YouTube
I first saw this clip when someone posted it to the USC-SLIS listserv so I looked it up on YouTube so I could put it in my blog. It makes me laugh everytime! I also like to find music videos on YouTube that are hard to find in other places. YouTube and other sites like it (eBaum's World is a great site too) can be very addictive. However, anyone can post (thus the "you" in YouTtube) so there are a lot of videos that aren't that interesting or funny or relevant. There are options though to look at the most viewed videos, most discussed videos, etc. so that can help in weeding out the ones you don't want to see. I know there are issues with copyrighted material being posted so it will be interesting to see what finally happens when that problem is addressed. When I searched for "library" I noticed that many libraries have videos posted about their branches. I could see that having a funny or clever video about CCPL could attract patrons - it could even be embedded into the website so everyone could see it, not just those familiar with YouTube.
Podcasts
I have listened to podcasts in some of my classes at library school. The ones I have listened to are interviews with different types of librarians. I checked out http://www.podcast.net/ and looked up podcasts about book reviews. I noticed that the ones that came up (10) weren't very current. Instead, I just Googled "book review podcast" and came up with more up-to-date ones like the New York Times book review (you do have to subscribe for the most current weekly ones but at least the archived ones are from this year!). I like podcasts but I am more apt to find an article to read about most topics I am interested in instead of listening to a podcast. However, they are great for things like interviews.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
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!
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.
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.
Friday, October 26, 2007
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/.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
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!
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!
Monday, October 22, 2007
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