Week 9 Post 22 Overdrive? Let's go!!

VRROOOOM!! I looked into HCPL's EBranch Overdrive, LibriVox, and WOWio. I like knowing I have "A World of Free Books" with WOWio and I can search on the home page for the one I'm looking for. It was visually appealing. I liked the colorful book covers. "Free Books - Free Minds" Gotta have a hook.
The LibriVox site was not as visually attractive, but I liked the straightforwardness of the links. I also liked that they allowed you to listen to sample readings of their books.
The HCPL EBranch Overdrive combined the things I liked on both sites, the straightforward links and the visual appeal. Having the list of compatible devices was important for people who want to download from their computer. When will the ipod be an option?
I'm hoping one day I will utilize this Free Book and Music feature, but have not found the need for it at this time.
GREAT JOB, HCPL EBRANCH!

Am I coming or going? Week 9

Just wondering...cuz I'm in the home stretch.

Week 9 Post 21 Podcast, Smodcast

I went to Podcastalley and searched for a podcast using the word Library in the search field. Several choices appeared, but I chose the one titled "Open Stacks". http://openstacks.net/os/index.xml
I clicked on "get podcast" and it asked for downloading a software aggregator. Which one? Well, I tried and never got anywhere. I looked at other podcast genres, but didn't try to subscribe or get any of them. I'll have to ask someone who has already done this and try again. Talk about feeling lost...but after all, Scarlet, "Tomorrow's another day."
OKAY! I went to my bloglines account and copied and pasted the url above and subscribed to the "Open Stacks" podcast...was that what I was supposed to do? Do I need to post it here...tomorrow is another day!
Today I read other people's blog for this and realized I've done what I was supposed to do. TA-DUM!

Week 9 Post 20 /You Tube, I Tube...we all Tube...

I wasn't too excited about the videos I viewed. Mostly a waste of time, but I could see how it could be a good outlet for educational videos. Learning how to play guitar, or make a craft, or even a book discussion. I suppose the comedy has its place and the animal antics always do, but I think a person could get addicted to watching these and forget how to communicate well with others.
SMILE!
The video I chose was of a guy from Tulsa doing some tumbling to music.




http://www.youtube.com/v/K1VMiTyBS6A&rel=1

ihcpl 23 things - ZOHO

I'm supposed to create a document for Ihcpl 23 things. I'm wondering why this won't go back to black. Aha! It worked! Now I need to find my way home. "Toto, there's no place like home." My 80 year-old dad is a Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland fanatic, so I just thought I'd add that quote. This is pretty cool, so far. I like the fact that it tells you how many words are in the document when you save it. Now I guess I need to try and export this document to my blog.
YEA!!! It worked. We must've done something right, Toto.
I tried Google Docs and thought I published to my blog, but I think it was set on Blogger instead of Blogspot. I may try again because it might be easier using Google Docs because I already have a gmail account with Google. I already have so many accounts and so many passwords, I'll never keep up with them all.

Week 8 Post 19 Web-based apps: ZOHO

Not sure what happened, but I guess I posted my Zoho document to my blog before I posted this blog.

Week 8 /18b Socializing

I'm back from my trip to see my dad and siblings. I was away from internet, away from traffic, away from noise, and it was awesome. The skies were clear, the mountains had snow on 'em, and the horses ran free, literally. Beautiful, wild horses. Needless to say, they didn't want to socialize with me. I don't blame 'em. Anyway...back to the social networking....
I looked on several networks, but I think I enjoyed the dogster the most. I'll tell my daughter about it when she comes home from college for Thanksgiving. She may already know about it since she works at a kennel and a dog shelter. I haven't really gone back to Facebook to post anything because I haven't had time...and like I said, I was away from the computer the whole week I was gone. I seriously don't think anybody wants to read what I have to say anyway. However, I think I might start a family blog once I'm finished with these 23 Things. I've actually decided I will a make it my 24th Thing to do. This way the family can keep in touch. Savvy? (Pirate influenced) I looked at Ning. It seemed very user friendly. I didn't join, but may look into using that one for my family. I also forwarded the job openings to my son since he just graduated with a BS in Digital Media. Probably not what he's looking for since he'd rather be in the music industry, but ya never know. NING may fit...runNING, sunNING and swimNING. (oops) LOL

Week 8 Post 18 Social Networking

I watched what I was supposed to watch, and I read what I as supposed to read, and I joined Facebook because my kids are in the network. I haven't had the chance to look at the other social networking sites, but I will when I return and tell ya what I think. But now I will be away socializing with my dad (face-to-face) celebrating his 80th birthday with my siblings.

The Newsweek article about Facebook was interesting. I didn't realize there are 110 million active monthly users. Amazing! And maybe I should've joined My Space instead of Facebook since David Card, senior analyst for Jupiter Research seems to think "My Space is glam and Facebook is geek." Do you have an opinion?

