23 - Summary

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I am totally in love with del.icio.us. I tell all I know about it. I use it every day at home and at work. It is so simple and so ingenious. I am also looking forward to getting a Wiki started for our library using PBWiki.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? As a librarian I hope to always work hard to keep up with changing technologies and to be able to utilize those technologies that can make our jobs and our service to customers more effective. I appreciate being exposed to all of these technologies that are considered the "latest and greatest." The exposure alleviates fears of not being capable. The exposure makes one realize that these technologies are actually quite simple and may simply take some time to master.


Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? I expected to finish by the deadline and did not. The program was more rigorous and time consuming than I anticipated. We covered many more technologies than I anticipated.


What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? Make all communication through blogs only, not email. the emails are redundant and overwhelming. And the whole point is to use Web 2.0 technology. I feel I created a blog that no one ever looks at except me. This is also because of time limitations. I found that I had to complete about 95% of this stuff on my own time. There is not time at work to do it. If you do this again, please give people time outside of work to work on it. Maybe they could all go to the training room at HQ once a week?


If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate? I would not participate unless it was done differently. This required too much time on my own at home. I am thankful that I learned everything I learned and glad that I participated this time, but wish could have done it without added stress and spending time on my days off working on it.

# 22! NetLibrary

I do not have an MP3 player of any kind, but I did go to SDCL's catalog to search for a downloadable audiobook that I could download to potentially listen to on my computer. This required to set up a NewLibrary account. The books is still downloading. Phew, I think I'm done!!

Thing 21 - Podcasts

I am a Mac user so I have been using itunes for my podcasting needs. I subscribe through itunes to podcasts from SirsiDynix and Infopeople. Again, the main challenge is finding the time to listen to the many useful podcasts that they put out.

Reading Rainbow:

Here is my Library YouTube video of choice. It's pretty funny!

#20 YouTube

I did a lot of searching on YouTube for a really good library storytime video and did not find anything spectacular. That is inspiration to get my own storytimes recorded and maybe on YouTube. I was disappointed with the lack of videos on there. So instead of posting a real good library storytime I'm going to post a Reading Rainbow Library video that I found.

Adding a video to my blog was as easy as 1-2-3. I'm hoping that putting a video on YouTube will be just as easy. I have no way of testing that right now as I do not own or have access to a video recording device. YouTube is a lot of fun, but it is time consuming to sort through the garbage. Plus I noticed that a video is often times not what it appears. Many times you have no idea what you will be watching until you click on it and start watching. I could embedded YouTube videos being an excellent way to promote library programs on a library blog or wiki.

# 19 Sticking with the Z's - Zillow

I had heard about Zillow through my husband, but I had never really taken the time to explore it on my own. Wow - what a great site if you are at all interested in the real estate market. Can look up individual houses and get an aerial view, find out what the Zestimated worth is of the house, and what I really really like is that you can see in a nice little graph how much the house has sold for in the past, each time that it sold. You can also see what houses nearby are selling for. This is a awesome Web 2.0 tool!

Zoho spreadsheet

I love this!!

Zoho, oh so easy

Wow that was really easy. What a nice Web 2.0 tool. I will definitely keep this in mind in the future

Zoho Writer

Here is my test document. This looks and feels an awful lot like Microsoft Word. The idea of being able to collaborate and share documents online rather than in attachments is just so neat. I did not know that online programs like this existed. Well I know one thing, I don't trust the spellchecker. OK I think I'll try exporting this to my blog now...

PB Wiki

Just got done adding my blog and a blurb about my favorite movie to the plcmc "sandbox", http://plcmclearning.pbwiki.com/

Also took some time to learn about PB Wiki. I have decided that this is what I will use for our library. I learned that I can easily insert a calendar and photos to the Wiki. It seems very easy to use. I am excited to get started, but I must finish the Web 2.0 business first! I think this was #17. I'm well on my way. Can't stop now!

Week 7 Wikis

Well, I just finished learning about Wikis and viewing several different ways in which libraries are using Wikis. I saw them being used to create subject guides, lists of book reviews, to organize best practices tips for library professionals. One Wiki that I view the most often, since I am a youth services librarian, is YALSA's. I find it helpful for Teen Read Week and for good web site recommendations.

Many of the individual branch libraries of SDCL are creating blogs to promote library programs and events. I would like to create one for our library, but am not sure which is better, a blog or a wiki. I guess with either one library staff would have to monitor it for spam. I will have to play around with Wikis more before choosing one over the other. To me, neither format is as seamless as a well put together Web site. Our challenge is not having a server available at the branch level.