YouTubin'

Ok. Here it goes. I actually tried doing this for my second post but well, youtube removed the video I had posted, probably because it took forever to load. Here is the original video I had posted:



It's the teaser trailer for Twilight. I loved the book. I can't wait to see the movie. I am too excited. There are no words.

As far as library applications are concerned, the possibilities are endless. Advertisements for the summer reading program, programs in general, etc. could be posted to our site using YouTube. Then, there's always this:



This is one of the winning videos from the Teen Video Book awards done by Random House Children's Books every year. I think producing a video like this to enter would be a rocking cool program!

Web 2.0 Awards

Here is a list of some of the 2008 Web 2.0 Award winners. Here is a list of all of the Web 2.0 Award winners I have used or do use now.

- CareerBuilder
- Monster
- Pandora
- Facebook
- Myspace
- YouTube
- GoogleMaps

For the web 2.0 exploration exercise, I explored Upcoming.

CareerBuilder and Monster have never been useful to me. I have never found a job on there that matched my interests. Maybe it's because libraries don't necessarily post their openings on these sites, I don't know. I'm just saying that they have never been helpful to me.

I LOVE Pandora, Facebook, YouTube, and GoogleMaps. The great thing about Pandora is that it directs you to new music. If you type in a band that you love, it will give you songs by them and songs by others that are like them, and you can even further customize your listening experience by selecting whether or not you liked the selection that was picked. I listen to this all the time at home. It's like being the director of your own radio station.

Facebook is more user-friendly and fun than Myspace, in my humble opinion. Both let you connect and keep in touch with friends, but I think the only real thing that Myspace has going for it that Facebook does not is that your profile page is more customized.

YouTube is awesome. I think you can find pretty much any video on there. I found someone who had uploaded all of the Jem and the Holograms episodes. That was pretty cool. Also, you can subscribe to certain "channels" and they'll email you whenever that user uploads a video. I've done that with my favorite band. ^_^

And GoogleMaps is wonderful. It's one thing to be able to get directions. It's another to be able to edit those directions so that you are travelling on roads you are familiar with/would rather travel. For example, I'm not a big fan of highways. So, I can drag and drop my route onto a parallel surface street with no problems. That's what makes GoogleMaps so useful.

Last but not least, Upcoming. I created an account, added an event I was attending and searched the events. It was meh. I have a similar system with GoogleCalendar. Add an event, invite friends, comment on the event. This is more public, but it doesn't recommend other events that would be similar to what you've picked. It only recommends other events at the location you've picked. As far as a library application goes, it would be a good place to publicize our events. Especially if you are a teen looking to go to something other than the "Bare Buns contest at Club Copa". But yeah, I wasn't that impressed.

Oops!

Oh my goodness! I haven't posted about Teen programs since May! (Bad, Bad Mimi). We have had a host of the normal programs that all turned out well, but with summer we've stepped things up a notch. We had a HSM2 program. We showed HSM2, and teens were prompted to wave props in the air/shout things kind of like a Rocky Horror picture show showing but much more G-rated. It was a blast. I started crying at a particular part in the movie, and the teens thought that was pretty funny. I also showed them how to do the dance for All for One. It was a great program, but I liked it better when we did it with the first movie. The first movie was just more fun.

We also did a trivia game based on the Worst Case Scenario books. The teens loved this. It was so cool to see them all working together, and also accepting new people into their group.

Finally, we've had the BOB orientation and practices. They have been going really well, except for a few hang ups. For example, at the first practice, the kids hadn't read as much as I thought they had. I'm really excited for this though.

We're gearing up for programs in July now including a cosplay workshop!

Zoho Post

I have actually used something like this before in google docs. As a writer, I find google docs incredibly helpful to get criticisms from other writers and to offer my own critiques because of the function that allows you to have multiple drafts as well as the online component of it. I like that I can take my writing wherever I go and that other writers can offer changes or suggestions, whether I choose to use them or not is, of course, another story .

