Web 2.0 Awards

I LOVED the site myHeritage! I spent way too much time creating the beginnings of my family tree. It was so easy to use! The site also provided great tips. Loved how you could easily access those tips any time you wanted to. The great part is the collaboration potential! I can build as much (or as little) of the family tree as I want to & invite some of the others in the family to join & work on the family tree, also. So my siblings can go in & add their children & grandchildren, etc. And if I don't have the birth date or maiden name of a deceased relative, maybe someone else in my family does. This is so cool!

As the reference librarian I work with a lot of patrons who are working on their genealogy. You can bet that I'll be bringing this "myHeritage" site to their attention. I used the free version of myHeritage. But there was the option to purchase a "premium" version. For now, I'll see how far I can get with the free version.

There were also tabs for calendar & newsletters & several other things. But I couldn't tear myself away from building the family tree.

Grant application

Let's say several of us are working on a grant application.  We could each have access to this document, therefore any/all of us could work on any part of the grant.  Liked how I could insert a comment & assign a color to it, asking a particular person to work on a particular question. Also like that it's so much like working in MS Word.  I could insert a table or picture.  My biggest question was how to get this document shared so the other participants could work on it.  By playing around a bit, I believe that you click on the SHARE tab, where you have the option to invite others as collaborators or viewers.  Then they will receive an email invitation.  So then I assume invited participants log in to Google Docs & search for the document in question.  I thought it would be easier, though, to name this document.  Just saving the document didn't give the chance to assign a name to it.  It was merely "Untitled." Finally decided that the best option was File > Rename.



Another use for this web application might be collaborative work on Summer Reading projects.



OK, now I'm going to try publishing this "document" to my blog.  Which I think involves going to the "Share" tab again & choosing "Publish as web page." Wish me luck!  OK, the Share > Publish as a web page thing didn't do the trick.  Had to do a HELP search, which said I needed to go to the Docs list page, click on Settings, and enter some stuff there.  The HELP document also noted that I could do all the same things from Share > Publish as web page.  But I think they lie. 



NONE OF THIS WORKED!  It said once I clicked on Share > Publish to web page, that I should choose "Post to Blog."  THAT NEVER APPEARS ANYWHERE AS AN OPTION UNDER "PUBLISH TO WEB PAGE."



I'm going to try it again.  Went back to the Docs list page, clicked on Settings, verified my blogger info, but this time I scrolled all the way down & clicked on SAVE.  Maybe that's the key!  Here we go..................





PROJECT TITLE.

Historic Newspapers Online



REQUEST AMOUNT.

$30,000



TOTAL PROJECT BUDGET.

$320,000



EXPLAIN HOW THE NEED FOR THIS PROGRAM/PROJECT WAS DETERMINED.CollaboratorA, can you work on this one? -Rita Horst 12/21/08 1:51 PM 



DESCRIBE THE BENEFITS TO BE ACHIEVED BY THE PROJECT.



GEOGRAPHICAL AREA PROJECT WOULD SERVE.



POPULATION SERVED BY THE PROJECT.

PBwiki

Wikis are kind of fun and not too difficult. I can see where one could use a wiki in planning a class reunion or a family reunion or coordinating wedding details when participants are geographically spread around.

Wiki

I just loved the "Wiki in Plain English" video! I am such a visual learner, as I think many are, so seeing & hearing what a wiki is & how it works, via the video was perfect!

I think the wikis that had Subject Guides are similar to a current page on our library's website called "Helpful Websites." On our Helpful Websites page, I have links to a bunch of websites under named categories. The big difference, though, is that I did all the work hunting up those websites myself, whereas if we'd had a wiki, I could've had help from the global community!!! And the global community could be helping me still by making sure all the links are current! Hmmm......

I loved the concept of the Book Lovers' Wiki and how it could be used for Adult Summer Reading or for book clubs. Hmmm..........

Library2.0

In order to wrap my head around Library and Web 2.0, I read all of the articles in Thing #16. I found myself underlining or highlighting key parts of each article I read. What I had to keep reminding myself was that Library 2.0 is NOT a set of technologies, but is a way of thinking. It is "right now" collaboration. Very interactive & very participatory. Library 2.0 puts users in charge, at least in part, of their own learning. This is made possible by all the tagging and sharing.

Rick Anderson wrote about 3 icebergs; potential disasters lying in our current path. As he shared about the second iceberg, "Reliance on user education," I started thinking about how I teach patrons how to use all of our electronic databases. I've spent a lot of time thinking about & planning for an evening class on a particular database, only to be disappointed with the poor attendance. Rick says to "focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need...But if our services can't be used without training, then it's the services that need to be fixed-not our patrons." So I still don't know how that translates into helping patrons use & utilize our databases, but it means I need to keep thinking on this.

