Summary (Thing #23)

My favorite discoveries were the Library Thing website and the Web 2.0 Awards. I am now much more familiar with the concepts of social networking, RSS feeds, wikis and podcasts. I've tried to relate the new things I learned to the work done in libraries. Podcasts are useful for storytimes for children and book talks for all ages. Blogs and wikis are a great way of encouraging input from the community, with book reviews, discussions and suggestions. I really enjoyed reading the blogs of others and found many of the exercises to be fun and challenging. One frustration I had was the amount of time it took to complete the program - much of it was done on my own time since I just didn't have the time in my work schedule. All in all it was a wonderful and rewarding learning experience.

Audiobooks (Thing #22)

There are over 20,000 titles in the Project Gutenberg catalog.I downloaded Pride and Prejudice by clicking on the title and then selecting a download site, which was the Guttenberg site on Sailor: ftp://sailor.gutenberg.lib.md.us/gutenberg/etext98/pandp12.zip
I was able to download and open both the plain text and pdf versions. In addition to searching the online catalog, books can be chosen by browsing the "Top 100 Books" list. I chose Pride andPrejudice from the list of "Top 100 Ebooks yesterday". There is also a list of "Top 100 Authors yesterday", from which I chose William Shakespeare and was given the choice of dozens of Shakespearean plays. You can also search the most recent titles posted, and subscribe to an RSS feed of these books. There is a Project Gutenberg wiki to which users are invited to contribute.

Tools for Locating Podcasts (Thing #21)

I discovered several interesting podcasts on Podcast.net that would be useful in a library setting. "Book Voyages" is a podcast about children's literature from the point of view of a school media specialist. It features book reviews as well as interviews with students and authors. "Library Channel" is a weekly podcast that discusses trends in research libraries. The Sunnydale Public Library has a podcast where users can watch, download and comment on library programs. From Podcastalley.com I found a live tennis podcast which I added to the feeds in my Bloglines account.From a personal standpoint, I really liked the daily newscasts that you can subscribe to. The ones I looked at were highlights from the NBC Today Show, the "What's in the News" podcast which is a wrap-up of the day's news and headlines from CBS, and the daily podcast of ABC World News.

Discover YouTube (Thing #20)

There is a Dan Rather video on YouTube which depicts him spending several minutes deciding whether or not he wants to wear a trench coat during his report, and then deciding whether or not the collar should be up or down. Katie Couric did a spoof on it, and her spoof ended up on youtube also! Youtube is a wonderful resource for teachers, such as the documentary produced by the Lincoln Institute discussing issues surrounding the drafting of the Emancipation Proclamation. Just about any recently televised important event can be found on youtube, such as presidential debates, interviews, and newscasts.

Web 2.0 Awards List - Craigslist (Thing #19)

I chose Craigslist from the list of winners of the WEb. 2.0 Awards. This site offers a tremendous amount of classifieds information. It would be very useful to a reference librarian helping customers researching jobs, housing, or community activities in any state in this country, as well as many other countries. The site is intuitive and easy to navigate.

Online Productivity Tools (Thing #18)

I like Zoho Writer - it seems to have all the features of Word and more. It's nice that you can save documents to the site and access them from any computer, without having to attach files to an e-mail account. I also like that you can post documents to a blog from here.

Learning 2.0 Sandbox Wiki (Thing #17)

I added my blog to the library's sandbox. The PB Wiki Tips site would be very helpful in creating or editing a wiki. This was an interesting thing to learn about, but at this point I don't see that I would have a need for it.

Wikis (Thing #16)

Wikis are a great tool that allow users to contribute interesting articles, resources and ideas. They are a great way of coordinating plans without contacting many different people by e-mail. Of course, wikis need to be used with caution, since the accuracy of the information can be in question. This is the major problem with Wikipedia, which many students use for research. While it can be a very useful tool, it should ideally be used in conjunction with some other source with a higher reliability rating.

