Monday, November 17, 2008

#23-Is This Really the End? Or Just the Beginning ...

Wow! I'm on my last exercise. I'm sure glad we only had 23 things to do instead of the original 43 things this program was based on. I'm very glad I participated in this because I learned so much. There is a lot out there on the web that I have never heard of, and this opened me up to a whole new 2.0 world. Already, I have taken some of what I learned and am telling our patrons about it. We have one person that coordinates volunteers and takes the lead on big projects. She was trying to put together information she gathered into coordinated sign up sheets. I told her about the online productivity tools that were collaborative and would make that job so much easier on her. We are going to sit down next time she comes in so I can show her where to find them and how they can work for her. She was so excited! I had another patron that said she needed to sit down and catalog all her books. I told her how she could easily do that with LibraryThing, and she too was excited. I love learning about new things-technology related things really excite me. I stretched myself by trying things I have never done before (as documented in my blog entries). I do have to say that it was difficult to do at work. I was committed to using that 1 hour per week at work to do this, but in reality that only happened about 5-6 times. The majority of this was completed on my own time on my computer at home. Again, I would like to receive the Creative MP3 player as my prize for completing this program. I plan to review these lessons to look at them more in depth. I also plan on continuing to learn about and use these web 2.0 applications. They are so awesome!

#22-Media and Book Downloads (or "You are almost done!")

I chose to explore TumbleBooks because it was something that I had never looked at before. I have taken the Overdrive training, but have never actually downloaded anything. I own an IPod which you can't use, so that is why I chose the MP3 player as my reward for finishing these exercises! I'm familiar with MyLibraryDV, but again, have not used it. My son is always on our computer playing a game that is a memory hog. I don't feel like I even have enough memory to experiment with the movie downloads. So back to TumbleBooks-I think this is really cool! It was very easy to use and I would feel quite comfortable helping patrons with this format (though it is so easy, I don't think they would need much help). While I believe it is best for parents to sit down and read to their children, I think this format has value in supplementing that. The storybooks would capture a child's interest because of the incorporated movement and the way the characters are given voice. I can also see the value in having this format available through the library when it comes to mixed language homes. We have several patrons that have parents that only speak Spanish, so I doubt there is much reading going on at home. This could be a real benefit to them.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

#21-Podcasts, Smodcasts!

I am familiar with podcasts. I use ITunes and have even downloaded some podcasts-from Sunday sermons I want to hear again to information about Biltmore Estate we used when vacationing over the summer. I had did notice that you could subscribe to podcasts, but I thought, "Why?" at the time. Now I am understanding why. If you followed something you were really interested in, you could be notified when changes or updates are made through your RSS aggregator. What I like about ITunes is that the podcast is ready for you to download to your IPod the next time you get on. I did use Podcastalley.com to find and subscribe to podcasts in my Bloglines account. It was easy to use, but it would tie you to the computer in order to listen to or watch the actual podcast. I found a podcast on book reviews and subscribed. I think it is only updated monthly and I'm not sure how many books are reviewed at this point. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but with a little more searching, I'm sure I could find something that was a better fit. Thinking about how this could be used in a library setting is a little tougher. I guess you could set up an aggregator with a variety of subjects for your patrons, and search and subscribe to podcasts that would be helpful and informative to them. I would be interested in looking at examples of how more creative people have used this technology in a library setting. I took a quick look at how to create a podcast. I don't have time to do this right now, with the holidays looming, but I do plan on going back and looking at this some more. Wouldn't that be something if I could create my own podcast!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

#20-You Too Can YouTube

I have gone to YouTube and watched videos before, but I have never tried to do anything else with it. I did use the embedded code and upload a video to my blog (at the bottom of the page), which I had never done before. I chose this video simply for the sentimental and entertainment value, which is what I mostly use YouTube for. I searched for how to videos-I guess I never thought of using it in an educational way before. I found a series of videos by gliteratti that was designed for library volunteers. It demonstrates the tasks that volunteers are assigned to do. I thought that was a good way of using this technology. They could go to one place and watch a short video on the task you wanted them to work on. If the task was different the next time, there would be another video they could watch for that. It would save a lot of time on training. Managing volunteers is a huge job. The constant turnover, irregular schedules, and sheer number of volunteers can lead to confusion about who knows how to do what. This is something that can really help. I would have to think more about features or components that might be interesting if applied to library websites. As it is, I'm not really sure how correct it is to be copying and publishing this stuff elsewhere.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

