The final curtain.... #27

So.... I can't think of anything else that I wish we would have covered. I only heard of less than half of these sites before even starting kcls27things. I am however, in search of a movie cataloging site, if such one exists like librarything.com Other than that, adios and gracias!!!

Seriously...

It's been GRRRREEEAAATT!!!! I always figured there was ton of stuff on the internet that I would never be aware of, let alone use and understand. But after going through this Learning 2.0 Program I've gained confidence in my internet savvy, at least compared to my level when we first started.

Now I check my feeds, catch up with friends and acquaintances on Myspace, can find those buzzed about clips and videos on YouTube, and I make my very own blog! There's podcasts I watch, online software to create files in, wikis to read and edit, mashups to play with and much much more.

Intimidated at first, now I'm comfortable getting online to do more than just check my email and look up directions. When I hear other people talking about certain sites I can distinguish social networking ones from those that aren't. Now I'm more familiar and not so lost in the dark. And posting, uploading, and copying html has been so much easier than I thought it would be.

Staying up to date on the internet never was much of a concern or goal to me because I could always manage without it, but by participating in it more I'm convinced to drop dial up (yes I know I'm prehistoric) and I should get my own laptop to take advantage of the free wifi. Too bad we weren't promised laptops, I know more people would have sat down and taken the time to complete the exercises, alas, it probably would be a little too expensive... but definitely worth it.

Specifically, learning about rss feeds and online software will probably be my two favorite discoveries. Checking my feeds has become almost a daily ritual, I just have to be careful not to sign up for too many because it can become overwhelming. Also, not that I use online software much, but knowing it's there will be very handy when I need it. And if I ever do have questions or am lacking a how to knowledge to new sites, there's usually an explanation and instructions a few clicks away, or if it's a social networking site there's always random people who could offer advice so that's a plus.

I'd absolutely join in for another round of internet learning courses if they were offered again. I know there's a lot I've learned and it's only just the tip of that internet iceberg so bring on some more. Since there are soooo many new sites coming up I could do my own trial and error testing of what works well for me and what doesn't, but it's good to just get some names and sites listed just as a starting point. So either I'll check the webware or 2.0 awards or just wait and see what my new online buddies have found.

Overall, the time it took sucked, I spent a lot of my own off hours doing these discovery exercises but it the results have been well worth all the effort. With my awareness and understanding of what the internet has to offer, I add to my customer service skills since I can talk the talk with patrons who need help or just want to chat about certain sites. And I don't approach the internet with as much resesrvation anymore, a bonus.

I wouldn't have done this on my own so making them a work related program really pushed me to start and complete everything and I am grateful for that. Thank you David and Laurel and everybody you'd thank too!! And thanks to the people who've helped me out with navigating some of the pages, if I had an album you'd be in the thank you credits in the back.

Yeah, I did that

It wasn't stated that we needed to blog about the last couple of lessons but I'll write a little anyway it can't hurt.

I added a podcast feed from http://libvibe.blogspot.com/. And the overdrive collection got bigger since the last time I looked at it and had no idea how to explain the instructions to patrons. When I finally have my own mp3 player then I'll see how easy or not easy it is to load the files and listen. I can't wait.

Who are you calling a Tube?

Wow. I didn't get sucked into the YouTube. I was actually avoiding this site as much as possible, just like I was apprehensive about checking out Myspace. But it wasn't that bad. I knew what I wanted to look for online, and voila! It took me directly to what I was hoping I'd find. At the bottom of my page you'll find the music video from one of the funniest tv shows I've seen in a while. Yes, it's supposed to be a corny 80's music video.

It's very apparent why this site has become addictive to the public. People say you can find just about anything on the internet. With YouTube it's possible to find almost any moving footage you're looking for as well, along with things that you probably didn't mean to see. I did notice that users can flag videos and I assume when there are a lot of complaints on a certain video it will be removed. So maybe there's social policing which is good, because I have no idea who can censors all the videos.

I guess KCLS could use this site to promote the system and upcoming and finished events. It can provide the public a first hand view of what's available, and what they can look forward to. I know the final Harry Potter book is set to unveil this summer and I think it would be fun if some of our libraries hosted parties and took footage to show our patrons and staff enjoying the festivities while giving those who were skeptical about attending or those who weren't aware a picture of the goings on. It's just another way to reach out to the public and giving them a more in depth perception of our services other than reading about it and hearing from word of mouth.

My choices from Webware & Web 2.0 Awards

So many choices, so little time. Too many choices, not enough room to file into my creative capacity. So I'll just stick to 2 of my favorite findings today.

