Thing 16: E-Books

I like PsycBooks. I'm looking forward to showing this to the students taking psychology classes. I did some searches on popular topics and was pleased with what I found.

I think that E-books are here and not just a wave of the future. Amazon recently issued a statement that for the first time their E-book sales outnumbered their print sales.

I don't own a dedicated e-book reader. We have a couple of Kindles for checkout in the library. I've played with the Kindle but I still prefer paper.

Thing 14

I used Doodle to "make a choice" on what continent besides North America you would like to travel to? http://doodle.com/q66i5qxrxxz93xin

I was surprised at how easy it was to use. I also like the fact that I didn't have to register or download any special software.

Week 12: Cloud Computing

I use Google Docs for sharing a spreadsheet with another librarian that I am on a committee with. That way we can both edit it and it is saved in a common place. We limited access to the document to the two of us.

We have also used Google Docs in the library for shared presentations and shared calendars. The shared calendars have been especially helpful for instruction scheduling purposes.

Week 11: URL Shorterners

I can see where url shorteners would be helpful if you were referencing a web link that was really long. It's not a tool that I really have use for in my work right now. I will archive it for future use if the need should arise.

Week 11: Searching Twitter

I signed up for Twitter to keep up to date at the ALA annual conference this year. At mid-winter people were tweeting about where to get the best stuff from the vendors. That didn't seem to happen at the annual. I did get some good restaurant tips, however.

I don't know about Twitter as a research tool since the nature of a tweet is to keep it brief. It seems to be most useful as a message tool.

Week 8: Flickr

I don't use Flickr because I no longer have a Yahoo account. I think that I would prefer to create an album in Facebook. I sometimes feel overwhelmed by too many seperate applications. I like applications that have multiple uses. Here is a link to a photo that I like on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alfredng/624558336/ It is a photo of the convention center in Montreal or Le Palais des congrès de Montréal. I attended a conference there in 2009.

Week 7: Sharing Slide Presentations

I posted a SlideShare presentation to my blog that I saw at the Canadian Library Association conference in Montreal last year. It is about the power of play.

I haven't created a presentation in SlideShare yet but I can see where it would be useful. It's nice that it has so many publishing and sharing options.

The Unquiet Library: make the connection: learning to play, playing to learn

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

The Unquiet Library: make the connection: learning to play, playing to learn

View more presentations from Buffy Hamilton.

Week 6: Chat

I have experimented with Google Chat and Second Life chat at work. I noticed that it is also available on Facebook but I haven't used it. My husband will begin traveling out of the country soon for work so we will probably use some form of chat to save on long distance phone costs!

Once a week I cover LRC Live for an hour. I wish that I could say better things about it but my experience has been that it is somewhat slow and I've never been able to get the co-browse function to work well.

TCC has added the LRC Live Qwidget to the library homepage. I think the Qwidget looks more inviting. I believe that right now it is limited to when a VCCS librarian is currently on LRC Live, however.

Week 5: Wikis

Out of the listed examples I enjoyed the Book Lovers Wiki the most. The fact that I love to read didn't hurt. All of the examples seemed functional. The staff training & support wiki for Antioch University is really comprehensive. They even have a guide for how to water the plants!

The library system that I work for has several wikis. We also have one that is campus specific to keep staff up to date on procedures, library news, etc. The wiki that is used the most system wide is one that is for keeping track of who currently has what professional journal. The idea is to get the journals routed more efficiently.

Today I received a invitation to the VIVA ILL Wiki. I submitted my first post shortly thereafter. I think this WIKI will be really helpful for those of us involved in ILL.

Week 3: Social Networking

I have a Facebook account primarily for keeping up with family and friends. I don't send updates very frequently or maintain any farms.

I do see the benefits of libraries having Facebook pages and Twitter accounts because this is how the younger generation communicates. The Tidewater Community College Libraries don't currently have any Facebook pages. It would probably work best for each campus library to have their own Facebook page.

I am impressed with the Facebook page at Run Run Shaw Library, City University of Hong Kong. Check out the photos of their recently renovated library. You can tell that it was renovated with the patrons needs in mind. http://www.facebook.com/cityulib

Has anyone used Twitter at a library conference? I would like to learn how to use it before the ALA conference in June. I met a librarian at the mid-winter conference who said that she got tweets about the best giveaways at the exhibits. She sent two large boxes of stuff back to her library.

Week 2: RSS feeds

I added five feeds to my reader today: Library of Congress, coffee break french, travel with Rick Steves, BBC News, and Chris Leavins "Cute with Chris".

It took my awhile to find some feeds to subscribe to on my own. I chose a combination of sites ranging from professional to comedy. I like the comedian Chris Leavins. Somedays I just need a laugh!

International Library Blogs

I am interested in international library activities. The Lubuto Library Project blog was brought to my attention: http://blog.lubuto.org/

I am going to search for more like this. If anyone has any suggestions of international library blogs please let me know. Thank you.

Carol

Week 1: Getting Started

I confess that I find blogs somewhat overwhelming. Somedays it's all that I can do to keep up with my email accounts and Facebook. I recently enjoyed two books that were based on blogs, however. "Julie and Julia" which was also made into a movie and "Waiter Rant". I like the concept of "23 Things for VCCS Libraries". For week one I am going to try to appreciate blogs more!