Week 9 : Thing 21 Locating podcasts

I found Yahoo's Podcasts to be the easiest to navigate. I appreciated being able to listen without subscribing. I watched a few of Jon Stewart's podcasts, which I have already added to my Bloglines account.

Week 9 : Thing 20 - YouTube

This was an entertaining assignment. What did I like? It was incredibly user-friendly. I like that you can easily access the videos that are most viewed, most discussed, most linked and most responded. It really keeps you in the loop. What did I dislike? Hmm... not much.

I chose the "I got a crush... on Obama" video by Obama girl because I heard an interview with the songwriter on an NPR segment about the internet's influence on politics. I thought this would be a good time to check the video out...

As for libraries - I can see using YouTube to create podcasts that would describe how to navigate our website, use the card catalog, or get homework help. Perhaps we could also have "Top 10" lists that evolve (such as "most circulated books"), or a place for people to add comments about a book they checked out...

Week 8 : Thing 19 - Web 2.0 Awards

I checked out many of the sites on the Web 2.0 awards list. Among my favorites: Farecast, Color Blender, and Digg.

Farecast is a site that will compare flights, but will also give predictions on whether you should "Buy now, fares will rise" or "Wait, fares will drop." Unfortunately, I couldn't get predictions on any of the flights I tried. I also haven't checked to see *who* is making the predictions. I'll have to spend more time with it.

Week 8 : Thing 18 Online Productivity

I didn't know these applications were on-line! They are very easy to use. For the purposes of this exercise, it is simpler to work within Google docs because we have already created a Google account for Blogger. All I had to do was sign in, and I sent an email to myself.

Week 7: Thing 17 - Add an entry to the sandbox wiki

Well, I added my blog to the Favorite Blogs page, and then I created a page of my favorite things, titled "Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With Strings." Both tasks were pretty easy, in fact, I didn't even have to click on the "Link Type" button to link to my URL, it was done automatically.

Week 7: Thing 16 - Learn about wikis

My prior experience with wikis only went as far as wikipedia. Even then, I used it as more of a springboard to what I considered "more reliable" sources. This exercise has peaked my interest, and I'll be visiting wikis more often, such as www.libsuccess.org and www.webjunction.org.

As for our PGCMLS intranet, I can see using wikis to create our juvenile subject lists. A wiki format could keep the list more current, with new titles added everyday.

I would also love to see a "successful storytimes" wiki. There are times when you know you have hit the ball out of park with your storytime lineup, and want to share that information with others. Of course, we could also use our staff blog for that...

I wonder if the teenagers would like to have a wiki page on our site?

Week 6: Things 13, 14, 15 - Tagging, Folksonomies & Technorati

Thing 13: Del.icio.us - The tutorial is down, so I just played around on the site.I think I'll enjoy using this tool. I've been able to create a link on my taskbar in Foxfire, but not in Explorer.

Thing 14: Technorati - an interesting tool, and useful for those who love blogs. I'm still learning to like blogs.

Thing 15: Thoughts on Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and the future of libraries... I've been pondering the future of libraries for awhile now. This was a good exercise in learning what the future holds. I appreciate much of what Michael Stephens has to say about embracing Web 2.0 tools - particularly the wikis and mashups.

It will be hard to break away from the "come to us" model of librarianship that Rick Anderson refers to, but our own circulation figures show that we are going to have to steer our boat in another direction if we want to survive.

I absolutely love the "The Machine is Us/ing Us" video on YouTube. It is indeed, a work of art.