Week 9, Thing # 23 - Summary

I am glad that BCPL is doing the "23 Things" program because it is educating alot of people about the technology that is widely available. Educating people is half the battle when it comes to technology. Once someone know how to use some piece of technology then they are more likely to use it if they feel it is worth their time. In libraries, the staff are from different generations and because of that the technological expertise will vary from staff member to staff member. This program is bringing these technologies to all staff members and making a level playing field. Now that all staff members are aware of these technologies they can apply them in their job duties. 23 Things also shows how other libraries have embraced these technologies and how they have integrated them into their library system. I think it is exciting to see library systems using technology to its advantage.

When I started this program, I knew that there would be some things I would be familiar with and others that I wouldn't. The reason for that is that I am a technology fan and because I maintain my church's website that uses some of these technologies. If I had to pick my favorite things they would be RSS feeds, Wikis, Rollyo, Library Thing and avatars. The reason being is that they were fun to learn and they are things that I am wanting to continue using. I have even started showing my wife, who is a preschool teacher, some of these technologies to help her in her job.

The future of libraries is going to depend on whether they embrace new technologies or not. Libraries have to change with the times. What I mean is that we need to keep up with what our customers needs are, how can we meet those needs and by what means can we fullfill those needs. If we do that then libraries will be the focal point for information for years to come.

Week 9, Thing # 22 - Downloadable Audiobooks

I haved used our downloadable audiobook service several times since it was introduced. BCPL currently has two downloadable services, Overdrive and Net Library. There are pros and cons of each. Most of the audiobooks offered through Overdrive can be burned to a CD but they don't have a huge selection to choose from. Everytime I have used Overdrive I had to place a hold on the audiobook that I wanted and I would get an email when the book is available for download.

NetLibrary has a bigger selection of audiobooks but they can't be burned to a CD. Having the book on CD is a big plus for me because I don't want to be attached to my computer to listen to the audiobook. I have a mp3 player but the storage size is about average. Most of the books I have downloaded would fill up my mp3 player. I guess that's why I prefer to have my books on CD. I know BCPL is discontinuing the Netlibrary service soon and maybe the library's customers feel the same way I do in regards to downloadable audiobooks. If you have not tried downloading an audiobook, give it a wirl. You never know it may be exactly what you are looking for!

Week 9, Thing # 21 - Podcasting

If I am understanding podcasting, it is any non-musical audio or video that is distributed over the Internet. I took a look at Yahoo podcasts as well as Merlin podcasts and didn't find anything that I really had to have in my bloglines. I did add the rss feed for "Running To Win". It sounds like something that will encourage me to run more. Merlin had some interesting podcasts because they were library related. There are some libraries that are taking advantage of the technology that is out there. Hopefully BCPL will do the same.

Week 9, Thing # 20 - You Tube

I became familiar with You Tube after I watched the movie "Music & Lyrics". I fell in love with two songs from the movie. They are "Don't Write Me Off Just Yet" and "Way Back Into Love." I wanted to hear the songs again, so I went online and searched for the songs and found them on You Tube. You Tube is a place where people can post their favorite videos online. There are some very unique videos on You Tube. Take a look and see what You Tube has to offer.

I can see libraries using You Tube to their advantage. Libraries can video their branches and then post them online. Libraries can use You Tube by interviewing customers and asking them what do they like about the library and then post the video online. These are just a couple of ways that libraries can take advantage of this technology.

I am posting both videos from the movie "Music & Lyrics". Listen and you will see why I fell in love with them.

"Don't Write Me Off Just Yet"


"Way Back Into Love"

Week 8, Thing # 19 - Web 2.0 Awards

I looked around the list of Web 2.0 awards and didn't find anything that stood out until I found Pandora. Pandora is a music site that creates radio stations of music that only you like. You type in either a song title or the artist's name and it will play either that song or one of the artist's signature songs. Then Pandora will display music that has similarities to the song you liked. It is quite easy. You can create radio stations of music only that you like. I guess the reason that I like Pandora is because I have a wide taste in music. I mostly listen to Christian Worship, Christian Rock and Country music. The choices of music that they gave me were exactly the type of music I love to listen to. I have added some of my radio stations from Pandora to this blog. Take a look and see if Pandora is for you.

