Crafts & Hobbies #66: Knitting & Crocheting

1) I for one, am not a knitter. I have tried innumerable times to knit and/or crochet and it just doesn't work for me. I can cast on stitches and make a pretty descent row of chain stitches (I can even knit or crochet a long line of chain stitches on my fingers) but go beyond that and it just doesn't work. No two stitches of mine are the same. The first one may be just right then the next one is way too loose then the next one is way too tight...they never seem to match. It just becomes a mess.
My mother, on the other hand, could knit and crochet anything. You name it, she could do it. I have a huge collection of hand-kinit sweaters that I never get to wear now that I live in Texas. When I lived in West Virginia I could almost wear them year-round. (I have many vests that could be worn in the spring, early summer, late summer and fall...then it was into warm, cozy sweaters for the long, cold winters). I even had a few short sleeve, light weight ones to wear during the summer months. (We didn't have 100 degree days.)
My grandmother could not knit but she could crochet so I have many things she passed on to me from her trusty crochet hook. Lots of doilies...and other daintly little things...but no clothing unless you count toasty socks.
I remember them talking about knitting things for the soldiers during WWII...there were groups that sat around to knit or crochet warm, woolen caps for the men serving out on the front lines and warm lap blankets for the military hospitals to use. I was happy to see through the web sites that there are still folks out there who can use this skill (or crafting ability) to supply things for todays soldiers and veterans as well as for people in chemotherapy and hospice.
I have read all of the Debbie Macomber books that have a common knitting theme...so I can enjoy them even though I cannot knit.

2) The Children's Deartment here at the Freeman Branch has several knitters so they started up a learn to knit program this summer. There were three sessions and it was a huge success...so successful in fact that another 4 week beginners course is starting up in September.
And, for those who sucessfully completed the first summer courses, they are continuing the "fun" with a Knittng Club meeting once a month. This meeting will be for children who already know how to knit and just want to share some knitting fun, projects, designs, conversation or perhaps they are stuck and need some help on figuring something out.
There are 4 knitters in the Children's Department and we have some adult volunteers who help out as well. If this proves to be successful, they may open up the Knitting Club to adult knitters as well as children in the Spring. Right now they are going to concentrate on the children so this craft may continue to grow in our community.
Now, I can do Cross stitch embroidery so bring on the DMC floss and I'm good to go...

Crafts & Hobbies #65: Coin Collecting

1) I am a coin collector but not in the usual sense. I collect"elongated" coins. (Coins which have been run through a machine and having an image pressed upon it). The usual cost is 2 quarters and the one penny for "smashing". Lots of places will offer to give you change and there are even some places that offer you a free penny as well. (Like the San Jacinto Monument in Deer Park). These coins fascinate me and I have collected many in just recent years. I started collecting them one or two now and then when I would pass by a pressed coin machine at zoos, amusements parks, and other such attractions. Then, one day I noticed that I had collected quite a few.
I started looking on line for information and found a website that lists the locations of machine all across the US (incldung Alaska and Hawaii). My new Best Friend!! I have used it numerous times to keeep track of my collection (which are all in coin cocllector books which are sometimes available where coin machines are located). For example, there are two different ones from Rain Forest Cafe and several different ones have been available at DisneyWorld...I had all of the coins from all 4 theme parks at DisneyWorld until they changed the name of MGM Studios. I guess I'll just have to go back and get the news ones...and they add many more each year. Sometimes designs retire when new ones are added and other times they just move the machines around the park. There are a couple of web sites devoted just to the DisneyWorld and Disneyland coins that are updated quite often.
So, if you spread out the change in my purse, you are sure to find bright, new, shiny pennies and a few quarters just waing for a penny press (or quarter press) machine to cross my path. I carry them in an M & M's minis tube stacked 2 quarters,1 penny/ two quarters, 1 penny. A regular size tube holds enough for 20 pressed pennies. (At times it may feel bit heavy, but to me the weight is worth it!)

2) The coin dealers I would probably be most interested in would be found through eBay since I would be searching for an elusive or retired coin that has been "smashed".

3) I did go ahead and collect all of the U.S. Quaters that featured all of the 50 states. I also collect Teddy Bears so I have the complete set of 50 Comemorative State Bears for each state/quarter with their respective quarters in a pouch specifically designed to hold it.
I am also in the process of collecting all of the new Lincoln Pennies (they are great to use for pressing...all bright and shiny and the impressions turn out very clear on them).
I have collected a penny, a nickel, a dime and a quarter (or 5 quarters in recent years) for each year since my daughter's birth. Someday she may enjoy showing her great-grandchildren a few coins from before the turn of the century. I also have a set of pennies since my husbands birth year (and some even older than that!) and for my own years. Any time I get an older coin (wheat pennies or other coins prior to my birth) I put them away just because they are older than me.
I have a few coins from other countries as well. I recently went on a trip to Alaska (and collected 34 "smashed pennies" from around the state) and during a brief drive into Canada I receieve a couple of Canadian coins and a coin from Panama. It was the size of a quarter so the cashier probably hadn't noticed that it wasn't American or Canadian. I saved it.
And, as a side note, I did receive a counterfeit one dollar bill in change from Four Corners a few years back on a trip out West. It is fun to show people and it makes a great conversation piece. I have had several offers from folks to buy it (even from my own bank) but it's just a dollar and it's fun to have it around. I'll keep it just for fun.
I guess I'm an occasional collecter of older and foreign coins yet an avid collector of "squashed" ones.

