Is this really the end? Or just the beginning?

Reflecting on my learning journey and a few thoughts about my journey through this programme:
Yes this experience has certainly enhanced my Web 2.0 skills, encouraged me to experiment, explore and learn about the new and emerging technologies that are reshaping the context of information on the Internet today, provided me with the information and knowledge & new tools (freely available on the internet) to provide better service to our customers. Yes it really has been a fun and rewarding experience along the way!
Now I have got to the end I can go back & explore a bit further, some of the things that I rushed through when pushed for time.
It's taken a little longer than I would have liked, because of time constraints at home & at work. I appreciate that our Managers have been totally supportive of this training.

ebooks

Visited Project Gutenburg, a source of free ebooks & explored some of the titles available & took a look at the different ways you can download or read them. There are over 25,000 free books in Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalog, with various means of searching, including an advanced search with different options for searching.
Title on the left appealed to me: "A mysterious murder on a flying express train, a wily Italian, a charming woman caught in the meshes of circumstantial evidence, a chivalrous Englishman, and a police force with a keen nose for the wrong clue, are the ingredients from which Major Griffiths has concocted a clever, up-to-date detective story. The book is bright and spirited, with rapid action, and consistent development which brings the story to a logical and dramatic ending."
URL for this ebook: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11451/11451-h/11451-h.htm
With a frontispiece in colours By Arthur O. Scott
1907

Podcasts

There really IS a podcast out there for just about every interest area!! My discovery process. Did I find anything useful here?
I took a look at some popular podcast directories & finding tools & chose Podcast.com which didn't require a software download & shows more than 60,000 podcasts on a very wide range of useful topics. Podcast.com has a Community page where you can find members and browse their podcast directories and playlists. Fresh playlists are listed on the sidebar. There is also a page for adding a podcast feed.
I explored this directory & located a library related book review feed that I find interesting: "Book Recommendations, Blog and Podcast: Books on the Nightstand"
I pulled the RSS feed for this into my Bloglines account so that when new casts become available I’ll be automatically notified of their existence.
Also added it to my sidebar on my Blog.
There is a definite use for podcasts on Library websites for book reviews, advertising Library programs, etc.

YouTube videos

Exploring YouTube is very interesting- there is a lot of rubbish, but also a lot of great stuff! There are lots of videos worth adding, but I've chosen an intro clip of the TV series "The Librarians" as I love the program & view it religiously. My favourite bit is the Librarian hyperventilating into the paper bag when she gets to work!! I placed the video inside my blog using the copy and paste code for the "Embeddable Player” & Blogger's Edit HTML tab when pasting the code.



Liked the video made by the Library Graduate students of the University of Pittsburgh for National Library Week, which really gets the message across in a semi humorous way.
Features or componets of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites? Well, yes, a whole new marketing oportunity for Libraries!

My Grandson showed me this YouTube video- it's called "How to Marshall a Jet & British Style".

Online Applications & Tools

Took a look at the web-based word processing tool, Google Docs, created a simple photo slide show of County of Devon in UK, using one of their templates, inserting some images from a Google Image search, then published it through Google Docs to my blog. With web-based applications, the possibilities are endless. I like this online office and productivity application- so many options including sharing & a wide range of templates. You can publish your document to the Internet, where anyone will be able to access and view it online. They will also be able to join the presentation online and chat with others also viewing the presentation.

Thing 17: Social Networking

My Space: My Space Forums- clicked on Travel Forum & then had a look at
New video: Trailer from my Panama trip!! which I thought was quite a good idea for sharing one's travel experiences. People offer all sorts of travel tips & advice. Liked the music & Video & Film pages too, also that you can find friends by category, location & age! Think My Space is my preferred site. Check out this video on My Space: http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=41115937
Facebook: About Facebook gives a little insight into what it is all about, but not as much explanatory info is available without joining up, so I did & the applications are similar- sharing photos, videos,etc
Bebo looks fairly similar with same type of fun options available.
Personal feelings are that these Social Networking sites are definitely a good way of communicating, networking & keeping in touch with a group of people, even though there are drawbacks & dangers attached, as we all know, & hear about all the time. It's also a good way to just have some fun. Would use it if I was in a situation where I had some spare time!!!
Hennepin County Library site: Have to write about this later as it is blocked!!

