Week 9 - 23

Well, I never thought I would finish it - at some stages the thought of having to create another account on yet another site was enough to make me scream. But have discovered lots of websites that I didn't know existed, some of which I loved like flickr and some of which i hated e.g. syndic8. Have also found out things like blogging, exporting videos or photo's is much easier than I thought and more fun (when it works).

At the very least I will now know what some of our customers are talking about even thought I won't be able to contribute much - which is more than I could do before.

Week 9 - 22

Have never really looked at the e-book collection the library has and was surprised to discover all the student resources it has - specifically the cliff notes. Will have to remember this the next time a student asks about them.

When you search I like the list of related topics that comes up so you can look at them as well, and how you can rank the search e.g newest first.

Interesting to see some children's books in the collection, but did not see anything I really wanted to read. Would prefer to get away from a computer screen when reading for enjoyment.

Week 9 -21

Podcasts - I found this initially confusing as I couldn't think of anything to search for, but eventually just had a look around podcast.net and podcastalley.com. I found podcastalley easier to use and particularly liked the short summaries of what the podcasts were about when you double clicked on the titles - helped make a decision about whether you wanted to go any further. There was a large number of book review sites, and was interested to see that quite a few public libraries have podcasts - maybe the way of the future.

Week 9 - 20

You tube - brilliant idea and like most sites it's what you make of it. I like the way it can give exposure to things you would never see or hear otherwise from creative people. The sites organisation is relatively easy to follow. It's amazing to think that so many (or so few) people watch the same video you do.

Problems however with the slow speed of downloading the clips - and the way they load and play for approx 20 seconds and then stop which leads to massive impatience - it was easier to do something else and then replay the video clip when it finished loading.

Had fun checking out some of the suggested You Tube videos - liked the library dominoes one - especially some of the comments, and Conan the librarian (I have Conan wish moments).

Eventually found a video with music by a band I like Antony and the Johnsons to add to my blog. Hard to choose.

Week 8 -19

I chose Zillow - just because I liked the name. It's an American real estate site. It's layout is very clear with lots of white space and it is easy to navigate around, with pop up explanations if you need them. Has discussion boards about lots of different topics users can contribute to and estimates of house values.

They have nifty little features like zoom in maps, comparison graphs, historical trends, "make me move" etc. Also the usual annoying things like ads - but you can easily ignore them if you want to.

It also allows you to see how the other half live as you gaze at houses that cost $39,500,000.

Application in a library setting? Not really - unless you have a customer who is moving to the U.S. and then it has great info. However good for curiosity value - which is part of a libraries service.

Week 8 - 18

Have decided to try and export my document to my blog, while trying out some of the features. Underline,coloured words,different background colours, - a lot of the features are very ms wordy, but they give you a much bigger choice for a blog. Also seems to be easier to use then ms word or maybe it is just familiarity with the icons etc that make it seem that way.

I had no idea things like zoho or googledocs existed on the internet so it has been a real learning experience - I can see how things like tags could be really useful in finding and sorting documents.

Week 7 - 17

Was surprised I was nervous editing the page - am quite happy editing and messing around with my own pages - but the responsibility of changing a page that I hadn't created and others use seemed to put more pressure on - but it was so easy.. so all that anxiety for no reason! Always interesting to see what other people are in to.

Week 7 - 16

I guess the most interesting part to me was the idea that it is a participatory forum where anyone can add information about a subject, so communication is driven by the people using the site (with all of the good and bad points this can entail). Democracy in action.

Libraries can use it in different ways - giving their customers and community a focus and voice, which in turn makes the libraries more valuable to the users. Within libraries it can act as an easy forum for staff to exchange ideas and experience both internally and externally. My only question about this is whether people will use it or is it another form of communication overload?

Week 6 -15

Library and web 2.0 - well that was interesting, although how much will actually occur is pretty open to debate. Most sound like descriptions of the writers particular utopia, which as we all know doesn't often translate into reality due to money, politics, people etc. It also may not apply to a lot of people who just aren't that into computers except when they have to be. I often think people who write articles about libraries obsess about how libraries have to be super relevant and super connected to everyone - when no organization is everything to everyone.

Still, anyone can dream and it can lead to innovation and great ideas... I liked "to a temporary place in time" 's cycle of libraries and trends and loved the video about web 2.0.

Week 6 - 14

Technorati - tried the suggested keyword search for "Learning 2.0"

Blog posts - 4842 results... hmm lots of people doing the learning 2.0 program, some twitter thing and other unrelated stuff.

Tags - 107 results.. you could browse for a long time looking at these musings about everything from Radiohead to learning theories to the library 2.0 program

Blog directory - 345 results - more library learning stuff - more focused if that is what you are looking for.

