wiki's

I have looked at Wikipedia before but never spent the time to go through the tutorial, which was very interesting. I like the fact that if you change or add something you also need to cite your sources. That makes me feel better about the information I am reading on their site.
I don't remember all the brackets and colons used to change the fonts. I would have to print out the instructions and play around for a while.
I have heard groups here at
CML talking about using wiki's to edit or create documents and if the group is small it could work but, with a large group I can see a lot of problems. When a large group is trying to decide on a format for a damaged item letter, for example, not everyone agrees. The changing text and crossing out could be endless.
I am looking forward to playing in the Learn & Play sandbox, hopefully next week I'll have time.

library 2.0

I had heard of web 2.0 and am embarrassed to say that I did not know what it meant. I let it go until I was told at work that I needed to learn web 2.0. OK, I broke down and ask a co-worker what was web 2.0. Boy, was I relieved to find out that it was things like flickr and blogging, things I was already doing. I don't know everything of course but it was just the name I didn't understand.
Library 2.0 is just as important as web 2.0. If libraries want to keep up and keep customers we need to know what our customer are doing and what they want to do. Last year, I proposed cross training our staff so that every staff member would at least have seen some of these sites. I assigned sites to different staff members to train the rest of us. We also wrote short cheat sheets. On when a customer come to us having a problem on MySpace, any of us can help them. If libraries don't keep out our customer will not continue to use and support us. If we really want to shine we should keep ahead of what the customers are doing and offer services they didn't know they needed yet. I was very pleased to hear that we now have a station to download music or audio books from our virtual branch to Mobile devices at our main branch. This is a great start and the direction that we need to keep moving in.

week 6 thing

I looked at and joined Delicious. I entered some bookmarks and looked at library bookmarks.
I can see how open bookmarks can be useful. I enjoyed reading the readers advisory website that were entered and many I had never seen before. I will revisit these when I have more time.
I am not sure I will use my own bookmarks. I know the sites I use alot and don't need this on-line fravorites sites. It didn't save it on my work computer anyway. It is set up though so if I ever need it it will be there.

twitter

Twitter can be pretty cool. I joined last month and am going to try to post more often that I do to my blog ;o)

image generators

Boy, this weeks thing was pretty simple, once I had help from a co-worker. I checked out the site sudgested and did some searching. I am still hoping to find that site that lets you change a pic of yourself. wish me luck.

flicker stuff

I like flickr, even though I don't use it much. I did not like the other sites we were directed to try. I didn't see the point of think they were much fun. Who knows, I may change my mind but not for now.

Thing 10

Oh boy! A lot to do this week and me on vacation. Well to get a jump on things I am doing a few early. I figure I'll have enough to catch up on when I get back.
I joined Tweeter and I already had an account with LibraryThing. LibraryThing is alot like Shelfari, which I am also a member. The problem is remembering to add books that I have or am reading. I normally am reading 2 books and listening to 2 more. I have one print book at home and one at work. I also listen to book-on-CD in my car and on my computer at home. I know that sounds crazy but, the one I listen to at home is normally one I already have read or heard before and the print book at work is normally work related. In this context I am only reading and listening to one new book and CD at a time. Doesn't that sound better :o) I drive my husband crazy.
I'll have to work on the image generator when I get back. I have added LibraryThing and Twitter to this blog.

RSS search tools

I tried all three of the search tools given with this weeks 'thing' and I have to say that I did not like any of them. http://www.technorati.com/ gave me a headache. Every time I went to that site an advertisement was flashing fast and I would get a headache quickly. I did search each site but was confused about how to get the blogs I found to my reader. I'm sure if I copied the IRL and then pasted it to blogger that would work, however; I did not find a blog that interested me enough to do so. Reader has its own search function. Using keywords you can search for topics that interest you and then when you subscribe they are automatically added to Google Reader. Reader also offers bundles, I original subscribed to a bundle but slowly unsubscribe to each blog or news feed within it. I prefer to choose which news feed I want.
I do subscribe to multiple library related blogs. Some are more serious while others are more comic. I also try blogs that have been recommended by friends. Some I subscribe to and some I don't.

RSS Reader

I know the thing this week was to open a blog lines account but I already have an account through Google. I added Learn & Play and The Columbus Dispatch to my feeds. I have been using reader for over a year now and enjoy reading news updates and new blogs created by my favorite blogger's. I also enjoy reading what my Friends have shared as favorites. I also did the optional activity of posting my shared items to my blog, see the side bar.
More when I get to the next 'thing.' ;o)