LATI Mystery Shopping

My first job ever was in a grocery store. I started as a bagger, worked my way up "the ranks" to cashier and, lastly, to office cashier. (You know the girl who cashes checks and prints out lottery tickets? That was me.) I started at age 14 and ended my stint at 24, so I feel extremely well-schooled in the concept of customer service. I'm a bit of an idealist with regard to customer service.

As a separate side note (and critical to this mystery shopping expose), I am a magazine junkie. I have been reading magazines since I was 14, starting with the quintessential young girl read: Seventeen. I will keep the final tally of magazine subscriptions I get a mystery, but just know it is a lot. I will share with you my recent experience in trying to order a magazine from a discount seller online.

I will keep the seller's name anonymous. I had purchased a few subscriptions in the past and was pleased with the service overall. Last March (yes, March), I was renewing a magazine and added another for a sale price. I was told that I would start receiving the magazine in July. So I waited. And waited. It's now approaching November, and I still haven't received it.

I am pretty tenacious. I have followed up with phone calls, e-mails and many an expletive shouted in my own head. Monday, I e-mailed customer service and was notified that I would received my first issue no later than the end of this month. So, I will see what happens.

I've decided that when my subscription runs out, I won't be using the service again. But some people don't realize that buyers hold a lot of power. We can spend our money in a variety of shopping outlets. The small gestures of good customer service can translate to big bucks. It really is about "power to the people."

#23 Final Destination...

I really appreciate this 23 Things journey, especially since I've never been one of those overzealous folks who embraces technological changes. I'm in no way a dinosaur, mind you.

I'm pretty practical, so I approached this from the standpoint of, Will this help me better serve customers? I say, Yes when it comes to RSS feeds, blogging, Zoho Writer, wikis, downloadable books and podcasts. Personal takeaways that I enjoyed and will use: Del.icio.us and image generators.

I thought the discovery process was beneficial; I valued the self-paced program and incentive (MP3 player) given at the onset. I was surprised I enjoyed 23 Things as much as I did... I only wish it hadn't taken me so long to complete.

I welcome the next discovery journey!

#22 Net Library

I think this a useful tool and see myself utilizing the site with helping customers. Although I couldn't locate specific titles of supreme interest to me, I did stumble upon a book I thought looked interesting: University of Hard Knocks (very apropos in describing my journey in discovering technology).

#21 Beowulf Podcast

I'm not really into epic-style movies, but I am impressed with all the hype surrounding the upcoming release of Beowulf (out November 16). If you go to beowulfmovie.com (I found the info from podcast.net.), you can preview the trailer and listen to podcasts from the actors who were involved in the movie. I listened to the podcast of Robin Wright Penn (wife of Sean Penn and a great actor in her own right). The cool (and useful) thing about podcasting is the ability to do this anywhere. Wright Penn delivered hers while on vacation in Hawaii. How cool is that?

This would be a great vehicle for intervewing authors about their work and tying the information in with new book releases.

#20 You Tube

This wasn't my first visit (or last) to YouTube. I like it because it serves as a vehicle for anyone to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame. I don't like it because it serves as a vehicle for anyone to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame!

I checked mostly entertainment-related videos such as Amy Winehouse's Back to Black video and a few recent interviews with Joaquin Phoenix and Eva Mendes for their movie: We Own the Night, which was excellent by the way. I also got a few giggles from watching the video: Dachshunds Gone Wild! It plays out like a typical day in my household.

I think podcasts would serve as a better format through which the Library could document programs (such as Evening in the Stacks).

#19 - Cocktailbuilder.com

What a fun web site! For those who are cocktail connoisseurs, this is the site for you. You can get the recipes for drinks, recommend your favorite drinks, as well as get suggestions on drink recipes based on the liquors you have in your cabinet.

I don't see this having any practical use in the Library. However if the site was revamped to offer reader's advisory recommendations from our Librarians or based on book genre, that is another thing all together.

Cheers!

;)

#18 - Zoho Writer: Me Likey!

I explored Zoho Writer and created a sign-up sheet, with a table, for my Teen Time book club. What a cool application! I can see myself using this program more often in the future. It's very user-friendly.

#17

It felt a bit empowering to add my blog to the sandbox, I must say. I also added one of my favorite childhood book titles, too.

I think wikis do enable non-HTML folks the opportunity to share valuable content. Also, it is a good information-swapping tool. (I do have the option to change my mind...)

-C ... a.k.a. Just another Indian...

#16 - The Wonderful World of Wikis

My opinion of wikis is this: Too many Indians, not enough Chiefs. On the same lines of blogging, wikis open themselves up to too many opinions and no controlling or editorial mechanism.

