Quest 12: Part Two - Podcasts

Today was my second day at SCLA in Columbia. I wanted to write about a fitting use of Podcasts on yesterday here at the conference. At the First General Session, SC State Library Director David Goble gave his introduction of the keynote speaker, Keith Michael Fiels (ALA Executive Director), via a podcast. He is actually in Washington, D.C. lobbying for more support for South Carolina libraries. This was a perfect example of how we can use this technology. Suppose you are going to miss an important meeting. You can make a podcast and have it aired at the meeting. What about using this to promote Library services at an Outreach endeavor? Or at a school to promote Summer Reading? I looked under the directory Podcast.net. The other day I tried to access a library-related podcast using Podcast Alley but I could never get it to play effectively. I was using a computer at the branch. Today, I am using my laptop and I decided to look for fiction-related stuff in Podcast.net. I found a cool site called Obsidian River Free Flowing Fiction in Podcast Form (http://del.icio.us/obsidianriver). It's place where authors submit their work and after a simple approval process their works are included in the directory and podcast. You can listen to a "live" telling of their short fiction piece. I listened to a story entitled "The Hitchhiker". It was a horror fiction story that had unique twist at the end. I have added this site to my bloglines account. I might even try and submit something to this site myself. Well, I think that I've officially finished this 2.0 course at the writing of this blog entry. It's been fun, interesting, and most of all beneficial to me in this library profession. I will continue to use many of these newly learned technologies as I know that practice makes perfect. Many of the steps that I started in this course, I need to review. The challenge now is to incorporate these technologies into my everyday online/computer habits so that they become a part of my daily process. Library 2.0 is here to stay. I participated in a concurrent session here at SCLA on today on Library 2.0 and learned how several South Carolina libraries are creating User-Centered versions of the 2.0 technology for their patrons. I certainly hope to do more with this in the near future. Yes! I have completed all 12 quests! "The race is not given to the swift nor to the strong, but he that endureth til the end shall be saved"

Quest 12: Part One - You Tube

I enjoy visiting You Tube. I've mostly used it to see things that I missed seeing on television or things that I can't see because I don't have cable television. I know, I know, I'm like the only person on earth without it! LOL! Anyway, when I hear about these infamous musical performances that occurred on these awards shows (think Britney Spears at the MTV awards), I can usually go to You Tube and find it. Remember when Beyonce' fell on stage or the now historical duet performance of original Dreamgirl Jennifer Holliday and Jennifer Hudson (from the movie) on the Bet Awards? I was able to see on You Tube. There are a lot of hilarious jokes and videos of bloopers that are on this site as well. I recall being able to show my mother who is a big Tyler Perry fan some rare clips of him in character as Madea. Found them all on YouTube. How can libraries use this source? We can put video of our programs on YouTube. What about author lectures? Interviews with Library staff about our services and programs? The Democratic party hosted a national debate on YouTube because they wanted to get in touch with the demographic that uses this site. They are those 18-25 years old that we are trying to reach. They are those computer savvy teenagers who are constantly using the available technology available to them. We as librarians have got to think outside the box and look at unconventional ways to get the word out about ourselves. We have to also learn and be able to utilize these Library 2.0 technologies to our advantage in presenting our message.

You Tube Video

This is a video I found of a new line dance that I've seen people doing at functions. It's called the K-Wang. I saw it for the first time at a picnic last summer and I asked people about it that were knowledgeable about the latest line dances. Nobody knew anything about it so I decided to try Youtube to see if anybody had videotaped anyone performing this dance routine. There were several videos but this one of a Family Reunion in Texas was my favorite. Pay attention to the girl in the brown and white dress. She is really jamming!

Quest 11- Part 2 : Online Apps

I tried Zoho Writer. This online application is so convenient. I can think of many different ways in which this source is useful. It's perfect for that person that doesn't have a floppy disk, CD, or USB. People that are prone to save documents to the hard drive on their personal computers and show up at the library with a disk that has no files on it. They thought they had actually saved the document to the disk. Making them aware of a site like this, one that can be accessed from anywhere is a great option for them. This technology is really the next wave of the future. I believe that these common mediums on which we save documents will sooner or later become obsolete. Zoho was user friendly. The tool bar menus were simple and understandable. The poem down below this blog entry intitled, "Incomplete," is something I typed in Zoho and published in my blog. I also sent it to my email. HeCanWriteToo is my pseudonym as well as the username for my Zoho account. The availability to send it in different formats is also great (PDF, HTML, etc.). We really need to make the public aware of sites like these. It was really simple. I just typed my document. I saved it and then I clicked on publish. It prompted me for my blog log-in information and when I checked my blog it was there. I also have a copy of it in my email as well as saved inside my Zoho account. This is perfect for making a to do list. When you get to work or wherever you are going that has Internet access, you just enter you account and there is your file. We really are becoming a paperless society. Okay, I've completed Quest 11. Wow! Who would have thought? I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel....

