Week 9, Thing 23 The End (Thank Goodness)

This exercise of 23 Things has been challenging, time-consuming, occasionally rewarding and more often frustrating. There were some activities that I found potentially useful, namely: LibraryThing, Rollyo, wikis, Project Gutenberg, and GoogleDocs. Some of the activities were fun, such as Fickr, Meez, and YouTube, though I doubt I will navigate to them on my own again. It was definitely an experience to learn the concepts of blogging, Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and tagging.
One flaw with this program was that it never developed into the cooperative learning exercise it was meant to be. Rather, it quickly became a solo effort due to time constraints (short periods of off-desk time that did not lend themselves to concentration) and lack of a work area conducive to doing this long-range project (no door to close, no desk to sit at, no personal computer).
It was through the patience, diligence, and technological knowledge of my nephew that I was able to complete this exercise. It was a true lesson in family sticking together. I can truly say I learned a lot because of his efforts.
I do see the need for libraries to move forward as technology moves forward. I will definitely be open to learning new advances, but I will not be a pioneer of them. Computers still scare me! I really am Corky's pal, and I truly believe in lifelong learning, but I feel more comfortable in the penguin suit.

Week 9, Thing 22 Downloadable Audiobooks

I explored Project Gutenberg and reviewed The Top 100 books from yesterday. It's neat to see how current their inventory is. I clicked on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer since that has been a requested book this summer for school students' reading lists. This site is one that I can see me using personally since I frequently listen to audiobooks. This site could definitely enhance customer service by obtaining the text of books that are unavailable but are promptly needed by patrons. It was interesting to see the broad spectrum of books that were on the Top 100 List. It looked like anything from textbooks to classics were featured.

Week 9, Thing 21 Search Tools for Locating Podcasts

I looked at podcast.net and Yahoo Podcasts. Under podcast.net I searched for penguins, which yielded four results. The hits are not nearly as big as what I found on YouTube. On exploring the MERLIN podcasting link, I could see that the tutorials that have accompanied the 23 Things exercises have been podcasts all along. I went into the Denver Public Library site through MERLIN and listened to some children's stories online. These could definitely be helpful in library storytimes.
One of my favorite authors is poet and peacemaker Mattie Stepanek, so I searched some podcasts to find his works. I did not find any results in either podcast.net or Yahoo Podcasts. I did find results on YouTube. However, I could not RSS feed this to my Bloglines account. So, I then searched for Harry Potter on podcasts.net, found the RSS feed, and added The Secrets of Harry Potter to my Bloglines account.

Week 9, Thing 20 YouTube

This was my first ever exploration of YouTube. It's quite an interesting site. It's amazing the popularity and notoriety that it has received in its two short years of existence. It seems that you could waste a lot of time watching non-sensical things. However, I can see this as a mode of relaxation and humor. It was interesting to learn that Geriatric1927 is one of the most popularly visited sites, which taught me that YouTube is for people of all ages.
The first video that I watched was "Crazy Cats," chosen because I have three cats. It was fun to see other feline antics. The next videos dealt with penguins since I am Corky's pal. "Clever Penguin Pet" Lala lives in Japan and is quite unique. He was rescued ten years ago from a fisherman's net. He waddles daily from his owner's home to the local fish market and back. Lala is truly amazing. Then I watched "Penguin Bloopers" which proved not to be so funny. Next I ventured into comedy and laughed at Robin Williams' "On the State of the Earth."
Searching for Library 2.0 videos, I was surprised at how many videos there were. I watched one that was very well done, entitled "A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto." It contained good graphics and great photos that presented a positive campaign for libraries moving forward.

Week 8, Thing 19 Web 2.0 Awards List

I looked at the Web 2.0 Awards nominees, saw the 41 categories. I saw that Technorati is the winner in the Blog Guides category. I chose to explore the City Guides and Review category and reviewed www.yelp.com. I checked out Westminster, MD and Rosslyn, VA. I saw where people can put their personal reviews, but did not find it extremely helpful for small cities. Some of the small cities weren't even on the map. This site could be useful to a visitor searching for restaurants, events, hotels, etc. This could be useful in a library setting for getting a general feel for demographics in researching a new library site.