I was surprised that, as we already have google accounts, why we didn't just use google docs. (Although, I will admit to having problems with google docs, such as formatting changes when I actually try to save it on my hard drive.) However, after, messing around on the Zoho site for a bit. I can see that Zoho has a lot to offer besides word processing, and it might be worthwhile to look into some of those applications as well... now that I have the account. Zoho Notebook and Projects might be interesting applications. I will definitely have to look into them. I will let you know what I think of them when I have time.

Technorati Tags     8,week,23,things

PBCLS Wiki

After playing around with the pbcls wiki, I don't think we are using wiki's to their full potential. After all, if we just wanted a list of our favorite bookmarks, we could easily use something like del.icio.us. The idea of wiki's is to post content that links to other content. For example, I posted a little about my favorite band in the pbcls wiki and gave a link to their webpage which is fine, and I think that's essentially how it's supposed to work, but instead of just listing links, you have add content. For example, if you are adding a link to your favorite band, you have to say, why it's your favorite band. I understand that this is an exercise, but I still think we could be using wiki's better than just as lists of our favorite things.

Wiki

I like this. Besides wikipedia, I've only ever used wiki's once, but I didn't create it and did very little editing, and a lot of reading. Even with wikipedia, I don't really create/edit, I read. So, I was understandably skeptical about this whole thing. First off, I have a predjudice against wikipedia because I've been told that since anyone can edit it, the information may not be accurate. While that's true, I've always thought it was a good source for pop culture materials, but not really for research.

Recently, as in just before this web 2.0 thing kicked off, I discovered wikiHow which is a useful site about how to do just about anything from being a glitter goth to cooking a five course meal. And I love that site. Anyone can post on it, and others can comment on how useful they found the how to.

I love the idea of an open catalogue like Open World Cat, as long as ,like WorldCat, the core material isn't changeable. Also, Wiki's in Plain English was an awesome video. It made me really understand the benefits of wikis. Inside the system, it could be useful to share programming ideas or coordinate programs between many different branches. Or to answer patron questions, like an FAQ wiki.

I was skeptical at first about this, but I like it now that I understand it a bit better.

Delicious Technorati with Library 2.0

Sounds yummy doesn't it? ^_^ These are the next three things in the 23 things project.

1st-- We were asked to explore del.icio.us-- a social bookmarking site. I think this a cool idea, and I could definitely see its uses professionally. It would be cool to be able to bookmark sites with craft ideas and program ideas and share that with other people and see what other people have found interesting in the same categories. Not that I could do this at home. (I tend to bookmark inane things like icanhascheezburger.com and 80's cartoons on youtube.)

2nd-- Next I headed over to technorati (awesome name by the way!) I searched the library's website, but I didn't find much related to it. I did learn about the new I-phone and twitter when I searched Web 2.0. I would think the idea of twittering was cool if it weren't imitated already on so many other social networking sites. So, Web 2.0 committee-- no twittering for you! ^_~

3rd-- The last thing I had to look at were some library 2.0 things. And my first thought was. What a cool time to be a librarian. (or to be becoming a librarian) The entire concept of library 2.0 is awesome. The landscape of the library as we know it is changing. I'm sure that's frightening but it's also exciting. One of the articles mentioned Myspace and how many libraries are using that to reach out to their patrons. I've been an advocate for that since I came to the library. Another talked about how libraries of the futures will be shaped more by patrons. (Not that we don't already work to supply our patrons with everything they need) But the content will be shaped by them. For example, the online catalog of the future may allow patrons to tag books. What a neat idea.

All in all, it made me excited to be in the profession that I am in.

a picture is worth a thousand words

But just in case you can't read the words, it says:
"book rental service?
was just thinking, my sister does -a lot- of reading and spends like $1000 a year on books alone, most of them she reads once then never looks at again. is there any kind of like... video rental store but for books? would make things cheaper, plus once one person has read one, the next person can get enjoyment from it, etc."

I wish I knew the origin of this. It was posted on a community I belong to. If it wasn't a joke, what a great way to be an advocate for the library.