Summary

Wow. This was tough to do this in such a short amount of time with all the other work I'm doing at the library! But it has been fun, I'll have to admit! I found setting up a free email very useful for my library work and future use of Web 2.0 technologies at the library. I'm glad I have a work blog now. It's exciting to be using RSS feeds. I love taking digital photos, putting them on the computer and uploading them to my blog. Working with flickr is always fascinating and is probably my favorite thing - because I am most used to it and it is the first web 2.0 technology I've worked with at work. As I stated, I think instant messaging would be a great benefit to the library. Wikipedia was challenging, but interesting and it was fun to add a post. YouTube is awesome! And I hope to use it so much more in the future with my work at PVLD and libraries. Online office/productivity tools are extremely useful to me because I am often running between branches to various meetings, need to take notes, and possibly review those notes at another library. This way, I have them on hand. And of course, myspace for the grand finale...it's supposed to be fun, but as I mentioned, was time consuming. I'm sure that future use with myspace at the Malaga Cove Library and PVLD will be great!

The most important thing I learned is that these new, up and coming technologies are now apart of the mainstream and that we, as a library, should be on the forefront of this new technology - exploring, learning, growing with society and information society as a part of society. Libraries and information science definitely involve new technologies, which are now apart of the information world in full force. We should be too!

The most challenging to me was probably Wikipedia or possibly the time consuming nature of updating a profile on myspace. Wikipedia, as I mentioned, ensues a bit of tiptoeing around the screen with nervousness in the effect of, "Am I or am I not correct with this information?" But, as stated, others can repair your post. And my advice, you shouldn't feel scared to post or edit! (I should take my own advice!)

PVLD can use these technologies to deliver or improve library services in many ways, as shown above and through my posts. They can use them for staff development, staff interaction, interaction with patrons, people in the community, community partners, and the world beyond the library. The world wide web allows us to communicate with the world, and libraries are a part of this communication. Libraries should be on the forefront of this communication as information leaders!

I'm not sure what the "Self-directed" learning model is (that's probably my fault because I never quite understood that from the team meetings), but the model on the blog was easy to understand, straight-forward, and useful. I think there should be a question after the instructions of each task to get the staff thinking.

I think this is the best way to get staff thinking and encouraged about staff development...and you can win a prize! Good luck!

Laurie L. Anderson

#10 Explore Myspace

This was fun and exciting for sure, but time consuming on the job. The profile was easy, but time consuming to fill out. The pages moved along slowly and throughout the process from yesterday to today, I found that myspace had to send my issues to technical services many times, because tasks I tried to do on the website wouldn't go through. So I didn't do everything I wanted, like post a little on my myspace blog. Many pages wouldn't go through, as stated. Also, I didn't get a chance to list my companies. But you can look up my work myspace account at by searching my work email at myspace, which you can also email me at and is: landersonpvld@yahoo.com. I may change this post to a screen shot of me on myspace.

I can see the significance of myspace because of the advertising ability that libraries can use it for. It seems like it would be a great place to network with authors, librarians, and other libraries. I know there are a lot of libraries at myspace now and I think it would be great if PVLD had a myspace page!

Have fun!

Laurie

#9 Explore online office/productivity tools

Thank you for this task, whoever thought of this one. I had no idea about the potential of what you can do with google! and it is very exciting to me! I created a bio with google docs and spreadsheets of myself. Although I tried to post my document to my blog, the following message about not having permission to post to my blog or the setting was not correct, came up. I would like to keep fiddling with this to see if I can get it to work. After visiting http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0 I found some music sites that I think would be really great for libraries: last.fm or musicstrands.com. These seem fun and interesting. People could bring their headphones into the library (of course), listen to music, and add different types of music to their collection of songs or artists and then tag their favorite music. People all over the world would see different tags for the same favorite music or could look up music according to tags. People could discuss music with other individuals and have fun! I don't know how this would work for staff, yet, other than getting ideas for various music for selection. But it definately works for anyone who wants to listen to music in the library!

Thanks,

Laurie

to view my google word document, I published it to the web at http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dfstgfdw_0j2tgzt
Thanks,
Laurie

#8 Explore YouTube.com

So, I have an account with youtube, but I created one specific to this blog for pvld learning and continued pvld work with a video camera (I'd love to take video of PVLD or other library related work!).

Here is my youtube video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4PfldYft9Q
It is a video of the Huntington Library Garden. I think my search was California Libraries (once logged in to youtube).