Quest 11 - Part 1 : Online Apps: A Poem To Share

Incomplete

By

hecanwritetoo

Half of Me is ready

the other part is yet to come on shore

Like the painting still at the gallery

waiting

to soon add ambience somewhere

making a house into a home

Like the new soft drink you desire to sip for taste

but need the Sunday paper coupon to purchase

Just in case it is a waste

At least you wouldn't have spent full price

Remember that roasted garlic pasta that was supposed to be low cal

The diet now two years in the grave

That kiss from that someone still on the lips

Eventhough love said goodbye six years ago

When is the rest of me

Going to come forward

Step through this half-open doorway

Cross the threshold

When the I meets the You

So We can become Us

I can finally be Me

New, whole at long last the person I AM supposed to be

no longer incomplete

QUEST 10 - PLAYHOUSE FUN

I know that we didn't have to post a comment in the blog about this quest but that little anal retentive fella on my left shoulder was fighting with that fun-loving devil on my right shoulder. Anal guy won. He likes order and organization. Alas, we have Quest 10 posted. I ventured to look at Evite. The premise and possibilities were alluring but I couldn't seem to find out how to get started. I could see someone really benefit from using this source to organize an event. I really had fun in One Sentence and Art Pad. They are both now a part of my del. icio.us bookmarks. I enjoy writing, drawing, and sketching. Both of these sites are fun sites to exercise that creative energy. I am really glad that I was introduced to this.

Quest 9 -Wiki

Wikis kind of remind me of blogs. It's like a lot people posting to one blog but the postings surround one central theme, subject or event. I like that the simplicity of wikis allows for a level playing field. You don't have to have a certain level of expertise to actually contribute. Wikis centered around special events are really good advertising tools. The Big Read project could have benefited from this. We can create one to get feedback from Library personnel and the public in order to better prepare for the next one. People might even want to suggest titles to choose as the next Big Read book. Things in life where a person benefits from a mix of opinions make for good wikis (i.e., restaurant reviews, book reviews, sharing recipes, hotel accomodations, travel recommendations, and consumer services). I would not go to a Wiki to seek authoritative information if I were doing serious research. You need to know that the information is being delivered from an approved source with sound accountability. I am familiar with the Wikipedia. Students often use it. I am sure that they will continue to use it. People just don't ask themselves when they are doing research if the source is valid. They make the assumption that if it is on the Internet then it must be right. We as librarians when the opportunity allows have got to try and educate them. We have to teach people basic principles to look for when evaluating the accuracy of a source. The library can benefit from Wikis. It would be nice to see a troubleshooting Wiki that staff can post to and make comments about problems encountered with PC Reservation or practical solutions that might have worked at their library location. We all have encountered a different degree of issues associated with this new process. We could definitely benefit from the shared comments of others especially as we move towards the implementation of print management at all locations. I can see a patron Wiki for posting book favorites, plotlines of books, and book reviews attached to our online catalog. Even a "What Our Staff is Reading" Wiki. People are always asking what the staff members are reading. They want suggestions. I noticed that when you walk into a Barnes & Noble they have a section titled," Staff Recommendations." Why can't the library do this? Out of the selection of Wiki sites that we were to peruse, I looked at the Book Lovers Wiki developed at Princeton University (I know, I know, I'm a librarian and I can't help but be drawn to books). I found some great suggestions on books to read and even better two very good reviews by regular folk on two books I'm planning to read this fall. I also looked at the SCLA Wiki. This was a cool idea. It gives detailed information about the conference. If there are any last minute updates or changes, this is quick place to go for information. I opted not to create a Wiki account at the present time but if I find one that really interests me I can certainly see myself joining it and posting what I hope would be helpful comments.

