Beginning the end & ending the beginning, #23!

I made it!! I can hardly belive it! I really lost hope about Thing 7. I had to just let it all sit for awhile. Jumping ahead of what was troubling me helped renew my confidence and when I went back to Thing 9, it was no trouble at all!

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? My favorite discoveries were that I'm not the techno-idiot I thought I'd be! The Web 2.0 winners, #19, was my favorite exercise because I found so much good stuff! It's my favorite bookmark now at home.

*How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? It's made me more confident online. Last night when I was working on getting Overdrive to work on my computer, instead of giving up, I kept at it. My husband and I even went out and bought an Ipod Touch over the weekend! I had been resisting this sort of things for years. Hey, my CD player still works! I still have records. Downloading songs into that thing was a blast! And I'm actually enjoying learning about all its other functionality.

*Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? Maybe that I did find so many things, in various formats, that I actually found useful and fun. And that I began to enjoy blogging! I'm a rather private person so this type of sharing at first was uncomfortable, but now it's no big deal.

*What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? Access was the biggest issue. Even though we finally got permission to do this from City computers, that was not always successful. An example is the Youtube videos I have in my blog. From my city computer I cannot view these, I even get the message they are not available any more. But, when I access my blog from home I have no problems. It was MUCH easier just doing this from home! I know others who were having trouble making time to do this, and some items took a lot longer than others, especially if something was giving you fits! A longer period to get it all done wouldn't hurt.

And last but not least…*If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again choose to participate? It depends on what's going on in my life. I really wanted to get this completed before the end of February as my calendar just explodes with commitments after that! It also depends on the topic. I'm open to it.

#22, Shove it into Overdrive!!

It took me an HOUR, but I finally got the proper settings for Microsoft media player worked out, and the security setting, and viola, Tin Collectors was playing on my computer!! This is pretty cool. I can see me on vacation, and out of reading material. I have my laptop with me, an MP3 player, and my trusty library card, POOF!, I have audio books at my disposal. Or movies. Of course, my Netflix account will let me download movies, too, but Overdrive is free and has a different selection.

Though, I have to admit, I much rather read books than listen to them. I'd rather have downloaded text to read and reread at my leisure. Maybe that's the next step, downloadable actual books via the library. Yes, I believe there will be a great deal more downloadable material in the not so distant future. No, I don't think physical books will die, but they will go out of vogue for quite a few "millenials". MHO.

#21, podcasting a wide net

After visiting quite a few podcast sites, my fav is NPR, I'm wondering if we shouldn't have some podcasts on our library website. I'm thinking stories for kids and such. Maybe audio book reviews so you can hear the passion in someone's voice. Or, just links to really good podcast sites, like NPR. Possibilities. Here is the link. Check it out: http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=18659293
Like RSS, there are WAY too many choices and it was all rather overwhelming. I added several to my Bloglines feeds, but I have to be honest with myself - I'll probably have time to hear or read very few of them. Still, they are nice just to have so when I can steal a few minutes there are some interesting things to read or hear.

Awesome Library video

Kudos, Columbus Nebraska! While this video is aimed at kids, a teen focused one and an adult focused one would be great! When we get our big screen tv these types of "ads" would be great to run!

Oh, Oh, Domino!

YouTube is amazing! There is a video on anything and everything! There's even a woman who broadcasts a tv show from her minivan! This domino video amused me. I like how it's combined with pool instead of just dominoes falling. Enjoy! I have to go back to YouTube. There's an awesome cowboys on ice video I need to figure out how to download to my computer....

Web 2.0 "tools", #19

Wow! I just used the actual winners list, http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/short and was amazed at the variety and quality of these sites! I am going to spend a LOT more time later visiting just about all of these winners.

My favorite so are is: http://www.onesentence.org/stories/ . Some stories are hilarious! Some wanted to make me cry. It's incredible what can be conveyed in one sentence. I'm going to give it some thought then I would like to make an entry.

My other favorite, which will also require more indepth exploration is: http://www.yelp.com/c/phoenix As you might have guessed from my previous posts, I like food. I like to grow it, cook it and, best of all, eat it. I've heard about this Farm at South Mountain for some time, even read a review in the newspaper, but after reading some reviews by actual people who have eaten there, I have GOT TO GO! Maybe I'll blog about that later.

As far as library applications go, I don't know. I think at the least we should like to these winning sites to provide our customers with quality links. I hadn't heard of most of these sites, but I am bookmarking many of them for future use! I'm so glad for this exercise because I've found some valuable resources.

I am using GoogleDocs to create this post! When you log into your blog you are also logged in to Google and can get to this service very easily. Now, for this purpose I think it's easier to just post in my blog, but if I was away from my regular computer and needed to create a document or spreadsheet I can see how it would be helpful to get it created and saved here then bring this up later on my regular computer and download it. Okay, I'm going to try to upload this to the blog. Cross your fingers!! (I just put in this image to see how it will work.)

Playing in the sandbox, #17

That was frighteningly easy to do! Just click and add your comments. I added that my favorite TV show was Dirty Jobs. I love that show! You want to feel better about your job? Watch this show! Then, send a thank you card to every person working in sanitation jobs! I had no idea how many ways there are to work with various waste biproducts.

Adding my blog to the blog list was very easy, too, though the instructions at the Learning 2.0 site were incorrect. It's not brackets, but parenthesis that are added around your url.

