Summary

I would say my favorite discoveries were Zoho Writer because you can access it from any computer and make comments on people's reports and also watching/hearing Bill Evans playing jazz piano on YouTube. Very cool. It was unexpected to realize how much help and support I needed to get through this project. Sort of like pulling Pooh through the rabbit hole.

I will always choose to participate in learning programs.You can't stop learning. I have to try, anyway! This was a good program.

Digital media/Overdrive

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Description
Based on the author's childhood experiences, Little Women is the story of the March family, specifically the four daughters: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Meg at 16 is pretty and wishes to be a lady; at 15 Jo is ungainly, unconventional, and enterprising, and aspires to be an author; Beth is a delicate 13-year-old with a taste for music; and Amy is a blond beauty of 12. Mrs. March is busy and cheerful, while her husband is an improvident army chaplain in the Civil War. The story involves their family adventures, their attempts to improve their income, their friendship with the neighboring Laurence family, and their romances.

Little Women develops a sense of family values and the good that results from a strong moral foundation. It is Louisa May Alcott's masterpiece, a work which has continued to delight people of all ages ever since its original publication in 1868.

Podcasts

I chose the book reviews by librarian Nancy Pearl. I think many staff would be interested in hearing her reviews.

YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llVYYdNYwcc

I loved being able to look up jazz great Stan Getz and hear him play with other artists. I heard a pianist Bill Evans I had not listened to before and will want to pursue getting his recordings. Except for one photo in the montage, they were very interesting or pretty. I had the actual video uploaded but had to remove it and put a link to it . For some reason, the worst picture ended up being the one on my blog!
It was too ugly to keep.

An application of this type in the library which has already been used is in promotion of events and publicity of programs.It was also used to kick off the start of this staff development training opportunity,23 Things.

Award Winners

I created a countdown widget for a very important event at the Library. I viewed several food related videos and restaurant ratings by bloggers on the award winners, and some other odd things. As for library applications, you could direct patrons to these sites as part of a research question (looking for color palettes in decorating? see Color Blender) or social networking,although it seems most already know about the social part of it. I didn't really like any of it, as I found very little of interest ,even on the food videos. Nothing like videos of raw chicken and unidentifiable meat simmering in tomato sauce to turn one's stomach. I was hoping it would be interesting and yet... I must be missing out.

Countdown!

Zoho

I created a document with Zoho writer. Web based word processing is great in that it eliminates the need for different software versions... who has Word, who has WordPerfect? Many users can edit the same file, you can access the document from any computer and you can make comments on their work called"inline comments"

Wiki wacky

Most interesting to me was the Library Success/Best Practices wiki. It was very sensible to gather all the comments there such as having a staff intranet for a group project, instruction, planning and promoting collaboration. It encourages participation among all library staff.
A wiki also seems easier to use than tags or social bookmarking sites. On the other hand, having anyone able to interject "facts" without stated authority is misleading for those trying to write papers and reports. Bad news for students using wikis. I personally would not recommend them to anyone.

PBCLS Wiki was fun... favorite books, food, mangos etc. However, I had to enter my blog twice. It wouldn't take me to the blog site for some reason. I deleted it and did it again with my trusty helper.

Web 2.0

We are learning how to find new ways to bring library services to patrons rather than insist they come to us, but they they do still come to us in droves. One comment was to integrate our services into their daily patterns of work, study and play. We have to plan this but include patrons in the process...find out what they want.

The most interesing thought was the Library 4.0 Experience or knowledge spa. I could smell the leather chairs and hear the pages rustle! Pour me a brandy, would you Jeeves?

Technorati

There were 75 blogs attached to our library website. When I saw the count for the tags , the first time I did it it showed as 15, 234. For some reason, I did it a second time and it changed within 3 minutes to 17,438 tags. Things are ever changing on the Web. And so many blogs, unbelievable! I found a few from our library staff.

Delicious

Okay, yes. It would be very useful for research purposes. The algebra teacher gathering websites explanation was helpful. We could create our own lists for patrons, I suppose. Accessability from anywhere is useful, too, although I do not even turn on my computer at home!

LibraryThing was fun,although I was glad I had kept my list of books I already read handy. A good way to share thoughts on books, if you are so inclined, with complete strangers, which I am not. My PBCLS family is as out there as I feel comfortable with for now, frankly.

I looked up my home town on Webfeat. A relatively small, local snack food company ended up going big time! They bought out Whole Fruit sorbet (my favorite brand,that's what caught my eye), and a huge number of other well known frozen treats. The public library also got a new director. Webfeat will be essential for reliable medical lookups.

LibraryThing

http://www.librarything.com/profile/orchid1

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/magazine.php

RSS'marvelous!

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
One can get the latest news or even a comic strip sent to you. You don't even have to go to that Website. RSS takes care of it.(Okay, how lazy is that?)Guess it is like a cookbook... all the recipes are there, instead of going to all different sources.

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?
I could get book reviews and the latest library news fed directly to my blog without me having to consciously remember to go to that website every time.

How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
They can allow patrons to get news about what's going on at the library, upcoming events,especially local,branch specific events, promotion of new books or themed book displays,and whatever the library chooses to spotlight on RSS. It is very immediate.

RSS Link

http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

Technology can be wonderful. A friend emailed me photos of his new home on Flickr. I don't use most of what is out there as I have not found a use for it yet. If I feel I had a need to use some of these things then I would possibly make an effort to incorporate them into my life. I'm a little slow! Just looking at Flickr and seeing all of the options make my mind reel. TMI as they say.
But, I am willing to learn if I can see some sort of benefit for my life.

Junoesque

Henry in Repose
Originally uploaded by WebSphinx

Blogging in the library

Blogging in the library is a good way to communicate when you can't all get together. It would be great for committee members who need to share ideas, ask questions and get feedback from one another.

Viewing problems as challenges

The most difficult part of blogging is trying to see that a challenge is not an obstacle but a way to learn new things. Technology has always been a challenge for me. I need to be calm and not get frustrated. I will look at it like I did when I learned to bake. Sure, I burned a cake at first. So what? I'm really good at it now and my baked goods are delicious! So I will get through this blogging thing. Maybe there will be something sweet and toothsome at the end to enjoy!

The Blob.. er...The Blog

This is my first attempt at "The Blog". Maybe I should have named it "The Blob". I am open to new things, I keep telling myself and yet, my computer fights me every step of the way. I make mistakes and lose time. Thank goodness for all of our helpers on staff.



Okay , I'm exhausted with all of this. On to the next thing.