Friday, July 11, 2008

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.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

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!