Week 8 #19

Success! As you can see below, I was able to post my document from Zoho. The site overall looks very handy and I found it easy to follow. I also used the "share" option via email. Wow!!

zohotest

Boy, have I been out of the loop!  I never realized services like this existed!  Maybe this is something we can suggest to patrons who don't like to keep up with a disc but want to continue working on their documents at the library.

Week 8 #18

In spite of hearing constantly about My Space and Facebook, up until now, I never took the time to take a look at them. Interesting! I also took a look at 360.yahoo, linkedin, and being a dog lover, dogster.

I can certainly understand the attraction these networks have, especially with those people keeping up with "friends" or looking for new ones. I can see potential with linkedin as far as perhaps being able to dig up a former business reference or contact or trying to find a former classmate. And I guess, being able to find out "inside" information about job openings. I was surprised to see company pages already set up for places like Dell and Pfizer.

As much as I love my dog, I just can't see taking the time to register her on dogster, much less read other entries.

Week 7 #17

Technology is amazing, wonderful, and scary. It has become an integral part of our lives. I remember many years ago, my techie father talking about how people would have home computers and I thought, "Why in the world would I want a computer in my home?" Little did I foresee our computerized world.

Cellphones, digital camerias, the internet - all so common today and there is more to come. We must learn about emerging technology or we will be left behind, both as libraries and individuals.
For those of us not born in the computer age, learning new technology can be intimidating but oh, so rewarding!

Week 7 #16 Wikis

I logged into the IHCPL wiki and added posts to the favorite movies and animals pages. So easy!

I have consulted Wikipedia so wikis are not completely new to me. Obviously, its important to consider the source to be aware of what sort of restrictions are in force in terms of adding to the wiki, and therefore, how reliable each wiki is.

I found it interesting to note the similarity between a blog and a wiki - both let people contribute.

I can see where libraries would use wikis to help connect people who are collaborating on an idea or plan, transportation to a workshop, etc.

Week 6 #15

"Away from the 'icebergs'"

I agree with the author about the 3 icebergs. We should steer away from the "just in case" collection. Patrons particularly seem to resent a reference collection, which cannot be checked out. In our 2.0 environment, where information is quickly retrieved electronically, these collections may become more and more difficult to justify.

Reliance on user education - the author is right, again - libraries do the best they can but cannot provide all the training requested by patrons so improving the online services themselves to become more user friendly.

The "come to us" model of library service - yes, this too, has changed. With the internet, the library is no longer just a physical place that people have to come to for informtion. It is expected that the library bring information to the people, wherever they are, especially through the internet.

Library 2.0 is all this and everything we are learning through the "23 things." It is a changing, evolving entity and an exciting and sometimes scary place to be.

Week 6 #14

1) I searched "learning 2.0" on Technorati and found vast differences in the number of results based on whether it was entered as a search term through keyword in blogposts (6,908 using "all words", 563 as "exact phrase"), tags (668), and blog directory (699).

2) I was confused as to the difference between "top favorited blogs" and "top blogs". By definition, top favorited blogs means they are measured by the number of people who have made them their favorite (I understand this) whereas top blogs are biggest by virtue of their unique links. Not really sure what "unique links" is referring to. I noticed there is some overlap between the two categories.

Something surprising? Yes, that "nuffnang" is one of the top searches. I found out it calls itself "Asia's first blog advertising community." Not sure I needed to know that...

As far as Technorati'susefulness?- I guess if you had a special interest or research project, it would be a good place to search for blogs that might pertain.

Week 6 #13

I checked out the LibraryThing listing on del.icio.us, which was saved by 13,430 people. Maybe the vast number of people who decided to save this site is an indicator of the usefulness of the site? I clicked on another site on the Ihcpl account which was just an individual blog saved by only one person, so maybe so. I wouldn't want to spend much, if any time, on the comments, especially when they number in the thousands! Tags could prove useful, if you were looking for similar sites.

Del.icio.us could certainly prove useful in research in being able to save useful sites that can be accessed from any computer and finding potential other sites through other people's tags.

Week 5 #12

I subscribed to Library Elf and am adding it as a feed. I can see how the feed option can be another way of keeping up with library business. I can also see how it can be very helpful in other ways with patrons who have multiple cards from a single family or cards from different libraries.

Week 5 #11

I created a Library Thing account and added 5 books with tags. I did some exploring and will try to do more exploring later. I can see how this site can have several uses - it could be a way to keep up with books one has read (since it is a pretty common thing for people to forget) an informal reader's advisory service, and an informal book club of sorts. One drawback I did notice - when I searched under one of the tags for "nonfiction" with the Library Suggester, there were several books which were fiction titles. I guess this is to be expected as anyone can add tags.

Week 5 #10

I love the word "avatar"! Just the sound of the word brings to mind something "other worldly", something fantastical. Here I play it safe with a slimmer, younger me with an image taken from Meez.

iHCPL for me

Week 4 #9

Ok, this is really getting exciting! The method I think I liked the best was being able to take a favorite website and being able to add the feed from it - I took one from Yahoo. I'll start looking at websites differently now!

I also tried Topix and used it to get regular news from a smaller town.

I think it is great that we are getting suggestions of different websites to try - it gets me out of my "box".

Week 4 #8

Okay, along with subscribing to several feeds, I subscribed to Grace's blog feed (I think) - do I get extra points for that? As usual for the 23 things exercises, I found this exercise at first to be quite daunting, since it is totally new for me. I can see how subscribing to feeds may save some time if you spend a large chunk of time doing individual searches for these things. However, since the information from these feeds can be so alluring, I can see how someone might actually spend more time on the internet reading them!