110 best books: The perfect library!

To top it off.....I will add the 110 best books: The perfect library! from the Telegraph.co.uk.

#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning ...

The end....already?

This was a fun venture for me...searching for new fun tools to use and experiment with online. Who wouldn't enjoy that? I will admit I have researched or experimented with about 1/3 of the tools previously. But there are so many more (even more being created at this moment) to explore. Many of these tools have been around for some time. Others are just a new spin on a tool or online application. Others are a very defined, single-use tool which may have been an offshoot of a previous application.

Who would think that 10 years ago a company displaying videos uploaded by users would be purchased for Billions of dollars??

I would have to give a nod to YouTube as being one of my favorite online tools if you can include it as a tool. It is an easy way to promote and distribute online video. It can also be an enormous time-killer as you browse through the hundreds of thousands of videos online. Who knows you may find something you didn't know you were looking for?

I also enjoyed finding Lulu.com, which I did not know about before this learning experiment.

#22 Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight ")

I will admit I am not a large user of audiobooks. My iPod is full of music, as is my home and car. When I am in the car, I do not listen to the radio, I prefer my own music.

I would like to become a user of audiobooks though. I mean, look at all the information you can download.....for FREE! It's all out there for us to select. I think if I were to download audiobooks on a regular basis, I would probably look into computer books and "how-to" books.

#21 Podcasts, Schmodcasts!

Podcasts are a great tool for distance learning and time-shifting events or presentations. Think of them as Tivo for real life.

I do use podcasts on a somewhat regular basis. One of the web design groups I belong to regularly has the last meeting available online as a podcast. So if you were not available to attend, you can still digest the meeting information at a later time.

#20 You too can YouTube

I did a search for "Library" and came up with many funny videos. I also narrowed my search to Nebraska libraries (being a Cornhusker and all...) and found this movie from the Columbus Library. Great video advertising all the features and things you can find at their library. Enjoy!

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

One of my favorite sites or Web 2.0 Tools would have to be Lulu.com. Lulu.com is self-publishing at it's best. To have the power to publish any book you create is amazing to me. This is something I would like to look into more at a later date.

Another of the winners and one of my top picks would be Cragislist.org. This is a low-tech, high-tech garage sale of sorts. You can list anything on Craigslist. It is exactly what it needs to be and nothing more.

One of my favorite T-shirt sites is represented in the winners category for Retail. Threadless is an online T-shirt "shop" and online community. You can upload your designs and users rate or give suggestions on what they would like to see or how to change your design. I love the voting feature for the designs. The top designs are picked each printing and the designs are printed and available for sale. The top pick designers are also rewarded with $$$$.

#18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

I like the idea of GoogleDocs and other Web-based applications. My favorite feature in GoogleDocs would have to be the online calendar. Many applications, including email have a built-in calendar which is great if the person you want to shanre the information with is also on your mail server. Google Calendar makes a calendar which is available to anyone (or anyone you wish to share it with). This could be highly useful for groups or families that want to keep a schedule in this oh-so-online-interconnected world.

Another popular product is Basecamp. It is an online project management tool, similar to a wiki in ways, but it allows you to attach documents or proofs of a project and comment and leave notes for the group to follow along.

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

PBWiki was fun to play around with. I even added one of my Favorite Restaurants to the SPLS Learning 2.0 wiki.

#16 So what’s in a Wiki?

It was fun searching the different wiki examples given in the Learning 2.0 lesson. Wikipedia has always been a useful (but not always reliable) source for general information. When you open up information for the general public to edit and moderate as they please, information and opinions can vary.

I think wikis can be a very useful tool for various businesses and in Library Land. Given that they are moderated or regulated to an extent, they are a useful platform to disperse information. Think of it as a newsletter or newspaper online.

I think any library could benefit from an online newsletter wiki, a wiki for procedures or regulations, even a book list or recommended reading wiki for staff or the public. The uses are endless!

#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

I like the idea that Library 2.0 is more than just a term used to describe the use of technology in the Library system. Look at card catalogs for instance. I think if you told anyone 15 years ago that the card catalog would not be around in the next 10 years, most librarians would have laughed at you. The are still around in one way or the other.....just in a new format.....and online. As a whole, libraries are ahead of the curve on adopting new technologies.

#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

Once again, Technorati is a greatly useful tool for organizing and managing your link list and favorite sites. It is one of my favorite tools to quickly browse through a list of links or sites you read on a regular basis to see who has updated and what they are talking about. Being able to breeze through the most recent posts of your favorite websites makes it easy and saves time.

#13 Tagging, folksomonies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us as a website, reminds me of many other social portal sites such as Digg.com. Del.icio.us on the other hand as a bookmarking tool is a good tool to use for those of us that have bookmarks on our home computers and work computers. Or if you share a computer with your kids or spouse, your bookmark list on your computer can become overwhelming rather quickly.

In the early days, used to create my own HTML pages with link lists myself. This was easy to update and maintain. I could also style and layout the link lists how I wanted them (as you can see....I am a bit of a control freak), rather than to just have a drop-down list in your navigation window of your browser.

Del.icio.us can be a useful tool to share and research links and subjects among co-workers or family and friends.

My only negative comment would be that it is yet another online tool that you need to create an account.....log in.....and maintain.

#12 Getting to Know You - MySpace & Facebook

I have had both MySpace and Facebook accounts for some time now....both for different reasons. Each can be used and is beneficial for keeping in touch with different groups of people for different reasons.

#11 A Thing About LibraryThing

LibraryThing is a useful tool for cataloging your collection of books, or books you have read. I didn't know how many of my books would be online, but I found a good collection. My "library" consists more of design and web design books rather than the traditional fiction and non-fiction books.

One of my favorite (offline) programs for my Mac is Delicious Library. It allows you to catalog your books, CDs and DVDs on your personal (Mac) computer. One feature that I love is that you can 'scan' your item by the barcode on the back with your built-in iSight camera and it will pull all the information about the book, CD or DVD from Amazon.com online. It also interfaces with the built-in Address Book program, so you can log who has what and when they borrowed it from you.

Hollywood Sign Generator

hollywood_sign
Originally uploaded by bradmac

Hollywood Sign Generator

#10 Play Around With Image Generators

Image generators can be found online in the thousands. A Google search turns up over 416,000 in some shape or form.

One fun one I found was the Hollywood Sign generator at GlassGiant.com.

#9 Finding Feeds

I have used Technorati in the past and have always liked the way the feeds are presented on Technorati. They present the feeds on their site similar to Amazon does. When you click on a 'Technology' feed, you also get similar posts related to the field of Technology.

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

I set up my Bloglines account, you can see my feed here LibraryBrad. RSS is a great if you have a lot of information you would like to digest in a short amount of time Nice feature if you have 20 blogs you read on a regular basis and want to find out who has updated and read only the newest posts.

#7 Blog about Technology

One technology application I have enjoyed using recently is a product or application called CrazyEgg. It allows you to place a small script on a page of a website to analyze how visitors are using your website and where they are clicking by creating a 'heatmap' of clicks. The more red/yellow the spot, the more people are clicking on that spot or link. The blue/green spots....less clicks.

Very useful when creating a new website or trying out a new layout. It also allows you to analyze what the people or users want, rather than what you 'think' they want.

#6 More Flickr Fun

I found a few of the mashup programs and the Librarian Trading Card Generator, but I think the one I enjoyed the most was the flickr retrievr.

It allows you to draw or sketch a rather crude object or idea of an object, and it will pull up photos based on the shape, color or size of your sketch...neato!