Thing 23-Done!

I never thought I would actually finish Learn and Play, especially during those weeks I was 9-10 things behind. Amazingly, I am finishing early! I enjoyed some of the exercises very much and some not so much. The exercise with Flickr was easy and convinced me to use another service Snapfish to create calendars for my parents and in-laws for Christmas. I probably wouldn't have tried before I learned it was painless and easy. I also had fun making the images with the Read posters. The exercise in general was informative in learning more about what Library 2.0/Web 2.0 means. Before, these terms were basically jargon that had no meaning to me. I will be able to understand a little more when a customer talks about these items, however without consistent practice, I wonder how much of this will stick with me. I will keep up with librarything as a journal of teen literature that I have read, so I will have a RA tool at my fingertips. I'm not so sure that I will keep up with Bloglines; as I have mentioned I'm not big on getting all my info from a screen, although it does help to keep up with the news. Sharing information and making it available and accesssible to all is a great thing, but I will always be concerned about content--thank goodness for library workers and people with common sense who can filter things and take/find the good stuff out there.

MOLDI

MOLDI provides a terrific service for customers wanting to download audio books, ebooks, etc. from the comforts of their own PC. Allowing customers to download software they need increases the convenience of this service. I enjoyed browsing the fiction areas and reading the blurbs. You can even get a recipe or two from the cookbooks without even downloading the book! I do enjoy audio books, but I use them in the car and I don't have any portable devices--I know this is probably unheard of--so I still need/use CD's. I also am some one who prefers to read the paper book and not a screen, so the ebooks are not something I'm terribly interested in, although I understand why people like them.

Podcasts

Podcasts are an interesting way to share information. I talked with a couple of people at the branch while doing this exercise and they shared their opinion that podcasts were outdated; there are better ways to do this. Not being technically savy, I'll take their word for it. I found the directories a bit clunky, because they never quite took me in the direction I wanted to go to find things. It could be I expect too much. While looking for library related items, I came up with zero several times. I finally found something worth adding to bloglines through Amazon, which is a weekly 7 minute presentation of new audio books. This is probably a good way for libraries to use podcasts on their own website--sharing titles to interest customers or maybe using it to share information about Ready to Read skills--demonstrating those skills and sharing title; booktalks for teens could be another way to use podcasting on the website.

YouTube

I played around a little with YouTube. It is a very interesting concept to be able to upload videos. The best use in terms of library and information are the videos that show D-I-Y items, such as tiling floors or the ones describing how the electoral college works. Adding a search function to library websites for customers looking for these type of videos is a good idea-sort of a one stop shopping idea when looking for resources. I do wish YouTube was more concerned with the content it receives; I think that the usefulness, even for recreational purposes (checking out those music videos), is reduced because of the other "stuff" that can be uploaded. As part of initiation, gangs will upload their violent acts and recently an organization has been going to doors with McCain signs, knocking on the doors and then video taping the person and telling people to remember this face.... I don't believe our society's freedoms would be hurt if we monitored content a little better than this; I actually believe we might be better off.

I am trying to attach a video explaining how voting works because of the timeliness and it is also very well done.

Power Tools Page

I went into several of these "tools" and found them to be pretty random. The ones we have looked at through Learn and Play are way more useful. I did find Stumbleupon interesting. I found myself drawn to the things about food--could it be almost dinner time?

Web 2.0 tools

I looked at the ifoods site and enjoyed it. I love reading recipes and watching cooking shows. This is one site I could probably loose myself in for a few hours. The recipes I looked at were ones that I would truly try and not need to look for exotic ingredients like some cooking shows/recipes require. As for use at the library, it could be recommended to a customer you know enjoys browsing cookbooks and watching these types of shows. I don't believe I would access it if a customer asked for a certain recipe.

Google Doc's

I created a presentation, which I had never done before with power point, so I learned how to do 2 things in 1. I also uploaded a file from my "u" drive, which was very easy. A co-worker suggested we show customers google docs when they need to save items and don't have a disc or jump drive, especially since our disc drives are not so reliable any more. I think this is a great idea. It's a free service and puts the doc right in the customer's hands without a ton of explanation. With the easy email function, customers can email docs/resumes very easily. If I am working on a committee that needs to update newsletters or presentations, this would give us an easy way to work on the documents without shuffling them around and perhaps loosing the printed pages we wanted to share. Also I can access this from any computer; I don't have to worry about my "u" drive, so I can work on things away from the branch or pull up something quickly to show someone in a meeting or even at the info desk. Hands on and pretty easy...

Learn and Play Wiki

Somewhat interesting way to play around with a wiki. Would like to turn off the email notification everytime some one edits it. I do understand the importance of this feature if you are working on an actual project in which constant monitoring is necesary.

Wiki's

Wiki's are an interesting concept. I liked the booklover's wiki that people could use to "browse" titles. I also liked the way St Joseph County Library had their website set-up as a wiki. It seemed more intuitive than having to figure out which tab to click and move page by page. The one page set-up with descriptions was terrific. I can see a wiki used at locations as a "ready reference" source of websites and quick information. All the various information we are sent via email that relates to questions customers may have. I generally have to recall the email and hope someone remembered to put the info in the electronic rolodex, but if we had a wiki to add this info to instead of sending an email out it would be one stop shopping with easy access. Of course, we would need to remember to check it periodically. Another use we could use as a system is with CMLsi; instead of submitting our stories and photos via email for some one else to post, we could do this ourselves and save a lot of time.

