Week 10: #23 Is This Really the End? Or Just the Beginning..."

Today, the journey comes to an end.
I have learned many new things during the past few weeks about all kinds of technology that is available out there. Some of the things I knew about, others I did not.
I liked learning new things and actually being able to do them on my own at my own pace. It was great to see so many fellow HCPL Staff Members walking the path with me...some ahead, some behind, and some right along beside me. Help was available and I used it on occasion...and a few times I was actually able to lend a hand to others.
I don't know if I really had a favorite...I liked finally being able to use Flickr and Avitars but I did not find the Library Elf to be a helpful tool. I much prefer the alerts I receive from Admin. for my account as well as my family members accounts. Library Elf contained a lot of additional information that was confusing when I just wanted to know what the "elf" was trying to tell me.
I can see that all 23 things could be useful in the library world today. They show more ways to gather information, share information, and store information. I'm sure before long there will be a 24th thing, then a 25th and on and on the technology world will go. I just hope I will be able to keep up with it. Doing iHCPL has been a fun way to learn and to keep on top of things...perhaps in another year or so another learning session could be done to learn about the next batch of new "gizmos and gadgets" that have come along.
It's been fun..."Thanks for the memories".

Week 9: "Downloadable Media"

I really enjoyed this Discovery Exercise. I have downloaded many audio books from Overdrive since my first learning session on "how to download" from this site when HCPL added it to its wide variety of services. I went out and bought mu first mp3 player the same day as my training and I have been downloading audios ever since.
I looked at Librivox and found it had a lot less information and nothing new. Wowio had a lot of interesting books searchable by a wide range of subjects but there were very few to choose from.
The things I like most about Overdrive is the books are very current, new, and the best sellers. You don't have to be put on a long waiting list for a Hold and you don't have to just wish the library had the book on CD so you could listen to it in the car. My husband and I like to listen to books-on-tape as we ofeten take long road trips and, even though my commute to work is short, I can easily listen to a chapter or two in the rush hour traffic on the way home. Sometimes I just can't wait to go for a ride in my car!

Week 9: #21 "Podcasts, Smodcasts!"

I liked searching through several differet "podcasts" and finally decided to use podcast alley to add a podcast to by bloglines account. I added LibVibe as it contains "Headlines from the Library World". That's where I am and what I do. Some are the "articles" were interesting...others were not. I guess it can vary from person to person about what is important to them. I will be anxious to hear from this podcast as time goes by so I can keep up with what's new in the library world outside of HCPL.

Week 9: #20 "Discover YouTube and Other Video Sharing Sites"

I logged on to YouTube and typed in West Virginia Libraries to see what I could find there and found some very interesting tours of the Marshall University Library. Each floor had it's own video and each was well photographed and fully explained. I think this could be very useful to all libraries so customers would know what to expect when they visit a library...a regular customer whp maybe doesn't realize all that we have to offer, someone new to town or just a random visitor could access information quite easily on their own. Many people who come into a library want "do-it-yourself" service and by viewing a site before coming to the library would be very helpful to them. They would know where to go for their information and be on their way. Other people want you to do all the work for them in finding what they need. By showing them this type of information, maybe next time they could help themselves. Other people need assistance but never ask for it. They may feel empowered by knowing what they want and need and being able to do it themselves without help. It also makes the library look user friendly...here's the information...now go with it and have a nice day.

Week 8: #19 "Web-based Apps: They're Not Just For Desktops"

I signed up for a Zoho account using my husbands e-mail from home. The reason being that you usually have to confirm your account by checking your e-mail first and I don't check my HCPL e-mail from home. Anyway, once I did that, I found an awesome word processing tool that I had no idea existed...actually an On-Line Word Processor!
This tool is great...you can access your documents from virtually any computer located anywhere at all. Other folks can also work on the same document at the same time. What a great idea this is. It has all the features I want/need from formatting to spell checker.
I really liked browsing through the Frequently Asked Questions part as I Frequently have Questions and this was very helpful/useful. The questions I had (and curiosities about the application) were answered in terms I could understand. I did a couple of quick test documents and found it to be very simple to use...and I probably will start using it right away. I will definitely set up an account with my HCPL e-mail Monday and let the processing from HCPL to anywhere at all begin.
I didn't feel that I was quite up to the challenge of posting this on my Blog through Zoho's "publishing" options...I'll wait a bit before I get that ambitious. In the meantime, thanks to iHCPL I have found something very useful that I will be using that will help me (and some family members) in many ways with the discovery of Zoho this week.

