Week 10 - #23 THE END!!!

Well, I thought I'd never get here! This training has been a long process. At times frustrating. At times really enlightning! Overall, I really enjoyed the training. I was pleased to find that I was already at least somewhat familiar with many of the tools we learned about. I guess I'm not as out of the loop as I thought! And now I feel much more secure in my knowledge about all these tools. I even feel like I can help patrons explore what's available out there. In terms of using these technologies at HCPL, I'm actually in the process right now of creating a blog for my branch's children's department. It's a little slow going because even though I am now fairly familiar with Blogger, I've decided to use Wordpress because it seems to have more functions. So it's learning all over again! On this department website, we may include some of the technologies we've learned about, such as Flickr and Avatars.

Thank you to all of you who put this program together for us. It was great. A lot of work, but great!

Week 9 - #22 Downloadable Media

I am, of course, already somewhat familiar with HCPL's digital offerings since I took that training class! I think it's great that we offer this service. However, I do find the selection very limiting. I'm sure that this is something that will change in time. I had to plug in several titles before I found one offered on on HCPL's site. I also checked out LibriVox and Wowio. I wasn't overly impressed. I think it's great that there are these free sites that offer books, but, again, to me the selection seems limited for now.

Week 9 - #21 Podcasting

I was a little familiar with podcasting before iHCPL. I've primarily used it for entertainment purposes. I've often listened to podcasts of NPR programs (especially since here in Houston, our NPR is pretty pathetic-just a few hours a day). For purposes of this assignment I added NPR:Book Tour to my Bloglines account. I didn't really like podcast.net. I found that site hard to sure and difficult to find podcasts of interest.

Week 9 - #20 You Tube

Today I explored You Tube. I have used You Tube before. I like it, but I liken it sometimes to shopping in a thrift shop or discount clothing store. You can really find some great gems, but you really have to dig for it. The most frustrating part of You Tube (or any other video sharing site) is buffering. But that's just a personal tic and I don't know a way around it. Mostly, it is kind of a time suck. You look at one video, notice suggestions on the right for similar videos, start looking at those, and before you know it, an hour has flown by!

In terms of its use in a library setting, I think the most useful aspect to our patrons is the Howto & Style section. I love this section, especially for cooking videos.

Week 8 - # 19 Trying out Zoho

Today I tried out Zoho. I wasn't sure what to make of it at first but now I'm really excited about it. I can see immediate benefits to telling our patrons about this site. In our branch, we always have kids working on school projects, typing for a paper for 2 hours, but who still don't finish. These kids usually never have a disk or a flash drive to save their work on. If they use Zoho, they can easily save their work and continue working on their project from school, home, or the library. OK, I think I've been converted!

Week 8 - #18 Social Networking

I have actually used Yahoo!360 and Myspace in the past but I took a look at some of the other sites listed in the exercise to compare. Personally, I don't have too much use for them at this point in my life. I've found that it takes quite a bit of energy and time to keep up with a site like Myspace. While I was able to find a couple of people I knew online, I found that I wasn't really interested in interacting with them. I was interested in seeing what they were up to and that's it. I guess I am more of a lurker. I find that the people I'm really interested in keeping in contact with I make an effort to keep in contact with them. With all these social networking sites, I find it easy to become very overwhelmed.

Week 7 - #17 - blog about whatevers

It's hard to think of just one technology issue to blog about. Too many choices! Which is a technology topic I guess I could blog about. I love technology but sometimes it gives me too many choices. There are so many things to subscribe to, so many site with info, even so many ways to organize all your subscriptions and sites. Maybe one day I'll get to the point of being 100% comfortable with EVERYTHING being online, but for now I still enjoy occasional forays into the technology world that supplement and enrich my life and work in the real world. Actually, scratch that. I don't think I'd want everything online and technology driven. It's just not always necessary. But don't take away my favorite websites. Or my email. Or my music download sites. Or my bank's website. Or my Simponsized self.


I posted a comment to circulation samurai.

Week 7 - #16 What's in a wiki

I see good and bad things about wikis. On the one hand, I love being able to easily share information with a wide group of people. It's so easy to contribute. On the other hand, it seems like it could get out of hand pretty quickly! I mean you have all these people contributing, so there's not much of a consistency. Also, the wikis seem like they could go on forever! Without a tagging function, it seems like it could get messy and difficult to find information. It all kinds of runs together.

Week 6 - #5 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

I had a hard time with some of these articles. I don't quite know how many of the the authors actually work full time with public, because sometimes it seemed like what they were talking about was a little abstract. Yes, great ideas in theory but how do we make them work in the real world not just in Second Life?

Week 6 - #14

I did the Discovery exercises for Technorati and I found that the results didn't change too much when I searched Learning 2.0 under Blog posts and tags. I also noted that many library blogs (or blogs people wrote about libraries) seemed to pop up under these searches. When I searched using the Blog Directory, I found the results a bit different. Maybe because the Blog Directory sorts by blogs about that specific search word? I'm not sure.

