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.