Crafts & Hobbies #62: Decoupage

I had very limited experience with decoupage before this exercise came up. I have only done one project in the past (way long ago past) and it turned out better than I expected it to. I decoupaged (is that the right term?) a notebook for school. It was a regular 3-ring-binder that was oh so plain...so, first I put stickers on it, then added a few other do-dads and before you know it, it was covered in stuff . . . that kept falling and/or peeling off. So, I remembered reading about decoupage and thought hmmm . . . that would keep the stuff from peelling off and you can still see the stuff. How cool is that?? So, I did the decoupage thingie and it worked quite nicely.

I did a simple google search (under images) and the things people have decoupaged range from simple tables and chairs to flower pots and Ostrich eggs! I don't think I will ever do it to an ostrich egg but I do have plans to make a plain, orinary, wooden serving tray fancy enough for Sunday company in the near future.

Crafts & Hobbies #61: Craftspiration!

1) I had fun checking out the craft sites listed in this exercise. The one I liked the most was the One Hour Craft. Sometimes that's all the time I have to come up with something creative and I can use this site and I'll probably find something cute and unique. I really liked reading the "50 Reasons to Keep Making Stuff". That's me...always trying to find a reason to make stuff. I hate to throw some things away because somewhere in it is a caft just waiting to be created. But, one of these days I will have to weed out my collected stuff because Iwill never live long enough to do all the "stuff" I want to do with it. And, like my husband likes to ask "What will you do with it when it's done?" I don't know other than enjoy the sense of finally finishing something. I like to say to him: "I make stuff because I can."



2) I definitely enjoy watching a video for craft instruction. I used to use books and when I got stuck on something, I had to seek out advise or improvise. But now, with the internet, you can always find someone who has made a "good, quality" video on "how-to" do almost anything. I looked at the Crafts Channel and learned how to make decorative borders in 4 minutes, how to make pop-out folded butterflies and I also looked into some shaded cross stitich projects. Way too much "stuff" to make and do in a lifetime but hey, I can try...



3)I have always liked to create things...my other major in undergraduate school was Home Economics (Changed to Human Ecology in more recent years) and it was filled with classes of creating and making "stuff" all the time. It was great! There were classes on sewing, cooking, interior design , fashion and decorting. Classes were filled with all kinds of fun "stuff" and my life is still filled with lots of "stuff" (Not JUNK as my husband would definiely call it.) Now that I am aware of some new sites to check out, I will certainly be ready to craft again and again...if I ever get the time to do it.

Posting #54: "Social Networking Through Books" Exercise #1

1) I have never been a member of a Book Club. I think I would prefer to be a member of an on-line book club so I could remain anonymous. Reading Children's books is one thing...what I read for fun on my own time is just for me. I do believe the reasoning behind an in-person book club would be the face to face interaction which really social people would enjoy...but that is not for me.
2) The staff here at Freeman have started their own book club. It meets once a month and any staff member is welcome to attend. Staff members meet and discuss something they have recently read and anything goes from a book, to an article in a journal, to an interesting website they discovered. Each participant can talk for just a minute or up to about 5 minutes about what they brought with them (they are asked to bring the item or information for finding it with them). After the club ends, one staff member writes up a summary of the items discussed so others can see what they missed for whatever reason. Some staff attend every month, some attend occasionally and others do not attend at all. It is totally optional...no pressure what-so-ever. I like that.
Using ReadingGroupGuides I looked for a book that I have read and think others might enjoy...if I shared it with them. The book was called Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella. I liked this site because it had great thought provoking (or discussion starters) about the book. Some were questions I asked myself and tried to figure out as I read along such as "What were your theories about what happened to Lexi? I tried several scenarios in my mind as I read along. I kept changing them as the story progressed and then, in the end, enough information had been shared to let me "see" just what had happened. I was able to laugh at the situation, and I enjoyed the book. Others may enjoy it as well and find their first idea about what happened are way off from what actually did happen. This book would most likely be fun for a Romance Lovers Book Club.

3) I searched for Twenty Wishes on Shelfari. After I signed on a new account for this site, I found that 642 people had read the book and it had a four out of five star rating. Not bad for a romance novel by a tried and true romance author, Debbie Macomber. Next I looked it up on LibraryThing (LT) and found that it also had a four star rating out of five. I guess most people liked the book while a mere few were not quite as impressed. I will reserve judgement on it until I have read it for myself.

