Learn & Discover. Get on over to the Learn & Discover page in Ning and say hello!
If you have been following along with Staff in the Know, you have noticed that we recycled some of these posts for the Tenn-Share Learn & Discover program. Don’t let that stop you from participating, we need your experience! Remember, the first 100 to complete the program will earn a nice mp3 player.
“Do I have to repeat all the exercises in Tenn-Share Lean & Discover if I have done the identical ones earlier in Staff in the Know?”
No. You can report a Tenn-Share activity complete if you have done the activity for the same topic during Staff in the Know ‘07 – ‘08. For instance, if you learned about RSS feeds on Staff in the Know, you have already set up an RSS reader and subscribed to a feed, you can count that done towards the Tenn-Share goal.
We do hope you will join the active discussions about each post in the forum at Tenn-Share Learn & Discover.
Kyle Cook
Jenny Ellis
It used to be if you wanted to hear a song, you would have to buy the CD or you were at the mercy of the local radio DJ and your giant boom box. Several innovative web sites have simplified listening to and buying music online.
Streaming – Listening to music online
Streaming is sort of like radio – just tune into music that is already playing on the Internet. Unlike radio, there are billions of stations to choose from and anyone can pick the tunes! Here are a couple of popular music streaming spots:
Last.fm is a streaming person radio station that tracks the songs you hear, then alters your personal radio station accordingly. Last.fm is also a social network that lets you discover new music by seeing what other users are listening to.
Tell Pandora who you like and they will play music similar to it. So, if you tell Pandora you like Bell Biv Devoe, it will play them, then Bobby Brown, Tony Toni Tone, and Keith Sweat. You get the idea.
Maybe you need to hear “Billie Jean” right now?
Use a music search app like Seeqpod or Songza to listen to single tracks! Enter a song title or artist, and a search may find it somewhere on the Internet and play it. Search is a good way to preview entire new songs or find alternate recordings.
Downloading – Saving music to your computer
It’s fine to listen to “Forever and Ever, Amen” online, but you’ve got to have it – preferably without all the other tracks on the album.
No problem. You can just buy the song you want and download it to your computer. Downloading is different from streaming a song. When you stream a song on Pandora, you just click play and listen – you haven’t saved the song. If you wanted to hear the song again, you’d need to go back to Pandora. When you download a song, you are saving it for later. Downloading and saving a music file is similar to saving a resume or a photo.
If you’re trying to help someone find a song on a library computer, there are a few things to be aware of. Generally, you can download music on most library computers when the site does not require software installation. There are a lot of web sites that sell music, some require software and some don’t. Amazon and iTunes both have music for purchase and download. For security, libraries restrict users installing software on public computers, so you wouldn’t be able to buy music from iTunes. Amazon doesn’t require special software, they let you buy and download a song right to your flash drive.
Free downloads – What if you find that Randy Travis song for free, on a blog somewhere?
Unless Randy Travis himself has a blog, and is giving the song away free there, you want to avoid this free download. Not everyone sharing files online has the legal rights to; you may find song files put online without permission. Hear more about online copyright from The Real Deal 106: Copyright.mp3 (CNET podcast).
| Online Music Activity:
Option One:
1. Browse the Cylinder Archive for some wonderful original recordings. 2. Download an mp3 to your computer. 3. Tell us how it went in the Listen, Search, and Download forum. Option Two: 1. Visit one of the music streaming web sites. 2. Play a song on your computer. 3. Tell us how it went in the Music: Listen, Search, and Download forum. Extra Credit That’s extra awesomeness credit. Look like a rock star in the forums: Make a mix tape and share it with everyone in the Listen, Search, and Download forum. Do you have any questions? Discuss them in the Listen, Search, and Download forum. |
Digital Audio Books (Tenn-Share 6) (40)
July 28, 2008
Earlier this year, I went on a long road trip with my friend, Jill, and I thought I would bring along some audiobooks. I borrowed three on CD and two on cassette, and I ended up with two grocery bags full of audiobooks to keep up with! When I picked her up, said she brought ten audiobooks of her own because she could not choose. “No way. Where will we have room for ten audiobooks, Jill?” I asked, pointing to the grocery bags of CD and cassette boxes. Then, Jill held up her mp3 player, smaller than a deck of cards. Man, I knew I should have checked out this downloadable audiobook thing!
Top Ten Reasons To Use Digital Audio books
- No one has ever lost one under the seat of their car.
- Put a dozen books on your mp3 player.
- You can’t remember what track you’re on in your book on CD.
- Learn how to pronounce names from the Harry Potter series.
