last but not least

I have completed the last exploration and must say, that although I started out reluctantly, and with very little knowledge of Web 2.0, once I got started, I enjoyed learning about these new technologies. I did need more that the posted suggested time to explore all the variables of each exploration, and had to do some at home. However, in the end, I am very glad I had the opportunity to learn about sites and activities that are being used and talked about daily.

The video we watched in Exploration 1 became much clearer and I can see where 2.0 continues to evolve daily. I enjoyed exploring the web 2.0 winners site, and found more that I hadn't heard of at all, so that exposed me to more interactive tools. I thought wetpaint.com was interesting because it combines features of a wiki, blog, social networking sites and forums. This could be useful for some patrons who would like it all in one location, or who might find it easier this way. I did recognize a few sites, like Craigslist, Monster, and Careerbuilder. I have come a long way, and my exploration is far from over, but I think I got a good start with this assignment.

stiki wiki

I spent quite a while exploring wikis today. I can see where they could be useful in a business setting, especially ones with multiple locations. The staffs could collaborate on any number of projects, programs, meeting topics and who's bringing what for snack to a face to face meeting.

Library websites can be set up so that patrons could add book reviews or comment about a book they have read. These personal thoughts on a book can be included with professional reviews.
The library system could provide a wiki on their website for local community use, as a gathering place of thoughts, ideas, lists of meetings, etc. similar to a business wiki. However, communities could also start their own wiki, and since it is web based and needs no webmaster, might it be difficult to keep the information current if not checked often by members? A group's web page has to be updated, but if done on a wiki, when the project is completed, no one need do anything.

I think as items are added and revised on wikkis, copyright issues could be a factor. Sticky situations have the potential to develop, and can pose challenges to the rightful writer or idea provider.

Online Office Tooling

After finally getting zoho.com to load once I signed in, and it seemed to take forever, I had a great time playing with all the buttons, changing fonts, using bullets and creating a table, loading a pic from the internet, and just tooling around the site. This could come in very handy for patrons who come without disks or flash drives, or money to purchase a disk from us. Although I have not yet directed a patron to try the site, I expect to in the near future. What a great way to save your materials and your work and be able to access it from any computer. I can see where some patrons would definitely like learning about this site.
I think site users still need to print out a hard copy of their work just in case of a who-knows-what. Maybe that's just my mindset, but I like having a hard copy of my work along with the computer saved version.

social bookmarking sites

I skipped ahead a bit, to Exploration 8. I explored del.icio.us and I am intrigued by the concept. I can see where this could be helpful to librarians, teachers, and even business people. Grouping favorite websites and links to one internet location, and tagging so that you can find ones that share the same or similar subjects, could be quite helpful. That you can even retrieve if your computer crashes, because it's saved on the web is a definite plus. This would be better than saving all your favorites on your computer. You label with your tags and then you can search for the ones you might want to use or search for the site you saved, but yet don't exactly remember which site it was. Patrons could benefit by knowing about this concept, and there are many sites now available for keeping your bookmarking info.
In the library, this could replace the old notebooks we organized for patrons on different subjects. Staff could save great sites for homework help, business and health help and so many more. I hope it does not, however, replace our recommended sites, which I find so helpful for patrons. Or perhaps, these could be added to the recommended sites.

youtubeing

Well if life doesn't imitate art.
Here I am just learning about all the new web2.0 information sharing, and my father shows up on you tube. This is amazing. He got interviewed for Veterans Day and spoke about World War II, his training, the D Day invasion, in which he participated, and other recollections of that time in his life. Now he is on youtube for the world to see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1EBexdLb3o

I still have a lot to learn.

Social Networking

Social Networking sites are appealing to all ages, it seems, and many people seem to be connecting and reconnecting via Facebook, MySpace and others. Folks find others, long lost friends and relatives this way. It has been an exciting time for some when they reconnect. This creates new friendships, renews old aquaintances, and for some, is a lot of fun. My grown children are on Facebook and have been encouraging me to give it a try. I am thinking about it as it would be great to catch up with old friends if they were posting also.

One of the benefits could be communicating with staff, if everyone had a link to the same social networking site. I guess if patrons are using these networking sites anyway, why not add library information into the mix. We know kids are definitely using the sites, and why not use this as a way of informing students about all the library has to offer.

