Tuesday, January 20, 2009
I am starting this post just after finishing our last "assignment" and before I have had too much time to think very deeply about the past few months. I have been reading the other posts and the blogs that I have been following - they are all pretty unanimous in being positive about our shared experiences. And yes, most of us would take another guided tour similar to this again.
There have been some pretty tough evenings when I was not sure if I was up to this challenge, and then evenings when I was definitely sure that it was not worth it. You are never too old or too tired to learn, but I have had my doubts - but perserverence paid off. The discipline to practice some of my new skills and even the vocabulary is another fresh goal for me.
I cannot imagine the challenge that the NLC staff faced in following all of us along this journey. Wincing as we stumbled along must have been painful, but at least humorous when you weren't pulling out your hair. Your patience was a godsend to us whiners and pokey puppies. (Susan, you are a kind soul.)
I use and enjoy Library Thing, Delicious, Picasa and I loved the PBWiki. That is social. Now these tools are being used to make my life easier and more efficient and even more fun (Web 2.0) but I am working on ways to apply them to the place I work (Library2.0). Hopefully that's not too backwards.
The surprises were in myself: some things that I thought I could manage easily were not so fun. And then when I would postpone a topic because it looked beyond my scope I sometimes found them intuitive. Or maybe that was just the week it was or the level of difficulty; a 1.1 maybe.
Sixteen weeks appeared to be plenty of time to accomplish these tasks - not so simple in reality. I found that I spent far more hours weekly than I had anticipated. Possibly breaking the program into two sessions of sixteen weeks covering half the material in each? Of course, there were those who finished before December 15th - and I told her she wasn't my BFF anymore.
It has been great. I would do it again.
There have been some pretty tough evenings when I was not sure if I was up to this challenge, and then evenings when I was definitely sure that it was not worth it. You are never too old or too tired to learn, but I have had my doubts - but perserverence paid off. The discipline to practice some of my new skills and even the vocabulary is another fresh goal for me.
I cannot imagine the challenge that the NLC staff faced in following all of us along this journey. Wincing as we stumbled along must have been painful, but at least humorous when you weren't pulling out your hair. Your patience was a godsend to us whiners and pokey puppies. (Susan, you are a kind soul.)
I use and enjoy Library Thing, Delicious, Picasa and I loved the PBWiki. That is social. Now these tools are being used to make my life easier and more efficient and even more fun (Web 2.0) but I am working on ways to apply them to the place I work (Library2.0). Hopefully that's not too backwards.
The surprises were in myself: some things that I thought I could manage easily were not so fun. And then when I would postpone a topic because it looked beyond my scope I sometimes found them intuitive. Or maybe that was just the week it was or the level of difficulty; a 1.1 maybe.
Sixteen weeks appeared to be plenty of time to accomplish these tasks - not so simple in reality. I found that I spent far more hours weekly than I had anticipated. Possibly breaking the program into two sessions of sixteen weeks covering half the material in each? Of course, there were those who finished before December 15th - and I told her she wasn't my BFF anymore.
It has been great. I would do it again.
The podcasts were interesting, but I already subscribe to some of the information in a different format. As in I get the e-mail for NPR's book reviews, and it usually includes the audios and often book covers, etc. I subscribe to the Lincoln newspaper, and also have an online subscription, so those podcasts were not terrifically informative. I was pleased to subscribe to "Book Talk" because I work through the noon hour most Thursdays, and now can catch up with two of my favorite voices!
Interesting formats; once more almost TMI. I feel overwhelmed with information after my morning NPR, daily newspaper, afternoon NPR, evening TV news, weekly newsmagazine, professional reading, personal interactions, and occasionally downtime with friends and family.
Interesting formats; once more almost TMI. I feel overwhelmed with information after my morning NPR, daily newspaper, afternoon NPR, evening TV news, weekly newsmagazine, professional reading, personal interactions, and occasionally downtime with friends and family.
I have been coaxed into my offfice at home by children and grandchildren to watch videos on You Tube for some time now. A long-running family joke has even been posted, but it's just too "inside" to make any sense to anyone else. I have honestly never taken the time to do much browsing; except my annual search for the book cart drills from ALA. It always tickles me, so I decided to look for 2008 and see if I could include it in my blog.
