Week 8 Thing 19 Web 2.0 Award Winners

I looked at the list of winners and honorable mentions and saw that we've already expolored a few of them. Nice to know we are working with the "elite!" I ran down the list and since I'm not really a techie sort, chose Zillow.com in the Real Estate area. It was neat to look at a geographic area, select from the properties on the market, and see what's available, recently sold, etc. Clicking on a little flag brought up more information about the property. Now. To find the perfect place to retire.

I also looked at Etsy.com That was one I'd heard about...even have a friend who is marketing her yarns there. It makes an easy place to locate craftsmen who for one reason or another, don't have a dedicated website (yet!) I saw some lovely items that might be the perfect thing for a special gift.

I'll have to come back and explore the list more...there's just way too much to digest! I know I want to look at ColorBlocker in more depth....

Week 8 Thing 18 Online productivity continued

Had a good time looking at the pages of templates for use in Zoho Writer. Good starting point. I can see using Zoho in a variety ways both at work and at home....

Week 8 Thing 18 Online productivity

I find the idea of having my documents, drivel, ramblings, whatever available wherever I can access a computer quite intriguing!  No more will I have to remember where on earth I've left my 'brain' (travel drive or removable storage device...whatever.) 

 

All the little icons look familiar too, well, perhaps not all of them but at least I have a vague idea of what they're capable of doing...or in the case of my typing, undoing.

 

The website was clear, as were the FAQs.  It was super easy to create...yet another account.  I can see the value of this and look forward to using in a collaborative environment.  Perhaps some of our library school students will be able to use this for their course work!

Knitters......

I stumbled on ravelry.com which is still in beta testing but check it out, fellow knitters! Looks like it could be an interesting place...

The picture is one I took after a dyeing workshop with everyones' efforts spread out. Neat, huh?

Week 7 Thing 17 Playing in the Sandbox

Well, I think I sent the Adult Services Supervisors a wiki invitation to a posting from another library in Maryland who will be participating in The Big Read. Hope it works. I also posted to a couple of the wikis in the Favorites. The whole thing worked easily. Or am I becoming more accustomed to working with these things???

Week 7 Thing 16 Wikis

Of the wiki sites I visited, I liked Library 2.0 in 15 Minutes a Day. The simplicity of some of the explanations was appreciated. Princeton's wiki hasn't been updated since Sept. 2006...and the book for the summer of 2007 is nowhere to be found. I checked out the 2007 wiki for ALA in Washington but didn't see some of the helpful comments I'd seen on previous ALA wikis...too soon? or too late??? Is Bull Run's really a wiki? I checked out some of the connections from MERLIN. It's so hard to keep all this stuff up-to-date. I've even noticed on our own wiki for teams, things sometimes lag. I'm not sure wikis are the first place people look for information nor apparently have we really used them for real interactive participation in a project as yet. Maybe in the future? If they stay around long enough to become a part of the vernacular....things come and go so quickly.....

Just got a picture of one of my new babies, Kona. She is a four-month-old Shetland/Blue-faced Leicester cross with a dark, fine fleece. She came with an older companion, Finoula, a BFL with a crooked hip; both have been tentatively accepted into the flock. Dolly only chases them from time to time!

Thing 13 continued....

I tried several times on different days to view the highly recommended Del.icio.us video tutorial only to have it unavailable. Did anyone else find this?

Week 6 Thing 15 Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

There's a lot to digest with this thing. I think CCPL is working very hard to be a 2.0 place...we are customer-oriented (internal and external), we believe in change, and 23 Things is an example of trying to become more aware of what's out there. One of the concepts that I find somewhat challenging is the idea that everything is beta! Also to get our customers be more participatory will be a challenge. I'm not sure exactly how that can be done other than asking them over and over...what did you think of X? What did you like? Not like? What will libraries be like in the future? I'm not really sure but I want to be there!

Week 6 Thing 14 Technorati

I looked at Technorati, including the little video about using its new features. My mind is boggled at all the bloggles. I found a tag search to be the most effective. Blog posts and Blog Directory brought in many items that were too remote to my search. Gee, tags work like keywords! I looked at the top faves, searches, and blogs. Techie people like to read techie things. So many of the sites/blogs were so busy I couldn't be bothered to read them. I have discovered that knitters are bloggers but not weavers. Will have to think about that...when I have time. I think a lot of this is becoming redundant...so many ways to get to the same place. Will have to pick my own fave...maybe that will be my Thing 24....

Week 6 Thing 13 del.icio.us

Lip-smacking good! Think I like Del.icio.us but will have to explore further. The idea of not being tied to a particular computer for my favorite sites is a good thing. I tried to view the tutorial but it wasn't available (too many librarians trying to access???) I looked at some of the links suggested by our 23 gurus and was able to view comments....other than the ones in foreign languages, many of the comments didn't appear to be all that enlightening. I did read about Flock which does sound interesting...at least another visit...sometime.....

Week 5 Thing 12 Rollyo

I didn't find Rollyo very interesting and only vaguely useful. It seems to be nothing more than a list of favorite sites under a particular heading. I looked at some other Rollyos but found many sites were blocked by our filtering!! Wonder what kinky things were there! I did think the Quick Quotes might be somewhat helpful but would probably use our database or Google before I'd go through the effort of Rollyo. That being said, I did create a Rollyo and if you highlight the link, you'll see what I selected.

http://www.rollyo.com/search.html?q=dyes&sid=300538

Week 5 Thing 11 LibraryThing

WOW! What an incredible place! My TBR pile just went Rocky Mountain High!!! I could probably spend the entire year just wandering through everybody's LibraryThing...There isn't a shelf big enough to hold all I want to read.... I will probably regret subscribing to LT's blog.....

Week 5 Play Week Thing 10

Carolyn had one of these on her blog and I wanted one too!

Express Yourself with Gizmoz Video Clips

Hope you enjoy this bit of silliness.

Week 5 Play Week Online Image Generator

I discovered this one on The Generator Blog. Enjoy it! I did! Copy and paste this to see a special message!

http://www.paperboy.nl/?PID1=%3C%3F%25R9D%5DZ3%5C0R7V%3C4%3FFA%2FU%5EJI5150HTQ%3CK17%22%2E%5E%20%20%20%0A

I'm off to play some more.....

Week 4 Thing 8 RSS

RSS....hhhmmm, now I can group all those things I probably won't get time to read anyway!! Actually I can see the value of this when I want to follow a particular topic on a website/blog. Being alerted to a new post will keep me up-to-date. I can see how this could be a really helpful tool for libraries (or any entity) to get their messages and news out to their customers. I didn't know what RSS was before this exercise but had noticed the little symbols but will our customers be willing to experience 23 Things? We'll need to promote the whole concept...over time. I can see this being devoured by the "omnivores" but think many of our customers (possibly not savvy teens) aren't quite there yet.

Week 4 Thing 9 MERLIN

Well, this week has proven frustrating. I managed to do Thing 8 and was ready to work on Thing 9. No computers. Two days (one attending a workshop) without computers while doing 23 Things is a slight handicap. I did spend considerable time at home trying to subscribe to more feeds. The searching mechanisms for Feedster, Topix.net, Syndic8.com and Technorati didn't work that well for what I wanted. Some of the feeds didn't appear to have anything to do with my search. I think I will probably subscribe when I find an RSS feed that interests me and subscribe that way. I can understand the "convenience" of RSS feeds but now I have to find the time to check in with my feeds!