A Learning Experience

Copy/Paste Feb. 11

2008-02-11T10:39:00.001-05:00

So I went and did it. I applied for another position at in my library system. Its kinda scary. Stupid eh? Course it as scary at the thought of leaving my comfy position as a Clerk/Aide/Page, what ever you want to call it, a year and a half ago, to go to this Information Specialist I position. But what is scary is that this is an Information Specialist II position, not that much different, or so it would seem, but it is. Programming! Now, I know I can do it, but its just thinking about it can be scary for me. But I have to give a big shout out to Amy for helping me complete my application, that was a huge help honestly. I hope I get called....good luck to me.

School is slowly picking up. I have managed to do well with keeping up with assignments. I do have two papers due this Friday, so I will be in a rush with some of that stuff, but my schedule allows me to do many things without too much stress.

Amazingly, I have started something that I am actually enjoying so far. And that is exercising. Wow right? I hated it in school (grade school). But now, I have started jogging/walking on the days I have time and then continuing to do so in the garage, along with curl-ups/crunches and other types of stretching exercises. I'm kind of weary to really be hardcore about it because right now, I know my body can't exactly handle it. Perhaps its a silly thought, and perhaps I should just push myself, but I don't want to kill myself just yet. Pushing myself is what turned me off the last time, so I would rather not do that just yet. It feels good to feel guilty on days that I don't have time, or have not done it. So its a good start.

Moving on. I need to figure out if I am doing something for Spring Break, and if so, what? [sarcasm]I must say a huge thanks to work, for placing All Staff Day in the middle of my damn Spring Break. Like. They. Always. Do.[/sarcasm] Perhaps a trip to western Virginia, do some hiking and visit the caverns. It has to be something cheap cause I want to pay off my car early. Thank you tax refund.

Oh! Last week I managed to watch my show. Well the spin-off from my show, Ghost Hunters International. My god, I was so pissed. Cat fights, people running, and assumptions. I have seen most of the team before the show was created, minus two of them, and I must say, for these huge cases, they automatically go in thinking the place is haunted when it is not. I really can't wait till the first week of March when my original series comes on. Ghost Hunters, with the TAPS team, Jason, Grant, and Steve, I miss them. [/rant]

Speaking of television shows, when are my Scrubs and Office going to come back on? Damn you Writers Guild. Scrubs was on its last season of the series, and The Office was just pure brilliance. Not to say that The Apprentice is bad, it HAS gone down hill since the first season, but Omarosa is entertaining in her own way, but come one. I can only live with so much Reality TV. Which is mostly just my Ghost Hunters, or if you bring back Treasure Hunters, I would be happy.

Well for now, I am signing off. Toodles.

Week 12 - Thing 29 and Thing 30

2008-01-12T16:25:00.000-05:00

My Web 2.0 experience....Oh. Well, I will definitely say that this was an experience. It really was fascinating how thirty minutes expanded to an hour or two of work, especially during the holidays when the libraries tend to have a good amount of people enter and exit. Granted, I am sure a good amount of people were able to learn about the tools and activities that are available on the Internets. Web 2.0 was not as it was expected though. With praises and promises that the time use of it would be slim, and there was no need to register in anything, it seemed to be more lies as Web 2.0 continued.

One of my complaints about this program is the continuous sending of participants to places that it is necessary to get the full experience of with a Log-In. Yet, it was said that there was no requirement to register to do Web 2.0. Let me count: First, register for Web 2.0. Second, register a blog. Third, set up a Bloglines account. Fourth, register a messenger. Fifth, register a Myspace. Sixth, register a Flickr. Seventh, register a LibraryThing. And Eighth, register a Rollyo. That is eight things that were asked to register with. Why is that such a complaint? Well that is a lot of passwords to remember. Most of the stuff I refused to get one, I merely said what I thought about these, then moved on. Yet, I really feel for all these people that probably did register with a lot of these things, WITH their work email, and now, the junk mail is going to start coming in greatly (like it hasn't been already) but even though most of these companies/sites say they do not sell e-mail addresses, they do most of the time.