My experience using youtube has been wonderful in the sense that I was able to post several videos on my other account of my son's preschool on Halloween day and send the video to family and post it to my family blog. I also posted a video that his father took of the PVLD parade, which Kathy G. posted a clip of to her director's blog at PVLD. I like how you can embed (with permission, which the Huntington Library video doesn't have) the video straight into your blog, or post the URL for it in your blog. Youtube is popular because it is fun to look at home videos, send videos to your friends, post videos, comment on videos, and more. Lanny at PVLD posted a video of a USC cheerleader rooting for the wrong team. I thought this was great. I was able to see videos that were posted as links to youtube on other people's blogs that I've seen. This could happen on a daily or weekly basis when I check out bloglines. My youtube user name is LAMalagaCoveLibrary. I just noticed that comments have been disabled from this video, so here's another one which I commented on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLw3orfWt10 I noticed it was difficult to view the entire videos. I don't know why, but I heard it might be the bandwidth.
My username for youtube is LAMalagaCoveLibrary
Enjoy!
Laurie

#7 Explore Wikipedia

Well, it was invigorating and exciting or thrilling to use wikipedia and make an edit. I do feel slightly inferior because I don't know what other people at PVLD will think or feel about my post, but what I feel reassured about is that others can make changes to what I've done. I like the idea that I could log in and make changes, but I don't know how much of an expert on PVLD I am. Over one year at PVLD probably makes me knowledgable, but not an expert.

Here is what I posted:
Peninsula Center Library 701 Silver Spur Road Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274
Teen Annex 210 The Village, in the Village Shopping Center Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274
Miraleste Library 29089 Palos Verdes Drive East Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
Malaga Cove Library 2400 Via Campesina Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274
The library can be reached virtually at www.pvld.org.

I was excited to put the library's exact locations, as well as the library website on the PVLD page.

This was fun.

Laurie

#6 Instant Messaging

Okay, so if you click on the link for instant messaging on the PVLD Learning Blog, you will see a list of directions for instant messaging. First, I went to the link for aimexpress. I already have an aim screen name which I use all the time and I don't mind using it for library purposes, which I may want to change later. Since I've created a library email address for these new technologies, a library blog for library related purposes specifically to myself, and other work oriented library log ins with user name and passwords, I probably should create a library (work-related) aim username and password. But for now, I choose to just keep the one I have. I had to reset my password because I have a MAC at home (again). With the mac, I use ichat, software that comes with the mac for instant messaging. This software hooks up to aim or mac.com instant messaging. Because it logs me in automatically when I click on ichat, I forgot my username and password, which is why I had to reset it. I may now have to reset the one I have at home to coordinate with the ichat software, which goes to show, I probably should have created a work aim username and password. (Sigh). My screen name is LaurieA. I know that a buddy list is the list and location of where I can find my fellow im users. I'm going to now have to add PVLD2007 to my buddy list. I added PVLD2007 to my coworkers. I sent an instant message, but PVLD2007 was no longer signed in. landers7777: Hello.PVLD2007: PVLD2007 is no longer signed on. That was the auto reply. I had no trouble with pop up blockers as far as I could tell.

I have to say that I think this service is one of the best that can be used for libraries. I think it is a quick and easy way for staff to communicate with each other while on the desk, circulation or reference or at personal office desks. It is fabulous! Also, for regular patrons who ask a lot of reference questions or call the library a lot, it is a good service too. They can become a buddy of a librarian and send messages directly to the staff through an instant message service like aim. I am so excited about this as a service and for more direct staff communication. I think PVLD should use it more readily. This is my favorite learning technology thus far for PVLD.

Thanks!
Laurie

The Malaga Cove Library Ladies

The Malaga Cove Library Ladies,
originally uploaded by landers7777.

Here is the photo that I'm sending from Flickr. This is something new to me. I'm creating a blog post at flickr for my blog.

#5 Explore Flickr.com

Again, I already do this a lot, so I don't have to create an account because I have several - one for at home and one for work. My work flickr account can be viewed at www.flickr.com/photos/pvldbranches. Some of what has been mentioned in the instructions for this post are 1) explore Flickr. I found the site to be very interesting, although I have not explored many photos from other people, except for maybe once, but I know there are some very good ones out there. I have paid attention to my messages, emailed for tips, read the faq page many times, created a web address with flickr (as shown above), emailed a photo from my cell phone, and used a mac uploader. It's a lot of fun to tag photos and write descriptions about them.
2) I'm not quite sure what mashups are. I read about them through the instruction post and they sound fun and interesting. Making a montage would be fun or posting photos on a map would also be fun. 3) Post a photo and link it to your blog (I can try to do that). 4) Tagging is important because it is a way of cataloguing a photo so that others can search for it (if it's public) to try and find the photo with tagged key words. Photos on flickr can be set to private or public, if you are worried about that. If they are set to private, they will not be able to be viewed by just anyone - only flickr members can view them if you give them permission, such as your family and friends. I ended up creating two flickr accounts because I didn't want to have to worry about which photos to set to private or forcing family members to join flickr to view photos from the public site which are set to private. 5) My favorite feature on flickr is the uploaders that they provide for a mac, which offer great editing (such as rotation of photo or other) and allow to upload many photos at once. Of course, they have these for windows too. But more importantly, I like the feature that allows me to send a photo directly from my digital camera to flickr. If I want to set the photo to private, there is a specific web address for that which is shown on the faq page. I have a specific email address to use to send photos from my cell phone which is on my flickr account that flickr has given to me. 6) User groups seems like a great feature. You can join groups, as well as create them.

I hope some of this gives an inside scoop to the wonders of flickr.

