Video, Podcasts, and Downloadable Audio
Video
YouTube is one of a number of sites, including Yahoo!Video and GoogleVideo and many others which offer a place to view, to upload, and to share videos; and at least some of them organize the videos into categories, which helps a lot. Besides a lot of silly videos, there were some beautiful nature videos as well as a disturbing one of police zapping someone with a taser in a library. Some YouTube categories are Comedy, Entertainment, Pets & Animals, News & Politics, Sports, Travel and Places, etc.
Podcasts
Three podcast directories at which I looked are Podcast.net, Podcastalley.com, and Yahoo Podcasts. On Podcast Alley, I found several good sites which relate to books, some which deliver reviews and/or author interviews, and some which deliver selections from books themselves.
Downloadable Audio
YPL's Digital Books page offers both e-books and audio books to be borrowed electronically. The page is user-friendly in that one can search by genre or subject or a collection as well as by author, title, or ISBN. It is great that so many titles are now offered in electronic format!
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Week 8
Web-based Apps
I looked at some online productivity tools (word processors, spreadsheets, presentations with slide shows) including Zoho Writer, Google Docs, Think Free, and gOffice. Some of the featured presentations given on Zoho Show had some incredible nature photos. The fact that one can do these kinds of applications online now is amazing.
I created a zoho account and tried out zoho writer and some of its associated tools (sheet, show, wiki, notebook, planner, creator, chat, and meeting). In zoho writer, I like the fact that it has a template library, a button to publish to blog, a button to share, and many other useful features.
Discovering Web 2.0 Tools
It was interesting to see that we have already explored many of the award winning sites on the short list of Web 2.0 award winners. I tried Pandora, but was disappointed that they don't have any classical music yet. Last.fm was more my style. Be Green Now, a philanthropy site also looks interesting.
From the category "City Guides & Reviews," I chose to explore Yelp, the first place winner in that category. Trying various cities, both large and small (from Pittsburgh to Volant, PA), I was surprised to find information even on the small towns. I liked having the categories to choose from, such as "Arts and Entertainment" and "Restaurants." The options to look at a map; see nearby businesses, hotels, parks, etc.; link to a business's web page; read and write reviews; bookmark; send to a friend or a phone; etc.; make this a very handy city guide site.
I looked at some online productivity tools (word processors, spreadsheets, presentations with slide shows) including Zoho Writer, Google Docs, Think Free, and gOffice. Some of the featured presentations given on Zoho Show had some incredible nature photos. The fact that one can do these kinds of applications online now is amazing.
I created a zoho account and tried out zoho writer and some of its associated tools (sheet, show, wiki, notebook, planner, creator, chat, and meeting). In zoho writer, I like the fact that it has a template library, a button to publish to blog, a button to share, and many other useful features.
Discovering Web 2.0 Tools
It was interesting to see that we have already explored many of the award winning sites on the short list of Web 2.0 award winners. I tried Pandora, but was disappointed that they don't have any classical music yet. Last.fm was more my style. Be Green Now, a philanthropy site also looks interesting.
From the category "City Guides & Reviews," I chose to explore Yelp, the first place winner in that category. Trying various cities, both large and small (from Pittsburgh to Volant, PA), I was surprised to find information even on the small towns. I liked having the categories to choose from, such as "Arts and Entertainment" and "Restaurants." The options to look at a map; see nearby businesses, hotels, parks, etc.; link to a business's web page; read and write reviews; bookmark; send to a friend or a phone; etc.; make this a very handy city guide site.
Week 7
This week, I read all about wikis, looked at quite a few, and added entries to Favorite Animals and Favorite Vacaton Spots on the Learning 2.0 SandBox wiki. Some things for which wikis could be used in libraries include book clubs, subject pathfinders, author pathfinders (if you like ---, then try ---, ---, and ---), announcing programs and getting feedback, sharing ideas between libraries on problems and practices, and more.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Week 6
Tagging, Folksonomies & Technorati
Del.icio.us
http://del.icio.us/
Delicious is a social bookmarking site which allows people to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize the bookmarks. Links to articles blogs, music, recipes, and more can be placed and accessed from any internet computer.
I opened a delicious account and added a few items and tagged them. This could be a useful tool to share information with a group as well as to access your own bookmarks from any internet computer.
Technorati
http://www.technorati.com/
Technorati is the leading search tool and authority for blogs, the leading monitor of the world of weblogs. It indexes the live web and searches blogs in real time. I was not too excited about this site, perhaps since I prefer to read more factual type material as opposed to primarily opinions.
Perspectives on Web 2.0, Library2.0, and the future of libraries
Yes, libraries are changing, and they are changing fast. The web is a huge part of libraries now, and thus the ideas from Web 2.0 are relevant to us. While integrating new ideas, we must be careful to change in ways that serve the community but not lose the essential qualities that make a library valuable.
Such activities, as mentioned in perspective #3 by Chip Nilges, as tagging and personal cataloging by non-professionals might be interesting, but could water down the accuracy or authority of the information if not presented carefully.
Having easily accessible web portals which integrate data from many sources, such as mentioned in perspective #4 by John J. Riemer, would be helpful for library users. That is definitely a trend that is currently in play. I did try WorldCat, and it appears that YPL is not currently in their database.
In perspective #5, the author, Dr. Wendy Schultz, seems to point to a future which goes through ever changing incarnations, with more and more technology usage, to finally returning to a quiet techno-free old fashioned country house library. Wouldn't it be great if the future could combine the best of both worlds?
