Outer Banks Mustangs #2

Outer Banks Mustangs #2 a photo by Photo Geek on Flickr.

going on vacay...want to see the wild horses

My beautiful bike and helmet

My beautiful bike and helmet
Originally uploaded by librarybooksmovies

Still practicing....now, I'm send Flickr pictures to my blog and twitter and then twitter sends to Facebook. Cool.

This is not the end....

I surprised myself and learned so much and really enjoyed all the exercises for the CTLS 23 things.

My favorites things on this learning journey were: learning how to Blog (easier than I thought) and I even started a new one!; getting turned on to Flickr....I love good photography; playing with Freerice.com, discovering Pandora.com for music, Google Docs (just started to learn all it can do along with Zoho writer) and Google reader.

This program helped me realize that you're never too old to learn. But most importantly, it reminded me that learning can be fun and not stressful. I could be a bit frustrated at times with my limited knowledge, but I got better and better as I went along.

It surprised me that people are really using computers to socialize. There is more interaction and communication between people. It seems that people want to reach out to people and it is easier to do with a computer. If I don't want to be left behind and if I want to understand what all the young people are into to, then this program has helped to keep me informed.

I don't know if there is anything that could have been done differently. I respond very well in self-study programs without pressure to keep up with others. I was not able to do this program at work, because I needed to concentrate more fully. Consequently, I spent quite a bit of time at home working on the exercises.

And lastly, I would love to participate in another program. I loved the opportunity to learn and when presented with a well-thought out planned program that could be done by anyone at any level without pressure, then sign me up!

The Wide World of Audiobooks

In exploring the catalog of ebooks on Librivox, I noticed that there are books of public domain, meaing published prior to 1923. I've read all of the Jane Austen books and maybe I could revisit some Edith Wharton. I guess I mostly read best sellers, so sue me. I could see me suggesting to students who come into the library looking to read a book on their summer AP list that, since we don't have it available, they could download it and read it or better yet have someone read it to them. Lazy slugs that they are.

I checked out podiobooks.com and found a juicy crime book with disclaimers about language and violence. Now this was way more interesting in a perverted kind of way.

With iTunes, the whole process is much easier in that you can go directly into the iTunes store and search for Librivox and voila, there are several audiobooks to choose from in podcast style as in the last lesson. Then I could sync my iPod and away I'd go.

In listening to the very informative way to use NetLibrary, I gathered that my iPod wouldn't work and I am so glad that I will be getting an MP3 player soon!!!!

Podcasts and vidcasts...who knew?

I went to Podcast.com first. I was able to browse the podcast collections and selected 3 categories to try: food, music, and books. I loved the video cast about preparing chicken wings. I can actually make supper tonight following what I learned. Because I am in charge of ordering music for the library, I liked the music podcast area. I could listen to new music and decide if I want to order it for the library. In the book area, I was able to hear a few intros to new books. Kronos sounded intriguing.

Now I have an Ipod and have been using it to place my music from CDs on it. It never occurred to me to try going to the music store part of it and ordering up a podcast. It was easy and free and I took advantage of some Comedy Central podcasts to give me a few laughs.

I looked at the Seattle Public Library web page teen section and liked the idea of putting a podcast there for patrons to listen to what is happening at the library. I could see the use of doing that on our Web page and since most teens have access to MP3 and etc. they could subscribe to our podcast. Something to think about and implement perhaps.

I also tried the Educational Podcast Directory and I listened to several podcasts there. Again very helpful and places I could direct patrons to research subjects they are working on.

Youtube and all it can do

I've enjoyed and learned so much from YouTube. I seem to recall that some of the 23 things included clips from YouTube to help to teach a certain web tool. Well, we could use some of the teaching clips from YouTube right on our web page or at least have YouTube sites available that teach certain library skills. I found one about How to do an Advance book search on Google Book Search. This is the link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAJ8x3JrD1Y

I'm liking Discovering Web 2.0 tools

I tried Backpackit.com for organization. Since I am in charge of everyone's schedules at the library, I thought I could use one spot for all my needs. I can keep track of everyone's upcoming events, create a page for any project with lists to check off, texts, images and files for everyone to share. The down point is that it is free for only 30 days.

I must mention another Web tool that I will love. It is Pandora Radio. Since I am also in charge of ordering music for the library, I can listen to any genre and artist or song to determine if I want to order it. It is a very interesting site since you can invite others to place the kind of the music they like. I could ask my staff to use this and then I can have an idea of the music they want me to order.

I wish I had tons of time to play and play and play with all the tools. There are only so many hours in one day. Gosh darn.

Learning (or at least trying to figure out) how to use Web-based Apps

Well, I titled my last two entries as "Sandbox" because I was indeed playing and up to my eyeballs in sand. I did finally get Zoho writer to share to other emails. The things that I got frustrated about, was that it was not easy to figure out how to do that. Also, I uploaded a document that I had on my desktop in Zoho docs but couldn't figure out how to share that. The one thing that Zoho writer had over Google docs was that I could publish straight to my blog.