Posting #53: Books, Readers and Beyond: Finding Books Online" Exercise #2 and #3

2) I searched for Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber. This is what I found: Half Price Books does not have a searchable web-site so I didn't check for it at their site. I went to Borders.com (My personal favorite "go-to" bookstore) and found it for $24.99. It is also available as an Audio CD or Audio Cassette. You could also pre-order the paperback edition for $7.99. From Barnes and Noble the list price was @24.95 but the on-line price was only $16.21. It was also available on Audio CD it was available. I check the HCPL site and found it was available as a regular book, an Electronic Audiobook, a Large Type book and an Audio CD.

3) I downloaded the book Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella. I liked reading the book because it kept my interest but I did not like reading it on my computer screen. Sometimes the glare was impossible and the stiff neck I encountered was uncomfortable. You just can't curl up with a computer screen and enjoy a book. There's something about holding it in your hand, being comfortable, and the book being portable from room-to-room or location-to-location. For some this may be a good thing but not or me when I am reading for fun/pleasure/myself. I have since found the book available at several HCPL Libraries so I will enjoy reading it (book format) in the near future.
Overdrive is a favorite of mine as I can download books on my MP3 player then play them in the car on long (or short stuck-in-traffic) trips. I guess titles on overdrive might help if you need a book or manual of some sort in a hurry and the library is closed or far away at the time it is needed. I got discouraged a while back because I looked up a craft book and found lots of instructions but no pictures...I knew that would happen but what was the point of putting a craft book up on a page where no pictures of the craft (either in progress or completed) can be seen? Anyway, as I stated before, I much prefer a physical book in hand as my first choice and audio books as a close second.

Posting #53: "Books, Readers and Beyond: Finding Books Online" Exercise # 1

1) In order to quickly find bookstores near the library, I typed the library address in on Mapquest then typed in "bookstores" and immediately the nearby ones came on the screen with a nifty little map detailing their locations. As I suspected, Half-Price Books was the closest destination followed by Barnes and Noble and Borders (which happen to be across from one another...just a major blvd. separating them).
Each of the bookstores has a website but each are a bit different. On the Half-Price Books site, you cannot search for books as their books are generally used and the stock constantly rotates. There is a search box which will take you to Amazon.com. The Half-Price site is fun to click around on and the main pages informer readers that the is a 10% discount card for educators ... and LIBRARIANS!! The Barnes and Noble site as well as the Borders site are similar with searching capabilites. They are: http://www.bn.com/ and http://www.borders.com/) Both are easy to navaigate and full of information on the latest books, DVD's and more.

Posting # 52: "What To Read"

1. I have several "favorite" authors at the moment as I like reading contemporary romances or what is commonly known as "chick-lit". I like to call them "charming romantic comedies". For me, it is an easy escape into "Happily Ever After" and sometimes I need that. I used NoveList Plus to look up Debbie Macomber. I just brought up the NoveList website, clicked on Adult Read-Alikes and found her alphabetically by her last name... and, she was the first author on thier list. Richard Paul Evans and Susan Wiggs were listed as possible read-alike authors that I do read. A new author came up as well, Cathie Linz, so I already have a reference to her and will be looking for her books in the HCPL collections.
Next I tried using "What Should I Read Next" and was a bit disappointed. It was easy to use, just typed in Debbie Macomber, but all of the suggestions were simply reader recommendations. Just people signing in and telling you what they liked to read by similar authors. I noticed there were the usual authors I am already familiar with such as Jennifer Cruise, Barbara Delinsky, and LaVyrle Spencer. Much prefer NoveList Plus so far.
Giving "Library Booklists and Bibliographies" a try, I found it more difficult to navaigate at first. But as I got more into it, I liked to subdivsioins and the much longer list of suggestions. The suggestions were for individual books by authors an the subdivisions were nice (I used Romantic Comedy then Funny Romances) and lengthy. I found many of my favorite authors (and their books) and a few new ones to look for in the future. I also liked the links to Amazon since that 's a good place to see what the book looks like and get a review or two all in one place.

2. Using NoveList Plus, a fourth grade girl interested in animals could possible like the classic Black Beauty by Anna Sewell or something newer book like Down Boy and Sit by Lucy Nolan. (I guess it depends on weather or not she likes horse stories and/or dog stories.) NoveList was easy to use...just looked up her age then her subject and the suggestions were right there.
By checking in the NoveList Plus Teens section, her thirteen-year-old brother who likes ghost stories may enjoy The Night Tourist by Katherine March or Demons and Shadows by Robert Westall. The second books is a collection of ten "ghostly tales" so he may find one or two that he is particularly intersted in rather than reading an entire book.

3. The Dean Koontz fan could benefit by taking the suggestions listed in the NoveLists Plus Read-Alike section. Just look up Koontz, Dean and a listing appears suggestion authors such as Greg Bear, Charles Grant or John Saul. By using "What Should I Read Next" he could get suggestions such as W.E.B. Griffin, Iris Johansen or Linda Medley.

4. The customer who has finished reading Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce has started reading the Young Adult series: Song of the Lioness. By looking this up in Mid-Continent Public Library I found that she needs to read In the Hand of the Goddess next followed by The Woman Who Rides Like a Man and then end the seires with Lioness Rampant. It was very easy to research this by simply typing in the authors name and then scrollong through her series books until I found the one that had Alanna listed as the first one .

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.