Wacky Wiki, Thing #16

Yet another online entity that I thought little of, but have had to change my mind. Some of the wikies...wikis...wiki...whatever...the sites I visited were well constructed with lots of good information. I liked http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page the best. Wiki seem to be only as good as the users enthusiasm to input. Personally, I'm lazy. I'll read a site, but take the time to add or correct something? Nope. I've got too many things to do with my time than to edit misinformation from others. I'll just go to another site that I trust.

I really liked the idea of using a wiki for policy or procedure manuals. They do seem much easier and faster to update which I find crucial to keeping such documents relevant.

And that is my 2 cents on wiki!

Library 2.0, icebergs, places in time and me

Library 2.0 and what it means to me:

Job security.

Really.

Oh, I won't be doing exactly what I'm doing today exactly the way I'm doing it, THANK GOODNESS!! But, I will still be needed in this thing we call a library. We all will.

Dr. Wendy Schultz's essay, "To a Temporary Place in Time..." resonated with me. I can see where she's going and I think her vision of the future is pretty good. I have only to look at how my 18 and 21 year old interact via the web to see that. Rick Anderson's, "Away From the 'Icebergs'", offers some concrete ways to not only reach Library 2.0, but go beyond towards Library 3.0.

Reading their words I felt charged, tingley and ready to "ride the wave". I know some in libraryland who just think all of this is the end of the world, but it's not. It's a BIG mind shift, yes, but humans are a very adaptable species. We can do this...and it may even be fun.

Dr. Schultz' article: http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/6.htm
Rick Anderson's: http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm

#14 Technorati

I'm taking back my earlier poo-pooing of this site. Yes, that's right, I poo-pooed it, but searching for "Learing 2.0" I found some interesting blogs. I especially like 2cents worth. I bookmarked that one.

It was no surprise that there were more posts about Learning 2.0 (23,351) than blogs (1,020). It makes sense. I would have been far more surprised had there been more blogs than posts!

It also didn't surprise me that in the list of popular blogs those dealing with technology reined supreme. I would have been shocked if a blog about cooking was in the top 10. Hmmm, I'll have to do a search for that. It would make my top ten!

#13, Delightful Del.icio.us

After exploring this one a bit, I can see how powerful it could be to those doing research. The tutorial was great! For me personally, I don't have much use for this tool at this time, but it's good to know of its existence if I do down the road.

My Face on Space Book

Or, MySpace and FaceBook, if you want to be serious about it. They aren't that serious, though, and I think that's why I liked them as much as I did. That surprised me, because I had pretty low expectations going in. I did find my daughter and son's pages. Very interesting reading. I have pretty neat offspring! I helped a colleague find her son's page. Another very neat young person! I've added them to my friends list, and, apparently, blew my daughter's friend's mind that I, a lowly parental unit, would know how to get to My Space, much less get an account.

To the question, what use are these sites to libraries, I have to admit that I didn't think they were of much use going in, but I've changed my mind. Especially when reaching out to young people, a library's presense in these places would make it more approachable. It's a sign that we "get them" and can talk in their language. I was also amazed at the libraries who have accounts in general, not geared to just teens. I think that helps us be closer as a library community. Browsing through the pages it was nice to see the people behind the institutions. These sites help humanize libraries, making them seem less of a beauracracy. MHO!

Library Thing, #11

A curious site. I added a bunch of books to my page: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/CCPageLand

but I'm not really sure what this does for me other than offering me a rather comprehensive central search engine site for books. I mean, to quote from their blog, 2/2/08, "WSJ Does the Library Thing":
"It's this ocean of stuff—books you have, books you don't, book reviews, people who read books you do, conversations about books, authors showing off their books and their libraries, book stores, publishers, etc."

And I've asked myself the question, why do I care about any of that? And I have yet to find a reason to justify answering in the afirmative.

Don't get me wrong, I love books, but I just don't see me wading in this "ocean of stuff".

#10 Image Generators

Now this was fun! I really like the fd/s Flickr Toys for its variety, but this http://txt2pic.com/signs/books/dummies/cover.asp?pic=no-arms&title=Page+for+Profit%

was fun, too.

I also enjoyed:

http://www.honeydewdonuts.com/bakery/bakery.html

I will definitely fill my dozen! A very low cal way to have a donut.

#9 - finding feeds in a haystack!

Wow!! The volume of information is mind blowing. I felt myself just glaze over as a tried different feed sources like, Tecnorati and Topix.net. By far the easiest one to use was the one available through Bloglines, since that's where my feeds are located. Although, in doing all of this I discovered that my home computer has the capibility through Internet Explorer to capture RSS feeds in my bookmarks area. THAT is the easiest was for me! Going to different websites to find all of this is a pain. I do like convienence of having all my links in one place, just a click away. Hmmm, I'm sounding like a geezer, but in these times of supposed time saving services, I am finding that they eat up more time than save, the majority of the time. I've subscribed to 19 feeds and had over 150 items to read in them. While interesting, I just don't have that kind of time to read all of that, but once in awhile it would be nice to do so, so RSS has its place.

RSS feeds - over fed!!

http://www.bloglines.com/blog/CCPageLand

The above is a link to my blog about what RSS feeds I have subscribed to. I can see how easy it is to get overwhelmed with information this way. There are so many tantilizing topics to choose from!! When am I going to have time to read all of these??

My creation

My creation
Originally uploaded by CCPageland

Yep, I made a trading card on Flickr and while that was pretty easy and fun, getting it posted here was not! I have to admit that this whole "Thing" has made me painfully aware of how behind the times I am. I thought I was pretty with it, too! Well, I may not be as fast on the uptake as others, but I'm getting there, slowly. Now that I cracked the code, I can post more posts with pics.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.