OOPS! How'd I miss Wikis!?

Just finished looking at wikis. When I checked out "What is a Wiki?" I found the Ann Arbor Wiki on the third page and took a look at it. What a nice set up! Lots to look at and learn about - all relating to this cute area.
Next, I looked at the Pals Wiki. Since I enter all the info for our web calendar and our online program registration, I decided to click on Program Registration. I didn't realize that this was available through Milennium until recently. The information offered here will really come in handy if we end up switching over from our system!
The next thing that I looked at was SJCPL Subject Guides. Under Business, I clicked on Jobs. I found something called "uplink unemployment programs" for filing for unemployment online. I thought that this was a great resource considering the sad state of our economy.
Lastly, I decided to look at other library wiki examples. I checked out Albany County Public LIbrary Staff Wiki, under Intranets. Since I work with statistics, I took a look at Statistics Information. There was a lot of detailed information there. And on a funny note, they have a "Lisa" that deals with making copies for their board packets too - what a coincidence!

One thing's for sure - it's amazing how far we have come with being able to research and share information in so many different ways. Not that long ago I became familiar with blogging - and now I see that wikis take that capability even further along. Who knows where things will go next!?!

Finished!

Well, I made it to the end!

To summarize, I guess I can say that there were some things I liked, and some I didn't.

I actually enjoy the Facebook scene. I intend on taking advantage of Delicious - I just haven't had time yet. Also, I really like Google Docs.

I doubt that I'll get much use from Twitter, tagging, Library Thing, feeds, or wikis.

I have to say that I learned and experienced a lot of things that I don't think I would have - if it wasn't for this Web 2.0 program that the Library developed. I would like to thank all those that had anything to do with it and the "powers that be" for giving us this opportunity! Like I always say, "It's good to learn something new every day!".

Craig's List to the Rescue again - I hope!

I really wanted to get to this one because not only have I already used Craig's List very successfully, but I want to use it again!

I first checked this site out last summer when my husband and I decided that we wanted to sell our pool. It happened to be the first really hot weekend of the summer when I logged on and listed the pool, which I'm sure helped! Within 1 hour I got my first inquiry. By the next morning we had received 4 calls. In less than 1 week we had it sold!

Now I want to sell my small Lenox collection. My daughter put it on eBay and we didn't have any luck, so I figured Craig's List would be my next step.

Anyway, I posted the link below for something interesting that I found while searching "Lenox". It's interesting to me because I'm a HUGE Thomas Kinkade fan and I think that I'm going to look into purchasing this item. When you take a look at the item you'll understand what I'm talking about!

http://longisland.craigslist.org/clt/1032455921.html

I'm GaGa over Google Docs

I really, really like this one. What a powerful tool for both home and work! Another great thing about it is that it seems relatively easy to work with as well. You can't beat that combination.

Did some more "Feed"ing, but found I'm not very hungry!

I first went to check out Bloglines search tools. I don't have an account there and didn't want to get more involved so then I took a look at "Technorati". After browsing I came upon an interesting article about Twitter and Google Maps being used to track down 2 missing skiers. That would be a perfect example as to how this modern tech stuff can be of great service! Then, after clicking on the "Technorati Tutorial" link I was surprised to find that the narrator was speaking in Dutch. I saw the link to change to English - but after listening only a few more minutes, I stopped. The gentleman was extremely boring to listen to, he even coughs at one point to make it seem very unprofessional as well!

Out of all of them, I liked "Google Reader" the most. I found it easy to look at and navigate. I subscribed to a feed - for "ABC News...". Now I get local info through "Fantastic Mastic Beach" and broader news automatically!

I do have to mention that after getting involved in all these exercises I think that you need to devote a fairly large amount of time to being on a computer to take full advantage of all these things! Truthfully, after I get home, sometimes the computer is the last thing that I want to look at! I do appreciate the opportunity to learn about all this at work, but I seriously doubt I will utilize a lot of it from home.

Took a look at "feeds"

I took a look at some of the feeds through our catalog.

First I looked at Library News. I clicked on the "New Movies in the Adult Department" link and was a little confused to find "Dora the Explorer, Dora saves the mermaids", "Diego saves the tree frogs", and "High school musical 2". I don't consider them adult movies. Also, the next on the list is "Christmas with the Kranks" which isn't "new".

Under Public Feeds I found "Snopes Urban Legends", which is something I'm a little familiar with. Then I checked out Local Feeds and took a look at the Weather Channel.

