The End

Wow!  I am finally on the last “Thing.”  For a while I was worried, but somehow I managed to catch up, just in the knick of time!  I am glad CML did this…I noticed many people at my location and around the system branching out and trying new things.  I loved the sense of community this brought about and how I have learned new things about some of my peers and co-workers.  I loved when staff discovered something new through this.  My favorite exercise was discovering delicious.  And I did not realize how much I would find this resource useful until way after I had posted about it.  In my post, I actually didn’t think I would use it, but I have used it several times since then…and here I thought I was fine just to do a google search…truth is, I cannot remember how I come across some links and that won’t help me when I need to do a google search to find it again.  I don’t think this has changed my lifelong learning goals much although it was good to try things I might not have otherwise.  I was surprised to realize how much I already utilize many Web 2.0 technologies.  I really thought I was more in the dark ages than I actually am 🙂 

If we do this again, I am trying to think of ways it could be tweeked for those who really are not into this type of thing….but I am not sure.  I noticed some folks really struggled to find the time to finish, especially if this didn’t come natural to them.  One thing I did notice is that a flash drive is not all that motivating to someone who doesn’t like technology…I think something non-tech would be a better motivator –maybe a T-shirt that said “I survived the 23 things” or something like that would be more fun.  If we did this again I would probably participate, but it was hard to find the time sometimes…we are BUSY these days 🙂  I would like it if we encouraged staff who will not finish to still finish sometime in the coming year. 

Ok, now back to just having one blog…

MOLDI

I tried MOLDI once from home sometime last year, but gave up when I saw you could not download to Ipods.  I was curious to explore it now that you can download to Ipods.  It is okay.  I actually would use this occasionally if MOLDI were drastically different.  It still does not impress me much.  I don’t listen to a ton of audio books, but I do listen to at least a couple a year.  But I probably still will not use MOLDI because the selection is not great, there are only 177 titles for Ipod and searching on this sight is cumbersome.  I suppose since there are only 177 titles for me to browse through I could just look through all of them, but ideally I would like to limit my search within that somehow (i.e. just teen titles in MP3 format) and I did not see an option for this.  You could search for just teen or children’s titles or even do a key word search, but from there you cannot limit your results (i.e. Burn to CD, Ipod MP3 etc).  Hopefully, in the coming years, MOLDI gets better and more usable.  It could be a very desirable service.

Podcasts

I only listen to one podcast, Craft Sanity, so this exercise was useful to me. My husband listens to many!!! Doing this experiment I actually found a few more podcasts for him.  I discovered a few that look interesting, although I don’t know how much I will really watch or listen to them…podcasts have to really interest me to pay attention. I sometimes like to listen to NPR shows on my Ipod too.  I tried to look just for library or book related podcasts, but I mostly found a bunch of junk!  Reading Rockets and Just One More Book looked interesting to me.  I think the library could potentially do some book or program podcasts…but I think podcasts seem to appeal to more of a niche audience, so it would not gather a mass appeal, but it might be interesting to try.

You Tube

Yay! I am FINALLY to the You Tube activity! I love youtube, who doesn’t, really? I do see lots of potential for libraries in this. I used Youtube last spring in a booktalk I did at the local middle school. I was booktalking Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and found an MTV News clip on youtube, which I included after my booktalk, to highlight the fact that it was being turned into a movie. In looking for clips to use in my booktalk last spring, I also found there are a lot of teens talking about various books they like on you tube. I think these types of videos would be neat to see on CMLs teen website someday.

Now for my attempt to embed…I’ve been having a little battle with worpress and actually had to watch a youtube video to figure it out, how appropriate 🙂 So, without further ado, here is one of my favorite funny cat videos. Youtube is a great source for these useful videos 🙂

Filler: Twilight!

While I am still trying to figure out how to embed a youtube video on wordpress (why is this so much harder on wordpress? I can do it on blogger, but everytime I try on wordpress it gives me nothing), I thought I might as well advertise my little side business! This weekend I created a new product for my etsy shop: Vampire Bite Lip Balm!  It comes in a 2 pack of wild cherry and peppermint!  This is of course in honor of the Twilight movie release coming up!  I am offering CML employees FREE shipping.  If you buy from my shop just let me know you are a CML employee and what location you work at in the notes at checkout and I will refund your shipping to you.  What a great deal, huh?  You will get your lip balm a few short days later in inner-office mail!

And of course my side business, is hosted on one of the fabulous Web 2.0 Award winners, etsy.  I love love love etsy!

