Week Eight, Exercise Nineteen

I've been using Shelfari for the last year with my book club and since Amazon has bought it recently I expect improvements beside a link to buy what you are admiring. So, I didn't think I'd be impressed with Library Thing, but I was. I enjoyed the "How Libraries Are Using Library Thing" article, and plan to utilize the LT widgets on my webpage. I'm not sure about linking LT to my OPAC yet. I'll think about it.

Week Eight, Exercise Eighteen

Zoho Writer is offline today, so I explored Google Sites. I have been using Gmail for several years now, and when I found out about Academic Gmail, I moved the faculty and administration email to this free service. Which incidentally is leaps and bounds better than what we were paying for. Consequently, we have been using Google Docs at least two years for collaborating and editing. I also use it to keep a log of my PO numbers and track fulfillment and back orders. The teachers use Google Chat to see if I'm at my desk before making the trip to the library, and teachers that use Academic Gmail or Gmail from other schools in the Archdiocese can see when I'm online and send a message. So, I was very interested in Google Sites for student clubs and teachers that want their own web space. I did create a web page, and it was very easy to use and upload documents. I couldn't find the space limitation and that could be problematic. I guess, I'll live and learn.

Week Seven, Exercise Sixteen, Sixteen A and Seventeen

I signed up for the PB Wiki Back to School Challenge—God help me. I don’t know what that will be, but in the fullness of time, gulp, I’m sure I’m up to it. “A free premium wiki” sounds good. It also sounds scary. I followed the step-by-step instructions that PB Wiki emailed me each day for seven days to encourage me, and I played in the sandbox of the Pennsylvania Curriculum Connection Wiki. Also, I gave Del.icio.us a good workout, bookmarking some very useful wiki’s that I have emailed to my teachers and others that I can share with my fellow diocesan librarians. Along the way, I also saved some helpful shortcut sheets for databases that my library subscribes to. We, diocesan librarians, have always taken to sharing. I can see that a wiki is really better suited to our needs. At present, we have shared resources and our procedure manual online. The work of posting to our website falls on one librarian. If I need to make an update, I send the changes--wikis are much more timely and equitable. Wish me luck!

Week Six, Exercise Fifteen

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, it’s Web 2.0. That rush and feeling of power (and inadequacy) is brought to the fore by the tools of Library 2.0.
How in the world are we to keep up? There is always newer and better on the technology end, more forms of delivery of content on the library end. I’m swimming in an ocean of information. Wasn’t it just a minute ago that I was discarding mimeo machines and wresting film strips from the hands of agitated teachers? No, it was a lifetime ago. Now I have more than 1,000 DVD( I’m sure soon to be obsolete), and more than 1700 eBook reference volumes, and I’m still buying print. I’m running as fast as I can and still falling behind. If it wasn’t for the PSLA, PETE&C conferences, and journals from the outside world, I might take it into my head to think that I had a pretty good library program. After I read the professional journals and now blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds, I realize what a long way I have to go!

Week Six, Exercise Fourteen

Just when I think that I’m on a roll and working at a faster pace than all day, I get into a program like Technorati. There is just too much, and I tend to go down all the different interesting trails. Searching for School Library Learning 2.0 was odd. The basic search returned many result from other librarians doing Web 2.0 one was from Australia! I do believe the tutorial did not match the current look of the website. Is that because I am looking at a different home page? Also, there was no drop down menu to do the 3 different types of searches. I always assume that I am doing something wrong, since I am the student and the instructions from the teacher/website are bound to be current and up-to-date. So, is the homepage of Technorati now different? There are three searches in advanced- keyword, URL, and tag and the results are displayed as posts, blogs, photos, and videos. I do like the category organization, but why is there none for education—for shame.
Tags are basically what will recall this information to your mind. Everybody’s experience comes to bear. We, librarians, look at tagging differently because of our training. Codifying tags makes it the domain of the few. Best to have each create his own, and have lesser mortals borrow them.
I played with the html code, but have no desire to be the victim of a spider attack.

Week Six, Exercise Thirteen

I already have a Del.icio.us account with links on my taskbar, but I watched the You Tube tutorials from U Tech Tips to perfect my skills. Some of the links we were given in the directions no longer work, however, the SJLibraryLearning2 account was a valuable resource, so I added an RSS feed to my Reader. I am catching on.

Week Five, Exercise Twelve

Select Search Engine...ReferenceAfricaSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

Rollyo will be very useful for class projects. At present, I put a link on my web page with the project links. Far better and easier for the student, to put the links in Rollyo. I took the links for our end of the year Freshmen project on Africa and pasted them into a Rollyo. Then I used Rollyo to search for the topics the students were assigned to research--much easier. However, I did have problems with the HTML code that Rollyo generated for my Africa Rollyo. After fiddling with the code for sometime,I added another Rollyo and then the code became viable.

