Final thoughts...THE END!!

Well...I've finally made it! It's been a long time in the making, but my blog is now complete.

My favourite exercises were learning about images generators, and getting the chance to browse through you tube and imbed a video. It was also very useful learning about podcasts and audiobooks.

This program was very useful in providing introductions to many popular web tools that are available. We often hear about this stuff but never actually get around to trying it out. This was a great opportunity to try out many different "things".

I was most surprised to find out how easy it was to used these tools once introduced. Especially things like audiobooks and shared calendars. Tools that are very available but the steps are often a mystery. The exercises helped in learning how to get results step by step.

If this type of program was offered again I may consider participating. I learn much better in a classroom set up (e.x hands-on workshop), but realize that there is no way this scope of material could have been covered in that way. I found that in trying to get through all of the "things", it was hard to properly retain all of the information when you were quickly moving on to the next subject.

NVDPL Sandbox

I logged onto the Sandbox and contributed both a favourite book and movie! I like how we can all contribute to shared lists and edit whenever necessary. I found the wiki to be very user friendly and I really liked the layout. It was much more user friendly than I had anticipated.

Library 2.0

After reading through a couple of the perspectives, I think that Library 2.0 is mainly about keeping up with what's current, and more importantly how these current trends can be integrated into libraries in order to keep patrons and staff up-to-date and involved.

In "Away from Icebergs" Anderson mentions how important it is to begin "training" our patrons in order to prepare them for technical advances. I think that with the numerous internet, email, and networking workshops available through libraries that we are most certainly handling things well!

Technorati

Technorati has a lot of information!

The ability to search by tags is really useful in reducing the number of hits, and I found the Blog Directory to be really interesting in finding out the tons of different blogs out there.

I also liked the Popular section which included books! Great way to find out what people are looking into.

Wikis

I thought the Book Lovers Wiki was a great idea,especially how they tied it in with their Summer Reading Club.

Wikis seems like a good way for people to share and view information...even those may be technically challenged considering that you don't need to be familiar with HTML.

Book review wikis and the ALA conference wiki are great examples of ways that libraries can get everyone involved and kept up-to-date.

Podcasts

This exercise was perfect as podcasts were an area that I knew nothing about! I looked at the directories and really liked Podcast Pickle...maybe it was the cute mascot?

I found a great podcast called Bloodloss Horrocast which is a podcast dedicated to horror movies. I've added the RSS feed to my google reader.

Audiobooks and eBooks

I often listen to audiobooks on my drive, and after looking at Library to Go I may consider downloading one to my player. The site is very helpful and the instructions seem straight forward (I hope). We'll soon find out!