whew I'm done and just made it under the wire

I have to compliment the creators of this entire assignment. There were interesting things to read, different links to explore and the organization of it made sense. I am more aware and somewhat in awe of all the things people are using to stay in touch with the world and other people. Some things I like so much, like Goodreads, I use constantly. Other things I'd like to spend more time with such as Delicious and RSS Feeds, but I find I don't because of time constraints. Facebook got me in touch with some friends from a long time ago but I don't spend much time updating...that's my next goal. Twitter, well, it's aptly named.

I pretty much liked the work at your own pace style...I imagine that there will be new things we will want to include to keep up with times. The one item I think we could include now is Linkedin, or any other job searching/networking site as this is relevant now.

At any rate, I would be pleased to tackle additions in the future that would keep us updated.

Social Bookmarking in particular Delicious

Our branch created a delicious account which has some of the major links we use alot...wikis, sites that might help with programming, etc. I added a few clip art/background sites that might be helpful with all the display signs we make. What I like about this kind of site is that we can easily share with each other the sites we go to frequently and by tagging, we can organize them. I created my own site for personal stuff hoping this will be a better way to keep track of sites I've found on hobbies, news things, environmental concerns, etc.

Wikis

I use our system wikis so I know how well they can package and present information. And I admit I use Wikipedia all the time, although I still won't quote it to a patron. ALA's was great and should remain...with the various handouts, presentations, etc. it's just as valuable after the conference. The Library Success wiki needs some more fleshing out. I was looking around in the programming/book groups sections and there wasn't alot there yet.

Zoho

I created a Zoho document which I shared with a co-worker. I'm impressed with the Writer feature...it was easy enough to figure out since it provides similar features/icons with Word. (Well there were a few hitches...I couldn't figure out how to extend my table.) Next I'll try the Excel function since it might be easier for a patron to use in the branch instead of going to WCO.

Library Thing

I looked at Library Thing but didn't want to pay for when I go over 200 books, (which won't take long for me), so I looked at Goodreads and that seems to be limitless. I created my shelves basically to help me as an advisory tool...so things like Y for boys, Y for girls, easy readers for girls, easy readers for boys, adult humorous, etc. I'm sure I'll be changing/adjusting categories...perhaps adding my own reviews for those things I liked alot. I'll be glad to get away from my handwritten journal...

I'm sure patrons would enjoy writing and reading reviews just like I enjoy reading hotel reviews from Trip Advisor and book/DVD reviews from Amazon. I'd like to see staff add tags for things we know we get lots of requests for like reluctant readers, etc.

RSS Feeds

It's taken me about 2 hours to set up my Bloglines account and then to realize that there isn't a way to put my selected RSS feeds on my blog. Maybe I should have asked my tech guru, Catherine, about this before going into my second frustrating hour...

At any rate I've included several people's blogs from this branch, the Web 2.0 exploration link, and a newsie RSS on bloglines. Several others are there I didn't request, (that I know of...maybe Bloglines puts them there. I removed them.) I'll add on more as I come across them..things about traveling to the caribbean, good books sites, etc.

Flikr

I've been using Flikr for its pictures on more obscure things that I use in art...such as obscure places, oddball things like trashy houses and its groups give me other ideas as well as search terms to try.

We do get patrons that often need pics of places, items, and I often help them using Google or Yahoo images or the Library of Congress site, but this might be another choice as well.