Podcast

I went through the list of podcasts on Podcast Alley. There were tons of library related podcasts there. The one that I found to be of interest was one called LibVib. It is a podcast about current library news. It reminded me a lot of the publication Hotline.

The Amazing Stop Motion Bookshelf

For my YouTube post this week, I decided to limit the videos I searched to just library videos. Otherwise, I think I would still be on the computer looking through everything available. As it was, there were tons of library videos. I saw a library workout tape, a library rap, library dominoes, even Mr. Bean at the library (hilarious here is the link if you want to watch it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyDY0hiMZy8)

The following video was my favorite. I'm pretty sure that this is what the books do at night. It explains why nothing ever seems to be where it should be!


I think that YouTube is a great tool for the library. I've already seen the YouTube video on the PBCLS website showing the Tequesta Branch opening. I think that this tool could be used to show other library openings and other library events. YouTube would also be useful to promote features on our website. Wouldn't it be great to have a YouTube video showing patrons how to properly search our catalog? Or library databases?

Cool Website

For this thing I decided to explore the website: www.hotpads.com. This is a real estate tool that allows you to find homes for sale or rent. All you have to do is put in some basic search terms such as location, price, #bedrooms, #bathrooms, etc. and it will generate either a list or a map of all of the homes that match that criteria. I liked this tool because of the draggable map feature it had. You can get an idea of where the properties are located so you can just look at the ones you're interested in. There is also a combination search where you can search for the homes for sale and rent. It's an easy way to compare pricing if you don't know what you want to do.

One thing I didn't like about this site was it took me a little while to figure out how to change the search terms on the website. It also took a lot of clicking to get it to do what I wanted.

Overall, I think this could be a useful and easy-to-use tool for library patrons who want to find out what's available to buy or rent.

Zoho Writer

I think Zoho Writer is a really neat sharing tool. It makes it easier to share documents with people because you don't have to worry about everyone's software being compatible. As long as there is an internet connection, the recipient can open the document and then do what they want with it. If someone really wanted to, they could even copy and paste into a word document. I think the simplest way to keep the document, however, is to save it online. Zoho Writer is also great if you don't want to have to keep emailing changes around if you don't have a home computer or you are traveling quite a bit. I also like that you can easily upload what you type in here into a blog. It just saves time when it's all connected.

I guess that the features of Zoho Writer aren't as fancy as the latest edition of Word (for example, there is no automatic correction of typing or spelling errors) but for the most part, it has everything the average person would need to produce a useful document.

These are just a couple of the benefits that I have found. I'm sure that there are many more.

PBCLS Wiki

I added my blog to the PBCLS wiki today. I found it to be pretty easy if you just follow the directions on the 23things page. It's fun to go through and see everyone's favorites. This site would be a great way to collaborate with others.

Wikis

I went online and explored some wikis today. Once again, they were something I had heard of, but hadn't really put to any use. I think the best use of these tools are for a small to medium sized group of people who are not located near each other to collaborate on a project. Students working in distance learning programs could easily keep a group project organized by using a wiki. I also thought that using wikis for sharing pathfinders or other types of collaborative information would be helpful. I'm planning on going on a camping trip this fall, I just might use a wiki to get it organized!

Web 2.0

This week, I read several articles about different librarians' perspectives on Web 2.0. In the article "Away from the Iceburgs" by Rick Anderson, he makes several points that I thought were very true and useful to remember in this ever changing library world.

1. The necessity of changing the collection to mostly online resources, 2. changing the way materials are offered and searched to make them easier to find and use, and 3. making it easier to access information from a variety of locations, not just in the brick and mortar buildings that we've all become accustomed to.

I agreed with Anderson about how the library has changed drastically from what it was just 10 years ago. Web 2.0 has made the library evolve into something newer and better and, in most cases, much easier to use without doing away with what we do best - getting information to our patrons.

Technorati

I went and took a look around technorati using the search terms www.pbclibrary.org and web 2.0. I found many many sites that mentioned these search terms in them. Related tags for web 2.0 were things like tech, technology, web, internet, etc. Most of the mentions of www.pbclibrary.org were regarding our mousing tutorial. Apparently, a lot of other libraries think this is a useful tool.

Del.icio.us

I found out about Del.icio.us a while ago and thought it would be a neat tool to use. I had even created a account to use. I think that with any type of new technology, this is a great and useful thing to have but the problem is you have to get yourself in the habit of referring to it. Since I created my account a while back, I have not added anything to it. So, today I went in and started adding links.

I really liked the tagging feature. I had never thought of doing that before. You do have to be careful when tagging. For example, if there are 2 words in the tag, you still want to put them together into one. I added some reader's advisory links to my account. I originally tagged them reader's advisory. When I looked at my list of tags later, I had one for readers and another for advisory. I had to go back and edit the tag so that it was readersadvisory. I also have to be careful that there is uniformity with the tags, otherwise, when I'm searching for something I may never find anything because I haven't tagged similar links with the same tags. If I've tagged one books, I have to tag all similar ones books not book or reading, etc. because when I click on the tag, it will not sort it together.

I do like having a place I can go for all of my favorite links, so I think I'm going to get into the habit of using it more often.

Webfeat

I first heard about Webfeat (when you say it, doesn't it sound like you're saying webbed feet?) a couple of months ago at a Reference meeting. At the time, I thought it was such a cool thing because you could go on there and do a search of all of our databases at the same time. I still think this is a cool tool, but I have to admit that I don't use it very often.

I took the time to do a search in Webfeat for something interesting about my hometown of Jupiter (yup, I'm a Florida native). In a roundabout way, the name Jupiter comes from the Native Americans who lived here. When the Spanish arrived in the 1500's, there was a tribe of Indians called the Hobe, so that is what the Spanish called the settlement. When the British got here in the 1800's, they thought that Hobe was Spanish for Jove, the Greek God Zeus. They preferred the Latin version of the name, and called it Jupiter.

"HISTORY DIDN'T SWAY TEQUESTA DEVELOPER." Palm Beach Post, The (FL) July 26, 2006, FINAL, NEIGHBORHOOD POST: 10. NewsBank Access World News. [Palm Beach County Library System, West Palm Beach, FL]. June 4, 2008. .

Library Thing

So, this is a blog about my experience with Library Thing. I've heard of this website before, but I had never really used it. It does seem like it's pretty useful to have a record of all of my books in one place. I don't like buying books (why buy when I can get them for free at the library?) so I wouldn't get the the paid service. But it's nice to keep track of the books that I do own. Now, if only they would have a service that would automatically email reminders to people I loan my books out to :-)

Here is a link to the books I've added to my online catalog. http://www.librarything.com/catalog/libraryred1