The End

Well, I've reached the end of Learn & Play (Woohoo!) and for thing #23 I get to look back on my journey...

I thought this was a great program and learned a lot. I would love to participate in another program like this. I learned so much that I didn't even know I was missing out on. While I already read a few blogs and was aware of some Web 2.0 technology, some of the stuff I found was amazing.

There are a few items that I will continue to use including delicious, twitter, and google reader. Others will fall by the way side, ready to recall when someone asks a question about it. The interaction that Web 2.0 provides is also astounding. On thing #18, I talked about the site Hotpads.com saying that I thought that it could provide a little more information about foreclosures. And I got a comment from an employee of Hotpads.com about my feedback. How cool!

This programs has also opened my eyes to all the services that the library could provide including online books and programing through youtube or podcasts.

And most importantly this program helped continue my life long goal of becoming as a Professional Know-it-all:)

Moldi

While I think that it could possibly have a better name (really, MOLDI?), thing #22 fits perfectly with my last post. While they had some great books to choose from they also had some pretty lame books too. At times the searching was not as user friendly as it could be, but manageable. However it is great for people that just love to browse. I choose to browse through the cookbooks and found a book full of cookies, perfect for the fast approaching holidays.

At first I had trouble downloading a book, but after a little effort was able to get it done pretty easily. Once I downloaded the extra adobe application, the book downloaded instantly. The next book was really easy and downloaded quickly. I thought it would be uncomfortable to read online, but after I zoomed in a little and got the page set it was nice.

This is an awesome service that we provide. Firstly, if a print copy of the book is checked out customers can download it onto their computer to read. Great for those school projects when every copy of Great Expectations is checked out. And we have a collection that customers can browse and read instantly, regardless of library hours, right from home.

Thing #14

So I'm back tracking a little to finish up Thing #14, my thoughts on Library 2.0.

I first read through the article by Rick Anderson, Away from the Icebergs. He talks about changing our collection to meet the needs of customers. Even moving away from such a large collection of print material when so much is available over the web. This reminded me of the many papers I wrote in college. One of the main factors that determined if I used an article was whether or not I could get the full text online. I could search whenever, not just when the library was open. I also could find article so much more quickly. Online all the articles where right there, I could read part of it right away and decide if I wanted to use it. If I had been dealing with print resources I would have had to hunt down every article then decide if I could use it, taking hours.

I think that Library 2.0 definitely offers more of an online collection of books. Reference, fiction, pictures books...everything.

I also read the article by Wendy Schults, To a temporary Place in Time. The interesting concept I took away from this article was the idea that even though the library offers many service that there were still be people that come into the library. Like many stores, while some people shop online, others shop at the brick and mortar store. And some customers shop both. How great would it be if we could offer the same service as Circuit City (or is it Best Buy), you order it online and can come pick it up in a half hour. Technically, that only happens here if you make a phone call. We should look into how we can make it an online application.

Both the online collection of books and a quicker order and pick up system would enhance customer service, allowing customer to get their materials faster, extending a Library 2.0 environment here at CML.

Podcasts

Searching for podcasts (thing #21), was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. There are so many interesting things out there that can be found. First, I found Children's Book Radio. They have interviews with authors and talk about great reads. After listening to the show I went over to their website. I was pleased to find grade level reading lists, like this one for 2nd grade. That will come in handy when a parent insists on a list of books for their second grader.

I did have trouble adding it to google reader, but was growing aggrevated and wasting too much time, so I have deciced to just skip it. If anyone can help, please leave a comment.

I also searched for more of play podcast, and found Best Week Ever, very funny. I found this by looking through the list of podcasts with the most subscribers. I always miss it on tv (which takes a lot of doing b/c it's replayed like 50 times during the week). I was pleased to see that VH1 also offers a mini episode of Best Night Ever, for a quick laugh during the week.

>Over all podfeed.net was easy to use. The subject heading allowed for easy exploring as well as the list of most subscribers. Also if you knew what you wanted to listen to or watch a simple search took you right there.

As for library use... A simple blurb each week by every branch would let the community know what's going on at their local branch. And of course, we could send storytime out over the net, especially as we get into those cold winter months. I know M would love to watch storytime online:)

YouTube

For this Thing, I had to look at youtube for work. What could be more fun? I love funny videos, so I thought I would share a couple that I've come across.

First, the Evolution of Dance:



Second, Happy Mother's Day. These guys are hilarious, you must check out their other videos! I think I love this video so much because this is what it is like when my sisters and I try to take a family picture.




Overall, I think youtube is pretty easy to use. Sometimes you have to wade through stuff to find what you're looking for. But it seems like you can find anything you could possibly think of on there. Morgan (age 2) loves youtube, we watch Jim Gill and Cookie Monster whenever we want. As far as library use, we could offer a weekly story time video or even a clip to show people what we have to offer.

