Thing 19. Podcasts

I chose an episode of MPR's How's the Family to listen to. It's one that I heard the beginning of on the radio on the way in to work about how familys are consuming more. It's a truly appalling subject. I subscribed to the feed.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/podcasts/hows_the_family/

Podcasts are interesting, but I actually think we'll be getting more mileage out of a podcast combined with visuals from slides or PowerPoints. GCast is interesting, but I think we'll use Audacity for the audio.

Thing 18. YouTube & Other Online Video

I think my current favorite YouTube video is the scary Mary Poppins trailer. It just goes to show how you can take any information and repackage it to show something completely different. I've also liked the medieval help desk video in the Things blog since the first time I saw it over a year ago. We're going to use both these videos in a presentation on the Information Revolution at the Century College Campus Conference next week.

Thing 17. ELM Productivity Tools

I love ELM. I've now used it in three different librarian environments, and each one brings new insights.

I've set up a feed from EBSCO into my Bloglines account for several tables of contents. At work, with IP verification, they work great. The EBSCO Web editing tools aren't that interesting. They seem clunky and I can do the same thing with other tools. The ProQuest My Research seems a bit more helpful. I could see taking this basic page and editing the HTML to really use it for something.

I like the NetLibrary books as an addition to our print collection. In fact, we're in the middle of purchasing the new Community College collection. These resources help us serve our distance education students. We also like that we don't have to catalog these since we can just have the MARC records loaded. We also don't have to process the physical item with stamps and call numbers, and they don't take any shelf space. I particularly like NetLibrary for subjects like computer programming, where things get dated so fast. It's really easy to weed old items.

Thing 16. Student 2.0 Tools

We use the Assignment Calculator on our library web page through Research Quickstart, which is hosted by St. Cloud State. I like that I can customize the help to include resources at our college, like the Writing Center and the library. I can even link to our databases if I want. This is a really useful resource, particularly the email reminders.

Of course, it hasn't stopped students from coming in the day before their paper is due to start their research!

Thing 15. Online Games and Libraries

I tried both Puzzle Pirates and Second Life. Puzzle Pirates interested me because a woman who worked for my husband just left that job to work for them. It's an interesting game, but not nearly as interesting as something like World of Warcraft. All these games end up quite repetitive, though. And the social aspects aren't very interesting to someone who already has very little free time.

Second Life strikes me the same way. Why not use your First Life? I can see this being a great venue for people with disabilities who are not mobile or need adaptive technology to interact with people, but I'd rather work on improving the real world. These virtual games can also be addictive because they're so easy compared to day-to-day reality, and thus become an incredible investment of time - for what end?

After I retire in 20 some years, however, I might be persuaded to use my implanted neural shunt to play lots of virtual games.

Thing 14. LibraryThing

Well, I finally have joined LibraryThing. At my previous job, I told two colleagues about LibraryThing, but never joined myself. They both joined at the lifetime level, bought scanners, and use it regularly. And rave about it. I've just used it to find books I might want to read, without joining. I've felt like a slacker for over a year, but now I am a productive citizen of Web 2.0 and LibraryThing.

My library has a few of my favorite books in it. I'm not sure how I feel about having this information public. I know that some people I know who use LibraryThing zealously guard their privacy with a username that cannot be traced back to them.

In a library, I could see using this for the same reason I use it personally, as a reader's advisory help. I also think the tag clouds are interesting and a good way to find books on weird things like "wordplay". And it lets you see how other people rate books.

Thing 13. Online Productivity Tools

I created an iGoogle page. I can see that this could be useful, particularly the weather. I tend not to check the weather forecasts very often, and got caught in the snowstorm on Monday in only a raincoat. (Silly me, I thought spring was here!)

We're thinking about using Google calendars as a shared staff calendar at work, so we can keep track of vacations and training. I use a PDA currently, and I'm contemplating purchasing a combined PDA/phone now that they are getting less expensive. I like that the PDA synchs with Outlook, which is what we use at work. I need to check to see if Google calendars would synch with Outlook, because I don't want to enter things twice. I also use my PDA/Outlook to track tasks. I'm often looking at that list when I'm far away from the Internet, so I probably would not switch.

Zamzar looks to me like it will be as useful as TinyURL, which we use all the time in answering email reference questions.