Dowloadable Audiobooks

Downloadable Audiobooks...are something I have never done. I have now read through the tutorials and know how to do, but since I'm lacking an mp3 player or CD discs I am not going to be able to actually complete the process. But in general, I love audiobooks. I have started listening to them last summer when I wanted to tackle the Harry Potter series, and Jim Dale was a hard act to follow. All the other audiobooks have paled in comparison, but I still listen. It's a nice way for me to read children/teen books on the long drive up to DP twice a week since those books are usually simpler to follow. If the plot is too complex, I find it hard to concentrate and drive at the same time. I know many customers love our downloadable audiobooks, and my only wish is that they could download them in the actual library.

Podcasts

I've never listened to podcasts before, so this was something new to me. There's no way I would sit with headphones for an hour and just listen to something on my computer, but that's just me. I found a podcast that was under the "fiction" and it was old time radio drama's. That was pretty neat. Here's the link:http://fiction.podcast.com/show/8818/Old-Time-Radio-Nostalgia/

Libraries could use this tool to do instructional podcasts on topics like how to place a hold online, or what's needed to get a library card. I could see this a very useful tool for the library.

Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZHoHaAYHq8- This is the link to "Conan the Librarian" video I found on youtube. I love youtube. I have found really great math tutorials from actual teachers and professors. You can use youtube as a radio, by looking up a music video to listen to or watch television shows and movies. There's so many options, not all are good! But overall Youtube is a really great tool to find things in live video format.

#19 Award Winners

I looked at the winners and was interested to see that some of the other learning 2.0 things we have previously learned about were on the list like Flickr, Delicious and Google Docs. Cocktail Builder was fun, but not really applicable to libraries along with Im Cooked, which I really loved because I love collecting recipes and video recipes are even cooler. The one that I thought would be most useful to libraries was the Revolution Health. This website is very easy to use and the articles are from mayoclinic.com and clevelandclinic.com, which are reputable sources. I would think that the way the library could utilize this tool would be to add it in our web picks section under health.

Google Docs

Currently I am using Google Docs for two different things. I set up a Google Docs to keep track of my workouts. I haven't really updated it since January, but when I was using it, I liked the idea that I could add things to it from any computer that I was using. I am also using Google Docs to put in the miles that my team is doing for the EWU Ironman challenge. Everyone submits their miles and they are added to a Google Doc. It seems to work really well.

http://www.eagleironmanchallenge.com/summary This is the link to Ironman Google Doc.

Wiki's

I'm pretty sure everyone knows about Wikipedia...the usefulness and dangers of it. The idea of a wiki, something anyone can add too without having to know how to write code, is a fantastic idea...in theory. As one of the tutorials said, "If you're a control freak, wiki's might not be for you." And I feel that I may slightly fall into that category. The idea of anyone being able to add what they want is a little frightening to me. I'm not sure if they have ways where you can decide who becomes a member to be able to post, I really don't know the logistics of setting a wiki up. But I can also see the usefulness of these. Collaborating on a specific subject with other people that hold that same interest can really be a great resource. I feel that this would be a great way to set up reader's advisory lists, by actually letting the customers add the books that they enjoyed to a specific genre list.

Learning/Web 2.0

Wow, I haven't posted in a while...shame on me. Well I'm on # 15 and I will now write my response to the articles I read pertaining to learning 2.0/web 2.0. Reading these articles reminded me of just how much we do rely on this technology now to aid us in our jobs. I feel that it is important to keep the library "human" as one of the articles said, because that is one of the reasons libraries have been around so long. It is a place people can come to to interact, learn, enjoy a storytime and talk about books. Learning 2.0 will let us serve our customers in many new ways, but we must keep the human side to it.