My Thoughts on Our 23 Things

It had good potential but due to staff shortages and the increased volume that comes with the Summer, it was an act of frustration for many. For staff that are already computer savvy the explorations didn't demand a lot of time but for those with little knowledge it was very hard and time consuming. I feel badly for those who chose not to participate or who dropped out because they couldn't keep up. I would participate in a program like this again if the time restraints weren't an issue. If more time was given to complete the tasks, more people could feel good about participating and have the confidence of being successful.

Downloadable Audio Books

The ability to download a book from home and take it with you wherever you go is amazing. The flexibility and convenience is amazing. I know we have many patrons who use it. I personally would like to see more in the collection. I think the download time is extremely long but I guess there are pluses and minuses to everything.

Podcast

I'm not sure if I don't get it or what. I clicked on the library of congress and found some podcasts. I listened to a few but they just seem to be like any other audio "stuff" that is available all over the internet. There are some podcast on U Tube also. I personally don't find it too exciting but maybe I just didn't find the right one yet.

U Tube

There is so much on the news about U Tube, good and bad. Millions of people use it, watch it or hear about what's on it. I personally have never looked at it prior to this. I was thinking what the library could do to utilize some free advertisement. Maybe some skits or small clips of upcoming events that people might be interested in. Also I was thinking about the self checkout stations. How about a video showing patrons how to use it? But then I thought, if someone knows enough to use the computer to go on U Tube, they're probably not the patron who would have a problem using self check out. So that idea is out the window. I did review a self checkout on U Tube. It was self check out at Walmart. Where else?

Web 2.0 Awards

I looked at a few different sites. I liked "I Foods". There are many recipes with pictures and very clear directions. I believe they even show some videos of some recipes. I checked out "I'm Cooked" didn't much care for that one and "One Sentence", which is one liner jokes. They are funny but not very practical for library use.

Zoho

What can I say about Zoho? I like it. It is nice to be able to work on a document at one computer and pick up right back where you left off at a totally different computer. That is a really cool feature!

Wiki Part 2

Adding to a Wiki was amazingly easy. It was so easy I thought I did it wrong. I figured there must be more to it, but no, that was it. Cool, something I can do with ease.

Wiki

Wow, I had no idea that Wikipedia could have posts from anyone. I thought the information on that sight is reliable. I'd like to believe that most of it is correct but I certainly won't let my son use it as a resource on a research paper. Now I wonder how many teachers know and tell their students how the sight works and whether they should use it. Interesting!
Anyhow, I think Wikis can be a good thing. I found some interesting library ones. It is nice to get ideas from other library systems. It is kind of like a big bulletin board but better organized.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is definitely changing the information world. As that world changes so does our libraries. It does seem that whether we want to change or not, the change is upon us. The needs of our patrons has been evolving for some time. More and more people are coming in to use the internet to look up information instead of checking out materials. I do think library staff will need to learn more so we may teach our patrons how to find the vast amounts of information that is available online.

Technorati

Don't get it at all. Advanced Search discovered nothing that interested me. 76 blog reactions, I read a few but there was nothing informative or interesting there. Web 2.0 tag search had 49,872 posts.

Bookmarks

I completed the exercise and then I thought, "Am I done? Is this all there is to this?" I don't get it. To me, it's just about clicking on what others have found. I see how the posts and links are grouped together but to me it isn't much different than doing a search on google.

WebFeat

What can I say about WebFeat? Not much. I didn't find it too interesting. I found lots of different articles but nothing struck me as exciting, fascinating or mildly entertaining. I hope next week is more fun.

My Library Thing

Another cool resource for keeping track of our reading. It is amazing how many sites like this there are. I don't know if I will continue to use it, but I enjoyed perusing it anyway. I was introduced to a similar site and I'm kind of hooked on that. It is goodreads.com.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=firestonek23things&shelf=list

Generators

I used the image generator at http://www.jellymuffin.com/generators/textpix2/ --I found it to be very easy; however, when I went to post there was a problem. The Html "language" (whatever that means)had an error in it. I hadn't a clue as to how to fix it. My coworker, Jennifer, took one look at it and found the errors and fixed them. Who knew she was Bilingual? Html language, now that's impressive! Thanks again Jen!

Image Generator, I hope.

Myspace Picture Generator

I'd like to dedicate this post to Jennifer, without her help my image would be invisible. Thanks Jennifer

RSS

This seemed to be much easier than I thought. If this is the hardest step than I'm looking forward to the rest. I'm either really good at this or just plain lucky. The hardest thing for me was finding the time to get to this week's assignment.

My DVR

I don't have Tivo, I have a DVR. They do the same thing, CHANGE LIVES. It gives you the gift of time. Time to go out on a weekday night without fear of missing your favorite show. Time to go to the movies, dinner, or out with friends on a moments notice without panic of missing the season finale of American Idol, Desperate Housewives or God forbid Lost. I guess when I think about it, not only does Tivo give you the gift of time, it gives you peace of mind and lord knows, we can all use a little more of that. I know I do!

Caribbean Princess

Caribbean Princess
Originally uploaded by Amy misses OKC

Where I'd like to be again, Princess Cay island. Sand, surf and sipping drinks with umbrellas in them.

Libraries could use blogs as a tool for Reader's Advisory. A blog could list new authors, recent arrivals and short reviews from different staff members. Patrons, as well as visitors to the site, could add comments and their own reviews of books they have read. It could be quite beneficial and popular.

All of this is new to me. I don't do My Space, I don't IM, I'm not up on this type of technology but I'm willing to give it a try. The 7 1/2 Habits seem easy enough to follow. My biggest challenge will be time. I've having trouble finding the time to keep up.