Thing #22 What Did I Learn Today?

I'm almost to the end of the 23 things, so how do I plan to keep up with Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 tools, (really they're almost the same thing in my humble opinion.) I'm rather fond of GO2WEB20.net myself. It has a huge list of Web 2.0 tools and applications. I've also been keeping up with various blogs and news sites. I don't plan to spend a lot of time experimenting with every new 2.0 tool or application that comes out, I'd rather pick and choose a few and work my way along from there. As more and more useful 2.0 tools become available for my iPhone that will probably be a driving factor for me. Ok, time to see what Thing 23 is, and finish up this learning program.

Thing #21 Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

Thing #21 was interesting because it included Web Junction, which is I site I have used in the past. I am not a member of that website, however I have used their documentation for the original round of the Minnesota Gates Grant Public Computers. When the Gates Grant website was taken down, all the content was moved to Web Junction. Instructions on how to upgrade the computers from NT to Windows 2000 or Windows XP were very useful in my role supporting public library's computers for public use. Another social network I found useful is Flixster for movie information.

Thing #20 Facebook and MySpace

I have recently started using Facebook in my personal life, partly due to the fact that several of my friends and family members use it too. I checked out the Library 2.0 Interest Group. That seemed like one of the groups I would be most interested in joining.

I can see why Facebook is considered one of the fastest growing social networks, as I keep adding more friends and joining more groups my own social network grows. It's a very interesting website.

I am not as interested in MySpace, although I do still have an account with that website, I never visit it anymore. Everyone I know that does social networking is on Facebook now.

Thing #19 Podcasts

I am somewhat new to podcasts, however I have listened to several different radio programs over the internet before and personally I would lump those together as being podcasts. I downloaded the MPR - Minnesota Public Radio app for my iPhone so I could listen to some of their podcasts where ever I happen to go. I listened to one of their new podcasts: All Things Considered. I'm looking forward to using MPR more often now that I don't need to have a radio nearby. This is something I will undoubtedly be using more in my personal life.

Thing #18 YouTube & Other Online Video

Think #18 online videos, here's something that I know a lot about. I've been an avid user of YouTube and later after Google bought YouTube. It has a nice search function so you can find videos in line with what you want to look at. After you've watched a video it has a nice feature to bring up additional videos on the side of the screen simular to what you just watched in case you might be interested in seeing more. The only thing I don't like is the generally poor quality of the majority of the videos, and you can't download a video to watch at a later time on your computer or in my case on my iPhone using the YouTube application. I'm sure there would be a variety of different ways that YouTube and other video sites could be used to supliment a library's website or blog. Especially things like book and movie reviews, training videos, etc.. This was one of the more fun kinds of things, I'm curious to see what will be next.

Thing #17 ELM Productivity Tools

Thing 17 is all about ELM or Electronic Library for Minnesota. There is a whole host of tools available there. Several allow you create your own web page which in this age of blogs seems like taking a step backwards. However there are massive databases of magazine articles that look very useful and I may start using them to find more information when I am presented with a challenging problem at work.

Thing #16 Student 2.0 Tools

I started looking at this again and of course now I see why I got stuck on this thing before. I'm not a student or a teacher, I don't work with students or teachers. That being said, I took at look at the Research Project Calculator - RPC for short. This tool is very in depth but I'll work through the basics. You feed it a start and end date for a research project, you pick a topic and the tool produces a schedule to help you plan the project. Including some very specific steps on Picking and refine your topic, writing a thesis, finding boots and materials, writing a first draft and so forth. This would have been very helpful in my college days. I think with some tweaking it could be useful for managing timelines for library projects. Things like reading programs, fund raising projects and so forth. Next stop, Thing #17.