Exploring

The site that I choose to explore was the iGoogle site. I have actually created my own iGoogle page. I love it. I can change the theme of the page to my own personal liking. It was great being able to explore some of the gadget that you can add to your page. You have a variety of things you can choose from: Games, pictures, youtube videos, thoughts of the day, weather, time and you can even put the flower of the day on there. I found it great for keeping up with my Google Reader. It shows me all of the new things that I have not read on my Reader and it also displays for me the actual number of new items that are on the reader. I don't know if this would be a good thing for library or not. It just all depends on how and what you would use it for.

Technorati -

This one was confusing for me. I had to actually try it more than 2x. I don't think that I would use this at all. To me it is not user friendly. The youtube video that we watched was not helpful at all. The way they had it on the video is not actually how it is. Which made it just a little more confusing than it already was. Anyway, when I did the searches I found that there were over 1,000 blogs about Learning 2.0 and over 1,000 post tagged. I guess I would say that Technorati is a GREAT counter!

Tagging - Del.icio.us

Well, now I can say that I know what tagging is. At first, I was little confused as to what it all meant and why it was such a big deal to people. I must say that when I looked at the Del.icio.us site I didn't know what I was actually looking at. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to view comments about a particular bookmark. But even with this experience, I can see this being used in the library system to help out for reference assistance. It would be a great tool to use to see what sites co-workers have used and what is helpful and what was a waste of time. So, instead of me having to search high and low for a certain topic I can go and put in my keyword and see what taggs come up.

MySpace

Like I said in my last blog, I don't have a personal MySpace page but I am responisble for maintaining the MySpace account for my church, www.myspace.com/remixconference and let me say it was one of the easiest things that I have done on the computer. I feel that MySpace is okay for what it is supposed to do. It is a great way for people to keep in contact with those long lost friends and family members. I believe that this site is so popular because of the 24/7 access and the ability for people to remain in contact without ever having to see the other person. I guess because I am such a private person is the reason I don't have a personal page. And another reason is because I really don't have the time to sit at a computer and type or post a comment to a friend. But I am the text message QUEEN!

OSN

I am not against social networking sites but I am cautious about them. I don't think that they are bad sites all together, because they can be used for a positive purpose. I don't have a personal MySpace page but I am responsible for maintaining and updating a page for the church I attend. It is a tool that I use to make announcements about events. It is also a place where I can keep in contact with the members and also friends that are not near. I think the sole purpose of OSN is to keep in communciation with those friends and people that you may not see daily.

VBPL WiKi

After visiting and adding my pick to the VBPL Wiki I find that it is very simple to add my comments to this page. I didn't find it hard at all to figure out how to post what I wanted to say on this page. The only thing that concerns me is that fact that anyone can get on and if they wanted to change what I said. That doesn't seem to be a good thing, cause then if that happened I would have to constantly go back and rewrite my comments. I think that the best way to use Wikis is for a collaborate assignment between more than two people that are not in the same place at the same time.

WiKis

The most interesting thing that I found out about wikis is that there is a lot of them out there. I never knew about wikis until now and I am amazed to find out that there are a lot of library systems already using them. The other thing was that there is a lot of information available on these wikis. TONS....

WiKis are good for the projects that are to be a collaborate effort. If you would like for someone else to make changes and share ideas that you haven't thought of then this would be a great way to do that.

This is all still new to me so, not much to say about it.

VBPL & IM

After experiencing the IM throught VBPL I have found that it is a great way to get a response in a timely manner on specific questions that you may have at the time. I think that this is an asset to the VBPL system. It give the staff the opportunity to use this not so new technology 4 the work enviroment and it also gives our customers another way to access the library.

I really believe that this is a great way 4 us to keep up with the times as well as us getting info out to an individual in a few moments.

IM & Libraries

I believe that libraries should use IM because it is a faster way to get information out to the customers. It is a way to actually help the customers that are online at the time needing some right now assistance. IM is a tool used because it is faster than email and you are actually talking to some one right then and there rather than waiting for some one to email you back. Which could take days or even weeks.

Change is inevitable and with the new technology that comes out each year it will help us not to be so out of date with today's users.

ttyl...