Vermont's 23 Things program

The program is great! I learned all kinds of new things to use on the Internet. The one thing I found frustrating about creating a blog was not knowing if anyone read it.

I enjoyed uploading photos in Flickr but would like to join more groups. RSS feeds are extremely useful and I will start using them to access changing events. I now subscribe to several for news and library information.

I now have an understanding of social networks but am not sure how much it will be used in a small library though I often see our teenage patrons using it.

I hope someday to set up a wiki for further library information. I know our patrons are now using Listen Up! Vermont to download audio books. As they become more aware of the wonderful tool the Internet can be, courses like Vermont's 23 Things help librarians to keep up with the latest technology and grow with the times.

Podcast tools

Denver Public Library has an excellent podcast for kids. I can just see them listening eagerly to the book and then demanding to go to the library to take it out. I listened to one called "Small Bear Lost".

I did not like Liswire as wellin Uncontrolled Library. The site was not as easy to use.
I've often heard VPR mention something was available as a podcast. Now I can see why I might want to subscribe to it. It's NPR Podcast Directory will lead you to all kinds of interesting places. There are currently 17 podcast topics for books, 13 for technology and 15 for politics.I subscribed to It's All Politics a weekly podcast with Ken Rudin. We'll see how well I can keep up with what's going on.

Libraries are using podcasts for many things. Learning education and patron services are two major and practical uses of it. As a small library, we'll probably use it mostly for education.

Web 2.0 Awards

I went to ma.gnolia and it took forever to load. It was about bookmarks. Furl is a social bookmarking site and would not be of much use unless you are into social networking (like the teens are) Clipmarks does the same things but loads much faster. I looked at Craigslist but quit quickly as I found an awful lot of references to sex or sexual organs. Not my cup of tea.

I looked at Craigslist which I have heard much about and it looks like a good place to find seconds. Lulu looks like an interesting site to see what books are popular.

Technology this week

I was hiking the Long Trail last weekend and can see how much I would like to have a gps system. We'd be on a spot on the trail and were trying to tell where we were and it got very frustrating not knowing how much longer we would be out. Maybe it was because my feet hurt!

Most GPS (global positioning systems) are marketed for cars not hikers. I don't care if it has the latest and best restaurants or fastest way to get somewhere. More important is that it be lightweight and reliable topographic maps can be downloaded to it.

GPS is a network of 24 global positioning satellites. After receiving radio signals from three or more satellites, a GPS receiver can triangulate your position and display it on-screen as a set of coordinates. Garmin makes a very good one for hikers.

All in all they can be used if you need to know how to get to the library on foot or by car. How the world has changed. Used to be we just used a map.

Flickr Fun

I went to fd's Flickr Toys and discovered how easy it was to upload a picture through Big Huge Labs with captions. I can see where it would be fun to do that pictures on an ongoing basis for library events.

When I tried monatagr it seemed to take forever to load images so I gave up. Found great soduku games in Flickr Color Pickr. All in all I would say you can have a great time with Flickr images.

I also uploaded current renovation project pictures to Flickr.