Quest 11 - Online Apps

Well, this is pretty neat!  I checked out the Template Library and they have templates for everything from resumes to petition forms to gift certificates - all for free and online!  I am familiar with Google Docs just from helping patrons with their Gmail accounts but I hadn't heard of Zoho before.  Considering the cost of the Microsoft Office Suite, this is a great option.  There are so many options for your documents in Zoho as well. 

 

Just playing around - here's a picture of my three fat, tailless cats:

 

 

I tried to post a photo from my Flickr account but I couldn't get just the picture without the descriptions and comments and border.  I also had to edit my photo for size before I placed it in this document because I couldn't figure out how to resize it after I added it (although the photo icon does say insert/modify) and it was huge!  I'll have to play around with that some more.  I am going to use the "publish" option to send this post to my blog.

 

 

Quest 9 - Wikis

I enjoyed this quest about wikis. I went this past spring to see the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, speak at Converse College. Many questions at the end of his talk were about the authority and accuracy of the entries. He was quick to point out that he never intended Wikipedia to be used as a reference source. However, most of the entries are written by people who are experts in that area. I would never use Wikipedia as a research paper source but it is a good place to begin research since there usually are links to articles and other sites that could be used for sources. I find myself using it often just to satisfy a simple question I may have had or to find other websites for the information I need.
Anyway, back to this quest. I noticed on a couple of the library wikis that a user had to have a login or password to be able to edit the wiki - just like on Tech Trek's wiki. This is a great way to ensure that the information on a wiki is what was intended. I think it would be great to have a Recommended Reading wiki or a Things to do in Charleston wiki attached to CCPL's website. Maybe it's editing could be limited to those who have a library card. I also liked the pathfinder wikis. What a great way to go to one place on the net to find answers for reference patrons instead of rummaging through the vertical file!

Quest 8 - Social Networking

First of all, I have to admit that I do not have a social networking page. However, I have been thinking more and more about starting one. I guess my excuse was that I thought 30 was too old for social networking, but after reading some of the articles and knowing that most people at work have one, I've found that they are used by all ages. I am most familiar with Myspace - I admit I've gone on it to look up old friends and classmates. It is interesting to see where people are today!
I checked out all of the sites listed on the Tech Trek blog. Bebo ran really slow - it took forever to get from page to page. Maybe it was just when I happened to be looking at it. Besides that, it was pretty interesting. It was definitely British though - I kept seeing the word "realise!" I checked out a video and could see where someone could waste hours just going from video to video! I could definitely tell that Friendster isn't being used as much as before. I looked up a friend who I know has a page there and she hasn't posted or had any messages since 2003. She has since gone to Myspace. I looked at Linkedin but like the blog said, there is not much exploring that can be done. Anytime I tried to get further into someone's profile, I get to a screen asking me to login. It is an interesting idea though but it seems geared more toward those in corporate positions. Like Linkedin, Facebook also won't let you do much exploring without registration. The one thing Facebook mentions in its "About" section is that Facebook is all private. Only confirmed friends can see profiles. This would be good for people who are concerned about internet privacy. Of course, I have played around on Myspace. One thing I have noticed is that more and more bands are using it as their website. Lately, for a lot of bands, if you go to their website, it will just direct you to Myspace to get more information on tours, etc. I guess since Myspace is getting so ubiquitous, it is just easier to have the information in the place where most people would look for it.
I think social networking is a great idea for libraries. As more people use these Web 2.0 technologies, the more they will be expecting for libraries to use them as well. One question I have is who would be the one keeping up with it? I think it would have to become a joint effort in order for it to work.

Quest 7 - Flickr

Here are some pictures from Mt. Pleasant Regional - Elizabeth, Zack, and Jenn. I found Flickr very easy and user-friendly. There are so many things you can do with your Flickr account and with your photos. I enjoyed exploring the Flickr site and thought that some of the pictures in the "Interestingness" section were really cool - http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/2007/10/.

