Ok, so it took me a little longer than expected to get here, but I am finally here. I really enjoyed this Learning 2.0 program. It was fun and useful. I definitely feel more savvy about social networking and some of the neat things that are out there on the web.
My favorite discoveries were probably Bloglines and Pandora. These are things that I will continue to use long after the 23 Things are over. LibraryThing is also really fun, though I don't really use it that much. Perhaps one of the most valuable things about the program was to learn that blogging and these other things are not all that exotic. Regular people like you and me can create and post to a blog. I feel somewhat less out of touch than before. Even if I am not using most of these things regularly, at least I am literate about them.
It was really challenging finding the time to do these. Some weeks, I had enough time to devote to Learning 2.0. Many weeks, though, are spent just running to stand still. It's good to have a deadline, so that people are working toward a goal. On the other hand, it seemed at times somewhat unattainable, though that may be just how I prioritize things. Obviously some folks were able to finish on time. For the most part, I felt that the structure of the program was a good one. I would definitely participate in this sort of discovery program again.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Thing #22 - Take a look at the titles available on NetLibrary and learn how to download audiobooks
I had already learned a bit about NetLibrary and downloading audiobooks from Donna and Heidi's training session. It was good, though, to return and go through it on my own. It was fairly easy, having been through the training session, and having watched PMCLC's video about it. I don't know how intuitive it would have been otherwise.
I did find an audiobook to download, H.H. The Dalai Lama's The Art of Happiness at Work. However, I don't have an MP3 player (since I did not finish my 23 things in a timely fashion), so I don't know if I will actually listen to it. Still, it was an instructive exercise. Maybe I will be inspired by this to purchase an MP3 player.
I did find an audiobook to download, H.H. The Dalai Lama's The Art of Happiness at Work. However, I don't have an MP3 player (since I did not finish my 23 things in a timely fashion), so I don't know if I will actually listen to it. Still, it was an instructive exercise. Maybe I will be inspired by this to purchase an MP3 player.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Thing #21 - Discover some useful search tools for locating podcasts
It took me a very long time to find a podcast that I would actually want to subscribe to. Blogs are one thing, but actually listening to folks chatter along was not appealing. I finally found Poetry Moment. (http://poetrymoment.podomatic.com/) Some gal reading the classics. She's not a great reader, but that's probably all for the better. Why not take a moment to listen to poetry? This is an instance where I find a podcast to be better than a blog, because poetry should be read aloud. This is a good use of podcasting, in my opinion.
I found podcastalley.com to be the way to go for searching for podcasts. It was very easy to use, and brought a good assortment of results. I was not able to load podcast.net at all, and I did not care for Yahoo Podcasts. It seemed really clunky after podcastalley.com. Besides, podcastalley is a much cooler name.
I found podcastalley.com to be the way to go for searching for podcasts. It was very easy to use, and brought a good assortment of results. I was not able to load podcast.net at all, and I did not care for Yahoo Podcasts. It seemed really clunky after podcastalley.com. Besides, podcastalley is a much cooler name.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thing #20 - Discover YouTube
One of my all time favorites on YouTube is March of the Librarians (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Td922l0NoDQ). It is an extraordinary look at this very interesting species. I especially value it for its footage of male librarian facial plumage. It is one of the more fascinating documentaries I have seen in some time.
YouTube has a tremendous amount of crap on it, but many gems. I have seen lots of humorous videos at this site. I would never have known about Weird Al's White and Nerdy, if it weren't for YouTube.
YouTube has a tremendous amount of crap on it, but many gems. I have seen lots of humorous videos at this site. I would never have known about Weird Al's White and Nerdy, if it weren't for YouTube.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Thing #19 - Explore any site from the Web 2.0 awards list, play with it ...
Ever since Staff Day, I have been wanting to try Pandora, but have been too busy messing around with all these other "Things", and haven't gotten around to it. Fortunately, Pandora was a Web 2.0 nominee, so I am able to check it out here, at Station #19.
Pandora lets you type in an artist or song, and it will create a "radio station" based on that type of music. It's part of the Music Genome Project, which is awesome just for the name if for no other reason. It's very useful because quite often I'm too lazy to search for more music of the type that I like. For instance, I was starting to become tired of the CD I've been listening to endlessly lately, but wanted more music like it. Pandora is perfect for this. Also, it's nice to have an easy source of music for listening to at work (with earphones, of course) without having to drag around CDs, or even an MP3 player. Pretty cool.
I think this will help me return to my much more eclectic tastes in music. They have become more homogenized due to laziness. The downside is all those Toyota adds.
