podcast assignment

The Yahoo Audio Search was not working, so I looked in PodCastAlley and PodCast Directory. In both of those, I was able to do keyword searching and found some library related podcasts quickly. I subscribed to the Library Survival Guide and Open Stacks since they sounded interesting. I managed to remember how to add them to bloglines (Yea!) and started listening to some of the podcasts. They were really long, so I listened for a while and exited when I started to get bored. It sort of reminded me of being stuck listening to my husband's talk shows he likes when we're driving around in the car.

Some of the podcasts seemed to be geared toward teaching students how to use the library. It's the same sort of thing you could do with a YouTube video. I found another feed that discussed library events. It would be a quick way to update subscribers to current events happening at the library.

audio books assignment

I've looked at the audio downloads briefly before and noticed how much good stuff there is here. It was fun to look at what's available now. I had forgotten we have music and videos too. When you look at descriptions of the books, it even gives suggested titles you might also like to try. There are definitely titles I would love to listen to. This is a great addition for our customers.

YouTube assignment

YouTube seems like a really easy way to waste a lot of time. I checked the how to category, but did not see anything I really wanted to look at. So, I switched over to the education category and decided to look at the swine flu posting since that is big news currently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsU1oulWT8Y

I suppose you could use YouTube videos for easily accessible training excercises or to watch a library event that we recorded.

Overall, YouTube is not something with which I want to spend too much time.

discovering web 2.0 tools assignment

I decided to look at some of the mapping tools listed in the award winners. I looked at Frappr, Wayfaring, and Community Walk and was not especially impressed. Frappr was not what I was wanting or expecting at all and the other two were okay for getting quick maps, but were not really any better than Google maps. Although, they could be helpful in creating a quick map for an event. So, I decided to look at Live Search Maps and had a little more fun with this one. I took a flying look over the Grand Canyon. It was fun, but again not especially what I wanted.

Yea! I found my Google account passw...

Yea! I found my Google account password! That was a challenge. I've now learned to keep track of all of these different passwords we are having to create for each new thing we're learning. Now, to figure out how to use this application.

The automatic save option is very helpful and it looks like I have several options to share. A lot of my options look very standard and don't seem very hard to use. I think I'll like this! It is handy to have it saved on the Web as opposed to having to open my Outlook account too.

The templates look interesting--everything from resumes, holiday letters, and calendars to research papers and book reports.

PB Wiki assignment

This one was a bit frustrating. I was in a hurry and the editing didn't make immediate sense to me. Luckily, I stumbled through it. I'll have to try it again later. In the meantime, on to the next thing.

Wiki Assignment

I can see how it would be easy to use a wiki to shape and reshape Web sites quickly. It's convenient to use when getting public input for book reviews and community events. It might be a faster way to make our subject guides and I could play around with it as I try to create a map page. I have to admit, since I'm a bit of a control freak, the idea of a wiki makes me a bit nervous, and so, I am glad we can limit access to editing the wiki. Guess I'll have to play with it a bit before I can become comfortable with the idea. I did find it interesting that they suggested using wikis for larger projects such as library policy manuals.