Week 3: Flickr, Podcasting, and Vodcasting

Determined to introduce our equally famous selves to winged San Jose City media stars, the three peregrine youngsters, Zhar and I are still roosting on campus. Zhar, preening his glowing plumage, considers "Would I be as photogenic as those falcon triplets?" I've been digesting peaches and attending to a few still sticky feathers, so my answer is succinct. "It depends on the camera, the vision of the photographer, and clever editing." Tonight I intend to secretly fly into David Free's wiki and David Lee King's website to hunt for pod/vodcasting tools that will fit into Zhar's sturdy satchel. "Excuse me, sir, madam." We both look up startled. A large crow has quietly (for a crow) joined us. "You appear to be of a theatrical character, yes?" "Yes, and no," says Zhar. "It so happens that I am the publicity agent for a newly formed San Jose theatre troupe and thought you might be members of a foreign touring company." We stare at him so he goes on, hopping back and forth on black stick feet. "We are as yet a small number of actors and actresses, with a property manager, Fluffovits, a director Mr. Osmandius, a producer Mr. Goodnight, and myself. It's an all animal/bird troupe. No humans to allowed to join." "What sort of repertoire do you perform?" asks the experienced Zhar. "Aesop's Fables for starters, but we are working up some original material to fit our special talents. What we are most in need of is a venue, a place to perform, a stage to strut on." The peaches must now be thoroughly digested, because a clever idea pops into my head. "What about making a video of your act?" I've caught Mr. Publicity by surprise. Crows do think they know all the tricks. "How would we do that?" he croaks. "See this lovely bird hotel we're perched on? It's a library. A library means an audience of kids and a gaggle of librarians hoping to find programs to entertain and instruct them. As a novice troupe you might not want to perform publicly but a video of your act added to this library's website could be a perfect solution for their problems and yours." "I see I have a lot to learn from such well-travelled, technologically aware avians," says Mr. Crow (quite humbly for a corvid). "I'll get right on this proposal. Thanks, and hope to see you around later." Zhar and I watch him take off a bit awkwardly with my idea in his craw. What do they teach these Silicon Valley avians!

Week 3: Flickr, Podcasting, and Vodcasting

A dip in the campus fountain removes the incriminating peach juice. Zhar reminds me Flickr is next on our itinerary. Naturally he wants to find a picture of himself. But I instruct him first to pick the "jaguar" tag (I'd never seek out a member of the cat family unless it was a sphinx) while I search for "librarian" (and "Melusina"). Then together we'll browse the Libraries and Librarians group. My Melusina search led me to Sirena del Sol, who has a wonderful gallery of siren artwork. I've left her my Flickr nest address in case she would like to meet a real sirin of the air and view my collection of watercolors which include Awakening. Question after sorting librarian by "most interesting": Are human beings always more interesting if they wear glasses? Zhar joins me, puzzling over the oddities of tagging. "What do a cat and a car have in common besides the letters "ca?" "I suppose you found the tag "Firebird?" He inclines his head glumly. Our group exploration proves very tantalizing. We swoop into several links, finally landing in a Second Life virtual world inhabited by Rowdykians. Another question: Where are these Rowdykians living their First Life? Time to take care of our present avian one by filling our empty stomachs.

Week 2: RSS, Wikis, My Space, and Other Online Communities

Far better than a market stall is a peach tree heavily laden with fragrantly inviting fruit. I am not a fruitarian but neither will I ungraciously refuse nature's proffered menu. We munch messily and review our travels. As required in my flight instructions for Week 2, I have set up a roost at Google Reader, installing 5 blog feeds: Caveat Lector, The Goblin, Leaping Librarian, Librarian in Black, and Tame the Web. Then we doubled back to Bloglines, as I had promised Zhar, to drop these same "feeds" (what a satisfying term) into my library folder already packed with goodies. Browsing here saves me foraging. As thoughtfully suggested by our travel guide we visited her Bloglines roost, opening the Librarians & Library Related folder to excitedly discover A Wandering Eyre. "An avian's journal?" Sadly, no. Merely the peripatetic musings of a human librarian. Once again airborne Zhar asks, "Do you think I should sign up for a roost in MySpace such as Ann Arbor District Library created?" forgetting how many centuries ago he was a teenbird. "That would be like choosing a diet of pretty sugar-frosted confections, not at all good for an adult avian," I admonish, noticing my chest feathers have become sticky. "My Own Cafe isn't a bonbon." In fact, it isn't even the sort of cafe Zhar imagined it when he had proposed visiting to order a glass of tea. We agree that My Own Cafe was a treat while we eye a lovely fat bunch of grapes in this garden. Unfortunately the grape vine is guarded by a green macaw wearing a soldierly red feather headband, who upon sighting us shouts "Thieves! Police!" from his window post, immediately alerting two small spitz dogs armed with vicious barks. To our further discomfiture a black cat smirks from an adjacent window. Not the spot for more quiet conversation.

