Week 10: #23 Is this really the end?

Is this really the end? I am excited to have finished- in some of the earlier weeks, I wasn't sure I would make it. I am glad to know that I can figure out most things, although I would never have made it without help from my coworkers. I do feel more confident about helping customers because I understand more than I did before working on the 23 things. I think this is a good program and hope the public will take advantage of it too. I would like to go back over some of the things and take more time with them to really be able to pass them on.

Week 9: #22 Downloadable Media

Finally a week where we explore something I know about! I really like the downloadable books that are available to the HCPL patrons. My husband and I have downloaded books to an MP3 player and also burned some to CD's. We prefer the CD's just because they are easier to use in our car. It is nice to find out that we have more choice with the free sites.

Week 9: #21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

I did not realize how many podcasts there were "out there" or the variety. It seems you could find a podcast on anything that interests you. I liked the fact that I could get podcasts of radio programs from the Christian stations that I listen to.

Week 9: #20 Discover YouTube

YouTube had some very funny animal videos and some cute librarian ones. It had everything from how to roast a turkey to decorating a cake. I especially enjoyed watching a 3 year old painting a picture of a ninja turtle with his finger tips- a genius for sure! It does bother me that it makes it easy for anyone to access pornography.

Week 8: #19 Web-based Apps

I liked Zoho Writer because you can save your documents to the web and access them from any computer. It will be something we can tell our patrons about so they don't have to worry about having a disk to save to. It also appeared to have many good features to make your document look good, but I need to work with it some more to see what all it offers.

Week 8: #18 Social Networking

I liked the ratemyspace site. It seemed like a good place to get some ideas on decorating. I also liked ning because you could find a group of people that had the same likes or interests. I guess that is what social networking is all about- finding the common ground among people so that they can connect with others. I don't understand how this is much different than connecting through blogs, but guess I would need to sign up and try one to see.

Week 7: #17

Technology is great. Who could have imagined when TV first came out that you would get to a point that you could stop the picture and rerun it or tape it and watch it another time or craziest of all, watch a TV program on the computer! I'm not sure what Blue Tooth is, but I'm sure I will know soon. Things are moving fast and of course there are some negatives- less face to face conversation, for one- but I believe technology is making life better.