Week 9, #23 - My Thoughts on Learning 2.0

This has been a great opportunity for me to gain a better understanding of Web 2.0. Much of the material was all new to me - so I feel much more comfortable now with blogging, tagging, wikis, etc. Plus, it was a fun learning journey!
My favorites were Flickr, and playing around with the online image generators. I also thought Rollyo was pretty cool.
I'm happy to have completed all the 23 things by the deadline. I had some challenges with equipment and finding time to complete the exercises, but now that I've reached the end, I realized it wasn't really that difficult. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed learning about all that was new and I feel a real sense of accomplishment at how much I learned over the last 9 weeks. Thank you Virtual Services Team for all your help!
Regarding improving this program - I know many staff members did not participate for lack of equipment at work or at home to listen to the podcasts, or a feeling that they didn't have time to complete all 23 things, so why start? We could remedy the equipment problems and we could also allow adequate time on the schedule, just as we would for any other staff training.
Another discovery program? Count me in - I hope we will all have the opportunity to participate in more programs like this one!

Week 9, #22 - Ebooks and Audio Ebooks

Well, I still would prefer to read an actual book, but when there isn't a physical copy available, ebooks are great. Audio Ebooks are terrific, but of course you have to have appropriate listening devices for the ones that you can't burn to a CD. I took a a look at SjLibrary's ebooks page. I think the page is very user-friendly. I could listen to the audio excerpts from Pimsleur and Overdrive on my work computer, so that was very cool.
I took a look also at World EBook Fair. It's good to know it's out there, but it is somewhat limited, since a book generally has to be in the public domain to be included. I found it particularly lacking in the Children's literature titles. But, if you are into long out-of-print children's books and can't find them anywhere else, maybe you can find them here.

Week 9, #21 - Podcasts

I looked at all the Discovery Resource podcast directories and liked Yahoo Podcasts the best. Unfortunately, though, I couldn't listen to any of the podcasts on my computer at work (kept getting the message "audio codec identified by the format tag 55 is required to play this file..."), so I used my home computer which had no problem. I discovered LibVibe: the Library News Podcast and added the RSS feed to my Bloglines account. Yahoo Podcasts had a link to the LibVibe webpage, which was also interesting. The LibVibe Podcasts track library news around the nation, and I found it interesting to learn about what's happening out in the library world - both the good and the not so good. Unfortunately, though, the most recent podcast is from last November, so maybe they've stopped doing them.
Having these podcast directories is great, but really, I don't really have the time to be listening to lots of podcasts. Maybe once in a while, but I'd rather use my time differently.

Week 9, #20 - Explore YouTube

YouTube is fun! You can search for all your favorite sports highlights, news events, etc. I really like all the variety. Yeah, there is a lot of trash, but one person's garbage is another's treasure, right? Who am I to judge? (Just kidding - UTube could be better if there was some kind of control! Also, some of the video quality is VERY BAD and there is a LOT OF REPETITION in postings! I picked the above video because I thought others would like it as much as I did. I think libraries could post videos of their programs (with permission from the participants of course), how about this week's Storytime on UTube?

Week 8, #19 - Take a Look at Library Thing

This is really cool. It's like your Amazon Favorites List only much better. You can see how many other people also have catalogs with your books. I was surprised to see how popular some of my choices were - the two highest were in 1,992 and 2,003 other Library Thing catalogs. Another interesting thing, all five of my titles were in another person's catalog - pretty interesting! Anyway, here's the link to my Library Thing Catalog, which is just a start with only 5 of my favorite books: http://www.librarything.com/profile/LifelongLibrarian
I thought it was amazing how some librarians have incorporated Library Thing catalogs into their library services with links to special lists of librarian-selected and new titles, including user reviews.

Week 8, #18 - Online Productivity Tools

Who needs Word for simple documents? Zoho Writer offers all the word processing basics. There are 19 fonts to choose from up to 36pt.  Documents are also easy to share.  You can easily insert images and publish to your blog. I'm sold! (oh, it's free!)

 

Note: The above was a Zoho document I published to this blog. It was so easy! This is yet another way to create documents and insert them easily into another application.

