Suggestion

It is hard to believe this will be the last post for the 27 things. Definitely not the last I will be exploring web 2.0 and maybe for the future other Internet newbies. Like one of the comments mentioned for the last blog i thought second life would be interesting to explore more. Maybe after I get more saffie with MySpace I will explore that too.

My experience learning 27 things

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
This program has showed me many web programs that were new to me. It will be a start to be able to use new communicating tools that can help us provide better service to our patrons and get in touch with those patrons that do not come to our physical buildings. As for life long learning, I believe that there are always elements in life that will be helpful at work and outside of work to fulfill lifelong learning goals.

What were your favorite Learning 2.0 discoveries or exercises?
My favorite program was Flickr. It was very helpful and I used it for one of my projects in class. There are so many pictures out there. There are some truly great amateur photographers.
The funny parts like cyborg name and making my own southpark figure was a nice break from the hard work we were asked to do.

Did anything surprise you?
You can spent a lot of time on all web 2.0 things.

Was there enough help available when you needed it?
Did not need any help but did got some questions as an advocate and was able to help others.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Some of the segments did take more than 20 minutes to complete. Dividing it up into more "things" might have been a possibility but that could be overwhelming too. I think the format was wonderful especially the site where all the classes were in just their heading was easy to navigate. very clear layout of the blog.

Would you like to see similar training opportunities as new library-relevant technologies emerge?
That would be a wonderful idea. All the advantages are to many to mention here but some are that we don't have to travel so far coming from the South end or the choices with blogs and podcasts that could make it into a class.

And, last one, if you could go back in time and tell yourself to either participate in the program or skip it, what would you do?
I would still participate. It was definitely worth my time.

Podcasting

The inventive way of doing this class would be to make my own podcast but I try to stay away from the computer on my time off from school at home and that is where my microphone is.
Checking out some of the websites suggested I came to the conclusion that my favorite of the three is podcast.net. It is so much easier to navigate. the podcasts are catalogued with the maker and from there you will be directed to all the podcasts made by this heading. The hard part was and still is to find current podcasts or podcasts that are a continues item for this heading. Most of the podcasts i found stopped at the end of 2006, I did subscribe to the Hennepin County Library teen podcasts, maybe they will revive and start podcasting again.
The opportunities for podcasting in the library are to me not as obvious as some of the other applications we worked with before. There are advantages to podcasts. i was able to listen to Chris Crutcher speak at the Freedom of speech benefit here in Seattle this past January and did not have to pay $200. (that's the Dutch side coming out)

Pug Tube

YouTube is so much fun! Like the post for our class mentioned it can be addicting. I just looked at one subject Pugs, but had a preview from all the other blogs I keep track off and noticed the Cirque the Soleil that is on YouTube, music and library related material. One of the emails through ALA mentioned the awards that are given to libraries who are prominent on Youtube and there are many possibilities to promote what is going on at the library. It could show the opening of our new branch in Snoqualmie, or the ground braking at Fall city. The possibilities for reference subjects or storey times. The McCracken Publick library had fun and the outfits could be standardized???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu-TijjVs_g

Games games games

I went to the web awards site and looked at videos first, there were lots of TV episodes available but nothing I found interesting but now that i can't find the website anymore it dawned on me that it could be helpful if you have a patron coming in who watched Oprah and wants to know about the recipe she mentioned mid way in her show. Something that is not available on her website.
The other section I looked at were the games, made lots of noise in the backroom, but I don't think it would be anything that is helpful for our patrons. Maybe a site that could be interesting for teens but not that they would be in the dark about games on the Internet. The interesting part was the tags connecting to the games and the most looked at tag was the one for puzzles, not your first thought when it comes to games and the Internet.
This was the website
http://arcaplay.com/

The lab

That was fun!! Getting to look at all kind of different and interesting applications online. It was tempting to click on them all but I restrained myself and the flow of patrons didn't allow me to look at them all. I chose the trends and found some interesting graphs on the soccer team from Amsterdam, library 2.0 which started in 2005 according to this graph, and CIPA but the last one did not come up with children's Internet filtering.

Another trend I looked at was Music trends and my favorite band was on the top 20 list. Go Coldplay!!!

The last website was the mars picture one. That just looks like good frosting in all the colors of the rainbow

Zoho wins!!!

This begins to sound like a broken record, but I was familiar with the applications being available online. Never had a purpose for using them yet but I can see them being very handy for our patrons. How do we let them know these programs are available? Like mentioned in the lesson, it is so much easier to open a document online than it is from a floppy, CD ROM or flash drive that do not always work on our finicky thin clients. It saves a lot longer than the P drive and is easier to keep up to date with the latest version of a program. Zoho has the wonderful similar look as the Microsoft programs that we are familiar with and saving a heavy PowerPoint presentation will be so much easier through this software than a floppy disc.
I looked at the other applications like e-mail and chat, and the ability to create a wiki. everything in one place and with one log in account seems a good solution for anyone using these web 2.0 applications in different locations.

Iceberg time

The first article I read was the iceberg situation. I agree with Rick Anderson's idea to not focus on the collection that might be used once in awhile. Although I don't believe we should steer away from the idea that reading from books is out we could definitely change our focus. His second iceberg is also very true. It is made difficult to find good resources through our databases (although it seems like he talks about this in his third iceberg) we should make that much easier. The point that Aaron made in his presentation is also an element of teaching our patrons; having software available for patrons to download things that they want to use on our public computers. There are changes to be made within libraries but is it as dramatic as he portrays it???

Michael Stephens article had a nice approach to it. It did not tell you how behind libraries are but what the new challenges are for librarians. He made library 2.0 more personal and acknowledges that we are a learning and that it should be fun. Especially in a larger system it is difficult to make changes within a short time. Not to imagine to change the minds and settings off staff to adapt to new elements that can be helpful but take time. As long as we are having fun and are open to change there is a future for these new elements within libraries.

That's probably what attracted me to the last article, I looked at all of them and scanned over the other two which were a little to dry for my taste, by Dr. schultz. She sees the future with elements of library 2.0 but also touches upon the important aspects of a library as a place within the community. Her observation of librarians today is not complete to my taste we are not only the ones who have an understanding of documents , we should have an understanding of everything and that includes documents, memories, ideas, and programs. My understanding of a librarian is that this person knows a little bit of everything or knows how to find a little bit of everything. We guide our patrons around the icebergs safely an look ahead to know which icebergs are coming in our direction.

the picture I found at http://flickr.com/photos/brosha/32603293/

search engines

Interesting to see that the same results pop up when you type in the word gaming for both Google's and Rollyo but Rollyo's version was easier to read and pick out the sites that i thought were wearth while. Maybe it was the layout, and the colors they used but it just seamed calmer, and not screaming at me "OPEN ME UP FIRST".
needless to say I chose Rollyo to create my own search engine. I can see potential for this element to be part of the library. My coworker the story lady told me she set up a search engine for her story time programs that she works on to find ideas for songs, lyrics or anything related to story time. That is only one option to use these programs You could use this at the reference desk with frequently asked topics or at answer line for frequent asked questions. I started with a search engine for teen materials but know I can expand that topic when I get more knowledgeable about it. A tool in progress.
http://rollyo.com/profile.html?uid=42318