Beyond the Margin

The End?

2009-01-21T06:32:00.000-08:00

I've learned so much during Nebraska Learns 2.0, and I plan to continue exploring on my own now that I have a sense of what's out there. The program has revealed sources of information, creative tools, means to organize and present ideas, and ways to share what I've learned and enhance it by exchanging thoughts with others.

My favorite exercises were starting a blog, podcasts, discovering web 2.0 tools . . . Okay, I realize now I'm going to list more than I'd leave out. The point is I knew very little when I began, and I likely wouldn't have explored any of these things without the program's guidance. So, I thank you for giving me a push.

I'll use the things I've learned not just in my work but also in my life outside it. I hope you will continue presenting programs like this and would enthusiastically participate.

Podcasts

2009-01-20T13:23:00.000-08:00

Of iTunes, Podcastalley.com, and Podcast.com, I preferred Podcast.com. Wow! Amongst the various podcasts I saw plenty that interested me and think I could develop an addiction. I'm a curious person and there's so much out there to see and learn about.

I looked through the category publisher podcasts and added an RSS of Bantam Dell podcasts to my Bloglines account. I haven't had the chance to use my Bloglines account much since the initial Bloglines exercise so this excercise provided a nice refresher.

Thing 21--YouTube

2009-01-15T09:43:00.000-08:00

I've watched plenty of videos on YouTube, but posting one to my blog is a new experience.

I chose this video because it relates to interconnections between scholarship, community, and cultural identity, which are some of the elements I value most about my field.

YouTube could be used in a variety of ways for outreach and education--a day in the life of a librarian, behind the scenes of your local library, information on library careers, video book reviews, videos of library events. The possibilities are immense!

Thing 20

2009-01-14T09:23:00.000-08:00

Hard to tear myself away from sampling the best of Web 2.0. I know I'll be returning to this exercise.

One of my favorite sites was Care2, the top winner in the philanthropy category. It features news about causes and the means to become active through petitions, donations, and interaction. The site's community includes groups, and among the groups are categories dedicated to education, schools, particular communities, and so on. A library could use the site to gauge and keep up to date on causes important to the communities it serves, and it could even create a group identity on the site. I'm not sure if a library should outwardly be involved in specific causes, though. What do you think?

The most obvious improvement I could see for Care2 is expansion to include more categories of causes.

Zoho Writer

2009-01-08T09:53:00.001-08:00

Zoho has quite a few useful features. I experimented with the show but couldn't get any photos to load. I think I would have success if I made them smaller. I like the ability to easily share documents--one of the best qualities of this app and google writer, I would say.

PB Wiki

2009-01-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

I added a couple restaurants to the favorites wiki for Nebraska Learns 2.0 and took a look at some of the other participants' favorites. I love how easy the wiki is to navigate and edit.

Wiki wiki

2008-12-18T10:26:00.000-08:00

Wiki. The word has a nice feel to it, don't you think? Quick and snappy--it vaults off the tongue. The wiki concept embodies that snappiness as well. Adaptable, flexible, updated and added to with relative ease, wikis are handy tools for libraries' internal or external use.

Among the different ways libraries are using wikis, my favorite is a library-based community wiki. This is an excellent way to provide service to a library's community and users and to put the library at a community's core. I like the collaboration and interaction apparent in the community wikis I viewed. I also like the one-stop-shopping feel found in the combination of useful information about a community and links to library resources. Community wikis that include subject guides seemed particularly useful.

At my workplace we have created a employee manual wiki. One of its best features is the ease with which changes or additions may be made.

Ah, wondrous wikis. Conferences, subject guides, project information--the possibilities presented are nearly endless, but my time for reflection, sadly, is not. One last comment. Ohio University's lit wiki impressed me with its overall appearance as well as its information and organization.

Library 2.0

2008-12-17T12:25:00.000-08:00

We should always be looking for ways to improve, and to me the driving force behind Library 2.0 is enhancement of library services and operations. Libraries should use their mission statement as a guide and find strategic ways to use the tech available.

In some of the readings and comments I noticed anxiety about libraries incorporating web 2.0 technology and subsequently losing the personal touch of more traditional services. I don't see it as an either/or choice. Personal service should remain important, and web 2.0 simply provides additional ways to keep in touch and interact with patrons. Just as a patron with no tech experience may not look at a library's wiki or Flikr collection, another patron may prefer to interact and do initial research online.

Library 2.0 emphasizes connections between libraries and their users, and through that interaction, libraries can gain a greater grasp on what users need. I see libraries and museums as places to provide and provoke learning opportunities and exchange of ideas. Library 2.0 supports those goals.

SlideShare

2008-12-04T08:21:00.000-08:00

I had to try SlideShare for a couple of days before the search function would work for me but found the browse function useful in the meantime. Found an interesting slideshow on social media at http://www.slideshare.net/tactica_inc/the-conversation-an-introduction-to-social-media-presentation/ and plenty of others discussing education, web 2.0, and lifelong learning. Great resource.

