Summarize

I have finished the program and am excited about all the new "things" that I have learned. I have several favorite discoveries.

1. Blogline - where I can organize my favorite websites and they will highlight new items on the site for my later perusal.
2. Zoho - a website where I can do word smithing and send it where I want. It has an added feature of updating a post to my blog automatically.
3. Gutenberg - a website to download ebooks--I can read my favorite authors and it's only a click away!

I would definetly participate in another discovery program.
This learning experience has opened up the internet for me. It has taught me how to organize the information available so I can receive it in the sound bites that are comfortable. I feel like a chick just coming out of it's shell and seeing all the possibilities.

Learn About Audiobooks

I have looked into the Gutenberg website and was very please with it. I think this is the site that I will be using most of all the 23 things we have visited.

I down loaded two books--one is a Father Brown mystery by G. K. Chesterton--The Innocence of Father Brown. I have always wanted to start reading Chesterton and his Mysteries are a good place to start. I also downloaded Pride and Prejudice by Austen which is my favorite book.

It was amazingly easy to do and was user friendly which is exactly what the Gutenberg people wanted it to be. I still need the print to be comfortable to read--craning my head up to read the screen through my bifocals is a strain on theneck. I need a machine that I can curl up with on the couch.

Podcast

I have looked at the Podcasts and I was impressed with how much material is out there--this is true for all the other applications we have been experiementing with in 23 things.

For some podcasts I discovered that I would have to download some software in order to get the podcast but I went to Podcast.net and successfully signed up for a classical radio station. It appears to have frequent postings.

As for the question "What did I find useful here?---It was another experience in the great wealth of material that is out there on the internet. We are experiencing the different senses on the internet--You Tube was visual and Podcast is auditory. You Tube of course has the advantage that it can be auditory as well. Podcast Feeds on your blogline is a good way to keep abreast of those auditory things that interest you.

You Tube

I have finished examining You Tube and have found it confusing to use at first. It was not well explained and I had to fish around for myself to figure it out. It is a wonderful site for any organization to embed a tutorial type of video in a document or blog. The Library could use it as a tutorial for customers in how to use a piece of equipment or an application on the computer. It would be especially nice to have interviews with authors available on the library website.

I successfuly downloaded a video of Sunflowers and music from You Tube

#19 Discover any site from the Web 2.0 awards list

OK-- I have investigated the travel site called Farecast. Very interesting it was. It will find fares for you for air flights and hotels. It will also do comparisons between Expedia, Priceline and Hotwire--very useful for finding that elusive low fare. For Hotels it will provide a map of the locale and point to the best deal.

Could be useful at the Library for a customer interested in making travel arrangements.

I did notice that the site activated my popup blocker.

On line productivity tools -thing 18- sunflowers

I like this picture -- the sunlight breaking through the clouds over a field of sunflowers.

I have finished thing # 18--ZOHO writer--online productivity tools-- and have successfully posted a message to my blog from zoho.

I don't have many thoughts about this-- I can see that it is advantageous to have these word smith tools with the ability to send the product to various places without coping and pasting from an application. I have just discovered that you can update a previous post--it remembers!

Sandbox Wiki at Maryland Libraries

OK--I have played with the sandbox and gained a little experience playing with a wiki. I added a favorite thing to do to the file--favorite things. I have no thoughts about this except that it is a cool place for librarians to share their experience and professionalism with others. Oh yes--and it is a cool place to play!

Wiki

The most interesting thing about a Wiki is the ability (for anyone)to edit and add information. I find this quite frightening.-----Wikipedia is a Wiki and I understand that there are a million entries but can it be accurate with people contributing who have dubious credentials? Some teachers do not allow the Wikipedia to be used by their students in writing research papers.
Having said this---Wikis would be useful as centralized places for people to share ideas on a topic--develop ideas for a conference--a place for empolyees of a particular organization to share ideas--a place to develop a shared document.
Libraries in particular can use them to develop a subject guide--a place for club enthusiasts--places for library supported groups like a teen group.
One Wiki I visited had links to various comunity organizations and businesses.

Reading a few perspectives

These articles are concerned with the evolving Internet and the way people are using it to contact each other and share information. It is becoming the instrument of choice to gather information. Gone is the day when you yanked out the encylopedia or almanac to find out something.

As we have discovered in our blogging experiment with 23 things, people are learning and learning quickly how to organize and search for information in new and novel ways. Libraries and Librarians must learn with them and help them to find the information they need. Libraries must become a part of that evolving internet. There is a place here for an organization which can show the way to useful information--to shift through the available information and find that which is true and useful.

Technorati

I am investigating Technorati and have tried the different search approches and the results are very different. The search by Blog and Tag produce much fewer results and are probably more worth looking at. Searching by post produces many more and I will have to shift through them to find anything useful. Searching by tag or blog would reveal the items that are more worth looking at.

Del.icio.us

I have looked at this website and have found it to be much more useful than simple bookmarking. You can find out who has bookmarked it before you and peek in their storage vault for other gems.

Rollyo

OK---I have investigated Rollyo and have created a rollyo for recipes called (ahem) sunflower--however I notice that they manage to put ads in there with the results of a search!

Following is a searchbox from my site.

Select Search Engine...sunflowerTop NewsCelebrity GossipSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

Image generator

I have explored the Image Generators and had previously made myself a trading card which I have replicated here. It was fun poking fun at myself. I tried to make an avatar at the Merlin website and it was interesting to play with it and try to get your idealized image just right. I found myself spending too much time on it. I needed to get along to the next challenge. Sometimes I feel like a bear up a tree.

My Library

These are some of the books I have read in the past. I have explored the Library Thing and it is a very good way to keep track of your favorite books and to share them with others. Finding someone with the exact taste and interests as yourself would be a strange expierence -- someone like me is out there--how novel!

RSS Feeds

RSS Feeds are extemely useful--they give you the information you want without your having to do alot of the work of shifting it out yourself. I have set up some feeds in blogline for several shopping deal websites. One person reported something at a website called Woot -- it is a site that sells only one thing until it is all gone - then goes on to the next thing or changes at midnight to the next thing-----interesting!




There is an anouncement on the unshelved.com website that you can susbscribe to a feed that will tell you about upcoming books for sale that have not yet been published. Very good for the Library Selectors!

Note to Jaye: I got the picture from flickr--I'm learning!

Blog Post About Anything Technology-Related

I read an article recently about the coming boom in e-books. There is a push occuring to develop user friendly reading machines which most of us will love as much as we do the book form. My biggest complaint about e-books is that the print is not so comfortable to read on the screen. The print in the book is better especially if it is large print.

Future generations will consider the book to be an antique and to think that we saw it all happen.

Flickr

Well---I have finished my exploration of Flickr and very interesting it was. I found the photo montage fascinating. I am now able to bring photos onto my blog. Get ready!

My First Post and 7 and 1/2 Habits

My first Post!

The 7 and 1/2 habits were right to the point! Viewing problems as challenges is a tricky part for me -- I tend to get frustrated.

Goal
Responsibility
Problems as Challenges
Confidence
Toolbox
Resources
Teach Others
Play

The easy part is "Play" -- give yourself a break.