Video Sharing

I spent some time today looking at some videos on U tube. These user created videos can be fun and fascinating, sometimes both or neither. Some of them are of good quality and some very poor quality, but it certainly seems as if they are here to stay. I found several today quite entertaining. I recently attended a workshop where the presenters interspersed some of these user created videos into the presentation. I must say the presentation was enlivened by the use of the videos. People are even doing business and advertising on U tube, just like Facebook and MySpace. I mentioned this to my son-in-law for his new business organicallyhappy.com and he said he had already been working on a way to get a video on UTube.
I do see that problems could develop with copyright issues, and I think that could be an ongoing situation for some time to come. What is actually in the public domain and what can be shared legally and illegally will continue to be an issue. Will anyone who wants to use someone else's video posting need to contact them for permission? Would they be willing to? I think not. Who knows if you could even find the the creator. Who would police this? Things happen so fast on the internet, with downloading, uploading, rss feeding, twittering, etc, that it becomes so easy to use someone else's stuff.
For the library's use, just how professional would the video need to be? Could the library promote events or use video taken at an event and put on the library's website? Will it draw patrons to the library? I would think, if done well, these user created videos could be a very popular link on the website. I think it would be great publicity to showcase a wonderful program before and after it has taken place, and hope that patrons will try not to miss the next event.
We as librarians need to aware of such new technologies to be able to answer patron questions about these. The better informed we are, the better the service we can provide. For those librarians who don't 'live' and 'play'on the internet, awareness of these technologies is essential.

twitter aglitter

I did some reading about twitter.com., a type of social networking site. The new instant messaging tool is apparently taking the computer information era by storm. Lots of folks are tweeting. It seems appealing to some because of its length- short, short. A co-worker showed me the site and was quite excited about it. This was before I had done my exploration. I am not as impressed, only, I think, because I am not sure I would use it to tell folks what I had for breakfast or how slow or busy I am at any given moment.

However, I do believe I can see uses for this in the library world and in business, and perhaps in someone's personal life. I see it as becoming an essential conference tool, to use during a meeting to tweet a co-worker your ideas in real time, exactly at the minute you think of it. Patrons who like up-to-the-minute infomation about the library, programming and products, could be very excited to receive information this way. This, I think, is the glitter.

I think we have only seen the beginning of this social scene. Could this be distracting? Will workers be able to get any real work done if they spend the day blogging, checking blogs, rss feeds, adding widgets, tweeting and twittering? With all of that activity online, will we lose the ability as humans to speak using our vocal cords?

more goodreads exploration

I read some of our explorers posts today, ones about Librarything and Goodreads, and added one to my googlereader rss feeds. I am still happy I used Goodreads. I added one link to my googlereader feeds from Goodreads and look forward to reading about some of the books a fellow explorer has explored (probably even read.)

There are some great ideas floating in cyberspace from our bloggers. Things like adding a link for publicity on the LT or GR page about our own system, or using the sites as bookclubs themselves, or even reviewing the reviewers. Cyberspace has opened for me, an amazing new world of possiblities.

Keeping Track

I explored the Librarything and found it too busy for my taste. I explored Goodreads and decided to use this site. Goodreads is easy to use and easy to keep track of books I have read, am reading now, and want to read. The tracking is uncomplicated and easily accessible. the site searches for your books in amazon and in the site itself, and then the information about the books pops right up.
I think this will be very useful as a Reader's Advisory tool. Sometimes I am helping a patron, know just the book I want to recommend, and my journal book, in which I keep my list of read and to read books, is in the back room in my work bag. It's pretty hard to say "wait please, while I get my journal," which I don't. Having this information online should prove very helpful. The book reviews are good, plus I like the feature that gives you books others are reading or have read like the one you may have written about, like Amazon. The site really doesn't have tags the way some sights do. It uses shelves, and you can edit the shelves and add more if you need them.
I think I will try to keep up adding to this, but I think I will probably start now and not add all the books I have read over the last several years.

I think library systems could use this type of site as a link to their homepage. Patrons could explore what others are reading that are similar to books they like, plus patrons could set up their own page, if they are interested.


If you want, check out my page.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1513519

rss feeds 2

I decided to unsubscribe to the Washington Post. I still like to try to read the paper, or I can check the website as my time permits. The feeds from the post were sending too many articles, as other bloggers told me would happen. I had already added other Web 2.0 explorers on my feeds, and it is exciting to get a feed after someone posts, and then to read their musings. I will leave them and maybe add a few more.

However, do folks check these daily, hourly, minute by minute? If you don't check regularly, are you possibly missing something? It is fun to check, but how important is it? I guess it all depends on what you have feeding you.

try it, you may find it helpful

Today I did a Gale Database Webinar for the first time. The Small Business: Growth & Entrepreneur Studies was a review of the Small Business Resource Center, Business Legal forms, Demographic Study, and Gale Directory Library. The sign up was easy, in fact I did not register until about 30 minutes before the session was to begin. There was a power point presentation and then the host took us into the parts of the databases. The class was 45 minutes and then I spent some time exploring myself, looking up things that were of interest to me. All in all, it was a good experience and I would definitely take another. I think these offer a good review, and that can always be helpful. On the desk, I have gotten more than a few questions about starting a small business, and we have so many tools to help patrons right on our website. My son-in-law started an online organic products (not food) business, organicallyhappy.com, and I have sent him the link to the Small Business Resource Center. I think he will find it quite useful.

