No Guitar Hero

I'll never be a Guitar Hero. But I think I'll move up the cart charts with Mari Cart on the wii. The training at HDQ was encouraging AND fun. Offering a program of some kind to kids is not so scary now. I can totally see tweens and teens enjoying a game night here at our branch.
My thanks ot Joannie, Joanne and all the trainers for making the set-up and take-down very easy to watch and learn.

Spring is perfect time to finish Web 2.0

I've been busy exploring all the offerings of the crazy internet stuff.

There is so much to learn and some many details to attend to with each new product. I think I will request an admin assistant to help me organize and maintain this electronic life. LOL

Goodreads has a life of its own. Who has time to read for updating lists of books to read? Although I do enjoy reading what others have said about books, I'll take the good with the bad. The tagging of books is handy for storytime planning. I no longer have to photocopy covers of books I', thinking aobut using for future reference. They are right there on my virtual bookshelf or a friend's bookshelf.

I know this will be hard to believe, but I am not a fan of Facebook. I feel very exposed knowing that friends of my friends can follow my pages or that photos go up and might travel around the world. Perhaps I haven't spent enough time with it to truly see the benefits. I do know it is easy to get sucked into doing the test, lists, tags, fans etc. It's hard to believe this is work. and I don't spend much time on the computer when I am at home so this is one facet of 2.o that I porbably will not continue after I complete this training.

Twittering is the rage now. I check on the coworkers I'm following and get branch news/share what is going on with me. There are a few twitterers I follow for personal interest. The late breaking/gossipy tidbits I get haven't been so important that I feel rewarded for logging on frequently.

Flickr has been the best thing since sliced bread! I have encouraged other family memebers to sign up and link. Now we share photos online instead of copying photos and handing them out or mailing to each other. This is good for the environment and good for my unorganized photo boxes. It is so much easier to organize a file on line. Tagging makes it easy to find a special photo. I'm glad this was included in our training.

Twitter now on board

Thanks Rachel. Twitter is now rolling on this page. Even the Republican National Committee is learning to Twitter, I can't be left behind.

My Goodreads Montage

The montage of books I've posted on Goodreads looks great . I'll have to read faster!
I'll play around with how they are arranged. Right now I've selected pub date, but date read is a good way to show people what is high on my list.

Podcasting Techniques

The SLRC podcasting demo at Pratt was encouraging. With the web resources readily available online, I just need a reason to podcast. Or produce an audio file. I didn't realize podcasting was simply sending an audio file out onto the web for surfers' listening enjoyment. I can see using either one for library programs. Story time, book talk and library happenings pr come to mind immediately and, given some time, I'm sure I could think or others.The hardest part will be finding the time to do the recording and editing necessary to clean up the message for posting.
Patrons will link to hear what we are doing-- just like old-time readio broadcasts.

Getting my message out there

The You Tube and podcasting sites are a great way to increase interest/marketing of library services. The Ninja Librarian is funny and I'm sure generates conversation with library folks.

Authors I know are creating trailers of their titles and posting on You Tube to build buzz around the new release. This would work for programs in the library as well. How about a "virtual story time" that patorns could watch at any time?

GoodReads is my choice for reading list

I love GoodReads. The posting is easy. I am friends with writers and librarians so the recommendations of what to read next always threatens to get out of hand. Catherine started adding the story time tag to her reads. What a fantastic idea! I have been photocopying covers to help me remember titles I might use some day. This will do the same thing without wasting paper. Good for me and good for the environment.