Relax and Reflect

As the cowardly lion said: "Ain't it the truth!" I can relax now.

At times, this Web 2.0 exercise was very frustrating but overall it was a rewarding experience. I finally downloaded a book to a cd, which was something I kept meaning to do. I listened to Pandora and then, was able to tell a patron about this site. One of my favorites was zooming around Google Earth. I would participate in another discovery program if offered.

I didn't like having to create accounts. I also thought this lasted too many weeks. I agree with some of the responses to #20, I would have liked more formal face to face discussions about the topics. Being a sub, I was lucky because I did have the opportunity to talk to many of my co-workers at different branches over these last weeks.

Thank you for the learning experience.

Gaming

Yahoo games is a good site with a lot of different games and puzzles. I liked the ability to choose higher skill levels with the puzzles. It's true children and parents often asked for game sites. I liked the educational games at Fun Brain, especially the "game by grade" option. What I didn't like about Primary Games was the annoying ads! Another frustration when trying to play a new game is when "how to play" info is not included or hard to find.

Maybe, SIL should put out info on game sites for seniors. Many recent studies encourage seniors to exercise their brains by doing puzzles or playing games. "Use it or lose it!"

Maps and Geotagging

Roaming Google Earth was a lot of fun. I zoomed into my neighborhood. I went back to where I just vacationed. I looked at the stars.

The next step could be real time images, which would not be good for privacy issues but great to see if a hike is snow free yet.

Avatar

Of course, I couldn't find an avatar exactly like me. When Meez asked for my birth date, I thought my avatar would show her age. But as you can see, I'm a young tennis player - the Williams sisters better watch out. I didn't have to show my walker. You can be anyone you want.



I don't live in Second Life and I don't want to live there. Some things are more fun in real life!

Podcasting

The libraries I podcasted were: Penn State U, "Honey Bee Crisis;" Pierce Cty, book reviews; and Washington State U, NPR News feed.

I can see podcasting being very useful for the Library.

They could be used for: book reviews; Library "how to's," such as place a hold or search a database; and publicity for an upcoming program.

I have no experience creating podcasts but have listened to many, especially emailed "jokes."

Online Applications & Tools

I can use these tools. Since I travel to different branches, my docs can travel with me. I don't have to attach them to an email. I can create and edit on the run.

My family and I can use these tools. One idea came from the "Read user examples," the person's family bought season baseball tickets. Instead of having to email back and forth about who could use the tickets on what day, they created a document which could be shared in real time. We could use this tool for planning family parties.

The more I think about the "share" feature, I can use that in many ways. Now, I just have to enlighten my friends about how to "share."

Search Engines

I tried two different searches in Rollyo, Mamma and Dogpile: "Helga Estby" and "Prune apple tree." For "Helga Estby," Rollyo and Dogpile results were very similar and a lot like Google with many duplicate sites. Mamma returned fewer results with the first few pages having more .edu and .org sites. Searching "Prune apple tree," again, Rollyo and Dogpile returned thousands of sites. Mamma and Dogpile had links to local (Seattle-Everett area) sites, which is good for gardening questions.

I prefer Mamma over the others because it returned fewer sites, under 100 as opposed to 1000s, and the web pages it returned were relevant to my search.

IMAGE GENERATOR

Well, that was fun!

Overdrive

When I've helped patrons search Overdrive, I found their search options easy to follow. I installed the software without a glitch but I would not be able to describe to a patron how to do it. They would just have to follow the directions like I did! Once installed downloading is easy.

There is one thing that surprised me about the service: "Per licensing restrictions with the providers, materials cannot be checked back in prior to the 21 days." I imagine this is one way they can limit your use.

Del.icio.us

Although my search of "hikes washington" brought more sites in Google than Del.icio.us, some of the first ones listed were the same. An interesting aspect of the retrieval was Google listed Washington state sites before Washington D.C.; whereas, Del.icio.us listed Washington D.C. first. The tags can help you refine your search by listing other terms.

It was very easy to set up an account and add web sites. I can see this is an easy way to create bookmarks. The capability of accessing the site from any computer makes it appealing.

SIL has already taken advantage of bookmarking. I'ved used Del.icio.us/silweb many times in helping patrons at the reference desk finding answers, for example, for consumer info and gardening questions. I noticed a new site, "Superstar Investor's Directory," was just added today.

No rest for the Wiki

I found the SJCPL Subject Guides interesting. It reminded me of SIL's "Recommended Web Sites."



Some types of applications of Wikis within libraries are (of course!) book reviews, pathfinders and meeting agendas. A good application of a Wiki at SIL would be a Sub Info Folder. As for all these types of applications, they don't work if they are not UPDATED!

Streaming Video

Narrowing your searches on YouTube is easy with the suggestions to "narrow search" and "related videos." The "quicklist" feature can help with searching.



I might use Hulu and Fancast occasionally. I wouldn't watch a whole episode of a TV show on a computer. I noticed they had some sporting events, such as Wimbledon. I would look at replays these tennis matches.



These sights could help in answering ref questions.



Someone emailed me this YouTube video recently.

Social Networking

I created an account on eons.com. I liked the ability to do a keyword search within each category, such as, "explore" or "people." Also, if you found a group to join, you could narrow that search. What I disliked was trying to find the "add a friend" link. If you weren't on the right page, the "Friends" heading didn't lead you to a link.



I think these social networking sites are popular because you can have contact with other people without being face to face. I think a good use for social networking are support groups. One reason I dislike social networking sights is the possiblity of dishonesty.

Tennis Anyone? Flickr Picture

Flickr has a lot of images and an easy way to search for specific subjects. I discovered when I double clicked on the picture, I could get info about the picture, especially copyright info.

STREAMING MUSIC

I signed up for Pandora. I was impressed with the variety of artists available. They even had a local jazz group. Good listening!

RSS

RSS is one stop shopping which can save time.

At this time, I can use this technology for receiving book reviews from different sources, i.e., NY Times Book Review or One Minute Book Reviews.

Libraries can use this technology for receiving database alerts, book reviews, government feeds, and other subject oriented feeds.

IM

This was my first try at IMing. My chat session went smoothly with the help of my experienced partner. Being 6 feet away from her during the process, I felt like those people chatting on cell phones to the person next to them. I also sent a YouTube video to her and received one from her.

In the box which listed your contacts, I was surprised you could tell whether they were logged or not.

If you can't reach someone by phone, this may be an alternative method.

Lifelong Learning

I find the hardest part of Lifelong Learning is getting started and committing my energy toward my goal. Besides Play, the easiest part for me is viewing problems as challenges. When I play tennis, I want to win! I like the challenge of outplaying my opponent.

This is going very slowly. I thought I would try different colors.

I've resisted but I'm finally a blogger.