Another complaint I have about this is that participants were only sent to some sites that are viewed as good for Web 2.0 when there are plenty of other sites that work just as well and even, in my point of view, better. They are not as commercialized and therefore don't see a lot of corruption on the website. My example for Web 2.0 is Flickr and Photobucket. Hell, even Google has a photo site. Its run by Picasa, so if you have Picasa at home, you probably have Picasa on Google.

Actually, when you think about it, if Web 2.0 was truly important to integrate into the library system, Google should have been the basis of it. Everyone knows Google, it is the new Yahoo, Microsoft...everything. Google is taking over the World. Not that it is a bad thing honestly, it would probably make things a bit more easier. OH! And Google is free. Must love the free-ness.

Now, as for commenting, I have commented on a number of people's blogs that are participating in this Web 2.0. It is nice to see people's enjoyments, or lack there of, as well as opinions and ideas that are given through this program. Most of the blogs I visited were nice and clean, though, as I pointed out in an earlier post within the program, I found it rather irritating that some people placed so many extra things in their blog layouts.

Now, for the very last part of this accursed program. This program, honestly, did not show me much of anything new. Perhaps like the mashups with Flickr, but since I do not, and will not use Flickr, its of no use to me.

I realized more and more how I prefer Mozilla Firefox over Internet Explorer. I learned that a lot of stuff on the internets are useless. I learned how difficult it is for some people to use ctrl+c and ctrl+v in a spreadsheet, as well as close a spreadsheet when done (I'm sorry. Since when does it take fifteen minutes to copy and paste something). I learned, I probably should not be so willing to get free things for a bit way too much work; but, hell, that feasibly will not change, because my generation is all about the free things, and I'm not here to make a change of perception on people my age.

As for improvements....well I would say please, please, please make sure that any links or sources that are in need to be used in this or any program work on STAFF COMPUTERS, and work in general (a little added note by EnkiduMauling). Sound, although nice, has been a problem at my branch, since a lot of the links, that were not able to be reached on staff computers could only be reached on Public computers caused a bit of chaos, since Public Computers here have had their sound cards disabled. Get more bandwidth for the city it will make a lot of this new learning for modern internets ideas.

As for next time, if there is a next time, sure. I'll participate. I'm always game for a free thing.

Now, to wait for All Staff Day to see how well this mp3 player will placate my animosity towards this program.

And I close this blog with this Poem from here:

Ode to Web 2.0 ( Bring back the bubble)

People drive Zip cars
Sip beers in bars
And talk of great ideas
We sit in cubes
Watching the YouTube
Digging for Techcrunch
Some Valley Wag
Pimps Web 2.0 schwag
While I Stumble
Some companies go bust
Yahoo and MS lust
To be like Google
The bubble burst once
Here's to the 2.0 bunce
Keep the funding coming

Week 11 - Thing 28

2008-01-07T12:37:00.000-05:00

Well I looked over Rollyo and I have to say it is intriguing. Yet, its not something I would personally use. It does make the internet more personal for the users, and sure it can narrow down searches greatly depending on what you are looking for, but many of my sites have their own search engines and when it comes down to using it for school type searches it doesn't really fit the bill.

Complaint: Rollyo is another site where it asks for an account. And the exercise for this "Thing" asks to make an account. This another user name and password that needs to be remembered.

Enough of the damn accounts!

Needless to say, this is the last real week of exercises.

Over and out.

Week 11 - Thing 27

2008-01-07T12:13:00.000-05:00

Library thing...Shelfari.....there are many others of internet applications that allow organization of bookshelves, CD cases and other things. But to participate in this here is my library thing shelf:

If you look to the right you will see my Shelfari bookshelf.

I absolutely prefer Shelfari over Library Thing.

