iHCPL training Week 8:#19

So many choices! Which should I use: Facebook, MySpace, Ning, Xanga or Linkedin.

Why not all of the above.

Published via ZohoWriter to this blog

Week 8: #18

When I set up an account on Facebook,it invited someone who is in my email address book to be my friend. She already had an account set up on Facebook. I had not corresponded or talked with her in some time because I moved from one state to another. What a surprise. Social networking has already started working for me. No one has to convince me of its value.

Week 7: #17

Wikipedia says: The discovery and utilization of fire, a simple energy source with many profound uses, was a turning point in the technological evolution of humankind.
We are at our own turning point in man's technological evolution. We need to look on all the technological advances we are a part of with amazement and view them in positive ways.

Week 7:#16

As I was searching "Library Success: a Best Practices wiki", I linked into Reader's advisory and discovered lots of amazing information. I did not realize we could add book reviews in WorldCat. What a great tool that is for both patrons and librarians.

I also set up my own wiki page. Please add your comments at
mysterybookdiscussions

Wiki would be a useful tool for online book discussions. Not everyone can or wants to attend one in person.

Week 6: #15

When I was an undergraduate in college, which was some time ago, I was the one who ran in the other direction when I heard the words computers and mainframes. I ran even further away when I saw the punch cards that had to be prepared and the mounds of paper being printed out. My fears were reinforced when I heard the horror stories of students...or employees who made the whole system crash. No, No not me; I didn't want to be the cause of all that turmoil.

And just look at the transition I have made. Just look at how the library has evolved into a marvelous place fitting to this age of technology we live in. I still have a long way to go and so does the library, but we are flowing along on this river together quite nicely. We may hit a few rocks, twists and turns, even find a few snakes along the way, but I am ready for some adventure and there is always that promise of the sunset at the end of each day's journey. How dull life would be staying the same day in and day out.

We need to continue to offer our databases and programs off site to patrons so they can access information at home or in the office. What's the point of having it all and not sharing it all. We have a mix of patrons who long for the opportunity for independence, and others who cling to their dependence. We can serve and appreciate both types. The one group frees us to have time for the other group.

What seems like major change today will seem like nothing tomorrow. It gets us ready for the next major change down the way. The feelings and fears I had back in college are irrelevant today.

We would no more want to go back to black and white movies and television or oil lanterns, than we would want to stifle the path we are on toward the new innovations of the future.

Claimed my blog and struck gold

Week 6 #14: What an interesting discovery exercise we had today. When I performed a keyword search in Technorati, there were over 35,000 hits on learning, learning 2.0 and web 2.0. This was more narrow in tag search, but there were still over 27,000 hits in blogs, photos, videos and posts. I found IHCPL 2.0 in one of the videos in my tag search. My final attempt in the blog directory search only had 722 hits. Having these rated by relevance was helpful. As I scanned the top 100 favs list, I was surprised at the diversity of human interest here and what a multi-language site it has become. Many of the blogs on the top favs are commercial as well as personal. These might not be my choice of the top favs, but perhaps my interests are more narrow. The world is a big place and what better evidence than what Technorati offers us.

I did not complete the full challenge exercise as yet, but I did claim my blog and add a site to my watchlist.

Week 6:#13

I created my own del.icio.us account, set my bookmarks and created tags for each link. This took me a bit longer to decipher this exercise than some of the other discovery exercises, but I feel very confident about the outcome. There is a definite advantage to centralizing my bookmarks on one site. I can perform my tasks more efficiently at any workstation and use less time to accomplish them.

It takes some time to set it up and to understand the how-to's, but it is definitely worth doing.

It will take me some more time to develop my del.icio.us site into a helpful tool for others to use as research, but I use the HCPL site already for this purpose.

Is there an Elf in the library?

Week 5: #12




I registered for Elf and I am already receiving emails regarding my items. I also find logging into the website for my account information to be an asset. It is the most complete site I have found indicating my item due dates, items on hold with the status as well as a summary of my account. I know we have all that info within our HCPL account but I have to be honest and say I like this setup better. It is very readable.

Book recommendations and bestseller lists on popular booksites are a feature I use often, so here it is all in one place. The mouseover within the calendar at the top of the page is another nice addition to the website.

And it's good to know Elves have a greater purpose in life than just to help Santa.

Library Thing

Week 5:#11

I already have so many responses on the books I placed on Library Thing. I love it because it is a great asset not only for reader's advisory but also to add spice to book discussions. Hope everyone enjoys my site.

Library Thing

See my Meesteereeladie

Week 5:#10
Now that was so much fun. I loved building my avatar.

Just click on my meez and she will take you to the site where she was created. Or go to use this link.
Meesteereeladie

Reflection generators could make very creative flyers for displays in the library.

I was not as crazy about the cartoon image generators but that's just my opinion.

Where, oh where are the newsfeeds?

More of Week 4:

I found it rather easy to add newsfeeds from the sites given in the discovery exercises. Technorati was helpful with tabs(Popular and Topical) and a search capacity;Feedster with its Feedbuzz and Feedmidget had an equally useful search engine producing one of my favorite genealogy sites.

I did not find many on my own but found 1 of interest when trying a "google" search: In the spotlight about Northwestern University's library in Illinois. It looks as if this will be an ongoing exercise.

Not blogged down...but blogging along

Week 4: I have my blogline account set up. What a great idea for pulling together the interests I have into one place and being able to received updates without constant surfing the internet to do so. I found 10 newsfeeds of definite interest to me. The tutorial and instructions were very helpful.

I can hardly wait to see what's next.