CML Tool Bar/Power Tools

I do like the CML toolbar.  I downloaded it at home several months ago, but then stopped using Internet Explorer and am only using Firefox now, so I need to download it again.  The only thing I don’t like about it is when you do an internet search from it, it lists sponsored results first…and you can’t do math in it.  I often use google as a calculator and I have noticed, using the tool bar, it wants to search for 103*67 instead of just multiply it for me, cuz I cannot do math anymore.  Been there, done that, work at a library now.

Web 2.0 Awards

I looked at some of the winners of the Web 2.0 Awards and there are some interesting ones.  Not a whole lot of stuff I would use regularly, but it is interesting to see what is out there.  I would like to explore Stumble Upon more at home sometime.  I was surprised that some sites I think of as 2.0 that I WOULD or DO use were not even on the long list…Since they were not, here are some of my fave 2.0 sites:

Ravelry -This is a social networking (and more) site for knitters and crocheters.  Kinda like Goodreads or Library thing in some ways, but for a different audience.  I think just about anyone who knits or crochets knows about this site and is highly addicted to it.  It has loads of free patterns and you can shop for patterns and other items as well.  You can show off what you are working on, and keep progress reports on the projects you are working on.  You can create an inventory of your yarn stash, needles and hooks & pattern books.  There are also forums and you can of course find ‘friends.’  How did this site get missed?  Seriously!!!

Swap-bot -This is a site where you can sign up to swap things with others from all across the world.  Mostly you swap things you make.  There are swaps for all interests.  I’ve seen recipe swaps, postcard swaps, ATC (Artist Trading Card), quilting, sewing, knitting, crochet, Mix CDs, letters, magazines, books, photography…all sorts of things!  The swaps have a deadline and you have a partner or several partners.  You also fill out a profile about yourself and can join groups.  It isn’t quite as advanced on the social networking side though.  Here is a link to my profile on swap-bot: 

http://www.swap-bot.com/user:djminimart

Spoonflower: Not entirely sure if this counts as 2.0, but it is such a cool new site, especially if you are an artsy type.  They just this week opened it up to anyone too.  Basically on this site you can upload your own designs and have them printed on fabric!  They look all professional too!  I haven’t tried uploading an image just yet, but will soon! 

I know I am supposed to have my librarian hat on for these exercises, but I cannot help but leave my artsy-crafty hat on…Web 2.0 technology has really brought such a HUGE, GIGANTIC sense of community to domestic arts and arts and crafts.  It has also led to a celebration of many formerly under-appreciated skills that have traditionally been done by women.  I love how so many women are blogging about what they make and do and that there are sites like the ones above.  In my blogging and swap experiences over the last 2 years, I have connected with people of all ages and from all over the country!  How amazing, when you really think about it!  A community like this didn’t exist 10 years ago.  The arts and crafts are one area where I see Web 2.0 at its best.   

Ok, stepping down from my soapbox now…

Google Docs

I’ve used Google Docs for almost 2 years now.  I don’t use it a ton, but I do like it.  My husband and I use it to track our budget and I like that both of us can go in there from different computers.  I didn’t know I could turn things into pdfs until reading the Learn and Play exercise and that is handy.  I played around converting a couple of my old documents into pdfs and found a letter a wrote to the City of Columbus contesting a ticket I received.  I used to live on a street that did street cleaning 3x a year and I ended up getting towed twice in 4 years!  It really stunk!  Getting towed is expensive.  Last May I moved my car just in time but they still gave me a 20.00 ticket and I used Google docs to write up a letter contesting the ticket.  I still had to pay it…I know, poor me…but it was a great experience using Google Docs and funny to re-read the letter after all this time :)!

Wikis, Part 2

Wow, I am finally up to #16!  I actually starting to feel almost caught up!  I added my blog to the Learn and Play at CML Favorites Wiki and I added some favorite books, restaurants and vacation spots.  I think this exercise may be good for experience publishing online, however, I think this wiki looks messy.  It isn’t organized at all once you get into each category and isn’t actually set up for finding anything.  You have to read through everything and I prefer my information organized.  Some link, some don’t.  It just looks like a mish mash of random information.  I think the jury is still out for me on wikis…although I do like the name wiki, makes me think of the Ewoks.

Wikis, Part 1

I took about a half hour to look at the wikis linked in the Learn and Play blog post.  My wiki experience really only goes as far as wikipedia, so a half hour is really not enough time to get a true feel for wikis.  I still don’t feel completely clear about the best ways to use them.  I still have a hard time browsing wikis, they just don’t look inviting to me.  I thought the ones linked seemed a little sparse on content and being used to wikipedia which is anything but sparse, I found that somewhat disapointing.  I can see how wikis are useful for colaborative projects.  I also think they would be useful as a sort of database, for recipes or book lists, other things with a lot of “stuff.”  Still wikis seem to me most useful when you already know what you are looking for and not so much for just browsing.