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...