Thing # 23 - Learning 2.0 New Canaan Library

# 23-It is amazing that I finished all 23 items on the list. I kept on postponing this, there were always other jobs taking precedence. But it is done, I am happy. I learned a lot. Most important is that I picked up courage to blog. I learned about Flicker, Twitter, adding RSS and podcasts, tags. Now if a patron asks me about these things, I will be able to help. I teach Excel in the Library, and have downloaded practice-exercise on the public computers. I am thinking if I should put it on Google Docs.

I would love to participate if you offer another discovery program. May be next time we should have a weekly meeting and work and learn from each other.

Thing #22- Get a second life

Second Life: Read the suggested articles to become familiar. It was fun to see the Info Island Community. I also looked at Florida's Orange County Library System's virtual library.
I was amused by that residents of Second Life are represented through Avatars. Avatar is a Sanskrit word-one who descends and takes a human form, closest English translation is Incarnation. I did not sign up for an account, Laurie had an account, she let me use that. I was slow but it was fun to play the game-my first time-to make Angie fly, walk, jump, turn around, change gloves shoes etc. I guess this is for people who have time to to sit by the computer, one can really get addicted and forget other things. You can compare it with Solitaire.

Thing # 21--Facebook and Linkedin

Facebook: The very popular social networking site, specially with teenagers. Users can add friends and send messages, update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. To become familiar with Facebook I attended Laurie's class, she also showed us the dummy Library Facebook page. She explained how to keep things private, put tags, add photos.

There have been concerns regarding the difficulty of deleting user accounts, as of last year Facebook has changed its deletion policy and now users can contact the website to request that their accounts be permanently deleted.
My nephews and nieces created Facebook accounts and were so excited about it, now they have lost interest in this and stopped using it and moved on to Twitter. Twitter is the new craze.

Linkedin: is a business-oriented social networking site. The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection.

Thing # 20 -Web 2.0 Award Winners

Award Categories and the Winners:
Looked at Employment and Jobs; Food and Travel categories. Employment and Jobs is an important category for a Reference librarian to help patrons. I was familiar with the #2 winner Career Builder and # 3 winner Monster. It was good to learn about #1 Standout. I was surprised to see that no jobs were listed in Stamford, CT.

I like the Food category-#1 Im Cooked-video demo; you had to sign up to see the printed recipe, I liked #2 winner-Urbanspoon-it gave the restaurants in CT.You can find by town, popularity, type of food and by price. Provides very Good information for Fairfield County restaurants

I also looked at the travel category and liked #1 winner Farecast.

#19 Web based applications- Zoho Writer & Google Docs

Looked at list of the web based applications. Also checked Zoho writer and Google Docs. I am familiar with Google Calendar and have used it. For this exercise I used the spreadsheet program for Reference Department's Volunteers schedule and shared it with other collegues. Now that I am using Excel 2007, Google Spreadsheet seemed dull . I also tried their Presentation program -which is their version of PowerPoint. This was OK.

Zoho Writer's- Think Free -View a document without opening it in the Office program was good.

Things # 17-18 Delicious and Technocrati

# 17: Delicious-is a social network where people can bookmark webpages and then add tags to categorize the bookmarks. The idea is to discover something new and share with others. It will help people who are working together on a research or a joint project or seeking information on a certain subject like travel, airplane seating and detailed seatmap etc. The information can be overwhelming.

#18: Technocrati- Checked Discover and Popular features-Under What's popular it gives Top Blogs, videos, movies, news, dvds, music and games. In overview of blogs, I was surprised to see that under Top 100 blogs by Fans and Top 100 blogs by Authority. #1 Boing Boing by Fans became #5 by Authority.
I searched Learning 2.0 in Blog Directory, it came up 6448 and when I searched tags only the number was 73. I also looked at claiming your blog, but at this time I am not interested in it.

Things #15-16 Wikis

Wiki-The word wiki has always fascinated me. There are pros and cons. Anyone can add or delete, or edit; good for the new ideas but at the same time information can be wrong. The participants need to register. It is good in an office or nonprofit organization environment, people can give their opinions before they have a meeting. It saves time. I use Wikipedia information for several things, hoping that only knowledgeable people have their input.

For this exercise, I read several linked articles, for the practical part #16, I added my blog to the New Canaan Learning 2.0 Wiki.

Things #14

#14:Impact of Web 2.0 on libraries-

I have read several articles about the impact of Web 2.0 on the libraries and also attended Darien Library's John Blyberg's presentation at CLA.

It is important for me to learn about this, because it affects service and interaction with our patrons. The impact of Web 2.0 is huge, it is bringing change

Some of our patrons use RSS feeds for new acquisitions, while other like POD casts for our Authors on Stage programs. They want to learn about blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Facebook class has been very popular. Some patrons know a lot about it, they know how to use worldcat, or see new items on Amazon and make suggestions, but some are confused and have no idea.
We do offerIM service for ref. questions, it allows real time communication. But sometimes librarian is not at the desk, she/he may be helping a patron who can not find the book on the shelf or helping with a computer or printer problem.

We are moving in the right correction, this is future, helps better communication and faster and better service.

Things 11-13

#11: Discover YouTube-It was fun to watch some of the short videos. YouTube is not only for fun, it is also educational. You can watch interviews, music and dance performances, just silly-funny & how-to-videos. I did write a blog and also uploaded a funny video on June 3.


#12: Twitter-Today ( Aug. 5th) I opened a twitter account. LJ (June 15) has a nice article about it-Working the Social: Twitter and Friendfeed. It also suggests 20 ways for librarians to use twitter. Aug.6th-I thought I will tweet, but twitter.com wasn't working. In the evening news I heard about the problem. I will try again.