Week 11 - Thing 26

2008-01-07T10:42:00.001-05:00

Now its interesting. This weeks blog post exercise is about photo manipulation. It honestly made me laugh. To think that the directions are to manipulate pictures, whether they are just adding text or molding pictures into another.

I edit and make art using my computer constantly. Thank you Photoshop CS. Take this for example: Gaia Layout. Or this for another example:

But I will share something that I found yesterday that I thought was extremely neat to play with. You can find it by clicking this link here.

End of the Year News - As important to Me

2007-12-31T16:43:00.001-05:00

So the word of the year for 2007 was w00t. Now as defined in the Webster English dictionary w00t (spelled with a "w," two zeroes and a "t") means expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word "yay."

Why is Fwah not on that damn list.

Week 10 - Thing 25

2007-12-30T16:14:00.000-05:00

I think that libraries actually using something like Vod/Podcasts would be great especially for the teens. It would be helpful for those who have a hard time reading flyers and what not as well.

Short post. I have no patience for Web 2.0 today.

Week 10 - Thing 24

2007-12-30T14:45:00.000-05:00

I like Podcasts. I like Videocasts. I am a frequent listener/watcher on my computer/zune. They work well when they are on an automatic download and all in one place for me, rahter than going to a source to find them. I am currently subscribed to AOTS, Around the Net, XPlay, Best Week Ever, Vintage Cartoons, Comedy Central and 2Player. My news I get from my RSS feeds. Now what is nice about most podcasts/videocasts are that they are nonscripted, and sound natural, fun and entertaining.

The podcast that is given to the members of Web 2.0 for the Beach are subjected to a painful podcast where you can tell the person talking is obviously reading from something. It hurts and numbs the mind. So honestly I have been finding more people read than actually listen, since its right there anyways.

Now there is another complaint, and yes, these will probably be compiled at the very end of the whole project I know, but in the exercises with Readers and what not, there was a note saying there wasn't a need to make accounts for Bloglines and the such, well why then, are you asking to add a feed to the blogline account? Honestly, it should be enough to merely blog about knowing what it is.

I stop rant here.

Here's a great link if you are looking for Vodcasts: Vodcast.tv

Week 10 - Thing 23

2007-12-30T14:10:00.000-05:00

Youtube, Google Video, Break.com, Bored.com, Albinoblacksheep, Ebaumsworld, all sites that have to do with videos. This is not including Myspace Videos or Facebook videos or even videos that are uploaded to Photobucket (look not flickr). I've grown up on these concepts. I love Youtube. Its a great thing to get unbored with, or just see things that are neat or very confounding. Yet, Youtube as well as other types of online videos are becoming of a big thing in the media now-a-days. Youtube is being used for the upcoming elections. As well, you can find tons of How-to's on there. Here are some of the videos that are located on my favorites and subscribed lists:

Heh I think I've spammed my entry with enough videos for now. Toodles.

From My Bucket

2007-12-27T10:09:00.001-05:00

flikr sucks. this is from my photobucket and look, it was so easy. I even might have converted a co-worker of mine to photobucket . So hah. I win.

Week 9 - Thing 22

2007-12-20T12:14:00.000-05:00

Okay Mash-ups are annoying. The mappr is nice, only for big sites that know they will get a lot of traffic. The color picker is okay if you are really going to waste time in finding other people's pictures in a particular color, meaning you are too lazy to actually go out and make your own OR use a photoshop like software to do it yourself.

Still the internet is really all a "mash-up" if you think about it. Every site uses other ideas or programs from other sites to flow smoothly. So with the whole knowledge that I said Mash-ups are annoying, they are also what keep the net working as it does now.

Overall this Week 9 just sucks to heckerdinks. Flickr sucks. Tags suck. Mash-ups suck.

