I'M FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saving the best for last, Pt. 2: Podcasts

Podcasts are fun! I really didn't understand the whole podcasting thing until our bloglines assignments, and since then, I've signed up for quite a few for both entertainment and informational purposes. "Keith and the Girl" is probably my favorite all around entertainment podcast because they are pretty much hilarious (offensive, but hilarious).

This time around I visited podcast.net and strolled down podcastalley in search of podcasts featuring children's literature book reviews. I am amazed that there are so many! Now I did have to sift through the search results and try different terms because I got a LOT of things that had no relevance or relation to children's literature, but I really enjoyed "Book Voyages" and "Book Bites for Kids" and will be returning to those podcasts for more great reccomendations.

The hardest apect of accessing this technology is finding the podcasts that I want to listen to. The sheer amount of topics covered and and podcasts available on each topic is quite overwhelming. By far, my favorite aspect of podcasting is the convenience allowed by RSS technology. Not only can I locate all of my favorite podcasts in one place, I don't have to worry about missing one because they are always updated.

TforTSampleOutline-Zoho Writer Test

It worked! I created this document in Zoho writer and then used its publish feature to save it here. It was SO easy. Wow.

Time for Two's

• "Hello Song"
• "Where is ___________?"

Book 1

• Flannel

Book 2

• Fingerplay/Action Rhyme

Book 3

• Lapbox or Puppet/Prop Story

Book 4

• Fingerplay/Nursery Rhyme/or Song w/ or w/out prop

Book 5 (optional)

• Jingle Bells and Songs
• Here's A Bubble and Blowing bubbles

Goodbye!

Saving the best for last, Pt. 1: Youtube

The first time I saw this, one of my friends posted it on her myspace page. The footage is a dance routine from a 1960's episode of The Ed Sullivan Show led by Gwen Verdon (I'm assuming she is the lady in the middle of the trio with all the mad dance skills) and choreographed by Bob Fossi (again, no clue who that is but I get the impression he is/was a "big deal" as far as choreography goes). The original audio has been dubbed over with Unk's "Walk it Out" (currently a popular song on the radio). I chose this video because a) those ladies have got some moves! (I wish I could dance like that!) and b) it illustrates a phenomenon that I have encountered frequently on youtube.




Just for contrast, here is the footage with its original audio. (The song is called "Mexican Breakfast")




This is an example of something that people do a lot on youtube and I don't really understand it. I mean, its mildly entertaining, but I don't really get the point of dubbing different music over say, the opening credits to a tv show or any random video clip for that matter...Not to be rude or anything, but don't these people have anything better to do?

I've used youtube mainly as a distraction to kill time up until this point. I like the sharing feature and use it on my myspace page or to post comments on others' pages quite often. However, I can see a lot of potential uses for myspace in the library world. In my field of expertise, I could use it to search for storytime and programming ideas, or to post my own. I have also seen other library sites post video of actual storytimes for those who couldn't make it to the live storytime. I see youtube as an innovative opportunity for outreach.

Almost there!!!! Online Apps....

Hey. I learned something new. Neat! I didn't even know that online apps existed until today. Thanks Techtrek! This makes my life a whole lot easier because I just bought a MAC computer and haven't been able to transfer files between it and my work PC. I was reluctant to buy MS Office for MAC because A) it's kind of expensive B) I wasn't sure how compatible it would be with the version at work and C) the demo that came installed on the MAC was not very user-friendly. Now I don't have to worry about it! (and I am saving a couple bucks too!)

I took a spin around Google Docs first but I prefer Zoho because it seems to offer more advanced features and I like being able to publish to a blog. I'm sure I need to spend a little more time in the learning curve but the similarities to MS Office made it easy to jump right in and get started.

Again, my first thought when using this was "why didn't I know about this in library school!!??!" The collaborative features in the application would have made those group paper writing sessions a lot less stressful. I'm sure I will encounter situations in my career in which I will have to prepare reports, papers, and presentations with my colleagues and this is a much more organized and streamlined way to go about it.

My second thought was that this is going to be really really great to share with our patrons. Online apps are a ready-made solution for all sorts of floppy disk issues and data loss pitfalls.

This one is definitely a keeper in my web 2.0 toolkit!






D

Wookies...Er, I mean Wikis

All I can say is, why didn't we use these things in library school!!! Our group projects would have gone a LOT smoother if we had. I like the fact that users can mange their own content and don't have to be ultra-experienced with html or web design. I also like the inherent versatility of a wiki. We can share information with each other, or with our patrons. The possibilities really are endless, you only have to decide a wiki's purpose or function at the onset, and then watch it grow! Not only can the library make information readily available to its' patrons this way, we can interact with them and respond to feedback.

I visited the Princeton Public Library's BookLover's page first because reader's advisory is the first option that comes to mind when I think about wiki possibilities. Reader's advisory is our number one question at my branch but each of us is called upon for our individual "specialities" due to our varied reading interests. It would be nice to have our collective reccomendations pooled into once resource that any of us can access at any given time. I think it is really cool that both staff and patrons can contribute reviews to Princeton's wiki. Well-read patrons offer a wealth of knowledge in terms of reader's advisory and also reflect the reading needs and interests of the general public. Our patrons could really benefit from this kind of feature being offered in addition to or as part of the catalog.

