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
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
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 :)
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 :)
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
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.
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!!!
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!!!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
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.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
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!
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!
Week 1 : Blogger
My web 2.0 expectations for round two - to explore more interesting 2.0 technologies and to have fun doing it! We are so lucky to get to do this as a part of our jobs, so I have no fears....let the playing and learning commence! How can libraries use blogs? As a tool to stay in touch with their community, particularly those online...staff could share favourite book reviews posted on the website - promote local events happening in both the library or their local community - the possibilities go on and on! blogs could also really useful for certain programmes - for example there could be a Summer Reading Programme blog to keep all the summer readers up with the play about how the programme was going, and what events were coming up.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
We're back baby!
Back at work that is......after a one year break looking after the new little person in our household. And how saddened I was to find out that I had missed out on some most awesome Web 2.0 training in my absence (thats what you get for taking a year off I guess).
So feeling rather deprived...I wrote into my PDR for this year that I NEEDED to do this training and be up with the Web 2.0 play, so Eating kittens for breakfast lives once more...hurrah!!
So feeling rather deprived...I wrote into my PDR for this year that I NEEDED to do this training and be up with the Web 2.0 play, so Eating kittens for breakfast lives once more...hurrah!!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Official post 21, Thing 23....my learning journey
The end is here!
Wow, this has been an excellent programme, and I really learnt so much along the way. I've just completed my survey, where I mentioned that I really surprised myself. I thought I was pretty savvy when it came to Web 2.0, but there was so much I didn't know about.
Highlights would have to be the fun stuff (surprise surprise!), generators are AWESOME! I had so much fun with these, and have continued to do so at home. (I'm constantly looking at photos I have taken with a LOLcat eye, how can I caption that?)
It was also really nice to pick up lots of new facebook friends :) I was already a facebook addict as it was...lol.
The most challenging thing to get my head around was RSS (I know, I know, we WERE warned). But once I did, it was totally worth it, a great way to keep up with all the blogs I like to read etc etc. The wiki topic was also a bit of a yawn, but they really are a useful source of info, and I know I use Wikipedia all the time at home.
I'd like to say thanks to our fabulous Manager (yes you!) for booking in some time for us to work on our blogs, without those two half days, I'd never have got here - doing this when working one day a week was pretty daunting at times, lucky there were so many fun things I didn't mind doing at home :)
I'm looking forward to taking some time now to reflect on everything, and play some more - now that I'm done theres time to explore a little further without feeling guilty for not getting on with finishing my 'things'.
I think I may keep on adding the odd post here, dunno if anyone at all is reading this, but I wanna make some more generator goodies, and this is as good a place as any to share em :)
Over and out from comicbookgal
Wow, this has been an excellent programme, and I really learnt so much along the way. I've just completed my survey, where I mentioned that I really surprised myself. I thought I was pretty savvy when it came to Web 2.0, but there was so much I didn't know about.
Highlights would have to be the fun stuff (surprise surprise!), generators are AWESOME! I had so much fun with these, and have continued to do so at home. (I'm constantly looking at photos I have taken with a LOLcat eye, how can I caption that?)
It was also really nice to pick up lots of new facebook friends :) I was already a facebook addict as it was...lol.
The most challenging thing to get my head around was RSS (I know, I know, we WERE warned). But once I did, it was totally worth it, a great way to keep up with all the blogs I like to read etc etc. The wiki topic was also a bit of a yawn, but they really are a useful source of info, and I know I use Wikipedia all the time at home.
I'd like to say thanks to our fabulous Manager (yes you!) for booking in some time for us to work on our blogs, without those two half days, I'd never have got here - doing this when working one day a week was pretty daunting at times, lucky there were so many fun things I didn't mind doing at home :)
I'm looking forward to taking some time now to reflect on everything, and play some more - now that I'm done theres time to explore a little further without feeling guilty for not getting on with finishing my 'things'.
I think I may keep on adding the odd post here, dunno if anyone at all is reading this, but I wanna make some more generator goodies, and this is as good a place as any to share em :)
Over and out from comicbookgal
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