Exercise #23 -Joy

My favourite sites were LibraryThing, YouTube and Facebook. LibraryThing, Wikis and the social networking sites, Bebo, MySpace and Facebook would be useful for library patron communication. It would be great to have time to use these tools in our library working day.
These exercises have made me enthusiastic to learn more about each of the Web 2.0 sites we have visited. Due to shortage of time, I have only scratched the surface of these sites and am determined to revisit them, use them more often and experiment with putting more info onto the sites I am most enthusiastic about. I would like to keep up with technology and have made learning itself a lifelong goal -I hope I keep learning new things all my life!
I will be recommending Writeboard to a friend I am encouraging to write a novel. She does not have Word on her computer. I hope to communicate regularly with my granddaughter once I know her Bebo address. I was impressed with the wide variety of sites and the amazing number of tasks they allow the user to perform. I can see how the world is changing because of technology. This was a pleasurable glimpse into the future!!

Exercise #21 Social Networking Sites

Bebo -I registered for Bebo membership and tried finding my granddaughters profile but doing several searches with her brother helping me, we came to the conclusion that she must be using a nom de plume. Matthew, my grandson, showed me how to add photos and change the skin on my profile.
Facebook -I have invited several people to be my friend but have not had confirmation of that yet. (Friends have to accept your invitation to be friends)
I have joined two groups -Photographers in NZ and Dog Lovers. I also joined the NZ network.
MySpace-I created a profile and added a picture onto the profile. I have two friends. I found Facebook the easiest to use.

Exercise #22 Social Networking in Libraries

The Facebook sites for the libraries shown on the Discovery exercises are a good example of how the use of networking tools can benefit the library world. Particularly for teens, the value of an interactive site is that it allows the library to have feedback from patrons and adjust services according to their needs. The Facebook site which allowed patrons to suggest titles for purchase would be very useful. The comment by one teen patron in an article, that teens mostly used the email facility on Facebook rather than the usual email showed that libraries would receive more feedback and suggestions through this method. The article pointed out that controls over content should be considered but overall, I think the use of Facebook etc by libraries is an exciting prospect.

Exercise #21

Facebook -I have invited two people from our library to join my Friends list and am looking forward to their acceptance. I have joined two groups -Pet Lovers and Photographers.
I looked at Bebo and MySpace. I found an image from MySpace (hard to find images -plenty of videos ect)and added it to my blog. I found it took some time to find the way around the sites but once I had looked around it became a lot clearer. I will stick with Facebook.

Exercise #21 MySpace image added

http://cms.myspacecdn.com/Splash/MySpace_Music/US/Music/51/51shugo.jpg

this is an image off MySpace

Exercise 20 eBooks

I was most impressed with both the free ebook sites -Gutenberg and LibriVox. In both sites, titles were easy to find and plenty of information about the book was given. Both stated that downloading ebooks was free and gave instructions on how to do this.
Gutenberg offered titles in an emormous number of languages -including Maori, and the public could choose from a number of categories in which they could receive the book material -audio (human read and computer generated), pictures (still and moving), music, etc. All of this material would be received on a computer. RSS is available for information about the latest additions to the catalogue. Librivox had a very clear Homepage, with one panel asking for volunteers to read books, the other panel informing patrons that they can use an MP3 or ogg vorbis to download material. Librivox offered podcasts and also offered RSS availability.
I can see this would be an extremely useful tool for students who could download texts and not have to cart around heavy books to study, to people who want to use the computer to access books( one step closer to the computer being multipurpose -TV, DVDs, downloading books and music -one screen in the house for many purposes-though with many members of the family wishing to use the screen for different purposes, perhaps a screen in every room!!

Exercise #19 Podcasts

After trawling through a large number of podcasts on Podcast Alley, Podcastpickle and Podnova, I chose the Paranormal News because it had regular updates which could be checked for.
http://www.podnova.com/channel/25118/
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8wZra1dpys