OCL Web Things Challenge

MP3 prize: Sandisk Sansa Clip recommended update

2008-06-28T15:20:00.000-04:00

To all winners of the OCL 2008 Web Challenge:

There is a strongly recommended update to your MP3 player from the manufacturer SanDisk. This is the link to the “how to update video” that opens in Windows Media Player: http://mp3support.sandisk.com/mp3/updatefirmware.wmv

and this is the link to the page to find the download called Sansa Firmware Updater: http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1376.

We recommended you view the video because when you plug in and unplug your Sansa clip during the upgrade is very important.

Please let any committee member know if you're having problems with your player after the update.

Group participation and completion prizes

2008-06-28T15:19:00.000-04:00

Well, it took us a little time to do the analysis but we can now announce the group winners of the participation and completion prizes in the Web Challenge. We used the Human Resources information on who was in each department and branch as of February right before the Challenge began. We also used the HR definition of departments which involved budget line items.

For staff department or branches with 30 or more staff, the winner with the greatest participation and completion is the Toms River Adult/Teen/Youth Services public services group.

For staff department or branches with 29 staff members or less, the winner is the Lacey Branch.

The prizes are edible goodies. We believe that even if a staff member didn’t participate or complete, they almost certainly did a little extra to allow their colleagues to work on the challenge. That kind of support also deserves acknowledgment and something sweet! Committee members will be contacting the winning groups to arrange delivery.

Thing #23: Wrapping Up

2008-05-02T16:42:00.003-04:00

Let's celebrate finishing the OCL Web Things Challenge by having a Web 2.0 style party. YouTube will provide the music and entertainment, and you can provide the blog comments and snacks.

In the last ten weeks, you have learned about new technologies that are changing the way people are using the Internet (and libraries).

The great (and sometimes frustrating) thing about the Internet is that it is always changing. The technology companies and bloggers are already working on a definition of what Web 3.0 will be.

The OCL Web Things Committee hopes that you enjoyed the Web Challenge and will continue to be a life long learner. Thank you for playing.

Discovery Exercise

This is your last required blog post, so make it a good one. What was your favorite thing you learned about? Conversely, what did you like least about Web 2.0? What areas of Web 2.0 do you think the library should get more involved in? What Web 2.0 services have you shared with your friends and family?

Advanced Optional Exercise

Look up Web 3.0 and predict what you think it will be.

Thing #22 : ListenNJ

2008-05-02T16:40:00.006-04:00

Do you know what a digital audio book is?

Digital audio books are similar to the audio books that the library circulates. Instead of picking them up at the library, you can download them on your home computer. Once you have downloaded the audio book it can be listened to on the computer. Some titles can transferred to an MP3 player or burnt onto a CD.

Did you know that Ocean County Library offers its customers through ListenNJ ?

ListenNJ offers a wide variety of audio books for customers to access from their home computers. Topics include fiction, biographies, business, children’s literature, current events, history, mystery, romance, suspense and more.

To access digital books at ListenNJ you will need:

A valid Ocean County Library Card

Access to the Internet

OverDrive Audio Book and Windows Media Player 9.0 software (both are free and available to download from ListenNJ)

An MP3 player

Currently, ListenNJ is not compatible with the following devices:

Apple Macintosh computers

Apple iPod portable media players

Microsoft Zune portable media players.

If you have one of these products, fear not. ListenNJ’s parent company OverDrive announced that they are working on supporting these products in the future.

UPDATE for IPod OwnersOctober 3, 2008

Over two hundred titles are now available on ListenNJ's website in MP3 (IPod compatible) format. To see a complete list, choose the advanced search option, then choose "Overdrive MP3 audiobook" as the format. Click search and you'll see the complete list. You can check the box "Only show titles with copies available" if you want to see only what can be downloaded immediately. You can get on the waiting list for titles already checked out.

Discovery Resource
Ocean County Library’s instructions for ListenNJ downloading. You'll need your library card number to use ListenNJ.

Discovery Exercise
If you have a MP3 player already, great. You'll download a book to the player and listen to some of the audio to make sure everything worked. If you don't have a MP3 player (yet) or don't want to download a book to your MP3 player, that's okay. Use the instructions above. Go to ListenNJ and download a book of your choosing onto your computer (use a PC Plus computer at work) and listen to some of the book to make sure everything worked.

Hint: To make it easier to find the downloaded file, download it to the desktop. Once you're done with the exercise, delete the file off the desktop.

Don't forget to blog about your experience downloading a book through ListenNJ.

Thing #21 : Finding & Listening to Podcasts

2008-05-02T16:36:00.002-04:00

One of the greatest buzzwords in the Web 2.0 world is podcast. We've had quite a few podcasts for you to listen to throughout this challenge. But you may still be wondering, what is a podcast?

Podcasts are download-able audio programming that you can listen to on a variety of topics. They are created by your neighbor, your coworker or large media companies like ESPN, CBS and the New York Times. Best of all, the majority of podcasts are free.

When we said that anyone can create a podcast, we mean anyone. All you need is a microphone, a computer and some simple recording software to create a podcast. The number of podcasts grows daily and there are podcasts on virtually every subject. From sports to cooking to gardening to video games, you can probably find a podcast about anything you can imagine.

So how do you listen to a podcast?

The old way to get podcasts was to check the website of your favorite podcast frequently for updates. Once there was an announcement that a new podcast was available, you could then listen from the website or download it to your computer.

Web 2.0 made listening to podcasts easier. A few weeks ago you learned about RSS? Podcasters now use RSS feeds to distribute their podcasts. People use programs called podcatchers to subscribe to their favorite podcasts. Once they subscribe to a podcast, the podcatcher will automatically download new podcasts for you.

There are a variety of podcatcher programs available. The most popular is Apple’s iTunes. Below is a video that shows how simple it is to maintain your podcast subscriptions with iTunes. Most other podcatchers work similarly.

Doesn’t that look easy?

Once you have downloaded a podcast, you can listen to it on your computer or transfer it to your portable media device, like your iPod, Zune or other mp3 player.

With newer portable media devices like the iPod and Zune having video features and home digital video editing equipment becoming easier and more affordable, some podcasters have stepped up their game and gotten into video podcasting. It works just like regular podcasting, but instead of producing audio they are making video programming, or vodcasting.

To help promote their Ratatouille movie last summer, Pixar produced a series of vodcasts about the film. These “rat” casts were free and distributed through podcast listings.

Discovery resources

1. Uses of podcasting

2. Apple's iTunes FAQ on podcasts

Discovery Exercise

1. Explore a podcasting site like Podcast.com or Odeo.

2. Search for a podcast on a topic of your choice and listen to it. Post a link to the podcast and blog your reactions.

Advanced Optional Exercise

If you have an iPod, use your home computer to subscribe to a podcast. Blog about your experience.

