Well it has definitely been a journey. I had a slow start as I was dealing with pregnancy related fatigue (poor me, lol). Of the activities, I found RSS feeds the most difficult to get my head around. But through the whole thing, I actually found blogging about my discoveries hardest of all. I think this got easier once I started to enjoy the activities.
I think most participants would agree that whether or not they would use all of these tools again, they are valuable for us to know, so that we can pass the knowledge to our patrons. I think it is becoming increasingly important for library staff to keep abreast of internet resources.
Many, many thanks to Lynette and Leslie for giving us this opportunity.
Friday, November 2, 2007
#22 Audiobooks
Ummm, okay, have I missed something? There are not many titles here, and I am not really interested in what they have. I also tried to search for ebooks through the World eBook fair site, and I don't like the search function - it searches through the whole text, not by title or author. Of course, you can go into their collections one by one and look there... maybe if I was a librarian I would be able to search this site more effectively.
On the other hand, the subscription services mentioned (Netlibrary and Overdrive) would be very useful for our library to have. We have several patrons who are avid book lovers, but whose eyesight limits them to talking books. Our collection simply isn't big enough. Giving them access to books on the web would greatly improve our service to them.
On the other hand, the subscription services mentioned (Netlibrary and Overdrive) would be very useful for our library to have. We have several patrons who are avid book lovers, but whose eyesight limits them to talking books. Our collection simply isn't big enough. Giving them access to books on the web would greatly improve our service to them.
#21 Podcasts, smodcasts
I have added a podcast from podcast.net called The Book Show, broadcast by the ABC. I found this by doing a search for the word 'Australia'. I found searching for 'library' brought up too many US library sites, though I know that there is a lot to be gained by looking at other libraries innovations, this program included.
I also added some podcasts of personal interest to me, including celtic folk music, and learning Greek. I was going to delete my Bloglines account after this program had finished, but now I can't!!
I found podcast.net to be the best of the three sites listed (though I did have to install itunes to make it work). When you do a search a lot of info about that podcast comes up in the first screen, rather than having to go and investigate each and every result of your search. Yahoo was the worst for this.
Like YouTube, podcasts would be a great learning tool for use in the library - now if only we can convince patrons to use headphones!
I also added some podcasts of personal interest to me, including celtic folk music, and learning Greek. I was going to delete my Bloglines account after this program had finished, but now I can't!!
I found podcast.net to be the best of the three sites listed (though I did have to install itunes to make it work). When you do a search a lot of info about that podcast comes up in the first screen, rather than having to go and investigate each and every result of your search. Yahoo was the worst for this.
Like YouTube, podcasts would be a great learning tool for use in the library - now if only we can convince patrons to use headphones!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
#20 YouTube
Woohoo! A web tool that I already use! I love YouTube. It's easy to search, and in case you haven't got your search tag right, it shows you related videos, and others by the same user. Not all of my colleagues will yet know that I am pregnant, so I've been using YouTube to look at pregnancy related videos. The one above I found while comparing reviews on prams. This is the pram we want, with the seat taken off. Very cute!
I have also really enjoyed the Commoncraft videos that have been discovery tools in previous Learning 2.0 activities. A few times I have understood the webtool, but really not understood why you would bother using it. These videos have made all the difference, and as a learning tool within the library would be very useful.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools
The site I looked at was www.yelp.com, under the heading City Guides and Reviews. I wasn't going to go for a winning site, but I was interested in the idea. Basically it is a site where people can review the services, businesses, events, etc. in their area. Unfortunately, it is only within the United States at the moment.
What a good idea though! It would be great if there was something like this for our locality. Any sites that I have seen about the area are either from a council view, for prospective residents, or from the local tourism folk.
To have something that residents can add to would be great. I still can't say definitively what the best restaurants in my area are, because we don't eat out very often, so when we do, it's hit and miss. To the best of my knowledge there are no local restaurant reviews.
Same with trades and services. Last year when we needed a new fence, we just picked a few people out of the phone book to give us quotes, based purely on...intuition? randomness? Same with mechanics - we tried a few local ones which we weren't happy with, and ended up going back to the one we knew outside of our area. It would be so handy if there was a site we could go to with people's recommendations (or not, as the case may be).
This would also be something I would regularly point people to in the library. We get a lot of people asking for local business information, and as I don't live where I work, I am generally clueless. I think I have already illustrated how much I know about the area where I do live.
What a good idea though! It would be great if there was something like this for our locality. Any sites that I have seen about the area are either from a council view, for prospective residents, or from the local tourism folk.
To have something that residents can add to would be great. I still can't say definitively what the best restaurants in my area are, because we don't eat out very often, so when we do, it's hit and miss. To the best of my knowledge there are no local restaurant reviews.
Same with trades and services. Last year when we needed a new fence, we just picked a few people out of the phone book to give us quotes, based purely on...intuition? randomness? Same with mechanics - we tried a few local ones which we weren't happy with, and ended up going back to the one we knew outside of our area. It would be so handy if there was a site we could go to with people's recommendations (or not, as the case may be).
This would also be something I would regularly point people to in the library. We get a lot of people asking for local business information, and as I don't live where I work, I am generally clueless. I think I have already illustrated how much I know about the area where I do live.
#18 Web-based Apps
Created my account with Zoho, made a few documents. As I am already familiar with Word, it was pretty easy to figure out, having a similar format. It's not something I would use regularly, as most documents I create are personal (as opposed to business) ones.
However, occasionally I do make some of my documents available for the perusal of others, and it's really good to know that Zoho is available.
However, occasionally I do make some of my documents available for the perusal of others, and it's really good to know that Zoho is available.
Monday, October 29, 2007
#17 Playing around with PBWiki
Good to put the last activity into action. I had a hard time adding my blog because of the erroneous bracket thing. Reading my email put me on the right track, lol.
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