Thing 23 - Reflection and completion at last!!!

What a relief to finish this in time - my impending vacation added a little pressure to finish early - but who am I to complain? I'll be playing in the snow or ice or puddles as the case may be. As my staff will tell, I am a big supporter of Learning 2.0 I think this has been a great opportunity to learn, play and understand what is available out there. I am very glad that administration has supported this endeavor.

There has been lots of frustration - but that is technology for you. Frustrating - but then you get some really cool stuff, too. I have learned all sorts of interesting programs that will help me both professionally and personally. Out of this program I have now created my own hiking blog, which has been a lot of fun.

I am an archivist, journal writer and tracker of details by nature. I've learned several online tools that can keep track of a lot of these things for me. I will be exploring Wikkis and Library Thing, I am using Delicious regularly and my RSS feeds are keeping me up to date on what's going on. It is all about connection and community and Learning 2.0 showed me the possibilities and expansion available through the internet.

I have not had a computer at home, because I spend my workdays on the computer, but I am now inspired to buy a laptop. There is just too much to explore that I need to do on my own time.

One of the things that I have enjoyed most about the program is reading the blogs of the staff in my department. It's given me a new appreciation for them. I laughed, I cried, I closed my eyes. I learned many interesting things I wouldn't have known otherwise. Ashour has taught me about middle eastern geography and history; I saw great pictures of the Azores from Danny and learned about Francis' family background. I enjoyed seeing Tamara's wedding photos and knowing she is the proud owner of leopard geckos. I liked Randy's wry, humorous observations, Femi's concise summaries and enjoyed watching Judy bloom through the program - struggling, but persevering and finally finding some fun at the end. Neil's blog was entertaining and creative throughout and it was fun to follow the twists and turns of his mind.

I appreciated how the staff came together and helped each other. Neil helping Femi and Randy; Ashour helping me. I think our discussions during staff meetings were helpful as well.

Technologically, I feel I am always running behind and with Learning 2.0 I feel I actually got ahead of the curve - or at least caught up to the ball - for a moment. I know I've just scratched the surface but I'm excited about starting to do more digging and 2.0 gave me some good tools.

The one downside of the program was it's shortness in length. Rather than a 9 week program, it should really be a 9 month program with time to really explore the tools in depth. Having group discussions about how it is relevant to us personally, as a unit, department and library is also very helpful. Keeping track of all the signons was a constant problem for me.

I will be coming back to Learning 2.0 and exploring the exercises in more depth. I am going to explore creating a Wikki. I would definitely encourage you to offer programs like this all the time. I appreciate the efforts of the Virtual Services Team in reading the blogs and answering questions. Great job.

I have more to say - but I am out of time and out the door - so for now. I'm done!!!!!

Questions on audio book collection.

I went back to try and find something in our ebook collection on the sjlibrary website. I find this very confusing. I keep putting in titles and nothing comes up. How is it possible to browse the collection to see what is there? It needs a much friendly interface or some more directions. It would be good to have a class for library staff on understanding how this site works.

Are audio books available as podcasts available through this collection? That would be really cool. One of the women in one of my book club has to listen to books - it would be nice if she could do it over the internet. How do you access the audio book titles to see what we have? I am interested in fiction titles. I look forward to hearing from the Virtual Services Team. You are doing a great job of answer questions and monitoring the blogs.

Week 9, Thing 22 - World Ebook Fair site.

Didn't have much time to explore this site. It looked like a commercial site to me. One time fees, suscription fees. When I searched for some specific titles they weren't listed. I went to the free download pages - but th downloading of the ebooks looked complicated and since we can't download or add plugins on staff computers, I didn't even attempt it. That's all the time I have for this site. And that I finish week 9.

Week 9, #22 - e-books, audio books

First I went to our website to search for ebooks. It was not clear how to get to the audio books. I like to listen to audio books - so it would be cool to find out how to do that.

With e-books there are many disadvantages to paper copies. I sure wouldn't want to read a novel online. So I tried to think of factual books that might lend themselves to ebook format. First I looked up California hiking. Three books came up - one which was for northern california. I opened it up - but each page was slow to load, it was hard to fine any interesting hikes and I didn't see pictures.

Next I tried cookbooks - thinking that would be a great topic for ebooks. None found.

