Thing 23 - The End .... The Beginning

(Pat on the back.) he! he! I did it! Woo Hoo!

Okay, let me answer some questions.

* What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I really enjoyed blogging. It made me feel so "hip." During the course of completing Web 2.0, I even created a second blog for a select group of guinea pigs called LAPS (Large Ample Pigs Society.) I volunteered my Hamlet to be the secretary of LAPS so now he keeps an updated register of the members of LAPS using Blogger (wink ;-). Web 2.0 also affected my husband's website, Saturnfans.com. He saw how much fun I was having creating the two blogs and decided to create his own blog using Drupal. It's not as user-friendly as Blogger but that's my husband for you - he's technically savvy.

I also enjoyed using Bloglines. I didn't know what RSS feeds were until learning about it on Web 2.0. Frankly, the term RSS had scared me since learning that Loudoun County had RSS feeds. I'm no longer scared and am subscribed to numerous RSS feeds, even Loudoun County's feed.

Another favorite exercise of mine was using Image Generators. There was such a variety of generators to choose from online and it seemed like every staff member chose a different one. I enjoyed viewing their blogs. That was a learning experience all on it's own.

* How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

Completing Web 2.0 has helped me realize that I can accomplish my goals if I really want to achieve the end result. I really wanted an MP3 player for my husband; therefore I completed all 23 exercises. I still haven't learned to sew nor have I learned to speak Spanish. I also haven't sent out any applications to colleges offering a Library Science degree; although I have looked at this option more seriously. I know that I will tackle these goals when I'm ready. Right now, I want to focus on my family, my guinea pig community and becoming a better Library Aide.

* Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I thought learning Web 2.0 would be an individual learning process but I learned a lot from my coworkers. It's interesting how one learning objective can be given so many different perspectives.

I think another surprise was the availability of web-based applications. I thought Microsoft had dominated that market. It's nice to see other alternatives.

* What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

I still think every staff member should be required to learn Web 2.0. I think it would help us serve our patrons better.

Learning Web 2.0 was a great experience. I learned so much! I am truly grateful for this opportunity. We need to get started on Web 3.0 soon. Think about all of the technology that we still don't know about.

* If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

Absolutely! Where do I sign up?

Thing 22 - NetLibrary

I had set up an account with NetLibrary quite a while ago but had never downloaded an audiobook for my own personal use. I decided to download Lisa Jackson's Deep Freeze. Within the first five minutes, I had made a mental task list of things to do for tomorrow. As I mentioned in the last post, I'm a traditional read-a-book kind of girl. My mind tends to wander when I listen to audio books. So while I think it is a neat feature, I probably won't use it in the future. Maybe I'm better suited for e-books. Isn't it great that the county offers so many options!

On a professional level, I can attest that there are many patrons who love listening to audio books. They live such busy lifestyles that they are only able to enjoy books by listening to them. Many of them listen while gardening, performing housework, painting, or commuting. E-audiobooks allows these patrons to be even more mobile. Now they can "get out there" (stolen ad phrase from Royal Caribbean.) There are several limitations to e-audiobooks. There aren't as many title choices as there are on books on CD. I searched for some of the current bestsellers and they aren't available. Plus, the program doesn't allow patrons to download these books to Ipods or Macs. Ipods have almost become a household name since so many people own one. This automatically eliminates a huge percentage of patrons from using NetLibrary.

Thing 21 - Podcasts

Hmmm.... I'm not a big fan of podcasts. I prefer reading. It's much more effective and efficient. Yep, I'm one of those library patrons who cannot listen to audiobooks.

I tried using all three of the podcast directories. I found the Yahoo directory the most user-friendly. It had better descriptions of the podcasts and a Fiction Connection-like map of popular tags. Even though podcasting is not my preferred style of information gathering, I still managed to subscribe to a number of podcasts using all three directories. (he! he! - I'm like kid in a candy store.) In my Bloglines account, you'll see that I subscribed to the Z100 Morning Zoo's Phone Scams, NPR's Book Reviews, NBC4's News Updates, Vegan News and Disney Insider Updates. Other than NPR's podcast, I didn't find many interesting book related podcasts. Many of them were about Sci-Fi or Comic books. Moreover, several of the podcasts had not been updated for quite a while, a year or longer in some cases.

I do think podcasts could be very helpful in certain situations even for us individuals who prefer visual learning. For example, Doug could offer a monthly State of the Library address. Even though information is efficiently disseminated to all the branches, it would be neat to have a podcast from our President of Library Services.

Thing 20 - YouTube

YouTube has revolutionized the web. It has given amateur filmmakers free publicity. Friends and family are able to share their videos with one another without overloading e-mail in-boxes. Internet users can view popular events that they have missed or would like to see again. For instance, I missed Adam Sandler hosting the David Letterman show on Tuesday night but I've found portions of the show on YouTube.

