Google Maps Part III

My niece's medical exemptions on her tax form were audited (and mostly rejected) by the IRS. Some of her mileage claims were rejected because she had not stated how many miles she had to travel. She just supplied the two addresses: hers and the doctor's office. The IRS gave her an opportunity to amend her exemptions and I led her to Google Maps to find the mileage. She was delighted that it was so easy. I haven't heard yet how the amendment process came out.

Google Maps Part II

I very much enjoyed street view. Although I can read maps, I don't just "know" my directions, so actually seeing a street and knowing what it looks like and what to expect is a big help.
The idea of putting in images (from Mikael's tutorial) also appealed to me. Just because it's a map doesn't mean that an image can't be a part of it. Lot's of people use landmarks to find places (especially if they're directionally challenged like me), so an image of the building or of a piece of sculpture (like the Notebook on the University of Nebraska campus) would be a big help. It also helps to advertise the place.
Although Google Maps is about real places I think that in the library, it would be fun for young people ( and even some not so young) to create a map of an imaginary place. I read a lot of mysteries and I just LOVE the ones that provide a map of the murder room. It really helps me to visualize what happened and of course, it's essential for a locked room mystery. (Fantasies always have maps; they're really on to something as far as I'm concerned.) So maybe some enterprising patrons could create maps for those mysteries deficient in maps and post them (in ChiliFresh, for example) with their comments on the book. What a find for other patrons. Okay, so I'm quite a distance from Google Maps now, but aren't brainstorming and tangential ideas some of the outcomes of a learning experience?

Google Maps

I used "Get directions" to find my dentist's new office. I thought that part of the resulting route was very strange considering my starting point. For the final leg, I was supposed to go one mile east, turn around and come back that very same mile, going west and negotiating a great many turns and using at least two roundabouts. Okay if need be, but verrrry strange if not. It would make sense if the street at the westernmost end did not intersect with the street that would take me to my dentist's office, but not if it did intersect.
Not wanting to go two miles out of my way if I didn't have to, I consulted the maps that are provided in the telephone book (the print version). It looked to me as if the westernmost street did intersect with the street that led to the dentist. A quick phone call with receptionist at the dentist's office confirmed my reading of the map in the telephone book. When I actually drove to the appointment, using the map from the phone book, I got there with a minimum of "extra" driving and no more turns that were absolutely necessary.
So the "Get directions" feature wasn't so great for me.
However, I did enjoy using the satellite and terrain features and Peg Man is an absolute hoot. I zoomed in and "drove" down my street. My next door neighbor's house was the closest I could get to my own house, but it was a real thrill even so. One complaint, though, was that the address given for my neighbor's house was incorrect.
Bottom line, my practical experience hasn't been so successful. However, it is a lot of fun to use and I do know that the directions to my dentist's office would have taken me there. Since I know my home town pretty well, I just knew that the directions were the long way around.
So, if I were traveling to a city that I don't know so well, etc. I assume that I could rely on the directions, even if they are the "long way around." I'd at least have something more specific to go on than the usual, more general city maps.

On Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

Between the idea and the reality,
Between the motion and the act,
Falls the shadow.
...
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
Not with a bang, but a whimper.

The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot


I wanted to use the above quotation for this post, but my mind went blank and all I could remember was between the something and the something falls the something. I was sure it was Eliot, but I didn't have enough for Google to give me anything. I tried, but of course, but my information was too limited. However, the trusty Bartlett's Familiar Quotations came through.

And in a sense this whole experience is a metaphor for Library 2.0 and Web 2.0. All of things that they encompass are wonderful, but they are not the complete picture. That is my problem with the Library 2.0 concept, at least as I have heard it explained by some: that it is wider, broader, bigger, better. It is a component and a good one; it is another tool, another resource, maybe (when talking about the web) even the best, but it does not stand alone. Education, in general, enables us to OPEN our minds, to broaden and stimulate us, and anything that helps us to do that is fantastic. But we (librarians, Americans, the world) seem to be looking for a panacea. There isn't one. While praising all that is beneficial about Library 2.0, etc. let's also admit any failings.

Between the idea and the reality,
Between the motion and the act,
Falls the failure.

(My apologies to Eliot.)

So, don't REPLACE Bartletts (I am speaking here metaphorically), but expand on it, use it and the web as a team, incorporate what is useful to us as librarians from Library 2.0, but take off those rose-colored glasses and be ready to keep moving, because something else is just around the corner.

Twitter

I needed lots of help with this "Thing."
About the only thing I could figure out by myself was that the posts on this account are supposed to be short. Even with help I'm not certain that I totally understand it. But I understand enough to know that I don't want to know any more.
The friend who helped me with Twitter said that the difference between Twitter and regular e-mail was kind of like preferring a Ford or a Chevy. Oh, really? To me, Twitter is a junker that's about ready for the scrap heap. Since this is the Christmas season, I will quote from a funny Christmas song: (The song has a kind of a polka beat.)
"Rust and smoke, the heater's broke, the door just blew away. I light a match to see the dash and then I start to pray."
Twitter to the bone.
Is this post longer than 160 characters? I hope so.

Bookmarking in Delicious

I think tags in general have great potential. Emphasis on potential. Most tags, however, that I have seen assigned seem extreeeeeemely weak.
I think the Nebraska Access website is a great example. I was totally underwhelmed by the tags assigned. For example, "Nebraska" was assigned and certainly, Nebraska is one of the places one can search for when one enters Nebraska Access. But the website is a portal to the United States at large and to a lesser extent, to other countries. It's a huge genealogy tool, but that (genealogy) was not a tag I saw. "Resources" was okay as a tag but "printed publications" is better if one doesn't want to just reuse newspapers and periodicals from the abstract.
I've noticed this in other sites that use tags as well. A novel about Elizabethan England may be tagged "History." Not wrong, but not very specific. Other tags, such as "Great" or "my favorite" are opinions. They are valid, but unless another user knows and trusts the original taggers opinion, I feel that such tags have a limited usefulness.

Library Thing

This was very easy and it can certainly organize someone's personal library, however, it is NOT cataloging. The cataloging was done by LC or whatever group originally entered the information. I have no objections to this tool, I just want users to be accurate.