You tube fun

I have been using You Tube for a long time now. Usually what happens is a friend says "have you seen..." and I just have to see it. So I go on and search, and there it is: The funny, crazy, insane video that everyone in America has seen except you until now. TV show snippets are fun, especially news show gaffs and interviews gone awry. I know some people who made short comedy films and posted them for all to see. I think it is a great creative outlet. The library could have intro videos to different parts of the website. A "how to" for using Aquabrowser could be linked to the catalogue for first time users. There is a lot of potential for video sharing, but a lot of fun there too.

Power tools

When the library first came out with their Power Tools page, I immediately looked at it. I loved the idea of LibraryThing and StumbleUpon. I have used the catalogue plug in too, and have found it to be convenient and helpful when there is something I want to quickly look up. I think this site is a great resource for patrons who want to get their web 2.0 feet wet, but are not ready to dive. It has a lot of helpful information for everything as basic as Gmail, to advanced as twitter. I will use this page in the future for its handy links, and direct others to it too.

More 2.0

I want to do some more browsing myself on these sites, because I could see some great apps for personal use. This site has logos which you can scroll over to get more info on each program. You can search for a term or browse in their common tags. I saw an interesting planning site, and a place to sell your own goods.

I went to another place that ranks apps and gives rewards to the top ones. They probably cannot visit every single one out there, but the ones they have chosen are sure to work easily. I checked out the list of winners and picked Yelp from the “reviews” section. From the Columbus page, a reference librarian can easily help someone find a computer repair store, copy center, or good place to eat. If you search for CML, you will find 3 reviews! The database is not comprehensive, but anyone can add a review and pictures. Check it out and add your favorite place to go in Columbus.

More 2.0

I want to link all of the interesting sites with more 2.0 apps so I can browse them later myself. Some look like they could be good for personal use, while others are more work related (or could be). This web 2.0 site allows you to see many different programs with a little blurb about what they do. You can do a search, or browse popular tags to pick a topic. I saw an interesting planning site, and site to sell items, but did not go to the sites themselves yet.

Another site gives awards and ranks various 2.0 sites, so you can go straight to the best. I don't know if they can check them all out, but there is a good chance you will find an easy to use program in their list. From the list of winners this year, I picked Yelp from the "guides and reviews" section. I could see using this in a reference setting to help people find good places locally. You can search for CML as I did in the columbus site, and found 3 reviews for us! if people are looking for a computer repair place, hair dresser, resturant or even and educational center, they can check here. The listings are not comprehensive yet, but anyone can add a review and pictures so that the database will grow. Check it out and add your favorite.

google docs etc.

Google Docs was pretty much what I expected. I tried out the document, presentation and spreadsheet. I did not actually publish any of them, but could see using them for presentations if the files they save as are readable and work well. I could see committees and other collaborative groups using these tools to easily create a document. It would be easy to modify by people in the group now, and at a later time if necessary. As Commoncraft also stated, it is good for newsletters, or any conglomerate similar. They seem to work well with some of the other social tools that i have written about previously. i had a friend that used Docs to write a screen play with a few other writers. Anything that needs to be edited by multiple people could be done in this forum.

Sandbox Fun

I liked the library's sandbox wiki. It was easy to use once I had permission to edit, and fun to read what others put down. These are great for collaborative efforts. At OSU, any student can sign up for a free wiki through the OSU library system. If someone is working on a group project, then all of the info and links to resources can be posted in one spot for the whole group to see. At my Branch, we often have discussion about practices, and this might be a better way to go about it so there are not as many emails. i could see other committees using it to like i would for a school project. This way everyone in the group is literally on the same page. Way to go wikis!

Library Wikis

As libraries move forward into the land of web 2.0, they have discovered wikis. The example sites i looked at didn't seem very helpful to a customer standpoint, but probably makes it easier for staff to add info. One of the wikis was for patrons to create book reviews for a summer reading club, but then it was archived instead of being left open. Another example was the best practices which patrons would have no reason to change. A community events page was nice, but I didn't see a way to edit from my side.

A virtual community bulletin board would be nice to have, since most of the branches have limited physical posting space. I also like the idea of an Amazon-like catalogue where patrons can add reviews, ratings, tags, and links to similar books. Wikis have a lot of promise for libraries, but they need to have a reason to be used properly.