Reflective Exercise

Well I'm definitely one for thinking about what I've done. Reflecting is one of my hobbies. In fact I especially like sitting in a lawn chair and reflecting in front of a lake or the ocean. Since I don't I that luxury here I'll just comment from my desk. Yes I would advise myself to take these classes again. Although I didn't retain as much as I'd like, I do feel more familiar with terms I've been hearing.

For example I'd heard the term "Podcast", but didn't really know what it was until I did the exercise. Since I'm one who needs thing very simply laid out, I appreciated the easy to follow instructions. As far as taking staff time, though, I think it might have been more efficient to have us go to a training session.

As a librarian I can put projects aside easier than the LA's who have to immediately empty bookdrop and shipment. My suggestion for future instruction of this type is to actually make it a class we go to. We can concentrate better and may learn more. I'm definitely glad I did it, though.

A Link to an Inspirational Video

Here's a link to an interesting video about motivation. If you wanted to get excited and motivated you might check this out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WqrFYN_bL8

YouTube is addictive

I enjoyed this exercise. It felt like I was getting paid to watch a movie. The range of video quality and interest is wide. As far as KCLS using it I'll have to think about that. This would be another way to do program promotion and book promotion. We could have videos of people doing book talks and videos of people promoting library programs. How about a video of a database demonstration?

Web 2.0 Awards

I enjoyed using the award winners for both travel and real estate. I tried the kayak website for checking out hotels in Spokane in October. I also tried one of the real estate winners for checking out possible homes Chris and I might by. This seems useful for people interested in particular topics and wanting to find a good website.

Google Labs

Looking at the Googe Labs I'm amazed at all the options. Anything from a view of Mars to hot music can be found. I hope all these services on the web continue to be free. It's hard to believe that people can use the online office products for free.

Like the online word processing and spreadsheet progrms

Okay, I think these are some of my favorite features to Web 2.0 so far. Being able to create documents online and save them online actually allow people without a computer to create documents. I also like the idea of editing together/sharing a document. We could show this to patrons who don't have their own computer and don't want to worry about losing an "item" with all their documents on it.

Wow, what will the libary be?

Since I went to library school in 1997 I have heard so many stories about what the library of the future will be. I've heard people say that with the Internet why do we even need libraries? So it was interesting to look at these articles and see the writer's ideas of what the future of the library will be. Of course I can't fortune tell, but I do believe it will involve a lot more individualized instruction and assistance with all the online options to navigate. Keeping up with the changes will be challenging. I am certain that it is vital for libraries to keep up with technological changes and be ready to use them to their advantage.