How 2.0 R U Now?

Way back in January when we first got started on this blogging journey, many of you took a quiz -- How 2.0 R U? We'd like to see what kind of difference this training has made, so please give the quiz another try and let us know, How 2.0 R U Now?

Some of you followed the training all along, some of you participated every so often, some of you read along silently. We hope everyone found something interesting, something new, and something that will help you help our customers in the future if not now.

Please comment on this final post to let us know what you thought, what you liked, what you didn't, what could be done differently, better, or not at all. This is the feedback we will use to decide where we go next in the 2.0 world.

In the next day or so we'll put the names of those who completed the training in a hat and one lucky blogger will receive an iPod Shuffle. Look for the winner on your library news blog -- LibBlog.

Soon all the participant blogs will be detached from this training blog. If you have a blog it is yours to keep up with, or you can delete it. If you don't plan to use your blog you can go to the same screen you use to create a post, click the Settings tab at the top, scroll all the way to the bottom of the Settings screen and Delete your blog.

This hcplc = lib 2.0 training blog will stay here so you can read and work through the lessons and other posts and continue to learn.

So please, take the quiz, comment on the training, and enjoy the blogosphere!

is for VCarious, "a new way to explore travel destinations." You can read travel guides written by others, post your own photos and journals, and share interesting items with your friends and colleagues. This is based on a core Web 2.0 concept to get the users to create and contribute the content. Actually, this site is quite cool; it's definitely worth a look if you're planning a trip somewhere.

VCarious is a new kind of travel site for exploring destinations in the same way as first-hand travel. Using Web 2.0 technologies, VCarious provides a dynamic, interactive environment for exploring photos, journals, and travel guides. Members can interact with other travelers, share their photos and journals, and participate in creating community travel guides.

VCarious was created by travelers who were tired of canned, one-size-fits-all printed guides and frustrated with disorganized travel web sites filled with sponsored links. With its dynamic and interactive tools, VCarious enables travel enthusiasts to share their experiences and truly explore the world.

and Yes, I know I skipped "U".

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 2 (letters N-Z) were originally published in Information Today 24.10 (Nov 2007): p.15(2).

Gaming in the Library

Much is happening in the world of gaming right now, and it's not just a lot of teenage boys sitting in the basement staring at a screen for hours on end. No, gaming has tremendous potential for libraries to reach out to new users, offer new services, and help complement efforts in community-building, information literacy, and other areas. - Don't know much about gaming but you want to know how it can benefit libraries? - Not sure what kinds of services your library could offer (especially on a limited budget)? - Are you an avid gamer who would like to offer services but you need help convincing others? - Just want to hear what other libraries are doing? We'll cover all of these topics and more in just one hour. Get the scoop that helps you clarify your thinking about gaming and libraries.

Get the archive of the Sirsi Dynix Institutes presentation by Jenny Levine —Internet Development Specialist and Strategy Guide, ALA:

Gaming in the Library

...or go right to the good stuff:

Listen Now (mp3)

Podcast (php)

View Now (wmv)

Supplemental Material (pdf)

Get a (Second) Life!

There's been a great deal of talk about the virtual world, Second Life and how it could be used for instruction and for meeting library customers online.

Educause has put together a fact sheet about Second Life - "7 Things You Should Know About Second Life" (PDF) answering your burning questions like:

-What is it?
-Who’s doing it?
-How does it work?
-Why is it significant?
-What are the downsides?
-Where is it going?
-What are the implications for teaching and learning?

I'm a Believer!

There has been a lot of hype concerning libraries and gaming, with professional publications touting incredible benefits. THPL started down the road to gaming over a year ago as one of many options for Out of School (OST) programming, proving to be enjoyable for our customers and beneficial to our staff.

