Thing 19

Since we had already explored a number of sites on the award list, I tried out the other library sites and of course the travel sites. As always, some were more user-friendly than others. I intend to spend more time, when I able, on this list. I can see that our patrons would have a definite interest in several of the sites I explored.

Usefulness of Zoho

This is a great tool for our patrons that need to use a word processor as we currently have only one patron computer with a word processing program. I can also see the benefits for someone who travels and doesn't wish to lug a laptop along but will have computer access during their travels.

Week 7 Wikis Thing 17

I found some of the tutorial videos a bit hard to follow. Wasn't some of the stuff he was doing HTML?? However, I was able to get my blog onto the Sandbox list so, yeah! I did add some favorites to someone's list, felt weird, hope it was more than just one person's recordings. If not, then they can just go and delete what I wrote. I'm not quite ready to make my own wiki yet as it does seem time consuming (at least to some of us.)

Week 7 Wikis Thing 16

Wikis are one of my favorite aspects of this whole technology ride we are on. I'm not saying that I have any experience in posting to them, just that I like to use them even with all of their faults. To me, the almost fatal flaw for research using wikis is for students and the gullible among us that believe everything they read without any type of verification. Having been a classroom teacher and a school library media specialist, I probably wouldn't allow wikis to be used as a sole-source reference. I probably would allow high quality wikis to be used as a starting point.

I was so caught up in the Bull Run Library Wiki that I forgot where I was. I can see how they earned The Best Library award. For our library, I would love to see wikis for school projects, summer reading programs and book discussion groups. Except for the summer reading programs, we usually get hit with big school projects after the fact and the first student comes in and checks out every book on Eqypt for example. With a School Project Wiki, the teachers could post the assignments ahead of time, we could be prepared and even parents could see what's on the horizon. We are also in need of a supplement to our antiquated library catalog (sorry.) Note: no where in this post did you see me volunteer to set these up---that's for you full-timers that make the big bucks ;)

Week 6 Tagging, Folksonomics, & Technorati Things 13, 14 & 15

Thing #13: I've set up my Del.icio.us account and I can't wait to get started. I've always been very lax about editing my bookmarks so this will help tremendously.

Thing #14: Technorati--I'm going to need someone to explain to me face-to-face why I would want to do this. Some of the places I visited were interesting--my husband and I found the opening joke of Cal Ripken's Induction into the Hall of Fame speech--but right now, I'm skipping opening this account.

Thing #15: In 'Away from the "icebergs",' Rick Anderson questions the need for a "just in case" collection. This touches a nerve with me in that I'm just not there yet. I wouldn't want you to think that I'm a technophobe, but I firmly believe that the intangibles of print materials still have a place in our libraries, even if every word and picture is available online. We still have an imperfect technoworld. Our access to the internet can be interrupted for hours, if not days; not to mention that in our "world" we have only five computers for patron internet use. I once worked with a school principal that envisioned a school without books. For our sake, I hope this happens long after the year 2525...

Week 5 Playing Things 10, 11, & 12

Who knew that playing could be so mindboggling? The Avatar is as close as I can get, but you get the picture. I will have fun with Library Thing. About 20 years ago, I convinced my computer programing cousin to write a program that would allow me to catalog the books in my classroom by title, author & subject, and allow me to sort them as well. It took him a couple of hours and I was thrilled with the results. Needless to say, I'm really quite pleased with Library Thing. Rollyo has its merits, however I found some of the searches, r e a l l y s l o w. The rolls (?) I added concerned travel and reference--naturally. I'll need help working on these link things. I'm not doing something right on Library Thing and Rollyo--Julie are you there???

Week 4 RSS and Newreaders Things 8 & 9

Well, Grammy has been globetrotting again, hence the gap in posts. It will be major catch-up time in the next few days, but I can do it!

Playing around in the world of RSS and newsreaders, my first question was, "Do these people have a life??" Then I started finding bits and pieces that actually had some potential, not just people trying to prove how so very clever they are. I found several library feeds that look promising, as well as a couple of travel feeds and one cat feed that came in the back door. I'm hoping that I did manage to follow the directions carefully enough that you can access the library feeds at http://www.bloglines.com/public/globetrotting-grammy . The tool I preferred over all the others was "syndic8." I kept having the others tell me something wasn't available. On "syndic8" you could check the status of the feed before you bothered trying to add it.