Reflections on 27 Things

My favorite discovery was blogging and RSS. Blogging was interesting and we got to practice it extensively over the course of these last few months, it's become a habit and I already miss looking at my coworkers blogs to see how they're doing w/ Learning 2.o.

This program has pushed me to embrace all that Web 2.o has to offer and more. It has dramaticaly opened up my perspective on what I can do and how I can communicate through the web other than just email and im.

I would recommend everyone participate and finish KCLS 27 Things as it has relevance not only to libraries but to personal and social life of most people living in our time.

Podcasts

I like podcasts much better than emails. I think that should be the next best way to explain something new in a mini presentation instead of typing an email. We all learn better visually, right?

I added a podcast Rss of a Rock and Roll librarian to my bloglines account:

http://skalogy.podomatic.com/rss2.xml

My favorite - YouTube

Well I don't have to make myself familiar with YouTube, I've been a fan for a while now. I watch music videos, fashion commentary, short films, soccer clips, and other fun stuff.

I think KCLS could post storytime videos or have librarians make intro videos talking about the programms and services offered @ the local library for teens.

Web 2.0 award winners

I looked under the category of Social News and checked out Digg, which is an interesting mix of both useful and totally funny, maybe not so useful content. For example I found and article about the Spice Grils comeback next to an article from TreeHugger about zero emission urban taxis. But overall this is a good way to get some laughs along with some noteworthy news.

Spice Girls Comeback story:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article1999615.ece

Digg:
www.digg.com

Google Labs

I really liked looking at Google Trends, there were some very unlikely results, mostly of names, popular icons and the like.

Google Music Trends was interesting to see as well, tells a lot about Google users, I would guess mostly under 25 years old.

Google Web Alert seems promising too and there is also a Google feeder reader that seems to go along with Web 2.o.

Google Docs and Zoho

Both providers of online applications share the same principle of having documents available anywhere and to anyone online. This is great in application for students working on a group project, academics doing research and in commercial use for businesses.
No need to save to a floppy or sending files through email.
Opens up a world of possibilities.
Although I think I'm used to Microsoft apps this will be something I'll have to try when I'm back in school.

Library 2.0

Dr. Wendy Schultz presents us with an elaborate vision of a future library in an article titled “To a Temporary place in time… “ where she illuminates how the library world will transform from a 1.0 to a 4.0 experience. It’s interesting to look forward into the future of libraries in this way seeing it as a virtual interface. Although it’s not hard to imagine a world like this one, with a holographic librarian, since it’s been described and depicted in books and films for some time now, it still seems somewhat farfetched, at least in the immediate future. The ideas presented in these articles on Library 2.0 are very compelling and it will be interesting to see how they will be expanded and incorporated in more depth.

Search Engines

I preferred the Google Custom Search Engine, it seems to give more search results and has a format that is easy to work with since I’m already familiar w/ Google and use it often. Rollyo, however, has sponsored links right in the search results, which can be somewhat distracting.

This can be a great tool for a librarian or anyone doing research that has to be restricted to certain sources or can be helpful in narrowing down the sources of information from the very first steps in researching a topic.

Link to my search roll called "Movie Search":

http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=004049467478362935956%3At_yjnjvxsls

Image Generator

Wikis

Wow, I had no idea that wikipedia was a collective community posting site, I've been going to them for info for a while, just to view a simple and short explanation of something. I had a notion that it was quite informal in some parts but now I know what a wiki is and therefore I can appreciate wikipedia so much more, while of course being more cautious of the content.

Library Success: A best practices wiki took me on an interesting journey. I looked at how many different library systems are doing programs similar to our Game On and read about different ways of implementing such programming. This is definitely a great forum for librarians. I even stumbled upon some interesting research about the current concept of “information literacy.”

Library Thing!

This is really intense. I like discussion groups and having this at my fingertips is like magic. I can talk to people about books I’ve read or plan to read. It also allows for new ways of creating an online book club. I’ve got just a few of my books cataloged and I’m overwhelmed with how many thousands of people have done this. Although one of my favorite books has not been cataloged by anyone yet, I’m first.

Here is a link to my catalog:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/agnesbkw

Del.icio.us

I didn't realize the scope of the possibilities involved in tagging. At first it seems somewhat useful but when you really explore it in more depth the possibilities look endless. Especially in education, research and academic collaboration it would create a communication tool like no other before.

To have a peer group doing research on the same topic and tagging many different items in del.icio.us, would open a great research forum available for the whole group to view and access without having to communicate the details of where an article was found or what it was about. This is a great tool for academic and other research pursuits.