This is a good example of a successful library profile: Some of options are: a discussion board, you can post reviews & wall posts, search library catalogue from the site, & chat online with a librarian.

On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

Your library in a Web 2.0 world?
I agree with Tom Storey in his article "Where will the next generation Web take libraries?" In Web 2.0, "the Web becomes the center of a new digital lifestyle that changes our culture and touches every aspect of our lives. The Web moves from simply being sites and search engines to a shared network space that drives work, research, education, entertainment and social activities—essentially everything people do."
As Rick Anderson puts it- "our patrons will expect access to everything – digital collections of journals, books, blogs, podcasts, etc." And yes this IS (not may be) our great opportunity.
We do need to help and educate patrons, in addition to providing user-centric services. I consider this training of our Library users, part of our duties, provided we are getting the ongoing training to train. We need to be ahead of the public we serve, or our "ship" will crash headlong into the iceberg & we'll sink!

Technorati

Our big chance to have free time at work to do our Blogs & everything I need to do is blocked!!!Including Technorati Tour video which is restricted by the content rule 'Block dangerous files'.

Keyword search using Advanced Search, for “Learning 2.0” in Blog posts: Blogpost search is also blocked, but found 9,458 results searching in "Rising Posts and Stories" on front page. Later at home I found 9,782 results doing Blogpost search in Advanced.

In tags: found 941 results

In the Blog Directory: 9,835 results.

Are the results different? - number seemed to vary each time I searched in the Blog Directory.

Popular blog, searches & tags: Interesting mix- gadgets seem to be the Thing too.

Tagging, folksonomies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

Site options: Many very useful sites- I clicked on "Yarra Plenty Online Learning" which was bookmarked by 59 others & 13 people wrote notes. Related tags seem to cover it all.
"Mappr! Where It's At" was saved 1038 times & 265 wrote notes.
The Commoncraft Youtube video really does explain Del.icio.us in user friendly terms. I love these little videos.
I can see the potential of this tool for research assistance, as well as for information sharing for example, a group of teachers, as in the demo video. Yes it is an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere, a great way to bring all related sites together on one site, & other people have done all the web searching!!

Playing around with PBWiki

Liked the concept of using Wikis for planning a trip, or some similar event, involving a group of people, as explained in the little demo video demonstrating Wikis at bottom of No 12: Week 5 page. It is an easy way of communicating with a number of people, all having the means to contribute.

Added my Blog to the Favourite Blogs page & found the demo video was very basic, simple & clear about how to go about editing additions to the Wiki.

Added a link to the Manukau Libraries Wiki, to my sidebar under Link List.

Wikis

Book Lovers Wiki Princeton Public Library: I like this Wiki very much- it's a tad like our Next Reads but has actual reviews right there on the same page & reading club members are able to participate & contribute reviews and other content to the wiki. I like the idea of using a wiki in this way and it allows the opportunity to experiment and learn about new technologies within the community.
St Joseph's County Public Library Subject Guide: SJCPL Subject Guides: Thought this was just like doing a subject search on a Library catalogue, until I actually had a look at it. It seems to have good basic helpful info on a lot of different subjects for example how to go about starting to research your family history, links to online subscription genealogy related databases & other St Joseph's & Indianna County links as well as National Links.
Library Success: A best practices wiki: I like the fact that this is one place where all of this Library related information is collected and organized- "one-stop shop for great ideas and information for all types of librarians". Anywhere in the world, librarians who are developing successful programs and doing innovative things with technology, or have materials, or anything that would be helpful to other librarians, including useful websites, can record them on this Wiki & provide Links. Interesting that this wiki has vandalism problems!!!! So I guess this must be one of the biggest drawbacks about Wikis. Topics covered seem to be pretty comprehensive & well written up.
Other Library Wiki examples: There again, the uses of Wikis seem to be endless- from staff manuals to community info & guides.

Being a "picture" person I would like some of these Wikis to have more illustrations, so I've added one little picture to this post!!!