I tried to find books on Rwanda - found an interesting one - a SJSU ebook. It wouldn't let me open it without an additional plugin that I couldn't download.

Finally - decided to look at the most popular ebook - Ireland Adventures. I love Ireland. The book was somewhat easy to use - but it's a toss up of buying a paper copy and copying the relevant pages as compared to slowly trying to go through the ebook to find pages to print.

Okay - I just saw a link to the audio books. It took me to an alphabetical list. I found something interesting - though it wasn't clear if it was an ebook or an audiobook. When I opened it I got an error message.

That's enough exploring of our library's ebook website. No wonder our patrons are frustrated!

Week 9, Thing 21 - Podcast.

I am racing to the finish line here - only one more thing and one day to finish it in!

I liked the podcasts. I searched and listened to some NPR podcasts. I then went to the Library Channel and found several interesting podcasts. I started listening to one on Copyright in an Academic Environment - a topic always of interest. Of course, I didn't have time to listen to the whole thing, but knew I wanted to come back. I bookmarked it on delicious and then added it to my google reader account. It wouldn't work at first until I clicked the RSS button and copied that whole thing into my Google Reader.

This was a quick painless lessons and I will definitely be exploring more fully when I have time.

Week 9 - Thing 20. You Tube- 3s a charm.

I wasn't able to edit and text to my last You Tube video. It was from the SF Peace March on Sunday. I was marching and dancing in front of that Samba band. Now I am going to try and paste in this clip about library work outs. very 80s. Thanks to Ashour for his assistance. It was not clear at all how to post the video from youtube into my blog. Well let's see if it works:

Week 9 - Thing 20. You Tube- revisited.

Week 9 - Thing 20. You Tube

You Tube is great I have used it before. Can I post the chosen video by just pasting the URL? We'll find out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k8BKX2eQ0Q&mode=related&search=

Let me post this and see what happens. I thought this video was fun in a dated kind of way. If this doesn't work, it means I have to sign up with You Tube. Hate keeping track of all these signins

Week 8, Thing 19 - Library Thing.

I had already explored Library Thing on one of the earlier lessons. Since I am a big reader, track all the books I read and belong to two book clubs, I will find this a very useful site. I hadn't seen the "un-suggester" before and got a kick out of that. There seems to be even more to explore on this site, but I will need to come back to it. Once again - out of time. I found it interesting how other libraries are using the site. It's a convenient way to attractively suggest books.

Wikki's Re-visited.

So I went and actually tried to create a Wikki. I used Peanut Butter Wikki. No it is not as easy as making a peanut butter sandwhich. I still don't understand how the whole thing works. It' is the late on a friday afternoon problem. Next week I will need to finish 2.0 and I will make it.

Week 8 - Zoho Writer Continued.

Well, Zoho writer led to some new series of frustrations. Obviously my first attempt at posting right from Zoho Writer didn't work. I then saw the post to blog option. This led to an annoying discovery. I don't know the login and password to this blog. The computer automatically logs me in from my office, but I won't be able to access this from any other computers.

This led me to a series of help questions and emails to myself from Google trying to find the username and password. It didn't recognize my account.

Question for the Virtual Services team or anyone reading this who can assist. How do I find the username and password for my blogspot account?

As far as Zoho Writer is concerned. I can see the advantages of not having to purchase Microsoft Word and having access to all your documents from any computer. I like the little smiley face icons, but as I was playing with it. I ended up getting repeated error messages. When I posted an image - it was not previewed and overly large. Once again I would need more time to really explore this software. Or is it webware? Good to know it's out there.

Week 8, # 18 Zoho Writer.

http://writer.zoho.com/index.do

I'm not sure if this will display or not. My first failed attempt, followed by a successful one.

http://writer.zoho.com/index.do

Week 7, #17 Wikki Sandbox.

I went to the the Learning 2.0 sandbox. Added to the vacation spot list and looked at favorite book recommendations. I added a page for hiking. I usually don't have one favorite anything. Wasn't feeling too creative - but I think we need some more creative categories. I get the general idea here and I'm now ready to test creating a wikki and seeing how it works. I need to go back and watch a few videos, then I will make an attempt.

