Debbie's List

Week 9 Thing 23

2007-09-12T12:20:00.000-04:00

My favorite exercises on this journey were the Library Thing website and looking at the Web 2.0 awards. I look forward to revisiting these and some other favorites. So, in answer to the question about lifelong learning goals, I have added a few goals to my list. My confidence has increased as a direct result of doing all these exercises.

One thing that surprised me was that I really enjoyed reading the other blogs, and that some were hysterically funny. Because I'm usually serious most of the time, (although I love to laugh), my blog wasn't that humorous. But some of them were quite amusing, and had really creative names, too.

I have only a couple of suggestions for improvement. I would have liked to learn about chat rooms and instant messaging. I know the teens use them, but I have no idea what to do. In addition, some of the assignments were NOT self-explanatory. I remember going on Technorati and thought it was a big MESS. I had no idea what it was and I still have no idea how to do a good search on it.

I would definitely participate in another discovery program like this. I would also recommend this to others. The activities are mostly hands-on (although there's some theory) and there really is something for everyone. You can find fun, playful things as well as academic, educational things. I know for sure I am a better librarian now that I've participated in 23 things.

Week 9 Thing 22

2007-09-11T23:20:00.000-04:00

OVERDRIVE. I checked out a children's e-book from Overdrive. (or was it an audio book? I don't know the exact difference between the two). At first, it was a little confusing so I called Jim D. at Info Services and he was a big help. Basically, I was trying to find a way to "sign up" for an account until Jim explained to me that I had to pick a title first, and then check it out with my library card number. That's how you "sign up." When I went back to the overdrive home page three days later to review my account, I had no idea where to start! There was nothing on the home page about checking your account. So I had click on several links before I found a link for My Account. Way too complicated. I think Overdrive needs to restructure their homepage and make it more user-friendly, especially for new users.

Week 9 Thing 21

2007-09-08T14:36:00.000-04:00

I found a podcast that I liked through podcast.net: The Book of Life: Jewish People and the Books we Read. It is sponsored through B'nai Israel Synagogue in Boca Raton, Florida and features author interviews. It was easy to subscribe to through Bloglines. I clicked Add under my bloglines menu and cut and pasted the url. The podcast itself was interesting and the books they reviewed were good ones. It would be fun to listen to this podcast or any other podcast while on a long car ride. Otherwise, I'd prefer to read but I can't read in the car due to motion sickness. So podcasts or music would be my entertainment of choice in the car.

I also subscribed to The Osgood File a few weeks ago when we learned about feeds. At the time, I didn't realize I was subscribing to a podcast. Anyways, when I checked my i-tunes directory, I had received podcasts from the Osgood file all the way back to March of 2007. I don't know why they sent so many. Also, I don't have an i-pod but I'm assuming ipods can download these podcasts, unlike e-books. (especially since podcasts are downloaded through Apple's i-tunes).

Where's the Beef

2007-09-05T19:57:00.001-04:00

Week 9 Thing 20

2007-09-05T19:21:00.000-04:00

Whew! That took a while to post the You Tube video to my blog! Creating an account with Youtube was quite a hassle. Every user name I picked was unavailable. Finally, I found one. Then I had to add my blog name to Youtube. That was easy. It was fun watching Youtube videos. I thought the site was very user friendly. Not only can you do a word search, but you can look at the videos by categories too. The only thing I did not like (and there was recently an article in the Sun about it) was that some teens are doing nasty pranks just to be on You-tube, like throwing soda onto a fast food drive-through cashier or going to Walmart and saying crazy things over the store's loudspeaker.

I chose an old commercial that people my age would remember: Where's the Beef? We always liked that commercial and would repeat the Where's the Beef "mantra" every now and then and it would always get a laugh. When I was a kid, we used to imitate all the commercials, so that's why I chose a commercial. I tried finding a specific Burger King commercial with the song "Hold the pickles hold the lettuce, etc.." but couldn't find it. I found newer versions of it but not that specific one.

