Thursday, August 30, 2007
week 9, thing 23 (The End)
week 9, thing 22 (overdrive)
week 9, thing 21 (podcasts)
Podcast.net
- You could search by category or title. Titles weren't really in alphabetical order because of symbols, numbers and articles which kind of drove me crazy.
- Could not locate popcasts that I listen to such as "This American Life" and "Pop Candy"
- Too many Google Ads
- Needed to download software. While they offered suggestions of which software to download, they didn't give instructions.
- Site lacked any information about podcasts and the site.
Podcast Alley
- Lots of information about popcasting and popcasts.
- easy to search categories.
- Ranked popcasts.
- Need to download software, but there were clear directions.
- I easily found the popcasts, I already listen to.
While Podcast Alley was my favorite of the two, I will probably continue to use Apple's itunes. It is easy to browse and works well with my ipod. Before itunes had podcasts, I also used a program called ipodder. Some of the podcasts I once listen to are now by fee-based subscription only. Podcasts, are a great way to catch up with NPR programming.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
week 8, thing 19 (web 2.0 awards)
Colorblender
On this site, users select a color and the colorblender generates 5 coordinating colors. This site would be great for home decorating or even creating a website. The site was easy to use and I am sure that it would be even easier to use if you understood HTML color codes.
Farecast
This site predicts pricing of airline tickets based on the fares and trends of the industry for the last 90 days. It will tell you if you should buy now or wait for reductions. You cannot purchase tickets through the Farecast but will be redirected to the airline carrier's website or given the option to purchase tickets with another site like Expedia. This site gives you a variety of ways to search and allows you to change your flight plans easily. It had lots of charts and graphs. It also let you chart the fares for a 30 day period, so that you could find the cheapest days to fly. It is kind of inconvenient that you cannot purchase tickets directly from the site, but I would definitely use this site next time I need plane tickets.
Zillow
Zillow offers users real estate information. You can type in a specific address, a street, neighborhood or city and zillow will produce estimated real estate prices. It also tells you which homes are for sale and which homes sold recently. If you chose a specific property it will chart its value and sales for the last 10-years and also offer you details about the home (i.e. how many bedrooms, baths, etc.). The images are very cool on this site too. All of the areas, I looked at had a satellite image of the area, you can see bodies of water, streets and even pools in back yards. Some areas even have "bird's eye images" using Microsoft Virtual Earth. I don't know much about Real Estate, but I think that this is a great site for potential home buyers and sellers. It would be a great way to get an idea of the housing market. I am not sure of the accuracy of all information. I looked up some known properties and the information about some of homes was incorrect.
week 9 thing 20 (youtube)
The second video I chose is a clip of Parker Posey from the movie "Party Girl." A great movie about a party girl turned librarian. This movie is so campy and funny. I am not sure about the legality of this posting, since it is probably copyrighted (which is something youtube is battling with).
I wander onto youtube from time to time and always get lost in it. There is always so much to look at. Youtube is easy to use. I like all of the categories that are available for browsing and the search engine. Youtube is mostly entertaining but can be informative too. I also think that it provides a creative outlet for many. Because of the nature of youtube, users should keep in mind that things are out of context. I have read several news stories about copyright issues and youtube. I also wonder how many videos are posted without the participant's permission. I guess there are always issues with new technology (remember Napster?). Soon there will be court cases and new laws will be established.
youtube could easily be used in a library environment for announcements, instructional videos, program promotions, or even informational videos about why it is important to read to children. Using applications like youtube on the libraries website would add a personally element to the organization.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
week 8, thing 18 (online productivity)
week 7, thing 17 (learning 2.0 Sandbox)
Monday, August 27, 2007
week 7, thing 16 (wikis)
- Allows for focus on content and less on layout
- Can be about a specific subject
- Variety of links and information in one place
- Allows several people or any number of people to contribute content (this can be bad and good)
- Allows the public to interact through discussion pages
While searching various wikis, I found it interesting that not all wikis looked the same. The Booklovers wiki had a layout of a website and blog. In general, I find that the problem with wikis are how authoritative is the content and the lack of content. If no one specific is responsible for the wiki, content is not guaranteed. Wikis offer a great opportunity for collaborating and allowing all types of individuals to contribute. Wikis could be used in libraries to create more subject guides or to expand existing webpages. Book discussion groups could use wikis to post information about their group and the books they are reading (even multiple opinions on a book). I am sure there are lots of possibilities for libraries internally too.
week 6, thing 15 (web 2.0 / library 2.0)
- Away from the Icebergs by Rick Anderson
- To better bibliographic Services by John J. Riemer
I agree with Anderson's view that libraries need to focus less on physical collections, and not on keeping materials, "just in case." There are so many useful resources in databases and sometimes even on the Internet. As a children's librarian, we often hear from students that they must have physical print sources. It can be difficult to convince children and their parents that information from a database is from a print source and not like searching the Internet. In many cases, they will only take the information, if it is the only thing available because their teachers have forbidden them from using any computer-based resource. I understand that teachers don't want their students to get misinformation from the web, but there needs to be more education about using databases and finding authoritative sources, instead of ignoring it all together. And I am sure that there are some teachers who are including this in their lessons but it is definitely not happening in all classes.
In the article, "To Better Bibliographic Service," John Riemer presented an insightful discussion on cataloging and classification. I especially liked his point about adopting web features. Libraries need to look at successful web technologies and incorporating them into what we already do well. I am sure that there are great web applications that could be integrated into library catalogs to make searching easier and information more accessible. In my opinion, it would be nice if the catalog came back with "Did you mean....?" every time I spelled a word wrong or didn't have every word in the title correct.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
week 6, thing 14 (technorati)
Searching Technorati
- Searching by postings resulted in mostly indivdual's posting for 23 things or other "Learning 2.0" programs
- Searching by Tags produced the same results but also included videos and photos
- Searching by the directory brought up entire blogs about "Learning 2.0"
Using favorite and popular categories
While it did not surprise me that many of the popular and top blogs were about technology and some politics. I expected that there would be more about pop culture. But I guess it depends on who uses the Technorati. I also thought that it was interesting that there were non-english blogs that were ranked pretty high in the top blogs.