Week 8: #18 "Social Networking: Making Friends in the Comfort of Your Own Home"

Social Networking is a scarey thing to me. It is way to risky to just put yourself out there on sites like My Space.. My daughter has a My Space account and she is upset because i won't let her post pictures of herself on it. No way..she's only 14 and I don't care if all of her friends are doing it. I used the old adage of jumping off a cliff with her and she just rolled her eyes at me. I told her she should just be glad I would let her have an account. She is on it for hours at a time and, it is rather handy for her as she gets her babysittting requests through the site. I guess it works for her. She networks with friends, neighbors, relatives...me? I'd rather type an e-mail or make a phone call. I have spent time looking at My Space through her account and found it to be filled with "stuff" of little or no value except to people in your group. I hate to say I'm too old for that sort of thing...just old fashioned about what I would let anyone know about me and mine. If folks want to know something or tell me something, like I said, write an e-mail (or even a Snail Mail) or pick up the phone. For the sake of iHCPL I did look at two other Social Networks for fun...catster and dogster. It was fun to see some of the silly poses the animlas went through to be added to the sites. I felt sorry for some of them. Anyway, Social Networking is not for me but for those who like that sort of thing...Have at it.

Week 7: "Blog About Technology"

When I think about technology, I think about how very much things have changed! When I was young, we had no cable T.V. There were 3 channels to choose from and you had to physically get up and change the channel on a knob on the T.V. (No remote controls back then...and most T.V.'s were Black and WHite!) There were also no Microwave ovens to ZAP a meal in miutes. My mother in law still owns and regularly uses..not a microwave but a "Radar Range" as well as a sewing machine that uses a treadle instead of an electical outlet. Even the size of a cell phone has been reduced to pocket-size in no time.
When I was in library school, the card catalog...yes, the little drawers filled with 3 x 5 inch cards with a hole in the middle near the bottom of the card, was still the King of the Collecton. That has certainly changed over time. I had one week of Internet teaching in graduate school and it was full of terms like "gopher" and "Archie". I thought it was the most bizzaire thing in the world and wondered how on earth could anyone enjoy working with such a difficult thing. There was no www.com back then. Now we can't imagine even one day without checking our e-mail accounts!
The many advances in technological "stuff" changes from day to day and you never know what tomorrow will bring. I work hard to keep up with the new and imporved but someday I will probably gets stuck on a speed bump and sit idle for a while. This weekly lesson on many new new trends in technology is certainly a great way to learn...I just hope it's not too much for me to keep up with as time goes by.
I am going to post a message on another participants blog then I'll ask them in person if they received it as a new comment later in the day.

Week 7: #16 "So What's In A WIki" - Continued

I was able to log onto the HCPL Wiki this morning and I edited my Favorite Restaurant post and then I added posts to Favorite Music and Favorite Board Games.
I was very surprised to see the large number of emails I received since yesterday alerting me to each and every change to the HCPL Wiki...will this trend continue? It filled up my mailbox at a rate so fast that I had to create a folder to put it all into. Wow!

Week 7: #16 "So What's In A Wiki?"

Today I learned about Wiki's. I like the sound of the word since it means "Quick" in Hawaiian. (Anything Hawaiian sounding can't be too bad!) After looking at the HCPL Wiki, I added my favorite Restaurant to the Favorite Restaurants page (Antonio's in Deer Park). I tried to add my Favorie Pet and my Favorite Vacation spot but both of them were locked and I didn't want to steal anything from anyone so I will try to add to them later.
I'm not sure yet if I like Wiki's. It's rather scarey to think that anyone can just jump into (or onto?) your Wiki and change the information to please themselves. I'm more of a private person and would like to think that what I say is what I mean and not what some else decides I should say. Meaning if I post something and some else reads it and thinks it should say something else, they can change it and I may never find out about it (or I may not know about for quite some time) and a whole new can of worms is opened all because of a wiki.
I think Libraries can benefit from Wiiki's under certain conditions such as a group working together on a project. It could be easier to create a wiki and comminicate through it rather than endless e-mails they may not be read for a while. If everyone is on the same page (so to speak) with a wiki, it could save time and frustration of trying to get everyone together at a specific time/place to discuss what could easily be said on or in a wiki. I also liked the idea of library customers suggesting subject headings. Using more "Common Man" terminology could simplify the search process thereby making everyone happier.