- Digital Bookmarks are hard to misplace.
- They take themselves back to the library.
- Your cat likes stories, too.
- Kind of like radio, without traffic and weather.
- Large Print was checked out.
- The library will not call looking for missing tape number five.
| Digital Audiobooks Activity:1. Find your library’s Overdrive collection:
2. Checkout and download a digital audio book from Overdrive.* 3. Tell us how it went in the Audio Books forum. Do you have any questions? Discuss them in the Digital Audiobooks Forum. *If you’ve really tried, but you’re unable to complete the exercise due to restrictions on your library computers, you can still get credit for this exercise. The summer is hot enough. We don’t want to make you sweat. |
Tenn-Share Learn & Discover (catch-up week)
July 21, 2008
It’s week five of Tenn-Share Learn & Discover. Have you finished the first four activities? It’s your lucky week – catch-up week, that is! Whew!
Tennessee Stuff (Tenn-Share 4) (39)
July 14, 2008
Tennessee At Your Fingertips!
Nashville – Music City USA – home to the Grand Ole Opry and countless musicians in and out of Country – but how many Nashvillians go out to see live music? How many Chattanoogans really See Rock City? How many Memphians waddle around with the Peabody ducks or hold vigil at Graceland? Tennessee has such a rich history, but do we ever get to explore it enough?
In this week’s Tenn-Share Learn and Discover exercises, you will explore Tennessee resources, historic and current, that are only as far away as the click of a mouse.
News to You: Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL) and Google News
If you’re trying to gauge Tennesseans’ reactions to newsworthy library issues and events, you have several easy-to-use tools at your disposal.
TEL: Tennessee Electronic Library is a collection of databases available to all Tennesseans. It includes thousands of magazines and newspapers, test prep resources, and more.
Through TEL, you have access to the Tennessee Newspaper collection, which includes the current and archived editions of the state’s four largest newspapers; some back to 1990!
Google News offers access to a wider variety of up-to-the-minute sources. TEL might not show you the latest info on today’s biggest news story – it’s too new. But, a Google News search will. Google News also provides a simple way to limit your searches to Tennessee news sources. Include “location:tn” in your Google News search and you can get up-to-the-minute local news too. For example, “location:tn library” will bring back breaking newspaper, television, and wire news on libraries in Tennessee. You can even set up a News Alert to update you when new stories about Tennessee show up online. Remember those RSS feeds?
Have some questions? We’ve got answers:
How is the TN Newspaper collection different from Google News?
The TEL newspaper collection includes obituaries and editorial content which is often missing from other news searches like Google/Yahoo! News. So, TEL can help you discover the Tennessee perspective on national issues, like the Iraq War or the gas crisis. Remember that Tennessee newspapers in TEL can go back to 1990, so you’ll also find information on older topics that would be buried in Google News.
Why is TEL’s Tennessee Newspaper Collection better than the papers’ own websites?
Archived copies are FREE to view. Newspaper sites charge for back issue articles.
Wait! What if I am at home and want to check it out all of this cool content?
All TEL resources are accessible from your home! You will need a password. If you don’t already know the password, call your local library.
Tennessee History & Primary Sources
Whether you are a history buff, a student with a history project, or a genealogist, the explosion of historic information on the internet through libraries, museums, and enthusiasts is bound to amaze – and maybe even overwhelm – you. If you freeze like a deer in headlights whenever a student asks you for a primary source, these resources will help!
Volunteer Voices is a grassroots effort to build a digital collection of Tennessee history from each and every one of our counties. Libraries, museums, historical societies, and individuals are working to create this online collection of primary source material.*
In Volunteer Voices, you’ll find resources that significantly relate to the K-12 Tennessee social studies curriculum and other related subjects. You’ll also find links to digital collections across the state. The photographs, letters, and other documents are being used by teachers to develop lesson plans and by students to incorporate primary sources in their research. But it has equal value for the curious who want to have a look at Colonel Tennessee, “the rustic older gentleman often used to represent Tennessee.” Really. He’s in there.
Tennessee Virtual Archive (TeVA) is an online collection of historical records, photographs, landmark documents, maps, and postcards from the Tennessee State Library and Archives’ collections. These well-cataloged collections are complemented by TSLA’s online exhibits and massive photo database.
Tennesseans have a unique opportunity to share their personal histories through the Nashville Public Library’s StoryCorps installation. Make an appointment to interview your loved one – and have that interview archived at the Library of Congress and perhaps broadcast on NPR.