Week 7, #17 - Add an Entry to the SJLibrary Learning 2.0 Sandbox Wiki

I never realized how easy it was to set up my own wiki. I also like being able to decide who can view and edit.
I added entries to Favorite Books and Favorite Movies, including a picture. So easy!

Week 7, #16 - Wikis

The Discovery Resources for this week were super - they really gave me a good overview.
WIKIS ARE GREAT!!! Yeah, I know it's upsetting that anyone can add/edit/change entries, but I think inappropriate edits are caught and corrected in most cases. In my mind, any disadvantages are far outweighed by the advantages - easy to use, flexible, and as expansive as users desire.
The Book Lovers' Wiki was wonderful - I'd really like to see SJPL have one. I also liked the Library Success Wiki - what a great way to share best practices.
There are numerous ways libraries could use wikis. Resource guides/pathfinders, annotating the library catalog, community guides, referral guides, etc. Also, I think they can be a great communication tool for staff - kind of like an open, ongoing all-staff meeting! I think it's time to start a wiki at my branch!

Week 6, #15 - Web 2.0/Library 2.0

"Away from the 'Icebergs'" caught my eye. I like Anderson's analogy of the library as a boat surrounded by icebergs that not only threaten our progress, but also have the potential to destroy us if we refuse to shift direction. Fortunately for us, SJPL is one of those "little boats" that is, and has been, changing course. We've gotten away from the "just in case" print reference collection and have encouraged our customers to use other available resources. We've endeavored to make our e-branches more user-friendly with multiple interfaces. We've recognized that the library can exist outside of the physical building with remote access to more and more material. I think SJPL is well on it's way into the Web 2.0 environment. It's a journey we have to make, but there's no reason why we can't enjoy getting there.

What is Library 2.0? It's a strategy for constant change and continuous improvement that uses Web 2.0 technologies to encourage customer feedback and customer-driven services. It's using blogs and wikis to encourage customer interest and involvement in library services. It's the "wave of the future" that is already here - I'm just waiting for Library 3.0, 4.0, etc.

Week 6, #14 - Explore Technorati

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the Technorati videocast to play, but I read through the info. on the page.
If you have a lot of time and want to read a zillion blogs, this is the place to go to find them. If you are interested in an obscure topic, this might lead you to info. you might otherwise miss. My search for Learning 2.0 resulted in 30,704 blog posts, 264 tags, and 72 in the Blog Directory. It was interesting to look at the favorite blog sites and most popular, but really, Antonella Barba and Clay Aiken are in the top 3? What is the world coming to, anyway?
I think the advantages of tagging are that you can use the insights of others to find related things in ways you may have missed. The disadvantage, though, is that there is no control over how others tag, so you may end up with unrelated information. People may or may not be using the most appropriate words to tag, so you end up having to sift through lots of poorly tagged stuff.

Week 6, #13 - Discovering Del.icio.us

This social networking site offers a much more efficient and entertaining way to manage your bookmarks. Plus, you can network with other folks with similar interests to see what they are bookmarking. I had heard of Del.icio.us, but didn't really know anything about it. The tutorial video was very helpful, as were the resource materials. I can see how the networking aspect could really assist with research on a particular topic - after all, you can see what someone else has found, plus you can without limit categorize your bookmarks in any way that is meaningful to you. You can also see how others have tagged that bookmark, which can lead you to new ways of looking for sites that may be of interest that you would never think of yourself. Libraries can take advantage of social networking to link community users with resources in new ways. Web resources on a particular topic can have multiple tags making them easier to find by users. Users can give feedback on the usefulness of resources, and can expand the number and variety of resources found.

Week 5, Thing 12 - Explore Rollyo

Select...Recipe SearchSearch The Web

Very cool. This is a great tool. I made "Recipe Search" so that I can find all those great recipes from sites I've used in the past, but can never remember on which site I found a particular recipe. Now I can just plug in the recipe name and go right to it! Plus, I can find new recipes! I had some trouble pasting the searchroll to my blog; it kept saying there were HTML errors. I called Joe Ho for assistance (thanks Joe!), and he told me some other folks had trouble also. I was about to give up and then tried again, this time changing the color to red. The code looked the same to me, but this time it worked!