#4 Take a digital photo and post it on your blog

This one is great! It is the post that I worked on for the Web 2.0 Learning team at PVLD. I will have to do that right now. All I have to do is click the link to add and image just above this script in blogger, which looks like a photo, and browse to get an image from my pictures folder on the desktop. As some of you know, I've been taking pictures at the library and posting them to my flickr account for the branches at PVLD. I can't take all the credit though. Several others such as Kendel, Ali, and Eve have taken photos as well and some of theirs have been posted to the flickr account as well.

In addition, John J. set up the third circ desk computer for picture capability and taught me how to use it with the digital camera that Marisa P. bought for the branches. With their help initiating this, I've been able to do great things with a digital camera and the computer at the library. Also, Kathy G. helped by inspiring us to do such things as take photos or work with and use Flickr at the library.

In order to get info. on how to upload your photo, go to Public Folders for an instruction document on how to upload photos from the digital camera.

Thanks! Laurie A.

What I found to be a problem with this new blogger was the following: image would not upload at first, but you must accept the terms and conditions for uploading images - this is new on the google blogger. Also the screen freezes for a few seconds once you've uploaded the photo (it never did that before as it always looked like the uploading was "thinking" with a disk spinning around). Or it may be this computer or browser which doesn't show that disk (I have a mac at home and use Safari for uploading photos to blogger). Once the photo is uploaded in this new blogger, you can see the actual photo in the post before you publish it, rather than just seeing the html text for the photo image (as was the case in the old blogger). Good luck!

Task #3 Set up an account with an aggregator/RSS feed service

Well, this is easy, 'cause I already check two of them periodically. I have accounts at both bloglines and newsgator. I learned about these from Kathy G. and David C., respectively. I'm not sure how exactly I'm supposed to prove that I have these set up. I've been a little confused about all the channels of information flowing out at these Learning 2.0 team meetings, but it seems as though we are supposed to check the work of the staff through their blogs. I'm not sure, but if I am correct, the staff is to submit to Dallas and David all of their usernames and passwords which they create accounts for each of these web 2.0 technology services such as blogger, bloglines or newsgator, email address, etc... I guess I will have to submit my list to Dallas (or David) to be in the running for an MP3 player! :) Thanks, Laurie

In addition, I find that bloglines and newsgator are very helpful services in using RSS feeds. With bloglines, I can stay up to date with many library related blogs which go right into my bloglines accout. Newsgator is great if I just want to scan news headlines and brief commentary about current news.

Thanks again! Laurie

I would like to put a screen shot here and for other tasks which involve proving I have accounts, but we are working on trying to find a way to save screen shots in jpeg format so that they can be uploaded as pictures because blogger does not allow paste of a screen shot. This is a work in progress.

My screen shot is up top! Thanks.

some of the accounts for rss feeds I have are at bloglines and newgator at the following URLS:

bloglines:
http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

newsgator:
http://www.newsgator.com/ngs/subscriber/WebEd2.aspx

Task number 2 - Create a blog using e-blogger

Well, to all of you out there attempting to work on the Learning 2.0 at PVLD, congratulations! You are on your way to advancing in skills of new technologies. You also have the chance to win some pretty nifty prizes.

I am attempting this for the second time, as I already have a family blog which I created on e-blogger.

What I found to be difficult, was using the new e-blogger. First of all, I did not know that it was called e-blogger. I just thought it was blogger.com, and I know from being around the library and seeing other people's blogs from PVLD, that this is the one: www.blogger.com. It is now under the operation of google, and I find the new site easier and quicker to use. But despite this ease of use, I noticed that it is a little difficult to create an account if you don't already have a google account. I had this problem with my family blog when I switched over to the new blogger at google. What I discovered is that I can and could, by going to a few links, just use another email address and create a google account with that address. I went to a link to create a google account with my email, was able to get an email from google, and click on a link which created my account. I still don't know how my account at google works or what I can do with it, but I know I have access to my blog.

Also, I chose to use a simple blog. Basically, I just chose a template and did not change anything about the settings. I feel that I could change this at some point if I want; but, right now, for the task of doing a trial run, I don't feel it's necessary.

Moving on to task #3.

Blog for Web 2.0 technologies

Thought I'd start with a post regarding the web 2.0 technologies learning 2.0 at PVLD. I am on the Learning 2.0 team and have been assigned the task (or rather, volunteered for the task) of doing a trial run of our project for Learning 2.0. I figure I can use this blog after this has been completed to discuss any work I'm doing at the Malaga Cove Library or at PVLD, which I would suggest to any staff member who completes the proposed tasks - you could continue your blog! I don't know if this is okay with the other members of the learning 2.0 team, but I like the idea. I think it would be a great way to keep track of work, share it with others, and enjoy life on the web from a personlized and ongoing perspective!

As for my first blog entry, I will mention that I already created a work email address (task number 1 on the Learning 2.0 blog for pvld). The blog can be viewed at pvldlearning.blogspot.com. My work email address to be used for these tasks is landersonpvld@yahoo.com. I had no trouble setting up the email at yahoo, but I must say that I had some problems with the second task, mentioned in my second post on this blog.

Thank you and I wish the best to all others participating in the Learning 2.0 project!

From,
LA