Week 8 Thing 19

2007-08-30T10:37:00.000-04:00

Web 2.0 Awards list. I tried all the music websites listed on the "short" list and was very impressed. Pandora and last.fm were very similar. They ask you to type in the name of a singer who you like and then they play songs by that singer and others who have similar music. I liked everything I heard even though I had never heard of some of the artists. It was great -- just like listening to my favorite radio station but with no commercials. Last.fm goes one step further by giving you a bio about that musician.
Patrons in the library can easily use this. They can actually listen to music and do their computer work at the same time. That's what I did. I explored other sites while listening to the songs.

Week 8 Thing 18

2007-08-28T07:49:00.000-04:00

Tried Zoho writer. Typed a short document. Found it to be very similar to Microsoft word; however I couldn't find the shortcut that changes words from lower to upper case. I also tried the resume template. It would be helpful to our patrons, to create resumes on Zoho. My only complaint about the templates (including Word) is that it's hard to get rid of parts of the format that you don't like (for example bars and other highlighted features). I'd like to see more simple resume templates in addition to the fancy ones.
I don't think these online applications will REPLACE Word; however I think it's good competition -- maybe it'll help keep the prices down. It's nice that Zoho is compatible with so many other word processing applications -- that's a real plus in my eyes. Too much technology is noncompatible nowadays -- for example Sony and Ninendo games cannot use the same game box.
In regard to Google Docs, I remember when Monty Phair wrote about Writely.com in Branching Out in his "Treasures" column. I tried it back then and uploaded a document from my hard drive onto it because I was afraid my hard drive would crash (it did once) and I'd lose the document. That's another wonderful thing about these web-based applications. You can't lose them as easily as a flash drive or a floppy! And they're free. At least for now.

Week 7 Thing 17

2007-08-23T09:32:00.000-04:00

I added a wiki to the PB (peanut butter) wiki of the Maryland Libraries Sandbox. It was VERY user-friendly. The only trouble I had when adding "My Favorite Jokes" was that I added the joke while I was naming my new page. I should have waited until the new page was already in place, then clicked "Edit page." Adding my blog was easy too. The only thing is, that if someone else is editing the page, you have to wait your turn. (5 minutes). This was one of the easiest of the 23 things. I'm ready to move on.

Week 7 Thing 16

2007-08-21T17:28:00.000-04:00

Wiki means short in Hawaain. I had no idea that anyone could edit Wikipedia and that it shouldn't be used as a reference on a term paper. My son, 14, even knew that. Still, the concept of wikis is a good one. I especially liked the one about Library Success. I looked at some of the programming ideas and they are very helpful. I wouldn't hesitate to turn to this wiki for programming ideas. The other wiki I liked was bookloverswiki. I try to contribute to things like this because I really appreciate when others do the same. Everybody can benefit from a wiki. It's easy to imagine how much SPAM these wikis get and I don't totally understand how they stop all the spammers. I realize that only certain people get the password - that's probably one way. What I'd LOVE to see for BCPL is a storytime wiki that's really well organized and we could all contribute our storytime ideas to it.

Week 6 Thing 15

2007-08-19T12:46:00.000-04:00

Library 2.0. It's hard to believe a simple term like this is surrounded by so much controversy. Some say it's a bunch of crap; others say it's significant. Some say it's theory; others say it's real. Personally, I think it's quite simple. A simple definition of Library 2.0 is a virtual library. A modern definition of library must therefore include the Internet. Makes sense to me. I use the Internet constantly for information. Need the lyrics to a song? Google it. Need directions? Go to Mapquest. Nowadays, almost everyone turns to the Internet for their information needs. That's the direction this society is heading. Sure, I believe we'll always have physical libraries in actual buildings. But, as the Crawford article says, the future will bring a "significant paradigm shift in the way we view library services." The author lists 62 views of Library 2.0. My favorite is "Library 2.0 puts the librarian anywhere a user’s heart takes them." Put this way, the library is anywhere someone turns to for information. I don't know if I'd quite go that far but the point is this: Libraries are much more than just a building.