Week 2: RSS, Wikis, My Space, and Other Online Communities

Zhar and I are perched companionably near the SJPL Staff Development & Training blog, which we have graciously been permitted to visit even though we aren't employees. "Very useful," Zhar concludes from his experience working for theatre and opera companies, while I attend to cleaning my claws. It's been a busy seven days darting from wiki to wiki, chasing RSS feeds, and hanging out on MySpace branches. We searched Hennepin County Public Library's Catalog for cookery (an excellent breakfast choice); darted back to Ohio University to see the Biz Wiki (good resources); hopped over to St. Joseph County Public Library; roosted briefly in Roc Wiki, then zoomed back to Davis Wiki in California. Having flapped through several thousand birthdays, one's wings will ache after such overexertion. So, why wiki? There seem to be many reasons to do so. I've been swinging thoughtfully on our bough by the library, listening to Zhar's musings on the value of blogs and wikis. "A wiki is like a larder where one stores supplies. Suppliers can pop in and put goods on the appropriate shelf." "This century, humans would think of a refrigerator," I amend. "Whether you call it a larder, pantry, or refrigerator, we can't do without a place to put food. Now a blog gives me a stage from which to discuss something, preferably of immediate concern, such as what are we having for dinner tonight, while providing you, the audience, a way to express your opinion. Let's take this San Jose Library. It's got a lot of goods stacked up in its website; the problem may be to find out on which shelf in which pantry. Keeping stock fresh isn't a difficulty since designated staff can add content to the various refrigerators (or databases). Would a wiki system offer a quicker way to retrieve the ingredients for one's meal?" Zhar pauses for dramatic effect. "It's easier to blog-talk, than to wikiize information. Now, how about a bit of San Jose farmers market research while stalls are still open before we go on to the topics of RSS and MySpace?"

Week 1: More about Social Software, and Blogs

An easy flight west again to San Jose's Dr. King Library and San Jose State University on whose campus we hope to meet a famous peregrine falcon family. "Does this library have a blog," asks Zhar. "There are several branch blogs on this library's tree: Almaden and Seventrees. I expect every branch will have one, once library administration has come up with a design template, guidelines for content, a plan for sharing skills and responsibility for weekly postings." This sort of complicated planning always delights a byzantine bird. "The SJLibrary.org website," I explain, "is very complex because it provides information about two different entities: a public library and a university library. Imagine two trees grafted together which still branch out to produce different fruit." (Oops, Zhar is looking hungry again.) "The website is shared wood, but blogs could be the several sorts of fruit, satisfying very different customer needs." "Immediate needs," murmurs, Zhar, eyeing a campus fig tree. "Blogs are a comfortable way of making friends," I continue, ignoring his hint. " I suppose it's a question of deciding which communities of friends a library wants to attract. There could be a blog for seniors (sort-lived humans have serious problems with aging), for children (Conroy Cougar can earn his keep), for business-minded city citizens, for parents who never have enough time or resources, and a blog to assist students find their library footing, and so on." "I might have an idea, too," suggests Zhar, "if I just munch a fig or two." Well, that's a firebird's genetic relationship to a kitchen stove for you.

Week 1: Social Software, and Blogs

Anticipating a strenuous trip of four weeks, Zhar insisted on a short detour to hunt some lizards for his satchel while I read Time to Check: Are You Using the Right Blogging Tool? by Susanna Gardner. This left me wondering if I should change my present nest to one on a WordPress tree. Again provisioned we took off to Ann Arbor District Library Directory's blog, the first stop on our flight plan. I was very impressed by the pleasing orderliness of this library's site design (I am still reorganizing my roost to achieve this). I felt welcomed and fed with interesting tidbits, lingering to explore AXIS which was promoting an event featuring one of my favorite poets, Rumi. Zhar flushed with enthusiasm darted off to New Jersey's Old Bridge Library Weblog, where he misjudged his landing, and, plumage and spirits river-dampened, had to flutter awkwardly back west to dry off in Marin County Free Library blog. I also ventured east to visit Binghamton University Science blog and Ohio University Libraries Business blog. Not being a scientific or entrepreneurial minded avian, I can only imagine how useful these tools are for a human student. I have collected my rumpled colleague for a luncheon break of black tea and some California smelt sandwiches, which, of course, we will compare with our delectable ones made of Riga smelt. Now fortified for further flight, we agree that Ann Arbor Library is a roost to return to.

An Unexpected Entanglement

This delicious satchel of snacks provided with such forethought by my brilliant companion has sustained us during a most unforeseen and uncomfortable stopover. To put it simply and with a bit of embarrassment, I had upgraded my flight apparatus for this trip and have experienced a nasty glitch that has left me grounded (so to speak) on a tree in a local forest for a fortnight. It has been especially comforting to have his meals of sympathy and advice during the long hours spent disentangling and restraightening feathers (birdie softwear). Today my avian parts are fully restored to operation and the satchel contains only a few hopeful ants. So now upward and onward.