Thing #23, thoughts on this project

Overall, I really liked this project. I learned a lot.

One thing I learned was to try new things on the internet - most of them are easy to use. There are so many new applications popping up and we as librarians should be on the look out for the ones that we can use in our work and lives.

#22, Teach someone

I really like Library Thing and thought my mother in law would too. So I taught her the basics of it. It took less than 10 minutes and she was thrilled. I taught her how to log in and out, how to add a book and the different ways of viewing and organizing the books.

She wants to use it to catalog her entire collection of books!

Thing #21, tools for locating podcasts

Of course, iTunes is the place for finding iTunes podcasts.

I looked at Yahoo Audio which was useful. I liked the fact that you can look for online music stores, or on the web, or at podcasts.

I thought podcastalley.com and its directory to be a bit more useful. It wasn't incredibly inuitive to use. But I liked what I was able to find.

Thing #20, YouTube and other such sites

I looked at YouTube, the most popular site for videos that people upload. I also looked at google video which not only is a site for uploading videos, but it also lets you seach for "all videos" on the net. I liked metacafe.com's slide preview option. You don't have to watch the video in order to get an idea what it is about. Metatube says it searches 100 video sharing sites. But mostly I just got results for YouTube.

Thing #19, My Maps on Google Maps

This was the hardest thing for me so far. I could easily make a map on Google and save it. I could upload a picture to Flickr.com. But putting the 2 together was agonizing for me. P. had to help me - twice. I made 2 maps: one for the library and 1 for my house (the one for the house is private - email me if you want me to put you on the list of people who can access it). I had to make sure I at least got the concept.

As for use in LibraryLand: well, it is nice that people could see what the lbrary looks like if they use google maps to find it.

Thing #18, Google Docs

So I looked at google docs and created a document. I want to be to share the document with my computer classes volunteer. (It's a document saying when the classes are.) I think it's great because they'd never be able to use the excuse that they lost the paper version as a reason not to show up.

Thing #17, Add an entry to InfoPeople's Wiki

Well, that was easy. Log in, click on edit and type away. The hardest part was figuring out what to say. In the end I repeated part of my last post about interesting wikis done by libraries.

Thing #16, Learn about Wikis

The definition of wiki according to wikipedia.org is

"A wiki is software that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages easily. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites."

Lots of libraries use wikis. There were two popular uses I found: 1) descriptive/informational wikis (where is the library, holdings, history of the library etc) and 2) subject guides or pathfinders.

Some of the more unique ways of using wikis were:

a Library 2.0 learning wiki (Arlington Public Library)
a Worldcat search function on a wiki (Bull Run Library)
Book Lovers' Wiki where people reviewed books (Princeton Public Library)
handouts and outlines of classes (Akron-Summit County Public Library
library volunteers wiki (Tulsa County Library)
the library policies and procedures as a wiki (Taunton Public Library)

Thing #15: perspectives on Library 2.0

I read the 2 suggested readings and here is my blog about them.

First of all, I've decided that Library 2.0 is a vague term and no one can agree on what it means. Without a solid definition, you can't really talk about it. So I've decided what it means to me. It's those web applications which are often open-source and collaborative, that can be brought into the library for use on our computers and which serve our patrons in some way, and may even involve patrons.

I am omitting coffee counters and rock concerts and gaming tournaments from the definition. I think those are great ways to serve patrons, but aren't really Library 2.0.

Wikis, folksonomies/tagging and social networking can all be called part of Library 2.0. And there are more. The idea is to bring better and more varied service to more people via the Web.

We need also to think about those who have no computer, but that's beyond Library 2.0 in my definition.

There are some caveats mentioned on page 19 of the Library 2.0 and the future of libraries article (the Charles W Bailey Jr section). If a library is to have a blog or wiki which is then open to alteration or comments by the public, you really have to watch out for some things. The three mentioned are libel, fiction presented as facts and intellectual property violations. I think that is one of the most important points I came away with. Libraries are trusted sources of information. I wouldn't want to damage that reputation.

I thought one idea mentioned was worthy of looking into for Yorba Linda Public Library. One is based on "Picture Ann Arbor". I'd love to see patrons and users letting us scan in pictures of an older Yorba Linda for all to see on the web site. I'd also like to see written stories of old Yorba Linda.

Thing #14, Technorati

Of all the things I've looked at so far, this was the least useful.

I explored Technorati both by doing searches and also by clicking on the tags. But I'm not sure I learned "how tags work with blog posts."

One thing is that I decided to tag my own posts.

Thing #13, del.icio.us

I have now tagged some library 2.0 websites. It was quite easy. What I foudn difficult was to tag other sites which do not have the del.icio.us icon on them. My understanding is that I would put it on the computer I'm using and then it would be easy. Since I'm sharing a computer, it seemed unfair to add something like that without permission.

I can certainly see the value of del.icio.us. I'd like to be able to use all my bookmarks no matter which computer I'm using. I think it'd also be useful to combine them into a Yorba Linda Public Library set and have subject specialists add bookmarks as indicated.

Thing #12 Rollyo and Ning

ROLLYO

I went to the Rollyo site today. I experimented with searching with the pre-made Rollyo searches and also made my own.

I can see how this would be pretty cool. If we have a lot of questions of a certain type, then we could use this to do "hand-made" searches of particular web-sites.

The one I made was for science fiction and fantasy works and issues (of course).

This would be really handy if our subject specialists could make Rollyo search sites and then all the rest of us could use them. We could have a business one, a local history/genealogy one, a law one, and so forth.

NING

I really had fun with Ning. I decided to add a Yorba Linda history ning community. I'm all excited because I could add pictures. I could also put up information on the Pink Lady (alledged ghost in a YL cemetery) as well as anything else I could think of.

Since it's a social site, others (like maybe the Historical Society) might want to join and add information. We could link to it from our library website/YL history web site. I already put a link to the yorbalindahistory.org web site on the ning community.

Thing #11 - LibraryThing

I loved LibraryThing. I think it's a great way to 1) keep a record of what I buy and 2) keep a record of what I read from the library.

I don't know if there's a way to connect OPACs to LibraryThing but what a lovely way to record reviews and tags.