Week 8 - Web2.0 Awards

I took a look at a couple of the short list of Web2.0 winners. Lulu is a self-publishing site. You can upload content and then have your book, brochure, calendar published. The calculator lets you pick the binding, size, color or black&white, number of pages and number of copies and then gives you the manufacturing costs, so you can determine the selling price. I like knowing about this site because we often get questions on self-publishing from authors. I can see some fundraising applications for the library also, ...calendars of Fuller treasures?
Another interesting site is Be Green Now. This let me calculate my carbon footprint and gave tips for reducing or offsetting my use of hydrocarbons.

Week 8 - Posting from Zoho Writer

Zoho Writer would be a great way to collaborate on a book or article.  I see many familiar icons to MSWord.  The template library looks like it will be useful.

Week 7 - Wikis

Wikis have tremendous library application. At SCLD, we had a pathfinder notebook (I was responsible for several topics)that was updated at most twice a year. With a wiki, those kind of subject guides can be continually updated and expanded.
Another really useful application would be for individuals on committees to add their thoughts, information found, responses between meetings.
Since I live halfway between the Lakeside and Loon Lake Libraries, I'm impressed with the Stevens County Rural Library District Wiki because it is for the entire county. They are really taking a leading role in the community with this.

Week 6 -Technorati tags, Library 2.0

My Technorati search results for Learning 2.0 (with a space):
2,702 in Blog posts
1,252 in tags
810 in Blog directory

Learning2.0 (without a space):
488 in Blog posts
510 in tags
149 in the Blog directory

I read the Away from Icebergs article with interest. Having been in libraries for some time, I have seen these icebergs often. As a Vertical File (remember them?) maintainer, I helped create a "Just in case" collection of brochures that somebody might need for something sometime, and kept them for years. As a reference collection and adult nonfiction weeder, I kept many a non-circing book because it had merit and somebody would need it someday. Those days are long gone! I weeded that vertical file into nothing. Those books are no longer catching dust on library shelves. If someone needs that bit of information, I have the skills and resources to find it for them.
"Relying on user education" Wasn't this another way of guaranteeing librarians were needed - as teachers of the intricate, sometimes arcane ways of retrieving an item or information. No one is going to take the time to learn our way to get something they already know how to get from the net. We have to set up what we're selling so they can get it the way they already know. And I totally agree that proprietary rights conflict with easy access.
"Make them come to us" Customers had to come to the library physically to get our product.(There was phone reference and outreach of course) I can see having as much as possible accessible in as many ways as possible. However we can also continue to create space that people WANT to come to by having meeting space, access to technology for those who can't afford it, a Child Safe place and adult, teen and juvenile programs.
SPL is plunging into Library2.0! This SPL2.0 exercise is raising staff awareness and skills. Much of what we offer is available from anywhere (some with those pesky proprietary hurdles) We are streamlining our paper collections. We are asking the public what they want and responding to the input we are given.

Week 6 - Delicious

I can see quite a bit of utility to Delicious for the librarian who works in more than one location. When I worked at SCLD, I could be at two or three service desks at Valley, at Argonne and Moran Prairie all in the same week and every Favorites(or Bookmarks)was different. There is nothing better than getting a repeat question and having a perfect website to answer it at hand. Especially if the answer was hard to find the first time, I'd bookmark the site, but not always be on the right computer when I got the question for the second time.

Week 5 - Rollyo

I see a great deal of usefulness in this customized search engine. There are often good sites that are lost because they are several pages down on the results list. I wouldn't have to remember the best sites I used to answer questions that are asked periodically.
I created a searchroll for herb farm info.

Select Search Engine...Fussy Hen at the LibrarySearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

Week 5 - I love LibraryThing

LibraryThing is great. I've thought about making a list of books in my home library, but who has the time. And I can see connecting with folks that are reading the same books. How fun.
I want to add a LibraryThing widget to my blog, but where am I supposed to paste the code?

Week 5 - Image generators

Well, I tried to find the worth of my blog http://tools.cuborojo.com/valorblog/ and only got that my blog doesn't exist. So then I tried the Tibetan name generator. http://www.chine-informations.com/langues/en/?/mods/prenoms-tibetains/ but is didn't seem to be working today. So to the upper right you see my name (Susanne not Fussy Hen) in Chinese. http://www.chinesetools.eu/names/

I may also use the calendar generator in the future, http://www.freephotocalendar.net/free-printable-photo-calendar.php once I get some sheep and chicken photos taken.

Week 4 - Technorati

I found Technorati really interesting. It keeps track of what is being blogged about in real time. Three times an hour, it checks current news stories and blog responses to those new stories. It gives a rating to how much blog attention is being given to a news story. The site seems very complex to me and I had to do a bit of clicking, looking and thinking to see when I was getting the actual news story and when I was getting the reaction to it. I ended up reading some blogs (about current entertainment) that were crude and rude and just short of profane.
I started thinking this was a real waste of my time. Then I followed the story about the mammoth tusks that had been pelleted by meteorite fragments (either 13000 or 40+000 years ago) and one of the commenting bloggers had a blog listed in his blogroll that I liked so much that I added it to my bloglines. Cocktail Party Physics.

wichtel-013

wichtel-013
Originally uploaded by revoluzzza

Got off on a tangent on flicker and I couldn't resist these little guys.

Week 3 - Sociability vs Privacy and Follow the Money

Earlier this week, the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, issued an apology to Facebook users for not initially giving them an option to opt out of Beacon, an advertising program that tracks users online purchases and reports those purchases to their Facebook designated friends. The theory here is that - if your friend buys an item, you'll want to buy it also. This prompted enough of an outcry [Hey! Now my wife knows I bought that diamond jewelry! Of course, it was for her.]
This is a perfect example of the looming loss of individual privacy as we become part of the expanding internet social network. [In order to get this far on SPL2.0, I have had to get a Google account and a Yahoo account. I am more out there than I have ever been before.] In order to be social, to make friends, we have to give of ourselves, share history, share feelings, thoughts. I've gotten carried away in conversations in the past and later wished I hadn't shared that embarassing incident. If I tell my online blog, it won't be just one person who knows about it.
And why do people want to know my private information? To be my friend? I think not. They want to make money off me. Mark Zuckerberg says Beacon is a warm fuzzy way for friends to get trusted product recommendations from their friends. But Beacon is really a income generating (and BIG income) advertising tool. Other people just want my credit card numbers so they can buy those recommended products.
And we are moving to never being asked if we want to participate, only [hopefully] to be given a chance to opt out after we are enrolled. What next? When voting, will we have to uncheck the boxes of the preferred candidates if we don't want to vote for them.

Successful (with Monica's help) posting of a flickr photo

One tulip on higher ground.
Originally uploaded by Bēn

This photo by Ben is taken in the Netherlands. I also grow tulips in Deer Park.

Flickr is efficient

I just saw Monica's photos from Marilyn's retirement party. I can see that she saved time and trouble by loading her photos once to Flickr, instead of attaching them to a number of emails. And she was able to limit viewing to a select group.

Week 3.5 lost the blog

Did not see my blog on the library's list. I had to create a new password to see it at all.

Day 1

This is my first post to my new (and only) blog. This seems like a great opportunity to learn about web applications that are common place to many of our customers. It is never too late for an old hen to learn new tricks.