Thoughts

This program was actually very useful and interesting. I've always considered myself a savvy internet user, but there were many things that we did and used that I had never heard of before or that I hadn't bothered learning. My favorite exercise was the blogging, especially learning to add pictures, videos, links, and different applications (such as the music playlist and my bookshelf).

All in all it was a rewarding experience and I would definitely participate if something were to come up again.

Audiobooks

I remember looking at this service when it first came out and not being to find anything that I was interested in because the collection was so small. I just looked at it again and it has certainly grown; I was pleasantly surprised and will definitely use this application.

Podcasts

I found two podcasts that were interesting to me: NPR: Sunday Puzzle Podcast and the NPR: Books Podcast. I listen to the Sunday Puzzle with Will Shortz every weekend, and now I don't have to get up so early, I can just dl it to my iPod and listen when I have time. I've added this to my Bloglines account, but here's the link to it: http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=4473090

You Tube

I love YouTube. I think it's a great concept, and a website where you can find just about anything. Sure you might see something offensive, but it's also very easy to click the stop button and not have to see what you don't want to. You can find entertainment, music videos, and even educational vids. It's amazing!

I don't know how the library could use YouTube, maybe as an educational tool, as they did when putting up John Callahan's intro to 23 things. They can put up videos explaining things to patrons, etc.

This video is a political message in Spanish by famous Hispanic celebrities campaigning for Barack Obama and the kinds of changes that he would bring. Many people are led by celebrities and what they say, and in this instance I'm not adverse to using them to advance and promote a great message.

Facebook

I'm not much into the social networking, but a friend of mine from college got me started on it a while back, and since I've decided that I really like it. I can talk to or know about people I have not seen in years, or people that I talk to everyday.
I do find it kind of presumptuous that everyone who is a "friend" wants to know how I am feeling right this second. However, they do have the option of not clicking on my name or any of the pictures that other people upload and tag me in.

I don't know how useful this specific type of application would be in libraries, but as a way for coworkers to know more about each other or keep in touch. And such a group already does exist for the PBC Library on Facebook.

ZOHO

All of these applications are pretty awesome. I can think of so many times when I've wanted to write up a document, but because the computer I was on did not have Microsoft Office, I had to use WordPad. And of course, when I opened up that saved document on other computers, the margins and font were usually wrong. 

One thing I do not like about it is that I can't save it straight to my computer (without having to get another Google browser extension) and edit it whenever I want.

I also don't like the idea of saving anything important on a purely online system. Anything I put on spreadsheets would make me nervous having online.

Favorites

An effective way to get more information on what your coworkers are interested in. Depending on what you are using wikis for, they can be very useful.

I never thought I would find an entry on mangos, but it was definitely something different.

Wikis

When I first found out about Wikipedia I thought it was the coolest thing because it allowed anybody to correct wrong information or to add on incomplete information. I have used it since then and I have never been led astray by it; therefore, I can see the importance and help that it provides in that occasion, but looking at all the libraries using Wikis, it didn't seem very useful to me. You still need a password to change or add on anything, so unless you are part of that library staff you can't do anything. And even if you did it's probably so heavily monitored that everything would be censured. So how does it help the patrons?

Web 2.0

I'm a pretty savvy computer user, but I still don't really understand what 2.0 is in its entirety. Is it everything that we've been learning put together? I find individual items useful, while other just seem to be a copy of something else I can use without having to sign up for an account and log in every time I want to use it.

For people who are only interested in the online or technological services that the library can provide, then they don't need a physical library to get what they want. For people like me who go to the library for actual books, be it fiction or nonfiction, it would be extremely sad if I didn't have that option any longer.

Technorati

I think Technorati is useful for people that actually use and look for blogs on a regular basis. I don't, so I don't find it useful. I don't see why you wouldn't just go on google and type in whatever you want to search; it seems to me that I get more trustworthy and relevant information with a search engine.