Final Summary

As I look back on all the things we have done there are a few that stand out. Flicker is one, I really didn't like the functionality of Flicker and don't think I will ever use it again. I thought blogs were great to explore, and I will use them again. Podcasting and wikis were also things that I would like to explore further.
If the library were to offer a Playtime part 2 I would participate.

Thing #10

Roselle's Virtual library.
It was interesting to explore some of the databases. I was able to find book discussion questions on the Novelist website for my book discussion group that is meeting tonight. That was a timely find!
It's good for all of us to take the time to explore our website and databases from time to time. The more familiar we are with them the more likely we are to turn our patrons on to all that we have to offer.

Thing #9

Life Long Learning
The article '15 steps to lifelong learning' was thought provoking.
I have taken courses in Webjunction before and would like to take more in the future. I would most be interesting in exploring the computer course like powerpoint, excel and such along with customer service courses.

Thing #8

Online Apps
I could see google docs being benefitial to projects like our newsletter. It would be great if there were a place where we could log on and see the upcoming newsletter and it's progress at any time and be able to comment or make corrections like dates right then and there.

Thing #7

Wikis!
These are great. I can think of so many ways to use them. I love the group aspect to them. This is something that I might try setting up and using personally.
I went to the www.pbwiki.com site and although I didn't set one up, they said it only took 60 seconds and was free - sounds good to me!
Possibly later when I have more time, I will create an account and update the Wikipedia entry on Roselle to include the library.

Thing #6

I have used AIM in the past. It's plus side is that when you are logged in you can see who else from your contacts are logged in and can istantly communicate with them. So if you are looking for someone to chat with you can easily see who is not busy...but the down side is if you don't really want to chat with someone that can see you are online, you are kind of stuck.
I think IM refernce is a really valuable service to offer. I thought it was interesting that in the list of all the libraries offering this service Illinois has the most libraries! If possible, we should add gtalk to our trillion account.
My favorite part of Thing #6 was the list Lynn made available of the AIM acronym dictionary - very informative and useful. GTG

Podcasts

Thing #5
ENJOY!
I always seem to take the more difficult road when doing these tasks. This time I was trying to use items from youtube, didn't work. With help from Lynn, I was able to find the podcast I was looking for right from the original source, ALA focus. There are many applications for this technology, including being used by our president to keep us informed. See the website I have listed on the right from the whitehouse for both the president's blog and various podcasts.

Infinitely Wise Leader

IMG_7277
Originally uploaded by snyders.christy

Thing#4
Flickr was difficult to navigate at first, but with a lot of help from our infinitely wise Playtime 2.0 leader (pictured) I was able to upload all my pics and set up a group. Let me know if you would like an invite in my group to view all my pics of our coworkers on the job!

Thing #3

Facebook: I like the way facebook makes it so easy to communicate to a number of people all at once and have them all see the entire picture.
Example of what I mean: Last summer my son wanted to have a volleyball tournament/party in less than 24 hours. He posted the party to his facebook page and it went right out to about 40 people all at once. Because he is in the age group, 19-20 yrs., that use facebook as a part of their everyday lives, he and everyone else, heard back from all the invitees within a few short hours. I think he only had to follow up to 2 people with phone calls. In the end he had a party of some 35 or so kids and was able to shop for all the hot dogs, chips and pop he needed within 24 hours. I found that remarkable!
I think for facebook to be most effective you need to incorporate it in your everyday life as my son and his friends have. For my personal use, I don't have the time to spare and because it is not used on a daily basis by all my friends it doesn't have as much value to me as it does to my son.
I can see value for the library, it would give us a way to communicate to those in our population that do use it daily, mainly the teens and 20 somethings.
I do have concerns about safety and personal information being available for viewing to the general public, I think it is very important to use the privacy settings. I also think it would be a good idea to offer programs here at the library on safety and privacy issues related to these social network sites. Many people are not aware that they can restrict their page from others.

Thing #2

RSS Feed:
Adding a RSS feed Reader page through google was easy. Google offered a lot of recommended subscriptions which made it very easy to set up, just a couple of clicks. I also added another Feed: the Washington Post, because this was not one of googles pre-setup URLs, I had to work at it for awhile before I figured out how to add it. I then added this feed to my right side column in my Blog page. I did this through the blog layout itself. I have 2 other items on my blog page that I think are considered RSS Feeds, 'front page headlines' and 'Kandinsky artwork', these both change daily or with each log in.
RSS Feeds can be useful in a variety of ways. You can add them to your homepage, blog, or a website. They can save you valuable time from re-logging into all the sites you may want to check out on a regular basis.

Thing #1

OK, I so I have a blog now!
This task was both fun and very frustrating for me.
After checking out 'Blogs of Note', I had all kinds of ideas of how I wanted my blog to look and function, so I watched the tutorial and started creating. I had loved the title headings used in the blogs Coffee Messiah and Art Car Central. Inspired, I wanted to create a heading for my blog that utilized a picture or graphic that along with the title would cover the entire top of the page. This is where my frustration began, I was not able to manipulate the provided templates to completely meet with my vision. The other thing that I had wanted for my blog was for it to have 3 areas of information. All the templates only allow for 2 areas. I would have liked more variety in templates and fonts and colors.
I probably need to be able to write my own html code to create the Blog I envisioned!
Another blog to check out is synch-ro-ni-zing from the blogs of note, it had a great use of photographs.

Blogging is a good thing and I can see many uses for blogs.
Now that I have this blog I would like to use it as a discussion of book and other media recommendations for myself, coworkers, friends, and members of the book club I belong to.

Be sure to click on BB BookClub in the right hand column. It is another blog that I created for the book discussion group I belong to. I found that template online, it is not one of the standard templates. If you are interested, see http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com But, beware...they were not all useable. I couldn't use my first choice - floral garden, error messages.