# 23. The Finish Line

I enjoyed participating in the program and have spent hours exploring and learning new tools at work and on my own time. I see a need for a new application to help me keep track of all the accounts and passwords that I now have from setting up accounts to use the different tools. The program helped me learn about Web 2.0 tools by participating and challenging myself at my own speed. With many demands on my time it is hard at times to add anything else to my schedule. But since the Infopeople Web 2.0 series of trainings are free and could be taken in any order, their flexible approach was a big incentive for me to participate. Another incentive was having co-workers who were also on the journey and could offer support and/or help if needed. At my library all staff members were offered the opportunity to participate and they were encouraged to move forward on the “to do” list by being reminded via e-mail of how much time we had left to complete the program.

Our “23 Web 2.0 Things Challenge” has helped me to improve and expand on what I’m currently doing at work. I am not an expert on any one tool but I will continue to explore and learn how to use them to provide services to our customers. One aspect of the training that I am still struggling with is that I still see a great need to teach our customers basic computer skills while I am ready to jump to the next curve. For those users we may be so far ahead of the curve that they won’t understand what we’re saying or see the need or the advantage of what we are offering them. We also have customers who know more than many librarians about technology and many of the new tools. They are quite happy to have the eBranch and want services delivered using the latest tools.

Another issue is that many of the applications need additional bandwidth and require up to date equipment, which may not be available at the library. And for many of our customers it may be something they can not afford to acquire. I guess this is just another part of the digital divide issue that we need to work on as we keep moving forward closer to the edge of the divide – hopefully one day we can finish building the bridge to the other side and catch a ride on the next wave.

# 22. Sharing the knowledge

I thought about which of the tools I would like to share with someone else and decided on Bloglines. I have a friend who is always reading the online editions of local newspapers so I thought that Bloglines would be a useful tool for her to use. I helped her set up her account and then to subscribe to the local editions of the newspapers, create new folder and add an article to the clippings. Now the only website she has to visit is Bloglines.

# 21 Podcast

A podcast is like a radio show that you can listen to on your PC, MP3 player or with a web browser. A good example of a library using podcast is the Sunnyvale Public Library. Check out the Infopeople podcast by clicking on the Yahoo! podcasts icon below

# 20 Discovering What Is Web 2.0? on YouTube

# 19 Redwood City Public Library on Google maps

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Google Docs in Plain English

# 18 Exploring Google Docs

Google Documents are a great way to collaborate on projects without having to e-mail the documents. Some teachers at the local high schools have their students use the service to work on team projects where each student creates/uploads their part of the project and they can all look at it and revised it online.

I have used the service to work on a project with another librarian, first we had to create a Google account and then we invited others to collaborate. When you login to Gmail, the documents link is in the left hand corner. Click on it and then you will see all the documents available to download or edit and save.

# 17 Our 23 Web 2.0 wiki

Added an entry to the wiki under the category “The Bigger Picture or How to Manage all this incredible stuff...”.

# 16 Wikis

My library created a wiki on StikiPad that is used as a place for staff to easily share information on certain topics, making the information accessible to everyone. Creating a wiki is almost as easy a creating a blog for editing and adding content. Learning to use all the tools takes time and I am still learning how to improve the one I created on pbwiki.

# 15 Web 2.0 – Different Perspectives

• Libraries, like many other public service institutions, are struggling with the changes that have been brought about by the advance of technology, lifestyle experiences of the public and increasing customer demands. This trend will continue for the next several years as the new model of libraries is created and continues to evolve in the future.

  One potential service model for public libraries is to offer patrons three unique yet overlapping and supportive service modalities. These modalities are largely based on the generational aspects and the demographics of each particular library. One size does not fit all in this new model, rather a mix of service options will increase the user experience and will hold new opportunities for libraries to expand their reach in the community.

  Each of these service delivery strategies is briefly described below.

• The physical building – although many of our customers may no longer see a need for the physical space historically known as the library, we will continue to provide this real world resource for important reasons. People need and want a place to gather and be with other people - just look at the evidence: a new mom with her child at story time; the customers attending a program or book club; or the teenagers who just want to a place to hang out. A physical building will play an important role in the entire social networking phenomenon that is supported by Internet sites like Facebook, My Space and others.

• The eBranch – we must continue to build and improve our virtual branch. In short, some people prefer reading ebooks, completing library transactions online and being a part of the "e" community of users.

• The Hybrid – because we must serve the needs of such a diverse population we must adopt the Hybrid model and a mix of services. Just like the increased popularity of the hybrid cars we too must think of ways to provide new and enhanced traditional services through both the physical building and the virtual branch and continue to change and adapt to the new technologies and the needs of the customers in our communities.

# 14 Exploring Technorati

What is Technorati? In simple terms it is a search engine that searches blogs. On their about page they state that they are currently tracking 107.9 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media. When a blogger publishes something new on their blog it sends a ping to Technorati. The new tags from the blog update are added so people looking for information on those tags can find it right away. You can search by term, what is most popular or by topic.