Thing 23--My Last Post

This has been an interesting process. I'm glad I did it, as I think it's good that I be aware of the fact that some of the sites and tools that we explored exist. Will I go back and use them again? A few of them yes, I liked LibraryThing, and I was already a YouTube user. Many of the sites seemed to be very specialized, Rollyo, for example, would be useful to someone doing a lot of research on a very specific topic, but I doubt I'll go back to it. Del.icio.us had some possibilities, as do podcasts, and I do check my Bloglines account once or twice a week. I've even forwarded a couple of news articles to people. However, the problem that I see with all of this is that there is just to much of it! How can we possibly keep up with all of it and still do our jobs, have relationships, or do anything but sit in front of a computer? Of course we can't, and I doubt most people would even consider it. What's out there is potentially overwhelming, we all need to pick and choose what is useful to us and what is not, and try to keep our lives in balance while we do it.

Signing off....Michele

Thing 22--Overdrive downloadable audiobooks

Well, this was just way to hard!! Without the help of my very patient and computer savvy husband, I would have given up altogether. As it was it took us about 2 hours to do. FYI-my husband is a NASA physicist, yes he really is a rocket scientist, and it took one to figure Overdrive out! We had to download Overdrive's Media Console and update Windows Media Player, and we still got an error message "the parameter is incorrect". A google search of that error message got us some fairly quick results...apparently this is a common problem. We did finally get the book downloaded and onto the mp3 player. Now that we have all the software and updates downloaded, it's possible my husband will use this again, but maybe not. There are enough books on CD in the Library to keep him happy, I bring them home to him, and I'm not sure it's worth the time it takes. I think downloading these books is too difficult for the average consumer, it needs to be made a lot easier.

Thing 21--Podcasts

Thing 21--Podcasts....These should be labeled dangerous and addictive! I used podcast.net and quickly found a music weblog called "In the Hands" that listed many wonderful classical music performances. The first one I listened to was Schuberts Impromptu D899.4. I added the rss feed to my bloglines account...this is one I'll probably go back to often....I've just barely scratched the surface....

http://www.podcast.net/show/473

This link should take you to the "In the Hands" page.....

Thing 15--Library 2.0

After reading the articles I have to say I related most to the articles by Michael Stevens "Into a new world of librarianship" and Dr. Wendy Schulz "To a temporary place in time..." I particularly agree with Dr. Schulz ideas about libraries as communities. I also looked at the article by George Bishop "A Ripple Effect", and much of what he had to say sounded very familiar. We have already implemented many of the ideas Mr. Bishop advocated, particularly those relating to customer service and the need for "quality customer service" as a "key to success." We're well down the road of Library 2.0 with free WiFi, 24 hour access to databases and the many other services we offer. It will be interesting to see where the road takes us

Thing 18--Online productivity tools

I've already used Google Docs a little for a Library project I helped with last summer, so I have a little familiarity here...I found Google docs fairly straightforward, at least for that project. I gave ZOHO writer a look, created an account and played around with it a little. It did take me a little while to figure out how to create a new document. The interface seemed a little visually busy to me. I did find the templates and liked that. Lots of different types of forms, including resumes and cover letters, and things like speech outlines, test formats, etc. Good to know about.

Thing 17--SI sandbox

Well, I added my thoughts to the HCL sandbox wiki...It was interesting to be able ot see what others opinions were about wikis and their uses. Many of use seem to agree that they are useful, but to be used with some caution...

Thing 16--Wikis

Wikis are certainly interesting....Wikipedia, for instance, has a lot of information and can be a great intro to a subject. Some caution is in order, but clearly there is a lot more oversight on Wikipedia than there was initially. I really liked the way St. Joseph's County Public Library is using wikis to create their "subject guide." It seems to be very customer friendly and easily updated in order to keep up with the constanly evolving web....