Thing 23: The End... or the Beginning?

I have really enjoyed LCPL's Learning 2.0 and feel like I have been exposed to so many cool new Web 2.0 tools and applications, including several that I never even knew existed before! It was also fun to watch other staff members' blogs for their latest postings. Though I loved the whole experience, some of my favorite "things" were Flickr, RSS feeds (especially Bloglines), generators, LibraryThing, and Del.icio.us. And definitely YES... I would love to participate in more learning activities like this in the future! Many thanks are due to Stephanie for all her hard work on this project. I nominate her for Employee of the Month!


Spring Flowers Slideshow

Cool Slideshows

Thing 22: Audiobooks

This "thing" wasn't exactly new to me, as I have been experimenting with NetLibrary ebooks since they were first added to LCPL's collection a couple of years ago. I have also helped our customers to set up their own accounts and answered (or at least tried to answer!) many other questions as well. I had already set up an account of my own, but it was still fun browsing through the variety of ebooks and eAudiobooks that are available through this service. I also watched the tutorial which was a helpful review, and learned a couple of useful tips, too! After browsing for a bit, I settled on the children's book Akimbo and the Elephants. I chose it to download to my computer since it is a relatively small file, and also happens to be written and narrated by Alexander McCall Smith, one of my favorite authors. I listened to the book and enjoyed it, and now I am looking forward to downloading my next book on my very own MP3 player!!

Thing 21: Podcasts

I did some exploring on Odeo and was pleased to see that there are several podcasts available for people who want to learn foreign languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Italian, as well as podcasts for learners of English as a second language. I think ESL podcasts might be something that LCPL could consider adding to their web site in the future. In the meantime, I am studying Spanish, so I found a cool podcast to post on my blog. But once again, this application will NOT work with the Explorer browser. Ho-hum :-(

Thing 20: YouTube

Introducing... "The Book"!!

Ever notice how the more things change, the more they stay the same? I chose this funny clip because it does such a great job of illustrating the frustrations and challenges that always come with new technologies... like the personal computer, the Internet, and now Web 2.0!

Thing 19: Web 2.0 Awards

The application I chose to explore was Wayfaring, the winner in the Mapping category. I used it to make an interactive map of all the branches in the LCPL system. While it was a lot of fun to play around with, it was also rather frustrating and left me wondering how it actually won first prize in its category! It's not quite as intuitive to use as it would appear at first glance, and there are still quite a few bugs that need to be worked out in order for it to reach its full potential as a useful Web 2.0 tool. Also, there is no Help or FAQ section. But the biggest downer for me was when I discovered that it doesn't seem to work very well with the Explorer browser. I use Firefox at home, and it looks really cool... Trust me!!


Interactive Map of LCPL Branches