Twitter

The first thing that got my attention when I went to look at what Twitter was about was the description. I personally wouldn’t go to Twitter to look up “…breaking news, a local traffic jam, a deal at your favorite shop or a funny pick-me-up from a friend.” From what I have heard about Twitter, I do know that there are those that seem to like to share every aspect of what they are doing every minute of the day by sharing their “tweets,” but I don’t get the whole point of why. Don’t get me wrong, I think that it is great that the public library is on Twitter and realize that it is a great way to inform people of what is going on at the various branches. It is a great way to get that kind of information out to people. I thought it was great to see the various branches that have Twitter and to be able to see what each branch actually posted on their Twitter page. I personally don’t see myself ever using Twitter, but can see where the attraction for some people is. I did have an account set up at one point in time to follow someone who was going to be on vacation at the same resort that I was going to. The only reason, I joined was to see what he had to say while he was at this resort. For the most part, I found that I did not find the information that he posted to be of use. I also found that when I did have a Twitter account, it was not user friendly. (I think that a lot of it may have been me, but I’m not completely convinced of this.) I did eventually get rid of this account as I did not find much use for it and I didn’t really use it for much at that time. Do I see myself using Twitter in the future, not really. To be honest, I don’t really understand what the fascination for some things on Twitter are. I can see it being used for things like CPL posting things that are going on at each branch, but besides that, I don’t really see a use for it.

Library Thing

I found that this website is user friendly. I was able to create myself an account with out any problems and I was able to add some titles to my library. When I did a search on a title that I just finished reading, I found myself enjoying the reviews that others had put up. I wish I had known about this site sooner so that I could refer to it when I was looking for a review on some titles that I am interested in reading. I can see myself using this site for personal reasons as well as at work. I can see myself using it to be able to find descriptions for titles that I am interested in reading as well as finding titles that others have read and reviewed. This will help expand my library and what I read in the future. I can see myself using it at work to help find books to recommend to people as I find that we are asked to recommend books to people. This is a great way to find titles that they may be interested in reading and making suggestions to them. I think it is a great resource to keep going back to and I will definitely be using this site in the future. I look forward to being able to use this on a personal level as well as while I am at work.

Online Productivity Tools

At this point in my life, I don’t see myself using one of these tools and just sticking to the more traditional methods. If I were to use any of them, it would be the calendar. Currently, the only reason that I use an online calendar is so that I have a record of when I have an appointment, this I will usually keep track of for when I am at work. I like to put little notes on the calendar that is hanging on my wall at home as I see it on a daily basis and it reminds me of things that will be coming up in the future. I like to add things to my calendar in outlook so that I can refer back to it while I am at work, in case I need to get information if someone asks me. I can see an online calendar being convenient in some aspects, but I don’t necessarily have the time to be going to the computer to check my online calendar an a daily basis. I can see it definitely becoming a tool that may become more a part of my life in the future, but for now it don’t see it happening. I can see that down the road, Microsoft word can be replaced with Google docs as it will be the case that one can access their documents a lot easier this way without having to worry about the document being compatible or having to worry about carrying a way to save your document when you are using a computer that is not your own. I can see that this will eventually be something of convenience and eventually can see that this will be the way that we will go towards. I am sure that MS Office will come out with something to keep up with technology as there is always something new for us to use. I can’t see the competition ever going away in that aspect.

Flickr and You Tube

I have found that I enjoy using both Flickr and You Tube. I have had many opportunities in the past to use Flickr as my husband has an account and will post pictures on it from our past trips. I like the fact that, on Flickr, you can make it so that not all of your pictures can be viewed by just any one. This is a nice safety feature, in that only those that you want to share pictures with yourself in it can see those pictures. In the past, I have used Flickr to look at pictures that others have taken of a place that my husband and I are going to be travelling to. This way, I can see where we are going to and this allows the excitement to build. I also like to look at the pictures that we have posted as it reminds me of what a great trip that we have had. I do like the fact that with flickr, you can look at pictures that are either relevant, recent or interesting as well as in various sizes. I find that Flickr is very user friendly and a great place to find pictures (besides using Google and doing an image search). I do like the fact that the page for flickr is not overbearing and does not have too much information on it. It is easy to use and in my books a great resource in sharing one’s pictures with others. I also find that you tube is user friendly. I have used you tube to find videos on things like the Muppets and can sit and watch them over and over and over again. I have used you tube to find videos that someone may have posted on a specific resort that my husband and I may be going to. I do find that there will be some that can be inappropriate, but that is to be expected since anyone can post a video on you tube. I do like the layout of you tube and find that it is very easy to use, but am not that keen on the advertising that they have on the right hand side. I find it to be distracting to a degree. I also like the fact that once you start looking at a certain video, you are given suggestions of other videos that you may find interesting. I wont deny that there is an aspect of you tube that is pure entertainment. I usually use it for this purpose.I do find that, I like both websites and will continue to use them. Considering both are sites that people can post whatever they want, I would caution user beware, but for the most part, I do find that they are both great places to get information from.

