Monday, October 27, 2008

#16 Student 2.0 Tools

#16 Thing: Frankly, at this stage of my life/career, I do not think I would use the timeline for a library project. I feel I already know the basics anyway.

One thing I found of particular interest was the Recommended Standards for Information & Technology Literacy. The standards were broken down by grade level. When I skimmed the info, I realized that elementary students know more than I do about various computer applications. I wish I could sit in on some computer lab sessions in my local public school in order to upgrade my skills.

At least I am now aware that these helping aids exist and can recommend them to students or teachers.

#14 Librarythingtour

#14 Thing: http://www.librarything.com/home/dotmashley. I thoroughly enjoyed this website!! This tool will help me keep my reading lists organized. I am going to recommend this site to the ladies who catalog my church's library.

Except for the children's librarians, it seems our library system has gotten away from the printed booklist. Librarything is another avenue for generating lists. Librarians always need additional readers advisory paths. I did like the recommended reading feature.

# 13 Productivity Tools

#13 Online Productivity Tools: I chose yahoo for my "start page." Since I already had a yahoo account, yahoo was easier to use. It will be my permanent home page.

I tried looking at Kiko but it would not open. I did not want to sign up for MSN.com to look at their calendar. I did take a brief look at Backpack. If I had a life that was busier, I could see the need for a tool that would help keep me organized.

The tool that I did like was the Ta-da list. Because I am a "list" person, this kind of website is good for someone who is super organized like I am.

#12 Social Media Tools

#12 Do you Digg? (Social Media Tools): Of the four that I looked at, only Newsvine appealed to me. I did register with Newsvine.

I would never use these websites at the library--too few controls. Since there are so many other options out there, I would never use these sites. It is most definitely a productivity detractor for library staff.

Isn't there more to life than spending one's day going to these websites? (End of sermon!)

#11 Delicious

#11 Delicious: I set up an account with Delicious. I hate to repeat the obvious, but the ability to get to your bookmarks from any computer is extremely convenient. Particularly in our library system where staff can work in more than one building, it is helpful to get to a bookmark easily.

When I looked at examples of how other library systems are using Delicious, it looks like popular research topics have been bookmarked. Obviously, staff does not have to reinvent the wheel for popular topics.

The directions for tagging were not helpful. It took two of us to figure out how to do the tagging.

Friday, October 24, 2008

#21 There Are Other Networks

#21 There Are Other Networks: I joined the 23 Ning and posted a comment. I also uploaded a picture to my profile. Again, I can see the benefit of social networking. Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of free time to be on the computer.

Monday, October 20, 2008

#20 Libraries and Social Networks

#20 Thing Libraries and Social Networks: I had already signed up for Facebook; wanted to see a picture of my daughter holding one of our pets. My daughter and son are two of my "friends." I could not find an easy way to browse the group selections, so I picked the first one on the list.