Week 12- Wrapping Up

BCL 2.0 has been a lot of fun and a lot of learning! (But whoever said learning can't be fun??)

Thanks to Halle and the other classmates who made these lessons enjoyable and bearable at times when our brains were stretched. Kudos to all who have worked toward learning 2.0!!


What were your favorite exercises? I loved Pandora, Firefox Addons, RSS, Library Thing, and Widgets.

What were your least favorite exercises? Rollyo and Instant Messaging (b/c I already knew IM!)

How has this program helped you in your professional life? in your personal life?
RSS and Tagging have greatly increased my professional life. I'll admit that I do not like to read newspapers, but I look forward to my Beaufort Gazette news sent to my Bloglines account. I compare it to adding melted cheese to broccoli...it doesn't really help you heart, but it makes downing veggies easier! Plus, tagging keeps my most visited and helpful sites closeby.

Would you recommend the course to other staff members? If so, what advice would you give them?

I totally recommend this class to other staff members and ANYONE else! I think our patrons, with an inclination to computers, would LOVE some of these tools. My advice would be to take it at your own pace, but do the work. We all have different types of responsibility, not only professionally but personally and it may not be feasible to learn at a scheduled pace. So, I would say take control of your own learning and never give up...learning is good, even if it takes a bit longer due to your time schedule.

Did you like the format? Would you have preferred anything to be different?
For me, this format was perfect. I wouldn't have changed anything. Although, it would have been nice to see some of our classmates at times!

Were there any aspects of the program that surprised you?
I was surprised at how much I didn't know about 2.0 that I thought I did. For example, previously I thought all you could do with Flickr is upload photos to share with friends....wrong! So although I was familiar with most resources we covered, my knowledge of how I can use them greatly increased.

If we were to offer another program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
OF COURSE....I felt like I was constantly learning....and I like that feeling! Who doesn't??

Week 11- Podcasts (Part II)

I added a Simon and Schuster podcast to my Bloglines account so I'll be updated on the latest books out by this publisher. I also added NPR's All Songs Considered to my RSS reader because I often find new, unique musical acts I like through this program. This way, I won't have to worry about missing the broadcast on air, and can listen at my convenience. Literally, music to my ears!

Since I am interested in podcasting and learning how simple it appears to be, I plan to try Odeo but the page wouldn't load here at the reference desk. Perhaps it will work better on my laptop at home.

I've enjoyed learning about podcasting and hope to pursue it more!

Week 11- Podcasts Post 1

Podcasts....fun and free!

I have a bit of familiarity with podcasts through a project one of my library science professors invited me to be a part of. The library school @ USC in Columbia wanted to start a storytelling portal to put stories on the web for anyone to enjoy. The purpose was to add exposure to the "art of storytelling", promote literacy and imagination, and promote USC School of Library and Information Science. Being a musician and a student in the storytelling class, I was glad to be a part of this project.

If you're interested in seeing one way to use podcasting in a library setting view the storytelling portal here: http://www.libsci.sc.edu/storytelling/stories.htm

Week 10-Extra Tools

Here's my 2 cents:

Pandora is awesome. Free music tailor fit to your taste AND you are in control of what music you like to hear or don't like. Plus, you can have different channels for when you want to hear a a specific type of music. For instance, I like Edwin McCain, Shawn Colvin, the Gabe Dixon Band, and acoustic guitar....but not at the same time. So I have seperate channels. When I feel like listsening to a bit of acoustic guitar, I chose that channel. Simple as that! GET AN ACCOUNT...TRY IT! IT's FREE!!!!!!

Digg is okay...not my favorite site, but it's neat!

I didn't like my Moo cards, but I think I'll revisit later when I can give more time to it.

Firefox Addons are plentiful...I recommend Cool Iris and Answers. Cool Iris lets you preview a webpage without even clicking to "go" to the site. In essence you can do a google search, then move your mouse of the link while a pop up of that webpage appears. But, it's not just an image---it's the webpage, so you can navigate the page without ever leaving your google results. For a reference librarian like me, this is GREAT!

Answers isn't as time saving as that, but it is just as neat. After you download the addon into your Firefox browser, just hold the ALT key and click on ANY WORD on ANY WEBPAGE and a pop up box will provide spelling, audio sample of the word, definition of the word, plus related links associated with that word. For example, I held ALT and clicked on the word "audiobooks" on our the library's home page. The pop up 'answer" box gave me a definition of audiobooks and some neat information related to audiobooks. It's cool!!