Whew! Lot’s of stuff!
| Tennessee Stuff Activity: Three excellent sources means a three-part activity. It may seem like a lot, but these are great sources. Have fun!
Local agriculture is a hot topic in the national news this year. Use TEL’s Tennessee Newspapers to find an article discussing local agriculture (Farmer’s Markets, CSA’s, “Buy Local” campaigns) in your area.
2. Volunteer Voices: Find a primary source. Browse the collection and find primary sources that illustrate how Tennesseans participated in the Civil Rights Movement. 3. TeVA: Find the photo. Dr. Mustard, in the school house, with the toothbrush. Seriously, find the photo! Do you have any questions? |
*Participate in Volunteer Voices: If your library has an image, document, recording, or whole collection you know should be digitized, but you don’t know where to start, contact the Volunteer Voices director Tiffani Conner and let her help you share the stories your collections tell.
Contributed by Sue (TEL Girl), Tricia, and James Staub
RSS & Podcasts (Tenn-Share 3) (38)
July 7, 2008
I saw my friend William last Saturday. He was carrying eight newspapers! I stopped and asked, “William, what’s with all the newspapers?”
He said, “Well, I like reading the comic strips Pearls Before Swine and Dilbert, but they’re not in the same newspaper. Then, there’s this columnist I like in the New York Times and a sports writer in the Washington Post who’s great. I gotta run. If I don’t get home soon, I’ll miss Daniel Schorr’s radio commentary!”
“Whoa! Why aren’t you getting this stuff in your feed reader?”
“My what?”
“RSS feeds. RSS puts all your news in one spot! You just sign up for an RSS feed reader online, then read all your favorite comics and journalists in one place. You can also use RSS to read blogs, news, and even hear that radio story you’re about to miss.”
“All with an RSS feed reader? Can you show me how it works?”
RSS Feeds
RSS broadcasts web pages over the Internet much like a radio station broadcasts programming over airwaves. An RSS feed reader (aka aggregator) “tunes in” to the websites that you tell it to “listen” to and collects new items into your reader as they appear. You can get news, blog posts, comics, music, personal updates, or even this learning activity. Web sites now offer a variety of content in RSS format. Anywhere you see one of these little buttons, you can click on one to activate the feed.
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There are many different feed readers to choose from, but most are free web applications, so you will not have pay or download to take advantage of RSS.
Commoncraft – RSS In Plain English
Podcasts are RSS feeds, too!
William is also a big listener of National Public Radio and other radio programs. I was telling him about this fascinating story on gorillas that aired the other night.
“I was so busy catching up on all my newspapers that I missed it.”
“Don’t worry, RSS can help you keep up with radio shows too. You can still hear the gorilla story as a podcast!”
NPR also delivers most of their stories as podcasts, so you’ll be able to catch up on the latest programs whenever you want. You can find older stories too. Maybe you like tuning into Mike & Mike (ESPN), Dave Ramsey, Dianne Rehm, or This American Life? You can get a podcast of just about anything on NPR and a variety of shows from local radio all over the country. There are thousands of podcasts from amateur and community radio DJs. Maybe you would like the Jamaican Reggae music hour or the guy who plays a Grateful Dead concert tape every week?
It is not just music and radio. Television programs are podcasting too, in both video and audio. You can catch up on Good Morning America (ABC), Frontline (PBS), or The Colbert Report (Comedy) with podcasts. Many programs are offering season subscriptions for a fee, but most podcasts are free to download. Hobbyists love to share tips on gardening, knitting, or even fly fishing with podcasts.
A podcast could be anything from a thirty second cell phone update to an hour-long concert. Podcasts are sort of like an audio archive, delivering the newest episodes and storing the older stories for later. Instead of tuning in at a specific time on your radio, you can hear the recording whenever you want, on your computer.
Four ways to hear podcasts:
Browser: Visit the podcast’s web site and play the files from there, just as you would any other sound file.
RSS Reader: Subscribe using an online RSS reader like Bloglines or Google Reader. Podcasts will show up along with your blogs.
Podcatcher: Use a podcatcher, like iTunes or Juice, to organize and play podcasts for you.
mp3 player: Take podcasts on the go with your portable mp3 player. Listen to your favorite programs while you are out walking, waiting for the bus, or anywhere.
| RSS & Podcasting Activity:1. Sign up for a feed reader (Google Reader and Bloglines are two nice ones).
2. Subscribe to the RSS feed for the TennShare Learn & Discover blog. 3. Browse NPR’s list of podcasts. Sign up for a podcast (use iTunes or Google Reader). Do you have any questions? Discuss them in the RSS/Podcasts Forum. |
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