Week 9 - Thing 21

2007-12-20T11:37:00.000-05:00

Tagging and Flikr? Tagging and Photobucket...yes, Photobucket does it now sillies. Tagging is merely a keyword search. Just as if you are using Sirsi to look up a book about dogs, you can do the same with your photo-sharing and find different photos that have been described as containing or dealing with dogs.

Tagging is even in the blogs too. Below when you are typing up a post in Blogger you see the "Labels for this post" are tags, but only for organizing the blog.

Tagging....is....dumb. Well, yes and no. Tagging must be used for something significant

Week 9 -- Thing 20

2007-12-20T11:13:00.000-05:00

Well, once again, here is another site that we are told to explore that requires you to log in in order to do basically anything, including uploading pictures, which is one of the exercises. Flickr is a widely popular site. I've known about it for quite sometime, most of the places I visit on a regular basis use it for their personal pictures, but the funny thing about it, is that I never got into it. Why? I already have a great photo-sharing site in my bookmarks. This site happens to be Photobucket.

Flickr is nice, nicely layed out, I'm not going to say much bad about it, but its going to be somewhat difficult for people to link to pictures with it, if they do not know html, bb, or ccs. Now photobucket has that all right there for you. And Photobucket doesn't have a limit on how much you can upload. They even allow you to upload movies and .sfv files.

Out of the three photo-sharing sites that I am aware of: Flickr, Photobucket, and Imageshack (which I really didn't talk about in this blog, nor would any one on a staff computer be able to get to since the Internet filtering blocks it). The best and most person friendly would be Photobucket.

Week 8 -Thing 17, Thing 18, and Thing 19

2007-12-17T12:42:00.000-05:00

After sitting here and reading these "Things" and thinking to myself....my god, isn't this thing only supposed to take 30 minutes out of the week? I thought about how these ideas can come into play and be good for the library, and then I thought about how disastrous these things are. Then I finally thought about why I don't use them.

In "Thing 17" it talked about the del.icio.us. Its an interesting concept, and I am sure its a handy tool, and the idea of it is handy, yet, its just another account that will get messed in with my whole other lot of accounts that I have: Earthlink, Google, Helios Ro, Gaiaonline, Photobucket, Cut and Paste, Vbgov, ODU, e t c.... The idea of having your bookmarks handy is a great idea! But, I've surpassed that, I would think. I'm picky. I will use IE (internet explorer) if its the only thing available, but I prefer Mozilla Firefox, or Apple Safari (which is available for PC).

This being said, as the first thing that is found on the del.icio.us homepage says, "All your Bookmarks in One place," well technically all my bookmarks are in one place.

This is from my portable:

flash drive which I keep on me at all times, and those who know me can vouch for me. Its easier to use what I am familiar and most comfortable with.

The second idea on the del.icio.us front page is sharing my bookmarks with friends. Wow, its great that its somewhat becoming its own social site, but its rather more of a bother. I only physically tell or show my friends sites that I believe are worth showing because normally if its a a site I find interesting it can be complicated, like Gaiaonline. Not so complicated but it takes sometime to get used to.

Then the final idea would be the "see what others are bookmarking" I read enough blogs, comics and other things that I am into so I get my bookmarks from there, I don't need to search through a search engine, because that is all del.icio.us is basically.

Onto "Thing 18"....well technorati is admittingly interesting. It was neat to actually see things in there that pertained to me. But once again, its another thing that I would need to log in to in order to get the full usage of it. Read above about logins. As well, I read enough things that I am into already that if I want to find anything else from there, I will simply go through what I have already and branch out.

"Thing 19" is about the award list. Its interesting, and wow there was something interesting placed up by the VL. Programmable Web is something that I would like to keep up with, thus now it is linked in my blog and I can revisit it when I have more appropriate time. If I am to discuss about about the award list, like the tools and such please just refer to earlier in this blog about del.icio.us or refer to these posts where I speak about Bloglines: Week 4 -- Thing 9 and Week 4 -- Thing 10.

Now off to learn about Sirsi Java. Toodles.

Getting tired of...