Thing #20: YouTube & You

2008-05-02T16:32:00.001-04:00

The most popular website/service in the Web 2.0 world is YouTube. The committee is sure that you knew about YouTube even before the web challenge. Each day, people view hundreds of millions of video clips on YouTube, ranging from news, sports clips, music videos, classic television commercials and more.

What makes YouTube special is the "you" part--anyone can post videos to YouTube.

Libraries can use YouTube in a variety of ways. Videos can be made and placed on YouTube to promote library programs and services. The Public Relations department put together this video to promote an Anime Event at the Toms River branch this February.

YouTube videos can also be used to show what is going on at your library branch. Katelyn Nesi posted a video of Maggie Worsdale's "Great Jewish American Songbook" concert that was held at the Jackson branch.

The library also gets promoted inadvertently through YouTube. Remember the anime program we mentioned earlier?

The program at the Toms River branch featured voice actor Vic Mignogna, and
there are several videos of him speaking at this program.

Discovery Resources

1. View this video. It tells the story of how YouTube was started.

2. This is a great article on how YouTube's popularity is starting to rival television.

Discovery Exercises

1. Play around with YouTube and use the search tool to look for some videos that interest you.

2. Post the link to a video you found, blog about the clip that you found on YouTube.

Advanced Optional Exercise

Embed the YouTube video you selected in a blog post.

Thing #19: Web 2.0 Awards

2008-04-25T15:59:00.002-04:00

You've been exposed to many Web 2.0 tools over the Web Challenge. There are so many more and more are been created every day. One way to explore what is out there is through the annual Web 2.0 Awards. SEOmoz (an Internet consulting and marketing business) releases the awards which name the best Web 2.0 services in the following categories:

Blogging
Bookmarking
Books
Business
City Guides & Reviews
Classifieds and Directories
Collaborative Writing and Word Processing
Communication
Content Aggregation and Management
Digital Storage and Remote Access
Events
Feed Management
Fun Stuff
Games
Health
Hosted Wikis
Lists and Polls
Marketing
Mash ups
Mobile
Music
Online Organization
Philanthropy
Photos and Pictures
Podcast Services
Professional Networking
Questions and Advise
Real Estate
Retail
Search Engines
Social Networking
Social News
Social Tagging
Start Pages
Travel
Video
Visual Arts
Web Development and Design
Widgets

Whew! If you don't even know what a category means, don't worry. We don't know them all either! Still the Web 2.0 awards are a great way to find Web 2.0 services that you might not be aware of. Services range from professional networking sites like Linked In which lets you connect with your colleagues world wide, to Peertrainer, a virtual community that lets you set up diet and exercise support groups. Through the Web 2.0 Awards, one committee member found two services that he uses on a regular basis and wants to recommend.

The first is Pandora, which is an online radio that plays music based on your personal taste. It analyzes songs and artists you will like based on close to 200 different qualities. By the second time the committee member (Chris B.) had used Pandora, it knew that he not only liked recognizable artists like the Rolling Stones and James Brown, but more lesser known stuff like a few Swedish heavy metal bands and some independent rappers.

The other is Color Blender. Remember the color wheel and all that art theory you learned in school? It's back in an online tool that you can use to match colors, whether you're trying to have your clothes match or to repaint your bathroom.

Discovery Exercises

Note: The 2008 Web 2.0 Awards were posted in early May, 2008 replacing the 2007 winners list. So if you tried this exercise before and now think the Web 2.0 Awards page is different and lists different websites, you're right.

1. Read through the Web 2.0 Awards list and explore some of the services that won the best of award in a topic of your choice.

2. Create a blog post about a Web 2.0 Award winner that you would like to use and why.

Optional Advanced Exercise

1. Remember when we said we didn't know what all the categories meant? Visit the Web 2.0 Awards site and check out the topic "Content Aggregation and Management." Can you explain it to us?

Thing #18: Web Apps

2008-04-25T15:48:00.004-04:00

Many people would love to have the newest version of Microsoft Office, but with a price tag starting at $150 and having to purchase other upgrades, many people pass.

For those wanting free office software, Web 2.0 came to the rescue! Several companies have created free online office software that will help you do anything, from write a letter to your grandmother, to keeping a spreadsheet of your car mileage, to even an important presentation that will help you get a raise.

Instead of saving your projects to your computer, floppy disk drive or memory stick, these online applications allow you to store your documents online. Remember when you were in school and would suddenly realize that the report you worked on all night was not in your bookbag, but sitting on your kitchen table, and would now be late and jeopardize your GPA?

Not a problem with online applications. You can access your documents from any computer as long as it's connected to the Internet. Because these documents are in an online format, it doesn't matter what type of computer you are using.

One of the best features about online office software is that it allows you to collaborate with others. You can share your document with people of your choosing and they can view and edit the document. Don't worry, your documents are private. You get to choose which of your friends and coworkers get to view your documents.

Here's a great video made by the people at Google describing why you should use online software:

Now doesn't that sound fun? Let's look at Google Docs and Zoho, two of the larger online applications services.

Google Docs

Google Docs gives you access to online word processing, spreadsheet and presentation (think PowerPoint) software online. If you have ever used Microsoft Office, Google Docs is very similar. In fact, Google Docs has most of the features you would need, such as formatting, page set up, spellcheck and more. You can also upload your already existing documents into Google docs.

Since Google Docs and Blogger are both Google services, they are designed to be used together. You can post your Google Docs directly to your blog on Blogger.

Google Docs's sharing features make it easy to work with others on collaborative projects. Most of the Web 2.0 Challenge was done on Google Docs. One committee member could draft the text of a Thing and everyone could comment and make changes. We're using a Google doc spreadsheet to track every player's progress, too.

It is very easy to invite other people to work on documents. Just invite them as collaborators. Google Docs saves all revisions made to the document. That way, you can go back and revise documents from any point in their creation.

In order for you to use Google Docs, you need a free Google account.

Zoho

Zoho.com is another service that is like Google Docs but on more powerful vitamins. It offers many of the same features, including:

Writer, an online word processor
Sheet, an online spreadsheet
Show, an online presentation tool

In addition, Zoho has some other features that can be helpful in a business environment, including:

Projects, a project management software to track the duties and status of people working on a collaborative project
CRM, an online sales and inventory tracking program
Meeting, a web conferencing solution
DB, online database reporting and software
Planner, online organizer
Polls, an online poll management tool
Challenge, an easy way to track and evaluate candidates.

These are all tools that would be useful in a small office or if you were a small business owner.

Registering for Zoho is free. They also have access to their services on your Windows Mobile phone or iPhone, as well as special features for Facebook users.

Discovery Resources

1. Google Docs Tour.

2. Zoho tools.

Discovery Exercise

1. Go to Google Docs using the login name and password that was posted on OceanNet. Inside that account's Google Docs, there is a file called "Web Players on Google Docs". Please open the file and notice how close the setup is to Microsoft Word. Please add your name to the document, save and close the document, and log out of Google Docs.

2. Blog about: How would you use the collaborative features of Google Docs or Zoho at your branch for a project? Is there a project currently that you're working on where Google Docs could help or save time?

