Teens Shoot, Direct Video Book Review to Inspire Young Readers

Thing #22: Staying Current

I'm going to try to keep up with what I've learned. I will probably continue to use flickr, 22books( I've already added staff picks using this on our web pages, also picture trail. It's been a fun journey and I've enjoyed taking it with everyone involved.

Thing #21: Student 2.0 Tools

After looking at the RPC and Assignment calculator I think you could promote it to students by saying things like need help getting started with your research paper or need help staying on track. Try this it will set a timeline for you to follow and tips and guides to help you start the process.

I looked at the resources on the teacher's guide site and I think what is listed is fine. I know when I was in school I wished they had this or if they were available I wish the teacher's would have shown them to us. It would have made the process a lot easier. I know a lot of students automatically cringe when the teacher says its research paper time, but with this tools and instruction from the teacher it will be a lot easier...especially now that most resources online have the MLA citing done for you, I remember when you had to find the MLA style book and figure it out on your own depending on what type of resource you were using (book, electronic, encyclopedia, etc).

Thing 20: Books 2.0

After looking at all the resources, which is a little overwhelming. I don't think we will have to worry about books becoming obsolete or the library for that matter. People are still going to want to pick up a book and read it. I know I do, I for one would hate to have to read a book on a computer or some sort of electronic device...it gives me a headache after a while. I feel all the tools out help some what but for the most part they are just a way to waste time. After checking out the online tools for books I liked Bookswim the one for college textbooks. This will help greatly because with the cost of textbooks and for the time you use it (usually 3-4 months) its cheaper to rent then to purchase them. I'm going to try them out just to see how it works. I also liked the Tonight's Bedtime Story, that was neat it had all the old fairytale stories that we all grew up with and it had pictures too, which is pretty neat unlike some sites where its just text.

Thing 19:Other Social Networks

I looked at the different social networks and I haven't joined any but I did look at the one called Open Source Foods only because I like to get different recipe ideas, especially when I get tired of the same old stuff. And I also liked Film Crave because I love movies and like to keep up with the current ones and the ones that are coming out.

Thing 18: Facebook and Myspace

I choose myspace as my tester...only because I have a myspace account anyway...technically it's mine and my husbands. Here's the link for it http://www.myspace.com/watersamber. right now it's set to private so if you want to view it you will have to request to be added as my friend. I did this so not everyone can view it. I also have my pics set to private to so only my friends can view them as well. We use it to talk to our friends and to our family especially the ones that live away. It's an easy way to share pics and if the other person wants to print them out or download them and then take them to a photo center to print them out they can.

I looked at the Jacksonville Public Library's myspace page and I liked how they posted all there upcoming events and drawings. That is a great way to advertise something plus its free. Also the look of the page is catchy so it will attract attention. If my library had a page they could do something similar to that.

Thing 17: Podcasts

I'm new to the whole podcast thing but they are pretty interesting. I looked at both podcasts.com and podcastalley.com and liked podcast.com better. I listened to 2 different ones. One is on food...I love food and like cooking too. The other one was NPR: Movie, this one has movie reviews and the latest movies that are out and also interviews with the actors/actresses. I thought this would be fun since I love movies too, I try to stay up on the new releases and this will make it easier. I even added the RSS feeds to both of these on my igoogle page.

Suwannee River Rollers

Gummi Bears - 0508a Let Sleeping Giants Lie1

Thing #16: YouTube

I know a fair amount about YouTube, we used it at our library to post our bookcart drill team performance at FLA 2008. The issue we ran into with posting the video was the quality. We had to set it at a lower resolution because if it was set at a higher resolution it had buffering issues.

I've chosen 2 videos the first one listed above is of our bookcart drill team performance...look for us at FLA 2009 where we will be performing again. The second one is an old cartoon I used to watch as a kid growing up, I used to love this show. It's called Gummi Bears...everyone I mention it to has never heard of it, maybe some of you have.

Thing #15: Rollyo

Thought it was pretty interesting, I created one for travel(here's the link http://rollyo.com/watersgirl24/travel_away/). I could see where you could use this for reviews or something similar to the examples mentioned on NEFLIN's blog, or just to eliminate the excess hits, but personally I don't have that many websites that I go to all the time and I actually like all the different choices because that's how I find websites that I didn't know was out there.

Thing #14: Online Productivity

This was another fun one. I'm using Google Calendar...only because I already use Google for everything and it's all right there. Plus I like it, its clean, crisp, not a lot of hoop and holler; makes it easy to read and maneuver around. I liked the PDF converter because sometimes we want to take the information from the PDF and change it but unless your PDF software has the capability to make changes you can't and this makes it so you can then all you have to do is convert the changed info back to a PDF...pretty cool.

