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.