Item 21
I didn't realize that there are sites where you can search for podcasts so this exercise was quite a revelation. There are podcasts on just about anything. I had a good look around the sites and then, following instructions, looked for library related podcasts. I discovered that Sunnyvale Library has a podcast link which is updated regularly. There are podcasts about story time and other things such as health issues and searching the internet. I added this link to my Bloglines account. For once I found it simple and did it in a couple of clicks.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Week9
Item 20
I went to YouTube and looked at many really strange videos. I decided to down load this one of an elephant painting.
I discovered that I can't get the video to play from my blog as you will see if you try to play it. However I created a link to the video in You Tube so you can see it. The reason I looked up elephant painting was because I had come across a children's book on the subject and wanted to see if I could see some elephants in action, painting. I think linking library materials to Youtube videos could be a useful tool. Also I saw some library promotion videos that looked quite interesting
I went to YouTube and looked at many really strange videos. I decided to down load this one of an elephant painting.
I discovered that I can't get the video to play from my blog as you will see if you try to play it. However I created a link to the video in You Tube so you can see it. The reason I looked up elephant painting was because I had come across a children's book on the subject and wanted to see if I could see some elephants in action, painting. I think linking library materials to Youtube videos could be a useful tool. Also I saw some library promotion videos that looked quite interesting
Week 8
I signed up for Library Thing and started my own catalog. If you click on the title of a book in your catalog you can get member ratings and reviews that members have written. All the books I entered were pretty highly rated with around four stars. There were reviews for each of them too.
Week 8
Item 18
Explored Zoho Writer and found some interesting templates. Below is the short document I posted to my blog from Zoho Writer. I was very simple to do.
Explored Zoho Writer and found some interesting templates. Below is the short document I posted to my blog from Zoho Writer. I was very simple to do.
Zoho Writer Blog
This afternoon I went to my son Peter's last basketball game of his high school career. It was a play off game and unfortunately they lost so they are finished. In spite of the lose Peter had a great game and I felt very proud of him. His brother came home from UC Davis to watch the game which very nice. Peter is hoping to go on and play college basketball so he still has many games to look forward to.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Week 7
Item17
This was another one where I had to drag my husband in from the yard to give me a little help, despite numerous references to how simple it is to edit wikis. Actually it was, once he showed me how to do it, I just didn't seem to get the expected prompts on my computer. Anyway my blog is now on the Favorite Blog page and I added a post about House on the Favorite TV Shows page.
This was another one where I had to drag my husband in from the yard to give me a little help, despite numerous references to how simple it is to edit wikis. Actually it was, once he showed me how to do it, I just didn't seem to get the expected prompts on my computer. Anyway my blog is now on the Favorite Blog page and I added a post about House on the Favorite TV Shows page.
week 7
Item 16
I think I understand what a wiki is now and how useful they can be as a way to share information. The fact that anyone can edit them seemed a little scary to me at first and I'm sure has led to problems in some cases, but as I browsed the recommended wikis I began to understand the power of such tools. Of course much of the information on a wiki is subjective and should be regarded only as one person's opinion but that doesn't make it less interesting, in fact, rather the opposite. A wiki created around an event such as a conference can be a great way to find out anything from the best seminars to attend to a good restaurant in the area.
The Saint Joseph's Library wiki had an enormous amount of information on it. I went to the taxes page and found tax forms to download, guides the library has ans FAQs. I also went to the pet page which also had a wide range of information from book reviews to local pet organization information.
The Princeton Library Book Lovers Wiki is basically a way to share book reviews, anyone can add a review so it is a great way to find a new author or book to read.
I visited the Library Success wiki and found it had a more formal feel. It is a wiki set up for librarians to share ways they are using technology in new ways in their libraries.
I think I understand what a wiki is now and how useful they can be as a way to share information. The fact that anyone can edit them seemed a little scary to me at first and I'm sure has led to problems in some cases, but as I browsed the recommended wikis I began to understand the power of such tools. Of course much of the information on a wiki is subjective and should be regarded only as one person's opinion but that doesn't make it less interesting, in fact, rather the opposite. A wiki created around an event such as a conference can be a great way to find out anything from the best seminars to attend to a good restaurant in the area.
The Saint Joseph's Library wiki had an enormous amount of information on it. I went to the taxes page and found tax forms to download, guides the library has ans FAQs. I also went to the pet page which also had a wide range of information from book reviews to local pet organization information.
The Princeton Library Book Lovers Wiki is basically a way to share book reviews, anyone can add a review so it is a great way to find a new author or book to read.
I visited the Library Success wiki and found it had a more formal feel. It is a wiki set up for librarians to share ways they are using technology in new ways in their libraries.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Week 6
Item 15
I read several of the perspectives on the future of libraries. Rick Anderson makes a good argument when he warns libraries of the dangers of 3 potential 'ice bergs', in "Away from ice bergs". So much is available on the web now that it is important not to waste resources on redundant print collections. Libraries should not count on being able to educate their users to use their systems but should put more effort into providing better user interfaces which can be used without teaching. Also libraries can not longer rely on users coming to them but must make the effort to go out to reach users both physically and virtually.
I particularly enjoyed the description of the library 4.0 in Wendy Schultz's, "To a temporary place in time...". This described the libraries of the future having space for all it's previous incarnations including storage, data retrieval and commentary and annotation. The library would become a 'knowledge spa' and new technologies would be used to produce the perception of the library as the comfortable retreat of the past where one could be immersed in knowledge and learning.
