Thing #23

Ahhhgggg. I just spent 10 minutes writing how pleased I was to have the opportunity to do these exercises and I lost it. So here I go again. I am grateful to administration for encouraging us to take time to learn and play with new technology. I learned a great deal and am very excited to start using more of these great sites. I also believe I am better able to serve my customers with this new knowledge. This has been one of the best things I have done. I love learning new things. I will be encouraging everyone to explore these great applications. Got to run....I'm on the desk.

Thing #22

OK, I always was intimidated by MOLDI. I can't believe how easy it was to download a book. Next I'll try to download to my blackberry. I think it's the name. It just sounds scary.

Thing #21

Podcasts. Oh, if only I had all the time in the world. I love the ease of podcasts; listening to my favorites like selected shorts and storycorp, etc. when I have the time. My Yahoo made it extremely easy to download. I also downloaded Salt Lake Cities Library Podcast, but was disappointed as it hasn't been updated in a long while. I have lots of uses for using podcasts. I just wish I had the time!

Thing #20

I am trying to post a video from YouTube, but so far it isn't working even though I know this is easy as pie. YouTube is a great source for fun and education. The clips we watched for learn and play were found on YouTube and they were great.

Thing #19

CML's Power Tools. I had known this existed, but never had the time to look at it more closely. I like what I saw. Interesting blog. I explored stumbleupon and am interested in going back and exploring boingboing and MAKE. I only wish the link to our power tools was a lot bigger. Hopefully our customers will stumble across it.

Thing #18

Social Networking Sites. Wow. I could spend a long time on these. I looked at Craigs List (something I have heard many people talk about but never look at myself), Pandora's Box (listening to some Nora Jones right now) and a couple other ones. I'm not certain exactly how I could use these applications for work, but I can certainly see how they might make life easier. I will come back to this and explore more when I have some time.

Thing #17

I just got done exploring google docs and it looks like a great tool for collaboration. I only wish I had known about this a month ago when I was writing the RFP and requesting feedback from others. I also liked google calendars. I wonder if we could combine staff schedules on this and use it to come up with a public service schedule.... I look forward to exploring this site in more detail. On to Thing #18.

Thing #16

What a disappointment. I sent in my name to be granted permission, received an email that I had received permission, but every time I tried to edit it said I did not have access. After 30 minutes of frustration I gave up. I'll come back again tomorrow and try again.

Thing #15

I can see great uses for Wikis, especially as we work on projects collaboratively. For example, though not a high priority, we can get our staff acquainted to wikis by having staff sign up for our holiday pot luck. We have a new Main Library Display committee who could use a wiki for organizing display placement, who is responsible for filling, etc. A wiki could be used for anything where we need collaboration. It would be interesting to see how teens might use one in the library...

Thing #14

Web 2.0 is an interesting concept. How can libraries get involved in the social use and networking of the world wide web. I think this has tremendous impact on the Center for Discovery. Collection Development and floating has shown that our collection need not be as big as it once was. Do we still need mainstays and staples? Absolutely. We wouldn't be a good children's library without certain books. But, 2.0 affects our entire idea of our non-fiction collection. We simply do not need to maintain as much as a physical collection. What about training kids on using the library. It is no longer acceptable to show them how to use the dewey decimal system. We need to be instructing them on finding and evaluating websites, on using social networking tools, on finding information on the computers. Perhaps we should take out 1/2 our shelving and replace it with computers and staff who can show children, teens, and their parents how to use/find information from technology. Books are never going to go away...but how we access information is going to change drastically. The Center for Discovery needs to be at the forefront of this movement.

Thing #13

Ok, Del.ici.lous is absolutely delicious! I can hardly wait to show my staff this website and have us start saving our favorites on it. This is like one stop shopping for all the links we need to use. I also love the fact that it can be brought up on any computer. How many times have I remembered a site we put in our favorites, but I'm at a different computer. I'm really excited about the possibilities.