Thing #24 The Finish Line

Once I got around to putting the time and effort into this project, i really enjoyed it. I know that I won't regularly use most of the applications and websites that we learned about but some I will be integrating into my often viewed and used. I think that it was important to offer this program to all the people working at the library and with the public. These are the sites that people are most often using. Myspace may not be an "intellectual" site but its what I see the majority of people using when I am working. Its important that I at least have a general idea about what it is that people are asking about. Im sure Pete would love it if more staff were able to answer the computer based questions that he is often called upon to do. This was a great program and im thankful for all the time and effort you put into promoting it, Jerianne! Do I get my MP3 player now? ;)

Thing #23 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

I have used podcasts before so this was one of the easier exercises for me. The podcast.net site was not working so I moved to the next one down the list, podcastalley.com. I first tried to search for book reviews. There were loads. I narrowed down my search by choosing to search for my favorite books reviewed. I added two Harry Potter podcasts to my bloglines account. One was a smaller scale and required you to download the individual session. The second one I chose was mugglecast, run through the popular hp website, mugglenet. I have used this podcast before and really enjoy the ease of operation. As with anything else, though, once you get popular you are going to start using advertising. Its weird. you don't exactly expect a commercial and then, there it is. The podcast sites are extremely easy to navigate and you can find something on just about anything. As Ive mentioned before, I don't spend a ton of time on the computer but every so often i will tune in for an interview or special event.

Thing #22 Downloading audiobooks and videos

R.E.A.D.S. was actually my favorite thing that I discovered when I started working at the library. I listen to audiobooks all the time. I have spent a small fortune buying audiobooks over the last few years. Our program has a fantastic seletion of books. Just about every author that I have ever searched for has been in there. Sometimes you may have to wait a few weeks for your hold to come up but its not that big of a deal because you can have 10 checked out at one time. the only thing that i don't like about the program is that you cannot return the audiobooks until the two week period is up. ive had it happen a few times where Ive had a few holds come in while i still had 10 books out. I lost the holds and had to put new holds on them and wait again. Also, not all the the authors have burnable books. Nora Roberts (and her J.D. Robb series)is one of the authors whose books are burnable. I usually don't check out the books that can't be burned. I mostly listen to the books at my day job or in the car. An MP3 player will be helpful with that ;)

The MyLibraryDV program also looks pretty interesting. I would probably not use it as much as the READS program. The travel section was pretty extensive, though. I feel that through youtube and other video sites, most of what we have to offer is already available through alternate (and better known) sources. thats not to say that we shouldn't promote it. It just may be more difficult for us to get patrons using it.

Thing #21 continued

I got so excited that the video showed up where it was supposed to that I hit post without adding any text! Lol!

I have only ever added links to videos. I never knew how to send the whole thing. Very cool! I was not able to figure out how to add my blogger account to my youtube account. It kept telling me that my email address and password were not correct. They soooo were! Anyway, I used the embeddable player. I chose the video I did, essentially, because a friend of mine had recently sent it to me. It was the first thing that I thought of and it always makes me laugh. The man cold - so true!

You tube has several library oriented possibilities. Instructional videos are the first thing that come to mind. As mentioned in the 2.0 instructions, we've watched several of these over the last few weeks. I have found some to be very helpful and some, not at all. For instruction, I like the step by step, screen shot ones the best.

Thing #21 You Tube

Thing #20 Other Web 2.0 Tools

I have an ongoing love for travel. Those of you who were forced to view my daughter's brandy-new passport today already know that! So I chose the travel category and picked the third one down the list. The first two seemed more involved with finding the great travel deals. The third site, realtravel.com is oh, so very cool. First, you can research your different destinations all in one place. It has the hotels and restaurants and attractions, etc, etc that the other travel websites have but you don't have to bounce all over the place to find them. It also has the price comparing option for different airlines and hotels, again on the same page. The absolutely best part of the site, however, was the trip planner. It was so much like my spiral note book that I use once I start planning a trip! It enables you to throw all your destinations and ideas and information out there and then start putting it together in a doable itinerary. It even lets you build a route map so that you can figure out the best (most affordable, least timely, etc) way of planning where to go next. It has travel guide information that you can add from Frommers plus places to put advice from other internet users or notes and links from other websites. After you have finished (or as close to finished and organized as you can possibly get) you can simply email "the plan" to everybody else. Then you can make adjustments and add more stuff!! I was in heaven for a bit.

As far as the library goes, i don't think this will be an overly helpful tool. Beyond informing patrons of all the cool stuff they can do with it, that is.

I know you said to only pick one but I heard Tracy mention the pandora site the other day. I only had a vague idea of what that was so I checked that out as well. Im just starting to build up a song style list for myself but I am really enjoying it so far.

Thing #19 Social Networking

I love myspace! I have been using it now for about a year and a half. I also have a facebook account, although I do not use that as frequently. I like these sites, for myself, because they give me an opportunity to keep in touch with people that I would, otherwise, probably not. I no longer send regular emails to friends. I use one of these two websites. You can send short little catch ups without feeling bad for not sending a long, involved email. If something exciting happens, these sites allow you to let everybody know via blog or bulletin. It works the other way too. It gives you the chance to see whats going on in old friends' lives, etc. I know many people who use the sites for meeting new people. That aspect of it doesn't really appeal to me. I like the people I know now or the people I had forgotten that I had forgotten...the myspace stalkers actually spook me a bit. I also like the businesses, bands, authors that have pages. You get reminders or updates about only the things you added to your page. You don't get the blanket emails from different groups that you had once bought a ticket or book from. I think it would be a great idea for the library to generate a myspace page. Posting blogs and bulletins about special events is good marketing. Many people can be reached through their myspace pages that don't read the newspaper or see the flyers hanging in the elevator. I think its a great opportunity to reach more people. As I said before, I dont use facebook as much. I think it is geared toward a much younger crowd. It has a lot of really cool applications associated with it that just take up way too much time. These applications are geared toward meeting more people, etc, etc. All that said, I hate it for the kids having to grow up in a myspace society. I think there are a lot of social pressure and expectations involved with these networking sites, not to mention all the child predator safety issues that have been making the media lately.