CommonCraft Show on YouTube

Google Docs video by Lee LeFever

Childhood Memories

Well, a bunch of us were talking last week about cartoons they watched as children. One favorite was "Thundercats" and here is the opening theme songs and video from YouTube.



The one I remembered (not from MY youth, but from when my boys were small, was "SuperTed". Here is the opening clip from that show.



Here's another one my kids watched "Danger Mouse". Here is the intro:



Here's "Denver the last Dinosaur"

We just want them back!

YouTube Continued...

This is a video from YouTube showing one of my favorite bands "Belle and Sebastian". The song is called "Wrapped up in Books" (kind of appropriate for libraries, don't you think!)

TravBuddy

This is a new site that a friend sent me. You can go into the site and click on all the countries that you've travelled to and it creates a map. I've been to a few places in Europe, but apparently, I've only been to 5% of the World's countries!

Week 10 Lesson 23 Summarize my thoughts

Well, I have to say that I've really enjoyed this whole experience. I did learn a lot of new things and hope to use many of them in the future. I especially liked play week, in which I discovered the comicstrip generator. I really like de.lic.ious too. Such a simple idea really, and I wish I'd known about it sooner. Each time IT reimages our computers, I had to copy all my "favorites" or risk losing them. Now, I can save them on de.lic.ious and they'll always be saved.

I think lifelong learning is something that I will always experience. Growing up, I wanted to be a teacher, but life took me in a different direction. Working in a library for the past 17 years, has given me a chance to still teach, but in a different way. It's wonderful when someone thanks you for helping them find the information they're looking for. I like it even better when I can show them how to find information on their own, especially the younger people we encounter each day. It's great too, when someone shows me new things and I thank all of you (who contributed to this project) for doing that for me.

As far as what could have been done differently, I'd say some of the directions weren't as clear as I'd hoped they would have been, but I was able to figure most things out on my own. I don't mind playing around on the different sites to see what I can find out.

I'd gladly participate in another project like this, and if I can offer a suggestion, I'd love to learn more about our databases and how to use them. I know they're full of information, but again, they're a little daunting to use.

Week 10 Lesson #22 EBooks

I went onto the SJLibrary site and checked out Safari Tech's Link. I'd had noticed this a few weeks ago, while just playing around on the site. Since I have the new IPod, I thought I'd look up information on that. The thing I liked most about this, was that I didn't even have to download the book. I just logged in with my library card and I was good to go. It let me begin reading right away! The table of contents was located in the left sidebar, so that was pretty cool. I actually found some helpful information, regarding settings on auto-updating the IPod. It recommends that you turn this feature off, so I'll be sure and let my hubby now about this too.

I will explore more, since I know we have audiobooks on the site too. Listening on my IPod will sure beat changing cassettes or CDs.

Week 10 Lesson #21 Podcasts

I did go to the site, looking for Podcasts I'd be interested in. I tried to save one to my Blogline account, but couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I did however manage to save one of the RSS Feeds to my Outlook bar. For me, that's probably a better place for it anyway. Saves me the step of having to open up my Blogline Account.

I just got a new IPod nano and hope to get my songs loaded soon. My husband's been having a lot of fun loading all of his CDs. It's amazing how much information can be stored on such a small item.

Week 10 Lesson #20 YouTube

I had actually discovered YouTube a while back, and it's a great site. I think the first thing I looked up was the "Evolution of Dance" which I really enjoyed. My husband's cousin's children have created a few videos, with stop action animation using legos. Well, I went back in one night, trying to find them again, and came across this video. Someone has recreated the complete Michael Jackson "Thriller" video, using legos! It's so great! Here is the link (check it out for yourself)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MThEoxSWURA

I went back into YouTube and found this split screen version, showing the original Michael Jackson video and the Lego version. These guys did an awesome job!!

Week 8 #19 LibraryThing

LibraryThing is a pretty cool site. I can see real uses for this, especially when you have a lot of books and can't keep them all straight. It was very easy to add books to my list. I just entered the ISBN for each. 4 of the 5 I entered even had cover photos. I played around and saw the different views you could have too. Setting up the account was very simple and it's free. You can upgrade for a price, but I didn't see any real benefit to paying for that service.

URL http://www.librarything.com

Week 8 #18 Zoho Writer

This is my first time on Zoho Writer and after a little delay getting logged in, it's pretty cool! The Word Processing site is very simple to use and I really like the toolbar. Very clean looking and all the regular buttons are there, including an emoticon one. Very cute!
Saving is pretty simple, but at first I didn't realize how you name your document. You simply name your document in that tab at the top, pretty simple.

I did try to export the document to my blog, but I'm not clear how to do this. I'll email someone and find out how to do that. On the blog I see how to add a link and post a picture. Not sure if the link is what I'd use or not.

www.zohowriter.com

Week 7 Wikis #17 Add entry to Library 2.0 Sandbox

Well, I went back into the Library 2.0 Sandbox and could see the link I'd added under "Favorite Restaurants" and was finally able to add the URL link to that site. I did find this a little tricky, as I figured out that I had to highlight the name I'd listed and then go to edit page. I then found the URL link and pasted it in and it worked!

