Thing 21 Podcasting

Oops! I forgot that this post was wiped out when we lost power! A big "thank you" to Carla for catching the omission!

Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing podcasts offer short tutorials about various aspects of writing. They are in small enough chunks to be easily remembered. A few podcasts every week will improve your writing skills!

http://podcast.com/show/17589/

Fini! Thing 23

Well, I made it to Thing 23!!!! It was a really great learning experience. Some of the Things I knew about and used, some I'd heard about but never tried, and some I had no clue existed. My favorite Things are: LibraryThing, Flickr, del.icio.us and bloglines. I think my most frustrating experience was with Listen NJ. All in all the Web Things Challege was fun and informative. It gave me a great "excuse" to actually take the time to explore some of the things I'd heard about but never had time to look into. Thanks for all the time you put into the challenge!

Listen NJ- Thing 22

I'm not really thrilled with Listen NJ. I found that the titles I was interested in were all checked out. After about five fruitless attempts to get titles that I really wanted, I settled on a title that was always available, just to complete the exercise. I didn't find the process easy to download either! Sorry to be so negative... but this experience wasn't as enjoyable as the many other Things that we've learned about. Still, it's good to know about Listen NJ in case patrons want to use it.

YouTube-Thing 20

The "Politics of Preschool" is a "child's" eye view of American culture. There's something about the content of the dialogue coming out of this child's mouth, said in a little girl's voice that is just hilarious.

Thing 19

Very cool list of tech awards. There are a few award winning sites that I bookmarked and will use, but the one that looks the best is Yelp. This site lets you put in a town/city that you're planning to visit, and you can see what people suggest to see and do. We have a few trips coming up this summer and it will be interesting to see what recommendations I can find.

Thing 18

I love Google docs! I started using it a year ago when I was collaborating on a document that probably changed at least 50 times. Using Goggle docs eliminated the emails with attachments and streamlined the entire process. I tell my kids to do their group projects on Google docs so that they have access to everyone else's information. I'm going to look at Zoho a little closer when I have some free time...

Things 13, 14, 15, 16, 17!!!

Catching up on my Things!
#13-del.icio.us- fantastic concept! So much easier than sticking everything in "my favorites" especially when you're away from your computer. Now your favorites can go wherever you do! I especially like begin able to see what others have tagged-- great starting point for research-- some of the work is already done for you.

#14- Technorati- I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of this site. It's just not that appealing to me. Curiously enough, three of the top searches are tagged Cialis, Viagra and Ambien... bet the pharma companies are happy!

#15- Library 2.0 was very interesting... how do we keep up with technology and stay relevant? I agree with the perspective that libraries need to eliminate the barriers between content and user-- people will find easier ways to get information if we don't. Using RSS feeds to push content to the user's chosen designation is another great idea. If we can't rely on people coming to us then we should go to them. I also like the idea of user's being able to add tags and comments to content.

#16- Wiki, wiki! I love these wikis-- great for adding content, especially for a group. Sure beats dozens of email messages flying back and forth! I found an open source photography wiki that was formed by a flickr group of the same name. They offer tutorials on the wiki as well as general info. After reading the discussion tabs on some of wikipedia's articles I still don't feel confident in trusting them completely. I think wikipedia can be an excellent starting off point but I'm more inclined to look at the sources and follow those link for info.

#17 Playing in the Sandbox- I played in the sandbox and added my blog to the wiki. I think wikis can be useful at work whenever a group collaboration is needed. It could be as simple as setting one up to let people post what desserts they're bringing to staff development day or it could provide the basis for the summer reading recap report by allowing all branches the opportunity to post what events occurred, what worked, what didn't, etc.

The past 2 weeks were a little crazy so all of those Things are smooshed into this one blog. I'm happy the OCLwebthings blog will be up for a while-- I'll probably go back a revist a few items when I have a more free time.

World Cat

It's intereesting to see how many libraries own a certain title, and in what formaat(s). The list can be misleading, however, since it seems to recognize only library systems instead of individual branches. For example, I entered the zip code of a branch that owns Stone Cold by David Baldacci, but the closest library that comes up first is 15 miles away, in Burlington County. It recognizes the Ocean County Library (Toms River) as being the 5th closest, at 19 miles away.

Net Library

Net Library isn't difficult to set up or navigate. It's a good resource if you're loking for a specific title that can only be found electronically. I'm not terribly thrilled with reading large amounts of text on a computer so I would only use this service if I had no other choice.

Library Thing

Library Thing is a great way to keep track of books read and waiting to be read. Most of my books are popular choices with other members, especially the series.

Cloud Software

I like to promote cloud software such as Google docs to the students who come into the library to work on reports for school. Inevitably one will say that a group partner was sick and couldn't get work in on time. I tell them about Google docs and let them know that if they post their work as they go then they will each be able to retrieve it if necessary. It isn't hard to set up or use-- and in an emergency it can come in handy.

TMI

Information overload! I found that Syndic8 was the least user friendly, but topix and technorati were a little easier to navigate. Great idea for people who have hours of free time! There's a lot of feeds and blogs to access-- it's worse than trying to pick out a tube of toothpaste at the grocery store!

RSS feeds

In theory creating a Bloglines account is supposed to streamline the process of visiting different websites to see new content. In actuality, I've added more feeds than the couple of sites I used to look at! It's interesting to see the different feeds available and probably will be better to have them contained in one place.

Fun at the Library

TAB members and the community came together to meet and eat, proving yet again that if you feed them, they will come.

A Bit of Ireland

This just might be my new happy place. It looks so serene and cozy... all I'd need is a good book and a cuppa strong tea. And cookies, of course.

Up & Running!

After watching the PLCMC's training video on The 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners I realize that I have the mindset to be a lifelong learner, which is good, since I'm still in grad school. I find that the easiest habit to cultivate is to just believe that it's never to late to learn. The hardest habit is keeping up with technology that seems to change every week. But I'm determined to complete this Web 2.0 challenge and learn all the new technology--just in time for Web 3.0...