To me, and several of my co-workers, according to their blogs, the word "delicious" conjurs up images of good food and not social bookmarking. However, upon exploration of the Del.icio.us and Technorati websites I found them to be pretty user friendly. It makes sense to have information on the same subject presented in an organized and easy to locate way.
I feel that these websites will be helpful the next time a patron comes in with a tough subject to find print material on and the librarian has to search the internet for information. With the use of Del.icio.us and Technorati the time could be reduced for the search results significantly. That would be truly "delicious" for patron and librarian alike.
The next area we explored this week was Web 2.0 perspectives of others. Some of the articles I found had too much technological jargon and were hard to understand. The best one I found was written by Dr. Wendy Schultz and is entitled, "To A Temporary Place In Time." In the article Dr. Schultz makes an excellent point in which she states, "Libraries are not merely in communities, they are communities." I believe we are a community both as library staff and users of the library just like our patrons. The efforts of our library system to offer the both the latest technology as well as help for those who are technology challenged is a good thing.
Dr. Schultz continues by borrowing from an analysts charting shift to show the progression of libraries in the future from commodity to product to service to experience. I found her ideas intriguing and her language usage interesting. I really enjoyed reading her article. It created images in my mind from my earliest library memories to my current experience of working in a library.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Images, Librarything and Rollyo
For our play week I created an Avatar that I thought was cute and fun to do. I have had some previous experience with Avatars at a recent training seminar entitled, "Serving the Future." During the seminar we were given an opportunity to explore some of the things young people like to do including making Avatars and using "Dance, Dance Revolution. Of all the things we tried, I enjoyed making Avatars the most.
However, without a doubt the thing I found most fun this week was using Librarything. It was fun to search for books that I have read and enjoyed and then write a review of them. Recommending books to patrons and staff is one of the most enjoyable parts of my job. To me sharing a good book is like sharing a good piece of chocolate cake with someone else, total pleasure!
What was not a total pleasure at first was trying to use the tags on the Librarything website. I had a little trouble with it, but once I mastered it I gained a tremendous sense of satisfaction at being able to solve the problem. I was able to put the word I wanted on the tag and then type the review and have the copy say what I wanted to say. I was very pleased with myself when I was finished. Tasks like these and the ones in week 4 have challenged me, but I am glad I am learning new skills.
I also enjoyed learning to use Rollyo. I think it is a helpful search tool. The contribution I made to Rollyo, and this will not be a surprise to any of my co-workers who know me, was to add some websites where you can buy good chocolate candy. I have always found whatever happens in life, things go better with chocolate.
However, without a doubt the thing I found most fun this week was using Librarything. It was fun to search for books that I have read and enjoyed and then write a review of them. Recommending books to patrons and staff is one of the most enjoyable parts of my job. To me sharing a good book is like sharing a good piece of chocolate cake with someone else, total pleasure!
What was not a total pleasure at first was trying to use the tags on the Librarything website. I had a little trouble with it, but once I mastered it I gained a tremendous sense of satisfaction at being able to solve the problem. I was able to put the word I wanted on the tag and then type the review and have the copy say what I wanted to say. I was very pleased with myself when I was finished. Tasks like these and the ones in week 4 have challenged me, but I am glad I am learning new skills.
I also enjoyed learning to use Rollyo. I think it is a helpful search tool. The contribution I made to Rollyo, and this will not be a surprise to any of my co-workers who know me, was to add some websites where you can buy good chocolate candy. I have always found whatever happens in life, things go better with chocolate.
RSS Feeds and Merlin
This week's task was described by our technical trainer as the most difficult. It was indeed the most challenging for me, however with a little help from two of my co-workers, I was able to get it done. In fact, once I got the hang of adding the RSS feeds to my Bloglines account, I began to have fun. I added some library related websites and some of my co-workers blogs. It was interesting and helpful to see how they have faired on their journey through the 23 things.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Exploring Flickr
In my adventures this week I worked with Flickr. I attempted to upload photos that I had and was unsuccessful because the files were too large. I then looked at some recently added photos on Flickr and found some topics that interested me. My favorite part of this activity was a trip down memory lane to some locations I visited in Europe. I was able to see that some changes had taken place since I was there. Some of the people who posted photos European locations also posted other more unusual things. One person took a photo of a video camera and various types of food and posted those. I began to speculate on why these things were important to them since there was no information given as to the reason why they were included. I continued working and found a 3rd party site that included both recipes for Vietnamese food as well as a restaurant guide. I also looked at some mashups and found the combinations interesting. On to bigger and better things next week.
|
Monday, July 16, 2007
Heidi's Mother
This project is going to challenge my knowledge of technology. I am sure that I will need some help along the way, but I have already been offered assistance by 2 of my co-workers. This has made me more confident as I approach this learning project, that whatever happens, there is help when I need it.
After viewing the 7 1/2 habits tutorial, I realized that learning was more than just attending school or learning new job skills. You are also learning as you study another language and begin to speak it, or pursue your favorite hobby and discover a new way to do something.
The tutorial refers to 7 1/2 habits of successful lifelong learners. The habits are as follows: 1-Begin with the end in mind; 2-Accept responsibility for your own learning; 3-View problems as challenges; 4-Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner; 5-Create your own learning toolbox; 6-Use technology to your advantage; 7-Teach or menor others, and 7 1/2 - Play. We are then asked to determine which of these habits is easiest for us and which is the hardest. For me the easiest habit was knowing where I want to end up. I want to try each of the 23 things and see what I can learn from them. The most difficult for the moment will be using technology to my advantage because I am not very techologically savvy, however, I expect that to change as I progress through the 23 things. I look forward to continuing my journey.
After viewing the 7 1/2 habits tutorial, I realized that learning was more than just attending school or learning new job skills. You are also learning as you study another language and begin to speak it, or pursue your favorite hobby and discover a new way to do something.
The tutorial refers to 7 1/2 habits of successful lifelong learners. The habits are as follows: 1-Begin with the end in mind; 2-Accept responsibility for your own learning; 3-View problems as challenges; 4-Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner; 5-Create your own learning toolbox; 6-Use technology to your advantage; 7-Teach or menor others, and 7 1/2 - Play. We are then asked to determine which of these habits is easiest for us and which is the hardest. For me the easiest habit was knowing where I want to end up. I want to try each of the 23 things and see what I can learn from them. The most difficult for the moment will be using technology to my advantage because I am not very techologically savvy, however, I expect that to change as I progress through the 23 things. I look forward to continuing my journey.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)