#19-Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

After reviewing the two lists I was feeling overwhelmed. There are so many interesting, fun, and helpful applications out there that I never knew about. How could I choose just one? I decided to look at Backpack (as previously mentioned, I am a very practical person). This is an application that is meant for a business and it brings organizational information together in one place. Like many of the things we have been looking at, it is collaborative. I'm starting to see the power in that! Two useful tools are the calendar and reminders. You can have individual calendars or group calendars and the calendar can be color coded. You can easily see if someone is working, at a meeting, or gone. Reminders can be e-mailed or texted to your phone. There is a newsroom page where group communication can happen in one place. No more sticky notes or to do lists floating around! Again I want to say that all of this is collaborative, so if someone posts a message in the newsroom about a problem they had in the morning, and it is fixed on the evening shift, that can be updated by those users. There are lots of other useful features as well. I see great potential for this to be used withing a branch or department of the library. I think it could really streamline things and open up channels of communication. It seems to be easy to use-though I did not sign up for a free account at this time. This application took first place in the Web 2.0 awards under organization. Check it out!

Monday, November 10, 2008

#18-Web-Based Apps: They're not just for Desktops

I am exploring Google Docs and this looks very familiar. I am going to try to upload it to my blog (wish me luck). My son bought a new laptop last year and it only had a trial version of Microsoft Office on it. It surprised me as that is usually standard issue. I wonder if these online tools are the reason? I'm going to try and upload this now and will write more about my experience.

Wow, that was easy. It worked the first time too! I really like this application. It was easy to understand, simple to use, and very practical. I can see myself using this again. This would be great for students working on group projects. They could just go online and add their portion. This eliminates trying to work around schedules and physically getting together. I think it would make for a stronger project as they peer edit also. This application is a keeper in my book.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

#17-Playing Around with PBWiki

I found this difficult. Again with more time, I probably could figure it out, but I struggled trying to do what was laid out in the exercise. It took a bit for me to be able to sign on-that should be simple! I had a hard time figuring out from the resources where to go to create an account. Then there was the invite password-which I did read others comments and was expecting that, but struggled getting to the place where it would work. Once there, I found the list of favorite blogs and used the edit button to add mine, but I had problems there too. I tried to add the brackets like the instructions said, and that didn't work. Then I tried to add a link, and that didn't work. I finally just typed in my blog address and saved and that worked. I don't know if I was in the wrong place to do the bracket thing or what???? I did also go to another page and add a favorite place, and did the same thing with no problems. Getting used to the Wiki would take some more time, and I still think it has a lot of useful and practical applications. I just had a bad first time experience.

#16-So What’s in a Wiki?

I looked at all the links on Wikis and I find them very practical and useful. I really liked what the Grand Rapids Public Library did with their Wiki (which I found under the other library wiki examples link). They put together a community information guide on various topics. I looked at the topic of care giving resources and found links to books broken down by sub topics that were available at the library. There were also links to local, state, and national resources as well as other web links. What I like about putting it in a Wiki format is how others can add to this information or take away old links that no longer work. This input makes it very easy to keep it up to date and provides a wider scope of information. That takes the pressure off the librarian monitoring the Wiki. I also like what the ALA did with the Wiki for their mid winter conference. How helpful to the attendees to have all that information compiled in one place as well as others sharing their knowledge of the area.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

#15-On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

I struggle with understanding what exactly is Library 2.0? I am a very concrete black and white thinker. I need examples not ideologies. I really liked John Blyberg's article-11 Reasons Library 2.0 Exists and Matters. It helped me to understand how we are going to need to change in order to remain relevant in a post Google era. It is rare to find one of our patrons, without a computer that is connected to the web in their home nowadays. The amount of information and services that opens up to them is staggering. How can we as a library compliment those services they are already receiving? Sarah Houghton says....

"The basic drive is to get people back into the library by making the library relevant to what they want and need in their daily lives…to make the library a destination and not an afterthought.”

That makes sense to me-making the library a destination and not an afterthought. If we continue to do things the same old way and not change with the times and technologies, we will become stagnant. When I think of a stagnant body of water I think of something that is mucky and smelly and very undesirable. In order to be relevant, we must change and bring in fresh ideas and use new technologies that are already being used by our patrons. I still struggle with how to use these new technologies, but I agree that we must begin.

