Thing 18 continued

I posted the previous blog directly from Zoho Writer. I thought it would stop where I could add to it but it went straight to a blog. It was very easy to use. I'm going to have to play around with it some more. As I said in Zoho Writer, I'd like to see a online database that could be used. I already use Google Calendars. Thats nice because we have one for each member of the family and superimpose all into one calendar, that way we can keep track of each other and what's coming up.

Thing 18

This is my practice document in Zoho Writer. The word processing is easy to use with symbols similar to Microsoft Write or Word Perfect. You can select different texts, fonts, formating styles. All in all, it seems like it would be very helpful/useful and a heck of a lot cheaper than Microsoft office or Word perfect. Now, I'd like to see an online database!

Thing 17 Wiki sandbox

I had a lot of fun with this one. I first added a couple of authors to one of the librarian's wikipage. Then I added my favorite spot to the favorite vacation page. It was very easy to use. I also found a hidden page, one that wasn't linked to the home page and linked it. It was about one of my favorite things, knitting. Thinking of knitting and vacations, one of my favorite times is sitting by water (lake, river, ocean, pool, you name it) listening to a recorded book and knitting. Just my idea of heaven!

Thing #16 wikis

I really enjoyed learning about wikis. I've thought of all sorts of uses for them. I especially liked the "Library 2.0 in 15 minutes a day" and plan to do that one when I'm done with 23 Things. Can't learn too much, can we?

I thought the St. Joseph County wiki was very easy to use and very comprehensive. I did notice that they only allow librarians to edit. This makes sense for some of the sections, like new books at the library. I thought it would be helpful to them if their patrons could edit such things as what to do and see in the area, etc. Things not directly related to the library. I don't know if you can make only certain sections of pages available to be edited as most of the pages have books listed on the topics.

I thought Princeton's Book Lover page was great. It looks like anyone can sign up for that. It's nice to see what people are saying about the books and seeing the list of 5 star books.

All the ALA ones looked interesting. I even found the one for DC! They really had a lot of good information for out of town guests. If I ever go to one of those conferences (hint, hint....) I'd make sure to hunt up the wiki to plan before I go.

I noticed the Bull Run wiki mentions Marylands 23 things and also mentions Merlin. I'm still a little miffed at Merlin, I signed up for it June 18th as part of this and still haven't received the password to use it. Grumble, Grumble. I did like Bull Run's wiki. They have a lot of interesting links. It looks like you can sign in to edit, but I couldn't find where to set up an account so I think that's how they limit who can edit. I figure you have to work for or go to the library to created an account.

I think by far the most helpful thing in learning about wikis was listening to and following the slides of a talk given by Meredith Farkas. I found the link on her "Wikis: A beginner's look", at the bottom on the page there are links to part 1&2 of the podcast with the slides.

Now to go play in the sandbox as the next thing is called.

Thing 15 Library2.0

I read all the perspectives and have decided to write about "Away from Icebergs". The thing that caught my attention about this was his view that we should get rid of our "just in case" collection. I agree/disagree on this. There is a lot more current reliable information on the web that can be accessed, but schools haven't caught on yet. We get so many kids in that need "books" on certain subjects. They aren't supposed to get the information from the net. I think we need to educate teachers about reliable sources on the net. You can get information on so many more people on Biography Resources than we can hope to carry in the library. But the kids still need a book on that person. Information on geopolitical and other rapidly changing topics is much more up to date on the web than is possible in books.

Rick Anderson's next topic was having interfaces that were easy enough to use that we didn't have to teach patrons how to use them. This would be nice, but I don't think it will happen. There are always people out there that are so intimidated by technology and fear of blowing up the computer that they will need help with anything new. There are also people in a hurry that don't want to take the time to figure out new programs, just show them so they can get their information. For the people that like to figure things out for themselves and like to play around, easier computer interfaces would be a gift. Kind of like these 23 things, it would be nice to have someone sit down and show me how to use them, but most of my coworkers are learning it along with me.

As for his final topic, us bringing more services to our patrons, I think we're making progress. There are so many magazines, newspapers, databases, you name it out there. Many of these have a fee to use them. When your library subscribes to them in a way that you can access them from home then, I think, we're addressing that need.

In conclusion I think we're doing a pretty good job balancing the old and new. We have our books, newspapers, magazines, and we offer access to them and more online.

#14 Technorati

I'm not sure if anyone else ran into this problem, but the technorati on the web looked different from the Technorati in the video snipit. The main problem with this was in #2 for this assignment that the search wouldn't let you decide where to search. In the video it showed the search field divided in half, first half for your term and second half to choose between Blog posts, tags and Blog Directory. There was just one open search field so there was no way to compare between the different searches. I thought this might be a problem because I wasn't a member so I joined and still couldn't fine the search like the one in the video. Anybody else run into this? Anybody figure out how to get to the search where you could choose? Let me know.

As with all the other sites we've checked into for Learning 2.0, this one will take many hours (I've already spent 2 today) playing with the features to figure out how to best use it and to become comfortable with it. As with the others, it seems like this will be very helpful. It does get to be a little overwhelming, all these sites that will ultimately save you time, take a lot of time to learn.

Now to things I should be doing on the Fourth of July. Going down to Solomons Island to listen to the music and watch the fireworks!

Thing 13 Del.icio.us

Okay, created a del.icio.us account. I was tagging knitting websites just for practice. It's really easy to tag the websites, once you add the tag icon in the browser toolbar. It's also very easy to search, though I am having trouble with one thing. When I do a search on a tag I have, it only shows my sites with that tag. If I do a search on a tag I don't have it will bring up pages of sites. Then when I again do the search on a tag I have, it will bring mine up first then other peoples sites with the same tag. Like all the things I've tried for this training, I think del.icio.us will be very useful. It's just going to take some practice to set it up in a way I'll find useful. If you'd like to see my page, it's at http://del.icio.us/Libraryworkabn (can't use"-" in your name).