Thing #17 - Play in the Sandbox

2008-04-18T15:32:00.004-04:00

Sandbox" is the term that wikis often use to describe the area of the wiki website that should be used for pure play and experimentation. For this discovery and exploration exercise, we’ve set up a whole OCL WebChallenge Wiki for you to play with.

Our wiki is on the website Pbwiki.com which is a wiki site offering restricted wikis to individuals and businesses. This means you have to be invited to be able to edit or contribute on any wiki with a Pbwiki address like ours: http://oclwebthings.pbwiki.com/ The two types of invitations (a link to follow and the invite key) that allow editing privileges have been sent by email to everyone who registered a blog on the Web Challenge as of April 17. The information was sent to the email address you used when you registered your blog with us by sending an email to the committee's gmail address. The information was also posted on Ocean Net. See the OceanNet bulletin called: "Web Challenge Update: Thing #17 - what you need to know to play in the sandbox" for more details if you didn't get the email.

To mark your adventure on OCLWebthings wiki site, you will be adding a link to your blog to the page on the Oclwebthing wiki called OCL Webthings Blogs.

Discovery Resources:

PBWiki Video Gallery - Short videos of PBwiki features
PB Wiki Tips Discovery Exercise

Discovery Exercise:

1. Access the OCL Webthings wiki. There are two ways of doing this.

* Go to your email account you used to register your blog with the WebChallenge Committee and open the email you were sent about OCL Webthings wiki and Thing #17. Click on the invitation link inside the email.

*Go to the same email, write down the secret "invite key" to the OCLWebthings wiki, then go to oclwebthings.pbwiki.com, and click on the edit button. You’ll go to a page with the option to “Log in with a Password/Invite key.” Type in the invite key in the box labeled: Wiki Password/Invite key.
In the box labeled name, put in whatever name you want attached to your contributions to the wiki. It doesn’t have to be your real name. In the email box type the email you are using for the challenge.

Why all this bother? Pbwiki requires an share link or a invite key to keep the editing rights to only those people the Administrator of the wiki wants to have the power to change the wiki. Otherwise it is an open wiki like Wikipedia and the whole world can edit it. That's not a good idea for most wikis that are cooperative efforts within a specific group.

2. So to “explore-and-play-with-wikis” in this exercise, you are asked to add an entry or two to the Sandbox page on the wiki. The theme of this wiki page is simply “Favorites” : Favorite books, favorite vacation spots, favorite restaurants, favorite anything. All you need to do is add your favorites under one or more categories. You're also asked to play with the fonts and the formatting features.

3. Add your blog to the OCL Webthings Blogs page. That's how we'll know that you've been there. The instructions on how to add a link to your blog are posted on the Favorite Blogs page right on the wiki. They aren't complete. The final steps were left for you to figure out. Remember, if you have questions, or need a little help, email us at oclwebthings@gmail.com

4. Create a post in your blog about the experience. Here's a question you might want to blog about: What are the potential uses of a pbwiki for work?

Advanced Optional Exercise:

Add a computer tip, hint, recommended webpage or anything computer related to this page on our wiki: "Our Favorite Computer Tips" This page could be a start of a library best practices wiki of our own.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, wikis

Thing #16 - Wikis

2008-04-18T12:19:00.008-04:00

Wonderful World of Wikis

"Wiki, Wiki" in Hawaiian means quickly. A wiki allows you to work with others to write and organize information. Everyone can be both writer and editor. For your introduction to wikis watch the video from Common Craft below for a really simple explanation:

Wikipedia, the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools. The use and popularity of wikis in businesses, libraries and in online communities is expanding rapidly. Some of the benefits that make wikis so attractive are:

* Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.
* Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom.
* Earlier versions of a page can be viewed and reinstated when needed.
* No technical background is needed. In most cases a simple editing procedure is used.

As the use of wikis has grown over the last few years, libraries all over the country have begun to use them to collaborate and to share knowledge. Among their applications subject guide wikis, book review wikis, ALA conference wikis, and even library best practices wikis.

Discovery Resources:
Use these resources to learn more about library related wikis:

* Library Bloggers Wiki : a list of library blogs maintained as a wiki
* Nancy Pearl's Wiki : a true booklover's wiki from the famous librarian booktalker

* Albany County Public Library's Staff Wiki - a wiki created for library staff to track and document library procedures.

Discovery Exercises:

1. For this discovery exercise, visit the Library Success wiki. It is a best practices library wiki. Did you find anything useful? Did you find anything you didn't like?

2. Visit Ocean County Library's article on Wikipedia. Most people never notice the Discussion and History tabs at the top of each Wikipedia article. They give you important clues on the article's accuracy and currency. Clicking on the Discussion tab in the OCL article, you'll read that Wikipedia made OCL give permission before we could repeat material from our website in the Wikipedia article. Wikipedia really hates copying from other websites without permission.

Click on the history tab on top of the OCL article to see a list of every change made to the article's words or images. Any guesses on what edits were from OCL staff? One staff member changed the description of Sparks from a pink dragon to a magenta dragon, then another staff member added a citation to prove the change correct!

3. Share some of your thoughts on wikis on your Web Challenge blog.

OPTIONAL ADVANCED EXERCISES:

There are many wikis on different topics not connected to work. Examples include a wiki about Star Trek called Memory Alpha, one on cookbooks called Cookbook Wiki and a community based effort about Rochester, NY called RocWiki.

1. Try a Google search to see if there's a wiki on your interests. Google your topic and the word wiki. If you find a wiki that looks interesting, explore it and blog about it.

2. Explore behind the scenes of Wikipedia. Compare the arguments under the Discussion tab in the article on Cow Tipping to the discussions for poet Joyce Kilmer. Really strange things can appear under the discussion tabs in the articles on people in the news. Pick your own celebrity.

Does what you find under the discussion tab or the history tab of a Wikipedia article make you more or less willing to trust the material in an article?

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, wikis

Thing #15 - On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0...

2008-04-14T10:26:00.008-04:00

powered by ODEO [1:37]

Library 2.0 is term used to describe a new set of concepts for developing and delivering library services. The name, as you may guess, is an extension of Web2.0 and shares many of its same philosophies and concepts including harnessing the user in both design and implementation of services, embracing constant change as a development cycle over the traditional notion of upgrades, and reworking library services to meet the users in their space, as opposed to ours (libraries).

Many have argued that the notion of Library 2.0 is more than just a term used to describe concepts that merely revolve around the use of technology; it also a term that can be used to describe both physical and mindset changes that are occurring within libraries to make our spaces and services more user-centric and inviting. Others within the profession have asserted that libraries have always been 2.0: collaborative, customer friendly and welcoming. But no matter which side of the debate proponents fall, both sides agree that libraries of tomorrow, even five or ten years from now, will look substantially different from libraries today.

Discovery Resources:

OCLC Next Space Newsletter – Web 2.0: Where will the next generation of the web it take libraries?