Week 8, Thing 18 Online Productivity Tools

I explored Zoho Writer and Google Docs. I created an account with the latter. The Google Docs word processing page was similar to Microsoft Word. The tool bar was easy to follow though the quote box was confusing. I liked the color choices for jazzing up the finished project. I also looked at the spreadsheet. It's neat to see that one can access Google Docs from any computer with the Internet thereby eliminating the need for disks.

Week 7, Thing 17 SandBox Wiki

I created a SandBox wiki account (with the assistance of my wonderful nephew). I am listed as corkyspal in the CCPL list. I posted some "playful" items under a pre-existing wiki called "A Few of My Favorite Things". Read it and you'll see mention of giraffes, dolphins, and rules to live by.

Week 7, Thing 16 Wikis

I explored the wikis cited under Discovery Resources. The format is easy to follow, similar to encyclopedia content. I thought the Bull Run Library wiki was amazing in that a single patron is compiling it!! The New Orleans Conference wiki is one whose application could be adapted for library conferences or for our staff day. Wikis have been used by CCPL for a few years now (ex: On the Same Page). Wikis are a neat communication tool in that they are easy to access and are good for group discussion. A drawback is that authenticity cannot always be verified making them unacceptable in some areas of cite referencing.

Week 6, Thing 15 Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and Future of Libraries

In this high-tech, fast-paced world libraries need to keep up with evolving technologies. Customer demands are placing new challenges in obtaining information. The articles I read were "Into a New World of Librarianship" by Michael Stephens, which said the library is 'human'. This means it is a socially and emotionally engaging center for learning.
The second article was "Away From the Icebergs" by Rick Anderson. In this he outlined three icebergs, or potential disasters, if libraries continue their current path. We should not hold on to "just in case collections," we need to promote reliance on user education (teach patrons the technology), and we need to develop a "come to us" model of library service. This means we need to bring our services to the people, not having them come into a building for us.
The third article was "To Better Bibliographic Services" by John Riemer. This article was over my head, but did cite that we need to avoid duplications of records and spoke of an "Open WorldCat" project.
So, libraries need to become trend-setters and help the public to keep up with quickly-changing technology. This means they must embrace Web 2.0 tools of reading/writing webstyle and providing useful websites.

Week 6, Thing 14 Explore Technorati

I explored Technorati and learned that it's the leading search tool and authority for blogs. I found out that Blogger is captured through Technorati. It picks up tags when it spiders your site. I then searched Technorati for Library 2.0, which then yielded the three ways to search. The blog post had 23,373 results. Tags had 318 results, and the Blog Directory also had 318 results. I found these by doing an advanced search. I still find this site confusing.
When I searched the Top Blogs, Top Favorited Blog, and Top Searches it seems like you can get to the same information, but there is a lot of clutter to navigate.
I never was able to upload the Technorati Tour videocast.

Week 6, Thing 13 Tagging Del.icio.us

I have tried on 2 separate days (July 16 and 18) to get into the Del.icio.us tutorial only to have the computer screen show that the 12 minute presentation is unavailable. Tagging seems to be an "unstructured, free form" association of keywords to find online content. Flickr and Library Thing were pointed out as being 2 forms of tagging. I checked out Del.icio.us URL, saw its social bookmarking listings, and pulled up the Shifted Librarian site showing user descriptions and commonly used tags. I could see personal use for tagging when looking for particular pictures in photo albums by using keyword descriptions to find certain shots.

Week 5, Thing 12 Rollyo

Rollyo was fun and a site that I plan to use!! I created an account for myself and created a Broadway Shows search roll. For our 30th wedding anniversary next year, Wayne and I were thinking of taking the family to NYC to see either Grease or Mary Poppins. I plugged in ticketmaster.com and rollyo added other addresses. Justbuytickets.com was very informative. I learned that Grease is considered "Hot Broadway" with mega-hefty ticket prices. Mary Poppins is classified as a "Broadway Event" with ticket prices more suited to our kid-in-college budget.

