Verizon frustration!

Okay, this is not related to libraries, but I just had to vent some. Verizon has some great products - I love the Fios tv & internet and I've had some good experiences so far with verizon cell (I was an Alltel customer before). HOWEVER, they have some of the worst customer service I've seen in a while Excepting the person who came out to install my FIOS - he was great).

I have wasted more time on the phone, being transferred from dept. to dept. than I ever dreamed possible. Every company's account I had transferred from my old address to my new address smoothly with no problems - except for Verizon. First they disconnected my internet & phone accounts 2 weeks early -- that took a bunch of phone calls to clear up. I was very frustrated back then! I thought that after a final phone call back in September that everything was finally straightened out, and that all my verizon accounts would be on the same bill --wrong. I just received today my 2 verizon bills (one for the cell and one for my FIOS). Things are still not right for my FIOS account- wrong mailing address, shows I have a landline that was disconnected back at the old address, 2 months of bills...aaargh! I can accept the billing a month in advance - not a big deal. However I've been trying to pay a bill for nearly 2 hours, and I'm currently on hold to speak to my 5th customer service rep. All I want is a temporary PIN to access my FIOS account online (I've given up with the idea of combining my accounts onto 1 bill until they finally get straight my FIOS account). You see, online they want a phone number to call with a temporary PIN - and I don't have the phone number that they show as attached to the account! So, option number 2 is to have a temporary PIN mailed to you...you guessed it - they have the wrong address. Now person number 3? has fixed my account address, and he recommended that I be transferred to another dept. to get the temporary PIN over the phone since the temporary PIN was probably automatically generated already to go to the old/incorrect address. Person number 4 turned out to be an entirely wrong dept. He couldn't help me, so I'm on hold for person number 5. When speaking to person number 4, I finally said that at this point can you simply attach my verizon cell phone number to my FIOS account so that maybe I can use the automated temporary PIN feature that would be phoned to the number attached to the account -- nope, he was the wrong dept. and he can't do that.

I'm about to hang up and give up for today. Moving from 1 address to another should not take multiple phone calls and nearly 10 different customer reps to get right (combining back in September and now)! Okay, that was my vent - Verizon has great products, but their dept.'s clearly have communication issues. I have just hung up and given up for today trying to get a temporary PIN. I dread trying to wade through their phone/voice system when I try again tomorrow. :(

Google Docs and Productivity

Okay, so I'm bloggin out-of-order.... I posted previously about the optional fun photos section of our training mostly because, well, it was fun! But seriously, what can I say about online productivity? I have used google docs before and I like the fact the the document "lives" online (no need to even carry the usb thumbdrive with me anymore) and that is accessible anywhere there is internet access. Anyone can (or at least should) easily see the usefulness of google docs (and other online productivity sites) for collaborative works. I briefly wondered why someone might actually choose a wiki for collaborative work over online productivity apps but I think for committee work, sites like google docs make more sense. I see a wiki as a useful tool more for a collaborative work that you want the public to be able to view. Yes, I'm making arbitrary distinctions!

In some ways I wonder if online apps like those offered by google docs will eventually be the "death knell" for computer-hosted applications like Microsoft Office. In the ever changing world of technology, it wouldn't surprise me at all!

Playing with photos

Susan's website has some interesting photos of the library that have been edited using http://www.befunky.com/. I really like the effects, so here are 2 photos that I played with.

Tagging & Social Bookmarks

More than any other web 2.0 feature, I see this as the most useful for our library users. We librarians just have to face it - our subject headings are not intuitive at all! With tagging added to our catalog records, we could enable our customers to find what they are looking for so much easier. I'll be honest, sometimes I'll search for a book title on a topic that a customer is looking for (where I know we have books in the collection on the topic, but I'm not sure what the subject heading might be); then I'll see what in the world the subject heading was for that topic. Many times, the subject heading just isn't specific enough to be of any help, or is just "odd" enough that you wouldn't think in a million years that it could possibly be the subject term. I'm even not ashamed to admit that that on occasion, I've used amazon and LibraryThing to find additional titles on a topic - then returned to our catalog to see if we own the titles found. In a nutshell, tags make finding relevant titles that much quicker and simpler - and our library members deserve to be able to find the materials they need with as few barriers as possible.

Oh yes, on a personal level, I use delicious as a web-based set of bookmarks that can go with me anywhere.

e-library cards

I stumbled across an interesting post today. I had wondered what had happened to cause the San Francisco library to retract their eCards. According to librarian.net:

"EBSCO made a bold move recently claiming that libraries that offer e-cards [for accessing electronic library resources from home] are violating their licensing agreement."

The posting continues, but also mentions how this Boston Public Library is handling the situation.