#14-Getting Not-So-Technical with Technorati

Well this is the second time we have taken a look at Technorati, and I still do not like it. I find it difficult to navigate. If I find something I am interested in looking at, I have a hard time getting back to the original source. I explored the keyword searches in the different search areas, and I didn't really find there was much difference. The number of results changed slightly, but the results that were shown were the same stories. That made me think maybe I was not doing it right, but no matter what I tried, my results were the same. I took a look at the popular feature, and found the ads to be very distracting. They were covering up the information! I thought I would attempt the optional exercise and at least learn something new, but after reading through the directions, I didn't feel confident I could actually do it. It still is a little too technical for me. This is a new technology that would take some extra instruction (probably a class) for me to understand it enough to use it.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

#13-Tagging, Folksomonies & Social Bookmarking in Delicious

I am starting to feel overwhelmed by all the new things we are doing and decided not to create one more account at this time. I did poke around Delicious and figured out how to view other people's bookmarks and their comments and tags. The reasoning behind tagging is starting to become evident to me (I didn't see the need in Flicker). I can see how this would be a really helpful tool when doing research-as long as people are adding tags. Viewing other users' bookmarks can lead you to similar websites that have already been previewed and found to be useful. It is like others are doing the work for you! We don't do much research here at our branch, so I don't know how helpful this technology would be at work, but I did let my college sophomore know about it and how he could use it. He half listened, as he usually does to anything I have to say these days, and with his usual foresight told me he didn't really need it because he doesn't have to write many research papers. Maybe someday he will value my wisdom and experience : >

Monday, October 13, 2008

#12-Roll Your Own Search Engine

After doing the Rollyo exercise, I feel proficient but I don't understand the finer points. Again, more time will need to be spent on it in order to fully understand. I did practice adding a widget, but I don't think that links to my search roll, so here is the link

http://rollyo.com/mhoffman/camping/

That is the part I had trouble with; finding my search roll after I created it and finding the tiny little button for the link. I can see some great ideas for using this technology in the library. You could create all sorts of search rolls for your patrons on subjects that are of interest to them. For example you could create a search roll about politics with the upcoming election on patron's minds. You could include each candidate's site, the Douglas County Election Commission site, news sites, etc.... You could create rolls about the Nebraska Cornhuskers, emergency preparedness, homework help, tax preparation, job hunting, just to name a few. This would allow patrons to come in and find the most helpful information (based on our experience) easily in one place.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

#11-A Thing About LibraryThing

Well who among us wouldn't adore LibraryThing? We are book lovers after all! What a great idea and I like how libraries can use this technology to get input from it's readers. I looked over the links and set up my account. This by far was the easiest technology we have looked at in this journey. After adding a few books I decided to try something new. It took some extra reading and time, but I figured out how to add my LibraryThing list as a widget to my blog. It looked a little scary to see HTML code and not know what exactly to do with it. This is where Michael Sauers lost me in the technology classes I have taken from the Nebraska Library Commission. I was afraid I would mess it up completely, but to my delight, it worked the first time! I didn't take time to tag my books, but will go back and do that later. I also wonder if as I add more titles if that will change what shows up in the widget? We'll see as I continue to work with it.

#10-Play Around with Image Generators

Well I checked out all the suggested image generators and I must say-how cool! I had no idea such fun things even existed. Now if I only had more time! I can see myself returning to the Letter James site and using the personalized free e-cards and images to jazz up my blog. As you can see from the picture, I spent most of my time on Wordle. These are some memories that my boys came up with of our dog (see post #5). This is what I learned. Wordle does not separate words by putting commas in between, it separates words by spaces. I had many phrases, like Paper Dog, that didn't make any sense once the Wordle picture was created because Paper would wind up at the top and Dog at the bottom. I found that by taking the spaces out, PaperDog, it would keep them together in the final picture. I also had trouble getting it into my blog the first time. I still don't know how I did it and after it finally showed up, my text was different and my margins were messed up. This is my second attempt, so hopefully it will go better this time. Still it was easy to use and I will probably make more Wordles in the future. I can't wait to put this one in the shadowbox I am making for my husband for Christmas-shhh...it's a surprise! My teenager and I had a lot of fun playing with Yearbook Yourself too.

