Assignment 7, (Penultimate) Podcasts, 4/27/08-5/3/08

http://www.sarahlong.org/podcast/?_episode=98 April 23, 2008 Longshots #98 - Linda Braun and Podcasting: Sarah Long of NSLS talks with Linda Braun, an Educational Technology Consultant, about the potential of podcasting (17 minutes).
Explore one of these podcast directories to find a podcast to suit your personal interests:
The Library Success Wiki, at http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Podcasting has an extensive list of public libraries, academic libraries, and affiliated organizations that are podcasting.
Learn Out Loud features educational podcasts, at http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory Browse the "Podcast Directory" on the left hand side.
Podcast Alley, at http://www.podcastalley.com/index.php is a general podcast directory.
Answer these questions:
1. Which library podcast did you listen to?
2. Do you see podcasting as a useful tool for our library?
3. Any ideas about which topics our patrons might be interested in hearing?
4. Do you have any other experience with listening to or creating podcasts?

Assignment 6 (at last), Wikis, 4/20/08-4/26/08

Watch another of these "Plain English" shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY&NR=1 “Wikis in Plain English”.
Read these 2 websites:
How Stuff Works: "How Wikis Work" at http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wiki.htm
and
Wikipedia article: “Wiki”, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
Visit these 5 library wikis, at http://del.icio.us/theskokieten/librarywikis

Answer these questions: What do you think of Wikipedia? Would you, or do you, trust and use it to find information? Can you think of ways wikis can be used by libraries to offer something to its patrons? Can you think of ways that a wiki can be helpful to you and your department?
Bonus: set up a simple Wiki for something in our department, or add to a wiki that one of your coworkers sets up! Game night at Vida's--who's bringing what food and games? "Silly Stories" storytime list? Upcoming "Reader's Advisory" book selection? Other ideas?

Breaking news on the social network front: Austin tells me that Facebook just added an IMing feature so that everyone who has a facebook account can IM from there. He says "now I'll never need to sign off of facebook". Apparently this is a desirable addition. Thought y'all would want to know.

Assignment 5, Flickr, 4/13/08 - 4/19/08

Take a look at one or all 3 of the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPU4awtuTsk&NR=1 “Online Photo Sharing in Plain English”

The Newbie's Guide to Flickr at http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9703620-2.html.

16 Ways to use Flickr @ Your Library, at http://tametheweb.com/2006/09/steal_this_idea_flickr_for_lib.html.

Make some observations about the benefits of Flickr for staff and for patrons.

This is a catch-up week! Please be sure you have posted responses to previous assignments! Wikis, Podcasting and Virtual Library are coming in the final 3 weeks.

Shelfari

I hope you each received an email announcing our own Shelfari shelf for Historical fiction books. I'm going to try to put a link from Shelfari on this blog. We'll see if I'm successful.

Assignment 4, Social Networking, 4/6/08 - 4/12/08

If you'd like a little overview, try out this quick 2 minute "Social Networking in Plain English" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc
Visit one or more of the following social networking websites. If you already belong to one or more social networking sites, try visiting one you're not familiar with.
MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/): The most popular social networking site on the planet, frequented by millions of teens and twentysomethings, and used by bands as a marketing tool. Madeline maintains a GEPL page on MySpace.
Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/): Originally designed for use on college campuses, skews to a slightly older audience, and features a cleaner, more customizable interface.
LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/): Designed for professionals to post resumes and build contacts.
Eons (http://www.eons.com/): Social networking and activity sharing geared toward ages 50+ (they bill themselves as the online community for BOOMers).
Answer these 2 questions: What features do you like or dislike about the site(s) you visited? What do you think makes them so popular?
NOTE: This is assignment 4 of 8 assignments. At this rate, we'll be done with all 8 assignments by the time spring storytimes end! Be sure to post your comments for all assignments.

Blogs: The History

While looking through NPRs book reviews I found a timeline of blogging that also explains what blogging is. You might find this helpful: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17421022