WEEK 9 - ENDINGS & BEGINNINGS

These exercises gave a good overview of Web 2.0 tools; however, I was familiar with most of these tools anyways so it was just like a refresher course for me. Since I knew I needed to know these to be a reference librarian, I created accounts on all the major 2.0 sites and major internet –mail services right after graduating library school.

I feel that these exercises are not going to be useful to most of the staff and created a great deal of stress instead. Many WPL staff members don't have free internet access at the library like the reference librarians do.

The main problem with these exercises is that they did not represent the applications most library patrons use at the library, nor I suspect outside the library. Library 2.0 might not be as relevant for libraries, like WPL, which have certain demographic characteristics. For example, WPL serves many patrons who have little computer experience, a low level of technical literacy, and low levels of English literacy (Hispanic and non-Hispanic). Being on the reference desk, I experience this every day at the library. Having no computers or internet access at home, many community members lack the physical ability to access the library's resources remotely. If people don't have a basic understanding of how the internet/browsers work and don't know how to save a document, how are they going to use Podcasts, wikis, and RSS feeds?

The biggest problem with these 23 things is that they didn't involve hands-on exercises on the most popular 2.0 tools: Myspace, Facebook, YouTube. These are the most popular websites so these exercises would have been more valuable if everyone had to create accounts on these websites. I also get many questions about using internet e-mail applications such as Yahoo Mail and Hotmail; particularly on how to upload and download attachments. I think it would have been useful to have all staff make 1 or 2 email accounts and learn about internet e-mail.

WEEK 9 - LIBRIVOX

I went to the www.Librivox.org site to see what it was about. It was interesting but I did not feel it was well-designed or of use to a library. It might be fun to play with in one's spare time.

Here are the problems I see Librivox:

1. I was unable to listen to any of the recordings. I clicked on a link to download an .mp3 and it seemed like it was downloading something but no message ever came up saying it was completed nor did the application specify where on the hard drive it was downloading the audio file to. I also kept seeing a message saying that "archive.org may be down" and I may not be able to access the files.

2. I read the forum's FAQ about how Librivox works. Based upon this, its seems like its interest to library patrons would be very limited. First, the recordings are done with little or no editorial review process of the quality of the recording itself or the person reading it. Thus, the person reading the book may not have a good speaking voice, misread parts of the books or not recorded it properly. I found this lack of quality control disturbing.

3. The books available had to be in the public domain and published before 1923. This greatly limits the books available for patrons to listen to.

Since there is no quality control of the recordings and the material is limited by the fact that it is in the public domain, I believe this site would not be useful to a public library. Patrons want to listen to recent bestsellers and popular fiction more than literature from the 19th century or earlier. The worst part is that by encouraging patrons to access material which may be inaccurate and of poor quality (anyone can record and post a book), the library would be sending the message that it is not concerned about whether the product/service it is offerring is authoritative or of high quality.

WEEK 9 - EXERCISE 21- PODCASTS

I examined the podcast tools podcast.net and podcastalley.com. Podcast.net pulled up more relevant search results than Podcastalley.com when I did a search on the word "library". Podcast.net was an easy to use site which included all kinds of libraries: special, academic, and public. The library's listed had interesting podcasts of various programs and events which were held at the libraries, podcasts by librarians talking about their libraries, and interviews with members of the community about the community and/or the library.

Podcastalley.com was a more robust site than podcast.net. This site pulled up several non-library related sites when I did a search using the term "library". This site also had podcasts by libraries showing their various events and programs. The unique feature of podcastalley.com was that it let viewers vote and comment on podcasts and showed their popularity ranking.

Podcasts seem to be a good way to promote the library and its various events and programs because it shows examples of them rather than just having boring text desriptions or buried in newsletters. It brings the library to life for the viewer

WEEK 8 - Web 2.0 Tools

I examined DIGG at www.digg.com. I chose this site because the icon for it is on the bottom of many news sites.

I thought it was totally useless tool. Digg rates blog postings, not blogs, based on popularity. People click on Digg icon. The blog postings are also organized by format (videos, images) and subject such as technology, science and gaming. There is nothing that important about one blog posting over the millions posted everyday that one specific posting would be worth reading. The other problem is that their is no specific objective criteria used for judging one blog posting better than another.

WEEK 8 - EXERCISE#18

I just created an account and some documents using Zoho Writer. It has all the major features someone might commonly use when composing a Word document. The ability to publish, email, and share documents collaboratively are good advanced features. I also added tags to my documents.

The best thing about web-based applications, like Zoho Writer, is that you can access your documents from any computer no matter where you are. In addition, you don't have to back it up because it is saved on Zoho's servers

Week 7 - Wikis

EXERCISE 16

Wikis can contain any type of information the users and creators want to put in them. They can have information on book reviews, library news, community information, links to possibley interesting websites, or conference information.

I noticed the Wikis were made using the same wiki software as the Wikipedia and others used Wiki application software like ours, PB. The look of all Wikis using the same software tools have the same look no matter how much the content differs. Some Wikis had tabs for discussion forums and for editing as well as history of changes. They all used different layouts for navigation bars/areas.

Wikis would be a useful way for librarians within the same library to share knowledge, good websites, tips with their co-workers for internal use only. In other words, wikis could act as a knowledge management database. They could also a way of interacting with patrons for Reader's Advisory type issues. For example, sharing opinions on books, favorite book lists, etc. Wikis could serve as blogs if used this way. I noticed many libraries used wikis for the same purpose as the library website.

EXERCISE 17

It was easy to use our wiki and fun to share our favorite things with others.