Beyond...

Just wanted you to know I did subscribe to Learning 2.1. I plan to keep learning about this at home. Thanks again.

My Thoughts

Well, I've commented on this exercise as I was working on the tasks. I'm the poster child for why this was needed. I had no idea about 90% of what was covered here. This forced me to look into things that are part of our culture today, and more important, it gave me insight into how kids are learning and processing information. And, it was really fun, too! The exercises were well thought out and the directions were clear. Any difficulty I had stemmed from my complete ignorance. I've been going back and learning more about each of the exercises, too. This weekend, I really made points with a friend's grandson when I showed him YouTube. Finally, I'm cool to a 10-year-old.

Thanks for making this possible.

Thing 22

I created an account with Net Library and looked through the titles. It's a really good collection of reference and trade titles and I can see myself looking to those titles when I'm home and need some quick information. I don't think I'd want to read an entire e-book. It's just me--I get distracted more easily on a computer than I do when I'm reading an actual book. I also went to our digital books page on our website. I was more familiar with this site (we need new children's titles!). I will download some of these titles in the future. Now I usually listen to BCDs, especially when I'm in the car or working at home, but this will give me even more options.

Thank-You, Debby

The things I learn from Debby McCullough! She showed me how to post an image that glitters. (We're both big bling fans.) I think Karen Basista tried to explain this to me, but with her being in Springfield it didn't work. Thank goodness Debby is down the hall!

Things 21and 22

I'm embarrassed to say that I had no idea about YouTube or any of the other sites that let you view and upload videos. How neat! I did post one video on my blog, but I couldn't post others. I got the message that the video would appear on my blog soon, but that never happened. I'm thinking that the amount of graphic space used might have something to do with it.

One thing that struck me as I was looking through these sites is how trained we are as librarians to be specific. I found the general categories that are listed to be of very little help, but when I entered search terms I found lots of things I enjoyed and found useful. This brought back some of the discussion we had when we were talking about AquaBrowser and how people who aren't trained librarians might approach information. I can see that without understanding how people are finding what they consider "information" we might not be giving the best options to our patrons. I'm also reading a book on how the "graphic" and "digital" age have impacted how kids process information and I can see that this is all part of it. Very eye opening for me.

Another thing that struck me was the talent some people have. There are travel videos, set to music, that just take your breath away. My mom has always wanted to go to the Holy Land--this weekend I showed her several of the videos on YouTube. She was amazed.

I also checked out the sites on Podcasts and found one called "Secrets of Harry Potter." Dr. Giles Baker talks about the books, and talks about the symbolism in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. He ties the allusions to literature from around the world, from the Canterbury Tales to the Bible. The quality of the literary analysis for so recent a book is amazing--I'm going to have to subscribe to this one. When I first started looking at these sites, I didn't think I would enjoy Podcasts. I was wrong, again.

Florence

I'd love go back here.

Web 2.0 Awards

I explored Medstory from the Web 2.0 Award nominees. Having all that information, from such varied sources, in one list is remarkable. I searched for information on torn knee cartilage and got information as traditional as encyclopedia entries, explanations by orthopedic surgeons who also explain current treatments, herbal remedies, companies promoting their own knee braces, and as current as blogs with people's comments about their injury and testimonies from people who had been cured by prayer. The concept is very useful if you are working with patrons and want to respect their privacy--it lets them choose the information they want to read without having to go into explicit detail. It is a little overwhelming, though, because there were more than 12,000 entries--you need time to go through them and select relevant information. Medstory is divided into two categories: health and research. The search results for the research index appear not to be significantly different from the results that come up in the health index, but there are two very useful "subcategories" that can be used to refine the search in both indexes. Clicking on "Research Articles"allows you to search for research articles and "Clinical Trials" brings up information about current clinical trials. Citations about the current clinical trials include the scope and status of the study as well as contact information if participants are needed. Obviously, this could be life-saving. Just amazing.

Amazing

The more I explore what's out there, the dumber I feel.

Zoho writer is very good, but I did have trouble saving an edited template and an original document. I finally figured out that I have to name a document before it will save--that took me at least 4 tries to figure out. The good thing is that it led me to FAQs and the Forum. In the Forum postings, I learned that there are sometimes glitches that prevent a document from saving. I was ready to blame the computer, but it was mistake, as usual. When I finally got it together, I was able to post my document to my blog--NO ONE is more amazed than I am that I actually accomplished this.

Google Docs is great. When I bought my home computer, software for Excel didn't come with it. I use the program quite a bit, so I bought and installed it. Had I known about Google Docs, I could have saved myself the money.

I have to say that I am really thankful that we were made aware of Library 2.0 and encouraged to learn about these things. I had no idea about most of what is included in the program. I'm going through the exercises to meet the requirements, but I've already started going back to learn more. Now that I'm not bogged down by the mechanics, I'm beginning to grasp the "bigger picture."

Terry Benton

This morning I did an interview with Terry Benton, who teaches Children's Literature at YSU and is also working on her doctorate.  Terry is taking a class in quantitative research and is interested in how her students select the books they incorporate into the curriculum.  This made her wonder how we select materials for the our collection and the impact that this selection process has on what teachers can select. Interesting question, nice lady. 

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