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.

Thing #16 - Wikis

I think that wikis are probably the most intriguing and potentially useful of the web 2.0 tools we're learning about. They represent the power of the people, rather than a chosen few. The fact that they don't require any knowledge of HTML language or other technological expertise, is very encouraging. Libraries are starting to use them, and I'm confident that this trend will continue, as patrons becoma an integral part of the library online community. Sharing ideas for reader's advisory and programming, book reviews, and having an online bulletin board of community contacts/activities that is constantly changing and evolving--these are the most exciting uses of wikis for the library.

Thing #15 Web and Library 2.0

The concept of Library 2.0 brings up some interesting thoughts. First of all, coming from a marketing background, I have always thought that libraries need to be consumer-oriented, just as a business must be focused on its customers. Having catalogs where customers can give feedback on books, giving customers the power to interact with librarians, to initiate book discussions, and to be an active participant in library service, is very much in line with the "marketing concept" that all marketing students learn. However, I am also concerned that having all of this information available at the flick of your finger will make libraries and librarians as we know them now obsolete. From a children's librarian perspective, though, the type of programming that is only available in person in the form of storytime will still be the best way to introduce young children to language and literacy.

Thing #14 - Technorati

Exploring Technorati was very interesting, as I am looking for blogs dealing with children's literature. These often have very good ideas for books for book discussion groups, booklists and just ideas for books to read in genres to keep up with what's hot out there. I found "Kidlitosphere", "Booklights", "Scrub-a-dub tub", "Wizards Wireless", and other blogs on inspiring kids to read.

Thing #13 - Tagging and Delicious

I sense that this tool could be more useful for researchers/students. For me, it's only possibly a more convenient way of storing my favorite websites, but any time you have to go to yet another account you've set up, it seems to me that this just takes up more time. Having said that, I created an account and looked around for sites that would give storytime ideas, using the tag "storytime" and found many that looked good, that I will probably use in the future. But I want to say that this tool needs better "marketing"--neither I nor several of my colleagues are able to understand it's usefulness from the descriptions that are out there.