2007-12-10T16:19:00.000-05:00

...seeing all this shit people are placing on their blogger accounts. Like the little animated pets. Or the flash mp3 players. These VBPL participants are reminding me of little teens with myspace that feel the need to clutter their pages so that they look cool.

its annoying. and i hate it. and just just just just grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Week 7 - Thing 16

2007-12-10T13:37:00.001-05:00

Social Networking....social networking...social networking....first we started with friendster then we evolved into all these "dating" sites now we are left with the epitamy of them all Myspace. Now, thats not to say its a horrible site, wait, I am. Let me rephrase that...That's not say that I do not have one, because I do.

Do I use it?

Not so much.

Why have one?

I jumped on the bandwagon when it was popular, thank you to Ryan and I tend to get free tickets from Funny bone via the bullitens.

Now yes, as a social networking site, I do have many of my highschool classmates as my friends, and I do pry into some of my closer friends' lives. But hey, isn't social networking all in a way stalking now-a-days? For example:

But hey, lets not get on a rant....wait. Lets.

People making myspace accounts that are going to be used, then they are going to corrupt the sites by adding unneeded pictures. Or they want to look saavy by having all these neat little pictures and graphics, but in the end only start giving their friends viruses and trojans because of their inability to understand the coding that they are copying and pasting into their editors.

Myspace is Mycrap. But its not so much about the security thing. Parents allow their children to hop on the net and when they aren't even knowledgeable about what is out there. Course, their children probably know about 100-fold what they know. So of course when it comes to security and actual stalkers, they jump on the bandwagon of freaking out. I have to say though, that any child, teen, adult that places personal information on a public site, no matter if they have it protected to be only seen by "friends" is still a mother f****n idiot.

Let me get off my rant. What do I like about social networking? I like the fact that no matter how I cannot get in touch with some friends via phone or person, I know they will get my message if I send it to them on Myspace/Facebook. What I also like is the bullitens....well some of them. Take a look:

Take a look at the second one down! LOOK AT IT!

Oh and then I always like to keep track of my shows and some of my other friends.

Another one of the social networking sites I use is Facebook. Facebook used to be a bit more protective, then they sold out. It started out as a college social site. That was cool, then it went to a School (highschool and college) networking site. Then it went public. Granted you have to be a friend to see anyone's profiles its still a bit over rated now-a-days. Facebook though is a bit annoying now, more than myspace, merely because of the damn applications.

Now, myspace/facebook/friendster/etc is not the only networking site. Any of the forum sites that are used are networking social site. Some that I use are: Helios RO and Gaiaonline.

But this week merely asked for Mycrap right? Well I went though myspace. Will it be helpful for libraries? No. I doubt it. I think it will bring in more trouble than its worth and with the controversies that it starts now-a-days....yeah, lets step away from that idea.

Will I be giving anyone here my Myspace account? No. Granted if you knew how, you could find me anywhere. Thats my secret, shhh.

Week 7 - Thing 15

2007-12-10T13:14:00.000-05:00

3. Create a blog post about one of the following: Should VBPL use a social networking site to connect with teens? or Social networking sites are really about ...?

Oh my. You can't give me an open topic like this mrs. virtual librarian! You can't! Wait, well this is MY blog. This is supposed to be used to talk about my thoughts and feelings on assorted topics....this just happens to be one of them....

Let's start with the first question: Should VBPL use a social networking site to connect with teens? The answer is: No. Why? Well firstly, who would be the one to create this networking site? An adult. Now, I am not saying that all adults cannot connect with teens. What I am saying is that most adults, although they might believe they are internet saavy, and have the knowledge of what teens are into now-a-days, are quite wrong in going about it. Now if VBPL were to stubbornly make a site, well I would recommend that one of the teen groups within the branches makes the site, with the supervision of their sponsor. That way you would have teen talking to teens. Not an adult talking to teens because in the end, most teens are not going to listen.