P.S. The second time I tried, I did the blog entry first and then added the Wordle and it worked much better.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

#9-Finding Feeds

I went through all the tools that you can use to find feeds. Some were more useful and easier to use than others, although I probably need to spend some extra time to become more familiar with each. I used the Bloglines search tool and found some feeds that I added to my Bloglines account. While Topix is a very interesting site, even after searching I did not understand how I could find feeds there to subscribe to. I understand how it gets it's information from feeds... Syndic8 is also interesting, but harder to use. Technorati is kind of like Topix. My understanding is that it searches blogs instead of newsfeeds though. The only way I can figure out how this is helpful to me is if I find something I am interested in and trace it back to the original blog/newsfeed and subscribe there. That seems like a lot of work, so I guess my favorite tool after this exercise is the Bloglines search tool. It is easy to use and easy to get the feed into my Bloglines account.

#8-Make Life "Really Simple" with RSS & a Newsreader

I took Michael Sauer's RSS class a while ago, so this was a good refresher for me. What I like about RSS is how you can use a newsreader to go out and gather all the new information about things you are interested in and it will bring it together in one place for you. Very convenient! I also like how it clears everything out after you have read it as the default. You have to choose to save something. That works well for someone like me who has trouble managing information in this overloaded information age. It can get away from me pretty quickly. What I don't like about it is that I get it all set up, and then something changes and the newsreader has trouble retrieving the information. This has happened to me many times since I originally set up the account. Even though it is frustrating for me to have to go back and set it up again, it is also a good lesson and reminder. I do the E-Vance calendar for our branch, and we have been told many times not to make changes once the event has been published because it can mess up the RSS feeds. Evidently, they are tied to specific pieces of information and changing that will cause someone that subscribes to have the same trouble that I have experienced when the newsreader goes to retrieve that information (at least that is the understanding I have from my end). The other thing I have trouble with is finding something I am interested in following on a regular basis, though I see that is something we will be working on in the next thing. So until then.....

Sunday, September 21, 2008

#7-Blog About Technology

Technology is speeding ahead so fast that it is hard for me to keep up. Nothing makes you feel older than when you have to ask your kids to do something for you (program your cell phone, help you with your i-pod, hook up your new high def tv) and they can do it almost instinctually. I fight this so hard. I want to be able to do it for myself, but sometimes I get stuck and do have to ask. And I work in a library where I am constantly learning about new technologies! We recently went shopping for a new tv. Boy did I ever feel left behind. We talked and asked lots of questions from the salespeople, but very little was cleared up. We decided upon a television, but walked away from that experience feeling like we were just taking a leap of faith instead of making an informed decision. One even told us that the technologies he was showing us, didn't even exist a year ago. So keeping up with change is challenging. Learning something new takes time. It can be very frustrating. If we are to remain fresh and relevant, we must push forward in this area. The library should be a place that is using these new technologies and where you go to learn about them. I'm thankful for this program that is helping me in this area.

#6-More Flickr

After playing around with mashups and 3rd party tools, there were two that stood out to me. I really enjoyed the Flickr Color Pickr. I thought it was awesome how it would group pictures together based on color. I especially enjoyed when I chose the more intense colors. It also helped me realize that I am not much of a photographer. You have to have a certain eye for that. I pretty much snap pictures of people and places I want to remember. The second tool I liked was the Delivr Digital Postcards. You can take a picture on Flickr and use it to send someone an e-card. I like to send e-cards and this really opens up some beautiful pictures to use. I did make a librarian trading card. I had trouble trying to manipulate the photo to get it just so on the card. It was hard to not cut parts off. There weren't many options. I was surprised at how many tools there were (and often wondered why someone would want to use those tools). Interesting stuff.

Friday, September 19, 2008

#5-Discovering Flickr


HPIM0733
Originally uploaded by mhoffma
This is a picture of our dog, Belle. We had to put her down one week ago. She was 14 years old and had a cancerous tumor on her bladder. It has been a difficult week without her.

Now about my experience with Flickr. I was a little overwhelmed at first. I looked through all the information and links at work but had to come home and work with it to feel more comfortable (and to have a picture to post). It really wasn't that hard. Creating my yahoo account was the most difficult. I was having trouble with those squiggly letters-took me about 8 times before I finally got it! I used the blog it feature in Flickr to get this post and photo into my blog. I was a little confused about how to give permission to link the accounts, but obviously pushed through that and got it worked out. I played around with the tags-had to edit them to add the owhatageek tag. Overall I would say that it was a good experience. It wasn't very difficult to figure out or work with and I look forward to posting some more pictures to share with friends and family.