I agree with almost everything that I've read about Library 2.0. However, in my mind, I definitely see a younger set embracing all of the Library 2.0 concepts, in addition to other age groups that are already fairly computer savvy. But I serve a lot of people all day long that are very unfamiliar with technology in general. I don't see Library 2.0 happening for those folks. Even though I know that Library 2.0 isn't a set of technologies, the concepts still require technology skills that many, many of the people I serve don't possess. And they have no interest in obtaining any more than the most basic of computer skills.

So far, of the 16 "Things" we've explored in Nebraska Learns 2.0, my favorites & ones that I can see incorporating into my professional life are: Flickr, Library Thing, Delicious, and SlideShare. But there are still 7 more "things" to discover, so maybe I'll have 7 more favorites to add.

SlideShare

SlideShare just might work for me! I've got digitization on the brain at the moment, so I searched for Slideshows on that topic. Found one from which I learned some stuff. I marked it as a favorite, added 2 tags, & also left a comment. I tried to embed it in my Blog post, via the little icon below that slideshow's thumbnail. I didn't think it worked, so I eventually went back & followed the instructions included in Thing #15. Long story, short is that I finished my blog & posted it. Then when I viewed my blog, I had 2 of those slideshows!! And one of them was covering up half the text of my blog! Sigh............. Was hoping I could just click on it & delete it, but no, it couldn't be that easy! So I saw where I could edit my blog post. I was feeling pretty smug! But......I still couldn't figure out how to edit that second slideshow out of there! So as a last resort, I figured out how to delete the entire blog posting. And that's what I did. So what you're reading is my second attempt at blogging about SlideShare.

Ok, here's the slideshow I'm embedding. (This had better work.)

Gettingstartedwithdigitalcollectionsweb[1]

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

It took me awhile to figure out how to add "nebraskaccess" as a contact. When I'd do a search for "nebraskaccess", I'd be taken to all slideshows with that tag. I can't really remember how I finally got it, but I stumbled across it somehow. Yay! (Story of my life! - - stumbling across things, that is.)

My SlideShare account can be found at:
http://www.slideshare.net/rockinreference

And I also uploaded one of my own PPT slideshows to my account. Hopefully I can embed it!

Libray\'s electronic resources

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: databases electronic)

Delicious

Now THIS looks useful! I quickly found a link to "20 Great Online Image Editors" that was cool. So I experienced success right out of the chute! I do like all the tagging that people have done. It makes it easy to search for relevant websites. This particular Online Image Editors link was bookmarked by 560 users who left 22 comments & had 2 main tags.

For the NebraskAccess site I would probably assign these tags: databases, nebraskaccess, resources, articles, reference

I really liked how Holdrege Public Library put a Delicious tagroll on their website! Pretty cool! Our library's website is just one part of our entire city's website. In order to keep uniformity amongst all the city departments, we are very structured in what we can & cannot add to our webpages. So putting a tagroll on our website probably won't happen. But I can certainly see myself, personally & professionally, using Delicious.

And now I think I'm going to try creating a Delicious account. Wish me luck!

Twitter

I read the twitter articles to familiarize myself with what twitter was, before I dove in & created an account. I figured out how to tweet a few times, how to follow 3 tweeters, and how to get my photo downloaded into my Profile. But I tried on 2 different days to use the "Search" feature to search for a particular person and also to search for mentions of my library. Both days, I was greeted by a screen saying that that feature was temporarily disabled. So no luck there!

I'm not a fan of twitter just yet. I always try to think of something positive about each new technology, but I have to agree with another classmate's comment that I just don't see the need to share random thoughts with people. I'm sure they have better things to do with their time than to follow a miscellaneous tidbit from me. Anyway, I guess I feel that I have better things to do with my precious, limited time than to follow someone's random thoughts. But I kind of liked the NLC Reference one. Those are real questions that need answering. So I could maybe see twitter being used as a reference service in my library. But on a personal level--- it probably isn't going to happen.

P.S. HOW did some of you overachievers change the look of your blog background to be something personal? All I saw were ready-made templates to choose from?

LibraryThing

I created a LibraryThing account & added about a dozen titles. The most fun was to see immediately just how many other people out there had read & "cataloged" the very same titles! I confess that none of the recommended titles grabbed my attention right away. But maybe I just need to spend a bit more time seeing what they're about. Maybe I should add titles to my LibraryThing that I still WANT to read & see how many people have read & cataloged those! I'm not the most creative person, so I'm having a hard time coming up with how I'd use LibraryThing in a public library - - beyond just my personal use.

