Week 7, Thing 17. "Sandbox"

I added my blog URL to the Maryland Libraries Sandbox "Favorite Blogs" page. Then I went to the homepage of the Sandbox and added a page about My Favorite Computer Games to the list! I had fun talking about some of my favorite games. :)

Week 7, Thing 16: Wikis

I was somewhat familiar with wikis already, as I've used the famous wiki, Wikipedia, to search for information on the history of the Muppets and other various interests. I've even had a hand in taking it upon myself in keeping the Wikipedia of a lesser known actor that I'm a fan and supporter of, updated, by adding much more information on his career to his page than was previously shared. The one thing I don't like about Wikipedia though is that because it can be updated by ANYONE (a simultaneous blessing and curse, lol) sometimes false information can be posted or the page can even be spammed with junk having nothing to do with the actual topic at hand. I enjoyed learning more about other wikis in this discovery exercise and other resources. I was impressed and found it interesting that libraries are finding many different purposes for wikis in order to keep themselves and also sometimes the general public and their patrons informed. I think that wikis could be used not only to publish upcoming library and local community events, but I could see a wiki being beneficial even to our in-staff applications like the Minutes and our staff Pipeline! In theory, I bet there could even be step-by-step written tutorials for training pertaining to certain aspects and procedures in staff members' jobs (for example, there might be a page teaching Pages about Circulation duties like how to deal with blocks on patrons' library records or the procedures for filling out new library cards). Rather than sending these all out by individual staff emails, a wiki could post all of this in one place with separate links to the different topics and 1 email could be sent out with the link to the wiki and announcing that the page had been updated with new information. :) I've learned through self-exploration and these exercises that wikis could basically contain anything and everything.

What I think the significance of 23 Things is...

Our liason asked us to add this to our blogs, so here is my response.

I think 23 Things is to valuable to myself because it taught me about other technologies online, some of which I didn't know existed. I think it will be beneficial in that I now have more knowledge and options for photos, blogging, tagging, research, and programs online. I think it will be vaulable to libraries and librarians as well, because we'll be more knowledgable about these progams and be able to teach or help patrons in understanding the technologies, and suggest other things that can help them in whatever they want to look up or do. (I hope that made sense lol).

Week 6, Thing 15

I read a couple of the perspectives on Library 2.0 and decided to talk about the Away From Icebergs perspective. First off, I liked the idea of using the ships and icebergs methaphors to describe how libraries will be "sailing" into the future. It's great that as we expand our services, we'll be able to not only offer patrons many print items such as books, but other items like digital video, blogs, podcasts, and much, much more! I also loved that libraries are striving to make services to search for information, as user-friendly and simple as possible. I can see that one day, as technology continues to grow, that although I expect people to still use the physical library in some ways, we will be able to help patrons find what they're looking for online through a number of services, as well.

Library 2.0 - It's many things to many people. What does it mean to you?

For me, I think it means that the library will have various new ways to help people find exactly what information they're looking for.

Week 6, Thing 14...My discoveries about Technorati:

I took a look at Technorati and did a search for "“Learning 2.0”. It appears that atleast all of the search results that I found were blog entries for fellow pariticpants, giving their thoughts on some of the different activities in 23 Things. I found quite a few posts about Rollyo and Del.ici.ous! Next, I looked around the top favorited blog, top searches and top blogs section of the site and didn't really find anything surprising. I wasn't sure what a few things listed were, but most of the topics were hot topics that everyone has been talking about or involved with lately such as posts on Paris Hilton, Harry Potter, Myspace, Youtube, and the Live Earth concerts. There were also videos about Michael Moore, the new Iphone, and a performance from Live Earth, and it looks like Transformers and Live Free Or Die Hard are the top movies listed on the site at the moment. No surprises at all there!

Week 6, Thing 13

Although I found the tutorials for using Del.icio.us to be a more than a bit confusing and hard to follow, I found the idea of the site itself to be a great tool. I could definitely use it myself in accessing my personal or favorite bookmarks on my PC, when I'm using another computer. I can also see this as a great tool for research, as you could be doing a report or a paper on a particular subject and have all of your online resources in one easy-to-find place just by looking them up by typing in certain tag words. :)

Week 5, Thing 12

Unfortunately, I didn't have much luck with this activity. :-/

In theory, Rollyo looks like it could be really useful for looking up a particular subject. I'm not sure if I would use Rollyo a lot though personally. I tend to visit the same small handful of websites on a regular basis, while I usually search Google for topics or sites that I can't find. I can see how Rollyo would be helpful to some people, but I couldn't get it to work. No search results would come up even though I listed several different websites into my searchroll that I created. I tried a couple of different subjects: films (in general) and Phantom Of The Opera, but I couldn't get results from either one. Perhaps it's only really helpful for certain topics.

My searchroll:
OperaGhost


EDIT- 7/7/07: When I tried this on another computer outside of my own, I discovered that now the searchroll does work, to some extent. I'm not sure why it wasn't working for me before. Very weird!

Week 5, Thing 11

Oh boy, was this a fun activity! I loved creating a virtual bookshelf for myself on LibraryThing with some of my favorite books. Nice site! I'd never heard of this, but may decide to make good use of it in the future for some of my other blogs and/or social-networking places online. :)

PiratePrincess's Library Catalog

I've also added a widget to my sidebar, which is a really cool idea. :)

Week 5, Thing 10

Ranting

I bought a new portable cd player yesterday to replace my previous one which had an unfortunate accident (cd player, meet sink full of water). Already, my new cd player is giving me issues. I'm wondering if maybe the batteries that I installed are bad? The cd player has stopped mid-song a couple of times today. It also seems extra sensitive to being touched, despite the fact that it's made with a sports/active person in mind. Maybe I'll need to keep the anti-shock feature on ALL OF THE TIME? lol Hmm... Another thing that's weird about this cd-player is that it's a bit more complicated to use than my previous ones. I actually had to read through the entire instructions manual, lol. Ah well, I'll get the hang of it, I hope.

Speaking of cds, I can't stop listening to Hinder's album, Extreme Behavior, lately. Ever since I got it several months ago, it's become one of my favorite cds. I had slowly fallen in love with their hit single, "Lips Of An Angel", late last year, so I became curious about the rest of their songs. It wasn't until one of my best friends played another song of theirs, the tragically beautiful "Better Than Me", though that I knew I had to get this cd. I found myself relating to a certain situation or two in the songs, and I also think that Austin Winkler, the band's lead singer, has a unique, sexy, and appealing quality to his raspy singing-voice. When I got the cd, I listened to it over and over and grew to love every song. For me, it's one of those albums that I find every song to be enjoyable, and I don't have to skip past any of them to get to the "decent" tracks. I really want to go see Hinder in concert this coming August because I just heard that they're on their way to MD. Not sure if that'll happen though. I'd rather not deal with a rock audience on my own, lol. Being on my own with a bunch of potentially drunk and aggressive men around, doesn't appeal to me, not to mention I'm claustophobic, so the mosh pit section is out of the question lol. I still have a local friend or two to ask about going to the show though, so we'll see how that goes. If it doesn't work out, I'll just have to live vicariously through one of my best friends (from another state) who has a ticket and possibly a backstage pass lol. :)