Five Perspectives:

Wikipedia – Library 2.0
Library 2.0 Discussions (list of great references from Wikipedia)

Discovery Exercise:

Read two or three of the perspectives on Library 2.0 from the list above.
Create a blog post about your thoughts on any one of these? Library 2.0 - It's many things to many people. What does it mean to you?

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, library2.0, web2.0

Thing #14 - Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

2008-04-14T10:18:00.014-04:00

[Your eyes do not deceive you - there's no podcast to listen to this week!]

So now that you’ve been blogging for awhile, you might be wondering just how big the blogosphere is. Well, according to Technorati, the leading search tool and authority for blogs, the number of blogs doubles just about every 6 months. Technorati currently tracks 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media!

Yes, these numbers are astounding, but as you’ve already seen for yourselves, blogging is so easy that these publishing tools are being taken advantage of by almost every industry, including libraries.

So how does a person get their blog listed as part of the blogosphere and how can you tag your posts with keywords to make them more findable through a Technorati search? The answer to the first question is that your blog is probably already being captured by Technorati due to the fact that you're already using Blogger, the most popular blogging tool. But if you want to join the party and have your blog officially listed on Technorati and also take advantage of the watchlist and other features, you’ll need to claim your blog yourself. As for tagging posts with Technorati tags? This is easy, too. All you need to do is add a little bit of HTML code to the bottom of your post (see my example below) and Technorati will pick up these tags when it spiders (or web crawls) your site.

There are a lot of new features that have been added to Technorati this past summer, including new ways to search for blogs. You can search for keywords in blog posts, search for entire blog posts that have been tagged with a certain keyword, or search for blogs that have been registered and tagged as whole blogs about a certain subject (like photography or libraries).

Discovery Resources:

Technorati Tour – videocast of new features & new look (requires QuickTime)
Technorati Popular lists of blogs by fan popularity, searches and authority (based on number of blogs linking to a particular website in the last 6 months)

Discovery Exercise:

Take a look at Technorati and try doing a keyword search for “Learning 2.0” in the search box on the main page. Take a look at some of the newest posts tagged "Learning 2.0", then click the Blogs tab and look at a few Learning 2.0 blogs. Think about how the trend of lifelong learning goes beyond libraries into education, technology, and business.

Explore popular blog, searches and tags. Is anything interesting or surprising in your results?

Create a blog post about your discoveries on this site. Did you find any blogs or websites you want to continue reading?

OPTIONAL: If you're up for a challenge, learn how to tag your posts by with Technorati tags so they can join tag searches. Create a post about something. It can be anything you want and add the HTML code to the bottom to tag it as “OCLwebthings” You may also want to consider claiming your blog and creating a watchlist.
NOTE: When adding HTML code, you'll want to make sure you're in Blogger's Edit HTML window.

There's a lot to explore.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, tagging

Thing #13 - Tagging, folksonomies & social bookmarking in del.icio.us

2008-04-14T10:17:00.020-04:00

powered by ODEO [3:53]

Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures & posts). Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e.Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data any way they want.

In the past few weeks, we’ve already explored a few sites – Flickr and LibraryThing to name two --that allow users to take advantage of tagging, and in week 3 many you used a common tag (oclwebthings) to create an association between photos that we individually uploaded. For this Thing, we want to take a look at a popular social bookmarking site called del.icio.us (typed in as http://del.icio.us).

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking manager which allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize your bookmarks. You can use and add to your favorite internet bookmarks at ANY computer with internet access. Watch the video from Common Craft below:

Many users find that the real power of del.icio.us is in the social network aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you. You can think of it as peering into another users’ filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user's filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network.

For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at del.icio.us and learn about this popular bookmarking tool.

Discovery Resources:

Otter Group del.icio.us tutorial (8 min video) - Highly recommended!!!
Us.ef.ul: A beginners guide to del.icio.us (This is an excellent guide to signing up for your own del.icio.us account if you want one)
Check out how other libraries use del.icio.us :

San Mateo Library's reference links
Nashville Public Library has it's del.icio.us tag cloud displayed on their teen page
The College of New Jersey uses del.icio.us in place of traditional subject guides and pathfinders to help students find resources (scroll to bottom of page to see cloud)
Check out Stafford Branch's version of The Southern Regional Middle School's Summer Reading List (much better than a pdf file!)

Discovery Exercise:

View the 8 minute del.icio.us tutorial to get a good overview of its features.
Take a look around del.icio.us using the OCLwebthings account that was created for this exercise. There's also a tag cloud from our account in the sidebar to the right. Note: In this account you will find lots of resources that have been highlighted or used throughout the course of the Learning 2.0 program.
Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorize this reference?
Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool.Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?

OPTIONAL: If you’re up to the challenge, create a del.icio.us account for yourself and discover how this useful bookmarking tool can replace your traditional browser bookmark list. You can import your bookmarks from your Favorites list on your pc so you can tag and organize them, and be able to access them from any computer!

Note: If you do setup a del.icio.us account, here’s a quick word about the del.icio.us Buttons. On PCs that have the toolbars locked down, these will install as options in your browser bookmarks. Use the “Post to my del.icio.us” link to add the current webpage to your account (you may need to log in). Use the “My del.icio.us” link to view your online account.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, tagging, folksonomy, del.icio.us

Thing #12 - NetLibrary and WorldCat

2008-04-04T15:32:00.003-04:00

Thing#12 has two parts: NetLibrary and WorldCat

NetLibrary ebooks

There are free ebooks all over the Internet (examples include Project Gutenberg and the classics available from the University of Virginia. Websites like these are great for out of copyright classics. There are many ebook websites including Amazon.com and ebooks.com where you can download new ebooks from bestsellers to textbooks for a fee. NetLibrary offers access to both out of copyright and new ebooks that are free to library customers who sign up for an account with their library cards from subscribing libraries.

While NetLibrary offers audiobooks for downloading to libraries, the subscription that Ocean County Library gets through an arrangement with the NJ State Library only includes ebooks. The option to download the ebooks is not part of our subscription.

The new copyrighted titles available in NetLibrary depend on what each library choses so just as different libraries have different collections on their shelves, the NetLibrary collection from the State Library is different from a collection chosen by a library elsewhere. This collection tends to be heavy with business and computer titles.

Unlike the other electronic subscription databases, customers (and you) have to be inside a OCL location to sign up for an account. Once you have a free account you can use it anywhere but the first time you have to be inside one of our buildings using one of our computers (not a laptop using our wireless connection).

Discovery Resource:

NetLibrary Help and FAQs

Discovery Exercises:

1. Go to our list of subscription databases about Books and Reading. Click on NetLibrary and sign up for a NetLibrary account. Remember you have to be inside a library building when signing up.

2. Take a look around NetLibrary. Find a book either through browsing or a keyword search. Learn how to move around the chapters and pages. Don't know what to search for? Try a basic search term like BUSINESS or COMPUTERS.

