FINAL POST

So I made it to the end unscathed! Actually I enjoyed this series of lessons much more than previous ones - it seemed more fun, less daunting and not so time consuming. Plus I think I have learnt quite a lot that will be useful either directly or indirectly as "background knowledge".
Appreciated that some of it was a bit light hearted - "Tastespotting", life can't be all work(!!)
I found a lot of very worthwhile material on Slideshare and EnCompassCulture - great sites to return to.
Thank you Tosca for your amazing energy and enthusiasm for things digital and for creating such a fun way of teaching those not so "technically gifted" as you!
Right now all staff have a lot of new stuff coming at them with MyCard and still doing database quizzes and the Branch of Origin so it feels like there isn't time right now to do justice to a Web 2.0 Part 3. Maybe later.
PS I need to find the online survey and do that then its bye for now.

WEEK 6 - ENCOMPASSCULTURE - the global bookclub

One could spend hours wandering about in this site - so easy to use and attractively set out. I really liked some of the reading lists that I retrieved using the compass. Being a non-fiction girl, there were heaps of books I would like to read in the biography and travel sections -love that you can get quite specific by choosing a couple of sub-categories.
I see this as being very useful as a readers advisory tool to refer patrons to, good for all ages and being British based rather than American (my bias showing here) appeals to me also. Could be useful for selecting books for a themed display too.
Good newsletters and current award winners lists (some tantalising children's books in the Roald Dahl Funniest books for children award lists)
I will be back to play in this site!!!
Would certainly recommend it to borrowers - so easy to demonstrate, even the technically challenged bless them couldn't find this hard.
Lovely find!!!!

WEEK 5 - SLIDESHARE - ONLINE PRESENTATIONS

This is wicked!! What a brilliant service. I looked at some presentations from Librarianinblack (Sarah Houghton-Jan) as I had a recommendation for her website from Mentor Group Training's Joan Giannone recently. I got a bit sidetracked andn spent ages looking at these presentations, particularly liked her one entitled New Technologies that Save Time and Money - amazing what is out there, have noted some of them for future use - Type Faster Typing Tutor would be good to recommend to patrons - Free Online Book Displays in Flickr for staff too use. Will be returning to this video to absorb some more of it. Have put it into my Blog I liked it so much.

New Technologies That Save Time & Money - HLA 2009

View more presentations from Sarah Houghton-Jan.

WEEK 4 - TASTESPOTTING

What a pretty site (sight). I registered, however unfortunately then there was a hiccup and I couldn't access the site again. However did get a brief look at the pictures.
I will revisit it some time later cos I do like recipe sites and use them all the time - you don't need a cookbook these days!!!

Nice to have some light relief in the Web 2 sessions, I don't mind that it has nothing to do withh libraries - although we all know that the way to a Librarian's heart is with some yummy goodies! And we have to keep our strength up to get all that work done.

Roving Librarians - Mentor Group Training Video

WEEK 3 - FEEDMYINBOX - RSS MADE SIMPLE

This lesson is well named - it does make RSS feeds simple and Feedmyinbox is very user friendly. I liked this a whole lot more than last time we did it.
Subscribed to Christchurch Libraries' blog and enjoyed reading their book reviews and looking at the photos of their shelves after the earthquake. Also note they are using the blog to encourage people to get out and vote - good!!
Good to understand how RSS feeds work but I probably won't use it again, there is only so much information I can cope with in my life - struggle to get time to read the newspaper!!!!!!

WEEK 2 - PICAPP

I chose this picture of Matthew because I know him, he is a lovely guy and a great ambassador for New Zealand gymnastics. I was surprised to see so much NZ content especially amongst the editorial pics. Did a search on Auckland - up popped Auckland Supercity and the recent hikoi! Is really good that the pics appear with the most recent first and searching is so simple.
The artistic pics are very extensive but found you have to narrow your search down a lot and even then still get a bit of random stuff included!!
Like this site very much, pity we can't use the photos for creating posters etc, not just online.

Week 1 - BOX.NET

Hey I quite liked playing with this!! Very easy to sign up and to use. No trouble uploading a few files either. This wouldn't be difficult to teach to patrons if they were interested. But would need to set them up before it got to the stage of "I only have 5 minutes of time left".
Could be very useful to dump files into if you were going away and needed to access them from elsewhere. Don't know if we would use it at work, we have a great N drive for sharing files.

Have shared my files (pics) with my lovely workmates.

Final Post

Thought I had finished last week, and just realised I should have a final post.

I don't have anything profound to say, just thank you for the work that has gone into making this learning exercise as easy and as much fun as possible. Certainly a much better experience than slogging my way through the first Web 2 course we did last year! I suppose I am slowly becoming a Web 2 user - have been on Facebook for several years now and just this month used Picasa Web Albums to share an album of holiday photos with some friends. I guess I will just choose what suits me, like GoodReads and forget about what doesn't, like downloading music files.

But at least I feel a bit more savvy now and more able to sound knowledgeable and help our customers with more of our new technology.

But don't go looking for me on Twitter, I won't be there!!!

Week 6 Facebook - playing nicely withh others

Oops I am a day late finishing all this but have been on holiday for a couple of weeks (a good excuse???)
Became a friend of Manukau Libraries and now get reviews etc on my Facebook page every day. Added to the discussion board with the book I am reading right now.

Have had a look at San Francisco Public Library's updates on Facebook - fascinated to see they have an ADULTS summer reading programme!! Theme is Dive into a Good Book (Jaws by Peter Benchley) with screening film documentaries, paper marbling classes and water related activities all over the city.
They add book reviews and promote events inside and outside the library, poetry readings, author visits etc.

I already use Facebook spasmodically but am wary of it eating too much into my precious sparetime!!
Tata for now.

Week 5 Music files and MP3s

I had a look at Amazon's free music offerings - 1 song per day(???) and noted that it is limited to US customers only so that didn't seem to be too helpful. Went on to MP3.com and saw that they have a very comprehensive list of free downloads available and seemed to be easy to navigate. Not much that I recognise (my age) and not something I am looking to use at all but I don't think customers would have too much difficulty using it.

Week 4 - Books and Social Networking

Good Reads is great!! Love it... could definitely use it for reader's advisory, great genre lists and just terrific for browsing for suggestions as to what to read next. Have joined and set up My Books. Will be back visiting Good Reads soon. Do we have a link to this site from our library website?

Very user friendly, my kind of site!

Week 3 - Twitter

So I am now a bit more educated about Twitter - good luck to all who want to use it but to be honest it's not something I can see myself making much use of. But I am giving it a go and following some things like Lonely Planet, Trip Adviser and Library Journal, will see what turns up. And enjoyed seeing the Pakuranga Library renovation photos! Don't think I would be promoting it to customers but could direct them if asked.

Week 2 - ZAMZAR

This is all news to me, have never used a file conversion site before. Seemed very easy to use, customers would have no trouble with this. I could certainly recommend it and demonstrate how to use it.

WEEK 1: BLOGGER

Well here I am again - been off doing other things for the past five months!
Just beginning my second lot of exercises on Web 2 and hoping to learn more new stuff - interested to find out about Twitter because haven't had anything to do with it, also to learn about music files - again a total blank to me at present.
I guess public libraries could use a blog to promote services and events and link to useful sites for customers.