The bottom line is that I didn't know any of this stuff existed before tonight. So...needless to say, I am tickled pink to know that I could use Web-based apps to save, share, and publish. And of course, this will help in letting me get to all my documents without carrying around my flash drive.

sandbox

Web-based Apps

I tried Google docs and zoho writer and I found Google Doc so much easier to use.  I still can't figure out how to share my document using Zoho.  It may be cuz it's way to late for me to be up trying to figure this stuff out.  I did (probably accidentally) figure out how to publish one sentence to my blog using Zoho writer, so I guess I am now writing to my blog expressing my experience using web apps.  I will try to figure Zoho out later when I am more awake.  But Google Doc is much, much more user friendly.  I think it will be great for me to put all my documents on the web and take them wherever I go without using my flash drive as I do now.  And it will be great to share them when I need to and have the recipient make any corrections.  This is really a great way to save and share documents.

sandbox

This is my simple document.  read and make corrections

Playing around with PBWiki

I jumped head first into the sandbox. It took a while but I finally figured out how to post to the Wiki and create a new page and link to another blog . I am of the school of try and try again. It was easy to create a login at CTLS 23 Things Favorite wiki. I went to the Favorite Blog page and added my blog. It took me a while to enter it as a title of a blog and not the whole URL. Back at the sandbox, I was able to meet the challenge and create a separate page for Favorite Vacation Spot and even included a link to my favorite blog [http://parisdailyphoto.com | ParisDailyPhoto ]
I'm really starting to enjoy myself and that's because I've always loved to learn new things.

I actually feel ready to try to create my own wiki for our family reunion.

Wikis

I can see that there are many library wikis out there. Since I have never participated in using one this is all very new to me, although I have been using Wikipedia for some time now. Now, I don't contribute to it, though and I am not sure how one goes about doing that. At any rate I can see the application for communicating ideas, maybe doing book reviews, sharing ideas and knowledge. I suppose I could read more and then try to contribute.

Technology trends for a 2.0 world

I just finished reading the article from Library Technology reports. I guess I have been fairly insulated in my world and maybe my age has a lot to do with it. The idea that I could appear on Youtube, perhaps through a not so nice encounter with a disgruntled patron never crossed my mind. The idea of librarians going ga-ga with a new Iphone sounds weird. However, I like the idea of a blog whereby the patrons could really bring about discussions about books they want or services they want seemed intriguing. I loved the idea of having a community care about either pictures I post on Flickr or thoughts in my blog. I just started scratching the surface of LibraryThing and I am thinking I could really use this either in my discussion about books with patrons or in my own search for good reads or even to help me when I catalog.

Learning Technorati

I had already claimed my blog at Technorati a few days back and a few "things" back. I tried searching for blogs but I could only do it by Blog Directory. I did search the popular blogs and selected the first one as a favorite. I was able to tag my blog and place a Technorati tag on my blog for others to select my blog as a favorite. Well, I tried it for myself. In searching for "library 2.0", I discovered 6,196 blogs. As usual, I'm not quite sure I'm doing things right. I can find my blog in Technorati but can anyone else?

Delicious

So, I set my computer up with Delicious and yes, I can see how wonderful it will be for my bookmarks to follow me around wherever I go. I love tagging things and using this later to find things. I like the idea of the tag cloud with the larger letters being where people go most or at least the more popular sites.
I tried clicking on a bookmark used by the most users and I noticed the tags they used. It was't an area of interest for me, but I can see the benefit.

Playing games on a Saturday night

I tried out Bookworm which I had stumbled upon some time ago. It is addicting. For a competitive game I played Lexulous against the Robot. And then I played Free Rice.

I am absolutely hooked on Free Rice. The learning aspect is wonderful, but then add the fact that you are feeding the hungry makes it extra special. I emailed my daughter to get her into it to. I like the brain stimulating aspect of all three games that I played. Talk about fighting senility. Of the three, Free Rice gets my vote. I love the fact that you can hear the word pronounced. So everyone that reads this blog should go right now to http://freerice.com/ and commence playing. Now can someone tell me how to stop?

Social networking (aka MySpace and Facebook)

About a year ago my daughter helped me set up a MySpace account cuz that's what happens when you get old. Anyway, it lay dormat all this time. I woke it up and low and behold, I must be learning cuz it wasn't hard to get around. Hopefully, I invited CTLS and I did figure out how to send a link from MySpace blog to my blog here. However, I decided to give Facebook a try and when I tried to blog there, it said I was in some sort of violation(spamming?) and I just hit the create note button and I hadn't even written anything. So, I hate Facebook. I like the music aspect of MySpace and I list to some Celtic chic that sang like an angel. ooh hoooo.

my space blog

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=251659025

RSS

It was pretty easy to subscribe to 3 feeds in Google Reader. Then adding them to my blog was also fairly easy. Am I getting smarter?? I picked a library comic strip , CNN, and a fashion feed. Nothing really appeals to me but I can see the benefit of just reading current stuff and all.