From the 2.0 Award nominees and winners I stumbled upon http://www.last.fm/ A SOCIAL MUSIC REVOLUTION! Finally, people who listen to the same music I like. Good music, great music, even bad music and the site automatically generates other artists that it thinks you'd be interested in listening to based on the choices you've made. And a personalised radio station at your disposal which means listening to what you want, when you want to, provided you are at a computer with speakers. I haven't signed up yet but from what I've browsed through I'm sure it'll be added to my list of online memberships. How can this be helpful in KCLS? Well... maybe if a patron was looking for a song or an artist and couldn't remember, we could do a search on this site, give them a sample of what matches best and maybe hit the nail on the head? I don't know, how about by typing in popular artist, we can generate other artists that we don't have in our system and then consider adding them to the collection?

And from Webware I located http://www.domystuff.com/ Do my stuff . com? If you don't want to hire somebody to go to the website for you and locate the FAQ's, I'll go ahead and cut and paste it for your laziness.

"FAQs

1. What is DoMyStuff.com? DoMyStuff.com is an online community where busy people can quickly find Assistants to complete their chores.
2. What Can I Get Done? You can find someone to do ANYTHING on DoMyStuff.com. Picking up drycleaning, mowing your lawn, and cooking your dinner are examples of chores you can post.
3. Who Will Do My Stuff? DoMyStuff.com's Assistants are individuals and businesses located near you who compete to run your errands. "

Hence, you advertise chores, errands, and etc. that you want somebody else to do for you and other people or yourself can bid to do a particular task that they'd do for the right price. It's been compared to a hybrid of ebay/craigslist which is pretty on the spot. I haven't tried it yet, just browsed but I'm most curious as to how payments are made, I guess it's probably like craigslist where you have to figure out what works best. My car has been overdue for a wash now about 2 months, and I've needed a haircut for at least 6 months, maybe I should advertise...

How it would help out KCLS? I don't know, we could advertise for new contracts to do the things we don't do ourselves?

Google Labs?

I always think of betas as those fighting fish they sell in indivual cups at the pet stores that come in different colors and long tails. I did know that the word was also used for websites in the phase of construction and testing. This was a pretty fun activity to test out the other sites that google has to offer.

Personally, I already use Google maps http://maps.google.com/maps I find it overall a better site than using yahoo maps and mapquest (no offense). When I would search for directions and I had time to lookover all of the results between these sites, Google's were always less confusing with not so many turns, and it also seemed to be updated with newer locations and addresses. The feature that allows you to display the maps in a satellite, hybrid, or simple views which give you options if you need them. They've even added a traffic button that shows where you wouldn't want to drive if you can avoid it, but I haven't checked to see how accurate that is so far.

The Page Creator https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=pages&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fpages.google.com%2F&ltmpl=yessignups site is another one I need to take a little more time to test out and use. I'm so glad they're making more of these user friendly pages where you can foray into the world of the internet without having to learn everything about html and etc. Now I've signed up for all sorts of online sites and have a blog, I actually don't think I'll be using this page creator much because I don't need another site to remember to update and post to. Maybe if I had a business or topics of interest, but not right now...

Online Software---Great Googly Moogly!!

Yet another exciting week of learning 2.0! And this lesson has to be on my list of "I can't believe I didn't know about this" and "Why didn't anybody tell me sooner?"

I always hated trying to load files that I created and saved from one computer and finding out that they wouldn't work on another computer later when I wanted to print or edit them. Google Docs & ZOHO where were you when I needed you the most? Hmmm.... Maybe you weren't born yet, I can live with that.

A long long time ago I would write papers, resumes, proposals, whatever and then email them to myself so I could access them when I got to another computer to finish or print. But I almost always ended up needing to reformat them or give up because the programs I tried using weren't friends with each other. Now with these online software sites, I won't need to introduce programs that aren't friends with each other anymore, I can just put them on the backburner for more detailed uses and instead use these awesome sites to create, edit, save, and access my files anywhere I can check my email without even having to send them to myself. Better yet I can use them to work on group projects and not even need to be there with the other members to finish up the work because of the collaboration abilities.

Free from file formats, free use-no money necessary, and I won't have to get another flash drive that'll I'll probably end up losing because they're so small I forget about them! I haven't even begun to find out what great options there are available on ZOHO or Google docs, I can't wait to do further exploration on these sites.

Oh, I know we didn't have to write how this can be helpful for patrons, but I would probably suggest using these sites from now on compared to all those instances of helping them figure out how to open their documents and lost files that were on the P: Drive. It's Bloody Brilliant!! Freakin Genius!!