I became a TRUE believer of gaming in libraries as a result of my interactions with customers during the Teen Tech Week gaming tournament and qualifying events. It was a marketing event made to order! I mingled in the crowds and took advantage of every opportunity to converse with teens and parents, promoting library services and learning more about their perceptions of the library, the services of interest to them, and amazingly, their preferences on how they wish to learn about upcoming events.

There are many documented benefits to gaming, but I believe one of the strongest arguments is that it can help libraries become involved in teen social networking and provide opportunities to promote other relevant library services to this demographic.

Gaming is good for you

Here is a detailed list of New York State education standards that are met by gaming in the library. Plenty of food for thought.
And take a look at the normally staid lobby at the main research library in New York.
Libraries all over the country are realizing the benefits of gaming and we are too. We have more teen programs, and more teen participation, than ever before!

Gaming and Libraries

Here is an interesting presentation by Jenny Levine, The Shifted Librarian and gaming librarian extraordinaire. There's a ton of information here but a quick browse will give you lots of facts on the value of gaming in libraries.

2.0 Alphabet

is for Twitter, "a global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM, or right here on the web!" My immediate reply was, who the heck cares? For some reason, Twitter has received a lot of buzz in the library community. It's not as though we weren't already plagued by information overload.

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter web site, via the Twitter web site, short message service (SMS), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.
Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone is the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application. [Wikipedia]

There's always a lot of chatter on Library 2.0 blogs about the significance, need, point, etc. of Twitter. I'd comment more, but I've got to read my email (8:05am); then I'm going to drink some coffee (8:07, 8:15 & 8:34am); I have an appointment with my supervisor (9:15am) but will stop by the restroom first (9:06am) ... "What are you doing?"

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 2 (letters N-Z) were originally published in Information Today 24.10 (Nov 2007): p.15(2).

Learning Library Skills Through Gaming

Carnegie Mellon University Library now offers students the opportunity to learn about the library through games in the Library Arcade. The Library Arcade features flash-based games designed to help students develop research skills through entertaining and easy-to-repeat activities.

Graduate students from their Entertainment Technology Center have teamed up with the University Libraries to create educational games to help students develop library research skills. They have two games so far - “I’ll Get It” in which players must help fellow students find library resources, and “Within Range”, a library re-shelving game using the LC classification system. They are still in the testing phase, but have made the games available to the public.

Two learning games are now offered:
(1) I'll Get It! - helps students identify research materials.

(2) Within Range - for students to learn the correct order of items on the shelves.

This information was found in a posting from the library technology blog - iLibrarian.

Gaming Gone Wild

gaming presentation01
Originally uploaded by ALA staff

I've been saving lots of good stuff to post during our gaming weeks, but then I saw this post on The Shifted Librarian and it's full of interesting links on the value of gaming in libraries.

There's Jenny Levine's presentation on gaming in libraries that she gave in Second Life on the right.

#12 - Gaming in Libraries

..."If you don't offer them something they value now, you're going to be irelevant to them the rest of their lives." Eli Neiburger (Gaming in Libraries Symposium, December, 2005)

Learning Objectives

• Learn how libraries are using are using online and video games to promote learning and technology skills.
• Learn about virtual communities, like Second Life and how they are being implented in libraries.
• What is Dance Dance Revolution anyway?
• What is an "avatar"?
• Review the Learn More: Avatars tutorial.


• Second Life: Info Insland Archipelago Tour (on YouTube)
  
• "When everything is available online, why come to the library at all?" See how Aarhus Public Library in Denmark is answering that Questions (via YouTube).
  

Skills Practice

• Go to Just for Kids: Games and play one of the education games that the library offers through it's Web site.
• Explore one of the more popular online games that our young customers are playing in the library - how about World of Warcraft or RuneScape?
• Go to YouTube and watch a view clips of Dance Dance Revolution.
• Learn about Speed Stacks; how would you incorporate this into a teen or adult program at the library?

Experience Sharing

• Share your gaming experiences on your Learning 2.0 blog.
• Did you create an avatar of any of the online games you explored? Why not share that image on your blog as well.

