Thing 26

In this lesson on WorldCat I created an account and started fiddling w/all the options.I made a list of my Favorite Mystery Writers and I'm now watching 3 lists:
Cozy Mysteries, Lefty 2009, and Edgar Allen Winners. I chose to RSS feed the Cozy Mystery list and Tweeted the Lefty 2009. There is now a review for Girl with the dragon tattoo http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/226304725. The lesson covered most of the library/patron uses for WorldCat, at the moment I can't think of anything else.

Thing 25

"On the road again...." with Google Maps. This tool gives a whole new meaning to armchair travel. I was able to visit the State Capital and NLC. Then I was whisked away to Paris and the Eiffle Tower. The street views were amazing! On returning home I planned my next couple of trips to Ord, Ne and Fort Collins, Co. I chose the map function for the Ord trip and requested various routes by including additional stops. For the Colorado trip I used map, satelite and street view. I have the route saved and by using street view I will be able to recognize landmarks and our destination. Maybe I won't get us lost(again!!!) In addition, I found a nearby motel by using links on the page.

I found the NPPL using Google Maps and the location is close but not correct. I found this true when I entered my home address and GM said the address was approximate. I did not make a correction to my home address, some anonymity is still a good thing.

I enjoyed using Google Maps to plan my travels and using street view to revisit some places I have been. I also compared it to Mapquest for the Ord trip. Both gave me accurate directions, but Google Maps was more "fun". Street view is helpful, but scary in its invasion of privacy. Using Zoom, I could almost read the license plate of my brother-in-laws vehicle in front of their house. I have heard of protests in England that have blocked the Google car from entering neighborhoods.

In this lesson we have been able to practice the way Google Maps can help libraries and patrons. I'm sure someone has thought of this before, but street view (eventhough it makes me a little nervous about privacy) could be of value to the genealogist. I don't have a picture of the house my grandmother lived in when I was little or the grade school I attended. I better find those now, before they are gone. Oh dear, another project....

Thing 23

Nebraska Learns 2.0 has been a wonderful learning experince for me. I had heard about blogging, RSS, Flickr etc. but did not have the courage to go out and explore on my own. This format gave me the direction and security to learn at my own pace when it fit in my schedule. I enjoyed all the "things" and each made my brain stretch a little more to wrap itself around the concept. However, my favorite is Library Thing. I will continue to expand my usage of many of the tools I have learned here for professional and personal growth and as always the more I learn the less I know! Going forward I won't be as hesitant to explore new developments and when I read the ITART blog I'll always find something new to investigate. Thank you for providing this learning tool. I can only imagine the time and effort it took to put together and then to monitor our progress. I truly appreciate your efforts and if you plan to do a similar program I will participate (and not wait so long to get started)!

Thing 22

I spent some time browsing and listening at Podcast.com, YALSA and NPR. While all the sites had brodcasts of use to librarians and patrons, I choose to focus on NPR.
The site had a wide range of topics, was easy to navigate and download material. At the present time listening to podcasts does not appeal to me. Here is the podcast I selected:
Grammar Grater
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510272

Thing 21

Visiting YouTube was quite and experience. I have received links via email, but had not set up an account. Nebraska Learns 2.0 has shown us the power of using YouTube to teach via the Common Craft Show. Now I'll just add a little nostalgia to my blog:

Thing 20

Now this "thing" was pure play. I tried to find areas that I know library patrons would use or use for reference. I was lost but, found my way with Google Maps. imcooked had very useful videos; but for entertainment take a look at the kids section! I was impressed by Revolution Health it was easy to use, and very appealing to the eye. I searched out several areas of interest and checked for their sources and partners and decided to booksmark the site. I booked on over to Biblio.com and fell in love w/their blog it's now on my rss feed list. My favorite is Pandora...it's playing right now. It's so much easier to do anything (read, dream, write or dust) when you're listening to music you love.

Thing 19 - Google Docs

Thing 19 - Google Docs


I took some time to explore Google Docs and Zoho Writer. I don't have a lot of experience using MS Office or any newer productivity software. But I experienced the frustration of not being able to view, send or receive information since I have Corel software at home and most everyone uses MS products. I found that Google Docs Templates were much more professional looking than those is Zoho and I found a greater selection of documents and choices. I would definitely use the templates. I really appreciate the auto save function! I have a project coming up at work that I think I will try to download into Google Docs. That way I can work on it at home and send it back (and forth) to my boss for editing, approval, etc. Thanks for showing me these two apps. Maybe I'll just uninstall Corel!! Thanks for the lesson. I can't seem to figure out how to put this into my blog, so I'll copy and paste or is the above correct?