# 23 Final Thoughts

It has been a long journey, complicated by the fact we were down two people in the branch for most of the summer. Getting an overview of the various technologies will be useful in my job. I did sign up for Merlin to hopefully keep abreast of technology in Maryland. Flickr was especially interesting to me as I really wasn't familiar with it at all. I think I could get into it on a personal basis and it is good that you can limit access. I remember a discussion years ago about doing storytimes and booktalks in a video format -- and now we have podcasting! Folksonomy tagging is so logical. The avatar was just fun. I would be interested in this type of training in the future -- with it being a little simpler, maybe not so many elements.

# 22 Audiobooks

I set up an account in NetLibrary as practice and searched for different titles. Some of my favorites from many years ago were not to be found in audio format.

# 21 podcasts

I liked the podcasts of storytimes and book talks. I tried to add the Denver Public Library as an RSS feed to this blog. Clicking on the RSS feed link would only go into the Microsoft feeds, not Bloglines where I have an account.

# 14 Technorati

First I had to discover I had to go to advanced search before I could do anything related to the assignment. Once there, I searched three different ways for "Library 2.0." The tag search offers breakdowns of blogs and visual media (videos and photographs). The blog directory gave me a list of 382 blogs, with the ability to sort by relevance. Searching by blog posts has to be done through search.technorati.come and led to a list of 4,596 -- with an additional choice to search by language as well as relevance.

# 20 YouTube

Who knew there would be over 6,000 videos on beagles?

# 13 del.icio.us and tagging

The idea of using a folksonomy for tagging is so logical. Tags are created and more easily searched with user-defined headings, not formal subject headings. I think del.icio.us is more useful than just being able to access your favorites/bookmarks from anywhere online. The ability of others to also view your choices can help their searches.

# 12 Beagle Rollyo

I added a Beagle Rollyo to my blog in the form of a page element in layout. Rollyo saves reinventing the wheel for searches that you do most often or for searches on subjects you are most interested in.

# 19 web 2.0 articles

I skimmed some articles and really concentrated on "A Bigger Bang" on the Guardian Unlimited web site out of the UK. Fascinating overview of the changing face of technology. "Technology is stuff that doesn't work yet." The idea is that it is only when people stop thinking of something as a piece of technology that the thing starts to have its biggest impact. Think of the wheel -- at one time that was the latest in technology. Email was once of great practical use -- people under the age of 25 have never known a time that email wasn't broken by spam and they prefer to instant messaging or texting.

MySpace members make up the equivalent of the 10th largest country, just below Mexico. "Scrapbooking" is an analogy used to desribe the makeup of MySpace. YouTube is 98% unimaginably boring, but there is a lot of stuff in the remaining 2%.

Katrinalist.net collated the information on 50,000 survivors -- something no other medium or government agency would have been able to do as effectively.

The bottom line is that this site collects in an authoritative manner many reviewed and award winning articles.

# 18 online productivity tools

A good way to produce and share documents, spreadsheets, etc. I investigated Google docs and set up a test document. I like the fact you can choose how readers of your material can respond -- as collaborators or viewers.

# 17 Sandbox 2

My blog has been added to Sandbox and added to the HCPL list on sandbox. I even added a comment to a fellow librarian's blog, accessing her blog through Sandbox. I like the Sandbox link to Favorite Blogs --master list of all Maryland blogs.

Sandbox

testing for now -- will add another blog if this works

# 16 Wikis

Some interesting ideas for libraries... I liked the library subject guides page, kind of a one-stop shopping page with pictures of a few highlighted books. I know patrons like that aspect of our catalog -- actually seeing what the cover of a book looks like. Expanding the catalog to allow patron access has some interesting aspects that I like. Allowing patrons to add subject headings would ensure that those guides really respresent the way patrons think. Adding patron reviews, similar to Amazon, could be an added component to reader's advisory. Discussion about a community wiki reminded me of the Information & Referral database we set up years ago -- information gathered through paper and phone about local businesses, services, etc. was added to the computer. Setting up a wiki that the entire community could access to add their own information and/or comments is intriguing. Reining in email is another good use for a wiki -- post things that can be accessed by interested parties.

