Week 7 # 17 Technology

My husband works for a university in their distance education department. So I get to see a lot of the technology that he uses to help students attend lectures even though they may be miles away from the professor. How incredible is that! This technology has enabled people who due to transportation needs, geographical location or employment constraints would have not had the opportunity to pursue an advanced degree.

This same technology of online courses has helped library students get their MLS even though they can't go to Denton or Austin.

Technology----good!

Week 7 # 16 Wikis

This was an interesting exercise. I enjoyed looking at the resources especially the fourth one - Using wikis to create online communities. Beyond the library applications like the subject guide etc. I was particularly interested in the part about using it to connect to your local community. I could easily see how it could be beneficial to La Porte, for example a school activities wiki.

I also explored the Sandbox a bit. I added my blog and added a few favorite movies.

I can see how a wiki would help with project work when the members are at different branches.It's kind of like a conference call but without everyone having to be online at the same time.

Week 6 # 15 Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

In reading the various articles about Library 2.0, I find that this very program iHCPL is right in line with the philosophy of Library 2.0 It is equipping us to better serve our customers.

The first article "Away from icebergs" speaks of rethinking the "just in case collection." We are certainly moving in that direction especially in our honing down of the print reference collection.
With our eBranch and remote access for databases and other library services, we are also changing the "come to us" model of which the writer speaks.

Another of the articles "To a temporary place in time" reminds us that Library 2.0 will in time yield to a newer understanding of library service. I wonder if the new young librarians will one day look back on Library 2.0 as the good old days as they in turn face an evolving library system.

What Library 2.0 means to me - It means keeping up with new trends, new technologies, and new delivery systems. Yet the foundation of librarianship will remain unchanged. For what drew us to this field is the desire to connect the customer with the information requested in the best and most reliable fashion.

Week 6 # 14 Technorati

Ok, so I signed up on Technorati and claimed my blog. I did the searches on Learning 2.0. At the time I did them the keyword search produced 6,589 results, the tag search - 637, and the directory 681. So there was a big difference in the searches.

I explored some popular blogs - Boing Boing, Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide, and Huffington Post. I am going to try to add a Technorati tag to my blog.

iHCPL

Week 6 # 13

I watched the tutorial and dived into del.icio.us. I looked around at the iHCPL account and could see even more of the avatar sites that I didn't explore earlier. I went on and opened my own account and worked with the instructions to add the bookmarklets to my tool bar. I tried the download first and of course, that didn't work. So I then went through adding them as links to my favorites.

I added several knitting sites to my account. These are for recreational use. I then did try several searches as if I were addressing a reference question. I am not sure how useful this would be at the ref desk because you are still coming up with a list of websites that you need to evaluate for authority not just how many people are linked to it. However, it is great to have one more tool to use when you are delving into the Internet for research.

Week 5 # 12

This exercise was very easy to accomplish. I entered all my family's cards and will look forward to being reminded about the grandchildren's due dates.

This only thing I kind of wondered about was having a third party company being able to go into the HCPL site and get information. Is this something to worry about?

Week 5 # 11 Library Thing

I put a few books on my blog from Library Thing. I will be adding more to my list.

Week 5 # 10

I made myself a little Meez cheerleader for my Discovery exercise. Cute huh!

Cheers

Week 4 Exercise # 9 Searching for feeds

I explored Technorati but found it a bit confusing. Feedster seemed more straightforward. I created a widget with John Edwards feeds but haven't put it on my blog as yet. I did a search on politics and added Huffington Post to my blogline feeds. I looked over Topix but did not want to get involved with any of the forums.

As another way of finding feeds I did a simple Google search on liberal political news and found several feeds to choose from.

I guess you can surmise from my searches that I am one of those liberal, progressive, Texas Democratic types. Why yes I am and proud to be so!

Week 4 Discovery Activity #8

This first exercise was easy for me because I have had a bloglines account for a couple of years now. I did add the 10 news feeds to the ones I already had and I subscribed to about four of the iHCPL blogs.