Thing 23 Summary of Program

My favorite things about this program involved being creative, creating an avatar, adding pictures, creating a list of books on Library Thing, even just adding my thoughts to the blog. This program assisted my lifelong learning goals by giving me new tools for additional information gathering. I feel like my brain is swollen with all of these new possibilities. I guess I wasn't surprised at how long it took to investigate these tools, but what does surprise me is how much time people must spend on the computer in order to take advantage of them all on a regular basis. No wonder our society is having a problem with obesity. I definitely was feeling some eyestrain through it all too! I loved the whole concept of this program, but I definitely felt a little discouraged back there in weeks 4 and 5. Maybe another week needs to be added to get through some of those things. It seemed like too many different things in one week. I picked up some steam again towards the end. If we had another discovery program, I would definitely join in again. If I had to describe the experience, I would say that it was like having new ramps or bridges open up on my personal information highway. But maybe that's just because bridges have been in the news alot lately!

Thing 22 Downloadable Audiobooks

This is one "thing" I've already done! I have already downloaded and listened to a number of books from Overdrive. I have a Phillips GoGear that uses Windows Media Player but I think it works pretty similarly to an Ipod. For the books I've wanted to read, Overdrive has been the better choice (over Netlibrary) and I find their site pretty easy to browse and easy to download. Project Gutenberg, which I was not as familiar with, looks like a great source for classics. I'll go there for a fix of the Jane Austen books I haven't read. Some of the old Wizard of Oz series by Frank Baum look fun too. This is a great site to recommend to patrons.

Thing 21 Podcasts

This was a little harder than I anticipated. After discovering NPR: Books on the Yahoo Podcasts and creating an account, I wasn't able to get the podcast from subscribing, I had to end up clicking on NPR and going directly to their website. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I did end up adding the podcast to my bloglines account. I can imagine listening to some of these on my MP3 player if I can figure out how to transfer it (the next task!) but am still more interested in listening to books themselves at this point.

Thing 20 You Tubevideo

Thing 19 Web 2.0 awardwinners

Craigslist is a classifieds directory. I had heard my son speak about it in connection with trying to find or sell furniture for an apartment and also finding an apartment in DC. While in Chicago he was able to find apartment listings across the country. I didn't realize that there were also many job listings and this might be an additional source to recommend to patrons. It can also be an alternative to selling items on E-bay but is different in that you need to assign a price like a paper classified ad. I didn't like that initially I had difficulty figuring out what other cities Craigslist covers, but if finally discovered that clicking on the Craigslist name sent me to that list. The DC Craigslist also covers MD and NVA. I noticed some other award winners that I have looked at before. Did you know that if you put a site in Google Maps that is across the ocean from your starting point, it directs you to swim across the ocean? Now thats an app with a sense of humor!

Thing 18 Web-based applications

I chose to use Google Docs to post this week's comments to my blog. This is great to know about. I can see using this with members of my extended family to keep up a family address list. This seems very easy to use and options seem even clearer than Microsoft Office. There aren't as many font styles, but then this is mainly for documents, not flyers or signs. The nice part is I don't have to remember another username and password!

Thing 17 Sandbox Wiki

There isn't a lot of organization to this wiki. I wish some people had just commented on one Favorite Reads page, instead of creating separate pages. The "Favorite Vacation Spot" is a more useful example where you can see different people's input at a glance. Turns out the Carolinas are pretty popular with people from Maryland!

Thing 16 Wikis

I loved SJCPL's Subject Guides Wiki and Book Lovers Wiki. I've already seen a couple of books I want to add to my reading list based on a quick perusal. I'd love to see a link on our website to a community wiki on Frederick County with information on restaurants and especially a home repair section with review of different companies who provide those services. Now that would be helpful! Would their be a legal problem if you said something bad about a company? I saw that the Library 2.0 wiki has had problems with spammers. I think this is the biggest potential probem with wikis--you would need to monitor them every day. I think a wiki connected with our intranet would be a great thing for developing joint programs. I have a link on the discussion board now for contest rules that I'm developing and I've asked for input on. A wiki might make that a little less awkward.

Thing 15 Web and Library 2.0

I was really impressed with Wesch's You Tube Video on Web 2.0. In Dr. Schultz's article, "To a temporay place in time...," I loved the idea of the library as a "knowledge spa." I'm really going to have to remember that one, it makes the library sound so enticing! I was also amazed at the offerings of the schools in Bishop's article, "A ripple effect," including a cyber cafe. I thought the idea of the school lunch card = library card was a great idea. We are all starting to carry so many cards with barcodes. You need a separate keychain to hold them! As to what Library 2.0 means to me, I feel that it is harnessing new technology and new resources to help our patrons and ourselves. That's why I'm taking this course which has been eye-opening for me!

More on Technorati

By the way, I couldn't get the Technorati video tour to open. But in other learning news, I did figure out how to change the time zone for my posts (Thanks Ralph!).

