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

Celebrate good times. Whoo hoo. Join the celebration!!!


WOW. I am extremely proud of myself for getting to the end of these exercises on time. My mind has been on overload the past few weeks, learning all of these new things and then attempting to execute them properly. It has certainly been a fascinating, and yes sometimes frustrating, journey and I am definitely going to be sticking to the path of lifelong learning.
I really enjoyed learning about Flickr, Del.icio.us, LibraryThing and YouTube and then there were the host of other Web 2.0 sites out there to be explored at a later date. What I am looking forward to after this is getting to properly look at all of the fantastic blogs out there from other Library 2.0 participants.
Thankyou for the opportunity to discover these 23 things. It has opened my eyes greatly.
BLOG YOU LATER!!!

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

I love listening to audiobooks in the car - they are especially useful on our many trips to Queensland visiting family. Being able to download titles onto an mp3 player sounds like something I would do (once I get an actual player.)
The ebooks we could download for free were classics and probably things I should read. The quality of the productions weren't the best, which may have put me off a little. I might listen to some of the children's titles with my youngest daughter.
Listening to the online demo of Overdrive, it was interesting to note that downloadable eAudiobooks were around 40% cheaper for libraries to purchase than those currently on CD. That and the fact they can't be overdue, lost or damaged makes them sound like they're the way to go.

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

I had trouble getting Podcast.net to work and so much preferred Podcastalley.com. Evenso, after getting the visual stimulation from YouTube, podcasting didn't seem quite so exciting. I searched the term library and had a look at Page Turners. While I enjoyed the book segments it provided, there was no information after October 2005.
A podcast that worked and that was current was SimonSays, a show which features interviews with bestselling and up and coming authors. I subscribed to this and when I went back into my Bloglines account found that I already had 2 other podcasting feeds listed. These were Childrensbookradio and Mugglecast: Harry Potter podcasting. (I was obviously excelling at this Web 2.0 stuff.)
I did like the fact that I could listen to a podcast in the background while working on other programs on my computer.

#20 You too can YouTube

I had a look at some of the featured videos on YouTube's homepage. I also checked out the Videos page which allowed you to browse them in a variety of ways - top rated, most linked, most responded etc. There was a Featured Videos by Category page, a Channels (YouTube members who upload videos) page and a Featured Community Selections page, where contests and campaigns are promoted. I found all of these helpful to the first-time YouTube user - the number and variety of videos out there is amazing.

I did a search under Library and found the "library dominoes" clip which is one of the examples on the #20 L2.0 page. Who doesn't enjoy watching the unstoppable domino forces at work.

The clip I've added is "Reading on a dream" a short and amusing library musical. Adding the video to my blog was very easy indeed.

In fact I had to go and show everyone at home my achievements.

The Windows Vista, Windows Live video shows just how useful a YouTube clip could be on a library's homepage. This Windows example demonstrates how much information a well produced educational video can get across to the viewer - making it both entertaining and informative. We could follow this example and describe all that the library has to offer - its services and collections, to the online user.

Another clip that was quite fun to watch was the St Joseph County Public Library's "Ray of Light" video that highlighted the people and their jobs in a day's work. In just over a year this clip has been viewed more than 38,000 times.