What a journey!

This assignment is one that I could sink my teeth into.  It represents hands on learning, which is the way I learn best.  Give me what I need and let me run with it.  The beauty is that there were really no right or wrong answers to this assignment.  Every one's reflections and thoughts are their own and I'm sure there were a wide variety of opinions about different exercises.

I especially liked the exercises on finding podcasts and rollyo.  The use of podcasts is fairly new for me and I was exposed to the vast amounts of information to be explored through podcasts and how to find it.  Rollyo is something I had never heard of, but that has such promise in a school setting.  I can envision using Rollyo with students and teachers.  Additionally, I was have a deeper understanding of things I was already familiar with.  For example, I have had a blog in the past, but never knew how to embed a photo or video.

I was surprised to find that a few of these exercises frustrated me or felt worthless.  I will probably never use zotero.  I found it so hard to use and I did not get a clear understanding of how it would benefit me, therefore not finding much value.

For me this assignment does not end here.  We were exposed to so many ways to gather information, but could only scratch the surface in this assignment.  I will go back and search for podcasts, follow more blogs on my google reader, and discover more award winning web 2.0 sites.

I do have one suggestion for improving this assignment.  Web 2.0 tools can be used in so many creative ways.  Unfortunately, I am not super creative and tend to profit from others' creativity.  We were asked to reflect on ways these applications could be used in a library setting, but unless we read everyone's blog posts, those ideas were not shared.  I think it would be helpful to share these ideas in some way.

I leave this assignment with a quote from Dave Barry, but I cannot verify if it is truth (but if it is, maybe it should be included as the 24th thing)

"One day soon the Gillette company will announce the development of a razor that, thanks to a computer microchip, can actually travel ahead in time and shave beard hairs that don't even exist yet."

Biblio.com

From the list of web 2.0 award winners I chose biblio.com, the 2nd place winner in the "books" category.  Essentially biblio is a bookstore for textbooks, new books, out of print books, and rare books.  I searched for a favorite of mine called It's Going to be Perfect by Nancy Carlson.  The search returned 4 copies, but the pricing was bizarre.  Two of the copies were under $3.00 and the other 2 were over $100.00!  This site could certainly be used by libraries as a place to acquire rare and out of print books, or archivists could use this tool to see how much certain books are worth.

The web 2.0 element is in the community forum where users can review and discuss books.  The site also has a facebook page, a blog, and twitter.

Zotero - why do you pain me so?

This was by far the hardest technology to understand and use in the 23 things assignment.  I had such a hard time with it that I skipped it and came back to it.  I watched the tutorial several times, but it just didn't make clear what how the application could be useful to me.  The tutorial went very fast and was hard to follow.  I had the hardest time finding search results that has the folder icon for saving.  I tried amazon and my local library catalog, neither of which had the save icon.  Finally I went to UB's online databases and it showed up on the search results page.

The truth is that I am so turned off by this website that I am not even interested in how it may be useful to me.  I am just mad and frustrated.  But that is tonight.  Tomorrow (but probably several days or weeks from now) I may give Zotero another chance.

My Zotero Library

Perspectives on Web 2.0 and libraries

Web 2.0 applications make my life easier.  In 2006, when these articles were written, I would not have made that statement.  I hardly knew what web 2.0 meant, much less use it.  I think these articles were progressive and quite accurate based on how libraries look today.

I was on board with the majority of the perspectives I read about, but I have to admit that they went a little over my head as well.  Into a New World of Librarianship stressed that libraries must be user centered.  Library decisions should not only take users into consideration, but should have users as active participants in decision making.  Lastly, the library must embrace web 2.0 applications and change with technology in a timely manner.  This was the article that most closely mirrored my own thoughts about web 2.0.  With so many users struggling to use the library effectively,  it is about time users were put first! 

To a Temporary Place in Time touched on the history of libraries and what libraries of the future may look like.  I have lived through the "libraries are buildings and books are commodities" mindset, and I am now experiencing the attempt to have the library be everywhere with an emphasis on user participation.  OK time for true confessions:  I did give second life a try once.  As my avatar was walking to the library, it fell into a fountain and was unable to get out.  It is probably still there today.  My feeling is that we have a long way to go to make the 3D experience user friendly.  Then I was just lost altogether when there was mention of a "knowledge spa" library experience.  I don't know what that means, but it sure sounds nice!

Rollyo

Rollyo is one resource I had no idea about before this 23 things assignment.  After exploring what Rollyo is all about, I decided to use one of my favorite resources, delicious.com, to create my own searchroll.  I went to my delicious page and found that I had 95 tags for "lesson plans".  I took several of these websites and created a searchroll titled "Lesson Plans".  As I explored further, I found that others had created searchrolls with the same title.

Next, I chose to try the explore tab.  I discovered many searchrolls that would be helpful for librarians and I added them to my saved searchrolls.  This resource could have many applications both personally and professionally.  As a school library media specialist, I could create searchrolls for students or teachers to use for research.  These searchrolls would ensure that the students are using only reputable and safe websites.  Rollyo could be a great way for teachers to store and share information with colleagues all over the world.

Check me out:  My Rollyo profile

Library Thing is a good thing.

Wow.  Could a book lover find a site that would be more beneficial?  I can't imagine it.  Creating my account was easy, but the navigation and adding a book to my collection was a little bit confusing.  Once I figured that out, the wonder of library things came alive.  Based on the books I entered, the magic began.  When I clicked on one of the books in my collection, I was expecting reviews by other library users, but I was not expecting to see links to other members who have that book in their collection, recommendations from library thing and other users, and even a list of users who have libraries similar to mine!  I learned that many authors use library thing and share their library with other users.

Just when I thought they had covered it all, I clicked on the other tabs.  The talk tab has an active and interesting forum for topics related to reading and books, and the local tab shows venues and upcoming book related events in a particular area.  Although I could get lost in this site, the most practical uses for me will be to keep track of what I've read and to get ideas about what to read next.

Here's a link to my library thing catalog:

Becki's Library Thing catalog

Cool tools from Google

I loved this assignment because I have been wanting to check out Google Voice for a while and just can't seem to find the time.  So I was able to kill 2 birds with one stone.  Google Voice is interesting, but I'm not ready to pull the trigger.  I like the options for categorizing callers in terms of where calls are received and where voicemail is stored.  I think that the best feature is that the voicemail messages can be sent as text messages.  I always find it such a hassle to have to call my voicemail to receive messages.  Ultimately, it seems like a lot of set up work.  Maybe when I have more time I will explore more and give it a try.

The one tool I discovered that I LOVE is iGoogle!  Having all of the information I want in one place as my homepage is great.  In addition to the staples of weather, news, Facebook, and gmail, I added some gadgets like Amazon.com's deal of the day and "Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handy.  I also love that you can choose from so many different themes for the page.  I think I will be changing the look frequently just because I like the themes so much and it's hard to chose just one.  Google just keeps making my life easier and easier.