3. Blog about NetLibrary. Was it easy to use? Could you show a customer how to use it?

Optional Advanced Exercises:

1. For a different ebook experience, explore the classic reference books on Bartleby.com including Respectfully Quoted, a great quotation book that was created by the Library of Congress. Even though this book was published in 1989, as a US government produced title it is free of copyright restrictions.

2. Visit Project Gutenberg and download a book to your computer. You can search for specific titles in a variety of ways or just browse the Top 100 Ebooks downloaded recently. If you're interested, you can subscribe to an RSS feed that will keep you informed as titles are added. Project Gutenberg has public domain audiobooks and digital sheetmusic, too. Hint: it is easy to find a downloaded file if you download it to the computer desktop but when you've completed this optional exercise, please delete the book from the computer. Too many unnecessary files on the desktop can slow a computer.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

WorldCat

WorldCat lets you search the collections of libraries both locally and thousands more around the world. WorldCat doesn't include every library but it is the largest collection of searchable titles in the world.

Items in WorldCat include

* books

* music CDs

* DVDs/videos

* article citations - sometimes with links to full text

* documents and photos of local or historic significance

* digital versions of rare items

WorldCat is a version of what our Interlibrary Loan department uses to find what libraries own items so the items can be requested for our customers.

Discovery Resources:

About WorldCat

WorldCat help and FAQs

WorldCat Advanced Search screen

Discovery Exercise:

1. Take a look around WorldCat and search a recent book title. Click on the title for more detailed information and in the Enter location box put in your home zipcode and click go. What's the closest library that owns the title?

2. Click on the different tabs on the screen for a individual title such as Details and Subjects to find what information is hiding under those tabs.

3. Go to the advanced search screen and play around with some searches, then blog about WorldCat. Do you think WorldCat will help you and your customers with the form below?

Optional Advanced Exercise:

1. Use the Ocean County Library catalog and search any New Jersey or Ocean County history topic. Pick a book with an old publication date (the older the better). Now search that title at http://www.worldcat.org/. See how many libraries are listed in WorldCat as owning that book. Can you find a title where OCL is one of 500 or less libraries that own it in the world? Or just search the Pauline Miller title, Ocean County: Four Centuries in the Making to see who owns a copy of our local history.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, ebooks, netlibrary, worldcat

Thing #11 - A thing about Library Thing

2008-04-04T15:10:00.002-04:00

Are you a booklover? Do you enjoy finding lost and forgotten gems to read? Would you like an easy way to keep track of what you've read or want to read? Or, would you like a way of finding books by what they're about in a way that a standard library catalog just can't? Then LibraryThing may be just the tool for you.

What is Librarything? Enter what you're reading or your whole library —LibraryThing is an easy to use book catalog created by people in classic Web 2.0 fashion. LibraryThing also connects you with people who read the same things.

Add a book to your catalog by just entering the title and doing a little clicking. The LibraryThing tour explains the details. Then you add your own subjects or tags to organize your titles. The tags can be whatever you want: "Want to read", "Bookclub", "Recommend to grandchildren", "Books for Class" as well as more familiar subject heading like "Science", "Mystery", "Nonfiction" or "Cookbooks." Connecting with other users through your similar reading tastes is easy. LibraryThing tells you how many other LibraryThing users have your books. There are lots of other ways to use LibraryThing, too.

Libraries have started using LibraryThing. Small libraries are using LibraryThing to catalog their collections. Libraries are using the LibraryThing widget on their web pages to recommend books and list new titles.

So why not join the fun and create your own library online? With over 389,000 registered users and over 25 million cataloged books in LibraryThing as of March 2008, you're bound to discover something new. The podcast below from The Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg is a little outdated in its statistics but otherwise is worth listening to as a start for your thing about Library Thing.

Listen to this podcast [1:52]-->

Discovery Resources:

* About LibraryThing
* Library Thing tour
* LibraryThing blog (updates & news)
* How libraries are using LibraryThing

Discovery Exercise:

1. Take the Library Thing tour around LibraryThing and then create an account. It is one of the easiest and quickest accounts to sign up for yet. You don't even have to give them an email. (Giving them your email is recommended because if you ever do forget your password, then they can help).

2. Add a least 5 books to your library. You find a title, click add to your library, then type in your subjects (called tags in LibraryThing) and save. Separate different tags with commas.

3. Blog about your use of LibraryThing. Be sure to link to your LibraryThing catalog on your blog. How popular were your books? Did you find any discussions about your favorites?

Optional Advanced Exercises

1. Visit a library catalog that uses LibraryThing to give their customers lists of similiar books and tags for more connections. Here's a list from the LibraryThing website of libraries or go directly to these examples: a Harry Potter title, a nonfiction title on economics called Freakonomics

2. Go to the Search page on LibraryThing and do a Tag Mash search. You search two terms like sailing and mystery together (called a mashup) and LibraryThing finds books with both tags. Tags assigned by LibraryThing users aren't as formal as Library of Congress headings but they often include topics in books that the LC headings ignore. So you can find really interesting connections and ideas on what to read next or that book a customer sort of remembers had a detective who was an librarian! When you enter the terms in the Tags search box, separate the terms with commas: librarian, detective. Try out your own Tag Mash.

3. Explore the groups of LibraryThing users. They range from I see Dead People's Books (A group for those interested and involved in entering the library catalogs of famous readers, including books owned by Thomas Jefferson) to Nonfiction Readers and Crime, Thriller & Mystery fans. In the groups there are discussion threads and a list of the most commonly shared books of the group members.

For Thing #11, our thanks go not only to the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County but also to the Minnesota Libraries whose variation of the 23 things on a stick was very helpful.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, librarything, tagging

Thing #10 - Technology Blogging

2008-04-04T15:04:00.001-04:00

You've tried a lot of new things in the first weeks of the challenge. Now we're asking you to express yourself about technology on your own blog and comment on someone's else blog.

Discovery Resources:

Not sure of what to blog about? Looking for a technology related topic to get started? Here are some places to look around. Each has a different approach. If you have something in mind, go straight ahead and blog about it.

Interested in some serious ideas about what will impact libraries?

Read 20 Things to Watch by Stephen Abram for his list of what will be the important technologies to affect libraries in the near future.

More interested in personal technologies (including fun stuff)?

The New York Times Personal Tech page. David Pogue's weekly article and email newsletter are a great source of technology news that doesn't expect you to be an expert. His newsletter is a good reason to sign up for a free NY Times account.

Want to see a variety of blogs on all sorts of technology topics?

Visit this list of some popular blogs on technology you could explore.

Discovery Exercise:

For Thing #10, simply blog about anything technology related. Yes, it can be anything that relates to technology! Just share a few thoughts. If you are unsure of what we expect of a successful blog entry, check out the second of our Frequently Asked Questions.
Add at least one comment to another participant's blog or to one of the committee members's blogs. That's what online communities are all about - connecting and communication.
Where can you find links to the blogs? Scroll down the page at this Web Challenge blog. On the right, below the Timeline, the Labels and the Useful Links, you'll find links to the blogs belonging to the Web Challenge committee members. Keep going down and below the RSS Feed links and the Blog Archive links you'll find links to the Player Blogs.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, technology, web2.0, library2.0

It's Spring Break!!!

