Is this really the end? (sob!) …or, just the beginning?

If I could change anything about Learn & Play it would be to go at a slower pace. As a part-time person (10 hours a week), I didn't have much time to adequately go through the steps and thoroughly learn all the features and web 2.0 tools. I would definitely participate in any other activities CML might offer.


I found rss feeds, Flickr, Podcasts, YouTube, and Google Documents to be very useful and plan to continue to use them in the future. Actually, all 23 things were very interesting.


I hope Learn & Play @ CML will remain online so that I may go back and revisit some of the "things" I didn't get a chance to completely investigate. I would like to review each thing I don't feel comfortable with and try to master them.

Podcasts

Podcasts can be a good thing. I examined Google Podcast Directory and Podcast Alley and found many podcasts I would not use. Vegan Freak Radio and Nobody Likes Onions are two of the podcasts I examined. Vegan Freak Radio was just chit-chat and nothing with substance and Nobody Likes Onions was offensive. These two were on Podcast Alley's top podcast list. I enjoyed Coffee Break Spanish and would recommend it and use it. I also like NPR's Grammar Grater. Here are the links for the two I will use.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/coffeebreakspanish

http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510272

MOLDI

I like the concept of an online library. I looked through the collection and found a few books I would like to listen to or view online. There were a few books that didn't have the complete series. The first of a series is usually the best. The books I found that did have the first of the series, didn't have many of the others in the series.

I was surprised to see that there were books about Microsoft Office 2007. It's always nice to see that we are current with the nonfiction.

There were a lot of older movies listed. Most people are not interested. Fortunately I am a person who likes old movies. Dinosaurus! is a movie I watched as a little girl. That is a movie I will try to download.

You too can YouTube!

YouTube is a tool that I like. Individuals, companies, anyone and everyone seems to post their videos on YouTube. No matter the topic, there should be a clip on YouTube about it. The entire Barack Obama interview from 60 Minutes is on YouTube. Any type of instructional, educational, funny, or embarassing video can be found there.
I have chosen an instructional video on installing a retaining wall. This is a task I must do and I will review the video several times before Spring and then make an attempt at building the wall.

Explore CML’s own Tool Box of great Web 2.0 tools

I elected to explore Gmail and some of the features I have never used. I am amazed at the search capabilities in Gmail. I performed a search using two keywords and it searched back to 2006 with emails related to the subject.

I don't normally chat on the Internet, so I won't have a reason to use Google Talk. It does amaze me as to how much space I am allocated and I have been using Gmail since it first began.

Discovering Web 2.0 tools

There are so many web tools out there, it is difficult to pick ones to consider my favorites. Many of them, I chose not to try because they require a login and a password. I still feel uncomfortable putting my information on the Internet. I thought I would like to try MyHeritage.com, Shoeboxed, Hordit, ClutterMe, and Scrumy; but, many of them require my information.

I found one sight I truly like. It is called iSpeech. iSpeech converts text to audio. I tried it and it seems to work perfectly. One thing I noticed on their sight is that they included a blog that has the audio of whatever is typed playing in the background. I can see a use for that if you have an really great blog and a lot of people want audio available while traveling or exercising. The web link for iSpeech is: http://www.ispeech.org/. Try it, it's great fun and another of my favorite things.

Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations -- OH MY!

Similar to wikis, I believe Google Documents is a very worthwile tool. You can work with people from different branches and everyone will be on the same page (document). There is no confusion about which is the latest document and each document can be accessed from any where. I have a full-time job with another company and the individuals I work with are located in Seattle. As you may know this will be a tremendous benefit to me when collaborating on projects. I also created a document and then saved it as a PDF.

Playing Around With Wikis

Wikis can be a very important tool in libraries. I saw different ways some libraries are using wikis, such as book discussions, community events, etc... I believe they could also be used by committees. Time spent scheduling meetings would be reduced by posting the information on a wiki and having committee members input their information as they had time.

Wikis

I can see many uses for Wikis. The two I use on a regular basis are Wikipedia and WikiHow. Most people know about Wikipedia, however, I'm not sure if most know about WikiHow. WikiHow instructs you on how to do just about anything and everything. You can learn to lay brick or knit a plastic bag made of plastic grocery bags. There are even instructions on how to cut the bags to prepare them for knitting. Here is the link for preparing the bags for knitting or crocheting http://www.wikihow.com/Prepare-Plastic-Bags-for-Knitting-or-Crochet and the link to actually knit the bag. http://www.wikihow.com/Knit-a-Bag-from-Plastic-Bags

Some of the instructions even include a video to assist you.

As far as libraries are concerned, I noticed using wikis were great for book discussions, current events, community activities, etc... I am interested in wikis and will create one some day.

Library 2.0

Library 2.0 does not come as a surprise to me. I have always believed that the focus should be on the user and how we can enhance the library experience for them. It is surprising how many useful tools we have access to that greatly improves the quality of service provided to the customer. By using services like blogs, flickr, wikis, etc., the number of customers is not limited to those in our locale. We can easily serve users in California or another country.


Library 2.0 is just the beginning of many new possibilities.