Parade of Avatars

I added my avatar to the parade. I bet we are a great-looking bunch of characters! I look forward to watching the parade.
I will be away from computers again, out where cell phones don't work unless you stand in just the right spot. My dad is turning 80, so we are gonna party.

Week 7 Post 17 TECHNOLOGY?

We are on a fast train to somewhere and if we don't know where we're going we are gonna be lost when we get there. Is that profound, or what?

I'm glad HCPL is helping us become more technologically informed. I don't want to be left behind because I don't know what's out there. AND THERE IS SOOOOOO MUCH OUT THERE. But here's my opinion, for what it's worth: There's a lot of connecting and communicating going on, but what happened to a good 'ole fashioned face-to-face conversation? I'm thinking our young people will be less apt to "stop by" and visit someone if they grow up doing so much communicating on the web and texting on cell phones. Face-to-face relationships could become almost non-existent. And perhaps they already are for some people. Sad. Sad. Why would my kids rather order pizza on-line than to call and talk to someone? However,
I do like the fact that my kids and their cousins who live miles away from each other can communicate on My Space or FaceBook. I grew up not knowing any of my cousins because we moved away. My kids and their cousins share their lives with each other so that if and when they ever get together they will know a little bit about each other. Our society is not like it was years ago when families lived and died in the same town. Perhaps the technology that may have taken us away from each other, has also allowed us to stay in communication with each other, whether by phone, email, or photo cam.
I posted on another blog. Seems we have the same concerns about face-to-face communication with all the ipods, mp3's and laptops being used.
More later.....

Week 7 Post 16 Wiki Wiki

I had always wondered if the word "wiki" was Hawaiian. In Hawaii, the buses at the airport that take people from one airline to another are called wiki wiki's. (easy-to-catch and quick-to-get-you-there) The wiki wiki bus schedules are set. They run every 10 minutes, but where the buses stop depends on who is on the bus and where they need to go. Whoever is at the spot labeled Wiki Wiki can be picked up and taken where they need to go...as long as it's on the route. I guess that sounds like a wiki...? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
I might never have my own wiki, but it was good to know that they can be passworded. I wouldn't want just anyone editing MY stuff... I registered my blog with the iHCPL wiki today. I think wikis are good for sharing ideas and opinions, but obviously not for accurate research. Library employees can share ideas about community involvement and programming, about displays that were a hit, or about how something may have bombed. I guess the book lover's wiki would be a good one for people looking for new reading materials, or something like http://hcpl.pbwiki.com/
Wikis are for people who have a NEED to voice their ideas and opinions, and an avenue for them to let other people know what they think. Wikis are for blah-blah-blah-blog-blogging.

Week 6 Post 15 Library/Web 2.0

"A term used to describe a set of concepts" like a boat headed for disaster is one that discards something that works, like oars. Without a "just in case" mentality, what happens when the electricity goes out and the web cannot be accessed? On vacation I visited my home town and the power went out right in the middle of a very important email. It was out for over an hour, but what if it had been a typhoon and the power had gone out for weeks? Some things would have to come to a stand still...while others could continue as usual. Generators will become more valuable as the technology age continues to grow.
Our library has become more like a community center. Wendy Schultz stated in her article, "To a Temporary Place in Time", that "Libraries are not merely in commumities, they are communities: they preserve and promote community memories;..." We have toddler and infant times that have outgrown our parking lot, and our Teen Central has taken off like we'd hoped. Also, a lot of our patrons come in for computer usage, so for people who don't have a computer, the library can be a lifeline to family, friends, and Ebay.
http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/6.htm
I recently read a book titled, The Ice Cream Maker: an inspiring tale about making quality the key ingredient in everything you do, by Subir Chowdhury. I would recommend it. It goes right along with this idea of "meeting the customer's needs". SMILE!
http://www.librarything.com/work/1481756/recommendations

Week 6 Post 14 "Learning 2.0"

At first I was lost. Then I was found. 175,000 new blogs each day?? I believe it! Technorati is an interesting experience. When I started this session, I wasn't sure what to expect. When I looked in the advanced search for "Learning 2.0" the blog posts results were 500. "Tags only" were 105, and blog directory was 364...that's if I did it right. When I went to top tags, I found one titled "23 Things". It was posted by Teachmenow and I noticed this was from someone at HPL. Seems like there's a lot of "23 Things" going around.
I liked exploring the Popular Blogs. I was surprised to see top video and movie blogs, as well as top news blogs. Anything can be found if you know where to look.
And this web crawler thing kinda creeps me out. How long before secure sites are no longer secure?

Week 6 Post 13 Tags are Del.icio.us

I had already signed up for an account with de.licio.us, but hadn't really used it much. This session has taught me that there are a lot more choices than I knew about. I always wanted to save sights to go back to later, but didn't know how, other than My Favorites. I used to just print out whatever I wanted to read later and put it in a manila file folder. So needless to say, I have files and files of stuff. Of course I can't find what I'm looking for half the time, because I got overwhelmed with so many file folders and so much paper. Hopefully this will help me be better organized. "Time is money." RIGHT?