Secondly, social networking sites currently are full of well, odd people. People that really have no lives, or are just sex deprived looking for an easy hook-up. Oh, and spammers. On this subject, does VBPL want these sort of people looking at teens that may be on these sites and may by the off chance find them through a site created by the system? Shouldn't we look at it and kind of keep off what is right now, a very borderline topic for most people? I mean, look at the show Dateline: To catch a Sex Predator.

Now to get to the real question: Social networking sites are really about....?

Social networking sites are really about people finding other people. Easy put. Now what are they really used for? Well for the older crowd its almost like a dating site. For the younger crowd its used to know whats going on as well as spread rumors about others. Its like the newest form of a slam book.

Maybe I am biased. I probably am. I loathe myspace, yet I love it. The same goes for facebook. Meh...what can i do. And now. I leave you with this little ditti.

Week 6 - Thing 14

2007-12-03T16:06:00.000-05:00

Well posting in Wikipedia/Wikibooks/Wikispace/etc etc etc is simple as long as the knowledge of the proper coding is there. ---> *whatever you put here* makes your words BOLD. //whatever you put here// makes your words italacized. There are other annotations that include ' ... ' and = ... = What I am trying to get across is that the coding for posting on Wiki places are different than actually posting your own webpage or even posting in other places on the internets.

It was easy to post on the Reader Advisory for VBPL on wikispaces since I have done it before (Social and Cultural Foundations for American Education -- Chapter 2). What I did not like is the fact that apparently you need several different log-ins for all the Wiki-locations even if you already have an account for another one. Example: Having an account to work and edit items in Wikibooks, but not being able to log into Wikispaces since you need a seperate log-in.

Short with this post.

Wikipedia is not my favorite of resources.

Here are some links/videos for your enjoyment:

Wikiality

Week 6 - Thing 13

2007-12-03T14:38:00.000-05:00

Wiki's really started to emerge during the second year of college for me. They were great places of resource and really were easy to understand as they were written by people for the people.

I really don't want to get into another rant about this entirely, but I will simply put, that Wikipedia really seems to be becoming another social site in some perspectives. Yet, with that said, its a bit more professional in the thoughts of a social site. I really did like the idea of library wikis such as Core Competencies. Something that is really educational and fully informational to the reader. The Printon Public Library Book Lovers wiki entry is also a great idea for a book club or information to the customers that are looking for book reviews and don't know of other places to find them such as Amazon, Books in Print and other resources out there.

However Wikipedia is very useful, there are other places that can be more user-friendly than Wikipedia as wiki has its own style of posting. I know in the next activity there is a practice of posting on the Reader Advisory wiki. I have worked with wiki's before in my Social and Cultural foundations of American Education course at ODU (ECI 301) where our actual text book was in the Wikipedia portal "Wikibooks."

Social and Cultural Foudations of American Education -- Chapter 4 -- What are the markers of American Education in the 19th Century?

It was neat to actually write our own text book, and in this fashion, I see wikipedia a great advantage. Yet, as for a resource for students or a cited source its trash. As for Wikipedia's open-endedness it leaves for mistakes and false information.

Well, thats my say.

Week 5 -- Thing 12

2007-11-28T13:21:00.000-05:00

As posted in my last blog entry, Instant Messaging is a wonderful tool. Now mixing it in with libraries can create a great resource for customers and staff alike. Yet, without proper advertising, and knowledgeable people in charge of the device, the "tool", it can be chaotic.

The VBPL system has made a great advance in incorporating the "IM-ing" tool. Yet, it hasn't been used to its full potential yet. The types of people that would be more likely to use the Instant Messaging tool would be your elementary to teen, to young adult age into maybe early college age. Yet, most of the people will probably not be working on homework or other sort of work till late evening, normally after seven, YET VBPL stops their service at seven.