Week 7, #16 - Wikkis

I enjoyed reading the various library wikkis and have added a few to my RSS feeds. I liked the Stanford library site for book recommendations, the Library Success wikki from a management standpoint, the ALA Conference Wiki gave me ideas and the Albany County staff wikki seems that is a good method to keep track of staff procedures.

We have discussed creating an Access Services wikki, as the head of Local Arrangements we may create a wikki for IUG in San Jose and I can think of several personal uses - including for my book clubs as a way to track and rate books.

Next, I want to create my first wikki. More on that later.

Week 6 - Network Neutrality video

Save the Internet | Rock the Vote

This is an interesting little video I got off one of my copyright sites.

Week 6, 13 Library 2.0

Library 2.0 - I read all the articles - though I didn't get to the main conflict on the topic. I think Library 2.0 - means that we are more interactive, responsive to the needs of our patrons and are poised to become integrated into the digital world. Define the new role of libraries.

Week 6, #14 - Technorati

Well as with many of the sites there is a lot to explore on Technorati and not enough time. I will need to come back and explore in more detail. I watched the video on using Technorati. I do find the videos very helpful as a learning tool. Something the library should invest in as well. I find while trying to explore these sites that it is extremely easy to get side tracked. I go to a site and then I am sucked into reading an article. I see that this is where delicious can be useful because I have just started tagging any article that strikes me. The little icon on the toolbar is very helpful.

As far as tagging in general - since I am new to the concept - it will take awhile before I understand all the implications. I have created a separate blog, but I'm not sure that I want to put it out into the world and have others find it. That is both an attractive thought - to connect with people around the world and it also is appealing to stay under the radar and just involve the people I actually know.

It is surprising that there are over 50 million blogs and over 100.000 added every day. It becomes overwhelming. I am enjoying a lot of the information I am finding on the web. just the tip of the iceberg.

I looked at the Top 100 blogs and most weren't of interest to me. (I did look at the Post Secret blog - where people mail postcards with their secrets written on them. It's like an open intranet Confessional). When I tried to search for library blogs - nothing of interest came up.

Week 6 - #13 - Deli.ico.ous

This will be a quick post - but want to get at least something up about week 6. I liked the Learning 2.0 delicious page - both the tv and food recommendations. I can see this page is already growing as more and more articles are being posted. I thought I would be able to add a video that I found interesting, but it kept going into the delicious account that I set up.

So only whoever owns the account can post to it, but other people can add to the side. I have put it in my RSS feeds, so I'm sure it will get more interesting as more people add to it.

I enjoyed going to the different libraries and seeing how they are using RSS feeds. The video was interesting to learn how you can use other people's recommendations to harvest information on the internet. Find people who you respect and then see what they are reading. I like the idea of RSS feeds bringing you information rather than you going out and having to search for it. I have learned a lot in the last couple lessons. The more I play with it - the wider the implications become.

It is now time to call it a week.

Week 5, #12 Rollyo

Okay - well let's see if I can paste my rollyo search here:

Select...juliesjujujujus hikingSearch The Web

Now that should display as a button. I found this a pretty confusing lesson. I made a hiking search tool and put in a few sites that are of interest to me. I think I would need to add more sites to make this really useful. I'll roll on to the lesson and leave this for now.

Week 5, #11 - Web 2.0 Awards list.

I like maps so I decided to explore Wayfarer at http://www.wayfaring.com/. There was all sorts of interesting stuff on this site. First there were different maps and points of interest that people have created. I was interested in "Haunted places in Dartmoor" so I read about a few of those places.

You can create a map of your life. I decided to try and do that. I took a map of Canada and was going to create a map of where I met my husband, our first road trip together and all the places we have been since. You can mark anyplace on the map. It was cool to be able to get down to the street level in Jasper and remember the town. I liked the combination of satellite and map names, but the satellite can't get into close. Would have liked to see the Canadian Rockies.

I tried marking the road trip - but the navigation wasn't clear on how to do mistakes. I need more time to explore this site. Since I have a map at home with pins in all the places I have been and where Bill and I have been together - it seems that this website could accomplish that in a cool way.

I am going to San Francisco on Sunday - so I did use the map to zero in on the area of San Francisco and street names I need to know. Will have to explore a bit more.

Week 5, # 10 another one.

Here's another one. Hard to decide between the coffee cup and the beach. I'll go with the beach. See if this really works once I post it.