Week Five, Exercise Eleven

Well. I’ve joined the American Library Association ning. I thought I’d be in good company, although I was tempted to join ASPCA Online. I can see it would be a good place to post a question and share information rather than the Schools List.
As far as the Web 2.0 Award Winners, that is a course in itself. I use Google Docs to keep my library’s PO list—that way it is always up-to-date and I’ve got the right PO #. When it was first available, I tried having multiple people contribute to documents, but it never quite worked out. I think it is time to revisit, since the entire faculty is now on Academic Gmail. I’ve sent the url of Writeboard to the head of the English Department because we are always looking for new ways to do peer review. I think this may be helpful especially in our Writing Skills course. We are approaching Middle States again this year, and I can see either of these tools making collaboration much simpler. I wonder if a blog would help too?

Week Five, Exercise Ten

I visited cartoon Generator and was inspired by Morticia. I visited Image chef and was amused. I visited The Generator Blog and was blown away. There is a list of generators on there that is endless. Anything you could ever want—from Endorsement generator to Word Puzzle generator.

Week Four, Exercise Eight and Nine

I had read about Rss feeds, but I was reluctant to add to my information overload. I always have to read all of American Libraries Direct, spend the first and last minutes of my day answering /reading email, worry over the growing pile of professional magazines I should be reading to keep up, and listen to KYW “two, three, four times a day.”
However, I bit the bullet and took the plunge. I went with Google Reader because I use Gmail and Academic Gmail and that would be easier to talk my teachers around to using. I added a few “librarian” and tech links, put on and took off Fox News (too much) and fiddled around with the search engines. Then I went to Reader from my Gmail homepage-yikes! My friends list had come alive! All of my friends that use Google Reader appeared before me with their choices—pretty neat, especially the lists from some of my former students and colleagues who have gone on to greater things. The next time I logged in, Google had suggestions for me. They were very good, so I selected two more- one of which was Kathy Schrock. Immediately, I learned from Kathy, “We have just purchased two Kindles for our high school library as a pilot, and I found out a couple of things. First, you can have up to 6 Kindles tied to one Amazon account, and, if you buy a single title, you are allowed to put it on all 6 of them.” Suddenly, I am not reinventing the wheel in my own library—I’m connected to a community/communities that are working on the same problems and discussing solutions. So, that is what the fuss is all about.
Next, I explored some of the links that CSLA supplied for other uses of RSS feeds. Two school websites with RSS feeds were impressive -- the defunct website of Maybry Middle School, Georgia was astonishing in the amount of technology used and Westwood School, Georgia showed creative use of their own RSS feeds. This is something that is only in the discussion stage at my own school.

Week Three, Exercise Seven

Well, my husband gave me a Kindle for my birthday--in the beginning of June. I cannot explain why I was so unwilling to even touch it. It was only out of the box once- on my birthday. My tech has been after me all year to buy one for school. I just couldn't figure out how we would use it, and since I am in the habit of squeezing every penny--what was I going to do with the book after it was read??? This week, I was doing my usual drooling on Amazon when the first thing that hit me in the face were all the book selections for Kindle--145,000. There were many old friends that were cheap, cheap, cheap, and many new friends that were very reasonable. My husband, his father, my father, and myself were all fans of the Western. You can imagine the tattered and dog-eared collection everything from Zane Grey to Tony Hillerman with Elmore Leonard in between. Did you know that you can get a book for Kindle almost by wishing for it? I wished, and Amazon delivered instantaneously, an old Louie L'Amour then the latest Elizabeth George. What book am I missing from what series? You can order books right from your Kindle--delivered wirelessly. Why did I ever wait two months to look this gift horse in the mouth? OMG! It is portable, easy, easy to read from even in bed, and will hold 200 books--can add memory card. Think how my vacation packing has been simplified. I'll wait till the new version comes out in the Fall to buy one for school. The next time a teacher has to have that book yesterday, I can deliver. Whoopie!

Week Three, Exercise Six

I can see that the Flickr Mashups can be addictive. I played with Montager, Mosaic Maker, and Trading Card Maker. Loved the little rose pictures that create a larger landscape. Even better was the Mosaic Maker with my own pictures of roses. Next, I tried a Trading card of, what else, a rose! I think the Trading card is very useful. As others mentioned, It would be great to advertise new books- an electronic bulletin board in the making.