Week 6: #15 "On Library 2.0 and Web 2.0"

I looked at all five of the perspectives listed in the discovery exercise. It is clear that we now must bring the library to the user. It used to be that anyone who wanted information had to go along with the local library hours and work only with the library in-house materials. That was very limiting from what books children could read, what information was avaiable for a school project, and what an adult could read or find about a specific subject. Now information is available 24/7 for anyone who has access to a computer. Many people don't use the library at all they just "Google it..." and there's their answer. Libraries have changed with the times...there will always be the patron who wants the personal touch (No self-check for me or Where is the card catalog?) but many are looking to the library as the place to gain access to information and we need to be ready to help them find what they are looking for...and we have the ways and means to do it. It is important that we have the technology to assist our patrons with their requests but we also need to know how to use the technology. But there are a few of question we must ask ourselves...what do we do if the electricity goes out or if "the internet is down"? and what about the customer who would dare ask "Can you suggest a BOOK I could take on my vacation to the beach?"

Week 6: #14 "Getting Not So Technical with Technorati"

After logging onto Technorati, I clicked on "More in the Technorati Blog" to find a place to type in search terms. In the Advanced Search, I found 584 results for "Learning 2.0" under Posts. Then I found 310 Blogs matching "Learning 2.0". This is where I discovered many libraries posting information for learning 2.0 which seem to be very similar to our own iHCPL weekly learning lessons. I clicked on a couple of them to see what how they were learning the new technology and found them to be quite similar (Creating your own Blog). I explored some more and under the videos I found the Leaning 2.0 and iHCPL YouTube video which was added on August 31, 2007. I watched it again and smiled when "iSTAR to the rescue" came in to view. While I was exploring this part of Technorati, I watched two of the One Minute Marketing tips from our Bear Creek Branch.
I found Technorati to be a tool that contains lots of varied information but I'm not sure I like being able to get to YouTube so easily when it is a site not highly recommended for younger Internet users. Although it was nice to see so many other libraries arond the country getting on-board with 2.0.

Week 6: #13 - Tagging Makes the Web 2.0 World Go Round

I watched the Del.icio.us tutorial and was very impressed at the good explanation it provided about what Del.icio.us is and what it can do (and how to "do it" myself).

Next I looked around the Del.icio.us account for iHCPL and found more information than I thought I would.

I clicked on several bookmarks that others had used and thought that some of the information was just for fun while other information could be useful. The comments I saw ranged from very funny to quite serious.

I can see that this tool could be very useful for research assistance and it seems to be a very easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from virtualy anywhere there's a computer handy.

I do not want to create my own Deli.cio.us account right now for several reasons. First of all, I have created a ot of new accounts for this assignment so far and one more may just muddy-the-water so to speak. Secondly, I have very few things I need to bookmark for myself right now. Maybe later that could change as the potential for research assistance, as explained in the tutorial, one click on a link could send you on to find additional information that otherwise may have never been brought to light. For now, I can just find what I need without pulling them all together in one place for a "one-stop-shopping" experience. And, lastly, I think this is a little too personal...anyone can see that who has clicked on a tag to a perticular link and maybe that'ts something you don't want just anyone to know about. Anything on the inernet can become public at anytime by someone who knows how to access information and sime things are better left off the internet.

Week 5: #12 Library Elf

I was finally able to log onto the Library Elf on Saturday. This discovery exercise was probably the easiest one so far. I logged onto the Elf, and created an account with an email and a password. Then, I simply added my library card Barcode number and Pin Number to the account and made the following choices: notify me by e-mail, alert me 3 days before the material checked out is actually due (so I can finish, renew, or return them)...for overdues,only one alert...for Holds, daily alerts (so they don't expire before I have a chance to check them out). Right now I don't want to add any other cards to my account. I will take it slow and easy and make sure this works for one card...my own, then later maybe add my family members cards since I'm the one who usually takes responsibilty for checking out books, including Holds, and returning books before they are overdue.
I am anxious to see how well this works. I have 4 books and one DVD checked out and one book on Hold. I'll be waiting to see if I get the alerts I requested when the time comes...