How could YouTube be implemented in our library system? New technologies could be demonstrated via YouTube. Videos of the some of wonderful programs scheduled at the libraries could be uploaded as well.

While exploring YouTube, I found several creative videos. One that I would like to share is called Tasty Choices @ Your Library. It's a short ad highlighting the variety of items that you can find at your library.



Another video that I want to share stars a guinea pig named Bing. The tune is catchy and it teaches you a lot about guinea pigs - it is all about them. :-)

Thing 19 - Discovering Etsy, A Web 2.0 Tool

After browsing some of the winning Web 2.0 tools, the one that I found most captivating (aside from the tools that were explored in previous lessons) was Etsy. Etsy is a website that brings together sellers and buyers of handcrafted items. Wikipedia describes Etsy most accurately by equating it to an online craft fair.

There are many ways to search for items on Etsy: by category, tag, recently listed, seller's favorite, seller's location and color. I found searching by tag and category most worthwhile. One of the items that I found was the painting shown above. It is a gouache painting entitled Summer Reading that is listed for $80. I least liked searching by color. My searches tended to yield bizarre results. For example, when I clicked on yellow, I was recommended a pair of batman earrings.

How could this tool be implemented in the library? We probably couldn't use this tool professionally but we could always recommend it to our creative patrons who are looking for a way to sell their crafts. I already have a person in mind: a coworker that crafts beautifully beaded jewelry.

Look at one of the gems that I found during my search. It is an ornament that can be personalized. I'm thinking of getting two for my guinea pigs. Too bad the seller doesn't offer personalized ornaments for German Shepherds. I hope my dog doesn't get jealous.

Thing 18 - Web-based Applications

Using Zoho to Report on New Technology

For the past couple of days, I've been searching the news for an interesting story to write about using Zoho. Well, on the way to the library this morning, I heard a story worth sharing. I learned that TiVo customers will soon be able to purchase movies from Amazon and download them to their TiVos. Nifty!  Now, I just need to convince my husband to buy a TiVo.

About Zoho

Wow! Web-based applications are very useful. I can create and view a document, spreadsheet or presentation practically anywhere. It unties me from one computer or network. The only downside seems to be that these web-based applications aren't as versatile as Microsoft's products. For instance, I can customize the font in Microsoft Word whereas Zoho has set font sizes. Also, neither Zoho Writer nor Zoho Show has clip art. Both are features that I frequently use. So, I think Microsoft is safe, for now.

* I'm using Zoho's publish feature to post this onto my blog.  I tried to make the format consistent to the rest of my blog posts.  After many tries, I think it looks very similar.

Thing 17 - Playing Around with PBWiki

I'm surprised how easy it is to add text to a Wiki page. It's scary, really. I noticed that under the Favorite Animals section, someone had manipulated the number for horses. I can definitely see the benefit of limiting editing rights. I added comments to My Favorite Blogs, Animals, TV Show, Stores and Websites.

Thing 16 - Wikis

The wiki that I found most interesting was Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. Under the Programming heading, there was a link to Displays. Several users had uploaded pictures of their library displays. It helped ignite my creative spark. Watch out craft stores, here I come! :-) At last year's staff development day, we had a sharing/ best practices group discussion and I found it very helpful. Wouldn't it be great if we had this type of sharing online via a wiki?

I was also very intrigued by the Book Lovers Wiki. I wish there was a way for our patrons to review the books that they have read. It would help me alert them to newly published books that match their interests.

On a lighter note, I used the wiki search tool to find information on "guinea pigs." It helped me find a new web site called Guinea Pigs Club. There are lots of guinea pig themed games to play. If you get a chance, try out How Quickly Can You Feed Your Guinea Pig. he! he!

Thing 15 - Library 2.0

After reading the five perspectives, I think the one I agree with most is Rick Anderson's "Away from the Iceburgs." I think Loudoun County has done an excellent job catering to the evolving technology. It has made available an information rich database, convenient downloadable audiobooks, portable audiobooks, engaging Tumblebooks, live homework help, Grease Monkey for Amazon, a LCPL toolbar, and many other nifty technologies. (Although it would help a lot of patrons if they could download audiobooks on their Ipods or Zooms.) I can honestly say that I'm proud to be an employee for the county. I like to check out other libraries as a hobby. (I know, it's sad, but I really do love my job and the library.) Anyway, the point is, I think Loudoun County tops the list on available technology and user friendliness. In summary, on the technology aspect, I think our library system is Library 2.0 compatible.


