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!