Post searching gets the highest number of results and then it seems to get more focused as you go down to the tags and directory. Also results change continually - I guess that is the speed of the Internet and the high user numbers of Technorati. Would have to use it a lot more before coming to any real conclusions about it.

Week 6 - 13

Del.icio.us was a bit mind boggling - had a look at a topic (for mapr) that 643 people had bookmarked and at some of the comments under user notes - short explanations on use or what they thought of it. Checked out the cloud and the list of tags ( and the sorting options) - interesting to see how many tags were repeated (25 in total) in the list. Great idea if you are not sure what to call your tag and also to follow the links to see what else is out there. Good for research - people think in different ways and it allows you to explore resources you might not of found yourself - or just lets you get pleasantly sidetracked.

Week 4 - 9

Sorry this is a bit out of order as I forgot to do this.

Tried some of the links.Feedster would be o.k if you knew exactly what you were looking for. Topix seemed more organized and user friendly. Syndic8 - very open with some very dubious content - don't think I would look at it again.

Technorati had a cool aspect with the continuously changing stories and the "mention by day" graphs when you search.

All and all though information overload to the extent I don't think I would use them.

Perused the net and checked out some interesting sites including slash.dot, and arts and letters daily. Generally- it is easy to recognize where RSS feeds are - if not an icon on the home page is usually under subscription or something similar.

Week 5 - 12

Rollyo - Initially I found this confusing and did not really see the point to it. Then I tried a couple of the examples and realized it is your own mini search engine that searches for items from your pre-selected sites. It suddenly seemed of much more use. More efficient and faster than looking at hundreds of sites on the internet.

Could be limiting in some ways if you don't review and update your sites regularly.

http://www.rollyo.com/learn/

Week 5 - 11

Library Thing - another interesting site to play around with. After I added my books had a look at some of the links that came up with the selections but hadn't heard of any of the books/authors. I think I would rather wander around in a library or book shop and make my own choices.

Rather than adding a link have added my book shelf to the blog on the right. Learning about page elements and html from the image generator helped a lot with this..

Week 5 - 10

Image generator -wasn't that interested in the ones on the ACL site so found one by searching on google and had an interesting time altering colours and other effects.


Tried to download to blog and had problems - a colleague had to help me by going into the template - page elements - Html and then it worked. I would never have figured it out by myself. (image on right hand side).

Week 4 - No 8

RSS feeds are valuable if you want/need to keep up to date with the latest developments in your field e.g the shelved librarian if you are interested in what other libraries/librarians are trying; or outside of work just to the latest gossip, trends etc. It can make you feel connected to a wider environment than the one you exist in.

It may also lead to information overload - where you are looking at feeds for no reason other that they are there and they become a distraction and hinderance rather than a help- who has that much spare time?

One's I've added include salon and arts and daily letters.

My link is:http://www.bloglines.com/public/learn

Week 3 - No 7

Technology can be boon or a bane to people's lives and is often a combination of the two. My cell phone has altered my life by making me suddenly available to people at any time. Not a change I am entirely happy with so I frequently have it on silent so it doesn't ring and I can screen the calls and answer them when I feel like it. (which makes this as well as texting my favourite part of my mobile).

Week 3 - No 6

Was interested to look at some of the flickr applications . I was paticularly taken by the retreivr site where you can draw an image, choose different colours and it will bring up photos that resemble your (in my case very amateur)sketch. It's fun to play around with.

The photo on the right is one my drawing resembled.

From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503154622@N01/75331271

Week 3 No 5

Have enjoyed looking around flickr - their are some amazing photographs on the site. With the help of a colleague have also managed to download a photograph from it that I like. I have been worried about copyright issues with some of the photos - to download or not to - but some have icons so you can check whether it's permissable or not.

This photo is from The Bees photostream and Headwater Arts Festival 2007
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebees/1465077979

Week 2 - Thing 4

It was the first time I had seen Bebo - but how interesting it is probably dependent on your age. It's more for teenagers discussing their lives rather than anyone else. Slightly disturbing in it's openess and the implications this can have. Saw the ACL profile. http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MID=367137231&MemberId=4428799413

My Space - like the video aspect but can't imagine spending a long time looking at it unless specifically looking for something.

Facebook - a more grown up version of Bebo with better safety provisions for users.

1st post

Hi

This is the first time I have posted any comments or even looked at a blog - so it has been an interesting experience - much easier then I would have guessed. Changing colours / font sizes / templates always interests me in any format and I tend to spend too much time choosing the one I like the best. The first font colour was green - too difficult to read so have been experimenting. Too many choices sometimes means too much procrastination, unless under time constraints.