What I would like to see is a statistic of when the service is used the most. I mean, it would really be an eye opener. As well, I will say I did not message VBPL at this point in time to up the stats with useless questions. When there could be the slight chance that an actual customer needs an question answered.

Instant Messaging and the Libraries can be a good mix, if run by the proper people.

Hey, heres a question, why isn't there a virtual library that is staffed with people prepared for things such as this, instead of spreading it complicatedly throughout a multi-branched system where some are short staffed or just really busy?

Week 5 - Thing 11

2007-11-26T14:13:00.000-05:00

After looking through a number of the given articles in this weeks activity, I guess I would have to consider myself apart of the Millenninals. Though, admittingly, I did not get into the scheme of computers until I was graduated out of high school and into college. That was only four years ago really, yet, yes I did grow up with computers. My house had a computer in it ever since I was about eight or nine years old, the internet was available in my mid-teens, though I avoided it. I didn't understand it. Why use the internet for resources when books were highly available.

After high school, I got my own laptop; and, from there, I quickly learned the greater uses of computers and the internets. Especially with Instant Messaging. First there was the ever popular AIM, then Yahoo, then MSN. Then there was Trillian, a program that combined all instant messengers into one, including ICQ and IRC chats. Then I learned about web-messengers which include Meebo and Kool-IM.

Instant Messaging really did revolutionize how I did work and talked to people. I did not have a cellphone when I learned about all this stuff. It made communicating with friends so much easier. And yet, I seemed to be more open with people because I am a very self-conscious person, so in person I have a hard time doing much of anything, yet, on IM I could say things I most likely would not say to their face. Even still, I am like this. Just not as much.

Instant Messaging differs from other forms of communication because of its informality. What with acronyms such as "lol" "brb" "bbl" "g2g" "bbq" "imo" etc (find more interesting internet acronyms here), talking to another becomes more of a friendly conversation rather than of business, or so it would seem at times.

Libraries and Instant Messaging can go hand in hand. There is telephone reference and person-to-person reference and Instant Messaging is just another form of communication, so there really isn't any difference. The problems that the Libraries and Instant Messaging run into when combined is that either there are people running the Instant Messaging "program" without the proper knowledge of it to run it, or the customer on the other end is in a rather bit of a rush. Today's world, is in fact, rush rush rush. We want our information and we want it now, no dilley dallying. Yet, Instant Messaging can become a great resource for libraries if it is run properly.

The current view of libraries are seen as archaic uses of research for most of the younger people. The elementary, middle school, and high school population tends to turn to the internet for their information. It is not just them either, it is also college aged students. The internet is very available and also holds a lot of information. The population of these people coming into the library is great though. Granted, most just come in to use the internet and the computers that are available to them.

If the libraries made things more available and at hand for students it may create more traffic into the premises.

Instant Messaging is a great tool and a great way to communicate to friends, or customers if that is the way it may be. It is a matter of knowledge and proper use of the program.

Week 4 - Thing 10 - Feeds?

2007-11-21T16:29:00.000-05:00

As I explained in my previous blog, I am not a fan of readers. Well, yes, I do realize that this exercise does not require a reader. Well, even still, I do not enjoy going to sites that collect feeds from over the internets.

This is not to say that I do not like RSS. Quite opposite, I love RSS, and I love using it. But my thing is that I know what I am looking for and I normally go straight to it, rather than having an engine propose ideas for me.

I will share with you the sort of sites that I do visit that have RSS feeds. My share of web comics:

News/pictures:

As well as a number of friends that have blogs that I would like to keep up on.

I would like to point out that I do realize that feeds, and feed search engines are helpful, but if I know what I want to read, I don't want to add more to my numerous Livefeeds that I already have a hard time keeping up with.

So this isn't quite so much a put down post, its more of a....'i don't like it' post.

November 19 - Quote

2007-11-19T18:39:00.000-05:00

I just was posting on another blog and saw through my random text generator something I completely forgot was on there, and thought this was a good place to put it.