Week 5, #10

Well here's a little something from Toon Generator. This is coming off an hour of Info/Greet. Guess I need more coffee....

Week 4- #9 Find Library blogs or news feeds.

I tried out the various search engines and didn't find much that I liked. I liked that Feedster has a sort by relevance button - the the blogs still weren't that relevant. Topic.net at least gave more relevant information.

I searched the news for some recent attacks on women in Santa Cruz. In addition to the attacks on women I found out that Mountain Lion sitings are on the rise in the area. This is because of the mountain lion attack in northern California where the 65 year old woman saved her 70 year old husband by fighting off a mountain lion by poking a pen in it's eye and when the pen just bent, went back to hammering it with a club. The eeriest thing was that when the mountain lion finally let go - he didn't run away - just glared at her and slowly stalked off. The sad part of the story is that they killed TWO mountain lions, just to see if one of them was the attacker. That's annoying. Now everyone is seeing mountain lions all over Santa Cruz. Six sitings a day. So I'm a little off topic. That's how I find these search engines - they take you off topic. What was I looking for? Oh yes...

Finally - all the advertising is extremely annoying. I hate commercials which is part of the reason I don't watch TV. Now there are commercials on all these web pages, it's getting worse and worse.

In sum, I will probably just find relevant blogs from people I know or subjects of interest and add them to Bloglines as I go, rather than going searching for them. It's late on friday afternoon. I am done with RSS feeds and I'm moving on.

Week 4 - #8 RSS Feeds / Set Up Blog Line Account

This lesson took awhile to sink in. I quickly set up the Blogline account, but then didn't know how to find blogs or sites to put into Blogline. I see this is addressed in thing #9. I spent a lot of time trying to figure this one out. I did somehow set up a Google Alert which started emailing me irrelevant email topics and figured out how to turn that off. I will have to look at Google Alerts, in more detail.

I enjoyed adding the blogs of the library staff in my unit to my Bloglines account - so I can see when they add things to their blogs. I am really enjoying the creativity of the staff blogs.

I have set up some entertainment and fitness article links and I'm enjoying reading them. I will find lots of uses for RSS feeds as I get to use them more.

I think the most confusing things about this lesson was opening all the different accounts and trying to keep track of where you were. Also the way the lesson was set up - it seemed like there was a more direct link between RSS and my new blog, which I never did discover. Onto the next lesson which will probably give me some new sites to add to the Blogline account.

Week 3, #7 - Technology and Nature

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My thoughts on technology this week - I'm thiinking about the best tool to create a photo archive for my hiking group - with photos from the hike, distances covered, dates and participants. I have disliked digital cameras, because there didn't seem to be an easy way to "get" actual copies of the photos. With sites like Flickr though it seems like that is changing. It is interesting seeing all the photos folks have posted.

Week 3, #6 - Explore Flickr Mashup

My creation
Originally uploaded by outdrwoman.

Here I am - lost in Andy's world

Week 3 - #5 Explore Flickr.

Persuasion
Originally uploaded by M@NKeY.

Here's my first photo post from Flickr.

Week 2, #4- Registering the blog.

I just sent the email to Virtual Services Team to register the blog.

Week 2 - Second post.

I find the blogging software a bit frustrating. Two time I haven't been able to save or edit a post. It keeps giving me the message "required field missing" but doesn't say what the required field is. The only solution is to completely leave the site and log back in - which is cumbersome.

It would be nice if there was a spell check in this blog software - but I haven't found it yet. Aha - just went to the Help page and found the spell check instructions. I was editing in HTML, so I didn't see it. That's better.....

Next step is to register my blog with Virtual Services.

Week 2, #3 - First post.

The hardest of the 7 1/2 lifelong learning habits is: "Use technology to your advantage".
In my professional life - technology is everpresent and everchanging, so I use it accordingly. In my private life, I avoid technology. I like to be inaccessible and be able to choose what I watch without commercial sponsorship. I don't watch television (though I do watch DVDs). I don't have a computer at home, since I spend so much of my work time on one. I have a cell phone, but never use it for incoming calls. It took me a long time to get a CD and DVD player. I let technology become well established before I move to it.


The easiest lifelong learning habits: Play. I've got that one down!