Oh kind of off subject. I was listening to music while doing this, does anyone know the website where you can listen to music that has been changed to sound softer, I remember one time reading somewhere where you could listen to heavy metal songs that have been converted to sound almost like soft rock for baby's to listen to.(This was just an example, I don't listen to heavy metal...lol). Just wondering if anyone knew what I was talking about because I forgot the website.

Now back to the real reason for this blog...I liked the to do list too because I hate writing out lists, I totally prefer typing over writing so this is great for me to type out grocery lists for home or things I need to do at work...if anyone could see my desk right now I have notes everywhere...at least this would centralize them for me.

Thing #13: Library Thing

I loved this one, it was so much fun. I'm going to use it for my personal collection of books just so I can keep track of them all...I already had trouble remembering the ones I had so I could add some to my list. Here are the links to my list. It was super easy creating it took me about 30 seconds to register for one and another 5 minutes to add my books. This is definitely a time saver. To bad it doesn't catalog other things beside books, like DVD's.

http://www.librarything.com/profile/AmberWaters (Profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/AmberWaters (Library)

I looked for local events for Library Thing but there were not any in a 50 mile radius of Live Oak, FL.

Thing #12: Wikis

I'm not sure if I'm a fan of wikis personally but can see why people like them. I think it would be neat to have one for central employee information, like staff policy and procedures, that way it is available to everyone and staff members wouldn't have to locate the policy book; they could look right online. Also, trainings staff and public, you could have the information and handouts available after the training....no one get any wise ideas and vote me to be the creator of one...lol

Thing #11: Social Media

I looked at the different social media sites and I prefer Digg. It's very user friendly and nicely put together. Everything on it is easy to find the layout is nice and flows easy.

With all that for library use I'm not sure how this would benefit us, I might could use it for information for my public access classes, not really sure what else though right now...although I haven't had breakfast so my brain is running a little slow right now. I think its just a nice site to go to for news and information. If anyone has any suggestions let me know.

Thing #10: Tagging

Well I just got through tagging all my posts so hopefully they will be easy to find. I created my delicious account now so I'm adding things to it. I like the handy button that is on my Firefox browser, makes it a lot easier to add stuff. I think this would be great for our library system to use to share with the other staff members. Everyone could have the capability to add to it and see what other staff members have added. This would be good for children's sites for the youth services to share between them, easier than emailing favorite sites or calling. Circulation could use them for most visited sites and for e-gov things.

Thing #9: Challenge

I'm following a fellow co-worker and have added a list of my favorite books using 22 books. Very simple, had trouble finding a good spot for it, let me know you can think of a better place.

Thing #9: Sharing

I created this slideshow from PictureTrail. The pictures are of our director getting the resolution signed by our county commissioners to make February The Big Read month, The Big Read kickoff and other Big Read events going on around our county. For the entire month of February our library is participating in The Big Read by having book dicussions and movies and other events across Suwannee County. You can click here to check out the full schedule (just a small plug for the program). Anyway I will be adding more pictures of The Big Read to the slideshow as I get them this month.

I liked PictureTrail, it reminds me of Myspace with all the glitter and glam you can add to each thing you create. I didn't create one but I liked the site slideshare, this will be great for me to share presentations with the people I teach in my computer classes, I can post them to that and then after they take my class if they want they can view the presentation again for a refresher. This will also work for people who don't have PowerPoint, to make it where they can see presentations or for how-to tutorials to add to webpages.

Thing #8: Communication-Web 2.0 Style

Well, our email is set that each library member has one and also one for each branch library that is on our individual web page that is used for reference questions (that one I don't know how they have it set up i.e. folders, etc.). I know that we are supposed to check our emails at least twice a day if we have time than more. Mine email though, is setup with folders, each for specific topics that I get emails about all the time. I looked to see if mine has filters but I didn't see any, I use Microsoft Outlook 2003.

I setup yahoo messenger...not sure if I will use it though, I don't really have a use for it that I know of (I work in technical services) and I don't use it for personal things either. I think that it will be good for reference questions I know our branches would probably either have to hire a full or part time reference librarian or set aside time for someone to do that, like advertise on our website that during a certain time from like 3-5 pm you can instant message a real librarian for help) or something like that. Then the rest of the time when people instant message it will be like email, the messages will set there until you read them and respond. It would be neat to do a different way of communicating for sure.

I tried to text message to my email and it didn't work, I'm sure there is some sort of setting because it said that it thought it was spam, I think once you got it to work probably it would be okay, it goes hand in hand with instant messanging and email, still you would have to have someone set aside time to check the messages. All the more ways to bring the library into the 21st century. I usually use it for personal things, like texting my husband. Other than that I never used it for reference questions before...and I'm sure my branch manager will love this...I've never used Ask-A-Librarian either...don't flog me!