Week 8, Thing # 18 - Online Productivity

I am familiar with Google Docs - one of the online productivity applications. I really like Google Docs because I like the advantage of being able to access my documents from anywhere without the use of email or flash drives. Since Google Docs has a word processsor and a spreadsheet, it is like having two of the most popular Microsoft Office products in one without the cost and installing software. It is not dependent on operating systems either, which is a plus! I have created this document in Google Docs and I am going to try to publish this to my blog. Hopefully it works.

It was easier than I thought to publish my online document to my blog since Google owns both Blogger.com and Google Docs! Try it for yourself!

Week 7, Thing 17 - Sandbox Wiki

It was pretty easy to add some of my favorite books to the Sandbox Wiki and add my blog to the favorite blogs. If you have not tried it, go for it!

Week 7, Thing 16 - Wikis

The term Wiki comes from the Hawaiian word "wiki wiki" which means quick. A wiki is a kind of website that is written collaboratively and that multiple people can edit easily and quickly. The most popular wikis are "Wikipedia" and "E-How". Anyone can contribute to a wiki. The only catch is that some wikis require users to register before you can add or edit any content. Libraries across the country are using wikis. For example, the Princeton Public Library in NJ has a booklovers wiki. The idea is that users can post reviews of their favorite books. This is a great use of a wiki. I think that more libraries should use wikis to interact more with customers. If BCPL developed a wiki for our "Books and More" webpage then customers could post reviews of their favorite books. It would be a virtual reader's advisory. Even though I am a fan of wikis, I do believe there has to be some approval before allowing a customer to add content to our webpage. If there is no approval we could have content that is objectionable or offensive to some customers. As a library we have the right to provide information to all of our customers.

Week 6, Thing 15 - Library 2.0

Library 2.0 is a model of how libraries deliver services to their users. Libraries have to re-think what services they provide to their users and how their users access them. Before the Internet, libraries were the only place to access certain information because the reference books were too expensive for the average user to purchase. Now with the Internet, libraries have to re-examine what collections to have in print and what collections would be better suited as a database or an electronic source. Libraries have to look at technology and integrate the technology that would be beneficial to their users. If libraries do not, then they will be left behind. I think that's why it is important for all library staff to participate in the "23 Things" program. It gives library staff more resources to pull from which in turn allows them to help library users better. As a librarian I am looking forward to what the future has in store for libraries. I know the model for libraries has changed in the last five years, so there is no barrier for libraries except for the barriers we as library staff put on libraries.

Week 6, Thing 14 - Technorati

The is the simplest way I can describe Technorati is it is a search engine for blogs. You can either search by keyword or by choosing a tag from the tag cloud on the home page. Either way you choose to search you will get results in posts, blogs, videos, photos, music and events. I chose to search for "learning 2.0". The results were surprising. In Posts, the results had nothing to do with learning 2.0. In Quick View, a couple of blogs related to our 23 things were found. I can see how people who blog might not want to use Google but use Technorati instead because of its search features. I would suggest taking a look at Technorati and finding out for yourself if it would be helpful or not.

Week 6, Thing 13 - Del.icio.us

After taking some time to explore Del.icio.us I finally know that it is a place to store all of your favorites online. I can see this being very useful for people who use the same favorites at work, at home and when they visit their local library. For me Del.icio.us is not useful because my favorites at work are not the same ones that I have on my home computer. I would suggest that everyone take a look at Del.icio.us and decide for themselves if it would be a useful tool.

Week 5, Thing 12 - Rollyo

Rollyo allows you to create your own search engine. Deciding on a search topic was the easy part for me because I love sports. The hardest part for me was finding the tool that allows me to put my search box on this blog. After some searching I finally found it. If you use the search box below it will search several sports websites.

The websites that are searched:
ESPN
CNN/Sports Illustrated
National Football League (NFL)
National Basketball Association (NBA)
Major League Baseball (MLB)
Maryland Running
NCAA Sports
Nascar

Select...My SportsSearch The Web

Week 5, Thing 11 - Library Thing

I really enjoyed "LibraryThing". I catalogued some of my favorite books. Take a look at some of my favorite books below. If you click on "my library" you can see all of my books that I catalogued in LibraryThing.