Resources

1. Library Technology Reports (July/August, 2006) - "Gaming in Libraries."
2. Christy Branston, "From Game Studies to Bibliographic Gaming: Libraries Tap into the Video Game Culture."
3. Ameet Doshi, "How Gaming Could Inprove Information Literacy."
4. Donald T. Hawkins and Barbara Brynko, "Gaming: The Next Hot Technology for Libraries."
5. Popular Mechanics, "Microsoft Surface: Behind-the-Scenes First Look (with Video)." Is this gaming or computing?
6. SirsiDynix Institute, "Teen Second Life: Library Services in a 3D World."
7. "Second Life" on Wikipedia.
8. "RuneScape" on Wikipedia.
9. "World of Warcraft" on Wikipedia.

2.0 Alphabet

is for Squidoo. Squidoo is a network of user-generated lenses --single pages that highlight one person's point of view, recommendations, or expertise. Lenses can be about anything, such as ideas, people or places, hobbies and sports, pets or products, philosophy, and politics. Lenses aren't primarily intended to hold content; more emphasis is placed on recommending and then pointing to content on the web. Annotation and organization and personalization delivers context and meaning.

Squidoo's goal as a platform is to bring the power of recommendation to search. Squidoo's goal as a co-op is to pay as much money as we can to our lensmasters and to charity. And Squidoo's goal as a community is to have fun along the way, and meet new ideas and the people behind them.
Read more about Squidoo at The SquidLens.

Check out Squidoo's Library 2.0 Lens.

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 2 (letters N-Z) were originally published in Information Today 24.10 (Nov 2007): p.15(2).

Picasa Web Albums

Picasa (another free Google application) is what I use to edit, store and share my photographs. It's so easy to use and to upload to your blog from there. I love the way I can now put together a web album and share with friends. The web album is a relatively new feature and I noticed that Picasa now automatically creates and builds a web album from your blog if you are using blogspot (also a free Google application). It does include every photo ever added to your blog, even if you have edited them off your blog, and it does include some twice, though I am not sure why.

Here's the web album Picasa created all on its own from my blog, om musing. Photo below, of the front entrance to the main library in Brooklyn, is from the om musing album.

Social Media in Plain English

I know this is somewhat out of order (unless you consider all Web 2.0 stuff to be "social media") - Common Craft has released another great explanatory video.




Take a look!

9 Free Online Storage/Backup Solutions–for Varying Needs

Originally posted to Web Worker (April 2, 2008):

"The price of storage has been dropping dramatically for some time now, and along with that trend, web workers now have an ever-expanding set of options for backing up and sharing files online. In addition, the various services you can use offer many different kinds of options–so how much capacity you get with free online offerings isn’t necessarily the only issue any more. In this post, I’ll round up some of the best free services to consider, and what their specialties are.

I mentioned Adrive here once before, and after continuing to use it, I’m impressed with it. It’s a no-frills online storage and backup solution, and the real attraction to it is how much capacity you get: a whopping 50 gigabytes. That’s much more than the 5GB you get free with Xdrive, or the 1GB you get free with Box.net.

Speaking of Box.net, its main attraction is the large set of free applications that you can now use in conjunction with it through its OpenBox service. You can do online editing with Zoho, document signing with EchoSign, CAD previewing with Autodesk Freewheel, working within the ThinkFree productivity suite, cropping photos with Picnik, and more.

I’m also a fan of some of the on-the-fly services out there, designed to let you shoot files and images online and share them with colleagues as instantly as possible. Recently, I mentioned Clip2Net, which is really good for these speed collaboration applications. I also like Drop.io which creates a web site for you to deposit files on, and you can password protect it. Another player to look into if you’re interested in this type of online storage and sharing is DropBoks.

