Thing #15 (Week 6)

Perspectives on Web 2.0 and the Future of Libraries:

In the OCLC Newsletter, Tom Storey posed the question about "Web 2.0 and Where Will it Take Libraries?" I read the following responses:

Away from Icebergs by Rick Anderson of U. of Nevada, Reno Libraries
Into a New World of Librarianship by Michael Stephens, Librarian, Blogger
To more powerful ways to cooperate by Chip Nilges, VP OCLC

My response:
I am overwhelmed by the change that school libraries are facing. In order to succeed, do we as librarieans need to move our services into the world of the users instead of asking the users to come to us? As we consider this type of change, librarians will need to explore the world of the Read/Write Web to see what it offers us. Putting it another way, we will need to examine whether the model(s) we use to teach information literacy is (are) still relevant. We need to ask if we can, or should be, using Web 2.0 to teach students how to find, use and synthesize information. (Or, is Web 2.0 so intuitive, they can teach themselves?) For many of us, learning Web 2.0 represents a steep learning curve and an investment of time and energy. Are we up to the challenge?

More questions than answers, I guess.

Thing #14 (Week 6)

Technorati

I am starting to tire from the vastness of Web 2.0.

I explored Technorati and, as directed in the discovery exercises, conducted different types of searches using the key words:
"School Library Learning 2.0"

Blog Post Search:
On the advanced search page I noticed this statement:
"If you only want to search blog posts, try search.technorati.com."
I followed the instructions and got 2,056 hits. I looked at the first two pages of hits. I noticed some big names in the library world and a fair amount of repetition.

Tags Search:
This search netted just 27 hits - many of them from people who have taken this class.

Blog Directory Search
18 hits. Nearly all the hits were from people blogging their course assignments for School Library Learning 2.0.

I also visited Popular page on Technorati and explored popular blogs, searches and tags. All I can say is, who has time for all of this? I find reading people's blogs a bit tedious and would rather read a good book instead!

I am still learning about tagging. I am starting to use tags on del.cio.us and flickr. Mostly for my own use however. I still don't like to make my work "public." I guess the jury is still our on whether I am going to use tags to share my searches, photos, blogs etc. with the world at large. Sign of my age I guess.

Thing #13 (Week 6)

del.icio.us

I have an a/c with del.icio.us already so I did not spend too much time on this assignment. I did listen to the Santa Cruz Public Library tutorial to see if I could learn something new. I found I was familiar with everything covered in the first tutorial. I also browsed SJLibraryLearning2 del.icio.us site. Lots of interesting library links there.

Interesting that the SCPL posted the tutorial to YouTube. Unfortunately, I found the video blurry and hard to read.

I use Del.icio.us as a place to bookmark web sites. I find it very convenient b/c I can access it from any computer with Internet access. I haven't figured out a school library use for it yet. In my h.s. library, we create pathfinders with print and online resources that are posted to the library Web site. Students can access the pathfinders from school or home. It might be useful to catalog the sites we use on del.icio.us for easy access in the future. Not sure yet.

B4 signing off, I decided to browse another of the recommended Del.icio.us sites. I clicked on "Several Habits of wildly successful Del.icio.us users," only to find the URL is now used by "Slacker Manager."

On to the next lesson.

Thing #12 (Week 5)

Rollyo
My husband and I are planning a trip to Senegal in March. We will visit our son who is on a semester-abroad program there.
I set up an a/c with Rollyo and created a Searchroll on Senegal. The sites I added to the Searchroll include information on tourism, geography (maps and stuff), politics, etc.

Here is the URL:
http://rollyo.com/bmarnie/senegal/

I found the whole idea of Rollyo confusing. Seems to me it is easier to use del.icio.us. Perhaps I am missing the point?

Here is the search box for my Searchroll:

Select Search Engine...SenegalSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

Barb, thanks for the recommendation on Zoho (comment posted to Thing #11). I love it. My husband and I share a Zoho doc where we are creating a list of things to take to Senegal. Problem is we are having major problems with the Internet at work. Slow, slow, slow. Until a solution is found, I cannot recommend Web 2.0 applications to staff. Too frustrating for them.

Thing #11 (Week 5)

Web 2.0 Award Winners

From the Web 2.0 Award Winner site:
http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0#cat_43

I decided to look at winners in the organizer category. The top three are
Google, ZoHo and BackPack.
I felt a little smug as I am already familar with Google and Backpack. At work we share our book selections on Google docs using an Excel-type format. I have an account with BackPack and particularly like their calendar app.

Today I discovered Zoho
http://zoho.com/

According to the description, ZoHo :
"Includes Writer, Spreadsheet, Show, Wiki, Virtual Office, Project management, planner and chat feature. A complete office experience in one, users can take advantage of all or some of Zoho’s features."

I poked around the applications and looked at the calendar, presentation (similar to PPT) and online documents. Looks to be extremely easy to use. The overall look of Zoho is similar to Google. Simple in appearance but complex in what it can do. Very impressive.

I also looked at Goowy Webtop, an online desktop application:
http://www.goowy.com/webtop/
Includes e-mail, chat, and other applications. Similar in many ways to the Google, Zoho and Backpack organizers. I did not spend too much time on Goowy as I am happy with what I have.

Gotta love the names...

With all this free online stuff, who needs MicroSoft Office anymore?

I am now overwhelmed and need to stop. Ning will have to wait.

Thing # 10 (Week 5)

This assignment was fun. I tried 3 image generators I found on The Generator Blog.
http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/

I created a clip of a friend dancing in lederhosen and sent it to her daughter who is studying in Vienna. The generator site, sponsored by McDonald's, allows the user to put a photo on an animated body dressed in lederhosen. (Did any of you get holiday greetings from friends with dancing elves - sponsored by Office Max. Same kind of thing.) The instructions are in German. Fortunately I found instructions in English on the The Generator Blog. They were not comprehensive however and my high school German was of little use. After a few blips, I figured out what to do.
http://www.huettengaudi.de/flash.php

In celebration of Valentine's Day, I created a chocolate bar and a loving smiley face.

http://www.glassgiant.com/chocolate_bar/

http://www.ezsmiley.com/create.php

Now I am hungry!

Thing # 9 (Week 4)
The hours slip away as I explore various blog sites. I explored the Edublog award-winning site at http://edublogawards.com/and-the-winners-are/
and found two blogs I particularly liked:

• Suffern Middle School blog. The teacher blogger provides a running commentary on projects done at the school using Second Life. I found the blog confusing to read b/c it is in reverse chronological order. There were so many posts I limited myself to a few and chose not to go back to the beginning. Pretty amazing stuff the staff at the school is creating. Take a look: http://rampoislands.blogspot.com/

• A Library By Any Other Name - an award winning library blog at: http://alibraryisalibrary.blogspot.com/. The librarian blogger appears to be a techie. She has a great avatar that clearly was NOT created on Yahoo. I would love to know how she did it. One of her posts was about mapping web sites. I mapped my school library website and found it very cool. See Web Sites as Graphs at: http://www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/

I did a "Blog Search" on Google using the key words "high school libraries." One of the best blogs I found included book reviews plus sites related to reading. Interested? Go to: http://wrhslibrary.blogspot.com/

Last week I signed up for the Reader's Club Latest Blog on Google Reader. When I was checking the site yesterday, I found a book review that I forwarded to one of my friends. I don't believe I would have come across that review otherwise.

I plan to unsubscribe to the NPR Topics Blog today. I am overwhelmed with the number of postings to that site. I keep marking them the updates "as read" because there are too many to read.

Go Pats!