Week 9 - Thing 23 - Summary

Well...I've reached the end of "23 Things"!! and I feel like I've really learned quite a bit about technology on the internet. I think some of my favorite exercises included: creating a blog (now I get it!!) and learning about podcasts. I had actually already participated in a podcast with a page at Eldersburg, but never realized how she was going to use my voice and our discussion to create a "podcast". Somewhere...I might be "famous". I can see the benefits of blogging just by reading other peoples blogs and learning what they're thinking about the very same things I'm doing... I think this program has helped me realize just how much you can do with a computer and on the internet and now I feel that I can actually use some of the things I learned here in both my everyday life and my work life. Growing up without the benefit of the internet I think limited my idea of learning to just books, lectures, etc. this program made me realize just how much you can learn just by trying new things....
If something like this was offered again I would certainly try it. I was trying to think of ways to improve on the program, but nothing comes immediately to mind because we had plenty of time to do the 23 things and everything was well described. I guess I'd describe my learning experience with this program as "expanding my potential and my abilities."

Week 9 - Thing 22- Audiobooks

I looked at Overdrive and Project Gutenberg. Because I've had training in Overdrive, it was fairly easy for me to find the titles I was interested in. I am going to go home and try checking out a title and downloading it to my laptop. Actually I was hoping to use the MP3 player we will receive after finishing 23 things to download a book or two also. I usually don't enjoy "listening" to books because I get distracted more easily but I'll give it a try.
Project Gutenberg was really interesting to me. I picked a favorite author, Jane Austen and proceeded to find A Memoir of Jane Austen (written by her nephew) as well as Lady Susan....This is something I think I would use quite often. It just amazed me what was ontained in this website.

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17797

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/lsusn11.txt

Week 9 - Thing 21 - Podcasts

For this exercise I chose two podcast sites to add to my bloglines account. The first was Book Voyages http://feeds.feedburner.com/BookVoyages. I found this podcast interesting because it contained author interviews, book reviews and reading ideas for children's books. I thought it would be good to keep in touch with children's literature as I now work in the adult department. I guess I just needed a "children's literature fix".
The second podcast I subscribed to was Collected Comics Library. I chose this one because my son is a comic book collector and enthusiast and I thought it would help him with this collecting.
http://collectedcomicslibrary.com/rss/podcast_ccl.xml. I also looked at some podcasts that had video w/them and these were the ones I enjoyed the most.... The voice only podcasts held almost no interest for me at all.
In general, I found podcasts to be "somewhat" boring. I guess it has to do with the sites being strictly audio and sometimes I found the podcasts to be "droning". I actually have participated in a podcast with a fellow staff member, Natalie Tier. She had to creat a podcast for an assignment in school about libraries and she asked me to participate. It was basically an interview about my job, etc.

Week 9 - Thing 20 - YouTube

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=library+dancing


I started exploring Youtube with the search "library fun". Needless to say I was a bit naive about this one....SO....I moved on to library dancing!!.. It was kind of funny to watch the videos and see just what some people think other people are interested in!! (does that make any sense?).... anyway....right now I'm looking for my daughter's videos on Youtube. When I find them (or at least one of them), I'll hook you up so you can see them. I found one!! See it below.....

Week 8 - Thing 19 - Web 2.0 Awards List

First I looked at Cocktail Builder (strictly for research purposes!! and fun!!). It was kind of cool to find all the different cocktails you could make with what you had in the house. Alright...you might have to jet out for some more ingredients but...who cares!!
Then I looked at Library Thing....again the research thing. I really liked the area where you could put in what you enjoyed reading and up popped a list of other titles you might enjoy. (Book Suggestions).
I also enjoyed searching around the Groups section. That was really neat. I intend to go back there and search some more about YA Literature and what everyone is reading.....

http://www.librarything.com/groups/readyalit

Week 8 - Thing 18 - Online Productivity Tools

Hello!! I'm here at writer.zoho.com!! I'm going to play with it for awhile and try to learn something about it's features.

♥ I guess I just learned I can insert characters.

This is an easy way to create posts and publish them in your blog as well as create docuements when Word might not be available.

Week 7 - Thing 17 - SandBox wiki

This was fun!! I added my blog to the favorite blogs section and added a comment on some recently read books to the favorite books section and the currently reading section, I even linked them with our catalog!! Since I'm always looking for good young adult books to read, I figured I'd share some with others. :)



http://marylandlibrariessandbox.pbwiki.com/Favorite%20Books

Week 7 - Thing 16 - Wikis

Wow!! I really liked this exercise. I could see so many applications for wikis. Libraries could have wikis that patrons could add to expressing their opinions on books they read recently. (this reminds me of Amazon's patron critiques of books). I liked the idea of being able to look up a book and finding other books that are similiar (easily) and in the case of crafts or health care, finding local businesses that can help you. For instance, if you're looking for information on massage, not only could you find a book (or two) that would be relevant but also businesses that offer massages!! What a great community building tool!! Patrons could add to the wiki with opinions on the businesses and the books. I could see this being very interesting and possibly helpful in getting more people (and maybe younger people) to keep using the library. It would be more relevant.

Week 6 - Thing 15 - Web 2.0/Library 2.0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_2.0

http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/6.htm

Both of these perspectives focus on the need to "build" our libraries for the future. They look at libraries not just as "buildings with books", but as active parts of the community. Places for people to get information and network with others, but not necessarily just while they're in the library! As our world is changing constantly with the advent of new and more pervasive technology, the libraries of the future will too have to change to be relevant to the communities they serve.
Library 2.0 to me is a learning and growing experience, both for the library and the people who choose to work in them in the future. Information, community building and relevancy are all a part.

Week 6 - Thing 14 - Technorati and Tags

Once again an interesting site and I knew nothing about it!! (I'm guessing it's a generational thing). I did the keyword searches using blog posts, tags and the blog directory. I got different results for each one. Using the blog posts I got a bunch of blog sites only. When I used the tags option I got alot less blog posts but I got some video and photo options as well. The blog directory when searching for Learning 2.0 got me nothing.
It was interesting to search around in the favorite blog, top searches and top blogs sections too. You kept seeing the same things over and over again....but..it was fun to click on the entries and see what came up. I got some laughs out of this but I think it could be fun to play with some more.....maybe later?

Week 6 - Thing 13 - Del.icio.us

This site was actually alot of fun. I created my own account and was able to bookmark things that interested me as "favorites". I could see using this quite a bit for research purposes and just general interest items. I created a favorites list with articles about "stress" (not a surprise) and then another one that had information on television and "fun", just to counteract the "stress" one. I think it would be interesting to try this for reader's advisory and critical analysis of works also.