I think we have two "iceburgs" though. First, I think only a few of our patrons comprehend the extent of our collection. The community isn't aware of our online gems or even our in-library digital collection. We needs to pump up our marketing strategy and keep the public abreast of our technology. Perhaps we should go to schools and educate the teachers on how to use our online tools. They can then pass the knowledge down to their students. I think many of the youth view libraries as a building storing a just-in-case collection. I want them to see that we are much more. Maybe we could visit gyms and market the portable audio books. Wouldn't time pass a lot quicker if they listened to a book while working out?

The second challenge is to keep the library staff educated on the new technology. The technology is rolled out so quickly that we need to receive proper training for us to successfully serve our patrons. For example,Web 2.0 has been an absolutely awesome learning experience! We need more training programs like this. Please don't get miffed at me for writing this, but I also think learning Web 2.0 should be mandatory. Even if there wasn't a prize at the end, it's valuable training that is essential for serving our patrons effectively. (Don't get me wrong, I can't to receive the MP3 player. I'm giving it to my husband so he will be able to work out on the treadmill with his own music. he! he! Charlie gave me one for my birthday two years ago and it is fantastic!) Hopefully, there will be more learning in store for us after Web 2.0. I don't want to miss out on anything.

Hamlet's LAPS Blog

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I've been working on my 2.0 blog at home because I work part-time and it's hard for me to focus at the library. For the past couple of weeks, I haven't been keeping up with the new tasks. I'm guilty for two reasons. One, I've been playing the new SIMS Stories game which despite the positive reviews, I find disappointing. Second, I've been creating a blog for LAPS (Large Ample Pigs Society.) I'm a member of the Guinea Pig Daily Digest, an interactive e-mail digest involving guinea pig owners from all around the world. Hamlet volunteered as Secretary for LAPS and Web 2.0 has helped me create another blog just for that club. Thank you LCPL for teaching me about blogs, Flickr, Flickr Toys and Image Generators. These tools all helped me create it. Now that it's set up and open to other LAPS members, it's back to learning. I have a lot of catching up to do!

A story about Hamlet:

Hamlet's LAPS Profile,
originally uploaded by cavyfan.

Hamlet is my "big boned" pig. His heftiness gained him membership to the exclusive LAPS (Large Ample Pigs Society) club on the Guinea Pig Daily Digest. He's so happy to have finally found a group of guinea pigs that share his love for eating and lounging. Seussy, his non biological brother, only weighs 2lbs. 8oz. As you can imagine, before LAPS, Hamlet was very insecure about his weight.

I love this little guy and his sweet little brother too!

Thing 14 - Technorati

Well, I've spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to use Technorati. At one point, I felt quite confident with using this application. I even claimed my blog and felt a tiny bit proud. It was then that I saw another person's blog and found that they had taken the challenge and added links to tags. My confidence was completely deflated. I couldn't figure out how to get those tags in there and Honey, I'm sorry (my husband runs his own website) but when I look at HTML code, I get a little overwhelmed. It took a bit but I think I've finally figured it out. I've tagged a few terms:

[guineapig]
[guineapigs]
[cavy]
[cavies]
[l2lcpl]

For those experts out there, why aren't there any blog posts relating to my tags?

I also played with the keyword search. Of all of them, I prefer the Blog Posts search. If I was researching a topic, this search would be most helpful because it shows a blog post your term embedded in it. The organized part of my brain had a fondness for the directory search. The results more organized and easier to visually process.

Whew! I need an aspirin.

Thing 13 - Delicious

Del.icio.us is web-i-licious!

I created my own account. I didn't want to miss out on any of the fun. I don't know how I'm going to find the time to maintain all of these accounts. Are any of the Web 2.0 steps related to time-management? he! he!

Anyway, most of my tags relate to guinea pigs - surprise, surprise! :-) Creating an account helped me answer the question: How could Del.icio.us be used as a research tool? I'm hoping that if a new guinea pig owner joined Delicious to learn more about their new pet, they will find my links useful. I made so many mistakes when I adopted my first guinea pig, Baxter. The biggest mistake I made was feed him a diet suggested by PetCo. When Baxter was one year old, he became very ill. His veterinarian blamed it on an an incorrect diet. I adjusted his diet and he remained healthy for four more years. I don't want other new guinea pig owners to fall in the same trap that I did if they adopt a guinea pig from a pet store so I added lots of links related to guinea pig care. I also added links to guinea pig supply stores so that new owners can buy their new pet lots of toys too.


Another great reason for using Delicious is to consolidate bookmarks. We have three computers in our house and none of them have the same bookmarks. Now, we'll always have access to them regardless of which computer we use.

Thing 12 - Rolling My Own Search Engines

Rollyo helped me to create two new search engines, one that is work related and another that is guinea pig related.