Things Technology Related

I LOVE ALL things related to the computer: Research on the Internet, email, scanning & editing old family photos, organising photos into albums. I don't know how we ever managed without Computers. Blogging: it is really great fun & I have been exploring some of the Gadgets that can be added- endless possibilities & I would love to have time to do it more seriously- ONE DAY! I'll add some more adventurous Gadgets later. It would be a great thing when travelling for any length of time to have a Travel Blog. I thought I would see if I could upload one of my very amateur mini movies of Royal Guards in London, taken with my digital camera- wasn't sure if it would work, but yes it did!!!! There is only one way to do it & that's to give it a go.! Took a little while to upload though. I'm so pleased that we are doing this training, as I'm learning all sorts of basic things that I wouldn't have bothered about, & it's a good basis to add to in the future.

3rd Party Applications & Mashups

Good fun playing around with some of the featured 3rd party Flickr Apps & managed to create my own customised jigsaw from one of my own photos using "Jigsaw"- one of "fd's Flickr Toys". Then uploaded it on to my Blogspot. Found it quite easy to do. Wanted to have a go at Mappr but looks a little more time consuming so will have a play at a later date. Want to explore more of fd's Flickr Toys too- later!!!!! They ALL look intriguing!!!

Flickr & Picasa

I've been using Flickr, the popular image hosting site, for a while now, to find photos of various places that I'm interested in, mainly in England, Scotland, Ireland, & Wales. If they are relevant to wherever I'm researching, I save them to a folder on my computer, so they are there for quick reference.

Above is a photo that I got from Picasa Web Albums, of the bridges at Conwy Castle in North Wales, one of which was built by my Great Great Grandfather.
I've also added a little slideshow of Scenic UK from Flickr, to my sidebar, using the Add a Gadget Slideshow category. Another photo hosting site I like for free travel photos which can be downloaded is: Travelwallpapers.net & I've added a link to this on my sidebar.

Search Rolls & rolling my own search engine with Rollyo

Not sure yet if I would use this a lot, but I can see the advantages of this tool that allows you to create your own search tool for just the Favourite websites you know and trust, or a set of similar online resources that you frequently use & it's interesting trying to work out how to set it up! You can see my Rollyo searchroll for travel related searches, on my sidebar.
I had a look at some of these search rolls that have already been created: I liked Free Photos which even had links to sites advertising cheap hostels & hotels when I did a search for London.

LibraryThing

I like that this online tool not only allows you to easily create an online catalog of your own, but also connects you to other people who have similar reading tastes. It has over 4.7 million cataloged books & comes up with suggestions for what to read next.
I added some books to my library & really like being able to "view" them on a virtual shelf.
My link to my LibraryThing catalog:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/glamgran1
You can see my Library Thing search box on my sidebar.

Image Generators

I found this a lot of fun & want to explore this type of image generator, which allow you to easily manipulate images and graphics to create fun images, a little bit more. Especially liked "Lift Magic" & tried to do up the POPE but decided it was a tad disrespectful!!! Will think of someone else to do up when I have the time. The discovery resource I used was: The Generator Blog where I found: http://mooch.driversed.com/moochify.html

RSS

Well, this adding RSS Feeds to Bloglines is great fun- I had no idea how much stuff was out there!! Well, I guess I did really. No excuse not to be well informed these days. The possibilities of using this technology for consumption of diverse types of information, in Libraries, & to find relevant & up to date info for patrons, are limitless- at home too. My Bloglines address is:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/glamgran1
I've added the BBC News News Front Page World Edition to my sidebar, with most recent headlines displayed.

Fun Stuff

More Fun Stuff- "Buggin' You". Just click on link added below:

http://img.tapuz.co.il/forums/8572800.swf

Grandchildren

Well what more can I say!!!

Pirate! Monkeys in a tree

Fairy Party-6th Birthday

Favourite Places

Next I thought I would upload a few of my pics of some of my favourite places I have visited.

Heidelberg, Germany

Peter Pan Statue, Kensington Gardens, London

Stirling Castle, Scotland

St Ives, Cornwall

Favourite Foods

Thought I would play around a little and add a test post or two, starting with FOOD!!!

Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate! Cheesecake! Cheesecake! Cheesecake!

Web 2.0 Training: Setting up my own blog & adding first post

I think it's great & will be a lot of fun & there are lots of things on the list that I want to learn about. We'll all be Web Wonder Gals by the time we're through. Sorry, & "Guys".
I'm really enjoying setting up this Blog- much more fun than preparing for performance Reviews, dealing with hundreds of screaming School Holiday kids & sorting out all the books that still need to be tagged!!