Library Elf and Library Thing

Library Elf seems like a useful service for people who check their email regularly and who have a lot of books or Holds to keep track of. I read some of the testimonials. One person said she received Hold notices on Elf before the library notified her - maybe due to missed phone messages. But I wonder if patrons who give libraries their email addresses for Holds wouldn't receive the notices just as fast directly from the library, if an automatic notification program were in place. I guess what is really nice is consolidating notices from several library cards and also being advised that books are coming due.

Library Thing just looks like a lot of fun! The list of discussion groups was amazing. I looked up some books I read recently (THE FIVE BELLS AND BLADEBONE by Martha Grimes and DEATH'S JEST-BOOK by Reginald Hill). They were listed among people's holdings but no one had commented about them. I think I would like to go back to this site and check out some of the discussion groups.

Flickr

I finally visited the Flickr website, after hearing about it so long ago. It looks like an easy place to share photos with family or friends instead of attaching them to individual email messages that that time to open. It also looks a great spot for a local history photo project, where people could add commentary about places or people they recognize.

I tried searching for something really specific - my high school in Indianapolis. About 7 photos were came up - of a couple going to a prom. Then I searched for the Monon Trail, a 25-mile pathway for hikers and bikers that goes near my sister's house. There were about 30 really good-looking photos from several users. I clicked on two of the profiles. One person didn't share anything but his age, whereas another shared his favorite music, etc. I compared those photos with a Google Images search (about 30 totally different photos) and Yahoo Images search (many pages of different photos, but some of them distantly related to the subject). I was trying to see if Flickr would bring up good photos for reference use, and it looks like an alternative.
The photos do seem to come up faster than in Google or Yahoo.

Maybe I will suggest this to my sisters, brother and daughters as a way to share our photos.

Visiting iTunes, LimeWire, Kazaa & eDonkey

I'm glad that this was part of the Learning Experience. I was really impressed by how many different types of media iTunes offers and how clearly the information is laid out on the website, with tutorials even! I didn't install iTunes, so I wasn't able to look at the iTunes inventory. But it makes me wonder if video stores and video mail delivery services will have a hard time competing with a service that lets customers download at reasonable prices and then store, organize, compress, and transfer files. I guess iTunes has purchased distribution rights to a ton of songs, movies, and audiobooks. Right now, Net Library's audiobooks inventory seems much smaller. But our subscription does allow patrons to listen to books for free, so maybe that's the way NetLibrary will compete.

The peer-to-peer concept behind Kazaa and LimeWire is new to me. Maybe it appeals to people who want more than they can get from Yahoo and Google or MySpace- the ability to search files which others are willing to share, without an intermediary that injects advertising and spyware. Kazaa offers downloads you pay for (commercial products, I guess) and free downloads from private users who are willing to share their stuff. I read the Parents Guide - it clearly explained how the site operates and how filters and virus blockers work.

LimeWire sounds visionary, but I'm not sure I get all the concept of an "open-protocol, prejudice-free development" to promote "competition among entities choosing to respond to the same queries". But I guess the big difference between LimeWire and Google/Yahoo is that LimeWire (and Kazaa) users are connected to several computers at once and information can be received from many sources. Chat rooms and MySpace also allow users to connect to multiple other users. Doesn't MySpace allow users to post files or links to their files, which others can then copy?

The eDonkey is closed but has a stern warning about the illegalilty of downloading copyrighted material. Was eDonkey permitting or encouraging illegal downloading?

Downloading a book to the MP3 player

Last Friday afternoon (12/29/06), John Robert helped me figure out how to listen to a downloaded book on one of the library’s MP3 players, which we borrowed from Marf. He was able to do it on his computer in the morning and then showed me how to search for a children’s book in NetLibrary (HORRIBLE HARRY GOES TO THE MOON by Suzy Kline). He pointed out the note that we need to download a book in CD quality in order for it to play on the MP3 player. The first time I did it, I saved the file directly to the MP3 player. The book title displayed but it wouldn’t play. I got a message about needing to “sync” the file. We found the little CD (for installing Windows Media Player) that goes with the MP3 player. So we did the installation. (~Maybe Alan had already installed it on my computer??~) But the book still wouldn’t play. Then we tried downloading a different book to see if I had missed a crucial step. Then we went back through the installation procedure – and there we saw a tab called “SYNC”. However, we couldn’t figure out how to put my book in the sync list. Finally, John Robert advised me to save the book in My Documents. We could open the book files and play them there. Then he right-clicked on one of the files – and that’s where we finally saw “Send to sync list”. At last! I sent it to the sync list and let it get synced, which I think copied it to the MP3 player. Anyway, it played! Hallelujah!

Today, I downloaded a book onto one of the older public computers in the Reference Room. At first, I tried to download HORRIBLE HARRY GOES TO THE MOON again, but a message said that it couldn't be licensed to a 2nd computer, just the original computer. But I was able to download and play a new book on the public computer. However, it took much longer to download.