Week 9 Thing 21

Podcasts.

I had never really thought about them before.

I knew they were out there, floating around, but I am more visual than auditory, so I spend more time watching youtube than listening to podcasts.

But I was unaware just what was available.

I spent some time this weekend searching podcasts.yahoo.com.

I searched for House Music. I searched for Techno. I searched for UK Music and I wound up with some awesome radio shows that I can play while I cook dinner. One of them includes some unsigned British artists and is a little weird, but hey, I am all about weird.

Don't believe me? Try going to www.nyub.net and give it a listen.

Then, I searched for language. Did you know you can learn Japanese, Chinese and even French via a podcast? Really. I spent Sunday night trying to teach my dog French. I started the podcast and went to cook dinner. My dog sat listening and learning how to use the airport in France, with all the necessary vocabulary. I am not sure if she really picked anything up. But I found it to be quite awesome.

Oh, yeah. And I DID check out the library sites that use podcasts, too. I liked the fact that you could create a story on the net like we have dial-a-story. I also like the idea of booktalks that you can listen to. More fun than you can shake a stick at.

Still don't know how to make a podcast myself, but I think I will leave that as a learning task after I complete the program. I only have two more things to go, so I should be done soon.

Until then, keep listening. And check in sometime in the future. You may have a mysterious voice to contend with!

Week 9 Thing 20

As you all know, I am no stranger to youtube. In fact, youtube has made my life so much better!

For example, here is the new single from Girls Aloud - Sexy No No No. I love Girls Aloud, but they are a group from the United Kingdom and don't release music in the U.S. So, the only way I can find out about their new releases is to scan for info from England. But youtube changed all that. When the girls release a video, the video is posted in the same week of the release. And me, at home, in Baltimore, can log on and see the video almost immediately. And I can determine if I like the song and want to spend my money on it.

Youtube really makes the world a smaller place. It is a great place to find tunes and experience new music. Give it a try! You can find music from all eras, new videos and old. Just don't annoy the coworkers too much.

Week Eight Thing 19

Just came back from a visit to http://www.oodle.com

Oodle was one of the winners of the Web 2.0 awards and I can see why. Oodle searches the classified ads for certain cities, and luckily, Baltimore is one of the cities I can search.

It breaks it down nicely into categories if you are just browsing, like I was doing. When you select a category, you get a nice listing of sub headings along the left hand side of the screen so you can narrow down your search. For example, I selected Cats as a heading and looked at available cats in the Baltimore Area. I can limit that further to Himalayan, my favorite type of cat. I can also limit by location, if I only wanted to travel to Towson, or if I had lived in Annapolis.

It offers the basic classified searches, apartments, real estate, objects and things for sale, pets, tickets to concerts and sporting events and even personal advertisements. It was quite fun to browse to see what was available. You even have a nice keyword function if you were looking for something more specific.

As my laptop is giving me gas, I might log on to Oodle and look around. What can I lose?

I hope all of you in Blogland are doing well on the 23 things and finding cool new sites to experience. I never would have noticed Oodle if not for the 23 things. I am going back to the awards to play around with some other winning sites. Catch you on the flip side.

Week Eight Thing 18

Week 8 Thing 18

Moving along.

Here I am on Zoho Writer creating a fabulous little document I hope to export to my blog.

And it even does smilies.

It looks like I can do some nifty things with it, like insert a link (although this function seems to be not working correctly. I don't seem to be able to insert one.

http://www.hedkandi.com/ and there it is!

I have named my document and have saved it. I can even strike out text if I want to.

I can really see the wonderful benefits to having something like this in libraries. We no longer have to rely on Microsoft Office, we can direct customers to Zoho Writer. They can create documents such as resumes and save them on Zoho Writer without needing to have a disk or a thumb drive. They can then open the document on any other PC that they log in to. It looks like they can even email the document as an attachment, right from here. I definately hope to steer some of my customers to Zoho Writer. I hope to learn how to use it more myself. What a great way to use the web.

Week seven thing 16 and 17.

Just a song to make sure you are awake! Today I was reading about Wikis. I like the concept behind wikis, I am just not sure how useful they would be to me. I would have a problem with putting my words out on the internet and having anyone anywhere editing them at will. I think that some of the information on Wikipedia is good, but how can you tell that someone hasn't just edited the info and posted incorrect information? If I wanted to, I could head over to Wikipedia right now and cause all sorts of chaos by simply changing dates and times and changing the spelling of key terms. Then I would sit back and wait until someone catches my changes and fixes them. But someone could go to Wikipedia to do a school project and get bad information and thus get a bad grade. So, I think you have to be careful as to whom you let change your words.

But I can see how it would be useful if several people were working on a group project and all needed to add to and edit a document. Then you would not need to track down the current document on a disk, you could just log in and see the work in progress. Then you could add and update your changes. This would make it easier for all people concerned. Definately a good use for a wiki.

I hung around the wiki sandbox and it is a fun idea, but I could't think of anything to post. It was very freeform and chaotic and had no real organization and it was hard for me to just jump on in and add some other nonsense. I like to have a purpose behind my writing. But I did add my link to the list of links to prove that I was there!

So, I know how to use a wiki if ever I should need one. I guess that is all that matters.

Library 2.0 Perspectives

And a video.

This is Victoria Hart. "Whatever Happened to Romance". Three points if you can answer that question.

I have been thinking about library 2.0 and everything that we have been learning. I guess my thoughts lie with both training of the customers and learning from them. We have always had technology classes in the library but they have traditionally been "Introduction to the internet" and "introduction to Microsoft Word". Now there is so much more that our customers are experiencing. I know that I am always finding new things to do and see online. I am oftened amazed at our younger customers who are playing online games, watching videos, and posting with rapid fire precision. If we could tap into our customers knowledge base, and let them know that we are interested, we might be able to work with them to create programs that are fun and enlightening and can teach us librarians a thing or two.

I know that funding sometimes prohibits us from being as cutting edge as we would like to be. The minute we purchase a new piece of technology, it begins to become outdated. But with web applications, maybe some of our customers at home can experience the library in a new way.

Perhaps a virtual librarian can be projected right into their living room.

I am just excited to be part of the ride!

Be Good or Be Gone, Fionn Regan

I know, I know.

Long time no post. I have been suffering in this heat. I don't think my brain has been working all that well. When it gets above ninety, I start sliding. Can't think of things to say and surely can't update the ole' blog.

But, I can't keep my public waiting, so I thought I would entertain you with a video.

This is Fionn Regan and I really love him. I just ordered his CD and hope to get it this week. Definately someone worth listening to.

I know we will be getting to Youtube on the 23 things, and I have more than made up for that week by all the videos I have been posting. But I love youtube. I hear all my new music that way. I have a couple of other artists I want to post this week, so if you are so inclined, please tune in and watch. You won't regret it.

Ciao!