Delicious bookmarks and social tagging

2008-11-26T07:37:00.000-08:00

Delicious is just what I've needed for a long, long time. I have a habit of bookmarking websites in my browser, telling myself I'll organize the bookmarks in folders later, creating one dautingly long list of favorites I can't face scrolling through, and then repeating the same searches rather than using my favorites. Tagging is an easy way to organize sites almost instantly, and I will never have to go through the drugery of putting my favorites in folders again. Thanks Nebraska Learns 2.0!

As the activity suggested, I looked at some of the tags others were using for NebraskaAccess. It's interesting to see the similarites and differences in tags, which seemed to vary in part from what resources researchers were most interested in and how they were using them. For example, I noticed lesson_plans and genealogy among the tags. To me the tag "resources" seemed too broad to be useful, but in that tagger's scheme, "resources" may have a different, more specific conotation.

I expect sharing bookmarks and browsing tags to enhance my online research.

Twitter

2008-11-19T12:06:00.000-08:00

I signed up for my Twitter account today and have taken a look at the NLC News and a few others posting on Twitter. If I had a lot of tech-savvy friends, there'd be great potential for communication with them. Most of my friends are two meager steps beyond chiseling messages on rocks, unfortunately. I guess I'll have to make some new friends on Twitter.

Twitter is a good way for libraries to connect with patrons to keep them updated on library events and collections and provide current information on inclement weather closings or other incidents as they develop. I also like the idea of fielding reference questions and posting recommendations to Twitter.

A thing about LibraryThing

2008-11-18T07:53:00.000-08:00

Signed up on LibraryThing, added a few books, and took a look around. Liked the recommendation feature, although I'll need to add more books before it's useful. Also liked the unsuggester--great way to expand horizons and seek some books I wouldn't otherwise read.

Let's talk tech

2008-11-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

I was an undergraduate when I first jumped into the world wide web with the free America Online disk that arrived in my mail. My roomates and I hovered around the computer for days--trying out chat rooms, joining groups, and just seeing what was out there. To me, that's the best part of technology--its ability to stimulate our curiosity and allow us to explore. I grew up in a small town I didn't often get to leave and spent my childhood traveling through books. I use technology much the same way--to make the wide world a little smaller and expand my experiences within it. There's so much I have yet to learn and see and do. Nebraska Learns 2.0 has shown me a sea of possibilities, and damn, I'm just dying to swim.

Fun with image generators

2008-11-11T08:51:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I stayed out of the cold and spent some time playing with image generators, most of which I found on http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/. I spent way too much time playing with http://makemebabies.com/ the useful results being: 1) much laughter and 2)visual proof I should never have a baby with Tom Cruise (as if I needed another reason). I also enjoyed constructing a tale on a tapestry at http://www.adgame-wonderland.de/type/bayeux.php but couldn't get the gallery to work to bring up my final product. Plenty of creative tools to put to use. My biggest challenge would be finding genuinely useful purposes for the generators--although I believe the right person could do so easily.

More Flickr Fun

2008-11-06T06:58:00.000-08:00

Wow! I think I could play with Flickr applications all day. Slideshows like the Flickr Cover Flow would be great tools to highlight digital collections or show images from library events. I also thought Hive Mind was a good way to take a look at other libraries, and the Pictobrowser photogalleries could be useful, too.

Discover Flickr

2008-11-05T11:15:00.001-08:00

I found some great images from Italy on Flickr. Here's one of my favorites: http://www.flickr.com/photos/willcor/2865311853/ I tried to use the blogger photo upload tool to display the image but couldn't get it to work. Guess I'll have to play around with it a bit more. Also want to create a Flickr account, but that'll have to wait.

Finding feeds

2008-11-04T14:36:00.000-08:00

Of the search tools I tried, I liked Syndic8 and Google blog search the best. I felt a little overwhelmed by the search tools that had cluttered displays with lots of columns. Signed up for some feeds on ancient history--now I just have to remember to check them and find the time to do a little reading. This is fun, though.

RSS and me

2008-11-04T12:57:00.000-08:00

I had only a vague idea about RSS before today so I've certainly learned a thing or two. I subscribed to a few RSS feeds (including some of my fellow Nebraska 2.0 bloggers) and wish I had more time to read their posts and explore bloglines right now. Time is my nemesis.

IM

2008-10-21T08:58:00.001-07:00

Still working on Nebraska Learns 2.0. This week's assignment: instant messaging. I tried out Meebo. Didn't have a lot of time to work with it but plan to go back and play with it more later.

Lifelong Learning

2008-10-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

As a participant in Nebraska Learns 2.0, I've been introduced to the 7.5 habits of lifelong learning and asked to think about which would be most difficult and easiest for me. The most difficult would be a combination of setting a specific goal and beginning with an end in mind. For me learning is a dessert buffet, where I can sample tasty tidbits, whet my appetite, and move on to the next treat. I often don't have a goal for any outcome beyond satisfying my curiosity. Maybe that's enough.

I think it will be easiest for me to see problems as challenges. I enjoy facing challenges.

The Beginning

2008-10-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

This empty space is strangely intimidating, like leaning over a precipice and looking down . . . down . . . down. I'll drop a word or two and see how they land.