Thing #28 The end and the beginning!

Finished! This was a lot of fun. I learned new technologies and was able to go more in depth on others that I was already familiar with. This has been my favorite library training course - I would love to see more like this.

Rollyo (#12)

At first I created a search engine called "free ebooks", but it wouldn't let me link it (told me it was spam). I created it again and called it "ebooks" and it will let me link it. It's not just public domain books because I included the Baen free library.

Ebook search

Thing #27 Google Maps and mashups

This is something I had never done before! I had a lot of fun and a nostalgic moment creating a map of my daily walk to school as a teenager.


View My Walk to School in a larger map

There were many interesting and useful mashups on the linked lists, like the one for finding a US mailbox and the one for mapping zip code boundaries.

Thing #26 Streaming Media

I'm already registered with Pandora, have created several stations and I love the Pandora app, which I have on my Iphone. I knew of Last.fm but had never used it, so for this exercise I conducted an experiment. I brought up both sites but did not sign into Pandora nor register with Last.fm. Then I tried to create a Blackmore's Night radio station on both. It worked immediately with Pandora (again, without my signing in) but, though Last.fm brought up a Blackmore's Night media window, it never played anything. I do like how Last.fm shows me similar artists (but I like the Genius feature on Itunes better). As for Pandora, I love how it tells me *why* it has chosen music for me, as in: "we're playing this track because it features folk roots, a subtle use of vocal harmony, acoustic sonority, acoustic rhythm guitars and many other similarities identified in the Music Genome Project." That is soooo cool!

For a long time (an excruciatingly long time) we weren't able to take advantage of Hulu because our so-called broadband wasn't sufficiently broad. However, 6 months ago dsl became available in our area (I am still dancing my happy dance!), so we've been able to use it. Great for when you miss a show! But no Criminal Minds??? What's up with that? :-)

Thing #25 Screencasting

I think the most obvious use of this in the library as well as other settings is  for teaching software. It is a most effective tool for that.  For 2 years I had a paid subscription to Scrapper's Guide , a site that specializes in teaching digital scrapbooking.  Linda Sattgast, the site owner, uses screencasting for her fabulous Photoshop and Photoshop Elements tutorials.

Thing #24 Facebook

As with Twitter, I've been on Facebook for a while, though I use it more. I'm also already a fan of the Tulsa City County Library.

Facebook is a great way to connect and keep in touch with friends and family. I'll have to say, however, that there are ways that Facebook makes me anxious. Privacy is a concern, so I found the video that is part of this exercise very useful. I intend to review my privacy settings in the near future. I also worry because I don't check my Facebook page every day, so I'm afraid of being thought rude because I don't answer a message or a comment immediately.

I have the app on my Iphone and find that I'm more likely to do a quick check that way than to access it on my computer.

Thing #23 Twitter

I am "Analund" on Twitter and have been on it for a while but posted my first tweet tonight as part of this exercise. I'll keep exploring but I honestly don't see myself using Twitter a lot. Or rather, I don't see myself *tweeting* a lot, though I might continue using it to check the few people I follow. My husband is more into this than I am. He follows accounting professionals, news sites and weather sites.

I did begin following Central Library.

Thing #22 Audiobooks

I have been happily borrowing audiobooks from TCCL using Overdrive for some time now and was thrilled when Overdrive updated its software to make WMA books available for the Ipod. This is a great service!

Thing #21 Podcasts

I usually subscribe to Podcasts via the Itunes store, but by exploring Podcast Alley I found the Audiobook Reviews podcast and added it to my Itunes podcast subscriptions as well as adding the feed to my Google Reader account.  It was very easy.

Although I have issues with some of the ways that Itunes limits users (like allowing one to manually sync music with only one computer at a time - switching to syncing an iphone with a new computer is a nightmare that involves wiping out *all* your media),  I like the way it handles searching for and adding podcasts.

Thing #20

Wow. YouTube. Love, love, LOVE it! Useitallthetime. You can find tutorials on anything - I have watched countless photography and Photoshop videos and waxed nostalgic over Puertorrican commercials from the 60's, 70's and 80's as well as video captures of old DOS games (ZZT! Kroz! King's Quest!).

As for its use in libraries: I typed "library training" in the search box and came up with a long list of both serious classes and hilarious clips. Here are a couple of examples:

Thing #19

For this one I've been exploring Wufoo, which is new to me. I love its attractive, eyecatching and very clean interface. I can see many applications for this one: mailing lists, surveys, contact forms, etc. It seems very easy to use, with a reasonable pricing structure and it even has ready made templates.

Thing #18 Google Docs/Recipe

It was very easy to publish my document to my blog - didn't even have to sign up for it since I already had a Google account.  I'm just changing the title and adding this comment.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars (from Taste of Home)

1 18 0z tube of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 c sugar
1 egg

Cut cookie dough in half. For crust, press half of the dough onto the bottom of a greased 8-in. square baking pan. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and egg until smooth. Spread over crust. Crumble remaining dough over top. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate leftovers.  Yield: 12-16 servings.

Editor's note: 2 cups of your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough can be substituted for the refrigerated dough.

Ana's note: I use 1 and 1/2  family size tubes of cookie dough and double rest of ingredients, then use a 15x10x3 pyrex.

Thing #17

I'm not sure what  happened  here. I was able to add a link to my blog, but as a comment. Otherwise, when I go to "blogs" and click on "edit"  I see the Page Tools but "insert link" isn't clickable.

Thing #16

Very interesting and already useful. On the SJCPL Subject Guide Wiki, I was immediately attracted to the "History Related Mysteries" entry. I'm a voracious reader of fiction and I love "If you like..." lists. This is how I discovered Diana Wynne Jones ( if you like Harry Potter...) and George R.R. Martin ( I had already read  Robert Jordan and Tad Williams). I think those kinds of  lists are an excellent resource on a library wiki.

From the  Bull Run Library wiki I was led to the WowLibrary service, which in turn led me to sign up for email alerts from TCCL.  Oh! The ways one can meander through the Internet...

Thing #15 Library 2.0

From one of the articles: "Exposing our metadata to initiatives like the Open WorldCat Project can make resources discoverable in many more settings, well beyond local online catalogs that were the original destination for the metadata. Done thoughtfully, with the advocacy and coordination of a bibliographic utility, such as OCLC, we can avoid the duplication of records in search result displays that would occur if every consortium were acting individually. Through RSS feeds, libraries can package and push their content to users’ preferred working places." 

From my perspective as a library customer, it is both exciting and amazing to me how much I can take advantage of library services from my own home and how quickly that accessibility is expanding.