# 15 Web 2.0 etc

Web 2.0 is a mindset as well as technology. Tracing from 1.0 (libraries as a commodity that warehoused books) through 2.0 -- and looking beyond to 3.0 and 4.0 -- requires an open mind. Web 3.0 mentioned superstar librarian avatars, but can we move too far into the virtual world? Web 4.0 looks at libraries as a knowledge spa, an immersion in a luxury of ideas and thoughts -- this concept seems far beyond my understanding at this time. What is important is to control technolust -- having technology for the sake of technology. At the same time, we need to be trend spotters -- knowing what is important to focus on.

Library Thing # 11

I looked around Library Thing and created an account. It makes it easy to catalog your own personal books -- with several different features. I like that it pulls from Amazon and libraries (including Library of Congress) to help with cataloging, less chance for mistakes and more consistency. The reader's advisory feature is nice -- recommending books you might be interested in based on what is in your private collection and "unsuggestive" -- humorous suggestions on what you might not want. Online book clubs are also possible.

thing #10

Merlin #9

I signed up for Merlin, through the library's home page. I found Feedster to be the most user friendly except for the fact I could not set up a widget.

RSS # 8

Interesting concept for those with many interests. I didn't know that RSS feeds weed out advertising. Through Blogsline, I signed up for a variety of news and science feeds and have already started reading some of them. I'm especially interested in the telescope that is as large as the earth -- combining one telescope in China with five in Europe and another in Australia -- it boggles my mind. I tried to sign up for automatic email notification when something new has been posted, but got the message that publisher couldn't be found -- so I didn't pursue it. I would be interested in learning more about aggregators -- aggregators can collect RSS feeds from many sites and present the new content from these sites on single page format.

blog anything technology related # 7

I'm interested in the concept of open source products for the library. The idea of avoiding the allocation of a large part of the technology budget to buy a new system is intriguing. Even if a library buys an open source system from a vendor, they might be able to purchase technical support from another vendor. It would even be possible, with the right technical staff, that a library system could write its own source code. Because of the flexibility inherent in an open source product, it is worth looking into.

Flickr #6

Mashups -- got the concept, if nothing else. Keep Flickr Tools in mind for guidelines on more detailed work.

My creation

My creation,
originally uploaded by emilypost58.

I didn't add personal information, just getting it here is enough

Flickr notes -- thing #5

Now I know where to make personalized postage stamps. Eventually, I will try something with my camera phone. It's interesting to think about using RSS feeds to notify interested parties when new pictures are posted.

testing Flickr picture

Dos PP,
originally uploaded by George.

I'm just adding the picture that showed up when I tried this.

week 3, numbers 5 and 6 Flickr

This will have to wait -- I could not get in all day long -- continuously got message that site unavailable no matter how many different ways I tried to get in.

things one, two, three, four

I actually had completed these first four steps in June when I first registered my blog. Since then, I have been overwhelmed by other responsibilities (two vacancies in the branch) and never went further. I am serious about getting this done and have reread and rethought about the steps. I realize the instructions state each "thing" is be blogged separately -- but since I am playing catch-up and the first four things overlap to a certain extent, I'm doing these together.

1) I like the Tips section in step one.

2) Since I have to select an easiest habit and a hardest habit when I analyze myself as a lifelong learner, I choose the following: I think the easiest is for me to accept responsibility for my own learning -- I tend to be an independent learner and feel it is up to me to pursue what is important. The hardest is the view problems as challenges -- Life is busy and it can be frustrating when things don't go smoothly.

3) My blog is set up -- obviously, since I am adding a post to it.

4) My blog has been registered and I will be tracking my "progress to journey into Learning 2.0."

summer is over

This summer has been very busy. Trying to cover two vacancies and worrying about my own work led me to put off the 23 things. I will concentrate on the 23 things until they are done. Sorry about anything else that might come up in the next couple weeks -- smile.

Thank you, Maurice

I couldn't have gotten started without you.

why me?

I'm still not on the HCPL list.

second time around

ok, second time's the charm