Quest 8 - Social Networking

It was interesting viewing all of the suggested "social networking" sites listed. I was glad to see and read such helpful information as the articles: "Social Networking Sites: Safety Tips for tweens and teens; "Social Networking Websites Review" ; and "How to Talk to Young People about Socializing Safely Online". It's good information out there. I just really wish parents would spend time discussing these things with their children everyday. I see children on MySpace.com all of the time. Some of them are not of age to be on this site but they have been assisted by an older teenage brother or sister in getting an account. What can we do as librarians? It really comes down to the parents being involved in what their children are doing. I've even known of a situation where some children had access to their adult aunt's account on MySpace and they would come into the library and access her account on the Internet and communicate with people. She was fully aware. I still scratch my head about that one. I was really glad to be made aware of websites like wiredsafety.org, onguardonline.gov, and getnetwise.org. I am personally aware of a situation where someone was the victim of an internet predator that they encountered on a social networking site. This person was a public figure in the community so a lot of their personal information was available (listed numbers in phonebooks, they wore a nametag at work,etc.). They worked in a public facility where they could be heard answering the phones and giving their name. They ventured onto a social networking site, posted pictures of themselves and then fell victim to someone who uploaded the person's pictures and started created "bogus" accounts with this persons image on it. It was a terrifying situation. I know that the person contacted the Member Services of this site by email and then later by letter as the situation escalated. To this day I don't know if it was ever fully resolved. In reading these safety tips, I can see how important it is the get this information in the hands of people. Perhaps we need to post flyers in our computer areas with general information and safety tips. I am leery of these kinds of sites and I encourage people to be very careful if they are considering joining the sites. Bebo and Friendster seemed international in scope. I liked the look and friendliness of Facebook and MySpace.com better. They all seem like a site that mixes what you can find on youtube, online personals, and Amazon.com into one what with the music, photos, profiles, reviews and videos you can find. If I were to join one, I'd be more inclined to join Facebook or MySpace. I really liked the features offered in Facebook under privacy settings like "block people" and "limited profile". It's really set up for you to be able to protect your identity and share as "little" or as "more" of yourself as you decide.

Quest 7 - Flickr

A Walnut Framed Foggy Sunrise
Originally uploaded by rivadock4

The title of this picture is "A Walnut Framed Foggy Sunrise". I found it in Flickr. I am truly amazed at the technology we have accessible to use now. Flickr is so nice and user friendly. I created an account and then searched the public photos to find a favorite. This is the picture. It reminds me of those gothic novels set back in the early 1800s. This the perfect scene for classic horror novels--think Dracula or Frankenstein or even Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It really sets up the mood for something eerie. I thought that it would be perfect for this time of year. It's fall. It's October. It's almost time for Halloween. The picture was taken by someone name "rivadock4". The following link will take you to this picture and other photos by this photographer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/80355852@N00/309061731/. As I stated early, I did create a flickr account; however, I haven't uploaded any photos yet. I did create buddy icon using another scenic shot of a dock, water, and blue sky. My member name in Flickr is ManHeLovesBooks.

Quest 6 -Continued Part 2 : Technorati

I really don't see a use for this unless of course you create a professional blog and you want other bloggers to have access to the information on your blog. I wasn't too keen on tagging my blog for this assignment. The jury is still out on that. Right now I can't think of anything on it that would be useful to anyone else. Do any of you that have seen my blog, agree? I did perform the three searches using keyword, tag, and blog directory. I searched for "Library 2.0" as directed. An exact key word search yielded 1,043 results. A key word search looking for all the words yielded 4,705 results. Tag searching yielded 478 results. Blog directory searching yielded 440 results. I guess it all depends on the amount of research you are doing and the amount of information you need. Wadding through 4,000 some odd results can be cumbersome. I will say that tagged and blog searching seemed to yield more results that were revelant to the search filtering out the unrelated excess.
Looking at the popular blogs and blog searches wasn't really interesting to me. I really didn't find anything that was all that surprising. I did read an article about a secondary school in the UK that is testing RFID embedded uniforms on students. Supposedly the devices are to contain information on the students' academic performance, know the students' current location, and have the ability to deny access to certain areas. Go figure? This is not a site I would use again. It was very "techy" in the setup and the content. I did find a link to movie information. I managed to get some up to date information box office information on a current movie I just saw--twice--Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?. As I was looking at it, I realized that I can find this information on yahoo or google. There was nothing to compell me to come back to this site. I can see an agency or organization with revelant information to share tagging their blog and making it accessible for others to view. I didn't feel that I needed to do it with my personal blog, so I opted not to tag or claim authorship through Technorati for my blog.

Quest 6 - Part 1 : Del.icio.us

I liked learning about Del.icio.us. I even ended up creating an account and I pulled some articles on librarians and I saved some websites that visit regularly. It will be nice and convenient to have all of this information all together and accessible from any computer just by me logging into my account. Great service! I've already linked five sites to my Del.icio.us account. I have more to add. They were Gospelflava (one of my favorite music sites), Techtreks 2.0 (for obvious reasons), two sites on Librarianship and the future for librarians with all of this evolving technology (we have got to stay in the "know" so we will be ready to defend our professional careers), and finally CDnow.com (another music site I visit regularly--can you tell that I love music). I'll probably be adding the site Pandora real soon. This is another music site. I mentioned it in the last blog entry. I think that this is the quest that has really impressed me the most thus far. It is also an account that I will use after the course is over. I did look at PLCMCL2 but the information was from 2006. Not saying that it wouldn't be revelant today but I just wanted to explore some current things that people are looking at and discussing so I performed several subject searches while inside my Del.icio. us account.

