Zoho and online apps.

Zoho is kind of cool.  The only thing that I don't like is that the fonts are few and I really like writing with funny fonts.   I am sure that I will play with it and learn it like I did Word.  I really like that I can save and access my files from any computer with i-xs. 

 

 

I like that I can add pix to the document.  In fact, here is one of my dogs, Audrey.  She is a tough little dog and she is interested by the camera that I was holding. (Just to mention, the white spot where her eye is, is in actuality a cataract. The other eye is forming one now.

 

Facebook!

I already had a myspace page so I decided to add my name to the facebook rolls.  After I had set up my account, I went looking for people I knew.  I looked under my colleges (several) and no one I knew came up.  Then I tried my high school class and wow! people! I foudn three people I remembered from high school, two of whom were pretty good friends.  I am so excited that I found them!  One's in Dallas and the other in Illinois. Go figure!

I like it all right. I started an aquarium, but who's going to send me fish? I have a graveyard, but what's it for?

I like myspace,sometimes, despite its negative reputation as hook-up place and hunting ground for pedophiles. I like it because I have been able to find lots of authors of my favorite books and they have added me to their own pages, so I kind of get a heads up when they have new books. This is sooo cool. Also because some of them put details of their lives and interests on their page and it is neat to see that Lori Foster is into UFC and that Val Kilmer is a songwriter and singer. It's just neat.

Technology

I really didn't know what to write about. Dave suggested that I write about how technology has changed the way we study, the way we learn.

I have to admit, with some blushing, that this post may age me. I remember when my little brother got all excited about the computers. He talked my dad into letting him "build" his own computer. My dad, of course, let him do it. (Not to sound bitter but I asked for a computer when I started high school and wound up with a Tandy where you had to "write" your own programming.)

Matt knew about the Internet long before I did and was able to use better than I for learning. I was already in college. I was still learning about e-mail while I was at Sam.

Now I have a hard time thinking of what my life would have been like without being able to jump on the library website and see if my favorite author had any new books out. As a librarian, I am ashamed to admit that although I spent a lot of time reading, very little of it was in a public library. I visited my school library (high school and college) but not the one in town. Part of that was caused by the fact that the library was across town and I didn't drive. So almost from the first, I have made use of the internet. I didn't drive for most of my college career and the internet connected me to libraries, colleges and other people during that time and I never had to leave the house.

This is why I am so excited about ihcpl. I am learning about new technology, new applications that allow me to connect to people who were like me, a prisoner without a way to reach the world. Downloadable books, social networking, podcasts, all these things are changing the way we gather information and the way we respond to change. What a difference a little brother makes. (By the way, now my brother works on computers in the military.)

Wiki's Wow...

Wow, I can't believe it was so easy to edit a wiki. It's a little sacry I admit, because I think of all the scary additions or changes someone with bad intentions could do to a page of say treatments for a major medical disease.

But I think, in as far as libraries go, that wikis can be very useful tools when it comes to keeping track of series orders or for encouraging people to read, review and add their reviews on a wiki page. This would be a good opportunity also to teach the importance of double-checking facts and the responsibility that comes with sharing information on the internet.

Library 2.0

To me, Library 2.0 is a catchy phrase that really doesn't relate.

When I was in college, I read and I changed. I began to believe in change. I believe that change is life. To grow is to change. I still hate change, particularly when I don't have a say in what will change and how, but that is common for most people, I think.

Library 2.0 for me is about changing. Changing how we as librarians view our jobs, how we views the collection and how we view customers. It is all about making it easier for the patron to get to their information quicker and easier.

But I think that saying "Library 2.0" is silly. We always have been moving this way, resisting it as we all do, but eventually evolving into something better. We have to move, to change, to grow or we will slide the opposite way into obsolesence.

(But do we really need to give it a label? Aren't there enough already?)

Technorati

I looked up Library 2.0 several different ways and wondered why.

I liked the favorite thing but it didn't really make sense to me.

I found something very surprising when I looked at different things: I found a link to a page about how a Japanese fashion designer is creating a faux vending vending machine costume for people to wear when they are out on the streets in a hinky neighborhood. It was a very entertaining article.

Del.icio.us

Ok, I might get it. It's taken me more than a little though to find the comments about bookmarks. I couldn't really see the tutorial because it was so blurry.

I like the idea of being able to find my favorite links but it is going to take me a while to get all my sites there.

I think it has the potential to be an awesome tool. I can't wait to really play with it.

I admit that I have always associated del.icio.us with nerds and computer geeks(sorry,ya'll). But it is more than that so I'll have to revise my opinion.