Alright....it's your turn!!!

Week 10- Making a Widget

Don't you think "widget" is a funny word!?!? Web 2.0 (and thus, Library 2.0) is full of cute, fun words. Think about it: wiki, widget, flickr, blog....I love it!

You can see the widget I created through widgetbox on the left hand column of this page...see!
Creating the widget was EASY! Try it!

Week 9- Online Tools

My experience with Google Docs and Zoho Writer is limited due to the fact that I've only recently started using them. I recommend Zoho products, and in fact, chose Zoho Wiki as the platform for the Local Author wiki I made a few weeks ago.



I was introduced to Google Docs a couple of months ago when I went to Sirsi training @ Bluffton. If I remember correctly, Pete uses Google Docs to keep track of students in the computer classes he offers @ Bluffton. Since I saw the feature, I began using it @ Beaufort to keep track of the various "lists" associated with my job. For example, I have the following:

• "Display Case 2007-2008"- Click HERE to view


• "Program Ideas 2007"- Click here to view


• "Program Ideas 2008"- Click here to view


• "DVD order suggestions" - Click here to view

These are just a few of the ways I've used Google Docs. It provides the ability to work on projects wherever I am, as long as I'm connected to the Internet!

Social Networking- Week 8

Let me preface my blog entry today to explain that I am an avid MySpace and other social networking site user. (I even tried relationship sites like eHarmony.com and Yahoo!Personals but found NO matches...what a bummer!! Ah, well!)

Add me to your MySpace friends if you want: www.myspace.com/amandabrewer

Questions to consider this week:
1. Which of the social networking sites appealed to you most? Why?
MySpace appeals to me most because I've been using it for a while now. I also like it because most of my friends have their own "spaces" and we connect through the site through messages, comments, and picture sharing.

I like our BCL MySpace page and would think a staff photos album, pictures from programs(with permission to use) album, plus a video or two describing how to use the library or something similar could be cool, too. Can our Instant Message widgets be placed on the site too?? That would be great!

2. Can you see yourself using these sites? Which one?
I'm not a personal fan of Facebook but that could be only because I know it started out as a high school age site. For me and my circle of influence, MySpace trumps them. It would be great to have a social networking managing site like Meebo is for IM. That way I could manage pages in all of these sites and not have to give up any extra time.

Ning was okay, but I didn't find it too helpful in any of the group searches I was looking for. I doubt I will use it again...neat concept, though.

I like Bebo simply because it places a prominent place for authors!


3. Can you see a use for these in libraries?
I definitely think libraries should utilize these sites. I'm sure there is much argument as to which site would be best. For libraries in the U.S., I would think
MySpace and Facebook would be the top choices.

4. Why do you think these sites are so popular, particularly among teens?
By nature teens are social people. A sociology professor once told my class, "teenagers can be classified as social beings--everything they do, enjoy, and crave is social!" These websites are social--they allow users to talk, share, comment on their friends pages, keep track of their favorite celebrities (and even be added to their friends list)....It feeds their very nature! (and if we admit it, ours too!)

Flickr Mashup Toys-Week 7

I explored a few of the applications users have added to Flickr. I recommend trying all three of these I've listed below:

a) Retrievr With this tool you use your mouse to sketch a basic image and the tool retrieves Flickr photos that are supposedly related the sketch you drew. In my brief experience, the sketch doesn't match the photos retrieved. Nonetheless, it's a neat thing to try! Give it a whirl!

b)FD Flickr Toys SO MUCH TO DISCOVER....GO THERE RIGHT NOW! HAVE FUN! Make a mosaic, a Andy Warhol styled picture, trading card, magazine cover, CD cover, calendar, and so much more!

c) My Spell with Flickr Name:



d) FlickrSlidr This free tool allows you to create a slide show and post in a blog entry, blog layout, MySpace page, or ANY other editable webpage (wiki, too?)

Here's a random slide show I created from my public Flickr Photos:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Flickr Post #3-- Week 7

BeaufortBranchNight, originally uploaded by mandabrewer.

