Thing #21 Wrapping Up

I enjoyed the Web 2.0 challenge. I learned a few new features of Google that I liked. I enjoyed the podcasting and plan to explore it more. I really liked the Wordle site and plan to think of ways to use it in the future. The thing I liked the least about the challenge is finding the time to spend really exploring each part of the challenge.

I wonder if a podcast could be done to help customers understand how to search the public catalog. It would be great to have some "visual" tips to explain how to do an advanced search, etc.

I shared a few of the Google extras with friends. Although I would love to have had more time to spend, I did thoroughly enjoy this Web 2.0 challenge.

Thing #20--Podcast

Yes, I put "Thing #19" and "Thing #20" backwards, but I did complete them both. I enjoyed the podcast challenge very much. I explored podcast.com and can't wait to go back to spend more time. Podcast can be used for so many things. I have done a podcast for a school assignment where I did a book review segment and added to a website. There are so many possibilities for podcasting.

Thing #19 Listen NJ

Listen NJ is a great way to obtain an audio book. What I found particularly useful is the classics for teen summer reading suggestions and the "teen" books. Audio books are wonderful when someone's life is hectic or you just plain want to do two things at once such as knitting and reading.

Thing #18 Delicious

The thing I find would be most useful to me with Delicious are being able to access my bookmarks no matter where I am. I absolutely love the Toms River Information Services link.

The only problem I ran into with Delicious was when I downloade it to my home laptop, I immediately had a virus that had a bunny running across the screen and the computer crashing. I restored everything and have since used Delicious without a problem. Could just of been a coincidence. Delicious is a great social network for tagging and sharing.

Thing #17 Tagging

I have used tagging for LibraryThing for a long time. But... what a great idea you had for tagging all the photos! It is so timeconsumming trying to find photos that aren't tagged. I loved exploring Wordle, too!

Thing #16 Wikis part 2

I was used to using Google pages to create websites so it was pretty easy for me to play in the sandbox. I love the wiki for party plans that was created and will spend more time there.

Thing #15 Wikis part 1

Wikis are wonderful. They can be shared and the great thing is that others can add to it so it is constantly growing and being changed. I can think of several ways to use them but the challenge is to make sure the people the wiki is designed for are able to use computers.

Picnik

I am having so much fun with Picnik. I like the idea that I can do so many customized things to photos in an easy place. I am used to making movies from photos, etc. so there a few things that I miss from that, but overall I love it.

I can definitely see using this for flyers, etc. What a great assignment!

Google Docs

I have known about Google Docs for a long time but never really put it to use until YA used it for SAIL. It is wonderful how they use it. It is a central place where all the coordinators can share their ideas and experiences. They can even look at past years. It is right there easily accessible. No one has to dig it out of a file cabinet and make copies and send it. It has turned out to be a great tool for running the program and a great tracking and idea generator.

Twitter

I did create an account for this challenge. I have been following Twitter for a long time. I do not do Twittering myself but find it interesting that so many do. I love that this social networking tool can be such a great tool for job searching. The Challenge blog makes a great point that responding to a Twitter job search can be a sign that a job seeker is keeping up with new trends in technology.

Facebook

Several of my friends and family are on Facebook. I have created an account but do not update it. I believe my reasons are all too common...mainly, I am too busy. I work, have a family to keep up and running and all the extra time-consumers of life. I am on the computer most of the day and when I go home updating Facebook would be a low priority.

Maybe, as more of those I know are on I will try to find the time. It is even hard for me to monitor my personal email account. Sorry, but this is my current life. I am thankful that I do have so many things calling for my time though.

Netlibrary

Netlibrary is a great supplement to OCL's in-house collection. There are many books that can add to a customer's search. For instance, when we do a search for "resume" or "interview" many resources come up that are fully searchable. From what I have read, the full text books can be printed but only one page at a time. Although it would be convenient to print a full chapter at a time, it is still great to be able to print a page. This especially true with something like the example of resumes.

