Thing 16: You Tube

On Google Video I looked for educational videos on endangered animals. I prefer looking for educational videos that faculty can use in the classroom. I settled on a video about tigers, as they, and all the big cats are in danger of disappearing. The Internet offers us the opportunity to see other cultures and what life is like now in another part of the world. The best thing the Internet can bring to all of us is the ability to share our heritage and life experiences in real time. THe next best thing to being there.

Tiger in Indian Park in Water


Tiger Laying in Grass in India

Thing 15: Rollyo

I read the article and explored Rollyo. I liked the existing public domain ebooks search and will add it to this blog. I could see use for it in assisting students at the college when they need to read a classic work and all of our copies are checked out.

I could see how teachers or faculty members could use Rollyo to create a searchroll to narrow search results for research papers to point students to just the web sites the teacher felt were valuable. In K-12 this could be particularly valuable. It adds a measure of security in keeping younger students off inappropriate web sites also.

After creating an account, I generated several searchrolls before I discovered that I could not delete any of the ones I no longer wanted. Perhaps the option to delete was there somewhere and I just never found it.

The link here is to my Rollyo to search for endangered animals. I added about 12 web sites that could be searched including three major news sites.

Endangered Animals SearchRoll:
http://rollyo.com/jstephen/endangered_animals_2/

Public Domain eBooks Search:
http://rollyo.com/onfire4jc/public_domain_ebooks/

Quick Quotes Search:
http://rollyo.com/kizuki-sama/quick_quotes_search/

Thing 14: Online Productivity Tools

Start page I choose and why: For a start page I choose My Yahoo. It was easy to tailor and I like the look. Adding RSS feeds was easy. I could see using the MY Yahoo page as a start page for myself and plan to try it for a while. I made the mistake of adding too many items to it at first. I will narrow the items down and see how much I come to rely on it. But I love the user-friendliness of it. For our library I see no use for a start page because at FCCJ the library has a web page with lots of helpful resources for students and faculty and secondly, our campus library has a blog too.

Online Calendars could be useful for some but not in my situation: The online calendars reviewed here are not very useful in my work environment. Personally, I do not need an online calendar because I carry a PDA so I have everything with me all of the time. Also, at FCCJ we can share our work calendar online through Outlook with anyone so there is no need for an additional online one. For the library, an online calendar is not needed because we have several was to advertise to our community. Events can be posted to large TV screens in the lobbies of our buildings, on FCCJ's TV channel, in the student newspaper and sent out in email. There are so many events at any given time that the best way to reach our students and faculty is to use the avenues already in place.

Online To Do Lists Were Not Helpful: Not helpful personally or for work. I could see if you worked in a situation where there was not much technology that they might be useful. Therefore I did not try the Stickie Notes.

Other tools in the list I used: I did not use the options that require a download because I cannot download and install any software on work computers at FCCJ . I did try the PDF converter and liked it very much and will be using it. Since I use Firefox as well as Internet Explorer, I have added the PDF converter add-on offered by Firefox.

Thing 13: LibraryThing

LibraryThing is new to me. I read the article on how libraries use LT and then created an account. Very quickly I was able to add 20 of our latest arrivals by entering the ISBN.

This week I will be adding a widget for LT to our library's official blog. I have added a search widget to the sidebar of this blog.

In our library we frequently have one of more display of books on hot topics. I want to explore how to use LT to create virtual displays. It appears that this could be done through the use of tags.

New Account on LibraryThing

Thing 12: Wikis

I used Zoho Wiki to create a wiki for a joint project with another librarian. The project focuses on creating a learning module to introduce students to electronic resources available to them when doing research. The object is to increase use of this resource.

Zoho Wiki was easy to use and I had the basic pages of the wiki created in no time. Once this project is done, I plan to consider other uses of wikis for future projects in the library.

Thing 11: Social Media

Comments after visiting the four suggested social media sites: DIGG, REDDIT, NEWSVINE & MIXX

DIGG. Tabbed sections with categories of news like "science" that are found a most online news sites. Advertisements on the right. DIGG offers the opportunity to add a profile of yourself and to find & connect with friends. In this regard, it appears to mimic Facebook presumably to catch some of the folks who like Facebook. The opportunity to read and share and comment on new stories on the same website are big bonuses to someone not wanting to maintain a full presence and constant attention that a Facebook account seems to demand if it is to be effective. May or may not be back.

REDDIT. Tabbed sections with categories of news like "technology" that are found a most online news sites. And then some not so common like "atheism" and "WTF." You can make your own guess as to what that last category stands for. Advertisements on the right. Focus: REDDIT seems to target a younger audience than DIGG and MIXX. A another target audience may simply be the not-to-smart set. Rude, crude and unattractive. No one less than a "mature" audience member should go to this Web site. Graphic and distasteful content. It is a definitely "living out loud" site. I'll not be back.

NEWSVINE. Professional appearance. Advertisements on the right. Liked: Categories like most websites. Loved the fact that they offered one for "ART" which I did not see on the other sites. Would highly recommend this site. Plan to link it to our library blog. Will definitely use this site again

MIXX. Not as professional looking as Newsvine. Content is valuable. Liked the two menus at the top: categories of news and media types like 'photos' and .videos.' Did not like that it took two clicks to get to the actual story to view it. Advertisements in right menu. Will use this site again.

General Comment About Thing 11: A person with an information addiction could spend quite a lot of time blissfully on any of these sites - depending upon individual taste for different types of 'news.'

Library Use: 1. Create a profile for the library and use one of these site to identify news stories of particular interest to faculty and students, or that are timely and relevant to major events. 2. Look for webistes mentioned in news stories with useful information for students & faculty.

Thing #10: Delicious

Created a Delicious account and plan to use it from now on instead of the bookmarks on the computers I use. I went through the creating a badge process and had code generated that I tried to add to this blog. I could not get it to work after several attempts.

This is a great resource!!! Thanks, NEFLIN

I could see setting up an account for a class of students working on the same project to use as they do their research.

Thing 9: Sharing Slides & Photos

ZOHO SLIDES

I sent up a Zoho account and have been using more than just the slide show feature. I found that I had trouble importing slides made in Powerpoint 2007, but slides created in earlier versions of Powerpoint. I have started creating a slide show directly online using the Zoho features.

One negative is that I uploaded one slide show with great sound when it was played. The audio did not migrate up to the Zoho site. I assume it is not a feature they can offer.

Slide How I created two years ago for a high school class on Art History:
http://show.zoho.com/public/librarywriter23/pompeii4-ppt