#23 Is this really the end?

I made it!!!!!!!
I have finally got to the end. I thought I would never get here.
I have enjoyed some of the the "things" and almost dispaired with others.
I have felt that the easier things were almost all towards the end & the really hard ones at the start, which I think has put alot of people doing Learning 2.0 off.
I have discovered many new things on this journey, as well as rediscovering some old things. I had lots of problems working to achieve many of the set tasks. The biggest hurdle, from my point of view, was the lack of detailed instructions on how to do the "thing" and that what was expected was left (maybe intentionally) quite vague. I also felt somethings that could of been on here were missing.
Some of the things I have dicovered on this journey I will use again and again but, at the same time I felt some of the others a complete waste of my time.

Overall I felt it was a great learning experience for me and would do it again but maybe not in quite as much detail as I did this time. Thank you to the people who helped me - you know who you are.

#22 Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight ")

I found this one interesting.
As previously mentioned being an iPod owner,I have downloaded a number of audiobooks onto my iPod in the past using iTunes. I was aware that there were a number of sites online that provided ebooks but, I had not "played" with them before.I was really pleased to see that there was a lot of classic material as well as current or modern titles. That there was childrens' material along with adult was also a bonus.
As I chose not to pay for a years' access, I was limited to what I could look at. What I saw was great and has potential to be a valuable tool in the right situation, for example when travelling.

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

As an iPod owner (& have for a number of years) I am quite familiar with podcasts. I have been accessing Pottercast since its' inception - had to do something to satisfy my Harry Potter obsession.

Having difficulties with this "thing". Can't access any of the podcasts on a work PC -
they don't have the correct plugins! So will have to do this one at home.

I have had a look at the three suggested podcast sites - Podcast.net, Podcastalley.com & Yahoo Podcasts. Yahoo & podcast.net were my favourite in that I felt that they were the easiest to use. Podcastalley.com wanted you to subscribe which I could do, but am getting weary of subscribing to so many things that I will probably never use again.

Podcasts like youtube could be a really benefical in an instructional way in libraries. We could listen & watch a pre-recorded training session at staff/branch convenience rather than at a set time & place.

#20 You too can YouTube

This "thing" has been lots of fun. As stated in the information about this "thing", there is lots of useless material that I can't for the life of me work out why someone even bothered making it let alone post it on youtube.
I decided to look for something outside the square. So, I looked for lego.
I found some really fun videos.
I found it quite frustrating & time consuming trying to workout how to add videos to my blog though.
As a teaching tool or added to a blog used in conjuction with a training session it would be really useful in the public library arena, in that various applications or demonstrations could be shown and distributed to staff.

Here is one I found while playing that I really enjoyed. It put a completely new spin on "Carmen".

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

This seemed a little odd to start with, not knowing quite what to expect or what I was to do with this "thing".

Then I found this one! www.cocktailbuilder.com The blurb attached reads "Bar full of booze and no idea what to do with it?" Now that does sound like fun. (Pitty I can drink at the moment) So I had a play & it was really fun.

I also had a look at quite a lot of the other nominated sites but nothing else jumped out at me at useful or fun.

All of the applications I looked seemed quite user friendly and had good content and would be great in the right context.

#18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

Created a Zoho account & had a play with Zoho writer & Zoho Show.
I can see the similarities to MS Word & MS Publisher. The best feature that I have found that the MS products do not have is the spell check in 43 languages, great for writing letters to my godparents in Germany. Not very useful for writing to my penpal in China as there are no script languages covered. In creating a show presentation to add to by blog I discovered a number of idiosyncrasies, the biggest being that it has the bad habit of clearing what you are working on. The easiest way to stop this is save your document every few minutes or after creating each slide.

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

This was easy to do.
I added a few things to the favourites lists - TV, books/authors, animals. I had a read through of what other people have added and discovered that I enjoy different things to everyone else, as what I added had not been listed by anyone else. Nice to be original. Was interested to see that some of the pages had not been reset for the Learning 2.0 being run by the VIC state library. This was evident on the favourite restaurants page as most of the places to eat at were in the US.... so won't be trying them out any time soon. The list of books was really interesting, seems that no matter where we live lots of people do enjoy many of the same books.
Added my blog to the list under ERL, but not sure if it worked properly as the instructions given on the podcast were a little different to that shown at the bottom of the "thing" page & neither very clear to a technology ignoramus like me.

#16 So What's in a Wiki?

Until I read about/watched this "thing", I had no idea what a wiki was. Yes I had visited the Wikipedia site on probably hundreds of occasions searching for information for customers, but had no idea that it was a wiki.

I can see the many benefits of wikis but I can also see that the "authority" of the information found on these sites might not be as accuate as information on some other sites.
The most useful thing that I saw, while playing with wikis, that could be implemented into our library website was on the Princeton Public Library's site found at http://booklovers.pbwiki.com/Princeton%20Public%20Library
It is the ability for anyone to put book reviews for others to read. This would be especially useful for bookclubs and the like as well as the general customer, looking for things to read that interest them, as it is well known you can't judge a book by it's cover, as more and more books are now being published without blurbs.

# 15 On Library 2.0 & web 2.0

I have read all of the articles and had differing opinons on each.

In Away from the icebergs, Rick Anderson had many really good points to make about post-print era library collections and online access to indexes etc. But like in the print era any "library collection" including the content of the online searches they provide to their customers, is only as good their budget. Small library systems with small budgets cannot provide the same level of print or online material that a large system with a budget at least four or five times the size. This is especially true for country libraries compared with their city counterparts.

In A new world of librarianship I think that Michael Stephenson has shown that he has fully embraced the new techologies that are emerging each day. But I feel he has forgotten that lots of people, myself included, want a book rather than a computer to take to bed to read each night. Any many others don't wish to embrace the new techology or are scared of it. We as professional librarians or information providers still need to cater to these people as well as those wanting the new techology. Thus we need to be familar with the developing techologies to provide a variety of services to those wanting it, but we still need to know what the latest book by Ruth Rendell is or how to locate a book of knitting patterns on our libraries' shelves.

#14 Technorati

I have had a few looks at this one.
I searched for Learning 2.0 and found more than I can ever look at.
Also searched for other tags and came up with many more misses that hits in relevance to what I was looking for. The then searched for & found my own blog ranked 4,446,976. Oh well better than 5,000,000.
This could be a useful tool in the right circumstances but, the more I look at it the less I personally am interested in it.

#13 Del.icio.us

It is an interesting concept.
It is a fantastic tool for anyone studying or doing research. You can save websites or articles of interest & go back to them later. But it is not limited to just those people. Anyone with a personal or professional interest would find this tool really useful. I have shown this one to a number of customers & collegues (who are not participating in learning 2.0)& they have all had very similar impressions - wow, what a great tool, I can use it for .......
So far this has been the most useful "thing" I have learnt about & can pass on to others for more than just play.
I have set up my own account & have bookmarked a range of sites which have lead to other sites I have not come across before.