Week 6 : EnCompassCulture - the global bookclub

I think this site will be very useful when some customers just need some book recommendation and don't have a specific idea in head.
I like the division of age groups. That'll help with children's exploring reading. The only thing I think needs to be enhanced is the search box and author lists in some kind of order.
I would promote the site if customers need such information.

Week 5 : SlideShare - online presentations

It's not difficult to search slides with keywords I think. For customers, again it will depend on their age and interests to whether use this site or not. We can definitely use this when I need to do a presentation for some inspiring ideas. I will promote it whenever got asked or I think it's appropriate for them to use it.

Week 4 : TasteSpotting - a community driven visual potluck

As you can see I chose Prawn Dumplings recipe because that's my favourite dish when I go out to yim cha. Do you want to know how it taste? Now here it is: "So I started with the wasabi prawn dumplings, which is really a har gao with abit of the green stuff on top. And you know what, Yes. The dumpling wrapping is slightly chewy, with abit of spring, doesn’t break when you bite into it, and the minced prawn stuffing is heavenly. Spongy yet delicate; fresh yet appetizing and with a sharp shooting zing of the wasabi in the nose. We’re off to a great start."
I think the site is easy to use and follow. I'll come back to browse if I need to find some recipes or resturants. For Web 2.0 training it doesn't have to be work related because you never know what the customers are going to ask you for. Personally I know that there is another resources of delicious food out there for me.

Week 3 : FeedMyInbox - RSS made simple

This one seems very staightforward. I subscribed both Manukau & Auckland libraries blog. In this way I can follow up these blogs whenever I check my emails. It's easy to use but I don't think many customers will be interested to use it because most of us and our friends don't blog often. I'll try to remember this site just in case got asked.

Week 2 : Picapp - when a picture is worth a thousand words

I chose this image because I think it's very beautiful. I think it's easy to use for customers probably because the main funtion of this site is to search images. For our staff it'll be easier to find if we add the site as a favourite in future. I will definately come back to get pictures when I need some and I'll recommend to the kids for their homework.

Week 1 : Box.net - online file storage

I'm thinking to use this in our new Chinese book selection. What I can do is share the new Chinese book lists from bookstores and all our Chinese liaisons could select at one place and mark on one file. That means I don't have to conbine each branch's list together and will save a lot of time for me. Wow interesting.
I do think it'll take some time to get familiar with it. So I'm not sure whether our customers will be interested in it. Maybe the young ones will. What doesn't work for me is upload files. I still haven't uploaded one file yet maybe because of the staff computer's accessibility. I'll try it on learnet or personal computer later.

Week 6 : Facebook - playing nicely with others

I created a new account on Facebook because I forgot the one I used for the first Web2 training. Tried to add Betsy as my friend but wait for approval. Added comments on both topics. Spent quite some time to find a library on Facebook. Finally I find Australian libraries gateway and through that I visited Sydney Library and know they just had a writting competation and the winner is "Wireless Made It Possible by Ashish Rai (First Prize)".
Personally I am not a fan of facebook because I don't feel comfortable to put my photos and details onto webspace. But for library and some people it's very useful and good place to social and promote themselves. I found some customers in library using facebook and most of them just use them as a social tool or network.

Week 5 : Music files and mp3s

I explored MP3.COM because I think the site is easy to remember. I like it clearly tell you where to find FREE music to download while some other music website is not. If customer want it I definitely will recommend this site.

Week 4 : Books and social networking

GoodReads is another good website that I should add into my collections. It'll be useful for customers reference or myself.

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FlashVars="id=3921397&shelf=read&title=Freebirdworld's bookshelf: read&host=www.goodreads.com&sort=date_added&order=d¶ms=amazon,,dest_site,">

Freebirdworld's bookshelf: read




More of Freebirdworld's books »

Week 3 : Twitter - micro-blogging at a glance

I'm proudly to say that I already followed Manukau Libraries since it started on twitter although I haven't twitted a lot. I have 4 followers and I know one of them I guess. Manukau Libraries can promote our events and things like that which we already did anyway.

Week 2 : Zamzar - converting file formats

I tried to convert a word doc to a pdf with Zamzar. Then I got the email links to download. It's really helpful in our job because I got customer with .docx before and couldn't open with our learn.net computers. Now we have another tool to help them. Good stuff.

Week 1 : Blogger - set up your own blog

Another round of Web 2.0 training. Hopefully I can get more familiar with it and appy them in my daily job.