2008-03-28T15:53:00.004-04:00

Kick back and relax or take the time to catch up!

Haven't signed up yet?!? Become a player today, you still have time!

Next week's Things will be posted on Friday, April 4th. See you then!

Thing #9 - Finding Feeds

2008-03-24T18:07:00.016-04:00

powered by ODEO [3:08]

Now that you have a newsreader (your Bloglines account), you can begin adding other newsfeeds that interest you. There are several ways you can locate newsfeeds:

When visiting your favorite websites -- look for news feed icons that indicate the website provides it. Often a feed icon will be displayed somewhere in the navigation bar of the site. (Here's an image that contains a sampling of several feed icons).

Use Blogline's Search tool - Bloglines recently expanded search tool lets you search for news feeds in addition to posts, citations and the web. Use the Search for Feeds option to locate RSS feeds you might be interested in.

Bloglines has a feature to allow users to make their blogroll (the list of blogs they subscribe to) public. You aren't required to do this to complete Thing #9, but you might be interested in seeing a public blogroll. Here is link to Jill's public Bloglines account: http://www.bloglines.com/public/bibliaddict.There are over 50 library-oriented blogs listed in the left column. Click on the blog title to see a preview on the right column. If you want to subscribe to the blog, click the subscribe link in the bar over the title to start the process.

Other Search tools that can help you find feeds:

Topix.net - This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching. The tool focuses specifically on news and media outlet RSS feeds for information, not weblogs.

Syndic8.com - Syndic8 is an open directory of RSS feeds that contains thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted.

Technorati - Technorati is a popular blog finding tool that lets you search for blogs. Since RSS feeds are inherent to all blogging tools, Technorati Blog Search can help you find RSS feeds for topic specific blogs you may be interested in.

Additional Resource: Technorati Tutorial on finding and adding your blog

Discovery Exercise:

Explore some of the search tools noted above that can help you locate some news feeds.

Create a blog post about your experience. Don't know what to blog about? Here some questions to think about:

Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use? Which Search tool was the easiest for you? Which was more confusing? What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? Or what kind of unusual ones did you find? What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?

EXTRA STUFF: Feed Icon Info
In February of 2006, the adoption of a standard feed icon among websites and browsers finally began to assist in stopping the madness and confusion caused by so many variations. So far this icon has been adopted by many websites and browsers, including Opera and FireFox, where it displays in the address bar:

While you're surfing the Web, you can quickly subscribe to a website by clicking the orange feed icon in the address bar.

Technorati tags: feeds, rss, oclwebthings

Thing #8 - Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader

2008-03-24T17:52:00.019-04:00

powered by ODEO [5:15]
FYI & ICYW: This is the longest podcast in the program.

You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is? Well don’t worry, according to a recent survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web. Watch the video from Common Craft below for a really simple explanation:

Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.

This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Bloglines account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.

Discovery Resources:

Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative

Using Bloglines Tutorial (how to keep up with dozens of blogs everyday) – This online tutorial walks you through how to setup a Bloglines account and add newsfeeds. Follow Steps 1 to 3 to set up your Bloglines account. Steps 4 – 9 are optional and cover how to subscribe to different types of feeds (podcasts, Flickr albums, etc)

Adding RSS Feeds to Bloglines - A short YouTube video that Helene Blowers of PLCMC created showing how to add feeds.

Additional Bloglines news feed subscription information (screenshot image)

Your co-workers - tap into their knowledge or work through your discovery process together.

Discovery Exercise:

Follow the discovery resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.

Create a free online Bloglines account for yourself and subscribe to at least 10 newsfeeds. See Using Bloglines Tutorial steps 1-3 for instructions.

Newsfeeds:

Then try adding a few other types of news feeds from news sources and even OCL's Event Calendar. (Select at least 3 from the list below to subscribe to)

The OCLWebThings blog feed (you'll find a Feeds section in the sidebar to the right; click the Bloglines button to subscribe).

Newspapers such as The Asbury Park Press, The Star Ledger and The New York Times also have feeds (pick at least one)

Magazines like Newsweek, Time, Woman’s Day, People and Entertainment Weekly provide feeds, too

Your branch’s Events Calendar feeds (limit search to your branch's location, click Go, then click the feed icon to subscribe)

Unshelved - Library cartoon feed

Create a post in your blog about this exercise.

Don’t know what to blog about? Think about these questions:

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?
How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

Technorati tags: feeds, rss, oclwebthings, bloglines

Thing #7 - The Scanner and You

2008-03-17T23:19:00.006-04:00

We'll be taking a technological step backwards for thing #7 and working with some of the software and hardware that navigate between Web 2.0 and everything prior.

Discovery Resources:

Hardcopy photograph and/or document
PC Plus and scanner
If you happen to have an HP Scanjet4070, here is the manual.

(Don't panic if the scanner you're sitting next to is a different model or even brand. Most, if not all, company websites will have complete user manuals. There's also a great website you can check, the usermanualsite.com.)

Discovery Exercises:

1. Scan an image

There are two ways you can intiate a scan:

open the software and hit the appropriate button
press the button on the front of the scanner (it may look like a photograph or scanner

After you do this you will most likely be presented with an image of the object you placed on the scanner, as well as the rest of the scanner bed. You can select the area you want by dragging a rectangle around the area. Once you've got the area you want selected you can save it. It is likely you will have a choice about which file format to use when saving. For our purposes JPG is probably your best choice. After the image is saved you can move this file around as would any other.

Trying to give specific instructions for scanning is difficult, without knowing exactly which scanner and software combination you're working with. Luckily, there are some good places to go on the web for help, listed above in the resources section.

If all else fails, check the help menu on the software, or ask a coworker or a committee member for help

2. Attach the image you scanned to an email and send it to us at oclwebthings@gmail.com

Sending attachments is very similar across different email programs. These instructions are geared toward your Outlook email, but the basic steps will be the same in Yahoo or Gmail. Also, keep in mind that you can always look for more specific instructions by clicking on help - Outlook, Gmail, and Yahoo all have detailed help documentation.

To begin, click on "New Mail Message" to start a new message. Write out the message you would like to appear first, just like you'd write a regular email. Don't forget to include a subject and our email address (oclwebthings@gmail.com) in the "To:" field.

Next, click on the little paperclip icon in the menu bar - it should be right next to the Send box. Another way to do this is by clicking on Insert --> file in the menu bar at the very top of your screen.(In other email programs, this will show up as a link that says, "Attach a file".) A window will pop up showing the files and folders on your computer. Select the file from the list and click "Insert".