Here's the link to my LibraryThing catalog:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/referencerocks

Thing #11

Technology. Kind of like a husband - - Can't live with it, can't live without it (at times)! Seriously, I think technology weighs heavier on the pro side than the con side. Our lives have become dependent upon technology. I've recently spent some time in various doctors' offices, enough to witness that technology is imbedded in every part of our lives. Medical records without technology? Kind of scary!

Our library is automated, has 8 OPACs, & provides about 27 computers for the public to use. And they are busy almost constantly! People are applying for jobs, checking their email, sending photos to relatives, doing research, checking out MySpace & FaceBook, goofing off, playing games, composing their Christmas letters, etc. If our library decided to no longer provide technology, we wouldn't know how to function. We wouldn't know how to look up titles, how to tell patrons what they have checked out, or when it's due. How would we renew their items?

Our library also subscribes to a fair amount of electronic databases. These are fabulous! I've used them to locate names & addresses of "missing" persons, to locate books, to research authors & their works, to find articles on varioius topics, to help patrons take practice exams, etc. I wouldn't know how to help our patrons without these electronic resources.

Not to say technology is all peachy-keen. It is when it works as it's supposed to. But when it doesn't, productivity comes to a screeching halt. Our library has invested a fair amount of money in digitizing many years of our local newspapers. A third-party vendor is hosting the site for us. When it works, people from all over the world use the resource to research any number of things. But the site also goes "down" all too often. That's frustrating, cuz you just can't get at the information until it gets fixed. Grrr!

Another item on the con side, is that sometimes I think technology has removed the human interaction that I think is vital. We text, email, blog, etc., but there's no face-to-face or no human voice. Sad. But again, I think the pros outweigh the cons (most days)!

Image Gens 2

Here are more of my photo experiments using various image generators.

Image Gens

Wow! I played around with a lot of Image Generators! Some were fun & kind of cool & others left me wondering what the point was. I will try to upload all the photos/stuff I created. But first, some commentary on the applications.

In The Generator Blog, I created stuff using: Videotape Generator, Photo Notes, Flying Flag, Glowtxt, Stickynotes, and Transfer of Luck. Whenever I could figure out how to do it, I tried to save my creation, so that I could upload it to my blog. With a few of the applications, I couldn't figure out how to save it.

MagMy Pic - I was unsuccessful. Twice I tried to download an image from my thumb drive to create the magazine cover, but nothing ever happened.

FD's Flickr Toys - I created stuff using: Badge Maker, Framer, Magazine, & Bead Art. I had fun doing it!

Mini-READ poster - I created a READ poster using my son's college graduation photo. Fun!

With Custom Receipt Maker, Comicbook Speech Bubbler, Custom Computer Keyboard, & Dynamic Einstein Picture, all I could think of when I was experimenting with each of them, was, "What's the point?"

I liked Dumpr. I created a Rubik's Cube, a Reflection, and Amazing Circles.

P.S. All my photos didn't upload into this single blog entry, so I'll post another blog entry & hopefully include the rest of my photo experiments.

Flickr Fun

I discovered that there are a LOT of very creative people out there with WAY too much time on their hands. Lots of fun stuff, but with some of the apps, I just went, "Huh?"

1. Flickr Color Pickr was just plain fun. I spent way too much time playing
2. Montagr was OK, but it didn't grab me like Color Pickr
3. Color Fields Color Pickr lost my interest
4. An Interesting 2005 also didn't hold my attention very long
5. Bubblr made me think that one might create one's Christmas letter using photos & adding conversation bubbles.
6. Clockr was so-so. But useful? I don't think so.
7. Cover Flow Slideshow - ditto #6
8. I used Dumpr.net to put the Polaroid Spread on my photo of the library's wall mural. Maybe I'll try to upload it, if I'm feeling brave.
9. Favcol was worthless
10. I used FD's Flickr Toys to add a Museum Mat to my photo of the library's landscape. Again, maybe I'll try uploading it. We'll see.
11. Findr might be helpful if you're looking for images of particular things. I would've loved setting some of the images of fall leaves as my computer's desktop, but apparently that's not allowed. Or I just couldn't figure out how to do it.
12. Flappr. Huh?

At this point, I'd had all the "Fun with Flickr" that I could handle.

