Week 7 Lesson 17: Anything Technology

We get to write about anything technology related, right?
Well, I must say, my favorite technological advance is probably e-mail. I was in high school when the entire e-mail craze started so it wasn't until college that I really caught up with the whole "new" way of communicating. But, I must say it has been really fantastic over the past 13 years. (Man, I'm getting old!) My husband and I grew up overseas and it has been a wonderful way for us to keep in touch with our old friends from high school. Now, with just a click of a mouse, we can communicate with people in Belgium, Norway, Scotland, India, and everywhere else. It's so much cheaper than picking up a phone.
More recently, I've also learned the joys of blogging. I started a personal blog (on a different provider) months ago. Now, instead of sending out individual e-mails, (something I am notoriously bad at) I just update my other blog and my friends can follow our lives with our cats and other adventures. It really is a small world after all!

Week 7 Lesson 16: Wikis

I believe Wikis are a great idea. They seem to be a great way to share information between individuals who care about a certain subject and live far apart. I especially liked the Book Lovers Wiki and the best practice Wiki. Now libraries all over the country and even the world can share a program, idea, policy or other activity that worked well in their library. There is nothing like having a place to bounce ideas around. One man's success can be shared with the world.

Week 6 Lesson 15: Library 2.0

What is Library 2.0? I see "Library 2.0" as bringing the library to the user. In the past, the user always had to come to the library to receive services from a certified librarian. This is no longer the case. Thanks to services from the Web 2.0, the library can be brought to the public. Library 2.0 is techology driven. Library's now have such a strong presence on the Internet, an HCPL customer can now live in California and still use our services. We now bring the library into the users home through Chat services, online registration, library blogs, digital media, and other services. Providing users with the ability to look at (although maybe not edit) a library's del.icio.us account allow the user access to librarian approved websites for their information needs.

"Library 2.0" means staying innovative. "Library 2.0" means modifying services according to library users needs. I liked Dr. Wendy Schultz's take on "Library 2.0". She sees libraries of the past as being in communities, where as now, libraries are communities. Library 1.0 was seen as a physical building and a necessary commodity within a community. Library 2.0 is now a virtual world that is user centered. Library 2.0 is not a necessity but instead a place with a product that needs to be marketed to sell.

Week 6 Lesson 14: Technorati

Technorati looks to be an interesting tool. However, I am not any more impressed with it than I was two weeks ago when we looked at it earlier. It seems to be difficult for the average user to search. It works the same way many other search engines work where it finds sites through electronic means. Just like all other computer based programs, it cannot think for itself. Therefore, unless the exactly correct search terms are used, it is very easy to have a result list that is either too broad or too narrow to be of any use. I found it interesting that when I did a tag search, I found 54 blogs with "Learning 2.0" as a tag. The same search under blog directory produced 57 blogs. I suppose it doesn't matter what the tag is, Technorati searches the entire blog and sends back results for all blogs about "Learning 2.0" whether they are tagged that way or not.

Week 6 Lesson 13: Del.icio.us

I set myself up a delicious account a couple of months ago. I have not added many bookmarks yet. Many of the bookmarks I have added so far are recipes I have wanted to keep track of. I have added many of my other bookmarks I had in my Yahoo! account to delicious. So far, many of my tags have remained simple such as recipes, work, libraries, etc. I see the benefit of tagging for people with hundreds of bookmarks in their account. It is a way to easily find resources at a few clicks of the mouse. There are definite advantages for reference librarians using Del.icio.us. Reference librarians are depending more and more on the Internet as reputable organizations are using the Internet to spread information. These websites are very valuable for up to date information that is not possible to read in a book. We use the Internet every day. Now we can keep track of usable websites with a few clicks of a mouse.

Week 5 Lesson 12: Library Elf

I've tried out Library Elf recently and don't know if I like it or not. On the one hand, it is rather redundant. I already get e-mail notificaions about holds, due dates and overdues. On the other hand, it is rather nice having books on both my card and my husbands card listed in the same place. I can actually see what is going on with both cards at once. Better yet, they are listed in date order so I can better see which books I need to pull from my husband's classroom on any given day. I have also been told that you can renew your books straight from the e-mail Library Elf send you. That's pretty nice to not have to go through the hassle of pin numbers and such to renew books. Perhaps Library Elf will grow on me.

Week 5 Lesson 11: Library Thing

I took a look at Library Thing over the past couple of days. I decided to start cataloging a list of books that I want to read. About a year ago, I decided to "catch up" on my books by reading from one of those 100 greatest books of all times list. I'm not that far into it. Now, though, I have a great place to keep track of those lists and whether I actually own the book. Now I can just tag a book as read. I've added a widget to the right side of the blog, click there to link to my entire list. I haven't finished adding the entire list yet, so stay tuned for more books.

Week 5 Lesson 10: Avatars

Here's the ideal me on vacation. Cute!!

Yahoo! Avatars

Widget Fun

Today, a member of our staff was playing around with Feedster. She was able to figure out how to add a widget to her blog. Now, we're all doing it! I did mine on Major League Baseball. I'm a huge Astros/Cubs fan. (I was raised in Houston by a member of the Cubs Nation.) We follow and root for both teams. The big question in our family is, has Next Year finally arrived? Follow the widget on my blog to find out!

Week 4 Lesson 9: News feeds

I couldn't really figure out the outside tools such as Feedster or Topix. I found it was easiest to just find the blogs myself and paste them into the search subscription box. That is the easiest way to find blogs and news feeds to follow. I subscribed to one more baseball blog so I can now follow my beloved Cubs during their World Series run. I also liked the 200 most popular feeds and the quick pick subscriptions button found there. I would have loved to explore the "Newest Feeds" button but so many people are currently using Bloglines, the connection is INCREDIBLY slow. I may wait until next week when the traffic on the information superhighway lightens up.

Week 4 Lesson 8: Bloglines

I actually have had a Bloglines account for about two years now. I think it's great. I've been using it to follow the hurricane season, baseball season, get recipies, and of course several library blogs. It has been rather convienient to use to follow the IHCPL blog. I see the assignments when they are posted. Just to make sure I knew what I was doing, I also signed up to follow my sister-in-laws blog. It is pretty nice to follow. There are all kinds of pictures of my nieces and nephew. I can watch them grow up, despite the fact that they live in North Carolina and I'm here in Texas.