Thing #19 - Web 2.0 Awards

On the list of Web Awards I went to biblio.com. As a test, I looked up The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot. As a comparison I looked it up on Amazon.com to help me understand the difference between the two. I realized the great thing about Biblio is you can locate 1st Editions, signed copies, or any special editions. They also offered the Ezine for book lovers which talked about new books, book reviews which included children's books (which you rarely see), and gift certificates (great for bibliophiles!).
The second website I visited off the list was Upcoming. It lists events happening in any area and can show events by county. WHY ISN'T OCL USING THIS?!?!?!?! Burlington and Atlantic City Libraries as well as OCC is using it for their events. It also has some unusual services such as the scrapbooking option and the ability to invite friends to a specific event and track attendance.

I plan to go back and look at some other websites later such as BeGreen and check out my carbon footprint.

Furthermore....my daughter (who has been coaching me through this process) found many interesting website for both herself and her husband!! The knowledge is spreading!!!!

Thing # 18 - Web Apps

Personally, I don't have an application in work for Google Docs. I do have some suggestions though. In a very small way I helped with Flower Fest. Several people were involved in the planning and execution as is usually the case. I think Google Docs would have been great there.
I think J. Stokes might also be able to use this for the weekly Heads Up.

My aformentioned son-in-law has signed up with Zoho to share documents with his doctoral advisor. ( I think he should mention me or at least the Web Challenge in his thesis because of all the new technology we have shared.) O.K. Here is the reason he liked this "Thing", the people he wanted to share his documents with had MACS and were unable to view his work. ZOHO allowed them all to look at the documents at the same time with no problem.

Thing #17 - Sandbox

As far as I'm concerned, when someone says wiki I think cat whiskers BUT...
Regarding the fonts, colors, and styles....I felt that I was able to generalize this skill from posting this blog, using word processing programs, etc.
The rest was interesting but in my position (page) I don't really see the use unless we are asked to comment on a common topic/project OR if I were to assist a patron with a wiki issue ( I hope I don't have to).

Thing # 16 Wikis

Library success seemed like it had lots of information. It wasn't for me. As a library page I have nothing to do with the technical aspects of management. I did find something about books but two of the categories were no longer functioning and the third had not been updated in a long time. It wasn't a very attractive site either. It was like reading an old textbook with no pictures or graphics or a card catalogue . I think I'm being spoiled by Lee Lefevre's tutorials!!!!

Our article on Wkiopedia is great. It gives you a great deal of information. It is an excellent site for peeople new to the area. There are links to all the towns as well. I'm hoping to watch Betsy edit our site! I wondered how many books OCL owned and it wasn't on our site. She is going to add it.

I also liked Nancy Pearl's Wiki It leads you to blogs about book reviews. I got more great recipes from Wiki Cookbook too. They have a lot of "special" diet recipes.

Thing #14 - Library 2.0

RE: Away from Icebergs: I think this exercise (23 things) shows we are trying to keep up with trends and avoid the "icebergs". I hope our circulation hasn't dropped as drastically as 55%....does any one know how much our circulation has dropped over the past 12 years? or even the past 5 years?
RE:To better bibliographic services: Before reading this perspective I thought our library was fairly advanced and techno-savvy. After looking at the NC State catalog, I realized there is a lot more out there and more that could be done. On a side note-I felt that John Reimer was talking over my head.

What does Library 2.0 mean to me? It means that we are always going to have to change to keep up with what the patrons are looking for. We have to find new ways of doing things. So what does it mean to me...Change is hard. 1) Learning this stuff isn't easy for me. I feel like I'm too old ( but apparently I'm not). 2) It was difficult to see actual books leave the library. I love books. I can't see myself reading an eBook. Change is good. 1) There are many ways to gather LOTS of information. 2) I have learned so much on many different levels that I could potentially use professionally and personally.

Thing #15 - Technorati

Initially I did not see the value of the Technorati site but I persevered and found some interesting things. For example, in the "Top 100" lists I found the "Lifehacker, tips and downloads for getting things done". I also enjoyed An Engineer's Guide to Cats, a video available on YouTube.
The thing I found surprising is that some blogs have topics you wouldn't expect to find. What I mean by this is that just because there is a tag associated with a blog doesn't mean that the entire blog is about this topic. I was searching food and wine and happened upon Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide-although it wasn't what I was initially looking for it serendipitously provided me with other information.
PS- I learned that putting search terms in quotation marks returns EXACTLY what you are looking for. When I searched Learning 2.0 I didn't put it in quotes and got back 14,879 hits vs. 1898 hits when quoted.

Thing #13- del.icio.us

I created an account with del.icio.us and added some bookmarks of my own. I recommended this tool to my son-in-law to assist him with research for his PhD project. Since it is difficult for him to find websites for his specific area of interest, social bookmarks will potentially help expand the search for relevant information.

I also found great recipes for energy bars and pancakes from someone elses bookmarks. Are you ready? The pancakes are coconut macaroon. How great does that sound! I can't wait to try them. I might have to walk to Toms River for a week to work them off.

Thing #12 - WorldCat and Net Library

I looked for the book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and searched for it in Italian to practice with the Advanced Search. It showed up in 2 places, Cleveland and the Netherlands. That's cool! In regards to the ILL request form, WorldCat supplies most of the information on the form. It seems that there should be a way to move that electronic information from WorldCat directly to ILL without having to write it on a paper form at all. This would save time and lots of paper.

I signed up for NetLibrary. It was easy to do just like the other sign-ups. It just sort of leads you along. Getting around the site was pretty intuitive; therefore ,excellent for searching. Lots of ebooks but I don't see myself using them. I get eye strain doing the Challenge. At my advanced age I need large print books

Thing #11 Library Thing

I think I will use this frequently to find other books that I would like to read. Usually it is difficult for me to find good books in my areas of interest. I also think it will be interesting to read what other people think about the book like a book discussion book that you can attend in your PJs. I can't wait to enter the rest of my books in the LibraryThing. So far this is my favorite"Thing".
Here it is so far:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/jmarootian

Thing #10 Technology Blogging

The challenge has taught an this old dog new tricks. In addition to these challenges I took a Word class which taught me many new skills. It has given me so much confidence I'm learning the different functions on my cell phone- I even sent a text message.

Thing #9-feed search tools

I thought it was just as easy to put a topic into a search engine and add "bloglines" than to use the tools recommended. In fact, the "Bloglines" search tool worked the same way. I was not impressed with the "Technorati" tool. Maybe the importance of it went over my head as I am very deficient technologically. By the way, the word feeders has a negative connotation for me. I picture hyenas or piranha. I call them scootelies. It's says it all. (This is my daughters word for anything she can't think of a name for.) Not happy with the word blog either but I don't have a better one!

Thing #8-RSS

The Bloglines account was easy to setup. This is a fast and easy way to get connected to your interests. Thank goodness I didn't do it at work- it took a while to figure out what I wanted to choose for feeds. It was time consuming to initially set up but now I will probably only add 1 or 2 at a time rather than 10-13. This exercise also enlightened my daughter to RSS as she volunteered her time and laptop. I subscribed to Eating Well and it gives you a new recipe every night for dinner. I also subscribed to a cat health site it has a lot of info on feline diabetes. My little furry friend was just diagnosed about a month ago. The Yankee site is great as well since the season just opened.

This is my cat Koty, short for Dakota but we call him Mr. or Mr. Boy. We got him from a shelter and recently found out he is diabetic but he is doing really well with insulin and we hope to get him off of it someday.