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.