#13: Library Thing- Posted on June 14. I will add 3 more books with reviews
to this.

Things 6-10

#6-Flicker-On June 3, I signed up and posted two photographs of my Paris trip. It is great tool for photo management and sharing pictures with your friends and family online.

#7: Flicker Mashups and 3rd party sites-Looked at Flicker Color Pickr-photos by color, some were really nice-specially nature photographs in various shades of green.

Mashups-Liked the one's on trippermap-for premium map you have to pay-no frills is limited but free. I would like to try this in the future. There were lots of interesting things.

#8: Blog about anything Technology--On June 16-wrote a blog about the new technology-a new device will be able to control upto 8 gadgets. The device is designed to sit on a shelf or table which has a clear line of sight to the television and the owner. Its software recognizes simple, deliberate hand gestures and then sends the appropriate signal to a universal remote control.
Also how twitter and cell phones helped to get the new out to the world after the Iranian elections.

#9: Download audio books- Downloaded two audio books on June 14.

#10: Search tools for Podcasts-Read about the podcasts and also looked at the popular and ten top podcasts of podcastalley.com and podfeed. The New Canaan Library catalog also offers Authors on Stage podcasts. I downloaded couple of items from NPR's Between the Lines on the Window's media player and listened to Annie Leibovitz-author of At work. At this time, I don't have any plans to become a podcaster.

Things 1-5

I just realized that I did not make entries for some of the things on the list to get credit, so I am going to write about each thing in order.

Thing #1-Exploration and discovery are fun- Read the blog and about the Learning 2.0 @ the New Canaan Library.

Thing # 2- Set up your own blog-I did on blogger.com and wrote Memories of Kabul -my first blog.

Thing # 3-Emailed Laura and got her comment.
Also wrote another blog about the Volunteer Breakfast 2009 and added some pictures.

Thing # 4 & 5-Read abour RSS and have added feeds from CNN news, Andertoon Technology cartoons and Unshelved. I also get feeds from other NCL participants in the program.

# 8 Blogging about Technology

We have come a long way-
I remember using Dialog to do a search - one simple search in a business database like Predicast or D&B used to cost over $100; a mistake in using a comma instead of semicolon was costly. We were billed by the time (per minute) spent using the database.

New Technology and practical uses-



Forget TV Remote:
This morning I watched a segment on TV that will eliminate the use of Remote control.
The box has a built in camera which can recognize upto 7 simple gestures and also can work upto 8 different gadgets.The device is designed to sit on a shelf or table which has a clear line of sight to the television and the owner. Its software recognizes simple, deliberate hand gestures and then sends the appropriate signal to a universal remote control.

Twitter and Cell Phones: Correspondents and people in Iran are using Twitter and taking pictures on their cell phones and transmitting to the News Media. They are using modern Technology and keeping the world informed.

# 13 of The 23 things - Library Thing

# 9 of The 23 Things

On May 17th, I did setup an account with the NetLibrary and downloaded Airhead by Meg Cabot. Being a Reference Librarian, I have told the procedure for the downloadable audio books to our patrons many times, but this was the first time that I tried that. It was a Sunday and I was working with Immie at the Ref Desk, it wasn't busy, and I thought that this is a good time to try this. Now that I have the account with the NetLibrary, I also downloaded Amateur Emigrant by Robert Louis Stevenson.

I am one of those who still like to read rather than listen, but it is good to have the practical experience with the downloadbles.

# 4 of The 23 Things

RSS feed is good when someone wants to see the timely updates and not spend too much time doing so. Really Simple Syndication is true to its name. I did this only because it was part of the 23 things. The first one CNN-headlines RSS-thatI added in Mid-May, was just to learn. Anderton Technology cartoons are funny, so I added on my list, but I limited to 3 items. Sometimes these are really funny. I added these last week.

# 6 of 23 things Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39122797@N08/?saved=1

This is the first time for me to post pictures on Flickr. I opened an account and posted copule of pictures of my recent trip. It was easy to use.

# 11-Youtube

Don't get mad at your husband or boy friend, use super glue on his flipflops.

It is easy to use Youtube, I have used an author interview for one of my book talks. We can definitely use this for presentations.

Volunteer Recognition Breakfast 2009

Volunteer Recognition Breakfast at the New Canaan Library on April 28th was a big success.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, we have some great chefs here.

Staff welcomed and thanked the volunteers for their help and
assistance.

We honored 4 volunteers who had reached 10 year benchmark.

The Library added books, BOCD, Music CDs and DVDs to the
collection in their honor.

All volunteers received a brass bookmark with the NCL logo.

Lauren captured the party mood in pictures-so now we have proof. Thank you for all the help.

Memories of Kabul

Soon after my marriage I went to Kabul, Afghanistan. I worked for United States Information Service and my husband worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

We both learned to speak Farsi and made some Afghan friends. These were the good days - before all the problems-before Russians, before Mujahdins, before Talibans. It was the most peaceful and wonderful place to live. You could walk on the streets at any time-day or night without feeling insecure, didn’t much hear about the crime because the punishment was harsh.

For entertainment people went to movies (Indian, American and Iranian), parties, and weekends during the summer were for picnics. Afghans loved to go to Paghman Gardens with family and friends. During one of our picnics to Istalef,a small village in the mountains and a beautiful area, we had an opportunity to shake hands with the King Zaher Shah who was there with his wife.



The photo on the left is of one of the Buddha Statutes in Bamiyan Valley

that Talibans blew up in 2001