Here's a beautiful night picture of the Beaufort Branch one of Brenda Beasley's friends took. It is a truly beautiful photo!

Uploading photos to Flickr is really user-friendly and, (dare I say), EASY! Placing photos from Flickr to my blog is even easier. Since Flickr allows you to post to Blogger through their Flickr page, I don't have to toggle back and forth between my blogger page and my Flickr account. Wonderful!

To view any other photos I have set to public on my flickr account, go to http://flickr.com/photos/amandabrewer/

Flickr Post- Week 7

Museum of American History - The Muppets, originally uploaded by CDStrachan.

Place I'd like to visit #2-

The Museum of American History

Imagine all of the cool stuff they have! Especially, the Muppet exhibit. Check out Dr. Teeth, Jim, Kermit, and Rolf in this display case photo!

Flickr Post- Week 7

Place I would like to visit #1:

Perfect combination of rock music and art! I love this picture of the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland, Ohio) with the massive guitar exhibit outside. These guitars are huge and each is painted according to their own theme. I want to explore each one like our locals explore the Mermaids around town.

My Rollyo Search

I played with Rollyo and created my own search roll for guitar tab. My hope is that now, when I want to search for guitar chords for a certain song, I can search my rollyo search roll instead of the individual sites.

I haven't used rollyo previously, so I will try this one for a while before I give an "official" opinion. Thereotically, this type of search would work well if you find yourself searching specific sites all of the time.


http://rollyo.com/mandabrewer/guitar_tab/

Library Thing

I heard about LibraryThing a while ago and created an account. I love it! I use it to keep track of the books I have read, although you can have many accounts to keep track of various things (i.e.: the books you have at home, books you would like to read, recommended book lists for age groups, etc...)

If you want, you can visit my profile: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/mandabrewer

Wiki Part II

The draft for my BCL local author wiki is now finished!! After creating the bibliography, it was a breeze to copy and paste the text into the wiki editor. Throw in a few anchors and links, and the draft was done...check it out if you want to!

(By the way, I did have permission to make this wiki and it does have the county logo on it!)

http://www.beaufort-library.wiki.zoho.com

-Amanda

Wiki Part 1

I've been familiar with wikis for a while (especially since one of my library school professor's banned us from even mentioning the name "Wikipedia"). I, of course, feel that wikis are WONDERFUL! With every information medium you have to ask yourself, "who wrote this, should I trust this, is this good information for me, etc..". To me, wikis are no different than any other source of info, except that I get to contribute in my own way, in my own time, and in my own words.

For libraries, there are several reasons why wikis work as a shared information collaboration space. Right now, I'm working on a local authors wiki site. I chose the wiki format because a blog wouldn't display the information in a userfriendly format and I wanted to have a forum where people could add their own information. Why should people not have the opportunity to share what they know. Maybe there's a local author who has published that hasn't reached any of our desks, yet....Information sharing...it's a good thing.

Tagging

Week 4's BCL 2.0 lesson was on tagging though del.icio.us and was somewhat of a refresher course from the crash course I took in April when I started working at BCL. Previously, I had not heard of del.icio.us until working at the Beaufort Branch reference desk, but immediately found that, if not overwhelming, it could be used as a great resource.

For example: we have selected websites and tagged them into subject categories. When someone asks me a business question, my mouse already has websites on the ready under the "business" tag.

If we noticed we were getting a lot of questions regarding the recent "Big Swim" mermaid map, we could tag the appropriate webpage and have it at the ready whenever someone asks. If done right, the tags help you recall the information you need by how you will remember to retrieve it.

Ahh...powerful!

Week 3- "RSS" Feeds

I have to admit "RSS" and it's image has intimidated me. I'm supposed to be "hip" to the times, and although I understood the concept of RSS, I didn't realize how EASY it could be!

The videos provided through the this week's course documents were extremely helpful. I must, however, give extra kudos to my favorite video: RSS in Plain English

Here are my answers to the class discussion questions:
1. What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
Quite simply--it brings the information I want to me instantly! I don't have to check
hundreds of my favorite webpages anymore...my newsreader does the work for me!

2. How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?
RSS in my professional life would help me track professional webpages, book reviews,
specific news and media results. In my personal life, I will be able to use my Bloglines
account to track my blog updates on my friends' blog pages as well as newly added pictures
on their Flickr sites. Not to mention, I'll be able to track any newly posted podcasts on my
favorite musicians websites! (YEAH!)