However, I won't completely poo-poo the concept. I found the SJCPL Subject Guides very comprehensive, the tutorials in Library 2.0 in 15 Minutes a Day extremely customer-friendly, the Book Lovers Wiki Amazon.com-esque and the ALA 2006 New Orleans wiki a great idea we could steal for planning Evening in the Stacks.

I think for us wikis would work well for reader's advisory and customer book reviews. They could also complement some of our programming (with regard to registration, book club discussions, and program follow-up).

#15

I read Away from the Icebergs, Into a New World of Librarianship and To a Temporary Place in Time.

Here are my thoughts, as a -- not quite green but still newbie-ish- library associate:

1) We have come a long way from paper card catalogs and microfilm (although still available at Central for those who cannot part with it). And the years ahead will bring new opportunities as we coast along the information highway of technology. But... (and this is a big butt), despite our advances, we will always have customers who still want you to teach them, who still want you to do things for them. I would call it assisted-self service. With Web 2.0, I'm glad to have some working knowledge for those customers who want the information even if I have to hand-hold them (after, of course, I finish holding my own hand;).

2. From ...New World of Librarianship: "Decisions and plans are discussed in open forums and comments answered." Ideally, that would be great. So would the Librarian 2.0 who "listens to staff and users when planning, tells the stories of successes and failures, learns from both, celebrates those successes ..." I implore you to rise to the occasion and live the dream!!

3. From To a Temporary Place in Time...: I believe as library associates we have a responsibility to our library as a community. It isn't simply about the books or documents ... or even the budding technology of Web 2.0, it's about community. About building experiences and mainstays for our patrons. For without the customers and community involvement there would be only books and no users.

Technorati

I guess opinions are like blogs... it seems like every opinionated person has one. Geez. I wish people proofread what they are putting out there. The typos abound! Some of the stuff on Technorati is trash. The guy who posts his income is a bit freaky. If there is a topic you are eager to read about, Technorati has everything under the kitchen sink. I do like TMZ.com, among one of the most popular blogs.

When searching for Learning 2.0, I found 22,211 posts, 632 blogs in the blog directory and a number of tags. As I was searching Technorati, the number of blog posts continued to grow... it's amazing.

I don't want to claim my tag. I'd rather keep my opinions to myself! :)

Del.icio.us

I normally don't bookmark my frequently visited sites, so this was a nice and efficient tool to use. I found it interesting that 2776 other people tagged thesuperficial.com. (Here I thought it wasn't a mainstream site!) However, I don't see myself using this tool to see what my friends are bookmarking. That seems a little intrusive to me, in my opinion.

Rollyo

I liked creating my Rollyo search roll and seeing what other sites people are interested in. Because the web can be such an overwhelming place/experience, it's nice to get mindshare from folks on different subjects with mere clicks of the mouse. Below is the link to my rollyo... which I know is completely superficial but it's what I enjoy. And isn't that what life and the world wide web are all about? :)

http://www.rollyo.com/carmengirl/

Library Thing

I think Library Thing is pretty cool. I liked cataloguing some of my books. I like the way you can preview them based on the book covers.
This project (23 Things) has really opened my eyes to the wealth of information available at a person's finger tips. It can be overwhelming and exciting at the same time.

Whee ... more fun

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Look at Me!!!! Here's my #10

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Number 9

I've had experience with RSS feeds through a training conducted at Miller a few months ago, but I wanted to refresh my memory with things 8 and 9.

I liked feed locators Feedster and Topix.net for their user-friendliness. I jumped on Syndic8 for about two seconds, was intimidated and moved on. Technorati was interesting, although I can't say I'm really fascinated by reading people's blogs, unless I'm really fascinated with the subject matter. Although I do think blogging is a great platform for people to exchange ideas and learn from one another... perhaps build an web community of sorts.

Merlin is very comprehensive. Listened to the LibVibe podcast and completed a survey. Sometimes the wealth of information that is available is a tad overwhelming. I'm no novice of technology, but I do feel a bit like a fish out of water at times.

Thing #7 ... You Tube

People's fascination with You Tube is like that of a car crash... You don't want to look but somehow you do anyway. On the eve of Paris Hilton's release from prison, I typed in her name and stumbled across this funny video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k66epna2Sss/.

Although You Tube is very much quantity over quality, I do think it gives everyone a chance to have their so-called 15 minutes of fame in as little as 15 seconds. I stress quantity over quality because there is a lot of cute yet mediocre footage (e.g., Type in "Swimming Dachshund" and you'll know what I mean). But is an entertaining distraction.

Montagr

Had fun making a Joaquin Phoenix mosaic... Matchups are cool.

JP - Thing #5

Here's my pic from Flickr... love it.

-C

Flickr Pic

Here is one of my fave pix of Joaquin Phoenix, who I have a mad crush on:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9373899@N08/.

Blogger Newbie

This is my first time blogging, so I'm not really sure what to expect or what happens now.

So, what happens now?