Another Happy Ending

What an accomplishment to complete my 20 things!
The most entertaining discovery was Pandora, and the most practical was Google Documents.
This process made me realize how much has changed in just a couple of years. I have to keep investigating new technologies, or there is a danger of falling way behind.
One thing I would want to do differently next time is to have more time to spend on each item and to have the experiences incorporated into our real work. For example, I think all of us should have been using IM for three weeks and working on a project with online shared documents for three weeks.
Yes, I would love to participate in all discovery programs now and happily ever after.

Gaming and the Reluctant Gamer

While I love the idea of gaming, I cannot find one that I enjoy. Today I realized for sure that I do not care for Sudoku after playing it online for a while. Many people in my family play it, but I just don't see the attraction. It will take a lot of testing to figure out what kind of games I might like to play, but frankly, that kind of time is not available to me right now. If libraries could think of training that can be formatted as a game, that would be a cool concept.
I'm excited that we provide gaming opportunities in the library for the teens and younger patrons. In my own home my son and I have hosted many a LAN party in the past for his friends. I think online games are great cooperative endeavors, and I love that the library is encouraging socializing and exercise with its DDR and other games available during Gaming nights. Way to go! (I just realized I do like DDR, I do:)

Google Earth

Zooming around the earth via Google Earth is almost as fun as riding "Soaring over California" in California Adventure! I visited Maui and Japan, two of my favorite places. It is really amazing. I was surprised that the pictures are more recent than I had expected. This is quite the resource, and I'm looking forward to using it more.

Avatar

So this is my first Avatar ever. What a lot of fun! I have never entered the realm of Second Life, and frankly, it might be too tempting. It reminds me of the game "Better Than Life" from Red Dwarf. If you've seen that TV episode, then you know the dangers of such virtual realities. I do know people who spend a lot of time in such domains. It will be interesting to see what becomes of them. I will wait a while longer before I enter that portal in case I do not want to come out again.

Online Applications and Tools

Zoho is far more complicated than Google Docs, but it looks like alot of fun to work with. I'm going to try Zoho with a project I'll work on from the office and at home.
Then I'll give Google Docs a try with other people I am working with on a long-term project. They are going to want something simple to use, and I think Google Docs would be very streamlined.
This idea of online tools might end up being very practical. I cannot wait to find out.

Search Engines

I admit that when I use a search engine, I usually choose Google first. Before Google became the first choice of search engines at a library where I used to work, I employed Dogpile all the time for my searches. Now I cannot believe how clunky it seems. It did produced a lot of results on my test topic, "Great Britain budget travel for women," but I could not find a total number of hits displayed.
Using Mamma, I had only 34 results, but they seemed more relevant.
The last search engine I tried was Rollyo, which had just a few relevant results. My only big surprise was that Rollyo placed advertising in the middle of the results list randomly. I found that extremely annoying.

Podcast

I listened to SIL’s podcast of Owl Babies, and I found it instructional to hear another person reading a book expressively. Whoever read it did a great job! Using Learn Out Loud, I listened to Children’s Book Radio, which in 2006 was supposed to be the only podcast devoted entirely to Children’s books. It simply suggested a children’s book title and gave information in why one should read it to children. The book was Roxaboxen, and although I’ve read it, I’ll check it out again. On the wiki, there were links that didn’t work. Finding a library-related podcast took a bit of time. I discovered Booktalks Quick and Simple from the site http://www.nancykeane.com/booktalks/. This booktalk by Nancy Keane about Elephant Run by Roland Smith. This piqued my interest, and I may read the book.

I consider podcasting a useful tool for SIL. I think patrons would like to hear booktalks and presentations by speakers. I have not created a podcast, but I have listened to them before.

What you see

Seeing is definitely not believing any more. It's at times like these that I wish I had a really terrific printer to do justice to the cool pictures we can create online.

Overdrive

It is cumbersome and time-consuming to download the Overdrive console. Unfortunately, the patrons who need it most often have the most difficulty with setting up the system.
Although the selection is limited, there is enough to choose from, and I would be happy listening to many of the titles. My favorite authors were included, so if I had a car with a CD player, I would be downloading titles onto CDs every week.
The only surprise was a book listed as young adult fiction in the Overdrive Audio Book list: Gorilla City (Charlie Small Series, Book 1) by Charlie Small aka Andrew Dennis. The actual book is classified as juvenile fiction.
I love this service and look forward to having a station in the library where patrons can download onto their player.

Delicious, but is it healthy for you?