Quest 5 - Having Fun!!!

I know! I know! I know! We weren't required to post a blog about this quest. We were just suppose to explore and have fun. Well I did! I am not the geeky nerd that I sometimes appear to be but that organized, meticulously detailed, anal retentive side of me emerged and would not allow me to not post a log for fear that it would disrupt something in the numerical, chronological order of the universe. LOL! I did want to report from the "field" that I really enjoyed Pandora. I joined and created two radio station lists. I love music and it was really great being introduced to this site. Visited Craig's List--can you believe some of the post people put out there on personals list. SHOCKING!!! Palmetto BizBuzz had the Cooper River Library's address in there incorrectly. When I visited Trip Advisor, I looked up customer reviews for a hotel that I stayed in while attending a conference in Fort Worth, Texas this past August. It was interesting to say the least. Some of these customers shared the same sentiments as I did. Anyway, the picture sites (Simpsonize and et al.) were cute. I will play with that a little more. I definitely will visit Pandora on a regular basis. I really enjoyed that site. Okay, off to Quest 6.....

Quest 4: RSS Feeds,Newsreaders, and Bloglines

It wasn't too hard subscribing to the feeds once I understood the screen. A staff member showed me how to do a "quick" feed subscription and once I really understood how to select the subject and then actually click on the subscription button I was on my way. That's what I get for being so overly zealous and trying to "jump into" things before taking the time to actually read and comprehend what I have read. I was actually checking subjects from one side of the quick subscription chart and checking feeds on the other side of the chart. When I tried to execute the transaction, it didn't work. It wasn't until I selected one subject and clicked the subscribe button that it actually worked. Clicking on a subject yields several feeds that fall under that topic. There was some further confusion when I went under "blog settings"; that is, not understanding if the public should be able to see certain things under my bloglines or should I have only made the "feeds" accessible to the public?. I opted for the latter and decided to provide a link to my feeds only. I hope that I am completing these tasks correctly. Some feedback from the Techtreks 2.0 committee is needed. I can still see the "end in sight"; however, "using the technology available to me to get there" is sometimes like waddling through muddy-colored water.

Quest 3: Instant Messaging

This portion of the program was easy. I went in and immediately made a contact list that consisted of my library staff members. I had a staff member that "I'M'ed" me right away as sort of a test. She told me to check out her background on IM; however, I haven't figured out how to do it yet. When she looked at the messenger screen compared to the messenger screen on the computer that she was on, we discovered that the screens had some differences. Was this a difference in the version of Yahoo Messenger that was downloaded? The verdict is still out on that. While in messenger, she showed me how to create an image in Avatar that will appear in my email and messenger post when people receive messages from me. That was interesting and fun to create. The next thing that I did was to add the library's IM id to my contact list. I took a page from Vickie's blog experience with the next step. I emailed them a question and in a few minutes they responded with a helpful answer. Wow! Welcome to a new dimension of technology. It's amazing to actually use and experience the technology out there. I have a lot of friends that talk about instant messaging all the time. I've been a little relunctant and slow to gravitate to the process. I see why people communicate this way now versus emailing or just emailing and then waiting on a response. You are being connected to them in real time and it is just so much faster. This Techtreck 2.0 process is really pushing me forward into a new millenium of possibilities and that is of great benefit to me!

Quest 1& 2: 7 and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

I completed this quest on yesterday evening; however, I am just now making a post. That in itself was an learning adventure. You see, I didn't realize that each time you make a new post you have to go to blogger.com to do it. Dumb silly me, I know? Am I a lifelong learner? How about lifelong catcher-upper! LOL! I think that the easiest habit to achieve will be for me to "begin with the end in mind". I am a long-term thinker and keeping my eyes on the prize will be my daily motivation. Keeping the "end in sight" will keep me motivated to complete this adventure. The hardest habit for me will be "using technology to my advantage". Right now, I know that there are probably easier ways to do all of these things that we are learning. Sometimes I have to take the long way to actually catch on and get the point. I'm sure after "learning the hard way" I will discover how to "use technology to my advantage" and actually complete these processes in a quick, more efficient manner.

On Blogging

I took a class on Blogging last winter in the year of 2006. I haven't had much time to actually refer back to it or even check on the status of it. I'd have to look for the address and such. I am really interested in learning how all of this can positively enhance my library career. Right now I'm a bit skeptical of all of this because I can't see the "forest for the trees." Maybe in time I'll understand it all "by and by".