Week #20 YouTube

I am already a fan of YouTube and play there erratically. I used it to to learn about web 2.0 and found some great Second Life tutorials there. Here is a very interesting music video I found, the first I've seen about libraries. A little stereotypical, but fun anyway.

Week #18 Online Productivity

I played with the Zoho Writer - Online Word Processor and was totally impressed. I looked at the Google app. last week and loved it, too. I can really see this being useful for students to use at school, especially for group projects. I told my daughter (who's at college) about it, and she will probably use to for her screen writing class for quicker access to feedback from the other students. I especially liked the fact that you can export the document in different formats, including PDF & HTML for easy access on a webpage.

Weeks 16 & 17 - Wikis

I really liked looking at the different wikis. I especially appreciated that wikis can use different formats, like the one for November's CSLA conference. For me, the conference ones are especially invaluable, since it's hard for me to get out to many of these. If a lot of folks contribute and the presenters attach their handouts and links, it can be almost as good as being there. Well, not really, but it'll have to do. I absolutely loved the BookLoversWiki and was considering doing something like this for readers advisory at my high school. But then I decided that a blog was a better way to go.

Here is my addition to the 23 Things Wiki:

I love using YouTube for fun. I was looking at some Vienna Teng videos, which led to the Wellesley Widow videos, which let to the fact that the Widows (an acapella group) played at Clinton's inaugural parade. WTG Wellesley women!

I think this could be useful for libraries, but only if we as professionals hone our video skills.

Week #15

I love this meme map from Tim O'Reilly's website. It really helps make Web 2.0 clearer for a visual learner like me.

October 4

I've done a lot of reading, thinking and talking about Library 2.0. Here's what I think: Some of the technologies are going to "stick," while others will eventually end up in the Silicon Valley graveyard of interesting-but-not-particularly-useful ideas. In my opinion, blogging, photosharing, rss feeds and social bookmarking are all useful and will probably outlive the "cool" factor time all new concepts get. Wikis...my personal jury is still out on them. While I like the concept of collaborative thinking, learning and writing, I'm not particularly entranced with any of the software I've seen for this yet. And interface is important. Twitter? I don't think so. Who cares what you're doing this exact moment in time????? The social networking sites are so popular with young people, that I don't think they're going to fade too soon. For folks over 30, though, we just don't get it. And YouTube, even I watch it sometimes and have been known to email funny links to friends.

Overall, I think these new types of software offer a lot of promise for libraries. I already have a Readers Advisory blog I'm linking to the library homepage, and I hope it becomes "cool" for kids to post there. What stumps me a little is that I may be the only librarian in my school district interested in these concepts. I know we're all busy, but the idea of taking our services to kids where they are is just too exciting to pass up.

Week # 14

For me, Technorati is confusing. I tried doing some searches, but got blocked a lot by the district filters, and became annoyed and frustrated. I could do searches via a backdoor method, but then I wasn't always sure what I was getting. (and I'm not so sure how much I care about what other people are blogging...stikes me as one of those too much time on your hands occupations.)

I looked at the Popular Blogs and checked out Boing Boing, the most popular one in the world, according to Technorati. Actually was pretty interesting, but I don't see looking at it all the time or adding it to my feed...more like a curiousity, just as its description claims.

Week #13

I already had a del.icio.us acct. from some previous web 2.0 play. However, I took more time to explore all its facets, and added the bookmarklet buttons to my browser here. Now I need to remember to do it at my other computers, too. I think this would be great for a course, we used it in one I audited taught by another librarian I know. It was very cool to share and collaborate with other folks exploring the same things. I don't know if this would work with high school kids, but think it would be great for college ones and professional collaborations.

Here is a link to my account:
Alex's delicious account

Week #12

I explored Rollyo and was pretty impressed with the idea. Searching a group of sites you've preselected all at once sounds very cool. I could see making different information searches for my high school students using this tool. However, when I tried the samples on the website, I was disappointed with the results. I did some photo searches and the results were unimpressive. I could have gotten the same thing using just Flikr, and been logged into my own account.

I fared better with the boutique search, trying "silk scarf" as my search term and found a lovely scarf if only I could find another full-time job. I didn't know people actually paid $1600 for a scarf!

So I have mixed feelings about this tool. I totally see its value in my library, but just don't know if the searches will produce valuable results.

I created a search for Frugal Grocery Shopping.