Searching Del.icio.us for information was not as easy and clear as one would expect after hearing great things about it. On the topic of graduation parties, it really fared little better than a Google search, which is worthless. All the sites focused on selling items rather than giving ideas, checklists, or a strategy. The Del.icio.us websites seemed random instead of focused. In fact, I wondered why some were listed as graduation parties. I dislike not knowing how many hits there are when I end up with a list after a search.
Signing up with Del.icio.us and saving favorites with new tags was interesting, and I can see using that for program ideas in the future.
At the Information Desk I use Del.icio.us to take advantage of great websites others have found.
I can see that depending on how social bookmarking is used, it could be extremely healthy for work in addition to being fun for some.

To Wiki or Not

The concept of a wiki is interesting within a defined group. There is some truth in the Colbert Report (Thank you, Leslie for providing the link). If the wiki is open to all, then without an editor, or committee of editors, it is problematic.
Within a library I can see a wiki working well for any group of library staff. Within the children’s department we could share such things as program ideas, presenter critiques, child development news, and training information.

Online Videos

Searching for videos on YouTube about libraries led me to a video from the PLA conference 2008. Most interesting to me was the clip on John Wood, the founder of the nonprofit organization Room to Read. He wrote Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, and I love his idea of setting up libraries in rural areas all over the world. That is something I would love to do!
Most of the YouTube videos about librarians I saw were inane.
Hulu and Fancast are goldmines for those who watch TV. I would use Hulu to look for complete TV shows if anyone I knew were interested. I’m going to inform a Sarah Connor Chronicles fan about what is available at these two websites. I believe both sites would be useful for librarians who are assisting patrons about TV questions.

Facebook

Learning to negotiate online social networking without feeling vulnerable is certainly a challenge. As a private person, who works in the public eye, I feel a need to hold back on just how much gets posted out there about me.
However, for college students, Facebook was a terrific idea in the beginning. It was a fantastic link for students to keep in touch when they left their home towns and spread out across the country or oceans to attend college. I liked the idea better when it was for college students only instead of open to everyone. That might have been because my daughter gave me the sense that it was really for them, and not for the older generation or for kids. I'll have to ask her how it has changed now that anyone can participate.
In the last few months I received invitations from grad school colleagues to friend them on Myspace. I now plan to go ahead and do that now, so I can find out what they are up to and to compare Myspace to Facebook as a user.

Upper Lena Lake

Upper Lena Lake, originally uploaded by tomiko0008.

All things are difficult before they are easy. Practice will make this process of blogging and using flickr easier.

Royal Basin in the Olympic Mountains

Royal Basin in the Olympic Mountains, originally uploaded by tomiko0008.

This tranquil spot is my summer destination. It is a long hike, and the reward is legendary.

Mountain Peak in the Olympics

Mountain Peak in the Olympics, originally uploaded by tomiko0008.

Here's the mountain I hope to climb someday. It may not seem like much of a challenge, but I suppose that is all relative. In fact, it's like this entire 20 for 2.0 adventure. I see some staff members are breezing through this while others are trudging along. I think I am somewhere in the middle.

Pandora

So now I really have found and opened Pandora's box. I heard about this site ages ago from one of my sons, Graham. It's a good thing I did not check it out then, because I probably would have had headphones on constantly while at work. This is amazing. My other son, David, has the ability to analyze music to the point where he can point out the elements of songs that would appeal to me. Now there is a website at my fingertips I can consult. This alone makes the 2.0 journey worth all the time I've spent on it!

RSS Feeds

While it is possible that RSS feeds will ultimately save the user time, I am more inclined to agree with the person in the video who said it is addictive. I can see people wasting a lot of time with it. However, I think it will take some time to see if it is actually useful or not. It may be like email. A little goes a long way.

The Land of IM

After Google Talking this morning, I remembered just how easy it is to get lost in the Land of IM. I used MSN in grad school primarily for group projects and currently use it at home. It has been an important way for me to stay in touch with my two children attending college. I rarely IM them; I let them contact me if they have time.
My only surprise was that Google Talk seems plain compared to MSN.
Receiving immediate responses from people and the fact that several people can interact at the same time in a virtual meeting makes IM an effective form of long-distance communication. Is there a limit on the number of people who can enter a discussion in Google Talk?

Awesome bloggers

Wow, I am impressed by the blogs I have visited this week. I can see that experience really helps in terms of speeding through these adventures. It seems like I am in a glass maze. I see where I am supposed to go, but it takes me a while to get there.

Once upon a time

Once upon a time there was a new blogger who had wondered what it would be like to have a blog of her very own. When a fairy flew out of the sky and with a magic wand gave the gift of opportunity, the new blogger just had to give it a try. wombat