Week 7 Exercise

Week 7 Assignment: Write a blog entry discussing how you felt about the experience of using YouTube and what you think about this service. Do you see any potential uses for Podcasting in the library? If so what and why?

There are definitely many uses for podcasting and YouTube videos in libraries. I think they're great for short instructional audio/video clips. I'm not sure I'm ready to use them in my library, but I could eventually see posting a short clip about how to get started doing healthcare research. I agree with the comment posted by another student in this class that we librarians must reach out and communicate to all of our users in the ways that are most comfortable and familiar to them. For those of us of a "certain age," that means stepping out of our "print comfort zone."

YouTube video

I decided to combine my love of cats from our photo exercise with libraries, and I searched YouTube for library cat. I found Browser, a library cat in Pine River, Minnesota. Here he is walking along the top shelf:

Week 6 Exercise

Week 6 Assignment - Online Photo Sharing: Blog about the process on your personal blog for this course and share how this concept might be used in your library.

This assignment assumed that one has the knowledge to download digital photos! Although I have a digital camera, I'm not very experienced at downloading. However, I managed to muddle through that part and get my two photos on Flickr. I added the photos to Facebook, but not through Flickr, just using Facebook's photo download feature. It was quick and easy. I also added one of the photos to my blog, and again, I tried to do it from Flickr, but the photo didn't show up, just an empty box. I'm behind on my assignments, so I'm going to move on from this one and explore Flickr more later, as it looks like a great way to share photos with family and friends.

At this time, I don't see much use for photo sharing in my library, except as another class we could teach our patrons. We could also post photos of the library itself.

Photo of my two cats

Holly, the orange tabby, and Gracie, the calico, are six-year old sisters. They were born feral but were rescued and tamed by their wonderful "foster mom." We adopted them when they were 10 months old, and they have brought us countless joy and laughter. They love sleeping in cardboard boxes -- must be a throwback to the six weeks they spent outdoors. :)

Here's the link to these photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25830489@N08/

Week 5 Exercise

Assignment for MLA CE Web 2.0 class

Create an entry in your course blog for Week 5: Web Office Tools and respond to the following question: Is this the future of all software products? What do you think?

These collaborative web-based tools are amazing! I think they will become more prevalent as their features become more robust. Although they tout their security, I don't know if companies will give up having office applications on their own servers. I think there would be major concerns about security breaches and leaking of confidential information. I don't know if these new tools will ever completely supplant the MS Office juggernaut, but I think they may give MS a run for their money in the future.

Week 4 Exercise

Assignment for Week 4 of MLA CE class

Social Bookmarking: Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool. Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?

It was great to have a reason to make myself look at del.icio.us. I've heard and read about it a bit but didn't really "get it." Can't say I totally "get it" yet, but I'm closer to understanding. I can definitely see applications for social bookmarking in a work setting, for creating sets of bookmarks on various topics. I think it would be useful for our patrons who use our public PCs and can't bookmark their favorite sites since they never know which PC they'll get to use. del.icio.us is certainly a great tool for accessing one's bookmarks from anywhere, but it has many broader uses than that.

I find the tagging aspect of del.icio.us somewhat confusing. I think I need to spend more time exploring it, but it seems so random. It seems like you have to put in so many synonyms because of all the different ways one might search for a bookmark. I can see though if you consistently use a particular tag to group things that that would be useful.

Week 3 Exercise

Assignment for MLA Web 2.0 CE class

Week 3: Social Networking Tools. Blog about your impressions and experiences with social networking. You may want to consider some or all of the following questions.
How can social networking be used by MLA to connect members
Should your library have a Facebook or MySpace page?
Are there privacy concerns for individuals when using social networking sites.
What did you like or not like about your experience with Facebook or MySpace.

This was a very interesting and eye-opening exercise for me. I can see how these technologies are useful for connecting people, both professionally and personally. I'm glad MLA is exploring how best to use them to connect the membership.

I don't see the need at this time to create a Facebook or MySpace page for my library. Our patrons are primarily boomers and seniors. But I'm not saying "never!"

There are definitely privacy concerns with social networking sites. I think it's less of a concern for a library site, but much more of a concern personally. We just have to be aware of what we're posting online and remember that just about anyone can see it.

I found my experience with Facebook a little frustrating, but I guess that's true of all new things when we first try them out. I can see how it's a fun way to (re)connect with colleagues and friends. It was interesting to look at the MySpace pages from other libraries. I think it's great that libraries are making the effort to connect with younger users where they are.