Final Thoughts

Hmmmm...overall this program was not too hard, and none of the discovery excercises took too long. I took away some things that I will certainly use (like Delicious), and some that I will never use. As a first year librarian I found it all a bit overwhelming; not the content per se but just the act of completing it. Not having Internet access at home was the biggest challenge I faced. While at work (even after hours) it was very difficult for me to work on this and not do the million other tasks I had in front of me. But after all, that's life and part of growing in your profession...sometimes you do stuff that you would rather not, or stuff you don't think you need.
It all goes back to my life motto: "It is what it is...so move on!" Can't say I'll miss you HEB23....22 days left until freedom (which equates to 4 Mondays in case you were wondering..LOL).

Audio/Video

You Tube

YouTube can be great for book trailers like this one:


Podcasts
I added a podcast called YA Literature Review to my RSS feed. I used Podcast.com to find it and found it pretty easy to use, but honestly I probably won't use it again. I was surprised that I remembered how to add to my RSS feed...I guess something did stick after all :)

NetLibrary
I used NetLibrary quite a bit in both my undergrad and graduate degree programs. It's a great option for ebooks and is very convenient and user friendly.

Online Applications & Tools

Zoho- I had never used Zoho before but found it simple and convenient to use. It has a similar setup to Micrsoft word so it was easy to navigate and find what I needed. I don' really have an opinion on whether I prefer it or Word better, but I can certainly see how it could be used by many groups of people working together on soemthing. Also, not having to purchase software is a plus!

Google Docs- I use Google Docs for my calendar all the time. I used to use it a lot more before I had an iPhone, but nevertheless I still use it for our church web page to enter dates and events for our Singles group. I like it because there are several of us who need to edit the calendar and with a google account and password anyone can edit :)

Wikis

Wikis can be a really good tool...if you understand the purpose of them and how they work. I am constantly telling my studenets that they are NOT an authoratative source for finding factual information on a topic or person for that matter. However, sometimes we give wikis a completely bad reputation instead of seeing the positives that they do offer. One thing that would be interesting to use a wiki for is students' favorite books. I would love to create a wiki and put it on the library webpage and allow students to go in and add thier favorite book or book series. It could be something they got from our library or not. It would give me some good starters for collection development, as well as let students see what their peers are reading and loving :) In that case I would just have to make sure it is set up to recieve authorization from me before posting to the Internet!

Social Bookmarking

So....I am really digging this whole Del.icio.us thing. How had I never heard of this before; I fell left out :( I Can certainly see how this social bookmarking site has many advantages. For starters, teachers are notorious for borrowing ideas from each other so why not borrow great Internet sites as well. I get so many ideas from different web sites! Next, how convenient is it to be able to access your bookmarked sites from anywhere. There have been many occasions I have been working on lesson plans at home and thought of the perfect website to visit, but it was saved on my computer at work. Better yet, don't you love when you lose all your bookmarks over the summer when they re-image the computer??? This is something I will definitely be using in the future!

"Play" Time

Part I

So...this was hilarious! I have seen images like this before but never knew it was this easy to just go online and create and download them. I went to Letter James and picked this picture because Wrigley Field is such a recognizable place. I thought it would be cute to put a message about libraries :)

Part II

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Lauren18299  

Ever read a great book, but cannot seem to remember the title or the auhtor? LibraryThing is a great tool to help you keep track of all the latest and greatest books you have read and also stay up to date with new realeases and other reader's favorites. I had a good time exploring this site and remembering some of my favorite books. I think I will definitely use this site in the future to keep a record of what I am reading and find some new reads :)

 Part III

http://www.rollyo.com/lauren18299/

Hmmmm...not so sure about this Rollyo business. Don't think I will ever really use this?!?! To me it's more of a waste of time than a time saver. However, I can see how if you were searching for a particular topic and you didn't want to wade through all of the Google "mess" Rollyo could be helpful.

RSS Feeds

This is a pretty good tool if you spend a lot of time on the Internet. It's a good way to stay up to date with things in a quicker way. The search tool on Bloglines was probably the easiest way to find feeds.Personally I do not have the time/desire to spend any time following people's blogs or checking news, etc. In fact, I don't even have Internet access at home (or television for that matter)...just my trusty iPhone and that's plenty for me. Honestly I cannot figure out how people even have time to blog!! There were so many options for feeds it was astonishing to me. I choose to spend my time with people instead of computers...LOL. However, I do realize the importance of staying up to date with these things and am constantly intrigued my the latest and greatest.