29 Things

Wow, I finished. This has been an exceptionally valuable experience for me. I've learned so much and the terms "web 2.0", "library 2.0", "the long tail", as well as many others that were fuzzy to me before, are now much more in focus. I'm also very excited about the direction libraries are taking. I think that, at least, in the past 20 or so years we've tried to be user centered. New technologies have made it possible for more social collaboration and libraries are taking advantage of this. RSS feeds provide ways to have news of interest delivered to you without having to go look for it. Social bookmarking allows for trend spotting and the sharing of information with others. Wikis are knowledge sharing tools and MySpace is an interesting way to deliver information to a wide audience.

In his essay entitled "Into a New World of Librarianship" Michael Stephens writes: "One of the principles I would add to the Library 2.0 meme is that "the Library is human" because it make the library a social and emotionally engaging center for learning and experience." Our mission statement states that we do what we do in order to ". . .advance knowledge, foster creativity, encourage the exchange of ideas, strengthen community and enhance the quality of life." Library 2.0 is a powerful way to accomplish this.

I plan to continue with "Advanced Exploration or Build on Your Skills." I may not blog about it, but then again, who knows. Thanks to Debbie and the Library 2.0 committee. This has been amazing.

Netlibrary

I'm excited about this. Having just received my MP3 player I've registered for Netlibrary and, with Lenore's help, I've downloaded the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency on it. I haven't downloaded any music yet but will do so soon. I think it's a wonderful service for patron's to avail themselves of.

Podcasts

I looked around podcast on Yahoo and listened to some music clips but I didn't subscribe to anything. Like some others I'm sort of in overload - so much to read, listen to and watch, so little time. I found a podcast of Ira Glass interviewing Chip Ward on Homeless people in libraries. It was good to hear his voice. I don't think podcasting is for me at this point in time but I can see some uses for it in libraries: ie: story times, book talks, Dewey lectures, and other programs, etc.

Ghetto Shakespeare

I liked this video because I love Shakespeare and I thought it was way cool to find a clip of Othello in the Ghetto on YouTube.

Explore the Web 2.0 Awards Site

I'm a bit bleary eyed because I've been trying to catch up. I wasn't able to access anything but the list of winners. I think they were working on the other sites because I kept getting a not accessible message. But I was interested in discovering that you could publish your book through lulu in color and as a hardback with a dust jacket. Wow. It costs of course. For a 6 inch by 9 inch, 250 page hardcover, 100 copies would cost $4,850. This includes a 6% bulk discount. I thought Fuzzymail was superfluous and dumb, Biblio is very cool for finding out of print or hard to find books, and with Craigslist who needs classified ads?

Google Labs

After exploring the current Google Labs projects I really liked Google Mars and Google Page Creator. I also think that Accessible Web is a brilliant idea. I hope they get that up an running for people who have visual impairment.

Online Application Tools

The poem below by Clarice Short was created in Google Docs and uploaded to my blog. This is a very handy application. Now I can post to my blog anywhere in the world. I'm not tied to my computer here at work. Maybe I wasn't to begin with but I didn't know how to do it anywhere else before.