Week 5 - Thing 11 - Explore a 2.0 Award Winner site

I looked at several of the award winners. One I really liked was Craigslist, which has an ENORMOUSLY HUGE number of classified listings - Community, personals, housing, for sale, services, jobs, gigs, discussion forums. It's very extensive, but you can limit to a particular state, city, or area. So I looked at sfbay.craigslist.org. I liked the variety of listings, but there were so many to look through, and search terms seem to sometimes bring up a number of seemingly unrelated listings. but this site can't be beat - there are listings for just about everything a person could be looking for. In a library setting, I could see it being used particularly for the job listings and community categories. Lots and lots of info. and easy to use.

Week 5, Thing 10 - Image Generators

Image generators are lots of fun - I'm amazed at the possibilities. I spent way too much time playing with the ones on Generator Blog.
My movie marquee is from http://www.redkid.net/generator/sign.php

Week 4, Thing 9 - Locating RSS feeds

Well - I thought all of the search tools in this exercise had some merit. Feedster was easiest to use, but I thought the results of some of my searches were a bit off the mark. The feeds I found using Topix.net were better. I looked at Syndic8.com and Technorati, but I wasn't really interested in most of the search results - they were really all over the place and many entries seemed to be from questionable sources. I really only want a couple of RSS feeds of things I'm interested in, so I don't see myself using these search tools to find more and more, I hardly have time to look at the ones I've already got. When I see the standard feed icon, though, at least now I know how to add it to my bloglines account

Week 4, Thing 8

RSS feeds? Bloglines? I think I'm embarrassed to say I've never heard of these before this Thing. So wow - this is great. What a great timesaver, and I can pick and choose the feeds I want to look at. This can save me a lot of time, and maybe I'll even keep better track of what's going on in the world. Libraries could have RSS feeds advertising programs, breaking news (like when Harry Potter #7 arrives at SJPL, plus what branch requested the most copies, etc.)
I couldn't find the "Share" tab, but went to the bottom left of the screen and clicked on Share. My public Blogline Account is www.bloglines.com/public/LifelongLibrarian. I checked the sjlearning public account and saw lots of participants' blog postings, but didn't see any of mine. Did I do something wrong?
Side note: I couldn't get the CNET RSS video to run for more than a few seconds before freezing. I tried mulitiple times and also on my home computer.

Week 3, Thing 7

Is there a device to give me more time? There is an overwhelming amount of technological innovation going on...who can keep up?
I do love those gadgets, though. Have you seen the PRS-500 Sony Reader? It holds 100s of books, has a paperback screen and text that looks like real ink on a real page. The battery will last for over 7500 page turns! It's $350, though, so I won't be buying one anytime soon. The way things go, a year from now it should cost $25!
Digital cameras - fantastic! And they keep getting better for less money. I just wish I'd had one 20 years ago when my kids were babies - I'd definitely have a lot more pictures of them!

Week 3, Thing 6

I had so much fun creating these. There are so many possibilities with Flickr Toys! I'm sending the top one to my sister - I think she'll like it!

Lots to learn - I really like Montagr. I need more time to explore all the 3rd party tools - how can anyone keep up with all of this?

Week 3, Thing 5

Wow! Flickr is amazing! I can share photos with my family without having to use slow-attachment opening email! This is definitely the way to go! My sister is a new grandma and keeps sending me pictures and more pictures (which I love, but gee, can't keep them all). I'm definitely going to show her Flickr.

So here's my beautiful niece and her very cute 4 month-old baby. I used Bloggers Images to post. So easy! Another great way to share pictures without using email!

Week 2, Thing 4

I've registered my blog and got the email back from the Virtual Services Team. Great! This is getting easier.

Week 2, Thing 3

This week I went back and played around with the templates and colors and made some changes. Hope you like my blog's new look!

Week 1 - Thing 1 and Thing 2

I got frustrated trying to get an available blog name. There must be a lot of bloggers out there with my same interests!
As for the 7 1/2 habits - the hardest for me is beginning with the end in mind, that is, having an end that I can realistically accomplish. I have my goals, but sometimes they are just not attainable in the time I've allowed, so I end up sometimes giving up rather than adjusting my expectations.
As to the easiest, well...that's easy - accept responsbility for your own learning. It's been that way my whole life, it seems. I'm one of those lifelong learner types, who is always looking for something new.