20 Things

20 things has certainly expanded my world!
My favorite tool is my Bloglines account - I've become addicted to several bloggers and Bloglines enables me. I know I will use Flicker and I can imagine that the Library will too. Library Thing fascinates me, I can imagine all sorts of library use of it, as a Reader's Advisory tool, as well as a place to refer people who are organizing their own library or a church or small school library.
This program has been a great guide to learn about the Intranet - it has helped me understand that I can use these tools on the Web to help quench my boundless curiosity about many things.
I have gained a great deal of respect for successful bloggers - they are not only good writers, but many of them are great photographers as well - and some are fine artists and designers or at least they know how to work with artists and designers to make their blogs and web sites appealing.
I think the 20 things program was well designed - some weeks the exercises were easier than others, and that was encouraging and nicely paced.
I hope the exercises will stay posted for our review. I have a feeling that some of the things we explored will become more important to us as time passes - and that some will probably be replaced with newer things - change happens - or will happen!
Overall, I'm glad I did all the exercises - I'm more Web literate and that is a good thing.
Thanks!

Podcasting - it may be the word, but it is just a word to me

As a real radio fan, I thought I would be very interested in podcasting. It is mostly a big disappointment for me - although perhaps I will yet find some of great interest.
For some reason, it took me a long time to figure out how to put a feed in my Bloglines account. And after trying to find something that was not blocked in the list I found on Poscastalley - I finally used Yahoo Podcasts. After several attempts, at first I got only music, I found a pod cast of interest, captured the url and got it on my Bloglines list. I listened to several poscasts - on knitting of course - but I doin't think this will be a real part of my life - and I'm having trouble figuring out what we can do with it for the library too - I'll read some other Pamunkey blogs to get ideas!

Web 2.0 Awards - What I tried

I explored www.Reader2.com - which was a runner up in the Web 2.0 Awards - the site looked fussy and busy to me - and not as useful as Library Thing.

www.BlueRectangle.com - where you can sell boks and see video reviews of books was of more interest to me. It, too, was a runner up in the books category of the Web 2.0 Awards. I think this site could be useful for Friends of the Library to sell books and for patrons who might enjoy the video reviews.

I'm glad to know about the Awards - they will help me keep current and explore new, great sites.

Google Docs - Wow - it worked!

This looks very much like a word document. I think this could be very useful for collaborative projects. I like the spelling feature.

I posted the sentence above to my blog with just two clicks - and it worked! I could learn to love this!

I explored Zoho too - I especially liked their Notebook feature.

Wiki Wiki

I love using Wiki's. I am particularly impressed with Durham County's Strategic Plan Wiki and the Princeton Public Library's Book Lovers Wiki. I can imagine changing much of our Intranet into a Wiki.

Second Life - one is enough for me

I've never played a video or web based game - so Second Life is a completely unexplored thing for me. I can certainly understand the appeal of the concept - but I can't quite imagine using it in my life - or in the library's life.
Paying fines in Linden Dollars and the Alliance Library use of it are fascinating - I'd love to know how many people they are actually reaching.

Library 2.0 - wonderful ideas

The idea that Web 2.0 elements are applicable to libraries - that public libraries should be in a state of constant change and should welcome user participation are guiding principles for me. Radical Trust is a fundamental notion too.
I'm glad we are exploring all these new web applications and social networking sites - I'm confident that we can find ways to use them to help us connect better with library users.

Technorati - could be the Blogger's best friend

- but not mine really. If I wanted to be a serious Blogger I can see that this site would be extremely useful. I think I'll use it to find new blogs on my favorite topics and to see what people are really searching for - mostly people and things I have never heard of!

del.icio.us - this could be useful

This coulb be very useful! I especially like exploring what others have found using the tags. I'll spend more time with this one.

Rollyo - I'll need convincing

Rollyo is not something I think I'll use often - but I'm glad to know it exists.
I've created some search rolls, but will need help to post them here!

Online image generation - what fun.

I explored several of the online image generators listed, including those in the comments. There are lots of wonderful things available out there - I created this picture from a site I found in The Generator Blog.