Summary of the 23 Things

Overall I have enjoyed learning to use the 23 Things. As I am not always the most technology savvy individual, I was surprised by the amount of Things I had already used quite frequently on the Web, like Flickr, YouTube, image generators, podcasts and blogging. Despite this, I enjoyed many new things that I was not aware of, such as the Flickr mashups and App Garden, Technorati, and Rollyo. I also signed up for new feeds on my bloglines account and plan to use this more in the future for my place to go for news, since I don't have television. It's wonderful to centralize all of the blogs you would like to keep up with on one location. After all, I will need to go somewhere to keep updated on all the technology changes that are happening. I plan to play around with many of the more unfamiliar 23 Things over the winter break, and I hope that in the future there will be more updated Learning 2.0 programs to help build on what I have already learned. I particularly like this online format for learning by completing the "Discovery Exercises" under each Thing because as you really use this new technology and try new things the Web's capabilities become slightly less overwhelming and much more fun.

Podcasts and Running

Unrelated to my library studies, I have been training for a 5K. I am a brand new runner (or shuffler more like) and one thing that I simply would not be able to do without are my 5K interval training podcasts. Although I spent some time searching the podcast sites listed on Learning 2.0, I've found that word-of-mouth and networking with people who share your interests can be the best way to get links to podcasts that are exactly what you were looking for. This is where blogging on social sites (for me it's been active.com and sparkpeople.com) can really bring together individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences to share what they have learned for the benefit of all. This truly is the beauty of the Web.

YouTube and Freedom of Information

Oh how I love YouTube. Freedom of information is key for librarians, and YouTube is just another way people can freely share information with one another. Here is a link to a video that talks about copyright laws and how in recent years those laws are being bent to benefit businesses, not the original creators of that information or the people who share it.
It's call "Copyleft vs Copyright; Rip! A Remix Manifesto," and here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8_kxaWJlR8

Web 2.0 Award for Travel to Kayak.com

I decided to check out Kayak as I'm going on a trip to Cali in January. I like some of the features of Kayak but one big thing that was missing for the flight sections was having connecting flight information listed. Only the prices, airline and times were listed for immediate view on Kayak. I like to know where I am going to be connecting through as I have favorite airports for my connecting flights, and although you could click on the "details" link to get this info in Kayak, to have to do it for each entry would be far more time consuming than it would be worth. Instead I went back to a tried and true site, like Orbitz which listed the same flights and prices, but I could quickly eyeball the connections for each flight to discard the airports I wanted to avoid. I have a feeling my bias might simply be my familiarity with other travel sites, and I will use Kayak more in the future to learn more about all its features as there were some fun aspects about it I liked.

Google Docs

Hmm...Google docs is wonderful for those group projects when multiple people need to be updating the same document at the same time. For one of my library studies classes, my group needed to share and edit not only word processing docs but spreadsheets and a powerpoint presentation. I would have to say the sharing makes the word docs online the most useful. Unfortunately, the spreadsheet on Goolge is very poor compared to excel. Being a former recordkeeper, I'm advanced in excel and creating our budgets and workplans for our group project, I needed to use many advanced excel functions. The formulas and formatting are less than basic and many things are not accurate on google docs for spreadsheets...very disappointing. We found that it was better to have an excel spreadsheet to update, attach and email the new one to each member of the group...very tedious but resulted in a spreadsheet that retained all its accuracy and advanced formatting/formulas. Powerpoint was similar, but if you create the main presentation and then import it to google docs only to make minor adjustments, this is much more tolerable.

Rollyo & Del.icio.us

I toyed around with both of these sites for awhile. I've used Delicious before and find that it can be a lifesaver when you are using a campus computer and there is a website you need to get to but forgot how you found it. If it's in your Delicious listings, then it's a snap to find. Rollyo is something I hadn't used before, but will begin using now. The benefits are you can trust the websites you want and disregard the rest; the negatives are that by using Rollyo you might become too dependent on too few sites and miss out on some spectacular websites you might find through a Google search, etc. I also have misgivings about everything being public. For example, I only list certain bookmarks in my Delicious account and not others that are more personal, like for my finances, or local business websites I use. It might be my paranoia, but I wouldn't want my bookmarks to give out too much personal info...like where I shop, local businesses (that would indicate very precisely where I live), etc.

Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

A couple of key phrases that really hit me in some on the perspectives were:
1. "Iceburg" - that everyone will expect everything to be available digitally
I am finding this to be true in my reference practicum. Students regularly ask if a book is available digitally or online in full text so they do not have to physically visit the library and check out the book. This was a particularly popular request during the last week of classes when students were feverishly trying to finish up research papers and didn't have the time to wait for inter-library loan or trying to find a book through WorldCat.
2. "Temporary" - that librarians will still be tour guides
This is so true. Frequently, students mention how they have searched for hours and hours to find scholarly articles but didn't know how to use the library's search resources and so came up with virtually nothing. As a last resort and often frustrated, they ask a reference librarian and are amazed when they realize how easily and quickly a search can be performed if they know what to do. One student at my practicum said she searched for 7 hours and found only 7 valid articles. I performed a search that was easy for her to follow and came up with 6 relevant full-text scholarly articles in one 5 minute search. Needless to say, she was ecstatic and wished she had come to the reference desk sooner. Librarians are still necessary in this day and age, and possibly even more so, when there is so much information it becomes ever more difficult to navigate the possibilities.

ImageChef

The online image generator I used was http://www.imagechef.com/ which a lot of my friends use. I probably will be dating myself with this image, but does anyone remember the "pet rock" back in the day?

My bloglines link

http://www.bloglines.com/public/evestano

Flickr, mashups & Cooliris

I love Flickr and use it mainly to search for favorite artist drawings and paintings. I tried the montagr in Flicker to make a montage of Otto Dix's portrait of Anita Berber of 1925. It turned out pretty cool but one problem with the montagr is that it pulls pictures with tags that are actually not very related. When I tried to use the tag "Otto Dix German Painter" to help narrow the feild, montagr said there were no images related to that tag although Flickr actually has a bunch. A bit disappointing. I decided to try a new picture application called Cooliris. It's a unique application that allows 3D display of pictures on your computer, facebook, etc. Check it out at http://www.cooliris.com/ and it's free to download. Also check out my favorite artist, Otto Dix, and some related pictures on Flickr using the Cooliris application at http://www.cooliris.com/tab/#url=jsfeed%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fsearch%2F%3Fq%3Dotto%2520dix%2520german%2520painter%26w%3Dall