You Tube

I have to admit to having surfed this site a few times and realizing that, just like everything else -there are some great things and some terrible things! It's great to see interviews, clips of shows that you missed that had something really funny in them. In order for anything to be on the site, I'm assuming someone would have had to have thought it interesting enough to put up, so I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be able to find absolutely anything on it - but there's enough there for anyone to search and search. My favorite thing to do with You Tube is to look for funny stuff (saw Amy Sedaris on Martha Stewart, some great sketches from the TV show Stella, etc.)

Web 2.0 Awards list

Wow...

It being a few days after Thanksgiving, I decided to try the #1 food website, Im Cooked. Fabulous. Watching folks make delicious looking food, being able to put my own video up (if I had wanted to), or join a group w/members just like me!
Lulu was interesting...publishing your own book, getting it edited (for a mere $300.00).
Google Docs...a wonderful tool for groups who are doing a project together!
Wufoo...a bit confusing. So, I make forms? I loved the options it gave me, I can see how you could (if you knew what you were doing) create a lovely document with this.


These are just a few of the websites I played around with - how interesting!

Zoho, Google Docs etc.

Zoho Writer is great! It reminded me a lot of Google Docs, except a little fancier. Although I'm not overly familiar with Google Docs, I do know how efficient it can be when there's a group who are all working on different parts of the same project. Being able to have everyone edit and add whenever they want to from the convenience of their own computers (or any computer) is such a time saver! The only problem with all of these programs, in my mind, would be that in order to use any of them - the user must be able to access the internet. There doesn't seem to be a way to get around that, and the fact that most people have internet access at home makes that problem almost nonexistent.

Wikis

For a class I'm currently taking, a group I belong to within that class made a Wiki to enable us all to be able to communicate more effectively and edit each others work. I've found it extremely helpful and time saving! We are able to submit our portions of projects without having to physically meet, and give feedback right away!

Also, the library I am currently doing a practicum in has a wonderful Wiki available for the reference desk to answer questions that come up concerning technology. Again, it serves as a time saver, so that if a patron has a question about why he/she can't download something from their hotmail, I can just go on the Wiki and type in a key word and usually get the answer without needing to take up the time of another employee. The tech services person at the library created the Wiki as an informational device for us at the reference desk, and I've found it really helpful as I continue to learn new ways of helping the patrons with their reference needs!

Technorati

I don't think this blog is worthy of being available through Technorati just yet, but what a wonderful way to learn about blogs and how to tag things. I looked at the list of top searched blogs and really poked around the sight, learning not only about tagging, but the more simple aspects of blogging and how professional and useful blogs can be! I should have prefaced all of this by saying that I have never before had a blog, nor have I followed a blog in the past, so all of this is quite new to me. I feel Technoati has been one of the most useful tools throughout this Learning 2.0 lesson, because it explains everything and gives someone as green as I am to all of this a chance to delve deeper into the reasoning for blogs. This is something that I will continue to look into, and it really got me thinking about how useful a blog could be to any professional setting.

Delicious

Although I didn't sign up for my own account, I did enjoy learning about this wonderful tool to access anything I found it rather intimidating, but with a little more practice, I think I may attempt signing up for my own account. I entered any and all tags I could imagine that were of interest to me at the time, and each tag entered came up with several really great web sources! What a great idea, and what a wonderful way to share and network information!

Differences in reference...

So I am beginning my practicum rather late and have been really taken aback so far at the differences in reference between the library I've been working at all year and the library I just started my practicum at!

To explain, the library I work at is VERY small and the staff is also sparse so we are very busy all the time helping out with everything that needs to be done in the library. The library I am doing my practicum at is larger and obviously has a really nice budget. Long story short, the last time I was at the reference desk while doing my practicum the phone rang. A man wanted to know about the population of Jews, historically, in Sicily Italy. My experience has been (at the small library I work at) that I cannot take too long with any one patron. I've actually been criticized where I work because I spent too much time trying to look up a book for a patron. Well...I looked to my desk cohort, who told me to take down the patron's info, then look up the information for him! So I did, and he was very appreciative! The whole thing took about 15 minutes and was immensely enjoyable for me since I never get to do fun stuff like that at my small library.

Just thought I'd share that experience!

Topix

I just subscribed to Topix, which contains a lot of information -I loved playing around with it! One cool thing is that you can look at what is going on in your area locally news-wise. This would be helpful for librarians because a lot of times a patron will come in with some question about something happening within the community - now I have somewhere to go to find their answer! Also available is world news, and most current news - both of which would be of interest to everyone (not only librarians!)