Feed and Read Ponderings

I created a feed reader in Google Reader after waiting for Bloglines to respond, which it never did, even after several attempts. Google Reader set right up and I was in business.

If someone visits many websites daily, this could perhaps shorten their viewing time as items are sent to this one feedreader (of course assuming the site has the rss feeds.) However, what if a person doesn't get every feed from the site, say the Washington Post? Even if you select every feed they have, might you be missing something that was in the actual paper that you really might have wanted or needed to know about. Not every website has a feeder. You get feeds from some, and some you still have to visit separately. Seems like a great deal of time could be spent checking all of this every day. I still like to read a newspaper and catch some CNN on tv. However, I might continue to check the Post and CNN feeds from time to time in case I am unable to check their individual websites or catch the tv or hold the newspaper in my hands. I think professional feeds from sites like Library Journal and the ALA could benefit me in my professional life, although I might just want to continue to check their websites regularly.

We surely are bombarded from every side with all of the possibilities available to fill our day. How does anyone get any work done at work? Are there still only 24 hours in a day?

That said, I could see where this could be useful in some situations. AACPL could use a feeder to send out the titles of the latest items as soon as they are purchased, thus allowing folks to place their name on the holds list immediately. Notices and reminders of upcoming programs would also be useful to interested patrons. I wonder if there is a way to feed information to people who are not yet patrons, so they know about all the wonderful things the library has to offer.

new challenge

I have just begun Exploration 4- Rss Feeds and Feed Readers information and it's another new challenge. This is a good thing.

I watched the introduction to feeds and found it very helpful. I can see where it would be very beneficial to have the information from the sites you like best just sent right to you without having to search each one daily, or even several times a day, as the feeds send ongoing updates. These feeds will send the news or music or other data right to me after I sign up. Will it take away some of the fun of seeing what else is on the sites I like? Will it keep me updated more easily? Will I feel that I am missing things? As I continue this exploration, I hope to find out.

Flickr

I spent a while on Flickr for the first time this afternoon. I did several searches, one for librarians. I got some surprises and unexpected photos along the way. I did enjoy the photos from the search of Chesapeake Bay. Some were so beautiful. The Library of Congress site is awesome. I clicked on several links to explore those. Interesting that they want the public to comment on photos that have no comments or tags. Do they trust us to have all the facts correct? So often patrons don't even have the name of the book they want to read or the author of a selelction so we have to be mindreaders and good researchers to help them out!

I did the Flickr tour and will think about posting some photos but did not do so today. I did learn a llittle bit more about tags.

Now if a patron comes in and wants to set up a Flickr account, I will know where to send that person and can encourage them to take the tour and learn about posting photos, comments and tags. I hope I will be more more helpful now. I had no idea prior to today. Good day.

Graphic Novels

I decided to explore the No Flying, No Tights graphic novel review website today. Several reasons prompted this. First, the Sunday, August 24 edition of the Washington Post had a lengthy article in their Style & Arts section about graphic novels, or stories published and printed in comic book format. The second thing that prompted me is recently learning that some teens are starting to dress with the style and make up that looks like they just stepped out of a graphic novel. This is happening in middle school, and perhaps earlier.

While everything on the No Flying, No Tights website is not current, many thigs are. I did explore some posts and blogs and found them informative and interesting, giving me more insight into graphic novels and the blogs that exist to share information and ideas about these.

The Washington Post article gave some history about the development of the graphic novel and how the the concept can no longer be ignored by main stream press. Many companies are now publishing these. The question still seems to remain- are these novels real books? Some 'authorities' say yes, some say no. What cannot be ignored is the increase in sales of these novels, and the content and subject matter, which covers any and all subjects. Also, these books are not just for teens anymore. Many are being published for adults and even young children. I think that anything that gets people of all ages reading is great. I just wonder if graphics will become so mainstream that novelists will no longer feel they can publish a prose novel and sell them. Who will buy them? Will libraries continue to increase their purchases of graphic novels for all ages and genres, and will this increase circulation?

rhythm rays

Machine is us/ing us

After viewing the video, I realize that we have now arrived at a place where we teach each other, online, daily, often, and with ease. With Web 2.0 uniting a complete diversity of people, we will all continue to learn instantly and constantly, through the web, even more so than before.

Novice blogger

This is my first posting on a blog. Blogspot made the setup easier than I thought. The idea was scarier than actually doing it. I read some of the other posts first, and learned a great deal from them. I thank those that came before me, and whose posts assisted me. Now I understand what a blog is and how it can be used to share information. I can see where patrons of the library may want to set up their own blog, and this experience will enable me to better help them to do so. I did look at the Washington Post and CNN websites and saw places where someone can respond with a comment. I have read about podcasts in the paper, but the links are right there on the websites.