Done (but not FINISHED)

WOW! I managed to complete all 27 Things. (I even read through #27 before I started this post.)

I was intrigued by the idea when it was first posed, because I like to have some knowledge of the new technologies available. I discovered, very quickly, just how far behind the times I had become. Then, when I started playing around with some of the lessons, I realized WHY. There has been an explosion of new resources!

All the things we've been exposed to through this program have been fairly simple to use. However, almost all of them are chock full of things to explore - I discovered that I could easily find myself clicking through photos in Flickr or collecting RSS feeds for Bloglines or "friend hunting" on MySpace or populating my LibraryThings list long into the night. Lessons that should have taken only a short time became time consuming simply because of my innate librarian curiosity -- talk about information overload!

There are many tools that I will go back to and spend more time with. The Web 2.0 Awards were a great source for some of these tools. I'd also like to look into more of the social networking tools (avatars intrigue me). I'll definitely use photo programs for more things, and LibraryThing will see my name frequently. I also want to get into the habit of checking my RSS feeds regularly.

I was pleased at the support this project received from all levels. The MP3 player as an incentive was nice, but knowing that the administration supported and encouraged staff to spend work time learning these new things was a phenomenal incentive in itself. I was very glad to have someone on staff who knew enough about these tools to answer questions when I had them (and serve as cheerleader when I either got stuck or made progress.)

Whoever came up with the "Cram Jam" idea is my hero(ine). I had been stalled at the end of lesson 4 because, as a manager, I could not seem to find or make time to work on the lessons. I only finished 1 or 2 lessons during one of the the 2-hour session we had in our cluster, but it spurred me on to make time for the others. (Should I admit that I did many of them at home on my laptop? -- I could usually do so without interruption or feeling guilty for ignoring my staff and the patrons; it was okay to ignore my family .)

I'm hoping that we will see more of these guided lessons in the future. I'm glad I decided to participate this time and I'd jump in with both feet again. I'm sure there are probably improvements or adjustments that could be made to the program, but I'm not sure what. I think TIME is the key. As I noted earlier, there is SO much to discover in all of these tools, that it might be nice to spend a bit more time with each lesson (maybe set up a "lesson of the month" program and give participants plenty of time to really get comfortable using each tool before moving on to another one.) If nothing else, I'd love to see some way of alerting us all to new, interesting, fun, useful tools that we all discover on our own or from our friends.

In other words, MORE MORE MORE PLEASE!!! Kudos and thanks to all the coordinators, facilitators, David, Lisa, Bruce, Bill, etc. etc. etc.

What Am I Going To Do With An MP3 Player?

I can see the finish line (not bad considering it took a "Cram Jam" to get me past lesson 4 - more on this in my synopsis post later.)

So, it was fun to browse the OverDrive titles to see what I want to take to Nevada -- &/or Canada &/or Wyoming -- with me this summer. Some of my favorite authors are well represented in OverDrive (Dean Koontz; Janet Evanovich), and some have at least a couple options to choose from (Jennifer Cruisie, Neil Gaiman). I should find enough to keep me busy.

But if any of the selection librarians see these blog posts, consider the following: Stardust by Gaiman. (Yeah, okay. I'll send the request in the "old-fashioned" way.)

Scrapbooking Ideas |Planning Your Scrapbooking Layout Part 1

This is the video that did NOT get imbedded last time. If it does not work this time, I HAVE tried.

Scrapbooking Ideas (aka Playing with YouTube)

Ok, I'm going to try this again. I got the video to imbed once, then I tried to edit it and lost it. When I tried to repost, it did not come up (so I went on to another lesson and came back.)

So, 3rd time's the charm?

I will admit that the creators of this learning program "did" warn me about the addictiveness of YouTube. There are so many fascinating films out here. I appreciate the categorization that has been done, and it was pretty easy to pull up this scrapbooking lesson by doing a search.

I want to learn to upload my own videos (I need someplace to put the clips I took during my sorority conference this past weekend, and what I will take at my school reunion next month.)

Hey boss - if you see this post, now you know why I look so tired these days; too much time playing with my new toys at home [insert smiley here].

Podcasts

I decided to use the podcast programs to search for book reviews. One of the first things I found in the Yahoo Podcasts site was Nancy Pearl on KUOW's The Beat. I added Nancy Keane's "Booktalks Quick & Simple" to my Bloglines feeds.

I started wondering how much time & energy it would take to make podcasts of staff book reviews available on our website. That would be a cool use of the tool - a whole new way to promote "Staff Picks".

I did try to play around a little with all three of the podcast directories listed in this exercise. I had trouble getting the clips from Podcast.net to load on my laptop (I might try from work tomorrow), and Podcastalley.com requires a software download in order to run anything (I did not want to take the time to do so). The Yahoo Podcasts directory was pretty user friendly in terms of searching. It did take me a few minutes to figure out how to find more detailed information about the feeds, but that's probably because my brain is starting to blur with all these new tools. I'll keep messing about with these.

YELP (aka "What I Found on in the Web 2.0 Awards)

Have you seen YELP yet? I've been having a lot of visitors and, because I've only lived here for about 6 years, I'm still learning all the things to see and do in the area. YELP (try the link above) is full of great reviews and recommendations of everything from where to eat, where to stay, where to shop, what to see and do.

There is a long list of categories to search (including automotive, medical, education, and pets) that can be helpful to visitors and residents alike. The site is connected to a mapping feature that will help users maneuver through the city.

Speaking of cities, the program provides a list of some of the top cities, or you can input your own city search. I was only able to pull up U.S. cities. I'd like to see some of the other major North American cities represented, or maybe there is a similar program out there that keys in on top travel destinations worldwide that has the same type of reviews & recommendations.

Membership is free and allows you to write your own reviews and participate in the messaging and talk features. I will likely refer back to this tool often.

Google Labs

I saw "beta project" and thought, "Oh, my sorority sisters are doing something fun." [Ok, no I didn't; I know what a beta version is... I just don't like boring blogs.]

Anyway, there were some very interesting projects being tested over at the Google Labs. I've been spending a lot of time in the trip planner for King County Metro lately. The "Google Transit" project is useful because you can toggle between a transit map and a driving map. It is, however, only useful for travel within one of the preset cities (metro areas). I could see using it to help a traveler look at ways to get from their hotel to the museum by bus in San Diego. However, the travel would need to already know the addresses of both starting and ending points.

The "Music Trends" project was fun to spend some time in. This gives users a list of song titles that are being discussed in Google Talk. It's possible to get song lyrics, a list of CD's the song appears on, and download options for personal devices. I tried to listen to Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" on Rhapsody, but didn't take the time to download the program that would run the music. I love the ability to choose a genre of music or see what is popular in other countries. I really enjoyed this service.

The Google Mars project was fascinating. Students doing a project on the planet could find some interesting and useful articles, along with some great images.

I did, also, poke into Google Trends but did not see the point of the trend charts (not that I quite figured out how to generate charts in the first place.) I did enjoy quickly being able to pop into todays hot news topics (I'm trying to figure out if I should drop the Tahoe leg of my Nevada vacation in a few weeks....) I'll keep playing around with some of these, just to see what new fun Google is devising.