Library 2.0 (Thing #15)

library 2.0
Originally uploaded by hamilton_buffy

One underlying principle of the Library 2.0 model is the two-way flow of information - from the library to the user and from the user to the library. Users are encouraged to participate in the development and maintenance of library services. User feedback is valued and encouraged, so that services can be continually updated and reevaluated to meet users needs. Users are encouraged to use social computing technologies to share ideas about the library collection and other library services.

Technorati (Thing #14)

Technorati Rank
Originally uploaded by Dosh Dosh

The Technorati web site provides a way to search and browse blogs. The home page lists the latest top blog searches and top tags with links to the blogs. There are also links to popular blogs about music, movies, videos, games and news. Searches can be done using keywords. The "favorites" section gives the user the option of creating a list of favorite blogs, by suppling the URL of the blog and adding a tag. Blogs can be claimed on this site as well.

Tagging and Del.icio.us (Thing #13)

I have lots of favorites on my computer so I figured this would be useful to me. I like that I can access the sites from anywhere. It would also be useful to the librarians on the information desk. They could bookmark regularly used sites and assist customers more quickly and efficiently.

Roll Your Own Search Tool (Thing #12)

Lewis & Clark from Maddeleine5, US
Originally uploaded by Alvhyttan

I created a search roll for American Explorers web sites to be used by elementary school students. Using Rollyo was very simple. As a librarian I work with the online reference service Ask Us Now, and this would be a very useful tool for organizing web sites to be used for common research questions. The link to my search roll is:
http://www.rollyo.com/ntennant/

Library Thing (Thing #11)

Library Thing
Originally uploaded by <<graham>>

You can catalog your own books very easily on Library Thing simply by typing in the titles. You can also rate books and write reviews. Library Thing creates a user profile for you that allows you to connect to others that have the same books in their catalogs.
The link to my LibraryThing catalog is: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/ntennant

Online Image Generators (Thing #10)

I created the image on the right using Chalkboard Image Generator, a generator I found at the site "Generator Blog". I found many other image generators by doing a Google search.

Library-related News Feeds and Blogs (Thing #9)

My Flock RSS Feed List
Originally uploaded by crr29061

I found the search engines to be the easiest way to locate blogs and feeds. I liked using the search engine in bloglines, since I could see immediately if the feed had been added to my list. Technorati seemed to be the best tool for finding blogs.

RSS Feeds (Thing #8)

Icons Displayed In The Bloglines Feedreader Screenshot
Originally uploaded by e-strategy.com

Newsreaders serve as a single website that "collects" information from various websites. RSS feeds from the New York Times Book Review and Washington Post Book Review are two examples of how this technology would be useful to a librarian.

iPod Shuffle (Thing #7)

I recently got an iPod Shuffle. It is so small it can be worn around the neck as a necklace or be attached to the collar of a shirt or blouse. It holds up to 240 songs, which can be played in order or "shuffled" randomly.

Flickr Mash-ups and Third Party Sites (Thing #6)

Flickr Color Pickr allows you to choose a color is practically any shade and find pictures that match it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to download these images into my blog. The image above is a kaleidoscope screensaver available for download from this site.

White Bengal Tiger (Thing #5)

White Bengal Tiger
Originally uploaded by Frank Peters

Name: Bengal Tiger (white)
Scientific name: Panthera tigris
Range: Asia.(India subcontinent)
Habitat: Dense Forest and Lush Grasslands
Status: Endangered Species
Diet in the wild: water buffalo,goat,deer,wild boar.
Diet in the zoo: Chicken,horsemeat or kangaroo meat five days a week. Fast on bones twice a week.
Location in the zoo: Asian Falls

Lifelong Learning (Thing #2)

Lifetime learning is something we all do to varying degrees in our everyday lives. Technological advances of the past decade have made it even more crucial that we become active learners and try to practice the habits discussed in the tutorial.