For folks interested in a Mac client for backups and storage, Mozy remains a popular choice. And if you’re interested in backups in particular, MediaMax is worth looking into. You get 25GB of free online storage, and you also get a free piece of client software called MediaMax XL Beta which allows you to automate backups so you don’t have to do the work."

We actually used eSnips for the hcplc=Lib 2.0 survey.

2.0 Alphabet

is for reddit, where users submit links to content and then vote on the links, so the most popular items bubble to the top. Similar sites are Digg.com and Newsvine. A study released in September 2007 by the Project for Excellence in Journalism showed a wide divergence in what the so-called "mainstream media" considers to be important and what "the masses" perceive as worthy of attention. This is proof.

"The site has discussion areas in which users may discuss the posted links and vote for or against others' comments. When there are enough votes against a given comment, it will not be displayed by default, although a reader can display it through a link or preference. Users who submit articles which other users like and subsequently "vote up" receive "karma" points as a reward for submitting interesting articles."[Wikipedia]

Web 2.0 Alpbahet:Part 2 (letters N-Z) were originally published in Information Today 24.10 (Nov 2007): p.15(2).

Even More Cool Online Tools...

The Internet site - "Webware: Cool Web 2.0 Apps for Everyone" - has just published its list of the Top 100 Web Apps for 2008 (votes by visitors to their site).

Take a look at the follwoing categories for some interesting online productivity tools:

• Productivity & Business
• Storage
• Widgets & Desktop Enhancements
• Education & Reference.

Here's some useful online apps...

10 Free Web-based Alternatives to Photoshop
LifeClever has put together a nice list of 10 free Web-based applications which can be used for photo-editing. Be sure and check out the full post for screenshots of each:

• Picnik
• Splashup
• Phoenix
• Photoshop Express
• Snipshot
• flauntR
• Pic Resize
• Pixenate
• FotoFlexer
• Phixr

These were posted to iLibrarian (which posted them from somewhere else).

Lab Graduate

It's time to have some fun in the lab!

Have you been somewhere -- a branch you don't normally work at, away on vacation, at your parents' house, etc. -- and wished you had your computer with you? Or wished the computer that was available had the software to run the document you have on your flashdrive?

Forget the flashdrive, say goodbye to the software.

When you use Google Docs it won't matter where you are or what computer you have available. You can even use your phone. You can create, access, and import word processing documents, spreadsheets, even presentations.

Google Docs is a graduate of Google Labs which is full of good ideas, some great ones, some that may seem silly to you. The reason so many Google products work so well is that they are made available to anyone to play with during development at Google Labs. You too can test drive and give input on such Google ideas as searching concepts and chat resources.

Some of the Google platforms you know and love were graduated from the Google Lab, like the Reader you use to gather your blogs and news, the Maps you use to get around, and your personalized iGoogle pages.

So play in the lab and take part in creating our 2.0 future.

#11 - Online Applications & Tools

Learning Objectives

• Browse some online productivity tool (ex. word processing, spreadsheets, image editing, calendars, mapping, etc.).
• Explore the Web 2.0 Directory categories: Calendar Services, Note Taking Services, Office Services, Mapping Services & Photography Services.
• What's a "Web widget"?

Skills Practice

• Play with some of the productivity products listed on the Best of The Best Web 2.0 Web Sites.
• Create, save and edit a document using ThinkFree.
• Create, save and edit an image using FlashPAINT.
• Log in to Google Docs & Spreadsheets - how could you put this to good use?
• Find a widget that will work on your blog and add it.

Experience Sharing

• Share your experienc with the online tools that you used on the hcplc=Lib2.0 blog.
• Post the document and image that you created on your 2.0 Learning blog.

Resources

1. Michelle Boule, "The Internet is for Use." ALA TechSource Blog.
2. Richard MacManus, "Widgets are the New Black."
3. The Unofficial Web Applications List.
4. Check out Widgetbox.
5. "Learning 2.0: Web-based Applications" by Helene Blowers
   
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