This will send you back to the main Compose window, but now you can see the file under the box where the Subject line of your email goes. This means that you successfully attached the file. (Sometimes, the file will show up next to another little paperclip icon.)
If you have already put in the person's email address and a message, you are ready to send this email. Click "Send" to send the message.

That's it!

Optional Exercise:

Scan and OCR a document. OCR stands for optical character recognition and tranfsers text from a hardcopy source to editable text. This can either be a very simple task, or very complicated. Luckily, we have some great software that make the process easy.

Next up: RSS & Newsreaders.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, scanning, photos, images

Thing #6 - More Photo Fun

2008-03-17T16:10:00.012-04:00

For thing #5 we asked you to explore Flickr, but now we're going to ask you to do something with it.

Discovery Exercise:

Create a free account in Flickr* and use your location's digital camera to capture a few pictures of something in your branch. Upload these to your Flickr account and tag at least one of the images “oclwebthings” and mark it public. Then create a post in your blog about your photo and experience. Be sure to include the image in your post. Once you have a Flickr account, you have two options for doing this: through Flickr's blogging tool or using LiveJournal's or Blogger's photo upload tool.

In an effort to make things simple for you, digital cameras actually make it seem a lot more difficult to get pictures onto your computer than it actually is. Image files are just like any file and can be dragged and dropped. Transferring images from your camera to your computer should be the same as transferring them from a disk or flash drive.

To do this you're going to need the USB cable that came with the camera. Plug one end into the camera and the other into a USB port on your computer. Most likely your computer is going to pop up a screen asking you what you want to do with "device". Though most of these options will work, the simplest is open a file to view folders.

library4
Originally uploaded by oclwebthings

Optional Exercise

Explore some online photo editors, such as FotoFlexer, Splashup and Picnik. Post your thoughts or results to your blog.

Don't forget to check out our FAQ if you need help figuring out what to blog about.

Remember, if you need any help ask a coworker or give one of the committee members a buzz.

You can also check out Google's Image Labeler, which allows users to make a game of improving their image search.

*Some of you may have gone ahead and done this during thing #5, or before this challenge.

Next up: The scanner & you

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, flickr, photos, images

Thing #5 - Flickr (or Photo Fun)

2008-03-17T10:06:00.007-04:00

Listen to this podcast:

powered by ODEO

Photo sharing websites have been around since the 90s, but it took a small startup site called Flickr to catapult the idea of “sharing” into a full blown online community. Within the past year, Flickr has become the fastest growing photo sharing site on the web and is known as one of the first websites to use keyword “tags” to create associations and connections between photos and users of the site. For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a good look at Flickr and discover what this site has to offer. Find out how tags work, what groups are, and all the neat things that people and other libraries are using Flickr for.

Discovery Resources:

Flickr Learn More tour (6 steps)
Mediamazine Flickr Tutorials
Flickr: Popular tags, Interesting- Last 7 days
Flickr Services (3rd party applications & mashups) and let’s not forget to look at some other libraries on Flickr

Discovery Exercise:

Take a good look around Flickr and discover an interesting image that you want to blog about. Be sure to include either a link to the image or, if you create a Flickr account, you can use Flickr's blogging tool* to add the image in your post. Another option you have for including images in your post is to use LiveJournal's or Blogger's photo upload tool.

So go ahead, explore the site and have some Flickr photo fun and if you're interested in looking at some photo hosting sites, then why not check out Jamie's recommendations & this Wired story. (Thanks Jamie for the link).

Optional Exercise

If you want to play some more take a look at some other picture hosting sites, like Picasa and Photobucket and blog about it.

Don't forget to check out our FAQ if you need help figuring out what to blog about.

_______________________________________________________

PS: A quick word about photo posting etiquette - When posting identifiable photos of other people (especially minors) is it advisable to get the person's permission before posting their photo in a publicly accessible place like Flickr. Never upload pictures that weren't taken by you (unless you have the photographer's consent) and always give credit when you include photos taken by someone else in your blog.

*P.P.S.: Flickr appears to be having some difficulty in talking to Blogger. You can still download and upload a picture where permissions permit.

Next up: More photo fun

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, flickr, photos, images

Thing #4 Register your blog!

2008-03-10T15:14:00.009-04:00

If you’ve made it this far, you already have three items or “things” completed of the twenty three that are required to earn your prize (not to mention qualify for the Nintendo Wii drawing). But how do you qualify? Good question! By registering your blog and recording your progress on each of the 23 things.

It's easy to register your blog! All you need to do is send an email to us at oclwebthings@gmail.com and tell us the address of your blog, your name, and your department and location. That's it!

So, here’s to Thing #4 – It’s really that easy and just think, now there’s only 19 more things to go. :)

NOTE: We are adding a blogroll (a link list in the sidebar) of all the blogs created for this Challenge. Please remember that this is a work activity and your peers and supervisors will view what you write.

Next Up: Learning about online photo sharing.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, blogging

Thing #3 Grab yourself a blog in 3 steps

2008-03-10T14:45:00.016-04:00

Listen to this podcast:

Now that you’ve done some exploring around this website and understand how this program will work, it’s time to setup your very own personal blog to begin recording your thoughts, discoveries and exercises in. For this program, I recommend that you use Blogger*, a popular free online blog hosting service that is extremely easy to use.

There are many different blog hosting services out there, and each one has benefits and drawbacks. One popular service is LiveJournal. Many users prefer LiveJournal because of its focus on communities and "friends." With LiveJournal, you can set privacy restrictions on your posts so that only those you have previously designated as "friends" can read them. Wordpress is another very popular blog hosting service. Some people prefer Wordpress because it allows you to fully customize the look of your blog, but it is a bit more advanced. The OCL Web Things main blog is on Blogger. We recommend that you use Blogger for this challenge because it is extremely quick to set up a blog, and very easy to use for someone who's just starting out.

Creating a blog using Blogger takes just three steps:

Create an account (view screenshot)
Name your blog (view screenshot)
Select your template. (view screenshot)

Once you’ve created your Blogger site here are two important things to know:

To add posts: The maintenance interface that you will use to add posts, edit or change the step-up your blog is accessed online at http://www.blogger.com/ Be sure to write down your login and password.
To view your blog: Your blog address is http://(xxxx).blogspot.com, (xxxx)=the unique identifier you entered in Step 2. Be sure to also write down your blog address. For example, this blog is http://oclwebthings.blogspot.com.

If you run into problems or would like more information about blogs and using Blogger here are some discovery resources you can use:

Freevlog's Quicktime Tutorial: Setup a Free Blogger Blog Note: Ignore the opening comments about downloading Firefox if your PC doesn’t have it. This will work in Explorer just fine.
Blogger's Quick Tutorial

OK -- Now, it’s your turn...

Discovery Exercise:

Setup a blog for yourself through Blogger.
Add a test post or two.
Note: Use one of your test posts to create an entry about the habits among the 7 and 1/2 lifelong learning habits that is easiest and hardest for you & why. REMINDER: You can ignore the learning contract.
Have fun!!!!