Pandora lets you type in an artist or song, and it will create a "radio station" based on that type of music. It's part of the Music Genome Project, which is awesome just for the name if for no other reason. It's very useful because quite often I'm too lazy to search for more music of the type that I like. For instance, I was starting to become tired of the CD I've been listening to endlessly lately, but wanted more music like it. Pandora is perfect for this. Also, it's nice to have an easy source of music for listening to at work (with earphones, of course) without having to drag around CDs, or even an MP3 player. Pretty cool.
I think this will help me return to my much more eclectic tastes in music. They have become more homogenized due to laziness. The downside is all those Toyota adds.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Thing #18 - Take a look at some online productivity (word processing, spreadsheet) tools
Wow, Zoho is really complete. They really do give Microsoft Office a run for their money. I like the "tags as folders" idea. That's pretty handy, and trés 2.0. The document sharing is a nice feature too. I think it's a little foreign to the way we are used to doing things, but once people mess around with it, I think it will be popular. The Spanish Practice Group used Writely (now Google Docs) to work on the translation of the library brochure.
I really don't like emoticons. But I thought I'd try it, just for the practice.
I like how easy the special characters are to use! Much easier than Microsoft. I will do all my Spanish documents with Zoho!
←↑→↓↔◊♥♦∩©¥ Groovy!
I did not mean to write this. Wow, everything is so easy with this toolbar. The strikethrough is right there. I know all this stuff is there somewhere in Word, but it's always a little bit of a hunt. With Zoho, it's very intuitive. Nifty.
Don't you just love tables?
Well, I published this from Zoho. The formatting came out a little weird, and the emoticon didn't show, but other than that it's not bad. I'm impressed with Zoho. I think I'll use it in the future. You can even print out in PDF format so it doesn't look like a printed webpage. And it's easy to register for and use, so it will be useful for patrons who want word processing.
I really don't like emoticons. But I thought I'd try it, just for the practice.I like how easy the special characters are to use! Much easier than Microsoft. I will do all my Spanish documents with Zoho!
←↑→↓↔◊♥♦∩©¥ Groovy!
I did not mean to write this. Wow, everything is so easy with this toolbar. The strikethrough is right there. I know all this stuff is there somewhere in Word, but it's always a little bit of a hunt. With Zoho, it's very intuitive. Nifty.
| Catfish | 8 | 9 | 7 | 6 |
| Poodle | ocho | six | ||
| Squirrel | huit | ninety-seven |
Don't you just love tables?
Well, I published this from Zoho. The formatting came out a little weird, and the emoticon didn't show, but other than that it's not bad. I'm impressed with Zoho. I think I'll use it in the future. You can even print out in PDF format so it doesn't look like a printed webpage. And it's easy to register for and use, so it will be useful for patrons who want word processing.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Thing #17 - Add an entry to the 2.0 SandBox Wiki
The 2.0 SandBox Wiki was fun. I guess it was just an opportunity to get people to see how easy it is to add content to a wiki, as well as to see that you can use a wiki to share neat ideas with others and get neat ideas from them. So simple!
Thing #16 - Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them
These wikis seem pretty useful in a library setting. I like what our library is doing as far as staff wikis go. The 23 things wiki, the DVD locked cases wiki, the Staff Development wiki, etc, are all pretty useful, and easy to use.
As for what other libraries have done with wikis that the public can use, I like the Book Lovers Wiki from Princeton Public Library. Reviews are a nice way for the community to connect, and makes people feel involved with the library.
As for what other libraries have done with wikis that the public can use, I like the Book Lovers Wiki from Princeton Public Library. Reviews are a nice way for the community to connect, and makes people feel involved with the library.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Thing #15 - Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 etc.
For the most part, these articles did not grab me. I was fairly uninspired. I was most interested in Dr. Wendy Schultz's article To a Temporary Place in Time. I like her idea that individual books might have their own avatars and online personalities. I would love to have the job of creating avatars for books!
I liked the way she explained Library 1.0-4.0. The thing that keeps getting brought up is that Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 is that it's about community, and about user involvement. I think in many ways it's about relying on community instead of experts. The library keeps trying to find ways that it can get in on the 2.0 thing. I think that by definition, almost, libraries are too much an institution to really be 2.0. The idea that people will "collect" virtual librarians is wishful thinking, in my opinion. Ultimately, I think we will continue to be mostly 1.0. That doesn't mean we shouldn't learn about 2.0, or shouldn't pursue it to some extent. I think libraries should support 2.0 technology, and be 2.0 savvy. I just don't think that the concept of "librarian" is 2.0, so let's not kid ourselves. Fortunately, in Dr. Schultz's vision, Library 4.0 won't replace 1.0-3.0, but will incorporate them. That's the most sensible thing I've heard yet.
