Monday, August 13, 2007

Week 9, Thing 23 Summary

Well, this is it, the 23rd thing! I have learned so much by completing "23 Things". I did not consider myself a very "techie" person, but this course has definitly expanded my knowledge of 2.0 technologies. I liked the fact that it was self-paced. This was important to me due to the fact that the summer is a busy time at the library and many staff take vacations. I did become slightly frustrated with having to come up with so many passwords for the different accounts that I set up, but I learned to live with it. I really enjoyed and had fun creating and posting to my blog, using FD Toys in Flickr fun, creating my avatar, and exploring Youtube. I really found LibraryThing to be user friendly and easy to use. One of the greatest discoveries for me was the online productivity tool, Zoho. I have shared this discovery with my family in case they find themselves in a situation where they need to create and save a document, but have forgotten their thumbdrive or do not have the correct software on the computer they are using. I also liked the fact that I was not in this alone! I could rely on the assistance of a co-worker when needed. I think that "23 Things" definitly brought home for me, the message of the importance for the future of libraries to adapt to the trends that our customers are using. It provided library staff with many ideas and examples of how to promote and provide library services through the web. I would definitly participate in another discovery program such as this. There is ALWAYS something to learn!

Week 9, Thing 22 Downloadable audiobooks

I took the Overdrive Media guide tour and found it very user friendly and helpful. I did find many titles in Overdrive that I am interested in. I found the many features on Overdrive very easy to use. I liked the way the different topics were listed under the Browse Fiction, Non-fiction, and Video. Perhaps if I am fortunate enough to win an MP3 player, I will try an ebook!

Week 9, Thing 21 Podcasts

I explored the MERLIN podcasting link. I thought it was interesting to be able to hear stories from the Westerviller Library, see public programming information and staff training from the OPAL link, and hear library related news from LibVibe. I decided to add the RSS feed to LibVibe to my bloglines account. I think that podcasts are a wonderful, easy way for libraries to promote programs and present storytimes, booktalks, and trainings.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Week 9, Thing 20 You Tube

I always have fun exploring You Tube. For this activity I watched a video called "Libraries in 2010". It certainly ties in with "23 Things'. It states that librarians are the leaders of the info community and need to be on top of emerging technology trends.

The video I decided to share below is of Dan Dunn, an amazing artist. Take a look!

Monday, July 30, 2007

Week 8, Thing 19 Web 2.0 awards

I explored the short list. I found that I was familiar with some of the award winners as they are sites I have visited along my journey through "23 Things", (i.e. Technorati won first place for blog guides and bloglines won second place). I explored Upcoming, first place winner for events. I found it very useful. I liked how you could browse by category ( music, social, education, family, sports, other). I also liked the option of selecting a particular weekend, week, or month for your search. The next time my family is looking for something interesting to do, I will visit Upcoming.

Week 8, Thing 18

I set up Zoho account. I created a test document, then tried to publish it to my blog. I couldn't find the document on my blog at first. I finally realized that it was listed as a draft among all of my posts, so I had to actually go in and click on "publish post". It appeared below this post.Anyhow, I enjoyed exploring Zoho. I think that it is wonderful that you have access to free software which enables you to create a spreadsheet (Zoho Sheet), powerpoint (Zoho Show), or word document (Zoho Writer), without having to download the software. I also like the fact that you don't have to worry about different software versions or file types. I have Microsoft Office Word 2007 and every time I create a document at home, I have to remember to save it as a Word 97-2003 document so that I can edit it at work and open it as an email attachment at work. I didn't get a chance to explore Google Docs, but would like to come back to that when time allows!

ZOHO TEST DOCUMENT

Test Document

July 31, 2007

This is my test document for Zoho Writer.

  • Just like working in Word
    1. I can use bullets
    2. I can do bold print
    3. I can do itallic print
    4. I can underline where I need to
    5. I can find and replace a word
    6. I can use spell check
  • I think this is great. No more spending money to purchase the newest version of Microsoft Office!
  • You don't even need a thumb drive to save the document to. It is just saved right in your account!
  • I like the many templates that are available.