Thing 46 - WebJunction Minnesota

I've taken some courses with WebJunction but see lots of additional courses I'd like to take in the future; readers advisory, web design and customer service to name just a few. I like the idea that their courses are self-paced since time is always limited. It was interesting to read the article about Carol Alberts a fellow Great River Regional Library employee.

Thing 45 - Cloud Computing

What do you see as the advantages of joining “the cloud” by using a Web OS?
It's easy to see the advantages of Web OS:
Access to information anywhere at anytime, whether your working at home or on vacation your information is at your fingertips.

Disadvantages?
You have limited gigabytes unless your willing to pay extra each month.
What if the company goes defunct what happens to your data?

Do you currently do any computing in “the cloud” (i.e. GoogleDocs, Zoho, etc)? What do you think? Has it helped your productivity?
We've experimented with GoogleDocs to register kids for the summer reading program because we have access to the spreadsheet from several circulation terminals at the same time. It has helped productivity but we have been limited to how many people on staff have access at one time.

What other cloud applications are you using or planning to investigate?
I'm experimenting more with 'SOS Online Backup' recommended in the article by PC Magazine. I'll see if there are advantages to using this at work.

Thing 44 - The Economy

I found a couple I really liked:

Craigslist - I've been thinking about buying a piano and found several possibilities in my area. Now I just need to do a little more research on brands.

MyRatePlan.com - I wish I'd known about this site when we were buying our cell phones! I like being able to narrow down my choices and get the best plan and phone for the money.


What are your favorite money management/money saving/shopping tips? Gas Buddy is something I'd use on a regular basis. Who doesn't want to get the cheapest price on gas?

Thing 43- Online TV and Video

I watched a documentary on the Coral Reef and couple segments of 'Two and Half Men'. But I'd still rather watch a movie on DVD. The picture quality was less than desired and the selection of movies wasn't very good.

I can't see that this will have much of an impact of broadcast television unless the movie selection improves. I can, however, see using this when your traveling and have a long layover.

Thing 42 - Music 2.0

I did find a short wave radio widget at the beginning of the 'More 23 Things on a Stick' program that I liked, but for this project I chose 365Live. I like the idea of being able to choose what type of music and have continuous play of that genre. I can see it challenging broadcast radio but don't think it will ever replace it.

Thing 41 - Mashup Your Life

This would definitely streamline productivity, it's hard to keep up with all the different sites. By the time you log in, add your update and read information on the site you've taken up a lot of time. Much easier to log in and have all the information in one place and as it happens. I tried FriendFeed but didn't find very many people using the service, I'll have to work on that. So far I'm keeping up to date with Barack Obama! I'll try it for awhile and see how it goes. I like that you can seperate the messages by personal or professional so you can diferentiate who you want to send messages to.

Thing 40 - Mashup The Web

I explored all the mashups but decided to design a card for National Library Week, you can access it by clicking the title of this post. I designed it using Phreetings which was easy to use although you were limited to what you could do with the design.

Book Tour would be useful if you wanted to schedule an author appearance. You can usually get a better rate if they have two engagments in the same area.

Wheel of Food was fun - my son and I use to play a game called 'Where Don't you Want to Eat' when we couldn't decide where to go for supper. We'd take turns calling out places we weren't interested in until we narrowed down our choices. This would have helped us with our decision!

I like MusicMesh: It lets you visually browse through bands starting with a single artist and easily watch videos of the artist that are posted on YouTube. A fun way to discover new music or just watch videos of your favorite band.

http://mashups.web2learning.net/ I found this interesting article on Library Mashups give it a try.

Thing 39 - Digital Storytelling

I didn't have pictures available from library programs but did have several pictures of my first grandchild (go figure) I decided to make a 'Mothers Day' card for my daughter. I used Scrapblog and found it very easy to use. I've been trying to find a way to download our family photos for viewing and this is a definite possibility.

This would be a great project for the summer reading program 'Be Creative @ Your Library'. Give each child in the workshop a digital camera to use, a variety of scrap booking materials and then have them create a day in the life of scrapbook page for display.

Thing 38 - Screencasting

How to Register for a Library Program

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I'm not actually sure I did this right, I was expecting more glitz. I decided to use Jing since I had problems getting Skitch to open correctly. (Guess it won by default)I didn't think it was real easy to use. I had problems finding the help screens and once I did I found the voice on the video annoying. I'm not sure I'd use it for work unless I could get it to work smoother.

Thing 37 - Photo Tales

I used 'One True Media' to create a montage of pictures from our vacation. The site was really easy to use but I'm not impressed with the photo quality, you'd probably have to buy the upgrade to see an improvement. I can see using this at the library to advertise programming and at home to share special events.