"We have designed our civilization based on science and technology and at the same time arranged things so that almost no one understands anything at all about science and technology. This is a clear prescription for disaster."

- Carl Sagan

Week 4 - Thing 9 - Option None of the Above

2007-11-19T14:11:00.000-05:00

Well, now. I'm being a non-conformist. Let me explain something here and now. It's nice that we are being offered this training to get ourselves familiarized with the internets. In fact, I am quite grateful for it, as it will help more people be knowledgeable about the subjects; that way, when I do get into my 'geek' mode, I am not looked at weirdly.

What I do not like is being asked to create more things for my "learning toolbox" to the point where my "learning toolbox" is a complete mess and unorganized. I have a great many of accounts. I have a great many usernames, passwords, pins, etc, to remember, WHY am I going to want to add onto those?

In Thing 9, we are given three options. ONE: To create a Bloglines account and begin to utilize it. TWO: To create a Google Reader account and begin to utilize it. THREE: Create both and utilize it.

Firstly, I say "nay" to all three. Granted, number two has been done. In fact I did it a few weeks ago. One thing I have to say is nice about Google Reader is that its possibility to be placed on my IGoogle page.

Bloglines on the other hand just looks cheap. It looks frustrating to use, and ugly. I like pretty, modern looking things.

Now, to explain why I don't like the options of creating either of the accounts. I am an avid fan of Mozilla's Firefox. Firefox, not Fox Fire, is an internet browswer that incorporates different aspects that the internet allows to its users. It also incorporates the usage of a tabbed browser. In fact, it was one of the first browsers to do so. (Internet Explorer 7 mocked Firefox and the Apple's Safari).

The other great aspect about the Mozilla's Firefox is the Livefeeds. Livefeeds is a feature built into the browser giving user's the capabilities to check on bookmarked sites that have RSS feeds, instead of going to a page like Google Reader or Bloglines and having to sift through the information for each page.

The bottom line you see the Livefeeds, which come down in a pull down menu and there you can see all the links there.

This is why, I choose Option: None of the Above. So deal with it! hehehehehe

Week 3 - Thing 7

2007-11-15T11:29:00.001-05:00

Well, as normal I jumped the gun, but only slightly. The Seven Habits are in my previous post, read it bishes.

So my thoughts on Web 2.0:

I am....22. I have grown up and evolved with the times. I have been fully immersed in this world of 2.0. At the same time, I believe that this world has become too connected and too 2.0. Even though the usefulness of it all, it becomes more of a bother-ence.

As for the idea of Library 2.0, its nice to see that this, as many see as an old-school tool (I am talking about libraries), is coming in to speed to connect with the modern world. Though I do believe it will take quite a long time for everything to come up to speed because of many people's misunderstanding and complicating of the whole thing. Training, LOTS of training is going to make things a bit easier, but even then, the need of good trainers is imperative.

and now I leave you with an entertaining video:

Week 1 - Learning 2.0

2007-11-08T10:35:00.000-05:00

Intro in and out of the way: I work for a large library system, but for one of the smaller branches. I am a part-timer. I am also a full-time student.

This is the second week, but the first week of Learning 2.0 for my Library system for me. Everything is fairly simple, yet I feel like I am in class given busy work. Keep in mind that I am a student and a lot of what I compare things to, will be school. Give me till mid-December and I will attempt to cool it with the similes or metaphors.

One of the main things in this week happen to be the 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learning. They are as follows:

Habit 1: Begin with the end in mind

Habit 2: Accept responsibility for your own learning

Habit 3: View problems as challenges

Habit 4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner

Habit 5: Create your own learning toolbox

Habit 6: Use technology to your advantage

Habit 7: Teach/mentor others

Habit 7 ½: Play

Using these, I have to decide which is the easiest, and which is the hardest for me. Well my easiest would be "Habit 6: Use technology to your advantage." The hardest for me would be "Teach/mentor others."

Well now. Off to work on other stuff.