My work search engine is called My Library Aide. I only cataloged Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Books a Million onto this engine. I order new books for a handful of patrons but only if the reviews are good. Now I can just enter the title of the book and read the reviews from all three books sites. I think it will save me a lot of time.

My other search engine is called Cavy Fetch. I also belong to a community of guinea pig owners. When a health issue arises, I often refer to a couple of guinea pig related web sites. Now, I can just type the issue in, and see the responses from both websites.

Select Search Engine...My Library AideCavy FetchSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

Thing 11 - Library Thing

This week I am fighting a cold that is immune to medicine and vitamins. I'm quarantined to three rooms in the house. Luckily, one of them contains a computer so I can continue learning Web 2.0.

Library Thing is a great resource. Patrons often ask me to recommend books that are similar to the book that they have just finished. I use the library's databases but I've noticed that only the popular authors are usually listed. Sometimes I need to look for more obscure authors. Library Thing may help me find a better answer.

I used Library Thing to catalog my favorite books, not the books that I own. Now, I can delete the book pictures that I've added to Flickr and add them to my Library Thing.

Thing 10 - Image Generators

This lesson was a lot of fun! Like so many of the other tasks, you could spend hours playing with all of the options. That's why I've started completing my posts at home so I can play away. It also helps to be an insomniac.

I added two new pictures to my Flickr page by using generators. The first generator I used was an Image Mosaic Generator. I uploaded a picture of Middleburg Library that I retrieved from the County web page and used it to create a beautiful mosaic. The second generator I used was a Catalog Card Generator. It was very appropriate for my profession and I was able to relate it to my favorite topic, guinea pigs!

Blogging For Fun - Popcorning Guinea Pigs

It's true that guinea pigs are classified as rodents. :-( What a horrible name for such sweet creatures! In reality though, they're more like little horses. For example, their diet consists primarily of timothy hay and veggies. Also, when they're really happy, they buck like horses. Guinea pig enthusiasts call it popcorning. Check out this YouTube video and you'll see a couple of content piggies. The two pigs featured in this video aren't my babies but they are adorable! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_jS2NYGGcg

Thing 9 - Feeding My Bloglines Account

My Bloglines account is now a buffet of information...

I've spent the last few hours exploring Bloglines, Feedster, Topix, Syndic8 and Technorati. Of all of them, I prefer Topix. Their web page was designed like an online newspaper. I couldn't resist subscribing to several of their feeds. One of its features that I found particularly impressive was it's ability to generate a news feed specific to my zip code. Very nifty!

My least favorite tools were Syndic8 and Technorati. I'm more interested in main stream news so I found more applicable feeds by just searching my favorite websites , Google and Yahoo.

I'm very curious to see the feeds other Web 2.0 participants have added to their bloglines account.

Thing 8 - RSS and Bloglines

First of all, I'm thankful to the person who created the Loudoun County RSS feed. Several months ago, my manager told the staff that Loudoun County was offering an RSS feed. I had never heard of RSS. I was so embarrassed by my lack of knowledge, that I went home, created a Yahoo account and subscribed to the feed (with my technology-savvy husband's help, of course). Without that experience, I think this task would have been overwhelming.

Tonight, I learned about Bloglines and I went a little crazy on the RSS feeds. Soon I may be suffering from information overload :-) I couldn't resist. There is so much to learn out there in cyberspace and it's so accessible. So visit my Bloglines account and check out my feeds. Don't worry, they're not all guinea pig related. :-p

Technology (Thing 7) - Borrow DVDs from Home

I heard an interesting news report this afternoon. Anne Arundel County Public Library's will be allowing their patrons to download movies over the internet. The downloaded movies will be accessible only for a week and then will be erased from their computer.

Read all about it on WUSA's website: http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=55037
Or.... visit Anne Arundel County Public Library's website: http://web.aacpl.lib.md.us/

Imagine on the same day, I read that NetFlix is offering a similar service. They will be allowing a select group of customers to download movies and television shows from their website as well. Like Anne Arundel County, only a few titles (1,000) will be available initially but if the company can handle the data flow, more titles will become available and more customers will be able to access them.

What a great news day! Now I have to thank my husband for connecting our television to the computer. :-)

Read this story at USA Today's website: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2007-01-15-netflix-access_x.htm

Thing 6

Wow! I thought that Flickr was just a database of photographs but there are so many applications, mashups and tools within Flickr. I had fun just exploring all of the different utilities but I ultimately chose to make a Motivator Sign under FD's Flickr Toys. (on left) When I get a little more extra time, I'm going to experiment with the magazine cover maker featuring ... you guessed it, guinea pigs. :-)

Flickr

I now have a Flickr homepage: http://www.flickr.com/photos/guineapigfancy

I've used it to catalog my favorite guinea pig books.