Week 6 Thing 14

2007-08-19T12:27:00.000-04:00

Technorati. I have to be blunt about this. I have no use for blogs and therefore don't like Technorati. The only time I would use a blog is as a last resort. I might also use it if I needed to connect with others about a particular subject and nobody I knew fit that category (for instance if I had a rare disease and people were blogging about it). If I were a gossip columnist, I'd use blogs too because they're full of gossip and opinion. (I typed in Brittany Spears and there was tons of stuff). I am just not that interested right now in reading what everyone thinks. And if I want to know someone's opinion, I'll ask a family member or friend. But I definitely don't need to go on a blog.

Week 6 Thing 13

2007-08-18T22:36:00.001-04:00

I viewed the 8 minute tutorial on del.icio.us and found it to be very informative. I can definitely see how certain groups of people would find del.icio.us quite valuable, particularly the academic community. As a librarian, I don't need to use bookmarks on the same magnitude that professors (creating a syllabus) and students doing research projects use them. If they find a great article, they can just bookmark it and come back to it later. They can also benefit tremendously from sharing others' bookmarks -- it could save them a great deal of time.
It's a great idea for library websites (such as Lansing Public Library in Illinois)to become part of the del.icio.us network because it's a good way to increase their visibility.
Although I use "My Favorites" to bookmark some websites at home, I don't really need to access my bookmarks anywhere else. Nor do I feel the need to see what others are bookmarking on the same subject.

Week 5 Thing 12

2007-08-12T11:46:00.000-04:00

Rollyo is much better than it looks. It's homepage makes it appear rather meager and your choices seem quite limited to certain subjects such as travel, parenting, etc.. However, if you go beyond the homepage by clicking on explore, there's a whole new world out there. I found searchrolls for many subjects in the universe, such as movies, recipes, jobs,... you name it, it's there. It's a great way for finding new websites on particular subjects. I made my own searchroll on "Modern Quotations." Once in a while I get a patron who wants books on things he can say at a retirement party (or the like) and I think these websites can help someone write a little speech for someone on special occasions such as these. I have included a link to my searchroll in this blog entry. Just click on the title of this entry (Week 5 Thing 12)

Week 5 Thing 11

2007-08-11T12:38:00.003-04:00

The Library Thing is WONDERFUL. As you can tell by the name of my blog, I LOVE making lists. So this is the perfect website for me. So far, I've created two "libraries." The first one is a list of all my favorite books -- ones that I would recommend to others. ( I have about 55 so far). I decided not to include every book I've read because there's no sense in remembering the ones I didn't like. When I have a reader's advisory question at work, I can pull up this list. For me, it's much easier than just browsing the shelves. I've tagged all my books so if someone asks for a specific genre (humor,survival story, etc..), I can just sort the books by their tags.
My second library is for my TGIF book club. I listed all the books that we've read for the past three years. This is helpful to our new members so that when they select a book, they don't duplicate what we've already read.
I can see why the Library Thing wouldn't appeal to some people; but for me, it's the best.

2007-08-11T12:38:00.001-04:00

week 5 thing 10

2007-08-11T12:08:00.000-04:00

This was my favorite week so far. I enjoyed playing around with online generators and would have enjoyed trying all of them but would have been here forever. I especially enjoyed the postcard generator, where I created this image of my helicopter jump. I also liked the caption generator for photos and the ASCII picture generator. Many of the generators had very limited choices, such as the birthday cake and the capuccini coffee generator. I liked the ones where I had more input.
As far as Letter James, I liked the part where we could write our own captions to pre-existing photos. I didn't like designing my own posters, calendars, etc. because 1. the language was in German and 2. the website was not too user-friendly.
I had already seen Big Huge Labs in a previous lesson. I would definitely use them. So far they have the cheapest prices I've seen anywhere online.

Week 4 Thing 9

2007-08-02T19:11:00.000-04:00

I'm on vacation north of Tortonto right now -- in a town called Huntsville. Thought I'd take a break from my busy schedule of swimming, hiking and shopping and get on my son's laptop so as not to fall behind. This is a picture of Ragged Falls, where we canoed to and had a picnic lunch.

In response to this whole feed thing. I'm not impressed! There is no way I can keep up with all the feeds that I subscribed to. Maybe I'm not aware of all the advantages but I would prefer to go to my preferred websites to keep up with the news. Or read the New York Times. When I go to bloglines I feel too inundated--like having an inbox that I can't keep up with. Anyways, I probably won't be using feeds on a regular basis.

