#23 My favorite discoveries were Flickr for pictures and the RSS feeds. This program has made me realize there is so MUCH information available on the internet and access to that information is vital, when relating to library users today. My life long learning goals are still to continue to learn, but to understand my limitations and to ask those with more expertise for assistance. Again, I was overwhelmed by the vast amount of information on the web and I know there is much more than what these twenty-three things touched upon. I feel I have an introduction to the topics in the program, but certainly do not feel proficient enough without further study and input from those more experienced. I am certainly in no position to comment on changes to format or concepts. I am just thankful for the opportunity to be exposed to Web 2.0 in a self-paced format. If another discovery program similar to this was offered, I would participate, if my life situation allowed me the time. I would describe my learning experience as an eye opener, informative, and enlightening in reguards to some of today's web technology.

Project Gutenberg
Three million books downloaded each month just from iBiblio. I had no idea downloading books was so popular. The MP3 players are amazing little things, and the convenience of multi-tasking while listening to a book is very appealing. With 100,000 free books available, who couldn't find something they wanted to listen to. I found the selections of computer generated or human read books quite interesting and there was also music and pictures. The Project Gutenberg also offered an RSS feed, which is nice. There were many titles of books I would like to read. I don't like to sound so old fashioned, but I have never liked listening to anything through head phones, and I'm not sure I would be able to focus on a book being read to me. I have tried listening to audio books in my car, but find I have troulbe driving and listening effectively. I will still try again in the future, and I am glad to know that downloading books is widely used around the world.

Padcast was problematic on my home computer, but I think I successfully completed the RSS feed to my Bloglines account. I guess I would rather read something written instead of watching a video. Again the podcasts give current information in video and audio form, which is interesting to a lot of people. The Podcast.net seemed to offer the widest range of searching for subjects, if you knew what you were looking for. The Podcastalley.com seemed to have a lot of paid subscriptions, and the Yahoo Podcasts was easiest for me to use because I wasn't looking for a specific topic. The Maryland Essential Resource for Library Information Networks (MERLIN) has a lot of useful information.

YouTube

What I liked about YouTube was not much except you could see up to date video, but most of what is on this site does not interest me. I chose a video about endangered animals. The pictures of the animals are nice and the message to help keep the animals from becoming extinct is a good one. The video gives just general ways to prevent this: stop abusing our resources and our technology. At the end of the video there are some other things to do to save the animals: stop destroying animal habitats, reduce pollutants, and reduce "something I can't read." The writing over top of the animal pictures at the end is hard to read and it flashes on the video quickly. Use in a library might be names of animals endangered and pictures of them. More information about how endangered, etc. could be obtained after knowing the names of the animals. Use of YouTube in the library would be current events.

Web 2.0 Awards

I looked at Biblio.com under Books and found a site for used book searches and buying and selling. They claim to have 50 million used books. The top tabs were helpful: Search, Browse, Bookstores, Textbooks, and Rare Books. I could look in the rare books for a long time. On the left side of the site there were also categories of "Community" which offered book reviews, discussions, and collecting, and "Customer Service" with an email address for questions. The bargain books for under $2 was also fun to explore. This may be a useful tool for helping a library user to find the possible sale price and/or value of a book they own, or maybe a source for ordering a book they would like to own. They also have out of print books which are sometimes requested.

Google Docs

The organization tool I use the most is probably calendars, so I chose to make a calendar. The good features were easily being able to add an appointment, the ability to add the calendar to my tool bar, emailing the calendar to myself and others was easy, and the "Agenda" button printed each day's events in order on a single page. I wasn't too impressed with the printed version, but that is not the purpose of this site. I can see the usefulness of these Google organizational tools.

Wiki

I found the different uses for Wiki's interesting: as a library website, a pathfinder to locate library information about certain subjects, for an event, and as a resource for a specific group of people, to name a few. I also thought the number of times accessed and the last date modified was interesting. The applications I thought most useful to a library would be the subject guide and the book lovers (book reviews, etc). However, the book lovers developed by Princeton Public Library appeared to need updating from 2006! This is another issue for staff of the library. All of this technology takes knowledge and TIME to update and keep active with participants. I was glad to see that editing seems to be limited to some degree because I have concerns about the reliability of information coming from unauthorized sources. I think a Wiki is a useful tool for otaining interesting information quickly about a topic, but then the information needs to be verified by other sources. A Wiki is a great way to share ideas and opinions, to work on team projects, and to gather information. Links in a Wiki to other sites are helpful and useful.

Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

Rick Anderson says in "Away from the "icebergs," "...find new ways to bring our services fo patrons rather than insisting that they come to us - whether physically or virtually. At a minimum, this means placing library services and content in the user's preferred environment (i.e. the Web); even better, it means integrating our services in their daily patterns of work, study, and play." There is so much information available from so many sources today and the librarian may provide services to help access with search tools, evaluate content, and understand the information available. Where people work, study, and play is on the internet, so we must meet their library needs there. I'm glad the article "To a temporary place in time.." addresses the issue that libraries still need to offer a "dynamic exchange" which involves people and not just information. Library 2.0 has to use Web 2.0 tools.
Library 2.0 means to me that libraries need to be able to assist with and encourage the use of many available Web services, from the easiest to the much more involved. Younger library users are much more interesting in obtaining information from online instead of from written material. If library staff are knowledgeable and discuss internet options intelligently, this may encourage more young people to see libraries as useful places. It would certainly be helpful to have some staff trained in the more involved aspects of Web 2.0.

Discoveries at Technorati

After going to "advanced search" on the home page I discovered the three options to search blog posts, tags, and the blog directory. Under blog posts (URL Search) "Learning 2.0" brought up the first three entries: Web 2.0 in het onderwijs, ALA 2007 Learning When There is no Time, and Learning 2.0. Under the second one, ALA 2007 Learning When there is no Time in Chronicles of The (almost) Bald Technology Trainer, under blog reactions, under Technology Fair Kick-Off there is an entry about the Maryland Libraries Learning 2.0 with information to register and the cut off date for registration. The Tag Search yielded the same results as the Blog Posts search. Under "Blog Directory Search" there were 447 blogs listed. Very interesting that Top Favorited Blog had Boing Boing- a directory of wonderful things first and that same site was number two on Top Blogs, with Engadget being number two on Top Blogs followed by Gizmondo. This indicates the users are very interested in "things". The second item under Top Favorited Blog was Making Money Online, another materialistic topic. Techcrunch was number three and Life Hacker (productivity and software guide) under Top Favorited Blog and number four under Top Blogs. The expolsion of technology has to create a great thirst for knowledge on this subject. No real surprises here. The Top Searches also seems indicative of society's infatuation with up to the minute videos and information about a wide range of topics. The demographics of the users, especially their age, would be quite interesting.

Del.icio.us

This site does not lend itself easily to finding information for research assistance, in my opinion. It seems like a great place to exchange information and find supplementary information and pictures about topics, but because the information under each tag and bookmark is based on an individual's choices and selections, it seems random. There are certainly useful articles with very good facts and information supplied by a wide variety of sources. Might be worth a quick look here under a tag to see what is available, but it would not be my first choice of where to search for information.

rollyo

This is a useful tool for organizing and accessing sites that are interesting and used often. Adding to my personal list will be fun as new web sites are discovered and explored about topics of interest. Using the sample source lists on rollyo gives good lists of sites for a certain topic and you can narrow down the sites you find most helpful at any given time.

Yellow Roses

Yellow Roses, originally uploaded by brettbigb.

I chose yellow roses to talk about because they are my favorite flower. I enjoyed looking at all of the pictures to choose from on flickr. I love the fragrance of yellow roses, but there are other colors of roses that are just as nice. What else can I say about yellow roses?

image generators

The avatar was fun and creative. I really like the fd's flikr toy site, especially the framer(borders) and the inspire and motivate posters. A man I work with would love the Warholizer feature. The Flikr site has beautiful pictures and you can search for almost anything. I'm not sure I understand the purpose of The Generator Blog, but it must be of interest to some people. Letter James had good organizational tools (album, calendar, poster) for photos, but it looks like it might not always be free. The pictures from foreign countries may be useful for projects. Images add a lot to any publication, so it is useful to know sites where they may be located other than google and yahoo images.

avatar

technology

Technology that interests me this week is GPS (Global Positioning System). My husband tries to explain there are satelites in space that use a triangulation formula to exactly pinpoint your location here on earth. The amazing thing to me is the feature where you may also obtain specific directions to another location by using this device. Map Quest is very useful, but this is even better!! My concern with all technology today is the cost. How much will we spend for faster, more convenient, and immediate connection to information through mobile devices?

First post - lifelong learning

Of course, the 71/2 habits of highly successful lifelong learners was interesting. I think I struggle the most with number 6 - use technology to your advantage. I find internet and self-taught learning especially challenging. If a person shows me or explains how to do something step by step, I think I catch on faster. Maybe the self taught internet is a deeper, but more time consuming, method of learning for me. In the past, with LATI, I did not find the online discussions with others very enlightening. The idea of learning from each other is wonderful, but I don't know how effective it is on the internet. Also, by not having an instructor and expecting individual people to help as mentors and experts seems unfair and unrealistic. I feel uncomfortable asking them for help because I know they have limited time and certainly can't help each person with multiple questions continuously. Teaching yourself may allow you to complete the assignments, but are they done correctly and as efficiently as they could be with detailed knowledgeable instruction?
The number I find easiest is 3 - seeing problems as challenges. This seems to be vital to remaining sane in today's fast paced world.