I think I did this correctly. Another one of my favorites was one I found in 2007:
This is the "March of the Librarians" from ALA in Seattle. I have watched it many times and never fail to be amused.
I wish I had the talent and time and creative ability to use You Tube for some of the great possibilities it has. I enjoyed looking for new skills: tie dyeing, quilting tips, teaching research to a log; spending time late at night searching for old music videos is probably not very educational, but sure is nostalgic and relaxing and enjoyable.
This has been one more window into the enormous world of Library 2.0/Web 2.0. Does it excite me? Does it intimidate me? Does it make me feel old and slow?
I think I did this correctly. Another one of my favorites was one I found in 2007:
This is the "March of the Librarians" from ALA in Seattle. I have watched it many times and never fail to be amused.
I wish I had the talent and time and creative ability to use You Tube for some of the great possibilities it has. I enjoyed looking for new skills: tie dyeing, quilting tips, teaching research to a log; spending time late at night searching for old music videos is probably not very educational, but sure is nostalgic and relaxing and enjoyable.
This has been one more window into the enormous world of Library 2.0/Web 2.0. Does it excite me? Does it intimidate me? Does it make me feel old and slow?
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Oh boy, another three hour evening spent exploring and trying to decide what I would use and what I could or would recommend or use at the library/workplace (I do know that I have created a monster of a toolbar on both computers that I use, and I am going to have to seriously edit and organize my bookmarks/Delicious).
Howsoever, I tried and explored Picasa and think I would almost prefer it to other photo applications that I have tried. Of course it's only after one trial run, but it seems to be fast and organized and intuitive and more friendly to me than Flickr. I would give it "stars" to patrons looking for something free and fun for photo management.
Definite "STARS" to My Heritage for a simple way to get started building a simple family tree and dipping your toe into geneaology. Very friendly and I found it engaging and possibly addictive. I have personally managed to avoid the lure of tracing roots, but it was fun to spend a little time trying out the creation of a basic 3 generation family tree. Maybe not the best for the professionals that come searching the microfilm, but why not?
Etsy was just fun; there are patrons and acquaintances that I will send to this site for pure entertainment and the thrill of finding odd and unusual.
I also took a brief look-see at several other locations: Vufind, Imcooked, .docstock, Hairmixer. I can see value in using the website of the Web 2.0 Awards as an interesting printout or posting at the public access computers for patron information.
This was another seemingly simple, one sentence assignment that took us off in a multitude of directions. Once again I feel like my brain is overloaded - too much information. The sponge needs more time to absorb and process; but it will float back up I'm sure.
Howsoever, I tried and explored Picasa and think I would almost prefer it to other photo applications that I have tried. Of course it's only after one trial run, but it seems to be fast and organized and intuitive and more friendly to me than Flickr. I would give it "stars" to patrons looking for something free and fun for photo management.
Definite "STARS" to My Heritage for a simple way to get started building a simple family tree and dipping your toe into geneaology. Very friendly and I found it engaging and possibly addictive. I have personally managed to avoid the lure of tracing roots, but it was fun to spend a little time trying out the creation of a basic 3 generation family tree. Maybe not the best for the professionals that come searching the microfilm, but why not?
Etsy was just fun; there are patrons and acquaintances that I will send to this site for pure entertainment and the thrill of finding odd and unusual.
I also took a brief look-see at several other locations: Vufind, Imcooked, .docstock, Hairmixer. I can see value in using the website of the Web 2.0 Awards as an interesting printout or posting at the public access computers for patron information.
This was another seemingly simple, one sentence assignment that took us off in a multitude of directions. Once again I feel like my brain is overloaded - too much information. The sponge needs more time to absorb and process; but it will float back up I'm sure.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Shoot, I tried and played with both applications and decided that I liked Zoho the best. I saved my documents and even went back and editted them from other computers on later dates. Very impressed with this capability and said a lot of positive things AND DEEP THOUGHTS in my Zoho and Google documents. Unfortunately, I have spent some time today (sunday, 1/11/09) trying to figure out how to post these great thoughts to my blog. I am sure that it is VERY ELEMENTARY- BUT HOW DO I DO IT???
Saturday, January 3, 2009
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