IMPORTANT NOTE: How you choose to identify yourself on your blog is your choice. You can blog under a screen name, anonymously, or as yourself. However, in order to qualify for the staff incentives and staff day prize drawings, you will need to register by emailing us.

* Use of Blogger is only a recommendation. If there is another blog hosting site that you are more comfortable with, please feel free to use it.

Next up: Register your blog!

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, blogging, blogger

Thing #2 - Learning vs. Training

2008-03-03T14:25:00.013-05:00

Listen to this podcast:

Among libraries, lifelong learning is one of those core values we shelve our books by. So it makes sense that before we embark on this new online learning and discovery journey that we should take a few minutes to review a few habits that can assist in creating lifelong learners.

These habits, which we’ve called the Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, will provide you with a refresher on what it means to be a lifelong learner. It will talk about a learning contract; please disregard. We're all friends; no need for contracts! Unless you are a lawyer...just kidding.

Discovery Exercise:

Make sure you have headphones or speakers attached to your computer.
Open up the 7 & 1/2 Habits online tutorial and view the online tutorial.
As you watch and listen, write down which habit among the 7 & 1/2 that is easiest for you and which is hardest. You will use your personal blog (which you will set up next) to post your thoughts about lifelong learning. When you are watching the 7 & 1/2 Habits, you can ignore the section on the learning contract and stop the slide show.

Have fun! If you haven't jumped on board yet, it's never too late to become a lifelong learner. Thank you for joining us on this journey of discovery and fun.

Next Up: Creating your blog so you can begin tracking your journey.

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, lifelonglearning

Thing #1 - Introduction

2008-03-03T14:16:00.010-05:00

1. Read this blog and find out about this program.
2. Discover a few pointers from lifelong learners and learn how to nurture your own learning process.
3. Send an email to oclwebthings@gmail.com and tell us:

you are playing, your name and what branch you work in.

Tutorial format:
Each week begins with a brief explanation of a new web 2.0 topic or tool, followed by a list of activities. These exercises give you the background you need to understand the tools that you are learning about.

When you have done the items on the list, you comment or post to your blog. Don’t panic, we will show you how to set up a blog next week. Your blog is the tool to communicate your reactions, new found skills, ideas and questions to the other participants in the web challenge.

Next Up: Learning vs. Training

Technorati tags: oclwebthings, 23things, web2.0, library2.0

Welcome to OCL Web Challenge

2008-02-27T14:14:00.008-05:00

Welcome to the Ocean County Library Web Challenge. We are glad that you are joining us on this fun adventure where you will learn all about what web 2.0 is.

So what is Web 2.0?

Watch this video clip on YouTube:

You just watched a video with computer book publisher Tim O’Riley. He is credited with coming up with the name of Web 2.0. In this video, he gives a simple answer. To him it means “users add value.”

So what does that exactly mean?

That helps make the definition of Web 2.0 make even more sense. Web 2.0 is how the internet is used to connect people and allows them to create content to share with others. Some examples of Web 2.0 that you might have encountered or regularly use are:

• Watching a video on YouTube
• Creating and editing Wiki articles
• Sharing pictures online with Flickr or Picasa
• Joining a social community like MySpace or Facebook to network with your friends or coworkers.
• Posting and commenting to a blog
• Downloading and listening to a podcast on your computer or iPod

If you have ever done any of these online, you are already experiencing Web 2.0. if you regularly do any of these, you have already mastered Web 2.0!

Web 2.0 allows people to share information through the Internet in a way that allows people to comment and connect with others.

Ocean County Library’s Web Challenge is designed to help people to learn about these exciting technologies that are changing the way the web is used.

Why should I get involved?

Good question. We have answers. Think of the fun that you can have. Think of the free professional development, think of the personal growth!
Still not convinced?

How about prizes? We will have a grand prize of a Nintendo Wii for one lucky winner who completes the Web Challenge. Everyone who completes their learning activities on time will be eligible for a prize.

The purpose of this blog is to help you with this self-paced learning and exploration of Web 2.0 tools. This online learning program is open to all Ocean County Library staff. Participants may begin working on their “23 Things” starting on March 3 and should complete their learning activities and assignments by May 30. In order to be eligible to win the Wii, you have to have everything finished by May 30!

This Web Challenge will ask you to complete 23 “Things” or Web 2.0 tools. Each Thing will show you one more web tool. There are many places for you to explore, experiment with, and think about creative ways to use 2.0 tools in your daily life.

Each week’s “Thing” begins with a brief explanation of a new Web 2.0 concept, followed by a Discovery Exercise. These exercises give you the background you need to understand what you have just learned. Don’t skip them! After the Discovery Exercises, you’ll find a Thing — activity — to complete. After each Thing, you will write about the experience on your new blog that you will create. Don’t worry; the first discovery exercise is setting up a blog! The web challenge team is here to help.

In other words, you will comment or “post” to your online blog. You will learn how to set up a blog in week two. This is a tool to communicate your thoughts, new found skills, ideas, questions, and favorite websites. You’ll receive feedback and encouragement from other participants. In turn, you will provide feedback and encouragement to others. It’s your space!

This is an independent discovery program which encourages participants to take control of their experience and getting a chance to play at the same time. Participants are encouraged to work together and share with each other their discoveries, techniques, and “how to’s” with other Web 2.0 challengers in person and through their blogs. This course is web-based and not tied to any particular computer, so you can work on it whenever and wherever you want.

Do you need help? If you have any difficulty or need some assistance that you can’t resolve with your fellow “classmates”, call for help from these instructors:

Chris Barnes : TR ext. 5907

Elizabeth Cronin : TR ext. 5120

Lara Fletcher : PL ext. 3601

Sally Harrison : BD ext. 6603

Jill Ingraham : STF ext. 8600

Kristen Kirk : TR ext. 5312

Elizabeth Thompson : LAK ext. 2100

Glynis Wray : TR ext. 5122

They are more than happy to help you, as they are the facilitators for this “journey.”

Next up: Thing #1

FAQ

2007-02-27T14:39:00.005-05:00

Who can participate in the challenge? Can anyone?

The challenge is for staff members of the Ocean County Library ONLY. This includes Pages and Student Assistants as well. Non-employees who want to follow along and do the weekly activities are welcome to, but only employees of Ocean County Library qualify for prizes.

When you say blog about something, what is expected?

Some thoughtful comments for sure but exactly what you should write or how long your entry should be can vary. A blog post saying “it was interesting” and nothing else is not enough. A blog entry that goes on for hundreds of words is too much. Answer one of these sample questions if you’re stumped for what to write:

How would you use this at work or why wouldn’t you use this at work?

What would you say to someone else to convince them to use this?

How would you explain to a customer what this is about and what to use it for?

Web 2.0 tasks often inspire things the originals designers never thought of, like shared online spreadsheets to keep track of Little League schedules. What is your idea for something new connected to this task?

What would you suggest as an improvement to make it faster, easier, more useful, etc.?