Library 2.0

After reading much information on Library 2.0, I liked the wikipedia article the best. It layed out exactly what it is: adapting library services to customer needs, making the library a relevant part of their lives. I got lost in the newsletter mainly because it was so techno oriented. I agree with several comments that I believe the library has always tried to figure out what our customers wanted and to provide those services (a great example are all those promises of improved services we promise with each levy). The key difference I suppose is that we have started asking customers instead of trying to "figure it out" based on statistics or other info. Web 2.0 seems like a terrific fit to creating the Library 2.0. Complete and full access to information where people can contribute is a wonderful thing. My main concern with sources of info that are self editing is that there are a lot of people out there that know "something about everything and really nothing about anything." We as library professionals have always been concerned about making sure the info that we pass along to customers is accurate (anyone remember STYLE?), how can we do this with a giant animal that Web 2.0 could create? Everyone can point to webpages and articles that have misinformation according to a certain movement's belief systems. As part of being relevant to our customers' lives, we owe it to them to make sure that the basic service we have always provided (information) remains accurate and useful to them. Otherwise all the other cool things we provide customers won't matter.

Delicious...

I have gone through the "exercises" and perused through some the of dept.'s Delicious sites. I particularly liked the Lazy Librarian for RA. I do see it's value in terms of cataloging useful websites for reference questions or your personal use if you are someone who "surfs the net" quite a bit and enjoy keeping up with certain websites. I did not choose to open an account with this one, although I may change my mind later.

Twitterin'

Okay, I've added twitter to my list of techno stuff to get lost in. The random comments are amusing. I found SLJ to follow and read a few good articles that I would have normally missed. Probably one of the main ways twitter could be helpful. Julie talked about doing referenced via twitter, but you would have to constantly be monitoring it wouldn't you? I don't see myself falling into this with the enthusiams that I see others doing so...I'm not going to add it to my phone at least not yet. Maybe when my kids are older and I'm trying to keep tabs on them--yeah right that will work--or if my husband joins.
http://twitter.com/pontje

Library Thing

I really like Library Thing. I have heard about others keeping a journal of books they have read, and thought it was a great idea, but never took the time to create my own. I'm glad this was one of our exercises. I decided to create a journal of the teen books that I am reading. This will be a great resource for RA when teens come in and I blank out about books to recommend. Desi kindly helped my add Library Thing to my blog and showed me how to add a hyperlink directly to my "home" on Library Thing. http://www.librarything.com/home/pontje I have to admit these later "things" are really fun.

My Little Readers

Julie found the new link to ALA's Read generator, so I had some fun creating my own READ posters....

Image Generator

I did have fun with this one and can see myself playing around with it. I am disappointed because the ALA site seems to have disappeared or been relocated. Julie found it again, so I will definately go back and try it. Meanwhile here is a sign I made for kicks.

Finding Feeds

I explored the tools listed in the Learn and Play blog and found them interested. One could get lost looking at everything available. I found a local Columbus News feed through one of the tools and was inspired to find local news for Delaware, which is where I live. Since we don't subscribe to the Gazette, this will be a terrific site.

RSS Feeds

I found some interesting feeds that I hopefully will keep up with. As stated in previous posts about spending time on the PC, I don't often feel I have time to look over everything out there. I have also run into problems trying to link the required 10 feeds. Today I have spent an hour trying to subscribe to a dispatch feed without any luck. Basically it is just sitting there, so I'll need to go back and spend time on this again. Having said all this, I recognize the value of this tool, I'm just really frustrated with it not working smoothly.

Spending Time on the PC

Something that I don't understand is the obsession some people seem to have with their PC. They are constantly on it, searching the internet, playing games (even just hours of solitaire), emailing, IMing, etc. I don't get it. Yes, there are many interesting things you can find and it's a great way to keep in touch or pass on quick info through an email or share photos, but hours? I have been working on a few activities for Learn and Play and have had about enough of staring at my computer screen trying to make it come together and it has nothing to do with whether or not I'm tech savy. I believe that technology, any type, can be a great tool to help us in our daily lives, but it shouldn't become our life...When it comes down to it, we all survived just fine with a land line, a book, the outdoors, and occassionally tv. (I do recognize that some of what I mentioned is (old) technology.)

Interesting Flickr tool

The tool that allows you to edit photos seems like a useful one. There are many times when you want to crop something out or take care of that red eye. We have not purchased a software package for our home PC that would allow us to take care of this easily. Instead we have to fiddle around with what seems like a complicated tool and then, of course I get frustrated and give up. At some point I am going to check out this tool a little closer and do some editing.

2008 Teen Art Contest 004

2008 Teen Art Contest 004
Originally uploaded by jeanpontones

This year Whetstone held it's annual Teen Art Contest. We had 13 entries and 81 teens voted on their favorite picture. The image posted is the winner this year. This has been a fantastic way to engage the community's teens and provide some cool artwork for our teen area at the same time.

Habits of Life Long Learners

The habit that is perhaps easiest for me is to begin with an end in mind. I'm pretty goal oriented and I can usually see where I need to go or be. The problem is sometimes clearly thinking through how to get there. I like things simple and any type of obstacle (challenge) can stop me for a while, which gives you an idea of my most difficult habit: viewing problems as challenges. I will get to my goal in the end, but sometimes it will drive me crazy getting there.

Getting Started

After much delaying and claiming I had too much to do to start this...here it is. It was rather painless and hopefully, I'll be able to return and continue this learning journey.