Thing #20: YouTube and You

Here it is, my prediction for the next American Idol! David Cook is way better than David A. David A's talented too, don't get me wrong, but he just seems like an awkward kid. Maybe next year he can win it...Anyways, this is a clip of David cook performing a cover version of the Foo Fighters' song "My Hero". I've never been a fan of the Foo Fighters, but I really liked his version of this song! The quality of the video's not that great, but his performance was!

UPDATE: I TOLD you David Cook was going to be the next American Idol!!

Thing #7- Scanned Image

The image I scanned is a watercolor I recently painted. I was an art major in college and watercolor was one of my favorite media to work in. I actually had quite a few other pieces I wanted to scan but they were too large to fit in my scanner.

Thing #6 : More Photo Fun

framed
Originally uploaded by Christine2886

This is a view of the clocktower from inside the tower room. I just liked how the window perfectly framed it.

light sculpture

light sculpture
Originally uploaded by Christine2886

Of all the photos I've taken, this one's probably one of my favorites. And it kinda matches my blog too! ;-)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26617270@N08/

reading

reading
Originally uploaded by Christine2886

I've always loved this statue.

inside

inside
Originally uploaded by Christine2886

I know it's hard to tell, but this is a photo taken of the sculpture in the tower room upstairs. It's a cool sculpture on it's own, but it just didn't look right from far away, so I thought I'd try taking a picture from a different angle and I have to admit that I'm happy with how it came out!

clock tower

clock tower
Originally uploaded by Christine2886

Thing #23: Wrapping Up

I really didn't think I'd enjoy as many of these tasks as I have, but they've won me over. I liked the podcasts, youtube and listen NJ assignments best. There weren't any that I didn't like, I just don't think I'll use GoogleDocs, but you never know! I think all of the Web 2.0 programs are worth the library looking into and investing more time in because our first priority is the patrons, without them where would we be? The OCL needs to offer as many services as we can to the public and these tasks have been a step in the right direction toward that goal!!

Thing #22 : ListenNJ

I've read a few books by Steve Berry and I like the way that he incorporates art and art history into his fictional tales, so I thought I'd see if Listen NJ has one of his newer books, the Venetian Betrayal...and they did! It was really easy to download it to my computer, which I wasn't really sure about doing since my computer runs slow enough as it is, but after I listened to the excerpts, (also an easy feat) I had to take the risk and download this one to give it a listen!

Thing #21 : Finding & Listening to Podcasts

For all of you who love celeb news as much as I do, here's a podcast from People Magazine about the weddings of Ashley Simpson to Pete Wentz and of Jessica Alba to Cash Warren. Exciiiiiting stuff!! http://www.people.com/people/podcast/0,,,00.html You guys check that out while I go listen to news about John Mayer and Jennifer Aniston!

Thing #19: Web 2.0 Awards

Wellllll, I didn't see any celebrity related Web 2.0 awards, but I also like playing online games. Usually, I'll just play games at AddictingGames.com or on AOL, Yahoo or MSN. SO the only award winning sites I'd be interested in using and visting would be from the "games" section and they would be: www.games2web.com, grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google, or www.arcaplay.com. But don't just take my word for it, check 'em out yourself! ;-)

Thing #18: Web Apps

Well, I'm only part-time right now, and I don't have any projects that I'm working on, but I can see many uses for this program in the future when I finish grad school and hopefully become a Children's librarian. Just as with the other program we used, this program could be used for collaborative efforts like setting up a calendar of events for a branch or working with other branches to arrange programs that could run consecutively or concurrently.

Thing #17 - Play in the Sandbox

I really had fun playing in the "sandbox"! It reminded me a lot of myspace where a lot of people could post a lot of different messages on the same page and make them as elaborate or as simple as they wanted. I think that pages like that have a lot of potential for social networking, but also for work projects because people working together on a project can be working on it simultaneously, updating, and improving it.

Thing #16 - Wikis

Unfortunately, I don't think Wikipedia is that reliable of a source since just about anyone can make changes to the various articles, etc. and I don't think it's commonly accepted as a reliable source either for just that reason. I wish it was though because there's a lot of information you can find there. I've never really paid much attention to the tabs at the top of the pages and I didn't know that some pages require permission before you can alter them. So maybe Wikipedia is more reliable than I had previously thought. And the history tab is useful because it lets you see just who was making changes to the page you're viewing.

Thing #15 - On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0...