My Friend Flickr

Whew! I finally got my 5 photos uploaded into my Flickr account. It only took umpteen mistakes & re-dos! The next hurdle was getting 3 of those same images into this blog. I think that took only about 4 re-dos. Improvement! My first mistake in Flickr was pretty dumb. I unhooked my digital camera from the computer BEFORE the uploads to Flickr were complete. OK, so I learned something there. Then I discovered that I'd uploaded ALL the photos on my digital camera, not just the 5 photos that I'd intended to upload and share. So another thing I learned was how to delete photos that have been uploaded. Then one of the photos I'd taken in a vertical position, rather than horizontal. Well, when that photo uploaded, of course it was sideways. So I learned how to use the built-in editing program in Flickr called Picnik. Thankfully, adding the titles & tags to the photos, & marking them as Public seemed easy enough. A few more mistakes figured out, then I was on to Blogger & trying to get 3 photos added to the blog. I used Blogger's photo upload feature to do this. After several attempts, I learned that the "Small" photo size was best.

I haven't been brave enough to make Sets or Collections or to belong to any Groups in Flickr yet. But I think I'll call it a day & try that another time.

Who knew there were so many options for news feeds out there? I now have 16 feeds in my Bloglines account. Some are newspapers, some are NLC, some are about libraries, one is the City of Kearney's, etc. When I played around with the different search tools to locate news feeds, my favorites were Blogline's search tool and Google Blog Search. I thought they were easier &/or more intuitive to use than Topix.net or Syndic8.com. I was probably doing something wrong, but when I went to Technorati, yes, I found all sorts of blogs, but I had a hard time locating any RSS feeds within them. The problem could be that I just got impatient with all the clicking. If the RSS feed was buried deeper than about 4-5 clicks, I got impatient with the process.

Blog new titles

I'm just wondering if one could use a blog to "advertise" new titles at the library. It would be quite a lengthy list, though. Hmm...does anyone else do this?

RSS

If a person always went to certain sites to see what was going on, or what was new, then I can see where RSS feeds would come in handy. Using Bloglines, you could just log in to one site & check on all the new stuff from the various sites. So once the initial set-up is done, then it could streamline things. Bloglines becomes a place where you manage all the various blogs, news sites, etc. Kind of like one-stop shopping, it would be one-stop news information.

I think I'd use RSS most with news sites for work related information.

On a personal level, I'd have a hard time rationalizing the time spent reading other people's personal blogs.

IMing

Setting up the Google Talk IM account went smoothly enough, I guess. I extended 2 invitations to chat. But since I'm doing this after 5:00 pm, I don't expect a response to my invitations until tomorrow.

In the meantime, without yet IMing, my guess is that the greatest advantage will be communicating with someone in "real time." Much like speaking on the telephone with someone. And I guess the advantage of IM over telephone is that with IM, there are no long distance charges or charges for minutes above & beyond one's cell phone plan.

The greatest disadvantage to IM I suspect will be that it works only if the party with which you wish to communicate happens to be online when you are. So, to me, it seems kind of random.

I might want to use IM in my personal life to communicate with my children, both of whom live out-of-state. So if we each happen to be logged into the same account at the same time, then we might be able to visit a bit. I admit that I'm skeptical, cuz, at this point, the phone just seems so much more convenient.

Professionally, I've read about libraries that use IM as part of their Reference services. So I guess one would have to have a link on the library website to the IM application. But again I retain some skepticism. What if I can't get to a person's inquiry at that moment? My reference desk is not in a private office where I can control interruptions. Instead, my desk is right out on the floor of the library. So patrons walk up to my desk all the time. Just because I'm typing away at my keyboard, the walk-up patron doesn't know that I'm involved in an IM session. I can imagine the frustration from both parties, in feeling neglected, overlooked, & unimportant.

If I were a patron & saw a link to IM with a reference librarian on my library's website, yes, I'd probably give it a try. But a lot would be riding on the kind of response I got from the other end. If it were a positive experience, sure, I'd be game to try it again. But if it was an unsatisfactory session, I'd probably not waste my time trying it again. I'd probably just call them on the phone instead.

But I've said all this before I've actually IMed with anyone. So at this point, I'm really just guessing. We'll see.

Test Post #2

After viewing the "7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners" tutorial, I think the easiest habit for me is beginning with the end in mind. I'm most comfortable when I've identified a definite goal. From there I can work on the details to accomplish the goal.

The hardest habit for me is having confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner. I tend to second-guess myself a lot and always assume that everyone but me has "gotten it."

Test Post #1

Well, setting up the blog was relatively painless! A great confidence builder!