Subscription to Google Reader

I subscribed my blog to some interesting things in Google reader - but am still a bit confused as to if I am doing this correctly. It seems to me you should be able to access what I've subscribed to from this blog...

My very own movie poster!!!

This should get you to my movie poster I made entitled "Dead By Sundown." I hope you can see it, as I'm not sure how to actually show the picture on this blog, but will continue trying. I don't see anywhere that allows me to just add a pic, so hope this works! Let me know :)


http://bighugelabs.com/photos/dd372e547d7e4f4290be6958171f895a/poster7518667

Bloglines?????!!!??

Well I hate to give up all together on this because I think it's really neat - I was hoping to get a post up on my blog so that everyone could view my bloglines subscriptions, but it seems that my account has yet to be activated. After more than a few frustrated exclamations at my computer screen - I am going to give up for now - but will resume again at a later date! I'm not sure if I should be posting it on my blog - but it seemed appropriate.

New Cancer Cure?

This is pretty exciting - I don't feel that I can explain it except to say that chemist Michael J. Sailor has come up with something he calls "nanoworms" which can go to where the cancer is in your body and kill tumors! Read more about it @ http://www.popsci.com/node/24500

New Technology

I found this on another blog - the idea was made up by a group from the Boston healthcare community - the idea is: The Idea: I found this on another blog - the idea was made up by a group from the Boston healthcare community - the idea is: The Idea:
The idea is to rapidly develop affordable, new therapies for major diseases by conducting clinical trials with combinations of generic or unpatented substances. Pharmaceutical companies will not conduct such trials, since they will not be able to recover their investments. Without evidence from such trials, doctors will be reluctant to prescribe such medicines and health insurance will not cover their cost. We estimate this idea will reduce suffering and save millions of lives within a few years.

It's entitled New Affordable Cancer Treatments -and we are encouraged to provide links on our blogs, facebook accounts etc. You can find more info on it where I did at: http://geekdoctor.blogspot.com/2008/09/cool-technology-of-week_26.html

Flicker

Ahhh! Flickr and I do not seem to betting along as well as we should. We're like distant cousins with nothing in common having to be in the same room. Ugh. I have to admit I found the whole Flickr experience troubling and disturbing. Why the need for image after image? I know, I'm an old ditty complaining - but I did set up a flickr for myself! The URL is: www.flickr.com/photos/emilygoad

Hopefully I did it correctly and I know I need to work on it to better understand what the heck I'm doing (ugh) but I'm really trying to implement the lifelong learners mantras here :)

I'm still a little fuzzy on how to connect with other flickr users - but will continue working on it and will keep you updated! If nothing else, my technological flounderings in the land of flickr will hopefully be of amusement to someone who actually understands and enjoys it!

Question

I'm curious, after reading the South Dakota challenge - how do can I implement a blog onto the libraries website? Is it as simple as it was making this blog? I think blogging could be a wonderful addition to a libraries website, but I feel the need to educate myself further as far as how to seriously implement it, as opposed to it being a free for all. I also thought it was interesting, the different things that libraries wanted their employees to learn - such as facebook, youtube, etc. Technology made simple and fun - what a great idea! I look forward to the coming weeks of learning more about the programs and better educating myself as to how a blog might be used in a professional way.

Lifelong Learners

I read the 7 habits of lifelong learning before making this blog, and am so glad that I did because when I read about having to set up a blog - I was initially put off. Technology has been an issue for me, an unfortunate issue being that I'm a SLIS student and have no choice but to adapt myself to the changing technology that so many seem to embrace with open arms. The lifelong learning helped me to see this blog not so much as a challenge, but as an adventure. I'm a perfectionist, so I tend to see things that I do and judge them, scrutinize them. The seven steps are really going to help throughout the semester - and throughout my life!

1. Begin with the end in mind
2. Accept responsibility for learning
3. View problems as challenges
4. Have confidence in self as a confident and effective learner (don't say or think it unless I want it to come true)
5. Create my own learning toolbox (books, technology, mentors, friends)
6. Use technology to my advantage
7. Teach/mentor others
8. Play - be curious

I made a blog!

I made a blog and it didn't even hurt! Technology is something I struggle with, and usually do not enjoy - so this painless blog creation is something to be happy about.