Week 11

Well, I think this is it! I have enjoyed some weeks and been confused and frustrated other weeks, just like most good classes! I learned some, forgot more than I wanted to, and will hopefully remember enough to be able to help when asked questions about subjects that we discussed. I still love Library Thing, don't understand Technorati, and will leave the MySpace for Letitia up. I will probably still update the MRRL MySpace more often, but the other one is out there if anyone asks. I need to update my xanga and Facebook, which I have better access to my teens through. I am glad that Robin and Bobbi have kept backing this training, but I'm even happier that Betty found money for MP3 players. Now, for something I wish we had learned...my daughter is going to have to show me where to go for reasonably priced downloads for my MP3 player so that I don't end up using it to listen to books through DBRL's NetLibrary (an option we don't have at this time). Thanks for the lessons and, hopefully, the memories.

Podcasts

Ok, I am learning a lot from podcasts, including the fact that I don't like Podcast Alley because it tells me that I need to download an aggregator. I don't know what that is and I can't download on the library's computer, so Podcast Alley is useless for me.
Podcast.net was the easiest to use, in my opinion, but there was nothing newer than 2006 in my area of interest, which was Teens and Libraries. Some of the podcasts were still interesting, but a little dated. Their search was the easiest and most user-friendly of any of the podcast examples. This is also where I discovered that you can put up anything on a podcast, if you have the technology. I listened to a baby "read" a book. Very strange!No words, just babble.
Yahoo Podcasts was great! It had newer podcasts. Some of the podcasts were over an hour long, which meant that I just sampled a few of them. It also puts an "Explicit" warning on podcasts that it sees possible issues with, instead of blocking the podcasts completely. That gives the listener the opportunity to decide whether to censor or not. One issue that I did discover on Yahoo Podcasts is that some of the podcasts are no longer available. If it is part of a series, sometimes it had been recorded over. You never knew for sure what you were going to hear, which could be entertaining, but made the search function useless. It was still my favorite of the three.

Netlibrary

I will come back to podcasting, but the computer down here in the PCC does not have sound, so I can't listen to podcasts.

I did get signed up for Netlibrary and am currently reading this scary book called "1001 Chemicals in Everday Products". I don't understand the "checking it out" thing, but I am enjoying having access to books that are not physically in our library. I have helped lots of people set up accounts for Netlibrary, and I may have even had one before, but since I don't use it often, I have no way of knowing what username, password, or even which email address I signed up with. Hopefully, I will remember the new ones.

YouTube

Since I have never been up close and personal with a live armadillo, this will have to be the next best thing:



I have liked armadillos since we moved to Oklahoma when I was nine. I think that they are cute, in a piglet sort of way... and if you ever want to know armadillo trivia, I have more than you probably want to hear!

I got it to work!

Here are the states that I have visited:



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Web 2.0 Award List

We have already worked with several of the winners, including Technorati, Library Thing, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Twitter, Flickr, and Del.icio.us. Others, such as Facebook and Meebo I have worked with before starting the Library 2.0 program. I decided to look at Craigslist, because I had heard of it, but I wasn't very impressed. It is rather text heavy and not very pretty to look at. I tried Cocktail Builder, but everything required something I didn't have on hand. I don't want to stock that much variety. I thought they would take what you have and give you ideas, so I wasn't very impressed with that either. I went to upcoming, which I'm sure would be great if someone were keeping it up to date, but for all of Boone County, it said there was nothing going on this weekend. I can't believe that Ragtag and Blue Note have nothing planned this weekend and I was surprised to see that the Salute to Veterans Airshow was not mentioned. Maybe I just have different expectations than the normal seomoz users.

Google Tools

Google Transit- this would be great when I am traveling or visiting big communities. There aren't many cities listed yet, but since I am going to D.C. in June, if it were available, it would be nice to check out my route and available transportation beforehand. I like the fact that you can look at the map as a regular map, as a satellite picture or as a hybrid, which shows the satellite picture with roads and bridges drawn on. It will be more useful as they put up more communities, but at this point they only 10 cities in the United States and the country of Japan, which is only in Japanese. If it were in English, I was going to recommend it to a friend who will be going to Japan soon, but she hasn't learned Japanese, which makes it useless for Americans.

Google Page Creator- One thing that drew me to this tool page was the fact that it makes developing a web page so easy. One of my favorite things is that, on the front page it says "Google Page Creator saves your changes automatically as you type, so no more nervous breakdowns from losing all your work. " It claims that as you edit your page, you're seeing exactly what it will look like when other people see it. It gives you the choice of a variety of looks, layouts, fonts, and color schemes. I'm sure there are other options available to help you produce webpages, but this is the first one I have played with. It has options to download images and to connect to link to other webpages. It was fun, but not something I would use on a regular basis. I could see it being used though, since there are many people that want to share their knowledge and this makes it easy enough for them to do.