The Bull Run Library wiki shows me that a wiki can be a big or as small as you want it to be. It is awesome to know that even the most "budgetarily challenged" library can still have an online presence through a wiki both cheaply and easily. On the small-scale range, I can see using a wiki simply as a communication tool among staff members to share information that is helpful and current for people working the service desks. For example, if a big homework assignment is underway, I could leave information about what types of sources students are looking for, what has already been checked out, and links to items in the catalog or helpful websites.

Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki is an excellent example of how wikis can be a profession-wide tool. I, personally, detest listservs and though I might be missing out on great ideas and information, I choose not to participate. They are too unorganized and cumbersome to deal with and I get enough junk mail clogging up my inbox as it is! However, I see wiki's as a MUCH more user-friendly alternative. My favorite example of this is Nancy Keen's ATN Reading Lists. Now if I can just find a good storytime ideas wiki, I'll be in business.

myspace, yourspace, ourspace

I resisted the urge to jump on the myspace bandwagon for *quite* some time. I'm not young enough to consider myself a "millenial" and I'm more and more aware of that as I encounter new technologies. (I mean, I don't want to talk to people I don't know! And if I DID, I wouldn't do it online!) I guess I was kind of confused about the lure and purpose of social networking. I was also concerned about my privacy. I made excuses and worried about stalkers and ex-boyfriends and random people accessing my personal information.....and then I took the plunge. A year later, myspace is part of my regular online routine. It has been interesting to watch the growth of myspace and I'm still not sure that I understand the "why" of it all, but there is no denying that it is a major information hub and a powerful tool for libraries to communicate with the public. I also think it is the most user-friendly of the selected sites we are reviewing. Creating my profile page was the most difficult part of the learning curve. Now that I've got the hang of it, it is also my favorite part. I like changing my layout and my song to reflect my mood or interests. Acquiring "friends" is kind of stressful though. It makes me feel like I'm in middle school or something--- "do you like me? check yes or no" but my circle of friends has grown nicely. I enjoy being able to keep in touch with friends from a distance and have even reconnected with friends and co-workers from back in the day. It is a really convenient way to keep up with what is going on in everybody else's world. I also make a lot of musical discoveries on myspace, keep up with several libraries, and regularly surf for interesting children's and young adult authors.

I think libraries can benefit from myspace by capitalizing on its interactive features and using it to market to and communicate with our patrons. The bulletin feature is a great way to let our patrons know about programs and special events while the blogging tool could be used for book reviews and discussions. I've even seen some library sites that connect to the catalog and allow some one to reserve a reccomended book directly from myspace. The possibilities really are endless!


Once I cut my teeth on myspace I ventured on to other networking sites but was not as impressed. I've had a facebook account for a couple of weeks now but I'm not really into it. I don't understand all the poking and virtual gift-giving and what not. It seems like a big waste of time to me. And I can't express myself through pretty colors and song! (I prefer the chaos of myspace to the "cleaner" look of facebook.) I browsed around some of the other sites like Bebo and Friendster and was equally unimpressed. In my opinion, myspace has a much broader reach and offers tools more suited to a library's needs.

My friend Flickr

I've had a personal flickr page for awhile now, just for sharing photos with friends and family, but I had no idea that the flickr world encompassed so much! I chose Option C for this exercise and I'm really glad that I did! I had too much fun playing with the selections on FD's flickr toys page. Photography is my (extremely amateur) artistic medium of choice (I visited a Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit in Italy and that pretty much sealed the deal) so editing and manipulating digital photos is one of my favorite things to do. My favorite toys from the experience are the"Warholizer" and the "Hockneyizer" because I like the idea of turning a ragular photo into a work of "art." (To the left is a Warholized version of me.)

There are really too many to name but I also like the Mosaic Maker, Captioner, and Trading Card Maker. These (and many more) are really cool ways to enhance a personal or professional blog/myspace/website. Fun!

Technowhati???

Okay, see...I'm conflicted. I want to be enthusiastic about Technorati, but since I started using bloglines, I have grown to love it. I just love an alphabetical list of things, its the librarian in me I guess. So Technorati, with its tagging and crazy searches and whatnot is just not my fave thing. I know they do different things, but I'm having tech overload here, and I can't handle it at the moment. My first impression of Technorati is that it's too much going on at one time and it is very overwhelming. I'm not interested in tagging this blog, but I do like the fact that if I ever create a professional blog for my branch/dept.--this is one way to publicize it and get the information out to the public.

