Week 9, Thing 23: Summarize your thoughts about this program and learn more about where to go from here.

Well, it's been a long nine weeks (oops, I mean 12 weeks), but I've finally come to the end of the journey.

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
Creating avatars, trading cards and the like was a lot of fun. It was interesting to know about them and I could see ways to use them in future programming.
2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I am definitely more aware of all that I don't know. It's hard to decide what direction to take, since there is so much information to take in and a finite amount of time available.
3. Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
There were a number of things that I thought might be useful to pass on to our customers. I was unaware, for example, of the free word processing sites. We frequently have customers with compatibility problems between the different computers that they are using.
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? Not everyone learns best independently. As the weeks went on, it was suggested that staff help one another and a number of people formed informal partnerships. Maybe pairing staff from the beginning would help those less technologically savvy to have a more successful experience. Time was also a factor. The exercises required an uninterrupted block of time to complete - not always easy to come by.
And last but not least…
5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate? Yes - One of the things about being a librarian (at least for me) is knowing a little bit about a lot of things and then having the ability to find out more as needed!
6. How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program? I enjoyed being exposed to a variety of technologies and services. I do feel that I just "skimmed the surface" of many things and don't know if I'll have the time to look at them again unless I actually need them for a customer or program. Libraries need to keep up with this kind of thing, because information is our business and our customers need to know that we know about the things that interest them both on the Web and off!

Week 9, Thing 22: Learn about Audiobooks

Well, this is what I've been waiting for! I am really looking forward to getting my MP3 player and downloading audiobooks to listen to on my way to and from work. I already check out books on CD, but I think I will have access to more titles this way. Yahoo!

Week 9, Thing 21: Discover some useful search tools for locating podcasts.

I liked Yahoo Podcasts as a search tool mainly because I didn't need to set up yet another account with another password to remember! I added Book Voyages to my Bloglines account. "Book Voyages is a podcast about children's literature from the point of view of a school library/media specialist. It features reviews of books as well as inteviews with students and authors." Seemed like it might be interesting if I had time to listen! I had first listened to a podcast called Children's Book Radio, but the episode I chose was annoying because there were several minutes of "commercials" before I got to the actual content. Don't know if all of the episodes start in the same way, maybe you could fast forward.

Week 9, Thing 20: Discover YouTube and a few sites that allow you to upload video

Well, of course, YouTube is another potentially addictive site. I liked how anyone could post their videos, but then there is SO MUCH to look at and with self-determined tagging, there's no way to narrow it down as much as I would like to. I chose the video posted below because it was a cute one that promoted the summer reading program. I would love to create something like that and have it running on the branch big screen. Definitely would be nice to have more quality video on library websites. Our site currently doesn't support streaming video very well. We had wanted to have folks telling stories, puppet shows, etc., but haven't been too successful. What we have on there so far is so tiny that it is barely visible.

Denver Public Library: Summer of Reading

Well, maybe Corky and Sneaks should make a music video next year!

Week 8, Thing 19:Discover any site from the Web 2.0 awards list

I looked at Lulu, a self-publishing site for books, calendars, brochures, CDs and DVDs, etc., etc. I liked that you can upload files and can set it up to charge for printed copies but offer free downloads. What a great site for budding young authors! I can see lots of program possibilities. Could we do a book of our short story contest winners?

Week 8, Thing 18: Take a look at some online productivity tools Take Two

One of My Miniature Projects

I became a librarian because I love to read books!  "So many books, so little time" could be my mantra.  That is what I've titled this scene in a bag.

 

                                

 

 

The above was posted from Zoho Writer. For some reason, this seemed easier to use than Google Docs, but I would have to play with each of them more to really decide which one I prefer. I am very excited about the "portability" of documents using these products. No more need to e-mail documents to myself or carry around a thumb drive.

Week 8, Thing 18: Take a look at some online productivity tools

Baltimore Row House - a prototype for the Maryland State Day Project, April 2006

I made the sofa and two chairs and dressed the bed. The row house is electrified using the tape wire method. The cat is out of scale.

The above was posted from Google Docs. I tried using that first since it would mean one less password to remember!

Week 7, Thing 17: Add an entry into the Sandbox Wiki created with PB Wiki

Added my blog to the list. Seems some folks, i.e.,The Original Craigster, need to stand out from the crowd. :) Could be a fun way to share with family and friends.

Week 7, Thing 16:Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them

Wikis - at last, something that I already know about! Although I guess I didn't realize that a wiki is basically just a web page that has a (potentially) unlimited number of authors. We do have several wikis already set up for our Library System, including a new one to help support our Early Literacy Peer Coaching Initiative. This wiki will allow storytime presenters to share ideas for using materials in the storytime boxes that are currently circulating, so that others can benefit directly and immediately from the postings. I really liked the Book Lovers Wiki - developed by the Princeton Public Library. Seemed like this would be a cool component to add to our Summer Reading Program for all ages. I guess the Read Much? discussion on our teen page is a wiki,too. Of course, these kinds of wikis have to be monitored, so they're not as freewheeling as some of the others out on the web.

Week 6, Thing 15: Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 & the future of libraries

From the various essays, To a temporary place in time... was the one that spoke to me. I like the idea that we might travel full circle back to the place of thought and ideas that libraries originally were intended to be. The web provides us with plenty of facts and opinions, but somewhere there needs to be the chance to think about them and use reason to determine their usefulness and validity.

Week 6, Thing 14: Discover Technorati and learn how tags work with blogs

The different types of searches were interesting. Just searching Posts was like doing a general keyword search - lots of hits, but also lots of irrelevancies. Searching Directories was like doing a subject search and produced the fewest hits. I preferred searching Tags since the results were displayed in such an orderly fashion and were divided into categories such as blog posts, videos and photos. Can't say the Top Favorited, Top Searches and Top Blogs were anything I'm interested in, but the top searches could be a way to keep up with what's hot in pop culture.

[mdlearn2]