Thing #15 Library 2.0

"Away from the Icebergs" introduced just the tip of the iceberg for libraries to become nearer to a Library 2.0 model. Print materials collections should get smaller because that reflects the circulation as online resources get bigger. Users must be educated in how best to use the resources and they need to get 'friendlier.' Online library resources need to be readily available and easily accessible from anywhere. All of this leads to "Into a world of new librarianship." Librarians have to be technosavy and must be up on new trends and techology. They must be able to evaluate resources and make decisions based on user preference. Many of the tools we've examined through 23 things would be useful to a librarian to help stay current. Especially conversations with other librarians. It's not the same library or the same clientale. It is no longer a slow-moving and stagnant area and librarians and libraries will have to change to stay relevant and useful.

Thing #14 Technorati and tags

First, I loved adding my tags to things I found. For my personal bookmarking, this helped me categorize things in ways that were relevant to me. I can see the controversy over publisher putting tags on things but again, they serve a purpose as well.
Using a social site such as Technorati helps find relevant blogs in an organized way. Looking at the popular blogs and websites was interesting because it was lots of current news and hot topics. I think this would be kind of a neat way to stay updated on trends and issues. One tool to use to stay updated anyway because it is what is important to serious bloggers.

Thing #13 Social bookmarking

Delicious bookmarking can serve many purposes in the classroom and the library.
Simply just having bookmarks that are available on-line instead of confined to one computer is a must have. Once signed up, this is a great place to be able to categorize useful websites, whether for lesson plans, graphics, or exploration. Since the bookmarks are public, students could have access to it as well. I can see how this would be useful if doing a project and resources were shared. You could set up an account specific to the resource and have everyone share their websites they found. Maybe a school could set one up for important links for the faculty. Again, there seems to be many possibilities for a site such as this!

Thing #11

I love to read and often struggle to figure out what to read next. The Library Thing is a great solution to this. I entered in a few books and then looked at people with similar libraries. I saw tons of books that looked interesting. I loved all of the discussions that were going on about books as well. A couple of the groups looked particularly interesting. One was the 50 most banned books and the other was 1001 books to read before you die. I also saw a group for librarians to discuss books as well as other issues. This is another great resource.

Thing #10

I discovered Glogster where you could make your own poster. Some of the previously created ones were phenomenal. I included one I found on Artemis Fowl by Janice. I downsized it and then included the link. It really is impressive because it includes information about the books, music and video clips. The posters can be very simple or very elaborate. I thought this would be a great way to share a book talk or to have students respond to a book. This would be a great product for any project.

Image chef was simpler and I played with it for just a few minutes. Again, I found all kinds of things that would make learning fun and creative.

Thing #9

Wow!! I am completely overwhelmed by how much information and blogs are out there. I found many good ones. I appreciated the article by Cool Cat because it helped point out the necessity to keep the priorities straight by finding excellent bloggers and focusing on those. Of course it does make it much more convenient when you can add them to your reader and have it all handy. The Edublogs website was helpful because it was education specific. Topix was interesting because it immediately brought up local information and current topics in the news. Google Blogger was very broad and took some searching to find what I wanted. I did find one blog I added, The Shifted Librarian. I also found very many interesting ones as well. I'll have to keep on reading and exploring.

Thing #8

I was not at all familiar with RSS feeds or readers. I thought this was great, especially as I am growing more familiar with blogging. Google reader conveniently displays all desired blogs and news feeds, even differentiating between new and previously read items. Using this tool would be a time saver since everything is in one place.

A publicly shared page, unique to a district's administrators, faculty, parents, or librarians, would be valuable to share relevant information.