"Boston Public Library is taking a different tack and keeping the e-card program and dropping remote access to EBSCO. Both libraries have to curtail services — and SFPL is changing their e-card policies fairly dramatically — because of this."

I'm adding librarian.net to my RSS feeds - it looks like it has some good stuff! The previous post to the one regarding eCards was a post about the top 10 apps for iPhones. :)

Online Etiquette

Some articles about what you should keep in mind to protect your online reputation when using social networking sites...

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/154374/facebook_etiquette_five_dos_and_donts.html

http://knol.google.com/k/alisa-miller/social-netiquette-of-social-networking/2id079d3nzhiv/3#

Social Networking

I've been meaning to post about social networking for a while now. So many people/places/organizations have presences on social networking sites that I kind of feel that we really need to take advantage of the networking opportunities this creates. Nearly all of my younger relatives keep in touch via Facebook - and not email. That's a trend I think we need to keep in mind when it comes to PR for library events -the younger generation doesn't use email nearly as much as the older generation. It's also something that has made me begin to reconsider whether or not the library should be blocking social networking sites. By blocking them for minors (especially teens!), are we alienating our future customers? Are we being over-protective as to the danger/risk and need to protect minors? Is there a grey area where perhaps we should be blocking these sites for young children, but not for teenagers?

Personally, I have a Facebook account, but I haven't done much with it. As a means to stay in touch with family and friends, I really need to start taking advantage of what Facebook offers.

Wiki Wiki!

I'm a fan of wikipedia & I think wikis are good for creating collaborative informational sites on the internet or for collaborative projects...but I do still have some questions. I went to the SJCPL Subject Guides and looked at their Gardening guide. I can see library staff working cooperatively to create this subject guide wiki, but for some sections of the wiki it seemed that there were better ways (less labor intensive) to do it. For example: Someone has to enter the information and maintain/keep it up to date. Also, for items like "New Gardening Books on Our Shelves", wouldn't it be easier to get that information via an RSS feed that is somehow linked to the catalog rather than to manually input the titles?

I also looked at the book review wiki - this looks like a much more friendly way to allow patrons to post book reviews than using the Evanced software. I find myself thinking a wiki (or a blog) could also work as a great forum for an online book discussion group.

Finally, I looked at the "Blogging Libraries Wiki". Sadly, I'd say that the Richmond Public library blog is an example of what not to do... It hasn't been posted on since November of 2008, and never received a single comment on any of their postings. I'm sure that was frutstrating for them!

I've sent a request to edit or add an entry on the CHPL Learning "sandbox", so I'll try that once permission comes through. :)

Flickr Account

OK,
I went ahead and created a Flickr Account (yes, yet another user name and password to remember!). I uploaded 4 pictures and made sure to use the CHPLLearning tag. One of the uploaded pictures is Fox in Snow picture that my father took in December of 2007. The link to that picture is here:

Fox in Snow on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Flicker...no Flickr!

I was aware of Flickr, but only in regards to photos that were available in the Creative Commons. Sometimes, I just couldn't find the "right" photo to use to advertise an upcoming program. The Creative Commons has helped with this dilemma more than once. I also can see library use of mashups - especially with maps. I wonder if we could do a mashup of a library's floorplan/layout and photos of the various locations inside the library as a variation? - an interior map/mashup so to speak.?

I'd never thought about uploading all of my personal pictures to an internet site such as Flickr. I understand you can make the settings private, but somehow I've never trusted that they truly are private! I certainly had a lot of fun looking at photos in Flickr. I went looking for photos of library signs and while some of them were great, some were just awful, and some were just quirkly. Here are two that stuck in my mind. the street sign above is by "qnr". The link below takes you to a particulary bad Reference desk sign.

Library Oxymoronic Sign on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

All and all I think I will be using Flickr in the future in many more ways than I have been currently!

podcasting

I've been downloading radio podcasts to my iTunes account about 3-4 times per week. I love podcasting! It's so convenient, I can listen to a radio show that I like when I want to listen to it - during my commute to and from work.
I've just gone to netvibes - and once I play with it a bit - it could very well end up being my homepage. I'll probably run it for a month to compare it to my iGoogle homepage so that I can see which I prefer. I also love that netvibes doesn't have to be loaded onto a computer to use.

Maybe I'll get brave and try to create a short podcast to upload....we'll see.

Online Etiquette segment from the Today Show...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Yum!