Week 5, Thing 10 - Play Week

I played around with a couple of online image generators, meez and yahoo avatars. Meez was difficult to use but that could be due to our bandwidth problem. I also tried yahoo avatars and it was easy to use and had lots of choices. It was fun creating a computer generated likeness of myself. You can add your personality to your "alter ego". I even added the avatar to this blog. As you can see, I love Nascar- Go Dale Jr!

Week 4, Thing 9 - Merlin

I took a look at Merlin and played around with it. I didn't find it very interesting. Maybe it was because I am a fan of technology and love to play around with new things. I am always online and playing with some new technology. The only thing I did find was fascinating was the avatars. I plan on creating an avatar and uploading it to my blog. So stay tuned!

Eight things about me

Joyce tagged me. So here it is - I hope I can think of 8 things/facts/habits about myself.These are the rules: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

So here it goes:

1. I love to run and have run in a half marathon.

2. I am a fan of the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Falcons. The Braves are a baseball team and the Falcons are a football team for those that don't know.

3. My wife and I are planning to spend our one year anniversary in Orlando, Fl in August.

4. I was in the Army for 8 years and my job was a Combat Photographer. I traveled around the world taking pictures for the Pentagon.

5. I love to listen to books on CD because of my long commute. I work in Cockeysville but live in Arbutus.

6. I am very active in my church which is Glen Burnie Baptist Church.

7. I am a fan of civil war history but with great interest in Abraham Lincoln.

8. I love Christian music.

I tag: Sharon, Katie, Baelgoul, Dave, Permanoob, Blog in the hand, Lincolnfreak and Catbird.

Week Four, Thing Eight - RSS Feeds

Really Simple Syndication or RSS is really simple. It is like adding a website to your favorites list. After you setup an account with a RSS reader like Bloglines they will give you some popular feeds to subscribe to. Another way of finding RSS feeds is to look carefully on the websites you visit because if they have a RSS feed it will normally be located somewhere on the main page but not always. Some sites have several available RSS feeds from their site. For example, CNN has several feeds but I chose the feed for their main page. Once you have subscribed to the feeds, you can put a link on your blog to your feeds so that anyone can view them. You will notice the "My Bloglines" link on the left side of the page. I would suggest that you take a look and try your hand at RSS feeds.

Week Three, Thing Seven - Technology

I received a USB MP3 player for Christmas. I love how technology keeps changing and improving itself. My USB MP3 player allows me to store 1 gigabyte (GB) of music. Right now I think I have a couple hundred songs stored on the device. Since it is usb it is small enough that I can take it with me when I go running. I love that I do not have to use any cables to connect it to my computer. If you are into music, take a look at some of the USB mp3 players when you are into any electronics store.

Week Three, Thing Five & Six - Flickr

I like the idea of uploading photos to a website and being able to share them with others. Now that I have played around with Flickr, I love it! You can share photos with family, friends and others through the Internet. I love the way they use "tags" to organize photos that are uploaded. Tags allow users to browse through specific tags. I also browsed some of the "third party" sites on Flickr. There was one called mappr. Mappr allows you to browse the United States by the photos people take. For example, you can view all of the photos on I-95. I think this is an interesting concept. Take a look and see what you think.

Week Three, Thing Five - Flickr

I am having fun with "Flickr". The image of the runner on the beach was originally posted by gcquinn. I wish I was there right now instead of inside working because it looks so peaceful.

Week One, Thing Two - Lifelong Learning

I have always believed that you should never stop learning. The day I stop learning is the day I die because I don't want to live if I can't improve myself. One part of improving oneself is knowing your strengths and weaknesses. I can say that one of my strengths is that I always view problems as challenges. I happen to be the type of person that really enjoys challenges. One of my weaknesses is that I don't always begin with the end in mind. From my experience there is something that is going to change halfway through that will affect the outcome. I guesss I am saying that I believe that I can do anything I set my mind to but some things are out of my control.

Week Two, Thing Three & Four -First Blog

This is my first blog. I love all sports and haven't found any technology that I don't like. As you can see my some of the images I love the Atlanta Braves, and running.