Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Thing 23: Summary of 23 Things

I've been impressed--it's often been eye-opening--with the amount and kinds of information, entertainment, and creative thinking on the Internet. I feel at the end of the day that I know more about where to find good books and book reviews, as well as author interviews; can find and explore some pertinent and lively discussions on blogs, podcasts, wikis; can use and follow tags to sort out my discoveries and input to such sites as Library Thing and Delicious; and can have as much fun as my kids in exploring You Tube or playing with an online Meez. And I also discovered some cool sites on the Web 2.0 awards list. It's been a bit rushed for me (I started in October) but well worth it, despite the sense of cramming for a test. On the negative side, I got bored with all the little info-"bytes," the time drain, and the facile content: you begin to feel all life begins with the worldwide web. Still, it was well worth the journey!

Thing 22: Downloadable audios

I looked through Overdrive titles with some interest and will revisit titles in the future, especially hard to get, popular audios, though I see we would have holds on these titles even at such sites. The NetLibrary podcast was helpful, since we get questions from time to time about downloading problems with our own NetLibrary and Maryland Consortium. I find the Project Gutenberg site to be a little jargony and hard to follow, though the project itself is momentous. The titles I found on NetLibrary were ones I would tend to put a hold on here, rather than try to download. I may find myself more interested in downloading audios after I use my new MP3 player for awhile!

Thing 21: Podcasts

I visited podcast.com and was surprised at the varied topics and level of expertise of the podcasts. I especially gravitated toward the book reviews (including Diana Gabaldon and a reading of a Defoe novel, Roxanna) or educational podcasts (one called ShakesPodosphere was a discussion of early sonnets) and also like the how-tos (how to play piano included a fairly informal discussion of chords, with everyone chiming in from around the country). The most polished podcasts I listened to I found at the online Washington Post site, where I listened to an interview with Oliver Sacks on music and the brain (how music is somehow wired in the brain of stroke victims, even Alheimer's patients). On this same site I found a link to a National Geographic video of elephants in an African wildlife sanctuary that were being systematically poached for their ivory tusks. It was horrible seeing what happens to the elephant families, but was a graphic statement that probably would not have made it to television--the images were amazing. These podcasts are an excellent source for students (lectures, directions) and are also often (not always) entertaining.

Thing 20: You Tubing

This is great fun and should be wonderful for book groups seeking video interviews with authors. I watched Mary Lawson talking about the genesis of her book, "The Other Side of the Bridge," the book I'm discussing with a library group. I'm also reading "Loving Frank" and discovered a you tube video of the author touring Frank Llloyd Wright houses,and, in particular, the one he built for Mamah (his second wife) and the family she raised before running away with Frank. I also checked out LibVibe to watch library news--a report on missing items at L of C and an Internet filtering debate (a little boring, actually). These videos would be great for our author visits and could expand our audiences. We could also use You Tube to promote our services and collections.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Thing 12: Rollyo

I like the idea of Rollyo and signed up for the choices (health, libraries, and books +authors). I may use these, especially the book websites, for recommendations. I like the simplicity of bookmarks, however, and maybe Rollyo is a little redundant unless you're writing for the NY Times or are Arianna Huffington. I went back to Rollyo simply to refresh my memory of it: I decided to do a rollbar of favorite libraries, to find books and book club ideas. It's still a little overwhelming to think about the numbers of sites you can peruse through, if you have the time and stamina.

Thing 11: Love the Library Thing

Library Thing is my favorite thing so far. I think I'll add to this list forever, both favorites from now and my childhood. I also like that I can tag them by categories, since it will be useful to find recommended titles for book clubs.

Thing 9: Merlin and library blogs

Merlin seems packed with resources for techno-impaired librarians. I like the links to library blogs, some of which I need to peruse when I have more time. I was also impressed by the online courses available, from "how to handle difficult customers" to technology-related courses and wikis. I'll definitely visit Merlin from time to time to see what's new.

Thing 7: Cellphones

Cellphones are wonderful but sometimes dominating technology. A friend tends to call me from her car on the way to a meeting and it's almost as though she's got a checklist of items to run down. My kids call me on cellphones fairly frequently, for which I'm grateful, yet it's awfully easy for them to ask me about stuff they could probably address on their own. And, yes, I tend to call at the drop of a hat; our plan allows us unlimited calls. I love that I have a cellphone when I'm driving or walking alone. This little device is both lifesaving and sometimes a nuisance when it goes off in the library. Now we have memory stored in it, tv, internet: we will never be disconnected or quiet again.

Thing 19: Web 2.0 award winners

I spent about an hour looking at various sites and was intrigued with some of the social networking sites, such as 43 things, where you list goals and get other people to cheer you on or share experiences. I also will boomark some of the health sites, like medstory, which seemed to have some recent research, and I especially enjoyed the listdump site, which referred me to great food websites such as epicurius.com. Great pictures and slides!

Thing 18: Word Processing on Zoho

This could be a great way to do collaborative editing of a document or to create a document you want posted to a blog or an email, especially with the many editing features of Zoho. Students or small business might find the templates handy as well as the accessibility of Zoho from any computer. Will I use it or suggest it to customers? Might be useful for a group of students doing a collaborative report or adding data to a spreadsheet on Zoho, and the result would be much more efficent than email attachments. I typed this up on Zoho and tried to post it to my blog...I may have missed a step, since it never appeared. I ended up just pasting it here.