End for begining

Finally I got to task 23 (phew!!!).
As many people will say I learned a looooot from this Web 2.0 training. RSS, flickr, Wikis, Podcasts are not stranger to me any more. Blogging becomes part of my life now.
I know there are so many new techniques out on the internet. I have to keep on learning. But always we have excuse for ourselves not learning new things. This Web 2.0 training really pushed me to read, digest and learn the new stuff. I have to say That July 2008 has been the month that I read most since I left Uni.
I want to thank people who prepare this programme and made it as interesting as possible. I look forward some similar training in the near future.

ebooks

I quite like the idea of Netlibrary to allow customer borrow ebooks (there is expiration date set up) and renew them if needed (certainly you have to be a member). The problem with ebooks on Netlibrary sound like too big. ebooks got a lot of new stuff and best sellers. But you have to pay it otherwise you can only read the excerpt.
Project Gutenburg, on the contrary, provides old/classic stuff (but they're free!!!). I found Pride and prejudice, Ulysses, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer etc. on Top 100 EBooks yesterday(7-27-2008).
The book I may want to read is called Stories of Birds by Lenore Elizabeth Mulets. I can either read online or download from main site, mirror sites or P2P in plain text or HTML format.
Talking about ebook reader such as Amazon's Kindle I think it's only an option or a toy for those busy, wealthy businessmen to relax during their flights. For the real book-lovers I'm sure they still like the black letters on white paper feeling.

Podcasts & Vodcasts

I don't need an iPod now because of Podcasts although I never had one (I have a MP4 player instead).

Couldn't open Podcast.net. Couldn't find any Podcasts directories on Yahoo Podcasts. Finally tried Podcastalley.com successfully. Listened to couple of Comedy podcasts from Comedy section. Ironically none of them can make me laugh. I searched podcasts on "Auckland" and guess what, AUT (not Auckland University) got a lecture podcast on it. None on "Manukau".

I found another podcasts directory--Education Podcast Network from Podcast TECHTORIAL. Obviously all podcasts on this site are for education which I think Podcast is best used for. For example learning Mandarin with Serge Melnyk. Some podcasts that I'm interested don't have feeds on them. So I couldn't add them to my bloglines. But I managed add some finally.

Again we can use podcast or vodcast for our library orientation, reading stories for children or reading books for people with hearing problems etc. (anything to do with tutorial or entertainment for people who like or need to listen over and over again).

YouTube and others

YouTube doesn't sound as new as other Web 2.0 stuff. But today is the first time I really sit down and surf it. I found a very funny video talking parrot. The parrot is a real living Einstein. Obviously I chose this vidoe because I love parrots especially the talking one. They are so clever and cute. I always dream to have one like that as a pet.

I wish I could be as powerful as Conan- the librarian (but not chopping people in half because of overdue books). Put a video script on library websites to promote Library Week, FAQ of library rules, orientation of libraries is actually a good idea. They are fun and easy to follow especially for the boring stuff (I mean rules, training etc.)

The things I don't like YouTube are some videos' quality and content are not good for our eyes (children's in particular).

Web 2.0 tools

I tried HairMixer and Comiqs from fun stuff catagory first. Here are my jobs from HairMixer. One is Owen Wilson's face mixes with Will Smith's hair. The other is the new hairstyle I choose for Angelina Jolie. lol

(I can't see any potential use of this app in library though.)

It's a shame that I couldn't publish a comics I made on Comiqs about a parrot's family because it wouldn't let me to register (although I made up my mind to do that). So can't show you today.

One tool I think will help my job is Upcoming Events. You can browse or search events in your area by dates or catagories. You can save your events, view your friends' events. The most useful part is you can advertise your events on it (still it needs register first).

Zoho Writer

Created an account on Zoho Writer (yes another one to remember). After reading the introduction file about Zoho Writer I thought I should have known this earlier. We always have customers have problems to print out from their floppy disk, people need CV templates on learnet. All these become no problems in Zoho Writer. The most amazing function I think is you can work offline if necessary and changes made during offline editing will be synced with the online version once you switch. It's more powerful and got more functions than Microsoft Word.

More task 17

Searched ABBA, one of my favourite bands on MySpace, listening to mamamia and waterloo etc. Watched couple of BBC WorldWide LoveEarth programme and some funny videos. I spent a lot of time watching though because of the slowness of broadband. One is called gaytown. I don't like Facebook signup-first policy. Kind of fed up with these signups. I alread use a word document to save all these logins from Web 2.0 training.

Then I visited Hennepin County Library. I think it is good because it has links to library website, ask librarian and a library search widget. It also has a post wall for people to comment although there aren't that many. Maybe people don't like sign up too. The picture is from comedy forums called Name 3 things you wish you hadn't done... from MySpace.

Week 7

I set up an account on Bebo (finally). The first thing grabbed my eyes is a pop-up window telling me that I have a new message. After I click check message and another window pop up saying one of my friends has crush on me. Soon it changed to 2 people got crush on me. I can see why so many people are hooked on Bebo now. Then I went to Auckland City Libraries page and got shocked by a D'mite video "Read a Book". I don't think it's a positive or proper way to persuade people reading. Then I adopted 3 bunnyheropets. They are very cute freechi(chick), freepan(panda) and freepin(penguin). Click more on right-bottom you can feed them for me.

Sent a request to add as friend to ACL and I'll get an email if she accepts it.