GM's Blog Journal

#27 The End

2007-06-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

"...shocked and/or impressed your kids with your new knowledge and lingo." Okay, so I have one more little thing to add. I might have impressed my kids with my new knowledge, (especially when I managed to create my own MySpace account), but the lingo was a bit of a challenge. When I read the OCLC articles, I didn't always understand them. New terms and/or phrases could be explained as part of this program.

Thanks for everything!

gm

#26 Reflective Exercise

2007-06-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

My husband looked over my shoulder occasionally as I was doing my 27Things exercises and commented on what a good idea this was and how he'd like to know all I'd discovered. This made me realize how important this program was and how I'd never have learned it just on my own.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? I now know that I'll never run out of things to read, listen or view. I've discovered many places that will further my personal learning goals.

What were your favorite Learning 2.0 discoveries or exercises? I liked learning about LibraryThing, Bloglines and Google Labs.

Did anything surprise you? Just how much there was out there.

Was there enough help available when you needed it? Yes! Sometimes I was just a bit too tired to see the obvious, thanks P.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I really don't see how this could be improved upon, except to continue with this program in some way.

Would you like to see similar training opportunities as new library-relevant technologies emerge? Definitely!

If you could go back in time and tell yourself to either participate in the program or skip it, what would you do? I actually got to about lesson 16 and decided I just didn't have the time to do this. When the date to complete the program was extended I felt I really needed to finish and I'm glad I did, so to answer the question, I'd tell myself to do it! It's worth more than the mp3 player.

gm

Podcast, Podcasts

2007-06-20T18:07:00.000-07:00

I had some trouble opening some of the podcasts on my home computer, not sure why, but Podcast.net seemed to have the least trouble. I found many Nova podcasts which were interesting. I'll have to explore them again later.

I don't have any ideas for library podcasts, but I was able to inform a patron where he could find a podcast of one of his favorite writers!

gm

YouTube 2

2007-06-19T20:13:00.000-07:00

Not too sure if I entered my YouTube video correctly, but it did work when I tried it. This was the video I mentioned in an earlier posting.

I'm embarrassed to say I do spend some time on YouTube. And I now realize why when I was doing the exercise in Google Labs I found Google Video would use YouTube. Regardless, YouTube has many fun, as well as informative videos. I did notice that Google Video had more lectures by people I researched than YouTube.

KCLS could use YouTube as a teaching tool, maybe have a short video instructing people on how to use our self checkout & self checkin machines.

gm

YouTube

2007-06-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Choose Your Own Adventure

2007-06-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

After briefly looking at Web 2.0 Awards & Webware I went back to Web 2.0. Web 2.0 was easier to look through. Some of the award winners I found rather silly, such as onesentence.org; didn't see any real reason for this one.

Under Retail, first place winner threadless.com was one site I think my kids would love to buy t-shirts from. I really liked one entitled, "Queen of Paradise," it was a piece of artwork on a T. And the best part is anyone could design a T and sell it! We have many young artist in the library that might find this a cool site.

Lulu.com was a self publishing site. Next time I have a patron that wants to have their writings in book form, this is one site I might recommend.

Some sites are more useful than others, but some of these are also new to patrons, (I include myself here) and we're slowly becoming aware of them. Of the award winners listed, I've only had questions asked about Craigslist, FaceBook and YouTube.

gm

The Labs of Google

2007-06-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

I spent quite a bit of time finding things on Google Video. It is a lot like YouTube and in fact uses their site for many of the scientist interviews I found. One video entitled, "£10 000 coin domino effect," is a lot of fun to watch.

I also liked Google Mars. There is much available on the Mars terrain and you can focus on mountain ranges, planes, dunes and more. The elevation view was pretty. Not too sure what I'd use this for but I found it fascinating.

Looking over Google Scholar I found many articles I will hopefully spend more time reading in the future.

I briefly looked at a few other labs, but the above were the most interesting to me.

gm

Google Docs & Zoho

2007-06-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

Is there anything Google doesn't do? I thought this was really cool. Google worked best for me, although there were some nice features available in Zoho, I especially liked the emotion button. The trouble was when I tried to save my document, a message popped up that said--

"This website is using a scripted window to ask you for information. If you trust this website, click here to allow scripted windows."

Since I didn't know if this was good or bad I decided to leave it and try again on work computers! Hopefully they're not as touchy.

gm

Library 2.0

2007-06-18T18:31:00.000-07:00

From all I read there is much more to Web 2.0 or Library 2.0 that I wasn't aware. There seems to be lots of opinions on where we are headed with our libraries whether they be structures or on the web. I wonder at the pace some of the predicted changes will be. As an LA, I wonder if there is a job for me in the future! I also have to admit I was unfamiliar with some of terms or phrases used in the articles. I realize more than ever I must keep up my skills and thank goodness for our 27 Things exercises.

In the article by Dr. Schultz I found her predictions on the future most interesting. She states, "People will collect librarians rather than books," but it makes me wonder, for those of us who really enjoy browsing a bookshelf at the library or bookstore if this will become memory.

gm

Rollyo & Google Custom Search Engines

2007-06-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

Rollyo as a custom search engine was fine, but I didn't like the ads. I found some fun stuff in LibrarianWoes. Google is familiar and it was easier to get to what I was searching. Using some of my favorite sites I created a Physics & Physicists custom search engine.