Into a new world of librarianship provided me with a new incite into the library 2.0 philosophy. I agree with what the author was saying in that libraries are human. They provide so many services for the public and most importantly, they bring people together. And I think for those of us who not only work in libraries, but also visit them often, there's a real attachment. Library 2.0 is, as the author says, a "“strategy guide” for helping users find information, gather knowledge and create content." And in my opinion, the most important thing accomplished by Library 2.0 is that it keeps us up to date on current trends in technology and services the library can offer to the public instead of us having to play "catch-up" after so many new and useful programs have become available.

Thing #14 - Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

I've been playing around with Tecnorati for a little while now and I've found some really cool blogs and sites about celebrities! I'll definitely be visiting those more often. But some of the "what's popular" section brought up some interesting results. The top searches had some interesting results, and the top 100 blogs had some weird results that I was afraid to click on.

Thing #13 - Tagging, folksonomies & social bookmarking in del.icio.us

I just got done looking around del.icio.us with the OCLWebthings account and could immediately see that there are many benefits that come along with using this site. Sometimes search engines don't always give you the results you were looking for, but with del.icio.us, all of the tags that bring up your search results. And who knows better about what's found on what sites than the people who use those sites.

Thing #12 - NetLibrary and WorldCat

NetLibrary was SO easy to use. I signed up for an account which took all of thirty seconds and then went on my way searching. Navigating the pages was fairly easy and just required clicking on the "previous" and "next" buttons. I feel fairly confident that I'd be able to show a patron how to use this program. All library staff should familiarize themselves with this useful tool!
WorldCat was just as easy as NetLibrary for me to use! I searched for Free for all : oddballs, geeks, and gangstas in the public library, by Don Borchert and found that the closest branch to have it was the Toms River branch of the OCL. The different tabs make it easy to find information about the book like publisher, copyright, and all the other bibliographical information you may need to fill out an ILL form.

Thing #11 - A thing about Library Thing

Just signed up for LibraryThing and added some of my favorite books to my library. I was surprised to see that some of my favorite favorites only had a few conversations while others had hundreds. Some of my favorite books were also more popular than others, but I'll just chalk that up to the genres being all over the place. Here's a link to my library! http://www.librarything.com/catalog/widget82886

Thing #10 : Technology Blogging

I was watching tv one night and saw this story on CBS about a guy named John Kanzius. He doesn't have a degree in science or medicine and he came up with this idea that may actually cure cancer. He said he used to put together radios when he was younger and knew that radio waves didn't have any real affect on humans, but they could affect metals. For an example, he turned his machine on and put his hand between two points, nothing happened. Then he put a fluorescent light bulb between those same two points and it lit up without any wires, etc. being attached to it. So he wants to inject cancer cells with small amounts of metal and then zap them with radio waves which he believes will kill the cancer cells. The saddest part of the whole story was that even though they're testing his machine at a university, he may not be around to see if it works but he hopes it does because it could save countless lives. You can read all about Kanzius and his machine here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/10/60minutes/main4006951.shtml

Thing #9 : Finding Feeds

So far I've tried Technorati, Topix and Syndic8. Topix helped me find some celebrity news, but Technorati helped me find the gossip we've all come to know and love. Syndic8 had some celebrity news related RSS feeds, but none were really what I was looking for... So I'm going to stick with Technorati and Topix!

Thing #8 : Make Life "Really Simple" With RSS & a Newsreader

Okay. I signed up for an account with Bloglines. I'm addicted to celebrity news so if I can just read up on all of the latest gossip by putting them all together in one place, that would make things SO much easier for me. I think I may actually use this RSS stuff at home too!

Thing #5 - Flickr (or Photo Fun)

another sunset, another tree
Originally uploaded by joaobambu

This picture is called "another sunset, another tree" and it reminded me of one of my favorite trees. I really liked the dark shadowy tree against the bright blue/ orange/ yellow background!

Thing #2 : Learning vs Training

I think the easiest of the 7 & 1/2 habits for me is Habit #1 "begin with the end in mind". Before I get started I like to make sure I know what I need to do and how I'm going to do it. Sometimes I'll make a list and cross things off as I finish them.
The hardest of the 7&1/2 habits for me is one of the last, teaching and mentoring others. I know how to do different things and like my methods of doing them and I'm confident in my ability to get them done, but sometimes I'm just not sure how to explain things so others can understand it.

Thing #3: Grab Yourself a Blog in 3 Steps

This is thing #3 for OCL web things.