Keep working....

If you are a library staff person who registered for this program before February 29, 2008, keep working to complete all the exercises. If you can do all 30 Things before April 30, 2008, we will enter your name into a drawing for an MP3 player.

To be eligible for the drawing and to receive credit for completing the training, you must send your name, employee number assigned to you at registration, blog title and blog URL to Cindy Hart, Virtual Librarian, at chart@vbgov.com before April 30th.

Thing 30 - Summarize your thoughts and post on your blog

Wow! Congratulations!! You’ve reached the 3oth thing. Your reward for completing this journey before the February 29th deadline is an MP3. This reward is funded by the Virginia Beach Library Foundation. You will recieve your reward at All Staff Training Day in March.

For your last and final exercise for this program please reflect on your learning journey and post a few thoughts. Here are some questions to help you get started...

• Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
  
  
• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
  
  And last but not least…
  
  
• If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

In closing, I want to thank each and every one of you for joining me on this journey. As a system, we have had an amazing learning experience. Let's keep it going...

Thank you, Cindy

Thing 29 - Blog about your Learning 2.0 experience

We've come a long way together over the past 12 weeks. We are almost at the end of our learning and discovery journey for this installment of Learning 2.0. For Thing 29, there are two parts.

Discovery Exercise

1. First, blog about your Learning 2.0 experience. Tell me...

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

2. Second, check out the blogs of at least three Learning 2.0 participants. Please do not use the L2 public spread sheet to check out participant blogs. Follow the Learning 2.0 participants link provided. Comment on their blogs. Tell them...

What you like about their blog.

One learning experience or discovery that you shared.

One more Thing to go!

Thing 28 - Roll your own search tool with Rollyo

Do you have a group of favorite web sites? Or a set of online resources that are similar that you frequently use to answer homework or reference questions? Well Rollyo may be the tool for you. Rollyo allows you to create your own search tool for the just the websites you know and trust.

Take a look at some of these search rolls that have already been created:

Public Domain e-Books Search


Rare Book Library Search

Free Photos

Quick Quotes

Explore other rolls here.

Discovery Exercise (Option 1):

1. Explore Rollyo and create an account for yourself.
   
   
2. Create a search roll for any subject you like.
   
   
3. Create a post in your blog about your experience and link to your search roll. Can you see a potential use for tools like this?

OPTION 1: Add your searchroll to your blog using the "Create a Searchbox" tool.

DISCOVERY EXERCISE (Option 2):

1. Explore Rollyo.

2. Create a post in your blog about your experience. Can you see a potential use for tools like this one?

Thing 27 - Take a look at LibraryThing and catalog some of your favorite books

Are you book lover or cataloger at heart? Or do you enjoy finding lost and forgotten gems on the shelf to read? Then LibraryThing may be just the tool for you. Developed for booklovers, this online tool not only allows you to easily create an online catalog of your own it also connects you to other people who have similar libraries and reading tastes. Add a book to your catalog by just entering the title -- It’s so easy that you don’t even need MARC record training to do it – or connect with other users through your similar reading tastes. There are lots of ways to use LibraryThing. You can even view your books on a virtual shelf, add a widget (see sidebar for sample) to display titles that are in your catalog or install a LT Search box on your blog.

So why not join the ranks and create your own library online. With over 65,000 registered (BTW: LibraryThing also has group forum for librarians users and over 4.7 million cataloged books, you're bound to discover something new.


Discovery Resources:

• About LibraryThing
  
  
  
• Library Thing tour
  
  
  
• MoBuzzTV Review (3rd story in the 5 min broadcast)
  
  
  
• LibraryThing blog (updates & news)

Discovery Exercise:

1. Take a look around LibraryThing and create an account.
   
   
   
2. Add a least 5 books to your library.
   
   
   
3. Blog about your findings and be sure to link to your LibraryThing catalog.
   

Thing 26 - Play around with an online image generator

Generators? No, I’m not talking about those gas powered back-up things. The generators I’m talking about allow you to easily manipulate image and graphics to create fun images like these:



For this discovery exercise, I just want you to have fun. Find a few fun image or text generators to play around with and write a post in your blog about one of your favorites and display the result. Often adding the image you mocked up to your blog is as simple as copying and pasting code that the page provides. If not, you may just need to right click on the image and then save it to your hard drive before using Blogger’s image button to add it to your post.

If you’re having difficulty getting your image added to a post in your blog, ask a co-worker for help. In looking at several staff blogs, it’s easy to see that we have lots of people in the system who have figured out how easy it is to add images to their blogs.

Discovery Resources:

The Generator Blog
Letter James
FD Toys
Also try searching for online generators, text generators or image generators!

Discovery Exercise:

1. Play around with some image generators and find one that you like.
2. Post the result of your discovery process in your blog.
Note: Be sure to include a link to the image generator itself, so other participants can discover it too.

So take some time and have fun with this exercise. And remember to be tasteful too!

* Images created with Dummies Book Generator, FD Toys Magazine Cover, Comic Strip Generator.

Thing 25 - Summarize your thoughts about podcasts and video on your blog. Add a link to a YouTube video, too. It's fun

Now you know about podcasts and video. You have thought about and blogged about how these features might be useful on a library web site. Now, dig a little deeper and take a look at how libraries are using podcasts and video.



Discovery Resources



The Library Channel - Arizona State University


Podcasts - Denver Public Library

Podcasting - LibSuccess Wiki - A listing of libraries that podcast along with other resources.


Podcasting Toolbox - Great information about 70 tools and resources by Mashable: Social Networking News, 7/04/2007

Podcasts - Sheridan Libraries at John Hopkins University



Discovery Exercises

1. Visit at least one library web sites that uses podcasting to connect with library customers.

2. Blog about what you found. What worked? What did not work? Are there better ways to deliver the same service or product to the library customer?

Only two more weeks of blog posts to go! Then, you have four more weeks to complete the program.

If you have questions, please come to an open lab day or contact me! Collaboration is an important part of this program.