Week 4 - Tastespotting

Nom nom nom! this is by far my favourite week, lol.

My chosen recipe was for Lightly Cooked Cherry Tomato and Ricotta Bruschetta
(see http://www.herbivoracious.com/2011/08/lightly-cooked-cherry-tomato-and-ricotta-bruschetta-recipe.html )

Which I chose as it just looked delicious, but healthy, which at 36 weeks pregnant is important, lol! The site is very easy to use, and I can see it will be one I'll be bookmarking for browsing at home. I love how it links you back to the original site, a great way to find some new favourite sites too.

It was nice having a 'fun' week exercise, and I think a helpful addition to the web 2.0 programme. Web 2.0 is all about information sharing, and this site is a fantastic (and yummy) example of that :)

Week 3 - FeedMyInbox

Very interesting exercise! Feed My Inbox was very easy to use, subscribe to, and to add feeds too. But the obvious huge drawback is that the free version is limited to just 5 feeds, and that these are also limited (as in I could only choose a daily feed option, rather than a digest....considering I forgot I had registered, I got quite a shock when my email was full of the feeds, lol!) I subscribed to the full 5 sites that I could in the free package, including 3 library related blogs I enjoy, one author blog I love following, and the Auckland Libraries Top 5 site (always worth checking out!)
I think anyone would find it easy to use, but I think that if our customers were after a free site, this wouldn't suit. The free version is really only suitable for perhaps someone interested in following just a few sites/blogs etc. I personally wouldn't use this again, but only because it costs - I did like the format of the emails I recieved (except for the fact I got them daily). So, a good easy to use site, but only recommendable to either those wanting a limited number of feeds, or willing to pay for a better package.

Week 2 - Picapp

Looks like this is one of those sites that has changed its purpose after the fact (thats the problem with me doing this training so belately I guess :) Last time I checked it, it didn't function the same way it the training notes said it should (I couldn't use it to find images at all) - tried again today only to find the site is 'under construction'.....so moving on to the next week :)

Week 1 : Box.net - online file storage

And here we are at round two! Feeling rather rubbish, because I just realised that I had first created a box account when I started on the web 2.0 path after returning to work, and that was back in February.....taken a wee while to get here, ahem!
Had a play with the account - and I can see it would be a really useful way to back up information - for example - if I was heading off to present something to an outreach group, a powerpoint presentation maybe, I could save it on box AS well as my USB stick to ensure that I can access it come rain or shine (or USB stick misplacement, lol). Also would be a really useful tool for sharing documents etc with others in my personal life - for example, this year I had to do a roster for our coffee group get togethers (don't ask, lol), and this would have been useful to use for it....because then the others could have more easily tweaked it and made changes from one central location rather than bouncing it around by email. I found it super simple to use, and would happily share it with customers, especially those with large sized files, or those without a USB.
I played with uploading some documents, and saved a blog appropriate pic to a folder for sharing - you can check it out here:
http://www.box.net/shared/fa29egcy7kvnd1muxc0s

Web 2.0 - Round one sum up

Another round of very interesting exercises, websites and technologies! My personal favourites were of course facebook and twitter - but my husband will verify I am a social networking nut (he just shakes his head over it, lol), and I really love how the libraries have a presence there now, its fantastic!
Zamzar has come in handy several times already, most of the time its been perfect for mine or the patrons use, once or twice it wasn't quite right, but gets easier to use with practise.
The wide range of music sites were fantastic! still haven't had a chance to play with these at home, but i'll get there :)
Lastly, haven't used blogger since the very first time we 2.0'd - and it is as easy to use as I remember (if not a little more user friendly now, looks like some minor tweaks have simplified it a little.

Looking forward to round two!
Comicbookgal :)

Week 6 : Facebook - playing nicely with others

I'm pretty sure most of my family and friends will tell you I am a facebook addict, lol. Didn't have to worry about starting an account (mine is well used), or even 'liking' the Manukau or Auckland library pages - already done and dusted (and commented on regularly:)
Facebook is a fantastic tool for staying in touch with family and friends - I have siblings all around the country, and friends overseas, and its the best way to keep in touch, share news, photos and the latest hilarious youtube vid we have found. It's also a great way to feel connected (which when you are at home with a toddler can be THE BEST THING EVER!)
As a library tool - facebook is a great way to reach our customers and let them know about what we are up too, what new things are happening, etc etc - I love seeing the new top 5 lists being advertised amongst other things. I think that how easy Facebook is to use depends on how much you use it - I think its the easiest thing ever, but people new to it often struggle. (of course, they also like to keep changing it, which can be a pain in the butt!) I would definitely promote our library page(s) to customers - I think we don't overwhelm with content, its a great mix of informative and fun. Facebook can be a real one-stop-shop for social networking, so its great that we can tap into it and get libraries out there with a great positive online presence.