Web conferencing is great! I love web conferencing, especially when you can't make it to a location for a workshop or if you're trying to cut down on expenses. I've been in web conferences through NEFLIN and actually went through the training on how to use it. It was great. To me I don't really have to have the face to face aspect of workshops, I work well with just listening, plus you still get to see what people are asking and what the presentation is about, minus looking at the people and if you have the mic capability you still get to hear peoples questions. Still I like it. We are actually looking at using OPAL to host staff meetings and possibly staff workshops in the future. Which would cut down on travel costs and also our branches are so far from each other, the farther est being about 45 minutes away one way, this would help us come together without having to leave our buildings.

I haven't watched a webinar yet, but I will blog about it when I do.

Thing #7:Online Image Generators

I created this comic strip because, I love comic strips. Plus I think this would be a great way to advertise a program, a new book and even a new online resource. I liked the different ones but this one was my favorite.

by awaters | Create your own Cartoon at www.toondoo.com

Thing 6: Flickr Mashups

Thought this was neat, I really liked the letters, but I made a badge of my kids...so cute, this picture is the latest of my kids taken just a few weeks ago.

I think using the letters on a library blog would be a good way to promote either new releases mentioned on the blog or promoting a library program. This would be a great way to catch the reader's eye and its different; not to many people use them, that I've seen. Also, the badges would be an awesome tool to use for kids programs.

I like photo sharing, it just like anything though you have to be careful, especially if you don't want everyone to see your stuff. I have my personal ones set to private so only my friends and family can see them, but library pics are public...you want everyone to see those.

Anyway, still playing around with things...lots to learn!

Thing #5: Flickr

Eileen at the Live Oak branch helping apatron
Originally uploaded by suwanneelibrary

Well I added this picture and created this blog post in Flickr. It took me a little longer to do but I got it. Some of the instructions was a little tricky. I liked the fact that you can edit your pictures in flickr after loading them. I noticed a lot of photo sharing sites are doing this now.

I hope to start using flickr to showcase our library programs and events that we have. I'm going to create a personal one to show family photos and share that way...cheaper than printing and mailing them.

This was fun can't wait to do more!

Thing #4: RSS and Newsreaders

Well, I learned a lot about RSS. They are great. I like the fact that you can subscribe to a blog or news feed so you don't have to keep going back to the webpage each time its updated. If you're like me, you definitely don't have time to go to 5 to 10 webpages or more each day. I used Google Reader which I like. I also used the Google blog search to find the feeds too. Like in my previous post I prefer Google over the other sites so using their tools was easier for me, plus for my other favorite websites I just went to them and subscibed, a lot of them were saved to my bookmarks so it was easier to get to.

I think librarians would find this very helpful because I know at our library most days its very hard to find the time to look at your favorite websites or ones that are helpful or blogs that you like so having them all in one place is great and it saves a lot of time...which is what all of us are striving for these days. I know I'm setting mine up to look for the latest software and technology that comes out so I can incorporate that into my computer and internet classes that I offer to the public. Plus its just helpful to know.

Thing #3: Blog Search Tools

I know I'm falling behind a little but I'm catching up. I looked at Technorati it was pretty interesting, not really my favorite. I also looked at Google's blog search and liked it a lot. I guess that's because I consider myself a Google girl. I prefer Google over all the other search engines that I know of...I probably shouldn't though. You know putting all your eggs into one basket kind of thing, but I can't help it. I like the fact that everything is all right there and I don't have to go to another website to get the info that I want.

To me Google's was easier to find the information I wanted. Technorati's just confused me...to much info on one page, it made my head hurt.

Both Technorati and Google's blog search tools were about the same, both have the same advanced options (find all the words in a blog or none of this words or exact phrase) , Google has it where you can search by the date the blog was posted, Technorati doesn't...that I saw. Also, Technorati has a search by tag option, Google doesn't; so each site has their advantages.

Well I've gone on long enough, hopefully most of this makes sense. My brain is trying to take off for the weekend early...it's been a long week...

Thing #2: What is Web 2.0

I'm kind of new at some of the Web 2.0 tools. I'm familiar with myspace, flicker, blogger, things like that so this is definitely a learning experience for me. Right now I don't have a lot of time to devote to this so I'm spending 10 minutes here...5 minutes there to do this. I'm in the middle of putting together computer training classes for our patrons so that is taking up most of my time.

I found a website that has a lot of Web 2.0 tools here's the link http://www.go2web20.net/

A lot of these I never heard of but some were pretty cool!

I hope to start incorporating some of things I learn back into my job since we are not really using the tools that are out there...a lot of it is making time to do it...not enough hours in a day if you know what I mean.

Well that's all for now, be back with more later.

Thing #1-Creating a Blog

Well I just finished creating my blog, pretty easy, blogger makes it that way. Can't wait to start doing the other things that are to follow.