Final Hurrah! PTL Exercise Complete

I've made it through all of the exercises, although I would have liked to spend more time on many of them: RSS feeds, bloglines, LibraryThing, and del.icio.us, just to name a few. I would be more savvy if I would explore more of what I've learned outside the library, but I haven't done that to date. I find, after an entire day of being online at the library, that the last thing I want to do at home is jump back on my computer. I did learn quite a bit, and I also had fun, especially creating the blog, using Flickr, and assembling an avatar. I can see the value of tags and RSS feeds within the library, and I certainly feel I have a better understanding of the attraction of social networking among the young. I just hope the computer networking doesn't replace good ol' getting together with friends to discuss all of those things that are being tagged and shared with online friends.
I'm looking forward to some of these tools being incorporated in our new-and-improved interactive LCLS web site!

Week 10: YouTube

Although I have visited YouTube in the past, I hadn't been back for ages, so this was an especially fun exercise. I remembered one library/computer-related video that someone -- I think it was Nancy Skabar at Cape Coral -- had sent me awhile back, and I found it my simply searching under the keyword "book." Here it is:



I'm going to go looking for a PodCast now....

I'm familiar with our Download Library, and, in fact, have downloaded a few novels to my MP3 and have listening to them while taking walks. Right now I'm listening to the audio book, "Italian for Dummies," which is one step in my original learning goal of mastering Italian!

Week 9: Zoho Writer & Web 2.0 Award Winners

I have explored Zoho Writer, and I may attempt to post my scribblings here to my blog. I discovered that if I click on "Publish" above the tool bar, I get an option to "Post to Blog."

There are a few handy options here in Zoho Writer, including the ability to add an emotion icon with a simple click: (this one represents "foot in mouth") and the ability to add a comment in a cartoon-like bubble. (I wrote a comment, but it didn't carry over to my blog.)

I also spent a little time looking at the Web 2.0 Award Winners. I explored the 1st and 2nd place award winners in the Travel category: 1.) Farecast.com and 2.) Kayak.com. My daughter and son-in-law use both regularly, especially taking advantage of Farecast's 7-day fare prediction -- a very nice feature. I did think Kayak was a little quicker, and I liked the fact that it would search flights at ALL airports in an area. That's a particularly nice feature when you're looking for a cheap flight out of NYC. I set up an account with Farecast Alert.

Now let's see if I can post this short note!

Week 8: Wikis

Somehow exploring wikis during Halloween week seems appropriate. I added my blog and avatar to Sheldon's Playhouse, and I most definitely see the value of wikis in the library world. What a fantastic way to collaborate! I would think FLA & ALA committee work could be conducted smoothly through a wiki; what a great way to avoid long drives & overnight stays to produce the same results.