Like all other website tools we've been introduced to, they're useful in finding sources in one place. I could see creating a custom search engine for local events.

Physics & Physicists--
http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=016521542236651114418%3A8a_hwq1b50w

Text Generators

2007-06-12T18:09:00.000-07:00

Being the cat person that I am I naturally had to try the LolCat Builder. To see my finished product, go to. . .

http://kscakes.com.nyud.net:8080/LolCats/Uploads/Saved/my-life-is-rather-upsidedown-at-the-moment.jpg

Wikis

2007-06-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

I spent a lot of time cruising through the Discovery Exercise web links, I found some useful information and some fun stuff too. My favorite find was on the ALA MidWinter 2007 Wiki called, Librarians On Parade.

I wasn't too sure how we might utilize some of this in our libraries. I wondered more how patrons could use this in conjunction with our website.

Del.icio.us

2007-04-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

I played with Del.icio.us, looked over the comments and clicked on the tags. It is easy to do and I'm sure if I started my own Del.icio.us account I would have a lot of fun doing personal research. I also saw that it would help me in the library when I need to make a list of books for our book club. We have themes and the more book titles to choose from the better.

I'm sure the more I utilized this tool , the more my imagination would see new uses for it.

gm

MySpace & Social Networks

2007-03-21T12:57:00.000-07:00

Although I was aware that young people used MySpace, Facebook & other social networks, it was a bit surprising just how many people and organizations use these "environments." Environments is what I believe Stephen Abram called these social networks. His article expressed many of my thoughts.

What do I think about libraries taking part in social networking sites? From the articles it seems to be a good thing. Visiting Denver Public Library's eVolver was fun, and if kids also find it fun, a connection is made to libraries that might otherwise not have occurred.

Finding Feeds

2007-03-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

I know how to add the feeds to my Bloglines account, but some of this is still a bit unclear. I'll just keep on going and hope the more I use it the clearer it will become!

- Which method of finding feeds was easiest - going to your favorite sites or searching for them?
I think searching for sites was easiest, some of the sights I visit (and there aren't that many), didn't have feeds.

- Which Search tool was the easiest for you? Which was more confusing?
Using Blogline's search box was easiest. Feedster seemed to bring up very random and somewhat related material for my search request.

- What kind of unusual feeds did you find on your travels?
While looking for a feed that dealt with hiking, a got sights that dealt with deer hunting.

RSS

2007-03-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

So I put a dozen feeds onto my Bloglines account. Do I seriously have time to look at all that information? Do I dare look at my nightstand to see what I have to read next, because it may be due soon and I know there are 150 holds on it? With this in mind, I'll review the questions posed in exercise #7.

- What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
That the information is subject based. Whether it is birds, books or bonbons, only what I choose is sent for me to browse.

- How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?
Since I'm new at this, I really couldn't say how I might use this technology. It is definitely another resource. I can see that my email would be used purely for personal communications and that Bloglines could become my news source for work or my personal life.

- How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
Libraries will have a another tool for finding the very latest information on subjects which change rapidly. Books, magazines and newspapers are always a tad behind current events.

Mashups

2007-03-07T16:08:00.000-08:00

I explored the Retrivr site, it was interesting, but I couldn't get it to locate images I hoped to find. I was looking for quilt images, it seemed as though anything I drew brought up cats!

gm

Flickr & Blogging part II

2007-03-07T14:55:00.000-08:00

Okay, adding the picture was not fun. I could not get the photo upload feature on Blogger to work, so I tried Flickr's blogging tool. Flickr's blogging tool was a little easier to understand as far as what it wanted you to do. Glad this one is done!

gm

Broad-Billed Hummingbird

2007-03-07T14:46:00.001-08:00

Broad-Billed Hummingbird, originally uploaded by mocha2_mcall.

Broad-Billed Hummingbird

Flickr & Blogging

2007-03-07T13:47:00.000-08:00

Since I had a few photo's of a trip to Arizona I took last fall, I chose Scenario 2. Getting a Flickr account was no problem. Tagging the photos from what I could tell can be done at two points in the process, but I didn't quite understand how a photo could have multiple tags. I'll have to revisit this.

I consider myself an amateur bird watcher, so I selected this photo to try and add to my Blog. It isn't the best picture, but I hope people can tell what a beautiful bird it is.

gm

Just keep trying!

2007-03-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

So I had a bit of a rough start. This is my second blog, my first is now lost out there in cyberspace. I somehow managed to forget my password and/or my user name for my gmail and blog accounts. They were similar and I hadn't bothered writing anything down. As I tried to figure what they were, by following the help on both gmail and blogger, I ended up caught in an endless loop. So I started over. I created a new blog, using an email created for my cat on yahoo and here I am again. This time, I wrote everything down!

This really wasn't difficult, it is quite easy in fact! For the future, do not rely on your memory!

gm