FluteBrarian

When I attended library school back in the dark ages of the early 1980s, my instructors always told us that there would be lots of things that we would need to do that they would never teach us. Well, I think I’m in the middle of all that these days!

What I did learn was that part of the mission of the public library was to develop collections and preserve local history for future generations. What I didn’t learn was how to scan photographs, documents, and conduct video interviews of prominent local people. Oh yeah, and then there is post production editing and creation of archival tapes and DVDs. Of course, none of these procedures existed then.

We have started identifying persons to be interviewed and over the past several weeks have conducted three interviews with another one scheduled for next week.  That, as it turns out, is the EASY part!

After taping, we load the tape into Pinnacle software for editing - Since these are oral histories, there’s not much to do to the bulk of the interview. What we do need to do is add chapters, titles, transitions in and transitions out. We check for audio levels so that all the speaking is clear and a consistent volume level.

The next part is to feed the data back to mini DV, creating a master archival copy and to create DVD copies for end users. We label the DVD using a Casio disc writer, capture a shot of the person being interviewed from the video, and then place that in a template I’ve created in Photoshop and Publisher for the cover.

But wait! We’re not done yet!

The file now needs to be converted to streaming media so that we can place it on the web. We have a Helio server so Real Media will be created, but Windows Media will probably also be created. Fortunately, Pinnacle can handle all these formats with ease!

Final steps include creating a timeline, indexing, and *gulp* transcribing. Well, two out of three learned in library school will be useful. Transcription skills, anyone?

Yeah, I know. What happened to day 1? We’ve jumped from pre-conference to day 2. Well, day 1 was pretty hectic with the opening session (Larry Irving was terrific), poster sessions, and three terrific afternoon sessions, well, for the most part anyway.

After the sessions, we grabbed an early dinner at the hotel and then on to hear Mark Russell in the aptly named Mark Russell Martini Lounge at the hotel. He came for two weeks and stayed for 20 years! In this year of the presidential election, there is certainly plenty of fodder for political satirists. In other words, he was terrific!

The evening was capped off with the annual Innovative dessert reception. They had wonderful cherry and apple cobblers with a big scoop of ice cream on top. On our way to get a drink, we ran into friends from Buffalo who we haven’t seen in probably 15 years or more. It was good to catch up, but we never made it past the corner of the room the whole evening.

So back to day 2.

I started out with an appointment with a Baker & Taylor representative. We have just started using them as our main jobber and I needed to get more info on how their system worked and how to best work it into our workflow. It’s still a little fuzzy, but I think we’re on the right track.

As expected, Bob Duncan’s program “Webpub.def: the Untold Story” was packed. Luckily the room was changed from the postage stamp-sized room it was originally scheduled to be in. I had never heard him speak but have read his postings on the list for years. He was very thorough and led us step by step through the enigma of the dreaded webpub.def file.

I followed this with the program on editing the webPAC Pro example set. One of my goals this year was to be brave enough to face the arduous task of moving to Pro without making my site lose its clarity and branding to match the rest of our web site. After these two programs, and the prospect of release 2007 FINALLY becoming available, I think I’m ready to start tackling this project.

The day ended with our fifth traditional Ethiopian dinner. Karen J. outdid herself again this year by finding a great restaurant called Dukem. Fortunately, she also knows what all the food is on the menu and we are all too happy to let her take control and do the ordering. And it was great!

Today was the pre-conference day for the 16th annual Innovative Users Group (IUG) meeting in Washington, DC. I chose to attend the afternoon workshop on WebPAC design and must admit, it was a nice review for someone like me who has been creating web sites for nearly a decade, but I really didn’t learn much of anything new. Innovative’s workshops can be extremely informative or a bit of a let down. ‘Nuf said which this one was.

This is also a bittersweet conference since my good friend and colleague Sue McCann is retiring at the end of June and this will be her last IUG. We’ve been through a lot of discussions and sessions together as our libraries seemed to parallel each other over the past 13 years.

To celebrate, a few of us took Sue out to Old Ebbitt Grill tonight. The food was excellent and the atmosphere fun and historic. It was established in 1856 and the lobby features real gas lights.

Tomorrow brings the opening session, programs, exhibits, and of course, Innovative’s dessert reception. Yum!

It started out to be a normal March day. The sky was overcast, the ground was bare, and the streets were dry. About an hour after I got to work, the skies opened up and started dumping this white stuff all over the place. I think it was that old Groundhog’s fault - “Six more weeks of winter,” he warned back in Punxutawney. And sure enough, he was right.

