I thought I knew just about everything the internet had to offer…boy was I wrong. At many times I was drawn into the exercises, and found myself playing with many of the tools at home and showing some of the features to friends. Perhaps my favorite exercise was learning about the RSS feeds. As I mentioned, I always saw these RSS icons on just about every website I visited. It is now nice to know what these icons mean, how to use them, and how helpful they are. More importantly, I never before thought of popular sites and online activities such as youtube, blogs, and wikis in the context of libraries, and how libraries can benefit and use these online tools to better serve the public. I thoroughly enjoyed the program and the opportunity to share my thoughts, view everyone else’s ideas, and discuss the activities with my coworkers. Would I choose to participate in another discovery program? Of course–in a heartbeat!
March 1, 2008
NetLibrary
I had created a NetLibrary account a little while back, mainly because I needed a book in a hurry and it allowed me to instantly access the book online. I wasn’t able to find the eaudiobooks link on the site, but the ebook feature is just as nice. As I mentioned, a couple things I like about the NetLibrary feature is that content is available instantly. Also, it somewhat helps reduce the burden of fulfilling holds, since patrons can access some of the titles online from any computer. Another feature that is useful is the ability to search content within a specific tittle. For example, I am interested in malaria. I performed a search on NetLibrary and found an intersting book entitled “Sceintific American Science Desk Reference”. After typing malaria in the “search this econtent box”, I was taken to all the pages where malaria was mentioned in the book. This sure beats hunting through the index and constantly flipping through pages to find what you want! Another nice thing is that I can download any graphs or images to my computer, or print pages that are interesting, and don’t have to worry about the poor quality of photocopies.
Podcasts
I, like 20% of the folks my age, own an iPod and find myself catching up on TV shows, radio broadcasts, and news programs while on the go. The wave of the future is “on demand”. People want things done now, or if not now they want it done when they want it done (if that makes sense). One thing I like about podcasts is that the delivery is automatic (as mentioned in the online tutorial, this is what differentiates podcasts from streaming content). I plug in my iPod to my computer in the morning and all my podcasts are updated with the latest ones ready to play on my iPod. No more waiting for the nightly news to start. My podcasts revolve around my schedule, and I can view content or catch up on the local news whenever I am ready to.
More importantly, just about anyone can view podcasts from a computer. One nice one I found is called the library survival guide (you’ll want to add the following RSS feed to your bloglines account: http://feeds.feedburner.com/LibrarySurvivalGuide). These podcasts are especially useful for students, since each one is a five minute tutorial on essential tools used for research (the last four podcasts were entitled ”government documents”, “citation managers”, “primary sources”, and “google scholar”).
February 29, 2008
YouTube
I chose to post this video just becuase I thought this video was adorable and made me laugh:
Aside from having funny, cooky, and crazy videos on the site, one thing I particularly like about YouTube.com is the educational videos they have. Just searching “malaria” returns some fascinating animations of disease propagation as well as a news segment on Unicef’s world malaria report. I am positive that some of these videos will find their way into my powerpoint presentation a few weeks from now!
In a library setting, you can flip through books, read their indexes, and decide if it is the correct book you would like. However, when it comes to audiovisual material, patrons do not have the option of sampling material…it’s pretty much a hit or miss situation. This site allows you to quickly access visual information. Consequently, one feature this site offers (and a feature that could benefit libraries) is the ability to sample audio/visual material. You can quickly decide if the content is right for you, and if it is worth watching the whole thing (or checking out).
February 28, 2008
Web 2.0 Tools
After visiting the site that listed Web 2.0 Tools award winners, I stumbled upon Yelp.com. I love this site! This site allows you to search and post reviews for just about anything in your area, like restaurants, hotels, banks, gyms, you name it! You have a chance to hear what other people have to say about the company, accomadation, dining atmosphere before you even step foot in the facility. Had a burger at the local Burger Barn and hated it? Vent your disgust on this site. Visited a small local coffee shop and loved it, show your patronage by letting everyone else know.
Zoho Writer
After editing a document in the Zoho Writer online application, I was able to publish the document directly to my blog post (see the document below)–neat stuff!
February 27, 2008
PBWiki
I didn’t really know what to expect after I clicked “edit page” on the PBWiki site, since I had never done a wiki before. I was expecting to see a screen that had complex text requiring some understanding of computer language to perform certain tasks. I was suprised how easy it was to edit info, and how my edits showed up instantly on the page. It was as easy as editing a word document!
Wikis
Wikis are interesting in that they allow anyone to add information to a single webpage, where information can be gathered from people across the world with different viewpoints and ideas. One application that would work well within a library is a listing of employment opportunities. This would allow local employers to delete, edit, and add listings as they become available and to target the immediate community around the library. Although wikis are useful, one flaw is that information posted onto a wiki must be validated. Because anyone can post information onto a wiki, the information may be false or untrue. This means that the site would have to go under constant validation and moderation. Wikipedia, for example, is an excellent source for information, but is not a “true” encyclopedia…some of the info found on the site may be incorrect since it may not be really published by experts.
February 16, 2008
Library 2.0
In Away from Icebergs Anderson emphasis the importance of steering away from “building up” a collection, and focusing more on delivery of electronic versions of materials. He says there is no point in “collecting”. I firmly disagree. His assumption is that every citizen has access to the internet, or that every citizen can afford a computer and internet connection. However, this is not the case. There will always be citizens who cannot afford the internet or computers, and a physical library collection is necessary to serve these folks. Although it is convenient to be able to access materials remoteley, it is soemetimes more convenient to have a physical item to carry along (who wants to treck along a laptop to the park, when they can just bring a paperback book to read?).
February 3, 2008
Technorati
A search engine that searches only blogs is pretty cool. One thing I like about searching Technorati is that the results show how long ago the post was made. That way you can focus on retreiving just the latest info. Another thing I like about the search is the graphical representation that shows “mentions by day”. I had been following Yahoo stock for a few weeks now, and noticed the price dropping steadily, and then spiking up on Feb. 1. I did a search on Yahoo stock, and according to the chart, Yahoo stock was mentioned 3000 times that day, and only about 1000 times per day the previous week. Apparently Microsoft put in a bid that day to purchase Yahoo, causing people to frantically blog about it.
