Thing #19 WEB 2.0 AWARDS

Found a few 'award winner' sites I'll be going to frequently:
-Music: PANDORA
-Photos and Digital Images: flickr and Picasa
-Travel: KAYAK and realtravel

A Committee member shared with me her enthusiasm about Pandora last week...and I've been building radio stations and listening every day. It is so cool to listen to songs I haven't heard in years (except when I play my albums at home! - yes, I still have every album and 45 I ever bought in almost pristine condition) . Just pick an artist/genre and similar songs/artists will be at your fingertips to give a thumbs up or down.

Flickr and Picasa will be interesting and helpful working with and sharing my photos; and just snooping around to see just what else is out there. I already have a flickr account and will try to use it more often.

KAYAK and realtravel will be interesting to work with when planning my next 'ideal vacation' or just a 'get-away for a while' jaunt. I look forward to reading other users' comments on past trips - what to look for and what to avoid.

Thing #18 - Web Apps

Logged onto Google Docs - added my name to the list. Had a little trouble getting the background to work, but figured it out. Definitely will be a useful tool ... once I set up various files, I'll be able to update, share (if I so choose) and edit information without having to worry about my computer crashing...and do it from anywhere. I can see any OCL Committee or subcommittee using this tool for minutes of meetings, things to do, people to see, contact lists, etc.

Thing #17 Sandbox

Entered the Sandbox via the invitation link. Had lots of fun editing the Sandbox - even added a picture to the end of the list (some of the entries are a hoot!)...hit SAVE and NOTHING!!! The dreaded "this page cannot be displayed" prompt came up...I'll try again tomorrow!
Couldn't wait...went back to the Sandbox and there it was!

Thing #16 WIKIS

Checked out WIKI's "Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki" and was surprised at how much information is there (looking like I'm always surprised at how much information is "out there") .
Went to "Training and Development for Librarians"; Staff Training; Tips for Training Librarian Staff; Tips for Floating Librarians. Some basic common sense issues, but good tips nonetheless.
Then checked out "Staff Development" and the Blog of Memphis Public Library and Information Center; Professional Training and Staff Development; NEO - New Employee Orientation. Looks like I'll be going back to this one!

Next, I went into "Ocean County Library". I found that clicking on number 2, 'Branches and Reading Centers" [1] brought me to the OCL webpage; Stafford brought me to Wiki's information on Stafford Township. Also checked out the 'History' tab and saw the various changes made - March 2008 seems to have corrected our domain name to 'theoceancountylibrary.org'.

I hope to go back to this site in the near future...so much information, so little time...

THING #15 LIBRARY 2.0

Read "Away from the "icebergs" and "To a temporary place in time...". Lots of food for thought.

The "icebergs" article made me rethink the traditional "library" ... no longer just a place to do some research or get a good book to read. Information is easier and less expensive to obtain, forcing us to take a look at the traditional notion "of a library collection". There's just so much information available.

"To a temporary place in time" reminds us that "librarians today are not just inventory management biobots". Instead, "they are people with a unique understanding of the documents they compile and catalog, and the relationships among those documents." When the author mentioned that "libraries are not mereley in communities, they are communities", I immediately thought of OCL and all we do for and with our communities; and how the nature of libraries have changed over the years.

Library 2.0 - particularly liked the idea of library users being able to have a greater impact on sevices provided by libraries.

But right now, I'm looking forward to going home, getting a cup of tea and reading a good old-fashioned book...

Thing #14 Technorati

Took a look at Technorati ... searched "Learning 2.0" on the main page - so much information. Clicked on the Photos tab - lots of photos for Web 2.0. I checked out the 2cents worth blog which "explores the changing nature of information...what it means to be literate in the 21st century". Some tags: Education, Web 2.0, Literacy, Teach, School and quite a few others. I clicked on the Literacy tag which brought me to tons of blogs.
Some of the Top Tags (is this a 'cloud'?) had links to even more stuff. I clicked on the Travel tag which brought me to blogs on Maps, Bison, Seattle...
Searched Ireland Travel - Looking forward to taking my time to explore this site in more detail. There is just too much information out there to take in at one sitting....videos of actual travels in Ireland and blogs about personal adventures in Ireland.
THIS IS FUN!

Thing #13 TAGGING

Started out by checking out our webthings cloud sidebar...this will be helpful when I need to refer back to something I've already done. Checked out del.icio.us and was impressed with all the information available ( an awful lot of information!). To make it simple, I kept with the photography theme. My search started with 'photography' and I chose Kenneth Parker Photography - this has been saved by 2055 people as of today. Some tags associated with this were photography, photos, art gallery, google nature photo, picasa. Still trying to find others' comments on this bookmark...must be missing something! Like the idea of bookmarks not being confined to a particular computer.