#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning ...

I have learned a great amount from this course. Some things I had already been exposed to but now have a better understanding, such as: flickr, YouTube and podcasts. Other things I learned about for the first time, such as: RSS feeds, LibraryThing and Rollyo. There are certainly items to which I will be going back to for further exploration. I have already had some ideas for putting these resources to use in our library and have started to feed them through as I refine my ideas. I have really enjoyed this journey, however I was sick of registering usernames and passwords. I am still not interested in starting a personal blog, even though I didn't find this blog as bad as I thought it would be. Thank you for your hard work in putting this together.
This is "exercise blog" signing off for Learning 2.0

#22 Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight ")

Wow, not only no overdues but no damaged or lost discs/cassettes. This is a great benefit to both the customer and the library. No more interupted stories or endings that won't play. I really like this option and it shows that libraries are keeping up with technology. Other benefits are: no more stolen copies of books on the required reading list at school and no mailing costs for distance learning students. This has great cost savings and benefits to all.

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

I found Podcast.net to be the most user friendly of the choices listed. Even though I have an Ipod, I have yet to master iTunes! It is not user friendly so don't recommend using it for searching Podcasts. There were too many to chose from so I went with the one I thought had a cute name. See my RSS feeds for: StarShipSofa, dedicated to sci-fi. Our library website already hosts podcasts from an author talk. Other uses for podcasts are: book reviews, community news, etc.

#20 You too can YouTube

My 1st idea is to use YouTube on the library website with 'how-to' videos. Eg: how to search the catalogue or how to search the on-line resources. It can also be used to broadcast videos of events that were held at the library or to promote upcoming events.
Criss Angel is a magician. He is really good, check out some of his other tricks, you will be amazed.

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

I will need a lot more time to fully explore the Web 2.0 tools. There is great potential for use in the library. Such as; on-line surveys, newsletters, widgets or even mashups involving books. This was lots of fun and I will be going back to it after I finish this course. See the weather widget I attached to my blog below this posting.

#18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

Zoho has all the features provided by Microsoft Office. I like it's portability, never lose files to harddrive crashes ever again. I really like the tags, because I can never remember which folder I saved the file in and can think of many benefits for file sharing. I wonder what happens if the internet connection fails half way through you document? This would be handy for our internet customers due to no access to Microsoft Office or any of the drives for attaching files. I am concerned about the privacy of my documents. I really like this software but again privacy is a big issue so I'll stick with Microsoft Office for now.

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

Not much different to #16, so don't really have anything to say about this one.

#16 So what’s in a wiki?

Wikis appear to be a great resource, if used properly. The idea of having wikis for subject guides, book reviews and community resources is great but could be time comsuming to police. I really like the idea of using a wiki for the policies and practices manual. It can be updated regularly and can be searched for old policies and practices or keep track of the date the changes can into affect.

#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

There is a lot of thought being given to where libraries are headed in the future. I particularly liked WorldCat. It is a bigger more expanded version of how we currently opperate ILLs with LibraryLink. After reading all the articles, I then found myself at the State Library of Victoria website to see what they have planned for the future. I really liked the virtual book, which allows me to turn the page with my mouse. This would be great to have on the Spongeclub website.
Taking photos of the displays and posting them on our website would market to a wider audience, especially those attending other branches.

#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

Technorati is a great search engine for blogs. I don't think I would have much use for it personally as I am not a fan of blogs, however I can see how it would be useful to others. Having said that while searching the tag 'library' I came across a blog which had this great picture and had to add it to mine.

#13 Tagging, folksonomies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

del.icio.us is really useful, however yet again I had to register a username and password. I need a way to keep track of them all.
I have started transferring all the sites which I have bookmarked in my 'favorites' from my home PC and will join them with the ones on my work PC. As I sometimes find myself working at a desk other than my own, this will be very helpful. I also like that you can follow a tag or user for new sites of common interest. This mirrors LibraryThing.

#12 Roll your own search engine with Rollyo

Rollyo has great potential. I tried to roll a search engine for all non-LibraryLink libraries in Victoria, so that I could search all their catalogues at once. It didn't work!!! Very disappointed, as this would have been of great benefit to my team and would have increased productivity.
I have discovered what went wrong. I was trying to create a search engine for 'search engines', however this is not what Rollyo is designed for. Rollyo is a search engine which searches the nominated websites for information. It is similar but not the same.
Anyway, I rolled a search engine of gardening sites. Hope you find it useful.

#11 All about LibraryThing

LibraryThing is really great. I added the 1st title in the series by 5 of my favourite authors.
Not sure yet how this can benefit the library as an organisation, on-line bookclub maybe?
I'll probably need to spend some more time playing with it to determine any potential benefits.

#10 Play around with Image Generators

Of course I went straight to the Vampire name generator, now I need to find a website that will help me pronounce it!
I then went on to spend hours playing with various name generators, finding out my superhero name, my star wars name, etc.
I finally settle on Image Chef as my example.

#9 Finding Feeds

The Feedster site is currently being upgraded, so I was not able to assess it.
The Topix site has a good range of categories but I got sidetracked giving my opinion in the polls.
The Technorati site is good but I’m not interested in blogs, so not much use to me.
I wasn’t really impressed with any of these sites. I found the bloglines site easiest to search and add feeds from.

#8 Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader

“RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.”
I created my own Bloglines account and have found it to be a great time saving tool. I no longer have to open a variety of different web pages to read articles of interest. I simply log into my bloglines account and all the articles are waiting for me in the one spot.
Perhaps the library could set up account on the website to feed information on current events to help students. Another use could be for feeds from different publishers or websites with reviews of new books.
See the right hand of my blog for my RSS feeds.

# 7 Blog about technology

Only a couple of years ago, I was babysitting for a friend of mine. A girl of 7 years and a boy of 5 years. We were playing with my dogs in the backyard, when my husband decided to take some photos of us for my friend. We happily posed together and smiled for the camera. After the photo was taken the young boy asked if he could see the photo. We had no success in explaining that this was a film camera, not a digital camera. The young boy simply did not know that any other kind of camera existed.
Perhaps I should take out my old cassette player and cassette tapes and play them for my nieces and nephews. I could show them something they have never seen before.

# 6 More Flickr Fun

The mashups were fun to explore. I made a calendar for my parents with family photos for them to enjoy.

Photo

This is a photo I took on a cold winter morning at our house this year.

#5 flickr

Flickr is easy to follow and set up. The photos are amazing and well worth exploring. The hardest part was finding jpeg files that were small enough to be uploaded. Flickr has a limit of 5Mb per photo. The problem is the higher the pixels used to take the photo, for better quality, the bigger the jpeg file.

#3 Grab yourself a blog in 3 steps

Not as scary as I thought it would be, but trying to think up a clever name was beyond my capacity. I'll keep trying to think up a name that is at least witty if not clever.
The 7 habits were very interesting and after a slow start I am very enthusiastic about this program. My biggest obstacle is that I never finish what I start, so the goal of this program is 2 parts. 1 - Finish the program and 2 - learn about current technology and it's usefulness to both me and my work.