Week 5 : Music files and mp3s

I had a nice play with a few of the sites listed for the activity, quite a few were blocked for access at work (most likely because I am doing this so far after the fact :)
I found lots of sites that I am going to have a further play with at home, I loved http://www.itsfreedownloads.com/ and will be bookmarking this at home to check weekly (yay for free downloads!) The Amazon site is brilliant and very comprehensive, and I loved the cheap 69c (US) singles downloads - but this needs testing at home, because a few months ago I tried to use Amazon to download a CD for my grandmother, and I was blocked from doing it as I was from overseas, and the download was only for the US....frustrating! Otherwise it is very easy to search, explore and get a taste of tracks.
The site I usually use for downloading my music at home is http://www.digirama.co.nz/ and while it is not free, its a fantastic site for NZ, and has weekly album specials with whole albums for just $9, usually quite recent ones too :) I also love that you can search this by the NZ music charts, and download those too.
I think that most of these sites would be fine for customers with a bit of know how, but for anyone less than confident with the web, music downloading can be a struggle, as the different formats/and download processes can vary so much.
Thanks for the big list of sites to check out at home!!!

Week 4 - books and social networking - Goodreads

I joined up to goodreads within the last round of web 2.0 training, but realised when I got to this exercise that I haven't gone back to it once.....quite possibly because since having my little man I have a bit less time to a) read and b) social network, so this one went by the wayside.

I completed the tour, and can see that it is a great site, with lots of fun features to participate in - from online book discussion groups you can belong to, to sharing recommended reads with friends. This would be a very useful tool for our avid reader customers - those looking for more great books / authors to read, those wanting to share their love of reading. I think its best suited to those with a little time to spend on it, which is probably true of any social networking tool. Possibly the only reason I don't use it more, is because I have only one 'friend' on it, I think the more people sharing, the more fun and useful it would be. As staff, its a really useful tool for potential book lists, for author/book information, for recommended reads for patrons and so on - its just having the time to explore and use it.

Week three - All a Twitter!

Been a while since I have been able to work on this, but I have been busily learning about our wonderful new E-Audiobooks and E-books in the interim, exciting stuff to be sure....makes me want an I-Pad even more, lol! Meanwhile, at home I began lurking in my Twitter account once more (comicbookgal), vicariously enjoying the celebrity gossip first hand (love how twitter makes my favourite authors and celebs feel like besties, LOL!) I even began tweeting a little here and there too :) The most fabulous thing is seeing that a great wee network is being built for librarians and professionalism, really nice to discover it and see all the amazing things happening around the world (and sadly, the less amazing and frankly rather distressing things that are happening in libraries overseas...boo hoo!) I will be continuing to twitter and tweet for sure...especially now I have deleted some of my overwordy and slightly boring celeb tweeters (sorry Kevin Smith, love your movies...but not a hockey fan :) Is it easy to use? I think so - my account is pretty basic, I just access it via my PC, I don't have it running through my phone...works ok for me though :) Would customers find it simple? Again, I think so.....was talking to someone about it the other day, and they said they liked it much better than facebook, because it was all just simple statuses, without any of the other guff (personally, I like the other guff, but each to their own :) Twitter is a fantastic tool for reaching our tweeting customers - we can tell them all about upcoming events as they are about to happen, promote website updates and the like, its such a great way to make libraries accessible and raise our profile.

Week 2 : Zamzar - converting file formats

This exercise featured http://zamzar.com/ which is a fantastically useful site that I wish I had known about already :)
It is a fairly simple site to use, and I think customers would also find it so (although I would still expect staff to help guide a first time user through how to use it).
We can definitely use this on both staff and learn.net pcs, as it doesn't require software to be downloaded...fantastic! I did have to convert two documents as the first didn't work, but I suspect it may have had difficulty with it as it was a mix of Word/excel rather than just a word.doc.
I would very much recommend this site to customers (and anticipate using it myself in the future), as there have been many a time I have wanted to convert something to PDF, and this was one very easy way to do it.
The only downside I could see with recommending it to customers is that it is not instant and they do have to wait for their file conversion....but I think the wait is worth being able to open a file you cannot!
Can't wait to play with this at home to test out the ability to convert PDF into word because that would be soooo handy!