For two straight days, the snow continued to fall and our small city was brought to its knees with not a car to be seen on the streets.

But, being from Western New York, we were used to it and in a strange way a bit homesick.

While I was reading through my American Libraries Online today, one of the posts caught my eye. It was The Cheat Sheet Cheat Sheet: Top 100 Lists of Web Development Cheat Sheets.

Always looking for a shortcut, I decided to give it a look. WOW! I’m definitely going to have to spend some time looking through all these great links. In fact, I found a couple that I plan to share with my beginner’s web design class when they meet for their final session tomorrow.

http://meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/popups/demo.html - How to create pop-up rollovers

There’s been a lot of talk lately on the OPLINTech list regarding OpenSource (OpenOffice) vs. Microsoft (Office 200x). Should we all abandon Microsoft and only offer the “free” OpenOffice to our staff and patrons? Are we doing our patrons a disservice by not offering the industry standard? Are there enough similarities between MS and OO to make it easy to learn one and then transfer those skills to the other?

PC Magazine recently had an article on  “The Best Office Alternatives” which outlined many of these concepts. Statistical facts from the print version of the article (Nov. 26, 2007) were missing from the online version, unfortunately.  If I remember correctly, the percentage of computer users without an office suite on their computers is up from several years ago while the percentage of users using Microsoft Office has decreased.

Is this because MS Office is too expensive? Too many features for the average user so they are relying on built-in programs like WordPad? And what of training issues? Whatever the case, we need to consider OUR users when we decide on the programs and services we offer.

Ever since we met, my husband has always wanted to go to Punxsutawney to see the groundhog. Then Bill Murray came out with the movie in 1992 and it became one of our favorites. Today, the dream finally came true and at 3 A.M. (yes, 3!) the alarm went off and we made our way into Punxsutawney to see what all the fuss was about.

After driving around town we finally found a spot to park on the street not too far from a shuttle bus stop. The line moved quickly as bus after bus filled and left for Gobbler’s Knob.

The Knob had opened at 3 a.m. for the festivities. By the time we finally made it there at 5:45 a.m. the field was filled with people. DJs, live radio broadcasts, and yes, Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” were playing over the airwaves.

Even with all our layers of clothing, heavy socks, and boots we were still pretty cold. The temperature was about 28. The crowd, estimated at about 20,000, helped to block the wind. The line for coffee and hot chocolate was about 15 minutes long but was well worth it just to get something warm in us.

At 6:30, the pre-dawn skies lit up with fireworks. Around 7:30 it was time for the Inner Circle to make their way to the stage with Phil for the moment we were all awaiting. But, with that many people in the crowd, it was impossible to see the prognostication. However, we could still hear - he saw his shadow - six more weeks of winter.

And with that, the crowd dispersed quickly and we were able to get close enough for a couple good shots. It’s amazing how much Phil’s handler looks like Bill Murray. Coincidence?

We made our way back into town on foot (about a mile and a half and all downhill!) with the rest of the crowd and finally got some blood flowing to get us warmed up. We took in the breakfast buffet at the Eagles and a couple other events before hitting the road.

It was a fun experience and definitely worth it but not one we expect to fulfill again - or will we? (cue the Sonny and Cher music …)

Yesterday, we hosted a day of eBay training for beginners. We had never offered anything like this before, and brought in a certified eBay trainer to lead the sessions. We had a large turnout, which alerted me that we had found a definite interest in the community.

Tomorrow, we are offering a program on the basics of iPods, iTunes and music on the Internet. Interest has been high for this program (offered by my husband and for the Mu Phi Epsilon Alliance Alumni Chapter) so hopefully we’ll get a good turnout for this program as well.

I’ve also been working on a hands-on program for Thursday on Blogging for Beginners. I found a good tutorial at Mahalo that will work well with the group. It’s the first time I’ll be teaching a class like this and I’m not familiar with Blogger, so it should be interesting to say the least!

Here’s to surviving the week

Recently I joined IWA (International Webmasters Association) to take advantage of the discounted cost of the offerings of eClasses.org. The class I chose is CSS 2.1 in Depth and it began on Monday.

After seeing the syllabus for the 8 week class, I see I have my work cut out for me! While I’ve been able to use CSS pretty successfully over the past few years, I’m not exactly an expert at all the intricacies nor am I comfortable with all the theory behind what makes it all work.

So, it’s back to school and time to brush up on all those details that I’ve skimmed over in the past.