I read several of the perspectives on the future of libraries. Rick Anderson makes a good argument when he warns libraries of the dangers of 3 potential 'ice bergs', in "Away from ice bergs". So much is available on the web now that it is important not to waste resources on redundant print collections. Libraries should not count on being able to educate their users to use their systems but should put more effort into providing better user interfaces which can be used without teaching. Also libraries can not longer rely on users coming to them but must make the effort to go out to reach users both physically and virtually.
I particularly enjoyed the description of the library 4.0 in Wendy Schultz's, "To a temporary place in time...". This described the libraries of the future having space for all it's previous incarnations including storage, data retrieval and commentary and annotation. The library would become a 'knowledge spa' and new technologies would be used to produce the perception of the library as the comfortable retreat of the past where one could be immersed in knowledge and learning.
week 6
Item 14
Using Technorati I looked up 'Learning 2.0' using a Blog Post search and found a huge number of items. The Tag search produces fewer items and included visual media such as videos and pod casts. Probably the most useful search was the Blog Directory search which led to less items but which seemed to be the most relevant.
I was not surprised by the most popular blogs, searches and tags, the subjects of which revolved round popular culture and technological advances.
The advantage of using tags is that they are accessible to all, no special vocabulary or indexing system is needed and as language and terms change so can tags. This characteristic can also be seen as a disadvantage, as having a universal classification system into which all material is fitted can lead to a more complete retrieval system when used expertly.
Using Technorati I looked up 'Learning 2.0' using a Blog Post search and found a huge number of items. The Tag search produces fewer items and included visual media such as videos and pod casts. Probably the most useful search was the Blog Directory search which led to less items but which seemed to be the most relevant.
I was not surprised by the most popular blogs, searches and tags, the subjects of which revolved round popular culture and technological advances.
The advantage of using tags is that they are accessible to all, no special vocabulary or indexing system is needed and as language and terms change so can tags. This characteristic can also be seen as a disadvantage, as having a universal classification system into which all material is fitted can lead to a more complete retrieval system when used expertly.
Week 6
Item 13
Del.icio.us is a great way to tag and bookmark sites of interest and have the available from any computer. It is also a good way to share interesting sites with others with similar interests. I can see it being particularly useful in an academic setting when doing research and collaborating.
Del.icio.us is a great way to tag and bookmark sites of interest and have the available from any computer. It is also a good way to share interesting sites with others with similar interests. I can see it being particularly useful in an academic setting when doing research and collaborating.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Week 5
Item 11
As I love to shop I decided to explore Etsy, a retail site. I didn't realise such sites existed and I should probably stay away from them! You can buy and sell anything all over the world from this site. One page I found quite facinating was the Color Page. When you click on this page, colors appear and if you click on a color items appear that are for sale and are that color. I like the creativity that has gone into this idea. it's a great way to 'window shop' and see a big range of items.
As I love to shop I decided to explore Etsy, a retail site. I didn't realise such sites existed and I should probably stay away from them! You can buy and sell anything all over the world from this site. One page I found quite facinating was the Color Page. When you click on this page, colors appear and if you click on a color items appear that are for sale and are that color. I like the creativity that has gone into this idea. it's a great way to 'window shop' and see a big range of items.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Week 5
Item 10
I used Comic Strip Generator to make this picture. It
shows my nephew Sam feeding my dog Takia.
Something they both loved to do!
I used Comic Strip Generator to make this picture. It
shows my nephew Sam feeding my dog Takia.
Something they both loved to do!
Saturday, February 3, 2007
week 4
Items 8 and 9
I have to say I found this weeks excerises the most frustrating and the most time consuming so far. In fact I ended up doing most of it at home, it would have taken up too much of my 20 hours at work. To begin with I could not get the first video tutorial to run on either my home or my work computer I finally got it going on my husband's computer. Then for some reason I had a real problem signing up for a Bloglines account, it kept saying it had sent me a verification email and it hadn't. However I did finally manage to do it. This is when I find technology frustrating, when it doesn't work properly and I don't know enough about it to understand what the problem is. Anyway I did add many feeds which you can view at
http.www.bloglines.com/blog/jennyjordan
It did take me a little while to get the hang of the site and I confess that I got some help from my computer geek husband, something I had decided not to do during this course but...
Anyway, although it does sound like a very useful idea and particularly for librarians and others needing the most current news, the jury is still out on how useful it will be for me personally. Sometimes one can feel overwhelmed by too much information and I suspect it is something one needs to tailor to ones own needs and saturation point. It will take me a while to do that.
I have to say I found this weeks excerises the most frustrating and the most time consuming so far. In fact I ended up doing most of it at home, it would have taken up too much of my 20 hours at work. To begin with I could not get the first video tutorial to run on either my home or my work computer I finally got it going on my husband's computer. Then for some reason I had a real problem signing up for a Bloglines account, it kept saying it had sent me a verification email and it hadn't. However I did finally manage to do it. This is when I find technology frustrating, when it doesn't work properly and I don't know enough about it to understand what the problem is. Anyway I did add many feeds which you can view at
http.www.bloglines.com/blog/jennyjordan
It did take me a little while to get the hang of the site and I confess that I got some help from my computer geek husband, something I had decided not to do during this course but...
Anyway, although it does sound like a very useful idea and particularly for librarians and others needing the most current news, the jury is still out on how useful it will be for me personally. Sometimes one can feel overwhelmed by too much information and I suspect it is something one needs to tailor to ones own needs and saturation point. It will take me a while to do that.
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