Social Networks

Facebook and MySpace are two of the prominent social networks on the Web today. Both are free and allow people to connect with others across the nation or around the world. People connect with friends or groups of people who have similar interests. Both Facebook and MySpace have users create a profile of themselves. The major difference between the two is that Facebook allows the user to choose who can view his or her profile giving the user more privacy whereas on MySpace anyone can view another user's profile and make comments for all viewers to read. Most of the users on MySpace tend to be teens. Facebook users tend to be adults.

A library can use either Facebook or MySpace to connect with its patrons. My choice would be Facebook. The library can post programs and events that are happening at the library. It's one way of "going green" and reaching more people at the same time.

Flickr and Avatars

Flickr is a good way to save photos and to produce a slide show of photos. Flickr can be used in libraries to show patrons how to use the library catalog, the databases, past programs at the library, and photos of the library employees to help the patrons recognize the staff.

Putting together my avatar was fun. I liked all the different clothes and backgrounds that you get to choose from. The next avatar I make will be a fun one.


Trying to put my photos into the slide show gadget has been frustrating and a big pain. The same thing with trying to put my avatar into the HTML/ Javascript gadget.
I'm going to try to put them in this post like we did with the YouTube video. I hope it works.

I'm going to try to put in my slide show first.









Here is my avatar:

Wiki, Wacky, Woo

A wiki allows people "to create, edit and link web pages" together no matter where they are physically. An idea for a library wiki that I like is one that keeps people updated with what is happening in the department they work in. Many times I have been one of the last to know of any changes that have happened. This wiki would be helpful to me since I work 2-3 days a week.

New YouTube Video

I just looked at my blog and tried to play the YouTube video I put on here yesterday. The video played yesterday with no problem. It said the video was no longer available when I tried to play it a few minutes ago.

Here's a video of an amazing 6 year old singer whose name is Connie Talbot. The video is Connie singing Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You".




I just finished playing the video. It works!!! I hope it will still be there later.

Oops! Here's my YouTube Video

I forgot to embed the YouTube video I chose. Here it is:

Podcasts and YouTube

I prefer YouTube over podcasting since I'm a visual learner. I like to see and hear something being explained unless it's music. Here is a YouTube video that I think is funny and creative:

I think podcasting is terrific for music. I also think it's a good way for a library to broadcast certain programs patrons may have missed and they can listen to the program whenever they want.

LibraryThing and Rollyo

I wish I had known about LibraryThing before. I think it's great that you can catalog your books. The feature that I liked the most was the Location feature. You put in the town or city you live in and LibraryThing will show you upcoming events in and around your community such as book fairs or authors coming to a local bookstore, etc..

Creating searchrolls in Rollyo was easy. It's nice to have your favorite websites in one place but I didn't like the search results I got when I searched a website. For example: when I clicked on barnesandnoble.com I got titles of different books that you can buy at Barnes and Noble. You can then click on a choice and get to the Barnes and Noble page for that book. I'd rather go to Google, type in the site I'm looking for or use my bookmark and type in the book I'm looking for. I don't think I'm going to be using Rollyo much.

Library Blogs and RSS Feeds

I've never used an aggregator before. I didn't find Google Blog Search very helpful in finding my 3 blogs. It was frustrating. I hope to get better at using Google Blog Search by playing around with it some more.

I used Blogline's Top 1000 to find my blogs. You can easily preview a blog and add it on the spot to Bloglines or you can go back and look at other blogs. I found what I wanted pretty quickly.

I like using RSS feeds because you can have all of your blogs in one place with Bloglines. I also like RSS feeds because many give you information that is up to date. It's convenient that you can check your RSS feeds from any computer not just your own. It's like Delicious with bookmarks; instead you have RSS feeds with an aggregator.

First Blog

January 20, 2009

I'm a total newbie to Library Web 2.0 Tools. I have heard of most of the things that will be covered in class, but I don't have any experience with any of them. I'm looking forward to learning how to use Flickr to upload my photos from my vacations.

This is my first blog. It was fairly easy to set up my blog. The hard part for me was naming my blog. Is there a way to change the name of my blog if I come up with a better name?

Today was the inauguration of President Barack Obama. My daughter and I watched it on TV this morning. We saw a piece of history being made. President Obama has a long, hard road in front of him. It will take time to repair the damage that is facing our country.