Week 5, Thing 11 Library Thing / Favorite Books

I set up an account with LibraryThing and entered eight of my favorite titles. You can view them here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/scavey. I thought the site was easy to use. It could be of great benefit to the many patrons who frequently ask us if we keep a record of the books they've read. Teaching this skill to the customers could have them manage their own reading history.

Week 5, Thing 10 Online Image Generator

Since I'm not an artist, this was a pretty fun activity. I played around with two image generators. See my blog for the sketch-generated penguin image. It looks like a pencil drawing.
I also went to www.meez.com and created Corkette. You can see her moving image and read her bio on my blog. She is singing because I love to sing (but if you read her bio then you already knew that).

Week 4, Thing 9 MERLIN

Today I explored several news feed search tools. These included Feedster and Technorati. I found them to be a bit confusing, especially Technorati. I then looked at MERLIN. This site was easier to navigate than the other two. I also subscribed to the MERLIN feed in my Bloglines account. Along the way, I found many feeds that were of little interest to me. There were so many, though, that I eventually found some that were more up my alley. Though I've seen MERLIN many times on our CCPL homepage, I never really explored it before today. So now I will check out its information more frequently.

Week 4, Thing 8 RSS Feeds

Finally, some of the navigational fog of blogger.com to blogspot.com to creating/editting posts to transferring the blog post permalink URL to the tracking log is starting to clear. Good Grief!

RSS "really simple syndication" was challenging at times. I created a bloglines account and set up a total of 16 feeds, one of which included MERLIN from Week 4, Thing 9. My feeds included Dogs, Cats, Travel, Home and Garden, USA Today News and Weather, a movie sight, Energy Information, Reader's Club, and two humor sights. I read and added the Shifted Librarian feed. So as to have access to a wider range of feeds, I added the bloglines of two co-workers.

You can view my bloglines here:
http://www.bloglines.com/blog/corkyspal

Week 3, Thing 7 Interesting Technology

Playing catch-up here - the past few weeks have been extremely busy at work (summer is our Christmas time) and I'm training for and driving the day care van as a sub in Outreach. Plus multiple family (parental care) issues are using much time, travel,and energy.

So, over these last weeks, I have found the following news reports related to technology to be interesting:

1. CCT, 6/2/07 A new phone system, The Enforcer, is now in place at the CC Detention Center. It makes monitoring inmates' calls easier and can use security cameras to watch inmates while their calls are in progress.

2. CCT, 6/28/07 Robotic cameras have been installed in the Mount Airy Town Hall to air live broadcasts of the town hall meetings on Community Media Center Channel 23.

3. CCT, 6/30/07 The hyped iPhone became available to consumers @ 6 p.m. yesterday. The Apple product which is serviced by AT&T has touch screen, e-mail, Internet, music and video. Base price is $500.

4. CCT, 7/12/07 Pixar's "digital dazzle" animated movie, "Ratatouille" is doing well at the box office.

5. TV news 7/16/07 Pageant winner, Miss New Jersey, is allowed to keep her crown. Controversial photos of her on Facebook almost cost her the title.

Week 3, Things 5 & 6 Flickr & 3rd Party Sites

Flickr was a new technology that I explored this week. It was neat to see how pictures can be transferred. From Flickr, I found my two really neat penguin photos that depict Corky's feelings. The swimming Corky I named "Corky's Dream" because on these really hot summer days I am sure Corky would love to be in the open seas. The front-facing Corky is called "Corky with Attitude" because he is a spunky guy.


Exploring Mappr! and the Flickr Color Wheel was really cool. Mappr! was a neat way to do a collage. I played with the Color Wheel by typing in the word "magenta," and was impressed with the images that appeared.

Week 1, Thing 2: 7.5 Habits

Of the habits listed, the hardest for me is having confidence in myself in venturing to use new computer technology. The easiest for me is to view problems as challenges since I realize that learning will take place through these exercises. My confidence level will go up as I start to gain knowledge and collaborate with co-workers.

Week 1, Thing 1: About This Program

This sounds challenging and is something I would not do on my own, but I'll try most anything once. So here it goes...