I liked the way she explained Library 1.0-4.0. The thing that keeps getting brought up is that Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 is that it's about community, and about user involvement. I think in many ways it's about relying on community instead of experts. The library keeps trying to find ways that it can get in on the 2.0 thing. I think that by definition, almost, libraries are too much an institution to really be 2.0. The idea that people will "collect" virtual librarians is wishful thinking, in my opinion. Ultimately, I think we will continue to be mostly 1.0. That doesn't mean we shouldn't learn about 2.0, or shouldn't pursue it to some extent. I think libraries should support 2.0 technology, and be 2.0 savvy. I just don't think that the concept of "librarian" is 2.0, so let's not kid ourselves. Fortunately, in Dr. Schultz's vision, Library 4.0 won't replace 1.0-3.0, but will incorporate them. That's the most sensible thing I've heard yet.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Thing #14 - Explore Technorati and learn how tags work with blog posts
Technorati leaves me cold. I didn't feel particularly inspired by this Thing, as I have with some others. Doing a search on Technorati seemed no less overwhelming and random than searches on the web itself. Like elsewhere, just a bunch of clutter and junk to prune through.
It seemed sort of redundant too, like it provided a lot of overlap with what del.icio.us provides. I created an account, just to see if that improved things (as I found with del.icio.us), but no. I felt that my bloglines account and my del.icio.us account provided much the same features, but were more fun, and easier to use.
It was somewhat interesting to see the differences between searching blogs and searching tags.
It seemed sort of redundant too, like it provided a lot of overlap with what del.icio.us provides. I created an account, just to see if that improved things (as I found with del.icio.us), but no. I felt that my bloglines account and my del.icio.us account provided much the same features, but were more fun, and easier to use.
It was somewhat interesting to see the differences between searching blogs and searching tags.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Thing #13 - learn about tagging and discover Del.icio.us
Well, I didn't think I was going to think much of Del.icio.us, but boy is it addictive. Just looking around was not all that interesting, but once I created an account and started adding my own bookmarks, I really got hooked. It was somewhat fascinating to me to find out how many other people had a particular site bookmarked, and what they had to say about the sites. This could turn into a huge time waster for me. I think it has a very similar appeal to LibraryThing. And like LibraryThing, while I was very enthused at first, I probably won't end up spending that much time on it in the long run. Still, I'm glad to have checked it out.
One thing I especially liked was adding bookmarks for sites belonging to friends of mine who are film makers, or are otherwise in need of publicity. I hope that someone will stumble upon their sites this way. For three out of the four like this that I posted, I was the first to post the bookmark. However, one was already out there, which pleased and surprised me.
Again, using it at work is not jumping immediately to mind. The possibilities are there, I have no doubt. I think this is another effect of working on the Circ Side (was that the Dark Side, you said? No? My mistake.) as opposed to the Reference Side of Life.
One thing I especially liked was adding bookmarks for sites belonging to friends of mine who are film makers, or are otherwise in need of publicity. I hope that someone will stumble upon their sites this way. For three out of the four like this that I posted, I was the first to post the bookmark. However, one was already out there, which pleased and surprised me.
Again, using it at work is not jumping immediately to mind. The possibilities are there, I have no doubt. I think this is another effect of working on the Circ Side (was that the Dark Side, you said? No? My mistake.) as opposed to the Reference Side of Life.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Thing #12 - Roll your own search roll with Rollyo
Well, I explored Rollyo, and I registered with Rollyo, but I did not roll my own search roll with Rollyo. I think Rollyo is a neat idea, and I think I may have use for search rolls that other people created (for instance, the Squirrels search roll). However, the sites that I visit with any regularity don't have a whole lot in common. I don't have a lot of trusted sites on the same topic that I frequent. If ever I do, I will certainly roll up a search roll.
What bugs me about Rollyo is the name. It annoys me. And why is it called a search "roll"? There's probably a very good reason, but I don't know it.
Next day: Well I have gone ahead and created my own search roll after all. There's only two websites on it, but that's ok. It's for shopping for ecologically friendly products, and has National Geographic's Green Guide, and Co-op America. Could be handy.
What bugs me about Rollyo is the name. It annoys me. And why is it called a search "roll"? There's probably a very good reason, but I don't know it.
Next day: Well I have gone ahead and created my own search roll after all. There's only two websites on it, but that's ok. It's for shopping for ecologically friendly products, and has National Geographic's Green Guide, and Co-op America. Could be handy.
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