The other night I tried some food I'd never had before. I drove up to Alexandria, VA to meet some folks for dinner and we decided to try a Moroccan restaurant called "Casablanca". It was very interesting! We all sat on raised cushions around a center eating area. Food is served "family style" so that each platter is delivered to the table, and you all use your hands to eat from the communal dish. We ordered the "Kasbah Feast" which is six courses. We started with a bottle of Moroccan red wine, fresh baked bread and an assortment of salads - beet, chickpea, cucumber & mint etc. Next an appetizer called "Bastilla" was delivered - it was delicious and we devoured it in no time! Bastilla is a phyllo dough pie filled with chicken, eggs, almonds, walnuts, onions, parsley and sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon - yum, yum, yum!
Both entrees were Tagines. For the first entree we had Lamb with harrisa sauce - very spicy, I liked it, though my lips were burning at the end of eating it. The second entree was Chicken with onions and raisins - a sweeter dish, but we probably liked it even better than the first entree. Finally, a powdered sugar cover pastry of some sort was brought out and served with a hot mint tea. What a nice way to end the evening. I can't believe how dinner lasted for 3-hours of delicious food and conversation.

Feedity and Twitter

Well, tried to use feedity to add a site to my Google Reader that didn't have an RSS feed already set up. It really didn't work as well as I expected, I had to keep adjusting the parameters to get what I ended up with (which wasn't quite what I wanted). In the site's defense, it appears that this news site is trying to prohibit people from using feeds for free - it wants you to pay about $1 a week to have news and blog entries sent to you.

As for Twitter, I do already Tweet occasionally. Sometimes I definitely think "too much information!" in regards to peoples private lives and minutiae such as so and so is drinking coffee right now. It might be more useful if I had a cell-phone that was capable of reading the Tweets, then I guess I'd use it more.

On another topic altogether - I was in photocopier "purgatory" this morning... I cannot wait until we have, at the very least, coin boxes!

RSS feeds

Well,
I have set up some RSS feeds (sort of) on my Google Reader. I'm following my staff's blogs, plus I added 3 Richmond area community blogs (Hills and Heights, Near West End News, & RVAnews). I also added a mystery Richmond area Children's librarian's blog; I'm guessing that she works for the city of Richmond - but that's just a guess.

The "sort of" comment refers to the fact that Google can be SCARY sometimes. I actually added the 3 Richmond community blogs & the mystery children's librarian blog myself. Google automatically added all the blogs I'm following from my blogger account - and Google took all of my photos from the blog and "just" added them all to my email Picassa account in a blog folder! Maybe it's just me, but that is just a little bit creepy...

Why sometimes it's GOOD to lose...

I collect old 1840's to 1920's blown hyacinth glass vases (preferably in cobalt blue shades). Recently on eBay one appeared that I wanted to add to my collection. I had received some eBay gift cards for Christmas that I had been saving for just this occasion. Unfortunately, someone else really wanted the same vase. Usually I place a bid on the last day, keeping in mind what is the "maximum" cost I'm willing to go up to. If the bid goes over my maximum - then so be it, I don't keep bidding.

In this case, I lost my head and ended up in a bidding war over the last 34 minutes of the auction. Each time I upped my bid (already over the max I had alotted) I kept telling myself that I would go "no higher". Of course I did. I lost the auction in the last minute - and did I ever feel relieved! I knew I had gone higher than the vase was worth (I had at least researched it before bidding).

Serendipty smiled, because a week later a similar blown vase from the same maker and time period appeared on eBay. This time, I got the vase - at 1/2 the price I would have paid if I had actually won my bidding war! Sometimes, losing is indeed a "good thing". :)

Snow at last!

At last - a decent snowfall for the Richmond area! It is just beautiful. I filled up the bird feeders on my apartment patio because when it snows, the birds really show up in force. Today is no exception - I just counted 26 birds on my little bitty patio. Lots of goldfinches, a couple of cardinals, juncos, blue jays, a mockingbird, white-throated sparrows, chickadees, tufted titmice, nuthatch, carolina wren, pair of downy woodpeckers, a red-bellied woodpecker and even a thrasher. I wish I had the type of camera that can get nice close-up pictures of the birds, but sadly I don't.

Gray Day

Well today isn't a beautiful day. I'm just hanging out on the couch, watching bad reality tv and taking cold medicine. Sadly, I seem to have caught my fellow office mate's cold. I hate cold's - they are so annoying! I'm already looking forward to getting over this one so I can breathe again.

I finished reading earlier today the book "Septembers of Shiraz" for my book discussion this week. This was a much easier/quicker read than my last discussion title: "What is the What".

It's a beautiful day!

I'm just back from a walk along the James River at Pony Pasture. It's amazing how just breathing the fresh air and hearing the gurgling of the river just melts the stress away. I'm seeing hints of spring in the beginnings of buds on some of the trees, so it's hard to imagine that it will be cold again in just a day or two.

Mad Bunny - who says a bunny has to be cute?

Well, it's a start...

There's definitely more I want to do, but here's my first attempt at a blog. It's definitely been interesting!