Google Suggest- This is fun! You start typing your search topic and it comes up with a list of possible options related to what you have typed. It would be helpful, if you weren't sure what you wanted to search. I would use it in that case. If I know what I'm searching for, it could be a little confusing. I can imagine it becoming a permanent option on Google search, because people like the assistance.

This is kind of cool, but it would be nice to have more fonts available. I'm just used to all of the possibilites of Word. Other than that, I don't see many differences. The "Revisions" option is nice. I like the thought of being able to change the document and then change back if the original copy is better (or at least parts of it).

The coolest part of this is that my daughter, whose computer doesn't have Word Processing on it, now can use this to write papers for college! It saved her money over having to buy a Word Suite and since she is in college, any money saved is a great thing! It is also very handy to be able to work on your document from any computer that you have access to. The portability and compatibility is a definite strength! I can remember when I was in college and you had to make sure that the computer you were using supported the version of Word (or whichever application that you were using) that your report was typed in. Then, half the time you couldn't print because your word processing application wasn't supported by the computer or printer. This is such a huge improvement!

Web 2.0 and Search Engines

In the Next Spacearticle "Away From the 'Icebergs'", Rick Anderson makes the comment regarding Web 2.0

There was a time, not very long ago, when libraries exercised something close to monopoly power in the information marketplace. During the print era, if you wanted access to pricey indexes or a collection of scholarly journals, you had no choice but to make a trip to the library. It wasn’t a good system, but it worked. Sort of. That is to say, it worked moderately well for those privileged with access to a good library. In the post-print era, libraries no longer have the monopoly power that they had in the days before the Internet. We have to be a bit more humble in the current environment, and find new ways to bring our services to patrons rather than insisting that they come to us—whether physically or virtually.

Many of the other articles made strong points, but especially from a reference point of view, that point hit home in regards to current library service!

As far as the search engines go, my biggest problem was that of the search engines listed, several had different search focus, which made it difficult to compare the various engines. I usually end up using Google, with the understanding that their are weaknesses involved in the order of listings. I have used Dogpile and Yahoo in the past, but I usually end up going back to Google if I am in a hurry because I do understand its strengths and weaknesses.

RSS feeds (and Library 2.0 cool site)

I was on my Bloglines account, doing research for Week 6 of my Library 2.0 and came across this on Shifted Librarian. If you have not seen it, please visit the YouTube site and enjoy their interpretation of Library 2.0 at http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2007/02/07/think_library_20_as_you_watch_this.html
I was very impressed at how real they made the description, even for someone as challenged by all of this as I am. I have problems sometimes adjusting my thinking from html to xml to web 2.0, but this is an excellent clarification for the linear development from print through digital text to html and beyond. Please check this out! I think it will be worth your time.

My only problem with Bloglines is that I am not finding the topics listed that I feel are really importnat to me. I was finally able to find YPulse and add it, but it took several additional steps that I wasn't required to do for the other feeds that they connected me with and they have not sent me any additional feed ideas based on my original themes. I have my ten, with YPulse, but I don't know when I will have time to check them, even on a semi-regular basis.

Flickr

Ok, I finally have pictures and a Flickr account. I had computer hardware problems (couldn't get the photo disk out of the computer) and software programs (computer wouldn't read the pictures on the photo disk), but with Robin's help, I am up and running. Or at least, I am back on my way... Only four weeks behind, but Flickr is fun! I uploaded pictures of my kids and of me on horseback, some of my favorite things outside of reading, teens, and great food! If I could live on a ranch with my daughters, a professional chef, and horses, life would be perfect! I have enough books at my house that it would be quite a while before I would need to ride down to a local library. Of course the only problem with that idea is that I would miss out on all the new books that are coming out! It's hard to believe how many books come out each year, just in the Teen area. As I go through trying to order what teens would enjoy, I have to bypass so many other titles.
Now, you are probably wondering what this has to do with Library 2.0 and Flickr. The truthful answer is nothing, but the picture of me on a horse started my thoughts away from my focus. I have discovered lately that I am highly distractable. I basically need to do what I have done with this blog and circle back to the original focus.
I could easily spend hours looking at the pictures and explanations on Flickr. It is a dangerous site for someone who enjoys beautiful photography and is highly distractable. It did make a trading card and set myself up with a Flickr address, which is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/teenlibrz Go see what you think and please comment on my trading card.

LibraryThing!!!

Wow! LibraryThing is too cool! I was playing on there, loading titles, some of which I have read, but many of which I just don't want to forget before I get time to read them. Qhyrrae had mentioned LibraryThing, but I am blown away! This is the greatest tool for a book lover! I know, I need to stop with the exclamation marks, but WOW!!! Unfortunately, the reason that I don't have all of these books read is that I don't have time, so what makes me think that I have time to list all of them on LibraryThing? Thank you for introducing me to this wonderful resource!