3. How can libraries use RSS to take advantage of this technology?
First, I think it would be GREAT if our users could track new books being added to the
collection. (I'm thinking of how useful this would have been last week during the Harry
Potter release!)

This was a great lesson...I'm not so intimidated anymore!

And also, here's my Bloglines URL: http://www.bloglines.com/public/abrewer

Until next post,
Amanda

Favorite Books I've read this Summer

Here's a list of the favorite books I've read this Summer:

The Road to Eden's Ridge by M.L. Rose
Musician/singer Lindsey Briggs heads to Nashville after leaving her fiancee stranded at the altar on her wedding day. In Nashville, Lindsey learns secrets from her family history linking her to the greatest country singer of the decade, Ben McBride. Will she make it the music world? Will she uncover the truth of her family? Will she find love again?

Sanctuary Hill by Kathryn Wall
Bay Tanner strikes out on a mystical adventure in the 7th book of the Bay Tanner Mystery series. In the same genre as Agatha Christie, Kathryn Wall spins her mysterious tale once again set in Beaufort, SC. This time the murder involves the local witch doctor and historical magic and spells passed down from the island's earliest existence.

I'm currently reading:
The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner
This collection of short stories were written long before Jennifer Weiner experienced success with "In Her Shoes" and "Good in Bed". So far, I've found them interesting although not her best work. However, these stories will keep me anxious for Weiner's new full length novel due out this October!

I can't wait to read:
The Last Summer (of you and me) by Ann Brashares
The author of "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" has created her first adult novel and I can't wait to read it. And according to the holds list at the library, I'm not the only one!

Until next post,
Amanda

About Me

Here a few things about me:

• I have a lot of musical instruments: 3 guitars, 1 drum set, a mandolin, and an African thumb piano (kalimba).




• I am an only child (poor me!)



• I have an MLIS degree from USC and an undergraduate degree from Charleston Southern University in Charleston, SC



• I like history and am enjoying learning about Beaufort



• I love books about fiction books about musicians and also frequently read musician biographies.
  
  
• I am still a fan of the Muppets! (and hope to see the Jim Henson traveling exhibit at a museum in Atlanta this upcoming January!)

Until next post,

Amanda

Week 2- Blogs

This week's discussion/learning was centered on "blogs". Having many friends who operate their own blogs, I have become familiar with the blogging world on the web. I personally think blogs are great (and super simple) ways for people to journal, share photos, track events, and socialize over the Internet. At the present time, a friend of mine is posting details regarding her upcoming wedding so that guests can print out directions to the church and participants can see the itinerary for the wedding weekend.

While using the blog search, I came across a blog specifically dedicated to Library 2.0 and thought I would set up an RSS feed so I can read the content as it gets posted. In case any one is interested here is the link: http://library20.ning.com/ . I joined up and even found a discussion/social group of librarians talking about planning and creating adult programs (which is my job at Beaufort Branch)! It was exciting to find other people with shared professional interests and responsibilities. Not to mention, a few who share my hobbies and music interests!

Until next post,
Amanda

Week 1- 7 1/2 Habits Response

Out of the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, I found Habit #1 (Begin with the End in Mind) and Habit #7 1/2 (Play!) to be the easiest for me to do. I've always been an "end result" thinker rather than one prone to "live in the moment". I'm always thinking about what I will accomplish if I do a certain task, take specific class, or talk to a specific person. The upside to this is that I have always been the type of person to find the fun side of a given situation (Habit 7 1/2). I always found a way to make studying enjoyable and am always looking for things to do that are out of the norm (or at least for not the norm for me!)

On the flip side, I found Habit #3 ("Viewing problems as challenges) and Habit #4 (Have confidence in yourself) to be the hardest for me to undertake. Often, I find myself seeing problems as impassable obstacles instead of opportunities for growth and progress. Similarly, I have never been one to mentally boost my confidence. My confidence grows as I see results. For example, if I make 8 out of 10 free throws, then I can justify telling myself I'm a good basketball player.

After watching the presentation, I'm happy to say that as a musician, reader, and technology user I fall in the "lifelong learner" category.

Until the next posting,

-Amanda