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.

Ex. 18 - Applications

I'm adding to the paragraph that I published in Zoho writer. I feel like a little kid learning to swim. I'm just splashing around right now, not really knowing what I'm doing, but having a good time.
Everytime I try a new Web 2.0 application such as this I have this overwhelming feeling of awe that all this incredible stuff is out there for me to use and that I can't possibly keep up with it all. I think I will have to go through the 23 things again once I'm finished to reaquaint myself with it, and pick the things that I find very useful and really learn how to use them. I think I'm somewhat technologically challenged in that things aren't always obvious to me on how to use these programs. I think I am getting better at the figuring things out however. I think I might really like this one.

Ex. 16 - Wikis

I went to Wiki Wiki Sandbox and learned how to edit a Wiki. Once I figured out to go to the bottom of the page and click on edit, it was amazingly simple.

Exercise 15 - Library 2.0 - I'm getting more comfortable about the idea of Library 2.0 and and I can see that it's what most students really want. Especially younger ones. They aren't comfortable with Library 1.0 so it's up to library's to meet them where they are comfortable. Isn't that what we always do! As long as I've been associated with libraries we've been on the forefront of using technology. Sometimes it was successful and sometimes not. It's hard to know what is going to take off and be really useful and what won't. I'm thinking back to the large videodiscs and cd-roms which were a neat concept, but were so limited. There were too many hoops to jump through and most people want easy access and have it be easy to use. I am working on revising our library's virtual file (selected websites by topic) and thinking I may use something like Rollyo to mesh all the selected websites for one topic so a person could find great info on just that topic I need to play around with the idea a bit. Again the time factor. Right now my goal is to finish this 23 Things project.

Del.icio.us

This looks like a useful site. I can see it would be a useful tool in keeping track of websites that I find. I found a couple today from different sources that I want to remember and I think this will be the place to do it. Again the time factor. Onxiam.com is a place to remember user names and passwords. I read about it on Library link of the day. On x I am ___ and On x I am ___.
I am going to start using a small part of each day to incorporate this new technology into my life.
I don't need Second Life, I feel like this workshop is enough of a second life on the web.

Technorati

I can see the possible uses of Technorati, but it was harder to figure out and use than the other applications I've been trying. That could be because it is all about blogs and I seem to be having issues with using blogs :). I can see how it would be a way to find people with similar interests out there. That would be nice. I poked around and got a feel for it, but like most things it will take some time to get the hang of it.

Rollyo

I really like Rollyo. I developed a searchroll for reference portals like Librarian's Internet Index, Internet Public Library, BUBL, Intute, and O'Keefe's Best of the web and it found really great websites that I wouldn't have found as quickly with Google. I need to see if it works better for finding good sites when I'm doing virtual reference on Ask-A-Librarian. I can really seem some applications for this resource.

More Problems with Blog

I thought I had fixed the problem with accessing my blog, but again today I could find it, but not post. I reset my password again and am now able to get in, but for how long. I revoked access, not intentionally, and I'm in again. I don't know if it will hold or not.