I also explored some library photo sites and also the picasa site (my cousin posted her wedding photos there). This is a pretty cool way to share images.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

#4-Register your Blog with the O! What a Geek Team

Well I did register my blog a few days ago and received an e-mail back confirming it, but I do not see my blog posted on the O!What a Geek page yet. I looked through some of the other blogs. We sure do have a interesting group of people here at OPL! I read about restaurants I've never heard about and Wordle. I read about one person's struggle with losing their dog-which really hit home because we had to put our 14 year old dog down yesterday. Mostly I read about how people are interested in learning these new technologies but struggle with the time it takes. I can relate to that also-but it is so exciting to learn new things. Hang in there everyone!!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

#3-Get Blogging in 3 Easy Steps

Well obviously, I was successful at setting up my blog. Coming up with the title was the hardest part-I told you I wasn't very creative. So far, I enjoy writing (though I have to do it from home-work has too many distractions).

What does lifelong learning mean to me? Hmmmm..... I suppose I can sum it up in one word, and that would be growth. Last year, I wanted to learn how to knit. I had been toying with it for a few years, but really wanted to learn how to do it right and actually make something. So I decided to take a class. That was what I needed. I was able to finish a scarf for my niece and give it to her for her birthday. Eventually I would like to move on and make prayer shawls with the knitting group at my church. I was given one after my mother's death and was so grateful. It was very comforting to me, and I want to be able to give that gift to others who are in need.

This year I have been focused on losing weight. I have never been successful at that in my life, but I reached a point where I realized I must change. I joined a group at my church. It is not a complicated program-counting calories, no sugar or white flour. I have learned so much about myself, food, and nutrition. I have also been successful-losing 62 lbs so far. Even though I have the basics of the program ingrained into my lifestyle, I now find I am interested in learning even more things that enable me to continue to make healthy choices.

This past year I also took the grief facilitator training at Teddy Bear Hollow. It is something I wanted to do ever since I had been introduced to TBH through the library. On the first day, we went around the room and shared a little bit about ourselves. I felt so out of place. Most of the participants worked in the mental health field. I felt they were much more qualified than I to do this kind of work. All I can say is that this training was one of the best things I have ever done in my life. I really grew!! I am leading my first group this fall. Each situation that comes up is a opportunity for growth. I just hope I am up for the challenge!

What do I expect to get from this program? Learning new things and growth, of course!

#2-Lifelong Learning

Today I sat and watched the tutorial, the Seven 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners.

For myself, I would say it is easiest for me to accept responsibility for my own learning (#2). I have so many things I am interested in and I know if I am to learn about them, I have to seek it out. Sometimes that means reading more about a subject. Sometimes that means seeking out a person and learning from them. Sometimes that means I have to take a class or training. The internet has really opened up the floodgates of information. It is out there, but if I don't look for it and work with it, it really doesn't matter. My life will go on the same-I still won't know how to knit, or understand another culture, or learn a new technology, or grow.

The hardest one for me is to view problems as challenges. I have many problems (I mean challenges) in my life, and sometimes I just feel overwhelmed and want to give up. But I usually pick myself back up and go on (after some chocolate, tears, venting....etc). Learning new things can be difficult and it is a growing experience. Growth is good. It is my life's goal to never become a crabby, crusty, stagnant old woman. I want to always be giving, vibrant, and fresh. You can't be that without lifelong learning.

#1-Learning 2.0

First of all-I would like the Creative MP3 player. It is very motivating to participate when such great rewards are offered! Also, I appreciate that we have been granted work time to complete this program. That is another motivator.

So I read about Library 2.0 on Wickipedia and looked over the Library 2.0 Wiki in 15 minutes a day. I'm familiar with many of these new technologies. I'm interested but agree with the sentence-

"Others are calling for more concrete examples of how libraries can get to Library 2.0."

I've never been endowed with gobs of creativity. I'm more concrete, so show me some examples and let me work with these technologies and then I'll "get it". I expect that is what we will be doing over the course of this program and I'm really looking forward to learning more.