Week 9, #23 - I'm done!

Unbelievable! I'm finally finished. First of all, this whole thing took many more hours than we were told it would take. The exercises which required us to be creative or to come up with a list of websites to do something with took me hours because I am not creative. I would DEFINITELY change the course to provide examples that non-creative students could use to practice the technology. I am glad that I was exposed to all of this new technology, but I doubt if I will use most of it. A lot of weeks, all I could think is that there are a lot of people out there who are spending WAY too much time on their computer. People need to walk a dog, get outside, get some exercise, talk to REAL PEOPLE. But yes, if a follow-up course is offered and I can earn CEUs, I would take another course. Hopefully, the format of the next one will be improved.

Week 9, #22 - Audio books

I had to explore Project Gutenberg because our library does not subscribe to the other two sites. I found several books that I would like to download, including the books on the Wizard of Oz, and Jane Austen's works. In fact, I would love to volunteer with Librivox to record more audiobooks that are in the public domain.

Week 9, #21 - Podcasts

I found some podcasts that were book reviews recorded by teens. I think that that would be a wonderful way to get students more involved in the library and reading.

Week 9, #20 - YouTube, ITube, WeallTube

Here is my proposed solution to all staffing shortage problems in our library system.




Regarding my opinion of the YouTube site, there is a lot of material on there that would be inappropriate for a library website. However, some people feel free to be very creative there.

Week 8, #19 - Web 2.0 Award-winning Site

I explored Yahoo Answers since, as a reference librarian, I provide answers for people. I found a lot of strange questions and answers on the site. The idea is for anyone to answer your question, so you have no idea whether they know what they are talking about or not. I could imagine some use in a library setting, for example in answering questions that would require local information from somewhere else. If a patron had a question about Montana or Minnesota, it might be possible to get information through Yahoo Answers. Again, you would have to be able to verify the information.

Week 8, #18 - Online Productivity Tools

I love the idea of having a document which other people could access from anywhere (if that is what you want and/or need). I explored Google Docs. It has most of the basic features of MS Word, with the advantage that documents can easily be shared. You would need to be careful to not do anything confidential, in terms of patrons or personnel, because the document is being saved on the Google server. You are also becoming more dependent on Google, so if they decided to start charging for the service in the future, you would have to pay them to continue using your documents.

Week 7, #17 - Sandbox Wiki

I added my blog to the list of Favorite Blogs in the Maryland Libraries Sandbox yesterday. I don't know what to say except that it was easy to do. I didn't follow our instructions exactly. I just copied and pasted the URL into a new, blank line. I hope that that worked.