Del.icio.us
http://del.icio.us/
Delicious is a social bookmarking site which allows people to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize the bookmarks. Links to articles blogs, music, recipes, and more can be placed and accessed from any internet computer.
I opened a delicious account and added a few items and tagged them. This could be a useful tool to share information with a group as well as to access your own bookmarks from any internet computer.
Technorati
http://www.technorati.com/
Technorati is the leading search tool and authority for blogs, the leading monitor of the world of weblogs. It indexes the live web and searches blogs in real time. I was not too excited about this site, perhaps since I prefer to read more factual type material as opposed to primarily opinions.
Perspectives on Web 2.0, Library2.0, and the future of libraries
Yes, libraries are changing, and they are changing fast. The web is a huge part of libraries now, and thus the ideas from Web 2.0 are relevant to us. While integrating new ideas, we must be careful to change in ways that serve the community but not lose the essential qualities that make a library valuable.
Such activities, as mentioned in perspective #3 by Chip Nilges, as tagging and personal cataloging by non-professionals might be interesting, but could water down the accuracy or authority of the information if not presented carefully.
Having easily accessible web portals which integrate data from many sources, such as mentioned in perspective #4 by John J. Riemer, would be helpful for library users. That is definitely a trend that is currently in play. I did try WorldCat, and it appears that YPL is not currently in their database.
In perspective #5, the author, Dr. Wendy Schultz, seems to point to a future which goes through ever changing incarnations, with more and more technology usage, to finally returning to a quiet techno-free old fashioned country house library. Wouldn't it be great if the future could combine the best of both worlds?
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Week 5
Online Image Generators
I looked at several online image generators, and I went ahead and created my very own Simpsons Avatar, Suzie Q. I also used the Gnome Name Generator, a text generator, to nimbly name my gnarly gnome. The links to these are: http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html and http://www.chimpage.com/gnome.html.
LibraryThing
It was exciting to create a LibraryThing account and start adding books, but since the free version ony holds 200 books, it will soon be overflowing. Maybe I should get the paid account...
Rollyo
I explored Rollyo, created an account, and rolled up some search tools. This could be useful in reference searches, for health news, for travel, and for other things as well.
I looked at several online image generators, and I went ahead and created my very own Simpsons Avatar, Suzie Q. I also used the Gnome Name Generator, a text generator, to nimbly name my gnarly gnome. The links to these are: http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html and http://www.chimpage.com/gnome.html.
LibraryThing
It was exciting to create a LibraryThing account and start adding books, but since the free version ony holds 200 books, it will soon be overflowing. Maybe I should get the paid account...
Rollyo
I explored Rollyo, created an account, and rolled up some search tools. This could be useful in reference searches, for health news, for travel, and for other things as well.
Week 4
For this week, I set up a Bloglines newsreader account, read about RSS feeds, and added some library news feeds (such as Librarians' Internet Index: New This Week and Library Journal - Tennant: digital Libraries) and regular news feeds (such as BBC News and CNN.com) to my blogline account.
I liked Bloglines' simple setup to search for feeds. The clear organization of Topix.net and Feedster were useful, also.
I liked Bloglines' simple setup to search for feeds. The clear organization of Topix.net and Feedster were useful, also.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Week 3
Having some Flickr fun, I discovered so many useful features, and I especially liked all of the organizing and limiting features.
Who said that mashups were just for potatoes? The Pixels to Penguins is an interesting site, but the music is just plain wierd!
Some of the coolest technologies out there, not really related to Flickr, but definitely related to images, are the mapping technologies. I love the ease with which we can now plan automobile trips using mapquest. Really fascinating are the sattelite maps found on various sites (mapquest, google, yahoo, etc.), and the options for street map/sattelite map hybrids. Checking out our library, we could see each individual car parked in the lot!
Who said that mashups were just for potatoes? The Pixels to Penguins is an interesting site, but the music is just plain wierd!
Some of the coolest technologies out there, not really related to Flickr, but definitely related to images, are the mapping technologies. I love the ease with which we can now plan automobile trips using mapquest. Really fascinating are the sattelite maps found on various sites (mapquest, google, yahoo, etc.), and the options for street map/sattelite map hybrids. Checking out our library, we could see each individual car parked in the lot!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Week 2
Setting up a blog was amazingly easy! Now that I have one, it will be interesting to find out all the things that one can do with it. Since Barb left me a comment, I checked out her blog, and it is so complex and fantastic! Go Barb!
Lifelong learning is not a foreign concept to me. I have gone back to school several times after earning my bachelor's degree for formal learning, but my informal learning continues all the time as I read, travel, discuss, and explore new things and ideas.
Of the 7 1/2 habits of highly successful lifelong learners, I don't know which would be the hardest, but the easiest would have to be playing! Of course, it is frustrating when the computer suddenly freezes up while you are trying something or when it takes three tries to make it do what you want, but usually, experimenting with new things is fun.
Lifelong learning is not a foreign concept to me. I have gone back to school several times after earning my bachelor's degree for formal learning, but my informal learning continues all the time as I read, travel, discuss, and explore new things and ideas.
Of the 7 1/2 habits of highly successful lifelong learners, I don't know which would be the hardest, but the easiest would have to be playing! Of course, it is frustrating when the computer suddenly freezes up while you are trying something or when it takes three tries to make it do what you want, but usually, experimenting with new things is fun.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Week 1
This new program, Learning 2.0, sounds like it will be a lot of fun and a painless education in new uses of the computer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