Week 6 - #13

I explored Del.icio.us today. I tried viewing the video from Otter Group but for some reason it wouldn't play past 20 seconds. However, I was able the view the other video that was mentioned in the comments and found that very helpful. It is fun to see what other people added and how they tag sites. Sometimes they use the exact tag I would have used, but sometimes they use a term I wouldn't have thought of.

Week 5 - #12

Well, it looks like Library Elf was working this morning so I got a chance to check it out. I don't have anything due just yet so it will take a few days for me to see how it comes across on email. I think it is a good service for many of our patrons. On a personal level, I don't need Library Elf because I check my account at work almost every day. But obviously, patrons don't have that luxury. It would be interesting to find out how many Harris County patrons have signed up for Libray Elf. Maybe when we sign up people for new cards or place holds for them, we should really talk it up.

Week 5 - #11

Today I created my LibraryThing list. At first I wasn't too excited about it. But then is started to suck up more and more of my time. This could be a dangerous thing. Perhaps I will start weaning myself off of it before I overload the system!

Week 5 - Exercise #10

I liked playing around with the Yahoo! Avatar image generator. I liked how there were so many different options to clothes, backgrounds, etc. You could really individualize your avatar. I also enjoyed working with Meez. I liked how you can animate your avatar. I'd probably keep up with my Yahoo! avatar though since I do have a Yahoo! email account that I use.

Exercise #9

Well, I tried to use all of the search tools, but I wasn't able to use Feedster. It seemed every time I went to their site, they were having technical difficulties. I didn't really like Topix. To me, it was pretty confusing. Their homepage was pretty cluttered and I wasn't sure where to start. However, I did like Syndic8 and Technorati was OK. I have to say though, my biggest excitement came from discovering that I could get an RSS feed off of Craigslist! There are some items I've been looking to buy and now I can get a feed of that specific category off of Craigslist. Awesome!

Exercise # 8 - Subscribing to RSS feeds

This exercise was not too hard. When I first saw the tutorial, I did a quick scroll through and thought, "What the heck!" There seemed to be a bazillion parts to the tutorial. I fully expected to see a 2t. or 3z. part to the tutorial. But once I finished, I realized it wasn't as bad as it seemed. I did enjoy adding the feeds. There are a few blogs that I check on every now and then and if I remember to check Bloglines, this will make it easier. Though it is strange to see my CNN blog next to some children's programming blog next to Blogging Project Runway. What an odd combination.

Exercise #7

lydia pic
Originally uploaded by kidlibtx

I TOLD you not feed me pureed pears!

Exercise # 6 - Super Baby

Super Baby
Originally uploaded by kidlibtx

I enjoyed using the tools at FDtoys this week. It was fun create a trading card for my niece because I think this is what she is secretly thinking! And now that I've created it, it should be easy to send to my brother to enjoy (I hope)!

Exercise #5 - 1st day

1st day
Originally uploaded by kidlibtx

Newborn niece

It's a scary online world out there

This section is interesting because it reminds me that not everybody is as net savvy as they should be. I think I'm pretty good at protecting my information online. However, it always disturbs me when I see kids (or adults) over sharing personal information online. I'm always shocked at the kids. I grew up being told over and over, "don't talk to strangers." So to me it was always common sense not to put myself all out there. I get really distressed when I see the kids on Myspace not only over sharing but posting inappropriate pictures, videos, posts, whatever. It's equally disturbing to see adults forget these rules too. I've seen it happen a few times (especially with seniors). They get pulled into email scams or they click on those annoying pop-ups (Click here to win $5,000!) and they give out all their info to strangers or to websites that aren't secure. I have seen patrons who have been pulled in scams, lost money, and try desperately (though unsuccessfully) to pull themselves out. Scary.

Learning styles

Watching the powerpoint, 2 main learning styles jumped out at me. I think Laughter is the easiest style for me to use. I don't really take myself to seriously (or at least I try not too). Maybe that comes from a willingness to make a fool of myself in front of a group of preschoolers. Bascially, if I don't catch on to something right away, then I can just shrug it off and try later. However, I must admit to a big problem with Organization. It's a very off/on thing for me. I will be all over the place for a few days, get tired of that, reorganize everything, be fantastice for a week or two, and then be back where I started from. Everything always gets done, but I'm sure it can be done better.

Dear blog, you won't believe what happened today....

So, here I am writing my first blog. This will be a new experience for me as I didn't even really keep a diary as a kid, at least not beyond a half-hearted attempt in junior high. At least that diary had the thrill of needing a key to open it and pink, lined pages. A blog just doesn't seem to have that same, romantic feeling of opening a journal book and pouring out your heart (OK, maybe I read too many books about genteel young ladies in junior high). At least I found a background that looks literary-ish (real word?). So, I shall endeavour to prevail!