Joliet Public Library Discovers - Final Thoughts

I believe that Joliet Library Discovers was a very useful exercise. While it is unlikely that I will use every service I signed up for, there are some that I will use at least occasionally.

I probably should have signed up for a Flickr account months ago, as most of my family lives in Michigan, and Flickr is an easy way to share digital photos.

I will probably use delicious when the book mark I am looking for is not on the computer I am currently using.

I think Library Thing will be a neat way for me to keep track of books I have read, and discover new ones for future reading.

Last, but not least, I think that hotpads.com is not only useful to people who are looking for a home, but is also useful to people who want information about houses for sale in their neighborhood.

If another discovery program like Joliet Library Discovers is offered, I will probably participate.

Exploring Web 2.0 Tools

The website I chose for the Exploring Web 2.0 tools exercise was hotpads.com. Here you can look for houses available for sale or rent, and apartments for rent.

I like the fact that when you type in a city or zip code you see a map showing the locations of available properties and for each house or apartment, the number of bedrooms, and the price asked or rent per month. When you click on an icon for a property another window opens with more information about that property.

I believe this website could be a real time saver for people who are looking for a new place to live. I also believe that the site could help people who want to sell their home a set a realistic price, as they can see what other homes in their neighborhood are listed for.

I do not believe this website has any specific applications for libraries. That said, I believe the site is worth linking to the JPL website, and I will do that soon.

Google Docs

I tried out Google Docs today.

This is a neat idea; having documents accessible from any computer because they are stored by Google, not on the computer where the document was created, or a network server. Indeed I have read newspaper and magazine articles that state that services like Google Docs are the wave of the future. I believe the concept is called "cloud computing".

In its present version Google Docs will not appeal to everyone. I counted 11 available type fonts. The one I use for my monthly library board report, Bookman Old Style is not among them. Still, I think most people would do just fine using Google Docs.

I believe that cloud computing could become very popular relatively soon, if businesses find that it saves them money because they do not need to buy and maintain as many servers as they presently have.

Online Book Communities

For many years, before I became a librarian, I kept a paper list of books I wanted to buy, and crossed off titles I purchased.

This afternoon, I signed account on Library Thing, an electronic version of my old paper list. I think this is a neat concept. I like the idea of keeping track of books I have read. I also like the recommendations offered.

The social networking aspect of the site is not important to me now. Perhaps it will be some 10 or more years from now, when I am retired, and have more spare time.

Delicious

After looking over delicious I think it has two very good uses. The first as mentioned in the JPL Discovers blog, is to allow access to a specified list of bookmarks from any computer. As one who uses at least five JPL computers at one time or another, this feature will be very useful to me.

I believe another neat use for delicious is to find interesting websites that would otherwise be buried on a search engine such as Google.

I think the social networking aspect could be useful to students who are working on the same assignment, or to see websites used by other students as tools to assist them in doing a variety of assignments.

Podcasts

I searched 4 of the five podcast directories listed on the JPL Discovers blog.
I found them all easy to search.

A few thoughts occurred to me as I was searching.

I think podcasts can be particularly useful to the visually impaired. Instead of reading a braille copy of the New York Review of Books (assuming this title is available in that format) someone can easily find a link to the podcast and listen.

Most podcasts are not continuing series. As I searched, It seemed that most were singular events or short series.

Podcasts and videos could be valuable primary source materials for historians, if they are still accessible in 2109 and beyond.

Google Reader

I signed up for a Google Reader account and subscribed to several news feeds. I found it very easy to use. You can read news from a wide variety of sources.

The World As We Know It

As most, or all of you know, I create the Joliet Remembers webpages. I am now in the process of gathering material for the 1980's pages. As I looked through the microfilm of the Joliet Herald-News for December, 1989, I was somewhat surprised to see ads for: personal computers, notebook computers, computer mice, cell phones, cordless phones, video cassette recorders, and camcorders, compact disc players, and fax machines. In other words, versions of most of the technological devices we take for granted today.

YouTube

After looking at You Tube today and on a few previous occasions I find that like broadcast and cable television, it can be a "vast wasteland," but it can also be a valuable resource.

The search engine seems to work well.

The category list found when you click on the word videos at the top of the page seems to me to be a waste of time, since there are no subcategories.

For my video, I chose one titled Grand Canyon Hiking, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6X4WxeSFZ4. This video explains the preparations needed for a hike in the canyon, and the precautions one needs to take when hiking there. The video also explains the advantages and disadvantages of two of the trails that run from the South Rim to the Colorado river.

I believe the video mentioned above is an example of the Internet at its best. In 2002, a friend and I hiked the Grand Canyon from rim to rim. Before leaving his home in Michigan, we watched two VHS videos about hiking in the canyon that he had received via the U.S. Postal Service. Were we to make the same hike today, I am sure we would simply download videos like the one found on You Tube.

More I & M Canal Trail Pictures

I finished uploading the pictures I took last August along the I & M Canal trail to Flickr.

One of the reasons that I enjoy riding my bicycle along this trail is that I almost always see wildlife of one sort or another; herons, egrets, turtles, and the occasional deer.

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Originally uploaded by jtegel

Had fun this morning creating a Flickr account, and uploading a few photos.

One of my favorite places on this earth is the stretch of the I & M Canal State Trail between Empress Road and Channahon State Park. The trail is less than 2 miles from my house and I ride it several times each summer. The photo here is one of a series I took last summer. I uploaded a few of the photos this morning, and will upload the rest some time in the near future.

I signed up for a Twitter account today. I think I may find the the 140 character limit easier to live with than some people, as I am one who normally tries to say as much as possible in as few words as possible.

Wikis

I believe wikis have some advantages that other forms of website do not. Perhaps the most important are that a wiki can be edited from any computer with Internet access and can easily be edited by more than one person. Another advantage, in my opinion is that the layout for many wikis is clean and crisp, i.e., an easy to read type face and not much color, which can at times be distracting.

Regarding the wikis mentioned on the Joliet Library discovers blog, I will only comment on two of them. On the Library Success blog, I noticed that there little or no material under many of the headings in the section on Management and Leadership. The material on the Bull Run wiki appears to me, especially since it appears to be edited by one person, to be more suitable for a blog.

Technorati - Whats Popular

In looking over the popular searches list on the Technorati website, there were some things that surprised me, and some that did not. I was surprised that Paris Hilton and Jennifer Garner ranked in the top 10, as I have not seen them mentioned in the main stream media lately. I was not surprised that news and environment were in the top 10. I was also not surprised that cheat codes made the top 10, as in the past, I have had patrons at the Online Learning Resource Center ask for assistance in searching for cheat codes using search engines.