#24 All Done

Well what a wonderful journey I've been on! I really appreciate NVDPL providing the opportunity to learn about web 2.0 programs, many of which I would never have discovered without the Playground. I enjoyed the self-paced program and despite having a few technical glitches trying to link items on my blog, the process was fun and painless. As Julie Andrews loves to sing....these are a few of my favourite things:

Del.icio.us - love using this to find my favourite sites quickly
Wikis - can't wait to play around some more with these
YouTube - who needs TV?
Social Networking - haven't found Facebook overwhelming and did connect with childhood friend that I haven't seen in over 30 years!

I would definitely participate in any online training that NVDPL offers - thank you again!

Nearly There....#23

I had already looked at the Library to G0 website and found it very easy to use and navigate. However, I haven't actually got round to downloading any audiobooks yet, eventhough I've found some great titles in the catalogue. Part of the problem is that I have an iPod and although I could listen to books on the computer, I'd rather do it when I'm taking a walk and moving around. I listened to Overdrive's Guided Tour and found that helpful, so assuming I do receive an MP3 player after completing the Playground, I'm all set to go!

#22 Podcasts

My iPod is loaded up with tunes but sadly lacking in podcasts. This was a great exercise that helped me explore just what I could be listening to instead of the Beatles! I decided to focus on finding a podcast on children's literature through podcastalley.com but found the process completely overwhelming. There were so many podcasts to choose from and after clicking on a random selection, I didn't find many that were current. I tried PodcastPickle.com and had the same mixed results. So, I went back to my old friend Google and found the ever-reliable CBC radio where I added the RSS feed "The Next Chapter" and "Vinyl Cafe Stories" to Google Reader. I'm going to enjoy listening to stories about Dave on my new MP3 player..........only two more "things" to do!

Addicted to YouTube

I hadn't really looked at YouTube until a few months ago. I just didn't seem to find the time. However, since it was listed on the Playground to do list, I became curious, took the plunge, and now I can't seem to stay away! I'm an avid Beatles fan and I love looking back at the clips of the 4 moptops. I can happily spend hours on this site. It's both entertaining and addictive at the same time.
I think there's lots of potential to use YouTube as a training tool both for staff and patrons. I found it was really helpful when used as part of the Playground Discovery Exercises. It could also be used as a link off the website to show patrons how to search for information from the databases NVDPL subscribes to.
I picked Sesame Street's "No Cookies in the Library" because everyone loves the cookie monster and the clip shows how far libraries have developed - it's not just about books anymore!

the library

the library
Originally uploaded by antonious (www.anthonyaphoto.com)

A place I could spend hours in.....

#20 Askaway

Had an initial hiccup trying to connect to Askaway. I assumed I was doing something wrong.....again, however, turned out there was a problem with my internet settings. Systems came to my rescue (thanks Lisa!) and in no time at all I was chatting with Sherry on Askaway about driving routes down the Oregon Coast. The information came fast and furious and I had websites about Oregon popping up all over my screen. Not that I should be surprised, but Sherry the Librarian was very friendly, found interesting and relevant sites for me to scan through, and made Askaway such a positive experience that I will be back to use it again!

DDDDDD Databases - #19

Had lots of fun learning about NVDPL's databases. As a user, I've only accessed the Research section of the website a couple of times and that was to go into EbscoHost (side note, I found this database quite difficult to navigate and produce the results I was looking for but that might have been due to poor search techniques!). This time, I gravitated to the children's and teen related databases and found both Novelist K-8 and Worldbook Advanced both informative and easy to use. I really liked the Recommended Reads section in Novelist which had broad categories like Fantasy, that were broken down further to witches, mermaids, wizards etc. I will definitely use this database at home when my kids are restless for new reading material. Worldbook Advanced was another winner and great for school projects. I found the site easy to search and found some interesting articles on global warming and the affect on oceans which one of my daughters is keen to learn more about.
When I have more time, I will definitely go back and take another more thorough look through those databases, especially Library to Go E-Audio. I need to know how to download e-books when I eventually finish in the Playground.

Exploring Office 2007 - #17 & #18

I whipped through the Shared Calendars section because it's an area I'm pretty familiar with since I do the bookings for the Board Room. Moving on to Office 2007, I could go on all day about the initial problems I had navigating through Word and Excel when I first started using those new programs at home. It took me days to figure out how to print documents! I thought I would move through #18 pretty quickly, however, I ended up spending more time exploring the exercises for Word 2007. I hadn't realized some of the extra features that Word 2007 offers, especially some of the enhancements like picture borders, shading, word art and adding colour to tables. Now I feel that I can add some oomph and sparkle to what has probably been very visually-boring documents!
I've been using Office 2007 at home for sometime now and use the calendar extensively to co-ordinate family activities which are then synced onto my IPAQ which goes everywhere with me. I am not as confident with Excel and do need to spend some time improving my skills with that program.

