#23 The end (just in time)

Finally finished. I enjoyed doing the Learning 2.0 program. Even though I feel that I know quite a bit about the things that were covered I’d never actually used any most them.

I’d never written a blog before (I did attempt it once but I’m very boring so I gave up).

I’d never used flickr or online image generators. I’d heard of rss feeds but never realised that it was so easy to use and so handy. I was a bit worried about that task as all the people at the library that got there before me had had trouble with it and didn’t like it. I think it’s great and bloglines has been my homepage ever since.

Library Thing was good but I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to keep it updated. I’ll try and get back to it and use it more. It would be nice if there was a way to add a list of books that aren’t in your library, but you’d like to read. I have trouble remembering all the books I plan to read.

Rollyo was interesting and something I’d never heard of before. I like the idea of it and think it could be handy on a library website.

Del.icio.us was great! I really liked the idea of del.icio.us and plan to continue using it in the future, although when you install the buttons onto a computer with internet explorer 7 they don’t really fit well. But I think del.icio.us will be handy for me next year when I so a bit of travelling.

I didn’t like technorati. Not a bit. Maybe I missed something? But from my experience with it, I just didn’t like it.

Wikis were great. I use wikipedia quite a bit but it was interesting to see what other areas wikis can be used for. I think they definitely could have a use as part of library projects and possibly personal projects.

Google Docs and Zoho writer was something I was looking forward to. I love the idea of not having to use a disk or storage device. Accessing files from any computer with the internet is great. I think we should run lessons on zoho or google docs in the library as I think it’s something the customers could make use of and I just think it would be a good idea for as many people to know about it as possible. I think it still has some improvements to make but it's a great tool that I will defintely use in the future.

Youtube is good but there is so much rubbish on it!!! That task took me the most time, not because I was enjoying lots of videos, but because there was not much good on it. I think it’s a good resource if you have an idea of what you’re looking for but if you just looking for anything good to post on your blog (like I was for the task) then it can get a bit annoying.

I like podcasts, and will try in the future to make more time to listen to them. I’d be interested to see what other staff have found and liked. I’ll have to check their blogs.

And ebooks, well you know what I think of those. I just wrote about them earlier today. .

Overall, I’d say my favourite tasks were, zoho/google docs, del.icio.us, podcasts, and my number one top favourite was rss and bloglines!!

My only advice for future programs would be not to say it takes only 15 minutes a day because it seemed to be a bit more than that. Maybe 2 hours a week sounds better, which is really just a bit more than 15 mins a day. I think actually trying to do these tasks in 15 minute blocks is too difficult. Even one hour and 15 minutes a week sounds better than 15 mins a day…

But overall I think it was great and thanks to the organisers for all their work. It must be difficult to keep up with so many blogs but I think it would be a fun job as well. I’m already looking forward to Learning 3.0

Glenn 2.0

#22 Audiobooks (Books 2.0)

I’m not sure yet about downloadable audiobooks and ebooks. I think it will still be a while before they take off. Looking around the world ebook fair site I don’t think they’d do too much business with your general library visitor. All their titles seem to be quite old. If they had best sellers, and more recent and popular authors then I could see its use being more likely than it is now. Also, I didn’t think the children’s book on the site would be of too much interest either. I think once more recent titles become available as ebooks it will still probably take some time before Australian content became a part of the site. Maybe some of the classic fairy tales and kids stories would be alright but I don’t really think ebooks will be a big part of libraries services for a while yet. I can’t really picture kids being read stories from a computer screen as they lay in bed falling asleep. I think ebooks will become popular when the option of printed books isn’t as available as it is now. I know that ebooks are supposed to be cheaper, and you can buy special screens to read them from etc. but I still think they’re a long way off.

#21 Glenn 2.0 is now subscribed to 3 podcasts and 1 smodcast

I don’t do podcasts. I tried one early this year but I just don’t really have the time to listen to them. I like the idea of them though. I used to listen to the Smodcast podcast that Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier do and they are great, and it’s entertaining and funny. But it goes for about an hour each time. I think I listened to the first 5 or so but then started falling behind so I stopped listening to it.

I didn’t really have an idea of how many podcasts were out there until this exercise when I searched around the three directories. I didn’t like yahoo. It seemed to just have mainly American results. The other two were quite good. I liked the look of the books and writing podcast I found using podcast.net but it seems to be out of date and the rss link doesn’t work. I found another good one with writing tips though which I subscribed to. I also found a travel one which I listened to for a bit and found quite interesting. It was a podcast by Rick Steves which I believe is from an American radio station, but it was good and interesting with some good travel tips. I subscribed to that one as well. I also decided to subscribe to Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier’s podcast but I couldn’t find it in podcast.net or podcastalley.com. I did find it using yahoo though. They call their podcast SModcast by using the first letters of each of their surnames. I highly recommend it to anyone that appreciates their style of humour, particularly if you like their dvd commentaries. They can be very offensive though.

I would have liked to create my own podcast for this exercise but there are two reasons that I can’t. I don’t have the equipment, and I don’t have anything interesting to say.

I now am subscribed to four very different podcasts, as you can see on the right. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to listen to them sometime.

Oh, I almost forgot. Podcasts in the library. I think it’s a great idea. Our library has done it once with a Chritos Tsiolkas session at our Northcote library but none have been done since then. I think it’s a great idea to record author talks and other interesting events that the library puts on. It is good to go back and listen to the talks again, and also for the people that missed it to have the chance to hear how it was. I think that by making these podcasts available on the website will ultimately increase the number of customers that will attend author talks in the future. It’s another great way of promoting what the library does.