Back from vacation

We're back from three hot weeks in Iran, so I'm going to get started again with my Web 2.0 work. It sure is nice to be back in the Bay Area with our moderate temperatures and our own house.

Weeks 7 & 8

I created my RSS reader using GoogleReader. It was very easy and I immediately started adding feeds. I choose some news feeds, emerging tech feeds and library/librarian feeds.

I have to be careful, however, because each feed has the potential to lead to other feeds equally as compelling. I could spend all day keeping up on the feeds, and not get anything done IRL if I'm not careful. For me, this is an excellent way to keep up on web 2.0 technologies.

I'm finding that I usually don't read the entire articles, just enough to get the idea of the thingys.I really like the librarian's blogs. I'm finding that they make me think about what I'm doing in my library and how I could improve it for our students. I go out of my way to read all of them, even if I don't think they apply to what I am doing right now. I like being up-to-date on what other libraries are doing.

Thing #6

All I can say is WOW! These libraries are doing some awesome things with web 2.0 technology. Some blogging, lots of RSS feeds and tons of podcasting. What impressed me most were the podcasts at the Seattle PL. They had author readings that lasted nearly an hour, teen poetry slam readings, and even professional librarian podcasts from an IFLA conference. This is one website I will go back to and listen to the casts. It opened up my mind about podcasts somewhat, because these were truly useful ones. I could imagine going to work listening to these author readings instead of my usual audiobooks.

Other things that impressed me were:

• Denver PL's podcasts of picture books. I wondered how they worked out the copyright issues, though.
• Denver PL's website's ability to download ebooks, audiobooks and movies from the patrons' home computers.
• PLCMC's over 40 RSS feeds for their various programs. I tried the teen one for a few days and was very impressed.
• Paying fines online at the PLCMC's website was also amazing. I know it's not strictly Web 2.0, but what a great service. Actually, I loved this library system's whole website. Everything that was popular was on the homepage and easy to find and use. Way to serve your patrons!

What did not impress me was the Ann Arbor District Library website based entirely on a blog. While I really liked the director's blog talking about programs and other library news, I'm not sure that it should have been the focus of the homepage.

Thing #5

I played with a bunch of Flickr mashups last Friday.

I looked at: Flickrslidr.com -- makes a slideshow of selected pictures, sets or groups.

PictoBrowser -- allows display of flickr pics on a site or blog.

Mosaica -- creates a screensaver with your flickr pictures that morphs into a changing mosaic.

PrintrKillr -- is supposed to create instant calendars or playing cards, but couldn't locate my flickr acct.

FlickrPostcard Browser -- This app finds pictures by tags, and puts them up one-at-a-time on a black background. Reminds me of an old time photo album. Maybe my favorite of all those I played with.

I also played around with Trading Card Maker. I used one of the picture of Sarah and her friends and made it into a playing card. It was very cool. I was trying to make one of myself using my Yahoo avatar, but couldn't quite get everything to work correctly.

I also joined some groups, but don't think I'll use this feature much. I rarely even look at my own photos, much less someone else's.

I joined:

Libraries and Librarians

Wellesley College

San Francisco Architecture

Thing #4

I played around on Flickr yesterday and uploaded some pictures of Sarah at college into my account. I made it private because it's only for our family and friends, and I can add them as they create accounts. It was suprisingly easy to use, and I was amazed how simple it was to upload pictures. I'm going to send the photos from our different summer trips up here, then they will be easy to share with friends.

Things #2 & #3

Done. I even got a nice note from someone at InfoPeople welcoming me to the project. I just went to the InfoPeople 23 Things Challenge main page and saw my blog added to the Blog roll. How official am I???

I just got my summer work schedule from the community college where I am an adjunct librarian. I want to be sure to mention this project when I email the director to let him know I'm pursuing my own professional development over the summer; especially since it's in an area the college is very interested in moving towards: emerging technologies and their impact on the library.

I've gotten way behind on posting, but hope to catch up this weekend.

Webcast: Web 2.0: What library managers need to know

I've decided to use this blog as a learning blog to help me reminder all the tools I'll be looking at in the next few weeks. I viewed Helene Blowers' webcast last night and was seriously impressed. I actually started taking notes so I wouldn't forget items I wanted to investigate later. I'm going to type my notes in here, so I can have access to them, one of the ideas suggested in the program.

Web 2.0

• collaborating and sharing information online.
• "harnessing the collective intelligence." Tim O'Reilly, who coined the term.

Wiki's

• Look at: http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/links/, the Blogging Libraries Wiki
• Use a Wiki for a subject guide
• Try a book lover wiki for book reviews linked from the library website
• Wiki's can "roll back" revisions made
• You can set up to get an email each time the wiki, or a part of it you designate, has been edited
• A wiki about how libraries are using wiki's - http://www.libsuccess.org/

RSS

• Really Simple Syndication
• Good tool to help stay on top of news and issues
• Need a newsreader to make this happen. Yahoo is the most popular one.
• Tecnorati.com can search the "blogosphere" to see if your library has been mentioned in anyone's blog

Podcasting

• Effective for marketing to teens
• Check the podcast page at http://www.libsuccess.org/

Social Networking

• MySpace, FaceBook, etc.
• Another good way to connect with teens
• Can create a teen MySpace page for your library. Has been successful for some libraries.
• You can create your own social network using Ning: http://library20.ning.com/

Blowers suggests becoming a Knowledge Player, who plays with emerging technologies without having to become an expert on them.

Five Tips

1. Play for 15 minutes each day
2. subscribe to a few blogs to stay current
3. Tag "Play" sites in your Delicious account
4. Create a learning blog. (HERE)
5. Play!!!

Suggested Blogs:

http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/ Librarian
in black: new tools and insights

http://www.wired.com/ : Wired.com news
feed: tech. news

http://www.web2learning.net/ What I
learned today: new tools

http://www.librarybytes.com/ Library
Bytes: Helene Blowers' blog

http://www.techcrunch.com/ Tech
Crunch: news on newest web 2.0 tools

Helene's delicious account for this presentation:

http://del.icio.us/Web4Managers?page=1