On to #19

For Thing #19, we were asked to explore CML's toolbox of Web 2.0 tools. I found BoingBoing. This site has tons of great little known facts and interesting stuff. This site always has something funny or cute to share. I love this birthday shirt! And I never knew so much about decapitation:)

I will definitely being adding this to my reader. It's nice that's updated regularly with new and unusual stuff. This blog was easy to read and navigate.

I also plan on downloading FireFox for the home computer. I have used it here at work and find it's much easier and doesn't get slowed down as much. I am amazed at all that is out there to add to my internet/compute experience. There are so many things to make it more fun or even just to help get organized. It's great.

Hotpads

For Thing #18, I was asked to explore a web 2.0 tool, from a list of Web 2.0 award winners. I love real estate and was happy to find that category listed. I had already played around with zillow.com, so I decided to explore hotpads.com. This site was user friendly and easy to maneuver. It has listing of houses for sale, for rent and in foreclosure. You can search by zip code or city, state. One nice feature was the map view. Once you searched, a map would show the properties that matched your criteria. This was great for seeing where things were within a certain city or area. Also you could click and drag the maps which was a nice feature. And it worked quickly, there is nothing I hate more than a website that is slow. The one thing I didn't like about the site was that it didn't give a lot of extra information, like the value of the property. So in conjunction with zillow.com, this could be a great tool for those on a house hunt. Hotpads.com did link to other sites that had more information, so that was helpful.

In a library setting I think the only way we would be able to use it would be in customer service. When someone asked to see houses for sale or apartments it would be a great tool to use. On just the main map view a customer would be able to see the different apartment in an area, be able to compare location and cost among other things.

Google Docs...

Oh how I love thee:) I hadn't really explored this wonderful part of google before and am very excited by what I have found. It was very easy to get started and user friendly. I was immediately thinking of ways to use this both professionally and personally. I started a spreadsheet of books I would like to read. This way the list can travel to home and work, being updated anywhere. I also started a quick list of go-to recommendations, sorted by genre and age. This will be such a blessing when I can't think of the great book I just read and would fit a customers needs perfectly. This will help out greatly. As for use throughout the library, this could easily replace the v drive, allowing employees to work anywhere on pretty much everything. It would also increase the sharing of ideas. Here @54, we have an electronic flannel library including scripts and scans of the pieces. If we uploaded this to google docs and sent a link to youth service staff they could use it and add to it, greatly increasing the number of flannels all branches would have access too. It would make creating flannels easier because you wouldn't have to come up with the pieces, just recreate them.

Learn & Play @CML wiki

I just finished up Thing #16, contributing to a wiki. I have to admit this had some confusing parts. We had to create a log in and then wait to be granted access. It would have been nice to just be able to go straight through and be able to explore, but instead I had to ask for help, then wait to explore. This was discouraging and in turn made it so that I didn't want to spend anymore time on this.

I added my blog to the favorite blogs, of course.

And my favorite quote that I added to the Favorite Quote page:

"We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry" ~E.B. White

All in all, I think that wikis do have some value that they can add to the library experience, see my last post. And this exercise was helpful and seeing how they work and can be changed. I learned a lot, even if it was aggravating.

Learning about Wikis

Continuing on to #15 (I skipped ahead one. I'll go back, I promise...), learning about wikis. I enjoyed the Common Craft video. Always enjoyable and explains technology so well.

First I took a look at SJCPL Subject Guides. I found this very helpful. I think this would be a nice added feature to CML's Reference subject pages. The home school page is a perfect example of how we could add more relevant content to our website. I think that a wiki would be a great place to home school parent to share lesson plans and great local resources that they have found.

I really liked the Book Lovers Wiki. What a great way to get more adults involved in SRC, plus teaching about web 2.0 tools. And wow, having them integrated into their catalog, how nice.

I think the most important thing I am taking away from this exercise is how much information the public can provide to the library for us to share with others, and all this can be facilitated by using wikis.

Delicious

Ohhh, I love Delicious. Lately with all the great blogs I've been reading, I've come across many great ideas that I would love to use but had no way of keeping track of them. And Delicious is the answer. Now I can save all those great ideas I find, organize them and access them anywhere with the internet. I know that this is tool that I will continue to use. I can't wait to get home and add it to my toolbar.

I found Delicious easy to use. It was simple to add pages that I was viewing to my account and add tags. I didn't find the search tool to helpful, although I'm sure it could be to some extent. I am mostly excited about keeping track of the great ideas I see online and being able to recall them. I am daydreaming about the possibilities:)

Twitter

For thing #12, we had to explore twitter. I signed up for it. I can see how this technology could be useful. However, I don't think at this time that I'll use it for personal use.

