2011

Happy New Year. I have not written on this blog since 2010. Wow, time goes by quickly. Hopefully you had a great start to the year and are enjoying this new year.

2010

Happy 2010. I am happy that we are facing a new year because 2009 was so eventuful and 2010 promises to be better. Hope all your wishes came through for 2009 and I pray that all our resolutions are met for 2010. My 2009 could not have been better.

Facebook

I am starting to enjoy Facebook, but it is hard to keep up with along with the blogs so something is going to suffer. My co-worker introduced me to Facebook and I tried to get most of my family on it, but only one of my daughter joined.

Facebook is fun, but it is so like blogging and I feel like I am doing everything in duplicate. Pretty soon we are going to run out of things to say and everyone is going to say shut-up already.

Week 10 - Summary

Libraries have to get involve in Learning 2.0 because of the huge impact on education. Teachers want students to be empowered and the web creates learning opportunities.

Blogs provide teachers with a communication tool to use to update student data, assign tasks, receive commentaries, and answer questions posted by students. Podcasts provide teachers with a fun digital learning tool. Many students are familiar with video learning so they participate because it interests them.

Media sharing sites such as Flickr help teachers with a resource to add images to their training presentations. Tagging makes it easier to search for relevant information. All the Web 2.0 tools are great teaching tools and library staff have to become familiar with these tools so they can help patrons to increase their skill level.

HCPL is already using many of the Web 2.0 tools, including blogging, tagging, eAudio book download and video downloading. Now I will answer the questions posed at the end of this program.

Q: What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
A: Week 3: For me Flickr was the most interesting and varied tool because there were so many options available.

Q: How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
A: The program has not really changed my lifelong learning goal because I have a job that encourages learning or get left behind.

Q: Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
A: No unexpected outcomes for me just a pleasure rush, but I was surprised by the total participants of the program.

Q: What ideas do you have for using these technologies at Harris County Public Library?
A: The technologies must be used as educational tools for our staff and our public.
Our library should use the tools to promote the library, our website and gather customer suggestions for improvements

Q: What else do you want to learn about? What other web 2.0 applications are you interested in?
A: I wish I could see into the future to know what is out there, but I want to learn all that is available.
-Flickr tools to create inventive banners/posters, etc.
-Screencasting Screencast (A great presentation tool)
-Network blog sites to promote customer interaction.
-WIFI security. WEP or WPA what serves the library best?
-Games for the gamers. The following sites are great gaming sources:
Freeciv , and Freecol .

Colorcop offers a cool tool for capturing colours anywhere on your screen. CDBurnerXP offers free software to burn CDs with Windows XP. 7-Zip offers a free WinZip-like software and Grisoft offers free antivirus software. I could go on, but you can check out the cool links on my sidebar.

I enjoyed my Learning 2.0 experience, and I can see myself using the new tools I explored. The tasks were sometimes time-consuming, but overall it was fun. I enjoyed my journey, and I hope you will feel empowered to try a few of the things I explored and wrote of in my blog.

Try at least one of the tasks that I explored and see what you think. This is "libhelper" signing off.

Week 9 - Web 2.0 Award Sites

Wetpaint was one of the Web 2.0 Award star that I investigated and really enjoyed. I think that site deserved its award because of its eaze of use and setup.

Magnolia was another award winner that I investigated and I actually preferred ma.gnolia to del.ici.ous the other bookmarking site I investigated because of the commentaries and book discussions.

Week 9 - YouTube - Do's & Don'ts

I found the Super Librarian "YouTube" skit to be great fun yet informative. The skit gave the audience general information of some of the tasks that Library workers do. The skit demonstrated to the audience the multi-tasking skill of a library worker who provide outstanding public service from DVDs, books, audios, and internet service and the skit only ran for 00:36 seconds. I also added another librarian skit that shows what library workers should NOT be doing in this privacy age. NO! NO! NO! Checkout both skits on my sidebar.

Week 9 - Podcasts

Podcasts
Yahoo Podcast works very well to find almost any podcast that is available. I logged onto Yahoo Podcast website and search for my interest in "Public Libraries". I entered library in the search field and received over 200 podcasts for libraries.

When I limited my search to "Public Library" my search result narrowed to 50 podcasts. I selected the few that drew my interest, for example "The Library Channel, and LibVibe: the library news podcast" and subscribed to them. I immediately started receiving news about Library Stuff.

Week 9 - Audio & Video Download

I have enjoyed listening to the books that I downloaded from my library's website. I downloaded softwares necessary to play the books; Overdrive Media Console, Adobe Reader and Mobipocket Reader. Next, I downloaded my books after first entering my library barcode. Videos were introduced recently and I may never leave my computer. I use Media Player to watch my favorite movie and listen to my favorite book. This is all free and I keep the books for two weeks and the movies for one week, without penalties. Returning the books or videos are automatic so I don't have to worry about late fees. Can you beat that? Most audio titles can be downloaded in digital formats such as MP3 and most video titles are available to stream online.

Libravox does offer the same free service as my library, but sometimes users have to fill out personal information that the library already has which is a minor irritant. They allow you to buy the audiobooks and videos. Rentals are also available, but why would one rent, when listening and downloading is free and easy? Hot audiobooks are also available for immediate listening.

Libravox's selection is wider than most public libraries, they have over 35,000 audiobooks available with no wait. At the library I sometime have to put books on hold and wait as much as two weeks to get a book that I love. The difference between most public libraries and Libravox.org is size and volume. This is a business for libravox and like Netflix they do it well.

Week 8 - Web-Based Applications

I tried Zoho writer by creating a Zoho account and creating a document, but I selected Google Docs & Spreadsheet Google Docs to use as my online word processor and spreadsheet maker because I had a google account and it was very easy and convenient to use Google's tools instead of trying to keep up with another account.

Checkout OpenOffice free software download with Microsoft Office Support

Week 8 - Social Networking

MySpace and Facebook are examples of social networking sites that are perfect for communicating information to long distance friends, families, and acquaintances. Tools that some abused, but most use to keep in touch and update records. I enjoyed checking out RateMySpace because I love home decor and I got several ideas from others on what to do and not do with my home design choices.