After that I explored our new web site. I found the "RSS" link at the bottom of the page and clicked on "Adult New DVDs" and subscribed to it. Some other things that I noticed are as follows:
I like the new feature associated with our Program Calendar. I like that we can choose any one or all of the departments to view.
I posted a comment through the Readers Advisory Blog - in the Mystery category since I just finished reading Patterson's new book, "Run for your life".
I like our new look, and if people take a little time to really look around and click on things, there is a wealth of information at your fingertips!

Kudos to all who played a part in this project!!!

Reading Google Reader

This was pretty interesting. A great source for many different types of information. Since I like to read recipes (not that I actually cook a lot of them - but you never know!) I checked out the Betty Crocker feed. I found an interesting recipe - "Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff Pot Pie", so I printed it out. If I ever get around to making this dish - I'll be sure to blog about it!

After that I created my own account and subscribed to a few feeds. Besides the Betty Crocker that I liked, I found another that looked interesting, "New Crockpot Slow Cooker Recipes", so I subscribed to both. Then I took a look at the Mastic Beach feed that was suggested in the "Try It Out!" section from our list of activities. This was very informative - especially regarding the possible incorporation of Mastic Beach into a village. Since I live here, I was glad to be able to find all this info at my fingertips. The following link was especially interesting, http://www.masticbeach.org/

Suffolk Wave

Just finished this one. I decided to download a title I already read - just to check out the difference between listening and reading. I only tried an audiobook once and didn't like it.

I chose "Cross Country" by James Patterson. I'm listening a little while I type this - but I tend to get too absorbed in what I'm doing and eventually stop listening to the story - unlike when I listen to music!

I do like the fact that the title will expire and I don't have to do anything to return it.

Flickr

I signed up for a Flickr account today. I decided to upload one of my favorite pictures ever. In 2006 my husband and I went on an Alaskan Cruise. It was the best vacation I have ever been on and I'll never forget it! The most exciting part was when we saw Hubbard Glacier. We caught some amazing shots of the glacier "calving" - that's when pieces of the glacier fall off and into the water. I would definitiely like to go back to Alaska some day!

You Tube

I was trying to take a look at You Tube, but unfortunately I had some technical problems! I don't have any sound. I've called IT and am waiting for help with this. In the meantime, I still took a look around. My kids have shown some funny things on You Tube in the past so I've seen it before. Since I like to laugh I decided to look for a video that was sent to my personal e-mail at home the other day. After I found it, I decided to try and post it, so here goes:

LibraryThing

I just finished looking at LibraryThing. I first want to mention that it wasn't easy following the directions for this exercise. I went into our catalog and searched for "7th Heaven", but couldn't find the tag cloud. After talking with several people, we found it - but we had to choose the large print entry first. I don't think that the directions were specific enough in this case.

Anyway, I don't do very much work with book titles and the catalog, etc. I do read, but not a lot - and only certain authors. I guess this tool would be more helpful to others than to myself. Although I guess that I could utilize this to find some other authors to read.

One other thing that I'd like to mention is that I don't understand 2 of the tags that I saw in the "7th Heaven" record - "America" and "21st Century"!? They seem too broad to be useful. Well, that's just my opinion.

Here's the link to my LibraryThing account: http://www.librarything.com/home/toniw56

Delicious is good!

I really like this one! I bookmarked the site for ABC News (www.abcnews.com) and gave it a bunch of tags (news, abc, goodmorningamerica, worldnewstonight and MMSCL2.0). When I took a look at The Internet Movie Database, I spotted the story that just happened last night regarding Joaquin Phoenix on the David Letterman Show - I had heard about it on the radio today - and there it was, right in front of me! (Talk about up-to-date!)

I think that I'll sign up for this - when I have more time!!!

Facebook and My Space

I took a look at these this afternoon. I guess that I could say, right off the bat, that I prefer Facebook. I found it more straight forward. My Space had a lot of "things" that I took a quick look at and am not really sure what I was seeing - like "widgets". Although, when checking out the "widget gallery", I did find "Photography Blog DigitalPixel", and through that found some interesting links. Unfortunately the "Barack Obama" was having some technical difficulties!

I do think that both of them are a great way to reach out to the community. My personal opinion is that My Space might be the preference of younger people - maybe I think that because it seems that "everyone" uses My Space. I just heard a story the other day that statistics are showing there is less underage drinking going on and it may be due to the amount of socializing that now takes place from home via the computer. If that's the case, that's WONDERFUL!
I'll stay with Facebook though!!!

I Twittered!

Just got a chance to check out the "Twitter" thing. I don't think that I'm all that interested. I'm thinking that all this online stuff might get a little overwhelming - there's so many web addresses, usernames, passwords, etc... I'm not sure if I want to get too involved in everything!

My First Day

So far, so good with this blog stuff!