Thing #23 Summary

I patted myself on the back, for this was an interesting but challenging experience. Here are my thoughts:
--It is important for librarians to be aware of the up-to-date technology, so if this program continues, it should be completely up-to-date (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, and others). I do appreciate the opportunity to learn about technologies I was unfamiliar with --how to blog, RSS, avatars, tagging (although this wasn't very clear), and wikis.
--There was too much emphasis on Flickr
--I feel more "in the know". Perhaps somebody could look into updating it from time to time.

Thing #22 - Audiobooks

I have explored these before, so this was a review. I have a Net Library account and have downloaded to the computer and then to an MP3 player (a Clive Cussler bestseller). This time, I searched for Dan Brown, and was surprised to see that THe Da Vinci Code was not on Net Library at all. It was on Maryland's Digital ELibrary, although you had to put a hold on it. Browsability is good on both, and it's nice that there is always something available in the "always available section". These are useful and well-used by our patrons (but I prefer to read, visual learner that I am).

Thing #21 Podcasts

I learned quite a bit here, but was also frustrated. None of the links provided actually worked, so i found another podcast link, www.podcast.com, and searched for children's book reviews.
I found "Bookvoyages", which was interesting, stories read aloud, and NPR book reviews. All of these were interesting, but since I am more of a visual learner, I prefer to see people who are talking to me. But I guess this is the future, and there will be no more radio as we know it today.

Thing #20 - You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFHaHEEiENM
This is the link for the video of Rockville librarians running through the fountains outside of the library. I have used You Tube many times. This time, I explored at leisure and found episeodes of old tv shows like Dick Van Dyke, Star Trek and The Outer Limits, 60's tv commercials that made me relive my childhood, and episodes of an Australian tv show called "The Librarians", which is hilarious.

Thing 17 - Sandbox wiki

This seems like it would have been entertaining, but I gave up trying to get into it. I would like to see people's "favorite" books, blogs, wikis, etc. This is a good tool for nosy people who like to know what other people think without actually asking them.

Thing #19 - Awards

For this assignment, I selected the category of real estate, and the site called hotpads.com, since I am currently looking for a place to live. Hotpads.com was very cool graphically. It is map-based, and you can zoom in on a location. The graphics are very cute--cartoon-like buildings representing available rentals or homes for sale. You can zoom in on a particular listing, and it links you to the relevant information on that property. It's very similar to other sites out there, but the attractiveness of the site was the draw here.

Test document-Thing #18 - Online Productivity Tools

This online word processing tool is intriguing, since I can access something I have saved from any computer with access to the internet. My immediate thoughts on using this involve typing up a list of books I have read so I have easy access and can recommend them to patrons for readers advisory. I can never remember anything I have read, so I have typed-up lists at the information desk. But I often find myself at another desk, or outside of the library, with no access to this list. Library THing is useful for this, too, but I think I may store my lists here.