My results in the searching part of this exercise were vastly different. I really prefer the blog directory search and the tag search because I see myself using this to find specific information about specific topics, so a keyword search is too overcrowded and aggravates me. I was surprised that the "popular" blogs list was mostly populated by "techy" types of things. I'm not so interested in that I have to confess.

del.icio.us thoughts

hmmm...let's see..creme brulee...ben & jerry's cherry garcia ice cream....chocolate chocolate cake.... yes, that was a bad attempt at a joke but i *have* been wondering how this utility's title and function are related. it seems like i saw a link to something that explained this very idea, but i have yet to come across it again.

i feel like i may be missing part of the big picture with del.icio.us because the 12 min. video tutorial that we were instructed to watch has been unavailable since i started this endeavor. (error messages pop-up every time i attempt the link and a google search was also fruitless. i believe the video may have been removed?)

in any case, i like the idea of having my favorites housed in one location so that i can access them from any computer. i can see how this would be a valuable reference tool at the service desk as well. in addition to the convenience, it is nice to de-clutter my bookmarks on my desktop and to merge my favorites on my work and home computers into one location. on the downside, it is a lot of work to tag this initial group of bookmarks and i am nowhere close to finishing. i find it very tedious and quit soon after i start.

i experienced this same feeling when i started a librarything account as well. i thought "oh neat" i can keep track of everything i read for personal and reader's advisory purposes without keeping an old-fashioned list on paper (which i usually lose anyway). but whenever i add new books, i don't bother with the tags and i tell myself that i can add them later. (i never do). so i am down with the list part of this tool (list-making is one of my favorite things to do) but i haven't quite grasped the tagging aspect fully. i guess what i am trying to say is that my brain is having trouble transitioning from the organizational method of a traditional folder hierarchy of favorites to the "flat" hierarchy used by del.icio.us.

my del.icio.us

It works!

http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?html=1&id=jenstechtrek

The Best I can Do

Okay. Sooooo... I am still unable to figure out why you can't link to my bloglines account directly from this blog, but you CAN copy and paste this link in a new window to visit it.

http://www.bloglines.com/public/jenstechtrek

brownie points

Here are the blogs I subscribed to on bloglines:



For some reason I am having trouble getting a live link to post for my bloglines url, so......I am still working on it. Can anyone help me out with that?

RSS=Awesome

Seriously! RSS feeds are awesome. Before, I thought I didn't really have time to keep up with blogs because there are so darn many of them out there. Now, I know that I can keep up with blogs, podcasts, flickr, etc... All in one handy-dandy place. Who knew??? Well, now *I* do I guess.

This is going to save me so much time! In my professional life, this new tool will enable me to stay informed. faster. And in my personal time I will stay thoroughly entertained and be able to access all of that juicy celebrity gossip in one place! This was a fun day because I discovered some blogs that I wasn't aware of and I really delved into the world of podcasts.

CCPL should definitely figure out a way to incorporate RSS feeds into the catalog to notify our patrons about new books, DVD's, etc. We get asked this question (where is a list of your new____________fill in the blank) on a weekly, often daily basis at my branch so I know this type of service would be relevant to our patrons and make them very happy.

IM me, baby

i have a little bit of experience IM'ing thanks to my distance ed degree. (in fact, i remember a painfully embarrassing moment that occurred during an online class when i accidentally sent a private message meant for one person-- to the *entire* class.) in that respect, instant messaging helped me work on group projects and bridge the distance between myself and my classmates.

however, it's not something that is a part of my everyday life. in fact, i find it kind of annoying. typing under pressure isn't really for me. and i figure, if i really have something to say to someone who is not in my presence, i'll just call them, right?

so i called my boyfriend and asked him to be my guinea pig.

it went kind of like this (we were still on the phone for some reason)....

me: "okay i just sent it, didja get it?"

him: "oh! okay i got it..... i just sent you something, do ya' see it?"

me: "i got it...neat! okay i just sent you something back..."

etc, etc....

then we giggled and repeated the (simultaneously verbal and virtual) conversation about 40 more times. now i just have to do it without the phone!

i am pleasantly surprised by my IM experience. i thought it was fun and i felt really comfortable talking with someone online. i can still be expressive, just in a different way. i know a handful of people that IM who will be glad to know that i am catching on. :) still not into typing under pressure, though. makes me stressed out. especially when i misspell a word!

life long learning

i'm really jazzed about tech trek 2.0 now that i've actually taken the first step of the process and viewed the presentation about life long learning. i'm kind of a procrastinator by nature, but i'm tackling this thing with a vengeance! i like to think that i am a pretty open-minded person who is receptive to new ideas and i am constantly trying to learn and do new things in both my personal and professional life. so i feel like i am already in the right frame of mind to begin this journey. some positive ideas that stuck with me from the presentation are "I will...I can...I do" and "attitude is everything". my response: ain't that the truth! (i'm a firm believer in self-prophecy.)

so... i predict that i will not only succeed at this little endeavor, but also enjoy it immensely. my numero uno goal is to come away from this experience with some tech savvy that i can utilize for programming and promoting the library. i really, *really* want to start a book club for my afterschool kids that will incorporate blogging book reviews and reccomendations for the kids.

the easiest of the "7.5 habits" for me is definitely to play! i am a children's librarian so it comes naturallly to me to play while learning (and vice versa). the hardest habit for me will be "to view problems as challenges". i'm quite comfortable with viewing obstacles as learning opportunities but i am easily frustrated by "technical difficulties" that are normally due to software and equipment problems. the solution? patience, grasshopper.....