I do find that it takes a while for each page to load and I guess I'm just spoiled now with having high speed access to most webpages. I have known about Netlibrary for several years, but having revisited it for this exercise, it has now been refreshed in my mind and I'll continue to do more exploring so I can recommend it to customers. It can be especially helpful to those in branches with a more limited nonfiction section.

WorldCat

WorldCat is a wonderful tool to link libraries together. I have used it to complete an ILL request by finding what other libraries might have an item we do not have in our collection. I have only heard one complaint from a customer and that was because the gentleman loved being able to see inventories for libraries around the world, but he was frustrated because he wanted to just order the items and have them sent directly to his home. Still, he agreed this is a fantastic site.

Love that "Library Thing"

I have used Library Thing for a few years but not for personal use. What do I use it for? I am able to take the Automatically Yours each month and set them up in Library Thing or I have used it for new books that have arrived. I put them in Library Thing to arrange the titles with authors and book covers so I can add reviews which I do by copy/paste into a Word document. Then I add reviews.



Some of the short comings include that reviews (if they have them) can only be viewed by clicking on each title and opening a new window. Time consuming for my purpose.



As a social network of reading others reviews/opinions of books it is set up fairly well.

The link to my catalog is http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Berkeleyteens.

Google As A Search Engine

I have used various search engines and have also completed a research paper with extensive comparisons of them. I have always loved the ability to do an advanced search in Google. When a student needs research information that is from a more reliable source, I'll show them how to search for .gov or .edu sites. It is also helpful when trying to help someone who needs specific, semi-authoritative information.

Beyond Google

I decided to play around with Bing because I have not had a lot of experience with it. I will say that the maps feature is great. It actually will display a 3D version of a property. Pretty cool to look at friends' and families' homes 300 miles away. Of course, the satellite photos are a year or two old but it is pretty interesting to see the photo of my home with my car just coming into or leaving my driveway. It makes one think about how when we think we aren't being watched and we are alone, it probably isn't true!

Bing is such a visually appealing site. Right from the launch, without customizing, it is a modern looking and easy touch search engine. It seems to model itself after the smoothness of using an Apple McIntosh system. It could give Google a really good competitor. I wonder if we might someday be saying, "I Binged it, rather than I Googled it?"

I did not know about Wolfamalpha. I am having a wonderful time exploring all the features. I found a feature where you put in a year and a dollar amount and it calculates, with inflation rate, what amount of dollars that is equal to today. It would be fun when grandpa says he paid a dime for a movie in 1936 to calculate what that would be equal to in today's dollar.

Exploring Google

I have used Google Maps for a long time. I like the way it is easily laid out to put in your destination and then map it. I find it easier to use than Mapquest. However, I live on a street that 5 years ago was not recognized by either sites. About two years ago, Mapquest started to recognize it, but to this day, Google Maps doesn't. Also, I have tried a couple GPS systems and they do not recognize my street either which leads me to wonder how Mapquest is ahead in this area. Also bing recognizes the street.

Flu Trends is interesting and I think that as we get into the season more I will be tapping into this more often.

I have used many of the secrets of the search box but found from Pogue's article a couple of tips I didn't think or know about such as quickly getting the weather or local movie times. This was very worthwhile info.

RSS Feeds

In the intro video the narrator explains that RSS feeds can be addicting. This is very true. There are so many interesting sites and having the convenience of having them in once place can become addicting. It is just like other things though. We need to balance the convenience with our sacrid time. It really does make it great to keep track of websites such as the library's to immediately see new events.

Web 2.0 Awards

I checked out a few award sites. One was Comiqs one that interested me because you can make comic strips with clip art or your own pictures. It is easy to add text boxes and then easily share them with friends and family. I did not sign up for an account but liked the creativity and ease of use of this site. I have been experimenting with another comic strip which gives predrawn comic characters to use.

The second site I checked out was SpainishPod. It have several levels of learning and can download to MP3 players. There are many Podcast lessons which means you wouln't be tied to a computer. The site allows a free 12-day trial. It has several paid subcription levels. I liked it but I didn't think it seemed as user-friendly a Mango.

Beginning the challenge

Well today begins my challenge.

It's a big world out there and it takes a lot of energy to keep up. This challenge should be fun.