Week 4 Thing 9

2007-07-26T12:10:00.000-04:00

I had a great time making this meez. Felt like I was back in preschool making paper dolls. This one has several characteristics from the movie Hairspray, which I saw twice already and loved.
In regard to MERLIN, the only thing I liked was the continuing education calendar. I usually go to StaffNet for that so I don't think I'll have much use for that website.

Week 3 Thing 6

2007-07-18T12:06:00.001-04:00

Cyclone Roller Coaster
Originally uploaded by CocteauBoy

I wish I would have known about flickr last summer when I was looking for a poster of a roller coaster for my son. I looked all over the Internet to purchase a poster to decorate his room and there weren't many choices. Flickr has some of the best roller coaster photos that I've seen. I could have made my own poster!

Week 4 Thing 8

2007-07-18T11:24:00.000-04:00

This is a picture of Monticello, where I visited this past Saturday on a weekend getaway. It was great -- I'd highly recommend the tour.

What do I like about RSS and feeds? Everything. It's so easy to use and now I don't have to hop around from website to website. I can just go to bloglines.com and get all my information there. I read in a participant's blog that they preferred other subscription services to bloglines. I had no trouble with it, although I have nothing to compare it to since I didn't try the other ones yet. It was very easy to just copy and paste the URL. The hardest part is remembering my user name and password.

How might I be able to use this technology in my work or personal life? Obviously, I can always go to the librarian feeds to see what's new in the library world. I like my subscription to Teen Reads, where teens evaluate the books they have read. I also like NPR because it has other stories besides just the headlines. I tried subscribing to the Osgood file, but then I realized it was actually a podcast, which is covered in week 9. I already had i-Tunes, so I subscribed to the podcast anyways just to see how it worked.

How can libraries use RSS and feeds? Numerous ways. They're always looking for innovative ideas from other library systems. (e.g. floating collections) This would be a good way to get that kind of news in a nutshell. What I'm wondering, though, is if you can request your feeds to look for a certain word, like Google does, and only give you articles with that word, or tag.

I love my ball...

2007-07-16T19:23:00.001-04:00

I love my ball...
Originally uploaded by SkyCandy

This picture, obtained from flickr, looks exactly like my bichon, Benji.

Week 3 Thing 7

2007-07-11T11:12:00.000-04:00

A news tidbit: I read recently in the paper that the government of Iraq has banned access to flickr in their country. Some groups in Iraq who are against this form of censorship have worked their way around this problem. They have created a plug-in so that anyone who wants to go on flickr can now download the plugin and go to the website. Some Iraqi citizens have formed their own "group" on flickr. I don't know which one it is, because when I searched for Iraq groups on flickr, I got a list of over 568 groups.

Week 3 Thing 5

2007-07-11T10:58:00.000-04:00

http://www.flickr.com/ I had several photos on my computer at home (from my digital camera) so I uploaded them onto flickr. It reminds me of another website called http://www.kodakgallery.com/ where I actually have made and stored my own photo albums. The nice thing about flickr is that you can look at other people's pictures too, even if you don't know the person, because many people allow their pictures to be viewed by the public.

Week 1 Thing 2

2007-07-11T10:44:00.000-04:00

There are two habits of lifelong learners that are easy for me: 1) Begin with the end in mind and 2) Teach others. I like teaching others, especially children, -- they’re always so eager to learn new skills. The two habits I find difficult are 1) View problems as challenges and 2) Have confidence in yourself. I tend to make “mountains out of molehills” and can get bent out of shape when problems arise, realizing afterwards that the problem was really not that big of a deal.

Week 2 Thing 3

2007-07-07T15:09:00.001-04:00

http://debbieslist.blogspot.com/

This is the link to my blog.

Week 1 Thing 1

2007-07-07T13:11:00.000-04:00

I'm looking forward to doing the 23 exercises in this program. At a glance, the terminology sounds so foreign to me -- wiki, tagging, feed reader, etc... Hopefully, I'll become much more familiar with these terms as time goes on. I actually thought I was pretty hi-tech, since I was rated as an "omnivore" when I took the reference workshop. But there's still so much to learn.....