Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Thing 9. Online Collaboration Tools

Online collaboration tools would be great for a group of people to edit a document without worrying about if everyone has the right software on their machines. Once I received permission to edit the documents, it was easy to edit. Goggle Docs will be something that I keep in mind the next time the need for something like this comes along.

Thing 8. Share Your Creations

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These tools have a lot of possibilities for library and personal use. The PictureTrial presentations and other slideshow programs are a fun way of showing photos from library events and/or an additional tool for marketing upcoming events. These presentations paired with the database makers would be a great way to do online book displays and staff recommendations. Both PictureTrial and Lazybase were very easy to use. Here is the link to my very short movie database http://lazybase.com/dbhome?a=212447786

Friday, February 15, 2008

Thing 7. Web 2.0 Communication Tools

Email

I love email. As our library’s secretary do a lot of room scheduling, supply ordering, sending work orders to the physical plant, and anything else that a staff member or patron might need. Email is quick way for me to receive information about these needs and usually the best and easiest way for me to respond to them. However, I agree with most of the productivity hints. I like to deal with the quick, easy to answer emails right away and get them off my plate. I do not like to write long emails so unless I need to inform several people about something I will usually just go and talk to the person or call. I personally like to have my auto check look for messages frequently. I believe that I am pretty good at determining if a message is important enough that it would need an immediate response. If it doesn’t I will just ignore it until I am able to look it.

IM

Our librarians here have an IM reference service. It seems to go well for them. I do not use IM at work but I do use it home on occasion. I used it a lot more when I was in college. I guess the novelty of IMing the person across hall has worn off.

Text Messaging

I do text message some with my teenage nieces and nephews. It is a great way to stay in touch with them. It is much easier to text them then to get them to talk to their aunt or uncle on the phone. While I know what I am doing when I text, I am always amazed at how fast my nieces and nephews can type away and send their message. In the time it takes me to send one message they have sent five.

I spent a semester in Norway about 5 years ago. Texting is king there. Their cell phones are basically purchased for texting purposes. On any form of public transportation you would see people, young and old, texting. It was very rare to see someone actually talk on their cell phone. This is because all of their cell phones are prepaid and it uses less minutes to text than to talk.

Texting is already important in everyday life of college and high school students. I can see how text messaging reference service may become something that is very important to library users.

Web Conference

I have attended several webinars for training in the different ALEPH modules. While I think that these are a wonderful tool and it is great to not have to travel somewhere to attend training, webinars are not favorite. I have a hard time focusing on what is being discussed. This may just be that I am more of a hands on learner.

Thing 6. Online Image Generators

My creation
My creation,
originally uploaded by vikingp_2000.
In the past, our library has handed reminder cards to patrons who have brought in meals (mostly pizza) or whose noise level is out of control. The cards simply remind them that their actions need to be respectful of other library patrons and library materials. We could maybe recreate these cards in a fun way using the trading card feature.

Thing 5. More Flickr Fun

My creation
My creation,
originally uploaded by vikingp_2000.
Wow, the warning is correct; it is very easy to spend a lot of time playing with the many different features in Flickr. Our library could probably use the movie poster and trading cards to advertise events. We might possibly use a few other applications as a creative way to show photos from prior events or creating any temporary signage needed around library.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Thing 4. Photosharing with Flickr

Pay it Forward photos 002
Pay it Forward photos 002,
originally uploaded by vikingp_2000.
This is a photo of a display that is up in our library. Our library already uses Flickr for online book displays and I have used Flickr for personal use on several occasions. My husband and I live far away from most of our family so Flickr has been a good way to share photos with them. I think photos that are put on Flickr for the library are okay being marked public. I would assume that most photos a library would put up would be for marketing proposes so you would want people to look at them. However, for personal use I almost always mark them private.