Method 12

My favorite discovery was learning how to use the Meebo widget.  I have seen these on web sites but had no idea it was such a simple tool.  


I have heard of most of these web 2.0 tools but it was nice to get background information on them.  I thought the " Commoncraft" and "In Plain English" videos were great to provide an introduction to each tool.  


I would definitely participate in another course.  I have taken many online courses and consider this one of the best.  I like the fact that we blogged about our experiences and had to actually use the web 2.0 tools.  I also learned a lot from reading the articles.  Discovering how other libraries use the tools was another great element of the course.


It is difficult to keep up with all the emerging web 2.0 tools.  I am the only librarian in my school and have learned a lot from this and other TSLA courses and webinars.    With shrinking budgets, I also appreciate that the courses are offered free and online.  I have shared information with the teachers and students in my school.  

Method 11

I discovered a great pod cast form Hopkinton Middle School.  It is a weekly podcast of book talks from a state list.  I love this idea and would like to try it with some of our Texas state lists!  I have a student library group and think this would be a perfect project for them.  
http://www.hopkintonschools.org/hhs/library/podcast.html


I also like the NPR car talk pod cast.  It is a call in car help show, but the mechanics make wise cracks and joke with the callers.  I think it is entertaining and I know nothing about cars.
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510208


I also learned that POD stands for Personal on Demand!

Method 10

I found it interesting to get some background information on Wiki's.  Though I am familiar with  and use them, I guess I really had not thought too much about how they differ from blogs and other online tools.  On the wiki for this assignment,  I posted a link to Awful Library Books which highlights the importance of weeding in an entertaining blog.


I am a member of a school library book review group.  We have a wiki we use to post our book reviews to make them available for all members.


Wikis would be great collaboration tools for students to use in class projects or to create pathfinders for assignments.


Interestingly, I met a librarian at TLA who had received a grant from NASA to update the planetary information on Wikipedia!  

Method 9

I am excited to learn how to embed the Meebo widget.  I have been working to get it on my library web site, but I am having some formatting problems so I decided to embed it here for practice. I plan to embed it on the library web site too.

I think this is a great tool for libraries to answer questions for their patrons, especially academic and public libraries that may have extended hours.   I am not sure how available I will be during the day to help students because I am seldom at my desk.  We do not have evening or weekend library hours so I will have to see how effective the chat window is for my library.

During the day, everyone in my school district has access to IM through our Google Apps accounts.  I use this often, especially if I need immediate help from our tech department or want to have an extended dialog with a teacher.  I like using IM and have learned to wait for a response before I type again to avoid messages passing in cyberland.  I have had some pretty confusing chat sessions, especially when more than two people are chatting. Most teachers are not able to spend much time at their computers so sometimes it is hit and miss with chatting.

Method 8

In general, I am not a fan of social networking sites. Maybe because I have read too much about digital footprints and the permanance of information....maybe because I feel overwhelmed just keeping up with emails, texts, messages...maybe because I already keep up with everyone from my past that I want to keep up with...maybe because I have heard of too many misuses of social networking...

On the other hand, I feel outdated because I do not use social networking sites, especially when as a librarian, I attempt to keep up with technology trends. I wonder if social networking sites will make email outdated.

I definitely see the value of using Facebook or Twitter in the library. The examples from public and college libraries exemplify the many ways libraries are using social networking to connect to their patrons. I work at a public high school and feel a little uneasy making a social connection with students.

I decided the perfect solution would be to create a library Facebook page, but when I tried, it still had to be connected to a personal profile and I have decided not to create one.

We have a student library club and it would be great to send reminders to the students. While exploring Facebook, I noticed the ability to add a RSS fee to your Facebook page. I think I will encourage my student to add the library web page RSS feed to their facebook accounts to keep up with events and changes.

Method 7

I am so excited to learn about Delicious and other social bookmarking sites. I heard a speaker mention Delicious at TLA this month and wondered what it was. There are so many new web 2.0 tools, it is difficult to keep up!

I definitely think I will use Delicious to create pathfinders for my teachers and students. I currently have a web page where I have collected and organized websites, but using Delicious would be much easier. I created an account for my library. I especially like the idea of accessing other libraries' lists. I am the only high school librarian in my school district and often feel overwhelmed trying to locate good web sites for all the various subjects and assignments. I know that other high school librarians in Texas are supporting the same curriculum and now I can build upon their expertise. I also want to try the RSS feed to a particular tag.

I have heard and read a lot about how to organize the Internet. Ten years ago, I remember a discussion about adding subject headings to Internet pages with controlled vocabulary. It was interesting to read the article in this method about librarians "letting go" and creating tags without authority checks.

I think this is another way we can reach out to our patrons that may not be physically in the library by using our expertise to select quality web sites and organize them for our users.

Method 6

I selected this video because my students have created book trailers. We post them on the library web site, but I had not thought about publishing for the wider audience on You Tube.

I still have many questions about copyright and privacy issues regarding uploading and downloading videos. I read the article, "Understanding Video-Sharing Sites' Terms of Service" which answered some of my questions, but not all.

