THE END

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
Of the things that I did not know already I think that my favorites were probably Librivox and LibraryThing.
• How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
My lifelong learning goals have certainly been affected.  I think it is important to keep up with the latest web 2.0 technologies.  It will be difficult considering how quickly they pop up but as a future library professional it will be necessary.
• Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I was not expecting to re-find Lifehacker so that was certainly a bonus.
• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I suppose I would try to add more things that people do not already know.  Youtube and Flickr are pretty popular already and so perhaps not as useful to explore. 

 

Overall I think that this was one of our more useful assignments thus far and had a lot of useful information reading-wise.  I think it was helpful to re-think some of the known web 2.0 technologies in terms of the library context.  I most enjoyed learning about the new technologies and wish there were more.

#22 Other Web 2.0 - Digg

Digg is a fantastic resource/time waster.  It provides a healthy mixture of the latest headlines with a nice selection of humorous lists/comics/other content.  The content is linked to by users and then other users either click a link that they "digg" the link or they do not click said link.  You can then browse by recent links or by amount "digg" ('d? ed? dug?) in the past 24 hours / 7 days / 30 days.  You can also browse by various section titles.  After reading an article/viewing the content of the post you can then comment and discuss the link with other users. I am uncertain about what is moderated out but it appears that there is a fair amount of content that might be deemed "inappropriate" by certain individuals though there must be some filter because I would imagine that there would be many more spam/explicit content links.  I think that this site could be used in libraries by librarians to stay on top of the latest tech news and also by users though implementing it in any formal way is probably not a great idea given some of the more questionable content.

#21 On Library 2.0...

The first brief I read was Rick Anderson's "Away from the 'Icebergs.'"  I found this brief to be somewhat confusing.  The icebergs that Anderson brings up are regarding: 1.)Spending on the print collection 2.)User-education and reasons why we should focus more on simplicity than on educating 3.)The so called "come to us" model of libraries.  If libraries were to spend less on print, were to make things completely simple, and did not require patrons to come to them physically or virtually then what would a librarians role be exactly?  Instead of furthering our field it almost sounds like Anderson is picturing the complete demise of it.  Print resources are still necessary there are some items that work best in print and might not digitize well.  And I prefer books anyway.

The next brief I read was Michael Stephens's brief "Into a New World of Librarianship" was much more positive compared to Anderson's, and, I believe, much more interesting.  Stephens proposes a technologically efficient library where the librarian still has a place as an assistant and a member of the community rather than someone in some position of power.  In Stephens's vision of future libraries the librarians and users work together and openly discuss what new features would best assist the user.  The librarians are not merely passive though they must also be trend spotters and stay on top of tech news to introduce their users to the latest technologies.  This is a vision I could subscribe to.

#20 Zotero

I do not like installing things that mess with my browser, but I will allow this one because it could be useful and isn't an obnoxious toolbar.

My Zotero Library

Ok, it was a little confusing because I ignored the tutorial but I got it working pretty quickly.   I do think that this might be another tool that I continue to use.

#19 Rollyo

To be completely honest, I don't like it.  There aren't really any sites that I trust enough to have all of the information I want and even if there were I would probably just go to that site and search it.  I suppose if I had more specialized interests it might come in handy to weed out the garbage and just get information from sites I trust...but currently I prefer to search many sites because who knows where else there might be more/better information for a given topic.

#18 Library Thing

One of the lists that I have created in the past is a list of the books that I own in case of naturaldisaster/suddenurgeofpyromania/robbery/simplylosingthings so a site like LibraryThing certainly helps in that type of list making: My Library. I suppose my favorite feature is that they recommend you titles based on your library as I am always looking for new books to read.  I think of all the tools that I had not yet explored thus far this is the one I will probably continue to use in the future.

#17 More Google

I have used some of the Google tools before such as Google Earth, iGoogle, and Google Books.

-Google Earth - I had installed on my computer for a while just to play around with.  One time I did actually use it for directions to a mall that I had not been to and was impressed with the traffic updates.  Usually I just use Google Maps now though.

-iGoogle - I had this as my homepage for a long while.  I had some apps on my page such as sticky notes (great for more lists!), weather, and a couple of simple games like Tetris.  I do not remember why I stopped using it and I think I might set it up again sometime.

-Google Books - when I was an undergrad (my major was English) my professors were constantly mentioning short stories that sounded interesting so sometimes I would check on Google Books before searching the library and I was surprised to find a handful of the stories.  While Google Books doesn't always have full text for entire books they do often have a preview section (and for some books if you are signed in you get more of a preview) so sometimes the stories just happened to line up with the preview section available.