#16 Email Etiquette

I read the article on email etiquette and found most of the information pretty straightforward, although I did make a mental note that I need to be more concise in my emails (have a tendency to ramble, hence title of blog!). I found the article on phishing the most informative. I thought I was pretty savvy spotting email scams and I do delete any email with an attachment that I don't recognize. However, I didn't score particularly well on the phishing test - 6/10 so I'll have to look over the notes one more time, just to be safe. I think the best tip was to pay close attention to the URL address in the bottom left corner of the screen since it's not something I always look at.

#15 NVDPL Sandbox Wiki

I had a quick play in the sandbox this morning! Lots of fun. It did feel a little strange editing lists on a site but then there's always a first time for everything......and I'm still looking forward to setting up my own wiki.

#14 A World of Wikis

An hour ago, I had no idea what wikis were or how to use them, but after reading some of the Discovery Resources and watching the video clip, Wikis in Plain English, I'm hooked. I can't believe how useful Wikis are, especially for planning projects. I wish I'd known about them last year when I was trying to plan an extended family trip to France! The idea of reducing the number of emails and trying to remember who's seen what information in order to complete a project, is very exciting. I can definitely see how students working on a group project will find Wikis helpful.
As always, there are downsides to this new technology. Some of the sites I visited had experienced vandalism problems so you had to create an account to log on to edit the contents which seemed a bit tedious (and no, I didn't sign up for anything this time!). I also thought that while Wikis would be great for patron book reviews, organizing a project amongst staff etc where you need ideas and thoughts to bounce around, at some point a collaborative effort can drag on. Still, I am going to have a go setting up my own Wiki, I just need something to organize first!

#13 Library 2.0

I read through the articles on Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 and I have to confess that before starting on my journey through the Playground, I would not have understood the concepts being discussed (I feel like I'm another Luddite too!). However, here I am at #13 and feel that I have made progress and learnt so much. I found the Wikipedia overview interesting, especially the comment that, "The active and empowered library user is a significant component of Library 2.0. With information and ideas flowing in both directions – from the library to the user and from the user to the library – library services have the ability to evolve and improve on a constant and rapid basis. The user is participant, co-creator, builder and consultant – whether the product is virtual or physical." I think the challenge will be to inform, educate and engage the users, including all the Luddites out there, so that they too are involved in the evolution of the library. You really do get a strong sense that Change is coming and libraries in five years or more will operate differently but are we preparing our patrons for it? Hmmm.....maybe we should add Flickr, setting a up a Blog, etc to the current computer training courses we offer?

Socializing 2.0

Well I took the plunge today and joined Facebook. Yet another password has been added to my my growing Playground Password list (I've tried to commit this to memory, but am failing badly hence the written list). I really debated whether I should join Facebook since it sounded like one more thing I would need to check and stay on top off. However, instead of being overwhelmed with faces I recognized, I found just one school friend that looked vaguely familiar in the photo. Oh well, we'll see if she responds.......and guess what? just received her email 2 secs. ago confirming I'm her friend. I'm a somebody!! We haven't connected in over 10 years so I think I'm going to be a bit busy uploading some photos and filling details on my profile. Facebook certainly makes email look soooo boring.

I took a quick look around MySpace which didn't inspire me too much (seemed a bit like a "find a date" site). I'm intrigued how social networking applications, like Facebook, would work within libraries. Our tech.-savvy patrons may jump at the chance to connect with other like-minded users to post comments or even book reviews, but there's probably a lot more patrons who still prefer the more old fashioned approach to networking, ie in person.