Teacher Tube, You Tube and School Tube provide exciting opportunities for libraries. I love the Round Rock video promoting their summer reading program. I also saw one through another TSLA webinar about the "Crabby Librarian."

There are some creative videos for SAT vocabulary words. It would be fun to work with some students to create one and enter the contest.

The commericals on Teacher Tube are frustrating, but I think if you create an account, you don't have to view them.

Method 5

I located this image in Flickr by conducting an advanced search. I checked the box to only search within creative commons licensed content.  The creator of the image permits non-commercial use with attribution and share alike.  The photographer is  Orgur Mulazimoglu.  I tried to upload the image using the upload image link in blogger.  I pasted the URL, but it would not work.  I pasted the embedded code from the image in the HTML editor in blogger and that worked!

I chose not to create a Flickr account and upload photographs.  I already use some photo sharing sites, but only share with specific family or friends by emailing links. 

As far as using photo sharing for the library, I am confused about the legalities after reading the article by Michael Stephens.  I work at a high school and am not sure about student.parent permission for posting student images.  I love some of the ideas libraries are using in the flickr groups.  I noticed the group requesting images from Carnegie funded libraries.  In my town, we have a beautiful old Carnegie Library building that houses our museum.  I did not see a photo of it, so I will plan to take one and add it to the group.  I plan to explore more ideas for my library as far as creating groups for a contest or something similar to the Carnegie Library Group.

Method 4 RSS feeds

Using the Google Reader, I subscribed to these new feeds:

#1 http://www.cleburne.k12.tx.us/cleburne/site/default.asp
This is my school district's web site.  School closings, changes in schedules, and district news articles  are posted to this site so I will be able to receive these updates.

#2 http://rss.weatherbug.com/listfeeds.aspx  From this site, I subscribed to the RSS feed for local weather conditions and forecasts.  It is spring time in Texas so the weather is constantly changing, and this will be a convenient way to track it.

#3 http://lote.org/lote.xml This is a bible teacher that I like to listen to.  I actually subscribe to the podcasts from this site so I will have to see which works better for me.

 #4  foxnewsonline@foxnews.com  I liked the way that this news site and many of the others I looked at allow you to select specific RSS feeds from the site.  I signed up for the national news from this site and the local weather from weather bug.

I was following a blog on blogger.com that my daughter wrote for a college class and it showed up automatically in my google reader.  The fact that google reader is connected to my email may increase the likelihood that I will continue to use the reader and the RSS feeds, but I already have so much to keep up with online, I am not sure if it will become part of my routine practice.

Method 3

I find myself most closely aligned with Jenny Levine’s thoughts in her article regarding using the "cloud" in libraries.  On the one hand,  I am very excited about cloud computing.  My school district switched to Google Apps for teachers this year and I have provided training for teachers. I love being able to access my Google documents from home and school.   I have recently taught workshops on Prezi and Glogster.  Today I worked with students to use Glogster for a sophomore English assignment. They loved it!  As they were leaving, I reminded them, "You can work on this from home!"  I too, use online banking and online bill pay, but I am concerned about privacy, lack of training, and loss of access.  Many of the reader responses to Doug Johnson’s blog, “Can you live in the cloud?” voiced my apprehensions. 

Several years ago when I was working on my Library Science Masters Degree,  my professor made a profound and possibly prophetic statement.  She felt that many of the Internet services initially provided for free would later (after we were dependent) require subscriptions.  Many of the web 2.0 tools we use with students provide basic services for free but constantly promote their paid subscription services.  What if Google decides to charge us to host and access our documents, presentations, forms and spreadsheets? 

Like Jenny, I am hesitant to encourage patrons to create accounts with each "latest, greatest" web 2.0 toy without explaining and instructing them on the use and ramifications of cloud computing. I am concerned that students will not heed our warnings and publicize information harmful to themselves or others. One thing I really like about Glogster is the ability for the teacher to create an account and then add student accounts under her master account.  The students are not providing any personal information and can remain completely anonymous if desired.  

Last week, we lost electricity in my home and some of our schools for 2 days.  It was an eerie realization of how little I could accomplish without Internet access.  I didn’t even know what bills to pay because I receive electronic copies only!

Methods 1 and 2

I have been hearing the term Web 2.0 for a few years and understand it to be the second generation of the web-based tools…interactive, collaborative, live, and social; however, it was not until I read Stephen Abram’s article, that I heard the term,  Library 2.0.  Abram says this is the “concept of how to use Web 2.0 opportunities in a library environment.”  We use many Web 2.0 tools in my library program, but this is my first introduction to the term. 

Available tech tools that add value to our patron services must be utilized.  Our patrons are driving many of our services.  For example, more patrons with electronic reading devices push us to provide electronic books.  The “embedded librarian” is another phrase I have been hearing, and it reinforces the ideas presented in these videos and articles. Librarians must expand their services beyond the library, both in the physical and virtual worlds. I am looking forward to exploring more ways to serve patrons who may never actually visit my library.