#18 Take a look at some online productivity tools

The following is from an original ZOHOwriter document



This unit should prove useful and interesting. I have received a HPmini webbook as a birthday present and was curious if Googledoc would work there since the mini comes with nothing but web surfing capabilities. I am going to try both Zohowriter and Googledoc just to compare them. With both sites, I was able to save, copy and then print out documents. Both sites have plenty of tools, templates etc... to use. I probably will end up using Googledoc just because both my daughters use it. It will be easier for me to learn just one system.

#17 Add an entry into the Sandbox Wiki created with PB Wiki

PB Wiki Tour -
PBWiki Video Gallery - both these two resources are Not Found. My attempts to log in to the Sandbox Wiki is also not successful. I tried all the combination of the provided password with no success.

#16 Learn about wikis

and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them

When I tried to start this unit last week, the amount of information from the first resource reading (Lamb, Brian. "Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not." Educause Review. Sept/Oct 2004.) was so much that I decided to print everything out and read them on paper a little at a time. Later, when I was ready to read them, I somehow started with "A Wiki as a Research Guide" by Chad Boeninger, which is much easier to understand and made reading the other three articles easier to follow. I found the best explanation and instructions to set up or use any wiki in the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki site. I used to think of Wiki as an open chat room type bulletin board but now think that they could be very handy tools. Use in libraries could be for : subject guides, annotating catalog, community wiki, FOL wiki. More specifically, we can have a branch wiki, circulation problems wiki ( media problem, even supplies sharing), troubleshooting equipment wiki etc... of course all should be password protected. Of the exemples shown, the SJCPL Subject Guides,the OCLC Open WorldCat at http://www.oclc.org/productworks/wcwiki.htm are all very interesting

#15 Library 2.0 - It's many things to many people. What does it mean to you?

Where will the next generation Web take libraries?

This unit takes some pondering. After reading the five different perspectives on Web.2 and Library.2, I tend to agree with the last commenter, Dr Wendy Schultz. her view that " Libraries represent a resource base, contributing to educating the labour force, to supporting innovation processes fueling growth, and to informing the present and the future—whether in the neighborhood, in academia, or in business." in the past and that in the future "with the characteristics of our emerging information infrastructure: the library is everywhere, barrier-free, and participatory." and future librarians as virtual tour guide to a 3DLibrary is what I'd imagine what we are slowly changing into. MCPL is also slowly trying to change. I can see the increase in Hold placed in MCPL as a sign that instead of going to a local branch to browse our patrons are browsing from their computer and "ordering" their choices there. I am hoping that when Kindles or some other ebooks replaces a printed book, Library can become " knowledge spa" and "a retreat from technohustle, with comfortable chairs, quiet, good light, coffee and single malt" like Dr. Schultz preditcs.

#14 Discover Technorati and learn how tags work with blogs

how does a person get their blog listed as part of the blogosphere and how can you tag your posts with keywords to make them more findable through a Technorati search?

Doing the recommended exercises, I did a keyword search for “Learning 2.0” in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory. The first search yielded 1100 results, the second and third gave me an equivalent of an error message. Not wanting to give up I tried "Montgomery county" which yielded 62 results in both Blog posts and Tags. I then tried "23things" which gives 201 blogs in both places and they seem to be identical. I expected to find something with the 23things search since a lot of participants of this training have embedded the word in their blog name. If I am looking to find out more opinions on our training outside of MCPL this should be a good way to go about it.

As far as tagging my posts or my blog, I think I'll pass. When I am searching for something on the internet, the hits that irritate me most are random posts from nowhere blogs. I am counting my blog as one of those so tagging them will only irritate someone somewhere looking for more relevant information.

#13 Tagging and Discover Del.icio.us

1. Took a look around Del.icio.us using the PLCMCL2 account
2. The tutorial video is no longer available.
   
3. Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark. Cannot see any comments. May be doing this wrong.
   

#12 Roll your own search tool with Rollyo

I started this yesterday but did not have enough time to complete the exercise. I am trying again today with not much luck. I was prepared to make my own search tool with Rollyo. I even had the subject picked out and websites ready but when I try to create the search roll it failed three times.
I decided to give this an incomplete and move on; so, not Rollyo for me.