On twitter, I searched for frugal tweets. I generally follow frugal/money saving blogs and noticed that a few could be followed on twitter. They do a quick update on twitter of deals they are showcasing on their blogs. If I had twitter set up to work on my phone, this may be a nice heads up because sometimes the deals go fast and I would be able to take advantage of them.

As far as libraries using twitter, I think it would be nice to get reserve notices this way. I hate the emails and I really hate phone calls. But a little tweet stating my books were waiting would be great! Another great use for twitter would be for branches to have accounts and send out daily tweets of that days activities and programs.

Feel free to find me. I'm RachyKate.

Library thing

Thing #11 (I am way behind) consists of setting up a library thing account. It was very easy to set up and start having fun with. I loved the recommendations and finding books to enjoy based on those I already have. I also liked the word clouds, exploring books by tags others had created. I think I will continue to use this tool to organize my ever growing collection of books.

Check out my library!

The Road Less Traveled

I had a lot of fun with Thing #10. I headed over to the Generator Blog and created a wordle of the Robert Frost poem The Road Less Traveled. I spent way to much time on this activity because it was so much fun.

Thing #9

For thing #9 we had to explore different search tools for blog feeds. I found Topix.net the most user friendly. The format was by far the best and most inviting. I also liked the content featured on this site. It features both local and national news. I also found this site pretty funny. The comments left by others on the news were often hilarious. You can also rate/judge the comments, which was fun. I have had google reader for awhile and it was nice to add some feeds of substance, including the Columbus Dispatch and Columbus Library new books feeds!

Blogline vs. Google Reader

This week's task (ok, I'm a little behind...it's the task from 3 weeks ago) is to open a bloglines account and add some feeds to follow. I already had a Google reader account, but I figured I would go ahead and try out bloglines...and I hate it. Google's reader was so much easier to understand and set up. It may just be because I started out on it, but bloglines actually gave me a headache as I tried to figure it out!

However, I love RSS. It has made my life so much easier. There are many blogs that I love to follow. It was such a pain to have to go to everyone and then wade through the ads. But once I set up a feeder it was great, they all came to me. And then google reader suggested blogs I might like based on the ones I was already following...and it was right, I do like those blogs. So now I have added even more blogs to follow. I think I may have an addiction!

It's amazing that topics you can find feeds for. I personally have added many decorating blogs. This is a great tool to use in my personal life. I get new ideas everyday for decorating my home, I love it.

My new dvr

The next thing on my to-do list is to talk about anything technology related that interests me. My favorite gadget of the moment is my new dvr. When we first talked about getting it I thought that I would never use it. But now I love it and use it more than my husband who wanted it in the first place.

I find it fascinating that a technology that I was reluctant to get, is now one of my favorite features of my TV. I also think that it would be wonderful if this technology could be replicated on car radios. How many times have I been listening and thought what did they just say? Like when I hear the traffic report but miss the very important part about the accident blocking my way home. Because I am so used to just rewinding the TV when I miss something I actually start to rewind my radio and realize I can't:(

Just a little fun with Spell with Flickr. It's amazing how easy this was. Type a word, click on the letter to find one you like, copy and paste the html "stuff". I never would have explored something like this without this project. I can't wait to explore some of the other mashups and flickr tools.

Portrait of a Professional Know-it-all

My Poems Keep My Mind Unempty, originally uploaded by Poems of a selfish record player.

I love this picture of a Professional Know-it-all! I had played around with flickr and stumbled across a couple pictures that I really like. Today when I was getting ready to post for Thing #5, I decided to hit explore. And this is the first picture that came up. I love it, especially those glasses!

7 1/2 Habits

After watching the video 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, I realized that some of the habits came easily to me. The habit that I find easiest is accepting responsibility for my own learning. When ever I've had a question about something, I found a way to get to the right answer. Whether it's reading a book, surfing the web or asking an expert. I realized early on that to find answers you have to look for them.

The habit that is hardest for me would have to be teaching others. I believe that difficulty there is my lack of confidence in teaching others. I wonder why they would want me to teach them. I doubt myself, thinking that I don't know enough to help.

Becoming a Professional Know-it-all

I have always had a love of learning. During college, I decided that I would love to be a student forever and learn everything I could. Then I would be a Professional Know-it-all and could go on The Today Show or Oprah and talk about this or that, whatever the hot topic for the day was. But the money ran out and I don't have the athletic ability to merit a scholarship, so off to work I went.

Then one day, while answering a question about the population of Ecuador (13.8 million, in case you were wondering), I realized that I have accomplished my dream. I am a Professional Know-it-all, just on a smaller scale.