Week 9, # 23

Wow, slowly but steadily made it to the end. I feel great.
The hardest thing about the program was the time it took to work on the 23 Things. Because I was learning many new things, it took time for me to read all the material, listen to the webcasts, try out the tools and then write my entry. You can see looking at my blog, that I did things out of order several times! Usually that means that I got stuck on something, or I wanted to work on a thing at home rather than at work. For me, being part time, finding time and a computer at work was very dificult. Thankfully, I was able to work on it at home with few problems. I know I spent a number of hours on the Things like Flickr, Rss feeds, technorati and Del.ici.os

Week 9 # 22

I already have a NetLibrary account, set up earlier. I entered my library card details to logon. Net Library is not me, I like to read the books in print format. Though it is useful to teenagers who surf the net the whole day, either finding information for their assingnment or doing some research. It is good for people who don't find time to visit the library in person.

Week 9 # 21

I did a few searches in Yahoo Podcasts to see how easy it would be to locate podcasts that I was interested in. I tried a very specific search for a medical condition and had pretty good results. The results included ten or so podcasts, but they were all relevant to the search and looked useful. Most of the podcasts gave instructions and suggestions on how to handle the medical situation

I have added the podcast on my blog known as Best of today.

Week 9 # 20

There's so much stuff on Youtube that I think you can find something on almost any topic. Many people learn more easily when they are shown how to do something instead of having to read instructions. It might make sense to think about using videos to show patrons how to use library websites

Week 8 # 19

I looked at a number of sites on the Web 2.0 awards short list of winners. The site that I selected to explore is Instant Bull, a business site that pulls together links to many sites with business news. At the top of the page is a search box for stock quotes. It is a fun site if you like to follow financial message boards and blogs. It is worth considering for inclusion in a list of business websites.

Week 8 # 18

I’m writing this using Zoho writer, and this is pretty easy! I’m used to Google Docs. It’s very convenient. Especially when we’re on two different systems. Using Zoho and Google Docs to share documents between windows and a mac make things MUCH easier! We can collaborate, edit, and share ideas amongst each other.

I like the ease of editing, changing formats, collaborating, and portability of using these tools. I can save it, and use it wherever I have access next. Zoho has a lot of options in terms of formating, linking, and including html, and other features. I can just click a button to add a table, change the style, even add a smileyface!

Week 7 # 17

I felt that the instructions for playing and adding information to the Sandbox were vague, the password did not work, then the edit page did not work, but I felt ok trying on the Sandbox since that wiki is a play-place...I figured I couldn't do too much wrong. And I actually succeeded in adding a link to the wiki! But I feel less confident about creating and using a wiki than I do about some of the other things we have been learning about during this adventure.

Week 7, # 16

Wiki links to websites and databases by subject, all in one easy place. It would be an easy way for newly found websites on a subject to be added.I also like the use of the wiki format for book discussion groups. What a great place for patrons or librarians to do readers advisory. If patrons don't want to add their thoughts on a book to the wiki themselves, a librarian could certain do it for them. It might be a quick way to get patron reviews on their favorite books, or on books being read in book clubs.

Week 6 # 15

Once we finish Learning 2.0, I think it would be great to have a brainstorming session to come up with new ideas and ways (Innovation!) to use some of the Web2.0 technology within the library and on our website, as well as coming up with ways to make sure this information is available to everyone!

Week 6, # 14

At first glance, I had no idea of what Technorati was all about. Did it search blog posts? There wasn't much information on the home page about what it did and how it worked. Was it so well known that it didn't have to explain itself, like a celebrity with one name?I did a search on "library 2.0" and came up with 4962 posts. Searching the "tags only" and "with some authority" (default), it came down to 481 posts. A graph on the side shows the blog mentions of "library 2.0" in the past 30 days. I'd like to go back to read some of the blog posts from the "tags only" search of library 2.0.

Week 6, # 13

Del.icio.us is a very interesting concept, and I can see how this can be a very useful tool. I like the idea of being able to find my "Favorites" on a web site so that they can be accessed from any computer. The podcast talks about using this tool as a way of compiling a reading list, especially when one is doing research on a particular topic

Week 5 #12

I find that as I explore new technology and "get my feet wet" that I feel more and more confident trying new things.Rollyo is an interesting concept, and since I do a lot of virtual reference, it is a nice place to keep track of favorite web sites that I tend to use when doing online research for virtual patrons. So I have created an account with that usage in mind

Week 5 # 11

I love the LibraryThing. I think it could be a great Reader's Advisory tool - a way to keep track of the books I have really enjoyed. I also like the idea of using this site to get recommendations for myself from other people who have enjoyed the same books I have.

The one thing I don't like about this site is that you seem to need to click on each book you want to put into your catalog. I have a few favorite authors and I've read most of their books, and I would have liked to have been able to move all their books into my catalog at one time.

Week 5 # 10

I played with several of the image generators. There are so many generators out there with so many options that I find it overwhelming, and really have to ask, do people really have that much free time on their hands that they can experiment with all this?!

Week 4 # 9 Technorati

This site has so much on it - and some of those blogs have links to so much more - depending on what the focus of the blog is. So, I am realizing, blogs could be a good place to research topics - but as always with the web, the researcher needs to keep in mind who is providing the information, and how trustworthy is it. Having said that, I can see that going to a blog on a topic and seeing if they link to authoritative web sites could be a good approach at times.

I also like looking at the tags and seeing where they take you...a game I will need to be careful of as I can see myself spending a lot of time going deeper and deeper from the original starting point.

Week 3 # 7

Technology is such a progressive science...some people thrive on the never-ending list of new things to explore and have...and others get overwhelmed by the feeling that they can never keep up. Without a doubt, there is so much out there that it can be difficult to weed through it and determine what is of value to us, and what will fade away as people decide they have no use for that particular tool.One of the problems I have is thinking of ways to use some of this new technology to my advantage. I believe that technology should be used to simplify our lives, not complicate it! And I personally like the "Wow" factor when we can use technology to do something that couldn't be done before!

Week 4, # 8

I have enjoyed creating a Bloglines account and I have subscribed to several news sources. I am looking forward to logging on to this account and browsing these sites that are of interest to me. This was actually very easy to do. I can see using this account to keep track of sites that contain information of interest to me.

http://www.bloglines.com/public/reallylazyla