Week 9 #22

Digital books are the coolest thing ever. Yes, I know I just said that I do not like pod casts, but this is different. Last week at my monthly book club some of the ladies were telling me about downloading the books and listening to them while they did just about everything. They love this library's digital collection This is something that I have passed on to many people and will probably start to do myself. I frequently listen to my book club books while I am working in my office. But now I will not have to wait for them to come in from another branch. Also, my uncle spends a fortune on audio books and lugs them around the world since he travels for his job. I told him about this service and told him to give me all the money he saves to download the books for him.....He just laughed and gave me some m&m's instead. Oh well, I tried.

Week #9 21---podcasts

I guess I am old fashioned, but I am not a pod cast fan. I feel over inundated with information as it is. I like to go for walks and work in my office without listening to anything. Also, I am much more of a visual learner, I like to read about things not hear about them. I can see how this is a great technology for people to use. Some people like to listen to music, others to programs and even books. So while this technology is really cool (and I do think it is really cool) it is just not something useful to me. I know teachers put lessons on it, you can download the news, you can listen to music. Maybe someday I will catch up and join the podcasters of the world. Just not now.

week 9 #23

I am not officially finished because I will have to go back and do the podcast and overdrive lessons from home, but I thought I could at least start to talk about my ihcpl experience. I really go to spend some quality time seeing what is out there that might fill my own need or library patron's needs. I have learned about what I like and what I dont. Even the things I might not like, I have learned to see how they might be used by someone else. I was really surprised that there was not a lesson on igoogle. I love my igoogle page. In fact, my igoogle page encompasses many of the applications we learned here. I will keep on thinking about my experience and share more later.

Week 9 #22

Again,,,a place marker. I will try this one from home

Week 9 #21 Podcast

I cannot do a podcast from this computer, but I will when I am on a computer that will let me. I just wanted to mark my spot so I dont get too out of order.

Week 9 #20 you tube

I love youtube. On my igoogle page I have it set to give me a list of highlighted videos every time I log in. This one came in last week about the same time I got off the phone with my sister. She was very down about being too busy all of the time, so I sent this one to her to cheer her up. How can anyone have a bad day when they have seen this. I like to look up old songs and scenes from tv shows and movies. My husband has a recent addiction of looking up music videos starring legos people instead of real people. Some people have too much time. Youtube can be very useful as far as viewing lectures, instructions or news segments you may want to look at more in depth. WE can keep up with what others are dong in the library world through video and not only text. Students can film projects and play them in class. Students can review speeches and other valuable sources as well.

Week 8 #19 zoho is soooo cool

This is really cool. I will use this. I have teacher friends who tell thier students to use this program because of limited time in the public school computer lab and software at home that is not compatible to that of the school. I think I will start using this for my personal documents so that I can access them or work on them where ever I am and I dont have to drag my laptop around. It was so easy to create a spreadsheet inside of my documents and I really like the way I can customize my own templates too. It is complete with all of the formatting tools.

week 8 #18--Social networking

HMMM.....Mixed feelings about this. Patrons are using social networking sites, my friends and colleagues are using social networking sites. I like to look at social networking sites to see what other people are doing, but really I have very little interest in actively using them. I have created a myspace page because a friend from college told me to. So I looked up other friends from college and i guess I am on their guest list or friends pages, but then they all started talking and emailing and then a mystery dude "brad' started bugging me. I think it was nice to get everybody's contact information, but I would rather email them separately or create a yahoo group for us than expose myself to all the creeps. I like to have friends in real life too. I like to go places or have them come over. Not necessarily to just chat on the computer. I can see how this would be cool for people who do not have super active lives with constant activity already. Maybe I am old fashioned but it is not for me. However, I will keep up with it so that I can assist others.

week 7 #17 My thoughts on technology

I love technology and I hate technology. The internet has been down at my house for two weeks thanks to the phone company!!! I realize how much I depend on the internet when it is gone and I love the services, but I have become dependant on them so when it doesn't work I am helpless. I have no idea how much money I have in the bank, which bills have been paid or who won the cowboys game last night. I cannot track my UPS packages, I cannot see next weeks lunch menu from home, but most importantly I am not connected to my office email 24-7. But the cool part is that I have survived this 2 week internet famine. I have visited the library after my shift and on weekends, I have gone to friends houses I have had to go out of my way to get plugged in, but I have done it. So I feel confident about using most aspects of technology, computers, cameras, you know...useful tools. However, I cannot figure out the remote at my house. I cannot change the tv channel. I cannot change the volume and I have trouble with the dvd player. At some point I want to conquer these too.

Week 7 #16

I love wikis. Especially wikipedia. I have never edited anything, but I use it a lot. Of course not for any research or important stuff that I should be reading journals or academic books for. What I like to look up is about people in the gossip papers. There are all sorts of cool links to photos and places to scoop up even better gossip. I also like to look up movies to find out what the actors names are. I am terrible with names.

Week 6 #15--I LIKE IT!

I read several of the articles about web2.0 and Libraries 2.0. I am liking what I hear. It seems that most of the Librarians are in agreement that the library of the past is no longer useful and we must keep up to keep from facing our own demise. The web has changed the course of how information is created, stored, gathered and evaluated and we must come to terms with this a create new ways for information users (EVERYBODY) to be able to hunt effectively. We have to see what our users want and what ways they are looking for it. We must stay on top of technology as our users are so that we can make sure that we dont become archives instead of Libraries. We must make our users comfortable with our systems and methods of communication so they are not discouraged form using our resources and become googlites. However, we really need to look at what the patrons want, not what the library staff wants or we will make ourselves obsolete. I think that this program (ihcpl) will help with that realization across the board.