My thoughts...

Honestly, I thought this was all a bit too time consuming. Speaking on behalf of my generation, many of us are already aware of and have used most of these applications. I feel that the older generations, who aren't as familiar with computers or what is available to them on here would benefit the most from doing these exercizes. I am a pretty private person so I still don't think I would ever sit there and blog, I don't even write in a diary. I have a facebook and those who are my friends know what is going on in my life, without having to tell them too much.

I think that alot of people here are going to have a hard time finishing this project because there hasn't been any "mentors" walking around, asking people if they need help. The mentors aren't even really named on here so we know who to go to if we do need help. I had a question the first day and asked 2 deparmtent heads, and they weren't even sure what the answer was. I feel bad for anyone who isn't perhaps as tech savvy as I may be. But I wish them luck in completing this project.

Craigslist

http://longisland.craigslist.org/mcy/1032547451.html

I had NO problem using Craiglist because I use it all of the time. I have been trying to sell my motorcycle on here for months now, but I tend to get a lot of of creeps on here inquiring that I do not trust. I also found my dog Tara through Craigslist and it was the best thing ever. She is a pure bred Papillion and by using this site, I adopted her at 6 months old for only 100 bucks!!!! (you can't even get a mutt in the pound for that little). I highly recommend using Craigslist to anyone when looking for apartments, pets, etc. Just be careful, as with any other website.

Google Docs

Google docs is pretty easy and I like the idea of how I can make a document and send it out to others for people to add, share, or edit what I have written. I was already familiar with this tool because this is how we prepare for our weekly meetings in the teen department. Lorraine sends all of us a google doc with topics that she would like to discuss at our Friday meetings, and then we are encouraged to add anything else we would like to talk about to the document. By Friday morning, everyones additions are added, we simply hit print and then everyone has a copy of what we want to discuss. Two very enthusiatic thumbs up!

Wikis

Let's see. I am not sure how Wikis would be helpful to staff as far as libraries are concerned ???????? We all know that sources such as Wikipedia are not always very reliable since anyone can edit and change information, and the information could be untrue. A lot of the teens use it when doing research because that is usually the first site that comes up when they google a topic. As a librarian, we are told to tell them that those sites aren't very reliable, and they should try and use more academic sources such as academic databases and BOOKS :) I think Wikipedia is fun, but I wouldn't count on it.

I looked at the PALS wiki which Emily Clasper had also shown us here in the Web 2.0 demonstration a few months back. As I was looking over it, it seemed to be more on the technical end of the library field, much of which I don't really have a part of (at least here as a teen librarian).

Finding New Feeds

http://feeds.technorati.com/search/buffalo+plane+crash?language=n

I tried to use syndic8 first, but it wouldn't connect, so then I tried techorati. I guess it all seems pretty redundant to me from the last previous two tasks, so I didn't really find using this difficult at all. I decided to find feeds on the recent headlines about the plane crash in buffalo because they are just starting to reveal who the victims were and how they were all heroes.

Discovering feeds on our catalogs

http://www.communitylibrary.org/dev6/RSS/jnewgame.aspx


It took me a while to figure out this one. That could either be because I am still trying to get to the new website in general, or because I really had no idea what I was doing (I would like to believe the first possibility).

I believe I learned about this also at the training that was here at the library a few months ago. Once again, I am not sure how many of our patrons will actually use this feature. Perhaps a good idea might be to even hold a program here in the library for staff for them to learn about these kinds of services that are available for them and how to use it.

RSS

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.howstuffworks.com%2FDailyStuff

I just started typing in different things I am interested in, and a lot of links popped up. I subsribed to the reader "How Things Work", "ESPN-MLB" and "The Weather Channel". I see the usefulness in one site being able to show me everything I am interested in. However, this would take some getting used to. I actually enjoy going through all of my news sites, etc to browse articles. But for someone who is on the go and just wants to touch base with what is going on, this would be a useful source.

Suffolk Wave

I am an advanced battle of the books judge and one of the books I had to read this year was Dairy Queen. It was extremely hard to get through. A fellow judge recommended listening to it on Suffolk Wave because she enjoyed it and that was how she read it. I decided to download this book. I have always been a fan of audio books/playaways etc. This version was just as good. It is a great way for homebound patrons to get their materials, or even for a night when you have nothing to do to then go and download a book you have always wanted to read. Fortunately, I went to a training on this service at the system and it was very easy for me to figure out exactly what to do. I can see how it might be a little confusing for patrons who are not computer savvy.

Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivianisvulgar/2767985591/

If anyone cares, this is what my closet looks like, except with a lot more shoes :)

I barely use my own digital camera, but I can see how this website would be fun for those who are out there taking pictures all of the time. It's a good resource to find images on the web, instead of just googling. We already use Flickr in the teen department to show off programs that we have.

YouTube

YouTube is an excellent way for the teen generation to see what is going on at their library. They are used to watching television all day, playing video games, texting and chatting. Instead of relying on just a text verison of programs in the newsletter, youtube provides a way for teens to visualize what we really do here and how much fun they can really have. It is a simple and easy tool and one that they are already used to using.

Library Thing

I have already used this service but could not remember my user name and password!!!! Somewhere out there I have a library of books! Anyway, I picked Love Cajun Style (my fav YA book), the Perks of Being a Wallflower and Anna Karenina (a classic!) I doubt that anyone else from our library has Anna Karenina in their library on library thing. I definitely like using this tool, as I read so much at a time, it is hard to keep track!

Delicious

I bookmarked an article from last years YALSA article about teen read week. I think the format of the site is either way too simple, or way too complicated. I see the use in it that it allows you to see other websites with similar tags, but how popular is it really? I have never heard of this before and I consider myself pretty up to date with new and popular technology.

I like the tag cloud that we have in the new staff OPAC. Who puts in the tags for the books? Maybe it would be a good idea for people to be able to add to it with what they think the book has to do with.

Facebook/Myspace

Well I am now one of 99 friends of the Library on facebook. Congratulations to me!

The library myspace has many great and interesting tools. One is that you are able to link to all of our current programs. Each link you click on gives the user valuable information, such as a description of what the program is, when it is and where. I also thought it was quite beneficial that Ask a Librarian was available to our users right on our profile. And of course, it is nice to see the pictures the teens have been taking in our very own Camera Club and Illustrators Workshop.

Facebook and Myspace are similar in that they both allow you to connect to people. There are privacy settings on both. Myspace however lets you adjust the settings by creating your own background and designs, while facebook does not have this feature.

I personally prefer facebook over myspace. As someone who has had both accounts, I feel that I was able to connect to more people through facebook.

I think that these networking sites appeal to a broad range of people because we have become a "Now" world. People want information to be available to them instantly. Facebook and Myspace both allow people to update everyone else what is going on in their lives.

Unfortunately, I don't think that these two tools are going to explode for library marketing reasons. I think that the majority of the people who view the pages are staff. However, for the few patrons who do look at our page, it does what it is meant to do- provide information in one more format.

Twitter

I consider myself a big user of texting, facebook, AIM...I don't think I would really use Twitter because that's just one more way for people to invade my life.

So this is my first blog ever

It's Monday night, and I am working with Dave Jones and Nathina. We are all praying for a snow day tomorrow :) I just had a big reference question on William Floyd and sad to say, we have NO books here on him. They are all missing! Luckily for her, I just booked a behind the scenes tour of the estate for teens on March 21st. Hopefully she will come.