#23: Absolutely, the beginning...

This has been such a fabulous experience. I'm so glad that I completed this program for several reasons. Most importantly, I've learned the basics of these technologies. I've also discovered how I can use the various 'things' personally and for my job. It's also been interesting to find out how other libraries are implementing them.

My favorite discovery would have to be Facebook. I already have over 50 'Friends,' many of which are highschool classmates I haven't seen in over 15 years. I also plan to make use of Delicious, Zoho Writer, Flickr, IM, and well, probably most of the things I've learned about.

The only improvements I would make to this program is to make it a longer time frame and tell folks upfront that the 'things' get easier as they go along. I think many people started and dropped out, because it seemed like too much work, and they wouldn't be able to finish. Otherwise, the explanations and discovery exercises were excellent. I would definitely do another program like this. Thank you, Kam and CTLS!!

#22: Audiobooks

I'm really almost done now!!!

Again, I can't say enough how wonderful this program has been to introduce me to websites, technologies, etc. that I wasn't aware of before, or at least, hadn't fully explored. Where have I been???

Anyway, I knew my library subscribed to NetLibrary, so I took this opportunity to check out LibriVox. I am always interested in children's materials, so I found some nursery rhymes and fairy tales as well as classics such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Peter and the Wolf. It was also interesting to see the wide selection of materials ranging from the "9/11 Commission Report" to the Bible.

#21: Podcasting

I'm almost done, I can't believe it!!! OK, now to my post about Podcasting...

I listened to Abilene Public Library's Podcast as well as to "Librarian Live." I was very impressed with both of these productions. I can see how important it would be to use a person with a good "radio voice" as the host. And I found the two search tools, Podcast.com and Podcastalley.com very easy to use.

It is exciting to see how libraries are using these tools. I would love to see our library make a podcast of a special author visit or event as well.

#20: YouTube

This is one of the few 'things' that I have already used a fair amount. (Who hasn't with all those e-mails going around linking to favorite videos?) But, it's always fun to have an excuse to take a look around the site and view some fun clips. I loved seeing some of those old comercials from the 70's!

Here's the video our library created from our summer reading program in 2007, "Sail Away with Books." That's my son, Ryan!

#19: Web 2.0 Award winner for me is...

Lulu! Being in the book industry, so to speak, I'm a little embarrassed that I wasn't aware of this site. I went through the "Demo" and took a good look around. I absolutely love the simplicity of the site, and if I actually followed through with creating a book or other item, it looks incredibly easy. In fact, I already have thoughts in my head of making a cookbook, or scanning all of my kids' artwork and making one book instead of having the huge piles that I have now.

It looks like the price for a paperback book is around $16.00 for a 50-page book, a hardback is $28.00, and a calendar is about $13.00. It is possible to purchase one book or purchase an ISBN so that vendors such as Amazon can sell your book.

From a library standpoint, it is good to know sites like this are available for people who want to self-publish. Also, perhaps the library's Friend's group could use Lulu to do a fundraiser by making calendars or cookbooks.

Zoho Writer Blog Post

#18 - Zoho Writer

 

I'll try to post to my blog from here!  This tool seems to be incredibly useful.  I compare it to having the shared network at my library.  When I began to work at RRPL over seven years ago, I thought it was so incredibly useful to be able to see and edit documents from every computer.  Now, it's all on the web!  Plus, I love all of the features of adding comments, pictures, etc.

#17: Playin' in the Sandbox

This was a fun and easy exercise, although I found the instructions for putting up my blog confusing. I simply typed in the name for my blog, highlighted it, clicked on the 'link' icon, and entered the URL. I also easily added a few of my favorite movies.

As mentioned earlier, my library tried to have a wiki for staff use, but it didn't really get off the ground. This was a nice refresher to see how easy it is, and hopefully, I can try another one again soon.

#16: Wikis

I checked out some of the Wikis listed, and my favorite was the ALA Annual Conference Wiki. That's such a great way to disseminate lots of information while also providing an opportunity for attendees to discuss the event.

I can see so many possibilities for Wikis, even within my own library, for sharing ideas, resources, policies, websites, etc. We did try a Wiki at my library, but it was only used to discuss library issues, and very few people took part. I guess that's probably the most difficult thing about new technologies...showing people how useful they can be.

#15: On Library 2.0...

I've been reading some of the articles from Library Technology Reports and I'm proud to say that our library and City and have been getting on board with some of these technologies. We have made great use of blogs, RSS, and Flickr thus far. We also have a MySpace page.

My library recently closed for a month for renovations. This was the perfect opportunity to still communicate with patrons about the progress via a blog. The authors used many photos to tell the story, and it even gave fellow staff members an interesting chronology to show 'before' and 'after.' We use blogs to help promote programs as well and I think they are slowly catching on.

Our City has put in RSS feeds which link to news events and the City calendar. This is so great for the library, since we're featured in the news quite often and our programs are all listed on the caledar. Patrons can subscribe and see at a glance what is going on for the week.

The library has uploaded many pictures to Flickr. We're still experimenting with tags to make the photos more accessible, but we have a good start.

And, I agree with one of the articles which talked about these technologies, blogs in particualar, making the library's website more dynamic. This is so true!! In our case, we have virtually no control over the design, colors, font, etc. of our website, so we're looking at ways we can get around that.

I think libraries need to take advantage of these technologies, because they help market our libraries, help us learn what our users want, and help us communicate more effectively with our community.