Technorati

I wasn't as thrilled with Technorati as I was with Del.icio.us and LibraryThing. I guess it's useful if you've got the time and patience to browse through tons of blogs, but not having an account with Technorati made the search process very clumsy. I was overwhelmed with the number of blogs and can't really see myself using it. That being said, I did come across one blog called Through the Looking Glass Book Review (link is below) which reviews children's books. It caught my eye because it featured an interview with Roland Smith (I just bought my daughter Elephant Run for Christmas and wanted some background info on the book).I added this blog to my Del.icio.us bookmarks and added it to my RSS feeds as well (just to see if I could remember how to do it!). Now I'm ready to move onto #12....halfway there!

http://lookingglassreview.blogspot.com/

#10 Del.icio.us

Finally moved on from LibraryThing! I could easily have spent more time there cataloguing books and reading reviews but Del.icio.us called.... I was very skeptical about Del.icio.us and even during the tutorials, I kept wondering how I would ever use it. I dutifully checked the NVDPL's bookmarks, found a website that looked interesting, checked to see who tagged it and found myself on a staff member's blog with even more interesting websites for me to check out. Having spent most of my life googling by subject, Del.icio.us gave me links to sites that were specific to what I was looking for. Now I'm completely hooked! I opened an account and had a great time setting up my favourite websites which I can access from home as well...what a time saver.

Lovin' LibraryThing

Here are a few of the books in my library. These are the ones I've actually read; I'm afraid to even start thinking about cataloguing the books sitting on my shelves that I have yet to read.

#8 Online Image Generators

Had tons of fun with online generators. I found this very funny site that creates Windows error messages, so I had a go making my own (http://atom.smasher.org/error/). Unfortunately, I spent more time trying to load the image onto this blog and as you can see, it didn't work too well. You'll need a microscope to read the writing.... this is what it says if you are curious:

Fatal Error
You are making too many silly mistakes. Windows requires a new user. Select one of the following options and vacate your chair:

Go home and read a good book
Send a Systems Request (in grey, can't select this option)
Sign up for a NVDPL computer training session

The actual image looks funnier........oh well, it's a start.

More on RSS Feeds

To finish off #7, I added a couple of RSS feeds to Google Reader. I tried to use Technorati to find some interesting blogs but found their site confusing. In the end, I used Google Reader's search feature and added librarian.net. which had an interesting post on the issue of privacy and technology in libraries, called "ruminating about privacy" by jessamyn. Here's an excerpt:

Patron 1 wants to make sure no one ever knows what they are reading. Tells the OPAC to not keep his reading list. Knows his PIN. Wants to make sure the public access PCs don’t retain records of the sites he’s visited. Is a bit horrified that the library data we do keep isn’t in some way encrypted or otherwise protected.

Patron 2 wants to know every book she has ever checked out. Wants the library to leave the name of the book she has on hold on her answering machine. Wants her friend to be able to pick the book up for her at the library. Doesn’t remember her PIN and finds it vaguely annoying that she needs more than her library card number to use the OPAC.

A privacy solution that works for Patron 1 becomes a usability impediment to Patron 2. While libraries have the responsibility to keep both patrons’ data safe, they also have the responsibility to be usable and accomodating to both patrons. Technology, in my opinion, can address these issues but librarians have to a) embrace it b) request it from their vendors c) be willing to tolerate the learning curve that comes with any new technology.

I'm sure this sounds vaguely familiar. Given time constraints and the fact that I'm taking baby steps to reach all 24 Things, I'll leave this issue to one side and quickly move onto Play Stations....this sounds like more fun!

Thing #6

Another month goes by and I've finally found some time to play in the playground. I set up a Google Reader account several weeks ago with a few RSS feeds. When I accessed it today, I was overwhelmed with 1000+ feeds from the Telegraph. Oh my! I can barely keep up with email let alone feeds. However, I did enjoy an article from LibraryThing RSS feed, entitled "The First Ever Catalog Flash Mob" about 20 cataloguers who descended on a church in Massachusetts to catalogue a collection of 1200 or so books....sounds like an interesting thing to do on the weekend! I also added the Lithe Librarian: Adventures of an Auxiliary blog to my feeds. This is one RSS feed I'd probably check regularly because the book reviews are great. On the whole, I enjoyed learning about RSS feeds (I'm one of those uninformed people who hadn't heard of them before) but it isn't something that I could see myself accessing regularly. There's only so much information I can absorb in a day.

After a long absence.....I'm back!

Well it's been several months since my last blog, so long in fact that I needed to refresh my memory and try and remember what my password was to log in. I also needed a refresher on Flickr (I vaguely remember looking at it back in August) and found to my pleasant surprise that I'd already done item #4 (yay me!).
I did spend a bit of time exploring Flickr mashups like Trip Planner by Yahoo! Travel. I really liked this website and can see myself using it to plan future trips. I love the itinerary ideas and checking out other peoples photos, and the added bonus, if my pictures are terrible (which is sometimes the case; I really should sign up for the digital photography session!), I can "borrow" some of theirs.