Sunday, September 23, 2007

Thing 23

I am in agreement with Kathie White (Frederick County) who said in her blog, that "exploring" is not her best way of learning. I sometimes found the instructions confusing and lacking in the detail that I need. I also found this project to be very time-consuming.
On the plus side, I do think it is important to know about the tools in our information literacy toolbox. I also feel that I became much more comfortable with some basic computer operations. My favorite "tool" ? E Audio books!
Now I can have my Sundays back.
The End.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Thing 22

As the juvenile audio selector, I have checked every juvenile/family/classic title on both Overdrive and NetLibrary. I also keep track of each title that I have ordered in the book-on-cassette/book-on-cd formats. I wanted to compare what I had selected with what was available on-line. At this point in time, I'm not going to base my selection work on what we can offer on-line, however, this may change. For now, I just like to have this information in mind when I make my choices. And since I am systematically replacing popular book-on-cassette titles with the cd format, being familiar with what is available on-line may help me make some hard choices when money is an issue.
I was pleasantly surprised because I only expected to find the standard children's classics, and what I actually found was a nice mix of old and newer titles.
Project Gutenberg: this was new to me. A subject index would be nice. And since I have an Apple iPod, I noticed that I could download some titles from this site. I also noticed that they have sheet music. Some of our customers might like this feature.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Thing 21

I spent most of my time on Yahoo Podcasts. I entered book reviews and children's book reviews--which had far fewer entries. This was also true of Podcast.net and Podcastalley.com-the latter gave me a mix of J and A reviews. I listened to Nancy Pearl, someone on Book Voyages, and Children's Book Radio. I discovered that not everyone has a voice suited to podcasting. I would have to include myself in this category, having heard recordings of my own voice.
I am an iPod woman , and I love iTunes. I felt really clever when I burned my first CD !
Merlin site -commented on this back in Thing 17. It doesn't seem as well put-together as other sites I've looked at. I listened to and watched a clip from Nini's Vodcast.

This is from NPR, regarding a lost Pearl Buck manuscript-very interesting-

This is an RSS feed from Podcast.net--Youth Radio on KQED-FM-

Thing 20

This is "SHOES:THE FULL VERSION"--warning--if you are offended by naughty language, don't watch this. However, if you love shoes as much as I do, it may amuse you.
I am familiar with YouTube because well-meaning friends,usually my really YOUNG friends, are forever dragging me to a computer terminal and insisting that I watch this or that. I also looked at "March of the Librarians", videos from my favorite British rock/pop group, and after entering the term "book reviews" found "The Big Read: Fahrenheit 451" from the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library system. This looked like a good example of what some creative person could do on our library website. I also found quite a few Harry Potter videos under "book reviews"--I started to watch one but decided it was too long (8 + minutes). I had to keep moving. I may return, however, because I am interested in what is being created for the final H.P. title.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Thing 19

Under Classifieds & Directories, I found Craigslist which I have used to give away items, such as a playbill, and an emblem from my 1969 Mustang.
I thought that Wufoo.com might be helpful for library surveys, but all of the forms that I looked at were very basic. Under Books,I was happy to find Bibliofind, and LibraryThing (I now know about this one), but I had mixed feelings about Lulu.com. As a selector, I am sent self-published books, so I am aware of the poor quality of much that is self-published. However, what if we referred our local authors to a site such as this one? You can publish, buy, or sell!
I had fun with this exercise.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Thing 18

http://export.writer.zoho.com/ZExport.do
I created a "Hot Topics" test document on Zoho.
I liked the template choices.

On Google Docs--I could have my own Wiki ! And I liked the "editing with others in real time" feature.

Thing 17

I found this confusing--is it just me--or is Montgomery County missing from the list of library systems? My personal blog address is on the Favorites page, I made a comment about a favorite activity on the "Front Page", and I commented on someone's list of "Favorite Children's Books"-she had listed ELOISE as one of her favorite books, so I commented on that. Does this prove that I was in the Sandbox? I certainly hope so !
I did enjoy reading what others like.