I did find out how easily you can delete an entire page though, and I see that as a huge drawback to Wikis. Luckily, it gave me a message saying "are you really sure you want to do this?" and of course, I realized what I'd done wrong and all was saved.

Week 7 # 16 Wikis

I looked at a couple Wiki sites; The Albany County Public Library Staff Wiki and Book Lovers Wiki. I was a little suprised to read that Albany is still using library checkout cards and just moving to a receipt printer! I really liked the idea of the Book Lovers Wiki. People seem to like reviews written by regular folks and not paid book reviewers and the link directly to the library site to see if that book is on the shelf is great.

I think Wikis would be great for libraries to use for Policy and Procedure. Not necessary to change written procedures, but for staff to offer suggestions to those procedures. As things change, so do the way things are done at libraries.

I figured out how to add my blog name to the list of Favorites, but all I could do was add the name of a restaurant, but couldn't figure out how to add a link to it, help!

UPDATE: I realized what I was doing wrong. I forgot to log into the Sandbox first! After doing that, I was able to add a link to my restaurant. Oh, I almost deleted all the entries too! Thank goodness they give you a warning and ask if you REALLY want to do that.

Week 6 - Lesson 15 Web 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

I read most of the information on the links and it's true, that libraries are changing and will continue to do so in the future. I still feel that the learning curve is great and one that will take many years for all people to catch up. There is so many things to learn (with new sites and technology added daily) and this Library 2.0 has been a great vehicle for me to learn a lot of those things. I'd love to see progams where we can teach some of these same skills to our patrons, especially young people. As they continue in their education, research and how to find it is essential. I'm often surprised just how much these students DO NOT know when trying to do basic research.

Week 6 - Lesson #14 Technorati

This is the coolest site ever! You can search for just about anything. I did the different search (blog posts, blog directory, and tags) and each screen was a little different. I even posted a comment on someone else's blog!

I can see how the tags can be useful, if used in moderation. I was searching for a particular breed of dog and the first blog post I went to, was for that exact dog. Other posts that I scanned, were for dog products, food, etc. Lots of junk to week through.

http://www.technorati.com/

Week 6 - Lesson 13 Del.ici.ous

I didn't really understand how this site would work, but once I got started on it, it's really great. I've got several sites that I would want to access from other computers, besides my home and this is a great way to do just that. I can see that this would be a wonderful tool for people who travel and still need to access their favorite sites. This really is the world wide web!

I'll have to share this new feature with my husband.

Week 3 - Lesson 7

I've played around with Google Earth a little and it's a really cool site. You can look at virtually anyplace on earth, via a satelite. Check out their site: http://earth.google.com/

My boys were the ones that turned me on to this (amazing what you can learn from your kids!).

Lesson 5 #12 Rollyo

I thought I was doing this correctly, but none of my search engines were saved. I'll have to play around with this some more in the future. I can see how this would be useful, to always search the more reliable sites and weed out some that aren't as good.

Lesson 5- #11 - Explored Voo2do site

This is actually a pretty cool site, for people who want to become more organized. You can set up different things you want to keep track of and it even has a note feature, where you can add more detailed information. I'm going to share this with my son, who is an endless list maker. This might make his life easier and eliminate the many paper lists he's got in his room!

The URL is http://voo2do.com

Registration is free too and that's a plus!

Lesson 5 - Play Week

I used comicstripgenerator.com and created a preset comic. It was pretty easy changing the text, but trying to center it in the bubble, proved a little complicated. I wished I could just have it in a text box and move it as I needed to.

Woo Hoo, this actually uploaded!!!!!! My first attempt at a picture had come up as that nasty box with a little X. If you clicked on it, it did take you the picture, but this is MUCH better.

Lesson 4 RSS & Newsreaders

I created my Blogline account and added several different sites to it. One was a SJ Mercury News site. I also added weather updates for SJ, as well as one from a SJ Librarian. It was a little confusing trying to figure out exactly what I was signing up for, but very simple to do.

www.bloglines.com

Lesson 3 Photos and Images

Here is a picture of a Bichon Frise dog. We recently lost our dog of 16 years and miss her terribly! These are a wonderful dog, especially for families with small children. They love and crave LOTS of attention!

I was able to find this link on the Flickr page, using the search field and typing in "bichon frise". First I copied the URL address of the picture and added it to my blog post, but the picture didn't load correctly. I then went back and saved it to my desktop and inserted it that way. Pretty simple really.

Lesson 2 - Flickr

I played around in Flickr, but didn't quite understand how to download/upload a picture. Some of the calendar photos were awesome. I did read that I didn't need to create an account, so I'll spend more time on this and see if I can make it work.

http://www.flickr.com/

UPDATE: Here is the real photo of our dog.

Lesson 1.

Well, after many weeks, I've finally got started doing the Library 2.0. The Seven & 1/2 habits of lifelong learners was very interesting. I feel that I possess most of these qualities already, but I guess my biggest obstacle is available time. I've decided to start this from home, where I do have more peace and quiet (at least while my sons and husband are at work!). I also couldn't believe that my very first blog name was accepted!!