Na-na-nahh-na, na-na-nahh-na...

I am surprised by what I knew and didn't know about Web 2.0. I am sure I was not the only one who became completely engrossed in many of these fun tools.

I have come away with some new toys (Pandora, Del.icio.us & Rollyo) that I will use on a regular basis. And some (Sandboxes, Technorati & Bloglines) that will never be looked at again. And a greater appreciation for bloggers. It's hard to come up with something that others will want to read. Being required to blog gives a different purpose than your average blogger.

I've also enjoyed reading others blogs and I will continue to read them as we all discover new things. I enjoyed finding what interested them and even finding something that interested me at the sites they explored. For example, Justine R's SpringWidgets site, led me to get the following widget.

Get this widget!

Cool.
A lot of the sites we've "played" with have made me nostalgic. And has showed me a different side of technology. But as I've said before. Maybe knowing what's out there will open the eyes of TPTB (an Angel reference) to what WE need to enhance our web presence. Of course, I'm great at saying what we should be doing. But it's true. I'm not the only one thinking this. I'm sure others are coming to this conclusion as well. in fact, Joe said it well in his post.

There are so many practical uses for these "things" were are exposing ourselves to. Many of our customers are familiar with them, and as we strive to be better information professionals, we need to be able show them that HCL is following right along with them on their own technological journey.

Will I continue blogging? Maybe, it's a fun way to vent. Will I think that others will WANT to read my blog? No, no illusions of self-importance here. Will I continue searching out new forms of web technology? definitely. In fact, I look forward to finding new ways to use those 123 sites, if only to show some to the people I work with and serve. And I would love to do more of this on a regular basis.

OK to reiterate what I've written in another post....

IMO (in my opinion) we, meaning HCL, are truly behind the times when it comes to web presence. RSS feeds and ebooks are a great start, but our names need to be out there

[podcasts, book review blog, MySpace, YouTube, SecondLife, wikis]

Getting us the recognition that we deserve. We need to have a teen page devoted to our web generation. As our patrons come to us for help, we really need to be broader in our knowledge of today's technology.

So on that note, I have just one more thing to say.....
hey, hey, hey...goodbye!

mission complete

Up to my ears in it...

Thing #22

I have used Overdrive and Netlibrary before, personally and at the info desk. Both patrons and other staff have asked me to explain them. I’m sure this “thing” will help a lot of us with the “complexities” of downloading audiobooks.

What I like most:
Overdrive has very large selection AND it has video. In fact, after watching AFI's 100 Greatest Movies show the other night, I realized that I'd never seen Buster Keaton's ”The General”. Low and behold, that was one of the videos offered. Of course I couldn't download it here at work - gotta wait 'til I get home. But I am eager to see I can upload it to my mp3 - the screen's not THAT small.:)

NetLibrary allows you to search by length of audio. When I searched for an "under 3 hours" ebook, came up with a great one. I'm sure it would be inappropriate to say what the title is....but let's just say that according to our catalog, it falls under the subject heading of truthfulness and falsehood.Should be an interesting if not educational listen....

The Audacity...

this open source software works in Linux and windows, but you already know this if you've received your new Ubuntu PC. It's one of the sound&vision programs we have available.)

I had to use Audacity for a class I took in grad school. A great editing tool for audio. You can record tracks via microphone and layer it over music, etc. Real cool. It was extremely easy to use and always a lot of fun to hear your own voice on a track.

As for podcasting, been there done that :)

Glenwood MS's media specialist has podcasts of booktalks on her site. She and a few students recorded themselves reviewing Black-eyed Susan nominees. What a great enticement for readers. And what a great application this would be for HCL!!!
Imagine having podcasts of booktalks available on the website for students and teachers to hear. Imagine having book reviews of the newest releases. Talk about moving us into the 21st century.

Now, for podcast.net...not impressed. Hard to search for what I wanted to find. Podcast alley was easier. But still not worth the time of searching. I find it easier to get podcasts from websites that I am already familiar with, rather than searching for new ones. Not to mention, unless I'm doing it at home, I don't get a chance to listen to too much at work.

But if we had book review podcasts....:)