Quest 6 - Del.icio.us and Technorati

Del.icio.us
I am familiar with tags and even did some in the DISCUS class I took at the TLC. Del.icious is one of those sites I keep coming across and I've actually gone to it before just to check it out. I signed up for an account this time although I've only bookmarked four sites. I can see how it would make organizing hundreds of sites easy through the use of tags. The most fun I had was doing searches and finding different sites tagged by other users. I found two I really liked - a list of 140+ different search engines and free internet radio through http://www.pandora.com/ - which I added to my bookmarks there. I've learned about different search and metasearch engines in my classes but I feel like I still always use Google so I bookmarked this so I could start using others. The radio site is neat because it builds a radio station around a particular band/artist or song. Pretty cool! Anyway, del.icio.us must be popular with librarians because I looked at the popular and recent saves and noticed many library-oriented sites. I guess it makes sense seeing as del.icio.us is about organizing information!


Technorati
So, I checked out Technorati and did the three searches of "library 2.0" in keyword, tag, and blog. The keyword search was definitely not as refined as the other two. In fact, I did the search as an exact phrase and even tried putting quotation marks around it but it would bring up posts with just "library" or just "2.0" which I thought was strange. For me, I liked the tag and blog directory searches the best because the number of posts and blogs brought up was smaller and they definitely had library 2.0 as their subject matter. I went in the the FAQs (I had to go through the Help menu to find it) and looked up Authority and found out the Authority number equals the number of sites that link to a blog. However, when I clicked on the Authority for one of the Library 2.0 blogs, the first page of its Authority links were for Cialis, ringtones, Zoloft, etc. Now this wasn't the case with all of them because I checked out a few more, but this blog had an Authority of 119, well above some others, and it seems strange that these sites were considered "authoritative". Besides this, I do like this site. A search engine dedicated specifically to blogs is a good idea and I like it better than Google's blog search. In a search of Popular, I wasn't surprised to find that the top blogs were about, what else? - blogs! I had to check out www.boingboing.net because it is Technorati's most popular blog. Strange but fascinating!

Quest 5 - Fun!

Quest 4 - RSS

Well, I just set up my Bloglines account with a bunch of RSS feeds. I must admit that, at first, I didn't really see the point in signing up for these feeds since I normally just save these sites that I am interested in to My Favorites. However, I started remembering the times that I go to a friend's AOL journal when it turns out he hasn't added anything recently. Or, I check out a blog I like to read and find out there are no new posts. Using Bloglines, I'll be able just to check all of this in one place. Then I got more into it and signed up for a bunch of things! Rolling Stone has a number of feeds and I chose the ones for album and movie reviews. I also subscribed to a feed for a recipe site that will show the newest recipes coming in. This would be great if CCPL as a whole or the separate branches had this function.

I had one problem in signing up for the feed for one of the blogs because it kept coming up that I already had a feed for it - maybe it was just because they both used Blogger? Anyway, instead of copying the short cut on the RSS symbol, I just put the actual blog address in and it worked. All in all, I was pleased with this Quest since I wasn't expecting much at first.

My Bloglines url: http://www.bloglines.com/public/jenbell

Quest 3 - IM

Wow, I haven't posted in a long time. Hopfully I'll be able to do some catching up in the next few days. I'm tempted to blame school but I am having an incredibly easy semester so I can't really do that!

Anyway, on to IMing. I downloaded Windows Live Messenger from MSN and did some IMing with Ty. We used to use ICQ for instant messaging about six or seven years ago. It was such a novelty at the time and we really liked being able to have nearly real-time conversations with faraway friends. We eventually got out of the habit though and I haven't used it much since. Becky from Main Reference worked at our branch for a few days a couple of months ago and showed me CCPL's IM Reference. I think that is a great use of this technology. What a simple and convenient way for patrons to get the information they want!

I was surprised at how much has changed. Instead of just a little box with black text, users can now personalize with display pictures, different fonts, colors, emoticons, and more. There are even games you can invite your IM friends to play with you. Ty and I played Rock, Paper, Scissors. I kept losing - I thought that was a game of chance! Here is my display pic:

I really had a lot of fun with it. If anyone wants to add me to their Windows Live Messenger contacts, my screen name is jenbell@knology.net.