In The End

In the end I learned so much about web 2.0 technology and hope that we will do projects like this in the future.

Overdrive

Overdrive is a wonderful online downloadable audiobook catalog. Some audiobooks can even be burned to a disc. The instructions are clear and concise on the video portion. I listened to Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It was a fast and easy way to obtain an audiobook and really brought the classic to life.

NPR Podcast Directory

This is a great podcast site because it has it's own NPR player (no other software is needed). It's easy to search and has some great book related podcasts. It easily downloaded to my Bloglines account. I listened to Nancy Pearl's Carry-On Books To Take You Up, Up And Away . She discusses great books to take on a plane trip. It was informative and fun.

You Tube

The video podcast that I watched on You Tube was the Anna Introduction Tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svg_fflx1Uw from The University of Southern Mississippi. It is a tutorial of how to use the Anna catalog from USM's library and introduces the patron to the library. I thought this was a great idea especially for users who are more hands on and comfortable with computers. They get a basic overview of the library and the catalog.

The only drawbacks are that patrons who are not as tech savvy may be uncomfortable and questions cannot be asked by the patron during the session. One on one instruction can never truly be replaced.

Color Blender

One of the 2008 Web 2.0 winners is the site Color Blender which won first place in the visual arts category. Colors can be created for use with other programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator or can be emailed. That feature is really useful for someone creating a web site, graphics for materials both print and electronic and photograph retouching. Librarians can use this site to create more individualistic materials for their library or for library web masters. Someone who does not have the industry tools like Photoshop or Illustrator can really benefit from an extended color palette.

It would be nice if the site was compatible with Microsoft Office or Flash but the colors can be downloaded.

Zoho Writer

I toyed around with of online productivity web-based word processing program Zoho Writer. I found it easy to use just like any other word processing program. There are different fonts styles, colors, background colors, photographs and charts can be added to documents.

I like that documents can be available easily to others without worry of the software version someone else has. This makes it much easier to deliver documents and for groups working on the same project. It is nice that documents can be easily converted to other web formats such as html or pdf file.

Sandbox

I liked the Sandbox portion in exploring wikis. I think incorporating play into technology make people want to utilize it even more. I enjoyed looking at people's favorites on the pbcls wiki and adding some of my own to the lists.