Shema-Chan's avatar from Stephanie (and photobucket)

Started looking at more avatars at home and found my daughter using photobucket...how cool is that??

Week 5: #11 Library Thing

Once I got My Library onto my BLOG I was surprised to see that it was a list of only 5 of the 7 books I selected. Then I saw that it said it was a random list from My Library. When I clicked on My Library the entire list came up. It's an OK tool to use to keep track of thinngs I would like to read sometime but I kinda like the pencil and paper method better, time will tell...I may change my mind when I see that these are readily avaiable at just a click on my BLOG.

Week 5: #10 - Image Generators "Kashi" in Japan by Yahoo! Avatar

This exercise was sooooo much fun and easy-easy easy!! I designed and re-designed myself as an Avatar then decided to make one for my daughter instead. I was even able to include her cat. I think I'll have fun showing this site to her so she can have fun with it along with her friends. I'm going to make Avatars for all my family members and e-mail them to them. What will they think of next?

Week 4: #9 Finding Feeds

I tried using Feedster today as well as Topix. Feedster was a lot easier to use and I looked up several sites using it. Topix was not too difficult but, like it says, it was all pretty much the news and I have enough of that in my feeds already and would rather go to some other type of sites.
I didn't try out Technorati as I already have enough "stuff" to learn about right now so I will save that for another time. My favorite method of finding feeds was to go to some of my favorite sites and look for the feed icon. (It's nice to know that I know what that little symbol means now...it's not just a cute little orangy thing hanging out on a website).
I also spent some time looking at other HCPL participants blogs just to see if I could figure out who they might be and what feeds they were attached to. I found some interseting things out there (as well as some useful information) so perhaps it is best I couldn't identify some people simply by their blogs.
So, here I sit anxiously awaiting next weeks assignment...

Week 4: #8 Make Life "really simple"...

I found that creating a bloglines account was a very easy thing to do. (After last week's Flickr assignment, this seemed too easy.) After registering, I browsed through some of the suggestions made for feeds according to my interests then I went out on my own to discover some more. I registered ten feeds to my account as well as two iHCPL participants blog feeds. My choices ranged from CNN to Quotes of the day. The participants I subscribed to include Class Is Now In Session!! and HCPL - JL. So far it has been interesting to read through the various feeds to see the wealth of information they contain. It was very easy to create the bloglines account and subscribe to the feeds. I feel I am now ready to learn more on this technological journey I have embarked on...

Blue Grinch

Blue Grinch
Originally uploaded by hollykoile

Week 3 #7 - Photo Editing Tools

I used Pixer to edit The Grinch Photo.

Well, at least he's not green anymore!

Mashup

Week 3 #6 More Flickr Fun

This is a "Spell with Flickr" word with help from my Co-worker.

Flower

More Week 3 #5 Discover flickr

Flower
Originally uploaded by hollykoile

Re-live the 60's with FM Flower Power!

(Just experimenting a bit with this Flickr thing...)

Grinch

Week 3 #5 Discover Flickr

Grinch
Originally uploaded by hollykoile

And to think I really don't like the color green...

(Too bad he's looking sideways here)

On-Line Safety

I think you can be safe on-line if you remember that anything you post is the same as announcing it to the world. Anyone from anywhere can read whatever whenever so just be aware of that and you should be fine. If you don't want the world to know something, don't post it in your blog!

Learning Habits

I learn best by hands-on, one-on-one instruction. This way I can ask questions with immediate feed-back as I go along rather than floundering around like I am right now. It's hard for me to read something, easy for me to not understand it, then try to do it on my own and wind up getting hopelessly in above my head before you know it...just like I'm doing with this blog. I think I also learn best by trial and error. With this particular application, error seems to be winning hands down. Perhaps it will get better as I forge onward into this blog world alone...

Posting #2

This is the second posting to this thing called my blog. I figured out how to post things but after that I think I am seriously lost.

Something New

I have no idea what I am embarking on...I can only hope the journey will be fun, informative and safe.