Ex. 23 - Finis!

I feel really good about finally completing the 23 Things workshop. It has been both challenging and rewarding. I have learned about many useful websites such as Rollyo, Flickr, Wafoo, Zohowriter, etc. that I probably would have not even thought to look for. I've gotten less nervous about signing up for accounts and logging into sites. I've also learned I need to keep better notes on where I explore because I've found some great stuff, but then I'm not sure where I came across it.
I would like to work on using Rollyo to develop subject searches for our virtual file. It may work out well. I have to play around with it.
I think it would be neat to have an LRC blog. It might be a good way to get information to students that they would otherwise ignore or not bother with.
I would like to have more time to figure out how to incorporate much of this amazing information into my work because I see promising applications all over the place.
The workshop has been wonderful tool to help me explore the possibilites of Web 2.0 as well as what Library 2.0 could be, and I would definately participate in a similar kind of workshop. I will probably have to do it entirely from home as our IT department has given me only two weeks more to use my blog from work and I can't see anyone else's postings besides mine which is pretty frustrating. I really liked being able to read what other people thought about what they are learning.
I feel like I need to go through many of the 23 Things again and refresh in my mind how to use them. The good thing is that what seemed really difficult and confusing no longer is intimidating or scary. I tell the students I teach how to search databases that you can't break them and the only way to get better at searching is to practice and try new things. I'm trying to take my own advice with Web 2.0 and go after it and try it out.
I made the suggestion earlier that you tell everyone to spend some time thinking up user names and passwords before they get started and I saw my suggestion in an email about the next Play day. It is nice to know that you do pay attention to our suggestions and recomendations.
My next suggestion is to use something to help keep track of who you are on different sites by using a site like onxiam.com.
Thanks for doing this workshop. It was worth the time and effort. I appreciate all you do at PLAN to help us stay on top of things in the library world. See you at the Unconference!

Paula's websites

I created a link to Library Thing from my blog. Cool. Maybe I'll get the hang of this yet.

Ex. 11 - Library Thing

I guess I forgot to post a comment about Library Thing and link it to my blog. I like this website and first learned about it at PLAN technology meeting in January. The guy from Solinet showed it to us and I checked it out right away. I didn't sign up at that time, because until this workshop, I was really leary of signing up for anything. I sure have gotton over that fear. Nothing bad has happened yet. I will now attempt to create a link from by blog to Library Thing. I hope that someday all this stuff will come easily to me.

Ex. 22 - Netlibrary

Gee, finally something I'm already familiar and comfortable with. Not much of learning curve on this one. I feel really comfortable with using eBooks and have investigated many websites where books can be downloaded for free. I'm waiting for the audiofiles for books to be compatible with ipods as well as MP3 players. I have an ipod, but not a MP3 player. It would be really neat to be able to download an audiobook before I leave on vacation and not have to worry about the CDs.

Ex. 21 Podcasts

I went to Yahoo podcasts because that was the only one I wasn't blocked from on the list of suggestions. I subscribed to NPR's Book Talk, but I'm still a little confused about RSS feeds. Other than going to bloglines I don't know how to get to them. Podcasts are expecially nice for things like programs on NPR which I like, but don't always listen to when they are broadcast. Now I can see what is available and listen if I want. I can think of lots of nice ways podcasts could be used. I could do a podcast on our LRC website and explain how to search for articles. I will have to investigate the possibilities. It could be another useful training tool.

Ex. 20 YouTube etc.

I had written a blog yesterday about how I've been blocked from accessing blogger and blogspot by Websense on OWC server. I've been talking to the IT dept for the past few days and finally today I am able to post once more. They allowed me in yesterday, but I couldn't see my blog and I could only type up a blog, but not post it. Finally, this morning I was finally able to see my blog again and type up an entry and post it. I would have been finished with the 23 things long ago if I hadn't had so many technical issues. Soooo frustrating.
I went to Yahoo video because Websense also blocked me from YouTube. It's amazing to see the variety of videos available, and it's nice that you can choose your topic and all, but there is also a lot of junk that is a waste of time. I did find a nice video that made me feel like I was swimming over a coral reef. It was pretty good resolution, but it's a shame it was so small. I imagine it won't be long and something like YouTube will be available on TV.

Ex. 19 - Web 2.0 Awards List

I explored several sites from the awards list. I went to Yelp which is a directory and I was impressed with the results of my searches. I looked up dentists in Crestview and my dentist was first on the list. Other searches seemed to bring up good results. I also explored meebo which allows you to text message lots of people on different services all at once. I don't text message anyone at this point, but I can see that it may have useful applications down the road. I visited Cocktails and it was exactly that, a place where you could find recipes, add your own recipes, or make your own list of cocktail recipes, etc. You could also type in ingredients you had on hand and it would suggest cocktails you could make with them. I was given a bottle of Jaegermeister at Christmas and I really don't have a clue what to do with it, so I'll probably go back to that site and get some ideas. Probably the potentially most useful site I explored was Wafoo which helps you build forms and surveys.