Week 8 #19 Apps

Okay. So I can type up something and save it into the Zoho account. I guess if I want to be able to access a document from anywhere I have Internet that would be useful. I can also save it as a word document or email it. I'm just not sure why I would want to when I can already use Word on my computer.

Week 8 #18 Social Networking

Looked at My Space, Yahoo 360, Facebook and Dogster. It took awhile to find anyone via the search on My Space but I did find someone I was looking for. I would have to have my own page if I wanted to really view their page and contact them. I don't find any of them very interesting but probably because of my age. I'm just not interested in meeting people online.

Week 7 #17 Technology

I have added comments on a couple of blogs. In one case I knew who's blog it was but in the other I have no idea who the blog belongs to but I commented about a photo that was posted.

Anything Technology, huh? Well, how about the difference in Reference over the past 10 years as the Internet and Online Databases have so completely changed reference service! When I went to library school the Internet was just being introduced and there really wasn't much out there yet. And online databases were harder to use than the book format at the time. It's all come a long way! It's just so easy to hop onto the Internet to look for info on anything. It evens out the resources available at branches no matter how small. They may not be able to house a huge collection of Reference Books but with online resources space doesn't matter! Hooray for Technology!

Week 7 # 16 Wikis

Added some favorite books to the iHCPL Wiki and a favorite restaurant. It was interesting to read some of the favorites from other staff members. Wikis could be used by libraries for sharing favorite sites or maybe for the Children's Dept to share resources or the Reference Dept to share resources.

Week 6 #15 LIbrary 2.0 & Web 2.0

I read some of the articles about Library 2.0 and though I agree that libraries are changing and should change--we also need to remember that we serve ALL of our customers and some will still need our hands-on help and don't want to use self check, databases, or the like. Librarians need to keep up their skills but should not expect that customers have the same skills. I worry at times that staff may think the technology means they don't have to be "bothered" by customers because we've made things easier for our customers.

Week 6 # 14 Technorati

Did the Library 2.0 searchs and yes I did get a different number of hits and the result list had a different look and feel.

When exploring Popular Blogs I thought it was funny that Library 2.0 was in Top Searches since our program has no doubt had an effect on this result! I thought some of the other Top Searches were kind of weird. The Top 100 blogs were kind of interesting because it looks like the kinds of things that computer geeks are into.

Week 6 #13 Tagging

Attempted to watch the tutorial several times but it kept getting stuck and wouldn't go forward so I just gave up on it. I have looked at del.icio.us before...in particular the HCPL account. I looked at the iHCPL account and saw that it had links so everything we've done. I do like that you can access your personal bookmarks from anywhere so having your own page makes sense. When I looked at the HCPL page before I thought that some of the tagging wasn't how I would tag the link to find it so I think that a page where several people are doing the tagging and choosing the links might not be as useful.

Week 5 #12 Library Elf

I created a library elf account. I don't think I need it since our system already sends me notices. I can see how customers might want it since they can decide when it sends notices and how often.

Week 5 # 11 Library Thing

Created a Library Thing account. Fairly easy. Put in a few book titles. I did think the Suggestions option was pretty cool since it gives other ideas of books you might like based on the book title you enter. This would be useful for customers needing Reader's Advisory.

Week 5, # 10

Cartoon created in Comic Strip Generator. Quick and easy. This could be used to create cards, invitations, signs, party stuff and more.

Week 5 # 10 Image Generators

Here's the image I created in Meez. It was pretty easy but took a lot of time. It's very similar to things I've seen on sites for kids such as Barbie.com.

Week 4, #9 Finding Feeds

I found the search aspect of Bloglines to be the best source of feeds for me. When I tried to find feeds using Feedster, Topix and Technorati I got a list of entries with my search term in them but I didn't really find feeds I would want to subscribe to. I did find a few good feeds using Syndic 8. I suspect that if I was interested in News feeds I would have had better luck with these feed finders. I did add a few more feeds to my bloglines account. I still find this to be a tool that I won't use after this exercise is over. I just don't spend time reading news or updates on the web.

Week 4 # 8 RSS

I created an account in Bloglines which was pretty easy to do. I looked through the feeds they offer but only found a couple I was interested in. I then subscribed to the iHCPL feed. Since I need to subscribe to at least 10 feeds for this exercise I went to sites that I visit regularly. I was surprised that most of them do not offer a feed so it took quite a while to reach my 10 feed minimum. I also subscribed to a couple of the iHCPL blogs. Since I don't spend a lot of time looking at any of these sites I don't think this will be something I use after I've completed iHCPL. I don't have time to look at all of this stuff. I know it says it will save you time but that's only if you spend time looking at a bunch of sites to begin with. I don't check any site on a regular basis. I just look at them when I need to for a specific reason.