Exercise 23

I did it! Having started a month late and being somewhat technological impaired, I'm amazed I got through. Even if mostly on my own time (and probably over the 10 hours timewise), I am glad I was exposed to so much stuff out there on the WEB, although now the biggest challenge will be to go back and practice and actually use some of the stuff.

I liked most Flickr, image generators, WIKIS, ZOHO, and feeling connected to co-workers through the Library Thing.

Re lifelong learning goals- I know I have a lot of catching up and keeping up to do; it is just so hard when you come home exhausted from giving so much at work. I am inspired to try to take a little more time out - both at work and at home- to keep working on this. I must say, though, that although in general I consider myself a confident and competent person (habit #4), I was often frustrated doing the exercises when they didn't work (not always my fault.) I learn much more by being shown and then doing and practicing. Help wasn't always available at the time I was feeling challenged and/or I kept getting interrupted while trying to concentrate on the program.

There were lots of surprises, just because I was exposed to so much, and as mentioned, the challenge is to keep at it, keep practicing, and keep working through it. I do believe there is so much potential, not just for me personally in terms of communicating with friends and family through some of these tools, but there are so many good library applications for now and for the future. Maybe we could do some practice at service level meetings or branch/unit meetings.

In terms of the program concept, I would like more drop in sessions (someone was out sick the one time I was going to come, and maybe on Thurs, Fri, or Sat first hour or two , so less imnpact on the schedule). Myabe have multiple sites at the same time on the same session. Since I started late due to other work projects, I felt helplessly behind from the beginning. Repeating sessions (like another week 3 session, even if it was week 6 or 7) would be helpful (the reminders that there was still time to start was encouraging, but we never went back to offering a previous session.) Or just being on week 1 for three weeks, then moving to week 2 for three weeks might give more opportunity for people to keep up as it goes along. Or, actually classes covering some of the major topics and then practice time would be helpful for my learning style.

And finally, yes, I would particpate in another learning program because it is important and I want to keep up and continue my lifelong learning.

Exercise #22 EBooks

Started this discovery at work and am finishing here at home without my original notes. Since we can't download on the OPACs, I had never really explored this. Here are some random comments and thoughts:
Found it interesting, although neither in the net library or the Gutenberg Project did I find titles such as the Color Purple (SJPL had cliffnotes)of the House of the Spirits. So am a little puzzled about what makes it as an ebook, since I would consider these pretty popular and standard multicultural literature.

Another thing that surprised me, was that you could read books on line without downloading; I had always assumed that books downloaded to the computer. While I prefer reading actual books and newpapers, having access to table of contents or a general summary on line would be beneficial in deciding if you wanted to read something.

Saw that in netlibrary, an e-audio book would take 4 1/2 hours to download for cd, but only 38 minutes in radio format on a dial up computer like mine. I did check out a book, (although it didn't show im my record), but didn't download the software which all seemed difficult and scary. Maybe I'll try it sometime (just not when I'm trying to finish these 23 things by today's deadline). Nice to know there are no overdue fines and that the items just disappear at the appropiate due date. Was successful in listening to a 2 min reading of the book, which worked just fine and was interesing, since I've never listened to an audio book either.

noticed the difeerrence in access bethween SJSU and SJPL, since the first few things that peaked my interest were university only items.

and finally, had to turn off the pop-up blocker to Gutenberg, which has free months in July and October. Did look at some of the top 100 lists.

Exercise 21

I found this a little frustrating because I was unable to open many of the podcasts and it probably will be more frustrating from home since I only have dial up; I am going to try it though. The Yahoo Podcasts was the only one that I could immediately open- the podcast.net asked for an x activation and never started; the podcastalley.com required downloading software. I did however, find more library hits, in the podcast alley and listened to a few minutes of several. Created an RSS link to a health show from a radio station; it appears there is no rss to the news show that I had wanted to download.
Again, this has lots of potential for staff training and promoting the library on line- could do mini tours, etc. or create modules for the public.

Exercise #20-You Tube

This was an interesting site. Another anything goes website. Clicked on all of the categories just to get an idea of what was out there. Not as organized as I would like in terms of easily finding stuff, but if people use among friends or know what to look for it can work. Interesting to see how many hits many of the videos rec'd.

I chose the two sea otter sites, since they are one of my favorite animals. I love to watch them eat, play, and swim. The first time, I was not successful - I registered for youtube, but it would not accept my site/password. Then, I got help copying the imbedded code, so I am hoping it will work. Another one of the sea otter videos made me dizzy. Was looking for short and sweet.

Did see the video the library school students did and for outreach, a unit could put together a little you tube blurb about the library services and programming or this could be a project/program as well.

Exercise 19-LibraryThing

Very interesting site. Still need to explore some more. Picked five of my favorite novels. In the social list, on two of them, I had read 9/10 recommendations; however, on one of the lesser known novels, I was only familiar with one or two of titles. A few of the covers didn't print, so I am going to get help with that part. OK. Just hadn't clicked on one little button. Now done. Three of the books had under 400 hits, and two had 1500 ish. Interesting comments and a good place to look for referrals.

Exercise 18 - Zoho

Exercise #18 Zoho Write
I don't see a Zoho Publish, but I am going to write for my blog here and then export to my blog. I like this. The word processing document was straightforward; I had a little more trobule with the show, but I am also not as familiar with that creation anyway. I did some text and will try to go back and add pictures and additional commentary. The templates were also very helpful; several easy suggestions to plug in. Will be important to see how much leeway there is in editing, which is my typical frustration with templates. I had heard of this type of web-based application (like when someone doesn't have a disk to save their work to, but now understand the concept and again will need to practice. Overall, I like these applications and see lots of uses! draft by elbee 3:38:00 PM Delete

I did type this is Zoho, found publish and sent to blog successfully as draft. Then, I was unable to edit it. All I could figure out was copying and pasting, which is what I did here.
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Exercise #17 -sjpl;favorites wiki

I still like wikis! A lot! I added comments on my favorite restaurants, movies, and music. I saw some similar favorites out there and emjoyed reading the comments. And, I did add my blog to the list.