Thing 14 Technorati

I found the popular section of Technorati interesting. I didn't know who Ron Paul was before I looked at it! So I learned something new. I guess it's not too surprising that some of the top blogs have to do with technology stuff since the people most into blogs at this point are also into technology. I saw some interest in the searches on the Minneapolis bridge collapse. Talk about worst nightmares! I looked up Learning 2.0 under Posts and their looked to be alot that was not relevant. Blogs turned up the PLCMC one about 4th or 5th on the list. At this point I don't think I would use Technorati much but its good to know about. I'm not up for "claiming" my blog yet or tags...maybe later!

Thing 13 Del.icio.us

Being able to share bookmarks with others or being able to access bookmarks on different computers at a branch will be helpful if I can take the time to set them up. It would also be helpful going from a laptop to a desktop. Learning about all of these new tools is great, but a little overwhelming. It will take some time to become familiar with them and to add to them so it becomes second nature. I set up an account and added a couple of links with "pumpkin" and "maze" since I am working on my Book Character Pumpkin Contest!

Thing 12 Rollyo

I can see how it would be helpful to narrow down the list of sites that you want to check for reference. It is a little time-consuming to set up. I set up one on travel that I will work on editing from a ready-made list. As I see the need I will try to set up others. I particularly liked the one on quotes.

Library Thing (11)

This is fun and easy to work with. Great suggestion for patrons who want to know if we have a record of that book that they read and can't remember the name of. They can start making their own list! This would be good for book clubs too. I often have friends from other clubs who want me to share the books we've read in our group.

My Meez Avatar

Thing 10 Image Generator

As you can see, I've made a new headline with the "wizard text generator" I found on the Generator Blog: http://www.fodey.com/generators/animated/wizard.asp. That was fun!

Thing 9 Adding blogs and newsfeeds

I've added Merlin and some other feeds. I think the search tools were the easiest way to find feeds initially. Now that I know what feeds are about, I'll look for them on websites that I visit. I thought Feedster was confusing initially but once I figured out that you had to clink on the feed link before you could add it to your bloglines, it worked fine. I found a link to an Entertainment weekly feed on the TV show "Lost" which, of couse, I added (big fan that I am). I was able to tell my husband when I got home that the character "Michael" would be back next season!

Thing 8 RSS Feeds

It wasn't hard to set up the Bloglines account and I understand what RSS feeds are but I'm still kind of confused about how it works in practice. Do they get deleted after you mark them read? I guess I'll figure it out after using it a while. I feel like I'm spending way too much time on this week's activities and am feeling kind of bleary-eyed from staring at the computer for so long. Give me a cup of tea and the newspaper and I'm good. Or, I can always ask my mother-in-law what's happening--she seems to watch a lot of CNN and is always quizzing my husband and I about the latest headlines! I can see how the feeds might be useful on the job, though.

Thing 6 Flickr Mash-ups

The whole concept of mash-ups is new to me. Several looked fun to me, but I particularly liked Montagr. My son used to have a Star Wars poster of little mosaics that put together formed Yoda that was like this. I've been looking for a site that takes one photo and divides it into tiles to make a wall-sized poster. I saw this on an HGTV show. If anybody knows where I can find this, let me know!

Week 3, thing 7 Technology talk

My favorite fairly new technology is the DVR. I love being able to record my shows and fast forward through the commercials. HDTV is part of that. The picture is great. We had to go out and get a plasma HDTV of course. It's been great being able to watch "Lost" from the beginning when I get home from work while it is still recording. You can catch up to real time by skipping the commercials. Ever notice how you can still recognize the brands even thought you are fast forwarding? I thing advertisers have caught on to how to do this.

Week 3, more things

Ok. I downloaded this picture from Flickr. I was interested because my husband recently contracted Lyme disease. He has a high fever with chills and shakes for 5 days before the rash became evident. He went to the doctor and is still on an antibiotic, but is basically back to normal. Although he never saw the tick, I think he got it while mowing the lawn. We live in a wooded area and the deer basically camp out behind our house! Make sure you check yourself over if you are in the great outdoors!

Week 3

I uploaded this picture using the Blogger tools from a CD of pictures I took recently at my nephew's wedding. His new wife works at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and did a dolphin show for all of us prior to the rehearsal dinner at a nearby restaurant. They are working with a company to design a prosthetic tail for Winter the dolphin. I found it really interesting an hope you will too. You can check on Winter at their website: www.cmaquarium.org

Week 1, Thing 2

I think the easiest of the 7 1/2 habits of highly successful lifelong learners is accepting responsiblity for my own learning. It goes along somewhat with habit 4--have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner. I have confidence in myself as a learner, I'm just not sure how competent and effective I am. I have some fear of not measuring up, so habit 1--begin with the end in mind is hardest for me. Or maybe it's just that I don't want to advertise my goals--that way noone can tell if I've failed!

Week 1, Thing 1

I didn't know I'd be able to use my gmail account to make a comment right away. That's cool! It's fun that many of my colleagues are excited about doing this. What's the difference between the title and the label for this thing?