Thoughts on RSS

I found that it was very frustrating to use this program. When I looked at a few websites that I do use regularly, I found that it was very difficultto find the RSS sign or picture. So I decided to use the 2 that were mentioned on the blog. I did find it right away on the CBC website, but found that when I went to add it to my feed, it wouldn't save to it and saved to somewhere else. So I tried to locate it by adding it as we were instructed to and found out that according to RSS, "No feeds were found.Please verify that the website publishes an RSS feed." I did go back afterwards and typed in http://www.cbc.ca/ and found that I was able to find a few links to CBC, but when I added www.cbc.ca/Calgary , it would give me the message that it wasn't found. I was successful in adding Mashable and found that it was easier to locate. With Mashable, you are given a list of things that it thinks that you are looking for and you can select to subscribe to the correct one. I found that because I knew what I was looking for, I was able to find it rather easily. I feel that doing searches on this site can be a bit time consuming. Don’t get me wrong, it does have its benefits and can save you time once you have found what you are looking for. At the end of the day, would I use it……no. As convenient as it would be an easy place to go to find things rather than having a large list of bookmarks. Although it is convenient for this reason, I still like being able to bookmark my favorite websites and find information that way. I did like the idea that you can add things that interest you and you can look at what is posted, but I still like looking things up using Google and finding the information that way.

Google search and products

What isn’t there to like about Google? I find that out of all the search engines that are out there, Google is the one place that I always turn to when I am doing a search on the internet. I find that it is convenient and easy to use. I also find that it is great how they have tabs to make your searching needs very easy. The tabs make it a convenient way to find what you are looking for. I also like that Google makes it easy to search in any language that you want to search in, this making it accessible to anyone and everyone. I find that yahoo’s page is cluttered and very overwhelming to use. I find that there are a lot of things to look at and I’m not sure where to begin. This is another reason I like using Google. I do realize that Yahoo does have the same features that Google has, but find that I get very overwhelmed when looking at Yahoo with all of the information that is on its page. I also find that there is something that keeps drawing me back to Google, I don’t know what it is, but for the time being, I can see myself using Google for all of my searching needs (besides using books of course, books will always be important.
I would definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone. I can’t say that there are any things that I dislike about Google. I love the fact that there are so many ways of looking things up within Google and am glad to have learned about it as I can see myself using them in the future.

Social networking

I think that social networking sites are popular for many reasons. One of the main reasons that they are so popular is due to the fact that they are an easy way to keep in touch with friends and family. Yes, that personal touch that you would get with sending a letter or email or chatting with that person on the phone is lost. To some extent, it is a somewhat convenient way of keeping in touch with people. It is a great way to share photos that you may have and an easy way to share them with those that don’t live close by to you, yet that personal touch is lost. As a facebook user, I find that the only thing that draws me to it is that I see what people are up to as well as looking at pictures that they may post. Facebook does have a few advantages, such as sending out invites to events, but besides this, the photos and status updates, I don’t find much use for Facebook.

Wikipedia : To Edit or Not Edit, that is the question

I will usually use Wikipedia as a jumping off point when I am trying to find information as I know that it is an unreliable source. I like to use it as a jumping off point as it will give me some other ideas as to where I can look for information on a specific topic, this is great as there are times that I am unable to find information on a topic as I do not know much about that topic and thus don’t necessarily know where to look. When I worked in one of the local schools, I would tell the students that they should try and use websites that ended in .org or .edu as these sites were more reliable when it came to acquiring information and that Wikipedia was a good place to get some ideas of what they can use to look things up. Having said all of this, I found that it was not difficult to find an article that needed editing. I recently returned from a trip to Jamaica and found that I am interested in a place that I learned about while I was travelling from the airport to the resort. This place is known as Rose Hall and what peeked my interest about it was the story about Annie Palmer, a lady that is connect to this place. When I looked up Rose Hall on Wikipedia, I found that there was a little bit of information in regards to the building itself as well as some information about Annie Palmer. There was not much information on either the building or the person. This lead me to do more research, using websites that are more reliable, which lead me to realize that there was some information on Wikipedia that was not correct. I then did make some changes/additions to the section about Annie Palmer.

Delicious : advantage vs disadvantage

After having a chance to look at best websites on Delicious, I found myself reflecting on what the advantages and disadvantages were to using it. I found that some of the advantages to it were that these sites could be accessed anywhere in the world. One can personalize it so that it suits his or her needs by sorting it in a way that suits them best. Some of the other advantages for me was that it is easy to find. The tab on the side helped located information on some of the topics that may be of interest. One thing that did catch my eye were the questions that new citizen's can use to study for their citizenship, I find that people are always coming to the library looking for this information. I found that the more I looked at this website, the more comfortable I felt with it. At first, I felt a little overwhelmed with all the information that was in front of me, but once I got into looking for information, it all made sense. Having said that, this is one of the disadvantages to this site. I did find that it was time consuming as it did take me abit of time to get more acquanted with this site. Once I got used to the idea that I can personalize it and put things in order alphabetically and by date and relevance to what I was looking for, I was able to find things easily and quickly. I don't see myself using this site for the meer fact that I can find the information that I am looking for in a quicker manner, but will recommend it to our customer's to use as we all find information that we are looking for differently.

CPL 2.0 What intrigues or scares me about it? What do I hope to learn from it?

I am intrigued by the entire aspect of creating a blog and posting my comments. Although I am intrigued and excited about this new task, I am finding that I am scarred by the fact that I am not sure if I will be able to keep up with all the things that we are going to be learning. I like to think that I am computer savvy, but do find that I don’t know it all. Having said this, I am looking forward to this opportunity of learning something new and being able to take what I have learned and share it with others. I do take comfort in knowing that I am not alone in this learning process and that I can always ask my peers questions as we are all in the same boat. I am also finding that a lot of my worry stems my lack of knowledge in the areas that we will be looking at. I have looked at other blogs and have found that they make it all seem so easy, yet I find that I am at a lose for words. I am hoping that once this training session is over, I will be able to walk away from it and say that I have learned a lot and will be able to take the things that I have learned and be able to share it with others and show others how to do it.